Nik Santi's Poker Blog

Back from Vegas

2011-01-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm back from Vegas with lots to tell. Hopefully I can pick a part a few sessions here and there, as I will only spend a lot of time on the games I took seriously.

Games played this trip:

Bellagio 10/20 LHE
Venetian 8/16 LHE
Venetian 4/8 LHE
Venetian 4/8 Omaha8 w/half-kill

The game I played the most was V's 8/16 and it's not close. I would have liked to have played more of Bellagio's 10/20 and maybe even have tried the 20/40 game, but it just didn't happen.

Anyway, I'll be back later in the week hopefully, be on the lookout for some trip reports.

Blogger Tournaments on Stars

2011-01-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 519908

The New Year

2011-01-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

Bringing in the new year so far has been a bit meh. Running kind of bad over the last couple of sessions and just haven't been able to find much of a groove. I had a fantastic table a few days ago, but I simply couldn't make a hand hold all night. When you're at a table where everyone is spewing preflop and post, it's going to be hard to win if you can't make a hand.

I'm not too worried about it, swings come and go, and I'm sure as long as I keep playing fundamentally sound the results will tilt back in my favor. Ever since I started playing consistently again back in Octovber I've really tried to seperate myself from the results, and I have to say it does help dull the negativity that comes along with running bad. Looking back at my session there might have been a couple hands where I would have played them differently, but overall I decided I made a good chunk of correct decisions and that's all I can ask of myself.

Starting tomorrow I will be in Vegas for about a week with a bunch of my poker playing friends. I look forward to these trips (they occur a few times a year) and they are definitely a few of the best weeks of my life. I plan on playing a lot of mixed limit games (LHE, Omaha8, Stud8, Pineapple, etc) and maybe some of the NL/PL games as well. Some other degen events will also be involved I'm sure, but I'm pretty tame so I'm sure my "degen" might be different from some readers.

Anyway, wish me luck, I'll try and take detailed notes and come back with some stories, pictures, and most importantly some interesting poker discussion! Until then, thanks for reading and enjoy the next week, I'm sure I will.

Three Tickets

2010-12-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

So I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Capitol started a promotion with player's cards that give you $1 for every hour you play. It can be used towards food or even just cashed out (supposedly, I haven't tried yet nor has anyone else I've talked to). Oh, and there's also a drawing in February for a Ford Mustang, a handful of cash prizes, and a few different cruises. Not bad really, except for the fact that the way to get a ticket is to make a hand in the ring games of a fullhouse or better.

Any fullhouse? Seems easy enough right? Well I had played for something like 12 hours and had gotten one ticket. One. Quad sevens from a couple sessions ago and that was all (both cards have to play from your hand, so that might make it a little tougher). I even brought this up at lunch (Pho FTW) with Tony and Tommy, and they remarked "yeah but somehow you win giant pots with one pair." I guess it all evens out.

After lunch the three of us ventured over to Cap. There was an open seat at 6/12 so I jumped in. Unfortunately the table didn't look too appealing, as it had a few tighter players including one prop. Mehhhhh, let's see how bad the other players were. My first hand dealt in I get black tens in a killpot. I raised over a limper and we were heads up to a flop Q87 all clubs. Uh oh? The limper checked his cards again, then checked. I bet, he called. Club draw?

The turn brought out a red six, giving me a gutshot straight draw to go with my flush draw and pair of tens. Again the limper checked to me, I bet, and he called. The river was a red ten. This time the limper bet into me. Ughhh, a nine? Ace of clubs, nine whatever? I've never played with the man before and I'm not laying down a set heads up here so I called and he flipped over ace ten, no clubs. Okay...thanks?

A few orbits later I decided to cash out because the game was just awful. A few props and solid regs meant it was time for splitsville, I have no idea how the non-prop players could actually just sit there and chop the blinds/play heads up pots the entire time. The game is normally very good, but that would be two sessions in a row I felt that 6/12's game was not worth playing.

So I took about $140 in profit and moved on over to 4/8 and proceeded to get killed for awhile. This one particular guy in a light blue V-neck sweater had my number for a good while, but I ended up getting him back later on in the evening. Remember the tickets I told you about? Well my fist one of the night came when I flopped a set of twos against V-necks' KT on a T52 all heart board (he had the king of hearts in his hand). I led the flop and somehow V-neck didn't raise until the turn brought out another ten, giving me a fullhouse. I led the turn, he raised, I three bet and he only called me down. Ship the pot and one ticket.

Ticket two came when I had 44 in the BB against a couple of limpers and a small blind. The flop came out KK3, I led the flop and was called by one loose player in position. The turn brought out another king so again I bet, but this time he folded. I showed my fullhouse and collected yet another ticket.

A couple hands later I had 97 suited in LP and limped behind a few limpers, the flop came out A97 rainbow. Hoorah? V-neck led into the field from UTG (seat eight), called in one spot, I raised from the four seat, all folded except V-neck and the one caller in between us.

The turn was a six, and both players check/called my bet. The river brought out a nine. Boom. Checked to me, I bet, and then seat eight angrily started saying "ugh my hand is killed." Hmmm, did I suck out against A7? But he didn't re-raise me on the flop...Turned out he had aces up on the turn when the six came, and I needed to hit my nine or seven on the river. Weeee three tickets in a matter of a few orbits, when it took me FOR-EV-ER to get one. Thanks for reading, and hopefully at least a couple people will get that reference.

Game Selection

2010-12-31T06:42:00.000-08:00

Pretty simply, game selection is a process wherein players choose the right poker games that will best suit their skills and styles of play to win as much money as possible. But we'll get to that later...

Yesterday I woke up around 3am, ahhh the effects of working graveyard too many days in a row. After screwing around on the internet for too long, watching Inception for the first time since theatres, getting a haircut, and then grabbing a nap (well, super power nap), I awoke at 10pm and wondered where the hell the day went.

Yikes, I wanted to play cards today! Oh well, off to Capitol. I arrived at about 11pm and was third up on the 4/8 list and like 8th on the 6/12. Wow, and I thought the place might be dead! I got my 4/8 seat relatively quickly, and was ready to camp out for awhile as it didn't seem like 6/12's list was moving at all.

My first impression of the 4/8 table was that it was amazing. Just amazing. I counted a couple maniacs, one tightish player, and the rest were LPPs. Six way flops were definitely the norm for this table, even after I would raise from early position.

I raised a few times pre-flop with five callers and couldn't hit a good flop. 77 met a flop of with broadway cards and a donk bet into me, QQ had a flop of AKx with another donk bet into me, and a black AK met a flop of 987 two diamonds multiway. I was check/folding the flops sure, but I was getting a ton of information at showdown for these hands. Hands showing down that had cold called my raises pre-flop were holdings such as A2os, K4os, T3 suited, etc. I mean there was definitely money to be made at this table, the key was going to be hitting a flop and then holding.

The first pot I won came somewhere around my third orbit when I looked down at JT of spades in the BB in a killpot. Limped in four spots, the small blind completed, and I completed. We saw a flop of J43 with one spade. I bet, the button called and then the small blind called. I had been watching these players play, and in reality they could literally have anything. A jack with a higher kicker was definitely possible, but it wasn't probable.

The turn paired the three and put a rainbow out there, no flush draws present. Someone could definitely be holding a three, but the small blind checked and I fired $16 into the pot of about $68 (72 minus the $4 rake) and was called again in two spots.

The river paired the four, making the board J4343. Small blind checked again, and hey, whaddya know, I fired $16 more into the pot. The button folded, and small blind looked me up with J6os. My ten kicker played and I scooped in a sizeable pot. Very next hand I was dealt 87 of clubs in the small blind. Limped in four spots or so, I completed, and the flop came out AQT all clubs. I bet and was called by a few players. The turn was a non club jack, I bet and only got one caller this time. The river was a red seven, I bet and was called by a man who showed the king of clubs and nothing else. My flush was good. Just like that, I flipped around from down a couple stacks to a comfortable profit.

Things went dead again for awhile, so I just hung back and watched the table. Eventually my name was called for 6/12, but I had been scoping out the game in between the 4/8 hands. I noticed a couple regs who were somewhat tight and a prop named Sing who plays pretty well. There were definitely a few players over there that I could exploit, but my 4/8 table was definitely way too awesome to leave. Everyone had healthy chipstacks, everyone was gambling, leaving the table definitely would have been a mistake. Sure, $2 chips are sexy, but I felt like there was more money to be made at 4/8. Had the 6/12 game been a 9/18 game...well then maybe we'd have a coinflip.

After asking to be rolled (put to the back of the list) for 6/12, I was dealt AK UTG+1. UTG called, I raised, called by seat one, seat two three bet, folded around to the blinds who both called, UTG called, I capped, everyone else called. Six ways to a flop of A23 with two clubs. I had the king of clubs in my hand and the ace on the board was also a club. Checked to me and I bet, called by seat one, seat two raised, called by a couple of players, I three bet, called by seat one, called by seat two, called by the other players.

Wow, such sick action, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure how good my hand is. I mean, a lot of 4/8 players are passive calling stations, so A2 or A3 definitely isn't out of the question. The turn was actually a bad card, as it brought out a ten of spades. Checked to me, I bet, and luckily only got three callers...no raising.

The river was a seven, making the board A23T7. Well, I'm sure if someone had 54 I would have known by now, same for most players with a set. My only real worry at the time was maybe someone had two pair of some sort. Checked to me, I still bet, and only got called by seat two. I showed AK and took down a huge pot with just one pair. Weeeee, who says one pair is no good at 4/8.

Won a couple other decent sized pots later on, but none with as much as action as that last hand. Most were just me betting and getting called down, somewhat typical of a 4/8 game. Bet, call, bet, call. Doesn't bother me one bit. After double mushroom beef with rice and a couple diet cokes, I cashed out $280 more than I came with. Thanks for reading, have a happy new year!

The Micros - Holiday Special

2010-12-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

A Quickie before Xmas

2010-12-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

First off, Happy Holidays everyone. Religious views and all that aside, I enjoy this time of year for the food and family stuff. My brother picked up an awesome "Bachelor tree" for us the other day and I just had to post it somewhere.

It kinda looks like that. The camera on my phone is terrible so I won't bother posting the actual pic. Anyway, I rolled into Capitol after work Thursday just in time to watch Tony rake in a nice pot over at 4/8. I was third up on both lists and was ready to grind some holiday pokers. The room was pretty busy, I guess people had already gotten their shopping done.

I sat at 4/8 for a couple orbits, won $9, then made my way over to 6/12 with a rack and a half of chips and a smile. CL, Wayne, Wilson, and a couple other regs were already there, and the action seemed loose. My second hand in I woke up with Queens in LP and raised a couple limpers. We saw the flop five handed and it was something like 633. I bet and got a couple callers, wondering if someone was slowplaying a hand. The turn was a five, so an ugly straight got there, but not much else. I bet, another couple of callers. The river was a ten, a perfect card really. I bet and only Claudia called me. My hand was good and we were off.

After that hand seat four ended up opening up, and Wayne asked me if I'd like to move to his seat (seat three) and he'd slide over for me. Wayne and I have been playing rather consistently together for the last month or so, and he knows I like the corner seats (I was stuck in seat six at that moment) so that was nice of him. I also know that he likes being on the left of me when he can, so part of it was him being nice and the other part I'm sure was that he'd like position. I don't mind him having position, as I know he won't three bet me wide and he's actually a nice guy to sit next to.

So I slid over, played through my blinds, then raised over CL's limp (she limps a wide range, and that's an understatement) with pocket sevens, Wilson defended his SB, BB called, and we saw a flop four ways of 732 with two diamonds. Is it going to be one of those nights? Checked to me and I bet, Wilson raised, called in both places, I three bet, Wilson called along with everyone else. The turn was a five, kinda scary since the wheel draw got there as did 64, but both of those would be gutshot straight draws on the flop, and I don't see Wilson Check raising that nor do I see the limpers cold calling two bets back to them with those hands unless they had diamonds mixed in.

I bet the turn, and everyone called. The river paired the seven, giving me quads. Hah, I had been saying in my head to pair the board, but I didn't expect to pair the seven. I bet and only Wilson called. Later on I wondered what Wilson had in this hand and I think it's a midpair like 99-66 (not sevens obviously). I really like his line in the hand for what it's worth if he did indeed have one of those holdings, unfortunately for him I woke up with a hand.

A few hands later I raised Queens from the BB against an LPP limper in seat nine, CL in seat one, and the SB. The flop came out AK5 though with two hearts. Ugh. I bet out anyway because the two LPPs behind me definitely did not have just aces or kings in their range, but unfortunately both of them called. The turn was ten, and at this point I was fairly content with shutting down for the hand. I had picked up a gutshot straight draw, but I was fairly confident seat nine liked her hand on the flop call. Seat one didn't have to have me beat, but I hadn't seen seat nine do anything super crazy postflop. Both players checked through the turn however, and we saw a six on the river.

The hearts missed, and both players checked the turn...hmm, might I be good? I checked, seat nine bet, and then CL folded in seat one. Didn't bet the turn, but now is betting the river? Probably not an ace, but could still be Kx. Maybe a goofy two pair? I called and she turned over J2 of hearts for the missed flush draw. Hmmm, maybe I should have kept barrelling, I could have gotten bet off my hand on the turn.

I can't remember many other hands that vividly, so I'll stop there. Tony ended up coming over from his 4/8 game, replacing the LPP in seat nine. A couple other LPPs went bust and eventually we had a table full of decent players i.e. no bueno. I was up about $300 for the day and was content with breaking the game, even if it was only 7:30pm. Oh well, the games will be there later. I went home, played some Rockband 3 with the bro, ate dinner and crashed out early.

Happy Holidays everyone, enjoy your families and friends.

A Couple Messy Sessions (Part II: Saturday)

2010-12-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

Told you not to hold your breath, man I'm updating this almost a week late. Sorry about that, but like I mentioned, shit was going to be hectic this week. So 6/12 with Tony, Wayne, and Davin went alright. Early on in the session I had a rough patch, mostly against a spewy guy in seat nine who I just couldn't hold against. I was in the game for $700 (three and a half racks) by the time all was said and done.

A few fun hands occurred when I got back from a quick bite to eat with Tommy and sat down on Davin's left. I think this was the first I had seen of Davin, so I posted my missed blinds in the cutoff and Davin raised directly to my right. I looked down on a couple red Queens and three bet. Folded around to seat nine who called and Davin who also called.

The flop came out ace high unfortunately, something like AT3. Seat nine donked the flop, Davin called, and I raised. Both called and we saw a deuce turn. Checked to me, and I opted to check it back. The river was a four and seat nine looked like he was going to bet out, then decided to check. Davin said something to the extent of "man don't call me, I don't want to turn my cards up" and bet $12 into the pot. I had planned on calling a river bet from seat nine, but Davin's hand sounded like a set or a straight. I folded and seat nine looked up Davin who had pocket fives for the rivered straight. Seat nine flashed an ace for what it's worth.

The very next hand I picked up Kings and three bet Davin again. "Will you be doing this the entire time?" he asked me. I jokingly snapped back "hey it hasn't worked yet, don't be mad, you won a pot last time." This time there was maybe four or five other people in the hand, and we saw a flop five or six ways for three bets a piece. The flop was something like Jack high with a couple clubs. Checked to me in the hijack, I bet, I got like three or four callers, and Davin said something like "wow I wish I had AT of clubs here" then folded.

The turn was a blank, I bet and was called by a couple more people. The river was an ace...not the prettiest card in the deck, but it wasn't a club and the action ended up getting checked to me. I was in position and figured if someone made aces up they would have bet into me, and while there's a chance the nutflush draw just made top pair, I had to value bet my hand. I opted to bet and only seat nine called me. I showed kings and he mucked his hand, likely a jack that couldn't make two pair.

Sometime a bit later I won another big pot, this time with AJ of hearts against QQ. I raised UTG, a LPP player three bet me, Davin defended his BB and I called. The flop was KQx, I check called a flop bet three ways, then spiked broadway on the turn. Davin checked, I checked, and the lady bet out. Davin tank/folded (I really wanted a call obviously), then I raised. The lady must have known for a fact I had a straight and not two pair, because she only called with her middle set The river blanked out and I had a decent comeback after being close to down $400 for the session at one point. In the end I think I lost a little over $100, not bad considering things had started off very bleak.

Stay tuned, I had a quick session tonight (Thursday) with Tony playing 6/12, and I even had a brief flirtation with the high hand board. First I have to thank him for a couple awesome Xmas presents, as he was my Secret Santa this year (awwww <3 bff). He got me the newest add-on to Red Dead Redemption for when I feel like mindlessly killing Zombies and a 12-pack of my favorite beer. Thanks pal! Oh, I'll also include the gift I gave, a Jets throwback Darrelle Revis jersey for my friend Kenny. I know it's a mirror at work, but maybe I should have shipped some windex along with the jersey haha.

A Couple Messy Sessions (Part I: Thursday)

2010-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

I've been busy busy busy the last few days or so, and it doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing down until this Thursday. Last Thursday I headed over to Capitol for a session after work. Things were rocky at 4/8 yet again for me, as I had a great table with a lot of psychos, but I simply couldn't win a hand.

Things would change up a bit though as my fourth hand at 6/12 I picked up aces in the big blind against UTG's Queens. We capped pre-flop with six players seeing the flop (aye caramba!) The flop came out ten high, something like T73 rainbow. I kinda figured UTG had a hand, though he did seem like an action player. I bet into him and he raised, folded all the way around to an attractive asian girl (NC, I've mentioned her before in the blog) who called two bets cold, I 3-bet, UTG finally just called and NC called.

The turn was a four, somewhat scary if NC has something like 65, but I didn't think she'd call two bets cold with a gutshot on the flop so I wasn't too worried. She checked, I bet, both called. The river was a nine, making the board T7349. Again, not all that pretty, but I figured UTG had something like a pair Kings or Queens and I really didn't want to see a face card on the river. NC checked, I bet, UTG said something to the extent of "oh you have a big pair, let's see how big" and raised me. Wtf? NC folded and it came back around to me.

I paused a little bit and looked at the board. I'm not throwing my hand away in this spot probably ever, but why the river raise on that card? "You can't have jack eight right? That doesn't make sense" I said to him. "Pocket kings huh? You have pocket kings?" UTG asked me as I was debating. Is this guy not afraid of kings? Does he have the other two aces? A set of nines? "Man, I was kind of hoping that's what you had" I blurted out, in response to his question about whether or not I had kings.

"Oh yeah?" he asked in an almost hushed tone. I made the call, pretty much expecting to see a set of nines or tens when he flipped over pocket queens. Phew, I tabled my aces and he told me "nice hand, I was hoping you had jacks." Poor kid, sucks to get queens or kings when somebody else has aces, but you don't have to scare the shit out of me with that river raise. I appreciated the extra $12 I guess haha.

After that hand I won a few more nice pots and found myself close to +$300 for the session...unfortunately I cooled off considerably and didn't win another hand for over two hours. I watched my chipstack dwindle from about three racks down to under one; I even had to reload another rack. I came back a little bit after that, but wow what a terrible second half of a session. I spent the majority of my time folding trash hands then the rest taking beats. I'm pretty stoic when I take beats, if anything I think I look dazed or in a trance, not once did I react poorly but NC even commented on how unlucky I was getting and seemed to legitimately feel sorry for me. Too bad she's taken, I would have loved a sympathy hug.

To be honest, at the end of the day I felt like I should have been down three racks based on how poorly I ran, so that cheered me up some. It really sucks swinging that far down though after crushing the table initially. I'll be back to blog about my Saturday session spent with my pal Tony/fender403 where we played 6/12 along with WI, Suzanne, and Davin Anderson. I've mentioned him before in some old 9/18 and 15/30 entries, so we'll talk about a couple fun hands against him. No promises on how soon, I have to work both jobs the next couple of days/nights so it's going to be hectic.

Case of the Mondays (Part II: 6/12 Rollercoaster)

2010-12-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

I was trying to think of another pic or video related to Mondays, and I remembered my favorite Orgy song, a cover of New Order's "Blue Monday."

Anyway, like I mentioned last time, 6/12 was a roller coaster ride of awesome, and some not-so-awesome. My table had a couple familiar faces, one being an older woman I'll call PM in seat two, a younger guy in seat five who wore sunglasses (I'll call him "Shades") and then a middle aged man wearing eyeglasses in seat eight who was sometimes vocally hostile to dealers and other players. Apparently he was stuck pretty bad, and in the end I'd estimate I saw him dump at least four racks into the game. The rest of the players were pretty LPPish, with one or two LAGs thrown in. Good table, with just one catch...you gotta hold!

So the first big pot I was in I raised AQos UTG and saw a six way flop of Q63 with two diamonds. I had lost a couple smaller pots early on and didn't show my cards, so perhaps people thought my raises didn't mean much. The SB in seat nine donk bet into me, PM called, I raised, called in two spots behind me, SB called and PM called. The turn was a ten of spades, a bit scary because QT is a fairly common pre-flop call, but I bet and wasn't raised by anyone, only called in three spots. Haha, only three spots. When the river was being dealt, all I could think about was...

The river was a non-diamond three, pairing the board. Q63T3, no flushes, no straights. Checked to me and I value bet my AQ and was looked up by only Mr. Hostility in seat eight, who showed KQ. Poor guy, one notch too low. That was a sick pot, and got me close to even for the day.

About an orbit later I was dealt AQ again, this time though I was in Middle position. Folded to me and I opened for $12, Shades called me from the cutoff, a younger white kid in seat seven called me from the SB, the BB defended and we saw a flop of QJ4 with two hearts. I bet, called by shades and seat seven, the BB folded.

The turn was a two of hearts, putting three hearts on the board. Checked to me, I bet, Shades raised, seat seven tanked a little/checked his cards again and then called, and then the action was back to me. I was pretty sure I could beat seat seven's hand, but what about Shades? He had been getting a touch out of line, and something told me he didn't have a flush. I thought he might have been getting out of line with a hand like Jx with a heart draw, so I decided to make the call. If he had something like a weak two pair I still had some outs, and like I mentioned I still thought I was ahead.

The river was a non-heart three. SB checked, I checked, and then Shades checked behind. Hmmm, was I good? Seat seven shook his head and showed a missed K-high flush draw. I can beat that...I showed my AQ. Then Shades showed 42os for a turned two pair, and took down the pot. I couldn't help but smirk a little bit, but I kept my cool and didn't say anything negative. If the dude wants to call my pre-flop raises with four high, he is more than welcome.

After that hand I spiraled down a little bit, losing with pocket tens a few different times, Kings lost again, but then came back a little with Queens, flopping a set in a four way pot and then turning the boat. Then I picked up aces against the laggy seat six's queens which brought me back even more. The last hand I'll talk about brought me back closer to even for the day and was the last big pot I was in before my table broke.

It was a killpot and limped in a couple spots, and I looked down at a red KQos. I raised over the limpers, which included a LPPish asian guy in seat one and PM in seat two. Six people saw the flop of Q73 rainbow. Remember, this was a killpot so and I raised so 6 people times 12 chips times $2/chip = roughly $144 in the pot preflop. I flopped TPGK, now it's time to hold.

The action was pretty tame, as it was checked to me, I bet and got a few callers. The turn paired the seven and I'll admit I was tad bit scared of someone floating the flop with midpair. I mean, with $144 in the pot on the flop, I'm probably peeling for one more bet. The pot's about $192 after the flop, and on the turn I bet and only got called by seat 1 and by PM, so now it's about $264. The river was a deuce, checked to me, again I value bet my TPGK with a pair on the board, and this time only PM called while saying "good hand." Those are some of the sweetest words you can hear, because you know it's a crying call on the end. A decent one if I just barreled with AK in this spot, but unfortunately for her I had the queen and she only had "a pocket pair." Sick sick pot, and it made it so I was about a $60 winner at 6/12, so only a $40 loser for the day.

The table ended up breaking shortly after so I sat and watched the ending to the Texans/Ravens game (poor Texans' fans, Schaub threw a pick six to end the game), then made my way home.

Case of the Mondays (Part I: 4/8 Hell)

2010-12-13T22:35:00.000-08:00

After a great night's sleep and a morning of forum games, I decided to catch the Monday night NFL games while playing some cards at Capitol. Ahhh it feels good to be off for a full day, I don't get too many of these.

So I arrived around 330pm or so and was first up on the 6/12 list, so I decided to jump into an open 4/8 seat. My table was AMAZING. I mean I saw some dude call two cold on the flop with J3 of diamonds on a black A87 board only to hit runner runner gutshot. How does that happen? I had at least three people at the table playing this horribly, and everyone else wasn't much better.

You know the trick to winning at these types of tables though, right? Right. Your cards have to actually hit and hold while dodging landmine after landmine. It's a task easier said than done.

The first big hand I played at this table I raised a live straddle ($8) on my direct right to $12 from the six seat with AQ of hearts. The girl had been playing crazy and was definitely a maniac. Seat one flatted my raise (he was the guy that showed down J3 of diamonds earlier), and it folded around to the small blind who called. The girl in seat five whose straddle I raised made it $16 to go. I capped and we saw a flop four handed with $80 already in the middle. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The flop came out 355 with one heart. Not a great flop for my hand, but it wasn't terrible either. SB and the straddler checked, I bet, seat one called, small blind folded, and the girl in the straddle called. No surprises here...I could be ahead, I could be behind, these two could have anything. I decided I was betting until something told me to stop.

The turn was actually a great card: the seven of hearts. Now I had a couple overs as well as the nut heart draw. The girl checked, I bet, and again both called. The river was a non-heart four, making the board 35574 i.e. freaking ugly. I was now definitely worried that one of these two could have a six, and I definitely did not want to bet/fold this hand at this point with all the money in the pot. I guess a good play would be bet/fold here, but I opted to check behind the straddler and watch seat one bet $8 into the pot of about $128. The girl folded and flashed K8 of hearts (ugh put a heart out one time), leaving me alone to call $8 with the possibility of winning $136 if the seat one was bluffing or betting a weaker ace-high. I'm not good enough to fold getting 17 to 1 against a guy who I already described as being awful, so I called and he showed A6 for a rivered straight. Of course A6 had to get there, oh well, I got my money in really well in this hand, and I didn't even make a pair.

After that hand I lost with K9 of spades, missing a combo flush/straight draw from the BB and that caused me to buy another rack of chips. Yikes. The only big pot I ended up winning at this table was with a pair of jacks that managed to hold, I think I might have picked up a smaller pot somewhere else along the line, but maybe not. After this hour of hell and a couple of 4/8 players leaving and endangering the table of a possible break, I decided to take my 6/12 seat. I had asked to be rolled once already because of how good this 4/8 table was, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe next time I can capitalize on them. I ended up cashing out a little over $200 in orange chips, unfortunately I paid for 300 of them.

Look for part two sometime tomorrow, I'll break down a wild ride at 6/12 that saw me swing down, then up, then down, and then...well, you get the idea.

Friday Night with Fender (Part II: 6/12 Action)

2010-12-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

So after a fun 4/8 session with Tony I made my way back to the Pai Gow room where they had opened a 6/12 game. I saw a couple familiar faces in the game, including a cute asian girl (KV), John (guy from my earlier 4/8 table) and another reg I'll call CS.

The action was pretty bad early on, maybe the first half hour or so and I debated moving to a 4/8 game with more action. As the table filled up though, our buddy John from earlier started opening up some. I got involved in some hands against him and the mamy callers his raises got. You see, if John was opening with a ton of raises he'd be getting three bet mercilessly in online games, but in low stakes live games? Call, call, call. I was guilty of it early on at 4/8 too, so I can't talk too much, but I was well aware of it during my time with him at 6/12.

I did well early on, flopping top pair and holding a couple times as well as flopping a straight and getting some action, but my big pairs (KK and QQ) both got cracked in some big pots, then I went card dead for awhile. John meanwhile went on a pretty good heater, hitting a lot with his junk and eventually cashed out a rack winner. He said he was going to pick up a Chicago fire pizza and head home to the wife, whom he told he'd be home by 5:30 (it was 5:45 when he said this). The dude is funny and I like him a lot, I wish he'd play more/longer.

Eventually Tony had to go home for the night so I wished him well, then our table got moved from the Pai Gow room back into the main card room. That seemed to be just what I needed, as I engaged the boomswitch soon after we table changed into the main room. Eventually a guy who had been playing NL for a majority of the night came over to the table and sat on my direct right, let's call him CY. He was playing pretty loose and opening a wide range, so I looked to exploit that in spots where I could.

I got a couple AK type hands against him and three bet a few of his opens. One hand I faced some resistance from a different player in the hand, and I failed to even flop a pair, so I had to fold. But the other two I flopped TPTK after a cap pre-flop of at least four players seeing the flop and then a flop lead from CY followed by a raise from me. He looked me up both times after turn and river bets, and he said he only had a small pocket pair both times (more likely he flopped or turned a pair and decided to look me up).

One of my biggest multiway pots I won that night came with CY as one of the main aggressors. Limped in quite a few spots, I limped from the CO with 75 of hearts, WI (older tight reg, plays somewhat passive at times) limped the button, and Feliz complete his SB from seat six. The flop was a jackpot 643 rainbow. Early Merry Xmas for me.

Feliz led out from the SB, called in one spot, CY raised, I flatted (may be a weird line, but I didn't want to three bet and shut anyone out. I figured if I three bet it may give Feliz a chance to fold a pair of sevens or other similar holdings since he knows how I play. WI folded, Feliz three bet, the earlier caller still called, CY capped, I called, as did the other two players.

Four ways to the turn which brought out a ten of clubs. Feliz led out again, the earlier caller still called, CY only called this time, and I put in a raise. Feliz folded, the caller called and CY again called. The river was a queen, still giving me the nuts. Checked to me, I bet, the caller in between me and CY finally folded, and then CY tank called me. I was good obviously and raked in a sweet pot with a flopped straight.

I eventually got called away from the game by some friends hanging out at the Old Tavern (dive bar down the street). The table wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the best table I've had lately by a long shot. Feliz is a good player, WI isn't bad either, and everyone else that was there really wasn't playing overly crazy. CY had even attempted to calm down after I had been exploiting his opens for most of the night. I decided making a rack and a half ($300) was good enough, time to go hang out with friends and enjoy a Friday night off from work and poker.

Friday Night with Fender (Part I: 4/8 and Fat Tire)

2010-12-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

My buddy Tony, or fender403 as some of you may know him, had invited me earlier in the week to play cards with him on Friday night, but I told him I probably wouldn't be able to go. I had been playing a ton of cards lately and Friday was usually one of my busier days working with the kids. I had planned on working from 8a-630p that day and probably wouldn't feel up to playing. That being said, in typical Friday fashion, one of my kids' parents phoned it in and I was heading to Capitol by 230pm. Weeeee.

I arrived and saw that 6/12 was not yet running, but Tony couldn't stop bragging about how great his table was. I got a 4/8 seat in about 10 minutes, but not at Tony's table. I asked him if he minded that I sit with him for a bit and play along with him and he said that'd be cool. He's pretty courteous to me and asks if it's cool to table change over to my tables, so I thought I'd return the favor. The only time I'll tell him no is if the game is not good i.e. no one's gambling...the last thing I need is another solid player at that point.

When a seat opened up at his table it just happened to be directly to his right, so seat three. We hung out and shot the shit for a bit while getting $1 Fat tires from the bar (awesome). He had initially offered a round of diet cokes since we're both little girls trying to watch our figures at the moment, but we couldn't pass up the $1 Fat Tire drafts. In typical Santi fashion, I was tipsy after about half of it lol.

Needless to say I was involved in the action almost immediately. I recognized a guy in seat nine named John, he's a usual 6/12 player (and I'd end up facing off with him later in the night at 6/12), and knew he had a tendency to play loose/fast. My second hand at the table he opened from EP and I flatted from LP with KQos and one of the blinds came along. In retrospect I'd like myself to three-bet John here because of my previous history with him, but at this point in the day I had no idea what mood he was in and what cards he was opening so I just flatted in position.

The flop came AK6 with no flush. The BB checked and John pet out per usual, I decided to raise my midpair good kicker, the BB folded and John called. I've seen John open connectors as weak and low as 76, so I really thought my King was well ahead of his range. The turn was another low card, John checked, I bet, and John check raised me to $16. Hmmm, we have some history together, but a lot of that was a long time ago. I definitely don't remember him ever bluff checkraising a turn, in this spot in the past he has at the very least an ace, most likely two pair or even a set. I released my hand and he took down the pot.

A few hands later I limped behind an UTG limper with QT of clubs. In loose 4/8 games I like limping behind with cards like this because it's very likely that after a couple limpers everyone else will come along with absolute trash. To my delight we saw a flop somewhere around six or seven handed of A87 with the ace and eight being clubs. Awesome flop for my hand. John led out from the SB, called in one spot, I raised, got a few callers behind me, John called and UTG called.

A ton of money in the pot and I have the second nutflush draw, obviously I'm loving my equity in this pot against five other players. The turn brought out a nine of clubs, giving me the second nutflush and putting out a wonderful action board of A987. You think with seven people seeing the flop in a 4/8 game that a few people might have a piece of this board? It gets checked to me, I bet, then a guy in seat five raises. Hmmmm, King high flush? Or a straight? Or two pair? Or a set? An older gentleman in seat seven calls $16 cold, then it folded around to UTG on my right who also called $16. Wow, do one of these guys have the King of clubs? I'm thinking it's a possibility, and I had better charge him the max to try and get that fourth club. Three! I put $16 more dollars in the pot making it $24 to see the river card for my remaining opponents. Seat five only called at this point (why hello straight/two-pair/set), seat seven actually folded (baby straight like 65? One pair of aces?) and then UTG called and said "pair the board!"

Ugh. No, do not pair the board. That's the last thing I want. In fact, I'd rather you put out another club than for you to pair the board. The river was a nine of spades I believe and UTg bet out on the A8798 board. Aye yahhhhh I called and seat five called behind me. UTG showed 98os for runner runner full house and swept in a huge pot. Why couldn't you pair the seven dealer? Or Pair the ace maybe (that might not have been good to be honest, seat five may have had aces up). Regardless, I built a sick pot that would have been mine a good majority of the time and for that I was satisfied.

No other 4/8 pots really came close to that one while I was there, at least hands that I was involved in anyway. I watched Tony go on an absolute tear for awhile and it was cool watching him play well and get to run well. By the time our table lost players and was forced to break I was about $25 below what I started with, which wasn't too bad considering the pots I lost early. 6/12 had actually started a half hour before my 4/8 game broke, but I decided to hang out with Tony rather than jump into a new 6/12 game right away. There was a seat open after the table break though, so I saw that as my opportunity to transition over. Part two should be out tomorrow sometime, thanks for reading.

Persevere

2010-12-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

per·se·vere
1. a. To persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.

So two days removed from taking an absolute pummeling at 6/12, I was left with no one and nowhere to watch the Colts/Titans game after work...how about some cards? Lovely idea.

There was a new 6/12 game running and they had an open seat. Awesome. Or so I thought. I bought in for $300...and then added $200 more...and then about an hour later $200 more. Aye. Yah. In for three and a half racks ($700) and there didn't seem to be any inclination that the beats would stop.

I'd say I won three pots in the first few hours I played, two of them were flop continuation bets that didn't get called...so yeah, the chips were most definitely not flowing in. It's hard not to think negatively when your big cards are missing and you're getting beaten by "set-up hands."

Most players have a stoploss, that is, a certain amount of money they will designate to lose in a session and then when they reach that point they will take a break or quit for the day. For LHE, the standard stoploss is about 30BBs (at 6/12, this would be $360). I was well above 40BBs, but I have never really bought into the idea of a stoploss. If I'm not flustered, I'm still playing correctly and I have a good table...well I won't be leaving anytime soon. My plan was to weather the storm and wait for a decent run of cards. Technically you can lose forever, there are never any guarantees that a run of cards is coming your way, but luckily for me things turned around.

I won a couple big pots with AK, and I could feel the momentum start to swing back in my favor. I lulled around -$300 for awhile, then made a quick run and found myself down between -$120 and -$180 for a few orbits, then I made another run back close to even. Obviously these jumps are spaced out across a few hours of play, as I'm just giving you an idea of how hard it can be to climb out of a hole once you get stuck.

I know I've said before that it's a good idea to seperate yourself from the results, but after climbing out of a $500 hole and getting close to even, I'd say around my 6th hour of play that night I had a fantastic mix of feeling relief, happiness, and pride. Things continued to get better at that point as I started scratching into the black; I was actually in the positive! A couple killpots later I had a tower of red chips, about 450 of them ($900). Nevermind the fact that I had bought 350 of them five hours earlier.

Slowly but surely the fishier players left the table and left me with some decent players and a couple of guys who actually play for a living, so I saw that as my cue to exist. I called my friend Aaron to talk to him about the session, and we agreed that sometimes after a day of getting crushed, crawling back and churning a small profit after going through hell can feel more rewarding than just sitting down and crushing without resistance.

Stay tuned for an update from Friday night where I played with my pal Tony for a bit. He got to witness me turning the second nutflush, putting in three bets with it on the turn against three people, then get crushed by a four outer on the end. Good times!

Blatant Lies

2010-12-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

I rolled into Capitol at around 3pm Tuesday and noticed 6/12 only had an interest list. Interesting, must be a slow day. I threw my name along up there with a handful of others, then wandered over to an open 4/8 seat. First hand I was dealt in I opened pocket nines from EP, maybe UTG+2. Folded around to the button who called, small blind called and the big blind defended. The flop came out Queen high with two spades. Both of the blinds checked, I bet, the button folded, small blind check-raised, big blind folded and I called.

This was my first hand at the table, first hand of the day, so reads are nonexistent. 30 year oldish white dude wearing a UCLA cap and had about $240 worth of orange chips in front of him. It was a Q42 flop, two spades, what's he checkraising here? AQ/KQ are possibilities, baby sets, flush draws. The turn card was a queen of hearts.

Hmmmm...interesting. I decided that the queen was either an awesomely good or awesomely bad card for me and it was time to find out which. The small blind led out for eight chips and I took my stack of 16 and cut them neatly into four stacks of four. Now, I'm staring right at the guy from the nine seat, he's sitting in the six seat. All of a sudden I see him sit straight up, look at the dealer and say "I only called."

The dealer had been chatting a little to a player in seat two and this kind of took him by surprise. "You bet" the dealer said. This time seat six said "I checked." At this point I absolutely know he has a flush draw, and I'm proud of myself for charging him the max for trying to draw out on me. But I'm also getting annoyed at his attempt at an angle to see a river card for one bet. "You led out, I raised" I finally said.

Then the guy had the nerve to say "He didn't bring all his chips out at once," implying that I had performed a string bet. Now I'm pissed. The dealer just looked at me confused and said "you didn't do that, right?" I looked at the dealer, back at the player and said "no, in fact, I know I didn't do that." Seat seven came to my aid and said "the young man put all his chips out at once, there was nothing wrong with his raise." Defeated, seat six reached for eight more chips and made the call.

The river was a ten of spades. Seat six checked and I checked behind and said "go ahead, you're good now" and he threw down his hand triumphantly while leaning back into his chair. A9 of spades, whaddya know, the nutflush draw that got there. He looked so smug, I couldn't help but needle. "Hey I didn't mean to raise the turn, can I have eight chips back? No? Okay." My neighbors seat seven and eight just smirked a little and shook their heads while seat six kept his head down and stacked the chips.

It's amazing to me what some people do in the face of adversity. I've seen angles here and there, some sleazier than others, but I've never seen someone stoop so slow to save eight bucks.

Define Frustration

2010-12-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

frus·tra·tion:
1. a. The act of frustrating or an instance of being frustrated.
b. The state of being frustrated.

frus·trate
1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart.
b. To cause feelings of discouragement or bafflement in.
2. To make ineffectual or invalid; nullify.

Ohhh limit poker, how I love you. I always tell people that I prefer live low stakes LHE because of the big pots, the multiway action, and the atmosphere. I'll hear things like "you can't bet a person off their hand," "my aces always get cracked," and "there's no skill in that game" and I almost never try and correct that person. You're right, getting people to put in four bets pre-flop with utter trash for a hand does not take skill, you definitely can't run a bluff in limit, and my aces have never won a huge pot in a limit game. Right.

Monday night I grabbed some free pizza with my brother and we talked a little about the game of poker and what I hoped to accomplish through playing. In short, I told him it wasn't as much about the money as it was the competition and the desire to play solid fundamental poker. I've been doing my best to seperate myself from the results and realize that as long as I make the best possible decisions, nothing else really matters. I work two jobs, I don't have any real kind of debt, the money doesn't matter.

I won't lie though, last night was the first time in a long time I had felt frustrated at a poker table. Seven hours of bad cards mixed in with terrible beats, a few awesome wins, and then terrible beats again. Perhaps it's because I've been fighting a cold the last week or so, maybe it's because I just like winning and the competitor in me just couldn't handle losing anymore that day...whatever it was the emotional highs and lows last night just kind of culminated into a moment of sheer frustration. I didn't yell at anyone or even appear to lose my temper I don't think...my biggest outbursts were a long quiet exhale (which felt really good at the time) and a quick standup to stretch my legs, put my hands above of my head, breathe a little then sit back down. I hate drawing attention to myself, so even these minute things seemed like I was being an idiot at the time.

Overall for the day I dropped close to a rack at 4/8 and then close to a rack at 6/12, the math says I'm still up money this week somehow, so not all is lost. I'm probably going to take the rest of the week off from poker and look to play again Sunday night or next Monday. Look for updates later this week that will break down a few hands I played last night and also an incident where a guy blatantly lied to a dealer's face and tried to cheat his way out of calling an $8 turn raise from me at 4/8. It was pretty pathetic, and I look forward to telling that story.

My Ideal Table

2010-12-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

After sleeping through the afternoon and night football games because of my graveyard shift, I was wide awake at 1am Monday hacking up my lungs. I've been a bit under the weather this past week, but it seems like I get better as the day goes on. I ran some errands which included requesting time off of for my Vegas trip in January and getting some laundry done, then hit up Capitol at around 2pm.

As soon as I walked in the door and put my name on the lists Oscar started asking for interest in opening up a new 6/12 table. Wouldn't you know it, I run goooot and had a new 6/12 game opened 30 seconds after arrived. I walked over to the new table and locked up the three seat. I don't have a lucky seat or anything like that, but I do love the corners (like the two/three, seven/eight) because you usually get the most room and you can see everyone on the table. The seats that I didn't mention usually have a couple blind spots or seats where you'd have to strain/make an obvious attempt to look at the person.

As the seats filled in I liked my table more and more. There were quite a few LPPs (loose-passive preflop, passive postflop players) and a couple LAGs (loose aggressive). That dynamic usually makes for a fun table: lots of callers preflop and tons of chips in the middle. A lot of pots were at least five handed on the flop, even with an opening raise. Coldcalling raises in position was definitely the norm, and I almost never saw someone three bet a hand. I saw people coldcall a raise with Kings or Queens at least four times this session, and one pot I was involved in UTG limped in with Kings and the SB merely completed with Jacks. Both flopped sets, and fireworks didn't go off until the turn.

So anyway, now that you are familiar with my table, I'll get into my session. I started off a tad meh, missed my first few opens with cards like KQ suited and AQ, and soon found myself down a couple $40 stacks of red #2 chips. If you can't make a pair in this game you're probably not going to win. These types of players generally do not fold. No need to fear though, I got lucky in a big pot somewhere around my second hour at the table.

I'm in the BB with A5 of diamonds. UTG+1 (a cute asian girl, we'll call her NC) raised, cold called by about four people, small blind called, and I defended my BB with a suited ace. Seven way to a flop of K54 with one diamond. Small blind and I both check, UTG+1 bets, called in two spots behind her, small blind called, and getting roughly 18:1 on my $6, I called. NC is a bit of an LP preflop at times (so her raise was probably a big hand), but can get LAG after the flop. I'm putting her on a big hand at this point, probably AK, but maybe KQ. Obviously I'm looking for a five, maybe my ace is good if I hit it, and a diamond would give me an excuse to call a turn bet. The pot is much too big to fold for one more bet and I'm completing the action. Also, my position to the aggressor in the hand is fantastic; read the next sentence and you'll see why.

The turn brings out a five of clubs, actually putting a club flush draw on the board now. Small blind checks, I check, UTG+1 still bets and at this point in time I'm really hoping she has AK/KQ and not a full house (Kings full being the most likely option). Everyone folds behind except the small blind. He had been fairly tight in comparison to the rest of the table, so his turn call might be an OESD (67), he could have picked up a flush draw now, or he has a weak King. I raise to 12 chips ($24 total), NC quickly calls and the small blind calls.

The river brings a two of clubs out. Small blind checks, I value bet my trips top kicker, NC calls, and small blind folds. I showed my hand, NC flashed AK and a bit of frustration with the turn card (yay three outer), and I raked in a sea of red chips. Three outers (if you're not counting my backdoor draws) come and go, we all dish them out and we all take them.

Aside from this hand and a couple smaller pots, I was somewhat card dead and hovered around +$40-$+100 for a long stretch of time. I don't mind folding a lot of bad cards, it beats running into monsters or getting medium strength hands that finish second. I just enjoyed watching the action at the table and trying my best to read the hands I wasn't in.

The second half of my session I caught fire for awhile, picked up aces a few times and won all three. Also won with Kings once, but balanced some of that out by losing a couple big killpots with AK and another one after flopping two pair and getting gutterballed on the turn. Fun hands and big pots, I really enjoyed my time at the table. I was up a couple racks at about 8pm when my brother texted me and said his friend Billie (a cute/short brunette fwiw, too bad she prefers women) was going to hook it up with some free pizza and asked if I was interested. Well I hadn't eaten since about noon, I had been up since 1am, my cough had started to come back...hmmm, well, I do love pizza (combo no onions FTW). I raised AJ UTG, flopped TP but lost to JT turning broadway, cashed out about +$320 and called it a night.

The Micros - Episode 1: Pilot

2010-12-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Most of you have probably seen it, but if you haven't, watch it.

Back to the Grind

2010-12-03T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ahhh coming off a six rack day, what's the worst that can happen? Well, I'll tell ya, not much at first. I came back and was hotter than ever. AK of hearts limped in a spot, I raise, BB calls and the limper calls. I bet the flop and the turn on a ragged board, they both call. I check back the river and AK is good. Next hand I open AJ after a limper, cold called by the button, BB and the limper. Same thing, bet flop, two callers. Bet turn, two callers. Check back river, my hand was good.

Wowww...godmode still engaged. Tony showed up and sat in the nine seat, by the way I was in the six. One hand he observed me play was KTos on the button vs a limper.

A player in seat four limped in (he had been playing pretty loose, open limping as he pleased) so I decided to iso-raise him from the button. Clark, sitting in seat seven in the small blind cold called my raise, the BB folded and the limper called.

Three to the flop of T85 with the eight and five being diamonds. Clark had actually been playing somewhat passive to this point, so it concerned me when he donk bet into me and the limper called. Hmmmm, I guess Clark would coldcall AT here and then bet to "see where he's at." He's an older guy and hey, he actually owns the cardroom I'm playing at. I decide he's donking a flush draw and an open ended straight draw here a good chunk of the time so I raised, Clark called and then the limper called.

The turn brought out a seven on hearts. Checked to me, I bet, both call. The river pairs the seven, no diamond. Checked to me, I think for a split second about checking back scared of AT, then I remember that I have top pair king kicker and value betting is awesome. I bet, Clark says he missed and folds then the limper shows me 89 of diamonds for a HUGE draw. He says there's no way I raise the flop unless I have him beat with AK of diamonds being the exception, therefore he could only beat one of my hands (I'd raise a naked AK here sometimes to be honest, especially if I have the ace of diamonds, but in this case he's right). He ended up folding and I won a nice pot.

I eventually got moved to the main game which was a tad bit nittier, yada yada, I was up around a rack and a half at one point during the session (+$300) but ended up cashing out and grabbing dinner with Tony after about a $160 win. Set of twos lost in a killpot to a turned straight. It seemed like that hand was the hand that sent me into a Talespin. That'll end the first chapter...

Unfortunately, part two is going to SUCK. I swing from a decent win down to losing $230...for the day...weeeeeee $400 downswing for the fucking loss.

A couple fun hands to look for are AK losing to AJ in a killpot, capped pre-flop, capped flop, rivered three outer to the table drunk maniac. AK also flopped TPTK vs a guy looking for a gutterball in a killpot...instead he goes running trips. UGH.

In fact you know what, you won't get a part two, these cliff notes will have to do. I had planned on going home since I wasn't feeling well, but my headache was gone after dinner and my table looked good. Oh well, that's poker, you can't run hot forever. We're back to the grind my friends, and on that note, man do I miss Alice in Chains.

No Tip?

2010-12-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

So an interesting statement came up the other night at my 6/12 table. One reg I've played with before in the past, an older guy, can be a decent TAG most nights when he wants to be but still has enough gamboool in his blood that limping behind 52os isn't a problem on others, made a statement about tipping.

Literally out of nowhere he started talking about how he only tips dealers at Capitol now, and almost never tips when he plays anywhere else. He justfied this statement by breaking down the amount of hours he plays in a day, per week, per month, and every dollar per pot he wins over time would equal out to around $5k a year for him.

Thats all fine and dandy, but he needs to realize that you get what you pay for. If we all just stopped tipping dealers, we'd start losing some. Good dealers are an important aspect of live play, I'm sure you internet players out there think live play is slow enough already, but throw in a dealer who can barely get your cards to you, much less read a board correctly...and well we're going to have issues.

On the flip side tipping more than a $1/hand is probably a leak. If it's a massive pot I usually tip a couple bucks, but in the past I'd say over tipping was one of my biggest leaks.

I didn't really want to spawn a tip vs no tip debate with this post, but it may be inevitable. As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to take a page from Indiana Jones and that scene where he throws the Nazi out of the blimp. No tip? You old scrooge, out you go.

*thumb points to window*

"No tip."

100 Big Bets?! (Part 2)

2010-11-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi again, here to finish up the 100bb day hopefully. Like I mentioned yesterday, I had a couple maniacs at my table and things were starting to click. After winning a couple killpots I found myself up at least a rack ($200) and some change. The next hour or so I was involved in some spots with both maniacs, usually taking them to showdown with midpairs and sometimes Ace-high, winning most of the showdowns I was involved in with them. Not much else I can ask for.

It really was a whirlwind, as we would go from a full game to SH play and back to full again, I never really had time to jot down notes during this time. I do remember a hand that occurred right as my friend Tony (some of you know him as fender403) arrived on the scene. I had asked him to meet up with me for lunch and play cards earlier that morning; perhaps texting tony to meet up for lunch = boomswitch? I may have to try it again soon.

Anyway, PS (our maniac in seat six) opens the pot for a raise, a couple callers in between, and I see QT of diamonds on the button. Had it been folded in between the maniac and myself I probably would three-bet this, instead I'm actually a tad worried about the callers in between. They were older players, had come off as passive, and they would slowplay decent pairs and big cards (mostly out of fear). I wanted to see a cheap flop against them and the maniac, hopefully crush the flop, then reap the rewards of him going nutso.

I called, the SB called, as did the BB. Step 1: see a cheap flop - Success. The flop came out KJ9 with two clubs. Step 2: Crush the flop - Success. The blinds checked to PS who bet, one fold, one of the more passive players raised, I three bet, Blinds fold, PS calls, passive player caps, I call and PS calls. The passive player capping made me feel like I may be chopping the pot. That is until a non-club three fell of on the turn and it was checked to me. I bet, and both players called. The river was another blank, no pairing the board, no club (I still had the nuts), and both players check/called. Weeeeeeeeeeee. Fender just shook his head, and I could tell what he was thinking. ("Must. Be. Nice.)

Or "ship it, ship it all" could work there too I guess. Tony had a seat waiting for him over at 4/8, and we planned on grabbing lunch after he put some time in. One hand I remember in between then and lunch I picked up 54 of diamonds in the BB. Folded to PS who open limped from the cutoff. Huh? Kinda weird...maybe he was afraid he wouldn't get action. KV obliged by raising the button from the seven seat, folded to me and I defend from the BB, PS LRR to three bets and KV caps. "Ughhh I guess I'm the monkey in the middle" I said.

Flop: 744

Boy does it suck to be me. I check, PS checks, KV checks. Someone slowplaying a big pair?

The turn was a five. Oh cool, a fullhouse huh? I bet, PS raises, KV folds, I three-bet and he only calls. River is a blank, I bet he calls.

Godmode engaged.

After lunch (Patty Melt on rye with mustard) I came back to a couple fun kill pots. I think my stack was +$800ish at this point, when I picked up Queens in a killpot. I open to six chips (call), guy in seat four is newer and raises to 12 chips ($24), PS three bets to $36, folds around back to me and I cap it ($48).

The flop comes out 222. No you didn't misread that, the board came out with three ducks. I checked, seat four checked, PS bet, I checkraised, seat four called, PS 3-bet, I capped, seat four called, PS called. ($48 times three players = weeeee)

288

I'm pretty confident at this point I had the best hand, as a six came off on the turn. This time I opted to lead, seat four called, PS raised again (if he has AA or KK good for him, I'm going to lose the max against someone who has proved to be a maniac for the last few hours), I three bet ($64), seat four finally folds, and PS only calls. The river is another baby card, I bet, he calls while saying "I missed"

I show QQ and am good for a pot close to $500, with over $300 of it being profit. I went on to win a smaller killpot about an orbit or so after this and that put me over +$1200 for the day and over 100 big bets for the session. That was a sick run that I probably won't be able to duplicate for a long, long time.

100 Big Bets?! (Part 1)

2010-11-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

So before I get into my huge Friday (11/26), I should mention I had a fairly awful Tuesday. Today's Saturday and I was trying to finish up the Third part of the 4/8 and 6/12 story (don't think I'm going to bother), get into the downer day at 6/12 where I played for about nine hours and took about a $400 loss (just a shit day vs a good table) and then talk about blacking out and running like God yesterday.

Tuesday I had a really nice table full of LPPs and one spewtard, but alas my big hands couldn't hold, my draws wouldn't hit, and to be honest being down only $400 at the end of the day kind of felt like a gift. Tuesday was the first real hint of adversity I had been faced with since I started playing regularly again around the end of October. Sure there were rough hours of patches here and there, but I always seemed to regroup and get it back. In fact, to this point I had only had one losing session out of the last eight, and it was only for $100. Nine hours of my life and a couple racks later, I left Capitol feeling the sting of some runbad.

Thursday I ate at my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner, drove home, and promptly passed out around 8pm...only to stumble out of bed around 530am. Wow, wtf? I showered, did some exercising, surfed the interwebs, then decided to grab a shower and see if Capitol would have any good daytime action. Most people were off work shopping, but maybe I'd get lucky and catch some good games. I rolled up at about 9:30am and to my surprise there was a ShortHanded (SH) 6/12 game going on.

I recognized a couple players, notably SK in the two seat, a young floorman in the four, and then a couple older gentleman I didn't recognize on the other side of the table. These guys were playing four handed, no jackpot drop. Man, my kind of players! I love shorthanded, but early on I got beat up pretty badly. Sometime in the 2nd orbit my AK lost to a rivered two pair by KT. King high flop, we capped the flop, he check called my turn then led a rivered ten. A couple orbits after that I ran QQ into KK and then whiffed a couple AK/AQ type hands. Not a pretty start whatsoever, and I quickly found my initial $300 buy in cut almost in half.

The game slowly started to fill up during the early morning massacre, and eventually after about an hour of some really fun SH play we had a full table. After the initial drop I picked up some decent hands against SK and it brought me back around even. SK was playing much more aggressively today than I had seen him play before, in fact, he was absolutely maniacal. He played just about every hand during SH play, and it continued once the game was full. A lot of beginner books talk about avoiding maniacs on your direct left, but honestly I have come to enjoy it.

Whenever I opened a pot SK would usually coldcall me, and then post we'd play some poker. It seemed like he was raising the flop with literally any piece you could think of, sometimes he'd have pure air. I was in Shifty calldown mode (you vegas forum trip guys will get that reference), basically what I'm saying is I'm taking SK to showdown a very high percentage of the time. My position was actually a blessing, as I would act, then SK, and then all the pressure would be on the rest of the table. I bet, SK raises, and now it's up to the rest of the table to define their hand. He was building me pots when I usually had the best of it, loosening up the table by the amount of action he was giving, and overall making it much easier for me to play the other opponents.

Later on another super aggressive player came to the table and sat in seat six. So now I have a maniac on my direct left and a maniac across the table. OH BOY! I'll call the seat 6 maniac PS, as he had a sweet Pokerstars beanie on. PS and SK, when heads up, were in some AWESOME hands together. A husband/wife combo waiting for the 1/3 NL game to start looked absolutely stunned in amazement. The wife would gasp "look at them, THEY HAVE NOTHING!" AK vs KQ, no pairs on the board, capped pre, four bets on the flop, two bets on the turn, one bet on the river. And you want to talk about fast. Read this as fast as you can. Raise, three bet, cap. Burn, turn. Bet, raise, re-raise. The chips splashing the felt from one side to another. It was like watching a tennis match, each one trying to raise the other faster and harder than before. IT WAS AWESOME!

So now that you get a feeling about what my table looks like (amazing), I'll post a couple hands then get going to bed. I've been up 30 hours now with a 40 minute power nap squeezed in before work last night. KV, a real pretty asian girl opens for six chips from seat seven in a kill pot (this is a call). Seat nine calls, I look down at two red Kings and raise to 12 chips. SK calls, folds back around to KV and seat nine who both call. Flop is 433 rainbow. Checks to me and I bet, miraculously SK finds a fold, KV folds, seat nine raises. I hadn't played with seat nine before, but I found out later he was also waiting for a NL seat. I three bet and he only calls. The turn is a ten and again seat nine leads. I raise again and this time he folds. Hmmph. Odd.

Next hand I raise the blinds from EP with QJ sooooted, blinds fold, it's now a kill pot, stakes are 12/24. I'm UTG+2 I believe and pick up AQ of clubs. I open for six chips (this is a call, I do this in every kill pot because normally opening to 12 gets everyone to fold and you win three chips; you don't have to post a kill blind in this cardroom). Oh by the way, I'm ready to LRR this hand. Instead SK calls, the NL husband calls from seat four and one of the blinds calls. The flop comes Q84 with two clubs. Cha ching. Now I wish someone had raised pre. I lead, SK calls, everyone else folds. The turn is a nine of clubs. I bet, SK raises, I three bet, he calls. The river blanks out, I bet he calls and I show the winner. Weeeee this turns out to be the start of the run. I'll try and blog the 2nd part when I wake up, thanks for reading.

A Slow Day at 6/12, a Monster at 4/8 (Part2)

2010-11-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

After booking a small win at 6/12, I decided to go check out the 4/8 tables. I grabbed eight orange $1 chips from my 6/12 stack (the rest were red $2 chips) and saved a spot for myself at the 4/8 table with the biggest stacks on them. I'd say the smallest stack had about $150 in it, not bad at all. Most everyone was hovering around #200-300, not bad at all for 1am on a Monday.

I rack up and see a huge line at the cage, so I decide to just change in my entire 6/12 stack and bring it to the 4/8 game with me. Two racks of orange, a stack of yellow $5 dollar chips and some change accompanied me to my 4/8 seat where I was greeted warmly by a guy named Edgar wearing an all red Cordova warm-up BBall suit (fucking pimp, dude looked COMFORTABLE).

Yooo whats up man, buy-ins only $40! At first I saw this $8 and was like whatever, but man, you brought a chip army back!

I couldn't help but laugh, explain the situation with the cage, then explain that I feel naked without a shitload of chips in front of me (which by the way is 100% true).

My second or third hand at the table I was dealt T8 of diamonds from MP. I limped behind a couple limpers, people limped behind me, and we saw a flop of Qd9d7d seven handed or so. Aye Caramba. Not only did I flop a T-high flush I also had an open-ended straight flush draw. The Small-blind (SB) bet out, two callers in between, I raise, Cutoff (CO) and Button both call, SB calls, the two callers in between us called.

The turn was a ten of spades making the board even more coordinated and ugly. SB bet out again, called again in two spots, I raised yet again, CO and Button both call (again), SB folds (I'm thinking he had top pair and finally gave up), two callers in between call again.

River is an eight of spades, so now I have the T-high flush AND two pair. Oh and the board is even more ugly. Checked to me, I bet, and it folds around to one of the early position players who calls. I show him the flopped flush and am good for a huge pot. Wow, after a quiet day at 6/12, I scoop in a pot worth maybe $120+ in profit in one of my first hands at the table.

Don't be too happy for me (or jealous) though just yet, as next orbit in the cutoff this time I look down at a couple Kings. I raise a few limpers, get called by the button, both the blinds, and of course the limpers call. Seven way action to the flop of KxQc3c. Weeeeeeeee flopped the nuts seven ways, let's find a way to fuck this up.

Checked to me and I bet, Button raises, SB calls, folds to me, I 3-bet, Button caps, me and SB call.

The turn is a good card, the seven of diamonds. SB checks, I bet, Button pauses for a second, puts his chips out. A stack of four, then cuts to eight...I can tell he's thinking it over. The entire time in my head I'm yelling "RAISE DAMMIT!" If he has a hand he can keep raising on this turn I have to have him absolutely crushed. He either has a low two pair or a set, either way he's drawing super thin. The guy in the SB calling along is who I'm really worried about. He probably has a flush draw, maybe a combo flush/straight draw. If that's the case he's drawing very live.

Back to the Button. Four, Eight, Cuts four more chips to 12 and then to 16. Yes! SB calls again. Ugh, I need to dip duck and dodge this river for sure, but right now it's time to charge max Value. I snap three bet to $24 and button sighs and only calls. SB hurriedly calls eight more chips and we all wait for the river...

The river card is the nine of spades. I didn't even watch the river card come out, I was looking at the SB the entire time, looking for a noticeable jump or sigh or anything. As SB checked I didn't notice anything peculiar, so I looked at the board for myself and saw the nine of spades. "Ahhh the club missed" I remembered thinking to myself as I bet out. I then started looking at what combos of cards actually did get there. "9-7-3...that can't make a straight; K-Q-9, a gutterball got there...wait no, JT got there. JT was open-ended and had eight outs all the way. Uh oh."

The button called my bet, then I saw the SB reach and grab a decent looking stack of chips, definitely enough to raise.

NO.

He cuts a stack of four. Then eight.

DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

Then 12.

NO!

I think this is actually the part of the hand where I cursed loudly. I believe a loud "fuck" soon followed by mumbling of something like "that was not a good card, and to think you were happy with that card because it wasn't a club, what were you thinking, etc etc etc." I have a tendency to talk to myself at a poker table, mostly as a way to bring humor and entertainment to a situation. I want people to like playing with me. I call and button call and the SB shows JsTc for the flopped open ended straight draw that just had to get there.

I tapped the table, said "nice hand" and pretty much meant it. I've taken much worse beats in bigger pots than that, all you can do is blame the shuffle gnomes inside that damn automatic shuffler and move on.

I didn't plan on making a part three for this session but I have at least a couple more big pots to talk about and this post is super long sooooo alright, look for part three sometime tomorrow. Thanks again for reading!

A Slow Day at 6/12, a Monster at 4/8 (Part1)

2010-11-23T05:36:00.000-08:00

I rolled into Capitol at about 10pm Monday night after a nice pho dinner with a friend.

Does it get any better than that? Throw in some limes, Sriracha, pepper and a diet coke...then some poker after?! What a Monday night. Anyway, like I said, poker. I put my name on the 6/12 and 4/8 lists, waited for 10 minutes and found myself on a 6/12 table with a few regs I've been playing with for the last few weeks.

The table was okay, one of the regs was stuck so she was playing tighter and was much less action than normal. An older guy by the name of Tim was on an absolute heater all night, just crushing the table. He eventually cashed out 5 racks or so, no idea what he bought in for though. He kinda looks like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and received some needles from Feliz who showed up about 20 mins after me and another player who goes by "D." "GREAT SCOTT" they would yell on scary turns/rivers where he was in a hand. All in all it was a pretty entertaining table.

Unfortunately aside from taking advantage of a drunk guy who crushed his NL table for about 1k, I ran kinda slow. Feliz was getting a good roll of cards and was able to get some three bets in against the drunk NL player, Doc Brown was crushing with anything and everything, and my stack stayed pretty even keel.

Oh one thing I did run good at was a side game dubbed "5 Chip Chop" with D and Feliz. Basically when the hand gets folded to the blinds, SB and BB set aside five $2 chips and play best hand wins (while paying no rake obv). Feliz and D were in the two and three seat playing, D asked me if I wanted to play as well and I snap said of course. Basic rules - high card wins, but a pair > a-high. First time it's folded around D starts cursing and practically throws his chips at me. I squeeze out a seven of hearts and show it to him. He mucks his cards immediately. LOL. We only chopped one other time, my T7 > his 76. So I came up 20 bucks there and the dude bought me a Guiness. I tried to return the favor but he was leaving soon and told me to get him next time.

A couple of hands vs the drunk guy:

AK diamonds in the BB. DG opens from CO after an EP call, I 3-bet, gets capped. Three ways to a JT3 flop with two diamonds. I lead, EP folds, DG raises, I 3-bet, he calls. Turn is a King I bet, he calls. River is a blank I bet he calls, AK good.

I have 55 in EP and open, folds around to DG who defends his blind then tells me "if I get a piece I'm betting." He has less than 20 chips in his hand at this point. Flop comes T5x and he leads. I call. Turn is a 3, he bets I raise enough to put him all in, he calls and shows T3os. River blanks out.

6/12 totals (including 5 chip chop or 5CC) = +40 for about three hours

I'll post more later today or tomorrow about my three hour 4/8-Kill session immediately following this, where I ran much, much better

The Return of the 4/8 Superstar

2010-11-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. Not sure how many people will see this or care, but I plan on playing live once or twice a week and posting again. I took a solid chunk of time off from poker and now I feel ready to come back.

Aside from forum trips I haven't played much poker, and didn't really start to miss it until recently. When I was playing regularly it just felt like the games weren't good anymore. Everyone was nitting it up, my games were breaking early, my average table stakes were plumetting from 15/30 to 9/18 down to 6/12. It just felt like no one had any money to lose, so they tried harder to keep it.

On top of that I was busy working a couple different jobs, juggling friendships and relationships, trying new things. Poker just kind of got shuffled to the back. I don't think I missed out on too much. The last few weeks I've been playing more and easing my way back into the mix, and the same names and faces are still there. Part of me thinks that is another reason I stopped going.

Seeing the same people playing cards day in and day out kind of makes me depressed for them. Is this all they do? I remember thinking to myself "man, I'm here at least a couple times a week, usually rotating a few different days and I ALWAYS see this person and that person...do they ever leave?" Some are able to play for a living and that's cool, good for them, those aren't the ones I'm talking about. I know there are some people who are losing players and play everyday, how are they able to continually light money on fire and be able to come back the next day? Rich family? Rich dead uncle? Meh, it's not any of my business really, but there were times I couldn't help but wonder about a certain person's family, friends, and wonder if poker was eating a hole in this person's life.

I'll stop being the negative nancy, debby downer blog now, but I wanted to be honest in my first post back. No biting my tongue, no holding back. If you're going to read this, you're going to get 100% truth; no bullshit, no sugar coating, no fairy tales.

I'll be playing most of my poker at Capitol Cardroom, located in downtown Sac. The most likely stakes will be 4/8-Full Kill, 6/12-Full kill, and maybe some NL sprinkled in if it looks like the games are good. Cap is the most likely option because of location (about a 10 minute drive from my place), great food, fantastic dealers (lightning fast ftw), good action 24/7 (there's almost always a good game to be found) and i'm familiar with a majority of the floor, dealers and some of the players.

Other locations might include Cache Creek and Lucky Derby. Cache is home to my favorite 4/8-kill game of all time, as the players are much more loose/passive than your average Capitol player. I'm assuming that's because you get a lot more pure gamblers wandering to the poker room from the nearby casino slots and pit; at Capitol most people are there to play cards.

Derby has a decent 5/10 full kill Omaha 8 or better game I liked to play back in the day, but the game was pretty slow and you'd get a lot of regs playing at times. Back when I went card dead in that game, it felt like eternal damnation. Though a few times the games were REALLY GOOD, like crazy goooot, so it might be worth a look if I'm ever in the area.

My short term goal for this new build is to play solid, fundamental poker. I want to make as many good decisions as I possibly can then let the results figure themselves out from there. I've played and studied LHE for a little over seven years now, so all the correct decisions should be somewhere in my brain, now it's just up to me to execute them.

Look for a few new updates this week, as I'll go back the last couple of weeks and talk about some sessions I've had and some big pots I've been involved in. That's all for now, thanks for reading, and it feels good to be back and excited about poker again.

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

2009-06-18T01:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-05-12T16:43:00.001-07:00

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)

2009-05-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-05-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-24T03:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T03:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T17:47:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-16T01:27:00.000-07:00

Check it Out.

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

Jesus Hates Easter

2009-04-12T18:04:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-04-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Return of the 4/8 Superstar

2008-12-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Since the Superdonk and I both had Friday night off and gas prices are way down, we decided a trip to our old stomping grounds was in order. The creek hadn't changed much...in fact, as I sat down in the seven seat I noticed Steve (big white guy reg, looks like kyle gass just not bald) and Su in the four seat (her husband Steve was playing NL.) The Superdonk ended up occupying the one seat, and the rest of the table was a smattering of LPP donks...it was going to be a good day.

Steve left pretty early, so I remember thinking the only players I really had to worry about was the SD and Su...but Su doesn't play incredibly well and me and the SD tend to stay out of each other's way for the most part.

I ran pretty good in the first hour or so...won a nice pot with a flopped set of aces on a four flush board and somehow no one had a diamond...you know, really odd stuff like that. I was up $100 for most of the night until I hit an absolute sick run of cards in my last hour or so at the table.

I won a kill pot with a goofy 75 soooooted hand...I think there was a couple limpers, I limped behind. Flop gave me a gutshot, so I bet with position and hoped to get a free river card. Everyone called...turn I hit my gutterball. Weeeeeeee. Checked to me and I bet, three callers. River was a blank, checked to me, one caller.

Anyway, it's taken me a week to write this and I can't remember anything else, but I cashed out +$430...wow, 50bbs+, obviously a sick run. Oh, shorthanded I got Aces once and Jacks once, both in kill pots...that helped out a lot. Anyway, I have an update for 12/12, so check back in a couple days for that.

2008 Fantasy Football Rundown

2008-12-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Alrght since Champ said he wanted to read it, might as well post it. Sup Champ?! Anyway, somehow I found my way into three leagues this year (geek check!). The first two I purposefully joined ($100 league through work, $20 league through Cardplayer) and then the third league I helped out my friend from work who's never played before but wanted to get a free league going to learn, so I said w/e fuck it and joined as the 8th team.

So first off, my $100 league turned out to only be eight guys (two guys flaked on draft day, wtf?!) after being a 10-man league forever, so yeah, the teams came out kinda stacked. By the way, kind of a weird set-up...1 QB, 2 RBs, 4WRs (TEs count as WRs) 1 DEF, 1 Kicker, 20yds rush/run = 1 pt; 50 yds/pass = 1 pt, 6pts/TD...kinda odd, a lot of people I tell the league about hate the way it's set up...I've gotten used to it. Oh and there's no playoff system, best record at the end of the year wins...

So yeah, the first four picks were something like (Brady, LT, AP, Addai) and so I took Westbrook. I remember really wanting Addai, but decided Westbrook would work out okay. After that I can't really remember much, except I took Lynch 2nd round, Fitzgerald 3rd, then I got Turner in the 4th...blah blah...I had a pretty solid team and someone ranked me as the 2nd best looking team preseason. I know that doesn't mean dick, but at least someone liked how my team was set up. My one HUGE weakness was going to be QBs. Basically the 2nd and 3rd round was the round all the solid QBs went, so I said fuck it and decided to wait until the mid rounds to get a QB. I took all my RBs and WRs early (we have to start 4 WRs/TEs, so I loaded up) and didn't take Matt Hasselbeck until somewhere in Round 9 or 10. I also picked up Garrard and Delhomme, and just prayed one of these three would have a breakout year (if you've been following this year at all, you'll note none of the three have done shit). I almost took a shot and went with Kurt Warner, that would have been nice.

Basically what I learned from this league this year is that I am the luckiest motherfucker on the face of the Earth (*knock on wood* don't jinx me please). I knew it was going to be a good year as soon as week 1 when I was facing the commish's team with a three point lead going into the Monday night game...he had McFadden and his defense going and only needed four points to beat me (my guys were done), three to tie. Well obviously he only scored two points somehow (I think his D put up a goose egg) and I held onto a 53-52 (lowest scoring game of the week) victory. After that I seemed to face the lowest scorer each week and I'd repeatedly have to show up to work and say "I rallied my troops around, we played a close game, but we squeezed out a victory. That's what good teams do baby." I currently have a 1.5 game lead (I tied in week four or some shit) with four weeks left to play...HOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD!!!

The CP league I decided to screw around a bit and take Brady in the first round with the 6th overall pick (I made sure to stay old school with the $100 league and take two RBs first). Let's just say after that my draft didn't look all that great, and once Brady went down in week 1, I all but gave up on that league.

The free league was an autodraft where you could pre-rank your players. I was definitely not going to spend the time pre-ranking players, especially since I really wanted a live draft, so I just left the rankings as they were and came back to a team where my first pick was S-Jax (I really didn't want S-Jax on any of my teams this year) and then my next three picks were all WRs (wtf...Moss, Andre Johnson, Fitzgerald). At least I had solid receivers...right? My backs ended up being S-Jax, Turner, Ronnie Brown (he didn't even sniff my starting line-up until after he blew up in one of those early weeks). Funny sidenote, Moss has been riding the pine in this league pretty much since week 2...and no one wanted to give me a good trade for him since Brady went down and we're all kinda stacked, so he's been on my bench except when he has had good matchups.

Anyway, somehow I made a couple good waiver wire moves (I picked up Steve Slaton off the free agent wire, traded Calvin Johnson for someone I can't remember because I was deep as fuck at receiver) and actually put a good team together. I started caring about this league once I figured out how much shit talk there would be, so I started getting into it and making my team as good as possible. The regular season just ended with me at 10-3, best record in the league, most points scored, yada yada, looking to take home the $20 trophy my buddy bought for the winner of the league.

So that's it for now, actually have a 4/8-Kill Cache Creek trip planned for Friday night, wish me luck, hopefully I'll have a good update for you guys Saturday. Thanks for reading.

About Updating...

2008-11-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

Never got around to updating the Vegas trip. Still being lazy, still sucking at life when it comes to poker and updating this. To be honest, I think I've played only a couple smaller sessions since Vegas and I just don't see playing a consistent live game happening anytime soon. I'm dealing with a lot of other stuff right now, you know, IRL stuff haha. I'm working a little more because of the holidays, job searching, talking to contacts, blah blah, boring stuff.

I do plan on making a Fantasy Football related blog post though lol, stay tuned.

Wow, Been Awhile

2008-11-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Laziness, running shitty (sorta), and more laziness are my only reasons for not updating as often as I'd like. Sorry for leaving you guys hanging (hopefully I still have readers), and I promise to start posting semi-regularly again. I plan on updating the blog with the back end of my September sessions and my October Vegas trip.

Catch ya guys later, and thanks for still reading

Wednesday Night 9/18 (9/24)

2008-09-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

So I rolled into Cap kinda late, around 11pm or so. Saw The Dark Knight at Imax btw...sick stuff.

Anyway, I sat down at 4/8 for a few orbits and I kid you not, I went 2 for 4 with big premiums (AA-JJ). Unfortunately jacks and kings won me a couple small pots and the aces and queens lost me some bigger ones. After my name was called for the 9/18 game I was down $60 or so...

9/18 didn't start off so hot either as I was dealt 99 my 3rd hand at the table and raised from EP out of seat six. Bill (older, nice white guy regular) called from the eight seat as did the blinds. The flop came out JT9. I bet, Bill raised, blinds folded, I 3-bet, and he capped. The turn was a blank, I bet, he raised again...and so I decided to call. Me and Bill have some history, and we both should be able to put each other on big hands at this point. The turn was a hideous eight, so I check/called and he showed KQ for the flopped nut straight. Oh well...

9/18 continued to be pretty awful for the first hour and a half or so, as I just couldn't make any hands hold. There was this older white woman named Michelle in seat three who was just terrible, and sounded like a 3/6 player the way she tried to justify the donkeyish way she'd play a hand. I iso-raised her a lot with some solid cards (AK, AQ, medium pockets) and some other stuff like A9s or JTs, and boy was she mean-mugging me all night. Two pots she beat me out of early on were just disgusting...the A9 hand I flopped top pair and she flopped a couple backdoor draws with KJ of spades. Of course she goes running spades on me and I make two pair on the river and have to pay her off. A couple hands later she turned a set of threes against my pocket tens on an all-unders board...omg lifetilt.

At one point I was stuck close to $600 on the night, but eventually turned it around and left Cap around 5am or so up $380 (+$440 on 9/18). I'll talk about a couple beats I took before I end the entry for tonight, and I'll be back tomorrow (later today errr after I wake up) to talk about the sick hands I caught after hour number two to pull off a $1k swing.

The first beat is pocket aces in the Cutoff. Limped in one spot, I raised, a regular out of seat seven named Tom I think (short, mustache, always angry) calls from the button with 76os and the BB and limper call. The flop is 972 rainbow...BB donks, limper folds, I raise, Tom calls for some reason, BB calls. The turn is of course a seven and it goes check, bet, raise, fold, and I check/call down.

The second one is kinda minor, but it still kinda sucks. I got Kings somewhere in EP, I raised, and pretty much everyone called. The flop looked great (Q94), I bet out and four people called. The turn was an ace though, and Wilson bet out from the small blind and the BB raised so I had to fold. Oh well...

Like I said, things get much better, so I'll come back tomorrow and talk about those hands. Thanks for reading.

Thursday Night Poker Action (9/18) II

2008-09-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ahh I missed 4/8, it was such a beautiful table last night. Call. Call. Call. Check. Call. Call. Call. Wonderful indeed. I folded a lot (obv), but then picked up this hand out of the BB.

If you read back a few entries, I talked about a hand where I flopped the nutflush out of the BB with A6 of diamonds, and I said I wanted to work on raising in that spot against a ton of limpers because we have a good equity advantage (Ax-suited). If I miss, I can check/fold and not have it be a big deal. So I was dealt A5 of clubs, raised after five callers limped, someone re-raised all-in for like two more chips, so everyone called that too...$10 x 6 players to the flop of 863 with two clubs.

I bet out, got three callers...turn was another eight, but the eight of clubs. I bet, kinda expecting to get raised (and wondering if anyone boated up...doubtful), but only got two callers. The river was a blank, I bet, all folded. I showed my nutflush and the all-in player showed her QJ of clubs with a big "awwwwwww" :(

There was another really big hand where I flopped a set of five out of the SB against a guy trying to get all-in. The flop was KQ5, turn was a six and the river was a jack...anyway I held and won another sizeable pot. Aside from those two hands, I can't really remember any other hands I won at 4/8...

9/18 was a good mix of bad players and some regs who are decent. There was a stretch where I raised with AA, won that pot, raised the very next hand with AQ of spades, flopped the nutflush, and then the very next hand after picked up Aces again. Craziness...this of course was after folding for my first few orbits at the table. I had actually seat changed from seat five (middle of the table...yuck) to seat one because I absolutely hate the middle of the table. No superstitions, just fat kid claustrophobia and feeling like I'm "in the spotlight." One player commented "seat change means new gear?" to which I laughed off and said "we'll see."

The second Aces hand was a bit strange as I raised from UTG, a guy named Dale in seat four (typical LPP) called, folded around to Sam in the BB who defended. Bummer...third hand I've raised in a row and no one wants to three-bet me when I have the nuts pre.

The flop was pretty good looking, 973 with two hearts, and I had the Ace of hearts in my hand. Sam bets out, I raise, Dale 3-bets (yikes), Sam caps and we all call...Hmm, what did I get myself into here? Sam, while mixes in his aggression well at times, has played with me a lot and would almost definitely put me on an overpair here...and Dale is as stationy as they come...

The turn is a blank ten, Sam bets out and I decide to just call. I was pretty sure he didn't have anything less than two pair here. Dale calls behind me and we see a turn of a three of hearts, pairing the board while also completing the flush. Sam seems unphased and bets out, I call, Dale calls.

Sam showed 77 for sevens full, Dale then shows the other two aces in the deck...lol. Wow, I usually muck my hand in this spot, especially since there's no reward for getting your aces cracked at the moment (usually it's $35), so I laughed and showed them the other two aces. "Sorry Sam I have quads" I remember saying as I threw my aces toward Dale's... :-)

After that a lot of hands are hazy...and like I said I ended up taking off to the Omaha game at the Derby. When I first sat down I bought in for a couple racks of $1 chips at 5/10 O8 with an option for a $20 bet on the river (sounds fun). One of the first hands I sat down I was dealt A34K with the ace-suited. I think just about everyone limped in, one guy out of the blinds raised (everyone called), and the flop was 982 and I was left in the middle of two guys raising each other and a bunch of callers. Weeeeee, fireworks already. The turn blanked out and it went bet/call/call, but the river I hit my four and had the nut low. I check/called a $20 bet from this Asian guy (played every single hand the entire time I was there, he may have folded three hands the entire night). Turns out the raiser out of the blinds couldn't beat either the high hand or my nut low, so me and the asian guy chopped the pot. It was a good pot...

After that a few hands later I played AKQ2 (double suited) from lp after a ton of limpers and raised. The flop was J93 rainbow with one of my suits backdoor. Some guy in EP bet out, and a few people called, I called.

The turn brought a 10 of clubs which gave me the nuts on a rainbow board, no low draw. Basically I had to dodge pairing the board and I'd have the nuts. EP bet out again, two callers, I raised, three calls. The river blanked out with a four or something...checked to me, I bet $20, everyone folded. Weeeeeeeeeee up $140 almost immediately.

Unfortunately after that I folded for-ev-er and was left watching a bunch of old men donk off tons of chips. Seriously, the next youngest guy at the table was probably 45 years old (not exagerating), but everyone played awful. The Asian guy to my left said he dropped $1400 for the night, and I believe him. He played every single hand, went to the river almost every single hand, and was looking people up with hands like bottom two pair. Wowwwwwww. <3 Live O8

Okay well that's all for now, look for some updates sometime tomorrow, I plan on playing today.

Thursday Night Poker Action (9/18)

2008-09-19T08:18:00.001-07:00

I'm way too tired to blog about the sessions buuuuut...results are fun.

4/8: +200
9/18: +100
5/10 O8: +125

I rolled into Capitol around 8pm (Tony put my name on the 9/18 list at 7pm), and I was still 14th on the list...wtf? So I played 4/8 for a little while, bought in for a rack, and by the time I got called for 9/18, I didn't have to pull anymore money out of my wallet. I gave the floorman three racks of orange and traded that in for a rack of purple $3 chips...

A couple hours of 9/18 were pretty crazy. Up and down, up and down. I think I got AK and AQ at least five times a piece tonight...some held, some didn't. I don't think I ever cracked more than +180 at that game, and never fell below even. Eventually the game broke around 1230am and I was left wide awake and bored out of my mind. Phoenix?

I decided the night was way too young and drove out to the Phoenix to see if they had anything going...I must have made a wrong turn, because I drove past where I thought Phoenix was and eventually ran into the Lucky Derby...w/e.

Derby had a 4/8-half kill game and a bunch of shortstacked NL games running, and then I saw a list for Omaha8. Hmmmmmm...

I sat down playing O8 and won a couple big pots early, folded for what seemed like an enternity, and then played some O8 shorthanded before finally calling it a night/morning.

Fun stuff, I'll blog about some hands tomorrow, right now I need to sleep.

Wednesday Night 15/30 (9/10) Cont..

2008-09-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Okay so I won a couple hands out of the blinds over the course of an hour or so, before I decide to limp behind with 87 of diamonds from the button with a few limpers in front of me...flop is J88. Checks to me and I stab at it, praying someone would think I was full of shit. I get called by an UTG limper and everyone else folds. The turn is a blank and UTG check/folds to my bet. Oh well, I still won a nice little pot from all those limpers...

The next big pot I won was JT of diamonds from the cutoff. Limped in a couple spots, I raised, folds around to the BB who calls, limpers call.

Flop: J84 with one diamond

BB checked, EP limper checked, MP limper named Bill (plays kinda odd) bet out into me, I raised, BB folded, EP limper called (odd), and Bill called. The turn was a deuce of hearts, completing the rainbow on the board. EP checked again, Bill checked, I bet, EP and Bill both called. The river paired the eight...kinda ugly. EP checked and this time Bill bet out into me. Ugh, so lame if he has the eight here, but I call obv because this is limit and what's that? Yeah, big folds are ghey in limit. EP folded and I said "nice hand"...Bill shook his head and turned over pocket sixes and said "nah your hand is good, was hoping you had AK." Phew.

So that was a healthy pot and finally I broke out over my break-even chipstack. A couple more interesting hands popped up, one where I flopped a set in a raised pot and got rivered by a King-high flush (lost a lot of chips) but then gained them back with a couple big hands (AK flopped a King and JJ held). Those two hands probably helped set me up for this hand.

We were maybe seven or eight-handed at this point as people had been getting up for smoke breaks or bathroom breaks, w/e, and I looked down at AJ of clubs UTG+1. UTG folded, I raised from the nine seat, and then got called by seats one, two and four as well as the SB in seat five and the BB in seat six. Jeeeeez...huge pot already.

The flop was disgustingly ugly...334 rainbow. "Wow...maybe no one caught a piece of that..." I thought to myself. Checks to me, I bet, called by seats one and two (which basically meant nothing, they had been floating with crap all day) and after those calls everyone else folded. Wow...I might have a shot at taking this one down...

During this time seat six had started talking and saying "I'm gonna lay my cards down to you man, you've been too hot, I don't think I'm good." I was hoping people would listen to him and maybe give me credit for a monster hand.

The turn was another low card, a six or a seven. I fired again, this time seat one folded and seat two called. Meh...at this point I figured I was getting looked up by a midpair. I've played with this guy before, older white guy named Fred, and I knew he was going to look up my river bet unless he had a missed draw that I beat anyway. The river was an ugly ugly card, a five I think. The board was now 33457...so a six would have made a straight.

I gave a bit of a stutterstep move, like I was going to bet and now just opted to check because the board was ugly...basically trying to spell out I had a monster but was afraid of the straight. Fwiw, I was check/calling the river for this massive pot, even though I was pretty sure Fred wouldn't bet the river without a hand that beat me. He checked behind and I said "I only have ace high" and turned my cards over. Immediately seat six started saying "nooo, I had the best hand, you got a lot of heart man" as he laughed and Fred looked at his cards and said "I can't beat that" and looked at his cards some more...he was obviously angry at himself for not putting a raise in somewhere or maybe a bet on the river during the hand (even though I would have called a river bet, he doesn't know that). So after several seconds of looking at his cards he finally mucked his hand and I raked in a sick sick pot with AJ-high.

So after that I was up a rack or so and picked up AA out of the BB about an orbit later. Three limpers, I raised, all called to see a semi ugly flop of KJ6. I bet, two callers. The turn was another baby card, something like a four. I bet, only one caller. The river was an ace...only QT beat me at this point. Bet/call and my opponent sheepishly mucked his cards. "Overkill" he said jokingly.

At this point I was up close to $800 and seriously wondering if I could maintain this kind of a rush...I had been slow early on, but I didn't expect to get this hot. Anyway, here's that three hand stretch of cards I was talking about...

So maybe a few hands later I get dealt aces yet again. Limped in a couple spots, I raise, the blinds and two limpers look me up. The flop is 853 rainbow. Checks to me and I bet, a laggy guy in seat three raises, I 3-bet and he caps OOP. Wow...that good? He had been pretty aggro since he sat down a few orbits ago, but for him to be able to cap OOP I figured he must be pretty strong. The turn was a nine, so I remember thinking if he was open-ended then he got there. He continued to fire, so I decided to go into call down mode. The river was a ten, not pairing a card like I wanted, so it went bet/call. Sure enough the villain turned over 76 and had gotten there on the turn...oh well, no biggie, I had been running out.

Very next hand I get dealt QQ, folded to me, and I raise. Unfortunately it folds to the BB (wtf, shouldn't they think I'm steaming?!), BB 3-bets (woohoo), and I only call (to disguise my hand). The flop is kinda bleh, KT4 with a couple of spades. He bets, I raise, he disgustedly calls. The turn is a jack...he checks, I bet, and he raises before I can finish my bet...I call. The river misses my OESD, he bets, I call and he shows a turned set of Jacks. Dammit!

Wow, at this point I'm now only +$500, sick turn of events. The very next hand (I kid you not) I get pocket tens...raise...get three callers behind me and the BB also calls. I started thinking about how sick it would be if I flop a set or an overpair and still lose...

Sure enough, the flop is AT8 with two diamonds. "omg if I lose this hand I'm gonna flip..." Checks to me and I bet, get one caller only.

The turn is an eight. Checks to me, I bet, and my opponent folded. Wow...sick that I got no action when it should look like I'm on ridiculous tiltbox mode...oh well haha.

A few more orbits go by and eventually all of the LPPs start leaving and start getting replaced with semi-solid players, so I decided to bounce out and grab some food. I plan on playing some tomorrow, so look for some updates from me this weekend. Thanks again for reading.

Wednesday Night 15/30 (9/10)

2008-09-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I've been up close to 24 hours so I think I'm just going to give a quick re-cap of the night. First things first, I played much earlier than I'm used to, maybe 430pm and just have to say that the daytime guys were very, very much different than the night players. For my first few hours four or five limpers was basically standard per hand...wtf right? That and my BB rarely got raised, which really helped me out considering I was very much card dead my first couple hours at the table. It was incredibly frustrating folding so much when there were three limpers in front of me and I had position, but there was nothing I could do with the cards that were given to me.

Eventually I caught some hands and made them hold in big multiway pots, which broke me from my breakeven chipstack that seemed to haunt me in my first two hours of play...I guess I'll start with 87 of diamonds flopping trips and then JT of diamonds TP holding against a couple stations...after that things started to flow...

I'll blog about the rest of my session tomorrow when I wake up, trust me, it gets much more exciting. The highest I found myself up for night was almot $800, unfortunately I hit a sick streak of cards that brought me down to cashing out $570 for the night. Still a great night obv, but yeah, I'll talk about it tomorrow (i.e. ater today for some of you). Check back later, thanks for reading.

Some Friday Night 9/18 Action (9/5)

2008-09-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

Uh oh, second night I've played in a row where the 15/30 game couldn't get off the ground. It's a bit disappointing since my edge in that game is probably just as good as it is in the 9/18 game (and obv the stakes are higher), but at the same time I'm okay with it because the swings in that game could get nasty. Being stuck two racks at 9/18 is $600 compared to $1k at 15/30, so in a way it makes taking a loss a tad less stressful.

Anyway, for some reason I feel completely awful right now (monster headache), so let's see how long I can type before I go crawl into bed like a little girl. For the most part, I ran kinda bleh tonight. I had a couple hands hold facing a lot of action, but my big pairs were doing everything they could to get themselves cracked...aside from this hand:

It's maybe my second orbit in the session and I see UTG raise. I recognized UTG as a very loose/passive type, so an UTG raise was kinda scary. I looked down at a couple red queens though and obv three-bet. The BB came along for two more bets and UTG just called (probably an AK-like hand, maybe JJ).

I remember seeing a queen of spades in the window...the flop was Q96 rainbow, doesn't get much better than that. Checked to me, I bet, two calls. The turn was a second spade, a three I believe...so I remember I had to sweat the river a little bit...thankfully it blanked out and I got looked up by the BB with just second pair. Good start to the night...unfortunately it would only get worse from there.

About an hour or so into my session a very maniacal (poker-wise) heavyset black dude took a seat next to me in seat five (I was in seat four). After he sat down I had a couple orbits to watch him play as I was just terribly card dead, and he was doing some crazy stuff. CR-ing with bottom pair on the river, jamming up flops with absolutely nothing, etc. Obviously he'd get a hand against me though...

I'm UTG and look down at a couple red aces so I raise. Maniac calls, folds around to the BB who also comes along. The flop was pretty ugly: JT7 with a couple diamonds. BB checked, I bet, maniac raises, BB folded, I 3-bet, Maniac just calls.

His call really gave me a lot of confidence he had absolutely nothing. If he had a pair of tens he'd probably jam the flop up, but just calling my bet I was almost positive he had nothing but hopes and dreams. The turn was a four of diamonds, kinda ugly, but I had the ace of diamonds and figured the maniac would cap his flush draw on the flop. I bet out, maniac tanks and checks his cards again, and calls...

Hmmm...you on a lone diamond draw there? "Give him a diamond, ya know, since I do have the ace...", I thought to myself. The river was a red three...the three of hearts. I figured my hand was still safe and bet out...as soon as I bet the maniac raised. Bah...did he run me down and make two pair? I snap-called obv since the maniac could have 6-high here as far as I'm concerned and he turns over the three of diamonds and the three of clubs for a rivered set...yay two outers. To make matters worse I didn't even get $35 from the aces cracked w/e because the jackpot isn't $100k yet...I didn't really care about $35 anyway though. One of the shittiest feelings in poker is having the table moron catch on you and then donate all your chips back to the rest of the players at the table, and that's basically what he did the rest of the night.

Eventually I moved to the main game (they had two 9/18 games running, I started off at the must-move game). One of my first hands there propelled me back to even as I made AJ hold against A6 of spades on an A84 flop with two spades. The button in the hand turned out to have Q7 of spades, so I faded two flush draws and won a pretty nice pot. We capped the flop three-handed and then one bet a piece on the turn...I can't remember the board, but there was a four to a straight on the board after the river hit so the river checked through.

Unfortunately that was about it as far as big pots were concerned...I won some smaller ones, but lost a couple big ones when I flopped TP against five opps with AT, check-raised a T-high flop, made aces-up on the turn, but then got popped by a runner-runner diamond flush that got there on the river. To his credit, he did flop bottom pair on the flop with a five-kicker...:puke:

I ended up dropping something like $50 before taking off for the night. No big deal, hopefully I can squeeze a session in tomorrow night before work, but I'll likely be trying to sleep as much as possible so I can watch football all day Sunday. Thanks for reading.

Interesting Week (15/30 and 9/18) Tues/Fri Part II

2008-08-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Alright well where we last left off our hero was hurriedly eating dinner in an attempt to get back to the super profitable 9/18 game asap. I had just finished folding pretty much every hand for the last few orbits, getting zero playable cards. At this point I was up probably $500 or so, but I was very aware that cushion could quickly vanish. More awful players = higher variance. I could very easily go up or down a couple racks when I returned.

My return to the table was pretty quiet and I remained a non-factor for a couple orbits. The game was still 8-handed with multiple players seeing flops/going to showdown, so mixing it up with junk obv wouldn't be the best idea. Also, the blinds in this game are only 9/3 or 3 chips/1 chip, so the pressure to get involved isn't as high as it is in the 15/30 game.

Alright well the first big pot I played after returning from dinner was a monster pot. It took a few orbits and a couple lost stacks for me to get there, as I was down to only about +$380 after playing blind hands and an AK hand. It gets limped around in something like four places (this had become completely standard for the table), Wilson completes from the SB, and I check my A6 of diamonds in the BB. I know on CP a LHE topic came up about raising Ax-suited hands in the BB in spots like this and then just check/folding some whiffs, but I guess I wasn't thinking about it at the time.

The flop comes Q93 all diamonds...wow...patience does pay off apparently. Wilson checks, I bet out (why slowplay here with four people behind me?), the guy in seat seven raised...*pause* Not sure if I talked about this guy in my last entry, but he was another laggy cocky asian guy, obv ~friends with seat three. It gets called by seat one and three, Sam folds, Wilson only calls, and I decided to call and see if I could trap a ton of money in on the turn. In retrospect, I'm not sure I like it...but whatever.

The turn was a good blank card, something like a black five. Wilson checks, I check, seat seven bets, Latin guy and seat three call, Wilson raises (awesome), I decide it's time to charge the two-pair/set hands if they have it and 3-bet, all fold back to Wilson who only calls. Seat seven was obviously angry that I 3-bet the turn and said "come on man why couldn't you just call?" and I thought to myself, "well I'd be pretty pissed if the board pairs on the river and I didn't charge you the max to suck out." Anyway, the river is a blank and Wilson check/called my river bet. I turned over the nuts and he turned over JT of diamonds for an OESFD that whiffed (phew!)

I think pre-flop could be a raise and I should have probably just jammed up the flop/led the turn, but I guess my head was stuck in fancy-play syndrome and I was going to make an example out of people trying to run me over. After that hand I pretty much took Wilson's desire to continue playing (he had been stuck all night and just running awful). He was actually playing pretty well all night, but was constantly falling victim to suckouts from seats one and three. He left soon after and we found ourselves six-handed.

I can't remember many hands six-handed...most were just LP raises and folding on the flops, but after awhile it was apparent that I was getting to seat three. I was folding a lot of my blind hands because of LP raises from Sam or Seat three, but I was returning the favor in LP on their blinds (mostly when I had solid hands) and was basically taking seat three to value town. I'm not entirely sure what he was looking me up with, as I was able to get three streets of value out of him one hand with middle pair...anyway, here's a two hand run set up by you guys knowing this.

I raised UTG, we're now five handed, with KT of hearts, seat six and seven fold, the latin guy has now left for the night, seat three calls from the SB and Sam defends his BB. The flop comes AT4 with two diamonds. Checks to hero who bets, seat three raises, Sam folds, I 3-bet, Villain calls. I'm thinking he has a diamond draw or complete junk...the turn is a King. He checks, I bet, and he disgustedly folded A8 face up. lol...uh oh, I think I'm getting to someone. It'd be interesting to see if he would have folded had a King not appeared, but I must have convinced him I had AK.

Next orbit I raised A5 of spades UTG, folded around to seat three who calls and Sam who calls. At this point seat seven is trying to needle me, saying stuff like "you can't just raise AK in this game," or something like that, and I just smirk at him and say "alright good to know" and then look down at my chip stack which is well over $1k. Note to those out there, if you're going to needle someone, it might work better if they're not up almost three racks for the night. Anyway, the flop comes K73 rainbow, completely dry board and fire a c-bet when it gets checked to me. I was hoping the table talk from seat seven would encourage the two villains to fold to my c-bet, but seat three called and Sam folded. The turn was an Ace (hehe). Villain checked and I decided to check behind, hoping to either draw out a bluff or get a curiousity call on the river if checked to.

The river was a low card, and again seat three checked. I bet, and he tanked for a second, then called me. I showed Ace-five and seat seven jokingly says, "that's it, next time you raise, I'll three-bet you." I laugh and ask him "Promise?" Ahhh, tilting the table is fun.

Seat six ended up busting out after his massage and we played a couple uninteresting orbits four-handed before breaking for the night. I came up $820 or so and went to 4/8-Kill to donk off $25 over the course of an hour and a half before leaving for the night.

So I think my final count was +$15 for the week, but what an exciting $15 it was lol. Extreme swings sure are freaking stressful, but fun nonetheless. Thanks for reading, hopefully things aren't so insane next week :)

Interesting Week (15/30 and 9/18) Tues/Fri

2008-08-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

I rolled into Cap Tuesday night around 9pm or so and just couldn't get anything going. The table was actually very good (in terms of action, not skill level)...aside from Davin and Wilson (who can sometimes slip into donk-mode), the table was very fishy. There were a couple girls playing who were very lpp, 30ish Asian guys that were laggy as shit, and the Mexican floor guy (Oscar I think) who just doesn't play very well. He ended up donating a couple racks to everyone's cause.

It was one of those tables where there would be at least four people to the flop, usually five and sometimes six, so you had to make your hands hold. That's okay, considering I've grinded out 4/8 for the last couple years, shouldn't be a problem. Well, the only problem was holding or hitting a flop for me, as at the end of the night, I was down close to $800 (about $780 or something like that) and took the biggest loss for a session that I've taken in awhile. The one shining moment of the night was a capped pre-flop hand (three-ways) where I flopped quads, aside from that...blech.

Alright well dropping $780 that night and a few hundred the week before really stuck it to my desire to play. I knew big swings of money were inevitable, but mentally preparing for them <> actually living them. I'm really suprised/proud of myself that I decided to play last night.

I showed up at Cap around 10:30pm or so and noticed there wasn't a 15/30 game going...bummer. 9/18 was running as the main game for the first time in a long time, so I put my name on the list and went to watch some Olympics in the lounge. I wasn't on the list for long, and in about 15 minutes or so I had a seat and was surveying the table.

Just like 15/30 the other night, this table was pretty fishy, and it would only get better as time wore on. Some main villains for the evening: Seat one was this 35-year old latin guy, bought in for $180 and cashed out a couple racks ($600). He played liked he belonged at 3/6, but he was sucking out left and right and just couldn't be stopped. Seat 3 was this young, incredibly cocky, laggish Asian kid (probably late 20's/early 30's). When he sat down Davin called him the "9/18 Specialist" so naturally I was somewhat curious to how he played. The first couple of hands he showed down were absolute garbage and nothing changed from that first couple hands I observed of his. He also talked a ton of shit, lucky for him none of his remarks were aimed at me, or else I had a great line saved up for him and his track and field looking jacket. Seat 4 was this older Asian guy that always wears a "The Italian Job" baseball hat (looks like he bought it for $3 on vacaction once). Seat 5 was...you guessed it...Wilson. Seat 6 was yours truly, and seat nine was this guy named Ben who looks a lot like JC Tran's brother, at least that's what Tommy said anyway.

One of the first big hands I won came with a5 of spades in the big blind. Seat four had been getting beat up a lot, so after four limpers, he raised OTB, Wilson folded, I called, everyone else called. I noticed he only had a small stack of chips left, maybe 16 or so, which would be about $48 in $3 chips. The flop came 467 with two spades. Wow, huge flop...and so I did something I almost never do...I donk-bet!

That's right kids, I am a firm believer in not d-betting, but my relative position was perfect. I had four people in between me and the original raiser, and I knew almost for certain that seat four was jamming up this flop no matter what, so I wanted to trap everyone's money in instead of CR'ing the flop and losing people who didn't want to call two bets. The plan started out great as the first two limpers called, the other two folded (seat three gave me some lip asking why I would donk-bet, but eventually folded), seat four raised, I 3-bet, one limper folded, the other one called, seat four capped and only had two chips left...

The turn was a blank, maybe a ten of hearts or something close. I bet, call, seat four called all-in. River was a jack of spades...I bet, the limper folded, and then I showed seat four who was all-in my nut flush. He showed a flopped set of sevens (ouch) and left angrily toward the door. Phew...right away I could tell this night had a shot of being the exact opposite as Tuesday night.

Fast forward a couple hours and I was firmly up a rack and some change. Aside from being sucked out on by seat one (one gutshot, one three-outer two pair hand) and seat three (river three-outered on a QQ7 flop, I had jacks, he had 87, capped pre-flop four ways, river was a 7), I was running pretty well and had no reason to complain. All of my TP hands (see AK, KQ, etc) and overpairs were holding, so I felt good. I took a quick orbit off after talking to Tommy about when he was going to show up so I could grab a lunch break, and after that I went up another rack with a sick three hand run.

John was dealing and I was dealt Aces my 2nd hand back...lost. Skip a couple hands and I was dealt Kings that held in a five-way raised pot pre-flop, lost with Queens to a King-high flop the very next hand, and then won with KQ of diamonds after flopping a Queen and hitting running 2's for a full-house the hand directly after that (obv I was ahead the whole way, but still). After those three hands I was up almost two racks and the table got much fishier as a couple straightforward players left and were replaced by more cocky young asian guys. Sam the floorman eventually came over to the table as well, and so we had an eight-handed 9/18 donkfest on our hands. Unfortunately for me I was card dead for three orbits, went to grab food when Tommy finally showed up, and came back to the table 20 mins later and thankfully nothing had changed.

I'll talk about the rest of the game tomorrow...it eventually got down to five and four-handed and was fun as shit (i.e. I came up close to another rack from short-handed play). Thanks for reading, look for part II of this entry in a couple days.

Friday Night 9/18 and 15/30 (8/15)

2008-08-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

I ended up catching a 10pm showing of "Tropic Thunder," so obvioiusly I was a tad bit late getting to the cardroom for a session. I sat down at 9/18 pretty quickly, as I was first up on both the 9/18 and 15/30 lists. The 15/30 was in obv gamble-mode and I really wanted a seat, but I would end up being on the list for close to an hour before getting on.

I won a couple small pots at 9/18, mostly LP Blind steals, and then this hand came up. We're 6-handed, the table has died down considerably, and I was begging for a 15/30 seat to open. I raise in the CO with KJ, folds to the SB who 3-bets (uh oh) and everyone else folds, I call. We're HU to a flop of K96 rainbow.

The villain has been pretty tight so far, no real reads, but I'll generally respect a 3-bet out of the SB. He bet and I called. At this point I just wanted to showdown. I'm behind to AA-KK, AK, KQ and ahead of QQ-TT or any hands I want him bluffing with. I figured if I raise him I might lose him or he'll just re-pop me and I'd puke.

The turn paired the six, he bet again, and again I just called. Good card I figured, as it didn't change all that much...I wanted a King on the river or a baby card.

The river was a somewhat ugly Queen, the villain bet again, and at this point I figured I had to be beat, but of course called anyway. He showed pocket Queens and I just kinda smiled and mucked my cards. He said "you had a king didn't ya...sorry man, only way I can win is if I suck out." I kinda laughed it off and told him it was cool, he was ahead pre-flop and couldn't go anywhere. The table ended up breaking about an orbit after that and I was left waiting for the 15/30.

I got a seat for 15/30 about 20 mins and took the five seat (bleh). Wilson was in the six, this Asian dude wearing a hat that I kinda recognized was in the seven, Davin was in the eight, and the rest of the table were fairly donktastic. They were limping with some real junk, and I just remember hoping I could hit a big hand before all this money went away from the table.

I started off really slow, folding from the CO all the way to my blinds, playing those, and then folding some more. I think I lost my first three hands I opened and quickly found myself down a few stacks ($300). I rebought from seat seven who was leaving, and slid over into his seat. Wilson had also left, and the table was threatening to break. I got a couple hands to hold (JT of hearts on an 89T board, 9 on the turn, 3 on the river) and a small pot with AA (one raise pre, folded to a lady named Debra who called my raise all-in)...lame.

The game broke a little after that, and I cashed out down a couple hundred for the night (170 at 15/30, 35 or so at 9/18). I hung around the rail and watched the SD play for a little while and would have been open to playing a 4/8-Kill game, but after 20 mins on the list and still being a few names deep on the list, I decided to just bounce.

Slow night, but it was my fault for screwing around all day/night and showing up much too late. Maybe next week I can get my head out of my ass and actually go play, but to be honest, I'm having fun being on a semi-break from cards. It's August, it's hot out, poker will always be there, maybe at the moment having fun and being somewhat social is more important than the continuous grind that is LHE.

Sorry for the lack of playing/updates, if the motivation is there, I'll try and play/blog some more this weekend or later on next week. Thanks for reading guys.

Friday Night 15/30 (8/8)

2008-08-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm so late with the blog. Anyway, for a few different reasons (health, work, being lazy, actually going out for once), I didn't play for a couple weeks. Anyway, I rolled in kinda late, maybe 11pm or so, still feeling beat up from allergies or whatever kind of cold I had that kicked my ass for two weeks. Basically my body was fine except for my nose and at times my head. Every time I'd step outside my nose would run and my head would feel like it was in a vice, followed immediately by sneezing and hawkkkkkkking. For two weeks I'd wake up with a completely clogged nose, a sore throat (from breathing through my mouth all night), and a decently sized headache. Fun stuff, I know.

Okay, no more bitching, I rolled up and noticed my table was noticeably stronger than normal, not a good thing I guess. Seat five was Wilson, seat six was Davin, and seat eight was Sing. The rest of the players I semi-recognized as lpp-ish, and one maniac asian guy a couple spots to my left. Not a terribly strong table, but a little tougher than normal.

So as has been the case, I folded for my first couple of orbits with zero playable hands. I'd get the occasional T8s or 97s, but with an EP raise from Sing or another tight player, I couldn't do much with either of those hands.

Finally I get a playable hand in the CO with two limpers (both passive players) in front of me. One is an Lpp-ish Asian guy (seat nine) and an older black man, turned out to be somewhat tight/passive in seat one. They both limp, I raise from seat two, BB defends. Flop comes AJT with two diamonds.

Kinda nasty, but whatever. Check, check, black guy donks, I raise, fold, call, call.

The turn is an ugly ugly card, a black King.

Check, check, I fire to defend against diamonds and rep AQ or something that has a straight now. Both call. Blech.

River pairs the jack, basically making my hand useless now. Check, check, I check behind and seat nine says "missed" and mucks his cards, seat one shows AK and takes down the pot. Wow, no raise pre? Oh well, now I know.

The rest of the session after that wasn't all that interesting. It was kind of frustrating, we were playing seven handed alot, and most of my raising hands were coming in EP. I'd raise 88 or 77, get a nasty flop, and have to bet/fold to a lot of action behind me. Most of the hands went to showdown and hands like QJ and KT were just outflopping me, nothing much I could do.

In the same regard, I'd pick up AA OTB or UTG and I'd raise and everyone would fold. Just awful awful timing. They'd call when I had 77 or they'd fold when I have aces. I didn't see AK, AQ, KK-99 at all...

The game ended up breaking kinda early (230am-ish), so I grabbed some food with the Superdonk, and bounced out as soon as he got a 4/8-Kill seat. I didn't feel much like trying to win back $300 at 4/8 after having a frustrating 15/30 session. I just wanted to go home and sleep.

This week I look to play two good sized sessions at the bare minimum, stay tuned for updates.

Friday Night 15/30 (7/25) Part II

2008-07-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Alright well I feel awful...fuck waking up at 1pm in the heat...damn AC going off for some reason lol. It's all better now though, just a little headache...slightly hungry...standard.

Okay so where I left off I was running pretty well, up close to a rack at 15/30 and up another $160 from 4/8, I was feeling good, but realized I had only been there for an hour and a half or so, and the blind structure makes the game like a rollercoaster. Being up a rack and then being even ten minutes later is not inconceivable.

So yeah, AJ of hearts, capped pre. I ended up calling for a gutty/over on the flop for one bet, having the turn get checked through, then fold after the girl in seat one made her straight and I blanked out.

About an orbit later I picked up QJ of spades UTG+1. We're seven handed at this point, I raised, called by the taggy guy (he only seemed to play pots with me for some reason) and then called by the laggy east-Indian woman in seat one defending her BB. The flop came T83 rainbow...a couple overs and a gutterball. Checks to me, I bet, tag calls, BB raises, I call, tag calls. The turn is a nine of hearts, giving me the nut straight and putting a heart flush draw out.

The BB bet into me, I raised, the tag folded, and she called. The river was a harmless ace of spades, she checks, I bet, she called. Sick suckout for a good pot...I guess she flopped two pair? Not sure, because she defended her BB with a very wide range.

Anyway, off to grab some food, I think I'll come back and update this later tonight or tomorrow morning after work.

Friday Night 15/30 (7/25)

2008-07-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Well I guess I should title this entry "Capital Friday Night Session" since I played a couple hours of 4/8-Kill before jumping onto the 15/30 game, but whatever. I ran pretty well at 4/8, made a couple big hands hold and then hit some draws out of the blinds to leave that game +$160 before going over to the yellow chip game.

Once I got to 15/30 my cards slowed down considerably. I folded my first four hands, got raised off both my blinds, folded some more, finally saw a flop out of my 2nd BB, missed a flush draw/gutty combo that lost me a stack ($100), then folded some more. That brutal three orbit run all but killed my 4/8 profit. Oh well, that's how it goes I guess.

Finally I picked up a big hand UTG+1 (KK) sometime in my fourth orbit. I raise from the four seat, get called by a taggy player in seat six and an older white lady in seat seven...both the blinds fold. The flop was K98 rainbow. Bingo, about damn time. I bet, taggy guy raises, older white lady (who was very much lpp) 3-bets, and I cap. Wow...wtf do they have?

At this point I'm fearing basically any/every straight draw combo out there. The turn is a good card, something like a four of clubs. It puts the club flush draw out there, but I still have the nuts. I bet, call, and call. Okay...please please hold.

The river is a three of clubs...a bit "meh," but unless the taggy guy has something like JT of clubs, I'm pretty sure my hand is good. I bet, taggy guy calls, and then the old lady goes in the tank and starts talking about how her two pair can't be good. I see her flash a King and then she tossed her cards in the muck. I guess since the taggy guy was calling me down (she knew how he played I guess?) that she knew she must be beat. I showed a set of kings, seat five showed a set of nines (wtf? I lose at least three bets on the turn) and the lady says she had both of our cards (K9)...what a sick sick hand. I dunno if I believe her, but she didn't seem like the player to be three-betting anything less that two pair on that flop...??? Whatever.

So yeah, I was almost even for the day before that hand was dealt, but after the hand, let's just say I was comfortable again. Very next hand seat three gets up for a smoke break so I posted the BB. Two limpers, small blind completed, and I looked down at JJ. Raise. Flop: AJ4 with two spades. Sick. I bet, older white lady calls, everyone else folded. Turn is a small card. Bet/call. River is a four and I boat up...I bet, and seat seven folds a couple spades face up. Good dodge...up close to $400 now. Heat check.

About an orbit later I win a couple more hands back to back...A9os from the cutoff I raise pre and fire a raggedy flop and turn and finally get the older white lady to fold to one of my turn bets. Very next hand it's folded to me in the hijack and this time I have AT of spades. I raise and the BB (cute Asian girl, married, in her 30s, short hair, laggish) defends her blind. Flop comes Q44 with a couple spades. She checks, I bet, she calls. The turn is a jack of spades, giving me the nut flush and a Royal Flush draw. She checks, and I debate checking behind to go for the $200 Royal flush bonus just in case she folds, but then I decide to just bet and hope she raises me with a naked four. Instead she folds...whaa whaa...oh well. I'd rather not check behind, let the board become a disaster and force me to lose the hand.

After that I lost a few smallish pots, then lost a hand where I had AJ of hearts capped pre-flop three ways and missed my over/gutty combo...I just felt like I played that hand badly...I might come back and blog about that tomorrow. I'll save that hand and my QJ of spades where I suckout huge on the turn to win a good pot for tomorrow's blog. Right now I gotta go crash.

Final tally on the day:
4/8-Kill: +$160
15/30: +$390
4/8: -$120 (lol whoops)

Anyway, I should post the second part soon, so be on the lookout, thanks for reading.

A couple Extra from Wednesday Night (7/24)

2008-07-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Alright well like I said, I wanted to come back to this game and post some stuff I noticed. First off, a hand I remembered involving the maniac on my right (seat six) was just sick.

I can't remember the pre-flop action...probably raised pre-flop, but the flop was 345 with two clubs. Small blind was this older white guy in seat nine, he led out, raised by the pre-flop raiser who was seat five I believe (annoying Korean guy), seat six 3-bets, and the small blind capped.

Wow...right? The turn is a six (lol). So the board is 3456, small blind checks, OR bets, Maniac raises, Small-blind calls, OR just calls. Wow, looks like the maniac flopped a straight?

River pairs the board (five I believe). Small blind bets out, maniac starts talking about "ugh what a suckout", Korean dude calls, maniac calls.

Showdown:
Small blind has 33 for three full - nice hand
Korean guy has K2 of clubs (wtf? Nice raise pre)
Maniac has 78 for the turned nut straight (double wtf? Nice flop action?)

The maniac talks about the hand for awhile, and says "I knew if I hit that card I'd get paid off huge, I mean, look at that pot" and another gem "Man you sucked out on my hand, nice catch on the river...well, I got lucky on the turn I guess..."

lol...ya think? The maniac 3-bets a flop where he "knows" he's behind but he'll "get paid off huge" when he hits his gutterball that puts a four card straight out there? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. This is why I love live poker.

Wednesday Night 15/30 (7/23)

2008-07-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

Ahh today was pretty good. Slept in, got some stuff done around the house, washed my car, and planned on going to play by 7pm or so. Well I rolled into Cap around 9:30pm (standard) and was first on the waiting list for all of seven seconds before being called over to the game.

A couple quick thoughts:
- The table was ridiculously passive for the majority of the night
- The regulars were running awful when I sat down and moved away to the 1/3 NL table before I got through a couple orbits

The table was pretty good, just different from what I was used to seeing at 15/30. At 15/30 I'm more familiar with aggressive monsters spewing chips, instead this table was full of passive Cache Creek-like players check/calling everyone to death. Quick rundown of key players at the table: Seat 1 - Taggy Asian guy getting sucked out on most of the night; Seat 2 - Older Black man, really LPP, just awful most of the night; Seat 3 - Middle aged reg named Bill...pretty LPP, he always seems tight at first to me, but turns out to be really passive/loose; Seat 4 - Old white man, really LPP, saw him hit three backdoor flushes tonight, and two of them I had flopped a four flush (wtf right); Seat 5 - Really annoying Korean guy, somewhat laggy; Seat 6 - Maniac white guy, late 20's, said he played a lot in the Los Angeles area cardrooms (and it showed). Really nice guy aside from all of that, sounds like he plays a lot; Seat 7 - Taggish chubby but brutally sexy Mexiwegian, smelled a lot like Dr. Pepper and In 'n Out; Seat 8 - Reg named Sing...stayed in his seat the majority of the night this time, easily my best opponent at the table.

I'm not going to lie...if I had the option of playing against Spewtards or Passive Stations all night, I'd definitely take the stations. They're much easier to guide through a hand and make the game much less stressful. Then again, spewtards make the game much more exciting/fun...oh well, both are win/win as long as the players play bad...

Okay so I know you guys are bored by now, so onto the hands. The first hand I won was 99 on a KT3 board with two diamonds. I was in position and HU with Bill (seat three). He check/called me on the flop, the turn was a lower card than my nines, a five I think. He check/called again, and on the river an eight of diamonds hit. He checked, I checked behind and he showed AQ for a missed gutterball and two overs. I really like my bet/fold lines I took on the flop/turn...I really don't want to check behind a turn and let my opponent get a free ride to hit his draw, bluff me off my hand or value bet my ass with middle pair on the river. I keep the pressure on, and if I get called on the turn, I check behind and showdown if I don't improve on the river. If I have AQ on the other hand, I like a check behind on the turn because bet/calling or bet/folding the turn with this board and AQ would make me cry. Of course, if your opponent has been floating a lot of flops and shutting down against turn bets, by all means continue firing.

Okay so after that hand I get dealt a couple hands I like to call "roadmaps." That is, even Stevie Wonder could play these hands.

Hero is dealt AK of hearts in the hijack. Limped in a couple spots, Hero raises, called by the button, the blinds and the limpers. Six to the flop (weeeeee). Flop: K73 with two spades. Checks to hero, hero bets, called in two spots, folded in two Maniac white guy raises (aww crap), Hero 3-bets, two folds after my 3-bet (sweet), maniac just calls (double sweet). Turn: Ace of clubs (this isn't even fair), check/bet/call; River: Nine of diamonds, check/bet and villain folds 75 of spades face up. Thanks for not letting him get there. Sweet pot.

Very next hand I get dealt AJos, two limpers, I raise. Flop comes jack high, turn is an ace, and I get called down by seat four (old man; lpp) who pays me off with A9. It's fun to remember those times where I have KK on the J-high flop and the old man turns me with A9 there, so this time I need to be thankful I turned Aces up lol ;-) Back to back Aces-up hands, and my chipstack is somewhere close to +$500.

Well, it's that time of the night where I'm incoherent and can barely keep my eyes open, so I guess I'll have to blog about how I shipped $350+ back to the table over the course of the next couple of hours either tomorrow or sometime later this week, because I'm falling asleep.

Basically all I have to say is I thought about leaving as soon as I was up a rack, but realized that the potential (i.e. the game was really good) to be up another rack was there. Part of playing this "high" is understanding that in reality, I'm only up a rack of chips, and I shouldn't leave just because my "luck might run out." Of course, the situation where three and a half stacks later I'm cashing out +$150 and feeling like an ass might get me to at least think about leaving when I'm plus five, but I'll still know I'd be wrong to leave.

No big deal, in a way, it felt good to ship back the money. To feel human again. To be reminded that I'm not always going to flop TPTK and have it hold against five people on a super drawy board. Also, it felt good to be reminded that sometimes I play bad and have things I need to work on such as missing a few raises in LP with some strong cards (yes I know, I missed a raise...wtf?) and I even missed my fold button a couple times and showed down a bit light (whoops). Live and learn I guess. Sorry for rambling more than normal tonight, thanks for reading.

Friday Night 15/30 (7/18)

2008-07-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well like I mentioned in the last entry, I played 4/8 for a two to three hours and ran pretty awful. I outflopped QQ in a big multiway pot (88 in the BB, UTG raised, called everywhere) Flop was 863, CR'd QQ with everyone sandwiched in between. Turn: Q obv...:-(

Finally I got called away from that game and sat down at 15/30 in the four seat. A quick breakdown of the table was: seat 1 - older white dude sitting on a good amount of chips ($2k); seat 2 - Asian girl in her 30s, playing a bit Laggish pre/LPPish post; seat 3 - old Asian man, went on a sick heater while I was there, even made a diamond royal flush good for $500, Laggy; seat 5 - was Wilson for most of the night. He joined the table soon after I got there and seriously just ran bad. I said last time he didn't play too well, but today he just couldn't hold. His game looked pretty good today. seat 6 - Older Asian guy named Sing. Guy never stays in his seat, always smoking or playing Pai Gow; seat 7 - Can't remember seat 8 - older white guy...Italian-ish? Must've been card dead because I didn't see him play much; seat 9 - lpp-ish asian guy

Alright well I fold my first four hands or so and pick up QQ in the BB. Of course it's limped in five spots, sb complets, and then I raise. Wheeeeee. Flop was fantastic: 844...except seat two OTB had a 34os...lame. Great start.

About an orbit later seat two raises my BB from the button. She had been getting a bit ancy the last couple of orbits (opening with junk), seat three called, and I defended with KJ of clubs. The flop came down Q-high with a couple clubs; sb checks, I check, She bets, SB folds, I raise, she calls. Turn pairs the bottom card (a six I believe), I fire again and she tanks for a good while, stares me down a little bit, then folded. Phew. Had to earn that one.

After that I swung up and down a little bit, but mostly staying break even for three orbits or so. Won some small pots, lost some small pots out of the blinds, etc. A hand that finally propels me upwards was AKos holding in a pretty good pot. Seat two limped UTG, seat three called, I raised, folds around to the blinds in nine and one who call. Damn. Flop: A24 with a couple spades

Not bad. Checks to me, I bet, called in three spots. The turn is a three. Oh wtf right? Checks to me, I still fire, this time called by seats one and three. Both of these calls worried me a bit, considering they both had been somewhat ~solid on their turn calls up until this point. The river was a ten (non-spade) and it got checked to me. Not sure if I missed value here, but I wasn't sure what I was beating that could call me at this point. I'm almost positive no one had a straight (I would have been raised or donked into by now), but maybe a goofy two pair was out there? Whatever, I checked behind and took the pot. Seat two showed me his raggy spades as I took it down.

Orbit or so later I picked up Kings and won a good sized pot against seat two. There was a limper (seat one), seat two raised, I 3-bet, folded around, limper folds, and then seat two called and asked how I wanted to play it. I was kinda like "huh?" at first, since he spoke broken English, it took me a couple times to figure out he wanted to know if I liked checking pots down HU or if I liked the action. I told him as politely as I could that I appreciated the offer, but I always play my hands and encourage him to do the same. He had been checking down with the girl in seat two a bit (this has come to bug me less and less the more I watch people do it, because they do not force the action HU, but only check down if it happens to become HU). Anyway, he ended up having AK and he whiffed flop and check/folded the turn.

After that hand I took a breather and went outside to talk to the Superdonk and see what time he was coming by. I told him I had finally started to run good (he got my "4/8 IS MURDERING ME" texts earlier in the evening lol). I came back to the table after missing a full orbit and picked up a couple red Queens. Wilson raised UTG, folded around to seat three (who was up a rack and half since I left) seat three called, I 3-bet, Wilson capped (he's trying to go all-in at this point) and we're three-handed to a flop of KQ4 with a couple diamonds.

Sweet. Check, I bet, call, call. Turn is a J (uh oh). Check, I bet, Wilson calls all-in, seat three calls. I was a bit worried of the board getting coordinated, but the river was a four and I boated up, pretty much relieving me of any real anxiety. Check, bet, call. Wilson showed TT and said "nh, I just can't do anything right" as he re-bought (He did end up coming back before the night was over, when the game broke he was only down $300...pretty good compared to down $600).

After that big hand I was sitting on ~+$400-$500, and didn't move much from there. I traded some money back and forth around the table for awhile, the game got shorter and shorter, and JJ three times and at least eight or so walks in my BB later, the game broke and I cashed out up a rack for the second 15/30 session in a row. I think a big part of my win last night was the number of walks I got in the BB. Me and seat three were on a tear most of the night, so maybe that kept people from raising our blinds? Who knows, all I know is that chopping your BB every other orbit instead of choosing to defend or (most likely) muck makes things really easy.

If I get time, I'll blog about the quick psycho 4/8-Kill session I played with the Superdonk after my 15/30 game broke. Until then, thanks for reading.

More 15/30 Fun

2008-07-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

This was the first time the waitlist sucked...I played 4/8 for a good two hours (probably more) and lost with a couple sets...down $150ish

Then I sat 15/30, first hand I played was QQ out of the BB, seven-way action (wtf) and lost to a girl who flopped trip fours (34os OTB was her hand). Yay...

Enabled God-mode after that though. Had AK-high hold a couple times, AK then held on an A234T board, and then QQ > AJ > TT in a capped pre-flop, called down on the other two streets hand...

15/30 broke kind of early, so then I made back a rack I lost at 4/8 earlier that night, special thanks to a drunk Chi (dealer at Cap playing drunk) moving to my table and livening it up.

I'll report in more detail tomorrow, right now I gotta get some sleep, I'm exhausted (and after proof-reading this, incredibly incoherent).

Final Tally:

4/8: -150
15/30: +575
4/8-Kill: +100

About That Shitty Week... (15/30 Win)

2008-07-12T04:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah well it just got a whole lot better. So I woke up today/yesterday/Friday (whatever) to a couple text messages, one from my friend Tony and another from the Superdonk letting me know they were playing at Capitol already. It was around 4pm...I just woke up, and my allergies were killing me. Seriously, I felt like shit all day, in fact, I still feel like shit, but I told them I'd come by later once I had a car to drive (mine's in the shop obv). I found out later Tony had been playing all day and was leaving around 8pm and the SD was leaving around 6pm, but going back later. I told the SD I'd roll with him after he was done running errands to get food and maybe play.

So we came in around 11pm or so, grabbed a bite, and since the SD was first on the list for 9/18 and 15/30 had a seat open, I decided to jump in and play. I was still feeling a bit foggy, but I figured it wouldn't affect me too much (I was wrong, the one thing it did affect was my memory for the session, I can barely recall any hands). So a quick rundown of the table would be Seat #1 - The Santi obv #2 - Slick Asian guy with shades and a $1500 chip stack (LAG) #3 - For some of the night (hour or so) would be filled by a white dude (Taggy)in a cap who I'd clash with alot and then later on filled by Davin Anderson (Laggy; he was on the '04 ME telecast where Raymer won it...I think Raymer may have ko'd him) #4 - Older Asian guy that never stayed in his seat (LPP) #5 - Older white guy who was pretty LPP #6 - Wilson (regular I talked about, played kinda shitty today) #7 - Oaffie (sp?) white floor man tall guy, hickish, Tony says he plays good but I thought he was pretty bad (LPP) #8 - Older Asian guy who couldn't stay in his seat and #9 - Asian tatted up guy named Vince who actually played a bit tight-passive...15/30, maybe he was playing higher than normal, because I barely saw him raise and he almost never defended his BB or completed the SB (one more $5 chip)

Alright so that's the table run down, I guess I'll get into some hands. The first hand I won was AJos after a limper and I'm OTB. I raise, get called by the small blind (seat two), the BB (seat three) and seat five (limper) calls my raise. The flop looks good with an Ace in the window: AQ4 two spades. SB checks, BB bets, limper calls, I raise, SB folds, BB and limper call. The turn is a pretty good looking card, a six I believe. Check, check, bet, call, fold. The river is an Ace of hearts, BB checks, I bet, he calls. I show AJ and am good...I figured he must have had a weaker ace...I was pretty confident throughout the hand I was good.

After that I folded a lot and watched the table play, observed everyone, etc. No one was showing me much of anything, and I was pretty confident I could make some money if I ran good. I think I won a couple small pots and found myself close to $250, but then I took a tumble as I lost with Jacks to an ugly flop and then I lost a hand with KJ after seat seven flopped two pair with Q2os (defended his BB against my raise and then played it really passively). KQ2 flop, he donk bet into me and the field, I raised, he called. Turn was an ace, he check/called and then the river went check/check after a blank hit. *yawn* nh

So after those hands and a couple more bad flops I found myself down $150...that's a helluva swing lol. I wasn't too worried though...soon enough a BB special hand helped me out. It gets limped around in three spots, sb completes, and I check my 63 soooooted in diamonds to see a flop.

Flop: J52 with two spades and one diamond. Meh, I'm ready to check/fold my hand when it gets checked around...interesting. "Diamond" I said to myself...turn: four of diamonds. Nice. SB led out and I raised, called in two spots behind me (oh shit) and small blind only called. The river was a good blank card (ten of clubs) so it went check, bet, call, fold, fold (seat two liked to look me up alot) and I showed the nuts for a sweet BB special pot.

Some more time passed, and we got shorter and shorter-handed, eventually playing five and six handed throughout my final hour at the table. This last hour is where I made most of my money, I'd say $300-$350 of it. One of the first big hands was pocket threes. Seat two raised UTG, called by the button, and then I defended in the BB. Flop was QT3. Check, bet, fold, I raised, seat two called. Turn was a king...I bet out and prayed it was an action card. Call. Damn..oh well. River: Q. Fuck me, that probably killed my action. I bet...villain tanked and then called.

A few hands later I was dealt a couple red aces. One limper, I raise, seat two three-bets, folds around to hero who caps, villain called. If I was in position I'd probably just call a three-bet, but OOP I just keep firing. Flop was kinda raggy: 864...bet, call. Turn was a Queen, bet/call. River paired the six (thanks), bet/call. "Nice hand."

Couple orbits later I get back from the bathroom/vending machine and was greeted by the Laker fan now sitting in seat six at my table (Wilson had slid over to the five seat). Wow, the night somehow just got better. My first hand back I was dealt A8 of diamonds and defended against Wilson's MP raise. It's a bit of an odd pre-flop call by me, usually I'd fold or three-bet, but I kind of had a feel for how Wilson was playing, and I know he's not necessarily stronger than me, but I didn't want to bloat a pot HU against him by 3-betting either. I figured I'd call, see a flop, and then make a balanced amount of folds/moves for the times I was going to miss the flop completely. Luckily I caught a good piece of the board with a K73 flop with two diamonds. I check/raised the flop and then led the turn when I paired my eight. Wilson folded the turn rather quickly...very next hand I was dealt KQ of diamonds in the SB...

Now, I believe we were six or seven handed at this point...anyway, seat four raised, which kinda threw me off a bit. I had yet to see him play a hand...Laker fan called, I opted to just defend, and the BB came along for the ride as well. The flop came J-high with a diamond, checked around. Odd...I was likely peeling or raising the flop, based on who bet out I guess. Turn was a Queen, time to start betting I guess. I bet out and only seat four called. River was a blank, Bet, fold.

"What the heck, he just got back, he can't win two hands in a row...lucky smoke break?" asked the Laker fan. "Heh...lucky water break" I said as I pointed to the bottle of water and diet coke I had just got from the vending machine.

A couple more orbits passed, some blind steals, a couple c-bets, and then we got down to only five players. Meh...time to call it a night I decided. The SD had told me a few orbits before this that he was ready to bounce whenever, so I racked up and cashed out up a rack and some change (520).

After such a shitty week, it was nice to finally run good at something. Thanks for reading.

Shitty Week

2008-07-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Alright well after a fun last couple of weeks of playing 15/30, I hit a bit of a roadblock that had nothing to do with poker. Fourth of July I was driving home from work and stopped by the store for a bag of hot wings (picking them up for a 4th of July BBQ my mom always does). As I get out to my car I put it in reverse, then go to put my car and drive and...nothing. Neutral. Fuck...tranny finally took a shit on me. It was over a year in the making, as when I bought the car I could tell the transmission wasn't all there. It's a good car, and hopefully replacing the tranny is the last thing this car needs for a long time. So yeah, that's going to be about 2.5-3k out the door.

Around the same time I noticed my phone charger must have started taking a shit on me, since my phone wasn't charging all the way for a couple days and lately it hadn't been charging at all. Sunday morning I got off work and the phone was completely gone...Oh well I thought, I'd just borrow one of my parent's cars sometime in the week and get a charger. I got a pretty cool deal on a charger through my friend's wife on Tuesday (cost me $5 instead of $30 lol) and was too stupid to check and make sure it was in fact the charger that was broken and not my POS phone before I left her work Tuesday. Well it turns out I get home and the phone's broken...boooooo, replacement phone yesterday ftw. So I went most of this week without a car and without a phone...pretty lame.

Hopefully next week the car will be good as new, the new phone will still work, and maybe I'll get a few good sessions in. I'll catch up with you guys then.

A forgotten 15/30 Hand (AK gets there)

2008-07-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

So it's a beautiful Saturday morning, the sun is out already; it's definitely going to get hot later, and I'm pretty close to crashing. God I hate working graves sometimes lol...

Anyway, I have a couple coworkers who I would classify more as "gamblers" than actual cardplayers, but one of them used to play a lot of live lowball back in the day, so he loves hearing my poker stories from the nights before. So we were talking about Daniel Negranau (I always misspell his name, deal with it) and Rick loves the way that DN reads players, etc etc. First off, I have a ton of respect for DN, in fact, I try to exhibit the same table mannerisms (happy, fun, playful) that he exhibits, minus the metro lol. However, I do not think he "is the best reader in the game" or anything like that, I simply believe he is the most vocal about it. Guys like Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey make the exact same reads, they just aren't on ESPN trying to show off that they can make those reads. Alright anyway, that being said, I was telling Rick this hand where everyone had me pinned on one hand, then incorrectly assumed I had sucked out on this other guy's hand. That sounds pretty confusing, so onto the hand.

I was dealt A:s:K:d: in the BB...15/30, full table, probably an hour or so into the session (I forgot to include this hand in my original write up, but this would be a hand that helped me get to about +$250 early on in the session). It gets limped in two spots, Russ (taggy Asian guy) raises, folds to me and I 3-bet, called by the limpers and Russ. The flop is something like J73 with two spades. I bet, and it gets called in every spot. Now throughout the hand people have been very talkative, and throughout most of the session people were trying to size everyone up and be like Daniel Negranau (call out other player's hands). Thankfully this went on only when it got headsup or when the person calling out the hand was in the hand (any other time is extremely rude obv). So everyone thinks I have a monster because I 3-bet out of the BB...let's examine why. I'm young, playing pretty tight, and it is 15/30. I've seen some older players simply call with AK or QQ in position against a raise, so I'm thinking very few of these players are aggressive and very few will put me on a whiffed AK after I fire the flop and now I'm about to double barrel this turn...

The turn is a four of spades. Really reaggedy flop, and now there's three spades on the board (and I have the Ace of spades). Unless someone out there has a Jack with a decent kicker, I don't see how they can really call my $30 turn bet. I fire out of the small-blind (I have no choice but to bet imo) and I get called yet again in three spots. "Son of a bitch" I thought to myself, "these players have seen me play...wtf are they calling me with? Guess it doesn't matter, give me a spade please." Queen of spades on the river of course, because Santi runs goooooooot (supposedly).

I fire out yet again, and this time it folds to Russ...last player to act, and obviously in the tank. "God man...you have Aces with the ace of spades don't you? Ugh what did I do this to myself?" He tanks some more and I just remember staring down at the board..."the pots way too big, I have to call you" he said as he flipped up the King of spades and put six yellow chips in the pot. I quickly showed him the ace of spades (so as to not even put it into anyone's head that I would slowroll) and then showed my King of diamonds along with it. I remember glancing at people to see what kind of reaction I'd get for playing AK so fast, and a couple players did have some puzzled looks on their faces. Turns out I think the way I played the hand may have helped me get paid off on those two flopped boats (Aces full of eights and Queens full of Jacks) later on in that session because everyone put me on a whiffed AK after that hand...

So yeah, after the hand, people were like "oh wow, I swore you had aces" and "man, I think you sucked out on Russ, I'm pretty sure he had Kings." "No---...yeah, I was pretty lucky to get there" was my response...

Now, first rule of live poker should be, do not talk about poker with your table mates. Talking about ranges of hands, what you put people on, how long you've been playing, etc. should be completely out of your table talk vocabulary. Talk about the Giants, talk about women, talk about goofy poker shit like your favorite hand or what your biggest pot won was, but leave the strat discussion for blogs and forums. I almost violated that rule and told everyone at the table that Russ did not have a pair of Kings with the King of spades because Russ is much too good of a player not to cap pre-flop and then not put a raise anywhere after the flop with Kings. It was pretty obvious to me that he had something like A:x:K:s: or KQ...something like that. I don't like the way he played AK to be honest, but I've seen players like him at Cap, and he must've figured he was either a flip (AK vs my QQ-JJ) or a complete dog (AK vs my AA-KK) and decided to see a flop before putting in anymore bets. After the flop he had a couple backdoor draws and couple overs to the board, plus he was last to act, so peeling a flop isn't bad at all. The turn gave him a couple overs and a K-high flush draw, so of course he's coming along, and he simply got unlucky by rivering the 2nd nuts vs. the nuts. So yeah...that's my read of the hand...whaddya think? He definitely didn't have KK, and thankfully, I didn't let any of my opponents know that they were wrong nor did I let them in on the fact that my deductive reasoning skills at poker are pretty good.

You're there to win money, not to show everyone how good you can "read people." DN gets paid to be that guy on tv, you don't. That's enough lecturing from me, be on the lookout for more big hands where I luckbox my way to win ;-)

15/30 at Cap...Round Two Part II

2008-07-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

So yeah, God-mode. I picked up Aces twice, one hand I bet the river and didn't get called, the second one I flopped a boat vs an UTG limper and the small-blind (I was in the BB) and got looked up by A6 of clubs on a A88 flop blank blank board. Good times...comeback! *clap clap* comeback! *clap clap*

The next hand pretty much sealed the deal as I was dealt a couple black Queens UTG+2. I raise, get a couple callers behind me and one out of the blinds. We see a flop of QJJ rainbow. Ummmm...thanks? Checks to me, I bet, then prayed that someone would raise me. Instead the older Asian guy I told you about earlier (somewhat taggy) calls me. The turn is a great card...a nine of spades. Now there's a flush draw and a spade draw out. I bet, he raises, and I think for a second before three-betting. "please have QJ, please have QJ." He only calls the 3-bet and asks me "overpair?" I pretend not to hear him while also pretending to be interested in the river. The river is a two of spades.

I bet, Villain raises again (thank you Jesus), and I 3-bet. "Shit, pocket queens?! Dammit" as he folds his Ace-Ten of spades face up..."no point in calling you, I know you don't raise there without fullhouse"...damn, good read, but way too late. I already planned on not showing, but the guy, obv pissed at himself says, "you don't even have to show it, don't show" so I just left my cards face down and let the dealer scoop them into the muck after I raked in a sick pot. "Yeah I'm even now" I remember thinking to myself.

A couple more hands after that happened that I can't remember too well, both were some short-handed plays I made that got me up another stack, then yet another pair of aces I didn't have to show won me a smallish pot that put me at about +$200. Soon after a couple players left/busted, and the tags were left chopping the blinds up with one another. Jason said "man this game's no good now, time to go home" and I agreed with him. Turns out we got a couple new players, but they were unknowns at this point and I knew of at least four other good players at the table, so I just called it quits for the night. No point in grinding it out in a Tagfest, I told myself going into tonight that if the game wasn't good, I wasn't staying more than a few orbits to wait for it to get good again.

Some notes about the game:

- I really need to have good game selection and know when I should/should not sit down. There's a handful of guys on my list now (Wilson, Russ, Jason, Chris) that I feel like I can play against and not have it be a problem, but if there's a table of nothing but those guys, then obviously the game will not be profitable. Games like that end up as two to three handed flops and whoever gets luckiest (best cards, best cards hold, etc) will win...and everyone else will donate to the rake.

- I need to be more available during the weekend. The weekend seems to be the time where this game is the most profitable. Going on a Tuesday night was probably a bad idea in retrospect, but not really. I just need to know the crazier players will be out on Thursday - Saturday nights...

- NL players looking for some quick action before their seat opens up definitely need to be taken advantage of. They're calling raises and re-raises OOP with a WIDE range of shit hands, thinking they can outplay us lowly LHE players after the flop lol. Little do they know, the real players are in this 15/30 game, not the 50BBs shovefest they're used to.

- And one last note, playing a stake this high has really elevated my attention span. I know I should be concentrating all the time, but after a couple people came over and said hi to me that I normally would have probably seen first...I realized that maybe I need to pay attention more in my other games lol.

Anyway, that's all for now. I think I work the next five days, so updates may be scarce. Thanks for reading guys.

15/30 at Cap...Round Two (7/1)

2008-07-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

After a couple nights off, I decided to go back to Cap and expected to jump into a 9/18 game. Like I wrote about in my last entry, I tried their new 15/30 game, but really expected that game to just be a weekend game. The place was way busy, especially for a Tuesday it seemed...anyway, I walk up to the podium and Sam immediately said "hey nick, you're first up for 15/30"...alright then haha. I talked to Sam for a bit about the Laker fan that killed us last session...guess he was getting stacked left and right at the NL game...oh well, "convince him to sit 15/30" I joked...

I was first on the list, so it only took me 10 minutes to get on the table. I recognized one guy I played with from the last session...he was the NL-donk (indian guy from seat eight...he left soon after for the NL table). I knew a few of the other players from previous sessions, one guy reminded me a bit of Wilson from last session (solid 9/18 player, asian guy, mid 30s), an older asian guy who played alright, and a dealer named Jason from Cache ended up sitting to my direct right in seat six an orbit after I sat down (taggy player as well). Needless to say, the table wasn't as crazy as Saturday, but the rest of the players were bad enough to keep the game good.

My session couldn't have started out any better. Very first hand I raise with AKos and get called by the solid Asian (I'll just name him Russ) and a looser player wearing a hat. The flop comes Ace-high, and I bet every street and get called down every street by the guy in the hat. One hand...up a stack. Nice. A few hands later I get 99, open-raise, take down the pot with a c-bet...wow...too good to be true? Of course. Orbit later I pick up a couple Aces and get a few callers, end up getting run down by a straight on the river. Luckily the guy donked the river once the board looked ugly enough, so it cost me $30 on the river to win $35...lame...

One thing I noticed about the 15/30 game is that your stack is constantly swinging...even if you don't play any hands. The blinds are 15/10 (vs. 9/3 in the 9/18 game), so that's five chips every orbit vs. just four in 9/18 and just three in a 10/20 game (10/5 blinds)...it's good for the game/action I guess, but it drove me nuts for a while as I constantly had to ask myself the question (where the f are my chips going? :-P) It really encourages you to not defend the BB with junk (not that you should be doing it anyway), because if you are, your chips will straight disappear before you know it. I found myself being a tad more aggro if it folded to me in LP as well, so I picked on the blinds with some connectors and such before people started catching on. A 3/2 blind structure makes stealing the blinds in position a lot more worthwhile/fun. Very few players know how to play well out of the blinds imo, so make them pay.

Anyway, I had an absolute dismal middle part of my session where I couldn't seem to do anything right. I went from up close to $240 at one point to down $350ish. AQs, JTs, JJ, 99...nothing could hold or hit. I took an orbit off, grabbed some water, ordered food, and came back to the table feeling okay about it all after missing a couple orbits of play. God-mode soon followed...

I'll post part II when I wake up tomorrow, see ya then.

Revisiting the 9/18 Game (Failed Turn Semi-Bluff)

2008-06-30T02:00:00.000-07:00

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.

A New Yellow Chip Game (15/30)

2008-06-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Return to the Creek

2008-06-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Return to the 9/18

2008-06-27T09:06:00.001-07:00

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

June Swoon

2008-06-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Vegas Posts

2008-06-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

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!

Time to Catch it Up

2008-06-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

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.

JV Session Six: Mirage O8 and 10/20...see a pattern?

2008-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

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.

JV Session Five: Mirage O8 and 10/20; Harrah's 1/2 NL

2008-06-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

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.

JV Session Four: Treasure Island Donkament

2008-06-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

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...

JV Session Three: Mirage O8 and more 10/20

2008-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

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.

JV Session Two: Bellagio 4/8

2008-06-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

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

JV Session One: Mirage NL and 10/20

2008-06-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

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

Session No. 103 (lol royal flushaments)

2008-05-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

Yup, you read that correctly. So I rolled into Capitol at about 10pm and was actually seated at a kill table right away. It wasn't very busy, in fact, that was probably the emptiest I had seen the place at 10pm...of course, it was a Tuesday night.

I started off my session pretty bleh...limped behind a lot more than I'm used to, but I was getting a lot of smaller pairs and some suited connectors I didn't want to get too fancy with. After about 40 mins my kill table broke and I won yet another high card draw to be 1st on the kill list and to get a seat at the regular 4/8 table. I won a few big 4/8 pots and I went from down $80 to up $70 by the time my name was called for the kill table.

As I sat down in the eight seat, I said hello to Sue in the one seat and a nice black lady I've played with before (her name is Ally I believe) in the nine seat. Sue was playing a lot of hands and had a hefty amount of chips in front of her (I'd guess 400 or so), and Ally had about the same.

I went pretty cold again after getting to the kill table, that is until this hand came up. A couple limpers in EP, I look down at QJ suited in diamonds from the button and raise, the blinds and limpers call.

Flop: A:d:K:d:3:h:

Grrrrreat flop...but I can't help but think to myself that everytime I've ever had a Royal flush draw of some sort I usually end up missing everything. Checks to me, I obv bet, get called in three spots.

Turn: 2:d:

Well...so much for missing everything. Checks to me yet again, I bet, and I get two callers...might have been three.

River: T:d:

Boom. Checks to me, I bet, get one caller and show my first ever live royal flush. I think I hit one on UB back in the day, but f that, this is real life lol. The bonus was $300 on top of the pot, so yeah, real cool stuff.

After that I actually ran card dead yet again...it was funny, Ally was talking some stuff about how I just "sit down and hit a royal flush" whereas this whole time I've been at the table she's been coloring up rack after rack while flopping huge hands with absolute junk. She had six yellow stacks ($5 chips) and a ton of orange in front of her when she said that...the old "grass is always greener" saying definitely applied to her haha...

So yeah, more time passes and my stack is actually dwindling (they paid the 300 out to me in cash) and I finally look down at a premium hand (two red queens). This older black guy has just sat down in seat four, but I recognized him immediately as one of the better players I have played against. I want to say his name is Isaac...but that could be way wrong. Anyway, he open raises from UTG+1, gets cold-called in one spot, I 3-bet, Ally caps behind me (this means nothing btw since she's been on her any two card heater) and the blinds and other people call...I think we see this flop 6-handed.

Flop: Q:s:T:c:9:h:

Jesus...flop is coordinated...but at least it's rainbow. Checks to Isaac who bets, one call, I raise, everyone calls, Isaac only calls.

Turn: 3:h:

Decent card, checks to me, I bet, and gets called by just about everyone. At this point my stack is under $100 (I brought 170 on the table with me, cashed out $100 from the 4/8), and I just remember thinking "pair the board or throw up a baby." I was pretty close to positive no one had a straight (there definitely would have been a donkbet or raise somewhere), but I was also certain any King, Jack, eight or heart would have destroyed my hand.

As the dealer flips over the river card I can see that it's a heart, thankfully it was the T:h:. Checks to me, I bet, hoping someone would get bold and raise their trip tens or rivered flush, but instead I get two callers and it folds to Isaac who shows me Jacks and folds. I showed my boat (which was obv good), and the guy in seat two tells me he's happy he didn't raise his flush. Ally says she's happy she didn't raise her trip tens...not sure I believe either of them, but I'm not raising those hands on the river either.

All in all it's been a great couple of weeks (*knock on wood*), hopefully I can keep it up. Thanks for reading.

Session No. 102-ish...

2008-05-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Alright well after a Claimjumper's dinner (22oz Porterhouse bloody as fuck plz k thx), me and the Superdonk hit up Cache for a May 2007-like Midnight run. We got to the creek around 1am and were pretty suprised to see both the parking lots and casino full of people. Sweet. The room had a lot of tables running, including four 4/8-Kill tables...

I get seated one table away from the Superdonk and go to work...my first orbit is spent folding...then I finally get a playable hand from the Hijack. It folds to me, and I think about raising before even looking at AKos. We're already getting short-handed as people seem to like leaving the room at 1:30ish for some reason...anyway I raise from the two seat, both the blinds call, and we see a flop of AK5 rainbow.

Action checks to me, I bet, small blind calls, big blind folds. I hadn't seen the small blind play too many hands, so I'm thinking maybe he has a weak ace. The turn is a deuce, and again he check/calls me. I'm thinking about the wheel just getting there now, as it isn't too out of the ordinary for 4/8 players to chase that...the river is an eight, no flush out, so again villain checks and again I fire. As I put my chips out he snap-raises me...I pause for a second and am very close to 3-betting...but I slam the brakes and opt to just call. Lately it feels like I'm being a tad over-aggro on the later streets, and it really felt like he had a wheel or slowly played set of fives here...if he shows me A8 or K8 or something, I now know he's a donkey capable of CR'ing with something less than top2 on the river. To my disgust the villain flips over 88 and I just smirk and muck my cards. My neighbor just says "ow, you want him doing that though" and I just smile politely and nod.

More folding occurs, the dealer changes out from Joe to Sucho, and for some reason the villain from my AK hand starts getting very annoyed. He loses two hands in a row to a set when he capped with KQsooted in big multi-way pots...not sure why he's so angry, considering both times he straight airballed the flop/turn but continued to call down for some unknown reason. It's his own fault he's losing...

Anyway, that's the build-up to this next hand. I get dealt T2os in the BB and it gets limped in four spots, small-blinds completes, and of course I check. The flop is TT2 with two hearts. Heh...thanks Sucho.

Small blind checks, I check, Villain checks, the hijack bets, folds to hero who calls, Villain raises, Hijack calls, hero calls. Cool...I was semi-worried about what I was going to do on the turn based on where I was in relative position to the Hijack and the Villain. I want to get two bets in on the turn, but if the hijack still has the lead...I may just have to lead the turn vs. CR'ing...good thing the villain took control of the hand though.

The turn is a blank, I think a black five or something. I check, Villain bets, Hijack folds, Hero raises, and the villain only calls. River is a three of hearts, I bet out, villain clumsily raises, I 3-bet, and villain stares at me for maybe 10 seconds before Sucho looks at the villain and tells him the action is on him. He was waiting for me to call the whole time I guess, and missed the fact that I had 3-bet while he was raising...and he asks "oh he 3-bet?" and he disgustedly calls and slams his cards down once I flip over my flopped boat. He stormed off a hand later and I was left chuckling to myself...this is the second time in two weeks I've caused someone to storm out of the CC poker room.

Alright well we're gonna skip ahead a few chapters and broken tables now to the biggest hand of the night. My session was spent basically teetering from down $10 to up $10...not joking...lots of raised hands and big pots...but I just couldn't keep anything consistent going. I was down maybe $30 or so when this hand comes up...

I had gotten moved to the Superdonk's table (every 4/8 table had now been broken except his) one hand before this one started...in fact, I remember folding 64s to a raise and then this hand popped up. I see UTG put four chips out to call, I raise to eight from the eight seat, the Superdonk (seat 9) folds, seat one calls, and then I realize UTG is putting eight chips out already to call...err...wait a sec...it's a killpot. Fuck. Oh well...UTG's action kinda confused me, so I ended up calling behind with AJ (something I kinda got after the SD about last session lol)...

Anyway, I think we see the flop of AJ4 (the ace and the jack are spades). Bingo...checks to me, I bet, seat one calls, seat two calls, seat three is this loud-ish Mexican girl who I kinda/sorta noticed as being "loud"...anyway she was the kill-blind in the hand and she raised, folds around to me, I 3-bet, seat one calls, seat two folds, seat three caps, I call as does seat one...weeee?

The turn is another blank...I think an eight or something? Non-spade btw...I bet out, seat one calls all-in, and seat three snap-raises yet again...wtf? Ugh...I have top two here, but shipping yet another $32 across the table (by three-betting) made me puke when I thought about it...so I just called. This was my second hand at the table, and once again I had no idea how my opponent had been playing. Most 4/8 players tighten up their raising in kill pots, so for her to cap the flop and still raise my turn bet had to make me respect it...

The river is a three (non-spade), and I see the girl basically pushing yet another 20-stack into the middle before I even act...I check, she bets, and I call. She looks at me and says "two pair..." and I kinda snicker to myself...well, I guess I'm at least chopping...

She shows J3os for a rivered two pair (huh?), seat one showed K9 of spades (for the nut flush draw) and I showed AJ for top two and took down an awesome pot (+$160 in profit I believe). I swore I was behind to a set...oh well...thanks for raising my turn drawing dead? Oh, and the girl actually gave seat one shit for calling off all her chips with "only" a flush draw...meanwhile she's going nuts with mid-pair no kicker. <3 Live players.

Session No. 101 or something...

2008-05-09T17:39:00.001-07:00

Went back to Cache last night, this time with Tony and the Superdonk. When we got there I had to take a monster piss (I felt like I was about three years old, falling over myself as I powerwalked with my legs crossed to the bathroom)...so I met up with them a couple minutes later in the poker room with a seat waiting for me. Lucky for me they both decided to play at the same table (two 4/8-Kill games were running) and I was left to play all alone (woohoo!) with eight other slobbering limidonks at the other 4/8 table.

As I sat down, I noticed this couple named Steve and Julie playing from the seven and eight seat. They're both decent, definitely the best players at the table before I sat down...they still have some obvious leaks though (mostly limping way too much with crap). My first couple orbits were fold fests...I seriously couldn't find a hand to play. I think I might have played one hand out of the blinds during my first two dealer rotations (one hour), here it is:

UTG folds, Steve raises from UTG+1 with AKos, I 3-bet from the nine seat, seat one folds, seat two caps, everyone folds except me and Steve who obv call.

Flop is a bit nasty: AQT rainbow

Steve bets, I raise, seat 2 calls all-in. Turn and river blank out and Steve check/calls me down for a decent sized pot. He told me he either thought we were chopping (AK) or I had him beat with (AA, QQ, AQ, etc). Steve has seen me run really well/play well, so I knew him and his wife wouldn't be paying me off too much...thankfully I overheard them say they'd be leaving soon to go eat. Steve ended up cashing out a couple orbits later...since I had shown up to the table, I had seen him flop trips a couple times and turn a couple straights in kill pots...he was straight destroying the table. Needless to say I wasn't happy seeing him walk away with all those chips (I wanted him to give some back to the donks or me obv), but I was happy to see a couple ~decent players leave and hopefully be replaced with some SAGs (Sick Asian Gamblers...they make up roughly 97% of Cache Creek's poker room).

Anyway, as soon as Steve and Julie take off, I catch fire. The first hand Steve gets up I take the big blind and get dealt two red aces. I raise after five limpers call and then bet every street, raking in a nice pot. Very next hand from the SB I complete with KJos and see a K73 flop. I opt to check with the intention of raising...it checks all the way to the woman in the six seat who has just played awful so far, she bets, I raise, I get one caller, everyone folds to her, and she calls.

The turn is another King. I fire, get the other player to fold, and she raises. I had seen her already over-value trips with a J-kicker when a straight and flush both got there on the river (a guy bet/called her and she still won btw...like I said...these players are really bad), so I insta-3-bet, she calls. River is a blank, I bet, she calls and I turn over KJ, not sure if it was good or not. She shows K4 (good read Nik) and mucks unhappily. So after folding for four or five orbits, I won a couple huge pots back to back and was up close to a rack...sweet.

The rest of the session is a bit of a blur from here...I know I floated around +100 for awhile before Joe sat down and helped me catch fire. The one hand that stands out was a hand I thought I lost. It gets limped in a few spots before me, I look down at AK and raise obv, I think we see the flop five-handed...

Flop: 833 rainbow

All check to me (I think I'm in position), and I bet. This is a good board for my hand really...unfortunately I get three callers and am pretty much ready to shutdown.

The turn is the Ace of clubs though...all check to me again, and I bet. The SB folds, and then the BB starts mini-tanking. He had sat down a couple orbits ago, and so far, he seemed like the only player at the table who could form a cognitive thought for why he was making a certain play. At this point I was trying to think what hands he'd defend his BB with that contained a three...

Lots of hands I guess, especially since he was in the BB (half price) and three limpers behind him are likely calling. He finally raises, two folds, and I opt to call down. The river is a nine and he quickly fires eight more into the pot. I paused for a few seconds, not because I was entertaining the idea of folding, but mainly to make it look like I'd at least consider it haha. I eventually call and he quickly says "well if you have the ace you're good..." I just kinda nod and say "yeah I guess I turned you" and he showed 98 for three-pair (which is only really good in Pai Gow).

Anyway, it's my friend's bday tonight, so I gotta go get ready. Hopefully I'll come back and blog about some more hands...of course, I'll have to remember them first. Thanks for reading.

There's Something About May...

2008-05-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

I wish it was May all year long...

Looking back at old posts, I ran like a freaking Kenyan on crack in May last year, and the first session of May this year did not disappoint. I seem to be doing this in my last five entries, but once again, sorry for the lack of updates. I think I've played live only once/week for the last five weeks, mostly break-even or barely winning, so my desire to blog has been non-existent.

Why the lack of playing? Well I have a couple excuses, though not necessarily good ones. I've been working alot more and also focusing on losing weight. Both kinda suck, but they're also things that have to be done, so there's that. Work's going to start slowing down again hopefully, which will lead to maybe playing two-three nights a week vs. just one.

The weight loss has been going really well by the way...I'm down from 230 to about 215 and I'm noticeably stronger than I was a couple months ago. My goal at this point is somewhere around 205, but it's more of a look/feel goal more than anything. If I like the way I look at 210, then I'll be happy...if I don't like the way I look/feel at 205...then maybe I'll have to attempt to dip below the 200 mark :shock: Let's hope that's not the case though, I like being a "bigger" guy...

So anyway, on to the session. It actually started pretty bleh...I only bought in for a rack and lulled for awhile...had to reload...then went on a good run after that. I think the good run started when every TPTK hand I had started to hold...you know you're running well when you get three callers on the turn and your pair of kings with a jack-kicker holds. The pots were mostly multiway (i.e. huge), and since I raised most of my hands pre-flop, I was making a lot of money per hand. There was a guy in seat one who basically limped every hand (brutal for him since I was in seat three) who eventually turned to me and asked "so you're basically going to raise every hand huh?" I responded with a "hah...obv...why would I limp?" <3 Raising

We went shorthanded a lot because of this player named Tina (looks like she could be Mimi Tran's 4/8 stunt double) who had to get up every orbit to go play slots...so it allowed me to open up even more. This hand got a guy pissed at me...

There's one limper from EP (seat nine), folds to me in seat three (hijack) and I raise with A7 of clubs, cutoff calls, bb calls, limper calls. Flop comes 7-3-2 with one club. Checks to me, I bet, cutoff calls and limper calls. Turn was the eight of clubs...checks to me and I bet, cutoff raises, limper folds and I call. River was a seven, I bet intending to bet/call and cutoff disgustedly calls and flips over 32 for a flopped two pair (he basically beats nothing now). I get lambasted with a "nice catch" as he racks up his chips and storms away. lol...good stuff. Guy calls my raise with 32os and gets pissed at me for "rivering" him when any ace, seven, eight, or club is good.

I ran my chips up to about +360 before I absolutely tanked it and got coolered like no other for about an hour and a half. AK < KK when a King flops, AA loses a huge kill pot, and I think I ran AK into Kings again...I got them all back though after a late inning rally and cashed out +360/seven hour session. Good stuff. This game is so fun when you're running well, I need to remember that when I'm complaining about running cold or getting beat up.

Thanks for reading, sorry for not updating, and hopefully I'll see ya guys soon.

Session No. 97 Cache Thurs Night (4/3)

2008-04-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

4/8-Kill: TP = +15 TT: 5 Hrs

Ahh, after a couple weeks off, I took part in some low-stakes fun at Cache with my usual partner the Superdonk. We were immediately seated and I noticed a couple familiar faces at the table. Seat five was occupied by the infamous Romeo and seat seven by always angry Steve (Su's husband...he's not always angry btw, he's pretty cool, he just looks angry haha).

Unfortunately I started off by running awful, losing my first few pots after hitting a good flop and then getting pwned by the turn/river. No biggie, I just re-loaded and plugged away. Eventually I hit a set of threes and didn't stray too far away from even for the rest of the night after that. I'm pretty exhausted and am actually playing in about 10 hours from now (Tony's coming by around noon), so I'll just write about my one big hand of the night. If I didn't hit this, I woulda been stuck something rotten as I didn't run so hot the rest of the night.

So it was a killpot and I was UTG+1 with A:c:K:s:. UTG (seat nine) limped, I raised from seat one, and was called by seats two, three, the kill-button in seat six, seat 8 and seat nine...wow? $90+ in the pot already...

Flop: Q:d:9:c:5:c:

Checks to me, I c-bet, and get called by everyone. Wow.

Turn: 3:c:

Hmmm...maybe the clubs scared some people? Checks to me, I bet, and everyone calls yet again...I think seat eight may have called all-in at this point. Wow.

River: 4:c: obv

Checks to me, I bet, seat two calls, everyone else folds.

I show A:c:K:s:...she shows A:s:K:c: and I rake in a monster pot. Wonder what everyone else had...

That's all for now, updates unlikely tomorrow as I'll probably wake up around 1130am, go play til who knows when, go to work at 11pm, and then crash after work sometime around 8am. Should be fun. Thanks for reading.

3am Ramblings

2008-03-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

What's up guys? I know the updates have been lacking lately, but I've gotta good excuse...k not really. After a week of NL last week (ugh...live NL), I'm pretty anxious to get back into some chaotic 4/8-Kill games. Bring on six spewtards to the flop when I have Kings or Queens, I'm ready! I'm working Wednesday night into Thursday morning and am off Thursday and Friday night...so that means a couple nights of low limit fun.

So anyway, working graves gives me a lot of time to reflect back on my sessions and let's me think about things I want to try in the future. I guess I'm just going to ramble about them in no particular order...

First off, I want to become a better NL player, but I'm kind of lost on where to start. The NL games in Reno, while a bit bland at times, did give me a lot of room to play (150bbs deep) and the players weren't exactly great. The players who looked to be the "regulars" i.e "winners" didn't seem to do anything overly special...they were just a bit tighter and didn't spew in comparison to the donkeys. In my experience, live players on average tend to be much worse than your average online player, so starting out in LHE I was always a winning player. A lot of that was likely attributed to pre-flop hand selection and not much else. Eventually I learned how to play after the flop and my profit skyrocketed, basically what I'm getting at is...

I feel like there are just too many instances in NL where I don't know "exactly" what to do. Very rarely do I find a spot on a LHE table where I'm completely lost on what the standard/most profitable play is (not trying to sound cocky, I just feel like I know the game pretty well). In NL, I'm completely the opposite. There's usually a couple spots per session where I think to myself "wow, I hope that's how you play that hand" or "wow wtf did I just get away with there?"...

Anyway, I feel like I'm behind the times already. Here I am focusing on getting better at NL when pretty much everyone has had a couple years head start on me. Every donkey in America thinks NL is the "Cadillac of Poker," so wtf have I been wasting my time playing LHE for?! (lol) I'm kidding, there's a ton of donkeys playing live LHE too, but I think it'll be good for me if I change the scenery a bit more often than I have been. Another interesting note, playing in Reno last week was the first time in a long time that I experienced a moment of sheer terror/excitement/adrenaline pumping through my body in a long time at a card table. It was a hand where I was basically calling off my stack all-in with a gutty/nut-flush draw combo and there was a ton of money in the pot. The last time I experienced that same rush at a LHE table might have been 15/30 at the Bellagio last summer after I got hit in the face with the deck for a couple orbits. Anyway, it's a cool feeling to have, and I want to experience it a bit more.

Funny story and then I'll be done rambling: this one NL player sat down at my 4/8-Kill table about a month ago (V-Day I believe) and said he had never played "this game" before. After a couple orbits of helping him with the blinds/betting increments and talking to him, I realized he was talking about limit poker. He usually played NL, and this "limit texas hold em" game was "pretty intense." I laughed politely and said "oh? how so?" He mainly addressed the speed of the game and the amount of money in the pot every hand was "actually a lot of chips." "You'd be suprised how quickly pots can get built in this game" I remember telling him. "A raised kill-pot five ways is already ~$90, and that's just pre-flop." "Wow man...this game is kinda sick...I might have to play this again." Eventually his seat for NL was called and he took off, but yeah, changes in scenery affect people in different ways. His sense of awe with LHE is kinda like my new found awe with NL. Protecting my stack, raising to $75 on a turn vs only raising to $16, little differences like that kinda fascinate me at the moment.

Alright well that's all for now, look for some limit updates for Thurs/Fri, and maybe a couple NL updates for next week. See ya then.

Reno: Weds Session 96 (3/19)

2008-03-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

TP = +$15 (weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) TT: 5 Hrs

Played El Dorado with Todd again and these words from Todd basically summed up my first couple of hours. "Wow man, you're running like dog shit..." Pretty good summary to say the least. Todd was running like a Kenyan on crack whilst I couldn't dodge a cooler or hit a flop to save my life.

As is normally the case though, I found a way to double up and basically get myself back to even. Pre-flop I opened with Tens from UTG+1, get called in three spots behind me. Flop came T66 with two spades. Thank you God? I bet $25 into the field...fold, fold, pretty passive player raises to $75. I shove for like $85 more and am expecting a snap-call after I Hollywood for a few seconds until I notice the guy tanking. Shit. I guess I should have flat-called then CRAI on the turn? "I put you on three hands, but I can only beat one of them (i.e. he has horribly played pair of Queens)" He finally calls and I table the boat and he pukes in his mouth...board blanks out and I double up.

Only other hand of interest is where I make it $8 to go with my pair of eights UTG+1 when I meant to say "raise to $10." Now I feel like a complete idiot after getting called in like 5 spots...that is until the flop comes 8-high. Unfortunately it's 876 with two hearts...mother of God. The same guy I stacked with the tens donk bets $15 into me, one fold, I raise to $50 total, and everyone folds (including the donk-bettor). Probably for the best, though hitting running twos and winning a $600+ pot would have been really nice...

That's all for now.

Reno: Mon/Tues Sessions 94/95 (3/17-18)

2008-03-17T02:15:00.000-07:00

Mon: TP = +$40 TT: 5 Hrs
Tues: TP = +$5 TT: 3 Hrs

Monday was a pretty interesting night...will get into it later. Basically I got stacked with a nut flush draw/gutty combo vs a set and a couple short stack all-inners on a flop...crazy action. I'm looking for spades or a five...the turn is Jack of diamonds, river is the Ace of diamonds, and the flopped set of threes is goooooooot. Oh a $650+ pot that could have been...

Tuesday was pretty lame aside from this KK hand where the flop was AA2. Flop I bet and get called by this guy in position. After talking the hand through with Todd, I guess I could double-barrel and maybe get a good player to fold Ace-rag there on the turn. As played, the turn card was a five of clubs and the action went check-check. River was a King and I bet $50 into a $70 pot and got called. I'll likely type more about these two sessions sometime tomorrow (Friday 3/21)

Reno: Sunday Session No. 93 (3/16)

2008-03-16T01:27:00.000-07:00

TP = +$120 TT: 6 Hrs

So yeah like I was saying, me and Todd roll into El Dorado and get a seat in a 1/2 NL game. Max buy is $300, but I start off with $200 and try to see how things will go. I run a bit slow to start off, and to be honest, I was trying to get a sort of gameplan ready with how I was going to play. I'm oh I dunno...99.8% LHE player, so I was mentally going through a checklist and trying to remember how to play NL (something I probably should have been talking to Todd about on the way up).

I don't remember how or in what order things really happened, but I think I ended up dropping to ~$150 in chips (bled a little set-mining, raising pf and whiffing, etc) and re-buying. After that, I got involved in my first real big hand.

Pre-flop is limped in a few spots and I look down at AK of diamonds. I bump it up $15 more and get called by two players. The flop is absolutely beautiful as it comes K-High with two diamonds. I C-bet $30 and get called by one guy who has been donking his chips off around the table for the hour or so I've been there. The turn is a blank and I shove (the guy only had $60 left behind), he calls and tables T8 suited in diamonds and is drawing dead. Nice.

After this hand entered the drunk Texan named Joe Johnson. Joe made a rather loud entrance as he walked up to the table and sat in the no. 10 seat exclaming in his first 30 seconds at the table: "whoooo boy I'm nervous, but I'm ready to play some cards...wow this sure ain't like tv..." Grrrreat, either this guy is pretending to be a complete noob, or he actually is a complete noob. I should state that at this point he's not drunk, but he has the douchebag meter turned up to 120%. Picture the lead singer from Blues Traveler (pre-gastric bypass) minus maybe 50 lbs, a white visor, a terrible looking shirt, and a pair of glasses. Basically this guy is a 27 year old virgin who likely just finished up playing WOW in his hotel room/jerking it to anime porn.

Anyway, very first hand this guy open-limps from EP, Todd raises from a couple spots behind him, they get it all-in on the turn, and it turns out they both have Kings. Todd said this was basically his biggest beat of the whole trip (having to chop a hand with this moron lol). I already suspected something might be up with this guy (i.e. he was "pretending" to be new), but no, he really was a moron. Luckily for him he had a password cheat saved for live play and went on a sick heater to get up to about $700 in chips seemingly without effort. Suckout here, suckout there, cooler here...you know, that kinda thing.

During this time I was basically biding my time, looking for a few good spots to take some chips off this guy. I didn't have to wait long, as I got paid off on two big pots with him and found myself up $200 ($500 in chips). One hand was TPTK vs his mid-pair and the other hand I think I got a big call from him on a turn when I had two-pair then he folded the river when he missed w/e draw he had. A nitty guy sitting in seat three (I was in seat four) commented after a smoke break: "Hey where'd all his chips go?" Then proceeded to look at my stack and say "oh..."

So yeah, a few hours pass, Joe Johnson has consumed at the minimum 12 rum and cokes throughout this time, alot of players are really annoyed by his antics, and me and Todd are laughing about the whole situation. He's been repeatedly telling people "I'm going to take all your dough" and going on and on about how "Joe Johnson plays great poker." He didn't talk shit to me once, maybe it's because I was one of the few players running good against him, or maybe it's because I was across the table from him and he couldn't really focus that far. Either way, the only time he would talk in my direction is when he said he wanted to double through the "big stacks over there." I had maybe $500 and seat 3 had about $700. Eventually his goofy ass says something retarded to a floorman and he gets himself kicked out, let back in, then probably realized gambling with a $700 stack when he was completely trashed wasn't the best idea, and left soon after. To his credit, he won money...

Realizing the table had dried up, me and Todd broke out to check-in to our room, grab a bite to eat at Mel's Diner, and then call it a night.

Reno Trip: Pre-Face

2008-03-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday through Wednesday

Total Playing Time: 20 Hrs
Total Profit: $180

This past Sunday I went up to Reno with my friend Todd. He was playing in a couple WPT smaller buy-in ($500) tournaments, and asked me if I wanted to go and up and play some live poker with him for the week. I usually pass at the opportunity to go to Reno, but saw it as a chance to get out of town for half a week for $30/night (split two ways...room was great btw) and decided what the hell. I figured the WPT events would attract some players and the action would be pretty good (I was pretty much wrong).

We got into town around 2pm Sunday and after getting turned down for early check-in, headed over to the Grand Sierra to get an idea of what the place had to offer. It was okay I guess, and had a 10/20 LHE games going. Things looked promising. Instead of jumping on the long waitlist, we decided to go back into town (the main strip) and check out the rest of the casinos. Unfortunately this would be the last time I'd see a LHE table spread higher than 3/6-Kill :(

The next stop in our journey takes us to a 1/2 NL table spread at the El Dorado. This is where I would spend the majority of my time playing cards throughout the trip. Not too shabby of a place, maybe 8-10 tables, a couple 3/6, a few 1/2NL, and the occasional 3/5 NL game.

Session No. 92 Cache Weds Night (3/12)

2008-03-12T04:48:00.000-07:00

4/8-Kill: TP = $0 TT: 4 Hrs

Met up with Chilidog (Jake) from the Cardplayer forum. Cool guy, even though he got his nickname from a John Mellencamp song ("Jack and Diane" FTW!)

Had a good run of cards on my first table, followed by a nasty run of cards on my second table. Here's a fun hand.

I raise with AK of clubs UTG, called by a donktard directly behind me, a couple other players, new player in the SB, and Tony in the BB.

Flop: AAT

Thank you God? I bet and only the donktard and the newbie call me.

Turn: 5

I'm paying attention to the new kid as he kind of "pump-faked" the flop (reached for his chips, then checked). Since he's a new player, I don't think he necessarily is thinking about my hand, he probably just assumes (if he has trip-Aces) that his three aces are good. He checks, I bet obv (no way I'm checking behind because of some "read," donktard calls and the new kid calls. Odd...I was expecting a check-raise for sure.

River: 4

New kid checks again, I bet, donktard calls, and finally the new kid raises. Wow, I tank for a second and think about three-betting, but opt to just call because I know the donktard is calling behind me. The new kid turns over pocket tens for a flopped fullhouse and I just flash my cards at Tony and say "wow thats a bit nasty" and muck my cards. Donktard showed pocket eights btw haha...

<3 Live Poker

Sessions 90/91 (2/29 and 3/6)

2008-03-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

4/8-Kill: TP = +$160 TT: 4 Hrs
4/8-Kill: TP = +$100 TT: 5 Hrs

Alright well it's been awhile since I blogged last. I played last Thursday for maybe four hours with my friend Jaclyn and everything was pretty standard, so I didn't feel much like blogging. Anyway, I came up +$160 in some pretty nice kill pots where TPTK held a couple times, and took down a couple more kills with some two pair hands. The only kill I hand I lost was one where I flopped a set. Good day overall, but aside from those hands, I think I folded everything else lol.

So last night started off pretty horribly. I ran incredibly slow the first four orbits or so, bleeding some chips out of the blinds and airballing the flop if I happened to raise or limp in behind. Not much I could do really. Oh, one hand that I witnessed was pretty freaking nasty, this is your typical "Live Poker is Rigged" hand history...

So it's capped pre-flop, we have an UTG raiser in seat 8, guy in seat 3 cold-calls, Taggy Indian guy (dot, not feather) 3-bets, folds around to seat 8 who caps, other guys call.

Flop: J83

UTG bets, seat 3 calls, Tag raises, UTG calls, seat 3 calls

Turn: 3

UTG checks, seat 3 checks, Tag bets, UTG calls, seat 3 raises "one time," Tag 3-bets, UTG tanks and calls, seat 3 cringes and calls

At this point we should all have a pretty good understanding what everyone has...yes? Seat 3 has 3x, Tag has JJ, and seat 8 is a donk with an overpair (I'm thinking KK/AA and maybe he'll win the aces cracked promotion).

River: 3

:puke: UTG bets out (wtf), seat 3 can't raise fast enough, Tag looks like he's about to kill someone and says "I just call I guess..." and UTG calls. Seat 3 shows 63soooooooooooooted in spades to take down a pot he had to hit perfect-perfect on to win. So gross. I looked at the Superdonk and said "uhhh yeah, we can't complain about any beats whatsoever for the rest of the night." This ended up being a good thing for us, as this spewtard in seat three basically donated to the Superdonk's cause for the night, and I guess I won a couple nice pots off of him as well.

Before I go, I guess I'll blog about a hand I was involved in. Hero (seat 6) is sitting in the BB with 88. Superdonk open-limps, one more limper, seat 2 (very TAP raises), a couple more callers, small-blind folds, I call, everyone else calls

Flop: 8:s:7:s:2:h:

Top set is always nice. I check very much intending to CR. Checks to seat two who checks (kralenklvfnklfdnmvf!~!k;rmbkg), action checks around. Five people behind me and not one can bet?!

Turn: T:c:

I bet out, SD calls, older asian guy in seat one raises, seat two folds, spewtard in seat three calls, seat four calls, I 3-bet hoping seat one doesn't have J9, SD folds, seat 1 calls, seats three and four call

River: Q:c:

Good card, J9 is still the nuts...I bet, all fold. Hmmmm...okay? I'll take it I guess :)

I was in for three racks at one point (maybe down $220 at my lowest), but found myself up a rack when it was time to bounce. Aces cracked promotion ends at 10pm now instead of mid, so we saw that as a good time to go eat. I hadn't eaten a real meal in close to 24 hours (see one banana and a couple bottles of water)...

Might be playing tonight, I'll update tomorrow if I do. Thanks for reading.

Session No. 89 Capitol Friday (2/22)

2008-02-23T17:14:00.000-08:00

4/8-Kill: TP = -$140 TT: 6 Hrs

Meh, didn't run too hot and was down from the get go. I feel like I played pretty well though, and can only think of a few different hands I'd like to go back and play differently. I went with my friend Tony and he had a much better day than I did, so that was good at least.

I'll post some hands later, right now I gotta run.