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
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June Swoon
So yeah...so much for finishing up those Vegas trip reports. I won Friday-Sunday and ended up finishing up a few hundred bucks poker wise...almost paid for my whole trip, which is always cool. Anyway, I've played a few Capitol sessions since Vegas, +300, +40 and now -200 after tonight...
Tonight I just ran kinda shitty. I wasn't "up" money-wise once the entire time...can't really say much about the session other than the fact that I missed a few big pots where I couldn't hold/couldn't hit or I kept finishing second with kicker problems. No big deal...
First big hand at the kill table I think I won with a rivered flush in a kill pot, so I actually went from down a hundo from the 4/8 regular game to almost even, then I got involved in this hand.
The table was extremely loose early on, and I looked down at a pair of Kings. It gets limped in like four spots, I'm in the cutoff (seat six) and raise, this terribly loose guy behind me calls, called around...
Flop: KJ7 with the King and the seven being spades...bingo?
It gets checked to this Korean guy (seat two) sitting on roughly $800 in chips (he had been there all day and possibly the night before supposedly) donks into the field, this black guy to his immediate left who plays just awful (seat three) raises, folds to me, I three-ball, guy behind me caps...everyone calls...we're four-way to the turn.
Turn: 3 of clubs
I still have the nuts...checks to me, I bet, everyone calls. I guess my hand is somehow face-up...everyone else I assume is drawing (obv lol)
River: 8 of diamonds...sweet...no spades or club
Korean guy donks, seat three raises to $10 all-in and during this time, the Korean guy is giving a semi-speech. I had seen him do this about an orbit before this where he had a fullhouse (basically the nuts) and kinda discouraged people from raising. I was pretty positive he was really strong, so I only called the ten, the guy behind me disgustedly folds Ax of spades, and the Korean guy calls the extra $2and shows T9os for the double-gutter on the flop that just had to get there. The black guy showed K8 of hearts (yeah that's no good) and dug into his pocket for another rack. Ahhhh good times.
I think I've said this in my blog pretty recently, but once again I just really want to emphasize how little I care about results now and how much it has helped my steam control/overall image and attitude at the table. I've always had pretty decent steam control, whether it's avoiding playing too loose or even too tight (yes, there is such a thing as playing too tight), I really feel like the advice I read from WillinNewHaven on Cardplayer has really helped establish my current demeanor at the table. I'll paraphrase real quick:
"Distance yourself from the results, all you can do is make as many correct decisions as possible, the rest is just cards."
It's so true, yet so many people let the results get the best of them. Whether it's a steam raise the next hand, a fear of raising AK for the next couple of orbits, or just having a shitty attitude while you're playing (no one wants to pay off the angry guy that keeps face-mucking the dealer). Anyway, what I'm getting at is people let the results of certain big pots incorrectly affect how they should be playing their hands and how much fun they are having at the table. Let's not just focus on negative thinking either...there's also players who are guilty of loosening up their standards and seeing flops with shit just because they're currently running on god-mode. It all catches up to you in the end. Remember, life is just one monster session in the grand scheme of things.
And I know it's hard to have fun at the table while you're losing, but just try it. Shoot the shit with the guy next to you, shrug off the flopped set that couldn't hold, muck the nut-flush/gutterball straight-flush combo draw (I had one of those tonight too lol) without showing the guy next to you how many outs you had...here's a newsflash: only you give a fuck. When a guy next to me shows me his hand, I could give three shits that he just missed an OESD and a Q-high flush, but I'm kinda happy he showed me what he's folding because now I know that he's only calling along with that type of hand on the flop, he's limping Q7 of clubs from MP, etc. By showing your cards, you're giving away pieces of information about how you play that players should have to pay to see. And don't think that just because it's 4/8 no one is watching...no matter what level you play at, there's always going to be someone out there paying attention.
That's enough ranting from me, thanks for reading; hopefully it helped you somehow.
Tonight I just ran kinda shitty. I wasn't "up" money-wise once the entire time...can't really say much about the session other than the fact that I missed a few big pots where I couldn't hold/couldn't hit or I kept finishing second with kicker problems. No big deal...
First big hand at the kill table I think I won with a rivered flush in a kill pot, so I actually went from down a hundo from the 4/8 regular game to almost even, then I got involved in this hand.
The table was extremely loose early on, and I looked down at a pair of Kings. It gets limped in like four spots, I'm in the cutoff (seat six) and raise, this terribly loose guy behind me calls, called around...
Flop: KJ7 with the King and the seven being spades...bingo?
It gets checked to this Korean guy (seat two) sitting on roughly $800 in chips (he had been there all day and possibly the night before supposedly) donks into the field, this black guy to his immediate left who plays just awful (seat three) raises, folds to me, I three-ball, guy behind me caps...everyone calls...we're four-way to the turn.
Turn: 3 of clubs
I still have the nuts...checks to me, I bet, everyone calls. I guess my hand is somehow face-up...everyone else I assume is drawing (obv lol)
River: 8 of diamonds...sweet...no spades or club
Korean guy donks, seat three raises to $10 all-in and during this time, the Korean guy is giving a semi-speech. I had seen him do this about an orbit before this where he had a fullhouse (basically the nuts) and kinda discouraged people from raising. I was pretty positive he was really strong, so I only called the ten, the guy behind me disgustedly folds Ax of spades, and the Korean guy calls the extra $2and shows T9os for the double-gutter on the flop that just had to get there. The black guy showed K8 of hearts (yeah that's no good) and dug into his pocket for another rack. Ahhhh good times.
I think I've said this in my blog pretty recently, but once again I just really want to emphasize how little I care about results now and how much it has helped my steam control/overall image and attitude at the table. I've always had pretty decent steam control, whether it's avoiding playing too loose or even too tight (yes, there is such a thing as playing too tight), I really feel like the advice I read from WillinNewHaven on Cardplayer has really helped establish my current demeanor at the table. I'll paraphrase real quick:
"Distance yourself from the results, all you can do is make as many correct decisions as possible, the rest is just cards."
It's so true, yet so many people let the results get the best of them. Whether it's a steam raise the next hand, a fear of raising AK for the next couple of orbits, or just having a shitty attitude while you're playing (no one wants to pay off the angry guy that keeps face-mucking the dealer). Anyway, what I'm getting at is people let the results of certain big pots incorrectly affect how they should be playing their hands and how much fun they are having at the table. Let's not just focus on negative thinking either...there's also players who are guilty of loosening up their standards and seeing flops with shit just because they're currently running on god-mode. It all catches up to you in the end. Remember, life is just one monster session in the grand scheme of things.
And I know it's hard to have fun at the table while you're losing, but just try it. Shoot the shit with the guy next to you, shrug off the flopped set that couldn't hold, muck the nut-flush/gutterball straight-flush combo draw (I had one of those tonight too lol) without showing the guy next to you how many outs you had...here's a newsflash: only you give a fuck. When a guy next to me shows me his hand, I could give three shits that he just missed an OESD and a Q-high flush, but I'm kinda happy he showed me what he's folding because now I know that he's only calling along with that type of hand on the flop, he's limping Q7 of clubs from MP, etc. By showing your cards, you're giving away pieces of information about how you play that players should have to pay to see. And don't think that just because it's 4/8 no one is watching...no matter what level you play at, there's always going to be someone out there paying attention.
That's enough ranting from me, thanks for reading; hopefully it helped you somehow.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Vegas Posts
So in case you didn't notice, I started adding Vegas blog entries as though I blogged about them in real time. For example, my first Vegas post is on June 3rd...the first day of my trip...and it follows each session for each date yada yada. The first four sessions are up, the next four should be posted sometime tomorrow. Time to sleep!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Time to Catch it Up
Alright well as has become the norm, the blog has been neglected yet again. After my royal flush, I worked 13 out of 15 days and basically hated life...went to Vegas for a week, came back and worked for a couple days, and now here I am.
Vegas was alright poker wise. I started off $700 in the hole the first night and spent the rest of the trip digging myself out of it. I ended the trip with almost all of it paid for (I think the trip cost me $200 overall...definitely cool for a five day trip).
I played at Capitol last night and started off awful, but proceeded to rebound and go on a monster heater. My lowest point was down $160, my highest point being about +$340. I ended up cashing out $300, couple that with food and drinks I paid with from my chipstack throughout the night...I had a pretty good score.
Maybe I'll play tomorrow during the day before work, but I'm not entirely sure about that. I'm gonna be a dork today and go play Rockband at my buddy's house (I can sing and play most songs I know on Medium lol)...if I don't know the songs, I usually just play guitar on medium. Fun stuff hehe :-)
Look for me to update this thing ~soon...within a week or so. I definitely want to talk about a lot of different sessions, especially the 8/16 game at Bellagio where I finally ran well/played well and a few different Omaha h/l sessions where I *gasp* was probably the best player at the table. These players were simply awful throughout the trip.
Anyway, check back soon. Thanks for reading.
Vegas was alright poker wise. I started off $700 in the hole the first night and spent the rest of the trip digging myself out of it. I ended the trip with almost all of it paid for (I think the trip cost me $200 overall...definitely cool for a five day trip).
I played at Capitol last night and started off awful, but proceeded to rebound and go on a monster heater. My lowest point was down $160, my highest point being about +$340. I ended up cashing out $300, couple that with food and drinks I paid with from my chipstack throughout the night...I had a pretty good score.
Maybe I'll play tomorrow during the day before work, but I'm not entirely sure about that. I'm gonna be a dork today and go play Rockband at my buddy's house (I can sing and play most songs I know on Medium lol)...if I don't know the songs, I usually just play guitar on medium. Fun stuff hehe :-)
Look for me to update this thing ~soon...within a week or so. I definitely want to talk about a lot of different sessions, especially the 8/16 game at Bellagio where I finally ran well/played well and a few different Omaha h/l sessions where I *gasp* was probably the best player at the table. These players were simply awful throughout the trip.
Anyway, check back soon. Thanks for reading.
Friday, June 6, 2008
JV Session Six: Mirage O8 and 10/20...see a pattern?
5/10 O8: +$115
10/20: +$60
I think I woke up around 6pm or so Friday after playing all night at Mirage and then winning some money at Harrah's 1/2NL game. I felt awful, was still running kinda shitty, so I decided to play some O8 with Shabba. I ran pretty well at O8 this trip, and think I came up about a hundo again after I rivered quads against this asian girl (not cute, but would def get a grudge hump from me) named Rose who I ended up playing alot of O8, 10/20, and even 8/16 at Bellagio with. Too bad she wasn't all that cute, because she commented on my game (poker) a few different times throughout the trip...the first time I thought it was a bit back-handed "you play omaha a lot better than you play 10/20" but she explained herself and said she meant I play Omaha better than she's seen around Mirage. Cool...whatever. I just know basic concepts and have good pre-flop card selection...but then again, everyone there is so awful it's easy to see why she'd say that.
Moving on, the 10/20 table that night was a lot of fun. Some cute thick girl with a gwen stefani hat was playing out of the one seat, a few different guys would occupy the two, deuce in three, tommy in four, me in five, pika in the seven, drunk/loud Canadian/Scot in the eight, older botox fake *****/lips (meh...not hot, sorry pika) asian chick in the nine and eventually Rose (grudge hump) moved to the 10 seat.
I ran a lot better at 10/20 this night than most of the others, as I had Kings hold a few different times, mostly against Rose. It was funny, her and Tommy kept talking a lot of shit back and forth, both obv hated each other. At one point he leaned over and thanked me for steamrolling her with the few hands I played against her so far...
I can't remember exactly how much I made, it wasn't anything significant, but Deuce crushed the game again for at least $700+. The table quieted up considerably after the Canadian guy's red bull vodkas made him too drunk to continue the obnoxious trash talk...him and I had a pretty good Mexico vs Canada shit-talk fest going which was pretty fun for all involved. I think we finally broke the game when we dropped down to five-handed (me, deuce, pika, canadian guy, and someone else)...there was basically no money to be made off the table anymore. I called it an earlier night/morning than I did the night before and tried to focus on getting enough sleep for Saturday.
10/20: +$60
I think I woke up around 6pm or so Friday after playing all night at Mirage and then winning some money at Harrah's 1/2NL game. I felt awful, was still running kinda shitty, so I decided to play some O8 with Shabba. I ran pretty well at O8 this trip, and think I came up about a hundo again after I rivered quads against this asian girl (not cute, but would def get a grudge hump from me) named Rose who I ended up playing alot of O8, 10/20, and even 8/16 at Bellagio with. Too bad she wasn't all that cute, because she commented on my game (poker) a few different times throughout the trip...the first time I thought it was a bit back-handed "you play omaha a lot better than you play 10/20" but she explained herself and said she meant I play Omaha better than she's seen around Mirage. Cool...whatever. I just know basic concepts and have good pre-flop card selection...but then again, everyone there is so awful it's easy to see why she'd say that.
Moving on, the 10/20 table that night was a lot of fun. Some cute thick girl with a gwen stefani hat was playing out of the one seat, a few different guys would occupy the two, deuce in three, tommy in four, me in five, pika in the seven, drunk/loud Canadian/Scot in the eight, older botox fake *****/lips (meh...not hot, sorry pika) asian chick in the nine and eventually Rose (grudge hump) moved to the 10 seat.
I ran a lot better at 10/20 this night than most of the others, as I had Kings hold a few different times, mostly against Rose. It was funny, her and Tommy kept talking a lot of shit back and forth, both obv hated each other. At one point he leaned over and thanked me for steamrolling her with the few hands I played against her so far...
I can't remember exactly how much I made, it wasn't anything significant, but Deuce crushed the game again for at least $700+. The table quieted up considerably after the Canadian guy's red bull vodkas made him too drunk to continue the obnoxious trash talk...him and I had a pretty good Mexico vs Canada shit-talk fest going which was pretty fun for all involved. I think we finally broke the game when we dropped down to five-handed (me, deuce, pika, canadian guy, and someone else)...there was basically no money to be made off the table anymore. I called it an earlier night/morning than I did the night before and tried to focus on getting enough sleep for Saturday.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
JV Session Five: Mirage O8 and 10/20; Harrah's 1/2 NL
5/10 O8: +$130
10/20: -$20
1/2 NL: +$140
The O8 was so good Thurs night because this doofus sat down with $600 and live-straddled for about an hour until he was out of money. Some really awesome things doofus did:
- Jammed up a 245 flop with a naked 3...about 20 minutes later I heard him say "oh you have to use two cards in Omaha. K got it...no problem, I got this game now."
- Looks at his first two cards and hear him say "wow, I got to raise, even just by looking at two cards." Turns out the first two cards was a pair of nines
- Watch him jam up a pot where he has a King-high flush draw and gutty...both for the high hand, he has no low draw...guy to my direct left has the nut flush draw to go with his nut low draw and proceeds to cornhole the doofus for an easy ~$200+ pot.
- One of the last hands doofus raises (completely standard) I call with some double suited junk out of the BB and we're heads up. The flop comes Q-high and I have a diamond flush...9-high I believe. I check, he checks behind. Turn is a blank and I now have a low draw, I bet, he raises...I think "**** I just got hollywooded by the d-bag at the table" I call. River is a blank, no low got there, I check, he bets, I call and he says with extreme confidence, "THREE QUEENS." I quickly blurt out "yeah that's not good" and show my 9-high flush with pride, which causes the four other players (we're playing 6-handed) to start laughing pretty hard...I felt bad everyone was laughing at the guy...but not really.
I ended up playing with one of the guys next day, and he told me that he had told all of his friends about the guy spewing $600, but his favorite part of the night was the fact that some guy (me) could snap-call him with a 9-high flush with such confidence and be correct in doing so, that and my "yeah that's not good" line was hilarious.
10/20 was more of the same breaking even bullshit while Deuce destroyed the table for at least $700. I think we played against a really drunk guy five handed, and I kept getting my monsters cracked by him...oh well, can't fleece the donks everytime. This table broke up around 6am, so me and Deuce parted ways and I rolled back into Harrah's still itching to play a little bit.
Harrah's was my first winning NL session of the trip. My one big hand was where I get it all-in on the turn against tens with Kings on an all-unders board. The guy was kinda short, so I think I may have won $150 or so off that hand. It was a bit of a nitfest toward the end of the night (morning), so I hung around til about 930am or so and finally called it a day.
10/20: -$20
1/2 NL: +$140
The O8 was so good Thurs night because this doofus sat down with $600 and live-straddled for about an hour until he was out of money. Some really awesome things doofus did:
- Jammed up a 245 flop with a naked 3...about 20 minutes later I heard him say "oh you have to use two cards in Omaha. K got it...no problem, I got this game now."
- Looks at his first two cards and hear him say "wow, I got to raise, even just by looking at two cards." Turns out the first two cards was a pair of nines
- Watch him jam up a pot where he has a King-high flush draw and gutty...both for the high hand, he has no low draw...guy to my direct left has the nut flush draw to go with his nut low draw and proceeds to cornhole the doofus for an easy ~$200+ pot.
- One of the last hands doofus raises (completely standard) I call with some double suited junk out of the BB and we're heads up. The flop comes Q-high and I have a diamond flush...9-high I believe. I check, he checks behind. Turn is a blank and I now have a low draw, I bet, he raises...I think "**** I just got hollywooded by the d-bag at the table" I call. River is a blank, no low got there, I check, he bets, I call and he says with extreme confidence, "THREE QUEENS." I quickly blurt out "yeah that's not good" and show my 9-high flush with pride, which causes the four other players (we're playing 6-handed) to start laughing pretty hard...I felt bad everyone was laughing at the guy...but not really.
I ended up playing with one of the guys next day, and he told me that he had told all of his friends about the guy spewing $600, but his favorite part of the night was the fact that some guy (me) could snap-call him with a 9-high flush with such confidence and be correct in doing so, that and my "yeah that's not good" line was hilarious.
10/20 was more of the same breaking even bullshit while Deuce destroyed the table for at least $700. I think we played against a really drunk guy five handed, and I kept getting my monsters cracked by him...oh well, can't fleece the donks everytime. This table broke up around 6am, so me and Deuce parted ways and I rolled back into Harrah's still itching to play a little bit.
Harrah's was my first winning NL session of the trip. My one big hand was where I get it all-in on the turn against tens with Kings on an all-unders board. The guy was kinda short, so I think I may have won $150 or so off that hand. It was a bit of a nitfest toward the end of the night (morning), so I hung around til about 930am or so and finally called it a day.
JV Session Four: Treasure Island Donkament
After woofing down a Pastrami sandwich during Game 1 of the Lakers/Celtics Finals in the Mirage Sportsbook...
Shabba talked all of us into participating in a Treasure Island donkament for like $60. We all said what the hell and decided to meet at TI around 11pm and sign up for the donkament. I felt kinda dingy, so decided to go back to the room and grab a shower and change my clothes for a long night of cards. After getting out of my shower, I noticed a text from the guys saying the donkament started at 10pm, so I took my time getting changed. Of course ten minutes later I got another text saying they'd allow late sign ups until 11pm. Grrrrrrrrreat...I power walked my way from Harrahs to TI and got there with about five minutes to spare. Everyone seemed to be having fun, so I bought in with about 8BBs in my stack and proceeded to finish third out of the five us (maybe 20th out of 50 people altogether). I ran A7 sooooooooted into Kings after the guy limped them UTG (gg squeezeplay) and was out. Deuce was the bubble boy as he finished fifth (four paid). He ran his TPGK into Ace-high (d-bag CR'd all-in with ace-high and no fold equity) and rivered the ace. GG donkament lol.
After that I headed back to Mirage to play some more O8 and 10/20...
Shabba talked all of us into participating in a Treasure Island donkament for like $60. We all said what the hell and decided to meet at TI around 11pm and sign up for the donkament. I felt kinda dingy, so decided to go back to the room and grab a shower and change my clothes for a long night of cards. After getting out of my shower, I noticed a text from the guys saying the donkament started at 10pm, so I took my time getting changed. Of course ten minutes later I got another text saying they'd allow late sign ups until 11pm. Grrrrrrrrreat...I power walked my way from Harrahs to TI and got there with about five minutes to spare. Everyone seemed to be having fun, so I bought in with about 8BBs in my stack and proceeded to finish third out of the five us (maybe 20th out of 50 people altogether). I ran A7 sooooooooted into Kings after the guy limped them UTG (gg squeezeplay) and was out. Deuce was the bubble boy as he finished fifth (four paid). He ran his TPGK into Ace-high (d-bag CR'd all-in with ace-high and no fold equity) and rivered the ace. GG donkament lol.
After that I headed back to Mirage to play some more O8 and 10/20...
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