So I made it to Commerce last night. It's as big as I've been told. Seemed as big as a medium size Vegas casino, with almost all of it dedicated to poker! I played 40/80 for about 4 hours and took a 1k loss. Battled my way back after being down 2 racks. Big, noisy, dirty were my first impressions of the place. Game selection was finally available as when I was there on a Wednesday night, there was 5 40/80 games running and 2 60/120 games going, along with a 100/200 game.
Nothing extraordinary in terms of players. I saw some tight play, but for the most part, the table was loose and not too aggressive. Lots of players, playing any two suited, any two paint. Lots of people cold-calling 2 or 3 bets with hands that should have hit the muck. Only two real "bad" beats I took. I called a raise out of the big blind with A5c, 4 way action. Flop comes 2c 4c rag. Ends up capped on the flop. Turn is a rag, called all around. River is a red queen. I check-fold the river. Pre-flop raiser, and river bettor had KQc, for a rivered top-pair that took it down! Come on club! For sure I get 2, maybe even 3 bets out of her! Other beat I took, I ended up chopping the pot. I raise UTG with pocket kings. Get called by the small blind with AQo. Flop comes 6 7 9. check-bet-call. Turn comes an 8. check-check. River 5. Check-check. Bad flop call by her, but with the way she was playing all night it was not totally unexpected by me. I just wish she would have rivered a pair, instead of a chop. Lots of women playing at my table. At one time, I think we had 5 women and 4 men playing. Highly unusual for me. At Oceans-11, at most there's usually only one or two women in the game.
While I was checking the place out, I saw Tuan Le playing a 400/800 mixed game. In real life, he's much buffer and more ripped than you see on TV. Didn't really stick around to see how he was doing. Other than that I didn't run into any other "famous" poker players, nor anyone I know from San Diego.
All in all, I would say Commerce was just okay. If I happened to be in the area, had some bankroll and free time, I might stop in and play. Don't think I'd make a special trip for Commerce.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Itching to Play
Just checked in to my hotel here in Beverly Hills. Family is getting settled down, and I am getting ready to go out to play at Commerce Casino!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Pilgramage
I'm going to the poker Mecca of the world. Yep, that's right Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. Home to world's best, up-and comers, wannabes, scum, hos, and other dregs of life. And oh yeah, they have the biggest poker room in the U.S. and the most poker action anywhere. At least, so I've been told. I've never set foot in Commere casino yet, in all my poker playing. But I will be in LA December 26-28 with my family and my wife has already said that I can go out and play at least one night, if not both.
I'm juiced up and ready to go as well, as I've been running pretty well the last month or so. Let's hope it stays that way at Commerce. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to pray to the poker Gods!
I'm juiced up and ready to go as well, as I've been running pretty well the last month or so. Let's hope it stays that way at Commerce. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to pray to the poker Gods!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Running over the Table
Played in the 75/150 last night at Oceans-11. It was a weird night. I got there about 9:30pm, a little later than usual since my kids didn't want to go to sleep. When I arrived there was a short-handed 40/80, 2 full 20/40, and a full 75/150. I got seated in the 40/80 and only played like 45 minutes before the game broke. I then got in a 20/40 game where I only played for 30 minutes, and the only hand I played was pocket aces that got cracked by pocket eights. The original lineup in the 75/150 looked super juicy, but by the time my name got called the lineup wasn't as good any more. I was debating not taking it, but David T convinced me to play since he wanted my seat in the 20/40.
I ended up owning that table. I made $5650 in 4.5 hours. My big hands held up, and all my bluffs seemed to work, and more than my share of draws got there.
I made one masterful bluff (in my opinion) on Jamie. Jaime is a very loose aggressive player. 6-handed he raises under the gun, all folds to me. I call in the big blind with 45c. Flop is 4 6 7 all spades. bet-raise-call. Turn is king of hearts. check-bet-raise-call. River is 9 spades. I bet, Jaime hems and haws and starts complaining. He mucks 2 red jacks face up, and I take it down. Pretty good move, huh?
I ended up owning that table. I made $5650 in 4.5 hours. My big hands held up, and all my bluffs seemed to work, and more than my share of draws got there.
I made one masterful bluff (in my opinion) on Jamie. Jaime is a very loose aggressive player. 6-handed he raises under the gun, all folds to me. I call in the big blind with 45c. Flop is 4 6 7 all spades. bet-raise-call. Turn is king of hearts. check-bet-raise-call. River is 9 spades. I bet, Jaime hems and haws and starts complaining. He mucks 2 red jacks face up, and I take it down. Pretty good move, huh?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
Had an awesome rush last night, that pretty much lasted the entire session. I got started at 9:30pm in the 40/80 game and cashed out at 2:00 am for $7300, up 5300 in 4.5 hours of play.
For the longest time it seemed like every time I had a pocket pair, I would never flop a set. Last night it was the exact opposite. Every time I had a pocket pair, it seemed like it was impossible for me NOT to flop or turn a set. Even the pocket-pairs I ended up folding either on the flop or turn, seemed to make a set by the river. I don't know why I bothered to fold anything last night, as even the rags I was tossing were seemingly turning to gold, if only I had played. But I'm not greedy, I played my A game, and raked in the chips.
Happy Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble.
For the longest time it seemed like every time I had a pocket pair, I would never flop a set. Last night it was the exact opposite. Every time I had a pocket pair, it seemed like it was impossible for me NOT to flop or turn a set. Even the pocket-pairs I ended up folding either on the flop or turn, seemed to make a set by the river. I don't know why I bothered to fold anything last night, as even the rags I was tossing were seemingly turning to gold, if only I had played. But I'm not greedy, I played my A game, and raked in the chips.
Happy Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thousand Dollar Scan!
Oceans-11 is having a promotion where your player's card gets scanned every hour and as you accumulate hours you can get cash back. It's sort of the Brick+Mortar equivalent to the rake back deal of on-line casinos.
So on Saturday night (really early Sunday Morning) at 1:55 am, I decide that I'm going to get the 2am scan and then call it quits and head home. At that point I had 3 racks and 2 stacks in front of me in the 40/80 game. I was up $1400 and was having a good night. Unfortunately, the girl who does the scans for whatever reason was inexplicably late doing the scans for this hour. Normally, the scan happens right around 5 to 10 minutes after the hour. In this case she came by at 2:25 am instead.
Don't worry in the half an hour I played while I was waiting for the damn scan only cost me a thousand bucks. I flopped a set of 4's on all spade board while I was in the BB. I called a raise from early position after a few other callers, including the SB. I think there was a total of 5 of us. In any case the flop came Qs 4s 8s. Long story short, many bets went in. I lost to the small blind's AKs who flopped the nuts and it held up. I was drawing totally live though. Then I lost a few other pots where I flopped TPTK, and ended up losing by the river.
So I still went home a winner, but not nearly as big as I would have if I had left earlier. I know that in the long-run it won't really matter as it's just one big long game, and I should be focused on performance, not results.
So on Saturday night (really early Sunday Morning) at 1:55 am, I decide that I'm going to get the 2am scan and then call it quits and head home. At that point I had 3 racks and 2 stacks in front of me in the 40/80 game. I was up $1400 and was having a good night. Unfortunately, the girl who does the scans for whatever reason was inexplicably late doing the scans for this hour. Normally, the scan happens right around 5 to 10 minutes after the hour. In this case she came by at 2:25 am instead.
Don't worry in the half an hour I played while I was waiting for the damn scan only cost me a thousand bucks. I flopped a set of 4's on all spade board while I was in the BB. I called a raise from early position after a few other callers, including the SB. I think there was a total of 5 of us. In any case the flop came Qs 4s 8s. Long story short, many bets went in. I lost to the small blind's AKs who flopped the nuts and it held up. I was drawing totally live though. Then I lost a few other pots where I flopped TPTK, and ended up losing by the river.
So I still went home a winner, but not nearly as big as I would have if I had left earlier. I know that in the long-run it won't really matter as it's just one big long game, and I should be focused on performance, not results.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Jackpot!
I won the jackpot sort of on Wednesday night. I was playing the 20/40 when a player from a 4/8 game who had won a table share of the jackpot (about 2k) decided to take a shot at the 20/40 game I suppose. In any case he snapped me off in back to back hands where I had pocket queens (he rivered two pair) and ace-king where I flopped TPTK (he rivered a flush) when he first sat down. So I buckled down and before the night was over, he was felted and I was up about $1200. So I didn't win all of his money, but I got more than my fair share because it appears that he was gunning for me for some reason. This guy was in way over his head and didn't stand a chance in the 20/40.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Free as a Bird
My wife took the kids to visit her sister and Mom in Sacramento for the weekend. So as soon as I leave from work tonight, I am officially on a 72 hour free pass until Monday morning when I have to come back to work. A bunch of my buddies are out in Vegas for Big Smoke this weekend, and I was tempted to go along, but to tell the truth I'm kinda Vegased out. I've been to Vegas like 5 or more times in the last 2 years (I lost count), which is more than enough for me.
So, I have some things around the house I'd like to take care of as well, but I hope I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the poker tables. We'll see, since I have been feeling a little bit under the weather since Sunday, and playing poker for significant amounts of money while not feeling well is not a good recipe for the bankroll.
So, I have some things around the house I'd like to take care of as well, but I hope I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the poker tables. We'll see, since I have been feeling a little bit under the weather since Sunday, and playing poker for significant amounts of money while not feeling well is not a good recipe for the bankroll.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Killing the 20/40
It's been slow at Oceans 11 the last month or so. The 40/80 game has been pretty weak, and the bad players seem to have moved on. So I've been playing a lot of 20/40 this month and have been killing the game to the tune of 123.41/hour or a little over 3 big bets per hour over 27.25 hours of play.
The fires we had here in Southern California were scary. My family and I had to evacuate our home and we spent the night at our friend's house in Mission Bay. We were glued to the TV all day. Fortunately the fires got no closer than 5 miles to my house.
Lately there have been some 8/16 players playing in the 20/40 game attempting to move up. One of them, this younger Asian girl is getting her ass handed to her, because she hasn't adjusted to the 20/40 game properly yet, she's still playing with an 8/16 mentality.
I'll give an example. I was playing the 8/16 the other night while waiting for a 20/40 seat when I got dealt pocket aces in the big blind. Couple of limpers, the button raised, and I 3-bet from the big-blind. All called. Flop comes A T rag. I bet, get called by UTG+1 and the button. Turn was a Jack. Now KQ just got there, but I don't want to give a free card, plus I should value bet this till I hit resistance, so I bet again and get called in both spots. River is 9. Again, if I was beat before I'm still beat, that card changed nothing. But since I wasn't raised by the button, I'm 95% sure I have the best hand so I bet again. CALLED in BOTH SPOTS. I turn over the winner, and inexplicably both other players turn over their hands. What did they have? UTG +1 had t/9 suited for a rivered two pair. Button had pocket queens. Now this is an 8/16 game with some god-awful players. Let's look at the flop calls. UTG+1 called with middle pair and runner runner straight draw. Button called with an underpair to the ace and a runner runner straight draw as well. Remember I 3-bet before the flop, from the big-blind and bet the flop when the ace hit. In the 20/40 or 40/80 game I take this pot down on the flop with my bet. But in the 8/16 game, I get called by weak hands all the way to the river.
Now this young Asian girl is playing in the 20/40 but still playing as if she was in the 8/16 game. Raising in early position with trash like ace/ten off, ace/jack off, q/t suited, etc. I played a hand against her last time out that went down like this. I raised in MP with ace-king, she called in the big-blind with King/Jack. Flop comes K Q rag. She checks, I bet, she check-raises, I 3-bet, she calls. At this point she's down to 8 chips, and bets the turn which is a blank. Of course I call, and she sucks out when a Jack hits the river. Now let's think about this hand. Maybe, since she was close to being all-in she decided to play the hand out no matter what. But if you think about it, the only hand she could be possibly beating at that point was king/ten or pocket jacks. Unless you think that a) I would raise in MP with king/ten, and b) 3 bet the flop with king/ten, she should fold to the 3-bet. Any reasonable hand that is willing to 3-bet that flop has her killed: AK, AA, KK, QQ, KQ. I think she's too used to the 8/16 players. If she doesn't learn to adjust soon, she's going to go busto.
The fires we had here in Southern California were scary. My family and I had to evacuate our home and we spent the night at our friend's house in Mission Bay. We were glued to the TV all day. Fortunately the fires got no closer than 5 miles to my house.
Lately there have been some 8/16 players playing in the 20/40 game attempting to move up. One of them, this younger Asian girl is getting her ass handed to her, because she hasn't adjusted to the 20/40 game properly yet, she's still playing with an 8/16 mentality.
I'll give an example. I was playing the 8/16 the other night while waiting for a 20/40 seat when I got dealt pocket aces in the big blind. Couple of limpers, the button raised, and I 3-bet from the big-blind. All called. Flop comes A T rag. I bet, get called by UTG+1 and the button. Turn was a Jack. Now KQ just got there, but I don't want to give a free card, plus I should value bet this till I hit resistance, so I bet again and get called in both spots. River is 9. Again, if I was beat before I'm still beat, that card changed nothing. But since I wasn't raised by the button, I'm 95% sure I have the best hand so I bet again. CALLED in BOTH SPOTS. I turn over the winner, and inexplicably both other players turn over their hands. What did they have? UTG +1 had t/9 suited for a rivered two pair. Button had pocket queens. Now this is an 8/16 game with some god-awful players. Let's look at the flop calls. UTG+1 called with middle pair and runner runner straight draw. Button called with an underpair to the ace and a runner runner straight draw as well. Remember I 3-bet before the flop, from the big-blind and bet the flop when the ace hit. In the 20/40 or 40/80 game I take this pot down on the flop with my bet. But in the 8/16 game, I get called by weak hands all the way to the river.
Now this young Asian girl is playing in the 20/40 but still playing as if she was in the 8/16 game. Raising in early position with trash like ace/ten off, ace/jack off, q/t suited, etc. I played a hand against her last time out that went down like this. I raised in MP with ace-king, she called in the big-blind with King/Jack. Flop comes K Q rag. She checks, I bet, she check-raises, I 3-bet, she calls. At this point she's down to 8 chips, and bets the turn which is a blank. Of course I call, and she sucks out when a Jack hits the river. Now let's think about this hand. Maybe, since she was close to being all-in she decided to play the hand out no matter what. But if you think about it, the only hand she could be possibly beating at that point was king/ten or pocket jacks. Unless you think that a) I would raise in MP with king/ten, and b) 3 bet the flop with king/ten, she should fold to the 3-bet. Any reasonable hand that is willing to 3-bet that flop has her killed: AK, AA, KK, QQ, KQ. I think she's too used to the 8/16 players. If she doesn't learn to adjust soon, she's going to go busto.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Whoops - Bad Read
20/40 game playing 6 handed. UTG raises, cut-off calls, I call on the button with Ace - 4 of hearts. Flop comes 3h 5d th. I flopped the nut-flush draw, plus a gut-shot wheel draw. UTG bets, cut-off folds, I raise, UTG 3-bets, I 4-bet, UTG calls. Turn is the 2s. UTG checks, I bet, he check-raises, I re-raise, etc, etc until a total of 8 bets go in (with me calling the final raise). Hands I have UTG on : pocket tens for a set, ace-4 suited for a wheel, 4-6 suited. I originally put the raiser on pocket tens after the 4-bet went in on the turn, but when he reraised again, I thought hmm, he must have a straight, but he wouldn't raise UTG with 4/6, must be the same hand I have, which means I'm free-rolling. After the 8th bet went in, I was oh crap he really does have 4/6. No worries, 8 of hearts on the river, he check-calls and I drag a massive pot. Wasn't a huge suckout, I had 9 clean outs for the win and 2 chop outs as well.
On the flop I was the huge favorite anyways, but I got lucky on the river. Like I said, whoops bad read by me, but that's why they deal a 5 card board.
On the flop I was the huge favorite anyways, but I got lucky on the river. Like I said, whoops bad read by me, but that's why they deal a 5 card board.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Third Quarter Results
Well I finished the month on a positive note, but I'm still in the red for the quarter. I've been playing well lately, so hopefully the positive trend will continue. In any case here are the results (not pretty by any means):
8/16 8 -349
20/40 43.834 -4172
40/80 129.25 -3123
75/150 16.16 1313
2/3NL 1 206
totals 198.244 -6125
Hourly loss = -30.90/hour
Overall for the year I'm still up quite a bit, but I hate losing!
Here's hoping the holiday season brings out the drunks, loose players, and maniacs to the tables!
8/16 8 -349
20/40 43.834 -4172
40/80 129.25 -3123
75/150 16.16 1313
2/3NL 1 206
totals 198.244 -6125
Hourly loss = -30.90/hour
Overall for the year I'm still up quite a bit, but I hate losing!
Here's hoping the holiday season brings out the drunks, loose players, and maniacs to the tables!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Ouch!
Bad September, Bad September. I wish it was August again.
After battling my way back to almost even for the quarter in the month of August, September has been killing me! Down over 7k for the month. He's just a smattering of the hands that have beaten me:
Pocket Aces versus King 7 offsuit -> Nicky turned two pair in the big-blind after calling my raise from middle position, and she checked-raise me when the king hit. I really wanted to fold the river, as I couldn't put this one together until too late.
Pocket Kings versus King Queen offsuit -> I flopped an overpair to the board, when I capped it with pocket kings in the small blind. Bet it the whole way, until the river when I get raised: Board read 9 10 4 4 J, yep I got beat by a gut-shot straight draw.
Pocket Jacks against Pocket 4's -> I got raised on the turn, on a king high board, turn was a 4, and I layed it down. Raiser showed me his turned set.
Pocket 10's against Pocket 4's and 67 suited -> Flopped a monster! T 4 5, river was an 8, no full-house for me, actually didn't pay off the river either.
Ace-Queen diamond versus T9 diamond -> Queen high board two diamonds. Don't worry running two pair takes me out!
I also made one "bad" lay down. I flopped a set of sixes, on a board with 2 clubs. Running clubs, put 4 clubs on board and a singleton straight possible. Opponent check-called the flop, fired the turn, fired the river, and I folded on the river. Opponent shows 73 offsuit for a rivered two-pair! Gutsy bet I suppose. I misplayed my hand, by not raising the turn I suppose.
Let's hope I can turn it around in the final weeks of September. Holidays are coming up, the games are going to slow down, and I'm not sure how much time I'll get in at the tables.
After battling my way back to almost even for the quarter in the month of August, September has been killing me! Down over 7k for the month. He's just a smattering of the hands that have beaten me:
Pocket Aces versus King 7 offsuit -> Nicky turned two pair in the big-blind after calling my raise from middle position, and she checked-raise me when the king hit. I really wanted to fold the river, as I couldn't put this one together until too late.
Pocket Kings versus King Queen offsuit -> I flopped an overpair to the board, when I capped it with pocket kings in the small blind. Bet it the whole way, until the river when I get raised: Board read 9 10 4 4 J, yep I got beat by a gut-shot straight draw.
Pocket Jacks against Pocket 4's -> I got raised on the turn, on a king high board, turn was a 4, and I layed it down. Raiser showed me his turned set.
Pocket 10's against Pocket 4's and 67 suited -> Flopped a monster! T 4 5, river was an 8, no full-house for me, actually didn't pay off the river either.
Ace-Queen diamond versus T9 diamond -> Queen high board two diamonds. Don't worry running two pair takes me out!
I also made one "bad" lay down. I flopped a set of sixes, on a board with 2 clubs. Running clubs, put 4 clubs on board and a singleton straight possible. Opponent check-called the flop, fired the turn, fired the river, and I folded on the river. Opponent shows 73 offsuit for a rivered two-pair! Gutsy bet I suppose. I misplayed my hand, by not raising the turn I suppose.
Let's hope I can turn it around in the final weeks of September. Holidays are coming up, the games are going to slow down, and I'm not sure how much time I'll get in at the tables.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Misreading your Hand
I saw a $1000 mistake made on Saturday night. Kay a pretty poor 20/40 player misread her hand, thinking she had the A7o, with the 7 being a diamond, when in actuality she had A7o, with the ace being a diamond.
The board read:
5d 6d 8c 9d 8d
On the river, Kay and her opponent went 8 bets, when they both finally decided to just go all-in. Kay had 1 rack and 2 stacks left after putting in the 8th raise. She never stopped raising, thinking she had the stone cold nuts. When her opponent flipped over J7d, Kay's face went white. She flipped over her hand, saying I have the 7d, ahh no, Kay you have the nut-flush, but not the NUTS. Everybody at the table thought we might have a jackpot after so many raises on the river. I guarantee that if I'm putting in 7 bets or more on the river, I'm going to go back and look at my hand just to make sure I have what I thought I have. I'm sure Kay will never make that mistake again!
Brenda was in the house over the weekend. I never got a chance to play with her unfortunately. I got to the casino on Saturday night around 9:15pm, and I was 4th up for the 40/80 game. Brenda had about 14 racks in front of her (14k). NOBODY left that game. I stayed until 4:45 am in the morning, trying to get into that game. At that point I gave up and went home. Brenda was down to about 2 racks from the 14 she had when I showed up. I'm pretty sure everybody went home a winner that night, except for Brenda.
The board read:
5d 6d 8c 9d 8d
On the river, Kay and her opponent went 8 bets, when they both finally decided to just go all-in. Kay had 1 rack and 2 stacks left after putting in the 8th raise. She never stopped raising, thinking she had the stone cold nuts. When her opponent flipped over J7d, Kay's face went white. She flipped over her hand, saying I have the 7d, ahh no, Kay you have the nut-flush, but not the NUTS. Everybody at the table thought we might have a jackpot after so many raises on the river. I guarantee that if I'm putting in 7 bets or more on the river, I'm going to go back and look at my hand just to make sure I have what I thought I have. I'm sure Kay will never make that mistake again!
Brenda was in the house over the weekend. I never got a chance to play with her unfortunately. I got to the casino on Saturday night around 9:15pm, and I was 4th up for the 40/80 game. Brenda had about 14 racks in front of her (14k). NOBODY left that game. I stayed until 4:45 am in the morning, trying to get into that game. At that point I gave up and went home. Brenda was down to about 2 racks from the 14 she had when I showed up. I'm pretty sure everybody went home a winner that night, except for Brenda.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Stuck or Even?
After my horrible July, August has been a much better month. I'm only a little stuck now here in the 3rd quarter of the year. I'm almost even! $540 more to go.
Given that I lost over 10k in the month of July, just getting even sounds good at this point!
An interesting anecdote, I was never sure where the term stuck came from. A fellow player at the table said it came from not wanting to leave when you are losing, hence you are stuck in your chair. Or as he said, when you are stuck you either get even or go broke!
Given that I lost over 10k in the month of July, just getting even sounds good at this point!
An interesting anecdote, I was never sure where the term stuck came from. A fellow player at the table said it came from not wanting to leave when you are losing, hence you are stuck in your chair. Or as he said, when you are stuck you either get even or go broke!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Old Trip Reports
Editors Note: These reports were posted on usenet by me at one time or another, but since I have started my own blog, I figured for historical sense I should put them here as well, so I can have a record of them.
In chronological order:
In chronological order:
August 2004 -- Palm Springs
Went to Palm Springs over the weekend and the wife let me go out and play some poker at night at Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage.
Agua Caliente has smallish/medium size poker room, about 12 tables if I recall correctly. I only played on Friday and Saturday night. Both days they were spreading the following games, 3/6 with a half-kill, 4/8, 8/16/, 20/40 all with a full-kill. I saw an interest list for Omaha, but I don't
think they ever got a game started. Bad beat jackpot was around 9k, and you needed aces full of anything or better beaten by a four-of-kind or better. Both players must play both hole-cards. Nobody hit the jackpot when I was there.
Friday night, I got to the casino around 9:30ish, and put my name on all the games. Got called for a 3-6 game after about 15 minutes. No real memorable hands, except a J-9s, I played on the button. Flopped a flush draw, raised the pot on the flop, checked the turn, and hit my flush on the river. Finished the table up 2 bucks when I got called for 4-8. At the 4-8 table never got any interesting hands and was up I think 10 bucks when I finally got called for 8-16.
Most of the low-limit tables were your predictable low-limit players. Call you on the way down, and never fold. I tend to wimp out on the river when playing these types of games. If I only have top-pair and haven't improved I usually try to check-it down or just check-call, as I don't
know if someone picked up a miracle two pair.
8-16 is where I made the bulk of my money. I bought in for $200 and cashed out for $1070. I played until about 2:45 in the morning, for the last hour or so at a short-handed table (5 players). I got more aggressive as the table shortened up and made some good money with hands I normally wouldn't play at a full-handed table. Couple of memorable hands. UTG raised, I looked down saw pocket-aces and made it 3 bets. Button and small-blind cold-called. Flop came 2,2,10. Check to me, I bet, calls all around. Turn was a 7, I bet again, button folds, other two call. River is another 2. Check to me, I bet, small-blind folds, UTG calls. I flip over aces, he flips over pocket jacks. Not sure what the button or the small-blind had to cold-call 3 preflop.
Won one hand with presto. Raised on the button with pocket 5's. 2-callers, flop came 8-Q-2. Checked to me, I bet, 1-caller. Turn was another 8. I wimped out and checked behind. River a 5. Again check to me, I bet, got called, and showed my full-house.
On Saturday night I got to the casino at around 8:15 or so. I really wanted to play 20/40, and finally got to play. Not a bad table, probably could have made more, if I had more time to play. Wife said I had to be back at 11:00. I cashed in for $500 and cashed out for $900. No real memorable hands, as I wasn't really catching any good cards. I think the best hand I saw was ace-queen suited, which I won, after turning an ace and check-raising the button.
So in all, I had a good time there. The players were friendly, saw a couple of good players, but most were average at best. Would go back there if I'm in the area.
March 2006 -- Harrahs Rincon
So I decided to play in the WSOP circuit event at Harrahs Rincon. Decent structure, start with $2000 in chips blinds start at 25-25 with 1 hour levels. Never been to Rincon. Pretty big casino, pretty lousy poker room. Fortunately the tournament was held in the Pavilion, which looks like a big conference room, right next to the poker room in the back.
I was seated at seat 8, table 8. Nobody I recognized at my table.
Level 1: 25-25
Played a couple of hands. In the cut-off, with A5c, all folds to me raise to 75, button calls, blinds fold. Flop come king high, 2 spades. Bet out 150, button calls. Check-fold the turn, button flashes me a king. Couple of hands later, pick up 4d4h raise to 125 after 1 limper. Limper calls. Flop comes 966 rainbow. Limper fires out 125, I raise to 400, limper folds. Near the end of the level, pick up A3h, and re-raise a tight player to 150 after he raises to 75. Flop comes 3K9 two hearts. Original raises checks, I fire out 250 he folds. Saw a real interesting hand, where seat 4 more than tripled up. Seat 4 raised with A7d, got called in two spots. Flop comes all diamonds 68T. Money gets all in by the turn. The other two callers had 45d and J9d, everybody flopped a flush. Neither played sucked out and the 4 seat takes it down. More on the 4 seat later.
Leve 2: 25-50
About 10 minutes into the level, seat 4 min raises under the gun to 100. 4 callers in front of me, I look down to 89d on the button and call. Big blind calls blind, saying he can't fold any two for the price he is getting. 600 in the pot. Flop come 367 rainbow. All check to me. I fire out 300. Folds back to seat 4 who calls. Everyone else folds. Boom 5 on the turn now putting 2 spades on the board. Seat 4 checks, I fire out 600. Seat 4 check-raises me to 1200, I push all in. He calls, I annouce I have the nuts, seat 4 responds I have outs and tables pockets 3's. I tell the dealer no pair, no pair. Burn a card and 7 on the river. I go home now and write my trip report. Not sure if I could have/should have played it any different, other than folding before the flop. Glad, I got my money in with the best hand, and I can't blame the guy for calling. He probably thought he had the best hand anyways.
June 2006 -- Las Vegas
Went to Palm Springs over the weekend and the wife let me go out and play some poker at night at Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage.
Agua Caliente has smallish/medium size poker room, about 12 tables if I recall correctly. I only played on Friday and Saturday night. Both days they were spreading the following games, 3/6 with a half-kill, 4/8, 8/16/, 20/40 all with a full-kill. I saw an interest list for Omaha, but I don't
think they ever got a game started. Bad beat jackpot was around 9k, and you needed aces full of anything or better beaten by a four-of-kind or better. Both players must play both hole-cards. Nobody hit the jackpot when I was there.
Friday night, I got to the casino around 9:30ish, and put my name on all the games. Got called for a 3-6 game after about 15 minutes. No real memorable hands, except a J-9s, I played on the button. Flopped a flush draw, raised the pot on the flop, checked the turn, and hit my flush on the river. Finished the table up 2 bucks when I got called for 4-8. At the 4-8 table never got any interesting hands and was up I think 10 bucks when I finally got called for 8-16.
Most of the low-limit tables were your predictable low-limit players. Call you on the way down, and never fold. I tend to wimp out on the river when playing these types of games. If I only have top-pair and haven't improved I usually try to check-it down or just check-call, as I don't
know if someone picked up a miracle two pair.
8-16 is where I made the bulk of my money. I bought in for $200 and cashed out for $1070. I played until about 2:45 in the morning, for the last hour or so at a short-handed table (5 players). I got more aggressive as the table shortened up and made some good money with hands I normally wouldn't play at a full-handed table. Couple of memorable hands. UTG raised, I looked down saw pocket-aces and made it 3 bets. Button and small-blind cold-called. Flop came 2,2,10. Check to me, I bet, calls all around. Turn was a 7, I bet again, button folds, other two call. River is another 2. Check to me, I bet, small-blind folds, UTG calls. I flip over aces, he flips over pocket jacks. Not sure what the button or the small-blind had to cold-call 3 preflop.
Won one hand with presto. Raised on the button with pocket 5's. 2-callers, flop came 8-Q-2. Checked to me, I bet, 1-caller. Turn was another 8. I wimped out and checked behind. River a 5. Again check to me, I bet, got called, and showed my full-house.
On Saturday night I got to the casino at around 8:15 or so. I really wanted to play 20/40, and finally got to play. Not a bad table, probably could have made more, if I had more time to play. Wife said I had to be back at 11:00. I cashed in for $500 and cashed out for $900. No real memorable hands, as I wasn't really catching any good cards. I think the best hand I saw was ace-queen suited, which I won, after turning an ace and check-raising the button.
So in all, I had a good time there. The players were friendly, saw a couple of good players, but most were average at best. Would go back there if I'm in the area.
March 2006 -- Harrahs Rincon
So I decided to play in the WSOP circuit event at Harrahs Rincon. Decent structure, start with $2000 in chips blinds start at 25-25 with 1 hour levels. Never been to Rincon. Pretty big casino, pretty lousy poker room. Fortunately the tournament was held in the Pavilion, which looks like a big conference room, right next to the poker room in the back.
I was seated at seat 8, table 8. Nobody I recognized at my table.
Level 1: 25-25
Played a couple of hands. In the cut-off, with A5c, all folds to me raise to 75, button calls, blinds fold. Flop come king high, 2 spades. Bet out 150, button calls. Check-fold the turn, button flashes me a king. Couple of hands later, pick up 4d4h raise to 125 after 1 limper. Limper calls. Flop comes 966 rainbow. Limper fires out 125, I raise to 400, limper folds. Near the end of the level, pick up A3h, and re-raise a tight player to 150 after he raises to 75. Flop comes 3K9 two hearts. Original raises checks, I fire out 250 he folds. Saw a real interesting hand, where seat 4 more than tripled up. Seat 4 raised with A7d, got called in two spots. Flop comes all diamonds 68T. Money gets all in by the turn. The other two callers had 45d and J9d, everybody flopped a flush. Neither played sucked out and the 4 seat takes it down. More on the 4 seat later.
Leve 2: 25-50
About 10 minutes into the level, seat 4 min raises under the gun to 100. 4 callers in front of me, I look down to 89d on the button and call. Big blind calls blind, saying he can't fold any two for the price he is getting. 600 in the pot. Flop come 367 rainbow. All check to me. I fire out 300. Folds back to seat 4 who calls. Everyone else folds. Boom 5 on the turn now putting 2 spades on the board. Seat 4 checks, I fire out 600. Seat 4 check-raises me to 1200, I push all in. He calls, I annouce I have the nuts, seat 4 responds I have outs and tables pockets 3's. I tell the dealer no pair, no pair. Burn a card and 7 on the river. I go home now and write my trip report. Not sure if I could have/should have played it any different, other than folding before the flop. Glad, I got my money in with the best hand, and I can't blame the guy for calling. He probably thought he had the best hand anyways.
June 2006 -- Las Vegas
My friend was having his 40th birthday, plus another friend had a weekend of bachelorhood due to his wife and two kids heading to the great white north to visit her family, thus a trip to Vegas was to be had. The six of us, all flew from San Diego to Las Vegas albiet at different times and days.
I usually stay at the Aladdin with a comped room, but with their reconstruction and all I decided to try a new casino. I called up the Mirage and talked to a host there when making reservations at the hotel, but alas since I had no history there, he was unable to do anything upfront for me. But, he said to stop by before checking out and he would see what he could do. Since everybody else was staying there, I went ahead and made the reservations (159 and 199 a night), and also set up a line of credit with the casino (5k).
My friend and I left Friday morning at 10:25 am on-time and arrived in Vegas approximately an hour later. Got on the Dollar shuttle express and was whisked away to the rental car lot. Since I am a fastlane express member, was able to flash my card, picked out a midsize car (dodge something or other if I remember correctly) and was out of the lot in under ten minutes! I love the fastlane express program, plus the rates are cheap, and I get Southwest credits.
We wanted to eat lunch at In-N-Out on Maryland Parkway, but I made the mistake of turning left onto Tropicana instead of right coming out of the airport. No big deal I thought, so I made a right onto Koval, and then a right onto Harmon, only to find out that Harmon doesn't go all the way through and dumps you into the middle of UNLV's campus! Doh. So, I turned back around, eventually getting onto Paradise over to Flamingo and finally onto Maryland Parkway and hitting the In-N-Out. What should have been a 5 minute drive turned into about a 25 minute jaunt! Had a cheeseburger and a coke, and left very satisfied. I love In-N-Out burgers. Normally I am a vegetarian back at home (not for religious reasons or anything, just trying to eat healthier, been a veggie for about a year now), but when I am in Vegas I like to splurge in all things. Or as my friend likes to say: I didn't come to Vegas to be cheap and get skinny. Before I left on my trip my stomach hadn't been feeling too well as it was anyways, but I was hoping that it would settle down and I would be all right. . .
Went over to the Mirage, valeted the car and went to check in. Since I wasn't comped a room upfront or anything I went to the regular check-in line, wasn't too bad. Got a regular room two queen beds, 16082 north wing. However the room wasn't ready yet as it was about 1:30pm or so at this time and they told us to come back after 3:00pm to pick up our room keys, so we checked our bags with the bellhop, and went to the bar behind the hotel lobby to watch the end of the South Korean-Switzerland world cup match. Unfortunately South Korea lost and was out of the World Cup, and I was down in the dumps. What better way to revive myself, then with a little gambling?
First some business to take care of. I went to the casino cage, activated my line of credit, and got a safe deposit box to dump my cash into. Then went to pick up tickets to see Ray Romano that night at 10:30pm in the Danny Gans theatre. I really like Ray Romano's sitcom, and I have a CD of his doing stand up in Carneige hall in New York and liked it, so I bought my friend a ticket to the show for his birthday.
So having taken care of that, I went to play some craps. Got a 1000 dollar marker, and 45 minutes later or so I am leaving +1000 after buying back the marker. I had two really good runs at craps this trip , this not being one of them, both times where I was the shooter. By this time, it is after 3pm so we head back to the lobby and get our room keys and head up to the room.
16th floor north wing, room at the almost the very end of the hall. Sigh, that sucks, long walk to and from the elevator. Oh well. The room itself was ok. A little small but the bathroom sucked. Very small bathroom, single sink, no separate shower stall. Maybe the rooms with a single king will are nicer. We'll see what kind of room I can get comped next time I go. Had a mini-bar, which I kind of liked. Got two bottles of water out of it.
I usually stay at the Aladdin with a comped room, but with their reconstruction and all I decided to try a new casino. I called up the Mirage and talked to a host there when making reservations at the hotel, but alas since I had no history there, he was unable to do anything upfront for me. But, he said to stop by before checking out and he would see what he could do. Since everybody else was staying there, I went ahead and made the reservations (159 and 199 a night), and also set up a line of credit with the casino (5k).
My friend and I left Friday morning at 10:25 am on-time and arrived in Vegas approximately an hour later. Got on the Dollar shuttle express and was whisked away to the rental car lot. Since I am a fastlane express member, was able to flash my card, picked out a midsize car (dodge something or other if I remember correctly) and was out of the lot in under ten minutes! I love the fastlane express program, plus the rates are cheap, and I get Southwest credits.
We wanted to eat lunch at In-N-Out on Maryland Parkway, but I made the mistake of turning left onto Tropicana instead of right coming out of the airport. No big deal I thought, so I made a right onto Koval, and then a right onto Harmon, only to find out that Harmon doesn't go all the way through and dumps you into the middle of UNLV's campus! Doh. So, I turned back around, eventually getting onto Paradise over to Flamingo and finally onto Maryland Parkway and hitting the In-N-Out. What should have been a 5 minute drive turned into about a 25 minute jaunt! Had a cheeseburger and a coke, and left very satisfied. I love In-N-Out burgers. Normally I am a vegetarian back at home (not for religious reasons or anything, just trying to eat healthier, been a veggie for about a year now), but when I am in Vegas I like to splurge in all things. Or as my friend likes to say: I didn't come to Vegas to be cheap and get skinny. Before I left on my trip my stomach hadn't been feeling too well as it was anyways, but I was hoping that it would settle down and I would be all right. . .
Went over to the Mirage, valeted the car and went to check in. Since I wasn't comped a room upfront or anything I went to the regular check-in line, wasn't too bad. Got a regular room two queen beds, 16082 north wing. However the room wasn't ready yet as it was about 1:30pm or so at this time and they told us to come back after 3:00pm to pick up our room keys, so we checked our bags with the bellhop, and went to the bar behind the hotel lobby to watch the end of the South Korean-Switzerland world cup match. Unfortunately South Korea lost and was out of the World Cup, and I was down in the dumps. What better way to revive myself, then with a little gambling?
First some business to take care of. I went to the casino cage, activated my line of credit, and got a safe deposit box to dump my cash into. Then went to pick up tickets to see Ray Romano that night at 10:30pm in the Danny Gans theatre. I really like Ray Romano's sitcom, and I have a CD of his doing stand up in Carneige hall in New York and liked it, so I bought my friend a ticket to the show for his birthday.
So having taken care of that, I went to play some craps. Got a 1000 dollar marker, and 45 minutes later or so I am leaving +1000 after buying back the marker. I had two really good runs at craps this trip , this not being one of them, both times where I was the shooter. By this time, it is after 3pm so we head back to the lobby and get our room keys and head up to the room.
16th floor north wing, room at the almost the very end of the hall. Sigh, that sucks, long walk to and from the elevator. Oh well. The room itself was ok. A little small but the bathroom sucked. Very small bathroom, single sink, no separate shower stall. Maybe the rooms with a single king will are nicer. We'll see what kind of room I can get comped next time I go. Had a mini-bar, which I kind of liked. Got two bottles of water out of it.
Had I been feeling better, might have had a beer or two. As it turns out, I think over this entire Vegas trip I had a grand total of 3 beers! Which is unheard of for me, as I usually try to drink as much as possible without getting sick, when I am in Vegas.
After calling the bell-hop to deliver the bags, unpacking, and unwinding for a little bit, I am ready to head back down to the casino to gamble some more, but my friend wants to nap. Ok, fine with me. So he naps, and I do some more gambling.
I promptly lose 2 grand, playing double deck blackjack in the high-limit casino. Think I made it through 3 shuffles or so. Hmmm, maybe blackjack is not my game this trip, so I moved back to craps and won 2 grand, putting me back into the positive. I then headed back over to the high-limit lounge and there is some party going in there. Turns out the Mirage was having some celebrity hard-court poker tournament the next day, and tonight was the gathering mixer. So I bellied up to the bar and played some 9/6 jacks or better video poker at $25 a hand. Ended up losing my $500 buy-in, but I had fun and killed some time. So I went back to the craps table, get another $1000 marker and turned that into a little over 3k. Tried to buy my marker back, but they had already sent it to the cage with the shift change. Went to the cage, to buy back my markers, but it had not arrived yet, so they would not cash out my chips for me. Arghh.
By this time, my friend is stirring and hungry so we go eat at the Carneige Deli inside the Mirage. I've heard that the food was really good, so I wanted to check it out.
Damn, the sandwiches were huge! I ordered the hot pastrimi while my friend got the club. There was enough bacon on his sandwich to build a small log cabin. My pastrimi sandwich was a plate full of meat with a side of rye bread, literally. I manage to eat about half the sandwich, while my friend did much better getting almost 3/4 of his down. I felt a little guilty about wasting the food, and had I known the sandwiches were that large, my friend and I easily could have shared. However, having seen Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe recently, I'm glad to know that my food got recycled into some nice pig feed, and didn't totally go to waste.
After that I bought back my markers at the cage, my friend and I played some more craps. I got a $500 marker and walked away about 300 to the plus side after a little while. By this time some of the other guys were starting to show up. However, it was also getting close to show time for Ray Romano, so my friend and I started heading over to the theater to see the show, so we were not able to hook up with them yet.
After calling the bell-hop to deliver the bags, unpacking, and unwinding for a little bit, I am ready to head back down to the casino to gamble some more, but my friend wants to nap. Ok, fine with me. So he naps, and I do some more gambling.
I promptly lose 2 grand, playing double deck blackjack in the high-limit casino. Think I made it through 3 shuffles or so. Hmmm, maybe blackjack is not my game this trip, so I moved back to craps and won 2 grand, putting me back into the positive. I then headed back over to the high-limit lounge and there is some party going in there. Turns out the Mirage was having some celebrity hard-court poker tournament the next day, and tonight was the gathering mixer. So I bellied up to the bar and played some 9/6 jacks or better video poker at $25 a hand. Ended up losing my $500 buy-in, but I had fun and killed some time. So I went back to the craps table, get another $1000 marker and turned that into a little over 3k. Tried to buy my marker back, but they had already sent it to the cage with the shift change. Went to the cage, to buy back my markers, but it had not arrived yet, so they would not cash out my chips for me. Arghh.
By this time, my friend is stirring and hungry so we go eat at the Carneige Deli inside the Mirage. I've heard that the food was really good, so I wanted to check it out.
Damn, the sandwiches were huge! I ordered the hot pastrimi while my friend got the club. There was enough bacon on his sandwich to build a small log cabin. My pastrimi sandwich was a plate full of meat with a side of rye bread, literally. I manage to eat about half the sandwich, while my friend did much better getting almost 3/4 of his down. I felt a little guilty about wasting the food, and had I known the sandwiches were that large, my friend and I easily could have shared. However, having seen Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe recently, I'm glad to know that my food got recycled into some nice pig feed, and didn't totally go to waste.
After that I bought back my markers at the cage, my friend and I played some more craps. I got a $500 marker and walked away about 300 to the plus side after a little while. By this time some of the other guys were starting to show up. However, it was also getting close to show time for Ray Romano, so my friend and I started heading over to the theater to see the show, so we were not able to hook up with them yet.
We had pretty good seats. 6th row back row FF, far stage left or right, I don't know from which vantage point you're supposed to call it. The show was good, we got out around 12:15am or so. The material was about 65% stuff I hadn't heard before, the other 35% of it was on his CD that I had already heard, but still funny nonetheless. After the show, he took questions from the audience. One person asked him, that he had heard that his wife doesn't really like all the jokes about her, the family, and their sex life and had asked him to stop using it in his routines. Ray replied, yes that had come up between them, but his response to his wife: "I tell her to go cry in a bag of money". Hilarious.
After the show, we thought about hooking up with our two other friends who had arrived at this point, but we were both tired and my stomach wasn't feeling too well, so we decided to turn in at 12:30am. Yeah, I know who goes to bed at 12:30am on Friday night in Vegas? Well, I have two young kids at home, and I was just too tired to do anything else.
So the next morning, I wake up at 6:00 am on the dot. That's the time my 2 year old daughter usually comes bouncing into the bedroom to wake us up. I realize I'm in Vegas and can sleep in, so I fall back asleep for another couple hours of sleep till about 8:30am or so.
Go through the rinse cycle as my friend likes to put it, and I go buy-in to a 20-40 holdem table at the Mirage poker room, while everybody sleeps. Nothing exciting really happens, except for the local player (maybe a mid-limit pro who likes to grind it out, not sure) raises from UTG, everybody folds to me in the small blind and I find ace-king and just call, and so does the big blind. Flop comes down 9-high rainbow. I check, big-blind checks, UTG fires out. I check-raise, big-blind folds, UTG 3-bets me and I call. Turn is a blank. I check, he bets, I call. I'm thinking that he either has ace-king, ace-queen, a big pocket pair, or a set. Not sure if I'm willing to call a bet on the river if I don't at least pair up. River comes a blank, I check, he checks behind. I table ace-king, he mucks flashing me a queen. Guess it was ace-queen after all. I comment, guess the tourist knows how to play after all, and I get a chuckle out of the table. If he had bet the river, I probably muck, or raise. I surely can't call.
So after playing poker till about 1:30 or so, my other friends are finally stirring so I go eat at Cravings the Mirage buffet. However, by the time I am ready to start eating at the buffet, my stomach really starts to grumble, but having already paid for it, I decide that I must eat something. So, I have some salad, a little fruit, some fish, and some cocktail shrimp along with a couple of cokes, while watching Mexico vs Argentina in the World Cup. The Argentinean goal in overtime was a beautiful goal if I've ever seen one.
After the show, we thought about hooking up with our two other friends who had arrived at this point, but we were both tired and my stomach wasn't feeling too well, so we decided to turn in at 12:30am. Yeah, I know who goes to bed at 12:30am on Friday night in Vegas? Well, I have two young kids at home, and I was just too tired to do anything else.
So the next morning, I wake up at 6:00 am on the dot. That's the time my 2 year old daughter usually comes bouncing into the bedroom to wake us up. I realize I'm in Vegas and can sleep in, so I fall back asleep for another couple hours of sleep till about 8:30am or so.
Go through the rinse cycle as my friend likes to put it, and I go buy-in to a 20-40 holdem table at the Mirage poker room, while everybody sleeps. Nothing exciting really happens, except for the local player (maybe a mid-limit pro who likes to grind it out, not sure) raises from UTG, everybody folds to me in the small blind and I find ace-king and just call, and so does the big blind. Flop comes down 9-high rainbow. I check, big-blind checks, UTG fires out. I check-raise, big-blind folds, UTG 3-bets me and I call. Turn is a blank. I check, he bets, I call. I'm thinking that he either has ace-king, ace-queen, a big pocket pair, or a set. Not sure if I'm willing to call a bet on the river if I don't at least pair up. River comes a blank, I check, he checks behind. I table ace-king, he mucks flashing me a queen. Guess it was ace-queen after all. I comment, guess the tourist knows how to play after all, and I get a chuckle out of the table. If he had bet the river, I probably muck, or raise. I surely can't call.
So after playing poker till about 1:30 or so, my other friends are finally stirring so I go eat at Cravings the Mirage buffet. However, by the time I am ready to start eating at the buffet, my stomach really starts to grumble, but having already paid for it, I decide that I must eat something. So, I have some salad, a little fruit, some fish, and some cocktail shrimp along with a couple of cokes, while watching Mexico vs Argentina in the World Cup. The Argentinean goal in overtime was a beautiful goal if I've ever seen one.
So after lunch, we decide to play some craps as a group. Well on this craps run, I went on a massive heater. I even told one of my buddies as he's walking up to the table, I feel a heater coming on. I ended up rolling through 3 stick man so at least 40+ minutes and turned my 1k marker into $3400+ after buying back the marker. My other buddy, took his last 25$ and turned into 700+. Best craps run I ever had in my life up to that point. For whatever reason, I was a little conservative in upping my bets while on was on this run, and only started to up my bets near the end, so I didn't really make as much as I could have. I told myself, the next time I am on a heater again, start pressing my bets up earlier.
So after feeling really good with myself, we cash out and discuss plans. We have dinner reservations for 6 at Del Friscos steak house and its about 4:30 now. So we decide to change, get ready for dinner, and head over the Del Friscos early and have a cigar in their cigar lounge. I brought some Cuban Montecristo #2's for the trip and prompty handed them out to the guys, and we made our way over the restaurant via limo.
Got to Del Frisco's and lit up. BIG MISTAKE, at least for me. Up to this point my stomach was a little on edge but tolerable. After the cigar, it was definitely not good. I couldn't keep anything in me. I felt bad after having ordered such a nice meal, that I only had like 3 bites of my steak. After dinner I was feeling so bad I just wanted to go back to the hotel and crash. The rest of the guys wanted to stay and smoke more cigars, so I cabbed it back to the hotel and was in the room by 7:30pm or so, I think.
I crashed in bed, after stopping by the hotel gift should and picking up some of the pink goo to calm my stomach. I channel surfed and flipped between Major League and Forrest Gump. Both great movies, for completely different reasons. My friend showed up around 10pm or so, and I was finally feeling a little bit better. The rest of the guys headed over to the Voodoo lounge at the Rio.
So I hopped in the shower, and we headed down to the craps table to do a little gambling before hitting the strip club. We promptly lost 1600 of the 2k marker I got. I told my buddy for his birthday, I'd front him 1k, if he lost it was on me. If he won, I got back my 1k, plus half of his winnings. Well, that only took a little bit of time to lose and scrap the rest of that plan.
So we headed off the Sapphires, got there about 11:00pm, and left around 3:45 am in the morning. The rest of the guys showed up around 1:45 am after getting blown off by the chicks at Voodoo lounge. Basic strip club stuff, I was feeling good enough to have a beer, so I had a Corona with a lime, plus a couple of Red Bulls while I was there. Spent some of my easy-earned cash on well-endowed strippers in the VIP room. Good times had by all.
Next day was check-out day. Set the alarm for 10am, next thing you know the damn alarm is going off. Shower, and head downstairs to talk to a host.
Found the host, he agrees to comp my room for both nights. Said that they are looking for 150-200/hand for 4 hours a day for a room comp. My average was right around 150, but I only had 6.5 hours of play over the two days so far, but I told him I was thinking of moving here permanently from the Aladdin and was sick, so he picked up both nights and gave me his card and told me to call him next time I want to hit town.
Flight leaves at 4:05 pm, and I heard that Sunday afternoons the airport in Vegas is just crazy. So the plan is to leave early and eat lunch at the airport.
Just enough time for one last session at craps. I started at 11am, finished at about 12:45pm, and went on the best heater of my life. I bought in for $1500 cash, and colored up at $6501, and after a $200 tip for the crew, took away $6301 to the cage. Since I didn't want to take that much cash on the plane with me, I had them make a check out to me for $6300, which I promptly deposited into my checking account this morning!
So got to the airport after returning the rental, and found that the airport wasn't that busy and our flight was 45 minutes behind schedule. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men and all.
So after feeling really good with myself, we cash out and discuss plans. We have dinner reservations for 6 at Del Friscos steak house and its about 4:30 now. So we decide to change, get ready for dinner, and head over the Del Friscos early and have a cigar in their cigar lounge. I brought some Cuban Montecristo #2's for the trip and prompty handed them out to the guys, and we made our way over the restaurant via limo.
Got to Del Frisco's and lit up. BIG MISTAKE, at least for me. Up to this point my stomach was a little on edge but tolerable. After the cigar, it was definitely not good. I couldn't keep anything in me. I felt bad after having ordered such a nice meal, that I only had like 3 bites of my steak. After dinner I was feeling so bad I just wanted to go back to the hotel and crash. The rest of the guys wanted to stay and smoke more cigars, so I cabbed it back to the hotel and was in the room by 7:30pm or so, I think.
I crashed in bed, after stopping by the hotel gift should and picking up some of the pink goo to calm my stomach. I channel surfed and flipped between Major League and Forrest Gump. Both great movies, for completely different reasons. My friend showed up around 10pm or so, and I was finally feeling a little bit better. The rest of the guys headed over to the Voodoo lounge at the Rio.
So I hopped in the shower, and we headed down to the craps table to do a little gambling before hitting the strip club. We promptly lost 1600 of the 2k marker I got. I told my buddy for his birthday, I'd front him 1k, if he lost it was on me. If he won, I got back my 1k, plus half of his winnings. Well, that only took a little bit of time to lose and scrap the rest of that plan.
So we headed off the Sapphires, got there about 11:00pm, and left around 3:45 am in the morning. The rest of the guys showed up around 1:45 am after getting blown off by the chicks at Voodoo lounge. Basic strip club stuff, I was feeling good enough to have a beer, so I had a Corona with a lime, plus a couple of Red Bulls while I was there. Spent some of my easy-earned cash on well-endowed strippers in the VIP room. Good times had by all.
Next day was check-out day. Set the alarm for 10am, next thing you know the damn alarm is going off. Shower, and head downstairs to talk to a host.
Found the host, he agrees to comp my room for both nights. Said that they are looking for 150-200/hand for 4 hours a day for a room comp. My average was right around 150, but I only had 6.5 hours of play over the two days so far, but I told him I was thinking of moving here permanently from the Aladdin and was sick, so he picked up both nights and gave me his card and told me to call him next time I want to hit town.
Flight leaves at 4:05 pm, and I heard that Sunday afternoons the airport in Vegas is just crazy. So the plan is to leave early and eat lunch at the airport.
Just enough time for one last session at craps. I started at 11am, finished at about 12:45pm, and went on the best heater of my life. I bought in for $1500 cash, and colored up at $6501, and after a $200 tip for the crew, took away $6301 to the cage. Since I didn't want to take that much cash on the plane with me, I had them make a check out to me for $6300, which I promptly deposited into my checking account this morning!
So got to the airport after returning the rental, and found that the airport wasn't that busy and our flight was 45 minutes behind schedule. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men and all.
Disclaimer: None, all, or some of this report may be made up and not true. Names changed to protect the innocent. To the best of my knowledge this report contains the truth and nothing but the truth.
November 2006 -- Las Vegas
Big Smoke is upon us. Just another excuse for the married men among us to abandon our wives and families as we make our pilgrimage to the holy mecca of gambling, booze, and sin.
With the introductions out of the way, to the particulars. Left San Diego on a Southwest flight leaving around 8:30pm or so after its delayed departure. The rest of the crew skipped work early and arrived earlier than I. Arrived in Vegas around 9:20pm, got in the winding cab line and left the airport around 9:45pm. Got long-hauled through the tunnel, as I dozed off after I told the cabby to take me to the Mirage. I awoke to find myself on the freeway! When I met up with my buddies, I asked them later if they too were long-hauled and they answered affirmatively, although B said, that his cabbie said there was some construction going on at Paradise or something, so the freeway is actually faster. I don't know maybe, but I think we just got schnookered.
Anyways arrive at the Mirage around 10pm, check in. 19028, North Tower I believe. I was comped a room for 2 nights from my host at the Mirage and asked for a king bed, non-smoking, but that late at night all they had available was 2 queens non-smoking room with a partial view of the strip. Standard room, nothing special. Regular TV, mini-bar, etc, etc. Small bathroom, no separate shower stall. I prefer a separate stall but no luck here.
November 2006 -- Las Vegas
Big Smoke is upon us. Just another excuse for the married men among us to abandon our wives and families as we make our pilgrimage to the holy mecca of gambling, booze, and sin.
With the introductions out of the way, to the particulars. Left San Diego on a Southwest flight leaving around 8:30pm or so after its delayed departure. The rest of the crew skipped work early and arrived earlier than I. Arrived in Vegas around 9:20pm, got in the winding cab line and left the airport around 9:45pm. Got long-hauled through the tunnel, as I dozed off after I told the cabby to take me to the Mirage. I awoke to find myself on the freeway! When I met up with my buddies, I asked them later if they too were long-hauled and they answered affirmatively, although B said, that his cabbie said there was some construction going on at Paradise or something, so the freeway is actually faster. I don't know maybe, but I think we just got schnookered.
Anyways arrive at the Mirage around 10pm, check in. 19028, North Tower I believe. I was comped a room for 2 nights from my host at the Mirage and asked for a king bed, non-smoking, but that late at night all they had available was 2 queens non-smoking room with a partial view of the strip. Standard room, nothing special. Regular TV, mini-bar, etc, etc. Small bathroom, no separate shower stall. I prefer a separate stall but no luck here.
After unpacking head down to the casino. The rest of the guys had reservations at Delmonicos Steakhouse so I figured they'd still be eating. I ponied up to the craps table, bought in for 1000 and 45 minutes later was walking away with zippo. I headed to the high-limit casino, and decided to play some blackjack. Got a marker for 2500, and played blackjack til about 3 in the morning, spreading my bets from 100 to 500 or so. Cashed out for around 5200. Tried to buy my marker back but it had already been sent to the cage. By this time I was super tired so I decided to head off to bed. Met a really nice guy, named Steve from Atlanta while I was playing.
Wake up the next morning around 8:30am, even though I didn't get to sleep until almost 3:30am. I have trouble sleeping in strange beds, plus my internal clock doesn't seem to let me sleep in anymore now that I have kids. So I go through the rinse cycle, and head down stairs to do some more gambling. First I head to the cage, cash in my chips and buy back my marker. Play some more craps, lose 2 grand doing that. Sheesh, craps just sure doesn't seem to be game this trip. No heaters yet, not even a handwarmer.
So I decide to play some poker instead, or at least I tried. I went to the Mirage poker room and got on the list for 20/40 and 40/80 limit holdem. Brush lady kept saying that the game would be getting started soon, but it never did in the hour I was waiting. While I was waiting and wandering around the casino, I saw a game called WPT All-in Holdem. Hmmm, I know how to play hold-em, let me check this game out. Basically it you heads up versus the dealer. You make a blind ante bet, plus 2 optional bonus bets. A bonus bet on your initial 2 cards, and a bonus bet on the final hand bonus. After inspecting your cards, you have 3 choices, fold -> lose your ante, but play out the hand for the final hand bonus, raise -> 5x your ante bet. Dealer must have a pair or blackjack total of 13 or higher, or all-in -> 10x your ante bet. Dealer must have a pair or a blackjack total of 17 or higher. Pretty fun game, although I dropped 600 playing it, but simply going all-in blind just about every hand.
So after getting frustrated to all hell with the poker room, I saw screw it and decide to play some more blackjack. I go the high-limit room around noon or so and get a marker for 2500. Turns out the Mirage was having a 300,000 blackjack tournament that day, so the blackjack pits were pretty busy. I play until around 5pm again spreading my bets between 100-500. After I'm done, I cash in buy back my marker, and it turns out that I am up 3k for the trip so far. While I was playing, I got some Chinese food in the high-limit lounge. Food wasn't bad, but it upset my stomach. Since the Big Smoke started at 6:30 pm, I head over to the Venetian to meet my buddies, and get in line for the Big Smoke. My buddy has a beer waiting for me and I thank him merrily. Unfortunately, the beer plus the chinese food are now wreaking havoc on my poor stomach.
Wake up the next morning around 8:30am, even though I didn't get to sleep until almost 3:30am. I have trouble sleeping in strange beds, plus my internal clock doesn't seem to let me sleep in anymore now that I have kids. So I go through the rinse cycle, and head down stairs to do some more gambling. First I head to the cage, cash in my chips and buy back my marker. Play some more craps, lose 2 grand doing that. Sheesh, craps just sure doesn't seem to be game this trip. No heaters yet, not even a handwarmer.
So I decide to play some poker instead, or at least I tried. I went to the Mirage poker room and got on the list for 20/40 and 40/80 limit holdem. Brush lady kept saying that the game would be getting started soon, but it never did in the hour I was waiting. While I was waiting and wandering around the casino, I saw a game called WPT All-in Holdem. Hmmm, I know how to play hold-em, let me check this game out. Basically it you heads up versus the dealer. You make a blind ante bet, plus 2 optional bonus bets. A bonus bet on your initial 2 cards, and a bonus bet on the final hand bonus. After inspecting your cards, you have 3 choices, fold -> lose your ante, but play out the hand for the final hand bonus, raise -> 5x your ante bet. Dealer must have a pair or blackjack total of 13 or higher, or all-in -> 10x your ante bet. Dealer must have a pair or a blackjack total of 17 or higher. Pretty fun game, although I dropped 600 playing it, but simply going all-in blind just about every hand.
So after getting frustrated to all hell with the poker room, I saw screw it and decide to play some more blackjack. I go the high-limit room around noon or so and get a marker for 2500. Turns out the Mirage was having a 300,000 blackjack tournament that day, so the blackjack pits were pretty busy. I play until around 5pm again spreading my bets between 100-500. After I'm done, I cash in buy back my marker, and it turns out that I am up 3k for the trip so far. While I was playing, I got some Chinese food in the high-limit lounge. Food wasn't bad, but it upset my stomach. Since the Big Smoke started at 6:30 pm, I head over to the Venetian to meet my buddies, and get in line for the Big Smoke. My buddy has a beer waiting for me and I thank him merrily. Unfortunately, the beer plus the chinese food are now wreaking havoc on my poor stomach.
We go into the Big Smoke, grab our cigars and what not, plus some food. I was not as impressed with the Big Smoke this year as is in years past. This is my 3rd Big Smoke, and I liked it least of all. The ballroom at the Venetian was too small, there were no tables to sit at, and no chairs. In any case, the cigar smoke, my upset stomach, lack of places to sit simply overwhelmed me and I left early at 8pm to go crash at my hotel. I told the guys, when they decided to go off for extra-curricular activities, call me as I may be feeling better.
So I walk back to the Mirage, and crash in my hotel for a couple of hours. Around 10pm, I arise, and head down to the casino feeling better finally. I again try my hand at craps and proceed to lose another 1500 very quickly. I then head off to the poker room and decide to play 1/2 no-limit holdem with a max $200 buy-in. This is pretty low stakes for me, so I decide to play almost any two cards preflop for any reasonable price, and then play post-flop correctly.
Some big hands I was involved in:
I had Ace-King offsuit and limp for 2 bucks in middle position. Everyone folds to the small blind, who completes, and big blind checks his option. Flop comes ace-king-rag. Check to me, I bet 7 bucks, small blind folds, big-blind calls. Turn is a jack. Big blind bets 20. I raise to 60, big-blind calls. River a king. Big blind checks, I bet 45, he calls. I turn over my full-house, he mucks showing me Q-10 for a turned gut-shot straight that hit on the turn.
Another hand, I had Ace-King offsuit in the big blind. 4 or 5 limpers, button raised to 7, calls all around. Flop comes Ace of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, rag. Check to the button who bets 20, I raise to 100. UTG thinks for a long hard while, and finally calls. Everybody else folds, and I bet blind all-in on the turn for my last 52. He of course calls, and blanks off. He had King of clubs 10 of clubs for the royal flush draw that didn't get there.
UTG I raise to 7 with 7 diamonds, 6 diamonds. Get like 4 or 5 callers. Flop come 8, 9, 10, two spades. I flopped the idiot end of the straight. I check, cut-off moves all-in, button moves all-in over the top of him! I think for a long time, before I fold and I show the table the fold I am making. They can't believe I'm folding my hand. Turns out the cut-off has a set of nines, while the button has Ace of spades, Jack of spades for a higher straight draw, and the nut flush draw. So even though technically I was ahead, I am dog to win the hand at showdown. Button ends up winning when the river comes 7 for a jack high straight, so I would have lost as well if I had played.
I did crack pocket aces with 4,5 off suit when I flopped two pair and my opponenent wouldn't release his overpair, when it was pretty clear he was beat.
Interestingly enough around 1am or so, a young lass sits down wearing nothing but a bra and a shawl that barely covers her to mid-thighs. Her cleavage is hanging out and proudly being displayed to the table of 9 other men. She eventually gets busted, and a conversation breaks out around the table if we think she was a working girl. Vote goes 6-3 that she was indeed a working girl, having a hard night finding johns.
While playing poker, I decided to have a beer. Unfortunately, this was not such a good idea. My stomache begins to protest and when buddies call to tell me they are ready to head to the strip club, the idea of a hundred and ten pound stripper writhing, contorting, and grinding against me for the next couple of hours, is enough to convince me to pass. So unfortunately, this Vegas trip, I saw no naked women, other than the young hooker who played at my poker table. I end up playing till 3 am and head to bed, booking a modest 100 dollar win.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Should have just slept in. Lost a ton. Enough said. Left Vegas around 9:25 pm, put my head in bed around a little around 11pm, after saying hi to my wife.
That's it.
So I walk back to the Mirage, and crash in my hotel for a couple of hours. Around 10pm, I arise, and head down to the casino feeling better finally. I again try my hand at craps and proceed to lose another 1500 very quickly. I then head off to the poker room and decide to play 1/2 no-limit holdem with a max $200 buy-in. This is pretty low stakes for me, so I decide to play almost any two cards preflop for any reasonable price, and then play post-flop correctly.
Some big hands I was involved in:
I had Ace-King offsuit and limp for 2 bucks in middle position. Everyone folds to the small blind, who completes, and big blind checks his option. Flop comes ace-king-rag. Check to me, I bet 7 bucks, small blind folds, big-blind calls. Turn is a jack. Big blind bets 20. I raise to 60, big-blind calls. River a king. Big blind checks, I bet 45, he calls. I turn over my full-house, he mucks showing me Q-10 for a turned gut-shot straight that hit on the turn.
Another hand, I had Ace-King offsuit in the big blind. 4 or 5 limpers, button raised to 7, calls all around. Flop comes Ace of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, rag. Check to the button who bets 20, I raise to 100. UTG thinks for a long hard while, and finally calls. Everybody else folds, and I bet blind all-in on the turn for my last 52. He of course calls, and blanks off. He had King of clubs 10 of clubs for the royal flush draw that didn't get there.
UTG I raise to 7 with 7 diamonds, 6 diamonds. Get like 4 or 5 callers. Flop come 8, 9, 10, two spades. I flopped the idiot end of the straight. I check, cut-off moves all-in, button moves all-in over the top of him! I think for a long time, before I fold and I show the table the fold I am making. They can't believe I'm folding my hand. Turns out the cut-off has a set of nines, while the button has Ace of spades, Jack of spades for a higher straight draw, and the nut flush draw. So even though technically I was ahead, I am dog to win the hand at showdown. Button ends up winning when the river comes 7 for a jack high straight, so I would have lost as well if I had played.
I did crack pocket aces with 4,5 off suit when I flopped two pair and my opponenent wouldn't release his overpair, when it was pretty clear he was beat.
Interestingly enough around 1am or so, a young lass sits down wearing nothing but a bra and a shawl that barely covers her to mid-thighs. Her cleavage is hanging out and proudly being displayed to the table of 9 other men. She eventually gets busted, and a conversation breaks out around the table if we think she was a working girl. Vote goes 6-3 that she was indeed a working girl, having a hard night finding johns.
While playing poker, I decided to have a beer. Unfortunately, this was not such a good idea. My stomache begins to protest and when buddies call to tell me they are ready to head to the strip club, the idea of a hundred and ten pound stripper writhing, contorting, and grinding against me for the next couple of hours, is enough to convince me to pass. So unfortunately, this Vegas trip, I saw no naked women, other than the young hooker who played at my poker table. I end up playing till 3 am and head to bed, booking a modest 100 dollar win.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Should have just slept in. Lost a ton. Enough said. Left Vegas around 9:25 pm, put my head in bed around a little around 11pm, after saying hi to my wife.
That's it.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Crazy Mike is in the House
I played with Crazy Mike again last night. I put a serious dent into his chip-stack after he put an early beating on me. I ended up +2220 in 4.5 hours of play with him. We were playing short-handed 40/80 and as usual every hand he played it was automatically 3-bets before the flop. He's a character, likely very insecure with himself. When we were 3-handed, whenever he was the button he would live-straddle. I was on his left, making me the small-blind every time he was the button and I was first to act. If it got back to him unraised it was an automatic 3-bet and then a bet on the flop was always coming. Even if you check-raised him, he was calling no matter what. Most hands he didn't even look at his hand until after the turn card hit. It's next to impossible to outplay or get a read on a guy who hasn't even looked at his hand yet. When he's running good, get out of his way. When the cards run true, take the chips and run.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Good Seat Change, GREAT Month Change
A new month brings new results. How's $557.58 an hour sound? Outstanding. That was my hourly rate for the two weekend sessions I got to play. 12 hours total. I made back more than half of my losses in July in the basically one weekend of play.
Friday night was phenomenal. Everything I played was hitting flops hard, or just good enough to make the best hand and someone else a second-best hand that they felt compelled to pay me off.
Saturday night, I saw the biggest chip donor in a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of his chips. He consistently overvalued his hands and pushed hard, he certainly wasn't afraid to put his chips in the middle. One absolutely amazing hand that I could not believe:
Roc raised UTG with pocket tens. Donor 3-bets in the big-blind with ace-queen. Flop comes ten-jack-little rainbow. Roc and the donor are playing overs, so at this point the limits are now 80-160. Donor bets, Roc raises, Donor calls. Turn is a jack, giving Roc a full-house. 5 bets @ 160 each go into the pot, with the donor being the initial check-raiser! (check-raising with a gut-shot, although I think he was trying to represent the jack). River comes a king, giving the donor broadway. CHECK-BET-CALL!?!?!? He gets there on the river, and then just check-calls? I don't get it. Neither did Roc or the rest of the table. Good only just call sir!
Friday night was phenomenal. Everything I played was hitting flops hard, or just good enough to make the best hand and someone else a second-best hand that they felt compelled to pay me off.
Saturday night, I saw the biggest chip donor in a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of his chips. He consistently overvalued his hands and pushed hard, he certainly wasn't afraid to put his chips in the middle. One absolutely amazing hand that I could not believe:
Roc raised UTG with pocket tens. Donor 3-bets in the big-blind with ace-queen. Flop comes ten-jack-little rainbow. Roc and the donor are playing overs, so at this point the limits are now 80-160. Donor bets, Roc raises, Donor calls. Turn is a jack, giving Roc a full-house. 5 bets @ 160 each go into the pot, with the donor being the initial check-raiser! (check-raising with a gut-shot, although I think he was trying to represent the jack). River comes a king, giving the donor broadway. CHECK-BET-CALL!?!?!? He gets there on the river, and then just check-calls? I don't get it. Neither did Roc or the rest of the table. Good only just call sir!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Getting Slaughtered
July has been a very bad month for me poker-wise. I was running very well the since the start of the year, but come July the results have tanked. Not sure if I have been playing particularly bad, other players have gotten a better read on me, or what. I guess I need to spend some time fine-tuning and looking back at the past month of play and see if there are any new leaks or old leads in my game that have returned.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Update to the 2nd Quarter Update
Got out on Friday and Saturday night, so I need to roll those results into the 2nd quarter. Revised numbers are as follows:
Game Result Hours
6/12 116 4.5
8/16 -84 3.667
20/40 -3585 27
40/80 16531 118.25
75/150 6305 3.5
totals = 19283 156.917
Hourly rate = 122.89
Game Result Hours
6/12 116 4.5
8/16 -84 3.667
20/40 -3585 27
40/80 16531 118.25
75/150 6305 3.5
totals = 19283 156.917
Hourly rate = 122.89
Friday, June 29, 2007
Second Quarter Update
I'm still on a roll. Either I am running extremely well, people are playing very badly, my game has tremendously improved, likely a combination of all 3.
Here's the stats for the second quarter of the year:
6/12 +116 4.5 hours
8/16 -84 3.667 hours
20/40 -3784 25 hours
40/80 16468 110.75 hours
75/150 6305 3.5 hours
Total = 19021 147.417 hours for an hourly rate of 129.03!
Better than my first quarter average!
The results are partly skewed because of my big win in the 75/150 against Jerry Buss. If I remove that the hourly rate comes down to 88.36 an hour, pretty close to my 1st quarter average.
Also, seems like for whatever reason I haven't been playing well in the 20/40 game. Granted I didn't put in too many hours, but over 25 hours of play I would normally expect to show a profit, not a loss. Not sure if it's me playing too loose in that game, or the players have gotten better. I cut my teeth on the 8/16 game at Oceans 11, before they spread 40/80 regularly. It seems to me that the game right below the regular biggest game in the house, is usually the toughest. It has the lower limit players trying to move up and the better higher limit players who have stepped down to rebuild a bankroll. Possibly that's what is starting to happen to the 20/40 game at Oceans 11. When I was playing the 8/16 at Oceans 11 I thought that was the toughest game in the house, after I had made the move to 20/40.
Next time I play the 20/40, I will really bolt down and see how it goes.
Here's the stats for the second quarter of the year:
6/12 +116 4.5 hours
8/16 -84 3.667 hours
20/40 -3784 25 hours
40/80 16468 110.75 hours
75/150 6305 3.5 hours
Total = 19021 147.417 hours for an hourly rate of 129.03!
Better than my first quarter average!
The results are partly skewed because of my big win in the 75/150 against Jerry Buss. If I remove that the hourly rate comes down to 88.36 an hour, pretty close to my 1st quarter average.
Also, seems like for whatever reason I haven't been playing well in the 20/40 game. Granted I didn't put in too many hours, but over 25 hours of play I would normally expect to show a profit, not a loss. Not sure if it's me playing too loose in that game, or the players have gotten better. I cut my teeth on the 8/16 game at Oceans 11, before they spread 40/80 regularly. It seems to me that the game right below the regular biggest game in the house, is usually the toughest. It has the lower limit players trying to move up and the better higher limit players who have stepped down to rebuild a bankroll. Possibly that's what is starting to happen to the 20/40 game at Oceans 11. When I was playing the 8/16 at Oceans 11 I thought that was the toughest game in the house, after I had made the move to 20/40.
Next time I play the 20/40, I will really bolt down and see how it goes.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Funny Quote
From some reading I was doing today:
"Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous?"
- Hobbes
(I am assuming that this is from Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes fame from B. Watterson II)
"Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous?"
- Hobbes
(I am assuming that this is from Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes fame from B. Watterson II)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Father's Day Weekend Poker
Had a great Father's Day weekend of poker. Played 9 hours over Friday and Saturday Night for a profit of $2295, for an hourly rate of $255 an hour, and in terms of BB/Hr 2.69.
On Saturday night, I played with a funny character. Some young Navy guy, who called himself Crazy Mike, was playing in the 40/80 game. He bought in for around 7k, and left with around 2k. Every time he won a pot, he'd throw a $1 tip to the dealer in to the tray and say call me Crazy Mike. He played pretty horribly, however. He kept bragging and challenging people to play him heads-up. He claimed to be a heads-up limit holdem specialist and would play anybody up to 200/400 stakes. Maybe he's a good heads-up player, but he wasn't so good in the full-table ring games. One hand he capped it pre-flop with ace/ten offsuit. The two other hands I saw were pocket aces and pocket kings. He ended up chopping the pot with the pocket aces when they both made a wheel on the turn.
I had pocket aces 3 times in ten hands, with 2 of those pocket aces coming back to back. All 3 held up for good size pots as well.
On Monday night, I played my local home game with buddies and coworkers. I finished up $62! That's a huge win, given that we were playing .10/.25 blinds no-limit texas holdem with a $20 buy-in. I busted the resident rock who called off all his chips with a straight draw/flush draw on the turn, after I made top two pair. Not a horrible call, but a push on the flop by him would have gotten me out of the pot.
I think I will probably take a break from playing poker at the casino for a week or two. The last couple of times out, I wasn't really having too much fun. Seemed too much like a grind and work, then having fun like it used too. Maybe just too many hours under my belt. I've logged 297 hours at the poker table since the start of the year. Either that, or I should play some 3/6 or 4/8 just for fun and not worry about the money. We'll see.
On Saturday night, I played with a funny character. Some young Navy guy, who called himself Crazy Mike, was playing in the 40/80 game. He bought in for around 7k, and left with around 2k. Every time he won a pot, he'd throw a $1 tip to the dealer in to the tray and say call me Crazy Mike. He played pretty horribly, however. He kept bragging and challenging people to play him heads-up. He claimed to be a heads-up limit holdem specialist and would play anybody up to 200/400 stakes. Maybe he's a good heads-up player, but he wasn't so good in the full-table ring games. One hand he capped it pre-flop with ace/ten offsuit. The two other hands I saw were pocket aces and pocket kings. He ended up chopping the pot with the pocket aces when they both made a wheel on the turn.
I had pocket aces 3 times in ten hands, with 2 of those pocket aces coming back to back. All 3 held up for good size pots as well.
On Monday night, I played my local home game with buddies and coworkers. I finished up $62! That's a huge win, given that we were playing .10/.25 blinds no-limit texas holdem with a $20 buy-in. I busted the resident rock who called off all his chips with a straight draw/flush draw on the turn, after I made top two pair. Not a horrible call, but a push on the flop by him would have gotten me out of the pot.
I think I will probably take a break from playing poker at the casino for a week or two. The last couple of times out, I wasn't really having too much fun. Seemed too much like a grind and work, then having fun like it used too. Maybe just too many hours under my belt. I've logged 297 hours at the poker table since the start of the year. Either that, or I should play some 3/6 or 4/8 just for fun and not worry about the money. We'll see.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
San Jose
Just got back from a business trip to San Jose/Bay Area. Got out to play poker on Wednesday night with a buddy of mine from Canada, who also happened to be in the Bay area on business. We went to Garden City casino in San Jose after work, getting there around 7:00 pm or so. We sat together in the 6/12 game there. It was a fun little table, smaller than I usually play but I was just looking to have fun and get a chance to talk to my friend. I did end up 115, actually 116 dollars up, but one of those is the 1 dollar chip I took as a souvenir. I have a dollar chip from pretty much every casino I have ever played poker at.
Overall I was not impressed with Garden City casino much. It was a fairly large casino, but it seemed dirty and grungy. Texas Holdem games being spread were 2/4, 3/6, 6/12, 8/16, 20/40 and 40/80 along with some spread-limit games. No-limit games are not allowed in San Jose by law, apparently. I've been to the Bay 101 before, which I much prefer to Garden City. Next time I go to the Bay area, I'll probably go back to the Bay 101 before I visit Garden City again.
As far as actual poker play goes, nothing significant really happened. I forgot how bad the low-limit players as far as starting hand selection was. I saw some crazy hands being played in awful position. I made a couple of mistakes, but overall I thought I played pretty good, especially considering that I tend to play on the loose side before the flop, as the bet sizes are considerably smaller than what I usually play. 5-7 suited for a raise, ok I'll play. Normally in the 20/40 or 40/80 I would muck that without a second thought. Last night, I played it and won a fairly large pot. I flopped a flush draw, raised the flop, turned an open ender, bet it, and rivered the flush, bet it and got paid off.
I know that the bet size really shouldn't dictate whether or not you should play a hand. But I felt that I could afford to play some speculative hands since I figured I definitely played better than just about everybody at that table post-flop.
Overall I was not impressed with Garden City casino much. It was a fairly large casino, but it seemed dirty and grungy. Texas Holdem games being spread were 2/4, 3/6, 6/12, 8/16, 20/40 and 40/80 along with some spread-limit games. No-limit games are not allowed in San Jose by law, apparently. I've been to the Bay 101 before, which I much prefer to Garden City. Next time I go to the Bay area, I'll probably go back to the Bay 101 before I visit Garden City again.
As far as actual poker play goes, nothing significant really happened. I forgot how bad the low-limit players as far as starting hand selection was. I saw some crazy hands being played in awful position. I made a couple of mistakes, but overall I thought I played pretty good, especially considering that I tend to play on the loose side before the flop, as the bet sizes are considerably smaller than what I usually play. 5-7 suited for a raise, ok I'll play. Normally in the 20/40 or 40/80 I would muck that without a second thought. Last night, I played it and won a fairly large pot. I flopped a flush draw, raised the flop, turned an open ender, bet it, and rivered the flush, bet it and got paid off.
I know that the bet size really shouldn't dictate whether or not you should play a hand. But I felt that I could afford to play some speculative hands since I figured I definitely played better than just about everybody at that table post-flop.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Memorial Weekend Poker
Had a great weekend playing poker. Got out 3 times over the holiday weekend starting on Thursday night. Overall finished up $8661 over 24 hours of play. Some notable happenings this weekend:
On Saturday night, I lost the biggest pot I have ever played. I was in the 40/80 game, playing overs. Overs means the limits double to 80/160, if everyone who is left in the hand has an overs button after the flop. Steve the fish was in the game, and EVERYBODY took an overs button. Steve had been running hot and had about 6 racks in front of him. As soon as the overs buttons came out, I bought another rack of chips.
So about an hour into playing overs, I got involved in the following hand. I was in the small blind with 58o. 3 limpers and I completed the bet, thinking to myself if I don't flop a monster I'm done with this piece of cheese. Flop comes 4, 6, 7 rainbow. I just flopped the nuts. This was an overs pot, so preflop there was 5 40 bets, for a pot size of 200. I bet, BB raised, UTG 3-bet, I smooth call, BB calls. 3*3*80 + 200 = 920 in the pot. Turn comes an Ace. I check, BB bets, UTG raises, I check-raise, BB calls, UTG caps, I call, BB calls. 4*3*160+920 = 2840 in the pot. River comes a 6. I check, BB checks, UTG bets. I make a crying call, BB calls. BB had 3/5 for the lower straight, UTG slowplayed pocket aces before the flop and filled up on the river. Final pot size was 480+2840 = 3320. I lost 40+240+640+180 = 1100 in that pot. Took me a while to recover after that beat, but I grinded it out and went home a 200$ winner in that game. That was a massive pot. The only thing I think I marginally did wrong was call the river. BUT, the pot was so huge and it was only going to cost me 160 more to win a pot of 3000, I was getting nearly 19-1 on a call. I figured that UTG must have flopped a set, and rivered a full house, but with the pot so big, I don't think there's any way I can lay down.
On Monday night, I played 75-150 for the first time at Oceans-11. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers was in the game. That's the only reason I sat in that game. I have the bankroll for 75-150, but the game is a little bigger than I feel comfortable playing in normally. However, I have played with Jerry before, and I know that he's an action player, so I decided to take a shot. Jerry had been playing all day at Oceans-11. There was a poker tournament in the morning at 11am, that he played in, and when I showed up at 9pm he was in a short-handed 75-150 game. Jerry had been drinking and it clearly showed. He was playing very fast, and very loose. I finished that game up 6305, most of it courtesy of Mr. Jerry Buss. Thank you sir!
Jerry did put a couple of brutal beats on me though. One hand I had pocket aces in the small blind. Jerry limped with K4o. I raised and the BB called with guess what? K4o as well. Flop came king high. I bet, Wayne in the BB, called, Jerry raised, I 3-bet, Wayne and Jerry both called. Turn came a rag, bet-call-call. River a frigging King! The two of them were drawing to 3 freaking outs for a split pot! I checked, Wayne bet, Jerry called, I mucked my aces face up knowing that I was beat on the river.
One funny hand that Jerry played, Wayne tabled T-7 one the river. Jerry asked the dealer if the 7 played. It barely beat the board, and Jerry mucked, saying he had a ten too, but couldn't beat the 7 kicker. I think he called a bet on the turn too. That's why I like playing with Dr. Buss.
On Saturday night, I lost the biggest pot I have ever played. I was in the 40/80 game, playing overs. Overs means the limits double to 80/160, if everyone who is left in the hand has an overs button after the flop. Steve the fish was in the game, and EVERYBODY took an overs button. Steve had been running hot and had about 6 racks in front of him. As soon as the overs buttons came out, I bought another rack of chips.
So about an hour into playing overs, I got involved in the following hand. I was in the small blind with 58o. 3 limpers and I completed the bet, thinking to myself if I don't flop a monster I'm done with this piece of cheese. Flop comes 4, 6, 7 rainbow. I just flopped the nuts. This was an overs pot, so preflop there was 5 40 bets, for a pot size of 200. I bet, BB raised, UTG 3-bet, I smooth call, BB calls. 3*3*80 + 200 = 920 in the pot. Turn comes an Ace. I check, BB bets, UTG raises, I check-raise, BB calls, UTG caps, I call, BB calls. 4*3*160+920 = 2840 in the pot. River comes a 6. I check, BB checks, UTG bets. I make a crying call, BB calls. BB had 3/5 for the lower straight, UTG slowplayed pocket aces before the flop and filled up on the river. Final pot size was 480+2840 = 3320. I lost 40+240+640+180 = 1100 in that pot. Took me a while to recover after that beat, but I grinded it out and went home a 200$ winner in that game. That was a massive pot. The only thing I think I marginally did wrong was call the river. BUT, the pot was so huge and it was only going to cost me 160 more to win a pot of 3000, I was getting nearly 19-1 on a call. I figured that UTG must have flopped a set, and rivered a full house, but with the pot so big, I don't think there's any way I can lay down.
On Monday night, I played 75-150 for the first time at Oceans-11. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers was in the game. That's the only reason I sat in that game. I have the bankroll for 75-150, but the game is a little bigger than I feel comfortable playing in normally. However, I have played with Jerry before, and I know that he's an action player, so I decided to take a shot. Jerry had been playing all day at Oceans-11. There was a poker tournament in the morning at 11am, that he played in, and when I showed up at 9pm he was in a short-handed 75-150 game. Jerry had been drinking and it clearly showed. He was playing very fast, and very loose. I finished that game up 6305, most of it courtesy of Mr. Jerry Buss. Thank you sir!
Jerry did put a couple of brutal beats on me though. One hand I had pocket aces in the small blind. Jerry limped with K4o. I raised and the BB called with guess what? K4o as well. Flop came king high. I bet, Wayne in the BB, called, Jerry raised, I 3-bet, Wayne and Jerry both called. Turn came a rag, bet-call-call. River a frigging King! The two of them were drawing to 3 freaking outs for a split pot! I checked, Wayne bet, Jerry called, I mucked my aces face up knowing that I was beat on the river.
One funny hand that Jerry played, Wayne tabled T-7 one the river. Jerry asked the dealer if the 7 played. It barely beat the board, and Jerry mucked, saying he had a ten too, but couldn't beat the 7 kicker. I think he called a bet on the turn too. That's why I like playing with Dr. Buss.
Monday, April 9, 2007
What a Rush!
Played last night, won 3430 in 5 hours of play at the 40/80 game. Won most of it in about 1 hour, where I went on a huge rush. Pocket aces, pockets kings x2, pocket queens, pocket jacks, pocket tens, ace-king suited, ace-queen suited, ace-jack suited, all held up except pocket tens. Been a long time since I went on a rush like that, and had a 3+ rack night. I guess this is one of the reasons I like to play poker. I felt like I totally owned that table and was invincible. I should have played more hands than that, because even the rags I was throwing away would have won.
I made one play last night on Ryan, where even though I got lucky, I still think I played it well. I raised UTG with 5,6 offsuit. I was just coming off my rush, and was feeling spunky. Guy to my left calls, Ryan 3-bets in the small blind, big-blind folds, and the 2 of us call. Flop comes 2,3,5 rainbow. Ryan bets, I call, guy to my left calls. Turn comes 9h, still rainbow. Ryan bets, I raise, guy to my left calls 2 cold! My raise here is a semi-bluff, playing my image. I have been known to smooth-call a preflop 3-bet with pocket kings or pocket aces, so I know Ryan should respect my raise here. Ryan 3-bets, so I know he has a big hand at this point, but I figure I have 9 clean outs, 2 fives, 4 fours, 3 sixes to beat Ryan. I call. I thought the guy to my left called, but it turned out he mucked when I called Ryan's 3-bet. I put the guy on my left on a wheel draw, with something like ace-ten/ace-jack. I was praying for a 4, so I could nail him. I was sitting in the 9 seat, while he was in the 1 seat, so it was difficult for me to see him. I should have payed more attention. River comes a six, giving me two pair, but putting a 4 card straight on board. Ryan bet. I just called, because I thought the one seat still had a hand. I looked over to the dealer, and asked did the 1 seat call? The dealer replied, he mucked on the turn. DAMN! Had I known he mucked on the turn, I would have raised the river. Ryan shows pocket queens, and I take down the pot. Ryan was a little upset, asking how I could play that hand. I didn't say anything at the time. Later I asked him what he thought I had on the turn, and he said he didn't really think about what I had. Thus I learned that Ryan, is still pretty much a 1st level thinker, doesn't consider the texture of the board, the action up to that point, and what hands the other players could possibly have. If I did have pocket kings or pocket aces, I play it very similar, although I probably would have raised the flop, instead of calling. As always in poker, everything depends. There's never only one-way to play a hand. Guess that's one of the reasons I like to play this game.
I made one play last night on Ryan, where even though I got lucky, I still think I played it well. I raised UTG with 5,6 offsuit. I was just coming off my rush, and was feeling spunky. Guy to my left calls, Ryan 3-bets in the small blind, big-blind folds, and the 2 of us call. Flop comes 2,3,5 rainbow. Ryan bets, I call, guy to my left calls. Turn comes 9h, still rainbow. Ryan bets, I raise, guy to my left calls 2 cold! My raise here is a semi-bluff, playing my image. I have been known to smooth-call a preflop 3-bet with pocket kings or pocket aces, so I know Ryan should respect my raise here. Ryan 3-bets, so I know he has a big hand at this point, but I figure I have 9 clean outs, 2 fives, 4 fours, 3 sixes to beat Ryan. I call. I thought the guy to my left called, but it turned out he mucked when I called Ryan's 3-bet. I put the guy on my left on a wheel draw, with something like ace-ten/ace-jack. I was praying for a 4, so I could nail him. I was sitting in the 9 seat, while he was in the 1 seat, so it was difficult for me to see him. I should have payed more attention. River comes a six, giving me two pair, but putting a 4 card straight on board. Ryan bet. I just called, because I thought the one seat still had a hand. I looked over to the dealer, and asked did the 1 seat call? The dealer replied, he mucked on the turn. DAMN! Had I known he mucked on the turn, I would have raised the river. Ryan shows pocket queens, and I take down the pot. Ryan was a little upset, asking how I could play that hand. I didn't say anything at the time. Later I asked him what he thought I had on the turn, and he said he didn't really think about what I had. Thus I learned that Ryan, is still pretty much a 1st level thinker, doesn't consider the texture of the board, the action up to that point, and what hands the other players could possibly have. If I did have pocket kings or pocket aces, I play it very similar, although I probably would have raised the flop, instead of calling. As always in poker, everything depends. There's never only one-way to play a hand. Guess that's one of the reasons I like to play this game.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Quads - Odds & Ends
Had a great 1st quarter of the year. Here's the breakdown of 2007 so far:
8/16 -330$ 4.25 hours
20/40 +4772$ 65.25 hours
40/80 +10696$ 94.5 hours
Totals = 15138$ 164 hours for an hourly rate of 92.30$/hour
Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Played twice over the weekend. On Friday night, a new guy I have never played with before kept the 40/80 game alive and revived a short-handed 75/150. Spewed chips left and right. He runs into quad 8's, when he makes a full-house and lost the maximum. Approximately 10 minutes later, he runs into my quad kings. Here's how it went down, he raised UTG. Folded to me, I 3-bet with pocket kings. All folds, he calls. Flop come king-ten-rag. Check-bet-call. Turn king. Check-bet-call. River rag. Check-bet-call. He says I can't beat a king. I say how about two of them, and open my quads. He shows queen-ten offsuit. He chats with me a couple of minutes later, saying I really liked that king on the turn, I thought my ten with a good kicker might be good. Ummm, yeah buddy. There's no hand that I would be willing to 3-bet before the flop, and bet that flop that doesn't have your queen-ten crushed at that point. He burned up his chips faster than a twig in gasoline fire. He eventually moved over to the short 75-150 game, and as soon as he left, the 75-150 game suddenly got healthy again, as quite a few people suddenly put their names on the list for the game. As soon as he left, I racked up and took home my profit.
On Saturday night in the 40/80 game, I would have flopped quad deuces on the button if I hadn't mucked preflop. David raised 1 before the cut-off after 2 limpers. I looked down and saw two red ducks. I probably had odds to call, but I mucked it not wanting to get involved with such a piss poor hand, especially against David. David is one of the more solid players in the 20/40 and 40/80 games. Flop comes 2 2 9. David bet the flop and got 1 caller. Ace on the turn, David bet and took down the pot. Juicy, I think I could have got at least 2 bets on the flop and turn from David. Maybe more, depending on what he had.
Brenda was in the house Saturday night. She pounded on me for a while, before my cards started holding up and I started winning my fair share. Ended up on the night +1515, after grinding it out for 7 hours. Didn't get home till 5:00 am. That's too long for me, but as long as Brenda was in the game, I really didn't want to leave. Sleep is overrated I guess. If I didn't have kids and I didn't need to wake up and be functional on Sundays, I guess I would have stayed later. As they say, you never know when the fish is going to be in the pond.
8/16 -330$ 4.25 hours
20/40 +4772$ 65.25 hours
40/80 +10696$ 94.5 hours
Totals = 15138$ 164 hours for an hourly rate of 92.30$/hour
Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Played twice over the weekend. On Friday night, a new guy I have never played with before kept the 40/80 game alive and revived a short-handed 75/150. Spewed chips left and right. He runs into quad 8's, when he makes a full-house and lost the maximum. Approximately 10 minutes later, he runs into my quad kings. Here's how it went down, he raised UTG. Folded to me, I 3-bet with pocket kings. All folds, he calls. Flop come king-ten-rag. Check-bet-call. Turn king. Check-bet-call. River rag. Check-bet-call. He says I can't beat a king. I say how about two of them, and open my quads. He shows queen-ten offsuit. He chats with me a couple of minutes later, saying I really liked that king on the turn, I thought my ten with a good kicker might be good. Ummm, yeah buddy. There's no hand that I would be willing to 3-bet before the flop, and bet that flop that doesn't have your queen-ten crushed at that point. He burned up his chips faster than a twig in gasoline fire. He eventually moved over to the short 75-150 game, and as soon as he left, the 75-150 game suddenly got healthy again, as quite a few people suddenly put their names on the list for the game. As soon as he left, I racked up and took home my profit.
On Saturday night in the 40/80 game, I would have flopped quad deuces on the button if I hadn't mucked preflop. David raised 1 before the cut-off after 2 limpers. I looked down and saw two red ducks. I probably had odds to call, but I mucked it not wanting to get involved with such a piss poor hand, especially against David. David is one of the more solid players in the 20/40 and 40/80 games. Flop comes 2 2 9. David bet the flop and got 1 caller. Ace on the turn, David bet and took down the pot. Juicy, I think I could have got at least 2 bets on the flop and turn from David. Maybe more, depending on what he had.
Brenda was in the house Saturday night. She pounded on me for a while, before my cards started holding up and I started winning my fair share. Ended up on the night +1515, after grinding it out for 7 hours. Didn't get home till 5:00 am. That's too long for me, but as long as Brenda was in the game, I really didn't want to leave. Sleep is overrated I guess. If I didn't have kids and I didn't need to wake up and be functional on Sundays, I guess I would have stayed later. As they say, you never know when the fish is going to be in the pond.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Lucky Beer
I've been playing at Oceans-11 for quite a while now, since early 2003 or late 2002, I don't quite remember. In any case, I go there enough that I am a regular in the casino, and I know most of the employees who work the night and swing shifts, the times that I am usually there.
In any case, on Saturday-St. Patrick's day, I get to the card room a little later than usual around 9pm. The beginning of the night, starts off very choppy and I can't get into any kind of rhythm. Before I left home, I called ahead and got my name on the 8/16, 20/40, and 40/80 games. All three of these games are usually must-move games, and you can call ahead to get on the list. I arrive and there are two 20/40, and two 40/80 games running, along with three 8/16 games. I get a seat in a 20/40 game, lose some and move into a 40/80 game. As usual, before I sit down into the 20/40 game, I look around at the games that I usually play to see if there is any particularly hard table that I'd like to avoid playing, or a particularly soft table I want to get on.
I notice that Brenda, the rich accountant fish is in the room. I haven't seen Brenda around in a while, and I mentioned to Moke, sitting next to me, that I saw Brenda in the room. Moke responded that he saw Brenda about a month ago and she dumped off somewhere around 15 racks in the 40/80 game. The 40/80 game is played with $10 chips and 1 rack is $1000, you do the math. Brenda is playing 40/80 and I tell Moke that I can't wait to get into that game. Moke says I'll be lucky if I get into that game before 2:00 am at the earliest. Moke is on the list for 40/80 as well.
Part of my lack of rhythm problem was that I never seemed to be at any one table long enough. I started at the 20/40 and after 1 hour got called for the 40/80 game. Brenda had already moved to the main game however, so I still needed to make it to that game to play with her. I played for an hour and a half before the game got really short and broke. While I was playing, Jessica, the cocktail waitress I usually order from, bought me a "lucky" beer for St. Patrick's Day. I thanked her and hoped it would come true. After the second 40/80 game broke, I went back to 20/40 and played for half an hour, before a seat opened up in the main 40/80 game at around midnight. So far, I was down 655 on the night played on 3 different tables and put in 3 hours of play.
I get to the 40/80 with Brenda. Unfortunately, she's short-stacked, although over the next 2 and half hours I played, she dumped off 3+ racks because she was re-buying chips so often, but I don't know how much she was in for total. A lot I imagine. I could never imagine losing 15 racks in a single session of poker. I realize that it's all just one big long game, and that I am an overall winning player, but if I have a bad night I call it quits. There will always be a poker game another time. In fact I would never take that much money with me to play with. I have a pretty strict 3 rack loss-limit at whatever level I am playing. If I lose that much, I quit and go home. In any case, I don't get involved with Brenda in too many pots, so I don't seem to get my fair share of her chip spewage, but there's always next time.
In any case, as I am sitting down to the 40/80 game, Jessica who is sweating her boyfriend in the game asks me if the beer she bought me was lucky. I reply "Not so far", she replies "Don't worry I feel it coming". After about 30 minutes in the following hand comes down:
I have qd 8d in the big blind, 5 limpers and the SB completes. 7 players take a flop of js 9d 7d. SB checks. I think to myself, I don't want to get raised out of this pot. I have a flush draw, and gut-shot straight draw. If I check, and it comes back raised to me, I'm going to have to dump it. So I bet out. UTG, Lem calls, everyone else folds. Jd on the turn, completes my flush. I bet, Lem calls. Td on the river. I have the absolute, stone-cold, immortal nuts, a queen-high straight-flush. I bet, Lem raises. I 3-bet, Lem 4-bets, I 5-bet. Everybody at the table, except maybe Lem knows that I have the straight-flush. Hell, there's a single card straight-flush possible on the board, with 7d, 9d, td, jd on board. Lem says "one more time", and 6-bets. I 7-bet and Lem finally just calls. I open my hand, dealer announces queen-high straight flush. Lem had the nut-full house with jc tc. It went perfect-perfect for me to get that much action from Lem. Even on the flop Lem was the slight dog:
In any case, on Saturday-St. Patrick's day, I get to the card room a little later than usual around 9pm. The beginning of the night, starts off very choppy and I can't get into any kind of rhythm. Before I left home, I called ahead and got my name on the 8/16, 20/40, and 40/80 games. All three of these games are usually must-move games, and you can call ahead to get on the list. I arrive and there are two 20/40, and two 40/80 games running, along with three 8/16 games. I get a seat in a 20/40 game, lose some and move into a 40/80 game. As usual, before I sit down into the 20/40 game, I look around at the games that I usually play to see if there is any particularly hard table that I'd like to avoid playing, or a particularly soft table I want to get on.
I notice that Brenda, the rich accountant fish is in the room. I haven't seen Brenda around in a while, and I mentioned to Moke, sitting next to me, that I saw Brenda in the room. Moke responded that he saw Brenda about a month ago and she dumped off somewhere around 15 racks in the 40/80 game. The 40/80 game is played with $10 chips and 1 rack is $1000, you do the math. Brenda is playing 40/80 and I tell Moke that I can't wait to get into that game. Moke says I'll be lucky if I get into that game before 2:00 am at the earliest. Moke is on the list for 40/80 as well.
Part of my lack of rhythm problem was that I never seemed to be at any one table long enough. I started at the 20/40 and after 1 hour got called for the 40/80 game. Brenda had already moved to the main game however, so I still needed to make it to that game to play with her. I played for an hour and a half before the game got really short and broke. While I was playing, Jessica, the cocktail waitress I usually order from, bought me a "lucky" beer for St. Patrick's Day. I thanked her and hoped it would come true. After the second 40/80 game broke, I went back to 20/40 and played for half an hour, before a seat opened up in the main 40/80 game at around midnight. So far, I was down 655 on the night played on 3 different tables and put in 3 hours of play.
I get to the 40/80 with Brenda. Unfortunately, she's short-stacked, although over the next 2 and half hours I played, she dumped off 3+ racks because she was re-buying chips so often, but I don't know how much she was in for total. A lot I imagine. I could never imagine losing 15 racks in a single session of poker. I realize that it's all just one big long game, and that I am an overall winning player, but if I have a bad night I call it quits. There will always be a poker game another time. In fact I would never take that much money with me to play with. I have a pretty strict 3 rack loss-limit at whatever level I am playing. If I lose that much, I quit and go home. In any case, I don't get involved with Brenda in too many pots, so I don't seem to get my fair share of her chip spewage, but there's always next time.
In any case, as I am sitting down to the 40/80 game, Jessica who is sweating her boyfriend in the game asks me if the beer she bought me was lucky. I reply "Not so far", she replies "Don't worry I feel it coming". After about 30 minutes in the following hand comes down:
I have qd 8d in the big blind, 5 limpers and the SB completes. 7 players take a flop of js 9d 7d. SB checks. I think to myself, I don't want to get raised out of this pot. I have a flush draw, and gut-shot straight draw. If I check, and it comes back raised to me, I'm going to have to dump it. So I bet out. UTG, Lem calls, everyone else folds. Jd on the turn, completes my flush. I bet, Lem calls. Td on the river. I have the absolute, stone-cold, immortal nuts, a queen-high straight-flush. I bet, Lem raises. I 3-bet, Lem 4-bets, I 5-bet. Everybody at the table, except maybe Lem knows that I have the straight-flush. Hell, there's a single card straight-flush possible on the board, with 7d, 9d, td, jd on board. Lem says "one more time", and 6-bets. I 7-bet and Lem finally just calls. I open my hand, dealer announces queen-high straight flush. Lem had the nut-full house with jc tc. It went perfect-perfect for me to get that much action from Lem. Even on the flop Lem was the slight dog:
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2515355
pokenum -h qd 8d - tc jc -- js 9d 7d
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing Js 9d 7d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qd 8d 498 50.30 492 49.70 0 0.00 0.503
Jc Tc 492 49.70 498 50.30 0 0.00 0.497
So, as I rack up to leave a couple of hours later, Jessica says to me
"See I told you that it was a lucky beer!"
Happy St. Patrick's Day indeed!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
My own personal ATM
I went to go play poker last night at Oceans-11. The kids went to bed early and my wife gave me her blessing. I arrive and I get a seat in a short handed 40-80 game. I look at the line-up and it's a tough game, not sure I really want to play. Then before I get dealt in a seat opens in the 20/40 game. I look at the lineup over there, and boy is it juicy. I jump on the seat immediately and leave the 40/80 before ever getting a hand.
In the 20/40 game here was the lineup:
Seat 1 - unknown to me
Seat 2 - Sye, calling station. His idea of mixing it up is raising under the gun with 4-8 suited and then when he missed the flop, check-call to the river.
Seat 3 - Abol, never saw an ace he didn't like. Thinks Ace-Ten is a 3-betting/cap it hand.
Seat 4 - unknown to me
Seat 5 - unknown to me
Seat 6 - Marty, plays any two suited, any two connecting, any two paint, any ace.
Seat 7 - Daryl, never saw any two cards he didn't like
Seat 8 - me
Seat 9 - Alan, don't bother trying to put him on a hand, because he plays any cards he feels like it. He's a multimillionaire so he can afford to do it and he's awesome.
Overall, I finished up +1000 after 4 hours. Had some nasty suckouts on the river by some of the other players, but with that lineup it was expected. I wish I could play that lineup every night I played.
In the 20/40 game here was the lineup:
Seat 1 - unknown to me
Seat 2 - Sye, calling station. His idea of mixing it up is raising under the gun with 4-8 suited and then when he missed the flop, check-call to the river.
Seat 3 - Abol, never saw an ace he didn't like. Thinks Ace-Ten is a 3-betting/cap it hand.
Seat 4 - unknown to me
Seat 5 - unknown to me
Seat 6 - Marty, plays any two suited, any two connecting, any two paint, any ace.
Seat 7 - Daryl, never saw any two cards he didn't like
Seat 8 - me
Seat 9 - Alan, don't bother trying to put him on a hand, because he plays any cards he feels like it. He's a multimillionaire so he can afford to do it and he's awesome.
Overall, I finished up +1000 after 4 hours. Had some nasty suckouts on the river by some of the other players, but with that lineup it was expected. I wish I could play that lineup every night I played.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Fancy-Schmancy
So I was reading the local computer magazine, called ComputerEdge, dated February 23rd over lunch today. Had a lot of articles about GPS, applications, new devices, etc. As I was reading one article I read the following, "Using some fancy-schmancy mathematical hocus-pocus, a GPS receiver can determine location, speed of movement, and direction."
WHAT?!?
Not only as an engineer am I insulted, but I think anybody who has ever taken a college level calculus class should be insulted too. No wonder the educational system in our country, especially in math and science is so poor. When a computer magazine, albiet it's often light in the technical details, makes a statement like that . . . I should write a letter to the editor.
WHAT?!?
Not only as an engineer am I insulted, but I think anybody who has ever taken a college level calculus class should be insulted too. No wonder the educational system in our country, especially in math and science is so poor. When a computer magazine, albiet it's often light in the technical details, makes a statement like that . . . I should write a letter to the editor.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Afraid of the Nuts
So I was playing 20/40 at Oceans-11 on Thursday night when the following hand came up.
I had pocket kings UTG+1, and I raised. Roc, a very aggressive player, who usually plays in the bigger games in LA, like 100/200 or bigger, was slumming in the 20/40 game. He 3-bets me before the flop, we get 1 or 2 other callers and I just call pre-flop. At this point Roc could have a wide range of hands, from any pocket pair, ace-face, king-queen, etc. Flop comes 10, 10, Jack. I check-raise Roc, on the flop, and he 3-bets me. Turn is a rag, and I check raise Roc again, and again he 3-bets the turn. River comes a king, giving me second nuts. I check-raise rock on the river again, and again he 3 bets me. I 4-bet, he 5-bets, I 6-bet, he 7-bets. What to do now? On the river, I know that he has either pocket tens or pocket jacks. For either the nuts or 3rd nut. I just call, half expecting him to show me quads. He shows me pocket jacks and I drag the pot.
I had pocket kings UTG+1, and I raised. Roc, a very aggressive player, who usually plays in the bigger games in LA, like 100/200 or bigger, was slumming in the 20/40 game. He 3-bets me before the flop, we get 1 or 2 other callers and I just call pre-flop. At this point Roc could have a wide range of hands, from any pocket pair, ace-face, king-queen, etc. Flop comes 10, 10, Jack. I check-raise Roc, on the flop, and he 3-bets me. Turn is a rag, and I check raise Roc again, and again he 3-bets the turn. River comes a king, giving me second nuts. I check-raise rock on the river again, and again he 3 bets me. I 4-bet, he 5-bets, I 6-bet, he 7-bets. What to do now? On the river, I know that he has either pocket tens or pocket jacks. For either the nuts or 3rd nut. I just call, half expecting him to show me quads. He shows me pocket jacks and I drag the pot.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Marathon Poker
Happy early Birthday to myself. My birthday is this Saturday (2/17), and my wife has graciously given me the weekend off to do whatever I want, sans our two little daughters. So I have a poker marathon weekend upcoming.
So I haven't made up my mind, but here are my choices for the weekend:
1) Go to LA and play at Commerce Casino
2) Go to Harrah's Rincon casino and play in the World Series of Poker circuit event, 1000+60 no-limit holdem tournament.
3) Go to my regular cardroom Oceans-11 and put in a marathon session.
Decisions, decisions, decisions . . .
So I haven't made up my mind, but here are my choices for the weekend:
1) Go to LA and play at Commerce Casino
2) Go to Harrah's Rincon casino and play in the World Series of Poker circuit event, 1000+60 no-limit holdem tournament.
3) Go to my regular cardroom Oceans-11 and put in a marathon session.
Decisions, decisions, decisions . . .
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
The Places I've Been
I am a serious recreational poker player, and have been playing since around 2002. I started off at the low-limit texas holdem 3/6 and 4/8 tables and over the years have worked my way up. I currently play 20/40 and 40/80 limit regularly.
Over the years I've had an opportunity to play poker at many different places. Here's a non-chronological order of the card rooms & casinos I've played poker at, along with the limits I played while I was there:
The Bicycle Casino --Bell Gardens, CA -- 4/8, 10/20
Bellagio -- Las Vegas, NV -- 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, 30/60
The Mirage -- Las Vegas, NV -- 3/6, 6/12, 20/40
Agua Caliente -- Rancho Mirage, CA -- 3/6, 4/8, 8/16, 20/40
Oceans 11 -- Oceanside, CA -- 3/6, 4/8, 8/16/, 20/40, 40/80, 2-3 NL, 5-5 NL
Viejas -- Alpine, CA -- 4/8, 8/16
Muckleshoot -- Auburn, WA -- 10/20
Monte Carlo -- Las Vegas, NV -- 2/4
Aladdin -- Las Vegas, NV -- 1-2 NL
Canterbury Park -- Shakopee, MN -- 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, 30/60
Harrah's Rincon -- Valley Center, CA -- $1000 + 60 NL tournament
Bay 101 -- San Jose, CA -- 6/12, 9/18
The Palms -- Las Vegas, NV -- 3/6, 6/12
I've been meaning to play at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, but have never seemed to have the opportunity. From everything I hear though, it's a ramming jamming casino with lots of action, and plenty of mid-limit tables. Maybe sometime this month for my birthday I will go up to LA and play for a day.
Over the years I've had an opportunity to play poker at many different places. Here's a non-chronological order of the card rooms & casinos I've played poker at, along with the limits I played while I was there:
The Bicycle Casino --Bell Gardens, CA -- 4/8, 10/20
Bellagio -- Las Vegas, NV -- 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, 30/60
The Mirage -- Las Vegas, NV -- 3/6, 6/12, 20/40
Agua Caliente -- Rancho Mirage, CA -- 3/6, 4/8, 8/16, 20/40
Oceans 11 -- Oceanside, CA -- 3/6, 4/8, 8/16/, 20/40, 40/80, 2-3 NL, 5-5 NL
Viejas -- Alpine, CA -- 4/8, 8/16
Muckleshoot -- Auburn, WA -- 10/20
Monte Carlo -- Las Vegas, NV -- 2/4
Aladdin -- Las Vegas, NV -- 1-2 NL
Canterbury Park -- Shakopee, MN -- 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, 30/60
Harrah's Rincon -- Valley Center, CA -- $1000 + 60 NL tournament
Bay 101 -- San Jose, CA -- 6/12, 9/18
The Palms -- Las Vegas, NV -- 3/6, 6/12
I've been meaning to play at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, but have never seemed to have the opportunity. From everything I hear though, it's a ramming jamming casino with lots of action, and plenty of mid-limit tables. Maybe sometime this month for my birthday I will go up to LA and play for a day.
I'm on-line!!!
This is my first post on my blog. Don't have much to say today, just getting things set up. When something interesting happens, I'll put it up.
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