Short Vacation!

Sometimes work just sucks. I had to cut my holiday vacation short and I flew back from Minnesota to San Diego on Sunday so I could work this week. Apparently somebody in marketing decided that our feature set in our planned product wasn't good enough and we needed to deliver the full solution in the first go round.

So, I needed to come back to help test and verify that part which hasn't been tested yet. Now, the stinking lead DV engineer is a contractor and can't work overtime, so we are stuck trying to get everything done with a skeleton crew and a guy who is here from 10 to 6 only!

In any case, I think I won the biggest pot ever with just unimproved pocket aces last night. 4-bets, 5 way action preflop. 4-bets 3-way action on the flop. 2-bets 3-way action on the turn. 1-bet 3-ways on the river. Total pot size 25 big bets. I was in the small blind with pocket aces, big blind had pocket kings, and the button had pocket jacks.

4 for 4

Got back from Minnesota yesterday. Got to play at Canterbury Park on Saturday night. I went 4 for 4.

I got there, put my name on the list for 8/16, 15/30, and 30/60. 30/60 wasn't running, so 15/30 was the biggest game they had running with two tables and a must move running.

I walked around for a bit, had a beer, and then decided to play 4/8 while waiting for a seat. I post my BB see a free flop and fold. SB, I complete with QTs, flop a straight draw and an over card on a J8x board, and fold the river when I miss. They call me for 8/16 while I am playing this hand, and I ask what the rule is. The dealer tells me I can play my button and then one more hand and then I have to move. Ok, kind of sucks, seems like I should be able to play the entire orbit since I paid my blinds, but whatever.

Next hand I muck my button and the blinds chop. Last hand I open with pocket 4's, the SB 3-bets, and I call. I flop a set, on a A high board, he bets, I raise, and then he calls down, and I win.

Then I go to 8/16, and wait to post my big blind. UTG limps, folds over to the small blind who raises, I 3-bet 66 in the big blind, UTG calls, SB calls. Then they call me for 15/30, sheesh. Flop comes A62. SB bets, I raise, limper folds, and SB calls me down, and I fill up in the river and he flashes me ATo. I play my SB and button and muck both of them, and then leave for 15/30.

First hand at 15/30, I post the big blind and pick up 22. I call a MP raise and flop a set AGAIN. However, I lose this hand to flush. So in the matter of about 10 hands I flopped three sets! Pretty unlikely. I play 15/30 for a while and get up about $150 or so, when they start a 30/60 game.

First hand I play at 30/60 is pocket aces, in which I turn a set, and fill up on the river. Most of the night I stay pretty much even, not getting up more than a couple of stacks or getting down more than a couple of stacks. Then in the last 45 minutes I go on a big rush and win the following hands:

74s, I flopped a pair and a straight draw. I turned 2-pair, got a check/raise in, and then got to bet/3-bet the river when I filled up.

KK, I raised in EP, next up 3-bet me, everyone else cleared out, I called. Flop came ten high rainbow, and I check/raised. Turn was a blank, I bet/3-bet. River paired the board, I bet and he mucked. I courtesy show.

AKs, 5-bet capped preflop 3-ways. I flop a monster draw on a 245 two diamond board. I bet, next up raised, cold-call, I call. Turn was 7d. I check, bet, fold, I raise, call. River was 3d. I bet, crying-call by black kings who was drawing dead on the turn.

ATs, 2-bet 3-ways preflop, with me being the aggressor. Flop comes J85, 1 spade. I bet, button calls, limper calls. Turn is a 9 spades. Limper bets, I call, button raises, limper calls. River is a 4 spades. Limper checks, I check, button bets, limper calls, I raise, button angrily calls, limper folds. Button has a horribly played top-set of jacks. This is the same player that I beat with the 74s and the AKs, who is now on massive tilt.

T9o, I 3-bet a tight EP raiser who likes to fold on the flop when he misses on the button, tilter calls from the SB. Flop comes KTx. Tilter bets all 3 streets and I call him down. He opens 55, and I drag another pot.

Good times, and I win 2 racks.

Crazy Eights!

I played the following hands in succession in a 5-handed game.

Folded to the small blind who opens. I call in the BB with AQo. Flop comes Q8x. Two clubs. I have the ace of clubs. SB bets, I raise. SB calls. Turn is an 8. SB check raises me, and I call. River is a an ace, SB bets, I call. SB has 98o.

Next hand, button open raises, I 3-bet pocket aces from the SB. BB calls two cold. Button calls. Flop comes 986 rainbow. I bet, BB calls, Button raises, I 3-bet, BB calls, button calls. Turn is a King. I bet, BB calls, Button calls. River is an 8. I bet, BB folds, Button raises, and I cry-call. Button has Q8o.

I fold my button the next hand.

Then in the final coup de grâce I open pockets nines in the cutoff, SB and BB call. Flop comes 885 two diamonds. We get it all in on the flop, and he has, yep you guessed it 98o. Don't worry the board went running diamonds, and he had the nine diamonds, while I had the nine of hearts and the nice of clubs.

Joy.

Weekend Update

Good weekend, I suppose. I played Friday night and the casino was hopping. I roll in a little after 9:30pm or so, and there is a full 20, 40, and 100. I get an immediate seat in the 20. Played two interesting hands in this game. One hand I flopped a straight with Qc9c. I limped on the button after 3 or 4 other limpers, 5 or 6 way action to a flop of J8T 2 spades. BB bets, everyone folds to me, I raise, he calls. Turn is a low spade. He checks I bet, he raises, and I fold. This player was new to me, and I thought he was donking a spade draw on the flop, or some kind of combo draw like J9 or T9. When he checks the turn, my plan is to bet/fold both streets. Once he raised, I mucked and he showed Q9o. Not sure if I made a mistake on this hand or not.

Later against the same player, he raised in EP, and it was folded around to me in the SB, and I 3-bet pocket aces. BB folded, he 4-bet, and I just called. Flop comes K3x. I checked, he checked. Turn comes a Q, I bet, he raises. Here is my mistake in the hand, as I resolve to call down, even though the only hand I am reasonably beating here is AK, which is pretty unlikely at this point, considering the flop play. River pairs the 3, I check/call and he shows pocket queens for the turned set. I guess here's one I should have bet/folded on the turn.

I ended up winning a hundred bucks in one hour, before getting a seat in the 100/200 game. I played an absolutely ridiculous hand against the resident fish in the game. He limps in EP, everyone folds to Mike Landucci in the cutoff and he raises, then I 3-bet Qh Jh on the button. Blinds clear out, EP calls, and so does Mike. I flop the nuts when the flop comes K9T, 2 diamonds. Everyone checks to me, I bet, EP raises, Mike folds, I 3-bet, fish 4-bets, I 5-bet, fish 6-bets, and now I am afraid of possibly being free-rolled so I just call. Turn is a black J. EP bets, I raise, he just calls. River is a 2d, and he donks of death right into me. I cry-call, and he shows Ad9d. Nice, what an absolutely horrible turn bet by him. Like I am ever going to fold on the turn after going 6 bets on the flop. So this hand kind of deflated me, but I ended up turning it around, and booking a $8500 win in 6.5 hours.

Yesterday, my wife gave me the day off and I rolled into Oceans-11 around 3pm or so. I get a seat in the 40/80 game and don't really do much. Eventually the game gets short, and then I played Helen heads up for a while. I win a ton of bets off of Helen heads up, a little over 3 racks in something like an hour and a half. The floor was letting us play for free, when they suddenly filled the game, with Chuck the casino manager playing just to make it 5-handed, so that the other two players would play. WTF? I had Helen right where I wanted her, and was about to soul-crush her, when the game went from HUHU to 5-handed just like that. Then LAGtastic Doc Jose shows up and the game dynamics change dramatically. I ended up quitting a loser after 9 hours of play. I could have played longer, but I decided to just pack it in, since it was a little after midnight, and I was pretty tired.

Update

Not much new. Been on a bit of a downswing lately. Really weird, last couple of sessions I have been winning early in the session, nothing huge, maybe a rack or so, and then I would seem to take a few bad beats and then the wheels would fall off the wagon, and I would lose a ton of bets. Mental fortitude is a must I suppose. I told my buddy Sean I would update my blog, so here's the update for him.

I played 100/200 at Oceans-11 a couple of weeks ago. It got spread for the first time there ever, I think on Friday the 13th, go figure. It went all the way until Sunday morning approximately 2am or so. I played in the game twice, on Friday when it started and again on Saturday night when I rolled in. Friday I did good, I won 2 racks. Saturday, not so good, lost 5 racks.

Will probably play tonight as well. If history holds form, I should have a good night, as the past two Thanksgiving's eve, I have had good nights playing cards. We'll see.

Trying to get a new cell phone through AT&T is a pain. I have a credit freeze on at all three credit bureaus so that I don't have to worry about identity theft. But AT&T wants to run a credit check before they will open an account for me. So I have to unfreeze my credit for them so they can run a credit check. What a pain. The only reason I am switching, is because I hate Sprint and my wife wants to get an iPhone.

More Chip Pictures!

Some pictures I have taken over the years of my chips while playing.

Arts!

Arts is an organization I did some volunteer work for this week. I had fun, and I got to do some fun creative stuff. Here's some shirts that I got to decorate with paint.

Chips, Chips, Chips

Here's a picture of my stack that I took last night.

I like to keep my chips in a big triangle formation. It's easy to instantly know how many chips I have, since I can use the formula for the sum of the 1st N positive numbers, which is N*(N+1)/2. I just have to count the base layer of the triangle and I know how many stacks I have, and I keep my stacks in 20 chips each.

55 stacks is 11 racks. I normally buy in 2 racks, so 8 racks in 4/8 chip structure game is 100 big bets. I have won 100 big bets only a couple of times in my life. In other words I have only had my big triangle to almost 10 stacks in the base layer, only twice. Soon, I envision, my massive triangle being a two story condominium of chips! I like triangles.

Here's the mapping by the way for the mathematically challenged:

N(2) = 3
N(3) = 6
N(4) = 10
N(5) = 15
N(6) = 21
N(7) = 28
N(8) = 36
N(9) = 45
N(10) = 55

Easy Night!

Got some pokers in on Sunday. Went to mass in the morning, then my wife went to the Korean church, and left me in charge of the kids. We watched the Charger game, then I microwaved a prepackaged tri-tip roast (not so good) for lunch. My youngest daughter is getting over being sick, so I made her chicken noodle soup from a can. At first she didn't want to eat it, but after I told her it's like medicine it will make you feel better, she ate almost the entire bowl, saying yum, this is good.

After my wife got back home, we lazed around for a bit, and then decided to go out for Italian. I was all geared up to go to Domenic's in Poway, a good Italian restaurant I like, when my wife said, let's go to Olive Garden, since the kids like it there. I was stunned . . . what? Olive Garden? Seriously? I haven't been there in like 10 years. It was as bad as I remember.

Then I got to Oceans-11 around 8:15 pm and ran over the 20/40 game to the tune of 65 big bets in like 5 hours. Nothing like winning a rack an hour, and that doesn't include the bajillion hands that had I played I would have made the nuts. And the time my top set of aces got cracked by T7 sooted!

On Friday night, I sweated the sickest no-limit hand I have ever personally witnessed. I walked up to my buddy playing in a 3-handed 10/10 no limit game. He was in the small blind with 56 off suit, the button live straddled. He called, the big blind made a small raise to like 90, and both players called. Big blind had maybe 1000 total, and the button had around 6 thousand, and my buddy covered them both. Flop came 378 two diamonds. Some bets went in, and we see a turn of the 4h. My buddy has the stone cold nuts. He checks, big blind moves all in for his last 500, button calls, and then my buddy ships it all in for like 4500 more. The button agonizes forever, shows his hand Ad9d, and then CALLS off all his money on a just a draw. The river blanks off, and my buddy scoops like a 13,000 dollar pot with 56 off suit. Oh, the big blind? He had pocket aces and was drawing dead on the turn. My buddy gave me 50 bucks for sweating him the hand. Recently, I have been sweating everybody winners! I am like the sweat good luck box magnet these days.

Full on Doom Mode!

I only lost 1500 on the night combined in the 20/40 and 40/80 games that I played last night. I actually won 500 in the 20/40 before playing the 40/80.

I was up maybe 2 racks in the 40/80 when Persian LAG master Alex takes the seat two to my left and proceeds to amp the game into hyperdrive.

I got killed in so many big pots with big hands that it was absolutely sick. Pocket kings cap preflop, 5 ways on a J72 board. I lead right in and only JB the fish calls, and bink he turns a set with a 6.

Another hand I 3-bet drunk tilting Sam with pocket tens, and Amir calls from either the blind or under the gun, I forget which and then he fricking peels on a J54 board with Q9 clubs, with NO CLUBS on the flop. Don't worry he binks a Queen on the turn.

Then this monstrosity happens. I raise with red 77, Alex 3-bets, 3 other callers, 5 players to a flop of 975 2 clubs. I check to Alex who dutifully bets, Amir raises, I 3-bet, Alex calls, Amir calls. Turn is a 9. I bet, Alex raises, Amir takes 2, I 3-bet, Alex calls, Amir calls. River is a Queen. I bet, Alex raises, Amir folds, and I call with incredulity and say did you really play pocket queens that bad? Yep, he did, and 4-outed me on the river. Amir had a straight draw flush draw and was drawing dead on the turn.

Don't worry I had pocket kings and pocket aces cracked twice two other times too. It didn't feel like I was playing 40/80, more like BINGO. Limit holdem, what a joke sometimes.

The Real World

Birth and death, happiness and sorrow, regret and pride. The emotions are like a roller-coaster.

My wife's father, my father-in-law, passed away early this morning. I feel so very helpless and seemingly unable to comfort and console my wife. We knew that he was sick. She was out in Minnesota visiting back in September when things looked bad. She returned, and then earlier this week we decided that she should go back to Minnesota again. She was planning on leaving tomorrow, but then this happened. She caught the first flight out this morning. I know she feels guilty, because I suggested to her to go on Friday, but she decided not to. Now she is regretting not being there with her Dad in his final moments. I'm not sure what to do or say. I'm still at home in San Diego with the kids, and after arrangements have been made I will need to go to Minnesota as well.

My kids asked me this morning where Mom was, since Mom was here last night and was gone this morning. I tried to explain the situation to them as best I could. The 5-year old seemed to understand, the 3-year asked if she could watch TV after I finished explaining to her why her mom wasn't home and why I didn't know when she would be back. So I guess she probably doesn't really understand what is happening right now. I suppose that's a good thing in some ways.

Doom Switch Activated

Lost 4 racks playing in an awesome 40/80 game last night. Can't remember a recent night, where I repeatedly got 2, 3, and 4-outed on the turn or river. Oh well, I knew my winning streak couldn't last forever!

Playing the Donkey!

DeathDonkey made an appearance at Oceans-11 yesterday. I rolled into the casino around 8:30pm and the place was absolutely dead.

No 20/40 game at all, and DeathDonkey and another semi-regular playing heads up 40/80. I decide to join the party and make it 3-handed. I win the first two pots, get up a little, give a little back, while DD is just crushing the other player. He eventually quits on us, and DeathDonkey and I play heads up.

I start the heads up match with exactly 2 racks of chips. I lose early and win late. DeathDonkey got me down to about 3 or 4 stacks at one point, before I started winning.

Some interesting hands that occurred. I raise the button with AQo, DD 3-bets me, and I call. Flop comes AJx. He bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I call. Turn is a King. He bets, I call. River is an Ace. He bets, I call. He tables A9, and I table the winning hand. We had instructed the dealer to not pull in the bets, to speed up the game. He starts stacking up the bets in front of him. I am stunned for a second, and the dealer is not doing anything. I ask him, what are you doing, and he's all like it's a chop pot. I tell him I don't think so, and he finally realizes that my kicker plays.

Later he told me that he knew after the river that his kicker didn't play, and he figured that if I called the river with an Ace, that my kicker couldn't be playing either, since I guess he thought I would raise. Obviously I would raise all full-houses, so I guess his thinking is correct, but I had the one hand that I would play that way. I was planning on raising the turn, but the king was a very scary card, and he bet right into me, so at that point my plan was to just call down.

One cooler hand for me. I raise the button with K8s, DD 3-bets, and I call. I whiff the flop completely, but it comes ace-high. DD bets, and I forgot if I called or raised, but in any case we see a turn, which is a King. He bets, I raise, he 3-bets, and I call. River is an 8. He bets, I raise, he 3-bets again, and I tank, and finally call. He has pocket Kings, and I was drawing dead on the turn, and put in 6 big bets. Ouch.

He did two-out me and was trying to give me his money on one hand. Not sure if he was tilting or what he was thinking on this hand. I raise the button with A3 both clubs he called with T3o in the big blind. Flop comes 256 two clubs. He donks, I raise, he 3-bets, I call. Turn was a blank, he bets, I call. River is a T, he bets, and I call. He tables the winner of course.

I pulled off two sick river bluffs that both worked, and I showed him, one was King high, and the other was seven high. I got in a ton of river check-raises against him too. At one point, I had him gun-shy enough to actually check top-pair good kicker on the river on a not so scary board.

Playing DD, was a lot of fun for me, and it wouldn't had mattered if I won or lost. He's a very nice guy, and pleasure to play with and be around at the table, unlike most of the degenerates who play regularly.

Up the stakes, up the winnings

I am still running like a god. Since September 1, in the 20/40 and 40/80 games combined I am averaging over 8 big bets an hour for over 38 hours, or in terms of real dollars a shade over $487 an hour. Some of it can be attributed to just getting the right cards at the right times, but I think I can say for the first time in a long time, that I feel that my game has improved. And certainly, I tilt less. Recently, I have felt like I am in the zone at the poker table. I just seem to know what the correct decision is every time, almost instinctively.

I have been mixing it up a bit lately by not raising the turn always with my big hands when I don't have the betting lead and waiting until the river. I have been making some thin value bets on the river, that sometimes have not always worked out, but I have been folding to raises and not mindlessly paying off. Also, I have been in some really good games, with just some god-awful players.

Last night, I played 8/16 for an hour and picked up $155. Then I got called for the 20/40 and picked up $506 in two hours and twenty minutes. Then I got called for the 40/80 and picked up $4410 in 3 hours, and then called it quits and went home. So as the stakes, grew so did the winnings. A pattern that I would like to continue, obviously.

Doom Switch Avoided!

Since I posted last, I played 5 sessions. 8/16 in which I lost $98, a 20/40 session which midpoint I was up about $1ooo, but then ended up losing $300 instead. This was an interesting game, because two visitors from Chicago, who I have nick named twiddle dee and twiddle dumb were in the game. They have played at Oceans before, and I remember one of them, and apparently they have been playing every night this last week. They have taken to be the unpaid prop players this last week at Oceans.

Then I played 40/80 on Thursday night, and one of the players got very drunk after like 6 apple martinis. I ended up booking a 2 dime win in this game. Then I played the 20/40 on Friday and Saturday night.

Friday night, twiddle dee and twiddle dum were playing the 8/16 for some reason, and I skipped the 40/80 when my name was called, since I was tired. I booked a 750 win, and the game broke pretty early like 1:30am or so, and I didn't want to play the 40/80 so I went home.

Then on Saturday I had dinner with my wife at a nice restaurant in La Jolla. We've been there before, and we usually like their food, but this time it wasn't so good. We let the server know that we didn't think our appetizers were particularly good, and we ate very little of it. The manager stopped by and bought our alcohol for us, so that was nice. The entrees were just acceptable, nothing spectacular. Dessert was good. After that we did some grocery shopping and then headed home to relieve the baby-sitter. I know, we're boring, but my wife said she was tired and just wanted to sleep.

So I headed out to Oceans, and the 40/80 had already broken by the time I got there. I was first up for the 20/40, but I ended up waiting like 45 minutes or so before I got a seat. Twiddle dee and twiddle dumb were in the game, along with two other spectacular fish. It was simply one of the best, most awesome games I have ever been in. I won 3300 in a little over 3 hours. I would have stayed past 2:30 am, but I was tired and it was foggy out and I knew that if stayed too much longer, I wouldn't be able to safely drive home, so I racked up my 9 racks. I got my buddy to laugh at me, since I literally went and got one of those rolling trays used to hold drinks and laid my racks on the tray filled them up, and wheeled my rolling tray of racks of redbirds to the cage. I suppose I should have taken a picture. I busted twiddle dee and twiddle dumb as well. Not sure, how long they are in town for, nor how long their bankrolls will last. I don't think I will get out much this week, but we'll see.

Cue the Doom Switch

Hopefully not. I finally got around to entering all of my data from this years session into my database. Some wild swings as usual. I have been running pretty well recently and just to find out, I looked at my last 200 hours of live play. I am up a touch over 24k, in the last 200 hours, for an hourly rate of a shade over $120/hour. Not too shabby, but I'm still stuck for the year. That should let you know how much of a struggle it has been this year.

With the economy being bad, a lot of the fishy rich business owners haven't been coming in and playing as much as they used to. Thus it has been the regulars beating each other up, with the house making the vast majority of the money. According to Tommy Angelo, it costs about $20/hr to play mid-limit poker in the casino, and that sounds about right. I've logged a shade over 800 hours this year, so that 16 dimes right there. Sickening how much the drop really adds up if you play any significant amount of live poker.

In any case, I have been running and playing really well lately. Here's my last 10 sessions results:

+1375 20/40 5.5 hours
+110 8/16 0.75 hours
-1393 20/40 3.5 hours
+256 8/16 0.75 hours
-1499 20/40 3.0 hours
+6510 40/80 7.0 hours
+200 40/80 9.5 hours
+4185 40/80 4.5 hours
+2050 20/40 6.0 hours
+1220 40/80 3.0 hours

8 wins and 2 losses, I'll take it. I will continue to try to stay disciplined and not spew off chips. I have recently been nitting it up a lot preflop, and it seems to be working, as most of the players seem to be thinking that I am still playing my LAG style preflop, which I am still doing, but more so from late position only. However, Jed, noticed it last time I played, and said hey we have 3 seats open. He hasn't played a hand in like 30 minutes.

In other news, there was a Mike L sighting at Oceans. His sabbatical from poker seems to have come to an end, for better or worse. Hopefully he will beat up on the Commerce games, and not play the 40/80 regularly at Oceans, as he is not the easiest spot in the world to play against.

On a lighter note, here's a picture of one my poker buddies and his girlfriend. He's sweating her playing the 40/80, while drinking, well certainly not a manly drink.

Working like a dog

Been working a ton lately. I went to Idaho to go visit my parents on their ranch over the labor day weekend. Very calm and peaceful, and beautiful countryside. Nice place to visit and relax, wouldn't want to live there.

I have been on a mini-heater of late and am up 11 dimes since about mid-August. Hope to get out tonight, but I have been working late every night this week so I am pretty tired. We shall see.

Big Stakes, Small Stakes

So I've noticed a disturbing trend lately in my play. Seems like I take the 40/80 game much more seriously than the 20/40. When the stakes get kicked up, I seem to play my A game much more often and correctly. In the 20 game, I seem to be just donking around more and having fun rather than taking the game super serious. I think I need to try and maintain my focus at all times even if I am playing in a smaller game. Anytime you have a months rent or mortgage payment on the table, it's serious money. Last night, I think I played some of the best poker of my life. Plus it didn't hurt that I flopped a ton of sets and had a large share of pocket pairs that held up. Ship the 6 and a half dimes!

What game am I playing again?

So last night was interesting. I went out to dinner with the family at Outback steakhouse and then got some cards in at Oceans. I got into a 20/40 game that was 8-handed before I showed up along with two prop players. I was the ninth player, and I think 5 or 6 of the players were playing overs. Bunch of players were yammering about upping the stakes to 30/60. Initially the floor declined to convert the game, because the floor man didn't want to call Chuck the casino manager for permission to convert the game.

But then some of the more vocal players said either convert the game, or we are all just going to sit out, and then you'll have no game. Not sure if they were serious, I didn't get involved in the discussion as I didn't really care one way or another what we did. Like 20 minutes later the game converted to 30/60.

I have played 30/60 before, but never at Oceans-11 since they normally spread 20/40 and 40/80. I thought we were going to color up our chips to $10 chips, and play 20/30 blinds just like in all the 30/60 games I have ever played. Nope, we kept our 5 dollar chips and played a 6/12 chip structure game and played with $15 and $30 blinds. Now some of the players, also kept their overs buttons, so now they were playing 60/120 when it was an overs pot. Which means that when a turn raise went in, it was 48 chips, which is almost half a rack of chips. That made for some very big pots, as you can imagine. Plus the pure number of chips made it virtually impossible to clean cut out 48 chips in one hand, so that made for some clumsy chip handling by people not used to pushing that many chips into the pot.

Because that was the first time I have ever played in a 6/12 chip structure game, I was not used to cutting out the chips cleanly. Since I was uncomfortable, for the first time in a very long time, I verbalized all my actions, just to make sure that I would not screw up by not having the correct number of chips in my hand.

Anyways, I crushed the game. I pulled off two river bluffs against the same player. The first I was in the big blind with Kh Qh and he was in the small blind. There was a early position limper, a middle position raiser. Flop came K56 two spades. SB lead out, I raised, everyone else cleared out, he called. Turn came an offsuit 4. He check raised me and I called. River was the 8 of spades. He bet, and I instaraised, he tanked and then he mucked. Later he claimed to have 65 and flopped two pair, and I believe him. Later I raised in EP with A3 suited in clubs, he cold called next up, and the rest of the field cleared out. Flop came 10 10 J two spades. I bet, he called. Turn was a low spade. I checked, he checked. River was a red queen. I bet, he made a speech saying, well I can't beat anything anymore and folded 9s 9c face up.

Well, that was short

My self-imposed break from poker lasted all of a week. Not bad I suppose. Too bad I lost $500.

Cashed Out!

Made it to 800 hours last night. I cashed in for $2500, and now it is time for a little break from live poker.

I got to play one of my poker buddies heads up 40/80 on Friday night. When we started off the heads up match I had $2400 in front of me. He ran me over early, and got me down to about $600. Then I made a raging comeback and eventually cashed out $3800. During my heater rush, I flopped like at least top pair or better almost every hand that I played. I actually folded quite a few of my buttons, while I think Sean maybe folded like one or two of his buttons, and I don't think he ever gave up his big blind to my button raise ever. Not that I am a better poker player than Sean, it was just good luck and variance. I was having fun playing with him, that's all.

T minus 22

22 hours to go. We'll see if I can get it done this week and then take a break from the pokers.

Almost There!

Less than 40 hours to go to hit 800 hours played for the year at Oceans-11. The money is starting to run out, so I need to get it done here within the next month or so. I will be getting back $2500 or $3.125 per hour. Probably only offsets my rake by about 50% or so I figure.

Location, Location, Location

Oceans-11 I win 4 racks in the 20/40 game in 3 hours. Seemed like a pretty easy session for me, no real tough decisions, just easy value betting and calling for draws when the odds were right and getting there about the right amount of times.

Commerce Casino, nothing goes right, get sucked out on left and right, and the few times I tried to make a move it back fires. Oh well. Guess I'll stick with Oceans-11, plus the drop at Commerce is ridiculous. $6 a hand at both 40/80 and 20/40, plus they drop a dollar even if the blinds chop. Ridiculous.

Commerce Recap

I lose, witness verbal sparring between two 40/80 players, plus attempted threat and intimidation, hotel lacks hot water, wife tries to use 50$ comp but is denied since she failed to read the fine print. Kids enjoyed Wiggles concert at Gibson Amphitheater at Universal Studios. Wife ate lots of Korean food in Korea Town in Los Angeles.

The Scene of the Crime

Commerce Casino, Saturday July 25th 2009. I'll be there for the second time in my life. Here's hoping this trip goes better than last time.

The Straddle Game

Last night in the 40/80 game at Oceans we did a round of live straddles, we call it the straddle game. It certainly loosens up the action and makes for big pots. Lucky me in that one orbit I got aces twice and kings once, and they all held up to win. Apparently the time I had kings, I got a player to fold pocket aces on the flop, but I'm not sure I believe him.

So after losing in the 20/40, I win in the 40/80. This has been a recent change, as it seems like lately I have been winning in the 20/40, but losing in the 40/80. Guess which one I would chose.

What a long strange trip it's been

Interesting night my last session. Tuesdays are Alan nights, so after dinner with the wife and kids at Souplantation, I headed to my night job.

I get to the casino and there are two 20/40 games running. I get a seat in the must-move game and we are 7 or 8 handed, for most of the first part of the night. I don't really do much, and my chip stack stays within +- 300 of my buyin. Then the game gets short, and I end up playing heads up with AB. AB is horrible. He wins like the first 4 pots off of me, and then I win like the next 10 in a row, some with real hands, 2 or 3 with ace high only.

Then some others join us and we get back up to 4 or 5 handed. When 4-handed the following monstrosity happens:

I get Kd Kc in the BB, UTG opens, AB cold-calls on the button, David T calls in the SB, I 3-bet, UTG caps, all call.

Flop comes 9d 7d 2d. I lead, UTG raises, AB cold-calls, David T 3-bets, I call, UTG caps out of turn, we all call.

In case you haven't noticed, the pot is pretty big at this point, and I have an overpair, plus the second nut flush draw.

Turn is the ugliest card in the deck for me, the ace of spades. Checked to the button who of course bets, David T check-raises. Here's the decision point of the hand for me. The pot has 19 BB in it, and I am getting 19:2 immediate odds to call, but the action will not be closed. I am very likely in 3rd place, and could be drawing dead. However with AB holding any ace here, I have to think I am live. So I cold-call two on the turn, which I rarely do. UTG mucks JcJs exposing it to the dealer and in the process to me, so the dealer tables it for all to see, AB calls. River is a rag diamond. Yah, I just got there! David T checks, I fire in a bet, and now AB raises, David T mucks disgustingly, and now I crying call getting 25:1 to get shown the nuts, A9o, with the ace of course being the ace of diamonds.

So in fact I was drawing dead. David T later told me he had QdTd for the flopped flush. So let's look at the hands and the percentages at each point in the hand

SB QdTd 13.8% 66.3% 75.0%
BB KdKc 47.8% 2.8% 0.0%
UTG JcJs 16.9% 2.1% 0.0%
BTN Ad9s 21.6% 28.8% 25.0%

So I was drawing dead on the turn, like I feared, and went from a favorite to a huge dog, just like that.

Later while I am 3-handed with David T and AB, I flopped a set of kings against AB's set of 3's and he just called my flop and turn bets. The river was an A, which I successfully check raised him on, but again he didn't put in 3-bets on the river and just called. Where's the rest of my POT! He is supposed to go animal with that hand and a K73 rainbow board, what he just magically knows that I flopped top-set?

Later, the main game finally loses a player and I am forced to move over there. I have to immediately change mind sets from playing a 3/4-handed game to a full ring game. I play here for quite a bit, but only get to play with Alan for like an hour or so before he takes off, so once again I miss his weekly visit.

Even here, the game eventually gets short, which is my strength, and I pound some on the fish. All in all, I book a 1385 win, which is always nice. Lately I have been killing the 20/40 game. Since June 1, I have been beating the game for over 2.5 BB/hour. Too bad, that in the 40/80 in the same time frame I have lost 120.7 BB. So for those keeping score, in terms of big bets I am up 71.4 BB, but down actual dollars in that time frame. Joy.

What a strange night, I go from playing full to short to full to short.

How much is your time worth?

So I normally try and play most Tuesday nights at Oceans-11. That's the night that Alan usually plays. Alan is a super nice guy, multimillionaire who owns a very successful movie chain.  He likes to gamble.  Sometimes however he has really good nights, like last night where he cashed out what looked to be somewhere in the 5 to 8 rack range, I wasn't really paying attention when he racked up and left. The game broke as soon as he quit, however. He normally only plays until like midnight, although last night he stayed until 1 am.

I only got to play for two hours with him. I got to Oceans around 8:30pm and there was a long list for the 20 and I was buried like 7 names deep. So instead I played 8/16 for 2 and half hours. The first was a must move 8/16 game that was perpetually short, with two props. It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but it wasn't super horrible either. I eventually got a seat in the main game, and unfortunately I had to sit to the immediate right of the world's most annoying Mexican kid. I did get to bust a TAGfish nit, who thought he was the greatest 8/16 limit player in the world, when my 44 flopped a full house versus his QQ, so that was at least kind of fun. I won a 114 dollars in this game before I got a seat in the 20/40.

At the 20/40, I never really got anything going and hovered between -200 and +200 for pretty much the entire night, eventually losing 64 dollars when the game broke. So on the night I won 5.525 big bets total and in actual dollars won 50. I got a little closer to the 800 hours I need to get my 2500 dollars in rake back from Oceans-11 Racing for Dollars promotion. I got 5 scans, with each one currently worth 8 dollars so in virtual dollars I made an additional 40 bucks.

Was it worth it? Probably not, I could have spent those 5 hours doing something else, relaxing, vegging out, catching up on my reading, etc, etc. I'm a little under the 100 hour mark I need for the required 800 hours to cash out 2500 dollars. However, I am not really in the mood to play poker these days, and these last 100 hours are likely to feel like pulling teeth, which fortunately I've never had to do, so I guess I don't really know what it feels like.

My sister is coming into town tomorrow, and staying until next Tuesday, so I will probably not get any more poker playing in this week, which is probably a good thing. I plan on taking a break from live poker playing after I get my 800 hours for the year, which will probably take me sometime until late August or early September.

Run good all, play fearlessly, and make that thin value bet, but fold to a raise. That's why it's called a value bet. If you just do this, you'll earn rate will go up significantly. Don't be a mindless payoff donkey.

Short-Handed Frenzy

Been playing a lot of short handed limit lately, both live and online. Online I have been playing 4/8 6-max, and I am doing okay so far in that game. Live, I have been playing 20/40 and a little 40/80 when the game goes. Both games are weak however and almost always get short early in the night.

I took my family to the Padres-Dodgers game last night. They had fireworks after the game, that I didn't get to see. My youngest daughter fell asleep in my arms around 9:20 pm or so, and my eldest daughter wanted to go home. So we left early after the 7th inning stretch and the Padres down 6-3, which ended up being the final score.

I then got to Oceans-11 around 10:45 pm or so. There were 2 40/80 games going and a 8-handed 20/40 game. The main 40/80 game looked pretty good, but you had to go through a tough short handed 40/80 game first. So I declined the must move 40/80 and took a 20/40 seat. I promptly got stuck like $700 in about 20 minutes. I rebought another dime, switched seats when a good seat opened up and started winning a little. Slowly but surely the people starting leaving and we were down to 6, 5, 4, and then 3. When we were down to 3, the floor came over and was about the break the game, when I offered to play 3-handed, the other two players agreed.

Player 1 was a major fish, calling station, no hand-reading abilities, just all around bad. Player 2 was a TAGfish nit. In a full-ring game with mediocre loose players, he'll do fine and grind out a win. In a game full of people who know what they are doing, he'll get eaten alive. Plus he didn't really adjust for 3-handed play all that well.

In any case, seat 1 the fish said he was only going to play until 1 am. This was at 12:20am or so. I said ok, fine by me. After losing the first 4 or 5 pots, I then started running them over. The fish in seat 1 had over 3 racks in front of him at the start of short-handed. By the time that game broke, he had less than a rack. At least three times my unimproved ace high was the best hand against him and took down the pot. I think he was really upset when I called his button raise with 96o in the BB. I flopped bottom pair plus a gutter and I check-raised him on the flop, bet the turn, and checked the river, and he couldn't beat a pair of sixes.

Anyways 1am rolls around, he's now stuck and doesn't look like he's planning on leaving. Around 1:20am or so, Mac leaves the 40/80 game and takes seat 8 to my left. Great, I think to myself, why can't you leave these guys to myself? Mac is a good player and knows how to play short, so I really don't want him in the game. At this point I am no longer stuck and I am a little more than a rack winner. I decide to go to the bathroom, take a break, and then decide what I am going to do.

I get back to the table 5 minutes later, and the game has broken and the floor man is racking up my chips. Apparently the fish in the 1 seat was pissed saying that I took all his money and now I'm quitting. I never said anything about quitting, and in fact he was the one who said he was only going to play until 1am, but now that he's stuck he wants to play longer? Whatever, I hope that guy is pissed at me and continues to donate his chips my way.

Quadruple Dipping, no not really

Sunday was an interesting day. My wife took the kids and me up to North County and dropped me off at the casino while she took the kids shopping.

I played the 5/5 NL for 20 minutes, played 2 hands in the blinds that I check/folded either the flop or turn, and then left for the 20/40 that just started. I played for 3 hours and booked a 515 dollar win. Then my wife called and we left and picked strawberries at the fields in Carlsbad and then went home for dinner.

After dinner, my wife gave me her blessing to return. So I played 20/40 again, some of the same people were there, some new faces too. This time I played for only 40 minutes and picked up $68, when the game got short handed and broke, so I'm not entirely unhappy with that. Since it was early, I decided to play 8/16.

I got into a very interesting game. There was a TAGfish nit, a maniac, a couple of calling stations, one other solid player, and some other randoms. The other solid player had about 5 or 6 racks in front of him. He eventually went busto when he moved 2 seats to my left to try and get position on me and the maniac who was mostly 2 to my right for most of the time, and then on my immediate right after the nit TAGfish moved to my left.

This maniac was a true maniac, check raising bluffing the river with air, 3-betting the river with bottom pair top kicker, etc. So of course, I run into his aces twice when I have big hands as well and he gets lots of bets out of me.

In a couple of pots I nailed him good. In one pot, he limped UTG, I 2-bet QsJs UTG+3, and got it heads up. I flopped the nizzles, when the board came 89T rainbow. 5-bets went in on the flop, 3-bets went in on the turn, and 4-bets went in on the river, with me holding the nuts at the end. Another time I rivered a full house with QQ on KT44Q, 3 club board on the turn, with me holding the Queen of clubs.

He did however, get atrociously lucky in a kill pot against me. I had 48 suited in the big blind in a kill pot. Unraised preflop I put in the 4 chips and saw a flop of A88. I bet, only he called. Turn was a blank, and I bet/3-bet him and put him all in. River came the case ace, as the TAGfish nit told me he folded an ace preflop. Joy, he should have been busto at that point. Unfortunately he seemed to take those chips and sprinkle them around the table. I ended up losing 2 racks in the game, but I would love to play with this fella again.

Not afraid of the Nuts!

So I put in two sessions over the weekend. Friday night, where the 20/40 game was really weak, and I ended up playing Helen heads up for like an hour and a half. I told Helen she could quit at any time. Twice I had her down to the felt, less than 5 big bets left, and twice she made a comeback. In fact she ended up taking 200 bucks off of me. That's typical heads up limit poker for ya.

On Saturday night, I got to the casino rather late and had to wait around for a bit before I got a seat around 11pm or so. For the first two hours I ran like a god. I didn't lose a showdown.

My first two hands, I mucked in my big blind and small blind preflop. My 3rd hand, Helen limped, Peter 2-bet, and Chi completed out of the small blind out of turn. I called time, Chi took back his call, I looked at my hand and 3-bet two nines. Chi and the big blind folded, Helen called, Peter called. Flop came 822. Checked to me I bet, Helen folded, Peter called. Turn was 7. Peter c/r me, and I 3-bet. River was a J. Peter checked, and I checked, hating the Jack, and knowing that he won't call with any hand that I am beating. He tables KTo, making a move on the turn. I collect my first pot of the night.

An orbit later, it's folded to me in the small blind. I don't chop, so I 2-bet pocket sevens. Chi calls in the big-blind. Flop comes 533 rainbow. I bet, Chi calls. Turn is a 7. I bet/3-bet/5-bet/7-bet. Chi finally just calls. I tell the dealer, no 5 please. River brings an ace, I bet and Chi calls. Chi had the pocket fives that I knew that he had to have. I was just calling an 8-bet. 8-bet is my limit with the top-full house with one card to come.

Variance sucks!

So I get to Oceans-11 on Saturday night around 8:30pm. I took the kids out for dinner and then to the mall for candy. The wife had the night off. After I dropped the kids off at home, I hit the road to the casino to attempt to make some money for my kid's tuition (that's what I use my poker winnings for, at least if I have any winnings).

Oceans-11 is dead, which is not entirely surprising, since the WSOP is going on in Vegas right now. In any case, there's no 20 game, and only a short-handed 40 game going. So I take a seat, and end up getting buried 2 racks in like 45 minutes. I'm in seat 9, seat 2 is a tight old man, seat 4 is bad, and seat 5 is awful. Eventually seat 5 goes busto, and the 3 of us agree to keep playing until at least 10:15pm or so. Well I eventually start running over the table and build it up to 5+ racks. Of course, the game keeps going.

Then, the hour from hell starts, and I get massively cold-decked for like the entire down, and don't drag a pot for like over an entire hour. Every draw missed, TP no good, etc, etc. I eventually quit when I'm a 5 rack loser, saying enough is enough. I quit, and the table breaks at about 1:30 am or so.

Whee, variance.

Heater definitely over

Ugh. Last three sessions, 40/80 -5000, 20/40 -3000, 20/40 -2500. Lost 200 BB's in 3 back to back to back sessions. Doesn't feel good.

Trifecta!

I did this yesterday online and saw it pulled off by another person yesterday live in a 40/80 game.

I got pocket aces (AdAc) in the small blind in a 1/2 6-max online table currently playing 4-handed, I was playing for fun while watching TV. I check-raised all 3-streets!

In fact it was even better than that. Preflop button open-raises, I 3-bet from the SB, he capped. Having watched this guy's play, he sucked, was overaggressive in bad spots and couldn't lay down a hand. I check-raise the flop on a board of 4c 8d 5h. He 3-bet, I called. I check-raised the Ks turn, he 3-bet, I called. I check-raised the Td river, he 3-bet, and I called. My aces were good, he had QcTc, that finally made a pair on the river. I had him drawing stone dead on the turn, and he put in 6 BBs! It's not often that you can have your opponent drawing stone dead on turn with just a single pair. Actually, the river check-raise by me is kind of suspect. He easily could have had KT, K8, T8, 45, and made two pair on the river. The better play is to bet and then call a raise. But with this guy so bluff happy, I was willing to let him bluff one more street. On the river I really hated calling the 3-bet, but now I have to given the pot size, which is why bet-call would have been better.

Another player did it to a really bad player in a live 40/80 game where he had pocket queens and she had AJ, on a JJxQy board. He check-raised the flop, turn, and river. It was pretty awesome.

Spaceship!

Last night one of the stranger things happened to me at Oceans-11. The 40/80 game broke really early like 7:15 pm. I got there around 7, and got into the short-handed 40/80 and then the game broke, mainly cause I ran really lucky and everybody was trying to give me their chips. I made almost $1500 in less than 15 minutes.

I think I won every hand I played postflop, and only lost my BB or SB once or twice, when I either folded preflop, or just check folded on the flop. So, I played the 20/40 for a couple of hours, and then they started back a 40/80 game. At least I got to play with Dan Dreger, one of the part owners of the casino. He's a super nice guy, super friendly, and a bad poker player. Everything you want from my point of view! He was drinking last night too, so it made it even better.

However, since it was late at night, the only free table they had was one of the worst tables in the casino in terms of location, and it didn't have a shuffle master. The location is the first table you hit as you walk in from the main entrance, and there is literally no space around the table as it is against a wall and the stairwell leading down into the main casino floor.

Well, a spaceship sort of just landed at our table. Some guy out of the blue, who just happened to walk in, see that our table had empty seats and decided to sit down and play with us. He had some cash on him and at least bought a rack of chips (later after he lost most of first rack, he purchased another), but it was obvious he had very little experience playing casino poker, as he played super slow on fairly easy decisions, counted out his chips 1 or 2 at a time, didn't know how many chips to bet or raise with on each street. At first it was excruciatingly painful, but since he was donating, I think everybody put up with him.

I knew that eventually he would pick up a monster and snap someone off by accident, and of course it happened to Joe sitting to immediate right, who I am friendly with. He beat Joe with pocket kings, on a very scary board that 99/100 times Joe will have him beat, but he doesn't know that. However, in a different hand this guy took one of the strangest lines I have ever seen before. He called from the big blind Joe's cutoff raise. On the flop he check raised, Joe reraised and he called. On the turn he bet, Joe raised, and he called. And then on the river he check - folded!

Then I played the following hand with him.

One other fishy limper, all folded to me on the button, I raise Ad7d, SB folds, spaceship calls in the big blind, limper calls.

Flop came 8x 5d 6d. Checked to me, I bet, both call.

Turn comes 2d. Spaceship checks, limper bets, I look left and I see what looks like the spaceship getting ready to raise, so I just call. Spaceship raises, limper folds, I 3-bet, spaceship calls.

River is a blank. Spaceship checks, I bet, he check-raises, I 3-bet, he 4-bets, and I ponder a 5-bet, but realize that if this guy 6-bets I will throw up and call, I just call his 4-bet and I announce straight flush good. He says, uh, I don't have a straight flush, I table my hand and he flips over his hand, Kd 3d. So I guess I should have just kept raising, as this guy thought he had the nuts or something, but I didn't want to be his second victim of the night, plus anytime I get 4-bets on the river I'm pretty happy.

Jackpot!

Really, this time. So when I was out in Minnesota, I got out to Canterbury Park on Thursday evening the 14th of May. It turns out that day is also my anniversary. After going out to dinner with my wife, at this nice restaurant Chambers, my wife gave her blessing for me to go play some pokers at Canterbury Park. I'm never one to say no to a good time gambling, so off I went.

A little after 1am Minnesota time, I was still on California time, I never bother to change my watch whenever I go to Minnesota, I got a player share of the bad beat jackpot in Minnesota. Fitting, that the place I rarely play I got a piece of something I hardly pay into, but at the place I play all the time (Oceans-11), I have never won the bad beat. In any case, the bad beat jackpot was a little over 32k, and at Canterbury Park they split it up 50/25/25. We were 7 handed, so I got a little over 1600 for being a lucky sap occupying space at a poker table. The hand in question was a weird way to win it too. I forgot the exact position and details, but one guy, flopped the nut flush, while another guy flopped top two pair. The nut flush check/raised the flop, and lead in on the turn when he turned the royal. The two pair guy, almost mucked, but decided to make a bad call drawing dead, but with 2 possible outs to a bad beat jackpot. He hit it on the river and I think 5 bets went in before the full house just called, he said later he was actually afraid that the other guy had AQ, for a bigger full house. The guy with the royal knew it was a jackpot, because he told the other guy when he just called, don't muck your hand, you have aces full right? He did indeed and we got paid, eventually, like 30 or 40 minutes later. Not sure what took them so long to pay us off. Now the only thing that sucks, is I'm not sure if I need to file a Minnesota tax return now for this year, since they issued as a W-2 for the winnings. That part kind of sucks.

Off to Minnesota

Wife is in Minnesota, since last Monday. I have a few things to take care of this week at work, and then I'll be heading for Minnesota on Wednesday evening. Hope the Canterbury Park regulars are ready to see me again. Not sure if I'll actually get a chance to play out there however, as I think I'll probably have a full schedule while I'm out there since it's my father in laws 70th birthday. We'll see.

Heater check?

After a pretty big downswing, I think variance is starting to swing the other way now. I have been on a mini weekend heater, and picked up 5 dimes this weekend. I played 20/40 last night and some 20/40 this afternoon/early evening and just crushed it. I love sessions like these, where it seemed I had no tough decisions, and all my river value bets were correct, my ace high call downs were good, and even the hands that I lost I felt that I played properly. Today's lineup was great for me. Only 1 other good player at the table, 1 nit, 1 super LAG, and everyone else was loose passive. I simply ran over the table. It felt good to know that I was the best player at the table.

Finally

I finally booked a win last night, 1820 in 7.5 hours in the 40/80 game at Oceans-11. There was a super tilting player, who normally plays pretty solid, but is a super lag too. I made two correct call downs with very marginal holdings. I 2-bet AQo, and I was 3-bet preflop, and it was heads up after that. I check/called 2 streets, and the river went check/check and my hand was good, with just ace high. The next time a little while later, when the game got short handed, I 2-bet KTo, and was 3-bet by the same player, and again it was heads up. Flop went check/check, and I check/called the turn, and the river went check/check. Neither one of us had a pair, and I ended up chopping the pot, as we both had the same hand KTo.

There was one final pot played the last hand before the game broke, that was huge. Two people made a flush, and the tilting player made a straight. The flop was Jd9s7d, and some bets went in. Turn was the Kd, and all hell broke loose, 4-bets from two of the players, and almost 3-bets from the tilting player. River was a blank, and then the first player bet, the other player raised, and the first player, an excellent limit holdem player, folded his Qd8d face up. Winner had Ad3d for the nuts, and the other all-in player had QcTd for the turned straight. Both players were drawing dead on the turn.

I may have misplayed a hand too, where I may have lost 2 or 3 bets I could have made. Temporarily 3-handed because a bunch of people were walking. Button raises, who is an excellent tight aggressive player, although sometimes too aggressive post flop. I 3-bet pocket 7's from the small blind, big blind clears out, and the button just calls. Flop comes J7x. I bet, button calls. Turn is a 7. I bet, button raises, I 3-bet, button 4-bets, and I just call. River is K. I bet, button calls. I'm pretty sure that I should have 5-bet, even though it turns my hand face up. I was pretty sure that the button had AA, KK, or JJ. So I thought that the river card was a good chance to get a b/3b in. On the other hand, with me just calling the 4-bet on the turn, I may have also been able to get a check/raise in on the river. In any case the button just called with his AA. So in retrospect, I think I lost at least 1 bet on the turn by not 5-betting. I don't think I'll get 6-bet by him here like ever. Having not 5-bet, I probably should have gone for the c/r, since I think the button is aggressive enough to make the very thin value bet of AA here on the river, but I'm not totally sure.

Limit - I win, No Limit - I lose

Hmmm, no-limit seems to be all the rage these days, and it has been for what seems to be quite a while. However, and while I admit I haven't really played/studied/practiced no-limit holdem all that much, I can't seem to beat this damn game. Now I have a very limited sample size, and I can't for certainty say that I am a winner or loser in this game, but if last night's results are any indication I am a huge fish at no-limit. I played the 5/5 no limit holdem at Oceans last night for two hours and 20 minutes and lost 1967 American, not Canadian, dollars.

The 5/5 has a max buy-in of $1000 and I bought, lost, bought another 1k, lost, bought another 1k (for those of you counting that is 3 dimes I was into this game for at this point), built it up and then lost another big pot. Let's see I lost with JJ against AK, AA against K9, AA against KK, and some other monstrosities that were pretty sick. The AA versus KK was a total cold deck. All fold to me in the SB, and I ask the BB if chops. He says no he plays, he has about 1100 hundred behind and I have him covered.

Ok, I look at my hand and I have AA. I raise it to 20, he re-raises to 60 and I call. Flop comes K42 rainbow. I check, he checks. Turn is a T. I check, he bets 60 or 80, I check raise to 200, he reraises to 600 basically committing him and me to the hand if I decide to call. I, of course, put him all-in and he beats me into the pot with KK. Of course, I think I played this hand awfully in retrospect, and will just chalk this up as a 1100 dollar poker lesson, but geeze c'mon, that's a total cold deck there small blind versus big blind AA and KK?

I think if he doesn't flop a set and we both have overpairs I end up stacking him on the turn anyways. But whatever. So, then I finally get called for the 20/40 game and I am back much more in my comfort zone and I win 1640 in 4 hours. So in all I was down on the night by little over 300 dollars, so it's not like it was a big deal or anything.

I guess maybe it's more of a shot to my ego than anything else. I may have to give up limit for a while and maybe start concentrating on the no-limit game so I can at least become competent at mid-stakes no-limit live games. Whatever . . . .

No longer dieing!

No posts for a while since I have been sick. I got strep throat, felt like I was dieing, finally drug myself to urgent care. They confirmed I had strep throat, gave me a prescription for antibiotics, and now I am feeling a ton better. It's amazing what those drugs will do for you.

I am a downswing since coming back from Palm Springs. While out at Palm Springs, like I said previously I won 622 dollars playing 8/16, the next night I went back and didn't get to play any poker. Instead I played blackjack while I was waiting and I won 4000 instead in like 2.5 hours. Go figure.

Since then however, I am down a little under 5k. I booked a nice win last night, however, my first night back in a casino in a little over a week. I won 288 in an 8/16 game in like 20 minutes, and then booked a 1605 win in 5.75 hours in the 20/40. Normally the 20/40 is not played with a kill, but recently the regulars there have seemed to want to juice up the action lately, and we played the 20/40 with a kill last night. On Friday and Saturday night, when I thought I was on my deathbed, apparently they got a 40/80 game running with a kill as well. I also missed out on my chance to meet bicyclekick at Oceans-11. Apparently he and DeathDonkey made a trip to our local friendly casino.

Palm Springs, err Desert Hot Springs

So I'm sitting in my hotel room in Desert Hot Springs. The hotel is pretty nice (other than the cockroach I found in the bathroom that I had to catch and flush down the toilet), and they have a bunch of nice hot pools that are sourced from the underground aquifer that is nice and hot.

My wife made reservations two nights ago at some place I had never heard of. She just said it was somewhere in Palm Springs. Well sort of. It's close to Palm Springs, about 30 minutes north of it. The only slight problem with the place, is that isn't really much more than a resort town, and it turns out it has a huge gang and crime problem, according to this article.

I did get out last night and played 8/16 at Agua Caliente. I played there many years ago, almost 5 now. Back then they had 20/40 and bigger. Here's the trip report I wrote back then after I went there for the first time.

This time around it was much different. The poker room itself I think was in the same location, but I can't say for sure. The biggest limit game they had going was 8/16, and only one table at that. They may have had a 3/6 and 4/8 game going too, I don't quite remember. The place has basically turned into a no-limit room, with plenty of small stakes no limit being spread, and I think one fairy large 5/10/20 game being run. Not sure if that means it's 5 dollar ante from each player, and then 10/20 blinds, I wasn't really paying attention to that table.

I played 8/16 and won 622 dollars in about 3 hours or so. I got really drunk for some reason, I didn't drink that much, but I drank on an empty stomache, so that probably caused my problems. I ended up heaving in the bathroom for like 2 hours around midnight. I don't know what time the game broke, because when I came back at 2am, the game had already broke and I had gotten picked up. I grabbed my chips and cashed in, and then I tried to get a room at the hotel there, so I wouldn't have to drive back. Unfortunately they were sold out, so I got the minivan from valet, parked in the parking garage and passed out in the back for 2 hours or so. Very cold and uncomfortable. After I felt good enough to drive, I drove back to the hotel and slunk into bed next to my wife. She was pretty understanding of it, all things considered. Also since she was the one who fed me Udon noodles, and not a real meal, I think she probably felt partially responsible anyways. It's really not her fault though.

Vacation

I'm on vacation until April 13th. Not sure what exactly my wife has planned, but hopefully it will be restful and relaxing. But probably not, not with two little ones running around the house.

I did get my one "free" day yesterday and I spent it playing 20/40 at Oceans-11. I had a good day/night and won 1855 in about 12 hours of play. I was winning even more, but then I got rivered or turned in two huge pots. In the first I had pocket kings and raised under the gun. Next up a buddy of mine 3-bets, and then some random unknown caps. Flop comes 9 high, I check, buddy bets, unknown raises, I 3-bet, all call. Turn was a blank, bet-call-call. River 9. Bet-call-call. My buddy flips over 89 suited. Nice. A little while later he got me again when I had AJ against his 86 suited on a jack high board with 2 of his suit. Again I raised preflop and he 3-bet me again.

Oh yeah, then there was the pot where I flopped the nuts with 96 suited in like a 7 way limped pot. Flop came 578. Don't worry it came running 7's. I folded on the river like I was supposed to.

On a nicer note, I may have misplayed one hand, where I turned quads and then only called a turn c/r, but did get to raise the river and get paid off.

I'm Recovered

I basically slept since Friday night 8pm til about Saturday morning 10:30 am or so. Got up for a little bit, then slept some more in the afternoon, had some soup, watched the ladies figure skating on TV with my wife and then slept some more. I took some Dimetapp twice, once around 1pm, and again around 9pm. That stuff knocks me out whenever I take it, which is one of the many reasons I don't like to take drugs of any kind.

Slept some more on Sunday as well, until about 11am or so. These are sort of the sleeping hours I have when I go play poker as well, only this time I was sick, so my wife was letting me sleep in to try and recover. My wife knows that when I am really sick, all I do is sleep. She knows I am better when my appetite has returned, because normally when I am sick I will just sleep and sleep and sleep.

I feel a lot better now, and should be good to go for the work-week ahead. This is my last week of work before I go on vacation for a week, so I am looking forward to that. Hopefully I will get some time in for rest and relaxation, which I definitely need these days.

Did my taxes tonight, I owe the federal government a shade under 5k, and I am getting back from the state a little over 1.5k, assuming the state of California is paying its bills again.

Also I have to pay my property taxes too, they are due April 10th or so. Sheesh, with all the money I am sending to the government in the next 15 days or so, I'm going to need to make a killing at the poker tables.

Sick!

No pokers this weekend, unless I make a miraculous recovery. That is all.

I'm no longer a no limit fish, for now.

So I went to Oceans-11 last night after the kids went to bed to get a little poker action in. Unfortunately Oceans was pretty dead with only one 20/40 game and one 8/16 game going. The 20/40 game didn't look too hot either, with no major donators in the game. So I ended up playing my record longest session ever of no-limit holdem in a casino.

I played the 5/5 blinds no-limit game and bought in for one thousand American dollars. I end up getting stacked in this hand, I limp after a couple of limpers on button with 97s. Flop comes A68, two spades. Checked around. Turn is an offsuit T. SB bets 40, MP limper calls, I pop it on the button to 150, both call. River is K, no spade. SB checks, MP bets like 200, I push for like 450 total, SB folds, MP calls and flips over QJo no spade. Ooops. Don't worry, I rebuy another 500, and proceed to build it up to $1675, and cash out a $175 dollar profit in 4.5 hours of "work". I'll take it! It also helps when you get dealt pocket aces three times and pocket kings once and they all hold up.

Here's my lifetime results in that game:
16.006 hours played over 22 sessions (normally I play only when I am waiting for another game).
13 winning sessions, 9 losing sessions.
Total net win: $39

Last night's win made me a lifetime winner in that game. If I quit playing that game now, I can forever say that I beat the Oceans-11 5/5 no limit game, for the grand sum of $39!

Game Selection, Seat Selection, Table Selection

So I was in a pretty good and bad 40/80 game last night at Oceans-11. It looked like it was going to be a good game for me with a major donator in the game with like 6 racks. I tried to get in the seat to his immediate left, but one of the more observant players in the game locked up the seat before I got my chips down and was able to take a hand. Thus I was relegated to the 9 seat, while the donator was in the 5 seat. Seat 6 was the player who just moved and is a good player, very aggressive, sometimes overly so. Seat 7 was a pro from LA who usually plays bigger, but lately has been playing a lot at Oceans in the 20 and 40 games. Seat 8 was a semi-regular in the game and a nit. Seat 2 is another good pro, who plays a very good game. So it was basically the 5 of us trying to take the 5 seat's money. Not such a good idea. He was hitting left and right and making everyone pay. He cashed out a good 7 or 8 racks, although he had 6 or so racks when I sat down.

He left, but luckily another bad player who took the 4 seat, joined the game before he exited stage left with everyone's money including a little of mine. Thus I was able to move to the 5 seat and get position on the new bad player. I fared a little better here, but I think my chip count varied between 1200 and 3000 pretty much all night. Now, here's where I made a mistake. The 4 seat decided his seat was unlucky or something, plus he's a notorious seat changer anyways, so he moved from the 4 seat to the 9 seat. I decided to slide over to the 3 seat so I could chat with my friend in the 2 seat. Now the 9 seat decides to move to the 5 seat. Doh, in the matter of like 5 or 6 hands, I went from the best seat in the game to the worst! So I had no choice, but to move to 9 seat now. Luckily I had put my name on the 20/40 game and as soon as a seat came available in that game I went ahead and took it. I booked a 420 win in that not very good 40/80 game in 3.5 hours and was pretty happy to do it.

The 20/40 game was extremely juicy and I won 755 in a little over an hour and half, picked up a little after 2am and came home.

Radio Test

I did some blog maintenance tonight. Not sure if there are too many people out there in the intertubes who are actually reading my rantings and ravings. So if you're a regular reader, I'd appreciate it if you'd indicate so in the followers box, or by leaving a comment on this post. Not that I worry too much about getting traffic to this site, but it would be nice to know that I'm not just rambling to myself.

Double Dipping!

A bunch of guys I am friendly with at Oceans have an expression we call "double dipping". It's where you come to the casino have a winning session, leave for whatever reason, and then come back for more in the same 24-hour period. Well I double-dipped yesterday, for the first time ever.

I had a light morning in the office, and I had an early afternoon appointment outside the office. So afterwords I went and played some cards. I made $1200 between the 20/40 and 40/80 games I played in a relatively short amount of time. I left around 5:30pm so I could get home to the wife and kids, who were none the wiser. After going out to dinner with them, the wife gave me her blessing to play cards, so ... I showed back up at Oceans-11 around 9pm or so. Steve the floor man working that night said goodbye to me as I was leaving the first time, and did a double take when he saw me walking in again. He gave me that confused look of huh, didn't I just see you leave? I just smiled and explained the situation to him. He got a good chuckle out of it.

In any case, the back end of my double header was a good one. I got into a really juicy 40/80 game with two mega-fish and a couple of guppies. I had a good night and finished just a little shy of booking a 4k win.

Bad Beat!

Now, I normally don't like to tell bad beat stories. Nobody wants to hear them, they happen to all of us, and if they didn't happen, the winning players in the game wouldn't be winners. Winning players always take more bad beats than they give, because obviously the winning players are usually ahead, and don't need river cards to win.

I was playing at Oceans-11 tonight in a 3-handed 40/80 with overs. All 3 players had overs, so it was really 40/80/160. I live straddle my button, SB folds, BB calls, I 3-bet on the button with two fives. Flop comes 445. I bet, BB calls. Turn is a ten. BB check raises me and I 3-bet. River is a 4. BB check raises me again, and I just call. He shows me 94 offsuit. Nice one outer. I lose an even 1k on that hand.

Very next hand, I am the big blind. Button raises, SB calls, I call with T9 offsuit with the 9 being a spade. Flop comes 678 two spades. SB checks, I bet, button raises, SB mucks, I 3-bet, button calls. Turn is rag spade, I bet, button calls. River is another spade, and I check-call to see button's pocket aces with the ace of spades. Beautiful. I lose 640 on that hand.

I win both of those hands like I'm supposed to I go home a big winner instead of a 2300 dollar loser. Wheee, isn't poker fun?

It's the Economy, Dummy!

The games at Oceans have been really weak lately. Oceans started a nice feature where they send out a text message when a high limit game starts, like 20/40 or 40/80. Unfortunately, they aren't very consistent about sending out the text message. When Lonnie works, he seems to be pretty good about sending out the text message. So on Wednesday I got a text message in the early evening that a 40/80 game got started. I sent out some messages and it was revealed to me that the game was pretty good. So I went ahead and headed out to the casino. I got there about 8:30pm. There was a single 40/80 with a short list, NO 20/40! It had broken at 7:45pm. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Even the 40/80 broke early around 11:30pm or so that night, so I didn't play that long, and I won the grand total of 16 bucks in that game. I did however go on a heater and won over 1k in the 8/16 game that I played for a couple of hours.

I've had a very good last week, results wise. I played 4 days, 8 different sessions (I consider playing at any level a session), and I won in all 8. Not all were huge wins, but at least I didn't lose in any of them. I'll have to double check my logs, but I don't think I've had a perfect week for quite a while. For the week, I put in a total of 20.75 hours and averaged $200.67 an hour, so pretty damn good. I have been working really hard on playing my A game, all of the time, particularly preflop, and I think that I am starting to play dividends.

Bring the Pain!

So I played in a great 40/80 game last night at Oceans-11. Only a couple of real tough spots and a lot of easy spots. Eventually we got short handed and we played 3-handed for a while.

Mike, Wayne, and me played 40/80 with overs. Since we were all overs, it was actually 40/80/160. Preflop the blinds were still 20 and 40. But the bets on the flop were in 80 dollar units and the turn and river were 160 dollar units. Mike eventually went busto, and had to rebuy. When that happened he said we wanted to take overs off, since he didn't have enough chips to properly play overs. So we did for a little while. I couldn't seem to win a hand. As soon as Mike won some chips we went back to overs I seemed to start winning again.

And then Brenda stepped into the box. Now I'm not superstitious, nor do I believe in bad luck, good luck, luck charms, lucky seats, hot seats, cold seats, good dealers, bad dealers, etc. However whenever Brenda sits in the box, she always seems to deliver the pain to me. Case in point, I'm dealt pocket aces in SB, and 3-bet preflop. Flop comes 643. 2-bets go in 3-ways. Turn is a 3. I lose to Mike's 23o. Very next hand, I have pocket queens. I lose to Mike's A7 suited.

Fortunately, despite these abominations of hands short-handed, granted the A7 wasn't too bad, I still had a good night and booked a 3.5 rack win.

Happy Birthday Me!

I turned 34 today, but I don't look it, feel it, or act it! I do however have the middle aged responsibilities. Wife, two kids, mortgage, yadda, yadda, yadda. Life is good, even though the economy is down, no bonus and no raises at work due to the bad economy, but other than that, all is well with the world outside of poker.

Inside the world of poker, I have basically played break-even poker since the beginning of the year, so that is kind of meh. At least I am not losing, but not winning kinda sucks too.

I played like the worst heads up limit holdem poker player like ever last night in the 40/80 at Oceans-11. He open limped like 95% of his buttons. I don't think he ever won one hand at showdown. Every time we went to showdown, I had him crushed, and all the times I'm sure he had me beat (not very often), I would muck on the flop or turn. Good times.

Stuck and Unstuck

Well, I got it back and plus some. I grinded out a nine hour session last night, getting in for 4 racks and basically never being a winner until like the last hour, where I finally went on a rush and started pounding on the fish and booking a rack and a half win. I knew that I couldn't leave with the game being so damn good, yet somehow I was losing. I hate it when that happens!

Monkey Tilt

Bad for your bankroll, don't do it!

Fortunately, I only lost a rack and 2 stacks, but the damage could have been much worse. I was glad I got out of there when I did last night, otherwise it could have been pretty ugly. Not sure what exactly did it to me last night, but for some reason . . .

I think I need to go back and reread Tommy Angelo's Elements of Poker again.

Big Downswing

Lost 109BB in back to back 40/80 sessions. Both were mostly short-handed, mostly 3 and 4 handed, at most six. Not sure if the loss was totally due to my cards, cold-decks, and combination of bad play. In any case I will be much more careful in the future when playing against these particular players.

On a better note, I hopefully hit the bottom of my downswing and will start running well again. I booked a 4 rack win in the 40/80 last night and I am now down a little over 2k for the year in 97 hours of play, so nothing I can't overcome with a string of winning sessions. I pine for the days of when I seemed to run like a god, and couldn't have a losing session despite playing bad. I think the longest win streak I have ever had has been like 10 winning sessions in a row.

Back to the grindstone.

Happy New Year!

Played my first session of 2009 last night. If last night is any indicator of how 2009 is going to be, I'll be a millionaire before July :-)! Let's just say I had a good night, an outlier on the chart, an aberration, an anomaly. One that I hope to make a regular occurrence.

I showed up at the casino at approximately 10:30 pm, yesterday. My wife and I got a baby sitter and we went out for a nice dinner and a movie, and then my wife gave me her blessing to go play some pokers. I got into a short handed 20/40 that was particularly juicy. I played for a little while, and then one of the weaker spots wanted to convert the game to 40/80. I was in the must move game with 3 other players, and the main game had 8 players. As soon as the main game lost another player, one of the players at my table would have to move, the game would become 3-handed and likely break. I told the floor man, that as soon as that happened that I would just leave, but if he made it a 40/80 game I would stick around for a while. I went to the bathroom to let them sort things out, and when I came back, we were coloring up our chips to play 40/80. The weak spot went busto, we played 3-handed for a little while, when farmer Chuck showed up and we played 4-handed for a while. After Chuck went busto, I went home.