Figures

So I was playing the 20 game last night at Oceans. I get there around 9pm, and don't actually get into a game until 10pm. Now that I have an iPad, it's actually not so bad, as I can play games, surf the web, watch movies, etc, while I am waiting. In any case I get into an 8/16 game and play 3 hands mucking all 3 preflop, before I get called for a seat in the 20/40.

I end up playing for 4 hours, get in for 3 racks total, and around 2 am as I am getting ready to quit I am up almost a rack. Then in my last hand under the gun, I pick up two kings. Oh boy, I was really hoping to get a lousy hand so I could just muck and go home, but no I have to get a premium hand and I end up losing to a turned two pair on a three heart board when I have the king of hearts. Here's how the hand went down:

I raise up the KhKd, Amir cold-calls next up (absolutely horrible, I know, but what are you going to do?), Guy over-calls, button calls, Tong in the big blind calls. Joy, I am now playing a 5-way pot out of position, but hey at least I have two kings right?

Flop comes 8h 5s 2h. Not too bad, I lead, Amir raises, folds to Tong, who cold-calls, I 3-bet, Amir and Tong call. Turn is the Th. Tong checks, I check, Amir fires, Tong calls, I call. River is a blank, Amir bets, Tong calls, and I agonize, and make a very bad river over call, and lose to Td8d.

So to sum up, I pick up the 2 kings and lose $180 to finish the night up $261.

Things that make you go hmmmm . . .

I've been looking over my yearly results so far and they look pretty good. One thing I have noticed this year, and granted it's a small sample size, is whether or not I should be playing the 20/40 as much as I do, and instead just play the 8/16 and the 40/80 when it gets short.

I am averaging $44.96/hour in the 8/16 game, $43.45/hour in the 20/40 game, and $236.76/hour in the 40/80 game.

The 8/16 is almost all full-ring, with a very small sample size this year. But historically, I have beaten that game for 1.5 to 2 BB per hour. The 20/40 is the main game that I play, and it's a mix of full-ring and short-handed player. The 40/80 this year, has been mostly short-handed play and I have just been killing it short-handed. Unfortunately, the 40/80 doesn't seem to go as much as it used to. Maybe couple days of week, and usually not on Saturdays. I usually try and play Friday night, and then maybe one other day during the week, typically Tuesdays night. But the 40/80 usually goes on Thursdays and Fridays, and recently on Wednesday nights too. So I might have to shift my schedule and start playing Wednesday and Friday nights. We'll see.

What makes me think, is if I can beat the 8/16 for 2.5 BB/hour then that's really close to my 20/40 win rate in terms of actual dollars, then it's probably more advantageous to play that given that the variance swings would be much less.

Deader than a door nail!

Wow, the state of mid-limit poker at Oceans-11 is pretty bad, if last night is any indication. I got to Oceans-11 a little before 9pm, granted the weather was bad, but they had a 3-handed 40/80 game running. The 20/40 never even got started that day. I sat down to make the game 4-handed, won some pots, and then I felted one player when I had pocket jacks against his pocket tens, where we got it all in pre-flop. He only had 3.5 small bets total. He left, and then the other bad player decided to sit out since she didn't want to play with me and Wayne.

So Wayne and I played heads up. At Oceans, for whatever reason, I am the heads-up limit holdem king. I have consistently beat almost everyone there. There are two people who have beat me, with Wayne being one of them. The other player, I haven't seen at Oceans in a while, and I would like a rematch with him.

Against Wayne, I think I have finally made the proper adjustments against playing him heads up, and last night I put a beat down on him for once.

Well that sucked

Just got back from Palm Springs, err, Desert Hot Springs. My family loves it there, particularly my kids. We always get a pool-side room, so that our patio leads directly out to one of the hot springs. That way we can still stay inside the room while still being able to watch our kids.

We went there this weekend to celebrate my wife's birthday which is coming up this week. We had a nice dinner, albeit a little rushed since the baby was being fussy, at Roy's in Rancho Mirage. I was looking forward to ordering some lamb chops, but they didn't have them on the menu for whatever reason. I ended up ordering the Hawaiian style Ahi Poke for an appetizer and the Lemongrass seared scallops for dinner, along with two glasses of J. Lohr cab. My wife had the duck leg for an appetizer, the seafood cioppino for her main course, and chocolate souffle for desert. Not a bad meal overall, I've had better at Roy's in the past. My wife and I for whatever reason really like Roy's. We went to the one in Maui for our honeymoon many years ago. Pretty extensive menu, and at least at the Rancho Mirage location, they have a pretty good Monday deal.

Also, I got to play some blackjack at Agua Caliente, casino. I got destroyed and that really sucked. In other news, I just found out last week that Caliente means hot in Spanish, and thus Agua Caliente means hot water, like duh, obviously. Sometimes for a fairly intelligent person, I seem to be pretty stupid at times.

That was easy!

My wife informed me what she wanted for her birthday present. It's not cheap, $2500 is what it looks like it is going to cost. So I tell her Friday night on the way out the door, ok let me go win you your birthday present.

No worries, I book a 5 rack win in the 40/80 on Friday night and a 4 rack win in the 20/40 on Saturday night. Saturday morning, I peeled off 25 Benjamins and handed them over to her, so she could get what she wants.

I was due

Figures. I was due to have a bad session here eventually I suppose. I have been running extremely well here lately, until I hit a massive road bump last night. Dropped 3 racks in a 20/40 game in a shade under 3 hours. Ugh. Let's not do that again any time soon.

Self-Destruction

It's bad. Didn't happen to me, but to Helen last night in the 40/80. She went off like a rocket ship.