Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my loyal readers (any still out there?).

It's been a while since I last played at Hawaiian Gardens Casino.  I got the pass from the wife on Saturday and headed up to Los Angeles early in the morning after my workout.  I was originally planning on heading to Bicycle Casino to use a coupon the casino sent to me back in August.  The coupon included a $10 California Games Bet Voucher, $15 towards a complimentary dinner, 1000 instant reward points and 25% of Hotel Spa services.  It expired on Dec. 31, 2017 so I used that leverage to sweet talk my wife into letting me go.  I figure the EV of the coupon was north of $25 depending on the rules pertaining to the California Games Bet Voucher.

But, I never made it to Bicycle.  On the way up there I checked Poker Atlas and discovered that the overnight 20/40 game broke, so instead I went to Hawaiian Gardens as it is on the way to Bicycle and already had two 8/16 games running and an overnight 40/80 still going.

I looked at the 40/80 lineup, declined, put my name on the board for 20/40 and took a seat in the 8/16 game.  An hour and $200 later, the 20/40 game started with me planted in seat 9.  Seat 9 at most poker casino tables is my favorite seat.  Most dealers are right handed and since you're next to the dealer and the rounded edge of the table at seat 8, there's usually more room and you don't have to struggle to see the board.  And with right handed dealers, they are usually swiveling the dealer chair in a manner that keeps their body away from seat 9.  Left-handed dealers are a bit of pain to deal with when in seat 9, but fortunately they are rare.

In any case, for the first time in a long time, I ran like a god.  For like the entire session.  Once again, I qualified for Crush Club.  In for 2 racks, out for 12+ racks.  Here's the documentary proof:

Here's an example of how good I ran.  Sylvia, a very tight Korean lady opened the button - 3.  Button - 2 and button both called.  I called in the big blind with 64o.

Flops came 7 5 3 two spades.  I led, Sylvia raised, 1st cold caller called, button 3-bets, I called, Sylvia called, 1st cold caller now capped, all called.

Turn was an offsuit deuce.  Checked to the 1st cold-caller who bet, button raised, I 3-bet, Sylvia folded for sure a big pocket pair.  All called.

River was an offsuit 8.  I bet.  Called in both spots.  Button - 2 had 33, button had 77.  That hand is just pure dumb luck.

Another hand I opened the button with QQ.  Blind defended with A9o.  Flop came Q98.  Check/bet/call.  Turn 9.  Check/bet/call.  River 8.  Check/bet/2-bet/3-bet/4-bet/call.  I just called his 4-bet.  Too weak?  Should I 5-bet and call a 6-bet?  Or is 4-bets enough with top-full on a double paired board where there are 2 quad combinations that have you beat?

Or another with QJo in which a player on full blown tilt raised a limper with AA got 2 callers behind and I called in the big blind with QJ.  Flop came J 7 3 rainbow, I bet he raised and I called.  Turn was a Q.  I bet, he raised, I 3-bet, he 4-bet and I called.  River was a blank and it checked through?!?

Talk about burning up chips and not thinking about what hand your opponent could possibly have.  Is there any 1-pair hand that any competent 20/40 limit player 3-bets on the turn as played up to that point?  Uh, no.  Thanks for the gift buddy.

As expected my 2017 poker hours were way down given my new gainful employment.  Nonetheless 2017 was a profitable year poker-wise.  Nothing major, but made an extra low 5-figures on the side.  Not bad for a hobby.

Happy New Year everyone and have a great 2018!

BigO has swept across the Nation, and Oceans-11

Pot-limit Omaha, game of the future.  At least that's what I keep hearing.  Yet, it never really took off.  But, and I must stress the but, pot-limit Big O has, especially at Oceans-11, where on a busy night you can find 3 games going.  What is Big O you ask?  It's 5 card Omaha, played high-low split with 8 qualifier for low.  This game can be found spread in both fixed limit format—barf—and pot limit formats.

Now, I am not a pot-limit Omaha (PLO) specialist, nor a Big O expert, but one of the great things about poker, is you don't need to be an expert to be able to win in the game.  It's like the old joke goes, I don't need to be able to out-run the bear, I just need to be able to out-run you.  It's the same at the poker table.  I don't need to be the best player in the world, I just need to be better than most of the current players at the table that I am playing with.  In other words, game selection.  Oh, and the secret to Big O, make the nuts and always try to have a redraw.  The weaker players are more than willing to put it in with no chance to improve and you can be stone free-rolling them.  I'll give some examples from my last two sessions.

I got in two sessions over the labor day weekend.  Work has been a little light the last couple of months fortunately, so I was able to enjoy the 3-day weekend with the family and get a little poker in.  On Sunday, I played multiple different games and hopped around, but spent the majority of time playing 2/3 pot-limit Big O.  Couple of strange rules at Oceans-11, though.  In a normal pot-limit games the first open is 3 times the big blind plus the small blind (by the way, this math is always correct.  If you want to compute a pot-sized raise it's always 3 times the bet you are facing, plus what's already in the pot including any callers of the current bet).  So in a normal 2/3 pot-limit game a pot-sized open would be to $11.  But, to keep things a little bit easier for the dealers (mainly, I suppose) and some of the more math challenged players, the game is played with red chips ($5).  So keeping in line with this, a pre-flop limp is $5, while a pot-sized open is $15.  Basically, the small blind and big blind are combined to treat it as a single $5 blind game.  After the flop, if either blind calls and one folds, the other blind's amount is rounded up to $5 when computing the pot amount.  Now because of all these quirky rules, the best deal in the world, is if you live straddle.  Normally a live straddle would be double the big blind.  So, I think if you want to live straddle it should be $10, but the powers that be have decided that would make the game play too big, and thus a live straddle is only $5!?!  That's right.  For the price of a normal pre-flop call, you can buy last action pre-flop.  That's pretty crazy if you ask me.

Now on to the free-rolls.  There are multiple players who don't seem to realize that in the pot-limit variety of the game, unlike the fixed limit version of the game, getting quartered or scooped is catastrophic.  And, if you are drawing for only half the pot, your pot-odds are effectively halved.  So if you are facing a pot-sized bet, instead of getting the normal 2-1 odds, the pot odds are halved if you are drawing only to half in either direction.  You should be looking to scoop or three-quarter your opponent.  That's the key to BigO.  Because of that, it can actually be mathematically correct to fold on the flop with the nut low, with no redraw to a high hand, or a made nut straight with no redraw to a higher hand and no realistic chance of low, if the action dictates it.  Because of the pot-limit format, the bet sizes grow geometrically if the stack sizes are deep enough.

On Sunday, I got it all in with 89JQK on a 79T rainbow board against a person with J8A27.  Yes, we both flopped the nuts.  But I have all the redraws to a higher straight, while the other person only had a variety of runner runner draws (full house, low, broadway straight).  We both bricked and chopped it up.  Not ideal for me, but oh well.

On Monday, I got it all in multiple times free-rolling the same opponent.  In one I had A3567 suited in clubs.  I flopped the nuts with on a 234 board with one club.  Turn is a 5 bringing a back door club flush draw.  River is Tc, giving me the scoop as my opponent had 67xxx with no low and no redraw when the money went all-in on the turn.  The next one, I had KQT98 double suited in clubs and spades.  I flop the nuts on a AQJ two club board.  Unfortunately, the turn is K, and I end up chopping with my opponent's ATTxx hand.  There were a couple of other instances as well, but I think you get the idea.

Casino Arizona err Talking Stick Casino

Cross off another one.  I made it to Talking Stick resort for some poker.  Oddly enough, however, their poker chips say Casino Arizona.  Casino Arizona is a little over 7 miles south of Talking Stick, though.  Apparently only the Talking Stick has poker.  I'm assuming that the two casinos are owned and/or operated by the same entity.



The poker room at Talking Stick is adequate.  Large for a poker room affiliated with a casino that has table games and slots.  47 tables, and a wide variety of games were going while I was there.

I was in Phoenix on business and managed to get an afternoon of poker in before my return flight home and I managed to pick up a dime, after getting stuck a rack.  So that was nice.

Hawaiian Gardens err The Gardens Casino

I finally made it to the newly remodeled Hawaiian Gardens Casino, err, um, The Gardens Casino in um, well, Hawaiian Gardens California.

I have no idea why they changed the name.  I guess so the mailing address didn't look so damn confusing?!?

Nice room, I really liked.  Very large and spacious.  They have a very nice VIP room where the higher limit poker games are spread.  And while I was there they were serving complimentary wine and had a complimentary cheese and charcuterie spread set out for the players along with self-serve bottled water.  Lots of little amenities that were nice.

Plus the floor and dealers were all good for the most part.  Most of the players were reasonably behaved as well, with the exception of a couple of minor outbursts at dealers who made mistakes.

I played the 20/40 and the 12/24 OE 1/2 kill and had a great time.  I'll definitely be back again, next time I am in the Los Angeles area.

Esquire!

I did it!  I passed the California Bar Examination on the first try.  I will very soon be an officially licensed attorney in the great state of California.  I am currently working as a patent litigator at a major law firm in Southern California.

As expected, now that I am back to work full-time, my poker hours will be going down.  But I expect that in between stints of working like a dog, I'll still find some time to sling chips across the felt.

Greatest Mix Lineup Ever!

Labor Day.  A day of rest for some.  For others, not so much, especially those playing in the 20/40 mix game at Oceans-11.

On Sunday evening after the neighborhood block party, I moseyed my way up to the casino.   Visiting San Diego and the casino was on old friend of mine from Las Vegas.  I got into the game around 9:30pm.  The mix game usually starts around 6pm every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I had a great time chatting with my friend and booked a small loss and went home a little after 2am.  I wake up on Monday at a reasonable time, nicely rested.  Since it was a holiday my kids had the day off from school, and I reflexively checked out Oceans-11 on PokerAtlas.  I see that there is a 20/40 mix game going.  I just assumed with the Labor Day crowd they happened to get a game going spontaneously.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

I showed up around 3 pm after having lunch with the family to discover that the game has gone overnight and 3/8 of the game is made up of over-nighters.  These poor souls put in a marathon session, with each being in the game for over 24 hours before they finally quit.  These were the same people I left on Monday morning at 2am remember.  13 hours later, they were still there.  On a holiday.

And then cabbie Dave made an appearance, along with Mac.  For a while, it was the most glorious lineup ever.  I may never get to play in a mix game that good ever again. 

And I actually got to book a reasonable win to top it off!

Potpourri

Added a couple more casinos to my list.  Spent last week in Los Angeles with the family doing various things including Universal Studios.  I managed to sneak out to Hustler and the newly remodeled Bicycle Casino.

 

The newly remodeled Bicycle is very nice.  I remember the first time I was there.  I think it was season 2 of the WPT and I went up to play a satellite tournament.  That was back in 2003, so it's been a while.

While at the Bike I had an opportunity to catch-up with a friend.  He's sort of internet-famous.  He does commentary for live at the Bike sometimes.  He's also a comedian, at least he likes to think he is.  Here's a sampling of his material.  Comment if you'd like.  It would be interesting to see what others think.

In other news, Cabbie Dave made a late appearance last night in the Oceans mix game.  He ran hotter than the sun and cleaned out 3 players.  I made it out unscathed luckily, and won a little.  He's caught on to the games quick, although he still plays too loose and goes too far with his hands.   But on those nights when he's running hotter than the sun, watch out— he always seems to catch exactly what he needs.

We've added pineapple razzdugi into the mix.  This game is great.  Awesome action.  And I got to make #1, #1 against Dave last night.  I had A34569, all suits covered except hearts heading into 7th street.  I bet blind against Dave's board, which if I recall, I had him board locked as the best low he could have was like a 7.

He called and I showed my 6 cards and he asked if I had a badugi.  I answered it depended on my last card.  I sweated it in and revealed the deuce of hearts for the double pee pee scooper.

Fun game.

A new member of the Club!

Welcoming our newest member to the club.  The newest member had a great night at Oceans playing 8/16 and running over everyone at the table.  Wining 100 big bets at a limit game is a great feeling.  At a 9 nine handed table, winning 100 big bets at a 4/8 chip structured game is the equivalent of winning one rack from each player.  It's awesome.  Without further adieu, here's the documentary evidence as required.

 

Peace, Out!

I did it.  I finished law school!  It's been a very long and a very short 994 days.  Graduation Ceremonies aren't until Saturday, but I took my last final this morning.  It's a surreal feeling and I am having trouble expressing exactly how I feel.  I feel happy and emotionally drained for some reason.

Finishing law school is rather anti-climactic anyways.  While I have some down time, I still have this thing called the bar exam to worry about, and that's really the only exam that counts.  Preparation and studying for that exam will begin in earnest in a couple of weeks, but in the mean time, I will try and find something to do to keep myself busy!

Finally, a break-through!

It only took 6 tries, but I finally booked a win in the Commerce 40/80 game.  I don't play Commerce regularly.  According to my database, which unfortunately only goes back to January of 2011 due to a computer mishap, I played once in 2013 and then this year I got to play 5 sessions at Commerce 40/80.  'Bout time, I booked a win.

I played a fairly long session, about 13 hours, not including breaks.  For most of the session, I was within +- 1 rack of my buy in.  But from about 11:00pm til 1:30am when I left, I went on a huge tear and with one dealer, won like 50% of the hands she dealt out in her down.

Commerce 40/80 is much tougher than Oceans-11 40/80 for sure.  Very little open-limping, lots of 3-betting isolation plays, and lots of post-flop aggression.  One thing I noticed is for most of the players, they almost NEVER have it when they raise the flop.  I saw so many free-card plays and flop raises for cheap showdowns that I couldn't believe it.

I never had a session like yesterdays where I had to fold overpairs or top-pair top-kicker so many times on the turn or river.  I also folded pocket tens 3 times preflop.  One time incorrectly, and both other times correctly.  Wild and crazy game.  I also swear, that statistically speaking, I am running way below expectation at Commerce with respect to draws.  I've had so many straight draws and flush draws come blank blank, that I swear the next time I'm there, I better hit every stinking gutter ball to make up for it, plus hit every nut flush draw that comes my way.

Double Crush

Double Crush

What's Double Crush you ask?  Qualifying for Crush Club in back to back sessions.  Congrats DVD (not a complete idiot).

Best Poker of His Life!

My poker friend DVD (not a complete idiot) had a crazy roller coaster of a poker day yesterday.  I rolled up to the casino in the afternoon and got seated in a 20/40 game.  DVD who normally plays limit for some inexplicable reason was playing the 10/25 no limit game.  About 3 hours later DVD comes over to the 20/40 game having lost a mid-4 figure sum at the no-limit game.  I don't think he expected to be able to get even for the day, let alone, actual winner, but he did.

Soon thereafter we pseudo-kicked the stakes up, by reintroducing the kill back into the game.  For the next 7 hours or so, DVD proceeded to run over the table by playing the Best Poker of His Life!

Some examples of the Best Poker of His Life (I may trademark this, I like the way it sounds):

• AK call down against AQ on a wet board when raised on the turn against a guy who had already announced he wasn't going to try and bluff him anymore.
• KJ river bet, getting me to lay down QQ on a J74, one club, some random club on the turn, and then A club on the river, by donking the river, with me next to act, with the flop-raiser, EGT, (who I 3-bet on the flop), behind me.
• AK call against ?? on a board with a 4 liner straight with top-pair top-kicker after agonizing and showing the hand to the same guy who had already tried to bluff him three times (I thought this was an excruciatingly obvious call, but whatever).
• AA against my 99 and ??.  DVD capped pre-flop and then took a passive line against me and EGT, and successfully got maximum action by allowing me and EGT to hang ourselves, especially EGT, when he raised the turn with God knows what that couldn't win when the T paired the board on the river (I think, either turn or river, but I think it was the river).
• I'm sure there were others, but these are the ones I recall distinctly.

I left before DVD, but at the time I left, combined we were up over 167 bets.  In other words, the two of us were basically the only ones winning.  Now the strange thing is, I don't really recall who was the big loser.

In any case, it was a fun day slinging chips over the poker felt.

And it is glorious indeed!

How long has it been?  Seems like it's been a while, but never fear loyal reader, I have not forsaken you.  Been a fairly good year, life-wise.  Since I am student, the beginning and ending of each year for me is now determined by the beginning of the academic term, not January.  Finished my second year of law school.  My article was accepted for publication in a law review back east.  I finished up my summer position at the local office of a national law firm.  Got an offer to come back full time when I graduate, which I will be accepting once the paperwork shows up.  And now I have just a few more things left on my checklist:

Finish 3L year and graduate.
Complete Moral Character Requirement Application.
Pass the Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE).
Pass the Patent Bar Exam.
Pass the California Bar Exam.

The end is actually in sight.  Woo hoo!  I absolutely killed myself 2L year.  I took a full load both semesters, and worked my brains out, in hopes of having an easy 3L year.  Not looking like that is totally going to happen.  I have judicial externships in both the fall and spring lined up, so that's really going to be a squeeze on my bandwidth, but c'est la vie.

Some housekeeping notes, congrats to M.S. (not a complete idiot) for joining Crush Club.  Apparently, he's played many years and never won more than 100 bets in a single session of 24 hours or less before, and recently he's done it at least 2 or 3 times, depending on exactly how a session is defined.  But since it's my club, I get to make the admission rules.  Admission criteria is must win 100 big bets in 24 hours or less, from buy-in to cash-out, and can't be prick or someone I don't like.  Doesn't count if you double or triple dip, or if the game breaks and then restarts later and your combined win exceeds 100 bets.  Them's the rules.  You don't like it, make your own damn club.

I must also inaugurate another friend of mine; he absolutely crushed it on Saturday, and is my new limit holdem hero.  He won 212.5 bets in a 20/40 limit game in under 12 hours.

Nice stack (taken a few hours prior to cashing out)

Today, I played the following awesome, glorious hand in the 8/16 game.

9- handed game.  UTG limps, UTG + 2 2-bets, UTG +3 3-bets, cold-call, cold-call, I 4-bet SB with 8h8d, all calls.  6-way action, 24 bets.  Flop comes Q62, two diamonds.  I bet, UTG raises, UTG +2 cold calls, pre-flop 3-bettor folds, rest call, 5-way for 34 bets to the turn, which is 7d.  I check, UTG bets, we lose one and I call getting 21:1.  River is an offsuit 8.  I check, UTG bets, UTG +2 calls, cutoff calls, fold, I check/raise, UTG calls, rest fold, and I drag a massive pot.

Didn't actually see the hands, but UTG claims 66, UTG+2 claims AA, UTG+3 claims JJ, UTG+4 claims KQ.  Whee, that was a fun hand.

I played one 40/80 session so far this summer, and will play my next this Friday hopefully.  At least this Friday, I can be there early to start the game.  I have a few weeks of freedom, before the 3L grind starts up again.

Same Same Almost.

Here are two hand that I played against the same player in my most recent 40/80 session.

Hand 1:
I open black nines in the cutoff.  Button 3-bets.  SB folds and BB calls.  I call.  Flop comes ThTd4c and gets checked around.

Turn is the 9d.  Checked to me, I bet, button calls, and BB folds.

River is Ax.  I bet, button raises.  I tank for quite a bit here.  What the hell can the button have here?  What is his 3-bet preflop and flop check range look like?  I imagine it would be good aces mainly, and maybe a small pocket pair?  But really a small pocket pair should be betting the flop along with good aces to protect, especially given that the flop is still 3-way.  I eventually decide that he's overplaying either a slowplayed T, like KT or QT, or AK or AQ and 3-bet.  In retrospect, I'm not sure this is the greatest idea as this player is not a complete idiot, and might not pay off a 3-bet when he's beat and will definitely 4-bet everything that has me beat and will not 4-bet any value hand worse than mine.  In any case, he dutifully 4-bets and I cry call, only to be shown quad tens.  Guess the slow play worked out one time.  I lose a total of 6.5 big bets on that hand, with total pot size being 14.75 big bets minus the drop.  I could have easily have gone on tilt after a cooler hand like this, but I took it in stride.

Hand 2, maybe an hour or so later:
I open KK in the SB, BB 3-bets, and I call.  Flop comes K74 two clubs.  I check/raise and BB calls.  Turn is blank and I bet, BB calls.  River is 4 clubs.  I check/raise and BB calls only to see the bad news.  I win almost 5.5 big bets that hand, taking into account the drop.  BB claims to have had AK, and I see no reason to disbelieve him.

So two hands, both of which were bit of a cooler.  I don't need to turn a 9.  He doesn't need to flop a king.  Just goes to show, sometimes it really is the littlest of things that make a big difference in your results for the night.  Have that draw come in on the biggest pot of the night, you go home a big winner.  Miss nut draw after nut draw all night long, go home a loser.

Get coolered and go on tilt equals going home a loser.  Some things you can control, others you cannot.  Learn to detach your emotions from the results you cannot control.  You can control the cards you play, the position you play them from, and how you react to the other player's actions.  You cannot control the flop, turn, and river cards.  And therefore you should not feel entitled nor get angry if your draw for the twentieth time still doesn't come in.  The cards have no memory, nor think any player is entitled to win.

I think the entitlement mentality in poker is so destructive and enabling of poor play.  Just because you started with a better hand preflop, doesn't mean you are entitled to win the pot.  And just because you haven't played or won a hand in what seems forever, does not entitle you to play a junk hand.  You just think it does.

Three with one Bet

I successfully bluffed 3 other players out of a pot in the world of bonus limit 40/80 texas holdem for one bet on the river in a ginormous pot.

Wayne limps in early position with J9, I raise button-2 with KhJd, Helen 3-bets the button with what I think is AQ, SB folds, Chris in the BB eats 2 with AK, Wayne eats 2, I call.

Flop comes QhTd5h.  Checked to Helen who bets, both call, I c/r, Helen 3-bets, both call, I cap, everyone calls.  Turn is a blank like 2c.  Checked to Helen who bets, all call.

River is 3h.  Checked to me, I bet, everyone insta-folds, I show the bluff and put Helen on tilt for the rest of the night.

Returning from our commerical break ...

Wow.  It's been a while since I have made an update.  I have a reasonable excuse.  I am after all in law school.  But a little Friday morning insomnia, gives me a little quiet time around the house.

I am officially half way through law school, with 3 semesters in the books, and 3 semesters to go.  But there's a few more gates you need to get through before one can be a practicing attorney here in California.  Here's my checklist:

1) Take the LSAT.  Check.
2) Graduate Law School.  In Progress
3) Pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE).  Plan on taking in November of 2015
4) Submit everything for California's Moral Character application (due in November of 2015 as well).
5) Pass the California Bar.  Scheduled to take in July 2016.
6) Pass the U.S. P.T.O Patent Bar examination.  Unclear when exactly I'll be taking this.  I might try and squeeze it in this summer, while I am working at the firm that I will be a summer associate at.  But I need to talk with them and see what they want me do.

As far as law school is going, I am in a pretty good groove.  Last semester was my best semester ever in law school grades-wise.  I received A+, A+, A, A, while working for law review cite-checking articles and spending an inordinate amount of time on my law review comment, which I turned in on Wednesday to my adviser for final approval and to the law review's student publication board.

This semester I have a huge hodge-podge of classes.  And a ton of additional writing to do.  I need to write another paper (much smaller in length at least) for my patent law policy class.  I am planning on doing moot court which means an appellate brief I will have to draft and practice oral arguments for, and a legal memo for the clinic I am interning for.  But, the lifeblood of lawyers is writing, so the more writing I do, the better.  And then I have 3 substantive classes on top of that, another Constitutional Law class, Tax, and Patent Prosecution.  It's going to be a busy semester.

Life wise, things are going well.  My kids are growing up too fast.  I think all parents say that.  But really, I think it is a reflection of parents who understand the ephemeralness of childhood, and their own nostalgia.  While having children is not for everyone, I can say without a doubt, that being a father is the most rewarding thing I have done with my life.

I officially turn 40 this year.  Big number, I suppose.  I don't really see the significance, however.  It's just a way of marking the time of how long you have been on this planet.  More importantly, I think, is to ask yourself, in the time that I have been here, have I made the world a better place in whatever way I am capable?  As citizens of the planet earth, I do believe that we all have a responsibility to try and leave the world in a little better state than what we inherited.

On the birthday note, I have a trip to Las Vegas with my wife, her sister, and my brother-in-law planned to coincide with spring break.  Super excited for that.  It's been a while since the wife and I have had a weekend away from the kids.  Lots of things planned for that trip already.

Poker wise, meh.  My schedule last semester allowed me to play most Fridays, and I have pretty much been playing the 40/80 just then.  I did get up to Commerce one time, when my brother-in-law from Minnesota and his family visited Southern California.  Nothing new, and I booked a loss there.  I did not have a winning year in 2014.  First time in a long time.  One of the things I stopped doing in 2014 for whatever reason, was tracking all of my session results.  I plan on reviving that habit in 2015, even though it is unclear how much I will get to play this year.

Since the President gave the State of the Union Address a few days ago, I figure it would be okay if I gave a State of Poker Address from my perspective.  Poker, at least mid to high-stakes live limit poker is a dying game.  Outside a few areas of the country that are limit poker meccas, everyone has jumped on the no-limit bandwagon.  In my neck of the woods, the no-limit landscape has evolved to where the aspiring no-limit player has a ladder structure in which to grow a bankroll and move up in limits.  At Oceans they spread 1/2, 2/2, 2/3, 5/5, 5/10, 10/20 and 20/40 no limit regularly.  The bigger no-limit games outside of 20/40 tend to go on scheduled days, I think Tuesday or Wednesday, and Friday.  While in the limit world, outside of the Friday 40/80 game, you might find two 8/16 games running and possibly a 4/8 game as well.  That's it.  There's no longer a reasonable structure for one to move up.  And given the recent rake increase, and the overall general improvement of the players (but most of them are still horribly bad, there's just not the prevalence of the 90/5 loose-passive fish, like there used to be) makes turning a regular profit that much harder.  Eventually, there will come a time, where the game will simply be unbeatable due to the rake, and those of us who like to play, will need to consider the actual cost and opportunity cost of playing, and make a decision if we view playing poker as entertainment or an investment.

Score!

Got my letter from the office of financial aid today.  I get to go to school next year for free!

Summer Associate

Two and a half weeks into my summer associate gig at a big law firm here in San Diego.  It's very interesting.  A lot different than what I was expecting, but I think I am adjusting to it and have gotten into a groove. 

The social aspects of interacting with the other summer associates, the associate attorneys, the partners, and the support staff is heavily emphasized.  As I've come to realize, the summer associate experience isn't really so much about the work that you do, as much as it is about getting to know everyone.  At this point, after getting your foot in the door, everyone there realizes that you are capable of doing the work and being an attorney, otherwise you wouldn't have even received an offer as a summer associate.  The emphasis is finding out what kind of person you are, your personality and whether or not you are going to be a good fit for the practice group that you'll be working with. 

A large aspect of being an attorney, has a lot more to do with being able to interact and socialize with the clients without coming off as a complete tool, and being able to carry an intelligent interesting conversation.  And if the objective of the firm is to hire associates they hope will eventually become partners, the types of associates they want to hire are those that are going to be assets to the firm in both their work product and eventually those that are capable of growing the business by procuring new clients.  And if you can't ingratiate yourself and get to know and be comfortable with the other attorneys in the office, how are you ever going to be able to do business generation and get new clients?  Makes sense, and attorneys work long hours, and if you're not the kind of person they are going to like hanging out with and working closely with, it's not going to be a good fit.  So all those social events, there's an underlying motive behind them.  Which means you're kind of under a microscope at all times.  That part is a little distasteful, but it is what it is.

Got my spring grades back, and I rocked it.  A+, A, A, A, A-.  The A+ was in my favorite class last semester.  I suspect that I got the highest grade in the class, but am not sure.  I'll find out later, when the CALI awards for the spring semester are announced.  But I am most proud of the A that I got in a different class.  I bombed the midterm as apparently I was completely lost in the subject.  Initially at the time, I thought I did well on the midterm, until I got it back.  For the final, I studied my butt off, essentially taught myself the subject from reading a lot of different sources, since the professor for the most part was useless.  And after I re-read my midterm, I realized that I got the score I deserved, because as my understanding of the material coalesced into coherent knowledge, I realized my midterm essay was a complete pile of crap.  So for me to pull of an A, I must have really rocked the final.

Class ranks were released today, and I am happy to say that I should be going to school for free next semester and hopefully the entire year.  Not sure if any future scholarship awards are contingent on continued academic performance, but I suspect that they are.  But I see no reason as to why my performance would substantially decline, so I am not overly concerned about that.  However, that means I spent an inordinate amount of time doing the write-on competition for law review, as my grades have guaranteed me an invitation.  C'est la vie.  Extra practice writing a legal memo, I suppose.

As you might suspect, all of these other life events have really put a damper on my poker playing.  Haven't played a hand of 40/80 in over a month, and may not until August, assuming the game is still alive come August.  Otherwise, I guess I'll be playing 8/16 just for fun a few weekends a month on Saturday nights just to relax.  I might try and get up there this Friday evening after work, if I don't go out for drinks with the attorneys from the office.  But even if I do make it up there, there is certainly no guarantee that a 40 game will even still be going at that time.

I get the 4th of July off from work, and it's on a Friday this year.  Might see if I can sneak a trip to Vegas for a few nights.  Alternatively, depending on summer interviews for next year I might be able to sneak a trip in after my summer gig is up and before classes start in the fall.  Or maybe both.

Update

Life is going well.  Law school is keeping me extremely busy.  First quarter of the year is almost in the books.  I think I will get one more poker session before the quarter ends this Friday.  I've been looking over my limit holdem results for year to date, here are the raw stats:

Big Bets Won : 240.8417
Total Hours Played : 124.9167
Weighted Hourly Big Bet : 72.2962
Big Bets / Hour : 1.928019

So overall, not bad stats for a little over 100 hours.  In reality, it doesn't mean much.  It's such a small sample size, and in terms of actual dollars I'm not actually winning all that much due to one bad 75/150 session.  And of course in terms of dollar amounts, that one bad 75/150 session dominates the actual dollar results, but in terms of the overall statistics doesn't have that large of an effect.  C'est la vie.

Things will get interesting as we move into the home stretch of this semester.  During the month of April, I should be able to get some more significant hours in, but once May hits and finals start, I'll be pretty much out of action.  And then I start my summer job on May 27.  That runs for 10 weeks until August 1, and then a few weeks off before the fall semester starts again on August 25.

Will the game survive my absence?  I certainly hope so.  If not, I'd better get my fair share before it dries up any more than it already has.

Spring Break

My spring break from law school was uneventful.  I had jury duty one day and took care of that.  It was a minor criminal matter, and I never got into the jury box.  Pretty sure I would have been dismissed anyways.  I studied for two days and then got to play some pokers on Wednesday night and Thursday.  My wife had her sisters in town, and they spent the weekend in Los Angeles, so I had the kids the rest of the weekend.

Thursday night was an interesting night to stay the least.  Machine gun Peter was in the house and lagging it up in the 8/16 game with a big stack of chips.  I, of course get a seat in the game, and have minor position on Peter (8) vs (2).  Most of the players in that game have no idea how to deal with Peter's aggression and fold way too much to him, or play back at him at the wrong times and allow Peter to own them.

I, however, get to simply own Peter, over and over again.  And he doesn't seem to adjust.  I end up winning $1,441 in 3.5 hours.  Eventually Peter gets moved over to the main game, and I follow him over about 30 minutes later.  In the main game, Peter's big stack is now down to less than a rack.  Peter's been chirping all night about getting a 15/30 6-max game fired up.

Eventually the game goes at 12:30am, starting 6 handed.  This time Peter has position on me (1) v. (5), but it doesn't matter.  He literally DID NOT FOLD A HAND PREFLOP for the 4 hours that I played.  When you're up against Machine Gun, you need to make a hand.

I ran good, won $1,565 in 4 hours and booked it and got into bed a little after 5 am.  Always seems to happen, when I need to be up early the morning, a great game breaks out that I have to leave early.  Probably for the best anyways, but I really didn't want to leave that game.  I would've left earlier, but Cabbie Dave made a cameo appearance and blasted off his deposit in about 40 minutes.

Back to school starting today, thankfully.