How do the fish win?

I was playing in an awesome 40/80 Friday night @ Oceans-11, yet I still lost 5+ racks. Normally I would quit playing after losing 3 racks, but this game was just awesome. We were playing 40/80 with overs and the whole table was overs, meaning we were really playing 40/80/160. Preflop the blinds were still 20 and 40, and the bets were still in $40 increments, but after that the bets were 80 & 160. Plus the whole table was agreeing to do a live $80 straddle. Here was the lineup as I remembered it:
Seat 1: forgot
Seat 2: Sean from UCSB. A big LAG who knows how to play postflop and isn't afraid to sling his chips into the pot. Not the easiest spot in the lineup.
Seat 3: Charlie, reasonable player, a bit on the weak tight side, but has his moments of spew.
Seat 4: Doc Jose, total fish. Plastic surgeon from Tijuana. Plays everything and anything, unafraid to run a bluff or call you down light.
Seat 5: Forget his name, but a young marine looking guy. Also a bit on the loose side, snapped me off on a one-outer that I will tell you about in a bit.
Seat 6: Lam. Another very loose player, who can't hand read worth at all. I've seen him willingly put in multiple bets drawing dead/thin.
Seat 7: Chris, another total fish.
Seat 8: Bruce, total fish, but is dangerous since he doesn't fold and is willing to open raise very loosey goosey. Snapped me off twice, once to put me on total tilt, and the final one sent me home.
Seat 9: me. I've got 3-fish to my right, and only Sean & Charlie I have to worry about to my left.

Doesn't matter, I still lost 5+ racks.

I lost to a 1-outer for the 3rd time ever in my life during this session. In the 40/80 must move game, seat 5 from above posted in the cut-off. I open-raised UTG+3 with pocket jacks. Sean called, he called, plus the blinds 4-way to the flop. Flop comes A47 two clubs. I hate the flop, but I bet, planning on folding if raised. All call. Turn is off suit jack. check-check-bet-fold-raise-fold-reraise-cap. River was a 4. bet-2bet-3bet-4bet-call. From the action preflop I knew he didn't have pocket aces. Which left him with pocket 4's or pockets 7's. They way I played it I could have had pocket aces, and when he 4-bet I knew I was in trouble. Even so, I have the 3rd nut hand, only two hands beat me. I call hating it, expecting to see quads, and yep he has pocket 4's for rivered quads and a 1-outer. ARGH, I hate poker.

At the main game with the juicy lineup I described above, Bruce twice killed me. One he opens with Q2s in the cutoff and I 3-bet him from the button with AK. No worries flop comes 224. That hand put me on tilt. The sword-inducing hari-kari final hand of the night comes when he opens from UTG with 42o, I 3-bet him with AK, everybody cleared out and he called. Flop comes KJ2 rainbow. I bet and he called. Turn was a blank, and I bet my last 12 chips. He almost mucked and then said ok, I'll donate. River was 4, for bottom two which was good. Sickening, I was taking horrible beats all night like that.

For the 3rd quarter of the year I am down a sickening $8800 in only 34 hours of play. I've got a long ways to go to reach my goal of averaging $40 an hour for the last 6 months of the year. No doubts in my mind that I can do it, it's just going to be a long grind unfortunately.

Drawing Dead

I was in the 40/80 on Thursday night. Not a good night for me. I was doing ok, until this hand came up and then it seemed like it fell apart for the rest of the evening. UTG raised, 2 folds, MP calls two cold, button calls two cold, SB folds, I call in the BB with pocket sixes. Flop is K65 rainbow. Sweet I think to myself and bet. UTG raises, MP folds, button 3-bets, I call, UTG calls. Turn K. Checked to the button who bets, I raise, UTG calls, button 3-bets, I cap UTG calls, and button calls. River T. I bet, UTG folds, button raises, I make a crying call, praying that he has pocket 5's, but really expecting to see KT. Nope, he has K6o, having called two cold preflop on the button with that piece of trash. I am drawing stone dead on the turn, and put in 4 bets! That has never happened to me before. Poker sucks.

Lights Out!

For the second time in my life I have been in a casino when the power went out. Last year when I was in the Bay Area, I was playing at Garden City when the lights went off briefly for like 20 seconds or so. Last night at Oceans-11, the power was off for more than an hour. Their backup generator didn't work so well. I had just sat down in an 8-16 game while waiting for a seat in the 20-40, played 3-hands when boom, lights out! Waited around, had a couple of beers, played some 5-card draw no betting 1$ ante just for fun, while waiting for the power to be restored. By the time the lights came back on at 10:30pm, most of the games had already broken, so just for fun I played 4/8 and rammed and jammed it with any two cards. Ended up booking a $56 win, playing wild & crazy maniac style.

2nd Quarter 2008 is in the books.


Ended up slightly up, but it's been a wild ride that's for sure. Here's the game by game breakdown:
8/16 +51 2.65
15/30 +1700 2
20/40 -5846 90
30/60 +5900 12
40/80 -1013 104.5
2/3NL +55 1
5/5NL +458 2.75

totals = +1305 214.9
For an hourly rate of $6.07/hour! Smoking! Good thing I have a day job!
I've been getting my ass kicked in the 20/40 lately, so I am going to bear down and really start playing my A game and have a great end to 2008. My goal is to average at least $40 an hour for the remainder of the year. No more splashing around just trying to get lucky and have fun. Serious poker from here on out.

Straight Flush & Heads up with Wayne

I flopped a straight flush last night in the 20/40 game. I limped in with 67h. Flop came 345 all hearts. David T bet, Wayne raised, I called, David 3-bet, Wayne 4-bet, I called. Turn was 2h. check-check-bet-call-call. River was 3d. bet-call-raise-call-fold. David had Ah2d, for the 5 high straight flush. Wayne claims he had pocket 4's for a full house on the river. So close to a jackpot. In all my poker playing I have never had even a table share of a jackpot. Granted I don't play in jackpot eligible games very much, but I have put in a reasonable number of hours in the 8/16 and 20/40 in the past. David T needs to have A2h instead of Ah2d, or the river needs to pair the 4 instead of the 3. Oh well, eventually I will get a jackpot, it is a statistical certainty.

Eventually the game got short and Troy, Wayne, and myself were playing 3-handed. I was pounding on Troy, while Wayne was pounding on me. I prefer playing against Troy. Troy is actually a thinking player, while Wayne is still a 1st level thinker even heads-up. We eventually busted Troy and then Wayne and I played heads up for about an hour and a half. Wayne should be easy to play against, he never folds a pair, never folds any draw, even gutshots, never folds overcards, never folds his blind. Basically playing against Wayne heads-up is playing showdown poker, since he won't fold unless it's hopeless for him. I've had reasonable success playing Wayne heads up, this was our 3rd time. I may need to rethink my strategy on how to play Wayne heads up.

Isn't poker fun?

Dropped 4 racks in the 20/40 game last night. Sometimes when I lose and I am sitting at a table full of donkeys, I don't understand how I could be sitting at this table and be losing. Oh yeah, then I remember, the gutshot fairy and runner-runner pixie dust is out in full-force tonight. Oh well, I'll get them next time I suppose.

Pocket Nines

Played 20/40 last night. Got to the casino rather late, since my wife went out with her girlfriends in the early evening. Got in around 11:30pm, planning on playing the 40/80 but the game had already broken. Not sure if it is the economy or just the poker craze subsiding, but the limit holdem games at Oceans-11 have been pretty weak lately.

I had a winning night, up $470. Should have been more, but I got a couple of bad beats. Both times I had pocket nines, both times I flopped top set, both times I lost to a straight when my opponent held 10-7! It was different opponents each time, but still. In the first I raised the button and the SB 3-bet me with 10-7 suited. He flopped a gut-ball plus a flush draw, and hit his straight on the river. The other time I raised in the cutoff with pocket nines and the big blind called and he flopped open-ended and got there on the river.

Other funny thing happened last night, some player I had never played with before sat in the 20/40 game and the first hand he played he tried to go all-in preflop. The dealer and the players explained to him that we were playing limit, not no-limit. He played a hand so weird against me that I was totally confused. Short-handed I raised UTG with A3 suited. Called by the cut-off (weird no limit guy abbreviated WNLG), and the big-blind (Chuck an off-duty bad playing dealer). Flop comes 8 3 2 rainbow. Chuck bets, I raise, WNLG 3-bets, call-call. Turn A, checked around. River 2. Chuck checks I bet, WNLG cuts out $120 in chips to raise. Dealer tells him he can only raise to 80. Chuck folds, and I'm completely at a loss of what to do. I have no history with the guy and am totally confused by his line. Against anybody I have some reasonable history with I would likely raise like 90% of the time, but since he played it so weird I just called. He tabled pocket queens, and I win the pot. What a weird line to take with pocket queens.

WSOP Absence

World Series of Poker is going in Vegas right now. Means that the local cardroom has been kind of empty these days. Been on a pretty big downswing since returning from Minnesota, down 100 BB's in less than 100 hours of play. Been playing a lot of short-handed 20/40 as well. Arab James has been killing me lately. Flop top set of queens when I 3-bet preflop out of the big-blind, and he called two cold on the button with T9 offsuit. Don't worry, flop comes QJ8 to give me second nuts to his flopped straight and of course I can't fill up. Nights like that are frustrating sometimes. Would like to get out Vegas during WSOP time, maybe take a shot at the 100-200 game out there. We'll see.