Vegas!

Going to Vegas next month with a buddy of mine to celebrate his birthday. Not sure how much poker playing I'll get in while I'm in Vegas. I'm sure that the Bellagio and probably the Wynn or the Venetian may have some decent mid-limit games while I am in town. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I am going mid-week so hopefully it won't be too crowded. I plan on just relaxing, maybe play some blackjack and craps, and maybe take a shot at the 100/200 at the Bellagio if I run well at the pit games.

Cashing Out

I cashed out 300 hours from the Oceans-11 Racing for Dollars promotion. 300 hours pays $300, so I made a dollar an hour for playing poker. The promotion starts with $500,000 dollars and as people cash out it diminishes. It started back on March 24, and people are going to start cashing out 1000 hours, which pays $5000, so the money is going to start going here pretty soon. Hopefully I can play another 100 hours or so, before the money runs out.

I booked a nice win today in both the 8/16 and 20/40 games. I finally sucked out on a huge pot in the 8/16 game. Kill pot, and I pick up AdAh in the small blind, raise before the flop and get 3 callers. Flop comes TTK, with 2 diamonds. I bet and got called in the 2 spots. Turn was a rag diamond. I bet, BB calls, Button goes all in for 25 chips. I call, BB calls. River is the beautiful Ace of clubs. I bet, BB raises, I 3-town it and BB calls. BB had KT for a flopped full house. Button mucked, but I'm 100% positive he had a flush. BB played the hand about the absolutely worse possible way. If he plays it correctly he's going to win the pot, but he decided to slow play and it cost him.

In the 20/40 game, I made a straight flush with 89d. Flop came QJ7 all diamonds. I bet, got called by a new fish in the 2-seat. Turn was the 6d. I bet fish raises, I call. River is the 5d. Originally I thought that the 2-seat had the ace diamonds, so I figured with a rivered straight flush, I should be able to get 3-bets in. So I bet out and he just flat called. So, he either had just the king of diamonds, or no diamond at all.

Book it!

Played the 20/40 last night. Finally booked a decent win of $1127. Could have been better, but I tried to bluff Troy twice and both times he had pocket kings, for top-set. One, he lost anyways when the SB flopped a straight. It was capped preflop and on the flop, I had pocket 9's. Flop was 345 rainbow. SB had 67o for a flopped straight. Turn came a king, Troy bet, I raised, Moke in the SB 3-town, Troy 4-bets, and I muck.

Later, I make a real steal raise with T4s from the cutoff, Troy 3-bets from the BB and we see a flop. I catch a pair (4's) and a flush draw. Turn is King, Troy bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I call. I blank on the river (plus it paired the board), he bets and I muck. He shows me his full house anyways.

So other than those and a few other disasters, I still managed to book a reasonable win! I won a huge pot with pocket kings that was about 1/2 my profit. 5-ways capped before the flop. Flop comes Q44. I bet, get called in 3 spots. Turn is a ten, Kay donks into me, I raised, fish on my left donates $80, Kay calls. River is a blank, I bet, fish folds, Kay pays off like a slot machine. QT no good, Kings up takes the pot!

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.