Sometimes there are players who just seem to run super good against you. Andy W, ran super good against me in the 40 game. Plus there was a surprise visit from the spaceship again, and Armor32 superbly outplayed me on the seat change list, and we had a surprise visit from Persian LAG master Alex, and CC is still running well, too.
Let's start at the beginning. I went into the office to take care of some work things along with meetings I had, so I wasn't able to get up to Oceans-11 until around 4pm. Traffic sucked at that time of course and what is normally a 30 minute commute, doubled into one hour. By the time I arrived I was like 5th up for the 40 game, but got an open seat in the 20 game. I ran well in the 20 game, when the spaceship arrived. Here's where the table change games begin. The spaceship and the 20 game in general was better than the 40, so I decided to roll my name for the 40 when it was called. Well it turns out, the seat opened because Armor32 was vacating it to get into the 20 game. So he arranged for his name to put on the 40 game before leaving it, thus when I rolled he would be above me. Since the spaceship was also on the 40 board, that meant when the spaceship left the 20 for the 40, he would be able to bum hunt him sooner than me. Seems dirty, but what are you going to do? Next time, I will need to pay more attention to who left the 40 game and why, and whether or not he relisted himself for the game he is exiting.
In any case, I ran well at 20, the players were generally weak and I won little more than a rack in about 4 hours while waiting for the 40 game. Eventually I get called over for the 40, but the spaceship has busted. He eventually comes back, but busts again in short order. In the 40 game, I actually am getting reasonable hands and flops, but Andy W is again in god mode against me and letting me have it. Let's see K6 vs A7 where I posted in the cut-off for my first hand. I opened, he 3-bet, I got to check raise a king high flop, and he proceeds to double bink an ace on the turn and river, just to guarantee that I pay him off.
Then he beats my KK with QQ that binks a set on the turn. Then KK versus his AQs, that flops a flush draw and binks an ace on the river. Then there was AK vs A7, that rivered a pair of 7's against me. Oh well, what are you going to do? It happens, and I'm used to it. I ended up with a little more than a 3 rack loss, so nothing I can't handle, but it gets frustrating that's for sure.
Oh and Persian LAG master Alex got me with 8d7d on a 763 two diamond board where I held 54 for the flopped nuts. I got to six-bet him on the flop too. Don't worry diamond peels off on the river.
I am used to Andy running well against me. He had a stretch earlier this year where he could do no wrong against me. When he was behind he caught up, when he was making a move it worked or he caught what he needed, when I was ahead the perfect card for him to fold would show up and he wouldn't pay off, when he would've flopped a monster he folded preflop when I had the bigger monster. In general he ran good in all the ways one can run good, winning with the hands he should, winning with the hands he shouldn't, and not losing with hands he could've played, etc. Fortunately, that eventually turned around and I had a good one month stretch where the tables were turned and I ran very good against him. So maybe there is something to the yin-yang of a poker table and its players.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Rounders
Monday, October 29, 2012
Silly
I didn't get to play the 40/80 at Oceans on Friday, since I spent the day up in Los Angeles with the family getting photos taken. So apparently I missed the biggest spaceship of all time. Oh well.
Then on Saturday after mass and taking the kids to the church festival I get informed that the 40/80 has gone over the weekend again and is still full here on Saturday at around 7pm. I eventually finished up with the family and the kids and get up to Oceans a little after 9pm. The game breaks down fairly quickly and is 3-handed for a while with me, Helen, and Andy W. Eventually Helen quits, I am stuck like a rack, and then Andy and I play heads up for a while. I get unstuck and eventually $892 winner before Andy needs to bail. He brought his wife with him and he's on a short lease when she says it's time to go home.
I had a couple of beers and want to wait it off, so I sit around for a bit and eventually get into a full 8/16 kill that I proceed to crush. I lost exactly 2 showdowns in 80 minutes of play. One with A9, that I really probably should have folded the river and lost to pocket tens. Then another with AJs against KJo on a QT9xA board. I 3-bet preflop, but got c/r on the flop and called down, spiked an ace and felt compelled to call, just in case the preflop raiser had KQ or QJ.
I did get to 5-bet the turn with 55 on a TT52 board in which I raised preflop got 2 cold-callers, then the button 3-button, the big blind came along, and everyone else called for a 5-way pot for 3 bets each. Flop came T52, 2 clubs. I donked right in, call, call, raise, fold, I 3-bet, call, call, call. Turn was another T. I bet, first cold-caller raised, folded back around to me, I 3-bet, he 4-bet, I 5-bet, he called. Turn was the 7 of clubs. I bet, he called. I announced pocket deuces no good sir, and opened my hand. He of course had ducks, while the button exclaimed he folded pocket sevens on the turn.
Then I played an interesting hand right near the end of my session where I was getting ready to go. Preflop limper who's a weak player in middle position. I raise A9o on the button, big blind and limper called. Big blind has been playing fairly tight and has a fold button post flop as well. Flop comes A86 rainbow. Big blind donks, Danger Will Robinson! Limper calls, I call. Turn is a 9 still rainbow. Big blind bets again, limper raises, I tank for a few seconds and 3-bet. Both call. River is a jack, for a final board of A869J rainbow. Both check to me, I tank for a good 10 seconds. I finally bet, big blind calls, limper folds, and I take the pot. I think the big blind either had AT, AQ, A8, A6, 86, while the limper had 87s or 67s. He would have called the river had he made two pair, so he's most likely hand is a suited connector with a pair and a draw on the turn. I'm not exactly sure what the big blind had, but the jack was definitely a scare card for me, as she easily could have had AJ. The only possible straights were 75, T7, and QT, none of which were likely given the action on the turn.
At the end of the night, I booked a $768 win in 80 minutes. I wish I would've run like a god in the 40 game as opposed to the 8 game. Oh well.
Then on Saturday after mass and taking the kids to the church festival I get informed that the 40/80 has gone over the weekend again and is still full here on Saturday at around 7pm. I eventually finished up with the family and the kids and get up to Oceans a little after 9pm. The game breaks down fairly quickly and is 3-handed for a while with me, Helen, and Andy W. Eventually Helen quits, I am stuck like a rack, and then Andy and I play heads up for a while. I get unstuck and eventually $892 winner before Andy needs to bail. He brought his wife with him and he's on a short lease when she says it's time to go home.
I had a couple of beers and want to wait it off, so I sit around for a bit and eventually get into a full 8/16 kill that I proceed to crush. I lost exactly 2 showdowns in 80 minutes of play. One with A9, that I really probably should have folded the river and lost to pocket tens. Then another with AJs against KJo on a QT9xA board. I 3-bet preflop, but got c/r on the flop and called down, spiked an ace and felt compelled to call, just in case the preflop raiser had KQ or QJ.
I did get to 5-bet the turn with 55 on a TT52 board in which I raised preflop got 2 cold-callers, then the button 3-button, the big blind came along, and everyone else called for a 5-way pot for 3 bets each. Flop came T52, 2 clubs. I donked right in, call, call, raise, fold, I 3-bet, call, call, call. Turn was another T. I bet, first cold-caller raised, folded back around to me, I 3-bet, he 4-bet, I 5-bet, he called. Turn was the 7 of clubs. I bet, he called. I announced pocket deuces no good sir, and opened my hand. He of course had ducks, while the button exclaimed he folded pocket sevens on the turn.
Then I played an interesting hand right near the end of my session where I was getting ready to go. Preflop limper who's a weak player in middle position. I raise A9o on the button, big blind and limper called. Big blind has been playing fairly tight and has a fold button post flop as well. Flop comes A86 rainbow. Big blind donks, Danger Will Robinson! Limper calls, I call. Turn is a 9 still rainbow. Big blind bets again, limper raises, I tank for a few seconds and 3-bet. Both call. River is a jack, for a final board of A869J rainbow. Both check to me, I tank for a good 10 seconds. I finally bet, big blind calls, limper folds, and I take the pot. I think the big blind either had AT, AQ, A8, A6, 86, while the limper had 87s or 67s. He would have called the river had he made two pair, so he's most likely hand is a suited connector with a pair and a draw on the turn. I'm not exactly sure what the big blind had, but the jack was definitely a scare card for me, as she easily could have had AJ. The only possible straights were 75, T7, and QT, none of which were likely given the action on the turn.
At the end of the night, I booked a $768 win in 80 minutes. I wish I would've run like a god in the 40 game as opposed to the 8 game. Oh well.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Kick it Up!
What an interesting night this last Saturday evening. My Saturday was filled with mundane life things. I got home from my Friday night session around 4am and go to sleep and wake up around 10:30 am. Wife does her workout with her trainer and I need to drop my car off at the dealership for some maintenance and recall issues to get fixed. After lunch with the family get home and nap a little while the baby naps and the wife spends some time with the middle daughter bonding.
Dealership service guy is supposed to call me at 4pm to let me know status of my car. Instead I get roused by my wife around 4:45pm and I realize that the service adviser never called me. I am of course slightly annoyed and call him instead to find out the status of my car. Fortunately, my car was done and I was still able to get over there before the place closed.
After picking up my car, the wife and I decide to go to Saturday evening vigil service at our church. I like going to Saturday evening mass. It makes Sundays a bit easier to deal with, but my favorite mass is actually Sunday evening, since that's when they have the best music. But it's tough with the kids, since they have school the next day and it makes dinner unusually late and gets them in bed later than normal.
In any case, I get a text from Andy during mass that the 40/80 game has gone overnight from Friday night well until Saturday! CC the poker playing animal played well over a 36 hour session and simply cleaned up. Turns out the game played through Friday evening into Saturday morning until lawyer David showed up and started playing the 40 game with Cecil and I believe it was JA. As it turns out they kicked it up to 80/160!
Now I don't normally play Saturday evenings anymore since there is usually no game on Saturdays, but after getting this message from my bird, I sweet talked my wife into letting me go.
I did ok in the the 80/160 portion of my night. I won 1k, was up more, but gave some back after David rage tilt felted quit, playing 3 handed with CC and Andy. I did get to 5-bet David with the nuts holding QT on a J893 two diamond board on the turn. He had a set of eights and the river was a the ten of diamonds and he check/called my river bet and then went super tilted and started mumbling to himself.
Eventually he quit, after he short bought for $100 so he could play his button. He folded and then his under the gun hand, he went all in and I tried to 3-bet the AT but since he didn't have enough for a "complete" raise, I only got to complete the bet, which meant that CC was going to able to come in. Not to worry I flopped top pair and a gutshot draw on a AKJ rainbow board. David quit, and the three of us continued to play, as it is bad etiquette to break the game as soon as the fish quits. Plus David has been known to "quit" and come back within 20 minutes plenty of times. Playing 3 handed I lose 2 racks of my 3 rack profit to break the game up only 1k.
Cecil eventually succumbed to the bodily need for sleep and went home looking much worse for the wear. Not sure how that guy can repeatedly do that to himself. It's really not good for your health and its really hard on your body, particularly your heart.
After Cecil quit, Andy and I kicked the stakes down back to 40/80 and played heads up for about 3 hours. I won a little over 2k before Andy needed to go home since he had an early am flight this morning. Was an interesting heads up session, and I ran well and won the first meaningful hand where he raised the button with QQ, and I defended with KJs, and proceeded to flop top pair. I check/raised the flop and bet turn and bet river. There were some hands where Andy played a bit unconventionally that I don't necessarily agree with. Andy for sure defends his big blind a lot more than I do (he got me with 32o on a 764 board when I had 65s, and he check/raised the flop!), and opens his button relentlessly.
Dealership service guy is supposed to call me at 4pm to let me know status of my car. Instead I get roused by my wife around 4:45pm and I realize that the service adviser never called me. I am of course slightly annoyed and call him instead to find out the status of my car. Fortunately, my car was done and I was still able to get over there before the place closed.
After picking up my car, the wife and I decide to go to Saturday evening vigil service at our church. I like going to Saturday evening mass. It makes Sundays a bit easier to deal with, but my favorite mass is actually Sunday evening, since that's when they have the best music. But it's tough with the kids, since they have school the next day and it makes dinner unusually late and gets them in bed later than normal.
In any case, I get a text from Andy during mass that the 40/80 game has gone overnight from Friday night well until Saturday! CC the poker playing animal played well over a 36 hour session and simply cleaned up. Turns out the game played through Friday evening into Saturday morning until lawyer David showed up and started playing the 40 game with Cecil and I believe it was JA. As it turns out they kicked it up to 80/160!
Now I don't normally play Saturday evenings anymore since there is usually no game on Saturdays, but after getting this message from my bird, I sweet talked my wife into letting me go.
I did ok in the the 80/160 portion of my night. I won 1k, was up more, but gave some back after David rage tilt felted quit, playing 3 handed with CC and Andy. I did get to 5-bet David with the nuts holding QT on a J893 two diamond board on the turn. He had a set of eights and the river was a the ten of diamonds and he check/called my river bet and then went super tilted and started mumbling to himself.
Eventually he quit, after he short bought for $100 so he could play his button. He folded and then his under the gun hand, he went all in and I tried to 3-bet the AT but since he didn't have enough for a "complete" raise, I only got to complete the bet, which meant that CC was going to able to come in. Not to worry I flopped top pair and a gutshot draw on a AKJ rainbow board. David quit, and the three of us continued to play, as it is bad etiquette to break the game as soon as the fish quits. Plus David has been known to "quit" and come back within 20 minutes plenty of times. Playing 3 handed I lose 2 racks of my 3 rack profit to break the game up only 1k.
Cecil eventually succumbed to the bodily need for sleep and went home looking much worse for the wear. Not sure how that guy can repeatedly do that to himself. It's really not good for your health and its really hard on your body, particularly your heart.
After Cecil quit, Andy and I kicked the stakes down back to 40/80 and played heads up for about 3 hours. I won a little over 2k before Andy needed to go home since he had an early am flight this morning. Was an interesting heads up session, and I ran well and won the first meaningful hand where he raised the button with QQ, and I defended with KJs, and proceeded to flop top pair. I check/raised the flop and bet turn and bet river. There were some hands where Andy played a bit unconventionally that I don't necessarily agree with. Andy for sure defends his big blind a lot more than I do (he got me with 32o on a 764 board when I had 65s, and he check/raised the flop!), and opens his button relentlessly.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Summer Wrap Up
Well summer is over and I am back in to the swing of things with kids and school. Plus I have started my new project at work and am busy with that. I got to play a lot of poker from Memorial Day through Labor Day due to the many visitors we had, plus a scheduled vacation, and the family going to Minnesota. Now that the family is back into its school routine, my poker hours are going to see a significant reduction. I will be back to my semi regular schedule of pretty much just playing Friday late afternoons/evenings.
I am a little worried about the state of the limit holdem games at Oceans-11. With the new management, and the policy of no longer giving a drop reduction when the game gets short, has really had an impact on the number of players willing to play, especially at the 20/40 level. We used to be able to keep a 5 or 6, or even as short as 4 players game going pretty consistently, but a number of players that used to be willing to play short aren't willing to do it, plus some of the more marginal regulars (either break-even or slightly losing players) are no longer even willing to sit in the game unless it's super good. The regulars need to realize that if they aren't willing to keep a game going, that pretty soon there won't be any game, as the occasional recreational players aren't going to even bother to show up if they can't get a game. Not sure what's going to happen with the prop players either. If there is no 20/40 game for them to prop, there is really no reason anymore to employ them, which is not good for their future prospects.
Here's a summary of my major gambling activities over the summer:
So excluding my blackjack results which is mainly due to my implosion at Aria over my weekend Vegas jaunt, I basically crushed it at poker winning 32.7k over 490.5 hours for an hourly rate of $66.67 per hour, while getting crushed at blackjack. The blackjack is obviously not a large enough sample size to do it justice, but you can see the variance in blackjack is just huge. I can easily make that up in a single good session of blackjack. I have won over 20k in blackjack in a single session over 15 times in the last year alone, and over 40k in 7 sessions. It just goes to show that blackjack has a huge variance, and you really need to put the hours in before it all starts balancing out. Advantage blackjack play is all about getting the hands in, particularly when the count is good and you have the edge.
Don't know when I'll get a chance to play some more serious blackjack. Barona is being very strict with me. I went out there with a buddy a little while ago, and I was sitting at the table with him watching him play, when I topped off one of his bets with some of his chips when the count was good, and within 30 seconds I got a tap on the shoulder and was told that I was not allowed to sit with my friend while he was playing, nor touch his chips or his wager. Sheesh.
Barona is still sending me promotional offers in the mail. The August promotional offer was good for $250 in cash, which I made sure that I went in to get. However, the September mailer was only good for $30, so I'm not sure if they are trying to send me a subliminal message or what. I'm guessing that their offers are determined by some formula based on the amount of action you have given them in the past 90 days, and since I haven't been playing there much my offers have gone down significantly. When I get the October mailer, I'll be curious to see how much it is worth.
Well that's about it for this update. I'll try and post more often, but with my increasingly busy schedule, not sure how many interesting gambling stories I will have to tell. On a personal note, my 8-year daughter went out on her first "date" with a boy. We ended up getting our two families together for dinner at a local Korean BBQ restaurant, because my daughter and the other family's son wanted to have dinner together. It was cute, and every time I ask my daughter about her boyfriend she gets embarrassed. It's funny.
I am a little worried about the state of the limit holdem games at Oceans-11. With the new management, and the policy of no longer giving a drop reduction when the game gets short, has really had an impact on the number of players willing to play, especially at the 20/40 level. We used to be able to keep a 5 or 6, or even as short as 4 players game going pretty consistently, but a number of players that used to be willing to play short aren't willing to do it, plus some of the more marginal regulars (either break-even or slightly losing players) are no longer even willing to sit in the game unless it's super good. The regulars need to realize that if they aren't willing to keep a game going, that pretty soon there won't be any game, as the occasional recreational players aren't going to even bother to show up if they can't get a game. Not sure what's going to happen with the prop players either. If there is no 20/40 game for them to prop, there is really no reason anymore to employ them, which is not good for their future prospects.
Here's a summary of my major gambling activities over the summer:
| Game | Result | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack | -37.8k | 29 |
| 8/16 kill | 3.8k | 53.75 |
| 20/40 | 23k | 286.75 |
| 40/80 | 9.5k | 122.25 |
| 2/3 no limit | -0.25k | 0.5 |
| 5/5 no limit | -3.35k | 27.25 |
| totals | -5.1k | 519.5 |
So excluding my blackjack results which is mainly due to my implosion at Aria over my weekend Vegas jaunt, I basically crushed it at poker winning 32.7k over 490.5 hours for an hourly rate of $66.67 per hour, while getting crushed at blackjack. The blackjack is obviously not a large enough sample size to do it justice, but you can see the variance in blackjack is just huge. I can easily make that up in a single good session of blackjack. I have won over 20k in blackjack in a single session over 15 times in the last year alone, and over 40k in 7 sessions. It just goes to show that blackjack has a huge variance, and you really need to put the hours in before it all starts balancing out. Advantage blackjack play is all about getting the hands in, particularly when the count is good and you have the edge.
Don't know when I'll get a chance to play some more serious blackjack. Barona is being very strict with me. I went out there with a buddy a little while ago, and I was sitting at the table with him watching him play, when I topped off one of his bets with some of his chips when the count was good, and within 30 seconds I got a tap on the shoulder and was told that I was not allowed to sit with my friend while he was playing, nor touch his chips or his wager. Sheesh.
Barona is still sending me promotional offers in the mail. The August promotional offer was good for $250 in cash, which I made sure that I went in to get. However, the September mailer was only good for $30, so I'm not sure if they are trying to send me a subliminal message or what. I'm guessing that their offers are determined by some formula based on the amount of action you have given them in the past 90 days, and since I haven't been playing there much my offers have gone down significantly. When I get the October mailer, I'll be curious to see how much it is worth.
Well that's about it for this update. I'll try and post more often, but with my increasingly busy schedule, not sure how many interesting gambling stories I will have to tell. On a personal note, my 8-year daughter went out on her first "date" with a boy. We ended up getting our two families together for dinner at a local Korean BBQ restaurant, because my daughter and the other family's son wanted to have dinner together. It was cute, and every time I ask my daughter about her boyfriend she gets embarrassed. It's funny.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Crush Club
1st rule of crush club: You do not talk about Crush Club.
Yep, I jinxed myself of course and got absolutely destroyed in the 40/80 on Friday night. Must remember the rules of Crush Club, otherwise I am going to get expelled.
On a side note, I may need to inaugurate a new member of Crush Club. CC (his initials), seemed to have a very good night, and if he broke the 100 big bet barrier in under a 24 hour session, is welcome to join.
Admission Criteria to Crush Club:
Yep, I jinxed myself of course and got absolutely destroyed in the 40/80 on Friday night. Must remember the rules of Crush Club, otherwise I am going to get expelled.
On a side note, I may need to inaugurate a new member of Crush Club. CC (his initials), seemed to have a very good night, and if he broke the 100 big bet barrier in under a 24 hour session, is welcome to join.
Admission Criteria to Crush Club:
- Must win 100 big bets in 24 hours or less, from buy-in to cash-out.
- 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.
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