Freeze

The Raw Deal-- Venetian $1600

2011-06-25T02:22:00.000-07:00

It continues to amaze me how similar my annual Vegas trip has become. I look forward to it for weeks. Get so stoked. Then I put up with days of dreams getting crushed, money being lost, and overall misery. Why do I do this?

Today was no different. Just like the last, oh, 3-4 years, after failure at the WSOP I go to the seemingly softer fields at the Venetian. Today I guess I run better. I chip up some and find myself in position on a raised 7-5-2d flop with AKdd. Young internet guy leads smallish, I shove, he calls with QQ and I catch an Ace. Woot. Today's my day.

I bust Kevin Saul when I raise KK 3x and he overshoves with AK. Nice.

I witness a super sick hand where a guy calls a raise oop with 53s. Board goes Q-9-5-4-9 and the oop player calls 3 barrels of increasing size from the raiser. Bottom pair is good vs the bluffer's JT.

After dinner I get moved to this fantastic table where I can 3bet and 4bet often and its juicy. Unfortunately it doesn't last and the next table is internet- scandi row, many of them with huge stacks. My stack remains around average the whole time--which was somewhere between 50 and 60 big blinds. I find some good spots and generally chip up.

Another maniac I meet gets in a raising war with a solid player. They make it 4 or 5 bets preflop and see 4-4-5. More money goes in on the flop and all of it gets in on the 5 on the turn. Good player has KK, maniac somehow got to the flop with A4. Amazing.

The eventual villain of this story has been running in god-mode. Early on he found himself 5-betting one of the internet kids and his QT binked vs AK. He gets AKs vs super tight girl's AKs and flushes her. So obviously his rungood is on. I find myself one of the shorter stacks at my table. There are about 50 players left, 40 minutes left in the night. We are at 800-1600/200. I have about 85-90,000 chips-- villain has a mountain. He's been splashy.

So I find 22 in LP and raise to 4000. He 3bets from the BB to 11k. I ponder and call. I'm gonna flop a set and double through this guy. Then I'll have a big ole stack when it comes time to abuse the impending bubble. Fun fun fun. Here's the flop- 3 in the door- next card is an Ace and BAM there's the prettiest deuce I've ever seen. OK, sure, he could have 45 but I doubt it. Let's figure out how to get this in. He bets, I raise, he calls. Turn: Ace. OK. A-2-3-A. Well it looks like he has an ace in his hand. So this is pretty awesome. He checks. Cool. I bet a bunch. I have to bet a bunch so that I can ship the right amount on the river. He might fold though. Oh well, its a big pot already. He calls. Hmmm. Well shit, maybe he's got the sneaky A2 that knocked me out yesterday. Or A3?? He could have 33 I suppose also. These would all be a big drag. AK seems the most likely culprit, but now I'm starting to wonder what he's thinks I have. Sure looks like my hand is faceup. I went a-mining and struck something. A 4 rolls off on the river and this changes nothing. If a King or Queen popped up I'd be scared. He checks. Ugh. Now the sirens start to go off. I even thought to myself as he 3bet me "Do I really want to play a hand with this guy who is running so good?" Well I did and here I am. So I can check behind and leave myself a playable 20 bb stack, or I can ship it which was my plan all along. Stick with the plan. Ship. Snapcall. Two red Aces. omg. I am not a happy camper. Again.

$5k shorthanded

2011-06-24T02:16:00.000-07:00

I think I will continue to play this one, despite the questionable EV. I mean, it makes way more sense economically to play 3 1500's or similar. But man oh man, I do get a rush playing this. 6 handed you are playing every hand-- basically you are EP one hand per orbit. Every other hand you are either HJ, CO, BTN or the blinds. So much action so many options.

My table draw was pretty good-- I didn't recognize any of the other five players which is somewhat remarkable given the field. My runbad at draws did have the most aggro guy at the table on my left. Kinda funny guy also. He raised and reraised very often the first 20 minutes or so. Each time, as he dropped the chips on the felt he said "I raise" with this somewhat hard to place mid-eastern?? accent. The guy in seat one got a bit tired of him and asked him where he was from. He answered, clear as day, "New York."

I don't play very many big pots. Trying to play small ball and chip up. I get JJ in position and 3bet and this friendly asian guy in seat 6 calls. Blinds were 50-100 and he made is 200 to go to start things off. Hmmm. Flop comes T-6-5 or something like that. The guy then barrells all three streets, with a rather large bet on the river. I did consider just folding on the flop, but wtf, how do we manage to do that with an overpair in this tourney? After he throws like 3500 out on the river I tank. He tells me "you have to call, you have pocket Jacks." Wat? sigh. I fold. Says he had set of tens. Could be.

I call a 3bet oop against aggro guy with 66. Flop comes 3 diamonds with the Ace. No more diamonds come and flop and turn are checked. He bets 75% of the pot on the river and I soulread him as FOS and call. Nope, he has A9o sigh.

I get short. I get tight. This goofball in seat 4 has 3bet shoved on me a couple times and I've folded. I pick up TT, he does it with A2 and we double. Ship it.

I get to see a family pot and 5 see the AJ4 flop when Im holding 44. Goofball bets 1200 , shortish guy in 5 calls and I have about 6000 behind. I shove. Goof folds, shortie tanks. It would be most of his chips. Sure looks like he has an ace. I feel like my hand is face up. And maybe it is cause he tanks a bit and finds a fold. Still, good hand.

After the second break goof raises to 500, asian calls and I call in the BB with K5s. Let the butchering begin! Flop comes K-J-2. The flop gets checked. First mistake. Turn is a 4. I'm pretty sure my King is good. I know it is. He bets out 1300. Blech. I just wanted to get to showdown. I call. Second mistake. River is another deuce. I like it. Takes my shitty kicker out of play. I beat all the Jacks. I lose to AK, KQ and KJ, but it just doesn't seem like that. I don't think villain has a King. Nope he doesn't. Set of 4's?? unlikely. I hate the fact that I got to this spot. Why the eff am I playing K5 in the BB anyway? Blech. Well, I have about 5500 left. Next mistake- I decide that bet/fold is betting than check/call. So I throw out some redic bet of 1675 or so. Villain tanks a bit, then shoves. Wtf? So much fail here. Ugh. Well, now I tank. Of course, calling off your tournament really sucks ass, especially in a spot just like this. Chopping this pot now seems highly likely-- villain would certainly make this move to try to get the whole pot if he thought he was going to chop. Think Steve. You lose to the big Kings. You chop most of the rest of them. You beat all the Jacks. You beat his air of course, which is always a part of range. The pot is laying me over 2-1. I need chips. I have under 20 BB's if I fold. I can work with that. But its no fun. Sick Hero calls are fun. Aren't they? All the vibrations tell me my King is good. Kings and deuces with a Jack. Yeah, ship that pot! I CALL!! and he tables Ace-Deuce! omg brutal. gg me. I'm an idiot.

Same thing, different day

2011-06-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

$1500 NL event at the WSOP.

Good table for the most part. Nothing particularly exciting happens. I play a pot with a mad dog Italian (different one from yesterday) where my AT beats his KT on a Q-T-6-x-x board. Chip up here and there from 4500 starting to maybe 6k at one point. 3rd level, 50-100 I call a 250 open with 45cc. 5 see the flop including mad dog in BB who does this little hitch before he calls--like he was planning some bankjob steal. Flop K-5-4 rainbow. Checked to me- I fire 900. BB makes it 3100 and I'm sure he has little. I shove and he shows 67 for the OESD. Ah. Bout time for a stack! Turn and River are both 7's though and gg me. Argh.

2011 WSOP

2011-06-22T01:43:00.001-07:00

Long time no post!!

So II'm getting a late start this year. My first bracelet event is the $2500 NL. 7500 starting chips, 1 hours levels. My table is quite competent. The player to my left is a scrawny Italian kid who has this very annoying habit of raising my BB when he's UTG. In fact, he does this every time. He raises other times all over the place. One time, he opens UTG and gets called. Hand goes to showdown and this villain tables the mighty 42s for trip twos. I'm sure the whole table appreciated the call.

Not too much happens. Some small pots, a few hands that I call raises in position that don't work out as planned. I get to about 9000 chips when I play a hand with the Italian Job. I has AQo and he calls my raise. 3 babies goes check-check. Turn is small also and I throw out a 3/4 pot size bet that gets called. Meh. River Q. That should be good. I bet 3/4 pot again, he calls and is disgusted.

Later in the first level I pick up red 77 utg and make it 150. 5 callers, including Little Italy. Sometimes Italy handles his cards in such a way that a catch a brief flash when he looks at them. This was one of those hands, and i spotted a "mid-diamond" something between the 6 and 9. Flop: Jh 9h 7s Wee haaa we has flopped a set. We lead, villain raises. Well, he can't have a flush draw. He could have pocket 9's, but not pocket Jacks. He could also have an 8 for the gutter. I think I'm good. If for some reason I'm not, then this board will just have to pair. It will, right? I mean this is the time for the poker gods to show themselves. Pair the board, Hero gets a nice stack, and douche villain hits the rail. He will be gone! No more douchey guy who raises UTG everytime I'm in the BB. I 3 bet, he four bet shoves and we call. He flips over the 8d Th for the flopped straight. Booo poker gods. Now pair the board. It doesn't happen, I lose half my stack, and throw gasoline on the Italian fire.

I manage to get some life when I goof off raising with 35o. I get 3 callers. Flop comes A-4-T, 2 diamonds. Checked around. I start the mantra in my head deuce deuce deuce deuce deuce deuce bam!!!! DEUCE. Its a diamond though, completing the flush draw. I bet, girl raises I shove. She calls. Now I think I'm toast because a baby flush is well in her range. Nope- She shows A4 for two pair and I get back to where I started.

I play a hand badly with KJ when I flop top pair and have to fold to significant pressure on the flop and turn. There just isn't enough room in these things to lose several BB's when the average stack is in the 20-30 BB range. I drop down to 2800 or so at 75-150 and find A9s folded to me in the SB. Well, just as the sun comes up each morning, if I limp here the Italian Big Blind is going to raise. Every time. And A9s crushes this guys range X 1 mirron. He raises to 475, I snap shove, he snap calls with KJo. gg me.

Head to the Venetian and play a few hours of 5-10 NL cash. It goes pretty well. People like to fake it in this game, figuring out when they are doing so is profitable. I grind upwards and feel confident, but at the same time I find myself playing too many hands and start dwindling down my profit. My bluffs get picked off as much as the other guy, and i end up ahead a couple hundred bucks for too long of a session.

Later I end up at the Rio and try a $1030 satellite with a $500 last longer. I win a couple hands, then lose a bunch of chips when I 3bet with QQ preflop to find myself out of position and facing an Ace on the flop. Blech. bad spot. Check-check. Turn small and I bet and get called. RIver completes a flush and doesn't help me. I check-fold. gross.

I raise with KQs and flop comes 8TJ Aggro guy utg bets and I call. The rest fold. So I may have 14 outs here, maybe not. Another card of my suit on the turn and I'm going all the way. But its the 6c and villain bets 2k, which is close to the pot and also more than half my stack. Gross spot. I think a lot of folks would shove here--you have to win these satty's so aggression pays off. I give up.

Then a guy opens standard and I look down at KK. I 3 bet, leaving about half my stack. He ponders and calls. Flop is JT8, not the best flop for my hand but its all going in anyway. As happens every single time I come to Vegas for the WSOP, villain tables Aces. No help and I'm busto.

Tomorrow is the $1500 NL. Should play very fast with only 4500 starting chips. gogogogogo!

2010 WSOP Main Event

2010-07-20T00:27:00.001-07:00

WSOP 2010 Main Event

Day 1A

Amazon Blue 262, for those of you who want to run straight to the photo store and get a picture of me looking fairly bored. Not sure why I look that was as this was easily the best Day 1 table draw I’ve ever had. I recognized no one (a first) and I convinced myself I was the best player at the table. The breaking order wasn’t established until the first break, but Chris Spears seemed to think we wouldn’t be breaking that day. Awesome. Seat 1 was a stars qualifier about my age. I was in 2. Seat 3 was a real life cowboy. He had a rectangular metal card protector that looked kinda like a small belt buckle and it had a horseshoe sticking out of it. The rest of the table was a mix of internet qualifiers and meek older guys. We started with 30k in chips at 50-100.

I was able to do a lot of the same stuff that I did in Australia—won a lot of orphan pots, 3bet when appropriate, and generally won more than my share of pots. Just before the first break I picked up T7s in the BB and see a flop 5 handed. I flop bottom two pair with A-T-7. Nice. I lead and get called by seat 4. Turn is 6. Not the greatest card, but I keep the lead and then get min-raised. Hmmmm. Kinda gross. Decide that I’ll see what the river brings and try to make a blocking bet to get to showdown. River 7. Nice. Grab one of each color—6625 and what is now a value bet gets paid off by the guy who turned a str8 with 89o. Nice river. I go to break with 47k.

Play a lot of small pots for the next level winning many of them that I really shouldn’t win. I love my table and get up to 56k.

Then we break.

Ugh.

Its really not that bad, its just that the first table was so good. The average age dropped by 8 years at least, and there is a complete maniac who raises every pot and I later learn is Owen Crowe. He beats me basically every hand I play with him. Except one—I get tired of him raising my blinds and I 3bet with 54s. Flop 3-6-7. I bet he calls. Turn 8. I bet, he raises a shitload, I shove, he folds. Big hand.

There is an Irish guy to my left. He seems pretty snug. At 150-300 the button open-limps. I raise AQs in the SB to 1050, and then the Irish guy makes it 3750. Yuck. I fold and he shows me KK.

In any event, this is the last hand before dinner break. Hero has about 60k, villain about 42k or so. He raises from MP to 775 at 150-300, hero calls on button with AQs

Flop: (Pot 2000) Q78

Villain bets 1200
Hero calls.

Turn: (Pot 4400) T

Villain bets 2500
Hero raises to 7000
Villain calls

River: (Pot 18,400) 6

Villain bets 13,000 (leaving about 20k behind)

And then I tank/fold. After making him call the clock on me as it was cutting into dinner break.

This left me with 45k heading to dinner.

After dinner wasn’t much better. At one point I flop bottom set with 33 on a 8-6-3 two-tone flop. I lead two streets and then bet/fold to a river shove when there is a flush and 4-card str8 on the board. Yuck yuck.

I end the day with under 20k. Pretty miserable considering. Still, its 50 big blinds and a lot of poker to play.

Fly to Reno on the 6th, work all afternoon, and then work Weds and Thursday morning and fly back to Vegas on the 8th.

Day 2A

This table doesn’t look too bad. Two girls to my right. Player to my left is 888.com scandi who is solid. In fact, he has a very good day- going from about 30k to start the day to well over 120k to end it.

In seat 9 is this guy nicknamed “Snake” who is annoying. He took 7th in the seniors event some years ago. He has a custom jacket with a giant cobra on the back and “Snake” scripted on the front. He has a bag full of custom made mini-snake sculptures that he uses to top his chip stacks. At times he brings out these custom engraved signs that say things like “WARNING: Attempting to steal a snake’s blinds can be fatal to your chipstack” He must have half a dozen of these signs. He hangs around awhile but when he calls a pleasant Spanish guy’s 5 bet and runs Kings into Aces the table is greatly relieved to see that we have a mongoose present.

I am horribly card dead and any spots I can find don’t pan out. At one point I have roughly 24k and with blinds at 200-400 I think I have enough for one 3bet that won’t pot commit me. 2+2er Steve O’Dwyer (Mr.TimCaum) opens late, I 3bet to 4k and he tank-shoves. I believe I had JTs and snap-fold and he shows me TT.

I chip down and find myself with about 14k. I raise with AK and get shoved on by a guy who fairly easily covers. I call, he turns over KQ and proceeds to catch a Queen in the door. Ugh. Ace on the river keeps me in the tournament back up to 28k.

I pick up KK and raise EP only to have 4 people see an Ace-high flop. It gets checked around and I basically bet into an orphan pot on the turn and pick it up.

Prior to dinner the guy from the KQ hand raises UTG+2, tight girl flats in LP and I 3bet with a really awkward stack in the SB with JJ. Everyone I’ve mentioned this hand to says I have to flat in this spot and after thinking about it they are all right. The KQ guy calls and the girl folds. Flop comes A-6-4 two diamonds. I have 19k left, he has maybe 23k, and there is 12k in the pot. Sheesh. This is why my 3bet is so bad. I can c-bet 4-5k here I guess but I sure don’t like the way my stack will look if he shoves on me. I can check-fold but that seems entirely weaksauce also. Bloated pot out of position- sigh- position is to poker what air is to breathing (or something like that says Tommy Angelo.) I check. He checks behind. Hmmmm. So now I basically soulread the guy and “know” he doesn’t have an ace in his hand. He could have QQ but given how he’s played I really doubt he has anything like AQ+ or TT+ as he would have likely 4bet shoved preflop. The turn comes another 6. Sooooooo…. I shove. He calls pretty quickly and now I’m doubting my soulread. I table my jacks and he flips over……. Pocket 8’s!!?!??!! What the fuck did he think he was ahead of here? Zomg horribad play, arguably by both players but the guy with the 52k chipstack gets to laugh last.

After dinner the guy shoves over my open with 99, I have AK and bink a King on the river to send him home.

The rest of the day is decent and I end up with 60,600 going into day 3.

I fly home again and play volleyball and drink beer at Lake Tahoe....

Day 3

Don’t really like this table draw. Two seats to my left is Dan Carter, and the two guys to my right are JP Kelly and Barney Boatman. These three brits all know each other and have played a ton of hands together. I chipped up to 70k at one point after playing a hand against Barney. He raised from the button and I called with K8 from the BB. I check-called the flop, we both checked the turn, and then I led the river to take down the pot. Reverse float- great when it works.

My demise began against Carter when I played another hand way behind and out of position. When am I gonna learn to give this crap up??? He raises UTG+1 and I call in the BB with T9cc. (bad) Flop is A-7-4 one club. I check, and because I’m not going to check-fold here I call. (worse) Turn is an off-suit 8, giving me the open-ender. Now I decide to stab at it—he min-raises—now my pot odds are outrageous and I call. (super questionable here as well) So my only hope in this bloated pot holding Ten-high is to hit the straight. The river pairs the 8. I’ve dug a pretty big hole here. No sense just laying down in it and dying, right? Of course not! I mean, I’m playing against a crazy young brit who has 32o here sometimes. Probably not this time, but sometimes. I cover him anyway. He must fear that I have a monster! So I fire out 16k, which is about ¾ of the pot. He tanks a little. I have an earbud in and I hear someone say “all in” and for a brief moment I think its from the table behind me. Fuck. It isn’t. I’m screwed. I ask for a face-saving count and then sheepishly muck. Really awful hand that got worse on every street and I bluff off about half of my stack. Idiot.

Eventually I get down to about 22k and become a short stack ninja. I shove TT and hold against AK. I chip down, shove again and double back up. I’m at about 35k when I shove 99 into AK and finally lose a flip x-x-x-x-A, and now I’m super short. Next hand I get 77 UTG, shove, and everyone folds. Next hand I have AQ in the BB and shove over a late raiser who calls me with A9 and I hold and double.

Everytime I try to play some poker I get worked. My opens get 3bet, my cbets get raised, and I can’t hit a flop. I do work one squeeze with 55 and both players fold. I chip down again. I shove TT, get called by AJ and win another flip. Back to 45k. But that’s not a lot when the blinds are 1000-2000/300.

I get down to a CSI of 4, per the “Kill Everyone” terminology. M of 4 if you read Harrington. About 23,000 chips. It gets folded to me in the SB. I’m supposed to shove about 70% of hands here, and unfortunately I’m supposed to get called by about 50% of them also. I have the mighty T7o and get my chips in against KJ. Villain binks a Jack and my WSOP is over. 7319 entries, I bust out with about 1600 left, about 850 spots from the money.

I keep advancing one day each year I play this, so only another 7 years or so and I will obviously win.

Fifth Street Journal: Aussie Millions Airs Saturdays on GSN

2010-06-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Fifth Street Journal: Aussie Millions Airs Saturdays on GSN

Brent's first fight. Round 2

2010-03-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

Jack Ury

2009-09-03T20:20:00.001-07:00

So I realize I never posted anything on the WSOP main event. I have some notes, so perhaps I will later.

For now, here's what I wrote on July 7th after busting late on Day 2:

About 15 min into level 6 at 200/400-50 I get into the hand with Jack Ury that is reported on Pokernews and should be on ESPN. I raise EP with 67hh to 1100. Jack doesn't really know what is going on- he can't seem to hear, he can't seem to see, and he can't follow the action. How he got to day 2 I don't know. After I raise he throws out 4 black chips, as if he is limping. The dealer informs him (several times) that the pots been raised and he can't limp. He then says "well, I just go all-in" Obviously he can't do that either, so he ends up calling.

Before the hand started I think he had about 8-9k and I was sitting around 27k or so. The flop comes 6-6-7 and now I have mixed feelings cause I'm gonna be the bad guy who busts the old man. Oh well, his chips will really look good in my stack. He fires out 1k, and then I say "Hey Jack- lets just go all in- you wanted to go all in before the flop right?" Now, I'm not sure how this really came off. I assume that if I did this to any of you that you would take it in stride and fold most holdings. I felt like I was really taking advantage of him. Not respecting my elders. So, I shove, and then he takes a few seconds and gets his chips together to call. As soon as I see he's actually committed I table my cards and the table gasps. Wow. Flopped the boat on the old dude- Seat nine looks at me and says "You had to be the one"

Now I'm not even paying attention to Jack's cards because as far as I'm concerned, I'm a total lock. But I hear him mutter under his 96 year old breath-- "I think your in trouble" as he table pocket 7's for a bigger boat. OMG. The table explodes and I just have to laugh to myself eventually because a spot this sick just doesn't come around very often. At least he didn't stack me!

$2.5K shorthanded

2009-06-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

6 handed events are fun. You get to stretch out, and not get elbowed or kicked by the guy next to you. You also get to play way more hands and the intensity level is higher.

My table is good. I don't know anyone and 3 of them are probably internet kids. I make some light 3-bets early on and run my 7500 to about 9K. Near the end of the first level I call a raise in the BB with Q9s and flop top two pair, Qs-9h-6s. I bet, he raises, I push, he calls, and this time the villain doesn't have the set of 6's I fear, but he's got spades and whiffs. Now I have 16k or so and on top of the world. Finally- long ball pays off! Woot!

I hit some more hands- I have AQ, flop come A-A-4 and I get two streets of action. I have 89s, flop an open-ender and knock a guy out when he shoves two pair on the turn when my str8 card comes. Its all good. Today's the day I make the deep run.

Or so I think. I spew a little. Big stack- play more hands, make more raises. Get played back on some and chip down a bit. I call a raise with 86hh in the BB and flop a flush K-9-4 I think. I bet, and the villain shoves about 6500. I snap call and he shows the Ah4s. The board pairs the 4 on the turn. Not a good sign- this increases his outs by a whole bunch, although I should still be a 2-1 favorite. (This guy has already dodged his exit when his JJ beat AK on a A-7-4 flop and he turned a Jack.) If a comes on the river I'm gonna have over 22K I think and be near the chip lead. Boom- 5 of hearts and my knees feel cut off.

Its not that big a deal really- I still have a healthy stack and am playing pretty well. But I don't know if its the 5 days in a row or what, but I'm really tilted. I pick up 6c6d and raise to get 2 callers. Flop comes 3-4-5 all clubs. Its checked around. Turn is the 6s. I don't know if this is a good card or not. If the board pairs I'm good, but otherwise there's a 4 card str8 out there and 3 clubs. One of the blinds fires out 700 and two of us call. The river is the 8c. Not the gin card 7c mind you, but the 8c. The lead bettor fires 1800 or so and I get disgusted and muck. So gross. Got to be one of the prettiest second or third best hands you can have, but worthless at showdown in that spot. I get KK the next hand and raise with no callers. grrrr.

The guy to my left is very aggressive. He's three bet me several times, and at the first break he got 3 streets of value from a flopped set against a player with TPTK. I call a raise with KJ on the button, and he comes along in the SB. I flop top pair on a J-7-4 flop and he bets and I call. I call his escalating bets on the turn and river also and he shows me 44 for a flopped set and most of my chips. What the hell? This is exactly the kind of play that I'm expecting from donks in the main event. Except I'm the one with the flopped set and they call me down 3 times with top pair. Idiot.

Absolutely nothing good happens after that. I fold garbage constantly, building an image to reshove on someone and try to build my stack back. It just doesn't happen though. I misplay my last hand, raising Alan Gohring with KT, flopping K-9-x, and instead of shoving the flop I shove the turn when the 9 pairs. He has the nine, I have no more chips and I'm ready to walk home to Reno now. Just brutal. adsfh9eqwfh9qewu9wevni

Venetian $1K

2009-06-08T18:17:00.001-07:00

Uh, I'm not sure how much I remember cause its all starting to blur, but yesterday I played for 11 hours and then ran a perfectly planned and executed stop and go right into aces. I had straight outs and in fact made a flush but he had the right suits. I had KK five or six times yesterday and I won pots with them without showdown each time.

Afterwards my new Canadian friends showed me a craps table that I could win at and that may have been the highlight of the trip!

Event #13 $2.5k NL

2009-06-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

I draw a fantastic starting table. Half the table seems like they've never played before-- two of them actually ask the dealer if its OK if they take a bathroom break. Several of them make these insane beginner bet sizing errors that just waves a big flag screaming "I'm a donk- take my chips" Unfortunately, my spots are thin and while I do chip up somewhat, I don't get that big double up opportunity. I am being pretty good at not calling anything from the blinds though, and when I enter a pot out of position its for a raise. I'm just going to make this a policy.

I raise in MP with AJs and one of the bad players calls from the BB. Flop is T-T-4 and I have the flush draw. He checks, I bet 600 and he check-raises to 3000. Sheesh. He really shouldn't do this if he has a ten in his hand, but he is capable of anything. He also didn't really leave himself enough chips to fold, but I don't know if he knows this. If my overcards are good, I have between 14-15 outs if I shove. I really want to shove, but I also think that the definition of a semi-bluff is that I have some fold equity, I decide that I don't and I give it up. He shows me red 77 and I'm wondering if I left my balls in the hotel room.

I get up to 13K or so chips and raise in EP with 66. Only the BB calls and I cover. Flop is Q-T-9. Check-check. Turn is a 6 and I think I have gin. He bets 800, I make it 2000, he tanks and after a very long time he shoves another 2500. Damn- I wasn't expecting that. I call and he has 99 for a better set and I'm not happy.

I get moved to another table with Shaun Deeb, Brandan Shaffer, Svetlana something or other who won the ladies' event one year, and "The Boss" An Phan or something like that. I pick up KK and somehow get 3 streets of value and get my stack healthy again. Nothing remarkable happens and I go to dinner with about 12K- below average but playable. Back from dinner I pick up 99 in EP and raise, only to be called by An Phan in the BB. He's very aggressive and I was hoping he would raise so I could just ship it. Flop is T-high and I c-bet and he calls. No more money goes in the pot as the turn and river bring a queen and an ace and he tables AQ. Yikes and blech.

The player next to Phan is pretty short and has open shoved a couple times. He does so again, shoving 6500 at 200-400/50 and I have ATo in the SB. Not really what I'm after, but I only have about 8000 chips myself and I need chips. His range should be 22-JJ, Ax, and KJ+ I suppose, so I think I'm either in front of his bad ace or I'm flipping and that's OK. I call and he tables AQ and holds and I'm crippled. Deeb takes me out a couple hands later. Blech. Went out around 390/1088, paying 117. A little closer than yesterday, but not close enough!

Event #11 $2K NL

2009-06-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

1646 runners, 6000 starting chips, 1 hour levels. Court Harrington is at my table and he's the only person I recognize. Table plays pretty tight, and I'm able to maintain my stack by the occasional 3-bet that gets respected. At one point I raise UTG with JJ to 300 and Court makes it 750. I call and we see a Q-8-5 flop. Check-check and he folds to me bet on the turn. I try to setmine and make things happen but my stack fluctuates from 5000-7000 for the first 3+ levels. At the end of level 4 with 5000 left I pick up AA and get all the chips of a guy with KK. I get to about 9K which is the high water mark. After the break I pick up JJ in MP and a girl to my right opens to 700- I make it 2000 and then this guy with a big stack shoves. F-word. Girl mucks, I muck, and just like that I go to having a stack around 25 big blinds. I pick up AQ the next hand, raise and fold and I must be getting a little tilty. So with about 6000 left at 100-200/25 I make this fantastic play: Asian kid raises to 650 and I call in position with 66. Flop comes T-9-4. He c-bets, and I call. I've decided that there is a very good chance he'll check the turn and I'm just floating the flop to take the pot. Good plan so far. Besides, I'm ahead a lot of the time here anyway. Turn is an Ace and he checks according to plan. Now I make the error. I only have about 4600 left. He has probably double that. My choices here are to shove now, or pick some bet that gives me a last barrel on the river if I need it. I also think that when you're this short, shoving often looks weaker than betting half your stack- so that's what I do. And it looks like he doesn't like the ace at all. He tanks a long time, then throws his 2K in. Damn. Now I'm fucked. The river is some kind of card that isn't a 6 and he checks again. I see no way I can win a showdown, and my only hope is that he can somehow decide he is beat and save the 2600 I toss in the pot. He doesn't put me on an ace though, and his pocket jacks are good and I'm done.

Except I'm not really done. I go to the Venetian to play 2-5 and run good and people throw their money at me and I'm up close to $1800 pretty quickly. I give most of it back in two hands: First one I raise to $25 with QJs. I get called by a youngster in position. Flop comes Q-J-T, two spades and I fire $60. He calls. Turn is a 7 and I bet out $120 or so. He raises me $250 more. Hmmm. I call. River is a 6 and I bet $400. He tanks a very long time, finally calls and says "I got very lucky" and shows me pocket 6's??? WTF? Guy is some kind of witch I guess. Either that or he doesn't like money. Table lets out a collective groan. Then, I call a raise in the SB with 56o and flop 5-5-6. Now, I'm supposed to win this hand everytime. I check, MP bets $45, LP who raised pre-flop calls, and I call. Turn is nothing and it get checked around. River is a Jack and I bet $80 for value. MP folds, but the LP player raises to $600. Again, I ask- WTF?? I just look at him and point out that I only bet $80. So now I have to figure out what percentage of the time he has pocket Jacks and how often this is some insane donkey play to get the pot, especially since I've been playing like a lagtard and have a big stack. Somehow I decide its the second, I'm wrong, and that's the last hand I play tonight. I end up even and grumpy.

Its WSOP time!

2009-06-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Get to the Rio today and I pick up my preregistration. For the main event I'm on table blue 3 I think. I don't know if that means it breaks first or last, but its probably one or the other and I will definitely find out! Any plans for dinner fall through so i decide to play the nightly to check things out. Its $340, 30 minute levels, 5000 starting chips. First hand as I'm still getting my stuff together at the table I find A6s and I'm the second limper. The button makes it 200, two people call so I come along. Flop is A-6-5 all spades and there is a bet, a call, and then I make it 1050 and take it down. Too bad it was a monotone flop because one of the villains surely had a big ace and I would have had more. Anyway, its a nice first hand for the 09 WSOP!

I play very tight, and I'm surprised how active the table is. There is a an old guy a couple seats to my left who plays every hand. Three people get all in on a J-9-5 flop and sure enough all have flopped sets and the Jacks hold up. At 50-100 I'm the third limper in late position with QJo. Flop comes J-J-3, two spades. Yippie. The SB leads out for 400 and then this older woman to my right makes it 1400. Uh oh. Not good. I have her covered, but what on earth can she have that I'm ahead of? The only hand I can come up with is JT, and I think that's definitely a big part of her limping range. I don't think she has AJ, but she might have KJ. Pocket 3's are also a distinct possibility and what I'm really worried about. Any decent player also has a flush draw sometimes here. I feel like I should muck, but damn it I just flopped trips! I decide, screw it, I call, and I'll just ship the turn. SB folds. Turn is an offsuit 8 and she ships it. I tank. Now I narrow her range to one hand: 33. Thing is, I'm getting almost 2-1 on the call, I kind of want to know if my read is right, even if I'm not good, and even so I still have 7 outs. Somehow, against my better judgment I find a call and sure enough she tables pocket 3's. Case Jack comes on the river and I find myself berating my bad call as I stack the chips. Trust your reads son, trust your reads.

A good player makes an open-button raise to 450 and I 3-bet from the SB to 1250 with T8s. He calls. Flop is A-7-7, check-check. Turn is a 6 and I fire 1300. Its about half his stack and he tanks and folds.

I make a terrible mistake later after I get moved to another table. Easily the worst hand I've played in sometime. I raise in MP with AJo to 550 at 100-200, and get called by a big stack. Flop comes J-9-8, two spades and I bet 650. Villain makes it 2500 and I'm pretty sure he is just messing around trying to take the pot after the automatic c-bet that he expects from me. I should just ship it here but I call. Turn pairs the 9 and I bet 3000. He tanks and calls. Hmmm. Who is floating who here? River is a very ugly Qh and since the one card I put him on when he raised the flop was a Ten, I'm now pretty worried he made a straight. Besides, the board is so ugly my top pair shouldn't be good given the action. Meh. I check-fold and someone at the table says "show the bluff" and the villain turns up one card-- the 6d. wtf? I give up half my stack on just a miserably played hand and I remind myself that this is a hard game and every single hand is the one that can make or break you.

I chip up a bit more and then find AA in late position and raise three limpers to 1000. I get two callers, including the older guy from the first table who plays every hand. Flop comes 9-5-4 rainbow and old guy bets 1500 and I ship, he calls with K9o and I know the King is coming when he turns his hand over.

First bracelet event tomorrow...

Running Good!

2009-05-05T01:34:00.000-07:00

Just took down a $55 Stars tourney for $3300 or so. Sweet. Had one donk play early on where I shoved 88 into KK on an underboard and rivered a set. Other than that, got it in good and held.

Yesterday won my WSOP seat on the Stars $650 qualifier. 1100 entries or so, 55 seats. The bubble was insanely brutal. For the most part people played well. I got pretty short, hovering around 54 out of 60 or so for awhile. One hand its folded to the button who has 22900 at 2000-4000 blinds. I have about 34000. He shoves, its folded to me holding AKs and I tank and muck. I'd call with Aces, but that's about it I think. If a math geek looks at it I'm pretty sure a fold is correct there. My big hand was when I as down to 17K with blinds at 2500-5000 and its folded to me in the SB and I shove 62o. I get called (?) by Q9o and I catch a 6 to double up and get to a safe spot from there. Why the BB, who barely had me covered, would call with Q9 there is bizarre.

So I'm excited to play the Main Event, as I haven't played since 2006. Pokerstars has rooms for its qualifiers at the Palms and I've never stayed there so that's cool also. And for the next two months I'm going to dream of going deep and then do this doctor thing as a hobby or missionary work.

Yet another Poker Post! whoot!

2009-03-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

No happy ending for those of you who want to skip to the end....

So I play the $200+$30 NL at the Hilton, eh, Grand Sierra again. 6000 starting chips. Here's a few hands:

Early on 25-50 I get QQ and raise, to be called by the BB. Flop J-9-4 and I must be good. He checks, I bet 2/3 pot. Turn is a little rainbow card and he check-calls 3/4 pot this time. River is another brick and he checks again. Now what? I tell myself he's got AJ or KJ and I must be good, but I ate a big bowl of "Nitties" for breakfast so I check behind. He tables JT and I steam a bit for not getting another 1200 out of him.

I get QThh in the CO and raise, the BB calls. Flop comes Kh-Qs-Jh. Wow. OK, count at home with me-

Ah/2h/3h/4h/5h/6h/7h/8h/9h/9d/9c/9s/Ts/Tc/Td/Qc/Qd/As/Ac/Ad

yep, 20 outs. Especially good to know when the BB check-raises me all-in with K6o. Turn 4c. River 9d and I'm a winna.

I move tables and my unfortunate tendency to raise at will causes my opponents to 3-bet me often. Since I don't have much in the way of cards, this blows.

Then I play a hand very badly. Like KK vs Aaron Kantor badly. I have T7hh in mid-position and limp after a couple limpers. The button has a monster stack and he comes along. Flop is T-9-9 with one heart. I bet when it gets to me and I'm headsup with the bigstack. Now here's the weird part. I'm thinking to myself "I need an 8-- an 8 would give me an OESD- that would be good" So the turn is another heart, giving me the flush draw as well as top pair. I check, button bets, I call. I have about 15K left at this point. He has a zillion chips. The river is the 8c. I check, he bets 2000. Now this is the part where I have to do a piss test or something. See, my brain is still on the turn. I'm still thinking "I need an 8 (or a heart" In fact, I'm pretty sure that I have a straight at this point. I snap-raise to 5K. He shoves. Holy crap. That was unexpected. F word. Well, my straight is hidden and might be good. Let me think about this. OK, whats the board? T-9-9-4-8. What's my hand again? T7. 7-8-9-T-- oh shit. Well kiss my gritz if I didn't just turn my hand into a bluff without even knowing it! I fold. Please to be taking 1/3 of my stack Mr. Don't-need-anymore-chips-from-me.

At one point my BB of 300 is raised by the CO to 1200. He has another 3500 behind, and I'm sitting with about 10-11K. I have ATs. So I ponder my options here. I could just push, or I could wait for the flop and then push. I tank awhile so he must know I have a hand. Its sort of strange, because I know all my chips are getting in the middle, but for the life of me I can't decide if it should be now or later. I call. Flop Q-T-5. Before I can act, the CO shoves. Dude, your stop-and-go is all backasswards here. So he pulls his stack back. Now I ask the dealer, just to make it clear, that if I shove he can still fold. She agrees. I say "OK, I'll give you another chance, I'm all in" Snap-call with the mighty Q4 off suit.

I drift below average. At 400-800 a short stack shoves for 2450. The Q4 guy calls. Another shorty goes all in. Action to me. I look down at AA. Got to get the rest of Q4's money in, so I make a neon-sign blasting raise to 5000. Q4 either can't see the danger, or is overcome with the pot odds and calls. Flop 6-2-2. Q4 shoves with 77. I snap and hold, knocking out the two shorties and putting Q4 on life support. Above average at this point.

After this I suppose the best description is that I failed to change gears. I went from 35K in chips down to 17,100 at the dinner break, with blinds at 800-1600/300. I did this not with any big hands, but by raising and then getting re-popped, or having my C-bets raised or just plain old playing shitty. With a low M after dinner I really just wanted a double up opportunity. There were 37 left, paying 18. We re-drew at 3 tables and one of the guys from the previous table who knows I'm somewhat maniacal is in the SB. I have him covered by 5500 chips. (How do I know this you ask? Silly rabbit...) At 1000-2000/400 its folded to me in the CO with AQo. I consider shoving, but I make it 6000. The SB shoves and there is really no way I can fold this spot so I call. He has 66 and turns a set and rivers a boat and I bust out 25th.

Playing the charity kidney jen harmon tourney on wednesday, the 3K on thursday, and I'm holding my decision on the 5K after that.

Quads is good.

2009-03-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

So it seems there are at least two people out there who look at this blog from time to time and say "hey- haven't been playing cards lately?"

Been playing a lot actually, just not writing about it. I've been playing online once or twice a week. This consists of logging on sometime between 6 and 7 PST and playing all of the FTP tourneys between then and the Turbo Fifty at 10 PM. Sometimes later. If you look at the OPR site, you'll see that I've run pretty good for the most part, although there have been stretches that I would like to forget. And I have more evidence for the ultimate doomswitch-- I'm 8 tabling FTP tournies the other night with decent stacks in most of them and getting close to the bubble when I get in good on each table and lose to a 2-6 outer or runner runner about 6 times in a row over a 5-8 minute span. BAM! No soup for you!

Whatever.

So I'm at the Hilton (Grand Sierra) and I donk out of the Omaha tourney fairly early and decide to sit in the 3-5 NL game with $1500. The game is really good. There's an old guy in seat 3 who comes in for $20-$30 every single hand. Awesome. The guy directly to my right seems OK, but he's one level behind me I figure, as he'll fire out the flop but give up to my float steal on the turn. The people to my left are all stacked and solid, and for now I think that if they are repopping I can get out of the way. So I'm at this game for about an hour and I realize that its a school night and I better be getting home. Just stupid to even sit down really. I call up for some chinese take out, so I'm on my last orbit. On my 2nd to last hand, I get 44 in EP and raise to $15. I get 4 callers. I flop 4-4-7. Fun fun. I check. Guy with a $500 stack to my left bets $60, and then the kid to my right calls. Oh my. I hope one of them flopped a boat. I call. Turn is not a 7. I check. Old guy fires $200. Kid folds. "How much you got left?"-- "OK, I'm all in" He calls but I never get to see his hand.

So its pretty cool when they are betting into you when you flop quads. Even nicer when the card room has a bonus for a high hand. And it just depends when it hits. So quad 5's for instance was worth about $45. Quad 8's must have just been hit, cause it was only $30. Quad 4's though, were worth over $375. Very sweet.

The best Rock show ever?

2008-12-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

For me I think.

I've never seen Led Zeppelin. In high school we were getting prepared to go on the all night ticket buying adventure when John Bonham died. So it didn't happen.

But I've seen a lot of shows. I think I might try to recap them somewhere here. The first concert I saw was Rush on the Moving Pictures tour at the Fabulous Forum in LA. Sat in the Colonade, 1981. Loved it.

Back at the Forum last night, AC/DC just amazed and wowed me. Hard driving rock and roll from guys who are mid-fifties plus (Brian Johnson is 61!) Their setlist was about perfect, their sound insane, and Angus Young is clearly the most under-rated lead guitar player ever. At least to me he was-- In fact, I'm going to give Angus the nod as the "best" (fwiw) rock guitarist I have ever been privileged to see live. The genres are somewhat different of course, but I will take the Scottish-Aussie Mr. Young over Pete Townsend, Eddie VH, David Gilmour(!), Jerry, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Alex Leifson, Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, and so on.

My ears are still ringing 24 hours later. I hope I get my shot at letting Jimmy Page make em ring at some point soon.

Vegas recap Part III

2008-11-10T08:20:00.001-08:00

This must be the part where I run goot, right?

After the Bellagio we played some 10-20 at Venetian. There was quite a bit of cash on the table- I had $4K, and one of the local pros had about $75K! One older tourist had about $10K, and he was everyone's target. I got my chance with KK and after someone had opened for $80 I made it $260 from one of the blinds. I get called by the tourist. Flop comes T-8-4, two hearts and I get real squirrelly and decide to just check-raise and take it down. He co-operates by putting two stacks in the middle. Now, I get confused and have my second "live misclick" of the trip when I announce my raise as "a thousand straight" Ooops. Devo quickly says- "wait- you can't do that- he made it $800" Oh shit. Yeah, he did. I thought it was $400 (in my defense I had been playing mostly the $5-$10 game with $10 chips) Fortunately I snap-switched to "No- I raise one thousand-- $1800 to go" and that was enough to take it down. Leading would probably have been better, but I am very aware that I lose most of my money in the first hour of sitting at a new table and simplifying things when I have less information seems to work.

Dinner at Capo's was excellent, and I got a free Benjamin when the poker worlds favorite runner-up decides to prop bet me on where Keller is playing in Tahoe. (Nobody plays the Cal-Neva) 5 games of bowling later I'm up $500, despite my best efforts to throw left handed and into the gutter. Oh well, when you bring your own cue-stick to the pool hall you are supposed to win I guess. I then picked up a massive one dollar thirty cents on the head-up ebay machine making me ridiculously ahead on the nights props. Finally, I make a gross suckout in a very fun 1-2 game where we lag it up real nicely. Devo does everything exactly perfect to get my money in when he's holding KK to my AJ on a whiffed flop-- only to have me make runner runner str8 to take it down.

Looking forward to next time

More from Vegas

2008-11-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

After busting the tourney, I played $1-$2 with turkey's wild on election night. Pretty fun.

The next day I play the $540 2 PM tourney at Bellagio. The first 20 minutes were just amazing. We start with 6K in chips. About the 10th hand I get QQ, raise and get a caller and flop K-Q-8. Nice. Check-check. Turn 9. Not as good. I bet out, get raised, and call. Hmmmm. River is another K. So I check and villain bets about 2/3 pot. I don't know why I got so nitty here- I have to be good, right? I just wondered if he played K9 like this. I ponder a bit, just call and he has a str8. Nice pot.

Two hands later I get red TT and flop a set on an all spade flop. I take it down.

About 3 hands after that I get AA and raise to 150. A MP player makes it 400 and I make it 1800. He tanks a long time. Finally he shoves into me with KK and I hold up.

Next hand I get JJ and everyone folds. Nice start I think!

I get up to 14K or so and then donk off 5K on a hand where I raise a limper with AQ and he calls. I miss the K high flop and try to represent AK. The guy check-calls both my flop barrel and then my turn shot to put him all in and he's the one with the AK. Oops.

From there not much happened. We get down to 11 people and they are paying only 3, so getting some chips would be a good idea. I make a button raise with KQo and this spewtard in the SB pushes. I'm getting about 1.6-1 to call, and it s a healthy stack if I win and crippled if I lose and I should be decent against his range here. I call and he tables A5s and he holds. Blech.

I go back to Bellagio the next day for the same tourney. Paul Phoc Nguyen is there--I played a long time with him a couple years ago. At 100-200 the short stack to my left pushes for his last 1400, Paul calls with his huge stack and I instashove about 7K with pocket deuces. Paul has to fold (99 his told me later) , I hold up over QT and get rewarded for my sick play. I'm up and down, but play well and then double up with QQ>TT. As I'm stacking my chips I look down at KQo in the SB. It gets folded to Paul on the CO and he raises to 1000. I call. Flop K-Q-T and I just check while I stack chips. Paul then shoves. OK, well, he might have something here, but he wouldn't shove with it. I call, he has AA and I'm drawing to a chop after he turns an Ace. Crap a smack a ding dong. I get it in way good for the chip lead with 9 people left and it doesn't happen. Pokah.

The pre-AAO Vegas Boondoggle and How goot I run vs Devo

2008-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

I think it is pretty standard that if I have a meeting in Las Vegas that I should bounce from Reno a day or two early to hit the felt.

Fortunately, I'm blessed by a very understanding woman, who gets it that in some strange way, sitting on my ass for hours trying to outplay the range of fools out there is good for me. In moderation of course. So-- thanks Rina. Much appreciated.

So my BIG plan (woot) is to play the $330 Venetian deep stack on election day. I have meetings on Thursday, so I can't really play a two-day tourney that starts on Wednesday, obv. So i get one shot.

Having to warm up, I sit down in a very wild $2-$5 cash game, where everyone has like $2K on the table, and people are maximum lagtards. Good things happen, and I get up several hundo. Then this: I get KK in MP and make it $20. The most laggy, VPiP=99%, (plays every pot) raises everytime guy, then makes it $120 from the button. At this point I have about $2K and he covers. Next to him in the SB is a more nitty player who then shoves for $400. Back to me. Decisions: 1)Shove for value and to isolate. 2) Call to induce a squeeze from the button 3) Do some FPS min raise crapola. I go through these pretty quickly and decide to call. Back to lagbutton. He tanks a little, asks me my stack size, and then makes it $1000 straight. So it is now only $600 to call, and the pot is $1800. OK, well just calling here seems retarded, cause I'm then out of position on the flop and I'm basically shoving everything. Maybe I dump i if an Ace flops. Shoving seems super standard. I mean, I have frickin Kings!!!!

But Kings aren't the nuts, and I've been in this spot at least twice in the last 3 months playing for stacks and both times I stacked off to AA. And the 4th raise means Aces. I tank forever, and feel like my cards must be face-up. His bet size screams for a call. No. Not this time. I muck. He immediately tells me I made a great fold and laments that he screwed up the hand (he is supposed to stack me there 80% of the time) Sick read, ftw.
Then the $330 election day special at the V. I donk off from $12,500 to about 8000. Yuck. Nothing is happening. At 50-100 I call a raise in the SB with 97o and three see a flop of 8-J-Q rainbow. Its only a gutter, but obv I haven't had much. I check, MP checks, and the LP raiser fires out 600. I make it 2000. I'm not sure how, but I am going to convince myself that my cards are T9 and I'm going to convince the LP also. No worries though, as I turn the T for the str8. Sweetness. I lead 2500 and he calls. He's got two pair or a set I guess. River bricks and I shove for another 3200 or so-- and he tanks, calls, mucks, and I DBL UP. Woot.

I'm hovering around 35K when I open raise to 2000 from the CO at 300-600/50. BB is a nitty old guy. (Its funny for me to write that, because I AM that NOG sometimes) He min-raises me to 4000, and he has another 7200 or so behind. Blech. So the battle between the part of me that senses he's got TT+ and crushing me is winning out over the much more logical side who looks at the pot, looks at the odds, and demands a call. Well, that ain't exactly right either since I can't really win enough when I spike the 7 to make it long term worthwhile. Whatever. I guess I should have shipped it right here, cause barring some disaster flop its all going in then. I call. Flop comes 8-high babies, rainbow, and the n.o.g. puts in 5K of his remaining 7200. Blech. I just shove, he snaps with JJ and I lose 1/3 of my stack.

Shortly after that, a young kid who hasn't done much opens in the CO and I decide to defend my SB with pocket 6's I repop to 4500 and then he shoves. Yuck a doodle. Pot is about 18,000 and its 9000 roughly to call so I don't have a choice. He shows me AQ, bricks the flop, but turns the Ace and now I'm down to 9000 chips or so with blinds at 400-800/75. I end up open shoving when it gets folded to me in the SB and the BB has AQ. My 93o doesn't look so promising and its gg me.

More later, as I must sleep now.

And again...

2008-09-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

No screenshots this time, but I took down the $55 rebuy again this week for $7K+, then FT'd the $33 rebuy and took 2nd (at 4:30 in the morning) for another $2300 or so. Its a breakthrough month. If I could just take down a $109 on stars....

Finally won something

2008-09-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

Although I took the usual suckouts, I had enough chips to survive them. Discovered an ATM in a player who liked to open raise and then fold to my 3-bet, and got lucky at the right spots. About time.

Rose Bowl this year?

2008-09-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

One time please....

This was pretty sick

2008-07-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #7283151495: $17,000 Guarantee (54632445), Table 21 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:32:31 ET - 2008/07/19
Seat 1: Snirt (8,634)
Seat 2: manong patay (16,629)
Seat 3: vagabond07 (7,570)
Seat 4: hawkur (3,953)
Seat 6: jusaeyo (6,164)
Seat 7: CaseyMVS (10,054)
Seat 9: koey1 (12,880)

CaseyMVS posts the small blind of 300
koey1 posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Snirt [As Jd]
Snirt raises to 1,500

koey1 calls 900
*** FLOP *** [8h 4d 9h]
koey1 has 15 seconds left to act
koey1 bets 2,400
Snirt raises to 7,059, and is all in
koey1 has 15 seconds left to act

koey1 has requested TIME
koey1 calls 4,659
Snirt shows [As Jd]
koey1 shows [Qs Ac]
*** TURN *** [8h 4d 9h] [3d]
Snirt: wow
*** RIVER *** [8h 4d 9h 3d] [5c]
Snirt shows Ace Jack high
koey1 shows Ace Queen high
koey1 wins the pot (17,943) with Ace Queen high
Snirt stands up

So I thought at this point in the tourney this was a pretty standard flop push-steal. Villain tanked long time and made the hero call. Another 1500 chips or so and I think I win the hand.

WSOP Main Event

2008-07-03T21:37:00.001-07:00

Uh.... after attempting multiple online and a few live satellites, I failed to win my way in. No way I'm dishing out $10K to play in this donkament, especially when I read about hands like this:

Quad Aces are Good, Right? ... RIGHT?
Motoyuki "Moto" Mabuchi raises to 850 in middle position and the button calls.

The flop is Ax Qd 9x and both check. The turn is Td and Moto bets 1,600. The button calls. The river is Ad and Moto bets 2,500. The button raises to 8,500 and Moto reraises all in.

The button calls. Moto shows AA for quad aces, but the button has KdJd for the royal flush. Moto is eliminated in stunning fashion.

Nostalgia

2008-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

September 4, 1983

Dear Mom and Dad,

........I've decided that if we fight the Fucking Russian Communist Bastards they won't have to draft me as I'll be one of the first in line to kill the Reds. I cannot believe their contempt for human decency and their lack of any morality....

Google test!

2008-06-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

So I noticed that my pic with the governor showed up on a google search. I hope this one does also. So,

This is picture of Steve Friedlander taken with Ron Paul in Reno, Nevada 2007.

That's it.

Doomswitched

2008-06-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Step 6, on the bubble for money. Now, its true, the villain did call with the nut flush draw, although he was only getting 2-1 on the river. So I get my money in very good here and he hits a King.

Rigged, obv, imo.

PokerStars Game #18386267397: Tournament #93410347, $2000+$100 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/06/25 - 22:54:47 (ET)
Table '93410347 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: marg101 (3740 in chips)
Seat 3: bbbbb33 (7510 in chips)
Seat 4: Jeromen (2620 in chips)
Seat 6: beaverFE\/ER (3835 in chips)
Seat 7: M0n3y0nf1r3 (2885 in chips)
Seat 8: jellyeater (2290 in chips)
Seat 9: Axinar (4120 in chips)
bbbbb33: posts small blind 50
Jeromen: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jellyeater [Ac 8s]
beaverFE\/ER: folds
M0n3y0nf1r3: folds
jellyeater: raises 200 to 300
Axinar: calls 300
marg101: raises 200 to 500
bbbbb33: folds
Jeromen: folds
jellyeater: calls 200
Axinar: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Th 6s Ah]
jellyeater: checks
Axinar: checks
marg101: bets 100
jellyeater: calls 100
Axinar: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Th 6s Ah] [6h]
jellyeater: bets 1690 and is all-in
Axinar: folds
marg101: calls 1690
*** RIVER *** [Th 6s Ah 6h] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jellyeater: shows [Ac 8s] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
marg101: shows [Kd Kh] (a full house, Kings full of Sixes)
jellyeater said, "**** me"
marg101 collected 5330 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***

Board [Th 6s Ah 6h Ks]

Seat 2: marg101 (button) showed [Kd Kh] and won (5330) with a full house, Kings full of Sixes

Seat 8: jellyeater showed [Ac 8s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sixes

The icing on the cake, redux

2008-06-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

No one reads this blog. At least no one comments on it. That's sort of why I post a picture of an attractive, blonde, australian woman with a gun holster on her hip (which perfectly describes my wife) and try to induce at least one snide comment. Oh well.

So a year ago, for you non-readers, I had a Vegas trip that was about as bad as my recent one. Just to be complete, here is how the day went on Saturday, after I busted out of the 2500 NL.

I had set up a credit line at the Venetian last time but haven't used it yet and thought I should. I just wanted to cash a check but again, they give me grief and want me to take a marker. Fine. I end up at the crap table. Amazing. I take $5K and play quarter craps with full odds and cover some numbers. I play for about 30 min and win $125. yes- I WON MONEY PLAYING CRAPS!!

Then I decided to take another shot at the 5-10 game at the Venetian. Its not soft, and I can't tell if its really nitty or only slightly nitty. There is some decent action with $40 preflop raises getting called often and some decent post flop play. I see the flop at least 6 more times with pocket pairs and still no set comes (that's 52 times in a row now for those of you keeping score).

Then this: Laggy utg raises to $40, gets a caller. I have two red Kings and make it $240. Folded to the button who has played less than the average number of hands and he asks me what denomination the purple $500 chips I have are. Ugh. He says he's gonna raise and he makes it another $500. Folded to me. I have very sensitive Ace detectors I think and they are going off. But really, what the fuck- can I lay down Kings preflop in a cash game 300 BB's deep? I don't think so. Should I repop? I think back to my Aaron Kanter hand and how bady l played Kings. I'll call and see what the flop brings. If there is any non-King paint or an Ace I'm done. It comes like 9-3-3 with two hearts. I really don't know what to do now, cause the AA detectors are going off again. Blech. I'm not going to check-fold, so I push, he snapcalls and shows AdAs. I nod. Another heart comes on the turn, just so the poker gods can tease me a little. The river bricks. Snirt stands up.

Glutton for punishment

2008-06-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

meh.

there was a brief stretch of time during the 2500 NL today that I thought I could win/do well/cash/make the dinner break/make day 2 blah blah blah.

Brief stretch.

My table was the softest I've had. There was a guy who reminded me of the Melbourne players who thought Ace-rag was the nuts. Thing is, the guy would always call to the river and then catch an Ace and then bet out. It was hilarious. He took a huge pot from a good player this way, and I was just thinking to myself- "Dude- he has like Ace-four or somethng- wtf are you doing?"

While I still have seen 42 straight flops with pocket pairs and yet to flop a set, I did win my first race of the WSOP when I got all in with AKs vs QQ and flopped an ace. Got me up to 8000 chips or so and I was feeling pretty good. I got pocket 5's like 5 times, and each time I was up against something like AQ that missed and I was good.

Except the last time.

At 100-200 (i didn't even make the antes!) I call a raise in position with 55, against an aggressive internet type who I barely cover. So we see the flop of T-3-3 with two hearts and he fires out a C-bet of 700. I consider raising him right there but it looks goofy-- if I have A3, TT, AT, or any other hand really, I think I would be calling and let him bet again on the turn. So I call. Turn is an offsuit 4. He checks. I'm so brilliant. It's so easy to put him on any non-pair two high card hand here, and if that is what he has, he's gonna give up most of the time. I had already decided that if he bet the turn I was gonna shove on him anyway, so I was a little disappointed he didn't fire the second barrel. So the pot is about 2700 I think and I have roughly 6000 left. I bet 2K pretty quickly and he tanks. He tanks a long time. He looks so weak. He is trying to summon the courage to make a play at this pot with his whiffed AK and the longer he tanks the more I'm confident that I'm good and that I'm calling if he shoves. He picks up his cards at one point, just barely off the table like he's gonna muck, but then eventually he gathers his chips and ships them in.

Crap.

I have to trust my read here. He is weak, he doesn't like his hand and he's making a move. OK. I call. He looks dejected. "You got me" he says, as he tables pocket 7's. F-word. No dude, you got me and you were making your move with the best hand. Crap on toast.

I have 550 chips left and I ship it in with A8 against two players with AQ and KQ and I catch an 8 to triple up to like 2000 chips or 10 BB's. Nice. Good resteal stack. I'm in the BB with A4s and the button raises and I instashove and he instacalls with AQs and its gg me.

$5K Shootout

2008-06-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

360 entries roughly, on 36 tables. You win your table you are in the money, and play 6 handed the next day. There is a bad player in seat 1. A very good player (Adam Levy) in seat 3, me in 4, and the rest of the table is at least competent if not very good. They are all internet players I think. Oh, and Phil Ivey sits down in the 2 seat. At least I have position on him.

Table 16: Phil Ivey (2), Adam "Roothlus" Levy (3), Amit "Amak316" Makhija (8), David "dpeters18" Peters (9), Brian "tsarrast" Rast (10)

We start with 10,000 chips which seems like a lot except the blinds are 100-200 and the second level is 150-300/25, so it goes up quick. The table is pretty tight, except for Ivey who wins a lot of small pots just by being in them. I pick up KQs and call a raise and its 3 players to the flop of K-8-5 rainbow. The raiser bets out 1200, I make it 3200 and both fold. Nice.

The 1 seat limps from the cutoff, Ivey limps, SB completes, and I check with 34o. Flop comes 2-5-8. SB checks, I check (hoping Ivey will bet) CO checks, Ivey bets 600, I call. Turn is another 2. Check-check. River is a blank, I bet out 1200, and I bluff out the best poker player in the world with 4-high.

Ivey then doubles up, knocking out seat 1 who slowplays AA and Ivey pushes the flop with a flush draw and gets there. Ivey then goes out when he flops top two and all the money goes in on the flop and the villain has a flush draw and gets there. Poker.

I chip up to about 13000 and then make the only real mistake of the day. I'm in the SB. A guy min-raises to 400, the button makes it 1800 and I call, set-mining, with pocket 9's. Unfortunately the min-raiser now pushes and we both fold. I still am pretty aggro though and win many pots without confrontation. I wake up with JJ in the big blind and 3-bet a raiser who folds. I open raise with AA and the big blind looks like he is itching to repop me but he doesn't. Sigh.

At the far end of the table there is a euro-player who has gotten short and has started to open-push. He's done this about 4 times-- at one point he gets called and shows Q8s and manages to double up. So when he open pushes again and I look down at AQ on the button I think I'm probably way ahead of his range and this is a good time to knock out a player and get some chips. I call off 3800 and he shows pocket 4's and I miss. Damn it.

After the break I find myself with less than 6000 chips and blinds at 200-400/50. Not good, but a healthy stack to resteal with. So I wait for an opportunity. It comes when there is a raise to 1000 from the Adam "Roothlus" Levy in the cutoff and I push on the button with JTs. He calls with 22. The flop comes Q-9-x and now I have 14 outs twice to double up. For you non-poker people this means I need any King, Eight, Jack or Ten. Needless to say I brick out and its good game me. fwiw, Roothles went on to win the table...

Blondes rule

2008-06-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to get Rina in this outfit. (The holster won't be empty though)

$1500 6-handed

2008-06-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

OK, psyched for this event. Good thing I pre-registered as they sellout and about 200-400 people get shut out. Joe Sebok is at my table. I get the old Jack-duey in the SB in the first hand, its folded to me, I raise and win.

This is the high water mark of the day I think.

On the second hand there is a raise and two calls. The flop comes K-8-6 and there is a bet, raise, push, fold, call, and the poor bastard who flopped a set of sixes is on the rail to the set of 8's. (The third guy had AK and the sense to get out of the way)

I end up making some late position and button raises with hands like QTo which sometimes get played back at. One guy seems to always have a hand, showing AK several times as well as QQ, KK etc.

I play one hand (very badly) with Sebok-- he raises UTG and I call in the SB with AKo. Flop comes Q-J-x and I check-call and then check-fold the turn. Blech. Not the way to play a tourney where you have such a short chip stack to begin with.

I then play a hand against the heater guy-- I raise in LP with QJ and he calls. Flop comes Q-high monotone and he check-calls twice before firing on the river. I get like 5-1 on his bet and know I'm beat and indeed he tables AQ. Blech.

Now I'm really short and ship it in with KK to be called by 66. Flop comes 7-5-4 and I know I'm toast. Turn is a 3. GG me.

I head over to the Venetian to play the Omaha 8OB $540 they are running. They have over 200 runners, paying 18. Its a gross game, but I like to play it a bit as I'm still learning a lot. Its limit poker, high-low, so having the hands is pretty crucial. I donked up and down for a while eventually busting out around 50th.

Then the Lakers lost.

Tomorrow (with the $5K shootout) will be better. I hope I get a decent table draw....

WSOP 2008

2008-06-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Arrived this evening and checked into my comped sweet suite at the Palazzo. Nice. High floor with good view.

Went to the Rio to get my registration in order. Table 23 Red, Seat 1 for the short handed event tomorrow. Saw that Zak still had chips in the $2K today and was nearing the money. Decided to try a satellite and a $525 started up. Some strange play (big overpushes early) but for the most part everyone was solid. We started with 2000 chips at 25/25 and 20 min levels. No one busted for the first 4 levels. Sick. This turns it into a shovefest. I chip up and down and then knock a guy out who pushes from the button and I call with JJ. Very next hand a guy pushes UTG and its folded to me on the button and I have JJ again. This guys range must be huge, and since he has only 9 BB's he prob just open pushes with his whole range. I think I'm usually ahead here and I call. He has QQ and I miss. Now I'm short. With blinds at 150-300, I post the BB and have 450 left. Yuck. The button goes all in, the SB (who I think is only 19 and has a Millennium Falcon chip protector) tanks and then goes all in. I just go all in blind. I hae QJo, the SB has ATo and the button opened with KQ. Someone the board comes 8x9xT and I make a str8 to triple up. Whoot. We get 5 handed and the kid has a monster stack and he's raising a lot. He raises, I have KQ and push and he calls with AQ and its GG me.

I head over to the tourney that Zak is in and they are hand for hand on the money bubble. I watch this complete donkey call off his last chips with AQo only to lose a raise against a big stack who had open raised with 77. The caller had at least 6-7 BB's left, and it sure looked like he could have folded into the money. I hope the dumbass factor is as high tomorrow.

Warrior Week!

2008-05-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

Just a shout out to my boy who is currently slogging through the mud carrying an M16 learning how to kick ass!

Strong work Brent!

A Win at the PM

2008-05-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well, its just the $125 nightly with 5 tables. So no big deal. And the quality of the play is just atrocious. Its like, I know all the players that I know and I know how they play. The ones I don't know can't play for shit. So it seems pretty easy. Just try not to get unlucky. You get 4000 chips to start, and they made the levels 20 min and added an ante. All good. They still pay the whole final table though which just blows. If I win this tourney, I want at least $2K in my pocket. And if I come in 9th, I really don't care about getting my money back.

Second hand I get red KK. The CO raises and I reraise from the BB. He calls. Flop comes A-high, all clubs. I bet, he raises, I muck face up. I'm soooooo goooood.

I play a lot of hands, but people fold all the time. I only show good hands. Its a joke. Despite this, its easy to screw up. A really bad woman player limps in early position with blinds at 150-300. I raise from the button with ATo, she calls. Flop comes A-6-4 and she bets 1000. WTF? I raise and she pushes and I realize too late that I have like 4-1 to call. Yech. She has A6o and cuts me down a lot. But who just calls a raise in EP with A6 ?? WTF??

Eventually a guy raises and I'm short and I push with 66. He has JJ and the poker gods smile on me and I spike a 6. I call a push with 33 and beat AJ. I get to the final table.

First hand its raised to me and I look down at AA. I massage the pot and the guy commits preflop. He has KQs and flops two Q's. A few hands later I get AA again, this time all in against the bad lady player. She has T8s. Nice. I get up cause I don't want to watch her suck out. Sure enough, when I get back she has made a str8 and I'm short again.

By this time there are 7 players left, and the chip leader says "The call me Mr. Chop- I'm willing to make a deal. How bout I take $1000?" LOL. First place is $1600, 2nd is $870. This guy wants more than 2nd place money with 7 people left. I laugh at him. He inspires me.

I pick up KK and double through him. I pick up AA and knock him out. I pick up QQ and they hold up against the BLP's 72o. We get 3 handed. I call a raise with 67cc. The flop comes 8c9hKc-- I have six million outs twice. The guy pushes. I call. He has no pair and a gutshot???? I pick up a 6 on the turn which is good enough.

I get HU with Randy L. who is really the only player at the FT that I had any respect for and would be willing to chop with. I outchip him a lot and tell him there really isn't any deal that makes sense for him. Despite this, I take $1450 and call it a night. Yee haw. Bring on the WSOP! Whoot!

WSOP Circuit at Caesar's Vegas

2008-04-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

The Nevada State Medical Association was kind enough to schedule their annual dog and pony show at the same time as the WSOP Circuit was in Vegas. Nice. I showed up a day early to play a Venetian $300 Deep Stack event. The Venetian has great tourneys. Their room is spacious, the service excellent, and the structures can't be beat. We had 6000 starting chips with 40 minute levels, and very slowly moving blinds. The tourney I played had about 190 players and I busted out 28th, paying 18. I played very erratic. Some excellent plays and some very bad ones, and I got my money in both bad and good.

Some hands:

I raise UTG with AKs and then 4-bet all in when I get repopped by a fairly aggro player who has me covered. He tanks forever and finally folds. I tangle with him again later when my stack isn't great and I 3-bet him with 99. He eventually calls with AT, which is pretty lame, but given that he folded the earlier hand I sort of expected he wanted to see what I was doing. An ace came in the door and I stood up, only to be saved by a 9 on the turn.

Later that same player raises all-in, and a tight player to my right just calls. The bet is about 5000 or so and the two of us probably have another 10-15K each behind. I have KK and figure pushing here looks like I'm just trying to isolate and he might bite. He tanks and then folds, later telling me he had AK.

I lose all my mojo against the AK player from above-- a shorty limps UTG, it gets folded to the SB who raises. Now, he's been pretty tight I suppose, but the range for this play should be very wide. I have JJ in the BB and I repop. Unfortunately, the SB pushes, and the pot size demands a call-- he had QQ. Meh.

After this hand I got really really short. In fact, I was down to an M of around 2 at one point, open shoving only to have the blinds fold, which was just horrible. Somehow I managed to win quite a few pots and got my stack healthy again. I then 3-bet a guy who really didn't want to fold but managed to. The next hand he raises again and I have JJ and 3-bet him again. This time he pushes. Such a weird spot, given the table dynamics. I just made a play on him the hand before, now I actually have a hand and he defends. Meh. Well, I call and he shows me QQ-- then derides me for "not being able to fold Jacks."

I'm down quite a bit again, and I'm not interested in limping into the money- I want to get healthy and have a real shot at winning. A guy shorter than me in MP opens for 5X the BB, which looks to be about 40% of his stack or so. Its folded to me in the BB with 33, and I think I'm good. He's just too invested at this point to fold though. I call, planning to move in on the flop. The flop comes Ac-5c-5d, and I move in. He calls me with Kc Jc-- (a good call I suppose if he knows my hand) and he catches his flush. Oh well. I bust shortly after.

OK...

The $2080 buy in event had 191 entries, 6000 chips, and 1 hour levels. I draw a table with David Pham to my right. He doesn't play many pots at all for the first level. The table is pretty tight overall, and I chip up playing small pots. I float a lot in position and manage to snag a bunch of chips on the river several times. Nice. First hand when the blinds go to 25-50, I raise in the CO with KTo and get called by the button. Flop comes KcQdTc. I bet 300, he makes it 900. Hmmm. That's pretty yucky. I really should fold with that board but I manage to call. The turn is the Jc. I check-fold to his 600 bet and he shows the AQc for the royal. The table breaks.

I get moved to a table where I don't know anyone, and I win a lot of pots. I don't make any big hands, and I don't really get in any major confrontations-- but I do manage to rake in some key spots. I win about 3000 chips on a hand holding JT on a Q4JTK board, with the villain calling with Q7. I have A9hh and call a raise to see a flop of 679, one heart. The Jh comes on the turn and I reraise all in with a good read and win another 4000 or so. At the end of 4 levels I'm sitting well above average with about 18000 chips and I like my table.

Back from break, I find that my table has been broken. Bummer. I get moved with Men the Master on my left, Chainsaw Kessler on my right, JJ Lieu to his right, Dutch Boyd 3 to my left. Ugh. Dutch busts Kessler with AK>QQ.

With blinds at 100-200/25, I pick up TT UTG and make it 600 to go. I get two callers, with JJ Lieu calling on the button. I flop golden: T-7-4 rainbow. Wow. This is my dream hand. I decide to lead at it and bet 1600. They both call. The turn brings a low club, putting a flush draw out there. I tank a little, and then fire out 5500. The MP player folds, but JJ tanks. She's playing with her chips. The bet will basically commit her as she only has another 2000 or so. I don't look at her. I actually feel like my hand is face up. I mean, I have top set, and its the nuts for now. She must be able to see that. I can see out of the corner of my eye that she's staring at me. I don't look. I look at all the pictures of the pros on the walls of the poker room. Men the master is up there, and there's some women- Annie Duke, Cindy Violette, Jenn Harmon- I don't see JJ up there. Eventually she calls, and groans when she sees my hand. She tables 97cc for middle pair and a flush draw. the river is another 7 and I fill up and bust her. Sweeeeeeeet.

I set mine once against Men. I raise with 33 to 600 and he repops to 1600. Its folded back to me. He's got a big hand here, and if I hit a 3 I'm pretty sure I will stack him. I call. I miss. I check-fold and he flashes me bullets. Its a good play.

Before dinner, Dutch and this young guy get involved in a pot. I don't remember the preflop action, but the flop comes 9-9-3 and Dutch checks. Kid bets 2000. Dutch tanks, starring aimlessly forward in a trancelike state, and then methodically calls. The turn is another 9 and Dutch checks again. The scene repeats as the kid bets 4000 and the same show is displayed as Dutch tanks, trances, and calls. The river was a 7 and now Dutch tanks, trances, and pushes. Wow. From my seat it looks like a value bet. The kid thinks so also and mucks, later telling me he had Jacks. We go to dinner and Dutch is behind me in the food line. "What did you do in that last hand with those 9's out there?-- check-call, check-call, push??" "Yeah, pretty tricky, huh?"

After dinner, Dutch limps UTG and the kid limps behind him. There is then a raise from a small stack and Men calls the raise. Dutch then pushes. Kid then pushes. Shorty folds. Men shows JJ and folds. Dutch has AK and has trapped himself behind the kids KK. The Kings hold up and Dutch is out. The kid does a little fist pump-- for some reason this looks mandatory when you trap and then bust Dutch Boyd. nh sir.

I get up to about 28000 and get moved. I go card dead. Bleh. I then make "the big mistake", which results in me losing my mojo and is the turning point in the tourney. With blinds at 200-400/50 I'm in the BB with 8h8s. It get folded to the cutoff, a player named Richard who I shared a cash game table with the night before. (Edit: It turns out that I google him and he is the CEO of the exotic car dealership in the Caesars forum shops- what a frickin phat gig) He knows what he's doing. He raises to 1200. I have about 20000 or so at this point. It seems like a good spot to 3-bet, so I make it 4000. He thinks just a little and calls. Bad result. The flop is OK: T-6-7 with 2 diamonds. I don't see how I can I check here. I bet 5000. He calls. Damn. So now I'm in for about half my stack, out of position with a marginal hand against a good player showing strength. How great is that. On top of that, even if I hit my set now I might not be good to a flush or str8. Its just plain ugly. The turn is the Jd and I can't find the strength to donk-push another barrel. I check and he checks behind. The river comes the Kd, putting 4d on the board. Fuck. I have to take a look at my hand again. Nope, no diamond. So there are now a million hands that beat me, he has enough chips to call a "value" bet from me here-- even if I push he's getting almost 3-1 on the call. Just frickin miserable. I check. He checks. I turn over my hand and say "there is no way these can be good" and he tables black ATo for TPTK on the flop. Men the Master is at this table also now and he remarks "there is no way he thought he was good either" True that, and maybe a turn or river push would have taken it down. I don't know, but now I'm short.

I get moved again- this time to the left of Shannon Shorr. Jon Little joins the table a little later. Shannon is really short- he's nursing a stack of about 3K. I have about 8K, and blinds are 300-600/75. I win a couple pots when I repop with AK and don't get called. I repop later with JJ and a guy lays down 99. Dang- that would have been a good spot to double up. Blinds go to 400-800/100 and I get moved again. Tim West at my table. Richard from before as well. Some huge stacks. I'm floating between 9-12 BB's for the most part. I feel like I have a great resteal stack, but the three guys to my right are all probably 2+2er's or P5er's and will see that for what it is. So I need a hand. I get AK, open push and pick up the blinds and antes. It helps. We are down to 37 players, 18 get paid, first place is $102K. I get JJ utg and ponder my options. I raise to 2500 and plan on calling a reraise. It gets folded to the BB who ponders and puts me in. OK, I call. He shows 44 which is just awesome. Until he flops a set and my day is over.

Standard.

Getting close online

2008-03-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Online poker is probably a very good exercise for me. The game of course requires much patience, both live and online, but sitting in your bathrobe on a Sunday staring at the screen for hours and hours is sometimes much more challenging. Yesterday, while slogging through the Sunday Million, i did 4 loads of laundry, watched two great NCAA games, made some business related phone calls, and tried to fix my oven.

One would imagine it might be more profitable to just play poker?

And of course the whole "psych up" thing about live poker is there. I got really "up" for Reno because its only once a year. I have a chance at over $200K every Sunday, and usually at least twice on Sundays.

So yesterday I started out in a FTP $40,000 guarantee tourney, around 700 entries, with about $25K to first. I'm doing very well, go deep, and make a reraise all in with pocket tens on the final table bubble. The monkey who tanks and eventually calls has 97 of clubs. Wow. I should just stove that real quick..... hold on.....yeah, that is what I thought. I got my money in as an 81% favorite. I was still 77% on the flop, but running clubs ended my tourney in 10th and I got about $1000 for my time.

Then I play the Million. This week its a $1000 buy in, which reduces the field quite a bit. There are only 1900 entries or so, compared with the usual 7000 when its a $200 buy in. Last week I had a lot of chips, around 90,000 when I tried a silly bluff against Isabelle Merceir and got broke. This week I run pretty well and go deep. Still can't make it to the really big payday though- (18th and higher got 5 digits, first prize was over $366,000!!) But I end up 59th for $4200 or so. There is always next week.....

I'm so out!

2008-03-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

LOL.

They got 260 entries, way down from previous years. We start with 15K in chips with 75 min levels. I sit in the 6 seat to see TJ Cloutier in the 7. John Juanda sits in the 9. Men the Master is in the 1, and Kathy Liebert is in the 2. The other 4 I don't know, but the guy in the 5 seat is a Canadian kid who acknowledges he is the sucker at the table. OK, I thought that was me, but if he thinks its him, then OK.

25 min in and I'm dealt pocket Kings in the SB. The UTG player opens for 250. Its the first pot he's played. I may have taken a small pot down prior to this. Its folded to me and I make it 750. TJ folds. UTG puts in a pink 1K chip, and at first I thought he was reraising but it was only a call. The flop comes three little cards with 2 clubs. Nice. No ace. Before I can consider my action, the UTG player puts two pinks in (2K). Hmmmm. WTF? That sucks. OK, well he can still easily have something between 99 and QQ. I decide I'll check-raise. I check, he puts in the 2K and I make it 6K and he instacalls. Uh oh. The turn is a Q. I have a pot sized bet left. So my choices here are check-fold, check-call or push. UTG sure doesn't look like he's going anywhere. There is no way he has AK or AQ here. And there is no way he played JJ like this either. No frickin way. So I'm not beating anything now. I check, he pushes, I muck face-up and Juanda says "Damn- give me those Kings!" lol. If the guy didn't have AA he did a helluva job convincing me that he did. The guy basically didn't play anything after that, so he was either planning an elaborate move early to get chips (doubtful) or he was a big-ball player who coolered me (more likely)

Oh yeah. Juanda goes out like this: He raises in late position, like he has most pots. Canuck calls him from BB. Flop comes 5-6-7 with two spades. Now the fireworks-- Kid bets, Juanda raises, Kid repops, Juanda pushes. Kid calls him with 54o! Wow. He's got bottom pair and a str8 draw. Juanda turns over 9Tss for the flush draw, gutshot str8 draw and two overcards. I didn't expect to see either of these hands. Sick. Juanda catches a 9 on the turn, but Canuck makes two pair with a 4 on the river and busts Juanda. Send him a Full Tilt T-shirt!

Now it sucks, cause I have half of what I started with. Meh. I play some pots, limping when possibly, playing small pairs trying to flop a set. None come. I'll call a small raise in a multi-way pot with suited connectors but they don't hit either. So I chip down. Bleh. In fact, I chip down to near 5K in chips, which is enough to repop nicely when someone raises to 750 or after a couple limpers. Before the break I raise the button to 300 with AKs, TJ makes it 850 and I push. He folds.

At 75-150 there are 2 limpers to me. Again I have AKs and I make it 700. I have another 5200 or so behind. Its folded to the first limper and he reraises another 2K. Folded to me. Ugh. I don't really think about it enough I guess, because all I'm thinking is that if I get in a race to double up I'm stoked at this point. I don't want to sit here for 14 hours milking a short stack. That just blows. So I push. Right into his fuckin Aces.

This leaves me a nice 1100 stack. Kathy opens to 5, gets a caller and I push with red tens. They both call. Why she can't repop him for me I dunno. Flop comes K-high and he bets her off it with his AK which is good and I'm done.

Worst table draw ever for sure, and I got badly coolered on the KK hand. Still, it feels like I won $7K since I didn't lay the cash down to buy in....

I'm IN!

2008-03-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

whoo hoo and double fist pump! took down a 148 entry satellite with 13 seats. gets hairy at then end of these things, but some short stacks obliged the rest of us by playing their hands.

sweat me on card player.com- I'm feeling good about how I'm playing and lets see how far it goes!

The last Reno WPT

2008-03-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

starts tomorrow. I'm still not sure if I'm playing. I have a nice phat wad of 77 benjamins ready to throw down, but the way I have been running/playing/thinking/donking it seems like a pretty thin EV situation. That and the fact that the fields this past week have been very tough.

I've been thinking about how an amateur player has any chance to compete with these fields anymore. The challenges of online poker have caused a contraction of the universe of players so that when I sit at an online tourney table I recognize several names every time. These are people who grind for a living, playing >10 hours daily and who have amassed hundreds of thousands of hands of experience-- how can i realistically expect to compete with that? The thing is that even with all that experience, the edges remain small. Winning a race once in a while would also be helpful.

I've played this tourney 4 times. Previously its been a $5100 entry. In 2004 I went out very early. I was a superfish, highly intimidated by the field, and I called off all my chips with top pair with QJ to a guy who had flopped a set of nines. I almost rivered a flush, but ended up making an exit after only about 2 1/2 hours of play.

In 2005 I made a big run, headed into day 2 as one of the chip leaders, and getting into the money and into day 3. Played with Phil Ivey on that third day and got all my chips in with TT to be called by AQ. Flop came with two Queens, so it was not to be my day. Barry Greenstein eventually busted my A5s with QT.

2006 brough Hassan Habib to my first table and he just bulldozed the rest of us. After half a day's play I found myself with AQ on a Q high flop and lost all my chips to a well-disguised KK.

2007 started off fairly well. Phil Laak and Mike Simon were at my first table. Made it to the dinner break, but was fairly short. Kirk Morrison rivered an ace with his AT against my all in 77 and that was that.

The opportunities to satellite into this tourney this year have decreased. There is a mega-sat tourney today that I might give a whirl. Failing that, I'll have a talk with Mr. Franklin from the bank and see where he is best placed.

Grand Sierra $1000 NL

2008-03-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

Long time no post. Didn't think anyone was reading!

This is the first of the >$1000 tourneys at the Grand Sierra (formerly Reno Hilton) as part of the WPT World Poker Challenge. I've played the main event the past four years, and this year is reportedly the last they will play in Reno. I'd like to play the big tourney, but they also increased the buy in to $7700 (from $5150) making it more difficult to satellite in.

129 players, 6000 starting chips, 40 min levels

The blind structure kinda sucks- it goes up way too fast early on, forcing the players to accumulate or get short stacked. I have decided to play tight today, avoiding speculative hands most of the time, and definitely not making any plays until necessary.

Early on, I get AKdd in the BB and the pot is raised to 225 by MP and the button calls. I call. I flop just about as good as I can do with the 2-3-4 all diamonds showing up. I check. The raiser bets 300, the caller raises to 650, and I think it must be Christmas. Wow. Well, both players are interested, I have the nuts, and my hand can really only get worse (unless the 5d comes) I decide to raise to 1400, and the first player folds, but the button calls. Turn is a complete blank. Now what? Since I have both the Ace and King of diamonds, it would make a good story to this guy that I'm drawing at a flush. I convince myself that he flopped a set, and he really doesn't want another diamond to come off. Given this line, I figure that either a paired board or another diamond will kill my action, so I should bet again. I bet 2500. He tanks for about 5 minutes, and then folds the 5d 7d face up. Wow. How on earth did he get away from that?

Later I have 33 in the blind and flop a set, turn a boat and take a nice pot. By the first break I have 12000 chips. Nice.

I find an older guy to pick on. He's playing pretty weak-tight and I'm able to take him off a couple hands with reraises.

I get moved. I'm now in the 9 seat with Bryan Devonshire in the 7, Tom Franklin in the 8, and Tuna in the 1. Yuck. The table is way more aggro and its hard to find spots. Devo raises all the time. I chip up and down and eventually find myself in MP with 88. With blinds at 200-400/50 I make it 1100. The BB, who has a big stack, reraises to 3500 and I instapush for another 5200 or so. He tanks, and eventually calls with AK and I skate and double up.

I raise with A9o and have to dump to a reraise.

Blinds go up to 500-1000/100 and I have only 12000 chips. There are 38 players left, paying 18, and I must make a move. Fold all my junk, and when Devo pushes from the button and I see AK I call. He has A8, and I find that he barely covers me when he flops an 8 and my day is done. Tomorrow is a $1500....

I understand now why I came this way?

2007-12-29T13:12:00.000-08:00

only took 3 weeks to be at the right place, right time, and no clouds. Rent-a-scope would be a good find.

Cheers!

BNE

2007-12-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Brisbane and made it to our hotel. Time to go walkabout...

Short Kiwi Stop...

2007-12-11T11:33:00.001-08:00

OK, so the 13 hour flight is done and, except for the TWO crying babies in business class it was just fine. This, however, resulted in Justin sleeping but the rest of us got probably 6 hours between 3 adults. meh.

Shower in the Koru club and now its off to Brisbane.

My email wont send here and I'm the dumb American who left his power adaptors in his checked luggage. idiot.

G'Day Mate!

2007-12-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Well, off we go. The next 24 hours or so should be a blast.

We've got 90 min to LA, 5 hours in the glory that is LAX (including the Koru club), 13 hours to Auckland, 2 hours there, and then 3 1/2 more to Brisbane.

If only my QQ hadn't run into aces yesterday I might have splurged on the NYE Sydney boat ride. I still might but it would have been less painful.

Grand Sierra $300 NL

2007-12-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

81 players today, 9 spots paid.

My first table was awful. Some real bad play. I was able to take a bunch of pots off of people who were too weak-tight to follow through. Some of these were well timed all-ins on the turn or river. This style of play does have high variance though, and I fluctuated within 1000 of the 3000 starting stack.

Eventually I get moved and get pretty short. Then I go on a heater, winning pot after pot until I'm up around 12000 or so. Dustin Fox gets moved two to my right. He's aggro and he makes a 3xBB raise from the button. SB folds. I have 99 and push. We have about the same chip stack. He tanks. He tanks a looong time, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna call. At least, he makes it look that way-- Dustin's a good enough player to just make me sweat it out if he raised with air, so its possible he had nothing here. Its also possible he laid down something as good as JJ or AQ. Anything better and he's calling I think. Eventually he folds.

Fox gets moved to the other table and we're down to 13 players. I've been very card dead, but surviving by stealing fairly liberally. Sometimes they call and I take the pot on the flop or turn. Whatever- these players don't seem to call unless they have it and since most of the time you don't have it, they are folding a lot.

When it gets folded to me in the SB with QQ I'm pretty stoked. I haven't had a hand this good all day. I raise the 1200 blind another 4000. The BB is gonna play- Great! He contemplates his move and he's gonna raise. That's fine with me cause I'll just put him all in. Well, he says "I can't fold, so I might as well go all-in" Bleh. OK. Well, that doesn't really change anything. I call. He flips over AA and its gg me.

Our money used to be so cool...

2007-12-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

I think I've been reading too many articles on the decline of the dollar. It makes me think about buying gold, which leads to a study of old gold coins, and somehow to how awesome old US coins are. When i am declared lord protector of the realm, I think I'll decree that Misters Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR and even George W. take a rest from our coinage and we'll have a contest to bring Lady Liberty back.

Collecting coins from pocket change must have been more interesting when the mint didn't make 1.2 Billion pennies in a year. Nowadays, its possible to find a pre-64 dime once in awhile, a war nickel, and wheat cents are still fairly common- but that's it. There aren't any key dates floating around in circulation, and there never will be.

If I were to collect again, it would by a type set of proofs. I wonder what that would cost...

PM Sunday $115

2007-12-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

3 players left. Me and two ladies.

Button: 5 stacks of chips
SB (me) 4 stacks of chips
BB 1 stack of chips (which is about 4 BB's or so)

Blinds are 1000-2000

Prizes are roughly 1500-900-600

Button raises to 1 stack.

Hero pushes from SB with AJs

BB tanks and calls with 33.

Button barely tanks and calls with A6o.

I found this quite disgusting. Button had been "caught" raising light before, and while A6 certainly demands a raise here, she would have been much better off just open-shoving (although I would have called.) BB taking a stand here I guess is reasonable, but she's either flipping or way behind, and she's likely going to get crushed if button decides to call also. I just can't figure out why button would call here, knowing it is likely she has the third best hand and that the BB has a decent chance of busting. Wtf?

The worst hand I've ever played...

2007-12-01T15:07:00.001-08:00

Ugh. I wasn't going to post this, but I'm convinced no one reads this blog except me so who cares. It becomes like a live online diary I guess. Here goes:

WSOP Circuit, $5000 buy in at Lake Tahoe. 10K starting chips with 75 min levels. Deep stack poker.

My table seems pretty weak. Mike Kinney is on it and I know he's a good player. There is a looney tune in seat one who stacks off calling an all-in 4 bet with AK against AA. An obvious idiot. I won't make the same mistake. Reminds me of playing a hand at the Bellagio in a $3K buy in when TJ Cloutier raised, I called with AK, and then a woman re-raised, TJ re-raised and I got out of the way very very fast. AA vs KK then.

In the first level I get 99 and raise and get one caller. I don't recognize the guy. His name is Aaron. Short hair, sunglasses, ipod. Could be any internet kid. Anyway, the flop comes Ten-high and the board does nothing else and I lose the hand to his T8o. Meh. Later I have Q8s and lose to him on a board of 3-3-5-8-8 when he had limped with 63s. Hmmm.

So its the third level, 100-200. Aaron has played fairly aggro, but he's never 4-bet. A guy UTG limps (which he's done many times with who knows what) Aaron raises to 750. I look down at KK and make it 2250. Folded back to Aaron and he repops it another 3000.

Wow. Didn't expect that. OK, I started the hand with about 12K and he had me covered with 16K or so.

At this point my brain just turned off. The analogy I have made was some times in early residency doing surgery and coming into a situation that was new and not knowing how to proceed. Poker is easier though, because the default play when holding KK is to simply 5-bet push. I know this and I contemplate it. But I hesitate. Something isn't right. And the only thing that can't be right is that Aaron (who later I realized was Aaron Kanter, 4th place finisher in the 2005 Joe Hachem WSOP ($2M for 4th) also the same Kanter who knocked Greg Raymer out with QJ when Raymer held KK) well- the only thing he can hold that makes me hesitate is AA of course.

Crap. I don't want to bust out here running into AA. What else is in his range? KK, but that would be pretty unusual since I have KK. AK, again less likely. How bout lesser aces like AQ or AJ? If so, its a complete resteal and he would have to fold if I push. I suppose he could be holding other pairs like QQ, JJ, TT, or maybe worse? I dunno. All I know is that something is telling me he has AA and that I shouldn't push. My brain doesn't like it, but pushing doesn't feel right.

I could fold I suppose. I still have plenty of chips. But WTF?, did I come here to get pocket Kings and fold preflop? That seems worse than pushing for sure. Blech. I'm not folding.

OK, I can call. Yeah, thats it, I'll call. And then if there is no ace on the flop I'll ignore the feelings that led me not to push and I'll push on the flop. Brilliant! What a plan! (I'm an idiot)

I call.

Flop comes J-J-T, and Aaron checks.

Blech. I hate this flop. But what hands can he hold that hit this flop? JJ, TT, AJ, AT, JT. If he has JJ or TT then its probably gg for me. No way he 4-bet preflop with AJ, AT or JT. No way. OK, so I'm ahead of AK, AQ and QQ. Everything else he's holding I'm behind. I still think he has aces i guess. I check.

Turn: Another Ten.

He checks again.

What? Now he's checked twice. Would he do that with AA? No way. I'm lost now. I don't know what he has, but I cant see how he's hit this board unless he's made quads and that is always unlikely. Fuck it, I push.

He calls.

Ace-ten offsuit. ZOMG. ATo. Meh. Just for good measure the river brings an ace. He smirks and comments that if I would have bet the flop he would have gone away.

*********************

So, this was just a horribly played hand on so many levels. Just awful. A victim of the great overthink, next time I just push and take my beat from AA if that is the case.

FTP 6-handed 8 PM PST

2007-12-01T15:05:00.001-08:00

This is the tourney I'm most likely to be in each week. It starts at 8 PM and I found out a couple weeks ago that it ends around 130 AM. Yes, I was the last one standing and won $7200 or so. Sweet. Managed to get all-in heads up with middle pair and a str8 draw against top pair and the same draw. I make trips on the river to win the tourney. Lol.

Chronic Pain?

2007-12-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

I have some new respect for people who live in pain. I've had this nagging low back thing for over a year now. 18 mos actually.

It started when I carried a sleeping Justin what seemed like miles from a July 4th fireworks show at Zephyr cove. Then I did some stupid twisting motion in the gym and made it worse. Getting myself into impossible positions with a weight on my head at work everyday doesn't help either.

I saw a spine surgeon a year ago who told me I have "facet syndrome" and that I should consider an intra-facet joint injection. I have had several "trigger point" shots which make it feel perfect for about 2 hours till the local anesthetic wears off, then its kinda nasty again.

I chickened out, and have been trying to manage it "conservatively." This means, advil, heat, massage, and thinking about doing Pilates three times a week. I need to stop thinking about it and doing it. Its also quite interesting how narcotics help short term, but do little for the long term.

We have a dinner tonight and it would be fun to dance, but seems pretty unlikely. Snowboarding out of the question.

OK, it will probably get better again-- it always seems to-- but those of us who have crap like this every day of their lives and get through it are awesome.

Cal is pretty awful

2007-12-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

Looking back, I made some predictions about going to the Rose Bowl and how I would have to consider flying home from Sydney to catch the game.

What a joke.

There is a blog out there called "Rose Bowl before I die." Someone commented that the owner should change the name of the blog to "Rose Bowl before the sun becomes a red giant and engulfs the earth."

Maybe, just maybe, Cal will manage to beat the 'furd today and keep the cherished axe. Fwiw.

Peppermill $1000 main event

2007-11-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

119 players, 10,000 starting chips, 40 min levels, blinds started at 25-50. Decent structure. Paying 13 spots, first placde $41K

I have Susie Issacs at my table in the 2 seat. Another woman in the 8, a aggro bluffer (as i will see) named Fred in the 1, and two weak players in the 3 and 5. I'm in the 9.

I get 4c5c second hand, check my BB to a few limpers and then flop a flush with the 2c-3c-Qc. I bet out and everyone folds. Meh.

Next hand I have red KK in the SB. Player in seat 7 limps. I decide to get tricky and complete and the BB checks. Flop comes 3 babies and I bet half the pot. 1 seat calls. Turn an ugly Ace and I check-fold. Meh again.

I'm playing more hands than I planned on, but no junk, and I'm chipping up a bit. Fred likes to make big bets on the river, and he's done so with nothing more than ace high at least once (another player called him with 4th pair). Eventually I get JJ UTG and raise the 100-200 blinds to 625. Fred calls. Flop comes Q-3-7 rainbow and I want to check raise but he checks behind. Turn is a duece and I bet 1200. He calls. River is an offsuit 9. I bet 2000. He immediately makes it 6000. Wow. Didn't see that coming. Well, its a pretty big bet, and if I call and lose I'm down to about 3-4000 chips. Then, after only tanking a short time he calls a clock on me. I dunno if he expected me to fold at that point but it must have pushed me to call. He has A7 for no pair and I win a big pot and have about 20K in chips now.

I end up playing some pots I shouldn't-- I get suited connectors a bit and actually flop draws but have to pay to see them. At one point I have 74o in the BB and see a free flop of 5-6-T. Hmm. It costs me a bet to see the turn which is another 5. There is also a spade draw out. The river brings the 3s, completing a flush draw, giving me a straight, and of course the board is paired. I bet out 1500 and woman #2 in the 8 seat pushes. Meh meh meh. I can't call, although it occured to me she might have just had trip fives.

At the 150-300/25 level this hand comes up:

I am in the BB with 9To. Two people limp and 3 to the flop of 9c-Tc-2d Nice. I bet out 600. First limper raises to 1800. Second limper calls 1800. Now, there is a possibility that I am behind to a set of deuces here, but that is about it. The other hands out there are like AT, a flush draw, and maybe JQ, but I doubt it. I think I'm good and I raise another 3000, leaving me about 10,000 behind. First limper folds, but the next guy calls. Hmmm.. Turn is an offsuit Jack. I don't really like this card, but unless he has exactly 78 or 22, I'm still good. I can't see that he called my 3-bet on the flop with JT. The pot has over 10K in it so my options are pretty limited. I'm not going to fold to his bet, so I just push. I'm pretty sure this is correct. He tanks. Damn. I really want to just take this down now-- its a big pot. He calls and flips over J9o. Ugh. The horror. I'm drawing pretty thin and he busts me when another 9 hits the river, filling us both up.

Now, how does this guy call me on the flop with J9? I don't really understand what just happened. I think I played it right and the guy was just a donkey. He had middle pair, no draw and I was showing lots of strength.

You win, Julia.

2007-10-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

I made a bet with my nine year old cousin. Loser wears the other team's hat. Sigh.

Well, I lived my dream of seeing Cal play in the rose--- no, I saw Cal play AT the Rose Bowl, not in it, and with 2 brutal back to back losses now, its not going to happen this year. Again. I know what Cubs fans feel like.

New Truck decisions....

2007-10-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm debating a new Silverado 2500 Duramax vs the new Toyota Tundra. Looks like Toyota uses Chevy's to tow their rigs... hmm.

Hee Haw. $2500 Grand Sierra Main Event

2007-10-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

Only 85 people showed up to play this one. 1 hour levels, 5000 chips. This is the kind of tournament that I would like to play on at least a monthly basis. Enough chips and time for some play, and a buy-in that puts some decent players in the game. This is why Vegas is great-- you can play a $1060 at the Bellagio twice a week.

Anyway, I chip down a bit and then an old guy raises to 225 in EP. I call with 22. This guy "EP" who we have been calling "Eskimo" (although i think he's hispanic) flat calls also. Nice. Flop is 7-3-2 with two hearts and I've flopped a set. Yee-haw. I don't figure to win much though-- the flop I want is A-Q-2 or the like. Old guy leads out for 500, I make it 1500 and Eskimo repops it to 3000 or so. Wow. Old guy folds. Well, it is certainly possible that he has 33 or 77 and I'm toast, but an overpair or a flush draw is much more likely. I push. He tanks. Good. It means for sure he doesn't have 77, and maybe he has 33. Eventually he calls and shows JJ. He misses and I double up.

I really don't do much after that. I win my share of pots pre-flop, and don't play any big pots. I get moved to Champie Douglas' table. At 100-200 a guy makes a min raise to 400 UTG+1. Folded to me in the BB and I have AKo. I make it 1400. He turbo 4-bets me another 2000. He has me covered. Yuck. I tank a bit and eventually muck. My ace flips face up. He tells me later he had KK. Good laydown.

I make a steal raise with 95o and get called. Flop comes Q-5-3 and I check-call a 1/2 pot bet. Meh. What am I doing in this hand? There are 2 hearts out there and if another one comes I'm taking the pot with my fake flush. Turn is another 3. I check, player bets 2000 and I'm done with the hand and my stack is a bit shorter. Stupid.

I get AA and win the blinds. Meh.

A fairly aggro player raises to 625 and I repop him to 2000 from the BB with KQo. He folds. Someone notes that "that move has been suiting you well all day." Hmmm. I don't remember reraising preflop much. Besides the AA, the biggest pocket pair I had was 77. I have been fairly aggressive post-flop though, letting people take stabs at pots and then coming over the top. Clearly the next time I do this I will have a big hand...

But before anything else happens they move me to a much more laggy table. This really sucks, as I had pretty good reads on the players and was chipping up. I raise the first couple pots pre-flop and take them down. We go to 200-400/50. A player goes all in for abotu 4200. I have around 9000 and look down at 66 in LP. I'm thinking about calling, but before I can act, the big blind announces "call." Well, that makes my decision for me. I muck, and my cards hit the dealer and turn up. The raiser has AKdd and the caller 99. Flop comes 9-6-x, two diamonds. Wow. Good thing I mucked, because if I came along I'm pretty sure the pocket nines weren't folding. Next card is another diamond and the AK doubles up. Dodged that one.

A little later and I'm down to 7500 or so. I raise in LP with K9ss. BB calls. Flop comes Q-Q-J, two diamonds. Check-check. Turn is 9d. BB checks. We have about the same stack size, (he covers me slightly) and any bet one of us makes pretty much committs us to the pot. I dunno why, but I thought he had nothing and if I bet I win. Betting half my stack looked awkward (at least to me) so I just pushed. He instacalls with A5dd. Right into the nut flush i push! Idiot. I think I'm drawing dead, but actually a Queen would save me. And then BOOM- a queen comes on the riv-------------------------no. not really. nothing comes on the river and I'm out and I kick and hee haw my way out of there. Yuck. What a moronic play. Just awful.

Winner!

2007-10-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I navigated the minefield that is a $125 buy in tournament at the Grand Sierra Pot of Gold. 296 entries. First place. I was playing very well. Didn't have that many big hands, but did a lot of chipping up with well-timed raises and staying out of troubling spots. What I found in this tourney was that hand reading and people reading seemed very easy. Part of this is certainly due to the poor quality of the field. Its a lot easier to read players in a $125 MTT versus one where the buy in is $5K or so.

One key hand was the first hand of the final table. I came in as the chip leader I think, and we were 10 handed for the first time. To my left was Scott Gould, a hyper-aggressive player who I've played with before, and fortunately had the opportunity to play with for several hours at this event. Scott raises just about every pot he plays, an effective style that created a big stack. It also puts him at risk of getting trapped so this was the plan. I also thought that Scott was the most dangerous player at the final table, so when he smooth-called my standard raise I was a bit worried. I held KQ off-suit and the flop came K-8-7 with two spades. I made a continuation bet of about 2/3 of the pot and Scott pushes all in. Its a substantial bet, and I'm really not sure if he was trying to make me go away or he was betting for value. If it was the first cause, he miscalculated as my chip stack was large enough to be able to lose the hand and still be at the average. If he had a set its a strange bet. More likely he has a spade draw. I called him and he flipped over pocket nines, drawing to two cards. He missed and I had a very nice chip lead.

We then lost several more players and got down to 5. I made a couple attempts to knock out short stacks and also found situations where I would raise pre-flop, face an all-in from a short stack, and then have to call based on obvious pot odds, despite knowing that my AT or the like was a dog. This went on for awhile and about 2:30 am I asked for a chip count. I had 165K which was 2% better than the second place player. The prize pool was the following:

1st $10,652 + $2600 entry into the main event on Saturday
2nd $ 5859
3rd $ 2996
4th $ 2330
5th $ 1997

Using their chip count calculator, they had me getting about $5800 and second place getting $5100 or so. Everyone else got over $3000. The main event seat had real value to me as I was planning on buying in anyway. It also took the tourney director about 20 minutes to figure this out and they wouldn't stop the clock. They also would not let us do a chop and then play on for the entry or the trophy. This was also strange because they had done so in past tourneys. Finally, it seems that the GSR was implenting new IRS rules about tourney wins greater than $5000 having withholding and reporting. That made it simple for me. I offered to take $4999 in cash plus the entry. The second chip stack would take the $700 or so I was giving up, and everyone else got what was calculated. One guy objected, trying to milk out another couple hundred bucks. Whatever. I paid him a bit just to get the deal done and that was that. Its a nice trophy and I hope to add to it by taking down the bigger tourney this weekend.

A Night at the Oaks

2007-09-22T03:20:00.001-07:00

Staying in Emeryville overnight to catch Cal-Arizona tomorrow. After trolling around Berkeley, my young friends and I hit the Oaks card room. The 3 of them have never played in a casino. They had a $1-$2 game which was perfect for them. None of them won, but they got all the first time jitters out of the way and had fun. I sat down at a $15-$30 game briefly and won $125 in the two orbits before it broke. Sat in a $6-$12 game briefly waiting for the $30-$60. My name is called and I buy in for $1000.

I don't think I've every played $30-$60 before. Whatever. Its limit poker and the amounts don't really matter at all- its just the number of bets. I post $15 behind the button and get 56ss. I flop a flush draw, raise the flop for a free card, and hit on the river. This game is easy.

I claw my way up about $500. Its a very comfortable table. Rare 3-bets. Very ABC for the most part. Asian woman at the other end of the table raises my BB and I make a very soft call with A2. Flop 8-4-2 and I check-raise her. She 3 bets me. Hmmm. I think she's FOS and call. She check-calls both the turn and river and her AK is no good. She tilts a bit.

A few hands later she rasies pre-flop again and I call from the SB with A8hh. I flop the nut flush Q-T-7. I bet out, call, call and then she raises. I call. It gets raised again. She raises again. wow. I've got the nuts. I actually lose track of the betting for a moment and it looks silly when I try to reraise and they tell me its already capped. Meh. The turn bricks. I bet, get a caller and then she raises again. wow. I look again to make sure there is no straight flush out there. There isn't . I have the nuts. I reraise. This is the biggest pot of the night. Both players call. The river brings a miserable ten, pairing the board. Oh well, the poker gods didn't shine on me there. Check-check and then she bets of course. I wonder whether a fold is correct, but again, its limit hold em, the pot is ginormous, and, well, I call. She has QQ for the flopped set and winning boat. Meh. I believe we both played the hand correctly, as she had odds to call and I had value to bet/raise the whole way.

Crawled back a bit after this to end the night +$500 or so, but losing a $1200+ pot in the middle was not in the plan.

Tough mini-golf holes

2007-08-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

Just for Kids at Barnes and Noble!!!!

2007-08-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Justin was looking for spiderman books. He found these scarier ones instead...

The wait is over!

2007-08-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

Five years ago I put my name on the Sine Qua Non waiting list. Twice a year they have sent me this hilarious postcards apologizing for not being able to sell me any wine. Today, the wait is over! I moved from the waitlist to the real list and will get a case of this stuff next spring!

Why CAL will go to the Rose Bowl in 2008.

2007-07-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Bears haven't been to Pasadena since 1959. Not in my lifetime. They've been very close in several of the past years, losing a BCS vote to Texas two years ago. (When I had tickets in hand)

So I've planned to go should they ever get there, shave my head, and paint it blue and gold.

Since we'll be in Australia over New Year this year, they will certainly win the Pac-10. Hopefully I can find some yank bar in sydney that is open at god knows what hour to watch....

Fire on the Mountain

2007-07-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

editied because the photo I was borrowing is gone!

So the lot where we were going to build our house is just to the left of the big house in the bottom right corner of the photo. They are calling this the "Hawken Fire" since it started on Hawken Road. This could just as well happen on Kinney Lane, but having the Govenor as a next door neighbor should have its benefits in such a catastrophe....

The icing on the Cake

2007-07-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Meh.

This was a very fun yet very unlucky Vegas trip. I wanted to activate my credit line at Bellagio so I played $25 craps for about 25 min. WTF??!!?!?! I played a -EV pit game that I know I can't beat. Insane. Funny thing is, its the first time I won ANYTHING the entire trip. I was ahead $25 when I quit. Plus I must have earned at least $1.75 in comps. Sweet.

Then I played a sattelite to the nightly $1080 at the Bellagio. I crushed it. Just dominated it. Caught cards, made the right calls, the right laydowns. It was sick.

Then I chip down drasticaly from 5K to 3200 in the event and at 100-200 I decide I need chips and pull a stop and go. I have A2s in the BB and a guy who was fairly liberal with his raises makes it 600 UTG+1. Folded to me and I call. Flop is 6-3-2, bottom pair with a backdoor flush draw. Good enough. I push. He taaaaaaaaannnnnnnnkkkkkksssssss. In fact, I'm SURE I have him and in fact want him to call so I double up. He gathers his courage, throws in his chips and shows me King-Three soooooted. Nice UTG raise sir. His pair of 3's are good and its gg, me.

So I decide that I haven't had enough abuse yet and play some 5-10 cash game. This goes badly at first, but I make a good comeback, making sick river bets and raises with air and not getting looked up. Clearly this is satisfying. So satisfying that fate has it the table will be turned: The last hand I play on this trip goes like this:

I have KK in MP and make it 50 after one limper. BB calls. Limper folds. Flop is Q-9-6 rainbow. BB checks, I bet $130 and he shoves for another $400. WTF? I call. He laughs and flips over A8o for nothing. Until the Ace hits the turn. "What you have, pocket Kings???" Yeah donkey, I have fucking pocket Kings and its 330 am and I don't have the energy and can't summon the anti-tilt to stay here and grind my chips back from you. Good game.

Donkey sighting

2007-06-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm playing the $550 at the Venetian today. My table is so nitty tight. I'm splashing around good, raising preflop, raising C-bets, floating flop bets where i hit bottom pair-- stuff like that. Its working pretty well, although my variance is high. We are at 100-200/25, and this friendly guy in the 1 seat "Chris" from Oklahoma, is lamenting his lack of cards. He seems to be dealt Q2 a lot I guess and he cant play Q2. Well, it gets folded to him on the button and he makes it 800. I joke with him: "So this is the hand, huh?" "Even a blind chicken finds a corn kernel from time to time" I have KK and make it 3000. BB folds and he instacalls. Hmmm. Flop comes Q-T-4 and he throws his 6200 chips in the pot and says "all-in"

Thing is, its MY turn. The dealer shoves his chips back to him. Now what? I don't really like the flop, because QQ and TT are in his range, so I'm only beating JJ, AQ and KQ (??) But if he had a set, would he really be so eager to toss his chips all in like that? I mean, I showed aggression pre-flop, and I'm likely to bet out and he could repop me with a set. I think AA is a big possibility also. Stack sizes being what they are, if I bet 3000 I will call his push. If I check, he will push, and I will call his push.

I push. He calls. He tables AQ. He sucksout with a Q on the turn. I actually got pissed because I asked him what the hell he could have put me on when I put my chips in knowing he was going to call. WHAT DID HE PUT ME ON? JJ ???? He said he thought we would have a chopped pot.... Reality is, he didn't put me on anything. He just saw top pair, top kicker and was throwin all his chips in, doubling up or going back to Oklahoma. Yippie Ki Yay.

WSOP $2K NLHE

2007-06-29T17:38:00.001-07:00

WSOP $2K NLHE

About 2100 entries. On the 4th hand or so I raise with J8dd and this caveman looking kid calls. Flop comes 7d-9h-5c. Check-check. Turn is Td, giving me the str8 with a flush and str8flush redraw. Nice. He bets out 600 and I make it 1200. He calls. Hmmm. River is Th. He bets 1200. You only start with 4000, so if I raise here we are both basically going to be all-in. I hate the river. Thing is, if I had played with this guy for 30 min more I would have push-raised the river instantly. Without this info I just call and he mucks. Most nitty players have more than top pair there-- he must have had AT, and he likely would have called my push. Oh well. Unfortunately, he becomes the most aggro player at the table and I find that he's won a couple big tourneys at the Bellagio. He's two to my left and floats most of my in position raises which sucks.

I'm up and down a bit. I pick up QQ at 50-100 and there is one limper and i make it 400 and he calls. Flop comes three little and i bet 1000 after he checks which he calls leaving himself only 1200 more(???) Another little card comes and he check-folds to my push. wtf? Must have had AK i guess.

I get AK UTG and raise to 400. One caller and then this patent lawyer makes it 1400. Yuck. I only have about 6000 chips and this is a pretty big raise. I think about pushing, and then I think about all the time I've pushed AK into AA and I just call. Flop misses and I check-fold a quarter of my stack. This hand sucks and I need a better line here. I don't know. Fold PF sucks. Reraise PF kinda sucks. Making the C-bet kinda sucks.

My stack drifts down. Most PF raises are being called or reraised. I catch JTo in EP and raise. Folded to the BB who looks like he's going to muck but then decides to reraise from 600 to 1800. He has me covered as I only have another 2800 or so. I'm not sure what I picked up on him but I instapush and he tanks and mucks. This was my best played hand of the day. There was one other opportunity to make a big raise on a C-bet which was successful. I'm pretty sure that I'm way behind in this area compared to the internet kids out there, but its a part of my game I need to develop more.

Caveman makes an EP raise (which means nothing) and I float him from the BB with A7o. Flop comes A-x-x and I bet 600. He calls. Turn is X, I bet another 600 (wtf i did this i dunno- its idiotic) He calls. River is another baby and we check it down and his A9 is good. Meh.

Right before we get moved I get JJ UTG and raise to 600. Caveman calls. Flop A-2-2. Check-check. Turn 7. I fire 1000 which he calls. River blank. I have about 3500 left. He's made some sick calls, and i think he calls with any ace here, esp with how I've played the hand. He could have a deuce also. I check. Meh. I want a free showdown. Should have just made a blocking bet. He bets 1600. I tank and fold.

New table. Seems friendlier as there is only one big stack just to my left. Everyone else seems to have a starting stack size. Third hand I get AQs in the SB and its folded to me and I complete, hoping the big stack will raise. He obliges and I shove. He calls with 66 and I flop a Q to double up. Nice.

Unfortunately, I suffer the same indignity preflop here as the last table. My raises get called or reraised and there is aggression post-flop that I can't play with. And I'm getting a lot of hands that are troublesome: AT, QJs, KJ, 77 that sort of thing. I pick up 88 and make it 650, the big stack makes it 2000 and I have to decide if this is the moment. If I call, I will have about 3500 left. I don't think that is folding equity per se, but if he misses the flop I should be good. Stop and go it is. But I'm not going to do it if an Ace flops or if two overcards flop. Or so i tell myself. LOL. Flop is Q-high, one overcard and I push. He calls. Damn. He has TT and its GG for me. My stop-n-go might have worked had the flop come A-K-x....

More Vegas Ramblings

2007-06-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

Played the 6 Max $5K at the Rio. Flopped a set and rivered a boat early but didn't get paid off. Ran up and down until the first break and hovered around 8K chips. Table was pretty aggro. There were several times I floated raises with small pairs and then someone repoped it and I had to fold. Meh. Eventually I raise PF with AKss and get one caller. Flop comes 8s-9h-Js and I bet, get raised and push into a guy holding 9Tss for a pair and the OESFD. I miss. GG me.

On to the $2500 at the Bellagio. I chip up for awhile. I make some pretty good reads. I lay down J9cc on a QT2 board with two diamonds after a player goes all in and gets called. I had odds for the str8, but was afraid of diamonds. Sure enough, Kd comes on the turn and the player with A5d takes the pot. Later I raise to 1000 with AK only to have the action go reraise-call-all-in and I have to fold. Next hand I pick up JJ and get all in against TT and hold up. Later I get AA vs KK and double again. Lots of chips. I raise with AJ and we see a flop 3 ways of A-6-6. Well, i end up doubling up a very tricky player who called my PF raise with 63s. (He previously had limped PF with both AA and KK, so tricky indeed)

I get down to two tables, paying one. I'm a bit below average, and a couple people have huge stacks. I raise with JJ and get a caller. The huge stack then reraises and I decide its time to double or go home. He has AK and sends me home when a King comes. Very frustrating as I was playing well and really should have cashed today.

Bellagio $1K

2007-06-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

Landed in Vegas at 730-- no cab line. The cab right behind the one I got in was driven by Mr. Diggery-Doo himself and I had to do a double take. Get to Bellagio and they won't upgrade me to a suite, but put me in the spa tower which is cool, except I realize later (much later) that it is a smoking room and this sucks.

Get to the tourney at about 830, and sit down just as the 50-100 level starts. In the first orbit it is folded to me in the SB and I have 88 and raise to 300 and the BB calls. I flop a set and somehow he gets all his money in with top pair no kicker and I'm up to 8500 chips pretty quickly.

I then basically play ABC poker for a long time. I make some standard raises and fold when I get played back at. I chip up for the most part, but eventually the blinds catch up. There are two guys at the table who are playing really laggy and I get down to about 15 BB's at one point and decide that the next time they raise in LP I'm gonna repop them all in. In fact, I'm going to do so without even looking. Well, I'm in the big blind and its time and I'm just waiting for someone to raise since there hasn't been a single walk at the table. They all fold. I look down at my hand as they push me the pot and of course I have AA. Amazing.

No too long after that I get AA again and this time there is a raise in front of me. I push, and the poor bastard to my left pushes also with KK. I hold and now have some chips.

They are paying 9 spots, but there really isn't any big money till 3rd or 4th as usual. 1st pays $34K or so. We get down to 2 tables and I'm about average. There is this Asian guy, John Lee I think who has a reputation for never folding. It seems to hold-- he defends his blinds all the time, floats bets on the flop, and sometimes just pushes his huge stack. With blinds at 600/1200-100 there are 4 limpers to me and I have AKcc. I make it 6500, folded to Lee who calls. Flop K-K-2 with two hearts. He bets about 7000 which is more than half my stack so I just push. He calls with a flush draw and misses. Now its close, and I might have enough chips to fold into the money. I dunno. But I do know that it is past 2 am and coming in 9th for $1800 or so would suck if I had a chance to get $10K. So I stay aggro. I raise with 77 and fold to a push. A few hands later I limp with 77, 3 others limp and Lee pushes and I fold. He's so active.

With blinds now at 800/1600-200 Lee makes it 4500 to go. I have AJdd and tank. I could just push, I could call and see a flop, I could raise. I dunno. He splashes so much his range could be anything. My stack is decent but he has me covered. I think my hand is probably either dominating him or its a flip. I raise to 12000 and he pushes. Meh. He still looks weak. I call. He has red kings. Damnit. The flop brings me 11 outs as two diamonds show up. This gives me a little hope and some validation also, because I know all the money would have gone in here anyway. I miss though and I'm done, 14th place.

Tomorrow is the 6 handed $5K at the Rio. I need some sleep now....

Er, Libertarians make great idealists

2007-06-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

"Dr. Steve Friedlander, President of the Nevada Ophthalmological Society, looks on as Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons signs AB 385 into law. The bill includes a provision that laser surgery on the eye be performed only by a fully-trained Ophthalmologist."

So, this law isn't really a big deal, but it does build a small wall around Nevada should the evil national optometric lobby try to show its face here. Of course, every optometrist that i spoke to could care less because they are quite happy doing what they do and don't want the hassles of surgery. Getting it passed took about 18 months, and some very grueling days in the legislature for our lobbyist. Excellent experience for me, but I still can't really imagine being one of the 63 people who make laws in this state. What an amazing amount of work they have to do.

In a liberatarian society, every joe blow could put up a shingle and do eye surgery or whatever. Government wouldn't license people and the public would have to look at credentials, outcomes, costs etc to decide where to go.

Fantasyland.

Venetian Day 2

2007-06-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I meet Fu at the Rio and he tells me to "gammbooool" I like it. Chips are good.

First hand, UTG I have KQs and push to take the blinds and antes.
Second hand in the BB it gets folded to a very aggro kid on the button who raised all the time yesterday. I have already decided that I have to play back at him when he raises or he'll just clean my clock. He has me covered of course. So, when he raises and I look down at A5o, I push. Ooops. He has AK and calls. And then the board comes brick-brick-brick-brick-FIVE. LOL. I am the official suckout master. I double up, now have over 200K and am rockin.

Third hand gets folded to me in the SB and I raise with AJo. BB bigstack calls. Flop three babies, check-check. Turn is a Jack and I bet and take it. Poker is easy.

Pretty much nothing happens for awhile. Blinds go to 3000-6000/1000. I'm laying pretty low, taking a few pots here and there. No big hands. One time I make a reraise with JJ and take it preflop. I also find that if I decide that I'm going to raise in late position that its better if I don't look at my cards. Just raise. Look if they look me up. Much more relaxed that way, because I can still look down and be surprised by a monster. (not that this ever happens) Anyway, I think I'm pretty inline, fairly tight compared to the rest of the table and I'm sitting with 225K. Hand before the break I decide to steal and make it 20K to go in MP with 72o. SB ponders, BB calls. Damn. Flop comes Ace-high with two spades, and I decide that I can't put anymore money in this pot. I check behind. Turn is another spade. Now when the BB checks I decide there is just too many chips in there not to take a stab at it and I bet 30K. He calls. Since nothing can realy help me on the river I have to decide what to do when he bets another 30K. Do I shove with my 7-high? That would be pretty sick. I can't do it. I dump 50K on this hand. meh.

Then this happens:

12 left, six-handed. Blinds are 4000-8000/1000. Typical aggro table. Most hands get a raise to 22000-25000 or so. Some get reraised. Rare to see a flop.

Rough guess of stacks:

Aggro UTG: 420K
Hero (button): 200K
SB: 100K
BB: 900K

UTG fumbles with his chips a little and ends up making a min-raise to 16000. I really wasn't sure if he just wanted to call or raise.

Hero has As 3s and calls. (?)
SB completes.
BB checks.

4 to the flop: (pot 70,000)

A h Ks 6s

Checked to hero, who does the most absolute wrong thing and bets about half the pot. Really dumb. I like a push so much better, and even checking and taking a free one might be OK (although if I make the flush my action is killed) The SB pushes over me and I'm still getting 2-1 on my money and call. He has AT, I miss, and now I'm short.

Now I go into a shell. I literally get nothing. I finally open-push a pot with 99 and take it down. The next hand is raised to 25K and then the SB smooth-calls. There is over 60K in the pot, I have about 100K in my stack, and this seems exactly right to squeeze here. I push. Original raiser folds. SB has JJ, and my 67o isn't looking so good. It looks better with the flop comes 8-9-x, but the str8 doesn't get there and I'm done in 12th place. $3590 payoff which kinda sucks, but is better than nothing, especially with the 2-outer, 4-outer, 3-outer I hit along the way.

Venetian $1060 deepstack

2007-06-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

(includes two of the biggest suckouts ever!!!)

I'm playing pretty tight. This has been a major adjustment since I've been so laggy lately and I think players in general are playing back more. So I want the goods. In the 25-50 level I raise UTG with AA, get no action and show my hand. There are a couple active players, so when I pick up KK at 50-100 and limp UTG I'm really hoping someone will pop the pot. After the 4th limper I'm worried, but this guy who is playing with a magnifier because he has some horrible corneal disease and can't see makes it 600. Sweet. I make it 1600 and he smoothcalls. Flop comes 3 babies and I pot it. He pushes. Uh oh. Well, you need chips to win these things and if he has a set so be it. I call. He has Aces! F-word. Didn't really consider that-- he's supposed to reraise me preflop. I get up from the table, start packing my things and don't even see the King hit the river. OK, the poker gods are going to smile on me a little more today than yesterday. Good.

There is an aggressive Italian guy who keeps raising preflop. I call him in the SB with A6s and the flop comes A-6-8. I check-raise the flop and then check-raise him all in on the J turn. He calls with QJs for a flush draw and misses. I'm up to 30,000 chips.

I get moved and the guy named after the Dave Matthews band is at my table. He raises me in LP and I repop from the BB with QQ. He pushes, I call. He shows A8o. He catches. Meh.

I get moved. First hand at new table. 100-200/25 I get JJ and raise. Guy pushes for 7000! Screams weakness, right? I tank and then call. He has A5s. He misses.

I raise with A7hh and get a caller. I flop the flush draw and when the guy bets into me I put him all in. I miss the flush but catch an ace and bust him.

200/400-25 I have AA UTG again. I raise, two callers. Flop is K-Q-x. I don't like it. I take a long time before I bet out and they both fold quickly.

Folded to me in the SB. I have Jack-duey. I complete, and tell the young kid named Stu in the BB that I have my favorite hand. Flop K-2-2. Nice. Check-check. Turn: Jack. I bet 400, he calls. River: ace. I bet 3000. He raises me to 10,000 and I push. He calls off his chips with a straight to my dueces full of jacks. Jack-duey good. I have about 70,000 and might be the chip leader.

300-600/50 Moved again. Sean Rice at my table. He's pretty short. He plays tight. He goes all-in preflop and I look down at 77. Its about 8000 chips. I don't want to double him up, but I also would like to see him leave the table. I muck. He shows AQ... damn. I would have taken that flip there.

He raises again, I smoothcall with AK. Flop comes K-3-3. He bets, I raise, he folds.

This guy from LA named Rob is good. I decide to make a play at him. Really one of the few plays I make all day. I raise with 34o. He calls. Flop comes T-8-3 and I make a big check-raise and he mucks. He knows I worked him though....

Rice raises again and I reraise with TT. He calls. Flop Q-J-x. He only has 8000 left so I try to buy it. Stupid. He has AQ. Bad play.

I limp with 66. 6 see the flop of 9-6-5 with two spades. One guy bets and I push. Rob pushes. Other guy folds. Rob shows 78o for the flopped straight and the board doesn't pair and I lose about 30,000 chips when I flop a set. Damn.

400-800/75 Solid player raises to 4000, one caller. I have QQ in the BB and don't know what to do, because I sense strength from the first guy. I decide to call and miss the overcards. This is stupid in retrospect. Flop comes 8-9-J all diamonds. I have the Qd. I bet 12K, solid guy pushes and I tank. He must have the Ad, and maybe he has AKd and is already there. Shit. I call. He has Ad Jc and he misses. Sweet. I'm up to 120K or so. As I'm stacking my chips a short stack goes all in and is called by a guy with 50K. I look down at KK and push. 50K guy calls with AK. Shortie has A7. To my dismay, another ace shows up and most of the chips I win with the QQ hand go away. Damn. That would have been ginormous.

600-1200/100

I raise utg with AQss and a shortie next to me pushes. I tank again. I tank alot tonight. Sean Rice doesn't understand why I'm taking so long. I dunno either. I call. He has JTss but a str8 on the board saves him for a split pot.

OK HERE IS THE HAND OF THE NIGHT:

I raise early with AKo and get called by the solid guy from the QQ hand when all diamonds flopped. I have him covered, but he still has a lot of chips. Flop comes 6-8-J and I make a donk c-bet of 4000 which he smoothcalls. Turn is a Ten and I somehow decide that if I bet enough here he will fold. I bet another 12,000. This results in him pushing for another 9500 to me. So, lets see its about 42,000 in the pot and 9500 to call. I figure that at least one of my overcards is good if it hits, and I have a gutshot also. For some reason, a pretty big crowd has gathered around our table. I joke with the dealer and ask him if he is going to be nice to me on the river. This is really a horrible call and a very badly played hand. Uh,,, I call. He flips over 66 for a flopped set. Ugh. OK, I say "Queen" and BOOM- THERE IT IS! The guy I beat ran out of the room so fast. It was just insane. They must have thought I was a witch or something.

After that, nothing really happened. No big hands, no big pots. I went card dead. I would pick up blinds here and there and eventually found my stack getting below average. In the last level (2000-4000/500) I made a couple successful resteals to get my stack to 112,500 at nights end. 31 players left and we are in the money. I'm only one double up away from being in real contention for the $110,000 first prize.

LOL Donkaments!

2007-06-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. As far as poker goes I think today was Worst. Day. Ever. Yuck. Started out watching the end of the movie "300" I think this might have affected my play....

$1500 WSOP 6 handed. I'm in seat 3 and seats 4,5,6 are weak-tight donks. Seat 1 is a scandinavian TAG, and seat 2 is a middle-aged (meaning "older than me") LAG. Just when I figure all this out and create my master plan for table domination, I get moved. Meh. New table (30 min into the tourney) and a LP player raises my SB to 250. I repop him to 600 with pocket ducks and he pushes back at me. Yuck. Before I get another chance at him they move me again!. I only started with 3000 chips and now have less than 2000. Sure, the blinds are low, but this tourney is very aggro. There isn't that much room to maneuver. So 45 min into the tourney on my third table I get TT and its like deja vu for when I had the deuces- it gets raised, I repop, the guy pushes. Meh. I hate calling here but I think its 50% a flip, 20-30% I'm screwed, and the rest of the time the guy is just making a play with an underpair and I'm good. This time he has Queens and my WSOP day is over.

So, naturally, I head over to the venetian. I get a cabbie who at a stop light says "you mind if I make an outgoing call" and picks up this diggerie-doo and and starts blowing at it pretty hard. It was cool. At the V I'm an alternate for their $540. I get in about 2 o'clock and its already 100-200. I pick up some chips early and I'm feeling pretty good about things. At the 200-400/25 level a LP raiser makes it 1200 and I repop him to 3500 with 89s. He folds. I make a few plays like this. Sometimes I get played back at of course and I'm hovering around 12K in chips. There are about 500 people in this tourney. Then this happened:

Stacks:
HJ 23K
Hero (button) 12K
BB 14K

Folded to HJ who raises to 1300
Hero calls with K Q
BB starts asking for chip counts, sees that HJ has him covered and just calls.

Flop:

Q75

BB bets 3000
HJ tanks slightly and folds.

Hero???

(insert Jeopardy! theme here)

I pushed, and the BB tanked a looooooong time before calling with AQ. Boo.

Decided that I needed a small bet on cleveland and got 8 points.

Went to the Wynn to sweat Kent, but he was busted out. We both played some NL and nothing good happened.

Cleveland loses by 9.

Back to the Venetian where I donk out of the $130 nightly in about 15 minutes. (my T9 vs K7 vs KT on a 9-T-K-7-x board)

Back to the Rio where I play a $500 sat and the best thing that happens today is that with 5 left we decide on a save and I get my money back!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSS! I won something today!

Tomorrow is another day.

The 4th raise means Aces.

2007-06-07T00:56:00.000-07:00

or so says Phil Gordon. Tonight, playing in a $525 satellite, I raise UTG to 150 (25-50) with KK. UTG+1 makes it 400 and there is a caller. Back to me and I make the third raise to 1200, but I only have another 700 behind so I'm pot committed anyway. Should have just pushed, but UTG+1 pushed for me. The caller tanked and folded, and then I *had* to call his "4th raise" with my lowly KK. He even flopped an Ace to take away what little suspense there was.

I registered for tomorrows event in about 25 seconds. No line at all, right to the window. The room has all these hanging banner ads this year which makes it feel smaller and darker. Weird.

Back to Vegas....

2007-06-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

So there's the prize--of course, a five or six digit cash would be great, but a bracelet would really rock. So far I'm only planning on Event #12, $1500 NL 6-handed starting Thursday June 7th. Updates to follow....

Sweet Child O' Mine

2007-05-31T01:37:00.000-07:00

Ah. The post-wedding letdown now over, I can reflect that walking Nell down the aisle (and the rest of the night) has bumped "birth of Justin" and "marriage to Rina" down to the #2 and #3 spots on the "proudest moments of my life" list. (If I were to really have such a thing) The totality of the positive energy and the overall goodness of the union seem rare in this day and age. If i could change two things about the night, I would have thanked the Bolstas for their support in my short speech, and I would have not missed the starting point of my Rumba with Shanel (which led her to get a demerit for attempting to lead later in the dance) Oh well. Such small things to complain about. A blessing on your head, to see your daughter wed-- indeed.

Look what I found

2007-05-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

A sweet magnum of 1995 Latour, just in time to open for Shanel's wedding this weekend. Completely forgot about this one, and even have a second magnum in the locker. On the list to crack inlcude 95 Harlan, 98 Trotanoy, 95 Calon-Segur, 96 Potet-Canet, 97 Togni, 93 Dunn HM from magnum, and who knows what else. Of course, much of this will be consumed prior to the actual wedding as the facility is proud to pour round hill cab and chard for ten bucks a bottle.....

Big hands in Vegas

2007-05-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

OK, this guy, Amir Nasseri, MD, gets my vote for biggest maniac/action junkie I've yet encountered. Ob-Gyn. Has serious ties to the American Hospital in Dubai. I tell him he should meet my partner. I played with him twice. The first hand I played with him, a $5-$10 NL game at the Venetian, I was still stacking chips from a $5K pot I had just won when I looked down at AA. I raised to $60, he went all-in for $1000 and I called and won. Cool.

I have no idea who this guy was. After a couple hands, I realized that playing with him would require some stylistic changes! He open raised every pot to somewhere between $70 and $120. Well, almost every pot. He missed one or two an hour. Otherwise, he raised with any two cards. This worked out great if you had a big hand, because you would often get paid off. Making a little pot building raise to say $30 though was silly, since one knew that you'd be playing for $130 by the time it got back to you. In any event, I leave the first night ahead $5K.

The next night I buy in for $3K and get it up to $5K. My good doctor friend has over $10K on the table though and I want some of it. He will fold sometimes when people play back at him big, but he will also run bluffs and has done so for several thousand dollars.

So after winning the first hand against him I lost the last one. I get dealt red Kings and limp from the cut-off. He makes it $200 from the button and I call. This is the pot I've been waiting all night for. The flop comes K-T-7, all spades. Almost perfect. Not quite of course because his range is any two cards, but chances are I'm way way way ahead. I bet $200 and he calls. OK, this is good.

Turn is a red brick and I bet out $500. He makes it $1100. Hmmm. At this point, I have to figure he has one spade and as long as the river isn't a spade I should win this pot. If he flopped a flush then I still can have the board pair for me. I didn't really think much about his raise as I still thought I was good at this point. In retrospect, if he had air here he might have just put me all in. This way, I'm pretty much forced to either call or push as folding is not an option. I call.

River is another red brick. I should have check-called here, but I bet out and he put me all in. I had to call another $1200 into a pot that was about $8000 or so. I knew I was beat but since his bluffing frequency is high I thought a call was in order. Sure enough he tables Q4 spades and he had me the whole time.

Rebuys... and Cowboys

2007-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

I always rebuy as soon as I can for as much as I can. This advice has been given by multiple authors and I think its sound. There is something about covering all the other people who dont rebuy. Here's a hand from last night which demonstrates the difference between short stack, fast tournaments and slow deep-stack ones.

First hand and I have 2000 chips and raise the 25-25 blinds to 125 with KK in MP. I make some crack that I have to raise the first hand because I'm a maniac and many of the regulars at the table nod their heads in agreement. A guy in LP repops it to 350. He started with 900 chips, as he had the original 800 plus a 100 bonus for playing live games. Folded to me.

So what's my play here? Usually in a short stack tourney (the villain only has 550 left) I just jam here. There really isn't room for a smaller raise, is there? If I call, what am I going to do on the flop? I'm pretty much gonna jam any flop I think, although I suppose an arguement could be made for check-folding if an Ace flops. But in reality, I'm so far ahead of this guys holdings almost every time that I should just get his money in pre-flop so he can't get away from his JJ or AK or whatever monster he thinks he has.

As I'm grabbing my stack he says, very Jamie Gold-like "You wanna go all-in?", and despite what should clearly be a red flag I respond "Yeah", push in my stack and he beats me to the pot with his AK.

After losing half my stack on that suckout, I came back pretty well. Eventually I catch AKo UTG with blinds at 50-100. I have about 1800 left. I make it 300. I get two callers. Then someone goes all in for 1200. Then the next guy goes all in for 1800. Back to me. Again, this demonstrates why I would really like to limit my tourney play to deepstack events. What choice do I have here except to call? I must be behind, and the fact that there were so many people interested in this hand makes me wonder how many of my 6 outs are really still alive. The good news is that the second all-in guy is a complete donk and has shown some awful awful hands. I call. The two initial callers fold. I'm up against 99 and K8s ???!!!. Flop comes three babies with two clubs and the K8 has a draw. Turn is an off-suit Ace!!! Wow! What a monster stack I will have if I can just avoid a club or a 9 on the river.... Here it comes.. 9 of clubs. I love this game.

The elixer of the gods

2007-05-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing like sipping a little d'Yquem on a Monday night with Rina. While some wines have nuances and characters that require study and patience to understand, this stuff just rocks every single time I get to taste it. And I've never met a soul who didn't "get it" immediately. The house wine of billionaires, I'm fortunate to indulge in a couple 375's a year. If you're out to that fancy dinner and looking over the dessert list, go ahead and spend the $30 for the glass. You may not recall the main course that night, but you will not forget your taste of d'Yquem.

"You are so conservative"

2007-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Puffing spice at the yearly meeting of the Nevada State Medical Association this past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet with several docs who are high up in the pecking order of organized medicine. (which is an oxymoron in itself for the most part) Now, I have a lowly role as "alternate delegate" to this shindig, although I am the President and PAC chairman for our state ophthalmology society blah blah blah.

From time to time I will send out some emails, and I'm a little heavy on the "reply to all" button when it comes to medical matters. Recently in Nevada there have been several bills proposed which would require insurance companies to cover specific things across the board. Prostate cancer screeening and the new cervical cancer vaccine are two of them. Of course, these feelgood measures sound great and might be a good thing, but they cost money and drive up the costs of insurance. This has played out in many states (especially in the Great Blue Northeast) where the costs of insurance have become huge with all the state-mandated stuff.

So, I feel like this is a bad idea and I let all the "reply to all" people know it.

At the meeting, I introduce myself to one of the officers of the association and he says "I know who you are- I've read your emails- You're SO CONSERVATIVE" (emphasis is sorta mine) We proceeded to have a short chat about the issues, but it wasn't particularly comfortable for either of us I suppose and ended quickly.

But it made me wonder a bit. I think there are a good number of people who think of me and have the same thoughts that this doc expressed. And perhaps it might do me some good if I took some offense, but for the most part I feel quite complemented.

Raising forever with the second nuts

2007-04-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

$5-$10 Limit game with a full kill and its a $10-$20 kill pot. I've just sat down with $300, and the villain in this hand has about $200. I'm dealt QQ in mid position and raise two limpers. The flop comes Q-8-8 and I've flopped the second nuts. My opponent bets out I raise and he calls. Turn is a blank and now it gets interesting. He bets, I raise, he reraises, I rereraise, he goes again, and at this point I just look at him and ask him "Do you have pocket 8's?" He shakes his head No and I believe him, so I raise again, and he pops it one more time all in as he is holding Q-8, which from his perspective is also the second nuts. Now I suppose he never thought I was holding queens full of eights until I turned my cards over-- but I really wonder how long the heads up raising would have gone on had he (and I) had really deep stacks....

Am I really a Libertarian?

2007-04-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

After some coaxing I agreed to serve as the President of the state Ophthalmology society. This mostly means that I am supposed to raise money and advocate for the profession on the state legislature level. I'm pretty cool with that. But two bills I am supporting have given me pause about how I've pidgeonholed myself as a Libertarian.

The first one has a clause in it that states that if a person does laser surgery on the eyeball that they have to be an ophthalmologist. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? I think so, but the optometrists probably arent too happy about it since their national agenda is to expand their scope of practice by legislative fiat. The pure Libertarian position would be that the government has no business telling people what they can and can't do in matters like this and that they have no power to "protect the public" as this type of legislation purportedly does. In a Libertarian society there would be no medical boards, and I could have someone with a high school education open up a shop next to me advertising that he fixes retinas. In theory, I would succeed in this marketplace because I would have private companies (Like the American Board of Ophthlamology) or the like certify me as knowing what I am doing. I suppose one could then take their chances with Joe Bob's retina palace (which would no doubtedly charge them less than I would), but this stipulates that the public is educated enough to make the distinction.

The second bill makes it illegal for hospitals to enter into exclusive contracts with insurance companies. One of the hospitals in town (the Big Nasty Hospital or BNH) has some phat exclusive contracts which drive patients into its facilities. The smaller players in town are lobbying to eliminate this practice. I personally don't like the way the BNH does business so I find myself supporting the little guys here. But its very anti-libertarian. The market shouldn't be interfered with by the state, and this bill is just incompatible with pure Libertarian principles.

I voted for Harry Browne in 2000. I'm more convinced all the time that I wasted my vote.

Push into the Nuts (again)

2007-04-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should retitle this blog.

Typical Sunday crowd at B & M $100 tourney. Down to 14 spots, and I'm bullying my way to about 9000 in chips with blinds at 300-600. I open raise with 89s to 2000 and get called by a woman who has a big stack and hasn't played much. Flop comes A-K-6, none of my suit and I check-fold when she bets 1000 into the 6000 pot. I'm annoyed by this donkey move and I want to get her now. Next hand she open raises UTG to 2000, folded to me in the BB with the black cowboys. Sweet. I'm gonna raise her to 5000 and push any non-ace flop. Good plan. She calls. Flop comes Q-J-5 all diamonds. I don't have enough chips here to do anything but push anyway and so be it if she has a set. I push, she calls with AdKd and you just sat through a bad beat story i think. Have a great day.

More signs of Global Warming

2007-04-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well its Earth Day in Lake Tahoe, and we got about 5 inches of the softest, driest champagne powder you could imagine.

And since you can take the boy out of LA, but can't take the LA out of the boy-- I drove the wrong vehicle up here last night. Didn't Spring begin a month ago??

I stay up way too late...

2007-04-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

Just busted out of the Full Tilt Poker $20 Rebuy MTT. I cash in this one more often than the other MTT's I play on the site. But it really doesn't matter unless you make the final table. I busted out about 16th, which paid a whopping $93, and I bought in for $62. Took four hours. A little over $7 an hour. Now if I had won the tourney the hourly rate would be closer to $700, but people who push their entire stack right into the nuts generally don't do this well.

Freeze has a blog

2007-04-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

OK. Here it is.