WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/2

Round two of season two was my worst showing of either season. Things started off well as I won a few small pots, then pushed Jason off of a rather large pot to get a comfortable amount of chips. This week was turning into a haves vs have nots as four of us had over 2500 chips early on and the rest had at around 1000 or less.

I got a little loose with my hand selection and and threw away a bunch of chips hoping to hit a sneaky monster hand, or just bully some small stacks. My big downfall was playing 83s in four way pot. The flop was 38T and Rich made a half pot sized be which I called, and then so did Archie. I should have raised there but I got greedy. The turn was J. Looked innocent enough. I made a decent sized bet and Archie raised. I figured he thought I was trying to steal a garbage pot so I just called, hoping to get more from him on the river. The river was a queen and now I'm in trouble. I bet and he raises. What are the odds he has a nine? He isn't the type of player to chase a straight like that. And I was right, he doesn't. He had 97 and caught the straight on the turn. That left me with less than 5 BB. I tried to steal the next pot to start chipping up, but got two callers and no help from the board.

Terrible play by me. Booooourns.

Archie and Mark did manage to play heads up for at least half an hour before Mark finally won. Archie had a huge chip lead for most of it, but just couldn't finish him off.  Mark kept getting beat down, then he would go all in and double up, then finally Mark go the lead and finished him off a few hands later.

This weeks finish:

1. Mark
2. Archie
3. Aaron
4. Rich
5. Shane
6. Noah
7. Cookie
8. Me
9. Jason

And  the standings so far:

1. Mark (21)
2. Me (17)
3. Rich (17)
4. Archie(16)
5. Aaron(16)
6. Noah (7)
7. Shane(6)
8. Jason (5)
9. Cookie (5)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Online Poker is Legal...

... In Nevada.

Just in case you haven't heard by now, Nevada has become the first US state to legalize online poker.  Once they saw that New Jersey was poised to legalize it Nevada fast tracked their bill so that they could be the first, lest someone confuse New Jersey with the gambling hub of America.  Personally I find it hilarious that these two states have some sort of feud going on.

I didn't think we'd see online gambling in the US for many years to come. With so many other pressing issues, I didn't thing politicians on the federal level would be interested in a potentially controversial law until it had overwhelming support. Honestly, It probably has overwhelming support now, but those against can be loud enough to scare away most politicians.


When the Poker Player's Alliance recently decided to abandon their efforts federally to focus on state by state, I didn't really pay much attention, but I think that's the way to go.  Follow the model Gay Marraige, and Marijuana legalization where you get a few states to legalize it, then let the public see that the end of the world doesn't occur, and then add more and more states, until the federal law is practically a moot point.

Now I just have to hope that Illinois gets in line soon. Or for Nevada to allow out of state participants.

Here's an article on the law.  I'm sure google has more, but I'm too lazy to look for them for you.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/1

Week one is in the books. Amazingly we managed to have everyone show up on time. Things started off pretty well for me. I had KK on the very first hand and won a decent sized pot. I won a few more early on to go out to a early lead before going card dead for a long time. I dropped slowly down in the standings until I was just about at the bottom before things started to turn around. There weren't any real dramatic hands that I remember, but eventually we got down to four handed, all of us with relatively even stacks. We were four handed for about half an hour before Mark went out, followed by Aaron and Rich, leaving me as the last one standing in the inaugural event for season two. Now that I've played again for the first time in about a year, some observations on the rest of the players.

• Mark - Mark did reasonably well, he's very loose aggressive.  He also likes to chase hands which gets him into trouble.  I think he'll do well, but I probably not great, unless he works on his fold disipline.
•  Rich - Rich played really well. I would put him as my top pick to win the league.  The exception being short handed play.  He seemed overly conservative when we were down to three handed play, even when he had a monster chip stack.  
• Aaron - Much improved.  He's close to or in the top tier of players in the league now.
• Archie - He's still a good player, but I don't think his game translates well to online.  He's much better at reading people live.  He may have also just gotten unlucky.  
• Jason - I didn't get a good read on Jason. He went out early, and I don't recall anything significant that he did wrong.  It might just have been one of those nights.
• Shane - Didn't play well.  Lost a lot of chips with a weak flush early on.  Then seemed distracted and made a bad call to bust out.
• Noah - Noah also went out early.   I'm not sure what happened to him.
• Cookie - Provided the entertainment.  He was playing Sim City while playing poker with us, and giving us full backstories on the citizens of his town who he was making miserable.  Its nice of him to finance our entry in the WSOP.

Here are the standings so far.

• Me - 15 pts
• Rich -11
• Aaron -8
• Mark -6
• Archie5
• Jason - 4
• Noah -3
• Cookie - 2
• Shane - 1

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Season 2

After a bunch of slacking and general laziness, and  a some false starts,  we're finally ready to start season two of the West Suburban Poker League's WSOP adventure.  Assuming no one backs out in the next 12 hours or so we'll have nine players again this year. 

Entrance for the league is $600.  There will then be 12 tournaments, on Sunday nights, starting tonight.  The top two finishers of each tourny will get $150 and $50.  The remaining money will go to the top two winners of the league to enter one of the $1500 WSOP events.  Their winnings at the WSOP will be split amongst the group 20% for the player, 10% for everyone else.  I think the winner should get a higher percentage, but not everyone agreed, and rather than delaying the start of the league while we argued over it, I gave in.  Chances are it won't matter any way.


Here is  a list of the players.

• Greg AKA Smack.   Greg won last year.  I think he had his spot locked in by week 9.  He week he would either win, or go out early.  Most often it seemed, he would win.  Greg did not fair too well in the WSOP, getting bounced in the first couple hours.  His is play is such that if he gets chips early he's very difficult to get rid of, but if things don't work out well early on, he can get himself short stacked pretty quick.  Unfortunately ( or maybe fortunately). Greg is out this season. His wife is pregnant and due around the time of the WSOP so he has to take a year off.   Him not being in increases my odds of winning a spot by a great deal, but  I think it also decreases our odds of cashing in the WSOP.
• Mark.  Mark is the new guy in the league.  He's been in a few of our live games, but I don't think I've ever played with him.  I think he's a decent player just from conversations we've had, but I'm not really sure what to expect. Odds of making the WSOP: 1/5
• Me.  Your hero and the person we all really want to win this thing.  Odds 3/7
• Shane.  Shane came in third place last season.  He's definitely one of the more improved players in the league, but I'm not real impressed with his skill.  He plays a pretty conservative passive game.  Odds 1/12
• Rich. Rich plays a lot of heads up online.  I did manage to beat him heads up last year, but I think I had to hid a one or two outer to do so.  He came in just a point behind Shane last year, and I expect him to do well again this year. Odds 2/7
• Archie.  Archie doesn't play online, other than this league and I think that cost him last year.  He also ran into smack a number of times at the end of tournies and it just didn't work out for him.  He was one of my picks to win last year, and if I had to pick anyone to win this year it would probably be him again.  Odds 1/3
• Jason aka Cookie.  I'll probably still refer to him as Cookie this year since there is another Jason in the league. Cookie the random aggressive non-caring belligerent crazy that you either love or hate to have at your table.  He did real well early on in the league when no one gave him credit for anything.    He also managed to win hands in which he was way behind more often than not.  At one point he complained that the game was moving too fast because the poker client kept popping up over his Star Wars Galaxy game that he was simultaneously playing. He went on to win that tourney.  He faltered in the second half of the league so we luckily did not have to rely on him in Vegas. Depending on his interest levels he could do pretty well.  I don't think he'll be able to maintain the required level of interest for the whole season.  Odds 1/8
• Aaron.  Aaron is the most likely to leave the table in a tilty rage.   He won back to back weeks last year and got super cocky, only to finish the league in 7th place.  He has gotten way better though.  Last year I considered him dead money.  This year he has a reasonable chance at making a run.  He's also been playing a lot of live poker so hopefully that will help.  Odds 1/5
• Noah. Noah is probably the most competitive amongst us, and usually a pretty good player.  I think he ran into bad beats at the hands of Cookie more often than anyone last year.  He's getting married shortly after the league ends though so I expect him to get distracted towards the end.  Especially if he doesn't get off to a great start.  Odds 1/4
• Jason.  Jason likes to gamble.  I think most of us in the league do, but I think Jason probably does it the most.  Unfortunately for him, sports betting, and not poker is his strong suit.  I haven't played with him outside of this league, but I get the impression that he hasn't played much outside of friendly dealer call it type games.  I don't think he's studied the game as much as the rest of us and that will be his downfall. He's not a bad player, and would probably do well against a random guy on the street, but the competition in this league is a little better.  He did have a newborn during last season, so that may have been a distraction as well.  Odds 1/12

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com