4th Annual Birthday Poker Tourney

Last weekend was the fourth annual "Mike's Birthday Family Poker Invitational Fiasco" where I futilely attempt to get my non poker playing relatives to learn how to play poker. As much as I complain about them not getting it, I think some of them may actually be starting to pick up on a few things. I think we even made it through the event without the traditional infinite check loop that they tend to get stuck in.

Lets go around the table and I'll introduce you to this year's players.

To my left we my wife's Aunt Karalee. She claims to have played a lot poker back in the day, and knows more or less what she is doing, but is quite rusty. She has issues with the whole betting "before you get to see all your cards and know exactly what you have" thing. Then again, I don't think I got anyone to raise pre-flop.

(note to self: Next year I need to stress raising rather than calling, and the benefits of limiting the field in a hand where you are favored.)

Left of Karalee was Uncle Jim who isn't a terrible player. He actually won last year or the year before. He is a little tentative in his play, but he did actually raise on occasion which puts him light years ahead of the rest of the table.

After Jim is my father in law and my wife's Aunt Char. I think the only reason they play is because I'm organizing it, and have very little intention to actually play or strategize. I think they are lost causes.

My wife is after them, and I'm proud to say that she is a pretty good player for someone who only plays once a year. I've forced to watch enough poker on TV where she understands strategy, and when to bet or raise or fold. She's probably better than half the people at our regular monthly games. I should also note that she started talking trash about a week before the event claiming that she was going to win and that she had a new strategy. That new strategy was to use the handranking cheatsheet that I provided for everyone.

My parents rounded out the table. They don't particularly care for the poker, but play just to humor me. They do however at least try to play well, and figure out what they are doing. My Dad is also one of the few players to actually use a raise. He's a maniac!

So on to the game. I tried to explain to everyone the value of good hand selection before we started, but I don't think may people paid attention since the average number of players seeing the flop at our eight handed table was 6.

I can't recall as many comical plays as in previous years. I'm not sure if its because they are actually getting better, or if I was doing a better job of moving the game along, or if I just don't find it humerus anymore.

A couple hand of note, which I feel bad about. I crippled my dad when I played ATs for a raise. He called and the flop was ragged, but with two of my suit. The turn was a king and one of the other fifteen people in the hand made a small bet, which he min raised. A bigger bet and I probably would have folded, but I didn't and rivered a flush to beat his AK. Of coarse on the river I made a big raise which he called.

I feel bad because he played a good hand, raised when he made top pair, and still lost. On the other hand, he should have raised preflop like I had instructed and bet more when he made his hand, so hopefully he will learn that for next year. I'm guessing not though.

The other hand was against my wife. I had wired nines and she had AQ. The flop was AQ9 and I took all of her chips, putting me in the chip lead for good. Not much she could do there. She flopped top two pair, and even though I raised her bets, and bet bet big when she checked, its hard to think your hand isn't good in that situation. Unless you've played a lot, and even then its tough to put me on trips rather than AK.

On the positive side, after I raised her bet on the flop, she was about to bet on the turn, and Karalee pointed out that she should check because she knows I'm going to bet anyway. So at least someone is paying attention.

The final three were myself Aunt Karalee and Uncle Jim. I had a huge chip lead and they stood no chance since they weren't willing to bet without a hand and the blinds were a significant portion of their chipstack.

I kept bluffing whenever they would check, and then showing my hand and pointing out that if they check it doesn't matter what I have, if I bet I've got a good chance of winning the pot. No one ever picked up on it though and even after it checks around on the flop and turn, they'd rather check around again on the river than try to steal the pot.

(note to self: Next year do a better job of explaining how to take advantage of position.)

So that was it. After that we got everyone to play wii games. Watching non-video-game playing relatives play Rayman Raving Rabbids is pretty funny. I'd recommend you try that.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

March Tournament Summary

We had a change in venue for our March Tournament. Our usual host was busy this week, and not wanting to slip into the mode where we wait four months for our next game, we rescheduled elsewhere. We also had to settle for the Easter weekend which cut down on the turnout.

Still, we had 13 and 11 players for our two games, which isn't horrible. I'm a little late with the write up so it may or may not be completely accurate. Its close enough though.

I have a new arch nemesis. My friend Jason, used to be an average player. What he lacked in skill he made up for in trash talking. He wasn't a horrible player but he lacked the patience and discipline to make it in a two to three hour tournament.

I'm starting to think that was an all an act to setup a loose image that he can capitalize on later. At some point last year he just turned a switch and all of the sudden he is winning, not just cashing, at least one tournament per night in our group. He managed to win our point total bragging rights competition last year despite the fact that we scheduled a number of events on days when he was out of town for business.

Going into the night I was leading the points total with two second place finishes, just barely ahead of Jason with his one win. He missed the first game last month because his plane didn't get in on time. So I have to finish ahead of him to maintain my lead.

Things don't start out well. The first hand of the game, I'm in the big blind with 42o, and he's in the small blind. It folds to him and he makes the stander 3xBB raise. First hand of the game, blinds are low, I'm not letting him establish control, so I call and flop two pair. He bets and then calls my raise. The turn is a jack which pairs the board and makes potentially counterfeits my hand. Check-check and the river brings a queen. He bets, and I make the call knowing I'm likely beat. Turns out I probably should have bet the turn because he didn't have a hand until the river and I probably could have taken the pot then. So we're one hand into the game and already he's up and I'm down. Great.

Things turned around shortly after that however. I had pocket kings and my raises and bets kept getting called by the new guy. I haven't played with him before so I didn't know what to expect, but I was certainly nervous when he kept calling. I ultimately went all-in and he called turning of an unimproved big-slick. That hand doubled me up and put me in pretty good shape overall. AK looks pretty and all, but when you are raised pre-flop, and you don't improve by the turn, maybe its time to fold. That mistake allowed the new guy to watch a few more hours of the NCAA tournament than those of us who had to concentrate on cards.

I'm not sure what happened after that. We were playing short handed so the blinds came around often, and I just wasn't hitting flops. Before I knew it I was the short stack and shortly after that busted out in 6th or 7th place out of 13. Very disappointing.

Oh and Jason went on to win.

Game two didn't start out much better. We only had 11 which meant two short tables, and my table was more aggressive than I would have liked considering I wasn't getting cards. I was all set to call it an early night, pushing all in with wired eights oni a king high board, but was generously called by a medium ace that never improved.

Those chips gave me enough to survive to the table combine and then some.

In order to reclaim my first place leaderboard position I had to win and Jason couldn't money, so I had two goals at this point. Jason was crippled on a KK vs QQ hand against his girlfriend, but was taking the chip-and-a-chair mentality and doing well with it. He went all-in on three or four consecutive hands and either doubled up or stole the blinds to the point where he almost had enough chips to start rally playing again.

Then he tried the all-in trick one more time, only this time I had a pair of eights in the hole, and called him. He had two face cards and the board danced all around them, but he didn't improve and he he was out. Phase one complete, now I just had to win.

I managed to cash, but by the time we were heads up I was tired, and willing to gamble a little too much. I pushed with any somewhat reasonable hand and got called by a better one for yet another second place finish.

So on the plus side, I've finished in 2nd 3/4 times this year. On the negative side, my heads up game, which I used to think was pretty good in live poker, has not been performing very well. Maybe its a lack of practice and a sign that I need to start playing online again.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Vegas Trip Recap

Its been almost a week since I got back from Vegas. Lets see how much I remember. A warning: this is probably my longest post ever, but don't worry. I'm a slacker so you will probably have a few weeks to finish it before I get motivated to write another one.

Day 1 - Arrivals and 0

Travel

Our plane left Chicago at 8:30 in the morning. It was rather uneventful except that it was a bit early to be at the airport and we were both pretty tired since it had been quite a long week at work. Oh and our cat had started freaking out the night before and that morning. He kept going in and out of his litter box, and meowing (which he almost never does) and acting like he was going to convert other objects around the house, such as our nice leather chair into his new toilet. We thought he just didn't like the new litter we had bought so rather than packing I had to go to the store to get new litter. Yeah that's right. My Vegas recap is starting out with a cat story. And one that involves pooping. Can this story get any better?

On the way into the Vegas airport our plane did a circle around Lake Meade and and the Hover Dam so we got a great view from all sides. Who needs to take a helicopter trip out there when you get great aerial views from your plane? We touched down at a little after noon Vegas time, and my brother in law, who we were meeting, picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel.

We stayed at Treasure Island, or TI as I guess its being referred to now. It looks like they are toning down the pirateyness of the hotel which is a bit odd since pirates seem to be in these days.

This is my wife's first time to Vegas. She really had very little interest except to see the Hoover Dam and Cirque Du Soleil. She's already suffering from sensory overload and we haven't even been to our hotel yet.

After checking in we decide to wander around a bit to find some food. We headed across the street to the shops at the Venetian. They have it set up inside so all of the shops look like brick buildings and the ceiling is painted like the sky, which is really cool if you haven't seen it before. There were tons of shops, costumed singers putting on a show, and the gondola rides. My wife's initial skepticism about Las Vegas started to wane. We grabbed lunch at some Mexican joint and watched people ride down the river/canal/thingamajig.

Gambling Begins

After lunch we wandered through the rest of the shops and into the Palazzo. My wife mentioned something about some art exhibit that she wanted to see. Or something. I don't know. I heard the word art while standing in a casino so I stopped paying attention. She and her brother went off to the exhibit and left me to play blackjack.

I hadn't heard of the Palazzo before, but apparently its one of those fancy expensive type casinos. The cheapest table I could find was a $15 table. Not that I can't afford $15 tables, but I prefer the $10 tables where my money lasts about 50% longer. Plus they tricked me by giving me mostly $25 chips which made me feel like I should be betting $25 a hand. And I did. Because I'm a sucker.

The table was brutal. The dealer was consistently hitting four and five card 21s and my chips went from $200 to almost $0 in what felt like ten minutes. I started looking for my wife hoping she would return and save me from this humiliation.

A couple times I bet my last few chips and won a hand or two to stay alive. If this was a sign of how the trip was going to go I was in for trouble.

When I tried hitting on 21 I knew it was time to stop. In my defense my hand was something like 2-A-A-A-4-2 and I counted 11 which sounds to me like I should hit. One thing I don't like about blackjack is that the dealer has seen so many hands that half the time she's already decided that I'm going to stay and moved on to the next player before I even add up my cards.

It was about 4 o'clock Vegas time, and 6 Chicago time, and so far I hadn't had any caffeine all day. I had that kind of dazed numbing headache that comes from caffeine withdrawal so I cashed out and went looking for a coffee shop. I had managed to battle back to $120 so I was only down $80. I can live with that.

O - Cirque Du Soleil
Friday night we went to see O. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip, but to be perfectly honest I was a little disappointed. Maybe I had set my expectations too high after years and years of hearing how incredible Cirque Du Soleil is.

It was very entertaining. The set and costuming were fantastic and the acrobatics were incredible. I just felt like it was missing something. The very beginning had a hint of a plot line and every so often they would bring it back, and I kept expecting it to develop into an actual story, but it never did. And while the acrobatics were incredible they tended to get old after a while. Each set consisted of them doing more or less the same move over and over again. It gets less and less impressive with each iteration. It was still a good show and probably falls into the "things you have to see in Vegas" category, but it isn't the best thing you'll ever see, like you may have been led to believe.

Pirate Show

We got back to our hotel just in time for the free pirate show. Again, maybe I was expecting too much for a free show, but this was embarrassingly bad. I was hoping for some sort of pirate battle with cannons and swordfights and pyrotechnics. Instead what we got was Sirens call. Some cheesy lame innuendo ridden crap. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy hot scantily clad women dancing as much as the next guy, but there's a time a and place for it, and in the middle of what I was expecting to be a pirate show is not it. There are plenty of places in Vegas to see women dancing, probably hotter and more scantily clad women at that. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was/should have been a kids show and could have been more entertaining for everyone had it been more pirates and less dancing. I really wanted to leave about a minute in, but the crowd had packed us in and we were stuck for the duration.

After that we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and some drinks and called it a night.

Day 2 - Poker and Clubbing

Poker at the Mirage

My wife and her brother headed out to the Hoover Dam in the morning and I wandered over to the Mirage to check out their poker room. It was considerably bigger than the TI's but most of the table's were empty. Could be that it was still early. Their lowest limit game was $3/$6 which was a little higher than I wanted to play since I haven't played limit table games in months. They didn't have any big tournaments running or scheduled soon, but they did have a SNG that needed one more player. Sign me up!

I think it was a $70 tournament with not nearly as much going to the prize pool as I would have liked, but what can you do? I also wasn't thrilled about the blind structure/starting chip count. We started with only $T1000 and blinds at $T25/50 raising every 15 minutes. It turned into a crapshoot real quick.

Shortly after the tournament started, my phone started vibrating. Great. I know that its bad etiquette to talk on the phone at the table, and its probably not even allowed, so I ignored it. A few minutes later it vibrates again to remind me that I have a voice mail. That became a bit distracting so I checked to phone to acknowledge the voice mail and make it stop. Ten minutes later it rings again. WTF? who keeps calling me? I almost never get calls on my phone. Its either my wife, and she and her brother were lost and/or in an accident, or its somehow work related and a server just blew up. Because that only happens when I don't have time to deal with it. So I do the responsible thing and decide to wait until after the tourney to check the voice mail. It would be a lie if I said that wasn't very distracting, but ultimately I don't think it had an affect on the outcome.

Back to the tourney. During that tournament I did make a really good read on one particular hand. One of the players I had pegged as someone to look out for had made a pretty big pre-flop raise. Any raise seemed big pre-flop because the blinds started so high, but I had a bad feeling about the hand. I had AK, and thought there was a good chance I would be in a race, and a better than average chance I was way behind, and I folded it pre-flop That's not something I can do easily but it didn't feel like it was worth putting my whole tournament life at stake so early on, so I let it go and waited for the next opportunity. One of morons to my left pushed all in on the flop with a garbage straight draw and the original raiser turned over aces. The moron rivered the strait and knocked out the aces. I would have had ace high and lost either way. I was proud of myself for that play. Although if the original raiser had turned over AJ and won the hand with her jack kicker I would have been kicking myself even now. That's just how it goes.


I chipped up a little bit early on, and was encouraged by the fact that the two people I had pegged as the decent players at the table went out early. Unfortunately I was soon to follow. I was dealt QQ in early position and made a raise to $T400 or $T500. The short stack to my left moved all-in for less, and someone in later position pushed all in for about $T200 more. The super short stack had garbage, I don't remember but the other guy had a pair of fours which turned into trips on the turn and crippled me. I was then relegated to all-in or fold mode and got not cards worthy of an all-in until I was under the gun an orbit later. I pushed with AJo and the big blind called with something worse. I don't remember what, except that he paired one of his cards and I didn't.

So I busted out fairly early in my first Vegas tournament. Not the result I was hoping for, but what can you do? I was satisfied with my play and as long as I continue to play well things should swing in my favor.

I head outside to check my voicemail to find out what hospital my wife is in or which client's server was on fire back home. Luckily, it was neither of those scenarios. We had asked my mother-in-law to stop by our house to check up on the cat that was freaking out earlier. Apparently he was just going in out his litter box, and she noticed some blood so he was on his way to the emergency vet. Turns out he had a urinary tract infection and he should be fine in a few days after some anti-biotics.


Slots
Treasure Island runs tournaments four times a day. I signed up for the 2:00pm tourney and wandered around the casino for an hour killing time. I put $20 in a nickel slot machine thinking it would take about an hour to run through that, until I realized that you could play up to 10 lines at a time and bet 25 credits. Since I think you have to bet the max to get the best odds for slots (something like the top payouts are proportionally more if you bet the max, or progressives jackpots only payout on max bets) I soon found that $20 only lasts about 5 minutes. If you are lucky. Somehow on my last spin I hit something big and before i knew it I had $50 in credit. Time to cashout.

Something I noticed that make no sense to me at all is that slots in Vegas no longer
accept coins. Even the penny slots don't take change. I hate having loose change in my pocket and on more than one occasion as I was walking through a casino I would have been happy to drop it in a penny slot machine to see what happens. Only I couldn't because the coin slot had a piece of metal welded over it. On every machine in every casino I went through. Now sure, taking my 37 cents isn't going to make or break them, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only one that would rather drop my change in the machine that carry it around all day. 37 cents times however many hundreds of thousands of people that walk through the casino each day has to add up. And its not like the machine isn't already there? The casinos are actually actively preventing me from giving them my money. I don't understand.

TI Tournament
Treasure Island's tournament structure was a bit nicer than the SNG's at the Mirage. $T3500 chips to start, blinds at $T25/$T50 increasing every 20 minutes. It is also sort of a rebuy tournament. They have alternates that fill in as people get knocked out during the first hour. If you bust out, you can rebuy as an alternate. Depending on how many other alternates there are, you can get right back in.

I think after all the rebuys there were over 65 entrants in this tourney. Most of my table was from the same bachelor party and were either terribly hungover or drunk.

Someone busted out on the very first hand. The board showed 88333, not in that order. He had an eight and pushed all-in, the other guy had the case three. Ouch.

I played OK for a bit, playing pretty tight and winning a few small pots. Then I was dealt queens again and had three callers to my preflop raise. I had to lay them down when no one folded on the flop and an ace came on the turn.

The next hand I limped with most of the table from the small blind with 23s. I flopped a pair and an open ended straight draw which I chased to the river and didn't hit.

Now I was a little tilty since I was getting short stacked and frustrated at not being able to beat this table. On the button I got KT or AT, something like that I tried buy the pot pre-flop. One of the guys I had pegged as a pretty good player limp-called. I missed the flop completely and he checked. I either had to push all-in with my few remaining chips or give up the hand and get destroyed by the blinds in a couple orbits. So I pushed. He thought about it for a while and ultimately called. He had a ace, and better kicker, but as I think back on the hand, that was a ballsy call. Sure he won, but I'm pretty sure represented a hand better than his. For all he knows I started with a pair and he has at best has six outs.

I think he went on to win the tournament. At the very least he was in second place.

I was steaming now. I was very disappointed with my play in that tournament and pissed off that I had not cashed in two attempts. I know its a small sample size, but I considered myself to be better than most of the players in those events and busting out so early in both was frustrating.

I got on the list for the $2/$4 game and walked around until my name was called.

$2/$4 at Treasure Island
As people busted out of the tournament the condensed tables and a new $2/$4 table opened up. I bought in for $100 and before I knew it I was sitting at about $250. Things were finally going right. I was getting decent cards and they were holding up when they were supposed to. I kept beating the same guy who was continually surprised when my AK outkicked his A4. It was kind of amusing.

Unfortunately my luck didn't last and I went pretty card dead for a quite a while. And when I had cards I started getting rivered. It was kind of amusing except for the bad beat part. I would bet betting for the entire hand and the same guy would call. On the turn he would call and laugh, and then hit his card on the river. I think he was actually embarrassed that he kept doing it to me. After a while he started folding early in the hand so his hand wouldn't develop into something he could justify chasing.

I folded a lot for the next few hours. before eventually calling it a day. I finished up about $20 overall. Its nice to get a profit, but again disappointing since I had been up so much more a few hours earlier.

I did get to see a straight flush though, which was somewhat exciting. And it pays a $250 bonus to the player.

Fancy Dinners, Clubbing and the $140 appetizer

For dinner that evening we went to the Company American Bistro in the Luxor. My wife was enticed by one of the reviews she had read in one of the promotional magazines in our hotel. Specifically there was an appetizer comprised of tater tots topped with caviar and served with a shot of vodka. We couldn't find it on the menu, and when we asked about it, the waiter said he'd only seen it as part of a tasting menu, but he'd ask the chef. A few minutes later he returned saying that the chef agreed to make the dish.

When the waiter returned with our drinks he informed us that to make the tater-tot appetizer he would have to open a jar of caviar, and since no one else would be eating it, it would cost $140. Ummmm. Pass. Instead of that we ordered a beet sampler which had quite possibly the most interesting form of beet you will ever consume. It was a beet marshmallow. I didn't realize that marshmallowing was a cooking technique, but apparently it is, because I've eaten a beet marshmallow. It was very odd trying to reconcile the marshmallow texture with the beet flavor in your brain. The two things just don't go together. I'd recommend trying it because I don't think you'll ever see that somewhere else. I'd also recommend the mac-n-cheese side with your steak because it was the best I've ever had.

Here's a bonus tip for those of you that like clubbing and have managed to read this far into the post. I guess LAX in the Luxor is one of the cool trendy clubs for celebrities and what not. You could wait in line like a sucker with hundreds of other people, or you could go to eat at this restaurant before hand and they'll let you cut in front of everyone and get in for free. It's an expensive meal, but if you're in to that sort of thing it might be a good idea.

LAX is completely not our scene. Its not a place we would even consider entering except that we can get the VIP treatment and go in front of everyone. So we wandered around the Luxor for a bit until the club opened up, and watched as the line grew and grew and grew. And then when 10:30 hit we walked in front of everyone and into the club. Or almost into the club. The bouncer stopped me a foot away and told me I couldn't go in because I had tennis shoes on. I'd have been pissed except the only reason I wanted to go in in the first place was to show up the rest of the people trying to get in. Oh well.


Casino Wandering and Sic Bo
We decided to walk back to our hotel from the Luxor. Treasure Island and the Luxor are on opposite ends of the strip so it was quite a hike, but I enjoy walking through all the different casinos just to check them out and this seemed like a good time to do it.

We also found one of my new favorite games at New York, New York. It the only place I've seen it. Its called Sic Bo and its one of those crazy Asian like Pai Gow. There's a three dollar minimum bet and I think the odds are decent, so you can sit there for quite a while on a small budget. The game works like this: The dealer rolls three dice, and you bet on the outcome. You can pick a specific die, which pays out 1:1, or a two die combo, or a specific total, or any pair, or any set, or high/low total. After the roll, the dealer types in the results and the winning numbers light up. With the single dice bet if you bet on three, and the dealer rolls 1-2-3. You get paid out 1:1. If he rolls 1-3-3 you get 2:1, and 3:1 for trip threes. My general strategy was to put a buck or two on two of the single numbers and then a few bucks on the three dice combos which paid out pretty well. $20 lasted for about an hour and a number of free drinks. I'd highly recommend it. It's also a great drunk game because you don't have to think or add or anything like that and you get a bunch of random people to show up at your table to try to figure out what the hell you're playing.

Other than that, our trip back was largely uneventful. We caught a lounge act at Bally's where they were impersonating various member of the Rat Pack, and finally made it back to our hotel. Stupid time change kicked in too. Who ever's in charge of that owes me an hour in Vegas.

Day 3 - More poker and Zumanity

TI Poker Tournament

We started off day three by going to one of those half price ticket places. If you plan on seeing a show in Vegas that isn't one of the top attractions, and don't have a specific day when you want to see it, and won't be terribly disappointed if you can't get tickets, I recommend trying to buy tickets the day of the show at one of these places. They have a bunch throughout the strip and we got good tickets for Zumanity for $65 instead of $130.

After picking up the tickets we wandered over to check out the Wynn since we had not yet been there on our casino tour. We didn't recognize anyone famous in the poker room but there was a final table for a big buy in tournament event later that day so I figured I'd stop back. The casino layout was different. Rather than the maze of slot machines and table games designed to trap you in the casino area, the Wynn's casino had big wide pedestrian lanes, right through the middle and getting in, out and through was not a problem. I found that interesting.

After that my wife went to do some shopping and I headed back to the TI poker room for another tournament. Not quite as many entries in this one but that's ok with me. I think there were 36 after all the rebuys.

Things started out well for me. Early on I had an AJ and some guy who had A9 was sure he had a winner. I had had raised pre-flop and again on the flop, so I wasn't thrilled when he kept calling, and still bet on the turn an river. I reluctantly called thinking he had to have at least two pair and was quite pleasantly surprised when all he had was the 9 kicker. And then I got moved to another table.

I got a little over aggressive with AK and then I went card dead. Before I knew it I was back below the starting chip count and starting to worry about busting out early again.

As the donkey across from me turned over his third pair of aces in two orbits I started to try to count the number of hands I had been dealt since arriving in Vegas, thinking it odd that not one of them was a pair of aces, or even kings. And I had gotten queens twice and both times lost a lot of chips. I was just about to declare live poker rigged when I looked down at beautiful pair of red aces. A couple players limped and it was on me to raise. I had a problem. I needed to raise, but I had just enough chips where going all-in is overkill and yet anything less leaves me with not enough chips to make a significant bet on the flop if I need to. I bet about 2/3 of my stack going for a pot multiplier rather than percent of my chips and got one caller. I pushed on the flop and he called again, doubling me up.

A few hands later and I got my pair of kings and took down another huge pot. And once again as soon as I started to get confident I changed tables as we condensed down to two.

The blinds started creeping up there, and some players weren't willing to invest the 3x blinds that I was raising preflop. Which was nice for me. And usually when they did call I had the better hand which was also nice. And then as I was starting to take command of the table I was moved. Again.

My new table was a bit more aggressive and I had a hard time adjusting. I also stopped getting cards. I tried to take the patient approach to wait everyone out, and while it worked, it didn't leave me in a very strong position.

We finally eliminated the 11th place player and got down to one table.

I had a medium sized stack, but it seemed like every time I got playable cards, the pot was raised in front of me, and I wasn't willing to put my tournament life at risk. Maybe I should have been more aggressive but I was sure that my cards would start improving soon.

I was able to win enough hands to stay alive and before I knew it we were down to four players and I had made the money. I think I was the best player at the table, but I also had the least amount of chips, so I needed a bit of luck to help me out.

I thought I got it in the BB when UTG raised and I had A9. Four handed that looks pretty good. Especially when another round of blinds or two is going to remove any fold equity that I might have. I pushed and he turns over AT. Oh well. I cashed in fourth place for about $175 on a $65 entry. Not the best result but it beats not cashing.

After the tourney we went off the strip (who knew you could do that?) for dinner. My brother in law had to leave after that so he dropped us off at New York, New York where we had a little more than an hour to kill before the show. Time for some more Sic Bo! This is the one game my wife actually enjoys playing. So you better believe we're playing it.

Actually before we got the Sic Bo we had some roulette to play. A few coworkers had given me $5 and number to play. Of coarse it was $10 minimum bets and they all wanted their own spins, so I had to put down my own money as well.

I bought $50 worth of chips and it was gone in 7 spins. I won a bet on red and then went back to picking numbers where I lost everything. I hate roulette.

So we killed time and another $40 at the Sic Bo Table. We got a few other couples roped into the game as we were playing. Its going to be the next big thing. I'm calling it here.

Zumanity
Zumanity is the sensual side of Cirque Du Soleil. And by sensual I they mean topless. OK fine, they had a little more sexual overtones to their routines than the other show, but this was another disappointment. I guess its my own fault for expecting this to be great, but it seemed like they just took their boring acts, made the women topless and called it a show. Now don't get me wrong. I like boobs as much as the next guy. I'm very much a fan of boobs, but there are hundreds of places in Vegas to see boobs, and this is probably near the bottom of the list for places where I think they belong. There were some impressive stunts, but not as many as in O, and the comedy acts in between sets were quite entertaining, but if you really want to see Cirque Du Soleil, they have a show at just about every hotel on the strip, go there. If you want to see boobs, I think most hotels can accommodate you there too, or else go to the stripclubs. From what I hear they're not too bad in Vegas. All in all I felt ripped off by Cirque du Soleil for this trip.

And that was the end of the trip. From there we headed back to hotel. The next day we checked out and headed to the airport.

I'm ready to go back.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Instant Checks on FullTilt

I should be writing up a trip report, but instead I give you this. FullTilt apparently has a new deposit method: Instant eChecks. I received the following in an email this weekend.

We believe our best players should receive the best possible service so we're pleased to inform you that you have been specially selected to participate in a Beta release of our newest, most efficient payment processing option yet - Instant eChecks.

Just click on the Instant eChecks button in the Cashier and fill in the required information to instantly and securely transfer money from your personal checking account to your Full Tilt Poker account. It's that simple.

They must be really hurting if I rank high enough on their list to qualify for the special beta release of this program. I haven't played there in many months. And even when I did it wasn't at very high stakes. Oh well. Maybe this will get more people back into online poker.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Back from Vegas

Just got back from Vegas. Its going to be a long week at work, but hopefully I'll be able to write up a trip report sometime before I forget what I did. Long story short I cashed in 1/3 poker tournaments, ended up about even on poker for the trip and a little down overall, but not too bad.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

lolcats Poker Contest

About a week ago a friend IM-ed me telling me that I he was going to enter this contest on icanhascheezburger.com where he could win a trip to Vegas, and that I should tell my many readers to vote for him. Of coarse, being the lazy bastard that he his, he has not yet submitted a picture, so I can't tell you to vote for it. If you'd like to check it out, or send in your own the details are here.

Now. What the hell is icanhascheezburger, or an lolcat you might ask? I certainly did. Apparently it is a fairly well known site where users submit funny pictures, usually of cats, and add clever captions. Its all very amusing. I asked a bunch of other people if they had heard of the site because I thought my friend had stumbled onto some new uncharted part of the internet, but a surprising number had already been to the site, and seemed unimpressed with the fact that I had found it.

And this is the part where I claim I should be a gagillionaire. These people put up some retarded site with with stupid pictures and bad grammar and as far as I can tell are making a fortune doing it. They must be doing something right if they can afford to give away a trip to Las Vegas. If these idiots can put this crappy site up there and get a ton of traffic then why can't I think of something just a little bit better and profit even more? And don't say it requires more than four posts a month smart ass. You just wait. I'll get that fifth post in there tomorrow.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

February Home Game

Our first tournaments of the year were last night, and after two events I'm on top of the leaderboard with two second place finishes. Oh wait, I probably shouldn't have given that away yet. Makes the rest of the story kind of anti climactic. Or does it? There might be something really exciting that happens later on if you don't read the full post. I'm just sayin'.

Turnout was pretty low last night. Almost none of the occasional players showed, and many of the regulars weren't able to make it. We were originally planning on playing last weekend, but decided against it since it was SuperBowl weekend and we weren't sure if some people's wifes would let them come out and play two nights in a row. Maybe we should have tried it anyways.

Game 1

Game one had 15 players, a number of which were arriving late. I was getting great cards in the early going of this tourney, which is unusual because I usually end up playing real conservative in the beginning of game one and thus not playing many hands. Everything seemed to be working right. My pocket pairs were turning into sets on the flop with three players betting ahead of me, my suited aces were making flushes, and my garbage was also missing everyone else, letting me successfully bluff the pot.

I the midst of this amazing run where I was dominating the table and already counting my first place winnings, I'm dealt a pair of jacks. Bobby, to my right limps in as he usually does, and I raise. It folds to Shane in the big blind, who just arrived in time to prevent his cards from being auto-mucked. He's a little flustered as he tries to figure out the blind level, the chip count, his cards, etc, but he calls anyway. Bobby also calls.

The flop was almost perfect. Jack high, but with two spades. I have the jack of spades. It checks to me and make a half pot sized bet, content to take the pot here, before another spade comes off. Two callers. As of now, I have the nuts, and no read on either of them. Bobby is relatively new to the game and overly passive. Shane I haven't played with in years. So when a third spade comes on the turn, I'm not too happy, but it checks around to me so I take another stab at it. As long as they don't have the flush already I'm certain they'll go away.

Shane calls. After some deliberation, and some friendly table talk Bobby folds. I have to give Shane credit for a flush here, so I don't plan on betting the river. I'm just praying the board pairs. Instead, it brings a fourth spade and this time Shane makes a small bet. I'm 98% sure I'm beaten here, but it was a small enough bet that I have to call. He turns over a pair of queens, including the queen of spades. Not a bad hand for your very first one. Bobby shows that he mucked a pair of aces, include the ace of spades.

Its a good thing I had been running so well early on, because if I hadn't been, I very well could have gotten myself knocked out on that hand. But I still have some chips to fight with.

A few hands later, Shane is selected to move to the other table during a rebalance. He takes most of the table's chips with him.

My luck soon retruns though as I get pocket aces for the second or third time, and I get have Aaron in the big blind to my left. I raise just enough to almost put him all in. He thinks about it for a while, contemplating the implied odds of the joy and satisfaction of taking my chips vs. the agony of me knocking him out. Ultimately he decides the blinds are getting too high and his stack too low so he decides its now or never and proceeds to give me the remainder of his chips.

Archie then brought to our table to replace Aaron. He's a little short stacked, but proceeds to go all-in on almost all of the next 10 hands or so, taking the blinds and all of the limpers chips, and moving close to the chip lead. It was pretty funny to see Bobby limp almost every hand and then act surprised and angry when Archie pushed. Again.

After that I don't think there was a lot of excitement in game one. Either that or I'm just getting too old to remember everything. Shane ended up finishing in third place, I took second, and Archie won. I was a little disappointed in my heads up play. I wasn't very patient and couldn't really get in a good rhythm. Archie had had probably a 2-1 lead when I pushed preflop on a complete bluff, and he called and took it down. It was a frustration move after he I tried bluffing out of the previous pot to no avail.

Game 2

We lost few players, but picked up a few and game two had 16. Jason, last year's season winner was at my table this time, although he arrived a few blind levels late. He has a good act where he clowns around and pretends to be real loose and random, and he talks a lot of smack, but he's actually a pretty good player.

Archie is to Jason's left, and shortly after arriving Jason challenges him to go all-in blind if they are in the blinds and it is folded to them.

Of course upon hearing this, the table folds to them the next time they are in the blinds. Jason looked at his cards though and says he doesn't want to do it. And limps. Archie, still not having looked at his cards confidently pushes, and Jason meagerly calls.

On a side note, I like both of their plays. Archie knows Jason doesn't like his hand enough to go all-in, so his two random cards have a decent chance of winning, and Jason could very well fold. Jason knows he's playing against two random cards so given the fact that one of his cards is an ace, he's probably in good shape.

As it turns out Archie has a pair of eights, and Jason A4o. Jason doesn't improve and is bad shape.

But I help him out shortly after that. I pull the good old hammer bluff. I make just under a 3x BB bet, and the table starts questioning why so big? I point out that the blinds just went up, and its a fairly standard sized bet. It was really meant to be a normal sized bet. Otherwise I would have just pushed all in.

Jason reluctantly calls, or I guess raises, since he was a few chips over what I had bet. I don't remember what he had, but it doesn't matter because I didn't get any help on the board.

After that a number of the shorter stacks at our table drop and Jason, Archie and I survive to the final table.

At this point the blinds are big enough compared to my relatively small chip stack that the all-in or nothing strategy adds about a third of my chip stack to my total each time. Throw in a few wins and before you know it, I'm back near the top of the remaining players.

It ultimately comes down to Jason and I. He has probably a 2-1 or 3-2 lead on me and I never come close to catching him.

It would have been nice to win one of those, but I'll certainly take a couple of second places.

If you've read this far in hopes of getting to the exciting part that I promised in the beginning, then you're a sucker. All I'm going to do here is point out that this is my third post already this month, and those of you who took the under at five are going to be way off.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Mystery Package Revealed

So the mystery package from PokerStars arrived today. I got a nice PokerStars bag and a couple decks of plastic cards. Still not sure what I did to deserve it but I'm not complaining. If anyone from any other pokerrooms happen to stumble across this site,and feel like they would like send some free crap my way, I'm all for it. I could use some more poker chips, or a table. If you're feeling really generous, I certainly wouldn't complain if you sent me some fancier stuff. Maybe one of these, or how about this?

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Mystery Prizes

I got an email a couple weeks ago from DHL saying that they had received a pickup request from PokerStars for me. I thought it was odd since I didn't order anything from Stars, and haven't played there in months so I certainly couldn't have won anything.

I forgot about it until today when I got an email from PokerStars saying that my order had shipped. They gave me tracking numbers for two items. I have no idea what they could be. I guess I'll know in a few days.

In other news FullTilt is trying to woo me back by offering a $75 bonus. I don't even have to deposit anything. Just login press a button and then work of the bonus. But I had to claim it by yesterday and I managed not to. To be honest I intended to play some this weekend. That bonus offer was just the thing I needed to motivate me to play some. Or so I thought. I got busy with other things and forgot about poker until tonight when I realized the bonus had expired. Oh well. Maybe next time.

In other other news our monthly game is this Saturday. Turnout is looking weak though. A number of the regulars have already bailed. Has poker's popularity really dropped that much?

For those of you counting at home, I'm on now pace for five posts this month. Almost 6. Stupid short months. Who wants to take the over on number of posts I actually get out? Come on. You know there's going to be at least one after Saturday's game. And another when my mystery package arrives. That means I would only need three more posts to hit the over. And only two for a push. Come on I'm not that lazy. Am I? On second thought don't answer that.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Vegas Baby!

Is that the most original title for a blog post or what? Sometimes my creative talent amazes even myself.

A friend IMed me the other day, commenting on how impressed he was that I had actually written two posts this month. This is really going to blow his mind. I'm going to put a third, that's right third post out this month. Enjoy it while you can folks. Marvel at it. This doesn't happen very often and could very well be the last time its ever seen in this section of the blogosphere.

I suppose I should write something with actual substance for this momentous occasion, now what was I going to write about? Ah that's right. Vegas Baby. I'm going to Vegas.

I haven't been to Las Vegas in many years. My wife has little interest in it so it makes it hard to get that at the list of vacation destinations. The only reason she really wants to go is to see O. I want to go to play poker for 48 hours straight.

My wife's brother lives in LA. We went out to visit him a couple years ago, and my wife has gone a few times with her parents, but I really didn't care for LA all that much. I do however really want to go to Vegas. Since LA is reasonable close we decided that we'd fly out there, and he could meet us for the weekend. Its a win-win. She gets to see her brother and the Cirque du Solei show, and I get to go to Vegas.

As I mentioned before, I haven't been in many years. In fact, I've only been there once, about eight years ago, before I even played poker. So I want to get in some low limit poker, and possible a decent sized tournament while I'm there. Anyone have any thoughts on the best poker rooms and/or tournaments on the weekend for someone like me? Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. We're going in late February/early March if that matters.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Poker on the Colbert Report

If you get a chance to see a rerun of the Colbert Report from tonight you should check it out. Charles Nesson was the guest and he had about a ten minute interview advocating the promotion and legalization of poker. He is a professor at Harvard and uses poker as a teaching tool for strategic thinking. So check it out.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

2007 Review

Pathetic.

That basically describes my poker play for the past year. Not so much the quality, which was actually pretty good, in fact I think I was playing some of my best poker last year, but the quantity wasn't there. I spent months at a time with out playing so much as a single hand.

I don't know what it is. I'm not burnt out, I don't think. I still love to play, I just don't. Where I used to play a few sit 'n goes a night almost every night, now I almost never play. And I don't know why.

Its not just online play that is lacking. Our "Monthly" tournaments got off to a good start, meeting three of the first four months of the year, but then we didn't play again until December. I found a new monthly game, thanks to one of the guys I work with, but still only make it out there once every three months or so.

I'm just not motivated to play. When I did play I did rather well. I was near the top of the leaderboard in our monthly game, cashed two of three times in the tournaments at the new game, finished in the money almost 50% of the time in online SNG's, plus had a 11/1000+ finish in the Stars blogger freeroll. I should be playing now, but instead I'm watching football. I don't know why. I was planning on playing some poker tonight.

I should probably go back and look at my goals for last year and see how I did, but I'm not going to. I'm fairly certain that I didn't meet any of them. I probably had something like "play 50 SNG a month", which is the sum total that I played all last year.

The good news is, our monthly game is back on, with our first scheduled game of the year set for the week after the Superbowl. There's also likely to be a few more spontaneous side games with people at work. We had one early in December where we played a bunch of games that we don't normally play. Everyone had a great time, and
we kept trying to do it again to no avail. I have a feeling that now that the holidays are over we'll be able to fit in a game or two.

Lastly, there is a decent chance that I may play in one of the WSOP events this year. A number of friends have offered to purchase partial stakes in my entry, so that would cover the monetary side of it. Travel/vacation wise, my wife's brother lives in LA, and she has suggested that instead of visiting him there, we meet in Las Vegas. Works for me. I'm seriously thinking about doing it. We'll see.

I'm not going to set any goals for 2008. I'd like to say I'm going to play more this year, but I don't know if that will happen or not.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

XBoxes for All

And by all I mean me.

The XBox elite package that I won on Pokerstars for being the 11th best poker playing blogger in the world finally arrived today. It even came with an extra game that I wasn't expecting. The game was NCAA 2007 March Madness which is kind of cool except that of all the game genres Sports is probably my least favorite, and of all the sports, basketball is also one of my least favorites. Combine that with a game system that I really have no use for, or overwhelming desire to play and you get a pretty disappointing prize for the amount of time I put in to win it. Plus its going to end up costing me more money because I'm going to end up buying another controller, and a wireless network adapter, and an XBox live subscription and the hd-dvd add-on. I'd sell it on EBay but I don't think I'd get that much for it, and I'm too lazy to deal with it. Plus Halo looks pretty cool. Man, winning free stuff is a pain in the ass. Maybe I should bitch some more.

My wife and I were watching High Stakes Poker last night when an add for PokerStars came on featuring freerolls with trips to Atlantis as top prizes. She asks, "is that the vacation you didn't win?" She's even less than impressed with the XBox than I am. Maybe next I won't tell her what the top prize is until I actually win it.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Spontaneous Poker

A bunch of us were hanging around after work on Friday, trying to figure out what we were going to do that night since our significant others had all made plans that didn't involve us. And lo and behold a poker game sprung up!

We went over to Aaron's and played a few short handed tourneys. There were six of us, five of the better players from our monthly game, and one guy who could be good if he wanted to, but he seems to have fun playing anyway and doesn't seem to want to dedicate the time to read a book on strategy. It was a good mix for a friendly poker game.

The first two games we played were holdem. I finished second and third. It was a low buyin event and we were just messing around, so I was a little more aggressive than I would normally be, which I think did me in. I was bluffing a lot, and willing to put all my chips in with hands I usually wouldn't consider playing. That ultimately led to my demise in both games, as the more patient players took my chips.

But the holdem wasn't the interesting part. After those games someone suggested mixing it up a bit, and we ended up playing Omaha. I'm probably the second most experienced Omaha player in the group and I've probably seen under 100 hands in real games. So there was some obvious confusion as no one knew what makes a starting hand, or what you should chase or how many cards from your hand you get to use.

Smack was the only one of us who really knew what he was doing. Not that it helped him much. The turn would almost always give him about 20 outs and the river would always be a blank. And then he would whine about it for the next three hands. So he busted first. I don't remember when I went out, but it wasn't much later than Smack.

So I then got to sit there and watch Jason, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing run over the table. He would bet more to be confrontational than because he new what he had, but it worked, so who am I to criticize?

Since that wasn't confusing enough we decided to play some razz. Noah and Smack had both played a little razz, but I think I was probably the best/most experienced out of the group. I used to play micro limit razz when I was drunk and wanted to play poker without wasting a lot of money. So as I was saying, I was probably the best razz player there, which of coarse meant I went out first.

Razz is known as one of the more frustrating games you can play. Rather than drawing to a hand, you start with a hand and hope you don't draw out of it. Nothing is more frustrating than starting with four to a good low hand and then ending up with three pair.

So playing razz is rather frustrating. Dealing razz, can be quite fun. Especially when you get to laugh at your friends as you deal them quads and get beat by a pair of kings. Good times. At one point Noah claimed, and I think he's right, that he had the bring in eight hands in a row. And when he wasn't starting with paint as his door card, I was pairing just about everything he had.

And he was losing to Jason who, like the other games we played, doesn't have a real firm grasp on appropriate strategy. Jason was starting with something like Q[J7] and hitting a seven low on the river with unbelievable regularity. I don't think I could have stacked the deck better. And he won again. The worst poker player in our group by far took 2/4 events. And I took none. But I still had a great time. Hopefully we can turn this into a more regular event and start introducing more games. I can't wait to get a guts tournament going. (Kidding John. I still refuse to acknowledge guts as a legitimate poker game.)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

November Tournament Summary

Here we are in the 11th month of the year and our monthly gathering is getting together for the fourth or fifth time. Nice work.

Before I get into the wrap up, did any one see the Illini game on Saturday? You know, the one where they knocked off #1 Ohio State? Just wondering. When I went to U of I I think the football team had a total of five wins over four years, so when they've gotten to the point where they can contend with and beat ranked teams, Its pretty exciting.

Back to poker. The game was supposed to start at 5:30. Of course the Illini game was just ending and since a large number of attendees are alumni, many of them were late. We'd normally just blind them in, but it was about a third of the field, and we weren't sure exactly how many of them there were, so we figured we'd wait since they claimed they were ten minutes out. By ten minutes they must have meant 45. But its ok because we were finally playing poker and the Illini won. Have I mentioned that yet?

We were expecting a big turnout since we haven't played since May, but alas only had 21 people show up, seven of which were new to the group. The game itself was painfully slow. I don't know if it was all the new people, or just who happened to end up at which table, but on just about every hand there would be at least one, and often two or three occasions when we'd all be sitting around waiting for someone to act who had no idea that the action was on them. I'm not against talking about non-game related things at the table, but you still have to pay attention to the game.

I was also fairly frustrated because very little that I was doing was working. There were a few players at my table would call almost anything which pretty much forces you to get a good hand as bluffing is all but impossible. I don't consider myself to be someone who flat out bluffs very often, but I do things like continuation bets and stealing orphaned pots that are like bluffing. I'm more just betting that no one else has anything than that I can make them think I have a monster.

In the first game I got crippled by losing a couple of all-ins against smaller stacks . In the first case I had 73o in the BB and got to see a free flop of A33. Hooray for big blind specials. I bet half her remaining stack and she called. The turn was a rag and I put her all in. She calls with an Ax and hits another Ace on the river. Not the end of the world because she didn't have many chips to begin with, but enough of a hit to prevent me from entering as many speculative pots.

Shortly thereafter I made a decent sized preflop raise on the button with AT and one limper. I think I have a pretty tight table image, at least among the people still in the hand, so I was expecting everyone to fold right there, but the big blind pushed for his remaining stack. I figured he had a middle pair, or a decent ace, so I was probably behind, but I was getting decent enough odds to call plus the satisfaction of knocking him out was enough to justify the call. He turns over JQs, which was about the best I could have hoped for, and then he hits a Jack.

I played small stack poker from there on. We combined to two tables at 16 players, and then we were down to 8 and ready to combine to one when I busted out. I was in the small blind and had 89o. We were four handed and the other two players had limped. I had enough chips to last a few more orbits, but I wasn't doing great. I thought to myself I should fold and get to the 8 person table where I could wait for a premium hand to push with, but I was getting 7-1 on my money and couldn't fold. The flop was 77T giving me an open ended straight draw. I pushed hoping no had a piece of that, or that I'd hit my straight. The BB had gotten a piece, with 7x so I was in big trouble. Until a Jack came on the turn. I was looking to be in pretty good shape for the final table. And then the case seven came on the river. Bleh.


Game two didn't go much better for me. The whole late arriving crowd as well as a number of other players, bailed on the second game since it was so late so we only had 13 players. I should have dominated my starting table as there was a ton of dead money there, and the only really good player seemed determined to either go out first or last, with strong leanings towards first.

Unfortunately I wasn't patient enough. I also got screwed by paying too much attention to what people had done on prior hands and just assuming they were doing it again. In the first example, the guy to my right had called all the way to the showdown with a pair of tens when an ace had hit the flop and the river paired the board. I had a weak ace, and had anyone else been in the pot I probably would have folded, but I knew that he was capable of calling with a weak hand. And it paid off.

A few hands later I was in a similar hand with him with A8 and an ace on the flop. This time it was me following him to showdown where he turns over big slick. Maybe I should have folded, but he just as easily could have had a pair of sevens, or a weaker ace.

Later on I was done in by the player I mentioned earlier who seemed determined to bust first or build a huge stack. The blinds were getting high, we were four or five handed, and he had on a few occasions he had shown his garbage cards after making large pre-flop raises. He had made another pre-flop raise, of the same amount and I had A5s in one of the blinds. Again I figure I have a tight image, plus we are short handed and he's very likely just trying to steal the blinds, so my A5 is quite possibly the best hand, so I push. He thinks about it for a while and then calls, turning over A9 and knocking me out. Booo-urns. Better luck next time.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Friday Night Home Game - October

After a missing the past few months I finally made it back out to Friday night game last night. I wish I had some better results to report, but at least I got back into a live game.

$2/$4 Limit

We start out with a few hours of $2/$4 limit holdem. I've done well at the limit section of this game the past two times I've played, but not last night. We started out ten handed, and things were going fairly well for my as I was playing aggressively and actually getting some respect for my raises.

I felt a big momentum change early on and after that there wasn't much that went right. I folded A4 off suit in early position. Not a bad play especially since no matter what I did I could expect 4-6 callers, and even if I hit an ace or two pair I wouldn't be confident in my hand. The flop is 44x with an ace on the turn putting a flush draw out there. It was a huge pot and I know you can't get mad when you fold garbage and see that you missed a monster, but that could have set the tone for the night.

The only other decent hand I had was pocket jacks which ran into pocket queens on a very ragged board.

Shortly after that hand we split up into two 6 handed tables, and I got stuck as the dealer. Its real hard to focus on the game when you are worrying about dealing all the time, but I went on a horrendous run of cards where I didn't get anything remotely playable for an hour and a half, as I gradually chipped down by paying the blinds and the occasional hand that I tried to take a shot at.

$50 No Limit Tourney

After the limit poker and some pizza there's $50 no limit tournament with an optional $10 survivor pool where the last one standing takes all and an optional $10 head hunter option where you win $10 for knocking people out. I entered the survivor and head hunter games as well.

I managed to finish in third place out of 13 runners, but it wasn't exactly pretty. In the early going I won just enough pots to pay for the blinds as they came around and barely anything more. We start with $T100 and blinds go $1/2, $2/$4, $4/$8 and then we chip up 10 to 1 and start back at $1/$2. I had ten chips when we combined to one table and chipped up.

A few all-ins with big slick got me up to $T17 and then I just sat there as everyone else busted themselves. The blinds go up real fast and it turns into a shove fest, so if you can get enough chips where you can sit back and wait for an orbit or two for a real premium hand you'll find yourself practically in the money.

That strategy works ok until we got down to three players and while I had a decent amount of chips it was no where near the other two. The first hand three handed was K3 and for some reason I pushed. Big stack called me with QT. I caught a three on the turn, but he picked up a ten on the river and I was out. I offered to deal for the heads up battle which lasted all of one hand as they both pushed with garbage and the chip leader won again.

A third place got me almost back to even for the night. I would have been nice if I could have taken someone out in the headhunter challenge, or won the last longer pool, but alas no.

$50 No Limit

After the tournament we play $1/$2 no limit until eveyone goes home. My run of horrible cards continued as I folded over and over and over. Finally I opted to play A8 and saw a flop of 838. There was a large bet and then a raise ahead of me. I pushed all in, and the raiser called. Finally something was going my way. There's no way he played 83 is there? And he didn't. He had a wired threes giving him the boat. REBUY.

I re bought and folded away my blinds for another few orbits until the two guys I carpooled with went broke and we called it a night.


Despite the fact that my results were less than stellar I still had a blast. I forgot how much fun a poker game can be. And its a good thing because in a few weeks my regular "monthly" game will be getting together for the fourth time this year. That's right in 11 months we will have had four events. And since I'm guessing we aren't going to get anything going for December, that's a pretty poor average.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Poker Stars Blogger Tournament Recap

The third Poker Stars Blogger Tournament was this Sunday, and I'd have to say this was the best one yet. That may have something to do with the fancy prize I won, but maybe not.

In previous years, anyone could register for the tournament weeks or months in advance. So thousands of people would register and then not show up. I think the majority of the field in the first two events were no-shows. There were only two other active players at my starting table in the first year. Of coarse last time I was unable to play so I was one of those no-shows.

This year, you could still sign up weeks in advance, but all that got you was a tournament ticket. They opened up actual registration for the tournament a few hours beforehand which more or less eliminated the no-shows. In all 1337 people entered, which is more than I was expecting, but not too many. We also started with $T10,000 chips instead of the usual $T1500. Which was kind of cool, although the blinds started higher so I don't know how much of a difference it makes. Maybe they do that for all their big tourney's, who knows. It did enable me to have over a million chips at one point which was kind of cool.

So as I mentioned yesterday I took some notes, but they're bad, and I don't remember what most of them mean since I only expected to be playing for two to three hours, not seven. Besides I really don't think you want seven hours worth of hand by hand analysis, so I'll give you the paragraph or two per hour summary which I'm sure will still be pretty long

Start $T10,000 1337 Players

I remember very little about the first hour because the Bears were still on and I was busy yelling at them, then cheering them, then yelling at them again. Is it time for baseball season to start yet? Oh. Crap.

I had pocket Kings on the second hand of the tourney and won the blinds. I think I only briefly dipped below the 10,000 starting point once after that. There weren't any terribly exciting hands at this point and I just chipped up, taking down boring pots and picking my spots.

1st Break $T18,675. Average $14,044, 952 players left.

The second hour is where I one of my two real scares in the tourney. I took a bit of hit with my pocket Jacks when I had to fold to a big reraise on a king high all diamond flop. Neither of my cards were diamonds.

I then got all in pre-flop with a shortish stack, my AQ vs his AT. It went down almost exactly how I wanted. He was in the big blind and I bet just enough so that he had to fold or go all-in and I had a feeling he would push with a pretty wide range of cards. All was going to plan until he hit a ten and knocked my down to about $T8000.

As I mentioned before I didn't stay under the starting tally for long. I pushed with A6s over a bunch of limpers. One guy called, but with garbage, and I went from 8K to 20K just like that.

A few hands latter and I more than double up again up to 45K with wired sevens and a six high flop.

I start getting a little to adventurous then and lose a few pots I tried to steal finishing out the hour around 32K

2nd Break $35,626 Average $T32,216 415 Players left

I started getting a lot of pocket pairs in this hour. I knocked out two shorter stacks with medium/small pairs and then got all in with pocket nines against a larger stack. Which got me up to $T94,000

I lost a portion of that defending my blind with K3 when I flopped a king and called his flop raise, but couldn't call his bet on the turn.

The field is starting to thin out now and I'm on the Leaderboard. Woo-Hoo.

3rd Break $T74,462 Average $71,117 68th of 188 players remaining

Kings are good to me as I get all-in pre flop against big slick and jump up to $T166,174

And then the worst hand that I can ever remember being a part of happened. I had pocket queens, and made the standard preflop raise. Another guy reraised. I had him covered, and thought he would might be trying to steal from me, or prevent me from stealing, so I pushed all-in. He calls and turns over QQ.

After the hand someone types "wow" and my opponent keeps typing "lol" variations. Like they haven't seen two people with the same hand before. Then I notice that he has over 200K, and I'm around 58K. WTF? I look back at the hand history and see he hit a flush. I guess I should be paying more attention, but the flop was two suited, (I could have sworn three suited) and I remember breathing a sigh of relief that there wouldn't be a flush after the flop had come.

Lets just say I was a bit stunned. I was especially annoyed because I was playing pretty well, and was getting close to the prizes only to get all but knocked out on something as improbable as that was frustrating.

But before I could tilt too hard, a couple of big slicks in a row and an AQ get me up to $T115,00

Then I get AK vs AQ, flop a queen and double up to $T222,364

A few hands later I have pocket tens and the flop comes A T X. He has an ace and must not have believed me because he kept calling. Before I know it I'm up over $T290K


4th Break $T275,664 avg $T146,923 9th out of 91 remaining players

The prizes start at 81st place. Three cheers for duffel bags.

I take the chip lead for the first time with T7s in the big blind. The button min raised pre-flop, so I called, hoping to get lucky. I missed the flop, but took a shot anyway, and he calls. The turn brings a fourth card to my flush, so I check call his smallish bet. The river gives me the flush and I'm up to over 400K. He made a comment about how he played that badly and let me get there. And he was right. But it was an expensive lesson to learn.

And we've made to the first level of prizes.

I've had a pretty large chip stack, but no really been able to play big stack poker like I hope to in these situations. If it folds to me in decent position I'll raise with almost any two cards, but most pots are raised before it gets to me, and while reraising to steal could certainly be very profitable, one wrong step moves me from a comfortable chip stack to fighting for position in the middle of the pack, or worse. So I'm more or less conservitive in my play.

After I make that complaint to myself I finally get to bully some people with my stack and play good old fashioned big-stack poker.

Or not. I went up to $T475 and then they started fighting back and now I'm down to 389K. The guy that keeps pushing all-in after my pre-flop raises eventually finishes fourth. He really frustrated me at this point.

My continuation bets are getting a lot of respect, which is even better than them all folding preflop. Instead of giving me their blinds and antes they throw in an extra $30K or so.

5th break T$625,264. Average $T290,652 4th out of 46 remaining.

The Blinds are now $T7500/$T15000 with a $T1500 ante. There's 34K in the pot before the hands are even dealt.

iPod prizes start at 45 players so I get to take advantage of the bubble for a bit as no one wants to be the last person stuck with a PokerStars Duffel bag after five hours of play. Although I'm sure they're nice.

Woot. iPod. I'm sitting at $T690K and there are 45 people left. If I survive another nine eliminations the iPod nano gets upgraded to an 80G iPod. Barring a horrific meltdown that should be no problem.

Its an all-in fest as we quickly get down to hand for hand at 38 players and the next prize jump

And now we have to wait for nine more eliminations to enter the 160G iPod prize package tier.

Well over 300 hands in and I get pccket aces for the first time. Someone ahead of me pushes with jacks and I knock him out getting up to over 800K for a little while

There are railbird.com-ers everywhere. My current table has at least two and maybe as many as four. Never heard of the site before, but they are certainly well represented.

I start chipping up now and climb to over $T1,000,000 in chips as we get down to 27 players and enter the 160Gipod prize category.

I took a big hit trying to push a guy with pocket twos off his hand and failing. I'm down to 775K but still in 5th.

And now I'm card dead. All I can do is sit and watch as thousands of chips worth of blinds and antes are taken from me.

I finally try to take a stand and defend my big blind, but my semi bluffs on the flop and turn get called and then he hits his card on the river knocking me down to 535K

6th Break $T535,230 Average $T703,684. 12th of 19 players remaining

Things are still going badly as I can't get a card worth playing to save my life, but we're down to 18 people and into the xBox prize package. Its now a crazy all-in fest as the prizes seem to dip a bit after this level. 11-18 get xBoxs, 10 gets a ton of poker books, 9 gets poker chips, 8 gets a camera, 4-7 get various other tournament entries, 3 gets a 24" monitor, camera and camcorder, 2 gets a 50" plasma and 1 gets a $12,000 prize package to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament which is a European Poker Tournament event.

I wanted the xBox or one of the top two prizes. I have more iPods than I need so I was glad to pass that category. I don't need more poker books, or chips or a poker table. The tournament entries would be cool and I plan on playing some of the big expensive tournaments one day, but I just spent 6 hours playing poker, I want something quantifiable now.

I wasn't the only one with that thought as people started pushing with anything. I was the short stack so it was push or nothing for me, but I'm kind of surprised that people with more chips didn't try harder to make a run at winning the thing.

I pushed with a few low connectors, or suited cards and won enough blinds and antes to get back to a more respectable chip total. We were down to 12 now so I had to be careful. The absolute last prize I wanted was the poker books.

And then I busted. There was a raise ahead of me, and I pushed with wired tens. He calls and turns over KQ ?!?. We both had a little over $T800,000. He had 8,000 more chips than me, so about two hands worth of antes. And he hit a queen on the turn. Getting me the last xBox prize by a matter of seconds as before I could look up the tenth place guy had also busted.

I'm kind of pissed. I wasn't trying to bust anymore, I was trying to win, and had I won that had I would have been in pretty good shape. And now that I think about it, I don't want an xBox. If it came with the HD-DVD attachment I'd love it, but I'm not much of a console gamer so its probably going to be a $400 dust collector. Oh well. I had been winning coin flips all night so its only fair that I lose one. I guess. Still, I could have really gone for that vacation package.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Poker Stars Blogger Tourney Success

Just busted out of the PokerStars blogger tournament. I did pretty well finishing in 11th place which earns me an XBox elite package. Woot. Lucky thing because if I had only lasted another minute I would have busted in 10th and won the entire poker stars book library, which I really have no use for. I've already read many of those books and haven't been able to finish the last few books I've read. Of coarse had I won that last hand I would have nearly busted the guy I was all-in with and would almost certainly have made the final table, and been in great shape to make a run at winning.

Oh well. I took some notes, although I didn't expect to be playing so long so they aren't very good. I'll try to do a write up tonight, but it will probably have to wait until tomorrow.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Rapid Tournament Exits

Sometimes its amazing how quickly your fortune can change in a tournament. I was playing the 50-50 on FullTilt tonight and doing ok, when all of the sudden I blink and I'm out. There wasn't any gradual decline, or "I'm going to have to make a move soon" orbit or two, just one second I was playing and the next I'm writing a blog post.

Things started out well for me. We started with $T2000 chips and after a round or two of blinds I was close to 4K. I was expecting better play out of a higher buy in tourney, but I can't say that I noticed any.

Unfortunetely 4K was about my high water mark. I hovered there for a good hour and a half, winning some small pots, losing a few small pots, but never really getting involved in a big hand. We were down to about 350 of the original 970 when my chipstack was first in danger of going below the starting point of 2K, but my opponent folded to my bluff, and I was still in business.

By this point I was in the lower third of the field but still not feeling any real pressure. I had TJo in the BB. The uber big stack who had just been moved to the table made a medium/small sized raise, and was called by two players, but one of them couldn't even cover the blinds so I don't know that he counts.

The flop was Jack high so I lead out. Uber stack pushes all in and the other guy folds. It feels like a big stack trying to bully me, but I'm not willing to risk my tournament life on it so I fold. He turns over QQ and I breathe I sigh of relief as I nearly called. I then start cursing at my computer as a third jack comes on the river,but what can you do? I think I made the right call. The next hand I have A7 and I'm now in pretty bad shape. There's a standard raise ahead of me and I try to steal it by pushing all-in. He has AK and you know how this ends.

So there it was. Two hands and I go from somewhat short stacked but comfortable to out.

Which once again makes me question whether these tournaments are worth it. You almost have to make the final table to justify the time expense versus just playing a normal SNG. In the time it took me to win nothing in this tournament I could have played 2 SNGs, and if I had lasted as long as I did in this tournament I'd be ahead monetarily. The real difference maker is if you actually do make a final table or manage to win one. Do that and you are practically freerolling all your tournaments for the rest of the year.

So I don't play a lot of MTT, largely because I don't have the time, but partially because its way too frustrating to play well for hours with nothing to show. I'll probably still take shots at big tourney's on occasion, but I'm fairly certain that being a SNG specialist is how I'll operate for quite a while.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

PokerStars Blogger Tournament

It's that time of year again. PokerStars' Blogger tournament is scheduled for October 14th. They are offering over $40,000 worth of prizes this time around. If you have a blog, sign up. It doesn't have to be a poker blog. Any blog will do. Plus its free and most of the people registered don't show up or don't know what they are doing.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 9190101

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Thanks Fulltilt

A big thanks goes out to FullTilt for getting me back into poker. Their clever little bonus trick worked, and I managed to earn a full $20 out of the $100 they offered before time expired.

More importantly, I did pretty well in the tournaments that I played in order to claim the bonus. I played 22 SNGs during the past two weeks, a mix of $20 and $30 buy ins, with one $10 just to get my feet wet.

I finished in the money eight times which is about 36%. All things being equal, that is about what you expect. Three places pay in a nine person tourney so an ITM percentage of around 33% is average. The key here though is that I had no third place finishes. I had five wins and three seconds and over the coarse of the 22 tourneys finished up $222. Not too bad.

That's obviously a small sample size so you shouldn't read too much into it, but I'm very happy with where I'm at, and how I played in the past few weeks. To be honest, I expected to be pretty rusty and more or less break even. It was more about getting back into the game than any serious expectations at significant profit, but I surprised myself and actually played really well.

I think I was doing a much better job of reading the situation and playing aggressively than I have in the past. Normally if I miss a flop and my opponent bets I give him credit for top pair at a minimum, but lately, I've been doing a much better job of betting those hands before they act, to make them prove they've hit something, and analyzing the situation to determine how likely it is that they have what they are representing or if they are trying to steal a pot.

Of all the tourneys in which I didn't money, I was only upset with my play in two of them. I was playing them both simultaneously and at the time I really wasn't in the mood to play, I just felt like I needed to in order to keep pace with my bonus. My disinterest cost me two buy ins as I played horribly and exited quite early on.

My bonus period has now expired so I no longer have that pushing me to play, but I think I've rekindled the desire to play, and I have a slightly larger bankroll with which to work, so hopefully I'll keep going. We'll see.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Back in the Game

Even though I've often though about playing online again I still just haven't been quite motivated enough to actually try it. Full Tilt figured out a way to bring me back though, at least for a little bit.

I finally submitted the required information for the ability to request cashouts via check, and cashed out most of my remaining balance. They must have feared that I'd be leaving for good because little more than a week later they dropped a $100 bonus in my account, redeemable in $10 increments at the rate of $.06/FPP. I usually play the $20 SNG's which earn 14 FPPs per tourney, so that means I need to play in about 120 SNGs in the next two weeks to earn the full bonus.

I'm only expecting to get $10, maybe $20 of that bonus, but that's not the point. The point is I actually played some online poker this weekend.

People have been predicting that the games would get tougher since its more difficult to get money into sites these days. They reason that the good players will keep their or increase their bankroll while the fish blow through theirs and don't/can't reload. I have say that is not the case, at least at the stakes I play. There are still plenty of crappy players around.

People are just as obnoxious as ever. It used to be that you would get some asshole criticizing everyone's play and berating the donkeys when they win a hand about once a day. I think I had one at every table I played at. And they get started right away. First hand they lose they call the winning player a fish and predict his early exit from the tourney. Those two then verbally (textually?) spar until one or both is eliminated.

The best one was this guy who complained about everyone's play at the table. I then took a significant portion of his stack with AJ when he check called through the river with A3 and an ace and four other overcards on the board. The following hand was eerily similar except I didn't pair my ace on the flop. He be $T60 into a $1T000 on the turn than went on a four hand rant about how fulltilt sucks when I called it and rivered an ace to beat him. He didn't technically give me a free card but he might as well have.

Finally he's down to about $T300 and loses a pot because he doesn't have enough chips to push people out. And he