WSOP and Live Poker!

Probably many of you poker bloggers out there have already heard, but a former poker blogger won a WSOP event a few weeks back, Brandon Schaefer. We used to play basketball together growing up, and we still hang out once or twice a year--he's got a very interesting life story, and if you do a quick search you can see that right now he's back in flight school for the Air Force--and the WSOP shoot out event he played was the only tournament, WSOP or otherwise, he will play all year long. Nice work! I got bit by the poker bug, and I decided to make this entire week a big long party for my 30th birthday tomorrow, so I headed up to Tulalip casino yesterday for some poker. They have a $40 buy in tournament with rebuys for the first 40 minutes. I played NL cash for an hour before the tournament started and sat down UTG and opted to play the hand instead of waiting for the blinds to pass... good decision--I found AA and raised it up. Got re-popped by a non-believer and doubled up. Unfortunately this would be just about the only hand I won at the cash table or at the tournament for the rest of the night. I was playing weak/loose, which isn't optimal, but didn't come close to hitting any of the draws that I was priced in to see!

WPBT 2011 Winter Trip Report

In lieu of not actually being in Vegas this weekend with the rest of the poker blogging community, I decided to make a game-day decision and hit the 11am poker tourney at Tulalip on my way up to the parents' cabin to chop some wood.

I've been waiting a long time for a hot streak at a casino, mostly due to me never playing at casinos anymore... but it seems like every time I go, I'm always the one with the hard decisions and mediocre hands. The first few hours of today's tourney I got my hot streak--man do those feel good! It wasn't all luck, but that rare combination of good play, good cards, AND a little bit of luck. I wouldn't say I was a card rack, but I did get KK,QQ,TT, AKx2 and AQx2 in the first two hours and won every hand, most seeing at least a flop (so not just picking up the blinds). I knocked out five or six people before I busted, which is a record for me in a live tournament, and the most I've knocked out in any tournament in probably five years.

This morning, when the tournament started, I think I did a good job of assessing who I was up against, where the soft spots at the table were, and who to look out for. At some point in the second orbit, a lady in her 50s or 60s and a guy in his late 20s or early 30s were in a hand. The board had run out all hearts, and the guy had position and had been betting each street. It gets to the river and the lady looks like she doesn't like the river card, but leads out for the first time, which surprised me a bit, and the guy pops it 3x her bet. She re-raises all-in. Warning bells?

At this point I am fairly certain that she has hit her inside straight-flush draw on the river, and that he has the Ace of hearts. He deliberates for a minute or two before calling and being shown the 4h for the rivered straight flush. He slams his ace on the table.

He was aware of the warning bells, but not able to lay it down--not sure I would have either. Probably not. But with that read, and seeing the hands, I decided my poker sense (spider sense) was keen enough to start opening up my game and trusting my reads.

I ran over the table. It was amazing. I started growing my stack by applying as much pressure as I could to the weaker players, which worked perfectly. It gave me a chip advantage over the other good players, which had them steering clear of me. Every race I got into except one in the first two hours I was ahead, and I was pretty certain I was ahead going into the race (also, I was the one raising 80% of the time). The only time I gave someone a bad beat was AJ v. AK aipf, but by that time my stack was at 25k and his was at about 3k, and he had been the BB coming over the top of my initial raise, so I wasn't folding.

We started with 5k, I was at 30k after an hour of play and 50k during our second break, which would be my high point. Just before going to break, the dealer said, "well, you're a shoe-in for the final table." Mother fucker. Jinxed me good.

I get back from break and we're down to 3 10-person tables from 90 starters. I get in a blind vs. blind battle with the fairly amateur poker player to my right. I'm BB and he raises 3x, I call with A9c. Flop comes AAT, he checks, I bet about 1/3 pot, he calls. Diamond flush fills on the turn and he winces, checks his cards, and jams on me. It is about 11k more, which is about the size of the pot before his bet, and I call. He shows the flush and I don't fill up on the river, which cuts my stack in half to 25k. In hindsight, my biggest and really only mistake of the tournament. Both of the hands I've described have been the "oh shoot, that pesky card!" and then the person jamming. Actions speak louder than words!

Lost two more flips, one where I had 88 vs. AK and A6 aipf, would have knocked them both out and been up to 50k again, if not for the Ace on the river. And then my bust out hand a few hands after we consolidate down to the final two tables is 99 v. AK, Ace in the door and no more help.

Felt like I played really well except for the one hand, although I did get into a lot of flip situations and got lucky early, unlucky late. Wondering how optimal my play was... I know you need to race in the quick blind tournies, but not sure how much racing is necessary. Time will tell!

Headed up to the cabin afterwards, got the chainsaw going and continued adding to the wood pile for the rest of winter. Hoping to get as much wood sawed from fallen trees and chopped to dry before the rain really hits. This week was unusually dry, which made today a great day to get up to the cabin. Looking forward to more poker and wood chopping days in the near future!

Live Poker #2: The Fish Gets Hooked

*exhale*

Been a while since I've written twice in a month, and I see a trend of more writing if this poker itch continues, so I may as well start linking again. Before I even link my own last post, I have to thank Dr. Pauly for blogging the 2011 WSOP. I appreciate the level of writing and the candidness of his writing more than any poker information he funnels to us, and I think Pauly inspires me not only to play the fun and challenging game of poker, but also to write--something I have a very hard time getting inspired to do.

Here's a link to my last post, and the first live poker recap I've had in quite a while. In short, it details my guppy-like play at $1/$3 NL, but getting lucky and getting to cash out at least a portion of what I put down to play with.

Tonight I followed the same routine of two weeks ago with a Friday evening motorcycle trek the 30 or so miles up to the casino. I enjoyed the ride, albeit an hour later than two weeks ago, and about 10 degrees cooler. This time I parked right out front in the valet parking, which is free and open to any motorcycles. I decided to play $4/$8 limit tonight instead of $1/$3 NL, but I did put my name on both lists and would have played NL if that table opened first. Luckily (?) for me, the $4/$8 spot opened first and I spent the next three hours on my only $100 buy-in.

Because I bled off all of my chips from the moment I sat down two weeks ago, I sat down tonight determined to plug the leak and play tight, solid poker. I did not put a single extra chip into the pot in the first four orbits. A little over the top on the tightness, one might say, but really I had shit. I didn't see a pair, two face cards, suited connectors, one-gappers, not even two-gappers! I folded K-8o on the button, but I thought about pulling the trigger.

The fact that none of my hands would have won anything made me feel alright about all the folding. I fall for loosening up when all of my crappy cards would be winning me mountains of blue chips if I would have played them... and then I start playing crappy cards and lose my lunch money.

I'll preface the first hand I was involved in with the fact that it is probably the single best live hand of poker I've ever played in my entire life. A footnote is that I've probably played less than 100 hours of live poker (but hey hey! I hit a royal flush once!).

First hand that I volunteered any of my precious chips... you might think a pair? A big pair? Nope. 6-4 of spades, and I limped in UTG. I think my decision to limp in a bad position was partly not having a single "playable" hand all session, and also the table seemed to be pretty easy in terms of players getting to see cheap flops. Of course the first time I limp I get a re-raiser in late position. A few people had limped in behind me before the raise, and I think 5 of us saw the flop:

Flop: Jc 7s 3h ($38 in pot)

I'm a little hazy on the specifics, but I think the SB folded preflop, which put me second to act behind the BB. Let's say for math's sake five of us saw the flop, this puts 5*$8 plus the SB's $2 in the pot, so $42 minus the rake which is $2 or $3. I think I'll just assume $4 in rake for the pot because it gets pretty big. So let's say we're at $38.

We check it around to the Smoking Hot Asian (SHA) original raiser in late position. She bets $4, I think the button and the BB call, as do I and one person folds. I've got a pretty loose draw here, but I figure $4 into a $54 pot doesn't make my call too terrible (still not great, but I'm a fish!).

Turn: 2s

Board: Jc 7s 3h 2s ($54)

I've got 64ss, so now I'm pretty committed to any bets with my flush and inside straight draw. BB checks to me and I check without thinking too much into betting because I'm honestly not very sure how I would play a re-raise. I'd have to call, but I'm not sure I'd like my position. Original raiser bets and gets the button to fold, but the BB and I call.

River: 6c

Board: Jc 7s 3h 2s 6c ($78)

I see the 6c on the river and I'm a bit dejected, but then I notice the BB wakes up and bets out at the pot. This surprised me but I didn't let it show. In the time I spent folding the first four orbits I had picked up a few tells on the older greasy Italian gentleman to my right, and he had the typical strong is weak / weak is strong attitude. His wife twenty years his younger was draped over his right shoulder, on the opposite side of him from me, and I was about 95% sure he was bluffing at the pot to try and impress her.

Now the gears start turning in my head. The 6c on the river is not the card I was looking for, but I think I might just have the Italian guy beat. I'm pretty sure the SHA across from us has both of us beat, so I decide to RAISE!!! I make it $16 and she thinks about it for a second, smiles and lays her hand down. The guy to my right insta-calls and tables... ATo. Upon the insta-call I resigned to losing the hand, but showing my sneaky play. I saw the ATo and pumped my fist while being pushed the $110 pot.

This hand was the confidence booster I needed after getting reamed two weeks ago. Even if I had lost it, I think I would have been pretty happy with my play, at least my raise on the river. Rethinking this hand now, I see plenty of holes in my play that opened much wider later in the session (gushing out all my chips), but I also think the river play is something that 'rounders' make routinely, and I count as the best play of my life (and I'm telling the truth). I'm looking forward to incorporating plays like this one more in the future. Pretty much just having a read, sticking with it and having the balls to pull the trigger--something Jordan has been preaching for the last six years or so.

A few orbits after my marvelous play *pats self on back again*, I look down at two red aces in the BB. Old guy with a Yuma, Arizona trucker hat in early position raises it up. One caller behind, and then a late position 3-better. I four bet and hope it doesn't completely give away my aces. Four of us see the flop.

Flop: 3c 8s 8d (~$62 with rake out)

I bet, everyone calls.

Turn: 5h

Board: 3c 8s 8d 5h ($78)

I bet, Yuma guy is the only caller.

River: Kh

Board: 3c 8s 8d 5h Kh ($94)

I am deathly afraid of the King on the river, and as the card is being flipped I say to myself "No King, No Queen!!!" I rationalize that there's an equally likely chance of him having Kings, Queens or Jacks--so I bet out the river... and get raised. I begrudgingly call, knowing I'm beat but not good enough to fold in that huge of a pot. I anticipate kings, but he flips over quad 8s and rakes the $124 pot. Ouch! Beat from the flop on.

The greasy Italian guy to my right congratulates the old guy and is still needling me from betting my pair of river sixes against him. "You should stick to your pair of sixes, those aces aren't better than your pair of sixes, ha ha!" This would have caused a witty reply from me a few years ago, "Now the old guy has got your chips" or perhaps a "go fuck yourself!" Here's another thing I've learned from my time spent reading Jordan's blog: don't tip the glass. I knew I could clean out the greasy guy to my right if I let him continue to play his macho game, so I just waited out his rant--and it felt great knowing this. Unfortunately, someone else took his money before I could.

I make one more good play against the old guy from Yuma later in the session, but my play opens up and I blow my last $60 in chips chasing draws much like my play from two weeks previous. One thing I really want to correct is that when I got down to $40 I just looked for a spot to get all my money in, which is pretty much just pissing away that $40. Next time I vow to just get up and cash out my few remaining chips. The least I can do is put it into a fireworks fund for the 4th of July and blow off money in a more loud and destructive way.

It felt great to make a good play and get rewarded with a positive (albeit very short-term) result, but the fact that I left losing all the money I put on the table, and the suspicion that "the best play of my life" is a move most poker players use fifteen times a night... I can't help but rub the inside of my cheek, checking for a barb.

Live Poker Post

Blogging is about #20 on my priority list right now, which is unfortunate because I like to look back at my archives from time to time, and I see plenty of month gaps where I have one or maybe not even any posts. I can deduce that those were busy times, but it is hard to remember exactly what I was doing five+ years ago. I started blogging back in 2003, and somewhere or another I have a nice archive, but anyways...

Live poker!!!

The poker bug bit me last week, what with the WSOP starting up and Pauly bringing us all the dirt, it just feels right to play some poker. The combination of an upper respiratory cold and horribad traffic to the south led me to skip out on my ultimate frisbee game Friday night and motorcycle north to Tulailip Casino.

I had jitters motorcycling north on I-5, some jitters due to not riding the motorcycle much over the last six months, and other jitters from not playing live poker since visiting the new Snoqualmie Casino with Dr. Chako a year or two ago. I got my ass handed to me that trip at $4/8 limit. That whooping, combined with a desire to play no limit, had me make up my mind that no limit holdem would be the game tonight. No matter that I had only played no limit live once before, and have a terrible loss rate at no limit online ring games.

I put my name down for the $1/$3 NL list and a spot opened up about 10 minutes later. I got to catch some of the Mariners game against Tampa Bay, which Justin Vargas ended up pitching a 4-hit shutout (M's are only a few games back, who would have thunk it?). I had more jitters as I sat down with $100 at a table where the buyin ranged from $50-200. I think sitting down with less than the max is pretty fishy, but having 33.3 big blinds seemed enough for me to get some poker playing in (not just shoving), and I felt more comfortable with $100 on the table than $200. I know I could lose that $100 on the first hand, and I planned to play for a few hours, so I told myself to play tight and the most I can lose is $4 an orbit (weeeeak).

On the first hand, I folded K8 of spades preflop, which would have won me a $300+ pot with multiple people betting and raising (two pair and a set, when my K8 of spades would have turned the nut flush). I loosened way up, although I knew the preflop fold wasn't terrible.

I was thoroughly outplayed all night long, and I played the role of fish to perfection. I rarely raised, and I chased a lot of draws. Some hit, which drew big sighs of dissatisfaction from the sharks at the table. One guy lost a few hands on the river to me, but he abused my blinds like no tomorrow, so he got back whatever he lost to me and some on top.

I lost my first buy-in re-raising the shark to my left who UTG raised to $11, as he had done a few times previous. I pushed with about $45 left, and he hesitated and called with AJo, he had about $500 behind. I had Q5o and he turned a J, which had me reload for another $100. The push with Q5o didn't do much to sway the group from thinking I was a fish (and I'm not arguing otherwise!).

Like I mentioned earlier, I had a few nice rivers. The nicest river came when I was down to my last $25 into my first (and only) rebuy. I had a weird hand like 97s, but saw a free flop in the Big Blind. I call a small flop bet with some two-card straight possibilities and a backdoor flush (see what I mean about chasing??). Turn brings one of the straight cards, giving me an OESD, but no more flush possibility. One dude bets out $20, other dude calls, and I have ~$30 so I push and they both call. My OESD ends up hitting and I take down the pot to jump back up to ~$125.

A few hands later I see T5dd on the button and call the Cut-off's (Hijack? one to my right) min-raise to $6. A blind and an early limper call as well. Flop brings me a flushdraw and pairs my T, and I call a $10 or $15 flop bet from the CO. Turn misses and I call another $15. River pairs my 5 for two-pair and I call a $25 bet from the CO. He shows AA and I rake a pretty substantial pot. Not sure why I didn't raise the river, but that's just me playing fishy.

It was odd to be fully aware of how fishy I was playing, but not changing anything about my play. I know when I lost my first buy-in I had a crazy image (pushing with Q5o, chasing all my draws, and also folding a lot to aggression when my draws didn't come in), and told myself to stop calling and start raising when I wanted to play, but I just kept calling and folding. I was extremely lucky to cash out with $152 of my $200, given my shitty play. Also, the $5 chicken alfredo needed more chicken.

Night Cap

Played the Daily Dollar this evening after a rainy morning of ultimate and a sunny afternoon BBQ.

I saw Aposec72 at one of my tables, his QQ got busted by TT AIPF, then he got 2-outted again to bust from the tourney a few hours in. My player note on him going into the tourney was "folds a lot and then gets bad-beat with good hands." Spot on!

I saw SmBoatDrinks at a later table, and that name is super familiar, but I can't remember if he is a blogger or where I know that name from. Anyone?

(edit: after a quick search I found his blog and linked it)

Ended up running fairly deep in the tourney to end a very nice Memorial Day Weekend. Golf, ultimate, friends, drinks, poker, and a new lady friend?! TBC...

I only play at Full Tilt!

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I still play online poker, but only freerolls and micro events. BBT is too rich for my blood, unless it is a $4k freeroll!!!

Live Poker

I have no idea when the last time I played casino poker was. It might have been with Dr. Ferrari at Snoqualmie Casino back in August last year. In fact, after a bit of searching, it was!

Matt wasn't the only Seattle blogger to spend time in a local casino this week, but I ventured up to Tulalip instead of Snoqualmie this time. My trip back in August was probably the worst luck/skill I've ever experienced playing casino poker. I would run 2nd nuts into nuts and flop nut flush draws in huge pots never to hit. I burnt through my buy-in in 45 minutes and quit. I think I won the blinds once with QQ and that was the only hand I won that session.

I've been hankering for some live poker for a while now, and decided that Saturday was the day to play because I had plans later in the evening, but nothing to do during the day. Tulalip is the closest casino to where I'm at now, and I've had pretty good experiences there in the past, so I checked out their website to see what tournaments and other goodies the casino offers. Turns out the bad beat jackpot for Hold'em cash tables is the biggest in state history at $250,000. In the past, I've seen it in the $10k-$20k range. Holy shit! Both cards have to play, and quads have to be beaten to win the big jackpot.

I arrived at the casino and put my name on the 4/8 limit list at noon, and we started a new table about an hour later. The table was abuzz with talk of the huge jackpot, and it definitely affected the table play. Any pocket pair and any suited connector I was playing, and I'm sure everyone else was, too. This led to me bleeding plenty of chips for the first hour. I hovered around my starting stack for the second hour, then bled some more chips at the beginning of my third hour. My stack dwindled from $200 to about $75 or so, before I went on a ridiculous heater.

A new dealer moved to our table at the 3.5 hour mark of my session. I was dealt two pocket pairs on my first two hands. I saw flops with both, the turn with one, but folded... only to hit on the river both times. I was dealt J8o a few hands later and folded preflop, which would have quaded up. I kept a fairly good poker face and didn't let anyone else know I missed out on $100-$200 in the past few hands, but I decided to start playing any two cards the dealer dealt me, and I won literally every hand but two for the rest of that dealer's down. I flopped three sets and got paid off every time. I turned and rivered straights and flushes like they were going out of style. I finished up for the session and took off.

The experience was awkward for me. I've obviously been at tables where individuals go on heaters and it just seems ridiculous. Theoretically and probability speaking, one hand does not affect the next, and I felt silly calling and betting with hands I normally wouldn't, just because my previous hands had been winners that I missed out on. It shouldn't happen that way, but my hot streak just kept on rolling, and I was finally the person at the table people were rolling their eyes at and I was nearly tilting the table over with my mound of chips.

The jackpot didn't hit. And over my four hours there were only maybe three boards where the bad beat jackpot was a possibility (where quads over quads were possible, or quads and straight flushes/royals).

JJ Hand Revealed

One hand from the tourney stands out, and it happened with about 125 people left.

Blinds are 10k/20k, with an ante of... let's say 1k. I've got 375,000, and one of the chip leaders is at our table with around 700,000.

I find JJ UTG+1 and raise it 70,000 or 3.5BB.

Folds to big stack, who calls in MP.

Folds around to the BB who pushes for 170,000 total.

I clicked for more time...

What do you do here? What hand ranges do you put MP and the BB on?

---

Dr. Chako: I push in over the top and hope the big stack folds. Great odds.

Shrike: Peanut butter and JAAAAM!

Waffles: I think the SB is stealing the dead money. Perfect spot to jam.

Schaubs: Golf is fun.

---

I'm glad you guys took time to comment, or else this wouldn't be nearly as fun to say: you're all wrong! ah HAHAHA! Well, maybe not wrong, but you wouldn't have liked the results.

When the big stack flat-called my raise I was okay with that, thinking maybe he is just trying to push me off my hand since we both have big stacks. When the SB pushes over the top I am pretty sure I have the SB beat with the range of hands he can have, I mean, he can have AA-QQ here, but there are a lot of other marginal hands we can put him on because of the money already in the pot and him getting low on chips.

So, I think I have the SB beat, but now I click for more time and revisit the MP flat-call... and it starts to scare me. I try to put him on a hand, and that scares me even more. Why is he flat-calling me in middle position? AA or KK immediately pop into my head. The only two hands that really make sense for him to have, because I hadn't seen a flat call from MP in the last two hours of the tournament... he wants someone else to call or push over the top.

I am pretty sure MP has aces or kings, but I still wonder if I can fold in this spot. I let the time bank get down, and eventually, reluctantly fold. MP snap-calls with aces. SB has AKo. The aces hold up.

As the hand finished, I was extremely happy with my play. I was almost giddy that I called the guy's hand and was able to fold the best hand I'd seen in an hour. Looking back at the hand and analyzing it, I am still pretty happy with my play, especially realizing there is a difference between flat-calling from MP and flat-calling from late position. I do think my fold is on the weakish side, and a push really isn't a terrible play here on my part. I guess the thing I am most proud of is deducing a read out of the betting, and sticking to that read.

To finish off this hand, I wonder what percentage of the time MP has an inferior hand and folds to my push. What do you think? More than 50% of the time he folds, or less? And if he folds greater than 50% of the time, does that make pushing the right play? If he folds less than 50% of the time, does that make folding the right play? Is there a right play?!?!

Golf and Poker (hand analysis at end)

I'm on both golf and poker kicks as of late. I've got a tee time Saturday at one of the nicest public golf courses in Seattle with a few friends from college who I've never played with, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not very good at golf, but much like poker, I have some ability, just no consistency or willpower to stick with it and become "good".

Today I didn't take any substitute assignments and spent the middle of the day out on a golf course by my house. The forecast called for 50 degrees and a 50% chance of rain, but I ended up having sun and what felt like 60 degrees from hole 5 on to the end. I was solo, with nobody in front of me, so I decided to try something a little different and play a solo "best ball" style round. I played today for practice, not for a score, so if I felt like I could hit a better shot I'd drop another ball and give it a whack. In some instances this meant hitting four tee shots, but with no one else around it was all gravy. Today's round really was exactly what I was looking for, with lots of practice and even hitting the dreaded driver a few times!

My sexy score (pre-mulligans) was 8 over for the entire round, and a cool one-under on the backside. I started off really slow, and think I should be able to shoot around par on the front side, too, if I hit close to my best shot each time. I parred a few of the par 3's without taking any mulligans, but only birdied one hole WITH mulligans, which seems a bit sad. The birdie hole was the second hardest hole on the course, a dog leg left with a creek about 150 yards out at the dog leg. I hit a straight drive (amazing for me!) which curled a tad left and cleared the creek, leaving me about 120 yards to the pin. I landed a 9-iron about 10ft from the pin and sunk my longest putt of the day for bird!

I tried to count mulligans, but I'm not sure how exactly to count them fairly. Fair and mulligans don't really go together, do they? If I hit a second ball and use the second ball, I count a mulligan stroke. If I hit a second ball, but use the first ball, I did not count a mulligan. If I hit a second and third and fourth ball, and use the fourth ball, I only count one mulligan stroke. By this system, it seems like each mulligan stroke should really count for more than one stroke to adjust accurately, especially when I hit the first two balls into the water and take the third shot, and only count it as one mulligan stroke (which would normally have me shooting 5 or 6 instead of... 2). But when I putt, if I have a six-foot putt and miss it, but make the same putt on my second try, it makes sense to count that mulligan as just one extra shot (because even I can make the remaining 1-foot putt from my original shot).

I had 26 mulligans, which balloons my score up to a much more recognizable score around 100. And that is each mulligan at one stroke, if I push each mulligan up to 1.5 strokes, I didn't have as good a round as I thought! The round did feel good today, and just the confidence of making shots was great for me today, even if it took me three or four attempts.

---

On the poker front, I played in a $1 tournament last night on Full Tilt and six hours later I finished in 64th out of 8,656, good for $11. It is a lot of fun having hundreds of thousands of chips to play with, especially when you start with 3,000! I hit a 9-hi straight flush within the first orbit of the night, got paid, then knocked the same guy out a few orbits later with AA. Now that I think about it, I don't think I gave any bad beats (outside of knocking out shorties) all night, and only took a few myself, which is odd for a $1 tournament.

One hand from the tourney stands out, and it happened with about 125 people left.

Blinds are 10k/20k, with an ante of... let's say 1k. I've got 375,000, and one of the chip leaders is at our table with around 700,000.

I find JJ UTG+1 and raise it 70,000 or 3.5BB.

Folds to big stack, who calls in MP.

Folds around to the BB who pushes for 170,000 total.

I clicked for more time...

What do you do here? What hand ranges do you put MP and the BB on? Outcome tomorrow!

Rush Poker Round Two

I haven't had a strictly poker post up here in months, and with all the BBT5 hub-bub going around, I've had a jonesing for some card slinging. I found out this afternoon some micro-er Rush tables have been put into play on Full Tilt, and the absence of smaller buy-in Rush tables was a big reason I stopped playing Rush Poker when it began in January/February earlier this year (the stakes were too high for my crippled bankroll). Now the microest of NL Rush tables have nice and comforting 0.02/0.05 blinds.

I sat down with the max buy-in, which comprised 40% of my bankroll and 100BB. Welcome back, bankroll management!!!... I played 102 hands, which probably took 20-30 minutes, and ran my $5 up to $12.14 with pretty decent play and also above average starting hands. I got JJ four times in those 102 hands, only losing once to AJ aipf for $2. I made a hero call with JJ later in the session for all my chips on a Q8754 no flush board. I started the hand with $7 and the villain had me covered, and put me all in for my remaining $3.50 on the river. I called his pot-sized bet on the turn, not believing he had a queen. I'm not sure why I didn't believe him, I guess a pot-sized bet on a non-scary board doesn't make sense now that I think about it. He pushes on the river and my decision to call was based on my turn read, not thinking he has a Q, and trying to stick to my read. If he has a six for a rivered straight, I'm screwed. I felt 75-80% right about calling, so I did and was shown air.

I sat out after the 102 hands obviously happy with my result and promptly started a new poker spreadsheet. Ah... life in the black. I jotted down some notes about my play, such as stealing based on stack size, and re-stealing on position and stack size. I figure the players with larger stacks are likely to be more aggressive than players with smaller stacks, and when it gets folded around to a big stack in late position, they raise about 75% of the time, which makes them a good target to resteal from. I also realize my tiny bankroll won't be able to handle the inevitable swings of Rush Poker, not to mention playing with 40% of my bankroll on the table.

I hopped back in with the minimum $2 buy-in, which is still 40BB and plenty to play with, in my opinion. For the last five years I've always been a fan of buying in for the maximum to maximize my profit, but from a bankroll perspective I think the smaller buy-in should deflect some of the risk of going broke. I also reasoned that with my small stack, players might respect my raises more, if they are thinking along the same lines as me--that bigger stacks are the more aggressive ones. I played another 100 hands and caught some pretty good cards and doubled up with 66 flopping a set and rivering sixes over aces, with the villain having trip aces. Ended up another $3, which is almost the same as my 150% increase from the last buy in. During this second set of 100 hands I also started making a "player note" whenever anyone 3-bet my raise. This never ended up happening more than once this session, but it makes sense to see who is doing this just in case I tangle with them in the future--and to see if they consistently have big stacks, so I can emulate them!

Took a break, and then played one last round of 100 hands, and lost a buy-in. QQ < KK aipf, he opened, I re-raised, he pushed and I didn't like calling, but figured there are enough other hands he could have that make folding QQ there not smart, but I wasn't shocked to see KK or AA. Ended up getting QQ again after buying back in for $2, and getting it all in the middle against AK on a 234 flop and fading 10 outs twice. Ended up down $1 after this last set of 100 hands.

I've got a bankroll of 400BB now, which makes me feel a little more comfortable playing at the lowest stakes... sigh... but we'll see what happens. I remember having a good first night at Rush Poker last time around, then dying a horrible death in the week that followed. I'm going to try and keep the buy-ins small for now, and if the bankroll increases, I'll stay at this blind level, and just increase my buy-in. So far I've been happy that me getting felted was only a $2 loss instead of a $5 loss, but I'm not scaredy cat enough to be blind to the fact that my QQ > AK hand would have made me more money (but ultimately they cancel each other out no matter what buy-in I start with).

I'll be interested to see what other tidbits of knowledge I come across playing Rush Poker, and I'm intrigued to whether or not other people pay much attention to stack sizes, and what information big, medium, and small stack sizes give other players. Are you more or less likely to call a raise from a big stack? Are you more or less likely to steal from a small stack in the blinds?

I ain't no Mooner

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! Bloggers can register for to play for free in the WBCOOP, if you don’t have a PokerStars account you can get your Poker Download here.

Registration code: 805279

I will gladly whore myself out for mobnies. I chose the big patch to up my chances in the main event, especially with all the side action from the SBCII.

In the Works

A month ago, right around Veteran's Day, I realized a few things. First, as a substitute teacher, I didn't have to work on Veteran's Day. Second, I wasn't going to get paid for Veteran's Day. Third, I wasn't going to be able to work or get paid for Thanksgiving Break, the two weeks at Xmas Break, the week of Spring Break, or 2.5 months next summer... oh crap.

I am loving the free time of being a substitute teacher, but I'm also realizing that I need to start spending it more wisely--aka, using at least some of my free time towards finding a full time job next year. In addition to working towards a full-time gig for next year, I realize although I've had fun the last few months, I really don't have much to show for it. I met up for drinks with an old high school friend a couple of weeks back and when she asked what I've been up to, I couldn't come up with much outside of teaching and going to the gym (keeping my secret identity as a lvl 80 Blood Elf Priest a secret). I have a few projects in the works, which should hopefully keep me busy during winter break and on into 2010.

1) Photo a week

I joined up with Betty Underground a year or two ago for her photo project. Each week she would give the group a category and everyone in the group would take photos of what they thought fit into the given category. At the time, it was exactly what I needed. Now, I feel like I don't need a category to focus on, I just need to bring my camera out with me more often and get one shot I am happy about each week. I have been neglecting my camera the past few months, and when I go back through the archives, the posts with pictures really stand out and help me remember the times better.

Today it was cold--no snow, just 15 degrees this morning, which seemingly hasn't happened in Seattle in a decade or two. (I'd suggest clicking through for the real picture)



2) Poker

I'm thinking about starting up round two of the Summer Bankroll Challenge: Southern Hemisphere edition. Stay tuned for details. It looks like Dr. Chako and Waffle's favorite blogger, Blaargh, are both in.

I'll admit to being pretty lame and missing the WPBT this year. I have the money and the time necessary, but it would be tight and I would not feel comfortable losing any money at the poker tables, which leads to playing scared blah blah blah...

Playing more poker has caught my interest for a few reasons. One is to get better, specifically at NLHE ring games. I've always sucked at ring games, and I want to change that. A future goal is to supplement my substitute teaching income, but this goal is a ways in the future--have to be profitable first.

For the first time ever, I'm starting to keep track of my stats and number of hands played. I'm going to start out trying to get in 100 hands a night. This took about 40 minutes last night two-tabling 6-handed games.

3) Writing

The writing project may or may not get off the ground. There was some interest, and I still have some interest in writing the story, but I am more interested in the other projects at the moment.

4) Sports and Working Out

I love me some sports. I blame my athletic mother. I am still chugging along on my Pushup Challenge from last Thanksgiving, with 19779 push ups, 21232 sit ups, and 13981 frog squats completed. I definitely haven't stayed at 100 of each a day, but I do what I can. I've supplemented the push up challenge with visits to the gym as often as possible. My new kick is swimming laps, which is an incredibly difficult workout, doubles as a shower, and is a great change of pace from any other workout routine.

Side Betting the side game at the WORLD SERIES OF POKER FINAL TABLE HEADS UP!!!

Hit, hit, hit, hit!

Dr. Chako face-booked that he was up to no good at the low-limit tables tonight, while following the heads up live-blogging of presumably Pauly. Matt chimed in and joined the waiting list at Chako's table, and I also followed suit. After a good 10 minutes of railing, we both got in the HORSE-esque game. There was No Limit involved, so I'm not sure what acronym does this mixed game justice.

We did the game justice though. From the first orbit we had a side-bet prop on showing down winning hands with 3's in them. I kind of forgot about the mixed game nature of this table, so when O/8 and razz came along, we kind of had to make up the betting on the fly, which Matt mastered.

We started the betting with just showing down a 3 for a win. Then we progressed to making sure the 3 played in the winning hand. Then the split pot games is where Matt's brilliance shown brightest:

$1 for winning the high hand and a 3 playing, $2 for scooping with the 3 involved in both high and low hands.

I'm pretty sure Dr. Chako was the only pooper-scooper to win a 2-pointer.

The side-bet increased the action considerably, because we kept trying to prevent each other from having other's 3's play, or psyching each other out by getting our monsters called down on the chance of a bluff.

Penner (link could be wrong, I'm getting rusty in my internet sleuthing) joined us about 30 minutes in, and quickly joined in on the side-bet action. He was my cooler, and as soon as I had a blogger to my left, I was toast.

And now, the thing everyone loves to hate...

The Results:

Dr. Chako--BIG WINNER!!! die.
Matt--owes Dr. Chako $1
Penner--owes Dr. Chako $1, owes Matt $2
MHG--owes Dr. Chako $4, owes Matt $1

On Full Tilt, the minimum transfer is $5, so if that is how you transfer money, just send what you owe plus $5, and the recipient can ship back $5.

Drchako1
mclarich
penner42
meanhappyguy

TAKE IT DOWN DARVIN MOON, GO SAINTS!!!ONE1!!!

Going for the Record!

I took the day off from subbing today, which I had kind of planned on doing anyways after two grueling days of work (don't pity me, please). Ends up that I started feeling ill last night, and would have had to take the day off anyways.

I started playing the two Early Double tournies on Full Tilt. There are bonuses associated with cashing, final tabling, and winning both tournaments. There is also a nice bonus for having the highest average finish between the two tournies out of all the runners. Three hours in, I've cashed in both tournies and there are about 100 people left in each.

The real record I am going for is "Number of times a single tea bag has been used." I am currently on my 7th cup of tea with the same tea bag. If I can get to 10, I'll go ahead and call that the World Record, unless proven otherwise. To go along with the tea bag record, I've visited the restroom five times today, which might be close to the day record for males without digestive problems.

I owe my record-making skills to my father, who is the current World Record holder for the "Longest lasting bottle of shampoo, due to adding water." We had one bottle of shampoo last for about six months, and by the end the mixture was 98% water. My dad is cheaper than a nest of newborn chicks. Go for the gold!

Update: out in 84th in B (lost a flip), still going strong in A.

All Hail Blaargh!

The man (?) is a genius, folks. Not only in comedy circles around the globe, not only on the poker felt, but he is even a genius when he's dropping a deuce.

The comedy prop-bet in the inaugural Summer Bankroll Challenge was a close race between both Blaargh! and Dr. Chako. Both had multiple posts that made me laugh, but in the end I had to vote Blaargh! the winner. Dr. Chako and I share the same sense of humor and the stuff he wrote had me rolling, but Blaargh!'s sense of humor is out of left-field, the stuff that makes you go, "what the... where did he come up with that??" He kind of reminds me of this goat I know...

Ba-doop

This week was a lot of fun. Wednesday was a fun and productive day. I started out with a round of golf at Wayne, which has a great Monday/Wednesday morning deal of $14 for 18 holes. The backside is short, with four par-4's and five par 3's, which is one part of the cheap green fee.

I don't really consider this golfing prep for the Winter Gathering, but the more I hear about it, the more I want to make the trip down to Vegas. A spot at CK's place might seal the deal! We can toss the disc, it'll be grand. I think I was +17 over 14 holes, because I skipped a few holes on the backside to breeze past a clog of golfers. Averaging slightly over bogey for a round of golf is a great round for me, probably my best.

After golf, I visited five middle schools near where I'll be moving at the end of this week. I dropped off a substitute page with my picture and contact info, and a resume, and talked with a vice principal at one of the schools in regards to coaching opportunities. I was well-received at all of the schools, and I hope they'll call me up for subbing once the school year gets underway.

Wednesday night I threw a little shin-dig which involved six boxes of pizza and ended with me and three bikini-clad women in the hot tub trying to catch glimpses of the meteor shower through the clouds (we didn't have much luck). Good times.

Thursday was spent with Dr. Chako. First, we hiked Rattlesnake Ledge and had some good views, although a bit cloudy:



(Mt. Si, with the peak covered in clouds)

After our hike we hit Snoqualmie Casino and played some poker. I got reamed playing 4/8 and won one pot in an hour of 7-handed play, and I only won the blinds. Not only did I only win one hand, I had a lot of second-best hands, or best hands until the river, and then second-best hands. It was frustrating, and I am glad I set a stop-loss at $100 before I tilted the rest off.

I took a breather from poker and wandered the casino for a bit. The Snoqualmie Casino has a really nice setup, and as Dr. C pointed out, I think it is the first casino I've been in that has windows you can look out! The view is great north through the Snoqualmie Valley. I did a lap of the casino to see what games they spread, and I was looking for a Pai Gow table to waste some time at and hopefully not lose much money, and let Dr. C play more than just an hour of poker. I found a $3 blackjack table and played for about 20 minutes and only lost one hand. The dealer must have bust six times while I was there, and the whole table was loving it. I got out while I was ahead, and watched Dr. C go nuts on his last orbit at 3/5 no limit to just about double his stack.

We left the casino to get back to Seattle in time to play softball, but it started POURING when we reached Seattle, and we changed plans to racquetball instead. He whooped me in the first game, then I won the second game when he served to my forehand every point, then he won the third and fourth games handily. It is always fun playing with Dr. C, because I always learn a lot, and usually play up to him and get better--and then go whoop up on my friends the next week :)

This weekend was ECC/Spawnfest, a large ultimate frisbee tournament with some of the best teams in the world. One set of fields hosts teams from all across the world--Japan, Colombia and Australia were all teams I saw. At my set of fields were more local teams from Victoria to Portland. We went 3-1 on day 1, putting us in the bottom of the A pool. We lost our first game today to the #1 seed, and then lost our second game and headed back to Seattle.

Six-card Royal Flush!

I found Dr. Chako at the tables tonight, and decided to join him for some limit O/8 action. I wasn't very positive about my chances of winning, but then this hand happened. Not only did I flop a K-hi straight flush, but it turned into a Royal on the turn, and the guy to Chako's right bet. The river paired the board which filled up Dr. Chako. I was really hoping for the 8h on the river for the 7-card royal, but Dr. C had it... not a friend!

WSOP Coverage elicits a walk down memory lane

While reading through the blog roll today, F-Train revealed that ESPN would be airing it's first episode of the 2009 WSOP tonight. I made a pact to stay inside today until the sun goes down, because it is 95 degrees out and we don't have AC, so I'm holed up in the basement watching the 2009 coverage right now.

There are a few really interesting aspects of the $40k final table for me. First, I know the results, but it is still interesting to see how it goes down, or how ESPN wants to show it going down. The commercial breaks are freaking ridiculous, and eventually I had to bring my laptop into the room, because I couldn't stand watching the same four commercials after every... single... hand.

I like watching Greg Raymer play. He reminds me that there is much more to the game than just playing poker. There is a gentlemanly aspect to the game that a lot of people ignore, but I think Greg places importance on both being a good poker player and a good person. I would like to emulate that. Playing live at Tulalip yesterday, it became very apparent to me that being nice to other people at the table would benefit me better than being cold towards others. A lot of the older players at the table were there for enjoyment primarily, and to make money second. By being friendly, I keep them happy, and I probably make more money off them in the long term because of this.

Justin Bonomo brings back memories, because I stayed in a house with him during the 2007 WSOP. Also in that house was the first event winner of 2007, Steve Billrakis. My friend, Brandon Schaefer, was also in the house and playing plenty of events that year. It felt awfully strange to show up to the rental mansion on my ninja and see the dining room table full of computers, and know that these guys must be at least a little weary of me showing up... an unknown in the house of millionaires. While I was staying with them, Justin Bonomo had a large chip lead going into a final table, and ended up crashing and burning to finish 7th or so.

As I type this, Justin just got knocked out, at the hand of Isaac Haxton. Isaac Haxton elicits another few memories. The first is that at the mansion in Vegas during the summer of 2007, these poker geniuses I was staying with were watching a taping of the... 2007 PCA where Haxton was heads up. Here's one of the hands I remember them watching on TV:



The guys in the room were having a great conversation about the hand as it occurred, and most of the guys went nuts at the end of the hand.

Another interesting thing about Haxton is that he is the nerdy cock-sure type of gamer that I despise. He knows he is good, and to me it seems like cockiness, not confidence. Internally, I'm not sure how different he and Greg Raymer are, but to me the difference between Greg's confidence and Isaac's cockiness is very apparent. He reminds me of a lot of the Magic the Gathering players I have met over the years, and it is kind of funny that the WSOP coverage says that he and Justin both still play Magic.

Having just read a murder-mystery book, he also seems like the socially awkward guy capable of being a serial killer like the one in the book I just finished last night. In an ESPN interview with Justin and Isaac, Isaac admits that he is socially stunted, in contrast to Justin. I'm not sure if Isaac doesn't value social interaction, has never been good at it, or what his deal is. I don't think having a social life is the best trait in the world, but there is something about being socially awkward, knowing it, and not really caring... it is kind of spooky.

Let it Ride till I Die!

With a free Monday, I decided to take off on my motorcycle and soak up some summer. I ventured north to Anacortes and Mount Erie. I took the ferry to Whidbey Island from Mukilteo, which was a quick 20-minute ride, without having to wait in line thanks to my two wheels. Fifty miles of island motorcycling later (the best kind of motorcycling?), I reached Anacortes. I wasn't supposed to reach Anacortes, I was supposed to stay on Rosario Rd., but I took a wrong turn and wound up in Anacortes.

Anacortes smells so good. It smells like fish, which makes me want clam chowder, but I didn't eat clam chowder because I had half of a day-old Subway sandwich in my backpack that I had forgotten about until midnight last night, then put it in the freezer after being in my backpack in the 90 degree heat for six hours... but that's another story. The sandwich was freaking good. Maybe it was just me being happy at finally finding the route to Mount Erie, and eating the sandwich with company of ants and these minuscule critters that kept biting me and dying by my finger tip.

The view at Mount Erie is ridiculous.



An old guy up there with his woman said he made the trek in February and they could see Mount Rainier from the view point. Mount Rainier is 100 miles away.



Add to the view, the too-many-to-count rock climbing routes, you've got one kick-ass location. I ate lunch on the summit, in the shade of some friendly trees. I read some from my library book that is due back next Tuesday, then I got out my climbing shoes and decided to test my might at a few of the little bouldering problems around, and one of the easier longer climbs, which had two of the little rope prongs at the top, which I ignored. The climbs were pretty easy, but with no rope and nobody to hear you scream, the adrenaline still flows.

After climbing, I tried half-assedly to take a dip in either Lake Campbell or Lake Erie (of WA), but I was running late, for a very important date! A date with lady luck, at Tulalip Casino. I road the back roads to the casino, at least until I hit I-5 at exit 218 and had to freeway the rest of the way. I road on Reservation Road, which intersected with Indian Road, and I could picture a Native American crying. I did my best to stop the tears by paying the ridiculous rake and bad beat jackpot at Tulalip.



Warning, poker content!

I had the shittiest stretch of cards for my first hour of play the the 4/8 limit game. The table was full of limpers, and I couldn't even limp with my 63o and Q2o. I almost played Q3 suited UTG because it was suited, but refrained. I was down about $45 from folding, folding, and more folding for an hour, until I finally won a pot as the big blind and checking down the flop, turn and river to win with 4th pair. I tipped the dealer.

During my stretch of shitty cards, there was this guy in his fifties who was drunk at the table and in a trucker's hat. All the staff knew him, and his name, Doug, was on his striped trucker/bowling shirt. He was a pretty funny guy, and said Mondays were his lucky day. When I first sat down, he had just won the high hand jackpot from the previous hour with AAAAT for $300. He was jubilant. He also brought up an interesting idea of letting the high hand jackpot ride, and having a shot at $600 the next hour. Him and the dealer discussed this at length, and they agreed that there needed to be some maximum hand, say quad 3's (why they didn't pick quad 2's, I'll never know). So if you hit quad 3's or higher, you can't let your high hand jackpot ride--and if you get beat in the second hour and let it ride, you forfeit your original $300. Also. ALSO! According to Doug, there needs to be a low hand jackpot, where the person who won a hand with the crappiest hand each hour needed to win $10 or something. This Doug is on to something! If casinos had low hand jackpots, people would play crap cards and call down with crap cards, trying to hit the jackpot. The only problem I see is having too much rake/jackpot money taken out of the normal pots. For every $10 in the pot, $2 is taken out right now, one to the jack pot and one rake dollar for the casino. But back to me winning money.

I won another pot with AQ on an Ace-high board, and the villain missed his 8 kicker, but called me down the whole way after a re-raise on the flop.

I won a pot with Q8 from my BB after limped to me and catching top pair with my 8. Same villain called me down and mucked.

I won my fourth and last hand of the day with AT under the gun. I limped (as was accustomed at the table) and got re-raised by an older gentleman in his 80s, to my immediate left. The guy to his immediate left called two bets cold, and I called from UTG.

Flop brought an Ace and I checked. The older gentleman bet, and the dude to his left called. I hesitated, and could not really figure out what I could beat, but called anyways. We checked it down the rest of the way, which made me feel a lot better about my AT, and it held, making me wonder how much value I lost not betting it, but on the flop I wasn't sure why I was calling, and my chips were all racked up and ready to go. If either of them fires the turn I probably fold.

I was card dead for an hour, lost almost $50, then won almost $100 back, showing down each of the four hands and never having a hand as good as TPTK. It was a weird session.

After 90 minutes at Tulalip, I moto down to Kamiak for a pickup soccer game, and the traffic is non-existant. Completely opposite of last week, trying to get out of Seattle and up to Kamiak at rush hour. There is something to be said about going for a moto ride and coming in from out of town during rush hour, as opposed to leaving town at rush hour in the afternoon. The soccer game was fun, I scored a goal! It was hot, 90 degrees is no degrees to be playing soccer in.

Now I am home, in the basement, drank my GnT and ate my Dove Bar. Sleep soon.

Short-handed Limit Hold'em Hand

I sat down at an empty $1/$2 limit hold em table while eating lunch today, played ten hands of heads up, then another ten hands 3-way, and this was the first hand of 4-way play. Both UTG and SB were playing LAG-y, which seems optimal for short-handed limit play.

I'm on the button. UTG raises, I re-raise, SB calls, BB (new to table) folds, UTG calls.

Flop comes 6d 6s 4d. $10 in the pot to begin with, SB leads out, UTG calls, I raise, SB three-bets, UTG folds, I call.

Turn is A of spades. $17 in pot. SB bets, I call.

River is K of clubs. $21 in pot. SB bets, I call.

Initial question for you (more to follow in comment section once hands are revealed):

1) Who was holding what? (SB and me)