Exceptional Cheapo Tourney

I didn't win this tourney after making one stupid mistake as chip leader at the final table, but for a very cheap tourney, it was not nearly as fishy as many an on-line game you'll find. It's worth looking at a few hands.

Hand 3

*********** # 3 **************
Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2005/12/18
- 16:59:17 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (1480 in chips)
Seat 2: Irvingmac (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (3050 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1780 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (1460 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1240 in chips)
oldman69: posts small blind 10
Mercutio69: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ks Jc]
chuck2221233: calls 20
FrankNagaiJr: calls 20
MON3R TAK3R: raises 60 to 80
chuck2221233: calls 60
FrankNagaiJr: calls 60
FNJ - Pot odds. I'm not in love with KJos, but pot odds.
*** FLOP *** [Js 9h 5h]
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 100
MON3R TAK3R: folds
chuck2221233: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Js 9h 5h] [2d]
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 120
chuck2221233: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [Js 9h 5h 2d] [Jd]
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 200
chuck2221233: folds
FNJ - Imagine - a pot-size or less bet that is not called, just 3 hands into the tourney. Wouldn't you have expected Chuck to go all-in with nothing at this point?
FrankNagaiJr collected 710 from pot

Hand 4

*********** # 4 **************
Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2005/12/18
- 17:00:22 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (1890 in chips)
Seat 2: Irvingmac (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (2970 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1770 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (1440 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (940 in chips)
Mercutio69: posts small blind 10
JMAGZ27: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Qh Jh]
MRATC: calls 20
chuck2221233: calls 20
FrankNagaiJr: calls 20
Mercutio69: calls 10
JMAGZ27: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kh 3d Qc]
Mercutio69: checks
JMAGZ27: checks
MRATC: checks
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 60
Mercutio69: calls 60
JMAGZ27: folds
MRATC: folds
chuck2221233: folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 3d Qc] [5s]
Mercutio69: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 60
Mercutio69: raises 80 to 140
FrankNagaiJr: calls 80
*** RIVER *** [Kh 3d Qc 5s] [Qs]
Mercutio69: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 180
Mercutio69: folds
FNJ - Another pot collected with normal pot-sized or less bets? Are we really on-line here?
FrankNagaiJr collected 500 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

Hand 8

Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) -
2005/12/18 - 17:04:46 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2070 in chips)
Seat 2: Irvingmac (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (2970 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1770 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (1060 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (1650 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1440 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1050 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr: posts small blind 15
Irvingmac: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [8c Qh]

MRATC: calls 30
FrankNagaiJr: calls 15
Irvingmac: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd 6c 8d]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 60
Irvingmac: folds
MRATC: calls 60
*** TURN *** [Kd 6c 8d] [6h]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 90
MRATC: calls 90
*** RIVER *** [Kd 6c 8d 6h] [Kc]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
MRATC: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [8c Qh] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
MRATC: mucks hand
FrankNagaiJr collected 390 from pot

FNJ - No last minute steal attemp on a bludted diamond draw? Is this really an on-line game?

Hand 12

Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) -
2005/12/18 - 17:08:21 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2280 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (1320 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1620 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (1300 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (4700 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1260 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1020 in chips)
JMAGZ27: posts small blind 15
MRATC: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [9d Ts]
chuck2221233: calls 30
FrankNagaiJr: calls 30
Mercutio69: calls 30
JMAGZ27: calls 15
MRATC: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kc 8s 7h]
JMAGZ27: checks
MRATC: checks
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 90
Mercutio69: folds
JMAGZ27: folds
MRATC: folds
chuck2221233: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 150 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand
FNJ - Five people see the flop, and nobody wants to see the turn for a less than pot-sized bet?

Hand 15 - Yet another hand that doesn't see the river, and nobody bets wildly

Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) -
2005/12/18 - 17:10:52 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2370 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (1020 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1530 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (1705 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (4670 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1215 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (990 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr: posts small blind 15
MON3R TAK3R: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [6h 5c]
oldman69: folds
Mercutio69: folds
JMAGZ27: folds
MRATC: folds
chuck2221233: calls 30
FrankNagaiJr: calls 15
MON3R TAK3R: checks
*** FLOP *** [6d 5d 7s]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 60
MON3R TAK3R: calls 60
chuck2221233: calls 60
*** TURN *** [6d 5d 7s] [As]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 150
MON3R TAK3R: folds
chuck2221233: calls 150
*** RIVER *** [6d 5d 7s As] [Td]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 150
chuck2221233: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 570 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

Hand 24, I've spared showing you 7 hands in between where nobody bets wildly pre or post flop, and many hands don't see the river. Look at the hand below, and is it possible that nobody at this table limps Ax os?

*********** # 24 **************
PokerStars Game #3369743020: Tournament #16699798, Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) -
2005/12/18 - 17:19:08 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2070 in chips)
Seat 2: budman171666 (3920 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (950 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1435 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (3365 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (3180 in chips)
Seat 7: BENZRULES (715 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1565 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1065 in chips)
budman171666: posts small blind 25
MON3R TAK3R: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [5c 5s]
Mercutio69: calls 50
chuck2221233: calls 50
FrankNagaiJr: calls 50
budman171666: calls 25
MON3R TAK3R: checks
*** FLOP *** [8d Td Ac]
budman171666: checks
MON3R TAK3R: checks
Mercutio69: checks
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: checks
*** TURN *** [8d Td Ac] [5h]
budman171666: checks
MON3R TAK3R: checks
Mercutio69: checks
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 50
budman171666: folds
MON3R TAK3R: calls 50
Mercutio69: calls 50
chuck2221233: folds
*** RIVER *** [8d Td Ac 5h] [Ts]
MON3R TAK3R: checks
Mercutio69: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 100
MON3R TAK3R: folds
Mercutio69: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 400 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

Hand 28 - By this point, I'm missing the maniacs who would have given me an all-in re-raise when I bet my two pair on the flop .... So much respect at this table!
Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) -
2005/12/18 - 17:23:04 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2570 in chips)
Seat 2: budman171666 (3820 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (800 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1285 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (3265 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (3030 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1515 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1980 in chips)
JMAGZ27: posts small blind 25
MRATC: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Kd Td]
chuck2221233: calls 50
FrankNagaiJr: calls 50
budman171666: calls 50
MON3R TAK3R: calls 50
MRATC: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ts Ks 7h]
MRATC: checks
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 150
budman171666: folds
MON3R TAK3R: folds
MRATC: folds
chuck2221233: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 275 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand


Hand 29 - This is only the second all-in for this table, after 29 hands!
Level III (25/50) -
2005/12/18 - 17:23:55 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2795 in chips)
Seat 2: budman171666 (3770 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (750 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1285 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (3265 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (3005 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (1465 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (1930 in chips)
MRATC: posts small blind 25
chuck2221233: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [4d 4c]
FrankNagaiJr: calls 50
budman171666: calls 50
MON3R TAK3R: raises 50 to 100
oldman69: calls 100
chuck2221233: calls 50
FrankNagaiJr: calls 50
budman171666: calls 50
*** FLOP *** [Td 2h Ts]
chuck2221233: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 200
oldman69: calls 200
chuck2221233: folds
*** TURN *** [Td 2h Ts] [5d]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
oldman69: bets 985 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: folds
oldman69 collected 925 from pot
oldman69: doesn't show hand
FrankNagaiJr said, "nice bet"

Hand 42 - Look how somebody plays pocket aces in response to a raise at this table? They don't go all-in at once, but just a gentle bump.

Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) -
2005/12/18 - 17:33:57 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (2345 in chips)
Seat 2: budman171666 (2530 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (1100 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1410 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (2165 in chips)
Seat 6: JMAGZ27 (2605 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (5180 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (930 in chips)
oldman69: posts small blind 50
Mercutio69: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ah Qd]
FrankNagaiJr: raises 200 to 300
MON3R TAK3R: raises 300 to 600
FrankNagaiJr: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [6h Tc 4s]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 500
MON3R TAK3R: calls 500 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr said, "nh"
*** TURN *** [6h Tc 4s] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [6h Tc 4s 8s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Ah Qd] (high card Ace)
MON3R TAK3R: shows [As Ac] (a pair of Aces)
MON3R TAK3R collected 2350 from pot

Hand 43 - This hand resembles on-line poker, doesn't it now?

Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) -
2005/12/18 - 17:34:51 (ET)
Table '16699798 1' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (1245 in chips)
Seat 2: budman171666 (2530 in chips)
Seat 3: MON3R TAK3R (2350 in chips)
Seat 4: oldman69 (1360 in chips)
Seat 5: Mercutio69 (2065 in chips)
Seat 8: MRATC (5180 in chips)
Seat 9: chuck2221233 (930 in chips)
Mercutio69: posts small blind 75
MRATC: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Th Tc]
chuck2221233: calls 150
FrankNagaiJr: raises 450 to 600
Mercutio69: raises 1465 to 2065 and is all-in
chuck2221233: calls 780 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 645 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [5c 4d Ts]
*** TURN *** [5c 4d Ts] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [5c 4d Ts 3d] [6c]
FrankNagaiJr said, "gg chuck"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mercutio69: shows [As Kh] (high card Ace)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Th Tc] (three of a kind, Tens)
chuck2221233: shows [Qh Ac] (high card Ace)

Hand 47 - How often do you see a 3BB raise respected at a full table on-line ?

Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) -
2005/12/18 - 17:38:54 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Dewalt Man (2440 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (5755 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (3270 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2830 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (4045 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (3555 in chips)
Seat 9: Giertz (1270 in chips)
Giertz: posts small blind 75
Dewalt Man: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ac Ks]
BigBuckChuk: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 300 to 450
DKW_SR: folds
houch99: folds
ktmogadore: folds
Giertz: folds
Dewalt Man: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 375 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

Hand 57 - In the meantime, many others at the table are taking pots with no flop for 3-4 BB raises. Here's a pot steal....

Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 17:44:35 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (4710 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (2870 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2630 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (7010 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (3480 in chips)
Seat 9: Giertz (2465 in chips)
DKW_SR: posts small blind 100
houch99: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [5h As]
ktmogadore: folds
Giertz: folds
BigBuckChuk: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 400 to 600
DKW_SR: folds
houch99: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 500 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand
budman171666 is connected
JMAGZ27 is connected

Hand 59 - The big stack tells me I'm getting too frisky with this call....

Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 17:45:35 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (2545 in chips)
Seat 2: Vegas Callin (2045 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (4710 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (2970 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2530 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (6710 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (3780 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (7085 in chips)
Seat 9: Giertz (2465 in chips)
ktmogadore: posts small blind 100
JMAGZ27: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [8h Ah]
FrankNagaiJr: raises 400 to 600
JMAGZ27: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [3d 6d As]
JMAGZ27: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 800
JMAGZ27: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 1300 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

Hand 60 - I'm starting to think I've abused my right to steal pots, but I keep getting playable starters. If I hadn't been so active, I would have been more likely to respect the all-in raise below.

Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 17:46:31 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (2545 in chips)
Seat 2: Vegas Callin (2045 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (4710 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (3670 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2530 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (6710 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (3680 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (6485 in chips)
Seat 9: Giertz (2465 in chips)
JMAGZ27: posts small blind 100
Giertz: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Jd Qd]
FrankNagaiJr: raises 400 to 600
houch99: calls 600
Giertz: raises 1865 to 2465 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: raises 1205 to 3670 and is all-in
houch99: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s Jc 6c]
*** TURN *** [9s Jc 6c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [9s Jc 6c 4c] [7c]
FrankNagaiJr said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Giertz: shows [Ts Td] (a pair of Tens)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Jd Qd] (a pair of Jacks)

Hand 64 - Oh that dreaded free card!

Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 17:50:12 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (2445 in chips)
Seat 2: Vegas Callin (1745 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (4710 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (6635 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (3130 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (6110 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (3680 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (6385 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr: posts small blind 100
DKW_SR: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [As Ts]
houch99: calls 200
ktmogadore: folds
JMAGZ27: calls 200
FrankNagaiJr: calls 100
DKW_SR: checks
*** FLOP *** [4s 5s Qd]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 400
DKW_SR: folds
houch99: raises 400 to 800
JMAGZ27: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls 400
*** TURN *** [4s 5s Qd] [Qc]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
houch99: checks
*** RIVER *** [4s 5s Qd Qc] [6s]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 800
houch99: calls 800
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [As Ts] (a flush, Ace high)
houch99: mucks hand
FrankNagaiJr collected 4000 from pot

Hand 72 - Here's a pot-odds problem. Once I raised, I was committed to this call.
Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 17:59:18 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (2995 in chips)
Seat 2: Vegas Callin (1395 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (5060 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (9485 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2780 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (3660 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (6135 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr: posts small blind 100
DKW_SR: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [8s 8c]
JMAGZ27: calls 200
Vegas Callin: calls 200
FrankNagaiJr: raises 600 to 800
Vegas Callin: raises 570 to 1370 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 570
*** FLOP *** [Kh 9c 3c]
*** TURN *** [Kh 9c 3c] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 9c 3c Jc] [Kc]
FrankNagaiJr said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [8s 8c] (a flush, King high)
Vegas Callin: shows [5c 5h] (a flush, King high - lower cards)


Hand 75 - I buy yet another pot for 3BB.

Hand 77 - Good thing I didn't know what I was up against! I put him on a non-pocket pair based on prior betting patterns and the position stea., and assumed he didn't hit, although if he had bet the river, I might have considered folding.

Level VII (100/200) -
2005/12/18 - 18:02:07 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (1770 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (5385 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (11755 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2605 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (4485 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (5510 in chips)
BigBuckChuk: posts small blind 100
FrankNagaiJr: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Qc 6d]
BigBuckChuk: raises 400 to 600
FrankNagaiJr: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [6h 2h 4s]
BigBuckChuk: bets 600
FrankNagaiJr: raises 1000 to 1600
BigBuckChuk: calls 1000
*** TURN *** [6h 2h 4s] [3d]
BigBuckChuk: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 600
BigBuckChuk: calls 600
*** RIVER *** [6h 2h 4s 3d] [Jd]
BigBuckChuk: checks
FrankNagaiJr: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BigBuckChuk: shows [Qs Ac] (high card Ace)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Qc 6d] (a pair of Sixes)
FrankNagaiJr collected 5750 from pot

Hand 81 - I buy yet another pot for 3BB

Hand 88 - I get cocky and try to buy yet another pot. The disparity in our stack sizes is such that I have boxed myself into the call on the river regardless of what he has. This is why I gave a free card on the turn.

Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) -
2005/12/18 - 18:08:38 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: budman171666 (3245 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (2460 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (11830 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (3730 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (2910 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (7335 in chips)
budman171666: posts small blind 200
BigBuckChuk: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [9c Ks]
FrankNagaiJr: raises 800 to 1200
budman171666: calls 1000
*** FLOP *** [Ad Kc 5s]
budman171666: checks
FrankNagaiJr: bets 1200
budman171666: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [Ad Kc 5s] [4c]
budman171666: checks
FrankNagaiJr: checks
*** RIVER *** [Ad Kc 5s 4c] [2h]
budman171666: bets 820 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 820
*** SHOW DOWN ***
budman171666: shows [Jd Ts] (high card Ace)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [9c Ks] (a pair of Kings)

Hand 92 - I'm back to buying pots for 3BB

Hand 99 - This is where I squander everything against a player who I hadn't been exposed too. I totally misinterpreted the betting pattern, as annotated below. Note that this is the final table of 9 of 45 starting players, and I'm one of two chip leaders until the conclusion of this hand.


Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) -
2005/12/18 - 18:15:05 (ET)
Table '16699798 5' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: MRATC (4730 in chips)
Seat 2: fea619 (10775 in chips)
Seat 3: BigBuckChuk (6895 in chips)
Seat 4: FrankNagaiJr (15250 in chips)
Seat 5: DKW_SR (2580 in chips)
Seat 6: houch99 (875 in chips)
Seat 7: ktmogadore (5530 in chips)
Seat 8: JMAGZ27 (5060 in chips)
Seat 9: BRYAN J (15805 in chips)
MRATC: posts small blind 200
fea619: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Qs Kc]
BigBuckChuk: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 800 to 1200
FNJ - I've gotten so used to buying pots....
DKW_SR: raises 1355 to 2555 and is all-in
houch99: calls 850 and is all-in
ktmogadore: folds
JMAGZ27: folds
BRYAN J: folds
MRATC: folds
fea619: calls 2155
FNJ - Note that this player calls, rather than coming over the top, giving me the red carpet to see the flop for just a few more chips. I hadn't been at the table with this player, but I should already have been suspicious. To do this, you've either got to be a fool, or have a powerhouse of a hand. It was the 99th hand, so most of the fools had been eliminated.

FrankNagaiJr: calls 1355
*** FLOP *** [Js 3s As]
fea619: checks
FrankNagaiJr: checks
FNJ - Again, I misinterpreted the check as weakness. Maybe a lower pocket pair, I was thinking?

*** TURN *** [Js 3s As] [Kh]
fea619: bets 8195 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 8195

FNJ - I took about 20 seconds to make this decision, but still went the wrong way. This should have been an easy laydown on my part, but ....
*** RIVER *** [Js 3s As Kh] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fea619: shows [Ks Kd] (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Qs Kc] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
FrankNagaiJr said, "nh"
fea619 collected 16390 from side pot-2
DKW_SR: shows [4d 4c] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)
fea619 collected 5115 from side pot-1
houch99: shows [7d Qd] (a pair of Jacks)
fea619 collected 3825 from main pot
BigBuckChuk said, "vnh

Hand 110 - I hang on by my fingernails for 10 more hands to NOT be the bubble, but instead make a profit of one dollar. Whoo-hoo!

RM's Dec 17, 2005

The fete of the season! We had 77 players from the social club and otherwise, and it was fun to recognize so many faces from all the other games I've had a chance to see these folks at.

I dealt at the first table I played at, and only had one misdeal in 4 levels (80 minutes) of play with an upturned card, and I didn't expose a card before the betting was finished once, so I think my dealing skill is getting better. I also dealt myself quad kings for the high hand of the evening, so that's a pretty good feeling. That hand went a little like this:

P1: Raise to all-in
Me: (KK) Raise to all-in also, with 30% more chips than P1
folds to P3: who calls with a smaller stack also

Exposed all-in cards: ATos, KK, A8s

At this point, I really like having two aces in the battle, and cardplayer calls the odds as 16.9%, 68.1% and 15.0% respectively. The flop ends all discussion when it hits KKx, and I let out a blood-curdling whoop, second only to Jeezus' reactions to the Giants game on the big screen.

That was my first big pot of the evening (almost a triple-up), after playing super-tight for 3 rounds. I had bought one pot, and failed to buy another, and seen one flop for free from the big blind, where me and four limpers failed to catch a single pair with the board!

After that, I continued to play conservatively for many levels, occasionally buying a pot, often laying down decent holdings in tricky situations. When froggy went all-in UTG with half my stack, and I was second to act with KQos, I let it go, only to see him turn over QJos when the big blind called with Axs. My KQ would have beat the QJ with the board, although Ax did catch the flush, so if I hadn't chased out with an all-in re-raise, I was toast. I also let a lot of secondary holdings in early position go, including 98s, which is one of my faves when I have a big enough stack to take a chance with it.

At that table, I had one particularly nice suck out, where I raised with AKs, and got an all-in re-raise from a larger stack. I called, and found myself facing KK. The odds calculator puts me at 34.1%, and KK at 65.9%, so it wasn't a ridiculous suck-out when I caught the Ace.

I took out the host at the final table as BB when he went all-in with less than 2BB in his stack, and I called blind. When I flipped the cards, we were all surprised to see AKs under there, which beat his A8 when neither of us caught.

When we got to the final three, I was the short stack, with maybe 8M left, and I had a hand I couldn't get away from. I was the BB, and the button had raised into me. I caught 66, and after a moment's consideration, I decided not to come over the top, as he had 5 or six times my stack, and I figured if I hated the flop, I'd still have enough chips to pick another all-in hand in the next five or six deals and take my chances there. I told myself that if there was no paint on the flop, I would go all-in regardless of my opponents actions.

The flop came T, 8, 2 two-suited, and I checked without looking at the flop. My big stack opponent bet into it, and I went all-in at that point, which was a dicey call, but based on his earlier patters, I though Ax was a likely candidate for his initial raise, and that he might like to steal the pot if I was passive on the flop. He called immediately, and his ATos survived the turn and river to put me out.

Great evening of card play with a lot of worthy opponents!

Manassas Cash - Dec 13, 2005

Wanna talk a cold night of cash play? I sat with humans for 2.5 hours, won two microscopic hands with top pair and no showdown, limped into at least 20 pots without catching so much as a flush or straight draw to say nothing of a pair, and lost most of my buy -in with a busted draw, two pair losing to trips, and me folding on the river after some big betting when a straight on the board only required a queen that I didn't have.

The dealer came up from Tennessee as he had abruptly found himself out of work, and was sleeping on a couch in the shop where we played. Rather than p*ss away my last few chips, I left him a decent tip despite giving me some very cold cards all evening.

On-line roundup

Here's an interesting all-in bet that was called

Ks Qc
Flop
7s 9s 3s

This player called an all-in bet against my Ts Tc

I looked up the odds, and it's 50.3% in favor of the TT, between the flush and higher top pair possibilities. Take away the suited Ten, and the TT drops down to 48.2%.

I also have found my on-line nemesis, Yanik77, whom you may recall from my Thanksgiving day blog. True to form, he limped 94os, and caught the boat on the turn to take away all my chips when I had top two pair with my AJ.

Laying the hammer down - Dec 3, 2005

As a reward for playing the hammer, the poker gods gave me pocket aces just a few hands later. Of course, I collected more money from the hammer than from the aces.

PokerStars Game #3231106798: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/12/03 -Table 'Wotho' Seat #10 is the button
Seat 1: SLYVIPER ($101 in chips)
Seat 3: bluevelvet13 ($35.50 in chips)
Seat 4: TheDroop ($66.50 in chips)
Seat 5: oldpepper36 ($9 in chips)
Seat 7: candar ($14.25 in chips)
Seat 8: Butch17 ($31.50 in chips)
Seat 9: FrankNagaiJr ($32.25 in chips)
Seat 10: MIB2 ($6.25 in chips)
SLYVIPER: posts small blind $0.25
bluevelvet13: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [7d 2d]
TheDroop: calls $0.50
FrankNagaiJr: calls $0.50
SLYVIPER: calls $0.25
bluevelvet13: checks
*** FLOP *** [3d 7c 9d]
SLYVIPER: checks
bluevelvet13: checks
TheDroop: bets $0.50
FrankNagaiJr: calls $0.50
SLYVIPER: folds
bluevelvet13: folds
*** TURN *** [3d 7c 9d] [7s]
TheDroop: bets $1
FrankNagaiJr: calls $1
*** RIVER *** [3d 7c 9d 7s] [4c]
TheDroop: bets $1
FrankNagaiJr: raises $1 to $2
TheDroop: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected $6.75 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: shows [7d 2d] (three of a kind, Sevens)

Nov 30, 2005 - Donks Win

This player has stolen the late limps and blinds from SB three times prior to this hand, and had yet to show any impressive hole cards. In spite of the outcome, I felt that this blind defense was totally justified.

Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2005/11/30

Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: SANJO53 (1650 in chips)
Seat 3: rforman13 (5320 in chips)
Seat 4: BMWroadsta (800 in chips)
Seat 5: wagnes (1860 in chips)
Seat 6: FrankNagaiJr (1130 in chips)
Seat 8: MacDaddy12 (1180 in chips)
Seat 9: JAGJR67 (1560 in chips)

HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Jh Kd]

FNJ - Last night was a cold card night. I saw a handful of pocket pairs, and a few off-suite broadways, and otherwise only limpers and folders. KJos was starting to look pretty good....

FNJ - ALL fold around to the Small Blind, who had raised from SB the last two times when nobody entered the pot early.

wagnes: raises 100 to 150

FrankNagaiJr: raises 250 to 400

FNJ - Wagnes took a moment to think before the re-raise

wagnes: raises 550 to 950

FNJ - I took a moment to think before I re-raised to all-in. I wouldn't go all-in against a big re-raise against any player who had shown decent cards, but this player had been stealing too much, too often. I figured that even if I was the underdog, I was ready to make a stand.

FrankNagaiJr: raises 180 to 1130 and is all-in

FNJ - Despite this being a trivial call on Wagnes' part, this player still took a solid 30 seconds to decide to call. Apparently, couldn't stand the shame of exposing their steal play on 46os.

wagnes: calls 180

*** FLOP *** [Qh 9d 4d]
FNJ - D'oh! (I've still got ten outs)

*** TURN *** [Qh 9d 4d] [Qs]
FNJ - Now I've got thirteen outs.

*** RIVER *** [Qh 9d 4d Qs] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***wagnes: shows [4s 6d] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Jh Kd] (a pair of Queens)

You play chicken with a bluffy, and sometimes you'll get exactly what you want, a showdown where you are the favorite and chips are committed. Sometimes bluffy hits.

Nov 29, 2005

Played a bunch of on-line last night, and learned a few lessons the hard way.

#1 At a cheap thousand-plus player tourney, I was 90 minutes into the tourney and found myself at a table where one player was going all-in at least every third hand, either pre-flop or at the flop. I had watched this for 15 hands or so, waiting for something, and I catch 66 UTG. Rather than raise, I limp, hoping to trap the allinner into putting me into a coin flip.

There are four or five limpers before we get to allinner on the button, who does in fact go all-in. I put my stack on the line, expecting a coin flip or better, but instead I find pocket Aces.

Lesson: If this player lasted 90 minutes, probably not as nutty as they make themselves appear, but was making all-in plays based on position, and getting a feel for who was tight enough to fold at the table. When the allinner threw his chips against four limpers with the blinds yet to act, I might have had a clue that this player actually had something.

Result: Aces hold, for a change. I was #470, with players getting their money back starting at #460.

#2: At a 45 player tourney, I was at one of the two final tables, and I had just seen a player raise to all-in from the SB with J8os, and make a few other all-ins that nobody called. I was fairly new to that table at this point.

Same player makes a 3BB raise UTG into a table of 7, and I do a big blind defense of all-in, even though I could have simply surrendered my blind, as my holdings were pretty weak.

Player calls with AQs, and not only does he have higher cards, he's suited the same as me, so I no longer even have a flush draw.

Lesson: It's certainly safer to take a UTG raise seriously after the first few levels of an on-line tourney, no matter what sort of cards you've seen the player in question try to steal with in late position.

D'oh!

After failing to place in these two, I play a turbo sit'n'go to at least make a tiny profit for the evening. Making the final four was pretty easy, but it took me a while to get past one tight/tricky player, and two rocks. I laid down quite a few middle and bottom pairs when the rocks asserted they had better.

Turkey Day 2005

I did find time to eat Turkey and Duck with friends and family, but I also found time for some tourneys with full mental focus, which paid off well. I played three 45 player SNGs, and lost early in the first two to suck outs, and then played the third very well, so well that I was quickly the chip leader for the final table, and stayed the chip leader all the way to the finish, never seeing anybody even amass half of my stack.

Let's look at the day in detail, shall we.

First Tourney - I had been watching all hands carefully, seeing who was playing trash, who waited for cards, who made bluffs with nothing, who bet the bottom pair strongly, etc. I felt my play was totally justified in the hand below, but my opponent hit a three outer.

Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) -

Seat 1: carvenator (1020 in chips)
Seat 2: FrankNagaiJr (740 in chips)
Seat 3: dedmn1313 (1320 in chips)
Seat 4: zoseman (4450 in chips)
Seat 6: dracotat (1820 in chips)
Seat 7: cholt23 (1590 in chips)
Seat 8: basiswgt (1910 in chips)
Seat 9: bigbear5773 (650 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [As Qc]
dracotat: folds
cholt23: folds
basiswgt: calls 30
bigbear5773:
folds carvenator: raises 90 to 120
FNJ - I had seen this player raising on as weak as AT0s, JTs, and limping with all kinds of unplayable hands. In fact, this player had recently limped 26s from late position and hit the two pair on the flop for a very nice pot. I wanted to isolate, and double up if possible.
FrankNagaiJr: raises 620 to 740 and is all-in
dedmn1313: folds
zoseman: folds basiswgt: folds
carvenator: calls 620

FNJ - Now exposed - My AQ versus carvenator's AJ. I'm obviously the favorite in this race.

*** FLOP *** [2s 8s 3h]
*** TURN *** [2s 8s 3h] [Jc]
FNJ - D'oh!
*** RIVER *** [2s 8s 3h Jc] [Kc]FrankNagaiJr said, "gg"

*** SHOW DOWN ***carvenator: shows [Ah Jd] (a pair of Jacks)FrankNagaiJr: shows [As Qc] (high card Ace)carvenator collected 1555 from pot
carvenator said, "u2"***

Second Tourney -

Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2005/11/24
Seat1: Chowda Head (1470 in chips)
Seat 2: zelta (1650 in chips)
Seat 3: Ashtray04 (1755 in chips)
Seat 4: sixtyfourty (1340 in chips)
Seat 5: dgagli1 (1680 in chips)
Seat 6: V Van Gogh77 (1010 in chips)
Seat 7: FrankNagaiJr (780 in chips)
Seat 8: samjus44 (2245 in chips)
Seat 9: hot-chocolat (1570 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ah Qd]
V Van Gogh77: raises 30 to 60

FNJ - I had seen Van Gogh play an awful lot of trashy starters, and habitually raise 1BB on any limping hand, so this initial raise meant nothing. I decided to go for an isolation raise.

FrankNagaiJr: raises 150 to 210
samjus44: folds
hot-chocolat: folds
Chowda Head: folds
zelta: folds
Ashtray04: calls 210
sixtyfourty: folds
dgagli1: folds
V Van Gogh77: calls 150

*** FLOP *** [Kc Jh 3h]

V Van Gogh77: bets 90

FNJ - At this point I've got a belly draw, two overpair draws, an opponent who may possibly have a K, J or 3, but I've already lost half my stack, and feel that this is my time to make a move or bust. If I give up this pot, I really don't have much left after this hand. Van Gogh had repeatedly bet with nothing, bottom pair, and lost a few minor hands, and sucked out a few times.

FrankNagaiJr: raises 480 to 570 and is all-in

Ashtray04: folds

FNJ - I expected Ashtray to fold anything below top pair. Wouldn't you?

V Van Gogh77: calls 480

FNJ - Exposed cards are now 7h8h for Van Gogh, and my AQos is now the 54.6% favorite. It's a coin flip.

*** TURN *** [Kc Jh 3h] [9d]
FNJ - Now I'm the 68.2% favorite
*** RIVER *** [Kc Jh 3h 9d] [8d]
FNJ - D'oh! At least I was the leader going in, as I thought I was.

*** SHOW DOWN ***V Van Gogh77: shows [7h 8h] (a pair of Eights)FrankNagaiJr: shows [Ah Qd] (high card Ace)

FNJ - Third Tourney

FNJ Hand 15- I had been playing the usual tight/conservative, 'getting-to-know-you' style I usually play for the first few stages, about even in chips with a few minor ups and downs, when I had a nice bit of luck in hand 15.

Me: SB [4d 5c], limping in with 2 others, and BB checks
*** FLOP *** [6d 3s 2s] - (120 in pot)
FrankNagaiJr: checks
JMR1: calls 600
FNJ - Mr. BJ tended to bet anything, so I assumed it wouldn't check around, and I didn't want to arouse suspicion, even in an on-line game.
Mr. BJ: bets 90
JMR1: raises 90 to 180
FNJ - Better Still!
dbrunner: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 600 to 780
Mr. BJ: folds , JMR1: calls 600
*** TURN *** [6d 3s 2s] [Ac]

FNJ - At this point, I can't believe that JMR has the same straight, so I put him on a flush draw or two pairs (or possibly middle pair, this is on-line, after all...). My preference is to not see the river, if possible.
FrankNagaiJr: bets 630 and is all-in
JMR1: calls 630
*** RIVER *** [6d 3s 2s Ac] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [4d 5c] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
JMR1: shows [3h 3d] (three of a kind, Threes)
FrankNagaiJr collected 3030 from pot
FNJ - And doubles up, thank you very much.

FNJ - Hand 24, where I come up against a dangerous clownfish. I had observed this player bet with nothing and get some miracles, so I felt top pair would be enough.

Seat 1: FrankNagaiJr (3160 in chips)
Seat 2: docjonesiii (4800 in chips)
Seat 5: bigmoney226 (2660 in chips)
Seat 6: btknurdo (3135 in chips)
Seat 7: regular2005 (2380 in chips)
Seat 8: yanik77 (1010 in chips)
Seat 9: spiderham (755 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ts Qh]
regular2005: calls 50
yanik77: calls 50
spiderham: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls
50docjonesiii: folds
bigmoney226: folds
btknurdo: checks
*** FLOP *** [6s 9d Th]
btknurdo: bets 100
regular2005: folds
yanik77: raises 100 to 200
FrankNagaiJr: raises 200 to 400
FNJ - I wouldn're reraise with top pair, mediocre kicker unless I had seen evidence that the player in question would raise with less.
btknurdo: folds
yanik77: raises 560 to 960 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 560

FNJ - So now, it's two pair versus top pair. I'm behind, but I really did expect this player to have less. I'm just glad my stack was healthy enough that I only lost a third of my chips.

*** TURN *** [6s 9d Th] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [6s 9d Th 5h] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***yanik77: shows [6c 9s] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)FrankNagaiJr: shows [Ts Qh] (a pair of Tens)
yanik77 collected 2245 from pot

FNJ - Hand 29, in which I more than extract my revenge against Yanik for limping 69os.

1: FrankNagaiJr (2600 in chips)
Seat 2: docjonesiii (4500 in chips)
Seat 5: bigmoney226 (2385 in chips)
Seat 6: btknurdo (3310 in chips)
Seat 7: regular2005 (1955 in chips)
Seat 8: yanik77 (2495 in chips)
Seat 9: spiderham (655 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr: posts small blind
50docjonesiii: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [8h Td]
bigmoney226: folds
btknurdo: folds
regular2005: folds
yanik77: calls 100
spiderham: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls
50docjonesiii: checks

FNJ - I could tell doc was playing tight/agressive, and if doc was betting the pot, I would not have stayed for a draw.

*** FLOP *** [Jd Qh Ah]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
docjonesiii: checks yanik77: bets 100

FNJ - At this point, I've got a double belly straight draw, and I figure if I hit, I can take all of Yaniks' chips, since Yanik is probably betting middle pair, or something like that.
FrankNagaiJr: calls 100
docjonesiii: folds

*** TURN *** [Jd Qh Ah] [3d]
FrankNagaiJr: bets

FNJ - Not the most sensible bet in a live game, but frequently I find that on-line, the cheapest way to see the river is to make the minimum bet as the first to act.

100yanik77: calls 100

*** RIVER *** [Jd Qh Ah 3d] [9d]

FNJ - Yes! My belly has come in! Now how many chips can I extract? I figure a small-ish bet will represent top pair, and if he can beat top pair, he'll come over the top.
FrankNagaiJr: bets 300
yanik77: raises 1895 to 2195 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 1895*** SHOW DOWN ***
yanik77: shows [Qs 9s] (two pair, Queens and Nines)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [8h Td] (a straight, Eight to Queen)

And my second double-up for the tourney, and I'm in the top 5 of 40 players at this time.

FNJ - Hand 47 - After a long series of folds, and small ups and downs, we get some action with this hand.

Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) -
Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: docjonesiii (9960 in chips)
Seat 2: Briguy75 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Blade_180 (3010 in chips)
Seat 6: dave_jan (1925 in chips)
Seat 7: JACEY5 (6375 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (4995 in chips)
Seat 9: jacknero (1735 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Jh Qh]

FrankNagaiJr: raises 150 to 300
FNJ - I'm hoping to weed out the 'any two will do's as there are a few at this table.
jacknero: folds
docjonesiii: folds
Briguy75: folds
Blade_180: calls 300
dave_jan: folds
JACEY5: folds ***

(FNJ - 525 in the pot)

FLOP *** [6s 9d Td]
FrankNagaiJr: bets 400

FNJ - A semi bluff, but Blade_180 is an 'any-two' player, so if he had nothing, I expected a fold to this bet.

Blade_180: calls 400
*** TURN *** [6s 9d Td] [Kh]
FNJ - Yay! Now if Blade is on a flush draw, I don't want to give up a cheap card.
FrankNagaiJr: bets 800
Blade_180: folds

FNJ - Now I'm at 7705 in chips, and yo-yo up and down to hand 78

Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) -
Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: docjonesiii (9710 in chips)
Seat 2: Briguy75 (2875 in chips)
Seat 3: Mr. BJ (1728 in chips)
Seat 4: hopper84 (6247 in chips)
Seat 5: Blade_180 (2270 in chips)
Seat 7: JACEY5 (5400 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (8180 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Jd 9s]
docjonesiii: folds
Briguy75: folds
Mr. BJ: folds hopper84: folds
Blade_180: raises 400 to 600

FNJ - Blade had been a little too active for my tastes, and I had seen him make similar raises with very questionable holdings, win on a few suck outs, and take the blinds with no contest several times. Given my chip size, I figured I could look him up. Against a bigger stack or a tighter player, I certainly would have let J9os go.

JACEY5: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls 400

*** FLOP *** [3d 9h 7s]

FNJ - Hey! Top pair against a guy who raises with damn near anything. Let's play 'em!
FrankNagaiJr: bets 1000
Blade_180: raises 645 to 1645 and is all-in

FNJ - Even if I'm behind now, I committed myself with the first bet.

FrankNagaiJr: calls 645

FNJ - And we see the KJos that was the 3BB raise, and Blade has six outs in two cards.

*** TURN *** [3d 9h 7s] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [3d 9h 7s 6c] [3s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***FrankNagaiJr: shows [Jd 9s] (two pair, Nines and Threes)
Blade_180: shows [Jc Kh] (a pair of Threes)
FrankNagaiJr collected 4765 from pot

FNJ - Now my chip count is 10675, and let's move ahead to hand 97, just to prove that a big raise is occasionally respected on line.

Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) -

Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: docjonesiii (7610 in chips)
Seat 2: Briguy75 (3678 in chips)
Seat 3: btknurdo (7425 in chips)
Seat 4: hopper84 (13994 in chips)
Seat 5: Darace (10318 in chips)
Seat 6: regular2005 (6200 in chips)
Seat 7: JACEY5 (4400 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (13875 in chips)

FNJ posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ks Kh]
FNJ - Don't you just love getting a big pair in the blinds at an active table???

docjonesiii: calls 600
Briguy75: folds
btknurdo: folds
hopper84: folds
Darace: calls 600
regular2005: folds
JACEY5: calls 300
FrankNagaiJr: raises 3400 to 4000

docjonesiii: folds
Darace: folds
JACEY5: folds
FrankNagaiJr collected 2800 from pot
FrankNagaiJr: doesn't show hand

FNJ - I was just as happy not seeing a flop, as these were mostly players who would wait for decent starters before getting involved.

FNJ - Hand 99, just two hands later, I catch a player stealing who I felt had been way too active and stealing way too many pots. Against a tighter player, I might have considered just calling.

Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) -
Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: docjonesiii (4510 in chips)
Seat 2: Briguy75 (3578 in chips)
Seat 3: btknurdo (7325 in chips)
Seat 4: hopper84 (16994 in chips)
Seat 5: Darace (9618 in chips)
Seat 6: regular2005 (6100 in chips)
Seat 7: JACEY5 (3700 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (15675 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [9c 9s]
btknurdo: folds
hopper84: raises 1800 to 2400

FNJ - I had seen this player make a lot of raises of this size to steal pots, and was starting to get annoyed. I felt 99 was good enough to make a stand, since nobody else at the table seemed to want to.

Darace: folds
regular2005: folds
JACEY5: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 13225 to 15625 and is all-in
docjonesiii: folds
Briguy75: folds
hopper84: folds

FNJ - And as I suspected, this was a theft. Probably Ax os, or 33, or very possibly as bad as T8s....

FNJ - Now my Chip Count is 19,325, the chip leader, and I never let the chip lead go for the rest of the tourney, frequently having triple the chips of the #2 player, or better. It's good to be the big stack! I steal a lot of blinds, but not enough that many people confront me. A few times, I make a steal raise and give it up to an all-in bet. Other times I take their offer due to pot odds, but never lose too many chips at one sitting.

FNJ - Moving ahead to hand 115, here's a typical big stack play, where I assume the small stack is making a desperation play, and pot odds allow me to get involved. The other final tablists seem to be too worried about not being bubbled to get involved with non-premium cards.

Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) -
Seat #8 is the button
Seat 2: Briguy75 (9812 in chips)
Seat 3: btknurdo (3225 in chips)
Seat 4: hopper84 (9316 in chips)
Seat 5: Darace (10978 in chips)
Seat 6: regular2005 (5438 in chips)
Seat 7: JACEY5 (1600 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (27131 in chips)

FNJ - You can see I've been allowed to steal a few blinds, and have come out ahead in the conflicts I've been involved in.

HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [8s Js]
hopper84: folds
Darace: folds
regular2005: folds
JACEY5: raises 750 to 1550 and is all-in
FrankNagaiJr: calls 1550
Briguy75: folds
btknurdo: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 9c 3d]***
TURN *** [8d 9c 3d] [Td]***
RIVER *** [8d 9c 3d Td] [6c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
JACEY5: shows [Ac 4s] (high card Ace)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [8s Js] (a pair of Eights)

FNJ - Moving ahead to hand 144. Getting really lop-sided in my favor now. I've been stealing and calling small stacks to grow my stack while everybody else whittles down.

Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) - Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Briguy75 (5399 in chips)
Seat 4: hopper84 (7901 in chips)
Seat 5: Darace (8885 in chips)
Seat 6: regular2005 (8471 in chips)
Seat 8: FrankNagaiJr (36844 in chips)

FNJ posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ks Ad]
Briguy75: folds
hopper84: raises 6626 to 7826 and is all-in

FNJ - Hopper had been making a lot of all-in blind steals. I figured AKos was plenty good for whatever he had.
Darace: folds regular2005: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls 6626

*** FLOP *** [9c 4d 3d]***
TURN *** [9c 4d 3d] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [9c 4d 3d 2s] [2c]
SHOW DOWN ***FrankNagaiJr: shows [Ks Ad] (a pair of Deuces)
hopper84: shows [Js As] (a pair of Deuces - lower kicker)
FrankNagaiJr collected 16627


I go on to win at hand #159, in steamroller fashion. Gotta love being the big stack!

Social Club on-line Tourney Nov 17, 2005

RCHeli caught some bad cards against me. These happenen consecutively:
Me: QQ UTG - Raise 3BB (or more, I forget)
fold around to BB (RC Heli) who calls
Flop - Below Queens, rainbow
I bet all the way to river and get calls each time, Queens hold

Me: AA UTG - Raise 5BB (give or take)
fold around to BB (RCHeli) who calls and goes all-in on the flop
Aces hold.

Then I whittle down my stack to all-or-nothing mode, and get it back to fighting size, and totally misplay this hand to lose all chips:

7 handed, I'm the BB ($200)
Fold to Button
Button raises to 500
SB calls
I call with AJ (pot odds were 4 to 1)
Flop Axx rainbow
Button Checks, SB makes a bet of 2/3 of my stack
I go all-in, and of course I'm against AQ and fail to suck out.

AJ is too dangerous a multi-way, since it's so easily dominated. Folding pre-flop was not a bad idea once the SB called the raise, it was not unreasonable to put one of them on Ak or Aq.

Preachers Nov 11, 2005

32 players. I went out early-ish, having the curse of catching AA too much too soon. I was briefly ahead in chips, and this hand brought me back down:

Me: AA -raise 4BB from early
One caller
Flop 99x
I bet, he calls
turn x
I bet, he calls
river x
I check, he bets, and I just can't fold.
He's got 99.

Cry me a river.

For the record, AAA didn't win. Preacher didn't win. Cutch didn't win. You probably didn't win either.

The Jack-Five Giveth....

I took third place in a field of 45 in an on-line cheapo tourney, coming back from 'pretty much dead' twice. The big irony is that the hand that brought me down was the one I used to such great effect the other day, Jack-five. These weren't even suited. Compare this hand with the one from the other day:

I suppose I could have raised with K7 three-handed...

*********** # 161 **************
Hold'em No Limit - Level XIII (1500/3000) - 2005/11/08
srpurchase (24401 in chips)
FrankNagaiJr (21514 in chips)
poorbear (21585 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Kd 7c]
FrankNagaiJr: calls 3000
poorbear: calls 1500
srpurchase: checks

*** FLOP *** [5s Kc Jc]
poorbear: bets 12000
srpurchase: folds
FrankNagaiJr: raises 6364 to 18364 and is all-in
poorbear: calls 6364

FrankNagaiJr said, "ouch nh"
*** TURN *** [5s Kc Jc] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [5s Kc Jc Td] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
poorbear: shows [Js 5d] (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Kd 7c] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)

One of these days I may annotate key hands in a whole tourney, to see if I learn anything from that exercise.

Unjustifiable plays can pay off, if used sparingly

There's no way to justify my play below, but it makes me giggle. I don't make a habit of loose calls like that one, but every now and again they pay off. If you do the math, I was getting 1500 to 400 (just shy of 4 to 1) odds to see the flop, and I knew that unless I hit it very well I could throw it away, and if I hit, I would collect handsomely.

Background - Final table of 9, everybody's playing tight.

I went on to take 3rd in a field of 18.

Level VI (100/200) -
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Js 5s]
P1 folds
P2: raises 400 to 600
P3: folds
P4: calls 600
P5: folds
P6: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls 400

*** FLOP *** [Jd Kh 5c]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
P2: bets 1000
P4: raises 1000 to 2000
FrankNagaiJr: raises 575 to 2575 and is all-in
P2: folds
P4: calls 575

*** TURN *** [Jd Kh 5c] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Kh 5c 3h] [5h]

FrankNagaiJr said, "nh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Js 5s] (a full house, Fives full of Jacks)
P4: shows [Kc Ah] (two pair, Kings and Fives)

FrankNagaiJr collected 8050 from pot

AA v JJ redux

The victim of my AA maneuver last night challenged my thought process publicly, so I will respond here.

8 players, I am second to act. I see AA, and plan to raise to 3BB (150), my stack is currently about 1800.

UTG raises to 150 and it is my action.

I know UTG personally, and assumed he had something. I decided not to reraise for two reasons:
1) five players left to act, maybe somebody makes a move
2) If I like the flop texture, maybe I can milk UTG for a bunch of pot-sized bets.
(Yes, I'm taking a risk that he hits, but there could be a nice reward if he doesn't, but thinks his high cards or lower pocket pair is worth something.)

I call.
P3 raises to 9BB (450)

Table folds back to me. Now I know that P3 must really think he's got something, and I know that if I wait for the flop, he might smell a rat and fold if I only call.

Thus I bet to about 8/10 of my stack, and probably 9/10 of P3's stack.

This was P3's chance to fold.

Social Group On-line Tourney Nov 3, 2005

I made it to 5th out of 17th, and here's the key hands that took me up and down.

* 3rd level (25/50), 8 players, I'm 3rd to act with AA. Everybody's still got similar stack sizes.

p2 - raise 150 (3BB)
hero - call (yes, I know it's not textbook....)
p4 - raise to 450
folds all the way back to me.
hero - re-raise to 80% of my stack (1400 ish)
p4 - all in
hero - calls

p4 shows JJ
And the board doesn't really help either of us, aces hold.

* 4th level, I'm early to act out of 7 players
hero - limps (TJ)
fold around to SB and BB, who both call
flop 7h,8c,9h

SB bets 1/3 of pot
BB bets pot
Hero calls

Turn - x (no heart, no straight, no pair)
Big Betting again, this time I re-raise and get one caller

River - x again
I make a moderate sized (1/4 of this huge pot) bet and get one last call
Turns out both my opponents had flopped trips, thus the huge betting

*Final Table, Five Players remaining. I'm #2 in stack size
UTG, small stack of 5M goes all in for 1000-ish
Hero Raises to 3000 with AQos
p3 folds
p4 goes all in for 75 chips more
p5 folds
Hero calls, with a sinking feeling
UTG = 77
p4 = QQ
and suddenly I've got 3 outs :- (

I fail to catch my ace, and now I'm a moderate to small stack (3000), which I squander over the next 10 hands or so to bust out at 5th. Payout structure was top three.

For the hand that killed me, I suppose I could have just called, and still kept a decent stack if I had lost....

Manassas Cash

Played live cash short-handed last night in Manassas, and re-discovered that the on-line donks aren't so different from the donks you might find at a live game. An uneventful evening where I had maybe four good hands in two hours, and collected on two of them, and didn't bleed too much otherwise. The hand I describe was the balancing point between going home in the red or the black.

Six Positions
Hero - BB with J,J

P1 fold
p2 call
p3 Raise to 3BB
p4 calls 3BB
p5 calls 3 BB

SB fold
Hero - Re-raise to 8BB
p2 calls, all others fold

Flop 9,5,3 rainbox
P2 bets half pot.

At this point I let it go. I've been burned too many times by higher pocket pairs, and I hadn't played with this player before that evening, and had only played maybe 10 hands with him so far, so I wasn't sure what his standards were on calling a re-raise.

Hero Folds.
P2 shows 88, and seemed to think it was a pretty good hand.

I left down 5BB for the evening, because I didn't want to go into an all-in on my pocket pair without some knowledge of the other player.

On the up-side, another player later assumed this player was full of cheese, and went all in with the nut flush. This same player turned over Quad 7s. If I had to choose, I guess I'd rather fold a marginal victory than suffer a monster beat like that.

KK - Misplay

Early in an on-line sit'n'go. Hero in 7th position.

1 - Limp
2 - Raise to 6BB
3-6 Fold
Hero (K,K) - Raise to 12BB
Button, SB, BB fold
2 - Calls

Flop - 9,7,3 rainbow
2 - Bets 1/2 pot

I simply called all the way down, for the next 3 bets, and lost about half my chips to you-know-what. I'm not sure if I could have gotten away from this hand on a nothing board, but perhaps if I had re-raised on the flop, I might have been able to throw away this second-best pair.

In other on-line news, I've been playing too damn much and need to scale it back, and take the games I play more seriously, or else I will develop some bad habits.

Donk Hand

It's early (first 5 hands) in a 10 player sit'n'go. You've got 22 and limp in with about 5 other players.
Your Chips: 1980
Player X: 1480
Player Y: 1560

Flop: 4,2,7 rainbow.
Pot = $180

You microbet ($40), and Player X bets $200, Player Y calls, you call.
pot = $780

Turn: A

You check, Player X all-in, Player Y calls

Should you go all in?

A boat or quads would be the sure nuts, so you've got 10 outs with 1 card to play, 36 to 10 or 3.6 to 1 against you hitting the nuts. Trips isn't a bad hand, but there is a straight possibility on the board. Pot odds are roughly 2 to 1 if you make the call, so it's not technically a good bet.

It was on-line and I didn't immediately see the straight, so I figure my opponents were betting two pair or worse. (At the showdown, player X had the wheel, and player Y had a pair of aces.)

A two hits, and I put in the last few chips to clean out player Y.

Not my brightest hour, but it's still fun to hit every now and then.

Though I usually place in the money in these sit n goes, I fail to place in this one. One could argue I got what I deserved for sloppy play.

Hello from Tegucigalpa

I´m in Honduras through the weekend. Not expecting to post any poker updates.

Payouts at an on-line tourney

Entrants 468 at $5 plus .5 rake
Total prize pool 2365
Payout top 40

Me - 10th $30 (3 hours of play -(I'll keep the day job for now.)
7th - $70
6th - $95
5th - $118
4th - $ 189
3rd - $237
2nd - $355
1st - $591
1st

On-line tourney 10/18/05

I had a 3 hour marathon at a cheapo re-buy tourney. It was advertised as guaranteed $1000 in payouts, and it only had 50 entries with an initial buy-in of $2.25. The site I go to looks pretty shady, and they don't clarify the exact payouts anywhere on the site, but I'll take it on faith they deliver as promised.

My first rebuy was when I had my pocket Aces cracked by pocket Queens in a five-way (!) all-in battle in the first hour. I had been playing well in the conservative mode and was up in chips at that point, but wanted more so that if I doubled up from some idiot, the pot would be worthwhile. I was able to grow this re-buy to an acceptable size by the time of the cut-off, at which time I bought the optional rebuy for good measure.

A total investment of $6.75, while I witnessed others re-buying willy nilly and going all-in as fast as they could catch any kind of starters at all. (This lead to some ridiculously big stacks.) I'm sure many players spent $40 or more for a $2.25 tourney.

I survived to the final table almost without incident. I played very few hands, but was able to use controlled agression to take a few pots with no showdowns, and I took more than 50% of the showdowns, so I never got below 10M.

Payout was to top 10 spots, so I naturally blew a gasket once I made the final table, going all-in with pocket 8's in response to a 3BB raise. Naturally, the raiser had a higher pair (KK) and statistics held true, failing to give me a suck-out. I got what I deserved for losing patience after 3 hours of careful, tedious play.

If I had folded my 88's or at worst called....

My payout for 10th prize? $20, or slightly worse than first prize at a 10 player sit'n'go. Whoo-hoo!

On-line play

I finally broke down and started playing on-line for money about 3 weeks ago. My observations so far.

1) NLHE Cash games are too wild for my taste. By the time you've figured out who you're dealing with, it's too late. They've either bluffed you to death, or made an all-in with the nuts and taken your cash.

2) Sit'n'go tourneys are my game of choice precisely because you do have some time to figure out who's full of baloney and who bets the nuts and act accordingly.

3) The quality of play varies wildly, but I've found some good resourceful opponents even in the cheap games.

Edna Kansas?

I appear to have a regular reader in Kansas. If you have your own blog, send me the link?

FonZ's Birthday Tourney Oct 8, 2005

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I must document this Donk maneuver in the hopes of never repeating it.

I played two hours of tight poker at FonZ's, catching maybe four reasonable starters and missing three flops and folding instead of bleeding extra. We go from 13 players down to 1 table, and there are 7 of us left. I pulled a poker 101 Donk maneuver as follows.

Me: Limp with K8s (after having had two all ins with no callers)

Big stack limps, and big blind Checks

Flop: A,2,2 - Check, Check, Check

Turn: A

Me: All-in.
BS: Calls and has the ace.

First of all, I had no business limping with that hand with the big stack yet to act. Second of all, my chip stack was only about 8 BB, so I should have either gone all in or folded. Third of all, to try to bluff the big stack, who easily had 6 times as many chips as me is also stupid. This was compounded stupidity of the worst kind, which is especially painful after having survived so long without any ridiculous plays on my part.

In retrospect, I'll call that a tilt for the sake of calling it something. What possible result could I have been expecting?

Tourney Sep 30, 2005

I made it to third place. The hand that killed me was this one:

me: tc9c

Board: QcJcQd

My opponent goes all. I call. I've got him covered. He shows Qx.

Next card is J, and my straight and flush draws are now moot.

Cardplayer.com puts me at 42.1%. At the time I thought I was closer to 50%. Still, there was enough in the pot that I was getting correct odds to call.

Head's Up Play Sept 15, 2005

I joined a buddy at his home for two heads-up tournaments, both of which were designed to go for about an hour, starting with a tiny blind with soft upticks, but getting into serious blinds about 45 minutes into game play. Between nice cards, the occasional blind stab, and esp-like pre-flop folding, I was able to take both tourneys. An enjoyable evening which I hope to repeat as we are able.

In the space of 2 hours of heads up hands (2 decks, so constant play) I must have seen at least 3 flushes and 3 straights, and at least 4 or 5 two pair offerings. I did not have to show a few of these hands, but I was able to milk at least one additional bet off of several of my made hands. Opponents Aces were also cracked as the decisive hand of the second game. He had made a 2BB raise (total 3 bb) and I called with KQs, and at that point in the blind structure, 20% of our total chips were in that pot. I caught perfectly on a flop of K-Q-x, and I managed to milk it for another 20% of the total chips, which was a major swing. At that point, opponent needed a solid hand quickly or would face blinding out. At that moment I picked up AKs, put him all in, and he called with KJ and failed to suck out.

If I were to critique my opponents play, I would venture that I saw a few differences in our playing styles.
1) I don't remember him folding the SB much at all. As the blinds rose, I was folding easily a third of my small blinds, and avoiding a world of hurt. Maybe he did fold SB as much as me, but it doesn't seem that way in my selective memory.
2) I think I was a little more agressive with bottom pair. While it occasionally came back to hurt me, it also made it tougher to tell whether I was betting bottom pair or something much better, such as trips, straights or flushes. On a few occasions, he called me down and won with middle pair, but on a few more occasions he called me down when I had top pair or better.
3) His pre-flop raises were less frequent than mine, which indicates that either I was getting better cards, or else he was still measuring his cards by a full table standards. You'd never raise A5s on a full table, but that's a decent raise in heads up play, I'd like to think.

These may have been enough to make the difference, especially when I started catching good cards.

Manassas NL Cash 9/14/05

Started at the .50/$1 cash table with the younger group, and after 90 minutes, nearly doubled my buy in. Then I switched to the $1/2 table with a generally more mature crowd, and nearly tripled my buy-in. A good night.

At the higher stakes cash game, I was only active in a very small number of hands, and when I had premium starters, I raised accordingly, as opposed to being coy. Sometimes my big raise simply got all four of the limpers to limp at a higher price, which was comical. After the second time, people did start respecting my raises.

Two hands before my scheduled departure (must announce 30 minutes before going is the house rule) I limp with QJos, and a guy who had just shown pocket aces a few hands before makes a 6 BB raise. I'm the only caller. The flop includes an Ace, and I've got a belly straight draw only. He bets half the pot and I'm gone. He flips over the hammer (7-2). It was definitely a good trick, pity I didn't have anything better than a belly draw.

My announced last hand, I call from the button blind. I look down at 2-6s and compare it with a board of 2-6-8 rainbow. The guy on my left (who I had taken some serious money from earlier) bets into me heavy. I call. Another x (no-paint) a big bet and I call. The river is also no-paint, and he checks. I choose not to get frisky with bottom two pair so I check and collect the pot.

There was definitely more action at the 50/1, but there was a lot more drama at the 1/2, better cards, a dedicated dealer and a nicer table.

Sep 9, 2005 Nerk Tourney

In the big tourney I lost patience after about an hour of catching very little. I went all-in with pocket 8's and was plowed under by pocket J's.

In a 10 player sit'n'go, I had one very exciting hand

Me: KK
P1 call, P2 call, me raise 4 BB, Call, Call

Flop: Q, 8, 3 rainbow
P1 Bet, P2 call, Me all-in, P1 call, P2, Call
P1- JTos , P2 AQos

Turn Q :-( Now I have exactly two outs :-(

River K !!!

I go on to take second when I grow impatient during heads up.

Sept 5, 2005 - Home Tourney

Is it bad form to win your own tourney? Sorry.

Played some solid poker, never got too far ahead of my holdings in terms of my betting, caught a few lucky draws and some nice starters, and laid down a few even where I felt there might have been a bluff. In a couple cases I paid to see cards even when I knew I was beat, just because pot odds dictated that I do so.

Perhaps my best suck out ever today.

Me: TT
Opponent: AQ

Flop A,K,J,x
Note that a T gives my opponent a straight, so I now have exactly 3 outs.
Q !!!!!!

This made me the big stack with just one opponent left, whom I had at least a 7 to 1 chip ratio on.

Great players today. Nobody went out for the whole first hour, which is pretty rare when you think about it. I think the first player went out on level 5 with 20 minute blinds, which sounds like a tight group of players to me.

Ne'rk Game Friday 9/5/2005

In the big game I was out in the first 45 minutes. I was pushed off of winning hands three times, got frustrated and made a suicide pre-flop call (small pockets versus an all-in from early position from a solid player). When I made the suicide call, I still had enough chips that I could have blinded for another hour, so that was a tilt.

Then I played a 10 person satellite. There was bluffy sucking down brews who was dominating the table, and there was nothing I could do to stop him, as I wasn't even catching small pairs, and after a few hands, I didn't limp with anything less than premiums. It paid off, in that an hour in I started catching and winning pots. An older CS who was running lucky the whole game had me by a 15 to 1 ratio when we got down to two handed. (He had just eliminated Bluffy McDrink) and even though I doubled up once, I needed to double up at least four times to have any chance at all, and this guy was calling everything, so he only needed to beat me once, and he did.

DE played on my left, a solid game. He called an all-in on the turn from Bluffy and was correct to do so, as he had a solid hand, and Bluffy had a four-flush. Much to DE's dismay, Bluffy caught his slim draw to knock him out, leaving him fourth in the tourney.

Self-restraint

Last night I saved some money. I had the option of driving to Manassas for a cash game, but I was also very very tired. I chose not to go, instead of bringing my T game. I got a good night's sleep. Good for me.

Boogster's DC Cash Game - Aug 29, 2005

I was playing a tight, reasonable game for about 3 hours, and I was slightly ahead of my buy-in, and then during my last 20 minutes I had a melt-down, recognized that I was on tilt, and got out without obligating myself to throw away the remainder of my buy-in. Factors that lead to the tilt, in no particular order:

Poker Exhaustion Tilt: The beginning of the tilt was when I raised on a pocket pair, and misread the board thinking that I hit and made a chunky raise and got a call from the big stack. (Big Stack was gobbling up everybody's all-in bets like there was no tomorrow.) I realized what I had done on the turn, and stopped chasing. Once I realized that I missed the trips, I stopped throwing away money, and my opponent checked it down and showed a larger pair.

Angry Tilt: There is one player who shows up late at this game who appears to neither respect the game nor the players. He needs a den mother to remind him it's his turn to play, takes way too long to make the simplest decisions, and pulls really stupid show-offy crap when he's the dealer. (When you're the dealer, just give us a flop. Don't F*ck around, ok?) Moments before my tilt, he had walked away heavy. It wasn't my money, but that stupid inner voice continued to say 'where's the justice?' Shut up, inner voice.

Where's the Justice Tilt: The big stack did not appear to be a good player, but he was catching on a regular basis. I'm sure he was also running stone cold bluffs on a regular basis, but since I rarely caught cards, there wasn't any way that I personally could punish his bluffs.

Tick Tock Tilt: I had been at the table for 3 hours and hadn't made a single kill. On the few hands I was in, I barely got action at all. As the hours got late, I kept thinking 'One good kill and I'm gone.' I should have had the resolve to say 'I'm up, not down. I'm tired and going home.'

Good Starters, Bad Flop Tilt: One of my last and most expensive hands, I make a raise with premium suited starters. I catch nothing, but bet large into the pot. Big Stack calls. I bet large again, BS calls. I check and fold when the river misses me and I have an Ace high hand. I didn't need to bet large into that board. BS was calling raises with trash hands, so there was a reasonable likelihood that he had a weak pair. However, if I don't have a medium pair against this guy, there's no sense running the voodoo down.

I think I need to set time and exhaustion limits on my cash game play. Big Stack was drinking cheap beer all night, but it wasn't taking him out of his game. It was taking me outside of mine.

Poker Exhaustion

On Friday I played my usual tourney, and coasted into fourth place. I probably could have made it one place (and twice as much prize) if I had had just a tad more patience, but once I was in the money, I went all in on nothing and got what I deserved when big stack called me and had one of my cards covered.

On Saturday I played Rake's big tourney with some hot players, and I started out hot. Then I started bleeding as the blind were raising, and I was at 10 M 2.5 hours into the tourney. I lost a couple hands, threw away a lot of trash. More importanly, I developed a bad case of 'flush blindness' in which I failed to see flushes on the board until I had already wagered without that suit. Then my biggest faux pas, I was the dealer, and mistakenly assumed everyone had folded to a raise, and passed the cards to the next dealer. There was some confusion, and the better showed pocket aces and was quite enraged. It was a bummer for the player, and the player took it quite badly, creating quite a bad vibe at the table. I went out within 20 minutes of that incident, in which I raised on good started, caught top pair, and failed to notice the flush again. When I saw the flush, I went all in on a stone bluff, but he was big-stacked enough to not worry about whether I was bluffing. Sure enough, he had a low ranked flush, but it beat my no-flush.

I'm going to scale back my playing for a while. My regular game will be the Friday after the kids have gone to bed, and I'll probably play some on the road. I'm going to bring down my Columbus social group playing to about once a month for a while. Flush blindness is a clear symptom of playing too damn much, as is misdealing.

Private Club, Manassas VA, Aug 24, 2005

Played some cash NL and then a tourney with some very loose novices and some skilled players, and came close to breaking even for the night, but the following hand put me back in the red.

Me: KK - raise 6BB (a standard high raise at the cash game)
P2: Call
P3: Raise - 12 BB
(2 folds)
Me: Call
P2: Call

Flop 9 -8-2

Me: Bet 1/2 pot
P2 &P3 both call

Turn- 8
Three Checks
River - X
Three checks

Showdown
P2: QQ
P3: AA

Ouch!

In a tournament of 17 I made the bubble, and I went out on a decent decision. The player on my right went all in and I called (had him covered). The player on my left put ME all in, and I called that too.

Right: 55 (30.7%) , Me: AQos (33.9%) Left: JhTh (35.5%)
I just looked this up and was surprised to see JT suited as the fave. If AQ were suited in a different suit that nobody else has, they become the 37.2% fave
Flop 3h, 8s, 4h (32.5%, 12.5%, 55.0% are now the respective odds)
Turn: Qs ! (2.4%, 69.1%, 28.6%)
River: xh !

Ouch!
(Looking at the odds, not quite the horrible beat I took it for last night. It's always a bummer to lose it on the river though. )

Great club. It's a screened environment, like most of the games I play at, so you've generally got a decent level of play, and a minimum of jerks.

Boogster's DC Game - August 22, 2005

I threw away quads last night. I re-raised with trips on the turn, and faced a huge re-raise that gave me about 1.5 to 1 odds for a draw on trips when I could see he already made his straight. I had 10 outs for a boat or quads and so I folded. I asked for a rabbit, and out pops my quad. Bummer.

I also had a monster suck-out in which I accepted an all in with a pair of 6s against a bluffy. Bluffy actually had a pair of queens, but the cards came runner runner for a back-door flush.

There was another interesting all in battle with 3 of us, I came in on a double belly buster draw since there were two other players in the hand, I felt it was a reasonable bet. I failed to hit.

August 19, 2005 Tourney(s)

At the local second hand smoke shop. I went to defend my title, so I was naturally knocked out within 40 minutes of sitting down. One big blunder I made was not playing the pot odds: There were two small pairs on the board, and I had neither of them. On the second pair, the other player bet into me, and I folded a flush, when I was getting at least 4 to 1 or better to make the call. Stupid overthink that was.

Later the same evening, I failed to listen to Mike Caro's book of tells, and a player was betting into me with pocket Aces, but I didn't recognize the physical symptoms until I had already taken the bait. D'uhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Manassas VA Cash Game

This was at a motorcyle repair shop in an industrial part of town. I was up to double my buy in, accepted an all-in with pocket kings on a nothing board. My opponent, who was a big bluffer and risk-runner had A-9. He caught9 and then A on the river to take it. I rebought and played for another 30 minutes and walked away having lost about half my original buy-in.

Good game. Nice folks. There were some different playing style to adjust to, so I'll definitely go back until I've got their respective numbers. One guy who seemed tight lost three buy-ins, another guy who seemed tight waited hours to catch a hand and rarely got action. Another guy had such a defeatist attitude you'd play against him with 2-7 and expect to win. There were two agressive bluffersons who I kept skirmishing with, and another guy who seemed a little more sensible.

Boogster's DC NL Cash August 16, 2005

This is the second time I've played with this group of players in downtown DC, less than a mile from the Capitol and the White House. When I got there last night, they were temporarily banished to the roof till the clubhouse was open. Not great for poker, but great views of the Washington Monument at least.

Early on I went all-in on pocket Aces against pocket kings with a king on the board. Oops. I was able to make up for it on the second buy-in and leave ahead of the game.

After having played with these guys twice, I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for their starting hand requirements, and who bluffs, and who almost never bluffs, which makes it a little easier to lay down a hand or two even when I feel like I've got decent holdings. I've laid down two pair at least once or twice, depending on who I'm up against and what's on the board, of course. They're starting to catch on to me as well, of course, which means that I have to change gears enough to keep them guessing. After I had taken a few players in on all-in bets in which I had the nuts, my raises were given much more respect than they had been early in the evening.

Here's a cute hand from last night:

Me: BB with K2os

Flop K2x with two hearts.

I re-raise the initial SB post-flop bet from 3BB to 10BB. Bluffy calls.

Turn: x-Heart

I make another 10BB bet. Bluffy thinks a while and calls.

River: 2

I go all in (another 27BB or so). Bluffy thinks a while and calls.

Bluffy was trying to sucker me into pushing him off his hand. He apparently wasn't ready to throw away his Nut Flush to my potential boat. Maybe he should have value bet on the turn.

Is it just me, or does the betting sequence above remind you of the climax in the move 'the Cincinnati Kid' where the Man bets incorrectly and the kid misinterprets the disinformation?

A Quick Rant about On-Line Kidz

At a few casinos and games I have noticed a clearly delineated set of players, who I refer to as 'on-line kidz' regardless of their age bracket. There's no shame in being an on-line player, but....

When you're in a tournament with humans, I recommend that you play accordingly. I've heard that many on-line players try to put their foes on tilt all the time. If you constantly perform actions and stupid bluffs in person that are designed to put people on tilt, you should expect to be put out of your misery sooner or later, and the rest of us will be saying 'good riddance.'

Another quirk worth mentioning about on-line kidz. Some of you have dedicated zero percent of your mental effort in developing any kind of personality other than 'the quiet dude back in the shadows.' I guess that's fine, but you're not gonna get on my 'most desirable guests' list any time soon. At least some part of live poker is about the social interaction, and if there's nothing there, you're simply someone to be beaten and forgotten.

Big Social Group Tourney - August 13, 2005

48 players, WSOP blind structure.

First table, less than one hour in, I get agressive with pocket jacks, and when the flop comes in 9-6-3ish rainbow, I go all in. Of course, I'm facing pocket aces. To my great shame, I suck out with a jack on the river and double up.

Same table, I'm facing a true WSOP veteran who has made a bet which states he's got top-class holdings. I've got position and suited paint that I can't put down, and I catch lucky, much to his chagrin. Living on the edge, I guess. 　I looked it up at cp.com, and if he had what his bet seemed to imply, I was the 4 to 1 underdog, and I was being offered maybe 1.5 to 1 odds at the initial bet.

Same table, I limped with 7-8 os or some other inferior holding with four other players. A-7-x comes up. My probe bet chases 3 away, and I assume I'm facing an Ace. Turn - A, river 7. He makes a huge bet on the end, and I can't fold my second-best boat so I call. He's pulled such a stone bluff on me that he doesn't even show his cards. Sigh of relief.

Next Table, I make a raise into two very good players who are SB and BB, and they both call. I flop the nut straight, and I check from early, and I'm happy to hear a bet and a raise. My all in pushes off the probe bet, and the raiser takes my all-in offer. He explains before calling that he knows what I've got, but that he's got to go for the nut boat because he's too low-stacked to continue in the tourney otherwise. cp.com puts the odds as 82.1% in my favor. He failed to suck out, but it was not a bad play on his part, as he was very pot-committed.

Another interesting hand involved an all-in battle after the flop with K2 vs K7, except that K-2-x was already on the board. K-2 is the 74.4% favorite at that time.

Final Table Syndrome (FTS) - Losing one's focus after hours of play because one is so excited about being within reach of the prize money.

After much patience and more than a few skirmishes, I make the final table. I've got a healthy stack, and I personally take out at least two players at the final table, but then I go haywire.
My focus wanes just when I need it most, I make a couple of bad decisions and I'm desperate and looking at the bubble. I pull pocket 8's from the SB and offer an all-in to steal the blind. BB happily agrees from his pocket aces and takes 90% of my remaining stack. (Same player pulled pocket aces on me the last time we butted heads and crippled me there as well. Maybe I'll wait for pockets before I go against this guy again....)

One hand later, I accept an all-in offer from the chip leader, who has KQ to my Q9. I fail to suck out.

I didn't use the notebook this time, but I was constantly counting my chips.

I need to learn more about final table focus, or I can see repeating this behavior over and over. Getting cocky at exactly the wrong time.

Big Local Tourney August 12, 2005

Starting chips were 50 each, with a blind structure like this:
1-2, 2-4, 3-6,4-8,5-10,10-20,15-30,20-40, 40-80,80-160,100-200,200-400

The tourney ended about 6 hours in at the 80-160 level.

I got pocket q's on the second deal when I dealt them to myself. I raised from the button, and one caller went all in and I accepted. He had lost 21 chips in the first hand, so when his A-9 hit on the river, I was down to 21 chips 2 hands in. I semi-tilted and called a raise with limping starters and was down to 15 chips.

It took me the better part of 2 hours of careful play to build 15 chips into a decent stack.

I made it to the final table, or rather the final table made it to me. I didn't need to change my chair during any of the consolidations.

I offered a chop when we were down to 2 players, and I think I may have been the chip leader. The dude passed and said he preferred to play it out. Two hands later I go all in and he accepts, and he takes all my chips. Fortunately, I make sure we both do a chip count to make sure he has me covered. He didn't and I still had almost 2BB in chips left (he must have had more than 10-12BB in chips at that time.)

I plow onward and within 1 hour of that point he bluffs an all-in that I accept on A-3. He's got 2-4 suited. My 3 pairs and he doesn't pair. Game over.

It was a sweet sweet victory, especially since I had to endure 6 hours of second hand smoke. When I go back next week, there will be a bounty on me. Did I mention that I took out the champion of the prior week and got that bounty too?

Quick Poker Update

Haven't had time to blog, but have been active with poker.

Played some small stakes Pot-Limit Omaha. It's kinda fun!

Played a local tourney at a bingo parlor. A nice combo of good players and dead money. I plan to go back regularly.

Played a cash game at a condo clubhouse in Washington DC near the capitol, and came out with double my buy-in. I plan to go back regularly.

Any questions?

B & Q's Tourney July 30, 2005

24 players over 4 tables. Having 6 players instead of 8 or 10 may not seem like a huge difference, but I find it really affects the table play, The blinds hit you that much faster, and it's that much tougher to expect pot-odds with limping hands.

The notebook? As I've said, it's a TPD. I've also discovered some interesting personal numerology that I cannot reveal. I don't normally believe in this sort of thing, but it's clear to me that I have to survive X number of hands in order to have a chance, and I've got to make a move between hands Y and Z or else I can expect to be blinded out. That's as much as I can say without giving away my tournament game completely.

The cash table was reckless junior last night. LW went all-in 3 times in succession until he recovered his buy-in, and then he calmed down. After that, the rest of the table went loco, loco, loco with that All-in Fever.

Held my own at the cash table, and I walked out of B&Q's with exactly the same cash as I walked in with. I would have walked out ahead, but I had been in tilt mode for at least 20 minutes before I stopped.

Preach's July 30, 2005

There were at least 5 new faces at Preach's and all of them seemed like pretty good players. One of them in particular was obviously accustomed to playing at much higher stakes, and was playing with a very admirable emotional detachment to his chips. He would take and frequently offer all-in bets if he liked his starters at all, and he walked away with 7 bounties and first prize in a field of 13 players.

My highest lifetime hand was last night, a 7-high heart straight flush. I only knew that I had won the pot because my last standing opponent had no pair, and it was pointed out to me by others. Straight Flush blindness, I guess.

There was also an all-in battle suckout I'm particularly proud of.

Me: JdJh
Not Me: AsJs

I'm the 65.5% fave going in.

Ah, xc, xh

I'm now the 8.8% dog.

xh

Now I'm the 22.7% dog

xh!

And I get four suited hearts on the board for my jack of hearts. I'm getting so much better at sucking out! Tee hee!

Also had a nice run at the cash table. I whittle down my stack to about 35% of a buy-in, and I leave the table with 7 times buy-in!

Action Tourney July 28, 2005

24 player tourney. I got a little too frisky too early, and spent the remainder of the tourney trying to play catch up. I had one decent all-in with my QQ prevailing over KJos. (xxJ, Q,x), but I had a couple of all-in battles where I was sucked out, and so it was an evening of bleeding. It's a different blind structure and a different style of player than other tourneys I play, so I may need to adjust my play quite a bit if I wish to do well there.

Then I hit the cash table, and got my entry fee and gas money back. A free evening's entertainment.

Speert's Poker Club Atlanta July 26, 2005

http://www.thepokerclub.org/

This place gets the FNJ thumbs up. It's a little tough to find, but worth it.

Mr. Speert was in the building, but he was playing on-line and said hello as we went for a smoke. We didn't have the honor at the table.

Played two hours of cash no limit, with a rake, and came out in the black. There was one fascinating hand I was in, and this time I was actually the victor.

I'm allowed to limp in BB with KJos, 3 in the hand. One of the two players is in every single hand, and had been on a very impressive rush, but only after re-loading twice and showing all the symptoms of tilt, tilt, tilt.

Flop 3,5,T rainbow. Checks around.
Turn Q. SB checks, I bet 5, Tilty raises me to 15, I call, and I give an obvious verbal tell that I'm on a draw.
River: A.

I bet 20, and tilty puts me all in, which I obviously expect.

But he wasn't tilting at all. The Ace gave him a wheel. He stated after the hand that he didn't even see the high straight on the board.

FNJ 1, Tilty 0.
(Tilty had cleaned out at least 3 players before he faced off with me. His stack was huge.)

Hooters Free Roll July 25, 2005

You know there's that movie coming out about the 40 year old virgin? Well, I had my first hooters experience this evening, I went there for a free roll, of course.

The hosts were:

www.atlantapokerclub.com

There were 3 tables of 8, starting with 1500 in chips, and a gradual blind elevation. They had a bizarre alternate system in which every time somebody got eliminated, a new recruit was sent in with 1500 in chips. Of course, lots of newbies eliminated themselves in the first 15 minutes, so it took less than 30 minutes for all the alternates to come in.

I made final table and got to sit with some decent players who took the free roll about as seriously as I did. I stood to win some Hooters gift certificates, so after about 3 hours play with 5 players remaining, I got sloppy and careless and went out quickly. I could have played tight and held out another hour for a baseball cap.

I'm getting much better at sucking out. Check these!

1) I limp with Qtos with about 5 other players. The flop is qq2, so I make a tiny raise to see who has the other queen. BB goes in, and since BB checked, I liked my chances on the kicker. But BB has 22, so BB has a boat to my trips with two cards to play.

Runner runner pair of 3s for QQQ33. Nyah nyah nyah.

I looked up the odds, and he was 77.1% fave with two cards to play, and 84.1% fave with one card left.

2) I limp in with Ad9d, and there's 3 in the hand. The flop come 6d7d5s, and the player before me goes all in. It's a nothing board, so I put him on the same draw where I would have the nut flush. I go all in and he's got the STRAIGHT FLUSH DRAW 4567, and he's also got a pair of my 5s to no pair. Turn doesn't help, but river gives me a kd for the nut flush.

I looked up the odds, and he was 64.2% fave with 2 cards left, and 85% fave when the turn didn't help either of use.

My suck out skills are clearly improving!

Scent of final table messes with head

I had made it down to the final two tables of a 64 player tourney by playing sensible, not too fancy poker all the way down the line. I'm in the SB and it has been folded down to SB and BB. BB is the shortest stack at the table, and I had actually managed to work my way towards healthy stack for a change.

I have ATs.

I get ahead of myself and offer an all-in wager to the BB.

BB has AQs.

On the up side, I had the BB covered, but it was a crippling blow from which I was unable to recover. I finished 12th or 13th in the field of 64.

Six hours of play shot down by one bad decision.

Not a coin flip!

The hand I went out on today was my AJos vs 88.

88 is the 56% favorite. If AJ suited, then 88 is still the 53% favorite.

Those numbers don't change much for pocket 2s.

That ain't poker!

Sorry dude, but going all-in on every hand isn't poker. That's just playing the lottery, and it grows tiresome rapidly. I played with drunks last weekend, and their game was equally sophisticated.

Dude, if you want a piece of me, let's play some 3/6 limit heads-up, and I'll rip you a new one.

64 player tourney July 24, 2005

I survived 12th or 13th place down to the last 2 tables. I got impatient when we got close the final table and pushed the envelope and got shot down. I probably could have hung on my blinds for another hour if I hadn't gotten cutesy.

I finally performed a decent suck-out. I raised all-in from UTG, and somebody with two overs called. I had 76os, I paired, he didn't. Nyah nyah nyah.

Great tourney!

Tourney July 23, 2005

Took 4th place in a field of 24(+/-), which is the best I've done yet in a larger tourney. Today I'm playing a field of 64, which should be quite a marathon.

Interesting hand 1 - First table, less than 10 hands into the tourney, I make a small raise on the blinds, and a guy who likes to play wild (D)offers me an all-in proposition. I accept, and we've both got the same big slick offsuit. I get 3 to a flush and that's about as exciting as that push ever gets.

'At least we didn't have to pay a rake'....

Interesting hand 2 - Final table, I'm the big and it's getting expensive to be the big. (V) makes a 1BB raise on me, and I call with 82 suited. My 8 pairs and I offer an all in proposition, which he accepts with AQ suited. He's four to a flush, but fails to save himself with two cards remaining. He's big stack, so this is barely a dent, but it gives me enough blind money for quite a few turns around the table.

BUT, just a few hands later I offer an all-in against the two blinds, and I find myself facing pocket aces from a guy (M) who's either been running a hot streak or running lots of bluffs. Having seen the aces, I'm almost willing to believe the other 8 all-ins he had offered and nobody accepted were mostly true.

Gotta go.

Recognizing Your Own Tilt

I have finally admitted to myself that I was on tilt this past weekend. Other witnesses had already told me, but the biggest hurdle is always an egyptian river, right?

How did I recognize it? When I was in denial, I started to take notes on the big hands in which I was involved, and when I stayed or folded, and whether there were suck outs involved. It was a truculent self-argumentative maneuver, but probably the smartest move I made on the whole saturday. When I reviewed the notes on Thursday with a cool head, I noticed two big problems.

1) In a few of the 'suck-outs' that pissed me off the most, I was the 50% favorite or worse. That isn't really a suck-out.
2) In the most dramatic example, I realized that I had mucked a 'chopper', where I would have been entitled to one-half of a very healthy pot. I was so-pissed off that my nutty, nutty boat was counterfeited that I mucked. I was so tilty that I didn't even realized what I had done till I reviewed the notes.

Now that's tilt!

On the Bus? (drunks at the table)

Saturday in Laughlin I had an interesting afternoon at the 3-6 tables. Some guys who had been boating in the hot sun all day sat at the table with the intention of drinking and whooping it up. There were 3 little piggies, all drinking up the booze as quickly as the waitress would bring it.

The first little piggy bought in for $100, quickly grew his stack to nearly $300, and then bled it all away with stupid bluffs.

The second little piggy bought in twice for $100, and each time he kept bleeding it all away calling the stupid bluffs.

The third little piggy bought in twice for $100, and grew his stack to at least $500, because he was catching lucky.

The third little piggy's first question every time the action came to him was 'How much can I bet???'. He did not fold a single time, and never bet or raised less than he was allowed. As you can imagine, this grows a stack pretty quickly when you're catching, but it will bleed it all away just as fast.

But then the damn bus he came in on had to leave while he was ahead! Broke my heart and made me tilt!

As you can imagine, it's very expensive to sit with this kind when you're not catching. I think next time I'll ask for a table change, rather than hoping for statistics to catch up.

Limit Tournament - Colorado Belle - Laughlin NV

For funzies, I tried one tournament in Laughlin, at the Colorado Belle Casino. Here's the gory details.

Entry Fee: $25, of which 20 goes to the prize pool, and the house and dealers get the other 5.

Tourney Structure: 200 in Tourney Chips, blinds start at 5/10 and escalate every 15 minutes. Essentially, every time it was your BB, the next level had always started.

Fast Action: If you didn't make a move quickly, you would be bled to death by the third or fourth level. You can barely wait for S-Class 6 starters, to say nothing of pocket Aces.

This kind of tournament had very little social interaction between the players, and was deadly dull to me. I played one, and after that, decided I would stick with standard limit games where I could wait for decent starters, and fold J8os.

The Colorado Belle had a nice poker room with good dealers, and a lot of regulars. I was happy to play their limit tables for an hour before the tourney and an hour after. Since it wasn't my home casino, I eventually migrated back to my hotel to play.

Their limit game was 2-6 spread, with only one blind ($2) and a non-escalating structure. This made it easy and cheap to wait for starters, and it also lead to some very healthy pots when more than one player got excited about the flop.

Leather-Butt Weekend at Laughlin Nevada - Details to Follow

Logged in between 24 and 30 hours of playing in a 38 hour period at the Flamingo in Nevada. It felt like the Cheers bar, because by the second calendar day, I knew virtually every face and half the names.

I say 'calendar day' because it felt like one continuous day punctuated by an occasional nap.

I will write up a few hands, stories and impressions when I have a moment. Stay tuned.

Ethical Dilemma at Cardplayer.com Poker Tracker

Let's say you are playing a casino between 3 AM and 9 AM, and they are running a promotion:

Any pocket Aces sucked out in Hold'Em at the showdown will be given a $100 rack of chips.

And let's say you've been playing with off-duty dealers and other shark-like creatures and getting waxed, but you manage to land pocket Aces, and naturally you don't bet them up to get more callers, and you don't push a soul out of the pot. For an investment of 20 odd dollars, you're looking at either a 60-80 Pot or a 100 rack. The rack for you.

Now here's the tricky part. At the end of 90 minutes play, you are at exactly break even in terms of money-in and money out, and you cash out and leave after an enjoyable session with funny, friendly folks.

How do you score this on your poker analyst?

If you mark it as break-even, it makes you look like a better cardplayer than you are, and skews your statistics.

If you mark it as a $100 loss, that's not really the truth either. Plus, when the gambling auditor looks at the books, a C-Note drop is an area of concern.

A lesson cheaply learned

Darn near every book I read said the same thing, but maybe I wasn't listening:

"Find your comfort level. Don't play beyond your gulp limit."

I was happy with my performance at the 4/8 tables, so last night I tried two hours at the 6/12 table. I was clearly outside of my comfort zone, moving my style from tight-agressive to tight-weak. When I had the best hand I was not maximizing profits, and I allowed myself to be pushed out of hands several times where I would not have been pushed out at lower limits.

I was down four betting units in two hours of play, although I was actually down 25 units for a while. At the lower limit tables, I finished up 15 units on the first night, and up 4 units on the night I wasn't catching cards.

Limit Betting Sequence Details - Casino Arizona

4/8 Table:

Pre-flop and Flop, a single bet is $4.
Turn and River, a single bet is $8

Max raise in a round is four bets.
Any one player can only make one raise at a time.
Re-raising is allowed.
Check-raising is allowed.
When two players only are in the hand, unlimited re-raising is allowed.
Normally, the max possible investment on one hand without a show-down string of re-raises is:
(4*4) + (4*4) + (4*8) + (4*8)

Or a total of $96 for a bat-shit insane betting round.

Kill Round - Special Rule. When one player wins two consecutive hands worth 40 or more each, the next round is a double, kill-round. The double winner pays double blind, and the little and big blind ante as usual (2 and 4). The betting limits are doubled for that round, and 8 is the first call. The kill button gets last option on the pre-flop button.

Squirelly Casino Stuff - If a player has Aces Full or better and is beaten in a showdown by a better hand, there is a cumulative jackpot aware, which can be in the multiple thousands. When I played there was 27,000 in this fund.
50% goes to loser of the suck-out
25% goes to winner with the big hand
25% is distributed among anybody else playing at that table at that moment.

I caught Aces full on the first night, but nobody came up with four jacks to beat me. The rest of the table was most disappointed. I had a partial compensation by virtue of collecting a decent pot.

Casino Arizona at Indian Bend 4/8 Limit July 11 & 12

This was my first US Casino Poker experience, but thanks to all of the home games and cash games, it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I might have expected. I played 4/8 limit both nights, and came out with a positive result both nights by sticking to very basic poker strategy. The first evening was full of calling stations, and the second evening was full of players who had just busted out of an NLHE tourney.

The second evening I went with my brother, who has been a casino gambler all his life, but not a hold'em player until recently. By betting the goods and running an occasional risk, he brought home over 3 times his starting stake, dwarfing my take home for the two evenings. (I'm making more than a McDonalds fry cook, but less than a decent waiter, according to cardplayer.com) We were at the same table by luck of the draw, not by design.

We're gonna take Mom for some casino hold'em in Nevada this weekend. Stay tuned.

Rake's Tourney July 9, 2005

I had a very enjoyable evening at a tourney that I plan to return to. The atmosphere was convivial and relaxed, the blinds were 30 minutes through midnight, and I just squeaked into 8th place (the tiniest cash prize) in a field of 27 because I failed to suck out yet again.

Of the 90 hands I was dealt, I was very happy with my play on all but two of them. One was an over-conservative play where I folded middle pair to a small raise on a scary board, but then the turn and river were a boat for the hand I folded. That doesn't bother me nearly as much as the bitch-slapping I got on the one had where I got ahead of myself.

I'm UTG with 2.4 times my initial stack, which is pretty healthy for the table. I look at pocket tens and raise 3BB, which is about 1/5 of my stack. NF goes over the top for another 2.25BB all-in bet, and I call since I know he can't re-raise. I assume we're looking at a coin flip versus big slick. I'm sadly mistaken when I see his pocket rockets. I fail to suck-out and I'm back to about break-even, which is not healthy for the blind price. I never recoup enough to do anything but wait for class 1 hands and fold limpers that would have won many a pot.

I suck at sucking-out. I must learn how to suck-out. Is there a suck-out school?

For posterity, I should record that NF, shortly before that hand, turned pocket 3s into four of a kind. These two hands weren't enough, since he was one of the last to go out before he made final table. Other than these two hands, he really didn't seem to be catching much or even getting playable starters.

Also should record that I had the chance to meet and play with the Count, who I had been hoping to meet for a while now. The Count took the tourney home. Ours was a tight table, and we barely lost a player while the other two tables seemed to be dropping like flies in comparison.

I've used the notebook for two tourneys in a row and I plan to continue to use it as a crutch in tourneys. It helps to prevent me from getting ahead of myself. I was mocked mercilessly for it by my tablemates, but most of those doing the mocking did not make the final table. I at least had that honor, so the notebook stays for any multi-table tourney going forward.

Madame's Tourney July 8, 2005

Due to a rainstorm, there were only 19 at this tourney, when there are usually 24 or more. Limped into the final table after being critically wounded a few hands before, and went out on hand #91 as the first casualty at the final table. The notebook seemed to keep me away from all-in fever: although I had my share of all-ins and offers to go all-in, I only made one poor judgement call involving the magic words.

A player who'd been antagonizing me (in the poker game only, we had friendly chit chat outside the game) raises my limp, and I go into the flop. I flop a pair of kings, which is the high card on the board. He bets big, and I call. There's another king, he's first to act, he bets and I call. Last card is a jack, and the board now reads something like K, 9, 7, K, J with no possible flush. I'm sitting on trips waiting for one more stupid bet, and he goes all in.

Do you see the straight on the board? I didn't till we flipped our cards. In one hand I went from healthy-big to crippled. In retrospect, I could have put him all in on the turn, and he would have been in a position to double the pot in exchange for his open-ended straight draw.

I was catching a lot of nice cards all evening, but only because I was willing to wait for my moments. Looking at the notebook, I see that I didn't get much above my original stack until hand 60, and prior to that point I yo-yo'd between break-even and worse, but never got myself into serious trouble.

My life as a big stack lasted for precisely 3 hands.

At the tail end of my night, I go all in at 2.2 BB, and get two callers. I have KTs vs 58 and K7. 48os was also at the end of his rope, so didn't have our bets covered. BB calls just so I don't auto-steal the blind that little stack doesn't have covered. If they were suited, I was the 45.2% favorite. If they weren't, I was the 52.0% favorite. I forget if they were suited, sorry.

The tiny stack rivers his trip 8s, and by the time we're done, the board negates my T beating the BB's 4 and it is a push. I go out 2 or 3 hands later.

Final hand I'm the BB and announce an all-in as BB times 1.2 without looking at my cards. Madame is gracious enough to raise everybody else out, so it's at least a race. She's got two overs to my two unders, and nobody pairs up.

A very enjoyable evening. Five hours of poker flew by in a twinkling.

Action Tourney July 7, 2005

33 players, including me, mom and bro. Mom went out in the third hand when she called an all-in from pocket jacks on a nothing flop. Her opponent had pocket kings and she failed to catch lucky. Tutored her a lot, but I think I failed to mention getting away from the second best hand when there's a runaway train on the horizon.

I relapsed into all-in fever. I put in three successful all-in bets in the first hour. One with no takers, one where I had the best hand when I went in and I was sucked out (which I'm okay with), and one where I had a draw and a pair and my caller had a smaller pair. On my fourth all-in, somebody with the nut trips was laying in wait for me, so I dug my own grave. Such is poker.

My brother survived as a small stack down to being second to last to go before two tables were consolidated down to one final table.

While waiting for him to finish, Mom and I hit the cash table. We both left in the black. Mom got 2.5 times buy in, and I finished with 3 times buy in, so I imagine the other players were sad to see us leave the table with their money, but nobody carped about it too loudly, and other people were itching to fill our seats with fresh money.

It was a crowd pleaser to see Mom take a huge cash pot by accepting an all-in wager with no trepidation. Much joyful shouting went along with that. Mom now has two victims who clearly underestimated her. Who's next?

Good tourney, good players. I'll be back as I can.

Calculator Odds Fun - Small Pair Showdowns

AhTh vs 3c3s - 50.4% for AT
AhTh vs 3h3s - 50.% exactly
AhTs vs 3c3h - 52.3% for 33
QdJd vs 3c3s - 52.1% for QJ
QdJ3 vs 3d3s - 51.8% for QJ
AsKs vs 3s3c - 51.0% for 33
AsKd vs 3c3h - 53.8% for 33

I'm starting to get a new respect for small pairs in a showdown!

Medieval Tourney July 6, 2005

I took along my brother and my mother to the Medieval Wednesday tourney. There was a table of 11, who mostly were on their best behavior for the senior citizen. I think the language got toned down a notch from other evenings, and nobody got sloppy drunk.

Mom was given the respect one gives an elder, and eventually, the surviving players learned to give her respect as a cardplayer too. After the first hour, anytime Mom was in a hand, the whole table seemed to proceed with caution.

The player that everybody else at the table seemed to fear and respect came just in time for the first deal. He started out swinging for the fences. In one of the first few hands I caught pocket smalls from early, and was allowed to limp over to the big swinger on Big Blind, who let me see the flop cheaply. I caught my third early, but went with caution, knowing how dangerous a set of low trips can be to one's own welfare. On the river I flopped full, and took a sizeable pot from the Big Swinger. He asked me why I didn't raise on a boat, and I responded that the boat was not made till the river, and I knew that if I re-raised, I wouldn't get to showboat.

The exact same big swinger continues to play agressively, and less than 30 minutes later he's in a hand with my Mom, and he's trying to buy the pot. Mama don't go for that, and she called him all the way down with a decent hand, and left him with about 4% of his original stack, or about 1.8 BB at that time.

The very next hand, big swinger goes all in on a marginal, but he doesn't have enough chips to scare away the big blind, and he's out in record time. He storms out, clearly pissed off at himself and the world, doesn't even finish his beer or say anything in terms of parting words.

His punishment was to be mocked by the entire table for the rest of the evening.

As I said, after that, everybody had a healthy respect for Mom's calls, and when Mom raised, only the foolhardy stayed. The best laugh of the evening was when somebody asked her why she made a particular decision, and she said 'That's what the book told me to do.' Referring to the Caro she had skimmed just before we left the house.

Mom's been playing six weeks less than I have. This was her first tournament with players who take the game seriously.

As a family, we held our own. Mom was about the fifth or sixth eliminated after 150 minutes of play, by a suck-out if I recall correctly. My brother was the fifth place survivor, and I was the fourth place survivor. My brother lost to a suck-out, and I lost to a coin flip. My opponent had AT suited against my all-in pocket 3s. According to the calculator, AT suited had a 50.4% chance to win.

And it did.

Family Tourney July 2, 2005

A family tourney can be most frustrating, because half the players are calling stations, and that means that unless you've got a monster, you'll be sucked out half the time by all the callers. The options are to play super, super tight, or see every flop like everybody else. I try to play my regular tournament style, and I'm consistently an early outer. At least the stakes are low.

My 18 year-old nephew thinks he's hot stuff at the table, and in this context I haven't been able to show him otherwise, even though I can see that he plays far too many bluffs and any tight player would eat him alive. At least he hasn't gotten it into his head to take this up as a profession.

And my sis-in-law will probably mock me eternally for losing two tourneys last night, despite knowing all the lingo and walking everybody through the betting sequences and that sort of thing. She lives in another state, so I won't have to hear it too much. I'll have to take solace by doing well in the tournaments and cash games with players who take it a little more seriously.

Tourney July 1, 2005

Started out at a very tight-agressive table, with my brother. In 2 hours or more, we very infrequently see a river card. I do a yo-yo, starting with 10,000 chips, bleeding down to 6400 at my lowest, eventually climbing up to 13,600 at my peak.

We move to a new table after midnight, and the blinds and antes start getting expensive. I'm still at break-even, and a player goes all-in from UTG, and I honestly believe he's tilting from a loss the hand before, so I try to double up as the Big Blind with last option to call (nobody else called.
The showdown? He has K-J os, and I have QT clubs. The calculator says he's the 58% favorite, and I fail to suck out.

Then I'm short stacked and the small blind, and my brother to the left of me is short stacked and big. We both announce our intention to go all in prior to getting our cards.(neither of us has 1.5 BB, and we're ready to go home.)

One player calls us with A-7os. I look, AJos, he looks, AK os. A7 sucks out by matching his 7 and niether of us catches. (A K on the river would have given me a straight....) (20.6 percent chance for that suck out, with big slick the 56% favorite.)

We left at 1 AM, and the remainder went on to the final table.
An enjoyable evening.