day: yesterday

played 20-40 yesterday for a few hours, finished 15 bucks to the good (schweet!)

Then, matt and I went to Russell rosenblum's (2002 WSOP ME final table) place and played chinese poker with him till 1:00 am. it was a blast and i crushed them both... sadly we onl;y played a buck a point so crushing them = 25 bucks.

But still, it was fun.

We're talking about throwing a chinese tournament at our apartment and inviting Russell, Bill Chen (2 bracelets last year), some other really good players. let's just say I'm not a favorite to make the money in this one.

Anyway, it's back to the rio today for more LIMIT HOLD EM MADNESS!

happy days

I went to Bellagio and played 15-30 for 3 and a half hours. I walked out 1k richer then when I went in. so that was good.

Finally, my big hand held up. i flopped top set of jacks and capped on the river (5 bets ) with a guy.

then, i 3 bet with aces and a woman called 3 bets and the original raiser (O.R.) called. the flop came out A 34 rainbow. i bet, woman called, OR raised, I three bet, woman called, OR raised, i capped, woman called.

turn, k of spades 92 spades on board). woman checks, OR bets I raise, woman calls, OR calls, he's all in. I have 2 outs, woman says. i figure she means she need one of two types of cards... i immediately put her on pocket fives and am rooting for anything besides a 2.

River is the seven of spades... she checks, i bet, she folds. she says she folded pocket fives. OR turns over AK. I win a big pot.

The game was tremendous... and I caught a bad beat to not be up a fair amount more. (you don't want to hear it... suffice to say the guy was drawing very thin and caught his 5 outer on the river. it happens.)

Anyway, most of my good hands held up, and that was really nice. Yay, AA, KK, JJ all win for once!

well, i played a lot of satellites today. played 2 1k sats, a 500, a 225, and a 175.

Let's just say i lost them all.

so, that would be my worst day ever. i don't feel that bad, only because the last two sats (a 500 where I lost all in with ak vs 68 and a 1K where i lost KK vs AK, both hands all in pre flop) meant there was basically nothing I could do about it all.

Sigh. it sucks to pick up kings, the best hand i saw all day, get it all in before the flop and lose to a two outer (the guy next to me said "i folded an ace" when we turned over our cards). If I win that showdown then I have a fair amount of chips and have a shot at winning the thing. as it was, I just went home a broken man. (you know... give or take).

so, i might play some more 500 sats, but no more 1ks for me, not for a while. Even though the game is good, I could pretty easily run through all my money out here and that would suck.

Anyway, at least i don't feel like an idiot or anything... I had the guy crushed and he beat me. Nothing I can do about that.

we'll see what i do tomorrow. i'll probably go back to Bellagio... take a break from the Rio

a Day without poker

PLayed no poker yesterday for the first time since i arrived in vegas... that was 12 days in a row in case you were keeping track. I was pokered out, so it was a good thing. I watched Matt play day 2 of the limit hold em event for about 15 minutes, then he busted out and we went back to our place to hang out with ivy, matt's girlfriend. we were going to see a midnight movie but I fell asleep at 10... I guess all those days of going asleep at 6 am caught up with me.

Of course I am writing this, wide awake, at 5 am. (though I did have to wake up to do a radio interview (it was a good interview, but man... being on the west coast makes it tough to do a morning radio show in the east.)

Anyway, it's back to the tables today.

day whatever

Interesting day today... didn't make many hands in 20-40, was down about 350. then , to kill time while I waited for Matt to finish day one of his WSOP event, i played a one table 175 satellite.

I picked up QQ 3 times, and got 99 to call my all in one of those times, then got 77 to call it another. I also had 99 and won a race with AK (though I had chips at that point and could afford to lose)... then I was the big chip leader. I sat back, waited for good hands and cruised to a chop with one other guy. I got 370 in cash and a 500 WSOP lammer, which I may use to play in an event or I may just sell it to Matt.

Anyway, I may have to play more satellites, because I think I have a legitimate edge there. The last time I played a single table sat, it was at Foxwoods. It cost me 350, but I came in 3rd and won 900. So, perhaps I ought to do more of them. Good times.

Day 11? day 12? They all run together

I broke my AA string yesterday, winning heads up with 2 black rockets. yay! The maddness has come to an end.

I didn't see them again since, in about 9 hours of play. But hey,m at least I won that pot.

i was in a fantastic game tonight at the Rio, sat for several hours, but couldn't pick up a hand. I literally was dealt 2 pocket pairs in that time, 33 and QQ. Happily, QQ held up.

The chips were flying all around and the play was poor, but you gotta have something to beat these people and I couldn't pull it off. while I am up for the day (a little), i dropped about 150 trying to win a lot of money in this fantatsic game.

The games have gotten tougher lately until i saw this one. I just felt i couldn't get up from it, so I played until 4 in the morning.

lost a big pot yesterday at Bellagio 30-60 when my KK was up against 5 players and an ace flopped with 2 clubs (the ace was one of the clubs). We all checked and a third club came on the turn, giving me the nut flush draw. Some guy bet and I called, but another guy raised. i figured he had the flush and i would fold if i didn't get there.

river: K.

I check, he bets, I call.

that's a 720 pot, sadly going his way. i just was trapped throughout the hand. It kinda blew.

i also tried to make a move on a guy who doesn't fold... I've really learned that lesson now.

i played well today, but only won a little bit. i am still down a fair amount for the trip. but if I keep playing like I did today, I think good things will eventually happen.

We Shall See.

day 10

I swear, one of these days I'm going to win with pocket aces.

it didn't happen today, either time I got them. it didn't happen yesterday either. And, interestingly, it was heads up each time. one time a Q flopped for QQ, another time a J turned for JJ, and two nines on the flop for K9.

those were my three pocket aces hands I got over the last 48 hours... I'm down about 1K on the trip, but if I win 2 of those three hands I'm showing at least a little profit.

I'm going to lose those three confrontations in a row (i.e., the last three times i had aces)about 1/3 of one percentage point of the time. More than half the time I win all three.

Anyway, I just can't continue to run this bad, this is what I tell myself.

I am here for a while yet, we'll see if this can turn around.

Day 9: surviving Bellagio

Played 30-60 again at Bellagio.

bought in for 1500, then I bought another 600 in chips when most of that was gone... soon i was down about 17 or so. I hung in there, came back and even was profitable for about 5 min... then the swings began: I would be down 500, the n it would be 1400, then 800... most of the evning the deficit was 4 figures... I was exhausted and played for about ten hours through to 6 in the morning. The game was only fair, but still, I hung in there. I won two pots in a row where I flopped the nut flush heads up and got paid off on every street by the pre-flop raiser, and then when I called a raise with 76s and turned trip 7s. this got me back to being down only 600. I decided that was pretty good (as , every time I was down 1400, I would wonder why i hadn't gotten up to leave when i was only down 700 or so) and got the hell out of there. It was about 6:30 in the morning when I did so...
It was a long fun session. and while I lost, and am back to being down for the trip, it sure could have been worse.

2 more goodies from day 7

1. I won with KK for the first time since I got here! yes! It only took seven days to win with kings. Granted it was a small pot... but I'll take what I can get.

2. Two guys got into it at Bellagio last night... both older men. one guy (sitting to my immediate right) was unhappy that the button open raised with k2s and made a flush against his JJ. He called the flusher a donkey twice and then offered/threatened to play him 50/100 heads up at the Rio. (flusher's response; i wouldn't play with someone as rude as you, etc etc.) Me and the only other internet kid at the table were laughing, both because it was ridiculous and because it is exactly the kind of thing that happens online all the time... just like online, they did not actually go and play heads up.

Bonus goodie: when I left the table at 3 am, the guy on my right shook my hand and announced to the table that I was the nicest poker player he had played with since he'd come to Vegas a week before. "Most people are punks," he said.

day 7

I played at Bellagio for the first time tonight. It was 30-60, which was interesting only because it's the highest I've played. I bought in for 1600, and watched half of it trail away in the first two hours or so. It is a testament to something that I have no emotional reaction to this anymore. I know where I made mistakes, and where i just got unlucky (I lost a big pot (750 or so)when I flopped an open ended straight draw and a flush draw, made the straight on the turn, made the flush on the river but lost to the nut flush). It was a crazy game: one guy was raising constantly and calling raises constantly, a woman to my immediate right was three betting pre-flop seemingly all the time as well.

people started to respect my raises and suddenly, we were playing six handed. I beat the table up a bit... both three betting the woman with pocket 3's, but also I had a fortunate instance where three people limped in and I had AA in the big blind. I raised, and another guy re-raised. I four bet it and it got everyone else out. Two guys were trapped for two bets pre-flop... there was 390 in the pot before the flop... and I was heads up with a guy who folded to my flop bet (now that's a little weird... I'm thinking J10 suited. He did say "I wanted everyone else to come along too," as he folded.)

Anyway, I ended up just a little for the session, but I came back and even made some money. It's nice to be comfortable at 30-60... I guess I'll play some more and see what happens. I certainly felt like one of the best players at the table.

The lifestyle is fun too... Wake up whenever, chill out, decide what casino I'm going to, and cruise on over. The casinos buy me dinner because I'm playing there, so that's nice too.

FREE FOOD! Love it.

day 6

I have to amend the last sentence of the last post. they really aren't a lot of cute girls out here. There are a lot of women who really need to be thought of as hot, but something about that is mildly unattractive.

anyway, I played 20-40 at the rio and was down 500 almost instantly. I hung in there, won some big pots, and ended up 870.

Later, I was waiting / checking on matt (he went deep in the pot limit omaha world series event) and played some 10-20 just to kill time and dropped 300. i ran into the nuts repeatedly there. i made a straight, someone made a better straight. i made a flush, someone made a full house. i had 2 pair, someone had broadway. It was a miracle I only lost 300, to tell you the truth. (yay!)

Day 4

Day three was relatively uneventful, except for one 20-40 hand at the Mirage:

I raise in early position with KQ offsuit. I get called by the big blind.

Flop is Q 5 Q, rainbow. check, I bet, he calls.
turn: 2. still rainbow. check, i bet, he calls.
river: A. check, i bet, he raises. I look at him and say, "do you have 3-4? I'm just gonna call. I have three queens. " my man rolls over 3-4 offsuit. He called on the flop with 4 high and literally no draw! wowza. I dropped about 150 yesterday... not a lot.

today was 20-40 at the rio. I started off winning a big pot when i flopped a set of aces and made a boat on the river, and I had a guy raise me on the end, so i got three bets out of him.

Then i lost a huge pot when my aces were cracked by 4-5 offsuit (she made quads), and her and some other guy were raising like crazy on the turn. I beat the other guy out of a side pot, but it was a small one. we capped on the turn, so that's 200 right there.

Flopped a set of 9s and won a very big pot from the 4-5 woman (who was so insane that i just had to keep playing, even though i was feeling kinda done... it was clearly a very profitiable table when she was around. she 3 bet the turn on a K high board with KQ, with 2 other players in the hand, and then was upset when it turned out she was beat (which she really had to be).

I also won a big pot at the end when I limped with 89 of clubs and the flop came Qc 7c 8. I turned a 9 and rivered another eight for a boat, and had a guy bet into me. I guess he made a straight on the turn, but he checked the turn and then just called, and then bet the river when he was behind. that was a nice pot too... I left up 700 or so for the session.

I'm still down for the trip, but now it's a relatively small amount...

Oh yeah... there are a bunch of cute girls out here too.

Day 2

Day 2 went better than day one. I was in the Rio all day. Matt was in the HORSE tourney, but didn't have many chips at the start of day 2, so i was going to hang around and wait and see if he survived. I wanted to play 20-40, but the line was so long that I played 10-20 instead. i had a great time, and matt busted quickly, and went to play golf. I decided to wait for the spurs game(which was only about 2 hours from then.), so i hung out and played. Then the game was on in the poker room so i stayed for a while longer... then the spurs were winning big so i kept playing. 6 or so hours after i sat down, Matt called and wanted to eat, so i finally left. i was up about 25 big bets, which is good, but only knocks out about a third of what i lost yesterday. these games are so good though. and still, i didn't run very well. I got aces three times in about 30 minutes, and lost with all three, all to 2 outers, once on the turn, twice on the river. Even so, i had a great time hanging out, guessing people's ages (I was betting with a women about who could get clsoer to the correct guess, i won or choped literally every time, and we did it like ten times...) it was really a blast.

i truly enjoy just hanging out at a poker table, talking to people, messing around, and winning. It's good times.

Day 1 in vegas

Well, we got here at about 5 in the morning. slept for a while, and went to the Rio for matt to play in the WSOP. I went to the Mirage and played 20-40 for several hours. the game was fantastic, but I got killed. sample hand:

raise, call, I 3 bet with AK, call, call.
flop: A 9 7 check, bet, i raise, call, 3 bet (and now he's all in), i four bet(trust me, against these guys, it was the right move), call.
turn K. check, i bet, call.
river 9. he bets, i call. he turns over 910 off and rakes the pot.

That's how it went. i'm not complaining... It's the kind of game where i can win a lot... hopefully that will start happening soon. I'm almost certainly going back tomorrow... though the spurs game is on, and since i win 1200 if they win the title, you bet i'm watching that one.

Meet me at Fox -Woods.

Foxwoods was fun and went well. We got in late wed. night so I didn’t play at all and we just hung out and went to sleep.

Thursday, Matt went and played the 3K tournament and I played about 5 hours of 20-40 limit hold em. Then we went home. Last time (and the only time, I should add) I played this high matt took 50% of my wins and losses. But this time, all the money was mine to win or lose.

I did pretty well… won a little more than 570 in that time… I fluctuated a few times to up about 500, down 150 and did that at least 1 or 2 more times…

I won one big pot where it was raised and called, and I called in the big blind with AJ. Flop: 910Q rainbow. I check, pf raiser bets, 3^rd guy raises, I call with my open ended straight draw. Pf raiser 3 bets, 3^rd guy caps, I call. Pot is already kinda big now (370). Turn is a lovely King. I’ve got the nuts. I bet out, pf raiser looks upset but calls, 3^rd guy raises (!) I rereaise. Pf raiser looks sick. “I flopped the nuts,” he says. I know you have ace jack. Then he calls. I am sitting there, sure the 3^rd guy has a set, just praying the board doesn’t pair. The river is a 10, pairing the board. Now I’m losing to a full house, which I’m sure the 3^rd guy has. I check. Pf raiser checks. 3^rd guy checks!

They both have KJ. They flopped the best possible hand… and I had only the two remaining kings in the deck to win… but hit it I did… and raked a 730 pot. That was a cool hand.

Don’t worry, I got sucked out on a lot… but that was a cool hand.

The play was horrific. I can’t believe how good the table was… There’s no way a normal 20/40 game is that good… guys calling raises with 105 suited, and then calling bets on the flop needing runner-runner clubs to win, with 10 high. That happened a fair amount.

Seriously, I could play this game for the rest of my life and do well.

I’m psyched to go out to vegas next month…matt says there are some fantastic 30-60 games out there… I’m psyched to play them. It will be another jump for me, but I can certainly beat a 20/40 game, and I imagine the 30-60s aren’t much better (though nothing will be as good as today…).

no more hate

Ok, I'm over all my crying. I am no longer going out of my mind, which is nice. I had a good day today, and did alright the past few, after taking about 3 days off.

I'm going with Matros to Foxwoods this week and am bring a bunch of my own money, more then I've ever brought ot a casino before... in fact. more than I've ever held in my hand before (cash anyway). So that's kinda neat, as long as I don't lose it all...

I feel ready to go...

We're also planning on going to vegas next month for a while, he's going to play the world series while I play cash games... hopefully sucessfully. I might also play an event or two... we'll see.

I hate poker

It's been four days of running bad. four days of losing to complete idiots. people who constantly put their money in bad and win anyway. I am going out of my mind.

a few examples:

heads up tourney, 100 buck buy in: I have KK. villian raises. I reraise. he calls. There's maybe 320 in the pot, we both have around 1300 left. flop: 356. I bet, he goes all in. I call. he has ace five. turn: 7. river 4. we split with the straight on the board.

today, i just finished with a guy where I lost, in consecutive all ins: 76s (me) against KQ (him). AQ(me) vs K6 (him), AQ (me) vs. 77(him), k7 (me) againstA5 him.

I just want to win one of those. just one.

yesterday, I had 810 flopped top pair, one guy bet, I raised, some other guy called, original bettor folded. turn 10. I have top two. That guy bets into me. there are three flush cards out there, so I call. river ace. he bets, I call. he has ace ten. if the moron is going to call 2 bets on the flop with nothing, I really need the poker gods to make him pay for that a fair amount of the time... I am literally in day four of this. I've dropped well over a thousand maccaranas with all the idiocy and it's driving me crazy.

I wasn't gonna play at all today, decided to play one $50 heads up match. near the end, the pot has about 360 in it. On the turn I go all in for over 700 . He calls me with a king high flush draw, no straight draw, no hand of any kind. lordie.

anyway, this was supposed to be cathartic, but it hasn't been.


So that's it. i'm offcially taking a break from poker. Maybe a day, maybe more. at least 24 hours. period. I gotta excise this crap, asap.

why we love poker.

So, I'm playing a heads up cash game, 5/10 limit. There's no betting cap. we put in - I kid you not - 17 raises before the flop. it's about half of our stacks (give or take). This means that , a pot that started out with 7.50 in it now has 200 in it, before the flop.

I had the only hand I could have there, pocket aces. After a while, maybe around raise # 10, I start to think he has the other two aces. if it was someone else, maybe I would have given him credit for aces earlier... but he wasn't very good and I really didn't think he had the other 2 aces (not that it mattered anyway, I want to get as much money in the pot as it humanly possible there, since if he has 2 aces, it's almost certainly a split pot))

He didn't.

Oh yeah, he didn't have 2 kings either.

Needless to say,. he was out of money not long after that.

There's no question the internet is a much tougher place to play than it used to be. The games are harder, for sure. But, as long as there is a guy like this around... it's still pretty good.

playing for dough at foxwoods

Well, I went to Foxwoods with Matt Matros and "Action Bob", a cool guy who finished 5th in a Borgata WPT event...

I played 2-5 No limit hold em for the first two days... won 380 the first day, most of it on 2 hands... one where i flopped quads and the other where I flopped a flush... the original raiser bet 25 bucks, another guy made it 50, i made it 150... they BOTH called. the turn was a blank, i moved in and they folded.

The next day, i just couldn't make a hand and lost about 520...

During all of this, Matt and rob are playing $1100 super sats trying to win their way into Friday's WPT event. Also, they both played the 2k and 3k tourneys this week. Matt got a lot of chips in the 3k, but busted near the bubble.

Meanwhile, I played an act 2 (250 buy in), where the top 2 finishers (out of 10) get seats into a 1100 super sat. when i sat down, everyone wanted to put in another hundred for 3rd... so, 3rd got 900 bucks (one guy wouldn't do it). we got down to 3, and all decided we wanted a seat, so we played it out. (I was actually pretty indifferent, but figured i should at least try to win the 1100 seat)... I was in the BB, the SB went all in, i had 1010 and called. he had AJ, ace on the flop, and I have nine hundy in my pocket.

I played some 10-20 limit as well for a few hours... basically borke even (even though the play was pretty weak).

The next day (wed), Matros encouraged me to play 20-40 limit hold'em, but I told him i didn't think i had the bankroll to do it... he told me he'd take half my action... splitting the wins and losses up evenly. that was all I needed... so I sat down with a thou in chips at a table and got going...

the play was pretty bad, even at this level. sadly, I kept flopping sets and losing $500 pots... so I went back to the well and bought in for another thou. I was soon down to 300 of the second thou went I made a little comeback... still, me and matros were down over 1200 for the day... not ideal, but I was convinced I was just running bad and I had a significant edge in the game.

I played again today, buying in for 900. i played for a few hours and left with 1755. that was much more like it! I got very lucky once (saving me 160) where i hit a 3 outer on the river,a dn one other time where I went runner runner flush... (probably worth about 200), but besides that, i just ran average. i won a big pot with KK where four of us capped the betting preflop, and the flop was 234. I bet, 2 calls. turn 4. i bet, 2 calls. river 4. I bet, they muck. as the dealer was putting out the river, I'm thinking... no ace, no five, no queen (cause I put the one good player in the hand on queens). He claimed later to have jacks, but i don't see how he could have folded on the river with JJ with 540 in the pot and it only costing him 40. if i had 1010 or AK he could have won... it certainly was worth a call there.

besides that, it was all pretty normal. I didn't receive any really bad beats and so i was pretty far up after just a few hours. good times.

My new thought is to take some serious cash out of my savings and play 20-40 for a week at "The Woods" (or, really, at any casino)... I am now very confident that I'll do just fine. as it stands right now, I'm only up a few hundred bucks for the trip, but I know where my edge is... no limit is fine, but i can see all the mistakes the limit players are making, so i know I have a clear edge in that game...

wow, the most cash chips I have ever had in front of me was about 800 back when i played a lot of no limit... today i had over 1700 in chips in front of me... that was pretty cool.

You gotta feel for this guy.

This is one of those hands that just sucks for him. sometimes I get on a roll posting bad beats, so I thought I'd post a good beat, for once.


I'm not sure there was anything more he could do... maybe if he 3 bet the flop?
naw, I'd call hoping to improve. Bet out on the turn? I can't fold there. Really, once I called pre flop with my sorry hand (which I did only because I'd been raised by people in the small blind all day (not him though, this was my first hand at the table) and I had position...)


He played it great.... and how can he put me on a flush? He's gotta be putting me on the case ace, or maybe two pair...

Anyway, I'm going on record as this is exactly the kind of play that I complain about when I'm running bad.

Full Tilt Poker Game #1939718267: Table Alto (6 max) - $5/$10 - Limit Hold'em - 15:00:28 ET - 2007/03/07
Seat 1: diz73 ($415.50)
Seat 2: maxfbp2k ($57.50)
Seat 3: Callz_w_air ($588)
Seat 4: eazy on the ice ($67)
Seat 5: Nilandros ($385)
Seat 6: redmanjew ($300)
Nilandros posts the small blind of $2.50
redmanjew posts the big blind of $5
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redmanjew [2c Jc]
diz73 folds
maxfbp2k folds
Callz_w_air folds
eazy on the ice folds
Nilandros raises to $10
redmanjew calls $5
*** FLOP *** [8s Ac 2d]
Nilandros bets $5
redmanjew raises to $10
Nilandros calls $5
*** TURN *** [8s Ac 2d] [7c]
Nilandros checks
redmanjew bets $10
Nilandros raises to $20
redmanjew calls $10
*** RIVER *** [8s Ac 2d 7c] [Kc]
Nilandros bets $10
redmanjew raises to $20
Nilandros raises to $30
redmanjew raises to $40
Nilandros calls $10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
redmanjew shows [2c Jc] (a flush, Ace high)
Nilandros mucks
redmanjew wins the pot ($157) with a flush, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $160 | Rake $3
Board: [8s Ac 2d 7c Kc]
Seat 1: diz73 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: maxfbp2k didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Callz_w_air didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: eazy on the ice (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Nilandros (small blind) mucked [As Ad] - three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: redmanjew (big blind) showed [2c Jc] and won ($157) with a flush, Ace high