Thursday, July 28, 2005

Al Can't Hang

I've seen Al at least twice at the Borgata in the past year, but both times I got so wrapped up in my NL game I forgot to say hello. His blog is hilarious.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

AC trip recap

Drove down 630am Fri, left 2pm Sat:

Session 1 at Borg:First hand, lose 300 buyin when AQ spikes his Q on river aftet calling my 2pair allin raise on turn.rebuy.hour later, lose 200 when straight draw hits higer than my made strait and flush draw, he had 6 outs. Ugh. Again, all-in on turn.buy 100 more.Lose 250 more to same guy with AK vs AQ when he hits 3-outer on river again, again after getting him allin on turn.Cash out down 110 at 2 pm.

Drive to Trop, 10 minutes after they got an ax murderer from NY out front. Weird.buyin to NL300 game. first hand, get all my money in with top 2 pair against slowplayed bottom set. I suckout! Ha-haa, kiddo.

Get pocket AAand play perfectly vs local rock on my right. Q-hi board and I think he had KK. Bad players at this tabe who think they are god's gift.Cashout up $554.run into my two buddies just walking in to casino. Go back to new nl 300 table.

First hand, split a 600 pot when I hit a 4-outer to river a higher fullhouse. Didn't trust my read on that one, mistake.
See new alltime stereotype at the table:Crazy Asian Gambler Dude with Tourette's syndrome.This is not a joke. Rocking constantly, facial tics, no cursing, constantlyl doing chip trix with both hands. For 5 hours straight. Total LAG.

Get KK, raise 15. 4 callers including him. Flop comes KQ 5o. I check, he raises 25, I call all fold. Turn is 7o. I bet 25 he raises 75 I call. River is Ten. I bet he reraises all in, I call, he flips J9o. Thanks , sir.

Rebuy 300.Have 75s, call 10 raise pf. Flop comes 963o. Mmm, belly busters. Tourette's bets 25, I call another caller. Turn is K, he bets 30, I call, folded. river is 4. Thank you sir. He bets 50 I raise75 all-in. He is thinking and rocking for about 3 minutes, halfway thru says, can he play 75? but I don't react. He was THISCLOSE to calling, he wanted to but did not. Maybe he had set of 3s or put me on set of kings again. He laid it down which was an AMAZING read.

hour later get AJ, flop comes AA9. I bet all fold to good player on my right. Turn is 7, he goes all-in, I know he doesn't have a 7 so I ignore my intuition and call. He flips 99 and I don't suckout this time.

Down to $32 get, KK push all-in. get 2 callers. Win. Get KT, flop comes KTx, win again. Win next hand.Leave at 930 down 184. My buddy says 'aren't you glad you ran into us before taking a nap?'Remind self to set him up with 300-lb AC hooker for later.

Our other buddy got crushed too.Eat at Palm. Mmm-good. Wager on Eagles with two idiot friends from NE.Head to Boragata, cannot get on bj tables unless plaing $50 per hand. Go to craps table, take out $2000 marker. 2 cold shooters, 1 okay, I get the dice and have not been hot for two years. $25min table. Roll about 15 minutes, make $800. Lose, lose, lose, lose win, lose, lose, cashout oup 125. Woulda left up 600 but had the two buddies in tow.

Back to Trop at 1am. First two hands again, I'm all in with top set and flopped straight, bust two small stacks for up 250. Dwindle, dwindle, get reraised 3 times on flop when my good cards totally miss by the same guy. fold like chump each time. Tired. Cashout up 95. Great, great rockin' table, 2 good players and that was it. Go to bed, wake up 4 hours later for NL tourney.

My favorite poker quote

"I don't need to learn any more poker theory. I already know how to play MUCH better than I do."

Wow, that sure rings a bell.

Borgata NL500

Went to the Borgata for a few hours this week. NL 300 was packed so it was a choice of short wait for 6/12 or NL 500 2/5 blinds. Well, what do YOU think I chose? :)

Same table, same seat as I sat in on 10/20 last time where I got cold-decked for an hour. Not a good sign. Bot in for 380.Young table. Recognized one player from when I played NL300 on Sat am...it's Monday afternoon and he's there? That's a pro. He's a decent player, too. Not great, but aggressive when he comes in - sometimes loose, sometimes tight, will call with his good hands on the end.

First hand, AQc. Looking good [in CO]. I raise 15. All fold. Hmmm, this table plays different [tighter] than NL300. I win $7! Woo-hoo! Feel the rush, baby. Outta my way, you weak-tight, Patchd00d-imitating pink skirt wearers! Outta...MY....way!

Two hands later, JhJd. I raise $5 UTG2. 3 callers. Interesting.Flop Qh 8h 6h. I bet 15, fold, fold, Solid-Aggressive Asian Guy re-raises me $25. Crap. Call me a weakie, but I laid it down. I'm losing to any Q, him having the flush already - calling from late position with any two little hearts even, and if he has the A or K flush draw [or AhQx] I'm almost dead. I feel terrible if any card but a J hits. I'll get him next time. [This guy turned out to be the best player at the table.]

A few hands later I get JJ again. Open-raise $10 in late position. Again get 3-4 callers. [nobody on our 'side' of the table had their bets respected.] Guy next to me was Mr. Tight Jerry-Garcia looking guy, sat out a lot of hands. He was a caller. Flop comes AsTs3c. I don't have any of that color. He bet out, got a caller, so I folded. Not happy. He won without showing, but I put him on nothing less than AJs or AQo. He played more like TJ than any [of the few] NL players I've sat with. Tight and aggressive. Every flop it seemed had a ten in it.

I finally won a hand playing JTs when it came all babies and betting out aggressively flop and turn. Guy thought and folded on turn.
Next orbit look down at AcAs in EP. Well, about time. Bet $15 again, hoping for a caller, get 3 - LP, SB, BB!Flop comes Ah9s8d. Nice. I bet $20, figuring this is the perfect place to underbet the pot. LP calls, fold, fold. Turn comes Kc. Perfect. I hope LP has AKo or KQs or something.I accidentally string-bet $50 - 25 and 25. No go. I rarely ever make this mistake. So I bet $25 - I figure, eh, no problem. He's calling anyway, right?Older Guy raises me back $100!I bark out 'All-in' faster than Thome turns on a belt-high fastball. I'm in for probably about $400, maybe a touch less, like 350.Shockingly, he calls.
I can't wait to see it, hoping he doesn't have a draw like JT. He flips 99 and everyone Ooohs! when I flip the set of Aces. No quads and I take home a big pot. Several comments from around the table after that about how I played AA perfectly that time - not including the string bet as they knew I meant to be $50. He was calling anyway with his set of 9s, and he said so afterwards - I got his whole stack and he rebought.

Next hand Jerry Garcia crushes Young Pro with Tens full to beat another pocket Aces! Glad I got my hand when I did, because it would have been a tough laydown that I probably wouldn't make.Right before I left I got pocket 9s, raise $5, 4 callers, from EP. Flop came J97o. Sweet. I bet $15 again. Other Asian guy calls. Turn is a Q. I bet $40. Asian guy thinks, thinks, thinks, mucks, asks if I had a straight. I say nope, a set. He says 'That Q really hurt you then, I was definitely calling unless a Q or T came.'A lotta guys were playing KTo and QTo, even.

A huge, huge pot [2000+?] was split when both guys had trip Ts with Q kicker. After that is when I started playing Any Ten because 40% of the flops had 1 or 2 tens in it. I folded T3o one time because even Bad Me can't play that, flop came KT3o, a huge pot developed, and KQ won it with top pair. :)

Anyhoo, I bluffed out a guy heads-up for small, right before the BB came back to me and left. Up $500+.As the dealers at the Taj have been saying, "Those NL games at the Borgata are squishy-soft." Other than Young Pro, I'd say there were only two players at the table who were better than average - Tight Asian guy and Jerry Garcia dude. Rest of them were 20 somethings for the most part killing an afternoon. Maybe staying there, maybe a week off, maybe they work night or swing shift, who knows?

I thought I played well, the cards helped, I continue to improve my read on people live, and the only hand I wonder about is the first JJ hand with the three heart flop. MUBS? Half our flops had three of a suit if no Tens were there so lotsa guys were playing even 85s.

Daytrip to LV last year

1)HE 6-12. +80 in one hour.
2)HE 6-12 Wed am. +110 in two hours.
3) NL 500 buy-in, started with only 5 of us early Mirage. [all Mirage]+945 in 4 hours.
Also folded a flush draw with gutshot SF draw to 2 all-ins, and of course hit the K-hi diamond S-flush. [set of 9s took it!]I got good cards, but I did not suckout on the river once the whole time.

I either had the goods, or made it on the turn, on folded before then. Probably a good way to play in LV.

I did tilt one local player who was running bad at 10/20, came to our table and immediately started antagonizing people, first hand he shows his live hand to my friend, who is live. My friend folds. Other players ask for a ruling. Room manager comes over and correctly declares his hand dead. Guy erupts, as if he can go showing his cards to anyone he wants whenever he wants.

A few hands later, he throws $15 out after someone raises $6 pf, and then goes ballistic when dealer correctly calls that a raise. He asks the 3 other players if they want to chop. Ha! Then he starts running down this LL HE stakes. {Yet he never left.}So I stole my personal favorite from this board. After only a few hands he was critiquing someone's play who I had played with the night before who was fairly good. I said," Oh goodie! Poker Lessons!! Are you going to teach our end of the table too?"

Everyone but him loved that one. Then he asked me if I was a junior stockbroker, which really made me laugh, after I politely told him I was from NYC when he inquired. Shortly thereafter, my friend and I went to the NL table [he lost] and I had my nice run.

When I was leaving, I stopped back at the 6/12 table to say 'bye' to the guy I had sat near the nite before, and Mr Tilt went even more tilty when he was my 3 racks of chips. He kept asking if I was the guy's stockbroker. Funniest thing I've seen in ages.

All about the table selection

Played with the work crowd again, 10/20 HE and some Omaha hi/8.8 guys total most of the nite. Won 27BB getting mostly an assortment of horrid hole cards that I'd fold, or would miss the flop, or flop would hit me right in the head. Only had 1 Group 1 starting hand all nite. Didn't river one person. Best pocket pair I got all nite was 77 - which took down a huge pot with a full house. 77 won about 5 monster pots total. Someone had low-quads again, second time in a row.

Then we played a quick NL freezeout tourney to close the nite, which I also won. I don't know how to play short-handed, but nobody else did either. After the 2nd place survived 2 all-ins I thought I'd lose, but I put him all-in with a flush draw and won, finally. I'd say 4 other players knew how to play at an average/slightly better level, one who's always there is so aggressive I can't tell, and two beginners, one learning fast and one-super-smart guy who is learning way too fast and has already figured you can win an extra 5-6 pots per nite by being super-aggressive when you enter a pot. I hate those smart[er] guys. :)

In Omaha, I finally had a flopped FH stand up - Aces over Kings with an AAK flop. Only won small pot, though. Not too many bettors with that.The host's friend, let's call him Jerry, was the worst 'tilt player' I have ever played with, in or out of a casino. He never got good cards. The flop never hit him. He'd lose on the river. Etc. And this guy is not working right now because he's made so much money he wanted some time off. He, and the host, were complaining because I 'folded every hand,' which as you all know, is a joke given some of the starting hands I like to play.

Amusing, I get 98o in SB, complete with 5 callers [lotta family pots] flop comes T67, I drag a huge pot from the host. He complains. It's like my first pot in an hour or so since the FH. About 45 mins later, I get A3c in the cutoff in another large unraised pot. I limp in. Flop comes 332. Jerry bets, a few callers, I call. Turn is a blank. Jerry bets, 1 caller, I call. River is a Queen, he bets, MP folds, I raise, he looks at me, says 'what the hell are you playing?' and calls. Mucks disgustedly [AQo?] when I flip A3c.

He proceeded to be On Tilt the rest of the nite. Since he hosts a NL500 local game as well, he considers himself the 'expert,' even though he's only expert at losing his whole buy-in. He bluffed a nice pot with 9-hi, I folded A-hi on the river [A6o from the button] and I guess he thought that made him the man. So he's been berating me all nite for not playing enough hands, continues when I won the A3c pot.

30 mins later, look down and see A3c again in MP. Nice for this game. Limp in, about 5 players, flop comes. 433o. Checked to me I bet - thot about slow=playing-, 2 callers. Turn is a 8s - two spades. I bet, Jerry says "Are you playing A3 again?" Other player calmly replies I could have pockets, A3 again, flush or straight draw, etc. Of course I win this hand also when a blank hits the river, and he says "Doesn't it embarrass you to play that trash?"No, I reply, dragging another good pot.

On Tilt, he continues, "You don't feel bad we always know your starting cards on the flop?"'I can't hear you Jerry, your chips are blocking my ears.'He then proceeds to tell me to stay out of "his" pots, --he's directly on my left, and when I say 'whatever' says, "Don't talk to me any more!"

People are laughing at this point, mostly at him, but trying to be semi-nice as he's the host's friend. I simply ask, 'You never play A3 suited? From any position?'"No," he replies haughtily. "I never play that crap."Suits me just fine, I think to myself. I'd play it in at least 4 spots at a full or super-loose table. "And stop talking to me!" he says.

Frickin' hilarious Tilt, one of my best. When he left he walked the other way around the table, shaking hands but refused to shake mine or even look in my direction. Heck, I wasn't even trying! Never seen a guy rich enough to quit a very hi-paying job moan about losing a few hundered like that. Sad.

Then I put the host on Tilt playing Th9s from the BB. Flop come QJTs. Gee, that fit a little bit. Host bets, I call [no A or Ks is going anywhere I figure, and my 9 isn't exactly power - good move?] one more caller. Turn is the 8c. SB bets I raise LP folds, SB calls. River a blank he checks I bet he calls, flips over KsQd. Asks me what the hell I was doing playing that flop [!!] after teasing me for folding the past hour - "Four corners," he would scoff.

I think I put 3 of the other players on Tilt last night, the third guy right off the bat when my 7s full of Jacks beat his AJ trips. I only took one bad beat last nite, Omaha, when my top set of Kings got rivered by a Jack for a gutshot straight. That's Omaha for you, real big pot too.Be interesting to see if I get invited back...they didn't mind when I dropped 150 when I played NL for the first time.

Never thought I'd do well with the starting cards I was getting, one hour I got 63o 3 times in a row, then 72o 3times, then T4o 3 times in a row. It was also fun to play a game where a raise on the turn or river actually meant something.

My Very Expensive Thoughts at NL...

1) He's bluffing
2) I know what hand he's on
3) That flop missed everyone
4) My K-hi flush is best
5) Who cares if the board paired? I got AA!
6) That guy always limps, he's got nothing.
7) I can't fold this hand. No way.
8) I saw Lederer do this once.
9) Damn, am I ever stuck. The only way I can win it back quickly is at the 15/30 tables.
10) He always re-raises, so this one is meaningless.
11) I'll trick him by playing 55 like it's AA, and vice versa.
12) My pot odds are good
13) My implied pot odds are good, since he'll call a raise on the end
14) I'll just call on the button with QQ
15) I can outplay them after the flop

My favorite AA Thread from 2+2

My first Tourney - Trop $225 NL - an interesting hand

We are about slightly more than halfway thru the Trop NL $225 tourney. I have a good stack of exactly 19,900 chips after starting with 5k. Many players are solid, some calling stations, some obvious deer-in-headlights. [about 65-75 players left. Maybe less started with 160 no rebuys.]

I am at Table 1 Seat 2, so all the extra players are getting moved to my table so it's constantly full of new players. Blinds are now 1k/2k, antes are probably 200.I am in BB with 4d, 3d. Might have to play this one. UTG raises to 4k. MP calls. SB folds.

Okay, for $2k I'm in. No-brainer, right? [comments, pls]Flop comes 5d, 3c, 2d.

Fireworks start going off in my head. I figure there's no way I'm not ahead in Equity at this point, if not outright.I check. [yes/no/depends on?]UTG raises 10k! MP can't fold fast enough. UTG hadn't been on my left for that long, but no way he min-raised with 22 or 55 is my edumacated guess.

I check UTG's stack and it looks bigger than mine, but I can't tell with all the pretty colors.I re-raise all in after 5 seconds thought. The table is understandably surprised. [good, bad, Ugly?] I wouldn't mind a fold here, either.UTG is directly next to me, I can feel his eyes on me, but I never look away from the flop.

After 45 seconds, he calls, which surprises me, because now I am certain he is behind. I mean dead-solid certain.He calls, flips Kd Jd. Wow, what a call. I guess he was getting odds. Do you make this call?Turn is Qs. No help there.River is a Diamond. The lovely, lovely Ace of Diamonds.

ClueBoy jumps up for a second and yells, before he realizes. Dealers says 'Straight Flush...' and the entire crowd ooohed and aaahed. It was damn funny. Then he says, you have me outchipped, and I'm all like, No way, dude.Turns out he had 19,980.

I win. HGHN.After that I hit my high of 61k in chips before getting nothing but 96o and 74o for two hours. I finally bust out with two tables and 2xBB with AKo against 42s.

Amarillo Slim's 10 rules of Poker

1. Play the players more than you play the cards.
2. Choose the right opponents. If you don't see a sucker at the table, you're it.

3. Never play with money you can't afford to lose.
4. Be tight and aggressive; don't play many hands, but when you do, be prepared to move in.

5. Always be observing at a game. The minute you're there, you're working.
6. Watch the other players for “tells” before you look at your own cards.
7. Diversify your play so other players can't pick up tells on you.
8. Choose your speed based on the direction of the game. Play slow in a fast game, and play fast in a slow game.

9. Be able to quit a loser,and for goodness' sake, keep playing when you're winning.

10. Conduct yourself honorably, so you're always invited back.

The Worst Poker 'beat' I've ever seen, tip your dealer on the way out...

Tight player and LAG2 are in a hand. 4 players limp in for $15. I fold my 62o.
Flop comes A 8 8. Tight player bets $30, LAG2 raises to $60, TP calls.
Turn is a blank. TP checks, LAG2 says, "I bet..." but does not get a chance to bet as the dealer immediately turns over a King on the river.
LAG2 is seated next to the dealer. LAG2 verbal intentions were audible and obvious to all.LAG2 objects to dealer not giving him a chance to bet [particularly after he raised on the flop.]
TP says dealer must bury and re-deal the river, obviously - can't have two bets - turn and river - on the river card. LAG2 gets visibly upset at the dealer.
Dealer redeals the river, another blank. TP bets all-in.Cursing loudly, LAG2 folds, and flips over his pocket Kings.

It gets worse. TP shows his A8o, for what would have been the worse full house on the river, previously. LAG2 goes on massive tilt, as dealer error costs him 3-4 hundred dollars of TP's money, and some of his own.

He left shortly thereafter, still cursing up a blue streak.Even I felt his pain.

Just starting

I created this to comment on a friend's blog, well, several friends. I play poker, and if you don't know why I chose this particular name for my site, just google it.