Poker Notes

What Goes Up Can Also Go Back Down

2012-01-22T13:10:00.008-05:00

After my successful cash game run at Hollywood Casino I was primed to reach for the next level and hit a five digit score. My fantasy was in full bloom thinking about what I would do with all my winnings. I played most of the whole Saturday but nothing was working and after losing $1K I decided I wasn't in the best mind set and departed before anymore damage could ensue. Nothing particularly wrong but mainly coming out on the wrong side of the coin flip. After a home game on Sunday evening I decided to leave the home game and make a beeline back to the casino since Monday was a Holiday. I would tweak my game and get back that $1K loss. I should have gone home. Everything went wrong and I probably should have taken notes to review my play. Another $2K down and it was looking like my "break-even" moniker was becoming a permanent fixture. My main culprit appeared that I was playing a bit too loose and needed to tighten up my play. My last PLO hand was fun. Flop is Q9x. I hold KTx and after a pot and repot I decide to gamble and go all in with about $500. Turns out my opponents have QQx and 99x. The turn is a beautiful Ace giving me the nut straight. The river is....wait for it.... a nine. Not nice for the guy who flopped top set.

During my omaha play at Hollywood Casino I've met several of the regulars. One guy is nicknamed Prince but his actual name is Jim Boyd. Looking at his Hendon Mob page, Prince has some decent results. He is a true grinder and has played with most of the old school guys. While living in WV he would travel to AC, Las Vegas and California to play poker for weeks at a time and then return home like a traveling salesman. Dana Smith wrote an article about Jim Boyd in Card Player magazine on September 28, 2001 called "Mr. Foxwoods, aka 'The Comeback Kid'" calling Jim a modern day road-warrior. Unfortunately you have to have a subscription to read the article.

Yesterday I returned back to Hollywood in an attempt to recoup some of my past losses. Trying a different tack I bought in for the minimum which is $300. The buy-in limits are $300-$1500. I actually lost to a 2 outer and 1 outer for two buy-in's. The other three buy-in's were lost due to coin flips or other boring reasons. After my initial $1,500 investment I was actually able to recoup my recent losses. It all came about due to one hand, my biggest cash game pot to date worth slightly less than $5K. I limped with 3456 and the flop is 256 giving me the nut straight and top two pair. The last part is especially important. Redraws are an important element of PLO. First shorter stacked opponent pots, next shorter stacked opponent repot's putting him all in. Huge stack simply smooth calls. I can't ask for a better flop so I go all in for about $1,700 and the big stack calls which puts three of us all in. Turn is a six, river is inconsequential. I think I may have lost my nut straight hand due to the board pairing not realizing that I actually have a boat. Both short stacks also had the nut straight (3,4) and the big stack had 7889. Scope. Sweet.

Early Exit from Hollywood Casino PLO Game

2012-01-14T22:32:00.002-05:00

Got up early Saturday morning and headed back to Hollywood Casino in WV. When I got there the $5/$5 PLO game was running from Friday night. Apparently Friday night there were two PLO tables. I steadily built my $500 to $1K but then bled back down to $500 and lost a coin flip and was down to $35. I decided to play with what I had rather than reloading right away. My high point was taking the $35 to about $280 but eventually had to reload for another $500. My exit was nothing too exciting when I pushed on a flop of KQ4 with KQxx but my opponent held 44 and made quads. After taking all my chips he said he wanted to see my cards as I was flipping them toward the muck face down. The dealer retrieved the cards that hadn't hit the muck and turned them face up. He was authorized to see my cards but I didn't appreciate the move after being felted. My stop loss is $1,500 for the night but I felt my play and head weren't really in the game so I decided to come home early. So much for my goal to leave with a five figure payday. As I was leaving my friend who last weekend left after getting beat by a two outer was once again leaving after....you guessed it, getting beat by another two outer. I think I feel a nickname brewing.

Mr. Bubble Boy

2012-01-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

After returning from our Christmas trip to Florida my wife decided that we should spend New Year's in Delaware Park Casino. So we took a trip East on the 31st of December and I played in the noon tournament. I saw some incredible hands which goes to show you how much variance tournaments can have. Two interesting hands. A young very aggressive player pushes on the button with 38o and gets called by the small blind who holds AA. Flop is 38x and the young kid doubles up. In a second hand A9 pushes on the small blind and the big blind calls with AK. Flop is Kxx. Turn is a nine, river is a nine. If I didn't see it with my own two eyes I would think it is rigged. I played about five hours and busted out as the bubble boy. I lost half of my stack when the button pushed and I held A4o and decided to make the call in the big blind. Unfortunately the button held AT. In the very next hand the button pushes and I have 1/3 of my stack already in the pot as the blinds/antes are so large and have QKs and make the call. Again, unfortunately the button has AK. On the 1st of January I played a free satellite tournament at 9am for entry into the $69 noon tournament. I won my seat and played in the noon tournament. Again I played for about five hours and bubbled again. What are the odds that I play two consecutive tournaments and bubble both?

Yesterday I played my first cash game for 2012 at Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, WV. I guess it is now my home casino given how much time I have been spending there. Since it is a new year and my cash game results were fairly poor during the end of 2011 I decided that I should try to instill some discipline into my bankroll management. I would play $1/$2 NL with $200 until I build it up to $500. Only then would I go to $2/$5. Then I wouldn't move up to $5/$10 until I could start with $1K. If I lose my buy-in at $2/$5 or $5/$10 then I have to restart at $1/$2. Good plan but like all good plans they don't survive first contact with the enemy. And my enemy was when I walked in to the poker room and noticed that there was open seating for $5/$5 PLO. Only once before did I see a PLO game still running in the morning and then it broke up by 11am or so. I found out this game was running since Friday night. Not only that but there were actually two PLO games Friday night. It appears that omaha is starting to gain in popularity. It is like the crack cocaine of poker. Or like my poker friend (KJ, a poker regular at Hollywood and Asian) would say, Yum, Yum. He is an interesting guy. Very nice and smart and he has a lot of gamble. He works a regular 9-5 job at AT&T but everytime I am at Hollywood, he is there. I am starting to get to know most of the regulars at Hollywood and both the chip runners and dealers are getting to know me.

There is a poker regular with the nickname "Shingles" who appears to be a professional poker player. He tracks his results and is always at Hollywood playing either $5/$10 NL or $5/$5 PLO. Apparently he has a rough week and is down $20K. Some big swings. Him and KJ are good friends and Shingles loaned KJ some buy-ins for the PLO game. Each buy-in is $1,500. There was a dispute as to how many buy-ins were given. KJ believed it was two and Shingles thought it was three. Thus the importance to track or document such transactions. One guy told me he always sends a text message to track any transactions. There was also a $7K pot which put Shingles on tilt when he asked another player how much he had behind and the opponent said about $1K when it actually was about $3K. Because of the math, Shingles automatically called the all-in but later realized that the amount was much higher. Another reminder how important it is to get a real count before making major all in decisions at a poker table.

I had a good evening and played through the morning which is something I haven't done for quite some time. Rather than starting with the max buy-in of $1,500 I buy in short for only $500. I ran the $500 up to $2500 but then lost it all and returned back to my original $500. But when I left I worked it back up to a profit of about $4K. Interesting when you cash out at the cage they ask for your driver's license or casino card. One player at the table ran his initial buy-in of $1,500 up to $17K. He told me he only cashed out $9K. He had a run that was simply incredible. I've never seen someone flop the nuts so many times with sub-optimal omaha starting hands. In one hand an opponent of his, an older gentleman that apparently grinded his $1500 buy-in to about $5K all night and morning, pushed on the turn with the nut straight. The big winner decided to make the incredible call with the bottom end of the straight and a nut flush draw. Blink, flush on the river. Must be nice to run that good. To demonstrate how tight I was playing, I had the bottom end of the straight and the King high flush draw on the turn when one person bet $600 and the other opponent called $600. I put the first better on the nut straight and the second caller on the nut flush draw. The river goes check, check and the original better only had two pair and the second opponent folded. That shows the power of aggression. I do remember one fun hand where I held KKxx and the flop was AKx. We get it all in on the flop and my opponent held AKxx. Blink, ace on the turn. Darn two-outers.

My recent outing at Hollywood just reinforces that tight is right, patience is rewarded and you can make money at this game with time and commitment, oh, and a little luck.

Merry Christmas from The Poker Room Orange Park

2011-12-30T21:24:00.002-05:00

During Christmas I went down to Jacksonville Florida to visit relatives for Christmas. Fortunately for me there are poker rooms in Jacksonville. I drove by two poker rooms both called The Poker Room but decided to go to the larger of the two, the one located in Orange Park. Surprisingly enough, that is what it was, a poker room. No noisy slot machines or distracting table games. There was one other gambling venue, dog racing. For some reason I would always substitute horse for dog as I just wasn't used to seeing dogs racing. Interesting set-up.

It appears that there are plenty of regulars playing in the room in the $2/$5 and $5/$10 games. From what I overheard it was surprising to get three $5/$10 tables open at the same time. I liked how they had chip runners with chips in hand that quickly provided chips or helped you to color-up your chips. I found out that all drinks had a price when I ordered a grapefruit juice and was charged $2. I played two different sessions. I did well during the $2/$2 NL and $2/$5 NL cash games but got destroyed during the $5/$10 NL games. I made some adjustments when I returned for my second session but only recovered about half of what I lost before having to leave. Some examples included having AQ on a AAx board and my opponent rivered a straight flush with 25s; nut flush draw on the flop and checked to me in last position and I took the bait with a large bet and was then reraised by an opponent who flopped top set, became priced in but couldn't hit my flush; and my final hand where I was felted with a king high flush versus an ace high flush.

I also played a $50 tournament which was $35 + fees starting chips $4K with 20 minute levels. I busted when I pushed on the turn with two pair, got called by someone with one pair and then got counterfeited on the river.

I still enjoyed myself and felt that the poker scene in Jacksonville, FL reminded me a bit of the poker scene in Charles Town, WV where they are still in the growing stages but have the basics down. Not a successful venture for me but still enjoyable.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Hollywood Casino Update

2011-12-18T23:41:00.002-05:00

No exciting news on the cash front at Hollywood Casino. Started Saturday morning playing $2/$5 NL. I bought in short for $300 and got myself in trouble with a semi-bluff which may have worked if my opponent didn't have three queens on the river when I made a ill-advised bluff on the river. I reloaded for another $300 but didn't get anything going before playing in the $5/$5 PLO game. I played about nine hours and ran my $300 up to $2K but eventually lost it all before departing. In my final hand I held AQxx and I called a standard raise with four players in the hand. The flop was AQ7 and the original early position raiser made a standard continuation bet. There was one caller and then I raised pot which was around $450 or so. The original raiser folded and the second caller thought about it a while then pushed to create a pot of about $3K. I immediately called. I doubted my opponent had a set as he would have reraised the original continuation bet rather then just call because of the possible straight draws and also there were two spades on the flop. He had A7 so my two pair was dominating. Turn is a ten which my opponent held but that still had me ahead AQ vs AT. River ten. Bingo, going home broke again. Some day, some day.

Break-Even at Hollywood Casino

2011-12-11T21:16:00.002-05:00

I spent another quality Saturday in Hollywood casino. At least during my drive I listen to books-on-tape or rather CD which helps increase my admittedly limited book reading of late. I recently finished "Saturday" by Ian McEwan which although the main character is older than me, made me reflective as there were some similar issues that will develop in the near future such as children turning into adults, limitations on physical sport efforts, dealing with older parents, etc.

After my last three losing sessions I decided to exercise just a modicum of bankroll control and told myself I wouldn't play $5/$10 and I actually stuck to my goal. I began with a $2/$5 game and ran my $300 (max buy-in is $500) to around $1K in a few hours. Then I moved to a $5/$5 PLO game and lost my winnings back. I also started with $300 and within a few hours built it up to $1,500 when the big pot of my tenure occurred. I had AAxx and called a raise. I flopped top set and rather than reraising I decided this time to just call the $135 or so bet because there was a flush draw and I knew if anyone had a flush draw they were going all the way and I decided for a conservative plan and get active only after a safe turn card. The turn was a blank and a gentleman with bottom set bet out about $500. I reraised to $900 and then all hell broke loose with three people all in before it got to me. I can't fold the best hand given the amount of money already invested never mind that I currently had the best hand. It was a $5K pot and got chopped between two players that both hit their straight on the river. That pot would have wiped out all my losses from the last three sessions combined. Ughhh.

One of the regulars informed me he had a $14K score in the $5/$5 PLO game last weekend. Waiting for my turn. A regular named "Prince" who has tournament winnings listed on Hendon Mob since 1989 is having a $1,500 single table PLO SNG at his house winner take all. I do not plan on attending but it sure would be interesting.

WSOP Circuit at Harrah's Resorts Atlantic City

2011-12-07T18:33:00.002-05:00

Rather than taking a whole week off work again I decided just to take two days and spend four days in Atlantic City playing some tournaments during the WSOP Circuit event. I had a great time but no success during either cash or with tournaments.

Tournament Results:

12/3/11 Noon tournament. Lost early with AQ versus Q6o all in preflop. I felt I had a good read on the player so raised way too much so I reraised him with AQ and he pushed with Q6 off-suit and I snap called with AQ. Good read, bad result.

12/3/11 7pm tournament. Out at 1am. Called an all in from a player after the queen high flop with KQ but my opponent was on a draw that hit. Was down to three tables.

12/4/11 Noon tournament. Busted a little after midnight when the button pushed with a weak ace and as a critical short stack I called with 89 suited. Flopped an open ended straight draw and turned a flush draw but the river bricked.

12/5/11 Noon tournament. Busted at 11pm when I raised with nothing attempting to steal the blinds as I had a medium short stacked (just lost a flip with JJ versus AK). Only the big blind called with a weak ace and an ace hit the flop. I pushed on the turn when my opponent made two pair. Bad timing.

Fun cash game hand. Playing $5/$10. I was down to $360. Early position makes a standard raise to $35 and gets two callers. I push for $360 with AK. Everyone calls preflop. Flop is King high and one guy bets with 45 of clubs which hits a flush on the river.

Bad call during cash game. Playing $5/$10 with Borgata regulars in the only $5/$10 NL game running at 10am. Call a standard raise with low suited cards as does the tightest player on the table. Original raiser makes a standard continuation bet and we both call. I hit my flush on the turn and the tight player bets and I call, original raiser folds. Tight player makes another 2/3 pot sized bet on the river. I know I'm beat but call anyway. There is a reason he is a tight player. He had the nut flush. So stupid on my part.

Was happy with my tournament effort but not the results. The structure was excellent with long and varied levels such as 50/75. I was able to get comped hotel rooms at Harrah's and all my food was comped so that helped keep expenses down. Again I recognized so many people. Someone told me why play in Las Vegas against professionals when there are so many easier players on the East coast. Some interesting $100-$200 prop bets during the $5/$10 cash game betting on red/black (two red or two black cards on the flop). I used my blackjack card (how to reduce the casino advantage to less than 1%) and it worked as advertised as I broke even. I really don't get excited playing blackjack but there were some fun people at the table. I only play to help boost my comps. Still so much to learn.

Hollywood Casino a Bust

2011-11-19T21:30:00.002-05:00

During my routine Saturday outing to Hollywood Casino in WV I played three games: $2/$5, $5/$10 and $5/$5 PLO. I was crushed in all games. I hit my limit for the day and so I left early. I was tempted to reload using the 'old bank card but decided I wouldn't tempt fate. In one $500 hand I flopped a set with a nut flush draw, my opponent held a straight wrap and got there; I'll take those odds any day but unfortunately there are very few 100% equity hands in PLO.

I just read an article about going pro in the latest edition of Ante Up magazine and it was a bit depressing when looking at the actual projections from a $2/$5 NL grinder perspective.

Borgata Fall Poker Open

2011-11-18T21:46:00.005-05:00

Another Borgota Poker Open, another trip to Atlantic City. Mrs New and I drove to AC early Saturday morning so she could play in the ladies event of the Borgota Poker Open. Unfortunately she was unable to cash in either the ladies event or a later event. During the ladies event she had her aces cracked when the board came with all diamonds and she held the ace of diamonds; her opponent flopped the flush after calling a 4x bet with J4d. In her other tournament she overplayed her KK when she raised preflop was called by an opponent with A4 and reraised pushed on an ace high flop. Not sure about that play. My wife told me not to mention that play ever again.

My tournament results were also as impressive meaning I played seven tournaments and did not cash in one. I noticed that the younger players like to overplay their small/medium pocket pairs preflop which worked when I held an overpair but not when holding a drawing hand like AK. Some routine endings:

1. After playing seven hours in the six max it is folded to the button who makes a standard raise. I reraise in the big blind with AK and the young kid instantly pushes with 66; I don't win the flip. I push next hand with QK and two players call. I flop a king but an opponent with 88 hits his set.

2. After playing six hours I am busted set over set.

3. I push as a shorter stack with a king high flush draw and straight draw and am called by the ace high flush draw; we both make our flushes.

I am a bit disappointed in my tournament results as it is a continuation of results from the last open. I heard the same refrain from several other players. It is crazy but I now recognize so many players when I go to AC. One guy, Vincent Spinelli, told me that his poker game got nabbed and he may have to go to jail for a few months although he is trying to home detention. He is a great guy and given the small scope of the game he ran I feel police resources could definitely be spent better elsewhere. I also met some new professional poker players like one kid who regularly plays $25/$50 NL. Great stories about people's time at the world series last summer. There was this one guy who sat down at the $2/$5 PLO table that was the classic definition of a whale. He was a middle aged age with a large belly, dressed well and just was hyper aggressive and dropped four buy-ins before leaving. It was the first time I saw someone with a Borgata Titanium card and with a handfull of $5K chips. Not only being results oriented but I am tending more toward cash games versus tournaments. I enjoy the flexibility of cash games and usually the camaraderie is much better.

I kept my costs low by getting two nights free at the Borgata and two nights free at Harrah's Resorts although you still have to pay all the Atlantic City fees. I was even able to use a free Harrah's buffet coupon and had a great breakfast. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as a hash station where a cook will prepare your own personalized hash concoction. It was my first time eating at the noodles place in the Borgata and I had a decent Pad Thai. Of course I had my standard morning breakfast of Starbucks oatmeal and my late night snack of a turkey burger at Harrah's Bill's Bar and Burger Restaurant. I generally used comps for most of my meals.

I love the free wireless at the Borgata. I found a free app for Amtrak and was able to view train schedules and actually make ticket reservations using my Itouch.

So I ended up spending about $2,200 in tournament entry fees but my cash game results easily covered all those expenses. Checking my spreadsheet, as my tournament entry fee's keep growing without any offsetting tournament winnings, my profit ratio has significantly changed so that now tournament winnings are 2/3 and cash game results are 1/3. I was querying several professionals and semi-pro's asking how much a successful poker professional could make playing $2/$5 NL and it appears the consensus is about $60K/year. My goal would be about $100K/year so that may mean some adjustments would need to be made such as getting tournament staking, playing higher limits, grinding more hours, etc.

I also purchased a blackjack card from the gift store (using comps of course) which states that if you follow the instructions the house should only have about a 1% advantage. I am attempting to work out a plan that increases my comp's with minimal effect to my bankroll. I only played about three 15 minute sessions of blackjack. At Harrah's I played $5 blackjack (always playing two hands at a time) and won $50. At the Borgata I played $15 blackjack and lost my $200. Later before leaving I played once more at the Borgata playing $10 blackjack and won $125. Normally I play about 15 minutes of video roulette in order to let the casino know that I am spending some money in their casino.

Using my poker winnings from this year I bought a new Toyota Prius IV with all the available options. At least I'll have something tangible to remind me that playing poker can have its rewards.

Another Saturday at Hollywood Casino

2011-10-30T22:03:00.007-04:00

Snow came a bit early to Northern Virginia but that didn't stop me from wasting my Saturday in a casino. I gingerly drove the 1.5 hours to Hollywood casino and found the $5/5 PLO game still running from Friday night. I quickly dropped $150 but then the game broke within half an hour and the first $5/$10 NL table opened up so I decided to move over. Much later the PLO game reopened and I immediately recognized 70% of the players. After spending about 14 hours at the casino I ended up a loser for about $50 which is not normal for me. Normally I am either up or down a couple of buy-in's. The casino decided to let their employees dress up for Halloween so I took some low quality pictures with the Itouch.

October Update

2011-10-23T13:27:00.003-04:00

Spent an overnight trip to visit Delware Park Casino. We had a coupon for a free night at a Hampton Inn due to our Timeshare visit the last time we were in Las Vegas and decided to use it before it expired. Had a nice time playing primarily small tournaments. I only played two tournaments. In one of them I made the final when in the first hand there was a three way all in with me being the third caller. It is hard to lay down KK when the blinds are crazy high and your effective chip stack is well, not effective any longer. Opponents held AA and QQ. During the tournament I felt I recognized an older lady in the room but it took me a while to remember who she was. She and her husband follow Phil Ivey around during the WSOP main event.

Last weekend I went camping which means I stayed in a KOA cabin in a KOA campground; not quite roughing it but close enough. This weekend before I went back up to Hollywood casino and had a second losing session. This past Saturday I went again and finally picked up a win. My game of choice lately is $5/$5 PLO which they run Saturday afternoon/evenings.

One interesting PLO hand cost me about $500 when I flopped a boat with KQ on a board of KQQ and lost to the only hand I could lose to, KK. The person I gifted the money to was a large guy in his 50's who is called Prince who told me he has been playing poker for a living since 1989. He had some interesting stories to tell and played with all the older known poker pros like Mike Matusow and Stu Ungar back in the day. He believes Mike is currently broke. He said it is not an uncommon occurance for some of the known players to experience high volatility with their bankrolls. He plans to spend some time in November in AC during the Borgata Fall Open which I may as well.

Everything Goes Wrong in Cash Games

2011-10-01T23:00:00.003-04:00

I returned back to Hollywood Casino in WV and promptly gave back almost all of my previous winnings from the previous Saturday. First I lost about $700 playing $2/$5 with some fun hands such as QQ vs KJ aipf, AT clubs on ten high board and two clubs, make nut flush on turn but opponent gets boat on river, KK vs AT, KK vs TT where all money in on the turn and opponent gets a straight on the river. Then I played Pot Limit Omaha and I just didn't hit my strong draws or else my opponents hit theirs. Some days are just going to be like this. This was a good opportunity to manage tilt control and review some of the hands I played. If I have some more days like today I'll have to return back to $1/$2 NL.

Hollywood Casino Saturday

2011-09-25T13:49:00.003-04:00

I spent another ten hours at Hollywood Casino in West Virginia. During that time I walked away with about $2,600 with most of it coming from the $5/$5 PLO game. Checking my records I'm still down about $1K from that PLO game, especially given my two bust-out sessions in the past. I'm feeling better about my game and hoping to turn around my fortune.

Borgata Poker Open September 2011

2011-09-19T22:55:00.007-04:00

So I decided to spend another week playing tournaments during the Borgata Poker Open. Unfortunately I don't have any exciting news. Luckily for me, I broke even for the trip. I mean really broke even after all expenses. Approximate results:

Tournament winings $2,500

Tournament entry fees $5,500

Cash winnings $3,200

What these results indicate to me are that perhaps I should stick with cash games. My biggest cash game results were while playing $2/$5 Pot Limit Omaha. Generally there are one or two players that don't really understand the game and you just bid your time until taking their stacks. Sometimes you can trap an overly aggressive regular PLO player as well. While playing PLO I had my first pumpkin or orange $1K chip. I hope this isn't the last I see of these.

I played 14 tournaments and one Sit-N-Go. All were No Limit with the exception of one PLO tournament. I don't remember any really bad play but that could be a result of faulty or selective memory. Generally the way I left a tournament was losing some sort of coin flip. In one tournament I lost three in a row which isn't a good long-term strategy. In one tournament I saw a guy get dealt pocket aces three hands in a row and he won every time. Within half of an hour the table was dealt five pocket aces and two pocket kings. Unfortunately I was just a bystander during this action. In one tournament Gavin Smith was at my table. I irritated him by pushing on him with a large overbet with AK after he made a standard raise in early position. Apparently he is expected the birth of his second child soon.

In my last tournament both Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen were at the table next to me.

My only cashes were two final tables in smaller bounty chip events. Unfortunately I was tossed out around 7th place when you really need to make the top three to get any real money.

I kept my expenses low by using credit card points for one Saturday Night at a Holiday Inn and then got four nights comped at Harrah's Resorts and two nights at the Borgata which is a first for me, especially when one night was on a Friday night. I also used comps to pay for certain meals. Again it was a most enjoyable time and I can't wait to do it again.

Worst Cash Game Results Ever

2011-08-28T11:56:00.002-04:00

Since Hurricane (Tropical Storm) Irene was blowing through the area, I decided to bypass Delaware Park (they were canceling all tournaments after the noon tournament due to the storm) and drive down to Hollywood Casino. I got to the casino in the morning and stayed until about midnight. I stayed at one table, the regular $5/$5 PLO game. I understand PLO has much more variance than NL but I really ran bad during that session losing $1,500. After my last loss I decided that it just wasn't my night and left. Some of the losses were standard such as flopping top set and pushing and getting called by a flush draw. Others were more painful such as when I reraised preflop with AAxx and flopped the nut flush draw, turned a set of aces and lost to one other player who was chasing the king high flush draw and made a wheel with his 24. On the last hand of the night I got it all in on the flop ($1,100 pot) on a board of 228 when I held A2xx and got rivered with a player who held 29xx and spiked the nine. Momma told me there'll be nights like this. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Keep repeating in my head, as long as I get it in good, that is all I can do. Still doesn't subdue the sting. Blah.

Delaware Park Ironman

2011-08-22T21:08:00.003-04:00

So I played the Delaware Park Ironman poker tournament this past weekend. This tournament had no breaks. I took off Friday so I could play the $65 satellites to get into the tournament without having to pay $550. I played four satellites but didn't make one. I then played another satellite on Saturday morning at 9am but busted out even after rebuying once. So $390 down the drain. Good thing I was able to make that in a $2/$5 cash game to cover expenses.

The Ironman began at noon on Saturday and they were trying to break a record to longest continuous tournament. I believe their goal was 36 hours. We began with $50K in chips, first level at $50/$100 and one hour levels. Couldn't believe it but someone busted out on the first level. I could tell some people were not used to the increased chip stack and increased blind levels as the bets oftentimes were much higher than the level would indicate.

I played somewhat loose in the beginning which didn't help me much as I got down to about $30K but then was able to work it back to the starting stack of $50K. Later I limped with TJs and was raised 2.5x by a player who held AA (raise was too small IMO). I decided to see a flop which gave me an open ended straight flush draw. Even though my opponent flopped trip aces, I called his push (I had him covered) and hit my straight. This brought me up to about twice the average chip stack. Later as the blinds escalated I basically hovered around average in chips.

When we got down to two tables (36 players got paid) I raised with AQ and a very loose aggressive player pushed and I called but this time he held a hand and showed AA. I was left with 1.5 times the big blind and was UTG the next hand. My hand was KT and since it was better than average I decided to push and played against two other players (one limper and the big blind who was priced in). They checked it down but I hit two pair and got some chips. Then I selected pushed five more times and won each time uncontested. Then I won a flip with 99 versus AJ and had about 1/2 of the average stack.

We made the final table at exactly 12 noon on Sunday, exactly 24 hours after we started. I was able to limp into the final table with a super short stack. Unfortunately I busted when it was folded to me in the small blind and I pushed with K9 and the big blind woke up with Ax and won. Payout was $3,465 but first place would have been around $43.7K. Have to win one of these someday.

Thanks to the Pokermeister for providing me with a link of the final results.

Delaware Park Tournament August 6th

2011-08-07T09:11:00.005-04:00

I was going to bypass going to Delaware Park this weekend as I had a home game I really wanted to go to Saturday night but since the tournament was a $340 buy-in with 30 minute levels and $20K in starting chips, I decided I would play it starting at noon and if I left by 6pm I would be able to return in time for the home game which began at 8pm. I didn't make the home game as I didn't return to the area until about 30 minutes past midnight.

This tournament had a $25K guarantee but just missed the number of players needed so first place was $8K and second $5K. We didn't make the final table until 8pm with 10 players but only nine got paid so everyone chipped in $30 for the bubble boy. Since I was a short stack, I decided to contribute. Of course there is always one player who doesn't have any money which I just don't understand. You had enough money to pay into the $340 tournament but don't have $30 in change?

When we got down to four players I was crippled when I lost the classic coin flip of QQ versus AK. Fortunately for me an interesting event happened two hands earlier with the other short stack at the table, a gentleman in a wheelchair who talked non-stop, reminding me of Dwight Pilgrim. The dealer flipped a card which landed in a players lap. The wheelchair guy turned his card over because he thought it was a misdeal. The floor was called and the flipped card was returned to the table and that player received a new card. The wheelchair guy had to play his hand with the card he exposed. Then he received a four hand penalty. This allowed me to get into third place. The wheelchair guy was arguing non-stop even at the cage when I left. He even challenged me to a heads-up match for $10K. What a character.

July Poker Update

2011-07-31T11:25:00.002-04:00

I'm continuing to play at Hollywood Casino in West Virginia and Delaware Park in Delaware.

At Delaware Park this weekend I had no results in either the satellite or the $150 noon tournament. I was happy that I actually left at a decent time and returned home before midnight to keep my sleep schedule intact. The four hour round trip does begin to wear on me even with the Wawa stops to keep me refreshed. I can't wait until something gets closer. I did make another final table of a $150 noon tournament the previous week but went out in 9th place for only about $600. First place was over $5K. The blinds and antes were huge and I pushed in late position with A5 and the big stack big blind woke up with AK and luckily I spiked a five. Later I raised with JJ and a shorter stack pushed with AQ and I was committed to call but couldn't fade the Queen. Then it gets folded to the small blind who completes. I have 77 in the big blind and push. The small blind barely has me covered but snap calls with T3s and hits his ten. When I ask him his rationale he simply says he had me covered and shakes my hand. Not sure I really understand his move there.

I had a fun cash hand at the $2/$5 table at Delaware Park. The under the gun player who is very active and aggressive raises to $15, a young Asian solid, aggressive player raises to $80. I have about $250 behind and smooth call with QQ. Given the Asian players previous play, I should have realized that he only raises with premium hands. The original raiser calls another $65. The flop is 559 rainbow and we all get our money in. The Asian player has KK and the original caller has.......25o. Crazy game.

I finally had a successful cash game session at Hollywood even while losing $400 at Pot Limit Omaha. I was able to make about $2K in a nine hour session playing $2/$5 NL. At one point I was playing with a very solid aggressive player who told me he learned how to play from Phil Galfond (OMGClayAiken). He played a very impressive game and quickly doubled his starting stack primarily going after orphaned pots. He told me that two of his friends both had a $12K session playing $5/$10 NL at Hollywood.

Delaware Park is having a $550 Iron Man tournament on August 20th with $50K in chips and 60 minute levels with minimal breaks. A dealer told me they expect it to go about 36 hours and the final table will be televised. $100K is guaranteed. Should be interesting.

Last Time at Dover Downs

2011-07-17T21:45:00.002-04:00

I heard that Dover Downs was having their Summer Poker Open July 8-16 ending with a $550 main event on the 16th starting at noon so since it is about the same distance for me (Delaware Park vs Dover Downs), I decided to give it a try. I got their early around 9am and they only had one $1/$2 NL table open and were just in the process of opening a second $1/$2 table. I was told there was a satellite for the $550 tournament at 10am. Well 10am came and went and there were only two people signed up so it didn't happen. At noon I walked over to the registration desk and began signing up. I was informed that they only had 9 people so far and 2-10 people only pays one spot, 11-20 pays two spots. I couldn't believe they had so little interest. So I decided to drive 45 minutes north and go back to Delaware Park.

At Delaware Park I just missed the sign up period (first three levels) so decided to play some $2/$5 NL. I only got into one big hand when I limped with K5s and the flop came K5x. I bet out and received one call from an older gentlemen who already busted two players when he flopped open ended straight draws and got there both times. The turn was a five so now I have a boat. I made a slightly larger bet and was raised. I thought about it for a little while and then pushed my remaining stack of $210 and was called by the gentleman who held A5. Bingo.

Next I played the 4pm $65 tournament at 4pm and busted about 3.5 hours later when I pushed with A4s short stacked and was called by another short stack who held AT but had me barely covered. I also played the 7pm $150 tournament and got down to 16^th place (16/113) but only the top 13 paid. The blinds were $3K/$6K with an ante and I called a short stack push (again he had me barely covered) with 66 and he held 77. Another wasted 5.5 hours.

So just before leaving I decided to sit down at another $2/$5 NL table with $300. I limped with QT and saw a great flop of KJ9. I bet $30 and was raised to $75 so I pushed for $230 and was called by K9 and a nine fell on the turn. He told me if I had more chips he would have folded. That’s what I like to hear.

Local Live Poker

2011-07-12T16:24:00.000-04:00

Delaware Park – July 2

Another Saturday, another tournament at Delaware Park. This time there was a special tournament at noon with a bigger buy-in and more starting chips. So I played the 9am satellite along with Mrs. New and I got an entry but Mrs. New was the bubble girl. I didn’t even last one hour when I got all my chips in the middle on a flop of K63 two hearts and I had 66; unfortunately my opponent held KK. I should have been able to make the lay down given the large starting stack and the early level. I had no idea if my opponent would overplay AK there but should have realized that I was behind. Later I played the $65 4pm tournament and was the first out of the final table when I busted in 10th place for $169. An active player made a standard raise with KJ in early/mid position and I pushed with 99 for 3x his opening raise and he stalled a while but eventually made the call. I noticed some good action at the $2/5 NL tables with several players having at least $5K in chips.

Hollywood Casino – July 3

Since I had Monday off due to the Federal Holiday, I decided to visit Hollywood Casino in WV and see if I could grind some cash games. I experienced a very rocky ride that given my normal tight play would not be expected. Note to self, most people do not care how you played in the past, they primarily just play their cards. I started with $300 in a $2/5 NL game and lost it all within 1.5 hours. My nemesis was a player who would call any of my raises with any two cards. He rebought three times before he left but unfortunately I was not one of the beneficiaries. I ended the session 4.5 hours later back to square one. Then I sat in a very wild $5/5 PLO game with $400 and promptly lost it all. I bought in again for $300 and ran it up to $900 before finally having to leave.

Delaware Park – July 9

With half of the family gone with other activities, I decided once again to make a trip to Delaware Park. Again I played the $30 satellite but barely missed a seat when I placed 6/36. I then played the $150 noon tournament and had some challenges early when I lost most of my stack with QQ vs TT all in preflop (aipf). Later I couldn’t win two coin flips with AK vs TT and 77 vs AQ and busted about three hours later. Playing the cash games didn’t help matters much when I booked another losing session. I then decided to play the $150 7pm tournament and had the same experience as the previous week where my opponent raised to $5K with KJ and I pushed with 99 for $16K and lost the race. Perhaps that should tell me something. A very disappointing day.

Hollywood Casino – July 10

Back to Hollywood in an attempt to reverse my losses from the day before. I started with $200 at a $2/5 NL game which I lost then reloaded for another $200. Five hours later I got back to square one. Seems like a regular occurrence. Perhaps I should take better detailed notes on my hands in order to review my lackluster play. At 3pm I decided to play with the big boys and moved to a $5/10 NL table which is the biggest cash game at Hollywood Casino. At my first table I was the only white guy with a table primarily filled with young hyper aggressive Asian kids. This was a must move table and later I was moved to the main table with a different case of characters. There was a middle aged Asian lady everyone called Mimi. There was an older Asian man everyone called Professor as he teaches at Catholic University. The biggest stack at the table was about $12K. It was the first time I saw the purple $500 and orange $1,000 chips in play. I ended up for the session but it was a minefield.

During an earlier session at Hollywood casino at a $2/5 NL cash game there were some interesting events. At one table an middle aged Asian man was playing next to his daughter and teaching her how to play. When another person sat down at the table the Asian man went all in against the new player and another shorter stack on the first hand and promptly took down the pot with AK when he rivered the nut straight. The new player had AA. A bit later a younger player sat down and within 1.5 hours built his starting stack up to $3.5K. He went against another player and milked him for about $800 when he held 33 and the other player held AQ. The kid with 33 raised preflop and bet all streets including the river bet of $500. The flop was 238, turn Q, river Q. The kid attempted to portray a very loose image very early on and the deception worked perfectly. Next the kid raises and the middle aged Asian man who had about $1350 behind goes all in and promptly loses everything when the kid calls with AA. Not sure why the Asian man decided to push with AK preflop when it was so unnecessary. But these examples are why the games can be extremely lucrative at Hollywood if you are at the right table and have good timing.

Delaware Park and Hollywood Casino in WV

2011-07-12T11:07:00.001-04:00

Delaware Park – June 25

Delaware Park recently celebrated their one year anniversary of having poker and that was my first foray into that casino. It saves me about 1.5 hours over a trip to Atlantic City and a few tolls. It also has a horse race track which offers a nice distraction on a Saturday afternoon. Horse racing receipts also can be deducted from any overall gambling winnings, right? I actually enjoy the casino. They run a few tournaments every day, along with a satellite on Saturday morning, and cash games within my limits.

I played the $30 satellite starting at 9am and was one of the four players remaining at the end to get an entry into the $150 tournament starting at noon. My final hand was unfortunate and occurred around 4pm. With blinds at $1K/2K, a newer player to the table raised to $6K. I pushed for $20K and the player stated he probably was making a bad call but called anyway with A3. I held AK so felt fairly good until the three blinked on the river. Classic. Next I sat down at a $2/$5 NL table and in less than 3.5 hours managed to run $300 up to about $1K which for me is a big success.

Hollywood Casino – July 1

I’ve heard much talk about Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, WV but never made the drive. It appears everyone knows someone who is crushing it there in the cash games. I also heard horrible stories about delays, bad management and terrible dealers when they first opened. But it appears that most of the kicks are worked out for the most part. Some drawbacks is that they only run two tournaments and that is during the week. They do not offer any poker comps. Every cash game has a timed rake. For $1/2 and $2/5 NL the rake is $6/30 minutes and for $5/10 NL and $5/5 PLO the rake is $7/30 minutes. For me the drive is about 1.5 hours so that saves time over going to Delaware Park.

I started at a $1/2 NL table waiting for a $2/5 table to open but the action was intense and I never left the $1/2 table. I started around 9am and ran up my $200 starting stack to about $800 but then lost it all after 10 hours of play. Some fun hands include me getting it all in with QQ versus AT on a ten high flop and an ace falling on the turn. Another fun hand is when I held AJ versus JT and get it in on the jack high flop and the turn and river are running tens. So I spent 10 hours losing $200. So my losing rate for that session is $20/hour. Not a great start for my Hollywood experience. A home game player told me recently that he has been playing at Hollywood regularly and his current win rate is $35/hour. I have a long way to go.

Borgata Summer Open 2011 - Mr. Break Even

2011-07-11T23:19:00.001-04:00

It has been a while since I updated the old Poker Blog and I’ve been fairly active in the live poker arena lately although not to any great success. It almost appears, with the exception of two tournaments this year, that I truly am the “Break-even” poker player. If I played for a living given my past results I would probably qualify for some sort of public assistance. As a professional poker player I met recently told me, most poker players lie to themselves as to how well they are doing. But I’ve definitely done a better job in that regard by diligently recording every poker tournament and cash game activity this year. This is especially critical when determining your taxes.

The Borgata Summer Open in June 2011. Instead of taking a full week off to play poker in Atlantic City, I decided just to take one weekend and three work days. Mrs. New dropped my off in AC and I returned with a pleasant, if one hour delayed, train ride back home.

DAY 1. I started this day playing a $560 tournament with a $12K starting stack at the standard starting time of 11am. I only lasted three hours when I ran KK into AA. I spent the remaining hours of the day grinding $2/$5 NL with no real results.

DAY 2. I played the $400 deep stack tournament with a $25K starting stack at 11am and only managed to play until 3:30pm. Some of reasons for my early departure were as follows: I get it all in preflop (aipf) with AK vs AQ and chop the pot, a bit later I get it in again aipf with AK vs AJ and lose. The last hand is a fun AC tournament busto experience. With blinds at $500/$1K I open push with JQ for 10K in mid to late position and get called with an older Asian gentleman in the big blind who kisses his chips as he makes the call with 79s. He was priced in, right?

After the frustrating experience in the deep stack I decide to play in the $250 with $20 bounty tournament that starts at 4pm. The bounty is an actual yellow $20 Borgata chip. My final hand at 7pm is a standard flip which I lose when I push with AQ and get called by 55. I finish the night playing $1/$2 PLO at the Borgata and then some no limit at Harrah’s Resorts where I received my comped room.

DAY 3. Decided to reenter the $400 deep stack tournament the next day as they had two day one’s. This time I managed to have $281,500 chips by the time we stopped around 10pm.

DAY 4. Day two of the deep stack tournament started at noon. I started with an above average chip stack but unfortunately lost momentum when the blinds and antes started growing. It seemed like every time I raised someone would push with just enough chips that I couldn’t call. I finally fizzled out in 16^th place for $1,299 when I ran AK into AA. I also played a small $180 tournament starting at 7pm and ended around 11:30pm in 13^th place but only the top nine got paid. Had some disappointing NL cash game results at $2/$5.

DAY 5 After the tournament ended on Day 4 I decided to play some $1/$2 PLO around midnight and ran $200 into about $750 in three hours. Then I sat down at the $2/$5 PLO table and gave some of it back until finally leaving the table at 8am and attempting to get a couple of hours of sleep before checkout at noon. Normal checkout is 11am but I was only able to get a one hour extension.

Taking the Jitney back to the AC train station I overheard several conversations about dealers and waitresses getting laid off in AC. Apparently AC casinos and Pennsylvania casinos now are almost even in casino revenue. Changes are underway in this neck of the woods. So bottom line, my trip was break even if you don’t include travel and food expenses. My next update will include my forays into other casinos in the area including Delaware Park in Delaware and Hollywood casino in West Virginia.

Borgata Summer Open Bound

2011-06-06T22:28:00.002-04:00

Well I am going to take a few days off work and go to Atlantic City and play in a few smaller tournaments. I used points for the Holiday Inn Express in Absecon for Saturday night because the hotels are crazy expensive on Friday/Saturday nights. Then I got one comped night at Harrah's Resorts and two comped nights at the Borgata. Normally I only qualify for one free night so perhaps it was a fluke. Somebody at work claims to get free weekend rooms so its probably because I don't play enough. Time to hit those Pai Gow tables to rack up the comps. My Borgata Black card was also downgraded to Red so no more $10 buffets for me.

I have been unable to reload at Doyles Room or Carbon Poker so perhaps it is time to try ClubWPT. I feel like I'm getting a bit rusty. I received an email from Card Player for a free poker school so maybe I'll check that out. I've been going to the Tao of Poker site for updates on happenings at the WSOP in Vegas and it appears that the atmosphere is more tense than in the past. I see that Jake Cody won the Heads-Up $25K event. I remember seeing him with a girl walking through the Bellagio casino when we were in Vegas. I believe he is only 22 years old and already has a WPT, EPT and now WSOP win. Remarkable. Also incredible that the youtube videos of the HU tournament are already up. I get mine from the EPICWSOPTV channel.

Can't believe that FT still hasn't paid their players. I used all my Full Tilt points to order stuff before Black Friday but am unsure if that will ever materialize.

Vacation Time in Vegas

2011-05-15T23:15:00.007-04:00

The wife and I headed out to spend a few days in Vegas. We left after work and got into Vegas around midnight. Our first night we spend in Harrahs and received a "sweet" Suite upgrade and made use of the jacuzzi tub.

I decided I would play a few smaller events during the Bellagio 2011 Five Star World Poker Classic. The Bellagio has an excellent tournament structure and appears to be a good value. I played about 5-6 hours in two $500 events. In the first tournament someone raised in early position and I pushed with QQ and was called by KQ and my opponent spiked a King. In the second tournament a late position player raised and I knew he was attempting to collect the Big Blind and antes as the big blind was not present so I pushed with TJ but the opponent called with 69 so I made a good read but got a bad result.

I was also able to play several cash games at the Venetian and some short sessions at Aria and the Stratosphere. I have to admit that I played poorly and made some bad decisions. Overall my lack of patience was the primarily cause of my results. My only positive session was when I turned $200 into $1300 in a $1/2 PLO game.

The Bellagio was filled with professional poker players. When I played my first tournament at the Bellagio I saw Scotty Nguyen at a final table of a side event. During a $5K event at the Bellagio I saw Annette Obrestad, Justin Bonomo, Allen Cunningham and several others. Several players were having over and under bets on how many players were going to play the $25K championship event since some players were in a LA tournament.

During our time in Vegas we went to the Hilton Casino and walked through the Sahara and didn't realize it was actually closing down. That explains why the poker room was closed.

Apparently the Aria poker room is getting more popular and Pot Limit Omaha games are starting to run more regularly. I saw Jennifer Harman in the high limit room at the Aria but there wasn't a game.

I only had one tournament cash during my entire trip. Fortunately it was during a $1K event at the Bellagio where I finished in 5th place. It was an interesting experience and I was short stacked the entire tournament. I came to the final table 8th in chips but everyone was so aggressive that I was able to move up several positions before I busted. During the dinner break we received a comped Bellagio buffet and were able to skip the line because we had to return to the tournament. The Bellagio tournament director, Jack McClelland, walked me to the cage after I busted and then also provided us with another comped Bellagio buffet. This was the first time I handled a $5K chip.

So overall a positive result and fun time but my cash game definitely needs work.

Borgata Spring Open a Bust

2011-05-02T20:49:00.002-04:00

Spent four days at the Borgata during the Spring Open and saw several familiar faces. My Harrahs card was downgraded from Silver to Platinum and April was the last month for Black card status at the Borgata. I'll find out what happens with that card the next time I visit. The primary advantages of the Borgata Black card was free parking and $10 buffets using comps.

Played my first tournament on 4/20 and called a raise with AKs. I flopped a nut straight draw with two overs and pushed after the continuation bet and was called by QQ and didn't hit any of my outs. I made this move on purpose because it was a rebuy event. After getting reseated my next final hand had an UTG raiser and late caller and I pushed with AK on the button. The UTG raiser folded but the late position caller hesitated but then called with JJ. AK no good for me.

Later I played another tournament and had Steve Dannenmann on my left for about two hours. He was quite a talkative guy and we had some good conversations. He owns his own CPA firm but also is into real estate flipping and has flipped about 30 houses in the past 1-2 years. He usually gets a house ready in 4-6 weeks. He was really fun to play with and he actually made more playing high level slots during tournament breaks than some of the tournament final table min-cashes.

In another tournament the UTG raised and I pushed on the button with AK and he snapped called with QK for 5x his original bet and you know the rest of the story. I also busted from the $1K tournament when I ran my aces into KK (king on the flop).

Also had some fun times in PLO (Omaha) when I got a cooler when I held K2xx and the flop was K22x. Of course my opponent held KKxx in an unraised pot. Later I was stacked again when I reraised pot on the flop with the nut straight, potted the turn but got chased down by a flush draw (don't people understand there are no implied odds when I'm basically all in on the turn?). Some other fun hands in NL playing $2/$5. A gentlemen raises to $25 in early position, one caller and I reraise to $120 with AA and the original raiser calls my $120 with 99 with only $180 behind. He hits his set. Later I get my money back with KK when he can't fold his middle pair and doesn't get lucky. My most memorable hand is when everyone calls a raise of $20 and I have 73o in the big blind and call because "I'm pot committed." Flop is 73K and the original raiser with AK can't let it go and I stack him.

Fun time as always but hope for better results next time.

I didn't have any funds on Full Tilt but had about $100 on Pokerstars and when I cashed out I received my funds in one day. I recently opened an account for $100 on Doyles Room where I had to use a credit card. Once you load you have to call a toll free number. The guy I spoke to was from Costa Rica. I hate the software and there are so few players but it is just for fun until online poker gets fully sanctioned again.

Oh Oh No More Online Poker?

2011-04-15T21:17:00.002-04:00

Tried to play a little online poker this evening and received the following message. I live in Virginia, am I now blocked from playing online poker?

Birthday Weekend in AC

2011-04-11T23:10:00.001-04:00

Mrs. New and I went to Atlantic City for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. We left early Saturday morning and encountered no traffic. I am so glad I have the EZ pass for tolls. Of course we stopped at my favorite pitstop WaWa. I played in the small 11am tournament at the Borgata. We had about 90 runnes and I can in 8th place for a small cash. I was crippled at the final table when I called someone's push with 66 with my AA and a six fell on the river. Mrs. New won the 777 slot promotion so she was able to convert $777 slot credits into about $600. My total takeaway from the weekend at AC was about $450 so not bad but first place in the Borgata tournament would have scored $4K. One fun hand in the tournament when we were down to two tables: I open raised 3x with AQ in late position and an active player in the big blind called. The flop was all hearts, ace high. I did not have any hearts. After the flop my opponent bet out slightly more than the pot. I called fairly quickly. After the flop he pushed and he barely had me covered. I thought he was on a bluff and I was right and catapulted into the chip lead which disappeared with the escalating blinds/antes.

I also made about $200 playing some $2/$5 at the Borgata. I bought in for $300 and just couldn't get anything going for two hours, falling down to $150 then back up to $300. When I was down to around $150 for the fourth time I limped with Q9 suited clubs. The button raised to $25 and both the small blind and big blind called. I decided to gamble since I only had to call $20 more into a pot with $80. The flop came down with two clubs. The blinds checked, I checked and the original raiser bet $75. The small blind folded and the big blind raised. I thought about it and thought my flush draw was good and pushed. Everyone ended up all in. I was up against KK and AA. I did not catch my flush but doubled up as the turn was a queen and the river a nine for two pair. I'm such a donkey.

We had a nice meal at the Borgata buffet and then went to a hotel in Absecon nearby which I found at Hotel.com. The next day we played a small tournament at Harrah's. I busted right before the final table when my KK ran into AA. Had some great subs at White House subs and got some great deals at the Addias outlet store before heading home.

Borgata Winter Poker Open

2011-02-22T16:34:00.002-05:00

As usual, I've been remiss in updating this blog especially after my week long trip to Atlantic City to play some events in the Borgata Winter Poker Open.

Mrs. New dropped me off in downtown DC at Union Station and I went to the ticket Kiosk, printed my ticket from the receipt I printed at home and boarded the train with four minutes to spare. The trip was smooth and uneventful with over an hour layover in Philly. When I got into AC I followed the hoard of people to the shuttle pickup stop and somehow got into an employee Jitney which was free of charge. The only people in the Jitney were another player and a poker dealer also going to the Borgata. Funny how they both were at my table later in the day.

I decided to get into AC early enough to play the $1000 + $90 No Limit Hold'em (6-Max) event. The goal was that if I cashed I would buy-in to the main event. Well it ended up being my only cash for the entire week. I barely made the final table. Short handed I open raised with AJ and commited myself when another player pushed and held AK. I course I decided not to buy-in directly to the main event but gave myself one chance with a $500 satellite where I played poorly losing with AK to A7 which I should have been able to get away from after the flop.

I played several other tournaments and my performance would continually get worse. The next tournament I played until about 10pm, down to the final three tables (two tables got paid), and I raised with QK suited in late position to steal the blinds and got called by the big blind. After a jack high board with two of my suit the big blind open pushed. I should have folded but decided to gamble with two overs and a flush draw. After the board bricked I was crippled and out soon afterwards. In another tournament I was also down to the final three tables (two tables getting paid) when two short stacks pushed and the big stack at the table also pushed as he did several times before attempting to isolate. I had QQ and made the call but should have folded and the big stack had KK. Rookie mistake on my part. Have to remember tournaments are about survival and patience is key.

I did well with cash games running my profits up to about $1,200 playing mainly $2/$5 HL Holdem. Then I lost a big chuck of it playing $2/$5 PLO. I always had the best hand going in but there are always so many draws in Omaha. On my last day I bought $1K in chips and sat down at a must move $5/$10 table. That didn't last long as the table quickly broke and I was definitely outclassed. That game plays much differently than $2/$5.

Mrs. New joined me on Friday and she was able to attend a Viking Cooking program at Harrah's that she enjoyed.

My online adventures are quite dismal. Ran $100 up to $1400 and then lost it all. PLO is the primary reason. Then I cashed in my Iron Man points for a $26 token, played a 45 person SNG and came in 2nd. Ran that up to $500 and back to zero. Took some regular Full Tilt points, bought a bunch of Step 1 tokens, and again played a 45 person SNG and came in 5th and I'm in the rebuilding phase once again.

I'm getting closer to my goal of buying a Prius with poker winnings but I'm still about $9K shy of my requirements.

Some random overheard conversations or direct conversations while at the Borgata:

From a poker pro: Gavin Smith was the best man at my wedding. He has lost about $1M playing Wii bowling. Gavin played the main event but didn't make the final table. Apparently he sucked out with KK versus AA at one point and another player was really upset with him when the player pushed with AJ and Gavin said "what the f**k" and called with QK and got there. Another player told me that when he played the WSOP main event and wore Pokerstars logos and was televised, he just informed the site and received compensation. He also said that anyone who cashed in the main event and entered through the site received an additional entry into another live event. One female poker player told me she has been playing the live circuit for the past three years and makes in the low six figures each year. She started a chess related company and sold it before playing poker. A large young poker player told the table he was a Super Nova Elite at Pokerstars playing low/medium stakes NL but generally 24 tabling. His rakeback percentage is very high and he clears about $2K a week just in rakeback alone. He uses HUD's religiously. He also uses points to enter into live events like the PCA.

FTOPS #22

2011-02-13T17:04:00.003-05:00

Currently playing FTOPS #22 on Full Tilt. Some interesting players in this tournament. Since it is a KO multiple entry tournament, the pro knockout bonuses get mentioned all the time in the chat box. I accidently registered for six entries. But luckily for me, you only play two at a time and I managed to nurse those two entries until level 10 and my other entries expired. Currently playing with Apestyles at my table. I checked some of the stats of the players at my table and several had tournaments cashes in the six figures.

Started to get back into Pot Limit Omaha. Trying to keep the variance down but it creeps around occasionally.

Update: Finished in 1,024/23,342 for a small cash.

Grinding

2011-01-03T22:43:00.002-05:00

As this weekend was a long weekend I decided to do some grinding. Not 8-10 hour days but still several hours. Four tabling $1/2 Rush tables on FT got me some points. 4,200 points on Saturday and 3,400 on Sunday. I'm experiencing some rough variance. Called a raise with AA and flopped a set. I pushed on the flop due to excessive action and the flush draw. Another player with 66 also flopped a set and hit his quads on the river. Some typical 2 outers stuff like AA vs JJ, AK vs AQ, blah, blah , blah. I can see how this stuff can mess with your psyche if you keep getting coolered repeatedly and what your bankroll get decimated. But I did read about a online poker pro grinding $2/4 and losing seven times during one session with AA all in preflop.

I've noticed that most reraises on the $1/2 Rush tables are serious hands like AK, AA, KK. The biggest money makers are sets, no surprise there. Best to play straight forward as sometimes people just don't believe you are betting your made hands. After playing so much Rush, live cash games are so unbelieveably slow. But playing so many hands helps to reinforce the basics like the importance of position, semi-bluffing, bet sizing, opening your range depending on position, playing suited no or one gapped cards in later position.

I decided to go for it and ordered the 64GB Itouch, 4th generation. Also installed a new router in the house that has 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz which doesn't seem to help much as there is little interferance. It is a Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router but I don't notice a download speed increase. It was an easy set-up. Next time I'll install the 0.5 terabyte external harddrive to the router so that everyone can access the drive rather than only those working on the desktop.

Received a FT silver freeroll ticket which I believe will be held in February due to the Ironman bonuses.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T15:27:00.003-05:00

It if Friday December 31st and my last chance to use my Full Tilt points to buy something before they reset all their product prices to "more accurately reflect retail prices." I already have an Itouch 3rd generation but have enough points to purchase an Itouch 4th generation with camera and 64 GB. What to do?

After getting hammered repeatedly on FT Rush $2/4, I found myself with only about $275 left in my account. One fun hand is where I limped with AA. The next player raised to $20 and there was one call. When it got to me I pushed for about $300. The player hesitated and I'm guessing put me on AK, which I've seen several people play for a limp and then a push after a raise. He held QQ the other player held KK and both pushed. Flop is QKx. So I did the only reasonable thing, I signed up for a $216 Super Turbo SNG where the starting stack is 300. Luckily for me I got second place. Now I'm playing FT Rush $1/2 and that seems to be working better and managed to get above $1K again. This really is no way for me to build to $30K so I can buy a new Prius and get rid of my 1993 Toyota Truck.

The Borgata Winter Poker Open 2011 is running from January 19 - February 4. January is a super busy time at work but I'll see if I can get some time off.

Received my Full Tilt rackback this week and it was over $100; probably due to all the Rush poker cash games.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T19:33:00.003-05:00

Well, I debated about terminating this blog and decided I will keep it alive but just not post to it, somewhat the same thing. Did a few poker related activities in the past couple of months.

Had a fun seven handed home game of $0.50/1.00 when a player to my right made a large raise and I pushed about $150 with KK. The big blind also called with KK and the original raiser also called with QQ. Queen on the river. Nice.

Went to Atlantic City during the WSOP Circuit Events at Harrah's. Mrs. New went up with me and stayed until Monday. We used points for a nice new Holiday Inn Express right outside of AC in Absecon. Then I received my first comped room at the Borgata for Sunday evening and got comped rooms at Harrah's Resort for Monday-Friday.

I basically broke even at the cash games and did not make one tournament cash. I played three tournaments for 9-10 hours but busted before the money and also played a second chance tournament where the final table cashed and I busted on the second table. AQ < AJ aipf. Had an interesting time in one tournament where Dwyte Pilgrim was on my immediate right. I was doing well when Dwyte opened with a standard raise and I found AK suited and decided just to call when the correct play was to reraise. He would open fairly light and always fold to a reraise. The flop was 789 and we both checked. An ace flopped on the turn and he checked to me and I bet and he reraised. I pushed and he called with A9 for two pair. What a donkey I was in that hand. Later he pushed with a decent stack with A6o and I pushed with KQ and lost. I enjoyed my stay and had some fun times. The tournament structure was excellent and a great value. The levels started at 30 then went to 40 and then 50 minutes. We had blinds at 25/25 and even 50/75 which I have never seen before.

I got a ride back to the DC area with a young cash player I met at the tables. He is a pro who travels some of the tournament circuits. He lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years and told me that most of his poker friends were broke. He won a second chance tournament and won during the cash games for a total take of around $4K which isn't bad for a few days of work. Much better than my donations to the AC economy.

Still playing on my initial $100 deposit for a couple of months now. I had excellent bankroll management only playing $0.25/0.50 cash and tournaments for $10-13. But lately I've ignored my bankroll management rules as I've been stuck at $1K with no movement. Stepping outside of my bankroll rules has resulted in much more variance as expected. My biggest interest right now is $2/4 Rush cash on Full Tilt.

I only have $0.80 on Pokerstars so I played a satellite for 50 points and won and unregistered so I received about $10 in tournament credits. I played two $1.10 double or nothing tournaments and cashed in one. We'll see if I make this go anywhere.

Had some interesting conversations during the cash games at Harrah's. Met several people with Circuit rings. One guy was a CPA who retired at age 40 and now just plays poker while his wife works. He started an IT business and sold it 10 years ago. Another winner was a college dean. He says being a dean is more money than being a professor but the hours aren't as great. He still gets six weeks off. He was also a former professional pool player and told some fascinating stories. I must be going to AC too much because I'm recognizing several players everytime I visit. I also noticed more female poker players during the cash games.

Well, Merry Christmas everyone.

Up and Down

2010-10-09T15:01:00.003-04:00

My standard MO is to load $100 at a time on either FullTilt or Pokerstars. I generally will build it up and then eventually decimate it. This is to be expected giving that I play $10+1 tournaments/SNG's and $1.00/0.50 cash games. Overplaying AQ on a queen high board or flopping a set of Jacks when someone else flops a set of Kings doesn't help matters. I am happy that at least I'm sticking to the stacks that I mentioned above. But of course to ride out the variance I would need a much better initial bankroll. Lately I generally sign up for about 4-5 tournaments at one time which will end up costing me about $50 which means if I don't cash, my bankroll takes a significant hit. So I'm realize that I am going against the variance monster but will see if good triumphs over evil, or perhaps that is the other way around.

Interesting comment from the Poker Meister saying I should check out Delaware Park. I've never been there but since it apparently is closer than Dover Downs, I should take a look. He appears to have much better success in the cash games than I looking at his blog. He also has a bad beat blog which is an interesting read.

Went to play a USO freeroll at Fort Myer yesterday evening. We started with two tables in what is basically a turbo tournament. I went out about halfway through with AQ vs KK. I hit an ace but my opponent also hit another king. But who took it down for a $100 gift certificate? Mrs. New of course. I watched the final 3 players and she folded when she needed to, called and raised in the right spots. Congratulations to a job well done.

Planning to play in AC for a week in December during the WSOP circuit event. Should be a fun time. Hopefully Mrs. New can come for a weekend and perhaps play the ladies event. During her first WSOP circuit event a little while back she actually cashed. Perhaps I should be sponsoring her?

My preferred tournament on FT is the 45 person $10+1 tournament because it finishes relatively quickly. I've actually won one of these recently and also cashed a few times. Last night I even cashed in 3rd for $72. I've noticed that when we get to the final table controlled aggression is the play of the day. I get aggressive but limit my bluffing as I've moved up several levels even with limited chips because the bigger stacks keep fighting each other. I understand you should play for the win but when you look a stack equity and you can get a 2nd or 3rd place payout when you started the final table in 7th or 8th place in chips, that is a win in my book.

I've also been playing the Daily Double on FT but have not cashed in both tournaments which would make be eligible for a bonus. Last night I cashed for $16.62 in 132nd place (out of 1,385) which shows you that you really need to make the final table to make it worthwhile. Thursday night I realized why I shouldn't play larger tournaments at 9pm because if you go deep you don't get any sleep. In that Daily Double I got 7/1,056 for $269 which although is a good result, I still have the feeling I wanted to at least get in the top three. Boy was I tired the next day.

September 2010 Update

2010-09-19T11:48:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog. Considered just deleting it but will keep it open for now to document some of my misadventures with poker.

Played a home tournament recently with three tables and took it down for a nice $1400 score.

During our family vacation to Germany we flew from Dover, Deleware and while there I was able to visit two recently opened poker rooms. The first one was in Dover and is called Dover Downs. It had about ten poker tables open and was decent. There was another smaller casino a few miles south of Dover which only had two poker tables open. I was able to play for a few hours while the family visited the Deleware State Fair which was all around the casino. Some AC poker dealers actually work in these Deleware casinos.

I went to the Borgata Poker Open 2010 last week. I played the following tournaments:

Harrahs:

$80 started with three tables, busted two from the money, button raised and I pushed with AQ in the big blind and was called by 77 and lost.
$70 eventually lost TT vs JJ all in preflop.

Borgata:
$400 Event #7
$350 Event #12
$200 Event #13
$1090 Event #16
$180 Event #33
$180 Event #35
$180 Event $38
$230 Event $39

Total tournament entries $2960. So I killed my $1400 profit from the home game tournament plus another $500. The remainder came from cash games $400 and one tournament cash. Luckily for me Harrah's comped all my rooms for the week and all my meals were also comped. Love both Harrah's and the Borgata buffets.

I only cashed in event #7 for $962. During the $1K event I played for nine hours. It was a six handed tournament and I was at a very aggressive table. The button would always raise when it was folded to him. Once again he made a standard raise to $3,200 and the small blind called and I pushed for $40K (average was around $60K) with AQ suited. He called with TT with a $120K stack and won the race.

I never experienced any bad beats during all of my tournaments which was nice. I did see several other people experience bad beats. Saw AQ beat AK twice all in preflop, smaller pairs run down bigger pairs all in preflop, etc. Generally I would push/raise and get stacked when a better hand woke up behind me. I did have a cooler late in one tournament when I held A9 in the small blind with a flop of A93 and my opponent held 33. I really enjoyed the tournaments and recognized several faces from past tournaments.

During my last day I saw Gavin Smith who people said is a regular to the Borgata. Also saw Steve Dannenmann stroll through. Beth Shak was at my starting table in one tournament and lost when she pushed after hitting her set on the river when someone made a concealed straight. She stated that the professional poker players do not receive free tournament entries from the online poker sites but are basically staked which means that the sites pay for their buy-in but they are on the hook to pay it back plus a certain percentage of any winnings. She said there are several poker professionals deep in debt trying to get their make-up. She said there was a German camera crew who followed her around for a few days. After she busted the dealer said, "she's not so hot." I guess everyone has their own tastes. She mentioned she finally convinced her boyfriend to play in a tournament.

I also saw known pros playing in the Borgata cash games. First time I saw a table with grey $5K chips in play. I had some terrible cash game results. Here is a sample:

Playing $2/$5. Early position standard raise to $25. Six callers. I push with AK suited for $400. Snap call by the original raiser who held A6 and wins.

Playing $1/$2 PLO (Omaha). Limped pot and I flop trip aces with a board of A,4,7 two clubs. Me and two players get it all in for about $400 each and my oppenents only have straight draws, no redraws to a flush.

Playing $10/$20 Limit Omaha High/Low. Short stacked I held T,T,2,4 and the board comes T, 2,4. I am short stacked and get it all in and lose to a chased low and a chased flush.

I really enjoy the structure of some of the higher buy-in tournaments and actually made three dinner breaks but need some better results. Always next time.

Last night I played the 50/50 on Full Tilt and after a few hours play I was short stacked and decided to gamble and limped with KK and got a bunch of limpers. After a safe board I pushed and got called by AA who also limped. Opps. Same result either way.

My Dead Stack Crushes

2010-07-12T21:42:00.003-04:00

Just called the Venetian poker room. Love their customer service. A nice lady called "Doll" (her dad had a sense of humor she informed me when I was in Vegas) provided me with the status of my dead stack. As you may recall I was unable to play Day Two of my Venetian $350 poker tournament. When I left we were down to 49 or 50 players with the payouts around $640 or so. Well, my dead stack lasted all the way to 14th place for a $2400 payout. I could look at this two ways. One, I could think that I am such an excellent player that I could have won the $42-48K first place prize or two, I could have went busto the first hand I played. Somehow I believe my dead stack played better than I could have done. But I'm just trying to be modest. As my son reminded me, time to buy an Ipad. I'll wait until I receive the check before making any commitments.

Perhaps my next challenge is to just play SNG's and tournaments and stay away from cash games. Play to your strength. Also, the wife said I am to win an entry into the Aussie Millions. That should be an interesting challenge, never mind the 24 hour plane ride from the East Coast.

Viva Las Vegas

2010-07-11T20:44:00.002-04:00

Took a little trip to Las Vegas for our anniversary. I didn't have much success in cash games. In a $1/$2 NL game I got stacked when I ran KK into AA. During PLO, I flopped a boat with QQxx on a flop of KKQx but my opponent held QKxx; again got stacked.

I played four tournaments and made the money in two. First I played a $560 Venetian Deep Stack. I went out early when holding AJ and the flop was AJx. I failed to bet as I was not the original raiser and was UTG. AK also decided to slow play. After a nine fell on the turn I got it all in but unfortunately my slow play let 99 hit his set on the turn. Bad play by me. For another Venetian Deep Stack $360 deep stack event I made the dinner break and shortly thereafter I went out when a very aggressive player who was raiser every third hand regardless of position raised to $4800 with blinds at $750/$1500. I pushed with 77 for $21000 and my opponent called with 8To and caught his straight by the river.

I also played a Caesars Palace $225 Double Stacked event which had a great structure. I made the final table and when we got down to seven players we chopped by chip count. I had the smallest stack. Normally 7th place payout was around $1600 but because of the payout by chip count I made $3200. Only the first and second place winners had to report for taxes so a German and Englishman claimed those spots. This tournament helped me to pay for all my other tournaments and cash game losses.

My final tournament was another $350 Venetian Deep Stack tournament. The tournament started at noon and we were supposed to leave around 11pm to go to the airport. Well I was surprised I went deep and also didn't know it was a two day event with the second day beginning at 4pm the following day. I decided to ramp up my aggression (with somewhat moderation) and ended up with $435,000 in chips when the average chip stack was around $182,000. We had to rebook our flight so I could play until 2am but I wasn't able to play day too. Since we made the money and with 49 players left (started with about 720 players) I should make at least about $630. The Venetian told me they would just blind off my chips and mail me a check depending on where I finished. Too bad as first place was around $48K and I had a shot. Next time.

We went to see the Las Vegas Elvis Cirque Du Soleil show at the Aria casino in City Center which was a nice show, some incredible segments. City Center is also quite impressive. We visited the Rio to observe the WSOP and I came away a bit underimpressed. At least I have a better reference when other bloggers describe the WSOP. We also visited downtown Las Vegas for the first time taking the Ace bus. I thought Binions would be somehow more impressive than it was, including the Fremont Street Experience. Perhaps it is better at night. We did get our picture with the $1M in cash.

I actually meet a few players that I remember from cash games in Atlantic City. There were also several foreign players I meet as they were in Las Vegas for the WSOP. I believe this is a great time to visit Las Vegas and I loved both the Venetian and Caesars deep stack events. We also enjoyed our comped room at Harrahs along with the free gym with free fruit and juice. Having the McDonalds with free internet next door is a bonus. They also had a free shuttle to the Rio. Notice a theme here?

Review of Bankroll Challenge

2010-06-26T14:55:00.005-04:00

Well I began my bankroll challenge on 5/22/2010 with $353 that I won from a tournament. My goal was to track my progress and stay within my self-induced contraints which was no cash game greater than $0.25/0.50 and no tournaments with a buy-in greater than $3.30. The tournament buy-in contraint is reasonable given my starting bankroll but the cash game limits are high given that a deep stack $0.25/0.50 game has a $37.50 buy-in which is about 1/10 of my bankroll and much greater once my bankroll decreased. So I am definitely taking risk with my cash games.

During the month I didn't play at all during eight days and sometimes only very minimally. I was playing many more token events during the beginning of the month and then changed to playing $3.30 90 man SNG's and cash games. My high point was early on with a high of $438 and a low of $60. I currently stand at $153. So from a financial aspect the challenge has been a bust so far as I am significantly below my starting stack. But the challenge has helped me in other ways. It has forced me to be disciplined with my approach. There are several times when my bankroll started dipping that I was tempted to move higher in cash or tournament stacks. By placing some restrictions in my play and actually following them, I did not have to reload during the past month and still have a bankroll that I can use go move forward.

Some stats:

During this time I made $98 in rakeback. This demonstrates the importance of having some type of rakeback in place as it can be a significant contribution to help build your bankroll.

Cash $0.10/0.25 PLO. Only played seven sessions, 3 winning, four losing. Negative $29.

Cash $0.25/0.50 PLO. Played 78 sessions, 28 winning, 50 losing. This was my biggest leak. Net result was -$350. Still a small sample size and the greater variance of Pot Limit Omaha doesn't help.

$3.30 Step 1 18 pax SNG. Played 11 times for a total expense of $36.30. Two times no token, 3 step 1 tokens, 6 step 2 tokens. Overall successful.

Token Step 1 18 pax SNG. Played 16 times. Three times no token, 7 step 1 tokens, 6 step 2 tokens. Overall successful.

Token Step 2 18 pax SNG. Played 10 times. Six times no token, 1 step 1 token, 3 step 3 tokens. Not so successful.

Token Step 3 45 pax SNG. Played 3 times. No cashes. Not successful. The whole goal of tokens was to begin with $3.30 and attempt to enter a Step 3 SNG in order to cash and build the bankroll. This did not happen.

I will keep moving on and continue with the challenge although I will not step down in cash games so my risk for bankroll failure is much greater given my current stack.

Atlantic City Trip

2010-06-15T21:42:00.003-04:00

Not making much progress on my quest to increase my bankroll. Got close a few times but getting stacked a few times in cash games keeps setting me back. I will have to review my stats after one month.

I was lucky enough to get a free marriage retreat for an extended weekend (Friday-Sunday) this past weekend at the Seaview Golf Resort in Galloway, New Jersey. It is right outside of Atlantic City. This meant that Mrs. New and I hit the casino both Friday night and Saturday evening. On Friday night we went to Harrahs and ate a free buffet and played a little cash. Mrs. New came out ahead and I was about $25 behind. The next evening we walked the boardwalk, got a couples massage and then hit the Borgata buffet (very nice) and then played cash. Mrs. New ended up slightly and I ended up only $75 after a $600 pot went to my opponent while playing $1/$2 PLO. Oh why did the board have to pair. So a very fun weekend and of course Mrs. New had better results on the felt. The Borgota Summer Open is underway and boy did I want to play.

No BBT5 Freeroll For Me

2010-06-06T14:14:00.002-04:00

I was expecting to play the Blogger Battle Royale today, a BBT5 freeroll as I participated in the BBT5 tournaments and also put up a banner which I thought was the freeroll requirement but for some reason I cannot find the tournament.

I went down to Orlando Florida for a work conference and found someone who took a class with me last year. Because of him, we would go to the casino during the weekends during the class. So we also decided to visit a casino after the class activities and drove to Tampa to the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Tampa, FL. All the cash games have a maximum $100 buy-in regardless of the game. Apparently this will change sometime in July. I got killed in the cash games. I had players call my all in preflop with hands like K5 suited or KT off suit. Crazy players. I did win on 6 person $125 SNG and bubbled another 10 person $125 SNG. Still I had a fun time.

The bankroll challenge took a break while I was down in Florida but it is not going well so far but more than results, it is to see if I can actually follow the guidelines I set for myself and document my activity.

Played a $1/$2 home cash game last night and left a winner all due to one hand and some luck. I just won a hand with QQ and get QQ the very next hand and decide to limp this time. Almost everyone is in the pot and the flop is 38T rainbow. The first player bets out $12 which gets called by two other players. I have an overpair but since I limped and there is so much interest in the flop I decide to take the cautious approach and just call and another player behind me calls. The turn is a queen giving me top set but now there is a possible straight out. The first player bets $50, the next two players call. Since I only started with $100 or so I believe I may be getting pot odds to call to draw for a boat since I'm sure at least one player has a made straight. The last player pushes for about $75 and it gets called by everyone including me. Three players have 9J for the nut straight and one player has a turned flush draw. River is a ...... Queen giving me quads.

BBT5

2010-05-28T16:13:00.002-04:00

Well if I read the Full Tilt blog correctly, the BBT5 is over as the championship tournament was yesterday (Thursday). I will have to find a write-up of what happened. But there is one final tournament:

Tournament: Blogger Battle Royale
When: Sunday, June 6th starting at 14:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Freeroll for BBT participating bloggers

Well let me find some info. Checked BuddyDank but just see radio info. He does have some blogger links. Lets check out Blinders, nope just stock market and Lost info. Next blog to check Jacks are Okay and what do you know, he took it down. Very nice. Like me he didn't realize when the Championshp event was to be held but he had an entry. No need to look further.

Up and Down

2010-05-27T23:14:00.002-04:00

After a great result on the 24th, it all came tumbling down on the 26th where I got stacked multiple times playing cash PLO. By the end of the session I had given back all my previous gains and dropped slightly below my original bankroll.

I started today's session playing four tables of PLO and ended the 1/2 hour session right before dinner down about $5. Played a step 1 and step 2 SNG and got 1 step 3 token. Since my tournament cap is $3.30, I discovered the 90 pax SNG's and signed up for two of those. For the first one I got 32/90 and for the second one I got 4th place. My bust hand was AK versus AQ all in preflop. So I am barely back over my starting bankroll and possess a step 3 token.

Other than breaking my rules in order to enter two blogger tournaments, I've kept to the tournament requirement of $3.30 or less buy-in and only cash games with a $0.25/0.50 limit. I am also recording all play on a spreadsheet which helps to avoid the temptation to play a quick game as I know I have to enter everything in the spreadsheet and that slows down my impulses. So there may be no financial result but at least I'm showing myself that I can attempt a disciplined approach to poker. Well, at least for right now.

I've been watching a little Youtube of the World Poker Tour Season 8 LA Commerce Casino where three of the players at the final table entered the tournament on $1,000 satellites and the top prize is about $1.8 million. Incredible.

Trying to Stick with a Plan

2010-05-25T23:10:00.002-04:00

After reading the exploits of the one player on Full Tilt who turned $5 into $100K, I decided to do something similar. One key difference is that the player played about eight hours a day and I do not have that amount of time. This is especially important because the player used promotions/bonuses to obtain about half of his goal. What I do plan to do is attempt to play within my bankroll and actually document what I am doing.

5/22 My bankroll stood at $0 but I took a $26 token and turned it into $353.65. So you could technically say I started with a $0 bankroll but that would be unfair. I will use the $350 number as my start point.

5/23 Played one $0.25/0.50 cash NL game. Buy-in $25, lost $4.10. Played two $3.30 Step 1 18 pax SNG's and obtained two Step 2 tokens. Ending balance $342 or 3% decline in my bankroll.

5/24 Played two $0.25/0.50 cash PLO games. Buy-in $20 and made a profit in both of $16.65. It started off badly but then with persistance worked out. Boy was it a grind though and tough to play at such lower levels.

Played a Step 2 9 pax SNG using a token and just managed to get my same Step 2 token back.
Played a Step 2 18 pax SNG using a token and received a Step 3 token.
Used the Step 3 token to play a 45 pax SNG and did not make the money. Held A4 on a x44 flop and lost to a boat on the river when my opponent held 22 and the 2 came on the river. My own fault for playing a bit slower than I should have.

Played a $8.70 Step 2 Super 9 pax SNG which goes against the rule I set for not playing any tournament with a buy-in greater than $3.30 unless I use a token. I did this because it was 9:30pm and I wanted a Step 3 ($26 token) for the Blogger Poker from the Rail Tournament that started at 10pm. Day 2 and I already broke a rule. But I did get a Step 3 token and managed to get 6 out of 56 for $87.35.

New balance $438 or 27 percent increase from the previous day. This is some high variance which is to be expected with the opportunities available with the leverage provided by tokens.

No poker today. Evening yoga class and distance learning homework and making dinner for my son and me and it is already late. One last opportunity for glory I believe with the blogger tournament during Wednesday's Mookie.

Stayin Alive

2010-05-23T01:28:00.002-04:00

Bankroll back down to zero but then rakeback added about $30 back into my Full Tilt account and it was off to the races. Discovered that I don't have to play Step 2 SNG's but can play Step 1 SNG's for only $3.30 which works better for me. Played two step 1's but didn't get anywhere. Had about $22 in a $0.25/0.50 cash game when it was raised to $2 and called by two other players and I raised from the big blind with AA to $12. Everyone called. I pushed on the rainbow flop of 9JK and was called by 9To who spiked another nine on the river. Nicely played sir. So back down to $0 but wait, I had a Step 3 token so I played a 45 person $26 SNG. Well I got to heads up and we agreed to a deal of $330 with $20.40 to play for which I won for a total win of $350.40 so it's off to the races once again.

Perhaps I need to follow the example of Boku87 who turned $5 into $100K in 10 months. Interestingly enough only $1K of that was from cash games and 50% was from points/bonuses/promotions. But he did apply strict bankroll management which is something I definitely need help with.

Ho Hum

2010-05-20T12:13:00.002-04:00

Suck It, I'm back. Found this Pokerstars freeroll on Facebook and decided to play.

PokerStars Tournament #272758743, No Limit Hold'em Freeroll 8,334 players. Dear NewinNov,You finished the tournament in 564th place.

A USD 0.23 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Oh boy, better read a little more before playing next time.

My luck isn't improving lately with typical fun stuff like A7 <>

I think I was the first person out in the Sunday BBT5 tournament when I held TT in the SB versus KK on the button. Blinds were at 15/30 I believe and the button raised to 90. The board had no paint cards and there was an easy straight on the board which I tried to represent (or even two pair) but couldn't get the Kings to lay down for all the chips. Good call to my opponent.

Also decided to play the Mookie on Full Tilt with my account balance standing at zero and it was my last chance to put something in my bankroll. Made the final table but then pushed over a raise (bad read me) with KTc and got called by two players. Flopped the flush draw but didn't get there. Oh well. NL Hold'em Buy-In: $10.00 + $1.00 91 players. Dear NewinNov, You finished the tournament in 5th place. There has been $72.80 added to your account.

Time to Start Over ... Again

2010-05-12T20:46:00.003-04:00

Managed to build my reload of $100 to about $1300 but then I just got decimated. Fun stuff like flopping top set versus set and then my opponent making quads. My opponent flopping quads with TT and me turning a boat of QQQTT. Even in tournaments losing AK vs AQ aipf, AK vs K7o aipf, etc. Normal stuff which is not good for a marginal bankroll.

I had $14 left in my bankroll Monday so I played a $5 SNG and lost a standard coin flip late. Then I was in a 18 person SNG for the remaining funds and managed to get a token for the Monday blogger tournament. Opponent raises 3x the BB with 44 early and I push for 11x the BB with JJ and get called and lose to a two outer. Ouch. Not really upset just disappointed. I realize it is all part of the game. Maybe I'm maturing with my poker, ha.

Poker from the Rail Tournament

2010-05-04T21:18:00.002-04:00

Still playing the blogger poker tournaments on FT. I so wish they wouldn't start so late. Made another final table but couldn't get the deed done when I pushed into AA with 77. Would be nice to win one of these events. Full Tilt Poker Tournament #157326801 Poker from the Rail Tournament NL Hold'em, Buy-In: $24.00 + $2.00; 59 players. You finished the tournament in 6th place, $92.04.

BBT5 Invitational

2010-05-03T21:48:00.002-04:00

Sunday evening and I get ready to watch a $1 DVD rental from Safeway called "It's Complicated," a real chick flick. So of course I open the laptop to multi-table some PLO tables when what to my wondering eyes should appear? The Full Tilt Poker Tournament #157173841 BBT5 Invitational Event #3 NL Hold'em with a buy-in of $0.00. For some reason I thought this was a special tournament for specially invited guests only. Not sure how I managed to get invited but I love me a freeroll. There were 116 players and I managed to get 5th place for $140. Thanks Al.

Very slowly building up on my $100 deposit primarily playing PLO with the occasional experimentation back to NLHE. A bumpy ride but so far in the right direction. Right before dinner flopped top set over set and lost to quads on the river. Ouch. Remembering two important parts of poker -- Patience and Postion. Too very important topics and very relevant.

For some reason there were no home games last weekend which was sad but hopefully something will show up next weekend. Starting to get hot and humid in DC. I don't mind heat but hate the humidity.

West Virginia Poker

2010-04-25T22:03:00.003-04:00

Did a little research about poker in West Virginia.

Mountaineer Casino is home to West Virginia’s largest Poker Room. The 9,900 square foot poker room is open 24/7 and has 40 tables offering Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and 7-Card Stud live games and daily tournaments running 7 days a week.

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort
Route 2
Chester, West Virginia 26034
1-800-804-0468

Sounds great but it is located 290 miles or over a five hour drive from DC.

Charles Town Races and Slots is supposedly nearby. 72 miles or 1 hour and 33 minutes is about right.

With the advent of tables games we have over 500 new jobs and an additional $6.4 million dollars will be generated for our municipalities. In 2007, when the West Virginia State Legislature approved the option for existing racetrack casinos to offer table games in addition to video lottery terminals (slots), it required that each racetrack casino receive approval from its host county via local referendum. Three of the four counties approved table games. Apparently on December 5th Jefferson County voted to allow Table Games.

The casino site has some information about poker but does not give much information about what poker will be available.

There is an article that did provide additional information and mentions a casino name change:

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- The owners of Charles Town Races and Slots hope to bring some of the glitter and glamour of Tinseltown to West Virginia with an expanded casino, a new name, and a fancy club and restaurant.

The gambling house, owned by Penn National Gaming, will be renamed Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races and refurbished with table games, movie screens and art deco stylings reminiscent of post-Depression America.

"The most important thing about the name change is what it portrays, and that's entertainment," General Manager Al Britton said.

Starting in July, the Hollywood Casino will feature nine table game areas, including a nonsmoking, high roller and party pit on the casino floor, Britton said.

Gamblers will be able to try their luck at blackjack, craps, roulette, mini-baccarat and pai gow poker, Britton said. A 27-table poker area is slated to open later in the year.

General Comments

2010-04-25T21:39:00.002-04:00

When playing HORSE events, everyone generally has one or two weaker events. For me the weak events would be when you switch to Stud High. I'm better at Stud Hi/Low because of my past Omaha 8 experience. Pokerstars has an interesting video concerning How to Play 8 Game Mix. Of course that wouldn't happen in Atlantic City because for some reason they don't allow Razz which is a brick inducing tilt game for me.

One game I heard about and know nothing about is Badugi. I hear it is a game the pros like to play. The Wiki for Badugi states it is a draw poker variant similar to triple draw, but with hand values similar to lowball. The betting structure and overall play of the game is identical to a standard poker game using blinds, but, unlike traditional poker which involves a minimum of five cards, players' hands contain only four cards at any one time. Luckily there is a Youtube clip that shows you How to Play Badugi.

Battle of the Blogger Tournament IV

2010-04-21T18:01:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it still lives, but the Battle of the Blogger Tournament is alive again.

Tournament: Poker From the Rail
When: Monday, April 19th through May 24th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 (or token)*
Password: 2010WSOP

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday, April 21st through May 26th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1*
Password: vegas1

*Winner also receives ToC entry

Borgata Spring Open Atlantic City

2010-04-18T16:25:00.003-04:00

I went to play for one week in Atlantic City for the Borgata Spring Open. Luckily my Poker friend Jeff was able to get a comped room for two nights at the Borgata Saturday and Sunday and then I got three free comped rooms at Harrahs Resort next door (easy scenic walk between the casinos) and then had to pay about $50 for the last Thursday night. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a Friday room comped so I stayed off the strip to get an economy room.

Didn't have a great showing but when deep in two tournaments. For the first tournament I played I went into day two with an above average chip stack. Bagging chips was a first time for me. Unfortunately I went card dead, had to bluff several times just to maintain, got pushed on several times when I tried to make a move and busted about 160th place out of about 1200+ runners. Cash games didn't fare much better. Twice got my pocket Kings cracked by hands like 83o. In one hand I pushed with AJ after a raise in a $2/$5 game for $76 and the original raiser folded but the big stack after me blind called with 84o. The board had an ace, the turn a jack but then there were four spades on the board, I didn't have a spade and the 4 of spades played for a flush. Fun, fun.

Events that I played:
$500 + $60 Sunday Event #1B 11am
$350 + $50 Tuesday Event #3 11am
$200 + $30 Tuesday Event #30 4pm
$200 + $30 Wednesday Event #5 11am
$350 + $50 Thursday Event #8 2pm PLO

The event entry fees really add up when you don't cash.

Can't wait for West Virginia to open up to poker; much shorter drive than AC.

Obtained a great free podcast from the Itunes Store which was just a fascinating listen. It is called FREE: The future of a radical price by Chris Anderson. Very eye opening.

Little Blogger Tournament

2010-04-08T06:39:00.002-04:00

Memphis MOJO made a comment recently on my blog and it was his undoing. After reading his comment I went to his blog to see what he was up to. I noticed he had a friendly feud with another blogger named Very Josie. They were having a little tournament to see who could play. I haven't played in a blogger tournament for a long time and thought the price was right and it might be fun. In my first hand I pick up QQ and push all in just to set the tone. Unfortunately MOJO woke up with KK behind me and called. Needless to say I hit one of my two outs. This was not my intention at all. It seemed like a nice bunch of folks with some old timers also playing like Miami Don and Lightening. Some real aggressive players. Ended with a three way chop which was great because I was tired.

Spring into April

2010-04-05T19:32:00.002-04:00

What a beautiful Easter weekend around Northern Virginia. Went on a little family trip to a KOA Kampground staying in a KOA Kabin. Also visited Woodrow Wilson's Presidential Library and then to Lexington, VA to see the Virginia Military Institute, Marshal Center and Lee's Tomb. Although I brought a laptop and the campground had wireless, I did not play any poker. Did the respite help me? Heck no. Back to my losing ways. Actually played both on Pokerstars and Full Tilt but all to no avail.

Can't wait for the next episode of High Stakes Poker which is the best poker video out there by far. Still planning to hit Atlantic City for the Borgata Spring Open but have to determine the details. Can't believe that one of the tournaments includes a High Stakes Poker Tournament. It is a $7,200 + $300 $500K Guaranteed East Coast Championship. It has a higher buy-in than the $1M Championship event.

I received some information from PokerStars regarding the upcoming SCOOP which starts on May 2nd.

SCOOP 2010 stats:
• Total Guaranteed Prize Pool: $45,000,000
• Number of Events: 38
• Lowest Buy-In: $11
• Highest Buy-In: $10,300

Anybody want to stake me in the big event? Look at my track record, better yet, don't. Now get out and enjoy some of this sun. Grilling tonight and watching the NCAA Finals.

End of March

2010-03-21T22:25:00.003-04:00

The weather is finally starting to turn so I finally played a game of soccer Saturday morning. Not getting any younger. Returned from a one week Spring Break vacation with my daughter. We visited Spain and Italy. I've never seen Venice with heavy snow before. It was a good break away from poker. So I reload and begin playing and the typical situations come back. Flop an ace high flush, opponent flops a straight flush. Welcome back.

Been watching High Stakes poker which is great television (or Youtube clips). I also watched a Poker After Dark cash game series which was very dry and boring which is probably no surprise since Chris Fergurson and Brandon Adams were playing. Mike the Mouth rants get old after a while. Also watch some of the Durr Challenge when he plays heads up and that was also interesting to watch, especially given the nature of heads up play.

Played in a $1/$2 home cash game Saturday night. I bought in short for $100. It gets raised to $8 and I repop it to $28 with KK and get one caller who is holding 44. Flop is 235 and I push about $65 and get called and my opponent catches his straight. Guess he had 10 outs twice. I rebuy for another $100 and turn the nut straight and push with about $60 into a pot of about $30 and get called by a 7 high flush draw which hits. Another player is also busted around the same time and decides to leave and I decide to stop the bleeding and make it an early night. Probably should have just reloaded and kept playing since it was still early and I was really looking forward to the game. Just a friendly reminder how luck, especially in the short term, plays a big factor in poker. Guess you have to have the fortitude, patience, perserverance and discipline to play for the long term. Hats off to those that play for a living.

Home Cash Game

2010-02-27T15:30:00.002-05:00

Smokkee recently made a comment about bet sizing which is interesting. Correct bet sizing is an art form. Generally when I have the best hand I attempt to get as much as possible into the pot as soon as possible. But given that the players I play at the levels I do like to chase regardless of the correct pot odds, it may be more beneficial to determine their possible draw and make a bet size that barely gives them the incorrect pot odds to call but not so much that you can't get away from your hand when the draw comes.

Played at a USO tournament last night. We started with three tables. I made the final table but then got blinded out in undramatic fashion when the blinds got high. I also played in a $1/$2 home cash game which saw winners of up to $1K and loser of about $1.5K which I guess is fairly standard. I actually ended up a few hundred but it wasn't due to my great play, more a function of the cards and playing attention to who I was playing against.

Pokerstars is having a Special SCOOP Competition for Bloggers – Invite Only. I already played in one of their freerolls and was able to obtain a ticket to a small SCOOP event. Probably should pay attention to when the events actually begin as they seem to generate a lot of attention in the online poker community. Reflecting at my recent short-term poker results is depressing which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

Update

2010-02-22T20:47:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I made an update. Traveled to Atlantic City again leaving Thursday night after work and took my new favorite mode of transporation, the train. Got to AC with no problem. Meet a young student from Holland going to AC for the first time. She asked me how to get to the Trump so I pointed it out on the horizon as we approached AC and left. Then I took the employee shuttle from the train station in AC and asked the shuttle driver if he was going to Harrahs Resorts. Guess English wasn't his first language because after everyone was let out I asked the driver if he was now going to Harrahs and he laughed and said he was going home for dinner. He asked if I wanted to go, jokingly but I declined. So then I took the Jitney. While waiting a young lady in a short skirt approached and I tried to avoid eye contact when she stopped at the Jitney stop as well. Well, rather than being a lady of the evening, she was a fashion design student from Boston going on a vacation. She wasn't sure if she was going to go to Louisana for their festivities or southern California.

Only played one tournament in AC and that was the guarantee tournament at the Borgata. After a couple of hours I flopped a set with a flush draw and bet out. I got called and then pushed on the turn. Couldn't shake the flush drawer. Also had some bad experiences on the cash table. Twice I got burned against flush drawers. Once I pushed $450 with top pair top kicker in a $100 pot and again got burned by the flush drawer. Pot odds means nothing to some people. Yech.

My cash game experience during a home game didn't fare much better. After a bunch of limpers I pushed with 99 and got called by A9, pushed with TPTK later and got wacked by an inside str8 draw, etc, etc. Sometimes it just isn't your day, night, week, month.

Still making mistakes or on the wrong sides of flips but still enjoying the game.

Been watching the second installment of High Stakes poker thanks to Youtube. I see that the Borgata is already advertising for the Spring Open during April. Might be a good time for a mini-vacation.

Pokerstars is having the SCOOP tournaments soon and I might play a little there.

Read an interesting story in the Washington Post about how a successful Afghanistan poker player is in charge of a big bank. Not everything is as it seems, surprise.

And the long road downward

2010-01-30T16:48:00.002-05:00

Well all the cash Ibanked in January just dried up. Some incredible losses. While on two tables I experienced a one outer on both tables within half an hour. Set over set which turned to quads for one lucky individual. Received my biggest rackback $180 for the week so time once again to start over. How many times will this be?

I was only able to play one of the Pokerstars Blogger Freerolls this week due to other obligations but I did win an admission ticket to 'SCOOP - $33 Entry.' So we'll see what I can do with that.

Play a home game tournament last night that started with two complete tables of 20 people. Made the final table and became crippled when my QQ couldn't last against JJ all in pre-flop. The jacks had to make quads by the river just to rub it in a bit more. Fun, fun, fun.

Steady as She Goes

2010-01-22T21:48:00.004-05:00

Experiencing the high variance of PLO lately. I've made two withdrawals from FT this month and want to see if I can make it three before the month is over. Was getting a bit bored at $0.50/1.00 and $1/$2 tables so I sat down at a $5/10 PLO 6 handed table with a red letter pro Stuart Peterson. I couldn't find much about him other than this short piece in a 4Flush article which says he was a WPT final table finisher and cashed in a WSOP event. Another player was Raj 'BadcardsAA' Vohra who I only recognized because he was interviewed for CardPlayer. True to his rep, he was a tad overagressive. The interview is decent but he was impatient during my short time at the table and quickly left. Both Vohra and Peterson remarked how they do better at $25/50 than $5/10. Whatever. I decided to leave after my AAxx double suited lost a huge pot all in preflop. Whatever. I'm a bit bummed I didn't go to AC to play in the HOSE tournament during the Borgata Winter Open as I had the opportunity but couldn't get off work. Props to Smokkee to remind me of the Pokerstars Blogger tournaments but most of them start when normal people just get off work on the East Coast so that will be a challenge. FT has a new concept called "Rush" poker so I'll have to check that out sometime. Right after I make my frozen concoction with the great X-mas gift from Mrs. New called the Magic Bullet that makes shakes a snap and a serious challenge to my weight. Off to the good fight.

Sorry to hear that Poker Pro Amir Vahedi Passed Away. I played a SNG with him in the Bahamas during the PCA and remember he was a fun guy. He told me that I held my cards incorrectly while playing. When down to three handed I just knew that he would raise me if I just limped on the button with AA. Sure enough he did from the small blind and I pushed and he called with 99 and of course spiked the nine. I was disappointed but not mad as the whole experience was fun; he made it that way.

2010-01-17T01:54:00.001-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 289047

Pot Limit Omaha Update

2010-01-17T00:37:00.002-05:00

No surprise but I completely decimated my previous bankroll. But I did put a little bit back before going back to square one. The culprit of course was moving to high in limits. Of course I always had the best hand going in but that means little in a high varianced game like PLO. So reload $100. So reload another $100 and another. But then got that turned around a bit and withdrew $300 and now playing with my winnings.

Played a home game and reloaded three times for the minimum each time and just played poorly. Later I played a USO tournament and donked off my chips on the final table and busted in fourth place when only top three places paid. Bummer.

Now I am playing two PLO tables and going up and down. But my at this exact moment I am up 3x my inital buy-in on the first table and 6x on the second table. It is a great feeling when your hands hold.

So I'm listening to my recent downloads which include such eclectic fare as:

Replay by IYAZ
Fireflies by Owl City
Telephone by Lady Gaga
Sexy Chick by David Guetta Ft. Akon
Fifteen by Taylor Swift
Sweet Dreams by Beyonce
Already Gone by Kelly Clarkson
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

Whatever iTunes tells me is on the top of charts. Such a follower.

Break-Even Poker

2010-01-09T11:09:00.003-05:00

I alternate between either Full Tilt or Pokerstars with the occasionaly stop at Bodog. Lately I've been playing at FT. I just reviewed my deposit history at FT and Since September I've been basically a break even player. The scenario is always the same and was recently illustrated when I went to my parents for Christmas. I deposited five separate times at $100 a pop. After the fifth time I built up my $100 to about $1K and then made a withdrawal of $500 to cover my previous deposits. This is my standard procedure.

What happens next is that I get a few bad beats at the $0.50/1.00 or $1/$2 levels and I commit the #1 cardinal sin of bankroll management and take the remaining funds and place it all on one table. No matter whether I get my hand in as a 80% favorite, evenually I go busto.

My game of choice now is Pot Limit Omaha. The PLO8 games have such high variance and I noticed the straight up Omaha games are where the high players are playing. Never mind variance on PLO8, PLO is just as bad. If a rule exists that you should never slow play a hand in regular NL Holdem, that becomes even more critical in PLO. Players there love to chase and sometimes they are even getting the correct odds. I don't know how many times I flop top set and check raise the flop, pot the turn only to get sucked out on the river. It is all part of the game and if you get easily tilted, PLO is not the game for you.

PLO is my recent drug of choice and boy is it highly addicting, and since most games are played six handed, and the players are generally very aggressive, it makes it a highly action filled adventure. After some especially bad hands at my normal levels last night I took my remaining $400 and sat down at a $5/$10 PLO six handed table. Luckily for me I was able to run that up to $1800 within 20 minutes but I wouldn't bet on me keeping any of those new founded chips very long.

One interesting feature on the PLO games last night is they have a "run it twice" feature where if you have the box checked and get into a heads up confrontation and the other player has also has the box checked (playing $400 capped game), the turn and river cards are displayed two separate times using the same flopped cards. This was very helpful as I split on three separate occasions. This is a nice feature which helps to reduce the variance a bit during coin flip situations.

I actually took home a few dollars at my last home game last weekend and hope to do the same tonight. There was one fun hand where I called a small raise from an aggressive player with a wide range with 72o. The flop came down all low cards but nothing for me. The player bets and I decide to float and make the call. The turn gives me an outside straight draw and the player checks so I bet. He min raises me and I snap call. The river completes the straight and he checks and I bet just the right amount where he takes some time to think but eventually makes the call. He couldn't believe the play as I generally have a tight aggressive image.

Oh, when I visited my parents in Washington State I played in two different casinos both run by Native American tribes. The first one was local and they only played $4/$8 limit with a kill and I lost a little in both sessions. The second time I went with Mrs. Newinnov to the largest casino in Washington State, MuckleShoot Casino in Auburn. Of course Mrs. Newinnov left a winner and I left a loser. My big lose came with a bluff as I sensed weakness but some people can not fold a pair of aces no matter how weak their kicker. I wouldn't mind living nearby as they actually had omaha and horse cash games.

One good thing about playing on Full Tilt is that I have rakeback with them. I actually received about $115 back last week which gives you an indication of how much I have been playing.

No New Year's resolution for me this year. If possible, I'll see if I can get to Atlantic City for the Borgata Winter Open which looks like fun. Of course I'd rather be at the PCA in the Bahamas.

Harrah's WSOP Circuit Events in Atlantic City

2009-12-19T22:03:00.002-05:00

I just finished my trip to Atlantic City. No exciting news to report but as always, I had a great time. It was poker, poker and still more poker. I did not let distractions like the swimming pool or night clubs or bars get in the way of poker. I was either playing cash games or tournaments with some limited time in between to eat and sleep. After all was said and done I broke even not taking into consideration non-poker expenses like hotel rooms and transportation. Mostly all of my food expenses were covered by casino comps. Most tournaments that I entered I lasted several hours somewhere between three to six hours. My demise generally ended in some type of a coin flip. One time I pushed in late position while short stacked with TT and ran into AA. All very typical poker scenarios, nothing to write home about.

The only real highlight of the trip was the first tournament event which I didn’t even play in. Saturday morning Mrs. Newinnov and I drove up to AC so she could participate in the WSOP circuit event ladies event which started with about 170 players and she had a small cash in 12th place. So now she is the only one in the family who can say they cashed in a WSOP circuit event. She left the next Sunday because somebody in the family has to be responsible. She was going to pick me up the following Saturday but since there was the freak snowstorm I decided to take the train instead which worked out very well expect for some minimal delays.
Adding up all the tournament entries really demonstrates to me how expensive it can be to be a circuit tournament player. I spent about $2500 in tournament entries alone. The three reasons I broke even was the small cash by Mrs. Newinnov and cash games. There was also a major influx of cash when I won a raffle at the Borgota poker room for $1,000 when my name was called. I filled out about four cards with my name while playing a couple of days in the poker room and out of a couple of thousand cards in the box, my name was called. Unfortunately that luck didn’t transcend to any poker tournament results. My deepest result was when I played the $50K Friday noon event at the Borgota where I made the final four tables and I believe the final two tables paid.

My favorite experiences while playing the cash games is meeting such diverse characters. The biggest cash game they had at Harrah’s was a $5/5 game that turned into a $5/10 game. At one point I was playing with the former CEO of Big Lots. His friend stacked me in an interesting hand. It was raised by the CEO’s rich drunk friend for the zillionth time to $40 and there were three callers and I pushed with TT in the big blind for $300 and he snap called with J7o and spiked the jack. In another session I had AA three out of four hands. The first time I doubled from $300to $600. The second time I won a $80 pot. The third time I lost everything. I raised to $45 and got two callers. The flop came all hearts and a solid player bet out $120 dollars. Since I had the ace of hearts I decided to push and he called with a flopped set. Unfortunately for me another heart did not come. During my time in AC I saw AA lose all in preflop three separate times. Twice aces lost to KK and once to JJ. So this stuff does happen live as well.

I did pay for use of the fitness room which I only used once during my trip. I kept planning to go but sleep and poker always come out ahead. If you did this for a living I can see how you would need to have better discipline or you might grow into some of the land whales that I see grunting across the casino floor. It is incredible how big some people get. I felt so incredibly independent with no worries or concerns. Sometimes I went to bed at 3am sometimes at 5am. Once after a poker session I bought some cherry covered cheesecake and ate it while walking through the casino back to my room. No deadlines, no bosses, no mundane day-to-day issues. This was truly my Disneyland vacation. Next time I just need to post some positive financial results.

Getting home was fun. The trains were a bit late but nothing too bad but when I hit DC there were no taxi's or busses running. The metro was only servicing platforms below ground. I had to walk a mile to find a nearby hotel because the wife couldn't get the car out of the neighborhood to pick me up. Crazy stuff.

Typical Newinnov Blow-up

2009-12-05T12:01:00.002-05:00

Once again I blew it. Seems to be a reoccuring theme. What is the definition of crazy? Doing the same thing and expecting different results? Well I took my $100 buy-in and built it to $1,300 but this time not with the help of tournaments and then blew it all playing even more outside my bankroll. I guess a positive spin would be to say that I an adventureous, a true gambler, always pushing the envelope. The other thought is that I have absolutely no bankroll management control. I definitely could never make it on poker alone like Smokkee as I believe he really has the bankroll management monkey under control. Only solice is that I'm not playing with rent money. Yes I could whine about my bad luck AA < QQ, etc, etc but if you exhibit proper bankroll management, that variance is accounted for and properly managed.

Steve Zolotow wrote an interesting article about bankroll management that states that you can take more risk if you have a small bankroll than a larger one. He provides a table that provides a range of risk you can take from 3% to 30% of your bankroll. This is based on three sizes of bankroll (small, medium, large) and the type of player you are (plodder, normal, plunger). So this gives me some perspective as I have been following the plunger small bankroll principle where I routinely have about 30% or more of my bankroll at risk at any given time.

Looks like the bloggers are getting ready for the 2009 Winter Poker Blogger Tournament in Las Vegas. Sounds like it will be a fun time. I have a friend going to Las Vegas about that time but it is for a marathon. That is a crazy distance to run. The furthest I ever ran was about 21 miles during a marathon training run with a friend of mine and that was when I used to run regularly. Now I'm more of a gym inside guy. I decided not to play soccer this Saturday morning as it was raining and next thing I now it is snowing in Northern Virginia.

I received a $500 bonus offer from Full Tilt so I decided to work through that. My deposit of $100 didn't go well when I flopped a boat and promptly lost $80 on Omaha8. So I reloaded for another $100 and am back up to $200 and already cleared my first $20 of the bonus. In my mind I'm thinking about trying to lock down my play to only $1.00/0.50 until I build to $1K but don't know if I can keep that promise. Maybe I'll try a little harder this time around. I held to that principle last night. One day at a time, right?

End of November Update

2009-11-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Playing some Omaha currently. Four tables. $0.25/0.50, $0.50/$1.00, $1/2, And $2/$4. I pretty much break even on the first three tables but I start with $200 and in two hands early on I get up to about $720 and then nothing for the next hour and a half. Crazy game Omaha. There was an article in the recent issue of Bluff magazine that wrote about bankroll requirements for Omaha. Whoops, I certainly don't follow those. I keep cruising between $100 and $600, playing the $12 turbo 180 person tournaments like they are crack. At least I haven't have to reload lately.

There was another article in Bluff about someone who built his online account to about $5.5 million only to lose it all. That would hurt. As someone said before, the hurt you feel from a loss is much greater than the joy you receive from a win.

Earlier in the week I built up a $100 buy-in to $300 and then I flopp top set on a board of Q23. The pot is $50 or so and I push it all in first to act and lose it all. That was not fun and clearly demonstrates the variance of Omaha, especially split games.

I do see all the regulars every day playing the same limits in Omaha and most of the regulars win day in day out making about $1-2K per day from what I see. I see them in tables with a max buy-in of $100 and stacking chips around $600. Incredible. Consistency seems to be the key. I do not demonstrate consistency. This is just a hobby but I do need to make a decision whether to scale down my daily play to concentrate on some other matters or to make a more serious effort. The serious effort would entail tracking results and reviewing hand histories for a start. Training software or videos wouldn't hurt either. Of course being a family man with a decent job puts a premium on my time. Also exercise which is something I need to keep doing. Funny, I recently started taking some aerobics classes like circuit training, step and yoga. Another article in Bluff written by Huck Seed was about using yoga to clear his mind. He also mentioned not eating during a tournament to help keep his focus rather than consuming calorie heavy foods or sugery foods that spike your energy and then cause a crash.

Well, ending early tonight. Good luck at the tables.

Back in the USA well Home

2009-11-18T18:34:00.003-05:00

I returned back from Deerborn, Michagan or Detroit. The conference I attended was informative but I did manage to visit the Greektown casino before I departed. Being the cheap person I am, I walked across the hotel to the mall area where the #200 Michagan bus was. I waited with a bunch of interesting people in the bus stop area (wheelchair guy with a license plate reading "blessed" among others). I got on the bus and figured out that I was going south instead of north so I asked for a transfer and got out at a random stop which was on a major street and waited around for about 20 minutes before another bus came by heading toward downtown. Again an interesting assortment of individuals riding the bus. One guy got on scratching himself and couldn't keep still. Finally I made it to downtown and looked around at all the skyscrapers and walked a bit when I saw the Greektown casino in the distance. I found the poker room and it was a small room with five tables running. I sat down at a $1/$2 NL table and had three hands I remember. I was playing for about an hour or so and was just keeping my stack around $100, my initial buy-in when I limped with 88. A newer player raised to $10 and got four other callers so I called as well. The flop was 567. I bet and the initial raiser reraised me. I decided to push as I wanted to gamble and was surprised when I was called by TT. But I caught my straight and it was off to the races. The second hand everyone limped and I had AA in the big blind so I raised it to $10. I got callers all around and the flop came 722 with two clubs. I bet out and was reraised by a middle aged lady who was a decent player and didn't mind chasing a good draw. I didn't put her on a two so I pushed and she snap called with the nut flush draw which didn't come. My last big hand was when I called a raise with AQ and flopped two pair. I stacked someone who held AJ. I wanted to play all night long but had to return back to the hotel at a decent hour. Some of the players at the table were trully aweful. I ended up after about four hours $442 so not a bad time in Greektown. I took the People Mover to the end of town and walked to the MGM Grand bus stop and meet some people who just emptied their change jars and spent an evening at the casino. They told me the MGM did have a poker room so perhaps my internet info was incorrect.

On the online front I'm running and playing bad so I've dropped below $100 once again. After my two withdraws I reloaded for $100 a pop four times but then rebuilt to $1000 so I withdrew another $400 but then ran the $600 to my current balance of around $80. The trend is not my friend.

Deerborn, Michigan

2009-11-16T20:00:00.002-05:00

So I am told to attend a conference in Deerborn, Michigan. I've never been to Michigan and I find out Deerborn is close to Detroit. Not to much positive news coming out of Detroit. So the wife says, why don't you see if there are any casinos in Detroit. And there are. The MGM is the biggest casino but apparently doesn't have any poker and another casino that has daily tournaments and cash games. After a $38 taxi ride from the airport to the Hyatt, I walk over to the mall nearby and find out there is a #200 Michagan bus that will take me downtown for $1.50.

This break is brought to you by a $22 PLO tournament. I raise it to pot with AAxx and flop an ace but lose to a flush on the turn. Yech.

So after the conference day ends tomorrow I might just take a little bus ride. Of course it is so much easier playing on my laptop in the comforts of my Hyatt plush bed.

Quick update brought to you by a $12 turbo 180 person tournament, TT < 55 aipf.

Just checked my work email from the hotel. Nobody seems to know I'm gone and I'm scheduled for meetings and tasks with deadlines before I return. Great fun.

Back to Where I Started

2009-11-12T13:47:00.002-05:00

For some reason I'm getting a bit addicted to playing the $12 180 person turbos on PS. A few days ago I got heads up with guy but only finished in 2nd place. Then over the next couple of days I managed to lose most of those winnings. Last night I played three more turbo tournaments. I only went deep in one of them for third place KQ < KT. But it was a wild ride getting there. I lose AQ vs AJ and get somewhat short stacked and then lose a 60/40 and am almost out. I am forced all in while in the big blind with A7o and triple up. The next hand I have KQ and push and triple up again. Then I win the next hand with AQ and am back into contention. I constantly see Ax being overplayed. The principle that works well in these is to be aggressive when first into the pot but to tighten your range when someone else has already entered. Funny thing about the A7 hand is that I was called by two other players holding AK and AA but I won when I flopped a seven and another seven came on the turn. Crazy, stupid game.

Slow Road to Nowhere

2009-11-08T13:32:00.002-05:00

Nothing really exciting to report. Did have an interesting cash game hand where I had a boat on the turn and got sucked out by quads on the river; something that doesn't happen everyday. Guess if you play long enough you see most every possible situation. Most of my tournaments lately end in a standard coin flip: AJ vs 77, AK vs QQ.

Was extremely patient during my last cash home game where I never really got anything going and then around 2am I decide to semi-bluff with an outside straight draw with two overs and got caught so ended up the night busted. Really doesn't matter how you play for the majority of the time if one hand can define your session. Need to pull back on the aggression a bit.

So it looks like it will be Joseph Cada $136M vs Darvin Moon $59M for the final in the WSOP main event. Sorry to read that Phil Ivey got bumped out by a bad beat AK < AQ but it won't be the last time. Cada has been running really well but that's all part of the game. I read a couple of Washington Post articles about Darvin Moon and all his comments make me laugh like not taking the limo because he already paid for the shuttle. I don't recall Peter Eastgate doing much for poker during his reign so I don't know if Cada would be any different so I'm pulling for Darvin; he is the underdog and more the common guy.

Well, my Disney World trip is confirmed. And by Disney World I mean gambling junket down to Atlantic City in December for the WSOP Circuit Event. My wife will join me for the first weekend and may play in the Ladies Event. I haven't determined by schedule yet. I also received a flyer from the Borgata and they have some interesting tournaments in December. There is a December Triple Play Deep Stack for only $350 and a newer daily tournament called the survivor cash tournament which gives cash to 1 in 10. Should make for an interesting time.

Guess I'll wait for the YouTube Poker downloader known as EpicPoker to download the final table so I can see the tightly edited final table results as played out by ESPN.

Turbo's Still Suck

2009-10-27T21:54:00.009-04:00

Playing three tournaments right now. Opps, now down to two. KK vs TT aipf no good. That never gets old. Just finished the second tournament but it was on the final table. Yes it was a turbo. Yes turbo's are a crap shoot and this was no exception. Final hand AT vs A6 and he hits a six but he was priced in and did nothing wrong. No Limit Hold'em Buy-In: $11.00/$1.00 USD 180 players, 6th place, A USD 99.00 award.

Still in my third tournament when this hand came down:

PokerStars Game, $25.00+$2.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250)
Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: NewinNov (8606 in chips)
Seat 2: El_Magico777 (7600 in chips)
Seat 3: Doc Slick (11070 in chips)
Seat 4: inhidonks (9070 in chips)
Seat 5: gelmo437 (12480 in chips)
Seat 6: subet (4330 in chips)
Seat 7: CANVASMKR (7172 in chips)
Seat 8: Waldow (7787 in chips)
Seat 9: kimcheepinoy (6301 in chips)
NewinNov: posts the ante 25
kimcheepinoy: posts small blind 125
NewinNov: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to NewinNov [Ah 6h]
CANVASMKR: raises 250 to 500 [Min raise? Really? Does anyone do that anymore? How effective is that really?]
kimcheepinoy: calls 375
NewinNov: calls 250 -[I'm priced in now considering the blinds, antes, one caller, min raise plus it's suited baby]
*** FLOP *** [3d 9h 8h] - [Ok, nut flush draw. How do I play this? Fast or slow? I've noticed that one of my many leaks is overplaying my draws so I'll put it into passive mode]
kimcheepinoy: checks
NewinNov: checks
CANVASMKR: bets 750 [standard continuation bet]
kimcheepinoy: raises 750 to 1500 [oh, oh. The min reraise. This could be trouble, especially since I don't know what the original better will do but I'm not really concerned about him.]
NewinNov: calls 1500 [so much money in the pot, I make a very loose call]
CANVASMKR: calls 750 [just a call, smells like a chaser]
*** TURN *** [3d 9h 8h] [8c]
kimcheepinoy: checks [either he is trapping or is actually weak and was on a draw himself, perhaps a semi-bluff]
NewinNov: bets 6581 and is all-in [I am sensing weakness all around, time to test my gut]
CANVASMKR: folds
kimcheepinoy: folds
Uncalled bet (6581) returned to NewinNov [guess I was right, this time]

A few hands later I raise with KK and two players push after me. This isn't the WSOP main event, I'm calling. Yep, against AA and JJ. But somehow because of the chip stacks of the pushers, I'm still in. Still in the hunt.

Now for a short break brought to you by misplayed cash game hands:

How can I lose this hand? Damn counterfeiting.
Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit ($1/$2 USD) - 2009/10/27 22:23:00 9-max
HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to NewinNov [2s As 9c Kh]
aliceroo1: calls $2
NewinNov: calls $1 [mistake one, should have raised]
saldsald: checks
*** FLOP *** [5h 6s Ts] [whoa, nut flush high and nut low draws. Normally I would play this really strong but what do I do? Check]
NewinNov: checks
saldsald: checks
aliceroo1: checks
*** TURN *** [5h 6s Ts] [4h]
NewinNov: checks
saldsald: bets $4
aliceroo1: raises $6 to $10
NewinNov: calls $10 [I have the nut low, I want more customers, especially if I get quartered and I still have the high draw]
saldsald: folds [damn, he folded]
*** RIVER *** [5h 6s Ts 4h] [2h] - [you have to be kidding me, a two, a blanky, blank two, really? arghhhh]
NewinNov: checks
aliceroo1: bets $18
NewinNov: folds

Why you don't slow play in PLO8:

Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD) - 2009/10/27 22:11:14
MoleAA: posts small blind $0.50
Tjorgey: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [7s Ah 2c As] - [Sometimes I open push with a hand like this, this time I'll try something different, see how that works for me]
Ysercom2: calls $1
NewinNov: calls $1 - [So cool, setting the trap...]
game07OT: calls $1
Tjorgey: checks
*** FLOP *** [7h 8c Ks] - [nut low draw and an overpair]
Tjorgey: checks
Ysercom2: bets $3
NewinNov: calls $3 [can't fold my nut draw although this is how you get quartered.
game07OT: calls $3
Tjorgey: calls $3
*** TURN *** [7h 8c Ks] [Jc]
Tjorgey: checks
Ysercom2: bets $3
NewinNov: calls $3 [chaser, just a little chaser...]
game07OT: raises $12 to $15
Tjorgey: raises $12 to $27
Ysercom2: folds NewinNov: calls $24 [Opps, unfortunately now I'm priced in, what a poor, poor play]

Boy, it is difficult to watch my son play 2K10 X-box basketball game, watch the million dollar cash game on Youtube, play two cash games and tournaments, while blogging and eating an apple. Blah.

10:50pm currently 84/210 players, 198 get paid. Right around average.

11:45pm Out. Folded to me on the button. I have AK and push. Small blind wakes up with AA. Opps. No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $25.00/$2.50 USD 1394 players, 98th place, A USD 62.73 award.

Another Boneheaded Play

2009-10-25T23:28:00.003-04:00

So flush with recent success and after a strange evening yoga class that I don't plan to repeat, I decide to take my entire bankroll of about $1K and sit down at a cash table and lose it all within about 5 minutes. That was interesting. Talk about a lack of discipline. So I'm back to reloading in $100 increments. I'm already on my second reload this Sunday. I'm down to about $57 so what do I do at around 11pm when I should go to sleep? That's right, I enter a $55 NL Holdem tournament online. Stop the insanity. At least I put some winnings aside. That reminds me of an article by Phil Laak (Unabomber) in a recent issue of BLUFF magazine where he writes about the time he put all his savings on an options play that his friend who normally was always right, told him about. This was a painful enough experience for him to bring him back to reality and mold his discipline. I don't believe the above experience reached that same proportion. Am I a ticking time bomb? I really can't believe that I am.

UPDATE: After two internet disconnections which meant I had to run downstairs and connect directly into the internet rather than use wireless which killed off about 1/3 of my stack at a critical point: 8th place for a USD 299.25 award (8/210).

Update on PS Withdrawal

2009-10-22T22:15:00.002-04:00

Well I requested my withdrawal from Pokerstars on October 19th and received an email back the same day saying the request was being processed. I just checked my bank account and the deposit hit on October 21st. Unbelieveable.

Why do I play tournaments?

2009-10-22T00:35:00.006-04:00

Tonight was just supposed to be a few hours of cash tables which I can close on my terms whenever it is time to go to bed. Instead I also enter a few tournaments which means if I do well enough to get into the money it gets late. This is even the case if I play those 180 person tournaments. If I play the turbo tournaments they go too fast and it becomes a crapshoot near the middle to end. I haven't had much success with turbo tournaments lately.

Played a $22 180 person tournament and made it to the money. If you make it to the final two tables you just double your buy-in so you really need to make the final table to make it worthwhile. During my playing I met a guy named "robtrick" from Australia in a place called Adelaide. He seemed like a cool guy and would end every conversation with "mate." He was a very aggressive playing and cracked AA twice all in preflop with TT and J9. His overagressiveness meant he almost always raised my small blind (he was in the big blind) when I completed. Normally I would try to push back but I was attempting to condition him to thinking that I would always lay down to his strength. This worked out well later when we were on the final table and I flopped a set with 44 and he pushed with a pair of Queens on a Queen high flop.

PokerStars Tournament #205698767, No Limit Hold'em Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00 USD 180 players Total Prize Pool: $3600.00 Tournament started 2009/10/21 21:33:22 ET. I wouldn't finish until over five hours later with over one hour just heads up. But at least the $22 turned into $720 for second place. Who would have thought a 180 person tournament could last so long.

Here is one interesting hand in the tournament that demonstrates the power of the chip stack and proper bet sizing:

Level XV (1000/2000) - 2009/10/22 1:33:10

Seat #4 is the buttonSeat 3: Gorgula (55664 in chips)

Seat 4: gresham777 (31559 in chips)

Seat 6: acalltime (60206 in chips)

Seat 7: NewinNov (122571 in chips)

acalltime: posts small blind 1000

NewinNov: posts big blind 2000

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to NewinNov [8s 9c]

Gorgula: raises 4000 to 6000 (This raise is too small and encourages action from the blinds)

gresham777: folds

acalltime: calls 5000

NewinNov: calls 4000 (Given my hand, my chip stack and the money already in the pot, easy call)

*** FLOP *** [7c 3s Kd] (completely missed me but probably everyone else unless there is a King out there)

acalltime: checks

NewinNov: checks

Gorgula: checks (original raise indicated weakness followed by the check on the flop for further weakness)

*** TURN *** [7c 3s Kd] [2c] - (This is a flop that could have connected with a BB hand)

acalltime: checks

NewinNov: checks

Gorgula: checks (Nobody appears interested in this pot)

*** RIVER *** [7c 3s Kd 2c] [5s]

acalltime: checks

NewinNov: bets 12000 (attempted to make it look like a value bet, given that nobody appeared interested in pot. Also it is a significant amount of the original raisers stack - about 25% which will make it difficult for him to call light)

Gorgula said, "large bet"Gorgula said, "looks like i let you do this"

Gorgula: folds

acalltime: folds

Uncalled bet (12000) returned to NewinNov NewinNov collected 18800 from pot

In the Money

2009-10-20T06:43:00.002-04:00

Doing the right thing and processing a withdrawal for $1,000 to help offset some of the multiple $100 deposits of the past. Will see how long it takes to hit the account. I think it has been about two months or so since I last deposited so that is a step in the right direction. Need to take a break from tournaments tonight in order to get some more sleep.

Still seeing some terrible plays. Apparently any ace is gold for some people. In one tournament last night I make a standard raise very early in the tournament and get reraised all in. I have AA so I call. Opponent has AJo. Incredible. Then after he hits his straight he posts, "I didn't think I would get there." Really, you think?

Had two cashes last night. My most important one: No Limit Hold'em Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD2696 players, 317th place. A USD 4.31 award. Watch out, here I come. The other one: No Limit Hold'em Buy-In: $50.00/$5.00 USD196 players, 12th place. A USD 171.50 award. Lost in the end with a coin flip so nothing exciting. I pushed with JKs on the button short stacked and got called by 55. It was super aggressive once we got into the money. About 1/3 of the time when I raised I would get reraised all in. Really had to pick my spots. Should have realized my fold equity was marginalized at that table.

Cash Games Suck

2009-10-19T08:09:00.002-04:00

Coming off of three losing cash game (home game) sessions, I was determined to turn things around this weekend. Boy, was I wrong. Unfortunately Lady Luck always factors into the equation. Ran KK into AA AIPF and doubled up a short stack. We are playing $0.50/$1.00 and a solid player raises to $10, I reraise to $40 with QQ and he pushes immediately. He has done this only two other times and both times had AA. I fold and he shows AA. My final hand I hold AA. Early position rock makes a raise to $3, aggressive player to his left reraises to $15. I know how he plays and smooth call. Rock folds. Flop is all low cards. He bets out $20 and I go all in. He talks out loud how I can't have KK or AA so he calls with his KK. King on the river. So cruel, so very, very cruel. Even with all that I was only down $70 for the night.

Back home while watching SNL, I promptly lose $500 of my bankroll (had built up my $100 to around $800). On Sunday evening I decide to go for broke and play a Horse tournament for 1/3 of my remaining bankroll. Poor bankroll management decision but this time it worked out.

PokerStars Tournament #203041107, HORSE Buy-In: $100.00/$9.00 USD 55 players Total Prize Pool: $5500.00. USD Tournament started 2009/10/18 21:45:00 ET. You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 2,035.00 award has been credited. Even better, I was indirectly called a donkey at the final table.

Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.

Moving Back to PLO

2009-10-09T14:32:00.003-04:00

Still playing on my initial $100 deposit. Playing $0.50/1.00 and it is becoming a grind. I get up to about $300 and back down and back up. The last time I got back down to $100 I got tired of the grind and just decided to clown around and took entire amount and played PLO. I'm continuing with that game plan until I bust. I sense it is only a matter of time as I'm woefully under bankrolled.

My last three times at home cash games ($0.50/1) have been dismal. The time before last I lost my first buy-in when someone raised in middle position with 88 to $4 and I pushed with AQ to about $43. He called and I lost the coin flip. Same player makes a similar raise much later in the game and I push with QQ and this time he holds AA. During the last game my first bust out came when I misplayed JJ and let someone catch up with 55 to make his straight. The last bust out happened when I bet out with two pair and got caught on the turn when my opponent made his straight. Need to tweak my game and correct some leaks.

Some interesting hands:

PokerStars Game Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit ($2/$4 USD) - 2009/10/09 14:30:29 ET Table 'Drymas IX' 9-max
Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: liebe43 ($146 in chips)
Seat 2: Veron7777 ($240 in chips)
Seat 3: QuincyG ($247.10 in chips)
Seat 4: Audilak ($392.70 in chips)
Seat 5: romyco ($366.25 in chips)
Seat 6: kuhns89 ($565.70 in chips)
Seat 7: loeda4789 ($467.10 in chips)
Seat 8: Haigles ($156.35 in chips)
Seat 9: NewinNov ($117.75 in chips)
Audilak: posts small blind $2
romyco: posts big blind $4
Veron7777: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to NewinNov [Jd As 2d 4d]
NewinNov: raises $8 to $12
Veron7777: calls $8
romyco: raises $354.25 to $366.25 and is all-in
NewinNov: calls $105.75 and is all-in
Veron7777: folds
*** FLOP *** [2s 9c Jh]
*** TURN *** [2s 9c Jh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 9c Jh 6s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
romyco: shows [Ac 6c Ad Qs] (HI: a pair of Aces)
NewinNov: shows [Jd As 2d 4d] (HI: two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
NewinNov collected $246.50 from pot No low hand qualified

Boy, I run good during tournaments:

70FPP Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2009/10/13 9-max

NewinNov: posts big blind 50

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to NewinNov [4h 9h]

2dogsmsm: raises 10 to 60 and is all-in

Singularis: calls 60

winetime72: calls 35

NewinNov: calls 10

*** FLOP *** [9c 5h 9s]

winetime72: bets 100

NewinNov: calls 100

Singularis: raises 399 to 499

winetime72: folds

NewinNov: raises 1166 to 1665 and is all-in

Singularis: calls 346 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (820) returned to NewinNov

*** TURN *** [9c 5h 9s] [2c]

*** RIVER *** [9c 5h 9s 2c] [3c]

Flopped three nines and lose to runner, runner flush. Nice.

Low Level Moving Along

2009-09-20T23:49:00.003-04:00

Been doing a good job avoiding long tournaments and sticking with only $0.50/1.00 NL cash tables. Having a difficult time trying to build my roll from my starting point of $100. Yesterday I lost twice with AA all in preflop versus KK (King on the turn) and TT (four flush). I'm seeing some incredibly bad play on occasion at these low levels. I'm playing fairly tight but not rock like. I am continually reminded how difficult it is to build a roll from such a small starting point even though I keep reading about how young professional players did just that.

Below is an interesting hand where it was obvious what the two players who pushed had yet the large stack decided to call with an incredible hand:

PokerStars Game #33092921590: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD) - 2009/09/20 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: pokerlube ($112 in chips)
Seat 2: getaway911 ($101.80 in chips)
Seat 3: CyOswalt ($133 in chips)
Seat 4: NewinNov ($14.50 in chips) - After a bad beat I decided to see if I could recover, ha
Seat 5: BangkokBubba ($667.30 in chips)
Seat 6: twming ($109.35 in chips)
Seat 7: Wake09 ($126.50 in chips)
Seat 8: cubs4lyfe420 ($82 in chips)
Seat 9: kodacolor ($75.40 in chips)
BangkokBubba: posts small blind $0.50
twming: posts big blind $1
pokerlube: raises $3 to $4
getaway911: raises $8 to $12
BangkokBubba: calls $11.50
pokerlube: raises $100 to $112 and is all-in
getaway911: calls $89.80 and is all-in
BangkokBubba: calls $100
*** FLOP *** [6c Qh 8c]
*** TURN *** [6c Qh 8c] [3s]
BangkokBubba said, "7"
*** RIVER *** [6c Qh 8c 3s] [2c]
BangkokBubba said, "2"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BangkokBubba: shows [5d 4s] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
pokerlube: shows [Kh Kd] (a pair of Kings)
BangkokBubba collected $20.40 from side pot
getaway911: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
BangkokBubba collected $303.40 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $326.80

Hee Haw

Yes I am Alive

2009-09-12T18:37:00.002-04:00

I started a new job two weeks ago and as opposed to my old job where I had soooo much free time, now I have absolutely no free time, work late, check my work email from home, etc. It is a complete change and a bit stressful. Normally I read my blogroll of 10 poker blogs during my lunch time but now I sometimes don't eat lunch until 3pm and then I'm working. I hope this all changes in a few months when I get everything under control.

Haven't done much on the poker front. I played in a home game but nothing really happened. Bought in for $80 and lost it AK vs AJ, all in after the flop with an ace high flop but then the Jack fell on the river. I didn't tilt but just never got anything going until I lost my second buy-in with a bad read and my top pair lost to a hidden flopped straight. There was no reason for the second buy-in loss.

Did the standard $100 rebuy online and built it up to about $300 and then boom lost it all in a single session. I've learned that PLO is a high varianced game and that playing standard Holdem is working better for me in my attempt to build a roll.

Last night I played three tournaments on Pokerstars. A $12 180 person tournament with the top 18 getting paid and I busted around 22nd or so on a standard coin flip. Then I played a $10 tournament with 1931 players and got 206th place for $21.24; yippie. The last tournament was a measley $4.40 tournament with 180 players and that one tournament went way too long. I eventually busted heads up after playing heads up for about 40 minutes when I held AK suited and my opponent held AA. Second place was still good for $144.

I am watching the WSOP main event through Youtube at this guy's site named EPICPoker. He does a good job uploading the latest editions and they are presented in a good quality.

I am also watching a show called 2 Million 2 Months which has four young online poker players attempting to build a roll into two million dollars. It is a very quirky show and most of the players are quite nerdy but it is amazing that this young players are so successful. I am also watching the show on Youtube on willemrules's Channel.

It's August

2009-08-06T16:40:00.002-04:00

It finally feels like summer around the DC area. Normally I go to the gym five times a week during work but I found this place near work that plays pick up soccer at noon so that is were I've been for the past three weeks. I've lost a few pounds with all the cardio but my upper body seems to be fading. As long as I can push chips or click a mouse, does it really matter?

Just playing a little PLO8 online on PS but nothing really happening. I did notice that both PS and FT are providing reload bonuses. I might want to take them up on that offer. Had some interesting times in some tournaments. I play a rebuy tournament and my first hand I have AA and decide to push with it. I get called by QK and lose to two pair. So I reload and get QKs and decide to once again push with it as it must be a good rebuy tourney hand; get called by AK and I'm out. So then I play a single table where half the players will double their entry fee. The second hand I get KK and open push with it. I get called by A2s and he flops the nut flush. At least you can't say I slow play my big hands. Ha.

Last night I was looking for a tournament to play before going to bed and found a 180 person turbo on PS for $11. Nice tournament but the blinds move quickly (every 5 minutes I believe). Top 18 get paid and I made it to 15th place when blinds were really crazy.

Planning to go on a family vacation next week so we'll see where we end up. Our vacation destinations are always very spontaneous.

Las Vegas Trip Report

2009-07-26T22:26:00.009-04:00

Las Vegas Trip Report

We had a great time on our trip but financially rewarding it was not. We left very, very early catching the first bus around 5am and even saw my regular bus driver who wondered why I was up so early. Not by choice. We then hit the metro and got to Ronald Reagan airport. For some reason Mrs. New always puts out her toiletries bag for security inspection but I never do and they never ask. We boarded a small plane to fly to Cincinnati and then another longer flight segment directly to Las Vegas. An uneventful flight and we landed around 10am and found the shuttle that took us to the Wynn on the strip.

The Wynn definitely is an upscale establishment. Our room was fabulous. Double sinks, separate glass enclosed shower and oversized tub, television in the bathroom, large floor to ceiling glass ceilings with a great view of the strip and the mountains in the background, large plasma TV, and the most comfortable sheets on a very comfortable bed.

I checked my tournament schedule list that I printed from my online search and decided I would play in the daily tournament at the Bellagio at 2pm. We walked outside and noticed that the Fashion Show Mall was right across from the Wynn and had a great food court with multiple food choices. After lunch we went to Starbucks on the first floor of the building and make it a routine stop because if you purchased a drink in the morning your second drink after 2pm (with receipt) is only $2. Even on a Thursday the strip was busy and it was easy to walk to the Bellagio although it was a bit further than I thought. I was a bit disappointed at the Bellagio poker room. I saw Bobby’s Room which was a nice small quaint enclosed room. Perhaps because it was a Thursday but the room was not that busy. I asked about the $1K tournament but was told that due to the state of the economy the buy-in’s were reduced and now the bigger event is only $500. I decided to play the $330 tournament which only had a few tables to start but I was told that people could still buy-in until 6pm. Hard to believe they let people in to play four hours after the start time. I was crippled early on when my QQ lost to 99 all in preflop. Then when the cutoff and button limped I decided to make a play while short stacked with Q3 in the small blind and was called by the big blind only who woke up with 88. There was a queen on the flop but also an eight. The board was all clubs so my flush came on the turn with my 3 of clubs but then the board paired on the river. Live poker is so rigged.

Later that evening I decided to play the daily 8pm tournament at the Wynn for $225. They didn’t have enough people to play a regular tournament so they kept the same structure but made it a Sit and Go with 10 players and two alternates that come to the table when other players busted. I played for quite a while down to five players when I ran my KK into AA. Only two players got paid.

The next morning we got up and decided to both play in the $150 noon tournament at the Venetian called the Daily Deep Stack. It was a great structure but neither of us cashed. I really like the Venetian poker room. The dealers seemed competent, the room is large, the food service and drink service is quick and friendly, the tournament structures are great and they even have chip runners which is a service I never used before. I also played some PLO which was a fun game. When I arrived there were only four other players. Three guys and a middle aged divorcee with her daughter occupying one of the seats. I had to ask the daughter to move her stuff from one of the chairs so I could sit down. Apparently there is no maximum buy-in as two players had about $3K behind. The blinds were $2/$5 but usually people straddled to $10 and the game was aggressive. I sat down with $300 and was quickly down to $200. I had 33JQ and potted when the flop came down with a three. I was against two other players when I got all my chips in on the turn and the river was a ten and the lady showed a pair of tens in her hand. But that ten gave me a straight for the win. The largest pot of the evening was about $1,200. I managed to cash out up $430 after 2.5 hours. My other cash games were basically even. I also played limit Omaha High Low which was played with $1 chips so it looked like everyone had monster chips just because of the quantity. I sat down with $100 and was up quickly to $200 but then cashed out with about $120. I got squeezed in a hand when I flopped the wheel but another player not only had another wheel but a straight flush as well. The third player in the hand thought her boat was good and kept raising. I knew I was getting quartered at the minimum but at that point I was priced in.

Apparently the national deaf poker tournament was being held at the Venetian so there were several deaf players around. It is interesting to observe when a deaf player gets excited. The Venetian has a decent food court near the poker room and so we had lunch at the Rialto Deli with reasonable prices. There was also a Noodle Bar near the poker room which looked really good but a somewhat pricey.

We also noticed that there are a couple of stores like Walgreens on the strip were it is easy to buy snacks and drinks. Mrs. New wanted to see a show so we went to the Fashion Show Mall which had a Tix4Tonight place right next to the Starbucks which sold discount show tickets. I noticed from my strip map that there was a monorail so we decided to check that out. Big mistake. Next time I will use a taxi. We left the Wynn on the south side and there was no sidewalk for a portion of the property. Then we walked down Spring Mountain road and saw the Wynn employee parking lot which was huge. It made me think about how many people it takes to run the Wynn property. Definitely a human capital intensive business. We walked around the Sands Expo and it felt at times that we were the only people that were walking. We were on the backside of the strip façade and it wasn’t pretty. It was dirty and reminded me of a factory setting in Detroit. I saw a huge building which apparently had a sole purpose for providing air conditioning to the Venetian. We saw the monorail stop but couldn’t figure out how to get to it. We asked someone and they told us we have to go through the Imperial Palace casino. After getting used to the Wynn, the IP seemed grimy in comparison. We finally managed to get in the monorail which was fast and clean but at $5 per person one way, I believe a taxi would be a better alternative. We got off at the final stop which ended at the MGM Grand. That was a huge casino with several nice restaurants and shows. It was packed and hard to walk through. We finally found New York New York. This portion of the strip is definitely different that the northern part of the strip where the Wynn is located. It just seemed more packed and flashy. The show we saw is called Zumanity which is an adult oriented show. It was incredible. I especially enjoyed some of the comedy, the flexibility of some of the performers and the acrobatic moves. There was even some audience participation which fortunately for us we did not get included in. I gave Mrs. New the option to drive back in a taxi but we ended up walking back to the Venetian. I can’t believe how many drunk people there were on the strip. So many of the young ladies had difficulty wearing high heels and were definitely dressed to party. Just north of the NYNY casino there is a large construction effort going on at one of the properties. We also got repeated offered small cards for girls or clubs. The streets were covered in small cards. Much different vibe than the northern strip. We finally got to our room around 3-4am.
The next morning we got up early around 8am and decided to enjoy the pool. The pool was nice with a long part in the center which could be used for swimming laps. I made three laps and that was my exercise for the trip. They also had nice large beach towels and iced cold water. There was also a waitress who came around. We finally checked out and took out luggage to the Bell Captain. Next we decided to go to the Venetian for my finally shot at a tournament. Cash wise we were even with my winnings and Mrs. New’s losses but we were still down due to all the tournament entry fees. So I decided to enter the Venetian $550 Saturday noon Deep Stack. Unfortunately they only had about 50 or so runners but the structure was amazing with $15K starting chips and 40 minutes levels. Beginning levels were 25/50 and a late position player raised to 175 and I actually raised to 1600 with KK. I did not expect a call but it was all part of an image I was trying to play as an overly aggressive player. But my opponent actually called but folded to my continuation bet. This image worked out well when a late position player raised in the cut off. I had AA and reraised. The player reraised me and I had to think how to play this. I decided that I wanted to get all my chips in the middle. I looked at my cards several times and looked at my opponent as if I tried to get a read. It was a good show; I should have sold tickets. When he called as he had KK. Another player couldn’t believe that he called with KK so early in the tournament. I continued my aggressive play but after losing a few chips switched gears mainly aided by my crappy hands. A little later I noticed the tournament director standing right behind me. After the hand he told me to get my chips and follow him. The way he said it made me think I did something wrong and was getting kicked out of the tournament but I was just getting moved to another table.

At the new table I immediately recognized a player from the Wynn tournament the night before. He was extremely aggressive and ran the table. He was able to fold a hand and I admired his play because it was difficult to play against him. But it all worked out. He made one of his standard raises in early position and I called with TT. The flop was 664 and he bet out. I thought I was good there but it was always possible he had a higher over pair. The turn was another four and he made a larger continuation bet. I put him on an ace thinking that he is good with his ace kicker. The river was a card I didn’t want to see, an ace. If I put him on an ace before then his two pair would be higher than mine. He pushed. I kept thinking about how he bet and something didn’t seem right. I counted out my call and it would still leave me with sufficient chips to play so I made the call and he insta mucked and said good hand and left. That was sweet. I made the final table but was getting shorter stacked and only the top five got paid with first place at around $8K. An aggressive French man was running the table. It was a tough final table. I made a raise with AJ and another player reraised me all in so I folded. I believe that fold got me further through the tournament. That loss of chips though made me the short stack at the table and reduced my options in the further to a push. Several other shorter stacks were also pushing when they entered a pot. When we got down to six players a decision was made to pay the sixth player his buy-in amount of $550. I raised with 77 and collected the blinds. I pushed with AK and also collected the blinds. When I had 22 I was debating. There were several factors involved. Our bus was going to pick us up from the Wynn at 10:30pm and it was now 9:30pm, I got respect before, so I decided to push and was called by a guy holding 44 which was incredible given that it was for most of his chips but then the Frenchman also called with his 77 and knocked us both out. If I didn’t push there I could probably have moved up one or two more positions. So after 9.5 hours of play I got my money back.

Some additional notes: Avoid the ATM’s in the casinos if possible as the surcharge is $4.99 (Venetian/Bellagio). Don’t ever pay full price for show tickets as there are several discounters available. Several pokers rooms take out 3% of the prize money to be paid as a gratuity to the poker room staff (Wynn/Venetian). We didn’t get to go to downtown Las Vegas as we ran out of time but there are buses on the strip for $4 one way or you can buy all day tickets as well. Only pro sighting was Jean-Robert Bellande of 'Survivor: China' playing at the Bellagio three handed in the back of the room. A dealer at the Venetian told the table that the WSOP is getting worse for the dealers every year as management keeps taking more money from the pool. According to him after the dealers received their first paycheck several dozens never returned.

Some pictures:

Welcome to Vegas

Our bathroom

Our hotel

Show at the TI (pic from our room)

Bodog Semi-Final

2009-07-22T15:59:00.002-04:00

For some reason I receive an email from Bodog that read: Congrats, you’ve qualified to play in the Bodog Mini Poker Series Semi-Final and are now one step closer to winning one of the first seats to the 2010 WSOP* Main Event! I thought the requirement was to be in the top 50 of the TLB but I checked and couldn't find my name. So anyway, I played last night hoping to get into the final 18 to move on but I burned out around 32nd place or so. I went all in with JJ got called by QK, flop came down with a jack but also runner, runner for a straight for my opponent. TripJax was also playing and running hot right across the table from me so hopefully he made it through.

Since I had $11 left in my Bodog account I also decided to play a $8.80 tournament and came in third place for a $40-50 payout.

Leaving for Vegas in the morning, staying at the Wynn. Oh yeah.

Playing at Pokerstars Again

2009-07-21T11:10:00.003-04:00

After a late dinner I loaded up the laptop and Pokerstars has so many tournaments it is very tempting to play. I decided on a $11 $8K guaranteed tournament which started at 9:15pm. I eventually busted around 2am in 19th place out of 1,877 runners. Somehow the $48.81 award is not warrented for the lack of sleep. Of course the first place prize of over $3K would have been worth it. I pushed from the small blind after the button made a standard raise with A2. I didn't like my kicker but I was extremely short stacked and I found out I was ahead of the button's opening range as he held TJ which unfortunately won. The payout jumped to over $80 for 18th place but I didn't take that into consideration.

Atlantic City Trip Report

2009-07-21T11:04:00.001-04:00

This trip report is a summarized version all written from memory so there is your disclaimer. I left work early around 2pm to get to Mrs. New's area around 2:30pm. The metro was a bit late but we managed to hit the road around 2:40pm. But that was early enough because we still encountered stop and go traffic on the DC beltway. Further traffic on the way to Baltimore and just along the entire way. I didn't use the GPS correctly and got off one exit too soon and the side roads were also loaded with traffic including one detour due to flooding. We also drove through an intense rain storm. What normally should take about 3-3.5 hours took about 5.5 hours.

We checked into the Irish Pub Inn without issue including the $2 AC resort fee and $5 key deposit (this is the only place I know to have a key deposit) then took one of the oldest elevators in existence to the third floor. The room was super small but I splurged and got their executive suite because it included not only a sink with running water but a shower adjacent to the room that we didn't have to share with anyone else. Who says I don't know how to treat a lady right? Well, you're wrong. The mattress seemed to have a plastic cover which was interesting. But the one window overlooked the boardwalk and the ocean. Think positive.

After checking in we drove to the Taj casino to park our car. I stop my car at the inside gate and proceed to have a staring contest with a middle aged Asian gentleman. Nothing happens for 15 seconds. So I ask if I have to prepay. He says $10. I say I have a Trump casino card. He says $5. Somehow I don’t think he was volunteering any information.

In the Taj Mrs New played some $2/$4 limit and I played some $1/$2 NL. My table had an interesting middle aged guy who kept trying to bluff all in. After the third rebuy he left and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any of his chips. The only interesting hand was when I limped with 66 and the flop came A56. I don’t expect anyone limped with AA and hope someone has an ace. I bet out and get raised so I push. Opponent has A6 for two pair. Of course the ace falls on the river. Damn two outer. So I have $12 left and get ready to rebuy when I decide to see how I can work my short stack skillz. One hour or so later I leave the table with $169. That was fun.

The next morning we got up and went for a jog. It was the only exercise for the whole weekend. We headed north on the boardwalk and ran passed the Showboat and saw the new casino that is being built. It looks like it will be nice and large. At one point the boardwalk was taped off due to damage and we left the boardwalk and walked in a sketchy part of AC. We saw the lighthouse which was fenced off with a solid black metal fence and didn't appear to be open. Mrs. New wanted a bottle of water so we stopped in a small convenience store and walked passed one guy with what appeared two black eyes and another gentleman who had a large tear in his pants and was picking at his leg which was a bright red. The Pakistan store worker was pleasant and of course I asked for store credit as there was a hand written sign posted next to the counter that said they will absolutely give no store credit so don't even ask. Like I said, an interesting part of town. We attempted to get back the boardwalk and found two elderly ladies enjoying a cup of coffee outside of a small cafe. There was a hand written note posted outside that the owner was not allowed to have tables outside due to the city making the owner have a $1M liability policy. I asked how they were sitting at a table given the sign and they told me that they knew the owner and got special treatment. Guess it pays to know people. They further told me that the business in the north part of town were having a rough time keeping going and thank goodness for the business from workers building the new casino. AC politics, nothing more interesting; remember it is New Jersey.

After showering in our own private shower that was adjacent to our room, we headed out to the boardwalk for some breakfast and of course I had to get my Coolata from Dunkin Donuts. I think I had about five Coolata’s during the trip. Great stuff during the warm weather. Then we head over to the Taj and play in the $120 11:15am tournament. The Taj has a newer tournament schedule posted as of July 2009 so the listing in the back of Bluff magazine is out-of-date. Some incredibly bad play early on but then it improves a bit as the tournament progresses. Mrs. New busts out when she is short stacked and pushes with 55 on the button and both the small blind and big blind call. There are two pairs on the board so the big blinds kicker plays. I bust when it is folded to me in the small blind and I push short stacked with A7s and this overweight extremely talkative lady says, “I guess I have to call” and tables 6To and hits her six. I did observe an interesting three way hand. Flop is J37 and three players go all in. One player has KK for the overpair, another player has 33 for the set and an older gentleman has JT for top pair middle kicker because we know that will be gold. Funny thing he called the two all ins. The turn is a jack so then the older guy gets excited and points out how he has three jacks. Everyone tells him that now he is behind the boat. He shrugs it off and of course the case jack hits the river to give him quads.

After our lackluster tournament performance we walk across AC to eat at the White House which makes the best submarine sandwiches. This heads me clear my head so when we return I enter the 7pm tournament at the Taj for $230 which has a great structure with $30K starting chips and 25 minute blind levels. At the first level of 25/50 I limp along with other in late position with JQ and see a flop of JJQ. A player bets out and I just call. He bets out bigger on the turn and again I just call. He finally checks on the river and I think about how much I can get out of him. I decide for the classic overbet of $4K and he actually calls. There was an obvious trend at our table with the young guys being overly aggressive and the middle aged guys playing solid and the older guys playing conservative. Saw two similar hands that were interesting. Short stack makes a min raise with AA and gets called with AJ. Flop is jack high and another jack on the turn. A few hands later another short stacked player min raises with AA and gets called by AJ. Nothing on the flop, jack on the turn, jack on the river. First place is over $8K and final table gets paid. I get down to two tables and bust with 99 versus JJ. Bummer.

Also played some more cash games. Sat down at a $2/$5 NL table with $300 and left after an hour with $400. Main hand had me limping with QQ UTG. An aggressive player with a long pigtail and gold chain makes it $40. An Asian gentleman in the big blind calls. I decide not to gamble and raise it right there another $100. Eventually both players fold. So I move to a limit Omaha 8 table and get killed. I leave after a while with only $200 of my original $400. Crazy stuff like flopping a boat and getting outdrawn or getting my nut low counterfeited. Ouch.

Sunday morning we get breakfast and hit the beach. I try to body surf in the Atlantic Ocean and have a great time. I really miss the water. After we clean up we decide to visit the Borgata before heading home. I quickly lose my $100 buy-in at a $1/$2 NL table when my nut flush doesn’t get there. I sense I’m too impatient and move to Mrs. New’s $1/$2 NL table to see if she is ready to go. She still wants to play a bit so I also sit at her table with $100. After about 1.5 hours I leave with $330. There were two particular hands of note. One player raises to $12 and another player calls. I find KK and raise it to $35. Both players call. Flop is 55T. I push and get called by KT. Crazy. In my second hand I limp with J7 as I am on the button and almost everyone limped. Flop is J7x with two clubs. A late position player bets and I reraise him. He calls. Turn is another jack giving me a full house. My opponent checks and I quickly check behind hoping the flush draw completes. The river is a club. I put him on a club flush draw but then he checks to me. Now I believe he has a flush but is worried I may have a better flush. I think for a little while and then make a bet of $40 which gets called and mucked. Mrs New’s stack has dwindled and she tells me not to be so cocky just because I had a good run of cards.

We attempt to play in a $120 SNG but even though the list is 13 people, the table never gets started. Probably because there was a $120 4pm tournament around the same time and a bigger SNG that was just called. On the way out of town we make sure to visit our favorite convenience store, WAWA for food and drinks. Not sure what happened but we saw a bad accident on the AC Expressway where a car was garbled and upside down through a guardrail.

So we had a great fun time during our short weekend trip to AC. It is much more enjoyable when Mrs. New comes with me. Otherwise all I do is play poker without taking the time for other activities. We broke even in the cash games (slightly up) and down our entire tournament fees. The only bad thing about the trip is the long drive.

I had written the entire trip report and then it didn’t get saved so this is the second version which is a shorter version. Have to remember to draft trip reports on Word before putting it on Blogger.

Atlantic City Here I Come

2009-07-16T15:43:00.002-04:00

Mrs. New and I plan to go to AC for the weekend. We will be leaving Friday and I vowed to never again leave DC during Friday afternoon rush hour so we will need to leave early from work or wait. We'll see what happens. We have a room at the Irish Pub right off the boardwalk which should be an adventure as they are really more of a hostel experience. I'm going to bring my copy of Bluff magazine which always lists the various tournaments available in the U.S.

I reloaded $200 on Bodog in order to play in their new promotion to win a seat into the 2010 main event. The promotion reads, "Deposit $200 and receive T$33 - Enough to buy into THREE Mini Poker Series Qualifying events." Well I made the deposit and after a week (supposed to be 2-3 days) I still didn't receive my T$33. I also sent an email to Bodog and no reply. This might be a sign. I was playing PLO8 and ran my $100 to a little over $200 and then lost it all when I potted with top set and then pushed on the turn with the nuts which turned to mush on the river as my opponent's straight arrived. Yep, I run good.

I've been following the progress of the 2009 Main Event on the Tao of Poker and it looks like Phil Ivey made it to the November Nine. He doesn't have that many chips but you never know. Apparently the 10th person out had a decent chip stack and lost it all when his aces got cracked against a set of 8's. At least that isn't as bad as the guy who, when down to a few tables lost with AA versus KK all in preflop. That must hurt.

It's funny reading some of the blogs of young internet players. They make a big score and everything is right with the world and then they get on a downswing and think about giving it up until the next big score. Imagine making over $100K/year when you are just 18 or so and how that can change your perspective in life. My son won't have to worry about that as he is currently in Iowa preparing to go out on a detassling crew in the cornfields at minimum wage. Builds character.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-11T22:24:00.002-04:00

Oops, guess I'm a few days off. I've been debating whether to kill this blog as my exploits have really not warranted a blog. Pretty much a low stakes fish story with me attempting to build a roll and evently going bust; rinse and repeat. I don't have the inclination for strategy stories and don't have the writing acumen or stamina of some of the more illustrious bloggers. But I do like to read other blogs and make the occasion comment. We'll see.

Played in two USO tournaments in the local area this weekend. In the first one I was the first out. Blinds are 20-40 and I raise it to 250 after everyone limps with AK. Continuation bet doesn't work and the winning hand is J2o. Raises get no respect in this game. A few hands later I get KK and raise it again to 250. I get two callers. Flop is jack high and it is checked to me and I push and get called by AJ who turns another Jack.

In the second tournament I get to the final table and with blinds at 50/100 I raise to 250 with ATs and get two callers. The first player who called has T2o and the second player has 68o. The flop is 57T and I push and both players call. The straight gets there but I find out later after listening to my Itouch in the car just to get away that Mrs. New who was short stacked when I left ended up winning the tournament. Makes me wonder.

Ho Hum

2009-06-27T14:25:00.003-04:00

Busto once again on FT. Went from $100 to $250 building slowly and carefully. Then used $100 for a WSOP main event satellite which I bubbled then lost the rest in PLO (AA < QQ aipf, etc). That is the danger of attempting to start a bankroll with insufficient funding. Reminds me that even if you play AA against another hand repeatedly, eventually your odds of winning suffer dramatically.

I read that common knowledge is that pocket aces preflop are a 80% favorite but that is heads up only. The more players that enter the pot, the worse the odds; three players 60%, four players a coin toss. I'm guessing these are very approximate and of course it can be verified with Pokerstove. I don't have a PLO8 calculator but in one hand I lost a buy-in where I pushed on the flop with a flush draw, outside str8 draw and nut low draw. My opponent didn't have a low draw but did flop a set. I had crazy outs, some of course were counterfeited for my opponent catching a possible boat but I still feel I did the right thing.

Been reading about the success of some semi-bloggers and bloggers at the WSOP. Sounds like an exciting time. Hopefully I'll make the effort to attend some time in the near future. The Summer Poker Open is taking place in Atlantic City and I'm so wanting to go but I'm trying to stay disciplined. The main event has $1M guaranteed with something like a $3.2K buy-in with 40K stacks and 50 minute levels (may be slightly different, going from memory). Sounds like a great time.

eCheck for Pokerstars Working Again

2009-06-21T17:11:00.002-04:00

Tried to reload on Pokerstars a few days ago to clear my negative balance and what do you know, it worked. Of course today is the big 150 seat guaranteed tournament on Full Tilt for a seat to the WSOP main event. I gradually built my $100 on FT into $250 so I looked for a satellite and found a $100+$9 satellite into the $500+$35 event. Then I promptly almost lost the rest of my FT bankroll playing PLO (damn German donks chasing runner, runner cards, but I digress). Update: I was super short stacked with 66 on the SB and the big stacked button pushes for the 10th time. He has KTo and catches. I am the bubble boy. Good for me, time to enjoy the great weather outside. ha ha ha ha ha.........

eCheck on Full Tilt Working

2009-06-14T17:35:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to deposit on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Just a few days ago I was able to get an eCheck deposit on Full Tilt. For some reason Pokerstars still tells me that eCheck is not working. I find that strange as I thought PS had more clout than FT. Oh well, at least I'm playing a bit. I'm remembering how regular NL Holdem has so much less variance than PLO8.

The WSOP is fully underway but I don't have the same interest as the past few years. Of course some day I'll make it a point to head out to Las Vegas and play a few low entry events not to mention the Venetian Deep Stack tournaments. Mrs. New and I plan to go to Las Vegas in July for three days. We got a package through Orbitz and used an American Express credit card which gave us $500 credit toward the travel package which is great. We normally will get a new credit card every one to two years depending on the offer. The next card will be a Holiday Inn credit card which gives you 2-3 free nights just for using the card.

I played a two table tournament last night with friends for a $100 buy-in, top four get paid. The structure was wicked slow, 30 minute levels, no antes. We got down to six handed when I became the short stack after just bleeding chips to the blinds. The UTG player raises to $4K with blinds at $800/$1600. The next player calls. I'm in the BB with AQ and push. The original raiser folds saying that I haven't played a hand in a while and he knows I have a monster. He folded AJ. The second player calls with KT and flops two kings. Disappointing to play seven hours in a home game and leave with nothing. There was a good cash game going on but since it was 1am I decided to leave.

Hoping to Getting Situation Resolved with Pokerstars

2009-06-07T15:07:00.002-04:00

I finally received another email from Pokerstars and they informed me that an earlier eChecks transfer was placed that didn't get accepted by the bank. Since they gave me $100 which I promptly gambled away, they now need the funds replaced that didn't come from the bank. Since I had some $W points, they used those to reduce the outstanding balance. That is why the $W points disappeared and why I have a small negative balance. Guess that is one way to convert your $W points into cash. Unfortunately since eChecks doesn't appear to work and neither does my VISA credit card, I will have to find some other way to reload and clear the negative balance.

I played a small home cash game last night. It was $0.50/$1.00 but played much higher. I only made about $40 but a couple of players cashed out up about $600-$700. There was some crazy poker happening but I played a fairly tight game so my variance was very low but my upside potential was also limited.

I didn't make it into the final tournament for the BBT4 which is unfortunate as I spent some money and time toward that effort. Apparently I was high enough in the standings to warrant a jersey which should come in the form of Full Tilt points so we'll see when that happens.

The End on Online Poker?

2009-06-06T14:51:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to reload on both my Pokerstars and Full Tilt account for the past three days but all to no avail. Normally I use eChecks which links to my bank account. This has never been a problem in the past. But I was informed that eChecks in not available for some reason for the past three days for both PS and FT. I also tried to use my VISA credit card and was declined. Not sure is there is something going on.

Better yet, after I was declined from Pokerstars, my credit card company locked my account and reported suspicious activity. Once I cleared that up I received the following email from Pokerstars:

Dear NewinNov,
We have been informed that the following deposit could not be processed:
Reference Number : xxx
Amount: $100.00
Date: 2009/06/02
Reason: BANK PROBLEMS

These funds were credited to your PokerStars account when you made your deposit request however due to a processing problem the transaction was never sent to your bank. [Completely false, the funds were never deposited]

As we didn't receive funds for this deposit, the amount of your unprocessed deposit has been deducted from your PokerStars account balance. Please note that future eCheck deposits will not be affected by this return. Your eCheck deposits will continue to be credited to your PokerStars account balance as they did prior to receiving this return notification.

* If your PokerStars balance is less than $0.00: If your current balance is less than $0.00, this means that you did not have sufficient funds available in your PokerStars account to repay the amount of your unprocessed deposit. All you have to do to complete repayment is make a deposit for the total amount owing. Your next deposit will automatically be applied toward your negative balance.You may use any of the deposit options in the PokerStars Cashier to repay any funds still owing, including the eCheck option.Transfers received from other players will also be applied towards any negative balance you have as well.* Automatic re-presentment of your transaction to your bank if your balance is less than $0.00: Since now you have a negative balance, you have to make a deposit through the Cashier or receive a transfer to bring your balance into a positive by 2009/06/13. If this is not done, we will automatically re-present the total amount of your deposit to your bank. Please make sure there are enough funds in your bank account to ensure that the re-submitted charge will be successful. The re-submitted charge can take up to 5 business days to be debited from your bank account. If the funds are not available in your bank account to honor the re-submitted charge, we will re-submit this charge once more on approximately the first or the 15th of the month (whichever is sooner).

We apologize for the inconveniences this may have caused you. [I'm sure]

I never received the $100 into my pokerstars account. But somehow my balance there is a negative $23.96. Also I had a few dollars of $W points which somehow are now all gone. What a mess.

Bankroll Bust Near

2009-05-28T19:50:00.002-04:00

I'm at a conference in San Antonio, Texas so that makes it central time zone and that means blogger tournaments are one hour early so I decided to play on Tuesday and Wednesday. I final tabled the Tuesday tournament but didn't make the money. After some bad cash game results I was down to $11.95 so what to do? Of course, sign up for the Mookie on Wednesday for $11. I got fifth place so at least my account now has $60. Before my bankroll went bust I also played a token SNG (2 table) and won a $26 token. I played a one table SNG with the $26 token and when we got down to three players I told the other players I just wanted the $66 for third and was sitting out. It didn't matter, the other two players went to war and now I have a $75 token. Perhaps I can use it for the Big Game this Sunday.

Atlantic City Borgata Deep Stacks Tournament Pursuit

2009-05-22T17:11:00.003-04:00

AC Trip Report 2009

Although this story does include a final table, it does not represent a mission accomplished much in the same way that President Bush flew the “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier after the successful ground campaign in Iraq. My goal was to satellite into the Borgata $500K tournament.

After finishing work on Friday I took the metro to Union Station and after a quick stop at McDonalds, headed to the Greyhound station. My first bad beat was that the Union Station McDonalds didn’t have any of the new mocha iced drinks that for some reason I’m really craving. Somehow their advertising is really working on me.

After 15 minutes in line I got my ticket and boarded the bus without incident. While in line I noticed an attractive young lady in line ahead of me and she took quite some time speaking with the ticket attendant. During this time a middle aged man approached the woman and started talking to the girl. The attendant got upset as she was working with the girl and an argument ensued. He left shortly after a few profanities and later when I left the counter I noticed that the young girl was with a group of other young people and the man was now speaking to the entire group. They appeared to be travelers from Eastern Europe and the man appeared to be working some type of con. Just a typical day at the Washington DC Greyhound terminal. For some reason the 250 pound security guard didn’t get involved.

I didn’t have anyone in the seat next to me until Baltimore but he didn’t say a word and I just listened to my Ipod Touch during most of the trip while attempting to sleep. Did you say Ipod Touch? Yes, that is correct. I would never spend that much money on myself but since Mrs. New gave it to me as a birthday gift, it is alright. This thing is great. Not only with all the music downloads but also all the fun applications or apps. I was also able to download some software from Download.com that converts Youtube clips into Ipod format so I can view them later. There are also some free movies and television shows available for download through the Itunes store. Great stuff.

After waking up about four times, the final wake up found me in the middle of AC. For some reason our first stop was the Tropicana. I was expecting a quick $20 like last time but this time they were only giving out $20 in slot play. Second bad beat. Apparently they have new Tropicana cards so I had to go to the promotions desk and get a new card and reset my pin in order to play the slots on the $20 that was loaded on my card. Fully automated process now. I also tried to upgrade my Tropicana card because I have a Borgata black card but was told I couldn’t because I already had a regular Tropicana card. The upgrade from another casino promotion is only good if you are a new Tropicana customer. The customer representative told me that my regular Tropicana card would need to be inactive for about nine months before I could get the upgrade. Third bad beat.

I finally found a poker related slot machine that let me use my credits and I was about to convert the $20 in credits into $5 in cash. Fourth bad beat. Next I went by the Tropicana poker room and it was completely packed and several people were waiting. So I went outside and found a Dunkin Donuts. Right outside of the store there were three cars of guys and girls looking like they were making a quick pit stop before going out to party. For some reason they reminded me of a south LA street gang. But there were no worries as a cop car was parked outside. When I went inside there was a police officer with a civilian by the counter. The police officer told the employees that the civilian was doing a ride along as he was thinking about becoming a police officer. The police officer than put a can of red bull and another item on the counter but the employee said it was on the house. Then the employee asked if the cop would be around later. He told the employee probably not, thanked him for the free items and left. Guess the employees were attempting to get some low cost protection. I had a quick bite and drink and then found a Jitney to the Borgata. For $2.25 the Jitney is still the best low cost transportation available in AC.

When I entered the Borgata it was now around 2am. The satellite wouldn’t begin until 11am so I had some time to kill. So I sat down at a $1/$2 NL cash table and promptly lost both my first $100 buy-in and then my second $100 buy-in. My first loss occurred when someone slow played a flopped set and let me turn the nut straight. I made a big bet on the turn and didn’t have much left when the board paired on the river. The second loss came when another player slow played a flopped bottom set and I went broke when I turned two pair on an uncoordinated board. So then I found a pot limit Omaha game that was severely shorthanded with just four players. I lost that buy-in when I flopped an outside straight flush draw with up and down redraws and I repopped the raiser and didn’t get there. Funny thing is that he was also drawing for a straight (no flush) and didn’t get there but won with a pair of jacks. Winning with just a pair is almost unheard of in PLO.

So smarting after my cash game losses I signed up for the 11am $340 + $40 satellite. For some reason every time I got in a confrontation the best hand always held up. I got a quick double up early when I limped with AT and flopped the nut straight and lead out with a bet. I got reraised and pushed for a massive overbet. The guy couldn’t fold his flopped bottom straight. While short stacked I pushed with KJ in the SB when it got folded to me and the BB called with K4o and I got some chips. Later still in survival mode it was folded to the SB who made a big raise. I held AJ and put him on a middle pair and decided to go for a race. He only held A3o but had to make the call because he basically pot committed himself with the big raise. He acknowledged that he should have made the raise smaller so he could get away from the hand. When we got down to the bubble I was short in chips but so were most people with the big blinds and antes. We then played hand for hand. People were folding all the way around at our table unless they had premium hands. It gets folded to me in the SB and I have AJ. I decide that the BB can’t call here unless he wakes up with something really good and so I push. He has JJ and calls and I am the bubble boy. Critical mistake. It was the money bubble for $660 but much less than the $1650 entry I wanted to get. The entire satellite took about 5-6 hours.

So then I take a Jitney back to the boardwalk and find my hotel for the evening, the Irish Pub and Hotel. It is located near the Resorts Hotel and Casino just one block from the boardwalk. It reminds me of the old hostels in Europe. The hotel is very old with uneven stairs and Irish stuff throughout the lobby. They make you pay a cash deposit for your key which gets returned when you check out. The room reminded me of the 100 year old house we owned in Northern Kentucky. Plaster walls and clean but creaky bed. Shower was down the hall. Still the price was right for about $60 which is great for a weekend rate in AC.

The next morning on Sunday it was raining. I walked down to the boardwalk and bought a $3 umbrella which I promptly lost a bit later. For some reason I lose umbrellas all the time. I grabbed a hot chocolate at a Dunkin Donuts and a great Gyros from a deli on the boardwalk. Who needs ham and eggs for breakfast? I left my bag with the lobby and headed out to the Trump Taj Mahal poker room. Played a little $1/$2 NL Holdem and made about $100. Met a guy who works for SAS in North Carolina. He was in AC because of some World Poker Pub league regional tournament. I remember seeing a story about SAS on 60 minutes and he confirmed that it was a great place to work. He is currently building a 3,800 square foot house so things must be going well. There was an interesting moment when a very drunk and loud disheveled guy was being escorted out of the poker room by three security officers. Not sure what caused the outburst. Several people at the table who were regulars said that it wasn’t that unusual.

Next I took the Jitney to the Trump Marina hotel where I managed to get a room for $49/night not including taxes/fees. It seems like some poker players get their rooms comped so I may need to figure out if I play enough to qualify. My room wasn’t ready so I checked my bag with the Bell Captain and took a quick walk over to the Borgata crossing a small section of highway but it is much quicker than waiting for the Jitney. Plus it is the only exercise I get while in AC.
I then registered for the 4pm satellite and played for about five hours and busted when we got down to six tables. Four tables got tickets to the main event. A habitual raiser made another raise after just raising and showing a middle pocket pair. I knew I had to make a move soon and decided to make a stand with JKs. Not a premium hand but I would either have a coin flip and perhaps be a 40/60 dog or perhaps get some fold equity due to my tight image. He called with 99 and that was it.

Monday morning I woke and hit the free breakfast buffet that came with my room. If you ever feel like you are getting old, eat at a buffet in a casino Monday through Thursday. I was one of the youngest people in the place by far. The food was fine but nothing elaborate. The omelet station was the best bet. Next I walked next door to Harrah’s and get in the poker room just in time to play a $70 turbo bounty tournament. We started with 38 players and four people got paid. My original table had some interesting characters. The guy to my left was a Cuban who grew up in the Bronx but now plays poker for a living and lives south of AC. He was full of tattoos and had pictures and various card protectors. He said his brother died during the WTC building disaster of 9-11. He used to work as a head hunter on Wall Street but gave it up after 9-11. The gentleman to his left was an older guy who was also originally from the Bronx. He told me he was a developer. He currently owns about 9,000 acres in south Jersey. He said that now cash is King and he is buying right now in Las Vegas. Some condos can be bought for 1/3 of their former price. He said he started out as a card counter playing Blackjack and made $20 to $30K a week before he was banned. He can only play restricted levels of blackjack in AC and not at all in Las Vegas. He says sometimes he gets special exceptions when in Las Vegas. He knows Steve Wynn and told me that money talks. He appeared sincere but who knows. He said he doubted the Cuban guy was making a living of playing poker with the way he played and I had to agree. He said that he tried to see if he could make a living out of playing tournaments in Las Vegas once. He gave himself one month. During that month he made $17K. His net result was he broke even.
When we got down to the final table everyone agreed to give the bubble boy $10. Since I was short stacked I agreed. When we were on a break one of the players mentioned that he wouldn’t mind a chop so he could play some other events. This same player then knocks out another player and becomes the dominating chip stack leader. I’m still the short stack at the table and jokingly ask about that chop. We discuss it and we work out a deal were three of us get $400 and the big stack gets about $650. This is a great deal for me given I’m the short stack. Somehow the calculations were off and the big stack wouldn’t be getting very much more than the rest of us so we all decide to give him another $20 each. So that gave me $380 plus two $10 bounties less $10 for bubble boy minus tip. Not bad for a quick tournament.

Next I take a pleasant walk to the Borgata where the second Day One is playing. I am tempted to enter directly but I made an agreement with Mrs Newinnov that I would only get two chances to satellite in. So then a brand new (and only) $2/$5 pot limit Omaha cash table opens up. The only woman at the table is there with her boyfriend who is a larger than life character who is very smart but willing to gamble. His girlfriend is from Hungry which is funny because I meet two other Hungarian poker players just the day before. Buy-in is $200-$1,000 and I buy-in for $200 and lose it quickly. It is an action table and the rebuys are fast and furious. PLO is a high variance game and it is to be expected. So I rebuy for another $300 and lose that. All of my money from my $1K marker is gone so I make the painful walk to the ATM and get some more cash. I sit down with another $300 and when I leave at 2am I’m up to about $1K, enough to pay off my marker. There was one guy who sat down and played a few hands and then promptly left saying that this game is crazy. It really can be.

I spent another night at Trump Marina, ate another buffet and headed back to the Greyhound bus terminal. Although my ticket wasn’t until 9pm that evening, I was told I could get the next bus out which was leaving at 11am. The lady mentioned that the bus first stops at Bally’s so it would be smart to go there because with Greyhound there are no reservations. So I find the Bally’s poker room and there is only one full NL table. Shortly afterward they open another table and I get suspicious because the average age of the players is 65. Yep, it was a $2/$4 limit table. So I played a little while and lost $20. I would have been up but I got into a war with a lady who held KK when I had QQ and just called my preflop raise. One gentleman told me that his son either was the lead singer or a member of Lamb of God a heavy metal band. I found that funny as this guy was a typical conservative looking person yet his son is in a heavy metal band. Guess you just never know how your offspring will turn out. Apparently his son is doing well as he is building a new house in the Richmond, VA area and getting ready to tour overseas.

Somehow I can’t place two other poker playing sessions. I believe one was at Caesars. It was a $1/$2 NL cash table and there was one player with about $800 who was the table captain (TC) raising or reraising almost every hand. A new player who sat down at the table opening asked how he had so many chips when he was playing so terribly. The table reply was that he was getting lucky. The TC appeared to be exchanging chips with one other player two spots to his right. I was a bit suspicious wondering if there was some collusion going on as the play was really bad. But then the other player moved two spots to the TC’s left when a seat opened up and I noticed that the second player was a solid player attempting to get all of the TC’s chips. An example of the play had the TC raising to $15 when he was down to about $200. The solid player reraised to $85 and the TC just called. The flop came 234 and the TC pushed and was called. Guess what the TC held that he could call a raise to $85 preflop? The ducks, 22 for a flopped set. Eventually the TC lost everything and had to reload. I held AK in one hand and decided to limp as I just knew the TC would raise which he did. The flop came out king high and I just pushed. Unfortunately the TC and another player both called and they both caught runner, runner for a straight. I quickly reloaded and regained my lost chips soon enough. Unfortunately I had to leave for some reason before I could increase my stack.

The other session had me playing in a $2/$5 NL game with some solid players. This is where I realized how the term “whale” came into being. This large gentleman sat down at the table and bought in for $500 and was such a bad player that he didn’t leave until he was $1,500 in the hole after only about two hours play. He kept mentioning how the table was much tougher than his home game and he should leave but he didn’t until he was out of money. He got stuck to TPTK and other simple mistakes.

I don’t normally drink while playing but I did have a few drinks while in AC this time. Besides my traditional drink of hot chocolate with whipped cream (help to ward off the casino air conditioning), I also noticed that some players were drinking tea with honey and milk. This was a nice alternative. I also noticed some players drinking some other drinks which I decided to emulate and they turned out to be Pina Colada’s and Orange Julius’s. The last time I had an Orange Julius was at a mall back in high school.

I also noticed that there were two young guys with a laptop watching the Borgata Deep Stacks tournament apparently blogging but I didn’t recognize them. Another interesting observation was the amount of activity going on during a Tuesday morning at 2am. The club at the Borgata was hopping with long lines and young ladies with dresses several inches above the knee. Also several drunks. Not sure why all this activity on a Monday night.

So I didn’t achieve my goal of playing in the Borgata Deep Stack tournament but had a good time nevertheless. I don’t plan to play in the Borgata Summer Open coming up next month but perhaps I’ll find a way.

Just Playing the Small Stakes

2009-05-21T22:09:00.003-04:00

Returned from Atlantic City, New Jersey without too many scars. Trip report coming shortly. Meanwhile back home I'm nursing my $100 rebuy on Full Tilt and have it built up to around $240.

Of course it doesn't hurt to get a bit lucky at times as this NL Omaha cash game will illustrate:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12358652061: - $1/$2 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 2009/05/21
Seat 1: TBONEJ717 ($161)
Seat 2: jbrennen ($199.10)
Seat 3: Hal Lubarsky ($474.05)
Seat 4: holdemhull ($310.20)
Seat 5: curly30 ($78)
Seat 6: salsa4ever ($154.05), is sitting out
Seat 7: AofHearts ($69)
Seat 8: NewinNov ($78)
Seat 9: My Bluff Worked ($249.10)
NewinNov posts the small blind of $1
My Bluff Worked posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [Kh 2c Ad Qd]
TBONEJ717 calls $2
jbrennen folds
Hal Lubarsky has 15 seconds left to act
Hal Lubarsky folds
holdemhull calls $2
curly30 raises to $11
AofHearts folds
NewinNov calls $10
My Bluff Worked folds
TBONEJ717 calls $9
holdemhull calls $9
*** FLOP *** [8h Qc Qh]
NewinNov bets $67, and is all in
TBONEJ717 has 15 seconds left to act
TBONEJ717 calls $67
holdemhull folds
curly30 folds
NewinNov shows [Kh 2c Ad Qd]
TBONEJ717 shows [Kd Qs Kc 8d]
*** TURN *** [8h Qc Qh] [As]
*** RIVER *** [8h Qc Qh As] [Jd]
NewinNov shows a full house, Queens full of Aces, for high
TBONEJ717 shows a full house, Queens full of Eights, for high
NewinNov wins the pot ($177) with a full house, Queens full of Aces
No low hand qualified

I made a decision to stop playing most blogger tournaments that occur during the work week because it just doesn't work for me to start a game at 10pm EST and be tired the next day. Of course that means I can still play the tournaments on the weekend and on special occasions. I believe my play in the BBT will qualify me for a FT jersey. We'll see

Of course the Poker Gods give and they take away as in this hand were I push after a raise with KK and get AA to call after me. Of course the original raiser beats both my KK and the later position AA.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12358930953: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (92259308), Table 2 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:20:04 ET - 2009/05/21
Seat 1: dmdawg (1,950)
Seat 2: kennyspeed (1,370)
Seat 4: GeminiME615 (2,980)
Seat 5: jnava1 (3,390)
Seat 6: NewinNov (955)
Seat 7: radioactive098 (6,331)
Seat 8: SalSant (1,315)
Seat 9: bowarne (2,835)
bowarne posts the small blind of 40
dmdawg posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [Kd Ks]
kennyspeed folds
GeminiME615 raises to 320
jnava1 folds
NewinNov raises to 955, and is all in
radioactive098 calls 955
SalSant folds
bowarne folds
dmdawg folds
GeminiME615 calls 635
*** FLOP *** [7s 5d 4h]
GeminiME615 bets 2,025, and is all in
radioactive098 calls 2,025
GeminiME615 shows [8s 8h]
NewinNov shows [Kd Ks]
radioactive098 shows [Ad As]
*** TURN *** [7s 5d 4h] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [7s 5d 4h 5s] [6c]
GeminiME615 shows a straight, Eight high
radioactive098 shows two pair, Aces and Fives
GeminiME615 wins the side pot (4,050) with a straight, Eight high
NewinNov shows two pair, Kings and Fives
GeminiME615 wins the main pot (2,985) with a straight, Eight high
NewinNov stands up

Just to demonstrate my discipline I only played one tournament last night and it was only for $3.30.

Full Tilt Poker Tournament $3 + $0.30 KO Sit & Go NL Hold'em 90 players Total Prize Pool: $270. You finished the tournament in 2nd place. There has been $43.88 added to your account.

Been a While

2009-05-12T23:07:00.002-04:00

Was getting a bit bored with the same postings about how I did in this $10 tournament and how I had this incredible bad beat once again that I went with the old adage, if you don't have something worthwhile to post, don't. Of course if I stuck to that mantra my post would be empty for quite some time.

Made my plans to go to Atlantic City this weekend to play in the Borgota deep stacks three day tournament. The first day one is Sunday and the second day one is Monday. Day two is Tuesday and day three is Wednesday. I plan to take the 'old Greyhound bus Friday after work and get in around midnight, stay up until 11am when the satellite starts. If that doesn't work there is another satellite on Sunday at 4pm. I'm spending Saturday night at the Irish Pub hotel for $25 and then in the Trump Marina for $49/night (of course taxes not included). We'll see what happens.

Also made plans to go to Las Vegas with Mrs. Newinnov and also another AC trip with just her. Unfortunately we will miss both the WSOP and Venetian Deep Stacks but I'm sure we'll find somewhere to play.

Somehow I made Bronze level Ironman on FT and didn't know I qualified for a Saturday freeroll. I didn't play but still finished in the money for $15. Appears to support the adage that "tight is right."

Did the old reload on FT once again, for the standard $100. Been reading how some online pros began by paying small SNG's and tournaments so decided to play a couple. Of the three I played only did well in one. $12 + $1 KO Sit & Go NL Hold'em Buy-In: $12.00 + $1.00 90 players, You finished the tournament in 2nd place. There has been $175.50 added to your account.

Been reading a blog of a young online pro named Assassinato and was reminded that it takes a lot of work to get good at this online poker stuff including training videos, poker forums, discussing hands, putting the hours in, reviewing hand histories, etc. Unfortunately I don't do any of those things so my dismal results shouldn't be much of a surprise. Of course I always get a chuckle when reading a certain Waffles blog who doesn't filter anything.

New York City Trip (No Poker Content)

2009-04-12T12:34:00.003-04:00

Decided to take the family to New York City. Made reservations with GoToBus and got some fairly inexpensive tickets that go directly from downtown DC in Chinatown to Penn Station in New York city. Next I tried to get a hotel room but that was a challenge. There were a bunch of hostels and somewhat inexpensive hotels but after reading the reviews, I was turned off. I was able to find a place at Candlewood Suites in Jersey City right across from New York City. Ended up about $150/day but we got a great suite with a separate bedroom, pull out couch in the living room and small kitchenette. There was a grocery store within a couple of blocks and the neighborhood was fine. It was located in a business type district. It also was within walking distance of the PATH trains. The PATH stop was called Exchange Place and was only one stop from the World Trade Center in lower Manhatten (red or green line) or we could take the green/yellow line which went to midtown (9th/14th/23rd/33rd street). Later we found out you can get a better deal by purchasing a multiple ticket and then just handing it to the other people for them to get in rather than buying individual tickets.

We left Thursday morning and took the first bus around 5am and then the metro to Chinatown in DC. There was a small store and they took our printout. I went to McDonalds for some breakfast and when I returned the line was already forming for the bus. It is first come, first served so luckily we were able to all sit together. The trip up was uneventful except for the bus driver speaking Chinese on his walkie talkie type cell phone. We first walked to the USO and found out there really are limited options to store backpacks for the day. Later I checked the internet and found one travel agency that takes bags but other suggestions is to store them either at a hotel or museum. We then managed to get 50% off tickets for a broadway played called "39 Steps." The ticket computer was down so when we returned the person behind the booth apologized and gave us second row front center tickets which were great. We then found a corner deli that had great pizza near Times Square. We also saw the newer TKTS booth at Times Square with the roof that looks like stairs. We had a good time watching "39 Steps" at the Helen Hayes theater which consists of four actors playing multiple roles. It was a small intimate little theater. We ended the evening locating the PATH trains and checking into our hotel in Jersey City.

Friday morning we took the Hudson Bergen light rail that runs in the area to Liberty State Park. At the park we took a shuttle to get a Statue Cruise ferry to both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island was interesting and nicely done. Apparently there are still several buildings that need renovations. We took another ferry to the Statue of Liberty and only walked around the small island. There was a 50 minute wait to get inside so we passed but then had to wait about that amount of time just to board the ferry back to the WTC in lower Manhatten. I bypassed all the street vendors attempting to sell Rolexes, etc and found the bus stop for the free bus service. We then took the bus which ended at the South Street Seaport. I don't remember visiting that area before that it had several shops, large wooden ships, the other TKTS booth, and a bunch of street performers. It was a lively area. Next we attempted to walk through Chinatown and reach Little Italy. Somehow Chinatown was much longer than I remembered and that was because I veered northeast rather than going directly north. So we passed Little Italy but then found ourselves right outside of Katz's Delicatessen. We decided to get a bit and were each handed a ticket which is how they keep track of what you order. We got a cheese steak sandwich, a corned beef sandwich and some Matzo Ball soup. The walls are filled with celebrity photos. I thought the food was good but way overpriced. A bit overrated for my tastes. Next my daughter wanted to go to Peanut Butter & Co so we walked to Greenwich Village at 240 Sullivan Street and enjoyed The Elvis sans bacon and the Peanut Butter Cup.

Unfortunately our last day was filled with rain. I managed to lose my umbrella in the wind but we eventually reached our destination and saw the Intrepid at Pier 86. It was a great visit if you like big ships. We even got to go inside of the Concord. We then took the cross-town bus #50 and found out that they don't take bills, it is change or a card. We didn't have either but the bus driver let us stay on anyway. He was the friendliest bus driver I've ever met. We got off times square and headed towards Penn Station for our bus ride back. I was enrolled in a freeroll poker tournament so was hoping that the sticker on the side of the bus stating they had wireless internet would work but unfortunately it didn't. Another easy bus ride, dinner in Chinatown DC and home to get ready for Easter.

Damn Blogger Tournaments

2009-04-07T11:21:00.003-04:00

I have been limiting my play lately trying to reflect whether this poker thing is really working for me. Fiscally, not really. Time wise, not really. I do enjoy it though but when every night after dinner has me laying on the couch with my laptop, is that really the way to spend the evening when you have kids, a wife, and so many other things that need to get done around the house? Now if I was killing it, perhaps that would be different. Just don't see the rate of return right now. I did read another blog that mentioned it may take 10,000 hours or so to become an expert at something. If that is the case, I have many more hours to go. Waffles also asked people to post about the most horrible live poker experience they had and there are some funny stories. I have to find the link but one story concerned a certain cash game where one of the characters was in a wheelchair. Just great stuff. At one point the blogger got so upset and left the table after telling the wheelchair opponent he was going to take a walk and then took two fingers and making a walking motion. Just classic stuff.

Had a home game this past weekend. The host is going to Iraq for a year so it would be his last time for a while. Got some chips early and was actually the chip leader in the SNG but then got a bit crazy loose and ran my final hand into AK and it was all over. Never got anything going in the cash game either where I got aggressive after I started bleeding chips and won a couple of coin flips but basically broke even. But it was still a fun time. Several bets were flying on the basketball games. They even broke out a batch of 20 year old moonshine from North Carolina. I didn't drink any but it was powerful stuff and those who did sip were quickly altered. I don't normally drink scotch but they had some high end stuff and it actually wasn't too bad.

I took a nap after dinner and woke up about 9:30pm and remember there was the Riverchasers Tournament at 10pm. Of course I didn't have a token so I bought in directly (let's see 1/4 of my bankroll, another sound decision). There were 56 runners and I got third. Of course that means nothing until you get a first place in order to get into the main blogger event.

UPDATE: Waffles clued me in. Surprising? Not really. But the post was from Riggs calling the wheelchaired guy Christopher Reeves. When I was locating Waffles poker blog I noticed he had several others to chose from such as Funny Bones, WOW, something about being obese and something about a whore. Quite the palate.

Nothing to See Here

2009-03-31T11:55:00.002-04:00

Ho hum is what my playing is lately. Did win a $1 SNG last night; woot. Went out with the family to see the world premiere opening of a play called Antebellum performed by the Woolley Mammoth company in downtown DC. Great play, very unconventional. Contained nudity, issues about race, gender, religion, etc. Well I knew I wouldn't get home to play the blogger tournament Monday night so I phoned my son who registered me. Then I asked him to play "really tight" until I got home. The play ended and I got home around 11:15pm but apparently AQ was too much temptation for my son on a Q22 board and I was out. I was out and didn't get to play a hand, typical. Thinking about reloading $100 and forcing myself to only play $1 and $2 events (outside of blogger events of course). We'll see how that goes.

Cherry Blossom festival in DC, now is the time to view those blossoms.

Down, Down, Down

2009-03-19T19:54:00.004-04:00

Nothing really interesting lately. Slowly dwindling the old bankroll.

Generally if you can get AAxx all in preflop, especially against KKxx, it is a good thing but not this time.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11227958193: Table Devin (6 max) - $1/$2 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:52:52 ET - 2009/03/19
Seat 1: NewinNov ($69.70)
Seat 2: Erik Bloodaxe ($419.50)
Seat 4: Ou81i82 ($69)
Seat 5: MUCKorBUST1 ($190.75)
Ou81i82 posts the small blind of $1
MUCKorBUST1 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [Ah Th Jc Ac]
NewinNov calls $2
Erik Bloodaxe raises to $9
Ou81i82 folds
MUCKorBUST1 raises to $30
NewinNov raises to $69.70, and is all in
Erik Bloodaxe folds
MUCKorBUST1 calls $39.70
NewinNov shows [Ah Th Jc Ac]
MUCKorBUST1 shows [Kc 8c 7s Jh]
*** FLOP *** [3h 4c Ks]
*** TURN *** [3h 4c Ks] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [3h 4c Ks 8s] [Kd]
NewinNov shows two pair, Aces and Kings
MUCKorBUST1 shows a full house, Kings full of Eights
MUCKorBUST1 wins the pot ($147.40) with a full house, Kings full of Eights
NewinNov is sitting out

So, ok, I've cracked the code, KKxx is gold so then I push with that and I realize that AAxx is better. Will FT make up its mind?

Full Tilt Poker Game #11228013039: Table Pirsig (edu, 6 max) - $2/$4 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:56:12 ET - 2009/03/19
Seat 1: UlfSteinke ($400)
Seat 2: antchev ($493.90)
Seat 3: NewinNov ($86)
Seat 4: NUTS AND LOCHS ($793.20)
Seat 5: PekingTokyo ($400)
Seat 6: rifrifrif ($155)
NewinNov posts the small blind of $2
NUTS AND LOCHS posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [7c Kd 6s 8c]
PekingTokyo folds
rifrifrif folds
UlfSteinke raises to $14
antchev folds
NewinNov folds
NUTS AND LOCHS folds
Uncalled bet of $10 returned to UlfSteinke
UlfSteinke mucks
UlfSteinke wins the pot ($10)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10 Rake $0
Seat 1: UlfSteinke collected ($10), mucked
Seat 2: antchev (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: NewinNov (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: NUTS AND LOCHS (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: PekingTokyo didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: rifrifrif didn't bet (folded)

But sometimes poker is so easy:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11232786563: $24 + $2 Sit & Go (84442806), Table 3 - 400/800 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:04:31 ET - 2009/03/20
Seat 2: saltysab (17,314)
Seat 3: AAAAAAssasin1 (15,946)
Seat 4: muoi1 (24,885)
Seat 7: NewinNov (3,820)
Seat 9: wimi1984 (5,535)
saltysab posts the small blind of 400
AAAAAAssasin1 posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [4h Ah]
muoi1 folds
NewinNov raises to 2,400
wimi1984 has 15 seconds left to act
wimi1984 folds
saltysab raises to 4,000
AAAAAAssasin1 folds
NewinNov calls 1,420, and is all in
saltysab shows [As 9d]
NewinNov shows [4h Ah]
Uncalled bet of 180 returned to saltysab
*** FLOP *** [2h 3h 5h]
*** TURN *** [2h 3h 5h] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [2h 3h 5h 2c] [8s]
saltysab shows a pair of Twos
NewinNov shows a straight flush, Five high
NewinNov wins the pot (8,440) with a straight flush, Five high

I did get 2nd place in the Brit Blogger Game NL Hold'em which means nothing as only first place gets an entry to the final tournament. Had a good lead at the final table and even heads up. Got so card dead had to steal with cards like 23, ect. Stole like crazy but then got some resistance late into the match and had to get aggressive when I was short. Got aggressive with AA all in preflop but that didn't work.

Played the Monday tournament but didn't get far. When short I pushed with 99 against JJ and sucked out with a nine on the river but my karma was tainted so later when I got AQ all in against AJ, lost to a jack. My final push with a weak ace was not rewarded.

Seem to be spinning in a cirlce, slowing going down, down, down. Good thing this isn't my day job.

Mookie Play

2009-03-18T22:27:00.003-04:00

Early bluff even though I'm trying to play tight early:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11213585156: The Mookie (83446161), Table 10 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:17:48 ET - 2009/03/18
Seat 1: TheBlueHeron (3,965)
Seat 2: NYRambler (2,790), is sitting out
Seat 3: benehanna1 (5,955)
Seat 4: lucko21 (3,430)
Seat 5: cmitch (3,140)
Seat 6: Flip74 (3,025)
Seat 7: columbo (3,275)
Seat 8: NewinNov (2,990)
Seat 9: sophie2002 (1,685)
cmitch posts the small blind of 20
Flip74 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to NewinNov [Kc Ad]
columbo folds
NewinNov calls 40
sophie2002 folds
TheBlueHeron folds
NYRambler folds
benehanna1 folds
lucko21 folds
cmitch raises to 160
Flip74 folds
NewinNov calls 120
*** FLOP *** [9d Jc Qc]
cmitch bets 275
NewinNov has 15 seconds left to act
NewinNov calls 275
*** TURN *** [9d Jc Qc] [3s]
cmitch has 15 seconds left to act
cmitch checks
NewinNov has 15 seconds left to act
NewinNov bets 400
cmitch has 15 seconds left to act
cmitch has requested TIME
cmitch folds
Uncalled bet of 400 returned to NewinNov
NewinNov mucks
NewinNov wins the pot (910)

Soon thereafter I raise pot with AK, flop an ace but someone else hit their set. Next hand I get it all in with AA vs TJ and lose to a runner, runner straight. Not my night for the Mookie. The positive side is I get to sleep at a reasonable time.

Somewhat close finish in BBT4 event

2009-03-17T09:12:00.002-04:00

Played the Full Tilt Poker Tournament PPI / Riverchasers Tournament NL Hold'em event with 66 runners. Down to four handed the button made a standard raise and I pushed with Q6s attempting to represent a big hand but got called by the snowmen (88) and was out the next hand. Still fourth was $150. Lot of chat during the event and most people seemed to be having a good time. I was able to watch Milk and Bangkok Dangerous. Milk was a bit meh for me. I enjoyed BD but didn't care for the ending. Went to bed at 2am so hopefully I'll do the right thing and not play the BBT4 event this evening.

Played for two tokens. Got one. Lost one when my QQ got called by KK and AA. AA actually won. Then I donked off my token in a 45 person SNG. Got 3rd in a $6.50 SNG, weeeee. My results are so small compared to many other bloggers but at least the roll is moving in the right direction.

Just a little SNG action

2009-03-16T17:55:00.002-04:00

Started off the evening playing a little $0.50/1.00 PLO and realized after 1/2 hour that I wasn't getting anywhere. So I decide to play a SNG and found a $20 + $2 Sit & Go NL Hold'em with 18 players. Was able to get second place for $108. Next I played a 18 person token tournament and got a token. I was limiting my online play so I could focus on a movie I was watching, "Spirit of the Marathon" which was actually interesting and somewhat motivating until you actually go running in reality and realize that damn, 26.2 miles is not a trip around the block. So for my final event I decide to play a 45 person $10 + $1 Sit & Go NL Hold'em and actually win it for $171. Sometimes it is so easy. Saw a friend of mine playing $9/$18 Limit Omaha with a bankroll of a few hundred dollars. I sense where this is going but good luck nevertheless. Been there, done that.

After reviewing some of my plays during AC I realize that my aggression factor is turned up a bit too high. Instead on calculated pot odds I automatically assigned too much fold equity when I have a strong drawing hand and attempt to push people off pots. Time to ratchet it down a notch. Waiting for dinner and getting ready to watch Milk. Everyone in the family says I won't like it because of some of the content. We'll see. I still haven't watched Brokeback Mountain and probably won't. I really don't have any unexplored doubts in that area and don't want to reopen old wounds, I mean watch someone working through their conflicted emotions. Now Milk has some historical relevance so I'll make an exception. I don't care for Sean Penn's outspoken activism but he is a good actor.