Two sessions to report:
Sunday
Aladdin $1-2 NL
6 hours
+ $300
Saturday
Aladdin $1-2 NL
7 hours
+ $100
NC John catches his flight today so for now the sidebet race is suspended and he leads by four. What a Luckbox. (From Saturday's session, AAAJ4 board, $30 in the pot, guy leads out for $10 with a jack and John raises $200 more with the case ace and gets called. $200 more!!!)
Instead of writing about the weekend sessions I'm going to explain the purpose of this blog, insofar as there is one and I'm aware of it.
Until recently I had credit card debts eating away at my bankroll. Like it was $30K at one point. These debts are now cleared, and at the end of last year I decided that I would give myself a year to do something better with poker than just support myself. If I had been more committed I would have done that by now anyway, despite the debt. I saw that sandviper23, a friend of mine who plays for a living, started a poker blog, and I decided it was a good way to get myself thinking about poker the way I need to be thinking about poker to succeed. Plus I like to write. Sometimes I express myself better in writing than any other way.
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I know having a big winning streak doesn't make you a great player. There are some very aggressive players with big swings who may never have long winning streaks but who will still have better overall EV than a player who books small wins like a machine.
But huge winning streaks are still cool and I have had a couple of them.
The first I will call the Party Sit N Go Streak. This was when I first started playing for a living, just before I moved out to Vegas. I had a bad day playing limit holdem and decided to try the Partypoker 10-player No Limit Sit N Go's. That was a very good idea. I have never really played limit holdem since. This was late 2004, the Golden Age of Party Poker SNG's. I played four tables at once, $30-entry 10-player SNG's. Every time a table started, there would be a three-way preflop all-in on the first hand between QJ, 55, and A6 suited. I remember one time I started four SNG's at the same time and won all four. Nowadays the SNG's are a lot tougher. You have half the players sitting there with their charts printed out from 2+2 telling them if A8 offsuit is worth a push on the cutoff 4-handed with the blinds at 50-100. Anyway, back in the day I won every day for over a month-and-a-half, about 40 straight sessions.
The other winning streak I will call the Korean Girl Winning Streak (KGWS). This was early 2006 and I was seeing this Korean chick, and from the time I met her until the time I broke up with her I never lost. That was 36 straight sessions of live action poker in Las Vegas casinos. Looking back on the KGWS I had no really good reason to break up with her and I guess it proves I'm not superstitious but that maybe I should be.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Set Over Set with the Educated Donkey
Aladdin $1-2 NL
12 hrs
+ $340
I was stuck for most of this session. Other than stealing with an overpair vs. what I knew was a bigger overpair, I hardly won any big pots. I was in the game for $500.
Then after 10 hours I hit a big hand. Unfortunately it was against my friend Steve AKA DJ Alpyne AKA El Diablo AKA The Chosen One AKA The Educated Donkey.
There was a raise to $17 from a guy to my left, then there were several calls, and I called in the blind with 44. The flop came K43. This was my first set of the day. I checked, the preflop raiser checked, Steve and another player checked, and the maniac on the button bet $20. I called, the preflop raiser called, and then El Diablo checkraised (he kinda likes to do that) to $75. The maniac folded, and I called to get action from the preflop raiser who was between me and The Chosen One. But the preflop raiser folded and the hand was heads-up.
I was sure I had the best hand. The only player at the table who would smooth-call a raise with KK was John and he was not in the hand. Steve and I generally check it down in small pots when we are heads-up, just cause we are not there to take each other's money, but in a big pot like this it would raise eyebrows from other players who might erroneously get the impression that there was collusion going on. When the turn came down I instantly pushed, trying to send the message that I knew I had the best hand and he should fold. But he insta-called $130 more with a set of threes.
So I busted him on that hand and he was highly pissed off. I think he told me that was the dumbest thing I ever did and I would be sorry. But still I am glad to say he fought his way back to a winning session, his third winning session of the day.
After that hand everything seemed to come easier. I played until the table broke and cashed out $840. Narrowed the sidebet race with John to four.
12 hrs
+ $340
I was stuck for most of this session. Other than stealing with an overpair vs. what I knew was a bigger overpair, I hardly won any big pots. I was in the game for $500.
Then after 10 hours I hit a big hand. Unfortunately it was against my friend Steve AKA DJ Alpyne AKA El Diablo AKA The Chosen One AKA The Educated Donkey.
There was a raise to $17 from a guy to my left, then there were several calls, and I called in the blind with 44. The flop came K43. This was my first set of the day. I checked, the preflop raiser checked, Steve and another player checked, and the maniac on the button bet $20. I called, the preflop raiser called, and then El Diablo checkraised (he kinda likes to do that) to $75. The maniac folded, and I called to get action from the preflop raiser who was between me and The Chosen One. But the preflop raiser folded and the hand was heads-up.
I was sure I had the best hand. The only player at the table who would smooth-call a raise with KK was John and he was not in the hand. Steve and I generally check it down in small pots when we are heads-up, just cause we are not there to take each other's money, but in a big pot like this it would raise eyebrows from other players who might erroneously get the impression that there was collusion going on. When the turn came down I instantly pushed, trying to send the message that I knew I had the best hand and he should fold. But he insta-called $130 more with a set of threes.
So I busted him on that hand and he was highly pissed off. I think he told me that was the dumbest thing I ever did and I would be sorry. But still I am glad to say he fought his way back to a winning session, his third winning session of the day.
After that hand everything seemed to come easier. I played until the table broke and cashed out $840. Narrowed the sidebet race with John to four.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Why Dealers are Donkeys
Aladdin $1-2 NL
3 hrs
+ $160
If you play a lot of live poker in casinos, you've probably played with a poker dealer who was playing on break or during off hours. And at some point maybe you wondered, Why do dealers play so bad?
Layne Flack and Scott Fischman were poker dealers once. Fischman thinks being a dealer helped him because all the hands he saw made him identify betting patterns that he now registers unconsciously. But for most dealers it just doesn't happen that way. I think part of the reason why is the half-hour turns in the box. Judging a poker game by a half hour is like judging a marathon by who is ahead after one mile. You get in a game for a half hour, you get a fragmented picture of a poker game, a distorted picture. You see a few big hands, maybe push three hands in a row to an action player but don't see him lose it an hour later. It is hard to see in a half hour the strategy the good players in the game are using. Of all the dealers I know, there is only one I consider a really good player.
Tonight at the Aladdin I was in a game with a guy who just started dealing at another casino. I will change his name cause I like him and everyone is entitled to an occasional big mistake. So I'll call him Trevor. Now I've played a lot with him and every time I would say he was solid. But now that he's started dealing his game may have fallen into the crapper.
There is a preflop raise from a straightforward player with AA, and Trevor calls with 99 and John calls behind him with 43. The flop comes 844, two diamonds. The preflop raiser bets $10, Trevor calls, and John raises to $40. The preflop raiser calls. Now Trevor, putting the preflop raiser on two unpaired high cards (he later explained), decides to push all-in for $200. Trevor has also played quite a bit with John, and in this spot, if you are observant and know how John plays, you know that John has to have a hand. He is not making a semibluff or pure move against a guy he thinks will call him with an overpair. Now John at this point also believes Trevor to be a smart, solid player. You see the dilemma this puts him in. He knows that Trevor should know John has a big hand, and that the preflop raiser most likely has a big overpair, yet Trevor is going over the top of both of them. John decides his 3 kicker sucks and that he could be drawing for a chop or almost dead against 88. He folds and is annoyed to see Trevor's play cost him a big pot which goes to the dude with AA as Trevor's nines fail to improve.
Hahaha, John doesn't bust anyone on that hand and I narrow the sidebet race to six.
3 hrs
+ $160
If you play a lot of live poker in casinos, you've probably played with a poker dealer who was playing on break or during off hours. And at some point maybe you wondered, Why do dealers play so bad?
Layne Flack and Scott Fischman were poker dealers once. Fischman thinks being a dealer helped him because all the hands he saw made him identify betting patterns that he now registers unconsciously. But for most dealers it just doesn't happen that way. I think part of the reason why is the half-hour turns in the box. Judging a poker game by a half hour is like judging a marathon by who is ahead after one mile. You get in a game for a half hour, you get a fragmented picture of a poker game, a distorted picture. You see a few big hands, maybe push three hands in a row to an action player but don't see him lose it an hour later. It is hard to see in a half hour the strategy the good players in the game are using. Of all the dealers I know, there is only one I consider a really good player.
Tonight at the Aladdin I was in a game with a guy who just started dealing at another casino. I will change his name cause I like him and everyone is entitled to an occasional big mistake. So I'll call him Trevor. Now I've played a lot with him and every time I would say he was solid. But now that he's started dealing his game may have fallen into the crapper.
There is a preflop raise from a straightforward player with AA, and Trevor calls with 99 and John calls behind him with 43. The flop comes 844, two diamonds. The preflop raiser bets $10, Trevor calls, and John raises to $40. The preflop raiser calls. Now Trevor, putting the preflop raiser on two unpaired high cards (he later explained), decides to push all-in for $200. Trevor has also played quite a bit with John, and in this spot, if you are observant and know how John plays, you know that John has to have a hand. He is not making a semibluff or pure move against a guy he thinks will call him with an overpair. Now John at this point also believes Trevor to be a smart, solid player. You see the dilemma this puts him in. He knows that Trevor should know John has a big hand, and that the preflop raiser most likely has a big overpair, yet Trevor is going over the top of both of them. John decides his 3 kicker sucks and that he could be drawing for a chop or almost dead against 88. He folds and is annoyed to see Trevor's play cost him a big pot which goes to the dude with AA as Trevor's nines fail to improve.
Hahaha, John doesn't bust anyone on that hand and I narrow the sidebet race to six.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
A Good Game
This may look familiar:
Aladdin $1-2 NL
4 hours
+ $400
Another day, another $100/hr $1-2 nl session. See, that's how I roll.
Actually this was one of those nights it just came easy. Within 15 minutes of sitting down the following hand came up. There were three limpers to the cutoff seat, who raised to $20. I looked down in the small blind to AhAs. I reraised to $55. The early position limper cold-called $53 more, the next limper called (!), and the original raiser called. There was over $220 in the pot preflop. I had $130 back at this point and I was gonna push the flop unless it came something ridiculous like QdJdTd. I liked the Th8c2h flop. The original raiser called with pocket queens. After that I coasted and cashed out $600.
I narrowed the sidebet race with John by one.
Academy Award nominations are coming up, and it got me thinking that there may be other characters to think about other than Boss Hogg when making poker decisions. The "What Would Boss Hogg Do?" T-shirts are already in production (contact me for purchasing info), but what characters from this year's films would make the best poker players? I ask for your input here. My own nomination is for Alfred Borden, the Christian Bale character from "The Prestige."
Aladdin $1-2 NL
4 hours
+ $400
Another day, another $100/hr $1-2 nl session. See, that's how I roll.
Actually this was one of those nights it just came easy. Within 15 minutes of sitting down the following hand came up. There were three limpers to the cutoff seat, who raised to $20. I looked down in the small blind to AhAs. I reraised to $55. The early position limper cold-called $53 more, the next limper called (!), and the original raiser called. There was over $220 in the pot preflop. I had $130 back at this point and I was gonna push the flop unless it came something ridiculous like QdJdTd. I liked the Th8c2h flop. The original raiser called with pocket queens. After that I coasted and cashed out $600.
I narrowed the sidebet race with John by one.
Academy Award nominations are coming up, and it got me thinking that there may be other characters to think about other than Boss Hogg when making poker decisions. The "What Would Boss Hogg Do?" T-shirts are already in production (contact me for purchasing info), but what characters from this year's films would make the best poker players? I ask for your input here. My own nomination is for Alfred Borden, the Christian Bale character from "The Prestige."
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Minimize-Maximize vs. Boss Hogg
The new year brought insurance bills, unexpected car expenses, and other costs. I won't be able to play a few days later in the month cause I'm going skiing in Vail. So I'm trying to get a good start to the month now.
Aladdin $1-2 NL
4 hours
+ $400
So it's going okay except that I'm now eight down in the sidebet race to NC John. I'll probably write more about NC John and anaylze his playing style after he leaves, but for now I just want to say a couple things. NC is for North Carolina; he's a consultant for a business out in Greensboro. He's an Asian guy, 31 years old, and is looking to buy a house out here on this trip. He's the most consistent and biggest winner I've played with in $1-2 NL cash games, with the probable exception of Angel, but I never played much with Angel. John has never read a poker book. His style is very unorthodox for a winning player. We had a talk a couple days ago about how he developed his style by mimicking certain players, and also about his "minimize-maximize" concept through which he filters his decisions at the table.
Probably not as effective as the "Boss Hogg" filter written about previously in this blog, but to each his own.
Aladdin $1-2 NL
4 hours
+ $400
So it's going okay except that I'm now eight down in the sidebet race to NC John. I'll probably write more about NC John and anaylze his playing style after he leaves, but for now I just want to say a couple things. NC is for North Carolina; he's a consultant for a business out in Greensboro. He's an Asian guy, 31 years old, and is looking to buy a house out here on this trip. He's the most consistent and biggest winner I've played with in $1-2 NL cash games, with the probable exception of Angel, but I never played much with Angel. John has never read a poker book. His style is very unorthodox for a winning player. We had a talk a couple days ago about how he developed his style by mimicking certain players, and also about his "minimize-maximize" concept through which he filters his decisions at the table.
Probably not as effective as the "Boss Hogg" filter written about previously in this blog, but to each his own.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Falling Behind
Aladdin $1-2 NL
7 hrs
+$220
Regrettable Note: NC John was stuck $100 when he requested a table change, while I was winning $200, but he added three points this night for the sidebet race of busting other players. He picked up silly no-brainers like the shortstack moving in for $22 and John has AA, and the tilting straddle player raising his straddle and John limp-reraising with AK.
7 hrs
+$220
Regrettable Note: NC John was stuck $100 when he requested a table change, while I was winning $200, but he added three points this night for the sidebet race of busting other players. He picked up silly no-brainers like the shortstack moving in for $22 and John has AA, and the tilting straddle player raising his straddle and John limp-reraising with AK.
Monday, January 1, 2007
New Year's Eve $2-5 NL Session
"I have to tell you that at that point I sure don't feel like no professional poker player and if I was asked at the time to give a logical explanation of my actions I would simply say, Shut up and deal."
- Shut Up and Deal, Jesse May
New Year's Eve at the Aladdin and I am getting killed playing $1-2 nl. I don't want to use this blog to complain about bad beats, so let's just say that on a couple pots I had guys drawing dead and they still got there. Meanwhile every single dealer coming in from the $2-5 nl game is saying how crazy it is, how more than half the pots are all-ins. So I feel myself going on tilt in the $1-2 game after I make a Big Move that gets snapped off and I am super stuck now and I grab my chips and take the open seat in the 2-5 game.
There's no question it's too big for my bankroll right now but at least I am not going to let myself go on tilt at this limit. NC John is in the game and I tell him I'm just going to be playing mindless automatic poker, tight multitabling internet rakeback style.
I see what is driving the game. There are two major league calling stations and one major league maniac. NC John has to reload after losing to a one-outer against one of the calling stations, when his set of jacks loses to quad sixes. But then John wins a $1,600 pot with a set of eights. Incredibly he doesn't bust anyone and there has been no new movement on our sidebet race.
I basically play two pots past the flop. The first I have A-5 in the blind and flop top two and make a couple hundred off a big ace held by a player I've seen around in local cardrooms. He doesn't recognize me in my party shirt, sunglasses, and bright red paper new year's eve hat.
The other pot I call a $15 raise with 8-9 offsuit and flop trips and win over four hundred against pocket aces. That gets me above even for the night and I leave to take part in the festivities shortly after.
Happy New Year!
- Shut Up and Deal, Jesse May
New Year's Eve at the Aladdin and I am getting killed playing $1-2 nl. I don't want to use this blog to complain about bad beats, so let's just say that on a couple pots I had guys drawing dead and they still got there. Meanwhile every single dealer coming in from the $2-5 nl game is saying how crazy it is, how more than half the pots are all-ins. So I feel myself going on tilt in the $1-2 game after I make a Big Move that gets snapped off and I am super stuck now and I grab my chips and take the open seat in the 2-5 game.
There's no question it's too big for my bankroll right now but at least I am not going to let myself go on tilt at this limit. NC John is in the game and I tell him I'm just going to be playing mindless automatic poker, tight multitabling internet rakeback style.
I see what is driving the game. There are two major league calling stations and one major league maniac. NC John has to reload after losing to a one-outer against one of the calling stations, when his set of jacks loses to quad sixes. But then John wins a $1,600 pot with a set of eights. Incredibly he doesn't bust anyone and there has been no new movement on our sidebet race.
I basically play two pots past the flop. The first I have A-5 in the blind and flop top two and make a couple hundred off a big ace held by a player I've seen around in local cardrooms. He doesn't recognize me in my party shirt, sunglasses, and bright red paper new year's eve hat.
The other pot I call a $15 raise with 8-9 offsuit and flop trips and win over four hundred against pocket aces. That gets me above even for the night and I leave to take part in the festivities shortly after.
Happy New Year!
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