There's an aggressive local player who frequents Planet Hollywood named Kevin, an Asian guy in his late twenties. Every other local I've talked to hates playing him. Actually some say they hate him personally, because of the way he plays cards. This shows he's doing something right.
Tonight he went on the sickest cardrush I've seen in a long time. It started when he isolated a bad player with an AK reraise. Then the table went crazy with calls and pushes behind him. He caught his ace and more than tripled up from his original $200 stake. Then he played AT in a raised pot and checkraised the QJ9 board. His opponent pushed for nearly $200 more with JJ, and Kevin decided to gamble and rivered a K for the nut straight. Then Kevin raised with JJ, the bad player bet into him on the rag flop and he raised to $200, another deep-stacked player behind him pushed all-in for close to $300 more on top, and Kevin eventually called the deep-stack's 88 bluff. Finally the bad player, who had won a couple big pots in the interim, went broke with top pair against Kevin's set for another $500. When the dust settled from this run of hands, which transpired within the space of an hour, Kevin had close to $2K in front of him.
Meanwhile I was up a couple hundred in the game, but the Duke was struggling. He was in the game for $400. He was actually down to $20 when he tripled up and then went on a rush and had $300 in front of him. He was satisfied with the comeback and planned to leave when the blinds hit him. With two hands to go before having to post his blind he picked up my favorite hand, pocket nines. He limped with it, and when a shortstack raised behind him, he decided to play the hand heads-up and raised enough to put the guy all-in. The guy had QJ and rivered a Jack.
The very next hand, the Duke went into a full-blown Tony G routine. Feigning extreme tilt, he shouted, "Go ahead, take it all!" He pushed his remaining $250 across the felt, knocking his stacks over in the process. "You want it? It's yours! You think this is a joke? Take it all! I'm tired of this!" I knew he had a monster even before he turned to me and said, "I have King Kong." The bad player called and showed T9. The flop was all blanks, but then the turn was a 10 and the river was a 10. Runner-runner for trips and the Duke says he's done playing for a while.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
All Hail Re-bet
Today was the final day of the Monte Carlo Freeroll Tourney and I drove down to the Strip to watch "Re-bet" Todd. I had a third of his action so it's fair to say I had a strong rooting interest.
After a couple naysayers got busted, the remaining field made a deal to take $1,200 each and play for the other half of the prize pool.
Re-bet played great and was actually the chip leader until donking off a lot of chips making a preflop play with pocket deuces. He still made the final table, though, where everyone agreed to a chop. The chip leader got $10K and everyone else got $6K. After taxes and a three-way split between Re-bet, the Gambling Duke, and myself, it came out to $1,300 each.
The Duke had come stright from a baseball game and was still in uniform, and we all ate a celebratory Sbarro lunch in the food court. Then I drove home to play an internet freeroll tourney I qualified for on Intertops. I won a couple races when I needed to and I placed second for $240. Not a bad day when you've made over $1,500 before dinner without putting a dollar at risk.
The key to getting Re-bet to loosen up and play well was our hilarity over recently viewed Tony G YouTube videos. We agreed that the Duke should embrace and incorporate the Tony G style, since it works well with his pre-existing super-aggressive preflop strategy and penchant for confrontational table-talk.
After a couple naysayers got busted, the remaining field made a deal to take $1,200 each and play for the other half of the prize pool.
Re-bet played great and was actually the chip leader until donking off a lot of chips making a preflop play with pocket deuces. He still made the final table, though, where everyone agreed to a chop. The chip leader got $10K and everyone else got $6K. After taxes and a three-way split between Re-bet, the Gambling Duke, and myself, it came out to $1,300 each.
The Duke had come stright from a baseball game and was still in uniform, and we all ate a celebratory Sbarro lunch in the food court. Then I drove home to play an internet freeroll tourney I qualified for on Intertops. I won a couple races when I needed to and I placed second for $240. Not a bad day when you've made over $1,500 before dinner without putting a dollar at risk.
The key to getting Re-bet to loosen up and play well was our hilarity over recently viewed Tony G YouTube videos. We agreed that the Duke should embrace and incorporate the Tony G style, since it works well with his pre-existing super-aggressive preflop strategy and penchant for confrontational table-talk.
Friday, March 2, 2007
February is Really Over
I bust out of the Monte Carlo Freeroll when I run my beautiful KQ of diamonds into two black Aces. Re-bet is through to Day 2 and I have a third of his action. The Gambling Duke plays his Day 1 tomorrow and I have a third of his action as well. Team Holdem: "You can't stop us, you can only hope to contain us."
Planet Hollywood. I forget to bring my bankroll, wtf. New rolling chairs for the poker room and I lounge in one until Todd rolls in and spots me two bills. I quickly build up to a $300 stack when the following hand comes down.
A reasonable-looking but very aggressive preflop player makes it $12 and I call with 4-5 of hearts on the button. The big blind says, "I raise with my Charlie Murphy chip," and throws in a call. He only means to call, but the dealer, Mike Manchester, holds him to his verbal commitment to raise. So the three of us put in another $12 each.
Flop comes KJ3 with two hearts. BB checks. Preflop raiser leads for $20. It's a weak bet and I think there's a good chance of catching him on pure air, plus I have a draw with position, so I raise to $60. BB cold-calls the $60 and then the preflop raiser calls, too. I don't like my hand. The cold-call set off alarm bells, and with the overcall I'm not 100% my draw will be good if I hit. I have a draw of questionable value along with position and a camouflaged hand.
Turn is an offsuit 6, giving me an OESD to go along with my 5-high flush draw. It's checked to me. Do you guys push here? There's $240 in the pot. If you push AI there's a good chance you get a better draw to fold, and usually only a good made hand will call, against which you have many outs. The thing is, I really feel like I'm going to get called. I take the free card.
The river is an offsuit 7 and I am in shock because I have the Royal Brass Brazilians. All I am thinking is how February must really be over because this kind of thing never happened last month. BB leads out for $50. Preflop raiser mucks. I shove it all in for $140 on top and he calls with K3 for a flopped two pair. The preflop raiser says he had A8 of hearts for the nut flush draw.
Wow, I got really lucky. If I'd pushed the turn I'd have been in terrible shape but I might have stacked them both, because the BB was going to call with his two pair, and with all the money in the pot the nut flush draw might make the overcall.
For the coup de grace, I win a free commemorative Aladdin coffee mug for filling out a questionnaire describing my reaction to the new leather-bound slot machines (not a fan).
Planet Hollywood. I forget to bring my bankroll, wtf. New rolling chairs for the poker room and I lounge in one until Todd rolls in and spots me two bills. I quickly build up to a $300 stack when the following hand comes down.
A reasonable-looking but very aggressive preflop player makes it $12 and I call with 4-5 of hearts on the button. The big blind says, "I raise with my Charlie Murphy chip," and throws in a call. He only means to call, but the dealer, Mike Manchester, holds him to his verbal commitment to raise. So the three of us put in another $12 each.
Flop comes KJ3 with two hearts. BB checks. Preflop raiser leads for $20. It's a weak bet and I think there's a good chance of catching him on pure air, plus I have a draw with position, so I raise to $60. BB cold-calls the $60 and then the preflop raiser calls, too. I don't like my hand. The cold-call set off alarm bells, and with the overcall I'm not 100% my draw will be good if I hit. I have a draw of questionable value along with position and a camouflaged hand.
Turn is an offsuit 6, giving me an OESD to go along with my 5-high flush draw. It's checked to me. Do you guys push here? There's $240 in the pot. If you push AI there's a good chance you get a better draw to fold, and usually only a good made hand will call, against which you have many outs. The thing is, I really feel like I'm going to get called. I take the free card.
The river is an offsuit 7 and I am in shock because I have the Royal Brass Brazilians. All I am thinking is how February must really be over because this kind of thing never happened last month. BB leads out for $50. Preflop raiser mucks. I shove it all in for $140 on top and he calls with K3 for a flopped two pair. The preflop raiser says he had A8 of hearts for the nut flush draw.
Wow, I got really lucky. If I'd pushed the turn I'd have been in terrible shape but I might have stacked them both, because the BB was going to call with his two pair, and with all the money in the pot the nut flush draw might make the overcall.
For the coup de grace, I win a free commemorative Aladdin coffee mug for filling out a questionnaire describing my reaction to the new leather-bound slot machines (not a fan).
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Captain Slowroll and the World of Tomorrow
Played a session at Planet Hollywood today and made $500. Netted about $2K in the past five days, which makes my February mediocre, but mediocre is an improvement over how my month looked last week.
I was too caught up in the variance, in my bad run of cards, to be much of a writer this month. A couple things I'll mention now.
Played with the most prolific slowroller ever. He was Gutshot Man from my -$1,240 PLO/$2-5 NL session. A better name for him is Captain Slowroll. He loved to make the second nuts, get called, and then shake his head sadly, tap his cards against the felt, say something like, "Damn. You got me. Your 8-high straight is good." Then the other guy, a supernit who raised to $30 preflop and couldn't possibly have an 8-high straight, would flip over something like pocket Aces, and Captain Slowroll would show the 7-high straight and say, "I thought if you called me there you had to have me beat! Wow!"
He bluffed so often, betting almost every hand to the river, that about 75% of the time he said, "Ya got me," the other guy really had caught him bluffing. But 25% of the time Captain Slowroll had made a straight or two pair somewhere along the way.
----
Playing at the Tropicana I witnessed the most unprofessional hour-and-a-half of poker dealing I've ever seen at a casino. One dealer told us, "I don't want to be here," and looked at a player like he was an idiot when he explained why he'd pushed all-in. Another dealer failed to see a flush and pushed a big all-in pot to the wrong player. I saw it and wanted the donkey with the backdoor flush to win, but he didn't see his flush either, and I believe in the saying, "One man to a hand," and that it's unethical to point these things out during a hand, so I didn't say anything until after it was over. Of course it was too late by then.
The best, though, was the hand where a player was all-in preflop for about $20 and two other players called. The flop action was bet-and-fold. The dealer, an Asian woman who spoke little English, forgot about the all-in player and placed the flop cards in the muck and pushed the flop bettor the pot. The all-in player complained and showed AT while the flop bettor showed 99, which was the best hand on the pre-existing flop. The dealer, realizing her error, grabbed five apparently random cards out of the muck and turned them faceup. No burning, no turning. Re-bet says he believes she found the correct three cards for the flop, but I thought one of the boardcards was one of my mucked holecards. "Pocket nine good," she said, announcing the winning hand after the five "boardcards" were out. The guy with AT seemed kind of at a loss and walked away. To this day all I have to do is say, "Pocket nine good," and Re-bet just loses it.
I was too caught up in the variance, in my bad run of cards, to be much of a writer this month. A couple things I'll mention now.
Played with the most prolific slowroller ever. He was Gutshot Man from my -$1,240 PLO/$2-5 NL session. A better name for him is Captain Slowroll. He loved to make the second nuts, get called, and then shake his head sadly, tap his cards against the felt, say something like, "Damn. You got me. Your 8-high straight is good." Then the other guy, a supernit who raised to $30 preflop and couldn't possibly have an 8-high straight, would flip over something like pocket Aces, and Captain Slowroll would show the 7-high straight and say, "I thought if you called me there you had to have me beat! Wow!"
He bluffed so often, betting almost every hand to the river, that about 75% of the time he said, "Ya got me," the other guy really had caught him bluffing. But 25% of the time Captain Slowroll had made a straight or two pair somewhere along the way.
----
Playing at the Tropicana I witnessed the most unprofessional hour-and-a-half of poker dealing I've ever seen at a casino. One dealer told us, "I don't want to be here," and looked at a player like he was an idiot when he explained why he'd pushed all-in. Another dealer failed to see a flush and pushed a big all-in pot to the wrong player. I saw it and wanted the donkey with the backdoor flush to win, but he didn't see his flush either, and I believe in the saying, "One man to a hand," and that it's unethical to point these things out during a hand, so I didn't say anything until after it was over. Of course it was too late by then.
The best, though, was the hand where a player was all-in preflop for about $20 and two other players called. The flop action was bet-and-fold. The dealer, an Asian woman who spoke little English, forgot about the all-in player and placed the flop cards in the muck and pushed the flop bettor the pot. The all-in player complained and showed AT while the flop bettor showed 99, which was the best hand on the pre-existing flop. The dealer, realizing her error, grabbed five apparently random cards out of the muck and turned them faceup. No burning, no turning. Re-bet says he believes she found the correct three cards for the flop, but I thought one of the boardcards was one of my mucked holecards. "Pocket nine good," she said, announcing the winning hand after the five "boardcards" were out. The guy with AT seemed kind of at a loss and walked away. To this day all I have to do is say, "Pocket nine good," and Re-bet just loses it.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Upswing
Today I played a couple sessions at Planet Hollywood and won $725.
Things may be turning around. Gotta keep going.
Things may be turning around. Gotta keep going.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Huge Overdog
Planet Hollywood. One table going. Mike Manchester and the Gamblin Duke sitting. They look up at me shaking their heads about how good the game is and how bad they're running.
Manchester is a dealer who takes down a lot of tournaments when he's not in the box. His cash game play is kinda rough IMO but in this game he's still, as Bill Fillmaff would say, a "huge overdog." A rich girl vaguely associated with the fashion industry has distributed over a G around the table, betting crazy and calling $100 river bets with the nut low--I'm completely for real.
The Duke gets flushed out for his last buy-in and I get his seat. Fashion girl loses her last chips, doesn't rebuy, and I'm like, "Fuck."
I flop Kings Full, and after checking the flop a stack pushes against me, and I'm like, "Sweet."
A decent little session of which I need a couple more before month's end since for the moment I can't get at the $1,500 or so I have on Intertops.
Check out "Re-bet" Todd's poker blog.
Manchester is a dealer who takes down a lot of tournaments when he's not in the box. His cash game play is kinda rough IMO but in this game he's still, as Bill Fillmaff would say, a "huge overdog." A rich girl vaguely associated with the fashion industry has distributed over a G around the table, betting crazy and calling $100 river bets with the nut low--I'm completely for real.
The Duke gets flushed out for his last buy-in and I get his seat. Fashion girl loses her last chips, doesn't rebuy, and I'm like, "Fuck."
I flop Kings Full, and after checking the flop a stack pushes against me, and I'm like, "Sweet."
A decent little session of which I need a couple more before month's end since for the moment I can't get at the $1,500 or so I have on Intertops.
Check out "Re-bet" Todd's poker blog.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Stranded Cyberdollar
Intertops
1 hour
+ $306
Aladdin $1-2 NL
3 hours
+ $50
I got on the phone with Trucard customer service to find out why I hadn't received a debit card. They told me the merchant (Intertops poker) is no longer using their service. I shot an email to Intertops and they confirmed this. I won't be getting a debit card, and I won't be able to use Interpay to get my money in or out.
I can probably get them to send a check, but I have a couple problems with that option right now. So my money is stranded in cyberspace, I kept thinking, and I logged on to Intertops and sat at like four $200 cap PLO tables and just played uber-aggressive. I mean, what difference does it make? I have no immediate prospects of getting my money offline, anyway.
Let me take a shot at building a huge fortress of meaningless cyberchips that I can stack in meaningless cybertowers.
1 hour
+ $306
Aladdin $1-2 NL
3 hours
+ $50
I got on the phone with Trucard customer service to find out why I hadn't received a debit card. They told me the merchant (Intertops poker) is no longer using their service. I shot an email to Intertops and they confirmed this. I won't be getting a debit card, and I won't be able to use Interpay to get my money in or out.
I can probably get them to send a check, but I have a couple problems with that option right now. So my money is stranded in cyberspace, I kept thinking, and I logged on to Intertops and sat at like four $200 cap PLO tables and just played uber-aggressive. I mean, what difference does it make? I have no immediate prospects of getting my money offline, anyway.
Let me take a shot at building a huge fortress of meaningless cyberchips that I can stack in meaningless cybertowers.
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