Stay Away From the Dice

2004-09-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, been a while. Here are my stats.

.5/1
Hands: 12,428
VP$IP: 16.58
PFR: 7.64
BB/100: 4.88
Won: $606

1/2
Hands: 3,860
VP$IP: 12.82
PFR: 6.99
BB/100: 2.36
Won: $182

2/4
Hands: 1,808
VP$IP: 13.00
PFR: 7.58
BB/100: 3.01
Won: $217

I'm trying to play 10,000 hands this month, at which time I'll write something interesting.

2004-07-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a grip. I have played a lot of poker since I last posted. 4,656 hands, to be exact. Here's where I stand.

Last time I posted, I was "owning the shit" out of .5/1, which I guess is still true. Here are my stats (from Party only)

Hands: 6,020
VP$IP: 16.64
PFR: 7.31
BB/100: 4.5

POWN!

At some point, I got a big enough bankroll to start playing 1/2. It was rough at first, but I think I've adjusted.

Hands: 935
VP$IP: 12.41 (that's too tight, but there is more raising on this level, so I play fewer hands)
PFR: 7.27 (I'm keeping my aggression up, at least)
BB/100: 8.08 (POWN!)

Heh. That won't last. But for now, it feels good.

One thing that doesn't feel good is losing at 2/4. I've taken a few shots at this level when I see known bad players there, but I haven't done well. The tables are looser than 1/2, though, so I'm anxious to move up.

Hands: 158
VP$IP: 15.82
PFR: 6.33 (should be higher... maybe I'm running bad)
BB/100: -8.75 (yuck!!!!!!)

Basically, I'm down 13 BB at 2/4, which is really nothing. Less than half of one buy-in. But still, it's $55!!!!!

Nevertheless, my roll is healthy, and I should be getting a fat rake kickback from my affiliate soon. Should be close to $100. Woo-ha.

I've really cut back on the sit and goes and multi table tourneys, but I did play one big $2 tourney on Stars the other day with a friend. He had played live tourneys before, but never one online. He finished in the top 200 (out of 1,700). I did pretty well, made it to 56th place before I stupidly pushed in with KJs in a blind steal. I got called by TT and didn't improve.

I had 24,000 chips at that point, but the blinds were something like 3,000 with a pretty decent ante on top of that. Not a terrible move, but I had a little more time. At least I moneyed.

I've been reading a ton of 2+2 and it continues to help my game immensely.

All right, that's it for now. One last thing: If you are thinking about signing up for Party, DON'T use my code! That's because it expired. If you interested, I can get a new code. Email me.

Later.

2004-07-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ugh, sorry about the last post. I just read through it and it sucked. I never did end up crossposting on 2+2, because I thought I might get banned for such a boring post.

Well, to freshen things up a bit, I sort of liked the Diary post I did during a freeroll a while back, so I think I'll do one for this 2-table Sit 'N' Go that I'm about to play.

4:38pm: Just signed up and took my seat.

4:39pm: First hand: 52c. Mucked.

4:39pm: I've got a Runnin Rebel logo at my table, and a middle-aged guy. Nobody else has pictures... you don't see that very often at Stars anymore.

4:40pm: The middle-aged guy just lost 540 chips on the first hand. Lookin' good.

4:41pm: Just freerolled ATo in the big blind. Checkd around on the flop. The turn gave me a gutshot to the nut straight, but someone bet out 80 chips and I folded.

4:43: I just mucked AQo from the button to a 100 chip raise from early position. It's too early.

4:44: Limping with A2d. I checked the flop after pairing the 2, called a 60 chip bet on the turn when I picked up the 4-flush, and mucked the river when I didn't hit and the middle-aged guy bet 200. He's made a comeback already--up to 2,360 chips.

4:47: Just mucked AKo to a 440 chip raise. Too timid? The raiser had AKs, got called by 99 and a random K and everyone went all in preflop. 99 held up, and busted the other two! 4 players have already busted in the first 10 minutes.

4:50: Got AKo again in the BB. Man, it would be nice to get these cards a little later in the tourney. 4 players limped, so I just made a min-raise. Flop was rags, and I checked rather then bluff when bet to. Guy after me pushed in. Everyone folded... he had flopped a set of 5s.

4:52: 66 vs AQ...Rebel vs. Middle age. AQ backdoors a straight! Bye bye, rebel.

4:54: I'm already in second-to-last place, just because I haven't doubled up off some n00b yet. I still have something like 40 times the big blind. Sheesh.

4:58: Okay, I'm playing like an idiot. I just raised with KJo from late position and got two callers. Flop was all hearts, I have the J of hearts, so I bet 70. Both guys call. Turn is a blank. I check, old-man bets a grip, I fold. What the fuck am I doing? I shouldn't be playing any of these hands. Argh.

5:01: The old man is the biggest god damn calling station I've ever seen. Okay, that's a lie, I've seen some amazing calling stations, but he's pretty bad.

5:04: Just doubled up! I raised 200 with KQ on the button. SB called with K6. I paired the K on the flop and bet 500. He smooth-called. Turn was a J, putting 3 hearts on board. He bet enough to put me in, so I thought he might have the flush, but I had to call my last 335 chips. He didn't have it, and I doubled through. Sweet. Now I'm 6th of 11 and I've got even more breathing room

5:06: I just got moved to the other table. One guy has around 5,800 chips, and he's to my direct right. The other three are in the 2,000s, and I'm the short stack at around 2,100.

5:08: Whoa, I played one hand, checking 66 from the BB and hitting trips on the turn, before I got a message reading, "Congratulations! You have reached the final table. We're now 9-handed, sitting at the same table. I'm in 6th place. By the way, I mini bet the turn with trip 6, then pushed 500 on the river but nobody took the bait. I'm at around 2,300.

5:10: Old man just pushed in on a raggedy flop with ATs, and got called by a flopped set of 2s. He's gone.

5:17: Another bust, this time a pair of 8s versus the nut flush. Wow.

5:17: I just noticed that the chip leader has 12,000 chips. That is going to be tough to beat.

5:19: It just got folded to the SB, who minraised. The BB folded. SB flipped over AA. Ouch.

5:20: Chip leader just got a piece of his stack pwned by the 2nd chip leader.

5:21: Just stole the blinds with ATo. Sweet.

5:23: And then there were 6. Another guy just busted, having to go all-in with 42s from the SB. Got dominated by A2, who hit a two pair.

5:24: A lucky bastard just pushed in with QJ against A9o. Hit the backdoor flush!

5:27: I haven't had AK, AQ or AJ since the first round. See! I knew I used them all up.

5:30: Blinds are 100/200; I have 1,620. Time to get aggressive.

5:31: I push in on the button with AQo and get called by.... AQo. We chop.

5:38: There are still 6. I just stole the blinds again with K9o, but I have less than 10x the BB still. Continuing to grind it out....

5:39: I guess we're on break... weird. The two biggest stacks just faced off, but one of them folded on the river to a push. The big stack now has 13,200. 2nd has 4,000, 3rd has 3,630, 4th has 2,600, I have 1,770 and last is 1,695.

5:43: I just got verrry lucky freerolling 43o from the BB. I paired the 3 on the flop and minbet. 2nd high stack called. Turn was a 5 and I pushed. He folded. Whew. I'm back to 2,100.

5:45: Bubble time! We've got 5 players--the top 4 spots pay. By the way, big stack just busted the 6th... he's up to 16,000. Yikes.

5:48: I just got frigging busted on the bubble on a 1-outer!!!! I pushed with KJs. Got called by JJ (on the last hand, a guy had JJ as well.. wtf?). I flop a K, meaning that JJ has one stinking out, the last J, to beat me. Well, he hits it on the turn. That left me with two outs on the river, the remaining Ks. Well, needless to say, I didn't hit and I was done. That fucking sucks. These days it seems I'm always out on the bubble. I hate poker. Screw you!

Okay, I'm just on tilt. I've been having a downswing in .5/1 limit on Empire, after completely owning the shit out of it for the first 3,000 hands. My win rate is still over 3.0 BB/100, but I've lost 73 BB from my peak of +220 BB a few days ago.

Calm... time to take a few days off.

2004-06-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

-20,000th Hand Update-

I'm going to crosspost this on Two Plus Two, and I hope to get some feedback.

I just played my 20,000th hand of online poker (since I bought Poker Tracker, anyway), and I figured now is as good a time as ever to revisit ALL my stats across ALL levels, however painful or embarassing.

Some quick background: I learned how to play Hold 'Em last year from my brother, who's now a pro. He gave me some good advice, and I knew a few basics, but I ran hot right away and overestimated my abilities. I built $50 into almost $300 playing $25 NL on Party Poker, then came crashing back to Earth and went bust.

Since then, I've read Theory of Poker and Cloutier's book on Hold 'Em tourneys. And I've bought back into both Party and Poker Stars and played many different games at different levels. And for the last couple months I've been reading Two Plus Two quite a bit, and soaking up as much knowledge as I can.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm a winning player at lower limit games. But I'm interested to see what comments people might have.

I'm not going to spare myself with these bad hand histories... I'm going to post some of my most embarassing hands. I'll also post one where I got lucky as a skunk.

First, I'll delve into the stats.

Hands: 20,002
VP$IP: 16.17
PFR%: 4.98
Amount won: $459.95

These aren't representative of my most recent game, $0.50/$1.00, in case you were wondering.

Now, here are the levels I've played, how many hands I've played at each level, and how much I've won at each level.

NL $25: 5,825 and $268.60
NL $0.02: 5,520 and $81.43
$0.25/$0.50: 4,573 and -$19.95
$0.50/$1.00: 2,955 and $111.49
$0.05/$0.10: 1,074 and $7.08
PL $25: 39 and $16.80
$1.00/$2.00: 16 and -$5.50

Finally, here are my win rates per 100 hands at the same levels, excluding PL $25 and $1/$2 because the sample sizes are microscopic.

NL $25: 4.61 BB/100
NL $0.02: 36.88 BB/100 (misleading because the blinds are so small)
$0.25/$0.50: -0.87 BB/100
$0.50/$1.00: 3.77 BB/100
$0.05/$0.10: 6.59 BB/100

Although I've made the most money at $25 NL, I now consider myself a limit player. I found that I couldn't handle the swings at NL. When I resumed playing after busting the first time, I once again found myself running hot. But this time I had studied the game, so I was even more confident. Of course, I ran bad for a couple thousand hands and hit some incredible beats. Ultimately, though, the problem wasn't the beats--it was my ability to deal with them.

So I finally took a break, cashed out and went to the micro tables on PokerStars. The $0.01/$0.02 game was easy, but not profitable enough to really pursue, so I decided to teach myself limit. So far, it's been a wise decision.

About that time, I also started reading the micro forum at 2+2 religiously. There were plays I didn't understand that now make perfect sense.

I know I've got a long way to go, but I want to thank everyone on this board for helping me progress as far as I have.

Having said all that, I'm now going to post some of the dumbest moves I've ever made in poker. You can rip me one, but I already know these are stupid.

Hand 1: What the crap was I thinking?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed)

UTG ($27.95)
UTG+1 ($12)
Hero ($20.35)
MP2 ($68.75)
CO ($1.50)
Button ($24)
SB ($28.20)
BB ($7)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is MP1 with 8:club:, 8:diamond:.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $0.50, MP2 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB completes, BB checks.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($1.50) J:club:, 3:diamond:, J:heart: [color:blue](3 players)[/color]
SB checks, BB checks, [color:CC3333]Hero bets $2[/color], SB calls $2, BB folds.

[b]Turn:[/b] ($5.50) 7:heart: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
SB checks, [color:CC3333]Hero bets $7[/color], SB calls $7.

[b]River:[/b] ($19.50) 4:club: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]SB bets $18.7 (All-In)[/color], Hero calls $10.85 (All-In).

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $49.05
[color:green]Main Pot: $41.20, between Hero and SB.[/color] > [color:white]Pot won by SB ($41.20).[/color]
[color:green]Pot 2: $7.84, returned to SB.[/color]

Results in white below: [color:white]
Hero shows 8c 8d (two pair, jacks and eights).
SB shows 7c Jd (full house, jacks full of sevens).
Outcome: SB wins $49.04. [/color]

Hand 2: Just fold!

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed)

MP2 ($45.55)
Hero ($21)
CO ($10.55)
Button ($30.05)
SB ($49.40)
BB ($26.70)
UTG ($15.25)
UTG+1 ($10.33)
MP1 ($25.55)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is MP3 with Q:diamond:, A:club:.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $3[/color], CO folds, Button calls $3, SB folds, [color:CC3333]BB raises to $7[/color], [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $21 (All-In)[/color], Button folds, BB calls $14.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($45.25) 5:club:, J:diamond:, 8:heart: [color:blue](2 players, 1 all-in)[/color]

[b]Turn:[/b] ($45.25) 6:diamond: [color:blue](2 players, 1 all-in)[/color]

[b]River:[/b] ($45.25) 9:diamond: [color:blue](2 players, 1 all-in)[/color]

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $45.25
[color:green]Main Pot: $45.25, between Hero and BB.[/color] > [color:white]Pot won by BB ($45.25).[/color]

Results in white below: [color:white]
BB shows Td Ts (one pair, tens).
Hero shows Qd Ac (high card, ace).
Outcome: BB wins $45.25. [/color]

Hand 3: This is why I quit NL

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (10 handed)

UTG ($7.60)
UTG+1 ($55.20)
UTG+2 ($20.40)
MP1 ($71.38)
Hero ($24.25)
MP3 ($33.20)
CO ($26.75)
Button ($20.90)
SB ($55.55)
BB ($20)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is MP2 with K:spade:, Q:spade:.
UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.50, MP1 folds, Hero calls $0.50, MP3 calls $0.50, CO folds, Button calls $0.50, SB folds, BB checks.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($3.25) J:diamond:, 8:heart:, Q:diamond: [color:blue](6 players)[/color]
BB checks, UTG folds, [color:CC3333]UTG+2 bets $0.5[/color], [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $6[/color], MP3 folds, Button folds, BB folds, UTG+2 calls $5.50.

[b]Turn:[/b] ($15.25) 8:diamond: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]UTG+2 bets $0.5[/color], [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $13.9[/color], UTG+2 calls $13.40 (All-In).

[b]River:[/b] ($43.05) 7:club: [color:blue](2 players, 1 all-in)[/color]

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $43.05
[color:green]Main Pot: $43.05, between UTG+2 and Hero.[/color] > [color:white]Pot won by UTG+2 ($43.05).[/color]

Results in white below: [color:white]
UTG+2 shows 9d 5d (flush, queen high).
Hero shows Ks Qs (two pair, queens and eights).
Outcome: UTG+2 wins $43.05. [/color]

Hand 4: Too aggressive!!!

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed)

UTG+1 ($57.40)
MP1 ($21.05)
Hero ($34.10)
CO ($69.30)
Button ($29.95)
SB ($20.25)
BB ($33.50)
UTG ($20.95)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is MP2 with J:club:, A:club:.
UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $1[/color], CO calls $1, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls $0.50.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($3.75) 4:heart:, 2:heart:, A:diamond: [color:blue](3 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]UTG bets $1[/color], [color:CC3333]Hero raises to $6[/color], CO calls $6, UTG folds.

[b]Turn:[/b] ($16.75) 8:club: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]Hero bets $20[/color], CO calls $20.

[b]River:[/b] ($56.75) K:heart: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]Hero bets $7.1 (All-In)[/color], CO calls $7.10.

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $70.95
[color:green]Main Pot: $70.95, between Hero and CO.[/color] > [color:white]Pot won by CO ($70.95).[/color]

Results in white below: [color:white]
Hero shows Jc Ac (one pair, aces).
CO shows 4c Ah (two pair, aces and fours).
Outcome: CO wins $70.95. [/color]

Hand 5: Here's one where I got lucky. On the river, I tried to push, but accidentally clicked the minimum bet. It worked out okay.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (10 handed)

CO ($98.85)
Button ($31.96)
SB ($13)
Hero ($31.80)
UTG ($39.20)
UTG+1 ($19.50)
UTG+2 ($9.50)
MP1 ($20.40)
MP2 ($23.03)
MP3 ($32.09)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is BB with 4:spade:, 7:club:.
UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls $0.50, MP2 calls $0.50, MP3 calls $0.50, CO calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50, SB completes, Hero checks.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($4) 5:diamond:, 4:diamond:, 4:club: [color:blue](8 players)[/color]
SB checks, [color:CC3333]Hero bets $4[/color], [color:CC3333]UTG raises to $8[/color], MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 calls $8, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, Hero calls $4.

[b]Turn:[/b] ($28) 4:heart: [color:blue](3 players)[/color]
Hero checks, [color:CC3333]UTG bets $5[/color], MP3 folds, Hero calls $5.

[b]River:[/b] ($38) A:spade: [color:blue](2 players)[/color]
[color:CC3333]Hero bets $0.5[/color], [color:CC3333]UTG raises to $25.7 (All-In)[/color], Hero calls $17.80 (All-In).

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $82
[color:green]Main Pot: $74.60, between Hero and UTG.[/color] > [color:white]Pot won by Hero ($74.60).[/color]
[color:green]Pot 2: $7.40, returned to UTG.[/color]

Results in white below: [color:white]
Hero shows 4s 7c (four of a kind, fours).
UTG shows 5c 6c (full house, fours full of fives).
Outcome: Hero wins $74.60. UTG wins $7.40. [/color]

2004-06-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable. This game is so wild. I've been on such a horrific slide--I lost 86BB probably in the last 500 to 600 hands... then I sit down tonight and win 40BB in 94 hands.

I was making "Sklansky Bucks," as they say, during the losing streak. Which means that my winning hands were getting drawn out by suckers.

Well, as long as the value returns to me in the end, I'm happy.

My current stats on Party since the re-buy.

Hands: 1,755
VP$IP: 17.21 (very high for me... but appropriate for this level)
PFR: 7.12 (getting better all the time)
BB/100: 2.82 (not too shabby)

This was an amazing session. Had AA 3 times on one table in probably 30 hands and they all held up. Also had QQ, but that lost!

I'm considering becoming a "bonus whore." Seems like I might actually be able to make some pretty good bucks that way, since I have proven to be a solid player after nearly 20,000 hands.

However, I'm somewhat loathe to jump from site to site--and I won't play anywhere that doesn't support PokerTracker.

Have you read that the Blogfather is taking a sabbatical? Well, in the meantime, you can certainly check out my humble blog for some poker content, albeit not as interesting.

If you've been reading for a while, you know that my brother and I hosted a little something called the "World Series of Portland" about a month ago. Well, we're having another tourney next Saturday that should be pretty fun. It won't be the "World Series," though. Only one of those a year.

All right, enough for now. Vegas anecdotes coming soon.

2004-06-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

Heh. Okay, I knew that even 6.3BB/100 wouldn't last, and it hasn't. I'm back just under 3. If I can keep it at 3 and win 200 BB, I'm moving up to $1/2.

Gotta earn enough $$$ for a motorcycle and a giant TV, after all!

2004-06-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

Crazy weekend. Friday I went to a friend's barbecue after work that turned into a poker game. We were playing 9-handed, mostly hold 'em with a bit of stud thrown in for good measure.

Weird rules, though. $0.25 max bet, no check-raises, max 3-bet. $0.05 antes instead of blinds.

In other words, not the best game to try to beat. Those rules really equalize the field. Heck, one girl only folded TWO TIMES the entire night (and I mean seeing every hand to the river!), and she did better than I did.

Sheesh.

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been killing the $0.50/$1.00 on Party Poker. Today I played my longest session of this new buy-in yet, though, and lost 23 BB. Here are my stats to date:

Hands: 1,092
VP$IP: 16.85
PFR: 6.96
BB/100: 6.33
Amount Won: $69.11

Not too shabby, but, as I mentioned I was KILLING the game before this last session. Win rate was over 11BB per 100 hands.

Of course, I'd be ecstatic to keep my win rate at 6.33, so I'm not complaining. And this session was ridiculous--I suffered two insane beats with KK, and was beaten by a backdoor two-pair (a first for me, I think) when I had raised preflop with AQ and hit a Q on board!

Just another beat to add to the list... I've been backdoored by a straight from someone who was holding pocket 88, a backdoor straight flush, backdoor quads, and now a backdoor two-pair.

In the words of Iggy, "Oh the humanity!"

Still, like I said, I'm pretty happy overall, especially with my stats. My VP$IP could be a point or two higher, and I'd definitely like to raise the PFR at least a point. But for now, things look good. I was watching my brother-in-law play $5/$10 today, and I would have played almost exactly the way he was playing, so that's encouraging, too. He makes shit-tons of money.

Time for bed. It's going to be another crazy week.

2004-06-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been a long time and I'm sure I've lost my once tremendous readership, but I'm going to post some good content right now anyway.

The long story of the last few weeks made short: My wife and I are very close to buying a house. We should find out tomorrow whether or not we'll get the one we want.

In the meantime, I got my ass kicked at both $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00 on Poker Stars. I still have some cash there, but it wasn't pretty.

So, I did what any logical poker player would do--I bought into Party for 300 big bets.

Now, I know what you're thinking. But really, I'm somewhat exaggerating the ass-kicking. I played 5,500 hands of $0.25/$0.50 on Stars, and finished down maybe 30 BB. But check this out: I only was dealt AA 11 times out of those 5,500 hands. I should have gotten it more like 25 times. And of those 11, I lost 5. So as you can see, it was a bad run.

I got slightly more dominated at $0.50/$1.00, but a grip of bad beats and rock-garden-esque tables contributed to that. Even so, it was only about -4 BB/100.

So I bought into Party, and I've been playing $0.50/$1.00. My win rate through 762 hands is 9.1 BB/100.

That's a little ridiculous, and I expect it to come down, but the games really do seem softer on Party.

Check out these stats. The sample sizes aren't big enough to be significant, but they paint a picture.

% of players seeing flop
Stars: 33.43
Party: 42.87

Avg. Pot
Stars: $7.99
Party: $6.09

So, around 10% more players to each flop, and two extra dollars in each pot. It adds up.

Heck, tonight I was playing with a guy who voluntarily puts into the pot 91.3% of the time, and raises pre-flop 30.43% of the time. Needless to say, he lost all his money, some of it to me.

After all this shit-talking about Party, the least I can do is offer you a bonus there. Use the code FOZ when you sign up for a free $25 when you deposit $50 or more.

On to less statistical, more legitimitastical content. This past weekend, the Vegas crew met up in Moclips, WA for a weekend of debauchery. Only trouble was, I thought it was next weekend, so I was only able to go for one day. Still, I drove my ass out there on Monday night and took Tuesday off.

These are the same guys I've been going to Vegas with every March for the past 5 years. This year, we couldn't go. So this was the makeup trip, and it was pretty damn fun. No Vegas, but still, pretty fun.

Although we were in the middle of nowhere, that didn't stop us from gambling. There was an Indian casino maybe 20 miles from our cabin, so on Monday night we all sat down at one of their $3 blackjack tables.

Now, I generally think blackjack at an Indian casino is pretty worthless. You don't get free (alcoholic) drinks, and there usually aren't any small-limit ($1 or $3) tables. Thankfully, this place had a $3 table, and it wasn't long before we were taking up all the seats. I started with $30 and the idea that I would count cards, but I had already had 4 imperial pints of Guinness, so I didn't do a very good job. A few times I increased my bet size after a ton of small cards came out and won. But I also lost two straight double downs where I had 10 or 11 against 4 and 5 showing. Pff.

I ended the night up $4, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Gotta go to bed now... will post some more stuff this week. Um, more interesting stuff. I need to dig into my Vegas archive for some more high-rollin' stories. Until then...

2004-06-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

If anyone has been checking in here, I apologize for the lack of content. Things have been insane, so I haven't had much time to play, let alone write about playing.

We're going through a tough situation with real estate right now, and it's really taking up a lot of my time and aggravating me.

I'm hoping things are resolved soon. Until then, check out Cheap Thrills and Guinness and Poker for all your poker blog needs.

Good luck, and don't forget to raise your big pocket pairs.

2004-06-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, I am about to go back to No-Limit. I have been running bad at limit for the past 5,000 hands or so, and it's no fun.

This is just the most recent bad beat I've endured.

I'm on the button with AhTh. Normally, I'd limp here, but there was only one other limper, and the $.50/$1.00 tables on Stars are notoriously tight. So I raise, hoping to isolate the limper.

I do so, and the flop is Qh Ad 8s. Limper checks, I bet and she calls.

Turn is 7s. Limper checks, I bet and she calls.

River is Ts. Now, this puts three spades on the board, but it also gives me a two-pair, Aces and Tens. I put the limper on a worse Ace or maybe a Queen. But now I'm thinking, even if she limped and cold called with something like AK, I just beat her kicker with my two pair.

She checks to me, I bet, she raises. I obviously can't fold now, and I suspect that she might be falsely representing the flush. I mean, she could have been chasing the flush even though she only had a 3-flush on the flop, but I didn't think it was likely.

So I re-raise. She caps, and now I have the feeling that I'm going to lose the hand.

Of course, I'm right. She turns over Js 9s for a straight flush. The bitch backdoored a straight flush!

On the flop, she had a gutshot straight against two overcards. The pot was only $2.75, so she certainly wasn't getting pot odds. Of course she calls.

On the turn, she's got a 4-flush, but still doesn't have pot odds for the call.

The river was, well, her lucky day.

For a less depressing story, check out Guinness and Poker right now. There's a great write-up from a guy who sat next to Phil Hellmuth in last week's WSOP. Funny stuff.

In the meantime, I've almost lost all the money I built playing $0.01/$0.02 NL ring games on Stars!

I seriously might need to go back to NL.

2004-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 4,000 hands and I'm still around even at the $0.25/$0.50 limit tables on Poker Stars. I can't be too bummed out, though, because my brother moved up to $5/$10, and it took him almost 10,000 hands to get into the black. At one point he was down almost a grand with AQo. Sheesh.

I'd really like to buy into Party and start playing $0.50/$1.00, but I want to prove myself by winning at least 100BB on Stars first. Needless to say, it's taking forever.

In other news, we made an offer on a house today. Ridiculously, we offered $15,000 more than the asking price, and we still may get out-bid! Portland is hot right now, especially entry-level homes. Keep your fingers crossed. Last time I asked the faithful, anonymous blogreaders out there to do so, I got the job I wanted.

So keep 'em crossed tight.

Back to the tables.....

2004-05-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the results are in. The biggest poker tournament in the world is over. Of course, I can only be talking about the World Series of Portland!

After the real World Series went down on Friday night, 14 of us sat in my brother's garage on Saturday to determine the best poker player in Portland. And the result? Uh, yeah, my brother won.

It was an interesting game all around. I took 7th without ever really getting going. I'll get back to my play in a moment, though. The most interesting hand of the tourney happened at the first table I was sitting at. My brother-in-law (who plays for a living, and whom we'll refer to as D) was up against another player whom we'll call CC. CC learned how to play poker within the last 2 months or so, mostly taught by both my brother and brother-in-law. So far, he's doing really well--making money at the $.50/$1.00 limit games on Party. But D plays for a living; hundreds of hands of $5/$10 on Party every day.

In any case, the details on the preflop action are fuzzy. I can't remember if D led into the pot with the raise, or if he re-raised CC's raise and CC called. In any case, there was some modest raising preflop--nothing too crazy because we were still only on the second level of blinds. The flop comes out 9, T, Q, with two clubs. Again, I don't really remember who was first to act here, but a lot of action came out. We were starting with just under 10,000 chips, and I believe D led with at least a 1,000 chip bet here. CC called and the turn was another club.

At this point, if I didn't have at least a decent 4 flush with pot odds, I'm going to check, call or fold. But D and CC got another 4 or 5,000 chips into the pot. The river was a red A. Now I think I recall that CC was leading the action. He bet, D thought about it for quite a while, then re-raised all in. CC didn't take long to call.

CC turned over KJ clubs for the second nut flush; D turned over AA for a set.

With that hand, one of the two pros in the WSOPortland became the first player to bust!

I would have placed a side bet that D would make it to the money; he won the last live tourney I participated in. But CC took him out first, and it was a tough situation.

With the 9,T,Q flop, CC had hit the nut straight. The next card, a club, gave him a lock with a flush. When that last A gave D a set, well, it's hard to get away from that.

Still, there were 3 clubs on board. D said he didn't put CC on a flush, but I would've probably backed down a bit on the turn, even with AA.

So, back to my play. I took a few small pots early, but I got cut off twice on pretty significant raises by my other brother-in-law, M. Finally I took down a raised pot with AQ after hitting top pair top kicker, but I didn't get any action on the flop.

In the third or fourth blind level, I got AKo and raised pretty aggresively. Kyle, who had already lost most of his chips when he got AA cracked, re-raised all in with his remaining 3,000 chips or so.

Now, I had about 10,000 chips. The blinds were still pretty small, but I read this as a desperation move by Kyle. My raise was significant enough for him to try to steal with a mediocre hand, I figured. Plus, if I called his semi-bluff, I could bust someone out of the tourney and add to my stack at the same time. So I called, and Kyle turned over a baby pair, 55 I think.

Against my AK, he was maybe a 5% favorite. But of course, not a single face card landed on the board and Kyle doubled up. Still, I had 7,000 chips left and was feeling all right about it.

Later, I limped with Ax suited, and bet the pot when I had a 4-flush on the flop. M re-raised me several thousand, and I folded. Later he told me he had flopped a two pair, so that was a good laydown. But by now, I was down to just under 4,000 chips.

It was around this time that we got down to 8 players and re-organized into the final table. I was the second short stack at the table, and in the first two hands, the first short stack busted. It looked like I'd be next, and it turned out I was, but not for a while longer. I did double up first, but I can't even remember what the hand was. After that, I hung around for a while trying to steal here and there, but I got caught trying to take the blinds with K5o. A player re-raised my raise, and I had to push in. He flipped over ATo. Uh-oh. Amazingly, a 5 came out on the flop! The turn didn't help him, but the river was an A, and I was done.

We're going to try to have another tourney in a couple weeks or so, but, of course, we can only have one World Series of Portland each year!

2004-05-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

All right, seriously, what gives? I started playing limit because I was tired of the swings in no-limit, and yet it seems that the swings are even bigger in this game! After I complained about being back to even the other day, I had two awesome sessions that put me back up 60 big bets. After a couple more rotten sessions today, I'm only up 30.

If you're interested in the exact stats, here they are:

Hands: 2,754
VP$IP: 14.52
Amount Won: $14.45
BB/100: 1.05

I guess if you were to take Mike McD's quote from "Rounders" literally ("Your goal is to win one big bet per hour"), then I'm right on track (I'm at about 100 HPH when I play 2 tables simultaneously). Of course, I'd rather be winning around 3 or maybe even 4 big bets per hour, and that shouldn't be out of the question.

One mitigating factor: I've only been dealt AA 6 times out of those 2,754 hands, and I've only won 3 of those 6 hands! By this point, I should have had AA 12 or 13 times, and my win rate should certainly be higher than 50%.

Ah well. I've got value coming to me. I should probably move up a level!

In other news, the WSOP (World Series of Portland) is ON this weekend. Should be a great game with a couple pros, a couple very enthusiastic amateurs (I include myself in this category) and very little (if any) dead money. Here's the logo I've been promising.

Sweet, eh? If you wanna play, email me. After all, you can't claim that you're the best poker player in Portland unless you win this tournament.

2004-05-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Wha happened? Suddenly, I'm getting owned in the $0.25/$0.50 limit game. Well, maybe not owned, but I'm basically back at square one, even.

I've had a few beats... people sucking out straights against two pairs, or flushes against sets, but it hasn't been devastating. I guess I just haven't been that lucky. Sometimes you can't help but lose, even if you're playing correctly.

Wow, as I was writing this, I just flopped the nut straight on one table, and hit a set of 6s on the turn on another.

That's a nice little 10BB turnaround.

So, here's the big news: Next weekend my brother and I are organizing a tournament. We're hoping for 15-18 people at 2 tables. The buy in will probably be $25, and it'll be no-limit, of course.

I'm calling this thing the "World Series of Portland," and I've got a killer logo to boot. I'll post it here when I email it to myself from my other computer.

On the odd chance that anyone reading this is in Portland and wants to play, email me, and, if we have a spot open, it's yours.

However, you better be prepared to sit across from this guy:

That's my brother.

2004-05-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, man, I've been way too busy lately to post or play. Here's a quick update: I'm probably just under 2,000 hands (at my new game, $0.25/$0.50 limit), and I'm probably only up about 10 BB. Had a bad run the other day while playing in a tourney and distracted. Played in 2 tourneys the last couple days; here are the results.

$1 No-Limit multi

200 out of approx 1200

$2 No-limit multi

109 out of approx 1200

As you can see, I'm ending up near the bubble a lot in these tourneys. Need to work on that.

Having a live tourney this weekend (I think), so I'll update later in the week.

Ciao!

2004-05-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try an experiment tonight. I'm about to play in a no-limit freeroll tournament on Poker Stars and keep a running diary.

Before I get started, here are my latest stats in $0.25/$0.50 limit, the new game I'm trying to beat.

Hands: 1,122
VP$IP: 14.62
Amount Won: $18.90
BB/100 Hands: 3.37

Things have gotten a lot better since my first 400 hands! I'm starting to see how these tables work. Another benefit to moving up to this level (other than hopefully the ability to make money faster), is that I occasionally earn Frequent Player Points. I've got 19, and I only need 16,981 more to get a set of clay poker chips for free. Sweet.

Suited Ax is the biggest difference so far between limit and no-limit. As in, small suited Ax is actually worth playing. In no-limit, you can flop the nut 4-flush and still get pushed out of the pot by a big bet. I mean, you could call, but it's usually a losing play. In limit, you know exactly where you're at with the pot odds, so you end up drawing (profitably, I might add) to a lot more nut flushes. Even better, people with worse flushes often raise you!

Okay, let's get this diary started.

11:52: Still 8 minutes until the tournament. Think I'll get a beer.

11:57: I'm taking my seat! Excitement...

11:58: I'm sitting with Snoop Dogg, an old man, a skull, a starbucks logo, a dog, some random guitar player and two blanks. Should be interesting.

11:59: 300 players have managed to bust out of the tournament already, even though it hasn't started. I kid, I kid.

12:00: I start in the big blind with J3o. I fold.

12:04: 300 players have busted. I'm not kidding this time. By the way, there were 4,230 entrants, in case anyone cares.

12:06: I'm dealt my first pocket pair, 66. I limp from middle position but the flop comes KTQ and I want no part of that. Funny, though, there were 6 or 7 players in the pot, but it was checked to the last person on the turn. These are some extremely passive freerollers I'm sitting with!

12:10: The random guitarist is our table's chip leader, with 3,900 or so. I'm holding strong at 1,420 (players start with 1,500).

12:11: Second pocket pair, 55. I fold it to a 230 chip raise from the button.

12:13: Ouch! Just limped from the small blind with Q6o for some reason (hey, it's a freeroll), and hit a 6 on the flop. Bet 20 chips for the hell of it, got one caller. Another 6 came out, so I bet 150. Called by a short stack. River is a 5. I put the guy all-in (he only had 310 chips), and he called. He rivered a straight with the 5! I'm down to 900 chips. Perhaps this will be a short diary after all....

12:20: The guitar player still has 3,900 chips or so, but the old man is gaining on him with over 3,000. I'm at 810 and in need of a double-up. Oh, Q6o, what have you done to me!

12:23: Well, this stinks. I was dealt AJo in late position and raised 150 chips. I am getting desperate. Flop was Q, blank, blank, and it was checked to me. I bet 130 and was called by the guitarist and old man. Had to shut down at that point. On the river, the guitarist hit a 5 to go with the 65o he had called my raise with. Sigh. I'm down to a sad stack of just 545 chips. At least 1,600 players have already busted.

12:26: The guitarist is playing unreasonably slowly. He causes the "It's your turn, you have 15 seconds to act" dialogue to pop up on every round. And he's playing every god damned hand to the river. Argh!

12:29: AK just got pwn3d by J9. Bad luck. Thankfully, not mine.

12:29: Priceless table talk from the aforementioned bad beat:

pdrice33 [observer]: how the hell do you call with that ****?
N4SA: dunno .. but took you out
pdrice33 [observer]: i have a top 3 hand and you call almost all your money with J-9?
N4SA: yup

12:31: This guy's still talking. He's taking the freeroll WAAAAY too seriously.

pdrice33 [observer]: just answer me one question....do you realize how horrible of a call that is? how high the odds are against you?
pdrice33 [observer]: oh wait....no you dont, your a ****en moron

12:32: I raise all-in (only 400 chips or so) with K4d. Called by the noob who just won a pot with J9, and the old man. They had A7o and QTo, respectively. One of them hit a T, and I'm done. I was getting tired anyway. I finished 2,207th out of 4,230 entrants without coming close to winning a single hand! Hilarious.

I've actually done pretty well in these freerolls before, but I guess tonight just wasn't my night. The best I did was 33rd out of 5,000 in a limit freeroll. Another time, I made 85th out of 5,000. Also limit. Of course, they're not very hard tournaments.

Anyway, in conclusion, I'm tired. Catch you later.

2004-05-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Whew! It's been an exhausting week. I started my new job as an ad copywriter on Wednesday, and I haven't had time for much else. That includes poker, and this blog, obviously.

The job is interesting. It's been several years since I've felt anything but completely confident in the workplace, seeing how I worked in the same field for so long. This is a related field, of course, but I still feel like a noob compared to everyone else. Oh well, I'm sure I'll catch on quickly.

I have been able to play a bit of poker, enough to creep back close to even in the $0.25/$0.50 limit game I've been exploring. I was down 18 big bets after 400 hands; after an additional 220, I'm down less than 4.

Some of these players think they're so frigging cute, with their bluffing and slowplaying. I'll have their money soon. Check out this hand I played tonight:

I've got AKo in late position. One player limps, I raise, the button, small blind, big blind and original limper all call.

The flop is Ks, Tc, 6c. UTG checks, next guy bets, limper calls, I raise, button folds, UTG folds, the other two both call.

Turn is Ts. Now I'm worried that someone had paired the T on the flop and now has a set. Still, when it's checked to me, I decide to bet. If it was raised, I would have considered folding, or just calling down the rest of the hand if the pot was large enough. But the first guy just calls, and the next guy folds. It's now heads-up.

On the river, a third club comes out, the Queen. The guy checks to me, and here's where I made a nice read. Something about the way he had played this hand made me think he had a monster. A flush was the obvious concern, but for some reason I didn't think he had that.

So I check rather than bet, and he turns over a pair of Queens! I'm not sure what I think of his check-raise here. Obviously, it didn't work out for him, since I didn't bet. However, it probably would have worked if the third club wasn't on board. Of course, I think he made a mistake when he just cold-called me before the flop rather than raising, and again when he called my raise after the K flopped. I don't care if you're holding QQ, when an overcard flops and you are raised after betting, you usually have to fold. Especially if you cold-called before the flop.

Of course, I don't mind that he was throwing his money into the pot the whole way through this hand ... I'm just not thrilled he caught one of his two outs!

That's enough for now--I've got to keep an earlier schedule these days. Don't forget, if you're thinking about buying into Party Poker, you can get $25 for free by using the code FOZ! Thanks!

2004-05-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I'm about to head out to my new job, but I thought I'd check in first. I decided to move up to $0.25/$0.50 limit with the small bankroll I've built in the $0.02 no-limit games on Poker Stars.

Well, after a 400-hand dip in the pool yesterday, I'm down 18 big bets. It's quite a different game, and I think it'll take some getting used to. Still, if it weren't for one mistake and one bad beat, I'd be about even.

I'll post some results after my next session.

2004-05-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

"Check me ouuuuut. No, seriously, check me out!"
-Strong Bad

Don't worry, the quote is a one-time gimmick meant to draw attention to the new design of my blog. I finally got comments added (thanks to a serendipitous site upgrade by Blogger).

I've promised some hand histories, so here we go. This happened yesterday, but it's an instant classic.

I'm in the small blind at a $0.01/$0.02 table with only four other players. I was planning on posting this blind, seeing the next three hands for free, then moving to a full table. I look down and see Q4s and think, "What the heck. I'll ante the penny and see what happens." It's SOOTED, anyway.

Imagine my surpise when the flop is 444! According to my brother, flopping quads with unpaired hole cards is 19,000 to 1. Needless to say, this was the first time it had ever happened to me.

Two players had limped, so there were 4 of us in the pot staring down at 444. I was under the gun, and I obviously checked. The only way I could lose this hand is if someone else had a pocket pair and hit runner cards on the turn and river. I'm not sure what the odds of that are, but I'm guessing they're even worse than 19,000 to 1. A lot of casinos offer "bad beat jackpots" for exactly that sort of scenario. Shoot, for the small stakes we were playing, I would welcome a bad beat like that. It would make for a better story!

In any case, everyone checks, and I start to realize that I'm probably not going to get paid off even a little bit for this miracle flop. I mean, who would bet with three 4s on board? Slowplay or not, I'd be lucky to pick up $0.10. When a Q came out on the turn, I laughed a little bit. Just my luck to catch another pair in addition to my quads. In some alternate gambling universe, I had just hit the coveted QUAD-PAIR! The Q also made me even more certain that nobody would bet into me, since there were only two other Qs out there.

I check, the next two players check, and then, remarkably, the button bets $0.12! The other two players folded, but I did one of my patented "think-calls," where I run the timer down a bit before calling.

The river was Td, and I figured I'd come out betting a small amount rather than risk a check from the button. So I toss $0.10 out there and the button re-raises me to $0.30! Not getting greedy yet, I simply re-raised him to $0.50. When he re-re-raised me to $1, I went all-in. Surprise, surprise, he called.

Seeing my quads, the other guy (girl?) mucked, but thanks to Poker Tracker I know that he (she?) had QJo, and had hit 4s full of Qs on the turn. I actually apologized to this player after taking his (her?) stack, but it's probably a blessing in disguise. Anyone silly enough to call re-raises with trips on board probably shouldn't be playing the game of poker.

By the way, the parenthetical notes are there because I couldn't tell if this player was a man or woman. (S)he had a somewhat androgynous name and picture.

That's all for now. Hey, be sure to check out my new comment functionality. Just click where it says "0 comments" and add your thoughts.

Oh, one last thing. BUY INTO PARTY POKER RIGHT NOW USING THE BONUS CODE FOZ! I COMMAND YOU! YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY! VEEERRRRRY SLEEPY! YOU WILL GET $25 FOR FREE! WHY WOULDN'T YOU DO IT? ARE YOU THREATENING ME? I NEED TEEPEE! AAAUUUGH!

2004-05-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple weeks and I still haven't figured out a good way to "begin" each new entry in this blog. Iggy over at Guinness and Poker always opens with a quote, which is a great way to go. Ah hell, I'll just start rambling each time.

I got an email from a reader, JD, who runs his own blog, Cheap Thrills. Check it out--JD has some interesting stories about home games and his poker background. Extra cool--his wife is into poker as well, and the two of them had customized poker chips as party favors at their wedding. Now, if I could only get my wife into cards.... she'd be a great player, actually. There's a game called BS, where you basically "bluff" about which cards you're holding, and she's unbeatable. If I could get her to read some Sklansky and memorize a bit of the math, I'd have my own Annie Duke.

As I mentioned in my last post, I just found out that I got the job I was hoping for. I'll probably have to move up several levels in poker, of course, because I won't have the time to grind out $4 per hour at the penny tables.

My friend's fiance is having her bachelorette party in Vegas this weekend, and it's killing me that I haven't been there in almost a year. Next time my brother wins a big tournament, I'm making him buy me a ticket.

That's it for tonight. I got a request for some more commentary on the players at the penny tables, and I'll deliver tomorrow. Until then...

2004-05-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hey. It's been a day or two--lemme jump back right into this blog with my latest stats on the Poker Stars micro tables.

NL $0.02
Hands: 3,696
Amount won: $62.64
BB/100 hands: 42.37 (this is misleading because a big bet is only $0.02)

$0.05/$0.10
Hands: 810
Amount won: $7.71
BB/100 hands: 9.52

I think I was running a bit hot today, but before that I had about an 800-hand cold spell. The $0.05/$0.10 tables are proving to be an interesting challenge. The strategy is a world apart from how you'd have to play on a real limit table, like $2/$4 or even $1/$2. You almost always get 4 or 5 callers even into a raised pot, and often 3 or 4 stick around until showdown with nothing! The result is that you get paid off royally when you hit a monster hand, but you also get sucked out on a lot.

I've got one hand that I've just got to share. It's a prime example of sub-intelligent play on the $0.05/$0.10 limit table.

I'm in the big blind with JJ. Under the gun raises and gets three callers before it reaches me. I re-raise, and under the gun caps at $0.20. All the previous callers call!

The pot is already $1, and the flop comes 8h, 5s, 8d. UTG bets, I raise (trying to feel out whether anyone's got the set of 8s), the guy to my left re-raises, and everyone calls. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose the hand to a set of 8s or a full house, but with the big bets being only $0.10, I'm going to call it down unless two players start going crazy.

On the turn, which is 6s, the pot is up to $1.75. UTG bets $0.10 and I just call. Guy to my left goes all-in calling with his last $0.09. One player finally folds, but everyone else calls.

The river is Qs. So now, there are three spades on board, an overcard, and the possibility that someone's got a straight. Still, with the pot over $2, there's no way I can fold. UTG bets, I call, and the last player (who's not already all-in) calls.

You'll never guess what everyone had. I've broken the other players' hands down, complete with a grading system.

-Under the gun had 73 offsuit. Now, he had an open-ended straight draw on the turn, but his preflop calls were ridiculous--the equivalent of 2 big bets with the second-worst hand in poker! Also, he had no business betting the flop, let alone calling when he was re-raised twice! Grade: COMPLETE CALLING STATION

-The player to my left had KT offsuit. He was under the gun before the flop and he actually raised with this hand, then CAPPED when I raised back at him! On the flop all he had were overcards and a backdoor straight draw, yet he 3-bet! After that, he ran out of money and could only call the turn. Grade: OMFG, WHAT A NOOB

-The last player had Q9s. Okay, obviously an idiot for calling max raises preflop. Even dumber for calling a 3-bet on the flop with a weak overcard and backdoor flush draw. He had a gutshot on the turn and I think he was actually getting pot odds for a $0.10 call there, so that's not so bad. But here's the kicker: When he hit his Q on the river, he didn't even raise! I guess he might have been scared of the flush, but since he was calling raises the whole way with nothing, you wouldn't think that that would enter his mind. Grade: POSSIBLY THE WORST PLAYER I'VE EVER SEEN

One last thing before I head out: I got the job!

2004-05-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

I've gotten some good feedback on the 8 foot-tall cowboy story, so I'll include another Vegas anecdote today.

In the meantime, if everyone out there could please cross their fingers and hope that I get this job I've applied for. They asked for references after the second interview, so that's a good sign, right? The only thing that's making me nervous is that I've had a couple of email snafus when corresponding with them. Bit of advice: Don't trust Yahoo mail!

I'm almost too nervous to write. But I'll press on.

One of my favorite places in Vegas is the Casino Royale. It's a small little place across the street from the Mirage. You'd hardly notice it, what with the Eiffel Tower, Space Needle and Statue of Liberty distracting you. Anyway. My friends and I found out about this hidden hot spot on our very first trip to LV. We were staying at the Mirage, but, being college students, the $5 blackjack tables were too rich for our blood. We wandered into the Royale and spotted the first $1 table we'd ever seen. Perfect.

If you have even an inkling of how to play blackjack, I will argue that this table has positive EV. EV, by the way, is a gambling term that's short for Expected Value. In poker, you have positive EV when, mathematically, your bet is a favorite. You can expect to make money on it in the long run.

Well, as any real gambler knows, playing perfect blackjack is about a break-even prospect at best (unless you count cards--more on that later). But still, I will argue that this table has positive EV. Why, you ask?

It's simple--the $1 table at Casino Royale is directly in front of the part of the bar where the cocktail waitresses fill their orders. Thus, it gets the most attention from the waitresses. Thus, you get the most free drinks.

Let's say you are a good but not perfect blackjack player. We'll say that the house edge on you is around 5%. Let's also say that you will play 25 hands of blackjack per hour, which seems like a reasonable estimate to me with a full table. Let's also say that you always make the minimum bet of $1.

Over an hour, you are going to lose $1.25 on average. But at Casino Royale, I guarantee that you're going to be visited by the cocktail waitress at least 4 times in that hour!

That's 4 drinks for $1.25, my friend, which I call positive EV!

Of course, you have to tip the waitresses, but that's another story.

2004-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

All right. I was just reading through Wil Wheaton's poker blog, when I remembered that I have tons of Vegas stories to share with the world. Of course, they aren't necessarily about poker, since I didn't play back when I used to go to Vegas every year, but they are worth repeating. I hope.

The first story will help explain the new name of this blog. In my post last night, I mentioned a contest to rename my blog (formerly TGI McBloginator). Well, I won the contest. I just lost a dollar ... to myself!

Starting my senior year in college, a group of friends and I began heading to Vegas every year around spring break time. More specifically, around March Madness time. We usually spent the entire trip playing $1 blackjack at Casino Royale and watching the games at Caesar's. A couple years into the tradition, we decide to save some money and book a cheaper hotel than usual. I was in charge that year, and I found what seemed to be a great deal: a place called Hotel Maxim. It was near the strip, it had a pool and it would cost less than $20 per night each (there were 5 of us sharing the room. We didn't plan on sleeping much). No, the hotel wasn't related to the magazine. In retrospect, I wish it had been.

The second we walked through the front doors, we realized we had made a mistake. There was no casino! It's not that we ever played in the casino we were staying in, but we were concerned that a hotel within 100 yards of the strip without a casino might be a questionable establishment. Not a single slot machine or card table in sight.

We'd later find out that the entire hotel was going to be remodeled, and that its casino hadn't been profitable enough to keep open in the meantime. You know things are bad when your casino on the strip is losing money!

Nevertheless, we took it in stride and asked the lobby clerk what floor the pool was on. "Pool's closed for renovations," she said between puffs on her cigarette. "Won't be open for another month or so."

Fucking great.

Our trip off to the worst possible start, we headed out to the cars to retrieve our luggage and see what sort of spider-infested craphole of a room we'd been issued. Walking back through the lobby, we showed our room key to the 110 year-old security guard and headed toward the elevators. We pushed the button and waited. When the doors opened, an 8 foot-tall cowboy walked out. The lobby lights reflected off his wraparound sunglasses and his 10-gallon hat nearly scraped the ceiling as he walked. Taking a drag on his cigarette, he addressed us. "Bit of advice," he drawled, walking past. "Stay away from the dice."

Of course, it turned out to be the best Vegas trip ever.

2004-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

What's up, y'all. The last few days, I haven't got much work done on the novel or on poker, because I've had a number of family functions, and I've been preparing for a job interview.

It was actually the second interview for the same job, and it was this afternoon. Went pretty well, I think.

I have squeezed in a bit of poker on the side, and my current status in the micro games is around 2,200 hands and up $40. I've been playing 4 tables--3 no-limit, 1 limit. I'm not very familiar with limit outside of tournaments, so I thought I'd teach myself at $0.05/$0.10.

While I've got a second, I'd like to address something that's been bugging me from the get-go: The name of this blog. It started out as PDX Poker, but, after I decided to take a break from Party and hit the low-limit tables on Poker Stars, I wasn't sure how much poker content I would be including, so I changed the name to a placeholder. TGI McBloginator.

Uh, yeah.

It doesn't really mean anything, and I've been trying to come up with a better name, but I'm stumped. So I'm having a contest. I want people to email me with suggestions. The winner will receive $1.00 transferred to them in Poker Stars. Pretty sweet deal, I know.

Still on the agenda for this week: Get comments on the site. If anyone out there is reading this, I'd like to hear from you. You could just email me, but I think comments are easier and less of a commitment, don't you?

2004-04-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

Hey! I just noticed that IGGY over at Guinness and Poker has linked to my blog!

Awesome. Thanks, Iggy, it means a lot to me because your blog is one of the best.

I am now going to pimp Iggy's buy-in code for Empire Poker, which is IGGY1. You'll either get $25 for free, or a % of your buy-in for free, I forget which. Either way, it's a good deal.

And if you're considering Party Poker (and you should be), use the code FOZ for a free $25.

Okay, enough of that, let me tell you a quick anecdote about my play tonight. I checked in earlier today having played several hours of micro limit on Poker Stars, with the intent to fund some tournament action on that site. Well, I decided to test the waters with a single-table Sit 'n' Go. $5 + $.50. I decided against a two-table tournament, because it didn't seem to make sense. You have to wait for 14 players to bust instead of just 6, and you don't earn that much more money.

I sat down at around 6:30, knowing full well that I had to leave the house at 7:30. On Party, single table Sit 'n' Go tourneys never take this long. I figured I'd either bust or have the thing won in that time. In any case, play commences, and I find myself the early chip leader. One or two players bust, but then a funny thing happens: Everyone tightens up. As it gets closer to 7pm, I start to calculate the odds of making the money if I just posted and folded. I didn't think I'd make it.

Cut to 7:20. I'm changing clothes in front of the monitor, trying to play as long as I can before I have to leave the house. There are still 5 players.

A few minutes later, a short stack finally busts out, and puts me on the bubble. I've got a decent stack, but so does everyone else. And the blinds are only 50/100, which isn't too life-threatening at this point. I try calling my brother, the pro, to see if he'll play the rest of the tourney for me. No dice. I try my brother-in-law (also a pro), and he's not home. Looks like I'm posting and folding.

Then a great thing happens: One of the big stacks pushes in a huge raise before the flop, and the other stack re-raises him all-in. The first guy calls, and the two players turn over AA and KK. Outstanding.

The aces hold, and now that I'm in the money and in a hurry, I get super-aggressive and bust the shortest stack remaining out right away. When it's heads up, I put up a decent fight despite being outchipped 3 to 1, but at this point, I've really got one foot out the door. I go to the mat with a weak two pair, and he out-kicks me for the top spot.

This reminds me of a scenario in Sklansky's book on tournament hold 'em. He says he's been asked again and again if there is ever a situation in which someone should lay down AA preflop. Well, there is, not that any of us are likely to ever be in this sort of spot.

Suppose you're playing in the World Series of Poker and have made it to the final table. Unfortunately, you've only got 30,000 chips and are going up against people with millions sitting in front of them. At this stage of the tournament, the blinds are gigantic, and you're only going to survive one more orbit. Let's say there are 6 players left, and you're on the button. You look down and see AA in the hole. But then one of the big stacks pushes in, and two of the other stacks call him in front of you!

The correct move in this situation, Sklansky says, is to lay down AA.

It may seem obvious, but, barring a split pot (which is unlikely), you have just moved up two spots! Sklansky estimates that in this situation, laying down AA will earn you around $400,000.

If you were to call, it's true that you would have a good shot at winning the pot, but AA is much less potent against 3 other players. Further, you would only win 90,000 more chips, which isn't going to keep you in the game at this point. Still further, if you bust, you're only getting money for 6th, even if two others bust at the same time. That's because according to the tournament rules, among players that bust on the same hand, the player who started the hand with more chips gets the higher spot.

I asked my brother the other day whether he could conceive of a scenario in which he would lay down AA. Not having read this book yet, he said it didn't exist, and that he would never lay down AA preflop.

Needless to say, Sklansky and I convinced him.

2004-04-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Damn, I haven't been posting as often as I'd hoped to. And I haven't got comments installed on this site yet.

In any case, here's what's up. I jumped back into poker with some micro limit ($0.01/$0.02) on Poker Stars. Started with a bankroll of $40. The micro tables are interesting because the blinds are so small in relation to the stack you're allowed to bring to the table ($5). At a $25 table on Party, you can bring 50 times the big blind. On these micro tables, you can bring 250 times the big blind! I've played around 1,000 hands, and I'm up about $22. I can't give my exact stats, because the site appears to be finicky about hand histories, and I have been getting them several hours late. So I don't have the latest ones.

In any case, it's obviously going well. At first I was thinking I would only play pairs and big slick. With blinds that small, you don't need to play many hands. But after a few hundred hands, I noticed that the overall play is incredibly timid. What I mean is that the other players often price you into a hand that you would normally fold, and it becomes profitable to limp with suited aces and connectors, and to chase certain hands. Say you've got the second best pair and a decent kicker. The pot is $0.20, and there are two or three other players involved. I find myself in this situation a lot, and I always expect to fold. Except when someone leads into the pot with a $0.02 bet, and it's called to me. For $0.02, you've usually got pot odds, not to mention implied odds! The exceptions, of course, are when there is an obvious flush or straight on the board, and your hand won't improve enough to beat those hands.

I thought the players on Party were bad, but they look like geniuses compared to most of the folks at these micro tables. Okay, maybe not geniuses, but still. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people limp and slowplay AA, only to get drawn out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people bet $0.02 with top pair, top kicker. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I will buy back into Party soon, after I've had my fill of micro. I'm hoping to use the micro tables to fund some tournaments on Stars.

Thinking about buying into Party Poker? Well, first read (or at least skim) "The Theory of Poker," by David Sklansky. Then use the code FOZ and you'll get $25 for free!

2004-04-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, hey yo. Just checking in on day 3 of my self-imposed break from poker. I need a few days for the tilt to evaporate from my system, but later this week I'll ease my way back in with some micro limit games on PokerStars. You can't really make much money there, but I think it'll help me find my mojo again.

All right, I've been promising an excerpt from the novel all week, and I'm finally ready to deliver. I've been making a lot of progress--I have the first 10 pages written and a rough mental outline of the entire plot. I expect it'll take me almost a year to fully complete--provided I keep at it.

One note, before jumping in: The book has nothing to do with poker. There is, however, a mention of poker in the very first paragraph. It's just a coincidence.

*******

In Monument Valley, Kentucky, 1968, a young boy was born who excelled in every way. A prodigy piano player by age five, state spelling bee champ by the age of ten, he was also, ironically, a punishing all-state running back in high school and Homecoming King. After getting his doctorate in physics from MIT (dissertation title: Why Quantum Theory is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong), he married his high school sweetheart, placed tenth in the World Series of Poker and set about inventing a hydrogen power conversion kit for conventional gasoline engines. Just when it looked like he might fail, he succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest dreams. It wasn’t even close. His name, unironically, was Lance Perfect.

This is not his story.

This is the story of a skinny, dark-haired kid from Seattle named Abe. Abe didn’t skip ahead in school or win any awards; he was held back a year for lighting his teacher’s wig on fire.

His best friend was named Chab. Because Chab grew to the unnatural size of 6 foot 6 and 285 pounds, nobody had ever dared ask him the obvious (What, did your mom write the “d” backwards on your birth certificate?), so he had never thought of it himself. Though he did wonder why he hadn’t met any other Chabs.

At the age of 23, wandering penniless in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Abe became a detective.

*******

There you have it. The book is a detective story, albeit with an unorthodox detective. There will (hopefully) be suspenseful parts, but for the most part the story is meant to be irreverent and humorous. I could tell you more, but I'd have to kill you.

I'll check in again this week, hopefully with good news to report from the micro tables. Once again, if you are thinking about signing up for Party Poker, use the code FOZ and you'll get $25 extra with a minimum $50 buy-in.

2004-04-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's been a while since I've posted; thought I'd check in. I cashed out a sizeable portion of my stack the other day. I think I just play better with a shorter bankroll, despite the greater possibility of going broke. I'm less tempted to call short stacks that push in all their chips when I only have mediocre hands like AQ off or TT.

Played in a $20 multi-table last night with about 1750 entrants. I finished a bit out of the money in 210th (top 130 places paid). The blinds were 400/800, and I was getting somewhat desperate with only 2,800 chips. I got AK off in the small blind, and it was raised before reaching me. I re-raised, and the previous raiser ran his clock to the ground thinking about it, then finally called. Flop was all rags, and here's where I made my mistake: I pushed in. I should have probably just made the minimum bet--if the guy had nothing, he would have folded. Trouble was, he had 99, and had flopped a set. I caught a king on the turn, but wasn't lucky enough for the runner on the river, and that was that.

It wasn't a terrible play--even a minimum bet would have been almost all of my chips. And I don't think I would have made the money if I had just posted and folded.

Aside from poker, I've been working again on the novel. I have a good idea where I want to go with it now, and I finally figured out how to write my way out of a spot that I'd been trapped in. You can expect an excerpt soon--probably the first page.

2004-04-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

Whew. Just reading last night's post gives me a headache. I'll keep it short today. It's around 4pm, I've played about 320 hands, and the losing streak continues. I'm down about $30 on the day. I was playing well, grinding out wins, then AQ hit me in the face a few times.

I think I'm playing the hand incorrectly. In late position, I usually raise to at least $2. In early position, I'll often limp. Sometimes I'll call a raise to $3 or less if I've already limped in early position. I think I need to stop doing this.

The first time I had AQ today, I was in middle position and I bet $2. I got one caller in early position. Flop is T, Q, Q rainbow and I'm thrilled. He checks, and I check as well, figuring this hand is worth a slowplay. Turn is 3c, officially killing any flush possiblity. Another check to me, and I check again, hoping that the other player will hit something minor on the river and bet into me. The river is 5d, and the player bets $4. I consider pushing in, but only raise to $8. Then the other player re-raises all-in, and I call. I was sure I was going to win this hand, putting the other player on a worse Q or a two pair. Instead, he had TT, and was slowplaying me the whole way.

I think both of us played this hand pretty well. There was really nothing I could have done. If I had bet on the flop, I am sure he would have simply called rather than raised. Even if he had raised, I don't think I could have laid down top set with Ace kicker on Party.

A while after that kick in the gut, I was dealt KK and bet into by two players! I pushed all-in, not respecting the two previous raisers. Well, the first guy had KK as well, and the second had AA. Nothing hit the board, but the guy with AA had a short stack and only took about $4 each from me and the other caller. If you're going to lose with KK, that's not a bad way to go.

Finally, I was getting ready to quit for the day, and I'm dealt the dreaded AQ again in late position. It's folded to me, and I bet $3. The button calls, but the big blind, who's been playing like a loose maniac, raises to $7. I put him on a bad Ace or something suited, and raise all-in. The button folds, the raiser calls. The flop is all rags, and the raiser takes down the pot with, again, TT.

If it wasn't for that last hand, I would have only lost $9 despite getting KK cracked and losing a huge pot to a guy that flopped a boat. Overall I'm not disappointed with my play, I'm just frustrated that the last 3,000 hands haven't gotten me anywhere.

Enough poker for now. I may play a bit more today, but I'm going to work on my book for a while first.

Once again, if you are thinking about signing up for Party Poker, you can get $25 for free by using my bonus code, FOZ. Thanks!

2004-04-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you, my dear, that was wonderful. By the way, when I said I would spare you all the mundane details, I meant things like, "At 10:14am, I poured a bowl of Corn Flakes. The bowl was ceramic with blue diamonds on the side, from Crate & Barrel. The cereal was crispy, but not overly crunchy." If you're into that sort of thing, please check out obsessiveconsumption.com. No, I think I'll stick to excerpts from my novel and poker-related anecdotes.

I mentioned earlier that I have had 4 particularly nasty beats in the last week or so. Well, thanks to PokerTracker, I can recall them in perfect detail for you now. Brace yourself, it gets ugly.

Beat #1: QQ Conquered
I have QQ in the big blind at a $25 No-Limit table. My stack is up to $36 after grinding out a few wins. It's many thousands of hands into my PartyPoker career, and I haven't had a bad beat with QQ yet, so I'm pretty confident. In fact, I've made more money with it than I have with AA or KK. This is about to change. 4 players limp and the small blind completes, so it's my turn. I raise to $4 and get only one caller. The flop is Js, Tc, 3d. I'm first to act, so I bet $12 at a $10 pot. I'm a little nervous that the caller has AA or KK, but that's about it with that beautiful rainbow flop. The caller does what he does best, and calls the bet. Now, I'm always a little scared when someone smooth-calls a bet like that. The fear is that he's slowplaying a set, or the dreaded AA or KK. It would have been okay with me if the guy folded right there and all I got was the raised pot. Or, if he had re-raised me, I could have considered a laydown. But no, a smooth call, and we're on to the turn, which is 5s. Now I have to consider the possibility of a flush. But even if the other player has four spades at this point, I'm still a huge favorite and must bet accordingly. I push all-in for $21 and, after several nervous seconds, the caller calls. I'm rooting against spades for the river, and my heart breaks a little when the 2s hits. I watch my cards disappear as the money zooms across the table toward my adversary, who was holding 9s, 8s.

The Lesson: This wasn't as terrible as the other beats I'm about to list. The caller did have an open-ended straight draw on the flop, which is 8 outs (well, 6 if you subtract the two queens I was holding). When the second spade fell on the turn, he had those 6 outs plus 9 more spades. Out of 44 possible cards, this is a bad call, but not monumentally so. What really gets me is that he called the $4 bet preflop with 9, 8 suited! This is not uncommon on Party, though, and usually you want loose players like this at your table. On to beat #2....

Beat #2: QQ ... again?
That's right, three out of the four beats I'm listing happened when I was holding QQ. Until this week, I loved QQ. Now I'm not so sure. I've still made triple-digit dollars with it, but I find myself in tough positions all the time. Here's what happened: I'm two to the left of the big blind with QQ. A player had just joined to my right and posted a blind, so he checked. I immediately raised to $4 and got one caller in late position. Flop is 4h, 9h, 6d. Again, I'm worried about the flush, but at least one of my Qs is the heart, so if two more fall, I have a shot at this thing. Probably gun-shy after my last outing with QQ, I only bet $7 at a $9.75 pot. In retrospect, this was probably my undoing. The caller pushes in the rest of his money, $18.65, and puts me to a tricky decision. After thinking for a second, I call. I had the guy's stack way covered, and I put him on a four-flush, just like the last jerk who drew me out. If he had had a four flush, I would have been a decent favorite (hence the call), but later I would find out I was a near lock at this point. Still, when the 10 of hearts fell on the turn, I thought I would lose to a flush. The seemingly insignificant 7 of clubs hit on the river, and I sighed, expecting to see the guy turn up something asinine, like 2h, 3h, and take down the pot. Instead, he turned up a pair of 8s, and I nearly fell out of my chair. My money was gone all the same, but this guy had just drawn a back-door straight!

The Lesson: As far as my play goes, I should have pushed in all of my money on the flop. Maybe, just maybe this newbie would have folded his precious 8s if I had done that. As it was, he probably saw my relatively small $7 bet as some sort of half-assed bluff. More likely, he wasn't thinking at all when he re-raised me at that point. To give him some credit, at least he raised instead of calling the bet. A raise gives me something to think about, and I might have laid down my cards if I didn't figure him for a noob. But my call of his raise was correct, as he only had 2 outs in the entire deck at that point. When the 10 hit on the turn, he now had a gutshot (4 outs) to go with his 8s. And blammo, the 7 landed on the river and took me out. I had to dust myself off after this one. You don't see a backdoor straight every day.

Beat 3: Hey! It's not queens!
I actually have a third bad-beat QQ story, but it's predictable and I'll summarize: Jerk calls $4 preflop with K2 offsuit, re-raises my $12 bet to $24 when he pairs the 2 on the flop, immediately hits K on turn and owns me. Ugh. Let's move on to something different. I've accidentally sat down at a pot-limit table. I never play pot-limit on purpose, but I've been known to play it on accident for almost half an hour before noticing. At the beginning of the hand, I did not realize I was playing pot limit. By the end of the hand, it was crystal, as Tom Cruise might say. I have 88 in late position. 6 players limp, then the big blind raises to $1. Now, I used to throw away low-to-middle pairs to any raise. But my new strategy is to call small re-raises (up to $1.50) with 6s through 10s. I will also call a raise to $1 with 2s through 5s if I am the last to act, and assured of seeing a flop for the extra $0.50. 5 of the 6 limpers call the extra $0.50, and we're onto the flop, which is 8c, 6d, 2h. Beautiful. A lot of players are in the hand and I've got the top set. Plus, there aren't two of any suit on board, so the flush-chasers are at a disadvantage. First to act bets $2. Wonderful. Two others in front of me call. Spectacular. I try to push all-in. "Try" is the operative word here, because it turned out I only bet $16.20, instead of the full $21.75 I had in my stack at this point. Now, a remarkable thing happens: I get two callers! I sit back and fold my hands (my literal hands, not the hands on the poker tables), waiting for the turn and river to land, and for the cash to zoom up to my cartoon player. But wait, I still have to act! It's checked to me, and I still have money to bet! The turn, by the way, was the 3 of hearts. At this point I realize it's pot-limit, so I throw the last little $5.55 into the pot, which is up to $57. Of course, neither player folds, but one of them is all-in with only $3. Meh, I figure, I've got this pot owned anyway. Who cares that I wasn't able to bet the full amount on the flop? The river is the 9 of clubs, and, thrilled that it wasn't a third heart, I lean forward as if I needed to scoop up my chips from the monitor. This time, I do fall out of my chair when the player to my right turns up 99.

The Lesson: Don't ever accidentally sit at a pot-limit table. There's no guarantee that these players would have folded if I had bet $21 instead of $16, but who knows? Getting rivered by a set that is only one card higher than yours is incredibly hard to take. Especially when you were more than a 20-to-1 favorite. Oh, what did the other player who had been calling all the way have, you ask? Ace Jack offsuit, of course. He was drawing dead from the flop, because he had no flush or straight draw, and even if he had hit running As or Js, I would have had a full house. It's nice to have players like that in the hand. It's just too bad that this jerk with the 9s had to get lucky.

Beat #4: This one's quick
I'm going to rush through this description of how I got annihilated with AA so I can change pace a bit and talk about a hand where I got lucky as hell. So, I have AA one position to the left of the big blind. I act first and bet $7. What the hell, I figure. Sometimes I scare people off with such a large preflop bet, but you'd be surprised what people will call with. It's not looking good, though, everyone is folding, right up to the big blind, who ... makes my day and calls! Actually, he made my day shitty, but I didn't know that at the time. The flop is 9h, 2s, 8d. A rainbow, my favorite. The player checks to me, and I bet $14 into a $15 pot, expecting a quick fold. Instead, he comes right back over the top with a raise to $28! Now, it's nearly impossible to lay down a pair of aces in your pocket, especially after raising $7 preflop. I mean, what could he have? A set of 9s? An open-ended straight draw? I'm a bit flustered, but I steel myself and make the call, which puts me all-in. Turn is Qh, river is Jh. Guy has QQ. I can't even speak.

The Lesson: No lesson here, the guy's an idiot. I don't mind the preflop $7 call with QQ at all, though. Hell, I've probably done it myself. People raise such ridiculous amounts with such bad hands sometimes that it can be worth it. But, I only do it when I've been at a table for a while and noticed that a player is loose. However! To check-raise all-in after the flop against someone who had A) bet $7 before the flop and B) just thrown 14 more dollars in there, is both A) ballsy and B) retarded. Nevermind that he instantly hit his queen on the turn. There were only two queens left!

Now, I'll tell you about a hand that has somewhat mitigated the awful luck I've just described. Believe it or not, I have made money at this game, just not a lot in the last week. Here goes.

I have 7, 4 offsuit in the big blind, a hand so crappy it has no nickname. I would never, ever consider playing this hand if I wasn't the big blind. I was ready to fold faster than an origami master. But, when 6 players limped and the small blind completed, I checked and got ready for the flop. It's 5d, 4d, 4c. Wow. I've gone from having one of the worst hands possible to a set. Still, I had just taken a beat on another table, and I wasn't about to push in just yet. I only bet $4, which was the size of the pot at that point. Then the player to my left surprised me by re-raising to $8, and getting a caller. When it was my turn, I considered pushing all-in right there, but I thought I'd just call. It was a bit of a slowplay, but I thought as long as another scary card didn't fall, I might pick up some extra bets. Plus I was tired of having control out of my hands on the turn and river. When another 4 came out, I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth. From joy, of course. Joyful throw-up. Anyway, with the nuts, I thought a slowplay was most definitely in order, and I checked. The raiser to my left bet $5 into what was now a $28 pot. The other caller folded, and I waited extra-long to call, as if I was really contemplating. The final card was the Ace of diamonds, and I was first to act. I thought about check-raising, but decided it was too risky that the other player might check, so I tried to push in. Again, "tried" is the important word here. I dragged the little bar all the way to the right and again waited for effect before clicking the "raise" button. But when the 20-second timer started going to remind me I needed to act, it reset my buttons just as I was clicking, making me throw a $0.50 raise out there. Well, a $0.50 raise into a $38 pot is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. But I think that here, it actually made me money. First, of course, it made me look like a total idiot. The raiser thought for a second, then pushed her remaining $25.70 into the pot, and I instantly called, making sure not to screw up the buttons this time. She had a full boat, the three 4s on board and one 5 in her hand. I had the four 4s, and I took down $71.60.

The Lesson: Sometimes you just flat-out get lucky.

That's it for tonight. Gee, only a couple thousand words. I'll post again tomorrow, hopefully with fewer bad beats to report.

Once again, if you enjoyed this and you're thinking about signing up for Party Poker, you can use my bonus code FOZ and get $25 for free. If you're thinking about signing up on Empire, definitely use the code IGGY1. You'll also get a bonus for that one, and it'll hook up the guy who runs a great poker blog. Good night!

2004-04-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

The following will be a guest post from my lovely wife.

I love Krispy Kreme. I do. I cant help it, those lovely chemical filled fluffly cream filled donuts. Heaven, I tell ya. Heaven. My mother-in-law bought a couple dozen today and of course I was tricked into thinking one of the glazed filled donuts was filled with that delicious creamy frosting. It was actually filled with jelly. Gross! Thankfully, I noticed before eating it. So, this probably counts as one of the mundane stories that my husband promised not to post, but being that all he does is play poker, he is bound to post some mundane stories. One of these days he will get a job, he is super smart and talented. You can look forward to more random mundane postings from me. They will most likely be related to food. Thanks for reading my first weird random journal entry ever posted on the web. By the way, if you ever write anything on his blog or on the internet in general, he is probably critiquing every bit of grammar and punctuation. He is doing it to me right now!

2004-04-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

All right, here's the official intro to my new blog. This is certainly not a journal or anything like that, but I'll get started by telling everyone a little bit about myself. I'm 26 and I live in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I were both born and raised here, but we had been living in Los Angeles until December, when I was laid off from my job. We decided to move back to Portland, where homes are actually affordable, to try to buy a house.

While looking for work, I've been writing a novel and playing quite a bit of poker online. You can expect a lot of poker content in this blog, as well as snippets from the novel. I welcome feedback on both.

In the last week, I've played 2,630 hands of poker on PartyPoker.com, and won a total of $20.30. Now, now, that may sound like a lot, but it actually only works out to .008 cents per hand. Ah, sarcasm.

In all honesty, it seems like an amazingly profitable time to be knowledgeable in the art of Texas Hold 'Em. I've studied Sklansky's "Theory of Poker," and Cloutier's "Championship No Limit Hold 'Em," and consider myself a solid player. Solid enough to spot the bad players, anyway, and there are plenty out there. Thanks to Chris Moneymaker and ESPN, everyone wants to get in on the poker action. Most haven't done their homework, though, and are easy targets if you have a cool head and can play patiently.

The frustrating thing about the game, of course, is that as a good player, you will most often lose big pots to bad players. You will hardly ever lose a big pot to a skilled player. Why? Because skilled players know how to lay down hands and won't call when the odds are against them. Just this week, I've been beaten 4 times on crazy longshot hands, the type that can drive you crazy. Would you make an even-money bet that you're only going to win 3 out of 45 times? Of course not, but that's exactly what these players did, and it so happened that I paid them off.

When I started playing, last November, I was one of these players. I got lucky right off the bat, and built a $50 stack into $265. When I started losing, I just couldn't figure why, and I went on tilt like nobody's business. Having busted completely, I read Skansky's book cover-to-cover. This helped, and I was able to hold my own in home games with my brother and brother-in-law (both professional poker players).

If you're thinking about signing up for Party, I am planning on setting up an affiliate progam in the near future. What this means is that I'll have a bonus code available on the site, which gives you a free $25 whe you buy in for a minimum of $50. What's in it for me is a small percentage of the profit you generate for PartyPoker. I'm not sure how much it works out to, but it doesn't come out of your winnings at all. If you like the blog, and poker, it would be a good way to get started. You could also use the code IGGY, which belongs to the author of http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com. I'm giving him props because I'm hoping he will link to this blog from his own poker blog, which got me started on the idea.

But that's a bit down the road. I haven't even set up the program yet.

I've got a lot of spare time, and a lot on my mind, so expect another post soon. I'll try to keep it related to poker, my novel and occasional miscellaneous ramblings. I will try not to bore anyone with the mundane details of my personal life. Thanks, and enjoy.

2004-04-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is the start of my new blog. Hopefully it'll be filled with interesting stuff soon. That is all.