Code Monkey Tilt

Strange Dream Last Night

2010-03-09T08:04:00.001-08:00

So the setting of the dream is, I assume, the Las Vegas airport, though it's not really recognizable in any way. There is apparently a big snowstorm or other cold weather event fast approaching so everybody is trying to get on the last flights out. I'm with a group of people that I know in this world but I don't recognize any of them from real life. Some booked flights on various airlines like Continental and others. My flight is the last one out on Las Vegas Air at 9:30 AM. All the other flights before and after this one on this airline were canceled.

Other airlines arrive and different friends of mine bid their farewells and leave. 9:30 comes and goes and still no sign of the last Las Vegas Air flight. I'm on a severe lack of sleep and am worried about whether the flight will ever come and if I should have booked a different airline. At around 12:00 I find myself walking down the aisle of an abandoned aircraft and sit next to a girl that I know in this world. We talk a bit about whether our flight will arrive or not. She seems wistfully optimistic about the whole situation and I can't figure out why.

Then, amazingly, I hear the telltale sound of the Las Vegas Air flight as it flies overhead and touches down. I am so relieved that it has finally arrived and I'll be able to get out just in time. We smile at each other and I stand up and begin to walk to the exit. It is then that I realize that other people are starting to board this plane! I walk up to them and I recognize some of them and one smiles at me and expresses his relief that we're finally going to fly out of here. I ask him why he's on this plane and he is confused and says, "because this is the Las Vegas Air flight of course!"

I am very confused at this point and tell my friend about how this is just an old abandoned aircraft. He laughs at me and thinks that I am joking. He tells me about how he heard the aircraft land and went to the gate specified and boarded the plane and that is how he's here. It is at that point that I look around and the plane doesn't look like an old aircraft anymore, it looks like the Las Vegas Air flight. I also notice that the girl that I was talking to has all her bags here but I left mine in the airport. I ask my friend to leave the plane with me to go get my bags, which will also give me some vague chance to "get on the right plane."

So we leave and go to where I left my bags. We talk more about this weird situation and my friend begins to get a bit worried that something is wrong. We find the bags and head back to the plane. I'm a little surprised when we board the plane from the outside instead of through a gate but my friend assures me that this is where we just left. The plane is now full as we walk down the aisle to our seats. My friend's seat is much further up the plane, so he sits down as we say a few final things about the situation. As I head further down the plane I say "I trust you." He looks a little unsure still and says "I guess the question is do I trust me?"

I make my way to my seat and put my bags away and sit down next to the girl I was talking to earlier and it feels like a huge weight has finally been lifted off me. I'm finally going to fly out of here and everything is going to be great. I've put the whole weirdness of the abandoned aircraft and such stuff out of my mind. Then I hear someone near me shout, "Oh my God, she's freezing her legs off!"

I snap awake.

Red Herring

2009-05-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've come up with a new poker term: Red Herring

Consider the following hand:

You have AhQh on a board of JhTs3c and bet and your opponent shoves for not much more and you decide to call figuring you could have as many as 10 outs and probably at least 7. To your dismay he turns over 33 for a set leaving you with just 4 outs. Now, the turn is the 8h giving you a flush draw and a double-gutted straight draw so instead of 4 outs, you have 13 (3 non-heart Kings, 3 non-heart 9s, and 7 non-board-pairing hearts). Your situation has improved greatly! You eagarly await the river card while your opponent bemoans his bad luck. The river is the Kd giving you the nut straight and the win!

The 8h in that hand is the Red Herring. It is a card (or cards in the case of a Red Herring flop) that gives someone who is way behind (generally drawing to 4-5 outs or less) many more ways to win the pot. In the end, the Red Herring is just a distraction from the real way the player wins the hand as the river is a card that completes one of the original 4-5 outs that the player needed.

Here's an example I witnessed myself: Two players in a tournament got it all in preflop. One turned over ThTd and the other proudly showed KdKc. The flop was a somewhat uneventful 875 with two hearts, though it did give the TT a lot of backdoor possibilities. The turn was an amazing 6h giving the TT a flush draw, a gut-shot to win (a nine), and a gut-shot to tie (a four) in addition to his two outs to a ten. The brutal river card was the Tc giving the TT a set and the win and making the 6h on the turn just a Red Herring.

Watch out for good examples of Red Herrings in your own poker games and spread the term!

Much Needed Update

2009-03-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've finally decided to sit myself down and write another blog entry.

First of all, we've made it to Las Vegas. I had planned on writing up a detailed report on our drive from Seattle to here, and I still might at some point, but for now I'll just say that it was quite an adventure.

It's been about a month since we first arrived at our new home and started unpacking the U-Haul. Sadly, there are still boxes strewn around that have yet to be fully unpacked. Though I suppose that is not that surprising since I have never really had a move where I've unpacked everything. In fact, some of the boxes I packed for this move contained smaller boxes with stuff from a previous move. It's not my fault though as I think it runs in my genes.

Anyway, as for poker, I've been playing a lot of $100 to $500 buy-in tournaments and finally had my first decent sized cash. It was in a $500+$50 weekly tournament at The Venetian which ended with an 8-way chop for ~$5,000 each.

Yes, you read that right, an 8-way chop. Honestly, if someone else told me that they were involved in an 8-way chop I would probably laugh at them. Chops with this many people generally come about because the players think "there's no skill left with the blinds so high." While this is true to some extent, I think that in general, people underestimate the skill edge a good player has even in high blind situations. Bad players fold way too much in these spots. They blind themselves down under 5 BBs waiting for a big hand that might never come. And then, when they finally shove their micro-stack in, the raise is so small that the other players are forced to call and they have to hope to double/triple up just to get back to being a small stack. A good player knows that they have to look for spots to shove any two cards to make sure that they don't get too short stacked enough to have any chance of stealing the blinds.

That being said, a chop is almost always good for the shortest stack, which I happened to be after losing a coin flip with the former shortest stack and with the blinds going up I was going to be near that 5BB mark where I was going to have to shove any two. So when someone else asked what the amount of an 8-way chop would be I made sure to voice my support for such a deal! In the end, the other two short stacks and I gave the three big stacks a little extra from our share to get them to accept the deal. I'm definitely happy with the result. It is my 2nd largest profit from a tournament next to the Pendleton HORSE tournament last fall. It would have been nice to win the $14,800 for first place as I was a slight chip leader going into the final table, but considering how bad things were going for me, I feel like I was destined to go out 8th and get just $1,700.

Other than tournaments, I've played a few sessions of 2/5 with moderate success. The games are generally good at these levels as even the "regulars" have leaks. I've been considering taking some small shots at the 5/10 game at the Venetian but have yet to go for it. It's probably not more profitable than 2/5 anyway.

One semi-interesting celebrity moment so far: I watched Phil Ivey shoot craps at the Venetian a few days ago. He was betting $10,000 on the pass line, taking max odds, and putting out as many come bets as possible. It was quite amazing to see him throwing around the $25k chips like they were nothing. While I watched he ran really bad and was down over $500,000! I didn't stay long enough to see if he made it back or lost even more, but it definitely made my $1,000 wins or losses at the craps table feel mighty insignificant.

That's it for now, though I do want to start posting more regularly and may try to set aside some time each week to make a post.

Things to do with $5 in EV

2009-01-20T04:06:00.000-08:00

This post is a detailed list of the amount of bets that can be made in a casino that result in just -$5.00 in expectation in the long run (If you had 100 such sessions, you would probably lose about $500). The point of this post is to show which games and bets are ridiculously bad value and which ones are reasonable in moderation. With the addition of comps and other rewards given by the casino, some of these bets might be pretty close to break even and are well worth it for the entertainment value (assuming you enjoy playing these games) as long as they are controlled and unstressed.

The reason casinos make as much as they do is because people (re: like me at various times in '06 and '07) don't control themselves, get overstressed, chase losses, bet the hard ways etc.

Make 70 $5 bets ($350 total) on the pass/come line in Craps (the "odds" bets are break even).

In practice, by taking a pass line and a max of 2 come points, this takes about an hour (each 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12 counts as one bet).

Make $45 worth of bets on the Hard 4/10 or $55 worth on the Hard 6/8 in Craps.

This shows how terrible hard ways bets are.

Make ~$600 in Blackjack bets.

This obviously varies based on the rules at the casino and if you can count cards or not.

Make $95 in bets at an American Roulette table.

American Roulette has a 0 and 00 where European Roulette only has 0 and also you only lose 50% of 1:1 bets when it hits 0. Contrast this with $370 in European Roulette bets.

Make $470 in bets on the Banker or $403 in bets on the Player in Baccarat.

Additionally you could make $217 in total bets on each. Betting on a tie is terrible value.

Rob's '09 Goals and Resolutions

2009-01-18T21:40:00.000-08:00

1. Make over $60,000 playing poker.

2. Have a $10,000+ cash in a poker tournament.

3. Take a round break at least once every three hours in cash games for introspection and reevaluation and decide whether or not to continue playing.

4. Spend no more than $10 a week in EV at table games.

5. Never sit at a limit above my bankroll unless I am staked or have the proper amount of surplus bankroll to take a shot.

6. Exercise (Tennis, Ultimate, Golf, Gym, etc.) at least once a week for at least an hour.

7. Do my morning routine (15's, short run, breakfast) at least 5 times a week.

Rob's '08 Poker Year in Review

2009-01-18T21:39:00.000-08:00

First off, 2007 was a bad year for me from a poker and gambling standpoint (I'm glad I was still working a "real job" at this time). I spent most of the year stuck after a bad decision to play in the big $100/$200 limit game. When I had finally gotten back to even for the year, I went to the WSOP and had no cashes and so was stuck again. I did manage to end the year up a few thousand at poker, but lost quite a bit more than that at table games like Blackjack and Craps.

So I started 2008 with a lot of doubt as to whether or not I could control myself and avoid making bad decisions with my bankroll. To this end, I decided to "start over" in some senses with a $1000 bankroll and play 3/6 at a local casino. This helped me get back to the basics of limit holdem and start the year off slowly. It was going well and I was regaining my confidence in my limit holdem game. By the end of January, I decided to take a couple shots at the 20/40 game. I had played in this game a few times in '07 with mixed results.

My first 20/40 session in '08 was quite a wild ride. There was a borderline maniac on my right who would do weird things like limp in after a few limpers and then if there was a raise behind him, he would just decide to three-bet randomly to "gamble." I managed to get into 3 different multiway capped pots preflop with AK because of this. The first one I had AhKh and the flop came QhJh8d. Me and one other player were driving the action on the flop with 3 others along for the ride. The turn was a 4c and the river was a Js so I missed everything. The second one, I flopped AK3. The turn was a J and I managed to lose to QT. The third one, I flopped AQ4. The river was a Q and I lost to QJ. Each of these pots was near $1000 because of the preflop spazzing of the guy to my right. Amazingly enough, even after losing all of these huge pots, the game was so good that I only ended the session down $400-$500.

That session opened my eyes to how profitable the 20/40 game was as long as I could control my emotions and play as well as possible at all times. There were hands where I played badly because I was still thinking about the previous hand, but overall, I controlled my tilt better than I had in '07. I decided to commit $10,000 to a bankroll for this 20/40 game and play it pretty much exclusively over the next few months and see what happens.

Thus began the best month of poker I have ever had. It was as if I could do no wrong. Every bluff I made was working and every time I had the best hand I was called down. While I was definitely running well (re: really lucky), I was also playing my best poker. By the end of the month I had made a little over $16,000 which was (and still is) the only time I've ever made over $10,000 in one month. I knew that a win rate like this (~$110/hr or 2.75 BB/hr) was unsustainable, but I was confident that I could beat the game over the long run for at least 1 BB/hr.

March was another great month for me helped by a marathon session that spanned two different casinos and over 28 hours. It started at the normal 20/40 spot with a rather frustrating break even session. Then, a few of the players were talking about moving the game to a nearby casino that was open all night (the one I was playing at closed at 6am). They talked me into coming along. Long story short, by 11-12am, I was up between $2000 and $3000! As if that wasn't enough poker, I drove back to the original 20/40 casino and played another 5-6 hours before finally leaving around 5pm. Needless to say I slept for about 12 hours after that. By the end of March I had made around $9000 which was my 3rd best month ever (My 2nd best month was June of '06 which was my first month in Seattle and included two jackpots and a big win in the $150/$300 game which is a story for another blog post).

In April and May, I didn't play the 20/40 much (I had a bad session near the end of April and was irrationally scared of losing back all the profit that I had made in February and March). I went down to Pendleton for the Spring Roundup and managed to place 11th in the $315 NL Holdem tournament which was kind of frustrating because I was one of the chip leaders with around 30 left and ran KK into AK all in preflop for a large amount of chips and an Ace flopped. But I did well to survive to 11th with the chips I had after that hand.

In June I went down to the WSOP for a week with JD. I played in a lot of satellites and made enough in those to pay for all of the big events that I entered. I got to the 2nd day in the $2000 LHE WSOP event and the $2500 NL Holdem event at the Venetian but finished short of the money in both of them. All in all it was a confidence boost that I was able to do so well in the satellites but was also frustrating that I came close to a big score but finished just short.

In July and August I played a bit of the 20/40 with a few big wins and big losses that roughly evened out. It was over this time that JD, Le, and I started talking about becoming professional poker players. We finally decided to go for it and I left my job on September 12th and, as I have already blogged about, it has been going really well ever since. I have become very confident in my ability to play $20/$40 and am pleased with my efforts to avoid tilt and shore up my C-game. There are still occasions where I feel like I have played badly, but they are happening less and less frequently.

2008 was my best poker year so far (almost +$40,000) and hopefully the good fortune and good play will continue into 2009!

Pendleton Trip Report for Nov. '08 #2

2009-01-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

#2: Two for Two?

So on the heels of my win of the HORSE tournament with my old workmates, I headed down to Pendelton ready to make a big score. In the first tournament, a $215 NL Holdem event, I started out making a few stabs at the wrong pots and was down a bit when this hand came up:

Folds to me on the button and I look down a KK and raise to 125 with blinds 25/50. SB folds and the BB reraises to 350. Now I have about 2800 total and debate whether or not to 4-bet. I decide to just call and hope for an all low flop to get the most out of TT-QQ.

Flop: A73 rainbow. He checks and I check behind still decently confident I have the best hand.

Turn: 6. He bets out 400. I flat call, unsure what to do on the river but feeling I can't just fold given the action so far.

River: 7. He fires 700. I should have folded here as his line is too strong for QQ-TT and I don't think he has air here often enough. But, stubborn as I am, I call anyway and he shows AA. So it may look like I saved money not going broke with KK against AA but in reality I should have lost less by folding the river. After that hand I was crippled and eventually busted on some non-memorable hand.

JD, who I had swapped 10% with for all of the tournaments, managed to make it to the top 18 so I got a little rebate.

The next day was the $215 HORSE tournament. I feel like this tournament has the most dead money of all the tournaments at Pendelton (on par with the SHOE tournament which is the same games without Razz). This is because people enter this tournament with little to no understanding of how to play the Stud games. Some of them don't even know the basic rules. As long as you can avoid going on tilt trying to make sure the rules of the game are followed in the first few rounds (even some of the dealers are shaky on how to deal Stud and Razz), you can't help but steadily build a stack with all the dead money. That is exactly what happened for me. After the first round of all the games I had about doubled my stack and some of the inexperienced players were starting to bust.

I also was fortunate enough to be seated directly to the left of the previous tournament's champion. It is a well known fact that the day after winning a tournament it is almost impossible to play well. You are on such a rush from having beaten everyone the previous day. Everything you did worked and if you made a mistake, you got lucky anyway. Now, you start over in a new tournament and you forget how to be patient and end up spewing away chips. Sometimes you're on the rush of your life and do well back to back, but for the most part, you just end up donating. It also helped that this champion was a NL Holdem player trying to play Razz, Stud, and Limit Holdem.

After the first two rounds of games, I was sitting on a somewhat comfortable stack, but the blinds were rising rapidly and one big hand could cripple me. That was when this hand went down on the first hand of the third Holdem round:

Folds to MP who raises, MP2 three-bets. LP thinks for a long time and says "If it was anyone else (other than MP2), I would play this hand, but since it's you, I fold," and folds. I look at KK in the SB and cap it. Folds to MP who thinks for a bit and folds. MP2 calls.

Flop: J52 rainbow. I bet, MP2 raises, I call (planning to check raise the turn). I should probably have just 3-bet here but I wanted to make sure I got my entire stack in as I only had 3 big bets after calling on the flop.

Turn: 4. I check, MP2 bets, I raise, MP2 calls.

River: 9. I bet all in and MP2 calls with what I assume was QQ. I show my KK and win the huge pot! After the hand, MP says that he had 22 for a set of 2s! What's even crazier is that LP says that he folded JJ for a set of Jacks! So if either of them had called preflop I would definitely have busted out.

After that hand I had the biggest stack at the table and was able to wait patiently and pick my spots. I ended up busting out the QQ guy later when he overplayed A7 into my KK on a Q637T board. So I went to the dinner break with a big stack and a lot of momentum.

After the break, I started out rather slow in the Omaha and Stud rounds. We were getting close to the money (they paid 32 spots) so I probably should have been more active but the table really didn't seem to be backing down much. Around the Stud round we made it into the money and I was switched to a new table for the first time of the tournament. It's interesting that I was the only person from the original 8 players of that table still in at that time. I guess it makes sense since they pay about 1 in 10 people. I also realized that it was during this exact Stud round that I had won the work tournament. I joked with JD that I wouldn't know what to do in the upcoming levels with no experience. For the most part, though, I was on cruise control. I would take a few pots here and there to pay for the blinds but I wasn't looking for confrontation.

By the time Holdem came around, we were down to the final 16 players. This was when I made my first big mistake of the tournament:

Folds to me in LP and I raise QJo. Folds to the BB who calls.

Flop: JT9. BB checks, I bet, BB calls.

Turn: 2. BB checks and I check behind (This is a NL play of controlling the pot. I should have bet here and not worried about a check-raise but I decided to check behind and try to induce a bluff).

River: 4. BB bets and I call and BB shows 44 for a rivered set!

I was really upset with letting the BB see the river for free. 95% of the time he won't catch that 4, but I still think that betting the turn is better simply because he can have a lot of hands that will call the turn on a draw. I had enough chips where this hand didn't cripple me, but if I lost another one I would definitely be hurting. A sort while after that hand, the defining hand of the tournament came up for me.

The 44 guy raises in MP. MP2 reraises (he was somewhat short and was probably committed to the hand). Folds to me in the SB and I tell myself I hope I have Aces and look down at ... AA! So I cap it. MP calls and MP2 calls.

Flop: Q94. I bet, MP calls, MP2 raises, I three-bet. MP thinks for a long time. MP2 shows his intentions of capping it and has just a couple chips left on top fo that. MP finally says that he's not getting the right odds and folds. MP2 caps and I call. Turn is a J and I bet and MP2 calls all in with KK. The river is a blank and my hand folds up for a big pot! MP reveals that he had KdTd and woulda made the nut straight on the turn! I was really surprised that he would fold there given that both me and MP2 were almost all in and the pot had grown enormous but I was glad that he did. This was the second time that someone who could well have justified calling had folded in a spot where I would have been knocked out.

The chips from that pot allowed me to cruise to the final table. This was my first final table of a big live (i.e. not online) tournament ever so I was a little nervous. I did manage to pose for this picture:

The final table was a good mix of two "young internet" kids, two 30ish men, one well known pro (Marsha Waggoner), one elderly man, one elderly woman, and me. It took a really long time for anyone to bust. There were a few short stacks but they always seemed to win when they were close to all in. Finally, one of the internet kids busted 8th and the elderly man went out 7th. I busted out Marsha in 6th (with a twinge of sadness as she is really nice and fun to have at the table). The elderly woman went out 5th and the other internet kid finished in 4th and it was down to me and the two 30 somethings!

I started out as the chip leader and was feeling really good about my chances of winning. I made a few mistakes and lost a couple pots and we paused the clock to talk about a deal. We decided to make 3rd and 2nd place pay $9000 and gave the remainder ($9800ish + the cruise) to first. I was the short stack (by a slight bit) and had lost my momentum so was happy to make the deal. This three-handed match was a huge roller coaster. We each held the chip lead and were each almost bust multiple times. Finally, we got down to heads up and I had a pretty severe chip disadvantage. On the first hand of Stud Hi/Lo, I managed to get my meager chip stack all in on 5th street with (2K)5J7 against (23)QJT. On 6th street I hit a pair of 2s and he hit an 8. On 7th, he looked first and turned over a Q for a pair of Queens and I squeezed out a blank and that was it! It was a little disappointing to finish so close to a win, but I was really happy to have made it so far.

So I was 1 spot away from winning two HORSE tournaments in a row but even with a 2nd place in this one, I had started my Pendelton trip off really well.

What was even more amazing is that the next day, JD managed to just about match my accomplishment by getting to the final table of the $215 Limit Holdem tournament! He finished in 4th place.

The rest of the trip was rather mundane as I kept making the dinner break but not cashing in the tournaments and then feeling too tired to play cash games. JD managed to make the final 18 of three more tournaments but couldn't get to the final table. All in all we both made almost exactly the same amount and so roughly broke even on our 10% swaps.

I definitely look forward to the next tournament series in Pendelton in the Spring of '09.

Pendleton Trip Report for Nov. '08 #2 (Cliff's Notes)

2009-01-04T20:23:00.001-08:00

I busted early in the first $215 NL tournament even though I managed to not go broke with KK vs AA.
Half the players in the $215 HORSE tournament didn't know the rules to half the games.
I managed to dodge two different spots where people could have justified calling (and would have busted me) but didn't.
I reached my first final table of a big live tournament ever.
I finished 2nd!
JD managed to make a final table the very next day in the $215 Limit Holdem tournament, finishing 4th.
The rest of the trip was rather mundane with no big scores for either of us.

Viva La Vega by Colddeck

2008-12-12T01:36:00.000-08:00

I used to rule the floor
They'd comp my room or even more
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the tables I used to own
------------------------------------------------------------
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in the croupier's eyes
Listen as the crowd would state:
"Now he bet the hard eight! There's a hard eight!"

One minute I bet it all
Next I heard the fatefull call
"Seven out and line away," she said
Oh I feel like I'm done and feel like I'm dead

I hear all the slot machines a-ringing
And I can't stop myself from singing
Give me three cherries or three bars
Or maybe maybe one time three stars
For some reason I can't explain
I know one more pull will end the pain
Just a few dollars more
But that was when I ruled the floor
------------------------------------------------------------
It was the wicked and wild luck
That caused me to be so stuck.
Shattered aces and the rivered straights
People always had nines when I had eights

Now the pawn shop owner waits
For me to sell my silver plates
Just wish they weren't so very dull
Oh who would ever want to gamble?

Because I hear all the slot machines a-ringing
And I can't stop myself from singing
Give me three cherries or three bars
Or maybe maybe one time three stars
For some reason I can't explain
I know one more pull will end the pain
Just a few dollars more
But that was when I ruled the floor
------------------------------------------------------------
I hear all the slot machines a-ringing
And I can't stop myself from singing
Give me three cherries or three bars
Or maybe maybe one time three stars
For some reason I can't explain
I know one more pull will end the pain
Just a few dollars more
But that was when I ruled the floor
------------------------------------------------------------

Pendleton Trip Report for Nov. '08 #1

2008-11-09T22:59:00.000-08:00

This post says that it was posted on November 9th which is a complete lie. I created the post while I was still down in Pendleton but never got around to writing anything in it. Now it's December 3rd so it's getting to the point where I almost don't even remember what happened when I went to Pendleton so I figured it's time to finally write a few blog posts about it.

#1: HORSEing Around Before Pendleton

So for those of you who don't know, twice a year, a casino called Wild Horse in Pendleton, Oregon runs about the biggest poker tournament series in the Northwest. It is held in Spring and Fall and is comprised of about 14 tournaments with buyins ranging from $200+15 to $1000+15, one each day. This year, JD, my roomate Jeff, and I decided to go for the entire two weeks. I had been there 2-3 times before for a weekend or so, once with Jeff, but it was JD's first time.

The weekend before we were going to head down, MSPoker (group of poker enthusiasts at Microsoft) ran a HORSE tournament (Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, and Stud 8) with the same structure as the one in Pendleton to give everybody some practice. It was a $100 buy in and it attracted about 24 people so the prize pool was pretty decent.

I started out pretty slow and was struggling to pick up chips in the Holdem and Omaha 8 rounds. I was eager to get to the Stud games as they are the games least played in the MSPoker cash games. When we got to Razz (where you try to make the worst hand possible), where people were limping and calling completions with a Q showing, my chip stack started steadily rising.

We got back to Holdem and then through all the games again before we got down to 8 players for the final table, I had about average chips but the blinds were such that any hand that I played to the end would cripple me if I lost it. I was cautious through Holdem and Omaha 8, waiting for the Stud games again. They didn't let me down this time either as I found myself in quite a curious Razz hand:

3rd Street:
P1 brings in with (XX)K
P2 calls with a (XX)Q!
P3 completes with a (XX)3
4 Folds to me and I call with (23)7 to make sure the guy with a Q stays in.
P1 folds
P2 calls

4th Street:
P2 now has (XX)Q4
P3 now has (XX)3K
I now have (23)78

I am first to act and bet, P2 raises! P3 looks disgusted and calls and I obviously 3-bet and both call.

5th Street:
P2 now has (XX)Q49
P3 now has (XX)3K9
I now have (23)78K

P2 is first to act and checks, P3 now bets out! So I get to raise and P2 calls two cold and P3 calls.

6th Street:
P2 now has (XX)Q498
P3 now has (XX)3K9J
I now have (23)78KA

P2 is first and checks, P3 checks, I bet, P2 calls, and P3 angrily folds.

7th Street:
P2 now has (XX)Q498(X)
I now have (23)78KA(6)

P2 looks and then checks and I happily bet (he can't possibly have me beat given his board). He thinks for a bit and finally calls and I scoop the gigantic pot. Being able to get that many bets in with way the best of it was a big morale booster.

After that, I played pretty cautiously, managed to get lucky a couple of times in key spots and also made a few tough calldowns to get to heads up. On the final hand in Stud, I had a big chiplead and my opponent was down to just a few bets left. I found(6J)6 against (XX)A. I decided off the bat that I was going all the way with the hand unless he caught an Ace on 4th street. He completed and I called. On 4th he had (XX)AK and I had (6J)62. He bet out and I raised, he reraised all in and I called. As it turns out he had a K in the hole and made a pair of kings on 4th but I managed to catch a third 6 on 6th street to retake the lead. The river bricked out and I had won it!

It had been a long time since I had won a live tournament and it felt really good. I was ready for Pendleton!

Spreading My Limits

2008-10-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to take a break from the 20/40 limit game at least until after going to Pendleton in November. Instead, I've been playing the "spread limit" game for the past week and it has been going really well.

For those of you who don't know, Washington gambling law doesn't allow for true no-limit cash games because the maximum you can bet at one time is $500. So to get around this, the tribal casinos run what is called "spread limit." There are two main games, $3/$5 and $5/$10. So in $3/$5, you can bet anywhere from $5 to $500 at any time and in $5/$10 it's $10 to $500. The other twist is that there can only be a bet and three raises just like in a limit game. So if someone raises the $5 big blind to $15 and another person makes it $30, a third person could make it $45 to go and prevent the first raiser from making a big reraise since the betting is now "capped."

I've always had good results at these games, but I have also had a lot of trouble dealing with the swings. In $20/$40 limit, you can build a $1000 buy-in into $2000 over the course of a session and then hit a rough swing over the next couple hours and fall back to $1000 or even lose it all, but in $5/$10 NL, you could spend several hours chipping up from $1000 to $2000 and then lose the entire $2000 in one hand! That rapid swing of emotions takes its toll on my psyche and, in the past, has caused me to do some stupid things like go to the blackjack tables.

I've been taking it slowly over the past week, playing exclusively $3/$5 to start out. The mistakes these players make are so incredible. They just don't balance their ranges at all. They take such straightforward lines with their big hands and never mix in any bluffs. They give away too much information about their hands by how much they raise preflop. They only bluff in certain predictable spots. They don't fastplay big draws on the flop in the same way as they play their big hands. Basically, they just don't think about how their bets betray their hands. All that you have to do to beat these players is decipher what their bets mean and their hand is basically face up to you. The only reason that these people get away with this type of play is that very few other people are paying attention.

At the $5/$10, there are a few more good thinking players and the "fish" at least err on the side of aggression instead of passivity. The mistakes people make in this game are a bit harder to exploit. The $5/$10 players, in general, don't control the pots well with one pair hands. To exploit this, you either have to pick up a big hand like a set against their top pair and trap them for a big pot, or alternatively, you can make a big move on them by check/raising the turn on a bluff since they most likely can't call with just one pair (the correct play with one pair in NL is often to check behind the turn to control the size of the pot). Getting a set against top pair is hard to do, and making a big bluff requires a lot of guts and risks losing a big chunk of chips when they have a stubborn AA or a set themselves.

I had moved to playing $20/$40 because I felt no-limit cash games were too boring. To a large extent, they are. There's a lot of sitting around waiting for the right spot to come along to make a move. If you're not patient enough to wait for the right hand against the right opponent, you're going to spew all your chips away. But when you find that perfect spot, it feels so good to take all of someone's chips in one hand, or to win a big pot with a well executed bluff. Hopefully I can control my emotions and not get worked up too much about losing a big pot and stay focused on my game. If not, I can always head back over to the $20/$40 game :)

LA Trip Report for Oct. '08 (Cliff's Notes)

2008-10-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Le almost got us killed by driving into oncoming traffic on an off-ramp.
The Commerce poker rooms are incredible.
I played a lot of 20/40 and did well.
I folded KK preflop in the first Bike tournament.
I went ballistic at the 25/50 Hustler game.
I suck at 40/80.
I finished a little over even after expenses for the whole trip.

LA Trip Report for Oct. '08

2008-10-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Day 1:
Le and I arrived in LA and got our rental car and headed to the hotel using Le's Garmin GPS system. Nothing notable other than Le almost got us both killed by driving through a stop sign on an off ramp into oncoming traffic (luckily there was no one in the right-most lane).

Checked in and dropped off our stuff (the room was pretty decent). Went over to Commerce Casino. I have been to Commerce before but it always amazes me every time I walk in. There is a gigantic WSOP Pavilion-esque room full of poker tables and they are all cash games. And that's just the first room, they have two more of close to the same size! One for low limits (1/2 NL, 4/8, 9/18, etc.), One for high limits (20/40 to 1k/2k and 10/20 NL and 20/40 NL), and one for ultra low limits (1/1 NL, 1/2 Limit). Le and I played the 20/40 for a few hours and I managed to leave up almost a rack.

Day 2:
We went to the Bike (which was about 3-4 blocks from our hotel) to register for the tournament later that day ($100+20 + 1 rebuy) and get a safety deposit box. We had asked the day before about getting one at Commerce, but they didn't think we were "high roller" enough so they didn't let us have one. Thankfully the Bike either has more boxes or lower standards...

We then went to Commerce (since the Bike has like 1 20/40 game) and played until 6PM. I managed to book another solid win of a little over a rack.

From there we headed back to the Bike for the tournament. I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I folded KK preflop early in the tournament incorrectly. Blinds were 50/100 and UTG with 3300 limped, old guy with ~10k limped, 1-2 other limpers. I raised to 600 with KK from the SB(I had 10k as well). UTG paused for a while and finally shoved. Old guy behind him overshoved for the full 10k. Folded to me and I sat there in utter disbelief at what just happened. I couldn't think of what possible hand the old guy could have to shove after a SB raise and a UTG shove other than AA. But he limped in after a limper! So I had to balance those to illogicalities. In the end, I decided it was not worth the chance he had AA since it was early and the blinds were so low and folded. UTG showed JJ and old guy showed AKs! Ugh, I was pretty frustrated but I still managed to get to 20k after the first 3 levels.

Went on a bad streak after that and made a questionable river call with TT on a JJ468 board and got shown J3o. Won a short stack all in with K9 > KQ and then lost 77 < 66 to bust.

Day 3:
Today we decided to make a tour of all the other casinos in the LA area. We played a bit of 25/50 at Hawaiian Gardens. It was odd playing a different chip structure than I'm used to (20/40 is a 4 chip/8 chip structure where 25/50 is 5 chip/10 chip). I've gotten in the habit of shuffling together 3 SBs worth of chips so I'm always ready to 3-bet preflop or bet the flop and turn. So I had to start using 15 chips instead of 12. Anyway, the game was pretty good and I left up half a rack.

We then played 25/50 at Hustler. I started out hot up almost two and a half racks and then had two painful hands and lost 620 in 10 minutes. The first hand there is a MP raiser and a couple cold callers. I call with 98o in the BB. Flop is T76 with two hearts. I check, MP bets, LP calls, I raise, MP 3-bets, LP cold calls, I call. Turn Ts. I check, MP bets, LP raises! Now LP was a pretty tight straight-forward player, but I couldn't imagine he wouldn't cap the flop with a set or two pair. I felt he had to have T9 or T8 so I called him down and he showed me 66. I shoulda just gone with the tight guy + raise turn = nuts and folded. So I was pissed a bit about that hand.

Then, a couple hands later, I raise Qs8s on the button and the SB calls and the BB raises and we both call. The flop is QT8. SB checks, BB bets, I raise, SB cold calls, BB 3-bets, I cap and both call. Turn is an ugly Ace. SB checks and BB donks. I really should have folded here, but I didn't. I call and now the SB raises! Well he obviously has a straight at this point. BB calls and I decide to call to draw to a boat as the pot is gigantic at this point. River is a Q and SB bets and BB now raises! I quickly go through the possible hands that BB can have and decide that TT is the only hand I beat but the pot is like ~$1100 and cry-call and SB calls and BB rolls AQ. I was so pissed at myself for playing both those hands too far and basically lighting $500 on fire so I stormed away from the table. On the bright side, I managed to still be up about a rack after all of that.

Day 4:
We slept late until 3pm and then drove to Santa Monica and rested a bit on the beach. We played a bit of 15/30 at Hollywood Park for an hour and then got a call from a friend who now lives in LA. Went to have a drink with him and then we went to the Commerce and played some drunken 1/2 NL.

Day 5:
Slept in and then went to Commerce and played 20/40 all day and ended up almost two racks (this was the perfect day of the entire week).

Day 6:
Started off the day at Hawaiian Gardens and dropped almost 3 racks. We then went to Commerce and I made the questionable decision of sitting at the 40/80 game instead of 20/40. Managed to last a long time but eventually lost the 2 racks (of $10 chips, not $5 chips). This was definitely a sobering experience as the rest of the trip had gone so well.

Day 7:
This was the comeback day after losing so much the day before. I started at the 20/40 and ran super hot right off the bat and was quickly up 2 racks. I then decided to give the 40/80 another shot as I feel like I will play better when winning at the 20/40 as opposed to moving to 40/80 after a losing session. Ended up breaking even at the 40/80 by 6pm when we had to leave for the tournament at the Bike.

While waiting for the tournament to start, I played a bit of 20/40 and got AA on my second hand and it held up in a 6 way pot for a nice $300 profit. The tournament was a big field and the structure was pretty good. I started off slow and steady and built up chips but couldn't get any real big hands. Around the 4th-5th level I had ~19,000 made a raise to 1700 with blinds 300/600 with a 100 ante with 64o in MP and the button and BB called. Flop was 432, with two diamonds. BB checked, I bet 3600 and the Button insta-shoved. BB folded and I thought about if for awhile and decided he almost always has a diamond draw in this spot and called. I was right and he had AdJd and it was a flip (I'm slightly ahead). The turn was a Qs and the river was a crushing Ace and I was out. I'm happy with how I played though.

Afterwards, I played the 20/40 game and continued to run well and ended up over 1 and a half racks. It felt good to make a nice comeback after such a bad day the day before.

Day 8:
Today was the wind down day as we were leaving the next morning. We played a bit at the commerce and ended up almost a rack each. After that, I met up with an old roommate from college who was living in LA and we ate at this Mexican Seafood place which was pretty good. Then Le wimped out and stayed in the hotel while my friend and I roamed a couple bars in West Hollywood and then ended up at the Bike playing some more 1/2 NL. I finally got back to the hotel just in time to wake Le up to head to the airport.

All in all this was a good trip and I really like the poker scene in LA. I just need to stay away from the 40/80 game until I can be comfortable with the stakes and play my best at it.

Brief Update

2008-10-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted a blog in awhile. This has partly been because I've been playing almost every day for the past couple weeks and also because nothing spectacular has occurred recently. My sessions have been going well, though.

I'm heading to LA for a week and will give a full trip report when I get back.

A First Time For Everything

2008-09-20T23:16:00.001-07:00

So I just had something happen to me on Friday that has never happened to me before.

I was at the local tribal casino registering for an upcoming tournament and I decided to play a bit of craps. Now I haven't played any non-poker casino games in quite awhile and am trying to avoid them as much as possible. For whatever reason, I decided to take $200 and try and double it up. This is when, for the first time, someone placed a bet for me. And it wasn't just one bet, nor was it a $5 bet. It was multiple $20-$45 bets on the field (wins 1:1 when a 3,4,9,10,11 is rolled and 2:1 when a 2 or 12 rolls). I didn't quite know how to interpret this. He was obviously drunk and was making martingale (doubling the bet with each loss) type bets on the field. He managed to always win when he had increased his bet up to $300 or more. I was the only one that was cheering for him when he won which may be what prompted him to make some bets for me (I also think he had more money in front of him than he knew what to do with). These bets ended up working out very well for me as they helped me turn my original $200 buy-in into $900 before leaving.

This whole ordeal got me thinking about why anyone would ever do this for someone else. He was basically giving me, a complete stranger, money to bet with. Then I realized that there are parallels between this and when people make calls in poker when they know they're beat or play in a way that is obviously going to lose money in the long run. It must mean that making money is not the primary reason for what they do. They enjoy the thrill of the game, and if placing those bets on the field for me increases this craps player's enjoyment of the rolls of the dice because he has someone to cheer with, then to him, it's worth it.

This line of thinking makes me realize just how important it is to let the bad players enjoy themselves at the poker table. If they make a bad play against me and suckout, I should cheer for them. Let them enjoy stacking my money, because I want them to keep playing this way. I want them to be entertained by playing badly. If they're not entertained by playing badly, maybe they will decide to play better or, heaven forbid, leave the game!

It amazes me how many people out there get so upset about bad beats from bad players. They must not understand how the game of poker works.

Starting Off Stuck

2008-09-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Starting off stuck sucks.

The last three sessions I have played, I have started off stuck at least $1000.

In the first one on Sunday, I had just come off my three "perfect" sessions and I feel like I played really well to only lose $1500 in the first 6 hours of the session considering the bad luck I was experiencing. Hand after hand of losing the minimum still results in losing, though.

Around 2am (I started the session at 6pm) I found myself to the direct left of one incredibly loose player and another loose aggressive player. And to MY left, were two of the tighter players in the game. So things were looking up. My big hands started holding up, finally, and I caught a few lucky breaks and actually managed to end this 12 hour session up $1400!

The next day, I played in a game full of people who thought they knew what they were doing. Now this might seem like a bad game, but I'll let you in on a little secret: most of them were horribly mistaken! But as it is occasionally in this game, you can make every correct decision and still end up stuck $1000 in 4 hours. This used to get to my head; it used to make me play badly. I feel like I'm getting better at shutting these feelings out and focusing on playing every hand as best as I can. It helped to look around the table and see at least one person steaming about a bad beat. Each hand it was a different person, whoever lost the previous hand. All the while I was sitting there unaffected.

As is the case with the previous day, around 1-2am things finally started to turn around. I was stuck about $600 before this fateful hand. I raise QhJh in middle position after 2-3 limpers. It folds around to the SB who calls as does the BB and all the limpers. The flop is QdJd4h (a.k.a GIN!). Checks to me, I bet, SB (Tight aggressive player) raises, 1 cold caller, I 3-bet, SB caps and all call. At this point I'm trying to figure out what SB has as I'm quite confident the cold caller has a diamond draw. The SB could have the same hand as me, a big draw, or 44. I decide to wait for the turn to think any more about this. The turn is the Th giving me a flush draw now. SB bets out, 1 call, I raise, SB 3-bets, 1 cold call, I cap and both call. This cap might be a little suspect as SB has shown incredible strength so far. I probably wouldn't have capped without the flush draw or without the other person in the middle. With both of these, I figure that I have some extra odds in case SB has 44. The river is a beautiful 2h giving me a flush. SB bets, middle guy folds his diamonds angrily, I raise, SB says "Do you have AhKh?" and calls. I show my hand, and he shows AsKh! His comment is somewhat humorous considering that he has the Kh himself, but what is more shocking is that he managed to cap the flop with just a gutshot draw, get there, and then still lose. I talked to him a couple days later and he admitted that his flop cap messed up the hand. That pot (probably my biggest at $20/$40) was around $1200 with me contributing $360 of it and turned -600 into +200. I went on to push that to +$800 before leaving at 5am.

Over my "weekend" (Monday and Tuesday are now my weekend) I did some chores and took a break from poker. I got back to the casino at around 5pm on Wednesday and promptly was stuck $1000 at about 10pm. Same ole' same ole' right? Not quite. I feel I played this session really badly. I was missing bets and missing folds all throughout the night and was really at a loss for where I was in a lot of hands. I missed out on a spot to steal a multiway ~$800 pot with a well timed turn raise and made a few dumb turn checks that ended up costing me a few pots. A lot of this could be blamed on bad luck, but if I had played the hands correctly, my opponents would not have had the chance to get lucky. As it is when I play badly, I tend to stay longer than I should. At two different points in the night, I made it back to even (one time I was even +$200) but I didn't leave.

Amazingly enough, after a 21 hour session, I managed to leave at +$6 due to hitting a Royal Flush to win a $500 high hand (I consider this part of my poker winnings because I am forced to consider the $2 rake they take for this promotion as part of my poker losses). So all in all I'm relieved (maybe even exhilarated) to finish a session this long back to even, but also worried that I played so terribly throughout the day.

Hopefully I can avoid starting off stuck today :)

On a Roll?

2008-09-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

So I've now had three "perfect" sessions in a row. I've played a total of about 7-8 hours of 20/40 in the last three sessions and am +$1550.

This last one has me a little worried though. It wasn't really very "perfect" at all other than being short and ending up a rack. I feel like I lost a bit of value in a few spots and made some bad call downs but had a big +800 surge right at the beginning so I was able to leave +500. Along with that, I was planning to play a long time today, probably through the night and into Sunday morning, but I was playing a little too scared; I didn't want to lose back my early profit. I need to stop myself from thinking this way because it definitely leads to missed value. The table I was at was not the greatest so maybe it's not so bad that I left it.

In the next session I play I'm going to try to keep the amount I'm up or down completely out of my mind when I'm in a hand.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2008-09-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I just stepped both feet out of my office building after handing off my badge. I took a few deep breaths of the fresh air and walked out to my car; now I'm officially a professional poker player.

It was quite a hectic day approaching this moment. When I came into the office this morning, I expected to clean up my last few things, have a long lunch with some work friends, and then have my exit interview and be on my way. But, as fate would have it, there was an issue with something that I would be most familiar with. It felt good to get something important done even in my last hours on the clock.

After that was resolved, I cleaned out my computer and headed over to my exit interview. I made my way though the maze of hallways to arrive at the interviewer's office only to find that no one was there! Did I have the time wrong? No. The room number? No. What's going on here?!? I learned from the interviewer's office neighbor that she was apparently out of office today. What the heck? I guess they really don't want me to leave! What an ingenious loop hole: if the exit interviewer is always oof, the I can never actually leave the company, right? I have to say, of all things I had considered as possible occurrences today, having the exit interviewer be oof was not one of them.

Turns out she was at a Day of Caring event helping clean up a school so I guess I can let it slide this time. I had the interview rescheduled for later in the day and that is what I have just left as I breath in this wonderful fresh air. It smells like freedom, like endless possibilities. I feel like going on a long walk today and just taking everything in.

Let my new life begin!

A Perfect Session

2008-09-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

I just had what I'd like to think of as a perfect session of $20/$40 LHE yesterday.

I came in and there was an end seat waiting for me right away. Good start! There were 2 unknowns to my direct right and everyone to my left were predictable players. I fold a few hands, win a decent pot with KK, and chop a pot with J8 after my two pair gets counterfeited.

Then, the guy to my right leaves. I look for who the replacement will be and it's a tight predictable player so I quickly move my chips to the right and let him in to my left. I proceed to fold a bunch of hands and then 3-bet KQo on the button after an aggro EP2 raise and the CO calls. The BB is a player who "never cold calls 3" so he caps and we all call. Flop is 974 with two hearts. Checked to me so I naturally bet. All call. Turn is the 2h. Checked to me and I bet without looking back at my hand (I'm hoping there's a heart there). Only the BB calls my bet. River is the 6h. BB checks and I bet. He pauses for a long time and folds. I look back at my hand and find the Kh and am upset.

Then, the guy to my left leaves for the main game. I spot the aggro guy that is replacing him and quickly slide my stack left. A round or so later, a tight EP raise gets 4 callers. I squeeze out the Th4h and decide to make a (somewhat?) loose call in the BB. Flop is KT4 with two diamonds. SB checks, I check, EP bets and gets 3 callers. SB raises and I instantly 3-bet. Amazingly, the 4 other players all fold leaving me with position on the SB. The turn and river are blanks and he calls me down with KQ.

So just like that I have amassed around a $850 profit in a half an hour with relatively no effort at all. Then, as if the poker gods are testing me, I go on an hour and a half run of the worst cards ever. I basically fold away $180 in blinds. I decide to finally play a hand and raise the Jh9h in LP. One cold caller behind and the SB three-bets (uh oh). We both call. Flop is AQ2r. SB instachecks which basically means KK. I decide not to try and steal it and we check the whole way down on a 2 turn and Q river and he wins. Maybe a missed opportunity but more likely a missed chance to spew off $100. Later, an EP2 limps, I raise KK in MP, folds to him, he calls. Flop A23 rainbow. He check/calls. Turn 3, check check. river 7. He bets and I instacall and lose to his 45s. No big deal.

So after happily folding another two rounds of hands, I leave at my BB up $500 in two hours and completely unstressed. If only all of my sessions could go like this.

Long Sessions

2008-08-31T21:24:00.001-07:00

I play too many long sessions.

And by long sessions, I don't mean 10-12 hour ones or sessions where you get tired and exhausted and delirious and then leave. I mean sessions where you get tired and exhausted and delirious and THEN play 10-12 hours more. I mean sessions where you play a significant amount of time with someone, they leave for the day, you're STILL playing when they come back, and you play another “session” with them. I mean sessions where you close your eyes for a moment after folding a hand and then it's suddenly the next hand with the action on you and the guy next to you just poked you awake. I mean sessions where you don't just lose track of what time it is, you lose track of what day it is. I mean sessions where you promised yourself that you were going to leave before the next big blind... but that was 8 hours ago. I mean sessions where finally getting unstuck is all that matters to you because ending a session this long back to even would be exhilarating. I mean sessions where you're in a great game, but you're terrified of losing back your profit because ending a session this long back to even would be devastating.

I play too many long sessions.

One Foot Out the Door...

2008-08-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

So I just sent out the email to my coworkers that I am leaving.

I'm really leaving. It's hard to believe sometimes and I occasionally find myself thinking how crazy this is. I'm in a stable job making good money. There are a lot of good reasons to stay. A couple times I'd gone down this train of thought I almost convinced myself not to leave.

But then I think about what my true passion is. What motivates me to try harder every day and learn something new. And that's poker. If I never take this leap into the unknown, I will never know if I can make it. If I look back at my life when I'm 40 without ever giving myself the chance to turn my passion into my career, what will I think?

It's a risk, but it's a risk where the downside is not the end of the world. If I have grossly over-estimated my skills, or if fate frowns on me and throws me into a spiral of bad session after bad session, where will I be? I'll be a 25 or 26 year-old with a Computer Science degree from a leading university looking for a job.

But enough of the worst-case scenario talk. What's the best case? Well, fortune smiles upon me, I crush the 15/30 and 30/60 LHE games and build my bankroll up. I play some $200-$600 tournaments and make a big score in one. I push my bankroll up to 6 digits. I play a $1500 WSOP event and make a final table. I get lucky with AK against QQ and become a dominant chip leader which leads inevitably to my first bracelet and a heaping pile of cash. And that's just the beginning .

Which way will my life turn from here? I'll let you know when I get my other foot out there.