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Little Creek South Sound Championship $340 No Limit Hold’em Main Event – A Final Table Run!

March 11, 2018

This tournament kind of snuck up on me. The South Sound Championship series at Little Creek isn’t exactly on my radar. The preliminary events aren’t that attractive and the weak field sizes don’t really make them worth playing. You typically have to final table to make the money and probably have to finish top 3 to feel really good about it. Well, at least I would.

The Main Event is a little different though. I don’t play it every time it comes around – mostly because I forget about it – but it’s decent enough. I actually took 4th in this event back in spring of 2014 and that was a career high score for me at the time. I think I cashed for a little over $4K. 20K in starting chips for $340, 45 minute levels and the level jumps are tolerable. There’s definitely some play in it. Also, the fields at Little Creek are insanely soft. Overall, the play is surprisingly passive and pretty straight forward. There are some guys that can play and put pressure on you, but they are the Puget Sound rounders, not the locals. Most of the Shelton area players are really easy to play against. That makes this event with a deeper structure attractive even though the field size is kind of ho hum. There were 92 entrants in this one and that paid the final table only.

One annoying feature of the Little Creek tourneys is that they are 10-handed. How is this still a thing in 2018? Just brutal. 10-handed poker sucks period, but feeling crowded the whole time you’re playing makes it so much worse. And this isn’t a temporary thing. You have to suffer all day long, even at the final table.

I only had one player I’m familiar with at my starting table. The highly unorthodox, extremely talky, and slightly obnoxious Puget Sound superstar known as Flex. I actually wrote about Flex in a very unflattering light (I believe I called him “Loudmouth”) in one of my first tournament write-ups back in 2012. Oh hell, I’ll go ahead and link it even though it’s somewhat embarrassing for myself as well: Freddie’s $110 Deep Stack. It’s worth noting this was over six years ago and propping $4/$8 limit hold’em was my only job at the time. So… fair warning! Anyways, having Flex at the table isn’t a great thing. He is capable of making things difficult for you and drastically increasing your variance in a field that otherwise doesn’t require much risk early on. It also means you could double up early, so there’s that!

Levels 1-2

Blinds 25/50, there’s a raise to 150 and I defend T6hh from the big blind. Four of us see the QJ8 with two hearts flop. I end up calling 300 on the flop and all four of us are still in. My draw is pretty big, but this isn’t the board texture I expect to get folds on, so jacking it up here just bloats the pot out of position when I haven’t made anything yet. The turn bricks and I have to call another 600. I think we are heads up at this point and the small blind has been the aggressor the whole time and he checks when the river is a 9 and I make my straight. I bet 1500 and he pays it off.

Blinds 25/50, I call 150 from the cutoff with KQo with multiple players in already. The flop is Q52 with two hearts and one diamond. There are six of us in and Flex leads out for 500 (after PFR checks), player to my right makes it 1000, and I immediately have the instinct that I want to raise. That’s odd because raising seems like the worst of my options in this spot most of the time. I push this thought aside and decide to just call and see what happens. Everyone else folds and Flex calls also. The turn is the 9d and both players check to me. I do not believe this is any sort of trap and I’m not really surprised by this action considering my instincts that neither player seemed strong on the flop. I bet 1700. Flex calls and the player that raised the flop snap folds. Yup. With that said, I don’t expect to get paid off on many rivers, so I will be checking back a lot of cards. The Kd on the river is an interesting one, but before I can think too long about what I’m going to do, Flex fires out a healthy bet of 7500. There is a key piece of missing information that makes this not a snap call. I don’t have the Qd and the Qd was not on the flop. If Flex has a queen, which seems likely, then he has the Qd half of the time and it makes a lot of sense that he just went running diamonds. In fact, it makes so much sense that this might actually be a clear fold. The only other logical hand I lose to is JT of hearts. It’s also hard to come up with hands he could be bluffing with. A4hh? A3hh? 43hh? Other missed heart draws? QJo? QTo? I don’t think so. Sometimes I think I’m taking up too much time in spots that actually probably require a bit more thinking. In retrospect, all things considered – especially the bet sizing – this seems like a pretty easy fold, but in real time, I decided to pay it off even though I called out his hand before he showed it to me: queen high flush.

There was another hand at the 50/100 level where Flex had limped in under the gun, there were two other limps and I made it 600 to go with AK and Flex ends up beating me with J7o on AJ67x, making two pair and getting another healthy river bet from me. As I said, he’s sticky and drastically increases your variance. On the bright side, I decided to pot control turn and check back.

Still, after the first two levels I had 7700, which means I had lost over 60% of my stack already and was wondering if I should punt the rest of it and rebuy if I didn’t chip up early in L3 (the last level to rebuy).

Levels 3-4

Blinds 75/150, I defend J4cc from the big blind for 400. Three of us see the A84 with two club flop. I check, the next guy donks 700 into Flex (the PFR) and he calls. I started the hand with about 10K I think and, again, I don’t expect anyone to fold on the flop and I have too many chips to want to get them all in right now. I call. The turn is a 7 and I check again, the next guy bets 1000 and Flex makes it 4500. I actually give some thought to making a mathematically incorrect call here. If I make my flush on the river, I can’t imagine that Flex will be able to fold with such favorable pot odds, so I could feasibly call here and fold when I brick and probably double up when I make flushes and maybe trips. It’s 100% a bad play, but there is appeal to gambling to double up since I have a half stack and if I miss I’ll be that much closer to rebuying for a fresh stack. I ultimately decide to make the prudent play of laying it down though and so does the other player and Flex shows us both the A7.

Blinds 100/200, I open to 500 with A9 of spades and only the big blind defends. Flop is 762 with two spades and the big blind check-calls 500. The turn pairs the 2 and I decide to keep barreling and bet 1200. He calls again. Sigh. I guess I have to get there. Oh, hello 3 of spades! He checks and I have 5500 and really think if he has anything he’s going to call jam, so I stuff and he does call… with 75o and I double up to 15.5K. We’re healthy again!

Blinds 100/200, someone opens to 600, Flex calls, and I make a very loose defend with 96o. Flop is J65, I check, PFR bets 1200, and Flex folds. I think this is a standard peel. I bink the 9 on the turn, check, he bets 2100 and I make a somewhat hefty raise to 7200, he stuffs it and I snap call. He tables AA and I hold to double up to 37K. Hey, loose preflop call justified! You cooler these people when they have big pairs and they are not folding.

Levels 5-6

Blinds 200/400, someone min-raises to 800 and I call with 33 in position. Flop is 742 and he checks to me. I bet 1300 and he calls. Turn is a jack and he checks again. I already ran this hand by someone else because I ended up hating it. He has done nothing in this hand to make me think he has anything at all, so I feel like betting again here is best. I bet 2200 and he raises me to 7500. And then he proceeds to stare daggers at me. I take my sweet time with this decision and whenever I look at him, he is staring me down, not breaking eye contact. This, plus his two checks and extremely narrow value range (sets? KK, AA?), has me thinking I have the best hand and that he probably wants me to fold. I noted that we were 20K effective and this is basically a decision for his stack size. I ultimately decide this is the kind of high variance spot I’m trying to avoid in this field and make the fold, but I hated it. When I ran this by a friend he suggested checking back turn and possibly calling rivers. I countered that it seems better for me to set my own bet size on the turn while protecting my weak hand and check back rivers than it is to check turn and let him set the bet size on the river and have to play more of a guessing game. Oh well.

Blinds 300/600, I open to 1500 with TT and call a ~9k jam and hold vs AK.

Blinds 300/600, four callers and I check 92o from the big blind. The flop is K92 with two hearts and a diamond and I lead out for 1300 and get two callers. The turn is a very safe 5d and I bet 5000. The next player goes to call with a 5K chip and accidentally drops two of them into the pot, effective min-raising me to 10K. The other player folds and it’s back to me. I do believe it was an accident, but I’m also not in love with the situation. I decide to play it safe and just call. The river is the Qd, which is not a great card for me and I’m pretty happy to see him check back and my two pair holds vs KT.

Blinds 300/600, I open to 1600 with AJhh and only the big blind calls. Flop is T63 with one heart and we both check. The turn is the 2s and I call 2200. River pairs the 6 and he fires out 2600. This is the guy that was staring daggers at me earlier and this spot is much less pressure and I’m getting the same live read and basically snap call this time. He shows A9ss and I win the pot.

I have 68K after six levels on the third break of the day.

Level 7

Blinds 400/800, someone jams 5400 and I call with JJ, but wind up losing to his AJ.

Blinds 400/800, someone opens to 1700, there’s a call, and I make it 4800 with AA. The opener jams for 11K and the other player is pretty deep behind with me and goes into the tank. For the briefest of moments, I actually think he’s going to jam, but he ultimately winds up folding. I snap call and the all in tables… AA. What. The player that folded audibly winces when a ten spikes the river and claims he folded pocket tens. Considering how much time he took and that he looked like he might jam, I believed him. What a dodge! I end up splitting with the other aces.

Another player familiar to me is at my table now, a long time frenemy that I named after Batman villain Solomon Grundy a long time ago because, well, there’s a resemblance. I’ve been crossing paths with Solomon Grundy for years now and he pops into my cash games once in a while but I almost always see him in the bigger local tournaments and even sometimes on the road.

Once upon a time, I sat in a $5/$10 no limit hold’em cash game at Little Creek, thinking it was just a $3/$5 game and ended up selling action to my wife (back when she was my girlfriend and we didn’t share money yet) when I realized I was playing in a bigger game. I was a $4/$8 limit player at the time and didn’t play much no limit and certainly didn’t play it at this level (and never have again), so I was far out of my comfort zone. Anyways, Solomon Grundy was in this game and I will never forget the pain of getting all $800 I had in front of me in the middle with KK and seeing him table AA. It broke my heart and crushed my soul at the time. Losing $800 was a lot to me back then and having it all happen in one hand was stunning.

Well, I bring Solomon up because he opens the button to 3k here with blinds still at 400/800 and I look down at 99 in the small blind. He has about 16K behind and his sizing is quite big, so I decide that I’m just going to have to embrace the variance of this spot and play for stacks. I 3-bet to 10K because the big blind was deep with me, but he folds and Grundy stuffs the rest of his stack in. I snap and he tables 77 and I win a big pot and wish him well.

Blinds 400/800, very next hand and I’m on the button now and open to 2200 with AJo. I have two very capable and aggressive players in the blinds, so I don’t expect to get folds very often and I will be continuing if the SB 3-bets and probably getting it in against the BB’s stack size. Only the big defends and the flop comes down A84 with two diamonds. He check-calls 2700 on the flop and then check-calls 6000 when the 4 pairs on the turn. The river is a queen and he has about 10K behind and checks. I don’t see much upside to betting here since I’m chopping with all the aces I was beating now and it’s hard to imagine him calling with worse. I check back and win and after he makes a comment about “how does he have an ace on the button after winning a big pot?” and I wonder if jamming river actually makes perfect sense because of the metagame dynamics.

87.4K on dinner break.

Levels 8-9

Blinds 600/1200, I defend K8hh for 3000. Flop is KQ8 all clubs. Not excited to play a huge pot here, so I check-call 5500 on the flop and then we both check when the turn brings the four card flush in. The river is a blank and he sizes super small at 5200 and I pay it off.

Blinds 600/1200, one limper, button makes it 3100, and I have AKcc in the big blind. Button has been playing rather snug and we are both deep, so I elect to take the lower variance line of just flatting and taking a flop and the other player comes along as well. Flop is A73 with two spades and I check-call 3500 and the other player overcalls. The turn is the 4s and since I expect to be ahead of the button’s range and am now highly vulnerable to spades on the river, I decide to lead out for 8500. I’m a little concerned about the limper, but I also realize my hand can look like a flush here, so I think it’s fine, even though my sizing is quite small. I am happy to see both players fold.

I open to 2800 with 33 and only the big blind defends. The flop is 942 with two diamonds and he donks a hefty 6k. He has about 18k behind and his flop sizing is big, so this is a really weird spot. Still, it seems way too weak-passive to just fold flop. How often is he leading out big with strong hands? Instead of making sure I put a c-bet in first? I flat. The turn pairs the 9, which I love, but he jams for 18k, which I don’t love. This is a tough spot and I spent a long time in the tank thinking about it and came quite close to folding. Ultimately, his line didn’t make much sense to me and he did not seem comfortable at all. I was quite sure he was bluffing. My main dilemma was if he was bluffing with hands I lose to, like 4x of diamonds or 55 maybe. Since losing this pot wasn’t going to cripple me and I thought he was full of crap, I made the call and he tables A8o and bricks the river and I ship a sexy pot, leaving the rest of the table in legit shock.

Blinds 600/1200, I open to 2800 with JJ and the sticky, solid player on my direct left calls. We are heads up to AT8. Here’s the thing, I expect this guy to continue on this board texture a lot of the time and that is going to make things difficult for me if I’m the aggressor. I also expect him to bet worse hands a lot when I check and checking would be my go to line when I have hands like AK or AQ here. We both check the flop. The turn is a 9 and since I’m never bet-folding this card and I showed weakness on the flop, I think check-calling is best here. I check-call 3000. The river pairs the 8 and I am quite happy to check-call 5000, expecting to win this pot almost all the time. I don’t think he has an ace and I’m blocking straights pretty hard. Unfortunately, he shows me the 87o for trips.

I’ve been jotting my hands down all day and after that hand, as I’m typing stuff on my phone, he asks “are you writing down that I’m a donkey” and I say, “no, I wrote that down a long time ago,” which got a solid laugh out of him. We banter a little more and then he says something about “let’s just take their chips” motioning to the other players like we should just stay out of each other’s way and I’m like, “wait, what did you just call me with?”

Blinds 600/1200, I call 3100 with AJ on the button and we are heads up to KT9 flop with two clubs. I have the ace of clubs and peel for another 3100. The turn pairs the ten and he bets another 3100. I’m not sensing strength and I feel like that’s a better card for my range than it is for his, so I eventually pop him to 8500, expecting him to fold a lot. He calls though and the river double pairs the board with a 9 and I decide to give up. He shows K2 of clubs and I feel a little sick. First, that I didn’t consider 3-betting pre and second, because I didn’t put pressure on him on the river. I felt much less sick about this hand when I saw this guy pay off a turn bet and a massive river bet on a 98xQJ board with AJ a short while later (his opponent had 97). I’m pretty sure I saved chips on the river here.

Blinds 600/1200, my notes say I opened to 3500 with QQ here. That seems strange. Maybe there was a limper or I must have had some other reason to increase my sizing. Anyways, I end up getting called in three spots. The flop comes down 873 with two hearts and the big blind just donk-jams 25k. I call, the others fold, and he tables 98o. Just a total overjam spazz with a weak top pair hand. Unfortunately, his suicide attempt gets a safe landing when a 9 spikes the turn and I can’t counterfeit him on the river. The first hand of the tournament that made me truly nauseous.

Blinds 1000/2000, dealer accidentally gives the small blind a third card and the SB has it set to the side, not touching his actual hand and says “it’s this one.” Meanwhile, I’m looking down at KK in middle position, sweating the situation. The dealer calls it a fucking misdeal. Jesus, we know what card is the burn, buddy, wtf are you doing? I’m tempted to say he should call the floor, but I think that reveals my hand strength anyway, so whatever. It’s a misdeal. So gross and unnecessary.

Levels 10-11

Blinds 1200/2400, we have some bad note taking here. It says someone opens to 5000 and I make it 14k with a 60k stack and he calls. Flop is ten high and I c-bet 16k and he folds. What I didn’t list was my actual hand. I believe I had QQ.

Blinds 1200/2400, I open 6k with AA, big blind defends and folds to a c-bet and I am peaking again with 19 players left.

Blinds 1200/2400, I open 6k with AQhh and big blind defends. I bet 8500 on Q62 two spade flop and he check-raises to 28.5k, leaving himself with ~14k behind. I jam and he snaps with Q5 and I hold and bust him. Peaking!

Blinds 1200/2400, it folds to the small blind and he says “5 more” and then tosses out a single 5K chip. Dealer rules it a raise to 7400, which is 5000 more than the big blind. I’m sitting there with K7o and I’m not really liking what’s going on here. I’m not even sure saying “5 more” and throwing in a single oversized chip is a raise, and if it is, it almost certainly is a raise to 6200 and not to 7400. But whatever. I try not to be “that guy” if I can and don’t say anything. I call. The flop is 742 and the small blind hardly even looks at the flop before betting 12k. Since he is giving off such strong physical tells, I think calling and letting him continue to bluff (or folding if his demeanor changes) makes more sense than raising. Turn is a 3 and again he puts zero thought into the situation and bets 16k. Easiest call of my life. The river is a 6 and since I think my hand is good 98% of the time here and that he probably can’t call anything on this run out, I check back and win vs AK.

I now have 190k with 17 players left and average stack is 108k.

Blinds 1500/3000, I open to 7500 with KQo and someone jams to 33.4K. Easy call. He tables QJss and spikes a jack to double through me.

Blinds 1500/3000, someone opens to 7500, there’s a call, and I decide to call with KQo. Four of us see a king high flop and after the opener checks, the first call jams for ~42k total. Can’t really call with KQ pre and fold here, so I make the call and the other players fold. He tables AK and I get super lucky by spiking a queen on the turn, winning a huge pot, and busting a player. I am peaking again at just under 200k.

Blinds 2000/4000, I open to 10k with 99 and the sticky player on my left makes the call. The flop is K72 with two spades. I would pretty much always c-bet this flop texture, so I bet 14.5k and he calls. Turn pairs the king and also brings a third spade. We both check. The river is a 7, which I actually hate because this guy has proven he’s capable of having 7x hands in his range. I check again and he bets 30k. Kind of a tough spot here. What am I really beating with that he can call on the flop with? Small pairs only really. Unfortunately, he would now have to bluff with those hands. But really, it’s a pretty small range: 66-33. He would almost certainly check back with 88. Anything else he can have, I am probably losing to, unless he’s on a weird airball. Again, seems like an easy fold in retrospect, but I called and he shows KJ.

That dips me below average with 12 players left. I have 125k and average is 141k.

Blinds 2000/4000, I open to 11k with AJ and call a 40k jam and bust a player holding KT. Down to 11 and on the money bubble.

Blinds 2000/4000, button opens to 10k and I make it 40k from the small blind with QQ. I am quite surprised to see him call. Flop is 886 with two diamonds. There is 84k plus antes in the pot and he has about 125k behind. The board texture isn’t super wet, so I can probably get away with betting something like 33-40% pot here, but I decide I don’t want to do any guessing if bad turns come. I just put him all in and put max pressure on him. We are on the stone bubble, so I’m actually surprised when he starts thinking about it and when he ends up tanking for a very long time, it dawns on me that he has a real hand. A pair. I want him to call. He does. Tables JJ. Turn blank. River blank! He’s out! And I basically get a full double as we move to the final table and into the money.

In fact, I start the final table with 350k, which is either the chip lead or close to it, and the average stack is 184k.

A look at the prize pool:

10th – $608
9th – $608
8th – $1065
7th – $1220
6th – $1520
5th – $2130
4th – $2890
3rd – $4560
2nd – $6235
1st – $9580

In other words, the payouts are brutally flat. There is a bigger jump from 9th to 8th than from 7th to 6th and all the jumps are pretty insignificant until four players left. At this point, I am going to be disappointed with anything less than 4th place, I think.

Blinds 3000/6000, I open to 16k with AJ and the big blind defends. Flop is AJ9 one spade and he check-calls 18k quite quickly. He checks-calls 40k very fast on the Ts turn also. River is the 6s, which brings in a backdoor flush, but I have the ace of spades and the jack of spades is on the board, so I’m not concerned about a running flush and he has shown such an eagerness to call that I go for it all on the river and put him all in for his remaining 150k. Unfortunately, he mucks it. Still a nice pot for me to start the final table.

Blinds 3000/6000, folds to me in small blind with AJ. Big blind is nitty and has about 12 big blinds. Easy jam. He snaps and rolls QQ. Sigh. He holds and I double him up. 370k with 8 left.

Blinds 3000/6000, I open to 14k and the button calls. Flop is AKJ and I think this is a good board to pot control. I check-call 25k. Turn is a blank and I check-call 25k again. I’m very unconcerned about my hand with his bet sizing. River bricks again, I check, he bets 30k and I snap. He rolls KQ and I’m good.

Blinds 3000/6000, folds to me on the button and I have A5o. The small blind has a decent-sized stack and plays too tight to play for stacks with him, but the big blinds started with 40k and I’ll definitely get it in with him. I open to 16k and only the big blind calls, which is really strange considering his stack size. Flop is 775 and he open-jams. Snap call. He tables AT and I hold and bust him.

I am now peaking near 500k with 7 left and am totally set up to ship this whole thing.

Blinds 3000/6000, one limper, I make it 20k with AJ and he calls. Flop is QJ5 and he donks 50k. Did I say I was set up to win this thing? Hold that thought. Can I possibly fold AJ here? It is atypical to donk good hands into the PFR so the line is toying with me. But the fact that I am thinking about folding it means that my instincts are telling me something is different here. Sigh. I don’t listen to them. I decide my hand is too good to fold on the flop and if I’m not folding on the flop, then it’s hard to imagine folding ever given his stack size, so I jam. He snaps with QT and I dust off an extra 125k to him.

Blinds 4000/8000, and I’m about to make another misstep. I open to 20k with 55 and the nitty player on my left jams for ~100k. If I asked myself before the hand if I was willing to get 100k in pre against this player before I opened the answer would have been “no.” The problem is, this guy is so tight, I feel like he’s folding roughly 85% of the time. Maybe more. Since he’s almost certainly jamming AK and AQ and probably some more unpaired hands, I have to call and I end up doubling him again when his AA holds up. I actually did flop a one card four flush, but nope!

Blinds 4000/8000, I open to 22k with T9 of clubs. I am increasing my opening sizing when the sticky player that was on my left earlier is in the blinds. He calls and the flop is AAK. He checks to me and I size way down at 15k to make it look like I’m itching for a call and he folds 77 face up.

Blinds 4000/8000, I open to 23k with 44 and only the small blind calls. Flop is K76 all spades and we both check. Turn is 4d, giving me a set and he checks to me again. He has somewhere between 70k-80k and with the pot size at around 60k, I just go ahead and put him in. He then flashes me the ace of spades and a 7… and mucks. Wow. What a flop check by me and what a turn.

Blinds 6000/12000, I open to 30k with QT suited and the nit on my left jams for 85k. Goddammit. I call. He has KK and doubles through me for the third time. UGHHHHHHHHHHH.

That puts me down to 178k and the sticky, good player has all the chips now and proposes a deal. He offers us all $3500 each and he gets the rest (which is a little over $7k). I have about 15 bigs, which is either the shortest stack or the second shortest, and the second biggest stack probably doesn’t even have 22 bigs. The next player out gets $1220 and we are going to have to finish in at least 3rd to get more than $3500. I don’t particularly want to make a deal, but I have zero leverage, and neither does anyone else really. Still, I stay silent and let everyone else talk it out. I am fine playing. Absolutely fine. But if everyone else agrees, I think I have to take the deal. The reality is, the six of us are all very close to push/fold stacks and I might be the only one that actually realizes that and will play accordingly. Also, the payout structure is so flat that surviving and laddering up isn’t overwhelmingly appealing. They all eventually agree to the deal and I begrudgingly agree as well. Can’t be too upset about a $3500 return on a $340 investment, but the competitor in me was a little sad. The competitor in me also would have been pissed if I was the next person out for $1220, so….

A nice little score that gets me almost even in live tournaments for the year.

I have six more possible events in the Muckleshoot Spring Classic over the next week and after typing 5000+ words in this post, I will definitely not be posting play-by-play blogs for each event! Heck no. But I will keep you guys updated.

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Friday Frenzy: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/9/18 (LIVE BLOG)

March 9, 2018

I played 8.5 hours of $15/$30 yesterday and stayed on my extended hot streak with a +$1906 day.

Didn’t have to wait too long to get in the game today (thank goodness).

Not sure how The Joker beat me to the game today, but here he is. I thought the whole day job thing was supposed to prevent me from having to look at his stupid face and listen to his annoying laugh until at least 5 PM.

Rest of starting lineup: Part-Time (back from overseas), Cobra, FBI Guy, an $8/$16 reg playing his first $15/$30 session that I’ve seen, a Muck reg, and a few non-regs.

I got to show The Joker the nut flush on 6th street before I even published this post so that’s a decent start already.

There are rumblings that Palace will be starting a $5/$5 no limit/spread game in the upcoming weeks and I have confirmed that this nasty rumor is actually true. The idea is that it will bring in different players and help fill the room, but hearing multiple players in this game saying they will play it are what my nightmares are made of. Anything that hurts the $15/$30 game is not good for me. I have no plans to play a spread game and greatly prefer limit structure. I will basically never play the spread game if $15/$30 is running. It’s a selfish response but this news makes me slightly nauseous.

3:04 PM: Well, FBI Guy played one orbit and moved to $8/$16, but he was replaced by a major producer. This guy isn’t much of a regular but I played with him last week and it was special.

In fact, we tangled as I was writing this. I open AJdd and both blinds call. He check-calls ATTcc and then donks into me (in Overs) on 3 turn. I call down and he shows me a busted flush draw with Q6cc.

3:24 PM: And the producer takes the lead in today’s war. I open AA under the gun, he calls, Cobra 3-bets, and I cap with six of us seeing the flop. My multiway concerns are diminished when it comes AQ4 rainbow. Only broadway cards are a real threat. I bet flop and get at least three callers. Turn is a 3, I bet and two call. River is one of those dreaded Broadway cards, a king. I bet, the producer raises, the other player folds and I go into the tank. This seems like JT a lot, but this guy would definitely raise me with worse so I just have to pull the trigger on a 3-bet. He snap-caps and shows me the straight. Ughhhh.

He was just complaining about how he can never beat me so, you know, good for him.

5:15 PM: Sorry long time between updates while I ate and let The Joker borrow my phone for a bit to listen to something… something EPIC.

I won a big pot with QQ and felted the producer when he decided to commit his whole $175 stack on 644 in a raised pot. We were in Overs and I had 99 so I was willing to help him get all his chips in the middle. The board ran out 644Q9, relieving any concerns I had about possibly losing the hand.

The Joker is pretty much walking on water so far. He 3-bets the button straddle from the big blind with A2o and outflops KK, my JJ, and A8. Pretty incredible. I’m sure he would want me to note that he was counterfeited on the river but the A2933 board still got him half the pot. Then he 3-bets me with 44 and gets the 442ss3 board when I flop the nut flush draw and two overs. Fortunately, I whiffed but not before we put in multiple bets on flop and turn.

Even though it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster so far, I am up around $500.

5:49 PM: I have no words. The Joker opens UTG+2, I 3-bet AK and two others call. Flop is 866dd and Joker donks. I decide to raise because he is capable of folding weak pairs to continued aggression. We are heads up to 5 turn and I bet in Overs, but I don’t expect him to fold much of his range on that card, so I’m not surprised to see him call. River is the 9d and, well, I can’t really bet that card. It’s obviously way better for his range and if I actually had a big pair here I’m not exactly sure how often I would be betting. I check back and this guy tables 84o.

84o. At a full table. With two folds in front of him. And six players yet to act. I mean… I can’t even comprehend the thought process that goes behind that one.

Edit: My mistake. There was apparently a key element to this hand that I overlooked. The producer had already limped in. There was one committed player and one fold in front of The Joker and then six (SIX!) players yet to act. To recap, one player already put money in the pot. The player least likely to make reasonable folds after the flop. Lol. Yes, Joker, that gives the play so much more merit! 😂😂

Also, I was just in the bathroom and the player to my left was using the stall and walked out without washing his hands. I mean come the fuck on. I’m supposed to sit next to this guy without vomiting? It’s almost as gross as that 84o play.

6:45 PM: Pretty strange hand here: I open KK and it’s 6-way action. Flop is T76, I bet and there’s a raise and reraise behind me. I have a bad feeling already so I just go into showdown mode and call, and it gets capped. s9 bets turn and river on T765T runout and I get a glimmer of hope when he tables JJ, but s2 tables a ridiculously passive 77 (and actually probably accidentally maximizes).

7:04 PM: Kind of struggling vs random variance today. Open KJss and the big blind defends 42o in a 3-handed pot and gets the K644x board.

7:25 PM: OMG. Horrible development. You may recall my description of The Queen and how she is the only person in the world I don’t bet against. Well, that situation resolved itself because the day after I posted that she decided she wasn’t going to play $15/$30 anymore. Well, she starts the second game tonight and then she’s the first player to move into my game. Goddammit. We never had the talk so the current expectation is we still don’t bet each other. So obnoxious.

In other news, the huge producer has won all the chips today. He has almost $3k in front of him now and his chips are more live than anyone and he seems to have zero ability to leave the casino. I would guess he’s an overwhelming favorite to felt all of it.

7:50 PM: Sigh. More turbulence. Multiple limpers, Joker raises SB, I defend J9o, someone back-raises, and 5 or 6 of us see the T7x rainbow flop. Joker checks, I check, someone bets, call, Joker check-raises, I call and five of us see the turn for two bets. Bink. It’s an 8. Joker still leads, I decide to take a high variance line and just call because I think I make more money that way. 3 or 4 players do call and the river pairs the 8. Joker still leads and I call again. Two overcalls and I tell him “I’m pretty sure I have you beat here.” And he says, “oh really? Good read” and tables quads.

Walking on water.

I feel like I’m running like crap today but I’m still up a little bit somehow.

8:51 PM: Hard to complain about this though. Back-to-back hands against the producer: I open KTdd utg, he 3-bets, I call. I check-raise T55 flop and he calls down on T556T. Next hand I check QJo in a multiway pot, bet the J98 flop, he raises and I end up outdrawing his T7 when a ten hits the river, giving me a bigger straight.

And then I just won AA and KK in back-to-back hands as I was typing this. The second one is worth talking about a bit more. I open KK utg, s3 cold calls and Joker defends. Flop is AJ5 and I check because s3 has an itchy trigger finger. He’s about to bet and then the dealer says “Overs” and he suddenly decides not to bet. Since he was coming out with chips, she makes him put the bet out and now Joker is check-raising. I think I’m actually good here so I 3-bet and they both call. There is no more betting and I’m good vs 33 and Joker’s J6. I should probably be betting the turn here since I don’t expect to get raised very often and I want to protect my hand, but all in all, I was pretty happy to get 3-bets in 3-ways on an ace high flop with KK and win the pot.

My session is back in good shape.

9:17 PM: Joker opens, I 3-bet 87cc, button calls it all, one of the blinds defends and Joker calls. Flop is 922 with one club. I bet and button and Joker call. I’m not like this so far, but the 2 on the turn is really good for my story. I bet, button folds and Joker says, “there’s no way you have a pair here” and then makes the expert lay down.

Oh oh. Joker is running bad now. So bad he’s tearing up a little and smearing his clown makeup.

I do have some other regulars at my table now: The Queen, Hit&Run, Joker, and a drunk Taz.

9:39 PM: Just had AA for the third time in two orbits:

#1: stole the blinds

#2: c-bet top set and both players fold

#3: get check-raised on 8542 and they have A3 somehow.

Solid!

10:12 PM: 42o blind defense in a small pot strikes again. I open KK and it’s 3-handed to 552. The producer waits until we are heads up in Overs to donk the 6 turn. He’s so wide, I have to raise. He calls. River 3. He checks and I bet because I don’t expect straights to check and I get popped. So gross.

10:59 PM: This would be an amazing session if most of my big pairs weren’t getting smashed. Joker opens, I 3-bet QQ, and it’s 4 or 5 of us to the flop. It comes down medium-gross. There’s an ace, there’s a king, but there are three clubs and I have the nut flush draw. Hit&Run donks, Joker raises and I decide to 3-bet, hoping I might be able to check back turn if I miss. This plan backfires horribly as Joker caps it and then we both get check-raised on a blank turn. I whiff the river and Joker pays off Hit&Run’s flopped flush with 42cc. 42! That hand is owning me tonight.

I have dropped from a peak of +$1100 to +$500 as the variance eats me alive. This game is crazy now. It’s like 5+ players for a raise every pot now. Absurd amounts of gambling going on.

Running terrible now. I have T9dd on Q87d4d vs KQ and Q6. Any guesses on which hand wins? Yes, folks. It’s the magic 5 on the river.

Meanwhile, as I’m getting crushed, the producer has somehow lost back $1000.

11:38 PM: Just won a big one with TT. Joker raises and I 3-bet. A third player in the pot takes the maximum torch line: check-3-betting the flop, check-calling turn, and donk-bluffing the river on 93358. It’s hard to imagine what hand can check-3-bet that dry of a flop and bet into two players on the river and not have any showdown value. If someone tells me “you got it” at showdown, I will table if I have a reasonably good hand (i.e. not ace high or bottom pair) until they burn me one time with this move. After that, they table first forever. This guy is not in the club yet, so I didn’t make him show, but I kind of wish I had.

12:01 AM: I mentioned the game conditions, right? Well, I don’t typically limp 55 under the gun, but this game is primed for this kind of play. Multiple limpers behind me and a player that only raises big pairs pops it from the small blind. She leads the 762 rainbow flop and I make the call, expecting others to come along behind me. The price is pretty borderline here but I’m calling because I turn a lot of good cards: 3s, 4s, 5s, and, to a lesser degree, 8s and 9s all improve my winning chances against an overpair. Some players call behind and I catch the second best turn card: a 4. I call again and so does another player. The river is an 8 and I’m pretty shocked to see the small blind bet into two players calling down on this board texture, but she fires, I raise, the other player calls $60 cold, she folds, and I’m good for all of it.

12:58 AM: Playing my last orbit. Since I sold action to all the upcoming tournaments I will painfully leave this amazing game so that I can be well rested when I play the Little Creek Main Event tomorrow. It hurts though. The producer has gotten hot again and has close to $3k and I really don’t think he will leave until he loses all of it. Plus Curious George and The King of Pop are in the feeder game and will probably eventually come over. Ugh.

I also got hot again and unless multiple crazy things happen in the next few hands, I will be booking a decent win. With how many big pairs I lost today a win seems pretty fortunate.

Final Score: +$985

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, poker, poker hands, poker strategy, professional poker | Leave a Comment »

2018 Poker Goals

March 8, 2018

Sorry, this is way overdue, but better late than never! My playing schedule is going to be very tournament heavy over the next couple weeks. I will be playing $15/$30 today and tomorrow at Palace, but I’ll be heading to Little Creek Casino for their $340 No Limit Hold’em Main Event on Saturday. I have an online fantasy baseball draft on Sunday night, so I’ll probably just take the day off or play on Global that day, then back to Palace for a $15/$30 Marathon Monday session. Tuesday will be an off day and then Wednesday is the first day of the Muckleshoot Spring Classic series. They have events every day, Wednesday through Sunday, and I sold action to all of them, so that’s my tentative plan for next week. I typically skip the $500 on Saturday if I’m not in the running for Player of the Series (which I never am) so that I can be rested up for the $750 Main Event the next day instead. I have multiple cashes in the Main Event of this series over the last several years, but I have zero final tables and I think only one or two cashes in preliminary events. My phone data goes back to August of 2014 and Muckleshoot has been my worst location during that stretch. I have 0 cashes in the last 11 Classic events I’ve played, so I’m looking to break a cold stretch and finally do something big in this series. I’m way overdue! I will take notes and try to make posts at the end of the day, but that’s something that is much easier to do when I’m on the road by myself than when I’m at home with my wife.

Now onto the goals!

Volume Goals

-play 1800 live hours
-play less than 33% of live cash game hours at $8/$16 or lower
-play 500 hours of PLO (online and live)
-play one mixed game session a month (house games)
-take more shots
-play at least one online tournament a week
-play a bigger WSOP schedule
-play 100 hours of NLHE cash (online and live)

Comments:

1800 total live hours is 150 hours a month which should be easily attainable and if you’ve been following my blog, you know I’m on pace to crush that number.

Playing 67% of my cash game volume at $10/$20 or higher seemed problematic a few short weeks ago, but $15/$30 has been going basically every day at Palace and this should be another goal I will demolish. I was mostly an $8/$16 player for the last three years, but this year I will be playing almost entirely red chip games.

With online play, 500 hours of PLO should be a number I will hit, but my real goal here is to play more in live PLO cash games, particularly when I’m traveling out of state. Even locally, I wouldn’t say I’ve been committed to playing PLO. I average about two sessions a month and I went three months in a row without playing at all last year. I would like to add an Omaha 8 or Better goal but really the only place I go specifically to play O8 is The Orleans in Las Vegas, so it’s not something that comes up much and I only play it when I’m in Vegas if it wasn’t my priority for the day… meaning, I busted out of tournament and it’s 9 PM and I still want to play some poker, but with like zero pressure.

I want to play more mixed game poker this year, so that I’m fresh and ready come WSOP time. Ideally, I’d like to play a mixed game a couple times a month, but even 12 sessions in a year would be a big improvement over my past volume. I seem to play most of the games pretty well using mostly natural instincts and card sense, but I’d like to gain more actual experience.

When I say take more shots I mean in games I might not exactly be bankrolled for. For instance, I shouldn’t be such a nit when I’m in L.A. and Vegas and I should sit down in the $40/$80 games some of the time. A bad session isn’t going to crush me, but a great one could be huge. The concept of having a bankroll for a particular game assumes that you are playing that game regularly. Taking shots seems fine if I’m smart and careful about it. Also, I have some interest in playing the $100/$200 mix game at Muckleshoot, but I wouldn’t do so without taking on a partner or two. Hit me up if you’re interested!

On average, playing one tournament online a week is a piece of cake. When I do play online, I typically play 5-8 tournaments in a single night. This is to help keep me sharp for NLHE tournaments, which I very rarely play live.

My WSOP schedule has been increasing every year, but I’m ready to kick it up a few notches. I already have a room booked for May 30th through June 12th and that could cover up to seven WSOP events and I may wind up staying through – and playing – the Main Event. Certainly I will not be done with Vegas after June 12th. There are at least two more must play events on my schedule after that first trip. The most events I’ve played in a year was five in 2017 and it would be cool to at least double that number for 2018. In all likelihood, if I play the Main Event, I will be selling up to 90% of my action and I will probably need more assistance than my usual backing arrangement.

My weekly goal is 30 minutes of NL cash games online. This seems like the bare minimum practice I need. When I’m playing online though, I drastically prefer PLO and when I play live, it is incredibly rare for me to actually sit in a no limit cash game. 100 hours is way more than my actual weekly goal would add up to, but this is a skill set that I really need to start developing. I feel like I’m a fine NL cash game player, but I’m far from being an expert and I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing anything bigger than $3/$5.

Win Rate Goals

-$15/$30 LHE: 1.25 BB/HR
-$20/$40 LHE (and higher): 1 BB/HR
-$8/$16 LHE (and lower): 1.25 BB/HR
-$1/$3/$5 PLO: $50/HR
-Live PLO: 10 bb/HR
-$0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO: 1 bb/HR
-Online PLO: 5 bb/HR
-No Limit Hold Em: 10 bb/HR
-Live Tournaments: 50% ROI
-Online Tournaments: 30% ROI

*note: limit games are expressed as big bets per hour and no limit and plo are expressed as big blinds per hour

Comments:

First off, it’s not going to break my heart if I don’t meet some of these goal. My real goal is to play amazing poker all the time and hopefully the money comes my way. These numbers just seem like reasonable bench marks. For the non-LHE games, I probably won’t play enough hours for short-term variance not to have a dramatic affect on my final results. But still, I feel like this is where I would like to be at.

I imagine I will play more $15/$30 LHE than any other game this year. When I was sitting at $7/hour after 200 hours in the Palace $15/$30 (thanks mostly to High Hands and Jackpots), I thought a final goal of even 1 BB/HR might be a reach after such a rough start. But after making $11k in four days, my numbers look more like what I’m accustomed to and I think continuing to beat Palace LHE games for somewhere between 1.25 and 1.75 big bets per hour is plenty doable.

Bigger games are tougher, but last year I smashed my goal of 0.75 BB/HR at $20/$40 or higher. No reason I can’t do that again, but since $30/$60 happens at Palace a few times a month now, and I plan to take some shots in even bigger games, I’m going to temper my expectations for the time being.

As I noted earlier, I don’t expect to be playing much $8/$16 this year, so this could be a number that could see a lot of variance.

I won $100 an hour in the PLO game at Palace last year, but I’m positive that’s unsustainable. If I won even half that much an hour in 2018, that’s probably still smashing. I may have set this goal too high, but whatever. Shoot for the moon!

I listed the Palace game separately since it has a 1/3/5 structure. For all other games where you can limp for the price of the big blind, I think a 10 bb/hour goal is solid. Same can be said for no limit hold cash games.

My goal of 1 bb/hr for $0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO online is a joke. Considering I lost 26 bb/hr at this exact game last year, anything in the positive is a huge turnaround and I’ll take it. My results in full ring PLO games are basically the opposite. I don’t really know what I should be making at PLO online, but anything positive seems like a good start and somewhere between 5 and 10 bb/hr is probably a solid target.

I will come back to earth eventually with live tournaments and when I do, it will probably be to the tune of my first losing year of tournament poker ever. Even when I was an idiot alcoholic I never had a losing year in tournaments. But with my average buy-in increasing every year and a rather small sample size, posting a final score in the red is bound to happen.

My ROI in tournaments on Global Poker is currently 13%. My ROI in 755 online tournaments over the past 3+ years is -1%. Setting a goal of 30% here is actually kind of a big deal. But there are so many different players absolutely smashing the Global Poker tournaments that I refuse to believe I can’t drastically improve on my past performance. I can’t speak to my performance on sites before Global, but I do know my biggest reason for lack of success on Global is an abysmal performance in anything with a buy-in of $20 or higher. My average ROI is 83%, which is on par with the beasts on the site, but basically all my good fortune has happened in the smallest buy-ins.

Life Goals

-Reach a new bankroll peak
-clear credit card debt
-pay off final student loan
-visit a new MLB stadium
-play poker in a new part of the U.S.
-meditate every day
-do yoga twice a week
-run/jog more
-lift twice a week
-drink more water, drink less soda
-eat better and smarter, less fast food
-bring my average blood sugar below 150
-bring my A1C below 7
-less distractions
-no toxic chatting/arguing/debating
-keep blogging about poker
-read Jared Tendler’s books
-study mix games
-watch at least two vlogs a week
-read about mindfulness/meditation

Comments:

I had a very successful first year as a professional poker player, but my bankroll at the end of 2017 was actually smaller than it was when I quit my job. To be fair to myself, we did buy a house and I put more money down than I ever planned to and then we spent the first several months fixing up our new home and the costs piled. We also aggressively paid down our debt. I paid off two student loans and one credit card and now we have one of each to go. Then I sent a very painful bundle of money to the IRS for taxes and did so all throughout 2017 as well. I also dropped a chunk of change into an IRA account and invested in some digital currencies. Plus, I like to spend money on experiences. We go to multiple MLB games a year, see plays like “Hamilton”, travel a lot, and I’ve been to Universal Studios and Disneyland twice each since October 2016. I make a budget every month, but we aren’t exactly pinching pennies. I enjoy living and experiencing life. With that said, there have been multiple moments where I look at my total bankroll number and think “WTF?” I had a massive year for an $8/$16 player and I had less money than I started with? I’ve been working on this post for a while now and I’ve gotten healthy over the past few weeks and saw considerable growth for the first time in a while. Being able to play $15/$30 on a daily basis five minutes from home should be like giving myself a raise that is nearly double my previous cash game hourly. That’s obviously extremely helpful. With that said, I feel comfortable playing $30/$60 regularly. I want to say I felt comfortable playing $40/$80 – I didn’t have any nerves – but I also quit the game after dropping a couple racks in about an hour. That’s not giving myself a chance to overcome a poor start. I do that all the time at my normal limits. I want to end 2018 with at least a $40/$80 bankroll, even if I won’t be playing it regularly.

I mentioned we still have a little credit card debt and I have one student loan left. Even though I want to grow my bankroll, clearing unnecessary debt is and has been a bigger priority for us.

My wife and I travel once a year to visit a new MLB stadium. We’ve been doing this since 2014 when we went to Anaheim to watch watch the Angels play the Dodgers. In 2015, we went to San Francisco; 2016 we went to Denver, Colorado to watch the Rockies; and last year we went to Dodger Stadium and the Mariners spring training complex in Peoria, Arizona; I also happened to be driving into L.A. during Game 2 of the NLCS and made a spur of the moment decision to buy tickets to watch some playoff baseball and make my third visit to Dodger Stadium of the year (I did a park tour in January 2017). This year our current plan seems to be to visit New Orleans then drive to Houston for an Astros game and then drive to Arlington for a Rangers game before flying back home out of Dallas.

I would also like to go to somewhere I’ve never been for a poker trip. I played at Thunder Valley last year and some new casinos in L.A. earlier this year, but the only place I’ve played poker outside of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada is at Ameristar in Blackhawk, Colorado. One of the best things about my profession is that I can travel and work at the same time and seeing new places is one of my favorite things to do.

Lots of health goals. I was doing really well with meditation and yoga for a while there and I’ve fallen off the cliff since $15/$30 started getting spread every day. I’ve mentioned this before, but my balance has been struggling, and on the days that I plan to play, I want to be there as soon as the game starts and I typically don’t leave before 1 AM, which leaves very little room for production on my work days. I plan to play today and I haven’t looked at Bravo yet, so I just need to accept the fact that I need to get some things done before I go play and I might have to wait a bit to get into the game. Meditation, yoga, lifting, and jogging are all things I can incorporate back into my life when I normalize my sleep schedule and accept that I don’t need to be playing poker every waking hour of my work days.

My diet is absolute shit. I’ve never been huge on preparing my own meals, but I am at an all-time worst right now. I’ve always been skinny and gaining weight has been near impossible for me throughout my life. Well, I’m finally average weight for my height and I have some actual flab going on. I’m sort of happy about that, but I’m not happy about how I got there. I eat at the casino probably 10+ times a week and I eat fast food now more than I ever have because I feel I don’t have time for anything else. I used to have a goal of making one meal a week, but that’s fallen off to like once a month, if that. It’s all quite pathetic and I’d like to focus on eating better and healthier, starting with making my own meals more often. I also would like to make water my drink of choice. I do pretty good about that when I’m playing poker, but I tend to gravitate towards diet soda when I’m at home.

I have some goals for my diabetes as well. I think I do a decent job overall with my blood sugar, but I can definitely manage it better and I’m certainly not helping myself with a lot of my meal choices. My numbers still trend higher than they should and I want to work on lowering them. Exercising regularly and eating healthier will go hand in hand with that.

Less distractions. I just want to use my time more efficiently. My days can start off really poorly. I might spend the first two hours drinking coffee and doing pointless stuff online and before I started live blogging my sessions (which I think is productive), I would spend my time out of hands doing stupid stuff on my phone and not paying attention. I am a pillar of strength at the poker table, but when I play online, that chat box gets me sometimes. It’s so much easier to tell someone what you think or respond to their stupid comments when you’re sitting at home behind your computer screen. I admit I can be a bit toxic in that regard and I need to work on channeling my live table presence into the online arena. I also have a tendency to get into stupid and pointless arguments and debates on Facebook, online forums, and the like. I suppose I enjoy debating and witty banter, but it’s a bad use of time that I could spend doing something else way more productive and healthier.

I plan to keep blogging about my poker experiences. It’s amazing how much my audience has grown since I decided to start posting regular poker content. I appreciate everyone that has been reading and rooting me on!

Finally, some study goals. By goodness, I’m going to read through both of Jared Tendler’s books and do all the damn work he asks me to do. My rough stretch through January and into February proved that I still have a lot of work to do on my mental game. I also want to study and play mix games more often, keep watching poker vlogs, and continue reading about meditation and mindfulness – and making the time to do all that.

Posted in poker | Tagged 2018 goals, gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, no limit hold em, poker, poker goals, poker strategy, poker tournament strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 3 Comments »

Friday Fever: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/2/2018 (LIVE BLOG)

March 2, 2018

Whoops. My late start today seems to have cost me. I just checked Bravo and Palace already started the $15/$30 game and there are six people on the wait list. Ouch. On the bright side, that might mean there’s a chance for an early start to a second game. The Leak and I will be heading there shortly, but looks like I might have to play a little $8/$16 today.

I finished February off with a scorching two weeks, going +$12,000 over the last 14 days of the month, despite punting almost $900 in Lincoln City. Safe to say my 2018 is back on track and I’m right where I’d want to be at this point of the year.

Yesterday continued my hot streak as I booked a +$2080 day to kick off March, most of it in $15/$30. I can’t think of too many interesting hands off the top of my head, but one thing I can say for sure is that The Tick won basically zero pots against me and, even though he plays reasonably tight overall, he seems to be one of those people that just has to play whenever I raise preflop. I’ve mentioned before that he’s run well above average against me previously, but the tide turned full circle yesterday. I either had him crushed in every pot we played or made the winner on the river. He was a pretty big nuisance to me in the first half of last month, so I enjoyed squashing this bug multiple times yesterday.

We have a lunch planned in Federal Way tomorrow and I think we’ve agreed to finally play our first session of 2018 at Fortune. I might be taking Sunday off in honor of the 2018 Academy Awards and I’ll try to pump out some quick reviews for Lady Birdy, The Post, Phantom Thread, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Florida Project before the Oscars air.

Heading to Palace now.

2:06 PM: A little locked out at the moment. I’m #5 for $8/$16 and #6 for $15/$30. So I’m going to play $4/$8 for a bit and rank shortstops for fantasy baseball.

Obviously not planning to post $4/$8 hands but some things need to be done: I’m sitting with my boy Shonn’s fam (T and C) and I ask for a table change because I’m not sure they know I sit down to crush and crush only. Well, before I can even start my session in my phone, C limps, I raise AA, T 3-bets me and C back-caps it. Flop is AKQ and they both call. But things get crazy on the turn and we get it capped there. River is a non-pairing blank and any concern that C has JT is relieved when he checks river; I bet, T calls all in, and C folds AT face up and I cooler T’s set of queens.

2:56 PM: Finished my $4/$8 warm-up at exactly +$200. As I was about to take my $8/$16 seat there was a flurry of movement in the $15/$30 game and I suspected my wait would not be long, so I passed on $8/$16 and seconds later I was in the $15/$30.

Starting lineup: The Tick, $8/$16 reg, super loose $8/$16 reg, some guy I’ve never seen with about $2500 in chips, another loose player, myself, Elmer, a decent $8/$16 reg, and Game Genie.

3:27 PM: Slimer has replaced one of the $8/$16 regs.

3:37 PM: Slimer just felted Game Genie’s AA with JJ in a massive multiway pot, which is pretty annoying. I probably root for him even less than The Tick.

3:45 PM: New nickname alert: we have been joined by The Invisible Man, a name earned from being by far the tightest player in the greater Tacoma area. In fact, it’s probably a waste of a name because he never plays a pot and will basically never be mentioned on the blog.

I’ve won good pots with AK and a set of jacks so far to get off to a decent start.

Game Genie has been replaced by someone I don’t have much experience with.

3:52 PM: It’s a tarp! Elmer buys the button and it folds to the cutoff who limps in. I raise KK on the button, Elmer folds, and the cutoff calls. Flop is Q8x and he check-calls. Turn is a king and now I get check-raised. Yum yum! I 3-bet and he calls down with… AA! A nice little cooler reversal that I would have won more on if not for the expert slow play.

4:41 PM: Triple donk alert! It’s Elmer vs The Tick: Elmer raises pre, Tick 3-bets, and four other people see the flop with them. King high board and Elmer donks, Tick raises, some others call, Elmer calls. Turn pairs the king and Elmer donks, there’s a call, Tick raises, Elmer calls, and they are heads up. River brings in the running spade flush and… Elmer donks! Tick just calls now and Elmer’s AK > Tick’s KQ. And we are happy because we like Elmer and the ole Tickster lost a big one.

4:50 PM: Taz and his friend have joined the game and it’s about to get a little better, but there are three legit nits in the game right now.

Two players limp and I check 64cc. I bet all three streets on 86648 and The Invisible Man calls me down – the last two streets for $50 each – with what was probably QQ.

Blog LEGEND Radio Mike just replaced Elmer.

5:09 PM: Back-to-back sexy hands against Taz:

Hand 1 – I raise 88 under the gun and he calls from SB. There are other people in the pot but they fold on 762cc flop. Taz check-calls. Turn pairs the 6 and he check-calls again. River Kc and when he doesn’t donk, I think I can safely narrow him down to a 7 and I go for the value. He check-calls and I’m good.

Hand 2 – Very next hand, Radio Mike posts in the big so I’m under the gun again and greet Mike to the table with a splashy KTo raise. Taz calls button and Mike defends. Flop is T83 with two hearts, I bet and Taz raises. He can’t have many better made hands than KT so I expect to be ahead here almost all the time, however, he could have draws that aren’t far behind. So I plan to donk the turn if it doesn’t improve QJ or a flush draw. Turn bricks, I donk and he calls. Great success. River 7h, I check-call and he was bluffing with QJ. Got em!

5:33 PM: Here’s a good hand from Slimer, showing he really understands hand ranges and the player pool: Taz limps, Slimer raises, Radio Mike cold calls, another caller. Flop K22 with two diamonds, Slimer bets, Mike raises and they are heads up. Slimer check-raises a blank turn and Mike calls. River is 8d and they both check. Slimer tries to hesitate long enough for Mike to table first but winds up showing down 44 and Mike wins with KQ. Nice hand, SLIME!

6:00 PM: Pretty good run out where I have 84dd in the big blind in a limped pot and lose to QJ on 842 flop. Of course, I get popped on the turn while I’m still ahead before losing on the river.

6:35 PM: Slimer has left (good riddance) and has been replaced by The King of Pop himself, complete with vintage MJ glitter fedora. This is good. Very good. A nitty player leaves and is replaced by a borderline maniac! And the game has been needing the boost. It’s been about as bad as I’ve seen the $15/$30 here.

6:49 PM: The King of Pop finds lots of joy in beating me in hands, making sure to let the table know “only him.” He calls me “young tiger” and insists on fist-bumping people after he sucks out on them in massive pots and, unfortunately, I am within arm’s reach at the moment.

7:19 PM: The Invisible Man just raised back-to-back hands which is something I feel confident in saying I’ve never seen before.

7:30 PM: A little high variance poker here. One player limps and I raise 97dd on the button, the big blind 3-bets and limper folds. I call. Big blind has been playing quite LAG, so when I see the JcTc3d flop I’m already thinking I might have to take a more aggressive approach here against someone that could be super wide. I decide on just calling the flop but when the turn is the 6d, I spring into action with a raise. We are in Overs and I’m immediately punished by a snap 3-bet. Okay, I guess I have to make something now. River Jd. Well, that’s something. He still leads but that doesn’t matter much, so I raise and he pays it off with… AQcc.

7:44 PM: I open AJo and Taz is one of the callers from the blinds. Flop is JTT and Taz donks. I call. Turn J, he bets, I call. River blank, he bets, I raise and he calls with T9 and then throws his cards off the table and leaves the game. Lol.

Cobra takes Taz’s seat.

Also, The Riddler is in the building. Playing poker. Not even on the list for my game. Some villain.

7:59 PM: Cobra introduces himself to the table by trying to steal my big blind from the cutoff. I look at the ace of spades and call. We are heads up to 643 two spade flop and I check-raise without looking at my second card. This flop just seems better for my range than it does for his. He 3-bets though. I peak down at the 2 of clubs. Well that’s disappointing, but it is something. I call. Turn is Ts which gives me the nut flush draw and I check-call. River is a jack and he bets again. I made it this far and I know he’s capable of leveling so I call and he shows Q9 high. 💪🏻

8:27 PM: I love when they punt to me. Under the gun opens, wild player calls, another call, I 3-bet AKo from the small blind, and everyone calls. Flop A64, I bet and only the crazy dude calls. Turn pairs the 4 and I bet-call in Overs. Check-call 9 river and he shows KQo. Oh, thank you Santa.

The King of Pop’s magical fedora in temporary time out:

8:50 PM: King of Pop limps UTG and I raise KQo from MP and he check-calls me down on QJ86A board with… A2o. 😂🤦🏻‍♂️

9:20 PM: Another sick run out: Radio Mike opens from MP, I 3-bet 98ss (no respect), and the loose, wild player sticks around in the big blind. I bet all the way down on Q9428 and get check-raised by the wild player and he shows me… 88. Really?

9:57 PM: I open A6o and only the wild player in the small blind and the big blind call. Flop is 954 and I get check-called by the maniac – a good result. Turn is a 2 and since I’m never folding on this card and I want to showdown, I check behind. River is a king and he leads. I’m thinking about calling but I don’t want to lose to a 4 or a 2 so I pop it and he folds.

10:31 PM: Heater is on: Cobra opens button, a good player 3-bets small blind, and I defend KQo. Flop is K76 with two spades. SB bets, I raise and he 3-bets. Cobra folds and I just call. Turn is Ks, which seems like a great card for my range so when he still bets I just call not really sure if I have the best hand or not. King on river makes me a little more confident though and I get two big bets from his TT on the river. Kind of surprised by his line here.

Very next hand, Tick opens, multiple cold callers, I cal J9dd. Board runs out 996Q2 and the wild player gives me multiple bets on the turn.

I appear to be up about $1300 after treading around even all day.

11:42 PM: Speaking of treading water… I’ve played zero pots of note in the past hour plus. I did get the top High Hand for quad kings and added $230 to my stack. Cobra took one of the players outside to smoke weed or something and that player is now basically dysfunctional, slowing down the game tremendously.

12:08 AM: I haven’t won a pot in almost two hours and a slow drip has become a bit more steady. After peaking around +$1500 I am now up about $650.

12:24 AM: The Tick saves the day! I open AQ, 5-ways to Q94hh, I bet, Tick raises, field clears, I 3-bet, he calls. Turn 6, I bet, he raises. Okay, I guess I’m paying off. Check-call river and we have a KQ overplay!

12:42 AM: Call me The Exterminator! Tick opens, button calls, I defend KQo. Flop is KQT and I check-raise, Tick 3-bets and I cap. I lead turn and he raises. This is where I, once again, have to believe he’s saying he has me beat. I just call. River king! I check-raise and I show some faux pity when he tables AJ.

Folds to small blind and he tells Radio Mike he wants to run it… for a $250 High Hand… that will put $6 into the rake. You may recall me saying no to someone when they asked me to run it before and this is why: they run it, the small blind “wins” the pot and then gives Mike back $12. I say “got him” and laugh in Mike’s face.

2:33 AM: That’s a wrap. I’m home now and it was a decent run to the finish line. The heater is real: I finished +$1580 for the day between $4/$8 and $15/$30.

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Mini Monday: $15/$30 @ Palace – 2/26/18 (Live Blog)

February 26, 2018

Sorry to leave everyone hanging yesterday. I actually did end up staying to play poker but I decided not to blog because I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay and play. Well, I ended up playing 3.5 hours of $8/$16 and winning +$255 and then they actually got a $15/$30 game off the ground and I played in that for another 6.5 hours and “won” +$103. I used quotation marks because what really happened is I collected my rakeback and subtracted it from my buy in amount. So technically I had a small losing $15/$30 session.

By about 4 PM, the $30/$60 players had arrived and there were 11 names on the list, but I took my name off since I wasn’t planning to play deep into the night (I ended up leaving around 9 PM) and I really don’t want to play a shortened session at my highest stakes. The game never started.

It’s a shame I didn’t blog my session yesterday because there were some classic hands. Here’s one I can remember:

Multiple limpers, I complete 94 of spades from the small blind, big blind checks. Flop is 943 with one spade. I lead, big blind raises, one of the limpers 3-bets, and I cap it. Three of us see the 9 pair on the turn, I bet and they both call. The river is irrelevant, I bet and they both call. Hand seems pretty standard and somewhat lucky for me until they turn over their hands: JJ and KK. Yes. I saw this flop for a fraction of a bet. Amazing.

I’m on call for the $15/$30 game start today. There are currently six names on the list, so I’m going to hop in the shower and head that way. The reason this is not a Marathon Monday session is because my wife flies back from Vegas tonight and will be home around 9 PM, which means my ass better be there to greet her. Or else.

12:54 PM: Okay, so I’m at Palace, eating breakfast. There are nine on the list for $15/$30 but it’s kind of a tough game start for the floors because a decent amount of the players are in $8/$16 right now and they don’t have a ton of backup. It’s close though.

Stays tuned.

1:17 PM: Cards are in the air, with the game starting 6-handed.

Starting lineup: Radio Mike, myself, SLIMER, a fellow Run It Up warrior that I recognize from Fortune, a total unknown, and Elmer.

Radio Mike and I have a $5 bet on when the game will be full. I took over on 25 minutes (1:42).

First clash: Radio Mike opens, I 3-bet black queens, he calls. Flop K72 with two hearts, he check-raises, I call. He bets 9h turn and I fold.

1:31 PM: 7-handed. 11 minutes to go!

1:56 PM: Ship that bet.

Open AA and only unknown big defends. Flop 97x two diamonds and he check-calls. Turn Kd, he donks, I raise (with Ad in my hand) and he calls. River blank and he check-calls with a flush.

I think checking back river here could be reasonable, but against a player I have zero history with, that didn’t 3-bet the turn, it seems a bit passive.

Tendencies noted.

Here’s another special hand from yesterday:

I open QQ and three of us see the Q73 flop. I bet, s1 calls, and the other two players fold. But when the last player folds, he thinks the hand is over, so he tosses his cards on mine (protected by an Overs button), picks them up with his, and folds all four cards. This was a pretty special feeling holding top set and knowing someone called me.

Fortunately, my hand was protected and I was able to retrieve my cards with no dispute but I would love to see how a floor would handle this a) as it happened and b) if my cards got mixed into the muck even though they were initially protected.

My set held up against someone that clearly had the case queen.

2:36 PM: Game is finally full.

Some hands:

Limpers, Radio Mike raises SB, I defend A8dd; he bets A87d, I raise and pick up two cold callers, Mike just calls; turn is Jd, an interesting card as it gives me a flush draw but also completes the best draw (T9), as well as improves AJ and JJ. I bet though and only Mike folds; river king and now I get raised. I snap call, but I probably should have thought about this for at least a few seconds. He shows K8. He’s kind of a green player and it seemed like the king improved him and I have all those hands beat, so I definitely cost myself $30 here.

Unknown opens, Elmer calls, I 3-bet AThh on the button and it gets capped. Flop J8x one heart, I overcall. Turn 9h – a beauty. I’m only about 30% to improve and I don’t have any real showdown value if I miss, so I just call even though this is a dream turn card. River brick and Elmer wakes up with a raise and shows T7cc.

3:25 PM: A perfect run out for Slimer. He opens UTG, I defend JTdd, the only caller. Flop is KTx two spades one club and my plan is to check-call down on most run outs, but the river is a ten and a third club and I think he might check back hands like QQ, JJ, and maybe a king, so I donk. He raises, I call and he shows AQ of clubs for a running flush.

4:20 PM: I open cutoff with 76dd, button and big blind call. Flop Q62ss, button is only caller and he raises me on 3s turn, I 3-bet and he calls. River Ace, I bet he calls.

Nothing too exciting… just the most critical pot I’ve played in the last hour.

Slimer is gone. Taz in the game.

4:49 PM: A guest hand. I saw this one go down, but since Radio Mike decided to text me a recap, I’ll copy and paste it:

“Just raised A3ss in ep, [player x] folds A6o exposed, three call, flop K74dd, I c-bet two call, turn 3d I bet one call. River Ac I bet and think to myself ‘please don’t call because I really don’t want to show this…’ and he calls. Nice pot though!”

5:22 PM: Momentum has been hard to come by today, mostly because I’ve been losing with top pair hands a lot. For instance:

I open AK, lots of callers, flop is KQ6, I bet and two call. Turn is a 7, I bet, Taz raises, and small blind 3-bets. I fold, Taz caps, and it goes check-call on river. Taz tables 76 suited and the small blind has KQ.

Most of my top pair losers have been of the one bet on turn and river, have to call down variety though.

5:34 PM: What was I saying about momentum?

Monster Pot Alert: lots of limps, Radio Mike raises, I 3-bet AQo on button, Taz caps small blind and it’s six ways for a cap to Q86, two diamonds. Taz checks flop, someone donks and there’s calls in front of me, I raise, Taz cold calls, the flop bettor 3-bets, and I cap.

Five of us remain on turn when board pairs with an 8. Taz starts the action by folding. Yup. That happened. The flop 3-bettor still bets and three of us call.

River is a 9 and everybody checks to me. Hard to believe I don’t have the best hand here, so I put a bet out and get called by KQ.

6:25 PM: The Torch just sat in the game and posted $15 under the gun because that’s what people do.

6:31 PM: The Joker gets to sit down with immediate position on me because I once again have the fortunate problem of having too many chips to move. Also, I’m leaving in an hour or two.

7:23 PM: Big, multiway raised pot. I defend 22 in the big. Flop is T72 with two clubs. PFR bets, everybody calls, I check-raise, he 3-bets and everyone else folds. I flat. Turn 9c, I go for a check-raise and he checks back. Well, that’s annoying. I considered leading because a club hit but I really didn’t think he’d slow down. No matter. River queen. I’ll check-raise now. He bets and calls and I’m good.

8:38 PM: So after my wife landed at SeaTac and I started racking up my chips, she hit me with the “you don’t have to come home” text and I called bullshit on that and left. I figured I at least owed her the courtesy of not having look at my open and unpacked suitcase on the living room floor when she walked in the door.

Well, it ended up being a pretty good session. After I won that monster pot with AQ, I sort of cruised from there, winning a lot of good-sized pots.

Final score: +$1690

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Super-Sized Sunday: $30/$60 @ Palace – 2/25/18 (Live Blog)

February 25, 2018

The bad news is I went to Chinook Winds in Lincoln City, Oregon this weekend to play their amazingly structured $575 Main Event. You start this tournament with 40K in chips, blinds at 50/100, and 50 minute levels. If you’re lucky enough to make it to level 7, you can add on another 30K in chips for $200. It’s super deep. It’s honestly hard to mess this one up before the add on.

I lasted 2.5 hours. I lost two big pots on the river and missed a flush draw in another big one. I was in level 3 with around 10K in chips when this hand came up:

Blinds 200/400/50, I open with JJ for 1000 from middle position and only the big blind defends. Flop is Q53, I bet 1200 and they call. Turn is a 4 and we both check. River is a jack and she bets 5K. I only have like 8K total left, so I put the rest of it in and she snaps with A2. Good game.

It wasn’t even 3 PM yet. I had a hotel room booked for the night. I checked out with no refund and drove home.

To recap my trip: I drove 8.5 hours round trip and spent $785 (plus gas and lodging and food) to play less than three hours of poker and see Phantom Thread!

The good news is I was home by 8:30 PM on Saturday night and saw that there were 18 names on the list for $30/$60. I’m #19. If history is any indicator, I’m going to get in my car in about five minutes, drive to Palace, and start the $30/$60 game at 11 AM.

11:06 AM: Amazing. 2 of 20 names on the list were here for the $30/$60 game start. There’s obviously a disconnect somewhere. The only way I can think of to solve this problem is to either have a later game start or just have an interest list every day and fire it off when we can. It boggles my mind that 90% of the list doesn’t understand they need to be here at 11 to start the game.

Or move the game. A Friday night game seems more plausible. Two Fridays ago there were enough $30/$60 players here to have two games – and two $15/$30 games. Can’t say I really want to start a $30/$60 game at 6 PM though.

I don’t really get it. I guess people just want other people to see their names up for $30/$60 but don’t really plan to play it?

I’m currently playing $8/$16, but seeing as how I haven’t unpacked and I have a big mess at home, I might head out of here soon and come back around 4.

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Super-Sized Sunday: $30/$60 @ Palace – 2/18/2018 (LIVE BLOG)

February 18, 2018

I went to the UW-Colorado game with Radio Mike last night and it was over early enough that playing poker seemed like a reasonable idea. We stopped in Palace and there were two full $15/$30 games going. One of them looked really good and one of them looked really bad. By the time I got in the game, around 9 PM, The Leak (aka my wife) had migrated to the good game and I was in the bad one.

Also in the good game was Palace royalty, The Queen, an elderly woman that has been a staple in the Palace $8/$16 game for at least the past decade and possibly the past two decades. She plays hours that make me look lazy. She’s over 80 and logs 200+ hours every month like clockwork. Anyways, before I started working at Palace, I played tough poker against The Queen and while she would get annoyed with me at times, she seemed to respect it because I was a nice guy. But when I started working at Palace, I formed an unspoken agreement with The Queen to never bet each other heads up. I can’t remember the origins of how or why I thought this would be a good idea. It was illogical. I played way too much poker for it to be worthwhile to sacrifice my potential earn on the table (and the integrity of the game) for whatever I would be making from her in tips off the table. But it was just one of those things where it was understood that if you work at Palace, you don’t bet against The Queen when you are heads up. So I spent the year I worked at Palace and the past 16 months avoiding games that The Queen was in. Her presence in my game changed the way I played too much. How much sense does it make to open wide from the cutoff or button if she’s one of the blinds and I frequently find myself heads up with a marginal hand against a player I don’t bet against? Or maybe I just call with a hand that I would always raise with because she’s the player that lead out and I want money to keep going in the pot? It was bad for me and it was bad for poker.

Somehow it managed not to be a big deal. The Queen would always play in the main $8/$16 game and I would always play in the feeder games, so this conflict would rarely come up. For years, the feeder games at Palace have always been significantly better than the main game. It was an arrangement I could live with.

When $15/$30 started getting spread, I thought The Queen would stay at $8/$16, but she seems to be fancying herself a $15/$30 player now and I just refuse to check a hand down with anyone at that limit. So I’m going to pull her aside and tell her our contract has expired… in respectful terms. Hopefully she understands and if not, oh well. But I hadn’t done that before last night, so the good $15/$30 game had a player I don’t bet against and my wife – who I do bet against, but would strongly prefer not to play at the same table as.

Meanwhile, the game I was in was about as bad as I could imagine a game being at Palace. I was looking around the table and I saw one player I would consider someone I’m aiming to play with. Everyone else was either solid or nitty. Sometimes you have to accept the situation and grind it out, but I was sitting there, starting a session at 9 PM, sitting in a crappy game, with no intentions of moving to the good game, and plans to play $30/$60 at 11 AM the next day, and I had to ask myself: what the hell am I doing here?

So I posted in my big blind, defended Q8 against the only loose player at the table and check-called him down on Q4396 and lost to 66, folded for the rest of the orbit, and got the hell out of there.

I’m not sure when the last time $30-$60 went, but it’s been a while. Maybe a month. It’s going to go today though. There are currently 21 names on the list and while half of them could be pretenders or names that have been up there for a month now, I also know about half of them are legit and ready to play today and that means the game is 100% go.

This is a session that could completely turn my year around – or put me right back where I was. Heading into today, I’m solidly green for February now and down about $300 for the year. Time to right this ship. Hopping in the shower and heading to Palace for an 11 AM start.

11:16 AM: Kind of a rough start with The Riddler being expected to count past ten and sell chips to everyone. Amazingly 8 of the 21 names on the list are actually here to start the game and we are in action.

Starting lineup: loose Palace reg, unknown, The Sandman, bad and loose Palace reg, loose-passive Palace reg, The Joker, Dansby Swanson, and myself.

First hand I have AJss on button in a 3-way raised pot. Flop is KsQsTh and Dansby caps with me. Turn 8s and he check-calls down and I start my session off with a nice pot.

We are five hands in now and Sandman has raised or 3-bet pre in four of them.

1:05 PM: Update incoming. Playing stakes this big against some players I don’t have a ton of hours with I think it’s best for me to keep my focus on the game while I’m sitting at the table, so I’ll probably just be posing quick updates on breaks every 90 minutes.

Pretty good start. I was rocking an absurd 14/3 after about 40 hands but I have a more normal 22/10 now. I’ve lost with TT twice but I won a good pot with AA against Sandman.

I also got lucky defending my big with 96ss and getting three bets on flop and three additional big bets from AQ on a Q96T3 run out.

Then I flopped the nut flush draw in a multiway pot and got check-raised by The Joker on the flop before turning the nuts and getting three more big bets from him.

The game is great so far. It’s definitely not tight. Four of my eight opponents currently have VPIPS of 32% or higher.

1:17 PM: Yeah this game is pretty decent. Player open-limps in MP, I limp on button with T7dd, SB calls, BB checks. Flop is JJ3, everyone checks to me and I bet. Only the limper calls. Turn is a 8 or something and he check-tanks, says he has the best hand, and then folds AQcc face up.

Well played, sir.

2:17 PM: Had a gross spot where I’m the PFR with 77 and three people call me on 665cc and then I get check-raised by an unknown on 6653. Can’t really fold 77 there and I wind up paying off his 55.

I open cutoff with K7ss and button 3-bets. We are heads and flop is A43 one spade. I check-raise and he calls. Turn 9s, I bet and he folds. 💪🏻

I open 98o from cutoff and only SB calls. I bet twice on K93K and get check-raised and decide I’m calling down. River is a King, he bets and shows A3. I folded TT to this player on AAxQ a while ago and I no longer feel that great about it.

I’m currently running at 23/10, which is well below my norm, and I still think I’ve been opening too wide for how loose the game is. For instance, I open 55 and three players call and one reraises and I’m like wtf am I doing? No good ending to that hand.

Im up a few hundred currently.

2:32 PM: Worst player in the game just hit and ran it pretty decently. He is being replaced by one of the best regulars at Palace.

2:52 PM: Another bad player left and is replaced by a good Fortune regular. The quality of this game has gone down tremendously.

Meanwhile, I just ran JT into 97 on T86J8 in a blind vs blind, non-chopping situation. Pretty cool.

3:07 PM: The game is 8-handed now with no list and only a couple of key players holding it together.

I had another stupid blind vs blind hand where I raise 72dd from the small blind, bet J62d flop, double barrel the 9d turn and get raised. We both check ten river and I lose to K9.

Another stupid hand: a weak player limps under the gun, I call T9o from SB, BB checks. Flop A96ss and I check-call a bet from UTG. I think a check-raise is reasonable here, but I have seen this player limp AQ suited already. I decide to call and see what happens. We both check on 3 of spade turn. 7 of spades puts a four flush on board and I bet without looking to see if I have one. He tank-calls and I don’t have a spade. He doesn’t either but his 76cc rivered two pair.

Part of what makes Peter such a great Joker is that he often laughs after beating you in a pot. He just did this to someone else and I told him he needs to work on his “post-win laugh,” which made the table laugh because they thought I was calling him out, but what I was really suggesting is that he needs to crank it up to a true Joker-like maniacal cackle.

Speaking of The Joker, we played an epic hand that I will have to share after the session.

3:41 PM: Dear Poker Gods,

The Human Torch is on the list for $30/$60. Please let him last long enough to sit in this game and, if it’s not too much to ask, can he have at least $1500 to play with?

Thank you. 🙏🏻

3:58 PM: A higher limit player that has been really good action in my experience just sat in the game and potentially made it significantly better.

And The Torch is actually taking a seat. I predict $500 buy in.

4:12 PM: I was wrong – he bought in $530.

4:29 PM: Well I can’t afford to take a break with The Torch in the game, so I’ll try to post some hands while I’m playing.

Here are some key recent pots:

I come back from my last break and post with 92o and it’s raised and called in front of me. There are no two cards I’m folding in position for one more bet so I’m in there too. The three of us see T98dd flop and I overcall. Turn is 6d and they both check to me. I might have the best hand anyway but this is a mandatory bet. The PFR calls me and I’m forced to chop with AQss when the river comes a 7. 🤔

The Torch opens and I 3-bet KJc, he caps. Flop is Q87cc and he checks to me. I bet and he calls. Turn is a 5 and he snap-calls when I bet. River is a 6 and it pains me beyond belief, but I check it back because it’s clear to me he has no intentions of folding whatever it is he has. He wins with AK. I’m 100% convinced he’s calling river so I stand by my check.

5:35 PM: I open QhJc and get four callers. Flop is AhTh3, which seems reasonable to keep lying on, but I get raised and someone else cold-calls. Turn is heart and the cold caller leads out. Other player is all in for $50 on turn. River is a heart and I outdraw the all in’s JJ.

I have a blind vs blind battle with The Joker and with a final board of 84476, I can’t get him to lay down AT, which might sound good for me, but I had ten high.

The Torch is hanging in. After being almost all in on his second hand, he rivered a straight with T6hh drawing dead to a flush and hasn’t looked back. His $530 has turned into over $2k, mostly at the expense of one of the Fortune regs, who can’t help but berate him for his torchy play – and yes, a lot of them have been ugly but it’s not something anyone needs to be talking about at the table.

5:47 PM: Game is 5.5-handed now (one player doesn’t really count and I’m surprised he hasn’t quit yet) and entirely built around The Torch. He’s on a heater and it’s all been disgusting! And none of it at my expense. Beautiful.

Short-handed play means I won’t be updating because I’ll be involved too much.

7:10 PM: Welp. That went as expected. The Torch ran his stack up to $2500+ and cashed out when he fell back to $500ish… and we didn’t play another hand. I did throw my big blind out, as a courtesy, because the dude was still in the building, but Dansby said we might as well just quit now since we know no one is going to keep playing.

Final score: +$735

Some key pots from short-handed play:

In case you don’t know why The Torch is The Torch, let me explain: he opens, I 3-bet KK, he caps it. Flop is KQ3 with two clubs and one spade and (I believe) he check-calls. Turn is the ace of spades and he check-raises me but just calls when I 3-bet. River is 4s and he donks out. Against a reasonable player, I would give serious consideration to just calling here. Against The Torch, I just have to put another raise in. Unfortunately, he immediately 3-bets me and I’m expecting to see a queen high flush here but… it’s A9o.

Another clash with The Torch: he opens button and I defend J8. Flop is AQT, flopping me a double-gutter, which I would maybe bluff with against some players, but not this one. I might end up having to put in 3-bets against a hand as bad as T7. I call and check-call again on 6 turn. River is a king and he bets before I do anything and I get to check-raise without acting first. He snap pays it off with QT.

Ugh. I don’t want to share this hand but I do like to keep it real and, well, I played this one like absolute shit and it cost me the whole pot.I open with KQ and the button 3-bets, and it ends up going 4-ways to Q75. The button bets, The Torch check-raises, and… I call?

I CALL?!?

I don’t know what the hell my thought process was here, but this is a clear 3-bet. But I call (ugh) and so does button. Turn card is… an ace! And fast-forward to showdown where I lose to button’s naked AJ. I mean… what in the hell? That was a $600+ pot I basically gifted to the button.

Now the hand with The Joker from earlier. Sometimes you play like shit and it works out. This is one of those times and while I have my reasons for this line, I think it’s way closer to spew than a stroke of genius.

A player posts in the cutoff, The Joker raises from the lo-jack, cutoff defends and I call with 44 on the button, which is already a subpar line in a questionable spot. One of the blinds defends and the flop is AJ3 with two clubs. The Joker bets, cutoff folds, I raise, he 3-bets, and I cap.

What the hell am I doing here, you ask? Losing my mind probably but wait, hear me out.

Joker is a borderline maniac. He’s opening super wide from the LJ with dead money posted behind him (which is why my hand plays better as a 3-bet), so I’m not entirely convinced he has a big hand here and I know my range looks pretty suspect, which means his 3-bet might be suspect. Additionally, I have seen him make reasonable folds when I take very strong lines.So that’s what’s going on. It sort of makes sense but it’s incredibly ambitious. The turn is the 9c and Joker says “I don’t know what I can beat” and folds after flashing an ace and then begs me to show a bluff. I don’t. But you can read about it now, asshole!

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional poker, texas hold em | 1 Comment »

Marathon Monday: $15/$30 @ Palace – 2/12/2018 (LIVE BLOG)

February 12, 2018

I swear one of these times I’m going to blog a session and post one of the signature wins that have defined my poker career the last several years. Hopefully today is the day. To say I’m overdue is a bit of an understatement. I’ve certainly had faster and more violent downswings and I think I’ve even had longer stretches of losing, but it has to be getting close now. We are on day 43 of 2018 and I’m still solidly in the red for the year.

I did some research and since the beginning of 2011, I’ve had back-to-back losing months four times total and half of them were during my worst stretch ever – from August of 2013 through October 2013 – when I lost between $1200 and $1550 three months in a row – the only time that’s ever happened. So yeah, I’ve been through worst months and worst overall stretches and I got through them and crushed like I always do. That’s something I’m able to keep in mind when I’m not playing, but it’s been harder and harder lately to remember that while I’m actually at the poker table. The accumulated tilt is real. For instance, I feel fine right now – excited even. I can’t wait to play. But I’m fragile. Not letting rough starts and bad sessions affect me emotionally has been harder and harder. It’s definitely made me realize that working on my mental game again needs to be more of a priority.

I took my wife to see “Hamilton” last night and we double-dated with The Man (Palace poker room manager) and his wife. It was a blast! I’ll put a bigger review of “Hamilton” on my list of things I may or may not ever do, along with every T.V. show I’ve seen in the last six months. But I’ll say this now: “Hamilton” is an absolute masterpiece in the field of creative writing. Yes, it’s all based on actual history and adapted from someone else’s book, but as someone that used to write rap lyrics, I can’t stress enough how monumental Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s achievement is. To take a biography about one of America’s founding fathers and turn it into an elite hip-hop musical is truly mind-boggling. It’s not just fun… it’s not just surprisingly good and palatable… it’s ELITE song-writing from top to bottom and, from my perspective, one of the greatest works of writing in modern history. Yes, the prices are outrageous, but that wasn’t going to stop me from seeing this masterpiece. A true can’t miss.

Yoga in 25 minutes. Poker in 90. See you then.

11:15 AM: When I said poker in 90, what I really meant was 2.5 hours my bad.

Slow start here. Six names on list but two of them backed out of starting the game because they just don’t understand how you build a poker game. Looks like we are going to start 4-handed though.

Starting lineup: Radio Mike, Chief Wiggum, the unknown player that rocked the 80% VPIP on Friday in a full game (yum yum) and myself.

11:21 AM: So I didn’t really play poker on Saturday. I showed up at Palace around 4 PM, hoping to play $15/$30 but no one was willing to start a short game and after losing $160 in 14 minutes of a bad, short-handed $6/$12 O8 game I just decided to go home and fire at some online tournaments. I bricked out in six events and final tabled the last one to basically break even.

11:25 AM: Cards will be in the air shortly. We picked up two players, both of them loose and borderline maniacal. Marlo is one of them. So six-handed with three players that play 50% of hands in full games.

Leggo.

11:26 AM: Marlo sitting down with $300 but has lost over $3k last two times I’ve played $15/$30 with him.

12:08 PM: Decent start. I’ve won a lot of small pots with little resistance. No real clashes. Atlanta Braves SS Dansby Swanson makes us 8-handed so I’m going to fire up my stat tracker after I finish eating.

12:37 PM: Game Genie makes us full. I’m done eating and firing up my stat tracker. Game on!

12:38 PM: Marlo actually cashed out his last few chips from that initial $300 buy-in and… left. That’s unfortunate.

12:44 PM: First big clash: s3 opens, 80% calls, I 3-bet 99 from small blind, big blind and other two call. Flop 853 two hearts and it gets capped. Turn 8h and it checks around. River pairs the 5 and it checks to s3 the original preflop opener and he bets, 80% calls, and I’m very happy to overcall, expecting to win this pot the vast majority of the time against two super wide players. I don’t though – s3 has the J8 of diamonds.

12:51 PM: Radio Mike opens, 80% calls, I defend Q7. Flop is 653, I donk, Mike raises, other player cold calls, I call. Turn is a 9 and Mike bets, the other guy folds and I really consider raising, but go with call instead. River is a 7 and I lead out and Mike goes into the tank and asks me “how do my aces look?” and I’m thinking “they look like shit! Muck em!” But he knows I’m capable of bluffing here and maybe he’s just never folding big hands against me anymore. He calls. Nice hand.

I did 3-bet the 80% player with 87hh and got the 86539 run out and a call on every street so it’s not all bad.

1:18 PM: Picked up AA vs QQ to chip back up.

1:33 PM: TT < AA.

Dansby runs so good against me: I raise a limper on button with QQ and lose to his AT from SB on KJxxA.

1:49 PM: Just won a big pot flopping quad fives and made everyone pay, and got a $499 jackpot. Hopefully that’s not my entire MO for the day.

2:15 PM: I open KT and Radio Mike defends and check-calls T739 before check-raising queen river. I expect to never be good here but I’m curious and he shows 33.

2:23 PM: Heater! AA, AA, ATcc, QTdd all win showdowns four hands in a row. Radio Mike takes a trappy, confusing line with JJ against my first aces and I suck out vs Wiggum’s KT on KQTJx the next hand.

3:03 PM: By God it’s a sexy start. I’m up over $1300. I’ve had AA four times and won with all of them.

Happy Hour Hand is AcKc for $1700 from 3 PM to 6 PM. Someone is gonna hit that.

The 80% player is rocking a 67/11 today. There’s another player over 50% VPIP. There are only two players with a PFR > 11% – one at 14% and me at 26%. 😂😂

3:11 PM: 11 minutes for that $1700 Happy Hour Hand to get hit.

3:14 PM: Humpty Dumpty in the game. Let’s see if we get the hard-boiled version or the cracked, spewy one.

3:47 PM: Palace just started a second $15/$30 game, 7-handed. And we are 8-handed. Eh. They are better off starting another smaller game and using them as feeder’s for this one. It’s not like the demand was overwhelming.

3:54 PM: Dansby limps UTG, another limp, SB raises, I defend K2ss, Dansby 3-bets, other limper folds and SB calls. I call too. Flop AKx with two spades. I flopped the nut flush draw and a pair, but this isn’t the kind of board I’m looking to pound against two preflop raisers. I’m drawing to the nuts but hitting a king or a deuce is questionable. I check-call. Turn is a 2 and I consider raising because I have outs no matter what, but I go check-call again. Heads up with Dansby now and the river is a queen, which is a definite check-call card. He has basically the only hand I beat: AJ suited.

4:17 PM: Well I’m still crushing this game, but this is pretty familiar: guy with a 13%/4% opens, someone calls, I think this is iffy but I 3-bet 99 (small sample and all) and we are five ways to 983 and the PFR bet/3-bets me. I flat to raise turn and three of us see the 8 pair. He leads, I raise and we are heads up. River jack, and he check-raises. A player this nitty just has JJ 100% of the time so I just call and lose this monster pot to the 2-outer.

Ugh. Hopefully this is a blip and not a sign of things to come. Still up $1300 but that $600 pot would have looked sexy in my stack.

4:33 PM: 14 big bets in the pot on the turn; I have KQdd on AK3d2d in a 4-way pot. Whiff. AJ and A7 are in there.

5:35 PM: Might need to stop making thin value bets against Radio Mike. He opens hi-jack, I defend QTss and check-raise J86 one spade. He calls. Turn ten, I bet he calls. River 2. I bet and he raises. The dude is just never bluff-raising here (he doesn’t have the gall!) but I just want to see what hand he played this way. Hey, it’s another set!

Humpty Dumpty limps early, I raise AQ… he beats me on A8563 by taking a check-call, check-call, donk line. I guess it could be worse.

5:55 PM: Humpty Dumpty opens (4% PFR), s4 3-bets (11% PFR) and I cap it with TT. They both call. Flop KQT. I bet they fold. What.

6:11 PM: Missed another backdoor flush draw in a substantial pot.

I’m up a little over $1100 and my momentum seems to have halted for a bit.

7:15 PM: I wasn’t paying attention to the action on this hand but the board is 984ccT6 and Radio Mike tables 75cc and his opponent tables JJ. Dealer pushes Mike the pot and then… Mike pushes the pot into the other player’s stack. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Everyone else is like wtf are you doing? Finally he realizes that he did, in fact, have the best hand and the game stops for an hour while everyone tries to figure out how much was in the pot! Well played, Mike! Your Uber is on its way.

In other news, the reciprocality of hitting draws has been severely lopsided lately. For a while actually. The trend is continuing today. My hot start has turned into like +$900 as I consistently lose to draws while never hitting my own.

7:40 PM: Sick hand vs Dansby Swanson: I open AJo middle position, he calls next to act, no one else joins. Flop is 962ddh, I bet he calls. Turn is 9h. I feel like Dansby is heavy in pocket pairs and suited Broadways, so I bet and… he raises me. I think he would fold a lot of the small/medium pairs that aren’t boats if I reraise and if he has a draw then I have the best hand. I 3-bet, he calls. River 2d. We both check and I’m good vs KJhh.

8:32 PM: Here’s a hand that really makes you wonder: Punty Pete opens cutoff and I defend AQ. Flop K55 and I check-raise in Overs. Turn 2, I bet and he tank-calls. River 4, I check, he checks. I didn’t think he would fold a pair here so I didn’t see much point in betting. I table and he tables 32 like he’s some kind of genius.

Eh. I don’t get it.

8:58 PM: I open cutoff with Q5dd. Flop A95dd. 3-handed pot and Peter wins with 52o. Sometimes the variance is just comical. I am so close to even now I can’t even believe it. It’s so disgusting.

9:06 PM: I picked off a double barrel bluff with 55 when they 3-bet me but checked back QQ2 flop.

But then I get 3-bets in three ways pre with QQ and on the JTx8 board I find myself check-folding because I’m in last place (TT and J8).

I’m racked up and I’m leaving on my big blind. I’ve already played 8+ hours today and I’m not about to get stuck after being up $1500. Plus I’m beyond annoyed now. I’m going to leave with less profit than I won from the jackpot.

Final score: +$236 and it might be the worst $236 I’ve ever won.

GODDAMMIT.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 1 Comment »

2017 Poker Results

February 6, 2018

Volume Goals:

-Play 1800 live hours
-Play 600 hours of 20/40 or higher
-Play 100 hours of Omaha 8 or Better

Comments: My final live hours tally was 1729.5 hours, so I came up just short of that goal. However, I did add another 1100+ hours in online play, which sounds massive, but can actually be reduced somewhat because each table I play at is accumulating time in my app tracker. So one hour while 4-tabling is actually four total hours. Still, if you include the online volume, I easily played 160+ hours a month in 2017. In addition, 85% of my live hours were in cash games and 15% were in tournaments. Online, my volume is closer to 50/50 between cash and tournaments.

I only played 239 hours of $20/$40 LHE, but I did add 74 hours of $15/$30, 98 hours of 1/3/5 PLO, 11 hours of $30/$60, and 15 hours in bigger mix games. Add all that up and that’s 437 hours in bigger games, which is still short of my goal – and this would have been much worse if Palace didn’t start spreading bigger games in the last couple of months of 2017. When it came down to it, I just preferred to commute 5 minutes to play poker rather than 30+, even if it sort of hurt our bottom line.

I played 35 hours of live Omaha 8 or Better, far below my goal – and only an additional 21 hours online. I did play 90 hours of O8 tournaments though, so I guess this goal is somewhat of a wash. On the bright side, I didn’t plan to become a Pot Limit Omaha player in 2017, so that was a fun development. I played 96 hours of live PLO and 234 hours of online PLO, plus another 111 hours in PLO tournaments. So all in all, I played 587 hours in four card games, which seems like a check mark for this goal. I imagine I will be playing even more PLO in 2018, but Global Poker currently doesn’t offer O8 games and the only live casinos with O8 are either too far away or spread it too small for me to want to play consistently. I did hear Muckleshoot brought back a $20/$40 O8 game on Saturdays, but I’m yet to play it.

Win Rate Goals:

-1.5 BB/HR @ $8/$16
-0.75 BB/HR @ $20/$40 or higher
-1 BB/HR @ Omaha 8 or Better
-50% ROI in live tournaments

Comments: I came up just short on my $8/$16 goal. After posting a win rate of 1.12 BB/HR in 2015 and 1.8 BB/HR in 2016, I thought somewhere in the middle for 2017 would be reasonable, and I was right. I didn’t quite hit 1.5 BB/HR, but I did finish at 1.41 BB/HR for 2017.

My goal for bigger games went much better. After finishing 2016 with a disappointing 0.5 BB/HR in $20/$40 LHE games, I wasn’t sure if I was really capable of putting up the numbers I’ve become accustomed to in smaller games, but I’m happy to report that I finished 2017 with a 1.19 BB/HR win rate in $20/$40 (and 1.47 BB/HR in the Fortune $20/$40) and 1.23 BB/HR in LHE games of $15/$30 or bigger.

As I mentioned earlier, my Omaha 8 or Better volume was really small for 2017, so individual sessions had a really big impact on my final results. I won $29/hour playing O8 in 2017 while posting a win rate of -0.05 BB/HR! How did this happen? I played a seven hour $30/$60 O8 session and won $1300 and that accounted for more than 100% of my profit for the year.

I didn’t set a Pot Limit Omaha goal for 2017, but since I played so much of it, I figure I should share my results. As I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, I don’t think I’m a particularly good PLO player, but the game that’s spread on Wednesdays at Palace is so incredibly soft that I’ve managed to put up some monster results. I won over $100/hour in a 1/3/5 structured game. I don’t really know how to express that as a win rate since big bet games are usually expressed as big blinds per hour and this game has a $3 big blind but it’s $5 to call. Shrug. $100/hour is pretty much all you need to know – and it’s totally unsustainable. I actually lost money in PLO cash games online, to the tune of -$12/hour in over twice as many hours as my live volume and this is why I’m pretty sure I’m not that great. In fact, I lost $14/hour in $0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO, which is 28 big blinds/hour. That’s BAD. I seem to do better in full ring games than I do in short-handed PLO. I know I have run bad in online PLO, but I also know I’m not that good. On the other hand, I did really well in online PLO tournaments. I cashed in 23 of 65 events (35%) for an ROI of 119% with six wins and three seconds in fields that typically had 50-120 players, which means I finished in the top two of nearly 14% of the PLO tournaments I played. That’s either dominant or super lucky… or both.

I once again crushed my ROI goal for live tournaments, thanks to another WSOP final table and a new career high score for my 5th place finish in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. event.

I ended up playing 37 events with a buy in of $100+ and an average buy in of $476 and finished with an ROI of 256% which smashed my goal of 50% I set for the year. As I noted in my 2017 Goals, I guessed I would play about 3 live tournaments a month and that was a spot on estimate. All my success basically came in the WSOP where I cashed 4 of 5 tournaments and found myself in the WSOP Player of the Year running before deciding not to play any more events.

It’s worth noting that I whiffed completely in the Muckleshoot Classic series, posting an overall 0-9 effort. I still have zero final tables in that series to date and it remains a location that I am yet to have a breakout in.

I only had two notable cashes outside of the WSOP – I took 4th of 188 in my first tournament of the year back in January at the LAPC at Commerce in the $350 Omaha 8 or Better for $5600 and then I took 1st of 75 in the $125 All In Or Fold tournament at Run It Up Reno in October for $3900.

I played many, many more tournaments online. This is basically what I did on my “days off.” I played in 500 total tournaments with an average buy in of $21.50 and I cashed in 106 (21%). Despite a decent cashing percentage, I actually finished with a -8% ROI and lost $1.25/hour overall. LOL. To be fair, I did punt the majority of my bankroll on Ignition when the future of that site went into question. In July, I switched over to Global Poker and cashed in 82 of 303 tournaments (27%) with I think about ten wins, an overall ROI of 11%, and a sexy hourly of $1.56!

Training/Study Goals:

-read through MG1&2 and do all the work
-do APT weekly challenge every week
-memorize all the typical LHE drawing odds
-watch at least one WSOP FT a month
-play at least four hours of PLO and four hours of NLHE every month
-play at least ten tournaments a month

Comments: Most of my studying is in the form of playing micro stakes cash games and tournaments online. Basically my goal is to stay sharp or gain experience in no limit hold’em tournaments and pot limit Omaha cash games. With that said, I crushed the bottom two goals listed above. The rest of my study goals didn’t go nearly as well. I never finished Jared Tendler‘s books and as you can tell from some of my recent blog posts and my mind state at the end of my last LAPC trip this is an area that I could still use considerable work on. I subscribed to PokerGo and there’s tons of content on there – and I’m even watching the $25K Mixed Games Championship in the U.S. Poker Open as I type this (Go DeathDonkey!) – but most of my poker watching has been on the streams and vlogs of Lex Veldhuis, Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Tonkaaa, and JNandez. There is so much good poker content out there right now that it’s overwhelming at times. I also read Tommy Angelo‘s Painless Poker and while I prefer his older work, it did spark some lifestyle changes.

Top 5 $8/$16 Sessions:
1. +$1867 @ Palace
2. +$1808 @ Palace
3. +$1550 @ Palace
4. +$1530 @ Palace
5. +$1465 @ Palace

Worst 5 $8/$16 Sessions:
1. -$905 @ Palace
2. -$887 @ Palace
3. -$873 @ Palace
4. -$857 @ Palace
5. -$758 (x2) @ Palace

Top 5 non-$8/$16 Sessions:
1. +$4010 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
2. +$3535 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
3. +$2907 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune
4. +$2725 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace
5. +$2540 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace *$2352 Royal Flush
6. +$2348 in $30/$60 LHE @ Palace

Worst 5 non-$8/$16 Sessions:
1. -$2265 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace
2. -$2100 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
3. -$1442 in $20/$40 LHE @ Commerce
4. -$1242 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune
5. -$1191 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune

Posted in poker | Tagged 2017 poker results, 2017 wsop, Commerce, gambling, gambling for a living, LAPC, limit hold em, no limit hold em, Peppermill, poker goals, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, poker win rates, professional gambling, professional poker, Rio, run it up reno, WSOPc | Leave a Comment »

Super-Sized Saturday $15/$30 LHE (Live Blog)

February 3, 2018

Yesterday I played a 16+ hour session (+$312) like a true degenerate sicko without blogging so I feel like I should do one today. I’m going to be a little less crazy today. I’m currently on alert for when the game is about to spread and I’ll be leaving my house as soon as that happens. But honestly, I hope that’s not for another hour.

Palace in Lakewood has had a sick High Hand promotion the last three days – $500 every 20 minutes for 12 hours each day – and yesterday they managed to fill every table in their brand new 15-table room. For those of you that don’t know, I worked at Palace from August 2015 to October 2016 and while we did get all eight tables full on occasion, it was more of a 5- or 6-table room during my tenure. So seeing all 15 tables full with big lists was kind of mind-blowing. I couldn’t be happier for The Man, for poker in this area, or for myself really. It seems like the last few days it has been accepted that a $15/$30 game can be spread every day (yesterday there were five $8/$16 games and a $15/$30 with a big list at one point) and if that happens to be true, I have no good reason (except variety) to travel to Renton to play $20/$40 at Fortune anymore. I still might go a few times a month, but it won’t feel like something I need to try to make a bigger priority.

I missed the new promos on the 1st because I decided to go to the University of Washington vs Arizona State college basketball game. And what a great decision that was. I had a BLAST! Here’s a really dumb fact: I initially enrolled at UW in fall of 2003 and I eventually graduated in 2010 (that’s another story) and in 14.5 years of UW affiliation (and a stretch of college basketball obsession – I used to do my own Top 25 Rankings), I had never been to a Husky basketball game. I never saw Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Isaiah Thomas, Quincy Pondexter, Tony Wroten, or Terrence Ross play basketball in a UW uniform (except on T.V.) and being at the game on Thursday, as great as it was, made me feel the pain of all those missed opportunities. And it also reinvigorated my passion for Husky basketball. I’ve been reluctant to get back into it because I have a tendency to overindulge (see above link) and feel like I need to watch every game for every relevant team… but I’m just going to be a Husky fan. I think I can do that. And I want to go to another game ASAP. In fact, though I will be live blogging my session today, I will also be bringing my iPad to watch the UW-Arizona game at 8 PM. I’m invested now.

I did something else yesterday that was bittersweet – I bought tickets to the Broadway musical Hamilton playing at The Paramount in Seattle on February 11th. This is a total bucket list item for myself and the $250 tickets I saw on StubHub were by far the cheapest I’ve seen them anywhere. I only say bittersweet because this happens to be the same day as the Main Events in the Grizzly Games on Global Poker, so I won’t be playing in those. Another tournament getting scratched off my list.

Welp. Palace already has ten tables running with five names on the list for $15/$30, so I’m going to hop in the shower and head that way in about 20 minutes. Stay tuned!

1:23 PM: Just arrived at Palace. They have 12 tables going with 6 names on the list for $15/$30 and these other players don’t seem to grasp the concept that you can’t start a game… without starting a game. I can see up to 5-6 more people that might jump in $15/$30 if it actually got off the ground.

And… that list is down to 5 now.

I’m 4th up for $8/$16 and I really have no desire to sit in that game for an hour.

1:38 PM: Sitting down in $8/$16 with $2000 and people can’t help themselves but make comments: “that don’t mean nothing” and “just because he bought a lot of chips.” Like… I can’t hear you?

1:50 PM: I rated my first album of 2018. SiR‘s November is really, really good. He’s a TDE product (same camp as Kendrick Lamar), so the expectations are high and SiR doesn’t disappoint. This is an R&B/Soul album, not a hip-hop one, but it’s high quality stuff: elite production with great songwriting. “D’Evils” and “Something Foreign” are the first two songs on my Best of 2018 playlist and I more songs are catching my ear as I listen. Check it out!

2:22 PM: I have voluntarily played two hands in almost an hour of action so far. I won a pot with TT.

There are still only five names on the $15/$30 list and Radio Mike just text me and said he’s not playing today. There are only two open tables left. This could be a problem. I really don’t want to play $8/$16 with $2000 in chips in front of me all day. Whoops!

2:53 PM: Three limpers, I raise AA from SB, five of us see flop. Q42 with two diamonds. I bet, a player totally unknown to me raises, there’s a cold caller, I three bet and the unknown caps. Still three of us to black 9 turn and I’m still leading. I’m happy to see both of them just call. River is a 4 of diamonds and I’m definitely one to go for thin value, but I don’t know what’s going on here and one of these guys could easily have a flush. I’m not bet-folding so I check and it checks around and I’m good.

3:56 PM: Still no $15/$30 (7 on list, two open tables). No blog regulars at my $8/$16 table. I’m tired. I haven’t slept well in a few days and added a 16-hour session to that mix. If the $15/$30 doesn’t fire in the next hour or so, I’m just going to relax and watch the UW-AZ game from home.

5:23 PM: I’m still here and now I’m rethinking my decision to leave. The $15/$30 game isn’t going to happen. I’ve accepted that.

But check this hand out: multiple limpers, button raises, I 3-bet AQ from the small or big, button caps, everyone calls. 5- or 6-ways to A75 two hearts (I have none) and I check-raise the button. The players two my left cold call and the button calls. Turn is Kh. I bet, two call, button raises, I fold, and only one player calls. River Th. It checks around and… button tables TT.

That’s the kind of chip-torching that keeps me up at night wondering if someone like that is playing in a casino near me while I’m sleeping.

7:34 PM: I’m at home now watching the game. After 5.5 hours of $8/$16 I cashed out $2066 which, if you recall, means I won $66. Another very ho hum session.

I suspect tonight will be one of the 5-10 times I fall asleep before midnight in 2018.

GO DAWGS!!

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The Bat Cave

Posts Tagged ‘gambling’

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