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Check-Raise: Moving Up To $8-$16

August 6, 2011

I’ve been bankrolled for $8-$16 for a while now, but due to my day job and location, I haven’t had a chance to move up in stakes… until last night.

Side note: I sat in the $4-$8 game for 20 minutes waiting for my $8-$16 seat and cracked it for +$233 (that’s a $706/hr win rate! lol)… and that includes calling a raise HU from the BB with AdKh against my friend and check-raising him on AhTh5d3h turn and getting 3-bet by 8h2h (uhhh… nh Matt, you weirdo) and paying off on river (-$44). Turned top set with QQ in huge multiway pot. Flopped top set of 9s on 94343 board–sorry, we’re not chopping. Turned nut flush vs. 2nd nut flush against my friend. Sick run. Also folded As8s first hand against a raise and would’ve flopped nut flush vs. set on unpaired, 3-spade board (also against my friend). With one cold-call in front of me, I would maybe call in that spot in my normal games, but being the first hand I got dealt at a new casino, I had no idea how the table was playing yet. Folding seems best.

Even though I’ve played as high as $20-$40 online regularly (way back), it’s always a little rattling moving up to a new limit and playing in a new casino. I definitely sat down w/ the intentions of playing much tighter than I would in my typical $4-$8 until I got a really good feel for the table. For a while, I didn’t think there was any real weak spots at the table, but 3 of the players were $20-$40 regulars and started playing like the game was beneath them, spewing chips. I was willing to give higher stakes players the benefit of the doubt, and even though there were a couple people in the game I thought played good, by the end of the night, I felt like I might be the best player in the game.

I finished +$187 and I got pretty unlucky in 3 pots.

My first pot I play, I pick up AA UTG and raise. 5-ways to J53 rainbow flop. I bet, 2 callers. Q on turn. I bet, two calls. T on river. I check-call HU and lose to JT. Not a good welcome to my new limit, but I felt like I read the situation perfectly.

I have Qd3d in BB. Several limpers, the spewiest $20-$40 player raises, I call from BB in 6-way pot. First limper (JT from previous hand) 3-bets, everyone calls, original raiser caps. I get trapped for 4 bets with my weak hand in a huge pot. Flop comes KdJcTd. Gin draw! I check-raise the field. Turn is 7d. I bet and get 3 callers. River is another diamond. I check-call and lose to the 3-bettors red Aces. Groan, but nh sir.

Same villain limps in 3rd position, folds to SB, he completes, I look down at AsJs and raise. Both call. Flop comes AAT. I bet, thinking I’m never getting action here. My nemesis raises, I 3-bet, he caps. I check-call turn and river and he shows AT. Yay! I can’t beat this dude.

Another weird pot: I raise a couple limpers with 99 and we see a J84, two heart flop 4-ways. It checks to me in last position, I bet and the SB raises me. Everyone else folds. This player hasn’t been particularly aggressive, but there’s a reasonable chance my hand is good and I have the 9h. Since my opponent isn’t all that aggressive and I plan on calling, I decide to make it 3-bets and get to the river for “free.” He just calls and checks to me when a small heart turns. I check behind. River gives me a 9-high flush and he checks again. I don’t see how my hand is ever not good here, so even though I obviously have good showdown value here, I think a value bet is in order. I’m rather shocked when he calls and shows two red Kings. Whoops.

I flopped a set of 3s in a raised pot from the BB but didn’t get a huge amount of action. I lead into the field on the flop, hoping to 3-bet the OG raiser, but I just get a couple callers and the preflop raiser pays me off through the river for a single bet on every street. Oh well.

Another decent pot, I limp in OTB with one limper holding 9d8d. 4-ways to 644, one diamond flop. I bet when it gets checked to me trying to pick up the pot… and the SB calls… I’ve already pegged him as a tricky, trappy player. Throughout the session, he flopped trips out of position at least 8 times and got away with a turn check-raise 75% of the time. Turn brings the Td, giving me the flush draw. He checks to me and I check back (betting isn’t bad against a passive, predictable player, but I’d already seen this guy’s movie several times) River is Ad. He checks to me again, I bet, he raises, I 3-bet and he calls with K4 and tables it in disgust. Odd line on the river and nice try sir.

And here’s the only reason I finished up. I’m stuck about $100 at this point and haven’t had a playable hand in forever. Two people limp in front of me and I begrudgingly limp with KJo from MP. My friend immediately punishes my first weak limp of the night by raising from the next seat, the $20-$40 spewer 3-bets w/out looking, my friend caps and we see the flop 7-ways in capped pot. Board comes QT9r and gets capped 4-ways w/out me ever betting or raising. SB leads into me on turn, I raise, my friend (the flop capper) folds and I clear the field, he 3-bets, I cap. I’m starting to think we have the same hand. I’m still the nuts on the river, he disappointingly checks to me, I bet, he raises, I 3-bet almost sure we’re chopping and he finally figures it out and calls. He doesn’t show and I’m good for about a $550ish pot. Question preflop decision-making on my part, the hand played itself postflop, and I was lucky to get 7 BBs on the turn and river before my opponent figured out I wasn’t playing. Huge pot, but not really expert play from me. Just luck.

I was happy with my play overall. I won that one big pot that saved my session and got unlucky in most of the other big pots I played. Most importantly, I didn’t feel outmatched at the table and came out of the session thinking I should be able to beat that game on a regular basis. Time to move on up!

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July 2011 Gambling Results

August 1, 2011

Maybe Black Friday was the best thing that could happen to me. For the second straight month, I killed the live small stakes games and turned a profit of $1500+. I certainly wasn’t turning that kind of profit online.

It’s been an interesting month for me. My cover is blown. I’m no longer a decent player that ventures into the casino a couple times a month. I play several times a week for many hours and when you crush a game consistently over a couple months people take notice. I think I’ve been a somewhat respected player for a long time, but this past month things elevated to a new level. Here are some of the things people have said about me:

“You’re the last person I wanted to see walk in right now.”

Opponent: “I have to raise.”
Other Player: “Yeah, but you’re raising the wrong guy.”

“Normally, I would call, but I’m not playing against you.”

“As far as I can see, this kid is the chalk. If I had to put my money on anyone, it’d be him.”

“Best player in the county.”

Ok… I can admit, it’s nice to hear things like that and quite an ego-boost, but there’s also a downside. I definitely don’t want to hear people saying, “normally I would call.” If people are adjusting when I’m in the game that’s never a good thing for my bottom line. I want them to gamble with me, not tighten up.

Also, as good as my results have been the past two months, I still have some severe leaks in my game. I don’t play a ton of $3-$6, but I’m starting to think I shouldn’t play it at all. I’m -1.65 BB/HR over 55 hours the past 3+ months in that game. I mostly play that game on Wednesdays to kill time between tournaments. Aside from the harsher affect of the rake and tipping on my win rate, the day game seems to play much tighter and passive than the night games… which means if I get stuck it’s much harder to get even and I can play a lot less hands profitably. It’s just not my kind of game.

Playing tons of hours over the past couple months has helped my steam factor quite a bit. In the past, I could start to tilt if I was down $50-$60 to start a session… but now, I understand the concept of a “it’s all one long session.” Many nights over the past two months, I’ve been stuck $200-$300 at some point only to show a profit by the end of the night. If the game is good, the variance is going to be a lot greater, but so is your chances of turning things around. If you’re stuck in a tight game with little action, you might as well go home. I’ve learned to take my beats in stride because the money comes back eventually.

Even so, I haven’t completely freed myself of the Tilt Monster. For the second straight month I had a 85+ big bet downswing in the final week, turning a spectacular month into a merely good one. I use the word downswing loosely, however, because I can’t blame it all on bad luck. During my past four sessions, I was mostly playing poorly. I’ve gotten used to my aces being cracked, losing to flushes and straights on the rivers, but when you’re continually losing to 2-5 outers on the turn and river, while missing your big combo draws all in the same session, it can be incredibly frustrating… and when I’m frustrated, I don’t play good poker. Frustration probably cost me about $400 over the past four days. It’s a leak that needs to be addressed, because like it can turn a great month into a good one, it can turn a winning month into a losing one.

Future Plans

With a decent bankroll built up, I’m looking at playing some bigger events. I’ll be playing the $300 NL event at Muckleshoot on Friday, September 9th, and I’m planning on going to The Fall Poker Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon at the Wildhorse Casino in November. At the moment, I’ll be playing the first six events, but that’s subject to change based on how well I do the next three months and how much backing I can get.

July Results:

Overall Gambling: +$1791
Overall Poker: +$1875
Live: +$1568
House Games: +$307
Pit: -$84
$3-$6: -$40 over 22.66 hours
$4-$8: +$834 over 103.08 hours
NL: +$465 over 6.83 hours
Tournaments: +$418 (13 tournaments, 6 cashes, 2 1sts)

YTD Overall: +$4756.80

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Check-Raise: The Road To Professional Gambling – June 2011

June 29, 2011

Poker is a cruel game. Even for the educated player, it can play tricks on your mind. For the uninitiated… good luck staying sane.

As many of you know, my goal this year was to make money gambling and through the first three months of the year, I had managed to eke out a profit, but it was almost entirely due to the rakeback I was receiving from Full Tilt Poker. You can read my update for the first three months here.

April changed everything for aspiring poker players when the FBI shutdown the three major online sites: Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and Absolute Poker, making it impossible for players to gamble online in the United States. Of course, that happened just as I was realizing some of the major leaks in my game and starting to turn things around. I was already killing tournaments, but my cash game play was starting to come along as well. I had turned a profit in online cash games for the first time in many, many months. To make matters worse, I made my biggest tournament score of the year the day before Black Friday. So when the sites shut down and access to your funds became restricted, I happened to have significantly more money online than I usually do; and it’s still there.

With online play no longer an option, I turned to the local casinos, a bold move for someone trying to build a bankroll with limited money. I went from playing $0.50-$1 limit online to playing $4-$8 live, a significant jump in stakes even though the latter game is almost certainly much softer.

I had already identified cash games as a leak in my gambling. I previously noted how bad I was doing online, but my live stats weren’t much better. For the year, through April, I was down roughly $400 playing live cash games… plus in April alone, I was down $625 playing live period, whether it was tournaments or cash games. With online play no longer an option, my poker future was looking grim.

Then I went to jail for most of May. In jail, I read several poker books and came out on May 20th thinking I might have a shot at making money playing live poker. I only played for one week in May and 15 hours total and promptly managed to lose $298, logging my first losing month of the year. Also, on May 24th and May 25th, I managed to lose $450 in 3.5 hours of total play, such an absurdly bad run that I strongly considered quitting playing altogether. I was completely demoralized.

Being the gambler I am though, that notion didn’t last very long and I was quickly back in action in June. I got off to a hot start and by June 10th I was up $549 in the live game. Then, June 10th changed everything. I hit the Lightning Strikes Twice jackpot at Chips Casino for $1562 and had my best session of the year on top of that. By the end of the night, I was up $1809 total (after tipping the dealer $200 for the jackpot) and suddenly had a legitimate bankroll. By June 20th, including the jackpot hit, I had beat the live game for $3038 in profit. I felt unstoppable. I had a losing session here and there, but I was on a serious upswing, and my confidence was soaring. Unfortunately, the last week wasn’t so kind and is the reason I opened this post by saying how cruel poker can be. I’m down $715 in the live game over the past week and have felt completely defeated at times. Fortunately, I have the bankroll now to withstand this kind of big downswing, and at -89 Big Bets of my current limit, this isn’t even close to how bad it will be some other future time.

That’s the thing about poker that most people don’t understand. Even the best players are going to go through terrible streaks due to bad luck. It can be incredibly painful when it happens–which is not uncommon–but even a 200 Big Bet (-$1600 @ $4-$8) downswing is almost inevitable. But if you’re a good, winning player, luck always evens out in the end, and you have to win in the long run.

In total, I made $2406 gambling in June (more than at my day job). I got lucky with the big jackpot, but it was a great month besides that and now my goal to play for a living by 2013 seems plausible. Grinding it out at $4-$8 is going to be a long road, but now I have the bankroll to gamble with comfortably and never have to touch any of the money I actually work for. Also, if Full Tilt ever gets their shit together and cashes out their players, I’ll have a large enough bankroll to move up in stakes to $8-$16 and potentially double my hourly rate.

June Stats

Live play:
$3-$6: -$372 over 11.92 hours (-5 BB/HR) <— potential leak?
$4-$8: +$1342 over 85.67 hours (1.96 BB/HR)
+$1362 Lightning Strikes Twice Jackpot
+$164 in Tournament play
+$2496 total

Additional Gambling:
BlackJack Match Plays: +$15
Sports Betting: +$10
House Games: +$38
Side Bets: +$20

Overall Gambling since December 1st, 2010: +$3287.80

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Check-Raise: My Journey From Spewy Amateur To Poker Professional – March 2011

March 31, 2011

It’s no secret that I fancy myself a poker player. I’ve been dabbling in the hobby for years now. Those of you that are familiar with my story know that I went on an insanely hot and extended run early in my poker career way back in 2005. I played my first hand of Texas Hold Em in August of 2004 and by June of 2005 I had a bankroll of $25,000. I was good, sure. I studied the game extensively, reading any book I could get my hand on and I thought about poker day and night, even when I was away from the tables. More importantly, I was absurdly lucky. I was making all sorts of mistakes when it comes to sustaining a bankroll. I’d move up two levels within the same session and happened to go on an upswing that lasted for three months through every level I tried. I wasn’t rolled for the levels I was playing, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t losing. So when I did start to go through the inevitable downswings, I couldn’t afford them at the levels I was playing at and soon found myself struggling to get by financially. That was pretty problematic since I’d already quit my job and dropped out of the University Of Washington. Why bother going to class when I could be making $100 an hour gambling online? It was a fair question and even if my degree was within arm’s reach, what good was a college diploma going to do me if I was playing cards for a living? Needless to say, my early run of success completely blinded me as a poker player and practically ruined my life. Six years later, I’m still recovering from some of the damage I caused myself.

But poker never left me. Throughout the years, I’ve had a lot of minor successes. I’ve always been a good tournament player and every once in a while I’ll pull off a huge, life-saving cash in a big tournament. Then I’ll be rolled for a couple months until I blow it all back in cash games. This has pretty much been my poker career since my year as a moronic “pro.”

Yet, for some reason, I’ve always thought of myself as a good player… but that’s total bullshit. Whatever minor successes I may have had playing cards over the past five years has been completely negated by my alcoholism or severe leaks in my poker game. I might deposit $50 online and grind my way to a $600 bankroll, go out for drinks one night, come home plastered, wake up the next day, log on to my poker account and see my balance sitting at $0. This happened on several occassions. Why can’t they make an interlock system for computers?! I would have saved thousands over the years. With alcohol mostly out of my life for the past three years (I relapsed for about 8 months), I can no longer blame drunkenness for my inability to maintain a bankroll. I have roughly three years of sobriety since January 2008, but I’ve been a consistent loser during that time. I might have a month or two of profit here and there, but I recently purchased some online tracking software and my cash game results over the past couple years are alarming. They are terrible.

So with all this in mind, I made a vow to myself that in 2011 I would make money gambling. I don’t care how much I win, I just don’t want to be a loser anymore. I’ll save my goal to be a professional for 2013. Right now, I just want to slowly turn this ship around. So far, so good.

First off, let me make a disclaimer. For absurd reasons, gambling online in Washington is illegal. The sites I play on enforce this law. I will be making references to my “online” results frequently in my blog posts. THESE RESULTS SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. ALL ONLINE RESULTS I POST ARE EITHER A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION OR FOR PLAY CHIPS ONLINE. I INCLUDE THEM WITH MY OVERALL RESULTS BECAUSE… UHHH…. IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD.

I have tracked my results sporatically for years now, but I’ll usually lose interest when I start to go through a rough patch or I don’t like what I’m seeing anymore. I can’t say I have a lot of big losing months saved on my computer anywhere… but most of my really good months can be easily located. This year, I decided it’s best to be honest with myself. Starting in January, I’ve tracked every single aspect of gambling that I’ve done: from “online” gambling, live cash games, local tournaments, house games to pit games, sports betting, and personal wagers. If I bet someone $5 that they can’t eat a certain jalepeno pepper, I’m logging that bet somewhere. I know EXACTLY how well I’ve done since the start of 2011 and my results are promising.

I’m currently on a four month winning stretch that started with a +$528 month in December. Here are my 2011 results:

January: +$71.91
February: +$212.68
March: +$129.16

Total: +$413.75 (+$941.75 including December)

Pretty modest numbers, but mission accomplished so far. I’m making money gambling, consistently. Even so, those results are disappointing if we do a little more number crunching. Here are some other notable facts:

*I’m up $792 in live tournaments in 2011. I’ve played 16 tournaments and cashed in 7 of them for a 44% in the money rate. Even more ridiculous, I’ve finished in the top three 6 of the 7 times I’ve cashed and I have 3 wins. I’m destroying live tournaments.

*I’m up $666.45 in online tournaments in 2011. I’ve cashed in 60 of 361 tournaments I’ve played (16.6%). My biggest cash is for $360, so I’m yet to get that huge score I’m anxiously waiting for. I’ve done well in online tournaments for the year, but I’ve had some incredibly bad luck so far. I usually have something absurd happen to me in the very late stages of big money tournaments.

*I’ve made $474.14 in rakeback in 2011. Rakeback is a feature offered on some poker sites. Every pot you play gets raked and Full Tilt Poker offers 27% rakeback, so once a week, I get a depost into my account for rakeback.

*Between tournaments, rakeback, and live cash games (~+$179), I’ve made about $2110… yet I’m showing a mere $400 profit for the year.

The conclusion: When it comes to online cash games, I AM THE WORST PLAYER ALIVE. To be specific, I’m down roughly $1500 playing cash games online and I’ve spent most of March trying to figure out what exactly I’m doing wrong. I started reading my fixed limit books again and I tried to focus on playing one limit only: $0.50-$1… and I had success. I showed an $83.85 profit at that limit for the month of March. Unfortunately, I didn’t start this plan until the 4th of the month and I’d already done severe damage to my bankroll by then. I also strayed away from my plan later in the month. For instance, tonight I decided to play one table of $2-$4 and got unlucky on back-to-back hands in my first orbit. A crushing start to a game I shouldn’t even be playing. Of course, I tilted after that and blew 100 big bets of my current limit before I swallowed my pride and left the table. In 40 minutes, I lost more money in one session of $2-$4 than I made all month grinding it out at $0.50-$1. It’s these kinds of scenarios that have kept me from sustained success: poor bankroll decisions, playing too many tables, steaming/tilting when I get unlucky, chasing losses, and running absurdly poorly when I do take a chance. Even though I was more restrained in March than I’ve ever been–78% of the hands I played were at the $0.50-$1 fixed limit level–I still managed to show a big loss in online cash games. In the 22% of hands I played outside my preferred limit I lost $663. Talk about a painful lesson in bankroll management… but at least I’m making sure I see it… and I proved I could make a profit if I stick to my guns and play the limits I should be playing.

A third of the way through 2011, I feel decent about my chances to be a successful poker player. I’ve shown a tremendous flair for winning tournaments, both online and live, and revisiting some poker literature really helped my live cash game out this month. I had a rough patch the past couple days that turned a great month into a merely good one, but I see good things ahead in that respect. I still feel like I’m swimming upstream, fighting my inability to win playing cash games online. Despite all the success I’ve had, my profit margin is small and I can blame it entirely on getting destroyed in online cash games… but it’s a leak I’m working and my big goal for April 2011 is to a show a profit in the online games. If I can turn that around for good, my modest profits will start to turn into substantial ones and I’ll be well on my way to achieving my 2013 goal.

Other notes:

*I’m up $13.70 in house games… playing for change with my dad, my brother and his friend.

*I’m stuck $25 in the pit (all from BlackJack) year-to-date. I avoid The Pit like The Plague, but Chips Casino in Bremerton offers a $5 and $10 Match Play on Wednesdays and turns a few hands of BlackJack into highly profitable bets. Unfortunately, I fall for the trick and keep playing after using my coupons. Stupid.

*I lost $122 on the NCAA tournament this year. RAPED.

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August 2010 Poker Results

September 2, 2010

Disclaimer: Since I live in a state where gambling online is illegal everything I’m about to post is clearly a figment of my imagination. I’m a law-abiding citizen.

I started viciously tracking my results this past month in an effort to improve my game and be honest about my results. When it comes to gambling, unless you happen to make a huge score in a tournament, it’s a daily grind that features a lot of ups and downs along the way. In the past, I liked to start tracking my results after a good day and then suddenly lose interest when things turned sour. This past month, I confirmed a lot of what I have long suspected have been leaks in my game. Here are my results:

Starting Bankroll: $163.41
Ending Bankroll: $109.75
Net Profit: -$53.66
Deposits: $0
Cash Outs: $0
Transfers: $0
RakeBack: +$243.49
Tournaments: +$254.98
Cash Games: -$552.13

Notes:

-My bankroll peaked at $716 on August 19th. I combined terrible luck with poor bankroll management and sketchy play over the last two weeks of the month, resulting in a horrid stretch that left me in the red for the month.

-My cash game results are terrible and represent the biggest inconsistency in my poker game. I can dominate for long stretches of time, but if there’s one thing I’ve noticed about myself it’s that I tend to implode when I start to hit a bad run. I never seem to have a minor losing stretch, I always compound my bad luck with horrible decision-making.

-I played 61 tournaments in August, with an average field of 586, and cashed in 14 of them, which gave me a respectable 23% In The Money rate.

-My biggest cash was a net profit of $363.73 for a 7th place finish in $3.30 No Limit rebuy tournament that had a field of 1,761 players.

-I went on a sick tournament streak in the middle of the month. I cashed in 10 of 17 tournaments over five days, including five final tables in a wide variety of games (3rd in HORSE, 5th in Pot Limit Omaha, 1st in Stud, 3rd in NL, and 7th in NL+rebuys). During this stretch, I made $555.94 playing tournaments.

Goals For September:

-Limit my cash game play even though it’s how I build rakeback. I obviously lost more playing them than I made in rakeback.

-Take some days off.

-Make at least one big tournament score.

-Have a winning month!

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Full Tilt Rush Poker

May 14, 2010

I recently received a comment on my blog asking what happened to me and why I haven’t been posting, specifically about poker, which has dominated my blog topics over the past few months:

1) I dropped out of college in my last quarter at The University Of Washington in 2005 and finally got around to taking my last two classes this quarter at Olympic College. I cut down my hours at work, banned myself from playing poker on Poker Stars, and obviously haven’t spent any time on my blog. I just want to focus on school for a few months to avoid making the same mistakes I’ve made in the past. I will finally get my UW degree in June 2010.

2) In addition to my self-banning from online poker, my favorite local card room recently closed down. I’ve taken some heat for calling Bremerton Lanes my favorite card room because I have made friends with dealers at both Chips Casino and All-Star Lanes. The thing is, I don’t care much for the live games anywhere. Between the rake and the low limits, it’s just too hard to grind out a consistent profit. I think the games are beatable, but the edge is pretty small and not really worth the time it takes to make money, plus I don’t really have a bankroll at the moment and any significant losses are always damaging to my bill-paying abilities! With that said, the reason I really enjoyed playing at Bremerton Lanes was solely because of their great tournament structure. Unfortunately, those kind of structures aren’t beneficial to a small card room. They take too long to complete, which lowers the amount of time rake is being dragged from the live game and increases the amount of time the casino has to pay extra dealers. That simple formula has led to the demise of the Bremerton Lanes card room, which hosted tournaments that I often blogged about. All of the other casinos employ a speed-style tournament structure, which I find to be a waste of my time and money most of the time. There is skill involved in these tournaments, but the luck factor is increased exponentially.

I may have banned myself from playing on Poker Stars, but I recently put money onto Full Tilt Poker and discovered that they have developed a completely new style of playing the game called Rush Poker. It’s really an innovative and ground-breaking concept and Howard Lederer is right to say “it will revolutionize the way poker is played.” Here’s the concept: Instead of having set tables with players fixed at a particular seat, Rush Poker starts you at one table and then moves you to another one as soon as you fold your hand or complete your action at the current table. The concept works for both tournaments and cash games. For example, in a cash game, a set limit has one game that you can enter and you can have a player pool of, say, 90 players. As soon as you fold your hand or complete your action, you’re just moved to another table ready to start the next hand. Position is no longer fixed and the big blind is determined by the player at a table who has gone the most hands without having to post a big blind.

Here are some of the pluses I’ve noticed in my short time playing Rush Poker:

-you can still have multiple entries into the same game for those used to multi-tabling
-you see way more hands per hour
-the action is super face-paced, so players with patience issues will probably find themselves with better hand selection
-if you take advantage of rakeback, you will see a significant increase in how much you get back because you receive money back for every pot you were dealt a hand in that gets raked, even if you are long gone from the table

The only cons I’ve noticed so far is that your familiarity with players will decrease. This doesn’t matter much in a fixed limit structure, but can be critical in a no limit cash game or the late stages of a big tournament.

(note: after writing this, I thought of another con. It seems like Rush Poker is limited on what stakes it offers. The highest limit game I see offered is $0.50-$1. I’m hoping this an oversight on my part, but I just don’t think I’m that stupid. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the near future.)

Since my hours are down at work, I don’t really have a lot of money to gamble with at the moment, but I took a mere $18 and turned it into $114 within a few hours of multi-tabling $0.25-$0.50 and $0.50-$1 fixed limit Rush Poker. During the day, the limit games are pretty full, but when I came home after work and wanted to play, they were completely dead. So I tried my first hand at no limit Rush Poker (which was still booming, even at that late hour) and wasn’t nearly as successful. In fact, I got crushed. As I said in the previous paragraph, having an idea of how the people at your table play is critical in a no limit format and playing Rush Poker hopping from one table to another, you really don’t get a feel for what the people around you are capable of and mostly have to play your hands for value, which is not how I prefer to play no limit poker. I had such a bad night that I nearly squandered all my winnings from earlier in the day, but fortunately, I managed a 7th place finish in a $3.30 rebuy Rush Poker tournament and ended the night right about where I started.

Anyways, I’m sort of in love with the concept of Rush Poker and I’m hoping it brings even more players back to the online game. Between the Rush format and rakeback, I’m excited about what’s going to happen to my bankroll over the summer.

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Royal Flush Online

March 14, 2010

This is my 10th career Royal Flush… all of them online and none of them in a B&M where I could win a ton of money from a jackpot. I run so gross! Click image to view the full size.

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3-08-2010 Bremerton Lanes AM Poker Tournament

March 8, 2010

First off, I’d like to congratulate myself on my best showing in this tournament last week when I finished 2nd for $235. Today’s tournament was interesting to say the least. My stack was riding a rollercoaster throughout the duration.

Key Hands:

Blinds 25-50, 3 limpers in front of me. I limp OTB with As9s. Flop comes K43 with two spades. One of the blinds leads out for 150 and two people call. I pop it to 600 since no one has really shown strength. I get two folds, but the last caller stays with me. The turn is a blank and he check-calls 800. River is another blank and he checks to me again. I bet 800 and he calls and shows K9. Not really happy with my play on this hand. Not only did I dump off roughly 75% of my stack, but I didn’t read the situation very well. Throughout the hand, I put my opponent on a draw because of the way he was playing it. If that was the case, unless he caught a running pair, there’s no reason for me to bet the river, since Ace high is likely to be good. If he has a King and decided to call the turn, he’s never going to fold the river for the same amount as my turn bet. That’s just simple math and a bad play on my part. On the plus side, this player enters this tournament every day and this will be valuable information for the future. Unless he had some sort of dead read on me, his play here is super terrible. He was willing to play a huge pot for nearly all of his stack in the first level with top pair, weak kicker out of position. I stand by my flop play, but my turn and river play is pretty bad.

Blinds 50-100, a few people limp in, I have J3os in the BB and only 600 behind. Flop comes J54 and I just ship my remaining chips. I get a caller and figure I’m drawing to 3 outs but I’m ecstatic when he shows 99 and doubles me up.

Blinds 50-100, 1 limper, someone raises to 300, I have AQ and 1600 so I just ship it. The raiser calls me and shows KT and I hold and I’m roughly back to my starting stack.

After a few swings and misses my stack is down to somewhere around 2200. Blinds 100-200, two people limp in, the small blind calls and I look down at QQ in the BB. I could ship it here, but I’m willing to risk getting knocked out of the tournament for a little value, so I just pop it to 800. The first limper folds, but the button and SB both call. The flop comes beautifully with AQ9 and there’s no need to get coy since I figure someone has at least an Ace and I put my remaining 1200 in. I get called in both spots and my set holds vs AQ and JT and I triple up.

Blinds 100-200, a few limpers and I limp OTB with Ac9c. Flop comes J9x with a club. UTG bets 600, it folds to me, and I float the flop. The turn card is the Tc and he bets out 600 again. The bet size doesn’t scream strength and I strongly consider raising, but I think my current hand might have a shot of being good and I’d be sick if he re-raised all-in and I had to fold. The river is a 3h and he bets out 600 again, which is quite an annoying bet. Not only is he giving me great pot odds, but he’s shown relative weakness on the past two streets, which tempts me to raise once again. However, considering the last two bet sizes, I figure calling is best since my hand might actually be good. The way he played it, I feel like a 9 might actually be his most likely hand. He shows me QJ though (making a call likely if I did raise the turn) and scoops a third of my chips.

With the blinds at 200-400, it folds to the SB who completes and I check with 85. Board comes 974 and I take it down with a 700 bet. One person limps in the next hand, I call with A3os and the BB checks. Flop comes Axx and I check, BB checks and the limper bets 700. I go all-in figuring it’s unlikely for him to have an ace here. He folds and I’m back around 5000.

Blinds 300-600 and UTG doubles it to 1200 and it folds to me in SB with As7s. I check out his stack and he’s only got about 2000 left so I decide to take a flop with him. Flop comes 753 with one spade and I ship it and he folds.

Blinds 300-600 folds to me and I have about 10,600 now and make it 1500 to go with 8d7d. Folds to the SB who doubles it up to 3000. BB folds and this is a pretty wack situation for me. My hand is garbage and he’s made a raise that is begging for a call. On the other hand, I’m getting 3.4 to 1 to call and I have position and I’d still have around 7000 behind if the flop does me no justice… so I call. The board comes J87 and I’m ecstatic when he instantly ships it. He shows QQ and the turn comes a Jack and I’m out of the tournament. Ghey. 11th place, one off the final table.

Lastly, a sour note for those of you that have been following my poker posts. I recently cashed out all my money online and starting at the end of March, I won’t be playing poker at all for the next several months as I’ll be attending college to finish my degree at The University Of Washington and can’t afford to have any distractions. Sorry!

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1/29 Bremerton Lanes Tournament

January 29, 2010

Today, I started off on a roll. With starting stacks of 3500, I was up to 5000 and we were still in the first round.

Key Hand #1 – Blinds 25/50, one person limps and I raise to 225 with AK. One person behind me calls, the blinds fold, and the limper calls. 3-way action to a A64, two club flop. One check, I bet 375 and the person behind me calls, the first guy folds. Turn is a 4c. I could bet here to define my hand and really see where I’m at… I don’t have a club in my hand, so if it checks around and a fourth club hits the river, I’ll be pretty disgusted with myself. Of course, I could already be beat, and I didn’t sense a lot of strength from my opponent and I think he has an ace with a weaker kicker, and as long as that kicker isn’t a club, I’m in pretty good shape, so I decide to just check it. He bets 375. No need to raise here… I just call. River is an ugly Kc. I could bet to prevent a bluff, maybe even get him to fold a small/medium club. He’d probably pay it off in frustration if he turned a flush since I’m not going to bet enough to put a ton of pressure on him. We both check and I’m shocked when he turns over 66 for a full house. No idea what he was thinking, but I was very grateful to only lose 750 post-flop when I would’ve stacked off if he raised the flop. Instead of losing 75% of my chips, I lost the minimum and still had around 4000.

The next several blind levels were brutal to me. Not only was I not getting good hands, but my attempts to steal blinds and keep my stack in good shape proved futile. I had two people to my left that were loose and defended constantly. I never hit the board with my hands and any time I made a continuation bet, I got called or raised. After a while, it became clear that I was going to have to play hands with value… and those weren’t coming often, so my stack was dwindling.

Key Hand #2 – with the blinds at 200-400, I was in the big blind with KdQd and 1700 behind. It folds to the button who raises to 800. SB folds and I consider my options. I decide that calling is out of the question and ship it. He calls with AK and I spike a Queen to double up. I am now freerolling in the tournament.

Key Hand #3 – blinds are still 200-400… the tables just combined and a new player I’m unfamiliar with raises to 1000 with 3000 behind. It folds to me in LP and I have 77 and I have 4800 total. My opponent is an old man and I usually consider most old men a nit until proven otherwise…. which means, I’m probably never going to get him to fold if I shove and I’m probably only a slight favorite against the bottom of his range. I think folding here is wise, although it’s close… I still have 6 orbits left and I just think I can find a better spot. Doubling up is critical at this point, but I think I’m an underdog against his range. I fold.

Key Hand #4 – blinds are 400-800… we are short-handed, I have 5400 and it folds to me. I shove it with KT and get called by JJ. I spike a King and double up to 12000. Maybe luck is on my side today.

Key Hand #5 – blinds are 400-800, we are still short-handed… I have about 12000 still and open to 2400 with AQ. Someone shoves behind me for 3700 and I make the easy call. He shows AA and his hand holds. I’m down to 8300.

Key Hand #6 – I’ve been managing to keep my stack in good shape and I’m up to around 13000. blinds are now 500-1000 and I have 6d5d in the BB. It folds to the button who shoves for 4500. SB folds and it’s 3500 to me. I do some quick odds… it’s going to cost me 3500 more to try and win a 6500 pot. If I call and lose, I’ll still have around 9000, which is something I can work with. Getting 1.8 to 1 in a likely 40-60, I decide to try and knock him out. Unfortunately he shows TT and even though I flop a flush draw, his hand holds.

Key Hand #7 – I make it to the final table for the 3rd day in a row. Unfortunately, my stack is weak at 9500. I didn’t draw a good seat position, so I’m UTG+1, and the blinds are 500-1000. I fold my first hand, a J6, and then I pick up KT UTG the next hand. I’m aware of the time left in the round and the blinds are going to go up to 1000-2000 the next hand, so my relative stack size is much worse than it looks. If I fold, I’m going to have 3000 going through me the next two hands, assuming I lose both of them, and I’ll have 6500 on the button, which is a pretty easy amount to call from the big blind with 2000 invested already. I decide to shove it while I still have some fold equity from my opponents and it folds all the way to the big blind who calls with AK. No 3-outer for me, as his trip Kings, Ace kicker scoops the pot and he has me covered. FML! I can’t close this thing out!

5 tournaments, 3 final tables, 1 cash, -$125 overall

I’m playing in a deep stack tournament on Sunday and if I don’t cash in that, I’ll have to cut my tournament playing down next week.

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Poker Is So Annoying Sometimes

August 5, 2009

I just endured one of my more obnoxious tournaments in quite some time. I usually play the morning tournament at Chips Casino on my days off and because of the structure, I play a pretty fast and loose game in the early stages. Since the blinds double every 11 minutes, I like to play a lot of pots early to try to build a big stack so I can handle the huge blinds in the end game, so I’m usually one of the first people out or I finish in the top 3. After splashing around a little bit and making a couple moves that didn’t pan out, I found myself with half my stack gone after a couple orbits. I was down to $325 with blinds at $25-$50 when I picked up AK under the gun and shoved it. I get called by AJ and finally win my first pot.. but my stack is still pretty puny. With blinds at 50-100, someone opens to $300 and I shove with 99 and get called by AT and double up again. Now I got a playable stack. However, I dwindle a little bit and only have $1200 in chips when I make the final table. Blinds are 50-100 and this is when things start to get obnoxious. I pick up a pot and have about $1500 when this hand happens. I have 5h3h in the big blind and one person limps, who we will call Dumb Hick, the small blind calls and I check. The flop comes 733, which is beautiful, but it’s unlikely I’ll make any money here. If more people were in the pot or maybe if a flush draw was present, I’d usually just go ahead and lead out and hope I get some action, but I decide to check. It checks around and the turn card is an Ace. Perfect. I check again, almost sure that Dumb Hick is going to bet. He bets $200 and the small blind calls, which was a little surprising. I could shove it here, but I’m unlikely to get called and I want to make a little money on the hand so I make it $650 to go. I get called in both places… good result, although I’m starting to wonder if the small blind is underplaying a better 3 than I have. Obviously the river is another ace and I end up check-folding to Dumb Hick, who shows AJ after I table my 3 in annoyance. Then Dumb Hick has the nerve to say “I knew where you were at,” gesturing towards me. Oh really? You knew I had a 3 and you decided to call me with two outs and one card to go anyways? You’re a fucking genius. I didn’t say that, but I was sure thinking it. Anyways, the hand crippled me again and I was down to $650 instead of having $2850 (and maybe $3500 if the Dumb Hick calls an all-in on the river). Blinds go up to 100-200 after that and now I’m pretty much going to go all in any time it folds to me. I do this once and don’t get a call, so I’m up to $950 when it folds to me again and I shove again without looking. Dumb Hick calls me and shows As8s. I flip over my first card and it’s a ten of hearts… flip over the second card it’s a beautiful ace of hearts. I have him crushed. The flop comes ATQ, with one spade. Awesome. Turn card is a 7 of spades obviously… can’t just win a hand without having to sweat a little bit. The river is a Q and I have to settle for a split pot. Fuck my life! Now I’m at $1050 and I have to fold because people enter the pot before me and I don’t pick up a hand. Finally, I’m under the gun and shove as soon as the first card is dealt to me. I don’t even care if people know I’m not looking at this point. Amazingly, it folds around to the big blind and he decides to call me with… 9h8h. Brilliant. I flip over my first card: 9 of spades. Oh oh… this is either going to be really good or really bad for me. Second card: King. Sweet! I hold and double up. I end up folding both my blinds and have about $1800 when I pick up AdKd on the button. Dumb Hick raises enough to put me all in and I eagerly toss in all my chips when it folds around to me. He shows King-Ten and I have him dominated for the third time. The flop comes T86, with two diamonds. Great… the moron outflopped me, but at least I got a flush draw and 3 outs to an ace. Not horrible. The turn card is a Q, giving me another four outs, for 15 total, but the river is a king giving him two pair and I’m broke. Then Dumb Hick reaches his hand out as I’m about to walk away and I really don’t want to shake it… in fact, I feel like puking on him instead.. but I reluctantly shake his hand and then walk out of the building steaming. Seriously though… it’s bad enough to lose three big hands when you have your opponent dominated, but when it’s the same guy every time, that shit is tough to stomach. I wanted to punch him, honestly. I hate poker right now.

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