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1/3/5 Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace (10/17/18 Live Blog)

October 17, 2018

As I write this (at 1 PM), PLO is quite some time away from starting, but there are currently 15 names on the list and I’m not exactly sure where I am on it. I’m praying that I start the game because it is super important to be in there from the jump. The action is usually at its best in the early goings, plus waiting on the sidelines for a game that already starts pretty late is absolutely brutal.

A bit of a recap of my last few days:

If you followed my post on Saturday about my session at Fortune, then you know I reached boiling levels of steaming. I feel like the gap between my c-game and my a-game is not that large – much, much smaller than the average player. For instance, my starting hand selection is so ingrained at this point that when I’m at my absolute worst, I don’t deviate much from my a-game starting hand selection. Those ranges are virtually identical, although I can concede that there might be a little bit of slippage. My post-flop game definitely suffers more. When emotions cloud my rational thinking, I make sloppier decisions and I know for a fact that I start calling down lighter. The biggest symptom that I’m on legitimate tilt, however, is how I feel. Nobody likes losing, but I feel like I stomach it really well, so when I actually start to physically feel the pain of what’s happening, I know I’m in bad shape. That’s where I was at Saturday night. So I took the last three days off – a rare occurrence for me when I’m not on vacation or swamped with non-poker plans.

We spent Sunday with family and friends and ended up having dinner at a restaurant in Renton called Melrose Grill. It was sooooooooo good! Highly recommended! We ordered a sausage platter, two porterhouse steaks, a ribeye steak, beef stroganoff, plus apple crisp and creme brulee for dessert. Everything was perfection. The steaks were juicy and full of flavor and the beef stroganoff was particularly mind-blowing – easily the best I’ve ever had. If you find yourself in the Renton area or just want to try a new restaurant, definitely check this place out.

Monday was a full day off for me and that started at the gym, before staying home to watch game 3 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Brewers, but as so often happens on my “days off,” I ended up on Global Poker, participating in their Eagle Cup events. Monday had three no limit hold’em events: $3 rebuy, $10 rebuy, and $30 rebuy. That means you can rebuy unlimited times for the first hour of each tournament. I started the day with just over $1100 on Global, so while I could gamble it up in the $3 and, to a lesser degree, the $10, it would be pretty reckless of me to play wildly in the $30 with my current online bankroll size. I also played the nightly $5 rebuy, the nightly $11 limit hold’em, and a $55 multi-table tournament. I busted 3 bullets in the $5 rebuy, 6 bullets in the $3 rebuy, and 3 bullets in the $30 rebuy. I finished 4th in the $11 LHE, but I needed to finish top 2 to cash (LOL). I also busted nearing the bubble of a couple of other ones.

I got in two bullets in the $10 rebuy and made a deep run. I had a very ugly spot come up somewhere near the money where I made a borderline all in call with AJ of diamonds, largely because only one stack behind me could do damage to me. Well, that player ended up jamming on me and even though it was for heaps and I was likely crushed, I was getting a pretty attractive price and ended up calling off about 75% of my relatively large stack. He had AA and I didn’t win.

Suddenly, I was in the bottom 20%, but then I got scalding hot. I think after that hand, deep in the event, I picked up AA at least five times. I won almost every all in confrontation I can think of, leading up to the final table. After that punt/cooler, I could seem to do no wrong and I rode that hot wave all the way to the final two players and found myself heads up for an Eagle Cup trophy.

I couldn’t have had a softer opponent. We started with relatively even stacks, but I had already surmised that this player was playing above his normal stakes and was playing for considerably more money than he ever had on Global Poker. Some people might rise to the occasion, but he had already proven to be incredibly timid. My approach heads up was to make a small raise every button and bet 1/3 pot on every flop. This sequence had an immediate success rate of around 85%. It was absurd. You’d think he would adjust, but he never did. He just kept folding and folding and folding. Eventually, I realized I could min-raise pre and lower my c-bet sizing as well. This saved me chips in the rare spots where he called the flop and I decided to give up. I was also able to size up when I felt it was necessary without worrying that I was tipping my hand strength. When I was in the big blind, I played much more passively preflop, only raising my better hands. He called a lot more frequently on the button and also peeled on the flop more often. My strategy was to check a lot preflop and min-bet the flop 100% of the time. This had a success rate greater than 50%, which is absurd. He was so passive overall, that when he did fight back, it was easy to fold anything marginal because he was just handing me the victory by folding so much.

Needless to say, I used this strategy to grind him all the way down to 3 big blinds.

And then I didn’t win the tournament. It was a true stunner. I absolutely dominated him, but we got all in 7 times and he went 5-0-2 in those hands and that was all he needed to pick up the victory. I can’t say I was devastated or anything, but I was pretty shocked, and it would have been cool to add to my trophy case:

Yep, there they are, tucked away, on top of our refrigerator, behind the wine bottles. My wife is so proud of me!

Still, 2nd of 388 players is always cool and so is $1152.21 for an $11 buy in!

Tuesday I went to see Venom and you can read the review I posted this morning below:

Venom – 3/10

Then I picked these little bros up from their haircuts:

After that, I watched baseball all day and played more poker on Global, booking a 1st place in the nightly $11 PLO tournament for $256.

It is now 10 past 5 PM and I will be headed to Palace after I refresh with a cup of coffee.

6:02 PM: I’m in! Lots of flakes, as expected.

Starting lineup: The Lawnmower Man, nitty plo reg, Muckleshoot reg, nitty baseball guy, aggro plo reg, Part-Time, unknown, The Crypt Keeper

The Lawnmower Man is a new name, but apparently he’s a regular at Muckleshoot and has a similar nickname that naturally leads me to Stephen King’s novel title. I’ve played with him once in the 15/30 at Palace but multiple times in the 20/40 O8 at Muckleshoot, so we cross paths enough to warrant the name, especially if he starts playing in this game regularly.

I hear The Lawnmower Man is someone you build games around, so he’s a welcome sight. The rest of this lineup is not great.

6:32 PM: Welp. I felted $600 already. I’m pretty sure it was a colossal fuck up, so that’s all I’m going to say about that. I usually share when I make mistakes but this one I’d rather digest on my own and learn from rather than getting a bunch of messages from different people weighing in with their unwanted opinions.

Just the start I was hoping for after two brutal live sessions!

6:48 PM: This one I will share. It’s a multi-way pot opened by The Crypt Keeper and I call from the cutoff with AJ77 with three hearts in my hand. It’s pretty speculative, but…

The Q96 all heart flop makes it a bit more nutty. The Crypt Keeper leads with a bet of like $50 on the flop and I’m next to act. Here’s what’s going to happen if I make a large raise here: everyone is going to fold.

If TCK has top set and a flush we are probably going to get it in, but barring that, he’s probably just going to fold, so I’m going to gamble here… by calling. The nitty player on the button overcalls and everyone else folds.

The turn is a brick and TCK bets $65. It’s pretty small, definitely not indicative of a very strong holding, so I stay consistent with my plan to hide information. I’m guessing neither of these guys would expect to play the nuts this way. I can’t remember taking a line like this that I know they have seen. The button overcalls again.

I know I will have to tread carefully if the board pairs, but fortunately it’s a super bricky offsuit deuce on the river – a true beauty. TCK bets $65 again. Since I don’t think TCK will put me on the nuts very often here, I don’t see any point in milking him with a small raise. I think he sniffs that out.

I make it $300 to go. I just don’t think my line looks very credible, given our history. Maybe he can put me on a set with the naked ace of hearts? I don’t really know what other hands would make sense to bluff with here. My plan works and I get max value from a player that would typically never pay off in this spot.

7:15 PM: I limp early with a marginal JT99 with no suits. I’m sure I should be folding this in a game that almost always has a preflop raise, but here we are. The unknown does make it $20 on the button and we go multi-way to the flop.

Here’s how you make a marginal hand look premium: the flop is 998 with two diamonds. I have the super nuts, but interestingly enough, in 4-Card poker, any card that could make a straight flush is a legitimate concern. Surprisingly, The Crypt Keeper leads right out from the small blind for $50 and I’m next to act. Considering our recent history, I decide to immediately raise to $125. The field folds and I do get a snap call from TCK but he folds to my $200 bet on the Queen turn. QQJT one time! Come on.

7:23 PM: Here’s a hand I wish I played before I felted: I open with AAQT double suited from under the gun and get multiple callers.

Flop is 975 with two clubs, giving me the nut flush draw. I’m out of position against everyone and I don’t want to play for stacks here, so I check which puts some nut flush draws in my check-calling range which I think is a good balancing play. It checks through.

The turn is an offsuit King, I check again and the dude that stacked me in that first big pot bets $40. I am the only caller.

The river is an offsuit 2 and we both check.

He shows a set of 9s! Woah. I get the flop check, but that is an ultra conservative check back on the river. Needless to say, playing for stacks earlier against this player with the hand I had was a clear mistake.

7:45 PM: Crypt Keeper raises some limpers, Lawnmower Man calls, and I call AKss88 on the button.

Six of us see the AK3 two diamond flop and it checks to Lawnmower Man and he bets $100 into $120. TLM has around $500 going to the flop so I think I want to raise and potentially play an all in pot with him. I make it $300, the rest fold and he does jam it. He says he wants to run it once and shows… KKJ9. Gulp. I have two outs. I don’t hit one of them and suddenly I’m back to -$500.

8:10 PM: This game is fizzling quickly. We are suddenly 7-handed and all the weakest players have either busted or left. The unknown has been MIA for a while so we are actually 6-handed.

But wait! As I type this, an older Asian man I don’t know is coming over from 8/16. That can’t be a bad thing.

This game fizzling out early is not a good way to hook The Lawnmower Man during his first session. Leave him unimpressed and he might not ever come back. Fortunately, he said his word of mouth was Lee Markholt so that means he might actually show up again even if he sees the worst possible representation of this game tonight.

8:23 PM: Blackjack is also sitting in the game now and he combines with the older guy to put an additional $430 on the table. We got a couple of shot takers in the game! But at least they are filling seats. That makes us 8-handed now, although two players have been missing for some time.

8:35 PM: Mr. Plow is here to save the day. Not only is he taking a seat, but he fills up the game minutes before superstar Lee Markholt walks in the door. Have a seat on the bench, champ!

Lee just sat down in 8/16. Man, I want to take and post a picture so bad. I bet he plays to crush too. What a stud.

8:56 PM: And the MIA player has been picked up and replaced by a legend: Lee Markholt is in the game.

9:15 PM: I’ve been super inactive but I just watched Blackjack get it in on the KQJ flop and the board runs out KQJ-J-A which seems bad for the AT Blackjack obviously has but the KcTc in his hand makes a running ROYAL FLUSH. I think that’s gonna work. I confirmed that was the first Royal Flush he’s ever made in his life in any game. I should have snapped a pic for the kid!

10:01 PM: Two clashes with Mr. Plow:

First hand I limp along late with QJT5 double suited and he makes it $30 to go. Two of the three limpers call, myself included, and we go to a 982 with two club flop. I have the QJ of clubs in my hand so I have a monster draw. I don’t expect Mr. Plow to show any caution so I check to let him c-bet (for full pot) before making it $400 and ready to play for $1000 each.

He folds and since I have queen high I’m okay with that.

I’ll post the other hand later. Blackjack and I are currently playing 3-handed PLO with Lee Markholt. Like total idiots.

10:47 PM: I asked Radio Mike to snap an indiscreet pic of this epic moment in Palace poker history, so apparently he walked next door and took this gem:

11:00 PM: Last hand of the night: Lee makes it $10 on button, I flat with KQJT double suited because… blackjack makes it $30, Lee calls, now I make it $120 which basically puts BJ all in and I’m hoping I can get a fold from Lee and flip for $125… but he calls.

Gulp. Lee and I are both deep. This could be bad.

Flop is K53 with two hearts. I lead for $165, BJ calls for crumbs and Lee calls the full bet. Omg.

Another king on the turn bails me out. Lee just never has a set here so I feel great leading for $300. Lee snap-folds and BJ says he wants to run it once and immediately rolls over K642 with hearts. The river is a heart and he triples up and the game is dead.

Fortunately, Lee’s flop call earned me a small profit on the hand.

Other hand with Mr. Plow, I have forgotten many details now but has AKxx on K77 and check-called $15 before check-calling $40 on an ace turn and then betting $125 when I somehow rivered aces full of kings. It’s funny how you can go from hoping someone doesn’t have something (a seven) to hoping they do have it. It seems optimistic to think someone can call with a 7 here for full pot, but my boy Mr. Plow is not the type to be bullied. He pays it off and I’m good.

Final Score: -$449

Geez, I hope tonight isn’t a preview of what tomorrow is going to look like. This PLO game has been running every Wednesday for 18 months now and I think tonight was the worst lineup I’ve played in. Not only that, but it never picked up and fizzled out early.

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1/3/5 PLO @ Palace with special guest Lee Markholt

October 10, 2018

Woah. It’s not everyday you walk into your local casino and a top 5 player in Washington state history is in your game.

Seriously, look him up: Hendon Mob

He ranks 4th all-time in the state in tournament cashes and is one of the most successful and long-lasting pros to come from Washington. He has multiple appearances on T.V., including a WPT Main Event title.

Pretty cool to have him in the game, but also… not cool.

Rest of the starting lineup: Crypt Keeper, new reg, Part-Time, Baseball Guy, Big Baby, nit, and The Man.

Cards are in the air!

6:10 PM: If you are here for the poker, I’m going to steer you in the direction of the A Star is Born review I published today. The movie is phenomenal. I urge you to read what I wrote about it and go see it ASAP!

A Star is Born is the Best Movie of 2018

6:20 PM: Lee almost immediately loses a massive pot to Part-Time. I was typing as this one was brewing but Part-Time flopped the nut flush draw with some straight draws and all the money eventually got in and he ended up making the flush and holding up when the river paired the board.

6:29 PM: First notable pot, Part-Time limps in and it folds to my big blind and I complete with AKccT3dd. I could (and maybe should) raise it here, but bloating the pot out of position with zero fold equity could create some tricky situations after the flop.

The first three cards are AT4 with two clubs and one diamond. It’s a monstah! I have top two pair, the nut flush draw, and a backdoor diamond draw. Unfortunately, I only have one opponent and a dinky pot out there. I bet $5, Part-Time makes a cute raise to $10, and I 3-bet to $30. He calls.

Turn pairs the ace, giving me the nuts. I bet a weak-looking $20, hoping it might entice him into doing something stupid. He just calls though.

The river is the 3 of clubs. I now have the nuts, the third nuts, and the nut flush. It’s hard to imagine what he could have here, but I assume he either has an ace or made the flush and bet $65, which is pretty near pot-sized and he snap calls and I win the pot.

6:52 PM: Here’s a reminder why you don’t play trash hands in PLO.

The Man limps in and I try to isolate him and take control of the hand by making it $20 with T866 no suits from the cutoff and a decent regular calls on the button. The Man also calls. Ugh. So now I’m out of position with a weak hand. Wonderful.

The flop comes 987 with with two clubs. I flopped a straight. So naturally, I check when it’s my turn, the button bets $45, The Man calls, and I… fold.

I mean seriously. How can you justify playing a hand when you flop a straight with it and check-fold? You can’t. Yet, I’m sure that’s the correct play on the flop and all that does is reinforce the fact that this hand should be tossed into the muck before the flop, even if a somewhat attractive situation arises.

7:39 PM: Limpers in front of me and I call with KK98 with diamonds.

Six of us see the A42 all diamond flop and everyone checks to me. I bet $15 into $35 and the small blind and Big Baby call.

The turn pairs the 2, which is mildly annoying, but they both check again and I bet small at $30 and they both call again.

I’m thinking about whether or not I will be betting the river and I’m leaning towards yes because both my opponents are very loose players with absurdly light calling standards, but… the river is a king! I now have what really feels like the nuts and I size up because I don’t care if they have stronger hands now. I make it $110 and the first guy tanks for a long time (he’s the dude that called me for $175 and then $300 with A832 on 854Q4 last week), but he eventually calls and Big Baby snap calls.

The first guy tells me he flopped a flush and turned a boat, but I don’t believe a word he’s saying. I can buy the flush part, but I was going to bet money on the river that he didn’t have a full house. I mean he’s proven that he could call with a naked ace here.

8:22 PM: Five limpers and Crypt Keeper juices the pot from small blind to $25 and I defend the big blind with KTssQQ, happy to play a multi-way pot here. All five limpers also call.

With $175 in the pot, we get a flop of Q65 with two diamonds and I fire $130. Big Baby and The Man call and then I’m kind of shocked to see Crypt Keeper also call. It seems like if he had a hand he call in this spot with he would be leading the flop a lot. Interesting.

The turn is the 9 of diamonds, which is absolute murder for my hand. Someone is ahead me now, whether it’s with a flush or a straight. I am ecstatic to see it check around.

Unfortunately, the river is a king and Crypt Keeper leads out for $150. He should never be bluffing into Big Baby and The Man here, so whatever he has, it has me beat. I’m guessing he has at least a straight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a modest flush with it as well. I fold and Big Baby is the only caller. Crypt Keeper turns over J7dd8X for the win. I wish I would have noted what his fourth card was to see what he deems worthy of raising from the small blind in that spot.

8:36 PM: The Man limps, I make it $20 with double suited AAQ7 and unnamed dude from the previous hand makes it $60, folds around to The Man and he calls. There’s another raise left here, so I can get most of that guy’s stack in pre and maybe, just maybe, The Man will fold in this spot… for the first time ever. The first guy calls and, against all odds, The Man does fold, leaving $60 of his precious dollars out there.

My remaining opponent has maybe a third of the pot behind so I just bet $300 dark and we are going to see all the board cards if he calls.

Dealer brings the flop and I’m typing on my phone while he starts tanking and eventually look up to see a board of AQ9 rainbow. Well, that’s nice. Of course, my boy doesn’t let me down and he puts the rest of the chips in, we run it once, and I have a brief scare as the turn makes JT the nuts, but the river pairs the 9 and my hand is clearly the nuts again.

A few hands later, I’m in a multi-way raised pot with AT97 with a suited ace. Flop is AJ9 with two hearts. My favorite current villain fires $25 on the flop and The Man calls on the button. I think my hand is normally a strong folding candidate, since I have no hearts, but the bet is weak relative to the pot size and the call isn’t strong either. I’m taking a card off and proceeding with caution.

The turn is a ten, giving me a better two pair, but making a number of straights. I check and they both also check. I am quite happy about that.

River is the 2 of spades. My hand isn’t really strong enough to bet here, so I check, planning to call any reasonable bet, but my boy bombs it for the full pot. The Man folds and the action is back on me. I have a pure bluff catcher here, but it seems incredibly unlikely that he would bet the flop and then check any of the straights on the turn. My main dilemma is that he could possibly play a set this way. Maaaaybe AJ. On the other hand, I’m blocking all those holdings. I think I have to call here. So I do. He shows AKKx and I win the pot.

10:06 PM: I have gone cold. The game has changed a bit. Part-Time and Big Baby are out. John Kim and new plo regular are in. Crypt Keeper has over $2k. I have around $1700. Tight-solid guy on my left has around $2500. Lee Markholt has around $2200. Needless to say, the looser players have been getting abused.

I come back from a short break to post in the cutoff and it’s raised to $15 in front of me, there’s a call, and I defend with KK96 with diamonds.

Five of us see the A88 with two diamonds flop and they all check to me. I believe the button also called here preflop, but when the PFR and TCK both check to me, I think this is a good hand and board to stab at. I bet $55 and only the PFR calls.

The turn pairs the ace, so now I’m looking at a board of A88A. He checks to me and I don’t see any reason to bet here. I might have the best hand. If I have the best hand, I also have the best draw. I can’t imagine he’s going to fold a better hand than mine. So I check back.

The river is the 5 of diamonds and he checks to me again. Now I feel like I have a hand I can bet. He needs AA, A8, A5, 88, 85, or 55 to beat me. Nothing he has done in this hand has led me to believe he can have any of those hands. If he has an ace, I expect him to call here. I bet $75 but he folds.

10:23 PM: It’s funny this hand starts off with me limping under the gun with ATddT3 and thinking it’s a bit loose. I literally just got done reading about how if you have a hand with a suited ace and a pair then you want your pair to not be suited with the ace. That way half the time you flop a set, there will be at least one card to your suit on the flop. I just read that before this session.

But here I am limping in the worst possible position and breaking the rule. Not only that, but my side card is basically worthless. So I limp, next player limps, John Kim limps, the small blind makes it $20, and only two of us call.

The flop is T84 with two diamonds. Holy shit. It’s the miracle flop. It’s what PLO players dream about. Seems hard for the PFR to want to bet this board, but he fires out $50, I make it $120, and John Kim calls! So does the PFR. Wow!

Turn is a black 2. Amazing. The board texture is the exact same. I bet $225 and they both call again! Well I know what I don’t want. I don’t want any non-diamond 7, 9, Jack, or Queen. A 6 could also be ugly.

The river is a 9… of diamonds! I bet $300, John Kim tanks for a while and eventually folds (a flush – and I believe him) and the PFR snap calls with a King high flush.

What a pot!

But I probably should have open-folded pre. Next time!

10:38 PM: The Godfather is in the building. This is a nickname that goes way back before my blog became a thing. The Godfather is a legendary spectator of Kitsap County poker games. For years, it seemed like he spent more time watching poker from the rail than actually playing poker. That’s how he earned his nickname because it seemed like the only reason he was in the building was to make sure that the dealers were taking the correct rake.

And thus The Godfather was born.

But he’s here playing poker tonight. He’s next up for PLO, but… I suspect he might not be coming over. This is what his stack currently looks like in the 8/16 game:

Unreal.

11:00 PM: Well, we didn’t get The Godfather and the action in the 8/16 game is so good that multiple players passed on PLO seats, including Mr. Plow and Mighty Mouse. So the PLO list just went from seven deep to three – and I think all three of those guys recycled.

We did, however, get a different Kitsap County legend: Godzilla. Here’s the thing: the dude has the physique of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, short arms and all. I can’t help but think of the infamous carnivore when I watch him walk around the room, searching for plant-eaters to swallow. I considered calling him T-Rex and I also considered Barney and while this player is definitely a friendly dinosaur, I can’t imagine Barney’s playing style lining up with his. He’s a hyper loose and aggressive player and thus I will dub him Godzilla.

Welcome to the club, buddy.

I actually have lots of history with Godzilla from back in my Kitsap days but it has been a long time since we clashed regularly.

Lineup update: Crypt Keeper, solid reg, player that has been trying to donate to me, Godzilla, The Man, nit, Lee Markholt, new reg that has been player very aggro

12:04 AM: Lee Markholt has left the game and we never put bets in on the same hand on the same street after the flop. Zero clashes.

12:21 AM: The Godfather has made his way to PLO. He just booked a $1600+ winner in 8/16 and it’s not like he was even playing that long. He was the main beneficiary of The Santa Claus Game.

12:46 AM: Eek. My recent nemesis just smacked Godzilla and The Godfather both.

First, he makes a straight with A985 vs JJxx and the nut flush draw after being the third player to put in $400 on the J76hh flop. The board runs out J769K. That felts The Godfather and puts a hurt on Godzilla.

Then he has JJ vs Godzilla’s AKJx on KJ83x where Godzilla also has the nut flush draw on the turn.

My boy now has over $3500 in chips in front of him and he tends to go out of his way to play poorly against me.

🙏🏻

12:55 AM: The Leak just tortured me by sitting down in the PLO game for the briefest of moments before the floor mercifully called her name for 8/16 and she actually took the seat.

1:18 AM: I just walked over to have a few bites of The Leak’s salad and she whispered in my ear, “if you look at me the wrong way, I’m going back over there.”

1:51 AM: My first good hand in what feels like hours, the active and aggro player opens to $15, I make it $40 with KKQhJh, and the Crypt Keeper caps the preflop betting by making it $120. The Godfather and The Man call $120 cold! The aggro player and I also call and there is $600 in the middle and five players seeing the flop.

The board comes down Q97 rainbow with one heart and it checks to Crypt Keeper and he bets $300, which is almost his entire remaining stack. I probably would fold here anyway but The Godfather makes my decision super easy by check-raising to $600. Everyone else folds and they agree to run it twice.

The Crypt Keeper ends up scooping with… J976 double suited… unimproved on both boards.

Say what?! That cold four bet! Also, what the heck is The Godfather jamming with? One of the boards had a ten on the river which seems like it would improve any reasonable drawing hand Godfather could have (and would have given me the nuts on that board).

Well that was lame. Instead of punting off his stack with a piece of cheese like J976, The Crypt Keeper is now sitting with over $1300 again on my direct left.

2:11 AM: The Leak is back in the game and she is quickly all in on the flop with AT97 with nut clubs on J83 with two clubs. It’s a monster draw, but for some reason she says she only wants to run it once and her opponent ends up rivering quads.

After the hand, she says, “I’ve never run it twice before. I don’t know what to do.”

I respond with, “running it twice helps reduce variance,” as she digs into her purse for a reload.

She deadpans: “I’ll run you over twice.”

3:39 AM: I think I’m about to wrap this up here. We are 5-handed and one player is leaving. We have been chopping all night so when it folds to The Leak in the small blind and she makes it $15 to go, I figure she is just doing it to be funny but then she says we are playing now. And then I look down at AAT5 double suited. Of course I do. My wife has felted $200 twice and she bought a third $200 bullet and now has over $700 in front of her. So I do what you should do when your wife raises you in a heads up pot and you have double suited aces… I fold.

I have zero interest in playing 4-handed big bet poker with The Leak.

I am racking up to leave now.

Final Score: +$1940

10:00 AM: I ended up cashing out around 4 AM and I didn’t immediately go to bed. Now I have a 90 minute massage in half an hour that I am probably going to struggle to stay awake during. Normally, I would be headed back to Palace for more PLO @ 6 PM, but Global Poker is running its 2nd annual Eagle Cup series right now and tonight all the tournaments are limit Hold’em. I’m not really focusing much on playing on Global these days – since they stopped allowing Washington state residents to depost – but there’s no way I’m not making their big limit Hold’em tournaments a priority. I won’t go as far as to say I’m the best LHE player on the site, but it’s hard to imagine there are many players that play more LHE than I do and with more success. The LHE cash games very rarely run and when they do, it is almost always at micro stakes. I expect to do way better than my fair share in these tournaments. Of course, I’ll probably end up going 0-3. My lifetime record in LHE tournaments on Global Poker is 5 cashes in 21 tries (23%) for a 26% ROI. I have won their nightly LHE tournament three times, but I am 1 for 6 in their series events with my one cash being a min-cash for 39th place. I’m looking to do big things tonight. The first tournament starts at 5:30 and the last one starts at 6:30, so I expect to be playing until at least 9 PM (Global tournaments have very quick structures). If I’m done playing at a decent time tonight, I will head to Palace for more PLO.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, Lee Markholt, palace casino, poker, poker strategy, pot limit omaha, professional gambling, professional poker, wpt | Leave a Comment »

Palace PLO Wednesdays! (10/3/18 Live Blog)

October 3, 2018

Showed up to Palace a little early today to watch the AL Wild Card Game. It didn’t take long for Aaron Judge to make it a 2-0 game. I really like Aaron Judge but I really hate the Yankees so I’m on Team Oakland tonight. I had over on the Yanks and over on Luis Severino’s win tally, but the regular season is over and I can officially stop rooting with my wallet.

Go A’s!!

List for PLO includes The Crypt Keeper, The Man, Part-Time, Hit&Run, and…

HIS ROYAL AIRNESS! And he’s already in the building so there’s no smoke and mirror potential there. The guy is going to play some 4-card poker tonight.6:11 PM: Official starting lineup: His AIRNESS, Part-Time, couple of random guys I don’t know (one of them is drinking beer and the other one looks like he’s about to knit a sweater), The Man, decent player that has been in this game lately, and The Crypt Keeper.

Pretty solid mix of tight players and a couple super loose ones.

His Airness just felted. We have played four hands.

6:31 PM: This seems like a missed opportunity: Airness opens $15, Part-Time calls, I call with 8866 double suited from the small blind and big blind also defends.Flop is 877. It’s reasonable to lead out here but His Airness c-bets recklessly, so a bet is always going in, regardless of what he has. He bets $25, Part-Time calls and I make it $65 to go from out of position. That looks pretty nutted but they both call anyway.

Turn is a 3 and it kind of feels like Part-Time has a 7 so I size up enough to make sure I get the rest of my stack in on the river (I started with around $500) and bet $140. Unfortunately, they both fold.

Some massive dude going by Big Baby (not my creation) just sat down with $1k and he looks like someone that is going to be putting chips in the pot.

6:58 PM: Big Baby 1, Dark Knight 0I make a pot-sweetening raise with bad double suited aces to $20 after four limpers from the small blind. All the limpers call.

I bet $75 into $100 on QJ5 holding the nut flush draw and only Big Baby calls.

Turn is a red 8 and I check-call $75.

River King and we both check. He wins with QJxx.

Big Baby just won a potentially game-changing pot against The Man and His Airness. The Man wins that one and this game could get ugly real quick.

7:11 PM: Big Baby opens to $15 and I try to isolate to $35 with QJT5 double suited, but both randos call and The Crypt Keeper caps it at $50 (which, in retrospect, isn’t even a legal raise size – it has to be at least $55). 5 or 6 of us call.Flop is QTx with two spades and it checks to me. I bet $150 and that is close to pot-sized and only one of the randos calls.

I’m looking for a blank turn so I can max bet for most of his stack. The 4 of hearts is a beauty. I bet $300 and… he goes all in for $11 more.

We run it once… because he has me smashed with ATssTx.

My two-outer doesn’t get there and I am officially bleeding.

I am down $700 but Big Baby has almost $2k on my immediate right.

7:52 PM: The whole table limps and His Airness makes it $20 from the small blind and we all call.

There is $180 in the pot. There is no muck.

My hand is AsQs88.

The flop is K82 rainbow with one spade and His Airness checks. Big Baby balks at it so the action is on me. My hand is basically a monster here but also hard to get action. I size decently at $110 – not big enough that no one can call but but small enough that someone can float me with impunity and pick up huge equity on the turn. Everyone with position folds and Part-Time check-raises the max from the big blind.

Unfortunately, this pushes Big Baby out and I put Part-Time all in for a little more and I ask how many times he wants to run it and he “doesn’t care” so I’m only running it once.

The board runs out clean and I win a much needed pot.

Only down $400 now.

Part-Time is out of here and Villain takes a rare seat in the game.

8:08 PM: Oh my. Big Baby is racked up like he’s leaving. He has over $3k in front of him. Please say it isn’t so, Big Baby!

8:18 PM: So frustrating. Raised multiway pot again and I have QT99 double suited in the big blind.

Flop is 986 with one diamond. Not super worried about T7s and 75s here so I lead out for $105 and only a random and Big Baby call.

Turn is a 2d to give me a flush draw with everything else I have going for me. Big Baby donks out $200. I think this is a raise. He doesn’t strike me as the type of player savvy enough to check-call straights on the flop and bet out on safe turns. I call though and I fucking hate it now. Other dude calls also.

River is a Queen and Big Baby leads $200. Dude on my left is feigning fold so I call and then the dude behind me makes it $500.

Sigh. We both fold. He shows J3dd which is even more annoying because I had a Queen high flush draw. Meanwhile Big Baby is saying, “pair the board.”

Fuck. What a catastrophe.

I mean maybe that dude just takes $500 to the face with Jd3dTx but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have made him have to.

And now Big Baby is gone. With over $3k in chips.

His Airness is still here which is nice, but he’s short.

The two randoms have a lot of chips but they have been playing decently.

Mr. Plow is next up for this game but he’s never played it as far as I know and I’ll believe it when I see it.

And the random in s6 that beat me in that last pot another $3k off the table.

I’m steaming now. His Airness felts and leaves and I might just rage quit.

8:31 PM: And the random in s5 hit and runs also!

Now it’s just seven of us, sitting here miserable because we all got smashed and now the game is on the verge of SUCKING.

8:32 PM: We have life! Another random I’ve never seen before sits down… with $200. Yawn.

Will he run it up to $1500 and leave?

Stay tuned.

9:15 PM: Uneventful happenings on the felt, but The Man just told me about a sick, awesome bet he made in college. He bet one of his friends that the Mariners would win the World Series before the Cubs and with every year that passed without one of those teams winning it all, they each deposited $100 into a joint account.

They made that bet in 1991.

The Cubs finally won in 2016.

So cool.

Except the Mariners not winning part.

The AL Wild Card Game was a dud, but the bright side is that it now sets the Red Sox and Yankees to meet up in the postseason for the first time in 14 years.

What? Has it really been that long? Yes. They haven’t battled when it mattered most since the infamous 2004 ALCS when the tides changed forever.

So… I guess that’s kind of cool. And the nice thing is this historic match is happening in the Division Series and not the ALCS. No matter how much history there is here I never want to see the Red Sox or Yankees advance in the playoffs.

Go Astros.

Go Indians.

9:37 PM: There is hope on the horizon: Animal is first up on the list.

9:59 PM: Call a $15 raise from The Man with 8776 double suited and we go to the flop multiple ways.

K33 rainbow isn’t interesting… to anyone. It checks around.

Turn is pretty cool: 7 of hearts, giving me a pretty nutted hand and opening up a heart flush draw. The Man bets $40, I call hoping to keep some players in (and avoid destruction when The Man is slow playing KK on the flop), and Villain is the only other caller from the big blind.

River is the 9 of spades and they both instantly check to me. That seems weak so I keep it reasonable at $75 and Villain snap-calls and I wish I had sized bigger.

Meanwhile, Animal is still first up. Uhm, doesn’t The Crypt Keeper have a horror anthology to host somewhere? Gtfoh, buddy.

10:53 PM: Animal sits down with almost $1300 in chips. The maximum buy in is $1000. No one say anything.

Dealer is making him take chips off the table now. 😡

11:21 PM: 3-bet AA52 with clubs to $40 and get three callers. Hit a nice flop of J43 with one club and bet $90 but nobody wants to play.

11:42 PM: The Palace dealer I’ve been wanting to give a name to and I have settled on a name. He is Twinkie. And he’s a white dude, so that’s not some kind of racially charged nickname. He’s just a skinny, goofy looking white guy that Billy Dubz decided to call Twinkie and I was like…

🤔

Okay.

So Twinkie is in the game now and The Man is gone.

Also, Twinkie is the one person that has committed to go to Chinook Winds with me. So he definitely needed a name.

I have a place booked for the 23rd through the 28th. I wanted to be there for the O8, Big O, and Main Events.

12:27 AM: Holy shit. Mr. Plow is in the PLO game. I thought it was all show. I didn’t think he’d actually sit down. He has $500 in front of him… and I’m assuming very little clue how to play this game, but we shall see.

1:15 AM: It’s not a coincidence that as the night wears on my material dries up. I haven’t been very involved and the craziness has basically stopped. Animal and His Airness are both gone now and that automatically halves the average pot size. Mr. Plow has been playing conservatively as he gets his feet wet in this game. The Crypt Keeper is basically napping in between hands.

I will probably be leaving shortly. It’s late and this game isn’t too attractive.

1:43 PM: Wow. I picked up to cash out and three players immediately quit the game. LOL. That sure makes me feel good.

Anyways, this fires back up at 6 PM tomorrow and I’ll be here for that. I will probably actually be here at 2 PM for the first game of the MLB Division Series.

Final Score: -$280

Not too bad considering I was -$1000 at one point and it never felt like anything good really happened.

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Nickname Fest: PLO @ Palace (LIVE BLOG)

September 26, 2018

I really didn’t plan to blog tonight. It’s going to be a time-restricted session and I will probably be blogging all weekend but…

I’m not sure I’ve ever played in a lineup where every single player had a nickname.

Tonight’s PLO lineup: Animal, John Stockton, The Man, Mr. Baseball, The Riddler, Part-Time, Santa Claus, and The Crypt Keeper.

My oh my… as Dave Niehaus used to say.

Leggo.

7:00 PM: Well I didn’t make this post to not write any hands but the first hour has been a whole lot of whiffing for me. However, I am working on a trip report for the rest of our trip that I will copy and paste here shortly for everyone to read.

7:09 PM: So much for that. Just got in an awkward spot where Animal leads turn and everyone else’s ranges are capped after the flop checks through in a raised pot and I isolate him with a weak aces up hand figuring it will clear the field. He’s kind of short so my raise to $260 is more of a $180 call against someone that is super duper wide and reckless. Unfortunately he has the same hand, but with the nut flush draw and we only run it once and he binks the flush.

Very next hand I defend a UTG raise from John Stockton in a multiway pot with KQ32 double suited.

The flop is KK6 with two spades and he leads $40 and the field folds. I’m happy to get it in against him and after I check-raise him he 3-bets and I jam for a minimal amount and he says, “I don’t know if I even want to call now,” so for the briefest of moments I think I have him crushed. But then he does call and shows the AK94. I started the hand with $285ish, so we weren’t particularly deep. We run it twice and he wins both of them.

Reload!

-$600! Solid start.

Santa Claus has been replaced by John Stockton’s buddy that has never played in this game before, as far as I know.

Trip Update

In my last blog post I posted updates of our trip through our stay in Houston.

Thursday

We left Houston early on Thursday afternoon and started our drive towards Dallas.

Well, sort of. We were stopping off in Waco, Texas first to see the Magnolia Stores by Joanna and Chip Gaines. I don’t know anything about them other than that they are notable television personalities. But Magnolia was definitely high on my wife’s list of things she wanted to see.

The store had some cool things in it, but that didn’t interest me too much. The area around the store was really nice. Beautiful. They have done a nice job of making the store a destination stop, complete with iconic silos, great scenery and a play area and food trucks out back that create an almost fair-like vibe.

Here are some pics:

Also in the Waco area is the campus of Baylor University. Very, very nice. We drove through it three times and the pictures I took really don’t do it justice.

From Waco, we were on our way to Dallas to stay two nights and watch a Mariners vs Rangers MLB game in Arlington.

All in all, it was about five hours of driving on Thursday and we were pretty wiped when we got to our hotel.

Our first night in Dallas I believe we got some authentic Texas BBQ and it was amazing, but it is also the only time we didn’t take food pics our whole trip.

Even though I was exhausted I couldn’t resist the drive to Oklahoma to play some poker and I already blogged that session.

Friday

On Friday we made an effort to try some Tex-Mex cuisine for the first time and went to a place called Mia’s where they had mandatory valet parking.

As I noted in my blog post at Winstar the locals were saying the Rangers game was “100%” to be postponed. That means it is always getting cancelled and there is no room for error.

Fortunately they were wrong. Sort of. It was raining pretty hard when we got to the stadium area. Hard enough that I was pretty sure we were going to miss this game. But it stopped pouring as I was walking around the Globe Life Park area checking out the Dallas Cowboys stadium, an interesting place called Texas Live! and the site of the new stadium they are building for the Rangers, set to open in time for the 2020 season.

New stadium site

Cowboys Stadium

Texas Live!

I guess missing letters is a thing?

I made my way into the stadium and did a loop while The Leak was hanging out in the car still.

Here’s what the park looked like when I walked in:

Nolan Ryan:

Insane food:

With insane prices:

The Mariners showed me zero love before the game this time… because no one was on the field until ten minutes before game time.

Game on!

Rocksteady and his buddy actually joined us for this game. He is in the process of relocating to the Dallas area, permanently. R.I.P. to another blog regular. On the bright side, he can still play poker in Oklahoma and that is a short 75 minute drive away.

We saw another stinker. Mariners got crushed and it was never close. The coolest things we got to see were Adrian Beltre hit a 3-run bomb and Joey Gallo literally blast one into orbit.

And then the rain started. And it got heavy. Fast. I knew it was a wrap. The outfield had a lake in it with minutes.

We hung around for a short time, mostly just staring in awe and not wanting to drive in that mess.

Then I braved the drive home and drove 35 mph on the 70 mph interstate freeway like the locals.

The game still wasn’t called over an hour later when we got home, but they did eventually call it a wrap in the top of the 7th, making it plenty official.

I learned a fact that blew my mind: it was the first MLB game in Globe Life Park history to ever start, but stop short because of weather. 23 years… with sudden downpours like this possible… and… never?

Unreal. I got to witness baseball history.

Again.

Saturday

This was leaving day and we were pretty stoked about it. But we had a lot of time to kill after checking out of our hotel and we met up with Rocksteady again to do an Escape Room together.

It was Escape The Room in Dallas and we did The Apartment… with a group of six strangers. That was kind of lame and the first ten minutes or so were pretty chaotic as everyone went off in different directions and figuring things out in a very unorganized manner.

It mellowed our though and, with way too much help from the host, I participated in a successful escape for the first time ever, bringing my career total to 1 of 3! But it really feels more like 0 for 3. Not gonna lie.

Mark that up as another escape room I give a thumbs up to though.

After that we had a couple more hours to kill and decided to watch a movie in an abandoned mall and since the times for most of the movies I hadn’t seen didn’t work out, I watched Searching for the second time because I thought my wife would really enjoy it.

8:22 PM: Running brutal with top set here. I lost with it three times in a row before finally picking one up with a c-bet in a raised pot.

I was on a pretty short stack and feeling pretty punty when I called with the 6542 one suit on the button against a Crypt Keeper raise and multiple limpers.

Flop was 432 rainbow and everyone checked to me. I bet the pot which was $120 and almost my entire stack and figured it’s always folding around, but John Stockton gave me a play and a we got it in on the turn. I had turned a flush draw but so did he and I needed to dodge a diamond on the turn against his KT53 and I managed to do so and double up.

8:47 PM: I limp along in the cut with AKT3 no good suits and John Stockton raises on the button.

A few of us see the flop but Part-Time is the only caller of $40 on AT8 with two clubs and its back to me. I feel like I have the best hand, but I’m quite vulnerable and my opponent is wildly unpredictable. I decide to call.

Gin: an ace. We have the nuts. I would lead against a lot of players here, but not JS. I think he’s going to bet a lot of the time and he doesn’t disappoint by betting the pot: $170. Part-Time folds and I jam for $355 or so. He tanks and calls it off with QJJ9. He has the Q9 of clubs which gives him one straight flush out. We run it once, he misses, and I double up again.

9:01 PM: I open AA99 one suit under the gun to $15, there’s a call, Riddler makes it $65, The Man calls and it is back to me. Riddler and I have decent stacks and The Man is super deep. It’s a snap-4-bet spot but I am also aware of how loose The Man is in spots like this. I haven’t seen him fold much. Sure enough, Stockton and Riddler fold when I pot to $275 and The Man knows he should to, wants to even, but just can’t do it. He calls the $275.

Sheesh. I really might need to change his name to High Variance. Somehow, in our entire history of playing together, I have managed to avoid getting screwed in this spot. I think we have gotten heaps in preflop when I have AAxx and he has folded to my flop bet every time. This has happened at least three times now.

Flop is QT3 with two spades (I have none) and I bet $300 and he mercifully folds again.

9:34 PM: It’s been a while since this hand happened so I forget the preflop details but I must be in a blind because I’m out of position with AT87 double suited on a flop of J96 rainbow and it checks to Part-Time and he bets $25 and The Man calls. I don’t sense strength and I feel like I can barrel a lot of turns so I make it $125 and they both call rather quickly. Alright.

Turn is an ace. I am quite happy to bet this card. I still have all my drawing equity and I could easily have the best hand now too. I bet $300, Part-Time folds immediately, but The Man thinks for quite a long time before making it $600. Ouch.

Now it’s my turn to think. I’m not folding. But I have $800+ behind and I’m wondering if I should stick it all in here to get max value if I get there. I eventually conclude I will fold the river if I miss and save the $500+ I have back. I call.

And obviously I get there with a ten. And obviously he folds when I fire $300. I think my line is fine, maybe good even, but it’s just amusing that I would have maximized by taking the other route.

10:44 PM: This game has dried up drastically. We are down to 6-handed play: me, The Man, Crypt Keeper, Mr. Baseball, random and a tight player. Not great. Chops are happening. I was planning to leave at midnight or so, but 10:45 is starting to look like a reasonable option.

11:08 PM: Yep. That was a wrap. I decided that I didn’t want to grind out an hour or two longer in a 5 out of 10 game when it used to be a 10 out of 10 when I can go home early, play some PS4, and still get a good night sleep before tomorrow’s 10 AM start for the $200 Omaha 8 tourney in the Muck Series.

See you then.

Final Score: +$1115

Not bad for starting out -$1k.

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Last Live Blog Before Hiatus – 1/3/5 PLO @ Palace

September 12, 2018

I’m putting in a last minute session before we head off on a 10 day trip through New Orleans, Houston, and Dallas starting tomorrow.

Things we will be doing:

*eating lots of local food

*swamp tour

*crossing the Mississippi River on a ferry

*playing poker at Harrah’s in N.O.

*driving across the Lake Pontchartrain bridge

*watching the Mariners play the Astros at Minute Maid Park in a game that will mean jack shit

*maybe visit some NASA stuff

*stop in Waco, Texas to check out Joanna Gaine’s Magnolia store

*visit the JFK Memorial in Dallas

*watch the Mariners play the Rangers in Globe Life Park

*eat some Texas BBQ

*play poker at Winstar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma

PLO is off to a slow game start. 12 names were on the list – and I was #10 – but there are currently only five seated players.

6:06 PM: Up to 8 players now, but cards still not in the air yet. Starting lineup: Fortune dude, HIS ROYAL AIRNESS, non-Reg, Mr. Baseball, Part-Time, The Crypt Keeper, random and… The Man makes us full.

Not sure how late I’m going to play tonight. We have to be on a bus to the airport at 4:30 AM, but I do have like seven or so hours to sleep on a plane tomorrow, so getting a good night’s sleep isn’t super important. Still, I can’t imagine I will play too far past 11 PM.

6:53 PM: Only interested hand so far: I 3-bet to $65 with AAJ9 and a suit on the button and only the Fortune guy calls.

We see a flop of Q77 rainbow and I decide to check back and avoid fancy check-raises and induce some bluffs.

Turn is the 6 of clubs, putting two clubs on board and he bets $100. I call.

River pairs the queen and he sizes at $100 and I snap and win the pot.

Am I going to check my way to a loser some of the time by taking this line? Sure. But I think in this specific spot checking the flop netted me an extra $200 and that’s exactly what I was going for.

7:59 PM: I made a call of a pot-sized bet on 988cc2c4d with both the Ac and Kc in my hand and lost to 82xx. Part-Time sized pretty small on the turn and then went for my throat on the river. My instincts were saying ‘fold,’ so who knows why I decided to call.

Anyways, that has me sitting at roughly -$300 and that’s a damn shame because chips are flying in this game. Two players have stacks of more than $2000 already and a third has over $1500 – and this game has a max buy in of $1000. His Airness is in multiple buy ins already and has about $150 left. That’s a lot of loose chips that have been splashed around to stacks that are most likely going to lock them up.

So this is my last for sure blog until I play the $200 limit Hold’em event in the Muckleshoot Fall Classic series on the 23rd.

However, I will almost certainly be playing a night or two at Harrah’s in New Orleans and I think it would be cool to cross into Oklahoma to play a session at the Winstar. Not even really sure what they spread at either place but I will probably blog if I do play some poker in the South.

8:34 PM: The Man and His Airness are out and John Stockton and Joker are in. Chips were spraying all over the place with someone all in basically every hand and somehow I’m down $550.

8:54 PM: Action was taking so long on the turn on a monster pot that I actually got to walk around and look at the cards of everyone involved. Three different players put $700+ in on J43ss6. Joker had 765x; Part-Time had K95Xss (safe to say his fourth card was not a 7); John Stockton had 4452; and Hit&Run was a fourth player deep in the tank with $270 in the pot and facing another $600 to call with… AT87 with three spades in his hand!

After about five minutes, he said, “fuck it” (literally) and stuck another $600 in the pot.

Somehow Joker is the only one with the nuts and there is $3000 in this pot. He needs to dodge a spade, jack, four, three, six and five. Seems like a tall task, but there are eight spades dead, three fives dead, two sixes dead, and three fours gone. There might be some spades and board pairs that repeat, but it looks like Joker is dodging 15 outs tops with one card to go in this huge monster pot.

River is a 5. Hit&Run makes the nut straight with his 87.

And then leaves. Because that’s what he does.

And now I’m sitting here playing 6-handed with Joker, The Crypt Keeper, Mr. Baseball, and John Stockton.

This game sucks. I was only staying long enough to write this update.

I will be mostly MIA until the 23rd so don’t expect any updates while we are gone, but I do think I will make a post from one of the casinos down south and I’m looking forward to playing somewhere I’ve never been before.

If you haven’t done so already, you can click the follow button down below somewhere and get notifications when I start posting again.

9:42 PM: One final hand before I sign off: I open AQJ5 with one suit under the gun and get two callers.

Flop is QJ4 rainbow and I push my remaining stack in the middle and the dealer says I can only bet $45. Well that’s some bullshit. Joker decides to call my pot-sized bet.

Turn is an 8 and I bet $150 of $310 total and he starts tanking and then the banter starts.

Me: Dude, if you have T9 just put it in already.

Joker: *laughs*

Me: This is my last hand. Whether you felt me or double me up… or just fold now.

Joker: Why do you want a call so bad?

Me: I don’t want a call.

Joker: You have a set of queens?

Me: I’d take a call with a set of queens.

He eventually puts me all in.

Me, to dealer: If he has T9 here I want him barred.

We agree to run it twice and I fill up on the first board and the river is an offsuit 6 and I end up scooping it all.

Final Score: -$237

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Poker Live Blog

August 29, 2018

Someone asked me yesterday, “do you even blog anymore?”

Yes. Yes I do. But I was losing every time I blogged lately so I was cutting back for a bit. I’ll be more active again, starting tonight.

Because it’s not like not blogging worked out great for me. Here are last week’s results:

Sunday: +$18
Tuesday: -$74
Wednesday: -$1500
Thursday: -$249
Friday: -$132
Saturday: -$1024

Pretty cool week that turned what was looking to be a pretty good month into a mediocre one. And with three days and three sessions left in the month – and one big bet game – things can still change quite a bit.

At 6 PM, it is just me, The Man, and Part-Time sitting with chips in front of us and…

…we are dealing.

This is going to make blogging pretty difficult until we pick up some more players.

6:19 PM: Preflop stickiness is working out for me so far. I’ve 3-bet three times and got zero folds until I barreled postflop.

A good, higher stakes reg just sat down to my immediate left. That’s not cool. Hit&Run just walked in and doesn’t seem too interested in playing short-handed or with the current lineup.

Defend AT75 with hearts for $15 and three of us see flop. It’s A86 rainbow and it checks around. The turn is a 3 and The Man leads out for $40. I have decent straight draws and top pair and with a rainbow on board I’m not vulnerable to flushes not be river. I decide to make it $140 and Part-Time folds. The Man calls and we both check on the river when it pairs the 8. My AT is good.

6:33 PM: I open $15 with AAK8 with hearts, button calls, Part-Time calls, and The Man makes it $75 from the big. I pot to $255 and only The Man calls. He has like $600 behind, so there are some boards I don’t want to play for stacks on but the 963 rainbow is pretty safe vs his range. I bet $300 and he folds.

That’s a max bet on the flop and maybe that’s bad, but it is a little less than 60% of the pot. But I wonder… my hand is a bit face up and when I max bet on flop, I pretty much limit his continuing range to hands that have me beat or very strong draws. It is kind of a weird spot since he has a bit more than a pot-sized bet left. It seems unlikely I can milk him here and I don’t want to walk him into a winner in a pot that’s already large.

6:43 PM: Some new developments since my last post… we got a new puppy. His name is Albus… but he also goes by Big Al, Albie, Albert, The Wizard, Wiz, Dumbledore, Dumblydore, and Dumbo!

And here is how Hammy feels about his new brother:

On Sunday we went whitewater rafting on the Tieton River with a group of friends and family. We did this same river in late September of 2016 and it was amazing. I don’t know what made it different this time, but the river was much tamer. In 2016, it was basically all whitewater with many moments of excitement and this past trip had lots of floating time and only a few good rapids.

Some pre-rafting pics:

7:31 PM: A random walks in! Hit&Run takes a seat! Another player sits down! We are 7-handed now and I’m pretty sure one of them has ZERO clue.

And John Kim makes us 8-handed! I’m going to play PLO for longer than two hours tonight. Yay!

7:40 PM: And my read is correct… player I thought had no clue 3-bets with KQQ6 one suit, calls off a pot-sized 4-bet and gets stacked in his first orbit after flopping a bad flush draw vs AAxx. I’ve seen him get deep in 15/30 but he sat with $300 here and reloaded for another $300.

7:55 PM: Game is now full. I have to admit I did not see that coming when we were still playing 4-handed thirty minutes ago.

I would say three players in this game are absolutely dead money and it will be a race to get it because it will go fast.

8:38 PM: Ever since the game filled up, I’ve had few playable hands and zero interesting spots.

I brought back an oldie today: I took a cold shower. Once upon a time, I decided to take the 30-day Cold Shower Challenge. I thought I blogged the experience but I can’t find it while searching on my phone (maybe those of you on a PC will have better luck?). I didn’t complete it. I think I got about 30-40% of the way through and convinced myself it wasn’t worth it.

Why do this, you ask? I can’t remember. Google it and there are all sorts of benefits that can happen.

I’m doing this again purely for the challenge of it. I want to finish it. Because I’m a sicko. Because nothing wakes me up like a splash of cold water in my face.

Day #1 complete. Before jumping in the water, I stood there for about two minutes like am I really going to do this? Am I doing this? Finally I mustered up the courage and hopped in. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered it. But really that first shower is spent mostly soaping and shampooing while the cold water hits your calves and rinsing off as quickly as possible.

I’m looking forward to seeing this through and when I get a chance I’ll look up the benefits again myself.

8:53 PM: I knew if I got sidetracked there would be action.

First, two of the dead money players get it all in on the turn vs the higher stakes guy and they both felt to him. Yippee. On the bright side, they both reloaded (though Hit&Run felted again as I was typing this).

Then, I open KK44 double suited and get lots of callers.

Flop is KQ9 rainbow and I decide to check and see what happens. One of the dead players bets $100, which is close to pot-sized, and I’m the only caller.

Turn pairs the queen and I go ahead check it because I don’t think this guy has any clue. He bets $100. That’s a bit disappointing and now I feel like I have to size down on my check-raise and only make it $250 to go. He snaps.

River is another queen. Sigh. That’s not a bad card because I’m worried about quads; it’s a bad card because I think this dingbat was going to call $300 on the river with JT. I bet $100 and he calls.

Very next hand I open with QJT9 with spades and get multiple callers again.

Flop is T83 with two spades. We have a pair. We have a wrap. We have a flush draw. Yum yum. I bet $60 and it folds to The Man in the small blind and he check-raises to $215, leaving himself with just over $300 behind. With no one else in, this is a great spot to get it in and play for stacks so I make it $515 and…

…he folds.

What. I decide to show and he says he had a set of 8s.

🤯

9:14 PM: Open-limo AJT4 double suited, there’s another limp and the good player makes it $15, and seven of us see the flop.

Flop brings the Q82 with two hearts. I have the nut flush draw and a gut shot and lead out for $60. Only the solid player calls me.

Turn is a black king. I have no idea what to do here against this player. I have a massive draw now. I also have the ace and jack of hearts and the queen of hearts is on board. He probably doesn’t have a flush draw and there weren’t many good straight draws on the flop… maybe a hand like JT9x with the T9 of hearts? Also, we are both deep. I don’t want to pot it and face a $300 raise and totally telegraph my hand by calling. But then check-calling feels pretty face up also. I dunno. I guess it might be best to barrel and put more money in the pot with a hand that makes the nuts on the river a lot… plus he can fold if I bet. He can’t fold if I check.

So I check. He checks back?

Huh.

River is a 2, pairing the board. I don’t have enough history with this dude for him think I will play a set this way, so if I bet river he’s going to think it’s a bluff. Always.

I give up and he bets $60 and I fold.

>Someone educate me here.

9:44 PM: Pot of the night alert:

I open with AKQ5 double suited and people call me.

Flop is KQJ with one of both of my suits on board and it checks around.

The turn is the ten of clubs. Now I have the nuts, top two pair, and the second nut flush draw. Part-Time leads out for $50, the next guy calls and I feel like I should want more money to go in this pot. I make it $250 to go. That clears the field. Part-Time makes it $550 to go and the other guy goes all in for just over $600. Okay, maybe I didn’t want more money to go in. It’s obvious that Part-Time has the nut flush draw with his straight… but I’m committed to seeing the river so I call and…

…it’s a king! I have the nuts. What a luck box. Part-Time checks, I bet $300 (dumb) and he folds. I should just size down and make sure he puts more money in the pot. If I bet $100 it’s brutal to fold there.

Bad raise? Great result! $1800+ pot my way.

10:55 PM: Playing 5-handed now and I open to $15 with AJK one suit. Yeah. I didn’t look at my fourth card. I’ve seen enough. Two players call.

Flop is T74 rainbow. Checks to me and since I have zilch with my three cards I look at the last one: AAKJ. Pretty solid. I decide to bet $20 and they both call.

Turn seems great: it’s a queen. Now I have aces with a broadway wrap. I bet $80 and button pots it to $345. That’s unfortunate. Other guy folds and she has maybe $300 left. I call.

River pairs the 4 which could be good and I feel optimistic when she bets $125 instead of her remaining chips. That gets her QQxx paid off.

11:24 PM: Random dude I’ve never seen sits down with $500. This always makes me happy.

11:43 PM: Button limps, SB makes it $10, I call with an ugly T993 one suit. Not sure what I’m doing here.

3-ways to the KK2 two diamond flop. SB leads $25 and I decide to make it $65. This is a pure bluff. It is swiftly interrupted when the button calls. SB folds.

Turn is the Ace of diamonds. I now have a flush and I’m pretty sure my opponent has a king. I check and he bets $90. I call, planning to re-evaluate on the river.

The river is some card. I check and he checks back.

We good!

12:08 AM: Good lord. Raised pot 5-ways. I have 9876 on 865 with two spades. Someone leads $50, I make it $150, loose terrible player calls, so does flop bettor.

Turn is 2d giving me a flush draw. I bet $300 and loose terrible player is my only action.

River is ace of spades. I check and he bets $300. Pretty comical. Notice how if he has a flush he put in $450 drawing to a non-nut flush. Of course, he’s plenty capable of doing exactly that. I have the 6 of spades in my hand, which isn’t a huge blocker, but it does block some of his pair plus straight draw/flush draw type hands. This dude is a loose cannon. I should probably fold. He can have all the flushes, even the shitty ones.

Would he bluff non-flushes here? I think he’s capable.

I ended up calling and hating it. He shows me a ultra disgusting TT73 with spades.

Lord have mercy.

I’m kind of ready to go home but this super torcher has over $3k in front of him now. He’s one of the players I said was drawing dead earlier. He still is… if this game keeps going.

1:31 AM: Well, the game broke and dude escaped with over $3000. Pretty sick.

I was up around $2700 at one point but had to settle for a +$1650 and I can’t be mad about that.

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Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace 8/22/18 Live Blog

August 22, 2018

1/3/5 PLO action starting in 13 minutes!

5:49 PM: Currently 12 names on the list. I see four players here right now, but one of them is The Man and he’s still working. The Riddler is on the list and he’s confirmed not playing – at least to start the game. I recognize three of the other six names and none of them are present.

Looks like a slow start.

5:57 PM: I spent Sunday and Monday at Safeco watching the Mariners fight for their playoff lives against the Dodgers and Astros.

The game against the Dodgers was dead on arrival, when the Mariners pitted Roenis Elias – fresh off four rehab starts in which he never made it through two innings – against Clayton Kershaw, the best starting pitcher of the past decade. The Dodgers clobbered Elias in the 1st and never recovered, losing 12-1 and putting position players on the mound. On the bright side, I got to watch an all-time great (Kershaw) do his thing and then Zac Rosscup came in for the 9th and pitched an immaculate inning.

An immaculate inning is when a pitcher throws nine pitches, all strikes, and strikes out the side. They are less common than a no hitter and yet I saw Kenley Jansen throw one last May at Dodger Stadium. Less than 100 immaculate innings in MLB history and I’ve seen two of them. Pretty cool!

Monday was a much better game. The M’s were playing catch up after a 3-run 3rd that saw them trailing 4-1, but it was tied after six innings and then Robinson Cano hit a super clutch 3-run bomb in the bottom of the 8th to break the tie and Edwin Diaz did his thing in the 9th to close out the win. Very exciting!

I popped into Palace after the game on Monday but I was 4th up for 8/16 so I sat in a 4/8 game and there was a younger guy I’ve never seen before talking shit to everyone and acting like a hot shot. It’s one thing to be arrogant, but it’s something else to belittle every person at the table.

I wasn’t having it. Do I want my 8/16 seat? No, no I do not. Recycle me. I have a mission to complete.

When I decided I wanted to ruin this guy’s night he had about $400 in front of him. I eventually moved to his direct left and I had to reload another $300, but I was playing some serious target poker, 3-betting him with garbage and raising him on the flop with any piece of the board. One time I had bottom pair and he had a set and someone else did too. It was beautiful.

He felted the $400 and bought another $200, but he left the game after I 3-bet him with 85hh and barreled off on the K4358 runout.

I won another hand after that and cashed out +$18. I was pretty pleased with myself. I just hope he didn’t get in a car accident on his way home.

6:36 PM: Key hands while I was typing that:

One limper, I make it $20 on the button with a raggedy QQ63 one suit. The man calls from the small, Part-Time calls from the big and the limper calls.

Flop is K54 rainbow and it checks to me. I have a bad straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. Seems like checking is okay.

Turn is the queen of spades. The Man leads out for what looked like pot and the limper goes all in for $222. I have the second nuts and a bad straight draw. It’s definitely enough to get it in here. I max raise to $522, leaving myself with dollars behind. The Man folds and we agree to run it twice.

He has 8763 and a flush draw.

We both make a six high straight on the first board but I make a full house on the second one to get 3/4 of the pot.

New player opens to $10, one caller, I make it $45 with AAKJ one suit and only the opener calls.

Flop is KQ6 with two clubs and we get it all in for his stack. I have the nut flush draw.

We run it twice and I make the nut flush on the first board and he makes a straight with JT99 on the second board. We split that one.

I complete the big blind with 88xx in my hand.

Flop is A84 rainbow and I bet $15 into $20 and get two calls.

Turn is a 7 and completes the rainbow. I decide to check and see what they do. The first one bets $25 and the other player calls. They both have less than $200 behind and I’m not sensing strength. $25 is a pretty weak bet into a $75 pot. I make it $150 and they both go all in!

We run it once and the river is a 4. I snap roll my hand and one of them says, “wow I got lucky” and rolls A44x and the other guy flashes 77.

Wth.

After that flurry of events, I am down about $120.

6:55 PM: We have picked up three players and are now 7-handed.

7:20 PM: Call a $15 raise with AQJ3 one suit and it’s five of us to the flop.

Flop is AK8 and it checks around.

Turn is a jack and the PFR leads a weak-ish $30. I decide to call.

River is an ace, giving me the second nuts and he bets $100. He only has like $125 behind… I have the second best hand possible… it would seem silly not to raise… however, I was sort of leaning towards calling. But I kept coming back to the flop check and I just thought it would be too absurd to check the flop with AK against four opponents. It just made no sense. I put him all in and he snap rolls AK before calling. Lol.

Running pretty good tonight. 👍🏻

8:10 PM: We have a full game. Well, sort of. The Man is having a rough time, giving all his chips to Part-Time for some reason. That sucks because Part-Time could leave any minute… with the $2k+ that’s in front of him right now.

There are now four Palace staff members in the game.

8:44 PM: Another nice connection: call a raise multiway with AQT9 on the button.

It’s like 5- or 6-ways to KQJ and the PFR bets $30, the next player calls, and I make it $125. The small blind jams for $149 and the other two players fold. We run it once. He makes a running flush with KKxx.

I’ve folded 7655 on Q66x (vs QQ) and K876ss on KKJss4 (vs JJ) so I’m playing pretty well but the run bad is pretty real tonight.

I’m about -$555.

9:13 PM: Okay. Frustration is building. I just lost a pot when I should have folded the flop. That’s more annoying than losing the pots I’m supposed to win.

I’m -$800 now.

I just moved to the left of someone that came in drunk. He just felted $600+ in the five minutes I was clearing my head outside.

9:21 PM: Eh. Part-Time left with all the chips. The drunk guy felted, rebought $500, and decided not to play.

I reloaded and s1 has a lot of chips, but the other remaining players have an average stack of like $400.

10:00 PM: Obviously. I open AKQJ with one suit. One caller.

Flop J52 with two diamonds. I bet $15 and my opponent makes it $45. I have KQ of diamonds, so second nut flush draw. This is a pretty good flop for me but it’s also pretty easy to be dominated. Certainly the nut flush draw is a decent part of his raising range. But I’m stuck $1000 and looking to play a big pot and make it $175 to go. He tanks for a while and calls.

Turn 4. I bet $300 and he puts me all in for $450-ish total. I call.

We agree to run it twice.

He shows me AJ33 with nut diamonds and I just fold my hand and walk out the door.

GG.

-$1500

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Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace (Live Blog)

August 15, 2018

Blog starting soon. 1/3/5 structure for this game. I’m starting with $600 on the table and the $1400 on top in my pocket for reserves.

Slow start already. This could end up being an unexpected 8/16 session. There are currently only five stacks on the table at the moment.

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Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace (Live Blog)

August 15, 2018

Blog starting soon. 1/3/5 structure for this game. I’m starting with $600 on the table and the $1400 on top in my pocket for reserves.

Slow start already. This could end up being an unexpected 8/16 session. There are currently only five stacks on the table at the moment.

6:13 PM: Cards are in the air 5-handed. Part-Time and The Man have stacks on the table. Someone I’ve never seen in my life just sat down (with $200).

Pot A! Open to 15 with AT87 all clubs (lol) and two players in position call.

Flop 962 with two clubs. I bet 25 and they both fold.

6:18 PM: I published my last post on Saturday afternoon and I was about to play a 15/30 session. It went quite pure. I cashed out +$2680. I started off thinking I might post some hands but decided against it.

However, I did jot this one down. Someone opened and I flatted with AA from the big blind.

I had already been caught bluffing in a big blind defending spot so I thought check-raising the 433 flop wouldn’t look too credible. I barreled off on the 5 turn and queen river and suddenly my opponent was raising me. I SNAP 3-bet it. Like the instant he crossed the line I threw $60 more in the pot. I’ve never been so confident about 3-betting one pair (technically two pair) on the river. He called and my hand was good.

That’s all I have to report from that magical session. I ran pretty good. That’s all there is to say. It was my first win of $1k+ in the Palace 15/30 since May 11th, almost three months ago. That seems pretty bad, but I was in Vegas for about six weeks of that time and the 15/30 hasn’t been going very regularly. But still, in the three months before that $1k+ 15/30 win on May 11th, I had fourteen $1k or better wins in the Palace 15/30. 14!

6:34 PM: Someone blind raises to $10, Part-Time calls, The Man makes it $15, and I cap the preflop betting by making it $50 with AKJ3 double suited. Part-Time and The Man both call.

Flop is K42 with two spades (I have hearts and clubs) and Part-Time leads out full pot. Eh. Pretty easy fold I guess. I have top pair and a bad gutter, but not much else going on. Anything he’s potting the flop with probably has me in pretty rough shape.

6:49 PM: We are 8-handed but it’s a very weak 8-handed game. Part-Time and Hit&Run, as their names indicate, are usually not long for the game. Hit&Run has already doubled up, so he’s one decent pot away from leaving. There are two other noob players. One of them has less than $400 and the other has played this game multiple times but never for even as long as an hour.

We just filled the game with a ninth player but I’ve never seen him before and he has less than $200.

It’s a full game that could easily be 5-handed in less than an hour. I’ll check in at 7:50 and see where we stand.

6:57 PM: Oh snap. The Joker is on the list as a call in.

7:16 PM: And we’re off! 7-way action for $5. I have KK86 one suit in middle position. It’s super marginal but if I can see the flop cheaply good things can happen against this crowd.

Flop is AK9 with two hearts. One of the noobs leads $30 into $35 and he started with less than $200, so I’m happy to play for his stack. I make it $100 to go and Hit&Run calls it cold. The noob calls, leaving himself $65 behind lol. That’s actually poor planning on my part. If he 3-bet the flop all in I would not have the opportunity to 4-bet since I raised it $70 and his all in would only be a raise of $65 – not enough to reopen the betting for me. I need to be more aware of that stuff.

Turn is a black 8 and the noob puts his last $65 in. I make it $365 to go and Hit&Run puts me all in for just a bit more. We agree to run it once and I don’t have to worry about what they have as the river pairs the 8.

For show, Hit&Run shows QJT2 with hearts, for an inside wrap and a flush draw that missed.

Nice $1k pot to start my night.

8:00 PM: The Man opens $15, I call with T986 double suited, and five or six of us see the JT7 flop. I have the joint and it checks to me. I start with a bet of $50 and only one player calls, in position.

Turn is the 4 of diamonds, giving me a flush draw to go with the current nuts. I make it $150 to go since it seems like he has a good drawing hand. If he was freerolling me, I think he’s raising the flop. He calls.

River pairs the ten. I check and he bets $225. I snap call. He shows me JJ.

I’m not sure how frequently he bluffs his AKQx type hands, so maybe my snap call isn’t that great. I have a ten though so I’m blocking full houses and I don’t think this guy is calling $150 on the turn with a naked two pair. I feel like I’m losing to JJ and 77 mostly and maybe some two pair combos that have other outs.

This is probably bad, especially since his bluff frequency is probably way too low.

8:43 PM: In a five minute span we went from a full game with two on the list to a 7-handed game and no list.

8:50 PM: Possible punt alert. Multiple limps in front of me and I make it $30 with AQQ6 double suited and three of the limpers call.

Flop is JT7 with a spade and a heart and Part-Time leads $125 with The Joker calling. They are both deep so I decide to take a card off with a gut shot to the nuts and two quality backdoor flush draws. Plus, I can possibly bluff on 9s or aces. I call.

Turn is the 9 of hearts and they both check to me. I max bet for $300 and Part-Time snap calls. Gulp. I only have $150 behind so I’m suddenly hating my flop float. How good are my backdoor draws if I have to call a pot size bet for 75% of my remaining stack on the turn? Stupid. That’s not what happened but if the turn was a 2 of hearts or spades, I’m going to have to call $300 here.

Anyways, Joker folds and I’m obviously not planning to fire my last $150 into a $700 pot after getting snapped on the turn. I whiff and check back. Part-Time wins with Q98x.

Definite punt. Dumb dumb dumb.

10:00 PM: The Riddler is making us 6-handed and The Man is absolutely murdering the game tonight:

10:32 PM: I haven’t played very many notable pots since the game got short but The Riddler’s presence has sparked an all out needling war that no one is really in the mood for because The Man is winning all the pots.

10:39 PM: The (other) players have all agreed to switch the game to Big O. I have almost no experience in this variant so this could get ugly.

I finished the PLO portion of tonight’s session at -$119.

Just looked up my stats and I have played 2.25 hours of Big O lifetime.

10:56 PM: I just looked at the player on my left… and he was reading my blog.

Then I looked on my right and that player was reading my blog.

And the player on his right… was reading my blog!

Wow. That’s a first.

And… it took 15 minutes for a $2000 pot to break out and bust two players.

11:11 PM: Joker wanted me to share this one:

Final board is AKJ-4-4.

Joker had KK326.

The Man had A44T9.

On the turn, Joker has set over set, the nut flush draw, and the nut low draw… and lost.

I heard the flop checked around and I missed the turn action but on the river Joker led $100 and called a raise to $400, but that’s beside the point. What are the chances he gets scooped on the river?

About 2%.

11:42 PM: I played a hand. I had AKKQJ double suited in the small blind and got to see the flop for $5.

Flop was 543 with two diamonds, giving me the nut flush draw. I have no intention of putting any money in this pot, but the flop checks around…

…and the turn is the queen of diamonds. I have the nuts. I bet pot. Two players call.

River is an offsuit ace. I bet pot for $100 and they both call again.

I get half and they quarter each other with wheels.

12:47 AM: Complete from the small blind with AQT54 double suited and The Riddler makes it $25 from the big blind. Four of us call.

Flop is TT6 rainbow and I lead out for $80. Everyone folds except The Man.

Turn is a queen and I’m pretty sure he has at least a ten, so I make it $200. He makes it $500. I have just over $800 left so I make another max raise and he calls.

We both have QT. He has a king to scoop and I have an ace to scoop.

River: Ace.

$1600+ pot my way.

1:02 AM: I limp early with JT432 double suited and five of us see the AJ5 with two diamonds flop. I have a pair, an inside wrap with all the nut low draws and a flush draw. I bet $25 when it checks to me and three players call.

Wow. Wasn’t expecting that. Turn is a black six, giving me an uncounterfeitable nut low and adding some extra straight outs for high. I bet the pot when it checks to me, the next player makes it $300 to go, the guy after him is all in for less, The Man reluctantly folds and it’s back to me. I have a monster and the player making it $300 isn’t that bright so I have an easy max-raise to $600. He calls.

The river pairs the jack, I max bet and he goes all in for a little bit more. I call.

I split with the dolt in the side pot putting $600 in on the turn with a naked set and get quartered in the main pot when the other player shows up with a 32 low.

Pretty amazing board to lose money on.

2:34 AM: Another cool runout. I have AQJ53 on 642 with two diamonds. I have nut high and nut low with a flush draw. Turn is a 4 and my opponent has 44 in his hand.

Meanwhile, The Man bets $300 on turn and river on a board of J858Q and gets called by my opponent from the last two hands. The Man tables J8 and his opponent tables a naked A2… with no low possible.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

🔥🔥$600🔥🔥

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

2:56 AM: Down to four players: Joker, The Man, me, and the guy whose chips all three of us are trying to take. He has a little over $700. I’m ready to go home. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I have a car appointment at 10 AM… but this guy has no chance to cash out if we keep playing and it only takes one hand to get it all, so… here we are.

3:49 AM: I wasn’t thrilled about the game switch to Big O but I’m happy we did that. I felt waaaaay more comfortable playing than I had in the past and it’s not just because I won this session. I just felt good about the decisions I was making. I wouldn’t mind playing a half PLO/half Big O game in the future.

Big O Final Score: +$1114

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Plays of the Week – August 11th, 2018

August 11, 2018

I’m back! I apologize for the brief hiatus, but I wanted to try something different this week: jotting down notes from my sessions and posting the best hands all at once in an end of the week summary. I enjoy doing live blogs of my sessions, especially when the characters are out in full force, but lately things have been going poorly (plus the 15 at Palace hasn’t been regular) and I wanted to shake things up and try something different.

As I noted in my last post – when I quit midday on Saturday – it was unlikely that I would play any poker Sunday through Tuesday.

That was mostly correct.

We spent Sunday at Emerald Downs for my niece’s birthday. I’m sure it’s going to break my dad’s heart to read this, but I don’t get it. One of my dad’s fondest memories of his own dad is going to the track together and betting on horses. We never did this while I was growing up so it never became a tradition for us.

As someone that gambles for a living, gambling on things I know nothing about – or in games with a negative expectation – doesn’t appeal to me. It actually physically pains me to watch my wife on the rare occasions when she wants to play in the pit or on a slot machine. I don’t find it fun and when you remove the “fun factor” all that is left is a -EV gambling situation in which you will never, ever win in the long run.

Betting on horses seems similar. I don’t know anything about the horses or their jockeys or their caretakers, or any of the factors that might come into play when you’re trying to find an edge. If I’m betting, I’m simply clicking buttons or picking names I like. But at least I can see the fun in it. It’s kind of like betting on baseball, but in baseball I’m aware of all the key components (not that it helps me any) and I genuinely enjoy watching the sport, money on it or not.

But then I tried to make a bet on the computer systems they have set up and I couldn’t even figure out how to find the race I wanted to bet on. I felt like I was reading gibberish. That’s not fun. We ended up having our niece and nephew bet on some horses for us and a horse named Little Joker (of course) came through with a first place finish and booked us a win for the day, but we were firing tiny bets. I guess it was kind of fun, but if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t feel like I was missing out on anything if I never went to another horse track for the rest of my life.

My plan on Monday was to visit Radio Mike at Cheney Stadium and take in a Tacoma Rainiers game. In a happy coincidence, possible future Hall of Famer Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners was starting his rehab with the Rainiers that night after an 80 game suspension for PED use. So suddenly this random game I was going to became an PNW event.

Normally when I visit Mike at Cheney, I sit in the broadcast booth with him and watch the game and we can chat in between innings, but because of Cano’s presence, this guy was at Cheney and asked Mike if he can sit in the booth with him and thus Joker and I were ousted to the stands with the rest of the pleebs.

But not before I snapped a selfie that found it’s way on the Mariners broadcast that night!

After the game, we stopped back in the booth and chatted with Mike for a while and by the time we finally left, the players were coming out of the clubhouse and, with no other obvious exit in sight, Joker and I followed Ben Gamel to the player’s exit where a group of fans were waiting and mobbed him for autographs while letting us pass them by with a mere, “good game tonight.”

I mean… I can understand them mistaking me for a triple A ball player… but this guy?

Come on.

I decided to pop into Palace on my way home and play a mini-session with one goal: make $400 and leave.

I didn’t know I was going to make a highlight reel post at that time, so I didn’t jot any hands down from that session, but it was actually a pretty wild one. The game was pure action. I described it to Joker like this: Everyone is playing like it’s a race to see who can lose all their chips the fastest and so far I’m winning. I was down $400 right off the bat and it was looking like reaching my goal was going to be extremely difficult. And yet… after less than three hours of play, I cashed out +$565. Pretty sick.

Tuesday I did not play poker. I went and saw Mission: Impossible – Fallout with Uncle Leroy and then ran errands for the rest of the day before watching Felix Hernandez pitch his way out of the Mariners rotation by getting lit up by the Texas Rangers.

Wednesday, I was back in action, for some pot limit Omaha at Palace.

But first! The Man talks me into taking a seat in 3/6 limit hold’em because of the Happy Hour Hand promo and I got a swift reminder of why I never, ever play that limit while I’m waiting for a seat. I raise it up with AA and bet all three streets on a board of 63239 with one opponent calling me down. No flush is possible and I never get raised, so obviously I’m winning this pot, but then my opponent tables… 63. What. I’m not above playing 3/6 while I wait, but I just hate it because no one ever actually plays poker. Anyways, despite this debacle, I still finished +$17 and my 2018 win rate in 3/6 limit hold’em is now a monstrous 9.13 big bets per hour over 67 total minutes.

PLO got off to modest start. My first notable hand came up when I had A6xx in a raised pot and the flop came down 66A. I made the mistake of checking and my opponents all got to see the turn for free. I bet like $30 on the turn, which was a ten and two players called. The river was another ace and I was first to act. There was a flush draw available on the turn, so there was some chance my opponents were drawing, but otherwise, they probably had an ace, and I thought AT was a real possibility. I also thought if I checked, someone with AK would have a pretty hard time not betting for value. Basically, even though I had the second nuts here, I thought my most profitable line was check-calling. I save money and avoid tough decisions when the nuts is out there and my opponents might bluff missed draws or take themselves to value town with trip aces. So I checked, one of them bets a smallish $60, I call, and he does show me the AT. I flash my A6 and that guy is in disbelief for the next five minutes.

I spent most of the night up around $500 but then I had a couple of gross connections with The Man.

We were playing short-handed, but I was opening a bit too wide here with the J766, especially since the game was playing pretty loose and sticky. Basically, I’m rarely stealing the blinds or playing a pot heads up in position, so this is a hand that is going to play like garbage after the flop in a bloated pot and is better off sent into the muck.

It ends up going 3 or 4 ways to the flop and I don’t have position. It’s already a disaster. The board is decent though: J75 with two diamonds. I have top two pair and a jack high flush draw. It’s a pretty good hand, but not exactly one I’m looking to get stacks in with. I can bet though and I fire out $30 or so and The Man makes it $120 to go. I have a pretty good feeling that my two pair is good here, but if that’s the case then my flush draw is definitely not good. We are way too deep to gamble for stacks on the flop, so this is actually a pretty gross spot. If I don’t like my flush draw, I’m not going to have many run outs I love here. Any diamond is questionable, any straight card around the 75 is bad, any overcard could make a better two pair. Basically I only love jacks and sevens. Everything else is suspect. With that in mind, I should probably just fold to the flop raise, but I ended up calling.

The turn was a small diamond and I check-called about a half pot bet.

The river was a brick and I liked my hand when The Man decided to give up and check back, but he was being cautious with a king high flush and won the pot saying, “I think you are capable of checking the nut flush there.” He’s not wrong, but I’d still bet his hand.

A short while later, I’m raising it up on the button with the J987 double suited and I flop pretty huge: Q65 with two hearts, giving me a nut wrap and a straight flush draw. I bet the flop and The Man calls me from the small blind.

The turn bricks me and I am planning to barrel off on this one, so I fire a second bullet and The Man calls again.

The river is the 2 of hearts. The Man checks and I check back, hoping my modest flush is good. It is not. I didn’t see the rest of his hand but The Man ends up winning this pot with the T3 of hearts. I wish I got a better look at his hand and how he arrived at the river because a naked ten high flush draw would be pretty brutal to lose to.

There was another pot I played against The Man that started off with a $5 bet on the flop and ended up with me facing a pretty large raise on the river holding the second nut flush. This flush came in backdoor, so it was a bit less likely for him to have the hand he was repping, but in Omaha it’s much easier to back into something you weren’t initially drawing to and the minbet on the flop could entice more floats than usual. Also, I would expect him to never raise non-nut flushes here because that would be pretty silly. So it basically comes down to if I think he’s bluffing often enough here. It felt pretty gross because it seemed like he probably isn’t bluffing a lot here, but my instincts were saying call so that’s what I did and he ended up having the nut flush blocker and a bluff.

Hand of the Night

We are still short-handed at this point and The Man opens with a raise to $15, the small blind calls, and I make it $45 to go with T987 double suited and they both call.

The flop is what PLO dreams are made of: 965 with two clubs and a spade. I flopped the nuts, with multiple straight redraws to the nuts, a straight flush draw, and a backdoor flush draw. Let’s. Go. I bet $80, The Man calls, and the small blind pots it to $380. I go all in for less than the max bet of $680, The Man folds and I agree to run it twice with my opponent. The turn pairs the board on the first run out and I make a bigger straight on the second runout and… scoop it all!

I doubled up and then some in that pot and the small blind never took another hand and the game broke shortly after so I finished at +$883 in my PLO session.

Thursday morning I had an appointment with my endocrinologist in Bremerton and The Leak went with me and we decided to put our newfound interest in hiking to the test at Green Mountain, a trail we failed to complete in two attempts years ago when we still lived in Kitsap County.

It was a bit of a challenge – mostly because of the 85 degree heat – but we got it done this time!

Some views from the summit:

We got back to Lakewood around 6 PM and I was in need of a short nap because I was planning to play until 4 AM that night.

15/30 didn’t get off the ground, but we were blessed with a bit of that early Christmas action. I’ve mentioned it before but The Santa Claus Game is full of button straddling, bloated pot sizes, and lots of gambling.

In this hand, I’m the button straddle holding 88 and five players call before the action is back to me. I think this might be a pretty close spot because how well does 88 play against five opponents? But I obviously have the best hand and I do have the button, so I go ahead and raise it. Santa 4-bets it when it’s back to him and I go ahead and 5-bet cap it.

There are thirty bets in the middle when the flop comes down 322. Someone donks on the flop, I raise, the big blind cold calls, and the donker also calls.

The turn is a 4 and the flop bettor donks again. I raise it again. The big blind is really unhappy about the action, but winds up folding and my lone opponent calls.

The river is a king and betting is probably recommended here when he checks to me, but the pot is massive and I’ll be happy about winning it even if I miss a little value here. I check back and my hand is good.

I gave the key opponent in this hand the nickname of The River Man once upon a time, but that name is pretty bad and I’m going to discontinue it and refer to him as the maniac for any hands he’s in for the rest of this session.

Anyways, there are multiple limpers and the maniac raises, I 3-bet with AK from the small blind and it ends up getting capped.

It’s mulitway action so I check the 873 with two clubs flop and peel for one bet with the ace of clubs in my hand. It’s worth noting that someone bet into the maniac on the flop and he just called…

…because that says a lot about his hand strength when the turn is the king of clubs and it checks to him and he bets and the button calls. This is my absolute nut card. I now have top pair top kicker and the nut flush draw. When the maniac calls on the flop I think I can safely rule out any flushes and since everyone else checked to him, I don’t think they have flushes either. I go ahead and raise it. The big blind cold calls and the maniac and button also continue.

The river pairs the 7 and I’m not really sure where I stand now, so I check, the maniac bets and I’m the only caller. He tables two small cards. It looks like 32 of clubs so I ask the dealer for clarification and she pulls in 22 and I’m good.

And that’s why hands like this happen:

Button straddles, I 3-bet 77 from the small blind and it ends up getting capped at five bets with at least four of us seeing the flop.

It comes down Q65 rainbow and I check-call.

The turn is a 9 and the flop bettor checks to the maniac and he winds up betting after just calling on the flop. I feel like 77 is doing very good against his range here as he is always raising a queen on the flop, so I check-raise. The flop bettor cold calls (gross) and the maniac 3-bets it! Sick. We both call.

The river pairs the 5 and it checks to the maniac and he tables 97o when it’s his turn to act and ends up winning the pot with a very standard 3-betting hand on the turn.

Button straddles and it gets 5-bet capped again and this time I’m holding the A8 of spades. The flop is A72 with two spades and four of us wind up putting in four bets.

The turn is a 5 and the big blind is still leading, so I call and the maniac puts in another raise on the button. The blind just calls and I call also.

The river is a 3 and it checks to the maniac. The big blind calls and I’m positive that he at least has me beat, so I fold and the maniac tables 54o.

So nasty!

So yeah… this game is JUICED UP.

Which makes this next hand pretty special:

I open with 44 and the maniac calls me in position. The flop is K54 and he folds the instant my hand starts to reach for chips.

What.

The.

Hell.

I open with A8 of diamonds and get some callers. The flop is A42 with two spades and the big blind donks into me. I raise and he calls.

The turn is the 8 of spades and now the blind check-raises me. Pretty gross. My hand seems like it should be strong, but the two biggest drawing hands (spades and 76) got there, so I just call.

The river is a blank and I call a bet… and my opponent tables one of the most shocking hands he possibly can: pocket eights. The good ole one outer.

I ended up finishing this 7.5 hour 8/16 session at +$255.

Last night was a total disaster. I ran about as bad as you can.

There was a 4-bet pot where I had JJ on QJ4 rainbow and lost to Q6 of diamonds.

That about sums up how my night went. I missed every single flush draw I had the entire night and my opponent’s seemed like they always hit theirs against me. I did flop a flush twice and I got zero action both times.

I went -$571 in 76 minutes of 8/16 before the 15/30 game got started and I didn’t run any better there… I just lost more slowly, finishing at -$607 in 6.5 hours despite hitting a $200 High Hand.

That was a pretty lousy finish to what started off as a pretty good week.

All in all, I’m sitting at +$542 over 23 hours heading into today’s action.

On the bright side, this happened while I was writing this post:

CRUSHING!

Just got word that Palace already has 15/30 going so that’s where my day is going to start and hopefully end. If that game fizzles out early we will probably shoot up to Fortune.

No live blog tonight, but maybe I will post highlights later.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, no limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, pot limit omaha, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | Leave a Comment »

The Bat Cave

Posts Tagged ‘pot limit omaha’

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Poker Live Blog

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Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace (Live Blog)

Pot Limit Omaha @ Palace (Live Blog)

Plays of the Week – August 11th, 2018

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