I Am Back

Sorry, I mentioned that I was going to take a few weeks off. I did, and now I am back. I might not get to play again next week as I am super busy at work, but that happens. I will ramp it back up again in a few weeks. The bad news is that my shitty run of cards continues. I played on Tues. the 26th on October at Diamond Lil's 12/24 game. Good game, normal action. A lot of multi-way posts before the flop so it played a like a 4-8 game which means the best hand wins and no bluffing. In this game you had to play premium hands. Of course I was not getting my fair share. I went an astounding 8 hours without seeing a pair bigger than 99's. Of course at about 8 hours in I get KK in the small blind, that worst place to get them. There were already 5 people in the pot for a limp so it would do me no good to raise. The flop came down 9 high. I bet right out hoping to lose a few people. I lost a few but still 4 handed to the turn. The turn brought a 10. I bet out again. Two callers. The river another 10. Guess what. Q,10 off catches the two runners to win the pot. Ouch. I might of gotten him to lay that hand down if I raised pre-flop. I usually do even in a muti-way pot but because I have been running bad I did not. That was a mistake and I will not make it again, even if I continue to run bad. I will just lose a bit more money. That continued most of the day. AK not hit in multi-way pots and layed down, etc. I think I might of played a few weak hands, but not too many. I just need to start to see my share of cards. I ended up losing a few more pots at the end of my day to finish down -$473.00. Not a big loss, but a lose again. I know it has to turn soon. This is the longest stretch of bad cards in my life. I know it can go on for much long, but I just don't think it will. I hope it turns in Vegas in two weeks because even a small loss at $80/$160 can be a few grand. Talk to you soon. SJ

Can't Stay Away

I knew that with Joe in town I was going to go up to the Hideaway to see him. Of course if I go up there, I was going to end up playing. I tried not to and just talked with Joe for about an hour, but got sucked into a $4-8 game to help get one started. I only played for about 45 minutes until that game could sustain itself and then left. $4-8 at a live casino is just so hard to figure out why people would want to play it. The rake in a full game is $3 plus a jackpot drop of $1. You can not beat that rake, or at least it is very difficult to beat that rake. I played super tight, which I think is the only way to beat that game and managed to make a whopping $28. Cool, two wins in a row. Will probably take this weekend off as well and maybe even next week. Then I will get back in the race and see what happens. I am planning two trips to Vegas in November and then December for the tournament at the Bellagio. Hope to finish the year strong. SJ

A Good Story

I figured since I am taking some time off from playing this week I would tell a great story from this year back during the 2004 WSOP. I may not actually take off all week as one of my good friends from LA is in town again to help out Aaron in Seattle as he re-opens the Hideaway cardroom in north Seattle. This is going to be a tough task as he needs players to come back to the room. If anyone can do it Aaron can. This story centers around Aaron.

Aaron is a high limit cash game player. I actually got him hooked on the game about 6 years ago, funny enough at the Hideaway, which he now owns. He did not even know the first thing about poker. He is a super smart guy however and great with math as well as is a super risk taker. What I did not know was his skill at reading people. He put in thousands of hours the first few years and then started taking trips to LA to play in bigger games. He just kept stepping up the cash game ladder quickly until he was playing the white chip games at the Commerce, which is where you will find him these days when in LA. He is my first choice in the world for short handed pot limit or NL hold-em or omaha games. I have watched him just destroy some of the best players supposedly in the world at these games to the point now where they will not play him heads up.

The story starts with me in LA for work the morning of April 26th. I got into town on Sunday night and played at the Commerce $40/80 game for about 8 hours. I got to sleep late and was sleeping when my phone started blowing up. Aaron was trying to reach me. He had played all day on the 25th in the $1500 buy-in limit event at the WSOP. He went through 598 players and was going into the final day as the chip leader and wanted me to come out and watch the final table. I was excited and decided to blow off my meetings for the day and called up Joe, who is the guy in Seattle today, and we caught the first flight out of LA to Vegas to get there for the final table. We showed up just as it was beginning. His first three hands were AK suited, AA, then AK off. Won all three, wow a super start. The final table had only a few recognizable names. Miami John Cernuto, Carlos Motensen's wife Cecilia and Jimmmy Tran. After that great start he went card dead. He started to get really frustrated that he could not find anything to play, and then started to get down on himself. The good news is he had chips to wait it out. The bad news was that he went from chip leader to the middle of the pack over that stretch which went for about 4 hours. They lost of few players and right before the dinner break it was 5 handed and he was 4th, ouch. We went to dinner, I tried to pump him up, and he decided to have a drink. I told him that he is the best shorthanded player in the world and now we are short handed. Let it show.

He started after the dinner break much the same. Then we lost one more and were 4 handed and he just took over the table. He started bluffing, running over people, making great reads, and making good laydowns. It was a clinic. At one point he won 17 out of 20 hands and eliminated two more players. He got it down to heads up with an enormous chip lead and pummeled the guy in about 5 hands. All over at midnight, and Aaron had his first WSOP bracelet plus $234,940 in cash. He had to do interviews and pictures for a while, then we got to go to the back room and get the cash. We piled the $234,000 into a duffel bag and I got to carry it out to the front circle where we had two security guards ride back to the Bellagio with us in a Limo. I tell you what $234,000 in hundreds still weighs a ton. My shoulder got tired from carrying all that cash through the Bellagio. We went into the safe deposit private rooms and put it all out on the table. Four stacks of shrink wrapped 100's in $50,000 stacks and a loose $34,000 and change. What a sight. I then had to catch the 6am flight to LA and get back to work. What a great 24 hours. One of the best poker experiences of my life. I hope the next time it is me at the final table. SJ

Tiny Post, Tiny win

I went up to see my friend in from LA to help out the Hideaway last night. I said I was not going to play as I have been running so bad and I was just not in the mood. The owner kept bugging me to play so I said I would play with his money on a free roll for 50%. He put me in the 4-8 game to keep it going. I hate 4-8 but what the hell I can hang out with me buddy and goof around. I only played for 1 1/2 hours and booked a $50 win. I kept my $25 and left with my friend. Woo Hoo a win. SJ

Worst Day Yet

Holy Shit, on Tuesday this week I took the largest loss of the year yet in one session. I went to the Hideaway with a positive attitude and played some shorthanded $10-20 and $15-25. I know the structure is funny, but the max bet with a bet and three raises is capped at $100 so $25 is the max bet on the turn and river. I continued to run horrible, suck outs galore. You play a lot more hands shorthanded, and I missed just about every flop. When I did get a read on a bluff I was right most of the time then got beat on the river. Shorthanded is a lot more feel and reading small edges when both players miss. You are working on small edges and small percentages, so reads are important and how the cards fall one way or the other makes a much larger difference. If the cards run the same for everyone, the extra value bets should add up, and your bluffs should work as well. I did not take a bunch of horrible beats just beats on small variances of cards not falling your way. You would think that some of those marginal hands would come down your way. Almost 80-90% went bad for me on the river at showdown. I only played for 4 hours and quit when this 3 handed hand came up. Me on the button with QJh, I raise sb mucks, BB calls. Flop comes JJ3, one spade. SB bets, I raise. SB calls. Turn A of spades. SB check, I bet. River 2 of spades. SB checks, I bet, SB calls. He turns over 3,6 spades for a flush. First of all I was astounded that he called a raise with 3,6, but hey it was suited and we are playing three handed no huge problem here. Second flop has to come JJ3. Tough to put me on a J three handed, but does he have to hit his small pair to keep him in the pot. Then spade on turn gives him some extra outs to spade cards, rather than running 3's. He did not know he was drawing dead to one three or his 6. 8 outs on turn and one of them hits. Ouch, lose another big pot. I never went on tilt, I kept a positive attitude the whole time, I just lost again. I really focused on not getting mad or whining. I succeeded in that aspect just not winning.

I hope that this big blowout loss was the big capitulation that will now get me at least to running even with the cards. I do not think my play is bad right now. I might be making a few mistakes over the course of the night, but on the hands I win I am making some plays to get extra bets so I think it evens out. I just can't hold off the long draws, or huge underdog hands right now. Very frustrating, hell I am pissed. I think I am going to just take a full week off to cool down. For those of you who actually read to the end of this ramble the loss was $1,125 in four hours. I know, that is really bad. SJ

SOS

Some old shit. Start with the best hand and end up getting beat on the river. Wow it just won't end. New month same result. Went and played on Friday night the 3rd to help a friend who just reopened the Hideaway cardroom. It is going non-smoking which is just awesome, but I continue to run like shit. Only played for about 4 hours. The worst of it, Back to back two outers, then two hands later a 4 outer hit on the turn to give the guy a 4 outer on the river and he hit it. Perfect, perfect cards were his only outs after the flop and they come. I just can't win right now. The good news is that I am playing well enough right now to keep the losses small. I can get it all back, the losses over the last month in one good night of just not running bad. I need to work on my attitude right now. I am angry, and pissed at the table. I know am I am projecting that image right now and I need to change it. Table image is important, when you are running bad and have a bad attitude it shows and you get more calls than you want because they know they can beat you. I am going to play right now as I write this and I will try to keep a very calm positive attitude even if I run bad and lose tonight. Wish me some luck, cause I need it right now. Net blood on Friday -$153.