Back in Seattle

I have been super busy at work since I got back to Seattle so I have not been able to play at all. I went last night for a short session because I was jones'n for some poker. I went up to Parker to play in whatever they have going at the high end. It was just an 8/16 game, but they had a seat right away so I jumped in. I have not been able to win in Seattle lately at the lower games and I just had the a ha moment last night. Since I have started playing a the higher games like 20/40, 40/80 and in LA I was playing 100/200 the 8/16 game was just not motivating me. I was playing way too loose for the game, it was a typical loose, huge multi-way pots game. I was calling with too many speculative hands, and hands that did not match up well in when I was hitting my hands. I was not putting the money into context and was not playing an A game. I also ran just horrible when I actually had a monster starting hand. I lost with AA's twice, once when I let myself get outplayed, and the last hand of the night when I had AA in late position and 3 bet a pot that got capped before it got back to me for 6 way action in a capped pot. The flop came down K,7,10 two diamonds. It was bet to me and I raised it. We got it down to 3 people. I assumed a K and a flush draw. The 7 paired on the turn, and the first player bet again. The middle person called and I raised again. Both called. The river was a 2, no diamond. It was checked to me and I bet again and got called, and then over called. The first person turned over J,7 hearts and took the pot. How crappy is that. J,7 in a capped pot. I put him on the flush draw and he had third pair on the flop and hit. O well that happens. All of my other big pairs did not win either. Always and A on the flop with I had a pair. I made the mistake of calling one down, when I was pretty sure I was beat. But hey it was only 16 bucks. Wrong, it was a bet. Those lost bets add up fast when you can't hit your big hands. I ended up calling it a night after about 4 hours, and down -$600. I probably lost $400 of that with bad play. Unacceptable!

If I am going to play in the lower games I have to play my A game all time or just not play. As a side not Tommy Hang of Seattle got 7th in the LA WPT event for a $130,000 cash. Congrats. Talk to you next time. SJ

I Love LA

It has been a while since the last post, sorry. I just have not been playing that much so there is not much to talk about. I did get a chance to go down to LA last week and get in a little action. I went on Thursday the 10th to play in the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit tournament. I got down there with a little time to kill so I sat down in a pretty good $40/80 game. No this room is just packed, I have never seen so many people at the Commerce room, and it is only 1:00pm. The games were just awesome. Even the $40/80 game was full of just horrible players. It was the softest decent limit game I have ever seen. People were playing like it was a $4/8 game. The good news is that is was a perfect mix. A few good players and three really bad players so you could isolate them. Even the good players at the table were pretty predictable so I was not feeling like this was a tough table. I ran up to just under $1,000 in about an hour and then bled off some blinds and one hand I had to release when I did not flop anything. I then cashed out of the game to go to the tournament. Up +557 and 1/2 my buy-in.

The tournament was huge. They had 406 players, and my first table was table number 9 so I was not going to go anywhere for a long time as they were busting all the out tables first. The good news was that there were not any name aggressive players at my table. The only name was Al Krux who I think finished 6th or 7th at last years WSOP. He was not that impressive, and did not play any differently than the rest of the table. The bad news was that there were no bad players at the table. No one was making any mistakes and we were all playing pretty tight. I do not think we lost anyone at our table through the first three rounds. I loved the structure. $1500 in chips to start and 1 hour rounds that started at 5/15 blinds. Lots of time to play and make moves. I never really got any great hands to trap or make big pots out of. I just was sticking and moving when I could. I never built up a stack, but managed to keep surviving. I made it to the dinner break with a little under $2,000 in chips, which was not very good. I knew I had to get back from the break and make some moves to get some chips. I picked up pocket 88's and went after a pot that had two limpers and one raise. I went all in and got called by the raiser who had a few chips but not a ton so he had to make the call with KQ off. I held up and got some chips to play with. We were down to 9 tables left and I had about $6,000 in chips. I look down see AK off in the BB. There is two limper in the pot and a raiser in the pot who has me covered. I can either call and see the flop or move in a see if he will lay it down. We were playing $100/200 and he put in a raise to like $800. There was like $1,500 in the pot and I decided my stack was big enough to move in and maybe get him to lay down a hand. He thought about it for quite a while and then decided to call. He flipped up pocket 10's and I thought crap I was hoping for an A,Q or J, but I now was in a coin flip. Of course as my luck has been I do not win these and it came all small and I was out about 85th. It was a great tourn and I felt good about my play. At least I got a lot of play out of it and got some more experience.

I then decided to go goof off with my friend Joe at a lower limit game. I was pretty fried from the day as the tournament started at 3:30pm and I busted out at around 11:00pm. I did not feel like playing another tough session so I just kicked around with him in a $20/40 game for about and hour or so. I won another +$245 and then called it a night at about 1:00am. The players were still pretty bad in that game as well.

My friend Aaron was also in town and had been for a few days. He was playing white chip games and it was an all name list of people in these games. David Williams, Cindy Violette, Sam Grizzle, Carlos Mortensen, John Murphy, etc. There are probably a few I left off but everyone was there. It was pretty cool to see all the players there. I saw Evelyn Eng for the first time in person. Man she is tall, like 5'10" or maybe even 6'. She is also, extremely attractive. Her body is just sick, jaw dropping stuff. I found my friend paying heads up with Frank Mariani(SP?), one of the co-owners of the LA Lakers. They were playing $400/800 single draw lowball, and Hold-em. The button could make it a kill pot to $800/1600. They each had about $75,000 in front of them and were having a great time. Aaron was up a bit like $14,000, but that is not much in that game. Frank was really having a good time and gambling it up. Raising blind, bluffing a lot, and otherwise just throwing money around. I sat and watched for about an hour, and Frank put some of the stupidest beats in lowball I had seen. Like four or five bets before the flop, and then drawing 3 cards to a 7 low and beating Aaron. Aaron was doing his best not to go on tilt, and I think at the end he ended up beating Frank out of about $25,000. Lots of fun, and to see the piles of money on the table was pretty cool too.

I then came back the next day thinking I was going to play a nice long session, and plans got changed. I started out playing with my friend Joe at the $20/40 table, but got bored in about an hour of play so I went to get into the $100/200 game. I could not get a seat so I sat in the $40/80 game and won a little before my seat opened up. I sat in the $100/200 game, and for the first time there were no bad players at the table. They were all really good solid players with varying degrees of aggressiveness. No one was bluffing without a play in mind. I thought this is what the game is all about. I really wanted to play well, for one I was not that deep. I only had about $8,000 on me and that can go fast in that game. I played pretty tight and picked up a few pots. Then in the BB I picked up pocket KK's and no one entered the pot. The good news in the higher games is no one chops. It is a time game so there is no rake to beat, therefore everyone plays. Plus all the egos at the table lends itself to everyone thinking they are great Heads up players, even when some of us have to be giving up some edge there. Well the small blind raises, I 3 bet, the flop comes 8 high. He bets I raise again, and bet all the way and get called when a card never comes over an 8, and win a nice pot with about $1,500 in it. Cool. I then enter a pot with pocket 88's in middle position for a raise, and get three bet. The flop comes down 10,10,5. I check raise the raiser, and bet to the river and he calls me down with I am sure some high A, and I win another pot. Cool. I am cruising along up like $2,500 and then my brother calls who happens to be in town for the Grammy Awards, and decides he wants to go to dinner. I decide to call an audible on the evening and go to dinner with him and not play cards anymore. I went to this killer Italian restaurant named AGO in Melrose, and drank a ton of wine from GAJA. I came back to Seattle on Saturday, and now have to play in the low limit world again. At least I got my year back on track with a nice weekend. Total for the weekend up +2,237. Talk to you soon. SJ

Warming Up

I played last Friday night the 28th of Jan at Parkers in the 8/16 game. The game was good as usual and I finally feel like I have put a couple of good sessions together. I have at least stopped running completely horrible, I have not had a hot session yet, but the just absolute crappy beats have stopped. I also feel like I am getting my game back in shape as I have played a few weeks in a row now a couple of times a week. My feel is coming back. I played for just a short 4 hour session and made $300.

I then played again on Tuesday the 1st at the Muck. I started in the $30/60 game and played pretty well. I only played for two hours before the No-Limit tourn, but I made $422 and was on a free roll in the $110 with 100 rebuy tourn. I did not pick up one playable hand in position. When I got a medium hand upfront I mucked, and in late position I could not even get a good steal hand. I never picked up chips and then after the break playing $75/150 with a $25 ante I played a hand about as poorly as can be played. I was in the BB with Q,10 diamonds. It was folded to late position and one off the button raised to $400. I had about $2,100 in chips, and I thought about moving in because he was in a good steal position, but I elected to call and see the flop and then move in if I hit. It would look stronger. So what happens. The flop comes 10 high and I misread the flop and check. He checks behind me, the turn comes a J, now I am in trouble, and I check again. The river comes a K, and I check now and he bets $800. I just muck. I know I could have had that pot on the flop if I move in. I might have even got the pot on the turn. I just played that like a complete wimp. I blinded out after that and went back to the $20/40 game.

I stayed in that game for a while and played a good solid game. I ran my chips up to about $1000 up and then took three bad beats in about a 10 hand span. I got pocket AA twice in three hands. Now I have not even see pocket AA in a long time and now I get them twice in three hands. Of course I loose both of them. First time to K,10 off on the turn when the flop comes 10 high with a 10 on the turn, the other two diamonds on the flop and a third on the turn and someone made an A high flush. Now, it is not that bad to loose with AA, but the worst part was that I paid off both bets on the river when I knew I was most likely beat. There is a good article in this week Card Player about laying strong hands down with reasonable evidence that you are beat. I knew I was beat both time, but made crying calls anyway. I could have saved a few bets both times and even made more money. I need to work on this. The last beat happened about 20 mins later when I picked up Pocket 99's in early position and raised. I only got one caller and the flop came 9 high. I checked hoping for a check raise and go a check behind me. The turn brought a J, and I bet, he called. River a 8, I bet out, got raised, and called again. See about for bad play. He flipped up Q,10 for runner, runner straight and I lost the pot. After that I just quit and was only up like $360. O well at least I booked a win.

On a side note Congrats to Tommy Hang for making the final table of the $1,000 NL shoot out at the Commerce. He did not get past 7th but still made a few thousand bucks. Good for him. I will be going out there next Thursday for a few days to play. See you there. SJ