Another Freeroll

Hey, another blogger freeroll at Pokerstars for a WSOP seat. Don't know if I will be able to play but figured I would register anyway just in case. Hope to see you there.....SJ

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 1928334

The Sessions in Between

Hope everyone had a great memorial weekend. I took the whole weekend off and did not play one hand or click of cards. Just relaxed in the rain of Seattle. I hope the summer is not like this last weekend or we are going to be moldy by the end of summer.

Of course I was out and about last night at the Muck which is why all five of you are here. I walked into the usual crowd of the bigger games now on Tuesdays. I got there and they started the $100/200 game but made it a controlled move from the $50/100 game, so I ended up getting a seat right away in the $50/100 game. Last night turned into one of those sessions in between. I say that because there are sessions where you run great and you are just going to win in spite of yourself and are playing to maximize your win. Then there are those where you run terrible and are destined to lose or you must really grind it out to squeak out a win/breakeven. Then there are those where you run normal breakeven cards, nothing happens, just a boring normal non-event session where really most of your sessions occur. I have not really had many of these lately so it was fine by me yesterday. This is where you get to spend time working on your game. Working on reading people, controlling your boredom but staying alert, trying to learn something from the session. Controlling your emotions, and watching those that are not, or seeing how they change when running other than normal, hot and hitting, or cold and cold decked. In other words, trying to get better. I don't think most players really think about that part of their game. You don't always need to be in the action, sometimes you can just be an observer and work on other things that will make you a better player in the long run. Last night was just one of those nights.

I think I only played one orbit in the $50/100 game before moving to the $100/200 game. Usual cast of players with a few sporadic regulars as well, nothing out of the ordinary. The one out of normal occurrence was that my friend Aaron came down to play as well. He showed up a little later than I did, but there was a seat open when he got there so not a problem. He actually proceeded to play a good controlled game. He did not talk much, which was a plus, and did not do too much whining, again a plus. He did not even get too aggressive with his hand selection, just a good solid controlled game. His big hands held up and he played to maximize most of them. He booked a good win and left after about 4 hours leaving me to fend for myself and took a decent chuck of change out of the game.

I on the other hand was going nowhere. I was watching a lot of hands go by, and those that I did play were not great, I had to make some stuff up as I went. Neither up more than $2,000 nor down more than $1,000, which is a pretty tight range in a game of this size, but that was the nature of this session. The one hand which could have made my night was when I picked up pocket KK's on the button and it had been raised, called and then three bet by LP and I capped. We took the flop off 5 handed for $400 each, and an A spiked right on the flop. Muck you very much, send the pot to the guy who called two more bets cold with 88's and flopped a set that held up for a $4,000 pot. Nice Hand! I ground my way through a few people hitting and running and finally called it a night at 1:30am up +$1,144. Not a very good win rate, but still a small win. I will take it. I may play this Friday up at Tulaliup where they have been running $100/200 up there now on that day. Same players with a few north end regulars added in.

I lost a comment on my last post that asked about how I try to minimize my emotions and tells. Blogger ate it. The first thing that comes to my mind is to be aware of yourself. Know thyself as Thomas Aquinas once said. Know what feelings you are having, then try to neutralize them. If you are happy and rushing, don't get too cocky. Don't rub it in, play it down as lucky, which sometimes it is. If you are running poorly, don't get too down. Don't let the other players know you are depressed and running poorly, don't show them weakness, they will pick on you. Try to keep a positive attitude. If you can't, then take a walk, or quit. Better to come back in a positive state of mind then to keep getting beat on and let a small loss turn into one that takes more than one session to get back. Lastly, ask some of your friends in the game to watch you as you play. You may be playing hands predictably, or betting in patterns, or making movements with your body during certain conditions or hands that you are unaware of. You may not like the answers or agree with them, but there is usually a grain of truth in what you may hear. Aaron gave me some feedback last night on a few things. I may disagree with him, but I also know there is something to the feedback and I will work on it. I am not going to talk about it here as there are a few players in the game that read this blog, but I will work on it the next time.

Also, to the comment of how poker players are in relationships, I have this thought. I am very lucky to have a wife that while she may not like the fact that I play as much as I sometimes do, she is mostly supportive. She understands that I love this game, and would hate to give it up. She puts up with it, and even sometimes encourages my play. I scale it back when life at home gets busy, and sometimes she asks me not to play. Which I do. I have no idea how a full time player could have a real relationship. They play stupid hours, usually all night and for long periods of time. The other person in the relationship will not understand why you need to put in that many hours "gambling" which is how they will see it and not with her/him. So you need spend a ton of time and energy explaining that it is not really gambling but controlled gambling and not against the house with an edge but against other players separated by skill. Energy spent on that other than the game, which will detract from your game. The other side to that is to have a relationship with another player, which I am sure can work, but I would not want that either. I am lucky I have a job and am married because it adds balance to my life which in turn makes me a much happier person and hopefully a better player. I would not want to do this full time. I don't think I even could, to be honest with myself. I get bored with the game pretty quick if I am playing for 4 or 5 days straight. I also know that I would not be that much fun to be around if I did this full time either. I guess good news I have a job. Bottom line new or newly forming relationships and poker are not a good mix. If you have a good strong foundation to build from then I think it works fine, but otherwise I think is sounds like a disaster. I am a lucky person.

I hope you are all winning and will talk to you soon....SJ

Emotions, Emotions

As promised I wanted to put something else up this week on the blog. I have not played this week, except online, which does not really count in my book for playing as I play $3/6, $5/10 and $10/20 short tables and it does not have any real impact on my bankroll or results. Just fun and practice, and of course some loose pocket change to spread around on the internet. I did want to talk about emotions, and how they can impact your game, winning, and table selection.

I was playing with a friend last week and witnessed some very hard emotional swings on his part and it got me to thinking again about emotions so I figured I would share them with you.

Emotions are feelings that really need to be well under control if you are going to play poker seriously. You can learn a lot by watching others emotions at the table. By staying alert and observant others will put their emotions on display. Are they winning and confidant? If they are will they "play the rush" and push marginal hands, or are they just really feeling confidant and playing their A game and you need to stay out of their way? Are they losing and looking depressed expecting to lose every hand that they play and playing passively. Can you take advantage of that attitude and push them off winners, because they expected you to hit your hand? Are they "On Tilt" or "Steaming", have they just lost with a big hand and now just trying to RAM a hand through? You need to be really aware of your own mood and emotions and make sure that they are not outwardly visible. Good players can pick up on them and use them against you in the game.

Emotions will cloud your judgment and make you chase or make a play that you would not have otherwise made if you were thinking clearly. Don't get mad at players. I see people take a bad beat and then feel like they must pay them back. They get into pots with hands they would not normally play just so they can put a beat on them. Bad idea. If you are playing a solid game and making good decisions you are happy when they make a bad play and get there. Rap the table and say "nice hand". It will encourage them to do it the rest of the night. The thought and the rush of chasing and hitting will be fresh in their head all night. I guarantee you that if you keep playing your game they will chase against you all night. Don't give them free cards and they will pay you back and then some as long as you have made the right decisions with you cards. That is provided that they just don't get lucky all night. Which does happen, and then you are just destined to lose. Don't let emotions cloud you desire to keep playing. If you are up against one of those days where the fish just hit all day on you, set your limit and leave. Even if the game is good, and you are really pissed that your big hands are not holding, you are probably steaming a bit, and not playing your A game anymore, get up and leave. There will be another day. When the fish smell a feeding frenzy, they will keep on you all night as you have shown them they can suck out on you. They will still make bad decisions, but they will get there more than they should. If you punish them a few times with the best hand, they will stop chasing as hard and even lay hands down or just go broke. When they hit it just is not your day. Pick up and leave. Don't let ego, or emotions make the call. Use your head and get up with what you have left. Last thought on this. If you don't have enough money to play a hand hard all the way to the river, pick up what is left and leave. Don't sit there and lose all the money in front of you. That money will be in your stack the next time, and the numbers when you add up results at the end of the week, month, year.

I was asked earlier about table selection as well. Emotions can definitely impact your game there. You should always look to play within your bankroll. Don't let ego get the best of you and sit in a game that you know is too big or you can't beat. I was in LA on Sunday and went to the $100/200 game. Now that we have a $100/200 game in Seattle it is not that big of deal to play that game down there. But I did not want to play $40/80 even though that game was a much better game to make money in. I just said I want to play 1/2 so screw it I am playing 1/2. I knew it was full of regulars, no soft spots, and most likely not a money making game. But I made an emotional decision to play, I just wanted to play. Had I been using my head I would have played the $40/80. That game is big enough, and plenty hard down there, but I made the wrong decision and guess what it cost me almost $5,000. I hope I relearned that lesson. Aaron, my friend, is famous for not being able to play in smaller money making games. He has to be in a very big game, usually too big for his bankroll. He is always taking shots. He will play $25/50 NL and win $50,000 and then take that to the $200/400NL or higher with a backer. Stupid. He can't afford one bad beat in that game, and it invariably happens. He will run it up a bit and then someone will hit on him and felt him and he is done. He will turn a winning trip of up $80,000 or $100,000 into a dead break even trip in one hand. STUPID. If I had his game and my game management skills I would making over $1,000,000 in poker a year. I just wish I had his game. I have offered to come with him on trips to tell him which games to play in and make sure he does not get into the big game, but he just won't listen. Maybe one day he will learn. I hope this WSOP. He needs the win. Hope you are going to have a great 3 day weekend and play some cards. I might get one night in. Talk to you next week and hope you are all winning. SJ

Heater Over

I had to go to LA for work on Monday so of course I had to go down just a little early on Sunday night to visit one of my favorite cardrooms in the word, The Commerce. I arrived there around 8:00pm Sunday night and the place was busy as usual. The main event of the week or so long tournament they were running had started that day so there were a few names of the poker world in the room. There was a decent sized no-limit game going that had Kenna James in it and by the looks of it doing well. There was also a $400/800 mixed game that had Freddy Deeb, and JC Tran banging around. I decided to play a little $100/200 hold-em and got a seat pretty quickly. The games were not good. No one was gambling, all the players were pretty much regulars, and there were no soft spots. I really did not want to go play $40/80, although that might have been a better spot to make money, so I took my seat in the $100/200 game because I am stupid. I did nothing all night. I sat there and played a decent game, but could just not make all my good hands hold up. Of course you don't expect to, but in this game to make money you needed them to. I got stuck right out of the gate and never recovered. I would start to make a run and then get KK's cracked. I would win a few small pots and then gamble on a hand and wiff. No one would give their money away. The $100/200 game down there the last few times has been real poor. Tough games, good players, not much chance to make money. I have just not had any luck this year in LA. Two trips, 0 for 2. Not much of a sample, but losses nonetheless. I still love the place and will still go down there to play cards, but the games are just not as easy as they used to be. I may go play $40/80 next time down just to see how those games are playing.

OK heater over, well maybe not in Seattle, but that run of good cards and good play came to an end when I ran out of time to play before I had to go to bed. So I went to bed stuck -$4,708, not a big loss, as I have not had a big one yet in LA. I wish I could have stuck around. David Pham, and my good friend Chris from Seattle, were in the other $100/200 game and were coming my way. Looked like there was a little gamble going on over on the other table and it would have come my way if I felt like staying up all night. NOPE, I have a job, and I would have been a mess on Monday had I done that. Getting close to taking a real poker trip where I can just keep playing if I want to. Soon, WSOP soon.

I will not play tonight as I am tired from the trip. I may take a shot on Friday somewhere. I will also post later in the week on some other random poker thoughts. Hope you are all winning, talk to you soon..SJ

In the Middle

I hope this is just the middle of the run. I have been running well lately both online and live, feels good. My game has been OK, not great, just OK, but I have been catching some breaks and timing my hands well which slowly adds up to a nice run.

Online I have been slowly building my meager online roll by multi-tabling 5/10 and 10/20 limit games. Goes up goes down, just slightly more up than down which is fine by me. I am still dumbfounded by those that just win tons of money online, like $10,000 to $100,000 per month. I don't know how they do it. Some of the time the players are bad, but for the most part I don't see the massive losers in the games that seem necessary to win that amount of money. Can the players at the 300/600 limit games be that bad? If they are they should go broke pretty quick at that limit. Most of the time I run into pretty average players, not great, but not to the point where one just pummels them all night. Maybe I am just not that good, and I don't see the massive edge here, but I win so that is all that should count. I did finally win a $30 MTT short handed NL on Ultimatebet on Monday. Not a huge field of 170, but a good win for $1,600. Cool.

So as usual I went down to the Muck again last night. Tuesday is turning out to just be a huge day down there for the larger games. I walked in last night and there were two $50/100 games going and a list. WOW! Just as I walked in however I was asked if I would play a short handed $100/200 game. I am not one to turn down a short game as you know, so sure fire it up. Four handed to start, Me, Pete, Barry, and one other guy who has been coming in for the last few weeks, don't know his name. At this point the joint had two $50/100 games and a $100/200 game. Now that is a lot of high limit poker going on in Seattle. I did not know we had that much money in the poker world here. Love to see it. I hope we crank the $100/200 game all the time. That would be cool. I am going to assume that it is going to get thin around here as we get to the WSOP and most of the high limit guys leave to go play down there so I guess we will see. So on to the game......

The game starts 4 handed but surprisingly it filled up to 6 and 7 handed for a while. I don't really mind either way, but a good short handed game is always fun. Allows you to get much more creative. I was really card dead most of the night. I did a lot of watching and winning small pots when the moment presented itself. I was never stuck more than $1,000 all night and not up much more than $2,000 for a very long stretch of time. I like to gamble it up once in a while. I shift gears in that game when I think the table is getting too predictable(tight), or my play is getting too predictable. I have a pretty loose image in that game, especially compared to Barry and Pete. I like to play up that image, joking around, making fun of myself as just a bad lucky player. I think that some of the regulars there really do think I am a really bad lucky player. It does get me a little more action than I sometimes want, but I think it works to my advantage most of the time. I might actually be a really bad lucky player, but I keep winning year after year so something must be working there. In reality I usually play tight for long stretches of time and then mix in a few stupid hands to donk it up a bit and keep the image. In supersystem by the great Doyle, he talks about winning lots of small pots and building up your stack so you can gamble when the moment presents itself. This is much more of a No Limit concept but it applies to limit as well. If you steal, bluff, and have some of your real hands hold up, it allows you to take a shot when you know you are behind and draw at something really stupid. If you fight harder for the smaller pots when everyone misses you can make those few extra bets that put you in a position to gamble when the time is right. I will also get caught raising with a really crappy hand once in a while that I will hit. Now I did not say call, I said raise. I don't really raise that much with crap, but I do like to mix it in to the game a little more than the average player. This really adds to the image when you turn over 5,7 sooooooted for the nut straight after you raised in EP with it.

Prime example number one from last night on the timed gamble. Early on in the night, I have won a few small pots and was up just a touch, and was dealt 3,5 of diamonds on the button. I had been playing pretty tight so far, so I watched this hand develop and said "gamble time". One player limps in EP, a middle position player raises, late position player calls two cold, and I call two cold on the Button with the 3d,5d, and both blinds called I think. Now I know I am in bad shape, I have a really small chance of winning this pot, but if I can hit the hand it will be disguised and easy to get away from if I wiff. I did not exactly hit the flop, it came down something like K,9,5 one diamond. I am not exactly sure of this fact other than I did flop bottom pair, and there was a diamond on the board. So there is a bet in EP, a raise, a cold call by the LP and I call here. This is a really questionable call, I know that, I am gambling here. I figured I had outs to a 5, 3, and running diamonds. You think I don't know I am putting money in -EV. Cut to the end of the story, I make running diamonds here and win the pot. It was a huge pot, and got me up pretty nicely for the session. When I rolled it over at the end I called out "Donkey Hand" and tabled the 5,3 for the win. I took all kinds of shit, but that set the stage for the rest of the night. I was a donkey, cool.

The game got short and then down to three handed, Me, Barry, and Pete. Once again not a great game. Both Barry and Pete were running bad at the end of the full table session so I figured it would be a good spot to keep playing. It was. Three handed a pair is huge, even bottom pair. Sure there are times when you are going to get caught in a bad match up, but if you stay aggressive, pick off bluffs or just out flop slight favorites you are going to have a good night. I was raising a lot of hands on the button and out of the SB. Barry was playing me really passive out of the SB when I had the BB so I had to be a little careful with the raise, so I tightened up my raising standards but loosened up my calling standards against him as well. I then proceeded to pretty much either outflop him or just bet in position to take the pots. Now both of these guys know how to play short handed, but both were running poorly, and both were playing really passively short handed so it actually made it pretty easy to know where you were. There was not a lot of aggression out of either of them and not a lot of raising going on. Made for a profitable night.

So final tally up +$5,691, not a huge night but a run of the mill normal deviation win. If I would have run even slightly better and picked up some better starting hands I would have had another huge night. On a side note I have not posted much about Aaron lately because frankly there has not been much to post about. He did play in the Mirage WPT main event and went out on the first day on a horse race. JJ VS AK, he had the JJ's. He just can not get over the hump. I actually feel badly for him, he deserves to at least have a little good luck in one of these events. He also has been just breaking even in the bigger NL games down there as well. He did not even feel like staying down there after the main event and is already back in Seattle.

I know there are players from the game last night that will read this post. Let the flaming begin...., Talk to you soon, hope you are all winning...SJ("Donkey")


P.S. There seems to be a lot more traffic coming to the site lately. I think that is really cool. Not many comments however. If any new people coming to the site want to do a Q&A session post some questions. I would be happy to do another post and answer some stuff.

Now that's What I am Talking About

So off to the Muck last night to play a little cards. Much more normal night down there this time. $50/100 game going, short list, usual cast of characters, back to normal. I am 2nd up on the list so I jump into the $10/20 game to bide my time for a bit, besides the jackpot is up over $150,000 and that would be a nice poker roll to take down to the WSOP. The $50 game does not have a jackpot drop, so this is the only game you can hit it in, or lower games as well. I don't really like the jackpot anyway. I have never even come close to hitting one, heck I have not even been in a cardroom that has hit one in over two years. They just don't hit when I am there and no chance at my table. I am bad jackpot luck. I have put thousands into that box and have never received a dime out of it. I will keep my dollar thank you.

So I play $10/20 for about 45 minutes, and I get to play with Dr. Chako for about 15 or 20 of that time. Not enough to really play with him, and I don't think we even played a pot together. One of these days we are going to get him into the $50/100 game. I think he just likes beating up that $10/20 game too much. He did not even stay that long, but every time I went over to look around he had more chips in front of him. Don't blame him for just staying in the game you are crushing on a regular basis, but step up man, take a shot. You might surprise yourself. Looks like he cashed out another pile. Good job.

When I finally get into the $50/100 game things went fine. Nothing exciting, not running poorly, but not running great either. No big hands, not even any memorable ones. Just run of the mill poker, just the way I like it. This is where you make your money. Just making small decisions well, staying away from trouble hands, and getting off of hands you have a good read that are beat. My timing was pretty good last night as well. The pots just kind of played themselves. When I was in the BB or in late position and had lots of limpers or a raise and 4 or 5 callers I would look down and see a great drawing hand. 8,9 suited, 8,10 suited, J,10 suited, so you call. Then if you miss you get away, and if you hit, which I did a few times in that game, you get paid. I almost never timed it wrong where you caught a trouble piece of the flop and went with it or chased. I was feeling really good about the game.

So as fate would have it the guy Brian I was talking about from last Friday decides to come down to the Muck and we start talking about starting a $100/200 game. Of course with the brilliant staff at the Muck it takes us about an hour and 1/2 to finally get the game cranked. We were going to go 4 handed, me, Barry, Pete, and Brian. Then one other regular sat down, and then one more from the $50 game who I would not think would play, took a shot at the game as well, and we were 6 handed. Really nice game, short enough to loosen up a bit, but long enough to play tight as well. I learned my lesson from Friday and had adequate bankroll on me this time just in case this happened. Besides I was also up $2,500 in the $50/100 to start with. All was good.

So I start off just like the $50/100 game. Nice, comfortable, not up a ton but slowly inching up, then BAM. I just got into zone, timed everything right, hit everything in site, bluffed at the right time, laid down against monsters, all was perfect. I was cracking AA's, hitting flushes, making straights, making nut full houses to second nut houses, it was a beautiful thing to behold. I don't even know how long it lasted but before I knew it I was up over $10,000. I have not run like that in over a year, I almost forgot what that felt like, nice to have it happen at $100/200 and not $8/16. I coasted for a bit and then just decided that this was a nice day, and called it a night. I am sure I might have made a few people upset that I took all my chips and went home a little early, but on the flipside there was no guarantee I was going to cool of either, so maybe some were happy that I left. There were some stuck bummed out guys at the table. Some were running as bad as I was good, which makes for a very long night. Been there, not fun, tough to keep a good attitude, but the table stayed stable all night.

Brian was as bad as I had heard. He was playing way too many hands, raised with way too much crap, and tried to run you off hands with garbage. When you hit you make a ton, when you miss you lose a ton, and I think he was in for $7-10k when I left. I am sure he got in further, and hopefully made everyone a winner that night. Don't know where the money comes from, probably don't want to know. It all spends the same at the store.

So final tally, WAY UP +$10,986. Biggest win in Seattle, up there in the top 5 all time. Of course it does help when you are playing $100/200 as that is only 54.93 BB's. Just like winning $1,098.60 in the $10/20 game, just add a couple of zeros. This helps get the year back on track, as you all know I had a really poor start to the year. I will not be playing this weekend, so next shot to take my money is next Tuesday. Hope you are all winning, talk to you soon.....SJ

Sleepless on Friday

I decided to go out late Friday last week to play a little cards. I am trying to get back into the swing of things and have been playing a little more poker now. I was just going to go goof off again up at Parkers and play in the $8/16 game like I did last Friday, but when I walked in, the place was jammed. The list for the $8/16 game was 30 people long. I was not going to get into that game and Barry told me last week that the $40/80 game up at Tulaliup was good on Friday nights, so I called up there to see what was going on. They had the game, and now I had to decide if I wanted to drive another 20 minutes up there, and leave myself a 30 to 40 minute drive home. Of course I came out to play so I make the call to go up there and see what is going on.

I get there and the cardroom is jammed as well. I was 4th on the list when I called and I was still 4th on the list 20 minutes later when I walked into the room. Damn, this might turn into a wipeout. Barry shows up and tells me he is going to play a guy heads up $100/200. This person Barry is going to play is a weak player who loves action, and I thought I might play as well. Three handed with one bad player is a pretty good spot. I had not planned on playing any higher than $8/16 when I left my house so I did not have enough bankroll to play the game. I asked Barry to spot me, but he declined. It was getting late anyway and I did not have that much time to play, and I think Barry wanted this guy all to himself so I was not that bummed out. I just wish I would have come adequately bankrolled. Lesson learned.

So I sit around a bit and finally a seat in the $40/80 game comes up. I was chatting with Barry before his guy came in so it was not that bad of a wait, but I had a decision to make. It was 12:45am, I had not played all night, and I really did not want to play to morning. If I jumped in this game I am going to have to play for while. I may hit and run, but I must commit at least 2-3 hours to play if I don't start off winner. So question out there for you. What is the minimum time you think you need to play to get the results out of a session? Poker is not blackjack. If you sit down and play less than an hour, then I think you are just gambling. I think you need about 3 hours to really get a good feel for the table and players and to take the luck factor out of the cards. Of course you can get crappy cards for 3 or more hours, I have before, but at least you give yourself a shot at breaking even on the cards and letting your play come through for the edge. I like to budget a 4 hour minimum for a session. If I can't play 4 hours I usually don't go out to play. That said, I break my rule and I take a seat. I am not going to play for 4 hours.

So what happens? Of course I start off loser to take the hit and run out of the question. I start off getting no cards to play, and folding my way into a hole. I play one hand over an hour and 1/2 period and am stuck $1,400. Crap why did I decide to play? Then the table gets short, 6 handed, 5 handed, then 4 handed. Now this is a great spot for me! But it is now 2:30am. I am sitting with 3 guys who have no clue who I am, and I just start to play my short game. I start making plays, still not getting cards, but winning some pots and grind my way up back to close to even. I want to say but I have to go home. I know if I stay I will break the table one by one, but I can't. I should have not broken my rule. I just should have went home after some good conversation and gone to sleep without playing cards. Lesson learned again, but I don't know if I will learn this one. If I go out to play cards, I want to play cards damnit!

So results for the night stuck -$256, and 4 hours of sleep. Dumb. I will play tomorrow at the Muck. Talk to you soon, hope you are all winning...SJ

Atypical Night at the Muck

If I had to script a return back to poker at the higher limits(for me) that I play, last night would not have been it. It was a VERY Atypical night down at the Muck. I arrived down there last night to see a massive list for the $30/60 and $50/100 games going. There were about twenty names on the $50 list which is just unheard of normally. I was about 14th on the list for the $50 game and about 5th on the $30 game. I resigned myself that I was not going to get in right away so I figured I would catch up with a few players I had not seen in about a month or so.

I finally get into the $30 game after about 40 minutes of hanging around, and the game is just nutty. It was playing like a $4/8 game, and was even worse than the $8/16 game I was goofing around in last Friday night at Parkers. This game was seeing 5,6,7 way flops for raises, and the same number for limps. The pots were just huge and no one was laying hands down. All passive players with the exception of Barry, who I have mentioned before in this Blog. This was not the game to jump right into after taking 6 weeks off. Too much thinking, and too much variance. It was very hard to hang on to a hand as with that many people in the pots you were getting odds to draw to everything, and everyone was. There were a few that were just plain playing every hand to the river and seeing if they could make a draw, hell just a pair, even if they were not getting the correct odds. For example, a pot that I was not involved in, but was just so stupid I had to put it up here was typical of what was going on.

I actually had the BB, UTG raises with AJ he said, two callers behind him, and Barry on the Button 3 bets. Now with that many people in the pot it could only have been two hands KK's, or AA's. He had AA's, I knew that his hand was huge out of the BB and insta mucked my hand, even though I was getting pretty good odds to put money into that pot. All players call. $405 in the pot preflop!! Flop comes down 6,6,4 one heart. UTG I think bets out two other players call, and Barry raises, UTG mucks, two middle players call. $615 in pot. Turn a 5 of hearts. Two players check, Barry bets. Both call. River the 8 of hearts. First players bets out, second calls, and Barry mucks his cards face up in disgust. Barry was nice enough to point out in my comments that he did in fact muck and not call as I had originally put in here at first, thanks for correcting me. First player had K,9 hearts for flush??? Second had 7,4 off for the straight, and Barry's AA's go from first to third on the river. Now that is just STUPID, only outs on the flop for these two were runner runner for K,9 and two outs to the 4, or runner runner and both got there. What the hell was 7,4 off doing in the pot to begin with calling two raises. Just nutty I tell ya. Must of thought he was playing blackjack, SWEEEET I got eleven, double down for $90. OUCH, send the $705 to mister K,9. This game continued to just be up and down. I was up then I buried myself when I called Barry's early raise with pocket 66's and we saw a five way flop again. Flop came A,Q,6. Perfect, I thought. Barry bet out, I raised, one other caller, Barry flat calls. Turn pairs the A, Barry checks, I bet, other calls, I now put him on just a naked A so Barry can't have AA's, maybe A,K, or A,Q which I am buried on, Barry now raises, I three bet, other player calls and now Barry caps. I should have mucked right there. I now know he has A,Q or QQ's. There is so much money in the pot I call the last bet and even say out loud that I have one out. River a blank and Barry bets out, I have no idea why but I call that last bet too and so does the other player. I gave Barry an extra $120 for no reason whatsoever, your welcome. In hindsight I should have just mucked the 66's preflop as Barry is not going to raise in early position in this game with anything I can beat, I am either 50% heads up which I knew was not going to be the case in this game with all the players calling preflop, or I was a huge underdog to an over pair. Stupid call preflop and it cost me a pile of money. My Bad. I actually made it to the $50 game even after two hours of play and was prepared to try and play better over there.

So what happens when I get to the $50 game. The game that had a list of 20 people just two hours earlier, it gets short, then it gets shorter, and after about 30 minutes of me getting there is gets to three handed?? What?? It is down to me, Barry, and Pete. Not exactly the game I was looking for. Both solid players, and three handed. Once again a big variance game for even more money against good players, and after 6 weeks off not really a spot where I wanted to play. Short handed you are playing lots of hands, you can't play tight, and there is lots of post flop reading and moves being made. I am not warmed up for this, I am rusty, and I get put in the pressure cooker on my first day back. This could be a disaster, but I am not ready to go home at 8:00pm. I manage to hold my own, we pick up a 4th player, then a 5th who was really bad, and the 4th was not a whole lot better so now it is a better game. I then proceed to go on a good rush and make some good hands hold, hit some flops and suck out on one big hand when I had KK's vs. Barry's AA's. I also had AA's cracked by K,Q off, made the nut flush with A,Q on the river only to find out I ran into a full house when the final flush card paired the board and cost me $300 on the river and a $1000 pot. So I was not running that great. Just a very weird night.

At the high I am up around $5,000 and then proceed to just go card dead. We bust the 5th player and are now back to 4 handed. The blinds are coming fast, and I am getting nothing to play. I miss everything I try to play, and don't win a hand for over an hour. I have seen this movie before and even though it was early I know it is time to quit. I wanted to book a win my first time back, and I just had this feeling if I stayed it might not get any better, and short handed you can give it all back in hurry. If it would have been a full or close to full ring game you can protect your chips better, and just hide out. 4 handed there is no hiding, and if you are not going to play aggressive, then you should just not play, so I did not. I ended up the night $3,117 to the good happy to book a win.

I hope that I continue to run well for the next few months as I am due and it is getting close to WSOP time. I will spend the next month warming up for WSOP play, and building up my bankroll. Hope you are winning and I will talk to you soon. It is good to be back....SJ

Hooray, Back in Action

I decided to start out small and finally get back into live play action on Friday the 28th of April. It has been 5 full weeks since my last live play session. That has been the longest time between live play sessions in seven years maybe, for sure five years. That was a long time. I missed it, but not as bad as I thought I would. I am ready to get back at it and hopefully with a different attitude and approach. I was on a pretty long bad streak, but won't be able to tell for sure if I am done with it until I play some more poker for real in a shorter period of time. We are approaching WSOP time and I hope to make at least two trips down there. I was going to go down to the Mirage this weekend and play in a tournament, but that trip now got moved to the end of the month to play in a tournament at the Mandalay WPT event. Never played there, should be fun.

So how did I do on Friday? I went up to play at Parkers in Seattle. I did not want to drive to the Muck, and not get into a game. I also did not really want to just jump right into the $50/100 game without at least getting a little cards in to warm up. I called up my friend Jason, I posted his picture last year from the WSOP with Clonie, and he agreed to meet me up there to splash around in the $8/16 game. He is a way better No-limit player and loves to play tournaments mostly, but plays a pretty mean NL cash game as well. We both got into the game at about the same time and at the same table. I had him to my direct right which was where I wanted him. He started off playing just about every hand and hitting just about every hand. He was playing pretty poorly for a limit game however and left a lot of bets on the table. First off his starting hand selection was very questionable, second once you decide to play a weak hand in limit, don't call with it, raise. Third, once you hit that stupid hand don't bet with it, check raise. No one is going to put you on that hand to begin with so get some value out of it. That said he did just fine and ended up winner for the night. He was playing a more NL style, which is usually a good way to end up losing money but it worked for him that night.

I was not going to play loose in this game tonight. I wanted to start to warm up for next Tuesday so I played a very tight aggressive game. The few hands I did get goofy with early I missed and then vowed to not even get into that mode in this game. It was not even necessary in the game anyway. Nobody would respect a raise and all pots were 4 or 5 handed anyway. Typical Parkers on a Friday night in a low limit game. Some things just never change, always good to see. I built my stack up slowly but surely all night. Not a huge night, but not a small night either in terms of bets. Change of course here. I stopped posting numbers a while back because I did not like the e-mails about the money. Well if Daniel can post about $400,000 swings I can post about $5000 swings. Besides, right around when I stopped posting actual numbers I started my downswing. So here it is, I won $451 in 5 hours, 28 BB or 6.76 BB per hour. Good win rate, I will take it. Now I hope to repeat that in the bigger game on Tuesday.

Us poker players are pretty funny about being superstitious. I am no different. I always play with something orange on. Maybe I will copy Johnny Chan and start to play with an actual orange in front of me, not. I will stick with the same clothes while I am winning, and change them when I am not. I always wear the same sunglasses, and will take them off and on during a session to change my luck. I have a lot more but that list will suffice for now. Something an overeducated person like myself, who knows better, just should not do or believe in, but I do and I actually think it is funny. At least I can laugh about it. I get a kick out of other poker player superstitions as well. If you have one post it here, love to hear them.

I hope you are all winning and will talk to you again soon as I will make my re-appearance down at the Muck tomorrow. SJ