End of Year, On Vacation

I figured since I was finally on vacation I could find some time to post. The end of the year was just stupid busy at work. There was very little poker played and what was played was online, no live poker since my last post three weeks ago. Wow, I think I remember doing this last year at this time as well.

I did actually do one poker related thing while at work. I met with the owners and reps of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. They are looking to raise some money and actually came to Seattle to meet with a few people who they thought might be able to invest with them. Why they were in Seattle I really don't know. I could not think of one potential investor who would put any real money into their venture. They are looking for SERIOUS private money not pocket change stuff. The business I am in had a couple of crossover interests so I wanted to at least talk to them. I don't think it will get very far but the meeting was at least interesting. The lead guy in the UBT is Russ Hamilton(former WSOP champ.) who lead the meeting, and one of the poker player/investors/pitch person Annie Duke was also in the meeting. I had never met her in person and after reading and hearing much negative stuff about her I was pleasantly surprised to find out she was really nice and had a great personality. Now I only got to spend about two hours with them and her, but they seem like they are going to be successful, and they were all good people. I even tried out the product. You can play it on UB under the blackjack tab. It was pretty fun, but I sucked at the tournaments. I don't like pit games, and even though this is like poker, it is still blackjack. Hope they do well. I will let you know if we end up doing any business with them.

As for poker, I will get back to it the 2nd week of January. I am also planning on taking a trip to LA in early February to the LA Poker Classic. I love the tournament, but the bigger games at the Commerce I am going to avoid for the most part. I had very little good happen in those games in 2006 and there is too much cheating going on in the $100/200 limit game. If the game gets really diluted with tournament players I may get in, but I think I will just play $40/80 or $60/120 down there this time and see how that goes.

I am glad 2006 is over, it was the least amount of poker I have played in over 10 years, and my results were pretty much break even all year. I hate to say that, I made no money in 2006. The one month that they ran a big game in Seattle, $150/$300 limit, I ran like a pig and got stuck all my profit for the year to that date. Then I spent the rest of the year not playing much after the WSOP or playing so low compared to the $150/300 game it really had no impact on profit or loss for the year.

I look forward to a much better 2007, and I hope you are all winning. I am not even playing on vacation. ALOHA and talk to you in 2007. SJ

Lower Limit Frustration

I have played two lower limit sessions this week at Parkers and have walked away frustrated both times. Neither one of them were big losses in fact last night it was a huge $15, but the sessions themselves were just painful. In these lower games $8/16 and $12/24 patience and discipline are key factors that go into the game. At these limits you are seeing many multi-way pots pre-flop, so not getting into trouble spots with weaker hands will pay off in the long run. I was lacking a little of the discipline but all in all I was happy with my pre-flop play. What was so frustrating was that I was not getting a lot of hands to play in position. I would look down at K,Q or AJ in 1st or 2nd position and have to muck them, but then in late when I could have played them in multi-way pots with position I could not find them. I was also not getting many big pairs or AK to play at all. Very tough to just sit there and watch.

When you are not getting a lot of good hands to play, the ones that you do play need to hold up. It was coming down to one pot where if a hand where I had a big pair or big A hit and I could hold I would win a decent amount for the night, of course those two pots went the wrong direction and turned a winner to a small loser. I also was playing after evening work events so I was not getting in as long a session as well, just little 3 hours sessions which I don't like. The hand that killed me the first night, which was typical swing session fashion, was I pick up Pocket KK's in 2nd position and raise, I get called in LP and then 3 bet from the button, blinds muck and I cap, both call and we take the flop off three ways. Flop came 10,10,7 rainbow. I bet out, get called in two spots, I am pretty sure I have the best hand, the guy in the middle could have the ten but the button cannot have it. The turn brings a 2, I check to get a read, and the middle player bets, the button calls and now I check raise. If he three bets I can either muck or call read dependent. He actually mucks right there and the button calls. Fade the river, nope, A on river. I bet out, putting him on QQ's or JJ's or lower pocket and bet for value, not putting him on naked A, to my surprise he just calls me and I ask you hit A huh? Yep he shows me AK and I lose the big pot, that's poker.

One of the cool things I do like about playing up at Parkers is all the new college age kids playing up there and seeing how they play. There are some good players up there today, I like the styles. They don't know me from boo, which is cool, they think I am just some older dude who just came in to play a little cards. I get to learn a bit and watch them as they may be in a bigger game when it counts latter on. All in all just some run of the mill poker session that went no where. Hope you are all winning and talk to you soon. Good luck to all the Bloggers and have fun down in Vegas this weekend, one the these trips I am going to make it. SJ

A Little Friday Poker

I got out last Friday to play just a little poker. I went down to the Muck to see what they had going. Unfortunately, not much. I put my name up for $10/20, a little $5/10 NL and the $20/40 game. I got into the $20/40 game first and just stayed there the whole night.

The game started full but because I got there late it started to breakdown almost the moment I sat down. That is not a bad thing as I would rather play short anyway, I just did not want the game to break. I pretty much went nowhere all night. Playing pretty tight and not wanting to make too many plays at pots. At this limit, you get a lot of people calling you down with weaker hands so you pretty much must turn over the nuts or a very good hand to win the pots. Not a whole lot of bluffing allowed.

Then as the game started to get real short 4 handed, we had a Christmas gift drop in our laps. A really drunk guy, who I had not played with before, but I guess is a regular on the weekends sat down. He was an absolute action junky, he had to raise and bet at every pot. His bold aggression started him out winning a few pots, but I adjusted to his game and just started to isolate 3 bet, and pound on him with what I knew to be stronger hands than his. We got down to 4 handed as one of the players just did not want to play with this guy, and I managed to pound on him and the other players sitting at the table. Turned into a good night.

One of the byproducts that an action player will bring to the table is that it will cause others to play hands and call down with weaker holdings than they would normally play. There was one player in particular, who I thought had a good game, that started to play very bad hands against the drunk and then played passively once in the pot. This is not a good strategy. The way I like to play them is to first of all try to seat to their immediate left, which I did. Then keep playing the hands that you would normally play short, but play them for 3 bets almost all the time to isolate. If the others want to call so be it but it will cost them some extra bets. Then just play aggressively post flop. If you flop what you think is the best hand just go to war with it. The drunk will try to out aggression you, don't let him do that. If you are reading ok, and use some basic probability to narrow holdings, you will end up on the right side of that equation at the end of the night. I do not adjust my preflop hands played much. He may steal a few more blinds or pots that are small, but when you catch him you will win the big pots because he can not lay a pair on a draw down, and will call you down with A high a lot.

The other thing that happens is that others will call you down with the same weak hands as they think you are just trying to push them out of the pots to get heads up with the drunk guy. If you keep your prefolp strategy strong you will catch them along the way as well.

All in all a pretty good night, ended up north of a dime but less than two. I have a pretty busy week this week so I will not be playing any higher limit this week. I may get in a low limit session at Parkers on Tuesday after the Sonics game for work. Hope you are all winning and talk to you soon..SJ