I just went off my "nerve pain" drugs. I was taking them because my fingers and toes sometimes have a diminished sensation and it is really annoying, causing me to lose sleep, etc. I was only on the meds for a month, and I plateaued and started feeling the diminished sensation again. BTW, how funny is that - I started "feeling" less sensation. Hah!

Anyway, so lately I've been feeling weird. Weird dreams. Vertigo. Hard time concentrating... I started Googling, and it turns out this should be expected. The drug I was taking also happens to have some antidepressant effects, which seemed good, considering my RSI symptoms and diminished sensations in my extremities don't exactly make me ecstatic.

Here is one article. Another article I read even talked about brain zaps. It's really weird. The doctor didn't tell me about this before I started taking the pills :(

Hopefully my brain doesn't go zap when I'm playing poker tonight...

One of the guys I play with frequently has been on a good roll. He's won and placed high in almost every game he's played lately, and he almost always has a big chip stack. It would start to get annoying, but he's a great player and a funny guy, so we live with it :)

I played tonight in the $25 rebuy game, which is usually pretty crazy during the rebuy period, but it wasn't so crazy this time around with only 10 people.

Early Stages

I chased some questionable draws early on and lost about 10-20% of my stack (doh). I flopped a set and smooth-called a re-raise from a tight player, but pushed on the turn when draws came out (he folded). I turned a flush in position against a turned straight and my opponent went all in on the river. I flopped a flush against a flopped two pair and he called my all in on the river, even though his two pair was counterfeited (whew!) - same guy who folded his supposed overpair to my set. And I rivered a straight against someone who gave me odds :) So I was doing well. I coasted into the top 4, but only the top 4 with 30% of the chips, but only the top 3 get money...

My Last Hand

My opponent, the steamroller, had about the same chips as me, so we've been staying away from each other. We have stolen blinds here and there and tried to team up to kill the shorts. I go for a steal from the button with by raising the blinds 3 or 4 times. The steamroller calls (uh oh) and the tight player folds.

The flop is . This seems mostly good for me, but my opponent bets out about 75% of the flop. I first consider raising all in, but decided he probably had me beat, and was willing to call a 2x pot sized bet. I'm guessing I have 14 outs, so I call. I really didn't want to play a big pot against the other chip leader, so I decided pot odds or no, if I didn't make my hand on the turn, I was out. Of course, the turn is the !

My opponent bets 80% of his remaining stack, which is essentially all in. I raise the rest in. He calls and shows , which seems completely reasonable.

The river of death is the . Oops!

What Would You Do?

Should I have just folded pre-flop? Obviously, in retrospect, but based on that flop and turn, would you do the same thing? I like to think it was right - I had a 90% chance of all but locking up the game on that turn.

Thanks

Thanks again for a great game, everybody. I had a few suckouts, so what goes around comes around :p

I haven't posted in a while, so I'm taking a few moments to write about the games I played this weekend. I haven't played this much poker all at once for a very long time (aside from Vegas, which is different). I have a couple other blog posts in the works, including my Vegas wrap-up, but the longer I wait, the less details I remember, so let's get to it.

Friday

I played in a regular every-other-week game at Dub's. This is a great group of people who play well and have a lot of fun doing so. We start out with 20k in chips, 25/50 blinds, and 12 people at the table, so the dynamics are unusual and it has taken me a couple tries to get used to it. I still don't have a great strategy, but at least I'm not shooting in the dark.

Queens

This night was all about Queens. They were there on almost every flop. People tripped up with their pocket queens four times. It was nuts. So, of course, when I get my , it's a foregone conclusion in my mind that I will be taking down this pot. I get into it with Yasko, who won a large pot against me with his trip queens and another decent pot earlier with his second trip queens. I raise, Yasko and another call. The flop is and Yasko makes a sucker bet of one tenth the pot, so I shove since I have him covered 4 to 1 or so. He does indeed have the ten, but I say not to worry, the queen is coming. The turn is the and somebody said they folded their ten, so that ends it.

Not long after that, I raise it up from late position with and accidentally take Art out when he wakes up with in the big blind. Lame, but I guess it's luck-sack city for me tonight.

Not much else happens. I made a questionable play with my pocket eights and lose half my stack. I should have raised more preflop, bet less post flop, or folded to the raise. Three chances to not screw up, but alas, I screwed up. I played tight but the blinds grew large and I finally made a play in a heads up pot with middle pair. Dub called me with his middle pair and ace kicker. Oops! Out in fifth, but I manage to get away with minor injuries after collecting 3 bounties. Congrats to Dub for taking it down.

Early Saturday

Another game at Dub's, but this one is worth double points on the leaderboard. I am fortunate enough to pick up AA, AA, AA, KK, and KK (as well as about 5 other pocket pairs) over the course of the early to mid game, and there are a lot of limpers with decent blinds, so I take down some big uncontested pots and some huge pots where I'm substantially in the lead with all the chips in. Due to my very lucky streak of big hands, I build up a substantial stack

Return of the Queens

I'm not proud of this next one... I limp in on the button or so with and we see the flop 4-ways. It's . Salty, in the small blind, bets, JP in the big blind raises, and I smooth call. Salty re-raises all-in, JP goes all in on top of that, and I'm left to decide. I decide Salty has the pocket deuces and hope JP was going for isolation with a mid pocket pair, but I think that was just a way to convince myself to call... I did have a ton of chips, but I really should have laid it down. What am I beating? or a pocket pair that's not 2s. Well, I call and JP shows the deuces and Salty shows the . Ugh. Turn , river , for the split. Oh man. Yet another terrible beat laid out by yours truly. Salty wasn't feeling so salty, either :)

Conclusion

I ride the chip lead until the blinds go nuts, and manage to double up 3 short stacks in coin flip situations. I guess what goes around comes around. I still manage to fold out and steal some blinds to get 3rd place, so I scooped a few more bounties and an actual paid spot.

Props to Yvonne for not realizing she had a King-high straight flush against Kristi's full house. Good thing she folded it face up :p

!!! To San Jose!

I got out of Dub's at about 6:45pm and had to give Buddha (my cat) his medicine before I headed to San Jose for a 7pm tournament. I let them know I'll be late, and show up in the middle of the second round. I proceeded to get AA two more times and KK three more times, as well as QQ, JJ, and some other pocket pairs. What a day!

Steph the Wrecker

I'm SB, Steph is BB, and Dave is UTG. Dave calls (or min raises), everybody else folds, so I call with my and Steph checks.

The flop is . I check, Steph checks, Dave bets a modest bet, which I take to be a stab, so I call, and then Steph calls. I didn't expect that, as she has been playing very tight and I figured she'd bet if she had something. I put her on the flush draw.

The turn is the . I check, Steph instantly goes all in, Dave folds, and it's on me. At this point, the pot is about 8k, and Steph bet only about 2k. I have about 7k in my stack, so the 2k is a lot to me, even though it's such a small fraction of the total pot. I can't figure out if she'd make that move without the flush or a high king, but it doesn't seem like she would. I grudgingly fold.

Later she claims she had . I'm not sure if I completely believe her, but if she did - damn!

Conclusion

Fold, fold, fold, make a play, make a play, fold, fold, get caught making a play, fold even more, steal some blinds, etc. etc. I last to the top 4 and get all in against the chip leader with my against his . I lose, which seems just, considering the weekend I've had thus far. I have to play the short stack along with Bert, but I manage to squeak in to 3rd place, as Bert busts out a couple hands before I do. Yoink!

Cash

I sat down at the cash game for a bit to hang out. My cousin was playing and I figured I'd wait for him to double up or lose it before we left. I only buy in for $5, figuring I won't get into much. My first hand, in the BB, I see - a hand that I have had a good relationship with in the past. I limp in, only to be raised and re-raised, so I figure "whatever" and put my $5 in. I hit a 2 and the board is all over the place. Everybody checks it down, and the deuces prevail! Next hand I pick up and face a large raise folded to me. What to do other than re-raise all in? Pocket tens call and I spike the K on the turn, of course. I don't get into much after that and the game breaks up a while later.

Thanks

Thanks to the great hosts (Dub and Darren) and all of the fun players this weekend.

I stole Stephen's laptop, so this one is quick. We woke up around 11, got some yummy foods, and got to the Wynn. Evidently I have forgotten how to play live poker, so I sucked it up for a while. I lost my first $200 and had to rebuy for another $300. Jeff moved to my table so I moved closer to him and got in a better mood and I think I started playing a bit better.

I had a string of good hands that weren't paying off, but I made some money with AK finally (after 4 previous attempts). I picked up and limped in UTG. A guy who had been playing a lot of pots and makes huge overbets raised 4x the BB, so I reraised 20 more, trying to look "strong". He thought for a bit and went all in with . He caught an open-ender on the flop and missed, so I was almost back to my $500.

So, what the hell happened, right?

I get on the button and everybody folds to me. I limp, the SB calls, the BB checks. The flop is ! The SB bets 6, the BB raises to 12, I smooth-call, the SB raises 60 more, the BB calls, and I decide to smooth call again.

The turn is a , so that's great. They both check to me, so I bet $120. The SB folds and the BB calls. The river is a - not what I wanted to see. The BB goes all in and I grudgingly call with $150 or so more into the $650 pot. He shows and sends me packing. Evidently the SB folded - a great fold.

After discussing it with Jeff and Stephen, I think I should have re-raised on the flop. Let the sets commit and hope the board doesn't pair, and if I'm up against a flush, they'll hopefully go with me. Jeff mentioned a flush might even read my pre-flop 3-bet re-raise as taking advantage of the previous bettors looking week (bet 6 then just 6 more). They know the player who ended up felting me, and said he'd probably give up his at that point.

Had the club not come, I would have about $700 in front of me instead of zero :/

UGH

1. I forgot my sunglasses in Ethan's car
2. My plane is delayed over 1.5 hours, and I always get to the airport early
3. Internet at SFO costs $10 - what a rip
4. I took a big swig of Limoncello before I left and now I have a headache
5. There is a whining baby sitting relatively close to me and there is nowhere good to move to
6. I put my laptop charger in my suitcase, cuz why would I need it?!

I did eat at In-N-Out and got some more stickers for my suitcase, so that's good. I'm also currently playing 2 micro-limit NL tables while I wait. I busted out of two tournaments, so now I'm trying to grind that loss and the internet fee back... So far, I'm ahead $15. :p I've had more pocket pairs than I know what to do with, and I've flopped trips three times (got full stacks twice) and rivered trips once. Nice.

Now I'm getting picked up at LAS at 12:30am and still going straight to the Venetian for some 1/2 NL action :D

Last night I finally spent some time relaxing. I watched a Poker After Dark episode and then channel surfed for a bit before it was time to get to work. Packing and preparing to leave Buddha while I'm in Vegas is always a pain. But I managed to squeeze in two sit-n-go tournaments to warm up for Vegas :)

#1

The first was a $2+0.25 two-table game. I took an early chip lead after I check-raised all in with a weak top pair and got called by an underpair with no draws. I spent a lot of time folding but lost most of my stack when I had and I didn't believe my opponent had an 8 when the board came . He actually had .

#2

The second tournament was a $5+0.50 single-table game. Again I folded a lot, and built my stack here and there. I ended up losing over half of it when my opponent flopped a well-disguised straight to my top pair which turned into two pair.

After that, my M was low, so it was time to go in with a relatively good hand into an unopened pot. I pick up and hope it folds around to me. It does, so I go all in. Unfortunately, the small blind has and calls. The board comes and I win :p

I continue to mostly fold, pick up a flush, and make it to the top 4. The top 3 get paid off, so it's bubble time. We all are about evenly stacked, so I decided to loosen up - my image was tight and people tighten up when they're on the bubble, so it seemed like the perfect time.

I steal a few blinds a couple hands in a row and then get in the big blind. The player to my left (same player I sucked out on above) limps in and the button and small blinds fold. I decide to check to disguise my hand.

The flop comes . I check, my opponent bets half the pot, but I don't buy it. He could have an 8 or 9 or a flush draw, but he is usually pretty aggressive in position pre-flop and he didn't raise, so I don't figure him for an ace or pocket pair. I call.

The turn is the . I check, and he bets the pot this time. I just call.

The river is the . I'm still pretty sure my hand is good, but I decide that if I'm right and I bet, he'll just fold to my value bet. However, if I check, he might try to bluff at it. I check, he goes all-in (for half the pot) and I call without hesitation. He shows .

As I'm writing this up, it seems like I could have been crushed many different ways... 2 diamonds, a flopped open-ended straight draw, or any 8. It's hard to convey the exact situation, but what it really came down to was my intuition. I need to figure out what precisely I picked up on so I can do that more frequently. Or maybe I was just stubborn and lucky.

I ended up taking 2nd after a good 10-minute heads-up session. I ran into pocket kings, clawed back to even, then put my money in good but lost when my opponent rivered a straight :/

I recently attended a tournament at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz. I try and do that when I'm visiting Megan. I've only played 3 times before this, and I've placed in the money all three times (1st, 2nd, and 4th for $1080 in profits).

The tournament is spread-limit Texas Hold'em, but it's pretty much no-limit, as it has only affected how much a person bet once that I've seen. Entry fee is $30, and there's an optional $20 rebuy, which can also be used as an add-on. Pretty much everybody in the tournament uses the rebuy/add-on. There are also alternate spots that usually are used.

The blinds start at 25/25 and take the usual progression (25/50, 50/75, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, etc.). Coupled with the rebuys, the fact that everybody starts with 500 gets the game going pretty fast.

This particular tournament had 36 entrants, 6 alternates, and in the end 41 rebuy/add-ons (!)

Prizes:

• 1st = $650
• 2nd = $450
• 3rd = $200
• 4th = $60
• 5th = $40

I started out playing pretty conservatively, and manged to lose most of my stack when I stood my ground with . I tripled up once, but ended up needing a rebuy after my lost to . Ugh. I rebought, played for a bit, and then started stealing blinds. I managed to steal some, double up some, and all of a sudden there were only 8 players left. Wow. I played pretty tightly, got sucked out, but then performed a suck-out of my own, and manged to get to 4 players left.

This is the hand that crippled me. Would you play it differently?

Dealer: 19k
Small Blind (500): 15k
Big Blind (1000): 19k (me) with
Under the Gun: 5k

Pre-flop

1. UTG: fold
2. B: raise to 3k
3. SB: fold
4. BB: call

Flop:

1. BB: check
2. B: check

Turn:

1. BB: Bet 8k
2. B: call

River:

1. BB: all in for 8k
2. B: call all in

The button had for the win!

Your Move

Would you play it this way? I figured if I flopped a set, I'd be gold, especially with that board. Were the odds worth making the pre-flop call? I'm starting to wonder...

My goal was to flop a set. I assumed I would get away from the hand if I didn't, unless my opponent truly was weak. So I put in 2000 into a 4500 pot - 2.25-to-1 pot odds. That means I need to win about 10k off my opponent after the flop to make my implied pot odds worth it. There's a good chance that my opponent wouldn't give me much action if I did manage to flop a set, so maybe I shouldn't have bothered trying.

The worst part is the guy who got 3rd only had 4k in chips when this hand went down :/ With that piece of information, any sane person would not chase a set with $140 pretty much guaranteed if they folded.

Math Time

I worked out some crazy math afterwards. What are the chances that I would lose set-over-set like this if I happened to flop a set?

There's about a 13% chance that at least one of my 3 opponents would have a pocket pair in any one time. The chance of flopping a set is about 13%. The chance of my opponent flopping a set is about 13%. That means there's about a 0.2% (1/500) chance of me and my opponent flopping a set. With a pocket pair of fives, that means I'll be on the losing side of that about 1/3rd of the time, which puts my chances at 1/1500.

Funny. Of course, I might lose to flush over flush or top-pair with a worse kicker. It's still fun to think about it.