In seven sessions this month, I've lost my January profit and a third of my newly established online bankroll playing in the piddly no-limit cash games on Full Tilt. To make matters worse, I haven't received my rakeback payment for January and their support emails must be forwarded into oblivion - they don't respond.

The other night, I decided I should take a break from the cash games and try out a tournament or two. I primarily was playing the cash games for the rakeback and because you can get up whenever you want, but I'm not receiving my payment and I had some time, so I figured I might as well play the format that is more enjoyable to me. More importantly, sometimes it seems harder to snap a losing streak when you go back to the tables with your last losing session fresh in your mind - a part of you just expects to lose. I didn't feel that way at all when I bought in to the two 18-person tournaments.

I set my custom filter to show me only 2-table sit-n-go tournaments with a buy-in from $1 to $10, with no crazy extra stuff (like "turbo" or "short-handed" and the like). There were surprisingly few tournaments available, but they appeared to fill up relatively quickly and new ones were posted when the current ones filled up.

The first one I found was for a $2.00 + $0.25 buy-in, which is a bit under what my bankroll allows, but whatever. I end up raising and missing a few times and make a bad river call with a weak kicker, so I'm pretty short-stacked. The blinds are still reasonable, so I play super conservatively, steal some blinds, and hit some flops to put myself back in the running. I end in 4th after losing to a flush draw after getting all my chips in on the turn. Profit = $1.25.

The second tournament, which I started just a few minutes after the first one was for $5.00 + $0.50 - big money (hah). I hit a couple good hands and call somebody down early on to take a huge chip lead, but I wasn't able to do anything with it, so I ended up becoming average once the second table broke. I managed to flop a straight and triple up, leaving only 4 players, so I rode into heads-up pretty easily. The heads up match was crazy. We folded back and forth, and then I ended up making a terrible call with middle pair, which put me down to a 10-to-1 chip dog. I magically doubled up twice, and it was a game again. I became a 2-1 leader, got my opponent all in with my AK and lost, and then lost again with a pocket pair to finish 2nd. Profit = $21.50.

So I finally managed to make a profit... Now I'm wondering if it's the change of scenery or if I'm just better at two-table tournaments. More experiments to come.

I played in a "high roller" tournament this weekend and I got smashed. Kind of. I guess.

"Cash" Game

We played some dollar Hold'em before the tournament started and I got KK, KK, AA, and AA. My aces and kings each got cracked once, but I got out $10 ahead. Very nice!

Flashes of Brilliance (or Stupidity?)

Relatively early in the tournament I had seen a few good hands and played them pretty aggressively. That included another KK that managed to win. I had almost double up my starting chips when this hand went down.

Kyle, who was two to my right, had been raising a fair amount of hands, but showed good cards - when he showed, of course ;) I get pocket threes in early position and go for the limp. A couple others limp in and Kyle raises from the big blind. My brain interpreted it at the time as a "get the heck out of here bet", so I was disinclined to acquiesce, as the say. I think the raise was a bit high (there were 3 limpers so that would be a good play), but I might have just been trying to give myself a reason to call.

The flop is J76, rainbow. Kyle bets out without much thought. I can't remember how large in relation to the flop, but it was hefty. Probably not an overbet, but something triggered that made me consider calling. I guess I really didn't think he had AJ (and certainly not a worse J, 7, or 6). He could have had a pocket pair, but I would expect a check from the big blind with a small pocket pair, which reduces the chance of that.

The turn is another J, and he fires another round. Now I really don't think he has a jack, and it still seems like he really really wants me to fold. I realize that by calling here, I'm probably going to end up putting the rest in on the river. So I call. Huh? I'm pretty sure a raise would be the right play here, folks. If he has that smaller pocket pair I'm worried about, I might get him to go away. If he's bluffing with a good ace, I can make him pay for his draw. And if he has me beat, I had already decided I was probably calling anyway.

The river is a queen, which I dislike very much, he goes all in, and I call. He utters my favorite phrase, which is especially gratifying when your opponent has yet to see your cards: "You got me." He turns over AK.

I've folded and not raised many times when my gut says to do the opposite, and I try to follow my intuition when I'm not accidentally ignoring it. I think this was one of those times. I just hope it wasn't primarily me being stubborn.

Big Phil's Big Hands

I don't remember the details of these hands - I had to purge them from my memory. In both scenarios, Phil checked and let me do the betting until he went all in on the river. Ugh.

TT

The flop is AAT and I have a ten. At least I folded on the river this hand.

Q8

The flop is QQ8 and I have 99 (or TT-JJ - can't remember).

These hands were in quick succession, and the real killer is that he double up the money that I gave him on the first hand, which means he quadrupled his money on that just off of me! I'm glad I had a decent stack, because now I'm back down to what I started with.

Done

Brian and I had just Voltronned to take Zac out (my flopped set lost to Zac's 4-flush which lost to Brians nut 4-flush), so we were at 4 players. We were in the money, the blinds were hefty (2500/5000), and my stack was not (40k), and the average stack was 120k, so I decided it was really time to get moving.

I looked down at AKd - such a beautiful hand. Brian was to my right and limped in under the gun. i knew Brian would call me with any two cards that he would limp in with since he was the chip leader, so I went all in. Brian said "it's probably 60/40" and called.

The window card was a Kh, so I'm feeling great. The next two are the ten and eight of diamonds. I have the nut flush draw and top pair, top kicker - seems good. Of course, Brian's my friend, so I call out for the nine of diamonds, just for fun (har har). Perhaps I shouldn't do that... Brian turned the nuts (straight flush to the J) and that was it for me.

Final Note

I think I'd rather lose to mega hands like that. It almost feels like it was meant to be that way. Ah well.

My 2008 Poker Goals. I'm going to grade myself on each goal.

Bankroll - B

Establish a bankroll and stick to it.

I did not set up a live game bank roll, but I have been playing on Full Tilt, treating my original deposit as a bank roll. I've been using strict rules - I can only buy in for a maximum of one twentieth of my bankroll for cash games and one fortieth or less for a tournament.

Most casual players don't have a bankroll, much less play within it, so this is a good start. I need to establish a live game bankroll, especially considering I'm off to Vegas in March.

Online - B

Sign up for an online account with rakeback and play/track at least 20 hours a month.

I finally signed up for Full Tilt in January - I had paid my friend to transfer funds to me in October! I only played 10 hours, but I increased my bankroll by slightly over 10% in this time. I spent 9 of those hours playing cash games, seeing an average of 240 hands per hour playing 4-6 tables.

I accrued as rakeback equal to ~4% of my bankroll, so overall I increased my account balance by just under 16%. That seems pretty good to me.

I need to play more! I haven't logged any hours for February yet :/

Big Tourney - F

Attend one 100+ player tournament per month.

The closest I got was a 34-player tournament. That was the last league tournament before we got busted.

I need to pick a Sunday to play at Lucky Chances and put it on my calendar or this just isn't going to happen. Does anybody know of any other relatively big tournaments around here with good blind structures and no crazy rebuy/addon stuff?

Think Tank - C

Regularly meet with like-minded people and discuss goals, strategy, etc.

I regularly talk strategy with people, but the spirit of this goal was not fulfilled. I need to help schedule meetings for the strategy group I participate in.

Books - B

Read and take notes on a book a month.

I finished "Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume One" and "Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells" and have started "The Psychology of Poker", but have not taken any notes. I also purchased "Kill Phil" and "Kill Everyone".

I need to take notes.

Fun - A

Continue playing enough hours of fun poker.

Our Meetup group got busted, but I managed to find some new games and play with some old friends. It has been a terrible situation, but I hope we have grown stronger from it. I also managed to play a couple games after hours at work, which we haven't done for far too long.

Summary

Grades: B, B, F, C, B, A

I'll call it a B-. I've made good progress - better than I would have if I didn't set up these goals in the first place. I hope I can do better next month.

So I haven't played much poker lately and I have been sad. Rock Band can only help so much...

Well, we put together a quick 8-man tournament after working late tonight. We bought the beer, our work bought the pizza and threw in a big gift card for first place. Nice. I set up the blinds to be fairly friendly and we allowed a rebuy for the first two people who got knocked out.

I played a few early hands and got burnt a bit, but picked up a few smaller pots to get back to even. I called my opponent's QQ, 99, and Ax in three consecutive hands - and was behind each time :p

Let me go on a tangent here for a bit. A few of the players at this game play overrate some hands and tend to call more than they should, so the action is pretty good. It wasn't long before both the rebuys were used up. One player went out on middle pair with K6 :p You know who you are! Heh.

Ethan, who everybody knows plays very conservatively gets knocked out by Adrian, who has amassed the chip lead by taking some pretty substantial pots. You know, like raising preflop with 57c, raising the bettor when the flop comes K72, and then catching another 7 on the turn - the usual. It turns out Ethan's pockets Jacks can't take down the rivered flush, and he's out.

I pick up pocket tens and see a min-raise and two calls. I go all in, and both people call. Wow. That's not good. It turns out they have A9o and Q7o. Nice! Franco flips the flop out, and the first card is a ten. Thanks, Franco!

I fold for a while and pick up pocket tens again. Nio makes a small raise, Adrian calls (I figure he's got a blah drawing hand), so I raise all in again. Nio quickly calls and thanks me for pushing all in. Adrian folds pretty quickly - it's hard to over-call against a guy who's so happy. Nio flips over KK - ouch. Turns out, Franco, my favorite dealer, gives me a ten on the flop again for the win!

Now it's down to me and Adrian, and I have a few more bucks then he does. Nothing too special here - I get better hands and better flops and I am able to slow play and sucker-bet him for most of his stack. He doubles up on me when I have 10 times more than him and he has KT against my 54, but I drain most of his cash away again and then manage to dominate him on his final all in (QJs vs J3s).

That felt good. I haven't won a tourney in a while...

I'm so money and I don't even know it :p

I was 4-tabling cash games last night on Full Tilt for about 45 minutes and the way this hand played out just struck me as something you all might find enjoyable.

I get KQd in the big blind and somebody in middle position makes a small raise. The button calls and I'm getting 4-to-1 odds here, so I put in. Both the players in the pot with me have about half of my stack.

Flop

The flop comes Jh, Ts, 9h - I flopped a straight :D

I was pretty happy here, but I'm not ecstatic that there are two hearts. I decide I'm not going to let somebody draw to their flush for free and bet half the pot. To my delight I get a call and a minimum raise. Considering I have the stone cold nuts, the only thing I'm worried about is getting more money in the pot. If my opponents had larger stacks, I'd also consider some pot control to make sure I can make them pay for their draw on the turn, but at this point any raise I make pretty much commits them no matter what.

I re-raise, they both call.

The shorter stack shows T9, with the ten of hearts. If I dodge two tens and two fours (and a runner-runner flush) I'm good. The larger stack shows AKc - huh? I guess he wanted to pay full price for a 3-outer gut-shot straight draw. Seems good to me.

I just threw these hands into an odds calculator just for fun and it says I'll lose after the flop one-third of the time against these hands. It seems like today was one of those 33 out of 100 times...

Turn

The turn is a small heart. A little scary, but whatever - even if another heart comes, I'll still get some of my money back off of the guy who went in with the AK.

River

If you're following along closely, you should know that the river was nothing other than the queen of hearts, of course!

Shock and Awe

Wow, I thought I was gold after they showed their hands, but boy was I wrong. Somehow I was able to laugh it off - maybe it's because I'm playing at stakes that my bankroll dwarfs and I can blame it on those odds and their crazy variance.

One sobering thought, though: according to the odds calculator, something like this should happen 33% of the time. That's more than I would have guessed without thinking about it much. It's funny to think that I probably wouldn't write about this hand the other two times I win it.

If you're just tuning in, check out this post to get the background info. This one and this one have links to more stories.

Here is another story that is buried in the comments that is pretty interesting, too. Seems like our snack fee was a drop in the bucket compared to this guy's setup.

Oh, and Ethan's latest blog post has the beginning of an interesting discussion on the actual legalities of poker in California.

Anyway...

That muckraker roommate of mine posted some information about our story on BoingBoing and boy did the traffic start rolling in. Check out the post here. If accessing the site was slow earlier today, sorry! There appears to be a ton of support for the group, which helps diminish my disappointment in not having a regular game to play.

In other news, a faithful reader known only as "dave" sent me the following links, which seem even more ridiculous than my story

thought you'd enjoy this tale of being popped by the cops in a card game that wasn't illegal....

http://lozo.blogspot.com/2007/11/sad-news-in-form-of-instant-message-my.html

and the follow-up a few days later....

http://lozo.blogspot.com/2007/12/bergen-county-prosecutor-john-l.html

and if you're going to raise out of the blind like that, you have to fire at the flop no matter what hits.

Thanks for the tip and the support :)

Update: I just got linked to on the Poker Players Alliance website.

Update: Here is my wrap-up post on this situation.

It seems that people have finally started posting coverage that isn't a complete rip-off of the press release. Check out this article from The Examiner.

Stephen found this thread in the 2+2 forums. Obviously, there is a ton of support there. Check out his blog, by the way. It's good stuff.

My roommate told me last night that we made it onto Reason.com here. Wow.

We can't forget Ken's Blog, either :) It seems he found this post. Yoink!

If you see anything else, please post a link in the comments. Thanks!