Pokah

Went to Harrahs once again on Tuesday. Played in the one o'clock tournament. This tournament is really a turbo tourney that morphs into a super turbo towards the end. The blinds are 25/25 to start and increase to 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400/ 400/800/, 500/1000. You start with T2000.

First hand I am dealt Ac2c on the button. Limper and a 3x blind raiser. I call and four of us see the flop. Flop comes KcQs4c. The small blind bets 100. Original raiser bumps it to 300. I flat and the small blind comes along. The turn is the beautiful 3 of clubs. Someone told me clubs always get there. The small blind then bets out 300. The original raiser calls and I bump it 600 more. SB calls and OR goes away. River brings another 3 and I decide to check it here. The small blind shows a queen and I win.

Two hands later I see a five handed raised flop with 55. Someone told me presto always wins. The flop brings Kd5dQc. Bingo. Action flop if I ever saw one. Now the original small blind from the first hand leads out. Two callers and I just flat. Turn is a beautiful 4c. The raiser bets enough to basically pot commit himself and the others go away. I move all in and he reluctantly calls saying it might be an early tournament. He flips over Q7 of diamonds. The river brings the 4 of diamonds. The guy pumps his fist and starts to take his seat he had stood up from. The dealer announces full house and the dude deflates. Been there done that.

I take out another player and hit the break with 10K. That is usually enough to get you to the final table. 40 runners and all. I do make it and go just card dead. I bubbled it. Oh well.

I went to the bar and played a little video poker. Hit quads a couple of times. Four to the royal a bunch of times. Lost $20. My buddy was sitting at a cash game. It was early yet so I decided to sit down at a different table. I grind it out for about an hour. Nothing going on really. I get 65os under the gun. Now this is usually an easy throw away hand. But, I decided to play it for fun. It is kind of my hand and the table had been limping a lot. Of course the player next to me makes it $12. We are playing 1/2. Four callers around to me, sooooo... I call. Flop comes gin!!!! 423 with two spades. Big blind checks. I check the nuts to the raiser and he puts in $15 more. One fold and then a player wakes up and makes a healthy raise to $55. A fold and the big blinds flats. I think and then push for about $130. The original raiser fold whilst muttering to himself. The re-raiser pushes. The big blind thinks for a while and finally calls. The turn comes the Qc and the river was the 9d. The big blind shows a set of 4's. The other guy had a set of 2's. I drag the biggest cash game pot in my life. $400 or so. The pre flop raiser had QQ. If the fireworks could have waited a round, I would have gotten his chips as well.

Just as I am dragging this pot, my buddy comes over and says he busted. KK vs. AA. I say I want to play a little longer. Would have felt bad about leaving after that.

A while later I call a $7 multi way pot with QTos Flop comes KdJd4c. I call a c bet of $11. The turn is the 9c. Bingo. I bet $60. Now I get called by one of the worst players I had seen in quite some time. I was in a small hand with him earlier where he called down my bets with second pair on an ace high board. A hand where I had raise pre flop. He had KJ. Jack no good. Anyway, his call could be anything. The big blind, after some deliberation, comes along as well. The river is a nasty Qd. I check. The bad player says to his table mates something about playing bad and pushes in his last $26. The big blind folds, thank goodness. I make a crying call. He asks me if I have anything good. What? Of course I do. I have a straight. He flips over AQ no diamond. He says he was working on a straight as well. Really. $60 on that board? I was kicking myself because I had to go. He reloaded for $300 more. Which you can't do at a 1/2 table, but no one objected. I wish I could have stayed until he busted. But I ended my session up $500. By far my biggest cash win ever.

I go to find my buddy and he is siting at his seat again. Wait a minute. He went bust. While he was waiting for me he sat down at an empty table near his and talked on the phone. The dealer from his bust out came by and told him the $40 at his seat was his. Turns out he had the other guy covered. The dealer just thought he was cooling down. He ran that up to $120. Not bad for a guy that thought he bust.

I played in my home game that night. I go up and down and end up losing with 45os on a A45 board. One guy had A5 the other has 23. Oh well. I rebuy later and have KJ. Raise it to $2.50. It is a .25/.50 game. Flop comes QJ4 heads up with the big blind. He is a loose guy. I make it the pot. He flats. The turn is an ace. I make it 3/4 the pot, he flats. I play with him all the time and I am almost positive I am good still. He will call down with bottom pair a lot. The river is a king. He comes alive and I make the crying call with two pair. It was $6. He flips over T2os. I as so pissed. He then starts to talk to me and defend his play. I was a little drunk and angry. I told him to shut up twice. Just horrible.

Still up for the day. Can't complain.

Where is Dave Lozo

If you have been extremely bored and/or extremely anal, you may have noticed a link for Lozo on my blog role. That link used to direct you to his blog. It was funny and did it's job of filling my days with interesting topics. For instance, he had post's dedicated to how to take a dump. Or how to masturbate. He even showed many pictures of the same thing. A miss spelled electronic sign on the New Jersey turnpike. It stayed that way for over a year.

Anyhoo. He still has a blog, but you have to get invited to read. How does one do that.

DAVE!!! DAVE!! Hey DAVE!!!! DAVE LOZO!!!!! Invite me please

Every Time

I do not know why I torture myself. I keep playing on Full effin Tilt. I am trading in my points and taking a stab at the steps. I ended badly for me today. Early position limper and small blind completes. I have AA in the big blind. raise it three times the blind, which is good for about 1/5 of my stack and the limper's stack. He instant smooth calls me and the small blind goes away. Flop is Q85 with two clubs. I bet 3/4 the pot. Limper min raises and I push in. He insta calls and has..................Q5 of hearts. Really? Limping with Q5 in early position with everybody left to act behind you. Fucking brilliant. Obviously I am playing this game wrong. That play makes all the money. UGGGGGHHHHHH Good Grief.

I can not win on Full Tilt. I do not get it. I play on Cake poker and do just fine. I play one tournament and cash about %40 of the time. Just do not know how to get my money man. Wheres my money man. Give me my money.

And it seems that everyone I know or read has the same experience on Full Tilt. Where is all the money fucking going? Huh? Where?

I blame Howard Lederer. He is lucky I am a sissy or I would kick his ass.

Maybe I will pick a fight with his sister.

Gotta go catch a plane

See Ya

The Boy

So last night was shower/bath night for the kids. The girl got the bath and the boy took the shower in my room. Now the boy is old enough to wash himself. So.. I set him up with a wash cloth and body wash. I told him to get all the important parts. His butt, bits and pieces and make sure he gets behind his testicles. And he says to me, "my whaticles". Bout lost it. Kids are hilarious.

Answers

Ok.

I thought for a few seconds and just decided to call the river bet. He had woken up hard when the ace of spades hit. I thought he had the better flush. In retrospect, if he had made the nuts he most likely checks or bets smaller there. But, when he did not slow down on the river, I figured he had it. Though for $50 more I just should have pushed it. I made my hand and should play it. If we were deep stacked, I think I play it the way I did though.

Any guess to what he had? It was not a set. I think the set check raises the flop. It was not two pair. It wasn't even a big ace. Nope he had J8os. He was representing the flush or ace on the turn with a gutty to the non nutty. That is why he kept betting, he made the 30th nuts or whatever it is.

He told me I should have raised and then says I would not have gotten any more money out of him. Maybe, I don't know. I guess I got all the money I was gonna get. Probably not though. I agree with the comments, he was committed.

Over all my play at the casinos needs help. I think it is the stakes. I can afford to lose it, I just do not usually play for a $200 buy in. I always see the monster hiding in the closet. If I had read this hand on another blog, I would have said ship it. I should have, intuitively and mathematically. I play this hand at may home game, .25/.50 game and I am all in all the time.

Thanks for the thoughts

Another hand Question

At Harrahs this time. 1/2 game.

I am in the Small blind with Q8 spades. Cut off limps. Button limps. I complete and the big blind checks. Flop comes Ts 7s 3h. The cut off bets out $10. The button folds, I call and the big blind instant calls. The turn brings the ace of spades. Cut off checks. Now I check because I want to see what the big blind is going to do. He immediately bets out $30 into the pot. The cut off folds and I call fast hopping to give off the draw feel. The river is the 9 of hearts. I check again and the big blind bets out $50. He has $50 behind and I have him covered. What do you do here?

Hand Question.

Let me take this time to say hello to my loyal reader. I am back

I went to the Ameristar Casino in KC recently with three buddies. Three of us got on the same table, it was a 1/2 table. Justin was short and bought in for $50. John and I had full stacks of $200.

John is by far the most aggressive of the three of us. We are playing for an hour or so and I have not dragged a pot. I am in the eight seat. Justin, in the five seat, is doing the only thing he can and waiting on a monster to double up. John had lost two buy ins with flopped top and bottom pair to top two pair. Top pair to rivered flush draw that was getting zero odds to call flop and turn pot sized bets. TT to AK on next hand all in when guy next to me thinks John is just steaming and pushes pre flop. King on the river. John is in the two seat.

Ok, the hand. I am in the big blind and look down at AKos. One limper to John who promptly raises it to $15. Like I said he is the most aggressive person at the table. I have seen him raise KQos. He bets his draws hard. Folds around to Justin who promptly puts his $60 all in. John make a sound like he can't believe it is happening again.

What do I do? I want to play this hand. John's range is any pair or KQ or better. I know Justin has a monster. AQs at the very worst. I do not like him for AA or KK due to my holding. I think for a while and decide that I either have to fold or push my $170. My thinking is John does not have AA or KK either, mostly because of his reaction to Justin's move all in, and I have to give him a chance to fold. If I just call, he could move all in and I have to fold. So I push. I figure it is good for Justin too. I protect his hand. John folds his QQ face up in disgust. Justin flips over QQ. Flop comes all non face cards but the board goes runner runner diamonds to give me the better flush with king high to Justin's queen.

The ride home was fun. John said I made a tournament move. He never explained it but I think he meant that I did not try to extract value from my hand. My thinking is that AK is not a made hand and plays better against one opponent than two. Justin said I had to know I was beat there. I told him that I knew he was strong but I discounted AA and KK. Anything else was basically a coin flip and he did not have enough money to get me out of the pot. I will flip AK for $60. If I double him up, good for him. Anyway, I saved John some money because his QQ was no good either. If I had just folded, he would have lost to Justin on the flush and been ever more steamed. John dropped $700 that day. He is running so bad. His bankroll was over $8000 a month ago and now it is down under $4000. I can only imagine the super monkey tilt he would have gone on if QQ went down to QQ. So in a way, I saved his bank roll.

Did I play it right? John and Justin do not think I did. You?