Drop by Gas out

Not much going on. Chiefs blew it. San Diego Lost. Denver lost. All they had to do was beat the Raiders and they are playing for the the division next week in Denver. They had two field goals blocked. Does not really matter. Would have been creamed in the play offs even if they beat Denver.

Poker wise not much going on. Went to Ameristar last Thursday with Big Slick. We had to wait on a table so we played a little Pai Gow to pass the time. He had never played before so it was fun teaching him. He finally sits down and the first hand he gets the wheel with a pair of kings up top. Lucky bastard. I dropped about $60 there. Finally get our seats and I get dealt 33 first hand. I am in late middle position so I open raise after it is folded to me. Couple of callers see the flop 245 rainbow. I c-bet. One caller. The turn is gin 6h. Two hearts on the board. I bet $30. He calls. The river is the Jh. Not too scary but still completes the flush. I make it the same bet and he folds. The hand represented all my profit that day. Played four more hours and cashed out up $80. Up $20 for the day.

Slick finished up $300. He only played about an hour. He started having horrible stomach pains. He went and bought antacid. No help. We finally leave and he can barely talk on the way home. He was convinced it was his gall bladder after talking to a medical friend. He was going to go to Walgreens clinic. I talked him into going to a clinic with a real doctor. He calls me couple hours later and it was just bad gas. Haha. X-rays and $180 later he farted and all was better. He ended up $120 on the day.

Chiefs

Wow. I mean wow. Beat the Packers. I know the Packers were sleep walking through this game, but the Chiefs were DOA. What a statement by Romeo Crennel and Kyle Orton. Kind of mad at Scott Pioli for not pulling the trigger on Haley sooner. Might have made all the difference. I have not watched the Packers at all this season except for this game. They had huge problems on the offensive line and on defense in general today. The score does not accurately reflect the tenor of the game. The Chiefs offense owned the the Packer defense. Kansas City had it 1st and goal inside the five four times and came away with only nine points. Could and should have been much worse. Packers looked really beatable. I am going to chalk it up to one game and expect Green Bay to win out.

Again

Played again. Up $20 for four hours work. Yay me!!!

Couple of interesting things.

First was a spat between the 1 and 2 seats. I was in 4 and had a great view. The one seat was unhappy with how the two seat was playing. The two seat had shown down J5, 52, and another crappy hand I cannot remember. He had one with two of them. The one seat is a guy they call $50 Mike. He never buys in for more or less. He literaly only plays the nuts. AK is the worst hand he plays and he gets it in pre flop, hopes to get called and double up. Seat two called him down with AJ suited. Saying "you only play the nuts. I know I am behind, But, I will give you action.". Mike won but I guess this still miffed him. They argue back and forth. The two seat is by far the better player. He tried to steal a pot from me when I was betting the whole way. His line did not make sense so I called. He had ace high. Mike has no post flop game. Mike could not fathom why seat two was doing what he was doing. It was pretty funny to watch.

I get AA on the button. Don't you just love AA on the button? Begging for a pot building raise with multiple callers so you can take down a big pot uncontested. Under the gun raises to $15. Is there anything better the utg raising when you have AA on the button? Gets one caller, seat two. I pop it to $45. Utg says oh well I will give you action and puts it out there. Seat two mucks. Utg then turns his hand over and says good luck. The whole table says whoa what are you doing? He looks down at me and sees the one black chip, six red birds and a couple of singles. He cringes and says he thought I was all in. He has two red 8's. The flop is ten high no 8. I move in and he folds. Nice little pot.

Rules

I was playing at Ameristar yesterday. I put my name on the 1/2 list and sat down at a 4/8 limit game to pass the time. Was up a little and down a a little. An incident happened shortly before I left the table. The hand was normal until the right before the turn card. It was bet around and called around to the gentleman seated directly to my right. He was in the 8 seat. I was in the nine seat. As the eight seat was pondering a call, the dealer proceeded to burn and was pulling the turn card off the deck when the eight seat told her to wait, he had not acted. She put the card back on top of the deck. The ten seat immediately said he saw the turn card. Now here is the question. Is the card live still? I do not know what the rule in such a case s. The ten seat was not in the hand. It would have literally been a split second fix. Just as the ten seat said it was exposed, the eight seat said call. Now I know the eight seat did not see the card. I could not see it and I was watching. The one seat could not see it. Only the ten seat could see it, and he was not in the hand. I was not in the hand either. The floor was called. He had them expose the Kd to the whole table. Which was funny because after the floor made his decision and the turn had not yet been exposed, the ten seat declared it to be the Qh. The river was then burned and turned. The Kd was then shuffled into the deck and one card was taken off the top to complete the hand.

I am wondering if this was handled properly? I guess the answer would be collusion. If the ten were in cahoots with a player in the hand, it might make sense. It seems to me he just keeps his mouth shut and move on. If he were in the hand, sure.

Life

I live in Lawrence Kansas. Lawrence is basically an extended suburb of the greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. One of the neat things about living in Lawrence is our television situation. We are about twenty five minutes from Topeka and forty minutes from Kansas City. Therefore, we get to double dip. Two of each major network, except Fox. This is useful mostly in regards to sporting events. Many times we have four different choices for the NFL or college football.

My wife and I have great friends who live in Olathe Kansas. They were both in our wedding. We have gone on many vacations together. We have been there for the births of our respective children. I go to Vegas with Troy every year. We are close. Jana is an executive producer at Fox 4 in Kansas City. Most of you outside the KC area are probably not aware that the morning weather anchor, Don Harman, took his own life last Tuesday evening. It has impacted the greater Kansas City area in a way that most could never understand. He was greatly loved. He will be missed. He was like a brother to Jana. His loss was no less to her than you or I losing our parent or spouse.

Every year, Troy and Jana, organize a Limo ride around Kansas City to see the inspiring and sometimes creepy light displays. If you get the chance, go see the Country Club Plaza in December. It is pretty cool. Anyway, our annual foray took place this last Saturday. They buried Don Friday. We showed up, left the kids with the sitter, and took off with six other couples. We had a great time. It was what the doctor ordered. At one point we ended up in a neighborhood bar that happened to cater to the gay community. It was some of the most fun I have had in quite some time. We tore up the dance floor and did numerous shots. It struck me as I watched Troy and Jana dancing on the dance floor that they would be more than good. They would be great. They were sad to be sure. But, I was witnessing healing. They were not only dancing, they were connecting. They were laying the foundations. They had lost a loved one, yes, but the break would heal stronger.

We got back to their house and I checked my email. I got an email I was dreading. A high school friend had passed. She had liver cancer. She left behind a husband and two young daughters. She was quite possibly the nicest person I have met. I can not think of one crappy thing she ever did. This is what her husband wrote:

Good Evening Everyone,

With the heaviest of hearts, I wanted to let everyone know that Megan passed away this evening (Sat 12/3) at 9:25pm CST.

Her final struggle was mercifully quick and as peaceful as one could hope for and her passing was no different than the way that she lived her life - completely immersed and surrounded with love. Her parents, her sister and I were with her until the very end. Within minutes, my Mom (who had flown in from Colorado) made it. The girls had a good hour earlier in the day to say goodbye and then came back for one last goodbye. She was also visited by Gina Taddiken when she brought the girls. So, in a way, everyone who has had a hand in helping us was there as well through Gina.

We know that Megan is now in a better place, no longer struggling against this horrible disease. However, we are still so very sad at the unbearable thought of not having the best wife/mommy around. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers that we have received thus far. They have and will continue to sustain us through this dark time.

As soon as I have information regarding the service, I will have it posted immediately.

Love to All,

Healing. Again. It is there in his message. I can feel it.

They are resilient. We are resilient.

Puts busted bullets and sinus infections in their place.

Maybe what was left in Pandoras box was what we needed.

Bullshit

Bullshit happening



I'm just some fucking guy.

AA AA AA

Went to Ameristar again to try my luck. Got there around 9:45 in the a.m. and got the last 1/2 seat. I thought I would play it safe for the first round and assess the table. The poker gods had other plans. Third hand in I pick up AA under the gun. I limp in. Now I usually would not do this but they have a busted bullets promotion and there were three left. Two guys to my left raises it to $11. Three callers back to me and I bump it to $45. The original raiser calls and the others go away. The flop is the innocuous 922. I bet out $75. The other dude instant raises. I move all in and he calls. Now there really is no thought to this at all because I have AA. If they are cracked, I get a $100 rebate from the promotion. I flip over my AA and he flips over. Wait for it. Wait for it. Fucking 92os. NO WAY. I am stunned. 99 I could handle. Maybe ever A2 suited. But 92 off suit. I lose of course and have $25 left. I ask him if he new it was coming. He looked at me straight faced and said the dealer was talking about the Montana. And once that happened there was no way he was folding. I told him straight faced that it made perfect sense. My end of the table laughed. I pressed him and asked if I moved in before the flop that he would call. He said yep. Guy next to me whispered "Moron.". Love that guy. And I guess the 92 is called the Montana Banana or something. I got my $100 rebate and played on.

It whittled down to $65 or so. Turns out I was seated directly right of the two biggest aggro dorks I had ever played. with. They bet and bet and bet. I picked up 77 in the big blind and we saw a cheap flop six ways. It flopped A 7 2. Gin. I check. Aggro dork directly left of me bets $11. Called in two place and I call as well. The turn is a 8. I love this board. I have to be getting paid by someone with an ace. I check. Aggro dork fires $15 at it. Folds to me and I move in. He calls and flips over two pair with 82. He played 82 under the gun. Love this guy. I get my double up back to $130 or so.

I get AA again in the small blind. This time no cracked bullets are left. Middle position semi aggro guy makes it $14 to go. It gets called in two other spots. I bump it to $100 flat. Folds around. Nice $45 pot no work.

Float a flop with the gutty. Get there on the turn. Win a nice little pot. Now I am up $25 on the day.

Get AA again. In the small blind again. I love AA in the blinds. Limped around in three places. I am still sitting next to super aggro donk. He had $600 in front when I sat down. That is gone now and he has reloaded $200 twice. He has been sucked out on and is steaming. I make a calculated risk and decide to limp here. I was checking him out in the peripheral and he seemed like he was going to bet. He did not. Damn. Hate 5 handed flops holding AA. Oh well gotta get away if it gets ugly. The flop comes 348 off suit. I check to see what he would do. He bet $22. Folds to me. I smooth call. I hate that flop with him in the big blind. It would have smacked him. I felt I could get a better read after the turn. The turn is a somewhat scary 7. No flush draw though. I check. He quickly puts out $50. I had been paying attention to his betting patterns. When he had a good hand, he always bet around %50 more than his flop bet which would be $33 here. This was an over bet for him and it screamed go away. I thought for a moment and announced all in for $90 on top. He instant called. SHIT. I am toast. He has two pair or some crappy 56. He pushes his chips in and flips over A8 os. Top pair top kicker. I sigh and flip mine over The river blanks and I am up to $350 or so. He soon melted completely down and lost to an old rock holding AA. OR bets. AD raises before the flop. OR calls. AD announces all in in the dark. Flop is A high. OR calls and shows the nuts.

Felt good to flop a set and win. Felt good to have AA hold up most the time.

Misfortune

Played twice in as many weeks. Lost a buy in each time. The first time was nothing special. Just a whole lot of second best and busted draw hands. Today was a bit different. I am up and down. Mostly down. Hovering around $90 or so. I get Qd9d in the big blind. I get a pass with five other players. The flop is Tc8c6h. I checks around to the button who makes is $5. I call with with double gutter as does a middle position player. The turn is the oh so lovely Jack of hearts. I check and the middle position player makes it $15. The button flats and I move in for around $70 more. The middle player tanks and finally calls. He was on a little heater and had over $500 in front. The button folds and the river bricks with a 5 of spades. The middle guy had Jc3c. I am over $200 now and feeling good. Very next hand I get KK. My first real playing hand in three hours. Folds to the button who makes it $5. This is a 1/2 game. I pop it to $15. The big blind folds and the button calls. T86 rainbow. I put him all in for $52 more. He thinks and says if he calls he is gambling. He finally gives the oh well call and the turn is another ten. The river bricks and he tables JT. I loved the call. Hated the outcome. Just when I though I was getting on a little heater. Six hands later I am under the gun with 55. I limp for $2. The guy next to me limps. Old dude one off the button makes it $10. Button call. I call. Set mining. The guy next to me wakes up and raises to $35 total. Uh oh. This is only one of two hands. AA or KK. I think. He may be trying to isolate the old guy who was giving away money. Old guy call. Button Calls. I make the crying $25 call with presto. The flop reveals the door card as the five of diamonds. Woot whoooooo. The other two cards were the ten of clubs and a fucking ace of diamonds. I check it to the raiser and he bets $50. Fold fold to me. I only have $100 left in front. What to do? What to do? My read was I was toast. He had AA for the set over set situation. I am not good enough. Or I do not play enough to have the discipline to fold here. I announce all in and push my stack in. He flashes me the bad news and asks me "Do you think I should call?" Damn no miracle AK here. I knew I was beat. In my bones I knew it, but was not good enough to throw away a set. No bad beat for me. Igh. Dejected. I either have to play this game a whole lot more or not at all. I think If I was a grinder I could easily fold that hand. I just only get to play twice a month at best and I can not stop myself.

Ameristar

I decided last night before bed that I was going to get up with the kids. Get them off to school and go and play poker. I live about an hour away form the nearest poker playing casino. I was getting up there once a week, but I had only been up there a handfull of times in the last six months. The construction of a new casino at Kansas Speedway is almost complete. It is only twenty five minutes away. My trips should increase February one when the Hollywood Casino is slated to open. But I digress.


Harrahs is about five minutes closer than the Ameristar. The Ameristar's bad beat is about a million dollars better than Harrahs. Based on the miniscule chance that I may win my share of $350,000, I chose the Ameristar. Its main and secondary jackpot both sit at $350,000. The tertiary jackpot is $240,000.

I show up and there is a 4/8 and a 3/6 limit game going. I put my name on the list for both and a 1/2 nl game. I get sat at the 1/2 game by 10 a.m. I went there today with the idea in mind that I would just be happy seeing flops. There is a Zen aspect to the game for me in that regard. I can look at flops all day sometimes and not be so result oriented. The upshot of this approach on this occasion was an extremely tight table image. I got crap for cards. I played some hands in the blinds and with suited connectors in late position. Nothing ever hit. I did not see a pair of AK in the first two hours. I had AQ once but had to lay it down pre flop to a raise and reraise. I finally get my first pair after two hours of basically folding and watching my $200 buy in fall to $140 or so. I look down to AA under the gun. Normally I would raise here, but I had not raised a hand or played past a flop in two hours. They all think I am a monster rock. They are all regulars. They know each other. I decide to limp raise. Only one caller and the button come along. The big blind had folded out of turn and went to smoke. Not horrible for AA. Also, I must tell you they have five Aces cracked every day. There were still three left, so I had that for back up. The flop was ten high. I bet at it small. $5. I do not know why. I think the obvious play here is to check call it down and hop someone catches up. I won the small pot. I do not like playing AA in no limit when there is an aces cracked promotion. It messes with my head.

A couple rounds later I get AK utg. I just limp with the idea of check raising the right raiser. Once again it is limped in but this time we are six handed. The flop is gin. AK7 rainbow. I check. A middle position player bets $10. One caller and it is back to me. I bump it to $45. This bet would basically commit the initial bettor. He only had $71 behind. He thinks a second and moves in. The other caller folds and I call. My AK beats his A7 and I am up $80 for the day.

I slug around up and down for a while and get AA again. Under the gun, again. I limp, again. Three of us see the flop. Q72. The big blind bets out. I just call the $5 and the other guy calls as well. The turn is a J rainbow board. Big blind checks as do I. The button makes it $15. Call and call. The river is a ten. It gets checked around. The big blind is upset, he had rivered a set and wanted to check raise. I flip over my cards and the dealer pushes the pot to the set and starts to muck the card. I speak up about the aces cracked. He did not even know there was one left. It was close to gone, but I got my $100 for my $78 profit. I ended the session soon thereafter up $120 for the day. Not bad for the four hours work. It was nice to get back out there.

Finally....poker

Played Carls game last night. Showed up late. Six handed. I sit down and what should appear under my hole cards. AA. Merry Christmas. I raise it to $4. Get three callers. They think I am bullying the table. Flop is jack high. Blevins bets at it. Slick smooths and I make it $20 more to go. Fold around and Slick flashes AJ as he folds. I flop a straight next hand and win a nice little pot. Fold the next hand. See a flop with QTc in the big blind the next hand. Flop is ten high with two clubs. I bet and get called. Blevins then blasts the pot. I think for a minute and decide to call and see what happens. The turn is the Qd. I check and the other dude checks. Blevins bets $30. I tank for a bit. Wondering what the other guy has. I am almost positive Blevins has a set. Has to. Oh well I can either fold or push. Fold is out of the question. I have a ton of outs against a set. I finally push and the other dude folds. Blevins instant folds his cards face up. 2 3 off suit. He had bottom pair on the flop and was firing away. I get TT the next hand and take down a nice pot on a 9 high board. I am up $115 in six hands. Only other interesting hand of the night was against Slick. Blevins bet pre flop. Slick hemmed and hawed a little and flatted. I look down at QQ and move all in. Blevins instant mucks. Slick hems and moans about his acting was for Blevins not me. He flashes his cards and I see a king. Shit I am behind. Slick folds AK instantly. He has to have KK. He asks if I would chop right there. I say hell yes. Blevins rolls out the flop just to see and the door card is a queen. Would not have mattered most likely. We would have run it twice. Over all a good night. Gave a little back and wound up $80. Not bad for a .25/.50 game and three hours of work.

How do you like them apples

Honeycrisp

If you have never had one, I am sorry for you.

Full Tilt

I was right about Howard Lederer

Played

Played my home game last night. Up and down. Bluffed a nice pot. Hit top set on a T23os board. Got a double up through Carl when he paid me off with KT. Finished up $40. Carl then bets $40 with a set on the flop. Aggro donk calls with an oesd. They run it twice and Carl loses both times. He throws a fit and ends the game. Says he is not going to have a home game anymore. Ouch. Gotta find a new home.

Well here I am

Been away a while. I have not really played much poker in the last two weeks. I did play "poker" after golfing. But, I do no consider poker with wild cards real. I did win $40 though. Before that I went on a little run bad/ play bad streak. I was up $250 at my home game. I then played a home game the next night and gave it back. I went to the casino and gave back a couple hundred more. Stupid play. Weak tight will get you nowhere in this game.

I decided to venture back into the water last night. I got there late after my softball game and the stacks were deep for our little .25/.50 game that plays like a 1/2 game. I bought in for $100 and was easily the short stack. One one big hand for the night when I opened raised my JJ from middle position. Agro donk two to my left pops me. I call and see a flop of 843 rainbow, heads up. I check and he bets over the pot. I ask him what he has left and it is $45 more. I go all in and he calls and ask how many times I want to run it. Good sign. He has 75 off suit. Really? He needs running cards or the gutter ball 6. I should have just run it once, but I always run it twice. No need to be a dick at a home game. He catches a five the first time but nothing else. He blanks out on the second run and I scoop the pot. I chip up from there a little. Win a balls hand to end the night and cash out up $169. Not bad for two hours work.

Got my Fix

Had not played poker in what seemed life an eternity. Actually was less than a week. But, there is no internet poker to scratch the itch, so the times between sessions seems longer than they really are.

Carls house is the place. .25/.50 is the game. I arrive late and buy in for $100. I splash around a bit and get up a little with some steals and uncontested pots. I get AQos in the small blind. There are three limpers. I decide to punish them and bump it to $5. The big blind calls. All three limpers call. So much for punishment. The flop comes K-T-8. I check and id gets checked around. The turn is a 9. The board is now rainbow. I decide to bet out $15 to see if I can buy the pot here. If not I still have outs to the nuts. Everyone folds except the under the gun player. He flats. Am I looking at QJ here? The river peels the beautiful J of spades. I double check it to make sure there are no flushes that I might have missed. I decide to bet about $25. He instantly moves all in. I call and table the nuts. He mucks his hand and mumbles something about not seeing that coming. Carls said I am sneaky. I tell him I have always been sneaky, he just does not pay attention.

Very next hand, I look down at KK on the button. Prasad is directly on my right and raises it to $8. I decide to play them a slow and smooth call. I figured no one else would call due to the size of the bet. I was wrong. The big blind and Carl came along. The flop is Q-8-4. Two hearts. Checks to Prasad and he bets $20. I flat and the other two fold. The turn is the Jh. Prasad checks and I check. I was playing the player here and I have seen Prasad stop and go in this spot. The river is the Tc. Prasad instant fires $35 into the pot. I call asking if he caught a set on the river or if he had the set of queens. He said no I was good as I tabled my KK. Bam Bam and I am up $200 for the night. I hang on to it and a little more to cash out up $215 Oh I busted Carl on the last hand of the night. He had JJ. I flopped a set with 88. Ten high board and he gets it in. He was a shortie, so not much money was to be had.

It left me with a question though. During both of my big hands, I ended up tabling the winner without seeing the others hold cards. Now at a casino, I will always wait for the raiser to show before I expose my cards. In both of these hands, I was the caller, yet never saw the losing hands. Prasad later told me he had AQ and I believe him. I do not know what the other buy had. Most probable being any other queen. It is a home game, and I do not want to be a dick. This is true especially in the first hand. I have the mortal nuts. If I set there and make him table his second best hand only to show him the joint, well that just makes me feel dirty.

What do you think? I guess I could show first and ask to see his cards, citing that I called him. I don't know.

No Casinos Just home game

I have not made it up to KC to play at the Casinos in the last couple of weeks. Friends and vacation have been occupying my time. That leaves me with home games.

One of the regulars at our home game recently purchased a poker table. It is pretty cool. It seats nine. It is pretty much a cheaper version of a casino table, repleat with cup holders, dealer spot with locking chip tray, and leather chairs. The chairs swivel and adjust vertically. The only slight negative is the base of the table. It protrudes our around the three end chairs more than at a casino. It is a minor drawback though. The table is pretty cool.

We are playing .50/1.00. I buy in for $100. My fourth hand I am dealt 87os. It is a family pot to me so I limp in the cut off. The button raises to $8. Calls around so I call. I say out loud to the cards, "Pick me flop". It does. A-7-7. Bingo. It checks around to me and I check it to the button. He checks. The turn is a J. The button seemed to stiffen up a bit. It checks around to me and I bet $15. The button min raises me. I am pretty sure I am beat here. I have played with the button a lot and I just sense it. I call anyway. The river blanks. I check call the $25 bet. He shows JJ for the turned boat. My fault. I should have bet the flop. There was enough money in there to just take it down. I re buy and resolve to play better.

I tread water a bit. I flop trips again with a six and lose to a flush draw that won't fold. I flop two pair and lose to a straight and flush draw that would not fold. I flop trips again with 4-3os after I call a smaller pre flop raise. I check and the bettor checks. The turn is a 3. I check/ call a smallish bet. The river is an ace. I lead out with a "value" bet. I get raised about my stack. I push and lose to.....99. Nice. I was pretty sure I was behind after the re-raise, but could not find the fold. Busto again.

I get ready to leave and Prasad asks if I want to borrow cash. I scrape together another $100. Chip up and down. I call a small raise while on the button with Jd9d. The flop is Jh-Kd-Js. Gin, right? For the record this is the fourth flopped trips. I have to win, right? The bettor checks and I check behind. I put him on a big ace. The turn is the 5d. He bets and I raise him. He comes over the top. I can't be behind here, can I?. Fuck. I push all in and he calls, instantly. The river is the 4d. I tell him I have a jack and flip it over. He says he does too and flips over JT. FUCK!!!!!! Really? Four fucking times? This is coursing through by brain. I dejectedly tell him the ten plays. He says yeah and starts to rake the pot. And then, thank goodness for Prasad. He speaks up saying, "Isn't there a diamond flush draw on the board?". We both look and sure enough, I win. The pot is pushed my way. The interesting tid bit to this hand is the other player was the same guy who screwed Prasad out of a big pot at my last home game. A little justice I suppose. Ironically, he was dealing this hand as well. I think there was a fifty shot he saw the flush and was not going to tell me. Rule is at our home game is the board talks, no matter what hand is called. He was visibly upset with Prasad. I thought this guy was stand up. Got keep my eye on him now.

Drunk/ high Tony shows up after the bars close. Each of us are hoping we are the one that gets to bust him. It is just a matter of time. He is poor sober. Drunk, he is an ATM. He chips up. Nice. I see a flop with A5os after Tony raises it a bit. It comes 2-3-4. Bingo. Other guy bets. Tony raises. I re-raise. Other guy goes away and Tony pushes. Board comes 2-3-4-6-8. Tony triumphantly yells "straight" as he tables 7-7. We all laugh at him and I win. He sits down, embarrassed. That hand put me up $9 to that point. I ended up losing $3. Not bad for where I was.

Home game conundrum

While playing in my home game last night, we came across an interesting hand. It is important to note that we do not have a designated dealer. Meaning that each person takes their turn dealing. This is important because one of the people involved in the hand was dealing.

I did not see the hand in question until the turn. I had folded and was returning from the bathroom. The flop was Ah-Th-6c. I saw the turn card peel off. It was the 2 of hearts. Prasad, in the small blind was heads up with Eric, the dealer. Prasad checked the turn. Eric over bet the pot. Not unusual for his style of play. Prasad pushed the rest of his chips in. It was obvious to me that he had moved all in for more than the original bet. Eric peeled off the the 8s for the river without acknowledging this. Prasad had tried to get his attention while he was burning for the river. The issue was this. Eric did not make the call of $40. Carl, the host of the game said the 8s had to be reshuffled and a new river dealt. Another heart came and Eric won the pot with the nuts. He held AK with the king of hearts.

Prasad sat speechless. Eric raked in the chips. I have many issues with what happened. The first being that Eric controlled the deal. He did not make sure the pot was correct before dealing the river. After he dealt the first river and "noticed" the raise from Prasad, he said something to the effect that it did not matter he was going to call anyway. In my opinion, the hand should have been over and Prasad the winner. Eric kept it going by then saying that the rule says it needs to be dealt again. Carl intervenes and says Eric is right. Eric shuffles the 8s back into the deck, deals and wins. He then says he is not sure if he has a heart or not. He made a little theatrical event by flipping each card one at a time. This point makes me think he did it on purpose. He had the nut draw. He is a player that is playing poker for a living in KC. He put in huge bets on a draw heavy board. He can only do that if he knows he has a draw to the nuts. He knew what he had and basically stole a pot from a guy that he calls a friend.

I saw Prasad the next day and we talked about the incident. He told me he was good with Eric and did not think there was any malice involved. Prasad felt it was an honest mistake. I conveyed my worries to Prasad. My number one issue was Eric held the deal. He made the mistake. If it were at a casino, I can understand the rule. A non biased party made a mistake. The rule makes sense. Here it is a "friendly" home game. Coupled with Eric saying he would call anyway, I believe Eric should have released the pot and Prasad declared the winner. Eric made the "mistake" and Prasad lost. Inherently unfair.

I know I would have given the pot to Prasad. The pot was large enough and Eric had the nut draw. The $40 extra would not entice a fold. Even with 8s being declared dead, Eric called, I think Eric should have been allowed to fold to the $40 raise, nothing more.

KK vs AA?

Here is the notable story from Thursday.

After I busted out of the tournament, I decided, foolishly, to play some cash. I was tired and had been playing for over ten hours. I should have just booked my $130 win and call it good. But, I had come out in the evening specifically to play the casual after work crowd. I had been playing the day grinders with small success. I wanted to get a piece of the easy pickings the fellas in my home game talked about. They said Amerstar was super soft at night.

I buy in for a little over $200. I dwindle up and down all the while trying to stay awake. I should have just gone home. I tell myself I will wait for one more big hand and whatever the outcome head home after that. Few hands later I get KK. Here we go. Guy on my right limps. I bump it to $15. It is a 1/2 game. I get called in five spots as it gets around to the limper. He says something like it is too much but he is priced in and calls. The flop is 6-4-8 off suit. Checks to me and I shove my last $100 into the pot. The small blind calls. I am for sure behind. The limper on my right starts chuckling and says "really?". He flashes his cards to the other end of the table and folds. My kings go down to a set of sixes and I get up to go home. The limper looks at me and says he folded AA. I say "Really?". I do not believe him. The other end of the table confirms it. This holds with what my home game guys were claiming. What a horrible way to play aces. He got the dream scenario. Five people in for a total of $75 in the pot and he just calls. He decides to play aces that way? If he pushes his $150 there, I call and the sixes guy goes away. That was his pot and I told him so as I walked away. He gave me a puzzled look. Will try again soon.

Harrahs and Ameristar

Played poker yesterday.

Went to Harrahs for the super turbo with the old dudes. I trudge along. Get moved to another table. Two hands of note. Loose older gentlemen is playing lots of hands, and playing them for raises. He had been raising two to three times the blinds and showing hands like KQos A7os KT. We were six handed. Pretty standard stuff. This hand he min raises in early position. Folds to me in the big blind and I have J8 of spades. We have nearly the same chip stack. His raise to me smells like a monster. AK or a big pair. I decide to call and hope for a favorable flop even though the 400T blind represented a significant part of my stack. The structure in this tournament is escalates rapidly. Horrible, but the only game in town. We see a flop A-3-9 all spades. I check the monster while trying to remain calm. He thinks for a few seconds and moves all in. He has me covered by T100. I croak out a call. He flips over A-Q of clubs and is drawing nearly dead. I hold and my stack makes me the chip leader at my table. We play one more hand and eliminate the shorty. Final table time. First hand at the final table, I look down at A-A in the cut off plus one. A short stack in the cut off limps for one quarter of his stack. I pet enough to put him in and protect my hand. To my surprise the only guy that has me covered pushes. Cha Ching. Thank you poker gods. Folds to the short stack and he calls. I call and flip over my cards. The big stack groans and shows his JJ. I have to sweat the river when JJ gets open ended but prevail. I now have 25K in chips. The tourney started with 68K in chips. I am the huge leader. Two hands I go from short stack to prohibitive leader. I give away a bit with AK on the next hand against JJ, otherwise I go on cruse to the final three. I lost the chip lead to seat one when he knocked three people out back to back to back. He had AA, KK, and AA in three successive hands. Unreal. He had me two to one in chips then as I had dwindled. I had a third more chips than third place. Surprisingly, the chip leader asked what the three way chop would be. First woas 554, second was 340ish and third was a little over 200. He proposed the chop and we jumped at the idea. We all got a little better than second place money, $366. Turns out he had to leave soon. Take it.

Harrahs was otherwise dead so I headed over to the Ameristar. Sat down at a 1/2 table. Chipped up a bit. I was being fairly active and get AA under the gun. The older solid guy in the big blind said it smelled like 99 to him and called my $15 raise saying he had two overs. Flop is T-4-4. I bet and he raises me. I call, happy to let him drive the betting. I was confident I was ahead. The turn is a king. He bets half the pot and I smooth call. Still confident I was ahead. The river is another ten. He checks and I decide to value bet $20. He thinks and then raises me $40. I make the crying call and he tables T-7 for the two outer. $100 bucks gone.

I decide to play the tournament. Much better structure. T5500 starting chips. More blind levels. A lot more playing room. First hand I get 9-9 in middle position and limp. The small blind at the other end of the table raises. If folds to heads up with me and I ask the dealer how much he raised. Could not make it out. She seems to ignore me and starts pushing the chips to the raiser. The guy next to me starts yelling at her to stop and tells her I asked how much the raise was. She was apologetic and got it right. I call and we see the flop of 9-7-3. Gin. Small blind leads out 400 and I bump it 1000 more. If he has AK he goes away. Big pair, he stays. He calls. Nice. Turn is another 7. He checks and I make a mistake. I thought he would go the distance with his over pair and bet 2k. He thinks and folds showing QQ. Oh well. Still a nice start. I chip up to twice my starting stack. Win some key races along the way and make the final eight. Four get paid. I am a shorty with blind at 1k/2k. I have about 15k left. Under the gun limps. This guy had not made any moves or out of line calls while I played the last hour with him on the final table. I think to myself, this looks and smells like aces. I look down at AKos. Damn. I raise to 4k from middle position. He starts fidgeting and actually kicking the table. He cannot wait to make a move. I see it and my mind is still screaming ACES. He puts me in. My mind says ACES ACES ACES WARNING. ACES ABORT ABORT ABORT. I find my hand picking up my chips and throw them in while saying you have aces don't you. He does and I lose. I should have folded, but I could not stop myself. I guess I just wanted to show myself that I was right. I will never be great until I learn to lay down those hands.

I have one more story. Next post.

Pub Poker

Found out via text that there was a $25 entry fee tournament at a local pool hall. It happened last Sunday. My friend P and me, (fun to say), decided to go play. We arrive and find out it is for a satellite to a lesser WSOP event. The satellite would is in a couple of weeks. Not really feasible for our schedules. We say screw it and play anyway. Figure we could sell it to somebody. Well half of the participants were from our home game. We did a $5 last longer. Winner would get their buy in back.

We play and play to the final table. I am grinding. No good spots and bad cards. It took me an hour and a half to get above my starting stack. Get my 66 against shortie with AA. Flopped the set. Got re sucked on the turn by the Ace. Blinds reached 400/800. I look down at my first card and it is a queen. I open push for my 13k. I get called in two spots. Damn. Been caught stealing. Q3 vs 88 vs AK. Turn is a queen and I go from dead last to almost 40k. 140k in play. I get in a nice hand with the weakest player at the table. I limp the small blind with 63. He min raises and I call. Flop 5-7-9. Double gutty. I check and he min bets. Smells like AA to me. Turn is the fun 8. I check and he bets the pot. I push. He tanks for a good minute. He finally calls. Yep AA. I am the chip leader by a good bit now. But wait!! River brings the 6 and we split. Damn. A few hands later AA guy knocks out the other guy. That secures my last longer so now I am free rolling. We spar a bit. I chip up when I get my first big starting hand of the tourney. QQ. He bets big pre flop. I push and he folds. We are even. Almost He has me by 800. Next hand he moves in pre flop. I had been just limping a lot in the small blind heads up. He often would raise and I would always fold. I was lulling him to sleep to set a trap. So he moves in and I had limped with AJos. Monster heads up. I instant call. A3 vs AJ. I win. I now have 132k to his 8k. Long story short I lose the next five hands and lose the tourney. Ridiculous. I was ahead in every hand pre flop. I wish I were more into the math. What are the odds. One time he had to hit the three outer on the river. Love this game.

Chop It?

Do you chop? I always chop. The only way I do not chop up the blinds is in the event that we both have a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger being a hand that can turn into a bad beat. They call it a cheeseburger in Kansas City. It is against the rules to openly talk about the bad beat. The blinds cannot ask one another if they have a bad beat eligible hand. If they do the bad beat could be voided. I have chopped numerous times and many times been asked if I had a cheeseburger. I have seen the blinds chopped considerably more and the cheeseburger question usually comes up. I have yet to see the blinds decide to play it out.

While at Ameristar Thursday a hand occurred that was folded to the button. The button in the nine seat started to make a motion that indicated he would at least call, but probably raise. The small blind said "You could just let us chop". The button set his chips down and folded. The big blind in the one seat went ballistic. He wanted to play the hand and lambasted the ten seat. The small blind through his dollar at the big blind and apologized. The big blind threw it back. This went on for three more rounds as they jawed at each other. The small blind did not get it. It was not about his dollar. The button was going to play for a raise. He was a very aggressive player. The big blind had a huge hand and was most likely win a little bit of money. The small blind should have kept his mouth shut.

Grinding session. Got AK once. Won small pot when an ace flopped. JJ twice utg that I limped with hoping to trap the aggressive guy. Both times no raise. I lost the minimum on one JJ hand . Flop was 77T. Aggressive guy flopped quads. If I had played the jacks for a raise pre flop, he calls and gets my stack after the flop.

This and that

Played my home game this Monday. It is a .25/.50 game that plays like a 1/2 by midnight. I arrive at 9:30 and survey the stacks. I opt to buy in for $100. That is about table average. My first hand I look down at 66. UTG raises it to $6. Call, call, I call and one more call. Five way action. Flop is 643. BINGO. Original raiser bets out $20. Nice. Next caller. puts $60 more on top. Really nice. I am now kicking myself for not buying in for more, but all I can do is push for $14 more. Folded around to original raiser. He thinks and asks the second raiser how much he has left which is only $3 more. He thinks for a few seconds and puts the other dude all in. Call of course. King. Seven. I lose. Guess the hands and who won.

Okay, one buy in gone. I go to the car and get another $100. I grind up to nearly $200. Grind down. Near the end of the night we are playing 5 handed. I get QT and limp in. Family pot. Flop is GIN. AKJ off suit. Checks around. Turn is the 5. It puts two hearts out so I bet $2. One guy says he got a little bit if the board and calls. The turn is an off suit 4. He leads out $20. I raise it $50. He re raises it. I push all in for $10 more. He calls and flips over his wheel triumphantly. I show the nuts and rake in my double up. He could not believe he lost. He could not put me on that hand. He was drunk and the only reason I was still playing. I was sure we were splitting it when he four bet me. I ended up $9 on the night Not bad after flopping top set in the first hand.

Cashing Out

I check in on my online accounts from time to time. Just seeing what, if anything, has changed. Recently Full Tilt converted some tickets to cash. Thanks FT. Swell. I cannot cash out but, hey look at the money I will probably never get. Super well done. I forgot I have a couple of SCOOP tickets on Stars. They have not converted them to cash. Does anyone know if they have or plan to convert these to cash? I could always use the $50. Would be nice seeing as how they pay their players and all.

Sci Fi

I am a little bit of a science fiction lover. I like just about anything out of the ordinary. Paranormal to space, I like it all. I recently started watching the new Battlestar Galactica. I had caught a few episodes when it first aired, but resisted liking it due to my love of the first series. As a seven year old, the original was the absolute best. I tend to do that a lot. Mostly for the same reason that no one can do a better cover of a Beatles song. Unless of course it was sung by Ringo. And don't get me started on that turd Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory remains the far superior film to this day IMHO. But I digress.

I love it when I miss out of series like this. I did it with True Blood. Missed the first two years before I discovered my vampire addiction. My wife and I would engorge ourselves in hours of it for weeks. Instant gratification, is there anything better. BG has five seasons. And they are all nearly twenty episodes long. Sweet.

In my young mind, knowing no back story to BG, I always envisioned them finding Earth,the 13th colony, and finding Star Trek. I thought it would be cool that the lost colony started the Federation and turned around and kicked some Cylon ass. Transporter technology alone would ruin the Cylons, to say nothing of shields.

The other scenario I daydreamed about during school involved all three major space dramas. Who would win in a war between BG, Star Trek and Star Wars. I think Battlestar Galactica is toast no matter what. But, who wins between Star Trek and Star Wars. Think about it.

Blah Blah Blue?

Played my home game this week. Dropped $100. First hand I got TT and won a small pot. From then on I was in a cold seat. I even moved and it followed me there. I did get QQ one hand and open raised it to $5. .25/.50 game. I get one caller and then the big blind, Carl, thinks and calls. This is the only hand I have or will raise that evening. Flop is 9c7c3c. Carl checks. I check and the other dude checks. Normally I would bet out there, especially if I had the Qc (I did not). Something in the way Carl responded made me think I was in trouble. The turn is the 7d. Carl lead out for $12. I call. The other guy leaves. The turn is the 9c. Carl slows down. I check behind. He flips over J6 of clubs. I start laughing. He looks at me and says "Well the fourth club came". I look at my neighbor and he says "He just does not get it". I asked Carl if he realized it was the only hand I had raised all night. I asked him how much I would have to raise there to get him to fold J6 suited. Carl just does not understand that there is zero value for him getting into hands with me. I am good enough to lay down big pairs. He made a whopping $22.25 on his $5 investment. Horrible. He is why I like his game so much. He is not a poker player. He is a gambler. He often gets big chip stacks and then just gives them away and goes on tilt. I average $100 profit in this .25/.50 game. He is also the guy that likes to play Omaha hi low no limit. Gambling at its best.

Decided to skip Harrahs this week and drive 5 minutes down the road to Ameristar. The guys in my home game have been saying how soft the 1/2 game is there. On top of that the bad beat is 345k. Second bad beat 320k. Third bad beat 305k. I know, I know. I have a better shot at getting in a car wreck but I have been at the table before when the bad beat hit.

Anyhoo. I get AQ in early position on my third hand. I raise it to $11 and get four callers, great. The last caller had limped right next to me on my right and was the last one to come along. He nearly folded. The flop is 3Q3. I like my hand here okay because none of the blinds came along. I bet half the pot. One caller and folds around to guy on my right. He min check raises. I call, Other dude calls. Turn is a 7. Guy on right makes same bet. I tank. I have played with this guy before. He could be making a move with a strong ace. I just could not put him on the 3. I think for three minutes and fold. It was early and you know never go broke with a queen in you hand. The other guy moves all in for $11 more. The guy on my right says good fold. He flopped quads. Other guy had A6. I like that guy. I asked quads dude if he almost folded. He said yeah but there were too many in the pot. Duh. Set mine baby, set mine. Or quad mine. He hit a set with 3's later. His cards.

I was down to $120 then. I dwindle down to $50. I look down at 77. I limp and we see a flop 5 ways. A T 7 rainbow. Cha Ching. I lead out almost the pot, $9. I get min raised by the tightest guy at the table. I put it all in heads up. If he has a set of T's so be it. AT or higher is more likely. He says I guess I call. That is a good sign. I sweat a bit when an ace peals on the river. He flips AJ and I am near $100. I go on to flop sets with T's K's A's and J's. I cash out for almost $300. $250 up from my low point. not bad. The set of Aces was sick. I raise in the big blind and get one caller. Guy's first hand. Flop is AQ4 two hearts. I bet half the pot. He calls blank on turn. I bet half the pot and he moves in. I call. He has AQ. Sick for him.

All in all I played well. I did donk off $55 with AQ. I should have raised pre flop. Flop is 8Q8. I bet and one guy min raises me. I call and the turn is an Ace. I call all the way down and of course he had the 8. He would have folded if I just had given him a reason. I learned how he played though. Use it next time.

This gentleman in the one seat kept talking at me the whole time. I was in the 4 seat. He gave a play by play of every hand and acted like we knew each other. He was a jack ass. He exposed his hand (KK) while there were still two people in the hand. I know sir. Aces always come when you have kings. He then asked to see a losing hand that mucked. He was not even in the hand. That is when I knew he was a douche. Luckily he got the vibe from the table and soon left.

Rapture

Now I laughed at the dude who used SCIENCE on the Bible to figure out the end of days. It really is brilliant if you think about it. He gets all of us to buy in if he gets the geeks involved. Anyway, I went to church yesterday afternoon just to be sure. Priest said every day could be your individual rapture day. Just take it one day at a time. This is it. Your own. Personal. Rapture. Anywhoo we went home and upon leaving Gods bunker, I noticed big thunderstorms to our west. Living in Kansas, one gets used to Wizard of Oz weather. I know people from SOCO that absolutely shit when a thunderstorm comes through. They get in their car and go to the basement of a parking garage. Ironically the exact opposite of where one should go during a earthquake. Real Kansans go outside when there is a tornado near. Gotta see that thing. Though I have lived in Kansas all my life and have yet to see one in person. And to be fair I would probably shit if I ever experienced an earthquake.

So we drive home and it is around 5:00. I read a report that the Rapture would begin at 6:00 central. It's bright and sunny but looking ominous. We drive home, I crack open a beer and have a snack. Around 5:30 it clouds up. 5:45 we get reports from Topeka television stations of tennis ball sized hail. I am starting to believe. Who knew ground zero for the end of days is Topeka Kansas? Stephen King maybe? Hell on Earth actually is Topeka. Or possibly Pierre South Dakota. 5:59 the tornado sirens go off. Shit. So much I wanted to do. See Ireland. Win a bad beat jackpot. Junk punch Howard Lederer. Finally talk my wife into the forbidden love. You know. Sex with the lights on.

We enact our Zombie plan. I usher the family into the attic. Zombies can't jump. Then the wife says "What about the Tornado". Fuck. We rush downstairs. We can only hope the Tornado gets rid of the Zombies. I go outside and nothing is happening. It is 6:05 and so I let the whole family join me in the cul de sac. Turns out The Rapture consists of sprinkles and six more Sam Adams 48 IPA. Delicious. We get another tornado warning at 10:00. Rapture aftershock? Still nothing. We go to bed an hour later. Lights off.

As I sit here writing this today, it is absolutely gorgeous outside. We have all the windows open. It is sunny. I have had a doughnut and two cups of coffee. I am going to serve at the soup kitchen in an hour. Softball after that. Steak for dinner and Trivia tonight. The Royals are at .500. It might me the end of the world. Oh well. This is not bad at all. There could be worse endings.

Just one hand.

Played in my home game Monday night. Bought in for $70. Cashed out $310. Nice night. One of two big hands. Got into it with the two biggest donks at the game. Donk one was sitting nest to me on my left. Donk two was across the table in the big blind. I limp after two others with king jack of diamond in the cut off. Donk one raises on the button. He had been doing this a lot light. Donk number two calls and I call as we see the flop three ways. KQ3. Two spades. One diamond. Checks to donk one and makes a weak bet. Donk two flats and I push all in. 1 thinks and then calls. 2 thinks for a second and calls. Turn 9d. Meh. River 3c. I turn over my hand and it holds. Donk one had some kind of crappy flush draw. No where near the odds to call. Donk 2 had K8. Thanks you all.

We then decide to play Omaha for an orbit. Last week I got beat up pretty good in Omaha. I had AAQ5 double suited. Nice hand right? I make a pre flop raise to $5. It is a .25/.50 game. I get called in two spots. Fucking gamblers. Flop is JsTs3d. Carl bets. Biggest fucking gambler there. I raise my flush draw, gutty, pair of aces hand. All in. He thinks for a while and says he has two pair. Really? And you are going to call? He does. We ran it twice and I lost both times. I was %70 after the flop. I lose to J3.

Fast forward this week. They wanted to play Omaha again. I said I would but would complain. I limp with QQJT. Flop is Q34 rainbow. Hammer lock. I bet and donk one call. Ten on turn puts 2 clubs out there. I still have the nuts. I move all in to just take the pot. He calls. River T. I win. He had the nut flush draw again. It is a nice game.

Harrahs yesterday. Bust out of the tourney again. Guy made a sick call. I limp in the cut off with 3d5d. Small blind 3x raises. I call and we are heads up. Flop is J94 two diamonds. He makes a weak c bet. I read it right and move all in. He thinks for a while and calls. He had KQ. I guess the gutty put him over the edge. No diamonds and IGHN. He thought he was behind. He told me. I made the right read and move. I needed those chips for the super turbo that the Tuesday afternoon tourney at Harrahs is.

I sit down at a cash game. Only one regular there. They are all over at Ameristar chasing the Bad Beat. It is over 300k. There is over a million including the reserves. Anyway, this is the best table I have sat at in a while whilst at Harrahs. Passive. Easy to read. I double my stack in about half an hour. Should have left. But. There always is a but. The guy directly to my right in the 2 seat is throwing away money. I got into a hand with him early on. I had AK he had A9. Ace on the flop and he called me down. If I had known I would have moved all in . He would have called. Or better yet let him drive the action. That is how bad he was. I watched him drop over $1400 in three hours. The people that were there before me said he had dropped at least $600 more. I stayed. I donked off $150 trying to get in a hand with him. Never happened. Funny thing is he told me he moved out of my seat because he was losing so much money. Was not the seat sir.

Well HI

Went up to Harrahs yesterday to try my luck at old guy sit n go tourney. I was card dead except for one hand. It is early in the tourney and I get 33. The black ones. I limp in late position and we see a flop five handed. The flop comes the Ten of clubs and the two red 3's. TBQB's. It is funny how unaffected I(and I assume others get) when my quads are flopped. Check like you got nothing. There is no racing heart. No sweating. Just sit back and hope someone makes a full house. No such luck for me here. I won a little from a guy with a small pocket pair.

I bust out in the small blind with 64. We see a limped pot 3 ways. K63 flop. Check Check Check. The turn is a 6. I only have about 1000T left and the pot is 600T. I bet 500. Big blind folds and the other dude smooths. The river is another K and I have to push. Of course he has the K and I go home. I still do not know why he checked that. Almost cost him 1000T. He tried to give me his money.

Went to play cash and immediately was seated at a brand new table. My buddy Cliffy just happened to be there as well. I was up and down $30 either side of my $200 buy in for about an hour. I am a little bit above dead even when I get JJ in early position. I like to limp with jacks a lot. It is a strong enough hand that I can re raise the loose player but weak enough that if I can't re raise, I do not feel like I have made too big of a mistake seeing a flop five handed. We see a flop 5 handed. Bingo Ac Jd 7c. Blinds check to me and I bet a little less than the pot. Fold Fold and the small blind, Cliffy, min raises me. The big blind folds. I think for a bit now. Cliffy is a straight forward player. I never see him get out of line. I know he has a hand, but which one. AA is not really a possibility. He would have definitely raised with that in the small blind. AJ? Maybe, but that is unlikely knowing my holding. A7. Real possibility. KQ clubs. Maybe, but the min raise is a move I would expect in position, trying to get two free cards. 77? Most likely here. I am pretty sure that is what he has. But he could have two pair, flush draw, or the dreaded AA. Probability in that order. I decide to raise it $50 and find out. I want the flush draw gone and I think two pair still calls and 77 is not going anywhere for sure. He calls. The turn was a ten of spades. He immediately bets out $50. KQ clubs? Can't be he would have folded on the flop betting. He never chases. AA is the monster that is creeping out of my mental closet. I can not just call. Fold or push. I am not good enough to fold. I move all in and he calls. He has 77 and my jacks hold. I am not sure what his bet on the turn was all about. He eliminated any chance of folding with it. He later told me he almost folded on the flop, but folding a set is just too hard. He said he thought I had JJ. If so, why lead out at the turn? He must have talked himself into two pair. I do not know.

Anyhoo, I left later that afternoon up $300 on the day. Nice.

See ya

Live games

Obviously. Online is on hiatus. Live it is if any, right? The feds did my bankroll or lack there of, a big ol favor. Suck it Lederer. But I digress.

Played live at the normal Monday game. Played super tight. Picked up AA and raised it $5. .25/.50 blinds. Get one caller. I sensed he almost folded but then saw the look in his eye like "I have position. If I don't hit I will just outplay him". Well that is what he tried to do. He "asked" for the flush on the river and when it got there I checked. He obliged with the bet that said I was stealing. I called and took down the hand. Ended up $90 on the night.

Emboldened by my success, I made plans to go to Harrah's with by buddy Slick. He is moving in three days, so this was our last hurrah. We get there in time to play the tourney and eat lunch. Our standard is the $5 last longer and we each buy %10 of each other. We unfortunately get the same table. Slick can't get any traction and is out early. I limp along and at the first break I am about even. 2K The blinds go crazy after the first break so you have to really start making moves. I am lucky though because I have the button to start. It gets folded around to the cut off plus one and he min raises. The cut off calls. I peak at my cards and see AA. All in and one caller and I have more than doubled up. Nice start. I limp to the final table with about 4K. I start making moves and chip up. Every one is so timid. The chip leader is a lady who had gotten AA five times in a little over an hour. It seemed like every time someone moved in, she had AA. Once she had TT vs AK. Ace on flop but the tens out flushed the ace. She was just sucking up chips. She never played unless she had a great hand. She could have just bullied us but she did not.

I hit some good hands and at this point it is push or fold poker. I start pushing it with anything decent if folded to me in position. I call a min raise with 66 on the button. Three players see a flop of 953 with two clubs. The check. Original raiser checks. I push. Fold Fold. The original raisers says he had 88 but just could not bet. That is the kind of table I was playing. He puts anything in the pot I go away. I steal and push my way up to second place which was still only half of the AA lady. The 88 suggests a even four way chop. I was torn. I knew I was the best player left. If the cards fell right I would win. But I was at a chip disadvantage and one unlucky or bad move and I get $140.00 for fourth. I was a little surprised when she agreed to an even chop. $295.00 a piece. Just a little under 2nd place money for all of us. We took the money and ran.

I owed Slick $25 for the percentage buy which was a nice little refund for him. After tip I was up about $210.

$300 in two days. Hey maybe I'll go pro. HA

I Tried

Gave Full Tilt one more try. Same old same old. Tournament bust out hands.

AA < 9T
KK < AK
33 < TT set over set
JJ < 88
KK < A8 AQ and A5 case Ace hits
AK < KT


I was not short stacked in most of these. Raises and more raises and I get out drawn.

Should have known better. I can't even be mad at FT. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Yada Yada.

Poker is just not for me.

Poker I think Is dead to me

I raise 3 1/2 times the blind. He calls from the small blind and bets it like he knows it is fucking coming. I smooth the flop and push the turn. All the while thinking to myself, "Here it comes. No, it can't possibly come. Can it?

Obviously it is not about the money.





I played yesterday at Harrahs. I was playing tight. Never raising. I get QQ om early position and raise it up. I get one caller in the big blind. Flop is rainbow nine high. I bet. Call. The turn is a 2. Rainbow and no pairs and no coordination. I bet again and get called. The flop is an ace. He checks and I groan and check expecting the two pair weak ass ace. He turns over Ace Ten. Really. Calling me down with ace high no draw. Fuck me.

I limp with 46 on the button. Flop is Q57 two hearts. Check, check, check to me. I bet my draw. Call call. Turn is a 7. Check, check to me. I bet again. Call call. The river is a queen. Check check. I bet again. Fold (88) and instant call. After I showed he said "Nice hand sir" and turned over his ACE TEN FUCKING HIGH WITH NO FLUSH FUCKING DRAW HAND. I asked him if he was mocking me. He told me if he was going to mock me, he would do it to my face. I told him I thought he just did. It wasn't as if he had a read on me. He was by far the worst player at the table. He was just looking for any excuse to keep calling. This really is my fault. I never should have tried bluffing him in the first place.

So, I think I am done for a while. I will still follow the bloggers and dabble with home games, but I cannot continue to suffer the abuse.

See ya around.

Poker Musings

Just a couple a stories from this week.

I went to Harrahs on Tuesday. It had been a while. I had intended to play 1/2 but it was full. They had just started a 3/6 limit game so I sat down with the intention of moving to the 1/2 game when a seat opened up. I used to play limit a lot when I first started playing live. It is really no fold 'em hold 'em. I sat down with the usual cast. Mostly older retired guys. I chipped up a little here and there. My turn came to move and I decided to stay. Why you may ask? Well there were three donating station at the table. I wanted to get my share before my tournament started. One guy was $300 down in an hour. Not easy to do at this limit if you show any starting hand restraint. He went so far to say that he does not play junk. He exposed his hand to me during play. He held T8os. He had called a pre flop raise. The flop was AK8. He called a bet and a raise. The turn was a ten. He called a bet and then folded to a raise and re raise. The river was another ten. He slams his hand down hard so hard in disgust that the whole table looked at him. Horrible etiquette. He would have lost. Another player had KT.

I got into a hand with this gentleman later. Harrahs has an aces cracked promotion every day. First five aces cracked wins $100. There was one left when I look down at my cards under the gun to find AA. Now normally in a 3/6 limit game I am raising here to drive out the ever fishing limpers. But here I am encouraging action. The promotion stipulates that there must me at least $30 for the hand to qualify. Imagine my delight when we saw the flop seven handed. Okay, the thirty dollar limit is a cinch to be hit. The same old guy with the T8 bets out from the blinds on a non face card board with two clubs. I am just calling all the way now. Two more come along for the turn which is another small club. Old dude bets and I smooth call again. We are heads up. Oh I have the ace of clubs so if the next card is a club I have position to raise and still make some money. The old guy bets six in the dark. This is just silly. He knows he does not have the nut flush. His action is not going to induce a fold, the cards are. If another club comes he has to think he is getting check raised. A heart fell and his J6 of clubs held. For a mere $18 investment I win the $100. I'll take it.

I was playing on Full Tilt last night. I have no money on the site so I am utilizing my large amount of points to try to build a bank roll. I enter a satellite to a crappy free roll. There are 10,000 people in it. Along the way I get moved to a table that had every single person sitting out. Not one other player was participating. It took me about three hands to figure it out. Quick folds all around. I went about four rounds that I just min raised and took down blinds. The blinds were 60/120 I think so I beefed up my stack nicely. It finally ended when I busted a short stack. Has this ever happened to anyone before? It was unique for me. I noticed that FT must have some kind of contingency for it because play slowed between hands. It was not as instant when you have live play. It was not all short stacks either. There were two huge stacks who must have left because they knew they could fade the bubble. It made internet poker feel even more lonely.

Dexter

Anybody watch Dexter? I just started watching it and I am hooked. I burned through the first two seasons in a couple of days. It intrigues me that I find myself rooting for a serial killer to not get caught.

Super Bowl

Pittsburgh You heard it hear last. Take Pittsburgh. Take them to win out right. Take the over.

PLO8

I played the WBCOOP PLO8 event last night. There were 483 runners. I finished 42nd. Got a $16 ticket. I think I figured out how to make money on line. Play games you have no idea how to play and play simple. I have played a total of four hold em tournament and sit n go's over my online career. Horse in included. I have either won ore gone deep and cashed in all of them. I must be over thinking my hold em game.

This is my first time playing on Poker Stars. I just recently downloaded the software. I kept timing out last night. Does anybody else have that problem? Full Tilt runs great. I may lag there every once in a while, but I never miss a hand.

I may be naive, but who are all the people playing in this thing. Are they bloggers from over seas? The largest blogger event I have ever seen on Full Tilt is 120 or so. Right? There were over 700 runners in the hold em event two nights ago. Who are these people?

Vegas Tid Bits

Just got back from Vegas. Did all my poker playing at mostly the Golden Nugget and Binions. There are a couple of noteworthy stories.

First story. I am sitting at a 1/2 game at the Nugget. I am in the eight seat. The guy in the ten seat is a regular and has a nice amount of chips. We play for a while and he starts to nod off. He had been drinking quite a bit. I have to nudge him to act. No one was sitting in the nine seat. He always came to a little confused. Looks at his cards, folds and goes back to sleep. Pretty soon the dealer waives me off and we let him sleep. Don't do that in a sports book, but poker tables are okay. I have never seen anything like it. He slept through ten rounds of blinds. He had the missed blind button in front of him. He did not have the absent button though. Never seen that either. He was present. Just in body only. Anyway, he finally wakes up and gets a little snippy with the dealer. "Why did I miss my blind?" I told him he had missed 10 blinds. He gave a sheepish grin and apologized to the dealer. The table just laughed at him. He ordered another beer and when I decided I had enough poker, he was falling asleep again.

Second Story. At the Golden Nugget again. I get there in the morning and all they had available was a must move 1/2 game. It was only four handed. I decided to sit down and see what was what. As I sat down I looked at the stacks to see what I was up against. The one seat had about $700. The four seat had $60. The six seat had $400 and the nine seat had about $1500. They had been playing for ten minutes. My $200 seemed a little paltry. I sat down and it soon became apparent what was going on. The nine seat was a maniac. The first hand I saw had the one seat re pop the nine seat opening raise. Nine calls and the flop comes 787 with two hearts. The one seat c bet and the nine seat moved all in. One thinks for a moment and then fold KK face up. Nine says he had a huge draw and he folded. We played for a while and he bluffed and bluffed and bluffed. Showing nothing and taking pots. He would blind raise $50 under the gun. He would call with the razor slim draws. I just had to wait and get a hand. He was drunk. He was a nurse who was moving to Denver on Thursday. His phone kept ringing. Turns out he was on call. He did not go to work when called. His wife called multiple times. He did not talk to her. He was on his last Vegas blow out. It was fun to watch. He was fun. Me and two other players just sat at the table waiting for our chance. Tourists would show up with $100 or less and go broke in short order. They could not handle the heat. He would get in horrible and just draw out on them for their tiny stacks. His K2 ran down KJ on a KKT32 board. His AK running down JJ on an KQJT3 board. He rivered sets with 22 multiple times. He was a fun drunk and a big opportunity for those of us with the poker knowledge and the stack to get it. The floor kept trying to make us move, but we all refused. He finally gave up.

My chance came early. I held 9d7d in the big blind. He blind raised under the gun and was called in two spots so I called too. The board was 6d5d3c. I like my hand and check. He bets $25 and we get heads up. The turn is the 9c. I move all in and he calls. the river pairs the board and I show my hand. He nods and mucks. I have $400 now. Two orbits later I get QQ utg. I limp. He bets out $30. It folds around to me and I push $400 or so in. He calls. My queens hold up. I have $800. He won't mess with me anymore. I wish I could say I got more but he lost 2K and left.
I was getting up leave two hours later and guess who came waltzing back in? Denver nurse had to go home to shower and "set the wife straight". I had to go. Too bad.

One other story. Denver Nurse gets into a hand with the ten seat later in the session. Denver was leading the action on a AK4 board. The turn was another ace. Denver bet and the ten seat moved in. Denver folded. After Denver left the ten seat told us he had AA there. I asked one, why did he push, and two, why did he not show the high hand? He said Denver told him there was no high hand. There was and it was for $268. On top of that, the Nugget doubles it between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. It cost him $536. Ouch.

Hey you, yeah you with the cigarette. I'm talking to you.

Cigarette smokers. What is (most of) your deal? Why do you insist that the world is your trash can? I was running an errand the other day and was getting out of my car at a local business. While waiting for my very pokey seven year old son to exit the vehicle I witnessed a lady pull up across the parking lot from me. She exited her car and as she did she took one last puff off the cigarette she was holding. She then proceeded to deftly flick the half smoked cancer stick on the ground. Now lets get this straight, I am not anti smoking. In fact I am an avid second hand smoker. My mom was a two pack a day lady. She paid for it with her lungs shutting down at an all too early age of 69. I miss her terribly. But, her fifty plus year habit instilled in me a love of that first drag off the cigarette. Second hand of course. I can really do without the rest. She used to sit in bed chain smoke and read the evening newspaper. The ash on the end of the cigarette would get almost an inch long. I always thought this was awesome. I never observed other smokers doing this. I thought my mom had some smoking super power. But. I digress.

In short pick up your butts. Please do not leave them on the ground for the rest of us to deal with. I love Anchorman The legend of Ron Burgundy. Everywhere the action news team went they littered. It is funny because it was extreme. Throwing a burrito out the window as just an example. I can not tell you how many times I have been following a car only to see an ember come flying out of the window. Once it even hit my wind shield square on. So I ask, again. Why? Are smokers in general just assholes? Are smokers just morons and do not realize this is littering? Let me know.

Another smoking story. I often play at Harrahs Kansas City. The poker room is "non smoking". Smokers have a tendency to congregate at the entrance of the room. This requires all poker room patrons to pass through a concentrated fog of smoke to enter or exit the room. The smokers are really in the room. They all like to stand there and smoke so they can see the tables and not miss their hands. To battle this, management put up a rather large sign at this smokers corner. The sign roughly reads: For the Enjoyment of All Poker Room Patrons, Please Refrain From Smoking in This Area. It is placed right at the corner that all the smokers like to smoke at. I had just busted out of the daily tournament and was waiting for my cash seat. I sat at the last slot machine in a row that is basically in this smoking corner. In fact the smokers regularly use the platform that the slot machine rests as their ash tray table. So, I am sitting there waiting for my table and notice the ash tray. A player gets up from his game and head towards me. He promptly lights up, takes one drag and leaves it sitting in the ash tray to go play another hand. The sign is right there. It is less than a foot away big as day. His addiction was so bad that he had to have one puff and leave the still smoking cigarette for me to deal with. Asshole. Another smoker arrived shortly and noticing the sign and ash try said, "That is not right". He then promptly moved the ash tray ten feet further out of the room. It had the same line of sight, but just ten feet farther. Nice move.

So smoke em if you got em. Just don't leave your butts laying around. And please show some common courtesy and don't smoke in my face.

WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 508206

Little Update

Not much going on around the poker front. I had pretty well getting hammered all around so I took a three week break. No casino or online play. I have played in home games, but I consider that more for fun. I tend to relax and drink a little at home games. I rarely drink at the casino or when online. I am going to Vegas next week so I will jump back in out there.

The Chiefs had a nice little run. I would have liked to see play off victory, but worst to first is pretty awesome. I hope all you Chiefs fans enjoyed it because the schedule next year is brutal. The Chiefs get Green Bay, Chicago, New England and Pittsburgh. Ugghhh. Say hello to 6 and 10. I hope the fans give Haley a pass though. The Chiefs are young and quick success is often followed by a tough season before the team makes a big splash in the post season.

My Kansas Jayhawks are having a good season. They got a road win against an Iowa State team that is pretty good. I do not care what team you are, road wins in conference are like gold. Ask Duke. Florida State handed them a loss last night. KU looked pretty good last night, but at other times they seemed to be sleep walking through portions of games. They remind me a little of the 2007 Florida team that was trying to repeat as champions. They seemed to phone it in on a lot of occasions. They knew how good they were and just did not seem to care a whole lot. They knew they had a switch they could hit and their A game would kick in. Florida lost a few games that year they should not have, but then kicked it in and took care of business in the Tournament. Kansas seems a to have a little of that to me. They will dominate a team for ten minutes or so and then it seems that they get bored and let the team scratch back.

Oh almost forgot. You people living in the south are pussies. Well, at least the weather channel people make you look like pussies. Four inches of snow. Really? Eleven snow plows for the whole city of Atlanta? Really? Atlanta has a fleet of city trucks. I know they do. All cities have them. Buy about 100 blades and put them in a wharehouse. When all hell breaks loose and a whopping 4 inches of snow in forecasted, attach those blades to said trucks. That is what we do here in Kansas. We got 9 inches here at the same time Atlanta was getting 4. Not a word on TWC. They said oh look it is snowing around KC but the sky is fucking falling in the south.