Give Me Back My Cupcakes!

I remember when I was 22 years old and just started beating the $6/$12 limit games regularly I asked one of the $15/$30 game regulars about the best time to play the bigger game. "Holiday weekends" was his answer. In the time since, I've found that Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Fourth of July weekends are the absolute best time to play as a lot of people who only play once every few months take their shot.

I was hoping for a soft lineup and instead I got one of the worst games in recent memory. For a while we were playing 7 handed and two of the other players were not tough exactly, but capable of making advance deceptive plays, big calls and big bluffs. This is quite a change from the standard field of total cupcakes I'm used to facing.

Worse than that I kept finding myself with tough decisions or having not awful, but just unfortunate stuff happen to me.

Early on 5 of us saw a flop that came down 5 5 2. After the rake there was $19 in the pot and the small blind bet out $30. This seemed like too much for a 5 and I figured he had something like a pocket pair 33-88. So I called planning to pop him on the turn as if I had a 5 when in fact I had nothing. The turn was a 9 and he bet out $65. I made it $200 figuring I'd get a lamenting fold. Instead he shoved for $400! Gah! I folded and he showed 53. I made a read and I trusted it, but it just didn't work out.

A little later I called a raise with TT and when my opponent bet $30 into an $80 pot on a 6 high flop I made it $100 to go. There were two other players in the hand who quickly folded and the villain slowly called. The turn was an 8 and he check called his last $50 with AK. After an A came on the river and he won the pot he explained that he put me on AK. I resisted the urge to tell him that this was the worst read in the history of poker.

I had 5 or 6 pots including those two where $300-$500 pots got shipped to my opponents. On one I called a $150 all in on the turn with a pair and a flush draw and missed. On another I raised the flop and made a big bet on the turn with one pair against a flush draw that called and got there. On yet another I had a pair against a flush draw that missed the flush but made a bigger pair.

I had long stretches of shitty cards coming in one hand after the next.

In the middle of all this mess I did drag a big pot with top two pair and that was the only thing that kept me from sinking. After 5 frustrating hours I was down $550 when my friend E.B. came in to play.

Normally I like to play from about 5 pm - 9pm and he plays starting around 9 or 10 so we don't play together that often, but I agreed to play longer than normal so we could sit in the same game for a while.

Things turned around right away.

By this point the solid players were long gone and the table was filled with cupcakes. Hooray cupcakes!

In one big hand I got dealt KT of diamonds, made it $25 to go and got 4 callers. The flop came down T 8 4 with two clubs and I bet out $100 with about $325 left in my stack after that bet. The next player to act started counting out chips. He was actually an OK player and was making plays with some thought behind them. After 15-20 seconds of deliberate counting he pushed $400 into the pot.

It's rare that someone in this game will put in so much without a big hand, but something seemed fishy. He was trying to represent a set, but a set probably wouldn't want to blow the other players out of the pot. This was a super draw heavy board and I quickly came to the conclusion that this must be a draw. I took 10 seconds to make sure I was sure and then I called. The board ran out red 5, red Q and my opponent showed J7 of clubs! Ah ha! It was a draw! That pot got me back to even on the night. I think if that draw had come in and I would have lost that pot I would have left.

Then I just totally wrecked this one dude. I took his $300 stack from him with KQ on a king high board. He bought in for another $300. I took that $300 when I flopped top 2 with AK and we got it all in on the turn. So he bought in for another $300. I had AQ on a K Q 5 flop and called a small bet on the flop and the turn. The river was an A and I got his whole stack for a third time! Boo-ya!

Bingo bongo I was up $1,000!

I ended up playing a few more hours until about 1 in the morning and left a $1,060 winner on the night. It's so much fun waking up the next day when it hits you that you had a nice win the night before.

As for E.B. he lost $500 with AK vs AQ all in preflop, another $400 with KK vs AK all in on an A K X flop (ace on the river!), and another $400 with A4 vs AQ on an A 4 X flop with a Q on the turn all in the first 15 minutes he was there! ACK! This was a truly epic beat down. But I got a text from him at 8:30 am saying that he was still there and not just back to even, but up $1,700 on the night/morning!

Since I've returned from Vegas and the WSOP I've played 9 sessions, won 8 of them and made about $4,000 in 40 hours of play. Who needs tournaments?

Bluffs Need to Tell a Believable Story (Part 2)

I played $2/$3/$5 Tuesday night and got involved in a lot of big pots.

There are four hands from the night worth noting. On the first, a player who was the best among my opponents and about $1,500 deep opened for $30 which I'd noted was his standard raise. I've instituted a plan to three bet whenever given the chance with JT and 66 in order to methodically balance my three bet range a bit so it's not all TT-AA, AK and AQ. So when I looked down at JT I made it $80 to go as if I had a very big hand.

My opponent called fairly quickly and the flop came down 8 5 3, with no flush draws which is about a dry a board as you'll see. I bet out $125 hoping my opponent would put me on the big pair I was representing and fold, but after some thought he called. The turn was a 10 which was a great card for me if I was ahead and an awful card if I was behind at that point. Now that I had something, I wanted to get to showdown, and I figured if I checked I'd be facing a bet on the river and give my opponent a shot to potentially catch up, so I fired out $200. This was a misplay. I should have realized that this guy wasn't calling $125 on the flop out of position with overs and there were no draws out there.

I got check raised all in and folded to save the $400 I had left in my stack. If that wasn't an overpair or a set of 8's this guy did an amazing job with an elaborate bluff and I believed his story. This hand was the opposite of "well there was nothing I could do." About the only thing I really like that I did with this hand was bet the flop. The rest was a real cluster.

A little later I again got check raised on the turn, but this time it did not compute. I raised to $20 with AJ on the button and got called by both blinds. The flop came down A K 9 with two diamonds and I checked it back when it checked to me. I was very likely to have the best hand, but so much so that I figured I'd lose them both with a bet and might get some action if I checked. Checking back with top pair about 20% of the time is also a balancing my range type of play.

The turn was a Q and again it was checked to me. I bet out $45 expecting two folds, but instead I get check raised all in to $250! Normally, big turn check raises are a sign of complete and total doom, but in this instance I played the hand to look weak (and got what I wanted) and more importantly a raise to 2.5X what's in the pot is a massive over bet. A big hand wouldn't make it so much. It looked like a flush draw. After thinking it over for 15 seconds I called and it was in fact a flush draw. I was rewarded for my good call by the flush coming in and my opponent scooping in the $560 pot. Grrrrr!

The next hand is some set up for the last hand. I'd recovered from those debacles and had a little over $800 in front of me and was roughly even on the night when I got dealt two black tens. The guy just to my right was new to the game and I'd never seen him before. He bought in for $500 which is usually a sign of strength, but he'd posted $5 to get a hand and almost folded even though he was already in for $5 and didn't need to put in any more money to see the flop. This was surely a sign of weakness.

Mr. New Guy made it $30 to go, I just called with my TT, and we took the flop 4 way with the blinds. The flop came down 9 6 3 all clubs and Mr. New Guy fired out $100. Big bets usually mean big hands, but with an overpair and a club I felt I had to call. The turn was a 4 of spades and Mr. New Guy bet out $200. Big bets again usually mean big hands again. It's hard to fold an overpair with a flush draw, but I thought I was likely against an even bigger pair with an even bigger club. That was a hard fold to make but I did it.

A hand or two later I got into it again with the same guy. This time he just called $5 and I made it $30 to go with QQ. I also got 3 callers and the flop came down K J 8 with no flush draws. I didn't love the king, but I bet out $100 because checking is just too weak. Only Mr. New Guy called. The turn was a 7 and it got checked to me again.

I was not sure what my opponent had. I thought there was some chance he might have a J or a K or a draw, but I didn't have a good read on him. I decided to go with the "When in doubt fire!" strategy and put $200 out there. Mr New Guy called not right away, but pretty quickly.

The river paired the 7 which I felt almost certain didn't change anything. After the call on the turn I figured my goose was cooked and it was time to check it and hope I somehow had the best hand. I was waiting for Mr. New Guy to check so I could turn up my hand. And I kept waiting. He just sat there fiddling with his chips.

After about 10 seconds I thought "This looks like he missed a draw and now he's stuck and doesn't know what to do." This was odd though because there weren't many draws that made sense. On the flop T9 was a possible, but it got there on the turn. QT was possible, but I had two of the Q's so it wasn't all that likely. AQ or AT wouldn't call $200 on the turn. J9 was maybe in there. After maybe 30 seconds he moved all in for $400. Normally calling a $400 river bet with a hand that can only beat a bluff is a bad idea. I took 10 seconds to make sure I was sure (or at least sure enough) and then called. In this case though I was right - he tabled QT and I took down a $1,500 pot.

I was $700 to the good after that hand, but I spewed a good bit of that off and left a $266 winner on the night.

That time I folded QQ pre-flop against Jose Canseco

I walked into The Oaks Club on Friday night and bought in for $500 in the $2/$3/$5 no limit hold'em game. About 5 minutes later they called another player for the game and this huge dude sat down across from me. I looked up at him and realized "Holy shit, that's Jose Canseco!"

Jose played for the A's in the late 80's and early 90's and I remember having his baseball cards and watching him play when I was a kid. In the years since his playing days he's best known for being the biggest whistleblower on steroids in baseball and doing celebrity boxing.

He also bought in for $500 and I expected him to be kind of a wild player. He turned out to be anything but.

A few hands in 4 of us took a flop with no raise. The board was A 5 4 and figuring if someone had an ace they'd likely have raised pre-flop, I fired out a pot sized bet with a pair of 5's. Jose folded pocket kings face-up lamenting how the past few hands had been raised pre-flop and how no one fell for his trap.

A little later a huge hand came up. I'd won a few nice pots and had about $1,000 in front of me when I got dealt KQ. After Jose and the woman next to him called $5 I raised to $25. The button, the small blind, Jose and the woman all called. The flop came down JT9! BINGO! I'd flopped the nut straight.

The small blind bet out $80 into the $125 pot and as he pushed his chips into the pot I was trying to decide if I should raise now or pop him on the turn. Then Jose put $250 out there! And then the woman next to him went all in for $150! Holy shit! It's not every day that you flop the stone cold nuts and get 3 people to put in big action in front of you.

There were two clubs on board so I figured I was up against at least one flush draw and probably a set as well. If that was the case I'd need to fade a club or a board pair to take it down. The best case was being up against multiple flush draws or multiple set or two pair type of hands. The guy who bet $80 was sitting on about $900 and Jose had another $500 in his stack after putting $250 in already. With over $600 out there already and a draw heavy board, there was only one move - all in!

I shoved my ten stacks of chips into the pot and to my shock and amazement the button - who was the last player in the hand and facing heavy action from 4 other players - stopped to think. He had about $700 in front of him and I was having dollar signs explode in my brain.

After 30 seconds the button folded and the small blind instantly called for another $900! With the action back on Jose he folded 87 face up. He'd flopped the lower end of the straight and let it go which was a big laydown.

The rest of the hand was not filled with as much drama. The small blind also had KQ with no clubs and the woman who was all in didn't show, but said she needed runner, runner and mucked her hand after a small red card came on the turn. I split a nice pot with the small blind and we moved on to the next one.

A little later I got dealt QQ in the small blind. Jose limped in from the cut off and the button made it $25 to go. 95% of the time I like re-raising with QQ, but the button was $800 deep and I figured a reraise would either blow him off the hand preflop and I'd make a whopping $35 or I'd put myself in a spot where I was playing a big pot out of position. Neither of those sounded great and I figured I might catch one of my opponents off guard as they'd never put me on QQ.

When the action got back to Jose he made it $175 to go! Usually when someone just calls before the flop and then puts in a reraise they have a huge hand like AA or KK. Sometimes it's something like 77 or 88 if they can shove in the rest of their stack, but he had another $500+ behind so I didn't think it was anything marginal. I thought back to that first hand where he just called with KK preflop and another where he did the same thing so I knew that play was squarely in his range. My options were pretty much shove all in or fold. After 30 seconds I opted to let it go. I showed my hand and he showed me AK!

If I was 100% sure he had AK I would have called as I'd be 57% to win the hand, but if he did have AA or KK I'd only be 18% to win.

My last big hand against Jose came an hour or so later. The under the gun player raised to $20, got one caller and Jose made it $100 to go. I was in the big blind and looked down at KK! Jose had about $300 behind at that point and after considering the pro and cons of just calling, I figured there was a very good chance if I just moved all in he'd call me. I was almost positive he had a big hand as he'd shown a large percentage of the hands he'd raised and they'd all been premium hands. So I shoved.

At that point the original raiser who was sitting on $600 started moaning and groaning. The only hand I was worried about was AA and I knew he'd have snap called with that so I was 100% sure I was good vs him. Get in there baby! He agonized for a full minute before folding. Jose also quickly folded. After the hand they both said they had JJ! If they'd called (and weren't lying) I'd be 96% to win against both of them combined!

After about 3 hours Jose lost his $500 and hit the road. He was very friendly and chatty with the other players at the table. He took pictures with 5 or 6 people and seemed happy to do it. He was a little too passive, but he played pretty well in general. It was a cool experience.

All through the night things went well for me. I had one or two hands go against me, but the biggest driver of my results was the four hands where I flopped a pair with a flush draw. Those hands are hugely powerful because you're about 50% to make two pair or better by the river and provide a great opportunity to be very aggressive.

On the first I had 98 of spades and the flop came A Q 9 with two spades. My opponent bet $50 into a $100 pot, I put him all in for $225, he called, I made two pair on the river and it was good.

On the second, I had 65 of hearts, the flop came down K 7 6 with two hearts, someone shoved for $100 into a $130 pot, I called and made the flush on the turn.

On the third I had T9 of hearts and the flop came down A K 9 with two hearts. It got checked to me and I bet $20 into a $25 pot. The villain in this hand check raised to $65 and I just called. The turn was a 6 of clubs and the villain bet $100. I decided to put him to the test and made it $300 to go. After 30 seconds he folded.

On the fourth, I had 87 of spades and I put someone all in for $200 on a Q 8 4 with two spades flop, they called and I made the flush on the river.

In the end I walked out the door up $1,322 on the night!

The Captain of the Douches

On Thursday I played against the worst player I can remember. Not the worst in terms of poker, but this guy was just THE WORST!

While waiting for the $2/$3/$5 game I sat down at a new $1/$1/$2. The guy to my right was a young white guy with a loose fitting tank top, basketball shorts, a backwards hat, sunglasses and a couple of gold chains. He announced that this was his first time playing in person, but that he had played online.

He had no clue what was going on. He tried to buy in for $1,000 in a $200 max buy in game (the least of his offences). On the first hand, when the dealer told him it was "two to go" he threw in two yellow $5 chips thinking he was calling. He never once acted without being prompted by the dealer. He never once acted without taking 10 seconds or more. He couldn't keep track of who was in the hand and kept getting upset about it. He was blaming the other players for hiding their cards when everyone had them in front of their chip stacks.

He would NOT STOP TALKING! Holy shit! It's been two days and just thinking about this guy makes me angry. After 15 minutes I had had enough and went to go play $6/$12 instead. I didn't care how much money I could potentially make from the guy, I couldn't take it.

90 minutes later I got called for $2/$3/$5 and guess who was there? The Captain of the Douches. He hadn't gotten any better. It is excruciating to have the dealer tell the same person 2 or 3 times every time it is their turn to act when they are in every hand and never ever know what it's going on.

Dealer: It's on you.
Douche: (silence)
Dealer: It's on you, $5 to call.
Douche: I check.
Dealer: You can't check. It's $5 to call.
Douch: Who is in the hand?
Dealer: There are two callers. It's $5 to call.
Douche: (after 10 seconds puts in a $5 chip)
(the flop comes out)
Dealer: It's on you. Check or bet.
Douche: How much is it?
Dealer: Check or bet.
Douche: Who is in the hand?
Dealer: 4 players
Douche: (after 10 seconds taps the table to check)
Dealer: (after another player bets $50) It's on you. $50 to call.
Douche: (taps the table to attempt to check).
Dealer: There's a bet of $50.
Douche: (taps the table even harder to attempt to check)
Dealer: You can't check, it's $50 to you.
Douche: How much?
Dealer: $50 (thinking "I just told you three fucking times is was $50 to go you douche!")
Douche: (Takes 30 seconds to count out 14 $5 chips one at a time)
Dealer: (pushes back the 4 extra chips).
Dealer: Check or bet.
Douche: Who is in the hand?
Dealer: One other player over there.
Douche: I check
Dealer: He's all in for $200
Douche: How much is it?
Dealer: $200
Douche: How much does he have left?
Dealer: He's all in for $200.
Douche: (Puts $75 in the pot) I RE-raise!
Dealer: You're calling?
Douche: Yeah...Oh he's all in OK.
Dealer: He calls. The player over there has aces up.
Douche: (silence)
Dealer: Turn over your hand.
Douche: What? Did he call me?
Dealer: He has aces up. Turn your hand over.
Douche: (Turns over one pair of fives)
Dealer (pushes the pot)
Douche: What did he have? You guys have to stop hiding your cards.

It was like this hand after hand! And it's not like he was just confused, he was a dick too.

He was nursing a Bud Lite or two, but it seemed pretty clear he was on something else. Before long the shift manager cut him off from drinking and told him he had to speed it up or they'd pick him up.

10 hands later (which took about 45 minutes) I was losing $200 and ready to swallow some poker chips in the hopes that I'd choke on them, pass out and wake up in the hospital far far away from this guy.

Then he got involved in a hand where on the turn his opponent moved all in on him. Since he knew it was going to take an eon and a half for the Douche to call him, he picked up his phone and started playing a game. The Douche cried foul! "You're going to let him just use his phone in the middle of a hand?" First he complained to the dealer and then to a floorman who was passing by. He then pointed out another person nearby who was just standing around and accused his opponent of somehow collaborating with the other guy to cheat him. Someone could be texting the guy the Douche's exact two cards and it wouldn't matter - he was already all in! This logic was lost on the Douche.

The floor man told him to act on his hand. Out of sheer anger the Douche folded. Then he took out his phone and said "So I can just start taking pictures in the middle of a hand?" The floor man told him that no actually he couldn't take pictures or video, but texting or playing games while you're not in a hand or have moved in and there's nothing left for you to do, is OK.

The Douche was not to be deterred! "This is bull shit! I'm going to fucking sue this place!" The floorman said "Ok that's it, grab your chips, let's go." The floorman had to rack up the Douche's chips and he spent about 30 second talking about suing before being escorted off.

About 3 minutes later I heard him cry out "HE HIT ME!" and turned around to see him with a security guard and the shift manager. I can say for 100% sure that there was no chance either of them had hit him, but it looked like they both wanted to tear his head off. They hustled him out the front door and my guess is he met with the police out there shortly after.

As soon as that was over, things got back to normal. I played another 2 hours, made a few big hands and walked out the door with $695 more than I walked in with.

I really hope I never see that guy again.

Bluffs Need to Tell a Believable Story

I played 4 hours of $2/$3/$5 NL at the Oaks last night and my results came down to three bluffs.

In the first bluff I limped in for $5 with 76 of spades, one player raised to $20 and we took the flop 4 way. The flop came down K 9 5 with two hearts giving me a gutshot straight draw. The action checked around to the button who bet $25 and after a player in the big blind called I decided to call as well.

The turn paired the 5 and I decided to take a shot at it. The bet of $25 on the flop from the button felt really weak to me which was a big reason I called on the flop. It seemed like "well, everyone checked to me so I guess I'll bet." A real hand would have bet $50-$75 on the flop.

After a check from the big blind I bet out $100. That's about how much I'd bet if I had a 5 and since I in fact had 76 I could just as easily had 65 (or A5). To my surprise I got called by the button. At that point I figured I was up against a king or a flush draw. Happily an off suit A came on the river, I bet out $150 and won the pot. Hooray!

On the second instance I had A6 of hearts and found another spot to take a shot at winning the pot without the best hand. In this instance the flop had come down Q 8 6 with two spades and one club and the villain had bet $30 into a $75 pot. I called, the turn came out the 3 of clubs and the villain bet $40. Betting $30 into $75 is kind of weak. Betting $40 into $135 felt even weaker. The villain only had about $160 behind so I trusted my read and moved all in, figuring it made sense to risk $200 to win $175 when I read my opponent as weak.

Normally, call the flop, raise the turn is a line that screams big hand (at least two pair). But I made a big mistake here and I realized it about 5 seconds after I moved in while the villain was thinking. The mistake was this was a very draw heavy board with two flush draws and lots of potential straight draws. I could easily be on a semi bluff. Also there weren't any solid two pair combinations. The 3 was a brick. I was really trying to represent a set and it couldn't be QQ since I was not a preflop raiser. Another problem is my opponent was a thinker. He's not a great player, but he could make a read and trust it. He called me with A8! Gah! I knew he was weak! I'm sure he thought with an 8 in his hand 88 was an unlikely hand for me and I would have folded 33 on the flop. That only leaves 66 or a semi bluff in my range with the latter being much more likely.

A little later I had this last hand top of mind when I made another bluff. I've forgotten what I had, but I know it was total air. The flop came down 8 7 3 with two clubs, it got checked to me on the button and I bet out $60 into an $80 pot. I should mention that I'd bet maybe 6 or 7 flops by that point and only gotten called once. I was getting a ton of respect from a rather weak table. I got one caller and the turn was a ten of clubs completing the flush draw. It got checked to me and I wasn't really sure what to do so I stalled a bit and made it look like I was thinking about betting, but then checked. I probably should have fired again, but I talked myself out of it.

The river paired the 7. My opponent checked and I quickly fired $150 into the pot. This line told a believable story. That story was "I flopped a 7 and bet it on the flop because I was last to act, but then checked because of the over card and the flush coming in, but now I have trips so here's a big fat $150 in your face!" My opponent said nice hand, and folded.

The rest of the night was very slow. I was never up or down more than $200 and booked a $51 win on the night.

I'm back in action Friday.

The Ballad of Sheriff Short Memory and His Magical Penny

I walked into the Oaks last night and within 5 minutes was sitting down at a new $2/$3/$5 NL game that just started.

About 10 minutes later I got involved in my first noteworthy hand. The under the gun player raised to $15, two players in the field called and I looked down at AQ in the small blind. I should have raised to $75 here, but I just called and along with the big blind we took the flop 5 way. I could argue that against an under the gun raiser AQ was not in great shape and that I wanted to get to know the players a bit before getting involved in a big hand, but more so I think I called because I'd gotten my ass beat the night before and was a little tentative, which is not ideal.

The flop came down Q T 7 which was great for me. I went for the check raise, but sadly everyone checked around. The turn was a 6, I bet out $50, and got called by the big blind (who is the Key Villain in some upcoming hands). The river was another Q! Bingo! Trips!

I figured my opponent either had one pair like a T or maybe 88 or 99, a worse Q, or a draw and I had to decide how much to bet. If he had a draw I wouldn't get called no matter how much I bet so I threw that out of the equation and if it was a Q I could move all in and probably get called. But there was only one Q left after accounting for the one in my hand and the two on the board so a T or pocket pair was much more likely. I bet $100 figuring I might get called by a hand like KT or JT.

My opponent quickly called and said "I hope we chop." "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I thought. He rolled over 98 for a straight and I thanked my lucky stars that he didn't raise me on the turn or the river. I guess he figured I had to have at least a straight to bet and was hoping I didn't have a full house? Strange. Not a great start.

A few hands later I got dealt KK in the big blind. There was a straddle just to my left and when the action came to me 5 players were in for $10. I made it $65 to go and I got two callers. The flop came down K T 6! Top set! Zing!

One of my opponents had about $200 left and the other only had $50 so even though there was $200+ in the pot I bet small sliding $65 into the pot. The guy with $200 shoved and the other guy called!

I had the nuts, but this was a draw heavy board with two clubs out there on the flop. The turn was a 9 meaning the obvious straight draw got there. The river was the 7 of clubs bringing in the flush draw. Shit! I rolled over my hand reluctantly and the bigger stack showed 66 and the other guy mucked! Hey good things happening to me! I remember you!

Right before that hand the dealer found a penny in the rack of chips and tossed it to the guy with the 66. When I took all of his chips he said "here take the penny too" figuring perhaps it was cursed. I kept it on my stack the rest of the session planning to throw it to anyone who got my chips and that's where it stayed for the rest of the night.

I had more good things happen to me for the next couple of hours. After my set of kings I had about $900 in front of me which was enough to have everyone covered and I used that stack to my advantage. There were two guys in the game who had a pattern of calling the flop with just about anything - any pair, overcards, gutshots, backdoor flushes - and then folding on the turn if they didn't have at least top pair. If they did have top pair or better or made their hand they'd come out betting on the turn. All I had to do to beat them was bet the flop and bet the turn every time I was in there with them. Ta da! Easy!

One of these two guys kept asking me what I had or could I beat hand X. I told him "I don't know" or "Maybe" or "It could have been anything." After the second or third time he started calling me 'Short Memory.' "Hey Short Memory, could you beat fours on that one?" "I don't know, maybe."

Around that time I got involved in two hands with the Key Villain I mentioned earlier. This guy was about 40, Asian, looked kind of dorky. He bought in for $500 and handled the chips and cards like he was experienced, and I had a hard time getting past the fact that he looked and acted like he knew what he was doing, when looking back I don't think he really did.

On the first hand 5 of us saw a flop for $20 and I flopped a flush with 97 of diamonds on an A 6 4 all diamond board. Key Villain who was not the preflop raiser bet out $30 which was a really small bet into a $100 pot. I figured he had an ace with no diamond or maybe the king of diamonds. I was all set to bet if it was checked to me and all set to call a big bet, but I wasn't really sure what to do with this bet. I didn't really want to let someone else with a big diamond outdraw me cheaply, but didn't want to blow everyone out of there on the flop either. I decided to take a risk and just call, and everyone else folded.

The turn was a black 8, and he bet $35. Gah! I was really hoping for a bigger bet or a check. But this even more so felt like an ace with no diamond holding. I figured if I raised I'd blow him off the hand for sure and my guess was if no diamond came on the end I'd see a check and could make a sizeable bet that was likely to get called. With that in mind again I just called.

The river paired the 4 and he bet $35 again. I made it $145 and after 5 seconds went by and he didn't shove on me I knew I didn't run into a full house. After 30 seconds he folded. I would have been nice to make more with that hand, but picking up $180 or so didn't suck.

A little later the player just to my right who was sitting on a stack of $1,000 made it $30 and I called with 99 dreaming of hitting set and taking it all. The big blind plus the Key Villain who had just called under the gun came along as well.

The flop came down A 5 4 with two diamonds and everyone checked to me. I figured if no one had an ace I could bet and take down the pot so I fired out $75. Only the Key Villain called. At this point I figured he had a draw that was likely a flush draw. In that previous hand where I was pretty sure he had an ace he'd come out betting and even if he did have an ace it probably wasn't a strong ace since he didn't come in for a raise preflop. I on the other hand had called a good sized raise cold so a big ace was squarely in the middle of my likely hand range.

The turn was an 8. He checked, I cut out $150 from my stack and pushed it into the pot figuring I could blow him off a weak ace and knowing I was a big favorite against a flush draw. After about 5 seconds he shoved for $241. Ugh!

Turn check raises are almost never bluffs. No one ever bluffs for another $91 into $400+ pots. All I could beat was a bluff...or maybe a flush draw? Would he do that with a flush draw? I didn't really think so, but I was getting more than 5 to 1 on my money so I reluctantly put in another $91.

The river was a 2 and he said "Just an ace." I nodded sadly, but didn't roll over my cards as it was his turn to show first. When he flipped over his cards he had 87! He'd actually said "Just an eight" and I'd misheard him! Yeah baby! Send the cookies!

As soon as he left I said "Let that be a lesson to the rest of you. Don't test me! I'm calling everyone down super lite!" That got a good laugh and someone said "The Sheriff is in town!" which got echoed in a few other spots.

Two hands later I got dealt AT off suit and raised to $20. I got 5 callers which was not ideal, but the flop came down A Q 6 with one spade which was pretty good. Some of the time I like to check top pair even when I'm the preflop raiser. Not often, but enough so that people have to consider that I might have an ace even when I check on an ace high board. A 6 way pot seemed like a good time to let someone else take the lead. It got checked around.

The turn was the 3 of spades and the big blind bet out $45. I called and everyone else folded. My hope was I was up against a worse ace and that I'd see a check, bet, call, I win type of action on the river.

The river came out a 4 of spades completing the flush draw. My opponent quickly shoved all in for $140. Most people will back off when a flush draw comes in and my check on the flop plus call in the turn would be reasonable with a flush draw. His bet felt off to me. I figured he either had made the flush himself or had lost his mind. It was the latter. I called and he showed 77.

The guy to my left leaned over and said "he must not of heard what you said a minute ago." Sheriff Short Memory is calling people down over here! Watch out!

I ended up playing for 5 hours and won $1,219 on the night. It was a fun session. Good things happened to me! And I played well! Hooray!

I took the penny with me...

One of These Hands Is Not Like the Other

After an amazing vacation in Colorado I was back at the Oaks Thursday night where two hands defined my night.

There was only one $2/$3/$5 game going when I walked in the door so I jumped in to a $6/$12 limit game while I was waiting. An hour later I was down $256 without winning a single pot. Not a good start! They started a new $2/$3/$5 game at that point and I sat down with a few familiar faces and a few new ones.

About 15 minutes in the player two off the button put in $10 to straddle. I was on the button and looked down at KK. I made it $40 to go and the action folded around to the straddle. I figured I was about to win the $20 in the pot and move on to the next hand, but my opponent started reaching for chips. After about 15 seconds of messing with his chips he moved all in! He had about $300 and of course I snap called him.

When he turned over his hand he had 88 meaning I was 82% to win. The flop came down 6 6 2, the turn was a 9 and the river was...an 8. Fuck! Even though this has happened to me thousands of times it still hurts.

After that kick in the nuts I spent the next few hours dragging. It seemed like every other pot there were 5 limpers who would check it down all the way to the end. It was super passive, which in general is good, but I was mostly getting total garbage and it's not a good idea to try to force it with nothing when you're losing even if you might be able to run over a weak table. I won a few pots that mostly looked like, raise, get one or two callers, bet the flop and win, but nothing better than that.

I found myself stuck about $700 total on the night including my $6/$12 action when I decided enough was enough and I should just bail.

On my last hand before picking up I got K9 of clubs and threw in a $5 chip to call. This was a pretty loose call under the gun, but there were only 7 players dealt in and it was a game with not a ton of raising so I figured what the hell. The button called and the small blind raised to $30. Knowing I was making a bad call, I called, and the button folded. This was a frustration call at the end of 4 hours of frustrating play. Raises out of the blinds are almost always strong hands. I've specifically spent a ton of time talking about that with two poker friends recently and I totally ignored it.

The flop came down 6 4 2 all clubs! A ha! I'd flopped a flush. I got away with my shitty call, I thought to myself. My opponent had a little over $300 behind and bet out $50. I looked back at my cards even though I knew exactly what I had to make it look like I was checking to see if I had a club and then I just called.

The turn was a red 9 and my opponent checked. At this point I figured I was up against AK or AQ with no club and if I bet out I wouldn't get called. If it wasn't that, I was up against a big pair with no club that was being cautious, but either way I figured my opponent was drawing dead and If I checked would bet out as long as the river wasn't a club. So I checked.

The river paired the 6 and my opponent bet out $100. I thought that was a bad card because when I shoved my opponent might put me on a 6 and fold an over pair, but moving all in was my only move. My opponent quickly called and turned over 99 for a full house! Son of a bitch! I did not see that coming.

If you look at the point in each hand where you were in the best shape you can convince yourself that you're the most unlucky person in the world so I try not to do that, but with that said I was 98% to win that pot after the flop.

I lost $1,073 on the night. If I can get KK to hold up against 88 and a flopped flush to hold against an overpair I book a small win.

I'm back in action tonight ready for some good things to happen to me.

My Journey from $5 to Glory on Carbon Poker

On April 15th, 2011 the US government seized the domains of the 4 biggest poker sites in the US; Pokerstars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. These sites represented about 95% of the US online poker market share. I've always been surprised that not many people have asked "What about the other 5%?"

That last 5% was made up of about 150 sites. In 2009 or 2010 the state of Kentucky tried to ban all online gambling and that's how many sites they came up with. Could the federal government not do a Google search for online gambling? This always seemed like the shadiest shit.

Fast forward 4 years and Pokerstars is still the biggest site in the world, they bought the carcass of Full Tilt, paid off everyone in the US who had deposits on those two sites (to the tune of about $750,000,000), and is hoping to get back in the US market.

The 5% of the sites that survived and others that have come along are sketchy to say the least. One site - Lock Poker - came into existence, advertised heavily, built up some market share, had some problems and then essentially closed up shop and kept whatever player deposits they had left. Factoring in that you could lose any money you have on these sites via government shutdown (everyone who had money on Absolute Poker or Ultimate bet got $0 back) or implosion by the site itself is part of the risk you take playing.

But people are still playing. So I decided to look into it.

It seems like Carbon Poker, America's Cardroom and Bovada are the leaders and while looking in to this stuff I happened to create an account at Carbon Poker. The deposit options seems like a major pain in the ass and after that brief investigation I forgot about it. A few days later I got an email saying they'd put $5 into my account to try out their real money games. Ah ha!

There were a few famous stories of top pros starting with some small amount like $10 and building it up to $10,000 over the course of a couple of months of online play to prove to everyone they could start over. 2000 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Ferguson actually started with $0 and played freerolls until he won some small amount of cash and built that into $10,000.

I started off playing the $.05/$.10 no limit tables with my $5 which was the smallest stakes game they offer. With only 50 big blinds to work with I knew I'd need to get lucky. But I made a few hands and before I knew it I was up to $15! I started buying into those games with the minimum $3 and made an effort to play my best and avoid going fully broke at all costs.

After 3 or 4 hours of play here and there over the course a week I was up to $25, started buying in for $5 and began playing 2-3 games at a time. After I made it up to $40 I started playing the $.10/$.25 tables. They were actually not all the different from the games at the Oaks and I found it to be good no pressure practice.

I played a few $5 tournaments along the way and had mixed success, but right after coming back from the WSOP I jumped into am $11 tournament with 175 players, a $3 tournament with 270 players and a $5 tournament with 350 players. This was a bit risky for my bankroll (I was up to $75 by that point), but I finished 12th in the $11 and made the final table coming in 6th in the $3. That got me to about $130.

I ran stupid hot and found it so frustrating to have run bad in Vegas in $500 and $1000 tournaments only to come back and get amazing cards in a $3 tournament! GAH!

Another thing struck me when signing up for these tournaments. I just signed up and played. Compare that to the Colossus where I had to sign up online, go to the bank and complete a wire transfer, fly to Vegas, wait an hour in a line to get my seat card the night before, and then finally show up the day of and play. What a huge pain in the ass!

After a blazing $30 win today I'm up to $160! I think I've put in somewhere around 15 hours over the past 6 weeks to get to this point. I honestly don't know if they're going to let me cash this money out as I haven't made a deposit and I bet no one ever does anything with that $5 other than blow it off. I think if I can make it up to about $500 I'll try to take some out and see what happens.

I miss Pokerstars.

Goof Ball Problems

I sat down with a bunch of goof balls at $2/$3/$5 at the Oaks tonight. I got involved in a big pot right away.

On the second hand an early position player raised to $35 and got called by a middle position player. I looked down at AK and made it $100 to go. Both players just called and the flop came down A T 5. So far so good.

The first player checked and the middle position player move in for $300. There were no flush draws out there, he was putting out "I am a goof!" vibes and there was nothing for me to do but go all in for $400. The other player folded, the turn was a queen, the river was a 7 and my opponent showed me A5 for two pair. GAH! The other player said he had KK! If he's 4 bet like he's supposed to, Mr. A5 is out of there, and I could have either gotten off it or more likely gotten it in there and won $500 on the second hand! Instead I was stuck $400. DOUBLE GAH!

The game was playing fast and loose and I bled chips for 3 hours. I didn't win a single pot at showdown during that time. I don't think I made more than a couple of bets for value either. The only thing that kept me from going totally down the toilet was a few well timed bluffs. But that only slowed the bleeding and I found myself stuck $800 at one point.

Then a bunch of the goofs left and the game cooled off. It went from lots of 5 way pots for a raise post flop to standard 2-3 players post flop and a lot more limped pots. I much prefer the latter. I'd rather have people who are playing straightforwardly who I can figure out what they're thinking rather than nut balls who are all over the place. The nutballs always go broke, but the only way to beat them is to make hands and in recent memory I never seem to make the big hands when things are fast and loose.

During the cool period, I won about 10 pots in an hour. I got AA and it held up with some action. I made a straight on a hand that was bet all the way through by my opponent. I flopped top pair with a flush draw in a big pot, got action on the flop, and unloaded everyone on the turn. I took down a short stack who flopped a K with K9 vs my KJ. A few basic raise, get two callers, and they both fold to a bet hands went my way. None of these were huge pots, but the certainly added up.

I turboed up to +$318 on the night and headed for the door. It felt great to book a win when I'd been losing all night.

Using "The Hammer of Future Bets" at the Oaks

When I walked out of the Palms at 5:30 am on Monday to fly back to Oakland I was thinking "I do not want to bet on anything for at least a month." Fast forward 36 hours and I was at the Oaks playing $2/$3/$5.

Most players go into a no limit session thinking "I'm going to wait for a big hand and take someone's whole stack with it!" Stacking other people is great, but the only problem in you need a big hand AND you need your opponent to have a worse, but still big hand or make a big bluff. It just doesn't come together all that often.

Lately I've been going in thinking "I hope I run into a lot of spots where my opponent can't call."

I bought in for $500 and had a hand where my opponent couldn't call come up right away. 4 of us saw a flop for $25 each and it checked around. The turn brought a 3rd diamond to the board making a flush possible and the big blind bet out $50. I had the ace of diamonds in my hand and had two options: call the $50 and hope to hit or put the heat on. I made it $175 to go and after some hemming and hawing my opponent folded, and I picked up the $150 in the pot.

One thing in play here is what David Sklansky calls "The Hammer of Future Bets." From my opponent's perspective he's trying to decide if I made a flush on the turn or not. If all he had to do is call the raise on the turn he might have done it on the off chance I was bluffing or raising a hand that wasn't a flush that he could beat. But if I did have a flush he doesn't just have to worry about the $175 I just put in, he also has to worry about the $300+ I have behind. If I had a flush I'm certainly going to shove that last $300 into what would have been a $450 pot on the river.

I had almost the exact same thing come up on the very next hand. I made a big raise on the turn after calling a flop bet when a third card of a suite came out and won the pot. Again I had the ace of the suit, but not a made flush.

Close to 100% of the time there is 4 to a straight on the board and it's checked to me I bet 75%-100% of what's in the pot and I don't think anyone has called me in the last 6 months.

This sounds simple enough, but believe me it's hard to put in a big bet without a real hand.

Here is another great example that is both frustrating and a learning moment. A player to my right raised to $25 in early position and I looked down at AA. I was sitting on a stack of about $1,000 at that point and he had about $900. I made it $65 to go and after some hesitation he called.

The flop came down J 6 3, he checked and I bet $80. He started asking me if I'd show if he folded. I didn't say a thing. After at least a full minute of asking me if I'd show every 10 seconds he folded QQ face up! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It might look like this is a great play, but it's not. It's fear. He wasn't thinking about the $80 I bet on the flop. He was thinking about the $150 that I was going to bet on the turn and the $250 on the river. He's thinking "I'm not sure I want to put $500 or $600 or my whole stack in on this one." He's both getting ahead of himself and he's thinking that most of my three bet range is AA and KK. I happened to have AA, but I could have easily had AK or AQ or TT.

I realized in this moment that I need to be three betting way more. For almost everyone else at the table a 3 bet means JJ-AA or AK. I need to start putting the heat on people regularly because they are going to panic and put me on pocket aces.

I managed to run my $500 up to about $1,400 and then had a slow but steady decline. One guy gave me a lot of trouble and by gave me a lot of trouble made a few huge hands and dodged my draws.

On the first hand he had KK and I had top pair and a flush draw (I missed).

On the second hand he flopped an ace high straight against my straight draw (I missed)

On the third hand he flopped trips against my straight draw (I missed)

On the fourth hand he made a flush against my two pair.

My normal go to is to push pretty hard with draws in the hopes of picking up the pot without having to make the draw, but in all of these instances I luckily read him as being strong (i.e. not likely to fold) and he bet small enough that I was getting the right price to draw. I'm really lucky I didn't get crushed on that first one.

In the end I booked a $274 win on the night. A little disappointing given that I was up $900 at one point, but a little move in the right direction. I'll be back in action Thursday or Friday.

2015 WSOP - Final Thoughts

I read an article that said that this past weekend was the busiest poker weekend in the history of Las Vegas. I have no trouble believing that. My guess is that for every person who played the Colossus there was at least one friend who tagged along or one person who wanted to play, but got shut out. I think they could have done another 10,000 entries if they had the space. I know I would have plunked down at least one more buy in and probably two if I had the chance.

As I understand it every tournament across town sold out and had hundreds of alternates for tournaments that normally only have dozens of players. Every waiting list I saw Friday and Saturday for cash games (at any stakes except high limit) was 50+ names long and sometimes 100+. Basically every single casio had every single poker table full and could have filled up the same number of tables again.

A few other things stick out about the trip.

#1 - I had shitty luck on this trip. In poker and other games, I ran well below expectation.

#2 I desperately want to do well at the WSOP. I really wish I could play more this year, but on top of major financial risk it's just not easy for me to take time off from work and away from my kids. Look how cool the final table set up is!

How amazing would it be to be at a final table playing in front of a crowd and being live streamed on the internet? I want it so bad! GAH! I took that picture of the last two guys in the $3,000 shootout. Fun fact - one of them was not wearing shoes and the other was in sandals! If you had a poker player foot fetish you would have lost your shit!

#3 - Losing sucks. There is no doubt about it. But I'm able to handle losing so much better now at 35 than in my 20's. It's not fun, but I don't get nearly as upset as I used to. I get less upset for a much shorter amount of time. It helps a lot that there is much less riding on my success these days, but I think being older and wiser is as important.

#4 - I'm already doing the math on how many hours I'm going to have to put in between now and next june at $2/$3/$5 at the Oaks in order to win enough so I can spend some, pay for a longer trip with more events, and have enough left over to still have a bankroll.

#5 - I'm massively torn between wanting to go play today and not play for at least a solid month.

One of these days I'm going to get the job done!

2015 WSOP Event #6 - $1,000 Hyper Turbo

I was on the fence about playing this one. After my relatively quick demise in both flights of the Colossus I didn't feel super pumped about paying a fast structure event. But I was excited that barring a final table I'd get to play it in one day.

After all the fucking wire transfers and pre-registration and waiting in fucking lines it felt great to just walk up to the cage, plop down a grand and walk out with my seat card all in less than 5 minutes. I sent out a nasty tweet to the @WSOP twitter account while waiting in line for my pre-registered seat card for the Colossus, but I will say that in terms of logistics in general they do an amazing job.

It also felt good to start at 11 am instead of 9:30 pm.

When I got to my table I saw I was sitting next to Annette Obrestad. Annette is most famous for winning the 10,000 Euro buy in WSOP Europe main event (for $2,000,000+) when she was 19. She was a prodigy and already a seasoned online pro by that time. I'd say she's one of the top 10 women tournament players (with Vanessa Selbst as the undisputed #1) and is #187 on the all time tournament earnings list now at 26. She can't be much more than 5 feet tall or much over 100 pounds - she's tiny! I can also now say that she's super nice.

I had my starting stack of 5,000 up to 7,000 when a big hand came up. With blinds of 50/100 a early/middle position player raised to 250 and I reraised him to 800 out of the small blind with 99. He called and the flop came down J 8 4 with two spades. I bet 1,100 on the flop and after about 15 seconds my opponent moved all in for 2,700.

I was watching him intently before he moved in and I got the sense that he was genuinely conflicted. I took my time deciding what to do. I had to call another 1,600 with a chance to win the 5,500 in the pot and I'd still have about 3,500 to work with if I called and lost. I figured if he had a hand like AJ, KJ or QJ he'd be all in with little hesitation. A flush draw was a likely possibility. 88 or JJ were possibilities. 9T was not all that likely since I had two of the 9s. A8 would probably fold to a reraise pre-flop, but still a remote possibility. 44 probably would get mucked pre-flop. 66 or 77 was possible. AK probably would have shoved pre-flop, but maybe not. A total bluff had to be considered, but he wasn't making a huge raise so that didn't seem like it would have much chance of working thus he wouldn't be likely to try it.

I was having trouble putting the picture together, but in the end I figured there was probably a 40% chance I'd be good and I was getting 3.5 to 1 on my money. He had TT! Of course! That fit together with being conflicted, but still going for it. No miracles for me on that one.

I got KK twice in the next 30 minutes and got a little action bringing me back to about 5,000 in chips.

After 2 hours of play I had my one hand against Annette Obrestad come up. She'd had some hands go against her and was down to 2,250 and in the small blind with blinds at 200/400 with a 50 ante. It folded to her and she moved all in. I was expecting this and looked down at Q3. Again I took my time sorting it out.

I had to call 1,850 to win the 3,350 in the pot. I thought she might shove with any two there as I had a tight table image and she's aggressive. I'd be a small favorite against a range that was literally any 2. Unless she had a pair I'd be getting the right price to call.

I called and she had 93 of hearts! A ha! I was way ahead. And I flopped a queen! Double a ha! And she made a flush when the turn and river were both hearts. GAH! I was 95.2% to win after that flop, but who's counting?

A couple of hands later I was on the button with 1,800 left. I looked at a king which was enough to go with and I shoved. The big blind called with A2 and when I looked at my other card it was a 2 also. Double GAH! Again no miracles.

That was the end of my 2015 WSOP.

WSOP Colossus Event 5D Recap

I made my way back to the Rio for my second shot at glory in the Colossus on Saturday night and started playing as part of the first "late wave" at 9:20. By that time the 4th flight of the tournament had been underway for 2 hours plus a break and was now on level 4 (100/200 blinds).

The news would come out the next day that a total of 22,374 entries were part of the Colossus - 10 to 20 times as many entries as typical no limit event at the WSOP and 200 times as big as a bay area $500 tournament. An astonishing 2,241 spots would pay with 2,241st paying $1,096 and 1st paying a surprisingly low (relatively speaking of course) $638K. 1st place in some tournaments can get as much as 40% of the total prize pool and I've never seen an event with 1st getting less than 10% (which would have been about $1.1M).

I got off to a terrible start. On the second hand I was in the small blind and the big blind was not at the table (his cards are automatically folded, but his chips go in the pot). The action folded to the button who made it 500 to go. I had 4,800 chips and T8 of hearts which felt too strong to fold against a hand that could be any two, but not strong enough the 3 bet (maybe). The flop came down T 5 3 which was a great flop for me.

I have to admit that even though I was very likely to have the best hand, I was thinking about how to avoid going broke with it on the second hand.

I checked and my opponent bet a modest 500. I called. The turn was a king which was a bad card, but I again checked and called 500. A repeat of the same bet on the turn is almost always weak, but my options were to pretty much commit to going all in or just call it down. The river was a 2 and I decided to fire out 1,000. I didn't think I could fold to a bet, but figured I might be looking at a bet bigger than that on the river if I checked - it was primarily a "blocking bet." There was also some chance I'd get called by a worse hand trying to catch a bluff as I took a weird line on the hand. My opponent called with K3 and I was down to 2,300. Shit!

Two hands later I got dealt TT. Someone opened for 525 and I shoved. He called me with AJ and I managed to double up.

Around this time I realized I was playing with a bunch of stooges. Not like pretty good players who were worse than me or experienced players with a few major leaks, but a few total novices who were having trouble handling their chips and cards and others who were probably the third best player in their monthly home game. It was a real shit show.

It took three other hands that went south to finally get rid of me.

With the blinds at 100/200 with a 25 ante I made it 525 to go with A3 one off the button and got called by the actual cowboy on the button and the woman with the "cow girl" hat on in the big blind. These two were both in the novice category. The flop came down QQ9 and I figured I'd win with a bet if neither had a Q. The cowboy only had 1250 left so I bet 1,100. After a little fussing he went all in and I called another 150. He had KQ and I was down under half my starting stack again.

A few minutes later the cow girl moved all in for 1,500. I was in the big blind with KQ and decided I could easily have the best hand as she had no idea what she was doing and I was calling 1,300 with a chance to win 2,050 getting almost 3 to 2. I called and she showed me A4 which meant I was almost exactly a 3 to 2 underdog. I got no help and was down to about 700.

3 hands later I got dealt QT in the cutoff and shoved (or perhaps plopped is a better word here) my last 575 into the pot. The small blind and the cow girl called me. The flop came down Q J 9 and I thought "A ha! Something good!" But when the small blind check raised the flop and bet the turn I figured I needed help. None came and I lost to the AQ of the small blind (cow girl had KJ).

If I had to do it over again I would probably not enter a late wave. With the stakes so high compared to your chips stack it's hard to survive any one bad thing happening to you. I'm happy that it took three bad things (or 4 if you count the hand I lost T8 to K3) to finally get me, but I'd much rather play deeper.

WSOP 2015 Event #5A -$565 Colossus - Recap

I'm back! I rolled into the Rio at about 8:00 on Thursday night after a long day. My first order of business was to pick up my seat card. I'd registered and wire transferred my buy in a few weeks prior in the hopes of avoiding a huge registration line. FAIL!

What's hard to see in that picture is the 250 other people in front of me wrapping around the corner. The people were moving only slightly faster than pictured. I was thinking I might have 2+ hours of waiting in my future, but after an hour I made it to the front where a dozen WSOP employees were   scurrying around like busy little beavers making copies of driver's licences and getting us all to sign waivers

After I got my seat I headed to the cash game area where everything from standard no limit hold em to $10 a point Open Faced Pineapple Chinese Poker to Big O (omaha where you get 5 cards instead of 4) was in action. I wanted to play a little just to be comfortable in the room before I had to put it on the line in the tournament.

I jumped into a $2/$5 game and was surprised to find that most of the table was sitting on stacks of $1,000-$2,500! I bought in for $500 and quickly discovered that this was the weakest $5 big blind no limit game I'd ever seen. It was total amateur hour. There was a lot of drinking going on and so much talking during the hands! Most players don't say shit when they're in a hand because unless you're Daniel Negranu you're likely to give away information about your hand.

Sadly I didn't make much happen. After 2 hours I was even when my one big hand came up. I got dealt JJ and a dude who thought he was a real hot shot opened for $20. I three bet to $60 and got called by a drunk dude and the hot shot. The flop came Q 4 2 and hot shot bet $60. This clearly seemed like a weak tester bet to me and mr drunk looked like he was ready to fold so I made it $160. I felt like he either had a hand like KQ or a pair 55-TT and would put me on AQ, KK or AA if I raised. He thought for about 30 seconds and called. The turn was small and we both checked. The river was another blank, he bet $200 and I folded.

I made two big mistakes on this hand - 1) I didn't make it enough to get the job done on the flop 2) I didn't shove the turn. In the end I think he did have a Q, and I think I could have gotten him off of it, but I pussed out.

I lost $208 on the session.

The next morning I rolled into the Rio ready for the Colossus! They had tables crammed in everywhere. Notice the slot machines in the background near these tables. They just plopped some down right in the middle of the casino!

 Here are some more outside of Buzios seafood restaurant.

The tournament started at 10 am sharp and my table was maybe a little tougher than I expected but it was pretty tight and everyone kept the pots small. 

We started with 5,000 in chips and blinds of 25/50. My first big hand came up when I raised with JT of spades, got one caller and the flop came down Q T 7 with two spades. I bet and got called. The turn was another ten! With trips and a flush draw for backup I fired again, but my opponent folded.

A little while later with blinds of 50/100 I called a preflop raise of 250 with AQ and we took the flop 5 way. The flop was AQ4 making me two pair. The preflop raiser checked, I bet 700 and got one caller. The turn was a blank and I checked hoping to induce a bluff or otherwise convince my opponent he was good if he had an ace. Like clockwork he bet 1,300 and I shoved for about 3,500. He folded and I took down a nice pot.

By the first break I was up to 8,700. 

The villain in both of those hands was the same guy and I got involved with him again a little later. With blinds of 100/200 the under the gun short stack to my right made it 600 to go. I three bet him with 1,500 with TT, and the villain went all in for 3,200. The short stack called for about 2,500 total and I called as well. The short stack had AQ and the villain had KQ off! His shove was a terrible play in my opinion. I was 44% to win, but a king showed up on the flop and that was it. If the villain had folded I would have beaten the AQ. Grrrr!

Shortly after that everyone left in the Brazilia room (about 200 of us) put our chips in reglular zip lock bags and marched as a group across the hall to the larger Pavilion room where they handed us each a seat card as we walked in. This took about 10 minutes and a few players bitched about how we were missing that time and that the tournament should be paused. But as one floor man said, it doesn't make sense to pause 480 tables while 20 move. I can't imagine the logistical nightmare of running a tournament with so many players spread all over the casino.

Moving to a new table sucks. It takes a while to get to know the new players and all the knowledge you've gathered thus far goes up in smoke.

But I made nice progress at my new table. I stole a couple of pots. I won with a shitty top pair of aces at showdown. I made a loose call on a Q 2 2 flop with 55, hit a 5 on the turn and induced a bluff (I would have won with a bet on the turn as it turns out if I missed, but I checked the turn and my opponent bluffed the river). All of sudden I was up to 12,000 chips.

A little later I met my demise. With blinds of 150/300 with a 50 ante I made it 900 to  got with KQ. The small blind made it 1,900 to go and I called. 

I just had a long conversation with one of my poker friends about how three bets from the small blind are almost always JJ-AA, AK or AQ when you're deep enough and the initial raise doesn't come from a steal position. So that's what I was likely up against. I could make an argument for folding pre-flop, but I didn't.

The flop came down Q high and my opponent bet 2,000. At this point I'm hoping he has JJ to AK or made a loose pre-flop 3 bet. I called and he bet 3,500 on the turn. This is when alarm bells should have gone off. But I didn't hear those bells and shoved for 7,000. I got quickly called by AA and did not improve.

There still isn't an official count of the number of entries from yesterday, but over 10,000 people entered between flight 5A and 5B which went off at 7 pm. About 1,500 made it through to day 2.

At 2:30 or so when I went broke I headed to the cage to sign up for flight 5C starting Saturday at 10 am, It was sold out and so was the 7 pm flight 5D! I was surprised. As I waited in line a few people shouted out "colossus is done yall!" after talking to a cashier. But when I made it to the front I was able to get a late wave start for the 7 pm flight.

Basically I'll be starting at 9:30 when the tournament is on level 4 (100/200 25 ante), but with a full 5,000 chip stack. I'm not thrilled about this. Part of me is wishing I'd registered for multiple flights early, but to do that you have to pay in advance and I didn't want to wait in what is sure to be an ungodly line for refunds on Sunday. 

If I can get off to good start anything is possible.

Later in the day I made my way to the Aria. When I got there the lists for $1/$3 and $2/$5 no limit were 100 players long! But I put my name up anyway and played a little pai gow while I waited. After an hour and 45 minutes they called my name and I sat down a $2/$5. I got off to a cold start and dropped $300 on a A T X X X board with AQ vs AT and was down $500 at one point. But $100 at a time I clawed my way back and made a $76 profit on the  2 hour session.

More news to come as it happens!

Back to the WSOP after 5 years!

I'm hanging out at LAX after a short work trip to LA and just about to fly to Vegas. I used to go to Vegas 3 or 4 times a year and twice spent a full 3 weeks at the WSOP taking my shot at the big time. Now it's been 3 years since I was there for 1 days in 2012 and 5 years since I was more than just stopping in.

It's also been 4+ years since I stopped playing poker professionally. I took 18 months away from the tables and then in 2013 I put in about 250 hours. In 2014 it was more like 100. I made some money, but it was about what I'd make in a good month in 2007 over the course of 2011-2014.

This year I've gotten back into it more seriously. I've been paying $2/$3/$5 (with a $10 straddle that seems to be in play about 25% of the time) no limit hold'em cash games almost exclusively. Every Friday night I'm at the tables and in my last 25 sessions I've booked 20 wins.

So unlike past summers where I've yearned to return to the Rio, but totally unwilling to take the risk I have a little bit of a bankroll to work with and will be back after a 5 year absence albeit in a limited capacity.

I'm going to play the $565 buy in Colossus tournament which is going to be the largest in person poker tournament of all time. It has 4 starting flights over 2 days and if you go broke in one you can re-enter. I'm prepared to fire all 4 bullets if I need to. The first flight is tomorrow at 10 am (5/29/15) and I'm hoping that will be the only one I need to get to Day 2. The people in the know are predicting 20,000 entries (probably from about 10K unique entrants).

I'm also going to be playing at least a few more tournaments and cash games over the 4 days I'll be in Vegas.

I've never been in better shape physically (I ran a marathon in March after running 3 half marathons and 6 obstacles races of 4-15 miles in the past 18 months) and I think my judgement is a little different at 35 than at 25.

Hopefully I'll have a good story to tell. Let's do this!

Project Flying Panther - Recap and Stats

As I mentioned previously I played 78 hours over Project Flying Panther and won $1,369. I'd give myself a C+ for the effort. It could have been much better but it also could have been worse.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of my results.

-$1796 in 4.75 hours of $40/$80
-$330 in 6 hours of tournaments
-$284 in 2 hours of $2/$3/$5 NL
-$184 in 5.75 hours of $20/$40
+$152 in 6 hours of $200 Max
+$468 in 1.5 hours of $30/$60
+$3,307 in 52 hours of $15/$30

If I'd cut out all the other shit and just played $15/$30 and kept the same hourly rate I would have won $4,961 for the project.

Over the 78 hours I played roughly 2,730 hands (an estimate based on a somewhat conservative 35 hands an hour).

Of those hands 2,520 would have been in cash games and if I had to ball park it I'd say I won one in every 8 hands. That means I won about 314 pots, paid about $1,609 ($4 per pot + $40 in tournament rake) in rake to the house and tipped $314 dollars.

Over 3 months I played 2,730 hands. This is a shockingly low number to me as I used to play 3,000 hands in a day almost every day when I was an online pro. I once played 1,200 hands in an hour and have played 7,000 hands in a day. $1,369 would have been a great result for a day, but not so much for 78 hours. Also if I had done this online the rake would have been about $800, I would have tipped $0 and I would have earned about $400 in bonuses, so it would have been more like a $3,000 day.

The big question is was it worth it to take on some backers and play some bigger games? I'm not actually sure. I got a sense of the larger games at he Oaks which is valuable. I posted some solid results at $15/$30 which is promising. And I scratched the itch I was having to play a little bigger. On the downside I probably could have made much more money crushing the $6/$12 and banking $25-$30 an hour which is what I'm going to do for the next few months.

I'm still thinking about the 2014 WSOP and how I can get out there for one or two $1,500 events. I think my best bet is to just grind it out, play within my bankroll, and be patient. There is only so much progress that I can make in 8 hours a week. That has been one of the toughest things about getting back to poker - not having tons and tons of time to devote to it.

PFP Session #21 - Holy Shit I Can See This Guy's Cards!

Earlier this week I'd been playing $15/$30 at The Oaks for about 3 hours and was up around $400 when a new player sat down on my right. He bought in for $1,000 and I could see he had another two grand at least in his roll. He was a well dressed man in his 50's.

He started losing right away, not playing all that poorly, but in a slightly loose very straightforward way. When he had about $600 in front of him he put his chips into 3 stacks of 20 and a dozen of stacks of 5 chips. I noticed right away that all of a sudden I could see his card when the peeled them up to look at them because his chip stack was no longer blocking my view. Most players bend up the corner of the cards and shield them with their hands, but he was bending up the short edge of the cards parallel to the edge of the table and we were in seats 6 (me) and 5 (him) which is a part of the table without much curvature.

There have been times in the past when I've played against people who haven't been great at protecting their cards. Usually it's been a case of being able to see one of an opponents cards every couple of hands which doesn't help all that much. There are so many times where one of you have garbage or your opponent does and/or the other players spoil the party.

Not this time! This was 9 out of 10 hands I could see both cards (the difference between one and both cards is astronomical - knowing for certain that an opponent missed completely is very powerful), for a while we were playing 6 handed and this guy was playing fairly loose. There were 5 big hands where this came into play.

Big Hand #1. The Villain raised AK off suit, both red, under the gun and I three bet him with 22. This was a risk. If anyone else came in I could be in a tough spot, but heads up I had a hand where I could beat him if neither of us improved, and get away without losing a single chip if he hit. Happily everyone folded and the flop came down Q 9 7 with two hearts. He checked I bet and he called. The turn was the 10 of hearts. I was all set to fire again when he bet into me! WHOA! Normally this would be an instafold, but I knew I had him so even though I had shit, I raised him. He called. The river came out an ace! ACK! We both checked, he showed his hand and I threw mine in face down.

Big Hand #2. The Villain raised with AJ after a couple of limpers and I called with A7 of hearts on the button. Why would I call him when I was dominated? I decided the value of acting behind him knowing what he has was worth so much that I should get in there anytime I had anything at all playable, even if I was dominated. The flop came down 7 high! Ah ha! The Villain bet, I popped it, we lost everyone else and he called. The turn was a K which might have slowed me down normally, but not this time. I bet and he called. The river was an ace and he fired out! Bang! I hit him with a raise again and he called.

Big hand #3. Everyone folded to The Villain who raised from the button with 44 and I had J2 in the small blind. I called as did the big blind. The flop came down Q 9 7 and I check raised him, thinking that he wouldn't call me all the way down with an under pair. The turn was a K and he mucked after I bet. This was a hand I never would have played or won, without seeing his cards.

Big Hand #4. The Villain raised with KJ of clubs and I called with KT of diamonds in the small blind. I don't know if folding because I'm dominated or three betting to isolate would have been better. I think calling is probably the worst of the three, but these are not considerations I have run across many times, and in the heat of the moment I called. The big blind folded anyway and the flop came down ace high. I check raised, fully expecting to drag the pot immediately, but my opponent called. The turn was a small card and I bet out. He raised me! WHOA! I have never been so surprised to be raised in my life. I feel like I almost said "WHAT THE FUCK!" out loud. I knew he was on a pure bluff, but at the same time he had me beat!!! The only thing to do was three bet and hope that I didn't get hero called down by a better king high! Happily after he thought for a second he mucked it.

By this time I think he noticed that I'd been doing some funky shit. Not mentioned here are a few other hands where he hit and not only did I not give him good action, he got zero action. It's not often that you see a guy three bet, check the flop heads up and then fold the turn, but I did that at least once. I could feel his frustration.


Big Hand #5. On this hand he had 88 and I three bet him with A9. By the end of the hand there was a K two Q's and a J on the board and he called me all the way down. I decided it was time to pump the brakes a little.

There were other hands with a varying number of other players involved that I've forgotten where I was able to save $15 here or $30 there when he hit big. "Oh you've got the ace of spades? I guess I won't draw to a king high spade draw. Is that a set? No reason to do anything with this top pair I have"

This went on for 2+ hours! The whole time I was thinking "I'm never leaving this game. Never. If this guy stays I'll play straight through until morning and all the next day." Eventually he moved to a different seat and the party was over.

 I didn't see his hand every time because 5 or 6 time I forgot to look! It's just not a habit  look over at your opponent's cards as the cards were coming out. It also took a great deal more mental energy to keep track of what he had - suit and rank of two cards - and what I had and still play at normal speed.

Did anyone else notice me looking? I don't think so, as I had sunglasses on the whole time and was carful to look with my eyes not my head.

The bad news is I lost a little during that 2 hours ACK! I missed a bunch of big draws and otherwise had some neutral to poor results against the other players.

The good news is I played for another 30 minutes after he moved and ran hot! Hot Hot Hot! I had 99 in a pot that was 7 way for two bets preflop and hit a 9 on the flop and made quads on the river!. Since I'd been doing some goofy shit for the past few hours I did not get credit for a made hand. It was 3 bets on the flop 5 way, 2 bets on the turn 4 way and 1 bet on the river 3 way. That hand put me up $600 and after 5 and a half hours I was ready to pack it in.

I almost left right then, but I was still stacking chips from that pot and decided to toss out the big blind and play one more round. After folding a few hand I picked up 87 of spades, flopped a flush draw, pushed it, hit it, and got paid. That put me up to +$900.

On my last hand before leaving I picked up AA and The Villain picked up something. We went to war, I won, and a few other people got dragged down with him. That pot put me up $1,251 on the night and back in black for The Project.

I'm too fucking tired to write about it, but I can also tell you that today I played Session #22 - The Final Session in Project Flying Panther - and won another $460!

HUZZAH!

After 78 hours I booked a $1,369 win for The Project. Backers look out for an e-mail from me this weekend and I'll share some final thoughts and some stats in one more post on Sunday.

Fly Panther Fly!

PFP Sessions #19-21: The Good, The Bad, and the Holy Shit I Can See This Guy's Cards

Again apologies to my backers for my poor track record on reporting!

Session #19 - The Good

Coming in to session #19 I was stuck $538 and I got that back in a hurry. I was in a great game and I got great cards, it was as simple as that. The big hand of the night came when I posted behind the button after missing the blinds. Another player posted as well and there were two limpers when the action got to me. I popped it with A8 of hearts and we took the flop 6 handed.

The flop came down three small hearts giving me the nuts! Zing! Better yet when I bet there was a raise and two callers. Rather than reraise I decided to wait for the turn since the raiser would be first to act on the next betting round. Like clockwork he came out betting and another player raised in front of me! Now I was faced with another decision. I decided to just call and hopefully keep both players in the pot.

The river came out another small card and the turn raiser bet, I raised, he reraised, since I still had the best possible hand I hit it again and he called showing a jack high flush.

I made 3 or 4 straights to go along with that flush and generally cruised to a win of $1,090.

Session #20 - The Bad

Coming off four winning sessions in a row, and playing on a Friday I was feeling good about my chances. But when I looked at the $15/$30 it was all regulars so I decided to sit in the $200 Max game and I got my ass kicked in short order.

I lost $200 on a hand where I flopped bottom two vs a straight on a Q J 9 board. I called an all in of $150 on the turn (which was a blank) after getting raised on the flop. I'm not sure how I feel about that one.

I lost another about $325 on a hand where I had A8 suited, the board was  6 7 9 (with one of my suit), someone bet $95, I went all in for $290, I got snap called by J9 and missed. I love this play - I was 44% to win after he called and I'm surprised he did.

On another hand I made it $15 from the button with KQ, the big blind made it $40, I called, the flop came down 8 5 3, he bet $30 and I called. The turn was another 3, he bet $40, I made it $150 and he called. The river was a brick, we both checked and he showed me 87. That was another $220 out the door. I felt like that $40 on the turn was weak and I'm glad I went after it. Normally this type of play is gold for me as I have a tight image, but I'd only been at the table for under an hour and never played with most of the players so I had the image of a guy getting he ass handed to him.

After 2 hours I left losing $904 for the session.

Session #21 - Holy Shit I Can See This Guy's Cards

I started writing this up, but I really shouldn't be rushed since it's not an every day story. I found myself sitting next to a guy who was regularly flashing his cards and it led to some unusual situations. Look out for it tomorrow.

You Know You've Made It When

Usually I get somewhere around 50-100 page views on my posts (the big exception being that 5,000 people have read my post about open faced Chinese Poker) and I've written over 800 of them since the summer of 2006. I just got a comment about how I misused you're and your. This is the first time the grammar police have called me out! I have arrived!

PFP Sessions #17 and #18 - It's Good To Have a Plan

I had a half day at work on Friday and was in a game at the Oaks at 2:00 in the afternoon. I sat down at $200 Max with $400 in front of me and there were some fireworks about 15 minutes in.

It was a two hand sequence against the same opponent that went down almost perfectly. On the first hand there was an $8 live straddle. With two callers in front of me I called with 54 of spades on the button. The small blind called, the straddle made it $20 and we took the flop 5 way.

The flop came down 8 6 4 with one spade, the small blind fired out $70 into the $100 pot, and everyone folded to me. We both had a little more than $400 in front of us, and I had bottom pair with a gut shot and a back door flush draw. More importantly I could say with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority of the hands my opponent was likely to have couldn't call a big raise. If he had a set or two pair, he'd likely go for a check raise and with a big pocket pair he probably would have raised preflop. It felt like he had an 8 and I didn't think he's stack off with an 8.

I made it $200 to go, he thought for 20 seconds and mucked.

On the very next hand there were several limpers in front of me and I took a flyer with 52 of spades. It's hard to defend that play, but basically I've found so many good spots to bluff at the $200 Max that I'm playing very loose in position. Also I lost my mind for 1/2 a second and threw in the the $4 to call.

Anyway we took the flop 6 way, and the flop came down 6 4 3 with two spades! Zingo Zongo! Flopping a straight with a straight flush draw as back up requires gibberish exclamations.

It was checked to me and thinking that if I wanted to win a big pot I needed to build it on the flop, I bet $10. The button (the villain in the previous hand) called as did the big blind. The turn was a red Q, I bet out $20 and the button raise to $60. "Holy Christ I have him right where I want him!" I thought. I made it $120 which may have been a little lite, but he called without thinking much about it.

The river was another red Q and I wasn't sure what to do. What I probably should have done was, put my opponent on a Q and bet $200 which would have just barely gotten him all in. Instead I had a complex series of thoughts go racing through my head. I figured that if I checked I might get a bet from a missed draw, I'd certainly get a bet from a Q and I might save some money if by some chance I was up against a full house. With that in mind, when he bet $95 I just called and took down the pot. Unfortunately I rolled my hand over as soon as I called and my opponent didn't show. It was a very nice pot, but I played it like kind of a pussy and I'm not happy about that.

When my name got called for $15/$30 I walked over to table $18 with $439 in profit from $200 Max. My good luck continued over there and I ran it up to a total profit of over $1,200 for the session, before giving much of it back during a long card dead stretch. In the end I booked a $540 win for the day.

On Sunday I made my way back. The combo of 1st of the month (when people get paid) and a holiday weekend did not disappoint. I sat down in one of two $15/$30 games and I only recognized one player, and he's someone I'm always happy to play against.

There was one guy who was the worst of the group. He bought in for $300 and when he blew through that I figured he'd be done or pull out another $100 or something. Instead he pulled out another $1,000 and went to work blasting it off as fast as possible. I didn't make many hands, but when I did I won big pots. This caused me to bounce around between even and +$500 for the entire session.

One big hand came up toward the end of the day. I got dealt 22 and was the second caller. After a couple of other calls the button raised, the big blind 3 bet it and the button capped it. We took the flop 7 way for $60 each. The flop was A T 2 giving me bottom set and it checked around. ACK! The turn was a 7, I bet and 5 people called me! The river was a Q. It was checked to me, the small blind check raised and the big blind three bet it! Super ACK! I was 98% sure I was up against KJ so I let it go and sure enough the big blind took it down with KJ.

I was sad to see that one slip away and I ended the day with a modest $140 profit.

After 65 hours I'm losing $528 for the project. One nice win and I'll be back in black. I'm going to try to squeeze 5 sessions and 20 hours in to the last 11 days of The Project which ends September 14th (Play on the 14th will count). This week I'll be in action Wednesday and Friday night. I expect all of these sessions to be at The Oaks and maybe one of them will involve a shot at $30/$60 if conditions look good.

PFP Session #16 - The Streak is Dead

Normally I think of streaks in a positive light, but after 7 consecutive losing sessions, I was ready for this one to be over.

I bought in for $1,000 at $15/$30 last night and looked down at AQ in the small blind on my second hand. The player in the cutoff raised, I three bet it, and we took the flop heads up. K 9 5 on the flop, I bet and got called. 4 on the turn, I bet and got called. Q on the river, I bet, got called, my opponent flashed a Q and mucked his hand. There is nothing special about this hand, but being a little ahead is so much better for your mindset than being a little behind.

About an hour in I was just about even when I got dealt 88. There was a limp, a raise and a call in front of me and I called as did both blinds. The flop came down A 8 3 with two clubs - BINGO! It turned out that I was up against two players with AK, one with K3 and another with a flush draw. The turn was an amazing card - the case king! 3 people made two pair against my set. K3 went all in for $25 and one AK completed the bet to $30, amazingly the other AK just called, I raised to $60 and 4 of us plus the all in went to the river. The river was a 3! If only K3 had not been out of chips! Happily one of the AK's bet out, I raised and they both called. That pot put me up about $500 on the night.

In the same round I got dealt A8, flopped two pair on a board with 3 spades and made a full house on the turn against a flopped flush.

I got flopped two flush draws on the night - I made one and get paid off, and on the other I was up against another flush draw, I bet it all the way, and when we both missed my last bet was good enough to take down the pot.

I also got AA, QQ and JJ once each and they all held up.

It felt great to have things go my way for a little while, but I have to say that I feel like I played really well in all of the other hands in between. In the end I walked out the door with a $1,115 profit on the night. I'm $1,208 away from being even for The Project. I'll be back in action on Friday and then again on either Sunday or Monday.

PFP Sessions #14 and #15 - At Least I Have a Plan

Apologies to my backers for not getting an update up on my last two sessions in a timely manner. I'm not usually able to knock out a quick post with the high level results no matter how hard I try and I just haven't had time to write a post.

I spent 5 days in Colorado at 9,500 feet and during that time I didn't think about poker at all. By the time I was back at the tables early last week I felt like my losing streak had been forgotten...until I started losing again. I spent another 4 hours playing $15/$30 making zero - not one - 5 card hands. I also didn't see AA, KK, QQ or AK a single time and I lost with JJ the one time I got it. It's not easy to sit at a poker table losing and not sit there stewing about all of the losing you've been doing lately.

Despite that I booked a small loss in what was otherwise a good game - I dropped $177 on the night.

Last Thursday (or Wednesday?) I made my way in to The Oaks and saw a long list of names for $15/$30 and 200 Max, but a $150 no limit tournament was about to go off so I jumped in hoping to recoup some of my recent losses with a deep run.

We started with about 70 players and 10,000 chips each. After a few hours I had my stack up to about 14,000 with the blinds at 150/300 with a 25 ante. I got dealt 86 suited in the small blind and a new player who had just sat down (this was literally his first hand at our table) took the big blind. It was folded to me and I raised it to 900. The big blind called and the flop came down 6 3 3 with two clubs (I had spades). I bet 1,200, my opponent raised me to 2,400 and I moved all in.

I did something right on this hand and I did something wrong. What I did right was read the hand. I didn't think it was likely my opponent had a 3 because A3 is about the only hand that makes sense and even then I'd expect a slow play under the circumstances. I didn't think a big pair was likely because of the flat call preflop. 77, 88, and 99 are within the realm of possibility, but much more likely than those hands was a total bluff, a flush draw or 56 or 67. I moved in confident that I was going to see a fold.

What I did wrong was I didn't take in to account the fact that I'd never played a hand against this guy. I almost always project a tough, tight image. People fold when I move all in on them a disproportionately high percentage of the time. I did not think a pair of sixes would call there. But sure enough, he called and showed J6. A king came on the turn and I was all set to chop, before a jack on the end ruined the party.

After 7 losing sessions in a row my starting bankroll of $10,000 sits at $7,677 (after 55 hours of play).

The good news is I have a plan! I'm going to play again tonight under normal circumstances and then try to put in two longer than average sessions over the holiday weekend which should be a fantastic time to play. Holiday weekends are always great and playing near the first of the month (when people get paid) is also great. Put them together and you have a magic combination.

I have about 20 days left in Project Flying Panther. Hopefully I can put in 25 more hours and squeeze out a small win for The Project.