Project Flying Panther Session #9 - Tired Panther

I made it to the Oaks over the weekend, but I was with a friend who wanted to play low stakes. I won $360 playing $6/$12, but by Wednesday I was ready to put in some time on The Project.

I made my way to the Oaks after work and bought in for $400 at the $200 Max game. Over 30 minutes I played one hand of significance where I made it $20 with KQ suited, got 4 callers, bet $75 on a A Q 5 flop with two of my suit, and took it down. With a $56 profit in tow I made my way to $15/$30.

I got off to a good start running my starting stack of $1,000 up to $1,350 in the first hour. But over the course of the next two and a half hours I dropped down to $300 and actually bought more chips so I wouldn't look so short.

I've been pretty fortunate during the project to not have a sustained run of unplayable cards, but that is what happened here - hand after hand of garbage mixed in with a few strong hands that didn't come home.

During this stretch the $30/$60 game broke and some of the regulars made their way in to the $15/$30. This was bad news in the short term, but thinking long term it gave me a change to play against people that I know are solid winning players at the higher stakes. I was actually not impressed. These guys didn't give me any trouble at all. I have to remind myself that I used to play against some of the best players from all over the world on a regular basis and I'm ready for anyone when it comes to limit hold'em.

I was able to make a moderate comeback and ending up losing $399 at the $15/$30 which was a total of a $343 loss for the session. I'm ahead $3,273 for The Project.

On a separate note, I am feeling warn out. I'm doing my best to be a great father and husband, a strong employee at HitFix, a productive poker player and someone who takes care of themselves physically. I'm finding there are not enough hours in the week to give it everything I have and be really outstanding at all of those things. Or rather, there are, but that leaves zero time for anything else. I'm finding a balance, but sometimes it can be overwhelming as I find myself wanting to spend more time on all those things (For the record I actually felt great last night, and I don't think fatigue played in to my loss).

Throwing caution to the wind in terms of workload, I'm going to put in a long session on Friday night and then try to do as much nothing as possible over the weekend. You'll find out on Saturday how that goes.

Project Flying Panther Session #8 - Waiting Panther

After a weekend filled with birthday parties, including my son's first birthday, I was too beat to make it to the tables on Sunday. But on Monday night I made the trek down to Bay 101 hoping to play some $40/$80 and take this thing to the next level.

Even though I've played games this big many, many times, it's been a solid 3 years since I've played a hand at these stakes and I was feeling something walking in the door.

It made me think back to the first time I ever played poker in a casino. I was 20 years old and I'd been playing 20 cent / 40 cent limit hold'em with my college friends. We'd been playing twice a week for about 3 or 4 months and my biggest win to date was $19. When I heard that Cache Creek - an Indian casino about 90 minutes away - had poker and you only had to be 18 to play, I had to go.

My friend Jake and I made the drive and soon discovered that the lowest stakes were $3/$6! AHHH! We knew The Oaks Club had a $1/$2 game and figured that every casino would have that stakes, when in fact the Oaks is probably the only cardroom in the country where you can find a game that small. After a trip to the buffet we decided we couldn't just go back without playing.

We got our pockets emptied both losing about $150. But we vowed to return and we did with better results. This is the only time I've ever played 15 times my normal stakes and it was so, so terrifying, but so exciting.

I had a little bit of that same juice pumping as I walked in to Bay 101. But the list for 40/80 was a mile long. So I put myself up for 20/40 as well and jumped in to a $2/$3/$5 no limit game while I waited.

I bought in for $500 (the table max buy in) and spent the next hour and a half listening to the turds at my table spout gibberish about how the $20/$40 game couldn't be beaten because you can't protect your hand and other nonsense. It was a great game, but I was totally card dead and chose not to mix it up too much with total air.

One big hand came up however. I was in the big blind with 98 off (one club) and we took the flop 6 way. The flop came down QJT with two clubs giving me a straight and the third nuts. There was $25 in the pot (after the $5 rake) and I bet out $20 not wanting to mess around with a draw heavy board. An old man called me and a young woman made it $95 to go. The old man had about $200 left, I had about $450 and the woman had $600. My first thought was that she probably had QJ, QT or JT. I didn't think AK was in her range because she'd just called in late position preflop. K9 was the only hand she could have that could beat me, but with so many draws out there I decided to just call and then go for an all in check raise on a safe turn. The old man and I both called.

The turn was the 9 of clubs which totally killed my hand. The flush got there and now anyone with a king would also have me beat. I checked and the old fired off his last $100 with no hesitation and I figured he had a flush. The woman called and I chucked my hand into the muck. The river was a red 5 and the woman won with K9 of diamonds.

After that hand I looked at the $375 in front of me and felt like I had just had a huge win. I easily could have blown off that whole stack on the flop. A penny saved is a penny earned.

I lost $257 over 90 minutes before the called me for the $20/$40. When I sat down at my new table I quickly noticed 3 Asian women one each who looked about 40, 50 and 60. They all looked really put together - dyed and styled hair, nice clothes, big diamond rings, necklaces, freshly painted nails, and one had a Louis Vuitton purse. Cha-Ching!

This is totally profiling. I may sound insensitive, but when you sit down at the poker table you have to start with a picture of your opponent and then adjust it as you watch them play. I've been surprised before, but not this time. These three all came with money to blow and were very loose and very passive. This was a $100 an hour EV table for me. But out of nowhere three players left! FOOLS! And the game broke.

My new table was good, but not as good. In about 2 hours I won $338.

In the movies they never make the hero wait 3.5 hours to play the big game, he just sits right down. But that's how long it took me to get to the top of the $40/$80 list and I decided to give it a go for 1 hour and then call it a night.

As soon as I sat down, a bunch of players got up and I found myself playing 5 handed. This would be an awful turn of events for many players, but since I've played over a million hands of 6 handed limit hold'em I was happy to be playing short handed.

I wish I could say I played really well, but I just got lucky. I got AA and won a small pot. I got AJ, flopped a J and turned a J. I got KK against the guy I'd been popping often when he was in the big blind, he played back at me, and I turned a K. These were all contested heads up and were pretty small pots, but along with a one or two even smaller ones I picked up 70 chips. Not a lot in a 4/8 chip structure, but when you're playing with $10 chips, it adds up! I won $708 in about 45 minutes and the game broke.

For the night I banked $789 and my profit for Project Flying Panther sits at$3,616.

I might be back in action this weekend, but not before hand.

Project Flying Panther Session #7 - Freerolling Panther

I rolled in to The Oaks Club last night not knowing if I was going to play $30/$60, $15/$30 or $200 Max, but the long list for the $200 Max and an awful looking $30/$60 game of all regulars made it an easy decision.

At 5:45 I dropped $1,000 on the table and bought in feeling sharp and ready to play. A few hands in, I three bet with AQ, turned and A and won a small uncontested pot. Then I three bet 99, bet it all the way, and won another pot where my one remaining opponent folded to my river bet.

5 minutes after that, I won a very nice pot with K9 suited. There was 6 way action for two bets before the flop when the first three board cards came out QJT, I had the second nuts. The great thing about that board is that everyone who is in is likely to have caught some piece of it. The turn and river were a 5 and a 2 and I got paid off nicely by players drawing and players who had made a pair.

I made one last splash with AK on a board of 9 T J K Q and found myself up close to $600 by about 6:15. Sometimes this shit is easy.

It just so happens that 6:15 is when the Wednesday night tournament kicks off. It's a $100 buy in tournament with an $80 rebuy, and after some hemming and hawing I hit and run at the $15/$30 and jumped in to the tournament. We ended up with about 150 entrants, with 20th paying $285 and a first place of $5,880.

After two hands went against me early I lost my first 4,000 tournament chips and had to rebuy for another 4,000 about an hour in. Right after I rebought I made an all in semibluff with 65 on a Q43 flop and ran into a set of 3's. But after a 2 on the turn and a brick on the river I was back in business.

The players I played against in this tournament were awful. They made it so easy for me by making little bluffs when they didn't have it, big all ins when they did and folding anything but very solid hands to my continuation bets. I ran my stack up to about 40,000 with relative ease, never having more than half my stack at risk on any one hand

Then some of my chips got blinded away. Then I lost about 11K with QQ vs K5. Then I lost another 10K with AT vs AK. Before I knew it the blinds were 1K/2K and I only had 10K left.

At that point we went down from 4 tables to 3 and I raced over to my new table, shouting to the dealer to deal me in just at the last second. "Oh shit, I'm going to go broke on this hand after running over here like that" I thought. But when I looked down at 87 of hearts two off the button, I wasn't going to let it go.

I moved all in and when it got to the big blind he asked for an exact count. I had 9,200 total. He counted out enough chips to call. Then put them back on his stack. Then counted them out again. Then put them back on his stack. He held his cards like he was going to fold them and then put them back. "Jesus Christ man! Do something so we can get on with out lives! We can't just all sit here starting at you like you're a God damn Rembrant!" is what I was thinking and what I am going to say the next time this situation comes up. Finally he made the call. He turned over JT with one heart meaning I was about 40% to win. I flopped a flush (Hooray!), but the river out a 4th heart on the board and I was done (boo!).

I was super pissed as I waked out the door and here's why. I had this run of 5 tournaments in a row at the Oaks where I finished between 13th and 15th in tournaments with 60-90 players that paid 10 spots. FIVE IN A ROW between 13th and 15th. I've played a few tournaments since then, including one cash, but I immediately threw that out the window mentally and went into "What is it with these fucking Oaks tournaments that I keep coming up just short of the money!? Why am I bothering with this stupid shit!? These players are awful and I can't catch one break! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

By the time I was at my car I had regained my perspective.

I'd just won $588, and then I lost $180. This is not a catastrophe. I still made $408 in a little over 4 hours. By the time I got home I was back in good spirits. I'm $2,827 to the good for The Project and 25% of the way to my planned target of 100 hours.

I'll be back in action Sunday night - perhaps with some $40/$80 at Bay 101.

Project Flying Panther Session #6 - Bluffing Panther

My sister and her family came to visit over the holiday weekend and I started talking to my brother in law (one of the Project Flying Panther investors) about poker. He's been reading my blog and asked my why I haven't posted about more bluffs. The plain and simple reason is the types of bluffs I pull the trigger on are very boring - but effective.

I played about 3 hours of $15/$30 yesterday and one bluff that fits both the boring and effective category came up about an hour in to the session. I was in the small blind some with some piece of shit hand that I've forgotten. There were two callers, I threw in one chip to complete the small blind and the big blind checked his option. The dealer scooped $4 out of the pot for the rake leaving $56 in the pot.

 The flop came down A 9 2 and we all checked. I was all set to check again when another 2 hit the turn. "Ah ha!" I thought. This card didn't help me at all, but it was also unlikely to help my opponents either. Even better was that if anyone had an ace they probably would have bet it on the flop and there was a fair chance someone might have bet a 9. On top of the it was completely plausible that I as the small blind could have a 2 in my hand. Plus is was a small pot that everyone seemed to have given up on. And I was only risking $30 to pick up $56. Put that all together and this was just about the best bluff of all time! Sure enough I fired out and everyone folded.

This might not sound too exciting, but if you can find a spot like this once an hour and break even the rest of the time you'll make $56 an hour - a killing at $15/$30.

It was all down hill from there...

I spent the first two hours fluctuating from -$500 to -$100 and back down again. I was at about -$200 when a very odd hand come up.

An early position player raised and I called with 55 (a marginal call at best). A player behind me called as did both blinds and we took the flop 5 way. A 5 of spades was the first card off the deck along with a 2 of spades and a red K. The original raiser bet, and I decided to get deceptive and play my hand fast - I raised, the big blind called, the original raiser 3 bet, I capped it and we took the turn 3 handed.

The turn was a 7 of spades and the original raiser bet into me. This was very, very odd. The way I played my hand was consistent with a flush draw and if I didn't have that I had to have a big hand. How was this guy betting in to me? The only thing I could think of was that he had a king of spades and another spade in his hand or maybe the ace of spades to go along with a king. I just called and the player in the big blind went all in for his last two chips. I was hoping for a board pair in the river, but instead I got a 4th spade, the jack. My opponent bet again and even though I was getting a little better than 13 to 1 to call, I folded.

My opponent took the side pot and then it came time to show for the main pot. Normally in this spot he would just roll over his hand. Instead he said "I'm showing in turn for the main pot" meaning he wanted the other player to show his hand first. "FUCK!" I thought. "That means he does not have a spade." The other guy didn't want to show his hand either. "Double fuck! He doesn't have a spade either!?" Sure enough after 30 seconds of the dealer, the big blind and the original raiser talking about it (two of the three were not native English speakers) the big blind showed A3 of diamonds and the other player showed AK with no spades. GACK!

I made another set on the very next hand and lost to the same guy. A little while later I called a raise with KT off and a shortly after that I 3 bet someone with A9 off. These are not strong plays and I realized I was not playing well. Even though the game was still good and I'd been planning to stay for at least another hour I packed it in for the night. I lost $797 for the session.

But the good news is after 6 sessions of Project Flying Panther I've played 21 hours, I'm ahead $2,419 which means I'm making $115.19 an hour. The bad news is this sample size is so small that these results are nothing more than a slight indication that I should expect to win. In fact if I put in 100 hours over The Project I'll end up playing about the same number of hands that I used to play on one busy Sunday when I was playing online. Amazing!

Project Flying Panther Session #5 - $30/$60 Panther

After a layoff of over a week I rolled in to the Oaks Club tonight feeling great mentally and physically. I spent the weekend in a house near the Russian River with my family and a few close friends. After many hours of slowly floating around the river over the weekend and a 20 minute nap on my lunch break today I was fresh and ready to go.

I got called almost immediately for a seat in the $15/$30 and by the time I'd played 10 hands I was ahead $400. Hot Damn! Sometimes this shit is easy. You get pocket kings, bet the whole way, people call you, and no body makes anything better than one pair. But over the next hour I dribbled most of it back.

Meanwhile I had my eye on the $30/$60 game the next table over. I've been a little conflicted about moving up. The whole point of Project Flying Panther is to play bigger games, but I've been doing so well at $15/$30 that part of me wants to keep pounding away at those players while I have the momentum.

After 15 minutes of hemming and hawing I racked up my 220, $5 yellow chips and traded them in for 110 $10 green chips. I dropped 9 $100 bills on the pile and I was all set to go with $2,000 in front of me.

On the second hand I got dealt QJ of diamonds. Immediately I felt the adrenaline and not the "Get some! Let's do this!" type of adrenaline either. It was the "Oh fuck, how much am I going to have to put in the pot if I lose this hand?" type. The answer to that question was $210 - I raised before the flop, got 5 callers, flopped a queen and lost to a straight on the river. Sometimes this shit ain't easy.

The last time I played $30/$60 at the Oaks was in 2009 when I was at my absolute peak as a limit hold'em player. I remember sitting down, feeling totally comfortable and smugly declaring to myself how awesome it was to be the best player in the biggest game at the Oaks. I would never have claimed to be the best player that plays at the Oaks, only that that day I looked at the 9 guys at the table and saw 9 players that I was sure were not as good as me. The stakes didn't register as much then either as I'd been playing $50/$100 6 handed against some real ball busters online - in fact sometimes it was a $50/$100 game, a $30/$60 and two $15/$30 games all going at once so one $30/$60 seemed like nothing.

Fast forward to today a few hands after my QJ hand and I looked down at AA. Boom, more adrenaline and my heart started racing. I totally expected this. It's how you feel when you move up and get a big hand. I also knew for certain that after maybe 45 minutes or an hour I'd settle in and feel comfortable. And that's exactly what happened. But for this hand I was still in the irrational fear zone.

An early position player raised to $60, I made it $90 with my AA, the big blind called and we took the flop 3 way. The board came out 9 6 4 with two hearts and one spade. After two checks, I bet and got two calls. The turn came a 7 of spades and the original raiser bet into me. A bet like that is representing some improvement on the turn or a slow played big hand

At this point the initial jolt I got when I first looked at my hand had not cleared. My body was still in fight or flight mode and when my opponent bet into me, my body dropped a shitload of chemicals into my system. On fear scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being taking a dump while reading Garfield and 10 being having a grizzly bear outside your tent when you've just rubbed a salmon all over your body, I was at about an 8. I'm not saying it makes sense to feel that way, just that part of my brain was going absolutely apeshit.

But the good news is, this has happened to me many, many times and the other part of my brain took about 1/2 of a second to come to the conclusion that my opponent was much more likely to betting a hand that could beat AK or AQ - but not AA - in the hopes that I had big cards. That part of my brain was still in control and with all the calm I could muster, I slid 12 chips in the pot. The big blind folded, the original raiser called my raise, check called the river and I took down a pot that got me back in the black.

The next two hours were super boring. I got a lot of shitty cards, won just enough small pots to stay even and tried to get a feel for my opponents. The game got a little worse as two weak players were replaced with solid ones. I decided it was time to go after one more round. Happily I beat out an unknown hand with 99 at showdown and took down QQ with QT after I turned a straight.

In the end I booked a $117 win at $15/$30 and a $468 win at $30/$60 - both small wins for the stakes, but still some nice money away from the table.. My $10,000 starting bankroll is now at $13,216.

Another mini vacation will put Project Flying Panther on hold over the holiday weekend, but I should be back in action on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday depending on how I feel.

Sleeping Panther

After a couple of strong sessions I'm eager to get back to the tables, but real life is going to intrude. I'm in L.A. for business through Wednesday and then off to the Russian River for a mini vacation on Friday night through Sunday. There's some small chance I might sneak out on Thursday, but if not it will be July before I find myself back at the tables.

Project Flying Panther Session #4 - Rising Panther, Falling Panther

Coming off my last session at The Oaks on Wednesday, I rolled in on Friday full of confidence and ready to go. After about an hour of uneventful low stakes Omaha, I made my way to the $15/$30 game, slammed ten $100 bills on the table, and said "Who want's some bitches!? Come and get it!" while pounding my chest. Ok, maybe it was more a silent placing of ten $100's and a quiet chair scootch up to the table.

I got put to the test right away. On my second hand, I got dealt KQ and put in a raise. The player in the big blind has been there every time I've played $15/$30 during Project Flying Panther and he's sort of been my nemesis. He's a generally solid player, but he tends to over do it on the deceptive plays - lots of slow plays, check raises and seemingly random bets out of no where. He's giving up a lot of value, but it makes him tough to read. He's also hit a disproportionate number of times against me.

After my raise with KQ, both blinds called and the flop came down Q 5 2, three different suits. They both checked, I bet, the small blind folded and my nemesis check raised. "Ah ha!" I thought, "I bet he has a worse queen or is on a bluff. I'll just call and raise him on the turn." I was almost 100% sure I had the best hand here. The only hands that could beat me were AA, KK, QQ, AQ, (those would all have 3 bet preflop), Q2, Q5, 52 (all would have folded preflop - maybe Q5 suited would call) and 55 or 22 (captain slow play would have waited for the turn to raise with these). Against everything else I'm way ahead.

The turn was a 3 and my nemesis checked. This seemed very strange, but checking back was not an option, so I slid 6 chips in to the pot. My nemesis, quickly raised. Panther what!? Despite the analysis I went through on the flop, I felt like I was beat here. This would be a very, very strange line for a bluff. In the end I decided that against a tricky opponent it was better to err on the side of calling down, so I called the turn raise and a bet on the river. My nemesis rolled over A4 which was air on the flop and made a straight on the turn. GRRRRR!

I got KQ again on the next hand and lost that one too. I quickly found myself down $250. But I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I was going to play for close to 5 hours and that the cars should all even out.

It did not even out; it took a massive turbo in the right direction. I raised QJ, flopped a Q and rivered a J against two players who called all the way. I got AA in a 5 way pot where everyone put in 4 bets preflop, the flop came king high, and the turn and river were both total bricks. I flopped a small set in a multi way pot. I made another two pair that held up. That all went down in about 45 minutes and I found myself up $600.

Then came the queen hand of the session (In bike racing the 'Queen Stage' is the most prestegious stage, so I think of the biggest hand of the day as the queen hand sometimes - it's dorky). By this time there were two guys who were losing their ass, who both bought in for another $1,000, ordered double shots of scotch and announced they were going to go apeshit.

Shortly after that I got dealt KK, there was a raise and a retaise (from one of the drinkers) and I capped it. We took the flop 5 way and it came down K 8 3 (ZING!). There was a bet, a raise and a reraise before the action got to me! WHAT!? I am not used to having top set on a dry board and facing a bet, raise and reraise in front of me so I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I had about 2 seconds to decide before I gave off information so I opted to just call.

We took the turn 4 way and a J came out. The drinker to my right bet, I raised, and the drinker to my left called. The river was an 8 making me a full house and they both called me, with the drinker on my right rolling over pocket aces before throwing them into the muck. After that hand I was up $1,100 on the session.

I got KK again on the very next hand and lost at show down and then the wheels came off the bus.

This old man on my right went on an absolute tear. He won at least 10 pots in about 30 minutes, including 5 straights (4 of which were gut shots hit on the turn or the river), a couple of full houses and some two pair hands. I got the full force of this rush when my KK, AA, TT and KQ that hit top pair all got chopped down.

On one of those hands, the flop was T 8 4, the turn was a 5 and the river was a J. The old man turned over 67 and said "I had it all the way." Normally I don't say much at the table and I never criticize other players, but I couldn't stop myself. "No you didn't, you hit a gut shot on the turn! You had 7 high on the flop!" The rest of the table joined me in what was actually a pretty warm chuckle.

After the old man was through with me I was winning $300 on the day, but another 45 minutes of sour cards and no pots got me all the way back down to even. There is never a good time for an $1,100 downswing, but having it happen when you're up $1,100 is a pretty good time for it.

But wait! There's more! I got AA again and JJ, and AK and won small pots with all three putting me up $300 with about 30 minutes left to go in my planned session time. Then I picked up AJ, raised, got three bet, and hit a gut shot on the turn to make a straight against AQ.

Winning $500 as the blinds came around I thought about picking up 15 minutes early, but I'd walked in the door planning to play until a set time and I decided to stick it out for one more round.

In the big blind I got dealt, Q7 of spades and the flop came with a queen and two spades. I missed the flush, but the turn was a 7 and the river was a queen. A few hands later I picked up QT of hearts, raised it, got three bet and the flop came down K J 5 with two hearts. I played it very fast, got tons of action, turned an A making me a straight against AK and I took down a nice pot.

When I racked up my chips I was ahead $1,014 for the night. BOOM!!! My $10,000 starting bankroll is at $12,631.