History Part 1

Well here's the scoop... My bankroll is pretty much depleted, so I'm stuck at home, starting work tomorrow... while my friends are playing at the Beau Rivage... BRUTAL!! I am very determined to build up a bankroll and start playing regularly again. But for the time being, I'll write about some hands of my past. Some of these hands I wasn't in, just witnessed. And I'm sure some of the details may be a little off as most of these hands happened years ago. My friends will know these guys by name. Hope you enjoy:

My first REAL gut-turner: This hand occurred early in my "career". I played plenty MMTs up to this point and a lil cash experience before this went down. Our normal crew went play at Beck's Wednesday. Beck's is a bar in Raceland that held small buy-in tournaments, followed by some pretty soft cash games. Well at like 2AM(I'm guessing) the bar shut down, and we went play at Raceland Mike's house. I think I remember the game being Me, Joe Bueche, Chris James, Raceland Mike, Raceland Mike's wife Paula, James Arceneaux, and Kane. Well somewhere around 8 or 9AM I get involved in a hand. I don't remember how the action went down, but I was in there with Q-10. The flop came A-Q-10. Everyone checked to me and I bet out and was called by Kane. Btw, Kane is an Asian fellow who was wild(at least back then because I was pretty tight). I thought he always bet his hand.. especially because he bet EVERY hand lol. Anyway, The turn is a blank that puts 2 spades out there... Again, he checks.. and after not long I say "I'm all-in". Now the pot wasn't that big.. This was a horrendous play. I really thought he was just drawing and no way he could call. I almost did it as a joke meaning, "I know you're drawing Kane, get the fuck out of my pot." Oh he was drawing alright.. to the nut flush or a boat.. This fucker has As-Qs. It took him forever to call. Guess he thought I had K-J or a set. Well anyway, river.. no 10 and I'm bust. Now it was only for like few hundred bucks but that was A Lot to me back in the day. I remember the ride home.. I was sick. Lesson learned

WTF?!: This hand I was not involved in and it happens all the time. I just found it funny. It's kinda one of those "had to be there" type of things. Again we were playing a cash game at Beck's. I'm guessing $1-2NLHE. But the games we played seemed to be a little bigger than most $1-$2 games. Anyway, this hand involves Parfait and a woman named Allison. Now if I saw Allison today, I wouldn't recognize her.. We didn't know her, I just happened to remember her name. Well all night Allison was over betting the shit of the pot. Sometimes with not much of a hand. Well she bet the living shit out of one flop... like $40 into a nothing pot. Well Parfait flopped like top pair top kicker or something and new he might be able to snap her and called. Well on the turn she bets like $20.. Parfait was so fucking confused.. It was hilarious..Well he called. The river comes and she bets like $50 or something.. I'll never forget the look on Parfait's face.. like WTF?! Anyway, he called and she showed 2 pair to win the pot. She flopped top pair and bet the fuck out of it. Turn didn't help so she slowed down. And she rivers two pair and bets bigger again. LoL Parfait was so flustered.. I'll just never forget it.

Poor Georgia: This hand was sickening. It took place at our poker club in Houma. (My wallet and I definitely miss those days!) There was a full table going of $2-$5NLHE. Georgia was in the #1 seat and doing quite well this night. Well she got up from her seat and went do something and allowed me to play her chips for a while. Well she actually came back and dealt for a while and dealt the following hand. The new guy named Tim was at the table. This guy owns his own company and is a millionaire. He had no clue what he was doing at the table. In his defense, he was very aggressive. I guess if you're going to be bad, you may as well be aggressive. He was raising basically every hand preflop to $50. Well I'm in the BB with K-K. He was on the cut-off or button(not that he knew that was a strong position). Well sure enough, he comes through and pops it to $50. He's sitting with $1,200 and I(Georgia's money) have him covered. Folds to me and I pop it to $200. The table folds to him and he says "raise". Now normally I was be put to a decision to whether or not this guy has A-A or not, but his guy was bad and just put constant pressure on you with anything. Well he only raises to $500.. $300 more to me... I think for a moment.. I mean if this donkey actually has A-A, what an extreme fucking cooler. Anyway, I raise all-in. An additional $700 or so to him. There's not a chance he's folding. He says "call". I'm PRAYING he flips over QQ or A-K or something... But no, the almighty A-8o. WHAT?! Well the flop comes about as good as I can hope for.. no ace, no real straight draw or flush draw. There was however two spades and he held the 8s. The turn is another brick but a spade. Now he's got a flush draw to go with his ace draw. You all know what hit the river, the fourth spade... giving him an 8-high flush to drag a $2,400+ pot. The sick part is.. as soon as the flop hit I noticed the spades and said aloud, "No spades" and the turn of course came a spade and I was chanting even more until reality hit the river. I felt SO bad. Oh I was speechless. But I mean should I really? I got $1,200 of her money in as a 70% favorite. It was just sick overall. I did end up catching a good bit of it back throughout the night.. Thankfully.. Sorry Georgia

Damn Joe Bueche: Joe Bueche is my best friend in the poker world. He plays very often. We went to Vegas for a month together this year. He's a great guy and a good friend. That being said, I'm on the poker table to make money.. that's all. Yes I enjoy the comradery. But I'm hoping to make money. Joe knows this. I have had multiple conversations with him about this. If we're at the table with 8 strangers, we'll do our best to stay out of each other's way.. but I'm not altering my play because Joe is in the pot. Joe or anyone else. I've had friends cry and bitch about "Matt check-raised me." or "You called my preflop raise with that?" Yes I did and thanks for your money. Sorry but I'm there to play. This would bite me on the ass this time around. This hand occurred about a month ago at the Amelia Belle Casino, during my RIDICULOUS run of beats. We're playing $2-$5NLHE and I straddle UTG.. Quite a few people call and Joe is on my right in the BB and raises to $60. Now I know Joe has a minimum of pocket queens to make this play. Well I look down to see A-A. SWEET! Well the table wasn't playing that wild so I thought a call might put us heads-up. Also, Joe knows if I raise, I'm not making some bold-ass squeeze play. He knows I have an absolute monster. I don't want to raise and tip him off. I elect to call and the rest of the table folds. Flop comes harmless.. 9 high, two hearts.. I'm positive he missed that flop, no over cards to his pair and I have him right were I want him. Well he leads out $150. He's only got about $230 behind that. I say "OK I'm all-in" He looks back at his cards, and I ask "Looking to see if you have a heart huh?" and he calls. Sure enough he flips over Qh-Qc. Well I won't draw this hand out like I did the last one as it results in the same finish. He goes backdoor.. heart.. heart... to take down a $900+ pot. I know this sick shit happens often.. it just came at the worst time, in the middle of my worst run ever.

Tough one at Harrah's: This hand happened a couple of years ago at Harrah's New Orleans. I haven't been at the table long at all when I see R.L.(a terrible player who LOVES to gamble and outplay everyone every hand). I witness him put $700 in the pot open-ended and miss the previous hand. Don't think for a second he was priced in or committed. Listen to this one. It's $2-$5NLHE and I'm on the button with $500 with 6c-4c. A bunch of limpers and I limp. The SB decides to raise to like $25 and I know what's about to happen here. Of course EEVVEERRRYYYYOOONNEEE calls. I think the guy from the Lucky Dog stand wanted to call. Well we see a flop of A-6-4. Well now the SB elects to check along with half the table until R.L. fires $50. Now I say "fires". He bets $50 into like a $15o pot. But he bet none-the-less. Well I think the SB is done with the hand unless he flopped a set of aces. And anyone else with a good ace should have bet this flop as the preflop raiser checked first. Anyway, I decide to take a chance at this pot and raise to $200. I'm worried about the players behind me, not so much R.L. If I get called by them or raised by them I'm in trouble. (Btw this was earlier in my "career" and I see I may not play this hand this way now) But.. the rest of the table folds to R.L. who after a while says "I'm all in". He has me covered. Now usually I'd be in a bit of a bind but R.L. is a fish and tilting from the previous hand. Anyway, I call and flip over my hand. He doesn't flip his over. So I'm thinking I'm up against some fucked up Ace like A-9 or some shit. Well a 5 hits the turns and he kinda jerks.. I'm thinking great.. A-5 for two bigger pair. River bricks and he gives me this famous line, "You're gonna hate me." as he flips over 2-3o for the gutterball. Ouch... I tell him nice hand and reach in my pocket for a rebuy. I ended up cashing out for like $2,800 that night.. Winning about $1,800. I guess this is a reminder to keep your head up and play your best. Rarely do I go on tilt.

Here are a few short hands or notes from the past:

* Chris punching a hole in his wall after Slow Play busted him.
* Chris involved in a hand with a kid from Slidell. The kid flops quads and Chris moves all-in. The kid of course calls and flips over quads. Then Chris jokingly utters, "Run it out, let me see if I hit my flush."
* I remember Ruttley coming to the Rat's Nest piss drunk and calls a big bet from Alan on the river with a flush on a double-paired board..... Drag your pot Rutt.
* Fred and Chris get involved in a hand. At showdown, Fred says, "I ain't got nothing." Chris says, "I've got two pair." Then Fred says,"I've got a straight." and slowrolls Chris. Chris promptly gets up and knees the fuck out of the pool table behind him. (FYI: I have played with Fred recently, and he's still a fan of slowrolling.)


I have so much more to tell but I'll save it. This post is getting long. Hope you enjoyed.

Charity Tournament

Ahhh the dreaded charity tournament. My sleeping schedule has been completely screwed up. My girlfriend works nights so I've been staying awake with her. I'm usually sleeping from like 8AM-3PM or so. Well yesterday morning I was awake at about 9:30AM, about to go to bed... When an ol' friend of mine sends me a text message. He tells me there's a tournament in Kraemer. It's a $50 buy-in. A couple of weeks ago he wanted to go play the Shorty's Wednesday tournament and we didn't go so I thought it would be nice to go with him to this thing. We used to be best friends growing up but have lost touch recently, so I took this as a good way to catch up instead of a good investment. And good thing I did because good investment it was not! Anyway, the tournament started at 3PM & registration opened @ 1PM. So needless to say I had no time to sleep. So I just stayed up and grinded it out. We watched most of the Japan v.s. Mexico Little League game and headed out to register. When I arrived I was surprised to see that a dealer and a dual rate from Harrah's New Orleans was helping put on this tournament. As I was signing up, I could take a look at the competition. And as I suspected, mostly 45-113 year old people who had absolutely no clue what they were doing. It was a charity event with "30%" of the prize pool going to a good cause. And I had to make sure I kept that in mind. At registration, there was a group of 7 older people registering. The woman signing them up asked one lady if she wanted to be at the same table as her husband in which she responded, "What do you mean be at the same table?" That's when I really realized what I was in for. There were 60+ people in the $50 tournament. You could re-buy through the first 2 hours of play. And some kinda way "add-on" but I didn't totally understand that concept because of the way the rules were written. Needless to say, the structure was terrible. You started with 3k in chips, 25/50 first level, and 20 minute levels. Well people were re-buying left and right. About the 2nd level or so, a guy gets on the mic and starts announcing the pay-outs. Now there's still about an hour and 30 minutes left of the re-buy period and they've already figured the pay-outs lol. I guess the re-buys went to charity. Well 64 people or so, countless re-buys/add-ons, and first prize was like $1200. Which wasn't so so bad because 2nd was like half that, and so forth. Hmmmm "Charity Matt, Charity." Well my hand stories were very uneventful. I didn't play many at all. My best hand was A-10. My table was awful. Nice people but clueless. I guess I've played so much in casinos and online, where there are dealers and the game is fast, I was becoming so impatient. Always telling people to post their blinds and hearing COUNTLESS & COUNTLESS, "Oh is it on me? How much is it to me? Did you call?" Not to mention "What's rabbit hunting? Why is he moving to another table? Does a straight beat a flush?, etc." Why is that young guy beating his head into the wall??? Because Ma' am, when the guy in front of you throws chips in the pot, or folds his cards, it's YOUR FUCKING TURN! The only hand I actually got involved in was K-Jo. Here's how it went down... I limped from middle position with a couple others and we see a flop of 5-J-6 rainbow. The BB leads out the minimum... a couple of people fold and I just call. The guy behind me raises to like 4 BB's or so. The table folds to the original bettor and he calls. Now here's the thing, in ANY OTHER TOURNAMENT ON GOD'S BEAUTIFUL GREEN EARTH I fold in a heartbeat. But I have NO idea what the hell these guys are doing and neither do they. I feel like I'm being re-raised with ANY Jack. The BB was a calling station and the re-raiser made a comment earlier on a board of 2-2-10-10-10 saying, " As long as he didn't have a 10, ya'll were chopping the pot." I mean what the fuck am I supposed to do? Never mind.. don't answer that, I know I'm supposed to fold... but I just know at show down it's gonna be J-7 v.s. 7-9 or something. Anyway, I check-call the flop and turn and we all check the river.... K-J for me.... J-4 for BB and 6-5 for other guy who scoops it with 2 pair. Anyway.. I lost most my chips there and the rest not long afterwards. Maybe that hand was a blessing in disguise as I was ready to swallow the dealer button in attempt to choke myself to death. I got the rest of my chips in short-stacked. 100-200 blinds.. Half the table limps and I have A-10 in the SB and stick my last 975 total in there. A couple players fold and a tight woman says call.. Oops.. Well calling station from the last hand calls also.. 3 handed to a flop of Q-Q-8... They check, check... Turn is a 9.. Check, Check.. Come on Jack!! Bam, jack on the river. Check, Check... I turn over my A-10 and declare "I have a straight".. the lady shows A-J for 2 pair. The calling station is looking at this hand sadly and says, "I've got nothing." And is about to muck as he shows his hand to his buddy on his left. His buddy then says, "HOLD ON, you have a straight." He says, "Huh?" His buddy says, "Yeah turn your hand over, you have a straight." SHIT.. chop chop I guess.... nope this guy has K-10. Now if I hadn't pointed out that he had a higher straight, there's literally a 90% chance I could have chopped the pot up. But I did the right thing and told him(and the rest of the table) he had the higher straight and he wins it all. I was somewhat glad to leave. My buddy was already knocked out and we both agreed not to re-buy or anything like that. Twice in the day when I was in the BB, the button(who was dealing because everyone deals for them self) screwed up and it should have been a misdeal but I didn't say anything. The first time he accidentally exposed the first card he dealt. That's a misdeal but he just said, "That's the first burn card." And I let him roll with that. The second time was a big fuck up lol. I'm in the BB and some kind of way I get the last card lol. Apparently he dealt to the UTG player first. And nobody says a thing lol. I left as soon as I was knocked out and visited with my mom for a little while. We watched the Lake Charles boys blow a 5 run lead in the last inning. Must be tough on those kids. Then went to my buddy's house for a little while before realizing I REALLY needed some sleep and went to my house for some well needed rest.

Vegas 04/08

I'm just bored and thought I'd write about my stay in Vegas in April-May earlier this year. My friend Joe and I rented a condo there for 30 days. I'm only 23 so it was my first time there. The best way to describe Vegas in my eyes is "Over the top". Everything was just amazing. Our condo was on South Decatur. It was a nice location right off the strip. About a $12 cab ride. We walked to the Palms a few times. Our condo was better than expected. It was absolutely fully stocked for a month's stay; Toilet paper, paper towels, silverware, washing detergent, our own washer/dryer on the balcony, etc. I was very pleased. I worked out at the fitness center almost daily and took a couple dips in the pool. Man I'm kinda missing it now. Now onto the poker scene. Our second day there the Venetian hosted the Jennifer Harman charity tournament. So our 2nd day there, we saw almost every pro imaginable. As you would imagine, Vegas offers a lot of poker action lol. I guess my favorite place to play is the Venetian. They offer a great poker comp. system. The poker room is very big and spacious (a big plus to me). The games where normal for the most part. I played mostly $5-$10 there and did well. One day I'm playing and a guy comes sit to my immediate left and pulls out about 30k and puts it on the table. I take a better look and notice it's Amir Nasseri. You may recognize the name from High Stakes Poker. He's a Las Vegas Gynegologist. When you go from playing like $300-$600NLHE to $5-$10, needless to say he was giving action. It's hard to say whether he was any good or not, because he was making it $110 to go preflop every hand. He put a lot of pressure on everyone. Sometimes it worked for him and sometimes... not so much. Anyway, I played about 7 hours that day and I think I won $12. Not exactly a great hourly hate. But eventful none the less. I played 2 tournaments the entire time I was there. I'm not that big on tournaments for the most part. Both tournaments were at the Venetian. A $340 and like a $550. Or something close to that. The $340 I made the money but only enough to like double by buy-in. And the other one I bombed on. I made a stupid call in the $340 one to put my really short-stacked. I raised from late position with Ac7c. Got called by the maniac at the table in the BB. The flop came 7 high, all hearts he check raised me all-in. I called and he showed Qh-Jh. I say it was a stupid call, I mean... Late in these tourney's you don't have many chips to maneuver with. So once I raised pre-flop and bet the flop. I was pretty much committed. Though after seeing his Q-J I felt maybe I shoulda folded and waited around with my short-stack. But you really have to finish top 3 to get any real money and that's what I was trying to do. ANYWAY... that was my tourney recap lol. I also liked the Caesar's Palace room. It's big enough, spacious, and most importantly...... Pretty good action(at least while I was there). All you have to do is pretty much ask for food and they brought it to us. The WSOP circuit event went on there. It was probably my 2nd favorite room. The Bellagio poker room was just too crowded for my liking. If you want action above $5-$10, Bellagio is the place for you. Or if you like to stare at professionals in Bobby's room, this is your place. Otherwise, I didn't care for it. The tables are jammed in, they don't comp you anything.... I guess for a smaller stakes player, it's just not worth it. Though I must admit, one day I went on a serious heater at the Bellagio. I picked up a little over $2,300 in only a few hours. I had to make a tough call with a set of tens on the river for $450 with a 4 card straight out there. But the deck ran me over and I accepted it with open arms. We saw two shows while we were there, Le Reve at the Wynn & Danny Gans at the Mirage. Both were great. I think I preferred Danny Gans. He was entertainer of the year last year, at rightfully so. He's an impersonator with MUCH talent. He sang everyone from Sinatra to Macy Gray. I enjoyed it. The Wynn room was nice. The amount of people in this city was incredible. You can walk into any place, i.e. Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon (you welcome for the free publicity) and see hundreds of people on a Monday night. It always had me thinking, "Look at the frickin' people in this little place. Imagine how many people are in this town." PLENTY. I spent way too much money on souvenirs lol. More than I liked on cab rides too. Joe and I tried to ride together for the most part to split cab cost, but if you know anything about Joe, he likes to put in 18 hour sessions way too much for me. Overall, the experience was incredible! I can't wait to go back. Maybe not for a month this time as I began to miss my girlfriend and family. But I will be back. No Doubt

Down in the Boondocks

Hello to anyone bored enough to read this. My name is Matt Bryant, extremely successful professional poker player. O.K. maybe I stretched the truth just a little. LoL. I'm just a regular guy, with a regular job, who likes to play some poker. I reside in Amelia, Louisiana. I'm originally from the Choupic/Chackbay area(as I get reminded of almost daily by my poker community). I'm 23 years old. I enjoy reading and long walks on the beach (Yeah right! Unless I'm reading the tournament structure sheet in Aruba or something). I enjoy the normal things most poker players enjoy; Poker, sports, action! And hanging out with my wonderful girlfriend and her kids. I picked an absolute horrible time to start writing this blog. The last 2 1/2 months have by far been the worst poker months of my life. I've been playing for about 4-5 years now and I didn't think it was possible to run/play this bad. I ran well last year. I stayed 30 days in Vegas from April 15th-May 15th and ran great there. But since I have been back, it's been horrific! I play anything from $1/$2 - $5-$10. But for the most part I stick with $2-$5NLHE. I don't know where to begin about my losing streak. I can't win. I know I will lose to the flush draws, straight draws, etc. But I have been CONSISTENTLY getting smoked by backdoor flushes, backdoor boats, etc. Lately it's been flopping sets, and getting it all-in v.s. an over pair and they hit that 2-outer like it's an open-ended straight flush draw. 3 times in the last week and a half. That doesn't do much for your mental state when you're trying to think positive. Luckily I have some good friends who try to keep me positive and help me out. And a girlfriend who seems to be understanding and compassionate. O.K. time to stop bitching about my hard times. Right now I'm in the process of getting my job back at the Amelia Belle Casino. I was a Dual Rate in the poker room there. A Dual Rate is someone who deal some days & supervise some days. So if anyone has a question on a poker ruling, contact me and I'll do my best to answer it. As I mentioned before, I went to Vegas for 30 days in April/May with a friend("Underground Cash Game Legend Joe Bueche") lol. So I had to quit my job then, and I haven't been exactly in a rush to get back. Though I should have been. I'll probably be playing mostly small buy-in tournaments online for a while. My bankroll is suffering to say the least. But I'll do my best here to keep you updated on my poker views and sessions. Be back soon.