Pobody's Nerfect

I Run GOOOOOD

2009-11-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

*********** # 9 **************
PokerStars Game #35063072883: Tournament #209010926, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2009/11/07 21:12:41 CT [2009/11/07 22:12:41 ET]
Table '209010926 145' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: thag (10005 in chips)
Seat 2: traktor1960 (17070 in chips)
Seat 3: gladiator557 (11730 in chips)
Seat 4: 123BadBeatMe (41430 in chips)
Seat 5: $$JADBANEZ$$ (13575 in chips)
Seat 6: larrygibbs (35150 in chips)
Seat 7: Peanut NZ (10410 in chips)
Seat 8: BDMizzle (27537 in chips)
Seat 9: MattJBryant (21205 in chips)
thag: posts the ante 100
traktor1960: posts the ante 100
gladiator557: posts the ante 100
123BadBeatMe: posts the ante 100
$$JADBANEZ$$: posts the ante 100
larrygibbs: posts the ante 100
Peanut NZ: posts the ante 100
BDMizzle: posts the ante 100
MattJBryant: posts the ante 100
MattJBryant: posts small blind 500
thag: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MattJBryant [Ac 4s]
traktor1960: folds
gladiator557: folds
123BadBeatMe: folds
$$JADBANEZ$$: calls 1000
larrygibbs: folds
Peanut NZ: folds
BDMizzle: folds
MattJBryant: calls 500
thag: checks
*** FLOP *** [As 8d 9h]
MattJBryant: checks
thag: checks
$$JADBANEZ$$: checks
*** TURN *** [As 8d 9h] [4d]
MattJBryant: bets 5000
thag: raises 3905 to 8905 and is all-in
$$JADBANEZ$$: folds
MattJBryant: calls 3905
*** RIVER *** [As 8d 9h 4d] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MattJBryant: shows [Ac 4s] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
thag: shows [4c 9d] (a full house, Nines full of Fours)
thag collected 21710 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21710 | Rake 0
Board [As 8d 9h 4d 9s]
Seat 1: thag (big blind) showed [4c 9d] and won (21710) with a full house, Nines full of Fours
Seat 2: traktor1960 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: gladiator557 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: 123BadBeatMe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: $$JADBANEZ$$ folded on the Turn
Seat 6: larrygibbs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Peanut NZ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: BDMizzle (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: MattJBryant (small blind) showed [Ac 4s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines

Sticking With Your Read

2009-10-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Is poker all about math? Is poker all about feel? Position? Your cards? Your opponent?

I could go on and on.....

I wanted to talk a little about feel. I think I'm more of a feel player than a math player(I'm not saying this is the better way to be). I will review a hand from the Full Tilt 50-50 tournament I managed to squeak my way through. I'll try to set-up this hand just a little:

At the moment, I have never used PokerTracker. I'm not apposed to it. Actually, I plan to use it in the future when I plan to give online poker a legitimate run. But I have no stats on the "villain" in this hand. What I can tell you, is that this hand is played early at the final table. I don't have much prior history with him/her. I start this hand 4th in chips.

A EP/MP player min-raises. I'm in the small blind. First off, with the antes and blinds in there.. when I'm in the BB, I'm calling a min-raise with almost everything. But this hand I'm in the SB, so it makes it a little tougher. I'm not saying this is a proper call or not out of position. I am getting 3-1 to call. Can't imagine letting this guy get away with this lol. My Jc9c is more than good enough for me. I call.

Flop comes down 2c Th Qs.

I could choose to bet here. I flopped an open-ended straight draw. He only has 127k left. I don't feel like leading out and get reraised all-in. But if I check-shove here, he pretty much has to call with anything with the odds he'd be getting. I decide to check. He checks behind. With the check behind, it seems very weak or very strong. You have to take into account that we're at a final table with some nice paydays for a $55 buy-in. If this were the beginning or middle of the tournament, he could easily fire a c-bet here. But a c-bet would be committing a lot of chips into this pot with nothing. I'm not saying a c-bet would be totally bad, but it takes a lot to pull that trigger at this stage of the tournament. At this point I'm putting him on AK/AJ.. or maybe 77, 88, or 99.

Turn is the 9s. Not a bad card at all. Unless of course he had that 99 I was talking about. I think he c-bets KJ on the flop and don't think he raises preflop with J8 or 78. So a straight is out of the question. I decide to fire a smallish bet here. 40k into a 73,500 pot. And he decides to call. Now I'm almost banking on AK-AJ. If he had a set, 2 pair, etc. I think he pushes here. The board is getting pretty draw heavy.

The river is the 3c. A basic air ball. I elect to check. I think I have him here. But I'm also not too crazy about my 1 pair of 9's. Then.. he ships it! 85,900! Whoaa WTF?! I basically instacalled.

Let's try to make sense of anything other than a bluff? Does he really have the balls to shove the river for value with A-10, A-9? Unlikely. With the stacks in this hand, it just seemed to me that he would push any hand on the turn that he wanted to make money with. And I basically made up my mind on this when he called the turn bet. I could have still folded here and have 170k. I could have called and been wrong and have 84,872. Or.. I could called and been right and have over 400k and be the chipleader of the tourney with 8 players left. When I analyze the hand out loud, the call seems a little easier, but when you're sitting at the final table of a 950+ player tourney, and you have to call a large bet on the river with 3rd pair, decent kicker.. it's not a spot I like to be in. Well I STUCK WITH MY READ, and called. He showed A-J for Ace high. Nice.

Not only am I the current chipleader, but I'm filled with confidence. Which is another positive side to making a good call. A few players wrote things in the chat box, like "Wow, good call." & things of that sort. Which blew my head up even more.

Long story short, I went on to win the tournament. A few times in short-handed play, I raised with small/mid pairs and then folded to a shove because I didn't want a flip(this may have not have mathmatically been the correct play). I just wanted a better spot. I ended up getting fortunate to be on the good side of some great flops/boards. And took down 1st place. As your teacher used to tell you in class, stick with your first instinct(usually).

Till next time, good luck!!

******************** # 444 ***********************

FullTiltPoker Game #9725386425: The Fifty-Fifty (72907090), Table 71 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:33:27 ET - 2008/12/28

Seat 1: spide11 (354,015)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (234,772)
Seat 3: MONGOJONGO (155,663)
Seat 4: Root9 (178,195)
Seat 5: kidrael (134,149)
Seat 6: DeuceCourt (151,400)
Seat 7: martand (183,763)
Seat 8: netao (247,928)
Seat 9: 1whoLiesBest (268,115)
spide11 antes 1,500
Matt J Bryant antes 1,500
MONGOJONGO antes 1,500
Root9 antes 1,500
kidrael antes 1,500
DeuceCourt antes 1,500
martand antes 1,500
netao antes 1,500
1whoLiesBest antes 1,500
Matt J Bryant posts the small blind of 6,000
MONGOJONGO posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [9c Jc]
Root9 folds
kidrael folds
DeuceCourt has 15 seconds left to act
DeuceCourt raises to 24,000
martand folds
netao folds
1whoLiesBest folds
spide11 folds
Matt J Bryant calls 18,000
MONGOJONGO folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Th Qs]
Matt J Bryant checks
DeuceCourt checks
*** TURN *** [2c Th Qs] [9s]
Matt J Bryant bets 40,000
DeuceCourt calls 40,000
*** RIVER *** [2c Th Qs 9s] [3c]
Matt J Bryant checks
DeuceCourt bets 85,900, and is all in
Matt J Bryant calls 85,900
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DeuceCourt shows [Ac Js] Ace Queen high
Matt J Bryant shows [9c Jc] a pair of Nines
Matt J Bryant wins the pot (325,300) with a pair of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 57s
Total pot 325,300 Rake 0
Board: [2c Th Qs 9s 3c]
Seat 1: spide11 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (small blind) showed [9c Jc] and won (325,300) with a pair of Nines
Seat 3: MONGOJONGO (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Root9 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: kidrael folded before the Flop
Seat 6: DeuceCourt showed [Ac Js] and lost with Ace Queen high
Seat 7: martand folded before the Flop
Seat 8: netao folded before the Flop
Seat 9: 1whoLiesBest folded before the Flop

NFL Week 1 Picks reviewed.. & Week 2 picks!

2009-09-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I went 2-1 on the picks I posted last week. I was about 3 yards from going 3-0. Hines Ward is about to score at the end of regulation, but instead gets stripped and loses the fumble at about the 3 or 4 yard line. Steelers kick a FG on first down in OT to win by 3. So they didn't cover.

My other two picks covered nicely. Falcons were a 4.5 point favorite and won by 12. And the Vikings were a 4.5 favorite and won by 14. BTW I try to bet at the beginning of the week so those lines may have moved before game time on Sunday.

So now.. HERE ARE MY WEEK 2 NFL PICKS!!

First, New England Patriots(-4) @ New York Jets

I won my "pick of the week" last week. And here is my pick of the week this week. I understand that the Pats barely SQUEAKED by the terrible Bills last week. And I'm also aware that the Jets put a beating on the Texans. But I think both of those performances were not true to how good/bad these teams are. What did impress me, was Randy Moss and Wes Welker each caught 12 balls. That's only been done once before in NFL history(Keyshawn and Dunn). I don't think they'll do it again. But Tom Brady is Tom Brady. The last 10 games that the Patriots have played the Jets in New York, The Pats are 10-0 Against the Spread. The Patriots offensive line was iffy last week and it took Brady a while to get back into the groove of things after missing almost all of 2008. But he still ended up with 378 yards passing? The Jets held Schaub in check, but can the 2008's 4th worse pass defense hold Brady in check? I'm betting not.
I'm taking the Pat's -4.

Game 2. The Indianapolis Colts(-4) @ Dolphins

On a side note, I was looking at this game Monday night.. And I really liked it at Colts(-3). I keep the internet explorer up, go take a 10-minute shit.. I get back.. and the line is at -4. Unbelievable lol. What a difference a point can make?!
Anyway, The Colts are another team that sneaked by an opponent in week 1, beating Jacksonville by only 1. This next game has more to do about how I feel about Miami. As I said in my last post when I bet against Miami, I feel like Miami over achieved last year going 11-5. This year they will struggle. And Peyton Manning is a pretty strong guy to try to make a statement against. Anthony Gonzales is banged up, and I don't care for that. But I think Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and the boys should get it done. Peyton can make anyone good enough. The Colts looked ugly but still got it done, especially on defense. They held Jacksonville to 122 yards passing, and held Maurice Jones-Drew under 100 yards rushing. While Manning managed to throw for over 300 yards. Wayne being the main beneficiary. Like I said, Miami is a 2009 bust in my prediction, and the Colts are still... well... the Colts.
I'm taking the Colts(-4).

Last but not least the Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans(-7)

First, I should apologize to the Titans for what I said about them last week. I watched(in disgust) the Titans/Steelers game from the Beau Rivage Poker Room. The Titans impressed me. Kerry Collins looked pretty stable. And Chris Johnson only ran for 57 yards, but only had 15 carries(3.9ypc). But he impressed me some. He looked good. And I think he and L.White can give the Texans some trouble. Thomas(former Bear) Jones gave they trouble last week rushing for 107 yards on only 20 carries and 2 TD's. The Texans defense was 27th in 2008, and showed nothing in week 1 to prove different. In week 1, the Texans only mustered 183 TOTAL NET YARDS, while letting the Rookie Sanchez and the Jets come up with 462. And the Texans offense face a tough Titans D this week. Tennessee is 12-3 Against the spread in their last 15 games within the AFC South. Add up the Titans average offense and great defense v.s. the Texans just overall struggle.... and I've got the Titans covering.

Well there's my picks. Let's see what we can do!
Last week: 2-1
Overall: 2-1

ScReWeD uP pOstS!

2009-09-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ok. Sorry to anyone who reads my blog. Apparently you can't send a long post via text message to your blog. I tried to text one long entry to blogger.com. I realize now that it posted it in 14 different small messages, and left out some content all together. So here, I will piece together everything and also talk about my 2/5NLHE session after my tourney.

I came to Biloxi with Joe & Davey to play Event #10.. $340 NLHE. Bad Idea. I went bust in the 5th level. Seems like it may have been impossible to win today for me. Anytime I caught anything that resembled a hand(or bet without a hand), I got played back at big time.

In one of the first 5 hands of the tournament, 3 people limp to my BB. I look at AcQc. I raise to 250.. Everyone calls.. Flop comes down A-J-9, two spades. I bet out 400.. Mitch from Shortys(who is pretty straight-forward in my opinion) raises. Another player behind calls. Uggh I see what kind of day this is gonna be.. I would usually take a different route, but I can't think of a hand that Mitch can have that doesn't have me beat.. Except for possibly a straight & flush draw hand.. I mucked.. the turn was a 9 and the river was a spade.. No showdown but don't think I could win.

My table was nuts! 25-50 blinds and everyone is raising to like 600 preflop.. It was stupid.. When everyone else in the tourney was playing 50-100, we were basically playing 1000-2000. Which wouldn't be a problem if I caught a few monsters. But Not likely.

I lost a nice amount on one hand when I raised PF with KdQd and got a couple of callers.. I got one caller on the turn on a K-J-10-3 board. River 10.. And he value bets. I pay him off.. He shows Q-10.. F*+^ing 2-outed.

Then I lay down QQ on a 9-high flop. A tight player raises from EP/MP(this is one of the only guys with his head screwed on straight). I have QQ. I elect to just call.. The Maniac in the SB calls also. The flop comes down 9-high and harmless.. The maniac decides to lead out a nice overbet.. His patent move.. I'm praying the PFR folds and I'll pop it. No.. PRF raises to 6k.. Mind you we are at like 100-200. The PFR raised to 6k.. leaving himself not much left. I only have a little over 7k. Shit. Only hands I can beat are 10-10 & J-J. I "tank" for a while.. Then finally decide to wait for a better spot and muck. Really think the PFR had KK or AA.. Who knows.. In my mind he can only have 5 hands. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, or 99(and the odd chance he has QQ also). I think he limps with any other pair. And doesn't play it that strong post flop. I can beat 2 of those 5 hands.. Gross, but I muck

At the 25/50 or 50/100 level, I saw a 19k pot. Set of queens v.s. a pair of kings, 9 kicker. REALLY?! Basically, a standard guy raises preflop, guy behind him calls.. Flop KQ2.. they end up getting it all in?? No real draw for K9.. just top pair.. Wow.. It wasn't an "I'll try to get you off your hand" play by the pair if kings.. It was a "I have top pair, and I'm not folding" play.

Ok don't want to waste too much of my phone battery writing this, as I am writing this on my iPhone while waiting on a cash game seat... But I want to quickly share this one hand I wasn't envolved in on our mentally challenged table.. Blinds are 25-50..
Guy raises to 600(that's correct, 600).
Gets one caller out of the BB. The Maniac...
Flop comes down 8-6-3.
Maniac checks,
PFR bets 2k!
Maniac calls..
Turn is a 7..
Maniac checks
PFR bets 4k!
Maniac calls..
River is a 9.
Maniac shoves in.
PFR calls..
Maniac shows 56o for a backdoor straight.
PFR shows JJ for a pair of jacks.
These morons are fearless.. Firing a ton of chip.. at 25-50?!? While every other table was playing skillful deepstack poker.. We were playing kamikaze BS. Now I'm pulling for Davey and Joe.. Till next time.. GL

Ok. Now for a recap of my 2/5NLHE session at the Beau after I busted from the tourney. A pretty good session overall. I won $630 playing cash. Winning $290 on the day. For a while, I didn't get too involved. But players could tell that I wasn't exactly a nit. I raised to $30 preflop with 56o and ended up flopping a pair and backdooring a straight. I won that pot to get me to about even(I bought in for $800 btw. The table was pretty deep. As it usually is at the Beau. Especially during WPT time).

Not long after that hand, I hit the monster. It folds around to the button(who I pegged as one of the worse players at the table). He raises to $15. I'm in the SB with J-9o. I usually fold here and let him have it. But I'm looking to "mix it up" with this guy. Also, the BB is a bit of a station, and I wouldn't mind if he joined it. In which he did. Flop comes down Q-10-4. I check.. BB decides to bet $50 The button looks like he might raise. I'm hoping not. I'm open-ended and would love to see the turn for $50 against these two. The button then calls. Nice. I call.. turn.. the beautiful K. I would have preferred an 8.. but hey, I'll take it. I check. BB bets $120 or $150. The button mucks.. have to decide how to play this. I have $795 total in my stack. I decide to go with the min-raise. I raise to $300. Leaving myself $495 and he has me covered. He calls quickly. Ok.. COME ON BRICK.. I think there was a backdoor club draw here. But it doesn't get there 6 of spades on the river. Now what to do. I'm not checking.. but what do I bet? Do I go for value and bet $300 or so? Or do I shove my remaining $495? I like the latter. I shove in. He calls. I'm good. SWEET! Ship that $1,785 my way.

After that, I didn't catch too many hands to make money. Just gave a little back. I played the tourney on Sept. 4th for 12.5 hours.. Never caught aces. I played 5 levels of the tourney this day, never caught aces. Now I've been playing cash for a few hours, no pocket aces. FINALLY, I catch them.. flop a set.. and proceed to lose lol. A guy in EP raises preflop to $30 or so. It folds all the way to me in the SB. I have 2 red aces. Only the BB is left to act behind me. I just call. To my surprise, the BB calls. 3 way to the flop of A-K-10. Not bad.. I check... BB checks.. PFR checks.. damn... Turn is garbage.. I bet $60.. and both call.. River is a jack.. Great.. a queen now makes a straight. But that doesn't necessarily mean somebody has one. I decide to make the same bet, $60. The BB min-raises to $120. Great, there's your queen. Then the PFR moves all-in. You shitting me? There's your queenS. I muck.. BB calls. They chop it up with a queen. BB has Q-10o and PFR has QQ. When they called my turn bet, I was up against 2 opponents with 4 outs total. And they got there lol. Oh well.

Later, I caught AA and played it differently. I am not a big fan of the limp reraise with AA/KK from EP. But I also don't think you should play a hand the same way every single time. So I decide to limp with AA from EP.. A player 3 to my left(The guy who had QQ in the previously mentioned hand) grabs a few chips like he is going to raise(nice) and decides to limp. Then only the blinds tag along. Oh well. The flop comes 5-3-3. Long story short. I bet every street and the limper called and tabled 3h4h at the end for trips. The pot wasn't very large. I think I bet $15, $30, $50 on the streets. The board stayed pretty low. And after I saw him almost raise preflop, I put him on 77-JJ. All I can say is THANK GOD he didn't make it $30 to go. Because I think the blinds fold. Then I probably just call, disguising my hand. And he flops trips with those rags and I never see it coming. I would have lost a much bigger pot.

I lost a bit when the entire table folds and the button limps.. SB completes and I check my BB with QJ.. Flop comes down K-10-9. 2 diamonds. The Nuts. Check to me. I bet $15. Button calls.. SB folds. Turn pairs the board 9's. I bet $30. Button calls. The river double-pairs the board 9-9-10-10-K. I now check and the button bets $100. Good Lord. What a hand. The button was probably one of the most active players at the table, and definitely capable of a bluff here. He could have had 2 diamonds and missed. A straight draw and missed. I contemplated a hero call here for a second. But decided against it. It cost me $100 to win $205.. Not exactly odds I like when I have to call with a straight on a double-paired board. On to the next hand.

The only hand left worth mentioning was again QJ. The table became kind of tight. So when I catch QcJc in MP I make a "small" raise to $20. I get 2 callers(the guy from the 3h4h hand and guy from the previously mentioned hand). I am acting in the middle. The Flop comes down A-10-6. 1 club, 2 spades. Check to me and I bet $60. Both call. Great.. Come on.. KING ONE TIME.. BAM!! King. Wow. Check to me. Now I bet $120(half the pot). The player behind me thinks for a while, then finally mucks. The other player does the same. UNREAL. Hit the miracle.. muck muck.. Oh well..

ALL in ALL.. I won $630 in the cash game and had a good time. Till next time.. GL ALL

Tourney & NFL Week 1 picks!

2009-09-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Well as you may have seen on the GCP main site, I played Event #1 at the Beau Friday and managed to sneak into the money. This post with talk a little about that, my overall weekend, and about the NFL Week 1 games I'm betting. Here we go:

I took my girlfriend and kids to the Saints game Thursday night. Figures they go 3-1 during preseason, and we watch the only game they lose. Not only that but the game was overall just dreadful(as far as plays go). No big plays to speak of. I did enjoy bringing the kids to their first Saints game. They enjoyed it. We took off in the 4th quarter to the Beau.

We arrived at about midnight. I went talk and sweat Joe Beuche and Tex for a while. But didn't want to get into a game, knowing I had to be up for the 12pm tournament the next day. I got a little sleep, and woke up for 8AM to sign up for the tournament. This turned out to be a good idea because the line later was ridiculous. Then I caught breakfast with Davey(Southpaw Rounder). Afterwards, I realized I needed a room for today. Lisa and the kids had to be out of the room for 11AM. So here is where my day started getting shitty. I'm on the phone half the morning trying to find a good room at a decent rate. I call and leave a message for Donna at the Beau, trying to get a poker room rate for Friday, because the $319 normal rate is a little absurd. I leave her a message. No contact from her so I call around. Best Western across the street from the Beau, $159... IP.. $199... and a few others with about the same price. Then I call the Isle of Capri. I can get a Jacuzzi Suite there for $139. Sweet. I book a room there. Then it happens. The last word out of the receptionist's mouth was, "Just so you know, this is a Non-Refundable reservation." O.K. No Problem, I don't plan on canceling anyway. I swear to you, not 3 minutes later I get a phone call. It's Gene D. I tell him I just booked a room at the Isle. And to that he says, "Oh man. Davey told me about your situation. And I'm leaving now and I have the room booked for tonight at the Poker room rate. I was going to let you stay there for the $99 or so rate." S.O.B.!!

It ended up not being too bad.. Because the kids got to see a new hotel. There was a little TV in the bathroom that PUMPED them up. There was also a TV in an awkward spot. 3 TVs. Not too bad. A nice size jacuzzi(That Lisa and I took full advantage of). The room is not as elegant as the rooms at the Beau. But they probably enjoyed it more. I personally wished we stayed at the Beau but it worked out OK.

Now onto the tourney.. this gets worse. I get to the Beau a little late after the hotel switch fiasco. When getting out of the truck, I drop my iPhone on the ground. No Problem, I have a hell of a case(Learned my lesson after destroying my original iPhone by dropping it in the Venetian). Problem is, the tiny hole I had near the crotch of my pants.... spits into a nice size hole.. UGGHH! At least I have a jacket that pretty much covers it. But every time I moved around throughout the day, that hole spit bigger and bigger. It got to where my jacket wouldn't fully cover it. That was just a huge pain in the ass all day, putting my hands in my jacket pocket to cover my hole with the bottom of the jacket.

I finally get in and have a seat at my table, Seat 5. I really like sitting in the 1,2,9 or 10. I'm squished in the middle this time. O.K. time to put on my headphones to drown out some idiot talking about why he didn't bet the river with a set because a club hit. I put them on for about 15 seconds before they die. I check the headphones, not charged and dead!! Unbelievable. My stupidity. So now I have to cover a hole in my jeans, and lug around a Bose headphone case with non-working headphones all f*%^ing day. Ok Sorry.... onto poker.

My tourney started out very slow. I raised a fair bit preflop early and took down some blinds to stay around. I raised with 10-8 from the button to take down the blinds. Then the very next hand, from the cutoff.. I have KK. Sweet. They can't let me take two blinds in a row huh? Yes they can. For the record, I played the tournament for 12.5 hours.. I never caught AA. I caught KK once, and QQ twice. Winning all three preflop.. Yuck. I made one set, no nut straights or flushes. And the set I made was on the river when my pair was ahead on the flop when I called a short-stack all-in.

I was pretty dead on with my reads pretty much all day. Except for a couple of hands I'll get to later. One hand that I won a very nice pot with at the time was 3d5d. Blinds are 100/200/25. I raise from MP to 600. I get called in 4 spots! Flop comes down Q-5-4. Two spades. Check, Check ,check to me. I should have bet here, but I didn't. I check and player behind me checks. The turn is a 2. Which actually gives an open-ended straight draw to go with my pair of 5's. Again, check check check to me. This time I bet.. 2k. I get 3 calls. Jesus. When I bet the turn I thought there was a good chance I had the best hand, now I'm not so sure. The river is an offsuit 8. Spades never get there. Check, Check to me. I check. And the tight player left to act behind me, makes a face like, "WTF?!" I'm thinking he may bet. In which case I'm probably calling. He checks. And my 5 holds. Nice. With the blinds at 100/200/25, I win a 11k+ pot with a pair of 5's, 3-kicker.

I don't like to sound like I'm gloating, but I do feel like I played very well the entire tournament. Probably my B+ game(like I have any idea). Here's a hand that I didn't necessarily have a bad read. I just got tired of his guy and was ready to make a play at him.. And got SUPER lucky. This one guy at our table 2 spots to my right, was raising every hand he was in the cutoff or button. He would raise his button(my BB) and we would fold, he'd pick-up the pot. Standard shit. Well I was getting tired of it. The table folds around to him and he raises his button. The SB folds. And I finally decide to defend with 5-6off. The flop comes down K-9-7. I check and he bets out strong. He continuation bet all f*&^ing day. I thought, Ok I'm calling this bet, then betting or check shoving the turn(probably just betting). So I call. Then the miracle 8 hits the turn. Nice. No need for the bluff now. I check. He shoves(another overbet) and I call. He shows K-9 for top two. He doesn't fill up and I bust him. And I come off looking like a complete idiot, calling a big bet on the flop with a gutterball. Which I'm ok with, just ship me the chips. But if I don't hit the 8, I'm betting.. then probably having to call an all-in(because of the amount of the stacks). And he actually had a real hand this time. Shows you the difference a card can make.

I know what you're thinking, "It's easy to play well when you can hit miracles." True. But that's the only hand I got really lucky on. I felt good. I was reraising when I was supposed to. C-betting in success. I called a river bet with Top pair that was a tough call. I was doing the right things. I never made many hands. Couldn't connect with Broadway cards much. I was above average in chips for most of the tournament. I didn't get moved from my original table for hours and hours. People came and went.

Finally I got moved to another table with about 100-200 people left. I caught a couple of decent hands early. Then it happened. I went COMPLETELY card dead at absolute worse time. But I couldn't catch a cold. With 100 players left, I bet our table had 40% of the chips. I mean it was ridiculous. Chips were flying, and I was mainly watching. With about 85k in chips.. A player raised from MP/LP to 10k. I made it 30k with A5off. I took down the blinds, antes, and his raise. If I don't steal that pot, I don't make the money. I did manage to catch 1010 and lost a decent pot to JJ. It was sick. Believe me, I'm not the guy who waits and sits out and tries to make the money. But I didn't feel like shoving with 9-4, 10-3, 8-3, 8-2, J-4, etc. So basically, I waited for an absolute monster, or I was waiting for the money. I didn't have enough chips to splash with. I was getting low.

Then the money bubble bursts. 589 players entered. 54 spots paid. You're listening to Mr. 54th place lol. The bubble burst. Next hand I'm UTG and muck my garbage. Next hand I'm in the BB. Blinds are 2k/4k/500. I have 34k left. The entire table folds to the button, who raises to 15k. The SB thinks, then just calls. I look down at AK. I'm happy and pissed. I'm happy because I finally have a hand, and pissed because where was this shit 2 hours ago? Well I shove or course. 19k on top.. They both call. They check it down until the button bets the river. Shit I must be done. Sure enough, he has 10h8h and rivered a straight. Unbelievable. The SB shows AJ. I could have won this hand a few different ways. First, the SB.. an aggressive player could have(and I think usually would) 3bet preflop. If he pops the button's raise a healthy amount, I still shove.. The button folds, and I beat AJ heads up. He also had the opportunity to do that after I shoved and the button called. I could have won that way too. And last but certainly not least, if the button doesn't river a straight. My AK was ahead going to the river. He rivers a gutterball. I actually only need to dodge 13 outs on the river.. and I'm right about average in chips. Can't do it... I'm out.

12.5 hours played, barely make enough money for the extra hotel night... An absolute grind! Ah well.. better luck next time.

ONTO NFL FOOTBALL!!

Week 1 starts this week. I'm pumped. I'm a Chicago Bears fan. They play Green Bay on Sunday Night Football. I'm excited. Anybody who watches football know that Bears/Packers is like the biggest rivalry in football. Go Bears!

Well, I enjoy betting pro football. I am no sports handicapper(not yet anyway lol). But I thought I'd give you my picks and let you see how well/bad I do. I'll also give a little reasoning behind my picks. Here we go:

Tennesse Titans @ Pittsburgh Steelers(-5)

I'm taking the Steelers here(I know you like it Ray). Tennesse went 13-3 last year. But I don't think they'll even make the playoffs this year. The Titans had a great defense last year. But they lost two keys from that D. The Monster that is Albert Haynesworth(Washington Redskins), and their defensive coordinator Jeff Schwartz, who is now coaching the Lions. I simply think the Titans are not the team they were last year. Kerry Collins is their QB for now. He does scare me a bit because he is inconsistent in my eyes and can possibly have a great game. But I don't think it will happen. He doesn't have a whole lot to through to. Pittsburgh is 5-1 against the spread in their past 6 opening week games. Baltimore gets all of the hype when it comes to defense but Pittsburgh is TOUGH. The best defense last year yardage wise. Ranking 1st in pass D, and second in rush D. And in overall yardage D, they lead by a ton, not by 3 yards or so... but by 23.9 yards per game. Overall I think the Superbowl champs will take this one at -5.

Vikings(-4.5)Browns.

As it pains me to say it, because I'm a Bears fan and hate the Vikes.. I like them here -4. How can you not? Adrian Peterson speaks for himself. Brett Favre should do a good enough job of getting the ball to Berrian, etc. And Minnesota has GREAT D. There isn't a whole lot they have to stop in Cleveland either. Kellen Winslow and Donte Stallworth aren't there anymore. Cleveland is 1-8-1 against the spread in past 10 opening week games. As much as I'd like to see the Vikes lose for my personal gain, I don't see it happening.. I'm taking Vikings -4.

Miami Dolpins @ Atlanta Falcons(-4.5)

I like the Falcons here. I hate that they got rid of Keith Brooking in the offseason. He was a force on that defense. But that doesn't mean I don't like this game. I think this is my favorite pick of the week. I think Miami was the most over achieved team in the league last year(by far). Miami went 11-5 last year. But I don't see them coming close to that this year. I've always been a Chad Pennington fan, but I don't see them repeating their performance. 9 of Miami's 11 wins last year came against teams with records of .500 or worse. They went 11-5 by sneaking by bad teams. They had 7 wins by 7 points or less. The AP NFL Rookie of the Year last year, Matt Ryan lead the Falcons to 11-5 season also in 2008. The Falcons finished 6th in overall offense last year.. I think Ryan will only get better in his second year. The Falcons added veteran TE Tony Gonzales to make sure of it. And if not, just hand the ball to Michael "The Burner" Turner. Like Adrian Peterson, Turner speaks for himself.. leading the Falcons to the 2nd best rush offense in 2008. As long as Atlanta's defense doesn't let Chad Pennington do anything crazy, Atlanta should cover here easily.

Ok that's my 3 picks for the week. Don't go bet the house on them. Just throwing them out there!! Ok 4AM.. time to lay down and watch some TV. Later.

I'm stupid

2009-08-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I play these tournies. I'm never nearly patient enough.. and just throw my money away. Which was precisely what happened again.. I'm out before the extended registration is over.. Rebuy?? lol Till next time.. GL all

Tonight

2009-08-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm going to play the 70k Guarantee on Stars. I'll try to post along. Hopefully I'll have a lot to post about!! Wish me Luck

2009-08-01T02:09:00.001-07:00

Ok.. Lost $250 and calling it a night. Was up $900 at one point.. Then lost a big pot with a billion outs.. Lost another big one when I tried to semi bluff Super Donk when he held the nuts. Usually not a good idea.. First half of the night went well.. Second half went equally as bad.. I'll try and post a lil more about it soon.. GL all

2009-07-31T23:52:00.001-07:00

Just lost about $350 on one hand.. 15 outs on the flop, 21 outs on the turn.. Brick, brick.. He wins with King high.. Fucking Brutal! Still winning a little though.. Gotta keep your head up!

2009-07-31T22:58:00.001-07:00

Up somewhere around a grand now.. Nice pot with KK.. Scarey flop though..
Nice pot with 6-7.. Top two.. Luckily the big check raise worked.. Didn't really want to commit that much with that hand..
Decent pot with AK with King on the river..
It hasn't been exactly easy, but making some hands and a little money

2009-07-31T21:02:00.001-07:00

Up $225 right now.. Mostly on one hand.. Bottom set.. Which I almost mucked on the flop

2009-07-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

On my way to Harrahs New Orleans.. I'll try to update

I'm done

2009-07-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

PokerStars Game #30770800845: Tournament #180530769, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/07/22 22:07:16 CT [2009/07/22 23:07:16 ET]
Table '180530769 72' 9-max Seat
#1 is the button
Seat 1: gaming711 (6585 in chips)
Seat 2: dbl_up_mojo (6253 in chips)
Seat 3: mcnallyville (5823 in chips)
Seat 4: soggy dogg (2204 in chips)
Seat 5: WhatArunAA (6697 in chips)
Seat 6: ryanbluf (5352 in chips)
Seat 7: Ben86 (13949 in chips)
Seat 8: MattJBryant (4146 in chips)
Seat 9: Stev0L_ (9176 in chips)
dbl_up_mojo: posts small blind 100
mcnallyville: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MattJBryant [8s 8c]
soggy dogg: folds
WhatArunAA: folds
ryanbluf: raises 255 to 455
Ben86: folds MattJBryant: calls 455
Stev0L_: folds
gaming711: folds
dbl_up_mojo: folds
mcnallyville: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 9c Ah]
ryanbluf: checks
MattJBryant: bets 800
ryanbluf: raises 1600 to 2400
MattJBryant: calls 1600
*** TURN *** [8d 9c Ah] [Td]
ryanbluf: bets 1600
MattJBryant: calls 1291 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (309) returned to ryanbluf
*** RIVER *** [8d 9c Ah Td] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ryanbluf: shows [Qh Ad] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
MattJBryant: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
ryanbluf collected 8592 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8592 Rake 0 Board [8d 9c Ah Td Js]
Seat 1: gaming711 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dbl_up_mojo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: mcnallyville (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: soggy dogg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: WhatArunAA folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ryanbluf showed [Qh Ad] and won (8592) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 7: Ben86 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: MattJBryant showed [8s 8c] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 9: Stev0L_ folded before Flop (didn't bet)

And that's it. That's about as shitty as they come... 96% favorite on the flop.. 90% on the turn... 0% on the river. I just called his check-raise on the flop to make sure that he put the last 1200 in the the turn. Incase he was totally bluffing. But I can't dodge the dreaded 4-outer with 1 card to come. Oh well, better luck next time.. Till then.. later

2009-07-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

Just caught AA. Everyone folds to me on the button.. I 3x and blinds muck.. Unreal.. Where's the 3bet from K-10 in the SB?

2009-07-22T19:20:00.001-07:00

Won a nice one on first hand back from break.. Blinds 50/100.. In MP with 66.. EP raises to 250.. I call.. Folds around.. Flop Kh7c10d. He checks, I check.. Turn Kd he checks, I bet 300. He shoves for 1250.. I call.. He shows AQ.. River brick

2009-07-22T19:10:00.001-07:00

At first hour break.. Chip stack- 2950.. average is 3700.. Having caught anything.. AJo once

wednesday 250K

2009-07-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Folds around to button.. button raises 3x.. SB folds.. I call out of the BB with 3c7c..
Flop 3d7d5c.. I check.. PFR bets 80. I check-raise to 240, he calls.
Turn Js.. I bet 400.. he calls
River 10.. I check, he ponders.... then checks

I win.. A large river bet from him would have been tough.. I really didn't like the turn or river.. as i thought he may have an over-pair when he called my flop check-raise...

was up to 3,640.. but just gave most back on a hand I could have mucked preflop.. at 3,270.. only a few minutes into the tournament

Hello Poker World

2009-07-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I haven't written a post in ages! Mainly because I haven't played much poker lately. My girlfriend and I are in the middle of buying a house right now. We've been at it for a while now. So I took all my cash and deposited it in the bank. Banks/Government are not exactly giving away money at the moment. I played at Shorty's about a month ago. I lost $420. I don't think I played a hand.. I just spewed away money for a while. I played at Harrah's Friday. I lost $123. I was stuck about $1400 though, so consider that a win. I lost a race that night that woulda put me winning a bunch, but I'm too fat to win races. I decided to play a little online tonight for the first time in months. I don't play many tournaments. And when I do score in one, I always say, "I need to try more tournaments." That usually leads me to play 1 or 2 tournaments immediately, and then stop. So tonight I'm gonna try a bigger online tourney. I'm gonna play the $300+$30 Wednesday Quarter Million on Stars. I'll post on here as I go along. Not as much for anyone's satisfaction, but to keep me from being bored.. it starts in 33 minutes.. Wish me Luck

Nightly Hundred Grand 15th Place

2009-05-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

It sounds nice, and a $1000 win is nice, but it's extremely extremely frustrating. I played the 70k guarantee on Stars Wednesday night. It paid the top 180. I came out 205th when I had J-J and tried to beat 10-10 after getting it in preflop. 10 on the river and I'm outta there. But what it did do is motivate me to play some more tourneys. After winning the 50k guarantee on Tilt in December, I don't know if I've played 15 tourneys since. And I've done pretty good in live tourneys also but don't play hardly any. Well anyway, I'm a little motivated to try and play more now. So tonight I sat and played the Nightly Hundred Grand on Stars. You start with 3k in chips.. about 15 minutes into it, I was down to 800. I caught A-K and lost with trips to A-Q who had trips and a pair of queens. A couple of hands later, I rivered a gutterball to more than double-up. The very next hand I catch KK and double up again. I went from 800 to over 4k in an instant. And never really looked back. I never caught AA(even though I prayed like a SOB for them). Or a set or any monster hand. I just kept chipping away and making some small winners.

Not long after we got into the money, I played one hand where I coulda busted. I called a min-raise from my BB with 10-7o. The flop came 8-5-2.. I checked... PFR checked.. the turn was an 8. I checked, PFR bet. I raised. He called.. River 2.. I shove.. he thinks and mucks. That hand was one of my only real bluffs. I was so confused of what to do on the river.. because the pot was big and he only had 10k left. The turn bet was 6k. So I knew he had to call with a lot of hands. But if I didn't shove, I knew I was beat and I'd be below average. Luckily he mucked.

I laid down 99 late after I 3-bet preflop. The original raiser shoved. I thought forever and mucked. He showed AcKc. I'm still not sure what I should have done there.

And my last hand was questionable. We're playing 7-handed and the cut-off raised. I was on the button with K-Q0. I shoved. Blinds fold. He calls and shows A-Q. And he wins. I didn't have to shove there. But I was one of the shorter stacks. This guy's range is pretty open with a raise from the cut-off 7-handed. And even if he calls with A-J.. 10-10.. J-J.. or any smaller ace.. I'm not in terrible shape. He happened to have me dominated. I actually flopped open-ended, but failed to spike a 9, A, or K. I'm ok with the play. Mainly because I was getting short. But it sucks either way. To make it down to 15 out of 702 players is quite an accomplishment.. But it always feels like such a waste.

Oh well. On a side note.. They're down to 5 players now and this guy paulsl is still in it. This guy chopped the Sunday Million this past Sunday. I know this final table won't be as nice of a payday, but he seems to be on quite a heater. And as I'm typing this he got it all-in with 7-7 v.s. QQ and spiked a 7 for a monster pot. Then 4 hands later he gets AA v.s KQ.. King high flop and they get it all-in. I'd say he's running good. Ha. Anyway, down to 4 and he's the chip leader. Ok now he's chopping the damn thing.. Two (wins) in a week. Nicely done.

Oh well. I did well and think I played ok. I'm looking forward to the absolute grind that is tournament poker. See ya on the felt!

Running Like a CHAMP

2009-05-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted lately about any of my cash sessions. I have been running like God recently. I have been playing at Shorty's about twice a week. I have won in 6 of my last 7 sessions. My last 4 sessions have been..

+475
+890
+1385
+945

I always preferred playing at Harrahs over Shorty's. But since Shorty's lifted their ridiculous 300-max buy-in... and the fact that it's much closer to my house... I have been playing there lately. And I have been running and playing well. I don't remember all my hands from all those sessions so I will just type about my last session. Though I can say that 90% of my winnings on my +1385 session came from Asian Tom. I would call his raise preflop, flop top-pair, check-call the whole way and he'd muck.

Onto my latest session. I played at Shorty's Saturday and picked up $945. I started off down $150 or so on my second hand. I raised from MP with J-J and got 2 callers. The flop was 8-9-9. First player checks, I bet. Next guy mucks. First player check-raises 3x's my bet. I decide to call. I've played with this guy before and I know he can raise with nothing here to get me off of AK, AQ, etc.. Well the turn is an Ace and he fires strong.. I decide to give him some credit and muck.

I bought in for $500 and already I'm down to about $350. Then I pick up 10c7c in MP. I limp along with several others. Then the BB decides to raise, $20 more. Anyone that plays live $5-$5 or $2-$5 knows that everyone and their momma is calling that extra $20. I do as well as everyone else. The flop comes down Kc-4h-Qc. Giving me the 3rd nut-flush draw. The BB(preflop raiser) decides to bet $25. $25 into a $120 pot. Weak? I think so. One player to my right calls. Then I decide to make a play at this pot. I bump it to $100 total. Everyone folds to the preflop raiser. I am fully expecting him to fold. But he contemplates for the longest time and calls. The other player folds and we're heads-up to the turn. The turn is about the best card in the deck, the Ac. I make the 2nd nuts. He checks to me. I have about $250 left and I'm wondering how much to bet here. I think about betting $100 or $150 and keep him in it. But that bet has it's pros and cons. If he does have the Jc(unlikely), I want him to pay for the river. And if he doesn't have a club and a club hits the river, that'll kill my action. If a broadway card hits the board and puts a 4 card straight out there, that may screw my chances of getting paid off too. Anyway.. I am hoping that ace made him 2-pair and I shove my remaining $250 in there. And he calls. The river pairs the board 4's. I cringe for a minute and pray he doesn't show AA, KK, or QQ. But he doesn't and I'm back in the black baby. I win about $470 there.

Later Phil is at our table and raises $25 to go. I look down at AhKh in the BB and I call. We're heads-up. The flop comes down A-x-x. Two hearts. Not too shabby huh? I check and Phil bets $30. I just call. The turn is garbage but the board is straightening out. I check, Phil bets $50. I decide to begin to build this pot and raise to $150. Without much deliberation, he calls. I'm thinking we may have the same hand and I'm freerolling. Or I have him slightly outkicked. The river puts a 4 card straight on board. But he raised preflop and I'm putting him on a big ace. I decide to value-bet $100. He calls and shows A-Q and I drag a nice $300 there.

Later I raise preflop from EP/MP with AhJh. I get 2 callers. The flop comes down Kh- 9c-3h. Giving me an over and the nut-flush draw. The SB leads out $20. Once again, a $20 bet into a $80 pot. Well this time I decide to just call. Asian Tom is behind me but he decides to muck. The turn is the 10h. BINGO.. the nuts. Then the SB checks. I'm thinking, " Shit.. I'm going to bet here and lose him." But I proceed to bet $100. He thinks about it for a while then calls. It genuinely seemed like he didn't want to call. Well the river the 4th heart. Yikes. You never know if that card helped or hurt you in this situation. Then he bets $100 at me. Sweet! Now it's just a matter of how much to raise. It doesn't happen very often, but it's so nice to have the nuts on the river and have someone betting into you. Well he has about $450 behind that $100 bet. I decide to go for $300 total... $200 more to him. He states, "Well there's only one card that beats me." Yes. I know I'm getting paid. He pays off the $200 more. I won $470 there too.

I lose and win some here and there. I'm up about $800 when I catch the following hand. I played this hand badly. I am in the BB with 2-4o and the flop comes down 3-5-6, two diamonds. I flop the 2nd nuts. I decide to bet out $25. I get one caller, then a raise to $100 from Asian Tom. It folds around to me. Tom could have anything here... a pair and flush draw, a pair and straight draw, straight flush draw, two pair, a set, etc.. I decide to just call and see what the guy behind me does. I really should have raised here. It wouldn't have mattered as you will see in the end result. The other player folded and Tom and I are heads up to the turn. The turn is a stupid 4. Now my 2 makes up the low end and any 7 makes the high. Tom has about $250 left. I'm praying now that he has a flush draw, two pair, or set. I know Tom won't slow down with the 4 card straight as Tom NEVER slows down. I check, he bets $110. I decide to just put him in for his last $140. He calls and shows the Jd7d. He hit his gutterball on the turn. He takes about $350 from me there. It doesn't matter how I play the flop. I could have bet my bankroll and Tom wasn't folding a gutshot and flush draw. I'm just upset about the way I played this. Especially the turn. I could have possibly folded the turn to the $110 bet. But coming from this particular source, it was so hard to. I was just hoping he had two-pair, set, or flush draw and I checked the turn so he would bet and commit himself. If the diamond hits the turn I may get away.. But he hit his gut and I lost.. chalk it up... -$350.

Not long after.. I limp with 7-7. It's a limp fest. Then the button makes it $30. I'm in there with everyone else. The flop comes down A-x-x. It checks around to the button who bets $50. I decide to call. I'm tilting just a little. I'm not exactly convinced he has an ace. And my 7-7 is 3rd pair. I call. Everyone folds. The turn is a King. I check, and interestingly... he checks behind.. Hmmm? The river is a 3. I check and he bets $100 pretty forcefully. This isn't quite adding up. Why did he check the turn? Maybe he had A-K or KK and decided he was far ahead. But I didn't think so. This guy was pretty straight-forward and bet often. Then if you do have the monster on the river, why would someone quickly grab a stack, slam it on the table and declare, "One-hundred." I thought it was.. AK, KK, 33 or nothing. I usually don't take much time to make a decision but I took my time here. After all, I can't beat anything but a bluff. I finally called and he said, "good call." Nice. I won about $270 there.

My last eventful hand came when I limped with 4d5d. A couple of limpers to Michael, a co-worker of mine. He raises to $25 or $30. There are a few callers and I call too. The flop comes beautifully... Ad-3d-4s. I flop a pair, and a straight-flush draw. It checks around to Michael who bets $65. Mike M. calls in front of me. Then I decide to check out everyone's stack. Michael only has about $175 left. Mike M has about $350 left and another play who hasn't acted yet has about $300. I was sitting in the 10 seat and last player was in the 2 seat. When I tried to see how much he had left, the dealer did the same. And then he looked at the dealer and said geniunely, "Oh it's on me, I fold." So I know he's out. All I can lose is less than $200 to Michael. And about $350 to Mike M. I decide to shove. I'm pretty sure Michael has an ace. I'm not sure about Mike M. I am just scared Mike M. may have a bigger flush draw. That would suck. That's really why I wanted Michael to fold. I don't care if we have to race. If he has an ace(which he later said he had AQ) I'm almost 60/40. But if he calls, that kinda will price Mike M. in if he has a big flush draw. Well both players fold and I win $240 there.

I picked up shortly after.. a $945 winner. I saw some very badly played hands that remind me why I play this game.

I am going to Harrahs tomorrow to play the $500+$50 event. I'll keep you posted.

Two Shorty's Sessions

2009-04-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

I decided to post about my two previous Shorty's sessions. First let's start with my Saturday session. It was a pretty short session. I got there about 8PM or so and left at about 10:15PM. My girlfriend got off work early and wanted to go out. I was up $475 so pulled a little "Hit & Run" and went out with her. We had a great time. So here's a little recap:

Shorty's runs a 5-5 game. I sat down with $500 and didn't play too many hands until I hit the gorgeous set over set. I limped UTG with 99. There's a few limpers until the BB decides to make it $30. He was raising preflop quite often and I was hoping to smoke him. Well he got 3 or 4 callers. Flop.. 9-4-K. nice. The BB leads out $50. I decide to just call as the board is pretty harmless. Then the shortest stack at the table decides to shove for $150 total. The table folds, including the preflop raiser. I call. The board runs out. I show my 99 and he shows 44. It's so rare to flop set over set, and I happen to do it to the guy with $150 left. Oh well, let's not be too greedy.

The guy to my left was the most active at the table. He was making some bets/raises that seemed like air to me but never had to show down his hand. A couple of times he was called down and his opponent showed, and he mucked. Well he lost a decent size pot right before the following hand:

I raise $25 to go with KK. He calls to my left. I think there were about 2 callers. The flop comes down Q-4-7. I bet $40. The guy behind me makes it $100. Folds to me. I can definitely be behind here, but this is the type of play the guy has been making. And I'm pretty sure I'm in the lead. I just call. The turn is a 9. I check, he bets $100. And he's got $200 behind that. I really thought he had a queen(A-Q, K-Q, Q-J). But I just called again. The river pairs the board 4s. I decide to bet his last $200. He folds. He said he didn't have a queen, which I now believe. If I check the river, he probably fires again. But I thought he had a good queen and I didn't want the river to go check, check. Oh well. I won about $250 there.

Then I try my one real "play" of the night. A few players call the $10 straddle, including me with Ac8c on the button. The SB and BB complete and the straddle pops it to $30. Not really much of a pop. Well everyone calls. I'm in there. And we see a flop about 6 ways. The flop comes down 4-4-9 two spades. SB and BB check, straddle bets $40(into a $180 pot). A couple of folds to me and I raise to $140. As long as the SB or BB didn't flop a 4, I should be good. The SB folds. Asian Tom is the BB. I'll write a lot more about Tom in my next session. Tom is in all pots and is pretty aggressive. He calls the $140. Shit. The straddle mucks. The turn is garbage. And Tom leads out $125. Huh? Plenty of times this is the bet someone makes after missing their draw. And Tom calling $140 on a flush draw on a paired board is more than possible. This was actually a very good bet by Tom in my opinion. Although, if he would have checked, I would have probably fired again... but he doesn't know that. And this bet really throws me off. I thought he might be on a spade draw and thought about putting him all-in. As he only had a few hundred more. Anyway, I eventually fold. And this guy turns over 9-4 off suit for a flopped boat. LoL. When you put in $30 preflop with 9-4o, I guess you gotta get it some time. Lost $170 there.

I get moved to the main game shortly after. I sat there for a while without playing a hand. There was a big pot won with top pair, top kicker. Bryan raised to about $50 preflop and got a few callers. The flop came down A-x-x. It checked to Bryan and he bets $150. It folds to Joey, and Joey shoves. About $700 or $800 or so. The table folds to Bryan. He has about the same amount in front of him.. about $650 over the $150 he just bet. He thinks about it forever, and then finally calls... with A-K.. and it's good! Joey shows A-9. And the board bricks out. Unbelievable. Joey would have gotten my $150. That being said. He did bet $800 to win about $300. Well I told that story to tell the next 2 hands.

A few hands later, I limp with 5d6d. There's a couple of limpers to Bryan in the BB who raises to $50. 9 of 10 times I fold here. But I haven't played a hand at this table yet so I should get some kind of respect. And Joey is one of the limpers and I'm pretty sure he's calling to get a shot at Bryan. I call. Joey calls. And we see a flop 3 handed. Flop is A-A-4. Bryan checks, I check, Joey checks. The turn is a queen. Bryan checks. I decide to throw out $50. Both fold. Bryan flips over 7-7. I show my 5-6. Hoping to get a little action if I ever do make a hand. Won $100 there

A few hands later, Joey raises to $30 UTG+1 or +2. And the whole table actually folds to me in the BB. I look down at AhKh. I call. Heads-up to a flop of A-6-3. I check and he bets. $40. I decide to just call. The turn is a 7. I check again. And he bets $60. I call again. I usually play this hand a little stronger, but I take an alternate route. The river is a 4. Now a 5 makes a straight. I check again. He picks up his cards, almost as to show his hand. Then puts it down, thinks about it, and fires $100. I call. I'm good. I won about $230 there.

I told my girlfriend I'd meet her at home at 11PM and it was already 10:15 and the weather was bad. So I racked up. Of course I got some "hit & run" comments. Blah Blah Blah.. Check Change $475 on the night. Well actually in a couple of hours.

Well I'll write about yesterday's session soon...

"Wow! (First) the economy, now this!"- Tex's quote when I told him yesterday's Shorty's table was slow and low in money.

Online Donk

2009-04-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Not that anyone is waiting on the edge of his or her seat to read my next blog, but I promise to start blogging more often. I have been playing live a fair bit lately, and some online. I have ran pretty good live.. And terribly online.

Sadly, the title of this post refers to myself. I play tournaments/SNG's ok online.. But I must be the biggest fish in the cash games. I just get involved in too many hands. It's ridiculous. I play pretty solid for a while, then go ape-shit. I can't explain it. I played a 6-max 2/4 game the other night. I played ok for a while.. Got down $100 or so.. then up $100 or so.. and then I blow it. I call a raise with Qd8d. Something I'll do occasionally in live games, but something I do way more often online. The flop comes down Q-9-10. Preflop raiser bets, I call. The turn is a Q. He bets I call. The river is garbage, he shoves... I start saying out loud, "This is ridiculous", "I can't win", "This has to be 9s full or tens full". I'm repeating all of these things aloud. And still click call. Just for him to show 9-9 and I'm bust. I mean WTF? I would almost never call here live. My opponent was solid.... you know what, I won't even go into it. I know I shouldn't call.. I know I'm destroyed. And I still ship him my money.

I was sickened by it. I only lost $350 on the session but I was more disgusted that night, than on nights where I lost 5x's that. It's because I knew I played bad and continue to do it. I sent a text to some of my friends saying, "If you ever see me playing cash online, stop me." And I mean it. It's not like I've lost a big amount or that I can't control myself. I just know if I sit down and play, I'm dead money. I play way too erratic and never give people credit for a hand. I came close to telling Bill to post something on GCP stating... "If anyone catches Matt playing cash online, contact Matt and he'll give you $500." That's how mad I was at myself.

Only because I know I'm better than that. It's like a decent pitcher going out and throwing nothing but hanging curveballs. He knows better, but throws bad anyway.

Bottom line, I'm going to limit myself to online tourneys and SNG's. I have been doing ok live.. Booking mostly small winners. I won $300 at Shorty's the other night. I took $200 from Joe Bueche on one hand (AA-KK). It was nice to finally have a hand hold up against him. I gave all that money to Ms. Lorna soon after when I flopped open-ended and turn a flush draw.. I paid to see the f***ing blank on the river and she won, showing KK. GGEEEEZZ! One time!! I nail the flush or straight and check change.. her stack. Talk about implied-odds. But I doubled up through her later when I flopped two pair, 5s and 4s against her AA and my hand held up.

I played a $340 Hold em' event at the Beau Rivage during the Spring Break Poker Classic. No good. I did last pretty long, but that's just a waste of time. It was the same tourney Bill exited early and Reid ran KK into AA. I did happen to outlast them, Davey, and Joe Beuche. But at least they all spent their day doing something else. Instead of placing somewhere in the 30-40 player spot, for a grand total of $0. I lost a sick hand early in the tourney that would have set me up nicely. I raised preflop with 66 and got 2 callers behind me. Flop 8-6-3. Nice. I decide to check. The guy behind me bets. Other player folds. And I elect to just call. The turn pairs the board 8's. Sweet. I check again. And he fires again. I almost got aggressive here(which I think would have cost me even more money), but I called again. I was planning to bet out on the river. That is until the insane 3rd 8 hit the board. How gross. I now have 66 on an 8-6-3-8-8 board. Yuck. I check and he checks. He shows 10-10.. drag your pot genius. I had this guy on the hook. He needs a 10 or running 8's. He got there. The dealer outplayed me.

I stole a pot or two and was doing ok. Then I got lucky. The worse player at our table was short and shoving every once in a while with not-so-great hands. Well he shoves short again UTG or UTG +1. It folds around to me and I call with A-10. His shove was not too large and my A-10 was well ahead of some of his earlier shoves. Then like clockwork, the player behind me shoves in. SOB! It folds back to me. Now I just called like 1500 or so from the original shove, now it cost me like 1700 or so to call this. I'm severely crippled if I lose this one. God I hate putting in this much with A-10 but I can't fold at this point(not in my opinion). And I have both players covered. I say "Oh well, time to get lucky" and call. The UTG player shows A-K.. yikes.. But the other player shows 55. Ok.. not too bad. At least if I spike an A or 10 I can win the side pot and actually make a little money. Well the flop comes A-x-K. Yes.. I flop an ace and I'm ahead for the sidepot. I'm just thinking.. no 5 no 5. And the board runs out.. queen.... Jack.... Giving me broadway to scoop the whole pot! NICE!

I don't have much to talk about after that.. I steal a couple here and there. Then I got involved in a hand with the chipleader. Bad move.. I got low on that hand. Then I shoved all-in preflop with A-K and got called by A-7 suited.. 7 on the turn and I'm outta there. If I win that "race", I'm average with the high blinds and antes in there. O Well.

I had a eventful night at the $2-$5 game later that night. I don't remember too many hands but I ended up losing $300 on the night. It was a roller coaster ride to say the least. I missed a gut-shot straight flush draw early to go down some. Then I rivered a flush with a gut-shot and flush draw a little later to get back up. Then I lost the following hand...

The 1 seat was the biggest fish at the table. I call the $10 straddle with 9c7c. The 1 seat who religiously pops his straddle 99% of the time, does so to $50. I'm not sure how many calls to me. I decide to call from the button. The flop comes down Q-10-6.. two clubs.. here we go again with these gutterball & flush draw hands. The 1 seat bets $75. Which I thought was small and weak. Folds to me and it's just me and him. I played the other monster draws conservatively. But I had other thoughts on this one. I ask how much he has behind. I can't remember the exact amount but I think it was $260 or so. I say, "I'm all-in." And he snap calls. Oops! bad read.. or so I thought.. The boards comes brick, brick and I'm left with 9 high. He tables A-J for ace high. This f***ker snap calls $260 with ace high. I guess he was tired of getting outplayed by everyone and decided to try and get lucky. Kudos to him.

I ended up running KK into AA.. Then won a lot back when I raised with KK preflop and check called the whole way down against a maniac and won. But then in a raised pot, I flopped 2 pair with 9-7 suited on a 9-7-6 board. I bet the flop hard.. call... call...... I bet the turn... call, call... the river is a 5..... I lose to 9-8.. I don't think there's an amount I could have bet to win that hand.. should have just folded top two earlier.. or played it like a chump and hope it holds... It was definitely a fun session. But a loser overall.

I will start blogging more often so I can recall these hands in more detail. Until then.. good luck!!

"If there wasn't luck in this game, I'd be a millionaire"
-Jerry Bergeron.. Local 3-6-12 player

Couple cash sessions

2009-03-21T20:26:00.001-07:00

Hello all. It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy lately and haven't been playing too much. I did play the last 2 Fridays at Harrahs. Last Friday I went there and played mostly 2-5PLO. I showed up and played a little 2-5NLHE and decided to put my name on a very short interest list for a 2-5NLHE/PLO split game. To my surprise the game kicked off about an hour later. I lost a couple hundred playing hold em' before the split game started... Getting priced in for one flush draw and not getting there... then making an 8-high flush and losing to a 9-high flush. I wasn't too thrilled about the lineup for the split game. It was pretty tough. I don't have much to talk about as far as the game goes either. About an hour into it, everyone agreed to make it straight PLO. I didn't make many hands. I actually won a 1K pot with A-A-x-x when the board paired 6's and my two-pair held up on a ridiculous board. It included an all-in player. The betting totals were just right. I got lucky and won a nice one there.

I was lucky on another hand that the player to my left folded preflop. I called the (nearly mandatory)$10 straddle from the button with Ac-7c-7d-4h. The SB folded, the BB completed and the straddle checked his option. The flop came 7-2-2. It checked to me, I bet and took it down. The guy to my left says, "I sure hope you were just bluffing at that and didn't flop 7's full or something. Because I folded two dueces preflop." I showed him 7-7 and he was sick. Had he called the extra $8 preflop, I would have been in bad shape.

Overall I won a little bit playing PLO and ended up losing $69 on the night. What a thrill?!

And now onto my session at Harrahs last night. I went there last night hoping there would be a split game again. I got there at about 8:30 and was surprised to see that there was no list at all for it. I was able to get a seat at a 2-5NLHE game and told Bruce to start an interest list for the split game. Then he tells me the game just broke 30 minutes ago. Unreal? That didn't last long. So I played Hold em' all night. I started off bad early.. bleeding down to $300 from my starting of $500. Then I called a $50 raise preflop with 9d-7d. I know.. not a good idea. But the game was kinda wild and I was dying to stick this $300 in there. Three players to the flop and I'm in position. Flop 10d-10c-6d. Not too bad. Gut-shot straight flush draw. Check, check to me. I almost bet but decide to check. Turn is a black 8. Giving me my gutterball. Nice. The original raiser decides to bet $30 into a $150 pot. The next player raises to $75. I thought the original raiser was weak and the other player picked up on that and is trying to steal it. Screw it... I'm all-in.. now the original raiser calls. Geez! Now I'm dead. At least I was right about the other player, as he folds. Original raiser shows 66 and I can't catch my 8d for a straight-flush. Rebuy!

I bleed down to $200 on my next buy-in. I'm frickin' stuck $800 and aggravated cause I can't catch anything. I reraise a flop bet and shove my last $200 or so in there with the nut-flush draw and 2 overs but get no call.

I hate being short stacked in a cash game. Something that I should probably work on. But I was very very patient last night. I bought several nice pots last night with good reads. Mainly just picking on the weaker players. I got picked off once but overall had a good record. Then I hit a nice flop. I was in the blinds with 10-9o. Flop came J-9-9. I check and it checks to the weakest player at the table and he bets $30 or so. I call. The turn is complete garbage and I check again. Now he bets $40. I thought this bet probably represented a jack. I call. Now the river is garbage again. Here I decide to bet $75. I'm pretty sure I have the best of it. And best of all, this guy will not punish me only a 9. It looks like I missed my straight draw. This guy isn't good enough to make a big play at me here. He ends up calling. I show trips and he mucks. My first decent pot of the night really. I build a nice little amount just stealing pots.

I made my nicest pot on the following hand. I limp from MP/LP with Ks-10s. I had a little more of an aggressive image than I usually have. The flop comes down Q-J-6.. one spade. The weakest player at the table bets $20.. as he does often(he usually gets reraised and mucks). 1 player calls and I raise to $60. Ken(a very solid player and friend) cold calls behind me. It folds to the original raiser who folds and then the guy who called his $20.. raises. Oh shit, time to run. That is until he only raises $100 more. Action is back to me and I'm getting 3-1 basically. He has about $230 behind and I barely have him covered. I still have Ken behind me. Ughh not a situation I enjoy being in. I decide to just call. After some deliberation, Ken folds. Finally(and I do mean finally) I make my hand. 9 on the turn and he puts the rest of it in. I call. The river pairs the board jacks. Yuck. But he flips over Q-6 for 3 pair and I win a nice pot.

All in all I won $20 on the night. But was stuck $800+ so it felt great. I am starting to notice some of the leaks in my game. And I look forward to working on them. Till next time.... Good Luck

Bad Beat, Bad dining, Bad players....

2009-02-18T15:14:00.001-08:00

Hello all. I've played a fair bit of poker since my last post. Including last night. I picked up $300. But I was up about $1100 at one point so it felt like a loss. I'll touch more on the session soon. But first, I wanted to mention that I was finally on a Bad Beat Jackpot table last Friday. I received a player's share of $469. I was on the must-move $2-$5NLHE game when I got called to the main game. I went straight there and was dealt in. On my first hand, Jackpot! lol. Two players flopped a set. They got it all in on the flop.. Running Quad, Quad. Sweet! The thing that really blew was the fact that the jackpot hadn't been hit in a while and was built up to $60k+. Then it got hit.... about 3 hours before we hit it. Shit! That would have been a sweet player's share. Oh well, can't be too greedy. Moose held the losing hand and Ray(not GCP Ray) held the winning hand. Moose tipped $700(About 10%), and Ray tipped about $300 or so. I was glad to see the two big winners tip well. And most of the player's share guy tipped also. So Darlene did pretty well. She made more on a $15K jackpot than we did on a $65k jackpot in Amelia.

Now onto bad dining. Lisa and I went eat at Stella! in New Orleans. A rather expensive, upscale restaurant. I was disappointed. Mainly at the menu. There was a wide variety. But nothing I was thrilled about. Our starter was some meat, I had no clue what it was but I decided to gamble. Turns out it was duck or goose liver. Oh well, can't fault Stella! for my decision. I tried it but didn't care for it. And it was a tiny portion. I won't go onto too much detail about the entrees and crap. They were probably prepared excellently, but I just didn't care for either. I'm just too much of a simple guy to enjoy this over the top shit. Service was good and the setting was romantic. I'll just head over to Ruth's Chris next time.

Now onto bad players. It's so much easier to play online. As far as setting. You can sit in your underwear and play $200-$400 if you want. If I want to go play at Harrah's, I have to shower up, get dressed, etc... drive 1.5 hours.... get on the list... etc. But I'm convinced now more than ever......... the live players are so much worse. There are definitely great live players. But there's almost always a couple of big fish at the table. My last 4 sessions have went -350, -1100, +2215 & +300 win last night. The $350 loss was annoying because I knew I couldn't play long and donked off $350. The $1100 loss was brutal. I loss with a set to a flush draw 3 times. It started to become funny. I can't think of too many big hands that I won during the big win. I won a bunch of nice medium-sized pots. I think my biggest win came from a call that I didn't want to make. I limp UTG with AdKd. I'm hoping someone raises. But nobody does. Great, now I have to play very cautiously. That is until the flop came 3 diamonds. It checks around. I think. The turn pairs the board 6's. I bet and someone moves all-in for $300+. Yuck. The bet is a huge one relative to the pot size. But here's why I called. The player moving all-in is a guy in his 20s who showed up at about 5AM, glassy eyed, with a drink in his hand and Mardi Gras beads around his neck. He has only been playing for 20 minutes. And has already shown down garbage. Oh well, I call.. he has 6-2. The board doesn't pair I won a nice pot.

Onto last night. A $300 "win". I was up $150 or so on the 1-2 game while waiting to play 2-5. While the dealer is dealing, I get a call to move to 2-5. Cool, this is my last hand. I look down at two black queens. I raise preflop to $15 and get min-raised to $30 by the SB. I call. The flop comes down 10 high. Now the SB leads up $15? I never have any idea what the hell this means. If you're ever in a game with me and want to make my head spin. Bet $10 into a $400 pot. Anyway, I decide to see where I'm at and raise to $50. Then he moves all-in for $75 more. Damn I hate the way this turned out. I called, praying he had jacks. No, aces and I fail to improve. I didn't like this hand at all. I should have folded to the shove I guess. It just wasn't for a lot more money. I wish he had $150 more or something.

Well I move to the 2-5 game virtually even from the 1-2 game. I won a ton early when I flopped a boat. I straddled for $10. A couple callers to Wayne H. who makes it $30. I'm assuming he's just trying to build a pot cause nobody is folding for $20. Including me from the straddle with 4h7h. We see a multi-way flop of 7-7-4. Two clubs. Nice. I check and it checks around. the turn is a red ace. I bet $65. The loose player behind me calls and Yee makes it $200. The table folds to me and I have a decision. I'm surely not folding. If you have A-7 or AA. Merry X-mas. I'm deciding whether to raise or call. I decide to call, hoping the loose player behind me joins the party, and he does. Three players to the river for $200. The river is the 6c. Completing straight and flush. I'm first to act. I stall for a little while before moving in for $405. The loose player folds and Yee eventually calls. I show my boat. He shows a 7 and mucks. Luckily Yee isn't tight and paid me off. I almost cost myself $400 by not shoving the turn. That 6c was a terrible card for Yee. But he still paid.

I ended up giving a lot back. I played AA a little different than I usually do by checking the flop behind. But the donkey I was in the pot with heads-up would have called with the gutter that he nailed on the turn. He held Q-J and the flop came K-9-8. Check check. The turn is a 10. He bets and I call. Take a guess at the river. That's right, ace. Now I have the 3rd nuts behind Q-J and J-7. He bets $260 all-in on river. Uhhhhhhhh. I call... you win.

Then later I reraised a small raise preflop with JJ and Yee shoves all-in. Lol. He's got several hundred. I fold. A little later Yee raises preflop to $25. I make it $100 with Q-Q. Gets back to him and he shoves again. lol. I'm thinking about it(not really) and he shows me AA. I guess I fold.

I went 0-4 on open-ended straight draws late in the night that cost me. Luckily I rivered a boat with Q-10 on one of my last hands. I over bet the pot on the river. And Yee paid me off with the straight he made on turn.

This post was not to talk much in detail about my hands. But just to touch on the skill level of live players. I have seen so much bad play in my last 4 or 5 sessions. I made a $200 bet with A-10 on a 10-10-7-7-4 board and got paid off by JJ. I only bet $50 on the turn. And then decided to go for $200 on the river. Because I knew the guy was bad enough to pay me off with a seven. Little did I know he'd pay me with JJ lol. I am just a little more inspired right now to play because of some of the bad play I have seen.

I work early the next week so I may go play soon. Good luck to all.

Disappointed

2009-01-28T05:23:00.000-08:00

I have been playing a fair bit of $3-$6 NLHE 6-max on Full Tilt. As well as some $100 heads-up matches. I've done very well with the heads-up matches. But average at best at the cash game. That's due to my play. As written on the title of this post, I am disappointed in myself. In my cash game play that is. Over the past couple of weeks I have lost way too much money in marginal situations. I could spell it out to you like this...

*I raised preflop with AA and got called by the maniac. Flop is J-9-5. The Maniac has 9-5.
*I had A-K and went broke on a A-8-5-J-A board to a set, turn boat.
*I went broke with QQ to 10-7.. Flop 9-8-x. Turn garbage. River 6.
*I raise with KK.. Get one caller.. flop 8-8-9.. I bet.. he raises.. I reraise.. he shoves..... ahhh I fold.
*Worst of all, I basically decide to coin flip for 1K. After a series of raises. One guy who just called a small raise decides to reraise.. I thought from the way he played it he probably held JJ or QQ.. and not AA or KK. I shove all-in with A-K.. in a big pot with 4 way action preflop. Get called by QQ and board bricks out. This hand I was SO upset with. I mean what the hell am I doing flipping for a grand?? It's not a tournament, I should have waited for a better spot.
*And finally today. Guy limps.. next guy raises to $27. I reraise to $70 with AA. I get cold called by the limper?? Who happens to have 67o.. And Bingo, flop is 5-8-9.

A lot of people would just call this cold-decked and write it off. Well I mean the boards were "cold-decked" but I could have saved a lot more money on these hands. Well I'm not sure about the QQ hand.. I didn't go broke there or double him up. And I was ahead until the river there. And the KK hand I probably play that close to the same. But the first AA hand, both AK hands, and the most recent AA hand... I could have folded earlier in the hand and saved myself a lot of money. Both aces hands I was in the pot with the maniac at the table. So it makes those hands even harder to lay down. But I know I should have gotten away at some point. I know better than to over-value big pairs. It's something about this Internet thing that just makes it so much easier to put it in. I'm playing those big hands way too hard. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not a tournament. The blinds aren't going up. And I know this, I know better... that's what's eating me up. 95% of my poker playing is in cash games. I hardly play any tournaments(comparatively). I know I have to pick better spots. I've folded KK preflop a few times before, and have always been correct. I don't overplay this crap. That is until recently.

I've made nice money with sets, flushes, straights, etc. recently and pissed it away with big pairs. But I know.. the first tier is your money makers. And I have to keep that in mind. I'm just writing this to vent. I'm upset with myself. A little self evaluation should do a little good for my game at least.

Full Tilt Session

2009-01-18T18:27:00.001-08:00

Fortunately, my hand histories are being saved again. They actually sent me the copy of my hand history from the 50k guarantee but it's not spaced correctly. If I ever get the patience to comb through it, I may post some of the critical hands.

Now onto my recent Full Tilt session. I tried to cash most of my money out of FTP. They approved my first with drawl, but for some reason they denied my second. I wanted to withdraw all but $500 of it. But instead I was left with more after the denial. I came home early the other night and decided to take a shot. So I sat down at a $3-$6NLHE 6-max deep game. I bought in for 1k. After a couple of hours, I left winning $2k. This will seem like a long post because the hand histories take so much room. But I will try to elaborate on each hand... enjoy..

Full Tilt Poker Game #10084069644:
Table Pool (deep 6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:59:27 ET - 2009/01/16
SWICK123 is feeling happy
Seat 1: Coolh4nd ($609)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant ($961)
Seat 3: WhoIsThisGuy ($600)
Seat 4: SWICK123 ($444.65)
Seat 5: dwballz ($1,269.30)
Seat 6: scheleNelis ($600)
WhoIsThisGuy posts the small blind of $3
SWICK123 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [8h 8s]
dwballz folds
Coolh4nd folds
Matt J Bryant raises to $21
WhoIsThisGuy raises to $77
SWICK123 has 15 seconds left to act
SWICK123 folds
Matt J Bryant calls $56
*** FLOP *** [2h Kh 7c]
WhoIsThisGuy has 15 seconds left to act
WhoIsThisGuy bets $115
Matt J Bryant raises to $300
WhoIsThisGuy has 15 seconds left to act
WhoIsThisGuy adds $192
WhoIsThisGuy folds
Uncalled bet of $185 returned to Matt J Bryant
Matt J Bryant mucks
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($387)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $390 Rake $3
Board: [2h Kh 7c]
Seat 1: Coolh4nd didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (button) collected ($387), mucked
Seat 3: WhoIsThisGuy (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: SWICK123 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: dwballz didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: scheleNelis is sitting out

On this hand, I raise to $21 from the button with 88. I get reraised from the SB to $77. I haven't played many hands to this point. Online players, especially at the higher levels, are not afraid to 3 bet you without much of a hand. I am still giving him credit for a decent hand though. I'm sure the SB thinks there's a good chance he could win it here with a raise. The BB folds and I call his raise. The flop is a pretty good one for me with just one over. The SB leads out $115. I don't care to call here. I feel if I am ahead right now, I need to win it now. Two many cards can come and complicate things. I decide to put the pressure on him and raise to $300. This really puts him in a bind with any hand other than AA, a king, or a set. He folds and I drag almost $200 profit.

That was really the only critical hand I played at that table. The table got short. I even played heads-up for a little while with the player from the previous hand. But after not filling up, I decide to move tables. The guy from the previous hand is also at this table.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10084402014:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:20:10 ET - 2009/01/16
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($640.50)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($2,632.90)
Seat 3: childish games ($891.90)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($1,026)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($860.45)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,224)
WhoIsThisGuy posts the small blind of $3
CHAxxCEO posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Qs Ks]
childish games raises to $21
Matt J Bryant calls $21
SantaCruz40 folds
yummytt folds
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO calls $15
*** FLOP *** [Qd 3s 6d]
CHAxxCEO checks
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games bets $48
Matt J Bryant calls $48
CHAxxCEO folds
*** TURN *** [Qd 3s 6d] [4h]
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games bets $112
Matt J Bryant calls $112
*** RIVER *** [Qd 3s 6d 4h] [Jc]
childish games checks
Matt J Bryant checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
childish games shows [Qc Tc] a pair of Queens
Matt J Bryant shows [Qs Ks] a pair of Queens
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($383) with a pair of Queens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $386 Rake $3
Board: [Qd 3s 6d 4h Jc]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: childish games showed [Qc Tc] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant showed [Qs Ks] and won ($383) with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 didn't bet (folded)Seat 6: yummytt (button) didn't bet (folded)
On this hand, I played very cautiously. I didn't know much about the preflop raiser since I hadn't been at the table very long. On the flop, she bet and I just call. I have a player behind me, who folds. I'm looking to see if she slows down on the turn. I don't feel like putting in a ton of money here with just top pair. But she doesn't slow down, betting $112. Now I think she at least has a pair and not A-K, A-J type hands. I'm not really worried about her drawing. Except maybe the diamond draw but that's unlikely. I call. The river is a blank jack and she checks. I should have bet here. I kicked myself afterwards. Some players would check A-A or A-Q. But that's about the only hands she would check that I couldn't beat. I just didn't expect her to raise preflop with the hand she did. I should have value-bet $100 or so here. She could have looked me up with a 10-10, or 8-8 type hand or something if she thought I was betting a missed flush draw. She surely would have called $100 with the hand she did happen to have Qc-10c.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10084945168:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:54:14 ET - 2009/01/16
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($600)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($2,384.90)
Seat 3: childish games ($912.25)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($1,335.20)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,014.05)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,332.05)
Matt J Bryant posts the small blind of $3
SantaCruz40 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [4h Ah]
yummytt raises to $21
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant calls $18
SantaCruz40 calls $15
*** FLOP *** [6h 8h 9c]
Matt J Bryant checks
SantaCruz40 checks
yummytt has 15 seconds left to act
yummytt bets $48
Matt J Bryant calls $48
SantaCruz40 folds
*** TURN *** [6h 8h 9c] [5c]
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant bets $100
yummytt has 15 seconds left to act
yummytt raises to $300
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant folds
Uncalled bet of $200 returned to yummytt
yummytt mucks
yummytt wins the pot ($356)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $359 Rake $3
Board: [6h 8h 9c 5c]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: childish games (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: yummytt collected ($356), mucked
I lost $169 on this one. I called a raise with Ah4h from the SB. The BB tagged along. I flopped the nut-flush draw. I checked because I'm first to act. I'd like to see the turn for cheap. It checks to the original raiser who bets $48. This is a good example of why it sucks to be out of position. I could raise here. But if he calls and a blank hits the turn, I have to build an even bigger pot with nothing. I just call the flop and the BB folds. The turn is the 5c. Not quite what I was hoping for. But I thought it may be a decent semi-bluff card. I threw a $100 bet out there trying to represent a 7(which makes a straight). Or some 2 pair hand. Maybe trying to protect against the two possible flush draws on board. BUT.... he didn't go for it.. He raises me to $300. I'm getting a little less than 3-1... and I need 4-1 to call. I'm unlikely to get super paid if I do hit it. Ahhh I muck.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085049116:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:00:52 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($600)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($1,982.90)
Seat 3: childish games ($891.25)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($1,168.45)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,231.05)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,704.05)
CHAxxCEO posts the small blind of $3
childish games posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Td Kd]
Matt J Bryant calls $6
SantaCruz40 has 15 seconds left to act
SantaCruz40 folds
yummytt has 15 seconds left to act
yummytt raises to $30
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant calls $24
*** FLOP *** [3h 3d 7d]
Matt J Bryant checks
yummytt bets $48
Matt J Bryant calls $48
*** TURN *** [3h 3d 7d] [Ad]
Matt J Bryant checks
yummytt has 15 seconds left to act
yummytt bets $128
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant raises to $350
yummytt has 15 seconds left to act
yummytt has requested TIME
yummytt folds
Uncalled bet of $222 returned to Matt J Bryant
Matt J Bryant mucks
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($418)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $421 Rake $3
Board: [3h 3d 7d Ad]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: childish games (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant collected ($418), mucked
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: yummytt folded on the Turn
I made about $160 on this one. I decide to limp UTG with Kd10d. I don't do a whole lot of limping in these 6-max games but I'll give it a shot every once in a while. I limp and cut-off raises to $30. I'll usually give it up here. But I gamble. Yummytt has been pretty active, as well as childish games. I call and the flop comes 3h3d7d.. giving me 2 overs and the second nut flush draw. I check and he bets $48. I thought about raising here again. As I will sometimes. But being out of position is not something I enjoy. I call. The turn was a great card Ad. Giving me the nut flush. And possibly giving him top pair. I check again. He bets $128. I like my raise here but not the amount. I probably should have raised a little less. Maybe go with the min-raise or like $300 instead of $350. I'm not sure it would have mattered. But if he has A-K, A-Q, etc. he almost has to call. Then I'm sure an Ace or 3 would have hit the river, lol. He thought for a second and folded.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085224683:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:12:18 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($621)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($1,965.35)
Seat 3: childish games ($1,219.20)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($1,405.65)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,488.45)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,480.05)
SantaCruz40 posts the small blind of $3
yummytt posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Kc Tc]
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant raises to $21
SantaCruz40 calls $18
yummytt folds
*** FLOP *** [7c Ts 2c]
SantaCruz40 checks
Matt J Bryant bets $40
SantaCruz40 calls $40
*** TURN *** [7c Ts 2c] [2d]
SantaCruz40 checks
Matt J Bryant bets $80
SantaCruz40 calls $80
*** RIVER *** [7c Ts 2c 2d] [Jc]
SantaCruz40 bets $6
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant raises to $100
SantaCruz40 has 15 seconds left to act
SantaCruz40 calls $94
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Matt J Bryant shows [Kc Tc] a flush, King high
SantaCruz40 mucks
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($485) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $488 Rake $3
Board: [7c Ts 2c 2d Jc]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: childish games didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant (button) showed [Kc Tc] and won ($485) with a flush, King high
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 (small blind) mucked [Td Ac] - two pair, Tens and Twos
Seat 6: yummytt (big blind) folded before the Flop
I won $247 on this hand. I thought I was ahead the whole time but I actually caught a lucky river. I raise preflop from the button with Kc10c and get one caller from the SB. I flop a monster. Top-pair with a good kicker and the second-nut flush draw. He checks to me and I bet $40. He calls. His range is kind of wide here. He could have a straight draw, flush draw, a middle pair, a ten. It's too early to really narrow it down. The turn is 2d. Pretty meaningless. It's unlikely that he has a duece. He checks again and I bet $80. He calls again. This guy was a wierd player. He limped way more than normal and seemed like he wanted to avoid big pots unless he had the goods(which I realize is the idea of the game but he seemed overly tight). When he called my $80 turn bet, I no longer thought he was drawing. The board paired on the turn and he is the type not to really want to continue drawing with the board paired. It's possible, but I thought he had a pair already. I thought he may have me beat at this point. With A-10, J-J, or 77. But the river was a good one. Jc. Giving me the second-nut flush(with a possible full house on board). And he does something strange and bets $6. I'm kind of thrown off by that lol. I would hate to be the idiot who raises him only to get reraised and maybe have to throw my hand away. I liked the club on the river but the jack scared me a little. I thought he may have jacks. Being the type of player he was, he could have just called with J-J on both streets. But I did make a high flush and I'd like to be paid. So ultimately, I raise to $100. He thinks, and calls with A-10. He actually had me killed until the river. Which I thought was possible along the way. Oh well, I'll take it.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085262167:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:14:44 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($603)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($1,965.35)
Seat 3: childish games ($1,219.20)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($1,649.65)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,266.50)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,471.05)
WhoIsThisGuy posts the small blind of $3
CHAxxCEO posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [6c 6h]
childish games raises to $21
Matt J Bryant calls $21
SantaCruz40 calls $21
yummytt folds
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO calls $15
*** FLOP *** [As 6s 8d]
CHAxxCEO checks
childish games bets $64
Matt J Bryant raises to $240
SantaCruz40 folds
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games calls $176
*** TURN *** [As 6s 8d] [Ah]
childish games checks
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant bets $400
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games calls $400
*** RIVER *** [As 6s 8d Ah] [Jd]
childish games checks
Matt J Bryant bets $560
childish games has 15 seconds left to act
childish games calls $558.20, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $1.80 returned to Matt J Bryant
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Matt J Bryant shows [6c 6h] a full house, Sixes full of Aces
childish games mucks
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($2,480.40) with a full house, Sixes full of Aces
childish games adds $1,200
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2,483.40 Rake $3
Board: [As 6s 8d Ah Jd]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: childish games mucked [9s Ad] - three of a kind, Aces
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant showed [6c 6h] and won ($2,480.40) with a full house, Sixes full of Aces
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: yummytt (button) didn't bet (folded)
Here was the big boy. I made $1,282 on this one. Childish games raises preflop to $21. She has done this fairly often and has shown down hands like K-10 suited, or J-9 suited, etc. And if you'll notice, the name of the table I'm playing at is named childish games. So I don't think this is her first rodeo. I call with 66. And two other players join the club. The flop came about as beautiful as they come As6s8d. Thank you Lord! First guy checks to Childish who bets $64. I thought this bet most likely represented an ace(I know what you're thinking, "Well no shit."). But there's a little more to it. I mean, she's not just c-betting here. She's c-betting into 4 players, if she doesn't have an ace.. I don't think she bets into 3 players in a raised pot. Someone has to have an ace. Like I mentioned, she raised plenty preflop. If she didn't hit the flop, she'll likely check this one. But she bets, $64. I take no time raising. I don't like the straight/flush possibilities out there. I raise a rather large amount. The other too players folded. I am SOO lucky she called here. In my opinion, how can she? I raised 3.75 times her(the original raiser) bet. And with two players left behind me. That's gotta show some serious strength. At least enough strength to beat A-9. Which is what she held. I could hold something like 5s7s or something like that. But that's about the only thing she can beat. Even if that's what I held, it would be a flip. I gave her every chance to escape on the flop, but she was stubborn. That $176 mistake would cost her over $900 more. Because an ace fell on the turn. Which further commits her, I guess. Though if I had her beat on the flop, she's still beat now. Unless I had 8-6 of course. Well long story short.. She checked the Ace on the turn and I bet $400. She called. Then a jack fell on the river. She checked and I bet $560 to put her all-in and she called. I didn't care for the jack as I thought she may have A-J. I was hoping for a 3 or 4 or something. But I set her in on the river. I was a little nervous betting $560 with bottom boat on this board. Especially after she called $400 on the turn. But I thought she had a big ace, stuck with my read, and made the additional $560. Just a beautiful flop and turn. I was fortunate she called the flop. This hand made up about 65% of my session winnings.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085350653:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:20:36 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($600)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($1,883.05)
Seat 3: childish games ($1,397)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($2,883.85)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($885.50)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,810.05)
yummytt posts the small blind of $3
WhoIsThisGuy posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [7s 7c]
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant raises to $21
SantaCruz40 calls $21
yummytt folds
WhoIsThisGuy adds $6
WhoIsThisGuy folds
*** FLOP *** [4h 7h Th]
Matt J Bryant has 15 seconds left to act
Matt J Bryant checks
SantaCruz40 bets $51
Matt J Bryant calls $51
*** TURN *** [4h 7h Th] [6c]
Matt J Bryant checks
SantaCruz40 bets $153
Matt J Bryant calls $153
*** RIVER *** [4h 7h Th 6c] [Ah]
Matt J Bryant checks
SantaCruz40 checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SantaCruz40 shows [3h 3c] a flush, Ace high
Matt J Bryant mucks
SantaCruz40 wins the pot ($456) with a flush, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $459 Rake $3
Board: [4h 7h Th 6c Ah]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: childish games didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant mucked [7s 7c] - three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 (button) showed [3h 3c] and won ($456) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 6: yummytt (small blind) folded before the Flop
I lost $225 on this hand. And hated every minute of it. I played this badly. Not to make excuses but I was on the phone with Joe Bueche at the start of this hand. Then my girlfriend Lisa beeped in. So I was switching calls.. and just trying to ease the hand along. If I bet or raise at any point in this hand I should win it. And I planned on maybe doing that on the turn. But when he bet $153 it sorta scared me. This is the guy I mentioned earlier. The one I thought liked to avoid big pots. And suddenly he's betting $153 on a flushed board. I just played it very cautiously, and was praying the board would pair. Which it didn't and he won with a 3-high flush. I was most upset with this hand. If I would have been more focused I'm positive I win it. I just bet the flop and probably take it down. Bad timing on the phone swapping shit. It's ok.. I still love you babe!!

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085462072:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:28:15 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($627)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($2,282.05)
Seat 3: childish games ($1,391)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($2,589.85)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,372.55)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,468.05)
childish games posts the small blind of $3
Matt J Bryant posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [9h 5h]
SantaCruz40 folds
yummytt folds
WhoIsThisGuy raises to $21
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant calls $15
*** FLOP *** [Ah 6c 6d]
Matt J Bryant checks
WhoIsThisGuy bets $25
Matt J Bryant calls $25
*** TURN *** [Ah 6c 6d] [9d]
Matt J Bryant checks
WhoIsThisGuy bets $68
Matt J Bryant calls $68
*** RIVER *** [Ah 6c 6d 9d] [Ts]
Matt J Bryant checks
WhoIsThisGuy checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WhoIsThisGuy shows [4d 4c] two pair, Sixes and Fours
Matt J Bryant shows [9h 5h] two pair, Nines and Sixes
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($228) with two pair, Nines and Sixes
WhoIsThisGuy adds $87
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $231 Rake $3
Board: [Ah 6c 6d 9d Ts]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy showed [4d 4c] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fours
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: childish games (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant (big blind) showed [9h 5h] and won ($228) with two pair, Nines and Sixes
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: yummytt didn't bet (folded)
I only made $117 on this one. But it's a good example of betting pattern tells. I elected to defend my BB with 9h5h. I flop nothing but backdoor draws. I check and the "villian" bets $25. This is a serious underbet. He's betting about half the pot. Which isn't very typical. I decide I can probably take this pot away from him at some point. 16 cards give me a straight or flush draw. Basicallly he made it too cheap and I'm not believing it yet. The turn was the 9d. Giving me second pair. I was very interested to see what he would do on the turn. I check and he bets $68. I still thought that was rather low. But I don't feel the need to raise now since I have some showdown value. There's still a small chance he's betting so small because he flopped aces full or quads. I call the $68 and we see the 10s on the river. I check and he checks. I win. Had he bet $175 or so on the river it would have been a very tough call to make. But I pasted this hand to prove that you should usually make the same size bet whether you flop a big hand or miss. Players will pick up on it.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10085475004:
Table childish games (6) - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:29:08 ET - 2009/01/17
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy ($600)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO ($2,282.05)
Seat 3: childish games ($1,388)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant ($2,703.85)
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 ($1,372.55)
Seat 6: yummytt ($1,468.05)
Matt J Bryant posts the small blind of $3
SantaCruz40 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Js Th]
yummytt folds
WhoIsThisGuy folds
CHAxxCEO folds
childish games folds
Matt J Bryant calls $3
SantaCruz40 checks
*** FLOP *** [7c 9s 8s]
Matt J Bryant bets $12
SantaCruz40 raises to $24
Matt J Bryant calls $12
*** TURN *** [7c 9s 8s] [7h]
Matt J Bryant checks
SantaCruz40 checks
*** RIVER *** [7c 9s 8s 7h] [Qd]
Matt J Bryant bets $60
SantaCruz40 raises to $120
Matt J Bryant calls $60
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SantaCruz40 shows [Td 6h] a straight, Ten high
Matt J Bryant shows [Js Th] a straight, Queen high
Matt J Bryant wins the pot ($297) with a straight, Queen high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $300 Rake $3
Board: [7c 9s 8s 7h Qd]
Seat 1: WhoIsThisGuy didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: CHAxxCEO didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: childish games (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Matt J Bryant (small blind) showed [Js Th] and won ($297) with a straight, Queen high
Seat 5: SantaCruz40 (big blind) showed [Td 6h] and lost with a straight, Ten high
Seat 6: yummytt didn't bet (folded)
Ahhhhh what could have been. Had I reraised on the flop, who knows how much I could have won. I complete from the SB. The BB and I go heads-up.. I flop the nuts and he flops the second nuts. His random stupid plays benefitted him here. As I mentioned earlier, all night he limped preflop.. made min-raises.. bet $6 on the river into a $300 pot, etc. So when he min-raised me.. I didn't think much of it. I didn't want to tip him off that I flopped the joint. My plan was to check-raise him on the turn. But the board paired on the turn and he checked behind. I value-bet the river, he again min-raised me and I called. DAMN if I only raised the flop he may have went nuts. Oh well, at least I bet the river and got a small raise in.

A nice win. Mostly from a set of 6's. There's a reason Joe Bueche named a set "The good kind" years ago. I'll be playing more soon.. I'll keep you updated..

Beau-Shorty's-Full Tilt pt1

2009-01-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

In my last post I said I would write about my $2-$5NLHE session at the Beau Rivage. I don't remember too many hands I played. I remember winning a nice little pot with A-K early to put me up about $300. Then I went extremely card dead. I caught shit for hours. And I turned $800 into $0. I finally went broke when I had about $125 left. I limp from EP with A-J and after a couple of limpers, a young kid who just lost a big pot on the previous hand makes a nice size raise. Oh well, I stick my last bit in, hoping he's just tilting. He calls with A-K and I fail to improve. Now I'm stuck $700. I was card dead for so long. Usually I would just call it a day. But there's a Huge Donkey in the 5 seat. And of course, he's got a ton of money in front of him lol. He's been getting super lucky. He's mainly a calling station, but sometimes puts the pressure himself. So I decide to buy-in again. Another $500. And I lost some of it before the following hand.

I raise from EP with KK to about $35. The donkey calls and we see a flop heads up. The flop came 2-4-5. I make a bet of approximately $60. He then raises $200 more. I hate this. Even the donkey catches a hand every now and then(and on this day it was often). I have about $235 left. I put it all in and he calls the $35. Q on the turn, 9 on the river. Seems like two good cards. I turn over KK and he turns over 3-5. I drag a nice pot. For a second I thought he flopped 2 pair. But happily realized he flopped top-pair and open-ended. And some kinda way, didn't get there. To everyone's horror, that was his last hand. Joe Bueche turned top-two against his flopped 2-pair a little earlier to win a nice pot from him. So he lost a nice chunk in 2 hands and had enough.

Later I limped with 6-6 and we saw a flop multi-handed. The flop came down A-6-x. I usually don't try to get too cute with a set. I come right out and bet it. But there were a few aggressive players behind me that I was hoping would take a stab at it. And one of them did. I check and the player behind me bets $25. One caller, and the actions back to me. The board is pretty harmless so I decide to take one off. I call. The turn puts 2 clubs up there. First guy checks. I decide to bet here instead of checking to the initial bettor. He may have been just messing around with that $25 bet. The board is starting to get a little scary and I don't want him to check behind. I bet $75. And to my surprise, I get 2 callers. Uh Oh.. Come on dealer.. pair the board. And he did.. with a 6. Sweet! I have quads. First guy checks to me and I decide to bet a little more than I usually would here. I bet $200. The guy who bet the flop folds but the other players puts his last $100+ in there. I think he showed A-J. And I drag a nice one. The player behind me who bet the flop claimed to have Ac-10c. Flopping top pair and turning the nut flush draw. I wish he woulda got crazy and raised my turn bet. I would have only won a little more money though. Because he only had a couple hundred left. And if he raises the turn, the other player probably folds and I wouldn't have gotten his stack.

I don't remember too many more hands. I started running better. I made some hands and some money. I remember value betting 3rd pair on the river against a young guy who I knew would try to make a hero call. I played the hand(not necessarily purposely) like I didn't have anything. And when I bet the river in position, I figured he'd look me up. It's always nice when you bet the river, get called, and show a pair of 8's no kicker.. and your opponent says, that's good. This guy was aggressive and cocky so it felt good putting him in his place for a moment.

I was stuck $700. And I ended up winning $209. That always feels like a big win.

Onto my trip to Shorty's. Month's ago I was sweating Davey(southpaw rounder) in an online tournament that he was deep in. We had already planned to go to Shorty's the following day. When he was deep, I asked him if he won the tournament, would he treat me to a chili cheese dog from Shorty's($2)? He said, if I win this thing, I'll treat you to Mr. Lester's(a higher-class, rather expensive restaurant). Well unfortunately, he didn't win or place top 3 in that tournament. Last month when I won the Full Tilt 50K guarantee, I thought it was only fair that I treat him. Little did I know, a few days later he would take 3rd in the Pokerstars 70k guarantee for over 8k. I told him, "I guess we can just cancel out Mr. Lester's". And he came up with a better idea. He proposed that I pay for Mr. Lester's and he'll pay for Ruth Chris' Stake House in New Orleans. Deal! So Wednesday we headed to Shorty's for some $5-$5NLHE action and a great meal. We started a new must move game. I had one of those rare occasions were I got slapped upside the head with the deck. I made hands, got action, and my hands held.

It started when I was in the BB for $5 and someone made it $15 to go. I called with 2h-6h. I flopped a gutshot, turned a flush draw and double gutted, and river a straight. That wasn't a huge pot but it got me rolling. I made a boat, and then the bad end of a straight against possibly the worst player I've ever played against.

Then once I got moved to the main game it was more of the same. I flopped two pair out of the blind with Ks4s. Flop K-4-7. I bet, got one caller, Turn was a rag, I bet and he moved in for a callable amount. I called. He has K-Q.
I flopped two pair with K-7 out of the blind. I bet every street and got called by A-K, one pair. Then I caught the beautiful AA when someone held KK. Unfortunately he only had a couple hundred. But I got that too. It's not fun to blog about a session when you don't really lose a hand and the hands you won played themselves.(Though I'd love to have a session like that every time I play, F*^# THE BLOG! lol) Long story short, I won $1,009 in only a couple of hours.

Davey and I went eat Mr. Lester's. It was my first time there. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not a huge steak guy. But I'm fat and I'm up for anything. Everything was great in my opinion. Fried onion rings, Four cheese potato Au Gratin, and a pepper crusted rib eye. It was delicious. Davey says he prefers Ruth Chris' steak(Sorry if I ruin any sponsorship deals from Mr. Lester's) so I'm looking forward to eating there Wednesday.

Well I have to get ready for work. My next blog will be able my session on Full Tilt last night.

"I'll call you man" -A guy drunk as shit at the Rat's Nest. This guy was early to act. He looks over at Parfait who's in the big blind and says, "I'll call you man." Ahh those were the days.

The Beau Part 1

2009-01-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

I went play at the Beau Rivage Tuesday and Wednesday. My original plans were to make it over there by 4pm Tuesday to play the $550 Mega Satellite. I did make it by 4pm, but due to the TOTAL lack of sleep, I decided to try to take a nap and play the $200 second chance tournament at 7pm. Joe had a room there so I decided to sleep from about 4:45 to 6:00. I wanted to sleep till about 7 but Joe called me at 6 and told me that He, Andy, Ken, and Jay were planning to eat the buffet at 6:30. I said "what the hell" and joined them. I went register for the tournament and didn't start eating until about 6:45. So I figured to be a little late for the tourney, but that's fine.

184 people registered. I showed up to the tourney at 7:15 and I had 3925 of my 4000 starting stack. Sweet. And by 7:30 I'd have about 15k. Very early on I caught A-A. Raised preflop. Got a couple of callers. The flop came down K-5-4. I bet, everyone folded to one guy who min-raised me. I just called. The turn was garbage. I check and he bet. I just called again. I'm figuring at this point he has K-Q or something similar.. Maybe a set of 5's or 4's. The river paired the board 4's. I decided to bet here. If he's got a king he's likely to just call. And if he boated up he'll raise and I know where I stand. I'm gonna call a reasonable bet here anyway, I may as well bet and win another bet if he does have a king. He called and I realized I got lucky on the river. He called my raise preflop with K-5 and flopped 2 pair. Sick game isn't it?

Not long after, I'm dealt Ac7c in late position. A bunch of limpers to me and I join the crowd. We see a flop 6 or 7 handed. Flop comes down Qc6c4c. Nnnooottt too shabby. But here's where my brilliant play comes in(yeah right). The guy in the SB is relatively short shoves all-in. He actually has a descent little stack and I'm happy I'll get some action at least. That is until a couple of people fold to another guy who shoves in a bigger stack. Wow.. Now to me.... umm, I'm all-in too. The best part about this hand is the hands they show. All three of us flopped a flush. So barring a backdoor straight flush, they're drawing dead. The SB just happened to flop a flush and they're isn't much he can do about it. But the other guy limped from EP/MP with Jc3c. He deserved to go broke.

Well in 15 minutes I tripled my stack. Due completely to being slapped in the face by the deck. I've had this happen to me before. In the first hour I build a big stack, and then reality hits. the poker gods say, "OK son, I've given you a few monsters.. Now you're completely on your own!" Because for the longest time, I caught nothing. I mean nothing. Everyone is now chipping up and I'm getting closer and closer to average. I don't remember too many hands during this stretch. I raised once with Qs-4s. Got one caller. Flop came Ks-Kd-Js. Check, check. Turn is a 9. He checks, I bet, I win. Another hand a guy raises preflop 3x's the blind and it folds to me in the BB with 10h-8h. I call. Flop came 8-high. I check call. Check the rest of the way and my 8 is good.

Nothing exciting happened for a while. I raised with Ac5c. And got reraised all-in by the button. I was getting about 3-1. Plus I still had a big stack relative to his. I thought for a while then called. And he gives me a slowroll type of comment. He says, "If you called, you're good." I shake my head and say, "I just have a little ace." And show my hand. He says, "Me too." I'm thinking, PLEASE have A-4 lol. And a second later he flips over A-K. I mean WTF? I took a while to call a somewhat small bet. Finally when I do, he says if you call you're good? I took that damn long and finally called with a hand better than A-K? Lol well he got what he deserved when I spiked a 5 on the turn and sent him packing.. get it in bad baby!

Some kinda way we got down to 3 tables. Our table was pretty tight. I didn't play much either. Occasionally taking down blinds. Then we got down to 2 tables. And we're in the money. They "paid" the top 18. I wrote paid in quotations because 18th-9th got less than 1k. So needless to say, I'm trying to come out top 4 minimum. Our table was tight again. I'm still not catching shit. I caught Ah-Qh in the BB but folded to a raise and reraise. I caught 10-10 from UTG+1. But the UTG player limped?! This guy knew what he was doing. I didn't know what to do. So I just limped too. It when limped around. The flop came out Ace high. The blinds checked and the UTG bets. I fold. If I wasn't behind preflop, I'm surely beat now. He won the pot and told me he limped with a monster. He didn't have an ace. So my guess in KK or QQ.

3 of the 4 players behind me(including Monkey) were playing pretty tight. I have only played with Monkey once before. Mainly due to the fact that I played 7 tourney's all of last year (3 second chance tournaments in Tunica, 2 Venetian tournaments in Vegas, and 2 tournaments at the IP). I played with him in a second chance tournament in Tunica. At that table we did a 5 way $4500 chop and played for a little more for 1st. That was my first Monkey experience. He's definitely a character. I can see how he could get under some people's skin. But if you know how to take him, he's great to have at the table(for entertainment value).

If I caught anything OK in late position, I could probably get away with a steal. That would prove to be more difficult than I thought. I did steal a few blinds/antes with 3 and 2 tables left. Mostly with weak aces. Well I'm starting to become average in chips and I'm ready to get some chips. 18th through 10th pays crap. Well everyone folds to me in late position and finally I catch 9s7s. That's right, finally LoL. Well I raise it up. Monkey folds, button folds. And the tight SB raises. SOB! The BB folds and it's back to me. This guy was one the the tightest players left. I actually contemplated shoving in. I know he's gonna call. But If he has A-K or A-Q I'm not in horrible shape. If I happen to hit the board, I'm one the the chip leaders. Oh well, I'm a pussy. I fold. He purposely but discretely shows me 2 black aces. Unbelievable. Good timing Matt.

I made a bad call later. This young black guy was drunk as shit. You can read more about him on Monkey's blog. Long story short, it folded to him on the button and he shoved. I called from the BB with A-9 and he actually shows A-Q. I lost a nice chunk there. Not much too much else to talk about. I got short and doubled up when Monkey raised and I found AK suited in the BB. But I was still kinda short and just failed to pick up anything. Eventually I went bust in 11th place, which paid a tremendous $431. I played 8 hours, outlasted 174 people and made $231. Yuck. I tipped the dealers $30 and got the hell downstairs.

Oh well, I had a good time. Played a tournament(something I should probably do a little more of in 2009). Got to drink 4 of Monkey's Red Snappers. And showed a small profit. My next post will be able my 2-5NLHE session the next day.

Fifty-Fifty

2008-12-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

I made a nice win on Full Tilt Saturday night/Sunday morning. I managed to take down the Fifty-fifty tournament on FTP. That's their $50 buy-in, 50k guarantee. I'm glad it was a 50k guarantee because 954 people played, instead of the 1000 needed for a 50k prize pool. So there was a $2,300 overlay that Full Tilt coughed up(I think they can afford it).

I should note this. I am SO pissed at this next occurrence. I hadn't played online in a while. But I set up a co-worker an account right before Christmas. When I clicked on Full Tilt, it stated that I needed to download new software. OK, no problem. Well I did it & that was that. Well when I was playing last night, I noticed when I won a uncontested pot, it wouldn't ask me, "Muck Hand or Show Hand", like it used to. So I figured when I updated the software, my settings went back to default. OK, no biggie. But after the tournament was over, I attempted to retrieve my hand histories, only to discover that they weren't saved. SOB! So I can't post any hands from the tournament here. I will try to explain to the best of my abilities. I e-mailed Full Tilt and asked if they could send me my hand history from the tournament. If by some lucky chance they will do that, then I'll post and elaborate of them in my next post.

Anyway, I weaved my way through the field to win the $9,955 1st place prize. It was kinda gruelling.. 7 1/2 hours. I don't play that much poker online. I usually deposit $100 or so every once in a while and play mostly SNG's, and a lot of heads-up matches. And the occasional MTT. When I do play MTTs, it's usually $24+$2, or lower. And I usually play like crap. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I know it's only $26. Or $11. Or something like that. And I don't take it seriously. Last night I got off of work early and decided to deposit $100. I saw the Fifty-fifty was about to start. I actually passed it up because I noticed there was a $24+2, $28k guarantee. Then I realized that it was starting 31 minutes later and I didn't have the patience to wait lol. So I jumped in the $50k and got the ball rolling.

I caught AA early on. I raised from middle position and was called by one of the blinds I believe. The flop came down J-4-3(or close to that). He checked. I bet. And he raised me. I'm pretty sure he's just seeing if I actually have a hand or if I have an A-K type of hand. He may have a jack but I should be pretty well ahead. I didn't want to raise him here and lose him. I was hoping I would call and he'd bet the turn and I'd then raise. Unless it was a jack maybe. The turn was a straight card. But now he checks again. I bet, he called. Then when the river fell, it put 4 to a straight out there. And he shoved all-in. But most importantly, he instantly shoved all-in. In my opinion, this is almost never a sign of strength. I looked at the board for a few seconds and called. I was most worried that he may have back-doored two pair or hit a set along the way. But I was pretty confident he was full of shit. I called and won.

A little later I called a raise with a few other people with Jd-10d. The flop came down A-10-x. Two diamonds. It checks around and the 5d hits the turn. It checks to one guy who bets. I raise right behind him. It folds around until action is back to the original raiser and he shoves all-in. I call. he's got a set of 5's. The river is blank and I win a NICE one there.

At this point, there are like 700+ or 800+ people still in and I'm 20th in chips. I still have a very long way to go, but at least I shouldn't have to worry about being blinded-down anytime soon. There isn't a whole lot to talk about for the next few hours. I win some pots, lose some pots.

Most importantly this following hand. This guy to my right was very aggressive, raising often from late position. Well I caught a few top 20 hands when he would raise from the cut-off. I was on the button and would reraise. The blinds folded as did he. And I'd pick up a nice pot uncontested. I did this quite a few times. I knew one of the following would happen.. Either he was gonna get tired of it and just shove-in on me, or he was gonna pick up a real hand and shove-in. Well it happened. Everyone folded to him in the cut-off and he raises. I'm on the button with A-8o and reraise. The blinds fold and he ships it. In no way is this a fool-proof tell, but I feel it is one of the strongest online tells.. the instant shove. I mean really, if you had A-A or K-K and someone reraised you.. when the action got back to you, would you quickly just ship it? Not likely, you'd take your time, make it look like you have a decision to make. Anyway, I did have a tough decision. I only have A-80. But I'm a little below average now(I think). And I have been waiting for this situation to arrive. I go with my gut and gamble. I call.. He shows J-10o and my A-8 holds for a nice pot.

For the most of the tournament I stayed about 25% above average. I just hung around. Then the money bubble bursts and I've got $75 locked up lol. On a side note, I had a short-stacked Lee Watkinson at my table for a while. It woulda been cool to bust him and get $50 and/or a "I knocked out a Pro" t-shirt. I actually had the chance to do just that when he moved all-in on me on a A-A-2-2-K board. But I didn't have the balls to call with 3-3. I don't know too many online player's handles, except for the really big names. But I realized I had a couple of tough table draws. One table I sat in front of Watkinson, and another one I had an FTOPS event winner to my immediate left. He also had a ton of chips at the time. Also had "I am Ari". And others. Maybe it helped to have those guys at my table. Maybe that's what initially had my playing correctly. Let's get back to poker...

Once we were in the money I just kept picking up pots here and there, trying to stay out of harms way. We eventually started getting closer and closer. But still.. if you placed 30th for example, you won $210. That's shit. You play for 6 hours, come in 30th of 954 players.. and profit $155. That would have been sick. But I was fully prepared to do that. My girlfriend had gotten home by this time and was sweating me for a lot of the end of the tournament. Often I would make a play that would get her so nervous and she would give me shit. I kept telling her, I'm playing for 1st place and 1st place only. Even 10th place only got $615. So we eventually got down to 2 tables. This is where the blinds were really starting to play a big factor. I was starting to get low on chips. There was a lot of shoving-preflop from everyone. Including me. A few times I waited until a couple of bigger stacks limped, and I would shove. I did this quite a few times. And it would increase my stack dramatically. Sometimes with a good hand, and other times with 5-6 suited. I mean that can be the difference between $215 and $9555. All it took was one call and I could have been gone. But I was picking up nice pots, usually uncontested. Until I finally got caught, and got lucky.

One of the bigger stacks limped from UTG or UTG+1. Another big stack limped along with the SB completing. And possibly even one more. I'm in the BB with A-10o. I can't possibly fold here lol. There's like 4 blinds(which are huge by now) and a bunch of antes to steal. It's that time.. SHIP IT! The early limper calls.. Oops! Everyone else folds and he has A-Q. I flop a 10 and I hit a SWEET suckout! Down to 2 tables and it was the first time I got my money in bad(I think). That is, until the following hand lol.

Except this time I didn't have nearly as much to risk. We were down to about 15 players or so. After that suck-out, I was in a good chip position. It folded to me on the button with A-2. I raise. The SB(who is the guy who had A-Q in the before mentioned hand) ships it. Shit.. It folds to me and I initially go to fold. Then I realize I'm getting a pretty good price, and it'll cost me approximately 30K of my 135k stack. 100k was still about average at that point. I'm getting good odds to call and if I win this one, I'm one of the chip leaders and another player is down. I call. He shows A-J. Damn. Now get ready for this one boys and girls, it takes talent to suck-out like this. The flop comes down 8-8-3. Immediately I'm yelling give me a 3(obviously I don't mind a chop at this point). Well the turn is a 4. Now I'm yelling 3 or 4.. 3 or 4... When the river falls a 5, giving me the wheel. Sick isn't it? I know what you're thinking, "Wow I wish I could get lucky like that! I could win tournaments if I sucked-out like that!" Believe me, I know that feeling. I mentioned to Joe Bueche about a month ago that I feel I never run good in tournaments. Well I caught a few breaks here. Keep in mind that this last suck-out wasn't that important because if I lose, I'm still in good shape. But that A-10 v.s. A-Q hand was crucial. And it felt GREAT to get it in bad and win that bad boy.

Well I got moved to the other table(which I had luckily watched for a little while and got a feel for how everyone was playing). I wasn't catching shit for a little while. A player or two went down and we were down to 10 players. One more player and we're at the final table. And I would handle that with my buddy, A-A. A couple of times while we were playing 5 handed, it folded to me in the SB and I completed, only to have the shorter-stacked BB shove all-in. I mucked and we moved on. Well when I picked up A-A, everyone folded to me. I decided to complete, hoping he would shove. He did, I called, and he showed 8-8.. board ran out and we were down to 9.

I knocked out the 9th place guy also. I think anyway. I knocked out either the 9th place guy or 8th place guy on the following hand. I'm not totally sure about the positions in this one so bear with me. I think it went down like this. A guy raises from EP/MP and it folds to me in the BB with Jc9c. I call. The flop is Q-10-x. I flop open-ended. I check and he bets. I call. The turn is a 9. Giving me a pair. I check and he checks behind. The river is garbage. I check. And here we go again with the instant shove. I don't know why but I instantly call. He shows A-J for ace-high and I win a BIG one. If I lose that one I'm serverly cripped. But my pair of 9's, jack kicker is good.

I read an interview with Nam Le in Cardplayer recently in which he said this, "I'm a pretty fast learner. Back in my early days, I would make those hero calls, and bottom-pair calls, and ace-high calls, and they worked out, but the times they don't, it burns and it stings. I made sure that I let it sting, and with experience, you just learn that that's not profitable. Yeah, I could be that player, that young hotshot who makes those hero calls. In the long term, it's not good, and I know that I'll be playing this game for the rest of my life."

I read that on the day prior to playing this tournament and I said to myself that I shouldn't try to make many really thin calls. And I still feel that way. But this was just one of those times you just feel it. As quickly as he shoved, I called just as quick. It was an instinct thing, and would be a bad call most of the time. But this time it worked out. Let's analyze this for a second. He raised preflop and I called. The flop comes Q-10-x and I check. He bets, like I fully expect him to do. I call with my open-ended straight draw. Normal so far. The turn is a 9, giving me a pair with my open-ended draw. I check and he checks behind me. Now I don't believe he's strong at all. He may very well have me beat, but I don't think he's super strong. My biggest guess is A-K. The river is garbage. I check, and he instantly shoves. I mean WTF? Luckily, I played with the guy for a while so I could limit his range. He played pretty tight & unimaginative. So I'm ruling out the fact that he raised from EP/MP in a full game with K-J. It's possible but very unlikely. If he raised with A-Q and floped a queen. He would probably bet the turn. And even if he didn't, it makes no sense to shove the river. I think the river bet was 80k+. Which is a huge bet. He should bet that for value. Or check. The same with A-10. I think it's unlikely that this particular player would even raise with A-10 in that position. But he probably checks the river with pretty good showdown value. Basically the turn check and river instant-shove didn't add up. If this was a world class player or someone I watched play very well, I could give him credit for a very well played hand. But this looked like a very standard missed straight bluff. I'm SURELY not claiming to be a "young hot-shot" like Nam was speaking about, but that hand really did affect my confidence. A couple of people wrote comments in the chat like "very nice call", and "yea really!". That hand just made me believe, you can do this.(It also made me think, "OK dumb ass, don't put yourself in that position again. LoL)

I didn't get too active for a while and people started dropping. Next thing you know we're down to 4 handed. I picked up K-K but just picked up the blinds. Everyone is exchanging large amounts of chips. A guy by the name of MONGOJONGO was to my left and was my biggest threat at the table. On a few of occassions two players folded to me in the SB, I would complete and MONGOJONGO would shove. It was starting to get on my nerves. Well one time a player folded, and a guy by the name of "netao" limped on the button. netao was by far the weaker of the remaining 4. He was very tight. I had no idea what the hell this limp meant. I have AJ in the SB. I would raise 90% of the time here and hope to take down a nice pot uncontested. But this limp threw me off big time. So here were my thoughts. I decided to just complete. I'm a little afraid of what netao has and more importantly, I know if I complete and MONGOJONGO has anything remotely good, he's shoving. With high antes, and two BB's in there, how could he not lol. This way I get to see what netao does. If he folds I'll call. I complete and sure enough.. MONGO ships it. Annoying netao folds, and I feel like I'm about to be in pretty good shape. I call and MONGO shows A-Q. Unbelievable. You watch the guy ship it 1 out of every 4 hands. You finally call and he has you dominated. He wins and I'm now the overwhelming short-stack. But not for long at all. I'm immediately just being ubberaggressive, because I still have some fold equity. And before you know it, I'm right back in it.

Some kinda way one guy went bust. The whole final table leading up to this didn't seem that long. But 3-handed play was a battle. With the blinds being as high as they were, I can't believe it lasted that long. And there was plenty of playing going on. Mostly from MONGOJONGO and I. The other guy "netao", was still playing tight. MONGO was behind me. I was actually getting annoyed that netao wasn't raising from the button(my SB). Because I couldn't catch anything remotely good from the SB and we gave MONGO a walk more than enough times. Everyone was going from chip leader to short-stack.. No one was going bust. With an average stack, I'm shoving from the button at some points with 10d-8d. My girlfriend is like, "WTF are you doing?" lol. Gotta get chips baby! I got low at some points, but with the the blinds that high, it's not tough to be right back in it. The following hand was so sweet.

I didn't catch many great hands the entire 7 1/2 hours, then finally my time came. We go to a flop 3 handed with me holding 8-9. Flop 9-8-9. Two spades. Are you kidding me? lol Well the flop goes checked. The turn is a 4. It frickin' checks around again. The river is a Queen. I'm about to get annoyed because I flopped a frickin' boat 3-handed and I'm gonna make nothing! That is until, netao ships it! I call and he shows 9-5. Sweet! But he's not out. He actually had me covered by a nice margin and still has 200,000 or so left. Well literally 4 or 5 hands later, I get another gift from the big guy. I catch 9-9 in the SB and complete.. MONGO raises behind me and I decide to just call. The flop comes down 4-4-5. I check. Fully intending on check-raising/check-calling all-in. When he checks behind. GREAT!? I'm waiting for the frickin' ace to hit the turn when the absolutely gorgeous Nina Ross hits the turn 9d. Putting 2 diamonds on board. I check, and I'm saying "ace on the river, ace on the river". When before I know it, he moves in on the turn. In the words of Gene D., "SSCHWEEET". I call, he show Ad-Qd for two overs and the nutflush draw, but drawing completely dead. And we're heads up!

I went into heads-up as the overwhelming chipleader. I believe about 1.4m to 200k-300k. But with blinds this high, anything is definitely possible. Going into heads-up I was a little nervous because the difference between 1st and 2nd place was over $3,600. I don't like to sound arrogant because there are definitely leaks in my game and I know myself where I can improve. But I think I'm pretty good heads-up. I've played a ton of heads-up matches and I'm confident in that part of my game. Especially v.s. netao who's played tight the entire final table. Luckily it didn't take long. In only a couple of hands, it was done. I raised from the button with A-Jo and he shoved. I called. He flipped over Q-J. The board double-paired and my ace played.

Reading over this it just sounds like I made some great hands and got extremely lucky. Both of which I did. But I feel like I did great for the hands I caught. I'm squeezing a ton of hands into one blog, writing mostly about the big ones. I started out as one of the chipleaders, stayed a little above average most of the tournament, and from 50 players down to one... I went from low to high to low to high. I did my best to avoid flips. Especially to MONGOJONGO 4 & 5 handed. I purposely limped with small pairs in the SB, hoping he would raise. But he shoved and took my play away from me. And I folded my pairs, not wanting to race. There are definitely times I'm willing to race, or even gamble with less than a race. But short-handed I kept saying to myself, "I can beat these guys without racing." And with some well-timed monsters, I did. Well this post is too damn long. I'm sure I'll be playing more soon. I'll keep you posted!

Back from the Windy City

2008-12-18T16:00:00.001-08:00

I'm back from Chicago. Lisa and I headed there Wednesday morning, and returned home Monday morning. All 5 nights were great. As I stated in my last entry, I am a big Chicago Bears fan. So we flew up for the Bears v.s. Saints game Thursday night. As you know, the Bears whopped that ass(OK they only won by 3 in overtime). That's 4 years in a row. Including a NFC Championship win. The game was AWESOME. We had possibly the best seats in the house. 50 yard line. One section up, row 2. They were amazing. The game was exciting from the first play. Chicago returned the opening kickoff for a TD. The game couldn't be any better, literally. Saints/Bears.. overtime... Bears win... Just awesome. Even the halftime show was great. Some little local Pee-Wee team played against some college and professional mascots. I should note, the Denver Bronco's mascot nailed a 30-40 yard field goal. With a giant horse thing on your head, that's quite an accomplishment. Anyway, the experience was UNREAL(as Sam Bradford might say). The best birthday present possible.

The rest of the trip was great too. Though I don't do it as much as I'd like, I love to travel. This was my first trip to Chicago. I loved it. Everything went very smooth. Our departing and return flights were both on time and went perfectly. We arrived at our hotel at approximately 10:45AM and were able to get our room. Despite check-in time being at 3PM. We stayed at the Double Tree Magnificent Mile. It was great choice. When we checked-in, they gave us some delicious chocolate chip cookies. I think you're only supposed to get them when you arrive, but that didn't stop Lisa from asking them twice for a cookie during our stay. They gave us each one every time w/o a problem. Every time we requested to bring something to our room(i.e., fridge, ice bucket, etc.), they brought it promptly. Then the front desk would call 3 minutes later to make sure we received it. It was a classy, professional place that I give a great recommendation.

Our first day there, we asked the concierge what was a good place to eat within walking distance. She recommended a few places, including one place named Boston's Blackies. I'm glad we chose this place. Upon walking in, Lisa asked a customer who was leaving, what would he recommend? He said, "Well they have some great burgers." PERFECT!! If you know me, I am a big fan of a great burger. That sounds pretty boring, but give me a burger, and I'm fine. Well we each had a burger and they were great. Lisa is not a huge fan of burgers, but she agreed that they were awesome. We ate there 3 or 4 times during our stay. We ordered a chili once. It was great too and Lisa started ordering those on each visit. Big thumbs up.

We visited the ESPN Zone twice. I love these places. There are only 8 or 9 of them in the country. It's a big sports bar/grill/arcade. But over-the-top. I got the steakhouse burger, which turned out to be good. Downstairs is a restaurant, while upstairs is a huge gaming floor. The typical race car games, basketball shooting games, snowmobile stuff, etc. was there. That had a big baseball spot where you picked from some MLB players and pitched a ball to the catcher. It clocked your speed and called balls and strikes. There was a football throwing game. Boxing.. bowling... you name it. All games you actually threw/bowled balls.. as apposed to pressing buttons. BUT, pressing buttons is not always bad. I was able to play Madden on a huge 15 foot screen. That was sweet. But my favorite was the hockey arena thing. You were able to get in a closed in room and try to score goals against a moving, wooden goalie. That was fun! I've always wanted to give hockey a shot, and this is as close as I'll come. My back is a little sore from patting myself on it, but I didn't see anyone all afternoon score as high as I did. I'm looking for an agent. ;)

One night we went a comedy club named Zanie's. Before we left for Chicago I researched the place, and the comedian who was preforming while we were there. I saw a couple of things on YouTube on him, and I didn't care for his act. But we ended up going anyway, and I was surprised. He had me laughing a lot. I enjoyed it very much. And the younger guy who opened for him was just as good, if not better.

Our last night there, we went ice skating. That was a blast. I had only been ice skating once before, when I was around 12 years old. But this was very fun. It was great to share it with Lisa. She loved it. She also enjoyed watching me bust my ass. In my opinion, I skate pretty well. That is until I try to get fancy. Weaving in & out of people, skating on one leg, etc. I busted my ass and she got a kick out of it. We went skating in Millennium Park. A park full of famous architecture. Including Cloud Gate. Which is a huge, shiny thing that stands over the rink. I didn't really think is was anything spectacular. That is until I saw it at night. The point of Cloud Gate is it's night-time view. Chicago's famous skyline is reflected on it. It looks incredible.

One day we visited the Field Museum. It's a huge history museum filled with all kind of stuff. One of my favorites was "Sue". It was a skeleton of the world's largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex. It must have sucked being a caveman, being chased by one of those bad boys. I'm too lazy to build my own fire, catch my own food, and stay free of 40-foot, man eating beasts. At least they've got that Geico thing going for them. The museum was cool. I found myself most attracted to the temporary exhibit of natural disasters. Especially the Hurricane Katrina section. I get to look at artifacts from across the globe. Bones from millions of years ago. And I am attracted to a Hurricane I witnessed a couple of years ago. The only knock against it was the ridiculously priced gift shops. But I guess you kinda expect that.

All in all, the trip was one of the best of my life. A great game, a great girl, great food. What more could you ask for? Thanks again Lisa for the tickets and experience. Chicago.... Awesome

Some great birthday presents!

2008-11-20T16:13:00.000-08:00

My 24th birthday was yesterday. I didn't do much from the norm. But I did receive a few awesome birthday presents.

#1- Number 1 definitely goes to my girlfriend Lisa. She really bought one of the best presents possible. For those of you who don't know, I'm a big Chicago Bears fan. (Sorry to you Saints fans for kicking your ass in the NFC Championship a few years ago). But when I'm not rooting for the Bears, I am rooting for the Saints. They're my two favorites. Well, my girlfriend bought us 2 unbelievably sweet tickets to the Bears v.s. Saints game on December 11th in Chicago! We're going to fly out there for a few days and catch the game. We have lower level, 50 yard line, heated seats. Along with that, she bought me a Bears jacket, and wool hat to wear to the game. Hopefully the Bears will still be in the playoff hunt at that time. I'm going to the Saints v.s. Packers game Monday night. So in addition to hoping the Saints win, I also really need the Packers to lose for Chicago's sake. Overall, she really outdid herself. I'm sooo pumped. Thanks Lisa

#2- Number 2 goes to Harrah's Casino. Since my 21st birthday 3 years ago, I have played poker on my birthday every year. On my 21st birthday(My first time allowed in a casino) I won $2400. Talk about hooking the fish. Well I've had a winning session every year on my birthday the last 3 years and pulled off another one last night to keep the streak going. Of course I seem to win less every year lol. From $2400 in 2005..... to $1200 in 2006...to $844 in 2007... to $645 in 2008. But I still picked up $645 nonetheless. I'll touch more on my session later.

#- Number 3 goes to Terreborne Parish Police Department. I was pulled over today on my way home from Harrah's. Multiple things on my car are expired. Including my driver's license!! I realized that yesterday when I went to Harrah's. When the guy checked my I.D., he told me it expires tomorrow. Shit! And what do you know, I get pulled over the very first day it's expired. I won't go into much detail, but after he found out that I have so much expired shit, a couple thousand dollars on me, and a handgun in the glove box.... he wanted to pat me down and search the car. I allowed him, as I have never done an illegal drug a day in my life. Upon finding nothing, they actually let me go without citing me! I have only been driving for 8 years, and I bet I have more tickets than anyone reading this thing. Sometimes for some very unnecessary shit. But I fully expected to get nailed for the expired stuff (as a should because I was too lazy to renew them). Anyway, thanks to the officers who let me go. I honestly fully intend to get that shit taken care of ASAP.

I received birthday gifts from others too. I appreciate them also. Thanks all.

Now onto my session. I have played a pretty good bit of poker over the last 5 years. And my two tables last night were 2 of the best tables I have ever sat at. The action was UNREAL. I first sat down at a 1-2 game and bought in for $400. And 5 minutes later, I'm called to the $2-$5 game. So I sat with my original $400. About an hour in, I caught K-K. Problem was the guy across the table who found A-A at the same time. All-in on the flop. Rebuy. So now I'm in the game for $900. Well our game is already pretty good. And then Marcos comes to our table. And REALLY livens it up. He's got the deadly combination. He's drunk, playing bad, and catching EVERYTHING. After a little while, he's up to about 4k. People are adding on like crazy, including me. I put another $200 on the game. I wasn't really getting involved much. Not in any big pots anyway. I raised preflop with A-K and won about $200 on an A-10-10-K-K board. He had A-Q.

I am in dream position, to Marco's left. But I can't catch anything against him. I keep mentioning Marco, but the table was full of action players;
Scott- who has now been allowed back into Harrahs. Welcome back.
Black Larry- I say black Larry only because there's white Larry who's a regular also. I'm not racist.
Ron or Rod- an action player with about 5k in front of him.
Mark- a big limit player who plays in Scott's big game.

So this table was great. BUT!!! It's a must move. And after a few of those guys move to the main game, I get moved too. Shit. But this main game is nearly as good. And now black Larry and Rod are there too. I'm still trying to catch even. I win a decent pot that I can't remember, to put my stuck only $100. Then I flop the nuts with Q-J on an A-K-10 board, 2 spades. I reraise a flop better who calls my raise. Long story short, she has K-5 of spades. Turn is Js. I lose about $300 on the hand, and I'm back stuck $400.

Well finally Marcos gets moved to our game. The players from the must-move game claim he took about $1400 off the table when he moved. He was forced to put it back on. So some kind of way, he still has like $4,600 in front of him. And he's still playing reckless as can be. I did pull off a very risky but successful bluff. I bluff $100 on the river into a $460 pot. I bluffed one guy with only $100 left, and black Larry. Usually not a good idea. But my read happened to be correct and I won a nice pot with 7 high. And after a while of not catching much of anything, my time finally comes. Or does it? Marcos is raising preflop very often. And usually to absurd amounts. Well he raises in early position to $75. The guy(a calling station) to my right calls. I have J-J. I'm sure I've got the best of it but I'm not raising to like $300 with J-J with the entire table left behind me. I call and 2 others call. We're 5 handed to a flop for $75. Flop is ten-high with a straight draw. Marcos fires $200. Guy to my left folds. I've still got 2 players behind me. One guy looks like he's gonna muck. Well I call. Guy behind me folds. But the other guy left calls. 3 handed to the turn. It's an off suit 3. Now this is scary, Marco fires $500. S.O.B.! I know he's been playing crazy. But he usually shows down with at least a little something. Almost never is he completely bluffing. Normally my J-J would hit the muck quickly. I'd put the guy on AA, KK, QQ, or 1010. But it's frickin' Marcos. This guy could have anything from an overpair, to a set, to 5-high. I look at the guy behind me and it looks like he wants to fold. I figure he was on some kind of straight draw that missed. Anyway, after a while of deliberating, I finally move in. I've only got about $175 more than the $500. The guy behind me folds. Marcos throws in the extra $175. The river pairs the board rag. I show J-J. Marcos just stares at his hand for a minute. Normally, this is a good sign. But Marcos is piss drunk and I'm waiting for this idiot to flip over top boat or something. But he shows 10-8 of clubs. Top pair. So I drag a $2200 pot with a barely overpair lol. Nice but tough.

So now I'm actually winning about $1100. I ended up giving almost half of that back. One hand I limp with 9s-7s. A few people limp and someone makes a ridiculous raise to $20, which everyone calls. The flop comes K-9-7, two diamonds. Some donkey who was playing terribly fires $75. He's only got $100 behind that. I call and the table folds. The turn is a black 3. And he puts his last $100 in. Shit, I call. Now this guy was called a few times earlier in night by like 3rd pair and he mucked. So he could have complete shit, or a real hand. My guess it like K-Q or diamonds. Now I'll play a game with you that I play with Joe sometimes. It's called, "What's the worst possible card?" Meaning consider my hand, 9-7. I think he either has a king, or diamonds. Now in the entire deck, what's the worst possible river card for me?! What you think? You got it? Well if you guessed the 3 of diamonds, you got it. And that's precisely what the river card was. It hit the board and I laughed out loud. I can't win now. See the 3 of diamonds is a terrible card for me. Because it completes the flush and now if he has a king, he has two better pair. Well sure enough he had both, the Kd-5d. Giving him the flush. I lost like $200 there.

Another hand I had As-7s in the BB. Someone raised to $25 preflop and most of the table called, as did I. the flop came A-Q-9. 1 spade. It checks around to some guy who bets $40 into a $200 pot. I usually fold here but it's the previously mentioned donkey. I'm hoping to pick up a spade on the turn. I call as does Scott. Well sure enough, the turn is a spade, giving me top pair, nut flush draw. I check and now Scott bets $125. The donkey folds and it's back to me. I know my implied odds would be pretty sweet with a backdoor flush here. I call. The river pairs the board queens. He fires a nice size bet and I decide to fold.

I gave back some and cashed out for a $645 win. Overall nice. The birthday streak continues. Well I'm out. Catch me on Full Tilt.

Heads Up!

2008-11-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

I have been playing a lot of heads-up matches lately. I've done pretty well at them. I've always done well at the heads-up NLHE matches. Problem is, I usually jump into some heads-up cash game, or some SNG's, or something and blow my money. Or I play some $20-$50 heads-up Stud, Stud H/L, or PLO SNG's that I have no business playing. No discipline. Well this time I'm trying to see what I can do playing just heads up matches. It's definitely a super grind at this level. Playing what seems like a million matches just to make a small profit over time. My hand history deleted the last group of heads-up matches that I played last month. I know I had a pretty good record there too. I know this week I'm 13-5 on NLHE matches from $5-$20. And I should be 17-1. Listed below are 4 hands in which I had my opponent in horrible shape. On the first 3 hands, they were all-in & the 4th hand he had me slightly covered. I was 83%, 89%, 82%, and 71% favorites when the money got in. The last one just seemed unnecessarily brutal lol. I'll keep you posted.

(83% Favorite)
Full Tilt Poker Game #9011611579: $10 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (68970691), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:59:13 ET - 2008/11/16
Seat 1: dmr0611 (1,270)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (1,730)
dmr0611 posts the small blind of 15
Matt J Bryant posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Kc Ac]
dmr0611 raises to 90
Matt J Bryant raises to 270
dmr0611 calls 180
*** FLOP *** [Kh Js Ad]
Matt J Bryant bets 1,460, and is all in
dmr0611 calls 1,000, and is all in
Matt J Bryant shows [Kc Ac]
dmr0611 shows [Ah Td]
Uncalled bet of 460 returned to Matt J Bryant
*** TURN *** [Kh Js Ad] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Js Ad 9c] [Qd]
Matt J Bryant shows two pair, Aces and Kings
dmr0611 shows a straight, Ace high
dmr0611 wins the pot (2,540) with a straight, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,540 Rake 0
Board: [Kh Js Ad 9c Qd]
Seat 1: dmr0611 (small blind) showed [Ah Td] and won (2,540) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (big blind) showed [Kc Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings

(89% Favorite)
Full Tilt Poker Game #9012538229: $10 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (68977909), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:56:00 ET - 2008/11/16
Seat 1: Matt J Bryant (1,670)
Seat 2: ellen3423 (1,330)
ellen3423 posts the small blind of 15
Matt J Bryant posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Ac Ad]
ellen3423 raises to 60
Matt J Bryant raises to 180
ellen3423 calls 120
*** FLOP *** [4d 6h 9d]
Matt J Bryant bets 250
ellen3423 calls 250
*** TURN *** [4d 6h 9d] [3d]
Matt J Bryant bets 1,240, and is all in
ellen3423 calls 900, and is all in
Matt J Bryant shows [Ac Ad]
ellen3423 shows [Kd 4h]
Uncalled bet of 340 returned to Matt J Bryant
*** RIVER *** [4d 6h 9d 3d] [Ks]
Matt J Bryant shows a pair of Aces
ellen3423 shows two pair, Kings and Fours
ellen3423 wins the pot (2,660) with two pair, Kings and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,660 Rake 0
Board: [4d 6h 9d 3d Ks]
Seat 1: Matt J Bryant (big blind) showed [Ac Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: ellen3423 (small blind) showed [Kd 4h] and won (2,660) with two pair, Kings and Fours

(82% Favorite)
Full Tilt Poker Game #9027033265: $10 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (69082315), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:17:04 ET - 2008/11/17
Seat 1: Matt J Bryant (2,090)
Seat 2: big ken 1977 (910)
big ken 1977 posts the small blind of 15
Matt J Bryant posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [6c 6d]
big ken 1977 calls 15
Matt J Bryant raises to 90
big ken 1977 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [7c 4s 6h]
Matt J Bryant bets 180
big ken 1977 calls 180
*** TURN *** [7c 4s 6h] [Js]
Matt J Bryant bets 1,820, and is all in
big ken 1977 calls 640, and is all in
Matt J Bryant shows [6c 6d]
big ken 1977 shows [9h 8h]
Uncalled bet of 1,180 returned to Matt J Bryant
*** RIVER *** [7c 4s 6h Js] [Tc]
Matt J Bryant shows three of a kind, Sixes
big ken 1977 shows a straight, Jack high
big ken 1977 wins the pot (1,820) with a straight, Jack high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,820 Rake 0
Board: [7c 4s 6h Js Tc]
Seat 1: Matt J Bryant (big blind) showed [6c 6d] and lost with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 2: big ken 1977 (small blind) showed [9h 8h] and won (1,820) with a straight, Jack high

(71% Favorite)
Full Tilt Poker Game #9033247106: $10 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (69132218), Table 1 - 10/20 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:39:32 ET - 2008/11/17
Seat 1: morechipsplz (1,780)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (1,220)
Matt J Bryant posts the small blind of 10
morechipsplz posts the big blind of 20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [Kh Ks]
Matt J Bryant raises to 60
morechipsplz raises to 1,780, and is all in
Matt J Bryant calls 1,160, and is all in
morechipsplz shows [Ad Th]
Matt J Bryant shows [Kh Ks]
Uncalled bet of 560 returned to morechipsplz
*** FLOP *** [As Qd 9d]
*** TURN *** [As Qd 9d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [As Qd 9d Kd] [Js]
morechipsplz shows a straight, Ace high
Matt J Bryant shows three of a kind, Kings
morechipsplz wins the pot (2,440) with a straight, Ace high
Matt J Bryant stands up
morechipsplz stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,440 Rake 0
Board: [As Qd 9d Kd Js]
Seat 1: morechipsplz (big blind) showed [Ad Th] and won (2,440) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (small blind) showed [Kh Ks] and lost with three of a kind, Kings

Yeeee!

2008-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

I arrived at Harrah's at about 10PM and sat in a 1-2NLHE game. The table was nothing special. I caught J-J early on and made it $15 to go. I got 3 callers. The flop came king high. I bet $25 and got 1 caller. A guy I didn't totally respect. I had only been there a little while, but this guy played a couple of hands badly. The turn was garbage again. A lot of times I'll check here and basically give up. This time I bet $25 again and got called. The river was a little scary for both of us, completing multiple hands. Check, check. He shows K-Q for a winner.

The very next hand, I limp with A-Jo and the same guy from last hand makes it $15. One or two callers to me and I call. The flop is 10-8-4 all diamonds. I have the ace of diamonds. Everyone checks to the preflop raiser. He bets $25. Everyone folds to me and I elect to call. The turn is a black 7. Giving me a gut-shot. I check and he fires $50. Normally I might fold here. Because even if I make my flush, I probably won't get paid. But I'm putting this guy on an overpair. So I figure I have 15 outs(9 diamonds, three 9's and 3 aces). Also, I'm hoping he has K-K with the the Kd. Or Q-Q with the Qd. Because this guy will definitely call a river bet with those flushes if a diamond hits the river. The river was a black ace. Here's where I messed up. I should have bet here. And I'm still upset with myself for not. I put him on an overpair, I hit one of my 15 outs, and I don't bet. He checks behind and I win. He shows 2 black queens. Error on my part.

I made about $80 with 10-10 on a low flop. There was a $10 bet on the flop that I raised to $30 and got two callers. I took it down on the turn.

Then I get called to the 2-5NLHE game. This is a must move game with some good players on it. There were 2 main games. Both of which had some fish on them. But this must move game looked pretty tough. I lost most of my profit early. I got involved in a hand with an Asian guy I've played with before. This guy is pretty solid. I limped in a mutli-way pot with K-Q. I bet $25 on a Q-high board. The Asian guy min-raises me to $50. I call and the turn is garbage. He makes the same bet, $50. Ahhh I hate this spot. I know I'm probably behind. The bet is small. I call. The river is crap and he bets $125... I fold. I didn't like this hand at all. On the river the only thing I can beat is K-J or a bluff.(That's what I feel anyway). He's pretty tight and doesn't get out of line often. I should have folded the turn. If he has a set, I'm dead. I think he raises preflop with A-K though. And I think he checks K-J on the river. I think I was up against 2 pair minimum. Oh well.

On the next hand a guy makes a small raise to $15 preflop. I look down to see Ad-Qd. I just call along with some others. The flop is Q-8-7. 1 diamond. It checks to the preflop raiser who bets $35. I make it $75. It folds to him. And he calls. His call surprised me for the most part. I thought his bet was pretty much a c-bet and he going to fold. He called and the turn paired the board 7's. A pretty good card for me. He checks. I check behind for a couple of reasons.
#1 Mainly, I want to keep the pot small.
#2 If he's on some type of straight draw with J-10, 10-9, etc... I figure to be pretty far ahead. If he misses.. he'll probably bluff the river. And it will be a smaller sized bet that I can call.
Lots of times I'll bet here but this time I checked. The river was a King. He fires $125. Now the king is not a bad card. A lot of players are scared by this card. But what would he have that he would hold a king? Only K-Q probably. I think he lays down A-K to the reraise on the flop. I study the board for a minute. After all, it is $125 and there is a king and two 7's or board, never of which I can beat. But I call and he taps the table. Nice. He mucks and I drag down a nice little pot.

I get moved to one the the main games. And one of the fish I mentioned at one of the main games was there for about 10 minutes before he went broke. Bummer. Well next to me sat a 180 pound Asian "woman". And every single time she bet she threw her bet out in the most ANNOYING manner. Some players(including myself at times) with throw out a smaller bet, out of the backside of their hand. You know what I mean? When you kinda spin the chips out from under your hand. Well this bitch did it with Super Force every single time. She would bet with her right hand and swing her right arm all the way around her body. I was sitting to her immediate left and almost caught a right hook every time she did it. She actually made an $85 bet with red chips like this. Splashing $85 out there. I mean WTF?!? Even when she counted her chips, she counted them so forcefully. She pounded the table with each cut. I wanted to tell her something. I would have, if I wasn't afraid she could kick my ass. The Mirage had me going down in the 2nd round. Well anyway, I picked up a few small pots at this table. Not really getting too involved. Caught K-K only to take it down preflop. Then absolutely nothing for about 2 1/2 hours. I mean nothing. I literally sat and watched. And did everything I could to stop myself from drop kicking the Asian bitch in the balls.

Then came my last hand of the night. After being on auto-muck for so long, I pick up 10-10. A young guy straddled for $10. I raise to $50 total. I hadn't played a hand in forever so most of the time I would expect a fold from everyone. But Yee was at our table.(That's why I titled this entry Yeee!) Yee is an older Asian man. He is a blast to have at the table. He definitely livens up the game. He also keeps the table laughing. Well he calls the $50 with God knows what and the rest of the table folds. We see a heads-up flop with me first to act... 2,4,5 flop. There's a decent chance he has an ace and I'd hate to see a 3 on the turn. I bet out $75. After a little while he calls. I only have $255 behind. The turn is a little scary.. It pairs the board 5's. Usually I wouldn't sweat it because he would have had to call $50 preflop with a 5. But it's Yee. It's more than possible. Anyway.. I still believe I'm ahead. And here's an example of knowing your opponent and paying a little attention. Yee just lost a couple of big hands. Flush v.s. higher flush.. Top pair v.s. trips.. and he's not necessarily tilting, but he's definitely wanting some of that money back. I also know, if I show any sign of weakness, he'll probably take the first opportunity to steal it. He can be one of those players that just can't help himself. So I check, trying to represent A-K or something. And sure enough... He puts me all-in lol. I call. We don't turn them over.. and an ace hits the river. Geez! Didn't want to see that card. Then he says, "I have ace high." I'm not sure what the hell that means lol. I'm assuming he has nothing and he's talking about the ace on board. But I'm hoping he didn't miss his straight but hit an ace. Anyway, I flip over 10-10 and he mucks. Sweet!

I picked up shortly after. Winning $377 on the night.

"Limit poker is a science, but no-limit is an art. In limit, you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at you." (Jack Strauss)

A good read

2008-11-10T23:48:00.000-08:00

No I didn't make I good read in a hand.. nor is this blog a good read. This entry is about an article I read today by Alex Kamberis(AJKHoosier1). If you don't know who this guy is, you probably don't play much online poker. He is currently ranked #1 in online rankings and is basically dominating the field. The article is titled, "Self Evaluation and the Big Picture." I'll link it here and feel free to read it after this short post. http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-articles/SelfEvaluation-and-the-Big-Picture-2567906

I like the article because it gave me a little extra drive. It discusses the growth of a poker player. From beginner, to student, to pro. The student part kinda inspired me. I don't consider myself a beginner, and I'm far from a pro. It kinda makes me want to study the game more and do whatever it takes to get better. I am always on Cardplayer.com, PocketFives.com, GCP(You welcome for the plug), etc. all the time looking at strategy shit. I love discussing hands with some of my fellow players and seeing the difference in opinion. I've read plenty of poker books. I do a lot to better myself as a player.. in that sense at least. But now I'm wanting to do more. Anyway, I don't think this article was anything spectacular. I just thought it was an interesting article by Alex. And maybe it will get some of you off your ass and make you want to further develop!! Good Luck

Once you start thinking you have nothing left to learn, you have everything to learn. -- Steve Badget

Biloxi

2008-11-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Davey and I decided to make a trip to Biloxi Tuesday to play in the "IP Classic". It sounds 100x's more serious than it is. It's a tournament series that attracts 60-80 players per event with decent structure. With the $10 add-on you start with 3k in chips. 30 minute levels. Blinds go 25/25, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200/25, etc. We had 60+ in our tournament. It was a $200+$40 I think. Davey, Wild Bill, Monkey & I were all in the field. My table started off 6-handed. Some players weren't at the table while other stacks weren't bought yet. So at a 6-handed table I decide to open the very first hand to 100 from the high-jack position with A-8o. Most players aren't willing to play the first hand for a raise w/o a hand. So much for that.. 3 of 5 call lol. Flop nothing and fold. I didn't catch much of a hand until the first break. (btw there was a break after every 2 levels.. meaning every hour there was a break. I found that very unnecessary and annoying.) Well at the first break I was at $2,500 or so. Until the first hand back from break. The table folds to me in the high-jack again and I raise with Q-Jo. The button calls along with the SB. 3-handed to a flop of Ah-Ks-10s. That worked out nice. The SB leads into me. I call.. hoping the button raises but he folds. The turn is the 5s. The SB leads again and after a while of pretending to have a decision, I move in. He calls with As-10c. Giving him top-two and the nut flush draw. I dodge the outs and double up. Nice. Well for the longest time I can't catch ANYTHING. I'm making a couple of well timed steals. And we're on to our 3rd break. At the end of our 3rd break I tell the dealer that I haven't had a hand better than 4-4 all tournament, so now is the time to give me something. We're at the point of the tournament where a lot of players are just at the preflop shove point. And our table was pretty short on chips. I kept having to raise or shove with not much against the tighter blinds to pick up the blinds/antes. I shoved all-in with Kd-2d once and the tightest player at the table went into the tank. Shit! lol But after a while he folded. Phew. Then in the mist of all these shoves I finally catch my big hand. I catch K-K in the BB.... AND GET A FRICKIN' WALK! Geez! Well after a while of nothing we're down to 2 tables. One of the first hands at this table I'm dealt A-Qo. An Asian guy raises from middle position. Folds to me and I have a bad chip count at this spot. I don't want to call and miss because the raise really hurts me. If I just raise I am committing A LOT of my chips. Screw it, I shove. Everyone folds. That was actually a nice pot. The blinds, antes, and a preflop raise.. made for a sweet pot. Especially when you can get it uncontested. Well I'm not there much longer until I'm moved to the other table. My very first hand I'm dealt A-K UTG+1. This table has the other table KILLED in chips. Once again, screw it.... I'm all-in lol. I hate this type of play. I am a BIG FAN of deep stack poker. I don't like the Kill Phil method. But if I don't have the chips, I don't have the chips. No callers with the A-K but I pick up more blinds/antes. I think we go one rotation until the following hand occurs. I'm UTG+1 and the UTG shoves all-in. This guy was very tight, but he also was low on chips. I look down to see Q-Q. I don't know where to think YESSS! or SHIT!! lol Because this guy was pretty tight. I thought there was a good chance he had A-K and it was a race.. Or worse.. He had A-A.. K-K.. But I'm not folding, after all I'm not trying to sneak into 9th place to barely cash. I want to win this thing. I move in over the top of him. The rest of the table folds around to Bill in the BB who says, "Whatever it is, I call." I immediately know I'm drilled. Sure enough, he turns over A-A and the board bricks. Dammit. If he didn't have aces I take a nice pot. Oh well. I went out in like 15th place or close to it. Bill went on to cash. Congrats. I ended up playing another tourney at 6pm and some 1/2 cash game. Losing at both. A bad day overall. In all three games, my best hands were QQ, KK, and 99. My kings got a walk, and my queens and nines both ran into aces. Yuck. Oh well! Better luck next time.

A Near Push

2008-10-31T01:20:00.000-07:00

I went play Tuesday at Harrah's and Wednesday at Shorty's only to lose $28. I won $130 at Harrah's and lost $158 at shorty's. Exhilarating huh? Well let's start at Harrah's. My girlfriend Lisa and I went to a costume shop on Camp St. conveniently located right near Harrah's. Afterwards we headed over to Harrah's. I sat at a 1-2NLHE game and got the ball rolling pretty quickly. I was down $50 early just not connecting with anything. I also got lucky when an Asian guy with a Raider beanie raised to $15 preflop. 1 caller to me and I call with A-K. The action gets around to an older gentleman who moves all-in for $62 total. Action goes back to Asian Raider who shoves all-in for about $150. Dammit! Folds to me and I decide to fold. The flop came A-J-6.. then brick brick.. The older man had A-K also and Asian Raider shows a set of jacks. Had he only called the all-in preflop I would have given him some more money with my A-K. Anyway, I dodged a bullet there.

Well not long after, a guy raises to $12 from the 1 seat. 2 callers to me in the BB with Qc-10c. I call the additional $10 and we see a 4-way flop.. BINGO.. Kh-Js-9s.. I check, 1 seat bets $45.. Asian Raider calls, other guy folds...action is to me. I only have about $120 total.. I'm all-in. Both players call! I'm thinking shit.. there's no way I can dodge 2 streets here. The turn is 6h.. check, check.. River is 2h.. Nice! Spade flush didn't get there.. nor did the board pair.. If someone back doored a heart flush, so be it. Nope.. I was up against K-Q from the 1 seat, and 10s-4s from Asian Raider. SWEET! So now I'm up like $200 or so.

I end up flopping a set of 2's to win about $150 from K-K. I was up almost $400 at one point... only a couple hours into play. Until disaster strikes. I haven't played a hand in a while until I'm dealt Js-9s. I swear to you my previous blog about my session where I made all my money with J-9 never even crossed my mind. For some reason I guess this hand looks good to me. Well it folds to me in MP and I decided to mix it up a little and raise to $15. Well a guy 2 seats to my left calls and starts a chain reaction.. We go to the flop like 5 or 6 handed. That wasn't exactly how I planned it. So I know I'm gonna have to smoke this flop or I'm pretty much done with the hand. Well the flop is 9h-2s-5s. Geez! Giving me top pair and a flush draw. Checks to me and I bet $45. The guy 2 seats to my left calls. A guy to his left moves in for $60 something total. It folds around to me and I call(because I can't raise even it I wanted to). Now here's the part that actually kinda messed with my head. The guy 2 seats to my left is a somewhat regular. I've played with him a few times before. He's pretty solid/tight. Now he asks the dealer, "Can I raise?" Which she promptly says, "No". And he calls. The turn is the 7s. Giving me a jack-high flush. For some reason I check, pretending to be afraid of the flush. I am hoping he flopped a set and will bet to protect against a spade so I can check-raise him. Him asking if he could raise the flop really fooled me. I don't think he did it as some sort of strategy. And if he did, Koo dos(if that's how you spell it) to him. He bets $80... leaving himself with about $120. Here's my thoughts.. I've played with this guy before. I don't think he's the type of player who would want to raise on the flop and isolate with just the nut-flush draw. After all, I did raise preflop then bet a nice size bet into 6 people. Maybe if he flopped a flush and straight draw. But I also didn't think he would be the first to call $15 with some type of As-3s or As-4s preflop. So I thought he had a set. I check-raise all-in.. He calls and flips over As-3s for the nuts and I lose like $280 or something on that one. The asking if he could raise thing really made me think he had a set or something. Damn J-9 suited lol. I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not that I raised with it preflop as apposed to calling. That board would have cost me a lot regardless.

I ended up playing a while longer until finally I picked up winning $130. It did do a little something for my confidence though. The last time I booked 3 winners in a row Michael Jackson had a fro.

Onto Shorty's. Like I mentioned before, I lost $158 on this session and I was damn lucky to only lose that. I only played from 1:15-6 but I was SOOO card dead. I showed up and started a new must-move table. It was only 1:15 or so and I was helping start the 3rd NL table. Nice. I buy-in for $300 and pick one of the only seats left available. With Tim Hebert to my right and Bruce to my left. Bruce is a tough opponent. He likes to mix it up. It was my second time playing with him and was impressed by his play. The only other time playing with him I lost about $1k to him on one of the worst hands I have ever played. I'm still kicking my ass for that one.. he reraised me preflop with 7-7 when I held A-K and the flop came K-7-x.. tough one, but I had plenty of opportunity to get away. You live and you learn. Anyway, onto this day. At least I was lucky enough to be on Tim's left as he was raising and betting a lot of pots. I didn't catch anything to play. Occasionally playing small pairs and Broadway cards for raises, only to completely miss. Well a couple of people were up from the table when everyone folded to me on the button with K-Qo. I raised the blinds to $25 and both called. The flop came down Qc-3h-7d. Check, check to me. I bet $45. Bruce studies for a moment and calls. Bruce is the type of player who likes to make very thin calls. Not that anything is wrong with that. He just likes challenging himself and making sure he doesn't have the best hand. The BB folds. Bruce's call on the flop makes me believe he has a 3 or 7.. possibly 5-6 or something like that also.. Remember, I said he mixes it up. Heads-up to the turn.. 9d. Bruce checks. I know he's thinking this is where he's going to see if I actually have something or I was just making a c-bet. Well the turn didn't really scare me. I'm really thinking he has a 3 or 7 and I'm pretty far in the lead. So I decide try and disguise my hand and check. By doing so I think he's gonna bet the river if he misses. In which case I'll just call. Or he'll check the river and try to make a hero call with a small pair. Well the river is the 10d. It puts a backdoor flush and straight out there. But I still think I'm in the lead.. Now he checks. I'm hoping he didn't make 2-pair with 7-10 suited or Q-10 or something. But I decide and go for the value bet. I bet $50.. leaving myself with about $120. Here is where I'm expecting him to call very light. After all, I played this how plenty of people would play A-K, A-J type hands.. Raise preflop, continuation bet, slow down once you get called... and bet the river as a final attempt to buy the pot. ANYWAY, he does something I wasn't expecting.. he raises. He starts cutting out enough chips to put me all-in. I beat him into the pot and he says, "That's probably a good call." I turn over my K-Q and he mucks. He was a little flustered but overall understood. We discussed it afterwards and I think he realized I'm not just someone who can't get away from top-pair. Here is the perfect example of the difference between most 1-2 players and a tricky 5-5 player. In the 1-2 game at Harrah's I would have just bet the turn like I'm supposed to. But just from playing with Bruce for a few hours I know some of his tendencies. I fully expected him to bet the river or just call light. But the all-in check raise didn't make much sense. I had been playing pretty tight. I checked the turn. If he made a set, flush, straight, etc... he should have bet the river. He can't rely on me to bet there.

I'm up almost $200 now. But after a while of catching shit..I'm back to the $300 I started with.. Or maybe a little lower. A guy named Bill(Not you Wild Bill) came sit to my immediate right. Though maybe this guy is nicknamed "Wild Bill" also. At least he should be. From the very first hand he came in raising preflop. And continued the trend quite often. He was raising A LOT preflop.. c-betting 100%, and overall didn't slow down too much. It was working for and against him. I played snug for a long time until the following hand. 1 guy limps for $5 and it gets to Bill in the SB. Like clock-work he pumps it to $25. I look down to see A-10off. I call from the BB. Normally I fold here but I haven't seen a hand in ages and I know I'm miles ahead of Bill's range. The limper calls. The limper is a very tight player who also commented that he was in the middle of the worse run of his life(which in my opinion makes him even tighter). Well the flop comes down J-7-3 rainbow. Bill is first to act and bets $45. I don't know why I want this pot but I do. I know if I call, the limper isn't gonna call/raise unless he has a J or flopped a set. So I call and the limper folds. The turn is a rag and Bill does something I didn't remember seeing before. He checks. What? Apparently he has some sense and knows I haven't played a hand in a hour and thinks I called the flop with something. Here is where I "misplayed" this hand. You'll see later why I put misplayed in quotes. I should have bet here. The board was nowhere near a raising hand and a bet from me here should probably take this thing down. But I'm still a little gun shy from running badly that I check.. Hoping he checks the river and I can see if my ace-high is good. Well the river is probably the worst possible card, Kd. It completes a backdoor flush but I'm not sweating that because there's not a chance in hell Bill is checking a flush draw if he picked one up on the turn. He pretty quickly says "One-hundred" and sticks a stack of red out there. I quickly call with my ace-high. Before I reveal my hand he says, "That's a good call." And I'm thinking, "Well you haven't seen my hand yet." Lol. Because he would say the same thing if he had A-Q or 55 or any pair for that matter. Well I flip over A-10 and he looks at it.. reviews the board.. looks back at my hand.. reviews the board and says, "Wait he's got nothing." I'm thinking, "Oh shit, here comes the pocket 2's or something." But he rolls over the Q-10 and I drag a nice little pot with ace high. This was a very risky call. One I don't make often. A lot of times that day he made big bets with strong hands. Every time he would say, "Ahhh let's make it $200." or "Wellll why don't we just put it all-in." Or something kinda laid back and casual. The $100 bet in our hand was much more forceful. He just said roughly, "One-hundred." I didn't think he had much at all(obviously). I stuck with my read and pulled the trigger. I mentioned earlier that I had "misplayed" the turn. I wrote misplayed in quotes because if I did bet the turn, he probably would have folded and I would have missed out on that $100. But it was still definitely the correct play. He ended up putting the pressure on me. And I was forced to make a tough decision I don't like making.

Well that's why I said I was lucky to only lose $158. That's about the only 2 hands I can write about. I was so card dead it was sick. There was plenty of action but I couldn't get my feet wet. I played for 5 hours and my best hands were A-K twice and 7-7. Luckily I'm bad enough to call off all my money with top-pair and ace-high. LoL.

That's it for this entry. I'm not sure when I'll play again. I work early again Saturday so I may make it to Harrah's 3 Saturdays in a row. Who knows.

"I'm the best poker player in Terreborne Parish." - Jerry Bergeron

Matt Bryant has conquered the World!

2008-10-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Or at least the 1-2 game for 2 straight sessions lol. And truthfully, I don't really know how. I can't remember any real hands were I made money. I went play last night at Harrah's. Joe and I arrived at about 10:30 or so. We both got on the 1-2 list and it wouldn't be long before my biggest nightmare would occur... We are starting a new game. I don't mind playing 1-2 at all if the stacks are somewhat deep. But I hate this shit. 3 people(including Joe & I) buy in for $200, 2 people buy in for about $150. 1 person for $100 and like 4 people buy-in for $60. I haven't played one hand and I'm aggravated already. Not to mention 5 people at our table were Georgia fans from the LSU/Georgia game. And these were the idiots who bought in for $100 and less. Half the table didn't know what a straddle was. Well I win a few small pots. I flopped the wheel and broke one of the short stacks. I'm up $100 or so. I remember one hand were I raised preflop to $10 from MP with 6c-4c. The table was pretty tight. I got one caller from a tight player behind me. The flop came out A-K-x... two clubs. This guy was tight so I thought this flop probably smoked him. I wanted to represent the ace. But this guy was so tight I thought he had an ace and I didn't want to get raised and not be able see if I hit my flush. So I check and he checks behind. The turn is a rag.. but my 3rd club. I bet out $15 and he called. The river was a 10. I bet out $30-$40. And he payed me off. He allegedly had A-K but who knows. Scooped up a nice one there. I win a few and lost a few here and there. I ran my boat into quads. Everyone was beating up on this one annoying ass woman from Georgia. Everyone but me that is. I played with her for 6 hours and I swear she did not shut up for 30 seconds. She was solid but bad.. if that makes any sense. She was decent but over-valued her hands. I could not beat her to save my damn life. I flopped a set of 6's on a 6-4-7 board. I reraised a bet on the flop from another guy. She cold calls. Turn is an 8 and she ships it. Unreal. I fold... Another hand I raised preflop with Ad-Jd. She called from the SB as did the BB. The flop came out jack high.. 2 clubs and she leads like $15 into me?? The BB folded. She had no imagination what-so-ever. But I mean I raised before the flop and it came like J-5-2 or something like that. I elect to just call because I don't know if I'm up against a set or J-10 or some shit like this. I played this hand pretty much the same exact way I did against the donkey in my last blog. The turn is garbage and now she bets like $25. I'm so clueless. I call.. the river is the Kc, completing a flush. And she ships it. (I should note that someone was all-in preflop or on the flop). I study for a second and decide to fold. She shows K-J for top two and wins the pot. I played this hand like a chicken shit but thank God I did. Because there's no way in hell she was laying down K-J postflop. And she would have rivered me. One guy came to our table with $100 and lost it pretty quickly. One of the million 1-2 players who over value top pair. And it's not a good idea to buy in for 50BB's and over value anything lol. Well he rebuys and quickly wins a nice little pot before we get into a hand. I limp for $2 with 7-8o and we see a multiway flop. Flop is 6-7-9. It checks to me and I bet $10. The before mentioned guy calls. The turn is an ace. I check and he bets $20. Now normally I would probably fold here but I know if this guy has an ace, and I make my straight(even with 4 to a straight out there), he's gonna give me some money. So I call and make a stupid play which worked out in my favor. Like an ass, I check in the dark. The river is a 10, making my straight. Luckily for me this guy was an idiot and bet $20. By checking in the dark, I made it easy for him to check behind, in which case I would have lost a bet. But he bet $20. I raised him to $75. And without much thought, he calls and flips over A-6 for 2 pair and I drag a nice little pot there. I wasn't really happy to make the turn call, that's why I checked in the dark. But if I did bet the river, he probably just calls and I lose $40 or so. I was lucky he was dumb and it worked out in my favor. Our table breaks and most of us move to the same table with some others. One young guy was over-playing the shit out of his hands all night. I ended up flopping a set of nines after he raised preflop. We were both deep-stacked and I was PRAYING he had an overpair because I knew he would he given me major money. But he ended up having like A-8 and paired his 8 and only gave me a little money. Like I mentioned before, I don't remember too many big hands. I guess I just picked up a few decent pots and stayed out of harms way for the most part. I flopped the nuts with K-J on a Q-10-9 board. Only to have someone else hold K-J also. I ended up winning $420 overall. I have been playing more patiently and it's worked out so far. I have played a fair bit of $5-$10NLHE and a lot of $2-$5. In those games, especially $5-$10, the stacks are deeper and you can play some serious poker. You have to be creative and always keep the other guy guessing. I knew this from the get-go, but now it's REALLY sinking in.... You should play $1-$2 pretty much by the book(unless you happen to run into a tricky opponent). Because nobody is folding. There isn't much room at all to bluff because the stacks aren't seep enough(usually), and again... BECAUSE NOBODY IS GOING TO FOLD! I've been trying to play small ball and ABC poker for now. It's worked OK in these last two sessions. But that can all come crumbling down in a second. But wish me luck!!

"Life is too easy to play dice."- Phil Ivey

J-9 suited the new nuts?

2008-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Only for a small-time donk like me.. I actually had a great session last night. Well this morning actually. I left work at 8pm and talked to Joe on the phone. He agreed to lend me more money if I wanted to go play. Well I finished watching LSU sneak by South Carolina then we met in Raceland on our way to Harrah's. We arrived at about midnight and sat at the same 1-2 game. When we sat down, an older gentleman who Joe knew was leaving and whispered to us, "If ya'll don't get any money from the 2 seat, I'm gonna come back and kiss your ass." Or something to that effect. Basically saying the 2 seat was an idiot. Which excites me. Especially since he's the chip leader with like $1,500 in front of him. Well not long into my session I flop a set of 3's and win a decent pot to nearly double my $200 buy-in to almost $400. I won a couple of hands to build me up. Then a couple people leave, Joe and some other guy are up from the table.. and suddenly we are playing like 6 handed. Good thing is, the idiot in the 2 seat was still there. Well I would win a couple of sweet pots from him. The guy limped with nearly everything and called a raise with nearly everything. I raised with Q-Q and got 2 callers. The idiot being one of them. The flop comes down 10-8-2 and he leads into me with $50. I elect to just call and the guy behind me folds. The turn is garbage and he bets $50 again. I'm pretty sure I have the best hand here. But I can't be sure as a hand like 10-2 suited is definitely in his range. I don't want to create a huge pot with this moron with one pair so I just call again. A king hits the river and we check, check. He shows 10-6o and I win a decent pot. If I raise the flop, he calls.. and I would have won a nice pot later.. but I was so unsure if he out flopped me, I elected to play small ball. A couple of hands later I won a pot from him with K-J when the flop came jack high and I rivered a 3rd jack(not that that was necessary). Another nice lil pot. I was rolling right along. Then became pretty card dead for a while. Then suddenly Joe, who is sitting to my immediate right, raises like 3 out of 5 pots. I'm sure he had monsters every time lol, but I was getting a little tired of it. Also, the game was loose and I wanted to mix it up. Well after a few limpers, he raises his SB to $17. I look down to see Jd-9d. Oh yeah.. I'm in there. I call along with a couple others. Flop Q-10-8. Two diamonds.. Umm not bad. Joe bets $40. I just call, actually hoping everyone folds and we can check it down. Well the guy to my left calls and we have a pot. 3 handed to the turn.. a black 4. Perfect. Joe checks.. and I bet $125. And to my surprise, they both call! Now I'm pretty sure I don't want to hit a diamond. COME ON BRICK!! River was in fact a brick. I bet $125 again but get no callers. Joe shows Ad-Kd for a monster draw. And the other guy claimed to have J-10. Now a month ago I would have flopped that straight, bet the turn, got 2 callers, and the 4 of diamonds would have hit the river to complete everything and I would have been smoked. Finally the deck slaps me in the face. Well I am up a good bit now. Like up $700 or so. I play pretty snug for a while. Until the following hand occurs. Action is to me and I limp with Jc-9c. Or so I thought, I looked up to notice Melvin raised to $15. Oh well. I call hoping one of the 2 loose guys behind me call but they let me down. Melvin and I to the flop... Flop... 10-8-7. Wow I did it again. He checks and I bet $30, thinking I'm about to take it down when he calls. The turn is again a blank. But this time is was a little more relevant.. like a 5 or something. And it also puts the 2nd club on board. I pick up a flush draw with my already made nuts lol.And now he decides to bet $100 into me. I thought maybe he flopped a set now. After a while of deliberating whether to raise or call, I just call. The river is a blank.. I want to say it put a 4 card straight out there but my J-9 was still the nuts. Now here's where you know you're running good, he throws 4 black chips into the pot. AMEN! He only has about $300 behind that. I sit for a while, pretending to have a decision on my hands. He then says, "It's not a tournament, you can buy more chips after." I don't say anything, and a few seconds later I announce that I'm all in. He says, "Well I guess I missed" and mucks his hand. I made about $550 on that one. I didn't play many hands afterwards. Not any of any relevance. Until my last hand.. I called a raise from Melvin with 9-9. 3-way to the flop of Q-J-x. Melvin checks, I check, guy checks. I'll put it like this... The other guy has 10-8 and I have pocket 9's... Take a guess at what the turn card was.... yeah a 9. I bet the turn, he calls, Melvin folds. River is shit and I bet $50. He raises to $125 and I end up paying him of. I lost almost $200 on that one and I picked up. I cashed out at $1308. I won $1108. Paid Joe back the $800 I owed him. And pocketed $500 myself. Long overdue. There were a few more I could write about. I had Q-Q again against the idiot and he shoved on the river and I layed down. I had 2 hands where I had a pair and the nut flush draw on the turn.. Got raised on the turn, called and missed. One of those times I made a lay down I'm not sure was correct, but I'm almost certain it was. I had Ah-2h. The flop came with 2 hearts and it checked around. The turn was an ace. I bet and was raised by a tighter older gentleman. I called. the river was a 2nd ace, giving me trips. I check and he bets $100 from the button. I didn't really know what I could beat. The flop was something near 10-8-7. He didn't seem like the type of player to bet in position when he got counterfeited or something. He was the type to just give up. Nor did I think he raised me on a draw. Anyway, I folded and he showed one card, a 7. I said, "7's full are good" and he smirked and nodded his head a lil. I think he had 7-7 or A-7. Who knows, I just thought I was beat and decided to lay down. It was GREAT to win again. I definitely had some help from the deck. But I was happy with my 1-2 play in general. I felt like I didn't limp into every pot that I have something decent. It was a loose table with plenty money and I was patient. I can't wait to get back at it again. I may attempt a trip to Shorty's Wednesday. I'm not sure. I did have two Gene D sightings while I was there. He played Saturday night and I think had a winning session. Congrats Mr. D. Later guys

"I once cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man without any feet." - I don't know who said this but I liked it

NO discipline and my new Poker term

2008-10-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

I recently deposited $60 into my Full Tilt account only to pretty much piss it away. I started by playing a small MTT and heads up SNGs. Both of which I usually do fairly well at. And it started out as planned. I made a small cash in the tourney and played 2 2-table heads up matches, winning both. I played a few different things until my girlfriend came home. Here's where I made the most stupid play of the night. I was playing some heads-up SNG while she was in the shower. Well it ended as she was getting out and I didn't want to start another because I knew we were about to spend some time together. Well what can I play so I can get up when I want? A cash game. My big mistake. I decide to play a heads-up cash game and piss away most of my $60+. So stupid. I haven't had too much success playing heads-up cash online. Mainly due to a Heads-up $5/$10 match I played months ago where I flopped a set of kings and my opponent back doored Broadway with Q-10. Ugly. If I'm ever talking to one of you and I tell you I'm playing heads-up cash online, please just tell me to transfer my money to your account.. instead of giving it to the guy I'm playing against. Anyway, I played here and went broke with J-8 on a J-10-8-x-x board. Pretty impossible to put him on the straight the way the hand played but he had a set of 10's and I'm down to $7 on my online account. This hand is where I thought of my new poker term. It's gonna sound corny as shit, as any new "poker term" would. But I thought it would be pretty cool. You know top and second pair are considered "top two". There's "bottom two", etc. Well in my hand I had top and 3rd pair. A hand I thought would be cool to call, "The corners". As a reference to baseball. You know when there's base runners on 1st and 3rd it's considered, "runners on the corners." Well I had "the corners." LoL I know, pretty stupid. But someone has to make up this shit. lol I mean come on.. Big Slick? Fish hooks? Motown? (OK I confess, that one was pretty cool). Anyway, I don't plan on "the corners" being used on the WPT anytime soon, I'm just bored. Well.. let me throw away this last $7 and I'll be back here shortly.

The grass is green, the sky is blue, and

2008-09-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

I booked a loss in a cash session. Thought I would start this post by stating the clearly obvious. Thursday night I went have dinner with Joe and went to his house afterwards to bullshit as I was off of work while by girlfriend was working. Well while bullshiting he decides to utter the worse possible statement ever, "Let's go play some poker. I'll loan you some money." And after a short thought process, we were on our way. We got there around midnight and sat on seperate 1-2NLHE tables. (As I was waiting to get on a $2-$5 table. Yes I'm borrowing money and I want to play $2-$5, I'm stupid.) Anyway, about 25 minutes into my $1-$2 game I'm down one buy-in. I played pretty tight until I found Q-Q in early position. I raised to $15 and got one caller to my immediate left. Flop 9-10-3 rainbow. I bet $25 and he calls. The turn is a Q.. I lead out $40 and he moves all-in and he has me covered. I HATE this. I started the hand with about $180 and now I have $80 committed. I'm pretty sure this guy has K-J but can I fold? I mean I wish I knew the guy better. You see so many bad plays it's so hard to give credit when sometimes I guess I should. Anyway, I call.. river blanks, he tables K-J and I'm down $200. I go borrow $200 more and back to the table. I catch about $150 back quite quickly against the same guy. A guy makes it $7 to go from early position and I call from MP with 10s-8s (I don't have the stack to play this type of hand but sometimes I can't help myself). The guy to my immediate left calls again, one other caller and I think the BB called. The flop is Q-8-3. Check to the original raiser who leads out $14. I didn't think he hit much with that bet so I called and wanted to find out where I stood. The guy to my left called also and everyone else folded. The turn was a 6. The original raiser checks. Now I'm thinking I possibly have the best hand so I decide to test the waters a lil. I bet $30. The guy to my left calls and the original better folds. The river is a 4. I have done this before.. Think I have the best hand, check the river hoping he bluffs at it, and almost scare myself off the hand when he does lol. I check and he fires $60. Really this would be an easier call from me if I were running better. But I sat and analyzed it for a while. What the hell can he have that he would bet $60 on the river with? He called a small raise preflop so he should have a decent holding. From the little I have seen from him, he seems like a solid player so I'm ruling out the bad hands, ie; Q-4, 8-3, etc. The preflop raiser only bet $14 into a $36 pot on the flop and he just called. If he had a good queen he should have raised there. On the turn when I bet he just called. Then on the river he bets a healthy $60. Again, with what would he bet that much? That's not even half the pot but still it didn't seem like a value bet. I think if he has a better 8, a decent Q, or any less.. He just checks behind me. He might bet a good queen here but I felt he wouldv'e raised the flop or turn. I'm only sweating a set of 8's, 3's, or possibly 6's. I would have raised the flop with the flop sets but he didn't have to. Keep in mind.. I have been playing/running bad for what seems like forever now, I'm playing with borrowed money, and I'm already down $200. But I call and he tables J-10 for a missed straight and I drag a nice little pot. Well not much later I get called up to the big leagues. A 2-5 game. Now I go get even more money and sit in the 2-5 game with about $550-$600. Not much to get excited about here. I caught a few big pairs but nothing exciting occurred. I ended up up $240 at some point and I can't remember too many hands. One nice one, I was SO unaware of where I stood in the hand. Let me set this up. A guy I will name "Genius" played this hand earlier. And he actually screwed me out of a little money. I limp UTG with J-J. A new guy raises to $40 right behind me on his very first hand at the table. Well Genius decides to call from MP and one of the blinds call. I call and the flop is A-9-3. The blind checks, and I check to the original raiser. Now before he can act, Genius sticks out a stack and then pulls it back and says, "Oh it's not my turn to bet." The original raiser kinda laughs and says, "Well let him bet then." Genius checks behind and gives him a smirk after shooting that angle. I could tell by the tone of the original raiser's voice that this wasn't a "Well let him bet then so I can check-raise his ass." It was more like a "Oh shit. I don't have too much so you can bet then." The turn is a 7 and the blind checks to me. This is were I made my mistake. I should have lead out here. But I was still somewhat worried about the original raiser. Well I check and the original raiser bets out $50 into a $200+ pot. Well I'm praying it folds to me so I can raise and take this thing down. Well Genius decides to raise.. to $100, a min-raise. Well the blind folds. I decided to fold as I'm not sure WTF is going on. Well after some deliberation, the original bettor calls. The river is garbage and the original raiser checks to Genius. He decides to bet $50 into $400+pot. The original raiser calls and tables 9h-5h for a pair of nines. Genius tables 7-x for a pair of sevens and the original raiser drags the pot. Now if Genius didn't decide to semibluff the turn with a frickin' min-raise, I woulda put out a real raise and most likely have taken it down. That's not the part that pissed me off though. I mean I just can't BELIEVE the $50 bet on the river?! If you're gonna bluff.... BLUFF!! Or check it down and see if your 7 is good. After the hand he kept saying, "I didn't think he would call with a 9." And "All I had was a pair of sevens." No Shit! that's a good reason to bet a little more than the minimum when you're trying to get someone off a hand. He kept asking questions to other players about what he should have done and you could see that this guy was honestly pretty new to the game. Well onto the hand where I was clueless about where I stood. This was a couple hours later. Genius decided to open to $25 from UTG. The table was playing pretty loose but EVERYONE folded to me on the button and I look down to see K-K. I decided to play it a little tricky and just call. The SB folds and the BB calls. We see a flop 3 handed of 6-5-3. The BB checks and Genius checks also. I fire out $50. I'm more worried about the BB on this flop but he folds. Genius looks at me with his cards in this hand like he's about to muck and asks, "You don't have anything do you." And I say back, "Oh I've got something." I said that while laughing, not being all serious. He thinks for a while, puts down his cards, and after a while raises to $150. What? I'm not sure if he was seriously about to fold, or doing some serious hollywooding. I don't think he'd check AA-1010 here. Did he really raise UTG with some small pair, flop a set, and check it. It didn't make much sense. I just call and we see a turn.. A 2. And now he checks?? I felt like Parfait in a hand I wrote about in my previous blog. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I decide to check and keep the pot small. I think it's one of those hands where I'm either way ahead or way behind. The river pairs the board 5. And now he leads out $100. I call quickly and thank GOD he turns over A-10 for the most confusing shit of the night. I was flustered a little. A while later he moved all-in preflop for his last $125 and I was able to call with A-K considering the way the betting played out and I won. He would be the only guy I would really beat all night. I won a few small pots. The game was pretty good but I decided to move back down to a $1-$2 game Joe was sitting at. I was about dead even on the night. That game broke not too long after I got there. And I should have picked-up. I almost picked up in the middle of my $2-$5 game. I actually got up and got a rack. I idiotically said to myself, "I'll play until the blinds come back around and I'm done." Well that very hand I catch A-Q on the button and I loss some and played for a while afterwards. Well after that $1-$2 game broke, Joe and I decided to go play back at the $2-$5 game as two seats were open. About 30 minutes into it, I flopped 4 flush draws and missed every single one. I was able to see 3 to the river and one to the turn and missed every one. That'll suck the money right out from beneath you. I'm actually not one who's big on the flush draw. But these bets weren't big, only when you add them all up! lol. Well seriously about 5 minutes later I flop an 8 high flush draw. I was thinking, "This is ridiculous!!" Well I just called on my previous flush draws so I tried betting this one. I bet $30 into a limped pot and got one caller. The turn was an 8 which gave me a pair and a flush draw. I bet $60 and got a call. The river was no heart but I decided to bet $100 and got raised to $200. I folded and the guy showed 10h-7h or some shit like that. He flopped a higher flush draw and backdoored a straight. Not long later came my final hand. Someone from early position raised to $25 and I call with A-Q. It seemed liked everyone at the table called to the BB who raised to $100. It folded to me. I have about $190 total left. The BB made so very bad/questionable plays all night and I knew he didn't need at big hand to make this play. When I say bad, this hand could have easily been Q-J. Well anyway, I was aggravated, tired, and willing to gamble at this point and moved-in. The table folded to him and he called with 8-8 and he won the race. I saw some terrible play all night long. If I get time later I'll finish some other hands. It's 5:00AMand I'm getting a little tired.

History Part 1

2008-08-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T03:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

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.