4th Blog

[LAAAAWL]

So im going to start this back up. This will be just like my last blog but a heavier influence of poker. Probably been playing the best of my life the past two months, netted ~$2500 playing cash game over the past 3.5 weeks. There will be specific hand analysis and breakdowns of my thinking. If you arent interested, well eff it.

Recently moved to Devou Park in Covington, KY. Got a pretty legit condo im renting. Nice views of the city, pool, and lots of talent up here too. We have hooters girls living here, sick info given from the creepy maintenance guy. Everything else is going well.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Alright. First legit blog post. Have to come out swinging. If you want to skip the nonsense, feel free to just scroll down to the part beginning with the date. Thought about what I was going to blog about today, and I don't think you will be disappointed. As I stated in my intro post, this will have a heavy influence of poker. We will see a sprinkling of bar reviews, stories from the night before, and other debauchery...but I made this to discuss my favorite game.

I think the best way to get started is to openly admit that I am not a full degenerate. Only a partial "degen". I probably log about 10-15 hours playing per week over the past two months. I don't schedule my life around playing, I don't have any poker magazine subscriptions, my social life does not get affected (errr...well it may, more on this later), and I have a lot of fun outside of playing the game.

In this blog, I plan on breaking down one or two hands per post into my thinking of each scenario and the end result. Sometimes it works out, sometimes I lose hundreds of dollars (most ever was 600ish, yuck) in a matter of 40 seconds or less. I will not just discuss hands I win, there will be an almost equal weight of hands I lose. I really only want to discuss hands which I consider "big" which have pots in excess of $300. Fortunately, I dont lose as many $300+ pots as I win.

I don't profess to be a professional, I'm not rich off this, but I enjoy offering insight, and I make enough to help pay for a decent place to live and enough to drink non-well alcohol when I go out. There will be times where I run like god and get hit with the deck, and then times where I play for hours and make $20 or lose $75. I do not suggest people play unless you have some experience with reading books, but I do suggest you learn to play and refine your skills to be able to just stroke the dead money which plays at many casinos.

When I discuss a hand. I will first break down the make up, or "personality" of the table and the players at the tables. You will often times see something like Ad8s (that would mean Ace of diamonds, 8 of spades), TcTh, (pocket tens, one club one heart)....etc. Obviously there's no way for me to know exact numbers of bet sizing or stack sizes, but you should expect a fair amount of accuracy as I take some notes after large pots.

Should we get to it? Leggooo...

12/02/11

Friday night, I had plans to meet up with my friends in Mainstrasse around 9 pm-9:30. I decided around 4 that I'd roll out and get in a short playing session. Load up the beats, hoodie, etc....roll out to Hollywood. I immediately see no huge stacks, good. Take a look at the table, only recognized two players. Both very good. One kid is my age and goes to Miami OH. He's very smart and can read hands very well. He, unfortunately, is sitting directly to my left. It sucks to have young, aggressive, and good players directly to your left because you have limited opportunities to pick and choose your sports without having to worry what they are going to do. The other player was his friend. Almost 85% sure I lost a $900+ pot to him over the summer...looked just like the guy I remember. So he was pretty legit too, but more worried about the guy to my left. Everyone else? Who cares.

I started playing pretty softly for the first hour or so. Fast forward two hours, the guy to my left and I were just killing the table. I was up about $250 and he was up about around $200 from what I saw. We were winning close to 3-4 pots combined out of every ten hands. Small pots but they were accumulating quickly. We both stayed out of each others way surprisingly and we discussed Finance because he is graduating this year. Surprisingly, I think there were less than 5 hands where he and I both saw the flop in a raised pot preflop out of roughly 75-80 hands.

Well, all good things must come to and end.

So I am I on the dealer button, the last position to act once the round of preflop betting occurs. I look down at two black 9s. Pretty solid hand to have on the dealer button. Its a hand I really dont like to see flops with so I was hoping maybe 4 or 5 people would just call the $2 big blind, and I could pop it to $18-$22 and make an easy profit of roughly $10-12. Well, that did not happen. Everyone folded until this sweetie two players to my right raised to $10. I looked left and the good player was in the small blind and he just looked like he was going to get froggy as he cut out roughly $50 in chips out of his stack. Normally I would raise here to isolate this fish and just pummel him on the flop, and turn, unless the cards run out something terrible. I elected to call because I'm screwed if I raise to $35-50 and the young gun pops to $100-130. Not a good situation to be in with only pocket 9s and each one of us have roughly $400 in front of each other.

Sure enough, he raises to $42. sweetie calls. At this point, I have a pretty big decision to make. Call or fold? So a few things start to run in my head:


#1 What does the young gun have here? Aces, kings? No, he probably wouldnt have bet so much. Queens? Possibly, maybe like a 20% he has queens. Pocket jacks, tens? Very likely, maybe a 30% chance. Ace-King, Ace-Queen? Very likely. Probably a 30% chance. Pocket 8s, Ace-jack, suited king queen? 15%. Any decent junk hand like a suited connector where he thought he could steal the $25 in the pot with a big bet will take the rest.

#2 What does he think I have here? When I don't raise the bad player, my hand range is wide open. I could have a suited connector, a low suited Ace like As4s, small pocket pair, KQ, KJ, AT, QT, KT, even maybe like a suited Q9. So my hand is very well disguised when I don't raise the bad player.

#3 How much am I set to make if I flop a 9 and he has a monster hand which had me beat preflop or he gets there on the flop but I still have three of a kind? So here's where the math comes in. Statistically I am going to flop a set (three of a kind) with any pocket pair right under 1 in 8 times I get dealt a pocket pair. Meaning, to statistically break even in this situation, he has to conservatively have 8 times whatever the amount for me to call is. Because 7 out of 8 times, I'm losing the $32, but that one time I hit my set, I am more than likely going to make back the $234 (removing anomalies like him hitting a bigger set where I go broke). If he would have had only $150 left, I can profitably fold here. $150/$32 does not = 8. However, this guy was much deeper. After his $42 investment, he had roughly $340 behind. $340/$32= over ten, perfect.

After I determined #3, I elected to call. At this point, my hand basically yelled out, "Hey, there's two 5s, two 6s, two 7s, or two 8s under here". So there is $120 in the pot when the flop comes out 7d5d7h. Pretty decent flop for my hand.

Thinking back to how the young gun played the previous 3 hours, I knew he was going to do whats called a continuation bet. Typically you do it against 1-2 players when you raised preflop and the flop comes something where you have a good feeling the other one or two players did not connect or you flop a very big drawing hand. Its a great way to scoop small pots against bad players because it puts bad players in a position with a hand like pocket tens and then the flop comes out A62. Its hard for bad players to call when you bet anywhere from 1/2-3/4 of the pot right in to them. Its also a good strategy when you play with players who do not have a big stack. Someone may be willing to call a $10 bet preflop with something like AK when they start the hand with $100. But what do they do when the flop comes out 28J and you fire $15 at them? Instantly fold!

This young gun CONSTANTLY continuation bet. Out of 15 hands, he probably continuation bet at least 12 or 13 of them. That's a high %, but when you play bad players, you can get away with that.

Sure enough, he fires $75. The bad player folds. Now, I'm very limited in what I can do. In my opinion, this wreaked of a continuation bet. I felt like he would check a big hand like Kings or Aces and then raise the bad player or myself heavy if we bet. If he has Queens, Jacks or Tens, well god love him, he is going to get paid. I'm limited to two options, fold, or shove all in and try to represent that I slow played a monster hand like Aces or Kings or that I hold a seven in my two cards to get him to fold something like tens, jacks, or queens. So I think about it for a second, and I was fairly certain after staring him down he did not have much (he probably had AQ or AK) and I shoved all in which put him all in. I got worried when he instantly called me and put the rest of his money in the pot. FML. Turns out he he had AQ, each one a diamond, so he had 8 diamonds and 6 Aces or Queens to win the hand.

Statistically he was right around a 60-40 favorite to win the hand. My hand held and I stacked the 800+ pot.

After he says, "That good of a read huh?" I just told him that I had to go with what I thought he had which was pretty much spot on and that he shouldn't have continuation bet so many times the previous 3 hours.

Anyways, I ended up playing another hour and a half because I didnt want to hit and run the guy. Friends understood and we raged later that night!

 

[LAAAAWL]

Ill probably draft up another hand later if I feel up to. Just thought you guys would get a good laugh out of this one.

About a month ago, I started to communicate with a player in the poker room at Hollywood who runs a game at his house. He has a 1-2 game he runs, but there are a few differences. The first is that the max buyin is $400 as opposed to the boat's $200. The second is that you can run the board out twice. Shown here if you have no clue what I am talking about:



I was very hesitant of going to play, but I had dodged his texts for three straight weeks and kind of felt like going. I knew what I was getting in to. There would be very good players there with a lot more money (and to some degree- much more skill) who play higher stakes than I. Most of these guys play 2-5 or 1-3 cash game. So I get there and see probably 3 out of the top 15 players who play at hollywood regularly, a la every night. Two of them just recently moved with a large group of players to Mexico and are home for the holidays. Down there they are legally allowed to play online poker (many of them have had numerous 5 figure scores, one had a 6 figure lick) and most of them are just killing the poker rooms down there (one player who was at the game has netted $30k in 2 months playing cash game- he just so happened to be at this game to).

I sit down, buy my $400. First hand is dealt. Raise to $10, reraise to $30, reraise to $110. First raiser calls, second raiser calls. Flop comes two hearts with a queen of spades. First guy checks, Second guy bets $220. Third guy moves all in. First guy folds, second guy calls. Boom like $980 pot first hand of the night. I'm sitting there just like WTF still trying to get my headphones on. They ended up running it twice and split the pot 50/50.

Second hand I got pocket jacks. First guy who raised to $30 last hand raises to $10. I raise to $33. Get one caller behind and the wild guy calls too. Flop comes 327. Wild guy checks, I bet $80. Other guy folds, wild guy calls and then moves all in on the turn which was a 9. Literally LOLd as I folded my hand.

I learned a good lesson last night. Never play 1-2 with numerous 2-5 players. The lesson only lasted 50 minutes and cost me $400. That's like -$8 every minute of play.

EZ game huh? Got my pounded, but learned a valuable lesson.

 

[LAAAAWL]

I completely forgot about this blog, that's why it has been so long since I last posted.

So from the request of turpin, I will go ahead and post about a hand which happened about 3 weeks-ish ago. It was one of my top 5 favorite hands I've ever played. To preface, Ill talk about the dynamics of the table, a hand which led up to the big hand, and the big hand itself.

Again, before the actual hand, there was a significant back drop which lead up to said. Hand. I got there around 12 on friday or saturday. The table was pretty lively. All of a sudden an attractive woman- not a dime but about a 7.5- (obviously drunk) sits down. She was very nice and explained about how her husband just came back from Iraq the night before and was a Marine.

We are all playing, I was up about $200 in the first hour or so, I had never played with anyone sitting down (except one guy who gave me a challenge 2 out of the 3 hands we played against each other) but was just pummeling the rest of the table. Very good table to make some money. After about an hour and a half I took the remaining $90 off the guy to my right and this big guy sat down next to me. He had on a GCL school's hat and explained about how his kids went to some of the GCL schools. This guy seemed pretty cool.

My first impressions were sourly disproved. After about 20 hands this guy went broke for $200. He rebought in for another $200 and turned in to one of the biggest dbags I've ever played with. He told the Marine's wife (verbatim),

"I like playing with you because you will never put all your money in on one hand, you will slowly bleed it away to the rest of the table and I. So from now on I'm going to raise your big blind everytime"

Ha. Im sitting there in complete disbelief. You shouldnt talk to people like that at the table (I know BCB will lol at this), and you shouldnt talk to a woman like that who was out to have fun with her husband. That put me on pretty big tilt right there. The guy was also becoming a huge bully. Constantly raising to $15 preflop, reraising, bluffing, etc. He had built up his stack a little, by this time I had about $600 in front but just kept folding to his idiotic play. He kept true to his word and he raised her big blind 3 times in a row. Finally he does it the 4th time.

I look down at AK. two people limped in to him and he made it $15. I dont really like to play AK with more than one other player in the hand so I pop it to $45. Everyone else folds and he calls. So the flop comes out (not with 100% accuracy) Qc9s2h. Kind of a scary flop because he could easily have something like AQ or KQ. He goes right out and bets a significant amount right in to me (forgot what this was). Standard bully move like he had been pulling earlier. I felt like I could still be good and he was betting a non-made hand because he was stealing pots right and left. After seeing so many bluffs, easy call in my opinion. Turn comes a jack. He moves all in right away $175 to bring the pot up to $450. At this time, I was going to make one of the sickest calls of my live playing life. I honestly felt like I had the best hand and he was just straight up bluffing. So it was $175 for me to call and win $450, so the pot would have been over $600 if I call. I think about it for approximately 2 minutes and the guy goes, "Call the clock."

WHAT!? 2nd time i've ever had the clock called on me and its not like the pot was only $40 or $50. I think about it, how much I was crushing the table, and I decided it would not be a good idea to lose $150 out of my $500 stack at this time. I told him it was very disrespectful and I fold. He laughs as he shows a 7. Blatant stone cold bluff. I go smoke a cig. He takes the $450 pot.

I come back to the table, pretty calmed.

5 hands in to sitting down. He raised to $12. I have A5. I call instantly after seeing the crap he was raising with. Three other people call. Flop come 234. Bingo. sweetie fires $50. I call. Turn comes a Q. He fires $80. I call. River comes a K. He fires $50. WTF? I could only put him on one hand, KQ. He bluffed the flop, protected his queen, and got unlucky and was trying to extract value out of his two pair.

At this time he has $200 of his $470=ish stack. I pause for a minute and think that I need to make this look like Im mad about the earlier hand and just want to bluff him off it. A raise to $120-$150 looks very strong, but a monster bet looks sketchy. So I wait, he calls the clock again. I wait up until the floorman comes over to countdown and I just announce $465. He thinks about it for a few seconds and says he has to call just to see what I have. I turn it over and he goes broke.

The woman he was berating stands up, says YAY, when I won and claps as he walked away. Couldnt have asked for a better outcome for myself, the 7.5, and the sweetie man. That ended up being a decent night, shown below is my stack from that night...$5 chips.

Next blog: Me losing anywhere from a $1300-$1500 pot against a good friend of mine! Much more detail and break down for that hand than there was for this. This hand didnt really require much skill, I got lucky and a bad player paid me off.

 

[LAAAAWL]

As promised, I am going to blog about a monster hand I lost. I know I said I would include a lot of details, but unfortunately that's not going to happen tdue to a time constraint this afternoon.

The monday after new years, I went out to play around 2 AM. A friend of mine showed up around the same time, and he sat right next to me. BCB and his wife were at the same table.

(Fast forward 7.5 hours)

He and I were just killing it. It was funny because he was crushing the table, and I was crushing him. The first 6 out 6 hands where he and I played each other until our cards were shown, I won. Probably had taken around $450ish from him. It was like pass-through money that he just temporarily held for me. We went to play at separate tables for about and hour and then he moved to my table and I was immediately to his left again.

We play a big hand where I had AK and the flop came QKA. He checked, I checked. Turn came a rag like a 6. He bet 50, I called. He bet 50 before the river card came. Well the river was a K to let me boat up on him. So I raised to 230. He called. He had JT and flopped a straight :laugh:. He was kind of mad...

We were crushing over the next 45 mins. I would win, he would win, then me, him, etc. Right around 10:30 he asks if I want to go get breakfast at Burger King, which I was down for. But before we went, he wanted me to take a pic of him "sleeping" at the table and tag another player on facebook. I obliged. Snap picture (below- my stack is the one shown at the bottom), go to upload on FB...no signal. So I walk around for 15 minutes trying to get a signal. No luck.

Come back to the table and another good player was standing there talking to the guy I took the picture of and I told the player standing there about how much I butthurt my friend. He asks if I'm ready to go, and I said, "Lets play this round and then leave".

Sure enough, firsthand I'm dealt, I sit down under the gun (first player to act after the blinds). I get dealt KK. Perfect hand. I raised to $13, two players behind me call. It gets around to my friend in the big blind, and he pops it to 50ish. At this time, I'm thinking he is pissed I just razzed him to another player, and he is putting what's called a "squeeze" on me to isolate two really bad players that he knows will fold to a $100 bet on the flop if they both call.

So now it's my turn. I pull back my $13 and I reraise to $110. Guy behind goes all in for $130. Other player folds. My friend raises to $230. At this time, I should have probably folded. But I knew he was capable of doing this with a large range of hands. I look at his stack (I thought he started the hand with around $400-450- completely ok with gambling that much as I was up almost $1100) and announce "All-in". He instantly says, "I call". He turns over Aces, obviously.

Welll, I guess playing for a long time got the best of me because he actually started the hand with anywhere from 600-700, I'm not sure nor do I really care.

Anyways, he wins the $1500 pot. At this point I was still up about $450-$500 bucks. All I could do was laugh. I then heard some interesting things from the people at the table:

-Black guy from NY: "Man deez boys been goin' in at each other all night. Got dayum"
-Hick from KY: "That's the largest pot I've ever seen in my life."
-Regular joe: "I've never seen someone so happy to lose $700 in less than 30 seconds."

My buddy and I got a good laugh out of these, and explained to these people there was a sick amount of thinking going on between both of us, much higher than they could even comprehend.

Anywho, hope you guys enjoyed this one. That day was the final day of my $1k downswing. I've since rallied and across the last three sessions have netted $1700...#comesandgoes. BTW, some random posted called PAIDTALENTEVALUATOR sent me tips on how to play...thanks man. Means a lot. /sarcasm.

I will hopefully be at boogie nights tonight with a large group of friends. I am going to get messed up back and hopefully get a room comp'd...have a good weekend! Next blog will probably be about a funny hand which shows you how easy the money is out there. Easiest $250 I've ever made in my life .

 

[LAAAAWL]

Before I start in with the poker hand I said I would blog about, I think it must be noted about some big events coming up...

Before that, I have to just rant and rave about being sick. To be honest, I would rather be bedridden sick than just have this constant post-nasal dripping happening. All day, everyday, I have this weird tickle in my throat. I know how I got it, sharing a cig with someone. Never will I do that again. /rant

Taking a look at the schedule coming up there are some huge events happening, and I am so giddy getting ready for the events. Lately, I have been logging about 15-20 hours/week playing. I am actually playing quite well, but the graph of my returns has been extremely volatile. Even though I have been having ginormous swings, I have seen a nice return for the month of Feb, just under 90% of that which I netted in January and I still have plenty of time to exceed January's results. With work coming up, I'd be happy with ultimately a 25% increase month over month, completely realistic but this weekend needs to bode well.

Back to the schedule. I had plans of driving up to Chicago this weekend to play in the Hammond WSOP Circuit event. The schedule can be found here: http://www.horseshoehammond.com/cas.../3rd-annual-chicago-poker-classic-detail.html. Ultimately, some things came up and my obligations here just dont allow me to plan in any events I liked. So I had to nix that venture.

1) I will be leaving for Vegas in 21 days. ZOMG vegas! This is going to be a very decent trip, as Ill be out there basically 5 days. Right now, I have a magazine that shows all of the daily tournaments, but I am semi-reconsidering grinding out tournaments as opposed to cash. Probably will do a 50/50 mix or 60/40 tourney/cash in terms of time playing. My target for net gain is decently high, but I will also be playing poker around 12-15 hours a day, so I think it is attainable.

2) Tri-state poker championship

http://www.hollywoodindiana.com/Casino/Poker/Current Tournament Schedule

While I have been cursed in the hometown events- will explain in the next blog after this about how well I play during these, I am looking forward to specifically 2 (maybe 4 events) on that above list, the first event is the best but I will be in vegas, so I can only play on any events which are on the 19th or after. The two I am 100% playing in are on the 21st, the 6-max event. Basically this is just a tournament where you have 6 players per table instead of 9. These things play wild and are set up to benefit the young, super-aggressive players as opposed to the old farts (this will be my first 6-max tournament, so I am hopefully going to try to find one or two in vegas for a lower buyin just to get a feel).

The second is the last event on Sunday. Structure looks good and there will be a big field for that event (I hope 200+).

I would really like to play that event on monday the 19th, but it would ultimately depend on if I want to go in to work after landing at 10:30 am in dayton. If I take a vacation day, I might play or just come home and sleep. The other event is the main event. I'd kill to play in that, but I think if I win a seat via satelliting in to it, I am going to sell the seat at a discount (around 1400-1500 I suppose). My thinking is that I will probably be pretty burned out after Vegas + wednesdays event and I would not want to playin a $1600 buyin event without feeling 110%.

3) Harrah's louisville Midwest Poker Championship, starting April 5th

No schedule yet, so not sure if I'll make the trip down to that dump and play. Plus, that time I assume there will unlimited OT at work and that always comes first.

Shall we get in to the hand where I made the easiest $250 in my life? I should preface this by saying the following story is why myself and many other players I would say are "solid" like playing 1-2 no limit at Hollywood. This actually happens more frequently than you would expect, but you just have to be able to spot who it is an capitalize.

I leave work, head home and change and get to my table and start playing around 2:30 am on a Friday night/saturday morning. I play maybe a few and all I know is there was this hick from Appalachian country in southern kentucky. He was enjoying quite a few too many Heinekens. All I remember is he put in like 180 allin preflop against me with KQ. I dont remember what I had but he ended up winning the hand and he had like 360 in front of him now. I go to the cage, reload.

Around 30 minutes later, I have built my 2nd $200 buyin up to $270 ish. This goon drunk liked to raise. He liked to raise preflop everyhand to $13-$15 dollars. Then this happens. I am in the small blind and look down at KJ, both clubs. Yahoo raises to $11 this time. Two people call and it comes around to me. Easy call for $10. Well the drunk goes, "Im getting tired of you guys calling me, I'm going to bet $50 regardless of what comes out on the flop." So the flop comes 3, ten, 6...all clubs. Because he blurted that out, he had to bet $50 if I do nothing. So I obviously check. The dealer makes him put out $50. The other two fold, I raise to $110. He calls. the Turn comes a Q of hearts. I check, he bets $50. I move allin for my remaining stack. He calls and turns over 3 of diamonds and a 4 of hearts. He was drawing completely dead :laugh:.

This is why we love fish.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Wow it has been awhile since I even thought about this blog. I should probably get it back up and running here.

Man, a lot has change since February. I can just start running through some of them and maybe I'll hit on them later in the post. I:

Wasted about 8 months of my life with some dumb girl. I went to Vegas in March with BCB. I went to Orlando in May with LCD. I had my first ever losing month playing poker in June, compounded even worse by have $1300 stolen from me in Chicago and then another losing month in July. I met a new girl that is pretty awesome.

Why don't I just hit on each one of these one at a time.

So I met this girl a few years ago at one of my jobs. I'm not going to go in to the details of the situation between she and I, but I am happy that I finally brought the problems to a head. She and I have been on again/off again for the past two years where we would hang out a lot for a couple months, and then never talk to each other until months down the road. Well, I had about enough of that mess and told her it was over and to never even try to talk to me again. So relieving. That mess was ended in early June.

My trips with BCB and LCD will be left for another blog, simply because the Bengals game is on and I will need time to kill tomorrow. So I'll just write about those trips tomorrow.

On to what I'd really like to talk about. Being in a "downswing" and how to respond when playing. I began playing poker more than just recreationally back in August of last year. For the next 6 months, I used to just win, win, win, win. I adjusted my lifestyle to having that steady stream of cash coming in. Combined with my job, I was living a pretty good lifestyle. Something happened around January/February of this year. I noticed that revenue stream went from being a couple thousands up a month to a few hundred. It was weird. I couldn't figure out what was happening. So, I adjusted due to the short term "weirdness" I was experiencing.

How did I adjust? I started to play more and I started to play wayyyy more aggressive than I should've been. People started recognizing me more and more and even though they had no clue what they were doing, they were figuring out how to avoid me or call me when they knew I was bluffing (which was a lot). I was barely able to justify my gas expense to travel back and forth. Fast forward through Vegas and Florida, which were both unique trips, and there I was in June.

I looked at my graph of june and the volatility of the ups/downs was just sickening. When you go from expecting a couple grand a month to being down 2k, it blows. So I figured the only way I was going to get the month right was to GTFO of here and go on a trip and play elsewhere. So I talked to my buddy and we packed up our things and went to Chicago to play in Hammond, IN. It was relieving to get out of Lawrenceburg and play at a new place. My mind was clear when we went to the Horseshoe and I actually felt good about playing. We get to the room and immediately head to play, and I played extremely well. I made just under 1k and was thinking that I was going to get the month back to partially right. Trying to be so focused about the money (not stressing over it, but the fact that this is the first time you have not made money is stressful) and play is pretty messed up. So we finished the first night and go back to the hotel.

The next morning we wake up and get ready to head to the casino. For the past 8-10 months, I would always carry a substantial amount of money on me. It's not because I wanted to be a baller, but I'm not a huge fan of going to the bank, and hiding money at my apartment (with the creepy maintenance men) simply isn't an option.

For some reason, I just didn't feel right carrying the amount of cash I had on me that day around Hammond. First of all, the place is a ghetto. It's no Price Hill or Canton, but it's pretty trashy. I didn't know my way around, and I had never had any problems carrying around 1-2k in cash so why worry? We go to play. At my high on the day I was up around $700, got in to a few weird spots, and left down $100. I was so angry, I just picked up my chips and tossed them in my bookbag.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a 7/11 to get snacks. I reach in to my bag...and my heart sank. My wallet was gone. Just $1300. We frantically rush back to the casino and do a full search with the security. They promised to do a full investigation, but I doubt they did anything.

I'm not one to ever get super down and out, but this was about the final straw. I wasn't to the point of crying, but there I was in another city far from home with $100. No access to any of my other funds, no ID, no SSC, etc. I didn't know what to do except hate the world.

Anyways, I came home and just cut my losses for the month and stopped playing for a month. In that time, I started telling myself I needed something else to do besides work and poker. I started going out more and having probably too much fun than I needed to be having. So I started seeing this new chick. Not sure what she sees in my, but I can't complain.
Fast forward to middle to late July. I'm ready to start playing again...or so I thought. Boom. Two sessions (about 10 hours) later...I'm out another G. FML. What is happening? The walls are caving in. Time to just take a longggggg break. So I decided to take a full 5-6 weeks off. During that time I decided to actually talk to people to see what the heck is going on. During this time, I hung out with that girl a lot and really just tried to be a happy person outside of poker. I took a step back and realized that I simply wasn't having fun playing the game. I was being so short-term-results-oriented that I was getting myself down which was causing me to play badly. I was doing this and this and this...all bad things, while I wasn't looking at the broader picture. Thankfully I have some friends who have helped me look at what the problem has been and slowly correct a couple of my leaks.

Super late August to today, I make my return. I've been crushing since. I went on a trip to Michigan and played up there, played really well. I started to read a book called the Poker Mindset which has absolutely nothing to do with the technical aspect of the game, but it has everything to do with the mental aspect of the game. I started to take the game more seriously. Instead of joking around all the time, I focus more. Instead of berating someone who got really lucky on me, I look at them and think, "Ok. Your play allowed you to win this hand but in the long-term, you will lose money here. So I guess it's good you won this pot so you feel great and will load more and more money on to this table."

This was a pretty long rant I did here. I know this blog post hasn't been as sexy as some of the others. I'm working on that. Maybe next week or something I'll post some interesting hands. By Thursday, I will have posted about my trips to Vegas and Orlando.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Sin City Part 1 of 2.

I got asked to go out to vegas with bobcatbomber and his friends. I was a little hesitant but I figured, meh I get to go to the mecca of poker and get a taste of one of the most rowdy cities in the world. How could I miss this?

The time we went out was during the 1st and 2nd rds of the NCAA tourney (BCB went out a few days earlier than I for "business purposes" ). If you are not aware, that is the singlemost busy time to go to Vegas. Everywhere is packed to the brim. The sportsbooks have thousands of people cheering and booing every point late in the games. The atmosphere of some of the sportsbooks is simply insane. I have never been one to be one who wagers money on sports. I think it is definitely an art which I really don't care to learn.

BCB and I decided to play a lot of poker in Vegas. Throughout my whole trip, which was a Wednesday afternoon to the following Monday night, I played probably close to 100 hours of poker and only slept about 20 hours in total. Decent scheduling, huh?

BCB and I stayed at the Imperial Palace. While I love BCB (no ), I have to say his choice in picking a hotel was a little sketchy. I value the monetary savings of staying at the Imperial Palace, but the place is pretty gross. Our room smelled like a mixture of burnt hair and wet dog. There was sharpie graffitti in the bathroom. Beyond that, no other qualms. it was in the heart of the strip and a quick walk to Ceasar's, Harrah's, and the Venetian. Also, a short cab ride to MGM, Aria, and the Bellagio. Cabs in Vegas are no joke. My daily cab expense was probably anywhere from $40-$50. I'm not sure if this is because I am lazy or the cabs are just expensive, probably more of the former than the latter.

To review the places I played at: Aria, Bellagio, MGM, Venetian, Harrah's, Imperial Palace, Ceasar's (I think that's all).

The trip was pretty aweful from a a poker perspective, I'll get to that in a moment. BCB can attest to this, I became a slot machine pro. Just me saying that is laughable. For some reason, I would put $10 in to a penny slot machine and it would turn in to $300 at will. BCB and I figured out how to cheat one of those machines, and we are going to do it again in about 6 months .

From a poker perspective, I will offer a few things that happened which will show you how bad the trip went.

Example A- $130 tournament at Ceasar's

I started playing poker as a tournament player. That's my niche. I've since diverted away from that, but it's important you know that I specialize(d) in that field. Well before Vegas, I hadn't played a tournament for 3 or 4 months. Ceasar's had a mini tournament series running and I saw this tournament. It was a turbo, deepstack tournament. If you don't know what that means, it basically means you start with a TON more chips than you should, and the blinds go up every 10 minutes (maybe it was 15, who knows?). Also, this was a rebuy event, so if you lost your stack, go and pay another $130 and get back in the game.

When I got there, I noticed something pretty obvious. This thing was littered with young online players. I told myself I wasn't going to get caught up in their charades. I've been there, done that and I wasn't trying to play that style of poker. I said Ill just sit here and wait. And I did. I play 5 hands in 3-4 hours and ended up at the table 2nd in chips, top 6 get paid, $2400 to first. Sweet deal.

Then the most insane things happened. So with 6 people left, the blinds are 10,000/20,000 with a 4,000 ante, I have around 380k in chips.

I'm the big blind and this super tight Asian guy goes all in for 24000. First of all, folding down to 1 big blind is a horrible strategy, but I admire his moxy. Normally 2 people should be calling here, but everyone folded. It comes around to me and I have a queen and a 4, both diamonds. Now it's only 4000 for me to call, I should be calling with any two random cards, so I do. The guy has pocket 10s. The flop comes 10-J-3 with one diamond. The turn is the 9 of diamonds giving me a straight draw and a flush draw, and I miss. Guy goes from 24000 in chips to just over 60k. Next hand I'm the small blind and its folded to me. I move all in without even looking at my cards. Asian instantly calls and turns over pocket Kings. :laugh: Anyways, he doubles up to over 130k in chips. We go to break. I'm in Ceasar's sportsbook chain smoking to calm my nerves.

10 minutes go by and we resume play. The blinds are now 15000/30000 with a 5000 ante. I'm on the dealer button and I look down at AK, both clubs. Phenomenal hand on the button. The chip leader who has over 700k in chips raises to 70k. I only had I think around 230k, I shove all-in. The Asian I just doubled up twice in the previous two hands instantly calls again. The chip leader folds. The Asian now has pocket Aces. :laugh: I just throw my hands up and double him up now to like 260k as my stack shrinks. I stand up and walk around. I come back, double up. Ultimately I finished in 5th place for $450. Pretty disappointed in that scenario.

Anyways...my shift is wrapping up. I am headed out to HW after work, I'll finish this while I'm playing. Stay tuned.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Sin City part 2 of 2

Example B- $1-$2 Cash Game at the Bellagio

So this isn't really a bad thing, but I will let you figure out why I was frustrated. BCB and I played at the Bellagio I think two, maybe three, times. The room is beautiful despite the tables being really close together and the staff being really shady. I got to sit by Freddy Deeb outside the room, so it was kinda of cool to see how much of a midget he really is.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun playing at the Bellagio, despite almost being assaulted by a tall, skinny Indian fellow. That story has been told on here a few times, so let's get in to the hand that really ticked me off.

I'm playing 1-2 cash game. I am on the dealer button to start the hand. This aggressive player raises to $10. 6 people call and I look down at pocket 8s. I'm never raising here, I'm just hoping to flop a set. So there are 8 of us to the flop that comes 588. Bazinga! Quads with 7 people to act in front of me. LOL everyone checks the flop. I check. Now I'm just hoping that some type of face card or Ace hits the turn, or a 9 or a 4 which will give someone a straight. Turn is a 2. LOL everyone checks again. The river is a 4. The aggressive player bets $40. Everyone folds to me. I raise to $100 and he folds. So I made $110 on a hand where I would expect to win a monster pot. Nooooooo. I could never get that lucky where someone has pocket 5s, 2s, or 4s...ever. Tilt mode after that hand.

Example C- $1-$2 Cash Game at the Venetian

Let me preface this by saying I should have never even been playing my last day in Vegas. I mistakenly book my return flight home a day later than the rest of the group. They all left on a Sunday, I was leaving on Monday. FML. I wake up monday around 3pm Vegas time and needed something to do. I had yet to play at the Venetian and I was pretty exhausted from playing so much, but I literally had nothing to do. Off to the Venetian I go. To put it bluntly, what happened as soon as I started playing was icing on the cake. I buy in for $200 at $1-$2 and my 5th hand I get pocket 6s. Mhm, pretty good hand. Anyways, I just call the $2 and the big bling who starts the hand with $110 raises to $10. One other calls, and I call. The flop is 6TT. I flop a full house, pretty good spot to be in. It's checked to me and I bet like $14. The big blind moves all in. I call. He flopped quad tens. :laugh: It is never a good thing to flop a full house and have 0% chance of winning the hand.
....

So that's enough of the hands. The trip playing-wise was pretty miserable. I enjoyed playing at the Bellagio, MGM, and the Aria. Definitely awesome experiences and I can't wait to go back there in 6 months. Trip wise, well I really didn't do much. I plan on changing that this next go-round. I would like to go to a couple clubs/shows. The Bellagio's buffet left something to be desired. Perhaps that's because I went there for the AYCE crab legs ($42 buffet btw), and ended up getting these de-shelled pieces of cold garbage. Bleh.

Some of the highlights of the trip were the sportsbooks. Wow. I also really enjoyed watching BCB get slouched while playing poker or watching basketball. He really stepped his game up when he was plastered and it made sitting at the table that much better. All things considered, I really enjoyed my trip.

In other news, last night I played in a $80 tourney at HW. I hadn't played in a tourney since that Caesar's debacle. There were 48 entries. I won it for $1100. I eliminated 8 of the last 11 players :laugh:. Unfortunately, someone had 20% of my action (which was so dumb on my behalf), and I lost $300 playing cash game after being up like $150. Anyways, it's good to know I can still play tournaments. Bleh. On to the next one...

 

[LAAAAWL]

Trip to Florida with LCD

In May I caught wind from LCD that he was headed down to his hideaway in Orlando. I had some vacation time to torch and figured it would be a good way to get out of Cincinnati, and I really needed to as I was hating my life at the time. I asked LCD if I could join and he said yes. The place we stayed at was pretty legit. It was a small house with what I assumed to be a 25x10 pool in the back yard that was heated. I was pretty shocked at how inexpensive it is to rent that place. The house had a nice tv to watch, a computer to use, wifi, etc. I was pleasantly surprised.

Let's rewind for a second to me hanging out with LCD before we even left the ground. LCD and I were at CVG and really getting unlucky. I think we got rebooked twice. LCD was trying his best to get us down there as soon as possible while also getting SUPER P1SSED at the Delta staff. We were thrown a crock of horse**** that the reason our plane was delayed was because the radar tower went out in Jacksonville. LCD immediately pulls out his phone and sees the flights out of Dayton that just took off were still fine. He then goes on tilt and starts cussing.

After calming LCD down, we ended up leaving. Without a beat, LCD sits down in the plane and starts making fun of every person boarding the plane. Shocker? Not really.

Once we land, we went through the whole process of getting a rental car. LCD was mad because we couldnt get a camaro, but we ended up getting a brand new 2012 Mustang convertible.

We get to the house, get food and crash. The next morning we get up and go to the grocery store.

LCD is the most unhealthy eater I've ever met.

Here is what LCD's grocery list consisted of:
-Multiple large cans of spaghettio's or chef boyardee
-Thick cut bacon
-A 2 lb whole smoked turkey breast
-A 2 lb whole smoked ham
-Torpedo sub bread
-Lots of chips/snacks
-Pepsi One
-Sugar free life savers
-Coffee
-8 pack of frozen burritos

This man can eat.

Our daily routine was waking up anywhere from 8-11, LCD would cook bacon in the stove, we would smoke cigs and roast in the sun for the next 7 hours, and then figure out what to do. Some nights we went to this pretty cool bar that had some of the best bar food I've ever had. $12 lobster at 2 am after drinking is pretty good, I guess.

Two nights we went to the following places, Daytona Kennel Club and Poker Room and the next night we went to the Seminole Casino in Tampa.

Let's review both, shall we?

Daytona Kennel Club.

I did my homework on this place and all I can say is, "Wow." I jokingly tell my friends it would be a profitable move to relocate right by this place and play there. No joke, the easiest room I have ever played in. When I first sat down, I noticed the average age (including me) had to be about 50-55. Yummy. A lot of times these games suck real bad because getting money out of people on a fixed income is like squeezing blood out of a turnip. Not with these guys. Money flows down in the Sunshine state.

I sit down and I had a Red's hat on. One guy with a UK shirt on asked if I thought the Red's were going to be good and here's how the conversation went:

Me: Well, IDK, I'm not a huge baseball fan. I just wear the hat.
UK shirt: Are you from the Cincinnati area?
Me: Yes, born and raised on the west side of town.
Random old guy sitting to my right: No sh**, I graduate from Elder in (some date in the 50s), and my son here graduated from there too.
Me: Wow, what a small world.

We carried on a little bit. After about an hour, I was up around $400 and just crushing the table. I won a pot with something like 8-Ten suited vs some guy's pocket Aces and I got asked by one of the old guys at the table, "Does everyone from Cincinnati play as reckless as you?" I just said, "Well, most of them play more reckless." The UK guy interjected and said, "I take you play in Lawrenceburg?" I told him I did and he informed the table that Hollywood is one of the most difficult rooms on this side of the Mississippi. Boom, there goes my action. The rest of the night sucked as no one wanted to play in pots when I put in my money. I ended up also winning $150 high hand bonus so that was a nice touch.

I'll finish part two, which is the best part, tomorrow or something.

FWIW, with last night's performance, I have now surpassed my all-time best number in money made in 1 month playing cards. Pretty stoked with that. If I have some time later, I'll put up a pic or two. One bad thing has happened though. The other night while playing I dropped my phone and my headphone cord ripped all the guts out of the headphone jack. So I had to go to Microcenter and buy this p.o.s. thing for $50 to stream bluetooth from my phone to my headphones:

The device works great most of the time, but I think when I am in a busy place (like HW) where there are a lot of radio frequencies and people using bluetooth enabled phones, the thing sucks. It sounds like I am listening to a CD that someone took a nail to and scratched to high h3ll.


Listening to this to wrap up my boring day at work.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Trip with LCD Part 2

The second installment of my trip with LCD will focus on the highlight of the trip, going to Tampa. While I ultimately lost like $300 playing cards, I had a great time. The action in the room is sick. I walked in and there were 50+ tables running. At the end of the night, around 6 AM, I was playing 1-3. The 1-3 game has a $300 cap buy in. At 6 am, there was over $7k on my table in play. That's a pretty big amount of money.

Anyways, LCD went crazy in this place. We separated when we arrived, and I just remember him calling me to tell me they had no last call in the casino. LCD got wasted and started dancing at a bar and he went and gorged himself with steak, prime rib, and some special garlic fries he would not shut up about. Anyways, LCD trolled/drank/played games at the place and left me alone. Around 7 he texted me to meet him at this gourmet breakfast spot.

LCD has diabetes, but that did not stop him from ordering the following:
-2 belgian waffles (that he just poured straight sugar on top)
-Probably 4 eggs
-2 sides of bacon
-2 sides of sausage
-I think biscuits and gravy
-Coffee
...

this was all just hours after he gorged himself at the fine restaurant.

That is all. Next blog will be about a big pot I won up in Michigan a couple weeks ago.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Ok, I have to be out of here in 10 minutes, so I'm going to try as hard as I can to get this in. This hand was from last night, actually. I was playing 1-2 at HW. Anyways, I had about a $600 stack. I was in for $300, so I had a pretty good profit of $300 just playing for about 2 hours. Table dynamics, pretty soft and tight players all around except this one guy I have TONS of history playing against who had $1400 in front of him...really the only reason I was playing at the game was to get some of that.

I have pocket 7s and Im "under the gun", first to act after the cards are dealt. I raise to 12. Some dude to my left- I got all his monies earlier and he was tilting- called (he liked to play every single one of his hands, atrocious player), and the guy with the monster stack re-raised to $25. Someone else just called the $25. It comes around to me, never ever am I folding here because if the big stack has a big pocket pair and I hit a set on the flop, I'm going to get paid. So I call the $25 and the sweetie to my left calls the $25. There's just over $100 in the pot.

The flop?

7 of clubs
8 of spades
J of spades

Bazinga, bottom set. Errrr, uhhh, wait...look at that flop. I love my hand here but that flop is what we call "wet", lots out there that can just have me destroyed. A bigger set, a flopped straight with 9T, a big drawing hand like a flush draw (two spades on the flop), or even what is called a combo draw like a straight and a flush draw, a weird hands like a King and a Ten, two spades so many outs to just cream me.

So I check. The sweetie checks. The big stack bets $65. When he bets $65, that really doesnt tell me much about his hand yet. The person behind him folds. I need to find where I am at here quickly so that I know when to shut this down if a really bad card comes and I don't have so much money invested that I'm forced to get it all-in. So I raise to $150. The sweetie folds and the big stack just calls. When he calls, he has polarized his hand to one of two holdings within a fair amount of certainty, kings or aces. Or he has a big drawing hand like AK with both being spades. I know he is re-raising me if he has a set of jacks or eights and if he flopped a straight, he is getting it in to protect against a flush draw. So I was fairly certain he had Aces or kings. Well the turn is one of about 8 cards I didn't really want to see. I didn't want to see any ten on the turn, any ace or a king...a non-spade king hits the turn.

Great, now what? Do I bet like $200 here and just be prepared to call when he shoves all in and I lose a $1200 pot? Do I check and pray he checks? Do I bet small in hopes to do a huge bet on the river? Do I bet small to do what called a blocking bet so he doesn't cram it down my throat?

I elected to check. I started this hand with $600. I had already invested $175 of my stack and I really don't want to spew $425 more if I am way behind. The community cards were just grossness even though I have a monster hand.

Well, he checks the turn. 100% certain he now has pocket Aces. Because he would 100% bet a set of kings there and a hand like AK two spades or maybe even a hand like AQ two spades as he picked up a gut shot straight draw to a ten on the turn. Well the river doesn't help things much as the

2 of spades

hit the river. So my really awkward spot is still awkward as there are now 3 flush cards on the board. I had hoped a non-spade low card would hit the river and I can just fire away and hope to get a call. If a non-spade low card like the 3 of heart hits the river, I am betting $250-$300 (and calling an all in if he shoves), if he has me beat, god love him. I go to to the cage.

Ultimately, I cut out $200 and only push $100 out. He calls. I turn over my hand and he turns over Aces. Ship.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Here we are. As promised, I said I would write a blog entry about my view on the Cincinnnati and Columbus casinos. In short, I will comment mostly about the poker at each establishment, but I think I should probably hit on the other parts of the Cincinnati casino a little. After we run through those degenerate headquarters, I will talk a little about where I would like to go on vacation in 2013.

Columbus Casino- Hollywood

Well, it is finally here. The Columbus casino opened yesterday with a bang. Coming in as Ohio’s 3rd casino, there was a lot of hype around our state capital’s newest attraction. I will be visiting this place on Thursday night this week. What I would like to cover here is why I think this will be a great place to play poker. While this is a Hollywood casino, the poker rules in this place are much different than its dying counterpart in Lawrenceburg, IN. This poker room has larger buy-in amounts and has many different games than that offered in Indiana. For example, in Indiana, if you want to play 1-2 no limit poker, the minimum you can buy in for is $60 and the max is $200. That really sucks in my opinion. Why? Well let’s say you go to a game and someone has over $1000 in front of them. What amount of damage is your small $200 really going to accomplish? NOT SQUAT!. At the Columbus casino, the max buy-in is being raised to $300. On top of that, you can buy-in for the largest stack at the table. So if someone has $3000 in front of them at 1-2 (while I don’t know why they would still be playing- what else would that player have to accomplish to feel good about his/her winnings?) you can buy in for that same $3000 amount. This is great for the players, but really bad for the casino. The casino would rather every pot be about $50 or less. They don’t want to see the $1k pots at 1-2 no limit because the amount of rake they can take out of that pot is the same as if the pot were $50. Now lets talk about the games offered. No limit hold ‘em has been the “Cadillac of poker” for a long time…we are going on almost 10 years since the Money Maker effect of 2003, but hold ‘em has been the choice poker game going back to the 1970s. Within the past 2-3 years, I have seen pot limit Omaha grow from a game no one really gave much attention to, to what I think is going to be the next “boom” in poker.

Hollywood Columbus is going to be offering pot limit Omaha in a wide range of buy ins. All I can really say is the pictures of this new place look great and I can’t wait until I go up there in a couple night.

Cincinnati Casino

Ahhhh, a casino in one of the most conservative cities in America. Who woulda thunk it? Not me, that’s for sure. Have any of you driven by lately? The place looks beautiful. The Cincinnati Horseshoe is going to be under the Caesar’s umbrella. If this place is even half as nice as the Horseshoe just outside of Chicago in the slums of Hammond, IN, I think you all will be shocked. The architecture, design, build, and feel of these casinos are simply in a class of their own. I think I will touch on a few things outside of poker before we get in to why I am looking forward to playing there in a few months.

First, the location. Many of you have probably been scratching your head why they would plop a casino in pretty much one of the most ghetto areas of the city. Shame on you. I have recently been frequenting the bar scene in over-the-rhine and it really is not that bad. I think they (whoever “they” are) are doing a fabulous job running the garbage that has cluttered that historic neighborhood out of there. LAAAAWL is actually looking for a place of residence in OTR (for the right price). I have walked the streets late at night in OTR, and it is not nearly as scary as some people make it out to be. Are there still areas I would not go to? Sure. I have a good feeling the added police district just for the area and casino are going to work wonders and that area will be booming with great nightlife and new housing by the Summer of next year.

The location is located within just a short cab ride of so many attractions including the ball teams, museum, 7th street bars, Mt Adams, etc and the location just off 71/471 are going to make getting there a breeze from anywhere in the 275 loop. I thought the area was a horrible location at first, but then I realized if this place was put in an area like West Chester or Northeast of the city, the amount of people frequenting the casino would actually be smaller.

The clientele of your average casino-goer is probably going to be pretty funny for the first few months. I think you are going to see plenty of gangbangers, drug dealing thugs. Thankfully the security of the casino is in very good hands (I personally know the director) and the staff is all former police officers and auxiliary police (part-time cops, basically). I hope the casino institutes the same policy of keeping your pants around your waist-line and hopefully a pretty solid dress code. Although, I will not like it if they are as strict as the casinos in Detroit- no backpacks and no hoodies. That would be a travesty if our city’s casino has to follow the same policies of Ghettoville, USA (Detroit).

Why the Poker Player in Me Will Like This Place

Imagine when you played any game in your life. I really don’t care if it was a high school sports game, a video game, or tag when you were a child at the playground. Wouldn’t it suck if every time you played that game you had to constantly play against the same people? That is what I have been going through the past 4-6 months playing in Lawrenceburg. That is why I am willing to make the 90 minute trek to Columbus to play once a week. New blood/faces/money. When I go to Hollywood in IN, I literally see the same people playing. It’s very hard for me to get on a game with 8 other new people. That’s very detrimental to my bottom line. When you play with people who know how you play, or think you are better than the average joe, your action is crushed and you will ultimately not make a lot of money off that other person.

The way I describe the influx of new people is this. Let’s take the Red’s game tonight. 40k+ people. For simplicity sake, 40k people. When that game is over, let’s just say 5% of the people even think about going to the casino. That’s 2000 people. Let’s just say 5% of those people even think about playing poker, that’s 100 people. If just half of those people actually play, that’s 50 new people faces which could play this game. The numbers are amplified greatly if you think about all of the events in this city: conferences at the Duke Energy Center, marathons, etc. So we have covered that bit. Now let’s talk about the actual money which fills this city. One of my buddies calls Cincinnati, “Cincinitty”. A nit in poker is someone who really doesn’t play many hands, is a tightwad, and really have no “gamble” in them. I use that term lightly. I disagree with his statement. I can only imagine the amount of money filling this casino/poker room from the businessmen downtown, the young professionals from Mt. Adams getting liquored up and traveling <5 mins down the hill the gamble, and also the money from Hyde Park and also all the way from Indian Hill.

The vast amounts of “new money” filling the poker room are definitely going to be a site to see.

I will more than likely be increasing in stakes once Cincinnati opens. I am pretty tired of playing with the bottom-feeders at 1-2 no limit in Indiana. I have dabbling in 1-3 and have had good success. When Cincinnati opens, I will probably be playing 2-5 no limit. There’s a reason why I do not play 2-5 now. First, the cap/max buy-in in Indiana is $1000. That is an absurd amount. I do not have even close to the bankroll to be playing 2-5 in Indiana. A $1000 cap game is what you normally see for a 5-10 game in Vegas. The 2-5 game in Cincinnati is going to be capped at $500 similar to what goes on up in Chicago. I can withstand the swings of that game. Plus, the dynamics behind a 2-5 game are much different than a 1-2 game. Simply put, there are things you can do in a 2-5 game that you really have a hard time doing at a 1-2 game (valuebet bluffing, getting headsup against one other player, etc).

I am definitely looking forward to this place opening, having an apartment within a close vicinity where my degenerate friends can come hang out, we can run poker games in my place, and I have had a couple people talk to me about coaching them. I’ve thought about it before. I’m not sure if I’m good enough to start coaching people yet. I do know that I can take an awful, constantly losing player, and turn them in to a break even player just talking to them for a couple days.

I know I said I would talk about where I am going on vacation next year, Ill save that for later considering I am getting ready to leave work.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Hand from Columbus

Saturday morning around 3 am the poker room started getting weird. I noticed the demograph of the room changing. Lots of high/drunk thugs started piling in. I call these people "money printers" for obvious reasons. They literally have wads of illegal cash they are just waiting to donate.

Anyways, my game of 10 people had a normal guy (like me), 8 money printers, and myself there. I have to play in these games differently than in a normal game because the pots get so big and the variance at these games is huge because the money printers don't care and will call your all-in with any draw or any pair...no bluffing here, fellahs. Anyways, I kind of sat back and just observed, lolling at the conversations I was hearing and the hands these clowns were playing.

Finally...I look down at pocket Aces and I'm on the button. So three money printers just call the $2 (which was shocking because usually there would be two raises and 3 people would call and the pot was huge). It's my turn and I probably could have raised to $30 and get 4 callers before the flop. Not a good idea to be doing that in this game. I want to keep the pots small and then get it in when I have a monster because, in the grand scheme of things, if 4 or 5 of us see the flop, I am going to have no clue what to do with just one pair if one player moves all in and two of these idiots call. I just raise to $13.

Only on money printer calls.

The flop comes 2A7. Yahtzee. I am in a great spot (if only the only 3 would have called too). Top set, no straight draws and no flush draws. Anyways, the money printer checks and I check.

The turn is another 7. Boom. Full-house. There is not a hand that can beat me except quad 7s (not a chance he has that here).

The money printer bets $2 in to the pot of $30+. I say, "What? What kind of bet is that?"

Money printer: "Sheeeeeit, we gotta get some money in'nere."

Me: "Ok, I will raise to $12."

Money printer then goes all in for $300. I lol outloud, ask again just to make sure he went all in and I call. He had just a 7 for trips. Ship it.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Trips for 2013 and My Trip to Columbus

I completely forgot to follow-up on what I said either last week or the week before. I said I would blog about what vacations I would like to take in 2013. First, I only get 88 hours of vacation time. For my situation, that's 9 days off. I work a S/M/T/H shift, and I plan on using my vacation just much smarter this upcoming year than I did this past year. I really didn't plan much and kind of just took random time off. I also plan on using my sick time around the times I am vacationing in order to maximize my time away.

I really only have one set trip that I am 100% going planned, and that is to Vegas. This trip will be a little different than my last go-round in Sin City. Mostly I plan to sleep more and do more things besides play poker. I'd like to see a few shows and possibly go to some of the clubs in the city.

One idea that has been tossed around is possibly going overseas to Europe. This seems like a great idea until you start looking at the amount of $ needed to take such a trip. So, my idea is to NOT go to Europe, but to go to South America. I would really like to go to Peru or Brazil. It would be so cool to take that trip and it is very economical (besides the flight).

Other ideas which have sparked interest are going to Los Angeles. I have been wanting to visit the Commerce Casino in LA to play poker for awhile. That might be something that has to be pushed to 2014.

I'm sure LCD would let me burn some excess vacation time to go to Orlando too, I always have that fallback .

One trip which I might be taking will be for a long time. That's possibly going to Denver for work purposes. The opportunity to leave here and go to Denver for 3-6 months temporarily or permanently is more than likely going to be asked in a few months. There's a host of reasons I would love to go and a few which make me want to stay. I would love to get out of here for 3-6 months, that is probably going to happen. But long term? Still debating. Thankfully I have enough time to review my options and hopefully make a sound decision.

And now my trip to Columbus.

I left for Columbus last Thursday night. I have a buddy who plays poker who lives in Springfield, OH who let me crash at his place on my way up there. What a miserable experience this was. I have never been one to be able to sleep on a couch and this was no different. On top of that, he lives right next to train tracks. Fail. Hard. My other buddy was playing poker in Chicago and drove from Chicago to Springfield to meet me. I played some basketball at 3 AM (worst decision when you havent worked out or done any physical exercise in 2+ years and you have been smoking for a year and a half, btw) and just layed on the couch until 9 (never slept).

We got up and went to Bob Evan's. Horrible food. In fact, Springfield in general is pretty gross. I liked my buddy's house (I got to play my first online poker since december of 2010, a $3 tournament, that was neat) but Springfield reminded me of a Hamiltucky junior.

We ended up going to play around 4 or so on Friday. The place is beautiful. As I mentioned in the GB, I actually enjoyed the casino being a no-smoking facility. I was curious how the casinos were going to get around this. There are convenient outdoor smoking patios all over the place. They had gas heaters out there to keep us self-mutilators warm and toasty.

Playing wise was really weird. My memory is escaping me, but I will try to recap as best as I can. I think I started +$200 in the first couple hours. Then I was down $200. I added on $300 to my stack so I had a total of $600 invested. I wittled that down to $150. I doubled that up to $300-400, no clue. My buddy went home and I moved games and turned that in to $600 and then the rest was detailed above.

The play in the room is pretty weird. First of all, at the stakes I play, most people suck. Sometimes I think I even suck (honestly). Columbus players really blow. I have heard about the underground poker clubs in the area and if what I saw was any reflection of those clubs, everyone sucks up there. What I saw was a lot of players just inflating the pots for no reason and really, truthfully gambling. Not a whole lot of solid play going on up there. Pocket 9s? Raise to $30. Pocket 2s? Raise to $40....preflop. That's just awful play.

I cannot stress how nice it was to play at a place and have 99+% of the people there have no clue who you are. Being the unknown was a good thing.

One thing I did notice up there was pretty strange. Thankfully a player kind of tipped me off but there are some older guys who walk around in sunglasses from table to table. They dont play, they just observe. I figured out these are a group of Macedonians who have lots of $$ and put players in to the game and they make money off the players. For example, if they front $200 for a player to player, they will get 60% of the earnings and the player gets 40%. Well not a lot of attention was being given my way until I hit my hot streak at the end of Friday night and stacked my chips like this:

This guy creeps over around 4 am after I just all of the money in front of two players. I have around $1k in front of me there. Magically within 5 minutes, three new players come to our game and they each buy in for the largest stack at the table, which was me...$1k. I knew something was up as I just saw these three playing at other tables and they only had $200-$500 stacks. And now they all of a sudden have $1k. I racked my chips up and left. Decent attempt to hustle me, though.

I have to get out of the office now, might go play at HW tonight as my bday is this weekend and I probably wont be playing much. I'll review my motel stay and day 2 in columbus either tonight or tomorrow or thursday, or whenever I feel like it.

Later.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Day 2 in Columbus

I will continue where I left off in my last blog. Before I left, I was trying to find a motel/hotel where I could sleep. I have a good relationship with one of the dealers up there and I asked her if she had any ideas. She told me to go to Grove City to find a place. What a dump Grove City is. I started calling around and the only place I could find was Days Inn. I called Days Inn and the lady told me I would have to pay an early check-in fee of $25 and the daily rate of $50+tax to stay from ~ 6 AM Saturday until 11 am on Sunday and it was in a non-smoking room.

I go to the cashier's cage to rack up ~200 $5.00 chips. At this point, my body is basically shutting down. I am losing track of the slightest details and I was at that point of sleep deprivation when you start dry heaving. It was not a good thing. I go to get in line and the wait to cash in chips is at least 1.5 hours. There was almost 40 people in line with just 1 cashier at the cage. What a travesty. This is also a really bad safety problem. Let me paint this picture for you. One of the higher limit players has ~$10k in chips and is standing in a line where 100s of people can see him for over an hour. See the problem here? I ultimately just dumped my chips in my bag in the bathroom and hit the exit.

I get to Days Inn 15 minutes later. There is vomit all over the entrance of this place. Not just one pile, but numerous, and different color too. It looked like one person puked and it induced the puking of a group of people. I was so tired, this didnt even phase me.

I walk in to the front desk and ask for a room and to pay the early check-in fee. This guy goes, "Well, there is no such thing as an early check-in fee and we only have smoking rooms." I am a smoker, so I shouldn't mind this, right? Whatever, give me my key. I go to pay the guy the $58 or so with a $50 and a $20 and he doesn't have change. What the is going on? Begin tilt. So I have to pay using my debit card. I HATE using my debit card for anything other than gas. I give him my card, I get my key.

When I open the door to my room, I then go on life tilt. As a smoker, you would think I am not affected by other smokers or the stench of smoking. Well, I am. The smell was so bad, I almost felt my eyes burning. That could have been from the lack of sleep, though. I immediately just go and shut the curtains (which had the worst black-out shades ever, my room was really bright even though both sets of curtains were closed). When I lay down, all I hear is this sweetie in the room behind my head with emphysema basically hacking up his lungs. So I do what anyone would do, turn on the A/C and TV (which was not a flat screen). My room's A/C didn't work. So I turn the heat on as low a temp as possible. I finally go to lay down and my pillows smelled like what I would imagine snorting a line of cigarette ashes would smell like. Yum.

From pure exhaustion, I finally sleep. For 4 hours.

I was disturbed in my sleep by this constant beeping noise and what sounded like a hair dryer. I finally got up after what was probably 30 minutes of this random noise and see MY DAMN MICROWAVE RUNNING. Wtf? The compounded smell of years of chain smoking in the room and now whatever cleaner was used to clean this microwave burning was permiating the air. I guess some a-hole set the delayed-auto-start timer on this microwave to cook for over an hour as I stood up and the thing was counting down and read over 32 minutes. Tight.

I took a shower (which was nasty, there were things growing in the grout), napped for another 2 hours, off to the casino again after stopping for a Redbull and at Walmart to pick up a special cord for my phone's charger. I thought most Walmart's were bad, but this one takes the cake. It beat out even the worst Walmart in Price Hill. I haven't seen so many fupas, pregnant baby mommas, and fatasses riding on the carts than here. If finding a mate was based on how not-fat you were, I was Brad Pitt (and I am far from being in shape).

I arrive at the casino, see two people I have played with in Lawrenceburg waiting in line. I have 1K in chips and I only need about $600, so I sold them each $200 and we went to sit down. I sit down and at my table is a girl I met from lawrenceburg and her boyfriend. Her BF apparently has a real bad heroine addiction, so I was like, "Welp, time to go ASAP." But the action was sick at this game. I ended up losing numerous $600+ pots at this table as a 4/1 or a 3/1 favorite and these guys just drilled the river on me time after time. After the girl ended up crushing me for like $300, I had like $250 out of my $500 investment.

Move games.

Long story short, I ran my stack up to $600. This sweetie at my table played a style of poker called "push-fold." Meaning, he would either go all-in preflop or just fold his cards. He won like $60 doing this strategy and I told myself if I got an Ace with any card, I was going to raise and call his $180 all in. Sure enough it finally happened. I had A8 offsuit, I raise to $8, two people called and he went all-in for $180. I call immediately. I just say, "Ace high". There was an Ace on the flop and I ship it...

...The guy buys in for another $100. About 10 minutes in to his new money, I have A2 both hearts. I limp in for $2 as do 4 other people, he goes all-in. I call again. I river a flush. Scoop. Now I don't really like to initiate talking-sh1t at the table, but once someone starts on me, I will respond.

Conversation-

sweetie: We can keep playing this bingo poker all night if you want to.
Me: Yea, I mean how's that worked out for you? Your style of poker only works for tournaments when your out-classed or when you play at a table full of idiots who can't even spell "Poker".
sweetie: You're horrible.
Me: I'm horrible? Huh, that's funny considering I have seen you go all-in almost 20 times since I've been sitting here for an hour and a half. But hey man, reload so I can end the night on a good note.

Nonetheless, in my 2nd to last hand of the night, I got dealt aces. I raised to $14. The sweetie calls. We are headsup.

The flop comes 889. I bet $12 to make it look really weird what I was doing, plus this flop isn't the greatest again an all-in-happy sweetie so I can keep the pot small. He calls. The turn is a jack. I immediately check, he checks. The river is a 2. I know I for sure have the best hand. Bet $110. He looks at me shocked and thinks about it for awhile. And he calls. Ship it. Good game man. I rack up my chips and leave.

I met a lot of cool people in Columbus, exchanged a few numbers. It's nice to meet a new group of people and view a different style of playing that took me awhile to adjust to.

Looking forward to going back next weekend.

 

[LAAAAWL]

Headed for the end of October

I set up some pretty good plans for this last weekend of the month, I'm headed to Louisville. I have to give a big thank you to BCB who hooked up a solid deal which gets me a two night stay at the Horseshoe in southern Indiana for only $69. If I were to pay that out of pocket, $200 for the entire trip. I've never played in Louisville, but I have heard some good things. Those have also been countered with some bad things as well.

This month has been really weird. I've been down pretty much the entire month. I think I started off the month up a couple hundred dollars, but ultimately I was down almost 2k at my low. Things finally started rolling over the past week and a half and am happy to say I'm only down $73 on the month. That's pretty :laugh:able. I also think that me not playing as high a volume has had something to do with it as well. Last month, I played about 22 or 23 nights I think? This month I will probably max out at around 15. That's not really good, and I can decrease my variance with more volume (dreams of when I will live 5 minutes away from the Horseshoe and can mitigate my variance as much as possible).

It's months like these that really p1ss me off. I completely blow right through my past "best month" with last month's results by almost 50-55% and I follow-up this month with just awful results. I can relate it to playing in some game where you really did a good job, and had your best game ever, and then the next game you just sh1t all down your leg. And it sucks really bad that my unexpected life expenses have had to tap in to my poker bank roll. I don't mind tapping in to my poker bank roll, but it really does affect my play.

Take for example my situation in September. When I was doing well, I could play a style of poker that was profitable. I had no qualms about losing a certain amount to start off my session. Well, when you need to take a sizable chunk of your poker roll to use for the dumbest things ever (like a full month's rent for only 15 days of living, and medical bills), you don't have that comfort or buffer and it's hard to get a momentum going when you have to play outside of your comfort zone.

I guess that's what makes the game that I love so much unique. The number of variables is so high that you can really only control so much.

I plan on crushing down in louisville this weekend, and I hope BCB and I have a good time. There is a midnight tournament on Friday I am looking forward to just getting plastered drunk and playing in.

(Serious talk from here)

I was talking to one of my buddies about how people and life in general are just like the underlying concept of poker. You can't really compare people or life to a game like chess or something like football. Sure you can be competitive in both, but all of the information is presented before you. There is nothing unknown. In chess, you see all of the pieces, in football you have game film to review and you can still see all of the players.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about people in general. People suck. Like, really suck. How sneaky some people are is just absurd. The facades that some people put up for whatever hidden agendas they have inside of their really dark personalities are hilarious. How anyone can ever really care about anyone outside of their family or really, really close friends is just mindnumbing to me.

Anyways, end rant. Adios.

 

[LAAAAWL]

The past 5 days

I started working on this yesterday and left work early and completely forgot about it. Drod reminded me about it and I have about an hour left to kill some time. So I'll review my last 5 days. It will be pretty long, but I think you will all enjoy it. Currently listening to Brand New's Deja Entendu Album...

Wednesday- Jackpot

As many of you know, I was fortunate to have a big score playing poker last Wednesday. I was a part of what is called a "Bad Beat Jackpot". Without going in to all of the small details of what a Bad Beat is, just know the situation of which happened to me had a .001801% chance of happening. Pretty sick, huh?

What is also important to know is what led up to me getting lucky and getting $26k. The best way for me to do this is a timeline, times are fairly accurate.

11:30 am. I wake up. I was supposed to go to my old house and pick up a host of my childhood belongings. I really hate waking up on my days off and I thought, "Nah, back to sleep."

1:30 pm. I wake up again. I checked my phone and decided I should probably get up and do something productive today. I started running through my head things I could. I remembered the week before I was playing poker at Hollywood (HW) and a dealer asked me why I wasn't downstairs playing in a special tournament. He told me the players were awful and I should be down there, but it was too late to play. I knew that HW would have the event today and that it was at 3:15. The special tournament is basically the following structure. Pay $200 and fight for a $4000 package to go to Vegas in June '13. $1500 in cash and a $2500 ticket for a huge tournament. I wanted to go to the mall and pick up some a new Polo hoodie I saw on macys.com.

2:15. I arrive at Macy's in Northgate Mall. I went to get the hoodie, it's not there. Kinda disappointed but I saw some cool Nike thermafit sweatpants on sale for $30 and bought a pair. Changed at the store and off to HW.

2:40. I'm getting off the Lawrenceburg Exit. I don't really play tournaments that often, but for an event that costs more than a $150 buy-in, I like to get there about a half hour before it starts so that I don't have to rush registering, I can get something to eat, and just hang out before it starts. I register for smaller buy in events ($60, $80, $100, $125) as late as possible because I like to be an alternate. Being an alternate means you get your whole starting stack of chips, you just start much later than everyone else. I like this because the first few blind levels of a small buyin tournament suck for me. I play too many hands because I don't care, and I usually lose a lot of chips. Anyways, I don't why I just included that...but it's important you know that for this event I wanted to arrive at HW right around 2:45.

Well, there was a wreck at the main intersection off the highway. FML. If anyone is familiar with the left turn off the Lawrenceburg exit to get to HW, it is a 3-lane left turn. Some sweetie in the furthest right turn tried to pull a fast one, gun it at the light and dart over a lane or two. Well there was a semi in the furthest left lane and he just drilled that car. Standstill traffic. There is LAAAAWL getting mad because he knows he is going to arrive either late or right before this tournament starts.

3:10. I walk up to the registration desk to hand over my money and get my ticket to play. There is a signup sheet for the event. Damn. Last week it ran just fine. Now there are 4 out of 25 people signed up. So I put my name on the list fully knowing this is not going to even start and will be canceled. Back upstairs I go. I really didn't want to play cash game. There were also 53 people waiting to play in front of me. I was probably looking at a 2 hour wait at best to just sit down. I make an attempt to just find a seat and sit down, skipping everyone else. Thankfully there is a seat at 1-2 and I'm playing.

4:00. I am up around $80 playing 1-2. My game sucks. There's no money on my table and trying to squeeze money out of these people is like trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip. I then lose like a $360 pot. I add on $100 to bring my stack back up to $200. I win a couple small pots.

4:30. Some sweetie lady does something so stupid. I have A7 both clubs. The flop comes 779 with the 9 of hearts. I bet like $12 in to a $14 pot. She calls. Turn was a 2 of hearts. She checks, I bet $40. She calls. River is a King of hearts. She checks, I still think I have the best hand, so I bet $65 just trying to get some money. She calls and turns over A6, two hearts, for the nut flush. My brain is sizzling. And I realize there isn't much money at this table. I had a total of $300 invested in to this game, and only $80 in front of me. Time to move.

4:45. A seat at the 1-3 game opens. I add on $400 to my $80 stack and go to 1-3. On my way over there, a friend of mine asks me, "Hey, if either one of us hits any of the bad beat money, do you want to split it 50/50." My response (thankfully and not thankfully): "No, but I will swap 20%."

5:00. I had played about 5 or 6 hands at this table. I had played with about half of the players at this game, and felt pretty good even though I was down $220. Anyways, I decided to raise pre-flop with 45, both clubs, in middle to late position. This was the first hand I had raised at this table. I know a lot of the people I had played with know I am an aggressive player, so I just do a small raise to either $12 or $13. Let's just go with $13. Two players call my $13 bet. There is $43 in the pot.

The flop comes out 8 of clubs, 8 of spades, 7 of clubs. I am out of position to both players, but this is a good flop for me to bet my hand and either just win the pot now, or hopefully hit a club on the turn or a 6 where I will usually have the best hand. But I don't want the pot to get out of control, so I just bet $20. One person calls.

The turn is my gin card. 6 of clubs. Bingo. Straight flush. At this point I am just hoping the other player has a big flush, pocket 7s or some kind of straight. I check. The other player bets $50. When he bets 50, he has like another $210 left. I decide to raise to $125 because I want him to have to call my river bet. He calls.

River is a T of diamonds. I go all in and he calls.

I say, "Well sir, I basically have the nuts (an unbeatable hand) on the board. I really hope you have the super nuts (which would be 9T of clubs for a higher straight flush. And I get $52k.)." And I turn my hand over.

The guy looks at my cards. He looks back at the 5 community cards. He then checks my cards one more time and starts shaking. He then yells, "YAHHHHHHH.", as he flips over two red 8s.

Holy . The bad beat just hit. I get a $26k payday. I jump up, high five him. I sit right back down. The whole table keeps celebrating, I'm just chilling. 30 or so people walk over to analyze the situation.

The gravity of that which had just happened kind of faded quickly and the first two things popped in to my head. A) I knew they were going to offer me cash, check, or chips. How am I going to get ~$20k in cash out of this place safely? B) I need to talk to an accountant within the next few days.

Who can arrange my exit out of here? So I call a former police officer who has their CCW and I knew they would be able to follow me home safely.

8:00. Finally after signing a bunch of tax forms, pictures, etc. I get paid and leave. I go home. Pretty exhausted and mentally drained, I don't party it up. I simply go to Olive Garden.

10:00. Sleep. Finally.

In review of this day, I simply reference what is known as the "Butterfly Effect". Not the movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

Every little thing which changed throughout the day lead up to this huge event. If I don't get up, if the sweetie doesn't gun it and get t-boned by the semi, if that tournament doesn't play, if the woman doesn't play her hand awfully, if I don't play 45 suited like an sweetie...this never happens.

Thursday (getting Financial advice from everyone and their brother, two random strangers ask me for money), Friday (home game which I now know had two cheaters at my table, and I still won a decent amount), and Saturday (playing again and making $1k at HW) were pretty funny days. But I have to go home. I will blog about these days another time.

Wow, this took longer than I anticipated.

Later.

-LAAAAWL

 

[LAAAAWL]

Blog

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday and Friday

So the day after hitting my win, I woke up around 10:30 (after having insomnia until around 5 AM which sucked). I went to the bank and got a safety deposit box to put almost all the money in.

This day was funny for a few reasons- mostly because of some of the dumb stuff I heard from other people.

I went to work and 2 people who had heard about my newfound money and asked me why I even came in to work. Really? I guess I'm just supposed to retire on ~$15.5k? Makes sense.

I had a long convo with Drod at dinner about what I should do with the money and it helped out a lot. I have a pretty good plan with what I am going to do. I'm not going to spew it on clothes or toys. There are a few small purchases I would like to get, so I am.

I'm pretty sure I am going to payoff a large portion of my car simply because that is my highest interest debt at like 9.3%. Yikes.

Anyways. This day was also funny because I had two complete strangers ask me for money. What kind of nerve does one have to have to ask a random stranger for $200? I'll tell you what kind of nerve...it's a thick nerve which runs right through the logical processing part of the brains of DEGENERATE LOSERS! I LOL'd and said, "No."

I ended up at HW this night and lost $600 playing 1-3. Got destroyed by a pharma sales rep for Ely Lily (sp?). He crushed me simply because he had gobs of money and didn't care about money at all. Meh.

Friday

So I played the night before. I woke up and, per the usual on my days off, I was trying to figure out what my plans were going to be for the day. I dont remember what I did during the day, and that's pretty sad. I do know I took a nap in the afternoon at sometime. Ultimately, I got offered to go to a home game. Home games are unique. The dynamics behind them are usually the host has a lot of good food/drinks/snacks, and invites people to the game. They pay actual dealers to deal the game(s) and it's just like we play at a real casino. They take a rake. Some home games can make around $2000/week if ran properly. Not a bad gig for the host.

The problems with home games? Safety. Safety is the biggest worry of mine when I play at a home game. Why? Well the first two I played at were robbed at gunpoint. Fortunately I was not at either. That scared me a lot. I was assured this place was secure and he actually had cameras around the house.

The guy had amazing food (steak). I couldn't really complain. Unlimited beer, pops, snacks, etc. Nice house and man cave.

Anyways, I sit down...I win a few hundred in the first hour. My first hand I got Aces and doubled up vs AK. Easy game?

I noticed something weird happening at my table between two players. The first player would just call the $2 big bling. His buddy would raise to $10 or $11. Four or 5 people would call, and the first guy who just called the big blind would go all-in for $200, and win the easy $60 in the pot. The first couple times, I was thinking to myself, "Well, this guy is just an sweetie and doesn't know that just calling the big bling and raising with over 80 big blinds (that's $160) in front of him is just pure atrocious play."

Then it happened again, and again, and again. 7 total times these charades went on. And the guy got called twice and had hands that were not very strong. When I play, I don't usually have to worry about cheating, but at a homegame, there is usually some form of cheating because there are no cameras to worry about.

I have been around cheating before. I can tell when a group of people are playing as a team, and I know how to exploit it. More on that later.

I started playing +$300. Fast forward like 3 hours, and I am down $550ish. Solid $850 downswing. Mostly playing really bad. I added on the last bit of money that I had and ran my stack up to like $480 (so, -$320 of my $800 total investment).

The guy who kept playing this "call the big blind, let my friend raise, and Ill just bet super huge" lost his first buy in to me when we had a hand where he again called the big blind, his buddy raised to $11, one other person called. I have AK and raise to $32. The guy who called the big blind goes all-in. The other two people fold, I ask the dealer to count his chips. $105 total. Easy call. So I do. Then the conversation goes like this,

Me: Do you want to run this twice (post #3 of my blog for more info), I HAVE Ace-King.
Him: (Thinks about it for a second) Eh, nahhhh. Let's just run it one time.
Me: No worries

So the 5 cards that came out were something like K592J. I turn my hand over and he turns over KQ offsuit. He was absolutely dominated here and turned down the offer, after knowing what my hand was, to have two shots at basically hitting a queen or a straight. Instead this sweetie just donated.

After I took his first monies, he borrowed $150 from the host. The host gave him chips. Which didn't take long for him to lose. Borrow another $150.

Now the guy owes the host $300. All this sweetie kept talking about was that he hoped he had more than $300 to give back to the host so he didn't owe him money. He was constantly saying, "Man, glad I'll have xxx dollars left after I give (host) his money back."

Well, the guy got greedy. Greedy in the sense that his BINGO poker style finally bit him in the . Those two did the whole, call, raise $11, guy who calls the $2 then makes it $200 and everyone folds a few more times. Towards the end of the night, the guy who owed the host money, took that 2nd $150 and flipped it up to about $480. Then this happens.

I am in the small blind. sweetie just mentioned above called the $2. His friend makes it $11. One person calls. My buddy calls on the big blind. I call with K3 both diamonds. One of the blinds puts out their $11. sweetie then does what I was told is called a "Nut bet". The guy raised to $175. Now, this is significant for a few reasons. Look at how much money he had left when he bets $175 preflop...just over $300. Everyone folds around to me, I think about it for a minute. I genuinely did not think this guy would call if I ship all my monies in now simply because he was so damned worried about paying the host his $300. So I think and think and think, and finally I just ship it all in for like $440. If I lose this hand, I go home and sleep. If I win, I'm back to turning a profit. Doesn't really matter to me, I just have to go with my read on this guy. It get's back around to the sweetie who made it $175 and and he calls with and Ace and a Queen.

I asked him if he wants to run it twice again. As I asked, the dealer accidently dealt the flop which was Q of diamonds, 4 of diamonds, 2 of spades.

Qd4d2s.

He had turned his cards over, he looks at the flop and says, "Well I have top pair of queens with an ace kicker, I think I'm okay."

Me: Okay, whatever I don't care either.

Boom, jack of diamonds on the turn, and he has no shot of winning the hand. You could hear a pin drop as his face turned ghostly white. He picked up his remaining $20-40 and gave it back to the host.

I ended up making a few hundred on the night. Couldn't complain. I'll be back either this weekend or next!

 

[LAAAAWL]

Begin fitness. The past couple weeks have been rough in poker. I'm not having fun, I'm getting unlucky, and as a result I'm not playing my best. So I am just decreasing my playing time to going to Columbus once or twice a month, reading books on poker (learning a new game), and beginning to work out.

I used to workout 3-4x a week...3 years ago. I was in my best shape, fit and felt great. Well, I got a small injury and here I am. While I was dieting a lot back then, I am taking a different approach starting off with this go-round of exercise. For the first month I am only doing cardio. I am going to slowly adjust my diet. I am trying my best to give up cigarettes. I used to be at 3 packs a week. I am now at maybe 5-8 cigs a week. So that's a big jump I guess. In regards to soda, I drink about one 20 oz Mt Dew/Coke a day, I'm working on stopping that. But, everything else is fair game for the first month (especially due to the holidays).

Day 1 (yesterday)

I went to get a gym membership at Urban Active. What a joke. The prices are a little absurd and the logic behind the prices made no sense to me. But I got a free 7 day pass.

Anyways, I stretched, biked 11 miles in 30 minutes. Cooled down, and left. Today, I'm really not that sore which is suprising to me. I wanted to go do something today but decided against it because the storm last night kept me up and I wanted sleep.

Tomorrow I will be going to do something, what that is I have no clue yet.