I finally got around to having a home game again, back like I used to play. Fun, crazy games, and very little hold ’em. A while ago, I bought a book: Dealer’s Choice: The Complete Handbook of Saturday Night Poker, and we tried a few games out of there. There were two we played that I really liked.
Blacque Jacque Shellacque: Five card draw. The pot gets split between the best poker hand and the best blackjack hand. If everyone busts in blackjack, the best poker hand scoops. I scooped a pot with AAA34 for trip aces and 20.
Double Down: Five card stud. Maximum of five players. Everyone gets two down cards and two up cards to start. They arrange them into two starting hands. Everyone round, everyone gets two up cards and have to put one with each hand. Best single high hands starts the betting each round, and best single hand wins the pot. During one hand of this game, I was dealt two aces in the same round, and had to split them up. Fun game.
I highly recommend the book to everyone looking for some crazy poker. It even has a game just for Iggy: Brian Snoddy’s Midget Porn. We didn’t get to play that one, but it looks like fun. Maybe next time.
Oh, yeah. I finally got to use my table and chips that I got from ECD.
I’ve been playing in quite a few MTT tournaments lately, and not really doing too well. I wish I could blame the cards. I’m just really out of practice at these things, and trying to get back into it. I have noticed that I seem to do much better at the $5 ones as opposed to the $30 ones. It’s a very small sample size, so I don’t know if the play is just that much worse at those, or I’m just getting better cards. I have yet to make the money at a tournament at Stars since I’ve started playing again. The closest I came was in a PLO tournament when my set of aces got rivered, by only an open ended straight draw, nothing better. I was also in fourth chip position at the first break of a limit O8 tournament, but I lost half a pot when my nut low got counterfeited by one of the two aces left in the deck (I had A2xx, high cards, and he had A34x, and a flush. The ace on the river gave him a better low, and a scoop. I guess a 2 would have given that to him, too.), and I busted out shortly after.
Last night, I wanted to play in the Stars $20+2 at 8:30 that I’ve been playing in from time to time. They don’t let me register far enough in advance, so I can’t register from work before I go to bowling. Being the geek that I am, of course, I was able to register from the bowling alley with PalmVNC on my Treo. It’s not the first time I’ve done that. Anyway, I get home to find that Stars is having technical problems, and the tournament has been cancelled. I check some other sites, and see a $5+.50 at Noble starting in five minutes, and a $30+3 at Party in 20 minutes. I register for both. I’m limping along at about an average stack in the Noble tournament when the other one starts. The very first hand, I raise to 80 (10/20 blinds) from EP with AKo. I get more callers than I want. I bet 300, almost half of what I have left at the Kxx flop, with two spades. You know where this is going. I get raised, and all in on the flop. On the first hand. With the best hand, and as a very slight favorite over K7s, top pair and a flush draw. He hits his spade on the turn, and I bust on the first hand.
I decide I don’t want to play any more poker for the night, but I can’t just stand up and leave the Noble tournament. I just start pushing in every hand. Well, I do it once, and say I just want to stop playing in the chat. I have K6o. I get called in two places, flop a king, and end up making a flush with my 6, and it’s good. I triple up. Very next hand, I push in with K6o again, and show it when everyone folds. At this point, I realize it’s a rebuy tournament. There’s also an add-on after the first break. I fold one hand, and then push in again with AJs. I get called in two places, and they both have QQ. I flop a jack, but get no more help, and lose some chips. From here, I decide to play well again. I double up when my TT makes a boat against QQ. I flop a K with K8s vs QQ. I never rebuy, and don’t take the add-on. As we approach the final table (and bubble, top ten pay), I start to get card dead. Finally, I find AK and win a coinflip with it. Two more people bust, and I make it to the final table as the chip leader, and my cards dry up again. I win a few hands, and bust some shortstacks, but I drop down to second in chips. I find TT, still second in chips, but with only 11 blinds, and I run into the chip leader’s QQ, and I finish in fifth place for a $72 payout on my $5.50. I don’t stick around to see who wins.
While I was doing this, I finally cleared the 2000 hands needed for my $200 bonus at Poker Rewards. I actually made a few dollars doing it, playing .50/1 stud.
Other poker related stuff:
Barry Greenstein wins PLO WSOP Event for Charlie
World Series of Poker Live Blog
World Series of Poker Photo Gallery
World Series of Poker News
World Series of Poker Podcast
Three fairly sizable ones within a week. A 5.2 and a 5.3 south of me, and a huge 7.2 off the coast of northern California. Maybe it’s time to head somewhere else for a few months… Map.
I’m continuing to beat the $25NL game pretty well. I’m actually getting a bit bored with it, but I’m working to keep focused and play well. So far, I’ve won just over 17BB/100 over 1500+ hands, and that’s with a few pretty tough beats and a little bit of horrible (and losing, not getting lucky and taking a huge pot) play. I’m considering moving up again sooner than I had planned, because I feel like I’m back to playing as well as I was earlier in the year. In the ring games, anyway.
I’ve also been trying to get my tournament game back into shape, and failing miserably. I used to do pretty well in the $5 and $10 buyin tournaments on UB, but lately I can’t seem to do well in the ones I’ve been playing. I’ve played a few $20+2s on Stars, and their $11+rebuys tournament, and haven’t really done much of anything. In one of them (PLHE, because that’s all that was starting when I was looking to play a tournament), I busted out 34th of 277 when 27 paid. That’s the closest I’ve come to making the money in anything lately. I didn’t even play particularly well, and of course, got completely card dead in the later rounds. I’m going to keep at it, as these tournaments have some big payouts. I really did used to be pretty good.
I also played in one of the $1+0 tournaments, while waiting for others to start. I didn’t come close to the money in this one, either, but I at least felt like I played pretty well. Of course, the cheap buyin one had to be the one where I was catching cards and actually building a stack. The $532 payoff for first place would have been nice, but I finished in the mid 200s when I got rivered by a three outer. I managed to get all in with KK vs AK on a ragged flop, and I was gone when the ace hit on the river. I don’t feel bad about that one at all, and it was only $1.
I think I’m gonna keep playing the tournaments at Stars while working on my NL ring game at Party. I also really want to do the rest of the ECD (Superior, Noble) and PSO (Paradise) comps. I know some people think the bonus whoring is -EV, but I just can’t help myself. Plus, it’s definitely been a net positive for me, so far. I don’t change my game up when doing it or play tighter to try to hit the raked hand count, so I think the only difference for me is playing at different sites against different players. What’s really been keeping me from finishing them up lately is that it’s just hard to pull myself away from Party. Plus, I have no clue what I’ll do with the points I’ll get at those sites. I’m already having a hard time trying to spend the PSO points I have.
Dammit.
Vertical Horizon is touring this summer with Pat McGee Band.
Are they coming anywhere close to California? Of coourse not.
I forgot to mention in my previous post that I got to drop the hammer in that game at Chumash. I hadn’t played a hand in about an hour, and raised to $25 with one limper in front of me. I took the pot down preflop, and showed my cards. I think they could tell I was getting bored. Not too long later I busted a shortstack with AK when he flopped a flush draw against my pair of aces.
The last of my Party rakeback was posted to PSO a few days ago. I don’t know what to do with my points there now, seeing as I won’t be getting more now that Party rakeback is gone. I could just get cash, in the form of Party Poker gift certificates, but I don’t really want to do that. I like to do promotions like these to get things I wouldn’t otherwise buy. Like my poker table [2], and my nice set of Nevada Jacks chips. Any suggestions? I have 40,042 points.
I also have 700 ECD points coming in, but those are being spent on filling out my chipset.
No, this post has nothing to do with its title.
I made my way to Chumash after a miserable showing in the Lompoc doubles bowling tournament, determined to make back the $15 I lost bowling. After twenty minutes trying to find a parking spot, I started heading for the exit, and finally saw a couple of people walking to their car. I finally get into the poker room around ten, and then wait another 15 minutes for a seat at the NL game.
I sit down in the 9 seat, which I hate, because I can’t see the rest of the table well, and I constantly bang my knee against the metal box they use for the drop. I fold a couple of hands, and then look down at JJ, in late position. There’s an early position raise to $30 (2/5 blinds), and then the player to my right reraises to $60. I still have my $200 buyin sitting in front of me, have no read on the table yet, and have never played with either of these two before. Both players in the pot have a ton of chips in front of them. It was a pretty easy decision for me, and I flash my cards to the dealer, and muck. The guy in the one seat also gets a look at my cards when I do that. I never get to see their hands, but the reraiser fires out a big bet at the queen high flop, and takes it down.
Not too much later, the 3 seat opens up, so I move. The guy to my left (the initial raiser in the previous hand) has around $1200 in front of him. He would leave with nothing, after a string of second best hands against decent sized stacks, and then steaming off his last few hundred. A few hands after I move, I get dealt aces. After not getting them (while playing hold ’em) the whole weekend in Vegas, I get rockets within my first twenty minutes at Chumash. I make it $20 to go, and get a couple of callers. I bet $50 at the QJx flop, and get checkraised all-in by the one seat. For a minute I thought he might have QJ, but I call, and he turns over Q5, just top pair, no kicker. He gets no help, and I double up. I guess he figured I was tight and might fold because he saw me fold the jacks earlier.
I had bled some of my money back, from blinds and missed flops, when I get J7 in the big blind. I see a rare free flop, and it comes J7x, all spades. I want to bet, but the guy to my left doesn’t see that I have cards, and checks. Before I can say anything, it’s checked to the button, and he puts in a bet. I decide I don’t want to look too eager to have bet at it, and don’t complain. The 4 seat mucks out of turn as well, and I finally tell him that I have cards. I ask the button if he has a flush. He says yes, very unconvincingly. I call. I check-call sizable bets on the turn and river, neither of which is a spade, flip over my hand, and he mucks.
I build my stack up to a little over $700 from my $200 buyin. I decide it’s time to go home, and let the table know that it’s my last orbit. Of course, I’ve been known to say that in the past and stay four more hours, but this time I was serious. I start racking up my chips, and ask the dealer not to give me any playable hands, so I can’t lose everything I won. I get dealt A♦T♦ in middle position, and limp, with 4 others. The flop is a nice KQJ, but all black. Someone in early position bets $25. A solid player, and the only one at the table who can bust me, raises to $50. There’s now $95 in the pot, only $5 of which was mine, and I have the nuts. It folds to me, and I figure I’ve learned my lesson from flopping a full house and losing in Vegas. I’m going to take the pot down right there, and not let anyone draw at anything. I push all in for $700 into a guy who has me covered. He’s been watching me play, and has to know what I have. I put him on two pair (not a set, with no preflop raise). A pair and a flush draw or straight draw is also possible. Whatever he has, I don’t want him calling. Even if he’s only got a four outer with two pair, I just want the pot. I tell him I flopped the nuts. He finally folds, telling me he had KJ, and I flip my cards face up.
I folded a few more hands until the blinds came back around, and picked up my chips, with a nice $590 profit on the four hour session. I’ve now recovered my WPBT losses. On the way out, I registered for the Poker Extravaganza! at Chumash on July 9th. I got a $220 tournament entry, and still left the place $370 richer.
The confidence is slowly coming back.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the guy who lost all his money. He doubled up three fairly large stacks at the table (not me, sadly). One hand he had Q8 vs QT on a QQ9 flop. Another, he flopped second nut flush (queen) to the nut flush (king), with the ace on the board. A third player in that hand also had a 6 high flush. Three flopped flushes. He gave away a lot of money with KJ vs AJ when they both had top pair. He called off the rest of his chips with a draw against a set of fives, and missed. $1200 down in less than the four hours I was sitting there.
Wow, it’s hard not to feel bad for this guy. It’s also hard not to laugh, too. Then again, it’s made him famous, so…
I just played a 50 hand session of .50/1 razz at FullTilt, and made $41.85. I was getting some crazy hands, and able to get away from decent ones when I was beat. Since I’ve gotten back from Vegas, I’ve made almost as much playing low limit razz as I have in the $25NL game at Party. Obviously, I’ve been getting some good hands, but I don’t really have any idea if I’m actually playing well or not. I do really like the game, though, so I’ll be reading up on it, and playing it quite a bit more.
This trip to Vegas has really given me the blogger (and poker) bug again. I don’t remember the last time I had three posts in one day. Now I just need to learn to write well. 🙂
Update: I just got a straight flush! Playing razz. 87654 was good enough for the low, too, though. I had the straight flush in my first five cards.
Briefly played in a $20+2 Stars MTT with Joe, at the same table for a little while. With a raise and a call in front of me, I pushed in with KK, and got called by the initial raiser’s AA. Not looking good. Looked even worse after the AAx flop. Just to rub it in, a king came out on the turn. He busted shortly after when his all in with 99 was called by KJ and AQ. Hard to win against four overcards if you don’t flop a set. A jack on the flop, and he was gone.
I’ve continued to play the $25NL 6max game at Party, with reasonable results. I still have a long way to go before I feel comfortable moving up again. It’s a real shame, too, because I was absolutely killing that $100NL game before I got hurt. I’m seeing myself make stupid plays that I wouldn’t have even thought about doing 3 months ago. Seeing it before it happens, and doing it anyway. I’ll get there.
I miss Vegas.
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