Poker On Film

One Missed Call

2009-12-05T19:23:00.004+11:00

Terry Benedict: You think this is funny?
Danny Ocean: Well, Terry, it sure as shit ain't sad.
"Ocean's 13"

Since the last post I've had two very good sessions at the local casino. The first was just a solid night where there were far too many bad players at the table. I felt at ease enough to play any two cards and see what happened after that on the flop. When the overly aggressive fish tried to bluff all-in, I was there ready with a made hand. Sometimes, that made hand was only top pair, but that was good enough those times.

The best of it was that the fish had more buy ins to bring, and kept putting them on the table. I ended up well enough in front for my best night ever at this venue, and never felt uncomfortable. I also had some massive hands towards the end of the night where the river was very unkind, so it could have been much better still.

Then this past week, a bit of a hot run began for the night. First hand at a new table was pocket kings, which won a nice little pot on a continuation bet. From there, it was limp and hit, limp and hit. Overly aggressive players were prepared to shove with top pair, $160 into a $70 pot and the like, and I was only too happy to call with trips.

It wasn't great play, just hit flops and watched people bluff off their entire stacks. Within 2 hours, I was up about 3 buy ins without having to bluff once.

And it was a good table too. Nice and friendly, donkeys donating and having a laugh. Even the dealers joined in.

Of course, someone has to ruin it. A young guy sits down, and immediately he strikes me as being not too intelligent. He starts telling stories about fights he was in, scars his friends and brothers had. Total douchebag talk from start to finish. Then he even starts insulting the overly nice (and strong) player next to me. Absolutely unwarranted and unprovoked. I was pretty much ignoring him and looked forward to the inevitable chip shifting he would be doing.

On the big blind, I have 44, already well up on the night which is when I tend to get loose and start to call off chips I don't need to. There are a few limps perhaps, then the cut off makes it $12 ($2/$3 blinds). The irritating donkey on the button raises it to $15 with the worst "Oh my God I've got aces! I've got aces!" tells pouring out from his face. The dealer corrects him and makes him raise it to $21. With 44 against AA, I figure it would be stupid to call another $18 out of position and fold. A few others including the original raiser do call. He continues big talking himself - I can just about tell the suits of his aces now, the tells are that loud.

I'm sitting in the 9 seat, so the flop is partially obscured by the dealer when he lays it out. I see a 7, and then a red 4. Damn. I would have hit. The last flop card...the other red 4. Even though the irritating donkey is on the button, he announces all in for about $180 or so, way out of turn.

And I felt sick.

Not only would it has made one hell of a pot for me to drag in, it would have shut him up so good, and it would have been just the sweetest thing. Instead, he drags in a modest pot and thinks he is Doyle Brunson.

Eventually, chip by chip he gets rid of chips to every other player and I didn't see any of it. He annoyed the nice guy to my right enough to force him to move to another table. For the rest of the night, I win some minor pots but otherwise catch a case of the second-bests and give off 2/3 of the profits earned on the night. When I left I was still up a good amount, but couldn't help feeling like I let the biggest fish go free.

Everyone Has A Lesson To Teach

2009-11-14T22:27:00.002+11:00

State's Atty. Ilene Nathan: Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years and live to tell about it?
Omar: Day at a time I suppose?
"The Wire"

What a fascinating night of home game poker. We were playing a SNG with 10 players, which consisted of about 3 who didn't have a clue, 3 who only just had a clue and the rest were at a level I consider myself on. Oh, and one of them was a 9 year old girl. Yeah, she won of course.

What happened? I lost by playing badly, but I think I learnt lessons that will earn me much more money in the future. I gave people far too much credit for what they were doing, what they knew and what they were paying attention to.

Perfect example, raise preflop with TT, get called in 2 places. Flop comes AQ7, I follow up with another bet, get raised and 3rd player re-raises all-in. Ok, I'm done and much. 2nd player calls. They show 99 and K8. Hmm, very interesting.

But the lesson was in aggression, and knowing your opponents. I didn't catch on to what was going on until it was too late. By then, I loose a coin flip to a short stack on the turn (my 88 vs A9) and then loose another coin flip when I was the short stack, and away I go.

Thankfully, we played a cash game afterwards where I won back my buy in, as well as a bit extra for my time. Felt very comfortable in the cash game and tried a few more aggressive moves when the times seemed right. Worked pretty well, I think I might have to add a few weapons to my arsenal, which needs it.

Know When To Run

2009-11-10T21:41:00.004+11:00

Prot: Let me tell you something, Mark. You humans, most of you, subscribe to this policy of an eye for an eye, a life for a life, which is known throughout the universe for its... stupidity.
"K-PAX"

I made my little visit to the local casino - got dealt nothing, did nothing with it, got sucked out on and then decided I should leave with the buy-ins I had still in my pockets remaining where they were. Disciplined, I called it, and decided too that would be my best decision for the night. Not much else to do really.

One buy in went South when I made what I felt like was a great read and a good play at the time - had a loose Asian player call all in drawing to a gut-shot, of which I had one of his cards. Alas, it was his night and not mine, so it came. Pity, because he was giving away chips all night, I just never had the fortune to be in the right spot at any given time.

In the mean time, I did have the chance to read "Take Me To The River" by Peter Alson. It was very readable, but only scratched the surface and felt very forced and unremarkable for the most part. Not the worst poker book I've read, but far from the best.

Got my first Melbourne home game coming this weekend, which should be very interesting. The players include my boss' boss, his boss, and his 9 year old daughter. That will be an interesting one - even if I win, I might just loose. If I do get into a battle with the 9 year old, I must just ask her father what it would be worth to him to have me loose. Nothing like a little fixing to get the bankroll padded, right?

Maybe it's just me, but I think the players at Crown at the minute really don't know how to enjoy themselves. You're allowed to talk, you know? Have a joke even.

One instance, I don't remember the exact details but fair to say a donkey called a large all-in bet with 4th pair, soundly beaten by the four card straight on the board. I say casually to the players to my left, who seem competent, "Wow, brave call I guess." With indignation, she and her friend replay:

"Ah, no - that was a stupid call if you ask me."

Yes. You spotted the fault there, well done you. I guess I'll keep to myself from now on then.

If you can't be winning at the table, at least have fun. When that's taken away, well I already said I walked away.

From The Ashes

2009-10-30T22:35:00.003+11:00

Young Doc: No! It can't be; I just sent you back to the future!
Marty McFly: No, I know; you *did* send me back to the future. But I'm back - I'm back *from* the future.

Back to the Future: Part 2

It is amazing how sometimes, the smallest thing can trigger a thought or emotion.

You see, today I was having a small spell of depression for no real good reason. I was sitting in the common area of our office building with 2,000 other employees waiting for a presentation to begin. I thought I would occupy myself by checking my emails on my iPhone. Amongst various "Ask the seller" questions from eBay for products my mother put on my account save her learning how eBay works, was what looked like a random spam email - though it caught my eye. The from name was familiar - it said "Ignatius". The subject line also had a blast from my past on it - "Poker On Film".

Iggy had left a comment on my last post, commending me for keeping this "Old School" blog alive. Truth is Iggy - you misread the date. That date said October 2008, not 2009. I'm sorry for the confusion.

But I felt proud that Iggy read my blog, and called it "Old School". That made me feel like the years I put into it were worth while. I certainly believed that at the time too - but this little comment brought those back to me. So while the modest praise from the Blogfather was miss placed, I vow to return to the poker blogging world from here on - nearly 1 year to the day since my last post.

So - what has happened in the Poker On Film world in the last 12 months?

Non-poker:

The little distraction is running around the place, and is the highlight of everyday. She's so happy and full of energy. She is learning to speak.
The other Distraction - she's 8 weeks away from adding to our family. Child number 2 is due just before Christmas, and we're already running a book on the birthdate (I'm on the 26th, 3 days overdue)
My new job is exactly what I needed. And wanted. And now, I'm even been given enough rope to go out and explore ways to expand on my job. Freedom to do as I please, and have the confidence placed in my work and abilities to carry out my new plans. Don't get me wrong, it's not all perfect - but from where I was before, this is paradise.

And poker:

Still playing - less frequently than before, but still playing.

So why did I stop? I got busy. I am embarrassed to say I became a stereotype of a poker blogger. I had a loosing session, the biggest of my career, and the first time I dropped over $1,000 in a session. Then, no more posts.

Well, it wasn't exactly like that. I was determined not to go that way. I did type up a post, but then had multiple errors and computer failures, making the task of getting my finished post up. A week delayed turned into a month, turned into 2 months. I got busier. I was enjoying my work, and finding less time to read other poker blogs. Less need to - before, all the other blogs was a chance for me to escape from the drudgery of my job, and indulge in a passion. Poker was my passion. Still is. However, now I didn't need that escape any more. I had a job I enjoyed, visible opportunities to expand, and unmeasurable motivation to make this into a career.

Just as many wrongs came my way in previous employment, I was certainly a contributing factor to them. However, even though it takes two to tango so to speak, I was punished the most. Probably rightly so in the end. After feeling that, I knew it was time to grow up and accept that I had to make things happen. Might be a few years, perhaps even a decade or two, too late, but progress is on the way.

I certainly didn't give up poker though. The games are a little less frequent, online and live. I did re-visit a few poker blogs during this years WSOP...and a few twitter accounts as well that have become all the rage since I left. I was a happy observer of all the poker blogs I used to read daily.

I didn't restart mine though. I didn't feel the need. I didn't feel justified either, as I was playing so little poker myself. But the way Iggy's little comment made me feel...well, this just might be back on the agenda now.

I'm also blogging and twittering on a corporate level now too, so reviving this blog does serve those purposes as well, by reacquainting me the practice and honing a few skills. Well, that's the idea anyway.

And I have reason for it as well. Turns out, one of my bosses at work is a bit of a poker fan. Not a week goes by now where I don't have an offer to visit the local casino for a game. I don't go every week, but the offer is there.

I had one session that reminded me of the old Sydney home games. Fond memories. I shared them with the guys I used to play with. While I missed those times, as I said to my poker buddies I feel more blessed to have been able to have those times in the first place.

The good news, poker wise, is that my proud record of having my biggest winning session being larger than my biggest loosing session, and by some margin. I'm still playing similar limits, a little higher but not by much. Still enjoying it.

A few months ago, after some car troubles I was in need of some repairs to the radio so I would have something to listen to on my way to and from work. In the mean time, I decided to search for some podcasts on poker (featuring an Idol of mine, Dr Pauly no less), and download them to the iPhone (which, I should add, is being paid for by the new job. What a score!) to listen to on the journey. Along the way, I came across Poker Road Radio - and I've been hooked for the past 3 months at least. My car radio still remains unfixed because of that. Two Jacks - love the show. I even got a kick out of PRR when Joe Stapleton read out a comment I left on his account on Pokertableratings.com. What a thrill that was for me - I am a vein beast at times. I mean that honestly, I was well chuffed.

So I've made my return to the blogsphere with a bit of a ramble. I will try to keep this revival going on more on topic in future.

I do wish to apologize again to Iggy for leading him astray with my slackness. I would have never started blogging in the first place if I hadn't found his blog in the first place.

But more so - thank you. Leaving that little comment really gave me a pick up. Thank you.

Minimum Risk, Minimum Reward

2008-10-30T18:23:00.001+11:00

Sherman: I am the Sherminator, a sophisticated Sex-Robot sent through time to change the future for one lucky lady.
Nadia: I am lucky lady?
Sherman: That's right Nadia, you've been targeted for Shermination. Come with me if you want to live.
"American Pie 2"

I have been playing a heap of poker of late, and getting the expected up and down results. I had a big gambling weekend last week with a big sports bet getting up on Friday night and then a 2nd place in a MTT on Saturday night (got a bit excited with 63o when heads up, lost to A6h). I lost most of the winnings in the cash games thanks to a few bits of bad luck and the like, but I'm still up thanks to some solid play after the felts.

I have also had the chance to play in the cash games with other people watching, and discussing the hands once they have been included has been very beneficial. Especially when we speak about why we made a play at this pot, why call here and what we think the other player had. It's good to bounce these ideas around and see what works, and also to hear that someone else agrees with the method to your madness.

I am finding that a heap of people are buying in for the minimum all the time - why is that? I don't like this strategy at all. They buy in for the minimum, wait for a hand and then try to double up - which in itself sounds ok but there are some other factors that make this a real bad play. For example, last night new guy to the table buys in for the minimum and sits to my right - I have 10 times the chips in front of me that he does, so when he does come in for a raise, I'm happy to call with rags because even if I am dominated, the most I am going to loose is a pittance. And if I hit, he is already very close to pot committed.

So it happens - I call with rags and flop 2 pair, felts the player. So then he rebuys, and it happens again a few hands later (by someone else this time). And he auto-rebuys again. But why? If you have the money, you may as well play properly. Eventually I flop a set and the guy goes all-in and I call, he hits runner-runner for a better full house and doubles up to be still down a buy-in, and then cashes out.

Oh well, don't tap the glass I guess.

We had 2 prop bets going on the game - first player to get dealt aces and first player to crack aces, I lost on both which meant even though I was in front for the entire session, I ended up breaking even thanks to these props.

It was great though, having a massive session online which has not happened in a very long time, and still being very social about it. This helps since I have moved down to Melbourne away from all my poker playing friends in Sydney.

Planning another trip to the casino this weekend, depending on how things go it might even be a few trips. I made a cash out of online funds again because the Aussie Dollar dropped so low than all the funds invested in online poker under my name gained something like 25%-40% in the space of about a month. It felt good to have a proper live bankroll again.

Hawthorn

2008-10-02T18:32:00.000+10:00

Dudley: Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment?
Ed: Dudley, we've been over this.
Dudley: Yes or no, Edmund?
Ed: No.
Dudley: Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty?
Ed: No.
Dudley: Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some...lawyer...
Ed: No.
Dudley: Then, for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kinds of choices.
"L.A. Confidential"

Russ Hamilton, hey? Tip of the ice berg stuff I feel. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

It feels like it has been a long time, but I finally pulled out first place in a SNG. Nothing major, no big stakes, no massive field. Just a simple little single table sin n go, and I took first place. I am getting very comfortable with my end game in these tournament type situations, but haven't had the luck to get over the line in the past. I thought it was going to happen again.

Through some selective play, I manage to get to heads up just behind in chips. As can be the case a lot of the time, you make more money (and chips in this case) by taking advantage of other peoples mistakes than you do from your own good play. We've been going back and forth a bit, with the odd pre-flop raise that usually gets a fold. Nothing serious yet. I get 62d on the small blind, and try to limp. He checks his option and we go to a flop with me in position now.

Flop comes nothing special, something like queen high with just the one diamond. Opponent checks, and I check as well. The turn comes a second diamond. I still have nothing but six high, but at least I have a chance at something now. For the first time in the hand, he bets out. T600 into T600, and I have T6000 left. So of course I call, no need for me to get too excited just yet. The river brings me my flush, but otherwise the board is nothing special. He bets out T2500. I only have to think for a moment, and really I can't push all-in here because only a better flush would call me and anything else would fold anyway. I just call, and see that he had KK for a slow play that went terribly wrong.

Did I get lucky? Not really. He just got stupid, and I guess a little unlucky. When we were heads up, I didn't try to slow play once. I made sure if he saw a flop, it was for a raise if I was ahead, or figured I should be ahead. I do see what he was trying to do, waiting for that check-raise (which I had nailed once or twice before with top pair, and not just against him) but in this case it backfired badly.

I thought my luck had changed, but then a pre-flop all-in from me and a call had me well in front with AKc vs A9o. Nine on the flop - thank you very much. At least my chip lead was so dominant that I still had him 2-1 after that double up.

About this time, the little Distraction woke up, and when she wakes up hungry she makes sure everyone knows about it. There is only one thing that will stop that little siren, and that's food. The Distraction and I go into "Get Steffi Food Now" mode, but I am heads up in a SNG and need the money. I get the formula warmed up and in the little princess' mouth without timing out, but then go into immediate push or fold mode, Aces and Faces as they say. I get a suited queen, push to see an ace and a little card. I hit the queen, everyone is all over and I've finally won one. It felt good not to bust out in second for a change.

It would be amiss for me not the mention the mighty Hawks. Big underdogs on the weekend, they came to play in the AFL grand final and took the trophy from Geelong, all because the Cats were not used to being put under that much pressure. They made too many mistakes, while the Hawks limited theirs. I knew Hawthorn could win, but I didn't't know if they would. I have been such a sports betting donkey that I even considered putting money against Hawthorn - so that even if they lost, at least I would have something to celebrate.

Truth be told, I wanted to put money on Hawthorn to win this year way back in February. I was born the year my father's team won the premiership (what my North American friends would call the "championship", we Australians call a "premiership"), and I figured my team could win the year the little Distraction was born. I had set aside $100 to put on Hawthorn after week 3. We had a slew of stars that had been suspended the year before that would miss the first few games of the season. We were paying $11 at the start of the year, and I figured the price would go higher after round 3. Well, in round 1 the Hawks had a 100+ point win, and look like gold from then, never getting below third on the ladder for the season. The $11 price never got lower either, and I never put the bet on. Damn, that grand would have been nice this time of year too.

I also said 3 weeks ago to put $20 on Hawthorn to win the AFL into Manly to win the NRL, paying 20-1. I didn't't get the bet on for what ever reason - Hawks go on to win, and this weekend Manly are the favourites to take out the NRL. They'll get up to I reckon. Just another missed opportunity, but I guess we only remember the ones that would have won after we didn't bet, not the other way around.

Learning Curve

2008-09-27T11:06:00.000+10:00

Ronald: Did it look at you? Did the fire look at you? It did. Whoa. Wow. Our worlds aren't that far apart after all, are they? So, whoever is doing this knows the animal well, doesn't he? He knows him real well, but he won't let him loose. He won't let him have any fun, so he does not love him. Now who doesn't love fire? And is around trychtichlorate all day long?
Brian: Oh my God!
Ronald: See... that wasn't such a long trip after all.
"Backdraft"

I am no stranger to loosing streaks. They come and visit from time to time, and even though I'v been playing poker and cards for some time, I still get a little bit affected by them. They can drain confidence as well as the bank roll, and both took a beating recently.

But then I had a little ray of hope, thanks to a donkey fest $1 tournament on Stars - and I wasn't even playing. We managed to hook up the laptop to the big plasma screen, because online poker is that exciting that you should share it with the whole family. Actually, though that last sentence was sarcastic, it isn't that bad playing tournament poker with the family that way, few drinks in tow.

We were doing ok in this tournament, and I often get referred to for perceived difficult decisions because my sickness to the poker beast is well known. The rest of the family are fairly new to the game and their understanding of what to do when - and most importantly why - is limited somewhat (though I must say my younger brother is really getting good, thanks to working in a casino and reading SuperSystem).

What helped me was when the referred decisions to me, I knew what to do and could explain why you do it without thinking. These were not earth shattering ideas or moves, but they were automatic almost for me. They could be explained quickly and succinctly, and made sense to everyone. It felt good that they worked too, most of the time.

First one, pocket jacks on the button - I say you should raise the 3 limpers in front of you with position, make it 4BB. The Distraction (who was actually the one playing) did so, and two called. The flop was low rags, and the pot was T950, with us having T1100 left. Check - check - what would you do? I say push, there is nearly a thousand chips out there and we want them, we have every right to believe we're ahead, and an over card on the turn will make us doubt that. She shoved all-in, they both folded, we get in a good position.

Unfortunately, it was about this time that the Little Distraction got a bit upset, and we had to tend to her needs. My mum took over, and made a crucial error. With blinds getting higher, she made a good pre-flop raise to T500 with big slick. Another player went all-in after her for an extra T900, and she thought she should fold it. I reckon throw it in there, if you are dominated then so be it, this is a tournament after all. But that and some cold cards made us into short stack territory - all in or fold time.

With AsTs, I said it was time to shove it all in, despite a small raise from a player in front. With only 9BB, it made sense. The original raiser was the only caller, and they had two red sevens. That is about the best we could have hoped for - apart from the Ace that landed on the flop. Turn was a blank, but the river brought the seven of clubs and we're going home. Damn, lost to yet another set. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So we didn't even win any money, finished 100 or so places off the pace, but I felt a little confidence rise none the less.

Mind you, if a certain Brownlow medal bet got up on Monday night, I'd be on cloud nine. Instead, I lost my biggest sports bet ever, eclipsing the previous biggest sports bet loss which was also on the Brownlow medal a few years ago. I think I should have learnt something from this...

I've Been Set Up

2008-09-22T18:35:00.002+10:00

Batty: Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
"Bladerunner"

I went through an online session that had me convinced I had pissed off the poker demons some how. In the space of just a few hours, I lost decent pots to flopped or turned sets at an alarming rate. It was getting so that I almost folded KK on a 943 rainbow flop when my opponent led out. He went all in for a little over $10 and I had $20 left ($15 in the pot). I felt sure he had 99 for a flopped set of nines yet again, but called anyway because I figured I was pot committed, and more so I was on tilt from being beaten by too many sets. So I call, and he surprises me by showing 33.

Though I didn't think so at the time, it was kind of funny how regular it was happening - and from all corners of the table. To go with the one above, here are the hands that lost to sets in the space of 2-3 hours with some brief details.

AK vs 99 - AK9 flop.
AQ vs 99 - A94 flop, Q turn.
KK vs 33 - as above
TT vs 88 - 8-high flop.
AJ vs 33 vs 55 - J53 flop, both were shortstacks and pushed after I bet pot on the flop.
T7 vs 99 - Flop comes K77...4...9!
67s vs 33 - flop comes 3s9s2s, I bet out he calls. Turn comes 2h. He pushes, I call and weep.
KJ vs 55 vs K9 - flop comes K95, but I was on tilt by now and called anything anyway.
77 vs A6d - Flop has 2 diamonds, no betting. Turn is the 7d, I bet he calls. River didn't pair the board.

And just some others that made me feel great.
23h vs KK - First hand, he raised UTG to T30, I re-raised to T200. He calls. Flop is 345, no hearts. He pushes, I call and the turn is a 6.
AK vs 73o - short stack in ring game pushes pre-flop with 73o, I call and one other. Flop comes 777.

So it wasn't happy days. All of this happened at a new site I was trying, and I think I'll leave it alone. Back to where I belong at Full Tilt and Pokerstars would be a good move.

I did go deep in a Full Tilt knockout tournament. After waiting for some hands to come, I managed to get around the leaders with about 150 to go. Then, things ran well as I bullied and knocked out the small stacks. If they went all in with AJ, I called with AK. Actually, AK was being far too nice to me on the night, and may have been the reason why I ended up getting all those beats I mentioned before. Karma works that way.

Pretty soon I was in the chip lead, and then had daylight second as I would not let anyone see the turn without putting all their chips at risk (if I had already hit). I was winning pots regularly with continuation bets or just second pair, and rarely had to bluff or represent something I didn't have. The chips built, and as we got closer to the final table I relaxed a bit and folded through to still have the chip lead when the final 9 were decided.

Other players dropped away regularly, and I had a hand in a few of them. By now, the blinds were big and I had surrendered the chip lead, which was then passed around regularly. I started to hit some hands again and went back into bully mode, and found a lot of pots being pushed my way without the trouble of a showdown. When we got heads up, I managed to get the lead and put my opponent all-in when I had him dominated twice (AJ vs KJ and then 88 vs 56s), but wasn't able to put him away. Eventually, I lost a coin flip pre-flop all-in with something like A6 vs K9 and was sent away in second. I really wanted the win, as this year has been a year of second places for me, but I'll take the money and be happy.

The Eagle Has Landed

2008-09-08T20:34:00.000+10:00

Dr. Bill Harford: Are you sure of that?
Alice Harford: Am I sure? Only as sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth.
Dr. Bill Harford: And no dream is ever just a dream.
”Eyes Wide Shut”

Crazy times I tell you. I have played poker, won and lost, over the past few weeks. But the most important thing is I have ended the employment search with a job I can do well, in an industry I have wanted to be in for some time, with one of the biggest companies in Australia – so I was pretty happy with that outcome.

Which means the Distractions and I have left Sydney for permanent residence in Melbourne. At the moment, this means moving back in to my parents house – and while financially this is a pretty good deal, with a 5 month old baby I would prefer if we had a place of our own very quickly. But we’ll see how all that pans out.

I had one final home game session in Sydney last week – one where I made sure I had a driver to and from the game, so I could have a few drinks and enjoy myself for the last time at the venue without having to worry about driving home drunk. I’m glad I made the arrangements, because I ended up drinking nearly double what I have ever drank before in one sitting. I was feeling ok – slurred speech to be sure, but mental faculties pretty much intact – until I put down the last drink at 7.30am and got up to leave. Man, that can hit you all at once can’t it? The end result was 2 ½ days of recovery when we should have been packing, something the Distraction is yet to forgive me for.

But back to the poker at hand – I was in the mood to gamble and saw my first 3 buy ins go south before I had anything to brag about. I got myself in a few favourable situations, got lucky once, and managed to eek out a profit despite giving away some money towards the end in deals.
One hand of interest was calling an average raise preflop with JTs. Flop comes Jack high and the shortstack ($25) bets out $10. I figure if I call $10, I am essentially committing to call $15 next card because that is the only move he has left. He won’t fold and I doubt he’ll check it down. Top pair, weak kicker isn’t a great hand by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought about it some and figured if I am going to call $3-4 preflop with JT, why would I muck it when it hit? This kind of flop is really something that should interest JT – it would defeat the purpose to throw it away now, wouldn’t it?

I was pretty much doing this thinking out loud, and decided that since I was first to act on the turn, I could call now and throw it all in then to see what happens for the short stack. I am convinced now without the alcoholic haze that I played the hand wrong, but that is what happened. The turn was a useless 2, 3 or 4 – something low like that. I don’t know what I was waiting for, but threw my chips in straight away – in my mind, they were already in the pot anyways. Then the short stack has to think about calling – and this is when I realise my hand is good. He starts talking crap saying he thinks I’ve hit a set, and then he says he has Queens. I use what I think is one of the best bluffs you can ever use at the poker table – be honest. “You’ve got Queens? Wow – queens are good, you should call!”. Of course, he doesn’t have queens but was just testing the waters. Eventually he calls with a lower pocket pair that has missed. Brock on the river and I had a nice pot that gave me some chips to play with.

It was one of those hands where I think we both played the hand very poorly, but it seemed interesting to me none the less. Hey, I could tell you about all the great hands I play all the time, but where is the variety in that? Who wants to hear about perfect play all the time?
I was keen to gamble, like I said, and was very active in prop bets on the night – always taking the worst of the bet and trying to get better odds for it. When another player had a $5 bet on a game of rugby on the TV, I bought 20% of his action for $1 just to be involved. Because hey, why the hell not?

The biggest pot I gave away was three way all-in where I had JsJc vs Ako vs AhTh – the flop was 9h4h4s I think, or something similar. As it was getting late, I had worked up to back to near even and we were offering chops left and right, a 3-way chop was offered by one of the other guys. I said I was in front so I should get a benefit first, but someone else claimed even though I was in front, AhTh was favourite. I don’t think that is right, but I didn’t run the odds then and I haven’t had a chance to since as yet. Anyway, I took $5 out of the pot (over $150) and then we chopped it. I was being overly nice, but I knew that and was happy to keep the game going. We rabbit hunted anyway and the turn card was a heart – but it was the jack of hearts meaning I had a full house and would have both opponents drawing dead. But anyway, you live with the choices you make.

After everyone else had to leave early for a variety or reasons, the host and I hung around to make the most of my leave pass before I turned into a pumpkin. We played heads up (which I won convincingly, somehow) and then a bit of backgammon (which I also won, through sheer skill and determination). I’ve never enjoyed heads up much, but it seemed a fitting end to my Sydney poker playing experiences. I left the game in front for the session and more than content on the poker playing front for the week.

I am not sure when I will next get to play a game, but I have been dabbling in online poker since then in small burst – nothing special to report on.

Being in Melbourne does have it’s advantages besides the better poker room at Crown Casino. It also allows me regular access to AFL games, and in particularly the current finals series. Since being in Melbourne I have been to two Hawthorn games already – the second being their Qualifying final win over the Bulldogs last Friday night. I won’t be attending the Preliminary final in 2 weeks because my grandparents will be up to visit the small distraction, and so family comes first in this kind of thing. Truth be told, I’m looking forward to that anyway, so it isn’t a loss really.

I have been able to reverse fortunes somewhat in my sports betting stakes of late. I have decided to quit the multis and instead just concentrate on winning one bet at a time. I’ve gone 3 for 3 since that decision, and accompanied with the decision to increase the betting size slightly things have taken a turn for the better on that front. Having said that, I fully expect the streak to come to a screaming halt now that I have mentioned it.

Last thing before I leave for today, have a quick look at this site below – it tracks online poker players in all the major rooms, and will show the replay of the crazy high stakes hands from the rooms. Check it out at http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse. Have some fun with that, I did mucking around on that site.

I Don't Need Nothin'

2008-08-10T20:11:00.000+10:00

Navin R. Johnson: Well I'm gonna to go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this.
[picks up an ashtray]
Navin R. Johnson: And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that's all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair.
[walking outside]
Navin R. Johnson: And I don't need one other thing, except my dog.
[dog barks]
Navin R. Johnson: I don't need my dog.
“The Jerk”

Well, besides a real lack of posting things have been very hectic. I guess I’ve got a lot to say for once, so let’s go through it all with the promise that poker will feature in it.

Friday two weeks ago, I get called in for a standard meeting first thing in the morning with the CEO. The meeting was very quick, basically saying I didn’t have experience in three key areas of the company that I needed. Which was a bit weird, because I never claimed to have this experience when I was hired, but I guess when you are at a place with 150% turnover in 9 months, and that includes a new boss that wasn’t the one that hired me, these things tend to happen.

Not to worry, because I didn’t really care for the job that much – I took it as a pay increase, but had no other investment in it besides that. So I as offered the chance to “explore other opportunities”. I think I would have preferred it if they just said fired, but anyway that’s the way it goes.

And what did I do? I agreed with them. I wouldn’t have hired me either. The job was totally different to what I was sold on when I interviewed for it. This fact was backed up by the second in charge, as he was in the same boat in that respect (damn recruiters). I said no worries, thanks anyway and what do we do now? And that’s when it got a little weird.

I’m not sure, but maybe I was the first person this CEO has ever had to fire. I got that feeling a few times with a few instances before. So I was thanked for my professionalism and dignity in the whole process. It was nothing – I’m not going to storm out swearing or anything like that – what would be the point of that? What is the expected value of that play?

So they asked me to go upstairs and type up a letter for the auditors that were coming in that day, to say that it would be my last day. Yep, I had to type up my own termination letter. My sacking was first thing in the morning at a scheduled meeting, so they knew what was happening, couldn’t that be prepared earlier? And to boot, I had to re-type it because it wasn’t addressed to the CEO. What bullshit.

I wasn’t too concerned, and in truth I had already lined up an interview in Melbourne the next week. I told them as much, but I’m not sure why.

So anyway, while I’m doing this the CEO and the second in charge had a meeting with another member of staff (not getting fired) and when they get out of the meeting the other staff member says “I hear you are leaving us for Melbourne?”…Yeah, ever since I was fired 15 minutes ago. I get the feeling now that they made it look like I quit to the other staff. How weird is that?

I still had to hang around, typing up some handover notes because I did a lot of IT stuff that no one else has a clue about and a bunch of passwords that only I could remember for some reason. So I do, just thinking about getting home and getting a new job.

When the CEO and the 2IC come up, they announce were going out to lunch at 12. Me included. Yep, they fired me and then wanted to take me out to lunch to celebrate. What the hell is up with that? I said if it’s all the same, I’d rather just say good bye and go home.

Which brings me to the quote this post – The Jerk. Since my first day at the job I said we needed new office chairs. If you are spending 8-10 hours a day in the chair, you need to be comfortable. But these things were older than I was, and it actually hurt. My chair was broken, and then one day it was completely broken. That was 3 months in, and I figured that either they were never going to replace them, or if I brought in my office chair from home at least it would send a message. So I did, because my chair was an awesomely comfortable leather chair that cost only $90. Surely this would send the message? Alas, not to be. When I was fired, I was still using that chair. So I cleaned out my desk, and started to giggle. All I could think about was that scene from The Jerk which the quote above is pulled from – and I knew noone else in the office would understand. I missed working with people my own age – or people I could talk and relate to.

When I look back on it, a lot of other little things add up to more reasons why I was never going to succeed in the first place – some of them environmental, others political and personal. While it was a bit of an ego hit, I was glad to be out of there. I had a presentation to do at a conference that afternoon and I really didn’t want to do it. Getting fired gets you out of that I discovered.

By that night, the car was packed and we made our way to Melbourne. In the past two weeks I’ve been going to every interview that will take me – some good, some not so good. I’ve got one really solid lead going at the moment so fingers crossed. In a few weeks we’ll go back to Sydney and clean out the place. It will be really sad because we won’t be able to hang out with all our friends up there very often anymore. I’ll miss the regular home game, even though I haven’t played much since the little distraction was born.

Since moving to Melbourne I’ve had more free time obviously. So I really got back into online poker over the past 2 weeks. I started good and then got that old sinking feeling as the bad beats started to flow. And then I decided to just muscle up do some good after having my account of Stars down to $2.50. I was not going to loose.

I enrolled in a tournament, got to the final table and made some money. That allowed me to go into a larger SNG, and I split the winnings with 2nd place. I went into another tournament, another final table appearance. I went into a 9 table SNG, I end it heads up and didn’t get much luck and go out in second. In 2 days, I have turned that final $2.50 into $150, inch by inch. And it was fun too – ok, os it’s not going to become the new job, but I think I really needed some good results because after the job and then some horrid bad beats, I needed a win from somewhere.

So here I am, playing poker more than I have in a long time, and each day looking over multiple job websites looking for more work. We’ve got some money saved up that could see us through to the end of the year, but hopefully something comes up before then.

And there are always other ways to make money off poker…like affiliate deals! I believe me, I have some of the best. If you feel like doing a fellow poker blogger a solid, consider signing up to Casino On Net, Pacific Poker, Lucky Ace Casino or Lucky Ace poker through me. Send me an email, and I’ll make sure you get something out of it too. And again, thanks for reading. Maybe my posting will become a little more common now that unemployment kicks in.

Lack Of Posting

2008-07-25T17:55:00.002+10:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I have actually played some poker since the last post (2 hands, won them both, then cashed out) but that is not the reason for my absense. Things have been very hectic lately, and to cut a long story short I've found myself out of a job. Might be some tough times ahead and poker doesn't fit in now, even less than before. Alas, solider on we must. When you've got a losing hand, you just gotta muck it and wait for the next one to be dealt. We'll see what happens, stay tuned.

Still A Sports Betting Donkey

2008-07-07T15:32:00.000+10:00

David Walsh: I've never been one to judge a book by its cover. Unless, of course, the cover of the book reads: "The Guy Sitting Next To Me Just Shit Himself".
”Employee of the Month”

It’s official, I am cursed when it comes to sports betting. I made what I thought were some great picks that came through for a multi, only to have it fall over a the final hurdle when the bottom placed Melbourne Demons got only their second win for the season. I can’t seem to take a trick in these things, and it seems like a good time to pull the pin.

That, or the bookies here are setting too tight odds and I have to parlay in order to get a decent return for my bets. Or maybe I just suck. Yeah, I’m thinking the later.

I haven’t followed the World Series Of Poker this year as much as previous years, though last year my interest did decline slightly. I don’t put it down to a poker recession, poker is doing just fine. Maybe tournament poker is lacking a little interest. Maybe, even more specifically, tournament texas holdem is just getting a little stale?

For me it is more that I am interested in cash games these days. There seems to be more skill involved for mine, and it seems more realistic as to actual play. Essentially, tournaments come down to “Oh well, I have to shove it all in and hope for the best” and we’ve seen every coin flip and one outer there is since the poker boom. Cash games offer more possibilities to me – the deals you can do and such, the stupid side bets – and the constant nature of the game means you can have some more fun and not be risking sitting out for the remainder should one hand not go your way. I’m glad to hear though that the main event has settled down a little bit, in regards to the chair standing idiots that ESPN shows more often than not.

I’ve checked in on Wikipedia every now and then to see who won a bracelet, but that’s about it for this year. It’s just not the same for a casual fan like myself anymore. Though when the coverage comes on ESPN later this year, I will be more interested in the $50K event than the main event, which has been a trend I believe since the $50K event was added a few years ago. This needs more recognition by Harrahs than it does get already. It’s really the only other bracelet that means something besides being a bracelet tally.

Sports Betting Donkey

2008-06-23T12:31:00.001+10:00

Muhammad Ali: Gonna get me some Champ Burgers.
“Ali”

I had a visit over the weekend – or I should say, the little distraction has a visit – from my brother and his girlfriend which came to Sydney to stay. Both of them are dealers at the biggest casino in Australia. Due to our gambling laws, there is only one casino per city and so because they work there, they can not gamble there. Being around gambling for so much of their life, they like to have a punt every now and then. Again, seeing as our little distraction keeps us at home for the majority of the time, getting out to the casino in Sydney was not going to happen. So, as we settled down to watch a few games of footy, we decided to put some sports bets on to make things interesting.

After he bet on his team in the first bet of the day, he was on a free roll for the rest of the festivities. We started making multi’s covering Euro 2008 soccer, cricket, football and greyhound racing. I still say we suffered too many bad beats and were due a win (how the hell could van Nistelrooy miss that chance at the 26’ mark?). Things were not going our way, but it did make watching the games interesting.

Take for example the Collingwood vs Bulldogs AFL game on Sunday. We had a bet on that the second quarter(or period for my North American friends) would be the highest scoring of the game. So, in the first quarter the ball would go near the goals and we would be cheering for the defenders. As soon as they got the ball over half way, we would switch teams. Come the second quarter, we changed our ways and started cheering for which ever team was attacking. Through some very sloppy set shots on goal, the second quarter only managed 55 points – which was good, but not good enough. In the third quarter, both teams displayed silky smooth skills and near flawless goal kicking to score collectively 11 goals 2 points for 68 points. Even though that one went down, it still made watching the game more fun. We managed to leave a little bit in the account so I guess we’ll reinvest next weekend.

They are also big poker fans, and got some online poker in while they were here. Even though I was only looking over their shoulder, it was still fun to get back into it a bit. I think they won their way into a WSOP satellite tournament, so if they manage to beat out 10,000 others then one of them will be off to Vegas. I wonder if Australian casino employees can qualify for the casino employees event or if that is just for Vegas folk? The latter I assume…

Again for my North American friends, I’ve found a US Poker site that shows you which online poker rooms are US friendly, as well as general reviews and offers and the like. Well worth a browse for interested players.

Televised Poker

2008-06-16T13:30:00.001+10:00

Bob: Harvard's Memory Loss Clinic, established in 1952, 1967, and for the first time in 1981.
”Mr Show with Bob and David”

Is it just me, or is the decision to delay the final table of the main event at the world series the worst decision ever made? Televised poker has taken a beating in the last few years, and every effort has been made to saturate the market to the point of shark jumping. But now, I reckon we might have reached the zenith. It won’t be long before interviews will be granted mid-hand to a player before they make a decision to call or fold.

The broadcasting of the main event final table has never suffered because the results were already known – we still watched to see how they won and what the other players were holding. If the main event wasn’t already diluted as the pinnacle tournament in the poker world, it is now. Bring on the $50K horse event!

Game Show Network isn’t going to carry High Stakes Poker or the World Poker Tour, but it looks like Poker After Dark will turn towards some cash games. I think this is good, because PAD and HSP are the better televised poker programs going around at the minute.

On my personal poker news, the for the first time last week I actually felt like I missed poker. I was in a pattern of going to work Friday and thinking about the home game that night all day long – and I knew I couldn’t do it this time. But with the little Distraction putting in some consistent hours sleep together, there is a chance in a month or so I can resume some poker action.

I Can Has Poker?

2008-06-12T11:44:00.000+10:00

Ernest Menville: Where did you put my wife?
Second Doctor: She's dead, sir. They took her to the morgue.
Ernest Menville: The morgue? She'll be FURIOUS!
”Death Becomes Her”

For the first time in over 2 months, I played a full night of poker, and it hurt. Not chips wise – I ended up in front – but I was really looking for a place to lay my head when 5am came around. I guess forgetting to bring the red bull along didn’t help either.

The game was good, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves for the most part of it. I had a yo-yo night at the start, trying to play some silly hands just for laughs and getting caught. I lost two buy ins before things turned my way and then I was well in front before going cold for the last hour or so.

Big hands never came, but I had to work really hard for some of the pots to get others to fold. I was really happy with the way I played, all things considered. Maybe some time away from the tables has actually helped my game. I did pick up on some tells of my own when it came to river bets – a certain consistent amount was a value bet, and another was a bluff. By this time though it was early morning and I guess others were not as observant as they normally would be.

Getting out to play is very difficult these days, as is trying to play online when at any moment I could be called away for baby duties. I don’t think the Distraction will take “But I’ve flopped two pair!” as a valid excuse for neglecting fatherly duties. Well, at least not twice.

The stupid hands I was playing was 23 off suit and 63 off suit, both just because that is what is done in these games. 23 is always played on a certain players big blind, and 63 is played anytime I can come in for the first raise. It is a home game after all, you’ve got to have your fun.

Biggest hand of the night was when I kind of got caught trying to put a move on a player I felt was weak in the hand, and they called. I was right, they were weak and had only second or third pair, which left me with the nut flush draw, a gut shot straight and two overcards. Lotsa outs in other words – and the flush came. I don’t think I was under break ever after that point.

So my reads were pretty good, I made hands when I needed to and got just as lucky as I was unlucky. Had some fun talking shit with the other guys – such as what would you do if you won $59 million dollars – and all in all just enjoyed the chance to get out and play again. I haven’t felt like it was missing from my life, but it was nice none the less.

Greatest Time Waster Ever

2008-06-03T10:41:00.002+10:00

Charlie: I'm asking for an example of one of these dumb fucks being a dumb fuck.
"Nurse Betty"

It may actually happen this week - I put in a full night of poker as both my distractions head to the inlaws so they can have their chance to hold and hug and what not. I haven't really missed my time away from the tables, but then again I haven't really had a chance to miss it.

What I have been doing though is one of the greatest time wasters ever - called INCIT. You have to go through some crap to sign up, but after that load up incit and have a go putting motivational captions on random photos. Be prepared for a fair amount of profanity and captions that will surely send you straight to hell - it is the internet after all.

I could spend hours there, and have, and just reading the other submissions for when the funny comes in.

At times, there are not enough people on to play, and you have to pick your times but as it is relativly new there are more people coming every day. Worth a look, trust me once you get past the little log in game thing, it's worth it.

Understanding Omaha

2008-05-25T09:07:00.000+10:00

Understanding Omaha

Omaha is one of the fastest growing poker games online, and very popular among high-stakes pros. It’s a variation of Texas Hold’em where players have four cards to work with and must use exactly two of these cards with three of the five board cards to make their hand. While this seems simple, the strategies of the game can be very different. If you want to try Omaha, it can be found at all the best US Poker sites.

Starting Hands in Omaha

Although when you start out playing Omaha it may seem that any four cards are sufficient to enter a pot with, you should really only come into a hand if all four of your cards are working together. Hands with one or two low cards should be folded summarily, even when together with a big pair. Exceptions might be if the low card gives you two of a suit with the other one being a king or ace. Three or four of a kind in your hand must also be folded at the first opportunity, since you can only use two of the cards in your hand, and the matching cards are dead.

Flexibility of Omaha Hands

Some hands in Omaha are particularly desirable for their straight possibilities. A hand like 9 T J Q, called a wrap, is appealing because there are many ways it can make a straight, even though you can only use two cards. Similarly, double suited hands, like As Ts Kd 8d, are appealing for their ability to make flushes two different ways.

Strength of Omaha Hands

Since so many cards are in play, the strongest hands are usually needed to win at a full table of Omaha. If the board is paired, you can expect a full house to be the best hand, so you should throw away your straight or flush. Even if you make a flush, you should have one of the highest ones to win, since the majority of the cards in your suit will often be in the hands of other players.

Still Boosting Cars

2008-05-06T13:37:00.002+10:00

What? You want a blog post? Really? Only a week after Grand Theft Auto 4 was released? Not going to happen. At the moment, life is changing nappies, handing over the Distraction Jr to Distraction Sr when she's hungry, and exploring Liberty City. I'll have more to post next week.

BUT I do want to mention, I saw a small sketch from X-Play for "COPS: Liberty City". Good job - I could have watched an entire episode of that.

Auto Theft Of The Grandest Nature

2008-04-30T16:32:00.001+10:00

Niko Bellic: Life is complicated; I killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different.
”Grand Theft Auto IV”

There has been talks of Grand Theft Auto IV doing some crazy numbers, like $400M in the first week. I’ve made no secret of my devotion to this series, and after reading a few websites on GTA4 and the rest of the GTA games, I’ve decided to put in 10 best gameplay moments from the GTA franchise for me. So, in no particular order:

1 – GTA1 – Rocketing Multiplayer
The original top-down GTA had the ability for multiplayer that GTA3 – onwards lacked, at least on the PC version it did. The very first time I ever played GTA was at a friends house that was tec-savvy back in the day and had a game going over the internet with another friend from our high school. After getting killed dozen’s of times, right towards the end I managed to fire off a rocket that was timed perfectly to hit a speeding car carrying my opponent, thus scoring the best kill of the night. It’s a very specific memory, and one that really got me hooked on the games. I bought it on PS1 about a week later.

2 – GTA3 – It exists?
After the London games and the expansion, I thought GTA was dead and buried. I didn’t keep up with gamer news or anything, and the first thing I ever knew about GTA3 was when I saw it on the shelf at the video store I worked at. Without knowing anything else besides the name of the game, I knew it would be awesome. I had my first all-night GTA3 session that night, and when the censors yanked it from Australian shelves a few months later, a copy via New Zealand was on it’s way. I’ve since bought all my GTA games from NZ, which proved to be somewhat unnecessary this time around.

For whatever reason, the censored version of the game that the backwards censors in Australia require has infected New Zealand, so they have to get the same version as us. This means all the pre-orders made to New Zealand stores to get the uncensored version are useless. So what does the NZ stores do – or at least the one I bought it from? Well, how’s about the day after Rockstar announced they were sending the censored version to NZ, the NZ store sent an email to all Australian customers who pre-ordered the game through them to let them know of this fact, and offer to cancel the order if they wanted to. It’s basic customer service, but I was impressed and since the censored bits seem very minor, I’ll keep my order with the NZ company because of this.

3 – GTA3 – Cheatah Flips
On the third Island, near the safe house there was a ramp leading down to the ghetto where you would lay your head. The street that went around this block went back around to the hill that formed the side of the ramp. The incline was just perfect for running your sports car full tilt to it and then being able to perform a double-back flip and land rubber side down for a perfect landing. That was just good fun.

4 – GTA SA – World’s Worse Base Jump
Using a chopper in Las Venturas (or whatever the Vegas part of SA was called), I climbed the top of the tallest building to do a massive base jump and see how close to the bottom I could get before pulling the parachute. I had a buddy in the room watching, and after finally figuring out that you needed a chopper to get that high, I was poised for the big jump. I ran to the edge and began falling…about 30 feet to the next level of the skyscraper when the impact killed me. It lasted only a few seconds, but for some reason we couldn’t stop laughing as the anticipation of this jump lead to a veritable dead slinky drop.

5 – GTA VC – Listening to the Radio
The soundtrack’s for these games are second to none in the gaming world. All genres, wide selection, hilarious talk back – Lazlo is always where I start. All the games in the series had it, but VC was the best one for me. I drove around for hours just listening to the talk back to get the entire script. I think I was head banging to Twister Sister for the rest of the time.

6 – GTA VC – Say ‘Ello To My Little Friend
Scarface finish to Vice City – loved it. Vice City was the only one in the series where I feel like I finished the core storyline too quickly. There was so much else to do and I try to keep myself from rushing through the central story line until everything else is done – that way, I feel like the end has a real sense of completion when it is the main story line and not something else minor, like finding the last rampage or winning the last race.

7 – GTA VC – Hidden Things
While GTA SA had more hidden objects to find, it was in VC that The Distraction got hooked on finding these little gems. She loves that part of the game and this is when she gets involved in GTA.

8 - GTA3 – Sniper Time
One of my favourite missions in GTA history for some reason – down by the docks, a friendly NPC would storm a boat that was swarmed with thugs and other such body guard types that drug boats are filled with in the movies. You would have to snipe them away so he could plant a bomb – and it was damn hard, he always ran too quickly and would get capped before I could snipe the baddies. That was until I found the power up under the stairs that slowed everything down – all of a sudden, we’re a better shot that Marky Mark in “Shooter”. That mission really stayed with me for some reason.

9 – GTA VC – Business is Business
I liked the fact that you could buy or forcibly take over businesses in this game – but it still lacked a little something. It would have been better if you had some options to manage these businesses. Even a very basic business sim would be enough – change 2-3 variables and it affects how much money the place makes. Could you imagine if you can change, say for the strip club, the amount of water in the drinks or level of plastic surgery in the dancers? It wouldn’t be anything really significant, but just enough to give the illusion that you are running the business, as apposed to purely owning it.

10 – GTA VC – Load Screen
The Commodore 64 load screen made me laugh out loud the first time I saw it, and I still got a smile from it 12 months later. It’s nothing to the game, just a nice little reminder of where we have come from (an obviously setting the tone for the game set in the 80’s).

First Time Father

2008-04-17T11:13:00.001+10:00

Jason Bourne: Do you even know why you're supposed to kill me? Look at us. Look at what they make you give.
”The Bourne Ultimatum”

Poker wise, I have very little to report. I have been far too busy with the Distraction and Mini-distraction to play a hand. A few dayts after the birth, I did make it to the regular home game, but I only stayed an hour just to have a beer and see everyone. I was happy to sit off to the side and just watch them play and then leave. One player even asked if I was feeling the itch to play? Not at all I said. I was very content and didn’t feel the need. I was happy to see everyone, and really just wanted some sleep before heading back to the hospital in the morning.

Mini-Distraction is now 2 weeks old, and mum and dad are learning more everyday. We’ve had a few really bad nights where we just couldn’t figure out why she was crying, but those are getting rarer each day. We almost have a schedule down, but today was my first day back at work and would be difficult for mum as her first day home alone. Thankfully, it is only for 2 days this week and next week my brother will be in town to lend a hand.

I’ve changed my fair share of nappies (diapers for my North American friends) and have been baptised by various excrements that all go with being around a baby. I’ve been woken up at 2am, 3am, 5am and 6am all on the same day, and have had more midday naps in the past 2 weeks than when I was living at college.

Was it the emotionally gripping life changing moment that everyone says it was going to be? Well, yes and no to be perfectly honest. I will explain what I mean by that.

Firstly, when the Distraction was going through the pains of contractions, it was hell. I’m not trying to take away from the pain she was in, but just being there to watch her going through it (every 2 minutes, not spaced apart anymore than that) and not being able to do a thing was hell. After a few hours of high levels of pain, a midwife came in and suggested she try the happy gas while lying on the bed. I tell you, that was the greatest decision ever made as the excruciating pain went to mild discomfort almost instantly. I had never felt so relieved in my life.

Relatively speaking, the labour was very quick. They don’t call in the doctor until very late in the process, and as our delivery was so quick it was all over before the doctor arrived. That was not a problem, as the midwife and I delivered the kid just fine. They even said to us in the months leading up that the doctor is only there if something goes wrong, and nothing did so there was nothing to worry about.

When our daughter was placed on the Distractions chest, waiting for her first breath, I didn’t feel the need to cry or an overwhelming joy. It was more pure amazement that this little human was here – and a real sense of relief for the Distraction that the pain had ended. As each moment passed, I just wanted to watch the kid to see what she would do, and was amazed at everything she did for the very first time. When she cried, opened her eyes, looked at me, yawned – it didn’t matter what she did, it was amazing to me and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Surprising myself, no tears were shed but they were never far from the surface.

A few moments after the birth the midwife had to tell me to get the camera and then we started taking our first pictures as a family. When the distraction went for a shower, the midwife and doctor gave the kid a clean bill of health, and I held her for the first time. I just stood still staring down at her while she stared right back at me. I didn’t move an inch for what seemed like seconds but was more in the vicinity of 10 minutes.

We’ve been so lucky to have such a perfect pregnancy and birth, and the kid is very placid 99% of the time. We couldn’t have asked for me, and everyone around us is just as excited. I did have to miss a close friends wedding because of the birth, but they more than understand and I’ll be catching up with them this week as they return from their honeymoon.

So Poker? Yeah, in time I’ll get back to it in far shorter bursts than before. I just don’t really feel the need at the moment but I know that will return.

Stephanie Ava

2008-04-04T08:49:00.002+11:00

Little Stephanie Ava came on the 3rd of April at 11.23pm. 6 pound 6, and 50cm long. The Distraction and Bub are both doing great, and I'm sure I'll have more to post later.

Lucky Me

2008-03-31T11:44:00.000+11:00

Sharkey: You raised me with nothing?
Huck Cheever: Sometimes nothing's enough
“Lucky You”

First off – no news on the baby front. Little Ed is still hanging in there, comfortable as could be.

Over the weekend, since the Distraction is in no shape for much activity, we decided to catch up on some viewing and I finally got around to watching “Lucky You”. I had the lowest of expectations going in, and thankfully the movie surpassed them, if only just.

Lets face it, it was never going to be better than Rounders, and probably wasn’t targeting at that same feel. The fact that they even had to set it to pre-Moneymaker days shows how much the poker landscape has changed over the past few years. Having said that, has anybody ever watched Rounders and thought that the relationship between Mikey and his girlfriend should have been a bigger focus of the movie?

Only douches did, that’s who.

But alas, the movie does have it’s good points. I can’t believe they got Sammy Farha to stay quiet at a table for so long. The degenerate gamblers depicted seem realistic enough, and living so close to broke for the “Blaster” was a welcome change from the often glamorised image of professional poker players. For every guy making millions and living with “TMM” there are a thousand guys visiting pawn shops to get enough scratch to make the minimum buy in.

The prop bets were great, and obviously there was a bit of a tip of the hat to some of them. I also liked how he took the $100 across the room without touching the floor bet, just because he thought it would be funny for “Billie”, Drew Barrymore’s character.

But in the end, the support characters are very bland and forgettable. Poker analogies to life are far too corny and common in the movie. It was not as bad a movie as I thought it would be, it’s far from the worst poker movie but it’s far from the best as well.

I’ve got quite a pool going now on the birth of the baby, with most of the money going for an overdue baby girl. That could put a great dent into my prop betting action this year, but some favourable results (like a baby boy any day until the 10th) would get Little Ed’s saving account off to a flying start. We’ve just about settled on names too I think, but whether to baptise the kid or not is a whole other thing. I just don’t get it, why would you baptise the kid of an atheist and an agnostic? And just doing it for the sake of having the event seems a bit insulting to the religion if you ask me. But alas, it’s more like buying car insurance for my Distraction. She wants it “just in case”. What can you do?

The Last Game - For Now

2008-03-25T13:02:00.002+11:00

Irwin: Any man with a collection like this is a man who's never set foot on a battlefield. To him a minié ball from Shiloh is just an artefact. But to a combat vet, it's a hunk of metal that caused some poor bastard a world of pain.
"The Last Castle"

Easter time is always a good time – especially in Australia as we have a four day weekend and another national holiday just around the corner. With a four day weekend you can guarantee I tried to get in as much poker as I could and ended up with two very contrasting sessions.

First home game I played well for the first half and had a good amount of chips before the deck went cold, and I won one hand between 1am and 6am. The one hand I won was a massive hand but that didn’t help when I ran into hand after hand for the rest of the night. When the game ended, I was down just $10 which was ok considering what had happened. One of the loosest players couldn’t help but hit his hands time and time again, and despite being down 5 buyins at one stage actually came back to be in front some.

I just couldn’t get anything going. Pairs never hit their set even though I had so many small to medium pairs. I forgot how many times I would have straight and flush draw on the flop (maximum 15 outs without any counterfeiting) and it would come blank-blank. Just a really cold night for me and results showed that.

The next game we had a choice to head to the casino or the regular home game haunt. Considering the casino is an hour’s drive away, and more than likely this will be my last home game for a long time due to the impending arrival of the little bundle of joy, we decided to revive the home game and spend it with friends. I’m glad we did.

On the very first hand I was under the gun, and was dealt 72o. I folded it and the hand was quickly over, I said I got the worst possible starting hand and the only way was up from here. And I was right. If I had 8 pocket pairs all night, I must have hit a set 5 times and only lost once on one of those. Junk hit two pairs on the flop, check-raising with bottom pair garnered folds, draws came and big pairs held up.

There was a stage in the night when me and the guy to my left were both about 5-6 buy ins in front, and the rest of the table was loosing. His cards were falling just as good as mine, if not a little better.

When you get that far in front, you can start to have some fun and even give some money back to keep the game friendly – it was a home game after all and probably my last for some time. My friend to my left loves to check in the dark when UTG – as this was most common when I was dealing, I would always ignore his check in the dark and ask for his action after the flop just to rile him some. I also told him a real player would call a raise pre-flop then fold in the dark – that would really confuse people. So later on when I had the big blind, he raised $5 and everyone folded. Only I called and then folded in the dark before the cards could be dealt out.

A while later, he decided to raise, call a re-raise, check and fold all in the dark in the same hand. Like I said, when you are that far in front you can afford to muck around a bit. Turns out the hand would have probably played out exactly the same if he had looked at his cards anyway.

We agreed to keep playing to 6am which is pretty much standard, and when four handed at 5.30 I called an all-in from the short stack on a Jack high flop with AJ. He had a smaller kicker and even though the all-in was for $40, we made a deal and I let him off for about $7 just to keep the game going. By this stage, I was $400+ in front and just wanted to keep playing, the money didn’t matter anymore.

When the night finally did end, I was $490 in the clear which is my best result at this venue to date, and probably by a fair margin. I’m happy to be going out on such a high, as it was also a really good fun game to boot. Then again, it’s easy to have fun when you are pulling in an extra buy in every hour.

It will probably be my last game for a month or so, and then all night sessions will be few and far between from then.

Being A Good Loser Counts

2008-03-17T12:10:00.001+11:00

Alex: Dude, your bed is a car...
Jeff: Yeah, but it's a fucking sweet car.
”Grandma’s Boy”

Finally got to play some poker last weekend after some time off, which was more browny point earning than anything else. Results wise I was in the area I want to be, but the game went bad for a little while with a few people on the loosing end not taking it so well. After they left, the game was 6 and then 5 handed with everyone who was still winner staying and it was a great game. The last remaining people had some fun and swapped other people’s chips, it was just really enjoyable for the last few hours. It had to be, as the crap that went on earlier had a real chance to ruin the game.

It has happened before in this game, and seems to happen once a year where someone gets upset for a reason or another. It seems to be a few players that are the culprits, and they are also the ones that tend to feed the game. I guess it is bound to happen sooner or later – when you play say 30 times a year, and you loose 25 of those times, it can wear on you. But every loss is a lesson, and it’s your own fault if you don’t take the lessons that you are paying for.

I had a good night where nothing major occurred. I tried to bluff twice all night, and both were successful which is a good thing. I had basically given up bluffing in this game but found two opportunities where the situation was right. I also had a long think about another situation where I thought about pulling the trigger when I thought a player had missed a flush draw, but decided not too when his missed flush draw could have backed into a straight (which it did). Even so I liked my thought process on that hand and making the right decision was a reward.

I did cause one bad beat but otherwise everything else was normal on the night for me. The game was a lot less maniac than it had been in the previous few times, and I think $200 was the big loser on the night as apposed to $800 the previous time. Maybe 4 players including myself played with their original buy in all night, so you can see that there wasn’t that many crazy pots.

I felt the real need to get a poker fix this week though, due to not playing last week and watching a lot of episodes of high stakes poker. While some people have said that the $500k buy in limited action, I just think it made it better as the players were actually playing at a level that meant something. It was a shame not to see more players in the $500K game – I’m thinking guys like Ivey and Eli Elezra would have been good for the game.

During this need for poker, I almost fired up some online action again. I think I have played maybe 3 or 4 times this year online. I just didn’t find the time or have the motivation for it and have let it slide for some that time. I will probably play online more once the baby comes as I won’t be able to get out to the live games as often or play for as long as I did.

Dealer, I've Got The Table Covered

2008-03-06T12:03:00.001+11:00

Ted Castellucci: Objection, Your Honor! The court is interested in the truth, not the opinion of the defendant's father.
Lenny: You want my opinion? My son is a moron.
Ted Castellucci: I withdraw my objection. Please proceed!
”Big daddy”

It has been a while since my last post, as things have been frantic on all fronts. After a few business trips I have had a heap of work to catch up on, we’ve been putting the final preparations in for the impending arrival of Little Ed and I managed only 2 sessions of poker over that time, both at Star City.

The first night had an old guy sitting in the seat next to me, and he was joined by another 60+ guy in the seat 2 to his left. They were like Statler and Waldorf, criticizing the young punks at the table (young punk being anyone under 50). The guy next to me stayed at the table until we left at 4am, so looks like his batteries still have some life in them. He was a horrible player though, and I don’t mean that just as in me makes bad decisions (though he did). If someone hit a draw, he would berate them and curse muttering about their fucking flush or straight, then take five minutes to fold. If he hit his draw, he would berate the other player for complaining, telling them they can’t win every hand. He would talk non stop about god knows what, then complain when someone else ordered drinks while he had a decision to make. It was funny though to see the new players to the table try to reason with him – I gave up after about 30 minutes and decided to just agree with everything he said, have a laugh and move on.

Although he did felt me for my first buy in, when AA couldn’t get passed KTo. He hit two pair on the flop, and that was it for me time to rebuy.

On the way to the game, I decided yet again that I had to take responsibility for the losses, and perhaps a hole in my game had developed. I used to be very rocky and could grind out a modest win 90% of the time – but something had changed and I had started to play suited one gapers out of position to a raise and the like. Tonight, I decided to tighten right up and only play marginal hands from position when it was cheap.

Sure, I became a folding house. I lost a lot of chips with AT on an ace high flop. I bet out, 1 caller. Turn gave a rag, I bet out and the same caller came along. River comes and I consider what hands I can beat – a missed flush draw is about it, but really any ace has me either out kicked or has paired the kicker. I check, and he bet out a nice amount that looked like he thought his hand was good. It was $25 into my remaining $35 – I had already contributed $25 to the pot post flop, so perhaps I should have considered myself committed but I decided that he didn’t bet it like a missed flush draw, so perhaps I was beaten all the way and laid it down. He decided to give me some free information and showed that he was actually chasing a gut shot straight and missed, and bluffed me with 6 high.

It was weird, because I actually didn’t mind how I played that hand. I was down a buy in and a half but was happy with the way things were going at this stage.

The table was different than the last couple of tables. The past few weeks, I could see players knew what they were doing, and the donkeys were few and very lucky. Tonight, all I could see was a lost bunch of players with no idea what they were doing.

However, I was still loosing and down 1 ½ buys. I topped up when the button came around, and was dealt 78s a short time later and decided it was worth seeing a flop even though I was in early position. I got 3 callers behind me and the blinds to see the flop. The flop comes 875 rainbow and I checked waiting for the old guy to bet it for me. He bet $10, called from his left and then middle position called as well. After the blinds folded, I made it $35 to go. Both players to my left called, and MP raised to $55 to be all in. I couldn’t raise so I just called, as did the previous two callers. The turn was a rag that brought a flush draw, and I just checked thinking that I couldn’t push anyone off a draw with the $19 I had left anyway – and more than likely being called four ways, my hand was out flopped. 3 checks on the turn, and the same on the river which was an offsuit queen. The old guy had bottom two pair on the flop, second called had missed a straight draw and MP had top pair top kicker on the flop. My massive hand of top two pair on the flop had held up…somehow.

MP player rebought, and on the very next hand I was UTG and was dealt big slick. I just limped, and when it got around to the MP guy he made it $15. It was folded around to me and I had a think about it – maybe he’s tilting slightly, and just has another suited ace like before? Another A-8 would be nice here. Anything else except AA and he is going to have to call a big raise to see a flop here methinks. After a little thought time, I raised it to about $100, well enough to cover his $80 rebuy. Everyone folded and he called with AJo. My King held up, and I had felted the same player twice in two hands. I was right, that is a tilt move if I’ve ever seen one. Now, I had chips in front of me.

I played very tight for the rest of the night, the only hand I kind of played silly was 23s form the button, but it was limped 6 ways before me so why not? And with a flop of A33 I was more than happy. Turn was a 5 and river was a 2, so any straight drawers are going to pay me off. A player who was playing his first hand at the table held A5 and called for all his chips when I bet on the river. I said to my friend, I would have been just as happy if he folded so I didn’t have to show 23s. But, I’ll take the chips as they come.

But I did play very tight – and finally hit a set for the first time in weeks, a set of aces no less. The pay off was ok and more chips were added to the stack. After that, I just waited for hands and played them as they could. I had to make a decision to call $40 on a draw in one hand – flop was AhKh4s, and I had QhTh. Any jack is the nuts, any heart is the nuts and the jack of hearts is a royal – so I’ve got plenty of chips, the better is all-in and the only other caller is a donkey – why not? I called $40 for my draw.

The turn was the 3 of hearts. He checked, I bet out $20 thinking I was getting no action anyway, and then the donkey in the one seat (different player, but same seat that I had felted twice in a row) string-raised me all in. The dealer pulled him up on it and he had to wait for the river to bet his final $30 – despite me telling the dealer tongue in check that I heard him say raise. The river was a blank, and he made a big show about going into the tank. Then confidently shoved his chips into the middle. The dealer began to count it when I just calmly said I call, flipped over my cards and said I had the nuts. The one seat, confident still flipped over his cards to show a J2h. I don’t think I could have given any bigger clues that I had the nuts besides a) Telling the dealer and the whole table that I wanted him to be all in on the turn, b) calling an all in on the river without a moments hesitation, c) saying in a clear, calm voice “I have the nuts”; and d) showing my cards to reveal it was so. But, he still had hope in his eyes as the dealer slid the chips my way.

Not long after this, I had a small mountain of chips in front of me, and after a few bust outs I had the entire table covered at one stage before cashing in a few new players. I played tight again for the rest of the night and ended up needed a chip rack to cash out. It was by far the best night I’ve had at the casino, and more than covered the worst losing night I’ve ever had a few weeks before. Besides the hands above, nothing really big happened. I didn’t win many pots, just the ones I did were big. When I hit a hand I bet it, when I missed I folded. It’s easy to look like a good player when things like that happen – and believe me, the donkeys helped. Especially that last guy calling $40 for a Jack high flush draw out of position. When we left, he was back to in front by a few hundred after his hands started to hit – 6 high flush draws on the river against flopped sets and other such atrocities.

The next week, I had my first ever “Golden Duck” at the casino (getting felted on the first hand). I’ve had one before at the poker dome, and it was with the same hand actually. I sit down and post from middle position and get dealt KK. There is a raise from UTG, and a re-raise from the guy to my right to make it $25. Oh well, no time like the present and I shove my just stacked up chips into the middle on the first hand. UTG thinks for a bit then calls, and the guy on my right then stacks to think also – which is great news, because that means he doesn’t have aces. Eventually he calls, and turns over AhQh – which is good, because UTG has QQ. I’m feeling good about this until I see a flop with two hearts on it. I already know the river will bring the flush, and it does not pair the board so I am drawing dead to the river. Funnily enough, 4 times on the night a player playing their first hand would end up all in with KK vs AQ – and the Kings went 1-3. My last Golden Duck was the classic KK vs AA.

One of those KK vs AQ hands was between the absolute donkey to my left and a new player to my right, it went like this:
KK vs AQo (KK at 71%)
FLOP: AQx (KK at 10%)
TURN: K (KK at 95%)
RIVER: A (KK at 0%)

That hand got things rolling. The guy to my right won the hand, and promptly gave all his chips away in various ways. I gave him some with a set over set, but took it all back when AA finally held up against his JJ – with a jack on the flop, no less. We were all-in preflop and he acting like he was in a good position for some reason. I hit a four card flush on the turn though, and he couldn’t believe his luck! I’d say his luck was about even, which was more than he deserved.

The night went like that for me, win some chips then loose some chips, and when we finally pulled up stumps I was up a buy in which was good enough for me. I had some massive cold streaks and starting in a huge hole so I did some good work to get out from there, but it was even better just stringing two up sessions back to back to restore some confidence in myself and in how I should be playing.

And it was good to see so many fish back at the Star. Where had they gone?

To Slow Play Or Not

2008-02-21T10:56:00.001+11:00

Dexter: I suppose I should be upset, even feel violated, but I'm not. No, in fact, I think this is a friendly message, like "Hey, wanna play?" And yes, I want to play. I really really do.
”Dexter”

An interesting discussion came up the other day about slow playing hands that then get beat. We’ll start from the top here.

Why do we slow play hands? The obvious reason seems to be to hide our strength, and maximise a win when we have the goods. But like everything there is a risk involved. By allowing free cards other players have a chance to catch up and perhaps even overtake. That is where this discussion began – in a certain hand a player flopped a set and slow played it, where another player hit their lower set on the turn and hit quads on the river.

There isn’t much you can do there, that is a horrid beat and will get you to the felt more times than not. But was the slow play to blame? Any bet on the flop will have got the small pair to fold before hitting their set which commits them to the hand, and then the river buries them. My buddy (who was the one with the quads…yet again) said it was the other player’s own fault for loosing that pot, slow playing his flopped set like that. I am of the opposite belief that this slow play was near perfect and if not for quads on the river would have paid of handsomely.

What it really came down to was the loser in that hand berating the player who hit perfect-perfect to beat him. When the smaller set hit on the turn, that was the exact card the slow player was waiting for. You need someone else to have something to pay him off, or give them a chance to make a play at it. But when the miracle comes, you can’t blame yourself for that – but you also can’t blame the other guy either. That’s just steam talking and inviting Mr Tilt to the table.

Slow playing is probably one of the easiest and most common moves you see, and it is hard to play it wrong when you’ve flopped something like quads or a straight flush. You need to try really hard to screw those hands up. I’ve seen some players “slow play” top pair, and can’t believe it when it gets beat.

There was a hand from High Stakes Poker a year or more ago, with Daniel Negreanu and Shawn Sheikman – from memory, Shawn made a pre flop raise or re-raise and Daniel called, then checked in the dark. The flop was Queen high, and Shawn had pocket queens. Shawn checked, and then bet out big on the turn. Immediately Daniel picked him for trip queens – the play was just too obvious and Daniel had nothing to pay him off with anyway.

Which brings me to one of my favourite plays – betting out when you’ve flopped a monster. When you’ve made a pre-flop raise, you are almost expected to follow it up on the flop especially when heads up. Betting out can actually disguise your hand and make it look like you are just making a continuation bet, inducing players to either try to push back or call and look to hit a weaker hand. It seems to be working quite well at the low levels I play at – of course, it can be argued that again these hands are easy to play well and very hard to screw up, but you need to make the most of it when you can.

Is A Small Loss Really A Win?

2008-02-11T12:02:00.000+11:00

Delia Surridge: Oppenheimer was able to change more than the course of a war. He changed the entire course of human history. Is it wrong to hold on to that kind of hope?
V: I have not come for what you hoped to do. I've come for what you did.
”V For Vendetta”

Another week, another loosing session but at least there was some good news from the poker tables this week.

While waiting for a table at the casino, we decided to try the new digital poker tables at Star City. I was a little sceptical because essentially it’s just online poker where the other players are in the same room. Sure, it’s faster and there is no dealer error but I can get that online at home, so why play here? Anyway, it was a better option than sitting around doing nothing for the expected 3 hour wait to get a table (turned out to be 2 hours) and is better than playing craps for us anyway.

I sit down and get very familiar with the fold button. After a few rounds, I get dealt Queens and raise it up, getting it all in on the turn and getting called by a flush draw that hits. Hmm, there goes one buy in. I delay the inevitable and buy-in again. This time, again with an over pair I get it all in and a player with a large stack calls with a gut shot straight draw and bottom pair. The straight draw hits on the river and I am down two buy ins already without having been dealt an actual card.

Am I overplaying my pairs – or other hands in this current streak? Well, in the first case I was a 3-1 favourite and in the second it was 70% on the flop and 80% on the turn, so I was in good position just getting a little unlucky. When I put all the chips in though, I figured I was around the 70% mark both times, so not far off it. Anyway, that’s poker and it happens but it was just another loss that I could have done without.

Eventually we get seated at a table that was very unlike what I had come to expect from Star City. It was very passive pre-flop, which allowed limpers and then when there was a raise it was sensible – in the 4-6BB range not the usual 20-30BB range. It was a good table and I think I even managed to take the first pot of the night.

There was a drunk player to my immediate right who would push all-in with any pocket pair pre-flop. He was harmless and trying to have fun, but was talking non stop about crap right in my ear. When he was UTG he did it again, all-in for about $130. I looked down from the big blind and saw QQ and thought that finally I would get a chance to put a stop to it. Then, on the button a player who seemed to know what he was doing, pushed all-in as well. This had me worried, as I really felt like he had aces. I took a moment to think about it and the more I thought, the more I believed I was behind. I asked for a count, and he had $45. I had about $101 in front of me and figured even if I loose to him, hopefully I can claim the side pot which I think I am a really good favourite for and get my money back. I called and saw JJ from the drunk guy and AK from the button. That was about the best result I could have hoped for.

Unfortunately I was beaten by an ace on the flop, but held up for the side pot and a small profit. Would have liked a scoop there but at least I got something from this and it put an end to the constant beats I was getting.

The cards went cold for a few hours next, and I was down to a rebuy after blinds and hitting nothing but air for that period. I eventually got things back together making some good plays and having hands hold up. My buddy sitting to my left hit quads with 63s. The amount of times I’ve played that hand and hit trips or two pair on the flop and be in awful shape – and he hits two pair, turns a full house and rivers quads, all with an ace on the board so he gets paid off along the way to the tune of $320+. I constantly call him a luck box and now won’t let him forget it.

A hand that nearly put me on tilt came up. I got to see the flop from the big blind without anything extra, and it was a nice 457 rainbow, I had 69o. There is a small bet from one of the players, and a few callers in front of me so I called also. The turn is my card, the 8 of spades, but now there are 2 spades on the board. I am hoping someone else was drawing to the straight and hit it, and hopefully a small bet here will get raised for protection. I bet out $10 and get called twice. Damn, looks like one or more flush draws out there. The river is a horrible 3s. I couldn’t have asked for a worse card – except maybe the 9s. Anyway, I check and the next player bets $20. Second player flat calls and I am left to make what I believe it a crying call here. 4/5 times I think I would have folded here, but a little bit on tilt I call expecting to loose. First guy has a six for the straight, second guy has a six for the straight also – no flush draws. Fuck – ok, so I win the pot but why couldn’t one of them raise me on the turn to get rid of the flush draws? And what happens if the last spade doesn’t come – I’m raising the hell out of them and getting paid at least one way, my feeling was tripling up here though. Even though I won, it felt like a bad beat.

My last interesting hand was one that I am not sure if I played good or bad, but it made me think at least. I had pocket tens and called a small raise to see the flop 3 handed. The flop was all diamonds, 9 high. I didn’t have a diamond but figured I might have been ahead here. Original raiser bets, gets called and I call as well. Turn is another low card, not a diamond. Same pattern – original bets, second guy calls and I think about it. For some reason, I just thought that both other guys had a big ace or picture cards and were just drawing to the diamond, but I didn’t think I could bet them off it and didn’t want to go broke so I just called again. The river was a 3 and not a diamond, and it was checked down. The other two players had AcQc and KcQs.

So I was right in the fact that I was ahead, but I couldn’t pull the trigger because I figured that the ace of diamonds was out there and would call regardless of the amount bet. The river card was obviously good for me, but what if it was any picture card? Would I still call a bet on the river? Any picture card is a danger for me, and any diamond. That’s a lot of potential scare cards. Maybe a smaller bet might have got one of them to fold and increased my chances but who knows the way the hand played out?

In the end, I had made a profit at the table but just short of what I had lost at the digital poker table earlier. But it was an enjoyable night of poker and it was good to actually get to play some hands for a change.

Lets Give A Hand To...

2008-02-05T10:43:00.002+11:00

Juno MacGuff: I think I'm, like, in love with you.
Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends?
Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like, for real. 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know...
Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.
”Juno”

I heard someone describe “Juno” as “Knocked Up” from the female perspective. More accurately, it should be described as a indie teenage version of Knocked Up from the female perspective. But it’s worth paying to see so what more could you ask for?

I been having a real rough time at the tables of late. I have been averaging less than 1 pot an hour over the past 40 hours – and that includes a lot of bluffing. It’s just been mediocre starting hands and then really cold flops, and before I know it I’m down to a quarter of a buy in without seeing a turn card.

I said at the star of the year all my profit was coming from making donkey’s pay too much for their draws, and I was worried that their lucky streak would start sooner or later. Well, it was sooner and boy did they hit at the wrong times. The last was when I was finally back to a stage where I could conceivably get close to even, when dealt pocket kings. I made it 8BB to get rid of all the limpers, and got 2 callers. Flop was 2d5h9d, and I made it 25BB. I got an all in for 32BB from the next caller, and the other folded. He had 5d3d – which means it is a coin flip from here, and he hit it on the turn to have me drawing dead on the river. He even told me that 10BB preflop wouldn’t have been enough, he just had a feeling about the 53 suited. Looks like pre-flop raises need to be 15BB from now on…

It took me two weeks to realise I played badly at the casino where I had my worst night ever. I even recall going through my results hour by hour. Total hands won per hour went like this: 0 – 0 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 1 – 0 – 1 – 1 – 0. That’s a lot of mucked hands right there, and the biggest winning hand of the night shouldn’t have been either. I flopped trips with 63h and made it $75 on the turn. And old guy in the one seat called out of his $96 stack, and a new player across from him folded his cards – right across the table, into the one seat’s cards. We had our dealer, the next dealer waiting to take her seat once the hand was finished, and 2 supervisors trying to figure out what to do. The dealer said that it is every players responsibility to protect their own cards, and the one seat would have to muck his hand and couldn’t get his chips back. Now I know that technically that is the rule as well, but that’s pretty unlucky to be stuck with that. I said to at least give him his $75 call back, and eventually that’s what they did after one of the supervisors was talking to whoever on his head set. Even if they enforced the rule in the strictest sense, I would have returned his money to him outside because to keep it would be just wrong – I couldn’t have that reputation at the table.

Then I proceeded to give most of the rest of the pot back to him later on when I had big slick. I raised to see a ten high flop. One guy bet out, I raised him and then the old guy in the one seat called. I bet again on the turn thinking he had either a straight or a flush draw, and he called again. The river was the nine of hearts – which filled both the straight and flush draws, and I gave up. He checked, and turned over a seven to show he had hit his gut shot for the straight. But I played the hand badly, and let the hours of cold cards get to me so that when I finally had a playable hand, I had to win that pot and wouldn’t give it up. Before long, Aces got cracked when it was all-in pre-flop against Q2s. Even hit an ace on the flop and still lost to a turned flush, but for some reason as soon as he turned over his cards I knew I was beat. It has been that kind of run for me.

But anyway, at least my reads have been just as accurate as before, I just haven’t been having the cards or luck to make the most of it. Affiliate deals have been keeping me afloat for the short term, and on the home front the baby’s room is now complete save for Little Ed. Little Ed has been kicking like a champ so that I have been able to feel it on a few occasions. Got some strength behind those pummels, has this kid!

Go To The WPT With Rakereport.net

2008-01-29T10:57:00.000+11:00

www.rakereport.net/ is running a WPT giveaway this year that will award one lucky winner the following:

-vacation in the Bahamas for a week
-training from the pros (over 20 pros at last years event)
-a chance at over $225,000 in cash & prizes
-grand prize of a WPT Season Pass for 10 WPT buyins plus $10,000 in cash for expenses!

This giveaway is free, for full details click their banner and check out the site!

Lucky Ace Poker and Casino

2008-01-22T10:10:00.000+11:00

Play at LuckyAcePoker.com and join thousands of Poker admirers from all around the world, both professional players and beginners, all just waiting to play with you.

LuckyAcePoker.com has the most popular Poker games, including: Texas Hold'em, Omaha Poker and Seven Card stud. You will find a broad variety of table stakes, up to $40, daily$5,000 and $10,000 prize pools at the Texas Hold'em tournaments, single and multi table tournaments, Sit & Go Tournaments, freerolls, and more.

Just got to know the game? Learn the ropes for free on the Practice Game version.

Had enough practice? Are you ready for Real money action? LuckyAcePoker.com will help get you on the right track with a 25% up to $100 Welcome Bonus on your first deposit.

LuckyAcePoker.com is powered by 888 and part of the 888 network, the most trusted and respected name in the online gambling industry since 1997, with 24/7 Customer Support, and an experienced team aimed at making your gaming experience enjoyable, safe, and secure.

LuckyAcePoker.com – let the games begin!

Love Casino Games? Enjoy the thrill of over 50 casino games at the leading online gaming platform at LuckyAceCasino.com.

LuckyAceCasino.comhas all the most popular games including: BlackJack, Craps, Video Poker, Roulette, Keno and over two-dozen Slot Machines with better odds than a Las Vegas casino room. Play for Practice Money to get to know the platform, and when you’re ready for real money action, we’ll give you the best offering online. Enjoy a 100% match bonus up to $200 on your first deposit, free prizes, comp points, a unique Players Club, special events, and more!

LuckyAceCasino.com is powered by 888, the most respected online gaming platform since 1997 with over 25 million users, with 24/7 customer support and a dedicated team aimed at making your experience fun, safe, and secure. We will give you the fastest and most reliable deposit and Cash out options to make sure you can concentrate on playing the games you love.

Play at LuckyAceCasino.com now, and experience the nonstop fun from the comfort of your own PC.

LuckyAceCasino.com – let the games begin!

Enjoy Poker

2008-01-21T17:11:00.000+11:00

Paris: Do you love me, brother? Will you protect me from any enemy?
Hector: Last time you spoke to me like this you were 10 years old and you'd just stolen Fathers horse, what have you done now?
”Troy”

This past week held no poker for me, save for a very short 5 person SNG at a home that I came in third after not winning a pot, but I have already been given permission to fill my poker void to the brim this coming long weekend.

I am noticing a common theme among many people recently, that being a loss of love for poker. Not just the other blogs I read, but other players I know that are growing tired of poker or are not finding it the thrill it once was for them. There is no single reason for the group dissent, but there are a few broad categories that some, perhaps even the majority, of these people fall into.

Some are the early adopters of the poker craze. After Rounders, Chris Moneymaker and the World Poker Tour brought poker into the homes of more people, naturally the interest in poker grew. With any new trend, and I believe the poker boom has lasted too long to be called a fad, there are some that are in at the ground level when everything is exciting and new. Now there is poker in every single pub in Sydney, your friend’s grandmother has a favourite player, and each passing year brings the story of some other first timer who became a millionaire at the turn of the card. Poker is no longer the newest thing, and the early adopter who was once part of a niche culture has now lost the exclusivity of their involvement, which may have been half the appeal. All in all, poker is probably better off without these guys anyway.

Some others are finding that with the time past, some of the donkeys and fish have actually learned a thing or two, while they sat on their hands thinking “how awesome am I taking all these chips”. All of a sudden, it’s not so easy and a loosing streak hits. It’s hard to keep your passion up when loosing, especially when it was the monetary results that made poker attractive to you in the first place. As before, poker is also probably better off without these douches too.

Others have tried to make a living out of poker, and now find it boring. It’s not a surprise really, this happens. Even the biggest names in poker get bored with it some times – when it’s all you do day in and day out, you are going to get bored with it. I remember an interview in some magazine many years ago, and I think it was a big name quarterback at the time that said “(American) Football has ruined my Sunday’s”. The reasoning was before he went professional, he had a great time on Sunday with family and friends, having a few beers and a BBQ and watching a game of football on TV. Even after he had retired from the NFL though, he couldn’t watch football without it being work.

I kind of feel sorry for these kind of poker players. We’ve heard the old saying repeated many times over – “Poker is a hard way to make an easy living” – but few have really tried to understand what that means. It’s not only that it is hard to turn a profit and make a living playing poker, what with other people pursuing the same dream and a casino taking their cut along the way. It is also hard to discipline yourself to do this day in and day out, essentially turning poker not just into a living, but into “work”. And that is what it has become for these people, work and not fun.

If you think poker is not as fun for you as it once was, then you only have yourself to blame. You’ve tried to turn a hobby into a life, when the reality is very few people have the skill to do so, and even fewer have the personality and demeanour to live that way.

If you can not have fun while throwing chips around a home game with your friends, then either the game has been lost to you or you need to find some better friends. I’ve said it before, I’ve had massive loosing sessions where my wallet has been emptied and I’ve had just as much fun doing it. That should be what poker is about for the most of us. If you can’t enjoy it why play?

But you make money playing poker you say, that’s why you play!

That’s why you have a job. That shouldn’t be the reason to play. Sure, it makes things more interesting and it’s nice to pick up some money while pursuing a hobby. My other main hobby would have to be video games, and they cost me a stack. Especially compared to my poker hobby, which has paid either directly or indirectly for a lot of things around the house.

But that’s not why I play. Poker is still fun for me. I haven’t tried to treat it any differently than as a hobby. I’ve tried to improve, even kept results and records so compare different games. Which goes to prove my point. There is a poker room in Sydney that I have an amazing record at. My ROI for games at this place is somewhere in the 200% mark, while last year my overall ROI was just under 30%. But I hardly go there anymore, because the games are not that much fun, and over too quickly.

While making a profit playing poker is nice, and indeed one of the goals of the game by design, it can’t be the sole reason for playing – or even the main reason – unless this is your entire living. For most of us, this isn’t how we make a living. It’s beer money, or Vegas Trip money, or that 50” Plasma money – it’s not rent money and there is a difference, there has to be a difference.

I play online poker for money, there is no doubt about that, and it isn’t nearly as fun as the home games I play.

So if you are feeling a little burned out by poker, maybe it isn’t because you’ve been playing too much. Maybe it’s because you just having been playing it right. Slow roll your quads against your buddies, calling out “Two pair – sevens and sevens!” – it’s all ok amongst friends. Go rabbit hunting for the runner-runner straight flush. Offer to chop when you’ve got 5 high. Have some fun with it and make a bet not because it is +EV to do so, do it because it has a +FUN value too.

Poker is a game. Sometimes, you need to treat it as such.

Casino Poker Part 2

2008-01-15T11:09:00.001+11:00

Brick Top: Do you know what "nemesis" means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible cunt... me.
"Snatch"

In my last post I left the action at about 11pm on the night, and that is when some really big pots started to develop, and the above quote became very relevant.

By now I had maybe just under $200 in front of me, and still on my first buy in. The table is full of new players and calling stations – I couldn’t have asked for a better table to be honest. One of the new players to the table my friend recognised from a now-defunct poker room a year or so ago. This poker room had a good reputation for having decent poker players because it was out of the way and not really a tourist attraction if you know what I mean. So I pencilled him in my mind as a player that would not be as bad as the others, and thought there was plenty of fish for all of us I will stay out of his way if I can.

I had no real big starting hands, so cheap flops were great for me. With 5 runners, I saw a low flop with 2 spades, me holding KsJs in late position, perhaps even on the button. There is a small $10 bet coming from the good player in early position, and 2 other callers. The turn is my money card, the ace of spades. 53s would have hit a straight-flush, but you are going to pay that off I guess in this instance. Good player bets $25 and there are two callers. What to do, what to do? With four runners, I thought about my options which are either call and slow play or raise and try to get some more money in the pot now. The good player bet out $25 into four runners, so it wasn’t an attempt to buy the pot, he has something. Maybe a set? Maybe 2 pair? Maybe a smaller flush? My thought was for him only, and the other guys will probably call if they have any piece of it, may even be drawing dead. If I just call here and then see the board pair on the river, what do I do then? And if he already has the flush with two spades in his hand, perhaps a fourth spade on the river will kill my action. In the end I am 99% sure I am ahead and if anyone is looking for that one out to a straight flush, I reckon they will call any bet for that chance. If the good player is drawing to a full house with trips or two pair, he probably won’t call a bet on the river if it doesn’t come – and I guess I’m screwed if it does but at least I am in late position and can foil a check-raise if that is his intention. So in the end I decided to raise it to $75 to see what happens – it’s already a decent pot anyway. The good player thinks about it and calls, calling station behind him actually folds (probably not even a pair) and the last guy has less than $50 and calls to be all in.

The river neither pairs the board or brings another spade, and I am of course prepared to put all my chips into the pot with the second nuts (to an unlikely straight flush). Good player checks, and I made a value bet of $40 (which into a near $300 pot should scream value bet) and he says he’ll pay me off. He shows the queen high flush and I scoop the pot. He did ask why I made the big bet on the turn, and I just said I thought he’d be more likely to call it then than to call it on the river. I didn’t think he was holding the queen high flush though – if I did, I might have waiting until the river and made even more.

The biggest pot of the night had my buddy involved neck deep. He put in an opening raise of $11 which was his standard, and got called by two players (a real fish and the same calling station from before) and then a new player in the 1 seat re-raised to $45 to be all-in. My buddy looks at that and seems satisfied, and even I’m thinking he should shove here to get heads up – me thinking he obviously has a strong hand. He does just that for another $103 on top of the raise from the short stack. Both the other players called. I get a peak at his cards and he is holding Kings – and I think he’s in real good shape as it is likely he is up against other pockets or an ace in more than one seat. The flop comes down club, club, club. Not good for two red kings. One player bets, the other calls for all of what he has left, and the first better on the flop shows AcKc for the flopped nuts. Player 2 had A3o and called nearly two buy ins pre-flop with that, and the other short stack had Ah8h, which I thought was a little fishy but not half as bad as the other two. A near $500 pot slides the way of one of the fish – and my buddy just could not win a pot against him for the rest of the night, invoking the “nemesis” quote from Snatch from me several times.

We spoke about that hand later, and he knows that both of us would have folded AK there so fast, and we both know there is no way that fish could be talked out of that hand, and the other two were just really silly players that didn’t deserve their chips. The Nemesis now had the chip lead on the table, even covering me by nearly $100 and I was in second. My stack peaked around this time to just over $500.

I misplayed a hand here too, when I held JT and the flop came TTx. I slow played to the turn which was a 5, and got two callers. The river was another 5, and I bet out again. The Nemesis from above raised me to $50, and I figured we were just chopping so I called. He had the 5 and I took the pot. I should have raised there, I gave him too much respect and he would have called a bigger bet without a doubt because he had a full house – never mind that it is obviously beaten. Even though I won the pot that hand cost me over $100 I guess.

By now, a lot of the real fishy players had left after doing their money in and headed home. The table changed again and was a little bit better now but not by much. We had already decided to stand up at 4am but when that came around, my buddy said he had gotten his second wind and he thought the table was particularly juicy right now. At about 10 minutes before our scheduled finish I had exactly $400 left in front of me after going on a cold run and being hit by one particular river which counterfeited my two pair on a hand that I had been betting all the way. I was feeling kinda hungry and was playing uber tight for the last 15 minutes or so because I wanted to cash out at exactly $400 instead of something like $395, so I said I would be more than happy to wait an hour while he scratches his itch. When 4am came around though, I decided to play properly and make the most of the last hour.

All night I had been dealt 63 maybe 4 times and I played them 3 out of those times, without hitting anything. At about 4.15am I had 6d3d and called a small raise to go to a multi way flop that comes – 663. Yeah, not too bad. One guy bets and I just call as everyone folds. Turn was a 9, he bets and I raised, he called. River was an Ace – which I figure was a good card for me. He bets, I raise and he calls. I show my 63 for the flopped full house, and he shows 69 for his turned one. Ouch! That one hurt but there was no way he was folding after the flop. Really though, you get what you deserve when you play crap like 63d to a raise out of position.

I got some chips back in the last hand I won, with my first big pair of the night holding up – KK vs AXc with the second club coming on the turn and thankfully not the river. On the night I had 5 pocket pairs – in order that they happened 55, 55, 99, 33 and then KK. The kings were the only ones to make any money. I had AQ and AK once, and that was about it for the good starting hands.

When 5am rolled around, the table broke and I had just over $300 in front of me. That counts as a good night for me, when you consider all the time charges we had to pay and the over priced drinks we bought on the night, there was probably another $100 spent out of the chips on the table. It was a good night and I left well in front, but the last hour cost me as I should have booked the win and grabbed a bite to eat instead. But anyway, you live and learn from that. I felt like I was in control for the whole night, and when reviewing it realised that I had sat in the same chair without even standing up for 9 hours. Not bad an effort, considering it was all on my original buy in. I still felt though that there was room for improvement and I should have made more chips on the night. A few hands misplayed late that cost me, but all in all a good night of poker for me.

Casino Poker Part 1

2008-01-14T17:29:00.000+11:00

Bobby Dukes: Why does this bag smell like doughnuts?
Bill Henry: That is the smell of death. That is the smell of the death of your failure. That is the smell of the death of your defeat. That is the smell of the death of your shame...
Bobby Dukes: It smells like doughnuts.
”Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story”

It has been an exhausting week. I decided to sacrifice a home game on Friday night so that I could have a better game at the Star City casino on Saturday. We had a lot of yard work to do Saturday morning anyway, so crawling in at 7am before that would have made life extremely difficult. And also, the Friday night home game looked to be turning into a spread limit game with some new guys, and had all the indications of being a real melt down. I was told later that it was actually quite fine but I needed the night off anyway.

When my poker playing buddy and I got to the casino, they had nearly every poker table open which was good to see for a change. They also had 4 of the new digitalised poker tables ready for people to play. I still don’t get it – if I wanted to play online, I’d stay at home. They proved to be far less popular than the other tables which is a promising sign I think.

The wait to get a seat was just under two hours, which is about standard and good for what you would expect on a Saturday night. During the wait I wandered around and watched various people blow what would be a months salary for me on roulette and blackjack.

When we did eventually get called for a seat, it was when they opened up a new table so that was good – everyone would be starting with the same size stacks and we had our choice of seats. It also meant, as another player pointed out, that the dealer’s chip float was empty. At Star City, you can’t buy chips at the table, you have to do it at the brush at the front of the poker area. So the dealers float is just to make change and take their rake. As everyone was on their first buy in, and the brush gives you an appropriate chip break down so there is no real need for change to begin with so they do not start with any chips in there. As we were committed to a long evening at the table, it would be interesting to see just how much rake they take from the table over that period.

The rake is at the $1/$2 level 10% up to $8, and $5 per hour time charge. That’s a bit steep, but let me tell you it is worth it when you see the calibre of players here.

I also had a prop bet on with my buddy over who would get 63 first – our word is good enough to confirm a winner. After getting everything all around 63, I finally had it and lost the exact amount of the prop bet on the hand – and then he got it the very next hand so I just snuck home on that one.

The table had 4-5 Dutch guys at the beginning who all knew each other, and were straddled/re-straddled here and there. I was card dead so didn’t see much action but the few hands I did played I pulled in some decent pots so it was ok.

I think I’ve subconsciously reached a new level in picking up tells because for the third or forth time I have been having some great accuracy in that department – mind you, some of the players were chomping oreos, figuratively speaking.

My first real hand was an open ended straight draw that got there on the turn or river – either way the raiser in the hand did not call my all-in with the nuts on the river but it was a tody pot that gave me a platform to build from.

When all the Dutch guys left at once, the table dynamics changed considerably, and this was when I made the most of my chips and fishing ability. The new players were either first timers in a live game or just plain calling stations – except for one guy, and I’ll get to him later. Perfect example was in a hand my friend was in – KJx on the board and no flush by the river, he is last to act heads up and bets out an ok amount – an amount that to me looked like a value bet. One of the new players that we had already labelled a donkey called with nothing but Ace high, and my friends pair of jacks were good, and he knew they would be too.

It was now that I could start making a few moves, as the pre-flop action was very passive with only a few raises and even fewer re-raises. If there was action pre-flop, it tended to be a $20 opening raise that no one would call – and why would you without a really good hand? Saw a $20 opening raise get popped back for a $70 all-in – original raiser called and was disappointed to find out his 66 was not in front, JJ was. Anyway, I was more than happy with this as it allowed me to see more flops and play it from there. I made a couple of moves to win medium sized pots and found that nearly any bet would get multiple calls on the flop, but the second bullet on the turn would work more often than not. So I built up a bit of a stack – not chip leader, but certainly above average.

And then I made some more chips the way I usually do – making people pay far too much for their draws and then they missed. I had a new player in the 10 seat heads up, with the board showing 9TJQ. I had KT, but there were two hearts on the board. It was about his 3rd hand at the table so I didn’t have a read at all so when he bet out for $15 on the turn, I thought it was time to put it all in and see. If he had AK (no raise pre-flop) then good on him, otherwise it is likely we’ll chop or he can pay severely for his draw. All in would be another $50 or so, and he called – with 52h. Thankfully, the last heart did not come, and he stood up and left. Not in disgust mind you, just because that was his only buy in and he was out. Wow – if I had only one bullet, I think I would find a better time that that to get my money in the middle.

Nearly an identical hand occurred later when I had TPTK heads up with AQ after I made a pre-flop raise. I bet again on the flop a nice amount to see if he was interested and he called. The turn was not a scare card except for bringing a flush draw, so I way overbet the pot to finish it there. The dealer says to the player, who was a nice guy and we’d been chatting, that he had to call for all of his chips, $55 or thereabouts. I said “Or you can fold you know, that’s still an option”. He called and had a 9 high flush draw that also missed. Phew – but a couple of nice pots no less.

It was about this time that the real action started to heat up and some amazing hands occurred. I will save them for my next post in a few days to space this out a bit. Stay tuned…

First Games For 2008

2008-01-09T10:59:00.000+11:00

"There are 3 different ways to play pocket jacks – their all wrong."

Ok, so it isn’t a movie quote above but I heard this little line at a poker game over the weekend. I’m sure it’s been said a million times before, but this was the first time I heard it and I thought it was right on the money. And for the rest of the night, I had a real hard time with Jacks as well.

The first session of home game poker in 2008 was very good and I ended up in front a reasonable amount. I was well in front at one stage, before I went on a river-beat run for maybe an hour. Some were of the 2-3 outs variety, others were just having mediocre hands beaten by something less mediocre. But I was making some excellent reads on the night and that was an encouraging sign. Two hands in particular against one player – early in the night calling a large river bet with 2nd pair because the betting pattern and amounts suggested to me that he had nothing, and then later in the night when his betting patterns told me he hit his hand on the flop and then wasn’t scared of the flush coming on the river made me lay down a strong hand. Turns out I was right, but for the wrong reasons – I thought he flopped a full house and it turns out he rivered it, but either way I saved quite a few chips by folding that hand and I felt good about it.

I had a 3 buy-in profit, and the best hand I hit all night was three of a kind, so that was interesting considering I never had any monsters. All my profit was from making big protective raises when I had two pair, top pair, trips or good drawing hands and then firing another bullet when I missed or checking it down when my opponent missed and getting paid off. Interestingly, the majority of my losses came when opponents made the same calls but hit instead. When that happens on the same night, and you end up in front, you can see that something right is going on when the wins outweigh the losses.

The first session of online poker in 2008 was just about the opposite. I played poorly except for maybe 2 hands (and one of them was not raising when I had a feeling my turned set of sevens were behind to a flopped set of kings) so not many pots or chips came my way. But I try to look on the bright side of things here, and at least I could see where my errors were and I know I was playing badly and not just getting unlucky. In fact, I even got lucky on one hand hitting a gut shot straight on the river when holding…pocket jacks. Ace-rag was not happy about that, but he shouldn’t have been in the pot in the first place. That happens some time.

So what have I learned so far in poker for 2008? Playing good gives you a better chance at winning than playing bad.

And they say poker theory is complicated!

2008 - The Year Of Poker On Film

2008-01-02T15:42:00.000+11:00

Bill Lumbergh: So, Peter, what's happening? Aahh, now, are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?
Peter Gibbons: No.
Bill Lumbergh: Ah. Yeah. So I guess we should probably go ahead and have a little talk. Hmm?
Peter Gibbons: Not right now, Lumbergh, I'm kinda busy. In fact, look, I'm gonna have to ask you to just go ahead and come back another time. I got a meeting with the Bobs in a couple of minutes.
Bill Lumbergh: I wasn't aware of a meeting with them.
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, they called me at home.
”Office Space”

Xmas has come and gone once again, and was enjoyable if not totally lacking in poker. We managed to play a few hands of holdem with my brothers, though I never managed to win a hand out of the maybe 20 we played in the early hours of the morning. The most exciting it got for me was when all-in and drawing to an 8 for an inside straight, I peeked at the river card (so that everyone could see I was looking at it before dealing it) and then grabbed a random card out of the middle of the deck and slammed it down – lo and behold, there was my 8! It didn’t stand of course, but it was funny that I could pull one of four outs from the middle of the deck, as useless as it was.

We did play some more 9 card Omaha, which I have only ever seen played before on the Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandari show “I Bet You”. Not a bad game, and when playing for free and to waste time, I prefer this to holdem anyday.

Over the Xmas period I also managed to open up the inner problem gambler in my mother by signing her up to Casino on net. She was getting into the video poker, and when she was down about $4 would ask me or my brother the casino dealer to get her back up above her starting point – like it was the easiest thing in the world for us to do. Somehow we managed to go 4 from 4 in getting her miniscule losses back, and I think she believes we can do this at whim now. If only that were true.

To complete our gambling holidays, we went to a local greyhound racing track in Melbourne and had a good night. My younger brother and his girlfriend had a big win when a dog bearing her name and 30+ odds managed to sneak home when the favourite got bumped on the last bend. The Distraction and I after 8 races pulled to a $4 deficit, which is not a bad price to pay for an evenings entertainment. Had some good results and overall enjoyed it. Though it was rough at the start – I would instantly pick a dog without thinking, and then after putting some thought into it change my selection – of course, the original no-thinking selection would win. So that became the goal of the night, ignore my changes of mind and go with the first selection before any thought could cloud the non-judgement. Worked ok, as good as any other system I guess.

I’ve got the itch to get back into the poker playing arena, and this weekend is looking good for some action, wherever that may be. I have also used some of the advertising dollars from here to reload the two home games I play at with some more copags as the last lot of KEM’s seemed to be pretty crappy. I remember the first deck of KEM cards I bought, they were AU$60. Now, you can grad a deck for about $20, and two copag decks for $25 which is the preference.

Having Too Much Fun To Care

2007-12-18T10:33:00.000+11:00

Ian: Okay, who are you guys?
Pip: My name's Pip.
Ian: The band. The band name.
Pip: Sorry about that.
Ian: He doesn't wear a helmet, does he?
”Airheads”

Results wise, poker has not been kind. Playing wise, it has been a good week. In the live game last Friday I was making some really good reads on the other players, but was not getting any cards to play. When I did play a hand, I was usually drawing very thin or had my opponent dominated pre-flop, only to be way behind on the flop. But I was in too good a mood to be bothered by the loosing hands and was just enjoying myself.

I decided to try to get back into some SNG’s and increase the level slightly – but I was cursed again and lost to a bit of a beat which put me to less than the big blind, and then suffered a similar beat to end that tournament, which was probably the last hand I will get to play this year.

After some horror sessions in the live game front, I managed to pull back to a decent profit on the year, which was an increase on last year’s profit by a mere $14. It’s funny, the graph of each year of profit by session shows some very similar trends through the year. Must be a reason for it and I’ll try to find that out as I do my review.

Next year the goal is to keep proper records for online play as I do for live play, so I can get a true indication of where I am headed poker wise. In 2007 I managed to catch a few milestones and build a decent bank roll, including making more withdrawals than all previous years put together. I had moved up in limits to the point where I am very comfortable at the higher levels now, and am looking at moving up again in the first half of next year if things go well.

Poker will be harder to come by in 2008 after the baby arrives, as is to be expected. It may mean that I will just be substituting live games for more online games so I don’t have to leave the house. We’ll see what happens, but obviously the priorities will change slightly.

How old does the kid have to be before I can start teaching them five card draw?

2007 Winding Down

2007-12-10T11:24:00.001+11:00

Jimmy Johnston: Right here. Editorial says this fight is good as murder, and everybody associated with it should be hauled into court and prosecuted afterwards. They say the paper's getting all sorts of letters from people saying you're their inspiration - like you saved their lives or something. If you ask me, it's a lotta crap... but if I'm gonna promote this fight, I'm not getting hung out to dry if something happens to you.
Joe Gould: Ah, you're all heart.
Jimmy Johnston: My heart's for my family, Joe, my brains and my balls are for business and this is business. You got me?
Joe Gould: Gotcha.
”Cinderella Man”

I didn’t play any live poker this week due to other commitments, and online poker wasn’t that much fun as I had two sessions where a pair was a rarity. Lost less than a buy in though, so that was about as good a result as I could have hoped for all things considered. 95% of the hands went like this – other player makes pre-flop raise, I call with 98s or similar junk – flop comes with no straight or flush draw for me and no pair, other player bets and I fold. Once I tried to represent something, the other player re-raised me all-in so maybe that one was bad timing, but the pattern more or less repeated itself for a few hours before I finally reached the felt. It was weird, things were going so bad but I didn’t fell like standing up with $20 left in front of me, and I was kind of relieved when it was gone because that meant it was over.

Been watching some of this season of High Stakes Poker – I like to wait until the season is finished before I start watching. Looks ok, but I think they are starting to try to hard to make the action hard and fast.

Saw an episode of the Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandari “I bet you” this week for the first time. In my opinion, they try too hard for the show. It would be better if this was done more as a series in hindsight, instead of trying to churn out 30 minutes worth each week. If they took the time to say record all their prop betting over the course of a year, and then make a series out of that, it would be much better. Sure, that requires patience and they want to strike now while the iron is hot, but that’s what you end up with. I’ll still watch just to see if it improves, but I am not holding high hopes.

I have maybe one game left in 2007 before I close the books, and it looks like it will be a slight increase on profit compared to 2006. Considering the first 3 games of the year I barely won a hand, it was a good year. Online was even better, and I feel like I made some real inroads into increasing the bank roll and joining bigger games. I touched $2K for the first time which was great, and I’ve withdrawn nearly double that in the year. Poker has paid for a lot of things and made life easier, which was well needed. Hopefully the good run and good reads continue.

It's A Home Run!

2007-12-04T15:23:00.000+11:00

Barry: Of all the bathroom stalls, in all the correction facilities in all the world, he walks into mine.
Nelson Biederman IV: Haven't you heard the news Barry?
Barry: The news? Oh yeah. Barry finally pitches, Pisces catches, home team wins.
"Let's Go To Prison"

Free time has been of a premium of late, but it all has been for the better as the last week has been one of the best weeks financially of my life.

First of all, I am making a career change for the better. I was offered a new job in a senior role which was a healthy increase in pay – which was the motivating factor to be honest, as when Little Ed joins us things will be very tight. My current employer gave me some huge compliments, and in time after speaking to numerous levels of management came back with a counter offer to get me to stay. While the new job had some great opportunities, the current job is with a massive company that is about to get even bigger thanks to one of Australia's biggest takeovers in history. So there is a bit of security and a chance to move up in a round about way, so even though more money was on offer at the other place, I made the decision to stay. Until the other place offered even more money, then it was a forgone conclusion and I'm off for a new job just before Christmas.

Last time I moved house, I also changed jobs at the same time. It's happened again by the looks of it. The new job will be closer to home (not that that was an issue before) and some real opportunities in the future for networking in a new industry. And I might get my own office again.

After performing my general handyman duties around the house, and playing nice to my increasingly pregnant Distraction, I had arranged to take leave for poker playing privileges that night at one of the monthly home games that we play. I like this place because all the people are good people and it's a fun game. Historically I think I have only ever left in the red once, maybe twice, so I do quite well there also.

We started with 12 players, which is a lot but not so bad. I prefer 5-7 players, but it's a friendly game so why not. We had 2 new players to the game, a friend of the host and his girlfriend. This would be the first female at this game, despite the vast majority of the players being married. I have no problem with it at all, it's just never happened at this game before. I would think any female looking to play in this environment would be pretty confident in themselves and in their skills, so it would pay to be wary of them.

They knew how to play, just not how to play well. I didn't get to take any of their chips, but saw a few times where they were calling big bets with very vulnerable hands and unfortunately they both ended their night down a few buy ins. I say unfortunately because I always like to see new faces at the games, and hope that they enjoy themselves enough to come again. They seemed like nice people and I hope some bad results first up doesn't scare them off.

As for myself, I managed to pull in a few pots and when you have 12 runners in a loose and friendly game, you tend to get a few callers for your bets and the pots tend to grow. Without hitting any monsters I managed to chip up and up and never really put a foot wrong. I had some hands look good on the flop and then look bad on the turn, so I dumped them. Had a few draws that came and a few other hands that held up. I can't recall any bluffs or steals, and very few bad beats – either with me as the perp or victim.

One of my favourite hands is 63o for some reason. Another player at the game also has this as his favourite hand, so we make comment on it from time to time. Through the evening I told him that if he and I were in a pot and the flop came 663 and I had 63, I would chop it with him. Then that morphed into anytime the two of us are heads up in a pot and one of us has 63, then it's a chop no matter what. It worked later on when he had 63h and the flop was all hearts, so we chopped. It's a nice deal and we'll keep it going for the foreseeable future.

As the drinks kept flowing (I was driving so stayed off the juice) the pots got bigger as those down tried to regain their losses. One such player made a $20 opening bet on a Q77 flop. I had K7, and checked his stack to see there was only $15 left after that bet. So I raised to get it heads up and save any would be draws from the mix. But a spanner in my plan as the only player at the table with a stack to rival mine, who re-raised my $40 to $80. Of course, everyone else folded and I was in a spot. I had a fair idea that he was not bluffing – I was up against Q7 or A7, but there is always that chance that he had a weaker 7 or something else. As it was heads up, I just flipped over my 7 to see what his reaction was. He was not phased by it at all and didn't even flinch. In his drunken state, he would never have been able to pull off that acting job and now I was certain I was beaten. He then looked at his cards and flipped over an Ace. Ok – he has seen I have a seven, wasn't scared and then flipped over an ace. He must have A7 and I thought about gambling it up but I was well in front and thought it best not to ruin a good night. Just to make sure, he flipped over the 7 as well and I got away with that one – still expensive, but could have been a lot worse.

The other get out of jail moment was with 44 limped in to see a flop of K84 rainbow. There is a bet out from the pre-flop raiser and just I called. Turn comes an ace, which I figure is good for me as if he had AK then there is no way he is folding. He bets out, I look at him and say that he didn't like that ace, so I made a raise. He re-raised and as soon as his chips hit the pot I moved all in. He had maybe another $130 in front of him that he had worked hard to build up. He looked concerned, as I have a tight image and he figured I wasn't on a bluff, and I was also on a roll this night so I could have been hitting anything. I let him know that I could beat AK…and he said he could too.

And this is where the work comes in…I am now severely beat and all in, and in some way have to convince a guy to fold a set. Since I have the fours, he must have a set of 8's, kings or aces. Kings or aces would have called in an instant, so he must have pocket 8's. I tell him as much, and he flips over his hand. I didn't flinch, and said he has a real decision on his hand, and in general kept talking confidently saying how well he has played tonight and how he has built his stack up. I've already seen his hand obviously so I know where I am in this pot. I say jokingly "If I offer a chop, does that mean I've only got the fours?" and he responds with "I don't know, but I'd take it". Really? I said ok and we chopped it up…and I reveal my fours and even he had to congratulate me on that job talking him out of calling. No doubt he would have called eventually, but it was a credit to him that he even considered folding as he didn't have the nuts and I honestly believed when I made the bet that I was in front, so he read me correctly even though I misread him. In the end he made the wrong decision, but I believe the decision making process was along the right lines. He took the chop to save making a mistake either way and you can't blame him for that.

When it came to 6.30am, the host had already been in bed for 3 hours as those left kept playing. I was just over $500 in front, my best night ever by some margin, and we had reached the agreed time to shut up shop. But then the host came back, and after a good nights rest he was ready for some more, coffee in hand. So we played for another hour, then an hour after that. I flopped some big hands and got paid off, much smaller amounts than it was earlier in the night, and then when all was said and done, I was over 12 buy-ins in front, which is well past my previous best.

Star City Casino

2007-11-26T17:58:00.000+11:00

Jay: You know, sometimes I wish I did a little more with my life instead of hanging out in front of places selling weed and shit. Like, maybe be an animal doctor. Why not me? I like seals and shit. Or maybe an astronaut. Yeah... be the first motherfucker to see a new galaxy, or find a new alien lifeform... and fuck it. People would be like, "There he goes. Homeboy fucked a Martian once."
"Clerks II"

I had my second experience at the Sydney Star City Casino over the weekend, and I did much better than last time and have a few observations about the poker tables at the Star.

Firstly, I rocked up at 5.30pm, having left work slightly early to get there hoping to get onto a table early as the wait for a seat gets damn long very quickly on a Friday night. I figured 5.30pm should be early enough to beat everyone else knocking off from work and get on within an hour or so. For the $80NL level, they had 4 tables running and when I signed up at the brush, I was 63rd on the list. That's just stupid. I know the idea is to have the players waiting around in the hope that they will spend their time playing blackjack, or craps, or whatever other tables games where the house can expect to make much more, but having 40 seats open for 100 players is just too much. There was no less than 8 spare tables in the poker area, and surely they could have opened up 1 or 2 by this stage to accommodate the large list. Out of protest, I refused to play any games and waited by watching the big screens – didn't matter what was on, but I got maybe 10 minutes of Euro league basketball in which was ok. In the end, it wasn't until 8.30pm that I got a table, and that was because they had finally opened more tables. Don't know how big the list was by then, but I was pretty disappointed that it took me this long.

When I did finally get to sit down, I doubled up the first hand I played which is always nice, and then I never looked back. Without realising it I was playing very tight, but I was getting paid off when I had a hand so really didn't see a need to change it up. I got a lucky river card once despite having both opponents dominated pre-flop (KJ vs JT and JT, JT on the flop and I rivered a straight.) and only suffered one beat on the night with AA vs JJ all in pre flop – four card flush came on the river. It was a solid night.

Most importantly, it was fun. The table was laughing it up, enjoying the back and forth action without taking it too seriously except for one or two players every now and then. There was one player who was either Canadian or American (the first I think, but can't be sure) who was pretty weird. He never seemed to be paying attention, and then when it was his turn to act he would ask for everything to be replayed for him – who raised what, when, how much they had left, what was in the pot, how many people called and how many were left to call – which is fine, you are allowed to ask if you missed something, but he was doing this every hand and the table was starting to get annoyed with it. That, and he was abusing one of the rules of the poker room.

As far as I know, Star City is one of the only or very few poker rooms that allow you to go south. You are permitted to chip down at the end of any hand to the original buy in. I can understand that, if you are up say 10 buy ins and the next largest on the table is only 3, you might want to book a small win and yet keep your chip lead on the table. I don't do it, but can understand if someone else wants to. Problem was, this player would chip up or chip down after every single hand. If he lost five dollars, he would chip back up to the $80 mark. If he won $8, it would go into his pocket. He would do this every hand, and it would take him 5-6 minutes to do it as well which started to piss the dealer off. And then all the other little explanations he had to do, including the obligatory string bet correction, made the dealer and the table more annoyed. But anyway, each to their own.

With maybe one exception, the dealers at Star City were all awesome. Quick and efficient in their dealing and chip handling, and they even indulged the players with a bit of banter when it was called for. The first dealer was a little annoyed by what was happening and as such he wasn't a picture of sunshine and happiness, but I could totally understand that. All the others had some fun with the table, as they should because it was a fun table. Even the pit bosses would have a joke when they came around. One particular was talking to us about a player who just left, obviously drunk when I spilled my lemonade. He threatened to cut me off on the lemonades next time he came around to the table.

I questioned one dealer about how long the deal at a table before they are moved, because I had a prop bet on that table six would be a male dealer at midnight. I made the bet with my usual prop betting friend who was seated to my left before we got to the casino so we couldn't see the ratio of male to female dealers. The ratio was well in my favour, maybe 15 male dealers to 3-4 female. At 10.30pm a female dealer moved onto table 6, but I was informed that they would only sit for an hour before they got moved. As the time got closer, there was nobody tapping on her shoulder for her to be moved, and as the casino clock rolled over to 0.00am, she was still seated and I lost about the 6th prop bet in a row. Then at 0.02am, she was replaced by a male dealer. Another bad beat! Of well, there goes another $10 in the prop betting stakes – side note, at the stroke of midnight me and my prop betting friend were involved in a hand. He flopped two pair, I had an open ended straight that got there on the turn. I won a big pot that more than covered the prop bet. I'll take that any day.

There was one player who was having a shocker of a day, maybe only three buy ins but it was the way they went that was bad. He ran into aces twice (once was by me, vs AJ on a jack high flop), and then lost to some bad beat when he bet $45 of his remaining $46 by accident. With his final dollar, he went all-in blind from middle position and was in for a main pot of $4. There was some action on the side pot that was bet out on the flop and on player picked it up with just king high – then they showed for the remaining two cards and the $4 main pot. The dude who was all-in for a dollar got up threw his cards in – he was dealt the rockets! He was saying he didn't even want the side pot but they played it out anyway…and he lost to runner-runner flush! Some days, it just isn't your day to play poker. Seemed like a reasonable player too.

At the end of the day, after buying a few drinks and what not I was up just under $200 for the night, and my prop betting friend caught a late run to be up over $500. While the 3 hour wait should not have been, everything else was fantastic. I really enjoyed playing even though I spent most of the night folding away. It was a fun table, and once I got over the wait to play everything was fantastic. Including getting free parking. While they still charge the $5 time charge every hour, I think they may have changed it to every two hours, or at least that was all they seemed to be charging be it either by design or by accident. That seemed a lot fairer to me anyway.

Easy Go, Easy Come

2007-11-19T17:54:00.001+11:00

Marty DiBergi: "This tasteless cover is a good indication of the lack of musical invention within. The musical growth of this band cannot even be charted. They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."
Nigel Tufnel: That's just nitpicking, isn't it?
"This Is Spinal Tap"

The new house is starting to feel like home, as we discover all the little idiosyncrasies of the house and the suburb. Over the weekend we tried the air conditioner for the first time – and it is bliss! If one thing in the house had to work, it would be the air conditioner. Life was good – the cricket was on the TV, the day was hot, the air conditioner was on and I was asleep on the couch.

Friday night home game was my worst ever, in that I was home by 1am because all my buy ins were gone. It was a shame, because I felt like I was playing well and I was enjoying the game. In the very first hand, I hit top pair and turned trips, but lost out to a flopped straight. That hurt a little, but not to worry. Later on, after getting back to a respectable chip position I got to see a multi-way pot from the small blind without a raise, so K9h was looking to the flop. The flop came QJT rainbow, and I checked waiting for a raise. I got a raise and two calls from across the table – drawing players that would do this with anything, and I thought I was in a good position to get someone who was behind to call a big bet, which would look like a protection of TPTK or maybe two pair. I was hoping to get something like KQ or QJ to call, so I made my big raise. In hindsight, the amount of the raise was too much and caused me to be pot committed but that was my intention at the time. One player in late position raised all-in, and it was a pittance for me to call, something like $15 into a $150 pot. He gave off every signal that he had a strong hand on that flop, but knowing this player that could have meant anything from the nuts to second pair with a back door flush. Unfortunately for me, it was the nuts and there went all my hard work. The limp preflop was what caught me really, and it was the first time in ages that I had hit anything on a flop, but that's poker.

I also had a prop bet going, that aces would be shown less than 6 times on the night. The bet was that aces would count if they were shown at showdown, or were shown before they were mucked. Out of the first 5 times aces were shown, only once was it at showdown so I was getting screwed there too. Once, the player with aces knew he was beaten, and was ready to muck them and then he showed them to me only before they were mucked. The other guy in the prop bet didn't see what happened, but I can't let that go and pretend it didn't happen so that was aces number 2 early on. If he showed any other player though, it wouldn't have counted unless they spoke up but that's the way it goes.

But I can't complain. I've had a good run lately and this probably brought about a bit of balance. I had a good weekend online though, winning in 4 out of 4 sessions and playing well. Most of the profit was from making other players pay for their draws and then calling a bluff when it missed. I like that.

I got deep in a tourny only to throw it away one from the bubble. It was a 5 table SNG and I made it to 8th before I made a bad read. UTG with 8000 raised to 1750 (blinds were 250/500). I had 7500 in chips and 88 on the button and just called – I could have pushed but wanted to see if the flop was dangerous first. Flop came 26J, which I figured was safe. Opponent bet out 3500 or something around that amount into the pot – which should have told me that he wasn't just putting in a continuation bet. That was a bet that should have told me he figured his hand was best. I had already decided that a jack high flop was good for me, and I was pushing all in. This bet amount should have changed my mind, but I didn't consider it and had already made my mind up. I pushed, he called with AJ. So I got a little unlucky on the flop, but really I should have known better and paid the price for it. If I hadn't been a buy-in up on the cash table at the same time, it might have annoyed me more.

So I ended the weekend about even, which isn't so bad. Going home early on Friday night was disappointing, but in the end it allowed me to be awake for a big Saturday shopping for baby crap. All is well in the end.

Moving On...

2007-11-15T17:33:00.000+11:00

Larry Flynt: You don't want to quit me, I'm your dream client: I'm the most fun, I'm rich, and I'm always in trouble.
"The People vs Larry Flynt"

Well the big move is over, and looks like after a few computer dramas I am back up to speed and ready to go again. Long story short, had to format the hard drive and lost everything but at least the machine is working once again, and I can play some poker.

We've moved from a unit to a house, to make room for Little Ed who know has his own room, despite being 20 weeks shy of his birthday. Which means now the Distraction wants to fill it with baby crap. Here we go…

The new house set up is ok, but I've lost a study and now the computer sits just off the lounge room, where I am not safe from the Distraction's prying eyes. But we've been having good luck lately, so there is nothing to worry about there.

Having played a hand of poker in over a week due to the move, so hopefully by next post I'll have more hands to discuss and thoughts on the 52 little plastic friends.

Keep Them Happy

2007-11-05T21:10:00.000+11:00

Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: Sil, break it down for 'em. What two business have traditionally been recession-proof since time immemorial?
Silvio Dante: Certain aspects of show business and our thing.
"Sopranos"

Listen to enough people in poker circles, and when it comes to online poker there seems to be two sites in particular that people always say have the toughest competition – those being Full Tilt and PokerStars.

I for one, believe that if the other sites are so easy, then why aren't all the good players there taking care of the fish? But to a certain extent, it is probably true. I've played at many different sites around the place, and I have found some sites easy and some hard but I haven't really given them all enough time to warrant a decision. That's because there will always be enough bad players at the big rooms to accommodate the good. Hopefully I can find myself as one of the latter. But the reason Full Tilt and PokerStars seem to have so many good players if the service they provide attracts players who are serious about the game. Just the fact that Pokerstars withdrawals are instant at the levels I play is a major bonus – and it's not like it is a difficult thing for them. Any questions submitted to help is answer within a few hours in my experience. Even on one occasion where I was in the wrong – I tried to make a transfer to a withdrawal service here in Australia without playing the money, effectively making a neteller withdrawal through Pokerstars – the support told me this was not what the method was created for, but let it pass just this once as I was not to know. See, that's good service – let it slide without incident and warn me not to do it again.

There's something in that, about looking after your customers. In poker, the customers are the players willing to sit with you that you think you can take money from. Ever heard the term "Don't tap the glass?" Of course you have. Why do people still do it?

I had an occasion on the weekend where in my second hand after sitting down, I got lucky. I hit a river card to make my flush after pushing all-in on the turn on a semi-bluff. I didn't expect him to call, he did with just a pair and I hit my flush on the river for the win. I even posted a "sorry, guess I got lucky, didn't think you'd call" but he went off again. So I decided to give him a lesson, as he was proclaiming how he was going to felt me and how I was free money – I cashed out of the table straight away! I had other things to do anyway, so it wasn't a dent to my poker playing time.

While I was online the other night, I noticed one of my friends from the home game was online, so I decided to jump onto his table to see how things were. It was at a lower monetary level than what I wanted to play, but who cares when you're playing with friends?

What I didn't notice was it was also a limit table. Damn, this will be boring.

I couldn't help but win. I was hitting flushes, straights, quads (flopped quad nines on a A99 flop…sadly opponent didn't have an ace) and a straight flush even. All up – a profit of $4! Damn low level limit game! Stupid waste of good fortune! What can you do? If I hit those kind of hands at my usual table, I would have doubled my bank roll by the time I stood up. But I'll take it anyway, what other choice do I have?

Who Wants A BBQ?

2007-10-29T18:41:00.001+11:00

Troy Duffy: As for my film career? Get used to it, 'cuz it ain't goin' anywhere. Period

"Overnight"

I feel a bit weird reviewing a documentary 3-4 years after it was released, but I only just got around to watching it over the weekend. In and of itself, it's not really that good of a documentary and after the first five minutes you realise what is going to happen (if you didn't know already). Well, maybe not realised, but certainly hoped. Whatever you think about the industry from personal experience, second hand knowledge or rumours and grape vine delights, there is no doubt who is at fault for the failure of this project by the way the documentary is shown. It would be hard to believe that Duffy was misrepresented by editing in the doco, there was just too much evidence that editing would have only limited how bad he looked, not magnified it. Can you draw comparisons between the careers of Kevin Smith and Troy Duffy? One of them can not stop telling people how fortunate he is to make his silly movies, how grateful he his that he can do this will all his friends and how he loves what he does, and the other is resentful of everyone else who doesn't bow down towards him and submit. Whether you like Kevin Smith movies or not, you have got to love his passion for his work and honesty in his self assessment. I have to admit, Boondock Saints wasn't a bad movie. I liked it, thought it was paying to see which is a good thing. But I didn't think it was the modern day answer to "The Godfather" with a soundtrack written by John Lennon. Maybe that's just me.

Anyway, on to everything else, which includes some poker. The weekend was a very good one. Firstly, Friday night poker had me posting my best results for the year at the regular home game – second best for the year overall. It started badly, when pocket aces got a really bad call on the flop from one player – who openly said he was making a terrible call. Turns out he hit a four on the flop, and got a six on the turn for two pair. Lost a chunk there but such is life. I was forced to rebuy in circumstances I can't remember, more than likely a short stack all-in pre-flop, but after that things eventually turned around. I hit some straights and got a few little pay days, made some good calls when I thought there was a bluff on and held on tight when I flopped a flush and one player kept betting. My flush was only 7 high, but I didn't think he was better and I had position. The river brought a fourth spade to the board, and that's when he gave up which was good for me.

Later I managed to make a straight flush but couldn't get action, and then flopped quads with 44. I got a nice value bet in on the river as well which made me feel better. I made some good laydowns as well and really the only pot I made a mistake on was a massive one where I was prepared to call a big bet on the river from the first player, but another called in front of me and I figured I must be beat. Turned out I did have the best hand, but you get that sometimes.

On Saturday, the Distraction had a win also. A horse that bears her name runs around in Melbourne from time to time, and she likes to bet on it because it has won a few times for her. It came third over the weekend, so she had another nice little pay day.

Saturday night we went out to a food and wine fare that was a fundraiser for a friend's school. I'm not really into wine, but figured it was worth a night out anyway. We had a great time. Me and two of the guys decided to try some wines around the place, and the first stall we went to my friend asked the older guy "What's good". His immediate response was "Nothing, it's all pretty shit." Yep, he was the man to lead us through our wine tasting experience we decided. We tried some of their stuff as he talked us through it and it wasn't too bad, actually liked some of it. To be honest though, we were just having a good time swapping jokes and getting few tastings from the guy, but it was worth it. We didn't mind one variety, and went to buy a bottle but found out you couldn't have it then and there, you had to order it and it would be delivered in a week. That wasn't serving our purpose, so we had to let it go and buy the cheap stuff that was available on the night.

The obligatory raffle came around, and we bought a ticket before knowing what the prize was. Turns out it was a $3500 "Outdoor kitchen" – really just a really big barbeque with all the gadgets and what not. None of us in the group own our own home, so one person starts negotiating with the lady selling the ticket as to how much she would buy it from him for. Jeeze, at least wait until after it's drawn mate!

They had some silent auctions and a few decent items for a live auction as well. We had a look around, and my friend Dave decided to open the bidding on a silent auction for a $30 voucher at a butcher. After reading and re-reading the terms and what not, he eventually filled out the form correctly and put in his starting bid of $2. As soon as he put the pen down, I picked it up and put $3 in for myself, then told him you were only allowed to bid once (which of course was a lie). We both knew it would not go for anywhere near that price, but it was just a bit of fun for us. I think it went for $30 – which sounds stupid, but it is a fund raiser for the school.

Of the live auctions, we had our eye on a wine rack made from wood, that included a signed cricket bat by members of the 1948 Australian Cricket team. Bit of history here for my North American friends once more – the 1948 Australian Cricket team was one of the greatest of all time. Nicknamed "The Invincibles", they were undefeated on their tour of England that year and were revered for years to come. The captain of the team was Sir Donald Bradman, and if his signature was on it, it would be near priceless. We were guessing how much it would be worth, but had to downgrade those figures when we found out it didn't include Bradman on the bat. Still though, had some massive names from Australian Cricket that were and we were still going to try to put in a bid thanks to my latest poker withdrawal. The Distraction said $500 was her limit, but I knew it would go for well above that and gave us a limit of $800 – fully expecting it to get to double that in quick time.

While we waited inside for the auction to start, they drew the raffle for the $3500 bbq and other prizes. Just before they pulled the ticket out, I joked to the Distraction and our friends "Ah, he's mispronounced my name", which is a common joke at these type of things. But lo and behold, he pronounced my name perfectly and we were then the proud owners of a premium modular outdoor kitchen including delivery and installation. I quickly searched for the lady that sold us the ticket to see if she really was interested in buying it. Negotiations are still pending.

The wine rack didn't make the reserve price, which I found out later was $1150. If it had the Bradman signature, I'm guessing it would have went a lot higher. The highest bid on the night was $900 I think. Shame, would have looked great at our house but it was just a little too much for us at this stage. Still though, picking up the BBQ for a $5 ticket wasn't a bad result!

Absolute Shame

2007-10-22T18:42:00.000+10:00

Doctor: Don't worry scrote. There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.

"Idiocracy"

I have been trying to read everything I can on the debacle that is the Absolute Poker situation, and I have drawn a few conclusions of my own from what has happened. I'm sure nothing I say here has not already been said before, but I'll say them again anyway.

Firstly, how dumb do you have to be to get caught? I think that the way the cheaters were abusing the system shows they were not real poker players – or at least, were blinded extremely by their greed. Like everyone else I imagine who has heard about the scandal, I imagined what I would do if I had the "superuser" account. How could I keep getting the profits without getting caught? Let's say I stumbled across such an account by whatever means, would I use it? No – I wouldn't. Poker is fun, and this would remove any enjoyment from it, and no matter how much I tried I know eventually the game would be up and I would get caught, and then your name is mud forever – and who knows what other sanctions afterwards. Hypothetically, would I do it if it was guaranteed 100% that I would never get caught? Well, obviously you can never have that guarantee but hypothetically speaking, it would be a real test to say no. But that is only a hypothetical situation, and my love of not getting my ass pounded in prison would preclude me from using it.

Another conclusion drawn from the ongoing saga is – if this superuser was out there and was dumb enough to get caught, how many other's are not as dumb? Before this happened, I was 100% certain that online poker was not rigged. Now I can not be 100% certain, though I am 99% sure my 50c/$1 games are safe from being compromised. While I am still fairly certain that the majority of poker sites I frequent are safe, now it has been proven that compromise can occur. And it's not like Absolute Poker was some small room that few people knew about – it would probably be one of the top ten poker rooms in the world, at least for name recognition. Now we will also have to put up with every donkey that looses a pot complaining that they were cheated.

I have an account at Absolute Poker, though it hasn't been used in quite some time and I only opened it because of Poker Source Online. So I am not really a major revenue stream for the room, I'm just another bonus whore there for my raked hands and then left – but what are the chances I would return there now? I can't think of a reason why I would – but like I said, I'm not really a regular there anyway.

Some of the talk has been about how AP management are in a loose/loose situation, and how they are trying to limit the damages done to keep their company alive. I don't know if it is worth keeping alive right now, a black mark on your name like this will be hard to forget. Even if they came out and gave 100% disclosure on everything that happened, personally thanked the poker community members who discovered the cheating and then refunded every single dollar lost by their players with interest – would it remove the tarnish they now have? In my mind, that would be the only way they could get close to it, and I'm not even sure that would work.

I am also convinced that this is bad news for online poker everywhere, without a doubt. This is worse than anything else I can think of that has happened to the online poker industry, including Russ Boyd's disappearing poker room and the Port Authority Act.

It is hard to come up with positives from all of this, but the major upside is the poker community. It goes to show that on the popular forums such as 2+2 and Pocket Fives (amongst others) and amongst the blogging ranks, there are some pretty smart cookies, and dedicated. Sure, there was a lot of money involved in this instance, but there is a lot more at stake – thousand's times more. A community though has pulled together to make sure something like this will not be swept under the carpet. It is people power with intelligence behind it, and that is a testament to the people involved and supporting the actions. I'm glad to see some of the people involved in this getting the recognition they deserve, and perhaps if it emerges that there was a whistle blower within the AP ranks helping in secret, they too will get our thanks. The pessimist in my though thinks that they probably got left out of the action and then turned whistleblower, but we'll see what happens when everything is said and done.

Will this stop me from playing online poker at any site? Hell no. I still believe in the integrity of the two sites I frequent the most – being Full Tilt and PokerStars. Just now, there is that 1% of "it could", where before there was not.

As for my own poker play, I had some good sessions both online and in live games. My first hand in a 200 hand session (bigger than normal for me) was a straight flush, my first in a long time. I didn't get much action, but I did get a small value bet on the river called. In the same session, I also twice flopped quads without holding a pocket pair. Pretty hard to get action on those hands, though I did get an all-in the second time from a short stack. Even with those miracle hands, I still managed to finish only a little in front, just under a buy in. The three main losses in big pots was flopping the nut straight and then loosing to a rivered better straight (I slow played it, so that is the risk), and that was a significantly sized pot. The second was hitting an ace on the flop and then loosing out to QT with a queen on the turn and ten on the river forming two pair – he raised pre and post flop and I was just a calling station. Maybe a raise on the flop could have changed this pot, but to be honest I think I made more money from this player by encouraging this play anyway. The above two hands I think were 50% bad play and 50% bad luck, but the last was 99% bad play. On a flop of Q99 I had an under pair, 7's or 8's I think. One player bet out on the with medium strength, and I thought my position in the blinds could mean I have a 9, and I tried to represent it. I just called on the flop, and then when he bet $8 on the turn, I raised it to $20. He came back over the top without much thought, and I decided he either did have the 9 or he's earned this pot.

But for the most part, I played really well. I used my table image well and got some nice pots when I missed my hands and got a few value bets in too when the need came. I jumped out early from the starting stack of $50 to $75, then back down to as low as $17 before ending the session around the $90 mark, which I was more than happy with. I had some players on a string, which was a nice change for me.

As for the live game, after being up most of the night I ended $5 down, but I was very happy with the way I played. I made some really good reads and earned some good pots, and really disguised a monster hand early that got me some chips. For the most of the night though my profits were eaten up by missed draws (some good draws, some I shouldn't have been involved in) and a few times where I couldn't get action on my big hands. But I had a good night and the results didn't show how well I played. I was happy with the poker.

Moving Onwards And Upwards

2007-10-17T22:45:00.001+10:00

Connor, Murphy: And Shepherds we shall be For thee, my Lord, for thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomeni Patri Et Fili
[Guns cocks]
Connor, Murphy: Spiritus Sancti.
"Boondock Saints"

It has been a very busy time at the Poker On Film household. After looking for a month or so for a new place to live, to accommodate the pending increase in our family size, we've spent most weekends driving around greater Sydney looking at places with hosts of other families. This means we usually pull up about 10 minutes before the open house, and 15-20 minutes before the real estate agent, and start sizing up the competition – those guys look like they'll have a lot of parties and trash the place…that lady looks drunk already (it was 10am)…damn, that woman looks way more pregnant than the Distraction here…those kids look illegitimate…and so on.

We found a nice place and put in an application, which is never a sure thing anyway, only to be told that the owners would want us out in 6 months. Would have been nice to know that in advance. Never mind – another place we saw a week ago was still available, and we thought we would try it again, but this time it would be someone else's application that would be approved.

Every other time we have moved places for whatever reason, we've found a place straight away. Last time, we had just one day to fins a place after we returned from our honeymoon. This time around, we gave ourselves months of notice so we could truly find a suitable place – and this time we needed it because the market is so competitive. As luck would have it, the very first place we saw was the best but we did not put in an application because we wanted to see what else was out there. By the time we realised it didn't get any better than that, we were too late. Never mind.

So anyway, last weekend we checked out 4 places, and put in applications for three of them. The forms for the applications are really stupid – how many different things you need to include, and referees and the like, and then to check on us all they did was call our "next of kin" – which for both of us was our mothers! Surprise surprise, our mum's think we are good people and we got approved for all three places. So anyway, now we have our pick and selected the new home for Little Ed when he or she joins us in April.

Along with some illness, I haven't played much poker since the last all-in fest which was not enjoyable, and time to get online has been limited. I did have a quick 30 minute session on Sunday, sitting down at the $1/$2 NL table to the immediate left of a massive chip leader. I never seem to be in good position, so getting him in position seemed like a good sign for me and I was ready to let it ride. This was a new level for me, and I figured I would either make back some of my recent losses or get a hiding and remind myself that I don't belong here. I bought it short for about $130.

Early hands, I couldn't protect TPTL against a flush draw, but got out without loosing my skin. Down to about $90 when I get pocket aces on the small blind. All my interesting hands seem to come from the blinds…Anyway, as everyone had folded, and the button made a raise to $6 I decided it was already a thinned field, I could hide my hand a little with just a call here. BB also called and the flop comes Ten high – I check, BB checks, button bets $15. This is enough, and I push all-in. Only the button calls with AT – which is really a bit of a bad situation to be in hitting TPTK when someone has slow played an over pair, but you could argue for and against dropping it there. An ace on the river might have given him hope, because at PokerStars you don't see the cards until the hand is completed, but anyway I managed a double up. A few hands later, I see a flop with AJh and four others, including our still massive stack to my right on the BB, and the flop comes A62 with only one heart. I checked, just to see what action was out there and one player makes a $6 bet. Our friend in the big blind raised it to $16, and I thought I was behind but might call just to see if I could catch up or to see what he does on the next card. Original better leaves and we are heads up again. Turn is a Jack, which means I am either buried to a set or just got lucky. He bets $25, and I consider myself pretty much committed here, but just call (may have been a mistake there again, but that's what happened.) The river was a ten, meaning KQ would have hit a gut shot straight but if so, good luck to him. He pushed all-in again and obviously has me well covered, so I felt I had a good enough hand to call and hoped he had AK or AQ. Turns out he has 62o for the flopped two pair, and I am good for a second double up. I now have him covered too.

On the first double up, it was just a good situation for me and it probably wouldn't have mattered how I played it (save for only calling pre-flop), it was just the kind of flop that got him interested enough to call my shorter stack all in. The second time, well I got a bit of luck but it wasn't like he was playing a monster hand – perhaps he had me on a draw or a weaker Ace – which I did have before the turn – and perhaps the earlier loss also had a little tile effect on him. So good situation and a bit of good luck – hopefully some good play in there as well and I'm looking at a good day.

Not once did this guy though go off about what a donkey I was or how rigged the site was, which seems to be just as common as ever when someone looses a hand. Got to give him that, he'd just dropped nearly $300 to me and didn't feel that need.

A few hands later, when I was feeling like I should be cutting and running, I saw an un-raised flop with Ah3h – and the flop was all hearts! I let someone else bet and just called, and saw a fourth heart on the turn. I hoped the other player, a different person this time, had just the king or queen and had hit their flush, but in case they had something else I check-raised them all-in for the remaining chips, maybe $80. He called with just the ten of hearts, and was drawing dead. I stood up soon afterwards, and had turned the $130 into $450 by the end of the game, my best online session in a very long, long time.

Damn Sets

2007-10-08T18:19:00.001+10:00

Molly: That what life is. Just a bunch of moments. Most of them are lousy, but once is a while you get a good one.
"Life Stinks"

I am back to complaining about a few unlucky hands, but it's not so bad. I played a whole heap over the weekend for some bad results, but it could have been worse and I look at it as getting all the bad luck out of the way in one hit. It was bad luck, bad play and bad situations for the most part, but I did have my moments to drag a few pots and limit the damage.

For the most of it, money was lost when I had a big starting hand and bet into someone who flopped a monster – I.e AA vs A8 heads up and the flop comes 889. Ok, bit of bad luck but I managed to not loose my whole stack so that's alright. I had a few times where I had something like AK-AJ and my esteemed opponent had 89s or J7o and hit trips on the flop. I lost a few bets going for a continuation but that happens also.

What was funny was the hands I actually won, and still got blasted by some of the fish at the table. One guy in particular was so incredibly stupid that other people at the table who were not even involved in the hand were telling him to shut up. The hand that started it all was when he made it $4 from early position out of his stack of $22. I had nearly $100 as I had not been at the table long at that is a full buy in. I had AA on the button, and since nobody else had called, decided to flat call him and see if anyone else was interested. I couldn't see how all his chips were not going in the middle on just about any flop anyway, so I'm not even thinking about the short stack at the minute. Both blinds fold, so it's down to heads up and in my mind, I'm already committed to this flop. Anyway, flop comes jack high without anything scary. He bets $5, I raise to $15 and he goes all-in for the remaining few bucks. Of course I call, and he shows pocket tens which don't improve and I take the pot. Pretty standard hand right? Well, you thought wrong mister! He spent the next 15 minutes of his life telling me and the entire table what a "donk" I was for not raising him preflop. As a friend of mine put it later – "You are such a donkey for trapping me and making me look like a donkey…you donkey".

And these people play poker for money? No wonder we have professional players in the world.

A few hands later, after he has bought back in again for under $30 (why put yourself in such a position?) when I did happen to get lucky against another player (again a short stack, I hit second pair on the flop he hit top pair and went all-in for a little over $10 – I called, and rivered a straight) he couldn't control himself.

But gentle reader, I said nothing. I did nothing to feed his rage or entertain myself. Nothing to defend or explain why I played the way I did. Just a simple tag and release – though I did have visions of Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone which I caught a glimpse of that morning – "Perhaps poker is not your game. How about a spelling competition then?". Even if I am not able to land this fish again, there is no point spoiling the catch for another angler for some other day.

Besides that, the weekend was very busy even though I didn't get to play any live games. I did my best impersonation of a carpenter in fixing our spare bed (and did a mighty fine job too for a guy without any training or coaching, if I don't mind saying so) and looking for places to rent. Sydney is becoming increasingly hard to find affordable accommodation. I didn't play any live poker because I needed some rest after having some food poisoning during the week and ended up being as sick as I have ever been. If you excuse the detail, I was throwing up so hard I bruised my ribs. Couldn't eat for three days, and even the thought of food made me feel queasy.

Next week will be the 2 year anniversary for the Distraction and I, and the last anniversary before we become a family next year. Of course the Distraction is looking to do something special, and I will likely oblige, but hopefully she will be just as happy with her backgammon board present as I will be. It might not sound like the most romantic gift in the world, but the Distraction will love it and that's what counts.

Not Enjoying A Win

2007-10-02T19:10:00.000+10:00

Walter Abrams: You know, the best part of the best drug in the world isn't the high. It's the moment just before you take it. The dice are dancing on the table. Between now and the time they stop, that's the greatest high in the world.
"Two For The Money"

It has been a while since my last post, and life has been very busy. I spent some time in Melbourne catching up with family, and even managed to go after some fish of a different kind. We went deep sea fishing in Bass Straight (for my North American friends, that is the body of water between mainland Australia and the small island state of Tasmania.) Had a good day out, as they were biting pretty quickly and yours truly bagged the first catch of the day. I also bagged the last, which unfortunately was right through my finger. The little hook went in and came out the tip of my finer about 1cm apart. Surprisingly didn't hurt as much as it looked like it did, which is always a good thing.

It would have been nice to get down to the casino for some poker, but my brother works there so if we went he couldn't join us to play, so we gave it a miss. Instead we played heaps of euchre and 500 and it was great. These are games I tend to only play with family, especially Pop. We also spent plenty of time watching horse and greyhound racing, placing a few bets here and there to keep things interesting. The Distraction couldn't drink because Little Ed is still on board, so she was all for the gambling to keep her interested. She was all excited when a horse bearing her name got up and won, paying nearly $20 for the win and $5 for the place – until a protest was launched and it got moved to second instead. (Again for my North American friends, in Australia we only have "win" and "place" for racing when it comes to a single horse bet. Win is for 1 st, and place pays on 1st, 2nd or 3rd. If there are 7 runners or less, then there will be no money paid for third.). We had a good collect on some trifectas on the dogs the first night, reinvested it for the next and then still had some to go again for the third but never got to putting it on. Still, gave us something to cheer for when there was nothing else happening.

I did get the chance to play some poker when I returned home. We travelled into the city to a card room that runs SNG's and I had a good night. In the three games I played I came 2 nd, 2nd and 1st for a good profitable night. I did nothing fancy, maybe one bluff on the night and everything else was just picking my spots to play. Once I had chips, I was able to wait until others were knocked out or take the opportunity myself to do it when it was presented. Heads up was ok – even though I lost 2 out of 3. The first one I lost maybe 19 of the 20 hands, but I was beaten on every one. I did not have a picture card in my hand the entire time, so there was nothing I could do. Eventually I rivered a straight when my opponent flopped a full house and checked it all the way. That was fine, I was beaten but still happy with the result. In the second game, I lost on the first hand when King high was beaten by Ace high. I was well out chipped and that was good enough for me. Finally in the third I got up for a win, when top pair beat a flush draw after a fun (but slow) game. Glad I won, as there were some real beginners at this table and I would have been disappointed if I didn't at least make the money (only top 2 get paid).

Then on the next night, I had one of the most un-enjoyable nights of poker ever in a home game – and I even ended up in front! If was after one of the footy finals, and there were some new guys who don't play very often so the host decided to lower the buy ins for the night – which is fine, I can see why he would want to do that. But the problem was he didn't lower the blinds, so basically we're playing shortstacked from the get-go. If you raise pre-flop and then give a continuation bet, you are just about pot committed straight away. Naturally, this turned into an all-in fest and when there was more money on the table later in the night and everyone had a normal size stack finally, the all-in fest didn't halt because that was what everyone – especially the new players – were used to. The fact that one of them was winning with anything didn't help things either. I said to a few of the regulars that if I got pocket aces, I would go all-in pre-flop and flip them face up to see if anyone would call. About an hour later I did just that – and had 2 players really think hard before they folded. Incidentally, the last of them had pocket 4's and would have hit on the river.

But something good always comes out of this. On one particular pot, a newbie was betting all the way with one of the regulars and a hell of a nice bloke calling. When it got to the river, the new guy realised he or someone else had accidentally mucked his cards before he had a chance to show them. He said he had pocket jacks and flopped a set. The other player simply said it was a friendly game, if that's what he says he had then that's what he had, and let him take the pot. It's good to have those kind of people around you in a home game, and I don't mean to take advantage of. There are a few very honest individuals that I know through poker, and it is something that I would hope they would say about me – just like exposing the aces before, I said I would do it so I did. We have this understanding that to not follow through would be bad karma, and nobody wants that.

Not sure when or where the next game will be, but it was good to have a winning month in September after the horror that was August. I followed my worst month ever with my best, so you can not argue with that.

The Sickness

2007-09-17T18:11:00.000+10:00

Kevin: When someone gives you 10,000 to 1, you take it. If John Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I'm gonna be very rich.

"The Office"

There is an old saying that if an offer seems too good to be true, then it must be. Especially when it comes to someone offering you something for free, you know there must be a catch – the sceptic in us all immediately pipes up and probably rightly so. I've tried something very similar to friends and other degenerates I meet at the poker table. I have told them about some of the kick ass affiliate deals I have and what they can do for someone looking to start an online bankroll for nothing but don't want to clear raked hands and so on. It was a good deal where I offered them $150 to just deposit into a room – play or not, I don't care but once you have deposited the money is theirs. Withdraw the next day without playing a hand if you like – you're still getting the $150.

The BS radar on some people spiked, and they asked what the catch was. When I explained that there were no hidden costs, no follow up needed and no on going commitment, they still seemed a little hesitant and suspicious. How can online card rooms and casinos afford to do this – why isn't it sending them broke?

Because for 10 bonus whores I send to these sites that take out $150, they'll get 1 person that will drop $10K a month to them, every month for the next year.

When Joe Hachem was on a local football TV show, the resident comedian told the joke: How do you get a gambler off your porch? Pay him for the pizza.

Even the pros get broke from time to time, so how are the mere mortals and weekend warriors supposed to keep their head above water? Obviously the answer is to play within their means – but for some people that is a problem and something that is hard to talk about with poker loving folk. Maybe that's because we all have been in that place at some stage, or maybe it's because as a poker player you are pretty much conditioned to take advantage of when someone else is in that situation – the donkey, the fish, the pigeon, the ATM – we all want that weaker player to have deep pockets and a seat at our table. What if they have a problem and can't walk away? Is any poker player in a $10/$20 or $200NL game going to tell them they've had enough and should leave? Less than 1% would tell a stranger they should call it quits.

I saw something similar at the casino once, where in typical fashion a guy who had a little too much to drink (just drunk, not falling over or making a problem or anything) was dipping into his pocket time and time again, as he just "bluff-called™" another all-in with 4 ^th pair no kicker. I was a railbird at the time, sweating a buddy of mine at the table who was doing well. When Drunk Man had lost his first buy in he was looking for a drink but the waiters and waitresses were few and far between, so I offered to grab him the round he was after, without payment of course. It was just 3 beers for him and a few of his mates at the table. All poker aside, they were top blokes and everyone was having a good time – why not right?

Then while I was waiting for the drinks at the bar, I was thinking to myself that my nice deed would yield some karma points with the poker demons, when I then considered what the other players might see as my reasoning for doing this. My buddy at the table had just won a nice pot of Drunk Man, and now I was making sure he was getting more alcohol so he stayed at the table. Doesn't it look like I am trying to make sure he is happy for my buddy to keep fleecing him? While I obviously wasn't, I could see how some cynical could see it that way.

By the look of the guy, I'm sure he could afford it and eventually one of his mates thought it was time to call it quits. He was playing well within his monetary limits, but was bleeding buy ins even though he was not visibly on tilt. Judgement definitely impaired, but not by tilt.

You hear stories about the person who fleeced a business out of $100K to put it all into the slots, or to play roulette at the casino and lost it all. We think about these people and how stupid what they were doing seems, and perhaps that's because we know that they don't have a chance at winning – and even if they did, who knows how long they will hang on to it? Poker is slightly different, because on the face of it any player can turn a profit. The odds are not stacked against anyone – well, not explicitly like in roulette or slot machines.

I know a few people in our home games that have a problem with gambling. I mean, we all have some of the sickness, but we control it and know when our limits have been met. Others do not and continue to gamble and they are always on the worst of it, looking to get lucky. When I have a good night, it's usually because of one of these guys.

Sure, we don't play at levels that could adversely affect their financial situation – as far as I know – but I'm sure there are plenty of others in home games and casinos around the city that do.

I have been around gambling ever since I can remember. I have had a bet on the Melbourne Cup horse race ever year since I have been alive – not really sure how I selected a horse when I was 3 months old, but I did something and Pop put $2 on it. Dad doesn't mind a punt either, but we've always had the mind set that you've lost any money as soon as you gamble it – anything you get back is a bonus. Similar to when you walk into the race track – any money in your pocket at the days end is a bonus. The rest was a fee for the days entertainment. And if you end up in front then it's your shout.

I feel that everyone has a responsibility to themselves – we're all adults, and you have to take ownership of your choices and decisions when you play and for how much. Is that just a way of me avoiding any guilt I may have towards taking people's money when I know I have an advantage over them? It's a justification, but sensible reasoning and it has always been there even before I knew about poker.

I have felt near enough to gambling addictions before – no things other than poker. Fortunately I am quite thrifty, so losses do not tend to be too great many times, and on the few times when there were large losses they were from winnings and not initial outlay. Chalk it up to experience, and don't do it again. I have that discipline to move on from it, but you see people that can't all the time.

I have felt addicted to poker at least once – sure, I've always loved playing but there were a few times where I just had to play, just had to get to a table and through some chips around. I ended winner that night though, and felt satisfied that the itch had been scratched.

But for every addict in control like myself, there are 2 that are not. Maybe more.

Death By Position

2007-09-12T18:26:00.000+10:00

Matt Farrell: You just killed a helicopter with a car!
John McClane: I was out of bullets.
"Live Free Or Die Hard"

I still have no idea why they have to release movies in Australia with different titles than they were released with in the US. Te latest was "Live Free Or Die Hard" which was released here as "Die Hard 4.0" – kind of a dud title if you ask me. Even if you didn't know that the original title was based on the state motto of New Hampshire, it's a kick ass title regardless! Another notable change that spring to mind was "The Rundown" – released as "Welcome to the Jungle" (ok, that one was a better title here). I just don't see the big reason for it. Interestingly, when the Michael Keaton movie "Mr Mom" was released in 1983, it was released as "Mr Mum" in England, but still released as "Mr Mom" here in Australia. Anyway, another little pointless tangent there, my point is why go to the extra trouble to change the name for an Australian audience – unless it is for legal reasons – we can understand the American culture to get the movie.

I had a down night at poker last week, but I didn't play too badly. It was the first time in a very long time that I have noticed how bad positions were really affecting me. A couple of times I laid down the best hand when caught in between two rasiers, but you get that from time to time. I had a couple of cooler hands that made a dent after being up early, and then came back at the end of the night to lessen the impact. Good people though and a friendly game – much more passive than the usual home games. 4BB pre-flop gets some respect here!

I have tried to get more time to play online, but have been really busy of late. I had a real up and down session last night that ended up, so that was good. I have set myself a goal of getting a hoodie through frequent player points – which I kind of need a goal like that to keep playing, being a bonus whore that I am. I haven't got any bonus dollars to clear at the minute on any sites, so this kind of action keeps me going. Besides, who couldn't do with a new hoodie 6 years after they went out of fashion?

We were talking over dinner the other night with some friend about buying clothes, and I couldn't remember the last time I actually paid for clothes for myself. The last lot of business clothes were bought by me but paid for by my parents or the in-laws as a Xmas present last year, and any casual clothes were either points earned in a card room or bought from Amazon vouchers through Poker Source Online. Half my closest is because of PSO now – not that I have an extensive closet to begin with, but you get the picture. I've always had trouble justifying spending money on myself, and to a lesser extent having the Distraction spend money on…well, anything. She likes to go crazy on the credit card from time to time, but such is her nature. When it comes to spending money on friends though, we're all for it and it sometimes can be generosity to a fault, but that is only because we have such great friends and nothing is too good for them (sincerely). And I just know for a fact that when Little Ed joins us, everything in that department will change. Of course, second hand will be second nature to this child, but when there is a dollar in my pocket, you can bet 99c will go to Little Ed.

Just finished reading the Stu Unger book. What a sad story – but a great read. Highly recommend it to any poker players out there. The bits of Stu's writings mixed in gave it a great feel as well as the many personal accounts. Although the level of his drug habit was talked about late in the book, it was a glancing mention in the early stages and even suggested that he was well against this kind of behaviour. I thought the book dealt with his fall from grace very well and showed how it affected everything – in particular, when he wanted to buy things for his daughter, and how at the time he reflected on the millions he had given away over the years.

The addiction of gambling is something poker enthusiasts sometimes choose to ignore. After all, we derive some of our profits from that very addiction and way well loose because of it too. Gambling addiction deserves further discussion here rather than a rambling tangent, so I will talk about it more in my next post.

He's Back

2007-09-04T09:43:00.000+10:00

Jason Bourne: Do you even know why you're supposed to kill me? Look at us. Look at what they make you give.
"Bourne Ultimatum"

Tomorrow is our first visit to the obstetrician with the Distraction and Little Ed. Don't really know what to expect, probably just a little inspection of the incubator and a quick explanation of what to expect from here on in. All very exciting times and I'm sure we will continue to treat everything like we are the first people in the world to go through all of this. What other way could you be?

We've had plenty of generous offers from friends for second hand baby stuff, and you can damn well bet we're taking anything anyone is willing to give. Little Ed is going to be very familiar with hand me downs, I can ensure that.

But back to poker. The loosing streak that started half way through July and all of August ended on the first day of September for live games. It was at a different home game where I am a regular, and finally some hands held up for me – though the night was not without it's dramas. I ended up for my best single session result this year, and second best result overall it what became a bit of a wild night. I won about $5 on the very first hand of the night, and I was never below that point for the entire 12 hours.

I had my fair share of cards, with pocket aces back to back at one stage. The first was a decent sized pot when four diamonds met the board and my ace was good. The second one was over before the turn so a small game that I was happy with.

Then I took a small hit with QQ – after a small bet pre-flop, I raised and had a short stack call all-in. Then the original raiser came back over the top. At this stage, I had the equivalent of 2-3 buy ins in front of me, and he had me covered. It seemed an obvious play with Aces or Kings, so I folded. Turns out he had Jacks. The short stack won the pot anyway, but I could have cleaned up on the QQ vs JJ on that hand. I didn't loose any extra, just what I could have gained. I had seen this player over play a hand or two at this point as he was well ahead in chips. I knew he would loose his head sooner or later, I just hoped I would be there to call him. I was right – he did loose it but unfortunately not to me.

Poker should be fun, and it is hard to have fun while you are loosing sometimes, and we have to keep everyone happy. I have obviously been going through a rough run and so when it looked like things had begun to change for me, I intended to keep it that way. I have seen every bad river card you could imagine in the last month, so my goal tonight was to either avoid the river or give myself some other protection.

With pocket tens, I saw a lot of runners call a small pre-flop raise. Knowing that nobody else had a pair, or at least a decent one, I pushed all-in for a little over a buy-in, hoping to take it right there. I was called by one player – a gambling, drawing type player who would call with any picture cards or decent suited cards. Before he turned over his hand, I offered to run it twice just so even if I did loose, I might have a chance at half the pot and a small profit. I was sure I was ahead, but you don't want to see a lazy ace or king on the flop and then know you have two outs only. I assumed he had a good ace and it was basically a coin flip anyway. He agreed, and showed A9c – about as good as I could hope for. Both times the board came and left without an ace or clubs, so the tens were good for a scoop.

Another time I offered a deal was against a player who had perhaps his 7th buy in on the table. I made a re-raise pre-flop and he went all-in for $50. I had the wild player from before saying he would have called me, but the all-in was too much. Damn! That could have been nice because I was holding pocket aces again. The wild player folded and it was just up to me and the player all-in. I showed my hand and said "I'll let you take half your buy in back if you forfeit the pot now". I think I gave him a pretty good deal there, way more than whatever his hand was worth. But since he was down so much, he decided to gamble and take the run at the whole pot anyway with JJ. The door card was an ace, and it was all over. Another nice pot came my way.

But the biggest hand of the night that I was involved in could have broke me, and wasn't without its controversy though everyone was very good about it and didn't give it a second thought later.

One player had left the table for whatever reason, and usually we just fold their hand when it gets to them, and life goes on. This time however, there was a bit of discussion if we should do that and by then the player had returned so we let him play it anyway. I called a small raise with T9d. the flop was Js7d2h and there was a small bet of $5 for me an another player to call from the would-be absentee hand. The turn came 8s, which fills my gut-shot straight but puts a flush possibility on the board. I bet out $8, others fold to the absentee who confidently raised me to $20. I check the board again, just to confirm I have the nuts. At this point, I think he flopped two pair so the outs he has are less than the flush, but he could have played a suited ace which is likely, but to pair seems to fit the situation better. J7o I could see him on easily.

Now, because of the horror run I have been having recently, I was petrified of the river card. Sure, at the moment I have the nuts and I could string him along. But I really just want to take it right here, and I call for a raise. I thought about bumping it up to $50 which sends a clear message, but knowing the player that was enough for him to call and I would be happier for him to fold. I really just didn't want the drama of seeing the river card sink me yet again, I'll take the pot right here and be sure of it. I pushed all-in as we both had a few buy-ins in front of me. I wanted an instant fold, but he had to think about it and asked me to count. I had $173 left after calling his raise. He could cover it.

He went into the tank to think about it, and I said he could have as long as he wanted. Then I started to think about ways I could get more money while still getting him to fold. I offered to let him see a card of my choice for $20 – of his choice because usually that means a pocket pair, but in this case either card would show I had the straight surely, and he would have to fold and I'd make an extra $20. After quite a while, he finally folded and asked me to show my hand anyway. I was relived he folded, and since we are all friends and it was obviously a hard decision, I showed him that I had the nuts on the turn. He had J8 – top two pair on the turn. Through the miracle of rabbit hunting, we found another jack on the river. That could have meant the end of my poker career right there.

I did say if he called, I would have offered every deal under the sun before the river card came out – run it twice, give him half back or anything to lessen the damage, so it might have been alright anyway.

In the end, I wiped him out about an hour later when he went all in on a board of Qs7s4hAd. I had KsJs, so I thought a good flush draw and a gut shot straight to go with it, it was worth the final $30 he had at this stage. He had Q9, so I had more outs to the 3 kinds as well. The river was the Ace of spades, so finally I had hit a river card to sink someone else – albeit with 15 outs instead of the 2 and 3 outs I have been loosing to constantly.

Only three people left the night up, and I was second out of them. The big winner was the luck box to my left (actually a really good player, but he couldn't help hit hands on this night) and the wild player to my right was also up after getting some pay-offs late in the game.

It was a good feeling to finally have an up night after what felt like ages. I had a six session winning streak leading into a 4 session loosing one leaving me just above even for the year. The latest session gives me some breathing room in the bankroll leading to a long weekend here in Sydney which will surely see some cards in the air.

Surround Yourself With Good People

2007-08-27T18:52:00.000+10:00

Joe Miller: Now, explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old.
"Philadelphia"

The bad results continue to flow in, but at least it was a little different this week. Yes, there was still the horrible beats that saw huge pots get pushed the other way, but they were far more infrequent. The lost pots this time around were more my fault than anyone else's – folding a weak pair to a bluff, miss timing a bluff myself and generally not making good calls or bets when needed. I still didn't get much luck, but I contributed more to the downfall this time so at least there is something I can build on.

The only problem is, I am still in the position where one bad night will wipe out the live bankroll. Not very good timing but I am sure things will turn around.

We had a little blow up during the game, where one player went all in and then was instantly called by another with the nuts – but he was holding some chips in his hand and not on the table, but they were visible - blah blah blah. Neither player wanted to yield and it just turned into a yelling match, and I was lucky enough to be seated between the two of them. While it would be a waste of time to give my opinion of events here of what happened and what should have happened, I think home games can sometimes turn this way when some of the wrong elements come into play, and that was really disappointing.

The reason we all meet in a friend's garage is to play poker. There is no doubt that I would not know anyone of these guys if not for poker, but now I consider the host more than just a poker buddy. I know I could rely on him for anything I asked, and vice versa. Disagreements like this shouldn't happen amongst friends, but we all know that when money and ego is involved – and both always are in poker – then people tend to change their actions a little.

On this occasion, it had the chance to ruin the game for everyone when neither player wanted to yield their position for whatever reason. What was a good sign was nearly every other player offered to pay the difference just to keep the game going and get the next hand dealt. I think that is the best thing that could happen and shows that the majority of the table wasn't concerned with the money at stake, they just wanted to play some more poker amongst friends. What more could you ask for?

Still Drowning

2007-08-20T22:02:00.000+10:00

Elaine Dickinson: There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
"Airplane"

Poker has been up and down of late. I had a good session which was followed by a grinding session that ended with a horrific beat. Thankfully the good session was bigger than the horrific beat and a small profit was gained.

I have taken a likening to Backgammon, though only on the free game side of things. I started of great in that too, but I know enough to know that I know nothing about backgammon and there is much more to the game than the throw of the dice. However it didn't seem like it when the opponent rolls 4 doubles in a row to finish off the game to beat me by 1 pip. But I guess that is the equivalent of a backgammon bad beat story, huh?

In the home game on Friday night, I was way up early and then spent the rest of the night folding and showing down with the second best had to end the night well down yet again. When the chip stacks were high, I made a few calls that I was pretty sure I was beat, but had to look. On a board of 666Ax, I had to call the final bet with an Ace even though my opponent was far too excited to have anything less than the 6 in his hand. I made another few calls in similar circumstances before some more bad beats came my way and all of a sudden you are looking at your fourth buy in.

The bad calls cost me my first buy in, all the others were also lost to bad calls – just that they were not my bad calls. I can't remember the last time one particular player didn't hit their draw after calling me all-in. But that is the way it goes sometimes. 3 terrible sessions in a row though, and the bankroll is looking very light, almost to the point of broke.

Funny occurrence in the game though. I have TT in middle position, and call a $2 bet. Every player calls it, and then the big blind makes a non-sense raise to $4 for whatever reason, but he does this often. There are a few calls in front of me and I decided that nobody else has a pair, or at least a big one, so I can take it right here for maybe a $20 profit, I'm happy with that. I re-raised to $40. I got one caller, one of the guys who has been hitting everything no matter what he has held the last few weeks (including the 666 hand above). The flop is 9 high, and I bet out just $20 hoping he tries to go back over the top of me, but he just calls. The turn is a Q, so now I check because he could very easily called with AQ suited, or even KQ suited (sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth.). I am pretty sure he has AK, but don't want to risk any more. If he wants to shove it all in I will call, but otherwise lets leave the pot as it is. He checks behind me, the river comes J and the process is repeated. He slams down AK and I show my one pair of tens.

Now I made a tidy profit in that hand without it every improving, and it was most of the reason why I was up early. But his comments afterwards showed what was happening in the game. He couldn't believe his AK didn't hit, and that it lost. He couldn't believe how unlucky he was that he lost that hand. Ok – so it is a coin flip pre flop, but I'd like to think I can lay down AK for a 40 bet re-raise. Even so, when it misses I am not calling 20 bets on the flop. One of the other players tried to explain to him that he didn't get unlucky – he just didn't get lucky. But he got lucky so often that he now came to expect it, and that was what was happening for a few weeks now. I thought it said a lot.

I know there is an upswing just around the corner, I just hope I last long enough to greet it.

The Most Important Poker On Film Blog Post Ever

2007-08-15T18:43:00.000+10:00

Dale Putley: Jack, look at this.
Jack Lawrence: It's money. I remember it from when I was single.
"Father's Day"

Last week was the single worst week of my poker playing career, and then some. I never looked like winning a pot, I played well and lost every time and felt like there was nothing I could do about it and went into tilt. I increased the limits, increased the tables, and lost still. I lost 25% of my bankroll. At the same time, at least it was only 25% and it could have been worse. It would have been worse, had I really cared about it.

After my 5th buy in went south at the home game, I had reached my stop-loss limit for the second week in a row. I was leaving an hour earlier than the last time, and to be honest I was lucky it lasted that long. I knew I would go home and go straight online just like I did last time, and I hoped the fortunes I had last time would also be reflected.

Usually when I come home, the Distraction wakes long enough to mutter some sentence like "How did you go?" and then falls asleep before I have even answered. I was ready for it and eyed the computer to get fired up and start winning some money back.

"Turn on the light" she said.

At 4am? Instantly, I knew what would be coming next. She handed me a little plastic rod and a piece of paper. The plastic rod was a pregnancy test, and the paper was the instructions for it. Right before me, parallel blue lines indicated what we hoped they would.

Ever since a drive to a poker room in January where I had a bit of a chat with a good friend about life and everything else. He is a bit older than me with three kids, but just as big a poker tragic as myself. He asked if the Distraction and I wanted kids, and I said of course we do, but we are really far in debt and can't afford it right now. And he said some words that I will never forget for as long as I live.

"You can wait and get your finances sorted out and that's great and all, but at the end of the day you can not give those 10 years back to your kids".

He is a big believer in Karma, and that everything will work itself out. It might be struggle street for a while, but things will work out in the end. That seems to work for me 99% of the time, things work out and you go with the flow. It all made sense to me.

That night I had a really good night, my best this year so far results wise and we called it quits early. I got home, woke up the wife and told her that even though we planned to start trying after we had a few more debts paid off, I don't want to wait.

After a few weeks, the Distraction had a doctors appointment and found out some of her immunisations were not up to date, and falling pregnant now while not really risky was not preferred. So she had a few needles and we were forced to wait. Once the recommended time was up, we became a slave to her body's natural cycle.

You know how in highschool you spent 99% of your time chasing tail? Well, this was like the exact opposite of that. It's a tough job, but some ones got to do it and it's probably for the best that it's me.

After our first month of properly trying, ovulation kits and all, we have "Little Ed" on the way, due April 2nd. We've already decided not to know the sex before birth and then we will name it when the two of us get a moment alone with "Little Ed".

My buddy from the drive in January is over the moon, and I've printed out all the emails we have been trading since I told him for The Distraction and to keep for prosperity.

It is just a tragedy that we have to wait so long, but both of us are over the moon and can't wait for "Little Ed" to join us, even though we are very very early on in the pregnancy.

Since then I have made a big withdrawal from the poker bankroll, and with the rest of it have started making some better plays and better results. All the poker losses just don't seem that important now, and the single worst poker night in my life was also the greatest so far. I'm sure it will be trumped come the new year.

Bad Poker, Bad!

2007-08-06T18:10:00.001+10:00

Droz: We need kegs. Multiple, cold and domestic.
"PCU Pit Party"

In back to back weeks, I have had the worst results of my poker playing career. The most recent wasn't even close, as all night I was lucky to hit a pair at the best of times. It started with getting big pairs cracked back to back real early on and then went down hill from there. There were no real bad beats until I was already 4 buy-ins down, it was just poor starting hands that never hit, draws that never came and ok hands that got out-flopped. I won 7 hands in an 8 hour session, and 3 of them were bluffs – none of them on big hands either.

There is nothing more I can say about it really, even my friend sitting next to me couldn't believe how bad it was. After loosing 5 buy-ins, I ran back through everything in my head and I thought I had played only one hand wrong all night – when I thought I had hit a straight but I had mistaken an 9 in my hole cards for a 8. Besides that, I played very well but just had no chances at any pots.

And it continued online, except the money lost was bigger and there were plenty of bad beats. KK lost 4 out of 5 times, the final was against T9 on a ten high flop – 9 came on the turn. This was against a player who previously made a horrible call against two others who were already all-in. He had a Jack high flush draw up against a flopped set and an Ace high flush draw, and he hit a runner-runner flush for a 4-buy in pot.

It is frustrating again to see when I get "lucky" which seems increasingly rare, I save $20. When the player to my left or right gets lucky, they make $600.

But poker is not everything, and some drastic changes are in the mix. More on this later and I apologize for not writing more but there are some pressing matters that need attention and I will elaborate on this in a future post. Rest assured, it will be documented here in the coming weeks.

Reasons For My Fishiness

2007-07-30T17:12:00.001+10:00

Xerxes: Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet... if you but kneel at mine.
Spartan King Leonidas: That is quite an offer. Only a mad man would refuse it. But this kneeling business... I'm afraid killing all those slaves of yours has left me with a nasty cramp in my leg.
"300"

I have now completed all the PSO bonus' that I wish to at the moment, but I do have one point I'd like to make. I was a little disappointed that you can only use one skin on the Micro gaming network, as PSO offer multiple skins. This is obviously not PSO's choice, as more of a choice of the Micro Gaming (formerly Prima) sites that stop bonus whores like myself from abusing their generosity. I say, if I'm prepared to play the 1000 hands to get a small bonus, why not let me do it a few times over? You know I'm good for the action and they wouldn't be offering the bonus in the first place if that action couldn't cover it.

Instead, now that the bonus has ended, I am going to trot back to the old faithful Full Tilt and Poker Stars. As I am moving up in levels, there should be some interesting times to had as I carve out a new image for myself at the tables.

last night was a quick hit and run, I was up enough at the cash game to pay for entry at a MTT starting in 5 minutes time, so I decided to use that as a free roll and see what happens. I won one good pot early, and then folded 38 hands in a row pre-flop. The best of it was 77 when I got re-raised by the BB, and then another player on a short stack went all-in for about 80% of what I had. I had to fold, and lucky so as the short stack flopped a full house with 55 on a JJ5 board. The re-raiser had ATo. Nice re-raise there buddy – I actually saved me money on that one though. I did eventually knock him out after he was going all-in on very nearly ever hand. But that was as exciting as it got for me as I got to see a flop for free from the big blind with A6o. Flop was 763 and I bet out only to be raised all-in. I called, half because I thought I could be ahead and half because it was the first time I had hit a pair in 4 orbits. He had 33 and I was gone in 50th or somewhere near there.

I am noticing a lot of profit coming from cracking Aces and Kings. While some people could correctly assume this involves a little bit of luck coming your way, it also helps when opponents get married to their big pairs. An all unders flop? "Golden" they say, "I'll just string him along. Perfect example – 34o on the SB, UTG raised to $4 pre flop. Everyone else folds, so I call because if he has high cards, chances are my cards are live and if I miss, I can easily get away from this hand. Besides, my reads online have been going pretty good of late so I am trusting them.

Pot is $8.50 after rake (massive limits, I know, but you'll never find me claiming to be a high roller) and comes Qd5d6h. I have an open ended straight draw, something to look forward to and if he doesn't have a flush draw, that could be good cover for my draw. I check, wanting to keep this as cheap as possible, and he bets out $5. So now I have to call $5 to a $13.50 pot. I will go into what I consider the analysis of this decision later and my thinking of the maths and what not. Anyway, I called and consider that an easy decision. The turn is my mad, the deuce of spades. I check to let him hang himself as my call would indicate a flush draw and it missed here, so surely he has to make me pay for it (unless he has it himself). He bets about half the pot at $9. I check-raise him to $50 which is more than he has at the table so it was really a raise to about $40. Here is the crucial point of the hand where he has to make a decision. What do I put him on? That is not really important as I hold the nuts. I figure he might have a pair, maybe TPTK in which case he is drawing dead. He might have been playing tricky and hit trips or two pair in which case he has outs, or he could have a flush draw – in both cases he is going to have to call for all his chips to get it. There is also the chance he puts me on a bluff, but to be honest I think the all-in bet would be enough to win the hand right here, and may have actually cost me a value bet on the river if he had something like AQ or KQ. In the end he called with KK and was drawing dead. Of course I get called a donkey for cracking his pocket kings with 34o – but really, did he have to go broke on that hand? I gave him every opportunity to fold and he wouldn't take it. I have his whole stack, and he has a story to tell. Some times I think people call with their big pairs when they should know they are beaten just so they can say how unlucky they are. Ok, I could have had AQ or KQ in his mind, but is that the kind of hand I want to be check-raising with? I don't like that play on that board at all.

Now about that call on the turn – and my thoughts on playing draws in general. Here is my thought process for better or worse. I am getting just under 3-1 on the call for an OESD. I have 8 outs, and just over 2% a card so that's about 17% for the straight on the turn and about 34% for it on the turn and river. The exact numbers don't matter because I am not operating on the level where ±4% will matter. Good if you know them, but really not important. So is the 3-1 pay off worth it? Perhaps, but I doubt I will get paid 3-1 in this case. If I hit, most of the time he will have something that is worth calling a value bet with or I could check raise as above. My pay off will be bigger than the 3-1 it was on the flop. Of course, if the my dream card didn't come on the turn then my odds of winning will be greatly diminished and any decent player would make me pay a second time for the same draw.

That is something I think about a lot at the home games, when less experienced players are considering calling a bet on the flop. They consider they have to call say $10 to have two chances to hit their flush or straight. I remind them they have to call $10 to hit their draw on the TURN only – because if it is an obvious draw that doesn't come on the turn, there is no way they are seeing the river for free. Gives them something else to think about when drawing heads up against me anyway.

So, for the above 34o vs KK, how would I have played it differently if I was the KK? I would have probably put me on a Queen or a flush draw as he obviously did. $5 on the flop – probably less than I would have but not by much. I want AQ to call, if a flush comes I know I am good enough to dump an over pair. $9 on the turn – again, I might have gone a few dollars higher to make the flush draw really think, but $9 is ok in my book. Would I still call the over-bet from the check-raise? Probably not. I've folded bigger hands that that before. I would have lost far less on the hand I think. What if the 34o just called? I think I would have called a small to medium bet on the river, certainly not an all-in and I would have checked if it was checked to me.

I have been accused before of being gun shy, but I am slowly shaking that (besides the Kings full of tens check on a KhJhTh9hTc board).

Home games this week will not be on, but there is an outside chance that we will be paying a visit to the local card room for a quick session Saturday afternoon in between social engagements. It's been a while since I have been back to this card room and never during day light hours, so it will be interesting to see what kind of crowd and what games they run during the day. Hopefully just a quick few SNG's and we'll be on our way.

I just won a good argument that would have made a good prop bet, if my workmates were into gambling as much as I apparently am. Orko was definitely in the original cartoon series of "He-Man" – turns out he was created specifically for the cartoon series. I only bring this up because the original Spider-Man cartoons are now on in the mornings here, and today I got to see the first episode where Peter Parker gets bitten. You know, I don't think the live action movies give Spidey enough snappy lines like he does in the comics and the original cartoon – or perhaps my mind is just clouded by the sub-par showing we had this year of the third in the trilogy.

At least I still have a few episodes of Briscoe County Jr to fall back on. I get the feeling that it was not meant to be as dodgy or cliché as it is, but I am still enjoying this old timer. An example of what I mean is in one episode when the bad guy of the week is riding off on his horse with maiden on the back, he stops and has this little exchange with the woman.

"We're being tracked…It's Brisco County Jr."
"How can you tell?"
"Because I can't see him."

And then they show Brisco riding his horse through the flattest, most impossible to hide in scene at full pace. Yep, he's a master of tracking this Brisco! Ah, it's all good fun though.

The Rollercoaster

2007-07-23T18:27:00.001+10:00

Sebastian: Well, your objections have been duly noted and summarily overruled.
Sarah: Yes, Sir!
Sebastian: How come when you say "Yes, Sir" it kinda sounds like "Fuck you!"
Sarah: Practice!
"Hollow Man"

As predicted, after a little Poker absence I went into Poker Binge mode over the weekend. It started with the regular home game on Friday night. I made a really good decision in the early goings when I was forced to go all-in with two pair, but there were three spades on the board and the opponent is known to play any suited cards. When he didn't call straight away, obviously I was good.

After that, things got sour. I had few premium hands and got really sick of seeing 4-rag as my hole cards. When I did get good starting hand – queens once and jacks maybe 3 times, they were beaten to within an inch of their life. Then another player had another amazing run of luck where every coin-flip or 4-10 outer went their way, when they weren't flopping boats with K2o. This made me play even worse by calling pre-flop raises out of position with things like 58o or T7s. As you would assume, things got worse from there and I ended the night early after reaching my stop-loss limit.

While I can not really blame anyone but myself for the way I played, it was extremely frustrating to see someone rake in pot after pot with what seemed like boundless luck. I have been on a bit of a run of late in the live game, having 6 winning sessions in a row. But I felt like I had to play at my absolute best to grind out those profits, making brave bets when I needed to and even better calls when all I had was a pair. I guess that is the way poker is sometimes, but driving home at 5am with the wallet empty was not a pleasant experience.

Luckily, there were no cliffs between the game and my house.

I was tired. I was on tilt. I was depressed more than I had any right to be. It was still very dark at 5am. I had reached my stop-loss for the first time this year, which is 5 buy-ins. And I wasn't yet satisfied. I needed to play more hands. I wanted to play online even though this was probably the poster child for wrong times to be playing poker.

Online, I have been having ups and downs as readers would know. The current site, through PSO, has been really rude to me but I have managed to stay just above even thanks to some returns of luck and a little bit of Blackjack. I decided that luck should have little to do with it and I need to think less about what an opponent does and more about why they do it. Sounds like the first lesson of poker to me.

I was examining my results over the past few months during the week, and I have been pushing towards a certain marker in bankroll size for some time. It was getting there slowly, but I was a little stunted as of late. I felt like I was really grinding out the small profit and it just wasn't a sufficient win or loss either way. I had a good feel for the table size and players as a broad generalisation. I have been playing at the same level for quite some time, with the ups covering the downs by a little bit. I had decided during the week that I needed to move up a level to keep improving. Not based on the ratio of my bankroll to the size of the buy in or blinds, but because I was ready and able to accommodate the perceived increase in play. I firmly believe that in the times I have dabbled in the past at this greater level, the play is less rocky which I like to an extent.

So why not dive right in at 5am after dumping your last buy in at a home game on a draw?

I did, and lo and behold I played well. Folded when I had to, called when I should, and raised when it seemed appropriate. No river beats given and none taken. Just a solid little session an hour in length that netted a ½ buy in profit without getting in any danger. Sleep would be a little easier now.

Over the weekend, I found more time to return to the digital felt and apply my new focus to the games. I had 5 sessions over the weekend, and all ended in profit. That included one game where I was down a buy in before coming back to net single-digit profit which I was more than happy with.

And it could have been so much better. I had a nut flush draw and heads up against an inferior flush draw – that hit a pair of sevens on the river to take the pot. I had KQ loose to KJ also on the river when we were all-in on the turn when he spiked a Jack. I had flopped a set that lost to a turned flush, and I found myself in another situation where I could not pull the trigger holding KT on a board that showed Kc Th Jh Kh 9h. The pot was sizable, and opponent checked to me on the river. I felt like an all-in would only get called by KJ or the queen on hearts, and that I didn't want. So I just checked, and he had the ace of hearts. Yeah, he just might have called a value bet there.

Other than that, I made some great bluffs when representing hands, including a very uncharacteristic all-in check raise bluff when I was betting my draw that missed. Guess he missed his draw too then. I had my fair share of luck as well, but this time around it was in proportion and not when I was too short stacked to make anything of it. I did call a shortstack all in with TT vs AA, but when you buy in to the table with 15BB and get called, what more can you expect? Why not just play blackjack if you are going to gamble like that?

My best laydown cost me $50 or more still, but it was a difficult one. I have J9o and see a flop with 2 others. I have $190, first position has $70 and second position has $170. Flop is QdTd6c. First to act bets small, second calls as do I. turn is Kc, completing my open-ended straight. First and second both check, so I bet out to make any flush chasers pay some. FP calls and SP makes a regular sized raise. I think about shoving it all in, but decided instead to re-raise to $44. I have a big stack and he would surely know that I am not bluffing here. FP calls, and then SP goes all-in. Ouch – there is only one hand that beats me at the moment, and if he has AJd then I am in real trouble. I have to use some of my time bank to think about it, as this pot is now nearing the $400 mark if I call. I decided that there is little chance he has J9 as well, and if he does have that then I can only hope he doesn't have the flush as well. That is pretty much the best case scenario for me, and I have to lay it down. FP calls, which I am very happy about since it lets me see the cards. The river is a blank, and SP shows AhJd.

I don't think I played the hand perfectly, and in hind sight he has given me plenty of hints that he has me beat and it should be a regulation fold perhaps. But in the moment, with all those chips in front of me and all those chips in the middle, I really had to decide if I was folding a chopped pot or not. In the end I made the right decision, and perhaps the $44 raise saved me from a bigger bet on the river anyway. When the diamond didn't come, maybe I put him on the flush draw and would be bluffing me? Who knows, but in the end I came out un-scathed and with still more than the original buy-in in front of me.

My biggest profit hand was – drum roll – pocket Aces! I had them a few times and usually won the blinds only. Once when I did try to slow play them pre-flop, opponent flopped two tens and I was forced into making one of those crying calls. Other times I was fortunate enough to get it from the big blind with a raise in front of me. A re-raise and the short stacks go all in, I call and no beats come so I take a reasonable sized pot.

The best was with a stack of $99, I decided to call the standard sized raise by the button from the small blind as did the big blind. Flop comes Ks3d6s. I have AsAh, so that is a good enough flop for me. If he has KK then I'm screwed, but that is life. If he has the flush draw then I want him to pay and hopefully not see another card if I can, and if he has just a king, then happy days.

Pot was $12, so I bet out $6. To me, if he has the flush draw or set, he would just call. Anything less and he probably wants to raise. BB folded so that was a flush-worry gone. Button raises to $16. That's pretty much what I wanted to see, as there is no way he puts me on AA and I am now fairly confident on AK or a flush draw. If he has the flush draw though, it's not the to the nuts as I have the Ace of spades.

What would he think if I pushed all in here? If he has AK, he might put me on the same hand or a small set, but not two pair and I've already ruled out rockets. He has me covered by a few dollars, and the pot already has $20 of his chips in there so lets make him make a decision. If he instantly calls, then I am screwed. If he has to think about it, then happy days.

I push all-in for a gross over-bet. Even if he folds, the pot is big enough to satisfy me.

And he thinks about it…there is only good news from here on in.

And then there is better news – he starts talking in the chat box. I decided to indulge him.

"Oooo…what have you got?"

One of my good friends from the home game likes to make sure the whole table is having fun, and is happy to forego some small profit in the mean time to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. He'll do things like promise to show his hand if they fold, and then do so, or agree to check down a pot from the flop. I decided to do the same here and quell his curiosity if he wanted it

"Do you want me to show?" – and I clicked the buttons "muck winning hands" so that I could show him, and then I threw him a curve.

"Then call – lol". I threw the "lol" for two reasons; one because I did intend to show (and expected him to fold) and two because I am playing under a female name so it seems to fit the part.

"I have K T…"
"And you have to think about it?" – Let him make of that what he pleases. But if I had KT, I'd have folded by now.
"You on a flush draw?"

Now this is where it gets tricky. If I say "Yep", I don't know if that will push him either way, or whether that is what he wants to hear or if he will even believe me. For some reason though, I don't want to lie and then show that I was lying. I joined this little banter to give him some fun and not make an enemy. I do have a back door flush draw though, but if I say as much then that might tell him what I have. I still want him to call if he has AK, which is what I believe he has now that he has to think about it. I want him to think it is a split pot – that way he will be surprised and happy if he folds, and I'll be in a great position if he calls.

"Could be" is what I decided to go with, after taking some time to think about it which probably did me no harm.

Eventually he calls, and has AK. Turn and river bring no spades or kings, and I take home a big pot. He goes silent.

"AK, that's what I thought you really had". Maybe a little needling, but fuck him he lied to me. I decide it is best to leave it there.

A few hands later, I called a post flop raise with just over cards and hit a king on the turn. It gets checked to the river and I take the pot while the loser of the hand (different player) laments that his pair of tens were no good.

"Your (sic) just a lucky fish."

"Yes I am" I said, then cashed out as that hand was the final one I needed to clear for the PSO bonus. Seconds later, I was putting through a withdrawal for the full amount and never again will they see me at those tables. I had more than doubled my original deposit to the site and was in a state of euphoria as I had more than made up for the losses on Friday night.

My Old Friend - Tilt-Jack

2007-07-16T21:37:00.000+10:00

Morty: He's always chasing the pot of gold, but when he gets there, at the end of the day, it's just corn flakes.
"Click"

A busy social calendar over the weekend meant no live poker, but I did manage a big session online during the early hours of Saturday. I proceeded to get dealt bad cards, see bad flops and then play them badly – which all of course ended badly. I could not hold on to a buy in if I tried, and then got on massive tilt and headed to the blackjack tables. Two hands later when the dealer busted both times, and all of a sudden tilt is over. I don't think I'll be making a habit of that though.

That was about the extent of my poker week, besides me and a friend doing our best to sort out all the problems with the WSOP. A few years ago, we would both follow the main even just about hand for hand. Last year we would only check in now and then to see what was happening, and this year we just don't really care all that much at all. What was once the jewel in the Poker crown is now just another tournament for us who watch. I'm sure it is different for those involved and whoever wins, but really it isn't what it used to be. I would like to join the chorus of people calling for the entry fee to be doubled at least. We adopted the official "Knock down, rebuild" approach for the WSOP.

I do think though that some steps have been taken in the right direction. The $50K Horse event is a good idea introduced last year. Making the various World Champion events clearer was also a good idea, but basically 50-odd bracelets given out each year is a bit much. The WC events should be something special above a normal bracelet event, and I hope they are treated that way from now on.

But anyway, we are nearing the end of the main event for another year and still some big names remain. I wonder if this year will be the first time since Chris Ferguson that the ME winner's bracelet will not be their first? That would be a good thing for poker, as the bubble is finally bursting to have some of the recognised pros come to the front.

That was poker – most of the weekend just past was spent looking at our fish tank, which now has its first inhabitants. 10 little Neon Tetras, which we have called our Canaries – because they are there to make sure the environment is safe for others. If they can last out the week, we will start adding new fish and get something a little more diverse. The 10 little fish are well dwarfed by the size of the tank, and it took them a few hours before they were comfortable enough to venture further than the back corner. When we awoke this morning, all 10 were still alive so that is all we can ask for at the moment.

From Rock To Calling Station

2007-07-09T18:22:00.000+10:00

Pete: I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles.
"Knocked Up"

I've just had one of those weekends where nothing major happened, but it was almost a perfect weekend. I spent some quality time with the Distraction, I spent some quality time at the felt, saw some good movies, won some prop bets, got some stuff done around the house and even had time to check out the latest happenings in the main even at the World Series. If you haven't already, head over to Poker News to see the hand of the day for Day 1b. And people say online poker is rigged!

To sum up the weekend, I might go into point form as there was a lot that happened that was just a good weekend.

FRIDAY
- Started with adjusting my poker spreadsheet with some pivot tables, which I have never used before. I'm no computer programmer or anything, but I'd like to think my computer user abilities are above the national average. Having never used them before, I gave myself a quick tutorial and then after fixing up the spreadsheet, I used it at work for another task I have that made a 2 hour job down to ten minutes. That's just awesome.
- Poker Friday night was a good turnout. We had between 5-7 players for the majority of the night which is my preferred size. One player again had an amazing run, with any suited cards he would call any bet. The worst of it was when one player went all-in blind for $17, I called with QQ. Next player raises $30 (max buy in is only $50 remember – the home game of champions!) and then another players calls all-in. Tonights luck box calls and I have to gather that I am behind. With more than $70 left in front of me, I don't want to be all in here against four others, so I let it go. Blind player has Q7, raiser has AA, caller has JJ and the luck box has 23s. Yep, 3 spades on the board by the turn (and a jack as well). 23s scooped the pot, and ended the night as big winner. That's ok though, because he usually donates so it will come back.
- Personally, I had nothing going for the first buy in which lasted an hour, and my second buy in was pure gold. I had one player continually bluff the river against me. Usually I would fold these hands, but earlier in the night he did the same thing against another player and showed the bluff. By the "same thing", I mean a very quick big bet on the river. I have seen him do this before as a bluff months ago, but when the time came for me to call him he had the nuts that time. I decided to test it again tonight and the first time when I had top pair, a flush draw didn't come through and he bet big on the river. I just called to see his missed flush. Next time, he missed the straight and made the big bet again. I called. That was a $125 pot with just one pair. He tried to bluff me maybe 6 times with the big bets, and by the end I figured he had me but just called because I had maybe two pair and to see – and again, he was bluffing. Later I figured out what his bets meant, as he always used one of three betting options. Min-bet meant he had bottom pair or a draw. $4-$5 meant he was strong or a made hand. Instant bet of $20+ meant a bluff. On Friday night, that was true 100$ of the time and I finished the night up $170.
- Funniest hand of the night – after dealing some big pots to one particular player, he was then cold decked and asked for some help as I shuffled.
"What you got for me?". He was playing Africans and Indians on the side as well (black or red flop, if all of one colour then the payout doubles) so I said to him "I'll give you an all red flop, and then you'll suck out on the river to win the pot." Flop comes 2 hearts and a diamond, and then he hit a Jack on the river to win with one pair. I received no tip.
- After that hand, the loosing player claimed it was a conspiracy, and I said it couldn't be because a conspiracy implies that we had done it in secret, when in fact I was very open about what was going on. He said a conspiracy doesn't have to be secret so I bet him $5 on the side that dictionary.com definition has secrecy or something pertaining to it for "conspiracy". I love prop bets, and after paying up he still refused to believe it. I offered double or nothing on the same bet, but he respectively declined.

SATURDAY
- First up, the distraction let me sleep in as she went to get her hair done. A deeper sleep I have never had.
- Distraction comes home and the hair looks great, cost $60 less than usual. Can't argue with that.
- We went out to see "Knocked Up", which I know will be her favourite movie of all time. I really enjoyed it too, got some good laughs in it and was worth seeing. We actually had tickets to an advanced screening a few weeks ago but couldn't attend because we had visitors staying with us. Good movie, all was happy.
- Had our typical "nothing is happening" Saturday night of watching Iron Chef and betting on greyhound races. The Distraction had 4 out of 10 winners to cover both our bets and a minimal profit. I was hopeless.
- Nakamura lost in the Iron Chef battle, which was disappointing. The key ingredient was Udon which was also disappointing, but it was ok. We have had a very busy month or so and haven't had out quiet Saturday nights for a while, so this was good.
- The Distraction calls it a night so I sneak in some more online poker. Online wise, I have been going through a down swing after a very good up swing and am now below my original deposit. Of course I am just trying to get the PSO bonus, and I getting close to the cut off date for the bonus.
- Hmm, it seems more people want to bluff me. Thank you kindly – I have an up and down night but pull out a reasonable profit thanks to big hands holding up. Best hand was TT when I try to limp but person behind me makes a standard raise. Flop comes T44 – he has A4 and must be counting his lucky stars. We get it all in on the turn and I guess his dreams were shattered. Also won a big pot with AA on a all-in preflop. Board was ten high, and the hand history function was not working so I have no idea what the other guy had.
- Days profit was about $80, which put me $72 above my original deposit and 102 points short of the bonus.
- While I play online, I like to watch DVD's of TV shows, and my choice at the moment because I don't have any more poker shows) is "The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr". While I am only 1-2 episodes in, it looks fair. Nothing outstanding but enough to keep me watching.

SUNDAY
- We have one goal for the day. Last week we got a 120L fish tank, and wanted to put some rubber rock as a backing on it. The sealant said to allow 7 days for it to cure for aquarium use. Now we have to figure out how to get all the pipes for the filter, heater and air pump working without any instructions, as well as fill the damn thing without a hose. Surprisingly, everything goes fine and we make very few mistakes getting the job done in what would have been my best estimate of time.
- I get full permission from the distraction to get some more poker in online. I don't play too good, making little bets on the river when only a better hand would call what I have. Instead, I get check-raised and I call with Queen high flushes and the like, not winning what would have been a very small pot if I had just checked. I managed to work my way back to just above even while clearing more points for the bonus.
- Had some really nice Chinese take out, and finally watched "Talladega Nights", which wasn't as funny as I had hoped but had it's moments.
- Managed to squeeze in some more online time while watching Briscoe County Jr. Had some bad luck early and was down to $13 when I decided to top up. Good move, as I go on a mini rush and get some good cards and better flops.
- Interesting hand one – I have Q9 and the flop comes K56. 1 player bets 50c, I call because hey, it's 50c. Turn is a Jack, and he bets $1.50. I have a gut shot only, and he's making it cheap so why not? The river hits my gut shot and I bet the pot, he calls. Of course he bitches in the chat box, but I really think this is his fault for trying to slow play his flopped two pair. At least give me something to think about on the turn there son! But the good thing was, it made me look like a chaser so now my good hands will pay off. I am finding a lot of people are loving minimum bets on any street, just to get rid of the people that press the check/fold button I guess. Not that it's a bad idea, but sometimes it just makes me want to punish with large raises, which had been working for the now.
- Interesting hand number two, I have QT and try to limp, late position makes a standard raise and I call. Flop comes AKJ rainbow. I check raise him all in and he calls with AK. Really unlucky there for him, nice pot for me.
- Interesting hand number three – 23o from the big blind and get to limp. Flop comes 332, and I call the only guy that bets out on the flop. Turn comes an Ace, and I think that even if he has A3 I guess I am paying him off. I check, he bets pot (about $8) and I raise it to $22. I figure if he had a straight draw that hit or a good ace be inclined to call. If he has A3 he will see I am pot committed and will just push it all in. If he has any other three then he might put me on an Ace and think this is his lucky day, and all I have to do is dodge his kicker on the river. He just calls, which I think is a good sign. We both have just over $20 left, but he has me covered by $6. River is a T, and I push he calls. The one hand I didn't put him on is 22. He flopped the smallest possible full house and was drawing dead.
- After going down 30 odd I end the night up about the same amount. I now have more than $100 on my original deposit, and only 80 points to clear for the bonus, which should be a good 10 days or so, beating the deadline by a week.

While the interesting hands show some really lucky situations, You got to remember it comes from about 400 hands over the weekend. I had plenty of occasions where I made good bets, good laydowns and lots of good calls when the pressure was on. For the most part I was just creeping up above even and waiting for my spots. When they came, I was able to capitalise and my opponents had just the wrong cards to make it worth while. But it was good to be on the lucky side for once after a down swing. The down swings in the past have run for weeks and weeks, I am glad this one ended much faster than usual. And now I think I have a much more advantageous table image for future play – both online and at the home games.

A Real Aquarium

2007-07-03T18:10:00.000+10:00

Lt. Frank Drebin: Congratulations, Ed! I hear Edna's pregnant again.
Ed Hocken: Yeah, and when I find the guy that did it...
"Naked Gun 2½ - The Smell Of Fear"

I had a bit of a poker binge over the weekend, with the expected terrible results that come with a poker binge after a long layoff. I dropped 3 buy-ins one late night, and then worked hard to get nearly a full one back the next day. While all this was going on, I also decided to jump into a MTT for the first time in a long time. I went ok, finished 11 th for a very small score but had fun along the way. I needed one suck-out to stay alive but otherwise I made moves when the time was right and my big pairs held up other times. For the most part I was folding and waiting – when the Distraction came home and we had somewhere else to go, so I through it all in with KQ and got called by AQ. Though I'm not disappointed, it was a bit of fun and kept me occupied for a while.

After a few quick sessions last night, I have managed to crawl back to even at UB, after being up nearly 33% on the initial buy in and then down about 25%. I'm happy enough with that since I am really just there to grind out the PSO bonus – of which they have plenty of new ones that will keep me busy over the coming months.

I am finding that I can adjust my play now to the type of players at the table. While I do not know many of them, the time of day is very indicative of the style of player, or at least it is feeling that way at the moment. After going on the mini-tilt earlier in the week I have been able to play some solid poker. I had a great little play on a hand where I missed my straight, but the river brought a flush. Heads up, I put my opponent at vulnerable to the flush draw and made what I thought looked like a value bet on the river. He made a tough laydown, as that card also hit him for three of a kind, but I congratulated him on a good laydown and indulged him by saying I had a full house.

Later, on a different table I didn't bluff but made the right plays against the massive stack at the table with pocket pairs both times. No bad beats or bluffs, just betting the right amount at the right time so all was good. I was happy to get back to even.

I have been reviewing my poker results through a spreadsheet I use, comparing this year to last and I surprised myself to find I am up on both per hour earning and, more importantly, overall profit. It's nice to keep track of these things, only for live games though as I don't have Poker Tracker or any others of the commercial software available for this kind of thing.

The biggest addition to the household has been an aquarium, for the Distraction's birthday last week. It is amazing what has to happen to these things before you can actually put some fish in there. It will be another two weeks at least before we start with the cheapest fish available, just to see if we kill them or not before we start getting the ones we really want. After spending $90 buying a small tank on eBay, we got given a much larger one for free but fortunately the eBay one came with a tonne of extras that will make it worth while anyway.

And then I can watch the fish all day while bleeding them online.

Poker Break: Non-optional

2007-06-25T18:03:00.001+10:00

Toni Mannix: She's a lesbian, you know.
George Reeves: Who?
Toni Mannix: The one playing Lois.
George Reeves: Phyllis? Is she really?
Toni Mannix: No. She is now, as far as you're concerned.
George Reeves: Well... there it is.
"Hollywoodland"

I have played one SNG in the past week, and that was all the poker I got in. It has been a very busy week and the next to follow is likely to be the same, with the only chance I will get for even a hand will be on Sunday – and then it is a maybe. Withdrawal symptoms are sure to kick in and result in a down swing around the corner.

Speaking of which, I have suffered a 10% decrease is bankroll size thanks to the strength of the Aussie Dollar over the past few months. That affects it slightly too I guess.

In the one SNG I did play, I went out in about 6th or 7th. I played only two hands really and doubled up to be chip leader on the first one and then got down to last on the second one. Nothing really exciting at all happened, but that is the way it goes.

Managed to get see the new Fantastic Four movie last week. By far the most impressing thing about the night out was the Transformers preview before hand. Not to say F4 wasn't good, but my inner child is screaming for his Transformers. When the sound effect for the transform was heard, I was sold (as if I wasn't already).

Other than that, a fair portion of the weekend was spent at Aquariums, as the Distraction's birthday is this week and she has taken a keen interest in the home aquariums at our friends house. We're looking to get one started at ours, and after checking out the prices at the stores it looks like eBay will be our method. I'm keen to keep a salt water aquarium as they have more options for what creatures go in there and have generally more interesting fish. I mean, you need something different in these things, goldfish just don't cut it and it's a shame everybody has clown fish these days – we'll have to get something different to separate us from the masses.

And now a word from our sponsors:
"Full Tilt Poker Review"

World Series Of Prop Betting

2007-06-18T19:17:00.000+10:00

Rusty Ryan: They built em smaller back then.
Danny Ocean: Yeah, but they seemed big.
"Ocean's 13

I have been trying to keep up on the WSOP, but interest is honestly fading. As everyone keeps saying, piles of people I have never heard of before are winning, and most of them we will never hear from again. Obviously there is the odd exception, but how many times can we get excited over the fact that some 22 year old who had never played in a casino before won a bracelet after qualifying for just $40?

Over the past few months I have been more fascinated by prop betting, and Pauly's tales of them since the start of the WSOP are better than the poker coverage – or at least a more interesting subject matter.

Searching the internet for prop betting stories, Ted Forrest's name pops up quite a bit and he has some great wins in his resume. Side bets and props bets have also become a regular feature of our home games, which was introduced to us when playing at an inner city game full of wild and crazy young guys (four bluffers to a pot, if you will). Being the tight playing consciences type of player that I am, and a little bit shell shocked by the action before me, at times it could be 15-20 hands before I saw a flop, and who knows before I had a shot at one. So we started to make little bets on the side for weather the flop would me majority red or black cards. If it was all red or black, then the bet doubles. We gave the prop bet the politically incorrect name "Africans and Indians."

Before long, in our regular game the betting on the A&I became more frantic than the poker. First it was between me and just one other player, and then it was two. When a third asked, I just decided to have the bet with the entire table on Indians, the hearts and diamonds, which was my usual bet. Of course, the flop come out all spades and I had to double the bet with each player on the table. I think I had the nut flush too, and I managed to break even on the hand. I have never played A&I since, and it is more scarce at the home games now too as it was getting out of hand.

My new favourite, as I said in a recent post, is to bet that at the next showdown, two pair with Kings or better will be the winning hand. If a hand is won before showdown, then that hand doesn't count and it goes over to the next one. I'd say my record for this bet is about 40% win. I have no mathematical basis for why the Kings-up is the line, but it seems to be about right for what goes on so far.

Other bets going around our table range from the "If we didn't fold, who would have won" between two pre-flop folders to the pub trivia variety. One player swore black and blue that Robert Deniro in "The Godfather Part 2" was not the same character as Marlon Brando in the original, even though he had seen the movie 20 times. We usually play on Friday nights when the Rugby is on TV, so there are always some side bets there to keep the players interested.

For a lot of these kind of side bets, I am at a disadvantage. I do not follow the rugby league so I have no insight into the games to form a basis for any bet. When it comes to the movie and music trivia, I am a decade younger than most of the table so their era of questions usually fly over my head. But I will share with you one of my favourite prop bets of all time, which has a nice hook for someone that may think they have an edge in this area.

How you work into the conversation the topic and the bet itself is up to your own sweetness and charm, but the trivia bet is "Name the first names of all the living Beatles". Most people assume there is a trick to this question, and usually it goes on of two ways – what is Ringo's real name or who was that guy that Ringo replaced? This is where the bet gets good, because if someone knows the answer to either of those two "tricks", they are usually blinded by their own sense of satisfaction to consider the other one. Ringo's first name is a common trivia question, and the answer is "Richard". Anyone willing to take you up on this bet would be able to tell you that one. The guy who was replaced by Ringo is also another common trivia question, maybe a little harder but the answer is Pete Best – but the question is what is his first name? That is actually Randolph, and I guarantee most people would not know that one. This can be a deterrent for some people to even take the bet.

It can also be clever if you offer to give them Ringo's name for free, and then that will lead your opponent down the path of trying to guess Pete Best's real first name, be it Peter or Pete and so forth. Then there is the discussion of "was he really a Beatle" – which I say the answer is yes, he played in the Beatles so why not?

And if anyone remembers that his name is Pete, then they would be willing to take you up on the bet. If they guess Rudolph, then they are sitting in a very good position. But there is still a small percentage of people that will guess the answer to the question "Name the first names of all the living Beatles" with Paul, Richard and Randolph. It is rare, but there will be some people that can come up with both Ringo and Pete's real name. If they do, then you might be loosing the bet but for the final little hurdle (and I admit, most people that know Randolph will probably know the last trick, but those that only know Richard will be taken in if you give them Pete Best for free, or even expressly not include him because he was fired.) The absolute correct answer, including Pete Best, is Richard, Randolph and … James.

You'll be amazed at how many people are blinded by the fact that they know Ringo's real first name, that don't know that Paul McCartney's middle name is Paul, and his real first name is James.

And hey, if they get you on that, then pay up.

A Little Balance Very Quickly

2007-06-12T18:47:00.000+10:00

Susan: My psychiatrist thinks we should break up.
Philip: What? I didn't know you were going to a psychiatrist.
Susan: Well I'm not actually going to one. I've been dating one for four months.
Philip: This is so sudden!
Susan: I didn't want to tell you this over the phone, I really wanted to fax you.
"Mixed Nuts"

Poker is a crazy game. It is amazing what it can put you through sometimes, when you add in the elements of a few just as crazy humans. The swings are something that you just have to get used to.

I have made no secret of the fact that this year I consider myself on a down swing. I have seen more than my fair share of bad luck while still being able to break even or slightly better at times, while other times I was loosing money like it was a talent.

I thought a session online over the long weekend showcased this perfectly. In 58 minutes of play, I had won 1 pot and that was taking the blinds with a pre-flop raise. I had really only played two other hands, where I had JJ vs QQ (though I made a nice check on the river when I was beat) and another hand I don't remember but lost at showdown when my hand just wasn't good enough. No bad beats, just bad cards and no chances. So I am down to my last $10 when I get 99, and decide screw it – this is it, I am playing this hand no matter what happens. There is a pre-flop raise from a bigger stack, and I put in half my stack. Basically I'm saying the rest is going in eventually. He is the only one that calls and what happens? The flop comes 499. Yeppers, great flop for me but might have been handy if I had more than $5 to put in! I guess I could have reloaded at any time but I like I seldom do that for whatever reason, unless I am felted. Very next hand I had QQ and got no action, so I decided to call it a night.

Fortunately, everything else non-poker in my life is quite ok at the moment, so I didn't think about the losses too much and next time I had a chance to play some poker, the bad thoughts were nowhere to be found. And things started to go right. There is a bit of a hand history here, but then there is some poker theory at the end so hang in there!

Pocket Kings on the big blind, only the button plays and makes a small pot sized raise. SB folds, so we are already heads up and I decided to just call here and see what comes. Flop is QhKh6d, not too shabby for me. I check, button bets $4 so I make it $8. I like to do this with a strong hand, as slow playing is far too common and can be really obvious at times. If he has something he will call, if he has nothing then I probably won't be getting anything out of him anyway. He just calls, and now we see the turn. I probably put him on a heart draw, and if he isn't then he will probably put me on one too.

The turn is another queen, so now I am praying for that third heart to come out on the river. I just check it, letting him draw to it if that is what he wants, and if he bets any amount then I will call. He just checks, and the river is the most beautiful two of hearts. I hope he hit his hearts, so I bet out $10 and he comes back over the top all-in for another $30 or so. Easy call for me, and I take the pot as his Ace high flush is no good.

Ok, so the hand turned out perfectly for me on every street. The fact that he had more than a maximum buy-in and I had him covered was just icing on the cake. But the moment I want to talk about is the turn card where I made my hand.

I had put my opponent on a heart draw, and had the thought that AK was an outside chance. Lets assume the heart draw is true (which is was in this case, but that is not important). I have made my hand on the turn and really no river card will stop me getting all my chips into the middle. I believe I have a lock on the hand so our attention turns to maximises the value of the pot.

The amount of chips my opponent is willing to commit here becomes just as important as what the river card is. As in the hand above, if the heart comes for the flush then it is all beer and skittles for me. But what happens if that heart doesn't come on the river? It is unlikely my opponent would have called any bet, no matter how small, on the river if the 2 of clubs fell for example. Perhaps he could call out of curiosity, but certainly he isn't going to call any substantial bet. If the flush doesn't come, my best chance is hoping he wants to bluff or thinks I am bluffing – but I rate both as an outside chance and more than likely he would be in check/fold mode on the river rag. So the value point of the hand becomes the turn card – making him pay for his draw.

Usually most new players associate this with trying to discourage a player from seeing the river card – scare the player off calling for his draw. The difference here is he would be willing to pay for a draw, and won't pay for the miss. It is difficult to figure out what amount he is willing to pay for his flush – in this case with about a $20 pot (25c/50c blinds) I would guess he might even pay up to a pot sized bet on the Ace high flush. A pot sized bet though is nearly half his stack on a draw, I don't think it is a sure thing for him to call. $7-9 is far more likely, just keeping it below double figures. That is a decent sized bet considering the blinds and pot size. If the flush misses, at least I make a little more profit for him paying for a draw that missed. If the draw hits, it doesn't matter what happened on the turn necessarily, because at this level players don't expect you to bet out with such a strong hand and when they hit theirs the blinkers go up.

It is important to remember that in the hand above the pocket Kings are not the nuts at this stage, nor are they a lock on the hand. But really if he has Quads, or is drawing to Quads, Aces-full or a straight flush then chances are I am just going to pay him off if it hits, and there isn't much I can do about that.

And that is what I have been thinking about more – slow playing a monster by not slow playing it. Not that I do that all the time, but it can be an extra string to the bow from time to time.

That was how my online poker went for the past week, putting some decent profit into my bankroll there. It was funny how live poker proved to be very similar in function.

The home game was treating me terribly. My had bought in four times, and had a little of my third one back by 5am, a good 8 or 9 hours into the game. My night was going badly from the beginning, when I had KK beaten twice in four hands when all the money went in pre-flop. It was beaten by 67s (hit a 7 on the flop and river) and 78o (gut shot straight hit on the river). I had a flopped flush drawn out on another all-in by a king-high flush draw. I had Aces-up beaten by a better aces-up. I was feeling abused and looking in trouble. I have had to make a few very important withdrawals from the poker bankroll to buy important things like beds and pay bills over the past few months. In total, I have had to take out about 75% of the bankroll over the past 4 months or so for these various needs (I don't regret that, in the end that is what my poker bankroll is ultimately for, so ease financial pressure when needed). This accompanied with a bad year, meant the bank roll was rather dry. It will be a month or two at least before I can top it back up. After loosing three buy ins and having my fourth on the table, it was looking like I might be broke and not able to play home games for a month or so as I have a general rule of the old saying "neither a borrower nor a lender be".

And then I am dealt KQ in the small blind. UTG makes a raise, and there are a number of callers as is common in home games. The flop comes KQT rainbow, which I think is perfect for me. I just check, me and my sneaky slow playing, and BB also checks to the original raiser who makes a bet – nothing too large, nothing too small. I like it, and decide that perhaps he has a jack, or maybe there is a jack sitting in the BB and in that case, in this home game, I don't think I can push either player off their draw and will instead make them pay for it if it doesn't come on the turn. Besides, I might be able to coax the BB to call also and get more money into the pot. The turn is a King, and I have hit my hand beautifully, and now want to give both players a chance to hang themselves here. If he has the jack, I'll let him draw for his straight. If he has big slick, well I am in a very solid position.

I check, and the BB goes all-in for about $25. UTG thinks quickly, and then just calls. I know these players, and the "call" there doesn't mean a straight draw. It could mean a straight, but now I am fairly confident he has something like AK and would be willing to call any bet here. I have $34 left on top of the $25 call, and decide to push it all in here. By the time I finish counting out my chips, he makes a quick call.

I was a little shocked, because both players are fairly tight when it comes to an all-in bet, but I say "Guys, I've got the nuts." And then everything becomes clear as they roll over their cards. The big blind had AJ. He had the nuts on the flop and was just slow playing it until the turn, but now my Kings full has him drawing dead. I can understand why he committed the last of his chips there. Then UTG rolls over QQ – he hit his set on the flop and improved to Queens-full on the turn, but thanks to the queen in my hand he is now also drawing dead to the river. Both players had very strong hands, and both players had me beat on the flop that I thought was all mine. In effect I had two outs and one came on the turn – and now they are drawing dead for a $239 pot – which in this game equates to just under 5 buy ins.

Even I was in shock. I had not picked their hands on the flop – though it wasn't as if I couldn't get away from two pair if I had not hit the nuts on the turn, and when I did hit the turn it didn't matter what hand I put them on except for value sake. An absolutely perfect hand like that comes along very rarely indeed – as does being able to be paid off two ways on the hand. I went from being into the game for $200 to being in profit of $39 in one hand. In the next hour, I had a run of cards you could only dream of and at one point was north of $200 in profit – and it was only that small because I started to feel bad about taking so many pots and started making really large best when I had the nuts so I would not get called. It could have easily been another $100 or so, but when the shorter stacks went all-in, again I had them drawing dead. In one hour everything was erased from the previous 9. I gave a little back before nights end – and lost a little with silly side bets which were keeping everyone entertained all night (my favourite bet was that the winning hand would be better than kings-up.). I ended up $186 in front, which is my second best result for the year. With all the wild fluctuations on the night, most people ended up about even with a few early leavers making their donations before leaving.

Year to date, I am now actually ahead of last year and have recorded winning session in my last 5 outings. After a rough start to the year, things are looking a lot better as the good luck and the bad luck are starting to even out just a little.

Back To UB

2007-06-04T18:26:00.000+10:00

Blade: You better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping! There is another world beneath it - the real world. And if you want to survive it, you better learn to pull the trigger!
"Blade"

I have been spending my online poker time in the past week at Ultimate Bet, just for the change of scenery. I played there a few years ago when I was going through a Poker Source Online promotion, and I recall having a really good run on the SNG's there at the time. In the past week I have had a good run, with the cards being not too nasty and I've been making some calls that I usually wouldn't make. I think perhaps I've made some moves at the right times too, which has helped.

But what I have become addicted to is the Blackjack SNG's. I only play in the $1 tournaments, but I have been having a great time while basically breaking even. I did see half an episode of the televised Ultimate Blackjack and I thought it was quite silly, but after playing one I found myself mildly amused by them and kept going. I've played maybe 15 and have won a couple, but it is interesting to try to figure out what tactics you can employ and when, considering the massive amounts of luck that are involved in the whole situation.

Live games are going to become very rare in the coming weeks, as the Distraction has me booked solid for various things. We had to bail out of a friend's birthday party last week due to an injury I sustained and the delivery of a new bed for the spare room – preparation for the arrival of more in-laws in the coming months. More fun to follow, that is certain!

I am also being dragged along to a pre-screening of the new movie "Knocked Up", which I understand opens in the US this week (not here for another month). The trailer for this film had me sold in the first 5 seconds with the first joke, and that was it – it looks like another easy chick flick that you won't be ashamed to watch with your significant other. I can't give you a full report on the movie as yet (though initial reviews look good), because when we went to the cinema last week for the pre-screening, tickets in hand and everything, we found out we were a little early. About 4 weeks early in fact. Oh well, what can you do but turn around and go home and watch DVD's.

Speaking of which, since the big release season has been disappointing so far (Ocean's 13 can save it for me), the Distraction and I have been going through some of the DVD collection. We have now watched the entire run of Red Dwarf on DVD (save for a few episodes that were on a disc I seem to have lost from series 7) and have now started again on Law and Order: CI. I love that show, and hope more of the seasons become available on DVD soon. Like going back to old friend's, this may soon become a thing of the past as finally, it has been announced that TiVo is coming to Australia. Albeit in 2008, and it may only be supporting one network at this stage, but it is a start.

Steady As She Goes

2007-05-29T08:15:00.000+10:00

Elizabeth Swann: It would never have worked out between us.
Jack Sparrow: Keep telling yourself that, darling.
"Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End"

Our Friday night home games have been getting a little out of hand in the past month or so. People who used to go through 2-3 buy ins a night are now looking at 5-6. The big winner used to go home $200 up, and now it is pushing well above $500. I guess this is just part of the normal growth in a poker game.

The game was originally very small. $20 max buy in with 20c/40c blinds. But this turned into a silly all-in fest before long, so the limits were raised to where they are now, $50 max with 50c/$1 blinds. This worked for a little while, but now people are used to loosing that much and are really trying to score a big win. That has become the difference – a win is not enough anymore, and they need a big one.

Which means sometimes, you are also going to loose big. And that happens, though some players don't remember those nights as well as the other nights.

For me, this has been a frustrating time. I see what is going on, but I have not been able to capitalise on it. I was going through a very bad run where I seemed to be going up against the nuts all too often, and then became gun shy because of it. While I haven't had a big loosing night in a while, the big wins are not coming either. I have managed to get myself out of a hole a few times, and have got my yearly results firmly in the profit but it has been a grind. While I see others taking in $200 plus pots when they flop a monster, I have been grinding out $10 and $20 pots here and there when the board turns very scary and there is no action (for better or worse).

I wasn't happy with the way I was playing, the cards I was being dealt, the flops I was seeing and the rivers that were coming. It was all quite gloomy and made me wonder why I played in the first place.

But then, for what seemed like the first time in months, I got lucky. I hit a 2 outer when I had no right to even be seeing that river. This was a week or so ago, and I declared to myself (and no one else in particular) that the cold streak had been snapped. Fate/Karma/The Poker Demons had made their peace with me, and we would be returning to our normal scheduled programming.

For the most part, this has been true. Sure, I still get unlucky from time to time, still go 1-2 hours without dragging a pot while others flop straight-flushes from middle position and win 8/10 pots in some streaks. But now, I get a hand or two. I start to get in dominating positions and the hands hold up what would be a reasonable amount of times. Things are not running great, but they are a long way from the terrible way they were not that long ago.

I get dealt my two cards, and I actually feel excited about what I am going to do with them. I am not dreading what is coming next. I have stopped the bleeding, and now am working on the wound. I like poker again.

At our last home game, I as the only player still with their original buy in at the end of the night. Others were in profit by a lot more than me, but they had to reload to get there. One player revisited his ultimate lucky streak yet again, being unable to loose for a 3 hour stretch which included the flopped straight flush (against QQ no less) and quads, also countless straights and flushes. But it was lonely me as the only person that never ran out of chips, and I was only all-in on one occasion. I missed some hands I could have won, got bluffed off a few pots I really thought I should call and so on. But generally, I feel like I have a chance to actually play to win, not just play to avoid loosing. It's been better. Still err slightly on the tight side, but I will take that on board and see how it goes from here.

One Night At The Casino

2007-05-21T17:54:00.000+10:00

Lester Bangs: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.
William Miller: Well, it was fun.
Lester Bangs: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool.
William Miller: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.
Lester Bangs: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don't have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we're smarter.
William Miller: I can really see that now.
Lester Bangs: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love... and let's face it, you got a big head start.
William Miller: I'm glad you were home.
Lester Bangs: I'm always home. I'm uncool.
"Almost Famous"

All up on the weekend, I am in front when it comes to poker play, both online and at the casino. And all I want to talk about is the casino, as this was certainly an eye opener.

I have come into the poker blogging community earlier than most, later than some. Of the ones before me, I remember how they spoke about Party Poker in it's prime, and how bad the players there were. I saw the tail end of this, and thought it was funny that people could be that detached to their money when sitting in front of a computer and not having to look other players in their eyes.

Let me tell you, those plays are nothing compared to what I saw at Star City casino on Friday night.

I was just shocked at the way some people were playing, and this was early on before everyone was drunk. Here is just a quick summary of what I saw at the $1/$2 $80 max table:

- Guy sits down next to me and post the $2 blind from late position. There are a few callers around and he checks, then the big blind raises it to $25. Middle position player re-raises all-in to $100+. The guy sitting down with his first hand looks at his hand and grimaces, then says "Man, I didn't want this first hand" and then reluctantly calls. The Big Blind folds. Middle position turns over AJo and the guy playing his first hand had KJc, which doesn't get there. Wow, on both counts! But he had no choice he says, he had to call with KJ suited!

- 3 runners see a board of 7JJ7 and first to act bets out $40 into a $160 pot. 2nd player calls to be all in and third player also calls. River is a 2, and the last two players check. The all in player shows 22 for the win. He had the absolute nut low on the turn, but called the all-in for half a buy in, when in all likely hood he could have been drawing dead. No idea what the other two players had.

- Yet another player go all-in on their very first hand pre-flop with AJo, telling everyone that he had no choice, he had to get it in there. Then one of his friends on the rail said if he had 24o, he should do the same. He joked, and said that was just a raising hand. I laughed, because I thought raising with 24o was smarter than going all in with AJo preflop first hand.

There was god knows how many times players would bet $60 on the river with nothing but 7 high into 3 runners, and of course they got called. I saw one player rebuy at least 10 times, and he was sitting down before I even arrived. It seemed to be that the mentality of most of the table was "I've got nothing, so only a bluff will win it for me, therefore I have to bluff big". Never did the thought occur to them that "My opponent has a hand he won't fold. Maybe I should give up on this one".

Late in the night, when I won one of the four hands I won all night, I really got to see how little these guys thought about the game or were paying attention. I was in the 1 seat, so my view of the 9 and 10 was blocked slightly by the dealer. A real maniac was in the 10 seat, so it was crucial to see if he had raised or not.

I had AQo in late position, and called a raise to see the flop 5 handed. Flop comes Q high and it is checked by both the players in the 9 and 10 seats. I couldn't see though, so I tried to look around the dealer and said "Did he just check?". Unfortunately, all the dealer heard was "check" and moved the action to the next player. I realised what happened, and said "Oh, I meant did he just check, I wasn't going to check…Ahh, too late." I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to bet but I guess I missed my chance. Then, the player behind me bet $5. Wow, all I could think was he must really have something to bet that little to get everyone else in, and then get me to raise so he can come back over the top. For me though, I only had another $35 so after I put in a raise, I was going to be pot committed anyway. So exactly that happened, every one else called and then I raised to be all-in. The original raiser called, and everyone else folded. Huh? I was a little shocked, but ok. The other player turns over QJ, and my hand holds up.

Out of the four hands I won (one other was a chop), only one was without showdown. My winning hands were 88 (sucked out vs JJ on the river), AQ (hand above), AJ (hit trip jacks) and AK (duel ace flop, took it on the turn). The other hand I chopped was A3, so I guess I was playing a little tight. I was playing too tight. I folded both 55 and 99 pre-flop to big raises early on, when I was not adjusted to the table and saw both flop a full house without enough of a taste for the other players to get action too. But it took me a while to get adjusted and then the table turned sour as other players got drunker. I decided to pull out just before 1am and grab something to eat, while watching the footy on the big screen. After that, I hung around as the guys I was getting a ride home with were still playing, just watching from the rail as I saw the same stupidity replayed again and again.

I left in front by just under $50, the other guys I knew there and my lift home, both ended in front $300 or so, maybe more. They were a little more accustomed to the action than I was and hit a few more hands than I did too. I just never got on a roll and never really got used to the action, though I was proud that I could call a $66 river bet when I had the trip jacks, and the river put a possible straight on the board. Sure, it's a good hand and you should probably call for your last $66, but it wasn't the nuts and there were a lot of hands that could beat me. I need to learn that I don't have to have the nuts to stick my money in the middle some times.

I know I had the same reaction the first time I played at some of the home games, and it took a little while for me to get used to the style of play. This was something else entirely, and I know that if I really focused I could make a lot of money at those tables. Perhaps I will return soon.

As a comment on the casino itself, all our dealers were top notch, and most had a bit of fun with the table as well. The rake though is a killer. For the $1/$2 $80 max table, the rake is 10% capped at $8, but there is also a $5 per hour time charge per player. That just gets excessive. I understand they make far less on a poker table than they make on a blackjack table, but hey give us a break. You need some big pots just to cover your expenses there.

At least we got free parking I guess.

A Little My Way

2007-05-19T15:45:00.000+10:00

Ace Rothstein: No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky
would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a
bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And you beat
him with a gun, you better kill him, because he'll keep comin' back
and back until one of you is dead.
"Casino"

For a few weeks now, I have been feeling like I have been getting a
rough deal from the cards. Actually, it has been all this year with
very few good runs, and I am basically running just above even online
and marginally in front in live games. But that doesn't really tell the story, as I have constantly been in a state of trying to get even back to even in session after session, cursing river cards the whole way.

In the past 2 weeks though, it has been abysmal with the online play. It would seem every 3 and 4 outer there is has been hitting, and knocking me out of SNG's and tournament alike. In cash games, the pattern would be win small pot, win small pot, loose massive pot to 4 outer and be left with 2 bets or be out. It has just been a disproportionate run of bad luck that has been getting me down – and probably limiting the life of my computer desk as I bang away on it.

Last night started off no differently, as I was in a 3 table SNG and in the early stages I was yet to play a hand. UTG has been making some suspect plays, but raises the bet to T60 here. I have AQc, my first playable hand for the game which is less than 1 orbit old. I decided to just call and see if the flop does me any favours, and one other player calls. Flop comes 4h4c6c, not too bad. UTG makes a continuation bet of T100, and I raised to T400. The other player folds, and UTG re-raises to T700. I'm thinking he probably has an over pair now. I just call, and the turn is As. He moves all-in straight away – but I figure this is a good card for me unless he has 66 or AA, then I'm drawing dead or very thin. But just about any other hand he could have, I am in front of or have many outs. I call the all in, and we see the river before we see the cards. The river is the 2c, pretty much the ideal card I am thinking before he flips over his cards – 24o. I was livid. Sure, I could have raised pre-flop but AQs isn't really a monster in early position. In hindsight, I was behind on ever street after that but all I could think about was how lucky he was on that flop when he made a for-no-reason raise with 24o, and gets no only a flop that puts him way ahead, but also gives me every reason to come along for the ride. The river, while not a bad beat or anything, was really rubbing it in. And my current frame of mind certainly didn't help.

I shutdown and watch some TV with the Distraction, giving poker my
curses and letting it drift away as I watch Stan Lee decide which
costumed social reject would be the next super hero, and the
Distraction flicking back during the ad breaks to the True Hollywood
Story of Mark Wahlberg.

With no more quality television to watch, the Distraction decided to go to bed and watch a DVD. It was still early, so I went back for more punishment. I wanted to go up a level in the cash games, just to mix things up a bit and try to get some o f my game back, not to mention money.

Playing tight, I got a hand to play finally with AK and got a short stack who was clearly on tilt to call and see a flop. AQx, and he bets out, I raise and he calls. The turn is a blank and I bet out $12, enough to have him all-in. He calls, and the river gives him two pair with Q2. I am now getting sick of this.

I start asking nobody in particular – why me? Why does this keep happening? Isn't there someway I can make this stop?

The villain in that hand had $22 ($100 max buy in) before the hand started, and had now doubled up to $46 with my pot. About 8 hands later, he is up to $170. Why can't I hit some of those cards?

Reminding myself that this mindset does me no favours, I reside to the fact that this is poker, and what can you do? I'm getting back on my metaphorical horse and playing the next hand on its merits, and the one after that as well. Que Sera, Sera – if you will.

A few hands later, this gem pops up against the same player. 22 from the big blind, the flop comes 4sKh2h, which is pretty good for me. I let him bet out because that is what he always does, and then raised his $4 to $10. He calls, and then the turn is not a heart. I bet out for $20, which could have been too much but he folded anyway. Might have missed my chance for a bigger pay off, but I have got to be happy with the pot anyway.

Next orbit, again on the BB I have 55. Everyone folds around to the
small blind who has been known to fold the small blind if he doesn't
have anything. This time, he raises to $4 so I am in for a flop.

Flop is 9dAd4s. He bets out $5, and I thought I would see if he really
does have the ace, so I raised to $15. This is probably a little more
frisky than I usually play, but we'll see if it pays off on this tight
table. He just calls, and then instantly checks on the turn when the
As comes down. For what ever reason, I read this as a flush draw with
maybe a pair. But it didn't seem like he had the Ace and if I
represented it on the flop, I am damn well going to represent it here
as well and put out another $15. $15 to me looks like a bet that is
small enough to look like I want to get called and big enough to make
it a worthwhile pot for me. I expect him to fold his flush draw or
weak two pair here now, but he just calls. Oops, I guess he really
does have the ace. The river is the 5s, one of my two outs. He
instantly checks again, and I have a weird decision. You see, I am
pretty sure I am ahead unless he has paired his kicker with the ace
and has set a nice trap for me. But more than likely, I am certain I
have just sucked out on something like AK or AQ. Now I want to get
paid off, but also I have this little bit of guilt inside me that
knows I got very lucky here, and if he doesn't call then I don't have
to show exactly how lucky I was. I have $51 left, and I decide that if
he has trapped me, then I am going to pay him off. If he has a good
ace that got unlucky or drew to a back door straight, then he is going
to pay me off or fold and leave me without having to show how lucky I
got. I bet out $21 not knowing if I wanted it called or not. He did
call very quickly, and showed A8o to give me a $100+ pot.

I felt a little sheepish. But this one lucky hand means I am down only
$5 for the month so far, so again I am fighting to stay just above
even.

Tonight I am headed for me first ever foray into casino gambling. I've
been playing poker for cash for nearly 5 years now, but never have I
gambled a cent in a casino (except for free vouchers once, made $30!).
What will happen? Will I be a deer in the headlights? Will the loose
aggressive plays of every other WP wannabe throw me into the rock
garden? Or will I find my calling and finally post a decent profit for
the year? I guess I'll find out tonight.

Better Review Granted

2007-05-17T18:25:00.000+10:00

Grandma: Shut up girl. You just think you so smart cos you can read.
"CB4"

Duggle is one Blogger I have a lot of time for. Since he said my review of Spider-Man 3 in the previous post was a little lacking, I thought I would indulge him and give me greater review here. That, and poker wise all I have to talk about it more bad beats so this is better.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, I'm probably going to be giving most of it away below. So please don't read any further, and go download the movie from some file sharing site. Then come back and read and you'll see how much you agree.

Fortunately, I am not 100% up to date on the exact happenings of the comic book around this time in Peter's life, so the inconsistencies there are of no bother to me. I know they made some, but in the end they have to as this is a different medium and it is required for most of the time. As long as they don't change the characters too much – like say changing a giant robot looking planet eating alien into a cloud – then I'm not going to be one to complain.

In my last post I made reference to the "get out of gaol free cards" used in the movie (note: gaol is how we spell jail in Australia). There was two glaring examples of this in the movie:

1 – When Harry Osborn is knocked unconscious, and he remembers nothing of the past few weeks…or years as it happens. Pretty fucking convenient there. He remembers that he is no longer with Mary Jane, but forgot that his dad is dead. Oh, and the whole "must kill Peter" thing is forgotten. Very convenient.

2 – Again with Harry Osborn, when he refuses to join Spidey against Venom and Sandman, and then his Butler pipes up with the knowledge that his father was killed his own glider, definitely. Ok, where the hell has he been all these years with this info? And what, is he a former CSI agent or something, an expert on wounds that can tell instantly what caused the cuts – and how? Pretty easy way to switch Harry's mind around.

More than anything else, these were the two points of the script I had the most problem with. It looked like a very lazy way to get the script from one point to another.

The action sequences for the most of it are pretty awesome, and in the end that is what this movie is all about. The disappointing this is that wasn't what the other two movies were solely about. They had more, and this one didn't.

I thought James Franco was probably the strongest performance of the main actors in the first two movies. Maybe this stood out a bit more for me because I am not a fan of Tobey Maguire (though he was perfect in the first) or Kirsten Dunst (she still sucks). But when he adopted the "New Goblin" outfit, he looked like a Teen Titan or something. He just didn't have the look of a fully grown super hero like the original Green Goblin. Ok, so his character is obviously younger, but he is supposed to be competing against the others who gave off a stronger impression. Not his fault as much as a fault in the costume I guess, or just the decision to have him as "The New Goblin". Either way, it was detrimental to the overall score of the movie for me.

Peter Parker trying to be cool went on for far too long, and was annoying more than it was funny, or anything else. Although when he asked the skinny Russian girl to go make some cookies with nuts in them, that was a better execution of the new Peter Parker.

The death scene for Harry was a little bit corny, though this does reflect slightly the comic book version of this scene (dialogue wise anyway). I was expecting it to freeze and then run some cheesy theme music like a 80's family TV show, where everyone remains best friends no matter that they took some radioactive gas and tried to use thermo nuclear gadgets to get you killed.

Kirsten Dunst sucks, did I mention that already? Bryce Dallas Howard did ok, though there were some scenes where if it was snowing there would have been no way to see her. By the way, did her father and boyfriend seem a little too comfortable watching her falling to her death? Even excited perhaps?

Finally, the Sandman. Such a shame, because I am a fan of Thomas Haden Church, but he was a bit stiff in this one. In his finale, he just sorts of explains himself to Spider-Man, all is forgiven and then he flies away. Couldn't he have explained all this to our web slinging hero earlier and not destroyed half the city – which was taking his eyes of his true goal being money for his daughter's illness. And Spidey forgives him apparently, and lets him fly off into the moonlight – to keep on robbing places I guess? Even though now Spidey knows he really means well, hasn't he already smacked a few cops around and maybe has a court date to look forward to? You'd think he would get at least community service or a sentence equal to Paris Hilton.

So yeah, the original 2 had similar plot holes and problems, but none of them were as glaring obvious as the ones in the third installment. In the end, the action scenes are good and I'm sure it will shift plenty of toys, but disappointment was the first thing on our minds when we walked out of the movie theater. That's not good.

Spider-Man 3: We Phoned It In

2007-05-14T18:05:00.000+10:00

Evan Baxter: Oh, there we go. Sorry about that. In other news the Prime Minister of Sweden visited Washington today and my tiny little nipples went to France.
"Bruce Almighty"

The Distraction and I saw Spider-Man 3 on the weekend. I have been hearing all these negative reviews about it, but I never thought they would be right. At best I'd give it a 6 out of 10. A friend of mine told me before I had seen it that they use a few get out of gaol free cards in the movie, and man did they stand out.

The action scenes were good of course, but really this was the weakest of the trilogy by far, and very disappointing. Topher Grace was ok, and the much anticipated cameo from Bruce Campbell was a highlight, but after that it was pretty ordinary. I hope the rest of the blockbuster season is a great improvement.

I have had a busy week as it seems the rest of my family has caught the poker bug. In the past week I have had requests from both my brothers, my dad and one uncle to set them up on Internet poker. All praise be to affiliate deals! Now if I can get a few friends who have feigned interest to sign up (as well as anyone reading – check the two links on the side, minimum deposit is $50) I might have an affiliate payout of over $1K by month's end. And the way I have been playing, I need it.

Had a small home game this week, with just 5 runners including the distraction playing some cheap SNG's at my house. I finished 2 nd and 1st (though when it was heads up we called it quits each time to get the next game going) and all in all played really well. Then we started the cash games and I have no idea what happened, but I could not win a hand. It became comical at the end when I would openly say I had to get rid of one player before the river, and he hit the river what would have been 7 to 8 times in a row.

I managed to get even on one hand when I hit a ten high straight vs a 9 high one (99 vs T9), which was a lucky one where an open ender on the flop was filled on the turn. About 5 minutes earlier, the victim was saying how much they hate pocket 9's. Funny how things work like that sometimes. Still, I was due to get lucky eventually after all the beats I took in that cash game.

Online, I think I had some small wins, as I reverted back to the SNG's because I could not get anything to go my way in the cash games. Still lucky to break even at the moment but I know a good run is just around the corner.

Just A Nice Day

2007-05-07T18:55:00.000+10:00

A.J.: Joe, I need to ask your advice. Now I know you know a lot about love and women and all that sort of thing...
Joe: Oh yeah, my wife left me for another woman and my girlfriend forced me to leave at gunpoint. Does this qualify me?
A.J.: Oh yeah, definitely.
"Empire Records"

Poker – finally got a decent win in, just over $100. Was just under $200 with an hour to go, but some miss-timed moves brought that down. Enjoyable though, as I made one tough call on an all-in which I might have normally folded and it turned out I was way ahead.

But on to more important things, Saturday was just a brilliant day, and it did not include poker at all. In fact, I might not have left the house at all and still had a great day. I always start Saturday tired, because Friday night is poker night and that means I don't get in until 7am so sleep is scarce. But that is fine, because I know the footy is on Saturday arvo and that is something to look forward to, especially if hawthorn is playing.

It all started with the mighty Hawks having a good win in the footy, with Lance "Buddy" Franklin kicking 9 goals after missing two really easy ones in the first quarter. For those that care, I honestly think he played just as well last week and the week before, only this week the delivery to him was so much better. If that continues, then look out.

Since we had no plans for the evening, the Distraction and I settled in for our usual "We're doing nothing so this is what we'll do" Saturday night. It is so simple and fun that if we don't have any social engagements on a Saturday night, I still have something to look forward to.

While dinner is cooking, we go to the computer room to place our bets on the gambler's last salvation – greyhound racing. So far we are 2-1 on greyhound nights, but we are still down about $3 overall. We go for 8 races, and put just $1 on a dog each for every race. Betting on favourites, while not forbidden, is frowned upon.

With our bets made online, we need to record the info so we can follow along for the night, and have the times of each race written down so we know when to switch over to sky channel for when the race is about to begin. Our little run sheet is at the ready as we settle in on our fantastic couches which we got as a combined wedding present from all our guests.

But first, the footy is back on. It doesn't matter who is playing, we have live footy presented in beautiful digital format thanks to the last minute deal Foxtel did with the free to air providers. Reception for the free to air channels in our block of units is so bad it makes it almost impossible to watch.

Usually by now we are on our first or second bourbon and coke for the night – always made the same with Jim Beam green label, Pepsi Max, heaps of ice in these large plastic "Budweiser" cups that a friend bought back from the States for us a few years ago.

The footy is good, but it is really just something to watch between races and before the real show we want to watch starts – well, that is unless Hawthorn is playing but the Hawks don't play many Saturday night matches so this is rare. For Saturday night footy, a decent game is all you can ask for.

By now, we were on to race 3 and still no winners for either of us. We both have a second place but we're not betting on places (or a "show", for my North American friends. In Australia betting parlance, "place" means 1 st, 2nd or 3rd. We don't have the "show" bet). The third race stated at 8.28pm and I get my first win for the night, paying $2.70.

But now is time to change over to that staple of Saturday night viewing on SBS – "Iron Chef"! Who cares if the episodes are 10 years old, it's still gold! I have to admit to being a Nakamura fan, but this week it was Iron Chef Sakai doing battle using Scallops and vacuum cooking.

The pace is so frantic, we sometimes forget to turn over to the dog races when the next race is on, and have just seen them turning the final bend before we switch back to see who wins the battle in the kitchen. On this night, it was Sakai easily. Out of the four nights we have watched Iron Chef and the greyhounds, the Iron Chefs are 4-0.

So now we go back to watching the rest of the footy and the rest of the races. The footy is a pretty good game with the team I want to win getting up, and we are on to the final of the 8 races we have put bets on. So far I have one win, and the Distraction is a big zero. For the final race my dog is paying $4.50 and the Distraction's is a rank outsider.

Her dog leaps to the front, but the all important first bend is where everything happens. Mine gets tripped up and is now running half a track behind the rest of the field. The favourite is right behind the Distraction's pick and is looking like it will take over at any minute.

Somehow, her pick is keeping the lead and on the final bend, he finally kicks it into the next gear as everyone else tires, and he storms home by 3 lengths to pay a healthy $22.70, making our run 3-1 and a profit overall! The Distraction is over the moon, and the world closes another beautiful day.

Isn't this much better than whining about bad beats?

Gambling With Kids

2007-04-30T18:57:00.000+10:00

Tony Montana: I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
"Scarface"

Over the weekend the Distraction and I made a quick trip to our local DVD store, and picked up some real bargains but I also grabbed the SNL best of Jimmy Falon. I like the SNL Best Of's, sometimes I think this is the best way to watch SNL, and I've spoken before about how when I worked at the video store I would always put the 25 Year's video on, and some customer would hire it then and there. Anyways, I think it was a bit weak this compilation. I haven't had the chance to watch much SNL over the past 3-4 years, but what I have seen from Jimmy Falon, the majority was better than what was on his "Best Of". But it has it moments I guess.

On the pre-ANZAC day poker game, I had a good start but then one player went on a 7 hour streak, where no matter what he had it would hit big, and usually someone else would catch a decent piece of it. It was unbelievable as the luck would not change, and his outs would either come or he would flop the nuts and let someone else chase to a made hand that just wasn't good enough. I was $200 up at one stage, and then ended the night at $30 down. Also had a 2-3 hour cold streak in there that was bad enough for others to make comment before I had the chance to whine.

Which is something I am improving on, the whining. Started to get better in the live games. Online – forget about it. I had another weekend of second-best hands and paid for them.

I did decide to have Friday night off from poker though – a chance to recharge the batteries and get some brownie points in the bank for future use.

But back to ANZAC day, we had another fine day at the pub playing two-up. This pub was a little more family friendly than the one we went to last year (which was closed for renovations), and gambling it up in the pouring rain was a real treat. Made us feel like we had earned it, even though I was not betting at all. The distraction ended in front which is all you can ask for.

Being more family friendly, there was a large number of kids around, even though I think to the strict letter of the law they probably should not have been. But there was some underage gambling going on for sure – I don't mean "maybe you should check their I.D." kind of underage gambling, I mean "I think his age is not in double figures" type. With Dad right beside him, the 9 year old raised his money high to make the bet. I saw the moral compass of my poker buddy go haywire as he considered it, but in the end he just could not take the bet form the kid – more than likely, because even if he won he would not want to collect. When someone else eventually took his bet and one, we made sure we booed him enough to make him feel guilty.

Later, my buddies' bet to a two year old girl were knocked back. Pity.

Funniest Bad Beat Ever

2007-04-24T18:38:00.000+10:00

BR: People, what is going on out there? I look down this table, all I see are white flags. Our numbers are down all across the board. Teen smoking, our bread and butter, is falling like a shit from heaven! We don't sell Tic Tacs for Christ's sake. We sell cigarettes. And they're cool and available and addictive. The job is almost done for us!
"Thank You For Smoking"

I see that the movie "Hot Fuzz" just opening in the US this past weekend, and people are saying about the bad timing it had – in the fact that it provides parody for some of the gun culture and love in action flicks. People, that is not a reason to miss this movie. This is one of the best comedies I have seen for a very long time. If anything, current events should make the themes of this movie more prevalent and hopefully meaningful.

Besides all that, it's just damn funny.

We all hate bad beat stories right? Well I've got a fantastic one, one where I not only lost the pot but had to laugh about it because it was so bad. It's a short story, so just listen and stop rolling your eyes.

I'm down a buy in or two and not having much luck. I have A6d, and see a two diamond flop, King high. First to act bets, short stack pushes all-in. I have to think and eventually call and everyone else folds. Before we flip the cards over, the short stack (usually tight player) says "Want to run it twice?". Now I am running terribly, and am on just a flush draw. I figure running it twice is a great idea. When he flips over 78d, I think it is even better. There is no straight draw, so I am in a pretty good decision. Even better when the player to my right says he folded a seven.

Quick analysis, I am ahead with just an Ace which was a surprise, but now he has 6 outs (well, 5 when you include the already dead 7). We are running it twice though, so I am happy enough with a split.

First time, the board shows no diamonds and comes 7, 5. Damn, lost that one but at least we get to go again. Second time around, no diamonds and it comes Queen, 8. What the hell? How could I loose this bastard twice?

All I could do was laugh.

I wasn't playing great early in the game on Friday night, and this was my third or fourth buy in at this stage. I went into my fourth buy in before I won a pot over $10. Wasn't a good night for my hands I guess. I did finally get lucky flopping a straight against a small stack and then flopping a full house against another in consecutive hands which gave me one of my buy-ins back. As people left the game and the numbers got smaller, I started to win a few hands and really earned some pots.

My commitment to mucking un-called hands has started to pay dividends, which should be no real surprise. Because it is a friendly home game, you tend to show your hands after you win the pot, regardless of which street. I was doing this pretty much 99% of the time. That, along with my well publicized "Super Laydowns™" give me the tight image I so richly deserve. Finally, I was able to use it to my advantage and I don't think anyone really suspected that I was bluffing as much as I was. It was a welcomed change and was really the reason why I ended the night in profit after being down a long way.

Online? Well, I only played one SNG over the weekend as we had a very busy social life for a change. I lost nearly all of my stack with AQ on a A55 flop with 2 people behind me. I bet out, 2nd raised and third called. Not wanting this to go any further, I re-raised all-in and got called twice by AQ and AK. Yeah, not the best move but I thought I was against a weaker ace and a flush draw, in the end I have 2 outs for a split that didn't come. Next hand I went all in with A2 and got called by KK. Such is life I guess.

This week though is ANZAC day, which means mid-week home game. I'm really looking forward to it and the itch has already started.

Current Affairs

2007-04-16T17:59:00.000+10:00

Rip Reed: Thanks God, A dog pile of piss poor physique on top of a small cock and hereditary alcoholism, I appreciate it!... I'm babbling. I do that drunk.
”Smoking Aces”

The poker on the weekend started off well, and then went pear shaped for a nett result of $25 in the red. Can’t really complain as I played really well early on when it was short handed, and then went it became a full table with multiple calling stations I was only able to capitalise once for the night while everyone else made a killing off them. Nevermind.

I had a little more luck with the online ring games, finally getting some decent hands in and results. I was down half a buy in and then came back to post a modest profit, covering a dismal showing in a SNG where I was wiped out within the first orbit.

But what I really wanted to talk about today is another of my pet hates – current affairs programs. We have two main ones on a weeknight in Australia called “A Current Affair” and the other is “Today Tonight”. Both are crap and scrap the bottom of the barrel for quasi-current affairs. Every year they do a story about what is really in meat pies – one usually a month or so after the other, like this is a news worthy story. There is a plethora of examples of their tactics and cheque-book journalism in the papers seemingly everyday. And then they follow that up with a hard hitting story on which laundry powder is best for you.

What really got me though was last week they advertised that a story was coming up about Joe Hachem, and how he has been struggling with the new found fame he has. I thought great, here is something I can watch and perhaps even have something to talk about to my poker buddies and even right here.

Instead, what was presented was a 5 minutes story that included perhaps 3 and a half minutes of “Casino Royale”, then 1 minute and 40 seconds recapping of how “one lucky hand” won Joe $10m (in Aussie dollars, it was about that before tax). I thought that was a bit offensive to Joe, seeing as he had to go through five days and a 14 hour session on the final to get that one lucky hand, but there you go. The final 20 second was Joe saying he is now a lot more famous than he thought he would be and he is thinking of moving. That’s about it.

There is no story there. Not that I blame Hachem, probably made a couple of grand on it so why the hell not – and it’s not like he was the one that wrote the story. What annoyed me even more is that obviously this story was only put in to have a poker story, and to sucker in the punters that would watch for that reason. I was one of those punters. I was sucked in. I never watch this current affairs shows and made an exception on this one case because of the story, and was immediately reminded of why I never watch these shows. Although I guess in a way it did give me something to write about.

Up

2007-04-10T17:42:00.000+10:00

Spartan King Leonidas: Dilios, I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless.
Dilios: Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.
"300"

A few weeks ago, a well known English sports journalist passed away by the name of Ian Wooldridge and in his wake there was a story told that I read and thought that the lesson was quite apt. I post this exert from "The Fitz Files", a weekly sport column from the Sydney Morning Herald and posted at smh.com.au.

Ian Wooldridge was playing golf one day with his good friend Richie Benaud. For my North American friends, Richie Benaud is a former Australian Cricket Captain and has been the head cricket commentator in Australia since most of us were born. He still does this to this day, now in his 70's.

The story continues as "On one hole, Wooldridge's drive went awry, meaning he had a difficult approach shot to the green over a pond. So difficult was it that Wooldridge replaced his ball with an old and scungy one from his bag, explaining to Benaud that he didn't want to waste the good ball. With a smile, Benaud gave him a brand new ball from his own bag, saying that by replacing his original ball with an older one, Woolers has allowed the approach shot to beat him even before he had swung his club. Wooldridge then unleashed a superb shot over the lake, and it finished within inches of the pin. According to Wooldridge, this explained why lakes on golf courses are full of very old golf balls, and also why Benaud was probably the greatest Australian cricket captain of them all!"

I read this a few weeks ago and thought some more about it, and then started to see how I could relate this to my poker game.

A few weeks ago, I had some very strong hands run into some other even stronger ones, and made some good lay downs and made some bad ones. More than anything, it made me feel like I was running into the nuts on every hand which made my play not optimal. My mindset was "avoid loosing" which has the side effect of "avoid winning" sometimes, much like the golfing situation above.

I set about the game on Friday night with a new attitude – and lost my first buy in within the first orbit. Eventually though, things changed and after a real cold streak I started to hit some cards and wasn't scared about throwing chips into the pot even when I didn't have the nuts. Slowly the cards changed for me and I feel I played a lot better.

Biggest pot for the night was with J2s. Four players saw the flop come Ks9s2c. Aggressive player bets out, call in front and I call as well as one behind. Decent sized pot already and the turn card is Jc. Now I have two pair and a flush draw, nice position to be in I think. Aggressive player bets out $20 into maybe a $30 pot, but $20 is still a big bet at this table. 2 nd position calls – and I decided to push without hesitation. Now I have a good enough tight image at this table that it won't look like I am too venerable. The two players who have already committed $20 on this card are able to do that without monster hands, and even if they do call I should have some good outs. Last player folds, as does the original raiser. 2 nd position says he is pot committed and calls my all-in which was another $35 I think. He has 7s8s and has 3 outs to a ten. Original raiser had K9o for the flopped two pair, but had to give me respect and thought I had already hit the straight. The river was the queen of spades meaning he dodged a bullet there. I won the pot and that hand put me up at that stage of the night, and for the first time in some weeks.

After this, some more hands started to hit and I finished the night $135 in the black, which is enough to put my year to date back in the black also. It was just a much better night of cards and attitude from myself which reminded me of why I love playing poker in the first place.

Down

2007-04-03T12:10:00.000+10:00

Janine Melnitz: Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?
Winston Zeddemore: Ah, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.
"Ghostbusters"

Welcome back to Poker On Film, now fully rested after visiting the home land. Well, the home town anyways.

We had a great day at the races, lost every bet except the final one which put us back near even for the day. Exciting race too, with our 7-1 horse getting up with only metres to spare – and then we found out we could have got the horse at 12-1 odds if we went through the TAB instead of the bookie (Aussie's will understand that). Pity, because that cost us a bit but at the end of the day we were just below even, which included over priced drinks and food so you can't complain too much.

We made the effort to head out bush on the Sunday for lunch in the creek, and managed to catch a few yabbies for a decent feed on the day as well and again, you can't ask for more than that.

Poker wise, I was on a fantastic tournament/SNG streak at Pokerstars recently, finishing in the money in 19 out of 21 at one stage, but in the 6 since I think I have finished 3 rd twice only for not much return. Otherwise, not much else is happening online at the minute. The download limit at home has once again gone over, which means it is too risky to play because of constant timing out until the limit gets renewed this weekend.

I have been really off my game lately, and as always you can only blame yourself. I have lost the ability to pull the trigger when I should. It happened by running into the nuts once or twice, which happens to everyone, but for whatever reason I was letting it get to me. I think I was so proud of myself and impressed by the laydowns that it became my primary reaction – I'm beat. And when that is your first thought, you don't win many pots.

I ventured into the city this past weekend for some live SNG action, and got beaten severely four times. The first two times it was Kings and two's beaten by trip 2's, and the next two times I lost when a slight/favourite against Jc9c (with 99 and JT). Just funny how both of them worked out like that. The fourth was a horrible game where I just could not beat this one player, not matter what cards we held. With 4 players to a flop and one all in we had a dry side pot. I had a made hand on the flop so I bet out to just claim my pot, and he called. The turn and river came and we both checked it down and he showed that he filled his gut-shot straight on the turn. Later, when I had flopped 2 pair with a back door flush, I bet out big (on the bubble here), and he agonised over the call, but eventually called my T1500 bet out of his T1950 stack. The turn was an ace, but the Ace of diamonds giving me the first half of my flush draw. He went all in and I had to call, and he showed AJ. He called me with no pair-no draw on the flop for 75% of his stack, and I wouldn't be telling this story if he didn't hit his outs on the river. Running two pair. Really, the only beat I can complain about on the night.

Then the final bust out of the night was with 99 vs JJ and JT. It just goes that way some times I guess. It was unfortunate because I worked my self from 1 chip back to a respectable position of about 5-6 bets, and then got my first pocket pair for the game. Just came at the wrong time, and I was nowhere to be seen.

With the impending long weekend, I am hoping for a bit of return to form in the home game this Thursday night or Friday, or whenever we get to play. I made myself apologise to the host for last time when I was whinging more because I was down, which I think I have a bad tendency to do at times and the archives will attest to. But now I am aware and will be making a better effort to improve my mindset and then hopefully my decisions.

But on a different note, I am really starting to notice there are three kinds of players at the live game SNG's. There are the beginners, the ok guys and the wanna-be pros. And naturally it is the wanna-bes that are the most annoying. I think they are the type of player that is used to online play or has friends that play big money games and therefore think they are elite (or maybe they play in games way out of their league, and think that makes them an expert). It seems everything they do is prefect play, and everyone else is an idiot – I'm sure we've all seen this before. One guy in particular was hilarious when I was watching.

It's a rebuy tournament, so you expect some suspect plays early on. The player in questions, lets call him Mr Pro, would raise the T50 to T250 without looking at his cards, and then bet another T1000 on the flop regardless of callers or cards – all this out of a starting stack of T1500. And he was down a few buy ins before it worked for him and doubled up. But he would not adjust his play and then lost that after he was called down by a player holding middle pair and a straight draw. At the showdown he berated the player, then mucked his cards as middle pair was obviously good enough. The winner waited until he left, and then said how predictable it was.

But what fascinated me was he also questioned a raise from one player to T250 pre-flop (after they looked at their cards). "5 times the big blind hey?" condescendingly. Well, 5x the big bling isn't that unusual after you've looked at your cards, but we move on.

The hand where I got felted went like this – King high flop, small bet gets 3 callers. Turn is a 2 so I bet out 700 of my 1300, and one player raises to have me all in, and it gets folded around to me. I have 600 left, there is over 3000 in there – I figure I'm probably beaten by 2 pair but call anyways and maybe get lucky. He shows 22 for the turned set and has me drawing dead, but no matter and I rebuy. End of hand right? Nope. Mr Pro says "I can't understand why people do that, call when they are obviously beaten" and then tried to say "it was obvious he had pocket twos". Wow, um, it's really easy to say it is obvious when the cards are turned over, but I did not put him on a 2-outer on that flop and thought it was safe to assume the 2 on the turn was a safe card. But I did have a fair idea that I was beaten and still called, but I asked if he thought that criticising that play was any better than going all-in pre-flop without looking at your cards and then turning over 8-5o. "Yeah, but at least I had outs". It was at this time that I realised who I was dealing with and just left it at that. It all ends well though as he was knocked out a few places before me and even though that pays the same, it cost him a few extra buy ins to do it. On the last hand before the first break though he managed to double me up by calling a pre-flop all-in with 4 high. What was funny was it left him with T200, and unable to rebuy and he could only add-on.

So I didn't win any money, I will have to settle for a little moral victory instead.

Still Bad

2007-03-20T09:28:00.000+11:00

Billy Mack: Hiya kids. Here is an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free.
"Love Actually"

My frustrating run with poker continues, as I seem to have lost confidence in any hand. While I continue to make great laydowns, the bad laydowns are now starting to become more frequent. Even when other people make bad plays, then they are getting lucky as well which further adds to the frustration. I did get very lucky on one hand on Friday night, but that was again against a short stack so the pay off was minimal. To make matters even worse, I've become so down with this run that I can't help but whinge about it.

The final straw was when I finally hit something decent, with KJs and the third spade coming on the river. I was able to draw for cheap to it and was glad that the board had not paired (did have a 4-straight but I didn't concern myself with that). The pot was small and heads up, so the other player comes out betting $6. I raise it $10 and then he instantly goes all-in for $107. What can you do? There is only one hand he could do that with, and I folded the nuts-1 without much thought. He then says "Oh, I didn't see the flush" and he thought his straight was good. Ouch.

I am now back to just above even for the year after getting myself out of a major hole, and have really lost my nerve. I made a terrible play later on but since I have such a tight image it paid off small – was actually probably the biggest pot of the night for me. Board was AQJ3, and I had Q3. First to act bets $6, second calls and I pushed all in for $90. I thought they both might have a good ace or a straight draw and fold, or maybe even get a call from AK. First to act things long and hard, and I am totally playing my act as "Well, you fold for 8 hours you think you get a reputation". Thankfully my poorly timed play is offset by my well played act and the second player believes I have the straight. I'm glad I didn't convince the first player, because he had JJ and even if he knew I had the straight, he would have called thinking he had so many outs. I'm not saying that's a good play, it's just how he would have played it. Instead, he had JJ and thought I had QQ. That's the only reason he folded, which would make more sense since he would only have one out in that case and more in the other.

But that is where we stand. I have been on fire online in the SNG's, though after Friday night I believe my damaged goods led into a few losses there as well. I managed to get all the loses back in the cash game thanks to one player who was for some reason all too willing to give his chips away. KJ4 flop, I have J4 and put myself all-in, he called with 33. Thanks…I guess.

Poker On Film is on a break next week, as I am heading home for some gambling fun of a different kind. My home town has a yearly horse racing event that still stands strong no matter how bad things are in the city (and things are pretty good in the city at the moment). This will be the first time I have been there in more than 10 years I think, so looking forward to that.

Weak-Tight

2007-03-12T17:38:00.000+11:00

Nicholas Angel: All right, what about this guy? Ask yourself, why has he got his hat pulled down like that?
Danny Butterman: He's fuck-ugly.
Nicholas Angel: Or, he doesn't want you to see his face.
Danny Butterman: 'Cause he's fuck-ugly.
"Hot Fuzz"

The Distraction and I managed to get ourselves into an advanced screening of "Hot Fuzz" over the weekend, and I have to say it was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a very long time. I can't remember the last time I came out of the cinema and been so impressed with a movie. I was quoting some of the better lines 5 seconds after they were uttered.

I'm glad some better movies are coming out now as we head into the US peak season. It was pretty dry for us last year and we seemed to leave the cinema disappointed more often than not. As I have said a few times, even "The Departed" left us disappointed, and nothing else was a real stand out from that, only perhaps "The Prestige". Now we have 300 out soon as well as all the good sequels coming, hopefully a few more good trips are ahead.

Poker has been more frustrating of late, as Friday night's game left me down nearly $30. I was down $130, so that wasn't too bad of a come back. Early on one player was hitting everything no matter what he had. When he limped, he would flop the straight and when he tried to draw, the river gave it to him. Nothing you could blame him or yourself for, the cards were just falling his way.

I was having a rough time of it when Aces got beaten by 83s (8 on the flop, 3 on the turn). When I finally got to winning some decent sized pots, I took them all of one player, who just happened to be the other short stack so I didn't really get paid for those hands. I let a lot of pots get away from me though when I knew the bluff move one of the players would make, but I was too scared that the one time I would call him on it would be the one time he was not bluffing. I never did call him, and I think he bluffed for a decent pot maybe four or five times.

As a side effect of playing a little too cautious, I did make some decent lay downs when it came to putting all my chips in. The first one was with KJ on a rainbow KJ98 board. It was the player whose bluff I wanted to call, but this time it wasn't the same move, it was a re-raise over the top of me for all my chips. I decided to let it go and he showed 99. The next one was against a different player who had tried to tighten up his game (for the better) and had me in real trouble. I was playing some garbage like 58s I think, and on a board of QJ967 I had hit my straight on the river. He was first to act so he put in a modest $3.50, and I said raise. Before I could move any chips, he had gone all-in. I'm glad he did, because I was going to raise more than the minimum but now I was being forced to raise just $3.50 and then have a think about the rest of my chips yet again.

While he was so eager to get everything into the middle says "nuts" to anyone, he had raised pre-flop and I had called him before when he had misread the hand and was strong but not a lock on the hand. Also, 3 times tonight he had hit a set with JJ and got paid off each time, I thought there was a chance he had hit a set again (perhaps even JJ) and got a bit over excited about it. I just didn't think he would raise pre-flop with KT, maybe if it was suited? It was that type of game where people would call with anything suited pre-flop. In the end I decided the bet was too big and too eager to be anything besides the nuts, so I had to let go of my little straight. He was kind enough to show me I was correct, not that I really had a big choice in hindsight. I was lucky to get off that cheaply.

After this I managed to get in front for the first time in the night, by $7 at the most before I lost a few more bets, mostly when I couldn't call the bluffs. It has been a frustrating year so far with few good sessions and mostly just hovering above even or maybe a buy-in up. What makes it more frustrating is watching other players having great sessions, $200 and $300 in the positive at the same time against the same players without making the hard lay downs that I am being forced to do. I guess it just goes that way some times.

I have also left one online room for the time being for another, as I think I am just being out matched by some of the players there. I can not get a hand and when I am weak it must be far too easy to read because everyone is able to bet over the top of me and I am left with too often 0 hands won from 40-50, which is no way to look after a buy-in. Maybe a change of scenery and a few new faces will help some. Who knows? But so far 2007 is no where near as good as 2006.

Bad Hands

2007-03-05T18:02:00.000+11:00

Tina Fey: I threw my panties at Britney Spears once. It looked like she needed some.
"Man Of The Year"

Caught up with two movies over the weekend, Man of the Year which was only released in Australia this week and Miami Vice which I never caught when it was released. Man Of The Year was just ok, but most of the jokes told were so old that I think I heard them when I was sill in High School. There were a few funny moments, but on the most part it seemed to try to take a more serious tone than I expected, but that didn't spoil it. It was just ok.

As for Miami Vice…I could not believe a movie with such a large budget could look so bad. There was very little to like about it at all, I can't even understand how someone could put their name to this movie. When the Distraction starts to notice how bad the editing and direction is, you've got problems. I know it got reviews worse than this when it was released, but something in me expected it to be better for some reason.

I have been getting killed still in online cash games, need some readjustment but I am not sure what it is yet. Maybe a change of card room will spark something.

Friday night poker took an unexpected turn last week, with what one player dubbed the single worst hand ever played took place. I was in the BB for this particular hand, and there was maybe 4 or 5 limpers around to the button who made a weak raise for whatever reason to $3. SB and I both call, and then UTG bumps it up $20. That's a massive raise for this game, and effectively tells everyone he has a pair of aces. After a long think, only the button calls. For a bit of background, the player on the button chases nearly everything to the river, and usually ends up down a few buy ins and borrows money regularly when he is dry (always settles his debt quickly though, don't get that part wrong).

Anyway, the flop comes small and UTG bets out another $20, which the button calls. Turn is another small and the board shows two spades and two clubs. UTG bets another $20, button goes all in for the remaining $50 and UTG calls. UTG has AA of course and button has 45s for the straight and UTG is drawing dead.

Like I have never seen before, UTG was furious. He said that is why he is forced to borrow money so often, for calls like that. To make note, the pre-flop bet was a total of $23, which is half a buy-in for this game. The only defence the button could come up with was he was titling and decided to gamble and it paid off.

I said UTG shouldn't slow play aces like that. Anyway, it did put a little bit of a tarnish on the game for the night. UTG finished the night down about $40 and the button player ended the night down a minimum of $200 – which included that $190+ pot. But I have seen worse calls pre-flop before, and even lost a bigger pot because of it.

For me, I could not help but hit sets with my pocket pairs. I hit maybe 7 out of 10 on the flop, and only had to throw away one of them (when the board had 4 spades). I was up $140 at one stage, and then down as much as $70 before ending the night at $60 on the good side.

My most interesting hand of the night was with 84s on the big blind. A good player raised it to $3.50, call behind him and I call also. Flop comes 994 and I checked, looking to check-raise. The pre-flop raiser bets $6, then a call and then I bumped it up to $18. Both players called. The turn was a 6 and I bet out another $20. I had put the pre-flop raiser on AK-AJ or maybe JJ/TT. The other player was a bit of a mystery, but I figured for a flush draw. But again in my mind I was ahead vs a big ace and a draw. The first raise was to hopefully get at least heads up, and it didn't work so now that was my goal, to at least get rid of one of the draws. After agonising over the decision, the pre-flop raiser eventually called. This just reaffirmed my read, as I had a fairly good read and didn't place his actions as acting. Then the second player also called, and I got worried. This now looks like someone has a monster and is laughing all the way.

The river brought a 10, and I lost my confidence in my hand and decided to check. Both players behind me did the same. Pre-flop raiser had pocket Kings and took down the hand, and the player behind him did have the flush draw (jack high).

Even though I lost nearly a whole buy-in on the hand, I was kind of proud at myself for playing it that way. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but that was how I felt. I made a read on the situation and stuck with it, right up until the last card. I could beat a lot of hands that he had, I just didn't put him on the right one. If there was only one caller and not two on the turn, it could have been a very different hand. The pre-flop raiser though I had Aces and I think a final bet on the river would have had him making (what he thought would be) a great lay down. He is a good enough player to lay down the over pair as well. But I lost my nerve and pulled out at the last moment, so that is the way it goes some times. In hindsight, I made a wrong read and lost a lot of chips, but at least I made a read and stuck with it. It was wrong this time but hopefully I can improve on that.

Wow, is that scary or what? I try to justify betting big when I had 2 outs and think it's good play…

Pakistan Poker

2007-02-28T19:53:00.000+11:00

The Caller: You'd shoot me if you had the chance, wouldn't you?
Stu: With a big fucking smile on my face.
The Caller: There's the spirit.
"Phone Booth"

For the first time in quite a while, I had no poker over the weekend as we instead made a trip to see a friend out of town. Not much excitement there really but it was nice none the less. She has just moved in with her new boyfriend, and as the Distraction, another female friend and I were driving down, they wondered if he would be into poker? I said he's Texan, it's a given that he loves poker. Sure enough I was right, but it still wasn't good enough to get a game going, mores the pity.

I have had a bit of a chance to rekindle my interest in online poker, but I have been getting my ass handed to me on that one. Maybe I am being too timid or I am just getting caught in bad situations, but I just can't seem to win a hand and every time I have a vulnerable hand, there is a big bet in front of me, or over the top of me. More often over the top it seemed. Bad play, bad cards or a combination of both, results have been disappointing as of late.

Results in SNG's have been slightly better, although a bit of a cold run as far as the cards are concerned as well but not much you can do about that. Maybe playing so many live SNG's as of late, and not as much cash games, has changed my play so that my preferred game (cash) is not as strong as it once was. Should sort this out soon lets hope.

Been spending some time of late playing Oblivian on the Xbox 360. Not a bad game, certainly looks good and has a heaps of choices, but I wouldn't call it the masterpiece that everyone has been rating it, but that is just an opinion. I don't know why, but in these type of games without trying I always have my character lean towards a thief. I guess there is something in my nature or inner desires that wants to live the life of a thief – or at least the Hollywood ideal of a master thief. Go figure.

I hate that saying "Go Figure". No idea why I used it.

Some dude in Pakistan created an uproar this week, when it came time to pay a 10 year old poker debt. Problem being when he was playing ten years ago (no doubt before he had seen Rounders) he lost a hand and subsequently offered his infant daughter as payment for the debt. The debt was about 10,000 rupees, or nearly $200 Australian.

That means for the same price I bought the Distraction's Ipod last year, I could have got one and a half Pakistani girls.

A work colleague mentioned that 5 years ago, this story would not have even made the news, but now that poker is everywhere not only is it in the news, it was the most read story on the Sydney Morning Herald website yesterday.

Now most of you are probably thinking what I am thinking – what was the hand? Was it a bad beat or was he trying to draw to the flush? Methinks the flush.

Donkey.

Short Stack Poker

2007-02-22T17:44:00.000+11:00

Susan Stanton: Your grandfather was a great man. Jack Stanton could also be a great man, if he wasn't such a faithless, thoughtless, disorganized, undisciplined shit.
"Primary Colours"

In my last post, I used a quote from "The Good Shepard", which is a movie we saw on Sunday. It's got an ok story to it and everything, but to be honest the lead character is just so fucking boring all the way through it kind of ruins it. Not to blame Matt Damon for his job, it was just the character was meant to be that way. Funny though, because early in the film the lead character was in a college stage play in full drag and singing (quite well for a fake female voice I might add) – and the same character is so dead pan for the rest of his life. Yeah, a few things didn't make send about the characters but it is what it is.

Back to the story at hand, we were back into the un-air-conditioned Dome on Saturday night. Before we reached the bar, the guy had our drinks opened and ready. It's good to be considered a regular on your 4 th visit. I think my buddy standing next to me kind of stands out though through looks and personality, and the fact that he drinks Toohey's Old.

Anyways, we get the first game underway eventually as the room is unusually quiet. Parking was a bitch thanks to a Boys 2 Men concert on next door. Seriously, Boys 2 Men. I couldn't believe it myself.

I made mention before the first hand that I had a golden duck once before (knocked out on the first hand), and then my buddy goes and does just that. He had a weak ace, hit the turn and was betting on every street. The opponent had KJ - J on the flop and K on the river. That was enough for him.

Three hands later I had KK in early position and I made a raise. I get one call and then a re-raise from the button, and another call. I thought about pushing right there, and I should have in hindsight, but I was a little gun shy as I could be up against aces again, so I just called for a total of 500, 25% of my (and everyone else's) stack. Four handed see a Queen high all diamond flop. I didn't look at my cards because I remember I have two red Kings, so I have the King high flush draw and an over pair, maybe I can take it down here unless I am against QQ. Even then, I have outs. I bet 500 more, and the next player min-raises to 1000, the last two players fold. I can call which will have me pot committed, so I may as well go all-in or fold. I have zero read on the opponent, but he didn't re-raise pre-flop so maybe he has AQ. I decided to go all-in and he has to call regardless, but he had A9d for the flopped nuts. I hit my flush on the turn, but it was obviously pointless and I was gone already. That was a quick one.

Next game, I am back to my old habits of sitting back and folding crap. I've got a very passive female to my right and a clueless player to my left who is a veteran of many free rolls by the sound of it. He has shown that he bets any pair but then meekly calls if he is raised or bet into. The passive female has shown she will call with just about anything, but did hit some hands early to have chips.

I get down to 1050 in chips with blinds getting dangerous. I have Q5h in the BB and get to see a flop 4 handed. Female player bets 250, I raise to 500 because I believe top pair has her beat and I want it heads up – she'll call for sure. Then the free roll veteran pushes all-in without much hesitation. The other player folds and the female calls for all her chips (more than me). I look at my little five, and then my last 550 in chips. Some people would look at the pot and see value for top pair, but all I saw was an exit to two players that I considered myself better than, and I folded my Queen face up. I got some funny looks from the other experienced players at the other end of the table – "You folded a queen to them?"

"I'm beat." Was all I could say. The female player rolled over KJ for second pair and a straight draw, while the free roll veteran had 99 for a set of nines. The turn was a King and the river was a blank, as the blinds went up to 200/400 and I had 550 left.

I managed a double up on the next hand, but after folding my blinds again to raises I was back down to 550 again and waiting to go all-in with anything decent. UTG+1 with a limp in front, I thought about it with A7o, and had the chips ready but for some reason I pulled them back. There was a raise behind me and three players were all in with King high the best – and there was an ace on the door! D'oh! Maybe the wrong decision there, but for some reason I just thought my ace was dominated. Very next hand, I get the same ace back but with a nine this time, and I push all-in (a raise of 150 on the 400 big blind). I get called by only the big blind, which is about as good as I could hope for. I hit another ace, and that's good for a double up plus some. Then finally the cards start to fall, and I make it to heads up where my opponent is quite passive and lets me steal a few times. He has maybe 60% of the chips at the start, and we get very close to even when the telling hand comes.

I have 89d and raise, he calls. Flop comes KdQd8h. I bet, he raises and then I push all in. He thinks about it and tries to talk me around my hand but I try not to give any clues. Eventually he decides to call with Q5o. I was happy with a call or fold to be honest. I hit my flush on the turn, and he is left with just the big blind in chips. We deal the last hand open and I have ATo vs 73o, and no bad beat this time which means I have my first full paying win at the dome!

I did apologize for the flush draw hitting, but he actually said I was ahead in the coin flip, reckoning it was 53% to me. Just doing the calculator now, I was ……………..

There seems to be a bit of a slow night, and I have to wait a while for the next table to form. We go to sit down finally and there was 11 players, so they decided to run it with 11.

After 10 hands, we were down to 7. After 20 hands, we were down to four. Two guys have been hitting massive hands and getting paid off – including this gem four ways. Board reads QJJK8, 3 rd diamond on the river. Player 1 has KT, Player 2 had A6d, player 3 had J9 and player four had QJ meaning he was pretty much freerolling the hand from the flop.

The final four has me the short stack, as I have yet to see a flop let alone win a hand. There is a female player coming third, who has won one hand. The other two guys have all the chips, and have won every other hand in the game between them. We were on the third level of blinds and already had 7 knocked out.

The chip leader knocked out the last two guys, and then it was heads up again. I had won a few pots by this time, but still was well behind in the chip count. I eventually doubled up again with a diamond flush draw (I pushed, he called with a pair I think). That meant I had 16K in chips now, and he had the remaining 6K. He went into push or fold mode, and with the blinds at 200/400 I was happy to fold if I had nothing – which I usually did and showed him I had four high and was folding. I was going to wait for a hand to end it, and he eventually called my all-in when I had JJ. JJ held up against 68c and it was two wins in a row, and this one was a little bit bigger thanks to the extra player. Well hey, ten bucks is 10 bucks.

After that, I grabbed a bourbon and coke because back to back wins was worth a toast to myself (by myself), and I waited for my buddy to finish the game he was on. Some drunk got refused service at the bar, and then staggered and whinged about it to everyone within ear shot just to prove the bar staff right. The Boys 2 Men concert had just finished, which saw an influx of young gangsta wanna-be white guys flood in, half drunk and half stoned.

I took stock of the night. I was up $190 tonight, which after a disastrous start to January had actually put me back in the black for the first time this year in live play. The room was still hot and was only now getting crowded at 12.30-1am. When my buddy finished his game, we decided to put this one in the books and head home.

FIRST WEEKEND AT THE DOME:
9 games, $180 in entry fees, return of $60. Loss of $140.

SECOND WEEKEND AT THE DOME:
7 games, $140 in entry fees, return of $445. Profit of $305.

I think the main difference was a run of beats the first time around didn't occur the second, and I figured out how to get many different types of bad players to give me enough chips to tackle the good ones. Also, I let a lot of people do the hard work for me and only played hands when half the field had left. And yes, some flush draws and aces when small stacked certainly helped a lot.