Some hands

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Your Favorite Chump is MP2 with 6h, 6d.
3 folds, Your Favorite Chump raises, 3 folds, SB calls, BB 3-bets, Your Favorite Chump calls, SB calls.

Flop: (9 SB) 9s, 5s, 3d (4 players)
SB bets, BB raises, Your Favorite Chump folds, SB calls.

Turn: (6.50 BB) Td (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks.

River: (6.50 BB) Th (3 players)
SB bets, BB calls.

Final Pot: 8.50 BB
Results in white below:
SB has 5h Ac (two pair, tens and fives).
BB has Kh Ah (one pair, tens).
UTG+1 doesn't show.

Argh! I hate folding the best hand. As I folded, I thought to myself, "I hope that BB doesn't have AK." Dammit.

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Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Your Favorite Chump is BB with As, Kc.
2 folds, UTG+2 calls, 1 fold, MP2 raises, 4 folds, Your Favorite Chump calls, UTG+2 calls.

Sometimes I'd reraise this, but I because I'm out of position and to disguise the strength of my hand.

Flop: (6.33 SB) 5d, 4h, 7d (3 players)
Your Favorite Chump checks, UTG+2 checks, MP2 bets, Your Favorite Chump raises, UTG+2 folds, MP2 calls.

I like this flop because it isn't likely to have helped the preflop raiser, and it looks like the kind of flop that could have helped a small blind. Unless the raiser has a pocket pair, I'm probably beating him, so the checkraise to force out the big blind is a play I like a lot.

Turn: (5.16 BB) Qc (2 players)
Your Favorite Chump checks, MP2 bets, Your Favorite Chump calls.

Ew, I don't like that Queen. He probably has AQ, AJ, or KQ, so I'm afraid he might have hit, but I'm reluctant to fold. So I call like a chump.

River: (7.16 BB) 3d (2 players)
Your Favorite Chump bets, MP2 calls.

This card completes a flush and a straight draw, so I take a shot at it.

Final Pot: 9.16 BB
Results in white below:
Your Favorite Chump has As Kc (high card, ace).
MP2 has Qh Ah (one pair, queens).
Outcome: MP2 wins 9.16 BB.

Crap. Love the way I played it until the turn. The river isn't bad either. Probably should have folded on the turn though. Crap.

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Guess who has what, and which I am:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop:
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 2 folds, MPB 3-bets, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB calls, 1 fold, UTG+1 caps, MPB calls, MP3 calls, SB calls.

Flop: (17 SB) 4s, 7c, 3d (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+1 bets, MPB raises, MP3 calls, SB calls, UTG+1 3-bets, MPB calls, MP3 calls, SB calls.

Turn: (14.50 BB) 7h (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+1 bets, MPB raises, MP3 calls, SB folds, UTG+1 calls.

River: (20.50 BB) 6d (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, MPB bets, MP3 calls, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 23.50 BB

Results in white below:
UTG+1 has Kc Kd (two pair, kings and sevens).
MPB has Ah As (two pair, aces and sevens).
MP3 has Qd Qh (two pair, queens and sevens).

Outcome: MPB wins 23.50 BB.

I had the Aces. Silly.
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Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Your Favorite Chump is BB with Ad, Jh.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 6 folds, Your Favorite Chump calls.

Flop: (4.33 SB) Qd, 7c, Ks (2 players)
Your Favorite Chump bets, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (3.16 BB) 4d (2 players)
Your Favorite Chump bets, UTG+1 calls.

River: (5.16 BB) Th (2 players)
Your Favorite Chump bets, UTG+1 raises, Your Favorite Chump 3-bets, UTG+1 caps, Your Favorite Chump calls.

Final Pot: 13.16 BB
Results in white below:

Your Favorite Chump has Ad Jh (straight, ace high).
UTG+1 has Kd Kh (three of a kind, kings).
Outcome: Your Favorite Chump wins 13.16 BB.

I bet the flop and turn hoping that the preflop raiser had an underpair or AJ or AT, but planning to fold to a raise. Whoops!

what to do

Brainstorming about my tendency to lose early in my live mid-limit hold'em sessions and win late...

Idea: Hunt at night.

My sessions usually start in the day or early evening and go into the night. I lose during the day and win later. Late at night there are more people drinking and more people who are stuck and trying to get even, so I have an easier time beating the loose drunks than the sober daytime regulars . Also, play tends to get shorthanded, which I consider a strength of mine, so maybe avoiding the full daytime tables is another reason to try this. Staying up all night was tough when I knew I had to go back to the 9 to 5 world, but that won't apply for a while.

Idea: Know everything about everyone

The longer I play, the more I know about the players in the game. Maybe my success at the end of sessions is because I've reached a tipping point of knowing enough about everyone and being able to use that information profitably. So the idea would be to find a game where its the same faces all the time so I don't have to spend the first 6 hours paying to learn about the strangers.

Idea: Centaurian Standard Time

Will Smith: Zed, don't you guys ever get any sleep around here?

Rip Torn: The twins keep us on Centaurian time, standard thirty-seven
hour day. Give it a few months. You'll get used to it... or you'll have a
psychotic episode.

- Men In Black

If I know I have to put in 6 or 10 hours before I start to really make money, maybe I should accept it and plan for marathon sessions. I haven't played longer than 12 hours in a row very often, and it gets to be a pretty weird feeling after a while.

Idea: Tight now, Loose later

I could just get super ultra tight for the first few hours. That way I'm only entering pots with by far the best of it, and I can focus on learning people instead of playing hands. I think that my style of play is usually best when I can be slightly on the loose side, but setting that up with several hours of extreme tightness could give me a very dangerous image. It could get pretty boring, but I think I have the discipline to pull it off. This means folding AJo, KQs, and 66 in early position in an unopened pot. It means folding QJs in middle position. It means folding AQs to most raises (which I often do anyway). It means mucking KTo or 98s on the button unless I have like 4 limpers ahead of me and the blinds look passive. It means looking down at AK in the big blind when there is an UTG raise and a late 3bet and tossing big slick into the muck. I'd make Rolf Slotboom proud.

Vegas II

When I spent 8 days at the Commerce Casino last year, I got pretty burnt out on poker after the fourth or fifth day playing 12 hours of poker, so I wanted to make sure I spent some time more recreationally than playing poker at stakes I consider serious. So I set out to Vegas with the intention of the trip being part business and part pleasure, and I kept that balance.

On the pleasure side, I finally met a bunch of guys that I've played fantasy basketball, baseball and football with for a few years now. Normally I don't like people, but I genuinely liked all of them. We saw Norm MacDonald's standup act at the House of Blues, which was a lot of fun. Norm's poker comment was that he had done the Celebrity Poker Challenge recently, and that the real challenge of it is identifying the other celebrities. Not bad. At some point in his ramblings, after assuring us he's not gay, he mentioned a man's "beautiful shaven balls" and "shiny cock."

Norm.

I spent an afternoon in a packed sports book watching basketball (yes, NCAA basketball), hit some buffets, and took some time to just walk around and check things out. Vegas is a weird place. You can walk down the street with an open container of alcohol, everyone is drunk all the time, and nobody thinks anything of it. Its like frat row with more money.

I was walking past Caesar's palace in the afternoon one day and watched a guy trying to light a cigarette and take a sip of his Corona at the same time. Suddenly he stopped and said to his buddy "smell those flowers and shit, man!"

Indeed they were some lovely and fragrant blossoms. Even in Sin City, while imbibing of 2 vices at the same time and standing outside of a palace built on gambling addiction, it is important to stop and smell the flowers and shit. It is also important to take a musical journey through one unforgettable voice: Clint Holmes.



The poker results were a bit frustrating and I basically broke even. I really only played 2 serious sessions, and continuing with a pattern I established for myself at the Commerce, I lost a lot of money early in the early hours of my sessions, held steady for a few more hours, and then got it all back towards the end. I'm sure I'll write more about the poker over the next few days.

Thanks to Erm for covering my room, and to Budden for hooking up the Norm tickets. Going to work today sucked, but knowing Friday is my last day made it much more tolerable.

Other Poker Sightings

I'm bored at work (4 more days), so here are other people I've seen in casinos that are somewhat famous, and pictures of them that I took myself.



Phil Helmuth - Saw him at the Taj in Atlantic City playing some tournament. He was better at poker than everyone in the room, and everyone in the entire history of the world, but for some reason he only had 1 chip. Poor Phil.


Daniel Negreanu - Saw him at the Taj in Atlantic City playing some tournament. He was very excited to see me.


Spiderman - He was playing a $10 and $20 blind No Limit Hold'em game at the Commerce Casino. What a goofy rich bastard.


James Woods - He was playing $20-40 Limit Hold'em at the Commerce, and looking very sharp.


Bill Clinton - Now that he is retired, he's taken up poker. I took this picture while he was in a $50-100 Limit Hold'em game at the Taj. His opponent had just raised on the river when the board paired. Not surprisingly, Bubba couldn't lay down his flopped nut flush, and he was only a little disappointed to see Queens full of Kings.


Anna Kournikova - Another retiree who couldn't resist the lure of the felt. After posing for this picture, she told me she likes playing Stud Hi-Lo for the split pot action.


Gandhi - He's a regular in the mid-limit hold'em games at the Mirage in Vegas. I took this after my AsKs beat his Ah8c on a [Ad Kc 3s] [5s] [8s] board. He told me I was a "lucky little fucker," then threw his cards at the dealer, then took off his shirt and stood on his chair berating me. He tips the cocktail waitresses $10 after every double bourbon he orders though, so they put up with his antics.

Vegas I

More on the trip later...


Poker Celeb Sightings:


Doyle Brunson - He was rolling through the Bellagio on his scooter, wearing a cowboy hat.


Phil Ivey - He was sitting in the big game at Bellagio.


Jennifer Harmon - She was also sitting in the big game at Bellagio.


Non-Poker Celeb Sightings:


Norm MacDonald - Saw his standup act Friday night. "I blew a dog for some bathtub gin."



Tommy Lee - He was strutting around the Mirage with a posse of freaks like him. I took this picture myself.

Curious George looks deeply at a hand

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed)
Preflop: Curious George is SB with 8c, 8d. CO posts a blind of $3. 2 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, CO (poster) checks, 1 fold, Curious George completes, BB checks.

My options here were calling or raising. So far only 1 person has voluntarily put money into the pot, and he limped, so there probably aren't any big hands out there. But 1 more bet to everyone probably won't drive anyone out except maybe the big blind, so I think calling is ok. This way I get out cheap if there are a lot of overcards, but I have potential for a deceptively strong hand. Long run, I don't think the call/raise decision matters much here.

Flop: (4 SB) 9s, 2h, 3s (4 players) Curious George bets.

While any of my 3 opponents could have a 9, there is a pretty good chance that I have the best hand right now. I'm first to act on this flop, so my decision is check or bet. Again, I think this is close.

If I check, it is with the intention of check-raising unless I see a good reason not to. Since this flop isn't likely to have helped anyone, the early position players are likely to check, but one of the later players will often throw in a bluff to try to steal the pot uncontested. This lets me checkraise and blast out anyone in between with forcing them to call a double-bet, or possibly take down the pot right there.

The downside of betting out is that a lot of these players are likely to "take a card off" here with almost any holding, and even though I'm a favorite over a lot of their likely holdings, my hand is definitely vulnerable to overcards, and I'm in bad position. So if I bet and get a caller or two, I don't get any information, and I won't know what to do with most turn cards.

However, I decided to bet out. Even though going for a checkraise was tempting, I didn't want to risk everyone checking around and giving all 3 of them a free card. Even if that free card didn't help them, I'd have a tough decision on the turn, and might have to check again and risk giving another free card. By betting out I put immediate pressure on them, and can gain information.

Flop: (4 SB) 9s, 2h, 3s (4 players) Curious George bets, BB folds, MP1 raises, CO folds, Curious George calls.

Someone raises and everyone has folded back to me. I have 3 options now, but I'm only thinking about a call or a reraise. I made a note earlier in the session that my opponent (who I'll call Daunte, since his screen name referred to the Viking's QB) check/called a King high flop that contained a flush draw with KTo, and then bet out on the turn with his top pair when the flush card didn't hit. This tells me that Daunte is a bit tricky and would be very capable of raising this hand with lots of hands I can beat, so I never considered folding. I conclude he likely has 2 overcards (but not AK, KQ, AQ which he would likely have raised) or maybe a pocket pair lower than mine (but not a set, which he'd likely slowplay). A2, A3, A4 are also possibilities.

If I 3bet, he'd almost certainly call 1 more small bet, which would create a pot big enough that he'd likely call a turn bet even if he didn't improve. Thinking that I'd prefer to avoid a river, I decided to just call Daunte's raise and see what the turn brought.


Turn: (4 BB) Kh (2 players)Curious George bets, MP1 folds.
Final Pot: 5 BB
Results below: No showdown. Curious George wins 5 BB.

While the overcard on the turn was scary, I decided to bet out. It was a combination of factors that led to the decision, but my biggest thought was the classic advice: "if you would call a bet anyway, you might as well bet yourself." While that concept applies mainly to the river, a simpler adage sealed the deal for me: "when in doubt, bet!" Daunte recognizes a tricky play when he sees it, and this is similar to the move I had seen him make. So I figured my betting out here would be a disorienting play after I had just called the flop raise, and it would put pressure on my opponent again. It did. He folded. I won.

I was pretty happy with myself at first, and made a note of this hand, but then I started to wonder about my play. If my opponent had 2 overcards, which was my primary read, I did an excellent job of recognizing his tricky flop raise for what it was, and then seizing back the momentum on the turn in spite of a threatening card for my hand. I took down a small pot before he had a chance to catch me.

But on the other hand, what if he had 66 or 77? If I had checked the turn, he probably would bet, and might bet again on the river if I checked to him, getting me one or 2 more big bets out of him. He might even keep betting with just the overcards even if he didn't hit the river. Maybe I cost myself here.

Writing up this analysis, I notice that I had very close decisions preflop, on the flop, and on the turn. If those decisions were truly close to even in terms of EV (expected value), then long run they don't particularly matter, and there isn't much point scrutinizing them.

But on the other hand, something about my play here leads me to something I'd like to investigate further. I played this hand very conservatively. While it looks aggressive and maybe even reckless, my bet out on the turn gives me a chance to fold if he raises, or take the pot down without a river card. Checking here would be risky.

I'm mired in a tough losing streak (good time to quit your job, Rockefeller) and now that I think about it, it feels like I haven't been seeing as many showdowns as I used to, and I've noticed that my [%ShowdownsWon] has looked rather high lately. I need to look back at my pokertracker stats and see if this is a hole in my game.

If I'm winning a higher percentage of showdowns, it means I'm playing more conservatively. This could have 2 related negative effects on my win rate - 1) if I'm folding the best hand even 1/6th of the time it is costing me money since pots are usually at least 7BBs, and 2.) if my opponents see that I'm not willing to take marginal hands to the river, they could pounce on this weakness and play more aggressively against me.

I'll do the research on this soon, but now I gotta go play basketball.

Meanwhile, back at the tables...

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Handsome Champion is UTG+2 with 7h, 7s.
2 folds, Handsome Champion raises, 4 folds, Button calls, 2 folds.

Flop: (5.33 SB) 5h, 2c, Jc (2 players)
Handsome Champion bets, Button raises, Handsome Champion calls.

Turn: (4.66 BB) Qd (2 players)
Handsome Champion bets, Button calls.

River: (6.66 BB) 6d (2 players)
Handsome Champion checks, Button checks.

Final Pot: 6.66 BB

Results:
Handsome Champion has 7h 7s (one pair, sevens).
Button has 9d Jh (one pair, jacks).
Outcome: Button wins 6.66 BB.

Thoughts: I'll almost always bet out on this flop. All he's done so far is coldcall the raise from the button, so who knows what he has. When he raises, he is representing a pair of Jacks, but he could have a flush draw or some other weird hand. I refuse to let this go for one flop raise, but I doubt I'd get much information from 3betting the flop, so I just call. The turn bet is what makes this hand interesting. I still don't know where I am, so if I checked and he bet, I still don't think it would be right to fold, but then I still wouldn't know what to do on the river if I don't hit the miracle 7. So I like betting out here - if he was on a draw from the flop, I don't let him take a free card, but if he had a pair of Jacks, the Queen is a scare card for him, so he won't raise. If he had raised, I can easily fold. The weird turn bet scared him enough not to bet when I check the river, so I got a free showdown, and laughed on the inside when I saw he coldcalled my preflop raise with J9o.


Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Handsome Champion is SB with 4c, 4d.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls, Handsome Champion completes, BB checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 7c, 2d, 3d (6 players)
Handsome Champion checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, Button bets, Handsome Champion raises, BB folds, UTG+1 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button calls.

Turn: (5 BB) Jd (2 players)
Handsome Champion bets, Button raises, Handsome Champion folds.

Final Pot: 8 BB

Thoughts: On the flop I think there's a good chance I have the best hand, but I can't bet out into 5 other players, so I check to see what happens. Given the preflop and flop action, the button's bet could easily be with a hand that I can beat, so I check-raise and blast everyone else out. I can't check the turn and let a worse hand hit a better pair or complete the diamonds, and it makes it easy to fold to a raise.


Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Handsome Champion is UTG with Qc, Qh.
Handsome Champion raises, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, 3 folds, BB 3-bets, Handsome Champion caps, UTG+1 calls, MP3 calls, BB calls.

Flop: (16.33 SB) 9d, 8h, 4c (5 players)
BB checks, Handsome Champion bets, UTG+1 raises, MP3 calls, BB 3-bets, Handsome Champion folds, UTG+1 caps, MP3 calls, BB calls.

Turn: (14.66 BB) 9h (4 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets, MP3 calls, BB calls.

River: (17.66 BB) 5h (4 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets, MP3 calls, BB calls.

Final Pot: 20.66 BB

Results:
BB has Js Jd (two pair, jacks and nines).
UTG+1 has Ts 9s (three of a kind, nines).
MP2 doesn't show.
MP3 has 4h 5d (two pair, nines and fives).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins 20.66 BB.

Thoughts: This is some kind of weird reverse bad-beat. I made the wrong play (folding the best hand on the flop in a huge pot) but got lucky when some idiot hit three of a kind. Wow these players are crazy.



Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Handsome Champion is MP2 with Jc, Ah.
UTG calls, 2 folds, Handsome Champion raises, 1 fold, CO 3-bets, 3 folds, UTG folds, Handsome Champion calls.

Flop: (8.33 SB) Jd, 8c, 7h (2 players)
Handsome Champion checks, CO bets, Handsome Champion calls.

Turn: (5.16 BB) 2d (2 players)
Handsome Champion checks, CO bets, Handsome Champion calls.

River: (7.16 BB) Th (2 players)
Handsome Champion bets, CO raises, Handsome Champion calls.

Final Pot: 11.16 BB

Results:
Handsome Champion has Jc Ah (one pair, jacks).
CO has 9c 9s (straight, jack high).
Outcome: CO wins 11.16 BB.

Thoughts: I think my play is good until the river. On the river I should only make that bet if I'm willing to fold to the raise. If I'm not willing, I have to check/call. I made the bet planning to fold to a raise, but then I talked myself out of it. Poor.