Said, woman, take it slow, it'll work itself out fine

Today I say goodbye to Bryant and Cecile. It's been fun, you two! And thanks for the guest posts yesterday - well done all around.

Yesterday, after successfully countering the effects of a mid-morning workout with a trip to the Wynn buffet, the three of us headed to the Bellagio. This trip is maybe two miles in a straight line on the Strip - 10 minutes, tops. Somehow I missed the same turn into the hotel that I had taken the two previous days, and an hour later, we had seen a lot more of industrial Las Vegas than we had cared to. Poor Cecile was stuffed in the back of my extended cab pickup. The laughter that had been issuing forth from that area at my first few mistakes became noticeably subdued about 40 minutes into the trip. So, thanks for your patience, you two.

Patience is also helpful when hosting. This morning, a high-pitched whine assailed my ears from the direction of the bathroom, where Cecile was taking her shower. It went on for quite some time. The grand finale of the performance was a loud, clattering crash. We are operating under the standard Vegas policy of "Don't ask , don't tell" so we may never know exactly what was going on in there.

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Speaking of deviant behavior, Bryant and I did rather well poker-wise yesterday at the Bellagio. The first hours of the evening were very frustrating for both of us, as we were at separate tables that had lots of action, and neither of us could get cards. For three hours, I received no playable hands other that QT suited, QT off, and KJ off. The one (KJ) that hit for the nut straight was negated by another KJ. Sigh. So I waited, and waited, and waited. And every so often Bryant would come over and talk about how it was the same at his table. To this, I would recommend being patient, but it was as much to remind myself as it was to encourage him.

Finally, my table dried up, so I went over to Bryant's, where a table bully had started playing rather recklessly. Around this same time, Bryant ran into a slew of monster hands, and more than tripled up his $200 stack to bring himself up to even for the trip. It was fun to watch. I still had no hands to work with during this time, so I kept on waiting.

Then my time came. It wasn't so much that I got great cards, but the table bully had busted out and the entire complexion of the game changed. The table was populated with extremely predictable players who were easily intimidated, and I was able to take down a good number of small pots just by betting at them. I also hit a large hand on a spade draw with overcards, and when the dust had settled at midnight, I was up $577. I wanted to stay longer, but I knew Bryant had a long drive waiting for him the next morning, so we left. It was nice to drive home with a fellow winner, as we could talk about how glorious we were the entire way.

Jim gets the $1 prize from Bryant for the Oasis song. As a gentle reminder to the general public, no internet searches are allowed to determine the artist/song.

I'm going to meet some friends (Kerry and Chris, and Kerry's mom) today for lunch, so without further ado, here's today's HOTD.

HAND OF THE DAY:
------------------------

I feel that in poker, any edge you can get within the rules of the game is OK. I am all for playing in the most cutthroat style possible. So when I sat down at my first table last night and noticed the opponent to my right checking his cards in a way such that I often could see them, I felt no qualms about using this to my advantage. No qualms whatsoever. None. In fact, I can't remember ever feeling less qualmy than I did right then.

Unfortunately, the total lack of playable hands rendered this advantage moot for the entire time I stayed there, with the exception of one play. I was in the small blind with 76 off. The entire table had folded to the button (the guy whose cards I could see) except for one limper. So it's me, the big blind, the limper, and the ShowMe guy. He checks his cards and sees KT. Qualmless to the extreme, I also see KT. He somehow thinks his hand is worth a raise to $25. I am obviously way behind, but it's equally obvious he can't call a large re-raise, and I only have the big blind and one limper to clear out. So I raise to $125, which was essentially all of my stack at that point.

Everyone folded, and I cleared a tidy little $35 profit with no fuss and no muss. A small victory, perhaps, but it all adds up. So...take what they give you, and play well, everyone!

Is it my imagination, or have I finally found something worth living for?

So I guess it's my turn (Bryant) to write an entry in Eric's blog.

Before I begin, heres a little disclaimer:
I view a blog as somewhat of a public diary... It's not some literay piece of work. There will be spelling mistakes... I tend not to use periods... and I kinda just ramble and use slang where I deem appropriate. Any views expressed in this blog are not only the opinion of the author (me) but will be accepted as fact. Also anything that Eric's writes about a HOTD which includes myself, is complete and I repeat COMPLETE fiction.

Lets begin....

Yesterday began with Cecile and I driving to Vegas. The car ride wasn't too bad... and I have to say that there was only an instant that I feared for my life. Everything else was ok, and I did my best to be a great back seat driver.

So we get to Eric's around 5ish... Thats pm btw. I guess I could use military time, but I can never get it right. But then again, those who know me already know that. So we get there and the place is pretty cool. The first thought that comes to my head is, "Wow, how did Eric move all this furniture here?". The idea of a furnished apartment is completely new to me. So we chat for a while about some ceratin things that I don't want to talk about here... BTW Eric's monitor is flickering pretty badly...

After that we go to Caeser's to play some poker. Everytime I go there I think of Caeser's challange. Do you remember that? It was some game show hosted by Ahmad Rashad.. All I remember about the show is that they had some guy dressed as a centurion and the announcer would go "Caeser says stop." I think that guy, the centurion, was on one of the WSOPs. Can anyone verify this? Anyway, that show was great, but it wasn't on the level of Deal or No Deal. I hate to admit it but I'm addicted to that show...

Speaking of shows, I missed the office last night... That show is hilarious... I'm only starting to get into it after watching 40 year old virgin. It may seem like I watch a lot of TV, but those are probably the 2 shows that I only watch. I did see the south park when Chef came back though.

Should I write about poker? The session at caeser's was pretty good. I thought I played pretty well. I have about 200 at this point, at a 1 - 2 NL game. I have A-9 off. Some guy raises to 10 and I call. Lets not debate whether or not I should have called. People always seem to complain, you called a raise with that? You can generally tell if a player is looser with his starting hands... A -9, you can't call a raise like that... What happens if an A hits? My theroy on this is that you have to be comfortable betting a hand if you play it. If an ace were to hit, I would bet. I mean lets say if I have AK, and call a raise and the flop comes A,10, 3. And I bet and get reraised... Depending on the player I get lay that down. People hate KJ but I love hands like that. So anyway I make the call... The flop comes 9, 6 , 3 diamonds. I have A diamonds and a 9. Its heads up... so the guy bets 25 into a 22 flop. What would you do? I put him on, at best an overpair. I guess I could have called, but the brunsen in me wouldn't allow it. So I raise to 75. He thinks for a bit and goes all in, covering me. I'm like crap....

So theres like 170 in the pot. Its about 100 for me to call. If he has an over pair, I have the 9 diamonds, 3 aces, and 2 nines. Thats at best. I figure 2 pair or an ace is good. So thats 14 outs. Against an overpair like Quenns w/o any diamonds, I'm 51% to win the hand. This is all according to card player btw... i didn't make this up... I figured i was like 14 x 4 = 56%. So i think about it and make the call.

He has the worst hand ever... For me that is... pocket 9's! I'm in trouble.... there goes 5 outs. So I'm in trouble but I can still hit a diamond and avoid a full house. So now I have around 9 outs giving me 27% to win the hand. The actual is 28.48%. So i'm in trouble. Turn comes rag, and river, comes rag... That's poker.

After that I rebuy in and play till 10... We leave and go eat... I had some fast food asian bbq pork nnodles. I had a craving for crappy asian food yesterday... For lunch I had Panda and now this. It was good though... Although it probably had a bunch of msg in it... No wonder my stomach hurts...

Anyway, after that we play till 1:15... That session I leave up like $20... only by giving some guy a huge bad beat... Eric may want to talk about this... So I leave for the day down $180.

Gas to Vegas: $30. Playing poker: $180. Having some guy yell at you for hitting a 3 outer: Priceless.

Overall, I don't know how Eric is playing so much poker... Its so hard to be on top of your game for that long... That leads to the title... Could you make a living playing poker? I dunno if i could do it....

As far as the title... I'd be surprised if anybody got it... It's a song on probably one of the best cd's of the 90's that didn't come out of america.

Ciao!

Just walk away

When Eric mentioned "guest blogger" in the last entry, I immediately started stressing (for those of you who play cards with me...not a big surprise, huh? :p). Yes, the pressure is on. And the following chronicles yesterday's events (from a non-poker player's perspective).

After a night of drunken stupor, with endless bad beats and a bevy of loose women, Eric stumbed back into the apartment...

Umm, maybe not.

hehehehe

OK. OK. I was determined not to gamble (AKA lose all my money at the 2-4 tables), but once Eric said "guest blogger", well, well, I felt I needed to play poker in order to validate this entry's very existence. So last night, we headed over to Ceasar's Palace where I was promised that there were 2-4 limit games being held. To clarify, I had every intention of playing my $60, but to my surprise (and I'm not going to say I was disappointed), the cheapest limit game was 3-6. So, I had an excuse to save my $60...and instead watch Bryant lose his.

hehehehe

Well, Bryant was indeed very nice and let me see his cards as he was playing a 1-2 no limit game with Eric at the table (which by the way was the not-so-hidden agenda of our trip ;D). Understanding a little bit about how poker works, I tried to keep my face as still as possible when Bryant showed me his cards. When some loud guy on the left said something about how some guy's girlfriend killed his game by watching (or, really, telling), you bet I put on my best poker face. And yes, Bryant was up when I left the poker table to wander about Ceasar's Palace on my own.

So, blah, blah, blah about shopping at Ceasar's palace. Generally, I don't like to shop as a past time, but I do love purses (my one peccadillo). I passed by the Coach store, determined not to even look. I ended up at Burberry, accidentally found the cutest pink purse in the world, saw the price ($345!), and just walked away.

And that is the title of my blog. (And yes, the grand prize of $1 is up for grabs. I mean, come on. I saved $60! + $345!).

I just walked away from two temptations: poker and the Burberry pink purse...

But I couldn't have done it without my Nick! smooches**, babe!

Then you run to the store for quick relief, from a bottle of kaopectate

I quit! I give up! Seriously, I have had enough.

I am not eating any more of that spaghetti sauce.

Remember my mini-pizzas from yesterday? Well, the spicy Italian sausages that I put into the sauce had been out for some time before I made it, and quite frankly they had a questionable sheen to them as I tossed them in the pan. I was counting on the two cornerstones of natural food preservation (high fat content and spiciness) to provide a safety buffer. Unfortunately, I think those things work better after the food's been cooked, not before. In the end, there was something slightly off about the taste of the meat, so for the last few days I have been steering around the larger chunks. But last night, as I was sitting in the Bellagio a short while after eating a mostly tomato sauce-and-cheese-topped muffin, my stomach felt slightly uneasy. So with much regret, the rest of it gets consigned to the dumpster.

Oh wait...Bryant and Cecile are driving out today, and they'll probably be hungry when they get here.

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Poker went well last night: +$432. As I told Amy on my way in, I think I have finally either become numb to the losses or adjusted to the fact that they've happened, and I have to play well regardless. Whatever the reason, I've felt much more at peace the last few times I've sat down at the table. In addition to that, I've been recognizing that frustrated, angry, and very tilty feeling in the early stages of its development, and quashing it down before it takes hold.

I've also been paying increasing attention to how a table evolves over the course of an evening, and trying to make immediate adjustments. It's easy to get kinda zoned out after playing hour after hour of poker, the majority of which consists of folding hand after hand. It's also amazing how quickly a table can change - a single individual can have huge impact. I am fairly certain that my presence at a table tends to deaden it in terms of action, because of my tight play and serious demeanor. In contrast to that, we have for example the gentleman from Texas who sat to my immediate left last night (I think his name was Chris but I'm not certain). EDIT - I played again with this gentleman - his name is Charlie. He was, especially early on, an aggressive and active player. He was friendly and talkative as well. In a short time span he had raised so many pots, and started getting so many callers, that it was not unusual for there to be $75-$100 in the middle pre-flop. Prior to his appearance, this was not the case. As this pattern was being established, I realized that limping in with drawing hands would not be wise, as I was likely to get raised out of the hand. So I basically resolved to wait for premium hands, limp in, get raised and have several callers, and then re-raise. I never hit a premium hand to try this with, but that was my strategy.

Overall, I played a very basic game. Early on, I was a little wild - I went all in again with flush and gutshot straight draw (the flush hit). And I raised 3 limpers to $30 with 77 in the big blind. You can imagine my surprise when I got two callers, but a $100 bet on the Q32 flop secured the pot for me. It will never cease to amaze me how people, who thought their hand was worth $5 when they initially bet it, suddenly decide it is worth $30 after a monster re-raise. Oh well. If those people didn't exist, I guess I wouldn't be here.

Lan Whu and Chuy split on the song/artist for yesterday. Chuy takes it, since anyone that could identify the actual song would certainly have known the band.

HAND OF THE DAY:
------------------------

You know, one of the reasons I like writing about mistakes I make is that it they are then raised in my consciousness. It helps to solidify the situation in your head, and of course I am motivated to not have to write about the same mistake again.

Yesterday's hand involved an AJ in my hand and an ugly all-spade flop, K89. I had no spades but only one guy behind me, so I took a shot at the pot, and he called.

The turn was an A, giving me at least a pair. So I bet $60, and again got called.

River: T. So the board is now AKT98 with three spades. With top pair, I again bet $60. But even as I was betting it, I didn't feel good about it. And immediately after I bet, I realized there was no hand that he could call me with that would not win. AK through A8 all had me beat, with the exception of AJ, which would tie. A possible flush and about 8 gazillion different straight possibilities were on the board. The only way my bet could win is if my opponent was on a spade flush draw and did not hit.

Needless to say, my opponent raised me $60, and I folded. A minimum-raise bet into that pot was not a bluff; it was an attempt to extract more money from me. But I never should have bet at the river in the first place. In my opinion, there are situations in which betting when your opponent call only call with a winner is appropriate. The less likely your opponent is to have the holding required to call, the more likely you are to win the pot (a basic example is a paired flop - your opponent is unlikely to either of the two remaining cards of the pair, making a bet difficult to call). But in the case described above, so many very typical hands an opponent could hold would beat me, so my $60 river bet was a wasted one.

All right, I've got to clean up around here and get ready for my guests. Play well, everyone.

Breathe in, breathe in...I'm coming back again

I've got to hand it to Lan Whu. I might spill my guts about what's going on inside my head, but I don't think I'd ever admit to recognizing the words to an N'Sync tune, even for $1. In fact, I want to go on record as having to search for an N'Sync lyric for yesterday's post, which I did because of the whole synchronicity paragraph. I didn't know of one beforehand, honest!

-----------------------------

Yesterday I went to the Bellagio to play their $2-$5 with $200 buyin. Mathew L. had spoken to me prior to the session and had pumped me up to play well. Which, I must say, I did. In fact, I would say last night's session was the best I have played since I've been to Vegas. And here's the best part - I still ended up busting out.

I think there were a couple of reasons I played well. First, I got in a nice long nappy-nap in the afternoon, and I was feeling more alert than I have in a long time. Second, Mat's pep talk was unexpected but good. Third, I seem to feel a little more comfortable in the $2-$5 games than the $1-$2. I can't figure out why, exactly. The most likely reason for this is that there is enough money being thrown around at these tables that winning an occasional hand provides a good return on your time. So, being patient pays off.

I played a good, tight game. In fact, as the evening wore on, people were so afraid of my bets that I could pretty much take down a pot at will. I didn't abuse the privilege, but scored quite a few $15-$25 pots simply by betting at them.

Let me just say here that I am becoming a fan of selectively using the all-in bet as a tool. I pulled my AK all-in trick on another young gentleman who liked to raise quite often to $20, and was showing hands like AJ and KT in showdowns after those raises. Occasionally he would raise to $25, and although I can't remember seeing any of his hands after those raises, I interpreted them to mean "OK, now I really have a good hand". In this instance, I was UTG and limped for $5, another limper called, and this dude put in his $20. Now there's $25 in the pot that is not mine, and I am almost sure to have the guy dominated. So I'm all in. I love this. There is almost no way the guy can call, so it's basically a guaranteed pot. Even if he does, I'm very likely to be a heavy favorite based on the range of hands he's shown. It also relieves me of the burden of playing my hand from early position if I don't hit the flop.

Speaking of cool little tools, I want to share a flash of brilliance I had. I had taken home some carryout from a Chinese place a few days ago. And yesterday, I was making little mini-pizzas from English muffins, the first step of which is to toast the muffin. Well, as the English well know, those little muffins often don't protrude past the top of the toaster, even after the toaster has popped them back up. And everyone knows at least one person that has died by attempting to retrieve a toasted item using a metal utensil. The perfect cross-cultural solution? Extract your English muffins with the cheapo wooden chopsticks from your leftover Chinese! Mark my words, it will not be long before every toaster is sold with chopsticks in little holders on the side. And you will be able to say you knew me back when.

For more helpful hints on how to get through life, including my inside-out sock trick and soon-to-be-patented Loop Technology Dental Floss, send me $1.

Where were we? Oh, yeah. I managed to get my stack up to $430 when disaster struck, again in the form of pocket aces. I flat-called two $20 bettors in front of me, as I was in late position and I don't mind two opponents when I have AA. One of them will likely catch part of the flop, providing someone to call future bets. Anyway, a fourth guy called behind me. This I did not like. It turns out the 4th guy had pocket 99, and the J98 flop royally screwed me to the tune of a $470 pot. And just like that, I was back where I started, at $200. I swear, people, it has gotten to the point where every time I have AA, I am silently praying for an A on the flop so that I can have some confidence in my hand. It's like some kind of voodoo thing against me.

Regardless, I am proud of the way I played afterwards. I was calm and cool for a couple of hands, and then started dwelling on that hand, and could feel the anger building inside me. A few hands later I had 55 and a 234 board, giving me an overpair and open-ended straight draw. The small blind checked, the big blind bet $20, and I called. Then the small blind checkraised to $120. And this happened to be the same gentleman who had just cracked my aces. I so badly wanted to call and get revenge. But I realized that there are very few hands someone in the small blind would checkraise with on a 234 board. Two pair would be the absolute minimum. That meant I was way behind, and so I laid my hand down.

So I calmed myself back down, and managed to get back up to $270 or so when the final hand took place. I had AT diamonds in the big blind and called a $20 bet after the small blind also called. This was by far the loosest call I had made all night, by the way. As I did it, my mindset was, OK, if this flop doesn't hit me hard, I'm outta here. And then the flop hit me hard. It was J97, two of which were diamonds. The small blind led out, and I re-raised all in. For the poker uninitiated, this is why;
my hand could improve because of:
1. An Ace-high flush draw, counting the 9 diamonds remaining in the deck
2. A gutshot straight draw, counting the three non-diamond 8s
3. My overcard, the A, which could pair with the three remaining Aces

Any of these cards would most likely make me a winner, the exception being the As, although they would help. This is a total of 15 outs. The rule of thumb is that the percent chance of hitting one of your outs, post-flop, is 4 times the # of outs. In this case, it's 4 * 15 = 60%. So I knew that, even considering the fact that I had nothing, I still had the hand most likely to win. Add that to the fact that it was very possible my opponents would fold after my all-in bet, and it becomes a no-brainer.

I ended up getting called by QcQs, to which I was a 51-49 favorite, and hit none of my outs. However, I succeeded at what, I think, is the ultimate goal in poker: to get all your money in the pot with the best hand. It was midnight, so I left.

OK, I have the most awesome girlfriend. I just got the second of two care packages she's sent. This one contains Vegas jammies, Black Sabbath boxers, and a taped episode of 24 that I missed. Plus I think she's even a little jealous about the mysterious Limber Lips, hee hee! Don't worry, Amy; your lips are the ones I'm thinking about.

HAND OF THE DAY:
------------------------

The theme for today's hand is simple: the power of table image. As I said before, my image was such yesterday that people did not challenge my bets too often (except when they had trip 9s, argh!). Therefore, I could only bet $15 pre-flop if I wanted any callers.

So I had AQ in middle position. A young gentleman with a crew cut limped in front of me, and I raised to $15. He was the only caller.

Flop: K22, giving me a whole lotta nada.

CrewCut checks to me. I bet the pot - $30.

Then CrewCut does his patented "jump on the opponent" that I'd seen him do in the past, when he believed his opponent had nothing. It consisted of a very quick raise, accompanied by "Let's make it $60", in an authoritative tone. I'd seen him to this with as little as a pair of twos - and he was right about his opponent, because he won that hand in a showdown.

So I guess the guy has a K, or maybe a small pocket pair. And once again he was right about his opponent having nothing. But I had a feeling that he would fold to pressure. So I just as quickly and authoritatively said, "Let's make it $160" and re-raised him another $100. And indeed he did fold.

In retrospect, this play seemed almost obvious. If the guy had AK, he wouldn't have limped in. Therefore the best possible hand he could have had was KQ, and I suspect it wasn't even that good. I wish I'd consciously thought of all of this prior to the re-raise, but I didn't. It was more of a instinctive reaction. And because of my table image, my opponent had to put my on AK. It was a nice little pot to take down.

Dang! It's 1330 already. This blog takes a long time. I can't wait until Bryant and Cecile get out here later this week, so I can have some guest bloggers! :)

Play well!

Say I'm trippin' if you feel like

Fierce competition yesterday in the "Name That Show" contest! It is good to see that American ingenuity is alive and well. Alas and alack for anyone (anyone? anyone?) that would dare challenge the might of Limber Lips!!! She - I'm hoping it's a she - pretty much put on a clinic with her entry. See her comment from yesterday. It had all of the right elements:

1. Actually posted it
2. Flattery
3. Ultra-cool name like Limber Lips

Actually, I liked the thought that was put into it as well. So LL, let me know how I can get you your prize, and if you have your own amateur porn site let me know and I'll promote it here. Ha! Joking, Mom.

I also want to include a related quote from a super-secret email from someone who was a little too shy to comment in public. But it's priceless (especially in the sense that I won't have to pay her $1):

The funny thing about Reality TV is that some of the titles don’t have to be modified at all. To wit:

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Surreal Life
Jackass

This has made me laugh out loud several times. Love it. Included in the same email was a suggestion of "Who Wants to Marry a Compulsive Gambler?", which got me thinking that "Who Needs to Marry a Millionaire?" would also be appropriate. And ironic. Well, have we run this one into the ground yet? I believe we have.

----------------------------------------

On to poker. Last night I essentially broke even - down $30 or so. The night can best be described as being completely out of synch with the entire card-playing universe for the first half of the night, followed by the planets aligning, heavenly choirs singing, and my ships, as in boats, coming in for the second half. Everything from that point on was in synch.

I made two major mistakes early on. One is the HOTD. The other was re-raising and semi-bluffing like crazy, face first into a set of jacks. Oopsie daisy! Ace high no good? I also tried to steal the blinds early on into a dude who had AA in the small blind, and I caught enough of the flop to call him through the turn. It just seemed like no matter what I did, everyone was coming when I was going. And so once again I was way down, having lost $340 of the $400 I'd bought in with, and once I again I resolved to tighten up and scratch my way back up.

But it became apparent that I would have a really difficult time doing that at the table I was at. It was a $1-$2 table at MGM, and overall people were playing very tightly. That is one of the reasons I was playing so aggressively. I don't know - the yin and yang of poker is difficult to nail down. You're supposed to play loose-aggressive at a tight table, but by the same token, you're supposed to play tight against a loose-aggressive opponent. Does anybody know the answer to this conundrum? (if so, please send a super-secret email to me and I'll pay you $1). Anyway, despite my very loose play that everyone saw early on, I could still get no callers after I tightened up. So I knew I had to leave that table.

I decided to play the $2-$5 game with the remaining $60, and $200 more I had in my pocket. And wouldn't you know, the first hand I am dealt, Q8, matches up nicely with the Q88 flop. Of course, I checked to the river, but no one caught so much as a pair to call my $15 bet with. I flipped it up anyway. It was a harbinger of things to come.

For the next 80 minutes (I timed it), the best hand I got was K8, so I literally folded every hand except for big blinds. Once again, the players to either side of me started commenting on how tight I was - although I did inform them about the quality of my hands (through the first hour, my best hand was K5, so that was the benchmark they were aware of). My K8 hand managed to catch two pair on turn, so I got a small pot out of it. Then a while later, with 23 off in the big blind, I literally starting chuckling as I checked...then stopped chuckling at the 832 flop. A 3 on the river sealed the deal, not that I needed it. Finally I did get some cards, and after my AK filled up, people were now wary enough that I could bet and not be challenged too much. So it wasn't good play so much as good cards, but it was nice. Around 0200 I was gassed and called it a night.

HAND OF THE DAY:
-------------------------

Another first for me. You'll notice there are a lot of "firsts", simply because prior to this trip, my game plan had been pretty simple - lie in the weeds and wait for monster hands. I relied on patience, and the aggression of my opponents. But as previously stated, I am searching to improve my own game. This hand is an example of that.

I had A2 suited in late position - this is at the $1-$2 table. A guy in middle position raises to $7. This guy was predictable, and I anticipated at least two other callers, so I called with my drawing hand. The flop is 932 rainbow, and it's checked to me. Feeling like I have the best hand at this point, and since the table was tight, I bet $20. Everyone folded around to the original raiser, who then re-raised me to $60.

So I had to think about it. This play did not make any sense. His $7 pre-flop raise indicated high cards, of which there were none. I still thought that his hand was weak, and I put him on a bluff. So I re-raised him all in - maybe another $25.

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money *not* to call. But as he was calling, he said "Well, I am sure you have me beat". He then turned over pocket 4s, which held up.

So he ended up winning the pot. But this hand was the first time I've ever bet like that, with a decidedly weak holding, based on the read I had of my opponent. My bet was not a bluff - I seriously thought he had nothing. However, at all times in the past, I would have laid down a pair of deuces to a $40 re-raise.

Is this a good thing? I don't know. In some ways, this was wrong, but in some ways it was right. I failed to take into account the predictability of my opponent. He pretty much bet when he had something, and folded when he didn't. Still - my opponent only called my over-the-top bet because he was pot-committed. If he had more money, he would have folded; of that I am certain. So the aggression would have been rewarded. However, the true significance of this play is that it was based on my read alone. It turns out my read was slightly off the mark - my opponent's holding was weak, but not as weak as I thought. I was misled by the $7 pre-flop raise, which is really strange for pocket 4s. But I think of this aspect of the game as important - making specific reads and acting on them, as opposed to just playing the cards and making generalized opinions about your opponents. I have made many reads over the course of playing, but my decisions have always been based on my cards.

Hopefully I'll get better at it. Play well, everyone!

Name that show

Taking yesterday off was a good thing for me. I didn't really do anything because I was kinda wiped out from the marathon session the previous night. I've been meaning to do a "mailbag" issue for a while now, and the lack of potential narrative from yesterday makes today a good day for that. So today I will address emails people have sent that may be of interest to all.

One thing I would like to let people know is that I am not able to reply directly to the poster of a comment. I can reply in the form of a comment myself, but that is visible to everyone. So if you have a question that is better asked/answered in private, for example what my address is out here, use the "email me" link on this blog or send an email to ericd81@hotmail.com.

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From Frank P.:
"I'm wondering what kind of starting hands you're playing and how much your raises are. I noticed you played hands like A9 and made 10 dollar raise with QQ. In my opinion those are mistakes. QQ merits a minimum raise to $20. I know it's just a 1/2 game but people there seem to treat it differently. I think you should treat it as you're playing 300 NL at the hustler."

Frank makes some good points here.

My starting hand requirements are typically much tighter than most of my opponents. I almost never play A9 voluntarily - it just happened that I did that one hand. I will occasionally play odd hands mostly to not make my hand selection too predictable. And because I'm bored.

Also, I have since learned that $10 is not an appropriate UTG raise with QQ. Too many people will call (depending on the game, of course). This raise was made early in the evening on my first night in Vegas, so I did not have a good feel for the appropriate raise to get the results I wanted. I'm not sure $20 is appropriate either, because that is 10x the big blind. Most likely the only way you'll get called there is when someone has you beaten with AA or KK. QQ is a premium hand, albeit a vulnerable one. Still, your goal is to get paid, and you cannot do that without callers. I think the best bet would be around $15-$17. People will call this with AK, AQ, JJ and other hands that QQ is a favorite over, and they will have paid a good price to try to hit their cards.
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From my sister Kristy:
"So is the play still fun at all, or just work?"

Well, it hasn't been fun lately. In fact, I don't know if I would characterize casino poker as fun, ever. In the past, I've tried to figure out why I play. I believe it's enjoyable to me mostly for the challenge it presents. It's nice to make money as well, but really, the chips are just a way of keeping score.

Prior to coming out, I was worried about the prospect of playing for 40 hours every week, thinking it might just be too much. I've only been out here for a week, and it's too early for me to really answer that question. That's the reason I decided to stay out here for 5 weeks - one or two weeks would be cake. Five weeks isn't THAT long, but it will provide a much better picture than a casual jaunt.
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From Jeff T.:
"But as I think about it, the secret to "making it" in poker is not how well you play when you're running well, but how well you can take the inevitable bad times. I learned this first hand when I was a prop player. My job was to play 6-8 hours a day -- regardless of how I felt or how my luck was running. Believe me, it is hard to walk into work after a few days of losing $1000 + a day. Fortunately, your losses haven't been too bad (of course you're playing a smaller game than I did as a prop player -- 20/40 everyday). But remember, you are not a prop player. One of the benefits of being a pro is the ability to take a day or 2 off when you're not doing well or partially "tilted." "

I am sure Jeff is right in that one of the keys to making it as a pro is dealing well with the bad times. To me, it's debatable how that should be done. If you recognize that you are on tilt and it's carrying over from one day to the next, then taking time off is the best approach. However, I believe that the optimum approach is to condition yourself not to be affected by your short-term results. This may or may not be possible for any given person. In fact, it's probably impossible for anyone to be 100% unaffected by a long string of losses. I suppose I mean that you should strive for complete separation between your results and your state of mind. For a pro poker player, time directly translates to money, and the less time you take off to recover from your losses, the more money you will make. I do have some luxuries that a real pro does not - for instance, a real job waiting for me when I get back to L.A. I also do not need the money to cover a mortgage, family or any other financial considerations. But I'm trying to pretend that I do, and that if I don't get back in the casinos, I won't be able to meet my commitments.

It just dawned on me that I'm living in my own reality T.V. show. That is SO lame. I seriously am sitting here laughing at how I've contrived this situation such that it is so similar to all of those shows that I simply cannot stand. I hate those shows! In honor of the irony, today's $1 prize will go to the person who can come up with the best name for my poker pro reality show. "Poker Pro 911" comes to mind. Or maybe "Teary Eye for the Poker Guy".
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Finally, because today's post is on the slow side, one from my old college roomie Mike. The email is simply titled "Hang in there...a song for the moment" and contains an awesome mp3. I've uploaded it to share with you all, here:
http://rapidshare.de/files/15997094/02CasinoQueen.mp3.html

Rock on! And play well.

I’m gonna give you everything I got, now what are you gonna do?

Jim, Jim, Jim. Nice try on the Jack Johnson song, but yesterday's post asks for a movie title! The correct answer is "White Zombie", starring Bela Lugosi. The fact that nobody got it most likely means that Jeff, Cecile, and MK didn't catch yesterday's post, since I've forced them all to watch the movie, and listen to the music of the band by the same name. Also, Jeff and I use that exact phrase from the movie semi-regularly in our weekly card nights (not poker BTW).

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Apparently my mom has started watching a little bit more of the 8 bazillion poker broadcasts, since I've been doing this Vegas thing, than she had in the past. She's talked about the extreme situations that the players put themselves and their opponents into, and how nerve-wracking the whole thing can be. And poker has been described, very aptly, as hours of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror. Well, Mom, it's a good thing there were no T.V. cameras in the Caesar's poker room last night, or you might not have made it.

I went in to the cardroom with a pre-game pep talk from Amy and a good overall disposition. But it wasn't long before that went completely out of the window. I lost yet another AQ to A3 with a A83 flop for a $200+ pot. Luckily (I guess) I'm so gun-shy of my big aces anymore I lost the minimum on this hand by simply calling the bettor down. I also dropped a large hand with JJ to 88 when my opponent flopped his 8. Combine that with a large failed (but reasonable, IMHO) bluff attempt, and a couple of plays that were ill-advised in everyone's humble opinion, and 7 hours into the night I found myself with less than $80 of my total $600 buy-in.

This was around 3 a.m. And I was angry. And I decided, right then, that I was not leaving that casino until I got my money back plus at least $1, or I busted out. Enough is enough. I was determined to leave with a win or die trying.

The approach I ended up taking was to tighten way up, bluff with reckless abandon once I started, and very occasionally push hard on a pre-flop situation where I thought I might have the best starting hand. And somehow, it worked. Over the course of the next 5 hours, I waited and waited for good hands, and forced the issue with absolutely nothing when I needed to. By 0700, I had worked my way back up to $500.

For the next hour, I just kept looking at my stack as it fluctuated around the $500 mark. The table I was at consisted almost entirely of very tough players. In fact, at one point in the evening/morning, I looked around at everyone, and thought in general terms about the game, and realized that it was being very well played - perhaps the best overall table I've ever been at. It was something of a pleasure to watch, actually. I remember feeling that way sometimes in the midst of really good beach volleyball games - in between points in these games, sometimes I would become aware of the quality of the contest. But this was the first time I have ever felt that way playing poker. The difference is I want to be in those beach volleyball games, but I most certainly did not want to be at that table. I wanted a win on the night so badly, but I'd been playing for 11 hours straight, and I was really tired and really hungry, and not in the best frame of mind to begin with. So a tough table was the last thing I wanted.

This brings us to the Hand of the Day. But before I talk about it, I want to relate a conversation that I had with one of the dealers that rotated through our game. I wasn't playing many hands, and this guy was tired and bored, and he welcomed the diversion. Anyway, we got to talking about several aspects of poker when he said that at one point, he had gone for 4 straight months without a winning session - and this was playing 5 days/week. I had a hard time believing it, but he stuck with his story. Note - I hadn't told him anything about my recent struggles; he offered this information on his own. Also, he mentioned that a professional player had decided to bankroll him, so that basically means he, the dealer, was a good player. This confession put things into a little more perspective for me. I suppose if someone who is around poker all the time as a dealer and has enough skill to be sponsored by a professional can run bad for that long, it can happen to a lot of people. Of course, I already knew that, but it helped to hear it from a real person whose game was likely much better than mine.

So without further delay,

HAND OF THE DAY
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As mentioned above, my stack had been percolating around $500. For some reason (mostly because I didn't want to be pushed around) I called a guy down to the river with AQ in hand and nothing on the table - in fact, a K on the turn. The river brought an A and an end to this guy's betting, and he turned over AJ. That took him down to about $30, and shortly thereafter I again had AQ and made a modest $10 raise. He made the desperation all-in, everyone folded, and I got the rest of his stack when two As hit the board (he had JT suited).

So now I'm looking at my chips. I have $570 - $31 short of my goal. It's so close I can taste it. The table is now short-handed - maybe 6 players. I'm in the big blind and I wake up to AK. Ohboyohboyohboy! This is my chance.

And then Fate throws me this huge, tempting bone - UTG raises to $10, and gets two callers. There is now exactly $30 in that pot that was not mine! I want that pot so badly, just the way it is right now, and I am 100% certain I have the best hand. Plus, I have not made a raise larger than $15 for 5 hours. And one of the $10 is short-stacked...maybe $35 left. It's likely he'll call any raise, considering the pot.

So I make it $50 to go. And here's where things get all mucky. The original raiser, whose stack roughly equalled my own, called. This was most definitely not part of the plan. This guy was a really good player and did not relinquish pots without a fight. The short stack I was counting on to call folded, as did the other player, leaving me heads-up against the guy I least wanted to be heads-up against.

Add to that one of the worst possible flops for my hand: Qxx, two spades. I have no spade at all, and no Q either, the last time I looked. Plus, my opponent has position on me.

But in re-raising such a large amount pre-flop, I have represented aces or kings. There is no way I can now check. So I come out firing with $100 into the roughly $120 pot. Without much hesitation, I get called. And now I am very, very worried.

The turn is another rag - I think it actually paired the board, but I dont' remember. I looked at my stack, now in the low $400s. I looked at the pot, now in the low $300s. And I knew that I didn't have the heart/stamina/ability/situation required to climb back to $600 from where I was now. And my opponent had not re-raised me at any point.

The only thing to do was to push all-in, so I did. And Mom, this is where I'm glad you weren't able to watch this. My opponent did not fold. Instead, he started thinking out loud, and talking to me. He was trying to figure out if he was actually beaten or not, and mentioned that he thought it was likely I had AJ. Honestly, at this point I didn't get it. Considering how tight I'd been playing all morning, even his pre-flop call did not make sense. There is no way anyone could put me on anything other than KK or AA, unless I was giving off some tell.

Regardless, he was not folding. I suddenly realized just how hard and fast my heart was pounding, and started concentrating on relaxing and looking as neutral as possible. I leaned back in my chair a little, a la the Domination post, but not so obviously. Then I realized that, as tired as my eyes were and considering how relaxed I was forcing myself to be, my face almost certainly looked sad. Try it yourself sometime - look in the mirror, and completely relax all of your facial muscles. Then imagine that face at 0800 after 12 hours of playing poker. It would look pretty darn defeated, don't you think? So I started ever-so-slightly turning up the corners of my mouth, partially in an attempt to hint at unconscious satisfaction with my position, but mostly to keep my face from hanging off my skull like a damp washrag.

Eventually, finally, the guy folded. His talk during the hand indicated he had a pair and a flush draw, although that would have required him calling with two spades, neither of which was the Q because that one was on the board. The other cards were rags, so he would have had to call a $50 bet with at least one rag spade. So I am not at all sure what he had, and in fact all of his talk may have been just that. I didn't care. I didn't care about anything except the glorious pot which brought me up to $725, for $125 profit on the session, after a low point of less than $80. I stayed for one more "courtesy" round so that it didn't completely look like I was hightailing it out of there after winning a big hand. And then I hightailed it out of there.

Today, I'm going to take my first day off. It's overdue. I would have really liked to skip either yesterday or Friday, but those two days are the highlight of the insanity that is March Madness. Looking back, I think it's possible that my expectations of hordes of inexperienced b-ball bettors at the poker tables was unfounded. The majority sit in the sports book areas and watch the games. Of the few that venture into the poker rooms, most of those play limit, and those brave enough to sit at the no-limit tables have a much higher level of skill than I had anticipated. The tables were crowded, but probably the toughest I've faced in Vegas.

Any, this post is too long and I need food and more sleep. Play well, everyone.