Port Orchard is off my list

It turns out that Port Orchard and Gig Harbor had a lot more caches than I expected. The 61 caches I have on the route will only get us through Gig Harbor and will still have us going to after sunset. Port Orchard had another 40 some. That's a lot.

The first draft route is here.

Royal clubs

Last night, at an eight player game at the absent-and-hoping-to-be-lucky (not get lucky; be lucky) Robbbbbb's house, my cousin Jeremy (who we've taken to calling "Riverman" for all the obscure lucky draws he gets on the river) and another player (my brother Trestin, I think) were in the game and the flop comes JQK of clubs.

Jeremy, his hands shaking (think that's a tell?) goes all in. Trestin calls him, and they turn their cards up. Trestin has pocket aces. Riverman has TA of clubs.

Royal. Straight. Flush. On the flop.

Seems like there's always something new in this game.

Myself, I had a down night. After four $5 buy ins, I found myself down only $1.80, but then went heads up against Trestin and came out on the short end of a $25 pot. In the end, I was down about $9. Good price for a nights worth of entertainment.

Know when to walk away

Well, my grand experience in online poker has come to an end. I told myself that once my online account reached zero, it'd be time to quit. That time has come.

I think my losing streak is due, more than anything else, to my overanalysis of the game. Poker, as many have said, is not so much a game about cards played with other people, but rather is a game about people played with cards. I've been reading poker books voraciously the last few weeks, and in the last week or so, I think I've been playing the cards instead of the people. Six times in the last three days I held AA or KK or AK or AQ, the flop turned up nothing helpful, and I still bet strong, losing to other players with sets of 8's or two pair (or in one case, a pair of 3's against my AK high). In retrospect, I knew they had it, too, but was trying to bully them out of the pot because I had the best hand before the flop. Instead of thinking to myself "that player is acting like they have me beat, and my AK is weak", I thought to myself "they player probably has me beat, but I've got AK, dammit, and that's supposed to be a good hand." You can see why this thought process burned me so quickly.

It's been a good run, though. At my best, I was up almost $3000, and I'm still walking away with almost $2000. Not bad for an initial $20 buy-in.

It's time to head back to the dining room and tournament tables and play against people I can actually see and read.

So that's what going on tilt is

Ouch.

I knew that chasing after lost money by increasing wagers is a bad idea, but I went on major tilt yesterday against a table full of really tough opponents -- folks I knew were good -- and as my hands got worse and worse, I played more and more, going in with crap like 6-7 offsuit, hoping I'd get 3-4-5 on the flop.

I lost like an entire weeks worth of winnings in about an hour on the $5/$10 tables, then tossed the rest of it away on the roulette wheel, and then beat myself up over it overnight.

Time to re-focus and force myself to play super, super tight. Phil Helmuth defines super-tight as only getting into hands with AQ, AK, and pairs of 77 or higher. It seems to be working, as I've doubled my bankroll with this strategy.

Gig Harbor/Port Orchard Cache Machine

The chatter about the upcoming Gig Harbor/Port Orchard Cache Machine event has begun. I'll need to get a draft route together in the next week or so.

Happiness is not a set of Queens

Last night didn't go so well. Part of it might have been because I was out of my normal environment -- I was in bed with my wife reading next to me, and the laptop on the really cool over-the-bed Ikea rolling table. At the $5/$10 table, I lost my $100 buy in, twice, including what I think were some bad beats.

Two hands in a row I was dealt pocket aces. Two hands in a row I lost to a straight draw on the river.

One hand, on the small blind, I was dealt Qc Qd. I raise before the flop, and seven other players call. The flop comes Ac Kd 8h. I bet, late position raises, I call. There's still four of us in.

The turn is Qs. I've got a set of queens with an A/K. I'm thinking that the late position raiser probably has two pair. I bet like a madman, as does he, chasing one of the other two players out.

The river is a 2c. The only hands he has that could beat me would be pocket aces, pocket kings, or JT. If he had JT, he wouldn't have raised on the flop, right?

Right. He doesn't have JT. He does, however, have the pocket kings. He wins the $223 pot.

Ah well. Some lucky pontoon afterwards nets me $135, and roulette gets me another $96, so I still finished ahead $31 for the session.

Another good poker night

I played at a surprisingly chatter-free $3/$6 table tonight, growing my $70 buy in into $331. A big part of that was a $120 win where I held AJ offsuit, and the flop came J A 9, with another J on the turn.

Patience. I'm convinced that patience is the key to winning big pots against loose tables. Wait for the monster hands, then play them hard. Many of the other players aren't paying attention; they don't know I'm the guy that folds most of the time.

Play on other casino games -- Pontoon (which hurt me a lot more than it helped), Roulette (hit my number twice on 25 spins), and Baccarat (mostly even) gained me another $79.

Up $341 for the night. Not too shabby.

Happiness is a set of aces

I wasn't doing so well at the poker table last night. I'd burned through my first $100 buy in at the $5/$10 table, and had gotten more than halfway through my second $100. I was playing looser than I should have, staying in with hands like T9 offsuit. Realizing this, I tightened up my play, and about half an hour later, sitting on the button, I was dealt As Kd. Four others had called before me for $5, plus the big and small blinds. I raised to $10.

I've mentioned to some of you that the RealTimeGaming tables seem to have a lot of loose agressive players, so my bet here was meant to scare out those who might be trying to limp in with T3 suited or something ("but it's sooooooted!") and to raise the value of the pot. Only the small blind is scared out, the rest of the players call, and the pot is at $63.

The flop is Qs Ad Ah.

Big blind checks. "Cake", a good strong player, bets $5. The next two players (who I've seen winning and losing pots with crappy hands they hold to the end) bet $5, as does the player to my right, who talks like a pro but whose small stack doesn't show it. I raise to $10. The pot is at $93. Big blind folds. Cake folds. The other three call, bringing the pot to $108.

The turn is 9c.

The three other players check. I hesitate for almost my full 30 second limit to imply that I'm thinking hard. I bet $10. The two weak players call, the "pro" folds. The pot is at $138.

The river is 2h.

Check, check. I bet $10. One of the weak players folds. The other calls. I win the $158 pot with As Ad Ah Kd Qs.

"I could have played that in my sleep," says the player to my left. I yawn.

The very next hand, I'm dealt AK suited, with which I win another big pot with a pair of kings. This makes my net winnings for the night $130, which I then parlay into $179 at the Pontoon table (a 0.17% house edge!). It was a good night.

The rumor in the poker game chat was that Phil Ivey was playing at the $200/$400 table and had just taken a 21-year-old for $31,000. too bad I didn't get a chance to watch that.

Found it log for Way To Go (Traditional Micro)

Way to Go! by NLS

November 5
By road, this is the closest cache to my (temporary) house (LOTR is closer as the crow flies), and I've taken far too long to come down to find it. But today, I had the opportunity. While Dragonfli attended a meeting at Pierce, Geogrrrl and I decided to hunt for this one. I'd plotted it on the maps last week, so knew pretty much the area it would be in. In other words, I knew it would be close to the cheapest delivery pizza (in cents per square inch) in Lakewood. Pacific Pizza makes huge, cheap, tolerable pizzas. Order one of their giants, and you'll have enough to feed yourself for a couple of days.

I parked there, and gave Geogrrrl the GPS. As soon as she started following the arrow, I knew where the cache was going to be. I've hidden a cache in a very similar location.

No muggles today, although we did have to dismissively wave on one vehicle that slowed down to gawk at us. Found the cache (good thinking on the attachment!) and signed the log. Thanks for the hunt!

We had a bit more time left, so I scoped out another little-known park for a possible future hide. Thanks for giving me something to do other than sit in the car and sing Duran Duran songs at the top of my lungs for an hour.