Bad poker night

Sitting down at Palace's $3/$6 table last night, I had high hopes. The guy to my right, who had claimed to have turned $60 into the $600 in front of him, was playing the sheriff, paying to see people's cards at the end, because he had the money to burn. Two seats to my left, Sam was having an amazing run of luck, playing any two cards from any position, frequently raising pre-flop with small off-suit non-connectors, and rivering frequently enough to be ahead.

It didn't work out too well. I as down my first $100 in the first 90 minutes, mostly because two hands in a row, I lost to Sam's J5. One hand I had KQ, the board was K55/9/3; the next I had AJ and the board was J93/6/5.

I bought in for another $100, and after whittling away about $30 of it in blinds and limps, finally hit my first win with AA, then my very next hand with KK. The pots were decent sized, and I didn't have to show my hand to win, which surprised me, since most pots were going to the river with three players. Clearly, I had a tight image, they knew when I raised on the turn and river that I wasn't bluffing. About half an hour later I tried to do the same with middle pair/weak kicker, and this time, two people called me down. Bah.

Around 12:30 a.m., I won a good sized pot with trip kings, bringing my stack to $145 (down $55), but over the next hour, that stack got whittled down to $20. The coup de grace was a four-way pot, where I held 6♦ 6♠, and the board was 4♣ 5♣ 7♦ / K♥ / 6♣. Pot odds wouldn't let me get away, raising went crazy, and the winning hand was K♣ 3♣. Sam, incidentally, had queen high. Down $180 for the night. Bah.

Still four players

I played for about 4½ hours at Palace on Monday morning, taking a nice spring vacation day. I played well in the tournament, but when the blinds were getting high and my stack was getting low, I got knocked out before the money when I called an all in bet with AKo against QQ.

I then went to the $3/$6 game, and played some of the best poker I've played in months. A big part of it, I think, was I was in a seat that didn't have a good view of a TV screen. I hate those things; they're so distracting.

I held my own for a while. Up $20, down $20, then hit a couple of big pots (like AJ on JAJ flop) to bring me up +$116. A few blinds and a badly played pair of pocket fives brought me back down to +$96, and I left when my brain felt exhausted.

The best hand of the day, though, didn't earn me a big stack. Nope. Here's the situation. I'm in the small blind, and I'm dealt A♦K♥. The big blind to my left only has $2 after he posts his $3 blind. The under the gun player, who seems to be a good player but plays his draws too long, calls the $3. A few callers, and it folds around to the button, who raises to $6. The button's a crazy old Asian guy who has built a pretty good stack by paying whatever it takes to see the flop, and then getting out quickly if the flop misses him, but winning big pots with hands of two random cards.

I re-raise it to $9, the big blind is now all in, the under the gun player calls, and it folds around to the crazy button caps it to $12. I call, the UTG calls, there's $41 in the pots already. Main pot is $20, side pot is $28. Four players.

The flop is K♦T♥J♠ I've got top pair top kicker, and I really only fear AQ. I bet $3, UTG calls, and the button raises. This tells me that he's got a hand, and that UTG probably has a face card. I like my hand though, so I re-raise. UTG calls again, and the button caps it. I call and UTG calls. $85 in the pots. Still four players.

The turn is a Q♣

I'm gleeful, thinking one of the players hit two pair, and the other may have three of a kind, losing to my straight. There's probably another ace out there though, so we'll be splitting the pot. That's OK. If we can keep the third player in, we'll split his money. I bet $6. UTG laughs "I'm good," implying that he's got the ace. He raises. The big blind, who has been sitting back wishing he had more money in the pot, says "I'm good, too." The crazy button laughs and calls. I raise, UTG raises, we all call, and I say "I'm good, too." No way that the four of us have all four aces. $156 in the pot. Still four players.

The river's a rag. We're all laughing now. I bet, UTG raises, button calls, I re-raise, UTG caps it, we all call, and the grand reveal:

It's a four way chop. We each get our money back. The money from the people who limped then folded pre-flop paid for the rake and the tip. I thought this kind of crazy hand only happened online.

(And I'm still not sure why the crazy Asian was calling instead of re-raising. The rake had already maxed out when the pot hit $30.)

Smattering of stuff

• After my $504 online bonus hunt win in January (yay, PlayersOnly.com), I lost $200 of it at Palace playing $3/$6. Bah.
• The odds caught up a little bit for the February bonus hunt. +$104 instead. The EV is +$186, I think.
• The Yakima Cache Machine II is scheduled for March 29.
• Shortly after Happy Days' closure, I contacted the state gaming commission to see what I should do with my $35 in chips. After a few missteps, they had the owner of the casino give me a call, and I'll be exchanging them for cash sometime soon.
• Back on December 4, I was one of only two people who spoke in favor of Lakewood casinos at a gambling forum. This didn't surprise me, because most of the invitations went out to church groups, and it was hosted by the Tillicum/Woodbrook Neighborhood Association, whose leader is on the record of opposing gambling. The other person who spoke was the casino manager at Lakewood's Macau Casino. From what I understand, the city of Lakewood takes a B&O tax of 11% of gross receipts, meaning that when you play a $10 hand of blackjack, although the casino has a 1.5% edge over you (your expected return is $9.85), the city has an 11% edge over the casino (the casino's expected return is $8.90, plus 15¢ from the player). To be profitable they've got to count on the player cycling through their money eight times before cashing out (8 * 15¢ = $1.20, which earns them 10¢ after paying the state $1.10).
• Apparently, dozens of casino employees attended a hearing on the future of casinos in Lakewood on February 6. I'd hoped to attend, but couldn't make it. The advisory board who heard their statements agrees with them, and on Wednesday, recommended to the city council that the moratorium on new casinos in Lakewood be lifted. It's up to the city council now, who can do whatever they want, in spite of the advisory board's advice.

The best opponent

I played $3/$6 at Palace last Saturday night, and doubled my $100 buy-in in three hours. A large chunk of this change came from a guy in seat 2, two seats to my right. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was confused about what drink the waitress had brought him, up until the point where the waitress realized how inebriated he was, and politely declined to serve him.

He left the table for a few minutes, and when he returned he staggered over one of the low rolling tables, splashing seat 1's drink. Ten minutes later, I hit an ace-high flush on the turn, raised and capped the pot against him, and he doesn't slow down on the river; I extract another $24 from him. He's frustrated after I show the nuts to his ten-high flush, and I conciliatorily tell him, "that's tough; there no way you could have laid that down." I didn't mention to him that it should have been easy to stop raising, though.

He plays several more hands, including several against one of the best players in the room, someone who is always here, and loses almost every time. The drunk offhandedly calls him "Mr. Lucky", and the rest of the table chuckles. We rib Mr. Lucky for the next 30 minutes, until he leaves to go get some dinner. A few minutes later, I'm dealt J9 on the button. I check, and the flop is J♦T♦6♥. I bet to see who else has a jack, and nobody raises me. The turn is a 9♥, I bet again, and everyone folds, except for Mr. Tipsy, who raises me. I put him on a 1-in-5 flush draw, so re-raise him. He stares at me, I joke about Mr. Lucky leaving the table, and tell him that I'm trying to make myself the new lucky guy. He re-raises, capping it, and I call.

The river is a Q♠, making a possible straight if he has an 8 or a king. I slyly check, and he asks me if I'm going to check raise him if he bets. I'm non-committal, and he bets. "I call. Two pair." I show my jacks and sixes. He shows me his A6, for a pair of sixes. Awesome.

(Oh, and my four-figure check from PlayersOnly arrived this week. Awesome^2.)

The oddity of casino laws: La Center poker

I went to Portland for three days this week for a training class, which left me with evening free of family obligations. Time for poker. But where?

Other than some pointless strip club poker (free chips, free rebuy, skanky distractions), there's no legal poker in Portland. The nearest spot is 15 miles north, in La Center. Otherwise, it's 100 miles either way to Spirit Mountain (south) or Lucky Eagle (north).

They way the laws must be written, it sounds like Clark County has banned casinos, except they've left it up to municipalities to determine whether they want casinos within their boundaries. La Center is the only town that allows it, and it appears they've strictly zoned it. There's no casinos within 100 miles, but there's four of them here so close together, that with a baseball and good arm you could stand at any of them and hit any other.

Tuesday night, I played at Last Frontier, brought my super tight game, and ended up down $142. The game was $3/$6 full kill, which means that when a player wins two hands in a row, the bets jump up to $6/$12 for the next hand. My sets ran into straights, my flushes ran into boats, my AK and AQ never hit, and I mis-bet a $6/$12 hand, giving away weakness when I asked to pull back a $6 bet on a $12 round. Several hands were short-handed five or six player games, and my aggression only served to cost me money.

Frustrated, I wandered over to New Phoenix, which had two full tables, then to Palace, which doesn't have poker, then to Chips, where I got into a standard $3/$6 game, decided to play a little looser, and won $40. Still, being down $102 for the night was frustrating.

Wednesday night, after studying for my Thursday exam for a few hours, I tried to decide whether I was up to driving 15 miles to play again. The slightly looser play seemed to work the night before, so I decided that if I could double a $1 buyin at PokerStars' 2¢/4¢ limit tables, I'd be able to do well at the real thing. In 40 minutes of play, I was up $1.04, and hit the road.

Chips La Center had two full kill $3/$6 games going, and although I signed up, I really didn't want to play a full kill game, so I wandered around again, but didn't find anything better. All of the pai gow games charged 5% commission, so no go there.

I returned to Chips, and the waiting list had gotten long enough that they opened a third $3/$6 table, no kill. Nice. Two hours of play, and I was up $158, plus a comped dinner. Yeah, a comped dinner doesn't mean a lot when the office would otherwise pay for it, but still, that's cool. The change in my game? Looser, but not crazy loose. Luck helped a lot, too. I played A2o in late position, hit an ace on the flop, and won with it. An early position 98s hit two pair on the flop and won, as did Q8s on the button, which rivered a full house to beat a flush. Mid-position pocket fives hit a set, and beat a flush when the board paired on the river.

Is my game back? It's too early to say. I'm looking forward to Vegas later this month, though.

First card ace, second card ace, third card ace

I played the First Card Ace coupon again today at Palace. I was dealt another ace, and split them against the dealer's 5.

My first hand became A5, and my second became AA. I split my second hand, so it became A8, and my third hand became A8.

So I've got A5, A8, and A8 against a dealer 5. Very nice. The dealer takes his first card -- OMFG, it's a 6. He takes the next card, and I breathe again: it's a 2. He takes a fourth card, snags an 8, hitting 21, and taking my $75.

Ouch.

A $100 lesson: the idiot at the table

When I asked my friends for advice on finding the hole in my poker game, they suggested I take notes at the table (or to play no-limit instead of limit). I did neither: I played $3/$6 limit at Palace on Saturday night, and lost $100 over the next two hours. I think, however, that I've clearly identified one big leak in my game, the same one I mentioned last week.

Most poker books advise,* as rule number 1, to start by picking a good table. The 10th best player in the world will suck at a table against the best 9. The 10th worst player in the room will bake big money against the worst 9. Pick a table with bad players. Avoid tables with thoughtful, smart players.

You can identify a good table easily: there's a lot of banter back and forth, a couple of friendly drunks, and frequent overly-dramatic congenial outbursts. The last two times I played at tables like this (against a drunk who told us that money didn't matter and against The Walrus), I did really well. The three games after that, the table was almost silent, contemplative, and I did poorly.

Problem is, with a small poker room (Washington state law limits to 15 tables total, including blackjack, etc.), you don't get much choice of which table to sit at.

The problem, therefore, isn't that I'm not following the books' advice -- that's tough to do in this state -- but rather that I'm not adjusting properly to the tighter, smarter tables. This is the exact same problem that I've faced this year in online play. When I have a decent hand (top pair top kicker), I take the perspective that unless someone else is raising, I've got a monster, and the other players in the pot are idiots. The problem with this? Most of the other players aren't idiots any more.

Two illustrative hands which cost me $27 each. I'm in late position raise pre-flop, and get heads up on the flop. Early position checks and calls my bets through the river. I lose:

Example 1: I've got AJ, and the board is AT3/T/8. I lose to TT which hit quads; he was check-calling so not to lose me and hit the $133 quads bonus.

Example 2: I've got A9o, and the board is 945/2/K. I lose to 54.

When my bet gets check-called on the turn, should I be checking the turn? I think so. I've got to stop and ask myself "why are they calling?" And "because they're an idiot" isn't a good answer any more.

A third example with different circumstances: I'm in early position with 33, heads up on the flop, and the board is 449/K/K. I bet the flop, get called, bet the turn, get called, and then without realizing that my hand's been forfeited by the two pair on the board, bet the river, and get beaten by A7o. I'm showing agression, and getting called on the flop, which means he either has a 9 (I'm dead), overcards (I'm about a 70% favorite), or a flush draw (I'm a 60% favorite). It's pretty close to even odds that I'm going down here, so I should slow down. I didn't.

(He won't have a 4 or an overpair, or else he'd have raised.)

Against better-than-mediocre players, I need to play smarter post-flop. If they're raising, they've got a reason. If they're calling, they've often got the right odds to do so.

It cost me $100 over two hours, which is twice as good as I did the last two times (where it cost me $200+ in the same time period). I did win a few hands, and won a partial pot with my ace-high flush against an all-in full house and a two pair). Although I didn't like my play in the examples above, it reinforced my learnings from the home game at OS17: if you play like everyone else at the table is an idiot, you'll learn that there's only one idiot at the table.

---
* Sklansky's and Carson's Low Limit Hold Em titles, for example.

Back in black

I keep a fairly detailed history of my gambling wins and losses, mostly so I don't lie to myself and think I'm a better poker player than I am, but also for tax purposes. For 2007, my total wins have been in the red after losing $52.80 on PokerStars on February 16.

Until last night.

I swung by Happy Days to use my match plays at about 10:15 p.m., winning both hands of blackjack (+$40). I then went to Palace and played poker for about three hours. It was a quiet table -- which usually means a tight table -- and with a husband/wife pair in seats 1 and 5, I figured there might be some unintentional soft play between them. She won a straight flush jackpot and a quad kings jackpot, which was great, because she saw almost every flop and then folded the majority of the turns. He earned the nickname "The Fisherman" for his ability to fish for a card on the river and catch it (busted my jacks with a rivered 9 for a set; rivered a flush on me twice; did it a lot more with several other people).

I got to the point that whenever he was in going to the river with two of a suit showing, we'd all ask The Fisherman what bait he was using, whether he was going to catch anything, and so on. "A real big lure!" he beamed, and the majority of the time, he'd hit a card that helped.

Contrary to how I might have felt in the past, I really like players who draw to the river to try and beat me. He had a 1-in-22 chance to get his nine (1-in-45 really, since his wife mucked the last nine), and the pot wasn't $132 going to the river. Late in the session, a pair of ladies moved over from another table, one with a poker t-shirt "I can't believe you played that crap" and one with a denim jacket from The Riviera hotel in Vegas. They played tight, but I took my final monster pot from Riv holding KJo on the button, with a board of T3J/K/J, when she held JT.

Raising drawing hands in late position: that's where the hole in my game was. I wasn't doing it nearly enough. I've been doing it for more than a month now, and the change is dramatic. +$200 at Palace last night.

Then, at 1:30 a.m., I returned to Happy Days to use the match plays. Blackjack was full, so I played Pai Gow, winning one and losing one (+$10). I'm +$165 in match play, 22-28. I grabbed another four Gambling Journals from Palace, and was going to grab the last two from Happy Days, but the guy to my right at the Pai Gow table asked about the coupons, so I showed him where to get them.

For the night, +$250. This brings my 2007 gambling winnings back above zero, to $74.32. Excluding bonuses and other games, my poker winnings for 2007 are just below zero, at -$5.47. I'm a happy person.

I've got a tell

Cool. Last Friday I played at the Palace $3/$6 game and ended up down $4 after about three hours. There weren't any really exiting players, no drunks or anything, and the play was fairly tight.

One of the poker tips I read several months ago has to do with the flop. You've got AK, you've made your bet, it's been called, and here comes the flop. What is the first thing you're looking for? (Hint: It's not an ace or a king.)

You should be looking at the person who called you, to see if the flop helped or hurt them. You should be looking for their reaction. You can look at the flop itself in a few seconds. That first instant the cards come down though, you should be looking at another player. Same with the turn and the river.

I've tried to do this, but get distracted and maybe only really do it about a third of the time. On Friday, I've got AK, and the flop comes with three little cards. It's checked to me, and I bet. I get one caller.

The turn is a king. I'm looking at the cards, not the player, and he checks. I bet. He thinks for a minute, then says "I think you've got it. When that king came down, you smiled." He folds.

I need to watch other players more. And smile more.

Bonus hunting, fish in the Palace, and a B&M SNG

On Tuesday, I blogged about Happy Days' match play coupons. I only had one to use on Tuesday night, but then used two each on Wednesday, Thursday, and at lunch today. The results so far are as expected:

Seven games. Four losses (-$40). Three wins (+$60). Net +$20.

That's the beauty of the match play bonus. More losses than wins, and I'm still ahead. The only somewhat-tough part is tracking down the coupons. Palace has plenty, but I don't think I'll get away with taking 40 copies of the Western Gambling Journal at once. I grabbed five from there on my way home Wednesday, and six more last night. I also took all five that Bowlero had next to their pull tab machines yesterday.

Yes, Bowlero has a poker room. It's a ratty, cramped room, with nobody playing in it. There was one Omaha game on when I showed up last night for the 8:00 tournament ($25 buy-in, $100 added to the prize pool by the casino). Eleven players total, top two positions pay ($210 and $100, I think). Online, that's called a "Sit-n-go" (SNG) tournament, because it starts any time a table full of people is available. In brick-and-mortar casinos, SNG's almost never happen except in Vegas, because you'll never get 10 people spontaneously wanting to start a tourney. But that's essentially what it was last night. The blinds jumped up incredibly fast: blinds double every 12 minutes, starting at 25/50, so 48 minutes in, the blinds are at $400/$800. That's insane if you're a tight player (like me) who still has somewhere around the starting stack of $2500. I blinded out and placed 4th; the top three players chopped the prize pool equally three ways.

I was unimpressed; I don't think I'll be back there. The best feature that the place has going for it is an Addams Family pinball machine in the bowling alley arcade, and even that has a busted "Thing Flips" flipper. Yes, Don: I was devastated. Thing will flip ("Well played, Thing" You suck, Thing), but you can't flip it yourself, which is key to keeping the ball from falling down the left outhole most of the time. The table was also off level, tilted to the right, but I didn't figure that out until my third game.

I left and went to Palace and played $3/$6 for a few hours. The symbolism was unintentional, but I ordered fish and chips with my meal comp. I feasted on the fish, and ended up with plenty of chips left over.

I now love playing at tables with guys who play any two cards. Sure, they'll suck out (e.g., his two pair against my AK, with a board of QA3/K/7), but more often then not, they'll go to the river with bottom pair -- or worse.

Last night, one of the worst players I've ever had the pleasure of encountering sat down two seats to my right. In his two hours, he was never sure how much he could bet ($3? $6? Can I raise to $8?), and I think he folded after the flop twice; otherwise he saw the river every time. The other players at the table did their part, too, telling him what a good play it was when he runner-runnered two pair with his 74o against another player's top-pair-top-kicker, and sympathizing with him when, on the button, he lost to 98s with his 54o, with a board of something like 9K6/T/6.

Read that closely again. He called a $6 bet on the button with two cards lower than the board. Heck, he called a $6 bet on the turn with no draws and four overcards on the board. "Money doesn't matter to me," he said. That's great news for us, because we're certainly happy to take yours. Munch munch munch. That's good fish. He won enough bizarre hands (like the aforementioned runner-runner 74o) that he had chips for about 75 minutes before he ran dry.

The guy directly to my right (who called me his "nemesis" for my propensity to raise his calls) had great difficulty containing his squeals of glee when the fish bought in for another $100 after his smoke break. Really. It was like sitting next to a little kid on Christmas morning. Fortunately, money flows clockwise: +$128 for the night ($+103 if you take out the $25 Bowlero buy-in; I do.)

The eggman, the walrus, and the lizard king

Saturday night was the best night I've had in a brick-and-mortar casino, almost making up for the $237 loss I had a few weeks ago. First, let's back up to Friday night.

I arrive at Palace around 10:15 p.m., and get on the long list for $3/$6. I play PaiGow for about 30 minutes, breaking even, until a seat becomes available. The table is quiet, slow, and tight. Three of the people at the table are buddies, ribbing each other a bit, but from their talk, they know a bit about pot odds and basic poker strategy. I could tell this would be a tough night.

In spite of that, after almost three hours of play, I ended up down only $15. At a looser table, I'm sure I'd have been ahead. I had the chance to prove this on Saturday.

I arrived at about 10:30, and got a seat immediately. The 60ish woman to my left immediately introduced herself and several others at the table, including Eric, who talked a mile a minute, frequently making sure we all knew, "I am the walrus, I am the eggman," and that whoever had just scooped a big pot was "the Lizard King. You can do anything (koo koo ka choo)." He frequently raised UTG without looking at his cards, and nicknamed me "Talky McTalk Talk" for my relative silence at the table.

An hour later, with my stack $120 larger, he went into his wallet for another $100. He ordered a drink, but when the waitress came back, with the poker room manager, they'd cut him off. Too bad, but he still lost his next hundred over the next hour.

The lady to my left didn't do badly at all -- she seemed to be getting all the money I wasn't. Although she saw almost every flop, she folded quickly if she hadn't hit it, and if she did hit it, the table was always willing to call her raise.

I was up about $190 when the normal murmur of the poker room was interrupted by a loud clattering of falling chips, then very loud and angry female screams. At the $8/$16 table, a petite young far-eastern looking lady was being put in a half nelson by security, while she tightly gripped the collar of a 40ish short stout Filipino guy, cutting off his breathing, hauling him over the dealer, and not letting him go, screaming at him in Korean or Vietnamese or some other Asian language. Security finally broke her hold on him, and carried her out.

Later in the night, after Eric the Walrus shared urinal talk with someone at the table, and the dealer from that table rotated to ours, we got the story. It was a domestic squabble. She'd called him five times on his cell, and he didn't answer. When she came to the casino and saw that he was gambling, again, she went batty. The sound of falling chips was her reaching onto the table and mixing players' stacks. What a mess for security to sort out. I'm really surprised that they didn't call the police -- maybe they want to keep things like this off the public record.

Unfortunately, PsychoWoman's tirade and The Walrus' trip to the ATM really slowed down the table's talk and speed, and my final hour was full of hands won on the flop instead of three players showing down on the river.

Over the night, few hands stick out as memorable, just a general impression that mediocre cards raised on the button to build the pot paid off several times. For example, Q♠ 8♠ rivered a flush. J♦ 3♦ hit top pair on the flop and held up through the river, forcing the other player to fold.

The most unusual hand was my busted flush draw on a board of something like 2♠ 5♦ 4♠ 8♥ 6♦ when I held K♠ 8♠. I'm on the button, and the guy two seats to my right, who has been a pretty tight player all night, and who's been checking and calling me on this hand, bets $6. I go for a semi-bluff -- he might be trying to buy it for cheap, and my top pair may be good enough. I say "raise" and make it $6 more. He tosses his a pair of threes face up into the middle of the table (a 6-hi straight), and says "Do you have the seven?" (for the 8-hi straight). I hold my cards, face down, just above the table, over the line. The dealer takes his threes, mucks them, and pushes me the pot. I then drop my (losing!) cards face down on the table and start stacking up the chips. "What?" questions the tight player, "I had a straight!"

"He raised you," pointed out the dealer. "I should have asked if you were folding. Sorry."

I toss the dealer a slightly larger than usual tip.

Is that my hole?

I spent a good chunk of the Memorial Day weekend re-reading a book I'd read a long time ago, Gary Carson's Complete Book of Hold Em Poker, and may have discovered something I'd forgotten. Carson says that in really loose limit games, with five or more players seeing the flop, it's more likely that the best draw will beat the best hand, in part because there are so many draws out there against few made hands.

I also read an article in this week's Card Player that talks about tracking pre flop play, and STRONGLY recommends that one's pre-flop raise percentage should be about 75% of the his VP$IP% (voluntarily put money in pot). In other words, 3/4 of the time, when you put money in the pot, you should be raising. My percentages were 9/21; less than 50%. I'm seeing the right pots, but not building them when I need to.

Combining these two concepts, I played online last night with my last $3.66 at a .05/.10 table,, and in 30 minutes had about $5.50. I went to Palace after work today (family was at other separate events), and turned $100 into $170.

Granted, two sessions aren't enough to call a trend, but percentage-wise, these are two of the biggest sessions I've had in quite a while. This may be the hole that's developed in my game the last several months.

Could be all the ELO songs I downloaded last night, too. You can't beat a bit of ELO. (Edit: getting the quote right, and linking it)

Unbelievable

I played $3/$6 at Palace again tonight. Results: Not good at all.

Time played: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Number of dealers cycled through: 5

Number of hands won: 0

Rebuys: 2

Money lost; $237.00, the most I've ever lost in a brick and mortar casino.

Pocket kings? Lost to T8o which rivered a straight.

Pocket queens? Rivered by J2s which hit trip 2's.

Pocket queens again? Hit a queen on the flop, lost to a runner-runner flush.

Pocket jacks? Folded to a bet and a raise on a KQx flop.

Pocket nines? Got them twice. Folded once to three flopped overcards, lost the second time to a K on the flop.

Pocket sixes? Bet aggressively with a flop of AA4. Turned out he had A5, and to make it worse, rivered a 5.

Pocket threes? Missed the flop.

AJ? Three times, missed the flop every time.

KQ? Flopped a K, and lost to JQ with a rivered straight.

65s on the button? 98s in late position? Missed the flop. Missed the flop.

Unbelievable bad luck.

Folding a straight flush

I played the $3/$6 table at Palace tonight. The rake + jackpot rake is $1 less than Happy Days, and the atmosphere and clientele are a lot nicer.

I bought in for $100 and bounced between $81 and $125. The table was very loose, and when I sat down, Scott in the seat to my left cautioned me not to fear the $400 in chips that the nervous, A.D.D., obsessive compusive guy in seat 5 had -- he'd had a lot more than that when he hit a jackpot hand an hour earlier. Indeed, seat 5 was in for every flop, and it was the rare flop that was less than $6 to see.

About an hour in, I'm dealt J♣ T♣ in the small blind. By the time it gets back to me, five players are in and the betting has been capped at $12. I figure someone's got a high pair, so I fold. Five players see the flop: 9♣ 4♣ Q♣. I'd have had a good flush.

The betting slows, but four players pay $3 each to see a 3♦ come on the turn. It's checked around to the button, who puts in $6 and is called by the other three.

The river is the K♣. I'd have had a king- high straight flush, which would have paid a jackpot. Instead, two players go to showdown, and the button shows A♣ 4♥ -- she'd have bet to cap it on the river if I'd have stayed in.

Ah, well. That's poker. I continued to play super tight, until about two hours in, with an all-spade flop, I've got J6o (no spades) in the big blind and try to buy it. I scare five of the nine players away, and my pure bluff check-raise on the turn card (a fourth spade) scares away two more.

I pair my 6 on the river, and when the last remaining player checks to me, I bet. She calls, I sheepishly show my two pair, and she folds. The table goes nuts, as they'd pegged me as.a solid by-the-book rock.

As 1:00 a.m. approached, I decided to head home the next time I get the blinds. I fold every hand, go get a couple of racks when I fold UTG+1, and then discover AJo UTG. I could easily leave now, folding this hand, and be up $23 for the night. Instead, I choose to play it, with with TPTK, and go home +$49. Good times.

Vacation Mondays are over

On March 19, I finished in fifth place in the Palace tourney.

On April 9, I finished in fifth place in the Palace tourney.

Guess how I did on April 16? If you guessed fifth, you'd be right.

Last Monday was my last vacation Monday; my vacation calendar's been reset, and I've got another 15 days to use within the next 12 months. It was a good finale, too. I ended up net +$25 in the Palace tournament, and played the $3/$6 ring game for three hours, with my $100 buy in varying from $45 to $215, ending at $105 (+$5).

In the tournament, solid, tight play (I folded AJo UTG with less than three orbits in chips left) and a good bit of luck (I rivered two poor souls twice) got me that far, but I'm thinking that I need to stay tight once I'm in the top five. My pocket fives were a racing hand, and I could have sat around a few more rounds before the blinds would have knocked me out.

In the cash game, a co-worker of mine was to my right. His style of play was a lot looser than mine, but he was also better at getting away from hands. I got burned a few times when I couldn't let go of overcards soon enough, but made a huge stack of chips with pocket tens and a board of JJT-x-x, when the button held another J.

I also made the same mistake two hands in a row. I was dealt pocket eights (yes, two hands in a row), and the quads jackpot for eights was an unusually high $800. After missing the flop, I figured I had the right odds to call a raise to see the turn. That's wrong. With a 2/47 chance of hitting another 8, there would have to be $141 in the pot to justify a $6 call (based on thinking a set of 8s would win), but the odds of hitting the jackpot -- getting runner/runner eights -- is 1/1081, meaning the jackpot would need to be $13K to justify $9 in bets. Of course, when I didn't hit an 8 on the turn, I got out, but that was money I didn't need to throw away.

Fifth place again

Tight play and a little luck got me to the top five at Palace again. Losing an all-in race (my AQs, his 66) knocked me out. Yup, a bad day for me and pocket sixes.

Vacation Monday: Breaking even

I felt really good about the poker I played on Monday. At Palace, with 13 players left, I was down to a single $500 chip and a chair with blinds at $500 and $1000. With a lot of luck and good tight play, I ended in fifth place, winning $45 (net +$25). At one point, I was in the big blind and folded KQo to a raise and re-raise -- and I would have lost to AQo. Nice laydown.

After the tourney, I played the $3/$6 game for about 45 minutes, end ended up breaking even there.

At Happy Days, I used my $25 win from Palace for my buy-in, and busted out in 12th place under the gun with K9o, when I held only enough to pay the oncoming blinds. I won $10 with the match play coupons, though, so really, I ended up ahead $10 for the day. +$10, and played poker for almost five hours... that's a fun day.

If it wasn't for luck, I'd win them all

Last week, I wrote:

Next Monday, I play super tight in the tourneys, only committing my chips when I'm almost sure I've got an advantage. Only allin preflop with QQ-AA or AK pre-flop, and only all-in postflop with trips or better, until I'm in the money or my stack is an orbit or less deep. (We'll see in this space next week if I can actually do this.)

So... how did I do?

I missed the Palace tournament; I took my daughter to a dentist appointment instead. I arrived at Palace at about 9, got into the $3/$6 game at about 9:30, and left $100 lighter at about 10:30. My AJs hit a board of A53-J-x only to be brought down by a slow-playing small blind, who had called a pre-flop raise with 42o. A few minutes later, I ran into quad kings while holding top two pair.

I only "won" two hands: pocket aces on the button (folded around to me, I merely call, the big blind folds post flop, net +$4) and A9s (the board is A87-7-7, I split the pot with an A6, net +$7).

At Happy Days, my blackjack match plays got beat (including my double-down 11 against a dealer 3), as did two of the next three hands.

In the tournament, with blinds of 400 and 800, I had 3600 left (from my starting 5000), and was in the small blind. It folded around to the button, who called, and I completed with A♠ 7♠. I've got 2800 left. The big blind, who has a slightly smaller stack, checked. The board came A57 rainbow. I toss in 1000 with my two pair. The big blind immediately pushes his stack of 2100 all in. The button folds. It's to me.

I put the big blind on a bigger ace, which my two pair is beating. I call, and he turns over 86o, for an open-end straight draw. I'm a 70%/30% favorite, but the turn is a 9, giving him the win. I'm crippled at 700 chips, and push QTo a few hands later. It doesn't make it.

It wasn't post-flop trips or better, as I'd promised myself, but I'll replay an edge like that in a tournament every chance I get. It was just an expensive day of bad luck. Unlike some previous sessions, however, I'm very satisfied with how I played.

A down Monday, my first B&M comp, and next week's strategy

Yeah, blogging this one a bit late.

The regular Monday vacation poker day started at Palace, where I signed up, then had to make an emergency run to my daughter's school for a few minutes. I returned 10 minutes into the tournament, having missed only one hand -- they started late. About 45 minutes later, on the button and with my stack about half of its original size, I push all in when a middle position raised. I show AK, he shows AJ, and a jack comes on the flop.

Over to the ring game, where I end up ahead about $40 before I leave to go to the noon Happy Days tourney. I also asked for a breakfast comp (my first time ever), and got it no questions asked. Free eggs. Sweet.

I've arrived at Happy Days a bit early, so I buy into the $3/$6 game there. Several times over the next 20 minutes I'm dealt the second best hand, play it too agressively, call weak draws with proper pot odds, and lose $100. At blackjack, I win a match play and lose a match play, play some more, and end up +$2.

I need to stick around at Palace longer next week. I don't know why I find the game there more profitable than Happy Days' ring games, but I'm roughly +$100 at Palace $3/$6 lifetime, and roughly -$180 at Happy Days $3/$6.

In the Happy Days tourney, I survive for about an hour before I get moved to another table. This table had lost several players, so I went from being one of the big stacks to being a very small stack. With no read on anyone yet, under the gun, blinds at $400/$800, and $2600 in front of me, I push pre-flop with 7♠ 6♠. One caller shows pocket red threes. The board helps neither of us, and I go home.

It turns out that 7♠ 6♠ is a 50% to 47% favorite over non-spade pocket threes (with a 3% chance to split the pot). I knew it was close, and figured I'd put my money into both tournament situations with the best hand, which is what you've gotta do. Even more importantly, I'd have done the same thing even if I'd known the cards I was facing.

In retrospect, I'm not so sure that was the right move.

I used a Barnes & Noble gift card (thanks, TMIB and Pony!) and bought The Poker Tournament Formula a few weeks ago. In it, Arnold Snyder discusses fast local tournaments, and how to play them differently than the longer, day-long tournaments that the other pros write about. In short, blind-stealing from two off the button is required when nobody's entered the pot; aggression into single-suited flops is mandatory. The odds are slim that someone has two clubs when three of them are on the flop, so it might as well be you who takes down the pot. To do so, though, you can't give someone proper pot odds to draw to their 40% chance to hit a fifth club on the turn or river, so you've got to bet big. Doing this, you'll win a lot of small pots, and lose big ones, but in short-term fast tournaments, you'll often not have the opportunity to lose the big one. By betting the pot, a caller is making a mistake, and as Sklansky points out in Small Stakes Hold 'em, poker profit comes from your opponent's mistakes.

Sklansky, however, is talking about $3/$6 play, not tournaments. In a tournament, making a play that will win 52% of the time is a quick way to the exit. Making my 7♠ 6♠ move three times leaves me less than a 14% chance of survival. A better opportunity probably would have come along some time before I was blinded away in the next three orbits. My past tournament wins at Happy Days have come when I won a few small hands, then just waited for everyone else to get busted out.

Arnold says this playing this way -- playing early for survival -- will very rarely get me into the money, but that playing as the agressive blind thief will get big money finishes or nothing. That explains why I've never finished first in a brick and mortar tourney. However, I've gotten enough money finishes that if I play a super-tight strategy, I'll get my money back about half of the time, and will profit about 10% of the time. If that 10% covers the 35% of the time I bust out, I break even.

Next Monday, I play super tight in the tourneys, only committing my chips when I'm almost sure I've got an advantage. Only allin preflop with QQ-AA or AK pre-flop, and only all-in postflop with trips or better, until I'm in the money or my stack is an orbit or less deep. (We'll see in this space next week if I can actually do this.)

And I'm staying out of the Happy Days $3/$6 game.

But in purple, I'm stunning

In contrast to the bad online $1/$2 play I've had recently, today was an OK day in brick and mortar land. Mainly, it's because I got to spend a day in brick and mortar land, but secondly, it's because I played well and cam out ahead.

At Palace's 8:30 a.m. tourney, I lost my $20 buy-in about 30 minutes into the tourney (10 minute rounds) when my AK of spades ran into pocket eights preflop, and never caught up. At Happy Days, I pushed all-in with AQo, and got called by... another AQo. And a pair of nines. The nines won it, two of us dropped at the same time.

But in cash game play at Palace, three hands in I raked in a monster pot (about $45, I think), when I missed my straight draw and flush draw, and only had a K♥ on the river. I continued to bet strong however, and the other two players who apparently also missed their draws, folded.

I took a small hit when I ran into a set of sixes, but came back with a win in the small blind with A9s, when I hit the flop (a 3, a 5, and a 9), then paired the ace on the turn, beating someone with A5.

In the end, I was up $70 at the $3/$6 game before I left, and won $10 with the Happy Days match play tickets, so subtracting out the $20 and $25 buy-ins, I ended up +$35 for the day. Vacation's great.