Winning versus Surviving

In tournaments there are two schools of thought. Some players are trying to survive. They watch other players get eliminated and feel good as they get closer and closer to the money. Other players are there to accumulate chips. They have no interest going to the final table with a small chip stack. They don't even really seem to care about barely finishing in the money. They are there to win it. And top heavy payout structures reward this philosophy.

I made a World Series of Poker final table playing survival mode. I waited patiently for good hands. I didn't always take advantage of position. I played very few hands. I usually got in there with the best hand and luckily for me it usually held up. I did so because I felt outmatched by alot of the players at my table. For example I had Men the Master next to me for most of day 1 and so I didn't bother trying to outplay him.

Now that I have more experience my game has opened up. I try alot more moves. I like to mix up my play. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I like to purposely misplay hands. It's the only way to play with better players. Sometimes I'm tight surviving guy. Other times I'm crazy loose guy. Now, if they're bothering to pay attention, they have to figure out who I am on each hand.

I'm mentioning all this because I played in a small tournament last night and my two worlds collided. 23 players entered. We're down to 14. 3 get paid. I'm 2nd in chips. The chip leader is one seat to my right.

Blinds are 75/150. I have around 5000. He has 7000. Next largest stack maybe has around 3000. But there are plenty of small ones to pick on. We don't have to get involved with each other. Other than the fact that we're sitting near each other.

On my big blind I pick up 3 4 suited. It gets folded around to chip leader who mini raises to 300 from the button. I was about to throw it away but I love this hand and I don't really mind donating an extra 150 chips to him. I tell myself that the good thing is that I can easily throw it away if I miss on the flop. But if I can hit a straight or flush I can win a big pot from him.

Of course I flop a flush. I check. He makes a small bet of only 150. At this point I put him on a hand like ace of hearts . I think he's trying to buy a turn card hoping to hit a 4 card flush. Sure I can reraise him here to protect my small flush but I also don't want to go broke on this hand.

I call and tell myself that if another heart comes on the turn I can easily still get away from this hand.

Turn is a rag. He bets again. This time 300. I raise to 1200. He reraises to 3000.

It's the moment of truth.

He can still have a hand with the ace of hearts like I originally thought and maybe his reraise is putting me to the test. His reraise here either lets him take down the pot now and if I call he still has outs on the river.

Of course he could also have a flush bigger than mine. But to his credit he's been playing alot of hands loosely so it's not like he only puts his money in with the nuts.

This is that Winning versus Surviving moment really put to the test. I can fold and still have plenty (over 3000) of chips.

Four things make me call.

-If I'm gonna play a hand like 3,4 suited I can't then fold it when I actually hit my flush. If I'm scared of losing to a higher flush then I shouldn't be playing it in the first place.

-If I double up here and win this pot I'm a complete monster.

-If he had a higher flush than me he might have just called my turn reraise and then sat back and let me bet out on the river again.

-My original read was that he was on a draw. I've heard many pros say that once you put someone on a hand you must stick to it and that you get yourself in more trouble changing your mind.

It's also fair to note that this hand occurred on the internet so there were no physical tells to observe that may have swayed me one way or the other.

So I reraise all in. He waits perhaps 10 seconds and then calls.

He shows a king high flush.

So of course afterwards as I'm logging off, my survival conscience called me up to ask me what the hell I was doing giving away all my chips like that with plenty of opportunity left. My winning conscience however was unavailable and not taking phone calls.

Another day at the office

The Venetian is running something called the "Deep Stack Extravaganza" over the next two weeks. Their $340 buy-in gets you 6000 chips and the $550 tourneys start out with 10,000 chips. Hence the "Deep Stack" title. I have to commend them on the concept and structure. Alot of tournaments in this town turn into pushfests by the second hour. Here you get at least a few hours of play before things turn ugly.

I went down yesterday to play in the $340 event and for the first time since I've been here went on a card rush. Within my first two orbits at the table I had pocket queens twice, ace king and even hit a gut shot straight on a hand when I was semi bluffing. My 6000 chips magically turned into 14,000. In theory I could have gone to lunch and come back in an hour.

It was interesting to be a big stack so early. I love pushing around the table and am getting much better at picking my spots. However it's hard to do too much damage when the blinds are still only 25/50, 50/100. So I was sort of waiting for things to get bigger before going into bully mode. No need to double someone up.

There was one hand that I may have played too weakly. Then again it may have been a good laydown. With blinds at 50/100 I got ace king in early position and limped in. I'm getting more and more into purposely misplaying my hands preflop. I love the idea of mixing up styles to keep players confused. It gets folded around to the button who bumps it up 400. I start to salivate. I'm more than excited to call this raise out of position.

Here's where it gets interesting: big blind reraises to 1200.

I think about my options and decide my best move is to fold. I only had $100 invested in the pot. I want to protect my stack until blinds get bigger. His reraise could easily be kings or aces so I might be drawing slim. In a best case scenario for me he has something like jacks or queens and I'm flipping a coin. I suppose if I reraise all in here it looks like I limped with aces. But I certainly think he has a real hand. He didn't just reraise with nothing.

I mention this hand because it's fascinating in poker how your stack determines everything. Like if I'm low on chips I'm gonna beat him into the pot with my ace king. Alot of players would probably beat him into the pot in my spot as the big stack as well. He had around 6000 chips so the worse case scenario is I'm back down to 8000 and still up 2000 on the day. And of course if I win the pot and take his chips I'm up to 20k. So there is certainly merit to that argument. But with blinds so small I figure it's better to look for better situations than calling a reraise with ace king after someone just showed strength. At least for me it is.

The other interesting thing about the hand was that the guy who bumped it up to 400 folded as well. So I was correct to drool over his initial raise.

A little while later the seat to my left opens up and in comes Shawn Rice who I played against last September at the Ultimate Bet Classic in Aruba. Shawn likes to raise alot of hands. He plays that Hellmuth style where he keeps trying to win alot of small pots with alot of small raises. Meanwhile I had Susie Isaacs to my right the whole day. She plays a much tighter game. In a perfect world I would flip them and have her to my left and Shawn to my right but the world sure ain't perfect. The other problem was Shawn had me out chipped and so his presence (getting to act after me on each hand) slowed me down once the antes kicked in.

The key hand of the day occurred with blinds are 200/400 with 25 ante. Susie raised to 1200 in early position and I looked down to see two red kings. I can't slowplay here. But I also don't mind if she calls. I just don't want a group of us seeing a flop. I bump it up to 3000 total. I'm giving her good odds to call. 1800 more to go after a 5000 pot. Plus the way she plays she's gonna fold unless she's really strong.

But a funny thing happens on the way back to Susie. Some dude in middle position goes all in for a little more than 6000. Susie folds. It's another 3000ish to me which means that even if he flashes me pocket aces I'm getting the right price to call.

The total pot has over 14,000 in it and I still have around 6000 still behind the line. Winning this pot will put me up over 20k. This spot is sort of similar to earlier in the day when I laid down the ace king. Except this time I have the goods. I have pocket kings.

Only problem is other guy turns over the pocket aces. I get no help and with blinds going up to 300/600/50 (1400 a round) I'm suddenly down to that 6000 I mentioned I had behind the line.

I really had no reaction to losing this hand. It's strange how numb I've become at the poker table. It makes no difference whether I'm doubling up on the first orbit or giving away half my stack with pocket kings. I maintain the same bored look. I guess that's a good thing.

So many players give away the rest of their chips after they lose a big hand. But I like to stick around and find something fun to showdown.

I hung around in the 5000 range for an orbit or two. Then I doubled up to 10k when my king queen suited found a way to get past ace jack.

By now there were 80 something players remaining from the 239 that started the day. The average chip stack was over 16k so I needed to find a spot to double up again. I was in the cutoff seat when I looked down and saw ace jack. Everyone had folded to me so I just needed to get past 3 random hands. I decided to push all in figuring that if I raise to something like 4000 and I get reraised I can't afford to fold.

Small blind calls and turns over pocket queens. Not so good for me. I'm around 30% to win the hand. The crazy part here is that if I do manage to win this pot I'm up to a healthy 20k and back to playing poker.

Driving home I was a little down on myself for going out with ace jack. But it wasn't in early position. It was first into the pot from the cutoff seat. Then I criticized myself for pushing all in instead of raising to 3 or 4 thousand but like I said above I don't think I can fold there if I get reraised. I think I just got unlucky to run into pocket queens.

Just like I got unlucky to run into pockets aces.

That be poker.

Wynn Classic

I played the $540 opening event of the Wynn Classic.

668 players. I finished 30th. I had a good tourney but it always stings to get knocked out.

Especially when first place is $110k.

I got off too a slow start on Day 1. After 3 levels my starting chip stack (4000) was down to 2850. They added the ante in the 4th level and my game finally took off. I've noticed lately that tournaments don't really seem to begin for me until the antes kick in. I think this is part of why I'm not more successful yet at cash games. I need more money in the pot to have something worth fighting over. It's almost like whatever strategic advantage I've developed doesn't exist without a nice chunk of change in the middle. I basically have no idea how hard to play a hand like pocket queens when the blinds are 25/50. And I only seem to get myself into trouble. Maybe that's why some players show up late to these bigger stack tournaments.

So back to level 4, I bump my stack all the way up to 10,000 without ever having to show down cards. I find a couple of great spots to steal pots with reraises. Amazingly everyone is playing really passively. In this day and age the problem is usually the opposite. But not in this tournament. Once I got chips I started to run over the table. No one wanted to get involved with me. I ran my stack up to 17,000 when the following hand came up. I'm sitting on the button with ace queen. Guy to my right was down to around 5000 and the blinds were 300/600 with 50 ante at this point. He pushes all in. I call him and he turns over ace 10.

Flop and turn miss us both and it looks like I'm gonna have close to 30k in chips which would turn me into a monster. As it was I was already table chip leader with 17k. But of course a 10 hits on the river and knocks me back down to 12k. I took the beat well and obviously felt fine about the play. But I mention this hand because looking back on the tournament who knows what I could have down with 30k at that point. Or to look at it another way, when the day ended a few hours later with the blinds at 1000/2000 and 200 ante, my total chip count was only 26,500. With everyone playing passively I think I could have built it up to 60ish instead of having to play more carefully and grind it up to the 26,500.

When I returned on day 2 there were 72 players remaining and I was in 49th place overall. The Wynn was only paying 63 spots so I was excited to see how the whole payout bubble went down. Players are so desperate to finish in the money that I can often build up my stack at this point. A few guys started asking if the Wynn would agree to pay out 72 spots. A couple of the big stacks objected but then the Wynn used their "Management reserves the right to change tournaments" rule and decided to pay out 72 spots. Even though I wasn't a big stack (I think average chip count was 37k) I still wanted to see only 63 get paid so that players would play tighter. With everyone suddenly in the money players were looser.

I picked up pocket kings in the first orbit and doubled up to over 50k which allowed me to play poker again instead of just having one move (push all in) preflop. Then the following hand came up with blinds still at 1000/2000/200.

A gentleman under the gun raises to 7000. A very tight player from Texas calls. I'm sitting on the button and look down to see pocket 9's. It was very tempting to reraise all in here but I also have two big stacks sitting to my left in the blinds. I'm happy to have just doubled up. I also feel like I can out play most of the players at this table. So I don't necessarily want to take a coinflip here. In a WSOP tournament if I was sitting with great players I might like the chance to steal the pot or else double up to 100,000 chips in this spot. But for once I really did think I could build up my stack through smaller pots. I liked having position from the button. And I wanted to see a flop. So I called the 7000.

Small blinds folds. But then the big blind puts his card protector over his cards and starts thinking. This went on for a few minutes. I could tell he was eyeing the original raisers stack. He needed to know how much he would lose if he went all in and original raiser has aces. The original raiser had around 30k. A player not in the hand eventually called the clock on the big blind who then immediately declared himself all in.

Much to my dismay the original raiser folded. So did the the tight Texan to my right. It came back to me on the button. This was a tough one for me. I was familiar with the big blind player. He's a tournament guy who knows that he can steal pots from the big blind with a reraise. So it's very possible he's making this move with a hand worse than mine. He also knows that if the Texan guy or me had a hand like aces, we would have already reraised. He just needed to make it through the original raiser.

I so much wanted to call him here. If I knew for certain that he had a hand like ace king I would make the call. These are the kinds of races you need to win to win these tournaments. But there was also a decent shot that he has a hand like pocket jacks or pocket queens. A hand that doesn't want to see a flop against 3 other players since he's probably losing if an ace or king flops.

I also decided that I'm too good a player to go out with pocket 9's. If he turns over jacks I'd be muttering to myself that I know better than this all the way home. If I fold I still have 43k in chips, plenty for this blind level. And so I folded.

This is one of those hands that I wish was televised so I could see his cards. After the hand was over the original raiser said he folded ace king. (Hard to believe). And big blind said he had big pair. (I'd like to believe). But either way it was a good play by him. In theory it was the same play I was gonna make if I raised from the button after the Texan called. But part of the reason I didn't raise from the button was I didn't want either blind to wake up with a hand and knock me out. So if he indeed had a hand, then my 7000 call got me the exact information I wanted.

As I hoped, I was able to cruise along and build my stack back up to over 60k without ever really getting any cards. We were playing 40 minute levels and the blinds soon went up to 1500/3000 with 300 ante and then 2000/4000 with 400 ante. At a nine handed table each orbit gets pretty expensive. With the 2000/4000 blinds with 400 ante it was costing 9600 chips every 9 hands. I stayed in that 50 to 60 range by basically stealing one pot per round. There was no one at my table with more than 100k so everyone was pretty short stacked. At this point there's much less poker being played and much more pushing all in preflop. Hands that I love like suited connectors go way down in value.

We went on break after level 12 and when we returned to the table the blinds were now 3000/6000 with a 500 ante. 13,500 an orbit. Absurd. I was down to 50k in chips which meant I had to find a hand to push with. It was tough to find a spot. Especially when you're not the first one into the pot. Like if someone bets 25k from early position there's not too much you can do with your two rags.

I eventually got my money in and was grateful to simply have two live cards against my opponent. But nothing hit and I went out 30th. I sort of feel like this tournament just ran out on me. Like I don't even have a bad beat story to tell. The blinds just got too big and my cards just went too cold. I gave myself plenty of time and alot of chances to get lucky. But it just didn't come together. That's sort of the funny part. Like for that whole final level I never saw a pocket pair, suited connectors, two face cards, any ace, or anything that I'd be remotely interested in showing down. I also couldn't find a spot where no one entered the pot before me.

Until the last hand.

Overall this was a good experience. I'm getting much better at reading players live. Picking up on tells. Guessing their cards. Keeping track of chip stacks. Knowing how much is in the pot.

The players keep seeming worse and worse to me. But maybe I'm getting better too.

Vegas Fact #3

Vegas Fact #3
You know how in casinos they give you those comp cards for when you gamble so that they can reward you with some sort of "comps" based on the time you spend playing? Well I found out today that my past 6 weeks of playing DIDN'T COUNT because I've never "checked out" each time I've left the poker room.

That's right. I have to check out for my time to count. I'm not really whining about the fact that they make you check out. But I am whining because no one ever told me to before today. You'd figure this is something that they might want to mention when you get the card.

I play up or down to the level of the competition.

I start out the night at Caesars. There's a long wait to get onto a 2/5 table so I sit down at 1/2 and seem to forget how to play. No one at the table notices my poor play because it's the norm.

Bad play seems to inspire bad play.

And of course whenever I have a decent hand I play it too weakly and someone hits two pair or something weird to take it down.

Somehow when the stakes are bigger my concentration and attention to detail and correct aggressive play is much better.

Eventually a seat opens at 2/5 and I move up to their big section. Seated to my left is some pro who I cannot name. I never asked him his name but I've seen his face and when it pops up I guess I can come back here and edit this to add the info.

All you really need to know is that he acts like a pro. What does this mean? It means he has over Five thousand dollars in front of him at a table where most everyone else buys in for less than a grand. To give you some perspective, I've bought in for $500. So I'm not exactly gonna force him out preflop even if I raise 10x the blinds to 50. If anything he loves this situation. Because he can read my body language on the flop and maybe decide that I'm weak and shove a couple of hundred out to the middle and see if I fold. This forces me to get real creative when we're in hands together. But despite the fact that I'm intimidated on some level, on another level I freaking love the competition and challenge.

This guy is making moves like raising 100 on the river with nothing and then telling anyone who will listen how great he is. To his credit, he's often correct in his reads. He's calling out people's hands. So to counter I'm purposely misplaying my heads. I raise with 8 10 suited. I smooth call with ace king. Anything to make him misinterpret where he's at in the hand.

The key hand tonight went down as follows:

Someone in early position raises it up to 20. Two people call. I look down and see 8 9 of clubs. A dream hand in this situation. I don't feel comfortable playing hands like ace jack at this table since I have no clue where I'm at when the big stacks call.

But with a hand like 8 9 of clubs, I can make a straight or flush and feel good about getting my chips in there. Or else I can let it go. But at least I know where I'm at. I'm not gonna have to worry if my kicker is good.

Someone behind me raises the preflop bet from 20 to 40. Even better. 6 players including myself see the flop. There's 240 dollars in the middle.

Flop comes 2,3,4 with two clubs. Great news.

It gets checked to me and I decide to take my stand. I bet 120 dollars. I figure this bet somewhat hides my hand. I could have something like pocket 8's and be trying to take the pot down now. And the truth is that I'm more than happy to win the pot now. But I also want to commit myself to putting the rest of my chips in. I want to play a big pot with this hand in this spot. And if I can't take it down now, the next best thing is to get as many callers as possible to come along for the ride.

But something funny happens on the way to my betting 120. I count out 4 five dollar chips and slide it across the betting line in front of my 20 five dollar chip stack. Now I'm not exactly sure what I did but I managed to push the $20 across while sort of fumbling the larger amount. And the freaking guy to my left calls it a string bet.

This was really classless. It wasn't like I put in money and then went back for more. I clearly counted the whole thing out and obviously intended to put the whole thing out in one motion. It wasn't like I was looking for reactions and any of the other BS associated with string bets.

But the guy to my left calls it on me and the pro chimes in that he agrees with him and the dealer rules that my bet was 20. Only 20. Now everyone has no reason to fold. They can all call and get a cheap $20 look at what will now be a 360 dollar pot.

If I had a hand like an overpair I'd have gone berserk. I'd be giving everyone a cheap chance to suck out on me with a straight or flush or overcard. So I decide to play it that way. I start to mildly complain while sitting there shaking my head in disbelief that they're calling string bet on me.

It gets better. My flush comes on 4th street. So everyone checks to me, the preflop bettor, and I respond by checking in disgust. Fuck you everyone. You just ruined my pocket pair and let someone hit a flush.

The danger of making this play is that I let someone with the ace of clubs have a shot at winning the pot if another club comes off on the river. But I took that chance since I assumed I could get paid off if one didn't come. On the other hand if I bet the turn I figure it's obvious that I semi bluffed my flush draw and everyone will fold.

The river misses and my flush is still good.

Everyone checks to me again and this time I angrily announce "two hundred" while shoving just 20 dollars over the line to sort of passive aggressively repeat and relive the chaos of my flop bet. Although this time the bet is indeed two hundred since spoken words are binding at the table.

The pro doesn't know what to do. He announces that I have him beat. First he says I have a straight. Then he says I have a flush. I say to him "What my set isn't good?" He goes on and on about how easy I am to read but the thing is he won't throw his hand away. I love this.

He goes on and on about what I could have. I know he doesn't want to let me steal this pot from him if I'm bluffing. He finally concludes that two hundred dollars means nothing to him and shoves it in the middle. I thank him and pull in the pot.

A few hands later we're in a hand again together. He bets 25 on the flop and I call. He bets 50 on the turn. I announce raise. And shove in 250. Again he says he knows what I have and folds.
(Gee I thought you were folding because you thought you were ahead)

The next orbit I pick up ace jack in the cut off seat. This is the kind of hand I hate playing because I can flop an ace and still not know where I'm at. I'm not gonna play a big pot with it against players who are better than me.

Of course the ace flops. Pro checks. I check behind him. Button bets out. Me and the pro both call. Turn makes a flush. We all check. River blanks. Pro checks. I check. Button checks.

Button turns over ace 8. I show ace jack. Pro slow rolls his flush. And then complains that neither of us bet on the turn or river. He announces that "no one is playing poker here. They only bet they have the nuts."

As if I should get defensive about his criticism.

If he wants to see me put money in when I'm behind he should come play 1/2 with me sometime.

Some words from Doyle

I used to talk about a related subject with a very big and successful gambler I've known for many years. He said, "If a man came in and offered to lay me 10 to 1 on the flip of a coin for all the money I had in the world, I wouldn't take it." He said he just couldn't liquidate everything he's got, all of his property and cash. He wouldn't risk losing it all, which would be worth several million dollars. He wouldn't do it even if he thought he could get hold of a few more million.
But I'd do it. I surely would. I'd just have to. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take 10 to 1 on an even money shot. I'd do it because I have enough confidence in myself that I'd be able to come up with more millions if I lost.
-Doyle Brunson

Back to Back

I played tournaments the past two days at Caesars and my sanity improved tremendously by two back to back final table performances.

Thursday I was in a groove. This feels silly to write but my strategy in many spots was to think "what would a great player do here?" and then follow that advice.

We got down to 10 players but only 9 got paid. As usual everyone wanted to finish in the money. I was so proud of how I bullied the table at this point. Reraising the preflop raisers, stealing the blinds, and making the occasional good laydown.

It does wonders for the soul to lay down ace jack and have your opponent show you ace queen.

I also laid down pocket 3's in a blind on blind situation when the other guy had pocket 9's. I dare to say that something told me to do that. Not sure if it was sensing strength from my opponent or foreshadowing bad omens from the universe but whatever it was I'm glad to have followed it.

Friday night I went back to Caesars fully expecting to bust out early and play cash games. The luck involved in going far in these tournaments is extraordinary. Like even if you're always a 70% favorite to win the hand, the odds of winning two hands in a row is only 49%.

Think about that. You win back to back hands LESS THAN 50% OF THE TIME even when you are as strong as a 70% favorite!

That's insane.

But it all worked out again. When I was ahead in hands my cards held up. And when I was drawing I seemed to hit when I needed to. I'm learning to play the big stack much better and taking on alot of opponents when I have the chips. However unlike the night before this time the smaller stacks wouldn't let me run over them. I was rereaised all in alot by small stacks and faced alot of tough close decisions. This caused alot of variance in my chip stack. However when all was said and done I still managed to go to the final table as the tourney chip leader. The only problem for me was that the guy in 2nd place was seated to my left. And he was drunk and aggressive and reraising me alot. This forced me to make some laydowns with decent but not great cards because I didn't want to flip a coin with him with 8 players left.

We eventually got down to 3 players. Drunk guy, me and a woman who was a good player but having the card run of her life. It was one of those typical tournament situations where she was small stacked but just kept doubling up. She also kept flashing me her cards when she'd fold and in no particular order I saw queens, kings, ace king, ace jack suited, etc.

Meanwhile I seeing stuff like 3,8 off. 4,9, etc. I think my best hand three handed was ace 10. It was a tough spot for me. I was itching to play aggressively and take over the table but never got the cards to do much. And since she was showing me her big hands it wasn't like I felt I was being bullied.

An hour later I'm down from over 100K to just around 60. Other guy also has around 60. But now she has 137K. It was 5am and they both wanted to cut a deal. However for the 2nd night in a row I refused to do a deal unless it benefited me. I felt like I was the best player at this table and despite my bad run of cards I could still easily win this. It could all flip on one hand.

I turned down her offer but then made a counter offer and she accepted. I had mixed feelings driving home. Part of me was proud of cutting two favorable deals the past two nights. But part of me is so competitive and simply loves to play that in a sense I feel like I cheated myself of the experience.

Of course if I had lost a coinflip and gone out with 3rd place money I'd be whining here instead about how I should have been math smart and taken the deal.

I still think cash games are what will eventually make or break the Vegas year. It's the way poker players make a living. There's so much luck involved in winning tournaments. Still, after the past two nights and last summer at the WSOP it probably couldn't be any clearer that my strength right now is tournament poker.

I ain't going anywhere.....yet.

The bad streak continues.

Today it was queens losing to 6,8 when an actual human being called my pot sized flop bet with bottom pair and then hit another pair on the turn. Very strange play. If he's not going to fold on the flop he should at least reraise me to try to get me to fold. There's no long term value in calling there. Very strange play indeed.

Unless maybe he sees the future. In which case it was a great though obvious play.

Then my night ended with good old pocket kings. I raised preflop and did everything I could to act like I was stealing. It worked because a gentleman reraised me with his pocket 10's. It was one of those mini reraises that people do with pocket aces. And if he had aces then good for him cause he's about to get paid off post flop. I smooth called him and then sat back and waited for him to bet again on the flop. If I reraise him preflop he might fold and I don't want to lose my fish.

The flop comes all connected.

He bets like he supposed to. I reraise all in. He calls.

His 10 comes on the river. He he.

It doesn't hurt like yesterday.

I got all my money in twice with the best hand. That's all I can do. And today I understand that.

If keep doing that over and over I should be able to make a living doing this.

And if I don't that's fine too.

Somehow it felt way too personal yesterday. Today I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.

One way I calmed myself down was to remember that I'm playing poker with money I won at poker. So in a worse case scenario, I lose poker money. If it weren't for poker I wouldn't have this money to begin with.

Now I'm going to eat dinner and be a human being for a few hours.

Tilt

Boy am I on tilt.

It's been one of those days where it doesn't matter what I do.

The details don't even matter. It all keeps failing.

It's one of those days where this game seems utterly impossible.

It starts to feel personal.

Almost like a conspiracy.

Vegas Fact #2

Vegas Fact #2
Valet parking in Las Vegas is free. It was Saturday night at the Wynn, Sunday night at Caesars and last week at the Bellagio. There was no charge other than my choice to tip. This experience mainly stood out because I recall having to pay to self park in Atlantic City at some point.

It depends

That's the answer to every poker question:

It depends.

Should I raise, fold or call with pocket 3's?

It depends.

Who's in front of you? Who's behind you? What are the blinds? How many chips does everyone have? How is everyone playing? Is the table tight or loose?

At the most basic level you need to determine the poker IQ of your opponents. Are they aware of situational plays or are they only playing the 2 cards in front of them? At the core this is everything.

My opponents seem to think I'm playing loose lately. One guy even told me that's his nickname for me....Loosey. But the truth is deep down I still feel pretty tight. What he's picking up on though is my finding other loose aggressive players and picking them out.

Once you determine "who is who" the table suddenly becomes so clear.

You got the people playing their own cards.

And people playing cards, players and situations.

I will play much worse cards against the latter.

So the game gets real interesting when people playing situations find themselves in hands against each other. Cause once you're thinking on this other level you gotta start wondering "did that old man just raise the pot cause no one else has entered it yet and he's on the cutoff seat? Or might he actually have a hand this time?" And then the next hand when 3 players limp and some guy repops it from the big blind you have to wonder "is he making that standard "no limpers raise" that so many players love to do over and over again or might he too actually have a hand?"

This might be followed by a guy limping under the gun but then pushing in a huge reraise when it gets raised back to him because now he's representing aces.

And this is the fun of poker. Does he or doesn't he have it? It's the way you make (or lose) alot of money.

I haven't just been waiting for great cards to make moves. I've been waiting for situations. Position. Opportunity.

Remember how Raymond Babbit could count toothpicks?

The hardest adjustment for me switching from online to live poker has been figuring out a count for everyone's chip stacks.

Oh yeah and staying sober till Midnight. It's not even like I have a drinking problem. But when you eat dinner before you go to work suddenly a drink seems so good. A martini. A little wine. A beer. Maybe some champagne.

Next thing you know it's the end of January 2007.

But back to getting a count of your opponents chip stacks, this effects every decision at the table regardless of whether you're playing a tournament or ring game. Either way you need to know how much your opponent is playing with.

For example what does a 250 dollar raise mean? If you're playing 2/5 at the Wynn it might seem like a big raise. Until you see that your opponent has twenty five grand at the table. And he just made that bet into a guy with fifty grand. Now it seems like a small bet.

Playing online this crucial information is always available and perfectly accurate. Playing live I'm suddenly responsible for knowing how much each of my opponents has.

I can ask another player how much they have left if I'm in a hand with them. But oftentimes this information is part of determining if it's worth playing a hand against an opponent in the first place. And definitely how fast.

Now speaking of chip stacks- The orangish 1000 value chips used in the live tournaments at Caesars Palace look alot like Caesars orangish 100 value chips. One of them has an orange center. The other has orange on the outer rim. And it became hard for me to tell which were which in my own chip stack, let alone looking the across the table.


So of course there was a tournament hand, and this must happen there everyday, where someone bets 350 and the other guy wants to call so he throws in three orange chips along with his 50. But they were the 1000 chips instead of the 100 chips. And he quickly tried to fix it. But it was too late. The floor had to be called.

Was this a 350 call or a raise to 3500?

The best part is the guy who bet the initial 350 tells the other player that he doesn't feel he has to be held to a raise when he simply wanted to call. He then repeats this message to the floorman.

In case you're wondering why he shown such good sportsmanship, we'll later find out that he's saying this because he's on a flush draw. He wants to see the turn. I have a funny feeling that if he held top set his table manners wouldn't have been as good. And by funny feeling I mean no way in hell.


But this whole orange 1000 chips and orange 100 chips looking alike got me thinking.

Couldn't one use this to their advantage?

Like lets say I have pocket aces early in a tournament and someone raises the 25/50 blinds to 200 by throwing out two orange chips.

What I "should" do is silently "call" by tossing out two thousand dollar chips.

Then just act surprised when the dealer says I raised the pot.

The floorman will come over and tell me that I raised.

I can say something like "Okay now I know for next time."

Then I just sit back and wait for someone to reraise me. It's an easy pot to take away from me. Since it's quite clear that I only meant to call.

I'm not sure if this is good poker. Or bad etiquette?

Vegas Fact

I woke up this morning and decided I can be useful to people not living in Las Vegas by occasionally offering up something called my Vegas Fact.

The idea is that this can be information I provide to you good reader that is completely factual .

By factual I mean that I have witnessed it in person. I will admit that it's subjective. But I can also testify to it under oath.

Thus if I cannot provide first hand knowledge of the event, I will not offer it to you as a fact.

For example I'm not really sure I can prove the earth isn't flat. So I won't claim that as fact.

I've also heard many times that taxi drivers get paid money to bring people to strip clubs. So you can get them to drive you there for free. But again, I can't say this is a fact since I haven't done it myself.

Finally, I've heard that you can't bring your gun into the casino so most people leave them in their car under their seat. Again, I believe this to be true (unless the guy who told me the story was bluffing) but I won't list it as a fact since I didn't see it happen.

But enough examples of what aren't facts. Lets get to a fact!

Vegas Fact #1
In Las Vegas cash games when you go all in you don't have to turn over your cards to show everyone what you had.

What does the palm reader say?

Can I whine here?

Wasn't this supposed to be easy?

Do I really have to believe that "poker is a hard way to make an easy living"?

I started tonight by losing 80 BB.

Then I won it back. Plus an additional 30 BB.

And then I had my moment. The reason why I sit at the poker table. I found the opportunity to get all in preflop as a 3 to 1 favorite.

If I win I've earned a week's salary of poker money.

If I lose, it's poker.

Tonight I lost.

The beat itself doesn't matter. The edge I had is all I can focus on.

Maybe when I lose I can write it off to being entertainment right? Like instead of my wife and I going out in a Hummer Limo for three hours with a couple of hookers and an eight ball of coke, I got to go to the casino and watch a crazy Asian man make a move on me from late position. I paid 130 big blinds to have a front row seat for the whole thing.

Besides who the hell wants to bring 6 friends to go see Prince at the Rio when you can spend the same money watching a bored dealer turn over cards. For all I care they may as well be Tarot cards.

Why even use playing cards in the first place? Why not go a step further and just use palm readers? Like why not just read my hand and tell me my future and then point to different people at the table and tell me what I owe each of them?

"Give the guy from Australia 130 dollars. Give the old guy in the wheel chair 80 bucks.

Give the young Pakistani dude to your left 20 dollars.

Uh oh. I got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?

The good news is you can take 300 from the Mexican guy on tilt across from you.

But now the bad news is you gotta give your entire stack to the Asian gentleman to your right."

Despite the money, losing this hand with pocket kings didn't hurt as much emotionally as losing a hand tonight where I raised the BB to 7x to get rid of a few limpers and got called by this one drunk guy.

Sure he shouldn't be operating dangerous machinery, but in his defense, his hand was suited. (Insert applause).

So for the joke of me playing this hand to fully work, we need me to flop top pair with my ace kicker. No problems there.

The universe, fate and destiny can make that happen. But to give our studio audience some extra fun, we're gonna also have two diamonds on the board. After all, he could have a flush draw.

I bet an amount that makes it's incorrect for him to chase a flush draw.

He calls.

And yes the third diamond appears on the turn. For all intents and purposes he's hit his flush.

He checks to me. I step on the brake and check too.

Here's the strange part. He checks the river.

I think something is fishy. It's one of those hands where I'm only gonna get called (or check raised) if I'm beat. I check behind him.

He shows me his diamonds. Jack high.

This hand sort of put me on tilt. I should have been proud of how I played it. I bet preflop and on the flop when I was ahead in the hand and then didn't put another chip in when I was behind.

It all makes perfect sense to me now sitting here typing this. But live in the moment the whole sequence made me feel angry. If I had gotten a couple of callers preflop he would have great odds to chase. But everyone else folded to me yet he still called. Logically this was good for me. But like I said, emotionally it pissed me off. He was looking to get lucky.

Now I'll also admit I feel even sillier for admitting these feelings. Obviously I want to be playing with a guy like this. But my feelings are my feelings. I hope I can read this in a few months and wonder how it ever bothered me.

Finally some fun

I went shopping for a car today.

The entire experience was worth every dollar.

The negotiation was alot of fun. I kept repeating my price and defending my sources.

This car salesman was nothing like the animals we see at poker tables.

This guy was sensitive.

He went hack on me when I told him I had no way of knowing what he really paid for the car and he questioned me for questioning him and questioned whether our relationship could ever regain its former level of trust.

To prove his point, emphasize his integrity and gain my trust this guy goes behind the counter to a computer and prints out a piece of paper that says a number.

He prints out a number on a piece of a paper. So it must be true.

As if this is any more credible than the Edmonds.com numbers that I've been misquoting for the past 30 minutes. The best part is I've gotten my numbers confused with a different car I was looking at so I'm completely convinced that my price is correct. I believe my own story and I'm sticking to it.

He tells me that no one follows the Edmonds numbers. I say "I do."

Open with silver close with gold, right? I decide to close with the walkout. Sure it's hack. But it works. I thank him. Tell him he's been great. But I'm gonna go test drive a Toyota Camry at another dealer. It's my right as an American. It's the reason we're fighting in Iraq.

He warns me that my car might be sold for more money if I leave. I tell him if he can get more money for this car then I think he should sell it to that person. I fully support him on this issue.

I also tell him that if I can find a similar car for less money somewhere else I'm gonna buy it.

But if I can't then I'll be back. No hard feelings.

And we walked out.

My wife and I barely had our Starbucks in hand when the phone rang. They wanted us back. At my price.

It felt so good to be wanted. I can't believe people always give car guys such a bad rap.

Documenting the experience

Here's the deal. I'm a writer. So part of me wants to write interesting stuff on here.

But I'm also trying to be a full time poker player. And so at the moment it's way more important for me to make money and learn from my mistakes than it is for me to be an interesting writer.

So, for better or for worse, I'm planning on using this space to "document" the experience. To recall hands. To understand what I was thinking at various points of this journey.

I'm giving this whole disclaimer because I don't feel like I really had that interesting of a poker evening. Tonight was not necessarily the story or chapter I'd put in if I were writing a novel.

But it might be the kind of thing I blog about. Here goes.

I spent the past two nights watching the two night/4 hour premiere of 24. I sort of intoxicated myself to get the full terror experience and so I did not go to play poker on either evening. Good for me for not playing drunk. Bad for me for taking two days off when I need to be focusing on making rent. I mean paying my blind.

So after a day of running errands with my lovely and beautiful wife, I head down to the strip around 10pm not really sure what to expect on a Tuesday night. I figure I'll go to the Wynn or Bellagio but the route I take happens to pass the Hard Rock so I decide to check out the room there.

Guess what? Hard Rock has no poker room. I found this out after circling the premises by foot. It's a real shame too cause I had a nice parking space.

But seriously folks, How can the Hard Rock Casino not have a poker room? Shouldn't it be the hottest game in town?

Do you think they'll build one in time for the poker boom?

I get back in the car and try to go to the Wynn since I'm already on the East side of the Strip.

That's how much the crossing the Strip feels like crossing Times Square to me. I feel so wrong emotionally about entering that traffic. It's easier to just go to something on my side.

But of course since I don't really know where I'm going I drive past the backside of the Wynn and the first chance I get to make a left puts me on some road that turns into a highway and next thing I know I'm exiting somewhere near the Rio and the Palms.

If the Maloof brother's paid to have this street not exit anywhere near the Wynn and instead basically take you to the other side of town to their hotel then I applaud them. Cause it worked.

Inside the Palms they have two small poker rooms side by side. I walked by the first and wandered into the 2nd where there were only 4 tables, 3 in use. The sign on the wall said something about it being a high stakes poker room but when I asked what they were running he said all 3 tables were 2/5 no limit. 1000 max.

Who knew I was a high stakes player?

I can't even make fun of 2/5 being called high stakes at the Palms cause at least they have poker there. They could be like the Hard Rock.

Have you ever tried to check raise someone all in at the Hard Rock and you can't cause they don't have a poker room?

I buy in for 500. I get Ace King early and give away 60 bucks when nothing hits.

I get suited connectors. I flop two to the flush along with middle pair 8. I've gotten this situation each session so far in Vegas. Perhaps I need to get some sort of "automatic day shuffler" for my life because I haven't seen this exact situation as much back in the days when playing on the internet was not only popular, it was encouraged.

Of course I hit my flush on the river and of course the dude sighs and then bets on the river.

Not again. Can I fold this time?

There's a chance he doesn't have a flush because he bet the turn too. But damn these bad actors with their sighing and then betting.

His bet though is only 40. It's small enough that I'm happy to just call. And yes, he has the nut flush and I'm immediately down around 150.

The dude to my left was loose aggressive. Not so much preflop. But he was playing way too many hands and then firing out on the flop and turn hoping to win pots.

I take him on with king 9 suited. Not my finest moment. But against a dude playing every hand it's definitely playable.

Flop comes out with a king and two rags. I check to him. He bets 15.

This bet actually confused me a little because he had been betting larger amounts to steal the pots. Maybe this time he wants a call? Everyone folded it back around to me.

I decide to call. I made the decision that I'm playing king 9 against him because he's playing too many hands and that top pair is good enough against him. If he has a king with a better kicker I'm prepared to pay him off.

Turn another rag. He bets 40. I call instantly.

River misses too and this time he bets out 100. I thought he'd bet less. If he has two pair or King 10 or King Jack or King Queen then I'm gonna feel pretty dumb. But this 100 dollar bet can also definitely mean that he has nothing and that betting 100 is the only way he can win the pot.

I call.

He says the old "you got me" and then holds his cards out as to muck. But he doesn't actually drop them or turn them over.

Now I'm not sure if this was a dick move on my part but I don't show either. I want to see what cards he has even if I've won the hand. Again he mutters something to me about how he knows he's lost the hand and is trying to muck his cards. But he won't throw them in the muck. And I continue to not show mine either.

Dealer finally says lets see some cards. I say I called him. I'm also more than happy to have him muck so I can muck mine too, win the pot, and no one will ever know what either of us had.

He must have finally realized I meant business cause he turns over his cards and shows ace 8 off suit.

I show my king 9.

He started to complain about my calling him down with king 9. But that wasn't me being a calling station. That was me playing this guy as a specific opponent.

The guy to his left actually defended me by telling him "Dude you're playing every hand and raising since I came to the table."

This hand got me back above the 500 starting point. It also helped my mindset. It's amazing how much easier it is psychologically to play poker when you're ahead rather than behind.

In future sessions I still need to raise more. I'm limping or calling alot preflop with medium pairs trying to hit a set. But it would be good for me to be raising with a wider selection of hands to keep my opponents more off balance. It'll also help me get paid off when I actually do have a big pocket pair.

Starting Slow

I lost 150 at Caesars Palace Friday night when I pushed with two pair on the flop and got called and then outdrawn by a straight draw. But that sort of chaos is exactly why I was sitting at a 1/2 table. My game is rusty and I want to play low enough so that it doesn't hurt when I lose.

I've heard a few tales of people coming to Vegas and immediately going broke. I'm not talking addictive gamblers but rather speaking of the universe suddenly conspiring against you.

I'm paraphrasing here but I think they call this something like "the new house curse." It makes perfect sense. You buy a new house and suddenly with a big mortgage payment each month you find yourself getting outdrawn over and over. At the moment I'd much prefer these losses to be hundreds and not thousands.

Saturday night I played at Mandalay Bay. I ended up breaking even after losing a decent sized pot to a higher made flush right before I left at 4am. To my credit at least I didn't reraise on the river. I might normally have raised in that spot but I got a real funny feeling after my opponent sighed out loud when the flush hit. His over the top BS overreaction followed by him betting out 50 bucks reminded me way too much of some of the bad acting classes I've witnessed in North Hollywood, California.

The real shark move here would have been for me to fold my ten high flush but at this point it was way worth the 50 additional dollars to see that I was right.

How did I get here?

"You may find yourself in another part of the world. And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife and you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?" Talking Heads

We were walking through the MGM and that Talking Heads song was playing and I've heard the lines about the beautiful house and the beautiful wife a hundred times before but it definitely hit me differently this time.

How did I get here?

I'd say that probably around two or three times a day it'll hit me that we're actually living in Las Vegas. It's also fair to say my wife and I are in complete shock from moving out here. The house we've rented is over ten times the square footage as was our NYC apartment. Plus our stuff hasn't arrived yet from back East so lets just say the house seems really big.

We're in the suburbs around 15 minutes away from the strip and when we go shopping at Whole Foods or Target or Petco or Home Depot or wherever it is that Americans shop these days, we really could be anywhere.

I guess the big difference between suburban Las Vegas and say Thousand Oaks, California is that there are casinos everywhere. Everywhere. Including the suburbs.

And if you don't want to hit a casino you can simply play video poker 24 hours a day basically anywhere that you shop.

This is what it looks like at 2am in Vons supermarket.


Hmmm. What's that over the shoulder of my checkout dude?



A closer look.


I peak inside of course some guy is playing.



When I pull out of our subdivision I can go to a casino whether I turn left or right.

I timed our ride home from the one to the left last night and it took us 4 minutes to get home in the car.

Clearly we're living the good life. While the rest of you break the law playing on the internet.

Meanwhile now that I've figured out how to insert links and add photos to this blog, this whole Vegas Year thing is gonna be out of control.

Life is like paying the blinds at a poker table

Here is my "Life is like paying the blinds at a poker table" analogy.

Lets say that each calendar month of time = one orbit at a poker table.

Lets say that my bank account = my chip stack.

Lets say that my monthly nut to live in Vegas = paying one big blind.

So put this all together and it suddenly occurs to me that my new monthly nut is kind of like paying the big blind.

Every month it costs me X dollars to live here in Vegas.

Every month I need to make X dollars at the table to break even.

If I can make greater than X then my chip stack (aka my bank account) increases.

If I make less than X then my chip stack decreases.

Every month is simply an orbit at the table.

Finding a home

The best part about looking for a house in Vegas is that whenever someone asks me what I do for a living and I say "I play poker" no one even blinks.

Our only obstacle is that my SAT math score is much higher than my credit rating but as some great writer once said: "cash conquers all."