Poker Pays For A Classic

It's been a couple weeks since my last blog post, I'd offer up an explanation but anything other than "I'm too lazy to write" would be a lie.

Two weeks ago I played the $10 rebuy mania at Dave's. I built my T1,000 stack up to T7,800 at one point, but rebuys are too swingy and I ended up donking most of it back (the biggest hand - I shove with 66, get called by 55 and AJ, J on the flop). After the tournament I bought into the cash game. They were playing .50/.50 HA round by round when I sat down, but three hands in they needed players at the $1/1 so I moved over. I started off bad again, running two buyins deep with no luck. I decided on one last buyin and started over. I started hitting hands and built myself back up to even when Colin joined our table and the DP/Colin/Grayday show began. Grayday decided to play aggressive, big stack poker and was taking some huge swings. He had about $500-600 in front of him before he gave most of it away. I got him two hands in a row. In the first, I have about $175 in my stack I get QQ and make it $6 to go. Few callers, including Grayday. Flop K-J-9 two spades. I c-bet $15. Grayday calls. Turn J. I shove. Grayday counts out the money and tanks...starts talking himself out of calling. I ask if he wants to see a card and he says "Yes, the one on the right". I turn over the left card. He starts mumbling. KQ? Q10? He shows me the Kc. Ruh roh. He finally gets mad and says "I don't want to see another fuckin' card again" and folds. I show the other Q and he gets furious. (It was the 2nd time he folded the best hand after seeing a card - Meats did it to him with A8 earlier).

Then, the VERY NEXT hand I get AA. I raise to $10 and get Dave W and Grayday in. Flop 10-9-7 offsuit. I check, Dave checks, Grayday leads for $15. I make it $40. Dave folds. Grayday slows down and calls. Turn is another 7. I shove again. He tanks again and starts mumbling. "Want to see one?" I ask. He says "Yeah, the one on the left" and this time I oblige, turning over an A. He calls my all-in and I say "Aces" and open the other one up. He looks dumbstruck, "Really?" he says, craning over to see my hand. River a blank and I scoop two in a row. The very next hand, Grayday shoves over my raise all-in for his remaining $100. I call with A-Q on the button and we run the board out and my A high is good. He showed Colin a lower A. On one of the last hands of the night, I get AA again and limp in for the straddle of $2. Grayday makes it $20 and I shove over top. He calls and I roll over my Aces and they hold up.

I cashed out way ahead and put the money toward the sweet 1965 Buick Lesabre 400 I bought that weekend. I didn't play much poker this past week, made the final two tables at Dave's on Saturday but managed to blow a 48K stack and not cashing. Cash game was not as nice. I lost my first buyin when I was getting whittled down and shoved my last $50 with AJd. Linda calls with AKs and turns a K. I rebuy and get mushed by Holiday Inn Jim's buddy who cracks my K with Ax. I raised preflop and he calls, flop 2-3-4. I bet $15 he calls. Turn a 7. I bet $25 he calls. River an A and he goes "Oh!" and bets $25. I muck disgustedly and add on for one final buyin. I run it up to $420 and am not smart enough to cash it out. We lose a few players and then I get caught in the Danny and Chan show. They both decide to keep raising and re-raising each other, and Danny goes on a sick run where he starts hitting every hand. I run down to about $65 and then build it back up to about $200 when we move tables. Danny and Chan are still going at each other when I start getting agitated. I limp on the button with 58 when Danny raises again to $6. I decide to push him and re-raise to $40. He shoves in his last $71 and I accidentally price myself into calling. I flop two pair and it holds up, and I make a quick speech about how I am going to start shoving with junk to combat the aggressive players. The table slows down a bit and I start cruising. I crack a big Linda pocket pair with my 8-3s (two pair) and in my final hand I stack Kirsten by turning the nut flush and rivering the low end of a straight flush. After the up and down I am +100 for the night, so not too bad.

Blog posts may be spottier than usual for a bit, I have a busy couple weekends with my kids since I had to shuffle my schedule to accomodate the two big tournaments at the end of the month.

The Poker Rollercoaster Stops at the Top

After not playing any poker last weekend I was looking forward to my once a month free weekend. Friday night I decided to start at Julie's house for the $40 tournament. I was doing well early, including making a clutch call for all of Mike's stack. I had AJ off and raised preflop. Flop came 10-9-3 two diamonds, I c-bet and he shoved in. I put him on a drawing hand and after tanking finally called. He showed KQd and bricked twice. After the break I hit my nut gut Broadway draw on Big Country for his stack. Then the wheels came off. I was at 48000 when Kristina hit me for 18000 on her three out miracle two pair. Then I made a bad read on a guy who was all-in and I called him with 66. Of course he has AA, and I double him up. After that I lost to an increasing series of 3-4 out draws until I shoved with KQ on the button and ran directly into Aces (again).

Irritated, I set off to TK's house for some $1/1. We started a PLO game and I was up about $100 when the game split and we condensed to one table of Hold'em. Full table I started getting hit, including my last hand where I raised preflop with QQ, flop comes 2-3-2 and I stack off to Ryan's A2. It sucked that we could only buy $150 at a time, as by that time average stacks were $300-500 and no one was folding for $12 preflop.

Saturday we hit Dave's for the tournament and my bad run continued. I flopped two different straight flush draws and bricked both, losing about half my stack. I then stacked off when I shoved with a double gutter and got called by bottom pair/open ended straight and bricked out. I reluctantly agreed to bank the cash game, as I was only 2nd out. I started with $100 and got mushed on hand #5. I called Wolverine Dave's raise preflop with KQ, flopped a pair of Q's, turned a set of Q's and lost to his AQ. Rebuy! I got crushed on my 2nd buyin when I shoved with an open ended and pair and lost to a dry pair of 10's. Third buyin of $100 I got mushed when I shoved with my two overs and flush draw against pocket 9's and bricked out again. I was going to quit but I decided one more full buyin, since K was still in the tournament and I was banking. I bought $150 more and started finally making hands. I raised with AK, flopped top two, and stacked a guy with A-rag. I got lucky on Dawn, I called a raise preflop with AK and flop comes K-9-3. I bet, she raises, I shove and she snap calls and shows K9. I then catch running clubs for the nut flush and stack her. I made the majority of my profit in two absolutely horrible hands. In the first one, I limp UTG 6 handed with K9. Mailman and Colin limp, Mike and Meats check. Flop K-9-4. We all check to Mailman who bets $5. Mike folds, Meats makes it $10. I raise to $20. Colin folds, Mailman tanks for a minute and then makes it $70. Meats calls all-in for less. I tank. I try to narrow down what Mailman limped with that he's suddenly getting froggy with. I eliminate KK and 99, as I am holding K9 plus he didn't raise preflop with position. I figure if he has K9 we chop, K4 I have mushed, and AK-KQ-KJ I have demolished. I decide he's on AK and I shove over top of him. He snap calls and Colin says "set", at which point Mailman shows 4-4 for bottom set. Turn? 9. River a brick and he's shellshocked as I hit my four out miracle. Meats BTW had AA. Everyone wants to be a dirty trapper, sometimes it bites you in the ass.

The second big hand was a cluster as well. Meats makes it $3 preflop (his usual raise), I call and Colin calls. Linda makes it $20. Meats tanks, fiddles with his chips, and finally calls. I have A5d, I decide to call as I am certain Colin won't re-raise Linda. Colin calls and we see the flop, A-5-7 one diamond. We check around to Linda, whom I am expecting to bet her Ace. She checks. Turn Kd. Meats checks, I bet $40. Colin folds, Linda immediately makes it $140. Meats folds back to me (Meats shows me QQ after the hand, no diamond). Linda has only another $100 behind. I table my hand and look for a reaction. I count down my stack and decide that if I shove and I'm wrong I am still up for the night anyway, so I push her all-in. She snap calls and shows KK for a set. River? 4d. Ship it again! After that I blinded off a little before we called it quits for the night. I was in $450 deep and cashed out $1150. Not bad for playing like an idiot!

Today I decided to head over to Nautica and donk off a buyin at the $1/2. I sit down and on hand #4 immediately get into a train wreck. Guy on my right (who knows me somehow, but I don't remember him) makes it $12 to go. I call with 2-2. Two other callers, BB shoves for $59 total. Guy who raised initally has only $80 behind and flat calls the $59. I am 50/50 on a call when I notice the two guys to my left already have the $59 counted out. I decide to call, and they both call. Flop A-K-3. It checks around! No one bet! Turn? 2 of course. I open/shove for $128. Everyone else folds, guy who shoved initially says he has an A. I table my hand and the case 2 comes out on the river. QUADS BITCHES! A few hands later, I call a preflop raise on the button with 88. Flop 10-6-4. Arab guy to my left (who has been very aggressive) makes it $20. I think he's trying to buy it so I call. Turn is another 6. He checks to me, I make it $85 and he snap calls. River 9, he checks again and I shove in for $210 more. He gets pissed off, shows me Q-10 and folds. I show him the 8's and he's steaming. A few hands later, I get 5-6 in the BB and check in. Flop Q-6-6. It checks around to Uncle Bob, who fires out $12. I call, arab guy calls. Turn A. It checks around. River 3. I lead out for $35 and arab guy snap calls and shows an A. "I just have a 6" I say, scooping it. He's even more mad now. My last big hand was a doozy too. I get 10-9 clubs, guy to my right makes it $17 preflop. I call, and he says "I should've made it $40 so you'd fold". I tell him "I don't think I fold this one, not even for your stack". Guy in the middle calls and we take a flop of 9-8-4 with 2 hearts. Initial raiser bets $40 (leaving himself $30 behind). I think of raising but instead call. Guy in the middle shoves for $100 even. The guy on my right folds and I pony up the $60 extra. Board goes 4-K and he says "I missed my flush but I have a pair." I table the 9's and he shows an 8 and mucks. I scoop that pot and decide that I am getting out while I'm up. I cash out +$575, making it a $1200+ upswing this weekend.

Better lucky than good, I guess!

Back on a Winning Track

I haven't played a lot of poker since returning from Indiana, I've had to sit and rebuild my roll a bit. I went to Ken Walker's house last week for his $60 tournament. I was down most of the game (kept losing to river cards), and finally busted when I put a hellacious bluff on Yosh for his whole stack and he couldn't let pocket 9's go on a board of 5-7-3 all clubs. I sat down at the cash game and ran my $150 up to about $225 when I got into a trainwreck with Matt G. and Grayday. I get dealt K7d in the small blind. Matt makes it $4 to go. I call, Grayday calls. Flop is J-4-3 with two diamonds. I check, Grayday checks, Matt bets $10. I call, Grayday calls. Turn 5h. Grayday leads out for $30. Matt G. shoves all-in $108. Grayday only has $49 behind and looks eager to put it in. I tank for a minute and call with my gutshot and flush draw. River 6s giving me straight. Matt turns over a set of 5's and Grayday had jacks with a heart flush draw and missed. Ship it! After that hand I played a lot of big pot poker. When I had a hand I hammered the pots, and people were folding to me all night. I laid an awesome river bluff on Eddie J for a good $100 pot with my pair of 2's (Q kicker, of course). I finally made it to an even $500 up and cashed out. I needed to book a win and this was enough for me to quit on.

I didn't play live again until last night. I hit Dave's for the deepstack tournament. My only two cashes at Dave's tournaments this year are in deepstacks, so I was feeling good about it. I even paid the $2 for the POY. I was doomed from the start. I got put at a table of calling stations who couldn't let hands go. Despite my efforts, people simply check-called all the way down. I made a huge misread on Pyxis for most of my stack (she flopped top set and I put her on missing the flop). I finally busted when I shoved with A9s and got called by AJ. After that debacle I bought into the cash game. I bought $100 and blinded off about half of that. I added on $80 more and plodded along. I finally got on track when I picked off Jewish Andy in a pot. He raised preflop to $4 and I called on the button with A9. The flop came 10-8-10 with 2 hearts. Andy c-bets $6 and I raise to $16. I am certain he doesn't have a 10, but he calls the raise. Turn is the Ah. Andy bets out $15. I now have Aces with a 9h flush draw. I call. River is a 9, Andy bets half my remaining stack ($28). I flat call and he says "I have a pair". I turn over A9 and scoop it. He said he had Q's but he didn't show it. After that I went on my run, scooping a bunch of decent sized pots. Grayday was blowing through chips, and I made sure to get my share of them. He was being so aggressive that El Diabl0 and I called him down on his river bets three separate times with only Ace high and won all three pots. He started steaming bad and lost a ton of chips trying to push us around. I cashed out +$400 at 3AM, he was still playing and the tournament was still going. Looks like my horrific streak may be ending, time to rebuild. Maybe Vegas in June after all?

Drowning On The River(boat) ((WARNING: LONG POST))

Finally back from the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg IN for the WPT event. The casino is actually the nicest one in the Midwest area I'd say. The poker tables (both cash and tournament) are very nice, the poker room is efficiently run, and they comp you very well. Players get $1 an hour comps, plus if you sign up new for a players card you get a BOGO buffet and they give you a meal comp on your card. I didn't pay for a single meal on this trip.

Monday I got in early with the Meats and Mailman and decided to play some cash before the WPT tournament. I sat down at a newly opened $1-3-5 PLO table with $300. The play was surprisingly nitty for PLO, lot of unraised pots and check downs. I won only two pots. One guy straddled my BB and I called with J-9-8-7 double suited and flopped trip 9's. I checked to the straddle, he pots for $75 and one guy calls in between. I shove and both players fold. The other pot I raised preflop with AAKJ double suited, flopped top set and nut draw and didn't get any action. I floated for a while before getting 3-5-6-7 double suited in the BB. Flop is 5-6-7 with two of my suit. One guy pots, I call and guy behind me calls. Turn K gives me second flush draw. Guy bets again, I flat call as I know he's on a straight and I don't want to push him out of betting if I hit. River 2h, complete brick. I fold when he pots again and the guy behind me calls, they split pot with nut straight. I get stacked when I pot preflop with QQJ10, flop Q-J-9, get the money in and lose when a 10 drops and the guy next to me rolls over Broadway.

Off to the $340 tournament. When we sat down they announced that the blind levels were split, so instead of having 30 minutes of stud and then 30 minutes of Omaha we were having 15 minutes of each at that same blind level. So, level 1 was 15 minutes of $100-200 Omaha and 15 minutes of $25-100-200 Stud. This, in my opinion, was stupid. With only 15 minutes in each game we were getting roughly four hands of each per level. I was also seated at a table with a guy who had never played Stud (or any limit poker) before and had to be told what he could bet every time. Between him and the stud hands taking so long it became excruciating. The guy turned out to be a complete calling station, too. He had no idea what to do, so he simply called every bet all the way down and turned his hand up for the dealer to figure out what he had. By the dinner break he had over T30K and had eliminated a player and crippled me. He couldn't miss, at one point I advised him not to use the bathroom because the horseshoe up his ass might fall out. I posted a more detailed hand report on the tournament on the Meetup Site. I busted in Level 13 after a five way Omaha train wreck where Mr. Calling Station got half with a 3 out gutshot for high and the low got quartered. I was not unhappy with my play. I played patient, jammed pots when I was ahead, and escaped from several spots where I could've gotten stacked earlier. I didn't try to run anyone over and wasn't stealing or tilting, even after being crippled by idiocy. I simply couldn't make a hand hold up.

After that debacle I went back over to play cash. I sat down at $1/3 with $100 and decided to short stack my table. All the people there had at least $600 except for me and the guy to my left. There were a lot of black chips on our table. Hollywood is weird - the dealers have fully stocked trays but are not allowed to sell you chips out the tray, they're only for change and raking chips. You can buy chips off another player but not chips that are on the table. The chip runners take forever and often ignore the dealers calling for chips. Most of the regulars buy two or three buyins in black chips and keep them in their pocket so they can rebuy quickly rather than lope off to the cage for chips. Anyway, I played somewhat aggressive. I double up early when I flopped a pair of Aces and shoved on a guy with a flush draw. He missed and I rode my stack up to about $400 when I got train wrecked. Guy to my right button raises to $10. I call with KTc. BB calls. Flop K-9-5 two clubs. I bet out $15, both call. Turn 8c. I bet out $45. BB raises to $155. I call with the intention of check raising him all in on the river. River 5h. I check, he shoves. I was going to call when he took two black chips off his stack and tossed them in with a flourish. I had only seen him do this one other time, and that time he had the unforgiving nuts. I turned up the Kc and asked if my flush was good. He smiles and shows the Jc. I am then certain he has the Ac. I muck my flush and he shows the Ac. After that the pasting begins, I flop two pair and get mushed by a rivered set. My last hand I raise with 67d. Flop 5-7-8 two clubs. The girl at the end leads into me for $10 and I shove on her. She tanks and finally calls with 9-8. No straight and she stacks me. Frustrated, I leave.

After a comfortable night sleeping on the floor of the hotel room I choke down one of the worst breakfast meals of all time. Powdered eggs and lukewarm rubbery sausages. Ugh. Head back to Hollywood and give the $1/3 another go. I buy in for $200 and get to work. I am floating for a while when I get 77 on the button. Guy in the middle (who works brush for another card room) raises to $15. Three callers, I come in. Flop 8-3-8. Checks around to me, I check. Turn 7. BINGO~! Initial raiser bets $30. Action Jackson at the end of the table calls. I shove $160. Guy behind me can't call fast enough. Everyone else folds. I ask if I just got coolered and he doesn't answer. River is a blank and I roll over my 77. He flips up 88 and I am broke. I rebuy and piddle around until I get KK on the button. Raise preflop and Action Jackson calls. Flop A-6-4. He checks, I fire out a healthy c-bet. He immediately calls. I check the next card and he checks. River checks down and I know he called me with a shitty ace. I muck and am down to $40. A few hands later I get AJ on the button. Action Jackson limps, I open shove for $40. He snap calls. Board runs out Q-8-5-4-2 four clubs. He says no club and I turn up AJ. He rolls over KQ off and scoops. I put my final buyin on the table and am floating down to about $150 when I get K-9 suited on the button. Cutoff makes it $15. I call, flop is K-J-9 offsuit. Guy leads into me for $50. I consider Q-10 but decide he's pretty solid and wouldn't have raised with it. I shove in and he snap calls. Turn A. River K. I flip over the K when he turns up AA and scoops. After losing twice with full houses I decide it's time to quit.

The last week of poker has been the absolute worst in my live game history. I got bludgeoned at every turn, couldn't get a hand to hold up, and finally had to just give up. The only bright spots were a $100+ cashout at $3/6 limit whilst I was on break from the tournament, and a +$125 cashout from the Hold'em table game. I think it's time for me to take a break from cash poker and try to reorganize.

Still Sliding The Wrong Way.

Short poker weekend this week, have to keep my bankroll intact for the WPT on Monday. I played Dave's last night and got horribly crushed. I bought into the tournament and ran my 8k up to 20k. I could actually feel the cards turn the other way. I lost 2k to Mailman in a three way pot, then lost about 8k to TK when he hit his 1 out set on me (which, of course, gave me two pair). I slid down some more before being moved twice in less than a round. I end up at Table 3 and it's playing really snug. I get pocket 7's UTG +1 and just open shove with them. Folds around to button who tanks and then calls with 10's. They are good. Down to 3200 and posted for 600 when I get J-10d. Pyxis raises and I can't just call, so I shove. She, of course, has Aces. I'm out, head to cash game.

I buy in for $100 in the $1/1 and run it up to $150 when I get into a hand with Dave's neighbor. He's been bragging all night about how he just won 20k on an instant lottery ticket, so you know he doesn't give a shit about the $100 in front of him. I raise preflop with AQ, flop is Q-2-7. He bets into me and I raise him all-in. He snap calls. His Q-2 holds up and I am now stuck. I lost the rest of my first buyin when Hacker raises preflop and I call with 9-7s. Flop 10s-8s-3. He c-bets and I shove. Snap call. Brick-brick and his pocket Jacks are good. I rebuy and run it back up to $200 when Dave sits down. He raises preflop and I call with 4-3c. Flop 7-4-7. He leads out for more than the pot. I have seen him do this before and it usually means he's on AK and missed. I take the turn which is a 5 giving me a gutshot also. He hesistates and shoves, and I call. River is a blank and he tables 8-8. I get AQ again, raise it up. Rich and Dave's neighbor call. Flop A-K-8 two diamonds. I c-bet, two callers. Turn is a 3. I bet out about $45 two callers. River is a 10. I check and Rich shoves. I fold and he shows A-10, hit his three outer. I lose the rest of that stack when I get AKd, Dave raises and I flat call. Rich re-raises and I shove. He says "Are my Kings good?" and you know what? They are. I rebuy for the last time and bleed off to about $50 when I get K9c. Rich makes it $7 and I call along with Dave's neighbor. Flop A-J-2 with 2 clubs. Rich bets $15, guy calls, and I shove. Two callers later and you just know what happened. Brick-brick, Dave's neighbor shows Q-10c and Rich's AJ is good. I decided to just get up and leave. I got crushed every time I started to get anything going, and it just wasn't my night. I decided to just conserve my roll in anticipation of the WPT event tomorrow.

I will be tweeting live updates from Indiana as I play the $300+$40 Stud 8/Omaha 8 event at WPT Hollywood. I will probably also play some of the cash games. We're going out Monday, staying overnight, and returning Tuesday. Stay tuned for a trip report and results in a special Wednesday edition of my blog.

My Poker Weekend

My poker weekend started off just dandy. I decided to go to Pete's $1/1 game and play. When I got there it was $1/1 round by round hold'em and omaha. I lost my first buy-in to Meats when I raised with AQ, he re-raised with KK and I shoved. I flopped the nut flush draw and of course caught two bricks. Rebuy. Get my money in with a pair preflop in Omaha, flop a straight flush draw, and lose to Hiphop's dry pair of jacks on the river. Rebuy. Lost my third buyin when I misread Jesse in a hand, he was shoving and I thought he missed and called with a pair of 10's. No good. I decided to leave and head over to Gemini with a buyin. I run it up to $380 and then get snapped off for $130 in two hands. First I get 99, raise to $7. One caller. Flop 8-3-4. I bet $15, short stack makes it $25 more. I call. He says "Two pair" and then turns over 8-3 SUITED. Turn an 8. Then I get into an absolutely monstrous hand. I am in the BB with J-9. UTG makes it $10. Five callers. I call and take a flop. Flop 10-8-7 two spades. I check, initial raiser bets $15. Guy in the middle makes it $50. I shove $258. First guy calls off his last $40. Middle guy tanks...takes forever. He says "I know you have a straight...fuck it, I call". He rolls over a set of 7's and I am fucked. Turn 8 no waiting. I decide to leave after dropping $520 tonight. Everything I touched turned to shit, I couldn't hit a draw if I had to.

I decided to hit Dave's Saturday night and see if I could turn things around. I bought in the tournament short and tried to get going but couldn't really get a stack built. I finally took the add-on and ended up busting 30th. I couldn't hit a draw or get a hand to stand up, and I was constantly getting run over by sets. After I tapped out I decided to play NL instead of 8 game. Bought in $100, ran it up to about $400 when I got stabbed pretty hard by Matt G. I limped with 2's, flop was 2-3-5 two spades. Matt led out and I raised him. He called. Turn was a blank and he checked so I put him on a draw and shoved on him. He snap called and 4-6 was good. Lost about $150 there. Then I started playing frustrated when I got into a three way hand with Andrew and TK. TK raised preflop and I called with 6-5h, and Andrew called also. Flop was J-10-5 one heart. Andrew checks, TK bets. I call, Andrew calls. Turn is the Ah. Andrew bets out into TK. TK calls. I raise enough to put them both all-in. They both call. River 3h. I table my flush and Andrew shows JJ. TK mucks and I take a huge pot out of sheer frustration and luck. I had no logic for still being in the hand other than I was steaming and got lucky. After the usual beration for my poor play I tightened it back up. I was up and down a little more (ended up making trip 2's three times and losing all three, twice to 3 out boats). I finally cashed out +$426, taking my two day total to -$74 instead of -$500. I really need to work some more on controlling myself after I take a beat, I should probably be walking those off or something instead of continuing to play.

Headed over to Gemini to play some $1/2 for a bit. Bought in $245 (with tokes) and cashed out exactly $0. I had run it up to $711 at one point, and then the wheels came off of me. I picked off a $300 bluff and lost anyway when he hit his 2 outer on the turn. Got all the chips in three ways with top two and lost to the donkey straight. Etc, etc. Hands wouldn't hold up, my reads were way off, and I just generally played bad. One hand I have pocket 5's. Super nit guy makes it $10 preflop. Flop comes K-4-2 and guy slams $45 out, which is more than half what he has left. He's also moving tables next hand and I am sure he missed the flop. I raise him all-in, and the short stack behind me calls for less. Nit guy snap calls. Turn K. River 5. Ship it! He had aces, I horribly misread the hand and got lucky anyway. I never got AA or KK, had QQ twice and lost once with it, JJ once and lost, 10-10 once and lost, and none of my lower pairs tripped up. I did not make any straight draws, and only one flush (runner runner to boot).

I need to slow the fuck down, I am playing too fast. I think returning to internet poker and especially Rush Poker on Full Tilt are fucking up my live game. Ever since I returned to online I've done horribly IRL. I am going to quit internet poker again and see if I can turn my live game around. I want to be in good form for the WPT in two weeks, want to go and play the Stud 8/Omaha 8 mix event.

Riding the rush, until the wheels fall off

So, I've been playing almost exclusively cash games lately. Last week at Gemini I went on the heater of a lifetime, cashing out for a new record (for me). I bought in for $255 ($200 + $25 fee + $30 in tokes over the course of the night). I sat down to play $1/2 and was hitting cards early. I raised from the cutoff with Q-10h and got two callers. Flop 10-10-8. I continuation bet, one call. Turn a Q. I check, kid behind me fires out $50. I raise him all-in and he dumps. I show the Q10 and am off and rolling. Over the course of the night I got dealt a ton of small pocket pairs and kept flopping sets. Some of the bigger hands: I get 6-6 in the SB. Button makes it $16 to go. He's been fairly conservative, but I am running hot so I call. Flop K-6-3. I check, he bets $35. I raise him to $100 even. He shoves in on me and I snap call. Turn? 6. Ship it! That pot was a hair over $700 total. A little later on, a really tight player makes it $21 to go preflop. I call with A3c and the guy behind me calls. Flop 2-4-5 offsuit. She puts $100 in. I raise all-in. Guy behind me calls off his last $30. She shoves her stack in. I table my straight, she shows AA, guy behind me has K3. Turn A. River a blank and I drag another huge pot despite splitting the main with the guy behind me. I dragged a bunch more smaller pots before getting moved to the main table. I finally felt the rush dropping off and lost about $160 back before getting up and leaving with $1600.

I went back a few days later and took a stab at the $2/5 table. I bought in for $450 and had it up to about $700 before getting mushed by Kai and his Q2. I finally busted out with AQ when I shoved into a guy with KK. Oops. I took a few days off and went back to play this last Friday. When I got there, there was a $1/3 PLO going but no seats, so I took a $1/2 NL seat. I ran my $200 up to about $300 before getting moved. I played for about 2 hours and dragged only two pots. The first was when I got a short stack all-in with my nut flush/gutshot draw and hit the straight. The second hand was completely idiotic on my part. I had 8-5-5-4 with the 5-4d. Bunch of limpers, BB makes it $15. A few callers, I call as well. Flop J-6-5 offsuit. I check with the intention of check-raising the loose player who raised, but he checks also. The tightest guy at the table pots it for $75. I immediately think JJ but I want to see if the turn helps me or not. Turn Kd for diamond draw also. I check, he shoves all-in. I am frustrated and a little stuck, and I don't even stop to consider pot odds or anything. I snap call. River 5. Quads, sirs. I roll it over and the guy explodes, showing his JJ and berating my awful play. That particular guy ended up making three nut boats that night and losing all three hands to quads. Sick.

I bleed down a bit and decide to go play $1/2NL since I can't get a hand to stick. The floor moves me to a brand new table and I run up my $200 to about $300 when our table breaks. They ask if I want to go back to the $1/3 and I do. With some different players I start on my rush. I pick off a few bluffs and cash out about $600 ahead. I couldn't play Saturday so I decided to head back yesterday (Sunday) and take another run at the PLO. There wasn't a table going so I ended up at $1/2 with Hiphop. On my third hand I flopped the nut straight and checked. Guy behind me bets $35 and gets two callers. I slam it all-in and take it down. Finally I get my PLO seat and get rolling. I am down early, including losing my first buyin to Sammy when I flopped a set of Q's and lost to his 2 out broadway straight on the turn. I rebuy for $200 and am down to about $150 when I turn a J high straight and fade three guys with draws to drag in about $300. I plod along for a bit, hitting Q's full and getting two guys with two pair to pay off my $45 bet. I then get into my PLO hand of the year so far. I get 9-7-7-4 with the 74s from the button. Family pot, flop is AJ7 with two spades. The hillbilly on the end (complete with coveralls) bets the pot. Sammy just calls. I call. Turn is the 9d. (two spades two diamonds now). Hillbilly pots again, Sammy just calls. I call. River 6c. Hillbilly shoves his last $95 in. Sammy flat calls. I tank. I am relatively sure the hillbilly was on spades and missed. Sammy's flat call confuses me. All night when he had the nuts he would re-pot instantly. The only hands I am afraid of are JJ and 10-8. I doubt Sammy has JJ because he would've re-potted the flop. I rule out 10-8 because he didn't re-pot the river. I finally call and table my set. Sammy shows AJ and the hillbilly mucks and I drag a HUGE pot. I play two more rounds and cash out up $500 (plus a massage) for the evening.

This weekend is going to be a big poker weekend for me, stay tuned for updates.

Another Up And Down Weekend

This was my last free weekend for a while, so of course I decided to play poker the whole time. Friday night Kirsten and I headed to Gemini to play. I knew I was in trouble early on. I buy in for $200, get dealt Q9c in the BB. Mid position short stack makes it $10. I'm the only caller. Flop K-J-10 offsuit. I open-shove on him, he snap calls. Turn K. River A. I know immediately I am fucked, and he rolls over a K and shows it. Then he waits. The dealer goes to shove me the pot and he finally rolls over the A and shows the full house. Not only did he need runner runner to beat me, but he was a slow-rolling asshole about it too. I add on another hundred and get J-10 the very next hand. I limp and BB makes it $10. I am the only caller. Flop Q-J-9 with one spade. I check, guy bets $20, I call. Turn 8s. I have the straight. I check, he bets $25, I call. River 3s. I bet out $40, he snap calls and rolls over a 6 high spade flush. AWESOME. He was betting the whole way on runner runner 6 high flush and got there. I rebuy another $100 and start blinding down. I get plenty of playable hands (AK, AQ suited, pairs, etc) but can't make any hands. I finally lose my last $85 when I get dealt KJ suited. I raise it to $10 from the button, guy behind me (who has been re-raising people all night) makes it $22. I shove my $85 in and he snap calls. Flop K-Q-2 2 hearts. Turn 8c. River 8d. I show KJ and he rolls over AK and I am done. Kirsten cashes out and we head home. It's still fairly early so I decide to go to River Pete's and try to earn some of it back. I sit at the $1/1 where TK and Slacks are totally shitfaced. Terry is throwing a party. On my 3rd hand I get 5-7c. Terry raises it to $7 and I call. Flop is J-4-2 two clubs. I check, Terry bets, and I call. Turn is a club. I check, Terry bets, and I repop it all-in. He tanks for a second and finally calls. River is a blank and I roll over the flush. He shows AJ (no club) and I double up. I plod along up and down a little. I get into a hand with HipHop where I raise to $7 preflop with A-10. He calls, flop comes Q-8-4 all spades. He bets $15 into me. I have the 10s, and it occurs to me that if he flopped a flush he'd let me bet. I pop him all-in (another $50). He tanks and starts talking to himself. I turn up the 10s to show him. After a few minutes he calls. Turn 4, River A. He tables Q-8 for flopped 2 pair and show my Ace for the pot. I got into one other big pot later on. I get pocket 2's and Grayday makes it $10 to go. Hiphop and I call. Flop 4-Q-4. HH and I check, Grayday bets $35. He has another $51 behind. HH folds, I tank. I put him on AK, I think he completely missed it. I shove in and he snap calls and rolls over AA. Oops. Turn Q. River 2, ship it! I cash out +$210 and a much needed win.

Saturday K and I planned to hit Gemini early and head to Dave's later for cash. We get there at 6 because there's supposed to be a $5/10 limit game but despite 12 people on the list only 5 show up and it doesn't go. I sit down at $1/2 and prepare for the usual ass-kicking. I sit at a table with this girl I remember from Mountaineer, she runs with a crew that play $1/2 and $2/5 around town. She's being extremely quiet, and gets mad at me when she gets in a big hand with someone else and pulls her hood down to cover her eyes. I want to see what she does so I lean down and stare at her from the table level. She ends up mucking her hand but won't speak to me after that. She gets in a hand with Kirsten where she flops top 2, Kirsten turns Broadway, and she rivers a boat. On the river bet she pops K $100 even and I pick up a tell on her. We get into a hand a few minutes later, she has the button, I am one behind the cutoff. Table folds to me, I limp. She limps. SB makes it $10. I call with 10-9. She calls. Flop 9-7-6. SB checks, I check, she bets $25. We both call. Turn 8. No flush on board. SB checks, I bet $45. She raises it to $145. SB folds. I catch her tell, she either has the same hand as me or I am nutted. I don't want to play for stacks with 2nd nuts, I fold the straight face up and she stares at me. I am sure she had J-10. She bet the gutshot when we both checked as a semi-bluff or steal and hit the gutter with me. I should've repopped the flop bet or checked her the turn. Hmph. I also picked up a huge tell on Matt S ("Little Fag"). He bet me off a few pots and I finally got his tell, then it was confirmed when he showed down a huge bluff in a $200 pot. I moved tables before I could use it against him though, but I'm sure we'll play together again and I can pick him off. I got bumped to the $5/10 and started off great. I get AK on the button, flop comes K-10-9. Checks to me, I bet, 4 callers. Turn 9. Molson leads out into me. I call. River 6. He bets again, I call. He shows 9-7 for trips. Next hand I get QQ. Bump it to $10, three callers. Flop Q-7-5 two spades. Checks to me, I bet. Three callers. Turn 2s. Checks to me, I bet again. Three callers. River 5. Checks to me, I bet again. One caller. He shows KK, I show the boat. Ship it. It was the only $5/10 pot I won. About 10 minutes later I get AQ on the button. Raise to $10. 7 callers. Yes, 7. Flop K-J-10 offsuit. Mid position bets $5, I raise to 10. EVERYONE CALLS. Initial bettor makes it $15, I cap at $20. EVERYONE CALLS. 8 people to the turn. J on the turn. Mid position bets his last $3. I pop to the full $10. EVERYONE CALLS. River 6. No flush. Checks to me, I bet $10. EVERYONE CALLS. I show my straight, the guy who capped with me on the flop rolls over KJ for the boat. Everyone else shows cards, they all had face cards. He literally had only ONE OUT and hit it. I've played NL with him too and I'm sure that hand plays out like that in NL too. I request a $1/2 seat again now that I've dropped $100 in two hands. Bumped back to $1/2 I get dealt K-10. Angry arab guy on the end is making it $17 preflop every hand. He's stuck and he's spewing chips. I call, two other calls. Flop K-Q-3. Check to him, he bets $33. I call. One other caller. Turn 10. I shove $214. Guy behind me snap calls. Arab guy snap calls. River a blank. I show K-10. Guy in the middle shows K-10. Arab guy had KJ and missed and we split his stack. Angry internet kid between us berates us for our play. A few hands later, internet kid makes it $10 to go and I call with AKh. Flop 7-4-2 2 hearts. He bets half his stack, $35. I push all-in for $340. Folds around to him, he calls off his last $30. Turn Qs and he flips up Q-10 off. River a brick and he wins on his 4 outer. I cash out for the night +$60 instead of +135 or more. I guess a win is a win though.

Riding The Poker Rollercoaster

I have had a very up and down week in poker, and now I'm back stuck in the mostly down part. I couldn't play last Friday due to "family commitments" (no day care at Gemini), so I decided to hit Dave's Saturday for the Chili cookoff and semi-deepstack tournament. I also entered the chili cookoff as a goof. I had talked to several people about entering a canned chili to see if the "judges" could tell it from all the others. They couldn't. My 9 cans of Chunky Roadhouse chili finished in second place and only lost to El_Diabl0's chili by 7 points (which is nothing, really). After they announced the winners I let everyone know what they'd be eating. I found out later that Mark had entered a large can of chili dog topping he put peppers in. The idea wasn't mine, Steve Graham wanted to do it years ago but never followed through.

The tournament was really large - 56 buy ins I believe. I got lucky early on. This new kid raised, and when he did he was shaking bad. I knew he had a huge hand. I called his raise with J9c. Flop came 10-3-2 with one club. He continuation bet, and I called hoping to either turn a draw or bet him off on the turn. The turn was the Qc, giving me a straight and flush draw. I open-shoved on him and he tanked for a minute before calling and turning over KK. River? 8. Ship it! After that, I got into a sick hand with Karl. He raised preflop, and I called with J9 again. Caveman folded, and when he did he accidentally showed me the Ace of spades. Flop came A-9-2. Karl leads out, and I think about this...only one over on the flop, and I know an Ace is dead. I decide Karl missed and I shove on him. He snap calls and rolls over A-10. River J pumps me up to 30k and I cruise to the final table. I finished 4th after I raised with K-10 4 handed, flopped a K and got it all in against Caveman, and lost to his runner runner 2 pair. Had I won that pot I would've had over half the chips in play and would've squashed that final table. As it was, I cashed $380 and only had time for a few rounds of 8 game where I dropped $50.

Sunday I decided to hit Gemini again and play some $1/2. I took a few horrendous beatings (including a hand where I flopped a set of 9's and lost to runner runner heart flush). I dropped my tournament earnings back there and decided to call it a night. Monday night I went back for a few hours of $1/2 and took yet another squashing. I should've got up after the first beating, but I stuck it out. I got AA on the button and mid position made it $10. I raise to $30. BB (who just rebought $100) shoves his $100 in. Mid folds and I snap call and show my AA. He rolls over AKh and I am fucked. Flop? KKQ. So, I rebuy $100 and play a bit more. At one point I triple up with QJ after flopping top two and consider leaving but am too stupid to do so. I then proceed to lose $250 in two hands after paying off two rolled up sets. I finally go broke when I flop and open ended straight flush draw, get called all-in by a $2/5 guy with KJ high, and go brick brick to lose. Discouraged, I decided not to buy in again and just leave. Today I went back with another $300 and had a go at it. I barely made it an hour. Hand #4 I raise with QJc. Flop K-3-4 two clubs. I bet and get called. Turn 10c. The other player shoves in and I snap call. River a blank and he rolls over K7c. FUUUUUUUUUUUCK! I rebuy $100 and lose half when I turn K's and Q's and the other guy rivers a 6 high heart flush. On my last hand I get AKc. I raise to $10 and get a few callers. Flop 3-4-5 with 2 clubs. I check, guy in the middle bets $25, I push in $100 more and he snap calls and rolls over 6-5h. Turn 6 river 5 and he fills up. I decide to leave, down $300 again. So far, I have only profited in my first trip there and have proceeded to get pounded in my last four trips. I apparantly need to take a break from there for a little bit. I hope Dave's Saturday will be a good rebuilding game.

Playing at the Gemini Club

So, yesterday I tried out the new Gemini Players Club. When I got there a little before 7 there was no cash table and only 5 people for tournament. We stayed a little and finally a table scraped together. I bought in for $245 total ($200 buyin, $25 fee, and $20 in dealer tokes). I sat down and immediately took $100 off of one of the regulars. I raised with AK, flopped a King, and it ran. I built my stack up with a few different hands. I was hovering around $600 when I raised with A8h on the button. One caller for $10, flop 2-2-3 with 2 hearts. I c-bet the flop for $20, he calls. Turn Qh. Bingo. I bet $40, he calls. River is a blank, he checks and I bet $100. He flat calls and mucks when I table the flush. I finally cashed out at the end for $886. I was plus $1465 for the weekend after this session.

I went back today and discovered that the rush was over. I bought in for $235 ($200 + $25 + $10 in tokes). First hand I get JJ, raise it preflop to $10, three callers. Flop is 8-2-4 two diamonds, checked to me and I lead out for $20. Short stack shoves for $55, I repop it all in. Third player folds and I lose to a set of 4's. I bleed down to about $80 when I get 77 in the cutoff. UTG makes it $10, few callers and I call $10. BB makes it $35. UTG (who is tilting from a previous beat) angrily calls. Three others call. I shove for $58 more. BB shoves all-in. UTG shoves in. Everyone else folds. Flop is all blanks, turn a 9, river a blank. BB shows AK, UTG shows A9 suited, my 7's get mushed. I rebuy and play a few hands before the final doozy of the night. Old man at the end of the table makes it $20 UTG. He's been severely overbetting with A-x and I am sure he doesn't have a pair. I wake up to 10's and call. Everyone else folds. Flop 5-8-2 2 hearts. He open shoves for $210. I have $213 behind and snap call. He shows A-J and is 99.999999997% to win. Turn a blank, river an A. I decide I've had enough and leave, still up $200+ for the two days.

As for the club itself, it's very well run. The dealers are quick and efficient, and they bring checks right away when you need them. The food and drink are OK, overall it's a classy place. There are some concerns I had about the security last night though. The guard doesn't look like he could stop an ice cream truck. Unless he's doing the Mr. Furious routine from Mystery Men, that is. The cage door was left unlocked and unattended repeatedly. I understand there was only about 10 people there, and there are cameras everywhere, but it's still a bad idea. Tonight was better, two people covering the cage it was attended all the time. I am told that Saturday night there was over $70k on the tables, so they definitely need to stay on top of the money.

I will definitely play again, and I recommend it to the CPMGers at large. The owner/manager/whatever and I talked and he is emphatic that he wants to spread a variety of games and would absolutely get experienced dealers if we wanted to do mix games or draw games. I hope this takes off.

A Profitable Weekend (Long and Rambling, sorry)

This is my one free weekend this month (no kids, no on call for work) so I decided to be as big a degenerate as possible for me. Kirsten and I hit Eddie J's on Friday night for some $1/1 NLHE. I've been staying away from NL for the most part due to the excessive beatings I've been taking at it, but she really wanted to go and I didn't feel like sitting at home alone, so I decided to take a couple buy-ins and just nit it up.

I lost half my $150 stack early on, guy raised with 10's preflop, I called with 58s and flop came 3-5-6 2 spades. I check-raised him all-in and he quickly called, of course I bricked out. I was hovering around $80 when I got moved to the second table. The table was playing very passive except for the guy on the end who decided to bet every hand when it was checked to him since people kept folding. I check-raised him for $50 on a stone bluff (my one try for the night) and he folded, bringing me back up to a little profit. That hand got me rolling, and then I started slamming the game hard. I limped with 2-2, no raises, flop comes Q-10-2 two diamonds. Dawn bets out $10, I raise to $25. She re-raises to $60, I shove. She tanks, and calls out my hand "I know you have a set of 2's". She turns her hand up, she has Q-10c. She talks herself into believing I'm on a draw and shoves in $150 more and my hand holds up. I then slid into that awesome zone where I was actually making hands and getting paid. I called a raise with AK and flopped Broadway, I raised preflop with J's and turned J's full of 4's, etc. I ran it up to about $500 and was considering leaving when we got merged to one table.

I continued to hit hands including flopping another set of J's against someone with KJ, and I put a couple of sick suckout beats on Aunt Patty. She got me early on with a couple of dumb plays (raises UTG with 78 off, I flop trip 9's and she turns a straight, etc). She was getting short stacked and opened for a $12 raise with 6's. I called with AK. Flop was 2-4-7. She shoves for about $45, I call. Turn A, I take it down. She got all mad, but she had what I figured her for (plus I was WAY up at that point) and putting a beat on Patty is just desserts. There was one giant clusterfuck hand with Eddie J that cemented my night. In early position, Jewish Andy (who, BTW, is not Jewish) raises to $8. I call with Q9h, Eddie calls, a couple other people call. Flop comes 9-9-8 2 clubs. Andy leads out and I pop it to $50. Eddie re-raises all-in. Guy behind him calls for $47. Andy tanks and folds (he said he had KK I think). I tank for a minute, but I decide that Eddie's range is open and he could be anywhere from a draw like J-10c to a 9. I figure in a cash game I really can't fold trips, so I call. Eddie tables 8's for a flopped full. Turn is a blank, river a Q for a higher boat. Eddie looked like someone shot his dog. Up to about $750, I hit cruise control for a while until it comes down to the very last hand of the night. I am in the blind with JJ, Eddie raises from the mid to $8. I pop it to $20. He thinks I'm making a move because it's last hand, he calls. Flop is 2-3-3 two hearts. I lead for $50. He tanks for a minute and just calls. Turn is a Q. I am concerned that he may be on overs like AQ or KQ, but I am not folding. I put $100 out. Eddie tanks again and finally shoves for another $40. I call and table my Jack's. River is a blank and Eddie mucks. I finally cash out $963 on a single $150 buyin.

Saturday night at Dave's did not go as well. I busted out of the tournament about halfway in, I had been floating and couldn't get any momentum. Tournament just isn't my game right now. I sit down at 8 game and for the first few orbits I can't miss. I get into a couple hands with Colin and I put a couple of horrible beats on him, and I run my stack up to about $400. I then proceed to give $150 of it to RR Dave on a stone bluff (my one of the night) and was of course picked off. I put a lot of pressure on him, but he couldn't lay down bottom set and I get snapped off. (I don't think he made a bad call, certainly I would've. I obviously didn't put him on a set or I wouldn't have bluffed at all). I spiral down to about $55 and get up to go play NL. The NL table is down to me, K, Mailman, Dave, Paoli, and Roland. It's a nit-fest, with everyone folding to $3 raises. I float there until Mailman flops a set against Roland's flopped straight and busts, breaking the table. I head back to 8 game with 15 minutes left to final orbit. I get into a couple of huge hands with Jeff Reigler (including making a wheel in Stud 8) and run myself back up to about even. When the table finished I was back up to $184, minus my tournament loss I profited $4 for the session. This was after I covered about $50 in prop losses, my Jack of Hearts really fucked me last night, I couldn't hit shit in the first round of props.

Today I'm going to go over and check out this Gemini Players Club and see what the deal is. Everyone says it's a berry patch, so I may end up liking it and it's pretty close. I will report back on it after I play a little and try it out.

A Break Even Weekend, Sort Of...

I didn't get to play a lot of poker the past week, I have been on call for work. Working 14+ hours a day takes it out of me (I'm not 23 anymore, and I can feel it) and it's tough to concentrate on poker when the threat of the phone ringing lurks behind you. I made it to Dave's last night for some hot 8 game action and was seated at the most ridiculous tournament table. I'm sandwiched inbetween Chan and Gary K, who have decided that they don't really care about the tournament and are playing like it.

Chan is raising blind before the cards are dealt, Gary is calling without looking, Chan is shoving blind on the flop, etc etc etc. Can I get a hand to hold up? Nope. I take the rest of Gary's first buyin with pocket Jacks, but other than that I couldn't get any momentum. I blinded down to about 6K when I shoved on Mailman with KJh. He snap called with A2 and I was out. In the cash game, I sit down at NL for a few minutes until the 8 game opens up. No real hands of note, though I did make $40 in about 10 minutes. Once 8 game opened up it got more interesting. Jeff was in full calling mode, running me down several times in stud and razz with hands he shouldn't be calling a bring in with. I can't complain too much, I want him to stay in with this crap, it just gets frustrating to see him in so far behind and then win the hand.

There was the usual drama, too. We ended up with Grayday at our 8 game table because the NL broke up at 3:15. Chan and Andrew had decided that they didn't want to play five handed NL anymore, so they got up and moved to a different table to play heads up NL. With only three people left the NL table broke and Grayday sat with us. He's both a gift and a curse - he has no idea how to play (and that's good for my profit) but it slows the game down with the constant "How much can I make it?" and "What do I have?".

I should be back to regular pokering soon, the winter season is letting up and spring is slow for work so I will have more free time to roll. I am finally out of debt and making money for the first time in three years, so I can establish a roll and seek out better games for my skill set. I heard there was a $5/10 Stud 8 game at Mountaineer recently, I would take the day off work and rob someone to play in that game.

As for my new poker app, I like it. I think I'll buy the full version. It's easy to set up, and the chart does not hide anything from me. I do like seeing the little line moving upward after every 8 game session (though this time it only went up $7, but they can't all be life changers I guess).

Back From Hiatus

I haven't posted in about a month, with the holidays and work it's been tough to get free time to ramble on here. So, I offer a few jumbled observations from the haze of the past few weeks, and then I shall commit to posting regularly again.

So, a few highlights: I took 3rd in Dave's tournament on 12/12 for $110. Not a bad way to kill some time. I'm not really concentrating on tournament play much anymore, especially with the surge in 8 game play. I have also secured a guaranteed seat in the POY final with that cash, so I no longer need to keep contributing the +$1. I know that annoys the shit out of Mailman, but why should I keep dumping extra dollars into a pot I have little real chance of winning? It seems +EV to me stop paying extra and still get a shot at the kitty.

With the push for 8 game lately I've been doing much better in cash, albeit at lower increments. I'm not cashing out $1K a night but I've certainly been covering my expenses with it. I only have one losing session, and most of that loss was at NLHE while I was waiting for mix game players. I've also slowly begun playing props with the other guys, I'll probably get more into it as it progresses.

I downloaded a trial version of the "Poker Journal" app for the iPod Touch. I want to give it a try before I plunk down the $13 for the full version. All the reviews I read on the web were positive, most people say it's worth the money. I'm going to give it a run and see.

More after this weekend's pokering.

Nautica: Bad For My Bankroll

So, last entry I promised my observations on Nautica Charity Poker. I have played probably a dozen sessions there and haven't had nearly the success that others have claimed. There are several reasons for this: the loose play there requires a larger bankroll than I have available, I have had several plain AWFUL runs of cards there (flopping nut flushes and losing to runner runner FH, etc). One of the other reasons, and the reason I won't be playing there anymore, is the rampant cheating.

Yes, cheating. Everyone I've talked to from the CPMG that plays there says they've seen stuff here or there, but in the past few weeks I've noticed blantant cheating teams that weren't even trying to hide what they were doing. Some examples: I moved to a $5/10 limit table and sat down in between two players who were obviously together. At different points during hands, he would pick his cards up in a way so she could see them, and she was doing the same. They started blantantly whipsawing the table (raising each other to trap suckers in between). They would raise each other until everyone else folded, then they would check it down. At one point she ran low on money and he handed her some away from the table. They got into a huge hand where he flopped a set and they started raising each other, trapping a poor guy in the middle who didn't realize what was going on. When he said "What the fuck?" I said loudly "It's a whipsaw!". They both shot me a dirty look, and shortly after that they left. They're there all the time, everyone knows them but no one ever calls them out for their blantant collusion. The floor are a bunch of useless volunteers, they can't figure shit out and if you can't prove beyond a doubt what's happening there's little you can do. At a different session, I sat with them again and watched as he slyly got up every time his blind was coming around, and then sat back in without posting after it passed him. The third time he did it, I made the dealer stop and made him post. He got mad and took his money off the table and left.

The final straw came a few days ago at the $1/2 NL. I got seated at a table with some regulars (who play there all the time and all know each other). In a limped pot, the board came 8-8-K. One player who I suspect of colluding picks up his chips and throws out a bet way to the side toward his buddy. It looked so unnatural and forced that it caught my attention. I had a K (KQc), and was immediately suspcious when the friend just called. I folded my K and everyone else folded to them. The guy who opened the betting just mucked his hand on the turn and shoved his friend the pot with no showdown or betting. Later on, as I was watching them, I noticed they were using chip signals (putting chips in certain places on their cards to indicate hand strength) and were also whipsawing pots (bet, someone in between calls, raise, etc). I decided to stop playing there when my final $50 went in with 8-8 against 6-6 and K-2 (no kidding, K-2). K2 flopped trips and I was out.

Nautica seems to be a breeding ground for collusion and cheating. There's little oversight, the cameras don't see everything and no one monitors them anyway, and there are way too many people with their hands in pots, on the cards, etc. At the $5-$10 I watched a guy chop up a pot so the dealer could get the next hand out, and he managed to drop a $5 on his own stack even though he wasn't in the hand. I called him out on it, and he quickly returned it to the pile saying "Oh, whoops". Yes, whoops indeed. I finally quit the $5/10 when the shuffler popped up red and said it was short a card. I opened the shuffler and was going to count the deck down when one of the players said "it does that all the time, leave it alone". I insisted, saying that if it was missing a card we should know. When the same person kept arguing with me I was certain he had slid a card off the table. They made the dealer hand shuffle to keep the action going, and I left. I can't prove what happened and I don't need to. The fact that I suspect it all is reason enough to avoid the place.

Another 8 Game Victory

I haven't been blogging as much lately, I actually haven't been playing cards that much either. I hit Dave's last week for the 8 game and sat at a full table with TK, Meats, RR Dave, Dennis, and Data. I did pretty well, cashed out up $116. Terry was up a couple hundred, he really does well at the stud games (where he learned limit). I was surprised he would even play when a NL game was on, but he stayed at our table all night.

Last Saturday was spectacular. I went early to play the $50 deepstack. I made one bad play that crippled me (called Data's raise with A-10 in position, he had AK, we both flopped an A and I put him in and lost). I doubled up with a good play on Dave (shoved over his raise with 88 and he folded). I got KK under the gun with only 9900 left and made it 2k to go. The button raised to 7k and I shoved, of course he snap calls and turns up 10's and I am out after a river 10. I decided to sit at the NL game and nit it up for a while until the 8 game busted out. I made a huge call early that helped out. I was in the BB and Rich straddled for $2. Couple calls, I look down at Q3s and tossed another $1 in, Rich checked. Flop is Q-J-3. Checks around to Danny, he fires out $10. Jamie calls, I call, everyone else folds. Turn is another J, at which point Jeff R rolls his eyes and slaps the table. I am a bit worried about being counterfeited so I check again to see what happens. Danny bets another $10. Jamie calls, I call. River is a 10. Check-check to Danny, he fires out $36. Jamie folds, and it's to me. I only have $50 left, but I start running through the hand. If he had AQ, QQ, KQ or QJ he would've raised preflop. He could conceivably have Q-10 but I just feel like he missed something. I decide if I'm wrong I'll rebuy and I call. He shows 4-4 and I scoop a nice pot. 8 game finally opened up and I cash down to $150 and move.

The 8 game was a lot peppier this week than the week before. Hip Hop, Colin, and Pro West sat in with us, which made for a lively table. HH did a lot of raising in spots he really shouldn't have (a common mistake when NL players try to move to limit) and lost a lot of pots he had no business being in. It's fun to watch a NL player twist in the wind when he can't bet enough to bluff or push someone off a hand. For example: in 2-7 Triple Draw I make the nuts on the last draw and lead out. Meats gets worried and just calls, and HH two bets me. Colin looks over and asks "What the fuck are you doing?" as I three bet it. Meats gets sick and lays down a 7-6 low while HH calls with his 8-6 low. I show the nuts and scoop. I tried to avoid getting into any NL or PL hands with HH as I know these are not my strongest games and there was no reason to put my stack at risk in a dick waving contest. I did lose a nasty PLO hand where HH raises preflop with 3-3-5-8. I call with AK66 (suited A) and flop the nut flush. I check call his pot bet on the flop. On the turn the board pairs 5's and we both check. River? 8. I check call him again and lost $25 to his runner runner boat. He didn't believe I flopped the nuts but I know that any other way I play that hand I get stacked. He would call a repot on the flop and once he turns trips he's going nowhere. He might be dumb enough to pump it with a flopped flush but I'm not.

Ended up the night +$300 after covering my tournament loss. 8 game seems to be gaining some faithful followers, we actually had more people playing it this week than were playing NL. Chan closed down the NL table after felting a few people. They were begging for players and no one wanted to leave our table. I am confident there will be another 8 game this weekend as well, I can't wait to go extract more profit.

In my next post I will attempt to analyze my history at Nautica and explain why I won't be playing there anymore.

A Much Needed Poker Win

I decided to make my way to Dave's again Saturday to play the tournament and try to work on my game a little. I was floating around the 8k starting stack until after the break when I got moved to Gary's table. Gary raised to 16k and 5 people (including me) called. I had K-10, flop was 10-10-3. Gary bet, I shoved and he called with A3c. He turned a wheel and club draw but bricked the river and I suddenly had 24k. I got moved to table 3 (incidentally, I ended up being moved enough times that I played at all 4 tournament tables at one point or another). I was in the BB for 1200 when the SB raises to 2500. I call with 98c and the flop comes J-8-2. He shoves for his last 4K and I call, he has A9 and misses. With 32K I get moved back to the feature table and then start getting pummelled. I lose 9K to Monsignor when he re-raises me all-in with J-10d against my AJ. Of course he hit his flush on the turn, I'm drawing dead. Crippled, I lose a few more small pots and get moved AGAIN to table 2. I blind off some more until I get AK on the BB. Colin button raises and I shove my last 16K in, he snap calls with A7d and sure enough he rivers a flush. Shell shocked, I get up.

With that we had enough people to open an 8 game table for $3/6 stakes. The game played mostly solid except for Jack being in damn near every hand. I get dealt rolled up K's in stud, bet it like it's going out of style, and lose to Jack's gutshot straight draw that gets there on 7th street. I also turned a straight and flush draw in PLO and lost $25 on the river when I made my flush and paid off Meat's higher flush. I finished the cash game up $9. A win is a win, I'll take it. After a 5AM run to IHOP with the 8 game crew I head home to sleep it off.

I get up Sunday at 1 and decide to meander over to Julie's for the $60. Julie gets crippled early by Kristina when they both flop trips and Kristina has an Ace with hers. In a limped pot I flop top pair Jacks with QJ and lead out. Julie snap calls. On the turn a 2nd diamond comes out, and Julie shoves her stack in. I call and she shows 10-7 for a gutshot and a flush draw. She bricks and I win. I then cripple myself when I call a raise in position with 3-4d. Flop 4-5-10 2 diamonds. I check raise the original raiser and he calls. Turn is the Kh and he shoves half his stack in. I have a monumental brain fart and just shove on him, he snap calls and rolls over AKd. Brick on the river and I'm down to 200. I get K2d on the button, Kristina min-raises and I shove. There's 1100 in the pot and I raise her 2100 more. She calls with A4 and I am out.

I decide to head over to Nautica and ply my trade at $5/10 limit. I was surprised to see Andre at the $2/5 tables, when I left he had over $1600 in his stack. I sit down and fold for a little bit and watch the table. There's an ATM at the end that is in hyper aggressive mode. He's betting and raising every chance he can, and people keep folding to him. Finally someone gets pissed and calls him with a pair of 2's which end up being good. Smelling blood, the regulars and I begin running him down. I get AQ in the blind and call his raise, flop is K-8-2 all spades (I have the As). He bets and I smooth call with a few others. Turn the Js. DA NUTS! He bets again and I smooth call him, down to just us. River is a blank and he bets again. I pop it to $20 and he gets mad and calls, I show him the nuts and scoop a nice one. I win a bunch of smaller pots and after 2 seat fees decide I don't want to pay a 3rd. I cash out up $150, recovering my two tournament losses for the weekend and adding a bit of scratch to my poor, anemic bankroll. I think I need to spend more time at the $5/10, I can play it pretty soft and still make a decent profit.

The Wheels Have Come Off

So, I decided to hit Dave's game last Saturday and play some cash. I made it with 3 minutes to spare for the tournament, and there weren't many people there so I bought in. First hand AK off, Gary K makes it 1200 to go. I call and miss the flop compeletely and am forced to fold off 6.5% of my stack. After the break, blind down to 4500 (started at 7900) and finally shove on Malcolm with J9 suited. He tanks for a minute and calls with 66. Board comes AAKK4 and I win on kicker. I plod along for a while and make the final table. I get into a monster three way all-in between me (AJ off), Jamie (A2 off) and TK (A8s). TK makes trip 8's on the turn and I take the side pot and eliminate Jamie, breaking mostly even. TK then doubles me up with his AK against my 99. I make it down to 3 handed and bust with my J9 (again, I know) against a new guy who couldn't lay down QJ off. I take my $100 cashout to the cash game, where I promptly lose it in less than 2 orbits.

I sit down and don't play a hand until I get JJ. Raise to $6, two callers. Flop A-A-8, I bet $12 and they fold. Then I get 44 in the blind. Paul Millions makes it $6. I call, as does Father Time. Flop 10-6-5. I check, Paul checks, Joe checks. Paul oftens raises/checks with big Aces, I am figuring he missed this flop. A-10 or a pocket pair would've bet, so I think I might be good. Turn a 6, I check again. Paul bets $12. I am fairly sure he's on air. Joe calls, I call. River 4. Bingo! I open/shove for $50. Paul smooth calls. Joe folds. I declare "I have a full house" and Paul says "So do I..." as he tables 10-10. Oops. FUCK! I decide not to rebuy and just leave.

Kirsten and I were bored Sunday and I talked her into a trip to Nautica so I could play some $5/10 limit. I buy in for $220 and proceed to blow $80 in two hands to the same exact beat. I flop top pair, get a guy betting it the whole way like he has the nuts only to see his runner-runner flush. I called $5 on the button with 6-5d and flop comes A-6-5. I bet it the whole way and watch the pot go to the guy with AJ who hits his J on the river card. I rebuy another $100 and just get pummeled. Call a raise with AK, flop a K, bet the whole way and get run down by a guy with J9 who catches runner-runner two pair (he calls a check-raise on the flop with no pair and no draw and gets lucky). I get up $320 lighter and decide that I am finished.

With that loss my bankroll is officially flat. It seems that poker and I need to see other people for a little while. I am going to stick to a few tournaments and stay out of the cash game mix for a while. With Christmas coming up I can't dump any more money into poker right now, I need to take care of my kids first. I'm sure if the occasional sweet limit cash game (like an 8 game at Dave's) pops up I'll play, but NL and I are taking some time off. First of the year I am making a few changes to my bankroll and how I track it, I've been reading some books and want to take a few steps to start taking poker more seriously. I've been playing too casually, it's taking a toll.

Cash Game Meltdowns

I've been putting off a new entry for a few days since I've been taking a horrendous (and mostly self inflicted) beating at the cash tables. Last week at Nautica I dropped $500 in two sessions. I went last Tuesday and only had time to play until 7PM. I got there at 5:10 and didn't get seated until 5:50 at the $5/10. I piddled away $50 until a $1/2 seat opened and I jumped in. My table played pretty solid for about an hour, I was about even when the tournament was beginning and most of my table was leaving to play in it. Last hand before they broke, I get 8-3 off in the BB. UTG makes it $10 and everyone calls back to me. "Fuck it, last hand!" I think and toss in two reds. Flop 8-5-8. I check, UTG fires $25, one call in the middle. I call. Turn 2. I check, UTG fires another $25, mid raises all-in for $100 more. I snap call and UTG folds, he shows 9-8 and I leave with a small handful of reds, completely disgusted at my own stupidity. I deserved to lose that.

I decided to go back Thursday night and make another go at it. I bought in for $200 and blinded down for a while. It sucks when you're not getting hands, because you're hamstrung. There's NO bluffing these retards. For example: On a board of 4-4-7-7 two spades UTG leads out for $10 after limping and checking around the flop and turn. I raise to $40 with AJ figuring (correctly) that UTG has nothing. I am surprised to see old man behind me tank for a minute and then call. I figure him for a 4 and kiss my $40 goodbye. UTG folds. River Q. I check, old man rolls over Q5 of spades, he hit his Q on the river chasing a flush on a double paired board. Gotta love it. I am down to about $110 when I get K10h on the button. Mid position raises it to $7, whole table calls. Flop A-K-9 two hearts. I open-shove for $100, get snap called by a guy with A-5 (no heart). I flush on river and double back to even. I then shank a girl for her $100 buyin when I turn Aces up on her. Feeling good, half hour till I gotta leave. Internet douchebag at the table is racking up his $1k and decides "one more hand". He's UTG and limps, I limp with A-10. Flop A-7-8. He leads for $10, I raise to $40. He snap calls and says "I think you're on a draw". Turn is a 6, he leads for $100. I shove and he snap calls, shows the dead nuts (10-9). I hit insult Ace on river. It was a horrible play on my part, I was so sure Douchebag was trying to push me around. I never stopped to consider why he would do that on his last hand instead of just folding and leaving. Another loss I had coming to me, I guess.

So, smarting from that I decide to play Dave's Saturday night. Rolling along pretty good when I get Timmy at my table. He's playing a bit aggressive, and at the $300/600 level he starts making steal raises. He makes it $2100 to go with A-9 off and I look down at 66. I shove, and he tanks for a minute and then calls me. Board runs K-5-7-K-7 and I lose on kicker. Disgusted, I sit down at the cash game for $150. I start out flopping huge draws, straights and flush draws. I brick out time and time again on them. The one time I turn my inside straight I have to lay it down to a huge raise by Eddie J. He just looked like he smashed the board, and I had the lower straight so I opted to fold it. He told someone else he had two pair, oh well I guess. I get down to $70ish when I make it $6 to go from cutoff + 1 with 9-7s. Eddie calls, Ken makes it $10 more. I call, Eddie folds (great). Flop J-9-7. Bingo! Ken open-shoves, I snap call and roll over my two pair. He turns up KK and I know I'm fucked. Yep, K on the turn and drawing dead. I reload and get into a stupid hand with Pyxis. She'd been raising a lot more than I remembered, and she was betting flops and pushing. She made it $10 preflop and I called with 88. Flop K-9-7 two clubs. She bets $15 and it smells like a c-bet to me. Chan even says "C'mon, you can't hit every flop". I call and the turn is the Ac. Three clubs on board and she fires out $25 without missing a beat. I think about it and decide she has to be on either AK or AQ, and I don't think she has a club. I call and the river is an 8 giving me a set. She puts out $40 and I shove. She thinks about it for a while and calls, I say "set" and she rolls over 9-9 for a higher set. I decide that's enough shitty play for me, I need to go.

My bankroll has taken a monster hit over the past few weeks, which I attribute mostly to me playing fast and loose. I'm not sure how I let it get that out of control, but it's clear I need to lay off the gas. I'm going into bankroll rebuild mode, going to concentrate on limit games and smaller tournaments until I can get my game back under control.

Also, as has been noted elsewhere one of the local cash games was robbed last night. I don't normally play this game, it's a very loose/open $1/2 that plays like a $5/10 by the end of the night. The incident reminds me of why so many hosts like to say "No New Players" and why no matter who you're playing with you should always keep one eye on your chips and one on the door. I expect a show of force at Dave's this weekend, plenty of people with CCW's will be there and will be ready if trouble decides to show up.

Vegas Trip Report (Possibly long and boring)

Got back from Las Vegas yesterday morning, actually had a pretty decent trip this time. Vegas is getting better for me now that I know where to go to get in the games I like and avoid the never ending procession of douchebags.

We got in early and after sleeping off the plane ride decided to head over to Venetian to play $1/2. I sat down and got mauled early for my first buy-in. I limped with 77, 5 to the flop. Q-10-7 two diamonds. SB makes it $10. BB pops it to $25. I shove $200 in. Button says "I KNOW you have a set, I'm here to gamble" and shoves his money in. Folds around and he flips up A8d. Turn? Flush of course and brick on the river.

Played some more Venetian and was stuck about $600 and pretty frustrated when I decided to take another shot at the $1/2. I sit down at a very tight table full of nits who are limping every pot and check calling. I get A-8 in the cutoff and pop it to $10. One caller. Flop 8-6-3 rainbow. Caller checks, I toss in $20. He calls. Turn 2. He leads into me for $25. I can't imagine he has a set, he certainly would've checked and tried to induce more betting from me. What could the 2 have done for him? Not much. I decide to test him and pop it to $80. He tanks for a minute and then shoves. I can't figure out what he's on so I call and he tables 9-9. Hurf! Rebuy! I muck and tell him nice hand and he starts acting like a dick, telling me I'm an idiot who overplayed my AK. I slowly run my stack back up to about $300 when I get 8-8 in mid position. I limp and Asshole there makes it $12. I call and the flop comes K-8-4. I check and he fires out $25. I pop it to $60 and he gets mad, slamming his chips on the table and yelling at me "Do you really think I'm bluffing?! ALL IN!". I call. Turn a 4 and I fill up. River a blank, eh rolls over AK like he just won the lottery. "Boat" I say, tabling my 8s. He blows a fuse as he counts out my $300. A few hands later I get KK and raise to $10. Same guy calls. Flop A-3-2. He checks, I look at him and am sure he has an Ace by how he's sitting. I check behind. Turn Ks (two spades now). He checks, I fire out $25. He just calls. River 3s. He checks again, I fire out $60. He snap-shoves all-in. I call and he flips up AQs for the flush. He's pleased as punch until I say "Boat." again and turn over my KK. He goes beserk, screaming about how I was so dominated on the flop blah blah. He ships the rest of his chips and continues to berate me. I tell him "You know what, sir? Your chips and I are leaving". I rack up and cash out +$444 as the table begins to give the guy shit for driving me away.

I decide to go play some .05¢ video poker to kill time while I waited for Kirsten to finish her game. I had a $25 voucher I put in, and I meant to bet 4 nickels but I fat fingered the machine and bet 6 or 7. I tried to cancel out but it wouldn't let me. I decided to run it up to the 100 bet max and try to get it roll back over to 1 but it didn't. Now stuck, I just decided to blow the $5 and deal. I drew two deuces on the deal. OK, cool, trips is break even so I won't lose any money. I keep the deuces and draw, WHAM! Two more deuces. I win 20,000 nickels. I decided to go ahead and cash out the $1000 and leave while I was ahead. This was my best day so far.

I played a lot of limit at Mirage in between, killing time and keeping my variance low. When I was stuck bad I played a 13 hour session and made $13, but getting all those hands in helped to keep my head straight and profit is profit. I played in the $150 mega stack tournament at Harrah's on Wednesday and was completely unimpressed. First off, the payouts are top heavy and they pay too few spots. Secondly, the Harrah's floor staff is loaded with assholes. I caught two Brits colluding with each other in a hand. One raised, the other calls. They bet at each other on the flop. On the turn, the first one bets half his friend's stack and gets called. On the river, they both check and one rolls over the dead nuts, an Ace high flush. I called them out on it, asking if they had a deal to soft play each other. I made a stink about it but nothing happened to them and the dealer mucked the hand so we couldn't get the floor involved. Then there was a spot where I had $100 in the SB and tossed a $500 chip on top as a raise to $600. The dealer said "Call" and I stopped him, saying I had raised because there were two chips in. He replies "No, that's a single oversize chip. It's a call". I argued that it was two chips, but the floor agreed with the dealer and ruled it a call, and then rolled out the WSOP rule book to show me the rule. I busted to one of the cheaters when I flopped top set, check raised him all in and he bit with QQ and caught running spades to flush.

I played a lot at Flamingo after that and got into the hand of my trip there. I was playing a pretty tight table and had $545 in front of me when I limped in with K2h from the button. BB is a tight/solid player with a $900 stack who hasn't been in many pots. He makes it $15. UTG calls, he's an idiot who's been in every hand, he has $180 behind. Flop is 4-5-7 with two hearts. BB checks. UTG leads out for $30. I call, BB shoves in $130 on a check raise. UTG flat calls. Now there's $330 in there and I have to call $100 for the next call. I flat call. Turn is a 3, giving me the open ender and the flush draw. BB open shoves. So, now I have to call off $415 into a pot of $845ish. I tank and finally call, river is another 4. BB rolls over 7's full and I am stuck $500. I don't regret my call, I didn't read him as being that strong. I put him on a big pair, and was wrong.

We played at Binion's for the next two nights, not much happened there except for me dropping another few buyins and finally giving up, finishing my trip at the $1 video blackjack while Kirsten played out. I will note that Binion's is really trying to get more players in - they are offering $2/hr comps (double what everyone else is doing) and a 10% max $3 rake (+$1 for high hand jackpots). Kirsten hit two different high hands while there (quad Jacks for $50 and a straight flush for $150). She also won two seats to their Playboy giveaway tournament which she sold for $22 each.

All told I finished -$800 for the week but had fun and was generally satisfied with my play. We're thinking of doing a CardPlayer cruise next year, can't wait to see. Until then, back to the home game grind.

More Ups and Downs

Started my poker weekend off very, very wrong. Went to Eddie J's $1/1 game and sat down with $150. I got bloodied, bad. I lost half of my first buy-in on two stupid bluffs (I know better than to bluff ProWest, even though I read him correctly and he was weak he still called and picked me off). I didn't get a single pair higher than 9's, flopped no sets (had trip 5's once with 5-4 in my hand), no straights, no flushes, only one boat (the 5-4 hand). Every single time except for one when I raised a hand I missed the flop completely and was forced to fold to post flop action. Each time I got my money all-in I had the worst of it and lost all but one all-in (I cracked Bill's KK with Q9 for $70). Throw in a public fight with Kirsten about me sitting at the same table as her and you have a -$450 night.

I got up Saturday morning and, after cleaning a furnace for a nice old lady, I decided to try and make some money back at the $5/10 at Nautica. I got there at ten till 3 and got on the list. At 3:15 I was still only halfway up the list and they weren't opening another table. Itching to play, I decide to accept a $1/2 seat when they ran out of waiting. I sat down at a table with some deep stacks, one guy (Mr Aggressive) had over $800 in front of him. Hand 3 I get pocket 10's and raise to $7. Six of us take a flop of 6-7-8. Mr. Aggressive leads into me for $15. Guy in the middle calls. I raise him to $45. He calls the $30 and so does the other player. Turn is a J and both players check to me. I fire out $100 (leaving $42 behind). Mr. Aggressive mubles something and folds, middle guy (with $136 left) says "I got an open ender, I know if I hit it I am good". He tanks for a minute and shoves the $100 in. River is another 7 and he checks. I bet the $36 and he calls. I show the 10's and he shows 9-8, ship it! I debate cashing out now but it's only 3:30. I figure I'll wait for the seat fee again. A round later, I am in the BB with AK. 8 others limp, and I decide a raise here won't do much good because I am out of position and have been missing flops. I check and the flop comes K-10-3 with two diamonds. I fire out $10 and Mr. Aggressive snap calls. He's on tilt now because a player at the end of the table took half his $800 stack in two hands. Three other players call. Turn is the Kc. I fire out $50. Mr. A snaps calls. Everyone else folds. River is a blank. I fire out another $100. He sighs and the throws the hundred in and declares "I have a K". I say "Ace King" and table my hand. Ship it again! I'm up to $650+ right now. Seat fee is closing in, I look down at 5-7s in the cutoff. Middle position guy makes it $7, one caller, I call, button makes it $28. Button is very tight/solid, I know he's on a top 5 hand. First raiser calls, and I decide if the other guy calls I will too. Of course he does, and I do. Flop 4-6-A with one spade. First raiser checks, middle guy checks, I check, and button...checks. OK, he's got KK, QQ, or JJ. Turn is the 9s. Now I have straight and flush draws. First raiser bets $40. I know he's got an Ace. Middle folds. I call and button languishes and folds. He told me later he had QQ. River is an 8. Yahtzee! Checks to me, I fire out $100. Guy goes in the tank and finally calls and shows AJ and I scoop another huge pot. I am sitting on $886 when I get tapped on the shoulder to pay my fee. I decide to cash out, filling two racks and salvaging my weekend in less than 45 minutes.

Saturday night at Dave's was not so kind. These up and down swings are seriously aggravating. Sit down 4 handed with Jewish Andy, Dave, and Kirsten. Plod along for a bit and down to $75 of my original $100 when I get AJ suited. Dave raises to 3, I re-raise to $8. He calls. Flop Q-10-Q. Check check. Turn A. He checks again, I bet $15. He shoves on me. I really think he's either on a weaker Ace or a 10 and he doesn't believe me. I call and he shows me the Q-10 for a flopped full house. Total idiotic misread by me, and I reach in the ole pocket. Second buy-in bleeds away to about $60 when I get 10-10. I raise preflop to $6. Flop comes K-7-3 all diamonds (I do not have a diamond). Andy bets into me, I shove. He reluctantly calls and asks if I flopped it, I show my 10's. Turn is a 5 and he turns up 4-6 for the inside straight. Rebuy! I screwed myself in two big hands against Dave. The first one he raised preflop and I called with 6-8. Flop comes 2-3-4. Check check. Turn a K. I bet out $10. He raises to $25. I shove and he tanks, and I realize he has a hand. Oops! He turns a K face up and asks if it's good. He seems to be convincing himself that I have a straight, so I turn up the 6. He finally folds and I show the bluff. Jeff runs the board out, I hit the 5 and would've doubled up if I hadn't been bluffing. UGH. Later on, I get 6-7. Dave raises preflop again, I call again. Flop 3-4-7. I bet $10. Dave makes it $20. I put another $50 on it. Dave tanks, and I declare I have $120 behind. He counts out $170 and sits there discussing the hand. He says he has an overpair, so I tell him pick a card. He picks the 7 and I turn it up. Now he's really confused, do I have a set? 2 pair? He asks for a deal - he puts the $50 in and we cap and run it out. I decide to accept and turn the straight. Dave said later he wouldn't have put any more in if I refused the deal, so I guess I got as much as possible. Later on, about $100 from even I dump about $60 to K in a hand. I get 9-7h, she raises and I call. Flop A-10-8 2 hearts. She bets, I raise her $40 more. She tanks and I show her the 9h. She's still deciding what to do so I show the 7h and she's really sick. She asks for the same deal as Dave, call the $40 and run it out. I offer to run it twice, she refuses. I agree and she turns up KK no heart. I brick out (of course, too many outs) and she scoops. Total for the night: Down $175.

Decided to head to Nautica and make another withdrawal from the $5/10 donkeys. I bought in for $200 and was up and down a little. I took a nice $80 pot off of a rock early on. He hadn't been playing any hands, and suddenly raised to $10. Most of the table called, as did I with 4-8c. Flop Q-4-7. He leads out for the $5, 5 callers. Turn a 6. I have 4's and a gutshot. He leads for $10, everyone folds to me, I call. River a blank, he leads again and I call again. He says "No pair" and I table my 4's. Ship it! The wildest hand happened when I was getting close to leaving. I had bled down some more, kept getting playable hands but missing flops. I was the blind with 3-7d when someone in the middle made it $10. Someone else three bet it to $15 and two callers. I decided to cap to prevent an extra turn around and I had a feeling on this one. Flop 6-7-8 all clubs. Check to the three bettor, he makes it $5 and is sickened when everyone calls. Turn is the 7s. Yahtzee! Checks to him, he puts $10 in. I raise to $20. Three callers. River is a Jh. Checks around to me, I bet the $10. Three callers. I table my 7 and they all piss and moan and fold. Ship it! After three seat fees and parking I profit $77. Not spectacular but not bad either. I'll take a win.

Final weekend tally: +$97. One week till Vegas.