We Run Good For A Change?

Well we ran decent. I was amped for the draft to come on, then POOF I fell asleep. I woke up around midnight staggering in my room trying to see who the Bulls drafted. I was whispering to myself "no noah, no noah, no noah...FUCK." Yea I don't like Joakim Noah and his Shawn Marion type jumpshot at ALL. Then the Bulls made me hate them even more by taking Aaron "the ogre" Gray in the 2nd Round. Are they trying to make me hate them? I would have rather been the Pacers and not have any picks.

So I started playing as one of greater blunders in the Giants history was playing in the background. The 2002 wildcard game against the 49ers. The G-Men were playing the best football in the league during the end stretch of the season and into the playoffs. I really think they would have made it to the Super Bowl and possibly won if they didn't blow it. Anyway, after making a few bluffs that didn't work(obv) I started to get in a groove. I was knockin em dead left and right and I soon found myself rooooobuuustoooo!!! I had closed my 2 tables out until I realized I should pull a lucko and ss my tables. The other two looked like the same with one having $98 and the other having $82.

The end of the H.O.R.S.E event is in progress right now with 3 players left. I really haven't mentioned The worlds biggest poker event(cant use that 4 letter word) because of their disgusting restrictions. Anyway we have cash home game this Saturday at Hep's which should be fun. Adios.

*Edit - Freddy Deeb took the horse event down

Lack of Updates

Sorry for not posting as much. I really haven't had too much to talk about lately and I'm also pretty busy these last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to update in the near future.

It's About Time

For the first official time since recording our home game on the blog, Nick Cale breaks the record books and books his first win! Although, unofficially he has won many more times than that. Nick seemed to play well from the get go and jumping out to a quick start. He changed gears when he needed to and played exceptionally well. With 4k in the pot and the board you see in the picture, he called a bet worth half my stack with just A4 of clubs. I thought for sure I could get him off the hand, but he made yet another "above the rim" call. It was one of many he made tonight. Hopefully for him he can keep the great play up when he tries to go back to back in tomorrow's tournament. Check back to see if he did. Also I'm going to have an update about myself for a change tomorrow.

Ace On The River

AC trip report is on hold for a little bit. I don't feel like typing it all up. The more I put it off, the less I'm going to remember. I had about 2k fpp's left on stars after I played all the Sunday Million Sats, so I decided to get Barry Greenstein's book Ace On The River. I Ordered it on Thursday the 14th and it arrived today(19th). Pretty darn good turnaround. I'm not much of a reader, but I found this book quite good so far. I just got to Chapter 5 and came to an interesting test.

"How you handle issues in your life mirrors how you play poker", Barry states. " If you read all the poker books and become a technical expert on which hands to play and how to play them, you are still likely to end up broke. You must learn how to make money and how to hold on to it. Most people do not have the appropriate character qualities to become good players. Take this personality assessment test and see how you fare."

I'm going to put the questions down and write my responses to them. These are answers that I said back to myself before I looked at the next page. I'll have the answers at the end here, but go through each question and see what you would have said.

1) When a car swerves into your lane, do you yell at the other driver?

All the time. Unless I'm in an extremely good mood for some reason and that doesn't happen very often.

2) Do you try tin win every argument?

No. Some people just don't see it your way sometimes.

3) Are you a go-getter, not wasting any time?

Not really. I usually waste tons of time and am a huge procrastinator

4) While playing sports or other games, do you release tension by banging your first, throwing equipment, or shouting?

No, I'm not a violent person. Never was the type of person who threw my fist through the wall after an argument etc etc..

5) Do you only gamble with the odds in your favor?

No. Every time I step foot in a casino and play a table game, I'm gambling with bad odds. Even if I think I'm making a good play in poker and I'm really not because of a bad read I classify that as gambling with bad odds.

6) Are you always willing to give money to a friend so he can get into a game when he is broke?

No. I haven't really ran into this one yet. It's not like I run into T.J. Cloutier on the street corner and he asks to stake him in a tournament.

7) Do you accept all challenges that come your way?

No. I know my limitations.

8) Do you know the value of a dollar?

Yes, obv

9) Do you work on the "due theory," that is, the theory that you want to play now because you have been losing and are due for a win?

No.

10) Are you reliable enough to arrive at the agreed-upon time to a schedule poker game, even if you are very tired?

Yes and No. I hate being late to places. If the game was to be juicy you can count me definitely in. If I was tired and saw that Phil Ivey, Chip Reese, and Doyle Brunson wanted to play me just 4 handed I wouldn't be there after a long night.

11) Do you make sure you are properly funded for any game you sit down in?

I try to. You cant live because of obvious reasons being the casino needs to make money. Online I do try to stick within my bankroll tho for obv busto reasons.

12) Do you find that drugs or alcohol loosen you up a little and help you play better?

No. Drugs I don't do and alcohol is on rare occasions, surprisingly.

Those were my responses and I flip the page. Barry tells me "If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may need some adjustments if you intend to become a professional poker player." The ones I said yes to I went back and thought about his responses. Question 1, I remember on 2 different occasions during the home game when there was dealer screw ups that would have won me lots of chips, but had to be re-done because of the mistakes. There are also times where I made a mistake, so it evens out. It just depends on how you specifically react to it happening. I've grown to take it in stride when it happens and not to harp on it.

The other one I said yes to was #8. Do I know the value of a dollar. This is one of the first things that you should learn when starting poker. You can't think of money as something you can physically possess. Money should be just chips to you and nothing else. That's why when you go to the casino you aren't betting with real money. Those chips have no meaning to you. When you have a losing session of say $300, you can't think to yourself, "Wow there goes my car payment."

Here were Barry's responses to the questions.

1) Incidents such as car cutting you off should be handled as if they were obstacle in a video game. Just maneuver and avoid them. Dealer errors, bad rulings, and others' bad plays may cause you to lose pots. You will have to keep your composure and play on.

2) You should try to win money and let the losers win the arguments. If someone questions why you played a certain hand or attacks the way you played it, you shouldn't care. People who have weak egos try to win all the arguments they get into. A confident person doesn't need to prove he is right, especially to his opponents. If you always to to win arguments with your friends or loved ones, you should ask yourself why you need to prove you are smarter than they are. If you do it for competitive reasons, you should channel your competitiveness into more useful situations.

3) You should rest your brain before playing poker. Take care of issues that are cluttering your mind. Take steps to simplify your life. If you do a lot of intense brain work before you play poker, you will probably wear yourself out. If you operate with many things on your mind, you are going to play on autopilot and not be aware of all the information your opponents are giving you.

4) Throwing clubs, slamming the ball to the ground, or shouting in disgust are inefficient uses of energy. An effective competitor spends time thinking about adjustments. Some famous sports figures who competed effectively and efficiently were Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, and Joe DiMaggio.

5) If your dealings with people are always one-sided in your favor, they may be hesitant to do business with you. People will enjoy playing with you if you give them some loose action in isolated spots. If someone suggests making a small bet on a sporting event that is being shown where you play poker, you should be willing to flip a coin to determine which side you get, but you shouldn't give action where you don't get action.

6) You shouldn't lend money to someone who you don't believe would return the favor if you needed a loan. Also, if you keep a losing player in action, you may become codependent on his or her gambling problem. There are many players walking around poker rooms who talk about what good financial shape they would be in if the people who owed them money would pay them back.

7) You don't need to fight every battle. Don't be afraid to back down if you don't like the lineup in a game. You should pass up a situation with a small advantage if you can find one with a larger advantage. You don't need to prove you are the best. To make money, you just need to find some people who play worse than you do.

8) Knowing the value of money is negatively correlated to being a good poker player. I have never heard anyone say, "He is not afraid to bluff for his last dollar, but he is a careful shopper."

9) If you continue to lose, you should find an easier game, or you may need to alter the way you are playing. If you can't find an easier game you might take some time off to get your head straightened out. You shouldn't think you are due for a win because it is your turn to be lucky.

10) If you are tired, go back to sleep and don't show up until you are rested. If you are a player in a game with an agreed-upon starting time, you should get on a sleep schedule that allows you to show up on time, rested and ready to play. If you are too tired to play well, call and inform the host that you cannot make it, if that is an appropriate thing to do. If a late arrival is not frowned upon, as in a casino, you may arrive when only the losers are still playing and you will have easy pickings. Also, if the game goes overnight you will still be sharp when others are tired.

11) If a game is extremely good, get in it if you have a buy-in. There is nothing wrong with putting yourself in situations where you can win a lot more than you can lose. Don't play too tight and predictably because you are on short money. Play your game. You might go broke quickly, but if you double up, you may be on your way to a big win.

12) Although some players may play better after drinking a small amount of alcohol or using drugs, it generally gets out of hand, especially when they are losing.

* Note this was all from Ace On The River, by Barry Greenstein

Off to AC

Trip report to come Saturday

T-Minus 2 hours 57 minutes..tick tock

Until the final episode of The Sopranos airs. Over the years I never watched the show. I have netflix and knowing the show was going off the air soon, started from the pilot and worked my way up to the current episodes. The first 2 seasons were definitely the best. The writing wasn't all that great for 3 4 and 5. This last season has been pretty uneventful until the last few episodes. Last week was the best episode of the series in my opinion. It all comes to a head tonight.

On the poker front, believe it or not I haven't played any online at all. I just havent been motivated to do so. I've been doing very well live in AC and in the home game. We're all goin down Thursday to spew some money. I did play some FPP sats to win some million seats today. I woke up uncontrollably around 9:30 and decided to give it a shot. I wanted to play a lot more aggressively then I usually do in these. I amassed a nice chip lead in the first one. We came to the bubble and I had room to work with. I could have easily sat back and waited for one of these guys to knock each other out, but thats way to easy. To this hand we go...


Seat 2: trixter23 (6340 in chips)
Seat 5: BluStarZ16 (1795 in chips)
Seat 7: DBo Fo Sho (1585 in chips)
Seat 8: slainew (3585 in chips)
Seat 9: Marton (1695 in chips)

Marton: posts small blind 200
trixter23: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to trixter23 [4c 5h]

BluStarZ16: folds
DBo Fo Sho: folds
slainew: raises 800 to 1200
Marton: folds
trixter23: raises 5115 to 6315 and is all-in
slainew: calls 2360 and is all-in

*** FLOP *** [Jh Jc 9s]

*** TURN *** [Jh Jc 9s] [Js]

*** RIVER *** [Jh Jc 9s Js] [2c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

trixter23: shows [4c 5h] (three of a kind, Jacks)
slainew: shows [Ks Qs] (three of a kind, Jacks - King kicker)

I could be wrong, but I dont think that's a good call at all. In fact I think thats a completely horrible call. The sng gurus can run it through pokerstove or what have you and check it out for me. I picked up Aces 2 hands later and eliminated one of the shortstacks. I then played another 5400 fpp and my AQ<25.

I won my next 2700 fpp 20 man and 5400 fpp 10 man for 3 out of 4 seats on the day. $625 profit isn't bad when 25k fpps only give you $285. I'll take it. I'm sure I'll have a post up this week before AC tehn report to follow.

I run so g00t! Back to Back to Back..

Another victory in the home game tonight. Youve seen my ugly mug more times then you would want to see it.

Friday Night Home Game - The Dynamic Duo!!

Weeeeeeeeee - another chop...4 am weeeeeeee

AC Trip Report - Another FT and some Cash Games

My buddy Jay from Connecticut and I went to AC on Friday to play in a tournament or two, then hit the cash games. We decided to play the Hilton $40+$10. This tournament has become one of my favorite small tourneys in AC, compared to the Showboat tourney I usually play. They changed their structure around way too much and I hate it. For 40 bucks you only get 3k in chips but they give you 30 min levels. You don't have to get creative at all, as you'll see, and you're usually looking at 7-800 for first. The first level Jay was chipping up nicely. I was limping a lot, not picking up anything special but trying to hit a hand. There was this old guy in between Jay and I who was the absolute worst player alive. He was calling all ins with 23 and 62 and bottom pair and so on. The problem was he was hitting lol. He sent the first 6 people from our table to the rail. Thank god they kept the table intact though.

Santa(old guy) was making ridiculous pre-flop raises. His high was 50-100 blinds and he made it 2100 to go from utg+1. I was dieing. The first real hand I got into was when Santa made it 800 to go pf with the same blinds and got a cold call from another terrible player. I was in the bb and looked down to see JJ. With 1650 in the pot and most likely had the other 2 players ranges crushed, it was an easy decision to just shove for 2875 total. Santa folded and it was over to the cold caller who went into the tank for like 2 minutes. He finally called off 90% of his stack with A4. My JJ held and I was up to like 6300.

The rest of the time I kind of forget, which means it was pretty uneventful. I do remember a girl shoving for like 1100 with blinds 200/400 and I had Kings which was an easy scoop. Other than that, I just don't remember. Jay and I did make it to the Final Table with only 5 paying. There was only 62 people entered. We both only had in the range of 5-10 bb's so we had some work to do. 2 people went out pretty quick and we were down to 8 players. Jay and I were playing the shove any 2 game when it got around to us. I decided to let myself blind down to a point, which online you certainly cant do because the blinds are so low. In this live situation, it's such a significant portion of some peoples stacks to call off. So you can get away with shoving any 2 a lot easier. There was a 4 way limped pot with 1k-2k blinds and I was in the bb with 35hh. The flop came 4h 7h 9c. I just shoved for my last 4k and got everyone to fold. Jay doubled up before the break to 20k so he was in OK position.

With blinds passing me once by and not being able to shove because of all-ins in front of me, I was down to 4600 or so chips. I shoved utg+1 with K6 and got called blind in the bb which is standard for only 2600 more. He had 10-7 and I held to double up to about 9k. The next hand I had A4dd and shoved for 9600 or so. The same guy called and said he got me this time. He flipped KK and we're off to the races weeeee lol. I spiked an Ace on the river and left the guy crippled. I was disgusted it had to come on the river for him, but I didn't feel bad about winning. It's just a sick game we play. That put me a lil over 21k.

Now we come to 1 of the hands that I would like a comment or two on what you guys would have done. We are now on the money bubble. 6 people left and 5 pay. Jay was in the bb and the guy that I sucked out on had 8500 chips left with 2k-4k blinds with a $500 ante. Here's how the action went

UTG(8500)

MP(25K ish)

Me(22k)

UTG shoves 8500 all in

MP shoves all in for 25k ish

Me - looks down to see AK - What do you do?

This is one of those times where it might be OK to lay this hand down. For some background info UTG was steaming from all the suck outs hes had on him(I only did it once). He should be pushing almost any 2 here. MP is an older, tight player. He knew what he was doing though and played pretty well. If UTG's hand holds and I don't improve against MP then I bubble in 6th. If UTG holds and I beat MP then I'll be sitting at about 30k after I pay off UTG. If I win it altogether, I'm sitting at roughly 60k after blinds and antes and most likely will win the tournament. I decided to call. Hands looked like this when flipped up.

UTG - JT

MP - 99

Me- AK

Neither my hand or UTG were able to hit and MP even made a flush when he didn't need to, to win the hand. So I was out in 5th place for $156. I was surprised to see I was that live. I took a little way to think it through and when I tabled AK everyone gave me an astonished look asking why I took so long. I really didn't want to play for 5 hours and have nothing to show for it, but $780 looks way better than $156 so I made the call. What can I say, I play to win. I could have picked another spot to shove against 2 weak players to my left and chip up. What can you do though. 6 handed I'll take my chances. Jay eventually wound up getting 2nd for about $460. And yep you guessed it, the guy who won the 3 way pot to knock me out won it all.

We grabbed something to eat over at the Trop for some reason then headed over to Borgata to play some cash games and watch the Yanks vs Sox. God only knows why but they didn't have the game on. We got on the list and they opened a new table up. I was surprised to see that Max buy in was $300. Jay and I both bought in for $200 though. There was 3 guys at the table who got into it on the 2nd hand. There was no raise pre flop and 4 players saw a flop of

8c Ad Jc

1st Pos bets $15

2nd Pos folds

3rd Pos calls $15

4th Pos calls $15

Turn 8c Ad Jc [3c]

1st Pos bets $25

3rd Pos raises $50 to $75

4th Pos cold calls $75

1st Pos calls $50

River 8c Ad Jc 3c [7c]

1st Pos shoves all-in for $93

3rd Pos calls $93

4th Pos calls $93

1st Pos shows Ac 9d for the nut flush

3rd Pos shows Kc 5c for the 2nd nut flush

4th Pos shows Ah Qc for the 3rd nut flush

After seeing this hand I was licking my chops to get involved in some pots with these guys. 1st Pos was bad. 3rd Pos, the guy had on a diamond baller watch, I was 2 to his right so I couldn't tell if it was fake or not. I was guessing that he was there with his buddy to just goof around. Later he flopped a boat with 27 in the bb only to get rivered by a bigger boat against a guy who had k2. Live poker is so rigged. I posted this hand to give some background on the next hand I would like to have comments on. I got involved in a hand with the 4th Pos player. Now he hadn't raised any pot in about 40 hands. He was utg and opened to $15. Surprisingly everyone folded over to me and I looked down at QQ. I decided to just call to see what the flop would bring and how he would react. Everyone folded and we went to the flop.

Flop 10s 6s 5s

With $30 dollars in the pot the guy open shoves for $103 and all-in. He was one of those guys who thought poker was about ego and didn't like to get bullied around, but wanted to do the bullying. What range do you put him on here. I doubt he does this with a made flush. He does this with AA KK QQ JJ TT, your broad way cards with a high suited spade such as As k,q,j,. Or even certainly less than that given his previous hand. What do you do in this spot? I gave it a call and the board went

Turn 10s 6s 5s [Kd]

River 10s 6s 5s Kd [9h]

I thought I was toast on the turn, but flipped up my QQ first. He showed his hand to Jay and I knew I was good. He then flipped up Js Jh to the rest of the table, said nh, then left. Against this given player I think a call was OK. Against some other people I could have been in really bad shape. In retrospect, this hand is totally player dependent I believe. I ended the night up $225 in cash. After gas I made out with about $350. This post is long enough already, tomorrow I'll write about the May recap, Saturday's Home game, and some goals for June.

Home Game Winner(s) - Chop!

Mr Matt Citro on the left and myself on the right. $125 each. 2 Huge posts from AC and May recap to follow. It's 4:30 am now though. And yes I can make fun of myself pretty easily hahaha.