Online Poker Journal

November 2005

November 26
I had Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's house and the food was unbelievable. After dinner (and for some of us, a short nap), we decided that we were going to play games. It has always been a family tradition for the family to play games on holidays, but we usually play some kind of board game. This time, the clan wanted to play poker. They asked me if I was up for it and I told them, "sure". Actually, I was not thrilled to play a $3 tournament against 8 novice players, but I figured I should. The two games we played were absolute torture and I hope that on Christmas, we can switch back to something like Pictionary.

I played in a No Limit Holdem Shootout at the Bike last night. They just started their Ho Ho Holdem series and the NL Shootout was their second event. The tournament was better than most of the smaller ones I have played there because they finally realized that it is a good thing for players to have some playing time. For our $200 buy-in, we started with $2,000 in chips and 30 minute rounds. They even added a few extra levels in between.

Our table was crazy. There were only 4 players that played better than average and the other six were so bad it was scary. There was one player in particular that I knew was going to be trouble and that is exactly who I ended up playing against when we got to heads-up play.

The heads-up play was so intense. If the match was on television, it would have made for some great viewing. When we started, he had me outchipped 3-1, but I have been in that spot plenty of times before and I knew I could overcome the deficit. He started the match playing very aggressive and I let him have the first three hands. After that, I went to battle. I could see that he was having fits of aggravation when I started to play back at him and to rub it in, I said, "And you thought you were going to push me around because I was a girl." I ended up getting almost even with him about 5 minutes before the break, but then he made a move that knocked me back down to $4,000 in chips. He limped and I raised with pocket jacks. The flop was A75 and I made a pot size bet. He announce "all-in". I quickly mucked my pocket jacks and he showed me 95 offsuit. I lost a little more of my chips and then we took a break.

I had only $1,900 in chips (the blinds were $300-600 w/ $73 antes) when we resumed play after the break. I ended up building that $1,900 into $16,500. It seemed like I had him dominated every time we got out chips in. On the first double up, I took J8 against J7 and on the second double up, I took pocket nines against pocket eights. I also won a large amount of chips with AK. I raised, he reraised, and I moved all-in. He laid his hand down even though he was getting about 2 1/2 to 1 on his money. He built his chips back up before we had our most dramatic hand. I had 96 of clubs in a limped pot. The flop was T85 with two clubs giving me the flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. I bet, he raised, and I moved all-in. He instantly called and turned up T4. I asked for a club or seven and a club fell on the turn. It was what I asked for, but I should have been more specific. I didn't want the four of clubs that gave him two pair. I wanted a club that didn't leave him with any outs. The river was a TEN. He took a lot of my chips and I was left with about $3,000. The final hand, all of our chips got in preflop with me holding KT and him holding QT. The flop was QQx, the turn was a Q, and the river was a K. The guy was dominated and makes quads!!

We had done a 10% deal before we even started our heads up match. I had ten percent of his action and if he took first I would end up with almost $2,500. Unfortunately, he got knocked out early and I ended up with $35.

Earlier on in the tournament, Bart came and checked up on me. He was talking to me and one of the guys said, "those two voices sound familiar." I asked him if he watches Live at the Bike and he said, "yes". This player (John) made one move in the tournament that I absolutely hated. All players folded to me on the button and I moved all-in for $1,200 with AK suited. He instantly called from the big blind (the blinds were $100-200, no antes) with pocket threes. The best he could hope for in that situation was a race. I could have easily had a pocket pair (even as small as 4's) and had him hugely dominated. The only time he would have a dominating hand was if I had A2, A3 or pocket deuces. Pocket threes plays the same as pocket deuces where it's okay to push with the hand, but almost always not great to call an all-in bet. I told John, "I am going to talk about one of the hands you played on the show next week." He said, "Which one, the pocket threes?". He knew exactly which one, but he defended his actions explaining that in these kind of tournaments you have to take some chances to accumulate chips. That makes sense in a few tournaments, but not in this one. We had a lot of playing time.

November 22
I have been playing $30-60 Omaha on Stars for the past few days and have done extremely well (despite a loss yesterday). I am amazed that there are so many bad players playing at this level. I have requested a lot of hand histories that I plan on sharing at another time, but I figured I would start with one that really blew me away. I deleted some of the irrelevant information.

Seat 1: Cabbagehead ($561.50 in chips)
Seat 2: ST1300 ($133 in chips)
Seat 3: chooseany ($1012 in chips)
Seat 5: iverson ($786 in chips)
Seat 6: Siren ($914.50 in chips)
Seat 7: ORiON_1 ($1544.50 in chips)
Seat 8: youbet ($1563.50 in chips)
Seat 9: thebear65 ($3554.50 in chips)
youbet: posts small blind $15
thebear65: posts big blind $30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Siren [5d 8h Ah Th]
iverson: calls $30
Siren: calls $30
thebear65: raises $30 to $60
iverson: calls $30
Siren: calls $30
*** FLOP *** [Js Qd 9d]
thebear65: bets $30
iverson: folds
Siren: raises $30 to $60
thebear65: raises $30 to $90
Siren: calls $30
*** TURN *** [Js Qd 9d] [Ac]
thebear65: bets $60
Siren: calls $60
*** RIVER *** [Js Qd 9d Ac] [8c]
thebear65: checks
Siren: bets $60
thebear65: calls $60
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Total pot $615 | rake $3
Board [Js Qd 9d Ac 8c]
Seat 6: Siren showed [5d 8h Ah Th] and won ($612) with HI: a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 9: thebear65 (big blind) mucked [7h 2h As 8d]

I had to reread this history a few times because I couldn't believe that he bet and then raised me on the flop with ace high - no draw. I am not too familiar with this player, so I don't know if he always plays like this, but I guarantee that I will be in his game the next time I see him around.

I am heading off to work. I am going to try and jump into a No Limit game before Live at the Bike starts. I haven't been playing as much NL as I used to and I could really use a refresher course in live action games.

November 17
Work was great this week because I got to spend the majority of my time in the Omaha game. Normally when I play online, I play $15-30 or $30-60, but when I am working I only play the $6-12. I wish the Bike spread a higher limit Omaha game on a consistent basis, but I will take what I can get. Even though the limits are smaller than what I usually play, I am happy with the wins that I book. I make more money per hour in this game than I do any other in the casino.

Part of the reason for my success is the players on the table are easy to read. If I am not familiar with their style of play, they usually give me enough information within first half hour of play. An example of this is when one player started giving another a hard time about betting his low hand. There were 4 people still in the pot when the turn was dealt and the player in the cut-off bet on a board of 8747. The player on the button raised, the next player folded, the "complainer" called, and the original bettor called. The river was a five. It was checked to the player on the button and he bet and both players called. The button showed a straight flush and the other players had A2 for low. The complainer said, "nice bet with your A2" and I sat there in amazement that the complainer couldn't see that the other player was not betting his A2, but betting his AA (aces and sevens on the turn) in the cutoff after it had been checked to him. The complainer didn't stop for about ten minutes and it helped me make a "no-brainer" decision against him a few hands later. I had missed my draws and only had third best low. The complainer had called out for a seven on the river. The seven came out for him and I knew he wasn't calling for that card because he needed his low. He needed that card to make his straight. After he bet (he was on the button) on the river, I made the call knowing he wouldn't bet his low hand. He looked at me a little strange, but he made it easy for me to call by giving me so much information.

November 14
Last night, I played in the $33 w/ rebuys satellite for the WPT-PCA and I was so close!! There was only one seat up for grabs and I finished in second place. I did make $650 for the finish, but it is a far cry from the $12,000 seat.

I played well and was one of the chip leaders during the whole tournament. There were a few hands when players just gave me their chips. On one hand, one player limped in front of me and I called with KJ. The players in the blinds played, so there were four player that saw the flop (I was in position). The flop was AK6 and I decided to take the free card when all the players checked to me. The turn was the ten giving me the straight. The small blind bet $400 and I raised to $1,600 and he called. The river was a deuce. My opponent decided the deuce was a good card for his hand and he bet $1,600 into me. I raised to $4,400 and he moved all-in. Surprisingly, he turned up A7. I still can't figure that one out.

There were a few more hands like that and I even had one player donate a lot of his chips to me when we were on the final table. I was feeling good about the line-up and I was fortunate enough to go heads up with the player I wanted to. This player made a lot of marginal calls and bets and I knew I just had to hit top pair (good kicker) or better to take him for all of his chips. I had my plan worked out, but the cards did not cooperate. Our heads-up match lasted a total of one hand. I flopped two pair and my opponent flopped a set and all of our chips got into the pot on the turn. He had me outchipped and my hopes of a vacation to the Bahamas were squashed once again.

I will probably play a couple more $33 w/ rebuy satellites later on in the week. I will be doing the Live at the Bike show tomorrow night and Wednesday.

November 12
It has been awhile since I played a No Limit Holdem tournament in a B&M casino and was getting the itch to play. Commerce had a $300 NL w/ multi-rebuys tournament last night and I decided to take a shot at it. In all honesty, is wasn't "a" shot, it was more like 5 shots!! I bought in for the $300 and rebought 4 times.

I made it through more than half the field, but I was not happy with the way I played. I made a couple of good moves, but I also made some fundamental errors. I think I need to get out there more and play some more events. It seems like the time away depleted my brain of some NL tournament knowledge.

The week at work was good as far as making money on the table, but I had a rough night on Live at the Bike on Wednesday. We monitor one of the poker threads while commentating and once in awhile the people get out of line. On this particular night, I took the brunt of it. It upset me for awhile until I realized that I can't please everybody all the time. The beautiful thing about poker is that no two people think the same way. The only thing I can do on the show is share my opinion and if a few people disagree then so be it.

November 7
I played in the $33 w/ rebuy satellite for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and totally blew it! I didn't do it in the usual way though. After the first hour (at the break), I was third in chips. When we came back from break, I was multi-tasking and got disconnected from the tourney. For three hours, I tried to figure out what was going on with my computer and I still couldn't get myself connected to my tourney. Finally, I decided to go to my neighbors house to finish the event. I ended up coming in 38th place and I wondered what would have happened if I hadn't been disconnected.

I came home and worked on my computer for another three hours and couldn't figure out what was going on. This morning I finally realized the problem. While I was multi-tasking (I was planning a vacation for next year), I used the calendar on my computer and set the date for May 2006. I fixed the time and date and my computer was up and running again. This is just one example of why players shouldn't multi-task while playing online poker.

November 3
Last night's game on Live at the Bike was more entertaining the usual Wednesday night's game. Sometimes I have a difficult time commentating on this particular night because the high limit players that normally are in the game have a tendency to act like crybabies. Overall, the action was good and Bart and I were able to talk about a lot of different things. Sometimes Bart puts me on the spot and he did it again on last night's show. Chad Brown was playing in the game and Bart asked if I thought Chad was an attractive gentleman. What am I supposed to say to that? Bart then asked me about Phil Ivey. My response was, "Phil is Phil. He is one of the greatest players around and he is so nice. Plus, I think it is attractive when a person is really successful and great at what they do." It drives me nuts that I can never think of a safe answer on the spot. After the show was over, I thought the best answer could have been Matt Damon. He isn't technically a poker player, but at least he played one in a movie.

I have officially given up on the double shootouts. I record all my stats, but have been avoiding looking up the numbers. Finally I took a look at how much money I have spent on the satellites and have come to the conclusion that this is not the way for me. I have not given up on the seat, but I need to decide which satellites is best for me. I am either going to play in the Saturday big tourney or the $33 w/ rebuys.