Poker Journal

September 2005

September 30
The rest of my work week was ho-hum. It would be pretty difficult for one of the shows to pass Monday's nights excitement, but the sad part was that the other shows didn't even come close. Both shows were extremely dull and we found ourselves deviating from the topic of poker. We talked about 80's television programs, soda drinks, and NES video games. Sometimes, three hours can be a long time!

The Big Poker Oktober tournament series began and there are two Omaha events scheduled. First one is tonight.

September 26
Work was wild tonight. I normally don't work on Mondays, but David (one of the commentators) is on vacation and I agreed to cover for him.

I got into work about an hour and a half before Live at the Bike started and I looked for an Omaha game to pass the time. There were no seats open, so I headed to the No Limit section. Unfortunately, there were no seats open there either and since the props can't put their name on the waiting list, I took an empty seat in one of the $3-6 Limit Holdem games. It has been a long time since I have played in this game (at this limit) and I almost forgot how bad most of the players are. I only played for one hour, but during that time, I think I saw at least two fundamental mistakes on every hand. Players called two bets cold with Ace rag, players raised in early position with small pocket pairs, players called for backdoor flush draws, etc. I could go on and on. I have been playing higher limit online ring games, but I still play poker to win in the smaller limits. I waited for good starting hands and played my usual aggressive style.

On one hand, I flopped the nut straight with a board of 642. I was in the big blind and had 53. There were two clubs on the flop and I didn't want to get tricky on the hand. I bet, the lady to my immediate left raised, there were two callers in between, I reraised and was called in all three spots. The turn was a nine of clubs. I wasn't exactly sure if somebody was on a flush draw and it probably would have been okay for me to bet out to find out where I was, but I decided to check from first position and see how the hand played out. All of the players checked behind me. The river was another club and I figured I toast. I checked, the next two players checked and while the last person was contemplating his action, one of the other players turned his hand up and revealed pocket tens with the ten of clubs. I guess the "thinking" player missed the other guy showing his hand because he still bet and lost to the player with the tens. I know I shouldn't be surprised at what goes on at this level, but I still can't help myself from thinking, "What were they thinking?"

The next hand, I was dealt A4 of clubs in the small blind. Three people limped in, I called from the small blind, and the big blind checked. In Limit Holdem, I throw most ace rag hands away even if they are suited because they tend to get players into trouble. In this situation, I thought it would be okay because there were several people in the pot. The flop was 944 with two diamonds. There was no need for me to slowplay my hand or try and get tricky because these players were calling most bets. I led out and three players called. The turn was an offsuit king and I bet out and was called in three spots again. The river was an offsuit ace giving me the full house. I bet out and all three players folded. One player showed pocket eights and I tried to figure out what the other players could have called with. All of them called on the flop and turn and not one of them could call me on the river? It didn't make sense to me. I ended up leaving the game with exactly one hundred dollars which meant I broke even.

I headed over to the Live at the Bike table and noticed they were spreading an $8-16 game. I wasn't thrilled that I came in on my day off to commentate on an $8-16 game, but it ended up being one of the best shows we have had.

The game started out as expected, but it changed dramatically about half an hour into it. I stepped out of the booth to grab myself a drink and when I walked back in we were told that a new player "Big Mike" was going to be sitting down. Bart asked why somebody would call himself Big Mike and I said, "Because he is lacking in certain areas." I wasn't on the air, but Bart made sure to let the listening audience know what I said. When Big Mike sat down, he bought into the game for $2,000. Of course, we started in again, "Who would buy into a game for this amount in a low limit game." Yes, the answer was, "a guy who was lacking in other areas." We were having fun with it and Big Mike ended up being the star of the show. He raised every pot, he reraised every time he got a chance, and he called with some pretty horrible draws. The funny thing is, I think he really knew what he was doing. It appeared that the game was a lower limit than what he is accustomed to because he rarely if ever made bad calls on the river. He even gave one of the players (one who was bitching about Mike getting lucky on a hand) a lecture and said, "Don't criticize the fish on the table if you want to keep the fish in the game." I got a kick out of that remark.

Big Mike wasn't the only thing that made this show great. We had one lady get mad and tell a player, "shut your F*@$ing hole... ". We had another player say something about the woman being pregnant (and she was about fifty something). And if that wasn't enough, Isaac the tech guy caught me on camera flipping Bart off after he was giving me a hard time. Bart and I have a tendency to bicker sometimes (okay, a lot of times), but we really get along underneath it all. He was giving me a hard time and I flipped him off in good fun. I didn't expect it to go out for the viewing audience, but it did. The show ended with Bart making a hilarious comment about "a nut." I am still laughing just thinking about it.

September 23
The Live at the Bike show is moving at full force. I am not sure when the episodes are going to air on the Poker Channel, but we started to do some voice over work this week. The show is going to be called The LA Poker Scene and they are editing each of our best L@TB shows down to an hour and a half program. All of the commentary is done live, so during voice over, we just did a few chip counts and did some commercial breaks work.

My time keeps getting stretched thinner and I considered leaving the show to make more time for my site, online play, and tournament play, but after seeing the final product, I am sticking with it.

I haven't played as many online tournaments as usual and I was itching to play one last night. I played one sit n go and didn't make it into the money. I got knocked out holding trips and my opponent had the same hand, but his kicker played. This particular sit n go was a little more difficult than usual because I had no idea how any of the players played. It has been so long since I sat down on one of these games that I didn't recognize anybody at my table.

The Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker events are over and I wished I would have placed one of the few I played. I am happy that Mark did well in the final event. He finished in ninth place and won about $55,000. I knew he was going to be unhappy about his finish and he confirmed it when I talked to him the next day. I understand how he might feel bug he beat out a lot of players to win that $55,000 and that is pretty impressive. During the WCOOP events, the Sunday night Omaha tournament was cancelled so I am looking forward to the return this Sunday.

September 20
I played some online poker last night and the railbirds on these sites are worse than the ones in the casinos. I normally get asked for money at least twice per session, but last night takes the cake. I got the usual requests, but one player gets the award for the ultimate railbird. He told me he had nineteen cents, but needed twenty to play the smallest game on the site. He didn't ask me for the one cent, but I got the feeling he really wanted me to transfer it to him. He was nice enough and asked me a few questions. I don't remember the specifics of one, but I remember telling him that you have to have money in order to make money. I have been thinking about that concept a lot lately. It seems that I have done better in the ring games because I have built my bankroll. It is difficult to play with scared money and fortunately I have done extremely well over the past four months.

This past weekend, I had one of my biggest losses to date. It wasn't a huge amount of money considering the limits I have been playing, but it was a big loss nonetheless. Knowing that I have made seven times that playing in this particular game made it easier to take. In fact, the loss rolled off me easily. It all goes back to what I was saying earlier, you have to have money to make money. Since I have made a lot of money, I can handle that loss and keep myself in the game.

In between my online play, I managed to make it to a home game hosted by one of my good friends at the Bike. David Tuchman invited some of the Live at the Bike crew over to his house to play a friendly game of poker. There were seven of us and we played a $25 buy-in No Limit tournament. The so called "professionals" were the first players knocked out of the tournament. David was the first to go, followed by Bart and me. While the tournament played out, David and I played a heads up Omaha Hi Low match. I managed to pull off the win, but I lost to Bart in the following match. We all talked a lot of trash and I finally told both of them I would beat them if we played 10 matches. I'll keep you posted if they ever decide to take me up on my offer.

September 16
I played in the WCOOP Omaha event yesterday and the only thing I can say about it is; I have never seen so many bad poker players at one time!

None of us are Phil Ivey or Doyle Brunson, but I think it is important for every player to understand some of the concepts of the game before forking over $500 to play in a tournament. I was even surprised to see one of the more successful (Holdem) tournament players playing like a donkey. I know for a fact that this person can play No Limit because I have played with him on numerous occasions, but he definitely needs some help with his Omaha game. Two of the hands that I remember he played were K956 and 6637 (and no, he wasn't in the blind).

It might sound like I am ranting because they gave me an ass whipping, but that's not it. As a matter of fact, I just had one of those days where my hands weren't holding up. On one hand, I flopped the nut flush and the river paired the board to give somebody a full house. On another hand, I flopped a full house and somebody turned a higher full house. Like I said, things just didn't go my way.

I thought I might have a great journal entry when I was left with only $20 in chips. I knew if I made a comeback, it would be a wonderful story, but no such luck. I did manage to triple up on the first hand, get half on the second one, and then the third one I was gone.

September 12
I played in the $500 Omaha event at the Commerce and left the tournament feeling more sick than I have in a long time. I think the last time I felt so bad about a tourney was when I lost the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure WPT qualifier seat.

The tournament started out fairly slow for me and I didn't start gaining ground until the third level. Even though it took me awhile to build up my chips, I got some momentum going by making some great moves. I managed to isolate my nut low and small pair hands with one opponent on two different occasions and both times, I received 3/4 of the pot. In Omaha, it's all about the scoop, but I will take 3/4 any time I can get it. I also kept myself out of trouble by not calling with draws that could only get me half the pot. For example, one flop came down 279 all diamonds and I dumped my nut low draw because I was drawing to half the pot. It seems like a simple concept, but I have seen many players make that mistake. All of the small things I did added up and by the time we took our break at 7:00, I was one of the chip leaders.

The tournament started with 108 players and at break time there were about 35 of us left. I had $6,500 in chips (we started out with $1,000) and one other player had about $7,500. As soon as the tourney resumed, I tried to get tricky with one hand and it backfired. I am not going to bore you with the details, but I am really mad at myself for getting involved in the hand from the start. Sometimes, when I have a lot of chips, I get "chip happy" and I make a move (often a mistake) that I wouldn't normally make. I lost $1,200 on the hand and even though it could have been worse, I shouldn't have lost them. Winning chips is wonderful, but not losing them is even more important in tournaments.

As soon as that hand was complete, I knew the only thing I could do was put the hand behind me. I didn't allow it to get the best of me and I played the remainder of the tournament to the best of my ability. The last round was just a series of misfortunate events starting with getting dealt A22K suited on the button and having the hand declared a misdeal because the big blind had 5 cards somehow. On the next hand after that I had A358 double suited and three bet the short stack raiser to isolate. The small blind called my reraise and so did the original raiser. The flop was J85 giving me two pair. Both players checked, I bet and they called. The turn was an ace. Again they checked, I bet my aces and eights, and they called. The river paired the jack. All three of us checked and both players ended up beating me with AK. The jack ended up giving them two pair with a king kicker and my two pair bit the dust. I had two pair (aces and tens) and a ten high flush draw on my final hand, but one of my opponents had the ace high flush draw. The flush got there and I was eliminated in 20th place (two out of the money). For a moment I thought I had a shot at winning two big Omaha tournaments in a row and instead I am left with nothing but "wondering what could have been."

September 11
The Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is in full swing and I haven't done well in the two events I played in so far. The first event I played in was the $200 Limit Holdem tournament and I was knocked out early.

I don't know what it is about Limit tournaments, but I just can't grasp the concept. I make most of my money playing in Limit Holdem ring games, but when it comes to tournaments I am like a pilot in a nose dive. Steve told me not to waste my time by playing in the tournament, but I didn't listen to him as usual. I think this last tournament was enough to remind me to stick to No Limit and Omaha events.

Last night I watched the finals of the Pot Limit Holdem event and it was great. PokerStars continues to be the leader in multi-table tournaments and its addition of PokerStars Radio is a great feature. For those who don't know, Barry Greenstein was the guest commentator on the show.

I have known Barry for a couple years now, but last night he showed a side that I wasn't aware of. He made me laugh on numerous occasions. He started out talking about the notes features that PokerStars offers and he said that it took him awhile to realize what the "N" meant on the bottom of the persons avatar. He used the notes feature on many of the professional players he knows and would type in their real name, so he would know who he was playing against. He said that he wondered why they had the "N" next to their name and his feelings were hurt that he was "N"-less until he realized what it stood for. He made me laugh another time when a player caught an ace on the river to beat another player's set. He said, "That sounds like a good title for a book." (referring to his new book). I always appreciate it when he offers his insights and last night was no different. He talked about how hard he is on himself and how when he leaves a tournament, he replays the events in his head. When he feels he made a bad play (something even as small as not winning a bet that he should have), he is bothered by it. If however, he gets his money in with queens versus aces or he loses with aces versus queens, he isn't bothered by it. I have always felt the same way and it is nice to know that I have at least one poker quality that he has.

Today I played in the WCOOP No Limit event, but only made it through half the field. I didn't get a huge run of cards, but I did the best I could with what I had. Both times I had pocket queens and raised, the players all folded. I stayed in the game by stealing blinds and antes, but a couple of my race situations didn't work out. I finally was eliminated when a player raised, I reraised all-in on the button and the big blind moved all-in. He held pocket kings. I had AQ and was eliminated.

The next online tournament I am playing in is on Wednesday. It is the Omaha 8 or better event. I feel most comfortable in this game at the moment and I hope that things go well.

I wanted to win my way to the Borgata WPT event, but I haven't had a chance. It looks like I missed the boat on ParadisePoker because they are running satellites for Foxwoods. I took a stab at it, but only made it through 2/3 of the field. I might give it another try later this week.

Even though I lost two big tournaments today, I ended up breaking even because of my ring game play. Tournaments have always been my passion, but the ring games keep me sane.

September 8
The Live at the Bike show went extremely well last night. I thought I was going to do the first half of the show by myself, but Bart finished his voice-over work early. He arrived just in time to start the show with me.

Barry Greenstein had originally wanted to do the show because he thought he could offer some insights into the game of Limit Holdem. He has done a No Limit Show before and was interested in doing a new game. The host who starts the big game told Barry that the game was going to be No Limit, so Barry called to tell me that he wouldn't be doing the show with me. Bart and I were prepared to do a large No Limit game.

At the last minute, they told me they changed the game to Limit and I was disappointed that Barry was not going to be in the booth with me. I asked the host about him and he told me he had left a message about thirty minutes prior, but hadn't heard back from him.

Bart and I started the show and at 7:30, the host told us that Barry was on his way. About two minutes later, Barry walked in the door and I knew the show was going to be 5 times better. Bart stepped out and Barry filled in and he didn't disappoint. Once again, I sat back and listened and let the viewers listen to everything Barry had to say. I did talk a little more than I did last time, but the show was still his. We have been doing the show for about eight months now and the two shows he commentated on were the best by far.

September 7
I took a mini-vacation this week to visit family in Sacramento. I planned on staying away from poker during the trip, but I couldn't help myself.

On Saturday night, I went to Cache Creek, an Indian Casino with a small poker room located in the middle of thousands of slot machines. While I was driving, my brother-in-law told me that the casinos in Northern California have a "double the bet" rule in No Limit Holdem. This means that if a player raises to $10 and the next person raises to $20, the next person (if he/she wants to raise) must make it $40. In every casino, I have ever played in, you must double the raise (not the bet).

As soon as I sat down, I realized there were going to be a whole new set of rules for me to play by. The dealer informed me that I was not allowed to read while playing. I don't usually read when I am sitting at the table, but while I was waiting for my seat, I started reading an article in Bluff Magazine about Phil Laak playing against Bots. I hadn't even played a hand and thought I could finish the article before I started playing, but they put a stop to it. They also pulled in the blind money before they dealt the hand which made it difficult to calculate the bets. The dealers even had a hard time with it when players went all-in. I broke even in the casino, but I was a little frustrated with all the "rules".

I am heading off to work right now. I am a little nervous about doing the "Live at the Bike" show tonight because they have me scheduled to do it solo for the first hour or two. It's not really my cup of tea.

September 2
I learned more at work yesterday in one hour than I have in a year of playing live action No Limit Holdem. I received an email from Barry Greenstein before I left for work letting me know that he was going to guest commentate with me on Live at the Bike. I was planning on playing in the Ladies event, so I wasn't going to be in there for the full four hours, but I was pleased that Barry was willing to do "Live". The show starts at 6:00 Pacific time, but Barry and I sat in the booth a little earlier and talked about a few things. Within ten minutes, I knew I was going to be in for a treat once the show started.

Bart and I usually do the commentary on Wednesday night and Bart always takes the lead in the conversation. I figured I would have to step up the plate because I know more about how the show operates than Barry. It took me a whole two minutes to realize that I was not going to lead the conversation and I was going to happily let Barry take control. I was only in the booth for one hour, but I learned so much.

I left the commentator booth and went to the Ladies tournament. There were about 550 women and I had to beat all of them in order to win my seat into the WPT Ladies Invitational. I think I only made it through 100 of them. After I finished up, I went over to the taping of the final table of the Legends WPT event. My friend (and one of my favorite people in poker), Kenna James was playing for a first prize of $1,125,000. By the time I arrived, they were down to three people.

I sat there for over two hours cheering my heart out for Kenna and he played fantastic. I thought he was going to run away with first prize, but it wasn't meant to be. I don't want to give the details of the hands away in case some of you are waiting to watch it on television, but Kenna deserved the win. After the final hand, the audience gave him a standing ovation. I know he must be extremely disappointed, but he is a true champion!

September 1
Here is my report from the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour Championship