Poker Playing Journal

April 2006

April 29
I haven't played much the last couple days, but I did have a chance to play a $500 Omaha tournament. There were over 200 entries with a prize pool of $300,000. Thirty places were paid. I finished in 39th place.

I am really happy with the way I played and feel like it was my one of my better Omaha games as of late. Things just didn't go my way toward the end of the tournament. I was at one table for a short amount of time and really wished I could have been there longer. This is one example of a hand played while I was there:

The blinds are $200-400. The player in first position raised to $800, the player in the cutoff made it $1200, the player in the small blind called, and the original raiser called. Three players in the pot for three bets preflop.

The flop was J65 rainbow. Small blind checks, next player bets, the cutoff raised to $800 and it gets called around again. The turn was an eight. Small blind bets, next player raised to $1600, the cutoff called the $1600 and the small blind called $275 more and was all-in. The river was a king and the first player bet his last $403 and was called by the cutoff.

Ok, now this is where it gets good. The player in first position showed J776. The second player showed QQT7 and the small blind showed AK38. So the first guy won the side pot of $1856 and the small blind won the rest.

The guy in first position shouldn't have played the hand from the start, but then falls in love with his hand when he flops two pair. The turn gives him a straight draw to go along with his two pair, but it also brings a low, so he is now only going for half the pot. And then he puts his last $403 into the pot voluntarily and risks ending his tournament with his crap hand. I don't even know where to begin with the guy that held QQT7. If I had been able to get a little more of these guys chips (I did win two big pots while at the table), I might have been able to make something work toward the end of the tournament and maybe finish in the money.

April 22
I spent the day playing $30 sit n go's on PokerStars. I haven't played at this level for awhile now. I have always thought I could make better use of my time (and money) and under normal circumstances that is probably correct. But for now, they are fun and they are juicy. I played in four 1-table sit n go's and finished in the money in three of them. I also played in a two table sit n go and finished in second place. Not exactly swimming in the money, but fun nonetheless.

I received an email yesterday and it made me laugh. The guy was talking about my favorite, the one and only, Phil Ivey. He said, "You're accused of having a crush on him, and respond that you have a crush on his poker mind. If that's the case, there are plenty of guys running around with nice-sized man crushes."

I expected at least a couple emails regarding my journal entry from yesterday. I made a reference about karma and "Earl" and I figured some of you might have thought I lost it. I haven't! I was just referencing one of my favorite shows on television, "My Name is Earl."

April 21
I haven't been playing my normal games over the last couple of days. There is no denying that my treatments wear me down, so I have decided to focus on playing $10-20, $15-30 and a few tourneys, at least until I figure out better how to handle being tired out easily.

I played the $55 w/ rebuy NL tournament on Stars yesterday and finished in the money. There were 181 players and I managed to finish 13th. I played well for the most part, but did get really lucky on two hands. On the first hand, the blinds were $75-150 and the player in third position made it $600. I just flat called and we saw the flop heads up. The flop was T77. Yes, I flopped quads!! My opponent checked, I bet a small amount hoping that he would think I was position betting. As soon as he raised, I knew I had him. I moved all-in for $6,300 and he called with pocket queens. That hand helped me move myself into the #1 chip position.

Later, in the tournament I took an underpair against pocket kings. I actually said sorry to the guy when I flopped a set and one guy said, "lol @sorry". I explained that normally I wouldn't say that, but since pocket kings were taken down only two hands prior in a bad beat, I did feel kind of bad.

I played in a heads up sit n go and I was confronted with a decision like no other. In a heads up situation, if your opponent is disconnected, is it unethical to keep raising? Or should you use your own time clock in order to battle fairly? I chose the latter and I got my ass whooped. I had him outchipped when he finally got his connection back. He ended up taking me down in two hands. The first hand, I held AA against his 97 of spades and the flop was 742 with two spades. The spade on the turn gave him the flush, but I had hope because I had the ace of spades. The river was not a spade and I was left with few chips. We then got our chips in with A6 versus QQ. I held the QQ and he flopped two pair. Whatever happened to this karma thing. Does Earl even know what he is talking about?

April 16
I spent Easter at my Aunt's house and we had our traditional egg hunt. My eggs were filled with a bunch of crap I don't need (bubblegum, jelly beans, candy necklaces...), but I am certain none of it will go to waste.

I got home in time to play in the Hammer out Cancer charity event at Full Tilt Poker. Most of the 66 players were bloggers. I normally can find some kind of idiot at the table to write about, but tonight the tournament was filled with intelligent and witty players. What kind of content can they give me? I suppose I could congratulate Pauly for finishing second in the tournament. Or I could talk about how CJ from Up for Poker had me laughing with his clever humor, but I won't.

I played in the PokerStars Omaha event after I was eliminated from the charity event. Tonight, I finished even lower than my standard 50ish spot. Next week, I might have to pull a Babe Ruth and guarantee a hit out of the park.

April 15
The last couple of days have been much better for me as far as online play. As soon as I reported how poorly I have been doing, things turned around. I actually made a steel wheel about one hour after I posted my last journal entry. I haven't had as huge of a hand since, but I have had enough of a hand to get the job done when needed.

I know I have been locked up in the house too long when the online chat is annoying me. When I used to work at the Bike, I used to get my daily requirements of idiot talk, so I never paid attention while playing online. Now it seems I am getting a double dose. I have actually had players tell me that I should have folded on a certain street because their hand was better than mine. For example: In the $15-30 6-handed Holdem game, I held 76 of spades in the big blind. The player on the button raised and I called (I protect my blind most of the time with any reasonable hand in a heads up situation). The flop was 752. I bet, he raised and I called. The turn was another seven and the river a jack. He showed me pocket eights and then laid into me about drawing needing two of my six outs...blah, blah, blah. I told him, "next time, turn your cards face up preflop and I will probably play my hand more to your liking." He got up from the table after that.

I was playing in an Omaha game the other guy and the same thing happened, but I wasn't involved in the hand. The chat was pretty amusing...

Player1: moron
Player2: don't be so hard on yourself
Player1: nice river moron
Player1: u play well
Player2: i like rivers
Player1: good call on flop also moron
Player2: they're pretty
Player1: u had a good hand
Player2: thanks
Player2: i'll make a note of that for next time

Like I said, I have been locked up too long. I find the smallest things amusing.

April 10
It is definitely time to go back to basics. I have had the worst week of poker in my career and can't quite figure out what is going on.

If I didn't think the "cashout curse" was the most pathetic excuse for losing then I might have to use that one. I cashed out some money last weekend and have lost everyday since. I don't think my emotions are to blame either. I haven't been happy about the losses each night, but the next day I am rested and am ready to start fresh. I think the bottom line is that I hit a dry spell. A huge dry spell

My Aunt came over last night and watched me play for a couple of hours. She has worked in the casino business for about 20 years so she knows the basics of poker. After about an hour of torture and watching my nut low draw, nut flush draw go down in flames, she asks, "Is this how your whole week has been going?" My reply was, "pretty sick, huh?"

April 5
I was hoping that my last journal entry would explain why I wasn't doing exactly what I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I was also hoping it might help somebody along the way. I was not expecting the overwhelming response I got! I am touched by the amount of emails and well wishes on a few of the poker forums. I promise I will answer all of the emails, but it will take a few days.

Back to poker...

I played in three online tournaments on Sunday and started off great in all of them and then totally bombed out. The first tournament I played was the $200 w/ rebuys NL Masters event on Paradise. I ended up doing a total of 5 buy-ins, so it wasn't exactly cheap. One buy-in went down in flames with pocket jacks and another with AQ suited. In rebuy tournaments, I take a pretty solid starting hand and get all of my chips in and hope that I can accumulate chips. (you can read my rebuy strategy article here). This time, I didn't win the pots and after the rebuy period was over, I only had the chips I bought ($7,500). I built those chips up and was hanging tough for awhile and then they it seemed like suddenly they were gone. I remember one hand where I called with a pair of eights and on the turn, I almost raised a guy all in and didn't follow through with my intentions. His jack high turned into a pair on the river and I was disgusted with the way I played the hand. Other than that, I guess I just threw a few away on multiple hands because before I knew it I was shortstacked and then out of the tournament.

The $215 NL PokerStars $1,000,000 guarantee tournament was similar. I had chips for awhile and then they were gone before I knew it. This time, I know what happened with my chips and I am still trying to figure out if I made the correct move. The blinds were $100-200 and the person in first position made it $600. A guy in middle position called all-in for $47, and it was folded around to me on the button with AQ suited. I thought the two best choices were to either flat call and see a flop or to push in and force the player in first position to a decision. I decided to move in because I thought there were only few hands that the original raiser could call with and if he folded, I would be freerolling for the rest of the money in the pot because the other player only had $47 when he went all-in. Unfortunately, player 1 called with AK and I was left with about $1,300 in chips. I went out of the tournament when I pushed in with AJ and the same player took the rest of them with his pocket kings.

Of course, I played in the Omaha event and I made it down to 50 players. I noticed that since the first of the year, I have regularly got down to about 50 players. I have played well, but can't seem to get over the hump.

Monday night, I played on Live at the Bike. The night was titled "Barry's home game" and had a lot of the "regulars". I started out the night losing almost my whole stack when I flopped trips and one of my opponents flopped a full house. I did manage to make a comeback and ended up having a great time in the process. It's always great to hang out with that gang because they talk so much crap to each other. Barry sent an email this morning thanking all of us for coming and made fun of each and every one of us. He quoted me at the bottom with: "'What do you mean calling $180 with an open end straight draw? R U nuts?' - Shirley Siren Rosario"

That hand was interesting. We were playing the $300-500 game with $5-5 blinds. Preflop the bet was $30 with several of us in the pot. The flop was A45. The player in first position bet $60, I raised to about $160 with AQ and Barry flat called. The original bettor, Michael thought about it and reraised all-in. As soon as the action got to him, he hesitated and I knew I was done with my hand. After he moved all-in, I mucked, and Barry called. Michael won the hand with his set of fours and Barry showed 76. I have discussed some strategy with Barry and I gave him a hard time about this call. He called a bet and a raise on the flop and he only had a draw. I thought it was really bad because Michael was a tight player who must have had a really strong hand and he should have known that he wasn't getting paid off by me. David Tuchman, one of the commentators came out of the booth when the show was over and told us he didn't mind the call because of the implied odds. He also said that Bart hated the call. I never thought there would come a day, but I completely agree with Bart on this one.

April 2
My poker plans for the new year have not worked out the way they were supposed to. The first two weeks started out great and then I hit an obstacle: breast cancer.

One night while watching television, I put my hands under my arms to keep them warm and I felt a lump. I hadn't noticed it before and thought it might be from working out. I had just started working out regularly with a trainer and decided to ask him about it the next time I saw him. He felt it and said "I don't think that's from working out, call a doctor." I set up an appointment immediately and got my first mammogram. The mammogram didn't show anything, but an ultrasound showed something. The doctor had me meet her in her office and said, "You can do one of two things: You can either wait six months and we can monitor it or you can go get a biopsy." I told her to send me in to get a biopsy.

The biopsy revealed that I had breast cancer and the doctors said that it looked like it was stage one. I was fortunate that I caught it early because it was a fast growing cancer. She couldn't give me anymore information because they just don't know until they do surgery and check your lymph nodes. Waiting for that surgery was the hardest period in my life. I had no idea what kind of battle I was facing. Sometimes my stomach hurt, head hurt, arm hurt, throat hurt, etc and my mind would start thinking "oh, it's spread to my stomach..." I was scheduled for a lumpectomy which means they remove the lump, but not my breast. I don't want to go into the long details about the surgery, but I will tell you the pre-surgery sucked. The good news is that the doctor was able to tell me that they removed the tumor and my lymph nodes were clean. Basically they just took a small marble from my side. I was out of the hospital after a few hours.

Even though they removed the cancer, I have to follow through with some aggressive forms of treatment. I am scheduled for six months of chemotherapy followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. I had my first chemotherapy appointment a couple of days ago and I made it through alright. I just feel blessed that I am able to treat this in the best way possible and even though it is not a road I would have chosen, I am going to make it to the end of it.

I have struggled with the decision to make this all public. I have a great support system surrounding me. I have a huge family and they have been with me every step of the way. A few of my really good poker friends have also been a huge help. I decided to write about what I am going through for a couple different reasons. I want people to understand why I haven't kept up with the things I was supposed to be focusing on. I had a lot of doctors appointments that interfered with tournaments. I had a lot of emotional ups and downs and I just didn't feel like writing in my journal or writing a new article. And the hardest thing regarding poker this year is that the chemotherapy might hold me back from playing in the World Series of Poker. I may play one event, but I know I won't play many.

The main reason why I wanted to write about this is because I am lucky. I am lucky that I found out early. I am even more lucky that I have the kind of personality that wants to know what I am facing. A lot of women when given the option to wait six months or get a biopsy would have chosen to wait. My doctor told me that if I waited it would have made a difference. So please, if given the choice... Don't Wait!

I am not going to make my journal a place for me to vent about my most recent treatments. My site is about poker and I will keep it about that. I might write about cancer when it affects my game, like how you should never try playing poker when you get a cancer diagnosis. It is amazing how my game took a nose dive the first two weeks after finding out. Good news is that my game is back.