Poker Game Journal

March 2006

March 30
I could spend all day acquiring and writing about hand histories in my Omaha game. One of the hands that I played recently was fun because I made quads. The funny thing is that I made them with aces and had three players in preflop for a raise. What could their hands be? One folded on the turn, but the other player held QT24. You gotta love them! The games have been so good that it isn't a profitable decision for me to play in any other kind of game at the moment. I have always loved tournaments, but I am having a hard time breaking away from the online ring games. I plan on playing a couple NL tournaments this weekend including the Paradise Poker Masters tournament, so I have to get a little practice beforehand.

David Huber has been working on his poker radio project for a long time. The Pocket Fives Podcast begins today.

March 29
I spent all night playing $30-60 Omaha and I couldn't book a win. I didn't exactly lose a bundle either. Just one of those days where you spend hours on end and then break even. One of the guys on my table was a treat to play with. He gave at least four people a hard time including me. I just don't get the point of it. Most people either become better players because of the criticism or leave the game. At least that is what usually happens when the criticizing player has some kind of clue what he is talking about. In this case, the guy had none.

Paradise Poker has their Masters Week tournament starting on April 1st. Their first tournament is a $500 No Limit event with a $300,000 guarantee. I am going to be playing in as many tournament as my time allows. I will probably start playing a few No Limit sit n go's to get my mind into NL mode.

March 23
I played in the $1,000 No Limit event at the Bike last night, but only lasted about two hours. It has been a long time since I have been as card dead as I was last night and I am so glad it doesn't happen too often. I was not dealt one pair (not even a small one) and the biggest hands I was dealt was AT, AT, and AK. I was eliminated with the AK when a player in early position raised, I moved in, and he called with AQ. No need for an explanation, I am just happy I got my money in with the best hand.

Even though I didn't last long in the tournament, I ran into some players that I haven't seen in awhile, the Grinder, Barry Greenstein, Kenna James, and my good friend Susan. The first thing I said to Grinder was "So, it really is your world, huh?" and he responded "no, it's yours too." He had no idea that Mike Matusow had said on The Circuit, "It's Grinder's world. We just live in it." I explained it to him and told him that he would probably be hearing that more often now especially after he won another tournament a couple days ago (his twin brother Erik finished second). I congratulated Kenna on his second place finish on the Party Poker Million and my ex-boss Robert Turner told him, "maybe one of these days you will actually win one of these things." Kenna knew just as well as I did that Robert was just having fun.

After I got knocked out of the tournament, I sat behind Mike Woo while he was playing a mixed game. Mike has been playing poker for many years and could probably run circles around me in most games. When I sat down to talk to him, he was playing $200-400 Omaha Hi/Low (he was playing a mixed game with Omaha being one game) and I knew that was one game that I could offer him at least one tip (we talk strategy occasionally). I made about two suggestions and he followed one. After he lost the hand where he didn't listen to my previous advice, I said "that's what you get" and he said the same thing at the same time.

Not sure if I am playing in the main event at the Bike yet, but it is certainly something I am thinking about. We will see if my time allows it. It seems that since I have left the Bike to concentrate more on poker, I have had less time for it. Life is crazy like that sometimes.

March 17
Yesterday, I decided to go to the Bike and play instead of staying home and doing work. I got there early because I wanted to play in a satellite. I haven't been playing my best NL game and I wanted to test the waters and see if I was in the right frame of mind.

As soon as I entered the tournament area, I found a $180 satellite and bought in. I won the first hand with a beautiful suited connector and continued to do okay throughout the satellite. I didn't win the thing, but I was happy with the way I played. Even though I played well, I didn't feel like playing for a long period of time. I decided to skip the tournament and go shopping instead. I got home and played the Omaha event, but nothing spectacular happened. I called it an early night and watched some television.

I don't watch a lot of television, but I try to catch some of the poker programs. I watched one last night that I recorded awhile ago. I don't remember the name of it, but Jennifer Harman was discussing a hand she played against David Gray. When I did the Live at the Bike show, Bart and I had a constant debate about playing (protecting) your blinds in Limit Holdem. I said that they should be protected with any hand that works well together and he said that it can only get you into trouble. Anyhow, Jennifer said that she beat David's pocket aces with 52. She explained that she was in the big blind, David raised and she called. She said, "I am a big believer in defending my blinds. And there is a mathematical equation that I won't get into, but I am a big defender of defending my blinds." I am sure Bart will still disagree with me (us), but it made me smile hearing it from Jennifer.

I played a lot of NL tournaments online today. I am going to play in the $1,000 event at the Bike on Wednesday and I want to get my mind in the NL state of mind. I played in three tournament and finished in the money in one of them. In the PokerStars $22 w/ rebuy tournament, I finished 26th out of 439. Next time, I plan on winning that critical race situation and pulling out a victory. It has been awhile since I have had one of those in a big multi-table NL tournament.

March 17
I spent the morning hours playing ring games online and made a nice profit. I have been talking with a few people who don't really like online poker and I just don't get it. How could anybody not? I have heard that when players hear there is a juicy game, the game usually dries up, but that hasn't been the case in the Omaha games.

It has been another crazy week and I have two choices as to how I want to finish it off. I can play the $1,500 NL event at the Winning of the Green tournament or I can play the Sunday NL game on Stars and catch up on my site. I should probably do the latter, but we will see how I feel tomorrow morning.

March 13
I played in the Omaha event on PokerStars last night and made it about halfway through the field. Lately I haven't cashed in this event and I honestly can't figure out why. Some of the players can't play a lick. There was one hand that made my mouth drop. The blinds were $50-100 and a player raised from middle position. I reraised with AA37 suited, one other player called, and the original raiser called my additional bet. The flop was 542 all diamonds. The first player bet, I raised with my wheel (and dry ace of diamonds hoping that I could get a weak flush to lay down). It didn't work and all three of us continued until the river. The original raiser turned up KKK3 of diamonds and I got a quarter of the pot with the other player. What the hell kind of hand is that? He wasn't even in the blind.

I was watching a rerun of Poker: Learn from the Pros and there was some discussion about how to crown the "best" player in the world. I am not so sure there is such a way in our game. Mike Matusow suggested that there be a point system and only the $10,000 events get taking into consideration. His argument was that a lot of the big name players don't play in the smaller events. I know there are some players that play in more events than others and that makes the point system skewed, but I know of many great players that can't afford the large buy-ins. Does that make them less of a player than some of the "well-known pros"? What about the cash game players? There are many talented cash game players who have never played in a big buy in tournament. The argument just didn't hold water with me.

March 11
I played in the Omaha event last night at the Bike and I played one of my best games ever. Unfortunately it was only good enough to get me to three tables. Even though I didn't make the money, I wasn't denied of a little satisfaction before I was eliminated. A couple of years ago, Paramjit Gil pulled one over on me and I have never forgiven him for it. I have tried to convince myself that all was forgotten, but deep down I wanted to take him down at least once. At the start of the tournament, he sat down at my table and I teasingly started giving him a hard time. He asked me if I wanted to make a last longer bet and I agreed. About 3 hours later, I knocked him close to the felt on a hand that tied in with the hand from years before. Back then, he got me to lay down a hand on the river that I normally wouldn't lay down because he used the "friend" thing (I have come a long way since then and don't actually believe my "friends" when they tell me they have the best hand). This time, I raised with A266, Gil three bet, and all of the other players folded. The flop was TT4 and I thought I probably had the best hand. I checked, he bet, and I called. The turn was an eight and I checked again. I now had the nut low draw to go along with my two pair. He checked behind me and I was almost certain I had the best high hand. The river paired the eight and I checked to him again. I knew that Gil would bet if he didn't have anything and sure enough he did. As soon as I called, he said, "Good call. I missed." One hand later, he was eliminated and I collected the last longer bet.

The really strange part about the evening was playing a few hands by flashlight. The area around the casino had a power outage in the afternoon and the generators weren't working properly. We started the tournament on the main floor because the casino had enough power to keep those going. When the lights came back on, when the tournament staff thought we wouldn't have any problems, they moved us to the tournament area. About a half hour later, the lights went out and we had to finish our hands with the assistance of a flashlight. The lights went back on about five minutes later and we resumed play. The lights went out again and again and then finally they moved us back out to the main floor. By this time, the casino was pretty full so we were scattered around a little. Considering the situation, the staff did a good job at keeping everything in order.

March 8
I played in the No Limit event at the Bike today and I lasted for a total of 10 minutes. I am pretty sure I was the first person out when my aces went down in flames.

We started with $1,500 in chips and blinds of $25-25. I raised to $75 in early position and got called by two players. The flop was 873 with two spades. I made a pot size bet of $300, the next player called, and the next person made it $700. I moved all in and was called by both players. One person had a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw (JT of spades) and the other had a set of threes. The turn was a red queen and the river was a red nine giving one player the straight. I should have realized that I was beat in that spot especially considering my small pre-flop raise, but I was thinking about accumulating chips.

I started listening to The Circuit a few weeks ago and was hooked the first time I listened to it. In my profile of Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, I mentioned that he drove me crazy when I played with him in an Omaha tournament because he didn't shut up. Even though I didn't like sitting directly next to him in that tournament, he is one of my favorite players to watch on television. He is great TV and now we can say he is great radio too. Over the past week, I have listened to some of the old shows and the most recent one I listened to was with Chris Moneymaker. I have always been a fan of Chris. He has done so much for the game of poker and he is one of the nicest players I have met. Mike is great to listen to on the show because of his "tell it like it is" approach. On one episode he talked about how great of a player Phil Ivey was (of course he scored big with me on that comment) and then he earned bonus points this time around for recognizing how much Chris has done for the game of poker. He went as far as saying that he has done more for the game than the WPT (I think he has been reading my site). He really made me laugh when he kept saying, "Thank God for Chris Moneymaker."

March 1
I spent the whole day playing online. I had one of my best days in the $30-60 Omaha, but didn't make any money in the couple tournaments I played. I also spent a short time on Full Tilt Poker playing $5-10 Omaha and won a whopping $5.

I got a Michael Jordan brochure/advertisement in the mail today and I loved what it had to say. Honestly, I probably would like anything written about Michael Jordan, but this one made me think of playing poker.

The first page said, "His Vision said more than he ever could." The second, "His Creativity said more than he ever could." It continued with "His Desire... His Grace... His Strength... His Will... His Heart said more than he ever could." "These are the seven core components of the game's most influential player. No single one nearly as effective or powerful without the others. They are what made Michael Michael. They are what made Michael the greatest player to ever play. They are Michael's DNA. These seven traits are the foundation upon which your house will be built. So, next time you're out working on your game and they pass you the rock, don't just take it to the hole. Take it to the next level. Don't just bend rims. Bend expectations. Let them see you and feel you and by the very virtue of your love, the truth in your game, they will hear you."

Isn't that incredible? Not only is he the greatest player to ever play the game, he is one of the greatest businessmen ever. What an incredible marketing team he has.

I talked about getting knocked out of the Bay 101 tourney, but I didn't discuss the atmosphere. I have never seen such a huge group of poker groupies (spectators) surrounding a tournament room. The whole thing was like watching a red carpet event. The rail was packed several people deep and many of them had pens in hand waiting for the players to go on break so they could get an autograph. I saw Mike Matusow and Paul Darden as they tried to walk down the aisle and they didn't have two seconds to themselves. It was just insane. Having a shooting star at the table was cool because if you were lucky enough to get the best of him, then you walked away with $5,000. Unfortunately for me, David Plastik got Hasan Habib before I could.