Poker Blog

July 2007

July 25
I have played in a few tournaments over the past couple of days and have only managed to come close to the money.

On Sunday, I played the Omaha tournament and bubbled it. I was one of the shortstacks and I probably could have squeaked into the money if I just folded and let the stack that had less chips than me take his blind. When it was my turn to act, I thought about the best thing for me to do and decided to give myself a shot at winning the whole thing. If I had folded, I wouldn't have a great shot. I ended up getting knocked out and then questioned my decision. It has always been my way to go for the win, but in this case, there was a good reason for me to try and make it into the money. Over the past year, I have not played to my potential due to total chemo brain. I can't even begin to explain what it does to a person, but you'll just have to take my word on it. The brain gets fried and my online tournament results were directly affected. I would really like to improve my online statistics and placing in a $215 tournament would get the ball rolling. I am planning on playing in most of the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) events on PokerStars in September, so I will have a shot to pull my numbers up then. But, if faced with the decision in the WCOOP as to fold and hopefully make it into the money or go for the win, I will probably choose to go for the win again.

Even though I have played a few tournaments this week, I still haven't been playing as much online poker as I normally do. I went to go see American Idol Live at the Staples Center the other night, went to one of the local casinos to play in a small Omaha tournament with a couple of my girlfriends, and have spent a lot of time reading the new Harry Potter. It feels so great to have a "normal" life again.

July 19
It has been too long since my last journal entry, but it's only because I haven't been playing very much poker over the past week.

After the long month in Vegas, I wanted to take some time off from poker and just hang out. I went to Sequoia National Park for a couple of days and just enjoyed the outdoors. I didn't play any poker. I didn't even think about it. In fact, I didn't even use my cell phone while on the trip because it didn't work up there in the mountains.

My little trip was so awesome and it is exactly what I needed to unwind. On my first night while driving on the windy road, I saw three deer, a black bear and a baby coyote. The black bear actually crossed the road right in front of my car. If I had driven home that night, the trip would have been worth it just because of that. I took three hiking trips while there and also walked around in the crystal caves.

Yesterday, I did something completely opposite of being at one with nature and without a lot of people. I went to opening day at Del Mar Racetrack. The experience would have been great if it wasn't opening day. Everybody seemed to have the same idea and the place was completely packed. We took a train ride down to the track (about 1 1/2 hour ride) and that was extremely enjoyable and I always love to bet on the horses. The problem was that it was very difficult to get through the crowds. We had a hard time finding a place to sit and then when we went to place bets, it was a good fifteen minutes waiting in line. All of us were very hungry too and the lines for the food were even longer than the wagering lines. ugh.

I will probably be playing a little more this coming week, so I will update my journal sooner than I did this last time around.

July 18
Congratulations to 2007 World Series of Poker champion Jerry Yang.

July 9
I played in three online tournaments and blanked out in all of them. The first two were No Limit events (The Sunday Million and The Second Chance on PokerStars) and the last one was the Omaha Hi/Low event.

I came very close to the money in the Omaha tourney. I was only two away, but I gave it a valiant effort.

When we got down to two tables, I was below average in chips and I needed to do everything possible to win as many chips as I could. On one hand, a player bet into me and I raised the last player to isolate because I thought I could get 3/4 of the side pot with a potential to get 3/4 of the main pot with my nut low and two pair (the board contained one pair). I did win 3/4 of the side pot because my opponent only had low, but I did not receive 3/4 of the main pot. The person that I raised out of the pot was annoyed that I raised them out and they would have been able to eliminate the other player. This particular player didn't understand that we were still a long way away from the money (they paid 9 and we were at 16) and I had to do what I could to increase my stack. If I had checked it down, I would have eliminated one player, but we still would have been 6 away from the money and I would have to get extremely lucky to survive. This was not the time for cooperative betting. I was able to increase my stack size by 25% by isolating that hand and that was imperative if I wanted to make it into the money. Even though I was able increase my stack size late in the tournament, I was not able to hang on long enough.

July 8
The main event at the World Series of Poker is underway and I am not participating.

When I decided to play in this years WSOP, I took a look at the schedule and picked the tournaments best suited for me. The main event was not one of my selections. I just recently started to feel like my strength was back to "normal", but I didn't know if I could pull a marathon session off and I certainly wasn't going to fork over 10k on one tournament to find out. I know it was the smart thing to do, but that doesn't make me wish that I was there.

Over the past few days, I have gone to the Bike to play some live action Omaha. The games have not been overly exciting, but it has been fun to see some old familiar faces. Even though the games have been a bit drab, there was one hand last night that was absolutely insane. Two players limped in front of me and I raised with A2KQ (suited ace). The guy to my left flat called two bets, the guy to his left reraised to three bets, one of the blinds called. The two limpers called, I capped it and they all called. Six way capped action preflop and I hit a beauty. The flop was QQ7. The first guy checks, the second guy bets, the third guy calls, I raise, the guy to my left flat calls, the guy to his left three bets, the first guy folds, the next guy calls, the next one folds, I four bet and get called by the remaining players. Now there are four players left in the hand and a beauty of a card comes on the turn. It is the last queen. The first guy bets out and is all-in. It is my turn to act and I can't raise because I don't want to raise the guys out that still have chips, so I just call and the guy to my left says "You are calling?" He called behind me and the final guy folded. The final guy is the one that three bet preflop and three bet on the flop and now he finally decides to give up and I was curious to know what his hand was. The river card was an ACE! I bet out and the guy to my left calls. I showed him the queen and he shows me AA. I was absolutely floored by the hand. What in the hell could the guy who three bet have? He obviously didn't have an ace and didn't have a queen or a backdoor nut low draw. Why on earth would the guy on my left just cold call the two bets instead of three betting his AA preflop. He never showed any kind of strength, but wouldn't lay his hand down either when it was obvious that I had the queen. The whole hand played out so weird, but I was happy to scoop the pot of the night.

I might go play some live action later on this week, but today I am just going to play a couple online tournaments.

If you have some extra time, take a look at some of the poker terms on my website: bankroll, shill, family pot, freezeout, picture cards, and royal flush.

July 1
The 2007 World Series of Poker adventure has been a wild ride so far. I have had more fun than I have had in over a year and I also have been depressed at times.

Tournament poker is absolute torture at times and I often question why I play at all. It seems that whenever I think I can't do it anymore, I will wake up the next day and I will remember why I love the game. This is exactly how I am feeling today.

Yesterday, I decided to register for the $1,500 No Limit event because I have been getting so close to the money in most of the events I have been playing (including a Stud Hi/Low event the night before). I normally don't play the $1,500 events at the WSOP because they are so chaotic and yesterday was no different. There were more than 3,100 players and from what I understand they had more alternates than seated players when play began.

The staff did a good job at getting the alternates into the game, but break time was ridiculous. Over 3k players wandering the halls trying to get to restrooms. This is one time it pays to be a girl. There are absolutely no lines in the Ladies Room.

I had a great table. We all had a great time while playing and I felt like I had pretty good reads of all the situations I was involved in. I really think I played one of my better games and there is only one mistake that I made on that table that stands out in my mind. I did a great job at accumulating chips and was able to show down great hands for all of my chips. One hand, I had 64 of diamonds and the flop was 853 with two diamonds. I made a pot size bet, the guy raised me, I pushed in and he called. He only showed AK with no diamonds so I was in better shape than I hoped. I turned the jack of diamonds and won that pot. I also won a large pot when I flopped a straight against a guy's turned set. I had more than average chips during the first 9 hours of play.

After dinner break, we came back to our tables and I knew our table was going to be moving into the main room soon. We had been sitting in the pavilion and as much as I had liked my table, I was ready to move. The pavilion has temperature problems and my side of the table had been sitting underneath the vent for the whole day. We all had jackets on and were freezing our ass off while the other side of the table was ready to break into a sweat.

Right before our table broke, I made that mistake I mentioned earlier. I was dealt A5 of clubs in position and I hadn't played a pot in awhile. The guy to my left was very short stacked and my first impression was that he was ready to play the hand. I counted out chips for a raise and then it seemed like the guy to my left seemed to settle a little so I decided to raise. Sure enough, he pushed and I was forced to call because he barely had more than my raise. He had 88 and they held up. The pot didn't cost me a lot of money, but I was pissed at my mistake. We got moved and I wished everybody the best of luck. Five of us had been there since the beginning and we were really enjoying ourselves and our inside joke regarding the number three seat. While all of us had been sitting there for the whole day, seat three had been torturous to everybody that sat there. We started calling it the electric chair and everybody that sat down, we would say "hello" and chuckle inside our head at the victim. Eight players were eliminated from that seat.

When I got to my new table, the players were all about business and it seemed like they all had a chip on their shoulder. I had to try and get a grasp on the table and decided I only wanted to play really big hands. My first hand was when everybody folded to me in the small blind and I had AJ of spades. I ended up losing that one to a guy with King rag and then I was pretty short chipped because I had anted off a lot of chips while waiting for a hand. About a round and a half later, I got dealt pocket nines and decided to move with them. I only had about ten times the big blind at that point. Only one player played with me, but that was enough. He had AK and flopped an ace and I was eliminated out of the money.

I managed to make it through more than 2,500 players and ended up with nothing for my efforts. In the Stud Hi/Low event, there were more than 650 players and I made it down to 104. They paid 64. It has been a running theme with this series and I have been frustrated as hell. Of course I have been questioning my ability to win a tournament and Steve doesn't make it any better by joking with me that I have probably set some sort of record this year by beating more players (outlasting more) than anybody else without receiving shit for it.

So guess what I am going to do about it? Yes, of course, I am going to play another event.