Vegas-Baby-Vegas!

I just got back from a long weekend in Vegas. I love that city! It is like a fantasy land for me. I stayed at Harrahs the first night and at the Palazzo the next two nights. I went there with Joe Begg (CPHS counselor) and Dave Steffen (Retired teacher). I have a couple comments below.

1) This was the first time that I went to Vegas during the winter. I am so used to going there during the summer and having it be over 100 degrees. It was about 65 degrees in Vegas. Now, for me it seemed like 65 degrees in Vegas is a lot different than 65 degrees in Minnesota. If it were 65 degrees in Minnesota, everyone would be at the beach and basically be wearing nothing. In Vegas, it was a little chilly. There was a breeze and since there is no humidity, it seemed colder. I'm not complaining, just thought it was interesting.

2) I didn't do so well this past weekend. I normally leave winning some amount of cash that will cover airfare expenses and other stuff. I didn't play much poker either. Here are a couple reasons why.

I played in $1-$2 no limit cash games.

I get dealt 77 in the big blind. There are 6 players in the pot. The flop comes 7 8 9. The small blind bets $30 into a $12 pot. I think for awhile and I go all in for about $140. Everyone else folds to the small blind. He has been playing crazy the whole game. He's been taking money from people and giving it to other people. I was just waiting to crack him. I finally get my chance. He calls my all in. I have him covered. He flips over 8 10 offsuit. He had a lot of outs, but I had the feeling that he was gonna hit his straight. Well, he hits the 6 on the river and I am pissed.

I get dealt J 7 offsuit in the small blind. There's 5 people in the pot. The flop comes J 7 2 all clubs. I check, the guy a couple seats to my right looks down at his cards. I now know for sure that he has either the A or K of clubs. He bets $10. There a caller and I call. The turn comes 5 of diamonds. My plan was to check raise him all in since I know I'm ahead. He bets $20. The next guy folds and it's up to me. I go all in. I think I'm ahead and when he flips over his cards, I am ahead. He flips over K 7 with the K of clubs. A club comes on the river and my hopes and dreams are dashed.

This last hand I am very proud of. I am in middle position and the guy to my right raises to $10 with A K offsuit. I have 8 8 so I call. There are 3 other callers. The flop comes Q 8 6 all spades. The small blind leads out with a bet of $15. This is a guy who has about $2000 at the table b/c he was playing all night. He started with $100. The raiser looks down at his cards and calls. I think for awhile because I think that the small blind has a big hand. I call the bet. The turn comes a K of clubs. The small blind bets $25. The raiser raises it to $50. I know I have the raiser(A K offsuit) beat. I think for a long time. For some reason I have a good read on the small blind. Either I go all in or I just call. I decide to call the raise. The small blind shouts out "I'm all in." The original raiser says "ahhh! what the heck? I call." I ended up throwing away my set of 8's. What a laydown! If the original raiser had not called, I would have had to call. The small blind flips over A 2 of spades. He flops the nut flush and takes down the pot. I had a lot of outs but I was getting killed all weekend and had a bad feeling with this one so I mucked my hand and saved myself about $150.

Like I said earlier, I didn't have a very profitable weekend. That's ok though. I will make the money that I lost back playing online once basketball season is over.

3) So I'm NOT a Nascar Racing fan. Joe, Dave, and I each made a $10 bet on picking the winner for the race. It's surprising how exciting Nascar was when you have money on the race. At one point we were in the hotel room watching the race and it was actually somewhat interesting. We ended up not winning anything from it. This just added to the losing streak of the weekend.

4) So I'm on the plane home and I want to get some shut-eye since I have to work the next day. My flight gets into the cities at 12:30am and I have to be at the staff meeting at 6:45am. Anyway, there's a lady and her son who sits next to me. She's quiet at first. Then she gets bored and starts chatting with me. I'm thinking OH NO! She tells me everything about her life. She's a housewife, has 4 kids, 2 dogs, wants 2 more dogs, her husband works for Cargill, blah blah blah blah blah. I haven't met many housewives, but after meeting this lady I made an assumption that many housewives don't get out much. Towards the end of the flight she says "boy, this flight went fast." I'm thinking, well hell yeah it did for you. The best part of the flight was when the plane was landing and my ears started to pop so I couldn't hear her anymore. Sheeeeesh!

5) The highlight of the trip muat have been when we went to eat at Mesa Grill in Ceasars. My roommate's mom got us a $200 complimentary meal at Bobby Flay's restaurant. The food was soooooo good. I got rib-eye steak and I LOVE steak. We end up spending most of that money and gave the server a pretty nice tip. Thank you Mary Jo Jerome. We all love you for it.

Anyway-I still love Vegas and will go back this summer. Hopefully I will get a chance to live there for a couple months. Now it's back to reality.

Fight your way back!

Pokerstars tournament.
Buy in: $55 Entrants: 1498 Pays: Top 135 Top Prize: $17,227

I've been playing tight all game. There's about 500 players left and I get dealt AK offsuit in the small blind. It gets checked to the button and he raises it 3 x the big blind. I have about 6500 in chips. I decide that he's trying to steal the blind so I go all in. I have him covered with about 600 chips left if I lose. He turns over 33 and I don't hit either one of my cards. I'm left with 600 chips and start going all in. I keep on winning my all ins. I double up several times and am now in good position. I currently have 31K in chips and am in 13th place. There are 366 players left.

There's about 160 players left and I have been beat several times pretty badly. I called an all in with AJ offsuit. The other player had A5 and he hit his 5 on the flop. I'm still in the game, but it's a lot different when you are shortstacked. 25 more players to go until I get in the money.

I end up finishing in 104th place. Make a little money. I put all my chips in with KQ, big mistake.

When to Fold Pocket Kings

I haven't been playing a lot of poker online lately. I've been coaching basketball and reflecting on how much poker takes up my time. Anyway-here is a recent tournament that I entered.

I am playing in a tournament on Ultimate Bet and here is the situation. It is a $22 buy in tournament. There are 170 players and it pays the top 20. It is down to 26 players and I get dealt KK. From what I remember I was currently in 9th place. So I was certain to make the money. There was a raiser ahead of me so I raised it pretty big. Someone behind me reraises it the minimum. I start to think. I know the probability of him having KK was unlikely. A minimum reraise was very suspicious. I've played online long enough to know if someone has any medium to high pocket pair they will go all in on a reraise. Unless they have AA and want action, they will reraise the minimum. I decide to push it all in. The reraiser has me covered and calls. Well, he had AA. It was what I suspected. No luck for me on the flop, turn, or river. I've read books and heard interviews from some professional poker players that you should muck anything and everything except AA when you are down to the cutoff for the money. I find it really hard to lay down KK in any position preflop, even if I know I am beat. I would rather take my chances and try to double up than fold that hand. Maybe that's why I'm not a professional poker player. Haha!

$2/4 no limit cash game on Pokerstars

I sometimes get bored with the tournament scene and will take a break from it to play in a cash game or play in a tournament and cash game simultaneously. Well, I was playing in a cash game on pokerstars the other night and came upon this hand.

I was on the button with pocket tens. There were 3 limpers ahead of me and two more players left to act. I decided to just call with 10 10 because that is not that powerful of a hand and I wanted to see if I would hit my set. The action moves to the big blind and he raises it to $20. Everyone folds and it's up to me. I decide to call his raise. The flope comes 5 10 9 with two clubs. The raiser acts first and bets the pot which is about $50. I raise him pretty big. I know I am ahead right now. He reraises me all in. I now know that he has a pocket pair higher than my tens, but I'm ahead. I call his all in and hope that a face card doesn't come on the turn or river. The turn comes a J and the river brings an A. He had pocket Jacks and takes about $360 from me.

After that beat, I think about whether I played the hand wrong or not. I decided that I played it correctly and that he had about an 8% chance of winning the hand after seeing the flop. 9 times out of 10 I would win that hand. He got lucky. Beware of cash games. The swings are very high just like what I wrote about.

I took out $3500 of the $5000 that I won from the tournament. I have about $1700 in my Pokerstars account and am still doing pretty well. I plan to transfer some money in my Fulltilt and Ultimate Bet account later this week.

Online Poker domination will be in full force starting in the year 2008.

Cash Games and Sit n' Go

So I haven't played many tournaments since the big win. I have mainly played sit n gos and cash games. I believe that people get bad beat (beaten when you are ahead) more often in cash games than tournaments. A lot of the people that play in cash games sometimes come to the table with the mentality that they can rebuy back in. That is the mentality that you DO NOT want to have when entering a cash game. Play tight and aggressive. Choose players at the table that are willing to play with you when you have the best hand. I also believe that you kind of have to have a disregard for money when playing in a cash game. You can't think about how much the raise was and if it will hurt your chipstack. If you think you have the best hand, reraise them. Be very cautious and go with your reads. Trust your instincts ,but don't put your bankroll at risk. If you do put your bankroll at risk, you will definitely have to deposit more money into your account. I haven't had to deposit money into my account for a couple months. I normally play in cash games and sit n gos to fund my tournament buy ins. I think that tournaments are the way to go because you will get paid off if you win the whole thing. Anyway-peace out. Gotta play in a tournament.

Should I claim this?

So I have a dilemma. Should I claim the winnings? It really isn't that much money. Well, I just started thinking about this since winning almost $5K. Two weeks prior, I won a tourney and $1,600. I'm sure the feds are looking at my blog right now and will audit me when the new year arrives. Anybody have any advice?

$38 bounty on Ultimate Bet and $27.50 Tourney on Pokerstars

Ultimate Bet
$38 buy in. This is a bounty tournament, so every person that I knock out, I get $5.
307 players
Top Prize: $2302.63, pays top 40

After the first break, I have about $3700 in chips. We start with $1500 in chips. That's 34th place out of 175 players. I'm pretty solid right now. I have yet to knock anyone out.

Did not make it to the 2nd break. I was standing pretty good when I was dealt K K. There was a raiser ahead of me. I reraised. The original raiser raised all in. I had the chips to cover so I called. He flipped over A A. WOW! I end up finishing in 85th place. That was my only mistake of the night and it cost me the tournament. What do you do with K K in that situation? Call right? It so hard to lay down K K.

I do not cash, except for the $5 bounty that I got for knocking 1 person out.

Overall $33 loss


Pokerstars
$27.50 buy in.
1415 players
Top Prize: $7531.34, pays top 180

After the first break, I have $4535 in chips. We start with $3000 in chips. It has been up and down. I am currently 392nd place out of 868 players.

So I am playing both sites at the same time. I have about $18,000 in chips (40th place). While I was playing on Ultimate Bet, the screen pops back and forth. There was a raise and a reraise for about $9,000. As the screen is going back and forth, I accidentally hit call with my 3 7 suited spades. I obviously lose that hand. and am down to $9,000(152nd place out of 342). The funny thing was that I hit a straight on the river, but lose to the flush. PAY ATTENTION! CRAP!


OMG! You won't believe what just happened! The blinds are at 300/600. Player in early position raises to $1800. I have K K. I reraise to $9,000. The player after me goes all in for $10,000 (he has Q Q). The original raiser had A A and goes all in. I am pot committed so I call. I was devastated and was ready to sleep for the night until I saw the flop. The flop comes K J K. I flop quads. I am now 20th place with a little over 35K in chips.

I make it to the final table. I go into the final table as the chip leader. People are playing so tight. I'm stealing pots, but I also get several good hands. Anyway, we get down to 4 players and I'm the chip leader. They want to chop it 4 ways and play for $1000. We all agree that that is what is going to happen. The 4 way chop comes out to be $3786 each with $1000 on the table. We play for the 1K and I win it all. I am so tired right now.

Outcome: 1st place: $4786

Here I come online poker world!