4- 3 - 2 - 1 TAKEOFF!

Well, I took Friday off from poker. Today I was on the Internet playing for four hours. It went very well. I played with a lot of patience and just let the action go. I was at a table full of callers and weak raisers. They'd bet big only with a big hand on the river. I made some good laydowns and worked hard to get paid off on my big hands. It was a lucrative session and put me in a great frame of mind for my trip to the California Card rooms.

I leave at 1 AM tonite and I'll redeye through Houston and get to LAX about 10AM. I'll run a few errands then end up at the hotel for a few hours of sleep. Then I expect to hit the Hollywood Park later Sunday evening.

Hope to see a few of you there!

A truly nasty session

Wow, I just finished a session that is a good signal for a day off of poker.

I played just terrible. TERRIBLE! Every rule I go buy when playing at low limit Internet poker I broke, time and again. Let’s go down the checklist:

1) Stay patient.
I became frustrated early and instead of taking a break a just tried to bull my way through. Really bad!

2) Play good cards in position:
I was mostly playing good cards but often out of position. Meaning that I’d be leading at a hand with people behind me with limited ways to define my hand post-flop.

3) Chuck drawing hands if you don’t hit something strong on the flop.
Here was maybe my worst mistake. I’d play something like 7c9c cheap preflop, great, but I’d hit second pair, bet, get called, then instead of putting on the breaks I’d bet through to the river and lose to some tinkle breath slow playing KK. Idiot (that’s me AND him are the Idiots, by the way).

4) Never, ever pull a naked bluff. Only try a semi-bluff under the right circumstances.
In low limits you are going to get called even if the person SHOULDN’T call your bet. So you better have something you can hit if you bluff. Not this time. I tried to pull a naked bluff three times. THREE! Stupid.

5) Don’t get into Fancy Play Syndrome.
Low limit players generally have no idea about texture of flop. They play their own hands, period, and have only the fuzziest of notions of considering about what the board might portend or the other hands players might have. Fancy plays are an expensive waste of time at this level. And yes, I was trying some subtle plays that I’d expect to get paid off on in 20/40 LHE. Unfortunately, I was playing $.25-.50 NLHE at the time. Doh!

6) Listen to your inner voice. If it says you are beat, you are. Fold. If it says you have the winner, you do, call or bet.
Twice the voice said I was beat, crushed and mutilated, and I called a big bet anyway. More of my chips headed to other piles.

It wasn’t a complete waste. I made some good plays and had enough other Donkeys contribute to my stack so it wasn’t like I was a total freak-out. But what should have been a good win ended up being a $50 net loss on the night. It is so frustrating when you just flat out play bad.

I’m a person that, I think, has the right mindset for playing poker. I know bad beats are a part of the game. It doesn’t bother me if there is a maniac or idiot at the table. And it sure doesn’t bother me if someone pulls a Donkey play but does a major suckout to river me when I had my chips in against him as a major favorite.

So if the deck is against me I don’t worry. I know that’s a part of the game and I’ll just play tight and ride the bad cards out.

What bothers me is when I play bad. When I bet in bad situations and donate to others when I know it’s a bad situation. I loathe myself when I push it in a bad situation and reward a clown, because I treat the guy like a clown even when I know he has a good hand.

You have to give all players respect. Even Donkeys sometimes have hands.

So I’ll try to learn from this session, and apply the lessons to my next session.
Here’s to a hot deck and a good table!

Low-Limit NLHE Action

Spent two hours playing on the Internet last night. It was a case of horrible and great. I was playing $.10-.25 NLHE. First table I was at I got creamed. It was one of those sessions where there was nothing you could do. I get pocket TT and bet, called. Flop comes 259 rainbow and I bet big, guy calling behind me. At the river he just calls and shows JJ and takes the pot. Then I have KK with a caller. Flop is 477. I bet and I’m called. I smell a fish so on the turn I check and the other guy bets $.25. A quarter? I call, still smelling fish. On the river he bets $.25 again. I call. He flips over 77 for quads. He could have cleaned me out!

That’s one thing about being an aggressive player, like me. If I raise pre-flop, I normally bet out post-flop. And even if I have part of a hand I’ll normally bet aggressively to define my hand. So when I’m in a pot it’s building.

When I miss my flop, I’ll bet to see where I’m at and I’ll steal several pots that way. The key is if I bet and someone stays with me I’m willing to chuck my hands. I’ve learned the hard way that running naked bluffs in NLHE is a losing roposition.

But since I do bet so much, even with some borderline positions, that people aren’t quite afraid of me. So when I flop a monster I can bet and get paid off. The best thing you can do is play the type of game that you hit quads, bet on the flop and people call you, or re-raise! That’s when you earn money.

Flopping quads and betting $.25 on the turn and the river is… why that guy is playing in Internet low-level hell… and why I’ll be promoted out of purgatory pretty soon.

So that was the way it went. If I flopped a straight someone rivered a bigger straight. If I got trips, someone had bigger trips. In twenty minutes of good cards/bad results I was down two buy-ins, $50 and I left the table, stewed a couple minutes to calm down, then rejoined another table.

There I did well over the next hour-and-a-half. By the end I was up $50 and even again, but it was a rollercoaster. It’s not the type of day I love, but you go through ones like it in the poker world.

When to Move Up a Level

I’m fighting against a big itch right now. I want to move up a level. When I started back into poker I put some severe limitations on what I did:

1) My initial bankroll for internet poker would only be $100. I’d have to move up the levels by building my bankroll. I did this because I wanted to experience how the game has changed from all levels, not just the middle limit games I was used to before I took a break from poker.

2) When I have 25 buy-ins for a level, I would consider that level my “home level”. If I have 10 buy-ins, I could occasionally take a shot at that level… say one time in four sessions I could give it a try. That means for a $50 max buy-in NLHE table, I’d need a minimum bankroll of $500 just to think about playing there sometimes, but I really want a bankroll of $2500 to play there consistently.

3) Initially, I would only play tourneys and sit-and-goes that had a buy-in of no more than $15. I can raise that level up when I reach $2,000, at which time I’d limit myself to buy-ins of 1% of my bankroll.

4) I would keep my live play bankroll separate from my Internet bankroll.

5) I would not put outside money into my bankroll unless I lose it all.

Why all these severe restrictions?

Well, for one, it is good bankroll management. And when I was playing before, one of my greatest leaks was playing in too big a game. I’d kill people in the 8-16 game, say, and win $1500 on a good night. Then I’d get cocky and take a flyer and sit at the 20-40. My bankroll was way too small for that. I’d get killed. Sometimes it was bad luck, sometimes my bad play, but often it was because I wasn’t on my best game because I had too much of my money at stake. I’d lose, rebuy, lose again, rebuy again. Suddenly I was nuked down to scrabbling at the 3-6 tables.

So three months ago I started with $100, and the bankroll has steadily grown to $250 with ups and downs along the way. That means I’m still scrabbling at the lowest limits, even though my heart desperately wants to start hitting some of the $1-2 action and higher.

How Could You call with Third Pair?

So a guy bets on the turn, I call. He bets on the river, I call. I show third pair and he throws away a busted straight draw.

The message comes on the chat box: ‘You called with third pair?’

Yep.

I called because his betting didn’t make sense.

I’m in the BB with K8 unsuited. He limps in from middle position along with two others. Now this is a pretty aggressive cat. I’ve seen him raise from early position with any Ace, any two big cards. If he hits a monster on the flop he’ll slow play. Otherwise, he’ll bet out with any high or second pair, a flush or straight draw, or even a second pair bad kicker.

So the flop pops 782 Rainbow. I bet, my guy calls and everybody else folds. The turn is an Ace and a fourth suit. I check and my guy makes a pot sized bet. Now this makes no sense to me. This guy is pretty predictable. I can’t put him on an Ace and there are no flush draws. He might be betting into my weakness. There is a very slight possibility he’s holding 78 and two pair. If he had maybe a 9T for a straight draw he would have bet or raised me on the flop.. Or he could be running a naked bluff. I call, trying to see what the river holds. Out pops a Q. I hated that card. Now my guy makes a bet half the size of the pot.

Again, curious. That´s a small river bet for this yahoo. It could either be he has a monster hand… trips? No, he´d go all in with that. Now I’m sure he doesn’t have an Ace, he’s the type to go all in at this point with top pair. He might have the 78 or he might have played along with a Q, or a Q7 for all I know, and got lucky at the river. But I also feel he’s quite likely running a bluff with a busted straight draw and is trying to bully me off the hand. I decide information was important here so I call. He shows 9J for a busted gutshot straight draw! Well, my third pair takes it down.

It was a hand I was expecting to lose when I called. But while calling in that situation is normally a bad move, I called because his betting made no sense to me. I had a hunch, from his frequent and aggressive betting prior to this, that he was running a lot of naked bluffs. I couldn’t put him on a hand, which suggested to me he DIDN’T have a hand. Indeed he didn’t.

I had his number from then on. He was still very active and aggressive. I actually became tighter, making sure I was going in with only good hands and continued only when I had a good flop. It ended up a nice win.

Tournament Rush and a Donkey Move

Wow, how about this one. I never finished an on-line tourney and still placed in the money, despite pulling one of the worst Donkey moves imaginable.

It was a little $11 buy-in NLHE on Party Poker. 3000 starting chips and a 15-minute blind structure, my favorite structure. It has deep enough starting stacks with a blind structure to allow you time to play, and make it less of a skeet shoot. I thought I’d have plenty of time, since there were less than 1000 players (990).

Well, I start card dead, with the first table just going zonkers with all sorts of wild, crazy betting. No one is really getting anywhere… the chips are flying around the table but it’s just going in circles. So I’m folding and folding and getting a good eyeful at everybody’s antics.

At the send of the second level I wake up in the SB with AK. A late player puts in a small raise. I go over the top with a bigger raise. Everybody folds to the original raiser and he goes all in.

Aw, hell. It’s too early in the tournament to risk my tournament life on AK. Normally I chuck this bubby out. But while I’d watched this yahoo bet awfully aggressive, he did slow play KK once before. I figure him on a small pair or more likely an Ace. If it’s the small pair I’m a small dog, but if an Ace I’m a big gorilla. Finally, he has a slightly smaller stack than mine, so even if I lose I’d be crippled but still alive. After some thought I decide to go with my read. Sure enough, my foe shows AJ. He has no luck on the board so he’s gone and I take a big pot on my first hand played, thank you very much.

Then it’s back to card dead. I play a few more hands, but I’m either raised and reraised out, or miss my flop and have to chuck. My stack whittles down until I’m back to about 3200.

When just before the first break I just get sick. I call a small raise from a middle position player when I’m on the button with AJ diamonds. The flop shows a beautiful Ace. He checks, I check, the turn comes a blank. He bets big, I go over the top and, of course, he goes all in. He’s a smaller stack so I decide the pot odds are there. I call, he shows KK, and is gone when the river draws another blank.

Next hand I have KcTc. UTG puts in a minimum raise and three players call, including me. Flop is KT4 rainbow. UTG goes all in, I call. He shows AA and my stack is growing.

Two hands later I have AA. I bet my standard raise of three times the BB. Button and BB call. Flop comes A74 Rainbow. Everybody checks. Turn comes a K. BB bets, I raise, Button folds and BB goes all in. SWEET! When I call he shows Ac7c and is gone.

When the BB comes around to me, three call and I check K6. Flop comes 6KK and I’m glad the others can’t see my face. UTG bets and everybody folds to me. I call. Turn is a blank. UTG bets and I call. River is another blank and UTG bets and I raise, putting him all in. He calls and shows KJ, he’s gone.

In one circuit I’ve gone from even-steven to 58,000 in chips and the tournament leader. From there I become big gorilla and started leaning on everybody. So far I’ve played, good aggressive poker, letting the opportunities come to me. I’m on overdrive and blowing through everybody.

Then I do my stupid thing of the tournament.

I’ve been leaning hard on everybody anytime I have a playable pocket. In middle position I get Ac7c with one limper in front of me. Normally I’d either check this of just fold, but I’m playing my rush and my stack and type in a bet. I meant to bet 2600 but when I blink there are 26,000 chips out. I’d rushed and typed too many zeros! Now this I hated. Now comes my real big mistake:

I’m always chatty when I play, making comments, wisecracking about how bad my play is and congratulating others on their play and their hands. I can’t resist so I type: “Ooops! Sorry, I typed one too many 0’s!!!”

How stupid is that? Now everybody knows I don’t have a really strong hand. I always have a policy of not letting anybody know what I’m doing. I never flash cards before I muck or talk about what cards I had. Now during a hand I tell people I’m open game.

Of course, that is a big enough bet that anybody calling is going all in, so when I realize my mistake I hoped that it wouldn’t hurt. The second biggest stack has 25,000 chips and he thinks long and hard in the SB. Finally, he calls. He shows AQ and I’m cursing myself for my idiocy.

Then four clubs shoot out on the board and my Ace-high flush knocks him out. That was one I definitely didn’t deserve. First I made a stupid bet, then I advertised it to the entire table, and only luck and my stack size saved me. I decided to screw it down and play some sensible poker so I don’t really fool the pooch.

I’m doing fine, but the tournament has gone about two and a half hours when my wife calls with a problem. I have to go. At the time I’m in the top five in chips, a bit over 100,000 with 75 players left and everybody in the money. So I have to go and eventually I’d be blinded out.

I’ll have to check today to see what I placed and what money I made. Still, it was a nice run. The key to remember is that I didn’t let myself get involved in all the stupid betting going on. I hunkered down and was patient until my opportunity came. Then when it came I drove it through into overdrive.

I just need to remember to keep my mouth shut if I pull a Donkey.
It would have been nice to see how deep I could have gone, though. Next time.

Ecuador, Oswaldo and Ceviche

We spent a nice time today with Oswaldo. Oswaldo is a kind gentleman in his forties and a typical everyday Equadorian man.

Oswaldo is a technician who works on the communications of the Guayaquil Airport. This is the position of a well-trained technician. In the US he’d be making $40-50,000 a year. Here in Ecuador he’s paid $380 a month and supplements his income by driving a taxi. That’s how we met him. My wife wanted to find a reliable guy to drive us around when we needed the service.

His wife is in her sixth year of medical school. They have one boy. They live in Sueces 3, a middle-class neighborhood in the North of Guayaquil not far from the airport. The streets are in poor shape and dirty. They live in a one story structure. The masonry is cracked, but it’s comfortable and clean.

We were there because we’d helped Oswaldo out on a business problem he had. He asked us over so he could properly thank us. Dinner was Ceviche de Manabi and Ceviche de Camarones. Cevishe is a cold dish, a soup really, with seafood, lime onions and a variety of spices. The Ceviche de Manabi is made with fish. The fish is not cooked, but is cured in lime juice for 24 hours. The Ceviche de Camerones is made with shrimp, and the shrimp is cooked.

In the hot climate of Guayaquil the cold ceviche was delicious and refreshing. Oswaldo’s family was a joy. We spent a relaxing three hours talking and practicing my atrocious Spanish.

After this I'm going to head to the Internet Cafe and see about some NLHE. I'm going to work on some techniques, and sharpen my game, so I can hit the poker rooms of Southern California with my best game.

Poker Road Trip A'comin!

I just confirmed that I'll have a chance to play some live poker. Time to get off the Internet!

I'll be taking a business trip to Southern California the first week of October. I'll be spending some time in LA and Palm Springs so I'll be able to hit some of my favorite poker rooms. The top three on my list:

Commerce Casino (Commerce, CA)
Casino Morongo (Cabazon, CA)
Agua Caliente Casino (Rancho Mirage, CA)

I should be able to spend time at all three. I'm especially looking forward to Casino Morongo. It is a casino that is legally allowed to have gamblers as young as 18!!! They used to get a lot of college kids who are really crazy Internet Brat players. I'm interested to see if the games have changed from before!

I'll add more updates as I go.

'Nice Catch You Idiot'

This is so instructive.

Playing online at a $1/$2 NLHE, full table of ten. I'm SB and I call to three limpers and the BB, with trash.

Flop hits 6c, 5s, 8d. Ugly, even for my pocket trash. Check, check and the guy one off the button puts out a small bet. I muck, BB calls and everybody else folds.

Turn is the 4s and it starts to get interesting. BB bets, flop raiser reraises and BB calls.

River snaps down a 8s. BB bets, original raiser reraises, BB goes all in and gets the call. They both show. BB has Js7s and his foe has K7o.

The loser grumps, 'nice catch you idiot.'

Idiot? Who's the idiot?

The BB wasn't raised so he was fine staying in with suited J7. He caught an open-ended straight draw on the flop. Filled the straight with a flush draw to top and filled the flush on the river.

Bozo limped in with an offsuit K7. Then reraised and called an all in with less than the nut straight with a potential flush and full house on board.

This attrocious play was typical of the table I was at. Unfortunately I suffered from cold deck syndrome and always seemed to be rivered by some low life calling on extremely thin draws. It happens. the damage wasn't that bad as I was only down $30.

It happens. It evens out when you win a ton when you play badly.

Until next time.

Ecuador Poker Player

A little about me? Well, I started playing poker back in 2000, before it was “cool.” I had my ups and downs - my best month I made $18,000 in tournaments and cash games in Southern California, my worst month I lost $5,000. I was consistently profitable at lower-limit games but never successfully graduated past the 8-16 LHE games of Southern California and Las Vegas. Then a divorce and personal problems (not poker/gambling related, thank God) kept me away from the tables. So for the last 18 months I’ve watched Poker explode into the phenomenon it is now. I live in Ecuador now, with occasional trips to the States.

So finally the poker bug gets to me. I’ve read that the game has changed with the massive numbers of “Chris Moneymaker” Internet players swamping things to make some juicy games. So my quest is to take a $100 bankroll on line and see where it takes me.

I’ve been playing on several Internet sites, mostly Party Poker, Doyle’s Room and a few other places. The first two months playing at bottom-feederville has taught me a few things.

:: The games are good. There are lots of people playing. Most have only the vaguest idea of how to play. It is much easier to find a soft game to take down.

:: The players are much more aggressive. Play two years ago was more likely to get checked around, giving you the chance to dominate the table being aggressive, or taking a free card when you want. Now, people are much more likely to bet aggressively with flat out garbage.

:: Tournaments are much tougher. It used to be you played against a couple hundred people. Talent and skill would get you through. Now the tournaments are high hundreds, and often reach into the thousands. Luck is much more critical, especially in the NLHE games.