Poker Trip

I took a trip down to Chumash last week. Joe put me in, and believe it or not there was no action at the 2/5NL game on a friday night...pathetic. For the longest time the only games they spread were 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, the occasional 6/12, and the 2/5NL $200 max. Just recently they started spreading a 1/2NL $50 max buy-in. The game has very little play and is chalk full of horrible players. Of course with horrible players comes a minefield of rediculous calls and terrible beats. And of course, we showed up at around 6PM on a saturday and there was four $50NL games going and ONE friggin $200NL. Joe was staking me on this night, and seeing as how there was a list of only about six players on the $200NL list, it looked to be a while before either of us took a seat. So I figured I'd ante up and play the $50NL game.

After folding the first few rounds I figured I'd take a stab at the pot from the button. There were two limpers and I bumped it to $8 with the Ks8h. I got one caller out of the SB and the others folded. The board came up a pretty decent As Qs 9s. The caller checked and I bet out $15. He tried to check behind me.....and then after he was told that he couldn't check he called the bet. Haha fantastic. The turn was a K. Now I figured to have the best hand as well as, obviously, the best draw. Except now he bet into me. $10 was the bet in front of me. With $60 in the pot and with me on only $20 I had an easy jam and got a quick call. I turned over my hand and he tabled Jd9c. River: Jh. REBUY

I wasn't too upset since I was expecting that in this game goin in, so I quickly bought for another $50. It took less than 20 minutes for me to get into another confrontation with this guy. In middle position I raised it up to $8 after one limper with the 56s. He called without hesitation behind me and it folded around. The board came up with what I thought, again, was a pretty good flop for me. With 3s 4s Jd, I bet $12 into the caller. He raised another $12. And again, with a $50 buy-in, I was forced into another situation where I felt the money needed to go in. There was only one hand that I was fearful of, and that was the AJs. IF he did have that hand then I was only a 2.5-1 dog on the hand but I was getting laid 3.7-1 on my last $18 after his raise. Given his previous hand holdings I highly doubted he had anything that huge, and if he didn't have the AJs then I'm looking to be a 55-45 favorite over any other pair, still ahead against a 4 3, and a slight dog to a set but still facing major odds. Fortunately for ME I overthought the situation and he ended up calling me with Q3 offsuit, putting me as a 70-30 favorite. Fortunately for HIM I blank blanked and had to rebuy again.

That one kind of frustrated me. I took a deep breath and shelled out the next $50. Again, it took me less than 20 minutes to hook up with another guy who wanted to put all of his money in on the flop. Luckily for ME I had flopped a set with my 77 on a board of 5-7-8. Luckily for HIM he had decided to put his whole stack in on a Q6 and managed to turn the 9 as I managed to blank the chance to boat the river. AAAGGHH. It's cool I got more to play. I rebought for another $50 and was able to at least get back another $100 before they finally started a 2/5NL $200 max three hours after we arrived.

I was up and down in the 2/5NL game. I bought in for the max $200 and never broke the $450 mark. I kept getting up to $450 and then getting knocked back down to $200. Then I'd get back up to $400, then back down to $200. I felt like I was playing ok but not great. It's been about a month since I've played a session at the Mash, but I definitely felt better than I did last time when I lost my mind. This time I felt like I was making good plays and good reads to get a little ground, but then I would lose it back in tough situations. There was two situations where I probably could've saved money. In the first situation I got stuck on a tough read. I had two choices and picked the wrong read. In the second situation I got overly aggressive against the wrong player and had I been less aggressive I could've saved a bit of money. Overall I ended up down on the session, but I know what I need to fix and what to get a hold of next time I get a back.

We got Paul's game tomorrow and I'm hopin to take down some cash in that cuz I'm feelin like I can right now. Although I've barely played in the past month I'm feelin like I can cruise right now and take down the ole' weekend tourney against weak players. Updates to come on Sunday/Monday.

Update?

Soon!! I've been really busy at work (yes, yes it's sad to hear, tell me about it), but I'll put up an update soon. Check back in.....half an hour?

Breath of Fresh Air

Every now and then, no matter if nothing is going bad, life is difficult to be happy with. Even though nothing is wrong, things might just be stressful, if perhaps not blatantly stressful but maybe on a subconscious level, and for no reason at all you just feel uncomfortable and it seems like nothing can make you happy. Have you ever wondered why this happens? I'll tell you why. It's because every now and then, no matter if nothing is going bad, you just need a breath of fresh air.

Lucky for me I found mine.

HALO, The New Apartment, and Sports

Ok so apparently I suck at HALO. I've never really played the game with the exception of a few times spread apart over months and years at a time. Well now since there's three XBOXers living in the new apartment (as opposed to just myself previous to the move) I'm gonna have lots of times to get my ass kicked. My two roomies were HALOers before when they lived on campus at UCSB and they did the whole XBOX live thing and all that. Now although they haven't played in a while, they still know the game. I definitely don't, and I've been proving that all week. But I'm improving! And that's saying something, right??........

Aside from that, the new apartment rocks. The living room is a decent size, my bedroom's a decent size, and it's cool being able to live with these guys, as the three of us have kind of been the best of friends over the last couple years, and living together is pretty fun. The area's quieter than my other place, which is a definite plus because I was living in brand new apartments JAMMED into the slums of Santa Barbara, so my place was awesome but the surrounding noise of the hudlums sucked. Our new place is tucked way back, so it's a nice change for me. And there's also tennis courts right down the street. Hey look, another thing I suck at.

I've never played tennis before, but I think it's something I should get into and it's probably something I can get really good at. I think that I have a pretty natural sense of sports, although some who know me as a poker player and nothing else would beg to differ. I enjoy playing sports, but I've been a casino rat for so long that I'm kind of coming into my athletic self. So although I've never played tennis before I went out and bought a brand new Prince TT Ultralite. Being that I've never played before, I could've bought a $20 racquet, but I'll be damned if I have to learn how to play a game with less than moderate equipment (as you can see my problems in money management). Although I'm having some problems controlling the ball, I'm feelin pretty good on the court and think I can pick up the game pretty quickly.

If there were some decent basketball courts close by that would rock, and I definitely need to get back on the golf course sooooooon. I haven't been to the range in forever, and it hurts inside. I've never really found time to get good at golf, but perhaps it's coming in the near future. I should get a new set of clubs first though...

On to something that I'm decent at: volleyball. Down here in SB there's a lot of beach, and with a lot of beach there's a lot of beach volleyball courts. My parents play beach volleyball and have been playing for a few years regularly, and they've been preaching the joys of the game to me and trying to get me to play for a long time now, but they haven't succeeded. Recently though, my parents decided to move across the country to New York, and what a time for me to branch out into sports again. It sucks because I would've definitely loved to have played with them since they're pretty good players and they play hard, and good competition is what makes playing sports and games fun to me. But nevertheless I've been improving over the weeks and feel like playing against better players so I can get my skill level higher. Lovin the game.

And in more sports news football is back!! Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year once again that Sundays are no longer open in my schedule. The NFL is wonderful and time spent without it is time in the dark as far as I'm concerned. The Eagles have a pretty new team as far as the team's makeup goes, and while losing a great LB in Mark Simeanou, I'm definitely glad they were able to get Donte' Stallworth for the trade, as the Eagles are in dire need of a superstar receiver if they're gonna get back to the Superbowl any time soon. Last season was a huge disappointment after so many years of dominating the NFC East, yes that's right, DOMINATING :) But however new and young the team is, they sure showed their capabilities in the first game of the season. Sheppard got injured on the first play of the game, but Roderick Hood should be quite an acceptable sub for Sheppard's serious injury, the guy's got some game in him. And although the first game was against the Texans, I can think of quite a few teams in the past two years that fall far below Houston. Nonetheless it's gonna take a little more to beat the Giants than it did the Texans, and the Eagles are game. Here we come NFC, watch out now.

Here's lookin to more sports played and more sports watched.

Hey There Children

I haven't been writing recently because, frankly, I hate writing about losing. And as much as I try not to be a biased writer, writing about losing sucks if that's ALL you do, as is the situation I've come to feel like I am in. And also I hate the way my posts have been coming in. I don't like posting an uplifting "I knew I could it!" post one day just to have it followed by a "Dammit I suck at life and should not ever play poker ever cuz I suck" post. It's probably not fun for you all to read, and it really seems immature to me. And while things haven't been going well for me recently, rather than re-explain all the depressing bad beats and bad plays, I'll just say a few words about life.

Recently I had an epiphany of sorts. After getting crushed in the $350,000 guaranteed at Chumash, and getting handled at the cash games afterwards, I kind of took a step back to evaluate and wonder: 1)what I am doing wrong, and 2)what the hell is wrong with ME. After thinking for a long while, the reasons listed below are what I came up with.

I've never been the best money manager, I'll admit to that. Is that a good thing for a gambler? Of course not lolp. Most of the time I spend too much money on useless crap that I never use, I eat out a lot, and I usually spend money on things that I don't NEED even though there are clearly things that I DO need. I am a big idiot in this field, that much is apparent. I also pay for people a lot even though I'm not (and have never been) in a situation to do so. Luckily for me, I have people in my life that understand that I have great passions that get in the way of practicality, and I also have enough sense not to get to a point past saving.

I haven't been the healthiest person in the world lately, lately being the past year. I definitely am not fat, but I could use some excercise and diet changes for the pure healthiness of it. Now as any serious poker player knows, these two things are key to being a successful player. Whether or not these two things (or lack of them) are directly related to my inconsistant success, I don't know, but I'd have to guess they do.

Another thing is that because of my lack of financial responsibility I'm broke, just flat out. Santa Barbara is a crazily expensive place to live. As a matter of fact Forbes Magazine ranked Santa Barbara, CA as the 7th most expensive city to live in in 2005 with a starting median housing price of $2,050,000. We made another top 10 for 2006 as well. Prices aside, I've been living out here for barely over a year now since leaving CSUN with nothing, and I have nothing to show for it. I have no cash, a beat down car, and still haven't gotten back to school since I relocated. Being in this depressed (and depressive) state for the past year hasn't helped my game at all.

Overall my poker game has definitely improved. I've been making some good folds, some great calls, and some even better plays. I don't make the right move every time, but nobody does. But regardless I really don't feel like I'm at the level where I should be, and I honestly think it's because of the situations I've stated above.

Guess what Loyal 5. It's all about to change. I'm moving into a new apartment tomorrow and plan on eating in a LOT more than I do now, because currently I'm NOT eating in. I started playing beach volleyball, if that's what you want to call it...I suck, but in any case it's excercise and sunlight. And, because my recent losses have left me short on cash, I've adopted a new view on cash flow and money management. Things are also going well at work. Some things are going to change in the future around the office that are really going to be in my favor. What does this all mean?

Well for starters, I won't be playing cards. Sure if Darsky or Joe wants to put me in a game, I'd be happy to take the stake and split the treasure, as that has seemed to work out quite well in the past. I'll also be playing the monthly at Paul's as well as the crazy quarter games that pop up every once in a while. But basically I won't be putting any money into the game for a little bit. Once things settle down a bit after I move in, I have to take care of certain expenses that have been hanging over my head for some months now. After that I'll save up a bit so as not to get in sticky situations again, and by that time I should be in a perfect mental state to take down some sick cash playin cards. I know I have the ability to do it (it's true, I've been told so), but without discipline skill means nothing in the world. It's really sad that I've let things slide for so long, but I'm really feelin like I'm turnin things around. And it's not that I've slid SO far, but I know that I'm better than where I have let myself get to.

Anyways I won't be abandoning this blog at all, and in fact I might reach out more to other viewers without as much poker talk coming through. But in time I will return and really put myself in the game like I have in the past, just this time I'll really be able to take a hold on it. I know things like this happen, and the greatest of pros have been broke multiple times early in their careers, so I'm not scared.

Until next time.

And This Is Why I'm Still Working

So after picking up a $1,000 winning night, the next few nights weren't as kind. On top of a long couple of days of dead cards, I got schwapped with difficult hands and bad beats. On a few different occasions I got in situations where I got in kicker trouble on tripped boards, one where I lost the minimum amount on the flop, and one where I lost the maximum amount on the flop........The next session after my most recent winning session I lost a bunch of money where I opened with 1010 in MP and got 2 callers. The board came up QQ10 and I ended up getting a guy's $300 stack in with him holding QJ. The turn was a J and I lost.

I stayed quiet for the rest of that night and just couldn't pick up a hand. I finally decided to make a stand with the K9d in late position and got one caller out of the SB. The board came up KQJ, to which he checked. I bet into the pot, and he called. I hadn't played a hand for two hours up to this point and the guy was still calling me down. For some reason, I just didn't think he was big. The turn was a blank and he check called a bet again. The river was a meaningless 6 and he checked again. At this point I still didn't think he was strong, and coupled with the fact that I had pretty much no stack left, I stuck the rest in and he called. He turned up K6 for a rivered two pair and my previous victory was $400 shorter in one night. Thanks for that.

Chalking it up to bad luck and dry cards I decided to hit the Mash again the next night and took a seat with an out of control player I loved to see. I'd seen him before, and I'd taken some chips off of him before, and I had a great time doing it. Imagine how I felt sitting at the table with him again........until the first five minutes. On about my fifth hand I look down at 44 and limp. It folded around to Crazy in the SB and he bumped it to $15. The BB called and I called as well. The board came up a BEAUTIFUL A-4-7. I was hoping to get some action with a weak A, or hopefully a two pair from Crazy, and sure enough Crazy bet out $15. The BB called and I raised it up to $40. Crazy shrugged and called and the BB folded. The turn was a 9 and he pushed all-in for the rest of my starting stack and I called, showing my 44. The table was glad I got him, because apparently he had been pushing the table around with mutilple all-in shoves. I was happy, until I saw a 10 on the river. "Oh I got a straight." That's right children, he had the ole' 68 and my first buy was gone.

For the rest of the night things didn't go well and I suffered through more dead cards. I just hate having ONE good night countered by a bunch of shitty nights. I know I'm playing well and constantly improving, I can feel that. But it really gets a guy down when he's tired of working nine to five, yet he can't get rolling at the tables because of bad luck or whatever you want to call it. I'm playing well, I know it.

Hopefully things will turn around soon, very soon, as this weekend is Chumash's $520 tournament. $100,000 for first is sounding pretty appetizing at this point. Darsky's coming down on Thursday and will be spending the weekend up here, so that'll be a fun time as usual. Hopefully we'll be at the tables Thursday and Friday night makin some cash, and on Saturday hopefully I'll make a decent showing and bring home a big wad. I love playing live tournies! I probably won't update till after the tourney, so wish me luck.

Until next time

More Tales From the Felt

This past Friday night called for another Mash trip. We showed up at around 5PM to get an early start on the Friday night crowd, in hopes that the stacks would be built early in order to take advantage of Chumash's $200 max buy-in structure. It took about 10 minutes for me to get a seat with two full tables in play. I took the 1seat in the BB and got off to a crazy start right away. On the first hand in the BB I flopped top pair and it went for a betcall, betcall, betraise on the river and I was forced to dump it on a nonscary board facing a $100 call with a weak kicker. The next hand in the SB I flopped TP again and this time heard back from an AA on the turn. On the button I flatcalled a $20 raise with AQ and flopped a Q and doubled up on the turn when I got headsup with the raiser. By the fourth hand I was back to just under my starting stack of $200 and was ready to play some cards.

The dealer was crackin up at my three-hand entry to the table, and I couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened in a matter of minutes. After that, though, I was ready to play some cards. The table was pretty passive, and I took advantage of that to it's full effect. I was able to take a couple small pots early with some loose raises and continuation bets, and it looked like it was going to be a decent night. At this table it looked like I would be picking up some medium sized pots all night, whether I had the goods or not, and that's pretty much how it went. I took a lot of medium pots, but no monster pots, though I did lose a pretty big pot.

About an hour and a half in I had moved over to the 2seat and was sitting on about $500 when we lost a player in the 5s and picked up another. I had seen this guy around the card room a few times, and from what I knew of him he was a pretty weak player, and I really felt like I would be the one to take his stack. I got my chance to tangle with him when I picked up QQ from mid position facing one limper. I had just come off from raising four hands in the last round, taking down the pot preflop every time. I knew I would probably get played back this time and here's how it went. There was one weak-passive limper in EP and after her it folded to me. I made it $20 to go and it folds folds to the button in the 5s (new guy). He jammed for $185 all-in, forcing the EP limper to fold, and it was back to me for $165 more.

Now because my read on him being a weak player meant one of three things here. He either had a mid-pocket pair or he had AA. I quickly doubted that he had AK because of what I had seen with him earlier, and that left two very viable, and one very difficult choice. At the game at the Mash people push all-in with KK or AA for a massive overbet all the time, which is such a weak play, but coming from weak players so it makes sense. I called for time and took a quick mental recap of what I knew of the player. After not thinking that he would jam AA or KK like that, I put him on a mid-size pair and made the call.

Someone asked me if I had Queens and I gave an affirmative nod. "You got Jacks?" asked the same person to the guy in 5, and his answer was an affirmative nod as well. "You got Jacks?" I asked, and his answer was "Yeah I got Jacks." The flop came out 9-7-3. "Oh I just setted," he said. Huh??? He flips over 99 and I mucked my QQ as I counted out his $185. "Sorry."

Meh, oh well. Another $400 pot gone to bad luck. I still was $100+ up and could still control the table. By this time Joe had sat at my table in the 7s and watched the hand go down. He shot me a "Jesus Christ" look and I shrugged my shoulders and went back to playin ball. I came up against the guy one more time when I opened the pot for $15 with JJ and had him push again, this time for about $115. I made the call again and he said he had 99 again. A Queen and King on the flop made me weary since he'd been dishonest about his hand the first time, but it bricked the turn and river and he mucked. With about $570, I moved over the 8s when it opened up so that Joe and I could stay out of each other's way better, and we basically controlled the table until we left at about midnight (I know, I know, but I had to work in the morning).

We finished up with me a $560 winner.

I was a little saddened by my victory, partially because I had lost about $180 throughout the night on bad calls, which I had control over, and also because my QQ fell again as a 4-1 favorite preflop for a $380 pot, which I had no control over. Put those together and I could have been....SHOULD have been up another $560. I know that I couldn't do anything about the QQ vs 99, and I know I'll win that enough times to make me happy then. But I know I could've saved at least another $180 if I trusted my reads and wasn't an idiot. I know I wouldn't have made those calls three months ago, so now it's just a matter of being in that state again.

Overall it was a victory, but it also made me more aware of my play, which means next time I will definitely be shooting for a bigger win.

Oh, and I took that picture with my new Samsung a930, which is a wicked phone. It's got a 1.3 megapixel camera, plus mp3 capabilities, video capabilities, and it also supports a transflash card for extra memory and transfering. It rocks.

Until next time.

Another Breath of Life

Friday rolled around, and facing a short work day thanks to Santa Barbara style, I was facing a tough decision as to what to do with my two-and-a-half day weekend ahead of me. I could sit around and stare at a computer screen, I could head down to the beach (why would I do that on a clear, sunny day), or I could..........by god......I could.........yes! YES!!

"Hey Joe"

"...huh......wheh.......what?......"

"Dude it's like 12:30, get up."

"..........no........."

"Come on man, let's go grab some lunch and head up for a long session at Chumash, it's been like two months!"

"...........ok.......let me take a shower real quick........."

Thank god for poker buddies :) We hit up Baja Fresh on the way to the 154 (which is oh so good if you haven't had it in a while), and we took that all so familiar drive to the indian safe haven. It took us what seemed like less time than usual, and I was in a great mood to play. Being that it had been so long since I had last played I really felt good, geared up, and refreshed.

When we showed up the usual 2/5NL games were in full swing. There were two 100/200 buy-ins and a 300/500 buy-in going. If I had been in a spot I was in a few months ago I would've jumped right into the 300/500. But thanks to the fact that I previously withdrew the BR I had left from play altogether, I thought it best to sit in a 100/200 and mop up. I got a seat after a quick wait, and was offered a very lovely table. There was a friendly in the seat to my right (Garrett) who I've become pretty decent friends with, and I didn't want to tangle with him just out of pure friendship, but we usually stay out of each other's ways anyways and there was plenty of other fishies to take down.

I started off pretty decently, quickly building my $200 buy-in to around $450 when a super-donk took the 9s. I quickly turned to my buddy on my right and told him how donk-a-licious this guy was, and about 3 hands later they got heads up on a K-Q-5 flop, and Garrett took the guy for about $170 of his $200 starting stack. Garrett had K-9 lol. He had been betting the whole way and SD had been calling him down with Q-8, and had decided to leave himself with $30......just in case, I suppose. This was perfect.

A little bit later I found aces after Garrett had opened up for $20. I popped it up to $60 behind him, and Garrett flat-called. He asked if I wanted to check it down, I said sure. He said he had queens and I politely told him I had aces, and he was surprised cuz he thought he was doing ME a favor. The flop came up 10 high and he said I could bet it if I wanted, so I throw out a nickel and he mucked into a $120 pot. nh me. Haha I wouldn've run it, but I really didn't want to see a queen on the turn, and he told me he'd rather not see a queen anyways since I'd let him live by telling him I had it. This kind of sucked, and is a prime example of why nice people shouldn't make friends at the poker table. At that point he was sitting on about $400, and I could have easily broken him if I'd let it play out. There's always tons of action, and usually overplays in these games, which makes it so very, very fun to play in, and surely if we hadn't have been that friendly with each other I could've easily added his $400 to my stack.

But I took up the pot and gladly stacked it, knowing that at least I got $60 from the aces. After about half hour I was still sitting on around $650 when looked at QQ from the BB. There was a raise to $15 from an EP TAG, and three callers behind him. I made it $115 to go, and it folded around to the super-donk in the 9seat who only had $145. He had $30 left (again), and I put him in in the dark. The board came up A-x-x, and he said "Well might as well" as he threw in his $30 and turned over A6. Great call preflop by the SD, nh me.

That got me pretty pissed, but never the mind I was going to take all of his money by the end of the night. Fifteen minutes later after it folded around to me I bumped it up to $20 with AsJs, and got two callers out of the blinds, the BB being the SD, sitting with about $90 now, after wasting the pot from FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLIER. The board came up 4-J-7, and it checked to me. I tossed out $25 and the SB folded. The SD was being jittery and staring at his chips and pushed the rest of his chips in a single tower into the middle. It was $45 more to me, and I took one glance over at the 9seat and saw him messing with his cards as I quickly threw out the cards. He hastily threw over his 67, and I turned up my AJ. Turn 6, river blank. A $200+ pot wasted to the SD. No big deal, still had around $450 and was controlling the table and my reads. This SD was startin to get on my nerves though.

Turn the clock forward a half hour, and after rebuilding my stack to around $600 just playing stack-building poker, I get HU with none other than SD himself. This time he's wasted his whole $200 from sucking out on me and now has rebought for another $100. I raised it up with AQ after one limper, and ended up getting one caller: an out of position SUPERDONK. He just wouldn't leave me alone. This time the board comes up with a Q-7-10. He checks again, I bet out $30, and he pushes in again, this time for another $50 or so. Ummm.....ok I call. SD turns over 89offsuit. GG me, cuz here comes the...yup, 6 on the turn and I'm done for that hand. ONCE AGAIN, I'm down back down to $500.

I eventually built back up to $800, and was still cruisin when I hit a wall. I opened the pot in the CO-1 with JJ and got called by the button and the SB. On a Q-rag-rag rainbow flop the SB checked and I fired out $25. The button flat-called and we lost the SB. The turn was a blank, but put 2 hearts on the board. I bet out $55 and got called by the button once again. I didn't think he had a Q when he flat called, but a King on the river made me hesitant. I reluctantly checked and he checked behind showing the K10h. *sigh* That was a sweet $100 wasted.

After that I lost some more of my stack by cont. betting KK and QQ on dangerous boards and getting raised off of them on the flop, and I was feeling pretty dejected at my recent turnaround of bad luck in the past 2 hours. After raising it up with AK and getting HU with the SD, we saw a flop of K-6-3, and after getting all of his money in (he had about $180 thanks to another full rebuy), he showed me his patented 76, and then he showed me a river 7...again. That put me under $200 for the first time since I had sat down. My last hand had me HU against a pretty tight player with my AQ vs his AJ. My money went in on the turn of a 9-high board, he makes the call with AJ. River J, gg me.

I could've easily rebought and stuck it out another 6 hours, but I was so disheveled by the last two hours at that point that I decided to call it quits. I talked with a few of the floor people and dealers who were on break as I waited for Joe to finish up. I ended up playing well, I made two big moves to stay alive when I had to, and couldn't make my big hands hold up. I should've easily been a $1,000 winner on the night, but I ended up getting smoked multiple times and now I have to wait again to take another shot.

I'm trying to be very wary of my playing right now, because I really don't have the cash to play right now because of personal reasons, but every time I take a 3seat or 7s and think about how I can dominate the Chumash game it gets my brain going.

Discipline sucks, but it should only be a little bit longer until I'm back in the game full swing. Until then, it hurts, it hurts I tell you!

Until next time.

PS - He did it!!

Jeff Freakin' Madsen

I don't know how many of my readers out there are following the WSOP via the internet or actually being in Vegas right now, but if you're following it at all you should know about Jeff Madsen right now. Jeff's a recently turned 21-year-old out of Southern California. At the time of me writing this he's made four final tables in four weeks at the World Series. One final table in Omaha HiLo, a third place finish in Stud HiLo, and he's won two bracelets in NL Hold'Em. At 21-years and one month he became the youngest bracelet winner ever at the World Series. Just days later he became the youngest person to ever win two bracelets. Why do I bring this up? Well, only cuz Jeff's a Chumasher.

I've played with Jeff multiple times at Chumash over the past year or two. Many people must think that he's an internet player, a new breed of players that lack certain skills of live play, but that's definitely not the case. He's been playing frequently at Chumash for a while, and while I've never seen him with a huge stack at the NL tables, Joe says he's seen him either go huge or lose huge, which is pretty typical of the younger aggressive players at the NL games up at Santa Ynez.

The reason I'm writing about this is that I've been putting a lot of thought into my current situation lately. I've been down recently, and after riding a pretty decent rush and being put in a bad financial situation in personal life, it's taken its toll on me mentally. But looking at Jeff's situation really stunned me. He's had varied success at Chumash, as have I, and he's only played the 2/5NL at the Mash since up until a month ago he's not been old enough to play anywhere else. Many of my reader's don't know that I'm only 20, so his situation is pretty close to mine, one difference being that I won't be 21 until December.

I've put the last three years of my life into this game, and like I said I've had varied results. I've been huge on a couple occasions, and those were great times. But I've also lost some on various occasions. Because I've more or less been a casino junkie for the past years I've also lost a lot playing Blackjack. I've since overcome my gambling tendencies since I've lost a lot of my poker winnings playing against the house, and that was a difficult lesson to learn. More recently I was forced to quit playing in the middle of a downswing. When a poker player is not playing poker, he starts to realize and understand the value of money. When someone's forced to work for their money it makes a huge impact on the way they view it if they've been doing a lot of gaming. And if you're making and losing more than you're making in an "actual" job, it'll definitely affect someone's mentality.

So that's where I've been as of late. Here, at work, no cards, no cash. I have a decent job with a lot of potential for growth, but it's for decent-to-low pay for right now since I'm early into it. But with the money I was tossin around playin cards it really feels like the money I'm makin now is inconsequential. I still have money left from card playing, but like I said in my last post I'm not in a position right now to put it into play, mainly because of the importance of the money to me right now. Because of the whole situation it's made me question the role that poker should be playing in my life. I'd like to make it the number one priority in my life, close to it anyways. I'd really like to make it that way for a long time. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a little bit to make that happen, but in the past couple of days I've come to grips with that.

Right now the plan is to not play cards seriously. Every single person I know that knows about my planned hiatus just laughs when they hear it, simply because I've been all about poker for the past few years now. It's not that I'm quitting poker altogether, just seriously and just for the time being. I do, however, have complete confidence in my game and will continue to do so until I get back into it heavily again. I've decided that I'll still play Paul's game, as that field is easily beatable and it's for decent amount of food money :) Also I'll be playin the weekly CT tournament on PStars most likely. It's just an $11 MTT, usually with around 50-60 people. The CT community is a good one, and although the tourney isn't for big money it seems like, from what I've seen, they still try to play a decent game, and that's good.

I've been puttin a lot of thinkin time into this whole thing. I've been talking a lot with Joe and have gotten some good words from Darsky, as usual, and my views have changed back and forth. I've become settled in some aspects of the matter, and now I'm ok to wait a little bit until I'm in a good position to play strongly again. It's just amazing to me to see this Jeff Madsen kid tearing up the World Series. It really showed me that given varied success and not having a lot of money after playing for so long (he's been playing for 3 years as well, and had to borrow money and use tuition money to get into the WSOP), it doesn't really matter. It hits really close to home considering he's so young AND he's a regular at Chumash!! His story is definitely inspirational to me and his successes so far have shown me a few things that I've blinded myself from.

OK enough about this, next time you will all read about the recent going-ons in my life besides this fiasco.

Until next time

Until Next Time

This blog might be done and over with for a long time. I suppose I could continue writing about stuff that happens in every day life, but I started this blog to write about poker and its influences on my life. And since I've decided to stop playing poker altogether, I suppose this blog will not continue to serve its purpose. I'm tired of losing to 3-outers, 4-outers, and 7-outers. It's heartbreaking, it's walletbreaking, and worst of all right now it's mindbreaking.

I've been playing this game for over 2 years now and I've gone through good rushes and tournament wins, and I've been through depressing lows. Obviously recently, thanks to extreme misfortune and horrible luck, I'm experiencing a very depressing low. I haven't been up to the casino in while because I squandered away my most recent rush, and the little I've put online in the past few days have all gone to crazy turns and rivers, and it's making me angry and depressed, neither of which is normally part of my personality.

I'm glad Joe is succeeding playing stud online, and I'm glad Darsky has enough resources and talent to consider playing poker full-time as well. I wish them both luck because I know and feel that they can do it. Unfortunately after all this time it looks like I just can't do it. I can't handle all the bad beats as of late, mainly because I don't have the bankroll to sustain them. I'll decide at a later time if I'll be playing Paul's monthly home game or not, but right now my state of mind is telling me that I won't.

I've been able to get this blog a lot of visitors and viewers, and I'm not sure how many out there are regulars from CT, or FCP, or the Hideout, but I'm sorry if you're a regular reader because it's killin me to not write this anymore. I enjoy writing, it's a hobby of mine, it's something I enjoy tremendously, and if you all want me to keep writing, anything at all, then leave a comment in my comment box. If not, this page will slowly die. Thanks for reading.

"Jesus! What've you been livin' on?!"

It's sad, isn't it? When I can't even pay $500 for a tournament. And I call myself a poker player?? Times are rough, it's true. But come on, $500? In today's world that should be money to scoff at, yet here I am hemming and hawing over the fact that I don't even want to spend money on necessities because I don't wanna feel like I'm down to the bone. Though I pretty much feel that way already.

I should have money, I should have lots of it. Thanks to a 3-year long-distance relationship with my ex-girlfriend (yes I'm blaming it on her, too) and the fact that for some reason I am not equipped with the natural ability to save money, I have nothing. I'm learning now, but it's too late now. If I had learned years ago then maybe life would be different. Maybe if I wasn't such an idiot before then I wouldn't feel like one now. I might have a nice car, a nice apartment, and more toys than I could imagine. But not now, Chris, congratulations cuz you suck at life. THANK YOU FUCK YOU. Yes I went on a small rush when I was Mashin regularly, but most of that's gone now, thanks to my love of buying useless shit and losing some of my winnings back on a truely disgusting run of cards over a month-long span. So I'm left to sit here every day to ponder what happened. It was supposed to be skill, not a rush.

Admittedly I've run into some really bad luck in order to lose most of it back, so perhaps it was skill. But now I have no money to find out for sure. People tell me the bad run was bad luck, and I want to believe it. But how many times does a poker player have to go broke until he finally hits it?? Whatever. I'm not even going to Vegas until December. Hopefully I'll be able to make a splash once I can get away from fuckin Chumash.

I know that if I could get back into the game I could crush it again. The last time I played I felt it, I felt good. I felt my play was good. I know that if I could get back on my feet in life then I could cruise along with that too. I'm level-headed now, I'm ready to do this. Every now and then someone just needs a little help. Unfortunately for me I have no more options for help. The only help I get is words, and sometimes those who need help need more than words. So it's on me now.

Wish me luck.

PS - Haha and in no way is any of this "getting back on my feet in life" about drugs, FORTUNATELY I've never had to travel down that road. It has to do with finances, as it usually does with most poker players. Just thought I'd throw that out there. And also I realize that I'm more fortunate than some people out there, and I'm appreciative of that. But at the same time it hurts on a personal level to think back where I went wrong and to know that I could've done things differently. Fortunately I'm still young and the world is still open to me.

Life: Encumbered

It's been 2 weeks and it already feels like I haven't played poker for years. I've just been takin it easy around the house lately, but shit it feels boring. Where's the excitement? Where's the thrills? I try not to watch poker on TV cuz it makes me crave it more. I try not to follow the WSOP online cuz it makes me crave it more. But who are we kidding? I've watched the 2005 USPC reruns like fifteen times this week alone, and it's only Wednesday. But it's not like I can't play cards. I can, but I can't, ya know what I mean?? Sure I could take $400 down to Chumash and see if I can't get on another $3,000 streak at the 2/5NL, but that wouldn't be the right move right now. If I lost the $400 I'd feel even worse than I do now.

I'm gettin really bummed out here because August is right around the corner. And with August this year comes Chumash's August Extravaganza, a large-field tourney yielding $100,000 for first place. The only problem is the $500 entry fee. Does anyone know a faithful backer? I won't be able to put up the entry fee for myself, thanks to troubling financial problems on the personal front. Although I suppose I could find a check for $530 in the street on the way home today. Either that or I could find a way to multiply the $5.30 in my pocket by 100 times, and then I'd be set. Now that's an idea.

On Sunday night I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II, which I thought was as great as the first one. Then I went down to the campus on Monday night to hang out with Casey, he came out for his birthday. We hung out at a good friend's house with a few others, drank some drinks, and had an all-around good time. That's been the main highlight of pretty much the last two months. Gotta love hangin with Casey and his girlfriend, always good times.

Aside from all my bumming out I watched the first two seasons of Entourage on DVD this week. If you guys haven't seen that show, then you either don't like watching good shows, or you're out of the loop. In either case, I think that if you didn't like it if you've seen it, you should force yourself to watch it cuz you WILL like it, guaranteed. By the way, this is the first time in a long time that I borrowed a DVD to watch it instead of buying it. It hurt a little.

And on a last note I can say that not all is bad. I've been talking to Meredith (quite obsessively) over the past couple of weeks. She seems great! She's smokin' hot, she's a fun person, I can't get enough of her southern accent(it drives me wild), and she seems to like talking to me as much as I do her. Bad side? Of course there's still a bad side. She lives 2 hours away.

Nothing in life can never be too easy.

What is Life Without Poker?

Life has been pretty mundane since I haven't played poker in forever. Why? Cuz I can't. I need to save pretty much every single dollar I can until I get a new car. On top of that I'll be moving come September and my living expenses will increase dramatically. The bright side? I'll let you know when I find it.

Let's concentrate on more important things. Last time at Paul's I was doin alright but took a terrible beat to send me to the box early. With nine players left and the blinds at 200-400, I was sitting on about 14,000 and had Heather with about 18,000 on my left. A hand came up where Roland limped in from EP and it folded back around to me in the SB. I looked down at 9 10 offsuit and limped for an extra 200. Heather checked off and Joe dealt us a flop of 7-8-J rainbow. Boo yah!! I checked figuring that crazy Roland would bet if Heather checked, but much to my surprise Heather announced that she was all in for her 18,000 stack. Thanks for that!

Roland was messing with his chips and was looking like he wanted in badly, as I lied in wait waiting to nearly triple up right here. He eventually folded and I quickly did a "CALLNUTS" as I flipped over my straight. Heather showed QJ. Chris = 96.52% to win. Or is that to lose? I forget. Oh wait no yeah it was definitely 96% to lose. The turn came a 10 and the river a 9 and Heather kicked my ass to the rail. I don't mind losing, I've become emotionless to losing by this point. What DID get me ticked was that immediately upon the river completing her straight, Heather said "OH well I told you this tournament was mine I knew it was coming I told you I was gonna win this tournament. Sorry." Um....................

Words of wisdom to all players out there. Don't shove your 18,000 stack in on a rainbow straighted flop for a 1200 pot. Then if you give someone a huge beat after making a really stupid bet, first off don't tell someone that you KNEW it was coming. That's fuckin terrible and a really, really worthless and stupid comment. Secondly, don't tell them sorry, and especially if you just told them you thought it was coming. That's like a sure recipe for death. Luckily Heather's a good part of the group so I was only mad at her for a little bit when I stepped into the dealer's box.

I didn't play poker for that whole week afterwards because it was a bright reality that I needed to not spend money. Unfortunately for me and my money, Joe and I were supposed to head down to LA to meet up with Darsky and go to one of his friend's birthday BBQ and poker party. This guy had a nice backyard filled with people, and a hired casino party company who had provided seven poker tables, chips, cards, dealers. And on top of that a beautiful drink girl with a southern accent. The buy-in was $25, and there were three rebuys available for $25 also. So overall there was 68 players all basically putting in $100. Good? Yes. But not for me who's trying NOT to spend or gamble money. Luckily Joe said he'd put me in and we'd split the profit between us.

So the night went on and we ate and drank and played cards. Darsky took third (?) I believe and a decent size cash, and by the end of the tournament Joe and I had split a big honkin zero between the both of us. But not to worry! My mind quickly averted from poker and my attention was focused on the drink-running brunette beauty! I was quick to be my usual socially-adaptable self, and made small conversation with her when I could. We exchanged information as the night went on, and although she lives in LA, I'm talking to her now. I always enjoy meeting new people :)

Some exciting things have come about this week. Joe took money out of his account for bills for the first time this week! That's both exciting and scary. It makes it quite a definite reality that he is INDEED playing poker for a living. It's kinda scary for him since he's been watching his online account grow for the past month, and now has to take out a bit to pay for life. He's been doing pretty well playing 5/10 Stud for the past month, and it looks like he'll be doin fine for a while to come. Last night he also placed 5th out of 2655 players in Party's 40K Guaranteed. He was disappointed that he couldn't nab the $11,120 first place, but the chip leader took AQ against JoeDinski's 55 and turned the A, sending him packing with a $2,700 cash. Still not bad for $22. He's been playing well and building, so he's doin it.

And if you haven't followed Darsky's trail into becoming a full-time pro, you need to! He's finally doing it!! You can see the start of it here, and then the further exploration of it here, and the decision here. It's definitely an exciting and defining time for him and his close friends, so keep up with it. THAT'S how you do it!

Like I said before, I might not be playing for a while. Backers are always welcome, cuz I can still play the game. It is pretty boring without playing though...Although me and the guys have been hittin up the beach and throwin the disc around a lot lately. It definitely feels good to get out in the sun and run around a bit after being jammed inside a casino for the past year straight. Perhaps it's time to hit the volleyball courts, no?.............

Until next time, here's my new favorite quote:

"I used to be a gambler. I quit gambling. I quit yesterday. I quit again this morning, and I'll lay six-to-one, I'll probably quit again this morning." - Walter Matthau

A Little Excerpt

Here's a little intro to a short story I started writing. I wrote this and a few pages more a while ago, and have yet to touch it since.

Introduction

The sound of a car horn blared through his partially opened window and pounded on his brain as he groggily woke from his sleep. Jesus Christ, he thought to himself. He tried to lift his body out of bed, but failed miserably and crashed back down onto his plush mattress. He squirmed, running his hands and legs through his warm sheets, which provided a welcome contrast to the crisp air around him. He jumped up to go slam the window shut, and jumped just as fast back into bed, trying to avoid the cold, hardwood surface beneath him. He had done it without even as much as opening his eyes. He lay there and took his time to rest, relinquishing in the fact that there was no rush to get up. A lot of guys in their mid-20s loved sleeping, but Jason saw it more as a sport. Many people he knew thought that the amount of sleep he got was unhealthy, and would tell him that he should be out doing other stuff instead of sleeping all day. Many people he knew, however, were unaware of his profession. He didn’t have to get up for work anymore. The days of traditional working were long behind him now; it had almost been an entire year since he’d had a legitimate job, and he was happier than he’d ever been. He could barely open his eyes, but he was able to read the numbers on the clock next to his bed. 7:05. PM. The memories of obeying alarm clocks and rushing to work were annoying to him, so he stayed tucked in bed for a little bit more, thanks, simply, to the fact that he could.

Outside the sun was barely visible over the horizon beyond the city, and the sunlight barely showed through the crowded buildings of Manhattan Island. The street lights were just turning on, and most cars had their headlights illuminated already. Some businesses were closing for the day while the numerous bars and clubs were preparing for the usually long night ahead. The tall buildings in the business sector had gone dark, but a few still had scattered lights on, due to the busy workers who had deadlines to meet. A few blocks away from those high-rise structures was Jason’s apartment building, right in the middle of 46th St. It was 10 stories high, and had recently been repainted a dark green color. Inside the building the smell of multiple dinners roamed down the halls. It seemed to create a fusion of smells, the collection of which seeped into room 617. The aromas danced across the living room and into the bedroom where Jason was sleeping. His stomach growled, and, as lazy and as tired as he was, he knew there was no way he could fall back to sleep, no matter how hard he tried. He swung his legs over the side of the bed in a swift motion and sat upright on the edge of the bed.

What the hell are people thinkin’ wakin’ me up at seven. Inconsiderate bastards. He grumbled to himself as he lumbered over to the bathroom disregarding the clothes on the floor from the previous day. Splashing cold water on his face brought him to full consciousness and his eyes were now open. He stared at the mirror for a second. He observed his short blonde hair, which started to turn brownish during the winter season for some reason. He had broad shoulders and a medium-sized torso. His muscle definition showed through a decent amount for someone who sat a card table all night and slept all day. He didn’t work out and barely exercised, and he hadn’t been eating healthy either. But if he had internal health problems, you wouldn’t know it by looking at him from the outside. He stood at a modest six-foot tall, and was a handsome guy. Most women, his age or not, were almost always immediately attracted to him. Jason was a simple guy, though, and hated the idea of bothering with restrictive girlfriends. If he had ever met a woman who was free-willed and easy going, he hadn’t remembered it. Oh well, one day.

He snapped out of his trance and grabbed a towel to wipe off his wet face. After slipping into some sweat pants he made his way to the kitchen and swung open the refrigerator door. Ketchup, cheese slices, orange juice, Mountain Dew, and Red Bull. Mostly empty, as usual; he’d have to grab some food before he went to the Chesterfield. He snatched a Red Bull and opened it up as he walked back to his bathroom, where he took a shower.
Ten minutes later he got dressed, slipped on some shoes, threw on a baseball cap, put on his heavy coat, and hastily took off towards the door. It never got old for him, the feeling of excitement. Playing cards had always psyched him up in a way that nothing else did, and even after playing professionally for almost a year now he still felt the same way about it. As he was about to step into the hallway he doubled back to the kitchen. He grabbed a wad of twenty- and hundred-dollar bills off of the kitchen counter, peeling nine hundred dollars from it. He pocketed the rest of the wad and threw the nine hundred bucks back on the countertop to leave behind for the previous night’s profits. He would add it to his bankroll stash when he got back from tonight’s session. But for now there was no time to waste; it was Friday night!

As Jason was locking his door, his neighbor from the room across his was just coming home. She was a young woman with a petite figure and long brown hair. At the moment it had been in a ponytail, and her bangs were hanging over one side of her face. She was wearing fashionably ripped light-toned jeans, as did many women her age, and a grey, woven sweatshirt. She had a scarf around her neck and was wearing a long, black coat over it all.

“Hey Jason,” she said.

“Hey Steph. How are ya’?” he replied, without turning around from his lock.

“Same ol’ me. You?”

“Same,” Jason stated with a smile as he turned to go down the hallway. “Good night,” he was already headed towards the elevator.

“K. See ya …” Stephanie curiously watched him as he scurried off down the hall. She often wondered what he did, as a living, as a hobby. No one in the adjacent rooms seemed to know Jay’s occupation. He was always very nice, but he had never talked to anyone about his personal life. Oh well. She thought nothing more of it as she retired into her room for the night.

Jason exited the building on W 46th St. and started down the street. He stopped at a little Chinese food place he’d grown to love. He ordered some food and sat at a table near the window facing the street. As he stared out towards the street, he was thinking about tonight’s game, and about how Jim Berr was going to be there. He’d originally picked up the nickname Bear because of the similarity of his name to the word. Irony had it that he was also a grizzly guy, standing well over six feet and dawning a full beard. But despite both his name and his appearance, Jay usually referred to Jim as a fish, since he was usually the live one at the table, and Jay could count on him for many “donations.”

Bear had his own construction company, and usually came pretty heavily loaded on Fridays. His business had picked up after the September 11th attacks, and since he had more money than he was used to having, he consistently tried to play limits he probably shouldn’t have been playing. He rarely played optimum strategy, and rarely won. However, when he was lucky on some nights, he was extremely lucky. He could win thousands of dollars in one night, as opposed to the thousands he usually lost. After all, the forgotten percentages had to catch up sometime, right? His spotted successes at the 20-40 had kept him coming back to that game, and throughout Jay’s playing time at the Chesterfield so far it had kept Jay’s bankroll pretty steadily supplied.

Jason realized that he wasn’t even hungry. He tossed his food in the trash can and took off towards his “office,” in which building resided his old office as well.


From here Chapter 1 starts off explaining his life before his switch to professional poker player. I already have some more of the later story written, when he gets to the Chesterfield. It takes place around the time when Mike McDermott (yes I know, flame away if you want) gets busted at Teddy's place, and he's at KGB's when it happens. Then it intertwines with Mike again later in the story, but in no way is supposed to be part of the Rounders story.

Tell me what you think. Tell me what you like and what you think is stupid. I want to see my comment box full of fellow bloggers and anonymous comments. I know you guys from CT are out there reading......

Updates

Updates! Coming soon to a monitor near you!

Sorry I haven't written for a while like I said I would, don't lose faith. I don't have time to write right now, but I'm working on a long update. If you all wanna check back tonight I'll be posting up a snippet of a short story I started to write, to hold you guys over until my update is complete.

Mashin and All-Nighter Are Now Official!!

I am now officially adding two new words to my mental dictionary: all-nighter, and Mashin. I use these words enough where they can now be officially added to my library of literary uses.

Last Saturday Darsky decided to come to Chumash to hang an all-nighter with me. He called me on Friday to let me know what time he'd be up, and about an hour later I got a call from our other poker buddy Kirk. He told me he was lookin to go Mashin on Saturday as well. I let him know that Darsky was already planning on coming and told him to meet us in Santa Barbara so we could all hit the road to Chumash together.

Dar showed up in SB at around 5PM on Saturday and we decided to grab some food before we headed out. We had our usual poker conversation as we ate and Kirk showed up as we were finishing. Kirk decided he was going to drive up there separately, since apparently he wasn't up to stay until 5PM the next day. A quick stop at the pad and off we went.

The ride up there in Dar's Bullitt is always nice, and coming off of two weeks in the red it felt good to take the walk from the parking structure to the casino entrance. I was really feelin like I was going to play solid and take some cash home at the end of this session. I sat in an open 100/200 buy-in NL game, and was shortly switched over to the 300/500 buy-in when a seat opened up. There was a couple regulars in the game already.

Sam is an older, tan-skinned gentleman with a middle-eastern accent. He has this air about him like he doesn't have to work because he has enough money, but at the same time he respects money and enjoys the game, even for the low-limit stakes. He likes to gamble, but overall gambles in the right spots and can usually be seen with $1,000+ in front of him in the 300/500 game. If there was a bigger game at the Mash he'd probably be playing in that. We both respect each other and like to have friendly rivalry at the table.

Larry is an older, pudgy, nerdy-looking white guy with thick-framed glasses. He's the kind of guy that you always love to see at a table, because whenever he has all of his money in it's usually when he's drawing dead. I love to walk in and see him a the 300/500 buy-in. He's a nice enough guy, but a horrible card player. But as long as he's got money to spend, we'll all be there for him. He goes there with his buddy John H., who's a middle-aged, overweight guy with glasses, who is barely better than Larry, but has enough cash to blow. I see them dump at least $2,000 a week, and that's only for the days that I'm up there. I have no idea why they keep going, but more power to him. This night John was playing the 100/200 though. I don't respect either of these two with regards to poker playing ability, but we're all very friendly with each other and constantly have friendly conversation at the table.

I took a seat in the 7s, which is, of course, my preferred seat, along with the 2s, 3s, and 8s. I bought in for $400, and started assessing the table. We had Sam in the 1s, Larry in the 3s, and a bunch of unknowns. There was an idiot kid to my immediate right who I'd sat with at the 100/200 buy-in just previous to my table-switch, and a gambling biker to my immediate left. It looked like an easy enough table, but I kept running into terrible, tough-decision situations. I had to lay down 99 to a board of 2-2-5 after dumping $120 into the pot. Then this hand came up:

I'm sittin on a little under $500, and the idiot kid to my right open-raised for $20. I'd seen him make stupid raises all night and was comfortable playing him post-flop. I saw Kh10h, and called off the raise on the button. Sam had limped and noe came in for the raise as well. The board came up K-K-J, putting me in pretty decent position. Although as soon as the flop came I saw Sam make this weird motion and immediately put him on KJ. He checked it, and the kid almost immediately bet out $50. I was strongly feeling that he had aces, yet I still thought Sam had KJ and was thoroughly confused about the hand at this point. Knowing I had position on the kid to the turn, I decided to flat call the $50 and see what Sam did. If Sam raised I was definitely going to fold, knowing that he wouldn't make that raise without having K10 crushed. I definitely didn't put him on JJ because he would have most certainly reraised that preflop, as Sam would have hated taking JJ against two players to the flop. But no raise came as Sam called as well.

The turn now came off a Jack, giving me Kings full and completely voiding out Sam's KJ, should that have been what he had. He checked again and the kid now insta-bet out another $70. I decided to bump it up to $180, knowing that if the kid had Aces, he was way dumb enough to stick around with them and give me some more money. Sam flat-called, as did the kid.

The river was now another Jack, making the board K-K-J-J-J. As soon as the river hit, I instantly felt sick to my stomach. Sam checked again, and now the kid bet out again!! He made it $100 to go, and now with $850 in the pot I was not laying down to this frickin kid. I relunctantly called off and now Sam decided to raise it to $250 when it got back to him and I was in a world of hurt!! I only had about $190 left now, and there was no way I was calling off $150. But at the same time there was no way I was going to put my whole stack in after I had put Sam on KJ the whole way down. After the raise the kid thought about it for like 10 seconds and then flipped over his AA as he threw it into the muck. The rest of the table yelled at him since I was still in the hand. I called for time and went back and forth from convincing myself that he didn't have the Jack to pleading with myself to follow my original read.

I was dead on about the kid having AA, and now this was a huge pot. If I were to commit the rest of my stack to this hand, the pot would be $1,390. I apologized to the table for the wait and sat for about an entire two and a half minutes before finally mucking. Sam smiled and flipped over KJ. There was a couple of regulars who had come over to watch the hand unfold, and they all gasped. Sam asked if I had the King, and I bunched my lip and nodded. He told me that it was a good lay-down, and I told him nice hand.

I took a minute to go for a walk and release the stress of that whole situation. I was 50/50 on whether or not I played that hand well, and would appreciate any feedback in the comment box. I thought I had played it right and I was happy that I trusted my reads, but I was confused on the flop and on the river, which isn't good. I thought and rethought the hand for a bit, and then headed back to the table. Shortly after that, Larry went bust drawing dead to Sam (as usual), and then Sam took out the idiot kid who had left himself with $150 after that hand with his AA.

I busted out about another hour later after a cold run and 50/50 gamble with my remaining $150. I have a part II to this story as well, which I'll try to write this weekend.

Until next time.

An Old Re-Find and a Party Poker Tourney

I'm not gonna write anything too great here, just thought I'd share a re-found find if you all aren't reading it anyways. Table Tango is an awesome blog. She's a dealer in Vegas and she's been blogging for a long time; most of it's poker related (obviously), some of it's not. I read a few entries here and there a while back, but since I've become so close with the dealers and the staff in the poker room at the Mash, it's sparked my interest yet again.

I haven't played at Chumash since Friday. It's killing me, seriously. I have small plans tonight, though, so I can't go tonight. I might go up tomorrow night, but my car sucks and I don't feel like driving it a lot so I might not go.

I put $200 online to play a quickie session of Omaha HL on Party and quickly found a $5/$10 10-handed game. I got caught up in a pot where I had the nut boat capped three ways on the flop and turn, and figured to be chopping up a pretty decent pot until the third guy caught a 2-outer on the river for a higher boat, which got me a whole bunch of nothing but a lost $100. After I finished playing Omaha I was still down around $100 and decided to put the last $100 into a $109 buy-in MTT. 363 entrants, over $9k for first. My goal was to get to the final two tables and that's exactly what I did. For three and a half hours I kept pretty quiet. Once the money hit I started doubling up with smart play, and throughout the whole tournament I'd hadn't had my money in against a worst hand the whole time and I hadn't gotten into any coin flips all tournament.

Sitting on the button with about 47,000, and blinds at 2,000/4,000, a MP raised it up to ~13,000, and I see AK. I thought for a second and decided to push it. He had to call off about half of stack, and he did so with 88. I flopped the A, and then he turned an 8 and I was sent packing in 15th place. I made a tiny bit of money, but was disappointed that I had gone all tournament without getting my money in on a flip, and I finally was in one and hit my ace, only to have him trip up on the turn. Sad. I would've rather had the $9k. Oh well, you gotta win coin flips to win tournaments.

In short, I need a new car soon. I need to win coin flips. Go read Table Tango.

Until next time

Blegh

Well the last couple of weeks haven't really been good to me. I've had ups and downs, but more downs than ups. I keep having these losing sessions that bring down my morale, because there's so many bad players at the 2/5NL game at Chumash that I feel like I should never leave loser. Obviously that's an unreasonable request in a gambling game, but still, it brings me down. I'll be taking a couple days off to recuperate, and will be heading back up there on Wednesday.

Joe and I went to Dani's wedding on Saturday, who's one of the night shift dealers at Chumash who we've come to be pretty close with. Her husband is a blackjack dealer, so there were more blackjack dealers than poker dealers there, which made us fitting in a bit more difficult since we consciously try not to get to know the blackjack dealers, if y'all catch my drift. We felt out of place for the first little bit of the reception, but a special someone showed up about half an hour after we arrived, and then from there we caught up with some familiar poker staff so we settled right in. After the reception we headed over to Tim's house, who's one of the poker room's floorman there. That was good times and good conversations, as it usually is with Tim. Plus, at the end of the day I had a reason to get a bad-ass grey suit, so the whole day just worked out.

Later that night Joe booked a decent cash in a $50 MTT on Party good for $2,500+, while I'm still sitting here despising online poker. Watching him rolling online makes me feel like giving it another shot online. I'm putting a lot of thought into playing lots of MTTs, but I just don't like playing online so I don't see that happening. Ya never know, though, I might be able to get up to Tre's level of ass-kickery if I practice long enough. :)

This entry's gonna end short, although there is some stuff I want to write about later. But for now I'll leave it short.

Until next time.

A Poker Weekend: Part 2

Here's the rest of the weekend recap from Part 1

After Paul's 2 tournies there's always a small cash game, usually dealer's choice, and I'll usually play it. This night, however, Darsky and I had different plans. We were goin straight to Morongo to pull an overnighter and to keep a full poker weekend concentrated on playing good, solid poker, and not messin around with useless games. We wanted money.

The last time we hit up Morongo for the weekend back in December, I took a pretty decent hit, and Darsky took a small profit. That suited neither of our expectations so needless to say we were eager to get back into action there again. Last time we had a whole weekend of play, but this time we decided to just opt for a long night and morning of play, and if needed we would get a room. We took off from Paul's at around...midnight? Maybe. I don't really remember.

I followed Dar back to his place and left my car there and we were off. I started dozing off half way there thanks to a long night of drinking and reminiscing with the boys. When I woke up an hour later I started looking around and realized that it looked a lot more like we were heading to Barstow than to Cabazon. "Dude I asked you if it was North or South at the fork and you said North!!" Oh......sorry Dar, I was sleepin. So we turned around and Darsky let out a (somewhat frustrated) laugh. Time to pass out again. I woke up as were nearing the nicely lit up casino, and by this time it was 4AM. I dunno about Darsk but I felt well-rested and ready to play some cards!! (Haha I know I'm such a bastard)

It was refreshing to walk into that casino again, especially after cramming Chumash for months straight. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mash dearly, but it was definitely a welcome refreshment to get out to another playing ground. Considering it was a long weekend we figured that the poker room would be packed, and packed it definitely was. It was 4AM and there were games a plenty. There were three 2/5NL games going, and Darsky and I found an open table and sat at the 2s and 3s. I bought in for $200, and quietly sat and played next to this crazy, loud, obnoxious Iranian guy for twenty minutes before that table broke. We moved to another table with split seats, I took the 7s and Dar took the 3s. There was a very loud, and horrendously annoying lady in the 9s who obviously didn't know what she was doing, and hardly had any understanding of the concepts of poker. That's supposed to be great for players like me, but she was really getting on my nerves just being there and being alive and around me at that moment. I know that's not a good way to play poker, and I'm usually ok and would welcome that, but I think I was just tired.

The 4s quickly opened and I literally jumped out of my chair to occupy that one instead. Darsky was in the 3s, so having someone readily available to talk to and joke around with eased my nerves. Sitting on about $160, I limped the A6c from mid position, only to have the crazy lady in the 9s raise it up in the SB. It folded to me and I called. The board came up Kc-Xc-X. Crazy bet out maybe $40, and after a second of thought I pushed my remaining hundo. She insta-called and turned over JJ. A bit suprising, but actually not really. It went blank blank and it was time for a rebuy.

At this point I looked around and realized that somewhere within the hour that we had arrived, the poker room had widdled down to about 4 running tables. The entire room was practically filled when we showed up, and now the games were few and far between. It was really odd.

I rebought for $300 more and was ready to get my money back. The table was running weird though, and throughout the next half hour I managed to lose my second buy. By the time I lost it the table had gotten down to 4-handed, and I got tangled up in a QQ vs KK situation to an undercard board. Knowing that playing with Darsky in a 4-handed game wasn't good conditions, I decided to take a break and go over why I had lost so far. I took a quick breather and went back to the board. There was a 1/2NL, a 2/4, and a 3/6Kill going. I took an open seat in the 3/6Kill and plugged my iPod into my head. After about twenty minutes of mindless limit action, I looked over at the ongoing (now 3-handed) 2/5NL game where Dar was still seated, and saw him pickin up his chips. I sensed a sign, food was in order!!

It was time for sweet breakfast! We headed over the the cafe and discussed some plays, some players, and my overall hastely dumping of money in the first couple of hours. I enjoy my conversations with Darsky, because he always has insightful things to say, whether it be about life, poker, or whatever, he always just says good stuff. I try to soak it in every time I talk to him. He explained some things about my situation at the table, and we discussed a few hands. It's always good and I value those poker conversations because I feel like I can really benefit from what he says. It was rejuvinating and vitalizing and pumped me up to play some more after bagging a $500 loss just an hour before.

I downed a Red Bull and some french toast, and we were back to the action half an hour later. By now there was only a 1/2NL, a 2/4, and two 3/6Kills going. We put our names up on a weak 2/5NL wishlist, and as we waited we both noticed a smokin hot little chicky playing the 3/6 right in front of us. We (I should really say I, as I think my interest was a bit more peaked than Dar's) oohed and awed over the little hotty, and eventually after waiting for our game to open up, I saw a seat open at the 3/6 and took it as an open invitation to play with my little inflatuation. Not long after that another seat was open and Darsky took that one. Seeing Darsky in a low-stakes limit game made me laugh, but no matter what we're playing time at the table with Dar is always good times. Plus we got to stare and talk to a hot chick playing poker.......what more can you want.

A little while later she left and Dar piped up asking what we were still doing at the game now that she was gone. Good point. As I was looking for a rack the names were being called down for an opening of a 2/5NL game. Yessss. This time I took the 1-seat (or the knee-banging seat) and Dar took the 2s. The Morongo game is always fun because with $2 and $5 blinds, they have a no-max buy-in, which usually creates some decent action, and is a much welcome change from the limited buy-ins at Chumash. I bought in for another $300 (a pretty comfortable buy-in for my play) and was really ready to play some solid poker after my reassurance by Dar over breakfast. Nothing really big happened, but I flopped a couple sets against horribly scary boards and took it down on the flop both times for small profits. Other than that I just grinded it out. Darsky took some really stupid, stupid beats, and ended up a small loser on the trip, while I barely squeaked an even run for the trip on my last hand.

I raised preflop with the AQs, and got called by only the SB. He only had about $100 behind after my preflop raise to $20, and he pushed it all in on a flop of Js-10s-X. I put him on a jack (funny story, Darsky knows it) and pretty much called instantaneously figuring that I had to be ahead in the hand. He flipped over J6o, and I turned a Q and rivered a flush, so that pot brought me back to even on the trip. I ran the hand in an odds calc when I got home and saw that I was a %62.22 favorite to take down his J6 offsuit after the flop, so my thought process was right. We both headed home as tired, poker-playing bastards, who just booked a fun weekend of cards and good times. An In-N-Out stop before I took off back to Santa Barbara, and that was that.

Tonight Joe and I are headed to the dealers' game with the dealers from Chumash, so that should be great fun as well.

Until next time.

A Poker Weekend: Part 1

2 weeks and no update? I must be dead...

After a pretty mundane short week, I headed out to Simi on the 26th to meet up with Casey late at night after a smallish loss at the Mash. I got there at around 11PM and cruised over to Doug's house where Casey and his girlfriend were at a party. Doug, Casey, and I all used to work at Mervyn's back when I was living in Simi and attending CSUN, and the three of us had a hell of a good time. I hadn't seen Doug since I moved out to Santa Barbara, though, so it was really cool chillin with him again. I recently had come into contact with an even older friend who I hadn't seen for two years, and I also told him that I'd call him next time I was in Simi. I called him from Doug's and told him I was in town at a party. He said, "Oh, Doug's party?" .......ok Simi is too small of a city. Apparently he knew Doug from a while back and word had gotten out around a ring of people that Doug was having a party. Andrew dropped by and we all hung out for about an hour and a half.

After a little while Casey brought up that Nick was having a get-together at his house, so Decker(Andrew), Casey, Summer(Casey's girlfriend), and I all headed over to Nick's. We all hung out, had some drinks, played games, and told stories of old times and joked around. It was great fun, and since I haven't seen Decker for two years, and Nick and Casey for months, I really had a blast. Decker and I crashed at Casey's place, and we gathered up Nick and couple others and headed to my dad's pizza shop for lunch. It was great food, and everyone gave compliments. My dad just opened it recently so it was cool to have good reviews of the food, which seems to be the general consensus so far.

After lunch I spent some much warranted time hanging out with Decker. We chilled at his house for a while and caught up on lost time. He had to go to work so he took me to retrieve my car, which I had left at Doug's the night before. It was around 3:30PM and Paul's game was at 6. I headed over to my dad's house where I saw Pam and my little sister Ally, both of whom I haven't seen for quite some time either. I showered up and hung with the family for a little bit. And I also bought some socks. I really wanted some new socks.

We had Paul's home game later that day where I met up with Darsky. The two of us have been having some mixed feelings about the setup at Paul's lately, mainly the lack of players. A little info about the usual game: The game is a $50 buy-in NL tournament, which at it's peak was bringing in 30+ people. We run the tournament twice with a side game going amongst those not "fortunate" enough to still be in the tourney, the side game consisting of either $1 No Fold 'Em Hold 'Em (I'll explain that in a later thread) or $0.25 dealer's choice games. The number of players was increasing at a steady rate until we hit a 40-person mark when we had a game featuring professional poker player Amir Vahedi, who is close friends with one of the regulars.

Nowadays the numbers have decreased immensely, due mostly to an intentional effort to keep the game smaller, as the environment was becoming a bit too crazy once it hit the 40-person mark. Certainly no one can blame a guy for wanting to keep his house and garage to a reasonable decibel level, but as of late the tournament has been lacking so many players that there barely is a tournament! We only play once a month now whereas we used to play every other week. Therefore the attendance is a bit more important than it used to be. In April's game, however, we had only 8 people. It was known that Paul had purposefully not been telling people about the game, but to players like Darsky and me, 8 players simply doesn't constitute a worthy tournament. We both let him know that if he didn't call people this next time around that he would be down another two players.

This time Paul was more or less coerced into calling people, and although he only called a few, we ended up with 14 players for the first tournament and 12 for the second, which was at least better than last time. Dar and I had talked earlier that week and had planned on going to Morongo after Paul's game for an overnight session. Had we not had enough players, we agreed, we would have just left to Morongo and completely skipped the tournies. Once we showed up and figured our game for 14 players, we were both sufficed to stay and play. Coming off of a 3-week rush at Chumash I was feeling pretty good to play that night. Darsky and I have been trying to get heads up at one of these tournies for the longest time, but we always seem to start at the same table, even when we had 3-4 tables going, and of course with 2 tables nothing changed. We both started at the same table but managed to play some great poker and dodge bad luck at the same time, and wouldn't ya know it we ended up heads up! We've been meaning to do this for quite some time, but somewhere along road to heads up Darsky or myself always takes a dumb beat and can't hang to the final two. Tonight was different, and we started heads up with me having a considerable chip advantage. After about a fifteen- to twenty-minute match, I couldn't put him away and Dar took first place. I was happy with my play for the whole match, though, and I gladly took second place to the master of poker.

Most of the other players were being very annoying when Darsky and I were fighting our epic battle, and it irritates me to mention it because I think it lacks class and makes the bunch sound like little impatient kids, but Dar mentioned briefly in his weekend recap, so you might be able to find what I'm talking about. Anyways we started up the second tourney after a brief food break, and once again Dar and I ended up in the top three. When it was lookin like we might end up heads up for the second time of the night, the third player, who was a very horrible player and easily beatable over time, had too many chips to overcome and took out Darsky in third, and myself in second. So overall I had two second place finishes, and while I was proud of that I was also half-expecting it because of the way that I feel like I was playing going into it.

This past week hasn't been to good for me up at Chumash. Joe recently quit his part-time job and has decided that he'll be living off of the 2/5NL game there, which I think is easily doable for his level of skill. Him going up there more should mean that I'll be playing on quite a regular basis as well, so the last week's losses should be easily rebounded this soon. I wish I had more time to write, but I gotta go play some cards!

Until next time