Staking My Claim: A Poker Dynasty
 

Staking My Claim – a poker dynasty

Like seemingly scores of people at FOFC lately, I’ve been playing poker. I have had a mostly social “home game” for about four or five years, and felt for some time that I wanted to develop my game and take this more seriously. The explosion of poker on television in the last year or so has really caused a boom in local poker games, and I’ve been able to find a lot of options. So, as I work on my game, I am working my way through various levels of competition, trying to find my comfort level. While I am playing a bit online as well, I don’t plan to discuss that in much detail – I intend to focus on my in-person play, which adds a more human dimension, I think.

We’ll see if this accomplishes my primary goal. When I play FOF and write a dynasty, I feel more of a sense of “accountability” for my decisions, knowing that people will (or at least might) read about them, and might develop some interest in what’s going on. I think that kind of accountability might actually help me with my game – help me think more clearly about what I’m doing. Plus, doing this (in addition to keeping scrupulous records, which I am doing very well with so far this year) will help me in better understanding where my game has been going.

This won’t be a hand by hand, dreadful detail issue – I’ll just try to give a quick snapshot of what I’m doing, and will try to talk about things that seemed interesting or important to me as I played. I will, of course, try to lay out the “deciding” hands as best I can recall them.

Nearly all of my play will be Texas Hold ‘em, which is just red hot right now. I do play other games, but I’m a creature of opportunity also – and there’s more money in hold ‘em than everything else put together right about now.

The state of my game

Overall, I am a pretty solid player. I don’t yet have a sense of where my current upper bounds are, but I feel confident when playing at fairly low levels that I am among the better players. I’ll explore the nuances a bit, but I think my biggest weaknesses right now are (1) getting a bit too predictably tight, and therefore earning too much respect when I do make a hand, and (2) handling semi-bluff opportunities effectively. I also don’t have a great read for pot odds sufficient to stay in potentially very big pots – I am a pretty rare participant in big, multi-way pots, and missing out on those jackpots probably cuts into my profits.

Right now, I believe (based on my own records) that I am a positive expectation player when playing online for limits of $2/$4, $3/$6, and $5/10. The 5/10 game on Party Poker has been trouble for me – I have had two bad sessions at that level in the last two weeks, and that has cooled off my play there of late. I still play sit-and-go tournaments, and have a positive result from the $50+5 level, at which I feel pretty comfortable. I don’t have as many hours at bricks-and-mortar locations yet, but I expect to win when playing either $3/$6 or $6/$12 at the Borgata in Atlantic City, and my intuition is that I’d come out ahead over the long haul at either of those levels. I have been playing mostly $10/$20 there recently, and my results are too spotty to reach any conclusions—but I sense generally that this is a “new game” for me, where I can’t expect to overcome the house rake simply by playing tight and watching other people make big mistakes. So, right now, that’s what I consider “my level” – at the casino, I am trying to work on my game at the $10/$20 tables.

Around home, there have been a variety of offerings, including both limit and tournament style. Tournaments are very popular, and a local game (less than ten minutes from home) has proven very reliable. Drawing from about 40 semi-regular participants, this Thursday Night game every two weeks features a $100 buy-in, usually 20-25 participants, and a $1,000 top prize. I have played in this game a total of 13 times, and have three wins, two seconds, and two other money finishes to my credit. I am comfortably the top earner from this game, and my reputation is boosted by the weekly flier, which details the rules and also the previous winners’ names (strangely enough, I am the only multiple winner in about 20 offerings). I seem to be doing well at this level, and am also having success at the “side games” that inevitably break out after the main tournament action concludes.

So, I’ll be sharing stories of the Thursday Night Tournaments, other local games that I have found, and perhaps an occasional trip up to AC. We’ll see where we can go with this… this record will be more detailed than my financial records, which largely focus on the cash flow and hourly rates.

Definitely looking forward to this thread. Hopefully this can help tighten up not only your game but others as well. Have you found any difficultly moving from Limit to No Limit? Not a bad top prize for the Thursday games. Definitely seems profitable.

This should be a real treat -- a dynasty on poker written by one of our most eloquent writers. I'll definitely be following along.

Looking forward to this.....

This will be interesting for me since I generally really like QS dynasties but have had trouble getting into other poker recapping despite my own playing of the game.

Thursday Night Tournament – 19 February

I arrive at the tournament, and am well received. I have established a pretty positive reputation at this game – most people know me pretty well (despite my being a stranger to them other than through cards – there’s nobody I knew here before I started playing). After winning the tournament my third time four weeks ago, I received a sarcastic pity party when I failed to make the final table last time.

My style of play is pretty tight early in an event. Here, we only have 18 players (a little short of our usual) and I’m at a pretty good table of six players, each of whom has won the event before. I win exactly one pot during our first 90 minutes of play, boosting my chip stack from my original stake of $10,000 (the rules are mirrors of the WSOP final event) to about $12,000, after accounting for my modest losses along the way. I get moved as we break down to two tables, and take a seat at the “prime” table, where the final round is always played.

I get a pretty good run for about an hour, and scoop maybe four or five pots in that stretch, pushing my stack to the overall lead. The host comments “can you believe we might be looking at a four time winner?” – he’s very good-spirited, and a decent tight player himself (who has yet to win his own event).

I get into a hand with a jolly fellow whom I really don’t know at all, named Rich. I am playing presto, a pocket pair of fives, and flop my set to make three of a kind. We are heads up after I modestly bet the flop, and he calls. The turn card is a blank, as nearly as I can tell, and I bet again – four thousand in chips. Rich calls. The river card finishes a possible flush draw, which I think is fairly likely to be his hand. I check, and he pushes in.

I have to think for a while about this. The downside of being a fairly conservative player is that opponents who know you gain confidence that they can bully you out of a pot. This is an ideal place for him to make such a move—an obvious flush, and my check sets up a bluff just as nicely as it sets up the actual hand. There are plenty of hands he might have been calling with… top two pair, and the like. But finally, I know it’s all about the flush. I think he has it. The bet is another ten thousand or so… and I call.

He turns over the nut flush, I show my set, and the table of watchers grumble with restrained delight.

This pushes me down a bit – I’m no longer chip leader, and I find myself unable to win a pot for another hour or so (when a lot of consolidation happens without me). When we get to the final table, I have a lower-than-average stack, and find myself in some trouble before too long. With six players left, I am the shortest stack, and am feeling pressure from the escalation blinds. After a modest raise to me, I decide to try to isolate with my pocket sevens, and go all in. To my surprise, the next two players call, and I’m in a three-way pot – not what I wanted. I fail to get a seven, and lose to a pair of pocket jacks – turns out the third player had the other two sevens, so we were both drawing completely dead. Our two departures drop the field from six to four, and everyone left makes the money.

OUT: $100
IN: $0

Well atleast one of you, and possibly both of you, could have hit a flush the jacks wouldn't have hit. And both of you could have hit a straight to chop. So you were both drawing nearly dead, but not completely dead. :)

Techncially correct, of course. Practically, it would have taken so much as to be not worth worrying about.

Hope to get another round of "catching up" narrative done today - I have two more to write up that have already happened.

As long as you made him pay for the chance of seeing the river I don't think there is much else you could have done. Calling on the end was probably the best thing to do as well estimating the size of the pot at that point.

At least you made the final table. Did the tourney get it's second repeat winner? Looking forward to the next updates.

Hindsight being 20/20 if you are willing to call an all in bet on the river when the flush hits doesn't it make more sense to just push all in on the turn? It might cost you some chips if the flush hits, but it almost certainly doesn't give your opponent the correct odds to chase and seems like there was probably enough in the pot at the time to make it worth picking it up right there.

Actually, that's a good phrasing of the "lesson" that I think I take from this little incident, after giving it some thought since then.

When is the next tourney?!

This Thursday night will be the next tournament at the same spot... but I have played a couple times since the last tourney, which I intend to detail also (when I get a chance to write things up).

Enjoying it so far. Maybe (if this is a pretty consistent group of players) you could start giving us some familiarity with the big competitors (and their playing styles). That is something the other poker dynasties haven't been able to do, but I think adds a lot to the appreciation of the hands played.

Good idea... I was on the fence about "naming names" but since there is a pretty regular group I face, it might add some texture to this.

Thursday Night Side Game – 19 February

After the Thursday night tournaments wind down (and there are people bounced who still want to play cards) there is a now-traditional “side game” that predictably erupts. Generally this game gets started around 11pm, and runs until maybe 3 or 4 in the morning. The game remains hold ‘em, and the stakes are a spread-limit style: blinds are $1/$2, minimum bet is $2/$4, but the betting can go to $10 at any time. There are about a dozen and a half players who have played in this game over the last few months – mostly the regulars from the tournament scene, and generally a more action-oriented bunch. From time to time, there is a motion to bump the bet limit to $20 or even table stakes (no limit), but the last few times I’ve played, the max has stayed at $10.

First, consider this game setup. Cheap to get in (unless there is a pre-flop raise) with potentially pretty large payouts… the pots can easily get over $100. This is a strong incentive to “go fishing,” and unless you’re aggressive pre-flop, you cannot rule out any hand in particular… really, it makes sense to stay in for $2 with a very wide range of hands, when the potential is there to get three or more callers on a future $10 bet if you happen to hit your hand well. Even a tight player like me gets caught in this – I find myself seeing more than half of the flops, a ratio that I wouldn’t even approach in a simple fixed limit game.

I’m not going to recall a lot of hands in detail, but I’ll use this side game to introduce a few familiar characters:

Rick (the host) – Rick is the host of the Thursday night game, has a wonderful house with a huge basement, tons of first rate chips, and money to burn (apparently). His game is an anomaly in this group of players, though – he is VERY tight, actually to a fault. Most other player have a read on him that if he shows strength, they take him very seriously. In my opinion, he doesn’t use this reputation to his advantage enough – he misses chances to bluff when a strong hand would complete the board nicely. (Nobody will believe that he stayed in with the 6-8 needed to fill a partial straight…. But when there are two queens and an ace on the board, a reraise from Rick would probably send people for cover) Rick has made the money a few times, but has yet to win his own tournament in more than a dozen tries.

Rob – Rick’s younger brother is his antithesis. Also has money to spend, and does so. He is actually a pretty good player, makes pretty good reads, but is very aggressive and a little bit loose. He does not check raise very frequently, but rather bets out with enough frequency to ensure that he’ll get callers when he does have cards. Has yet to win the tournament.

”Fast Eddie” – Of course. Anyone who fancies himself a gambler player and has the given name of Edward suddenly becomes “Fast.” This guy actually lives up to his name – a super-loose player, action junkie, and all-out gambler. Has a bet on every sporting event, and is always looking for side propositions around the room (“three to on he misses this field goal!”). He won his first tournament about six weeks ago – his opponents were furious.

Jeff – Solid player, whose personality is a mixed bag for me. He is a good deal looser than I am, and is a little bit of a “table talker,” and has some elements of his personality (outside of cards) that I could do without. But, we have had a history of big hands against one another (my biggest moment in this tournament’s history came against him) and seem to have bonded somehow. Go figure. He won the tournament once early on, has been in the hunt a few more times, but no second win yet.


Anyway – here’s the short version of the side game.

I sit down after lasing longer in the tournament than most, and the game is well underway. I take the seat right on Fast Eddie’s left – I will act right after the maniac. That’s a good seat for me – he will bet most of my good hands for me, and when he raises, I will be able to react to that rather than bet into him. He does give me a lot of respect, too – so I can chill the table with a quick reraise of his reckless bets when it suits me.
Eddie is sitting behind a huge stack of chips – a maniac who has been getting cards. The two players who leave are both shaking their heads in disgust after being victimized by this. I, personally, like to see a maniac who gets emboldened… as I usually can handle the emotional side of playing in this environment.

My first hand has me up against Eddie right away – he bets $10 on the flop, and I have top pair, good kicker. (I cannot recall specifically, something like QT with a ten on the table) I end up calling him all the way, and lose to a straight that he makes on the river – cards like 5-7 that filled in perfectly. The very next hand I’m in practically the same situation. I’m playing Axs, and an ace flops (with running cards needed for my flush, as I recall). Eddie bets $10, and I decide to call the bet – knowing that he will bet all sorts of things, not necessarily the ace. (I might have occasion to reconsider this strategy here – perhaps a reraise would have been wiser there) Regardless, I call him all the way, and the board ends up pretty ragged. Eddie actually apologizes to me as he turns over his 3-4, the two cards that came on the turn and river to give him two pair over my lonely aces.

My initial stack of $200 is suddenly down to around $130… and I have been playing for all of ten minutes. I don’t steam easily. I work hard to keep my straight face – but it is under my skin a bit. I don’t leave the table, but I basically sit out a few hands (even a few that I would have called ordinarily) to get my sense back. Eventually, I get back into the rhythm, and work my stack back up. I’m even part of the process that takes Eddie’s stack of $600 in chips down to less than $100 – we actually get him to pull out his cash roll as backup, which seemed impossible at midnight.


I have one interesting hand with Rick – the two tightest players in the group by far. There is no raise pre-flop, and nearly the whole table plays. There are two spades on the flop, one of them a queen. I bet out with $10 – a pretty bold bet. Rick calls, and two more players both call. Now there’s a pot to win. The turn brings another spade. I sigh and check, then Rick checks, there is a late small bet ($2 or $5, I can’t recall) which Rick and I both call – we are now down to three players. The action junkies are fascinated at this point…

The next card is a blank. I look over the board, and bet $10. Rick wastes no time in raising $10. The table is shocked… Rick has to have a giant hand, probably a flush.

The third player quickly folds, and it’s $10 to me. I reraise.

Gasps around the table. Both Rick and I are tight players, we both checked the turn, and now are jumping over one another. Unlikely scene. Rick calls, and turns over a weak flush with a grin. I turn my king-high flush, and scoop the healthy pot, amidst hoots and hollers from the rest of the table and the few people watching.



As we wrap up the game about 4:00, I have a couple bad hands that drop me right about back to my starting point. I had built my $200, immediately down to $130, up to about $350… but made a couple of “tired” calls down the stretch and ended up only slightly ahead on the night. Pretty good time, the game was pretty lively (as usual), and I think I survived a potentially damaging outcome from a couple early bad hands.

OUT: $200
IN: $223

Weekend Tournament – 21 February

One of the regular players at Rick’s Thursday Night tournament decided to try to mirror the event, and set up his own game on a Saturday afternoon. The game was described as “North of Baltimore” which turns out to be a sly euphemism for “Pennsylvania.” Alas, I was free that day, and interested in playing – so I made a fairly painless trek up to Nowheresville, PA to sit down at a $100 buy-in two-table event.

Milt, the host of the event, is a pretty solid player – prone to going on aggressive streaks, but otherwise pretty stable. He finally won Rick’s tournament for the first time several weeks ago. Milt openly boasts that he “doesn’t gamble” but only plays poker tournaments – he has no interest in cash side games or other gambling. Interesting place to draw a line, in my mind, but fine by me.

Also traveling up from near Annapolis were a few familiar players, led by a local poker impresario nicknamed “Bumper.” Bumper is an excellent card player, and is something of a local legend. To the best of my knowledge, he does not actually work for a living… but has a variety of ventures and interests, and a lot of card games. He hosts games from time to time, and runs a pretty nice show. I’ve known Bumper for a few years pretty casually, but only recently have we become better acquainted at the poker tables (as I have raised my game to respectability).


Anyway… the game starts up, and it’s the same format as Thursday Night. $10,000 is your starting stake, and the blinds take a while to escalate to any consequence. So, the first hour or two is mostly about taking risks if you want to – but not feeling pressure to (while blinds are $50/100 and $100/200, you don’t have much to lose by sitting tight). The biggest factor for me at this point is trying to get some read on the many players at my table who are new to me – I know Milt and two other players just to my left.

There is one player who altered his name card to read “poker retard” and soon it turns out to be perhaps an understatement. This player never knows when it is his turn to act. He always splashes the pot with his chips (making it tough to see how much he bet), and never says anything in the betting process (like “raise”). He’s either really forgetful, disrespectful, or deliberately undermining play – he has to be corrected time and time again on all these things, has several “strong bets” pulled back with a reprimand, and continues to do all the same things. I am very rarely bothered by such behavior, but this guy got to me a good deal.

And of course, he is betting wildly and catching cards. Fortunately, I wasn’t on the bad side of any serious hands, but one of the players I know was—and lost nearly half his stack when up against trips. So, our chip leader after 90 minutes was the P.R.

Interesting hand. I am dealt AJo, and raise the $200 blind to $1,000. Patrick, a super-tight player on my immediate left, who has barely played at all, calls my raise. Interesting. Ronnie, the other player I know, and who knows both Patrick and me very well, reraises it to $3,000. Folds around back to me, with $2,000 more to call.

Ace-jack is a nice hand. Sorry to let that one go, but knowing these two players pretty well, I had to be behind. Patrick also folds, and Ronnie picks up a decent pot.

A while later, Ronnie has been doing pretty well, and he and I are just about even at around $15,000 in chips. I am dealt pocket sevens, and I make a modest raise. Ronnie reraises me. Folds around to me, and I call his reraise (another $1,000, I think). Flop comes J-7-4 rainbow. Ronnie checks, and I push all in. He very quickly calls me.

As I am about to turn my cards, he says “do you have jacks or sevens?” He then sees my sevens and says “as soon as I let the word “call” come out, I realized I was done… it’s too early for you to make that move without having the set.” He turns over pocket aces, and we watch the draw… which misses him. He heads home, and I basically double up. This puts me near the chip lead for my table, in solid position.

We collapse to one table maybe an hour later – I’m still close to P.R. as the near chip leader. Bumper draws Ronnie’s seat (two to my left) but has almost nothing left in his stack. Milt is also in trouble – I’m mostly up against strangers here.

…time passes…

I have pocket queens and raise, Milt is my only caller. The flop comes T-J-Q, giving me the top set, but certainly causing concern about better possibilities. I know that big slick is among the fairly small set of hands that Milt would call me with, so he may well have the made nut straight. I’d still have outs to a boat, but I’d rather not be up against it.

Milt checks. By the time he does, I have decided to put him all in. He quickly calls, and turns over AK. I am unable to draw out, and lose the pot to him – putting a solid player back on his feet (bad thing). Bad play? I’m still not sure.

…time passes…

Interestingly enough, I flop a set of queens again, only about a half hour later. Here is am up against the P.R., and there is nothing to fear on the board. I bet $4,000 – he calls. On the turn I push all in, and he counts up his stacks of chips – he is slightly ahead of me at this point. The winner of this hand will have a towering chip lead.

He sets up his stacks for the call, the table is sitting in wait. Then he decides to fold. He turns over a gutshot straight draw… holding AT with QJ on the board, with four outs to the big straight. I don’t think he was acting… I think he really wanted to make that all. Fascinating. I don’t have to show my set this time, but get the pot.

. . .much time passes…

Patrick is out, Bumper is out, and the table is down to five players. Milt is healthy again, and is actually the able captain now. Milt manages to take down the P.R. finally (I confess that I don’t recall the detail of the hand, but it wasn’t too dramatic – P.R. made a reckless bet by him, and he got caught up against two pair, I think) and we are eventually down to the money, and I’m in.

Milt has played aggressively and has a modest chip lead. I have the short stack, but over $30,000 – so I’m not squeezed by the blinds just yet.

I get AdKd under the gun – they already have $9,000 in the pot with the blinds at this point, so I feel it’s worth pushing in and seeing if I can get a dominated hand to call. I push in my $34,000 in chips… and Milt calls.

We flip – and I have caught his ATo against my AKs – I am a huge favorite here, and I am now thinking through my strategy for playing the $74,000 stack that I will soon have. I’m convinced with that good a chip position I will be a solid favorite to win the event.

His ten lands on the turn, and I lose the hand – settling for third place. Milt wins his own tournament about three hands later.

OUT: $100
IN: $260

Probably the time when you least enjoy poker, when you get good enough to accurately predict that your big hand is beat and play it anyway. How well can you predict Milt? If you check and a blank comes up on the turn, do you know what he's going to do with AK now? Can you make a smaller bet now and put him on AK if he reraises? Would he have just called your raise with AA and checked this flop?

Just wondering how much you think you know about this guy, and others even. I've been dying to play some RL tournies but I'm still tethered to my computer. Still, even over the net you can get something of read on these folks.

This has been a great read, but I was wondering what does your out and in mean?

OUT is how much he cashed in for chips, or a tournament buy-in, at the beginning of the session.

IN is how much he cashed out, whether it be from the tournament prize or cashing out chips.

Yes, it's a convention I have used for a long time (tracking horse racing wagers) and it works for me. I tend to think in terms of "return on investment" a bit, which is a holdover from my racing days (even though it doesn't really apply well in poker, where return per hour is a more meaningful mark).

"Out" is money going out of my pocket. "In" is money coming back in.

By the way, here is the structure of the “Thursday Night Tournament” I have described. In my judgment, this works pretty well – there is a fair amount of time where the blinds are pretty insignificant, which gets people to play for a while and take the game fairly seriously. (Something missing from the on-line sit-and-go tourneys, where you frequently see people super-reckless early, in part because they have no investment of time)

INITIAL STAKE = $10,000

BLIND STRUCTURE
$50/$100 for 30 minutes
$100/200 for 30 minutes
$200/400 for 30 minutes
$500/1000 for 30 minutes
$1000/2000 for 30 minutes
$2000/4000 for 30 minutes
add $1000/2000 every 20 minutes, until only money positions remain
When down to money positions, blinds go up $1000/$2000 after each two turns around the table

BETTING STRUCTURE
Minimum bet or raise is the big blind at every bet (does not double in final two rounds)
Three raises maximum on betting round (unlimited when heads-up)
Raise must equal amount bet (e.g. cannot follow a $5,000 raise with a $500 reraise)
Partial reraise with an all-in does not enable additional reraises

PAYOUTS
The host has boosted attendance by advertising “guaranteed $1,000 top prize” if at least 18 players pay. He generally cuts about 15% of the take – which is a little steep, but is generous in providing free beer, drinks, and snacks to all comers. Prior to the $1,000 top prize, he usually set the top payout at close to half of the prize pool – if only 15 players pay to play, he would probably set up payouts like: $700, $350, $150, $125. Generally, with 20 or more players he pays 5 spots, with fewer I think he will pay only four spots. The tradition is also to include a gift box of Crown Royal to the winner – the purple bag and such makes for a nice ornament at the final table. (The second time I won I sold the booze back to him for a reduced entry fee the next time… but Mrs. Q made it clear that I wouldn’t be doing that again – she wanted the velvet bag, and was very pleased when I brought home the Crown Royal)

The host of this tournament has done a nice job of preparing a “rules” sheet for every event. I cannot capture them all here, but it is basically a series of statements about how things will be handled – prohibiting “string bets,” stating that a spoken bet is a confirmed bet, cards touching the muck are officially mucked, that sort of thing. If there’s more than a few hundred dollars at stake, I strongly recommend using something like this. His is pretty patchwork – he has added rules as unanticipated things have arisen from time to time… but generally, he protects himself by distributing a rule sheet in advance. We have yet (in more than 15 events) to have any meaningful disputes.

I’ll add that the “rule sheet” also allows for some sense of tradition in the game itself… each new sheet he distributes lists the past winners – and now it’s clear that some people crave to get onto the list of winners (in the same vein that people want to get their picture on the wall or wear the bracelet of the champion). Rick also owns one nice wooden chip box, which goes each week to the defending champion – nice touch, too.

Hope that answers questions about the setup itself – it’s a nice game.

Silly question I'm sure...

What are string bets?

it's when you call a bet and made and raise that bet in two discrete steps. such as saying "call AND raise". Making that statement is a string bet, and the raise is disallowed. The idea being that you could say "call" and look for a reaction, adding the "AND raise" if you see something in that instant. It could also be nonverbal, you fling that amount of the bet into the pot, and if you like what you see for a reaction you reach back and grab some more and fling those in.

probably about 50 or so words more than you needed

I'm curious as to your feelings about that last line... blinds go up $1000/$2000 after each two turns around the table. So lets say 18 people enter, and 4 make the money. So when you get into the money the average stack size is $45,000 in chips, and the blinds are, lets say, $3000/$6000.

After only 8 hands the rise to $4000/$8000, and lets say there's a short stack that busts out here.

3 people, avg chip count is $60,000, but the blinds go up every 6 hands now.

That seems extrodinarily agressive to me, but I have never played in a live tournament so I could be off base here... it seems like you get a ton of time to maneuver your way into the money, making it more likely that the better players will make the mony, but once you get there, the blinds go up so fast that the skill advantage is reduced. Am I right here?

How does this compare to the casino tournaments you've played in?

There is judgment necessary in how to manage blinds. When this event was in its infancy, I made it to the final two players, carrying only about 1/4 of the chips. The two of us played heads up for over an hour, with the blinds still only ticking up every 20 or 30 minutes. My opponent, a maniac player, seemed to turn conservative, while I got much more aggressive - and we deadlocked for a pretty long time. Something similar happened once or twice in fairly rapid succession, pushing in the new rule.

Escalating the blinds fairly rapidly does increase pressure, but proper play heads up ought to bring things to a close fairly quickly (our examples were extraordinary, I think). Since the new rule (twice around) we haven't had anyone express any particular frustration with it, myself included.

Sill hoping to get back to this... I've had three sessions since this last update, and hope to play again this weekend. Stay tuned.

First off, it's a Quiksand diary. Second off, it's about poker.

Yeah, that's a must-read if there has ever been one over here. I'm awaiting your next update!!

Don't tease us by posting in this thread without more poker goodness :)

The Pink Game – 25 February

One of the players at Rick’s Thursday night game ha made mention of a regular game that he and a couple of friends host. Every Wednesday night, it’s hold ‘em starting at about 8pm, until sunrise. They apparently have been getting pretty nice turnout, sometimes two full tables. So – I decide to check it out… I have a light calendar for Thursday, and can afford to be a bit tired.

I arrive at the game – no more than ten minutes from my house, to find the setup a little bit more formal than I had thought. After walking around for about five minutes, it’s clear that this is not a simple “home game” – this is a business. The house’s basement is not elaborately decorated, but it is very utilitarian for its sole purpose – hosting poker games. They clearly made a raid on some sort of surplus casino supply outfit – they have not two but three full-size, ten-seat, oval poker tables all felt-topped and ready to use. Each one has a dealer station (complete with the tiered racks of chips) and one even had a full padded railing on the outside. When I buy in, I see that they have a full locked closet of chips, and one person acts as the “bank” for the night – it’s a pretty well-organized event.

The game on Wednesday nights is the so-called “pink game.” The name comes from, believe it or not, the chips. Apparently the idea here is to replicate the $7.50/$15 game at the Tropicana in Atlantic City – and they do a pretty good job. The pink chips are $2.50 denomination, and then there are white $1.00 chips used as well. The house rakes the pot (up to $4 each hand) and the dealers work for tips. It is, as I suggest, a pretty good representation of a casino game. Over the course of the evening, three different dealers rotate into the chair (two of them play when they are not dealing, the other guy apparently doesn’t play cards) and the quality of the dealing is very solid (one dealer here, also a co-owner of the house, is a better dealer mechanically than most of the AC dealers). So, it’s a solid, professional environment.

They also offer a high-hand bonus – which some players find intriguing. A top bonus for a royal flush, and an escalating bonus for four eights or better. In both cases, both of your cards must play to earn the bonus. I don’t mind this, largely because the bonus is paid from the house rake, rather than an extra rake (which I loathe). So – that keeps a few action players in the game, even if it is a mostly simple limit affair.


So, on with the game. This is, by my account, classic “middle limit” hold ‘em. The play is pretty solid – at my table there are only three out of ten whom I would consider “loose.” Another three players are clearly good players – I watch their hands closely, and am impressed with their raises in particular. I can tell that most everyone at the table knows one another – I and one other player are the “new blood” this evening.

I don’t have too many particularly remarkable hands – not a lot of fodder for the story here, really. I get dealt pocket aces, raise under the gun, and immediately get reraised by the next player (who seems pretty tight). We end up head up with four bets pre-flop. A king lands on the flop, and I have to worry about KK, but I raise his bet there anyway – and take control of the hand from there. He checks and calls my bets twice, and shows me his queens, which miss the board as my aces hold up for a pretty solid pot.

Down the line, I find myself playing a pretty predictable game, which is fine by me. I don’t make a lot of “moves” here – I’m very comfortable in building my image in my first session or two with this group. And my best situation, I believe, is for people to make me as a “tight” player who doesn’t take chances. Down the line, I expect that this reputation will serve me well as I bet into pots that I have no reason to win – expecting the players who know me to give my bets extra respect.

So, for this first night, no wild swings in my stack. I bought in for $300, and spend most of the night hovering between $250 and $300 or so. I’m getting a little tired at about 1:00 am, and am slightly ahead, and I’m starting to think about heading home. Anew player joins the table, on my immediate right. He cracks me twice in a row, and he’s a talker (also an amateur magician – this guy has a strange life, it seems). I decide to let “the Turtle” play on without me – I’ll grapple with him some other time.

OUT: $300
IN: $212

Thursday Night Tournament – 4 February

Back to Rick’s place. Great game, I am very comfortable. $100 buy-in, no-limit all the way, tournament usually lasts until about midnight or so. Side game ensues, and goes until 3 or 4.

We have 23 players, meaning three tables. I am seated at a table with two or three new players – but also the defending champion, Chris. Chris is a decent player, fairly tight, but a little weak in calculating proper calls. I don’t make him as a major threat overall… but he’s certainly good enough to have a shot. I talk to him in advance, jokingly telling him that he has to insist on getting the polished oak chip box – a tradition for the defending champion. “Get the respect that you deserve, Chris”

Also at my table is Chip, a player worth mentioning. Up in Baltimore, a restaurant/nightclub ran a couple of charity events back in the fall – offering a $25,000 prize and a seat in the main event of the World Series of Poker as the top prize. The buy-in was $500, and they were essentially cutting 2/3 of the entry fees to give to some charity… so it wasn’t my sort of thing. But I knew plenty of people who did play. In the two events they held, this player Chip finished first and third. Not bad.

Chip has played three or four times in Rick’s game, and it looks like he’s here for good. A few weeks ago, he sat next to me at the final table, and came to the money positions with a big chip lead. I turned a small run of good cards into a huge swing of fortune, and busted him in half once, and then busted him out very shortly thereafter. He’s a good sport, and I now think he considers me his best “friend” in the Thursday night game. Chip, as you might imagine, is a player to be taken very seriously – he is aggressive (more so than I am) but pretty sensible, not a maniac.


As we get underway in earnest, I have a couple of good hands to play with. When I get pocket aces, there is a raise to my right (just what I want) from a player I don’t know. I push all in, and the bet comes back around to the new player, who has something like $1,000 in the pot – having raised from $400. He agonizes, and then lays down his cards – there goes my chance to make a big move.

About 10:30, we have broken down to two tables, and I am in a decent position – maybe $22,000 in chips, probably a bit above average. Chip, who is just on my left, is in dire straits with maybe $8-10,000. I am dealt pocket tens… and decide to double the big blind with the minimum raise. Chip pushes all in, and the table folds to me. Pocket tens. The consideration is pretty obvious—I can be ahead of a smaller pair, I can be roughly fifty-fifty with two overcards, I can be a little bit better if he’s playing a suited ace with a lower card (unlikely, but possible with him). And, of course, I can be way behind a better pair.

I stew and simmer. My instinct tells me that he has a big pair, but I try to put this into context. This is one of the players I really fear here, and not only is this a chance to build my stack measurably, this is a chance to put him out. He certainly could have made this move (especially considering his modest chip count) with hands like AK or AQ… and even with a small pair. I have seen him make tough plays with small pairs before, so I know those are in the realm of possibility.

I call. He shows his queens. I lose.

My stack is depleted, and I have to limp for a while. I have a replay situation with the stranger on my right – I again get pocket aces, and he bets into me, and I again go all in. He hesitates again, and this time shows the cars that he folded – KQ. Good fold, but he was very, very close to calling the bet, and even said he would have had it been suited. So, I miss another chance to capitalize, and end up with a modest stack as we break to the final table. I am still around $10,000 – but the blinds have escalated to $2000/$4000 at this point, so $10K isn’t much.

An aggressive player raises fairly early, and I am playing a solid hand – KJs. I know that this player, Charlie, is prone to making semi-bluff pre-flop moves. He will raise with any ace, as nearly as I can tell. Not all the time, of course, but enough to recognize this as part of his arsenal. I decide that this is my chance… even if is isn’t a great one. His raise was from $4000 to $8000… I make it another $3000 and go all-in. Charlie calls, and turns over AT. He’s got the top card, so he is ahead—I need some help to catch him, and have six outs. This is basically the situation I had hoped for – not a great one, but small stacks have to take these risks.

The flop brings an ace, putting him way ahead, and I fail to connect anywhere – losing to his two pair in the end. I’m out, placing 8th out of 23.

Chip, incidentally, got healthy from my earlier call, and then won a big three-way pot just before getting to the final table. He ends up in a huge hand with the other big stack, and is all-in after seeing a flop of 4-4-5. His pocket eights lose to the other player’s pocket kings, and Chip is out in sixth place. The player who beat him there went on to win the tournament entirely – another new player who had not been there before.

There is a busy side game rolling by the time I am eliminated, with all eight seats filled. I decide to opt out, and hit the road rather than get started with another late night. So, no extracurricular activities for me this time.

OUT: $100
IN: $0

Incidentally, Rick is adjusting his schedule, and will be hosting his tournament again this week. So, I have a game tonight (Thursday), and will hope to make another good showing. I'm feeling pretty good - got a good night of sleep last evening, and will be ready to stick around tonight.

The Pink Game – 8 March

Actually, this isn’t the Pink Game. It’s just a Monday night game at the same place, with many of the same people. But the game is $5/$10 all night – casino-style. Still very solid.

I am a little more at home in my second visit to this place, and when a few of the familiar faces from Rick’s games show up (including Rick, his brother Rob, and “Fast Eddie”) I am feeling even more at home.

During my first couple of hours of play, I have three pretty big hands that turn against me. Generally, this is a pretty solid table, and I am adjusting my game to that level of play – understanding that most of my opponents are capable of laying down a hand in the face of a powerful opponent, and also capable of all the obvious little tricks of the trade. I make a nut straight playing AT, raise it on the turn, and watch my opponent catch the split with me when an ace falls on the river to match up with his 10. The same opponent, who seems to be calling way too many bets, manages to river me with a cheap flush to beat my top two pair, and takes down a very sizable pot. Later, I lose another pot to Rob, when he outkicks my AQ after a K lands on the river. The river treated me poorly, but I was still only down a little bit for the early going.

I got my act together, and managed to see some hands hold up as the evening progressed. I remained impressed with the operation these guys run – good dealers, decent refreshments (including a massive selection of non-alcoholic beverages in the fridge) and pretty good play overall. It’s now a goal of mine to build up my game to where I feel very confident playing against the better players here – most are pretty solid, and I want to feel like I can beat them at this level. I don’t think I’m too far away from that – but I do feel that I need to build my aggression in the middle stages of the hand. This night, I make a few good power moves and two solid semi-bluffs (I caught my gutshot straight once, even after a bully-raise without the proper backing for it—but fortunately I didn’t have to show that hand in the end). As the bell tolls about 1am, I cash out… and am up nearly a hundred bucks – putting me back to even (more or less) after two sessions at the House of the Pink Game. I’m satisfied so far, and these guys are in my sights now.

OUT: $200
IN: $290

Thursday Night Tournament – 11 March

I’m back to what has become my most familiar game – Rick’s Thursday Night tournament. Once again, it’s $100 to play, and there are around 20 players (I didn’t catch exactly, but my table started with seven).

At my initial table, there aren’t any players I really fear. Fast Eddie is there – he’s a near-maniac. Jeff is there, he’s solid but not intimidating. And a player I met last week, Jon, is there – I see he is pretty tight (he’s the guy who folded twice to my pre-flop all-ins with aces last week).

After about an hour, I am up a bit. My early strategy is to generally play tight, and occasionally take advantage when I am up against a player who respects me. I grab a few small pots with decent bets, but really don’t take many serious risks. The players who know me well and themselves have a good game can use this against me a bit, but at this table, Jeff is really the only person in that group.

As we break to two tables at about 9:30 (a few quick drops this time), I am dismayed to see two new players come to my table—Chip, the big winner from a local big-stakes charity tournament and a solid player, and Bumper, a local gaming icon and an excellent player. Bumper has taken to speaking out about me – saying things like “well, if he’s in the hand, I’d be pretty worried.” I’m not sure about whether I like this, or whether his intentions are noble or otherwise. I get along very well with both players but I’m disappointed that (a) our table just got tougher, and (b) neither one has very many chips – meaning it will be tough to build much of a stack at our table (the two big stacks from the broken table got randomly assigned to the other remaining table).

After playing for a half hour or so with the new table, I have a big hand to play. I am under the gun, and have pocket tens. The blinds have risen to $250/500 at this point… I decide to make a raise to $2,000. There is a caller to my left, then Bumper calls from the small blind, and Fast calls from the big blind. Now there is $8,000 in the pot – but three opponents, which isn’t great for a decent pair. I’d much rather be up against one rival here – but the fat pot does look worth making a play for. I started this hand about where I started the tourney – about $10K in chips – and I could really use an infusion. I’m not panicked yet, but winning another $8K or more would be very, very helpful.

Flop comes: 6d – 9d – Th

Okay, with some moderate exceptions, this is my flop. I am holding the top set – the only hand ahead of me is the 7-8, which is pretty unlikely to be residing among any of these players who called a 4-blind raise pre-flop. Not inconceivable, but a longshot. And unless they have the straight, I’ll be a favorite – a heavy favorite – against anyone. My goal here is to make a play for the pot, and hope to get a caller, since I will very likely dominate.

Bumper, to my surprise, opens the betting with $2,500. Fast Eddie calls the bet. Now there is $13,000 in the pot… and I don’t see any choice in the matter. I push all in.

The player on my left folds, and Bumper pretty quickly folds. That leaves Fast Eddie. The least predictable hand left (big blind, plus he’s a reckless player) and probably my best bet for a caller. He stack up his chips into the amount he’d need to call (he has maybe $5K more than I do at this point) and contemplates. I do my best acting job to represent my relative indifference – though inside I am screaming for him to call the bet.

He calls.

I turn over my tens, and he emits an epithet unsuitable for a family audience. He reveals Qh-9h.

So, against my set of tens… Eddie has a pair of nines. He also has a backdoor draw to the heart flush, and a backdoor draw to a straight – but needs runner-runner for either on. He has no single card outs at all. He is shaking his head… he purports to have put me on AT (where he would still be a significant underdog) but now finds himself all but beaten. (I figured on the spot that I was probably a 90% favorite – the odds calculators I used says 92.4%)

Turn card is a jack – he has missed his flush, but now can catch his straight with an eight or a king.

The river brings his king. I’m out.

It’s 10:30, I’m out of the tournament. Tough break. Mouths agape around the table… I do my best to casually walk away, but that was a very tough beat to take.

OUT: $100
IN: $0

Next up… the strangers at the side game…

By the way... I welcome input on this as I go. I'm really not sure how much detail is worth offering... do you want to hear the details (that I can recall) of specific hands that didn't really affect the outcome? I push in when the ace lands after I called with the middle pair, and I take down a $2,000 pot to take a slight chip lead - that sort of thing? I generally have a decent recollection of the significant hands that I played... if this would make the reading more interesting, I can offer more. My instinct is to just give a "flavor" and less of the actual hand-by-hand details unless there was something particularly noteworthy.

But feedback is more than welcome... and if you want to tell me that I botched a hand completely, I'm open to that as well.

I would like to see more of the hand-by-hand details. I am generally always looking on ways to improve my own game and reading some analysis on how other people play their hands and view certain sitautions is always beneficial. The specific hands you describe is what I have enjoyed most so far with this dynasty.

Hand by Hand like TredWel would be interesting/useful but as is, the stories are already compelling. You do a great job of capturing the drama of poker.

It would be nice to know how some of the key players go on to fare. Did Eddie use his gift from heaven to make a strong finish? Or did you even keep track?

Last night, Fast Eddie rolled to the final table, and then flamed out (as usual) with one or two ill-advised bets. Actually, the winner of the whole thing was Milt - who became the second player to win a second time. I like that idea - and will provide some more detail on "how things played out."

I am thoroughly enjoying reading as is. The alternative to the storytelling style you ahve taken would be to discuss more individual hands, but I think when talking about live games I like this style a lot better. Without a photgraphic memory of everyone's position and stack and cards, individual hand discussions lose a lot of their value in terms of poker theory discussion. Also, when discussing individual hands, it's usually the questionable calls that are more interesting to read, but with a story dynasty like this I am enjoying the big hand discussion and enjoying the flow and the discussion about the 'feel' of the game, and the reads you have on other players, and that sort of thing.

I'd like to hear a lot less about the hands where some idiot calls your all-ins and runner-runners you out of the tournament. Those are painfull, and contribute to my collection of nightmares. So, please, stop letting that happen :)

After trying to bully some people out of a pot with pocket 4s yesterday, the flop was AKQ, then I caught runner-runner 4s to win a decent sized pot with my quads. Sometimes the good guys suckout too! :)

I like flavor more than in depth detail. I think right now you have a great narrative flow. If you think adding something would give it more flavor, such as when you starting naming your oponnents, I would support and like that.

Thursday Side Game – 11 March

I am an early casualty from the tournament (grumble grumble) and head over to the side game at 10:30. The setup is familiar … blinds of $1/$2, minimum bets of $2/$4, and maximum bet of $10 any time. I’ve played this game before – but not these foes.

In fact, there are five players at the table, and I only know two of them. So, I sit down with a group of players, and need to learn them quickly. I know Jeff is solid and Kurt is pretty loose, and after a short while I get a sense that there isn’t anyone at the table to really fear. However, new players keep dropping in – Bumper and Chip among them, and soon we have ten people jammed into an eight-seat table. I have a tendency to play much better when I am physically comfortable… so the crowded conditions are a bother to me more than usual. In the course of an hour or so, my initial stake of $200 has dwindled to $85… no particular bad beats, no stories to tell, just a bad run and an uncomfortable situation.

Then, the tournament falls from two table to one – leaving another table available for play. Our ten people decide to split into two games – and the more serious gamblers decide to start a second table of “$20 any time” instead. Bumper, Chip, Jeff, and two others head for that table… leaving me with the less experienced players. Suddenly, I have a comfy seat, and a much more comfy table.

One again, there’s nothing spectacular. I’m not making crazy moves, and wild bluffs – I’m just playing solid, sensible poker. Over the course of the evening, it become painfully clear that the player on my left is a calling station, and the player on my right is a little too tight. Knowing that, I am in a good position to know when to play—and I start building my stack. Later into the evening/morning, I get even more aggressive, as I can see that the calling standards of my left-side neighbor are so low as to be embarrassing. This table worked out well for me, indeed – again, no particular stories to tell, no climactic hands, but the results are excellent… almost enough to get me completely over my suck-out sob story from the tournament.

OUT: $200
IN: $590

Another Side Tournament – 13 March

Yet another of Rick’s regular players has decided that this whole “run your own tournament” thing is worthwhile… and Jeff decides to offer up basically the same game. Saturday evening, 6pm – he claims to have about 20 people. As it turns out, he suffers some attrition from Maryland’s continued presence in the ACC Tournament, but he ends up with 12 people – including both me and, as a new addition to the playing journal, Mrs. Q.

Mrs. Q has been playing hold ‘em a bit for a couple of years, and has basically sworn off other forms of gambling at casinos. We have made three treks to Atlantic City this year already, including two just by ourselves – and the only game she plays is hold ‘em. She is finding her level – last time we went we played $6/$12 the whole day – and she appreciated the increased level of competition (she, like many good players, gets frustrated to watch idiots call raises with empty hands only to catch miracle cards – a fairly common occurrence in the lower levels). This is her first in-person tournament, and for a $100 buy-in it seems like a good place to start, in my eyes. She heads in with $300 in her pocket... armed to play any side game also, if she is inclined.

The tournament is just two tables, and I am seated with Bumper on my right (he’s starting to show up more frequently at these events – he’s had a very profitable high-low game break up after a multi-year run, and is looking for more games to play. He’s right to be tapping into this vein, I think. Among the dozen players here are a few players Jeff describes as “dead money” types who have been watching TV and want to start playing. Sounds fine. Bumper and Jeff are the two players at my table whom I know in advance.

Early on, I decide to make a move on the player on my right, an older guy named Doug. He is a friend of Bumper’s, and I want to get a sense of whether he’s a serious player. I decide it’s worth a few hundred chips to try to find out. We are in a hand together after being the blinds, and I make an empty bet on the flop. He calls. I bet again on the turn, and he calls. He checks the river, I do, too, and he reveals a slightly better high card than mine (my king, his ace, no pairs). I lose about $600 in chips… but I learn a lot about this player, I think.

We settle in, and through the first hour or so things are okay – I win a small pot to get back what I had lost, and I have my original $10,000 stake in hand – nobody is out yet, so it looks like I’m even. I am heads-up again against Doug when I’m the big blind – this time I have A6o. The flop brings A-7-6 and I look good. He bets the hand for me on the flop and turn, and I call both times. He checks the river, and I bet $1,000 – fully expecting him to call and get crushed. He calls, and is crushed. The early investment may have paid off in full there.

Mrs. Q has a quick turn of fortunes at the other table – she puts out the first player of the tournament, and makes a nice gain in doing so. But not long after, she gets trapped badly. She is playing AQ, and with an ace on the board is betting with two callers, and then one. She gets a queen on the river – and even though this makes Q-K-A all visible, she decides to push all-in with a solid pot to win. Her caller accepts the bet, and turns over AK. Mrs. Q is the second player out of the tournament – not a terrible play, but bad to run into that.

Meanwhile, I have some cards and a good feeling, and go on an “aggressive” streak for a while. Over about ten hands, I am betting four or five times – a little unlike me. Most are backed by real cards, but it’s very effective, I find. The best situation for me is to make a couple moves in a row (maybe one with real cards, followed by another with a more marginal holding) and then make another move when I have good cards again – the universe of people who believe in the “law of averages” seem to evidence themselves in poker – and I get a fair number of loose “he can’t have it again” calls. Anyway, I don’t put anyone out, but I pretty quickly build my stake from $12,000 or so to well over $20,000. I’m probably second in chips at our table when we break down to one table with seven remaining players.

I get my seat at the final table – Jeff and Bumper are still in also. Mrs. Q has started to sit down at the side game, so she is occupied… I’ll focus on the main action here. In a flash, there is an all-in, and a decent player gets eliminated – so we are six. Jeff has announced he is paying the top three spots, so we’re starting to get close to those considerations.

With blinds of $1,000/$2,000 my stack of about $20,000 looks okay, but not all that secure. I call a pot or two and get nothing to chase, and dwindle a bit. I get AK under the gun, and raise the blind to $5,000. Amidst talk of “he’s trying to buy the blinds” the whole table folds to me. One particular player, the already-annoying big stack, bemoans that he “just doesn’t have quite enough” to call that bet. I take the blinds, which is fine.

Once or twice more around the small table, I am sitting on about $16,000 in chips, and I am dealt pocket treys. It’s not a power hand, but I find myself getting too much respect for my moves – I decide that a pre-flop raise is worthwhile, even with this small pair. I get two callers, the asshole big stack and the big blind on his left. So, I’m a little weak for three-way play, waiting for the flop to come:

3s – 6d – 7h

Rainbow flop, no pattern, and I have my set. It’s admittedly the low set, but I made my own bed here. I love my situation. The two players check to me on that ragged flop, and I push all in. I really would be just fine taking down the pot right here – that would enhance my situation for a while, as a couple players are starting to get pretty short stacked. I could probably just tread water into fourth place with this pot.

The small blind, big stack, calls. Big blind folds. So, I am all in on the hand, and turn my threes. He shows Qd7d – he had top pair, decent kicker, and a backdoor flush draw. With my trips, he needs either one of the two remaining “outs” (the sevens) or two cards (queens or diamonds) to help him.

The turn is the Td. Just my luck – he now can get a diamond to flush me. He has 8 outs, as I calculate it – the eight remaining diamonds, excluding the three which would give me quads. I’m still a heavy favorite. (edited to reflect proper "out" count)

The river brings the Kd. He flushed. I’m out.

(After the fact, I consult CardPlayer magazine for odds on this hand. I am a 93.7% favorite to win the hand on the flop – with him holding only two outs with two cards to go. After getting a diamond on the turn, he still was way behind – I was still an 81.8% winner. This is getting to be agonizing.)

This makes three sessions in a row where I have been playing with Bumper and he watched me get sucked out in especially painful fashion. I end up in sixth place… and am starting to get more than a little bit peeved with the foul fates I’m seeing. (Writing this diary and re-living them all doesn’t make it a lot better)

OUT: $100
IN: $0

So, I wander over toward the side game… where I more than redeemed myself just a few nights before.

So, you are back in black now !

This has been a source of added frustration, actually... I have chuckled at myself a couple of times while at the tables, thinking "awww, this is going to go badly at FOFC."

I'm not too worried about my game, really -- I was poised to be in a strong position in each of my last three tournaments, and each time got into a showdown situation where I had the best of it by far. That's all I can ask for.

QS - I am learning a good bit, I think, from your hands so far; and it's a good story as well. I'd like to hear a bit also about the hands that aren't necessarily the ones putting you in or out; even possibly those you're not involved in. Not every hand, but ones that might show an interesting progression of bets.

You da man, good luck in the upcoming tourneys.

Kevin

If Ms. QS was at the side table with you I'd love to know her in/out as well.

Am I missing something or wouldn't if one of the 7s hit, you'd still be up with FH 3/7? Any 7 would have to be accompanied by another 7, a 6 or a Q for him to beat you.

Semantics, I know.

You're absolutely right. I knew there was something wrong with my figuring... I was farther ahead than I described.

Add me to the list of the people who are really enjoying this. Great read.

Side Game – 13 March

I sit down at the table, where there are already five players rolling in a side game. While it’s announced as “2/4/10” (a game that I am used to) the implementation has been a bit different than I expected – they are using $2/$4 as the blinds here, rather than the minimum bets. So, the cost to see a hand is twice what I am used to for the side game – meaning that I need to adjust and play a little more tightly than I have been with a blind of only $2.

Mrs. Q has been playing for maybe half an hour, and is holding pretty steady, as nearly as I can tell. I see that there are two “new” players at the table – guys I figure to be pretty weak – and the other tourney loser who follows me is pretty loose as well (he was on my right before – the guy I “tested” early in the tourney). I think this table ought to be pretty profitable. I can see that Mrs. Q is a little intimidated, but she is remaining very tight – which is good for her first foray into a game like this (she has no experience with spread-limit, which takes some getting used to).

I sit and buy in for $100, with another $100 back in cash. On my right is a player whom I know is terrible, and on my left is another novice – looks like a good seat to me. Mrs. Q is two seats to my left.

In the first hour or so, I have a couple bad hands – and lose in showdowns to the same player, a seemingly arrogant jerk I’ve never met before. It’s a little tough to lose to someone with an unseemly personality… but that’s how it goes. I pretty quickly say goodbye to about a hundred dollars, and have to cash in the next hundred – from the jerk. Nice twist.


I am in a hand against Chip, which merits some detail. I am the small blind, and hold Ah3h – a pretty good hand for late position, I think. I am getting better about playing Ax in general (in tougher games, this is a great hand to lose a lot of money on) but when there are three players ahead of me and no raises, I put in my extra two bucks without blinking. Five players see the flop.

3d – 2h – 3s

I have trips with the best kicker, I have to be well ahead of anyone. At this table, with the poor play, it’s certainly possible that someone stayed in with a hand that now yields a straight draw (A-4? Even 4-5?) but I have to be well ahead. I stray from my usual play here, and sandbag, checking it initially, and expecting a bet from one of the aggressive players.

Chip bets $10, gets one caller, and it’s back to me. On the flop, in a simple limit game where we’re still making small bets, this might be a spot to just check and call – but here, with the maximum bet $10 anytime, I don’t see any reason to wait. I raise him $10, and he looks at me like I just kicked his dog. He calls, and to my surprise, the other player calls, also.

Turn brings the 2c. This is a bittersweet card for me. I still have the strong boat, but now trail a pair of deuces. And my kicker, once a chance to win out over another set of trips, has become irrelevant. So, I feel like my hand got better, but my position may not have. I bet $10 anyway – I have shown strength, and there’s a sizable chance that if I slow down here, they may take a free card. No sandbag opportunity here – I bet. Chip calls, and the third player calls as well.

River is a relative blank, 8h. It would be tough to put anyone on a pocket pair of eights, but now that is a hand that beats me as well. I fire again – and bet $10. Chip raises $10. Ouch. The other player folds – I figure he probably did have an overpair, but not eights, of course. Back to me. I want to reraise… but it’s possible that I am beaten here. I call.

I turn over my 3. Chip shows his 3 and an ace kicker. I show my ace also. Laughs all around (except for the third caller) as we chop up a pretty substantial pot.


Anyway – play carries on or another hour or so. The tournament wraps up – the host manages to beat his brother in the final showdown (now convenient is that?). Chip drifts over to the other table after losing at ours for a while, and so does the jerk who cleaned me out early. I’m down maybe $140 at this point… I feel like I am playing fairly well, not recklessly, but I just have had little success.

Anyway, our game goes on for a couple hours longer, and I’m at a complete loss to explain what happens. Th player on my right is making completely amateurish mistakes – he’s calling bets on the river when he doesn’t even have a pair, he’s baffled by the notion of using only five cards (he’s stupefied that we won’t break the tie when both players are using the board cards, even if one of them had a better initial holding)… it’s weird. And yet, after about three hours of play, this guy is sitting behind a wall of chips – plenty of them are mine. Yes, it’s possible that poker players “act” like they are weak when they are strong, and it’s conceivable that a good player might pretend to be a new player – but this guy is making mistakes like crazy and being rewarded for it.

Across the table, my tourney neighbor is proving to be a loose but aggressive player also, and he has some poker sense. With both of them at the table, we are seeing plenty of action – and it’s hard to decide exactly when it’s worth staying in any given hand. I’m frustrated when I lay down top pair (queens), weak kicker – only to see a pair of eights, caught on the turn, taking down a pot after betting all the way. There are a few cases of this, but I generally keep my wits, and play according to my best estimates of pot odds. Mrs. Q has basically crawled inside a shell, and is playing at most one hand per round beyond her big blind. She brings down one big pot, but I can see that she is mostly watching – she is patient, and this is a bad game for her to get her feet wet.

My evening just goes miserably. Around 12:00 or so, I have liquidated three benjamins, and a couple of twenties, and am down to just a pathetic handful of chips. I play another suited ace with a weak kicker – this time A4s. On the flip, I see A-A-7. Good for me, presuming that nobody else has the other ace and has me outkicked. Checks around to me, and I bet $5 on the flop – half the maximum. Two callers.

Turn brings a ten. I still feel very good, but decide to check this round – I’m worried, maybe too much, that the better ace is out there, especially since the second caller is a pretty decent player (though he is getting eaten up by the maniacs tonight as well). Checks around, and we see the free card. The river is a king. I figure someone probably made a pair this time, and will call my bet – I’m no longer worried about the better ace, as I’m sure it would have shown on the turn were it out there. I figure to win this, and only hope for a caller. My $10 bet leaves me with only one $1 chip.

The loose-aggressive player moves to raise my bet – he pushes in $20. The other player folds, and it’s up to me to call – I’m all-in for my last dollar. I mutter as I turn over my third ace “I guess I’m outkicked…” and am aghast to see him playing an unsuited jack and queen. He got runner-runner to get his straight.

I am, of course, complicit in this farce – I let him get his free card by not betting the turn. But calling my bet on the flop with aces showing, without a pair and only two decent, unsuited cards? I should have known better… but in retrospect, after watching his play, I don’t think would have shaken him at the turn, I just would have run out of chips sooner. (And I would have had a better-grounded grievance after the hand ended).

Awful, awful night. I walk away from the table… I notice that I have a fifty in my pocket, but discretion is the better part of valor here, and I hold onto it, as the table breaks up within another twenty minutes. Mrs. Q had a whimper at the end, chasing in two pots and folding before the finish both times – and ended up down on the night. She bought in for $140, and ended up with only $15 left in chips. She was upset, but recognized that the table was strange – she was far cooler under the collar than her steaming husband.

OUT: $340
IN: $0

So much for being in the black.

Ouch...that last hand is just horrible.

Chalk me up as another who is really enjoying the dynasty, Quik.

Unless I am missing something you were always trailing to a pair of deuces. Some holding pocket 2's would have made the boat on the flop.

Even if you knew for certain betting the turn wouldn't have shaken him it still would have been the right thing to do. I am fairly certain you were not going to lay down that Ace if someone bet $10 on the turn. So considering you only had $1 over the max bet and were willing to call the max bet on the turn it is always better to bet out and give everyone the chance to fold. And if your LAG opponent doesn't fold even better, since obvioulsy you want him calling and drawing to that gut shot. However by checking if he misses his 3 outs then he is obviously going to fold to your bet and you just cost yourself money.

Quite right - that's twice I've made that same error. Grrr.

Well, I am hoping to get back to the "pink game" tomorrow night for some $7/50/$15 action against the "A team." I am told that the better players there generally take off when they drop to $5/$10 - so I'll be looking for the tougher nuts this week. I think it's good for my game - that level helps enforce my discipline.

Any update on how the "pink game" went?

This has been an enjoyable read. Keep it up.

Pink Game - March 17

Well, I am home, and it's not even midnight. Part of the point of maintaining a journal like this is to be honest with myself and you. So - you get me while I am still steaming.

I got flattened tonight. I don't have a good feel for whether it was bad play, bad luck, or a combination of the two. But I sat down at the $7.50/$15.00 "pink game" tonight at 8pm, and in three hours lost about as much as I could handle.

I confess that I never got to any degree of "comfort" with the game. Not a single player there was someone I recognized. One guy's face was familiar to me - but I think I have just seen him playing at the Borgata in Atlantic City, he's not sonmeone I know locally. This was not my usual group of former frat boys - these were different, and generally more serious players. A fellow player from my latest visit here (calls himself "Texas Dave") mentioned to me in passing that "you haven't even seen the A team." I suspect that at least some of that was the group here tonight.

So, I don't have a lot of outrageous suck-out stories (I have a few, but I don't want to suggest that they explain my loss for the evening). I wasn't the victim of ridiculous play that worked out for someone else to my harm. I played a reasonable array of opening hands, made what I thought to be a fair number of folds when I felt I was beaten, I made fairly aggressive plays when I thought I was strong, and in just about every case things failed to work out. I flop two pair, and lose to a straight. I call with suited connectors, and everything misses. I play high cards, someone flops trip sixes. Seemed like it was happening all night.

I generally have pretty high confidence in my game, and coming into tonight I had every expectation of sitting down and feeling comfortable. Instead, I felt decidedly uncomfortable the whole night -- I didn't know anyone, I felt like they all knew each other, I lost chips right away on two quick hands that broke wrong for me, and the play at the table intimidated me a bit. All in all - a bad setting.

So, I'm pouring all this out here, and I'll record it in my log as well -- you can't fall for the oldest fallacy in the book, and only remember the good times. I'm more than a bit disappointed that a sizable stack of hundreds that I had built up over the couple of months at the end of last year has now dwindled to a pretty paltry sum. For the first time since last fall, I may actually need to go into my own bank account in order to stake myself for gambling. (It was nice playing with "won money" all this time)

Sob. Sob. Sob.


OUT: $450
IN: $0

Ouch....but these night will happen. I remember Vegas Vic saying awhile ago in one of the poker games that he dropped over a grand one day, or something like that. And I'm not sure if that was even against "A team" material either.

As frustrating as I am sure it was to drop $450. You only lost 30 BB on the night. It is VERY possible to play solid poker all night and still drop 30 BB. Hell it's very possible to be playing solid poker and drop 100 BB. Especially against good competition. Unless you know some of that money was lost from tilting, and based your comments it doesn't sound like it was, I wouldn't be too concerned about your game.

What's BB?

big blind

Actually, as used above, BB means "big bets." When calculating your wins and losses in a fixed-limit game, it's pretty common to translate eveything to the number of "big bets" as a way of normalizing. Losing $450 in a $7.50/$15 is 30 big bets... equivalent, in essence, to losing $120 in a $2/$4 game.

My bad, typed wrong. thanks for the correction

Small update. I have been away from actual tables for a few nights, but I di play a little bit onlone last night and this morning, gaining a little bit of needed affirmation. Three sit-and-go tournaments (10 players, top three spots get paid) with finishes of 3rd, 3rd, and 1st.

Up ahead is a $5/$10 game on Monday night at the Pink Game (where Mrs. Q also wants to play), then Rick's tournament on Thursday, and then a pretty big affair on Saturday at Bumper's place - he expects to have over 40 players and a top prize of over $2,000. So - more to come, needless to say. (Mrs. Q is on spring break, and can hit the tables this week without worry about early mornings)

I won a qualifier at Party Poker this afternoon, and now am entered in the $200,000 guaranteed "Saturday Special" tournament tonight... not a bad deal, for two rounds of $24+2 entry sit-and-go qualifiers. Maybe my run of bad luck will turn around a bit.

quik, I'll see you there in a couple minutes!

I won a 9+1 multi qual earlier this week

Short night in there for me... pushed in with sneaky two pair from the big blind, but lost to a made set of fives. I ended up in 800+ position overall. *sigh*

376 for me

all my good cards dried up early

couldn't get anything late, and paid for it

good time

Here's hoping the pink game went well...

The Pink Game – 22 March

Back to the site of the Pink Game, but I’m here to play in their $5/$10 offering. Mrs. Q is on spring break, and is here to play as well - - we each hit the table with a $300 stake. She is a little intimidated – I have told her that this is a pretty tough game, but I think she is up to the challenge.

Our first hour goes pretty badly. I lead the flop betting twice, only to get raised on the turn both times. I lay one down, and call out the other and lose both times. Not terrible beats, but enough to put me about a hundred in the hole within the first sixty minutes or so. Hell, I’m barely even settled into my seat, and I’m putting a hundred dollars on the table behind my chips. Things went poorly last time I was at this table (different game, and totally different foes) and I’m starting to get hinky.

Mrs. Q is having some trouble. She is simply not very aggressive, and I can see a couple of times when she should have made raises to get out the chasers – but only called the bets. Missing those chances cost her badly, as she got sucked out twice with decent hands. She’s down about a hundred as well.

Things pick up for both of us, to some degree. I stabilize, and stop my bleeding. Mrs. Q wins a hand, and she seems to tread water for a while – though she has either gone on a terrible run of cards, or has gotten exceedingly tight. She’s getting nibbled by the blinds, but isn’t losing rapidly.

My rebound starts up, and around 11:00 or so, I am roughly back where I started. Mrs. Q, however, has slipped badly, and is down to a pre-flop raise to go all in. I check my cards (am two seats to her left) and see AJ I have to call. The table hoots with shock, and someone suggests that I might as well not even come home. Turns out the third player and I both check all the way to the river – where he bets. With an empty side pot, he has to be very strong to be betting here, so I fold. Mrs. Q takes the pot anyway, after catching a straight with her QJs.

But, it’s not too long before she is out. She is all in again with a pair of aces in hand pre-flop, and the entire table knows it (it seems). She loses to a straight, and is busted out of $300 on the night. Thirty big bets – sounds familiar. She heads home – and the rest of the players are mightily impressed that we drove separately.

The next two hours I hold my own. I take a few small pots, but don’t have a big hand to go after any big game, really. I’m not giving chase to lots of flush draw hands, so I miss out on that $20 adventure every few hands. Instead, I play my high cards and pocket pairs, and land a few bucks when I can.

At around 1:30 or so, the game largely breaks up. I am ahead by about $60 at this point, and am ready to cash out. But the offer comes, “want to keep playing?” Three players, same stakes – I stick around. Things work well for a while as I am the first of the three players to really loosen up and play aggressively, but then I get outmuscled by my left neighbor (Chris, the host, a good player) and when he and his fantasy baseball co-manager get me talking on that topic, I lose my focus and blow a hundred in about 15 minutes. So, I worked my way back from $150 down to nearly $150 ahead, and then frittered a lot of it back in the last hour and change, playing short-handed. So it goes. I had a pretty good time, and made pretty good strides feeling comfortable with this game and these opponents. Solid night – I don’t mind ending up in the red a bit.

OUT: $300
IN: $258

Brutal stretch for Mrs. Q...it sounds like your analysis of her game is right on, though...she needs to be more aggressive and maybe switch gears once in a while. I am guessing she is probably playing tighter than she needs to...which is understandable when you are in a group of intimidating players.

Well, as nearly as I could tell, Mrs. Q was up until about five in themorning last night playing on Party Poker. Apparently she was busting up the $3/$6 games thre so badly, she couldn't actually bring herself to come to bed. Should be a helpful confidence boost.

(Let's keep this focused on poker, please)

?!?.....fine. It was just too easy anyway.

RE: Poker
I'm happy to see that she didn't get discouraged and dove right back in there. Many times, it seems as if these things come in cycles, at least for me.

At PP, I am in a horrible funk in the ring games, regardless of level. I'm not sure exactly where the problem lies, but I'll figure it out eventually. Fortunately, I am playing exceptionally well in the SNG tourneys. The odd thing is that the opposite was true last month. Very odd.

QS,
Do you ever go through something like this; where there is a large difference in results based on the type of game you play? If so, what do you attribute it to? Just curious.

Funny, I'm on the same side of this right now. I've been in the money in 12 of my last 17 sit-and-so tournaments, putting me ahead by some $765. Through the same period, though, I have been dying on the vine in ring games - even at levels where I am usually very, very solid.

It sure does seem to come in cycles this way.

My response is usually to do some reading focused on the area where I'm having trouble. Right now, my bedside book is Sklansky and Malmuth's Hold 'em for Advanced Players, which is largely focused on the limit environment. Just refreshing myself on some of this seems worthwhile... and this seems like a good time for a re-reading.

Thanks QS,
I will be looking for the book this weekend.

It is among many good poker books readily available on ebay - sold new for around 1/4 below sticker price. I do recommend it, though.

Another very good one, if you're looking for something pretty general, is Lou Krieger's More Hold 'em Excellence - A Winner for Life.

Amazon Link

I found this to be a very helpful book - his writing style stuck with me more than most, and for the most part I concur with his strategic suggestions. It's not as thick as Sklansky's writing can be - much more approachable. An easy one to pick back up and flip around in from time to time.

Tonight, I'll be playing in Rick's tournament again, after a couple weeks off. My legend of bad beats is starting to precede me - at a small tourney last Thursday night, I'm told that a few people asked where I was... only to be assured that "he's just riding out a series of bad beats... he'll be back."

Anyway - there's a failry big tourney nearby on Saturday, which both Mrs. Q and I plan to play in. She is playing in a "satellite" tonight - open only to poker novices and women. I'm optimistic that she can fare well in that kind of field, though she will be vulnerable to a big suck-out, I fear.

More to report soon, hopefully.

Good luck tonight...living vicariously though you :)

Good luck in your ventures tonight and into the weekend. I'm playing a $100 SNG game this Friday about 90 minutes north of where I am. Hopefully, it will be well worth the drive.

Ack - Rick's tournament is canceled for tonight, and there is talk that it might either be scaled back or even deep-sixed. *sigh*

I'm going over to the site of the play-in tournament where Mrs. Q is playing, and I have expectations that there might be something kicking around there. Rumor is that they might start a fairly small scale Stud/Omaha/Holdem game (sort of a mini-HORSE game, I guess).

We played HOE the other weekend, hold 'em, omaha, stud/8. At another time the selection of choice was what they called HOE-Duece(two stud games I guess is where the duece comes from) as no one wanted to play razz... it was Hold 'em, omaha, stud high and stud/8. I sternly protested the idea of ever doing that in the future, stud hands take so much longer to play, you spend 75% of your time or more playing stud, most of us are hold 'em or omaha players(a couple play omaha exclusively online).

I'm currently reading Gary Carson's recent book(I forget the name right now) at the recommendation of many poker players on another board I read, so far I am not really enjoying his writing style, though the content seems to be good.

I have been ripping 1/2 online to shreds for the past month. I started at the full tables and lately have been playing the 6 man tables and absolutely running over the competition. Ready for a move up to 2/4, but at the rate I'm winning 1/2 short 2/4 may not be a profitable move even if I play well(no 2/4 short tables on party).

Back to the main topic, I was glad to see in your last game that you didn't leave frustrated even though you were down. Being able to leave a game knowing you played well and that you can beat it even though you didn't come ahead this time is a comparatively good feeling(it doesn't compare to winning, but it's better than leaving totally flustered).

Last night was pretty disappointing for me. Rick's game got cancelled, and I ended up going over to the satellite tournament where Mrs. Q was playing. A table of mostly relative newcomers, there wasn't a lot of aggression there, and the action was pretty slowly paced. She made it to the final three (out of eight) with the smallest stack, went all-in under the gun with A9, and got crushed by a pair of kings (by a player who really shouldn't have even been in the "newbies" tournament in the first place).

Meanwhile, I got to wander around a stranger's house for about three or four hours, play about 30 minutes of a dreadful sidegame (which collapsed when our fourth player busted out of his initial stake of fifteen dollars), and go home tired and unfulfilled. *sigh*

Saturday is the main event - should be exciting. Mrs. Q, at the moment, has decided that she doesn't want to play, since she's doing well in limit games online, she's back in the mode of believeing that is her true calling. (She may be right -- aggression is an awfully big part of playing no limit, and I was frequently disappointed that she failed to pick up pots with easy bets last night)

Saw this post on a poker board on another site(fool.com's pay discussion boards, there is a small crowd over there that plays, mainly online of course).

===================================================
One of our crew met someone in AC that runs a pink chip game in Richmond. Lotta people hearing about tourneys being run in different areas. Our group even branches out so far as to invite and be invited to games and tourneys in DC, VA Beach, and areas in North Carolina.
====================================================

The mention of the pink chip game caught my eye, but I didn't know the location of yours, wonder if you guys are playing in the same circles perhaps?

All of this came up in a discussion about how to find local games and this site:

http://poker.meetup.com/

I'm told that the "pink game" concept comes from a popular game played at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. It might be that my game and their share that same genesis. (Or perhaps there's some tradition that if you wnt to use a chip between the traditional $1 white and $5 red, you go with a $2.50 pink)

It's a shame to hear about Rick's game breaking up since it seemed to be such a well run and popular affair.

Annapolis Tournament – 27 March

This is a pretty big event, and promises to draw most of the familiar players from the area. The host, Bumper, is a guy I have described as a “poker impresario,” and today that description is reinforced – his tournaments aren’t just basement card games, they are events.

Mrs. Q had been a little bummed out by her performance at the satellite on Thursday night (she finished third out of 8 players, but felt that she wasn’t being aggressive enough) and had decided no to play on Saturday in the big event. We talked about it a second time, and my argument was that her game (solid and tight, but maybe a little bit too passive) is actually an even better fit for a larger field – and since Bumper expects 40 players, and we’ll spend our first two hours playing for piddly stakes, this is a perfect opportunity for her. I’m convinced that she will get her $100 worth just from the experience. Eventually, I get her to agree, and we drive over separately to the game.

Indeed, there are 41 players in the tournament, and we eventually settle in for cards. The 4pm start really means cards get dealt around 4:45 – so there’s plenty of time for mingling beforehand. Pretty much all the regulars are there – Bumper is hosting and not playing, but the better players that I know are in the field: among them Chip (winner of the Baltimore WSOP satellite) and Milt (two-time winner of Rick’s game). Also there is a player from Virginia – Kevin has won a previous event hosted by Bumper, and cut a deal for the top prize the last time I was around (I missed the tourney but played in the side game). All three of these players are serious threats, I know. I’m sure there are other good players among the 15-20 players here whom I don’t recognize.

I draw my seat, and am not too thrilled. On my immediate left will be Kevin, a very good player. And on my immediate right will be Chris (a different Chris than the host of the Pink Game) – a very loose aggressive player. In theory, I like playing to the left of a maniac (Chris isn’t crazy, but he does bet out a lot) but here, I’m not so sure if I like it.

We each start with $10,000 in chips (for a $100 buy-in) – and the first two hours will be $100/200 blinds, then $200/$400 – fairly small stakes. You only get in trouble early if you get take risks and get unlucky, or if you fall into a big trap. Play tight, and the worst that can happen is you get nibbled a bit. I think this generally bodes well for Mrs. Q, and probably for me, too. I don’t mind seeing a loose player pick up a bunch of small pots for a while, and get all excited that he can back the table off with a $2,000 bet. We’ll see plenty of that, but not too many of them are going to be there in the end, I expect.

In the first 45 minutes, I have a number of good opening hands. But I can’t get a flop to work for me. I raise pre-flop with JJ, TT, and JJ again. Each time, I get at least on caller, each time the flop misses me completely, and each time I end up losing the hand – one in a showdown (I stayed with my kings, as the ace wasn’t betting strongly) but twice end up simply folding to obvious overcards. This is a tough plight – I don’t want to slowplay big pocket pairs, but my investment in these very promising starters has my stack down a bit.

After having a bad run with outpaced pocket pairs, I finally get the big ones. After seeing three players call the $400 big blind, I raise it to $1000 with AA. Kevin, dealing from my left, calls the bet, and everyone else folds. The flop comes to the table:

6d – 8d – 9d

I am quickly figuring through the hands that he could have cold-called my raise with. He could be ahead of me with a set, of course, and the three-flush adds in the possibility of a strong suited ace (I don’t have the diamond). I am probably still good, but the flush possibility is the main fear. Kevin checks, and I act fairly quickly (I think) and bet $1000.

Kevin, reading me for “fear of flushes” does the right thing here. He pushes all in. He has $15,000 or so, and I am a little under my original $10,000 (after nibbling back a bit from my early losses). I hesitate, he can see that he has trapped me, and I decide to lay down my aces, the better to do battle again. The prospect of sitting around for three or four more hours to get into a side game eventually is just too strong – thus the power of the tournament environment.

Soon after the hand, a couple of players at the table are busted and initiate the re-buy: another $20 to get $5,000 more in chips. Now, I feel like an idiot. Had I called Kevin’s bet, I could have re-bought and kept playing, albeit with a pretty modest stack. I’m just not used to having the re-buy option, and it really wasn’t in my mind at all.


I’m down to $7,000 (including my re-buy) by the time we take our break. I’m still okay, but the blinds are about to go up to $500/$1,000 and I don’t have enough ammunition to make a real play.

Mrs. Q, on the other hand, already has her first real “poker legend.” I get to hear about it even before I talk to her – quite a hand. She is in a hand with both Chip and Milt, who are at her table. With a flop of A-7-7, Milt bets, Chip calls, and Mrs. Q calls. The turn brings a K, and Milt bets, Chip folds, and Mrs. Q calls. The river is a rag, and Milt checks… Mrs. Q goes all in. Milt quickly calls (he has a sizable stack) and reveals his boat, kings full. Mrs. Q turns quad sevens, to a shocked table. So, she doubles up and then some – and gets to the break with $21,000 in chips.


I talk to Kevin during the break, and he reveals his hand. With the three-flush on the board, he had pocket tens (an overpair) including the diamond. Thinking back now, my aces were ahead (I did not have the diamond) but he had a wide array of outs, with two cards to come: the other two tens, all nine remaining diamonds for a flush, and all the sevens for a straight. Had I called in that situation, I would have been ahead, but likely to be passed. (One calculator I entered showed him as a 52.4% favorite there) I still probably would have played the aces, especially knowing I had the re-buy still available.


Anyway, we’re back, I am fairly short stacked, and the blinds are up. I get a JTs, and decide to play for $1,000 – nothing comes for me, and I’m down to about $6,000. I’m feeling some pressure – I’m getting to the point where my stack won’t be enough to intimidate anyone if I do get a decent hand, and losing leverage is bad with big stacks on both my immediate left and right.

I get another pocket pair…but this time it’s deuces. I am probably behaving irrationally, but after watching the last three pre-flop all-in bets simply take the pot, I decide to push in here. What I’m really looking for is either a free scoop, or a caller with two overcards – I’d be in more or less a 50/50 situation, and I think I need to double my stack to be viable. So, unless I run into an overpair, I want to be called here – an I’ll take my chances.

Fold, fold, fold, fold… then a caller. We are heads up, and I turn my runt pair… only to see pocket kings down the table. I am *way* behind – but basically in the same spot as I would have been in had I made this play very sensibly with pocket tens or jacks, for instance. I have less than 20% chance to get the outs I need – basically the remaining deuces. The board comes with nothing for either of us, and I am eliminated. My position isn’t important – something like 25th out of 41 – but I am “not a factor” this day. No bad beat story, no incredible suck-outs, just a tough day seeing good down cards and mismatched flops. I did not see a single flop where the cards really hit me – the best flop all day for me was a 2-5-6 when I was holding Q6 in the big blind. Over three hours of play or so, that’s really not saying much.

OUT: $120
IN: $0

So, I get to spend about an hour or so dawdling around. I help chip people up, and eventually the field breaks down a bit and we start to free up a table or two for side games. Mrs. Q is still alive in the field as it breaks to three tables (about 20 players), but she lacks much power as the big hitters’ stacks continue to grow.

Eventually, I get into a side game (detailed shortly) and just get to hear occasional updates about Mrs. Q from the adjacent room where she is still playing. The field shortens and the tourney collapses to two tables – and she is still in. It’s down to nine players at on table, and she is still there – a small stack, but still in it. Bumper has announced that he is paying nine positions (including 3 or 4 who just get their money back) so she is officially “in the money” now. I know she will be very, very happy.

I am tied up and miss the details, but she is all-in at one point with A6, and she pulls a 6 to beat a small pocket pair. That gets her off the felt for a while, but she eventually succumbs – going out in sixth place out of 41 and just missing the escalating payouts. She declines on the side game, and heads home… great night for her.

Kevin, my neighbor, brought a pretty big stack into the final table, but ended up in fifth place. At the end of the line, it’s Chip and Milt who make the final two – and they cut a deal to split the first and second prizes, each taking $1350, I believe. A good showing for the two players I pegged as solid contenders from the start.

Mrs. Q is effusive after her play – she felt good about her play, she got a little lucky along the way, and she really enjoyed the people, too. I had guided her a little bit toward the people I knew were good guys, and that helped a bit – but she also came back with second-hand praise for me, telling me all the things that other players had said about me and my game. That’s reassuring to me, also, even though I wasn’t in the mix this time.

Side Game – 27 March

After the first side table gets set up, I’m a little disappointed. It’s going to be a crazy game - $5/$10 high low dealer’s choice with multiple options (buys, twists, rutle chips, and so forth). It’s also a smoking game – and from the looks of it, if you aren’t lighting one cigarette off the last one, you basically can’t play. So, this is a mismatch for me – I’ll pass.

The second game is a better fit for me. We’ll play the now-familiar $2/4-10 game – blinds of $1/$2, with betting up to $10 any time. However, as we sit, there is a vote – and we decide to alternate hold ‘em and Omaha high-low. I accede, though I’d rather play hold ‘em – this will be my first semi-serious session of Omaha 8. But with the field that takes the table, I figure I can ride it out okay.

Things go pretty well, and I quickly realize something about the high-low game: hold ‘em players who decide to dabble in a high-lo game are just hopelessly lost. I, at least, have played quite a lot of Omaha – albeit mostly at a low-stakes friendly game – so at least I understand the mechanics of how low hands operate, and how high your expectations need to be to win the high part of the hand. The fact that half our players didn’t really understand this made the table very profitable for a while.

I play for about four hours all told – we eventually sort thorough the chaff, and get down to five, then four players. We stick with “HO” for the whole time, and thing work out okay for me. I didn’t do that well with only four players (including two very solid players), but left with more than I brought that night. All told, a good affair… and possibly rekindling my interest in the high low game.


OUT: $100
IN: $310


Incidentally, when I get home at around 2:30, I find Mrs. Q still playing online, and she has won more there than I did at the side game. She is positively effervescent.

I got a chance to talk with Rick, who also played in the tournament but not the side game.

The official insider word is that he is pausing his game for a few weeks, but will restart it later with a limited invitation list. I had heard basically this version before, and had assumed that the lack of a follow-up meant that I wasn't going to be on that list. However, Rick told me that I would indeed b invited, so I should have that game going again before too long.

This has been a very entertaining dynasty to read. I played Hold 'em for the first time two weeks ago at a buddies house with five other guys. It was a blast (even though I did terrible). I'm happy to hear that Rick's game will be restarting.

Quik, do you and Mrs. Q play online at partypoker.com?

Yes, I have a couple of names there - including this one. She plays there, too -- once she was at a table with sabotai, but something prevented her from saying hello on my behalf.

Thinking back now, my aces were ahead (I did not have the diamond) but he had a wide array of outs, with two cards to come: the other two tens, all nine remaining diamonds for a flush, all the sevens for a straight, plus the nine remaining cards that paired the board.

I don't understand the part about the "9 remaining cards that pair the board"


good laydown :) don't think I could have made it myself.

An appeal for an update before this falls off the front page... :)

Okay, I have one more update to make since the last tournament. I'll try to get to it today.

Back to Bumper’s – 1 April

It’s getting late in the afternoon. I’m tired. Long day at work. I give a call to Mrs. Q at home… she asks how late I have to work. Why? “’Cause you and I are going to play poker tonight!” Energy back, not such a bad day after all…

Bumper has decided to try to pick up the Thursday night crowd, and tonight he is offering a $100 buy-in tournament for whoever shows up. Mrs. Q and I are both in. It ends up being a 16-player, two-table affair.

I am at a table with Bumper (a good player), Charlie (a pretty good player) and several people I either don’t know or don’t know well enough to rate. I am still alive when we are down to ten players overall, including five at my table. Mrs. Q is also doing okay at this point.

Anyway – I am at about $12,000 in chips at this point (started at $10,000) when we have “the hand.” This is the poker hand I described in its own thread a couple of days ago – in this thread.


I have pocket queens under the gun, and raise the $1,000 big to $3,000. Next player (a little loose) doubles that. Bumper moves all in with just over $6,000. Tough call to me – I have a big hand, I fear Bumper a bit, and a third player makes me leery.

I call.

In retrospect, I think this was the weakest of the possible moves to make. Folding keeps me alive no matter what, and pushing all-in at least gives me the chance of pushing out the third player. Instead, I am in for half my stack, basically married to this pot, and will see the flop after the third players inevitably calls the remaining $550.

The flop comes with bad news for me. A-T-4. The ace kills the value in my hand – now a gigantic array of all-in potential hands are ahead of me. I feel like I am very unlikely to win this hand outright – so I think my best play is to represent strength, and I push all in. If I lose this hand, I’m down to practically nothing anyway - so I feel I’m not risking much here. He calls my all-in, and we all turn over our cards.

Bumper has KK. I was dominated by him all along.

The third player has . . . A9. That’s exactly the kind of shit hand that I had hoped (and expected) to chase away with my all-in bet at the end, but to no avail. A9 reraised my QQ raise, and then called an all-in. And this guy knocks out both Bumper and m in the same hand, and coasts to the final three with a big stack of chips. I’m out.

OUT: $100
IN: $0

Mrs. Q has another respectable showing – she makes it to the final table, and limps her way to fifth place, one spot out of the money. Not a terrible evening – but I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should have done with those queens, and ended up walking away from a side game as I was too rattled.