Jinxed!

I think I really jinxed myself with that previous downer of a post. I'd had a couple of positive lunch sessions during the week, but then went to play last night and blew two racks. It took about 3 hours, and I won ONE pot the entire time. And I even had to bluff at it and almost got called. It was pretty sad... I threw away at least a dozen winners - if I mucked pre-flop or after missing the flop, it would come runner-runner for what would have been the win. But if I stayed in for the draw, of course it never came. And the few occassions I'd catch top pair, someone would eventually catch a bigger one.

Who knew the Force would affect my cards that way???

So seeing as how I got a vast number of 92's and 83's, I thought maybe that was a sign for me to hit the BlackJack table.

Nope.

Hit on a 12 and get to 19. Push. Dealer shows 10 so I hit my 16. Makes it to 20, alright! Dealer goes 10+2+2+A+6 for the 5-card 21. Get dealt the nine-dewey... DOUBLE DOWN! Make it to 18 and push. Finally get dealt two face cards. Dealer blackjack. Seriously, this must be rigged.

Speaking of rigged games - still playing the occasional quarter game on PokerChamps. It's a rough transition, coming from a 3/6 game where I can walk away with $100, and then playing online and trying to be excited over doubling up... a whole $10! But I've been good at resisting the temptation of taking it all and jumping up to the dollar limits I'm "familiar" with.

Still hovering just below the initial $100 that was deposited. It was almost bust at one point, but a few 3rd place finishes in $3 and $5 tourneys helped kicked it back up. I can't seem to break that 3rd place barrier, and I haven't had a chance to play the LA Classic qualifiers... only one more week before the final qualifier - I better get on it!

I can't fairly rate PokerChamps, as I haven't played for ca$h on any other sites - but from what I gather reading about others' bonus whoring adventures, PokerChamps are the biggest bonus chumps. They release the bonus amount in 10% increments once a week. Since I went for the full $100 - I have to be in a ton of raked hands just to barely reach the $10 release threshold, and I've got $80 left to clear... only 2 more months of this! And while they have a rake-rebate structure, it's not much to write home about, at least playing at just the quarter limits.

On the plus side, their support has been outstanding. I was in a hand and had already put in about $1.50 into a pot that was at $5 after the flop. The Turn gave me the Ace-high straight - someone bet, and I was waiting for my RAISE button to show up, but it never did. Turned out their server crashed. A minute later, it came back up, but the hand was gone and so was my money!

I emailed Support and said I expected to at least get back the money I put into the pot (someone could have caught a flush on the River!). Within an hour, they had reviewed the hand and credited my account the full $5! Woot! Should I reply and I tell them to throw in a few more bucks because of the implied odds? :)

Well, my grandma will be in town over the next couple of days. She'll want to spend the day with the kids, and then the nights in front of the slot machines, so we'll be spending time at the Muckleshoot again this weekend. I think I'll just stick to throwing dice and stay clear of the Poker room... with the way things are going right now, it'd be just as much of a crapshoot!

Disturbance in the Force

Two news stories from yesterday, plastered on the front page of the newspaper today, really hit close to home.

Idiot:
The commuter train wreck in CA. If you feel the urge to kill yourself, then do us all a favor and take care of it in the privacy of your own home. I used to be an angst-ridden teen and had contemplated suicide - I once had to keep myself from stepping on the gas and plowing into the speeding train going by in front of me. One of the more prevalent thoughts was to just jump out in front of a bus. But then I would think, How guilty would that bus-driver feel for the rest of his life? I couldn't do that to him. Obviously I'm still here and very glad that I am. But 11 more people aren't because of this dumb bastard who "changed his mind." I guess he'd seen too many movies and TV shows where the train just blows through the vehicle on the tracks and keeps on going... Hollywood should consider a little more reality and show that trains aren't necessarily glued to the tracks. Plus, derailment would make for an intense action sequence. I hope irony finds its way to Glendale and gives that guy the death sentence.

Idiocy:
Iraq. What a waste of time. What a waste of resources. What a waste of young American lives. What are we even doing over there? There are dictatorships and slavery and genocide prevalent all over the world. If people want freedom and democracy, they'll find a way to escape and make it over to America. My family did. My mother lost family members trying to escape the communist take-over in Laos and she spent time in a refugee camp after crossing the border into Thailand. But she found her way here and is making a good living for herself... that's what the USA should be about - not trying to spread our values and ideals to those who didn't ask for it. And now my cousin is shipping off to boot-camp in late February to join the Marines. I truly hope all this bullshit is over with before he gets stationed out there and gets hurt in a vehicular accident during a routine patrol.

I'm 26. My wife is a few years older than me, and she was so excited when she turned 30... she told me she never thought she'd make it that far. I didn't understand what she meant. How could I? I didn't lose a best friend until I was 22 - and a few more have gone since then. Now I know how she feels. Can I survive another 4 years and make it to my 30th birthday?

I'm sorry if I've brought the mood down a notch for anyone. Maybe I should have started a LiveJournal (or even better, a DeadJournal) for this posting. But with all of the natural disasters going on around the world, and all of the suicidal/homicidal idiots walking the streets... I hope everyone takes a moment to appreciate what they have (like the ability to play Poker with people around the world, and then write about it!); and maybe pick up the phone and call up an old friend just to say hi.

Batting 1000

Another casino-hopping weekend puts my total Poker Profit for the month at a cool grand!

Started at the Muckleshoot and the wife rolled some hot dice, giving us a free $200 to play with. Got creamed in a maniacal 4/8 game, but picked it all back up and then some when I rebought at a much friendlier 3/6 game.

Played at the Midway and took a nasty bad-beat right away - flopped trips, then runner-runner 7's give me the full house, but gives someone else the quad 7 jackpot (as well as most of my chips). Somehow I managed to recover - without rebuying this time! A few lucky flops, and some really aggressive plays got me back over the top. By the end of the night (or morning rather), I was up $400!

There were two plays that I even got complimented on during my rise to fortune, and I'll stroke my ego and boast about them in a later post. Right now I gotta hit the road and pick up dinner - a fancy one thanks to the weekend winnings!

Four Years To Go

Source: MSNBC - Bush Unplugged

RIGGED!

Now I understand what all the hub-bub is about. Played online for a few hours early in the weekend and pretty much stayed steady, but then somewhere along the way, the weekend went to shit. In the course of an hour... every suited paint flopped the opposite color; pocket pairs missed completely; had KK run into AA twice; and then my own AA beat by a rivered 72o two-pair -- who in the world would play a hand like that??? :)

PokerChamps' qualifiers were few and far between over the weekend, but I took a shot at one and finished in 3rd of 25 (it paid out $0.11!). The wife played some and didn't fare any better, and now we're down to about $50 in the account. And their 10%-at-a-time deposit dole-out means we'll have an extra $10 at the end of the week, but we'll probably end up going through $500 more just to clear the other $90.

Woe, the sordid lure of online gambling. And to think, I could have been spending all that time in a noisy smoke-filled casino instead!

Contagious Stupidity

So all good things must come to an end... my lunch-time bank run is finally over! I guess $300 isn't too bad for a little extra lunch money. It brings me up to $800 profit for the year! :)

I considered not going today - why press my luck? Save the cash a long weekend session. But being the gambling addict that I am, those sane thoughts were shook from my psyche faster than a... (insert your own witty analogy here)!

The table was really passive today, and I should have stepped up and been the aggressor... I think I played with a bunch of idiots for too many days in a row, as their stupidity seemed to have rubbed off on me. I didn't steal pots that were wide open for the taking; I paid 3 bets to chase a gut-shot straight; and my worst (and final) play... A6s on the button. Flop comes 789, none of my suit. I call a bet, hoping for a 5. Turn comes a 5! Yes, I have a straight, the ass-end of it (as 12-yr old Miami from TILT would say), it gets bet and raised before me... and then I STILL call. Yes, someone is holding JT for the nuts, and I can only shake my head in disbelief of myself. WTF?

I think I got put on tilt just a few hands earlier when I had AKs and flopped 4 to the flush and the straight - I bet out on every street and got called all the way. The guy was holding 99 and still called on the River with two Ts and a Q on the board. I guess that's why it's not such a great idea to play so short-term... I've got this guy pegged as someone who can't let go of a pocket-pair, and I can't stick around long enough to take advantage of it next time I do have him beat. Luckily I left just after my run of stupid plays so no one could try to use it against me!

I really can't point the finger at anyone else, or even curse at the horrible cards I got all hour. I played poorly and it cost me, bottom line. If nothing else over the past few months (and even more so in the past few weeks); I'm beginning to see when I make bad plays and can admit that to myself, rather than blaming everything around me. Live, learn, and move on to the next game!

On the PokerChamps front, not much to report. Tried out two entry satellites on Saturday - one with 12 and one with ~20 registrants. Finished 5th and 10th. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, nothing but pure stupidity on my part. I was in 1st at one point and sat out for awhile. Then I get JJ in LP and it's folded around to me. Should have just let it go and kept waiting, but against all better judgement, I raise it and get called by the BB. Flop is all undercards, 8-high, so I push and and BB calls. His A8 catches trips on the River. All downhill from there.

Unfortunately, the last Satellite is at 5pm PST during the week (when I'm at work reading and writing!), and the weekends are obviously more packed. I tried playing some $.25/$.50 and $.50/$1 games, and made enough to cover the previous Satellite buy-ins. It's going to be a weird transition, trying to play online. Sitting at a real poker table in a casino kind of forces you to pay attention to the game and the players. But playing at home on a laptop in bed, with the TV blaring and the kids screaming and dinner cooking... yikes!

Thanks to A.D. "CoolDog" for being my first affiliate! Drop me a comment or an email and let me know how you do! PokerChamps has a whacked out bonus and affiliate program... check out the complex diagrams they have at the bottom of their FAQs!

I don't plan on playing much, if at all this weekend, as we have outings planned with the kids. But if the wife suggests going to play (even jokingly), I for sure won't say no!

Maybe I'll get a chance to win some of my brain cells back!

One, Two, Three... JUMP!

Will tonight's premiere of TILT be the point where mainstream poker has jumped the shark??? Nah, it can't be any worse than the WPT's American Chopper vs. Trading Spaces. I'm sooooo sad I missed that.

Thursday night has always been a good night for TV. Survivor, Apprentice, CSI, ER, and now TILT. Dammit, why haven't I gotten a TiVo yet?

So here I sit in this office: pushing papers, answering emails, using barely an iota of my technical skills and getting way underpaid... and I sneak off to the casino at lunch time and double my daily net income. Ain't life grand?

Monday, Silver Dollar had too many people and I couldn't get a seat before my lunch hour was up. Tuesday, there was no one there! Wednesday, sat down for about 40 minutes and left with an extra $180! I was up the entire time too... I won the first hand I was involved in, and I never dipped back down into my original buy-in.

I just got back today with an extra $110. It didn't go as well as yesterday as I did lose about a stack and a half before it began to pile back up again. But I was smarter today, as I asked for a comp and got some lunch as soon as I got there so I wouldn't come back hungry. :)

As I was racking up to leave today, the guy next to me said, "Wow, you won every hand you played!" I smiled and told him, "That's cause I only play the winners." I think that image was helped due to the fact that I only stayed in to the Turn and mucked if I didn't have it by then. No lucky River wins (of which I would have had a few), but that meant not having to show a loser either.

The Silver Dollar has been nothing but a freakin' bank for me! I didn't try any fancy plays or try to be overly aggressive. Just played good cards, and milked every made hand I had for as much as possible. I got a beautiful BB full-house flop, and I checked-called it until after the River to draw in as many flush and straight chasers as possible.

There's just something sadistic about checking the nut flush, and having someone with an 84s for the baby flush bet into you. Or holding pocket 10s and flopping Tens full of Deuces, then letting the two holding K2o and J2o get into a raising war... when the smoke clears, they're in shock at where the chips are headed. What's that look on their faces? Oh yeah... TILT! (premieres tonight, only on ESPN!)

Well, back to work, which of course includes catching up on the latest comments on The Hammer deb(acle/ate).

Wild Cards Weekend

Seahawks? No comment. Chargers? No comment.

So much for a home-team Superbowl for me and my wife.

There was definitely some better wild card action at the casino over the weekend. We hit the Silver Dollar on Friday night and the place was packed. We were number 6 and 7 on the wait list, so they opened up another table. First hand was crap, and then I hit 3 Full Houses in a row. Two other hands I mucked within the same orbit would have been Full houses as well.

Up $100 in the first 20 minutes. I figured I had blown my karmic wad for the weekend and almost considered racking up, but dammit, I hadn't even gotten a drink yet! We hung around for about 4 hours, the wife stayed even, and I bled away my early winnings (of course!).

My last hand of the night was brutal: JJ in MP. Flop comes AJ8. EP bets out, and I just call, not wanting to scare off the others in the hand. Another A on the turn. Sweet... EP hit his trip Aces but I've got Jacks full. He bets out, someone after me mucks out of turn, so I figure it's time to raise it and go to war. It gets capped and the River is a brick. Cap it again! "Ace Jack, you win dude," he says as he turns over his A8. Shit. I was so blinded by my flopped set, and he came out betting so strong that I put him on an Ace with a weak kicker (I would have slowplayed the 2 pair). That beat pretty much cleaned me out.

If nothing else, Silver Dollar is tracking hours in January for a $3000 prize pool Freeroll in February, so on the plus side, my early rush allowed me to stay for awhile and rack up some time.

Still plenty of cash in the Poker box from the previous weekend, so we head back on Saturday night. Starts off pretty tame, and eventually I'm holding 33. "Flop it or drop it," I tell myself. And boy, did it ever flop... 3JJ. An elder guy bets out his J of course, and I take it easy, still reeling from the previous night's Full House beating. Turn is a blank and I just call. The River drops the last 3. Holy moly! My first ever Quads at a real table, and a Jackpot Quad at that! I raise the guy just for kicks - I gave him back his last $12 call after the hand, as I was getting paid $90 from the Monte Carlo jackpot anyways.

I don't know how common Monte Carlo jackpots are around the country, and I don't think I've ever heard of it online; but basically a dollar is taken out of every pot (along with the house rake) that goes into the "Player Supported Jackpot" pool. This pool is divided among Quads and Straight Flushes and Royal Flushes - every place does it a bit differently, and some places even pay out for the Wheel Flush. If you hit one of those hands, you get paid whatever that hand is currently listed at. The only requirement is that both of your hole cards have to play for the straight flushes, and obviously you have to have pocket pair for the Quads.

So Quad 3's were at $90 at the time... but wait! Silver Dollar just started a "Quad d'jour" at the beginning of the year, and 3's happened to be that day's special... worth $350! Order up!

I tipped the dealer 10% of the jackpot, and I doubled up my buy-in within the hour. Unfortunately, that second rack essentially belonged to my wife, so we left the table even, but with an extra $300 in the to-go box.

Seeing how things were running for me, of course we went back on Sunday. It wasn't quite as busy, so none of the drunk, casual players donating money at the tables. But it was definitely some of the worst play I'd ever seen. Guys were raising with any face card, cold-calling with anything suited, hanging on to their bottom pair all the way to the river.

Fortunately, I recalled how I would get sucked out if there were other maniacs at the table and I tried to keep up with them. So I adjusted and stayed tight, hardly raised and didn't try to steal even one pot, as I can usually do with the casual players. Coincidentally, Iggy posted on Sunday about these loose-aggressive games, how the variance is greater and you'll suffer the bad beats, but it's worth it as the wins you do take will be huge.

Prime example: I take a few nice pots with Top pair, and a lucky BB special that flopped a straight, so I have some extra chips to play with. I raise once with Big Slick and hit a K on the flop. But runner-runner diamond and some idiot who came along for the ride proudly shows off his T3d for the win. I raise again with KK in LP and get called around. Board is all under-cards and I bet all the way, but the river puts a 4-card straight on the board and I check it through. A different moron flips 92o for the straight and tells me I'm lucky I didn't bet cause he was prepping to check-raise me.

I take it all in stride, and pretty soon I'm holding QTc - two clubs on the flop and the Kc on the Turn. I'm kind of worried about the Ac, but I didn't recall anyone raising pre-flop so I happily call 3-bets. River puts a straight out there, and two fools raise and re-raise and I just call, as if I'm stuck in the middle. The first dim-wit (I had to use a thesaurus for more words to describe these guys) flips over some low-ball straight. The next knuckle-head throws down his 84c with a HA! I shake my head and chuckle inside as I turn over my hand. There was over $150 in the pot so I'm back up and over.

The next hour doesn't bring me any more favorable hands, so I racked up and left with another $100 surplus for the Poker box. I'm still patting myself on the back for being able to adjust to the table and not go on tilt as I've realized I've done in the past. Just need to keep it up and weekends will be much more fun than they have been in the past few months!

I know my last post was about taking the plunge onto the Inter-web thingy, but nothing major to report there, unfortunately. I'll wax poetic about it later... it's almost noon and I've got a lunch-date with a 3/6 table. :)

Taking the Plunge

So I'm finally doing it. This will be a big step forward in my Poker career. No, I'm not going pro. Geezus, I ain't that stupid. I will, however, be playing my first ever real cash game online (well, at least higher than $.02/$.04)! Kind of backwards from everyone else's progression, but hey, I've been known to be a rebel!

The praises have been sung for Party Poker (bonus code Iggy) and various other skins etc., but I'm taking my first step with the Great Dane Gus Hansen at PokerChamps. The 100% bonus up to $100 is a nice lure, but the real kicker for me is the LA Classic Satellites.

I've played on P/C now and then, doing their FreeRolls, and even won a buck once (where I piddled it away at the penny table). But the last time I checked in, I saw they were running daily $5, $10, and $20 satellites that gets you into the $200 Super Satellite - which pays out $10,000 seats into the LA Poker Classic at the Commerce. The crazy thing is that the satellites don't have more than 20 or 30 registrants! Hell, I even saw one $20 satellite that had 3 registrants, and they still gave 1st place an entry into the Super!

So I figure I can grind out $10 or $20 at a low-limit table, and use that to buy into one of the smaller sats and have a decent shot at getting into the Super. The next one is Sunday the 9th, then the 23rd, and Feb 6th is the last chance before the Classic in late February. Three shots at the big time, and the first Super only had 75 or so entrants. Not to sound too cocky, but I think my chances are pretty good.

For the few of you who read here (and I know you're out there!), you may decide not to pass this info along quite yet, at the risk of ballooning the satellite registrations. So feel free to sneak in with me, and be kind enough to use my first pimpage affiliate link for PokerChamps and let me know if you do. Thanks!

Enough with the daydreaming and snapping back to reality.... I took my Friday lunch at the Silver Dollar Casino down the way. Got a seat right away and after the button passes me, I get KK! It's pretty much a family pot so I don't want to raise right off the bat (and give away my playing style!). I do bet out every street, even though the board came JT7JT. Kinda scary but I'm up $25 right away. Later, Pocket 5s catch a set on the Turn, but it puts a flush out there as well. I raise anyways, and the board pairs on the River allowing me to beat the King high flush. "Value-betting my Full House draw" I tell the dealer. That pot helped me make up for a flopped straight that got flushed out on the river a few hands earlier.

I'm down to 20 minutes left in my lunch hour, and the table wants to go to 4/8. I don't object - I'm up $50 and ready to rack up anyways. As the blinds get close, I get A7o and limp in. It gets raised and I go ahead and donate and prepare myself to leave after seeing the missed Flop. But it comes all Hearts, and I double check to make sure I'm holding the Ace of Hearts. Yup! I'm first to bet out and some kid looks at me and says he's got the made hand. Turn is another heart, and he yells out "There it is!" but still only calls me. A 5-heart board and me with the Ace takes down the pot... the kid had 4 to the straight flush. I always forget to watch out for those... oops! :)

I rack up and tell the table, "Man, this game is too rich for my blood!" as I toke the dealer my surplus and get back to work with an extra $100 in my pocket.

I hope I get things cleared with Neteller ASAP so I can get cranking on my trip to LA. I can taste it already... I've got the hunger, and I can feel it in the pit of my stomach.

Or it just may be the fact that I forgot to go and actually get some lunch today. :)

Off to a Good Start

First day back in the office today, so I have a lot of reading to catch up on!

Spent most of the last week shuttling around the 10 visitors to Seattle (mom, dad, three brothers, an aunt, two cousins, two of their friends, and of course the partridge in the pear tree). But no complaints as there was plenty of Casino time! The kids got their first live game experience, and despite their claims of Poker greatness playing online, they got their asses handed to them at a real table. We even took up 8 seats in a $25 buy-in tournament one day, but only two of us got to the final table and neither of us made it into the money.

The joyousness of the holiday season was added to when I had an awesome night at the Silver Dollar's 3/6 table. Something just clicked that evening and I was making accurate reads on people. I mean, I'd occassionally get decent cards or a miracle flop; but I'd say almost half of my winnings that night were from pure aggression - betting out or raising when a scary Turn or River card showed up. I admit I got lucky a few times - like pre-flop raising 23o on the button and catching a runner-runner Wheel. But c'mon, I was betting out strong every chance I could and the guy shouldn't have called me all the way to the River!

Once, I raised pre-flop with JQs and flop completely missed me. Someone before me caught two-pair, so he bet out every turn and I continued to raise him. The Turn paired the board (but not to fill his boat) and the River was a Jack, giving me a higher two pair. The incoming dealer saw my take and whispered, "Nice when a plan comes together like that huh?" I smiled and said, "I had him all the way." :)

I finished +$400 that night. I guess I'll disregard my negative numbers for 2004 and get things started off on the right foot for 2005! I went back again the next night and was up $200, but then got a string of nasty beats - in the course of an hour and a half, I saw all of the major hands (AA, KK, QQ, and JJ) and they all got creamed. Flopped flush, rivered straights, a flopped set of 3s, etc., and had to leave when I broke even.

Obviously I feel pretty confident about myself, but I can't let that get to my head quite yet. I'll have to keep playing and stick to my guns about playing well and see if I can bring myself up one or two hundred and then actually leave. I know I have a bit of a problem when it comes to bringing myself to leave when I'm ahead, so I guess if nothing else that's going to have to be my New Year's Resolution, and it's one that I think I can actually commit to for more than 2 weeks. :)

And lastly, if you haven't yet, please consider giving something, anything, to aid in the tsunami relief efforts. I hope no one out there has been personally affected by the disaster... my entire family was supposed to be in Thailand for Christmas - my aunt has an itinerary showing that we were to be on the beaches of Phuket on that tragic day.

Best wishes to all for a safe and prosperous New Year!