Thought of the Week 8/15 - 8/21: Am I Compulsive?

AM I COMPULSIVE?

Good Question and one that I've been thinking about for some time now. According to Dictionary.com the definition of compulsive is:

–noun

Psychology. a person whose behavior is governed by a compulsion.

Ok, that wasn't too insightful, let's try this again by delving into the meaning of compulsion:

–noun

Psychology. a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act, esp. one that is irrational or contrary to one's will.

Good, now we're getting somewhere. Some might say that my need to make a living by playing poker would be good a representation of the psychological definition of compulsion. But honestly that's not what's on my mind today as I sit down to write this column. And maybe, just maybe, the fact that I am not considering what I do for a living, though it is highly irrational and most likely contrary to at least the good will of my life when I talk about my compulsive behaviors might sum it up.

Ahh, but I digress. If you stumbled upon my last thought of the week (albeit it was two weeks ago - so much for the title of the column) you will see that I am working on self actualization and becoming a better human being and all that kind of stuff. And believe you me, I need to be working on living a better life. And that's what got me to thinking about being compulsive. See, ever since I got here to Vegas, I have kind of let myself slip into some very bad and destructive habits. Especially with my consumption of alcohol. And my consumption became compulsive, much like it did when I lived in Orlando, FL for 9 months. I moved down there right after I finished my undergrad degree and I really fell off the deep end. Moving away from home a second time and reaching the same result made me realize that I have this self destruct gene hiding somewhere in me. And when my life lacks structure, that demon likes to slowly poke his head out and go on to consume my life. I honestly think I don't have a drinking problem, but I'm sure 99.99% of problem drinkers feel that way. I think my problem stems back to feelings of self worth and symptoms of depression. Things I really don't want to delve into here and now, I just reference them for the basis why I repeatedly have self destructed. And if that is one form of compulsion, then I figured there must be a flip side to it as well.

I go through these spurts in life where I just degen it up for a period of time and then I totally flip the script and start living life the way I really feel it should be lived. I've entered that period in my life once again. As I sit here and write this today, I have achieved my daily goals for the past 3 days of working out. Sounds silly and simple but believe me when you go from drinking almost every day to putting the stuff down, not thinking about, and having most of your waking thoughts consumed by planning your training sessions it's like I've gone through an exorcism of sorts. I make it sound more dramatic than what it actually is, but I'm a writer so deal with it. I need to use imagery every now and then God damnit. Anyway, I'm like totally addicted to working out now. I went through this stage about 2 years back when I signed on to manage a small gym in Bellmawr, NJ and went on to get into maybe the best shape of my life. Rebecca deserves that guy back in her life, so I am going to use my compulsion for good not evil and hopefully with the support and backing of my friends I'll be able to walk the line.

An added bonus is I feel so much better about myself and it will reflect in my play. When you build self confidence, it transcends the gym. I know I will begin to trust my reads more and have the follow through to make a risky play when I believe it is the right time to do so. Also, being in better shape with help with my stamina and mental focus. In essence, this should help my career. At the very least, in a couple of months I'll be able to sit by the pool and look good while doing so.

Oh, did I mention I weighed in at 195.8 lbs yesterday. I should be at 165 lbs for my height and build. Guess I got a lot of work to do. I'll keep you up to date on my progress and I am now accountable to all of you that read this. Feel free to kick me in the ass when I slack and slap me on the back when the boy done good.

Power Poker

Or, this should be more aptly titled, "Find Two Good Cards and Push Pre-Flop Against Weak Opponents." Honestly, my play was not more complicated than that. I only won 3 hands this session. Long Island Mike and I decided to meet up and play an evening session together. Originally I wanted MGM as I haven't played there since making my return to poker but he convinced me that we should play Bally's. I like playing the Harrah's rooms in general since they award 28 tier credit points plus the industry standard of $1 an hour towards food and beverage. LI is almost at diamond card status so I will be mooching off him from here on out as I will be his sidekick when he goes into the diamond club lounge. I like the idea of getting free beverages and munchies courtesy of Caesar's Entertainment or whatever Harrah's is calling itself this year.

When we get to Bally's 3 tables of $1/$2 NL are going and LI puts on his radar and finds what he thinks is the best of the 3 tables that just also so happens to have two empty seats in it. In the first hand I play after folding for about 4 orbits straight, I actually decide to get cheeky and I make a small $7 raise under the gun with KJs in diamonds. While being out of position, I really like big suited cards in NL. KJ is a hand I actually hate, but I feel like if I get the multi-way pot that I suspect I will I can turn it into a moneymaker with the right flop. I get 4 callers and the flop comes down ace high with two diamonds. I really like this flop since I am sure one of my opponents will have spiked the ace. I make a continuation bet of $15 (with the hope of disguising my hand should a diamond fall on the turn) and get called in one spot. A beautiful diamond falls on the turn and with the ace of diamonds out I am holding the nuts. First to act I bet out $30 really believing my opponent can not put me on the diamond draw. I guess between the the diamonds being out there along with a probable shitty kicker to go with his ace he decided he was beat and mucked. My really tight image I'm sure didn't help either. I decided to bet out as oppose to check the flush on the turn because I watch too many players make that play, they get checked behind, and then have to bet out on the river and then their opponent releases his hand. I like to set up the hand so that when an opponent looks back on it he can't figure out where he was supposed to get away from it. Didn't happen this time, but I'm pretty sure it's the better of the two plays since you can disguise your hand by betting the whole way. Against a timid player this also makes for a good semi-bluff on the flop because now you are betting with an additional 9 outs. If the flush card comes, you can bet a decent size (say half the pot) and get that weak player to fold.

In the second hand, I am again UTG and look down at AKs in clubs. This time I raise to $12 and a drunk lady two seats to my left who has been spewing chips all night from what I gathered (she recently sat back down after being away from the table for half an hour presumably in her hotel room or at an ATM getting more cash) re-raised me to about $50 to go which set her all in. This folds out all the other players and I make the call. She tables KQo and I have the best of it going to the flop. Neither of us improve our hands and I take down a decent pot. I'm feeling pretty good about the line up we have at the table and about an hour later I pick up wired kings again in early position. I raise to $12 and it gets folded around to a late position player who makes it $40 to go. This player has been really loose with his chips and not willing to release a hand. I have him slightly covered if I were to call the $40 and decide to move all in for an additional $240 on top of his raise. He tanks for about a minute and calls. I immediately table my kings knowing they are good right now as he would have called immediately with rockets. The flop comes down gin for me with a beautiful king of hearts on the flop to go with a jack and a rag to make a rainbow. The turn is an ace and I am pretty sure he is holding AK or pocket queens at this point. I have him drawing dead to a ten with queens and with AK dead to one of the two aces left in the deck. The river brings a heart dropping ace and when he lets out a cheer and pumps his fist I truly believe I just got runner-runnered to a bigger boat. However, he still hasn't turned his hole cards over yet and the dealer pushed my hand forward to show kings full of aces. At this point, my opponent's face was priceless as it went expressionless. He never showed his hand as he mucked and the monster pot was sent my way. I can only guess that he had that big chick after all for a moment believed that his trip aces were good forgetting that they made me a boat. For once can I have a hand where I don't have to sweat the two outers getting there on me. Anyway, for the rest of the session I got back to folding which I am getting really good at and only playing some suited aces and pocket pairs which never improved after the flop.

This was my first night session and we didn't get started till 10:40 pm. It took me almost an hour to get to Bally's as all of Vegas seems to be under construction at the same time. Great planning by the city fathers or the Clark County jackasses. How about only doing a couple of projects at a time so that those of us in the know can still navigate around the city without sitting in traffic for hours and putting ourselves on tilt before the first brutal beat even registers at the table. I'm going to push Mike for MGM. It's a great room and I can get there without really experiencing any major traffic or construction problems.


8/17
Hours Played This Session: 2.83
Take: $284
$ Per Hour: $100.35

Earn:
Month to Date: $437
Year to Date: $288
Hourly Rate Year to Date: $4.20
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 68.58
Sessions Played Year to Date: 14
Win/Loss Record by Session: 7/7 50.00% win rate

A Table Change That Made All The Difference

So my plan was to cash in some Wynn chips I had lying around and then head down to MGM Grand to play $1/$2 NL. After cashing the chips, I decided to cruise The Strip down. I really love riding along The Strip and being surrounded by all the sights and sounds. However, with all the construction going on it turned out to be a bad idea. My buddy Long Island Mike plays a session around noon at Harrah's. At this point, it was a little after 2 pm so I decided to make a detour and stop at Harrah's to see if he wanted to get some lunch. When I got there I found him in his usual $1/$2 NL game and sat down behind him to shoot the shit and see how he had been. It had been about a week since we played together so I figured he would have some decent stories to tell me. He still needed to play about 90 minutes to qualify for his daily bonus and since I was in no rush I just sweated him and we caught up. His game broke right around the time he made his hours so after cashing out we decided to slide across the street to The Mirage to eat at BLT Burger. Each of us enjoyed the Black Angus half pounders we got, but I still say the best angus burgers in town belong to Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. I've had burgers now at Strip Burger at The Fashion Show Mall, Le Burger Brasserie at Paris, and of course the aforementioned BLT Burger at The Mirage. There's just something about Burger Bar's burgers that are just aces in my book.

With our stomachs full we set out for poker glory by checking out The Mirage Poker Room. I've only played here once way back when I was out to Vegas on a vacation but I have always loved the room. Something about the history behind it, knowing I am sitting in the same room that the classic players used to frequent daily to relieve millionaires and home town heros alike of their bankrolls. There were four tables going, each with 8 - 9 players at each table. Long Island Mike is a table selection swami and after surveying the scene he settled on the table he wanted to play at. Instead, though, the floor woman sat us one table over since there were to seats available and we wanted to play together. Right off the bat Mikey loses about half his stack. After about 30 minutes of play, he makes the choice to get a seat change to the table he originally liked. I hang on at our original table but soon after he leaves I find myself reaching in my pocket to reload. I just couldn't hit a flop with pretty good hands, like AKs and AQs. I got my fair share of small pocket pairs but failed to flop any sets. I thought it was going to be one of those sessions. Finally, I was able to get a table change to Mike's table. However, the floorman did me no favors. Another table had broken about 10 minutes after I had went to the desk to ask for the table change. The floor, instead of honoring my request first, starts seating players from the broken game in the three other games that were going. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I should get first dibs on a seat in the game I requested and then the players from the broken game should fill in the remaining seats at the tables. I made a comment to Mike when I sat down that the floor man didn't give me the time of day because I didn't tip him. The dealer took offense to this but I still stand firm in my belief. The bigger rooms just don't tend to care as much about taking care of the players, with the exception of The Wynn and possibly The Venetian, but I haven't played there enough to know, just what I've heard. Places like Bellagio for instance could give a fuck about low limit players. Hell, they don't even take your player's card there and on top of it, if you do play long enough and request a $15 paper food comp, you are expected to tip $5 for it. WTF? So I am netting $10. Ok, that's not necessarily bad if I've only played 5 hours (I'd be getting $2/hr which is above industry standard,) but it rubs me the wrong way that I need to pay off the floor to get one.

But I digress. I reload once again upon sitting down at the new table I am into the game for about $360 (a little over $200 in front of me and stuck $160.) I pick up AK on the button but an Asian player who has just reloaded for $200 has made it $15 to go from middle position. I take some time and consider what I should do. I could three bet but the way I've been running I decide to cold call the $15. A loose/aggressive African American player in the blind calls and an early position limper closes the action with his call. The flop comes down ace high. The blind and early limper check to the raiser and he fires $25. I re-pop it to $75, making it 3x the Asian guy's bet. I figure this should get the limpers out and I'll get to play him heads up in position with what is most likely the best hand. I am praying I have him dominated with something like AQ or AJ. To my surprise he shoves over me. I insta-call because I am not going to out think myself. If he flopped a set of aces, well then it was just unlucky that the case ace fell. As I always do, I instantly turn my hand over and wait for his reaction. He meekly turns over wired queens and his two outer never gets there. Sweet! I stack him and with the other $30 in the pot I am now ahead for the session. Maybe this is a sign of things to come.

The very next hand I pick up AQs in hearts in the cut off. This time an older gentleman raises preflop from middle position and I flat call along with a couple others. The flop comes down queen high. Gin! Top pair, top kicker. It gets checked around to me. I get the size of the pot which is $40 and only get called by older gentleman. This makes me wonder as he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to call a large bet with only a draw. To go with the queen there was a jack on board. The turn brought a blank and he checked again to me. Tommy Angelo's words were ringing in my ear when he says if someone plays passively against you assume they are weak until you get further notice. I made a 2/3 pot size bet on the turn and got check raised shoved. I think that is what he meant by further notice. I muck my hand face up (something I really gotta stop doing) and this induces the old man to reveal his hole cards to me (that is one upside I've found to mucking your hand face up, those that are so proud of their hole cards will show you what they held.) I was looking at aces which I felt was the case, or he flopped a set of jacks or queens. In any event I knew I was beat and I think it was a pretty good fold, since the pot was only laying me about 3 - 1 to make that call. I could be drawing dead or at the very best to 2 outs which is a 22 -1 shot (if he specifically kings I would have had 5 outs with 2 queens and 3 aces left in the deck for a 8.20 - 1 situation which is still the worst of it.)

So I gave away about $90 in that hand, but I felt like I was playing really well and this line up was definitely much better than the one at the previos table. It always a good sign when limpers are willing to call fairly large preflop raises with hands that do not work well for stacking opponents post flop. There were way too many hands to go over or even accuarately remember so I will conclude with two hands that I believe are the best played hands of my fledling career thus far. To give you some background information, I am seated in seat 10 to the right of the dealer and to my left in seat 1 was the loose/aggressive African American player. This guy was one hell of a player. He played like how I imagined Doyle Bruson played when he was a Texas rounder in the 60s and 70s. He had a mountain of chips in front of him, anywhere $600 to $800 at any given time. He was the type of player that gave action to get action. He was paying for the big pots he played by picking up lots of small and medium sized ones all the time. He probably played about 70% of his hands and raised approximately 80% of the hands he played. I immediately had a ton of respect for the guy because I've always wished I could play that style. However, you have to be true to yourself and since I am relatively tight I used that image to beat him out of the follow two pots. Both times I had position on him which I think is the lesson to be learned from this. Tommy Angelo, an author I mention often because he has such great insight into the game, has stated that his bread and butter in poker comes from the last three seats: the button, the cut off, and the hijack seats.

The action happened so fast in the first hand that I do not remember all the particulars. Suffice it to say it was raised preflop and I am on the button with AhKd. The flop comes down all middle cards with two hearts. This is the type of flop that could have possibly hit him, especially with suited connectors or a small to middle pocket pair. He leads out for $45. After some deliberation a thought came to mind. Being that I held the trump ace for the heart draw, I decided to call his bet and if any heart, king, or ace fell on the turn I was going to push no matter what. I figured this gave me 13 cards to push with on the turn. A heart fell and to my surprise he checked to me. I pushed my stack in and after tanking for a few minutes he released his hand. Beautiful. Now I know this guy respects my game and I can get him to lay down some hands.

On the second hand, I raise on the button with wired 7s to $18 (I meant to make it $13 but somehow an extra nickel got in there.) Seat #1 calls my raise and we take the flop heads up. He checks to me and I bet out $35 a flop that comes king high. I was trying to represent the king, but unfortunately he came along. I was really hoping to spike one of my 7s so that I could suck out on him if he actually held a king. The turn brought an ace and I immediately fired out $60. Hell, I figured if he didn't believe I had a king, maybe he'll believe I had an ace. I did raise preflop and the hands I have shown to this point have all been premiums. He lays down the hand and I honestly believe I won two fairly large pots without the best hand. Hopefully I am starting to get the hang of this no limit stuff. Only time will tell, but I do feel like I am improving and that's my focus along with grinding out enough cash to pay the bills.


8/9
Hours Played This Session: 4.17
Take: $153
$ Per Hour: $36.70

Earn:
Month to Date: $153
Year to Date: $4
Hourly Rate Year to Date: $0.06
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 65.75
Sessions Played Year to Date: 13
Win/Loss Record by Session: 6/7 46.15% win rate

The DMV and Taking Chinners

In my attempt to get myself right I've been working on getting everything away from the felt straightened out so that I can focus while I'm playing. That meant getting my smog check done yesterday and then sitting at the DMV for 3 hours. We all have DMV stories and they all suck. However, I still can't help but share mine. At the Nevada DMV in Henderson, I'm sure like DMV's all around the country, you must first go to the "Information Desk" to tell them why you have graced them with your presence and to insure you have all necessary documentation prior to taking up the time of one of the clerks. So after my 15 minutes in line waiting I finally get to see an information specialist. I always try to be kind to anyone working a shitty job because from what I can tell people take out their frustrations on these people regularly. With that in mind I get to the desk and proceed to explain that I am here to register my car (which I just had shipped here from Jersey, wink wink) and that I need to change the address on my license. I show him that I've done my homework and that I've compiled all required documentation to make this a smooth and hopefully effortless experience. He is a nice guy and seems pleased I'm not a jackass who hasn't come unprepared. He does however inquire if I've had my VIN inspection completed yet. Well, no I have not but I was told that the inspection happens here. He replies that indeed it does but I will have to go back out to my car and take it around the corner to the place where the inspection happens. He does kindly provide me with my ticket which is G463. They are only on G325 at this point so I figure I have time to kill. The bitch of the matter is I got lucky when I got there and found a parking spot which is no simple task. The DMV has about 200 spots and about 400 people are in the building at any given time. I get the test done rather quickly and proceed to drive around for a half hour until another spot opens up. I get back in the building and they are on G375. Hey great, I've made pretty much no progress.

Fast forward an hour and I am about 25 spots away from getting this taken care of when I finally believe there truly is a God...and he hates me. The fire alarm goes off. I am sitting in a chair about 5 feet from the exit and I proceed not to move until told to do so. Hell, I'm a gambling man and I place the odds at about 100 - 1 that this is a real fire. After a couple of minutes one of the clerks yells at us, "The fire alarm is going off. What is wrong with you people! You have to get out of the building!" What's wrong with us? We've been waiting here for 2 hours while you see 4 people an hour at your station. I don't see any smoke or flames my ass wasn't going anywhere until yours did. We proceed to make it outside and across the street where I bake in the 109 degree sun for 15 minutes until they determine it was a false alarm. We get back inside and I finally get my shit squared away and pay the state $155. The whole DMV system is enough to put the most even keel person on tilt. I commented to wifey via text that I am surprised you don't hear about people going postal at DMV's and shooting the places up. It sucks all the way down the line. You have to wait forever, you have to pay way too much, and then you take it out on the people that work there. Or, if you work there, you deal with the same shit day and day out for however many years until you retire. It's enough to drive anyone insane. Anyway, I'm legit now so no fear of getting pulled over with my unregistered vehicle with Jersey tags on it anymore.

Wifey has been getting toothaches and went to the dentist today. He told her she needed to get a root canal. This is her second one. WTF? He is going to fit her in today and the out of pocket expense is $500. Again, WTF? He works at a hospital for Christ sake, she should have the best insurance around. I hope she isn't in too much pain afterwards because we have a comped room at Bally's tonight. Hopefully a little proseco and time away from the cat will work wonders for her. Actually, I just hope she can eat tonight because I want Maggiano's lobster ravioli. Chinner after chinner around here. No poker this week, Chuck and family get into town on Tuesday so I have to make sure everything here is in order. Can't let the real world think we actually live like this.

Have a great weekend everyone and I'll get back to my exploits soon. Talk to you then

Thought Of The Week 8/1 - 8/7: Living Right

LIVING RIGHT

When you do something for a living like play poker, it opens up many avenues for you in your spare time since you are your own boss. Like yesterday, instead of playing on Sunday during the football offseason (something I should be doing since I won't be playing Sundays once the NFL kicks off) I decided to head down to the M Resort, sit at their draft beer bar, and drink while watching the Phils and playing video poker. Fortunately I won a little cash while drinking for free and unfortunately the Phils lost. However, I know to video poker to be a leak. It's something I should only partake in after I have consistently proved I can win money week in week out playing hold'em. I knew this was not "living right" and it's something I am going to be working on from this point forward. Rebecca deserves better from me. Getting tuned up once in a while is ok, doing it on a frequent basis like I have been for quite a while is not. In the following I am going to detail the things I feel like I should be doing off the felt so that when I do sit down and go to war everything else in my life has been taken care of. I keep telling myself I am capable of living the life of my dreams, meaning achieving success at poker while getting in great shape and maintaining an awesome relationship. I have 3 Cantonese symbols on my right lat which are supposed to represent my mantra on life. They state desire, devotion, and discipline. Desire represents that thirst you can't quench. It used to be for me becoming the best possible soccer player I could be. I had this mindset that if I wasn't training, someone else was, and when we met on the field he would get the better of me. So I trained constantly. In the offseason in high school, I would come home, change, and head directly outside to train with the ball until my mother would call me in for dinner. Nowadays, poker has taken over, though lately I have not been training the way I did when I was working on my soccer skills. Every morning that I wake up I need to be reading chapters in books or articles and forums on the internet to help me to improve my game each day. If I do that, I know I will be able to consistently beat the tourists for a real profit and I will be able to beat the locals a majority of the time as well. This leads me into devotion. Devotion to me means each action I take has to point me in the direction of success. So I need to keep reading and taking notes. I need to discuss hands with my friends from back home and the compatriots I am meeting out here who are also trying to do this for a living. Devotion is the burning desire in action. Finally, discipline means keeping on that path and not going astray. Discipline is what I have been lacking for quite some time now. It also means playing enough hours to make a living, playing at the right times (read: a night,) and playing in good games and getting out of bad ones so that I maximize the time I have available to me.

Off the felt there are many things I want to accomplish to better my quality of life.

• First, I need to quit boozing. Period. It's ruining my health. Once I put the bottle down, I need to pick the weights up and start hitting the gym on a regularly scheduled basis. As my health improves, I know my stamina will increase giving me an edge in late night sessions when others' concentration will start to slack. Hand in hand with this is eating right. Right now I eat like shit. This needs to change. I will start eating lean meats and fresh veggies.
  
  
• I need to go to church every Sunday morning. Whether or not I believe in God has yet to be determined. However, I do enjoy the lessons and teachings of the Bible. I do not necessarily agree with the Catholic Church's societal views. However, I can mentally separate the two. Besides, going to church makes me feel good and I know somewhere my grandfather is watching me and it will make him proud as well.
  
  
• I need to complete my final project for my master's degree. This is something I am going to strive to do this week. No more putting it off. No more when I speak to my folks will I have to skirt the issue. Completing this program and graduating with honors will make my parents so proud. Even if I am discouraged with working in sports after my experience with the Camden Riversharks minor league baseball team, completing this degree to the best of my ability and graduating with honors is something no one can take from me. I want that piece of paper on my wall.

I think this is a good start to getting back on the right track. I will focus on these 3 things off the felt and I know by doing so everything in my life will get better. I'm going to keep in mind what I used to tell my patrons at the gym when they were working on losing weight or gaining muscle. Focus on progress, not perfection. I plan on making some progress this week. I'll keep you posted.

I Play So Bad

Hung over and only out of bed for 30 minutes, I started my session after getting a wake up call from wifey telling me it was 11 am and I needed to get out of bed and check out of the room. I don't even remember her leaving the hotel room earlier that morning. After using express check out I dropped my bag off at my car and went down to the poker room. For the most part everything was going smoothly and I was up about $60 or so without too much confrontation. I made one misstep and it cost me my profit for the day. I was only planning on playing the minimum of 3 hours to get my $30 bonus along with whatever winnings I could scrape together. I limped in with wired 5s from early position on the button raised it to $12. I called hoping to flop a set. The flop came down 2-9-2 with two clubs. I bet out $15 and got raised to $30. I should have guessed him for an over pair but of course I read him for something like AKs in clubs. That is a real specific read and obviously I was wrong. I moved all in thinking he was really weak and would get away from the hand. He only had $63 left in front of him and I most likely would have moved in on the turn if a club did not fall. He showed two queens and my fives did not improve and I lost the pot. I later picked up pocket aces and after making that play thought I would get action with them. I raised pre-flop and got called in one spot. I made a pot sized bet on the flop and was hoping the continued aggression would look week, like I was tilting. Instead my opponent folded. Too bad, I was hoping he would try and pick me off and I would have gotten my profit back.

The reason I say I play so bad is I should have known the opponent in the first hand mentioned probably had an over pair to be playing back at me. I just hate min raises. They seem so week to me. It's like Doyle Brunson says when he speaks about "post oak bluffs", they're gutless bets. I moved in on him because I thought he was weak. Instead, I should have looked the size of his stack. With only $63 behind and about that much already in the pot, he is going to come along and I can only beat a semi-bluff at that point. I should have gotten away from that hand. In the back of my mind I always here a voice telling me it is a weak play if you get away for a min raise when you might have the best hand. That voice also tells me others are going to play with you if fold in these spots. I should have folded anyway and if a situation came up where I was really strong and I made a pot sized bet and got min raised again, I could then come over the top. I just played the situation really poorly and of course Rebecca done her luncheon at work and was back at the casino sitting behind me. When she saw how I played the hand she just shook her head. Guess that gives her a lot of confidence about what I'm doing for a living at the moment. Oh well, it wasn't a catastrophic loss, just a really dumb one.


7/31
Hours Played This Session: 3.5
Gave: $24
$ Per Hour: -$6.86

Earn:
Month to Date: -$26
Year to Date: -$149
Hourly Rate Year to Date: -$2.42
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 61.58
Sessions Played Year to Date: 13
Win/Loss Record by Session: 5/7 41.67% win rate

Finally Some Action

I am writing this entry two days after completing it and much of the session has fallen from my memory. All I can remember is that this session had the most action of any during the week. Maybe that speaks to Thursdays as a day when tourists are just getting into town for a long weekend of play. Not really sure, but I will keep an eye on this to see if this becomes a trend.

There was a professional player sitting at my table who was very loose/aggressive. I'm not sure why he was sitting $1/$2 when it was obvious he played $2/$5 or higher. In any event, I got tangled with him early on after he just sat down before I realized his style of play. To make a long story short, I had top pair in aces holding AQ. The board came down 9-T-A, the turn was a blank, and the river was a ten and for some reason my gut told me he had a ten in the whole. He bet out $60 on the river and I mucked flashing my ace. He showed 9-2s. If we had played one more orbit together I would have been able to make that call on the river. I now recognize him and will be able to play better against him in the future.

In another hand I held pocket tens against his buddy who also seemed like a pro since the two were talking about a hand that came up between the loose/aggro guy and a mutual friend of theirs. I checked the 8 high flop and my opponent bet out $15. I check raised to $45 and after thinking for a minute he called. The turn brought a 9 and after studying the board I moved in. He really tanked this time and I started thinking I am looking at a wired pair bigger than mine. I had verbally announced my bet and after a couple minutes the dealer asked me to move my checks into the center of the table. As I did this, my hands started to shake a bit. I am starting to believe I have a nervous condition, though it may be a minor one. Hopefully my opponent read this as being really strong as this is the tell many players have when holding a monster. In any event, my opponent laid down his hand. As for the shaking, I will keep an eye on it but without any health insurance even if I do have a mild condition I am not sure there is anything I can do about it. I am hoping getting back into shape and drinking far less than I do no will have a positive impact on it. I will be starting back my "Thought of the Week" commentary this weekend and will be discussing the importance of doing the right things away from the table so that you feel your best when you play and what changes I'll be making to my life to start "living right."


7/30
Hours Played This Session: 4.0
Take: $99
$ Per Hour: $24.75

Earn:
Month to Date: -$2
Year to Date: -$125
Hourly Rate Year to Date: -$2.15
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 58.08
Sessions Played Year to Date: 12
Win/Loss Record by Session: 5/6 45.45% win rate

Just Like A Young Man Coming In For A Quickie

But I do feel proud and good. Mike Caro talks about manufacturing wins, where when things are going well you cut your session short because you want to preserve a win and then when things are running bad you play long hours under the worst conditions in order to get even or a little ahead so you can quit a winner. This was not the case today. I just needed a win. Period. Anything to post since I've been running so bad lately. It's a psychological thing more so than anything else. The table I was playing at wasn't any good and I felt great leaving there a winner considering the rake is $5 max plus $1 jackpot drop on top plus the table was 80% locals grinding out there $30 bonuses. There was one donator at the table making some terrible calls, but I wasn't able to get in any hands with him and wasn't about to stick around to do so. Here are the notable hands from this short session.

The action gets limped around to me in the big blind and I look down at KQ suited in hearts. I also check and we take the flop something like 5 handed. The board comes down king high with a ten and a small card. I bet the size of the pot and get one caller. From what I've seen of this guy he has only shown premium starting hands but he did not raise pre-flop so I'm thinking maybe something like suited connectors. The turn was a blank and I bet out $25. He was again called without much hesitation. Hmmm, maybe KT suited and flopped top two? The river was also a blank and I fired out $40. With top pair and second best kicker I think checking may be too weak a play here. I'm thinking he may have a marginal hand and will probably just throw it away rather than waste $40. Instead he flat calls and I'm pretty sure I'm good. Now I put him on KJ. Instead he surprises me with AK and takes the pot with top pair, top kicker. I would have thought he would have popped me on the turn or maybe play back at me on the flop to find out where I am at and also to protect his fragile holding. By just calling he got the maximum from me. Maybe he thought he was losing the minimum if I was the one who flopped two pair or a set.

The next hand came up with I raised in late position with AQo. I got one caller, the player to my immediate right who had originally limped in. The flop came down K-A-K with two diamonds. I bet out and he called. The turn brought a third diamond. I am usually not too concerned against a single opponent when this happens until I get some bad news from them. He checked the turn, I bet the size of the pot, and he called. The river brought a fourth diamond, and with me holding the queen of diamonds, I now hold the nuts provided he does not have a boat. It would have been hard for him to have a boat being that he would have had to hold AK or or KK to have a full house or better on the flop. If he was drawing at the flush, which was not a smart idea being that I raised pre-flop and could reasonably hold AK for a flopped boat, he would have himself drawing dead even if he hit one of his outs on the turn. Still, I would expect him to have check raised me and moved in for his last $40 on the turn in the event I had a bigger diamond in my hand. He would want to charge me what he could for my redraw. Alas, he did not and when he checked the river to me I eyed his stack and bet enough to tap him. He made a crying call and I said to him if you have a boat you got me, otherwise I have the nuts. I showed him my holding with the queen of hearts and he got pissed and violently threw his hand into the muck. Hey, you played it poorly and got what you deserved. It's happened to me a million times but I'm beginning to learn from my mistakes.

At this point I get the sense this player is starting to tilt which is great since all the locals play too tight. This guy is playing this morning for his $30 a day plus his $599 monthly bonus for the 125 hours he has logged in the room. He does not like the idea of burning through a couple buy ins (someone else stacked him after me.) He got serious and bought in for a couple hundred. He proceeded to play looser and give about a hundred away when this hand came up. Under the gun he raises it to $6. I look down at wired 8s and call. The middle position player who I had lost to with my KQs also comes along and we take the flop three handed. Gin! My 8 falls on the flop along with a king and a small card. I know have middle set and I'm now praying one or both of the two are holding AK and I can win me a nice pot. UTG bets out $10 on the flop, I min raise to $20 which is a weak raise and I am hoping that one of the two come over the top. The player with position thinks for a minute and folds and UTG min raises me back. This is a really odd play, like we're playing $10/$20 limit. After a moment of thought, my spidey senses tell me he is weak, at least compared to my holding, and I move in on him. I am 99% sure he is holding AK. He would have re-raised all in with aces or at the very least made a healthy bet to protect his hand after I min raised him. He instantly calls and I turn over my 8s. With the speed he called with I first thought my read was wrong and he actually had the three wise men. But when he didn't show I was reassured my read was correct. The turn was a blank and the river surely poured salt in his wounds when an ace fell. I picked up his stack of about $100 and he decided to rebuy once again. I guess he really needed his hours. Too bad I made some weak calls later on and gave some of my hard won checks to other players, but I refuse to play too tight a game even with the locals. I need to get paid off on my good hands so by giving some action here and there I believe pays dividends down the road. They will remember the time I called down with a weak queen or king and decide to bet into me. Little do they remember that I was most likely in the blind and playing out of position. When I finally do have position on them and I am calling with a monster hand, they won't know anything about it until the pot is too big, the big bets go in, and its too late. At least that's the game plan against the local rocks. Either that or suck out on them, get them to go on tilt, and hopefully have them seek you out personally where you can punish them when you have the goods. Time will tell, but so far I am holding my own, which may not be saying much, but for a life long limit player it is giving me confidence to keep playing no limit. We'll see what happens today.

7/29
Hours Played This Session: 3.5
Take: $107
$ Per Hour: $30.57

Earn:
Month to Date: -$101
Year to Date: -$224
Hourly Rate Year to Date: -$4.14
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 54.08
Sessions Played Year to Date:10
Win/Loss Record by Session: 4/6 40.00% win rate

Quads, Coolers, Sets, and Suck Outs

On day two of my quest to find the softest $1/$2 no limit tables on The Strip I stumbled into Harrah's after parking at Flamingo and walking through there and The Imperial Palace looking for action. I couldn't even find The Flamingo's room (which is never a good thing) and The IP only had $2/$4 limit going at around 11:15 am. When I got to Harrah's, there were two no limit tables going along with a morning no limit tourney. This looked great to me as players that busted from the tourney might sit in the cash game, hopefully on tilt, and ready to spew chips. This did not turn out to be the case but there were a couple of weaker tourists mixed in with the locals. It turns out that Harrah's has a bunch of promotions running to reward regular players and tourists alike. The first is what is deemed "the breakfast club." Play for three hours starting your session before noon and come back the next day (or take at least an hour off and then come back) and receive $30 in cash your next session (Sunday through Thursday.) Also, if a player accumulates 125 hours in a month in the room, that player will receive $599 in cash. Doing the math, that comes out to $30 x 5 x 4 = $600 + $599 = $1,199 per month guaranteed income for making Harrah's your official place of business. As a result, it attracts the local retirees who put their hours in to get their monthly stipend along with the hopes of either winning some money or hitting one of the high hands or bad beat.

In the first orbit I picked up 7s in the big blind and the flop came down with a pair of 7s. Holy Shit I flopped the stone cold nuts!! That never happens. I check and call the flop which gets us down to heads up, we both check the turn, and I bet $12 on the river which got called. I showed the quads expecting only to pick up the pot. The room does a really poor job of letting you know all the promotions that are going on. But when I saw the dealer call for the floor for confirmation of a high hand, I was like a school boy on a Christmas morning grinnin with anticipation of what Santa had brought me. In this case, Santa was the floor man and he brought me two greenie and five reds for my $75 bonus. I'll take it.

I thought this was the proverbial corner I was turning, especially when I picked up wired aces on a jack high board against a player I had bullied out of several pots in the first hour of play. I bet $12 and he check-raised me to $30. I insta-shoved hoping to look like a kid who has watched too much WPT final table action. He immediately called and when I turned over the rockets he did not flip his cards and I knew I was good. However, when the turn paired the board with the jack I knew he had sucked out and he then turned over his J9o. I had this guy right where I wanted him. I had set it up perfectly only to have fate take that pot away from me. If you've been following my trials and tribulations it seems like a reoccuring theme for me. In my heart of hearts I know that I have not played nearly enough hours of any form of poker since deciding to do this full time to see variance even out and get a true sense of what my win rate should be (from past experience, I know I am a winning player at low limit hold'em but no limit has yet to be determined.) Even so, all the red entries in my book make it disheartening to look at. I hate it when I get in the mind set that when all the chips go in and I am way ahead, I am still expecting to get sucked out on. I really need to have a good run so that I can see if works both ways.

The odds held in my favor when I flopped a set of 6s against a calling station. I limped in early position, got a bunch of callers, the button raised it to $12 and only I called. The board came down mono-chrome in clubs but my 6 was amongst them. Knowing full when that the odds of flopping a flush when holding two of that suit is 117.8 - 1 I bet out the size of the pot and got called. I wanted to charge the maximum should my opponent be holding the trump ace. The turn brought a great card for me in the Ace of Spades. Now if my opponent was holding a hand like AK with ace of clubs he would surely call any sized bet on the turn. I moved in for $110 and he insta-called me. I thought for a second maybe he had wired aces with the trump ace to boot. Instead he turned over his AJo with the nut flush draw. The river was kind to me for once I and double through him, getting me back to about even for the session.

I picked up wired aces again against a calling station who had been feeding the table. He was into his 3rd buy in of $200 at that point and he had a nice stack in front of him. I thought to myself this is it when He called my $12 bet from late position while he was in the big blind. We took the flop heads up and it was a great flop for me. All over the place, no flush draws, no straight draws, just pure chaos. I bet the size of the pot and he called. Sweet! At this point I am planning to make a pot sized bet on the turn and push on the river. The turn pairs the board and I bet out $30 (about 2/3 of the pot) and sir-calls-alot check-raises me for his entire stack of about $100. A red flag goes up in my mind when losing calling stations bet into me or in this case play back at me with a check-raise. Instantly A-7 flashed in my mind. I felt strongly about this for a couple of reasons: First, he was the type of player to call a raise with any ace. Second, he was the type of player to call down to the river with any medium sized pair. Third, he was the type of player that would only bet out with a strong hand. Fourth, when I asked for time from the dealer he sat back in his chair. I watched his breathing which appeared to be pretty normal. Many players will hold their breath in an attempt to appear calm when making a big bluff. He also looked away like he was uninterested in my decision. Now this could be viewed as a sign of weakness since if a player is not very interested in your decision if usually means he is very interested in what you are going to do. However, with everything mulling around inside my melon, I was about 99% certain I was holding the loser and I mucked it face up. I did this for a very important reason. I wanted the players to know that I was capable of making a big lay down, but in the back of my mind I also wanted them to remember this so that they might try a similar move in a later session and I will pick them off. I only did this because of my read on this particular player in this particular hand. The board was very mean to me today with it's pairing when I didn't want it to. That thought crept into the back of my mind that someone somewhere must really want me to go broke.

That thought was reinforced when it was limped around to me on the button I raised to $15 with wired ladies. I raised to $15 because there was already $10 in the pot and I didn't want to lay too low a price for someone to come in with a suited ace or king and out flop me. I only got called by a weak/tight player to my immediate left. Early a similar situation had come up where I raised a bunch of limpers from late position, only he called, and I made a $25 bet on the flop and got him to fold while I only held ace high. This time I had the goods as the flop came down ten high. He checked to me and I made a similar sized bet. I was hoping the guy would get fed up with me and either flat me or check raise. He had a small stack of about $65 in front of him and when he moved in I was hoping he had a hand like the aforementioned suited AT and I would have to fade a five outer twice to stack him. Instead he showed me a flopped set of 8s when I called the additional $35 and I could not find one of the two remaining queens to put my own bad beat on someone for once.

my alternate title for this entry was:
Bonus Grinding - Sounds Like A Job To Me

The reason I play poker is because I didn't want a 9 - 5. However, with my recent results I think it is in my best interest to play this room for a while, take the guaranteed money, hopefully grind out some additional wages, and maybe pick up a couple high hands or even the bad beat. I sound like the local retirees I described in the opening. What has my life become?

I'd like to give a quick shout to Tyler, the computer guru from North Cackalacky. Eat and drink well my friend as long as the boss is using the company credit card. I also think I have found a compratriot in a guy named Mike who recently moved out from Long Island and is grinding away a living playing no limit. I look forward to talking about hands with him in the future as well as getting together to hang out. I don't have many friends out here so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come on this front.

A note on the figures below: My total buy in out my pocket was $240 for the session. If I don't count the $75 bonus for the quads then I left the table with $130 ($205 - $75 = $130. $240 - $130 = $110) This leaves me down $110 on the session. If you add the bonus back in it comes to a loss of $35. I need some input here because I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I feel like that is extra money that did not come from the players at the table and should not be factored into my hourly rate. On the other hand, I am paying for that jackpot with each hand I win with the $1 jackpot drop. Therefore, all the players are paying for it and it's what attracts players to the room, which in turn attracts me to the room. So for now I figured it into my hourly figures since it is not house funded. I think that will be my cut off. If I win a house funded jackpot then I will not count it into my hourly rate since the players are not providing the funding for it. Any feedback from those of you that peruse my rantings would be much appreciated.

7/28
Hours Played This Session: 7.00
Gave: $35
$ Per Hour: -$5.00

Earn:
Month to Date: -$208
Year to Date: -$331
Hourly Rate Year to Date: -$6.54
Total Hours Played Year to Date: 50.58
Sessions Played Year to Date:9
Win/Loss Record by Session: 3/6 33.33% win rate

Trying Something Different

So I tried switching things up a bit after talking to my good buddy Chuck. Chuck is a no limit cash game player and every time we talk he tells me I should give no limit a shot. So I took his advice today and scouted out a no limit game where I felt the competition would be weak and I could ease myself into the no limit mindset. I decided on Excalibur mainly due to the type of clientele the property attracts. No self respecting poker player who took his/her game seriously would be found here, which is precisely why I went there. Only one $1/$2 no limit game was going when I arrived around noon and I was seated in about ten minutes. The session started off very well as I poked around in late position and picked up small pot after small pot. I thought to myself this is going to be a low risk kind of game full of weak/tight players that will let me push them off pots provided I don't get too out of hand with it. I was up about a stack of red when I flopped a set of 7s on a board of 6-7-8 with a two flush in clubs in a three handed pot. The early position player checked, the middle position player bet out ten into a pot of about that size, I re-raised to $30. The early position player to my surprise called and the original raiser folded. The turn brought an off suit nine so now any ten or any five would give my opponent a straight. The early player checked and I checked behind. The river brought an off suit jack which didn't really concern me since if I was beat that card didn't change things. The early player checked and I should have just shown the hand down but my opponent was a calling station and I figured him for two pair when he did not bet the river (something like 8-7 or 8-6) and I moved in on him (he had about $70 which was the size of the pot roughly.) He instantly called and I asked him if had the ten, instead he showed me an 8-5o for top pair and the ass end of the straight draw on the flop. Not only did the guy call my re-raise of $30 cold on that board, there was the distinct possibility that the original raiser could have bumped it up again and that I would come along or push. The way the hand played out, I guess I could have only been called with a straight there, but I also figured my play could have looked like a busted flush draw trying to pick up the pot on the end. Only against a thinking player should I have made that play. Against a calling station I should try that play because he is incapable of throwing away a second best hand even for all his chips. Other than that hand, there were only a couple other hands worth speaking of.

The first interesting spot that came up was when a weak/tight player min-raised UTG and I was next to act. I looked down at queens and made it $15 to go. It was folded back around to the UTG and he min-raised me again to $30. Right then I knew I was beat but I would have called him with any pair knowing full when if I flopped a set on a board without an ace I would felt him. The flop came down with three cards all lower than my pair. UTG moved in for $75 and I flashed my queens as I mucked them. He showed me his aces and I rapped the table knowing full well he had won the battle but I would win the war with this guy should be tangle again. Alas, that never happened.

The other situation arose when I found queens again in late-middle position. Folded around to me I made a standard raise of $8, the short stack to my left moved in for $24, the big blind called. I also called and we took the flop three handed with one all in. The flop came down 9 high and the big blind shoved for about $75. I instantly called as I had him on jacks since he did not re-raise pre-flop like I figured he might with a pair bigger than my own. He turned over his kings and I did not suck out with queens.

Not such a good start to my attempt at no limit hold'em. I feel like I need to brush up each morning reading some good articles on no limit play. My spidey senses are just a bit off since I am used to limit play where I pretty much know where I stand in the way the bets and raises are made. Still, I feel like I could become a very big favorite in the long run if I keep at no limit and search out the soft games with people looking to have a good time and free drinks rather than those looking to make a score to pay their bills.


7/27
Hours Played This Session: 6.58
Gave: $137
$ Per Hour: -$20.82

Earn:
Month to Date: -$173
Year to Date: -$296
Hourly Rate Year to Date: -$6.79
Total Hours Played Year to Date:43.58
Sessions Played Year to Date:8
Win/Loss Record by Session: 3/5 37.50%