Last Wednesday-night game

Small get-together last night for a little cards. It was just myself, Aaron, Joshua and David W. We started off with a little 7-card stud, which was interesting. There was some confusion on who bets, when they bet, etc... but I think we came up with some modified rules that made it not too expensive. Not much memorable except the hand where my first 2 down cards and 1 up card were all aces. Most winning hands were of the 2-pair, 3 of a kind variety, although David W. managed to pull out a low straight (A-through-5) twice.

Went to regular limit Hold 'Em later on. I had some good hands for a few good pots, and then right towards the end of the night I had my pocket aces turn into a set of aces, and won a few Happy Meals with that one.

The end result was Joshua and I both were up $20, and David and Aaron went bust. I will miss the home games a lot, and somehow I don't think all of us getting together online to play will be the same.

Hey, I'm famous (sorta)!

Just took a peek on my "Technorati profile":http://technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=fresh&url=feralboy.com&start=1, and I've been linked to by "Dr. Pauly":http://taopoker.blogspot.com/, a very cool poker blogger, and the godfather of all poker bloggers, Iggy from "Guinness and Poker":http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/. Very cool!

MCFPT

Last night was the Matt Comroe Farewell Poker Tourney. Much fun was had, reversals of fortune were seen, and cold hard cash was won. There were 11 of us to start. $25 got you $2500 in chips. We drew paper to see which table we were starting at, and I got the mismatched height card tables that made dealing interesting. Directly to my left was Joshua. Uh oh. To my right was Jason D., who is always dangerous when he's got some chips. We also had Dave W.(not "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/) and Jason K., who is wildly unpredictable at times. You never know when he's bluffing "the Hammer" (i.e. 7-2 offsuit, the worst starting hand in hold 'em) or holding pocket aces.

We got started, and I was nervous. Even more nervous than I was at the start of the "tourney from a few weeks ago":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001158/, which was silly because I knew all these people. Maybe that was it; I didn't want to be making bonehead plays in front of my friends. Even now only about 12 hours later lots of those hands are blurs to me, but I'll try and recollect best I can, and I'm sure David and Joshua (and Dan? where are you Dan?) will chime in.

The first few deals around were pretty uneventful... just feeling everyone out to see how they would play. I made some good positional raises with decent cards and took down some early pots. Joshua took a good chunk out of me when I put in a semi-bluff with some good cards that just didn't pan out on the board. He was playing similarly as far as agressive blind-stealing, although with the level we were at ($25/$50 blinds) I wasn't trying to steal as much since it wasn't worth the risk that early on.

One early hand I was one behind the button with K-K. I flat-called, and Josh raised three times the big blind. I came back over the top for about another thousand, and took him off that pot. Flopped a flush the hand after that, and managed to squeeze some money out of Dave W. with that one. Another hand or two after that I got K-K again, but this time nobody wanted to play. Same story with A-A a little later on. Jason K. was quietly building up a massive stack, with a good slowplay to take a bite out of Josh, as well as pretty much everyone else at the table at various points. Oh, and Dave W. flopped quad kings at one point... sweet. Glad I wasn't in that hand.

In the 2nd hour I started playing a little more recklessly. I figured I had the option to do another rebuy for $25, so I might as well try and double up a few times, or force people out of better hands with some strong betting. Well, that backfired as I pushed all-in with some garbage like A-5 or something. I went up against A-K, an A hit on the flop, and there was no runner-runner 5s miracle like "last time":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001158/.

So, I rebought and vowed to play a little tighter. 3 memorable hands from the end of that level: - Folding pocket 7s to a huge raise from Jason D. There were all sorts of overcards on the board that were frightening, and my 7s shrunk up fast. Turns out he had nothing. In fact, we turned over the remaining cards after I folded just for a giggle. The burn card was flipped over by accident. 7. Then the actual turn card was a 7. Sheesh! - Looking at 9-9 a few hands later, and Jason made another stab. This time I stood my ground, and put him all-in. He turned over A-K. Eeep. It's just a coinflip, really... I'll take those odds. Flop comes A-x-x. Shit. Now he's way ahead with his pair of aces. Turn comes, and it's a miracle 9. Last card needs to be an ace for Jason to hang on, and it's not. - Last hand before we combined into one table (Pat and Tisha had gone out, and Tisha doing so after getting a straight flush(!) earlier in the night). It was down to Joshua and me, and I was up a little bit from my rebuy. I had ok hole cards (Q-9), but nothing hit on the flop, although there were some high cards out there. I put in a decent sized raise, and he called after much deliberation. I figured he was on a draw or a low pair at that point, so after the turn I put in a bet for a good chunk of the remainder of Joshua's stack, maybe about $1500. Joshua thought. And thought. And thought some more. He counted his chips, sighed, thought some more, and then eventually asked if I would show him if he folded. I agreed, perhaps too eagerly, and showed him the crap I was holding. He turned over 3-3. So, he had me beat to that point, but on such a scary hand that him throwing it away was the right move.

The final table started with 8 people. Now I had Joshua to my right, Jason K. and his big stack to my left, and then continuing left around the table was Michael from work, Aaron, "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/, Dave W., and Dan from work (who had built up a huuuuuuge stack before we broke our table)

The blinds were getting scary enough (200/400 and a $50 ante) that no stack except maybe Dan's could feel safe. It was time to start gambling a little. I bought a few pots with good raises on the button, but didn't really make a ton of moves. I got up to pee, thinking that when I came back I might want to go all-in before I was even dealt cards, just to either succeed massively or go out in a blaze of glory. I come back, sit down, and look at my hole cards: A-A. American Airlines. Bullets. The best starting hand you can have. With that many people at the table, I was hoping to take a big chunk out of somebody. Aaron went all in right away, and I called him. Flop was no help, and I wound up busting him out.

Michael was a wild man... betting hard, and Dan was there taking his action. One hand had Q-Q-J on the board, and Micheal immediately went all-in. Dan called, and Michael flipped over J-x. Dan had J-Q; he had flopped the full house.

David went out at some point (not sure with what hand). Dave W. was severly short-stacked, to the point where posting his blind put him all in. Lucky for him on that hand he got A-A, although he was out a few hands later too.

So, we got down to the final 4, and it was me, Jason K., Dan and Joshua. The blinds were getting obscene at this point; 400/800 with $100 ante. Joshua and I were both looking pretty desperate with less than 10X BB. He raised a good amount in front of me, and I went all-in for about $5000. He called, and flipped over Q-8. I had J-9, and a big mountain to climb. Flop came, and nothing hit us. Turn, nothing. Last card came, and I spiked a jack to pair up and take out Joshua. Dan looked ill; he threw away K-8, and there was a king on the board and he would have knocked out both of us.

*Update:* Stupid me... Joshua (as he points out in the comments) had A-10 (which is why it was funny when I knocked Dan out with A-10), hit a 10 on the flop, which is why it was extra-heartbreaking when I spiked that J. Sorry Joshua, I can't remember _all_ the winning knockout hands I had last night. ;-)

With the blinds now at 800/1600 with $200 ante it was still uncomfortable, even with the decent-sized stack I now had. Next hand or so I get A-10, an actual hand. Dan calls, and I go all-in. Dan has K-8 again, and he'll be damned if he's gonna throw it away this time. Flop is a blank, but then a 10 comes on the turn. Dan needs a king on the river, and it doesn't come. Now it's down to me and Jason K., and I've got about a 4-1 chip lead on him. I do one raise to take his blind, he raises back next hand and I fold utter garbage; 2-4. Next hand I have decent cards and just try and put him all-in and end it. He calls, and doubles through. Next hand again I have J-9, go all-in and Jason calls with Q-x of diamonds. Flop comes with 2 diamonds, no pairs. Turn is a jack, and now I'm looking good. Last card needs to not be a diamond or a queen, and it's not. I won my namesake tournament!

The take for me was $159, minus my $50 buy-in + rebuy, plus the $40 I got from Jason D. for selling him my old chips. So, the night was +$149.. not too shabby.

Tournament report

Well, the $50 tournament that I signed up for was on Saturday. It was up about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, at the VFW hall. Full story inside. Joshua and I got there in enough time to register and get our sticky name tags, pick up a rules sheet, and then walk down the street to get some pizza (the food that they were providing for us there was questionable at best). We started agonizing over the blind structure, which looked pretty brutal for the $5000 you started with. When we got back we were talking to my old co-worker "Steve":http://nascar.about.com/, and realized that we were dopes. Level 1 was $200/$400 _bets_, and we had read it as $200/$400 blinds. Actually, it was just $100/$200 for the small blind and big blind, which meant that you could sit back and wait for hands for the first few rounds. A side note: I barely recognized Steve, who has lost more than 100 pounds since I saw him last. The secret according to Steve? "Chasing after my kid."

Joshua, Steve and I were all at different tables to start, which was good because it meant that we wouldn't have to go against each other. I probably had the toughest table there. Directly to my left was Dennis, a sharp old codger that I didn't want to tangle with, and then there was Derek, a young hotshot that had been playing for about 5 years and had won large online tournaments in both Hold 'em and "Omaha":http://www.thepokerforum.com/omahaholdem.htm. To his left was a big guy Jason who had won a tournament a few weeks before at a similar event a few miles away. There were two Daves, one of which had never even played before; just watched on TV. I guess with the torrent of poker shows out there these days that's probably enough.

Ok, so we were underway. I was nervous, but not too bad. I had my strategy in my head: "Play tight, and push hard with good hands. Raise or fold, etc." There was some action early on that I wasn't a part of, and nothing happened until I was first to be in the big blind. I was dealt 97o, but since nobody raised I was able to see the flop for free. Flop came 9-8-7, and I raised about 3 times the size of the BB, and took down the early pot. Hey, this is easy! Not much else memorable from the early going, except for a hand where I had 99. Raised 3x, and Derek the hotshot was the only other person who stayed in. Flop came with low cards; nothing too scary, so I bet about $1k, just to see where I stood. Derek quickly called, so I put him on high overcards, like AK or AQ. River was still nothing scary, so I made a pot-sized bet... about $3k. Derek stared at me for about 2 minutes straight (good thing I wore contacts and brought my sunglasses) and then mucked. He asked me a few hands later if I would tell him what I had, and although I don't like to show cards often I told him about my 9s. He did indeed have AK, so I think I played that hand well.

Didn't have much else good happen in the early going. Dennis the scary old dude got knocked out (yay!), but they brought in Ed and his roughly $15k in chips to replace him (boo!). Ed was a big California-looking guy with a Don Ho shirt and everything... sorta like a healthy Gary Busey. I had some hands with good hole cards that nothing developed from, so I started to get whittled down a bit. Then I got hole jacks. I raise 3x, and Dave the TV guy calls. Flop comes with low cards, and I make a large bet. Dave calls and we get another card. Nothing scary, so more betting. Dave calls again. Last card, more betting, and Dave calls again. I flip over my jacks, thinking that he was holding high cards and waiting for a hit and then just calling the last bet out of frustration. Nope, he had AA. Ouch. There went most of my stack. At this point Derek was already out, and Jason's pile of chips was getting as big as he was. Oh, you have never seen fat until you've been to a local tournament. There were at least 3 guys who were well beyond 300 lbs... scary.

In Level 3, the blinds where $300/$600, and with me only having $1600 left, that meant I was pretty well committed the next time the blinds came to me. Before the deal started I announced I was going all-in "in the dark", which meant I was going to bet before I even saw my cards. That got a few blinks from the table, as well as "gutsy call" from Ed, when I think he meant "stupid call". Everyone folded around to Dave the TV guy, who looked at his cards and called. I finally looked at my cards when I flipped them over for the showdown. K3. I look over at Dave, and he's got 53. Flop comes with nothing, which means I'm still in the lead. On 4th street a king comes, which means I've doubled through and survived. Whew!

Few more hands that I raised on that didn't pan out, and I was getting low again; down to about $4k or so. I decided to go all-in next playable hand, and either double-through to a more comfortable stack or just get out and start playing in the side games. In the BB I get A3 and push in. Ed calls me, and flips over A10. I'm fucked. Flop comes x-10-x and now I'm really fucked. If an A comes, that's no help because he'll have 2 pair. I'm picking up my bag and ready to go. Turn is a 3. Ray of light. River comes another 3. Holy shit. Running 3s to stay in. I think the odds of that happening are something like 250-to-1 or something improbable like that.

A few hands later I get pocket 10s. Feeling like I'm still hopelessly short-stacked I raise 3x, and get a call from Dave the TV guy (who, by the way, kept his chips in a messy pile the whole night instead of the careful stacks that everyone else was making, which was strangely endearing). Flop comes with some face cards, and I start to feel impending doom. I bet strong into it anyway, hoping that I can scare him off the pot, but no dice... he calls. Turn card is another face card, and I move all-in. Dave calls with an ace to match one on the table, and I'm out.

I'm not entirely sure about what place I finished, but certainly I was in the top third out of the 80 or so people that were in. I don't think I played particularly poorly, except maybe pushing too hard with JJ, and certainly going all in with 10-10 when there were high cards out there, and I definitely had a good time.

I wandered around and watched what was going on at the other tables. Joshua had a few miracle all-ins to hang on by his fingernails too; I watched him pull more than a few rabbits out of his hat, but then finally he was done.

Steve had a heartbreaking evening. He finished 8th, which was the last non-paying spot. You'll make them pay next year, Steve!

There were cash games sprouting up all over between the losers, so I got in on that. There were kids betting all sorts of crazy and catching cards, so I lost my first $10 in fairly short order.

I played a stupid game of $.10/$.20 Omaha for a little bit and won a whopping $2. Joshua and I both sat in on another $10NL table with a few older guys (including Dennis from my table). I was up and down a bit, but Joshua was crushing everyone, and wound up taking about $100 from that table total.

I watched a little bit of the action at the final table. Steve didn't make it, but his neighbor did and finished a very respectable 4th. The big winner was a big fat cop named Mike, who pretty much had the biggest stack all night anyway. The turning point at that final table was when he took a huge chunk out of the next closest stack with quad 7s. Hell of a time to get 4 of a kind.

Derek the hotshot invited me to play at another tourney that he was hosting this coming weekend. I was pleased and flattered that he asked, because he said "it's nice to see someone who knows what "pot odds":http://www.pokertips.org/strategy/pot-odds.php are". I think I'll be visiting family in NJ this weekend, but if for some reason I'm not I'll definitely think about it.

Slacker

Well, you know it's been too long between posts when my page layout starts to break. Well, let's see what's been going on: * My moving plans are pretty much solidified. Leaving the glorious state of Pennsylvania and the even more glorious city of Pittsburgh the last weekend of August. My "sister(my darling sister at xmas last year)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20031225_xmas/P1010026.jpg is going to come out and help me do the drive down, which is awesome. I've got the truck rental reservation, and I keep checking and the price keeps dropping, so I have them update my rental. Down $700 so far from what is was initially going to be. I nearly shit my pants the other day when it looked like it had dropped $2000, but then I realized I had typed in "Tucson, AZ 15221 (which is a Pittsburgh zip code)" and it thought I was doing a local move. Ooops. Gonna get a trailer for the "new car":http://edmunds.com/new/2004/subaru/impreza/100273633/researchlanding.html (which has been loads of fun, BTW), and load the cats in the car and let them yowl for all they're worth back where I can't hear them. The heat is a bit of a concern, but I'll try and get sunshades in all the windows, do as much of the driving at night as possible, and of course I'm sure I'll be pulling over every 5 seconds to check on them anyway.

* My "audit":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001139/ with Pittsburgh so far has been suprisingly easy. Called the city person on the phone, told her what was going on, and I'm just in the process of retrieving all my W-2s from my various employers from the last few years. Yes, I know I'm supposed to keep 7 years worth, but that's what former employers or payroll companies are for, right? Anyway, so far it looks like I was paying in the correct amount for every job besides this one, so I shouldn't get dinged too badly. I must say that for a city in the "middle of a fiscal crisis":http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/specialreports/pghincrisis/, they don't seem to be too eager to get their money.

* The plans for Tucson are already shaping up to be fantastic. "Paul and April(Paul and April at her birthday party)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20030331_aprils_birthday/P3312882.JPG are all excited for me to get out there, and we've got reservations at "Hueco":http://0friction.com/thumbz.php?area_id=45 pretty much every weekend of the winter. They keep telling me that it's better than Bishop, so I can't wait to check it out. There's some things I want to make sure I do while in AZ, like 1) Drink "more water":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000861/. 2) Make sure to take my "psyllium husk":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000793/ every day. 3) Convert my "cyclocross bike":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000012/ into a "single-speed":http://www.singlespeedsanonymous.com/ to make my daily rides more fun.

* Poker has been good. My play at limit raise has been horrible, both online and during the "weekly events":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/poker/ (which unfortunately have been less than weekly lately). I'm convinced that most of limit play is pure luck; you either get the cards or you don't. However, I've been kicking ass and taking names at the $10 SNG(Sit-n-Go) single table tournaments on PartyPoker. I've cashed in probably 75% of the tourneys I've been in, and even won a couple for $50. Certainly it's the most consistantly profitible playing I've done. I might even be able to make gas money out of it! Oh! I'm also playing in a $50 buy-in tourney next weekend a little north of the city. Should be a good time, and I'll try and remember more than the hand I bust out on to write it up.

Ahahahahaha

Thanks "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com!

(Oh, and in "related news":http://cbsnewyork.com/njnews/NJ--PokerPooches-jn/resources_news_html...)

MPT Week #6

Last night was the first night of poker in "David's":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ new house. Most people couldn't make it for various and sundry reasons, but we had 4 people, so that was enough for a few hours of limit raise. Casey even made "poker chip cookies":http://moblg.net/view.php?id=10907 for us to munch on! From the first hand on, it was pretty clear that I wasn't getting the same sort of cards that I had "the week before":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001107/. With play being only 4-handed, I loosened up my starting requirements somewhat, but just wasn't catching cards. I was getting whittled away slowly, with David and Jason building up their stacks nicely, and Joshua going out pretty early.

Towards the very end of the night I started to come back. I drew a flush on the river which got me a nice pot from David, and then I played the Best. Hand. Ever.

I was in the big blind, and got dealt the mother of all hands, the one that "Iggy":http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/ and I like to call "The Hammer", statistically the worst possible starting hand, 2-7 offsuit. I raised pre-flop, David folded, and Jason called. Flop came out with low cards, including a 2, so now I was paired up. Jason checked, signifying that he hadn't paired anything on the board, so I raised. He called, and the next card came. Now the board paired, so I was looking at 2 pair. Throwing caution to the wind, and determined to bring "The Hammer", I raised again. Jason called once more, and then the river came. Another 2. With the board already paired, that meant that I had a full house. From 2-7o. Unbelievable. Jay checked, I raised, he called, and I pulled in a monster pot. Back from the dead, again.

Next hand was going to be the last hand of the night. I look down at 8-3 offsuit, which is probably the 2nd worst starting hand, declare it "The Mini-Hammer", and start betting away. It was nearly a mirror image of the previous hand. I kept betting, and Jason kept calling. An 8 came on the flop, the board paired on the turn, and the miracle 3rd 8 came on the river, giving me 2 full houses. In a row. From absolutely horrible starting hands.

So, by the end of the night I was only down $7, and as David put it "that's a whole lot of entertainment for $7". David made about $6-7 himself, and Jason was the big winner, coming out $30 over what he came in with, or "a can of paint", as there was much discussion of home improvement last night.

When I got home I went on partypoker.com for a few minutes, and on about the fourth hand I drew to a flush and put some joker all-in, and wound up taking the pot, and making about $20 in five minutes, thereby wiping out any losses from earlier in the evening.

Some other highlights of the evening: * David had pocket aces. THREE TIMES. * Funniest hand of the night saw the board come up with a straight, 10-to-A, so the pot was split between Jason and David. The kicker? They were holding Q-Q and A-A, respectively. * "The cookies":http://moblg.net/view.php?id=10907. Definitely the cookies.

This morning, Pat wondered how I had all this money to be playing poker, and I have to say it's because I'm outsourcing critical help desk support for feralboy.com overseas:

MPT Week #5

Last night we mixed it up a bit. We had 6 players, so we decided instead of a few hours of limit-raise and then an hour or so of no-limit to run a tournament. Everyone bought in for $20, and got $2k in chips. The idea, much like the "WSOP":http://www.harrahs.com/wsop/, is that as each player is eliminated, you get a placement. We did it so that the top 3 places were "in the money", and got 50%, 30% and 20% for first, second and third. We had a quickly escalating blind structure, with levels changing every 20 minutes. We also let people do a rebuy at the end of the first hour to bring them back up to $2k, if they wanted. Mike and Aaron both had rough nights; never really getting good enough hands to play, and eventually got blinded down to the felt. David gets the "most improved student" gold star... he's been doing his homework and played really well... using his stack to his advantage, and making smart plays. His best hand was a showdown against "Jason(Jason and Sabre enjoying a quiet afternoon)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040419_coopers/P1010010.jpg where he went all-in with the K-high nut flush (A was already on the board), and Jason had the Q-high. Jason was the wild man; betting heavy, and not afraid to call someone's all-in, which proved to be a good enough strategy when paired with decent cards to put him 2nd in the money. Joshua was a little off-balance the whole night... loosing the first hand to me with cards he shouldn't have stayed in with, and then not getting a lot of good cards throughout the night.

I was fairly unstoppable. The very first hand of the night, I wound up going heads-up with 2 pair, and took in a nice sized pot from that. I sort of meandered after that, without enough of a stack to really do damage. Towards the end of the first hour, I won a massive pot off of "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ when my pocket 9s made a full boat with 7-7-X-X-9, and the miracle river beating his 2 pair. Some other lucky hands were me rivering a set of 2s with A-2, and knocking Joshua out the first hand after the rebuy period when my A-A yielded a set of aces on the turn, and his flush draw never materialized after I put him all in.

The last hand was pretty innocuous; I was big blind, and Jason just limped in from the small blind. I had something crappy like 2-6s (hearts), and the flop came X-K-2, with one heart. J made a small raise, and I called just to see if I'd get 2 pair or the lucky and improbable set of 2s. Next card was a heart. I don't think it even registered, as it was a low card, and didn't match either of my cards, and we both checked. Last card came as another heart, and I had made a flush with two running hearts. I checked my hole cards to make sure I really had it, and then looked one more time to be sure. I put J all-in, and he called with a pair of Ks. I wasn't even really sure I had the flush until I flipped my cards over, and sure enough, there were 5 hearts out there. 50% of $170 meant a very, very good night for me.

I wonder if I'll be able to repeat that performance. I was very lucky early on to not get short stacked, and as I picked up a few decent pots with good hands, I was able to start muscling the smaller stacks around, and bought quite a few pots with low pair or nothing at all, but people were unwilling to call after I had already made and shown such good hands before.

MPT Week #4

An all-new installment of the Matt Poker Tour. Last night the action was at Ron's, who climbs at our gym. He has a sweet house (including regulation 8-sided card table!) up in the hills near where I work, so I went directly there from a work send-off party for one of my co-workers that's leaving. We started 6-handed, and did limit raise for about 2 hours. I finally was catching good cards, although I folded two big pots early on that I would have won, including a straight draw that I folded on the turn. After those beats I started to catch some good hands; 2 pair AJ, pocket aces that turned into a full house, and even a few good bluffs. By the end of limit play I was probably up about $20-25. No-limit was not as good. Drew had already busted out of limit play, so we started 5-handed. Aaron went down pretty early on an all-in, and so once we were playing 4-handed I started to play a bit looser, thinking that I wouldn't need as good of hands to win. Sometimes that was true, and I took a couple of pots with some dubious hands, but then wound up loosing about $10 to Joshua on a showdown I should have folded out of 2 rounds before. End result? I walked away up $15, but more important I figured out a little bit better rhythm than last weeks "disastrous":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001062/ playing. Josuha again walked away the big winner; up about $50. "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ finally had a good game; not bluffing too much, catching good cards and playing them well. He only lost $10 on the night, and our esteemed host Ron lost $20 after buying back in midway through the night.

I've also bought back in to the online poker recently to try and brush up on my no-limit skillz. So far it's working well, and I'm up around $30. No great shakes, and probably not nearly as many fish as if I went to Party Poker, but I like the desktop client at "the site":http://paradisepoker.com/ I play at.

MPT Week #3

Ugh. Very short entry about last night. Suffice to say I had my ass handed to me to the tune of $30. I wasn't playing tight at all, but that was because I was seeing other people winning with these completely weak-ass hands. I had one decent hand all night (full house, and only because 4 of the cards were on the table); kept getting picture-rag, and then horrible flops. Next time, no fooling around; only playing good hands, and then we'll see who needs the KY Jelly.

MPT Week #2

Another fun night on the MPT(Matt Poker Tour) last night. We went to "Jason(Jason and Sabre at Coopers)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040419_coopers/P1010010.jpg's house, which is in the middle of East Nowhere, but still a nice spread. My play was ok; I got better cards than last week, but also played a bit looser. I was up about $10 early in the limit-raise round, after catching a few good cards, and also staying in until the end with not so good hands, but against people with even worse hands. Towards the end I got handed like 3 bad beats in a row; got great flops (including a straight), but just got outdrawn and couldn't bet other people out of the pot.

The $5 no-limit hands were fairly exciting, although people were playing a lot more conservatively than last week. There was one great showdown that I was in; 3 people all-in without seeing the flop. I had K-rag against K-rag and A-rag. The other K and I were behind until the river, and then caught the pair, but I had a higher kicker so I took the whole thing. Made back a little bit of the money I had lost with limit-raise, but wound up down like $7 for the night, which meant I'm just about even over the 2 weeks. I need to play more disciplined, even though chasing bad hands and bluffing is a lot easier to do 4 or 5-handed than 8 or 9.

Big winners last night were Aaron ($20) and Jason ($15). "David(David the cowboy)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040109_cowboy/01.jpg did about the same as I did; down a few for the day, and "Joshua(Joshua at Coopers)":http://0friction.com/pix/zero_friction_pic_2926.jpg had his ass _handed_ to him (busted out of both no-limit rounds by going all-in on the first hand. He had good cards and it was the right play to make both times, but just got outdrawn), but is still up overall.

Poker night!

Last night was the first of what I hope will be the "weekly friendly poker night":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001010/. There were only 4 guys in attendance, which is a little light, but there's enough interest from enough people that I'm thinking on any given week we should have at least 5 or 6. We started a bit early to get anyone who didn't know the intricacies of limit raise and no-limit hold 'em betting up to speed. The "new chips":http://store.yahoo.com/jdrazor/set5300dic11.html were awesome, and we even had a piece of green felt to cover the table. Aaron provided beers, and I brought chips and guacamole and spinich artichoke dips. As "The Donald":http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice/ would say, "classy... really classy." We played about an hour with no stake, where I got beaten down fairly badly, and "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ wound up doing the best.

Then we switched to a limit raise game, this time with a $20 buy-in. The bet structure was a little different than what I was used to at the other home game I had played at a few times; instead of a set $.50 raise pre-flop and after, and then $1 after 4th street, you could bet either $.50 or $1 at any point in the betting, which gave you a little leeway with trying to buy the pot or muscle people out. It probably wasn't as loose as the spread-limit betting "described here":http://www.pokersearch.com/Articles/EDHill/advantag.shtm, but since we were playing for such low stakes, you couldn't really give someone a spread from say $.10 to $3. Just wouldn't work.

In any case, I played a lot tighter with actual money at stake, and didn't chase bad hands. I don't know if the other guys were playing loose due to inexperience or just being reckless, but people were bluffing all over the place, and I won a few pots with some pretty piss-poor cards, like a pair of 2s in one case. I also won some quality hands, with a set of aces, and a nice jack-high flush that blew out Joshua's 6-high. "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ didn't fare as well that round, and lost pretty much all of his $20 by the end of 2 hours. I threw him $10 to keep him playing, and then at 10 p.m. we switched to some $5 no-limit rounds. I cleaned David out first round by hitting a pair of Qs on the river, but then lost it all to Joshua by trying to catch a lucky card all-in with JK against Josh's ace high. We went one more round, and it came down again to me and Joshua, and this time I played tight, and wound up after 5 hands of heads-up (our self-imposed limit on heads-up play) I escaped with the same $5 I started with.

So, the end result was I won $5, Aaron broke pretty much even, and David dropped $30. Joshua was our big winner of the night, walking out with about $25 more than he got there with. Looking forward to next week, and hopefully more people. With only 4 guys, you're in the blind 50% of the time, so it's harder to make your money last longer if you're trying to play tight.

Shuffle up and deal!

The near-constant flood of "poker shows":http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/worldpoker/tour.html on The Travel Channel has finally broken me down, and I started lobbying this weekend for a friendly weekly game with the "climbing":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/climbing/ peeps. Lots of emails flying around today about which day of the week would be best (so far Monday and Wednesday are the main candidates), as well as some side discussions about what the format should be. On one hand, there's something to be said for a low threshold "limit raise":http://www.bestjackpots.com/info/poker_rules.jsp game. More people will play in each pot, since a quarter or $.50 to see a flop is no big deal. You'll also lose money more slowly, so it would be hard to whittle away more than $20 over the course of 3 hours or so. On the other hand, nothing compares to the strategy and gut-wrenching feeling of playing "no-limit":http://www.ultimatebet.com/rules-strategy/nolimit.html hold'em. You can't really bully the short stack with a $.50 call, but if you push $20 into the pot unless he's sitting on "American Airlines":http://www.thepokerforum.com/handnames.htm he'll probably back out pretty quick. The flip side of that is everyone going all-in right away to try and double up, which makes for not a very fun night. So, coming out of the side discussion that Joshua and I were having, I have a few ideas for poker nights:

* Two different games. Maybe we all get together around 8, and play $.50/$1 limit raise games for a few hours, until maybe 10. That way everyone's had their fill, and gotten to play a bunch of hands for good or ill. Then at 10, anyone who's got the stomach for no-limit can get dealt in on no-limit or pot-limit games. This could get ugly quickly, which leads me to my next option. * Tournament play. Everyone has a set buy-in, maybe $20, and then gets a supply of "fake money" "chips":http://store.yahoo.com/jdrazor/set5300dic11.html... maybe totalling $1000 or something. Everyone just plays until they are eliminated, and then based on what place you come in, you take home a certain percentage. Depending on the amount of players we could probably just use "this WSOP(World Series Of Poker) table":http://www.pokerpages.com/pokerinfo/wsop/2004payoutstructure.htm. That's how most tournaments are run anyway. The downside to this is that maybe 1/3 of the players are guaranteed to go home with nothing, whereas with the limit raise games I've played so far, even if you're doing poorly you tend to have at least $5 left at the end of 2-3 hours. * Saw an interesting article about "spread limit":http://www.pokersearch.com/Articles/EDHill/advantag.shtm games, which gives you some flexibility on your bets each round, but still capping the totals to the pots don't get too out of hand. That way you can make calling a little more uncomfortable for people if you either a) have a good hand, or b) are trying to "buy the pot":http://www.winneronline.com/poker/glossary.htm.

In any case, I don't know if it can all get organized this week, but I'm guessing by next week we'll have our first game, and I'm pretty excited about it. Should be lots of fun.