6-6 offsuit

Sometimes You Get the Donkey

2006-12-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

It has been far too long since I got a major adrenaline rush out of a poker hand, but last night I was playing in a 1/2 NL live game at Sam's Town after washing out of the late tournament, when I got one of the best hands I've had in a long time.

I was staring at pocket kings UTG, and raised to $7, which wasn't really that big of a raise given the way the game had been running, but I knew that even the idiots at the table had a tight image of me, and anything more than what had been my standard raise up to that point would have won me a measly $3, tip not included.

I got 4 callers, including the BB.

The flop came Qc Kc Qs and I nearly wet myself. BB checks, I check, checks all around, but I knew someone had a Q. It was just that kind of game.

The turn was a 5s, BB checks, and I figure I may as well test the waters. I toss in $25, two players behind me fold, the BB flat calls me. River is the As, and the BB checks while staring off at the TV uninterested in the game.

Huge tell for this guy... I have not a doubt in my mind. I'm getting paid, and push all-in without the slightest of hesitation.

He jumps out of his chair and practically screams, "I call!". As his arm is coming down to ghetto-slap his cards on the table, I casually toss my KK onto the board and watch with a joy I rarely get anymore.

The man goes pale, and his legs loosen like he just took a right hook from Tyson, bracing himself with his free hand on the table as he tries to turn his Qh 5d back down to muck it, but it's too late, we've all seen it, and the few good players at the table are trying unsucessfully not to laugh. I bank four bills and send the tourist back to his room with a christmas "bad beat" story for his wife.

It's about time one of these morons called my UTG raise out of position with shit cards and got what they deserved. I needed to write it down here just to put future bad beats in perspective.

-Tommy

Glasses Down!

2006-12-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

"I would feel bad just ditching you with strangers while I go play poker, but I think I'm going to ditch you with strangers while I go play poker." - Me, to Waffle (roomate, not blogger).

By the time we got to Caesar's the blogger tourney was already nearing the end, so I wandered around to see who was present. My roomate knew the one of the masseuses in the room, and I had to carry on without him for a few minutes.

I recognized April and Gracie railbirding the last two tables, so I went over to say hi and reintroduce myself from this summer, when I had met them briefly. After I told Gracie that my roomate was with me, and what he did for a living ("Senior Aquarist" for the forum shops... he gets paid to feed fish or something), she immediately seemed to lose interest in the game, and wanted to go "see the fishies". I introduced my roomate to them and while they haggled over arranging a private tour, I went looking for Iggy, who I heard was donking it up at a nearby 3/6 table.

"We got seats open." he said, but I never play when drinking, so after checking with Waffle to make sure he was Ok with his new tourguide duties, I grabbed an empty chair next to Grubby and asked for a waitress (who took a little over 45 minutes to appear), ordered a few glasses of Jack & water, and embraced my inner donkey. Also present were Grubbette and Linda. About an hour later I caught an ace on the river to go with the two in my hand, and figured being up $9 was as good a time as any to go get something to eat before heading acroos the street to the PokerTek shindig at the Imperial Palace.

After a quick snack I met up with a friend who deals (poker, not drugs) in front of the Palace, who I invited because of his obvious professional interest in the automated tables. When we finally navigated our way to the room the party was being held, we were surprised to find that we were the first to arrive (I don't think that's ever happened to me before), which meant we were first to choose our chairs next to the open bar. This later turned out to not matter at all, since I spent all my time playing on the tables, and the open bar had no whiskey.

As for PokerTek, I didn't like the tournament table, but I want desperately to see the heads-up table in bars around Vegas. Especially bars that already have Gaming licenses. I get all tingley when I think of drunken slot junkies lined up in front of that thing on a Saturday night. Hopefully the insanely aggressive blind structure was for demo mode only.

Eventually we headed back downstairs to find seats at the Pai Gow tables where I managed to run through $300 in a little less than an hour playing with Maigrey, who introduced me to the game last summer, and Garth, who had a theory about keeping our sunglasses down during the hand to intimidate the dealer. It didn't work.

Eventually I had to leave to meet up with some Vegas locals, which I'll probably continue to regret until the next WPBT meetup. In fact, next time I'm going to make sure my schedule is clear for the entire weekend.

-Tommy

Anyone Seen My Saddle?

2006-12-14T09:59:00.000-08:00

"Where's your hat at?" - question most asked of me last weekend.

Strange thing about my penchant for cheap $5 Walmart "cowboy" hats. Half the people I know think I look funny when I'm wearing one, the other half think I look funny without it. Perhaps I'm just funny looking. In any case, I only wear them during the summer when I need to protect my scalp from the Vegas sun, because Walmart doesn't carry them all year long, and I have a bad habit of giving them away to random people during my regular drunken binges.

-----

One week ago today, the bloggers started coming into town for the weekend, and about this time last Thursday I was sitting at my desk, finishing my work for the week, and looking forward to tracking them down for drinks that evening. I went home, ate some dinner, changed out of the work clothes, then decided maybe a short nap was in order being rather tired after my standard 4 day work week of 10 hour shifts.

When I woke up early on Friday morning, I was a bit upset about missing out on the early chance to see everyone, but figured I'd catch up with them later that night. No problem. In the meantime, I decided to play a little online poker. There was a HORSE tourney starting on Full Tilt, so I played. A few hours later I finished in 3rd, decided I was on a roll, headed out to my regular haunt, Sam's Town, to see if I could keep it going.

I ended up playing in the 7pm tourney there, where I cashed in first. Technically, it was a 2 way chop, but my reputation there is such that even though we had the same number of chips, my headsup opponent didn't want to play me, and offered me an extra $200 to split it with him. I will never understand that, but I will never turn it down either. Why work for the money when they give it to you?

It's hard to quit when your running good, so I decided to play in the 11pm also, figuring I could easily catch up with everyone later that night. Instead, I went out on the bubble, and decided the strip was too far to drive for drinks, so headed to the local bar to celebrate the days winnings.

At approximately 8am I realized that I was really, really drunk, and the Blogger tourney was starting in a mere 5 hours. "No fucking way I'm missing out on all that dead money", I told myself, and headed home for a nap.

When I woke up (still drunk) at 2pm, I cursed a bit, took a shower, then called my roomate to see if he needed to be bailed out of anywhere. He had passed out at a party on the north side of town, woke up a few hours later, and drove directly to the very same bar I had left earlier that morning, where he was enjoying a tasty beverage. I told him about my wins the night before.

"Whiskey Money?", he asked.

"Whiskey Money.", I responded, "You get us to Caesar's, I'll find a way to get us home.", and a half hour later we finally met up with the blogger crew in the poker room.

Things get sort of fuzzy from there, but I'm starting to put the pieces together.

-----

Last night I took down the HORSE 4k Gaurantee on Full Tilt. Going into headsup play (beginning in the Razz round) I was a 4 to 1 dog in chips. My $50k to his $200k plus.

40 minutes later we enter the Hold'em round, and I have the chip lead by ~50k, and a monster psychological advantage. It is damned hard to come from that kind of deficit in any form of limit poker.

I have my Grandfather to thank for the win. Anytime I saw him when I was younger, he would lay claim to whatever allowance money I had playing headsup stud with me. He never soft played me. I used to get upset after a loss, try to whine my money back out of him, but he never relented.

In more ways than one, it was a good lesson.

-Tommy

Rafe Furst is rigged.

2006-11-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

FTOPS Event #7 Razz

Razz is a mean enough game without trying to play while Rafe Furst is on your left the entire time.

Witness the horror after the jump:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1263598415: FTOPS Event #7 (8721985), Table 23 - 120/240 Ante 20 - Limit Razz - 22:20:50 ET - 2006/11/17
Seat 1: CbrCmmndr (2,693)
Seat 2: gnsd22 (5,053)
Seat 3: SnickerSnack (3,382)
Seat 5: Rafe Furst (2,839)
Seat 6: hroark1 (2,739)
Seat 7: scotyno (4,466)
Seat 8: bceagle1976 (2,828)
CbrCmmndr antes 20
gnsd22 antes 20
SnickerSnack antes 20
Rafe Furst antes 20
hroark1 antes 20
scotyno antes 20
bceagle1976 antes 20
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to CbrCmmndr [3s]
Dealt to gnsd22 [7h]
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6d Ah] [5h]
Dealt to Rafe Furst [4s]
Dealt to hroark1 [9c]
Dealt to scotyno [6s]
Dealt to bceagle1976 [2s]
hroark1 is high with [9c]
hroark1 brings in for 40
scotyno completes it to 120
bceagle1976 folds
CbrCmmndr folds
gnsd22 calls 120
SnickerSnack calls 120
Rafe Furst calls 120
hroark1 folds
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to gnsd22 [7h] [7d]
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6d Ah 5h] [4c]
Dealt to Rafe Furst [4s] [3c]
Dealt to scotyno [6s] [9s]
Rafe Furst checks
scotyno checks
gnsd22 checks
SnickerSnack checks
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to gnsd22 [7h 7d] [5d]
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6d Ah 5h 4c] [3d]
Dealt to Rafe Furst [4s 3c] [Ts]
Dealt to scotyno [6s 9s] [7s]
SnickerSnack checks
Rafe Furst bets 240
scotyno calls 240
gnsd22 calls 240
SnickerSnack raises to 480
Rafe Furst calls 240
scotyno folds
gnsd22 folds
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6d Ah 5h 4c 3d] [3h]
Dealt to Rafe Furst [4s 3c Ts] [Tc]
SnickerSnack bets 240
Rafe Furst calls 240
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6d Ah 5h 4c 3d 3h] [Jh]
SnickerSnack bets 240
Rafe Furst raises to 480
SnickerSnack calls 240
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rafe Furst shows [5s 2h 4s 3c Ts Tc As] (5,4,3,2,A)
SnickerSnack mucks
Rafe Furst wins the pot (3,540) with 5,4,3,2,A
SnickerSnack: arg
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,540 | Rake 0
Seat 1: CbrCmmndr folded on 3rd St.
Seat 2: gnsd22 folded on 5th St.
Seat 3: SnickerSnack mucked [Jh 6d 5h 4c 3d 3h Ah] - 6,5,4,3,A
Seat 5: Rafe Furst showed [5s 2h 4s 3c Ts Tc As] and won (3,540) with 5,4,3,2,A
Seat 6: hroark1 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 7: scotyno folded on 5th St.
Seat 8: bceagle1976 folded on 3rd St.

SnickerSnack: the site is legit, but I think rafe furst is rigged
Rafe Furst: lol
SnickerSnack: 6 low in 5 cards
Rafe Furst: i have this button called "River Me Da Nuts"
Rafe Furst: i assumed everyone had it

-Tommy

Help Me Understand

2006-11-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Hand History after the jump...

I can't even begin to wrap my head around this.

Full Tilt Poker Game #1191200374: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (8196818), Table 5 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:31:28 ET - 2006/11/03
Seat 1: SnickerSnack (1,425)
Seat 2: skip1640 (775)
Seat 3: strohsix (1,180)
Seat 4: Leinad W (2,175)
Seat 5: CHEEKS (705)
Seat 6: auutone (5,570)
Seat 8: orourket5 (1,345)
Seat 9: Paul_the_Lion (2,260)
auutone posts the small blind of 25
orourket5 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SnickerSnack [6c Kc]
Paul_the_Lion calls 50
SnickerSnack calls 50
skip1640 folds
strohsix folds
Leinad W folds
CHEEKS folds
auutone folds
orourket5 checks
*** FLOP *** [6d Th 8d]
orourket5 checks
Paul_the_Lion checks
SnickerSnack bets 100
orourket5 calls 100
Paul_the_Lion calls 100
*** TURN *** [6d Th 8d] [Kd]
orourket5 bets 475
Paul_the_Lion folds
SnickerSnack raises to 1,275, and is all in
orourket5 calls 720, and is all in
SnickerSnack shows [6c Kc]
orourket5 shows [3c 5d]
Uncalled bet of 80 returned to SnickerSnack
*** RIVER *** [6d Th 8d Kd] [9d]
SnickerSnack shows two pair, Kings and Sixes
orourket5 shows a flush, King high
orourket5 wins the pot (2,865) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,865 | Rake 0
Board: [6d Th 8d Kd 9d]
Seat 1: SnickerSnack showed [6c Kc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Sixes
Seat 2: skip1640 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: strohsix didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Leinad W didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: CHEEKS (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: auutone (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: orourket5 (big blind) showed [3c 5d] and won (2,865) with a flush, King high
Seat 9: Paul_the_Lion folded on the Turn

-Tommy

Recompense

2006-08-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

I finally recieved the "apology" letter from Sam's Town.

Full text is below.

Dear Tommy,

I have recieved a number of comments regarding the structure of our World Series of Poker satellite tournament that you recently played in. Unfortunately, the comments were mostly negative. I am sorry if your experience at the tournament was not as pleasant or as enjoyable as you have become accustomed to. I would like to take a moment to not only apologize but also to assure you, as well as all of our guests, that the Sam's Town Poker Room maintains the highest regard for our customers' experience as well as their opinions.

Toward that end, I am commiting to all of you, and to anyone else who considers playing in our future qualifiers, that prior to the first kickoff event, the format and structures of the finals will be included in the rules. I understand that this does not help with the recently concluded tournament, however we are committed to making every reasonable effort toward regaining the confidence and trust of all those who expressed displeasure with that format.

As a further expression of our regret and a future desire to express our appreciation for you, please accept our offer for a free entry into one of our $45.00 buy-in evening tournaments. Bring this letter to register for any one of these events through August 31, 2006.

In closing, we appreciate your business and would like to demonstrate our sincerity. Please feel free to contact me at (702) 454-8092, Tuesday through Saturday if you would like to comment or discuss this further.

Sincerely,
Dick Gatewood
Poker Room Manager
Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall
702.454.8092

I used the letter (and my own $20 for the rebuy that is really an add-on) last weekend, and took down 1st, but I'm still not happy with their new blind structures. After talking about it with the tournament director, he agreed to consider my position, and actually ran the tournaments on Sunday evening with the old structure. I chopped for two (there were only 10 of us, so not that impressive) in the one I played in that night, and made quite a bit at the 4/8 tables in between, so it was a pretty good weekend.

Tomorrow night I'm going to head out to the Rio to watch the ME final table, assuming I can get in.

-Tommy

Selfloathing and Stud

2006-08-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

Stud Tournaments are not for sane people, but it's what I was in the mood for when I woke up last friday, and made for the start to a great weekend.

As FeliciaLee recently wrote, "Stud is a bad tourney game... The five betting rounds are killer... If the structure is fair, long, with a lot of chips, it turns into a race for endurance. If the structure is short with no chips, it turns into a card catching contest. There is no good way to run a Stud tournament. It sucks no matter which way you look at it."

I pretty much agree, yet I'll probably play in another one soon.

I've been playing Hold'em for almost two years now, and only for the last year with any seriousness, but I have been playing stud since I was 6 years old, and recently (as any poker player I've talked to in the last 2 months knows) have been gravitating back towards it. I think this may be because I burned myself out when I played in at least one Hold'em tournament every night during the month of April. Since then, I haven't played any Hold'em cash games whatsoever, preferring to spend that time playing stud, and saving Hold'em for when I can invest enough time to play in tournaments.

But Friday morning, I just felt different. I had a lot of time to waste, wanted to play in a tournament (I much prefer chasing the big payday to grinding), but wasn't in the mood for Hold'em. Since I suck at Omaha (something I will eventually get around to fixing), the choice was clear.

I was playing very well, and was actually holding the chip lead through the entire tournament, right up until the bubble, where things suddenly went very bad. Somehow I ended up on the 4 player table (vs. the 5 player table... 8 spots would be paid) with the three short stacks, and even though I was the overall chiplead, combined the four of us had only 1/3 of the chips in play. And then I went card dead.

I was chipped all the way down to the short stack when I began to throw a fit. I was ranting to my poor roomate about how fucked up Party (and most other sites) are about their "table breaking algorithms" (something I could, and one day will, write an entire post on), and how I was getting fucked by poor structure rather than bad play. I was fairly certain I was about to bubble out, and looking back, I am ashamed at how bad I let myself tilt.

And that's when it happened. I got lucky. Crazy lucky.

Although I had not been rolled the entire tournament, with T3200 left, at 3000/6000 stakes with 500 antes, I hit my first rolled hand, filled it with all four players still in the hand, and managed to slightly more than triple up.

Only two hands later it happened again, and I simultaneously busted out the new short stack while slightly more than doubling up. I was now third shortest stack, at the final table, and was determined to calm myself down, play smart, and win this thing.

I am still amazed at how bad half the players at the final table were, but there were at least 2 players that I knew were good (Major and Gtx), that I recognized as regulars from cash games. Arrogant as it may sound, I also knew that I could outplay them. I waited for cards, and watched player after player bust out.

When there were only 3 left, I knew I had won. One player was short, and all but guaranteed to go out on the next hand with a little implicit collusion, and the other player was positively horrible. Despite his 3 to 1 chip lead on me, I had not a doubt in my mind that I could take him headsup.

And obviously, I did.

It was not the biggest win I had all weekend (I had a great run of cards last weekend, taking down two live Hold'em tournaments, and cashing in two other live Hold'em tournaments, making for a fantastic weekend), but it was by far the most satisfying.

-Tommy

Cowboys and Bullets Blues

2006-07-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

I've been having a really tough week. I've busted out of 5 different tournaments holding either AA or KK. The first time I admit to having played the hand wrong when I limped my red rockets UTG expecting a raise, only to have 5 other limpers follow me in, and an all spade flop. I've put a lot of thought into the other 4 hands, and they were all just bad luck, but that is still hard to take in such a short period of time.

The images at right are from an online tournament I played in on Friday afternoon. A little over 4 hours of work to bust out in 12th of 550 for a paltry $140. The insanely lucky ronny52 managed to take my chips on to 3rd place for nearly $1500. I like to think I'd have taken them the whole way, but don't we all.

I had a conversation with flipchip while watching the early stages of the headsup match between Andy Bloch and Chip Reese about the fiasco of a tournament that Sam's Town held last month. After getting complaints from nearly everyone in the tournament, including the winners, they sent out letters to the 30 players that were in the tournament offering them a free buy-in in any of the regular daily tournaments. That's only $45, but it's $45 they didn't have to offer at all, so I went by this weekend to see why I haven't gotten a letter yet. Supposedly it's in the mail.

Since I was there, I hopped into the 7pm, and later, the 11pm tournaments. AA cracked by KK. KK cracked by TT. Unbelievable. But I did make it far enough to decide that I hate the new buyin and blind structure. It's positively stupid. I think I'll be spending my weekend nights down at Binion's for awhile.

But right now, it's time for a break from poker. More, perhaps, later.

-Tommy

Titles Are Hard

2006-07-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

"We got a eight foot tall blogger? Are you fucking kidding me? Hi, I'm PokerGrub... I just puked in this trash can man." -Iggy

I missed the blogger tournament (I was up all night celebrating my birthday and think I went to bed right around the time it started), but I finally caught up with the bloggers on Saturday night. Like everyone else, I can't remember all the names, so I'm just gonna list a few memorable moments.

- Drinking heavily whilst playing a rousing bout of "Spot the Hooker" with Eva, Iggy, Spaceman, Bobby Bracelet, and Iakaris, and at least 20 others who came and left. I don't think we actually saw that many hookers, but calling them all hookers is just as fun.

- Dinner in Sherwood Forest with most of the same, with the addition of Marty (Iggy's Bodyguard?) and Derek. The waiter sucked, the food sucked, and the 2 hour wait for the food sucked, but the company was good.

- Getting my ass kicked by YoSoyVeneno when I challenged her to a match after hearing that she'd won the RoShamBo tournament earlier in the day. I'm still on RPS tilt after losing to the triple rock. She claimed she didn't want to play for anything higher than $10, to ensure she'd still have cab money. I was totally setup.

- The 6 hour marathon of Pai Gow, constantly taking action on each other's fortune bonuses with Otis, Maigrey (who was actually playing all 4 hands for us, and shall hereafter be the PaiGow Princess to me, since I ended up $175 with her help), Chilly, and some crazy looking filipino dude with a bloodshot left eye named Artoo. I think he stabbed someone in the parking lot when he left the table for about 45 minutes, but he was still cool, and totally into what we were about. SHIP IT!

...

Sunday I went to see the taping at Poker Dome. Never again. Speed poker it may have been, but there was a 15 minute break after every hand where we were subjected to the long rambling speeches of a madman and his candy. Most of the people playing were not really that good, and the player that won did so mainly because he was a card rack like never before seen.

After the show I headed over to the MGM to meet my Mom, but she had just left for dinner with her new husband, so I decided it was a good time to finally go check out the new poker room. When I got there, they needed one more player to get a $60 SNG started, so I jumped in. The structure was awful, with $1k starting chips, 25/50 blinds to start, doubling for each 12 minute level. I bubbled in 3rd. 1st place paid $300 and 2nd $200. I haven't decided yet how I feel about the whole experience, and I think I could have played better (I was drinking, which I usually don't do when I play) so I'll probably try it again sometime.

Actually, that last sentence pretty much sums up my feelings about the blogger gathering as a whole.

-Tommy

7/7 = Super Birthday Luck Powers(tm)

2006-07-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday, and my Super Birthday Luck Powers(tm) are in full effect. I've cracked pocket aces twice already this morning, once with a well timed 8To bluff. When you're born on the 7th hour of the 7th day of the 7th month, you're gonna grow up to be a gambler. I can't imagine what a powerhouse of luck I would have turned out to be if I had been born next year instead.

I headed up to the Bellagio a little after eleven last night to see if any of the blogger crew that are in town were about, but didn't recognize anyone. I didn't actually expect to, but figured it wouldn't hurt to stop by on my way to the Rio to see the Hellmuth heads up match in progress.

I ran into Pauly in the hallway on the way in to the Rio, but he didn't have time to talk, being on his way to piss and needing to get back to covering the game before it was over. It was because of his coverage that I was even there, but since his posting had slowed down in the evening, I joked with him that it was his lack of coverage that brought me there. "That's because nothings fucking happening in there man.", he replied. I lost track of him after that.

I don't care if Phill Hellmuth is a whiny "brat" or not, I really wanted to see him win, the way that I always want to see skill win out over luck (yes, despite my Super Birthday Luck Powers(tm)). Knowing that there are people like him is the sort of thing that helps me keep my head together everytime that some total idiot makes an awful bet or call and sucks out on me on the river. I need to see the pro beat the guy playing in his first live tournament ever. Sadly, I didn't get to see it last night. Maybe Chan will pull it off for me tonight in the stud tourney.

As soon as I finish this post, I'm headed down to the MGM, but not for the reasons most would expect. The poker bloggers are all meeting down there tonight, but through sheer coincidence, it is also the place where I put my mother up for the weekend, being the closest strip hotel to my apartment. I arranged the trip here to vegas for her a few months ago, when she told me she was getting married, which happened yesterday. I haven't met the guy yet, but she seems very happy, so I suppose I'll be nice to him. I'll probably stop by the poker room to see if anyone is around, but one of the side effects of spending the majority of my life as a drifter is that I've only seen my mom 5 times in the last 10 years, so the chance to spend time with her wins over a bunch of people I don't know very well is a no brainer.

I don't know if I'l make it to the big blogger tourney at ten oclock in the eaarly fucking morning tomorrow (I'll likely be getting done drinking just an hour or two before that), but I am gonna try. If only because there is bound to be a lot of dead money on the tables from people with little to no live experience.

If not, maybe I'll finally run into someone at the Poker Dome show. Strangely, my second passion after poker is domes. There is one (obviously not erected) on the floor under my desk as I type. Seriously.

That's all for now, and if I hadn't mentioned it already, it's my birthday.

-Tommy

Around Here, We Call That a Weekend

2006-07-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

new bartender: "You guys out on some kind of a bender?"
roommate: "What's a bender?"
new bartender: "When you drink heavily for a few days straight."
roommate: "Oh, around here we call that a 'weekend'"

My name is Tommy and I'm an alcoholic, albeit a highly functioning one. I don't have much time today, but I need to write this fast and lengthy post from work just to get some of it out before I lose it, or as usually happens, lose interest in posting it.

I blame Full Tilt and their cushy room with free beer for starting this weekend off all wrong (exactly right). It was in that room that I demanded the gentlemen that looked exactly like my roommate "Hold my fucking beer for a minute, fucker."

Of course, he only looked exactly like my roommate when I wasn't looking at him. When I turned my head in his direction, he actually looked exactly like someone who was not my roomate. As it was, he took it well, and handed both me and my roomate $50 gift certificates for Titan Poker.

That may have been a mistake.

On the back of these cards was one of those scratch off area hiding the bonus code that grants the owner a free $50 when creating an account for Titan Poker. Later, at another bar, we scratched off these areas to reveal that they had the exact same code, and out of curiosity, we gave the code away to half a dozen friends, all of which have recieved the $50 with no problems. This isn't some kind of first deposit bonus, or anything like that, it's just $50. When I created the account, I tried to withdraw the cash immediately, but got an email the next day saying I need to accumulate 2500 points first, so I plan to do that later to get my free money.

The code is "44F2F". I don't know if there is anyway to use it if you've already got an account. As a matter of full disclosure, I stand to gain absolutely nothing from use of this code. You're welcome, pass it on.

The next morning, I was a bit groggy when I got up a little after noon, and decided that I wanted to play an MTT on party, but given my mental condition opted to throw my money away on a small stakes game, and bought into the first $6 tourney I saw. Three hands into it I caught pocket Queens UTG and went for a standard 3BB raise when I suddenly realized I'd fucked up and bought into a limit tournament. Pissed off, I decided to go ahead and play it somewhat seriously since I'd already paid the price of admission, and somehow donked my way into 3rd place for a win of $427.

I'm not sure why, but it seems that whenever I play in limit tourneys, I do well. I think it's because the type of people who play in low stakes limit tourneys are really, really bad players. About two weeks ago I had made the same mistake and cashed somewhere in the 30s.

Later that night, out drinking again with friends, they all started bothering me to tell them what the numbers from "Lost" were so they could put them in the Keno machine again. I refused on the grounds that the last time I hit big and then got fucking arrested the next day, and ended up losing half my bankroll the following week.

Instead, we each (five of us) picked a different number, and made a side prop bet that if we hit all but one, the missing number had to walk home. Sure enough about 2 hours and $60 (playing 50 cents a pull) later we hit it, and mine was the missing number. My keys were promptly confiscated, which was irritating, though I was unconcerned having walked home from the bar we were in on several other occasions.

I quickly made another proposition, "If we hit 5 of 5 before the remaining money runs out, then I get my keys back.", and immediately snatched my keys when we hit 5 of 5 on the very last pull of the night, which scored us a little over $400. We had all gone to this particular bar to support a friend in need of rent money who was tending for the night and only took what we'd put in originally and left the rest as a tip.

On and off over the weekend, I have been following Otis' coverage on the Official Poker Stars Blog rather closely. I highly recommend it, even if it a bit (naturally) biased. He had me totally rooting for Joe Hachem over Dutch Boyd last night, and crushed when it didn't pan out for him. Then I came to my senses and realized that I didn't care if either guy won, as long as it didn't go to another Tiffany Williamson.

If anybody has a Full Tilt bag with the number 4648 on it, please get in touch with me so we can meet up and get us some free iPods. If anybody knows of an online registry for matching these numbers up, please let me know.

Update: The number is actually 4684, and I found this thread on twoplustwo. Guess I'll have finally to give up my lurker status.

I really need to figure out how I'm going to scrape up the $2500 to enter event #13 this friday. There is something about playing in the unlucky numbered event that begins on 7/7 that appeals to me. That, and it's my birthday... and if I need any other reasons, my mom is coming to town on her honeymoon, so an extra excuse to not have to accompany her and her new husband on touristy type tours couldn't hurt.

-Tommy

Sky Rockets in Flight

2006-06-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

This post has nothing to do with poker, but with the WSOP opening this week, I figure there is a good chance that anyone reading this may be in Vegas, and may want to witness something really, really cool tonight.

"The final piece of Boeing's new generation Delta 4 rocket fleet makes its long-awaited debut this week when a booster blasts off from the U.S. West Coast for the first time, punctuating the company's work to develop a line of launchers and build pads in Florida and California."

The launch will happen between 7pm and 9pm this evening, and should be quite visible from Vegas. The last time I saw one of these, in September 2002, it caught me off guard and completely freaked me out.

Launch status can be watched at http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d317/status.html

-Tommy

Tournament from Hell

2006-06-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

"You're gonna love the blind structure."

That was what the Sam's Town tournament director said to me the night before the big WSOP freeroll. When I saw the posted structure on Saturday night, it hit me that he must have been being sarcastic. When I asked him what in the hell would make him think I'd want a structure so aggressive his reply was, "Because you're one of the most aggressive players here." I almost passed out. That a tournament director would think those two things are somehow related in anyway other than sharing an adjective is mind boggling.

It was the single worst tournament I have ever played in, or likely ever will.

They never posted the blind structure prior to the tournament. What I thought was going to be a good, long, fun tournament where skill would be most likely to win out in the end was more like a Party Poker speed freeroll. Worse actually.

We each started with stacks of $10k, and blinds of 100/100, but the blinds were doubled on almost every level (which was only every 20 minutes), and at level 5 (500/1000) antes were introduced.

After the second break we began level 7 with 20 stacks remaining, and an average stack size of 15k. The blinds were already up to 2k / 4k with a 500 ante. The pot was 11k before the cards were even fucking dealt, and we were all playing in the Red Zone (if we were lucky). I was having flashbacks of barracks games of two card guts in my Marine Corps days. Push or fold.

I finally lost when it was my turn in the big blind, and the antes had whittled what had earlier been a decent size stack to a mere to 15.5k, and I was worried about my ability to survive another orbit. One player had raised up to 11k, no other players were calling, the small blind folded, and I looked down at A8. If it wasn't for the temptation of a 7k call on a 22k pot, and I hadn't been blind with rage, I wouldn't have made the call. I know the player that raised it well enough to know he was only coming in with a monster, but I clung to the hope that I had 2 live cards, one of them an ace. It was a huge mistake that cost me a WSOP seat.

When the flop came 8 5 2, I pushed with TPTK, and he called and flipped up the bullets. Like any half decent player, I don't hit 2-outers, they hit me, and so his aces held up.

I had a long talk with the tournament director afterwards. The entire thing was bullshit, and I believe that Sam's Town has lost at least 20 good customers over the whole ordeal, myself definitely included. It really sucked for those of us that put in the time and effort to get into such an important event, only to find that our odds were barely better than pulling 10 names out of a hat and declaring them the winners. It was rumored that the structure was set that way due to a lack of tables (normally extra tables are set up in the sports book when the room is full, but the sports book wouldn't allow it due to a huge fight night), and managements desire to get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.

Possibly worse, they've changed the regular weekly night tournaments to have a more aggressive structure as well, and lowered the buyins from $65 to $45. Did they lower the juice as well? Yeah, from $18 to $15. I was grudgingly ok with the high house cut when it was going towards paying for my potential WSOP seat, but now it's just ridiculous. I guess it's time to investigate the tournaments on the strip, which I absolutely dread.

Flipchip scored a $1500 seat. His combination of extremely tight play, and a monster victory when his AA held up against a nearly same sized stack's KK carried him through to the final table.

...

I also played in the cluster fuck of a tournament put on by Poker Stars on Sunday, which without having seen the tourney I just spoke of, you'd probably thought that was what the title of this entry was about.

All was going well, and I was actually in the top 20 chip stacks for the entire first hour. Immediately following the break, two really bad things happened.

First, a total idiot appeared at our table with a stack about half as large as mine, angry at his misfortune for starting at a table full of no shows, and was in the middle of blinding them out when the table broke. He then proceeded to push me all-in preflop with a KTo against my KK, and cracked em for half my stack when he flopped one ten and turned the second.

Second, the moment that hand was done, our table was broken. I barely had time to register what had just occured when I was moved to a new table, with 4 no shows on my right, and 4 wild men on my left, two of which now had stacks larger than mine. I was suddenly playing in a 5 handed poker tournament in which I was eternally out of position. Great fun.

Why didn't Poker Stars pick up the half a million no-shows within some reasonable period of time rather than letting them be blinded off by whatever lucky donkeys happened to draw good seats? I suppose we'll never know.

...

I watched the new Mansion Poker Dome show last night, and two things stood out in particular. Those look like the most comfortable chairs I've ever seen at a poker table, and I hate the way the dealer lays the flop out one card at a time. Other than that, the show wasn't particularly good or bad, but I hope it does well. Anything that improves the popularity of poker is good for all of us.

...

Anyhow, as is likely apparent in my ranting, I'm burned out on poker, and going to take a break. Not only that, but my bankroll is about to take another large hit due to car troubles, and practically forcing the situation. You could call it bad luck, but if not for the good fortune of taking down the $40k guaranteed at Party last month, I'd really be screwed, so I'm not at all bitter about it.

I'm going to have to pass on the WSOP this year, and focus on getting some aspects of my life back in order instead, but I'm not as upset about it as I thought I'd be. I've only been playing for real money for about a year now, and only in B&M rooms for less than 5 months, so a little more practice and experience is probably a good thing. I'll set better goals for next year and start planning earlier, and all will be well.

Seriously though, I'll probably scrape up the cash for at least one satellite, and maybe consider one of the offers I've had to be staked, though I doubt I'll accept. I'm extremely uncomfortable with the idea of playing with other peoples money, and even less so about being in implied debt.

-Tommy

Freaking Out

2006-06-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's really completely unlike me, but I am extremely stressed, anxious, and paranoid at the moment.

In about 2 hours, I sit down in a 30 man tournament (with flipchip from lasvegasvegas.com), of which the prize pool consists of WSOP seats of various values being awarded to the top 10 places. The top place award is a $10,000 main entry, and I will be extremely unhappy taking home anything less.

I've had a bad week. Last Friday night, as a complete joke, I played Keno (something I never do) for $1, using the numbers from "Lost". I hit 5 out of 6 with a 4x multiplyer for $218. It was quite funny at the time, given that I was with about 6 fans of the show.

The next day I got arrested on my way to the regular poker tournament. Standing in handcuffs on the side of Boulder Highway, I somehow managed to talk my way out of the bracelets, so long as I got everything cleared up by the end of the week. Turns out I forgot to finish paying off a ticket some 9 months ago, and the various charges and such had accumulated quite heavily. Goodbye very large chunk of bankroll.

I also haven't had a winning session of poker since, and as a result my head is in completely the wrong state to go play in what will be the most important tournament I've played in to date.

I owe all three of you readers a book review of Harrington's latest, and I swear to get it finished and put up this week. I personally scored 351 out of a possible 591, which is apparently "Ok" but not "Good". I haven't let it bother me though, as I strongly disagree with the scoring method, which I will furthur explain in my review. For now, let's just say the book is definitely worth the money, but you need to have read (and comprehended) the first two volumes to even bother with it.

Last night I stopped by the poker room to say hello and check out the seating assignments. I had previously told a friend that there were only 3 people in the entire tournament that I don't want at my starting table, and they're all there. It was widely agreed last night that the table that flipchip and I are starting at will be the absolute toughest group of opponents in the room.

I'm going to go make some burnt offerings or something, and pray that none of them show up. That would be so much easier than beating all of them.

But I still plan to do it the hard way if I must.

-Tommy

6/7/6

2006-06-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so last night didn't go exactly as planned.

I got to the tournament late, however, being Tuesday night they weren't exactly packed, and I got in as an alternate having missed only 4 hands. I drew seat 4 at table 4, and was doing well up until the first break, but busted out soon after in 11th place (of a paltry 17 total), when my limping 4c 5c caught a flop of 5d 5h Qc, got check raised by the BB who had a Qs Jd, re-raised him all in, and he caught his 2 outer on the river.

Such is poker.

Some good news though, I remain in the top 10 scorers for the Sam's Town WSOP freeroll. This is important because there is an extra prize of a $1000 seat for whoever lasts longest amongst the top 10. The tournament takes place on the 17th of June, but the qualifying period ends on the 11th, so with my 55 points I've got my postion practically locked up, as the 11th place person has only 44, and there are only a possible 14 points left.

And of final note, I made back my tournament fees ($103) last night by spending an hour at a 4/8 table with 3 drunks before heading home. I wouldn't have even considered it if I hadn't run into a dealer on break on my way out the door who tipped me off to the action.

Moral? Take care of your dealers, and they'll take care of you.

-Tommy

6/6/6

2006-06-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

I suppose, given the date, that it is practically mandatory that I head out to Sam's Town after work and take down the nightly tournament.

I originally named this journal after my height and (lack of) dress, but since then pocket sixes have worked like magic for me.

Two weeks ago Saturday in the same tournament mentioned above, I flopped quad sixes with 4 men left on the final table, and got crazy action, which sent me from the small stack to 50% of the chips in play instantly, and I went on to win it all.

This happened at table six.

The first live tournament that I won was in seat six at this same table.

This was the 4th time that I had flopped quad sixes in a tournamnet (twice online, twice live) since I started this blog, and the second time that it had been critical to winning. According to Poker Tracker, I have won more hands with pocket sixes than I have with jacks or queens.

This is all probably not even statistically impressive... just the results of my paying attention to it since starting this journal.

It still amuses me though.

Almost as much as the fact that I was born in the 7th hour on the 7th day of the 7th month.

-Tommy

P.S. "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook" arrived on Saturday, and at first glance there is more to it than a "workbook". I will try to get it read this week and take a shot at a review.

Lessons from a 26 Hour Session

2006-06-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Playing live poker for 26 hours straight is an experience I wouldn't necessarily recommend everyone try, but it was good for me (at least this once). I needed to know if I could still function and play under extreme conditions, and with the WSOP coming so soon, and the extra day off for the holiday, this past weekend seemed like as good a time as any to find out.

Unlike an actual marathon, I plan to do it again sometime, but with a few adjustments. Some of what I list below may seem obvious, but it wasn't to me at the time.

1. Hygiene
Nothing is worse in a card room than having that guy sit down next to you that clearly hasn't showered in a week, and towards the end of my run I became extremely self conscious about being that guy. Although I was repeatedly assured by other patrons and dealers that there was no discernable funk emanating from my person, next time I plan on taking a break to run home for a shower and change of clothes somewhere around the 16 hour mark. Getting a room in the hotel for this purpose is another option, but seems wasteful.

2. Location
As much as I like Sam's Town, it just doesn't have the clientele to keep a selection of good games running all night. I've been told the Bellagio is the perfect place to attempt this sort of thing, so I'll have to suck up my hatred of the strip (and the cattle that graze there) and go scout it out.

3. Get in shape
Even though Sam's Town has some of the nicest chairs one could expect from a poker room, sitting in them for extended periods of time is not exactly comfortable. I know from past experiences that the better condition I am in physically, the easier it is to tolerate the minor aches and pains that arise from these conditions. If nothing else, I need to start running again. Running in Vegas is a pain. I absolutely suck at getting out of bed early, and any other time of day is deadly. I'll have to figure something out.

4. Caffeine
Although it was necessary this time around, extended use of caffeine has major problems, the beneficial effects constantly decrease while causing an upset stomach and other physical ailments. The solution here is to lower my dependency on caffeine, preferably to the point of giving it up completely. I've already take steps towards this, quitting cold turkey on Monday. Today is the first day without the headache that accompanies the withdrawal process, and it is not by coincidence that it took me so long to get this post typed up. Hopefully I'll stick with it.

5. Food
I always play better on a full stomach, and being vegan (as in vegetarian, not Vegas) has its drawbacks when it comes to convenience. There is a Subway recently opened in Sam's Town, but they aren't open 24 hours, and even if they were they wouldn't be satisfying enough. Next time I'll need to bring some food and snacks along with me. Going home to shower and change as noted above may also be a good time to fill up, but something tells me that the combination will instead cause me to just go to bed.

6. Driver
On Sunday night I should have called Designated Drivers to get me home. I honestly wish I could say that I had. Nothing bad happened on the drive home, but it could have. I try not to drive when I'm drunk, and sleep deprivation causes the same symptoms. I can live the rest of my life knowing I got myself killed, but I couldn't handle my conscience if my irresponsible actions killed someone else. If you live in Vegas and don't have their number (702.456.RIDE) stored in your cell phone, you suck. If you're coming to Vegas and plan to drive, you should definitely have it handy. For $40 they'll take you AND your car from any place in the city to any place in the city. Conside the cost of a cab over the same distances, and the problems with retrieving your car later, and you'll understand why it is that when I use them I always tip an extra $20 minimum.

7. iPod
I need a way to recharge my iPod. When the battery finally gave out, I had a very hard time adjusting. Most noticeably (aside from the lack of music), I kept thinking something was in my ear. It damn near drove me nuts, and people were looking at me funny when I kept rubbing my ears to get rid of the sensation.

8. Be willing to stop
I am as stubborn as they come, and that's not good. There were several times when I considered going home, but instead decided to "just wait one more hour and see how it goes". Nothing bad came of staying, but certainly could have. Now that I've proven to myself that it can be done, perhaps the next time I'll be more willing to call it quits if things aren't going as optimally as they could be.

And there you have it. It seems like I had more to say on the matter a few days ago, but not getting it written down has caused me to lose it. There were a few anecdotes I was going to throw in as well, but in the end they were all just variations of, "at about 4am, this drunk idiot sucked out on me", and that makes for a boring read.

I can always add more in another post if I think of anything later.

-Tommy

P.S. "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook" shipped today. Hooray!

The Marathon

2006-05-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be the publishing date for "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook", which I pre-ordered, but my shipment now has an estimated delivery date of June 10th. This especially annoys me because I ordered 4 other books at the same time and accidentally chose "ship together".

...

I will never forget the time I ran a marathon. At the end I swore I would never do it again, and I can safely say that my word has remained good, and I have no reason to believe I will ever break that vow. 26 miles is about 6 miles more than the average body can handle, which is of course the point.

Starting Saturday night and carrying through most of Sunday, I played live poker for 26 hours straight.

In the hopes of conditioning myself for the WSOP, and just to see if I had what it takes, my original plan was to play poker for 24 hours straight, and then enter a tournament to see if I could still play well. I made it 2 hours into the tournament, but just didn't get the cards to finish. I did, however, learn a lot, and I will be posting more on the topic soon.

When it was all over, I'd lost just shy of $400. I was prepared to lose $1000 before calling the attempt a failure, so I partly feel like I came out ahead, but it would be a lot better to have actually won. A large part of my losses can be attributed to getting stuck playing 2/4 limit 6 or 7 handed for about 6 hours of the night due to it being the only table open.

You can't beat that game.

-Tommy

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

2006-05-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, me too.

Funny, I completely forgot about the last one of these. Good thing I was out playing in two live tourneys, cashing in the first, and taking down the second for a considerable amount more than staying home would have garnered.

I'm really going to try to make it to this one though. Should be easy to remember since it's the day after my live freeroll out at Sam's Town.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

At least I had enough sense to choose the only banner that doesn't flash.

-Tommy

God Hates You

2006-05-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

All those bad beats you've been taking lately?

Apparently, that's because you're a bad christian.

"At the end of the day the Christian is the only one who really knows how Texas Hold-em works. So next time you suck out on the river be sure and thank the one who did it, the Poker God- the Triune God, the only true God."

Whodda thunk it?

-Tommy

Just Another Day in Pokerland

2006-05-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

While searching for a rare copy of "Applications aux Jeux des Hazard" by Emile Borel, I ran across this recently completed thesis titled "Pseudo-Optimal Strategies in No-Limit Poker" by some guy named Rickard Andersson. If you're at all interested in game theory, poker, and/or computer science, it's definitely worth a read.

If by some weird twist of fate you're reading this and you aren't interested in any of those things, I'm worried about you.

...

I think I was the first person to bust out of the American Poker Player Championship No-Limit Hold'em w/ Bounties $500 + $50 Tournament on Friday morning. I didn't bother to ask, as I was in no condition to talk to anyone after what happened. There won't be anything else of real interest to read in this post, so don't continue if you don't want to hear yet another bad beat story. I won't be offended.

After about 30 minutes of play, I had a small dent in my starting stack from the only hand I'd gotten involed in when I ran my AJ into a QQ on a Jack high flop. It was fortunately a small dent because I was playing rather tight, and didn't have plans on busting out with top pair, and fortunately, neither did my opponent. I wasn't really catching cards, but I wasn't letting it bother me either.

I was UTG on the 3rd orbit when I got 6h 7h, and decided that since the rest of the table was playing fairly tight as well, I'd limp in hoping to see a flop. There were 4 other limpers behind me, checks from both of the blinds (still at 25/25), and the flop was dealt 5s 6s 7d.

Both blinds checked, and so I bet about 2/3 the size of the pot hoping to run off anyone chasing either a flush or straight draw. The player acting immediately after me called without hesitation, and everyone else folded. I was somewhat concerned, until the 7s came on the turn, giving me the full house.

I realized even then that it was possible that my heads up opponent had the straight flush, but I assumed that if he had just made it, then he would have already flopped a straight, and with 3 guys acting after him, raised my initial bet instead of just calling. I had him on a flush draw, a shaky call, but not necessarily if he had the Ace and thought his call would sweeten the odds for those behind him. After a second of thinking about it, I checked and he pushed all-in. I called since it was exactly what I'd wanted in the first place.

When he turned up the king high flush I was very happy with myself, though somewhat confused about the lack of an ace.

"Well, at least you have an out." said the chatty middle eastern guy wearing the gaudy Evlis glasses.

... Huh?

I didn't understand what he was talking about or who he was talking to until the dealer illustrated it for me with the 8s on the river. My opponent's kicker was the nine.

I was seated at the furthest table back, and had to make the longest "walk of shame" possible. I didn't pay attention to the size of Spaceman's stack as I passed him on my way out, but I hope he played well. I regret not hanging out to watch for a bit, but my head just wasn't in it at the time.

-Tommy

P.S. Later that night I placed in the money in both tournaments out at Sam's Town, so I recouped my $550 and a little extra, but regardless, my memory for the day is overwhelmingly of a huge loss.

First Big Win

2006-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Sure, it may not be that big of a win to everyone, but after 6 hours of play and 13 cans of Coke, I cleared a field of 2382 players to take first place in the Party Poker $40k Guaranteed NL Hold'em tournament last night, for a prize far larger than any I've won so far.

Man, what a rush. Going to bed was impossible, and even now at work I'm functioning off the high as if I'd had a full nights sleep instead of the three hours I spent laying in bed trying to stop thinking about it.

We cut a deal at the end, with 5 players remaining. I had 35.6% of the chips in play, and using the "auto chop by chips" option, my cut came out to $6,728.08. If we were to play it out, first would have paid $10k, second $5k, and 3rd through fifth obviously less. The other 4 players agreed, and my bankroll is now considerably bigger than it was this time yesterday.

I'd like to say that I was playing really well, but there was some serious luck involved. For instance, I was the large stack going into the fourth hour of play, and remained so due to being dealt pocket Aces twice, and pocket Kings six fucking times.

Yes, that's 8 pocket Ks or better in one hour.

And not only did they all got action, all but one held up. The one that didn't hold up was against a stack so short he'd have been blinded out in two orbits anyhow.

How did I get to be the big stack going into the fourth hour? I raised UTG with pocket 3s, and some tourist smooth calls me with pocket As from the button, and immediately raised me allin on a rainbow flop of 732. So funny

I did eventually get to display some skill at the final table. I was 6th stack coming onto it, and quickly took charge, making some amazing calls on two key bluffs which would have killed me if I had been wrong... but I wasn't.

Not a bad return on $22.

-Tommy

Overcooked

2006-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

My brain is officially toasted. I have been playing for shit all weekend, and honestly, have been for about two weeks. I've decided not to make the run at first place overall, but instead take a few weeks off to relax, and read some more books.

In the interest of forcing myself to be honest about my skills (or lack of) as a player, I'm posting my spreadsheet for the 39 live tournaments (Once daily, Twice on Fridays and Saturdays) I've played during the month of April.

I was suprised at the results, and thanks to my spectacular lack of performance these last few days, I'm finishing in the red. I probably over-tipped (at least, according to Caro), and I was definitely surprised to find out just how high the tourney fees were ($18 @ 7pm, $13 @ 11pm), but in the end I know I'm red because I made too many mistakes, the main being that I played long after I was mentally capable.

So enough whining, here are the numbers:

Date	Time	Entry	Won	Tips	Profit	Placed	Points	Notes
01-Apr	7pm	$103			($103)	30th	0
01-Apr	11pm	$126	$440	$40	$171	Chop 3	2	Rebought as alternate.
02-Apr	7pm	$103	$50		$118	10th	1
03-Apr	7pm	$103	$60		$75	8th	1
04-Apr	7pm	$103			($28)	13th	0
05-Apr	7pm	$103	$550	$50	$369	Chop 3	2
06-Apr	7pm	$103			$266	16th	0
07-Apr	7pm	$206	$50		$110	10th	1	Rebought as alternate.
07-Apr	11pm	$63			$47	16th	0
08-Apr	7pm	$103			($56)	20th	0
08-Apr	11pm	$63	$650	$50	$481	Chop 3	2
09-Apr	7pm	$103			$378	26th	0
10-Apr	7pm	$103	$495	$50	$720	Chop 3	2	Only 20 entrants. Top 3 paid.
11-Apr	7pm	$206			$514	14th	0	Rebought as alternate.
12-Apr	7pm	$103			$411	17th	0
13-Apr	7pm	$103			$308	24th	0
14-Apr	7pm	$103	$435	$40	$600	Chop 5	2
14-Apr	11pm	$63			$537	15th	0
15-Apr	7pm	$103	$170	$10	$594	5th	2
15-Apr	11pm	$63	$60		$591	7th	1
16-Apr	7pm	$103			$488	16th	0
17-Apr	7pm	$103			$385	4th	2	Only 23 entrants. Top 3 paid.
18-Apr	7pm	$103			$282	15th	0
19-Apr	7pm	$206			$76	30th	0	Rebought as alternate.
20-Apr	7pm	$103	$260	$25	$208	4th	2
21-Apr	7pm	$103	$170	$10	$265	5th	2
21-Apr	11pm	$63			$202	?	0
22-Apr	7pm	$103			$99	?	0
22-Apr	11pm	$63			$36	?	0
23-Apr	7pm	$103	$100		$33	9th	1
24-Apr	7pm	$103	$150	$20	$60	4th	2
25-Apr	7pm	$103			($43)	21st	0
26-Apr	7pm	$103	$600	$60	$394	Chop 5	2	$600 for 1st.500 for 2nd - 5th.
27-Apr	7pm	$103			$291	13th	0
28-Apr	7pm	$206	$100	$10	$175	7th	1	Rebought as alternate.
28-Apr	11pm	$63			$112	19th	0
29-Apr	7pm	$103			$9	29th	0
29-Apr	11pm	$63			($54)	26th	0
30-Apr	7pm	$103	$60	$10	($107)	10th	1
Totals		$4,132	$4,400	$375	($107)		29

I have more thoughts on the matter, but am not in the mood to write them up just now.

Time for another intermission.

-Tommy

The Fix is in

2006-04-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

In last night's tournament I chopped five ways (uneven... I demanded extra compensation for having top stack and being on the button at the time), scoring 2 points towards the W.S.O.P. freeroll tournament, and locking in top score for the month at 27 points.

The next closest person in score is at 14 points, and there are only 12 possible points left in the month. It felt good, but now I have an important decision to make.

I really need another intermission. Playing in a live tournament every single day (and twice on Fridays & Saturdays) for 26 days in a row has been a lot more demanding, both physically and mentally, than I realized it would be... and now I'm considering keeping it up for another month and a half.

The top point leader overall for the entire period through June 11th gets a $1000 W.S.O.P entry. My current total points are 39, which puts me in 6th place overall. The current point leader has 54 points, but started in January, and has scored only 10 points in the last 27 days, in which time I just told you I scored 27. I am almost certain that I can catch him, but it will be close, and will require the sacrifice of some important plans I have in May.

There is also a $1000 seat awarded to whoever lasts longest in the freeroll of the top 10 point scores overall, so you can be sure that I'll be defending my top 10 position no matter what happens.

Between those two bonuses, and the W.S.O.P seats of varying value to be awarded to the top 10 finishers of the 30 person freeroll, there is a lot of potential here, and I'm really glad I put in the effort to secure my position.

I'm going to continue playing everyday through next Tuesday, and make a decision about the push for first when I see the point totals updated, and have slept on it some over the weekend.

-Tommy

The Doctor Appointment

2006-04-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

"That girl is totally out of your league." -Spaceman

"Sure man, but she's a fan..." -Dr. Pauly

On Thursday night I was at the final table of yet another tournament out at Sam's Town, with most of the usual suspects, and one total donkey who just wouldn't bust. He'd been forced all-in by the blinds twice already, (the first time he caught QQ, a feat he would repeat later, the second time he was holding an 8T offsuit and flopped trips) when one of the regulars made a push with a QJ. This particular time the mark was holding AQ, and the flop came A K 8. The regular was turning to walk away when the 3 came on the turn, and when the T fell on the river, he headed over towards the tournament director to collect his winnings.

The straight hadn't registered with him, and as we called him back to the table I said to him under my breath, "Hey! Sometimes the good guys suck out too."

"Yep."

Little did I know at that moment that this particular regular, who I was also seated with at the starting table of the first tournament I ever played at Sam's Town, was the infamous flipchippro.

The next night during a break, I walked over to talk to another regular that I routinely joke around with. He was engaged in a conversation with flipchip at the time, and as I waited patiently for them to finish their conversation, I couldn't help but notice the business card that was slid across the felt at the conclusion.

"You're with the lasvegasvegas.com guys?", I inquired.

"Yes."

"Dr. Pauly and them?"

"Yeah, I had lunch with him today."

"Wow, it'd be kinda cool to meet him."

I didn't really mean it as a request, just a thought made verbal, but without hesitation he responded, "Come out to the Bellagio tomorrow and I'll introduce you."

We chatted for a few more seconds, and as the break ended, I returned to my own table.

The next morning as I was waking up and catching up on my morning news rituals, I got an email from my friend Philo Vivero, aka Timeless, aka Tim Ellis, who was mentioned in Forbes magazine last week for his crazy DBA skills, without which digg.com would not be where they are today, and I got involved in a somewhat lengthy IM conversation with him.

I mentioned the Bellagio invitation thingy, and that I wasn't going, based on the facts that I hate the strip, I especially hate the strip on Saturdays, and I really don't want to be seen as some kind of fucking stalker. He suggested that I was an idiot for passing up an opportunity to at least go see what a serious poker tournament is like, but it was this conversation with another friend that eventually changed my mind:

xxxxx: So, like, if you were to somehow defy all probability and win the WSOP, this guy would be writing about you?
tommy: That's not gonna happen.
xxxxx: But if it did, and you had bought him a drink a few months before, he'd probably write nice things about you.
tommy: Yeah, not gonna happen.
xxxxx: Go buy him a drink anyway, fuckwad.

And so it was that at approximately 4 PM, I set out for the strip.

I should mention how much I fucking hate the strip. I hate it nearly as much as I hate the cattle that make up the strip, spending all their time blocking street & foot traffic inside and outside of the casinos, staring at the whatever pretty lights they've most recently come across. These vile loathings alone make me doubt that I could hack it as a true professional poker player, who would be forced to deal with them regularly.

I got to the Fontana Room just in time to see Johnny Chan bust out to a flopped boat, and yet he left the table with a smile and the grace of a true professional that I rarely get to see in the tournaments that I've been playing in. Later, as I was walking around the casino I spotted him sitting near a bank of Video Poker machines by himself, smoking a cigar. My first thought was to go over and bother him, but then it occurred to me that I'm not a fucking tourist and opted for the head nod of recognition instead. I was rewarded with a wink, and continued happily on my way.

Eventually I spotted flipchippro and Dr. Pauly, and headed over. After introductions and some chatter, I was also introduced to Spaceman (who was sitting quietly nearby typing on his laptop), and my offer to buy drinks was quickly accepted. As soon as the break rolled around we headed to the infamous "Hooker Bar", joined by their friend and fellow journalist Mike Friedman. After a round of drinks, some random people watching, and a little light conversation about nothing terribly important, they headed back inside. Definitely a cool group of guys.

I took off for Sam's Town. My run at the points there has been going extremely well, and I'll make time to write about it soon.

-Tommy

On the Run

2006-04-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

It all came down to Saturday night.

I had been wanting to make a run at locking in a seat, and April seemed the perfect month to do it, but I didn't have the bankroll necessary for it without a few early wins, so I told myself that I would only go for it if I made the money on Saturday night.

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been playing regular tournaments out at Sam's Town. I also mentioned that I was up quite a bit of money from playing these, and that there is a points system that awards seats for a helluva W.S.O.P. freeroll satellite.

Well, I had a big win on Sat night, and so began my run at the seat, which will be continued by my playing in every one of April's 39 tournaments (nightly at 7pm, with an additional tournament on Fri & Sat at 11pm). I have been doing very well, in fact, I'm in the lead, with 6 points for 6 tournaments played.

Sure, it's only the first week, but if I can maintain it, at this rate I will far surpass the point totals for any of the previous monthly winners. If I fail, the attempt itself will likely give me enough points to get in as one of the top 22 point totals, of which I am already 18th from playing only on Fri & Sat nights.

I'll get the details of the contest and post them here when I remember to do so, but I'm still debating whether or not to post the spreadsheet I'm using to track my progress.

-Tommy

Crosswired?

2006-03-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

It may not have been a night at the Playboy Mansion, but I went Skydiving with a few friends on Saturday morning. The experience was surreal, and strangely enough, I experienced no adrenal response to it whatsoever.

Later that evening, during a live tournament, I was forced all-in by the big blind with a Q9 diamond suited. UTG raised all-in, seat 6 called, and they each flipped up pocket jacks. When I made the flush on the turn, I was hit by that familiar monster rush of adrenaline, and later when I stopped long enough to think about it, realized just how fucked up that is.

I've been thinking about it frequently ever since, and I have decided that the lack of response to jumping out of the plane was probably due to shock. Thinking back on the situation, everything is sort of hazy and daydream like, to the point that I could probably be convinced that it didn't actually happen. Shock makes for a perfectly valid explanation.

As for poker, that moment is still crystal clear in my mind, but I can't rationalize the adrenal response.

I could almost understand it if the "fight or flight" had kicked in before I won the hand, but I've been in enough similar hands to know that it doesn't, and in fact, I only get the rush after I've won a very large or critical pot. Losing the hand brings only that momentary sickness of stomach.

So why the adrenaline? There is clearly no need for either "fight" or "flight" after winning a hand. I haven't figured it out yet, but I suspect it's important to understanding more about myself, and about my game.

-Tommy

Blogger Tourneys are Rigged

2006-03-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is Nate. Nate is one of two guys that owns Divebar, a Las Vegas drinking establishment that is as fine and upstanding as its name implies, and far too close to my apartment.

Moments before taking this photo, when Nate inquired, "Why are you writing on me?", I calmly told him, "Because I'm going to make you famous bro."

"Sweet, I love you man!", replied my understatedly drunken mark.

Taking this photo was one of my last few conscious actions on Saturday night, and probably a large part of why I finished so damned poorly in the WPBT tournament on Sunday night. I rarely get hangovers, but I was hurting like hell Sunday, and after adding that to the insane pollen levels we had over the weekend, I just wasn't on my game. It didn't help that I got sucked out on, either. I did at least enjoy PokerCats sympathetic farewell of, "meow! (that was totally mean!)", watching he who busted me get knocked out not too far after, and of course, PokerGnome and Gracie battling it out head to head.

This is two weeks in a row (I hate Omaha) that I have finished pathetically in one of these events. I have been madly stewing over my horrible finishes, and probably will continue to, until I manage to redeem myself. Though I haven't managed to show it in the blogger events, No Limit Hold'em tournaments are the only aspect of my game that is truly good. Unlike most profitable players, I can't come out on top of a cash game to save my life, but put me in a tournament and I'll make the final table like clockwork.

In fact, for the second week in a row I've made almost as much money from tournament profits as I have from my regular (well paying) job. I've even finally made it onto the leader's board out at Sam's Town for the (30 entry, 13 seats awarded) W.S.O.P. satellite, despite the fact that I only play out there two nights a week (unlike most of the others on the board who play near nightly), and have only been playing since mid-February, whereas most of the others started in early January.

This is from making the final table in 8 of the 16 tourneys I've played there, with my last two weekends finishing much higher in the money than previously, due mostly from learning the play styles of the regulars, and adapting accordingly.

But them bloggers kicked my ass.

-Tommy

P.S. Feel free to post the attached photo all over the internet. In fact, I beg it of you.

Intermission

2006-03-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

The flop was 6 4 6, all red. I couldn't remember my hole cards for the life of me, but it didn't matter... I had gotten in free on the BB, and I knew I could outplay this guy. I bet about two thirds the pot, hoping he'd believe I'd lucked into the trips.

There was an alarm sounding somewhere. One of those really annoying alarms that you always hear in the casino when some idiot decides to duck out an emergency exit. I knew they'd be announcing that everything was Ok in a minute or two, but for right now it was really messing with my concentration, and suddenly the action was on me again, but I wasn't sure why... he must have raised. I figured I should probably check my hole cards now.

That's when I realized I'd made a huge mistake...

The flop was 6 4 7, all red. I had seen it wrong the first time, and now I was trying desperately to get a read on my opponent, wondering if he had the straight or maybe a flush, but damn if that alarm wasn't screwing up my concentration. When the hell was somebody going to turn it off?

I glanced at the flop again. It was 6 4 8, all red.

I grudgingly sat up, turned off the alarm, and started getting ready for work. In the shower I was cursing myself for playing last night. Of course I posted big losses, I'd been overdoing it again, and should have realized it before the usual dreams started kicking in. The big wins this past weekend fueled my fire, and it was all I could do to stay under 90mph on the way home from work each night, to get online and play some more, generally until too late of an hour.

So that's it. No poker for awhile. I'm on intermission. I need to do some house cleaning, catch up on a few episodes of "Lost", wash some dishes, and get some good, deep sleep.

Seriously, 'cause I got my regular Friday morning tourney tomorrow.

-Tommy

Fuck You, Tourist (Part II)

2006-03-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

The real problem I have playing against you is that half the time, you don't even know that your hand sucks. You think your drawing hand is a monster, any pair is the nuts, and damned if you aren't going to bet it that way.

You see, I didn't actually think my 3s 5c were great cards, I was only in the pot because I was the big blind, and nobody had bothered to raise. Imagine my surprise when the flop came 6h 4h 2d, and you immediately yelled into my right ear, "All in!".

And yes, I did stop to think about what you had. My first thought being that you had two hearts, probably not even good ones, hell, I was even ready to give you credit for an over pair, and the slightest posibilty of a set. But in the end it didn't matter, I knew you'd have to draw it, whatever it may be, and nothing was going to stop me from calling.

Imagine my surprise again when your brother-in-law, (conveniently seated one spot to my left) followed up with, "I gotta go all-in too, I got a straight flush draw, and with the two of you already in, I stand to make a lot of money", with complete disregard for the fact that there were two people still to act behind him. Despite what you both think, I believed him, and so did the others, though that probably wasn't why they folded. And of course I called him too, with what was left of my chips.

I was, however, not surprised in the least when you turned up your set of deuces.

"I'm gonna git you boy!", without even seeing my hand.

Nor was I surprised that your brother's straight flush draw was a gutshot, with his 7h 3h...

nor when the 6c came on the turn for your boat...

nor when the Qh came on the turn for his flush...

and I wasn't remotely upset about the cards. I knew the risks, and was ready for the result.

"Told you I was gonna git you boy! You don't know who you're messing with!"

Fuck you, Tourist.

Please come again.

-Tommy

$25,000 Bloggers Freeroll

2006-03-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Catching up on the PSO forums this morning, I caught this post about a freeroll for bloggers that I somehow missed before. There are only two days left to sign up, and the more people that do, the bigger the prize pool. I seriously doubt they'll get anywhere near the requirements for $5k, let alone $25k, but who cares as long as it's free?

And it's truly free, nothing to sign up for, no deposits, You just have to have a Blog that was created on or before March 1, 2006 and has at least 10 posts in it.

So go sign up.

I am registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Freeroll
Win your share of $25,000 and a set
of Nevada Jacks poker chips.
Hosted By: Absolute Poker
Sponsored By: Poker Source Online
Registration Code: 30235748

-Tommy

Thank God for Nascar

2006-03-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

I won't bore you with details about the total donkey that sucked out on the river, leaving me with nothing to show after four and a half hours of grueling tournament play. I know it happened, you know it happened, and we both know it'll happen again. Instead, I'll tell you the good news.

Nascar is in town!

I didn't even realize it when I set out on my donkey-shoot practice earlier this weekend, but nothing could have prepared me better for the race fans. They're all out at Sam's Town, they're all wasted, and they're all the best poker players EVAH!

I took 1st in the 11pm tourney last night, and I'll tell more later, but there's another starting up at seven, and I need a quick shower before I head out.

-Tommy

Freeroll Fever

2006-03-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

After getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly in my regular live tournament games this past friday and saturday night by tourists with insanely high luck-to-skill ratios, I decided I needed to really work on my play against loose-aggressive idiots, and immediately set out to find some.

Enter the PartyPoker WSOP Freerolls!

At the time I decided to play some Party Poker Freerolls for the donkey-shoot warmups, I didn't realize PartyPoker had started this extravaganza, but I'm sure glad they did.

My first attempt in the 9:57pm qualifier on Sunday night yielded a finish of 101st of 3500. Encouraged (and still wanting the practice / ego boost) I continued in the same event the next two evenings for (not as high, but equally enjoyed) finishes of 178th and 180th, leading up to last night's finish at 3480th of 3500 after my AKo raise in the first hand was called by a 64o and a healthy rainbow flop of A64. I got just what I asked for.

I retired to the couch to spend the rest of the evening reading Sklansky, but couldn't get my mind off what I'd just done, and after awhile decided to give it another shot.

As soon as the top 50 was reached, I (SlitheyTove on PP... don't tell anyone) walked away irritated by the all-in fest that ensued, because I would have liked to play it out. Amazingly, I had blinds covered far enough into the short-lived end of the tourney that I discovered I had finished in 3rd place overall when I woke up this morning.

Some complaints... I hate PartyPoker's software as it is, and often wonder what's wrong with the people who designed the way that table moves are handled, but why this particular tournament didn't just end at 50 (like the earlier levels of a shootout) is beyond me. Even more annoying, it continued in hand-to-hand mode, and everytime an "away" player moved tables, the "away" flag was reset. I feel bad for the few players that stuck around to clean up, despite the fact that there was no small bonus or the like for first place to make it worth the effort, or encourage good play.

Wish me luck on Saturday, I'll certainly need it, but if I don't win I think it'll still be fun as an exercise to repeat the attempt next week. I just hope I don't muck up my regular play with all the slumming.

-Tommy

Fuck You, Tourist

2006-03-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

I have to get this out, though I'll never say it to your face.

It doesn't bother me that you somehow lucked your way to a final table, or that you had the nerve to call me with Qc Ts when I put you all-in with my Kc Ks preflop. It didn't even bother me when you sucked out on me. At other times, it's these idiot traits you harbor that make my love of the game what it is.

But I could seriously slap that look that says you actually think you out-played me right the fuck off of your face.

For fucks sake, when the flop hit 8h 8d Tc, it was obvious from the gleam of hope in your eye that you didn't even realize that your fucking odds had just gotten worse.

And when the river brought you that Td, I smiled and shook your hand, but your parting wisdom of, "Don't put your chips in if you're not ready to lose them!" was really just too much.

Fuck you, Tourist.

Please come again.

-Tommy

Don't Call it a Comeback

2006-03-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, technically it's a comeback. But only so far as this journal is concerned, not poker.

The poker has been going really well. I just got busy with other things in life and stopped writing about it, and everyday that went by it got a little easier to blow off untill eventually I just didn't know how to start again and every day that went by made it a little harder to get back to. But this morning I decided, "Fuck it... nobody's actually reading anyhow".

So what happened? Same thing that always puts my life on tilt. I met a girl.

Well, I didn't actually meet a girl so much as ran into one that I've known for a few years who wasn't as married as she had been previously. It happened the day after the last post, which should pretty much sum everything up. That went well for awhile, until it didn't.

I also got a job. This has done more for my game than anything else I've ever done. No more sleepless nights after a bad day, or playing scared because I need to pay rent and buy food. It's a good job too, I work 10 hours a day Monday through Thursday, play online every night for 3 to 4 hours, get 3 entire (tourist laden) days in a row to go binge on live games, and don't need to worry about rent anymore.

Which brings me to the next important change. I finally started playing live poker 6 weeks ago, and it has been incredible. I've only been playing in tournaments, but I've made final table in about half of them (avg fields of ~60 players) and made money on most of those, leaving me up overall.

So that's that. Break time is over, so let's just put it behind us and act like it never happened.

-Tommy

An Early Dry Spell

2005-07-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've already broken the "post every day" rule, and broken it good, but I haven't really had anything to say the last few days. No news is good news, right? I still don't have anything worth saying, but I figure I'm long overdue to talk about nothing.

In the last few days, I've stopped the bleeding, and have been consistently making money, but honestly not enough to even buy myself dinner. I do think my game has improved though, partly from the site I've been playing on, and partly from reading (Sklansky's "Theory..." in particular), but it's hard to tell for sure.

Tomorrow I plan to stop torturing myself with the stiff competition, and am going to start playing on another site... one that I've heard is a bit fishier. Hopefully, the weekend of practice and study will start to pay off.

Nothing is guaranteed though.

-Tommy

Let's Hope the First Week is the Hardest

2005-07-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've been getting beat on all day, which honestly, has been the trend for a few days in a row now. I'm still up for the week overall, but not by much, and I'm certainly starting to have doubts again.

Part of it may just be the new site that I'm clearing deposit bonuses on. The players on there regularly comment that the play there is tougher than other rooms, and it isn't hard to see that just from watching any table for a few seconds, but that just confuses me more. Why play a game where the odds are approaching even when there are fish all over the other sites? Stupid deposit bonuses. I'm all for the bonus whoring to supplement my winnings, but if it means the $/hr slow down, it's not worth it.

Also, I know that statistically, there are going to be good days and bad days, good months and bad months, but in just as many days as I decided I should go pro, I'm back to wondering if I'm really cut out for it as anything more than a hobby, to supplement the income from a real job.

I'm gonna jump into a freeroll on a fish site, then go have a drink and think about it.

-Tommy

Sweet Sweet Loots

2005-07-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

Today I got my first poker books... "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky, "Harrington on Hold'em" by Dan Harrington, "Caro's Book of Poker Tells" by Mike Caro, a new puzzle toy made by Hoberman... and I got them all just for playing poker.

I think that's really cool.

As I mentioned yesterday in The Rules, any money made from the advertising of the products and services that I am about to discuss will go to a good charity. You really only have my word on that, and "good charity" may be a subjective thing, but what matters is that my conscience will be clean regarding the pimping that follows.

Shortly after I started playing for real money, I was playing at a limit table, working on clearing a deposit bonus, when one of the players asked if anybody else at the table had used Instant Bankroll. A second player claimed that they had, and was glad that he did. I looked it up online, and my first instinct was that it had to be a scam.

I was a bit pissed off when I found out it wasn't.

You see, by the virtue of my having played for real money already, I was no longer valid, and never can be. I could have seeded this entire venture with no money down, but because I didn't look into any of that stuff ahead of time, I was out of luck.

Poker Source Online is the site that runs the Instant Bankroll program, and their plan, basically, is that they share the money they make from referring you to various online poker rooms with you. Referral kickbacks.

I had already been thinking about moving my funds from one site to another to "Bonus Whore" my way into some free money, so I decided to give PSO a test run with one of the promotions they were running that I would be eligible for. Reading through the forums (doing my homework this time), I found out that they have upgrades for certain sites, and decided to try one of those sites for my first time, for $90 in Amazon.com gift certificates.

The picture above is the result, and the entire experience was a satisfying one. The guys that run PSO are friendly and helpful, and the few problems that I had were my own fault, but always handled professionally and quickly. I've actually met some of the other players from the PSO forums in various rooms online, and every one of them has been enjoyable company at the table. Also, now that I'm a member, I can participate in the freerolls that they run from time to time... though I didn't perform so well in the one I was in.

So now I am waiting for my seed funds to clear the withdrawal process, in order to move on to another site and do it all over again. And I can recommend PSO with clear conscience to anyone who is either interested in trying online poker for real money, or is already in the game.

-Tommy

P.S. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on the books as I read them, but the toy I'm absolutely in love with.

The Rules

2005-07-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

I already mentioned that yesterday was a good day, and as I drank late into the night, and woke up this morning feeling refreshed, one thought remained throughout... I can really do this.

I'm going to attempt to make a living playing poker. It remains to be seen if I have what it takes, or if I've just been incredibly lucky thus far... but there is no reason not to go for it right now.

I literally have zero responsibilities. No wife (or kids), no job, no debt (being completely out of debt is a wonderful feeling I recommend in and of itself). The only thing that could be remotely considered a responsibility is that I need to pay my cut of the rent and utilities, lest my roomate find himself homeless unexpectedly, and I think I can cover that for awhile yet. Oh, and having food money would be nice too.

So be it. No time like the present.

But we must have rules.

Rule #1. I am not a fucking blogger.

Not to offend any proud bloggers out there. But it's not what I am, nor what I want to be. I want to be a poker player who just happens to keep an online journal regarding his progress, and thoughts on the matter. If for no other reason than so that I can read back through it in a year and laugh hysterically at myself. Plus, it'll keep me honest.

My intent is to (force myself to) make an entry daily, but I may occasionally skip a day, or even make two entries on the same day. I definitely won't be making any entries from August 29th to September 5th.

And because I'm not a blogger, I won't be posting about news in the poker world and I won't be posting what other blogs are talking about unless it has some direct relation to my own thoughts. There are already people who do both already, better than I ever could, and none are hard to find.

I won't ever post about actual money amounts when relating my thoughts. I think things are better left relative. If I tell you I just won "a lot of money", I want you to think "a lot of money", because as soon as I relate that it was $100 the story is ruined. 100 dollars is a paltry sum to some people, country and castle to others, and completely immaterial to conveying the feeling involved with winning a lot of money.

But to recap the most important bit, I am not aspiring to be a journalist who plays poker, I want to be a (damned good) poker player with a journal.

Rule #2. No shilling.

From time to time (and starting very soon), I will be recommending products and services based no my personal experience. Because there is no good reason not to collect the referral money for such products and services, I intend to.

And then I will give it all away to charity.

This is the only way that I can avoid the inevitable conflict of interest, and feel confident in my recommendations.

I may or may not make the amounts known. There are pros and cons for both sides of the coin here, open accounting of funds or the anonymity of donations. I need to think about it more.

Also, I haven't decided what charity it will be. I am making investigations into various organizations that I feel will be appropriate. Gamblers Anonymous was my first pick because admittedly, I am embarking on a career of taking money from people with mental health issues. This is probably the hardest thing about the idea of being a professional poker player for me, but if I give something back, I can feel better knowing that other people wouldn't, and I can perform a kind of service. Or maybe I'm bluffing myself.

Regardless, Gamblers Anonymous won't take donations from outside the organization as they pride them selves on being self-sufficient. I have to respect that and continue my search for another charity... or join Gamblers Anonymous in an attempt to trick them into accepting my money, which I find amusing. I can be the first subversive philanthropist ever. I wonder what the punishment for that is if I get caught.

Rule #3. No more money in, only out.

This may end up being a soft rule, if the circumstances ever warrant, but as it is now, my fledgling poker career is completely paid for and running on profit. I have withdrawn my initial online bankroll, and everything I'm playing with now would not have existed otherwise.

I'd like to keep it that way.

I can see this getting twisted a bit down the line though if my only form of income is poker. Then it's just a stupid rule with no practicality whatsoever. I may have to define it better at a later date, but for now it stands.

Rule #4. Develop a plan for poker.

I need to figure out when to move up in stakes, change games, get into tourneys, go to a real poker room for the first time, etc.

I'd rather not continue to do this off the hip like I have been, but I haven't given it enough thought yet either. I need to take it more seriously.

At least I finally ordered some poker books!

Rule #5. Develop a plan for life.

I've never really had a "plan for life", but that's not entirely what I mean either. I need to setup some financial goals, get some savings locked down, all that adult stuff.

I need to look into how taxes and health care and all that shit is going to work.

This rule is especially important now that I'm giving up the concept of a guaranteed paycheck alltogether.

...

So there you have it. Thems the rules for now. If I were a wagering man, and I have already declared as much, I'd wager there will be more rules later.

-Tommy

P.S. Today I gave a little bit of yesterdays earnings back to the tables. But merely a fraction of it, and I am still hyped. I considered briefly growing the cajones to bare my financial soul for all the world to see, but then I remembered that it (thankfully) violated one of the corollaries of Rule #1.

As if giving the world your bikini team wasn't enough...

2005-07-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

When I was young, one of my favorite confections was the gummy red goodness known as swedish fish. I would often take my paper route money down to this little mom & pop shop near the speedline that sold them for a penny each, and buy bagfulls for myself, and on occasion my little sister. I just couldn't get me enough of them swedish fish.

Not much has changed.

Dear swedes, don't be angry with me, I'm not implying that your entire nation is bad at poker, but I have taken to seeking you guys out fairly regularly. Stockholm, Göteborg, Uppsala... when I right click and see your home town, I just have to get a seat. You play fast and hard, loose and aggressive, and I like your style.

On a more serious note, today was a good day. I stuck with the new limit, and made a killing this morning. Best day (profit wise) that I've had yet... the deck beating me senseless with cards, and I only put in 5 or 6 hours. I've been known to put in as much as 16.

And it wasn't just the limit rings either. After I got my roll up quite a bit, I decided to go work on my NL SNG game, and it went just as good... really good, because just as I did with my ring games, I moved up a level in buy-in for the SNG. In four games I came in 1st, 1st, 2nd, 9th. Yeah, the ninth sucks, but how the hell can I be upset about that?

Ironic too, because I was telling my roomate just last night that since I started playing rings, I lost my SNG skills.

I'm gonna go celebrate a little, while the feeling lasts.

-Tommy

Wading into the river

2005-07-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

With my spirits high from yesterdays minor recovery, I figured it was time to up my limit. After all, if the real money players are playing as bad as the play money fools, then it would stand to reason that the higher levels would be pretty much the same game, right?

Not quite.

I'm not trying to be misleading, I didn't jump straight into any high stakes games or anything like that... still playing Low Limit Hold'em, but moved up a level in stakes.

I'm still not sure, but I'd swear the other players were looser. More agressive as well. It could just be that I wasn't comfortable playing for twice what I'm used to... I need to learn to look at my chips relative to the blind values, and not as real money.

I don't think a single session is enough to go on, so I'm gonna try it on for a few days. The deck wasn't cold, nor my game any worse than normal... (I think) everything was just a little wilder than I'm used to. More aggressive too. A lot of heavy pre-flop betting just to fold to the first bet post-flop.

Basically, I just had to tighten up my play a little bit, and go with it. My win/loss was all over the place, but in the end, fairly close to even... Maybe down a hair, but not enough to bother me. I'm gonna stick at this new limit for a few more days, see how it goes.

-Tommy

Of Beasties Boys, Bad Beats, and Being Blessed

2005-07-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

I got money, I got juice
I got to the party and I got loose
...
I got ill, I got busted
I got dust and I got dusted

What are the odds that just as I'm about to type this post, trying to figure out how and where to start, that the song quoted above should begin to play in the background?

Not as bad as you'd think actually. Anyone that knows me knows that I listen to an inordinant amount of Beastie Boys. Timeless wisdom.

This ... journal ... almost died out as quickly as it started. Yesterday was a bad day, and it took a toll on me mentally and emotionally that I thought I was prepared for, but clearly wasn't.

There was this members only freeroll tournament held at Poker Source Online (more about them some other time) for which the first place prize was "$10,000 US Poker Championship entry at the Trump Taj Mahal".

There were only 232 entrants.

I knew I was going to win.

I knew this in much the same way that I knew I'd be drunk within an hour of winning it... and I get drunk 7 nights a week... and there are 6 bars within walking distance of my house... and by walking distance I mean it takes as long (or longer) to drive to them as it does to walk. Viva Las Vegas, Baby.

I'm sure at this point it's obvious where this story is going, but I'm not one to jump to the end too quickly.

The morning and afternoon went pretty smoothly. My head was in the right place, and my game was tight. Made a fair amount playing ring games, working off a deposit bonus, with a group of players that were chatty in that amicable, no hostilities kind of way that makes you (almost) feel bad about taking their money. A few hours left to go till the tourney starts, and I decide to take a break to get some household chores done, and clear my head proper before my big break.

I knew I was going to win. Knew.

I've got the TV going in the living room, cable radio, reggae channel or some such while I'm washing dishes, when suddenly it goes dead silent... "hrm, did the cable just go out?"

Panic.

I rush into my office and check. Yup. The internet is out too. Tourney starts in 30 minutes.

Quick call to a friend on the far side of town, "Dude, your internet out?".

"Nope."

"Mine is, I might call you back in a second.", I may have clarified this statement, but if I did I didn't need to. This is one of my closer friends who hears me talking about my new hobby at least once a day. Many of them knew about this tournament for a few days, though I doubt any of them realized how much of myself I had invested. It's one of those things you talk about afterwards, when you've already won, never before, and there is a reason it is done this way.

Call another friend, "Hey man, is your internet out?"

"Lemme check... nope."

"Can I come over and take over your office and computer for a few hours?"

"Since when do you need to ask?", but I barely even hear it as I'm hanging up, because I don't need to, it's just good protocol. I am blessed with incredible friends.

I arrive 15 minutes later, with a case of Coke, a bag of chips, and my guilty-secret (I'm both kinds of vegan), a couple bags of M&Ms.

"You all set man? What do you need?", I hear him asking before he even speaks.

"Nothing, just peace, so I can keep my head till this is done."

"No problem. I'll tell the others."

There are a few other people in the house, yet none of them hovers, talks, or bothers me in anyway untill I am done, so none of what is about to transpire can be placed on their shoulders.

It was ugly before it got ugly. I don't even remember any specific hand. I played too many, played them poorly, and was just totally off my game. I had let the stress get to me, and the competition here was not to be laughed at or taken lightly. Thirty minutes into it, there were still well over 200 players left of the initial 232. I know this because thirty minutes into it was when I was in the middle of a hand that I finally had the cards to win with when I got the message, "You have been disconnected, because this account had been logged into from another computer".

The internet back home is working again, and I'm a moron.

That was all she wrote. I only missed the one hand and got back in the game a moment later, but it hardly mattered. It drug out for another 30 minutes, but I don't remember any real details. There were no bad beats, or stupid moves by lucky idiots, or anything... I just blew it.

I busted out at #200 of 232.

I think this was nothing more than the amount of time it took to weasel away the blinds of the 32 players that didn't show up.

I lost $10,000.

Yeah, I know it isn't technically true, but it has taken me more than 24 hours to come to terms with the fact that I never actually had that money. I truly knew (not believed, knew) that I was going to win that money. I lied to every friend I told about the tourney in advance, "I know there is no way I'm going to win this tourney, but I'm excited about it anyhow". Lied to their faces. I knew I was going to win.

Then I was did something really stupid. My head was in the wrong place, and even knowing that I went home to start grinding back some of the 10k I had just lost. But instead I dumped a lot. I lost everything I'd made that morning and then some.

In the two weeks that I have been playing, I haven't sufferend any real losses at all, and I've been making a surprising amount of money. Surprising to me, your milage may vary. I won't insult anyone by posting amounts here. The point is that now I can't stop giving away money. You'd think I would have stopped at $10,000.

Stupid fish.

I stopped. I went out drinking. I drank like the stupid fish that I am. The night got worse in ways not worth documenting, and I got drunker.

This morning I woke up. Clear head as usual. I am the only person I know that can drink untill the black outs kick in, and feel perfectly ok the next day. I don't know if this is a side effect of being an alcoholic, or the root cause of it.

Get something to drink (non alchoholic), sit down at the computer. Debate playing for a moment, but fuck it, there's still money in the account, I'll play a little in the background while I read my morning news and shit.

Tao of Poker is the first thing I check. This is pure habit, as the WSOP is over, and although I still need my WSOP news fix, there is no WSOP left to provide Pauly news to be reported. I move on.

Fifteen minutes later and I'm back. This fucking habit will take me a week to break. It is as bad as the urge to read slashdot every 5 minutes, even though I know there is nothing new there, I keep checking it.

Game is going good, I'm up about 1/3 of what I dumped last night.

Nothing else to read, so I start looking around Pauly's site, and am reading my way down the "Quality Posts" on his sidebar when I come across, "Sink or Swim: The Biggest Night of My Life".

I'm about halfway through it when I realize just how close to home this has the potential to be. I'm sick to my stomach the whole time, feeling that knot from last night. This isn't sympathy I'm feeling, this is self pity. There is nothing to worry about for him, the post is positive, an online pschying up of hisself. It's just that unlike me, he had the guts to put his shit out there for everyone to see before the hand, whereas I'm a total pussy, confessing my lies after getting caught. And by the very nature of having read his post earlier today, I'm not even being that original about it.

Game is going pretty well, I'm actually almost even.

I scroll up looking for the post that must inevitably follow. Ouch. Bummer. But hey, obviously not the end of the word for him, he seems to be doing pretty good these days, and appears to be blessed with good friends.

It occurs to me I'm even on my losses from last night.

It's sunday evening, and I make the call I make every sunday evening, to the friend who's computer I took over last night, "Hey man, what you up to?".

"Hanging out, watching TV, you coming over?"

"It's sunday ain't it?"

"Alright man, see you in a few."

Hop in the car, 15 minutes later I'm hanging out in my friends kitchen, eating one of the vegan burritos that they keep stocked for me out of fear that I might starve to death if I don't eat their food on Sunday nights.

"So, you ok? You left here awfully fast last night, but I figured you'd be ok...", this conversation is no surprise. Mostly protocol.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just got my head in a weird place."

"So you done with poker then, or are you still gonna make millions?"

I'll be fucking damned if I'm not going to try.

I give it to him straight, "I've made a fair amount of money in the past few weeks, and I've never even read a poker book yet. Statistically, the losses are gonna happen. I'll learn to deal with it better.", and I make a mental note that the book situation is something I need to change in the very near future.

"Cool.", he replies, and we go watch TV. I make a mental note to keep up with the posting when I get home. I may be a stupid fish, but I'm not going out like this, not on the first beating.

I make another mental note.

I am blessed with incredible friends.

-Tommy

In the beginning...

2005-07-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have always considered myself to be a hardcore gamer, especially when it comes to PvP (Player vs. Player), but lately, the games just haven't been doing it for me.

When it first launched, I was a huge fan of World of Warcraft. I had several max level characters, had been to all of the major areas, etc, but then they ruined the game for me. All the while I was playing, I was merely awaiting the release of the ever-promised PvP part of the game, but instead they implemented some stupid "honor system", which basically meant that the more time you put in, the higher you are rated, and then you get better stuff, which helps you hold your higher rating (along with putting more time in), and has absolutely nothing what-so-ever to do with skill.

This is a trend in online gaming that has absolutely been killing me... WoW wasn't the first game, nor the last, to break my heart that way.

Right about the time this happened, Guild Wars was being released. They made promises of basing the whole game around PvP... Fair PvP. What it turned out to be was an endless grind, attempting to "unlock" the necessary pieces required to play the PvP side of things, and just as I was getting exactly that done (3 characters of all 6 classes, with every skill unlocked... no small feat, as any GW player will confirm), they made changes that, for me, trumpeted the downward slide into, "play more, not better".

I understand this trend, and I could write hours upon hours about it, and certainly my closest friends have listened to many a drunken oral dissertation on it already, but it doesn't pertain to poker, so we're moving on.

From time to time, throughout my life, I have always come back to playing poker in one form or another. The last few years, it has always been what I do in my downtime between whatever online game has just lost my attention and whichever one will become my next gaming obsession. During these "between games" breaks, I seem to watch a lot of TV. But although watching TV is partly addictive (just HAVE to see what comes next), it is also far too passive (I get bored easily), and a good SNG on my laptop is the perfect compliment to whatever advertising-laden crap I'm consuming at the time.

But this time, this break, for some reason, was different.

Playing in the free rooms has always bothered me, but this time, I just couldn't take it. I was getting pissed off on every single play. "No fucking WAY would that jackass do that if he had real money on the line!", screamed at the top of my lungs, at least a dozen times an hour...

Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong, but we'll get back to that.

It was crystal clear (again, at the time) to me that the only reason I did so well on the free tables is because nobody there had anything to lose, and therefore didn't mind dumping their chips to me. I wasn't playing the real game. The only way I was going to be able to truly enjoy poker would be to play for real money.

Understand that normally, I'm a rather impulsive guy, but the timing was bad for me. Having gone through some bad shit recently, I honestly didn't even know how I was going to pay my rent, so I made the right call and decided to put it off.

The next day, as I was running over my financial situation, I realized that not only did I have enough money to pay the rent, but I had an extra fifty laying around, so I'd be able to eat this week too...

or play poker.

This is why I'll probably never be a professional poker player. I make bad decisions. Sure, this particular story has a happy ending, but the end doesn't justify the means, and in poker, shit catches up with you. Ask any fish. Actually, don't bother, the reason they're fish is because they don't quite understand that part yet.

So about 5 minutes after realizing I have food money, I decide to get serious. Being the smart fellow I am, I google for the most popular online poker room (not the best), for what should be obvious reasons.

Find it. Make my first deposit. Hop into a $10+$1 SNG.

Adrenaline.

I think to myself at this point, "I'm fucked". I haven't gotten adrenaline from a game in at least 5 years. The last time I specifically remember it was playing on a PK MUD a long time ago... and I must admit, I'm a junkie for it. Not a single card has hit the table, and I'm already high.

It gets better though. I'm on the button. Cards are dealt, I get the bullets, no shit. Everyone folds all the way to me, and I'm devastated, but not wanting to scare off the blinds, and any potential future income, I just call. Flop comes Ace - somethin - somethin. A good poker player would probably remember what the other two were, but I don't.

SB bets minimum. BB goes all-in...

What.. the... fuck?

I stared at my screen. No flush draw, no straight draw, no way he has anything higher than me. Maybe he has two pair. Maybe one of them is an ace. Maybe he flopped a set too. Doesn't matter... I call.

Again, I don't remember what the guy had, except that he didn't have a fucking thing. Not even a pair. I knew then that I was fucked... not on that hand obviously, and not for that SNG (I placed 2nd), but for life.

How wrong I was all those times I'd yelled with confidence, "No fucking WAY would that jackass do that if he had real money on the line!". I swear that they play just as bad in the real money games. Maybe even worse, as some of them appear to be just plain desperate.

This is exactly what I've always wanted in a game. Me versus any taker. A rating system that is clearly defined (by bankroll), and perfectly accurate. I was happy, amazed, fucking euphoric, and know even now that even though I'll probably never go pro, I'll definitely be supplementing my income with poker.

At least, I hope so, because deep down in my gut, I know that every fish before me has felt the same.

-Tommy

Clearly, I've lost it for good

2005-07-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

As if it wasn't bad enough that I've decided to turn into a fish, and give away my money online, I really have to document it?

And worse, I have decided to document it by... nevermind, I can't use that word just yet. I'm still in denial.

It's funny. Everyone that knows what they're talking about will tell you that the key to poker is making the right decisions, but I'm not sure that I'm taking that advice well. I suppose only time will tell, but the QotD on Google's personalized page concerns me.

"About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends." - Herbert Hoover

-Tommy