Poker Games

March 2007

March 29
I have played in the $55 +1 +1 NL tournament on Stars over the last couple of days, but haven't done well. I have been playing more aggressive, so that could account for me not making it down as far as I normally do. A loss is a loss is a loss, so it really doesn't matter if I make it through half the field, 3/4 of the field or the bubble. All of them pay the same amount... ZERO.

The winds in California were crazy the other day. I sat there watching the tree in my backyard and it looked like it was going to blow away at any moment. The park near my house did have one huge palm tree fall and it knocked the power line down. Half of my neighborhood had no power for more than 24 hours. It's amazing how much we depend on electricity and how having it and using it doesn't cross our mind. When we don't have it, it is at the forefront of our thoughts. I had no television, no alarm clock, no refrigerator (I had to dump all my food), and of course NO computer!

Things are back to normal now, so I will be looking to build my bankroll up by playing in some of the Omaha ring games and will probably play my favorite tournament (55+1+1). I am not sure about the weekly Omaha tournaments anymore because they changed the times. I am almost certain that I won't be playing them on a regular basis because I usually spend Sundays with the family and I don't usually get home until after six.

March 24
My favorite tournament online lately is the $55 No Limit Holdem event with one optional rebuy and add-on. This is the tournament that I finished second in twice and it is the same tournament that I consistently make it through at least 80% of the field.

When I first started playing the tournament, I was getting far, but not cashing. I decided to play it more like a satellite and try to shoot for first or second and that's it. With that strategy, I got farther because I took risks. This week, it seems I back peddled to my old ways and I need to readjust. Last night I was playing well. I had a lot of chips when we had about fifty players and when we were down to about 40 players, I made one really bad play. One player raised in early position and I only flat called with pocket tens. Looking back on the hand, I should have moved in because the player that raised is a decent player and is one of the players most likely to be loosening up at that stage of the tournament. Once and ace fell on the flop, I basically just gave up. Both of us checked. On the turn, a third club came out (I had the ten of clubs), but it was a harmless club. Meaning that if he didn't have the ace, I surely had the best hand. He bet out and I just folded like a little girl. I ended up squeaking into the money.

Please take a look at some of the site's poker definitions: scare card, presto, bullets, and fill-up

March 18
I played in the HORSE tournament at the Bike yesterday and I really enjoyed myself. Of course, I would have enjoyed myself more if I would have made some money. But it was nice to see that the Bike added a HORSE event to their tournament series. It was even better that the structure was such that we had a lot of play in all of the games.

In the first round of Eight or Better, I made a huge hand and I won a lot of chips. On sixth street, I had 6532A with four hearts. There were three other people in the pot and only one person could beat my low if he had two perfect cards underneath and caught another perfect card on seventh. I raised and reraised on the hand and all four of us played for four bets. I hit a beautiful eight of hearts on seventh and all of my opponents hit cards to make strong hands. I got a call from all of them and scooped.

After that hand, I didn't get much going and I lost three hands where I had the best of it going in. The first loss was in Omaha. The blinds were $100-200 and a lady limped from first position it was raised when it got to me and I three bet it. The original limper lady capped it. Four of us saw a flop of QT9. The lady bet her last $200 and both players after her folded. I called and said "I only have aces" and she showed 9754. I don't know how she could have commited her last 1k in chips on that hand, but bless her heart for trying to give me chips. The turn was a nine and the river was a five and she won a sizeable pot.

In Stud, I raised with 99x and it was folded around to the guy who had the bring-in. He made it three bet all-in and I called. He had A54 and the players joked that he wasn't supposed to be playing Razz. On fourth, he hit a deuce and the players went "oooh" and then I hit a nine and they said "aaaah". On fifth, he blanked and I caught one of his threes. He ended up catching a three anyway and I didn't pair. My last hand, I had nines and my opponent had eights and she caught a second pair on seventh street.

I was very satisfied with the way I played and am glad that I can hold my own in all of the games (some better than others).

Today I got a message from one of my friends telling me that he really enjoyed my last journal entry about burning the pocket queens. He know that they give me a hard time. After he told me that, I told him that I haven't really played them since burning them, but I would let him know once I did.

Tonight I played a few sit n gos and I wanted to share a couple of hand histories (I deleted some of the irrelevant info).
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PokerStars Game #8977427964: Tournament #45645183, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2007/03/19 - 03:04:40 (ET)
Table '45645183 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button

Seat 6: Siren (2120 in chips)
Seat 7: hogansch (1275 in chips)
Seat 8: twentypct (5310 in chips)
hogansch: posts small blind 50
twentypct: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Siren [Qh Qc]
magic032: folds
Gallo536: folds
Des1mone: folds
Siren: raises 200 to 300
hogansch: raises 975 to 1275 and is all-in
twentypct: folds
Siren: calls 975
*** FLOP *** [6h 8h As]
*** TURN *** [6h 8h As] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [6h 8h As 9h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hogansch: shows [6d 6c] (three of a kind, Sixes)
Siren: shows [Qh Qc] (a pair of Queens)
twentypct said, "sick"
hogansch collected 2650 from pot
hogansch said, "so"
hogansch said, "sorry"
----------------------------------------------------
PokerStars Game #8977667239: Tournament #45647413, $110+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2007/03/19 - 03:45:59 (ET)
Table '45647413 1' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: bigddarel (3545 in chips)
Seat 2: dukeporshe (990 in chips)
Seat 3: dare_you (1600 in chips)
Seat 4: FDraised (2175 in chips)
Seat 5: Siren (690 in chips)
Siren: posts small blind 50
bigddarel: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Siren [Qs Qc]
dukeporshe: folds
dare_you: calls 100
FDraised: folds
Siren: raises 590 to 690 and is all-in
bigddarel: folds
dare_you: calls 590
*** FLOP *** [Ad 5s 8c]
*** TURN *** [Ad 5s 8c] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 5s 8c 8h] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Siren: shows [Qs Qc] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
dare_you: shows [As 7c] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
dare_you collected 1480 from pot
-----------------------------------------------------------

Two for two since burning the queens. Obviously burning cards does not work. And Steve can continue to call me crazy.

March 14
I played in the Omaha tournament on Friday night and was eliminated very early. Steve was still in the tournament and he told me that it was only fair for me to stick around and root him in since he had done it for me a week earlier.

I was so bored sitting there because there were still a lot of players left in the tournament. I caught up on some reading and then finally decided to play in a one table satellite that they were just starting. The satellite was no more exciting than my Omaha tournament and I was eliminated fairly quickly with pocket queens. I won't bore you with the details, but it was ugly. I told my friend that was sitting next to me that I have a really hard time with the hand. He told me to take two queens and literally burn them. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I told myself that I would give it a shot.

After the satellite, I went to watch Steve and I got a hard time from one of the tournament staff. He told me that Steve waits there patiently and actually observes what is going on in the hands that I play when he is rooting for me, but when I am rooting for him, I read magazines and play satellites. Of course Steve would say that it is because he is the "sweet" one. I know differently.

The final three players ended up being friends of mine. When I was eliminated, those exact three players are the ones I would have rooted for. Steve was obviously my first choice to win because if I had to sit there for eternity, then it better have been for a good reason. He ended up finishing third. My friend (and ex prop co-worker), Jennifer finished second and David finished in first. Congrats to all three of them.

I went to play in the NL shootout on Sunday and was playing a very good and focused game. I was second in chips at my table (there were 7 of us left) and got dealt pocket queens. I made a standard raise of three times the big blind (blinds were 50-100) and the big stack moved all in. He had been really crazy in the beginning, but I noticed he had tightened up in the last round or two. Even though he had tightened up, I was convinced I had the best hand because of the huge raise and I called the 2k+ additional chips. I wasn't thrilled because I run so poorly with pocket queens and hadn't taken Charlie's advice and burned the cards, but I am going to call each and every time I think I have the best hand. My opponent turned over AK and the guy to my left told me that he folded an ace. I told him that it didn't matter if he folded one, I still don't do well with queens. Sure enough the king came on the river and sent me packing.

So as silly as it sounds, I burned the damn cards yesterday and let me tell you it wasn't an easy task. I only had plastic cards and they wouldn't stay on fire. I eventually turned my fireplace on and threw them in there, but they kept falling under the fire rack and I would have to retrieve them with one of those iron pokers and then throw them back on the fire. I finally got the job done. I know Steve would tell me that I am totally out of my mind. That is yet to be determined.

I just might win next time when I take QQ against T7 (that was the hand I was eliminated with in the satellite and NO he didn't flop trips or top pair).

March 7
I have been thinking about the Omaha tournament over the last couple of days and I realized that I need to work on my short handed tournament play in Omaha. It's kind of funny that Omaha is my best game by far, but I am so much more comfortable playing No Limit short handed. This is largely in part to all the sit n go's I play on PokerStars.

When I left the tournament that night, Steve talked to me about one of the hands that I played. (He also played in the tournament and stuck around to "root me in"). He said that I made a really bad error in folding one of my hands once I was heads up. He said that I didn't have enough chips to lay the hand down and at that point, it was time for me to just put me chips in the middle, turn my hand over and hope for the best. My hand was only K744, but I think he is right. I ran the hand against a variety of hands and with the chips I had (4 times the bb), I should have called. Another lesson learned.

I have had a good feeling about the Winning of the Green tournaments, so I planned on playing in a lot of the events. So far, I have only played in two of them including a No Limit event a couple of days ago. I am very unhappy with the way I played the No Limit event and have told my good friends that "I totally donkeyed the tournament." If I don't explain the hands in their entirety, they don't sound too bad. I lost most of my chips with a set versus a guy who made a flush on the turn and I was eliminated with AK suited versus pocket sevens.

It wasn't the hands I played, but the way I played them that made me go home early. On the hand with the pocket nines, I called an early position raiser (blinds were $25-25 and he made it $75). I only called because I wanted to try and play a big pot if an ace or a king hit the board. Five people ended up seeing the flop and one of the callers were from the blind. The flop was A9x with two hearts and everybody checked. This was my first mistake. I should have made a $200 bet to try and entice any ace in the pot. At that moment, it seemed like checking was a good play since two players were behind me. This is one of my big weaknesses - not playing the hand in it's entirety and making every street and action independent. Preflop, I planned on playing the hand to try and trap an ace in the hand. I got my ace. If the guy behind me bets and I put in a raise then it defeats my purpose of playing a big pot because weak aces are going to fold.

So I screwed the hand up right out of the gate and then I continued to compound the problem when the third heart fell on the turn. The original raiser bet a small amount ($225) and I raised to $525 and two players behind me folded and the blind moved in for an additional $800. The original bettor folded and I was left with a decision. At that moment, I knew I was beat, but I had the guy outchipped and I wanted to play a big pot so I could accumulate chips so after a little hesitation I called (even though I knew I wasn't getting the right price). The board did not pair and I was left with only $500 in chips. I could go on and on about what I should have done differently and could go on and on about how many mistakes I made during that one hand, but the bottom line is I royally screwed up and if I plan on doing well in the Winning of the Green tournament like I planned then I better get my act together.

The next event I plan on playing is on Friday night. It is a $500 Omaha event followed by two No Limit events on Saturday and Sunday.

March 2
I played in the Omaha event at the Bike last night and finished in second place. It was a long night because we didn't make any deals and I am still tired from the lack of sleep. I might write about the tournament another time, but for now I am just going to post some of the report.

Jay Siegal did the write up of the event. The portion of the article pertaining to me:

"Once heads-up, Shirley had a big hill to climb. She had about 20,000 of the 256,500 chips in play. RA made a gracious offer to end it right there (for a few extra bucks) but Shirley was determined to play it out despite the chip deficit. Shirley let RA know she appreciated the offer but she felt that she had to just play it out to the end. Shirley fought for another 25 hands and built her stack up gradually.

It was hand #85 when the match completed. Shirley was all-in with A-Q-9-3 and RA had A-10-10-6. The board was 7-J-J-K-Q. The Queen looked good for Shirley but it also made RA the straight to the King. The match was over and Shirley finished in 2nd place earning $9,745. RA was the champion and earned $20,520.

Runner up Shirley Rosario, took last year off of live tournament poker while she did battle away from the poker table fighting off cancer. She is healthy now and this was the start of her comeback (hence no deals). She played well and she mucked her cards preflop more than the other 2 players combined. Shirley said this was mainly due to the quality of her starting hands more than playing tight. If you have seen Shirley play Omaha you know that she loves to raise in the appropriate situations. You can follow Shirley on the comeback trail on her popular website."