Decent Start...

So, my return from poker excile has gotten off to a decent start. The 3-6 Game at party is quite good, if you exercise good game selection. Buddy listing, datamining and, most notably GameTime are going to be keys for me here. Of course hitting rivers vs. maniacs also helps. So far up just under $400 since the ed of the evil last Wednesday. Trying a new plan where I pack up and start to leave at the first inkling of the anger/frustration feeling which sometimes gets m in trouble if left unchecked. Left some pretty decent tables today because I felt that short-tempered feeling coming on...

In other news, FullTilt finally announced that they do hand histories, so I may have to go put some money in over there to see how it is. Of course, they have the slowest bonus clearing mechanism in human history (worse then UB's for my money...), so maybe not. They still do have the best commercials. I love the Phil Ivey one where he folds, says something about knowing you're beat, and cocnludes with "Poker is about everything but the cards." Brilliant.

Rambling Reading Post

Despite the fact that I haven't played much poker recently due to the now departed bar exam, I've still been reading a bit. A few of my more recent selections.

Mastering No Limit Hold 'Em - I'm not even going to link to this one, because as much as Chris, Joe and myself like our Amazon affilitate income, I can't in good faith recommend spending any amount of money on this one. I actually had expectations of learning something from this one, as there really haven't been that many books which specifically cover No-Limit Hold 'Em cash games with any degree of detail. Unfortunately, this book cannot be said to have remdied that situation. Any player of reasonable experience will find every single thing here to be completely remedial. I suppose if you've never played poker before, it might be useful for some basic fundamentals. But if you are a beginning poker player, why start with NL Holdem, where the skill advantages of a better player are maginified far above what might be the case in limit. (There's a reason that NL was a dead game outisde of tournaments pre-WPT: all the fish went broke too fast...).

In all honesty, if you DO want to learn how to play NL cash games, then the short intro section in Getting Started In Holdem combined with Harrington on Hold 'Em, Vol. I and II, (though I think Vol. I is probably more instructional in these regards, as the early stages of a tournament more resemble cash games then do the hyper-aggro endgame and bubble scenarios.) will serve you much better then MNLHE.

Which brings me to the greatness that is HOH vol. II, truly a spectuacular work. While it is clear upon even casual analysis that you have to play a tiny stack very aggressively, Action Dan is very persuasive in detailing why one needs to get aggro with even medium sized stacks. He also does an excellent job of discussing how different hands change values depending on the relative stack sizes of you and the entire table. (For example, small pairs suck if you have a medium stack, or are playing against a medium stack, but they are good big stack vs. big stack, or whenever you have a small stack....).

His chapters on "Structured Hand Analysis" are also very strong. In fact for the analytical (rather then feel-based) player, I haven't really seen a better look at the factors one needs to consider.

Similarly strong in this framework is King Yao's Weighing the Odds in Hold 'Em Poker, where the analytical rigor is directed at limit hold 'em. Though the book is dense and slightly wonkish (what would you expect from a former derivatives trader, as Yao is?), it is a fantastically useful resource. Though many of the calculations Yao performs are not especially difficult in the abstract, it is still startling to see just how valuable the "free-card" flop raise can be.

As for books I'm planning on reading soon, Barry Greenstein's Ace on The River: An Advanced Poker Guide has been getting excellent reviews. While not a strategy book, per se, it is supposedly similar to one of my favorites, Feeney's Inside the Poker Mind, in terms of dealing with the factors extraneous to poker (emotioanl, romantic and poker) which may interfere with bringing the proper 'professional' attitude to the table. Clearly, I need this book, as evidenced by my occassional meltdown...

I've also been hearing good things about How Good is Your Limit Hold 'Em by Brier and Jacobs.

As far as non-poker, I recommend Freakonomics heartily, if you want to feed your brain...

That's all I got for now. Yay for Party's new 3-6 short handed!

Post Bar

I'm sure Chris and Pooh feel the same (and the rest of you examinees): i feel about 500 pounds lighter. From now on, assuming we pass, we will never do any more work for free, besides the 30-50 hours of pro bono depending on your state. No more studying. From now on we get PAID.

I lost about $4.7 million Thursday nite celerating the end to the misery. I probably lost another 4.7 million brain cells in the process, but they were all the weakest ones, so I am now actually smarter. My non-poker winning streak is over and I am once again retiring from non-poker. Tonite i return to the low-limit tables, trying to build a bankroll for more interesting play.

And I will finally have more time to read normal books! Here's a couple more recent orders from Amazon:

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (Pooh posted about this book but I can't find the post to link to).

and, of course...

Harrington On Hold'em: Volume II by Dan Harrington

Once More Into The Breach...

I love the smell of Shakespeare in the morning. Feels like....hangover. Any way, now that I've survived BarExam '05 (and, not insignificantly, the afterparty from said event. Exclusive invite list, let me assure you...), it's time to pay for things such as BarBri. Side note, any Minnesota examinees who feel we have a class action against BarBri, let me know. (For those non-MN, non-bar types, the Tuesady afternoon essay exams where on 4 of the 5 LEAST tested subjects, according to the BarBri brain wizards. Numerosity, typicality, commanality and fairness indeed...).

So, in order to pay off such things, I need to start playing again. My plan of action is to hit up the party 1/2 for a few thousand hands to shake off the rust before attacking the new 3/6 6-max games, which are, by all accounts, soft and tasty. Updates forthcoming...

Hiatus

Now that I can't justify study breaks by checking in on the WSOP, I'm completely cashed out online now, and with the bar exam in just over a week, I won't be posting for a while (I have a feeling the same goes for Pooh and Joe). I suppose I may post something in August, but I'll be looking for an apartment just after the exam, moving to Chicago in early August, and then leaving for a long vacation without my laptop in mid-August. I wouldn't expect to see any posting from me until mid-September at the earliest.

I know I'll be missed, but don't cry. After the bar exam I'm sure Joe and Pooh will pick up their poker careers where they left off (Pooh winning, Joe losing), and I'm sure they'll have lots of Pokerblawg tourneys without me so they can try to get some wins in before my dominating return.

I admit it will be tempting to find some places to play while I'm on vacation, so it is possible that I might have a poker-related story or two, but I'm going to try and stick with sightseeing and refrain from playing too much.

Later.

Alright, I'll ask...

Who has more cash on hand today, Joseph Hachem or JK Rowling?

In re Matusow

To follow up on Pooh's post re: Matusow, I'm torn as to how I feel regarding Matusow making the final table.

On one hand, Matusow provides a certain level of entertainment value that most of the other guys at the final table won't. Also, it is good to see at least one pro make it to the final table. I think Matusow might be good for the game in the sense that his personality can entertain people on TV and draw more players in. He's also poker's version of the wrestling heel - the guy everyone loves to hate. That should be good for the overall popularity of the game on TV.

On the other hand, I can't stand his antics, and it would suck if more players start acting out in live games. It is bad enough in online poker where players say things they'd never say when the other person is face to face with them, but that thing tends to bleed into the live games, and if Matusow becomes an idol, we'll see more and more idiot 21-year olds trying to needle everyone at their 2-4 table. It's great if it doesn't bother anyone, but I have a feeling such behavior will drive away a lot of players that show up just looking to have some fun playing cards, i.e., the people that throw their money away because they want to play in every hand, i.e., the people I like to see at my table.

Returning to the positive part of Matusow's presence, once the final table gets down to three players, the action could grind to a complete halt. Based on what I've read about how he played/acted late last night, he may be the only one willing to force the action in the game. The others may be content to just wait for ultra-premium hands, especially if my suspicion that the stacks of the final 2-3 players are huge relative to the final level of blinds is confirmed. They could just happily trade blinds/antes for hours while they wait for AA, KK, and maybe QQ. I think Matusow would play more aggressively.

As to his personality outside of the table, Matusow said the following semi-redemptive things in an interview last night:

- "I'm never gonna play any big pots. I've watched a lot of pros today that I was very disappointed with - just playing huge pots; you don't need to play huge pots against these people."

- "I know [Phil Ivey] played bad [today]. Everytime I looked he was playing a two million pot. I mean, why does a guy with his greatness have to be playing huge pots?"

- "I'm a little upset at what happened to Raymer. That's just the sickest thing I've ever heard. I mean a guy worked so hard to get this far with a shot to defend his championship and some idiot loses his mind and tries his hardest to go broke. I think that bothers me more than anything. ... How about throwing your hand away when you flop no pair/no draw, has that ever come into your mind?"

Shameful Admission

Part of me is happy that Matusow has made the final table. I think there are two reasons for this. First, (and sadly) I share more then a little with him in the personality department. Despite his TV personna, many pros speak fairly warmly about him, so he can't be an awful guy, just someone who likes to needle, while losing a certain degree of self-control under stresses of competition.

Second, he seems to get this whole tournament poker thing. I remember reading (In Positively Fifth Street, IIRC) that he was inconsolable after getting knocked off the final table from the main event in around 1999-2000. Not because he didn't win (though that sucked for him, I'm sure) but because, to paraphrase, "I could play perfect poker for the rest of my life and still never get back here". He probably hasn't played perfectly this week, but he has gotten back here. Well done, Mouth, well done...

And Finally, Raymer

Post-bustout video here. Two quotes:

"When I look at those players, we have Doyle, Johnny Chan, Stu Ungar, Dan Harrington, I can't say I'm as great a player as them, so I don't see how this can be a greater accomplishment."

"If we want a tournament that will only be won by the greatest player in the world, then this format isn't going to work. Unfortunately, if we wanna make sure the greatest player wins the tournament, it's gonna have to be about six months long."

Apparently he also was asked to write a book based on his 2+2 posts even before he won last year, it was revived after his win, and he's still working on it.

Tiffany Williamson

A good interview with Tiffany Williamson after her bustout. She's a relatively new player (playing, it seems, about as long as I have, so it puts me to shame), and a lawyer - of course - with Davis, Polk, and Wardwell in London.

End of the Night WSOP Post

It appears that someone is finally drawing Mike Matusow's emotions out. I don't know if it is related, but as I post this Matusow has sunk to 7th out of 11 in chips (although the guy he has been battling with, Shawn Sheikhan, is the short stack). Apparently some supporters of Sheikhan had to be escorted out by security after some comments by Matusow, and penalties have been meted out to the two players during the day as a result of their verbal sparring. Is this the blowup everyone has been waiting for? ESPN has to be loving it.

Also at that link, you can see that which "Day One" a player drew doesn't appear to have affected anything. The supposed worst day (the third day) actually had the most representatives (11) in the final 27.

If Matusow doesn't make the final table, the final 9 will be a pretty fresh set of faces, as the Hendon Mob Database supports. I'm pretty sure that Full Tilt had a "Piece of the Pros" for Matusow, so the player that won that (and the 10% of Matusow that came with it) has to be sweating the Cardplayer.com updates pretty tightly.

Cardplayer says that 11 of the 27 finalists qualified online. I haven't seen much on where the remaining players qualified online as of yet (though I haven't looked that hard), but I do know that two of the final eleven qualified via Poker Stars. That's nearly in line with the percentage of total players that qualified via Stars. What would really be interesting is finding out if anyone of the remaining players qualified through Full Tilt, as that would mean they are playing for an additional $10 million if they take home the bracelet (which would mean that the insurer Full Tilt employed is sweating cardplayer.com updates tighter than anyone). If such a player is still alive, I'm sure whatever insurance premium Full Tilt paid will be more than made up for by all the free advertising they get when ESPN keeps talking about how the player is actually playing to win $17.5 million (although I could imagine ESPN stupidly just ignoring the angle altogether). I'm sure Party Poker will let us know if the eventual winner qualified through their site, although probably in a way destined to make the software even more clumsy than it is already.

I just saw that Matusow knocked out Sheikhan and did a celebration dance that is unlikely to be left on the editing room floor. 10 left.

Hot off the newswires...

For some reason, I found this extraordinairily funny:

'Cooter' urges fans to skip 'Dukes' movie
Associated Press
ATLANTA -— If a former star of TV's "Dukes of Hazzard'' has his way, fans of the show will skip the movie version.

Ben Jones, a former Georgia congressman who played the mechanic Cooter on the series, says profanity and sexual content in the film essentially trash what was a family-friendly show. He read a script of the movie, which comes out next month, and likens it to taking "I Love Lucy'' and turning Lucy into a "crackhead.''

Jones called the film a sleazy insult in an open letter posted on his Web site. He's urged fans to "hold their noses'' and stay away unless the studio cleans up the movie before its release. A spokesman for Warner Brothers did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Is a show really family friendly if the female lead is the model for a whole generation of strippers? Does he get called Congressman Cooter? Lucy wasn't already a crackhead? Discuss.

Looking Good.

So far, my predictions from earlier are looking pretty good. Assuming Dutch made an ass of himself, that is. Like I said, my predictions are looking prety good, even if Matusow is a self-proclaimed "superstar". (from Cardplayer's coverage,

Derek Dix raises all-in preflop with As-Js, and is called by Mike Matusow with Ks-8h. Matusow notices his chances and says "I'm behind, I'm behind." The flop comes Qd-7d-Qc. Matusow: "I'm way behind." The turn is the Jh. Matusow: "I'm dead." The river is the Kd. Matusow: "I'm a superstar!" Matusow catches his King to beat out Dix's Jacks and Matusow is up to $2,500,000.

You know, this guy is beginning to grow on me, but I still hope Raymer busts him...again (ok he didn't really bust him last year, but he did cripple the mouth...)

Ivey, Raymer and the Mouth the only "names" left, with Juanda, Watkinson, and Bonyadi falling late in the day yesterday. As an example of the idiotic times we live in, there was a 90 minute "discussion" on sports radio last night as to how, assuming he repeats, Raymer's feat would match up with Lance's soon-to-be 7 straight. To prove that such programming works, I almost called in to tell the host what a moron he was.

The one guy who agreed with him used the following argument: I can learn how to play poker by watching on TV, but I can't learn how to cycle, therefore poker on TV is better. Needless to say, I feel there are more errors then words in the above statement (and I was kind enough to clean up the grammar and remove the numerous "uh's".) I am disgusted by humanity.

Or maybe I'm just pissed because I have to learn the rule aganst perpetuities. Again.

Less then 2 weeks til I can start playing again, I'm so excited.

What is a Bluff?

Paul Phillips mentions a hand that Greg Raymer played, suggesting that the use of the term bluff was incorrect in describing a play by a guy that probably held the best hand. Commenters at his site seem to agree.

I'm not the most experienced poker player in the world, but it seems to me that just because you're bluffing with the best hand doesn't mean you're not bluffing. Here is the dictionary definition of bluff.

The point of bluffing is to display strength so that your opponent will not call, right? If you have 88 on a AAATK board, and your opponent has 77, you're still bluffing if you bet in a manner intended to convince your opponent that you have something better than 88. You might have a heart attack when the opponent calls - only to realize you had the best hand anyway. But if you weren't bluffing, then you wouldn't have had the heart attack. I think that all that matters in a bluff is what you think you have and what you think your opponent has. Whatever your opponent actually has in their hand is irrelevant as to whether you are bluffing.

To me, if you bet and re-raise with King high on a board of J55A5, that's per se bluffing. Anyone else disagree?

Audio Feed

Cardplayer announced that they will be streaming live audio of the WSOP Main Event starting on Friday with professionals like Negreanu, Hellmuth, and Harman providing commentary.

In other news, Jeff Shulman announced he is king of the mathletes, thinks Vulcan women are hot, and challenges all comers to a match of Dungeons and Dragons.^*

*Watch the video I linked to - you'll understand.

Wasting Time

Well, the final table picks I made toward the beginning of yesterday held up well (I'd love to say that I picked them at the beginning of the whole thing, but come on). Tim Phan is the chip leader heading into the day, and Ivey is picking up steam. Juanda seems like he has been treading water for two days, but I love the way he plays, and I'm confident that if he can stick around with a reasonable stack he'll eventually make a couple big plays. Mike Matusow, however, continues to do well, despite my (and everyone else's) prediction of a meltdown (in his video interview yesterday he seemed to be oddly calm and composed). Raymer, as I predicted, has begun to struggle. He still has a big enough stack that he can contend, however. There are only a handful of chip stacks that can legitimately be said to be short stacks relative to the blinds at the beginning of today, although the big stacks are big enough that they might be able to pressure some of the smaller stacks into more desperate play. With 55+ million chips in play, and the last listed level at 100k/200k +30k ante, I'm curious whether once the final table gets down to 2 or three players the battle could go excruciatingly long (unless someone limps into heads up with a very small stack). Then again, with $3.25 million separating first and second, I wouldn't be surprised to see play "loosened up" a bit by a deal (I still wonder about the speed of last year's heads-up play). The wildcard in any deal is this: the extra value of winning, beyond just pride, i.e., any money that might come from being the champion (I feel fairly certain that we wouldn't be seeing Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer commercials if they had finished second). One other factor to consider today: the payouts have one of their biggest jumps up until the final two tables between the 45th finisher and the 46th finisher. It is a difference of almost $62k. It will take two payout levels after that to surpass that kind of jump in prize money. Since they'll only be playing down to 27 today, 45th-46th should be an interesting sticking point worth watching today (translation: I'm taking too many study breaks).

Juanda Between the Lines

Latest interview I'll link to, this time with John Juanda. Read between the lines to see if you agree with me that Juanda is insinuating the following: (1) Howard Lederer misplayed AJo in the hand that Juanda knocked Lederer out, and (2) Juanda thinks there are still quite a few weak players left in the field.

That's why Juanda was on my list as of earlier today to make the final table (I've now said it twice, so hopefully I won't jinx him with my bad poker luck).

By the way, pokerpages is still a good place for consistent chip counts, but Card Player has a distinct advantage in overall coverage, as it is the official magazine of the WSOP and has been given more extensive coverage rights than any other outlet than ESPN (which is all but pretending that the WSOP isn't happening). With Harrah's limiting most media outlets to just rotating and intermittent access to the floor, it seems that Cardplayer is pretty much alone in having continuous access. They don't do well enough in keeping up with chip counts, but their coverage is more well-rounded.

Gettin Hot in Herre

I still haven't played any poker out here for the last couple weeks. But I did finally find a good place for after-hours study (the UNLV libe closes at 11 pm, which doesn't cut it) - the Binion's coffee shop. As a bonus, they have double-deck, standard rules Blackjack (BJ pays 3-2!) with a minimum bet of only $5 less than 100 feet away! I sat down around 3am this morning and left at 5am $200 richer. The non-poker winning streak continues; I haven't kept records but I'm pretty sure I'm up about $1k playing craps and BJ since becoming a Las Vegas domiciliary. I'm yet to have a losing BJ session and I've had exactly 2 (out of 10 or so) losing craps sessions. awesome.

Lawyers, Guns, and Poker

Question: How many of the world's best poker players went to law school?

I ask that because Greg Raymer appears to be leaving a path of destruction in his wake through the early part of day 6, and the guy ranked third in chips at the start of the day is a law student at UPenn. Dan Harrington was a lawyer. Rich and Pooh's favorite poker player, Mark Seif, is also (or was) a lawyer. Joe's idol, Dutch Boyd - who just busted out, went to law school. I'm sure there are many others.

Next question: If Raymer wins two WSOP main events in a row (for a total of $12.5 million), how much money will he give to The University of Minnesota Law School?

WSOP Main Event - notable names still going strong.

According to Mike Paulle's wsop blog, several big names are still around at the start of play today. Joe's Daddy, Dutch boy, is still hanging around with just under t100k (average stack approx -t450k.), alogn with Paul Darden. First day leader Lee Watkinson seems to have spun his wheels for a few days, and has T180k. 2003 4th place finisher Jason Lester has T280k. Johnny Juanda, my boy, the drug runner (Matusow) as well as Lederer arealove with around avergae stacks. Ivey is sitting pretty at 700k. But the big news is that after being down to something like 4800 on day one, Fossilam Raymer is in the lead at just over T1mil. Ski-U-Mah, my friends...

Predictions: Ivey finsihes tenth, losing with AQ. Raymer takes out Matusow, who's head implodes. Dutch makes an ass of himself on the ESPN telecasts. That is all.

Seif on Cameras

An interesting interview with Mark Seif, in which he suggests that the effect of being on a table featured by ESPN is that some players entered into pots that they wouldn't have otherwise in order to be involved in hands that would be featured on TV. He suggests that the effect was to neutralize his game as a relatively loose/aggressive player.

Somebody sucks...

It's this guy....



I'm re-retired, for 3 weeks at least...

Oh yeah, who plays this differently?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (2 handed)



Pooh (t1845)

Button =#A500AF(Chris B.)/ (t4155)



Preflop: Pooh is BB with Kh, 6h.

Button =#A500AF(Chris B.)/ raises to t90, Pooh calls t60.



Flop: (t180) 7h, Td, Ah (2 players)

Pooh checks, Chris B. bets t240, Pooh raises to t600, Chris B. raises to t1920, Pooh calls t1155 (All-In).



Turn: (t3855) Kd (2 players, 1 all-in)



River: (t3855) Jd (2 players, 1 all-in)



Final Pot: t3855



Results in white below:

Pooh has Kh 6h (one pair, kings).

Chris B. has Ad 8h (one pair, aces).

Outcome: Chris B. wins t3855.

Pokerblawg #6

Due to popular demand (or Miles's demand), we have finally scheduled our sixth tournament. Here's the info:

Pokerblawg #6
Where: PokerStars
When: Sunday, July 10 at 8:00pm central time
Game: NL Hold'em
Buyin: $10+1
Password: gopher

Go to the PokerStars lobby, click on the "Tourney" button, then click on the "Private" heading. The tournament is listed as "Pokerblawg #6".

Be sure to spread the word.

WSOP & Canterbury Trip

"Just" 5600 in the WSOP main event this year. Clearly a record (and more than twice last year's mark), but about 1000 players short of the number of seats that Harrah's had made available.

I disagree with Joe. The best source for Main Event info is Cardplayer.com. Not only do they have the most organized information, but they feature video interviews with players.

---

To say farewell to laziness as I begin buckling down for bar study, I went to Canterbury last night. I played about 2 hours of 2/4, and about 6 hours of 3/6. I finished +$190. I would have finished up another $60-70, but the last couple hours I was very tired and started playing like crap. Unlike the last couple trips to Canterbury, the high pocket pairs were flying my way. Like Internet poker, they were getting cracked left and right. I had AA four times, and won twice (losing to 23s(!) when a guy turned a full house and QJo when the same guy rivered a third queen - just so you know, in limit poker I do not ever believe in slow-playing a big pair pre-flop; they just kept calling and hitting). I had KK twice, and won once (lost to 58o). I had QQ four times and won twice (one loss coming to the same guy that cracked my kings when he got his flush with 57s). I had JJ twice and won twice. My biggest hands were winning with QQ when I flopped a set and my opponent (well, one of them) flopped a set of Jacks, and when I flopped quad jacks (though by that time people were a little more wary of my aggressiveness so they weren't re-raising as much, and the size of the profit came from the fact that there were five other players that saw a flop in a raised pot, and there were three other players that saw a showdown). In the hand I will regret for a long time, the very next hand after hitting the quad jacks, I mucked 55 pre-flop from MP when there was a raise and re-raise in early position and the flop came 558! Man my heart sank. My winning percentage with AK was terrible. I need to study my play of big slick for a leak, because it hasn't been profitable for me online, either.

After some early success, and realizing that there really weren't many decent players in the game, I was very relaxed and enjoying myself (which was nice after a nice stretch of brutal beats online). When my aces were cracked by 23 I just laughed and told the guy not to keep apologizing. When he rivered my aces with his third queen about ten minutes later, I called his bet and threw my aces down with some steam, but I got over it in about ten seconds. The world is so much nicer when you can look down and see you've tripled your buy-in even after suffering some bad beats.

Oddly, I think the 3/6 game is worse than the 2/4 game. I would characterize my playing abilities as better than decent, but I wouldn't call myself a truly good player. I have a long way to go. I'm honest enough with myself to know that my Hold 'Em skills are easily the least polished of the three bloggers on this site. My feeling, however, is that it is fairly easy to go from being a terrible player to being half-decent. I consider half-decent to be decent enough that you aren't wildly hemorrhaging chips. Well, it is amazing to me how many downright terrible players there are at the 3/6 games at Canterbury. It is rare that there is ever more than one other player that is solid. There will often be a couple of players at the table that are extremely loose but play well after the flop (often older players). Then there will be a few players that just absolutely suck. Oddly, a disproportionate number seem to be college age men.

Of course, you may ask why my wins aren't even bigger if there are so many bad players at the table (though I think I've done OK at Canterbury). Well, part of it is my own leaks (I need to improve some in my betting after the flop, such as saving a bet on some hands and extracting an extra bet in others), but I believe the bigger part is that with so many people in every hand, it trims your edge so that you have to grind out wins, not assume that the chips will just automatically fall in your stack.

There is a fairly good chance that last night will have been my last ever visit to Canterbury. A pretty good place to play poker. Now if they'll just build a poker room in Chicago.

We are all Britons today

Players to Watch

Lee Munzer writes about his Top 100 Players to Watch in the WSOP main event. Via Rich in comments.

Check out the Tao of Poker for the best liveblogging of the main event, including our favorite D-list ex-Trekker, Wil Wheaton.

I got 135 on the Bar/Bri practice MBE. What did ya'lls get?

Handicapping SCOTUS

Tradesports has their markets running for next SCOTUS nominee. Emilio Garza (5th Cir; UT Law) and Alberto Gonzalez (AG; Harvard) are the two faves, both at about 3 to 1.

I don't think there's any way Bush nominates Gonzalez. The rabid left refers to Gonzalez as the "torture czar" (silly, silly people) and he is not enough of a Blanchard disciple for the "Christian right."

On the other hand, I don't know anything about Garza. He's Latino, so that's a plus!

Reading Rainbow

I'm finally going to actually take the time to order several of the books I've been meaning to read. Here they are, in no particular order:

Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Pokerby King Yao (NOT Yao "I already got them" Ming)

Getting Started in Hold'emby Ed Miller, author of Small Stakes(where you at Goebbles?)

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axisby Bat Ye'or, author of The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high!

Take a look, it's in a book - Reading Rainbow.

I can go anywhere!

Friends to know and ways to grow - Reading Rainbow.

I can be anything!

Take a look, it's in a book - Reading Rainbow.

Reading Rainbow, Reading Rainbow,

Reading Rainbow, Reading Rainbow!

UPDATE: Super Saver Shipping Sux

Team Poker Stars

Poker Stars has announced their team of players. It is a fairly odd group (Moneymaker, Raymer, and McEvoy are understandable, but Erin Ness and Wil Wheaton?).

Hansen at the WSOP

Gus Hansen has finally arrived at the WSOP. As Pauly said, here's proof.

BarryGreenstein.com

Check out Barry Greenstein's site, especially his surprisingly candid analysis of the poker skills of some top pros.

Give Me A Hand

I'm back after a couple of days out of town (under sad circumstances unfortunately, but that's not for this space).

I played for a few minutes this evening at the low stakes games, and the following was one of the last hands I played. Comments on my action at any stage are appreciated.

PokerStars 0.25/0.50 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Chris B. is UTG+2 with Td, Tc.

2 folds, Chris B. raises, MP1 3-bets, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, 3 folds, Chris B. calls.

Flop: (13.40 SB) 5c, 2c, Js (4 players)

Chris B. checks, MP1 bets, MP2 calls, CO calls, Chris B. calls.

Turn: (8.70 BB) 3d (4 players)

Chris B. checks, MP1 bets, MP2 calls, CO calls, Chris B. folds.

River: (11.70 BB) Jc (3 players)

MP1 checks, MP2 bets, CO folds, MP1 calls.

Final Pot: 13.70 BB

Results:

MP1 has Ks Ac (one pair, jacks).

MP2 has Ad 2d (two pair, jacks and twos).

Outcome: MP2 wins 13.70 BB.

Loan Consolidation

Law students / graduates: Remember that you must consolidate your loans by July 1. I urge you to go here if you have not yet consolidated.

Pro Sports in Vegas

I have quietly advocated for a major league baseball team to come to Vegas. Whether it be the Royals or, more likely, the Marlins, I always thought one of MLB's crappy teams would do better in Vegas because of (a) Vegas' population approaching 2 million, (compare the KC metro at 1.4 million), (b) its status as the "fastest growing city in America," (c) the obvious millions of tourists (I figured people visiting from NY would go to see the Yankees play while they were in town, especially if the ballpark was close to the Strip, which it obviously would be after Kelo), and (d) Vegas' successful bid for the 2007 NBA All-Star Game (although there will be no betting on the game).

I will no longer so advocate .

The 51s game on Thursday was sweet, but only for the $1 beers (which were 12 oz. and the limit per trip was 2, twice the expected limit). Well, it was also sweet for the grand slam in the 1st inning by the 51s' opponents, the Sacramento River Cats. The Cats loaded the bases through various inneptitude by the 51s (who suck), and the cleanup hitter cleaned up by jacking a linedrive off the Anderson Dairy billboard in right. All we were missing was a giant "MOOOOO."

What was not awesome about the game was the attendance. The official number was 4,400 but there is NO F'IN WAY there were over 2k there, probably closer to 1k. It was pathetic. Maybe the people would come if the 51s were better, but what more do these people need than $1 12 oz. beers?

That said, count me in for every Thursday home game at Cashman Field despite the suckiness of the 51s and the lack of fans. But all bets are off regarding any of the "Big Four" acquiring Vegas representation.

Retirement...

So Pooh's days of poker semipro-dom are over, at least until after the bar exam. I just can't mentally take it right now, since the past week I have suffered near continuous "session killers." Everytime I win a couple hands and feel like I'm getting some kind of groove, this happens:

Villain is turbo aggressive on the button:

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is BB with 9h, Ad.

3 folds, Button raises, 1 fold, Pooh 3-bets, Button caps, Pooh calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) Ts, As, Ac (2 players)

Pooh checks, Button bets, Pooh calls.

Turn: (5.25 BB) 3s (2 players)

Pooh checks, Button bets, Pooh calls.

River: (7.25 BB) 8d (2 players)

Pooh bets, Button raises, Pooh calls.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results:
ooh has 9h Ad (three of a kind, aces).

Button has Td Tc (full house, tens full of aces).

Outcome: Button wins 11.25 BB.

Ok that's just a little unlucky, but then...

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 4 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is SB with Ad, Tc. UTG posts a blind of $1.

UTG (poster) checks, Button calls, Pooh raises, BB calls, UTG calls, Button 3-bets, Pooh calls, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (12 SB) As, Jh, Ah (4 players)

Pooh checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Button bets, Pooh raises, BB folds, UTG folds, Button calls.

Turn: (8 BB) 4h (2 players)

Pooh bets, Button calls.

River: (10 BB) Kh (2 players)

Pooh bets, Button calls.

Final Pot: 12 BB
Results:
Pooh has Ad Tc (three of a kind, aces).

Button has 8h 8d (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Button wins 12 BB.

Or

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 4 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is BB with Ad, As. UTG posts a blind of $1.

UTG (poster) checks, 1 fold, SB raises, Pooh 3-bets, UTG folds, SB calls.

Flop: (7 SB) 9c, 3c, Ac (2 players)

SB checks, Pooh bets, SB calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) Tc (2 players)

SB checks, Pooh bets, SB raises, Pooh 3-bets, SB calls $1.50 (All-In).

River: (10.25 BB) 5s (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 10.25 BB

Results:

Pooh has Ad As (three of a kind, aces).

SB has Js Jc (flush, ace high).

Outcome: SB wins 10 BB. Pooh wins 0.25 BB.

Or

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is Button with Th, Tc. MP posts a blind of $1.

UTG calls, MP (poster) checks, Pooh raises, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls, MP folds.

Flop: (9 SB) 9h, Ah, Td (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Pooh bets, SB folds, BB calls, UTG folds.

Turn: (5.50 BB) Qd (2 players)

BB checks, Pooh bets, BB calls.

River: (7.50 BB) Js (2 players)

BB checks, Pooh bets, BB raises, Pooh calls.

Final Pot: 11.50 BB

Results:

BB has 8c 8h (straight, queen high).

Pooh has Th Tc (three of a kind, tens).

Outcome: BB wins 11.50 BB.

But the worst is what happened to me with AK...this is representative...

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is MP with Ac, Ks.

1 fold, Pooh raises, Button 3-bets, SB calls, 1 fold, Pooh caps, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (13 SB) 6c, 3s, As (3 players)

SB checks, Pooh bets, Button raises, SB folds, Pooh 3-bets, Button caps, Pooh calls.

Turn: (10.50 BB) Js (2 players)

Pooh bets, Button raises, Pooh 3-bets, Button calls $0.61 (All-In).

River: (15.81 BB) 5d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 15.81 BB

Results: :

Pooh has Ac Ks (one pair, aces).

Button has 6d 3d (two pair, sixes and threes).

Outcome: Pooh wins 15.81 BB.

or...

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Pooh is MP with Ad, Kh.

1 fold, Pooh raises, 2 folds, BB calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) 5d, 4s, As (2 players)

BB bets, Pooh calls.

Turn: (3.25 BB) Th (2 players)

BB bets, Pooh raises, BB 3-bets, Pooh calls.

River: (9.25 BB) 2s (2 players)

BB bets, Pooh calls.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results:

BB has 2h Ac (two pair, aces and twos).

Pooh has Ad Kh (one pair, aces).

Outcome: BB wins 11.25 BB.

These all occured within about 300 hands...I quit for now...


Final
Hands: 6,776 (total: 36,990 + 13)
Results: -$25.76 (total: + $2,345.73)

Yay bar exam...

Tigerboard

Tigerboard, everyone's favorite place to talk Mizzou sports, now has a poker forum. Check it out.

Viollette-Greenstein, Jr.

Haven't posted for awhile due to a number of factors:

• Somehow got logged off of Blogger for the first time ever last week, was not able to re-login, and could not receive an email from Blogger on how to get my login and password. Today I finally realized that Blogger had joe@mondalestwin.com as my email address (I haven't checked that address in months). So now we're good.
• I spent last weekend at a wedding in Iowa with pokerblog-readers Mick E. and Dick. Mick E. and I visited the neighborhood casino in Des Moines (we called it Dez Mo after our Nigerian cabby) and I won $190 in 2 hours of 3-6, then another $160 in 1 hour of craps. Could not miss a draw (or a come bet). Don't ask Mick E. how he did. Following the wedding, I left my computer's power cord in Chicago, so I have been sans computer for the last 3 days. The horror!
• I spent the weekend before last visiting friends in LA, including Dick. I visited Commerce Casino on my way outta town. Nice place if you like incompetent dealers and rude players. And yes, I do. I won $30 in 3 hours of 2-4. Woohoo!

Not going to be playing much poker in the upcoming days because I have a lot of Bar/Bri and Vegas hangin' to catch up on. Tomorrow night I will be visiting Cashman field to catch the Las Vegas 51s, the local AAA Dodgers affiliate, for Dollar Beer Night. Yes, that's right, professional baseball with DOLLAR BEERS. And no, I won't be driving.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. I was playing at a 4-8 table at Rio last week and Cyndy Viollette walked up. I was wondering what the f she was doing worrying about a 4-8 table; turned out I was playing with her daughter, Shannon! Shannon was calling way too many bets and never raising.

About 5 minutes later, the dude next to me checks a text message and says "Damn, my dad was leading the 7-stud tourney [going on in one corner of the Rio's football field-sized poker room], but now he's down to 2800 chips." I'm like "Who's your dad?" And this guy says to me, "Barry Greenstein; you know him?" I almost fell out of my chair. Here I am at a 4-8 table playing with Cyndy Viollette's daughter and Barry Greenstein's son. Greenstein Jr (I forgot his name even though he told me twice. I know he's not the other Greenstein's son who is currently deep in the Omaha event) was also calling too many bets, but not as many as Shannon, and he would also occassionally raise for good measure. We talked for awhile about how rich his dad is. awesome.

The Turnaround Commences?

So, in an effort to rebuild confidence after this:



I've dropped back down to 1/2 at Party for the time being. It's actually gone quite well, as I'm up about 150 BB's in 1500 hands. Hopefully, I can keep that up, get both some confidence and some bankroll back, and get going again...

An Interesting Play

I'm going to try and reduce the amount of complaining about my continuing poker death spiral, but a hand I experienced yesterday has stuck with me. Although I was furious about it when it happened, I'm now more astonished by it than anything. No hand history since it is Full Tilt, so I'll try to remember it as best as possible.

It was a NLHE sit and go. Fairly early, I believe the blinds were 20/40. I was UTG+1 with AcKc. UTG limps. I raise to four times the big blind. The big blind calls, and UTG calls. The flop comes 10c8d3c. BB and UTG check. I bet the pot, leaving myself with about 800 chips. BB folds, and UTG check-raises all-in. He has me covered, but maybe by 50 chips. His behavior suggests an overpair, although there is a wide range of possibilities. Quite frankly, my guess as to range of hands is either something like AA or KK (slowplaying pre-flop) or something like 810, 9J, 5c6c (play like this, as you will see, is fairly common in these games). But a drawing hand is less likely because most players in these games will call a lot (even against the odds), but not raise. A10, 1010, or 88 seem less possible, because players tend to raise pre-flop with these hands, not slow play them. 33 is a possibility, I suppose. So AA, KK, 33, or 810 are my leading possibilities.

I pause for a bit. He's got to have a good hand to check-raise me, right? Figuring the odds trump all, I decide to call. And he turns over 89o! Second pair/middle kicker, and he check-raises all-in! Although I was behind, I was happy to see that I had even more outs than I figured were likely. In fact, I was actually still a slight favorite. Of course I lost. The more I thought about it, the more astonishingly dumb his move appeared to be. Brave, sure, but dumb. He's up against an early position raiser who bets the pot on the flop with a flush draw on the board, and he check raises with second pair? Even against some great hands, I figure I'm getting odds to call - which he let happen by going for the "I want to be a maniac and I like to think I'm always trapping" check raise. In essence, he priced me into a pot with a very weak hand. Even writing about it now I'm awestruck.

Of course, maybe I'm just not seeing the beauty of his play. After all, he was still in the game after the hand.

PokerStars Outage

Poker Stars had a major outage this evening, and they had to cancel a couple dozen tournaments that had been in progress. Is it just me, or have the poker sites all been having some problems lately? Denial of service attacks, perhaps?

WTF

I can't even win at the 2 cent games now? I sit down at a .2/.4 limit heads-up game with 80 cents and manage to lose it in 22 hands. And I was playing the stupid game to gain some confidence! AA cracked by 33 (naturally he picked up quads). Every dominating hand I started with he hit his pair while I failed to improve. My last hand I lost with A8 against A6. He won 17 pots in 22 hands.

I guess I should just concede that I've become the single worst poker player in the world.

Ugly

I hate poker sometimes...I might be taking a couple days off to lick my wounds, I'll just let the numbers do the talking...

Since my last post


Hands:8,211 (total: 30,214 + 13 hours)
Results: -$1,677.5 (total: + $2,371.59)


To make myself feel better, I try and look at my years spreadsheet, which still shows me up $18k. Somehow, i's not working.

This doesn't even help:


I don't think I'll ever win again...

Next Pokerblog Tourney Soon

We're working on coming up with a new pokerblog tourney soon, and some improvements to the site (yes, I know we've mentioned it a few times; soon). As promised, we'll be using a bit of the money we've drummed up to pay for some of those improvements, and we'll have money left over to add value to the pokerblog tourneys as well.

I assume most of our readers are on Stars and Party, but I wanted to ask how many of you (besides the bloggers) are on Full Tilt (for the purposes of determining whether it would be feasible in the future to have a pokerblog event on that site). Any suggestions for improvements, the tourneys, or other, please post comments below.

This just sounds painful...

A post on 2+2 about a guy 8-tabling brought a reference to this post about a guy 20-tabling.

20 tabling is intense I must say:) . . . My initial impression of it after playing for about 1 minute was that it was not humanly possible, but things started to even out and I got better and faster the more I played. There seemed to almost be waves of hands lol, I remember it being almost relaxing at one point, like I was in a trance and then all of a sudden a load of 8 tables would start blinking and I be extremely stressed for the next 1-2 minutes holding it back. Same thing if I had to answer the phone or something, I would have to spend the next couple minutes catching up. I found that on average I had about 1 table that was timed out, it was usually in the part of task bar where I couldn't see it blinkin easily.

7,000 hands in one night...

Datamining Heaven...

For those of you who play on stars and want to get tons of data on future opponents, try this baby on for size. You can observe 40+ tables at a time. Only downside is that you have to manually twiddle with it every 20 minutes or so to get your hand histories. Yet another leap forward in the batlle for online information...

Poker Gods' Revenge

During the Stud Hi/Lo tourney I was in a $5 Horse tourney as well, and was in first place shortly after the Stud Hi/Lo tourney was over. I was dominating. Then I lost a couple thousand chips when a razz hand went bad. But I was still in fine shape (I lost about 1/4 of my stack and still was in 5th place).

Then my 10-A straight was beaten when a guy reluctantly called on sixth street (I had 10JQK showing and was firing away), and he then caught a full house on seventh street. Then a couple hands later my two pair (made on 4th street) was beaten when a guy caught a better two pair on sixth street. I was now the short stack.

Hold'em started, and I, for a number of reasons, decided to risk my 1000 remaining chips with QJ. 4000+ chips in the pot, and what else but QJx flops? I'm back! Another player raises the third player out of the hand, and shows KK. Can you guess what turned? Yep, a king. Now that's what I'm accustomed to.

Stud Hi/Lo Victory

Apparently Stud Hi/Lo is my game. I just took first place down in a $10+1 Stud Hi/Lo multi on Full Tilt. Granted, there were just 38 entries, but I'm still pretty psyched about it. It produced a $152 first prize.

More than the prize money, I am really happy about how I played. I started on a table with a couple of maniacs, and so I was treading water for a while. Eventually they busted out, and I moved to another table. By the end of the first break, I was still hovering in the middle of the remaining players. At one point I looked at where my chips were and where the antes/limits were and started to feel the pressure to scoop, which I hadn't done in some time. But I stuck around, and with about 10 players left something clicked. I scooped a couple pots when some people missed their draws.

I scooped my way into the final table just slightly in the chip lead. I hovered around the same number of chips for a while, not picking up much in the way of anything more than stealing the antes a couple times. I was playing fairly tight at the final table, but when I started getting some halfway decent cards and had the slightest inkling I was ahead in the hand, I fired away. There were some players risking a lot of chips for weak lo draws, and I capitalized. Hello chips. Pretty soon I had 40,000 chips with five players left - and there were just 57,000 chips total. By the time we were heads-up I had picked up another 9,000 or so chips and was in the neighborhood of a 5:1 chip leader. It took about 10 minutes before I dispatched my opponent.

Now if I can just translate that into any success in any other game/tourney.

By the way, I'm willing to give a great deal of credit to that all-time classic Revenge of the Nerds, which was on TV for much of my run in the second half of the tourney. What else could happen but inspiration when watching that movie?

NutBar

Yesterday may have been the single strangest experience of my poker life. After a succesful morning 2/4 session, I decided to play some 5/10 in the early evening. It did not start well. I was down over 80bb's at one point, which isn't a ton, but when you convert it into $'s, felt like a lot...but, I didn't tilt. I changed gears to playing very tight-solid poker (since my table image was for shit since I had been getting beat up and down...) and mounted an enormous comeback. I decided to quit a few hundred hands later, thinking I had come back to down about $20, which was acceptable. Then I loaded the hands into pokertracker. +$1, for just over 1,000 hands. A whopping .01 bb/100. I play goot.



Then I played with some kids from Anchorage last night, won about $40, despite sucking enormously. Example, playing PLO8, I have 35xx and the board is 246x with 2 diamonds, so naturally I jam the turn. It's down to me and the SB heads up. River is Ad, he checks and I....check? I've never felt so stupid scooping a pot in my life...


hands: 1,820 + 3 hours live (Total: 22,003 + 13 hours)
Results: $+199.5 + $43.25 Live (Total: +$4,032.09)

Mike Paulle on WSOP

"These players are awful. If you can play tournament No Limit Hold'em, and you can find some spare change, please come here and play against these maniacs. You can't be worse than these players are."