Project 10K Session #19 - Hit and Miss

Since I have been crushing mother fuckers left and right I decided to push it and head in to the Oaks for another session on Sunday.

I sat down at $2/$3/$5 and discovered that it was a shockingly tight, passive game for a holiday weekend. It seemed like 45 minutes would pass between pots over $200. I don't really mind this type of game, but one wild player would have made it perfect.

My session boiled down to two big hands, although there was one had that played into the story before those.

On the prologue hand I had A5 of hearts and the flop came down T 4 2 with one heart and two diamonds. I check/called a bet of $20 into a $25 pot against an opponent I'll call Mr. T-Pain (because he was dressed how I imagine T-Pain would be dressed on a casual Sunday).

Bottles of Patron Ooo Ooo Ooo, I bet twenty bucks and now it's on you you you

With a gut shot, an over card, a backdoor flush draw and a plan to fire if a scary card came off I called the $20. The turn was a 5 giving me a little something extra to go with my plan. I check called $30. The river came out the 8 of diamonds completing the obvious flush draw and I decided that was scary enough that I might unload a pair of tens. I bet $75 and got snapped off by Mr. T-Pain's T4 two pair. Drat!

Now on to the main hands! 

In the first there were a couple of callers and then a raise to $35 by a player I'll call Mr. S. Mr. S is a solid player who can make a big laydown and as a result can also get taken off a big hand. One hand in a past session I three bet him preflop, he called and then check folded QQ on a J high flop. On this hand I had 98 of spades and called out of the big blind hoping some of the limpers would come along as well. One of them did and we took the flop 3 way. The cards came out 5 2 2 with two spades and when we checked to Mr. S he made it $75 to go. I could argue for calling here with my flush draw, but I decided to get aggressive and made it $225 to go leaving me another $200 in my stack. If Mr. S had unpaired big cards I'd almost certainly win right there and more of his hand range should be non-pairs than pairs. Also there was always some chance he'd unload a pair when faced with stacking off. I kind of wanted to go all in, but I thought that would scream bluff. After some careful consideration he put me all in, I called and he showed KK. The turn was the T of spades completing my flush and the river was a blank. ZING!

This was by far the biggest hand of the past hour so everyone was watching closely and we talked about it for a couple of minutes after. Mr. S said he'd lost KK three times that day and it was the second time he'd lost to 98.

One round later I was back in the big blind and got dealt Q9 of clubs. Mr. T-Pain came in for a raise to $25 and 4 of us saw the flop. To my delight the flop was three small clubs. No need to draw this time! I quickly checked as did the other players and Mr. T-Pain bet out $75. "This is fucking perfect!" I thought. I'd just check raised a bet of $75 when I was on a draw, I know Mr. T-Pain saw it, and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to forget snapping me off of a bluff earlier. I made it $200 to go and after some careful consideration he went all in for $600! I snap called, the board ran out two red cards and I gobbled up the pot. Yum Yum! He said he had AA with the A of clubs and I believe him.

Making or missing draws can often have a huge effect on your results (like what happened to me in Session #7) and this time I got the double whammy of making my draw and having my opponent miss his in the two huge pots of the night. Also beating KK and AA was pretty sweet too!

In the end I won $1,005 in 2.5 hours. My $10,000 bankroll is at $18,446 after 85 hours.

$99.36 an hour! Take that haters! Oh and just call me T-Pain - Mr. T-pain is my father.

Project 10K Session #18 - 88 Miles Per Hour

I rolled into the Oaks on Friday a little later than usual. Normally I head there straight after work and get there right as the daytime players are leaving and the evening players are rolling in. This time I got there around 6:45 and it seemed that everyone who was playing in the one $2/$3/$5 game was just getting started. I didn't get into the game until 9.

In those 2 hours and 15 minutes I found myself in a bit of poker purgatory. I was at the $1/$1/$2 game, it was a great game, and I couldn't win a pot. It was an hour before I won my first pot and that was the only one I won at that table. If you read my last post and you'll remember I listed out 7 or 8 hands where I raised, bet and won. This time around I had 7 or 8 where I only made it through those first two steps. Raise to $10, bet $25 on the flop and then get forced to fold or check, fold the turn. Or Raise $10, bet $25 on the flop, bet $50 on the turn and get forced to fold or check, fold the river.

I dropped $345 before getting called to the bigger game. Happily shortly after I sat down my good friend E.B. sat down next to me. I don't know if it's coincidence or if the way he plays alters everyone else's play so the conditions are ideal for me, but whatever it is I almost always do well when we play together.

I had $500 in front of me and was in for $1,100 (i.e. losing $600) when things started to turn around.

I got dealt KJ off suit in late position and raised a few $5 callers to $30. I got 4 callers meaning there was $150 in the pot. This can be kind of a sticky spot if you flop one pair. I could easily find myself in a spot where the flop comes down J high, I bet $125 and someone puts me all in for another $350 or goes all in for a lesser amount. They might do that with a worse J or a draw, but they'd also do that with most better hands as well. If the pot is smaller and the stack to pot ratio is larger to take more bets and usually more betting rounds to get it all in. With that extra information it's easier to sort out what your opponent has. Luckily in this case the flop came J high, but there were two jacks! I bet $100 on a J J 8 flop and everyone folded. Not a huge hand, but more than $100 in the right direction.

On the next big hand I raised to $45 with AQ of hearts against a straddle and a limper and they both called my raise along with one other player. The flop came down K T 4 all diamonds and they checked to me. I decided to not fire into 3 players with air and checked it back hoping for a black jack on the turn. The turn was the J or clubs! OK, now I have a straight, but it's far from the nuts. The straddle bet out $60 and got raised to $120. Ugh. Normally the min raise is the kiss of death, but there was $360 out there and given that it checked around on the flop the raiser might have a two pair type of hand or even a K with a diamond. I called and the guy who bet $60 folded. The river was a non diamond 9. I was thinking about how big of a bet I could call when my opponent checked! Now I was almost positive I had him. I wanted to bet an amount that a hand like KJ or a hand with a Q could call. I landed on $125, bet it and got called. My opponent didn't show. I picked up about $430 on that pot and was back in black on the night.

A little later I called $5 wit K6 of clubs in the cutoff and we took the flop 6 way. One opponent bet out $20 on a Q J 9 with two clubs board. I considered raising with my flush draw straight draw combo, but decided to just call and there was one more call behind me. The turn was the A of clubs! Bingo bongo! Now I had the nut flush and my goal was to figure out how to get the most money into the pot. The first player checked and as he did I saw the other guy in the pot who was behind me go for his chips. He only had $77 left and he grabbed the whole stack eagerly like he was going to shove them all into the pot. I changed my plan from bet to check in a fraction of a second and quickly checked right after the first guy. Sure enough the $77 went in and the other guy called. I didn't want to lose the other guy and it was possible he was drawing dead or close to it so I made it $200 to go. I could see him thinking "What the fuck!?" as this was a weird way for the turn action to play out. After a short pause he called. The river was a brick and after a check, I bet out $230. I wasn't sure how much my opponent had left as he and the dealer were partially blocking my view of his stacks but I thought he had less than 3 stacks left. I also thought announcing "all in" or asking how much he had left might look too strong and give him a reason to fold so I just guessed when I chose $230. After a long pause he called and didn't show leaving about $10 left in his stack! I netted about $550 on that one.

On the next big hand E.B. called $5 in front of me, I called $5 with 88 and a couple of other players came along. The flop came down K 8 4 with two spades and E.B. bet out $25. I just called with my set hoping the other guys would come along and one of them did. The turn was a small spade completing the flush draw. The other guy checked, E.B. bet $55, I just called again and the other guy went all in for $197. Normally that check raise would mean he had a flush, but this guy was kind of a nut and I thought there was as good chance I still had the best hand. E.B. was sitting on about $700 and I was thinking that if he put in another raise here I'd be forced to fold, but when he just called I called as well. The river was an amazing card - the fourth 8! Quads baby! E.B. made a little motion towards his chips and I started to feel a little guilt about stacking him well up inside me, but then he checked. I grabbed two stacks planning to push $200 out there and he insta-folded. He told me he had AA with the A of spades! He saved himself a lot of money by not raising preflop here. That was another one that was close to +$500 for me.

A little later I got 88 again. And I flopped a set again! And I got action again. I came in for a raise and got one caller. I'd just played a hand with this guy where I called $40 on the flop and $90 the turn with just a pocket pair of 5's and won after a check check river and I figured he might be out for revenge! I also thought that he might be thinking that I was thinking that he was betting lite since I'd just caught him bluffing. That's high level poker people! Don't fuck with me! After the flop came down K 8 3 I bet $40 and he takes it to $110. At this point I have him squarely on one pair of kings. I take my time calling and when the turn comes out a 7, I check. He pushes $175 into the pot leaving $225 in his stack. I consider just calling again, but I don't think I'm going to get another bet from just a bare K on the river and taking into account what I was thinking about what he was thinking I was thinking, I decided to go all in. He pretty quickly called, the river was a blank and I picked up another $500+ net to me winner.

The next big hand of the night was one I didn't win, but was still one of the sweetest. I called $5 with 66 and flopped another set! The board was 9 8 6 with two spades, I bet $25, and got called by two players. The turn was a 9 making me a full house and making me invulnerable to the flush and straight draws which were the likely holdings of my opponents. So I checked and to my sadness it checked around. The river came out and it was awful, an 8. Now anyone with an 8 or a 9 had me beat with a bigger full house. I checked and the next guy to act bet $35. I didn't really like my hand, but I had to call such a small bet. When he showed his hand he had 98! He'd made a full house on the turn too and if he'd bet or the other guy bet any amount on the turn it would have been lights out for me. He had over $400 in his stack on the turn and if he bet, I would have raised and he would have reraised. Instead I only lost $65! This was an amazing dodge.

After I left the $1/$1/$2 I had almost nothing bad happen to me. I racked up my chips a couple of rounds later and left about 11:45. This is what my stack looked like (Disclaimer: this is actually a picture of E.B.'s stack after I left, but that's almost exactly how much I had). Those white chips are $100 chips. I love the other stack in the picture! How hopeless does it look for that guy sitting on $90?

I ended up winning $1,865 on the night! My $10,000 bankroll is at $17,441 after 82.5 hours. Baller Alert!

Project 10K Session #17 - Easy Decisions

I wasn't going to play this week, but on Thursday when my wife said "Are you going to play today?" that was all the prompting I needed.

It ended up being a short session of about 2.5 hours, and it was loaded with easy decisions.

I started off at $1/$1/$2 and on my second hand I got dealt Q9 of clubs in the small blind. After a few calls there was a raise to $19 and a few other callers. Stretching the preflop standards a bit I called as well. We took the flop 5 way and it came down 9 5 2 with one club. We checked to the preflop raiser who pushed $30 into the pot. Betting $30 into a $100 pot looked like desperation to me. He only had about $100 in front of him and I figured if he had the goods he would have shoved. I looked at the other players left in the hand and they didn't look all that happy. So I shoved for $175. The guy who bet $30 called all in which I didn't love, but the board bricked out and when I showed my hand it was good.

A couple of hands later I got into a similar spot. I called a raise to $17 with JT against 4 opponents. The flop came down J 7 4 and the preflop raiser shoved for a little over $100. I was the last one left in the pot when it got to me and riding the high of my last hand I called him. This time I lost to KK. In writing the last paragraph I now realize that I should have stuck with the all in means they have it and the weak stab means they don't most of the time, but oh well.

I took a tidy $45 profit with me as I went over to $2/$3/$5.

There the easiness really hit its stride. On my 4th or 5th hand I got dealt A3 of hearts. I called $5, there was a raise to $30, a call, and I called as well. The flop came down 7 4 2 all hearts! Hey hey! I checked and the preflop raiser bet $55. I was praying he had something and just called. The turn was a black 9 and I checked again. I was hoping he'd put me on a bare big heart and bet big to protect his hand. As desired he bet out $150 into the $200 pot. If he'd bet a little less I may have just called, but he convinced me that he really had it. I thought an overpair with a heart was a possibility, but if he didn't have a heart a 4th heart on the river would kill my action. In the end I decided that $150 looked a like a very good hand so I went all in for $400. He quickly folded.

The very next hand in the big blind I got dealt KK and there was a raise to $20 and a call in front of me. I made it $60 to go and the caller called me. The flop came down J 7 3, I bet $85 and took it down.

A couple of hands later I got dealt AA and again there was a raise and a call in front of me. This time I made it $70 to go and both opponents called. The flop came down 7 7 T which was great for me. If they didn't have 77 or TT I was ahead (I had them folding any other hand with a 7) and way ahead at that. To my delight one of them moved all in for $197. I hemmed and hawed a bit to see if I could lure in the other guy, but he quickly folded once I called. The river bricked out and I won.

After one round I was up about ~$700! Hey this is easy! One of the other players pointed at his chips and said "Should I just give these to you now?" and I said "Sure! My gift to you will be I'll just take them now and then you can have the rest of the night free to do whatever you want!"

At that point I had to go out to my car for a minute and I went to the bathroom. I got back just in time for the big blind and looked down at 97. I flopped two pair on a K 9 7 board, bet the flop and the turn, checked the river, and beat 86.

Mr. Should I Just Give These To You Now said "Man, you walk away from the table, sit back down and get two pair right away. Easy game."

The I had one decision on one insane hand that wasn't hard, but did take some careful consideration. I called $5 with A5 of clubs, a middle position player made it $25 to go the button called him as did the small blind. We took the flop 4 ways and it came down T 8 3 with one club. It checked around. The turn was a great card for me - the 2 of clubs. Now any club would make me the nut flush and any 4 would make me a straight. Also there was no way that 2 helped anyone. The small blind checked and I bet $75 fully expecting a bunch of KQ or AJ type hands to all fold. But then the middle position player made it $150 to go - the min raise indicating a very big hand. Then the button went all in for $625! And the small blind went all in for $225! What the fuck is going on here? You all checked the flop and now you're all going all in?

For me it was math time. There was $100 in the pot preflop. Middle position had his $150 plus another $200 that I figured was going in. I put $75 in the pot already and I had another $550 to call. So I had $100 + $150 + $200 + 75 + $625 + $225 = $1,425 in the pot and $550 to call. I had 12 outs to make a flush or a straight and there were 46 unknown cards left so I had 26% chance to improve meaning I'd need more than $2,115 in the pot to make a call worthwhile.

I can tell you in the moment my analysis was not so impeccable. I ball parked the pot $1,200 and thought I needed to put in about $500. That was clearly off, but there were 6 different piles of chips in varying levels of easy to count and it was a quick count. I also ball parked what I'd need in terms of pot odds at about 3 to 1 in the 1 second I thought about it. After about 5 seconds I knew I was short of what I needed. But I decided to do a second count and be precise about how much everyone had just to be sure. While I was doing that I thought "Duh, you idiot one of them must have a set so the 3 and 8 of clubs are no good meaning you only have 10 outs." I spent another 10 seconds mostly lamenting that I didn't have odds to call and just taking my time to be sure sure and then folded.

Mr. Middle Position called and they all turned up their cards. Middle Position had 33, the button had TT and the small blind had 88! They'd all flopped sets! Even though I knew I'd made the correct fold, I didn't want to see a club on the river. When it came out the river was an 8! A one outter for the small blind. Holy shit! That was a crazy hand.

At that point I started a run of maybe 60-90 minutes where I won every hand that I either raised or called a raise. They weren't all that big, I just won them all.

Called a raise with QTs flopped a Q bet it on the turn and won.

Raised KQ and got 3 callers. Decided to check it and it got checked around. The turn was a ace that also completed a flush draw (the worst card in the deck) and it checked around again. It checked around on the river and I won.

I three bet AK vs a raise and a call and won.

I raised T9 of spades, the flop came down K 9 3 with two spades, I bet and won.

I raised JJ out of the big blind, the flop came down K high, I bet and won.

I raised KJ the flop came down all small, I bet and won.

I raised AQ and the flop came down all small, I checked, it checked behind me. The turn was a J, I bet and won.

7 hands where no one made anything or took a shot at me!

Then I finally got a little resistance. One player straddled for $10 and I made it $40 to go with AK of spades and only the straddle called. The flop came down 9 5 3 with two spades and one club. I bet $40, he called. The turn was the 7 of clubs, I bet $80, he called. The river was the A of clubs. I checked hoping he'd take a shot at it and figuring any worse hand would fold to a bet. He checked back with Q9 and I took it down.

Mr. Should I Just Give These To You Now said "Man, even when you miss the flush draw it's like hey here's an ace."

A couple of hands later, Mr. Q9 straddles again and I get AK again. At this point I'm fully expecting to lose. I've just gone too long with everything working so well. I make it $40 again and this time instead of calling he shoves all in for $175. Of course I call and the board runs out J 7 6 5 T. I'm thinking that I lose to any pair and most of the aces. I show my AK and he goes to turn over his hand. He picks it up and I see AT, the guy next to me says "Ace ten?" and I think, "well it had to end sometime." But when he pushes it out in the middle of the table I see that it's really A9! Ha ha!

I played about another half hour and mostly got garbage. I did have one small bluff not work, but it was not very expensive. At that point I started thinking that if I left right then I could catch my kids before they were asleep. I latched on to that idea and hit the road earlier than normal.

I walked out the door a $1,446 winner on the night. My $10,000 bankroll is at $15,576! Whoop whoop! 77.5 hours in the books and 22.5 hours left to go. This weekend is a holiday weekend which is traditionally the best time to play so I'm going to put in at least one if not two sessions.

Project 10K Session #16 - How to play when you're tired in a bad game

Don't do it.

On Monday after making 3 good, but not great hands and getting somewhat paid off in a somewhat unspectacular way I looked around at the game I was in. "This game is not great. I'm tired" I thought. So I left after 2 hours with a $358 win.

My $10,000 bankroll is at $14,130 after 75 hours.

Project 10K Session #15 - Tough Decisions

Winning poker is about making better decisions than your opponents. In fact you'll hear many of the best players talk about how as long as they feel like they made the best decisions with the information they had they'll be satisfied with the results. Usually when you crush your opponents you find lots of easy decisions and when you lose you look back and feel like you had a lot of tough ones.

My first tough decision came against a guy who looked like he was probably a college student and looked about 20. Mr. 20 called $5 preflop on the button after one other call. I had AQ in the small blind and made it $35 to go. Only Mr. 20 called. The flop came down 2 2 6 and I bet out $60. At this point I felt pretty sure he had a small or medium pocket pair. When the turn came down a Q I thought "A ha! Even if he called me lite on the flop he's sure to bet here if I check." I checked and he checked behind me. Crap. The river was a 6 which was a shitty card and I checked again. I checked, Mr. 20 bet $90, I called and he showed me J2. "Mother fucker!" is what I thought, but what I said was "Mother fucker!" To be clear this was more of a general exclamation than calling Mr. 20 a mother fucker. Mother fucker.

A little later I got dealt A9 of clubs and called Mr. 20's raise to $25. We took the flop heads up and it came down A Q 5 with one club. He bet $45 and I called. I figured he'd bet here with any raising hand so I really hadn't narrowed down what he had with that bet. The turn was the 8 of clubs making me a flush draw. Now Mr. 20 bet out $120. This was a big bet. If I hadn't picked up the flush draw I think I might have given him credit for a better hand than mine and folded, but given the clubs I decided to call. The river was a 6 and Mr. 20 bet out $200. This is where the tough decision came into play. On the turn I thought AK was a likely holding, but I didn't think he'd bet it again on the river. With AQ, AA, QQ, 55 and 88 (the real monster hands) I didn't think he'd bet so big on the turn. He was a tricky guy and I thought there was a real chance he could be firing off a three barrel bluff on me. It seemed fishy and I was getting 3 to 1 on my call so I called. He showed me 66. Mother fucker! I think the hand plays out the same if no 6 comes.

Later I raised to $25 with AJ and got 3 callers. The flop came down A 5 2 with two diamonds and I bet $65. The both called. This was a dicey spot. My hope was that one had a worse ace and the other had a diamond draw but even in that best case I still had to fade a lot of outs. The turn was a black 3. I didn't think they were likely to have a 4 in their hands, but you never know. One guy had $120 and the other had $200 so I didn't have to risk a ton to get to showdown. Even though I didn't really like it I figured a check would be too weak and I decided I could still have the best of it. I shoved. They both called - yikes! The river was the 9 of clubs and I beat A8 of diamonds and T6 of diamonds - hooray!

I had a few good things happen to me and found myself about $400 to the good when my next tough spot came up. I got dealt black QQ, raised to $35 from the big blind and got 3 callers. The flop came down K 7 3 with two clubs. This is kind of a tough spot with an underpair, a shallow stack to pot ratio and being out of position. This time I went with when in doubt, fire and I fired out $100 into the $140 pot. A guy who is a total nut and would call anything went all in for about $80 of it and another more reasonable player called as well. The turn was the J of clubs. Now I didn't know what the fuck to do. Mr. Reasonable could have a K or a flush or he could have 98 or A7 or who knows what. He also had about $600 in front of him. My indecision led to a check this time and Mr. Reasonable bet out $200. This felt like an "I've got it" bet, but there was about $620 in the pot and I thought there was a good chance that if this was a bluff it was getting checked back on the river. The river was a red 2 - Yuck! I checked and now Mr. Reasonable bet out $100. Ugh. I knew it was either a move of total desperation after a failed turn bluff or trying to squeeze some last bit of value out of a flush. I called and it was the latter - he had 97 of clubs. Grrrrrrr!

On the very next hand I got dealt AK. The guy in Seat 3 made it $25 to go, and got called by Seat 4. When it got to me I made it $70 to go. Seat 3 just called and then Seat 4 looked down at his remaining chips and said "well...I guess I'm all in" and made it $112 to go. What really sucks here is that I couldn't reraise. I'd raised the $25 bet to $70 which is a raise of $45. He reraised it another $42. If he had $3 more or I'd raised to $65 instead of $70 I could have shoved here. I was pissed I hadn't taken a closer look at the short stack and thought it though a little more. With no other choice, Seat 3 and I both called. The flop came down T 7 7. Now what? I fired out $200 with the hope that he didn't have a pocket pair, but he insta-shoved on me for $700! GAH! I folded and the turn was a K! Double GAH! The river was a brick and Seat 3 won with JJ! Triple GAH! I think if Seat 4 has $3 more or I make it $65 we get it all in preflop and I stack him.

After this one I was out of sorts and decided it was time to go. I played to the big blind and picked up. I lost $287 over 4 hours. My $10,000 bankroll is now at $13,772 after 73 hours of play.

Poker at 35 vs Poker at 25

10 years ago I was 25 and in the midst of a fucking magical 6 week period. I got married on July 16th and a few weeks later won the main Pokerstars Sunday tournament which that day had 3,407 players and a $215 buy in. I went from having $400 in my Pokerstars account to high five figures.

Two Sunday's later I finished 4th in a $215 tournament on Party Poker with over 2,000 entrants and picked up another $30,000. It was nuts.

I went from grinding in $50 and $100 single table tournaments making $200 a day to playing most of literally the biggest tournaments online (which weren't all that big - $100 with rebuys every day, $500 buy ins once a week, and $1,000 buy in once a month along with whatever $215's ran) and the biggest cash games (either three $30/$60 limit games or three $10/$20 no limit games - there were no nosebleed stakes games those days) almost overnight.

And I won.

I can't believe I was able to just jump into the $30/$60 limit and $10/$20 NL games online and do anything but get fucking smoked. But I actually won regularly in those games. This is really an indicator of how soft the games where in those days that I wasn't a cash game specialist by any means and I could just play solid and that was enough. These days you have to be truely gifted to win at those stakes online.

Another thing I remember about being 25 is I still had hopes and dreams of being the best player in the world or at least in the top 10. I was actually a little upset when I turned 25 because Phil Helmuth won the WSOP main event at 24 and I no longer had the chance to be the youngest winner ever. But at that point I'd been on a steady upward trajectory for 5 years. Every few months I was better than I used to be. Every few months I'd make more money than the few months before. It was all up, all the time!

I'm 35 now. It's been almost 5 years since I gave up playing full time and got a job. Of course Black Friday came a few months after than and the online poker world got turned upside down. One obvious, but interesting note about this is that no one I'm playing against plays online. Anyone who has picked up poker in the past 5 years hasn't had the benefit of blitzing through thousands of hands a day. There is no substitute for that experience. I'm so far ahead that they'll never be able to catch me. I should be able to continue to crush them indefinitely. This is a very comforting thought and I try to think about it often.

I've also notice that I really enjoy playing again. I did not enjoy playing when I was 30. The pressure was too much and a lot of the joy got sucked out of it for me. At 25 I loved to play and at 35 I'm feeling that love again.

The last big change is that I use fuck a lot more in my blog posts these days. Fuck, fuck, fuck. See what I mean?

I'm back in fucking action tomorrow at the Oaks.

Project 10K Session #14 - Don't Forget Your Balls

I put in a long session on Tuesday and started off with a nice push in the right direction with a $154 win in 30 minutes at $6/$12. I then settled in for what ended up being a 7 hour session of $2/$3/$5.

I always buy in for $500 which is the maximum. In fact having a big stack is so important in my opinion that I will buy more chips if I get below $400 (or sometimes $450) so when I win that next pot I'll be on my way to building a big pile.

I got off to a shitty start. I raised to $20 preflop, bet $35 on the flop and $75 on the turn with air only to get shoved on for $200 on the river. It looked like a missed draw bluff, but I didn't have anything at all. Pull out another $100 bill to buy more chips.

Then I made a pair of kings on a king high board against someone with AA. Pull out another $200 to buy more chips.

Then the button raised to $20 and I called with A3 in the big blind. The board ran out A 9 6 2 2 and I called bets of $30, $90 and an all in for $125 on the flop, turn and river. This felt a little suspect, but my opponent was a player I knew a little bit and he's capable of firing all the way through with little or nothing in his hand and I would at least chop against A3-A8 not counting A6. Pull out another $300 for more chips.

That took about 20 minutes for those three to go down, but in the next 20 minutes it turned right around.

The flop came out 5 6 7 when I had 89 and someone went all in. +$180

I raised with KQ, flopped a Q and got called on the flop, but not the turn. +$110

I raised with JJ, flopped a set and got called on the flop, but not the turn. + $120

When I was in Vegas I saw a guy with a shirt that said "Don't Forget Your Balls" and on the next one I did not. The game was playing tight and passive and now that I was sitting on $900 or so and also had some momentum I loosened up the starting hand range a bit.

There was a raise to $15 and one call and I called behind with J8 of clubs. The flop came down 8 6 3, the raiser checked and the guy just to my right looked at me square in the face for 4 seconds from about 18 inches away. Then he bet out $60. This jumped out as weak. A normal bet here would be around $35 and betting more than the pot on the flop is rare. I called with my top pair, The turn paired the 6 and the villain bet $120. I probably should have put him on a 6 and folded because this was a big bet and that would make sense. But I called. The river was a 7 and the villain bet $200. Now, if he didn't have a 6 he should be worried about me having one, and I just couldn't see a set doing what he did on the flop. I suddenly thought "This could be 97 or 75!" I looked at the very nice sized pot, checked to make sure my balls were still there and called. "You're good" he said and rolled over 98. When I showed my hand he said "I hate you." Ha ha!

Now for another episode of Dave blowing someone off a big pocket pair on an A high board. Ever since that fucker at Bay 101 called my $120 bluff into $140 with JJ on an A high board, I'm locked in on how often that type of thing works for me.

This time I called a raise to $15 with 66, there were two calls behind me and the big blind raised to $100. Normally putting in another $85 with a small pair doesn't make sense since most players aren't deep enough. You're 7.5 to 1 against to flop a set and really you want to be able to win at least 10X (15X is the standard rule of thumb) what you're putting in to call if flopping a set is your main hope. But this guy was $1,000 deep, I had him covered and as importantly he was a straightforward player and I had position. I called and everyone else bailed. Before the flop came out he cut out $120 into a stack and after the flop came down A 7 2, he pushed the $120 into the pot. At this point I'm looking at $245 in the middle, plus his $120. My preflop read was that AK was a big part of his range with that bet size, but of course I considered that he might have a big pair below ace. My balls were still present and accounted for and I made it $300 to go. He threw QQ on the table face up and I took it down.

A couple of hours later a big hand came up. The player in seat 5 raised to $30 and got called by seat 6. I was in seat 8 and made it $100 to go with AK. The player in seat 10 went all in for $200. Shit, I hope that's not aces. Then seat 5 went all in for $285! Shit! I hope that's not aces! Then Seat 6 went all in for $200! Shit, that's probably aces. With stacks on stacks of chips out there I wasn't folding AK. I called and the flop came down A 5 2 all clubs. A quick check confirmed I had the K of clubs. The turn was the Q of clubs. A quick check confirmed I had the nuts. The river was a 3. A quick check confirmed I had the mother fucking pot. Turns out seat 10 also had AK, seat 5 had JJ and seat 6 had 55!

Around that time my stack looked like this:

That's what 390 five dollar chips and 82 one dollar chips look like. If you're sitting with three stacks (ie 60 chips or $300) in front of you sitting across from a guy sitting behind those babies, of course you're thinking it's going to take barely a whim for you to find yourself all in.

Towards the end of the session I had one hand end in very unusual heart break. I called a raise to $30 in a five way pot with 65 of spades. The flop came down 5 4 2 with two diamonds. Oddly the first player to act bet out $30 into the $150 pot. The preflop raiser wasn't going to stand for that and made it $130 to go. I didn't have much, just a pair of fives and my balls...OK I had a gut shot too, but it's not easy calling $130 with a player left to act in this spot. I called as did the guy who bet $30. The turn was perfect, a black 3. The first player checked, the next guy looked at his cards, I see that he has QQ, and he goes all in for $200! Thinking the other guy might either get tied to an ace or have a diamond draw, I put him all in for $400 and he folded. So where is the heart break? He's drawing dead right? Well actually he's drawing dead to a chop. A 6 hits the river and we split the pot. Damn it! This is one that doesn't really hurt since I got half the pot, but it would have been $400+ better for me if one of the 41 non six cards out of the 44 remaining cards came out.

I did find myself in a tough spot in my last round of the night. I was in the big blind with J3, got a free look and the flop came down A J 3 making me two pair. I checked and a tight player bet $35 into the $25 pot. Like the hand where the guy stared me down this was weird. I could have raised but just called. The turn was a 6 and I check called $70. Again I could have raised, but now I felt like my opponent liked his hand. The river was an 8 and I check called 100. I was up against AJ! If I did play back I would have been in trouble. Even though I lost I felt good I didn't lose more.

In the end I won $833 at $2/$3/$5 to go along with the $154 from $6/$12 making it a +$987 win on the night! My $10,000 bankroll is now at $14,059 after 69 hours of play.

When I started this project I was thinking a $5,000 win would be a strong result. That's $50 an hour and a 50% return on investment for my backers in 3-4 months. I'm in striking distance with 31 hours left to go.

Project 10K Session #13 - How to Play Pocket Jacks

Pocket jacks is generally considered the toughest hand to play in no limit hold'em. It's a very, very good hand but vulnerable to 3 over cards and it's common to have trouble with it.

There is a great YouTube video on how to play JJ that is basically a guy losing with JJ in a wide variety of ways. Sadly I did my best to emulate the video on Sunday.

The first time I got JJ I raised to $25 and got one caller. The flop came down A 7 5 and I bet $35. The turn was a 2 and I basically waved the white flag and checked. My opponent checked back and the river came out a 3. Given the turn check from my opponent my plan was to call a bet on the river, but when my opponent came out with $110 I decided to fall back on "big bets, mean big hands" and just chucked it.

The second time I had JJ I raised to $35 out of the big blind against 5 callers. The first caller then moved all in for $200! Sometime people will limp in with AA or KK and then go for a three bet and my first thought was that's what was happening. But after a second or two I realized that AA wouldn't go all the way to $200. So I called and found myself against 99 - a hand against which I will win 4 out of 5 times with JJ. The board ran out T 8 7 3 6. Ugh.

The third time I got JJ there was a raise to $20 from the under the gun player and one caller. I was in the big blind and made it $70 to go. After a short pause the under the gun player made it $170 to go. Fuck. I had about $600 left behind and he had me covered. If I'd had a lot more like $1,000+ it would be an easy call. If I had less I might be able to get off it preflop. I was kind of in no man's land, but I decided that I should call and hope to flop a set or otherwise find myself in a good spot. The flop came down A K 7 with two spades. Major whiff! When I checked, my opponent checked behind and I thought "Maybe that's QQ?" The turn came a third spade and I had the J of spades. I decided to trust the QQ read and fired out $200. My opponent instashoved all in. GAH! Now I was looking at about $1,050 in the pot and I had to call another $400. With only one card left those were not good enough odds to draw to a flush. I folded and my opponent showed AA having flopped a set.

I did have one big hand go my way though. I raised with KJ to $25 and got three callers. The flop came down k 9 6 with two diamonds. I bet $75 and got two callers. All of a sudden the pot had really gotten big. With $325 out there I would either have to make a big bet in uncertain territory or check a pretty good hand on a draw heavy board. I was running through what I'd do on certain types of turn cards, when it got real easy for me - a black J came out. With top two I bet $200 and got called by one opponent who had $195 left. I silently chanted "No diamond, no diamond, no diamond" and flipped my hand over the instant a K came off on the river. Full house! Send the cookies!

Sadly, the rest of the night was a real shit show. I had a few bluffs in the $150 range where my opponent shipped it for $500 as soon as I bet or raised. I don't think they were bad bluffs, my opponents just happened to have it those particular times when they easily could have not. I had one hand with A2 of clubs where I got it in against two guys who were all in for about $250 each on a Q 4 3 with two clubs flop and bricked out. I didn't really make many strong hands.

In the end I lost $769 over 4 hours. My $10,000 bankroll is at $13,072 after 61.5 hours of play.

Project 10K Session #12 - The Inverse of Session #11

After getting whooped in the south bay I got back to my standard Oaks routine and headed in on Friday night. I'm realizing more and more that having a routine is helpful to me.

At the start of this year when I really picked poker back up as an every week usually twice a week activity I felt nervous every time I went in to play and my heart would pound in my chest with every big hand. Even though I did well right from the start there was no rock solid way to know if I was playing with a sustainable winning strategy and more significantly the amount of money I was playing for mattered to me. If I had a relatively minor downswing I didn't have enough money in reserve to continue especially with that uncertainty.

Just getting dealt in made me nervous and feeling nervous made me pissed. I used to make $100K a year doing this shit and now I'm nervous in game where I might lose $1,000? I've played over 2,000,000 hands and I'm worried about these fucking guys? But the reality was I didn't have a $50K bankroll with all the time in the world to work it like I used to. I had 4-5 hours once a week. 150 hands a week. That's a nothing sample size and I was worried I'd hit a black hole of bad luck.

When I deviate from my routine these days I get a little bit of that feeling. Is this the right and best decision to play here and now? I know now the game at the Oaks is repeatedly beatable by me with my current skill set. It's a hard fact. But that doubt still creeps in when I go elsewhere and when I lose it's compounded a bit.

Enough of the soul searching! On to the hands!

I sat down at $1/$1/$2 and bought in for $200 while waiting for the $2/$3/$5 and had one great hand while I was there. I had KT of hearts and called raise to $7. 4 of us saw the flop which came down J 8 6 all hearts. The big blind was second to act and I got the sense that he wanted to bet. It was subtle, just a short pause and look at the board and a look at his chips, but it was obvious he wanted to bet. But he checked it along, the preflop raiser checked to me and I bet out $15. A lot of players make the mistake of checking their big hands. They want to give their opponents a chance to make something, but since bet sizes are normally tied to pot size, building a pot early with a big hand is key. Mr. I Almost Bet was my only caller and had about $125 left. The turn was a black 3, Mr. IAB checked. In spots like this it's also important to think about how to best get your opponent's whole stack in there. Many players wouldn't call an all in of $125 on the turn with top pair, but will call a bet of $40 and a bet of $85. So I bet $40 and got called. The river was a black queen and after a check I put him all in. I got a reluctant call and took it down. Last session I got stacked twice in the smaller game and this time I was the one doing the stacking.

I picked up $150 in the $1/$1/$2 before heading over the $2/$3/$5.

When I got there my first hand was KK and I won $50. My fourth hand was AA and I won $50.

My next hand was against a guy who I've played against a few times who falls into the pretty good, but not too tough category. In the short time I'd been there he'd made a few big raises going to $100 against two players who were in for $20 and winning and going to $45 against a couple of players who were in for $5 and winning. He seemed to be taking an aggressive line on many hands. So when I raised to $20 with JT and he came over the top for $60 I decided to see the flop thinking he might not have the big hand he was representing. The flop came down A 8 5 and I checked to him. He cut out $40 in chips and I thought "If this guy bets $40 that's weak as shit and I'm going to blow him off of this." Then he put $10 more on and then another $10 and finally slid $60 into the pot. A half pot sized bet was a little more serious, but it still felt like a pair 99-KK that didn't like the ace or just a thin preflop three bet that was grasping. I decided to trust that feeling and check raised to $180. My opponent quickly folded. If you recall from my last post I bet $120 into a $140 pot as a bluff on an ace high board and got called by JJ. This time I got rid of the likely medium/big pocket pair.

Then I picked up QQ. There were 7 calls of $5 in front of me, I was in the small blind and made it $40 to go. 3 people called me so there was about $180 in the pot. The flop came down J 8 5 with three different suits which is a beautiful flop for QQ. I bet $120, one guy went all in for $80, and another went all in for $210! Yikes! Hoping they both had one pair of jacks I called. The runners were not good - a K on the turn and an 8 on the river, but when I proudly rolled over my queens they were good. +$430 on that one baby!

I'd won with AA, KK and QQ and was starting to have fantasies of winning a pot with every pocket pair from AA-22 in one session. In baseball the cycle is getting a single, double, triple and homerun in the same game. The Poker Cycle - something I personally just came up with - (Really!) should be winning with all of the pocket pairs in one session.

I was off to a great start, but soon got put to the test with huge bets by Mr. H. The last time I crossed paths with Mr. H I called a huge overbet beating his QQ with my 88 in an $800 pot where it all went in preflop.

This time around I raised to $25 with KQ of spades and got 3 callers including Mr. H. The flop came down J 8 5 with two spades. Everyone checked to me and I bet $75 with my flush draw and two overs. Mr. H was next to act and as he put $75 out there he said "Three fifty on top." ACK! This was a huge raise. Normally with a big flush draw, two solid overs, and some back door straight possibilities it's go time. But here my only way to win was going to be to hit. I paused to look at the rough math. I'd make my flush about 1 time in 3. If hitting my K or my Q was good also I'd win about 50% of the time. There was $600 in the pot and I had to call another $350. He had another $250 behind and I had him covered. That other $250 is likely going in no matter what so I'd basically be risking $600 to win $850. Not good enough. I folded. I showed him my hand, he said he had AJ of spades and I belive him. If that's what he had I was only 20% to win and he made a big mistake by making it too much.

A little later 4 of us saw a flop for $10 and I bet $30 on a J 9 5 with two hearts flop with the A 6 of hearts. Mr. H was my only caller. Referencing what he thought I might have he said "Queen ten is looking good here"as the turn came out. A queen of spades which put two spades on the board came on the turn and I said "Queen ten IS looking good here" as I put $75 into the pot. He paused for a second and asked how much I had left. "Another...one thousand seventy five left" I responded. I figured I was pretty much fucked at that point even before his did anything. I kind of figured he was going to make it another $1,075 to go, but instead he said "Six seventy five." I had a flush draw which is often worth continuing with but when not calling $600 into an $850 pot (again!). I waited 10 second and then folded. He said he had K T which was the nut straight and again I believe him.

At some point while this was all going on a guy I'd never played with before sat down just to my right and bought in for $300. After watching him play 1 hand I could tell by his mannerisms that he was a novice and after 4-5 hands I was pretty sure it was his first or maybe second time playing poker in a casino. He was constantly acting out of turn. If he didn't like his hand he'd just fold it regardless of where the action was. He kept raising to $10 and betting $10 no matter how much was in the pot. This strange behavior was contagious and soon other people were betting $10 into $80 pots.

In the most glaring sign of newness Mr. New would give a little play by play saying things like "I'll double your bet" and often proudly announcing "I raise" when he was in fact the first one betting and sometimes saying "Re-raise" when he was in fact just raising. I looked at him closely to make sure he wasn't two 9 year olds stacked on top of each other wrapped in a trench coat.

To sum it up, Mr. New had no clue and no hope, but still managed to project a major air of hipster smugness that made me wish to destroy him. But upon his arrival we settled in to the most tight, passive play that I have seen in the 60+ sessions I've played this year. There was one hand where 5 people saw the flop for $5, it came down A high, everyone checked it down the whole way and two players had an ace! Everyone was playing the part of the 70 year old man who was waiting for pocket aces or a set to bet! This was the total opposite of the game at Bay 101.

In a normal game Mr. New would have lasted about 15 minutes. But with this weird mix he was somehow surviving.

I on the other hand was struggling. For two hours I was just getting pure garbage. I was prepared to loosen up my starting ranges and I straddled every button to try to entice some action, but I wasn't getting anything close to playable. I dribbled down from being up $700 to up $300 on the night while every fiber in my being cried out "I MUST HAVE MR. NEW'S CHIPS! I SWEAR TO THE POKER GODS I WILL MAKE IT SO!"

Then I got dealt AA. Yum, yum, sweet aces. There were a few limpers in front of me and I made $30 to go. Only the big blind and Mr. New called me. The flop came down A J 7! Top set! Please poker gods let them have something. Oddly the big blind came out betting $20 and Mr. New called $20. There were two hearts out there and I thought maybe the bettor was trying to see a cheap turn card with a heart draw. Either that or maybe a weak ace? It seemed very strange. Whatever it was it was time to raise! I made it $100 to go. The big blind thought for 15 seconds and folded, but happily Mr. New came along. Get in there baby! The turn was a 9 of hearts which was a shitty card. Mr. New checked. He looked like he had about $210 left, so I bet $200 at which point he proudly announced "I'm...all...in." Don't let this fucking guy beat me when I have top set of aces poker gods. Just don't. I threw in a few more chips to make sure it was clear I was calling his all in and took a deep breath. The river was the J of hearts giving me a full house! YES! I resisted the urge to throw my hands high above my head, ball my hands into fists and give two massive pelvic thrusts in the direction of Mr. New. He turned over AQ with the Q of hearts and I wordlessly showed my aces. It was so satisfying.

A little later I had another huge hand come up. I straddled on the button for $10 and the action started with the small blind. The player in the small blinds is a guy I've played with probably 100 times in the last 15 years. Mostly at limit games, but the point is I knew him very well. He's tight, aggressive and a generally solid, winning player that is capable of making tricky plays sometimes. He made it $20 to go and everyone folded around to me. I had T4 off suit which is total garbage, but I was getting 3 to 1 on my money, I had position heads up and he had over $500 in his stack meaning I could win 50 times that $10 if it went down right. It was an easy call.

The flop came down K T 4 with two clubs and my opponent bet out $25. I could just call and wait for the turn, but any K would be bad and any club would likely kill the action. I made it $60 to go. At this point I figured my opponent would put me on a draw, a total bluff, a T or a weak K. He made it $160 to go and I thought "That has got to be AA or AK and he totally has me on a draw." I thought if I shoved there he might change that read and I might lose him, but if I could fade a club, an A or a K I'd get his stack on the turn. The turn was a beautiful red 8 and he shoved for $375. I snap called him and he said "Ayyyyyy, you win." The river was the 5 of clubs and I beat AK.

At that point I decided to call it a night. I won $1,273 on the night erasing my Bay 101 debacle in one fell swoop. My $10,000 bankroll is at $13,841 after 57.5 hours. I'm back in action at the Oaks Sunday and then probably back to Bay 101 on Tuesday for Deep Stack!

Project 10K Session #11 - A Journey to the Vile and Unpredictable South Bay

On Tuesday I made my way down to Bay 101 coming off 7 winning sessions in a row. I'd played no limit there a couple of times and played limit poker there a dozen times in the past few years, but I hadn't put in any time since I really started focusing on no limit and playing twice a week. I was really curios to see how the players there play through my current eyes.

Bay 101 is the biggest card room in Northern California and there are a few things that are different about the no limit games there. They have two flavors of $2/$3/$5 - one that has a $200 minimum and $500 max buy in and another called "Deep Stack" that has a $500 minimum buy in and a $2,000 max buy in. The Oaks in comparison has a $100-$500 buy in for all of it's tables. Another difference is they had 5 games going instead of the one, two or maybe three that the Oaks generally has. Also the games are 9 handed instead of 10 and observationally the players tend to lobby a lot more (i.e. their chips are there, but they are not and aren't being dealt in.) so more hands are played 6 or 7 handed.

The players are different as well. They've had this game and this stakes for a few years as opposed to 8 months and the players are maybe a little more experienced and aggressive. More significant is the differing nature of the players. The Oaks is a working class joint with a lot of truck drivers, dock workers, shady characters, and other working class folks mixed in with some professionals. At Bay 101 it feels like the silicon valley tech crowd mixed in with a bunch of hard core asian gamblers. Many of them don't give a flying fuck about the money either because they have plenty of money to lose or they are just total degenerates who let it fly.

It might seems like a wild game would be more profitable, but that's not always the case. The game at the Oaks that I'm crushing (even while drunk it seems) is a game where a standard pot is one person raises to $25 and gets one or two callers or 5-6 people just call $5 preflop. Most players have 10-15X what's in the the pot when they make it to the flop. It's much different if 5-6 people come along for $30 preflop and everyone has 2X-4X what's in the pot on the flop. Also with one or two opponents you can often sort out hand ranges cleanly, while with 4-5 opponents there is major guess work. If you make big hands you can make a fortune. If you don't you're hopelessly fucked.

I didn't make any big hands on Tuesday.

I started out playing $1/$2/$2 while waiting for $2/$3/$5. In addition to the small blind being $2 instead of $1 like it is at the Oaks, you can't just call the $2 big blind, you have to open for $4. So if 5 people call preflop there is $20 in the pot before the rake instead of $10. This makes the game play much bigger, but the max buy in is $200 which I think is too low.

I got stacked twice in short order.

On the first I got dealt JJ and came in for a raise to $11. I got 4 callers and the flop came down 7 5 3 with two clubs. I bet out $40, got one caller, and then there was a raise to $100. The guy who made it $100 had played literally every hand since I got there including a 72 off suit in the field. He'd also stacked off on the flop with second pair a couple of times in the 15-20 minutes I'd been in the game. He was as loose as they come and I was not folding here. I shoved for about $180 total, he called with 75 for two pair and I didn't get any help.

On the second, 6 of us saw a flop for $4, I had 67 suited on the button and the flop came down 5 6 7. The small blind bet out $20 and got one caller. Not fucking around I made it $70 to, and the small blind shoved for $250. I figured that he wouldn't bet out the pot, first to act on the flop with a nut hand, but I was wrong. He had 98 and I didn't improve. That was another $200 down the drain.

All told I dropped $460 in an hour at that game before moving the $2/$3/$5.

When I sat down I didn't recognize anyone at the table and may have never played a single hand against any of them. I bought in for $500 as per usual.

The first hand of significance came up when after a ton of limps, the small blind made it $30 to go. I called with K9 of diamonds out of the big blind and everyone else folded. This is a thin call and thinking back it should have been a fold. I was hoping a few others would call and we'd get a big multiway pot. The flop came down T 4 2 with two diamonds and my opponent bet out $40. He had about $240 left which felt like the right amount that I could maybe take him off the hand and have the back up plan of just getting it in there and hoping to improve if I failed with plan A. I made it $120 to go, he shoved for another $120 and plan A was out the window. He turned over QQ, I bricked out and plan B was a fail as well. I don't like my preflop call here, but still love my flop play.

Shortly after I raised on the button to $20 with J8 suited and got called by the big blind. The flop came down J T T with two hearts. My opponent checked, I bet $35 and he moved all in for $110. This was a really tough spot. There are some players against which this is a slam dunk call and others against which it's a slam dunk fold. But I didn't know this guy at all and hadn't had time to learn anything about him. Probably given that, I should have just dumped the J8 preflop. I think that's the error here. But given that I only needed to call another $75 to potentially win $185 and I didn't want these nutballs to think they could run me over, I called. I lost to QJ. Can't say I feel good about that one as I could have done things differently at a few decision points.

I did have two bright spots.

On the first I had AA and got one caller of my preflop $25 raise. On a 665 flop he bet $35 into me and I just called. The turn was another 6 and he checked. I checked back and the river was a Q. He checked again, I put him all in for $65 and he called with what I presume was a 5. I think I made a mistake not putting him all in on the turn here, but that didn't change anything. I did lament that this was the one hand where only one other player came along instead of the usual 4-5.

The second bright spot came against the same guy who reloaded for $200. 6 of us saw a flop for $5 and I bet out $25 with A4 of diamonds on a 8 2 3 with two diamonds board. One player called and the villain from the last hand made it $75 to go. I called figuring that it wouldn't be the worst thing to keep the other player in the pot when I had a 12-15 out draw. The turn was an A and I check called an all in for $125. My pair of aces was good.

Then things turned ugly again with more tough decisions. I raised 88 to $25 and got reraised to $70 by a guy I'll call Mr. Start Up because he had the look and feel of a start up type guy. I had about $800 in front of me and Mr. Start Up had me covered. I called and the flop came down A 6 3. I checked and he checked behind. At this point I figured he either had a set of aces or a big pocket pair below ace. Since the latter was more likely, I bet out $120 when the turn came out small. He called. The river was another small, I checked and he showed JJ.

This is a pot I would normally win, but there are a couple of reasons I didn't here. First of all my table image was all fucked. At the Oaks, not only do I know the players, but they know me and I'm intimidating to many of them. If you've been reading all of my posts you'll know that I'm regularly getting people off of overpairs with big bets, let alone underpairs and have won pots just like this one a few times in recent memory. On top of that I was dressed like a chump. A clean shaven, 35 year old white guy with gel in his hair in a collared shirt is usually fresh meat. Normally I like to wear a black baseball cap a long sleeved T shirt and be rocking a few days of stubble so I at least look like kind of a dirt bag. Secondly, I was losing a good number of pots which isn't intimidating. And lastly I was not feeling cool, calm and confident. If I had been I would have bet $250 on the river which I think would have done the job. This guy it turns out did call down lite, but it was worth it to make that river bet.

A little later Mr. Start Up straddled under the gun. I raised to $30 from the cutoff with 66 (which is not enough - $40-45 is better) and got called by both blinds and Mr. Start Up. The flop came down AK9. We all checked it down and Mr. Start Up won with 9 7. Would I recommend continuation betting into 3 loose opponents on that board? Usually no. But that didn't stop me from questioning if I should have since it would have worked.

On the very next hand when I got dealt AJ, raised to $35 and got 3 callers, the previous hand was still fresh in my mind. This time it was the perfect continuation bet flop - K 8 2 with no flush draws. Does it make sense to fire total air into 3 loose opponents even on the perfect board? Probably not, but in the moment I got stuck on the "This is the perfect board to C bet" and not the "These are the worst opponents to C-bet into." There was $140 out there and I bet $120 to try to pick it up. Only Mr. Start Up called. The turn was a 4 and he was first to act. He shoved all in on me! GAH! Of couse I folded.

At that point I was done. It's one thing to get it all in and take a bad beat and loose or make a strong bluff and get called and lose, but it's another to get involved in 3 or 4 hands where you're really questioning your play and lose. If you're questioning yourself on a lot of hands, you won't be able to make the strong confident moves that are required.

In the end I lost $1,253 on the night over 3.5 hours. My $10,000 bankroll is now at $12,568 after 53.5 hours of play.

I'm back at the Oaks tonight (Friday) and despite my struggles I'm going to head back to Bay 101 Monday or Tuesday. Thinking about my long term prospects I want to get in that deep stack game and see how it plays. My plan is to play a little tighter than normal to start and remind myself to really focus hard on what everyone is going for the first hour or so. That should help me build up a tight image that I like and hopefully give me time to get to know the players a little before I run into tough spots.