Almost 1,000 posts since 2006 about poker including, tournaments, cash games, anecdotes, the overuse of exclamation points, and run on sentences from a retired poker pro who lives and plays in the Bay Area and is currently preparing for the 2023 WSOP.
Sunday, August 07, 2022
Big Pocket Pairs and AK are Garbage!
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Hero Calls, Semibluffs and Caveman Brain at Bay 101
After an hour of waiting to get into a game I bought $500 in $5 chips and ten $100 chips. I sat down with $800 on the table and another $700 in chips in my pocket ready to top off my stack so as to always have the max. I got dealt pocket queens on the first hand! After my raise to $25, we took the flop 4 ways with $100 in the pot. On an A high flop there was a bet and a raise before it got to me, I mucked and my hopes of a massive win on hand #1 were squished.
After an hour I was in for a little less than $900 sitting on $875 when my first noteworthy hand came up. I opened black 66 under the gun to $20 and only the big blind called. The flop came down A23 with two hearts and one diamond. My opponent check, called my bet of $25. The turn brought the 5 of diamonds putting another flush draw and a one liner to a straight out there. Now my opponent bet 60.
My opponent has what they call a range advantage here in that he as the big blind has many 4's in his preflop calling range and I as the under the gun preflop raiser should almost never have a 4 here. With this being a great card for my opponent to bluff I decided to make the call.
The river was the J of clubs and after a slight delay where he looked about to check, my opponent fired out $130. This looked just a little bit big bet size wise for someone trying to get called by an A. With both flush draws bricking out I decided I was getting the right price to bluff catch and made the hero call. My opponent rolled over K2 and I was good! I got an audible "whoa" from another player at the table and feeling great about making the right read here.
Shortly after I raised J8 of spades to $20 in the cutoff and got called by the button and the big blind. The flop came down KJ9 with two spades and I had the first of a few moments in the session where afterwards I realized my top level conscious brain kind of shut down and caveman brain took over.
PAIR WITH FLUSH DRAW? GET ALL MONEY IN POT! DON'T CARE WHAT DUMB JERKS HAVE! MONEY IN POT NOW! OOGA BOOGA!
I bet $45 and only the button called. The turn was the 4 of spades bringing in my flush. Zing! I grabbed a $100 chip off my stack and flipped it into the pot. My opponent instantly snapped three $100 chips in to the pot!
Normal brain for one second thought, "that looks like a flush, you might be beat here" and was immediately shouted down by caveman brain "NEVER FOLD FLUSH! GRAB CHIPS! PUT IN POT!" My opponent had about $225 left in his stack and what I should have done is slowed down and considered the hands I beat (QT, 99, Ax with the A of spades, KJ) that could be played this way and the hands I lose to (Ax of spades and QT of spades) that could be played this way. Looking back now just getting it in is certainly the right move, but I didn't think it through in the moment.
I pushed my chips in the pot and my opponent turned over red QT! I thought he was folding and almost showed my hand, but then realized he was still thinking. After about 20 seconds he called drawing dead, the river was the irrelevant 2 of spades, I took down the pot and he took a trip out the front door.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Funding My 2023 WSOP Plans with No Limit Cash Game Profits
Also problematic when playing sporadically is the losses feeling semi permanent. In my pro poker days if I lost, I knew I'd be back at it the next day and the day after that. In my normal human working days losing $1,500 feels like spending $1,500 on something that sucked.
A tactic that has always helped me with both of these mindset problems is to set up medium term plan and goals. This helps me to look at each session as a piece of a larger project and not sweat individual session results.
With that in mind, here is my plan:
- $10,000 starting bankroll
- Play 250 hours of $2/$3/$5 no limit between now and 2023 WSOP
- Set a max loss per session of $2,000
- No max win per session, just play the hours
- Goal of $50 per hour win rate
- Play 2-3 Friday nights and maybe one Sunday per month
If you look closely at my photo you'll see it's not $10,000. In fact it's only $2,500 and the 50's and even more so the 20's (gross!) are a sure sign that I'm rolling like a newb. While I do prefer to actually have my bankroll sitting in cash, at 42 years old I'm telling myself to use banks and not be an idiot.
If I pull this off I'll have $12,500 which should be good for rolling into Vegas for a 9 day Friday to the following Sunday trip with $10,000 in bankroll and $2,500 for expenses (At 42 I'm also too old and too well off to stay at the Flamingo and eat the $6.99 breakfast special).
I'm expecting to do most of my playing at Bay 101 which may have the best $5 big blind games that have ever consistently existed anywhere. Let me tell you why they're so good.
1) No small games in the house. Bay 101 has done away with the $3 big blind no limit game meaning the $2/$3/$5 is the smallest game in the house and it has a minimum buy-in of $500 (maximum of $800). Tons of players who would love to play smaller are forced to play larger.
2) Ton's of money in the area. The San Jose area is loaded with a mix of twenty something software engineers who work at Google or Facebook and retired (but not that old) people who have made money is various startup boom cycles over the last 25 years.
3) The game often plays with a $10 straddle. Unlike other places I've played where players will agree to an orbit of straddles where everyone puts out the extra $10 for one round, it's common for 2-3 players to put out the $10 straddle and not expect the remaining players to do so. Putting in $10 of total blinds per orbit while some others are putting in $20 is a tremendous advantage to us nits.
4) The game plays very fast. This is a combination of strong dealers and a player pool with a lot of regulars who don't think too hard about anything but the biggest decisions. We might be getting 25% more hands per hour than you'd get in Vegas.
5) I see very few pros. A pro level rate of return in a $5 big blind game is generally around $50 an hour. That's a ton of money in most parts of the country, but in the bay area it's not as much and the alternative career opportunities are much stronger than almost anywhere.
6) There are bigger games in town. Bay 101 runs a $2,000 max buy-in "deep stack" $2/$3/$5 game that always plays with a $10 straddle from every player as well as $5/$5/$10 that is really $5/$5/$10/$20. This draws off the top level players.
7) Great game selection. It's typical to find 6 or 7 $2/$3/$5 games going at any one time meaning you can table change of any particular game is too tough.
Anyway, these are great games! My hope is to blog about my Friday night sessions on Sunday mornings. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
2022 WSOP and What's Next for My Poker Life
The turn was the 4 of hearts, but sadly the river was the Q of spades and that was it. My opponent said he thought I had and ace in which case this is still probably a fold, but I guess not that bad.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
2018 WSOP $565 PLO Recap
First off, the dynamics of managing a tournament and sensing strength or weakness cross over from game to game. Secondly, I had the mindset that this was a minor part of my schedule so I was feeling zero fear of going for it when needed. Thirdly the players I faced generally fell into three categories that were a function of the fact that this was an official WSOP event that allowed for unlimited reentries - 1) Not good PLO players who were just playing because it was the only event starting that day 2) Good PLO players taking big risks early planning to reenter as many times as needed to build a healthy stack 3) Decent PLO players for whom this event was a big deal who were only willing to enter once. Almost everyone fell into one of these buckets.
My challenge was to sort out who was who and then exploit the weakness in each of these types of players. The first two types will end up calling to raising too much with middling strength hands and the last group will fold too much and play too passively.
As we were first sitting down there were only 3 people at the table and one guy asked what would happen if he waited a while for more people to arrive before playing (answer - your stack gets blinded off). I put him in category #3. Other guys when they came to our table mentioned how many times they'd bought in already (i.e. "This is bullet number 3 for me") I usually put them in category 2.
Another big clue was - "Is this guy from Europe?" PLO is much more common in Europe, they can play online which means they probably have more experience and if you're traveling to Vegas from Europe it's much more likely that you're a serious player than if you drove out for the weekend from L.A.
Eventually there were 2,419 entries with a first place prize of $181,790 and the top 363 finishing in the money. We started with 5,000 chips, blinds of 25/50 and the levels increasing every 30 minutes planning to play 18 levels on Day 1.
I ended up re-entering one time after going nowhere this my first bullet. After getting a run of garbage hands for the first couple of hours I was down to about 3,000 chips when I got dealt AK99 with K9 of spades which was the best hands I'd seen all day. The cutoff raised to 500, the button called and I was in the perfect spot for a squeeze in the big blind. I raised pot, the cutoff went all in with KJT3 with two hears and the other guy folded. I was a 55/45 favorite preflop, after a flop of Q76 with one spade I was 72% to win and after a turn of the 3 of spades I was 80% to win, but the river was a red jack and that was it.
I re-entered and I was sent to a new table with a fresh stack of 5,000 chips. At my new table the person who stood out was 2010 Main Event winner and 3 time bracelet winner Jonathan Duhamel. He was the 9th different world champion that I've played against which I think is pretty cool and he ended up finishing 6th in this event. A little later Barry Greenstein who has at least one PLO bracelet joined our table as well.
My first big hand came up with blinds of 200/400. I got dealt AQT2 with the AT of spades, raised to 1,400, someone went all in for 2,250, another player cold called and I called the extra 850. I only had 1,500 left and my plan was to shove almost all flops as I was basically pot committed. To my delight the flop came down Q92 all spades meaning I had the nuts. I didn't see much point it checking so I just shipped it, the other player folded and I help up against the all in. Now I had 8,300 chips.
A couple hands later I raised QQJ7 double suited with spades and hearts to 1,400 from the cutoff and got called by the button and the big blind. The flop came down JT2 with one spade and two diamonds. This is where a good PLO player would know if this was and obvious time to bet, a good time to check or in between. I wasn't sure, but my thinking in the moment was I'd be ahead of a flush draw or straight draw unless it was a big wrap like KQ87, I'd have some backdoor flush and straight equity against TT or JT and since I had a J in my hand JJ was much less likely. I ended up going for it and bet the pot which was 4,200. I got called by the button and the turn came out the 4 of diamonds. This was a dreadful card and I was now drawing dead to a flush and that was a highly likely hand for him to have. But with 12,600 in the pot and only 1,900 left in my stack I fired it all in. My opponent called and flipped over AQ95 which was a bare straight draw. The river was a 7 and I was up to about 17K.
In the next big hand I made a read, trusted it and was right. I was in the big blind with AKJ7 with KJ of diamonds, two early position players just called and the small blind came along as well. This hand might warrant a raise here, but I'm not sure. Anyway the flop came down A74, rainbow with one diamond. I bet out 2,000 with top two pair and the first limper raised me to 6,000 with about 1,900 left. I stopped to think about what my opponent could have. If he had AA in his hand he'd likely have raised preflop. There aren't too many hands with 44 or 77 in them that are playable from early position. There was not a possible flush draw. What I was left with was he must have some kind of straight draw. I thought it was probably something like 4567 or AK65. After about 45 seconds I put him all in and he turned over 5678. With his wrap straight draw vs my two pair we were almost exactly 50/50. The turn was a 3! No! The river was an A! Hooray! Now I was up to 26,000 and feeling like no matter what re-entering was a good idea.
In the next hand there was only one way to go. I had AAKT with the KT of hearts (which is a premium hand) and 23K in my stack. I raised in the cutoff to 2,100 and the button raised to 7,200. In PLO a hand with AA will be favored against any hand that does not have AA in it, and not only that but I had a good hand with AA in it. When it got back to me I paused for 10 seconds, said "Pot" meaning I wanted to raise the max and we both put all of our chips in. My opponent who had me covered by a couple thousand chips turned over AA75 with the A5 of hearts. I assumed that I would be ahead here as we both have AA and I had KT compared to his 75, but it turns out that we're 55.3% to chop, I'm 17.9% to win and he's 26.8% to win. I guess the ability of 75 to make straights and him having me dominated in hearts is a big deal. Anyway the flop came out 644 with two hearts which made me want to puke. I was now less than 1% to win and 48% to chop. The turn was the 8 of hearts meaning I needed a 4 on the river to chop, but instead it was a brick and I was out.
It's never fun to get busted with a strong hand, but I'm glad I was 100% sure what to do on this one and not left with any regrets or doubts.
Friday, June 08, 2018
HORSE Day 2 Recap
Thursday, June 07, 2018
2018 WSOP $1,500 HORSE - Ups, Downs and Playing With Phil Ivey
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
2018 WSOP Photos and Getting Juiced Up to Play Poker
The poker and the WSOP in general have gone in the other direction. The logistics of this operation are mind boggling. Today there two bracelet events starting, but also two Day 2's, a Day 3 and a Day 4 of previous events along with four one day tournaments (that have no prestige and $200-$300 buy ins) and two mega satellites. That's 12 tournaments with hundreds or thousands of entrants where people need to show ID and their players club card to register and get paid out and get served drinks and if anything doesn't run smoothly there will be loud bitching.
I managed to keep the discipline in place and was sober and in my room by 9:30 without having bet on anything. I got 9 hours of sleep and woke up feeling about as good as I ever have after a night in Vegas. I'm sure the discipline will crack at some point, but for now I'm in tip top shape.
Now, pictures!
Tuesday, June 05, 2018
My 2018 WSOP Schedule
I'll be posting pictures, recaps, results and stories on this blog daily.
Here are the events I'm playing and how they shaped up last year.
Wednesday June 5th - $1,500 HORSE
2017 Entrants: 736
2017 Prize Pool: $993,600
2017 First Place: $203,709
2017 Place needed to cash for $10,000: 12th place paid $11,193
2017 Money Bubble: 111th place paid $2,247, 112th or worse paid $0
Additional info: HORSE is a mix of 5 different games: (H)old'em, (O)maha Hi-Lo split, (R)azz, 7 Card (S)tud and 7 Card Stud (E)ight or Better. I made the money in the $3,000 HORSE event at the WSOP in 2009 finishing 27th of 489 which is my best WSOP finish and my second biggest cash ever was in a $1,000 HORSE tournament when I finished 4th of 445.
Thursday June 6th - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6 handed
2017 Entrants: 1,748
2017 Prize Pool: $2,359,800
2017 First Place: $393,273
2017 Place needed to cash for $10,000: 36th place paid $10,074
2017 Money Bubble: 263rd place paid $2,247, 264th or worse paid $0
Additional info: Playing 6 handed games was my specialty when I was an online poker pro so I'm hoping to have a nice edge. Getting a good table draw will be huge in this event as it's easier to crush weaker players short handed and harder to stay out of the way of the strong players.
Friday June 7th - $565 Pot Limit Omaha
2017 Entrants: 3,186
2017 Prize Pool: $1,593,000
2017 First Place: $224,344
2017 Place needed to cash for $10,000: 15th place paid $11,754
2017 Money Bubble: 479rd place paid $831, 480th or worse paid $0
Additional info: I've never played a PLO tournament at the WSOP and never played PLO in person, but I played maybe 100 PLO tournaments online between 2006-2010 and the low buy in is likely to attract a soft field. This one will be a crapshoot!
Saturday June 8th - $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No Limit Hold'em
2017 Entrants: 7,761
2017 Prize Pool: $10,477,350
2017 First Place: $1,221,407
2017 Place needed to cash for $10,000: 90th place paid $11,079
2017 Money Bubble: 1,165th place paid $2,249, 1,166th or worse paid $0
Additional info: This is my main event! 1st place is guaranteed to be over $1,000,000 and that attracts a ton of amateurs and total novices from all over the country.
Sunday June 9th - $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No Limit Hold'em Take 2!
Additional info: This event has two day #1's with the remaining players combining on Monday June 10th, but if you don't clear Day 1 on Saturday you can try again on Sunday.
The first 3 are 3 days tournaments where on the first day we'll play about to the money bubble (i.e. about 15% of players will clear the first day), on the second day we'll plan down to the final table (i.e. the top 8 or 9), and on the third day we'll play down to a winner. The last one is a 4 day tournament (5 days if you count each day 1 as it's own day).
I have 3 goals for this year: Strike First! Strike Hard! No Mercy!
Monday, May 21, 2018
Project Phaser: Phase 3.5 ($550 No Limit Turbo) The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
My table was filled with talkers. The guy to my left referred to the tournament buy in as "The Ante" and seemed highly confused, while the guy to my right mentioned that he was going to be in Vegas for the first 3 weeks of the World Series of Poker. Two other guys were talking about the World Series of Poker and their past experience there, but from the specific stories they told it made it clear that they were recreational players.
In normal life I'd LOVE to share WSOP stories. I have a lot of them and enjoy hearing other people stories. I'm also proud of my poker accomplishments. But I didn't want to give these guys any clues about me and I had the discipline to keep my mouth shut about myself and my history.
I got into a pot with Mr. Confused in the first level that could have been a big deal. With blinds of 100/100 we were both in the blinds and checked our options. I had J6 in the small blind, flopped two pair on a J 6 8 flop. I bet out 200 and got called. The turn was a 3 and I bet 500 into the 600 chip pot. Again my opponent called. The river was a 4 and I checked hoping to induce a bluff. Like clockwork my opponent bet out 1,200, I called and took it down against J3 which was also two pair. The villain probably should have raised the turn and I probably should have raised the river, but it was a fine pot for that level.
And that was the only hand that was worth noting in the first 5 levels. Coming back from break I had 15K with the blinds at 300/500 with a 500 big blind ante.
About 25 minutes later without much of story to it, I got ground down to 10,300 and with blinds of 300/600 I looked down at 55 in the cutoff. If I had 10 big blinds or less this is a clear shove, but with 17 big blinds going all in here is a little excessive. Although I told myself I'd rather go out guns blazing and take a chance when a double up would put me back to decent shape than to wait too long, get blinded off and need multiple breaks to get back in it. With that said, I ripped it!
Sadly the small blind quickly moved all in as well and had QQ. Luckily I had her covered by 2,600 so I was still alive when I didn't find a 5.
A few hands later I went all in for 2,600 with T9 and took down the blinds uncontested. I folded everything until I was in the small blind where I got dealt K5 of diamonds. One player had called in middle position, I called and the big blind checked his option. The flop came down 993 with one diamond and it checked around. The tun was an interesting card, the 3 of diamonds. There was 2400 in the pot and I had 2,300 left. With some chance I actually had the best hand and drawing pretty live if I got called by a hand like A high or 77, I moved all in. The middle position player quickly called me and to my delight he turned over JT of diamonds. The river was the Q of diamonds and now I was up to 7K.
On the next hand the same guy just called preflop and I looked down at A8 on the button. Since I'd just seen him limp with JT of diamonds I assumed he probably had something similar. With 11 or 12 big blinds this was a good time to go for it, so I shipped it, and the big blind moved all in with QQ over the top. ACK! Why do these damn blinds keep waking up with QQ?
I didn't hit an ace and that was it.
Going out with Ax vs a big pair has been a common theme in Project Phaser. Based on my results you'd think that A8 had like a 5% chance to beat QQ, but it's 29%! And 55 is in deep shit against QQ, but it's still 19% to win.
My next big thing is the mother fuckin' World Series of Poker! Whoop whoop! My first day of play will be on June 6th, but I do have 7 days of cash games planned between now and then and am hoping to find a day to crank out about 15 small online poker tournaments so I expect to post a couple of times between now and then.
My $10,000 starting bankroll is now at $9,630.
My WSOP 2023 Plans and Missions
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