Ya, still with you, but maniacally busy with work, combined with several long weekend trips this summer. Off to Flagstaff for work this coming week as well, may have some time to provide a poker update or two (I don't have a lot of sessions since the last update).

Flagstaff is nice. Probably less nice for you since you live in Denver compared to Phoenix. We went up there a few weeks ago, nice to get out of the heat.

Boulder is quite a bit cooler than Phoenix, and it cools down quite a bit at night here. Plus it’s been a pretty mild summer here this year, I can’t recall a single day that was above 100F. And we have our mountain towns to escape to when it gets too hot on the Front Range.

That said, Flagstaff seemed like a pretty nice place for a weekend getaway, wish I had a couple of free days and my mountain bike there. My trip started out with a small victory as they were out of compact cars at the Flagstaff airport, and they gave me a 328i. Pretty nice car to have for a week, even if I didn’t really have that far to drive. We did take it down to Sedona on Friday, incredible scenery. The town is full of hippies, crystals, and over-priced boutique shopping, but we were able to find some great hiking trails close to town and spent most of our time there doing that. The conference excursion was to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument, both pretty cool places, there really is nothing quite like the southwestern US for scenic places.

My conference was right by NAU, and although I was working pretty hard, I managed to sample a bit of the local cuisine. I had dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery one night. The Hopshot IPA was good, I would drink again:



My favorite place was in the historic downtown area, Criollo Latin Kitchen. They had a great selection of draft beers, and the nachos with fire-roasted jalapenos and smoked bacon were probably the best I’ve ever had:



I had the vegetable stuffed poblano chile relleno for an entrée, it was also outstanding:



During the conference social hours, I had a chance to sample some of the other local beers:



The Roadside American Ale was good, strong hops, just the way I like it. The Lost Highway was a black IPA, it tasted like a stout to me, not so much to my liking. And the Gold Road was a Kolsch, I couldn’t wait for this to be gone, it was pretty tasteless.

Overall, seemed like an okay place, I bet it would be a really fun place to go to college.

Another Poker Update

Well, it’s been a long summer with not a lot of poker after the WSOP and even fewer updates to this blog. I missed our first snowfall (just a dusting) of the year last week when I was in Flagstaff AZ for work (see my previous post). I got back home late Friday night, and I hadn’t played at all last weekend because of this trip, so I decided to put in a long session on Saturday.

I started the day off with a couple of hours on the 29er on the trails just south of Boulder, a little damp but only a couple of muddy spots to avoid. I’m starting to regain a bit of fitness after the ankle/foot thing. I got to the Ameristar a little before 3 PM and got the 3rd 30-60 game started. There was a lot of talk about the bad beat jackpot hitting the previous day at that game, 664 flop, 4 turn, and it was quads over quads for about $465K. It was 2 regulars with the big hands and mostly regs getting table share. This was the last of the >$450K BBJs, the top tier is now $365K or so, still pretty huge.

The must-move was a good game, and I made a few hands even though there was one fish who twice ran me down with ugly rivers. No real notable hands, I ran my stack up and was up about $2K before giving most of it back. The main game was pretty good, it changed quite a bit as players came and went. I was there for several hours and was up and down some before things really heated up. There were a couple of players I hadn’t played before that were unusual. The first one was notable because he didn’t chop, which is very unusual in this heavily-raked game. What made it more odd was that he then proceeded to open-limp on the button when it was folded to him, which seems like a complete novice play.

The second villain was open-limping a lot of hands, but I first noted him when he did this, then 3-bet after it was raised behind him. This ended up a huge multiway pot, and the villain won with a straight when his 98o turned a straight. Hmmm, noted. As we played, I noticed that this villain would 3-bet from his BB 100% of the time, then check if he missed the flop. And I finally caught some big hands against this guy.

In all three of the following hands I have QQ; I’m in the 2-seat, he’s in the 7-seat at a 10-handed table:

1-I open QQ from mid-position, folds to villain who 3-bets from the button, blinds fold and I 4-bet, he calls. Flop QJ4r, bet/call. Turn T, I don’t love this card, but I bet, he just calls. River T, bet/call and he doesn’t show.

2-I open from middle position, button (okay semi-reg) calls, SB calls, villain 3-bets from BB, and I 4-bet (cap), all call. Flop is A46, checked to me and I bet, button and BB call. Turn is 4, terrible card for me, I do not have Q, but it gets checked through somehow. River is A, BB checks. At this point I think there’s a good chance MHIG, or I might be able to get a flush to fold. So I bet, button calls, BB folds. QQ is good on that ugly board.

3-Fish limps UTG, I raise from middle position, button calls, SB calls, villain 3-bets from BB yet again, UTG calls, I cap, all call (5 to the flop for 4 small bets each). Flop is JT6, SB checks, BB bets, UTG raises, I 3-bet (neither Q is Q), button calls off his last $59, others call. Turn is a blank, k/k/b/c/c. River is J, and we all check? BB shows K4, UTG mucks, and my QQ scoops it all.

There were lots of big multiway pots in this game, and I ran good for a couple of hours before finally racking up + $3K, my biggest 30/60 session ever (previous biggest was ~$2.5K, just a couple of weeks ago). I’ll try to work on summer update tonight and this week.

Was said villain wearing a baseball hat off to the side a bit, and did he have his GF or wife sitting behind him watching?

No, but if you're thinking about an older guy whose wife was reading a book, then I did play with this guy, nothing notable about him, I heard someone say something to him about Albuquerque so I believe he was just in town for the HPT.

The guy I'm referring to here I've not played with before but some of the regs seemed to have played with him occasionally, possibly he was also in town for the HPT

I had a pint of the Lost Highway as well. There was an AZ only craft beer tasting room that we hit up right on the main highway facing the train depot. I enjoyed it. We ate at Beaver Street Brewery a few years ago when we were up there, so we hit Lumberyard Brewery for dinner this trip.

The Run-good Continues

No chance to work on the summer update this week or play my home game as I was sick with some nasty cold for a few days, but I felt better at the end of the week and played both days this weekend. It was a little slow in comparison to the past several months since the 4th table died before midnight on Friday and there were zero tables that ran overnight, usually one, and often two, tables run until the Saturday morning shift starts.

Friday night I had several weak fish and a couple of very aggressive regulars at my table. One notable hand: 2 fish limp, agro reg raises the button, his raising range is all the way down to 54s here, and I 3-bet QQ in the BB. The fish both call and button caps, pot $495. Flop is 994, I bet, one of the fish calls, button calls, pot $585. Turn is a Q, now I hope the fish has a 9, buts he folds to my bet, however the button raises, and calls my 3-bet, pot $945. River is an A, I bet and he raises with less than one full bet behind. I’m only behind 99 and AA, ahead of A9/Q9, and raise the last $50, pot $1285. Unfortunately he had the AA and my fortuitous turn card was for naught, and a huge pot was lost. Another big hand went better for me: 2 limpers, I limp A8s from the hijack, 5 to a flop of A85 monotone, it gets checked to an older Asian woman, bad regular, two to my right, and she bets, I raise, SB (agro Asian gal, pretty solid except when she goes on tilt) calls as does older woman. I’m fairly certain SB has a draw and the other has an A. Turn is offsuit J, ck/ck/bet/c/c. River is another A, and now SB leads out? Older woman calls and I raise. SB 3-bets, other folds, I 4-bet, and she calls and shows the nut flush. Oops, but the hand kinda played itself, she shoulda raised the turn (or the maybe the flop) and saved some money on the river. Overall, I ran pretty well and thought I played pretty well and ended up +$2.5K in ~ 5 hours, my third consecutive big session.

Saturday was another decent day for me. I arrived at the Ameristar around 330 and helped start the third 30-60 game around 4. There were a couple of guys there that I had played with on Friday, one was visiting from out of state, nice guy and solid player, he ran pretty bad on Friday. The other guy was totally spewy, he bluffed far too often in situations that were often implausible. On Friday he went completely on tilt after some standard beat and just decided he was going to lose all of his money. He was all in preflop after looking at one card and raising, won a pot and had ~$300 in front of him, I felt like telling him he should just pick up and go home but 1) he wouldn’t have listened and 2) I hoped to be the beneficiary of his spewage. Anyway, he was repeating his pattern of poor play when this happened: 3 limps, I limp the button with 76o, spewy guy raises from SB, and 5 of us see a flop of AT8r. He checks? KK/QQ scared or going to c/r? Cutoff bets and I call getting 11:1 to hit my gutshot, SB c/r, cutoff calls and I call (14:1). 9 on the turn, SB bets, cutoff folds, and I raise, SB reraises his last 45, the board doesn’t pair the river, and SB storms out.

Eventually I got moved to the main game, and despite having two seats filled by very tough regulars, the other 7 seats were weak, including 3 of the worst fish in the game. One of them I’d never seen before but he limped in literally 100% of the time, except if he was calling any numbers of raises in front of him. Great line up, I ran so-so, one of these fish just ran me down with trash (KK vs 32s was a standout in my mind) about 5 times. Here was one that went my way, though: kill pot, killer is UTG+2 and a big fish, folds to me in the hijack and I raise QJ, button (2nd biggest fish at the table) calls, SB (mediocre reg) calls, killer calls, 4 of us see a flop of KT4, checked to me and I c-bet my OESF draw, button calls, SB c/r, killer folds, I 3-bet and button gets a pained look on his face, probably at having to call with his 4, and finally folds. SB 4-bets and I call (since there were more than 2 of us when the betting started I couldn’t 5-bet). No waiting for me, 9 on the turn, she bets and I call. River is K, she bets, I raise, hoping she’ll repop it but not surprisingly she just calls and shows her AK. She had the losing hand in the quads vs quads BBJ and took home ~$180K, would’ve been beyond crazy if she had the losing hand again just a couple of weeks later.

My other big hand went down like this: 2 limper, I raise KJo from the cutoff, button (one of the 2 strong players) 3-bets, SB (2nd fish) calls, all call, and I 4-bet in this 6 handed pot, $720 pre. Flop is AJJ, ckd to me and I bet, button calls, SB c/r, I just call, button calls, $900. Turn 3, SB bets and I raise, button folds, SB calls, and calls the river 3, $1260 pot gets shipped my way. It was particularly satisfying to beat this guy as he’d put a couple of nasty beats on me a few weeks ago. That huge pot was about equal to my total win for this session, which was my 5th consecutive winning session.

Just watched the end of the Broncos loss to Seattle, great comeback but tough loss, they deserved the win. But what caught my eye was the commercial by “Coloradans for Better Schools”. Given their name, you’d think this group’s issue was improving schools, nope, it’s about permitting racetrack casinos near Denver. Plenty of discussion about this issue in the Colorado forum, I personally want it to fail (would be roughly the same drive time for me as Black Hawk but there would be no competition, that’s never good for the consumer), and the early poll numbers don’t look good for it (44-33 opposed, others undecided or don’t know).

I saw that tasting room but didn't have a chance to stop in. And I also ate at Lumberyard, they appear to be owned by the people that own Beaver St, their websites are cross-linked. I had the Lumberyard IPA and recall it being excellent.

A Few Sessions

Fall is here in Colorado, great cycling weather and I’ve been getting out a bit. I’ll try to get this mostly finished before I go play soccer today (edit: didn’t quite get there). This was my 2nd week back after the foot/ankle injury in May. Last week we won and had a few subs, today we had 9 guys show up and I had to play 90 minutes with no fitness, it sucked. At least there was beer:



The Sanitas Saison is yet another Colorado microbrew, from right here in Boulder. But I did not like, would not buy again.



My ankle is feeling pretty good, and the New Belgium Ranger IPA is awesome

I don’t seem to have any notes from my 30/60 session at the Ameristar on Friday, Sept 26, but I recall hitting some flops with my strong hands and hem largely holding up. It was my 6th consecutive winning session, for around $1200.

Tuesday night is now mixed game (50/100 limit) night at the home game, and I played this past week (Wednesday is still PLO/PLO8). My intent is to help establish that as a regular game, really need 8 people who want to play on a consistent basis, and then try to play mixed games and PLO/PLO8 on alternate weeks. As much as I’d like to play both, the hourish drive each way is tough for me with work. We’ve settled on a 12-game mix: Stud; Stud/8; Razz; Badugi; 2-7 TD; Badeucey; A-5 TD; Badacey; Razzdugi; Superrazzdugi; Super Stud/8; Omaha/8. Quite the lineup. Stud/8 is my favorite, badugi least favorite (not really poker, but I seem to run okay at it).

Didn’t really take any notes on interesting hands, I ran good (number 1 vs number 2 in 2-7 TD for example) but played bad, calling down a few hands where I thought the villain was bluffing (he wasn’t). I won a huge pot in Stud/8 when I rivered a flush in a 4-way pot, and nobody had a low. +$700 or so for the night, but I probably torched around ½ that amount with bad call downs, still a bit of a learning process for all involved, reading the other players (raising range vs calling range in particular) seems to be the key skill.

Friday night was pretty good. I sit down at the must move table a few minutes after I get to the Ameristar, and figure out that the new guy is a total fish when he defends his 72o in the BB, which of course he wins with when he hits two pair on the turn and rivers a full house. Next hand he doesn’t 3-bet his QQ in the SB but donks into an A-high flop against an early position raiser. He plays a lot of hands weird and bad, and I finally catch him in this hand:

Hero opens JJ UTG, call from the uberfish on my left, new guy fish (NGF) 3-bets the button, SB calls 3 (!), and I cap, all call, $510 preflop. Flop is JT6, I bet, uberfish folds, other 2 call, $600. Turn is 9, bad looking card, but I bet and both just call, $780. River is another T, whew. I bet and only NGF calls, he doesn’t show. Not surprisingly, this guy eventually blew up his whole $3K stack.

Generally a pretty good night, only ugly hand was when my flopped set of 8s (top set on a board of 872 2-tone) went down to runner-runner spades, and the guy slow-playing his AA in the BB bet out and I had to fold. But I ran fairly good, and I played well, cashed out up about $1K for my 7th consecutive winning session.

Saturday at the Ameristar was odd. I got there around 4:15 PM, and the line for the buffet was already back past the steakhouse, usually you don’t see that until 5:30 or so. Despite that, there were only two tables of 30/60 running and not quite enough for a third. So I played 2/5-100 for half an hour until they started the 3rd game. While I was waiting for a seat I was chatting with one of the other 30/60 regs by the podium, and some guy I’ve never seen before tells the brush he wants to be put on all of the lists. Hmmm, this is a good sign if he ends up at 30/60. I played 2/5 with him for a bit, I open 86s to 15 from middle position, one call, he’s on the button and asks the dealer what the minimum raise is, which she promptly gets wrong (tells him he has to raise to 30), but 4 of us see a flop of 632r for $30 each. Checked to him, and he asks what the max bet is, and we all fold to his $100 bet. Gee, I wonder what he had? I did get to play 30/60 with him later and he was awful but I could never get into a pot with him.

I ran fairly bad all night, pretty standard stuff, lost all of my pocket pair vs two overs type of hands, and all of my combo draws whiffed except for one in a small heads-up pot (two $1200+ pots went down when I couldn’t improve). And theirs got there with hands they shouldn’t even be playing. Here’s a hand from the first must move:

4 limpers, I raise KJo from the SB, BB calls, DocSwag 3-bets after limping early, one of the 3 villains between us calls, and I cap, all call. $540 in the pot pre, flop is K42r, Hero bets, all call. $660, the turn is 6 that puts two to a flush out there, I bet again, BB calls, DocSwag raises, everybody calls. $1140, river is a 5, I ck, now BB leads out, DocSwag folds what must’ve been a whiffed combo draw, and last guy raises, and I toss my hand, BB calls. They chop, BB has 63o, and other villain has 43o. Ugh.

Anyway, I was down early, made a bit of a comeback then got beat up some more to finish down about $2K for the night. Nonetheless, I thought I played well, possibly mistake-free, so I’m not too upset about the biggish loss.

I now have one year of 30/60 play as my main game, will post a one year summary soon.

One Year of Medium Stakes Limit Hold ‘Em

For the past year I’ve been playing the 30/60 Limit Hold ‘Em game at the Ameristar Black Hawk, Colorado as my main game. I’ve been reading threads in Medium Stakes and Small Stakes Limit on 2+2 as a means of gaining some better understanding of these games.

Here’s a few numbers of interest:

Number of Sessions: 63
Number of Hours: 414.5 hours
Mean session length: 6.5 hours
Winning Sessions: 46
% Winning Sessions: 73%
Longest Winning Streak: 14 sessions
Next Longest: 8 sessions
Longest Losing Streak: 4 sessions
Next Longest: 2 sessions (twice)
Biggest Winning Session: $3015
Biggest Losing Session: $3125
Win Rate: > 0.5 BBs/hr, sorry I don’t want to be more specific

Overall, a good year. But there’s room to improve significantly. Preflop I’m extremely comfortable with my play-I rarely if ever open limp (maybe once every 2-3 sessions) or cold call a raise unless 1) there are multiple limpers in front of the raiser (this is very raiser dependent) or 2) there is at least 1 other caller between me and the raiser or 3) I’m in the BB. I think I can improve my preflop play from the blinds a bit (fold a bit more) and my postflop play (raise/fold a bit more). So let’s call it 1.5 BB/session, about 0.25 BBs/hr.

In order to help improve, I just purchased a copy of The Intelligent Poker Player by Philip Newall and The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen. While I’m not sure that game theory optimal (GTO) play is required to beat this game, I’m sure it can increase my win rate and help me think through some tough spots, and hopefully prepare me for tougher games.

And, a couple of my big losses have come when I’m running bad and chasing, not terrible play (well, probably terrible, I don’t remember the details now) but definitely not my A-game. I’m usually very good at controlling tilt, and I always recognize it, but once in a while I let it get the better of me and play below my abilities. Gonna focus extra hard on limiting that this coming year.

As far as the strategy threads in the LHE forums, haven't found them too helpful. Maybe our little corner of the poker universe in BH is like a Bizarro world where everybody plays bad and advanced strategy isn't necessary.

414.5 hours is a good amount, it would take me twice as long to log that kind of time. So that's like 12k or 13k hands? So as we've discussed before, how long or how many hands before you can consider that a reliable win rate vs extended rungood? Since it would take me years to even log 100k hands, I'll take luck / extended run good every time...

Please post a review of The Intelligent Poker Player. Was debating taking a look at that book, but for the 30/60 game, I've found Miller's SSHE to be perfect. I feel like digesting the concepts in SSHE has let me transition from NLHE to LHE.

Anyway, keep up the blog and keep getting lucky you donkey

Another Crazy Night at the Ameristar

This week was extremely busy at work, and I had to skip the Tuesday mixed games. And, I was too tired on Friday to go up and play. But Saturday night was a solid week’s worth of action. I played 2/5-100 HE for about an hour and lost $22 while playing about 4 hands, nothing very interesting.

I got called for 30/60 around 5:30 PM, with DocSwag right behind me on the list. This was the third table and a must-move to the two main games. Of the people I recognized when I sat down, there were a couple of solid players and several mediocre or outright bad players. But the real gem was a young guy (mid-20s) I’d never seen before. He was in the 6 seat, and he played 100% of his hands, no matter the action in front of him. He didn’t start straddling until later in the night when we were at the main game. Just a nut job, he had the kill UTG and wanted to straddle! And he ran crazy good, for a while. It was really impossible to put this guy on a hand because he played all of them. He was the last one to move before me so I got maximum hands with him at the must-move, and then I was fortunate enough to move to his table when it was time for me to move.

I was card dead for most of my 2-3 hours at the must-move, my only big hand I ran QQ into KK to lose a big pot. When they finally called me for the main game, I end up in the 7 seat, both the 6 and 8 seats are solid regs, the 9 seat is a superfishy reg, our action player (AP) is in the 4, and the 5 is another new guy who’s fishy. There were a lot of big multiway pots being played, and I was being very patient, which was easy with the bad cards I was getting. I was stuck ~$600 when this hand happened:

AP limps in early position, fishy 5-seat raises, I cold call A2, 8-seat calls 2, 9-seat 3-bets the button, the blinds both call as does AP, 5-seat caps, all call except 8-seat. $780 preflop, 6 see a flop of J42, checked to 5-seat who bets, hero calls with bottom pair, overcard, and backdoor flush draw, 9-seat raises all-in to $53. One blind calls, AP calls, 5-seat raises to $83, Hero and AP call. $1130 in the pot, and turn is A. Now AP leads, 5-seat calls, and Hero raises. Blind folds, AP and 5-seat call. $1490 in the pot, river is a T, and it’s checked around, I should have bet and got called by any A or JT. AP has 74o, 5-seat has KJ, 9-seat has JT and I scoop one of the biggest pots I’ve played in recent memory.

I played a bunch of hands with AP, since he had no preflop folds in him. Hand 2: AP has the kill in the BB, Hero opens UTG+2 with JJ, and of course AP calls. Flop is 567r, k/b/c. Turn is Q, k/b/c. River is 8, and AP now tank/leads out. Yuck, I’m not at all happy to see that. But I’ve seen this guy show several bluffs, so I call, and he shows his T3o! Holy smokes, that’s a new standard in spew in my book.

I finally went on a heater, AP limps the cutoff, SB calls, and Hero raises AA in the BB, all call to see a flop of AJ4, k/b/c/c. Turn Th, k/b/f (!)/c. River 4 and SB tosses his hand. Very next hand two late limps and I raise KK from SB, BB and others call. Flop is AKJ, b/f/c/c. Turn 5, b/f/f. Next orbit I 3-bet QQ from the SB and 5 of us see a Kxx flop with 2hearts, checked around. I lead the 4 turn and get 3 callers. The river is a blank and all fold to my bet.

The table was crazy-one hand that I was not involved in had 4 players see a flop of AA6r in a raised pot, and all called the preflop raiser to see the 8 on the turn. The fishy guy in the 9-seat from earlier took this one down with his 88 and a turned full house.

Another crazy hand goes down like this. AP straddles for $60, and now DocSwag has table-changed and gotten the Jesus seat, he 3-bets from UTG+1, Hero 4-bets JJ, button (1-seat, superfishy guy) jokingly says 150, not realizing that this is valid because of the straddle. AP calls 4 more, and 6 of us see a flop of KQ7r. AP donks and DocSwag raises and I have to muck my hand. Don’t remember all the action, but the turn is a 7 and the river an A, I believe AP led the action and DocSwag just called and gets shown Q7o. Ugh.

It was getting late and I was having a great session, up ~$3K, and AP was close to the felt so I was thinking about leaving. He was just a suckout machine, all-in preflop with 92o and flops two pair to cracks somebodys AA. He managed to flop 2 pairs an unbelievable number of times and built his stack back up a bit when this hand happened: AP has the kill from BB, DocSwag raises, and I 3-bet KK, solid guy calls 3 on my direct left, and the 4 of us see a flop of 622. Checked to me and I bet, all call. $800 in the pot, turn is 6. Checked to me and I bet, solid guy calls, and AP c/r. DocSwag folds, and I consider 3-betting but decide I’m showdown bound, this guy plays all hands so he could have a 6, 2, or total air. 8-seat folds to the c/r, river is a blank, k/c, and this $1500 pot gets taken down by 96o.

I lose a couple more standard pots and rack up around midnight. AP has a bunch of chips and I want to stick around but it’s late and I’m tired and tomorrow is another day. 6.5 hours and a solid $1500 win, only reason it’s a bit disappointing is that I was up much more and lost to a two-outter. Oh well, hopefully he’ll be back next week…

I think the strategy forums mainly serve to reinforce a couple of concepts: 1) you avoid tough decisions on the flop/turn/river by making the right decision preflop (thanks Jon_Locke, you come across a bit rough but the message is correct) and 2) position,position,position. While advanced strategy may not be necessary, bad habits that are acquired now will punish you in tougher games in other locations.

Yeah, 30ish hands/hr is 12K+ hands. I don't know the answer to your question but I'm sure there's plenty of discussion of how many hands are needed here on 2+2. For some perspective, a big winning/losing session of say $3K with ~500 hrs means that your win rate would change by ~0.1 BB/hr, so qualitatively one should think that swings ~0.25 BB/hr are to be expected given my number of hours, you might expect twice that if you have half the number of hours. I can't quantify anything without a bunch more work and math.

It'll take me a while to get through it but there's plenty of mention of this one in the Books and Publications forum and a specific review here

Thanks, I'll do my best on both of these tasks!

Another Couple of Winning Weeks

Been sick again, so not much happening here besides sleeping, coughing, working, and a bit of poker. Last night (Tuesday, I started this during the awesome World Series game 7, Bumgartner is awesome!) I played 50/100 mixed game. Ran bad early in razz when I kept catching bricks, but slowly worked my way back to +$1200 before losing a couple of big pots, one was in razzdugi where I made an 8-high and an 8-badugi in a 3-way pot and lost both halves to a 7-high and a 7-badugi (2 different hands). But I more than made up for it with the following superstud hi/lo 8 or better hand:

We're playing 7-handed, V1 (regular, plays too many hands) has the bring-in ($15) two to my left with a 3, V2 (new to the game, I’ve been told he’s superloose) just calls with a J, V3 (been playing with us for about 6 weeks, professional player with a WSOP bracelet and ~ $2M in tournament wins, very aggressive) completes ($50), Hero calls with a 4(32)(QT-these two are obviously getting tossed), V1 now raises ($100), and V2 3-bets ($150), V3 and hero call, V1 caps($200). Looks like everyone’s gonna be priced in until the river. I think V2 must be rolled up since he's been fairly snug so far, I’d better catch good on 4th. I get a 6 on 4th, 64(32), and have the other 2 low draws board locked yet it’s capped again without me raising. On 5th I pair my 6, 664(32), and I check-call V2’s bet, other 2 just call as nobody has a made low. Sixth street is the 5 I’ve been looking for, 5664(32) and I c/r (V2 is all-in for $140), and I get an irrelevant K on 7th and get called in both places. V2 doesn’t boat up, and I scoop a ~$3K pot, by far the biggest of the night.

The game ended soon after that hand and I had my best ever night there, > $2K. I also played the 50/100 mixed game two Tuesdays ago (I was too sick to play this game last week). I managed to eek out a small win that time as well, so 4 wins in the past 5 sessions, I feel pretty good about this since this game is pretty tough (at least in comparison to the 30/60).

I’ve also been on a bit of a heater at the 30/60 game at the Ameristar, with another 3 winning sessions the past couple of weekends. Saturday night was odd, I got there in the late afternoon and the 3rd 30/60 table was breaking?! Usually they’re thinking about the 4th table about that time. No matter, I played some 2-5/100 and had a pretty wild table, with the action being driven by a white-haired guy in his 60s. He kept opening to $30 and raising $100, but I didn’t have any decent starters to call him with and not enough hands went to showdown for me to think about raising with some of my better holdings. I did finally catch one big hand when I cold called a raise to $25 in the cutoff with KQ, button (fishy LAG reg) raises to $90, white-haired guy cold calls $90 in SB, opener calls and I of course call now. Flop is Q97, and it’s checked around. Turn is a 8, SB now bets out $100, opener folds, I consider raising but think I’m only called if I’m behind, so I call and 3-better comes along. My flush comes in on the river, SB cks, I bet $100, both fold. I play for almost 2 hours and win a couple hundred before they call down the 3rd table of 30/60 again.

I was pretty close to the top of the must-move list and played no interesting hands until I got moved about 2 hours after sitting down. The main game was pretty bad (several agro regs and a few tight players) for a long time, and I was either card dead or missed the flop when I had good starters. Finally a couple of people table-changed and a couple others left and the game got better. One notable hand: passive older white guy (POWG), semi-reg fish, limps early, folds to me, and I raise 77 on the button, SB folds, BB (passive Asian female fish, PAFF) calls, and we see a flop of 974. Now PAFF donks, and POWG calls. She never does this with a draw, and I have a set, so of course I raise. Now PAFF 3-bets, and POWG calls again. I don’t think she has just a 9, maybe 99 (she wouldn’t 3-bet this pre) or 44 or an overpair. I decide to just call here and raise any turn. Turn is K, PAFF bets, POWG calls, and I raise. She looks unhappy and takes a long time before calling, now I’m sure she has TT or JJ. POWG surprises me and folds. River is 3, terrible card, but she checks/calls and mucks, and I’m unstuck. I rack up +$700 a short time later.

Friday started off looking good, there were a couple of bad players at the 2nd must-move (4th table), but they kept running me down. The first guy is new to the game, and he calls my UTG open (AJs) from the BB with no other callers, we see a flop of AT4r, and he donks. I’ve got position, I can wait for the turn to raise. Turn is another T, and he checks, I bet, he Hollywoods for a minute before c/ring, my cards hitting the muck almost beat his chips into the pot and he shows me T8s. Whatever, I got him back a few orbits later when I open 66 from middle position, button calls, new guy calls from the SB, BB comes along. Flop is J65, new guy donks, BB folds, I call, button calls. Turn 2, bet/raise/fold/call. River gives me quads, new guy ck/calls and shows TT.

A couple of ugly hands (twice flush over flush, another where I turned a flush in SB and b/3 then had the board pair on the river and lose to a full house, and another hand where a terrible semi-reg asked to see my cards at showdown, such a douchebag move, I took a short break to cool off) and a couple of hours later I was stuck ~ $1K when this big hand went down: Kill pot, killer is UTG and a very good winning reg, Hero opens AK from UTG+2, BB and killer call. Flop is A75, they check and I bet, BB calls and killer c/r. I decide to just call and let BB come along because 1) he’s a fish and 2) I have position on both of them. Turn is is 6, they both check/call. River is A, now killer leads out, and I raise. BB mucks immediately, but killer tanks for a full minute, shows me his A and mucks. Tough fold, not many in that game have that in them. Afterwards a couple of the fish are asking if I had a flush or a full house, lol, which possible FH could I have there except maybe 77? They think I play like them. Killer told me he had AT, AJ or AQ he probably has to call and hope for a chop.

My favorite hand of the night came at the main game with a bunch of bad players. UTG+1 is solid winning player and he limps, UTG+2 is a new player, seems very tight, and he also limps. I raise QT from the hijack, button is uberfishy Asian woman who calls as she does most hands, SB is male version of button, except he has twice in the last hour made what I think are some of the worst river bluff-raises I have ever seen, also calls, BB calls. Now UTG 3-bets. He never has AA/KK here, most likely suited connectors and wants to pump up the pot in case he hits. This gets UTG+2 to fold, I call, now button caps it, and 4 of us see a flop ($510). Flop is AT4, UTG bets, Hero calls, button calls, SB c/r, UTG 3-bets, I call 2 more, and button caps. $990 in the pot, turn is K, SB bets out, all call. $1230 in the pot, river is 6, and it’s checked around! SB opens his JTo, UTG shows his JTs, and I roll over the winner with my QT (button mucked either a 4 or a missed wheel draw). This is such a great game!

Anyway, I racked up with a big comeback to finish +$1.5K. That makes 4 in a row, and 11 of 12 in the past 2 months, a great little heater after my 5 losses in a row. Halloween should be a good night, hopefully the run-good continues...

Update!!

Today I waited 40 minutes for the airport bus in the 4 degree temperature, it was about 20 minutes before I could feel my toes again...

I won about $2k on Friday without playing a single noteworthy hand, then lost $300 at the mixed game last night.

I'll give a real update when I get home this weekend and I'm not in my phone, I'm in Maryland but won't have a chance to get to Maryland Live this week.

Doc, you playing MSPT? I may play day 1c on Saturday if I feel the urge to play a tournament

Lol. Hope you didn't get frostbite!
Nice job continuing your winning ways.

I played at Maryland Live! last year. That was a bigger marshmallow pit than the A*; and that was 5/10 NLHE. I hear though the play has gotten tougher since it's been open awhile. Too bad you can't make it over there...

Not playing the MSPT. I'm also out of town. But I'm gonna make a side trip to The Commerce!! Hopefully I'll have some good stories about dealer abuse, crazy degens and the like...

Don't take this the wrong way, but people who show up to the poker table sick really annoy me. Rude & inconsiderate.

MD Live is still marshmallow on weekends, the weekday players are now mostly the regulars.

I didn’t get to play this weekend as I got back from the east coast late on Friday night, and Saturday night I went to a friend’s house for dinner and Scotch. Dinner was an amazing Indian feast, cooked by a white guy who looks like any curry would be too hot for him. This was seriously better than any Indian restaurant in Boulder! The Scotch was mostly on the sherry-casked/not-too-peaty side, which was just fine with me. First time I’ve had the Clynelish 14, it was super smooth, will drink again. Can’t see ever drinking the Glenfiddich 15 again, it didn’t measure up at all.



My east coast trip went well although I had no opportunity to go to Maryland Live (I hope to go the week of Thanksgiving as I’ll be in northern VA that entire week). The restaurant at my hotel was decent, I had a good crab cake sandwich and the Heavy Seas Loose Cannon IPA, which I thought was fantastic. Very crisp and hoppy, with just the right amount of grapefruit to not be overpowering. I will look for this again.



I played the 50/100 mixed game this past Tuesday and lost a few hundred dollars. Pretty uneventful evening. I scooped a 4-way pot in superstud hilo/8 with 2 big pairs not long before I left, but didn’t really get any value because of the ugly looking boards (last to act had 3 low cards to a straight flush showing and made 2 worse pairs and no low).

Last Friday I had to play an hour of 2/5-100 (+$50) before my 30/60 seat was available. The game was pretty typical for a Friday night must-move game, pretty soft with a lot of loose passive play. I ran good without having many notable hands, here’s one I which I ran extra good: early position raises, 3 calls, and I call in the BB with 65. Flop is Jx5x7, EP bets and 2 calls in front of me, I call getting 13:1. Turn is 9, EP bets again and 2 calls in front of me this this time. River is the perfect 8, and I bet out, EP folds and my straight flush gets one caller. I won just under $2K for the night, definitely running good.

The previous weekend (Halloween) I managed to play both Friday (lost ~$1800) and Saturday (won ~$1100). Friday was somewhat brutal as I think I played well against the usual weak line up but ran bad (AA UTG open, I lose to Q9o on a rivered 2 pair, AK < QJo on a KQJAQ board). Saturday was a different story, I ran good and won some big pots. Here was a big hand that I thought was pretty interesting:

I’m at the main game, in the 7 seat. V1 is in the 6 seat, he’s been playing well, very aggressive in position and not much if any calling, I believe he recently moved here from some place that he played a lot of midstakes limit. V2 is in the 8 seat, V1’s g/f, she and I have some hand history, I think she is solid if a tad overaggressive. Three weak players limp, V1 limps on the button. This is kinda interesting, I don’t think I’ve seen him do this before in our hour or two of play. I look down at QJ in the SB and raise?? BB and all call, 6 to the flops, $360 in the pot. Flop KQ6, I bet, V2 raises, one fish calls and the other 2 fold, V2 calls. Action back to me, pretty likely I have the best hand, and I have a very stong draw, so I 3-bet, all call, $720 in the pot. Turn J, I bet and all call, $960. River 2, I bet and only V2 calls, MHIG.

Obviously winning a huge pot is nice, but what I find interesting about this hand is my preflop raise. I raise there because my intuition tells me I have a stronger hand than anyone else, and my biggish suited connectors play well in a multiway pot. One year ago I think I would have just limped in here. Later, I ran some PokerStove simulations to try to back up this play. Sorry for the mess below, I see that ProPokerTools can output tables nicely for 2+2 but I couldn’t figure out how to input the ranges I want with that. In particular, I didn’t want to put all of those weak limpers and a strong player on the button on a range like 40%, because the top 15% or so of those hands are not likely because of the limping. So I selected a more middlin’ range (except for the BB, who should probably call with any two cards that she’s not raising with), small pairs/suited connectors/one-gaps/etc. Based on these ranges, I have a significant equity edge over anyone, makes me feel like my “intuition” is really just my experience now, but I really like having the math to back it up.

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 14.863% 13.75% 01.12% 1561703 126717.00 { 77-22, A9s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J2s+, T2s+, 92s+, 82s+, 72s+, 62s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, A9o-A2o, K9o-K7o, Q9o-Q8o, J9o-J8o, T8o+, 98o, 87o, 76o, 65o, 54o }
Hand 1: 14.850% 13.73% 01.12% 1559643 127329.42 { 77-22, A9s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J2s+, T2s+, 92s+, 82s+, 72s+, 62s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, A9o-A2o, K9o-K7o, Q9o-Q8o, J9o-J8o, T8o+, 98o, 87o, 76o, 65o, 54o }
Hand 2: 14.867% 13.75% 01.12% 1562202 126689.83 { 77-22, A9s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J2s+, T2s+, 92s+, 82s+, 72s+, 62s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, A9o-A2o, K9o-K7o, Q9o-Q8o, J9o-J8o, T8o+, 98o, 87o, 76o, 65o, 54o }
Hand 3: 15.518% 14.35% 01.17% 1630108 132718.92 { 88-22, A7s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J9s-J2s, T7s-T5s, 97s-96s, 85s+, 75s+, 64s+, 54s, A8o-A2o, K9o, Q9o, J9o, T9o, 98o, 87o, 76o, 65o }
Hand 4: 27.389% 26.65% 00.74% 3027729 83613.42 { QJs }
Hand 5: 12.513% 11.51% 01.00% 1307337 114118.42 { 99-22, A8s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J2s+, T2s+, 92s+, 82s+, 72s+, 62s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, A9o-A2o, KJo-K2o, Q2o+, J2o+, T2o+, 92o+, 82o+, 72o+, 62o+, 52o+, 42o+, 32o }

A couple of hours later I had the exact same hand (QJ) in the SB, but only one limper this time (and different player in the BB). This time I decided that just calling was the right play. However, Stove shows that is not correct (not sure how much of my equity I lose by being in the SB?). Plus, if I raise here I may get the BB to fold and get to the flop heads-up, where I likely have a big edge and can win many pots without improving on the flop:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 33.007% 31.94% 01.07% 3531120 117939.67 { 77-44, A9s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q4s, J9s-J7s, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A9o-A2o, K9o-K7o, Q9o-Q8o, J9o-J8o, T9o }
Hand 1: 42.964% 42.22% 00.75% 4667356 82626.50 { QJs }
Hand 2: 24.029% 23.06% 00.97% 2549683 106919.83 { 66-22, A6s-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J9s-J2s, T2s+, 92s+, 82s+, 72s+, 62s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, A9o-A2o, K9o-K2o, Q9o-Q2o, J2o+, T2o+, 92o+, 82o+, 72o+, 62o+, 52o+, 42o+, 32o }

Now at 13 winning sessions out of my last 15, pretty big hot streak. I intend to play the PLO/PLO8 mix on Wednesday, 30/60 on Friday, then I head to the east coast for Thanksgiving week in northern VA, hope to make the trek to Maryland Live even though Hollywood Charles Town is much closer.

You aren't raising because you think you always have the best hand, because Q high is hard to be best with multiple callers, but it is a hand that plays very well in multiway pots and is a good volume hand. You already have the max volume of players that can get in, so a raise is indeed the correct play. It also helps to have hands like that when you raise in the SB so people don't narrow your hand range to a big pair or big ace.

Thanksgiving Update

I ended up playing the 50/100 mixed game on Tuesday of the week before Thanksgiving, and it did not go well. I took a ~$3K loss, fairly standard stuff, just one of those nights when I either 1) missed all my draws, 2) drew just good enough to make the second best hand or 3) got out drawn. Oh well, next time.

I got back on the winning track on Friday at the Ameristar. One of my non-poker playing friends came along to hang out, which worked out well as there was a super long wait because the poker room was down 3 tables (14 instead of 17) because the long-discussed move of the poker room is finally in progress. It’s moving upstairs and will have 22 new tables and chairs. And, they’re going to be 9-handed tables. No big deal to me, there’s almost always 1 or 2 walkers anyway so we often play short-handed. Nominal opening date for the new room is December 19th, but somebody told me that the new gear won’t be there until the 17th, we’ll have to see what happens.

So my buddy and I crushed the buffet (and some king crab legs) for an hour before they called me for 2/5-100, which I proceeded to beat despite having only a few playable hands in 2.5 hours. Only interesting hand went like this: 2 limps, I raise QQ to $25, blinds fold, limpers call. Flop 762r, checked to me, I bet 35 into 75, first limper (plays too many hands and limps a lot) raises to 70, other limper folds. I decide to just call and raise the turn. Turn is a 5 and makes puts a second spade on board, limper leads 60 (into 215), I Hollywood, then raise to 160 and he instashoves another 43 which I obviously call. River is an offsuit Q and I fastroll my set, he shows 64 for 2nd pair on flop and turned straight draw. After 2.5 hours I finally get a 30/60 seat (they ran out of tables before they started the 4th, so only 3 running on a Friday night, the list was huge), and I played for about an hour before my buddy needed to go. I ran and played good without noting any hands and won another ~$600 before I left.

Saturday turned out to be another good day. I got seated fairly quickly when I got to the Ameristar around 730, and I ran very hot. I rivered a set of Aces on a 4-flush board that was capped 4-ways preflop, and my heads-up opponent folded what he said was a smaller set. I picked up A3o when it was my kill and flopped top pair on a monotone board, turned two pair, and faded the flush on the river. I flopped a set of 7s in a 3-bet, 7-way pot preflop and ended up heads up again the 3-better on a monotone board and held against what must’ve been an overpair. A couple of ugly kill pot losses beat me back a bit, but had a great night overall, +$1900 in 4.5 hours.

Four winning 30/60 sessions in a row, 15 out of 17 since the end of August.

This past week was Thanksgiving and I was in northern Virginia visiting my family. I finally made it to Maryland Live on Tuesday, and it was awesome! The location seemed kinda bizarre, it’s essentially attached to a shopping mall. But the casino seemed very nice and new as did the poker room. And the action was amazing! I played 2/5 NLHE, there were ~8 tables running when I got there around 1 PM. And my table was supersoft, tons of open-limping, followed by calls of biggish raises (~30-35), so some pretty big pots. I had KK cracked by 35s (flopped bottom pair then runner-runner straight) and QQ lost to J7o all in preflop (I opened, one call, bad bluff got a magical boad) but still won handily. My big hand went down like this: V1 is directly on my right, 30ish guy with Russian accent, decent player but super-tilted after having to fold the previous hand to the fish directly to my left on a 4-straight board. Stack is ~$400, I cover. V1 opens UTG to $50, at least twice any previous open (most of the hands are limpfests, unless I have a decent hand or someone else has a monster). I look down at QQ and decide the best way to get his stack is to play postflop, so I just call. I anticipate we’ll be heads-up, but nope, 2 of the calling stations decide to call as well, $200 preflop. Flop is 976, and V1 immediately shoves all in for ~$350. I call quickly, one callers folds quickly and the other tanks for about two minutes before finally folding. I’m sure I’m ahead and fastroll my QQ, the board runs out 5J, and he shows me his AK before mucking them. Yikes, had to fade a few there! V1 walks away, then walks back and puts his hand on my shoulder, leans in and whispers, “You got so lucky there!”. I just nodded in agreement, he did ship with >50% equity but I didn’t put him on a made hand on that board.

After playing for 7 hours and winning ~$1300 I racked up and checked out the casino a bit. Signed up for a players card, got $30 in promo chips which I turned into thirty real dollars in one hand of BJ. I went to Bobby’s Burger Palace for some dinner, had the Bobby Blue (bacon and blue cheese), it was good. The beer selection was lousy, they were out of almost everything, I tried the Devil’s Triangle IPA from Florida, it was okay but I would not order it again.



The Friday after Thanksgiving I took my mother to grind the slots at Hollywood Charles Town while I played some poker. I’ve played there a couple of time before, it’s a nice room but traffic has fallen quite a bit since Maryland Live opened. I played 1/2 NLHE for 10 minutes before my 2/5 seat opened. Definitely tougher than my Maryland Live table but plenty of spots. Unfortunately, I was card dead most of the time, couldn’t pick up an Ace with a kicker bigger than 9. I got stuck a buy-in when my set failed to improve against a flush, then lost the better part of a second when my top pair/good kicker didn’t improve after the flop and the villain went all-in on and ugly river card that I thought either gave him 2 pair or a straight, and I had to fold after put another half buy-in into the pot. So I gave back ~$900 on my winning in what was a decent game for me.

I’m off to Vegas from Thursday evening until Sunday night, with my poker buddy Iggy. We’re staying at Harrahs, my first time there, I like the center Strip location. No trip report in LVL this time, I’ll try to post some food/chip/greyhound pron here for you. I’ll likely play some limit hold ‘em or mixed game at Bellagio, although I’m considering playing the Friday $1000 + 80 tournament at Bellagio (part of the 5 Diamond series), we’ll see how I feel and how many runners it looks like.

Vegas-not!

No, I didn’t blasted the mini-TR I promised in the last post. My flight to Vegas last Thursday got cancelled because of weather in Vegas! Yep, hard to believe that this particular bad beat is possible. But right after Iggy picked me up, I received an email from Southwest. Uh-oh, I thought, flight delay. Nope, cancelled. Called SW, McCarron hugely backed up because of fog due to some inversion layer. I bet that happens once every few years. At least SW cancelled a few hours before takeoff, if it was United they would’ve waited until 2 hours after scheduled departure and ruined the entire day. We ended up cancelling the whole trip since they couldn’t get us out until 24 hours later, and 48 hours in Vegas << 72 hours in Vegas. We spent the afternoon bowling and drinking beer until the place with the good fried chicken and waffles opened for business (The Post in Lafayette for you Coloradans).

So I ended up at the Ameristar this weekend afterall. They only had 3 tables of 30/60 running both Friday and Saturday. I arrived around 730 on Friday and played 2/5-100 for 3.5 hours before I got a 30/60 seat. Great table, only 1 sold player, everyone else very passive preflop without a monster, except for the backraising fool (BF) and the crazy older Asian woman (OAW). I caught both of them in hands. OAW is terrible reg, sometime plays 30/60, has no concept of postflop play, stack size $200. Straddle is on ($10), OAW opens from UTG+1 to $60 (?!). Folds to me in the BB with AK, I’m content to get it in for 40 BBs and raise to $160, straddle takes forever to fold, OAW shoves and I call. K on flop, I fast roll and win.

BF loves to limp-raise, very little concept of how to value his hand. I’ve played with him before and seen him do this numerous times. A few orbits before he limps, one other limp, and a tight guy on my right raised to $20. A couple of callers, he reraises to $120 and gets everyone to fold. Guy on my right showed me his JJ as he folded, lol. Same situation here, a few limps before me, I raise to $30 with QJs,3 callers, and BF raises to $130 with $40 back, I just call and we’re heads up to a Q high flop, he tosses his last $40 in and I call. At showdown he starts with the “I got nothing” stuff but I don’t fast roll this guy, he shows me his 88 and I take it down. Lots of muttering at the table after that, people were shocked at my hand, the right play was good for my table image.

A couple of good coin flips and some good flops and I was up $1K when I finally got called for 30/60. And I pretty promptly got my head handed to me, losing $1500 in 40 minutes. Four or five ugly hands in that stretch. The worst was when it’s folded to me on the button, I raise AT, SB (agro Asian gal, pretty solid) 3-bets, BB (so-so reg) calls, I call. Flop is QTTr, she bets, he raises, I cold call, she calls. Turn 5, ck/bet/raise/3(!). BB folds, I have to call and call a blank river, she shows 55. Ugh. And I ran like that for a few hours and was stuck ~$4K before mounting a huge comeback, left stuck $500 at 30/60, so +$500 for the night, I was happy to walk away a winner after some of the rough rivers that night.

Saturday night was a different story. I got there early, around 1 PM, and helped start the 3rd game (must move). Nothing too interesting for several hours, mostly up a small amount, then this hand happened: V1 is a reasonably good reg when he’s not on tilt, previous hand he opens T8s from early position and wins with a pair of 8s. He opens again, and I 3-bet 97, terrible calling station on my left cold calls, and the 3 of us see a perfect flop of T86. Ckd to me, I bet, both call. Turn is Q, ck/b/c/c. River is another 6, now V1 leads out?! No way he has a full house on this board, I would’ve heard about TT or QQ on the turn, so I raise. V2 tanks, then, does what stations do, and calls, as does V1. V2 shows me his 65 when he mucks.

Of course it wasn’t all big pots with mediocre hands. Later on V1 opens again and I decide to just cold call AQo, 5 of us see a flop of A73 (I have A). EP bets, I raise, and button (V2) 3 bets. Button loves to do this with draws in position. Both blinds (V3 and V4) call, I 4-bet, button and V3 (terrible fish) calls, V4 (nittiest guy in the game) folds. Turn is a 4, I bet, 2 calls. River is a 6, I bet, button calls, and V3 raises. I’m sure I’m beat because nobody at this game has a c/r bluff river bet here, but I puke-call and V2 calls as well. V3 shows 55! And V2 has 54o, they chop the pot. Totally tilting but how great is a game in which I can get somebody to call 4 bets on a flop with 5% equity?

Anyway, one more monster pot for me: V1 (agro fishy Asian gal) opens, 3 calls, I 3-bet KK on the button, V2 (weak LAG Asian gal) 4 bets BB, and 6 of us see ($720) a flop of JT6. V1 bets, V2 raises, folds to me, and I call, planning to raise any blank turns, V2 calls. $900 in the pot and we see an offsuit K, ck/bet/raise/call/call, pot $1260. River is a blank, and they both fold to my bet! I’m sure this was QQ for V2, probably AJ or QJ for V1.

That wrapped up a good session for me, ~+$1400, for 16 winning sessions out of the last 19.

Tuesday night’s mixed game was pretty interesting, at least in part because I didn’t run like total crap like the last time I played. I’ve been poking around and trying to find information to improve my play in some of these games, and, just as in limit hold ‘em (and I guess most forms of poker), playing strong starting hands means you have fewer tough decisions on later streets. They’ve added two more games to the rotation, Badugi HiLo (I mentioned this in my last update, and I started a thread in Draw Poker since I think this is an interesting variant) and Big O (5-card Omaha HiLo limit, this is almost always played pot limit but whatever, it’s just a nut peddling game, not very interesting as a limit game IMO).

First interesting hand of the night is a badugi hand: villain is the best player in the game, he opens from button-3 (7 handed), I 3-bet 653x, and we’re heads up to the first draw, pot $375. We both draw 1 (first draw, mine is a brick), and he c/r and I call (pot $575). I’m certain I’m behind here, but position is important in the draw games, and he draws 1 as do I (2nd draw, I brick again). He obviously doesn’t have a badugi but he wouldn’t c/r me without a monster 3-card (probably no worse than a 4 or possibly a 5). He leads out again, and I consider raising and snowing on the 3rd draw, but I think the pot is now sufficiently big (would be $975 if I raise and he calls, and then $1075 if he checks to me after the last draw) that he would look me up here. So I call and draw, and I make a 6532. He checks to me, which tells me he missed and I’m good here, I bet and he calls, shows me his A23. If I had missed I would have checked behind, knowing I was beat, because there was no way he would fold there.

Next interesting hand is playing super stud/8, and I lost value on this one in very bad way. I don’t remember all of the up cards, but we’re 3-way and I have 4 to a good low on 4th street, villain1 directly on my right has 22(xx) and villain2 on my left has 84(xx). V1 bets out and we both call. On 5th V2 pairs his 8 and leads out after V1 and I catch bricks, we both call. Sixth street brings a 3rd 2 to V1, bricks for me and V2, we both call. This may be a marginal call on my part: I can’t possibly win the high now, there’s a bunch of low cards gone. But I’m going to have the best low if I get there, and I make a 7 on the river. V1 bets out, and now I make a mistake by not raising, just calling. I have a lock low, V1 is showing 222 so he clearly folds to just one bet if he can’t beat that but will call two or more if he can, and he calls with 888. One big bet lost.

Final interesting hand is another super stud/8 hand, bring-in is on my left, V1 is a marginal player and he calls, V2 is the best player in the game and he completes a 6, and I make it 2 bets with 4(A2), both call (pot $385). V1 gets a baby, V2 has 56(xx) and bets out, I have 54(A2) and call, as does V1 (pot $535). V1 and I brick on 5th, V2 bets 756(xx), 2 calls (pot $835). 6th street gives V1 a pair and he leads out, V2 catches a brick but raises (?!), and I make a wheel 3x54(A2) and 3-bet. V1 started the hand with $150, V2 calls my raise ($1585). River is irrelevant, V2 ck/calls and mucks 666 that never improved. So one huge pot and that gave me a big win for the night, +~$1K.

Vegas trip is rebooked for Jan 8-12, we’ll catch the tail end of the CES show.

Biggest Night To Date

This week’s update from the felt is all good: two winning sessions at the Ameristar 30/60 game, including my biggest single winning session, and a nice win at the Tuesday mixed game.

Friday night had a rough start. I helped start the 4th table, and we were playing 6-handed early on. New guy opens UTG+1, I 3-bet AK, and we’re heads-up to a flop of A83, ck/b/c. Turn 5, ck/b/r/c. River is 8, he bets out, I now beat all 2-pair hands that don’t include an 8, I raise, and he reluctantly calls and says, “you got me on the river.” I show, and he rolls over 42 for the wheel. Okay, gonna be like that, is it?

And it goes roughly like that for several hours, always getting run down by inferior hands or making second best hand and having to pay off. I’m stuck $2500 before things turned around in a big way, and I left up ~$700. I only have ugly hands in my notes, let’s move on to the good stuff. I played well all night, moving on quickly from the crap, so I was very happy to rack up a winner.

Saturday was a different story. I helped start the 4th table, and it was great action. Of course it helps to hit a lot of flops, which I did. Big hand #1 has me opening 88 from UTG+2 and 1 call from a younger guy (V1) who I think plays mainly tournaments, he’s 2 to my left, BB also calls. Flop is AJ8, BB cks, I bet, V1 raises, BB folds, and I 3-bet, and he surprises me by 4-betting. He never has AA or JJ here, must be AJ, so I call and plan to c/r any non-Broadway card. Turn is a blank and I c/r, he calls. I lead out the blank river and he calls and mucks when I show. Maybe could’ve gotten 1 extra bet if I lead out on turn, but this guy seemed experienced enough to not raise, but I didn’t have enough history with him.

I catch this same villain again in a big pot, he limps, DocSwag raises, button 3-bets, I call with 87 in the SB in hand that goes off 5-handed, $450. Flop is 87x, I intend to c/r but it gets ck’d around. No problem, I want someone to improve a bit, and sure enough, it’s me, 8 on the turn. I check again, our villain takes the bait and bets, DocSwag looks like he wants to raise but wisely realizes this is not plausible and folds, 3-better folds, and I c/r, he calls, and calls a blank river, MHIG another $800 pot.

Huge hand for the night comes with the same V1 yet again, at the main game later in the evening. V1 opens, 1 call, bad Asian gal (V2) 3-bets the button, she is often willing to fold a flop for 1 bet after 3-betting, I have no idea where she’s at ever, SB (solid Asian guy, winning player) 4-bets, and Hero calls 3 more with QsQc, all call, $600. Flop is Qd8d4s, SB cks, and I bet out top set. V1 raises, V2 and SB both cold call 2, then cold call 2 more, $1080. Turn is a 7x, I bet again, V1 is all-in for ~$40 of it, V2 folds, SB calls. River is a blank, k/b/c, I take down a $1200+ pot.

I got into a couple of big hands with some tilty young Asian guy who seemed like he wanted to show off to his buddy at the table, or perhaps he was just an idiot, or perhaps both. His kill in the cutoff, limped around, I call 42s in the BB in a 5-way pot, $250. Flop is A42 2-tone, and I bet out. Two calls, including the killer, and the turn is another A. Disaster card for my hand, but I doubt either of these guys has an A, so I bet again, only killer calls. River T, b/c, and after I show, he proudly shows his 94o, can’t bluff him! An hour later, I have the kill in the SB with 55, he opens the hijack, our button 3-better from the QQ hand does that again, I call 2, BB folds, and opener caps, $630. Flop comes 8 high, ck/bet/fold?!/call. I ck/call a paired board on the turn and a T on the river, he shows KJo, $1100 pot and I kill again.

My 7ish hour session ended with me up ~$4K, my biggest ever single session win. My months long heater continues, 18 of 21 winning sessions.

The Tuesday night mixed game went off 6-handed this week, the action guy from the Wednesday PLO/PLO8 was supposed to come, and we were going to play pot limit on the river (I hope only for the flop and draw games, seems kinda dumb for stud games), but he never made it. So they decided that we would add yet another game to the mix, I think we were at 14 after adding Badugi HiLo and Big O. They are so enamored with Badugi HiLo (I started a short thread on this game in Draw and Other Poker that got moved to the Bored now. Invent... thread) that they created another game with it: SuperStudHiLo8/BadugiHiLo. The game is dealt like SuperStud, 4 hole cards and an up card, you toss 2 hole cards after the first betting round, then it’s dealt and played like StudHiLo8. However, only half the pot goes to the StudHiLo8 hands, the other half goes to the BadugiHiLo hands. It’s a truly crazy game, and pretty tricky to read the hands. There was not much raising in this game, probably the only one in which the bring-in was just called by multiple players. That led to me playing the following hand, only our 2nd hand ever of this game:

Bring-in has a low card up, guy on my right just calls the bring-in, he also shows just a low card, I call with 9(KK)(xx-these get thrown away), guy on my left calls, 4 of us to 4th street, pot $120. A for me, A9(KK), I don’t recall the other hands, but it gets checked around. Fifth street and I have AA9(KK). I figure I might be able to take this down now and bet ($100), call on my left and call from the bring-in, showing 3 low cards. QAA9(KK ), but I don’t like looks of the other two boards, ck/ck/b/c/c. QAA9(KK J), same action as 6th street, I have no idea where I stand, just hoping to get at least ¼ with my 2 pair. We show our hands, and the Korean guy points out that I have the nut Badugi High, AKQJ, and I take half of the stud pot with 2 pair and all of the Badugi pot for ¾. Hmmm, not really sure I like that one much, I was very lucky there. I’m not a fan of big pairs in StudHiLo8, I should remember that next time.

A couple of other big hands in razzdugi where I scooped a pot that was 3-way until 7th street, with a 7-low and a 4-card 6 badugi, then A-5 triple draw when I was dealt A245x and 3-bet prior to the first draw, and draw a 3, get paid off by 2 players. Obviously getting hit by the deck, and cashed out +~$2K.

A great week on the felt, probably only a Saturday session for me this weekend as I don’t want to get involved with imminent cluster**** of Ameristar moving the poker room at 6 PM on Friday. But looking forward to playing the new room on Saturday, hopefully the run-awesome continues!

First it was great playing with you yesterday. I read both of your blogs im completion and am extremely impressed as stated yesterday.
I love that game we play in but do not have the time available to play it on the weekends where it is the juiciest from what I have just read. That and I have some holes in my LHE game I have been trying to work through. I am up in the game considerably but nothing compared to you. I also just realized thanks to this blog that my avoiding the 2-5 while waiting is probably a mistake.
Great writing and I am subscribed. I dont know if you bet sports other than world cup but I never give out plays publicly but I think Colorado -4 vs. Hawaii in college hoops tonight you will get the best of it.

Thanks again and goodluck, Milk