to help bide the time until my next session, i think Quant needs to post an update! like how about some more tales from the 50/100 game? the 50 game seems to be going off on a regular basis as of late, must be juicy...

Hey Doc et al.,

Yep, 50/100 has been going off pretty regularly on the weekends lately, every Friday and Saturday, even had 2 tables of it one recent night.

I’ve played a bunch since my last update but otherwise pretty busy with work, taxes, soccer, etc., so no time for an update. But taxes are finally done, and I’m having trouble sleeping, so here we are…

MSPT was in town a few weeks ago, and I had a pretty good run in the main event ($1100 buy-in, ~$110K up top). I played Day 1 on Friday (3 Day 1 options) instead of Saturday (my usual Day 1 for these events) and bagged a below average stack for Sunday. Ninety people made Day 2, 45 get paid. I never really had a tough decision:

-Second orbit, I’m down to 45K chips, 4K/2K/1K (blinds/ante) or thereabouts, chip leader opens to 11K, I ship 8d8h, SB reships and chip leader folds. AKs, he misses and I’m a bit above average now.

-I open 6c6d UTG+2, hijack shoves, button shoves and BB shoves! HJ had QQ, both of the others had AA.

-Very active UTG opens 2X, folds to me in the BB and I call 43. Flop Q52, I craise-shove a slightly below average stack, he tanks for a couple minutes then folds T9, dodged a bullet there.

-Tough player (he made the final table) to my direct right opens middle position, I shove a below average stack with black QQ, he calls with JT. Flop Qh8Tx, I fade a lot of outs and he even makes 2 pair on the river.

-Down to 3 tables and I have M~5, open limp, I shove black JJ, folds back to limper, I figure to be ahead of his small pocket pair, nope he has red KK. I get a sweat with 3 clubs after the turn but blank the river and head to the cage to get paid 😊 (and since it’s still early, I then head over to Astar to play 30/60).

A good run for me, has me excited to play tournaments again, and I’ve already got WSOP trip booked for June 7-15.

So the 50 game: as I said earlier, it’s been running almost every weekend lately. My run-amazing in that game is over but still doing okay. I had a session a couple of weeks ago in which I took tough beat after tough beat, standard stuff like AQ<QJ, turned flush < river full house, etc., nothing out of the ordinary really. Probably the only one that hurt was while we were 4-handed, I pick up KK button-1 and 4 of us see a AJTr flop, all call, turn is a K and it’s capped, river is a blank, I fold, all 3 of them have a Q with no A. I was long overdue for a session like this and can’t get too upset about it but it certainly sucked losing $5K in a super juicy game.

And my run-bad continued early last Saturday. I got there in the early afternoon and after half an hour of 2-5/100 they started the 50 game and I had a seat. Second hand I open QQ UTG, mediocre older guy on my direct left 3b, folds to the blinds who both call. BB is a total fish, SB is a complete unknown, 30 something white guy, never even seen him before. Flop KQ5, 2 chks and I bet, guy on my left folds, other 2 call. Turn 4, chkd to me and I bet my set again, now SB craises! BB folds, easy 3b to me, and SB 4b! This certainly looks like a set of 5s or 4s, of course I 5b, and I get a sinking feeling when he 6b. I call a river 7 and of course am shown a set of kings and am stuck $1000 right away

No matter, coolers happen and I think I played that hand fine. And it was a great line up, 2 other strong players, 6 players ranging from so-so to terrible. Unfortunately I couldn’t win a hand no matter what I had. Later one of the strong players was replaced by a tough pro, and I was fortunate to run crazy good against this guy:

1-he opens the button, SB calls and I 3b AK in the BB, both call. Flop is 3 cards below 8 and 2 diamonds, I bet, button raises, SB folds, I call. I reluctantly call down a couple more blanks on turn and river and am shown A9, I faded a lot of outs.

2-I open 88 middle position, tough pro 3b the BB (he seat changed from previous hand), I call and see a 998 flop. He bets, I call, turn 4, same action. River 6, now he chks to me, I bet and he craises! Did not see that coming, but an easy 3b for me, which he reluctantly called (did not show).

3-I river a straight on a hand I opened medium suited connectors and he 3b, I floppd a gutshot and turned an open-ender, got there on the river and craised, he paid off what was undoubtedly a big hand.

Nonetheless, this was the only guy I could beat in a soft line up, until I finally got some traction late at night. One big hand I call a capped preflop with 98 in BB (5-way action) and flop is T65, I craise after a bet and 3 calls, one fold there, turn is another T, one call, river is a blank and he shows me a T and calls. My final orbit I was up a few hundred, after being stuck $4500 at one point, and I wake up with AA on the button. Hijack (mediocre reg) opens, I 3b, BB (terrible LAG with huge tilt issues, especially at this hour of the morning) calls and HJ calls. We see a flop of QJ5 2-tone, BB bets out and HJ raises, I just call intending to raise safe turns, but SB 3b and HJ just calls, I think it’s better to cap it here. Turn is a K that puts a second flush draw out there, I don’t love this card but 2 chks to me and I bet, both call. River is a beautiful offsuit 5, both call. HJ had KQ and whined about the river, nevermind that you hit your 3 outter on the turn. So that made my stack look like this, it’s a lot of $$$ but I had $6K on the table:



Here's a little more chip porn from a 50 game a few weeks ago, I was only in for $3K this time but I gave back a significant chunk of my winnings, would’ve been my best session ever if I’d left when I took this picture:



That’s about all for now, I hope to post a short update from National Harbor and the 60/120 game there after the weekend, followed by a quick trip to Foxwoods the following week, maybe a little stud or mixed while I’m there.

nice update! you would have loved the 50 game lineup today. i played a quick 30/60 session this afternoon, had to wait about 40min to start the 2nd game. the main game was initially the 50 game that went all night, then switched over to 30 when they lost some players. those guys all looked like zombies. they were still playing 30 when i left around 4p, but looks like they've switched back to 50...
Good luck out east!!

MGM National Harbor

I just spent a long weekend in DC, 3 things on the agenda:

1-March for Science on the mall, went great despite the rain
2-see my family
3-play some cards at MGM National Harbor, especially the 60/120 LHE game

I'm sure you don't want to hear about the first 2, so I'll tell you about my MGM experiences.

Got in Thursday night and had mother-son day at MGM on Friday, I try to offset mom’s slot machine losses at the poker table. We got there a bit before noon which is the nominal game time, and I was able to get a seat just as the game was starting. Friendly guy asked me my name before I even got chips. Figured this to be all regulars at noon on a Friday, and everybody knew everyone else. They got a round of straddles going on about the third orbit, and I knew it would be a good game when the guy directly to my right called the straddle from the button. Reasonably tough lineup with 4-5 good players, few mediocre players and one terrible player. Fortunately I won all the big pots that I was in, here’s a few interesting hands:

0-I set the stage early with some LAG play, 2nd orbit, UTG opens, UTG+1 calls, and Hero 3b JT UTG+2. Folds around and they both call. Flop Q8x, 2 chks and I bet my gutshot, 2 calls. Turn is a great card, K, and I keep barreling, they keep calling. River is the perfect 9, now UTG bets out?! UTG+1 folds, and I raise. UTG now 3b, I 4b, he 5b, I 6b, and finally I just call his 7b so we can play the next hand, chopped pot of course.

1-Hero opens UTG AJ, UTG+1 calls, cutoff calls, button (one of the strong players 3b), blinds both call, this hand is going off 6-ways so I 4b, all call (12 BBs). Flop QJ8 2-tone, none of my suit, chkd to cutoff who bets, button calls, one blind calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls (14.5 BBs). Turn is a blanks, only button, Hero and UTG+1 call (18.5 BBs). River is offsuit K giving me the nuts, and I bet out, cutoff looks like he wants to raise but just calls as does button, they don’t show (21.5 BBs).

2-Three limps and Hero raises red JJ from the cutoff, button and blinds call, 7-way action (7 BBs). Flop T32r, BB (one of the strong players bets), 5 calls (10 BBs). Turn 6 puts a flush draw out, BB bets, UTG calls, 1 other call, Hero raises, button folds, SB calls, BB and UTG and other guy call (20 BBs). River offsuit 9, slightly worrisome but I bet anyways, BB and UTG both call, MHIG (23 BBs).

3-UTG limps, there’s a middle position raise, a few calls and Hero calls KTs in BB (6 BBs). Flop T8hx, there’s a bet from a mediocre button, SB calls, Hero raises, UTG calls, folds back to button who calls as does SB (10 BBs). Turn is a blank, Hero bets and 3 calls (14 BBs). River is about as bad as it gets, Q-flush, overcard, straight all get there, and I check. UTG checks, button bets, SB folds. Ugh, I always pay off, I look left and see UTG ready to muck his cards and I can’t let 15 BBs go down uncontested. UTG mucks, and button shows JTo! Whew.

Had a 5 hour session there, not a single person left a seat. They tried to get a second game started, had enough on the list but couldn’t seem to get people to take seats and start. I more than offset mom’s slot losses, this was about my peak, up 2 racks:



I gave back a bit before I left and was just under a 2-rack winner. Made the mistake of selling some chips for a 5K chip at the table, got hassled at the cage, took a supervisor coming over to verify I had just played that game to clear things up.

Sunday was a different story entirely. I showed up at 11:15 and the game was already running, with a 3 person list. Lesson learned for next time, can’t rely on Bravo info regarding starting time. I played some 2-5 NLHE for a 2.5 hours until they got a must-move game running around 2:15 PM. Fairly similar line up to Friday, a few spots but mostly solid players. The guy with the hoody, shades, and min buy seemed a bit intimidated:

I 3b 99 from middle position, couple of calls after me, hoody guy calls from BB, 5 to a J7x flop, I bet, hoody calls, one other caller. Turn is a blank, only hoody calls. River is another blank, and I chk back this time. He says pocket queens and shows me his cards, nice hand…

Nonetheless he ran good and won a couple of racks, easy game, he’ll be back.

Really never got much going, was fairly card dead a lot and ran into some sets with top pair short-handed (played 5-handed for less for a couple of hours), AK, flop is QT6, I get craised by BB, 3b and get 4b. Turn Ax, river blank and I pay off a set of sixes. This guy hit 4 sets of 6s in about 2-3 hours, pretty incredible. The only really bad player when we were playing 5-handed left at 6:30, one guy left at 7 and I quit at 7:30, stuck $250 when I paid off a guy’s straight after he hit his gutshot on the last hand. Only other interesting hand was this:

5-handed, bad player opens button-2, folds to me in BB and I call A3 as this guy was pretty passive, limping in even when we were 5-handed. Flop is JJ5c, I ck/call. Turn is a Q, ck/ck. River is another Q, I figure this guy might pay me off with a K as he called way too often, and I bet. He tells me he’s gonna pay me off, and he shows me his 66 as he throws in the chips! Good times.

That’s all I got for now, Foxwoods on Thursday/Friday/Saturday morning, thanks for reading.

Always love your posts.

The guy has a lot more Kx than 66-?? in his range, I'd guess. If you're value betting because he's "calling with stuff he shouldn't" you still won in this hand. Wonder if he knows that T9 is the same hand as Kx?

see yu in Vegas

B

Thanks, Doug. Definitely a value bet, I think he should be calling Kx here but wow, 66?! Not beating many hands here.

5 weeks! Hope to catch a drink or a meal with you then.

Foxwoods Mini TR

I know, another update already, it’s crazy after so much time between updates, right? But I’ve got another trip, with time to kill at the airport and on the flight back from Boston. I had some event in Cambridge on Sunday, decided to spend a little extra time at Foxwoods and get to know the place a bit better. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. It’s just under 2 hours drive from Logan (depends strongly on what time of day you leave, traffic is so brutal around there). Driving there reminds me that, unlike the west where I’ve lived for 30+ years, the northeast is just one giant forest with some concrete and asphalt mixed in. Feels like the casino just pops up from the middle of nowhere. This trip I stayed in Fox Towers, which is connected to the entire casino complex (there are multiple casinos as well as a huge shopping outlet mall). Previous trips I stayed at Two Trees, which is usually a bit less expensive (same price this time) but you need to take a few minute shuttle ride to the casino complex.

I managed to meet up with Munga30 on Saturday morning for coffee, and I had a chance to quiz him about some FW history. I’m especially curious about are what that place was like in the mid 90s early 00s, before casinos were ubiquitous. The poker room alone is massive, 70+ tables (probably around 90-100 tables), the lists must’ve been crazy pre-Bravo days. And above the poker room, in the not-so-aptly named Rainmaker Casino, there’s a entirely separate tournament area, looks barren at 50+ tables. There’s also an Asian table game section there that is sparsely populated with people, there’s lots of space available if they wanted more tables (not that they need them). Must’ve been glorious in the old days.

I found a lot to like about FW, there’s ample free parking and a wide variety of food options. My room was reasonably nice, the bathroom was fancy in a 4-star way (nice tile and glassed in shower, pocket door to the room), only weird thing was the 32” TV, which must be the smallest one I’ve seen in a long time. Although there were a few fancy looking restaurants I didn’t eat in any those, really just wanted to play some cards. I ate the BBQ pork at Noodles, which is very close to the poker room. Lots of food for $9, but it was a bit overcooked. Also had some fried scallops because I love scallops but never cook them. But my main food attraction was the Asian bakery, also close to the poker room. Don’t have any of these in Boulder but lived in CA for a long time and miss some of the oddities one finds there. Not only did they have sesame balls (fried dough with sesame seed on the outside and red bean paste on the inside) but these as well:



I mean, who doesn’t love a good wife’s melon?

Anyways, on to poker. I’ve been keeping my eye on Bravo to see what games are running at FW, and I got to play all the ones I had my eye on. When I showed up on Thursday evening I got seated right away at 20/40 LHE, which they play at crowded 10-handed tables, yuk. I wasn’t even settled before I heard my name, it’s PaulValente. Line up was so-so, lots of tight old guys. Fortunately I ran superhot, picked up AA twice (Paul, I had AA in that hand against you that you folded on the river, I guess you had a whiffed flush draw?), AK once (rivered A), flopped set of 7s to crack an overpair to win some big pots, won just under $1K in a bit more than an hour before they called me for 75/150 stud.

Previous trips to FW allowed me to play some 20/40 stud, those games seemed fairly soft and I won a bit of money despite not really playing much stud (just the occasional round in mixed games, which I rarely play now). So I was definitely a bit nervous playing a much bigger game than my usual 30/60, with an extra street of big bets. Fortunately, I didn’t have a lot to worry about as the players were as varied in skill level as most smaller games. For most of my time there I was the youngest player by at least 10 years, which is really saying something. You stud experts you go in and get the rest of the money before everyone expires…

Here was my first big hand (I apologize for incomplete hand info, my notes are lacking):

Bring-in: (xx)3, couple of folds, I complete (T8)9, (xx)7 raises, call-I don’t remember his card, and 3 3b. This is fairly soon after I sat down so no good reads by me, I call, 4 of us to 4th street.

(xx)35: b
(T8):9x6x:c
(xx)7?:c
(xx)??:c

Fifth street:
(xx)35sA: b
(T8):9x6x6x:c
(xx)7??:c
(xx)???:c

Sixth street:
(xx)35A?: b
(T8):9x6x6x7x:r (?!)
(xx)7???:f
(xx)????:f

Not too sure about the raise here, neither of the other two boards were very scary looking, but draws to hands that beat mine are still calling 2 so maybe it was okay. I bet out on 7th street and villain grumbles that he started out rolled up but is pretty sure he’s beat now, nonetheless he calls and mucks.
No other notable hands, I was winning at a pretty solid clip for most of the night but got run down a bunch at the end, kinda like LHE, added almost another $1K to my total. I did get to listen to the old, ubertight guy on my right berate the younger (probably close to my age) guy on my left for calling his completion with (45)6 (he made a straight in 5 cards and got paid by the old man who was showing a K, must’ve had at least kings up).

Friday, day 2 of my trip, saw me at the 20/40 LHE game around 10:30 AM, only a couple of interesting hands, both against the guy 3 seats to my right who was stupid aggressive and trying to push me around a bit.

1-Agro guy (AG) opens the cutoff and I 3b KQo from the SB, BB folds. I cbet AJ8 flop, he raises, I call with the intention of craising a lot of turns. Turn Q, he chks back then pays off a blank river.

2- I open AQ, AG calls from SB, BB folds. Flop is T93, he ck/c. Turn is a 5, he craise. I’m pretty showdown bound here, I just don’t think he has much here. River is a 2, I call, and he rolls over A4o, well-played…

1.5 hours later they call me for 75 stud and I’m down $225, not too bad considering how card dead I was.

Only hand from this 5.5 hour stud session I have in my notes is this:
Bring in to my left, a few limps, (xx)8 limps to my right, I limp (AK)?. I pair my K on 4th and bet out, couple of calls and (xx)86 raises, all call.

Fifth Street
(AK)?KK: b
(??)???: c
(xx)86Tx:c

Sixth Street
(AK):?KK4: k/c
(??)????: k/f
(xx): 86Tx9x: b

Seventh street the dealer pitches me the case K. This is an interesting situation. Villain is representing a straight, and my hand is essentially face-up as trip kings. If you’re villain do you bet here? I think he can only bet a bluff, because I can’t call against a straight. If I craise he should fold. So I bet, and he takes his time before calling and showing me his straight. I might post this one in the stud forum for some feedback.

Once again I ran up a couple thousand dollar advantage before giving back all but $600. Variance is a *****..

Took a break to shower and eat, then back to the poker room for some additional action. There was a list for 75 stud but none for 75 mixed so I took a seat there despite the fact that I could tell it was gonna be a tougher line up than the stud game. One of the younger-than-me stud players who joined that game after me on Thursday was there, he played well and had told me what the mix was: BOTE (Badugi, Omaha/8, Triple Draw 2-7, and Stud/8). We played 8 hands of each game. There was also a kill to 100/200 in O8 and stud8 if you scooped a $750 pot, never played stud8 with a kill before. If you killed the last hand of stud8 then we played extra hands until the pot was split, if you killed the last hand in O8 you posted the kill in stud8 (which followed O8). That’s a pretty good mix for me, other than the fact that I hate badugi, kinda stupid luckbox game to me. We started off 5-handed, and I ran/played badly in O8, I was buried $2K in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, Badugi came to the rescue for a change:

1-I post the BB and am dealt AA3x, nice to know there’s one A unavailable. UTG raises, I call and draw 2, UTG draws 1. I get a 4 for A34, I ck/call? This is almost certainly a mistake, I have very strong 3-card. I draw 1, UTG draws 1. And I draw the perfect 2 for the nuts. And I check? This is a bit of an odd situation, if he didn’t improve he’ll likely check back most of his so-so 3-cards and bet all of his strong 3-cards (say a 3-card 6 or better). He checks back, I pat, he draws 1 and mucks when I bet. Maybe another good hand to post in the draw games forum.

2-One orbit later I’m in the SB and am dealt a pat A345, wow. Button raises I 3B BB folds. He raises the 2nd draw, I 3b, he thinks about breaking but pats and pays off..

3-This is still in the first 8-handed orbit, I open button-1, button calls. I draw 2 to A2, he draws 2. I bet A24, he calls. We both draw 1, I bet he calls. I make A24T on the 3rd draw and he calls. Later told me he had A23 but I’m a little skeptical as he should’ve raised the 2nd draw with that.

So now you know the secret to badugi:

Only interesting O8 had the entire session went like this: Hero opens AQQ3 button-3, SB 3b BB folds and Hero calls. The flop is J46, I call. Turn is Q, I raise, he calls. River is 8x, he calls and has A2Kx no diamonds. Pair the board one time dealer!

This was my big stud8 hand: kill pot, killer is on my left, I bring in 25 (A9)2, killer raises to 200 with 7, 2 to his left makes it 300 with 9 (?!), all fold. This is a weird situation for me, it’s possible but not likely that 9 is rolled up, maybe he just has AA or KK in the hole? There’s no other clubs out, I think I should call here. Killer also calls. I use the same strategy I used in badugi and catch a great card: (A9)26, killer catches a brick (xx)7Tx, 3better bets, we both call. I continue to run hot this hand: (A9)264, killer catches another brick, they both check to me and I bet, killer folds, 3better calls. I catch a brick on 6th (A9)2642, I bet he calls. Seventh is the Q, I bet he calls and mucks.

This game eventually filled up, when they got a ninth player they stopped playing 2-7 as you can only realistically deal in 7 players before you have to reshuffle the muck (UTG sits out when there’s 8). This session ended with me booking a few hundred dollar win, 3rd session in a row in which I gave back most of winnings, a little frustrated by what might have been but it’s a little much to think I played especially well in these games and should win, I’m happy enough to play some interesting games, met some interesting people and won enough money to pay for this trip. An overall positive experience, I'm already looking forward to my next trip to FW!

Not much beer info lately, here’s the Hoppy Adventure from Harpoon I drank at the airport:



Reading the reviews for that is bizarre, I taste a bit of citrus but not a strong hops bitter. The first guy who tastes tangerine, mango, lemon, and pineapple must have some amazing taste buds!

That’s all for now, my plane is about to land...

This ain't my blog but I can post some funny stuff about the mid-90s if you want.

Sure, that'd be great! I'm curious about what games ran-mostly stud and LHE I think? What stakes were common? One of the guys who I played both 75 stud and mixed with told the story of how, after playing for 72 straight hours, he folded the stone cold nuts in a $13K pot playing 400/800 O8. Did games that big run regularly back in the day?

Jusy got through this, having found it from Doug's mention in the new small steaks lc/nc thread.

Quite the blog, quite the run!. FW used to regularly get several 20 must moves going - feeding 1 or two main games. Borgata and attrition cut into that action. With the NY players like me split between the locations, but attracted more to borgata by more generous room comps.

FW in general was also hurt by the expansion of mohegan and other regional casinos.

There was a 40 he that ran a couple of nights a week but they retired the 10$ chips it played with. Now a 50 sonetimes goes. There was also a healthy 10-20 ( less healthy now) and a 5-10 w/a kill that got a couple of tables going (dead for years now). I learned HE in the FW 4-8 and moved up overtime (though I struggle in the 20 game ).

I may make an appearance in A* this Saturday night if you want to say hello, or you can just poke fun at the OOTMAWGF (Out of town middle aged white guy fish) visiting the 30.

Either way, looking forward to the weekend sojourn if I'm able to get away from my family stuff in Aurora.

Canyon road or I70 from Aurora?

Everything I knew about poker in that time frame came from math class and Star Trek: The Next Generation. So zero poker content.

I was in college in Boston, and there was this crew of super rich Chinese kids (like from China) that would pile into their BMWs and go down to Foxwoods on weekends. They'd see me biking around and ask if I wanted to go with them, but gambling is for idiots so I never did.

One day they were piled into some kind of Porsche instead of a BMW. I asked if it was a new car and the leader said he got it for his birthday. The next week I saw them in a Benz, turns out they totaled the Porsche somewhere in rural Connecticut.

Another day I saw them counting out money and chips in their dorm room. Apparently their gambling habit was partially funded by lying to their parents and telling them tuition was more expensive than it was, and skim the extra. But they also gambled with the tuition money itself and had to make it up when they lost.

The last time I got invited was when they were heading down to CT one Friday night / Saturday morning with two cars packed full of super hot women (like they could not have been students at our school because we would have known / known about them hot) in super short black dresses.

So basically that's my mental image of what Foxwoods is like. Always wondered what it would have been like if I was a little more degen.

Take I70 to 6 rather than the Central City Expressway. You can call in an hour before you arrive to minimize waiting time. There's plenty of free parking but I always use the valet (also free). There's a pretty good chance I'll play this Saturday, will send you a PM when I'm there.

And you're in for a treat, this game is way better than the FW 20 game. In addition to the 2 hourish sessions on Thursday and Friday, I played exactly one orbit with Munga30 on Saturday morning, I think we saw 2 flops in 10 hands. Be prepared for lots of chips on the table as there is no $10 chips at Astar.

London Calling

Yeah, after all this time my first post is a London TR that contains zero poker content!

Cliffs: Plays; British Museum; Tate Modern; Duck and Waffle Local; Craft beer

Back in November my sometimes Vegas poker buddy Iggy says, “Who wants to go to London in January to see The Twilight Zone in the West End?” and since I was free with lots of vacation time I said sure. Besides small stakes O8 Iggy loves theater and is an active participant in the local stuff around Boulder, and every year or so he directs The Twilight Zone (old Rod Serling variety only) at some local theater. I was there seeing this with my friend in November, and ended up in London this past week. We saw 3 other plays including Glengarry Glen Ross with Christian Slater, great David Mamet play that some of you will know from the 1991 movie of the same name with Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin (the awesome Alec Baldwin character, “coffee is for closers”, was written into the screenplay by Mamet and is not in the original play).



Colorado has pretty lousy Indian food but London’s is quite amazing. Try Dashoom http://www.dishoom.com/ if you go. But eating highlight was a place called Duck and Waffle Local on the edge of Leicester Square. Good duck is so hard to find, here’s a little food porn for you enjoyment:


Duck burger (beef patty + duck meat), duck and waffle with duck egg, and duck fat fries (not a huge fry fan but these were undoubtedly the best fries I’ve ever had)


Breakfast duck burger (same as the duck burger plus an egg)

I’m not really much of a museum-goer, all of the old masters such as are seen in the National Gallery are mostly interesting to me only in the context of political history. But the Tate Modern has a lot of cool pieces, and maybe because the associated history is a bit newer I find it more interesting. Here’s one I rather enjoyed, try to read the text on the bottles, I believe they were from a Brazilian artist in the early 1970s:



Also went to the British Museum a couple of times. All kinds of cool **** there, once upon a time the sun never set on the British empire, and they took lots of stuff when they left. Amazing Egyptian collection, Rosetta Stone, etc.

Last but certainly not least is some fine craft beers. It’s been a while since I’ve been to England, 12 years ago, but I have a good friend who lives in Oxford who came to have a few pints with me. The craft beer (microbrews in the US) scene here has changed quite a bit in the last decade, they’re finally catching up a bit to the US. One notable difference though is alcohol content: typical IPA in the US runs 6-7% whereas in the UK it was often 3.5-4.5%. I believe that’s more in line with traditional English ales, not sure why the US is so much higher. Anyways, here’s a few reviews:

I rarely drink stouts but it really seemed like stout weather this week:


chocolate amaretto stout, tastes better than it sounds [/URL]Very chocolatey, smooth flavor. Would drink again. Mixed reviews from my English friend, too much chocolate for him


(sorry about the focus)

Mmmm, breakfast stout! Superdelicious, just the right amount of chocolate hints. 5 stars from both me and my friend.

Also had the Holy Duck IPA at Duck and Waffle Local, good hops, very drinkable

Citra pale from Bad Seed Brewery, so-so, I’m a fan of the citra hops generally but this was far from the better citra pales that I’ve had, flavor was weak and it needed to be served colder


Bad for Business from Pressure Drop was very tasty, good hops. Unusually high alcohol content for England. Would order again if I saw it

I really gotta update my Untapped info…

Now back to out regularly scheduled programming…

(I hope to complete a session update from December, maybe even an annual accounting)

PS Duty-free success! Never even seen this before, in the rum casks

I made an hour or so when being a tourist in London to go to one casino to play poker just to say I had.

London looks like lots of fun - that breakfast burger, yum!

Really enjoyed your trip report!

I did go into the Hippodrome, which is close to many of the theaters, to check out the poker room (and use the ATM to get cash, no charge in the casino), it seemed kinda lame. And they were spreading 1/2 NLHE, just didn't seem worthwhile. Maybe the Vic would've been better? But we weren't nearby, didn't seem worth the effort.

TYTY

A Poker Update

(Once again, I can’t seem to complete an update anymore-most of this was written in early January but not completed until middle of January, on a flight back from London)

After numerous half-written posts, the MAWG is back! I know it’s been a long time, can’t believe my last poker update was my FW trip, that seems like an eternity ago-I just booked flights for my 2018 trip to Boston/FW. Most people have even given up on asking me about updates by now…

It was right around the time of my last blog post (May 2017) that I decided that I was playing too much poker-I had just played some ridiculously late night session in an amazing game that I couldn’t win a hand in. And I decided the next day that after the WSOP I wouldn’t play weekends again until September. And I came close to keeping that-I played one Friday night when Gobbo was in town (and on July 3rd, which was a Monday so it didn’t count towards my no weekend policy). I rode my mountain bike lots, including a great weekend trip to Buffalo Creek (about an hour from Denver). Some of my friends send their kid to sleepaway camp and then we have adult camp, with lots of mtn biking, gourmet cooking, and whisky.

I’ve been mostly cutting back on poker, most weekends it’s one day if that. A lot of long weeks at work this fall, trying to jumpstart a couple of interesting new projects. But it’s the end of the calendar year now, and I have a bunch of use-or-lose vacation days so I’ve been playing a bunch these past few weeks.

The games remain endlessly good at Astar. 50/100 is a bit hit-or-miss, couldn’t quite get it to go last night (Friday) despite having one of the biggest whales imaginable there.

Here’s a hand I saw said whale play last weekend. This is an overnight 30/60 game, it’s completely crazy, almost every hand is capped 4-5 ways preflop. Kill pot, Whale is BB, SB is fairly terrible, I’m always happy when he’s in the game. Either SB caps it or it is capped before it gets to him, BB calls and it goes 5-ways to a QT4r flop. SB bets, Whale raises, one caller, SB calls. Turn is 2, ck/bet/fold, call. River 3, ck/bet, call. Whale rolls over T3o! SB shows his JJ and shakes his head in disgust…

Just to get you up to date on my 2017:

-ran insanely good at poker from Jan-May, was on track for a record year

- had a horrible WSOP, although I did cash in my first-ever seniors event (turned 50 earlier this year, 2017). The culmination of this debacle was finding a supersoft 40/80 O8 game at Bellagio on my last night in town. I proceeded to dump > 4 racks into this game, then the fish left and the game broke. I didn’t even look for another game, just walked the Strip for a bit, had a drink and went to sleep. Felt surprisingly okay about it despite knowing that I didn’t plan to play poker again for more than 2 months.

-highlight of the year was definitely a trip to Nebraska (first time in that state!) for the August total solar eclipse. Lots of great memories, including spend an extra day in western Nebraska checking out some cool fossil sites along the Fossil Freeway, I highly recommend this. Ft. Robinson has some cool fossils but more importantly a lot of history about the Native Americans. It was a sobering reminder about how horrifically our ancestors treated the people living here. It really was just between the end of the Civil War, which somehow seems like ancient history, and the turn of the 20th century, which doesn’t really seem that long ago (my grandparents were born then).

- went back to Ameristar in September feeling great, promptly got slaughtered at 50/100 in a few consecutive sessions, including dumping $1300 in 15 minutes playing 3-handed against a pro and a fish. I had been running extra good in that game, nearly double my win rate in BBs/hr compared to 30/60 so nearly 3X in $$$/hr, I knew regression to the mean was gonna be painful, and it was.

- been playing mixed games again on occasion in Denver, and in Boulder. In Denver it’s a 22 game mix, including a couple of new games such as 4-card LHE (similar to crazy pineapple, pitch one on flop and one on turn) and 5-card badugi (this seems to create a lot of action as everybody ends up with at least a 3-card badugi prior to first draw, I’m not a big fan of badugi in general and this is even worse despite the fact that I think it should be very profitable).

On to a few recent hands/games I played:

0-Sometimes the lineup is just right and this happens:
“Everyone want to do a round of straddles?”
“Okay, sure. Hey, can we just make it mandatory straddle every hand if everyone agrees?” (I’ve never seen this before in this game)
“What about the kill?” (They don’t let you straddle a kill pot)
“Floor, can we take off the kill if everyone agrees so we can straddle every hand?”
“Yes”
Needless to say this was a good game…

And sometime this happens:
“Everyone want to do a round of straddles?”
“Sure!”
Halfway through the round
“Let’s just make it a 50/100 game, everyone agree?”
“Yes!”
Also a good game 😉

And finally this text exchange:

Buddy: Hey Quantph, Are you at the Ameristar if so is it worth coming up games any good?
QPh: I am, there’s a short list. The guy on my direct left open limped the button when we were 4 handed if that’s any indication of the game quality
Buddy: See you soon!

1-Last night I’m playing 30/60, drunk old Asian guy is directly on my right and raising a bunch, I’m slightly tilted from not having many playable hands and him raising a lot, he opens the cutoff, I 3b K3 (?!), blinds fold and he 4b, I call. Flop is QT2, ck/b/cr/3/4/c. I know when he 4b I’m in a boatload of trouble. While I’m putting out the 3-bet dealer accidently brings the K, which I know is not the card I need to win this pot. It comes back, and the natural river comes, 4, b/c. K is shuffled back in, and I get bailed out by 9, he calls my raise and open mucks his QQ. Better lucky than good?

2-Couple of limps, I raise KK from late position, blinds call, flop is 992r, I cbet and get 3 callers, uh-oh. Turn is a lovely K, chkd to me and I get 3 folds and a craise, which I simply call. River is a 4 and I raise, he pays off because the pot is huge and shows me his 9 as if I didn’t know…

3-My favorite hand from an early January session, I just left the 50/100 game (7 winning players,2 ginormous whales) after one of the whales busted. 50 game goes raise, 3b, folds around unless one of the whales is hanging around. 30/60 table would often be 4-6 people to a flop for 1`-3 bets, huge difference. I have 2 terrible Asians who are bf/gf or husband/wife on my direct right. It’s my kill pot in middle position, 2 to my right is first in with a raise, she calls, I call 54, blinds fold, 3 of us see a Q43 flop, b/c/c. Turn is 5 b/r (??)/I decide to play it safe and just call, A2 and 76 are certainly in her range here, opener calls as well. River is 9x, k/b/c;f. She says “I got one pair”, and I just wait because I want to see her hand. She finally rolls over KK 😊 and I kill it again (I lose this next kill pot to a 2-outter on the river ☹)

4-Hand from another amazing 50/100 game in mid-December: I’m in the 4 seat, 3 huge fish in Seats 1-3 😊 Seat 3 is a whale who plays 80+% of his hands when tilted, Seat 2 is so bad he open limped the button multiple time this night, rofl. Reasonably solid player opens middle position, folds to S2 in the SB and he calls, I 3b TT from BB (S3 is out smoking), they both call. Flop is A93r, k/b/r;c/c. I should peel one here, this raiser will bet again if he has an A and chk a 9 or other pocket pair that he might raise with here. Turn is a 3, and this is chkd through?? River is a beautiful T, k/b/c; r(!)/3/f;c. SB shows me his 3, lol. Good times…

5-Great 30/60 game, 2 limps, I raise KJ, 2 calls behind me, blinds call, UTG limper 3b, call, and I cap, 7 of us ($840 pre) see a flop of KJ2, I bet and get 3 callers ($960). Turn 8, I bet, so-so player on my direct left raises (crap!), others fold and I hope I boat up ($1200). River is 9 and I can’t believe I’m gonna have to fold this monster pot for $60 but he checks back and shows me K8o! This hand is now affectionately known as “Black Hawk Nut”, which encourages a lot of people to play it when they shouldn’t (which is rarely, certainly not to a preflop raise whilst unsuited).

6-Another great 30 game, I’m in LAG mode and open T9 UTG, 3 callers including the blinds ($240). Flop is 874, k/b/r/f; c/3/c; c ($510). Turn 6, k/b/r; f/3/4; 5/6;c ($1230). River is 2, k/b; c, he mucks ($1350).

I like big pots and cannot lie…

Okay, that’s all for now, finally back in Boulder for a few weeks…

And I’ll stop promising to update this blog, I really do enjoy doing it, particularly because I’ve met a lot of people because of it, but work is really very demanding these days and I rarely have the time to keep up with this. So updates will continue to be sporadic at best

All the super/extra card games aren't as great as some people seem to think they are.

Basically more cards = each hand taking longer and more decision points per hand.

Your absolute hand strength therefore needs to be stronger to play, yet with the extra cards people seem to play more often.

So to beat the game you need to play even tighter, which theoretically means folding for more time per hand played than at games with fewer cards where each hand takes a shorter length of time.

Just a way for the ultra nits to be able to still win at poker without learning how to play better.

BORING


I also have found the straddle to make losing players play closer to correct, but I've already posted about that previous.

My Biggest Win Ever

I had planned to write up last week’s events but had another busy week. But I had an epic session yesterday so let’s do that one first.

It was a really windy day, good day to stay inside and ride your bike trainer before going to the casino. Except I got to the edge of town and saw that the main road was closed due to the blowing snow, which leads to whiteout conditions. Instead of taking the long way around I decided to just go home and do some work for a while and hope that conditions improved. After a couple of hours, no improvement, so I just took an alternate route that’s only ~ 10-15 minutes longer. I got there just as they were calling down the 50/100 game, took a look at the lineup and bought a rack of green chips.

Three other good players in the game with 5 not-so-good players. I’m in the one seat and the best player is in the two, but this is more than offset by the nine being some OMC who plays terribly. Things start off great, I’m up $1200 in 30 minutes before they slow down and then this happens:

A couple of limps in front of me, I limp the button with 97s, SB calls and BB checks his option. Flop is 763r, checked to me and I bet top pair, SB folds and BB raises. BB is a superaggressive (he 3- and 4-bets more than anyone else in the game) younger Asian guy, I get the impression he doesn’t care much about the money at these stakes and wants to generate action, very friendly guy to chat with at the table. OMC cold calls 2, I’m skeptical and 3b, both call. Turn 8, they both check and I bet, BB calls. River 4 and he bets out, I’m never folding but he has K5s, I just shake my head at his flop play.

OMC limps button-3, I look down at AA and raise the hijack, cutoff 3b, button folds, and SB (our agro Asian guy) caps, BB folds all call. Flop is KK6, SB bets, OMC calls, I just call (?). This is a little tricky decision for me, AK or KQ is certainly a possibility for either SB or cutoff. Cutoff just calls as well. Turn is a blank, b/c/f. Hmmm, didn’t expect that. River 2, b/c, he rolls over 54. Yuk.

Despite these early setbacks, I ran very hot later. This hand sets up the following one: hijack opens, OMC cold calls in the cutoff and I 3b AJ from the button, blinds fold, both call. Flop is A98, hijack chks and OMC bets?? I’ve played this guy enough to think he has something like A9/A8/98/99/88, so I just call, hijack calls. Turn T, he bets again (?!), I call planning to raise a safe river, hijack calls as well. River 9, crap I don’t like that card so I just call again when he bets, hijack folds. He rolls over Q9?! Weirdly played by him, kinda terrible by me as well.

But that hand set up this one later: OMC opens cutoff, I 3b QQ from button, SB accidently caps (put out 200 then tried to take back 50 but dealer said it stands), BB folds, OMC calls I call. Flop is AJ4r, k/b, if he has an A I guess he’s getting paid and I call. Turn is another A, now I don’t think he has one and I call, hoping he has another weirdly played hand in store for me. River Q makes it a moot, and he just calls my raise and shows his AK. No defense against getting there!

Now it’s getting late but I’m not done yet: I open black 88 UTG+3, terrible Asian calling station calls the cutoff, others fold and we see a flop QJJ, I check/call and will re-evaluate on the turn, which is made easier by the 8, I cr/4b, and I bet out on the 9 river, he shows his KJo.

I’m now crushing this game, up 40 BBs and thinking it’s time to go soon but it seems my heater is just getting started: one limp, button (decent Asian gal, very aggressive) raises the button and I 3b 66 from the SB hoping to get heads up but the limper and button both call. Flop is QQJ, I bet limper folds button calls. Turn 7, b/c again. River is a J, yuk, choices are bet and pray or surrender, I choose the former and she folds, whew.

Later that orbit I open TT from UTG, she is the only caller in the SB. Flop is JT6r, k/b/c. Turn is another 6, she cr/c. River is an 8, and she didn’t learn her lesson from the turn and cr/c again.

Finally, I’m really getting ready to leave when this happens: OMC limps UTG+1, I raise JT UTG+2, maniac from early 3b 2 to my left, BB caps, OMC calls 3 more and we see a KQ9 flop, 2 checks to me and I bet, all call. Turn A, I bet and maniac raises, the other 2 fold and I 3b, he calls. River is 7 but I know he doesn’t have a flush, I bet and he calls.

That little $2300 burst took all of 45 minutes and led to my best ever win (in $$$, not quite there in BBs but close). That marks my 5th consecutive winning session at 50/100 since The Great Return to the Mean back in Sept/Oct last year.

Here’s a little chip porn to close this out (in for 3K):



Mixed games are always much slower than LHE, it can get painful when you're folding a lot. But the extra cards (at least in the superstud games) all come pre-draw so doesn't slow down things much. And you're right that the bad players play more hands, not realizing that the extra cards mean your starting hands need to improve. Mixed is definitely not as much action as LHE but far from boring. I see that superstud/Big O runs in your 'hood, that must be a terrible game.


The straddle just makes people play more hands in my experience, and they play so badly that even if they're closer to correct there's still $$$ to be won.

You are the man, nice write up! Glad to see you're back updating the blog.

As you were heading out of town and hit the road closure, my wife and I were coming the other way from Golden to go snowshoeing near Eldora. We hit the road closure and never got there, but we did find a bit of snow in Clear Creek Canyon...

So what time did you rack up?

Nice!!! $$$$$$

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

I knew this was here but don't believe I've posted. Grats on the score and let me know when you're back at FW. I will procure some fine NEIPAs to share or ship!

It is striking that there aren't big-value chips in the mix.

Thanks Doc! You know you could've driven all the way through BH, continued past Rollinsville and ended up at Eldora? That's my alternate route, starting at Boulder Canyon.

I got there at 3, left 11:15, so a long but not outrageously long session. Most of the starters were still there when I left.

Thanks Bri! Hope you're doing well. See you at WSOP this year? I'll probably make myself go again and just play seniors events ;-)

Thanks Munga! I have the FW trip all booked now, I'll get there on Thursday April 18th, until Saturday. Same basic plan as last year, 2 days of stud/mixed followed by 2 days in Boston/Cambridge. I'd love to explore some NEIPAs that aren't Harpoon (which I enjoy, I just like trying new stuff).

Speaking of FW: I posted in the FW thread asking about this 150/300 mixed game, which seems to run often now, including 2 tables on Sunday with 7 on the list. WTF?! Where are all these players coming from for the biggest limit game that currently runs regularly? I also heard a rumor that the 75 stud game got a lot tougher because the big stud game at Commerce died and several of the players moved to FW-any insight? That was a good game last year, I'm not a big fan of tough games

It seemed that everybody who rebought did so with cash, and I never felt the need to color up because I got so many chips shortly before I was planning to leave.