Really? Awesome!!!

Wow! You better not be messing with me. Shoot me a PM or email if that's the case and we will get you up and running again. Also I have an open seat for Saturday's Holdem game.

Finally I seem to be on the right track with cash games. My tourney group has nabbed a few new players who also enjoy cash and are willing to play regularly. Tonight I'm hosting my third cash game in the last two months and hoping for the rungoot.

[Warning, mild BBV story ahead...]

Last weekend I was playing NLHE cash at the local card room, and a new guy sits down at our somewhat tight table with 100bb. His first two hands, he open-raised to 35bb and took both down. For the rest of his time at the table, this was his MO: fold or raise to 35bb preflop, then shove or call a shove on any flop.

The first time we saw his hand, he 3-bet pre to 35bb, the original raiser shoved (AA ldo), and he called with 35o. AA held, and Mr. 35bb rebuys. A few hands later, I look down at my own AA and the same exact thing happens - raise, reraise, shove, call - except a third player on a short stack also got it in with us. This time he had pocket 4s, shorty had KTs, and the blank board looked great until a 4 hit the river. Nice hand, sir (sonofabitchhowcanirunsobaddammit). Chips please?

Again he gets junk in against AA and loses the chips he won from me and shorty. Not much later he gets KQ (top of his range) in vs A5s vs TT. A5 hits his flush, takes it all, and Mr. 35bb gets up and leaves without a word.

And they say there's no money in live poker...

Mini-TR:

I had a great turnout last night - 9 confirmed but one bailed, so 8 players. I run .25/.50 NLHE, $20 min $60 max, and I usually have a mix of $20, $40 and $60 buy-ins. Last night, every single player bought in full.

I wish I could say that my run of bad luck with pocket aces was over, but I'd be a liar. After flushing two buy-ins down the commode (AAx2 and JJx2 all cracked, plus a well-played but ultimately unsuccessful effort to get a thinking opponent to lay down JJ), I turned it around with #3 and almost got back to even before the game broke.

We also celebrated National Beer Day! Maven Chocolate Stout (Barley Mow), Golden Monkey (Victory), and Ol' Red Cease and Desist (Erie) all made an appearance. I considered breaking out a bottle of Dogfish Head Higher Math, but at something like 17% ABV, I probably wouldn't have been able to talk afterward, let alone play.

I'm hosting a casino night one week from today for some friends, poker players, and their SOs. Really looking forward to being able to get together for a care free evening of gambling, drinking, and socializing. Here's the general invite that went out for the event. I'll post pictures/write up after next week.




The Game: Blackjack, Caribbean Stud, and No Limit Texas Hold'em.

Doors Open: Cocktail Hour 7:00 pm, Gambling starts at 8:00

Limit: 18

Structure: Tournament Style (see below)

Buy-In: $20 per person or $40 per couple.

Hors d'oeuvres, Dessert, Margaritas and Martinis will be provided. If you want something else ask I'll let you know if I have it in the house. Otherwise BYOB.


Structure: Upon arrival everyone will exchange $20 real money for $500 in play money with an extra $500 given if you come in your best black tie attire.

At 8:00 you will begin at one of the three station and play each game for 30 minutes. After 3 rotations there will be a short break, which will be followed by 3 more rotations. Table stakes will double for rotations #4, 5, and 6.

At the conclusion of the evening for every $100 you have in chips, rounded up (Ex. $434 would be 5 tickets) you will be given one raffle ticket. Those tickets will be used to raffle off $20 cash prizes. Note: No person can win more than one raffle prize. 1st/2nd/3rd place winners are also eligible to win.

Busto: Like any good gambler you can go busto from time to time. More often if your name is *cough* Uzi *cough*. Should that happen check in with the bank (Bill) and you will be given a loan of $500. Although you are free to play with the houses money for the remainder of the evening any loan must be paid back, with 10% interest, before you are eligible to receive a raffle ticket.

Dealers: At the Caribbean stud and blackjack tables (Poker will be self dealt) one person will need to deal for the other 5 players. The dealer will be paid $100 for their efforts. Ideally, I'd like to have everyone only have to deal a maximum of one time.

Groups: Couples will stay together unless you ask to be split up...Otherwise grouping will be random.

Group #1 - 6 people

Group #2 - 6 people

Group # 3 - 6 people


Cocktail Hour, Game Tutorials - 7:00-8:00

Rotation #1 - 8:00-8:30

Group #1 - Blackjack
Group #2 - Caribbean Stud
Group #3 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)

Rotation #2 - 8:30-9:00

Group #1 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #2 - Blackjack
Group #3 - Caribbean Stud

Rotation #3 - 9:00-9:30

Group #1 - Caribbean Stud
Group #2 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #3 - Blackjack

Break - 9:30-10:00

Rotation #4 - 10:00-10:30

Group #1 - Blackjack
Group #2 - Caribbean Stud
Group #3 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)

Rotation #5 - 10:30-11:00

Group #1 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #2 - Blackjack
Group #3 - Caribbean Stud

Rotation #6 - 11:00-11:30

Group #1 - Caribbean Stud
Group #2 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #3 - Blackjack

Counting, Tickets, & Raffle - 11:30-12:00

Payouts (Will be adjusted with less than 18 players)

1st - $140

2nd - $90

3rd - $50

Raffle Tickets (x4) - $20

That sounds like a great night...And a great way to have a casino night without someone being the "house" and raking your friends money. I'm definitely gonna suggest this to my wife, as she has been talking about hosting a casino night. It's a great way to get the non-poker playing SO's who like to gamble involved ..and introduce them to poker in a different setting.

We have a mix of people coming for the event, some family, some friends we've had for 20 years, and some my poker friends. I figure this way I can met some of SOs of my poker friends whom I've played with for years. I have one regular who is bringing his daughter along.

for casino night TR

Currently trying to get some of the pictures from my wife which is proving to be difficult on Mother's day. I'll try and get something posted this week with the details if I have a few minutes. Overall it was a smashing success and everyone said they would love to do it again sometime.

Paging Breich! You alive bro?

----

In other news: I played my godson for fun the other day. I won two games of chess and two games of shortstacked dealers choice poker. He has a problem not seeing discovered check, but he handled the ups and downs of cards better than some veterans that I've played with.

One year ago I built some tables for my brother's bachelor party and since then my wife and I have been talking about hosting a Casino night to use the tables. With an almost 2 year old at home timing proved to be difficult and we finally got a night were we shipped the little man off to my parents house and were free to host the event. In the end we had 15 people come out for the event to play Caribbean Stud, Blackjack and Texas Hold'em. We don't have space in the house for 20 people so we turned the garage into some of the gaming space and my wife went all out with the decorations. The structure is below in italics followed by the trip report.


The Game: Blackjack, Caribbean Stud, and No Limit Texas Hold'em.

Doors Open: Cocktail Hour 7:00 pm, Gambling starts at 8:00

Limit: 18

Structure: Tournament Style (see below)

Buy-In: $20 per person or $40 per couple.

Hors d'oeuvres, Dessert, Margaritas and Martinis will be provided. If you want something else ask I'll let you know if I have it in the house.

Structure: Upon arrival everyone will exchange $20 real money for $500 in play money with an extra $500 given if you come in your best black tie attire. We will be rotating between the house/garage depending so please keep that in mind when thinking about your wardrobe.

At 8:00 you will begin at one of the three station and play each game for 30 minutes. After 3 rotations there will be a short break, which will be followed by 3 more rotations. Table stakes will go up for rotations #4, 5, and 6.

At the conclusion of the evening for every $100 you have in chips, rounded up (Ex. $434 would be 5 tickets) you will be given one raffle ticket. Those tickets will be used to raffle off $20 cash prizes. Note: No person can win more than one raffle prize. 1st/2nd/3rd place winners are also eligible to win.

Busto: Like any good gambler you can go busto from time to time. Should that happen check in with the bank and you will be given a loan of $500. Although you are free to play with the houses money for the remainder of the evening any loan must be paid back, with 10% interest, before you are eligible to receive a raffle ticket.

Dealers: At the Caribbean stud and blackjack tables (Poker will be self dealt) one person will need to deal for the other 5 players. The dealer will be paid $100 for their efforts. Ideally, I'd like to have everyone only have to deal a maximum of one time.

Groups: Couples will stay together unless you ask to be split up...Otherwise grouping will be random.

Group #1 - 6 people

Group #2 - 6 people

Group # 3 - 6 people

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Cocktail Hour, Game Tutorials - 7:00-8:00

Rotation #1 - 8:00-8:30

Group #1 - Blackjack
Group #2 - Caribbean Stud
Group #3 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)

Rotation #2 - 8:30-9:00

Group #1 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #2 - Blackjack
Group #3 - Caribbean Stud

Rotation #3 - 9:00-9:30

Group #1 - Caribbean Stud
Group #2 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #3 - Blackjack

Break - 9:30-10:00

Rotation #4 - 10:00-10:30

Group #1 - Blackjack
Group #2 - Caribbean Stud
Group #3 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)

Rotation #5 - 10:30-11:00

Group #1 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #2 - Blackjack
Group #3 - Caribbean Stud

Rotation #6 - 11:00-11:30

Group #1 - Caribbean Stud
Group #2 - Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Group #3 - Blackjack

Counting, Tickets, & Raffle - 11:30-12:00

Payouts (15 players

1st - $130

2nd - $70

3rd - $40

Raffle Tickets (x3) - $20






The evening started off with tutorials on how to play Caribbean stud and blackjack while people got drinks and hor dourves. I was surprised that some of my poker regulars said they didn't know how to play blackjack, so we went through basic strategy and taught a few people how to deal each game.

[​IMG]
Here I am conducting the Caribbean Stud tutorial for some of the folks that weren't sure how to play. Margarita on one side, and a glass of Glenlivet 18 on the other.

We then split everyone up into 3 groups of 5 people, gave each person $1,000 in chips (Side note: I'm a nice guy and didn't ding anyone for no black tie attire) and then had everyone play each of the games for 30 minutes. At the end of every 30 minutes we pulled two random names out and had them spin the wheel for a chance to win bonus $ or raffle tickets. We had some people spin more than once throughout the evening and others that got no spins. The biggest change of fortune occurred at the end of the last rotation where the very last spin of the night hit the 1k spot which sent him $600 ahead and gave him 1st place (would've been in 3rd otherwise).

During the first round the betting limits at the table games were $1-$200, with the hold'em table playing at $1/$2 with a $40-$200 buy in. After the 1st round of rotations the leader and two or three others were around $1300 in chips, while the biggest loser (me) was in the hole about $1,200. I got absolutely destroyed, like the rest of my table except my bets were bigger, at the Caribbean stud table down almost $700 as our dealer kept qualifying with AAxxx. Brutal. By the time I got to the 3rd rotation game Blackjack (which I dealt the round for +$100) I was down $1,300 and not showing any signs of having any hope of winning anything. I did get a wheel spin that gave me 2 free raffle tickets, which ended up being my only chance of getting $20 back.


My group's 1st rotation at the poker table. I ended down 3 buys during this round. (Mrs. JZ is the fine looking one in the middle)
KQ < 7s5s on Qs3s9x5d all in.
AA < JJ AIPF J hit the river.
74 < 77 on 742 flop.



Second rotation groupings playing the table games. Notice the lighted blackjack sign on the table on the right. Great addition to the table for $20 since the last time I used it. I wish I could find a generic one or table specific for my brother's Caribbean Stud table, but haven't had any luck thus far.



After we had dessert and some more drinks we continued the evening playing a second rotation. We redrew for groups and most of them got completely switched up which gave us a chance to socialize with some different people throughout the second half of the evening. The limits went up for the second round to:

Table Games $5-$500
NLHE: $1/$2 - $40-$300



Some of the women making money vs. the dealer not qualifying.


Final results of the night. I was the biggest loser at -2450. Everyone else ended at zero or in the positive side of things. It ended up that I was the only person that needed a loan for the bank (9 of them to be exact) owing 4500 back + 450 in vig so I consider the 2450 loss wasn't as bad as it was at one point. I was making large bets at the end to try and at least get back to even. One of my concerns initially was someone getting in a big hole, making a few large bets at the end and winning, so I proved that it wasn't possible under the given constraints. I also showed how awesome I am at table games and poker!!!

Overall, everyone including the SO/Guests had a great time and really liked the structure. Several people commented that the 30 minute rounds were the perfect timing on things and allowed them to get into each game, but not get bored of it. I wasn't sure how the hold'em would play in comparison to the table games and I didn't want the guests to get crushed by my poker regulars. Oddly enough, the guests destroyed the poker table and the regulars, myself included, were donating buy in after buy in. LOL? The evening was very social and gave me a chance to meet some of the SOs of my regular poker players while giving my wife a chance to hang out with some friends. We will definitely be doing this again in the future and I don't think I will be making any changes to anything. Pretty sure I left something out, so if something is unclear let me know and I'll clarify or elaborate.

Way cool. Very well done.

Time for another Friday the 13th Bad luck prize. We play every Friday night so this comes around from time to time. This time anybody with KK or AA in the hole (NLH)and loses at showdown wins the prize chip $10. In the weird case of both KK and AA losing in the same hand, AA gets the prize.

So in my new policy of not canceling games no matter the turnout, we played 4 handed tonight despite my normal run bad when 4 handed. Instead of the standard NLHE / PLO mix, we did a classic dealer's choice. If you could explain the game, we played it for a round. Games changed at button +1.

We had a fun mix of games from NLHE to Chicago Stud Lo to Big O and 2-7 Triple Draw. I was in for the bullets before my luck turned around.

We played one round of classic 5 card draw that was a major outlier from the variance curve. Before that rotation, we hadn't had one person win all five hands of a rotation. For the course of that round, here were my hands:

Dealt 7/7/5/5/x. Draw one, get an A.
Dealt 9/9/9/x/x. Draw two, get 9/A
Dealt 2/2/2/x/x. Draw two, get A/Q.
Dealt Kh/7h/5h/x/x. Draw two, get K/7.
I don't remember the last hand, but it was another two pair hand.

My next game is going to be a 2/4 limit game: HORSE + 2-7 Triple Draw. Even if it's small, I'm looking forward to it.

Wow this thread hasn't been updated in almost a month!

Not home poker really, but am traveling out to Vegas with some of the home game regulars for the WSOP. Unfortunately my ass is stuck at the airport as my flight is delayed so I figured I could post a small update.

I'll be out there for a full week from today through the 20th with plans on playing the NLHE event on the 18 and possibly the O8 event on the 16th if I can have a good/breakeven couple of days at the beginning of my trip. Other than that I'll be bouncing between some of the mixed games, the 2/5 holdem games and some Omaha games as well. Hopefully I can catch the SS rungoot and take it with me.

On the home game front we've upped our group membership on meetup to 136 players. I need to work on getting some new people out to some games. My plan is to offer a few tournament and smaller stakes games throughout the summer to attract newer players. I've also had a new group logo made and am trying to use it to design another set of custom CPC chips. However, a car engine of mine blew up last week so the chip purchase might be put on hold for a while until I can get some more funds and I know for sure what the damage is (still being determined). Although if I make a big score in Vegas then game on, but as the possibility of that is uber slim...

That's all for now.

Go go go, bring home that sweet WSOP money!

TR is mandatory, I haven't read a good one of those in quite a while.

X post from PCF Friday. I'm in Chicago spending the day with my kid and am happy about my decision. I'll post some pictures and other stuff later when I have more time.

I'm on the tail end of my 10th losing session in a row (the only winning one I had was the first one) and have officially pulled out of the wsop event tomorrow. I also moved my flight home from Monday to tomorrow.

Honestly, I'm still playing my A game out here despite everything. I've tried a nice variety of games and stakes from NLHE, O8, OE, PLO, and Mixed Games from cash to tournaments and my luck has been the same in each. The tables I've been playing at are super soft, with one exception (I got up from it immediately upon it becoming bad) and I've felt like the best player at each.

I'm just tired of it all and want to spend father's day at home instead of pissing away another $1,500. This was hardly the trip I imagined, more like my worst nightmare, but what do you do. Thankfully enough locals are out that I've had some nice dinners and drinks with them to help pass some of the time in between.

I'm currently at an Omaha 8 game where the average age is 65 and having the best time of the week right now.

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out the way you'd hoped. I get tilted when I have one bad session at the local room and have to leave early, let alone several days of runbad in Vegas. Sounds like you made a +LifeEV decision there, so good on you for that.

At last night's game, several regs were talking about a possible trip for next year's WSOP. The tentative plan is Colossus + cash play. I'd love to also do the $1K NLHE (Event 29), but if the schedule is like this year there's no way I could stay in LV that long. We'll see if this actually comes to fruition.

On a related note Breich is 13 in chips going into day 2 of the OE tournament. Hopefully he can go farther than his recent 16 place finish in the horse event. Rungoot being sent his direction.

The last circuit event I went to, I ran into a similar situation. I went up with the intention of playing two tournaments plus cash. I got knocked out of the Six Max NLHE with A/K v A/7 AIPF when he flopped tripped 7s and then ran horribly in cash over multiple seasons. So I packed up and went home rather than staying for the OMaha tournament (my primary reason for going up).

It's hard to make those decisions at times, but it feels good after the fact when you do.

Yay for being able to spend Father's Day with the family, though.

Hosting an OFC tournament tonight. Currently have 9 players signed up for the event. Should be interesting as I've never played OFC in tournament form.

How did it go, jz? I was hoping to make it out there, but had a family emergency come up this week and have been out of town.

Sorry to hear. It went really well, no major issues, just some minor things along the way with some theoretical discussions about changes for a future tournament. Tournament lasted about 5 hours with two guys left chopping up 1st as they each only had about 20 points left. Everyone else either played cash OFC or just watched the tournament hands as you can follow along with everything.

We had 2 new people out for the tournament that night and I think everyone had a really great time. Several of the players commented that they would definitely play it again as it was fun although some wanted to do a OFC Pineapple tournament next.

What was interesting as a player was how fast things could change more so than a normal poker tournament. When we lost our first person we were playing 3 handed at the 3rd level at 300/point (15k starting) and I was sitting with over 30k. We combined to two tables of 4 and the other stacks at the table had 1.8k, 6k and 20k so I had a huge lead. The blinds went up to 500/pt and I was busted 3 hands later as I fouled twice and then got scooped by everyone + each person had 6 points in royalties. 60 points gone in 3 hands. The guy that had 3 points ended up having over 25k at the end of those 3 hands.

I'm glad to see at least some traffic in here. I've personally been bad about checking in and reading stuff, likely because I stopped checking it on my phone as much.

My games have slowed down (averaging about one a month), but thankfully my wife's schedule has changed opening up the possibility of playing in the floating game PokERstyle co-hosts. It's a bit of a drive, but it's nice to play in a game I'm not hosting (and doesn't have a rake).

It looks like a group of 10 of us are going to do a 6 tournament series to send a couple of us out to Vegas next year for a 1500 and a 1000 bracelet event. I'm working to firm up who's playing right now so we can start in October. If I can take down either of them, it'll take some of the expense out of my planned trip out there next year.

I remain committed to making it out to one of jz's (and abby99's) games by the end of the calendar year now that I'm back in Chi. This will happen.