The last weekend of June, 2009

Me and Steve decided to make one more bandits run on the nearest casino before the month was over. We arrived there at about 5:30 am and go straight to the poker room. We ask for seats but only one was open, and Steve insisted I sit first. I go straight to the seat and muck my first hand. The very next hand I'm dealt K Q and call a small flop. K Q Flops, giving my the perfect hand. A older man decided that he just didn't like my flop at all and re-raises my value bet of $35 with a huge $200 raise, which I immediately fire back with a all in, an additional $250 on his huge raise. He thinks, but not long enough, and calls me. I, in a sick kind of way, just look at him in shock and disbelief and shake my head and turn over my flop 2 pair. He now sees his mistake and turn and river does not save him and he simply mucks his hand. Quick double up.

It was a long night and I didn't make much more in the way of crazy hands that night but I left +800 for that day, bringing my opening night to a huge plus draw. Me and Steve head to the hotel and check in and crash, a terrible and booming weekend came not far behind.

Day 2: Steve has a huge bad run and can't make it back up. I stay dead even and can't make any traction. It's been a very bad day 2 and we retire. We have to make a good day 3.

Day 3: Insanity. Steve is on a steady climb back to his beginning roll as I'm running so bad it's becoming a horrible joke. I had a dollar coin in my back right pocket that I lent to Steve the first day that he promptly gave back as it had brought him ZERO luck that day. While I'm not one to believe in luck, I'm also not one to argue against it either. I've seen my share of luck and bad draws in a place where I know what the odds are. While that coin was in my pocket I was literally hand-dead. A-Q would fall flat on it's face on every flop and nothing, not even the bad hands, connected. After 3 hours of this insanity I stood up. I had about 250 left on the table and Steve looked at me. I told him to stay there, I was going for a walk. I walked the casino, blew the last of my loose cash at the wheel of fortune slot, then walked to the farthest end and pulled the dollar coin out. I looked at the coin and gave it a feel, then with a flick threw it into the well that furthest seperated me from the poker room. Luck be damned, I didn't even like that coin.

I walked back to the poker room and sat down. Still hand dead. I finally lose the last 250 over the course of an hour. I rebuy for 500, knowing only this :"No matter how bad your luck may seem to be, one thing is for certain. Luck always changes."

I sat there for 30 minutes, tighter than an nun's ass, waiting for my turn. I pick up a few hands but nothing extreme, no double ups etc. Then it comes. Like a bolt of lightning, I strike black 5-5 in the hole. I call the blinds, hoping that this is my hand.

Now to Tarantino this bitch a little; This table was very interesting in a lot of ways. The first thing is that the table was very new. When we arrived, they formed this table because the waiting list had enough people to seat a new table outright. Me and Steve snapped up the only 2 open seats. On this table, we had several greys and a very interesting combo: Father and Son. The father was a wizened old man who played very very tight-aggressive. His son on the other hand was super young and tight-weak with a tendency to call aggressive plays with the second best hand. There are some killer stories from this combo that I'll get to later, but just be aware that there was a very unusual formula at work at this table.

So I limp speed limit; Son calls, which I have to assume in hindsight, caused Father to call. Flop comes 6 5 5. Now I've died and gone to heaven. Not only do I hit my pockets, I nut-em. Not the kind to be anxious, I wait my turn. Table checks and I check with them to the turn. BTW I'm out of position, so I have a lot of room to get mad sandwiched here. Something the nut hand just loves to see. Turn runs a six. The board now shows 6 5 5 6. Now I'm no longer golden.

I'm fucking double platinum. A round of checks run to me. I ask the dealer to size the pot. Dealer tells me that at least $50 is in the pot. Thats good news. I bet $5o. FOLD FOLD FOLD. CALL.

Yes, the Father, cigar chomping man of the hour that he is, calls my raise. The rest of the table runs away as we go to the river:

6

Now I'm truly in the lap of God as I have, with a long draw exception of 2 cards, made the best hand possible in a casino environment. Father bets, a value bet of $200 giving me the clear that he has hit his quad sixes. I look over at him and think, what the hell. I raise all in, hoping that if he does not have A-6 like I put him on, that he has big pocket pair, and that I can take all his money.

He looks confused now, but he doesn't take any time to call. He turns over his 6-8 off and waits for me to muck the losing hand, but what he doesn't expect is that I have just run into the best thing that's ever happened to me that weekend.

The table erupts. The whole scene is like something from the movie. Steve freaks out. Everyone in the immediate vacinity loses their shit.

I flip quad 5's, and by doing so, claim my right to a 12k jackpot.

Now the old mans face turns from a look of smug confidence to a look of sheer disbelief. I had slow rolled an entire table into a jackpot hand. No one put me on speed limit throughout the hand. Even Steve, my "Obi-Wan" of poker didn't understand how I could go all-in with someone who clearly nutted the six. I understand his reservation, he even told me that I could call his raise and have had some money left when the hand was over, while waiting for the jackpot payout, but I told him nay, If he didn't have the six, I was likely looking at taking all his money, something he quickly agreed to.

We had a good time at the table for the next 2 hours, everyone playing comfortably and no one losing anything. We patiently waited for the payout to arrive, everyone playing safe and having a little fun. The table was mad hot, so hot that everyone in the room was dying to get on it. We didn't care, we were bronze gods at that point, even me, who bought back in, was playing dead solid poker, my bad streak at a end.

I managed to make back some of my losses from the bad beat, most of it from the kid. One comment he made really got me going. He said "Man, look at him. He's so calm. You'd think he didn't even hit the jackpot... If it was me I'd be jumping around right now."

Thats what solid poker is all about kids. No matter what happens, you got to remain calm.

Calm like a bomb.

(To clarify, winstar's BB jackpot rule is that jackpot is AAAKK or better beaten. Both hole cards must play. the jackpot is split as follows 50-20-30, which means that the beaten gets 50% of the jackpot, the beater gets 20% and the rest of the table splits 30%.)

Day 3, the day in which we laugh our way to the bank

After a whirlwind day 2, Steve and I rest up until about 2:30 in the afternoon, and get ready to begin grinder 3. One of our main concerns was that we had hit our personal plataeus; In fact, I had hit his goal for the trip, while he had far exceeded his own expectations. With this in mind we begun day 3 in the mind that we had made our goals and that we shouldn't really push ourselves too far. We are just getting started and having two big days back to back was good enough.

However, it turned out that day 3 would settle our pacing problems by itself. Steve and I found ourselves on different tables again, for better or worse I'm not sure. This time I was on a table loaded with beginners and tournament players. This spelt both a drop dead easy day and a misfortune all in one. I had the wonderful fortune of always knowing exactly what my opponents had at any given time, given how predictible and readable tournament players are, and I also had the grave misfortune of playing the cheapest and tightest assholes in the poker realm.

This day, my play could not have been more on top. I was constantly on fire with snap all-in calls, check raise take downs, and other skill related wins. An example was my first take back hand, in which I caught aces with his pants down. On the button I had 2 4 off-suit and saw a under the gun raise of $10 for a total of $15. This excited a round of calls including myself, who couldn't turn down a button pot-odds hand with that many callers. I see the flop, 2 7 2. Paydirt. The blinds check, leaving UTG to fire a whopping $45 raise. The table folds fast and the action comes to me. Now is the time to act. I start with a double raise to make it $90 straight. Expecting a fold I'm pleasantly shocked to see a smooth call. Next card is also a blank. Now I believe he thought that I was dominated and fires a sucker bet of $100. In a already $200 pot, a $100 bet is a please call me bet. I return fire with a double raise again. He calls again, leaving about $130 left in his stack. Turn hits blank and no sooner does he see that he says the words that are magic to my ears, "All in." No sooner had he said it and begun to reach for his chips did I stand up and point right at him and yell "I call!!" I believe he looked confused now more than ever that I snap called him, as snap calls don't happen often there. He was unsure as to whether to show his hand or not when I made it easy for him and told him I had the set. He turned over aces and got up and walked away. I raked my pot and tipped the dealer, another one bites the dust.

The next hand found me on the button again, this time with one of my personal favorites, 6 9. A limp button lands me 6 9 Q on the flop. Now that I'm in business, it was time to see where my competition was. a round of checks comes until seat 7 got froggy and decided to make a stab at the pot with $25. I instantly raise her 3 times to $75. Call, she says. Now I know I got a Queen, possibly a ace behind it. I have to dodge a ace to the river. 7 comes on the turn. She checks, it's too late, I already got her cards. I check it too, hoping to miss the ace and take the pot. 8 comes on the river. She thinks for a moment, sighs, then goes all in. Another snap call. I turn over 69 and she just flips her A Q and mucks it. She mutters that there was a possible straight and I still called with "Only two pair", acting as if her bluff was any good. Too bad she gave away her position on the flop and the turn, making a all in call on the river a common sense move.

Day 3 was my best day play wise, although profit was totally in the shitter. The only action came from short stacks with big pocket pairs, and I usually lost around $100 feeding blinds before I caught one of these guys with their hands in the cookie jar. This means that my profits hovered around $150 per big hand, which meant I made up my time spent and could not make any traction. I played for about 4 hours before I got up with $100 in profit and called the trip done. Steve was not done however, and was actually down $500 for the day and was on his second $500. A few hours later he makes his hands and comes back up for a small profit. We decide we had enough poker for a few days and make our way out of there. We climb in the car and take off, laughing about how the weekend went.

Laughing all the way to the bank.

Session 2, Sunday June 16th, 6:30 pm

After a quick stop at the casino's steakhouse, we make our way back to the poker room to begin our second session. A whole different crowd seems to be in the room as we begin the grind all over again. I sit down at my first table. The action is pretty tight save for one or two players who seem to be making the big moves at all the right times.

I'm sitting pretty in seat 1, and the player in seat 2 seems to know half the players at my table. This works to my advantage since he gives me some background on who has been playing where, which allows me to guage my opponents mostly correctly. I make very few hands for a couple hours, my chips mostly staying in the parked position when my first hand comes. Aces in the hole, I make a $45 raise, which elicits a round of folds up to seat 9, who calls the raise. In the flop comes my ace, hopefully the case ace, as I'm hoping my opponent made a pair on big slick. Seat 9 is on the button and I haven't seen him play much save for one all in hand where he had what was basically third nut. Giving him a feel, I play it safe and check. A few seconds go by before he decides to make his move. He bets $90. Bingo baby. I Raise his $90 and make it $200 even. Now he's confused. He calls the check-raise. Turn comes a blank and the board doesn't pair, nuts. I hoped that he could make two pair or maybe turn a smaller boat. All the same, I check. Without taking any time, he reaches into his chips and bets $100. Another bet, another mistake. I raise again, $200. He's now starting to realize that he was beat all this time, and that he just lost $300. I don't know what was going through his mind at this point but I'm willing to bet he was looking for a redraw that would have killed him. Both the straight and the flush were busted so the only other thing he could be looking for was a board pair. He calls the second check-raise. At this point seat 2 is going bananas because he can't believe I just check-raised this man twice. At this point I'm a little confused as to why he would think that. The River comes and hits blank, giving me the nuts. I push my last $100 into the pot and wait to hear the inevitable call. he looks at the board, then he looks at me and he folds his hand. A little shocked, I push my aces to the dealer and rake in my pot. A good start to the second day. I cleared that table with $1300 making that sitting a $800 profit.

My second sitting was less exciting, I did however clear $1200 on that table, making my total for the day $1500. I technically sat a third time, but I did so out of boredom and did not profit or lose in that sitting, so it's more like I saw hands for 3 hours, but what I saw in those three hours would forever be etched in my mind.

It started when seat 1 made a flop bet of $50, uncharacteristic since he was very tight and did not play many hands at all. On the flop was 5 4 2, in that order. 3 players. Steve calls the bet, but seat 9 had none of it. Seat nine moves $150 into the pot. Seat 1, clearly frustrated, moves all in. Now this is textbook large pocket pair all in behavior. $800 of all in staring him down, Steve mills on the decision, honestly a decision that would be easy to make usually, but see, Steve had 5 3 off suit and he was considering the redraw.He needed either a A or a 6 to make a straight, possibly the nut straight or a chop straight. With how many preflop folds there were, the possibility of at least one ace coming was actually not bad. After a while, Steve lets out a " I call" not a moment goes by and seat 9 makes the same call. $1600 in the pot and now the cards run. Turn comes a king, followed by a jack. Steve and seat 9 were in the side pot, so they started first. Seat 9 turns over A 7, ace high. Pair of fives takes the sidepot. Steve celebrates, not having lost the entire pot he now turns to seat 1 who hasn't shown his hand yet. Confused, Steve asks him if he has a pair of kings? No? Jacks? Pocket pair? Seat one finally turns over 2 3 suited spades, third pair on the flop.

The table erupts. By this time the whole poker room is looking at us but we don't care. Everyone gets a little sick at what just happened. Personally my stomach knotted up a little. I haven't been more tense in my entire life. People were asking if we hit the jackpot, no one could understand what could make a whole table explode like that. Possibly the sickest call I've ever seen. There's not a lot that could have made that a less exciting hand. It actually worked to Steve's benefit that the runners were highball cards as they missed everyone completely.

But that wasn't the end. Hours go by and now it happens again. This time, Steve has 6 9 and the flop comes 7 8 J. A chinese man sitting in seat 3 moves all in on the flop, overbetting the pot and making a clear buyout. Steve considers the hand and thinks about it, counting his chips and considering his odds. After about 3 minutes, Steve looks over at the TV, which was showing the worlds 50 best upsets of all time. Someone kicks a goal right as he looks and he simply snaps his fingers and says, " I call ". Turn comes blank, and the river hits 5, the chinese man proudly turns over his set but it's too late. Steve shows the straight and takes the pot. By now it's 6 am and we needed to be asleep. We say our byes and get up. That was day 2.

What a day.

Last weekend

Steve and I decided to leave for the casino at around 2:00 am; About an half hour after we got off work. We went home, respectively, showered and changed then got our bags together and he met me at my house and we jumped in his car and took off. We got there around 5:30 am, and pretty much sat down immediately. There were two open tables and I let him get first option. We were split between two tables. Being my first time playing 2-5 seriously, I was a little apprehensive. I was in seat 5 and seat 4 was so deepstacked that I couldn't help but get nervous. Thankfully him being there saved me a lot of money on premium hands that didn't end up hitting anyway, so I was safe for the few hours before our table finally broke. Making no traction, and down about 50 bucks, we all moved to the other table where Steve was. This table was pretty crazy as well, 3 deep stacks, including Steve himself, and the previous seat 4 stack which moved from my last table to the exact same seat on this table.

Hours go by and it's now 8 am. I look down at JJ. Short stacked as I was, I put $50 in with my $200 remaining. Steve, next to me, puts $50 on top making it $100 straight. Shit, he's got a big pocket pair too. Probably aces. Seat 6, who had been loose all morning long, moves another $100 on top, putting me all in. This is going to get messy. I go all in with my jacks. Steve thinks for a moment and calls the big raise, trying not to let the pot get out of control. flop comes blank 3 J. I get up out of my seat and wait for them to finish going all in. Steve, seeing that I hit, makes the obvious call. Only one person can have jacks with that flop. Three way all in, Blank, 3 comes and rounds out the board. I show my boat while it's heads up for the sidepot. Aces versus Queens. A three way all in, Aces, Queens and Jacks, and Jacks took it. Steve was kind of amazed that I cracked his aces. I was happy to still be alive. I stack my chips and sit quietly.

We finally cashed at 12 noon the next day, I made $30 bucks in 7 hours, Steve on the other hand cashed that day with over $1400 in winnings. Sleep deprived and hungry, we head to the chilis to wash away all those hands and finally check in and sleep. Check in at 1:30pm, shower and lights out. We didn't wake up until 5:30 pm when Steve's phone went off.

Of course, now that we're awake we can't possibly go to sleep. We wash our faces and get ready for our second grinder. Little did we know session 2 was going to be much more interesting than we had hoped for.

Coming up later, Day 2, Sick sick sicker.

Here's one from last weekend : Aces not cracked

So I had been sitting across 2 tables for about 4 hours now. I started at one earlier and didn't make many hands, the ones that got made got so little action that I barely got my blinds back from the 2 hours I was there. I decided to move to another table, where the action was much looser, and players were changing at least 1 every 15 minutes. It was about 2 hours into playing that I started going on a little rush, aces, jacks, everything I saw hit. Thats when it came, black aces. I raised $15 only to be answered with a double to $30 from UTG raise. A little surprised, I called the raise, stupidly assuming that my villain had made a big hand as well. All other players duck the check/call raise and it's heads up to the flop. 3c 6s 9s. Min bet of $5 comes to me as I fire a $30 raise back. Without a moments hesitation, my villain raises all in, a whopping re-raise of $150.

 Now I had only 2 things going through my mind. Thats almost certainly a buyout attempt, or he's got kings or aces. I hesitate, then make the call. I don't show right away as he proudly turns over 3-6. I was dumbstuck. I was so dumbstruck that I almost didn't notice the next 2 spades run turn and river. I eyeball the board, 4 spades to a flush. My mind was a blur : Weren't both my aces black? I let out a little laugh as I turn over my nut flush, terribly breaking the heart of my dangerously unpredictable opponent. I raked in my pot and tip the dealer. The man goes on a mad tirade that would make even Helmuth blush. I just smiled and continued to stack my chips.

 There is justice in poker after all.

First Post

Hello all and welcome to my new blog. So many times I get done with a session at the tables and think, man, I wish there was a place to just jot down all the crazy things that just happened. Now there is. This is where I'll be detailing the big hands, and my own growth as a budding poker player.