Viva Las Vegas Part 2

Ahh, feel much better today. Big bowl of chicken noodle soup laced with copious amounts of black pepper took the sore throat away and loosened up the sinuses!

I got over to the Rio at 9:30am, a full 90 minutes before start time. I wasn't nervous or anxious or anything, I was just ready to play some poker. Walked to the pit to see if I could get some hands of Ultimate Texas Hold'em in, but the table was full (freaking degens!) so I settled on buying a WSOP 50th water bottle, and a large Life Water to store in it.
Sat in front of the closed Brasilia doors until a friendly guy asked if he could join me. So we started to chat and he told me how he was a part-time nurse from Chicago, he flew in the day before and this was his first WSOP in a few years because he had been volunteering in Africa during the summer and while he didn't think he would enjoy it at first, he fell in love with it.
So yeah, didn't really have much a story to share with him on that front but he seemed nice enough and he told me he was a veteran as well. Eventually I wished him good luck as I headed off for a last second RR visit.

About 10:45am Brasilia's doors opened and in poured all those in the HORSE 1500 as well as I think a few other events. It was freezing.... Was about to find blue table 413 easy enough and sat at seat #5. I was the first to the table and was greeted by the dealer Joe, and older gentleman who also seemed very nice. Slowly but surely some of the other players showed up to the table. We had a short table for a LONG time after the event started, but here are the first 8 to sit.
Seat 1: The Swede. He would become my nemesis and friend by the end of the day, get into a little more detail later on
Seat 2: Rules and Table Boss. Did not take long for this guy to become the ire of the dealers and players at the table.
Seat 3: A guy who looked like the spitting image of Joe Maddon (manager of the baseball Chicago Cubs) Def more on this guy later.
Seat 4: Guy wearing a "Politically Incorrect" shirt. Not much else to say
Seat 5: Your hero, started out wearing headphones, ended up putting them away before the end of the first level.
Seat 6: Showed up mid-level 1, def from Texas
Seat 7: Showed up before level 1 to check in, then left until Level 3
Seat 8: Seat was empty until at some point in  Level 2, also filled by clearly a Texan guy

So that was the original 8, but we played with a table of 5 for a bit. Levels were 60 mins, break every 2 levels, and game would rotate every 8 hands played.
For some ungodly reason WSOP started the tournament off in Razz. I hadn't actually played a live hand of Razz in basically 10 years, and a solid 8 since I played in a cash online game. But Razz is easy, man. Straightforward you might even say. The cards showing tell you if you should bet, raise, or even call.
I won the first hand without even getting to 6th street. Just like 10 years ago, win the very first hand of the tournament.
Nothing else notable except, Joe our dealer, seemed easy to be confused and made a few mistakes. Seat 2, pointed every single one out, initiated a floor call, and was generally being a dick (although, he had valid reasons I guess). Dealer change mercifully came, and Joe moved on to the next table. Unfortunately, the next dealer was only marginally better. Joe had warned the next dealer about Seat 2 in a joking manner, but yeah she got the full brunt of Seat 2 as well.
The next notable hand for me came on the very first hand of Hold'em, pocket JJ UTG, and I raised. Picked up a caller in Seat 2. Flop was a big beautiful J on a J high flop. Bet the rest of the way, Seat 2 called all the way down and I showed my set for the win. Being up, fairly early was a good way to start.
My stack was up and down for most of the first few levels. The dealers didn't really get better until about the 4th one, which is when Seat 3 and Seat 6 showed up and we were a mostly full table except for the missing seat 7, and the unoccupied seat 8.
Eventually Seat 8 found a home and not too longer after that...someone with a ticket for our table Seat 1 showed up. This put the dealer into a panic as the Swede was there for a long time, did they read his ticket wrong? Turns out NOPE. Someone was given an occupied seat. Swede got to stay, lady with duplicate seat was taken away by floor to get a new seat.

Next notable hand I hand is where I won Razz with a 10-9. I guess its not THAT bad, but its still a 10-9.
At some point during level 3, seat 4, had gotten down low enough to be all-in. He wasn't playing great so it wasn't shocking, but he did win a few pots all-in to get him back up...for awhile and then he was busted, just as I was texting Liss "it takes real dedication to get knocked out this early".

This bust out would turn out to be huge for me during 4th level...as another strongly accented Texan man sat next to me and was very friendly with Seat 3. Seat 8 also knew him and was chatting him up. At some point, when he mentioned he  busted out of the deuce to seven tourney earlier today and said he wrote the book on it and he can't use his tricks on anyone anymore I found out that sitting next to me was none other than Larry Wright.

Honestly, I had never heard of him before this, but obviously I quick google searched his name (nailing the spelling of his last name by the way!) and was immediately like "oh shit". Then following this revelation, I learned Seat 3 was also none other than Barry Shulman.

Now HIM, I did know. But I guess I never saw him with a beard before (and he totally looks like Joe Maddon!). I put 2 and 2 together when he was mentioning his wife and son and the bracelets they won. I had been involved in a few pots with him and even sucked out in Stud Hi with 2 pair on the river...before I knew who he was. (This picture was taken at my table, table boss is to his left, "politically incorrect" still to his right).

Well anyway, Larry was a talkative guy and the table started waking up when he arrived. Not long after he joined, I got involved in a few stud 8 hands with him and he was getting in my head. Telling me what I had (was I really so fucking obvious or was it just stud? Probably Yes to both) and folding.
We got around to hold'em again and Larry did his thing UTG by raising. I look down to see KK and call. Larry says, and I quote (will never forget this as long as I live) "Quick call there huh?". I'm not the only caller, 2 more people follow suit.
Flop comes J high, 2 spades. Larry bets, I raise. Folds to Larry. Turns to me and says "did you just raise me?" In my bravest voice I could muster while trying not to give any info away, I said "yes sir I did". He calls. Turn is a blank, he checks, I bet, he calls. River is a K. He checks, I bet, he calls. He says "turn up your set" and I turn up the KK. Whole table is kinda shocked. Seat 2 says "well thats the set you thought he had, but not the cards you expected".
Im taking this as a win. I was pretty sure by the turn call he had AA, and I was checking the river until the K came. He told Barry he had AA and regretted not playing back to me on the Flop and Turn. Seat 2 again interjects and says "there's no way he was folding". I'm pretty sure that was NOT a compliment, but I just raked in the chips and thanked my lucky stars.

At some point they high carded to see who would get moved from our table, and the winner was the sleepy seat 7 who really hadn't done anything since he showed up. Eventually Seat 7 was replaced with an annoying NJ kid who was super negative, guess he had some beats before getting moved.

 So I'm slowly chipping up, but the table talk got really, uh, interesting? It turns out Larry, Seat 6, Seat 8, and even Seat 2 all live in Texas.
- Larry brought up "the killings on the Texas border the national media isn't talking about". When pressed on what he meant he would only say "cartel".
- The Texans, minus seat 2 discussed hunting various animals. Including, but not limited to, hunting animals from helicopters.
- Specifically the topic of Javelinas were brought up and discussed. Especially the fact you can hunt them in various parts of Texas without a permit because there are so many of them. (Sidenote, AZ has these as well in the Phoenix area). Somehow this lead to discussion of which animals the various Texans liked to eat, and finally to the discussion of Javelina blood tasting disgusting.
NJ dude had never heard of this animal and didn't think it was anything to be afraid of, so Larry and Seat 8 (with an assist from me!) tried to explain how ornery these things were and how they liked to ram you with their tusks. NJ was not impressed.
- At some point in time it was made evident that NJ didn't know who Larry or Barry were. Barry offered up a "Im in the business". NJ needed clarification that it meant poker. So for most of the day, until 15 mins of the last level, he had no idea who Barry was. When he found out, that he was the owner of Cardplayer magazine (in addition to his other accomplishments) he excitedly blurted out that he had won some tournament when he was a kid where Barry signed his one of his books, made it out to his name, and mailed it to him. Barry took it all in stride, the whole while looking like he had no idea what this kid was talking about.

Back to the poker, the next notable hand I had was in Stud Hi where I had the bring in showing a 2, and I had a 2 underneath. I called a completed bet from seat along with 2 others. 4th street was a 2, so I bet. Only Seat 2 called again. This happened again on 4th, 5th and 6th street. I hadn't paired up another card yet so my naked 3 of a kind was in danger. Then 7th street brought the 4th deuce. I bet, he called, and I turned up my Quad deuces. BIG fucking pot.Catapulted me up the stack count.
Fire alarms then went off, and...nobody moved or did anything. The floor was calling out information for another event while the fire alarms were going off, so I guess it was NOT an emergency. Not long after that, it was dinner break. I put my chip count into "My Stack" when I looked at the chip leader board, this is what I saw:

Holy shit, I was in 4th? I waited a bit and checked the PokerNews website chip count, and yup, there I was again in 4th.
My 75 mins of dinner included:
- Driving from the Rio to the Linq
- Walking from the farthest ass backwards part of the parking lot to In N Out to get a burger, fries, and drink
- Walking back to my car
- Driving back to the Rio and getting a semi-decent parking spot.
- Eating quickly in 15 minutes so I still had time to walk back to the table.

When we got back, there were 4 levels left. It didn't start off great, fell down to 23kish, then got back up to 33kish after the last break. That's when the wheels fell off... Deck went cold and all of my draws never materialized. Slowly was chipping down until I was hugging the 20k border. Between those last 4 levels, Larry got busted. Seat 2 was all-in but survived and started chipping up (with my help of course). NJ finally figured out how to play Razz and became super aggressive in all hands, but it also helped he was hitting as well.
Seat 8 busted, Seat 6 busted. Seat 8's replacement busted. Seat 4's replacement busted. Im watching the clock slowly move and my chip stack just getting eviscerated.

We get down to under 20ish minutes remaining and I made the dumbest mistake I have ever made in a major poker tournament, and probably in my poker career...
I can tell you why I did what I did, but it doesn't excuse it. Game is Stud. Im showing an A with a 3, 7 underneath. Seat 8 is the bring in, Seat 1 limps, everyone folds to me. I decide Im going to raise and rep AA. I do, bring in folds, Seat 1 calls.
Over the course of 4th and 5th street... I forgot what game we were on. Seat 1 bet 4th and 5th and I just called, making a low on 5th. On 6th I got a second A. Seat 1 checks, I bet, he calls. 7th was a blank but Im just thinking how we are chopping this pot. He bets, I call confused why he would bet.
He flips up a straight, I flip up my low...dealer informs me this is Stud Hi. NJ and new seat 6 have a good old time laughing at my mistake. Seat 6 makes a comment about "how hes done that before but not this late in a tournament!"
Seat 1, The Swede who I clashed with in a bunch of hands and gotten the best of him in almost every hand was super apologetic to me, I told him straight up, nothing to be sorry about I made the mistake and I owned it.
It was very dumb. And I went from an easy Day 2 glide to a "hey I have 5k chips left with under 10 minutes to go."
At around 5 minutes remaining, floor announces 5 hands left. Dealer said he had already cut the deck so 5 hands starts after the current hand. I look down to see K(7,7). NJ is the bring in and wants to know if he can raise as the bring in because he hadnt seen anyone do this and wasnt sure it was allowed. Dealer says he can so he completes to 1k. folds around to me, I raise to 2k figuring just bust me right before the end so I dont have to do Day 2 for nothing (pretty dejected by this point). Surprisingly, NJ folds and says "I just wanted to see if it would work". OK.
Next hand I look down at AAx, The Swede completes, folds to me and I raise. Swede re-raises, I cap. At this point more than half my stack is in. So we get it all in on 4th street. I show my AA, he shows JJ and I proceed to nail A,10,10 for a boat. That puts me just over 16k. After a few antes, the end finally comes and I made Day 2 with stack of 16k.

I was elated to make Day 2, even though I was just trying to end it a few hands earlier. I bagged up and ended up walking out with The Swede and we chatted the whole way out the Rio. He again apologized for my dumb hand and I again said he did nothing wrong. We talked about where he was from (outside Stockholm) and I was from Phoenix. He said his friend moved to Phoenix to test car equipment that helps cars stay cool in extreme heat.
We parted ways and I headed back to the Linq tired, but in good spirits. I survived 12+ hours of poker which is a new personal best. I was in a tough spot because of the blinds and antes, but not out by any means.

Next day, i woke up later, got in a good Harrah's buffet for breakfast and headed over an hour before the noon start time to check out what was going on.I ended up railbirding Allen Cunningham in Day 3 of the Big Fofty

Also as I was walking in, The Swede found me again and we chatted for the better of the hour till the event started.
I learned all about how in Sweden the government controls the casinos. That there are "poker clubs" but the rules are strict about owning one, and if you own one you can't play in it. They are not allowed to sell drinks or food. And he said the worst part is, while the poker clubs are legal, the application process requires a sizable fee and that its well known that applications get rejected because the fee needs to be paid every time you apply.
I also found out about how most Swedish people go to Estonia for poker. And that a popular tournament game in Sweden is "5 Card Draw" but its waaaaay more complex.
My understanding based on his explanation is:
- There are 3 blinds
- If the blinds dont raise, nobody else can raise either
- If there is a check round, the cards get mucked and the hand is restarted.
I have no idea if any of that is accurate, and Im leaving off way more that he told me about the game but it sounds rough.

Anyway, its finally 15 of and we sit down at our Day 2 seats. The only name I kinda sorta recognized was Jimmy Fricke, who was on my immediate right. No idea what he looked like. Turns he is Gobboboy, which is why the dude looked familiar to me but I could not place him.

Not really much to tell about Day 2. They started us off in Razz again...which is not great since the ante was 200, bring in was 1k, limits were 2k/4k.

I ended up playing 3 hands in total, 2 in razz.

First hand I had 8 (3,5) and I bricked 4th and 5th
Second hand I was the bring in with a J but an A2 under. I was drawing to a good 8, and my opponent had 2 pair showing, but made a 6 on the river which crippled me down to 6ish k.
Game changed to Stud Hi, seat 4 was the bring in, seat 6 completed, I look down to see KK, but Gobbo also had a K showing before he folded. I decided to raise, seat 6 called.
We ended up getting me all in on 5th and I was ahead of his 7s. River for him was a J which gave him a straight and I was railed...22 mins in to Day 2 lol.

I had fun, would have loved to cash but luck was not with me for the last 3 rounds I played. Def gives me something to look forward to.

Thursday night we went to downtown Vegas which I had never been to before and collected a $1 chip from each casino for my collection.
Had the Flamingo buffet, then started the trek home. I got REALLY REALLY tired on the drive home but hung it out, not after being home for an hour my throat started hurting bad...the WSOP plague, begun it had!

Back to normal poker posts, thanks for reading

Viva Las Vegas Part 1

Finally getting around to the trip report, but a little piece of Vegas came with me. WSOP Plague (AKA Con Plague) has hit me pretty pretty hard. And if there is anything I can say positive about MTG, poker players are much more disgusting in general. Next time I am loading up on vitamins and Purell for sure.

Thanks to that big win at VQ the week before, I was on a freeroll. Decided to bring $2500 total, $1500 for event and $1k for cash to gamble with.
We left for Vegas early Monday AM, ended up getting in right around 1pm PDT and headed directly to the streaming final table of the $50k High Roller event. After the other events mini-break was over, we basically had the whole rail to ourselves. I didn't know any of the guys remaining, but Liss and her friend decided to root for Ben from the UK.
When the table took a break to chip up, I decided to head to registration to register for the $1500 HORSE event.
I was wearing a MTG shirt, so naturally while waiting in line, a guy in a Phillies hat decided to stop and chat about MTG cards he had as a kid and tell me he started playing in 96. This eventually turned into a chat about the Philly region and then about bad beat jackpots at the Parx casino. Then he started giving me quizzes (?) on what to do betting wise in various situations. I distracted him long apparently until 2 guys behind us struck up a convo with him. Eventually he left, and the guys behind me asked me if I knew him. Nodded in the negative and the one dude advises he is a "talker" and got sat at a table 6 times during a tournament over the span of 3 days with him and he would not stop talking. No idea why I needed to know this.
As we got closer to the front the dudes behind me and the old lady in front of me decided to bet on the over/under of 15 minutes until we reached the window. Lady wanted to know the stakes, and the dudes were content with something non-monetary but she wanted to bet a buy in to an event, the guys declined.
Also during this time, one of the dudes behind me telling a bad beat story stated this beautiful quote which I am forever going to use going forward: "You know how sometimes your reads are off, but sometimes they are dead on?"
Yes, yes I do.

After I registered we walked to the souvenir shop to get a t shirt when I realized the teller never gave my DL back. This sent me into stress mode trying to navigate a very long registration line again without pissing everyone off. Eventually one lady put her "closed" sign up and started doing some counting so I took the opportunity to ask if could locate my DL. She did, and crisis was averted.

Then we checked into our hotel and I decided to take the night to drink and gamble on some table games. The gambling didn't go so well and was down $500ish after just a few hours, but i did meet another MTG guy at the Paigow table and we chatted up about MTG for a bit. Turns out he plays standard and Commander and I correctly surmised he was from Minnesota (you'l NEVER guess how). After that it was time to get some sleep.

The next day, we decided to go see all the casinos on the strip we had never seen previously. Collected a bunch of $1 chips from various casinos and did somegambling, ending up the day at a net change of $0. Had a late (10pmish) burger at Wahlburgers, and said hello to their mother for them (joke!). We got back to the hotel and I stayed up just reading and watching some TV. I wanted to make sure I tired myself out completely so I could get a great night's sleep.

Slept ok, still woke up with the sunrise around 6am. Got some breakfast at Harrah's then headed over to the Rio about 9:30ish.

To be continued...

Twas the Night Before Vegas...

Been awhile, and we will get to that in just a moment, but wanted to give a rundown of where we are at right now.

As of now my plan is to arrive in Vegas around noonish tomorrow (6/3), head directly to the Rio, buy into Event #14, and check out the final table of the $50k Highroller event. That starts at noon, so most likely will miss a little bit of that.

I'm calm, and I had to compare this to my last foray into the WSOP, I would say I feel less confident than I did 10 years ago, this is due to a few reasons, including the fact that I was looking to plan a NL event and I had been playing mostly NL events (cash and tourneys) pretty much most days leading up the event. This time, I'm looking to play HORSE, which I've only been able to play limit hold'em (albeit a LOT of limit hold'em), and done bad at O8. I haven't played Stud Hi in many many years (probably 3-4 if I had to guess, maybe more?) and I have never played Stud8 or Razz live sans for a cash game in 09 that I don't really remember.
That being said, I don't feel nervous or anxious or, well, really much of anything. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely excited about this week, but I also don't have any reservations about thinking that making Day 2 will mean a lot to me, and then we will go from there and see what develops.

Alright, so lets now discuss the last 3 weeks....

Whence we left off, I had just booked a win playing O8. Tuesday I was back at VQ playing 3/6 Hold'em. We never really did get started and was down most of the night. Towards the end we got up 70ish bucks, only to give most of it back and end the night $3 up.
This is the last bit o' good news I will have poker wise for at least a week.

Went back the next night and couldn't do anything. I jumped between 3/6 and 4/8 games to find a groove and it wasn't there.Down $126

Went back again Thursday and ended up losing $115 in poker, thought it would be a bright idea to try and win it back at Blackjack....and I gave up $130 more.

Saturday came and it was back to Talking Stick for more O8. It went fine at first, but then, a few hours in the DOOM SWITCH was turned fully to on. Nothing I did would ever give me the nut high or nut low hand, and anytime I showed down a hand it was always second best.
Finished that session $300 down.
So, in the span of 5 days and 4 poker sessions I was down almost $700. That's a pretty big blow  to the $1000 up through the middle of May.

Back to VQ the following Monday for splash posts and again gave back an additional $106.
 To sum it up nicely, I was bummed. Really bummed. Not about losing, not about my self-critique on where I could be playing better, but really that I had been doing so well building up the bank for WSOP and I just completely curbed stopped in a little over a week.
I woke up on Tuesday in a funk, even Liss could sense it and talked to me about. Felt good just verbalizing my frustrations and she even convinced me to go back that night and give it another shot.
 This night was important, I got sat at a brand new 4/8 game, and not long into the game I got my AK, flopped K beat by a K6 that called a preflop raise plus bets all the way to the river with K6, for a rivered 2 pair.
I gave myself an internal pep talk saying this is not going to get out of control tonight, play better, play SMARTER.
Few hands later we wake up with 109dd in the hijack. The button straddled to 8 already and I had seen him blindly bump his straddles previously so I knew this was going to be at least a 3 bet hand. But if I wasn't going to make a stand with 2 suited connectors in LP, I didn't know when I ever would. Everything happened as expected, bunch of people called, button raised his straddle...and then the SB raised. Bunch of calls in front of me and I know the button straddler who loves action and big pots is going to bump it again, so I raise still on the believe that I want to play a big pot with multiple people holding suited connectors in LP. Button caps raises at 5 bets, everyone calls. So preflop, that's 5 people who put $20 in each.

FLOP: Qs-Js-8c

Well ok, we flopped the nuts on a very dangerous and drawy board. SB leads out, I raise, SB raises, I re-raise and cap betting at 4 bets a piece. 5 headed to the turn, another $80 in the pot.

Turn: 7d

Still got the nuts, SB again leads out, I again raise and show my 1 chip behind to the SB in the hopes she'll just raise and put me all in. Doesn't happen and 3 of us head to the river. Another $36 in the pot.

River:2h

We did it! We faded all the flush draws and AK/A10/K10/K9 draws! SB AGAIN leads out and I toss my 1 chip, other guy folds.I show the nuts, SB shows...... AsAc ???
I was expecting a set or 2 pair, did not expect the same color bullets.
SB gets mad that I cracked the AA (she gets $100) but every time I think about her line of play in the hand, none of it (outside pre-flop, and leading bet on the flop) makes any sense. Why lead every street when you are being raised/re-raised?
Anyway, that 1 hand starts the session off in pretty grand style and we end the night after 5 hours up $341.
I felt great, it essentially wiped away the O8 loss and some of the previous week's destruction.

I take a few days break, and on Saturday I head back again to Talking Stick to try my hand at O8. This session went much better than the DOOM SWITCH a week before, but it was pretty rocky the whole way through. I was up $70ish at one point but it was pretty much mostly down the rest of the session.
There was a weird spot in a hand where I feel like an opponent was upset I bet my hand wrong, but I'm not sure how looking back on what happened.

I had 8x7xXxXx on the button and it was unraised.

Flop comes: 9x6x5x

 Guy beats out, and old guy to his right just calls. I raise, they both call

Turn is a blank

 I bet, both call

River was a 3x so a low could be made but my straight is still nut hand

Guy leads out, old guy calls. Its at this point I think both of these guys are chasing with A2 for nut low, I still have the nut hand, so I raise. Both call. I flip up nut high...he flips up nut high...old guy flips up 24 for second nut low. So we both get quartered.
He says to me "I was hoping you had A2". I said I figure you both were going for low, not high. He says and kinda gives me a face "I wouldn't lead there with A2". I know nothing bout this dude, he came to the table recently and hadn't played any pots, so I had no idea what he would bet out on.
It made me rethink, should I have just called there? I keep coming up with I feel like I played the hand right, but I'm not so sure.
We end this at a loss of $62 but still feel pretty luck its only that amount.

Then finally last Tuesday more LHE at VQ. only to book another $59 loss. It would have been worse, but we won a raffle that gave us $100.

So that's all the poker I played between the last post and now....but I did something pretty great 2 days later!

Liss' friend who is tripping up to Vegas with us came in on Thursday. We decided to show her VQ and play a little BINGO. While waiting for BINGO to start, I wandered over to the "Big Texas Hold'em table" to see if I could play a few hands. It was full. Crap. Wandered over to BJ and took a seat in the middle. Looked like the shoe was almost down so I told the dealer I would wait. The shoe ended up taking a little longer than I thought it would, and I noticed back at the Hold'em table someone was just getting up, so I headed over quickly and grabbed the seat.
Second hand in, I get Jc10c.
Flop is AcAs3s
Checked my nothing hand
Turn is Kc, River is Qc.
What I saw "hey, I hit a straight, hopefully the dealer doesn't have a boat"
Dealer flips over her cards to show, I have no fucking clue because I then in that instant realized I had a Royal Flush. And I didnt freak out, but I did say "Oh my god...I have the royal" which caused everyone to look at me. She turned the hands of the 2 people to my left up and then revealed my Jc10c for the Royal!

Took a bit, but the final total payout was $2,735. Just the kind of shot a bankroll needs right before the WSOP. So I'm freerolling this week, which to some extent, has made me feel less stressed because no matter what happens, I'll still have a bankroll over $5500 when I get home (this is my buyin and assuming I lose $1k in cash in Vegas).

So yup, some real shitty luck followed by some amazing luck. Lets hope that luck keeps on running through Event #14.

Thanks for reading!

 

"One Week" - Barenaked Ladies & Now For Something Completely different.

So we're changing things up a little bit. I decided to bore you less times a week, but now blog posts have MORE action packed reading (YMMV). You are welcome faceless Internet people!

So if I had not explained before, let me take a step back and give you some background.
This whole thing, all of the poker talk, the poker posts, the poker blogs have been leading to ONE thing.... I am playing in World Series of Poker Event #14 $1500 H.O.R.S.E.  on Wednesday June 5th.
This will be the first WSOP event I have played in exactly 10 years, to the month.
And for those who might be wondering "what is HORSE?" well it is:
Hold'em (limit)
Omaha Hi/Low
Razz
Stud
Stud Eight (Hi/Low)
This is a game I used to play A LOT online prior to Black Friday, and I played $6/$12 cash game HORSE at the Venetian my first trip to Vegas in 09. I liked it because you really have to know a mediocre level of strategy in EACH of the 5 types of poker to really be successful.

So that leads us back to Saturday May 4th. I went to Talking Stick, because I have been playing TONS of limit Hold'em but I haven't really played much Omaha Hi/Low in awhile (Razz is a fairly easy and straightforward game, plus no one offers it as a cash game, and both Studs are hard to find out here. It was abundant at Foxwoods).

I was going into this day planning on losing $100 more, so it was mainly a day to get back into the grove of reps  playing O8 again. I tried to keep notes as the beginning as you can see, but with 08 its just too much. Entire hands change based on a single card (even more so than Hold'em) so up and down is a constant issue with this game. ultimately i was down almost $100, got back up like $30 bucks, then ended up losing $151.
My major issues for this session was card selection, and folding when I know I have no good draws and I'm beat.
Disappointed, but not unexpected with my lack of O8 playing in many many years.

This was a disappointing night overall, even though I did walk away with $97 profit. It should have been $100+ more.

Notable hands:
Me: QQ
Raise pre-flop and get a ton of callers.
Flop is Qx-10x-Xx
Guy to my right bets out, I raise, 1 guy calls, the bettor calls. Turn is blank, River is blank, only guy who called me all the way was the guy to my right. I showed set of Queens, he mucked a set of 10s. (+$130)
16 minutes later...
Me: QQ
Before it gets to me, there is a raise and a re-raise, so I keep it going and re-raise again. Original raiser caps the betting
Flop: Qx-Xx-Xx
We did it again ya'll. Held through the turn and river to push us to up +$216 for the session almost 2 hours in.

Then began a looong slow sinking to only $50 up. Gradually that was replaced by a slow but steady climb back up.

Next big hand...
Raised with AJcc flopped an A, bet the whole way, river was a Jack to make 2 pair and take a decent sized pot. 11 minutes later, raise pre-flop with KK bet the whole way and it holds on showdown which gets us to the highest point up ($222) of the day around 8:30. At this point is almost 4 hours in, and I really should have walked, because I immediately got way too splashy and did a dumb thing like bet my AJ on the river when a third spade hit thinking Id scare someone who had a K in their hand but not a boat (KKx on flop) out of calling. Yeah, that didn't happen and I took a decent sized hit.
Finally left an hour later with only $97 to show for it.

The Thursday session was legit crazy. I was down $78 relatively early (mostly due to bad luck like this:
Me: AxQx
FLOP: Ax-Ax-Xx
 Guy first to act bets, I just call
Turn: Xx
Guy bets again. Pretty sure with this bet he also has an Ace, so I want to find out how good it is. I raise, he just calls. I'm fairly certain I'm ahead here.
River: 2x
There is no way I could know this a bad card for me. He checks, I bet again, he raises (but did it kinda shady when it looked like he just called but the stack he put out was bigger than my bet) so I know im only getting raised by a boat of some kind here, but I call it down anyway. He had A2 of course.
So that was the early hit.
BUT. This was a splash pot bonus night with the Dbacks game on, so I was able to scratch my way back into it.
The first good hand I had was with J9 and I flopped the nut straight. Held all the way to the river betting the whole way. That got me up to only $3 down.
The next hand I won was a splash pot. This is where they toss $50 in the pot and basically everyone limps in with any 2 cards to see who gets lucky. I had my always lucky hand 57. Flop netted me a 7, and I decide to call the flop bet because why the heck not. Turn was a 7. My A2 nemesis bet and I raised. He muttered how he knew I had a 7 but ended up calling me the whole way anyway. Made almost $100.
Later on had pocket 8s, flopped an 8. Raised the flop, bet the turn and got raised by a made straight. River paired the board so I raised after he bet and took it down for another $50ish bucks.
The next splash pot I had Q3o and ended up chopping it at the end with Q2o. good for another $60. It was on a downward spiral from there. Including a big loss when my turned 2 pair actually made some one's straight. But then good old AQ netted me another $80ish pot when I outkicked opponents A10. Left after 5 hours with a $146 profit.

And finally to last Saturday. We journeyed back to Talking Stick to play more Omaha Hi/Low. I was armed with the knowledge of my loss last week and I was determined to make much better hand selection this time.
We had some success early, then it started to tank a bit. I don't remember any specific winning hands until THE hand.




Our Hand: Jd-9d-9h-10x
Limped flop (as it usually is).
Flop: 9s-10d-Xx
Checks to me, I bet. 2 callers
Turn: Qd
I feel like Im still ok, but obviously very vulnerable to a KJ or even J8, both possible hands.
I bet, 2 callers.
Flop: Kd
Alright, so you all see what I have right? Well. I am 100% tunnel vision on my set of 9s getting flushed away. It checks to me and I check.
I announce my set of 9s, flip up my cards to ACTUALLY LOOK AT MY FREAKING cards, and say "oh I guess I have a King high straight flush". No low possibility so I scoop the pot and look like an idiot. 
The dealer when she leaves chuckling says "Now remember, always bet your straight flushes on the river".
Anyway, I was up at most $120, and when I got down to about $50 up, I wanted to leave to maintain a winning session and I did!

The overall winning week pushed out Net Winnings since Mid-April to $937. Thats almost 2/3rd of the way to the $1500 target I was aiming for with my WSOP buyin!

This week I will be playing: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all at VQ followed by another Saturday trip to Talking Stick for Omaha.

Thanks for reading!

This Is What A Poker Grind Truly Looks Like

Wow, what a fraking night.We signed up for both 4/8 and 3/6 because I just wanted to play and the 4/8 ended up firing first.

When I first started playing at the local casino last year, 4/8 is what I mostly played, and did pretty well at, until I went on a pretty sick losing streak. This includes one night dropping 600+ which I didn't really think was possible at low limits.I took a major hit in my bankroll and it slowed me down from playing poker for a bit.
My problem, as I have come to realize, is I was trying to play 4/8 LHE like they play 4/8 LHE at Foxwoods. At Foxwoods, its a step up from the wildly donktastic 2/5 "anything goes" game, but mostly now its just regular grinders. Its why I failed to beat that game too, I didn't recognize how important hand selection is, at that game.
4/8, as well as 5/10 & 6/12 here locally is basically Foxwoods 2/4 with more money. Its VERY aggressive, and if you git the right table on the right day, every hand on every street has capped betting and you really don't know what might win. I have heard people mention over and over they either "want to win big or lose big".
So my mistake, as was really evident now, is that even though I have a tighter hand selection than most of the people here, I was still playing too many hands, and in terrible position.
This also is a good time to bring in the topic of "table selection". Normally, say at a Foxwoods, you can change tables if the table style is not where you want to be at. VQ has anywhere between 1-4 tables going at a time so its not really always an option. When your choices are "play or not play", well you tend to want to play.
Which brings me to about 2 weeks ago. While waiting forever for a 3/6 game to fire, I jumped in a 4/8 game. The style of play was mostly tight/passive but there 1-2 people who were aggressive and raising. I ended up making 200+ before giving about half back. The lady to my left even commented how she wished could be as disciplined as me. I told her "losing a bunch tends to make you reassess your game".

So yesterday was a similar scenario. I threw my name up on both lists, 4/8 gets called and the table that sits is older so it seems like it will be an easy table to run over a bit.
(Looks at poker session chart) So yeah, about that. It was fine at first, the very first hand I had AJo in late position, EP raises and I call. We end up checking to the river and he shows AK. I got involved with the same guy not too much later and he beat me again. It was a fairly quick drop to the first rebuy. Within an hour, I needed to buy back in for $100, and it didnt get much better from there.
I took a big L from the crazy player that sat down. She was down a buyin already then switched seats. Then this hand happened:

Our Hand: AQo

Pre-flop action was a straddle, and 4 raises (20 bucks to see the flop)

FLOP: Qx-4-x-4x

Bet in front of me, CL calls, I raise, call and CL calls

TURN: Jx
Still feeling ok here. Checks to me, I lead out, call call

River: 8x
Checks to me and I just check. I show my hand first for Qs and 4s with A kicker, first guy folds and I think Im in the clear when CL turns over her hand late and shows 10-9 for the rivered straight.
This is the kind of poker you see at the crazy action 4/8 tables here. Why did she call 20 bucks in EP with 10-9? Why did she call 2 bets on the Flop with NO DRAW? Turn bet I cant fault her for calling, but still none of that playstyle makes sense and thats what happens all the time.

Not too much later, I get involved in another pot with her where I made 2 pair on the turn, another made 2 pair on the river, but CL made a set with my 2nd pair card. Down a buyin and a half after not even 90 minutes of play.
I end up buying in again for another $100 not too long after that.

I finally win my first hand when AQ flops a Q and holds up through the river for a smallish pot.
The first biggish pot I won not much later played out like this:

Our Hand: 8c-8s

Flop: 8h-6h-2d

Someone bets, 2 calls, and I raise. I hadn't really shown much aggression, strength our anything over the course of my stay so I really wanted this to look like a flush draw raise. 3 callers.

Turn: Ax

Checks to me, I bet, 1 caller

River: 2x

Checks to me again, I bet, get called, show my boat for a decent size win. That is the good thing about 4/8 is is that a mediocre 20-30ish pot at 3/6 turns into a 50ish+ pot at 4/8

Won 2 more smallish pots while draining the bankroll. Then I take another nice pot with 2 pair from Big Lick (6,9). Won a hand with KJ when I flopped a J. Another when my A8cc flopped an A and held up through the River.
Got scared off by a new aggressive guy while holding 10-10 on a J-9-8-x board and he ended up winning with high card A(AQ).
Next hand with the mighty 10-4 sooted I flopped a flop of 10-10-x and added more to my stack.

The last big hand of the night, I made a mistake and I'll walk you through it, but ended up being a HUGE pot for me.

Our Hand: As-4s

Raise pre-flop which we smooth call because we are the button

FLOP: 9c-2c-8s

Bet in front of us and 2 callers, and HERE is where I make my mistake. I think I have A2ss. So I'm calling here to catch an A/2 to see if I can win with 2 pair.

Turn: Xs

Well now I have to stay right? Theres a bunch in the pot and I have a pair of 2s with a nut flush draw.
Bet, call, and I call again.

River: Xs

And naturally I hit the A high flush. I remember there was a weird straight flush possibility but i was just going to smooth call a re-raise. Checks to me, I bet, get both callers. Win with my A high flush, to complete the trek from $193 down at one point to now $63 up.

Ended up giving some back before taking off at 10:30, but just winning something felt like a major accomplishment when I wasnt getting any cards and the rivers were not going my way.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Mini-Session

Didn't plan on it initially, but ended up the poker room Sunday afternoon for a few hours before GoT.

It was generally uneventful, I was up a tiny bit early and then the deck went cold after that. Later, I got up to over $50 down when I hit a miracle 1 outer (post hand, someone mentioned they tossed a 10). That was the only really interesting hand of the day.

Our Hand: 10s10c

FLOP: 3x-3x-5x

I check, then a bet and a call in front of me. Could the aggressor have a 3? Possibly, but im not folding 10s here in this spot.

TURN: 4x

 Not the greatest of turn cards, but I really dont think A-2 was leading the betting on the flop. I still Im either WAY ahead here or the aggressor has the 3 and I'm way behind.
Check, bet, call, call

Turn: 10d

And just like that, second nuts, and while Im sure no one thinks the 10 is a scare card or changed the outcome of the hand, I do think this has a very likely chance of being a check round if I dont act first. I could be wrong here too though. The aggressor has bet the whole way through, and the other caller has just smooth called the whole way. If he had the 3, he would have raised before now.
This was a pretty tough decision, and it possibly could have cost me an extra $12 or more dollars... but I lead out. Only thing raising me here is quads and a worse full house.
Both players end up calling. Aggressor doesnt show, other caller and same color AA for cracked Aces ($100 bonus). So at least we were both happy.
Behind the whole way and hit a 1 outer, sometimes the best advice is just "be lucky".
Left $50 down for the first losing session in the last 5.

Speaking of advice, if anyone reading has any questions about playing poker in a casino or any other questions you were curious about and never asked, let me know! I'll answer in my next blog posts.

What the heck is a Green Fish anyway? AND A Rollercoaster of a Night

Wow, my actual first poker post to my poker blog in almost 8 years. Never thought I'd be updating this thing again, and yet, here we are.

Before we get too far into the up and down session we had, I just wanted to take a few sentences to answer "Why is this called the Green Fish blog?".
Back before Black Friday (4/15/11) Online Poker was doing pretty ok for the most part, however, a necessity then and probably even more so now, were Online Poker Tools. Essentially a HUD, but for Full Tilt, Pokerstars, etc. If you watch online poker streamers today, you will undoubtedly see really fancy HUDs that they use.
The main reasons for these HUDs are pretty straightforward
They used data-mined Hand Histories from bunches and bunches of players across poker sites to come up with stats. These stats could tell you amazing things like "How many times does this player 3-bet preflop?" or "Whats the VPIP$ (Voluntarily Put Into Pot)for this player?"
You can see how useful this would be if you are in a NL cash game or a NL tournament against a player you don't know.

Poker Edge specifically (as Im sure other software does, but PR is the one I'm familiar with) would make things even easier. They came up with a group of icons to label each player with using common poker nomenclature. I'll let the PE website explain:
One very cute and useful feature of poker-edge is that it attaches an icon next to each player at your table. This tells you instantly what type of player you are playing with.
A tight-aggressive-aggressive (TAA) player is depicted as a shark (AA means aggressive preflop & aggressive postflop); a tight-passive-passive (TPP) player as a mouse; a loose-aggressive-aggressive (LAA), i.e. a maniac, as a Tasmanian devil, etc. 
Red fish, green fish and blue fish are various fish with different degrees of fishiness. Other player avatars are a telephone, a shark or an eagle.

Now, there are more colored "fishes"| today then there used to be, but when I used the software essentially a "Green Fish" was just a terrible player who spewed money. Pretty much me, especially when I started out playing and blogging. So, that's how Green Fish! was born.

Now that that's out of the way, I am super duper excited to show you this neat App I downloaded and used at tonight's game!
It's called "Poker Bankroll Tracker" and you are never going to believe what it does! But one of the neat features I discovered and will be definitely using going forward is the "Live Session" tab. Literally starts an open session as you are playing. You just provide some simple data (stakes, buy-in) and then throughout the session it charts it. At the end when you click "finish session" it gives you some pretty neat output. So without further ado, here's tonight's session and I will get into the nitty gritty of each peak and valley. Noting here that I tried to maintain an update of the session each time I either won or lost a hand at showdown. Hands were i limp/folded the flop I did not update each time. I still think this is an accurate representation of the night overall however.

So we got seated at a 3/6 LHE game at 5:16pm and I bought in for $100. As you can also see on this graph, I went on a heater almost immediately. Everything was drawing great and hands like AKo (i even raised by accident with this hand) flopped a K and held on to win.
So within the first hour, I'm up about 180.
Then you see the mountain starting to turn into a slow and downward slope... This is where I'm going to pick up the detail on tonight.

So as you can see, for a few hours we ended hanging around between $50 - $85 up. This period of time was basically playing a bunch of draws that didn't work out and then winning a few smallish pots here and there to keep me afloat.
About halfway into the session tonight, Seat 2 (we are Seat 8 for this part, until I move) left and was replaced by a guy I'll call "Tatted Texan". He bought in for more than $150 which at a 3/6 LHE table is a little excessive. I also caught him saying to his neighbors that he doesn't normally play limit, and that he is a NLHE cash guy.
This catches my ear because as someone who played a lot of NLHE cash previously, I know this means hes going to be in way too many hands because its just so easy to see a flop for $3.

TT doesn't disappoint and probably played at his first 10 hands in a row (probably more), but the difference here is he was winning them all mostly. He would either show down the best hand or bet everyone else off of the hand. He seemed like a cocky ahole, which the table up to that point had been pretty friendly and predictable. This makes my competitive juices kick in and try to outflop, outplay, and out last this dude. You can see that pretty clearly in that nice long red line from $50 up to $14 down.

I'm getting shellacked. None of my hands are hitting, and I'm calling with draws that are pretty low in terms of hitting.
This is when seat 7 decides to leave. I feel like I have to change up my juju so I take his seat as soon as he departs.
The new seat is a loud, annoying, probably drunk dude who wont SHUT UP and complaining about everything from the NBA playoff game on, to how slow the people providing chips are, to how slow the waitstaff is.
TT gets offended because he thinks this guy is talking under his breath about how TT is playing (I didnt hear anything, but no way was I getting involved in that mess) so he starts loudly saying his thoughts out loud...but Seat 8 seemed pretty oblivious of everything.
Anyway, not long after I switch seats, I wake up with JJ on the button. TT raises, a few people call, and I just smooth call.
Flop: J-9-x
Perfect flop, no real draws except weird straight draws, so im feeling ok here. TT bets out, 2 people call, and I call.
Turn: X
Another blank so I'm still feeling fine. TT leads out again, a few people call, and i decide to raise. Seat 9 calls and TT calls.
River: J
So yeah. Poker is real easy. No idea what TT puts me on, but he LEADS OUT the betting again. I again raise, and all other callers drop off except TT.
Flip up my quad Jacks for a monster pot PLUS the $50 bonus for making quads with a pocket pair.
See that reallllly big green line from $-14 to $+100? Yeah, that was the Quad Jacks.
TT says nice hand and we chat a little about the hand. He had KK.

Ended up taking a smaller pot not to much long after with 2 pair A9. And lose a flopped two pair (A5) to a K on the turn and Seat 1 holding AK.

The next biggish jump on the graph is a hand I absolutely played horribly from the turn on, and I really should be up another 150 or so.

The Diamondbacks game just ended so they announced over the speakers that their "Aces Cracked promo is back on". (Almost 24/7 if you have AA in either red or black and it gets beat by someone, you win $100). I look down to see AA but not the same color, so im kinda bummed.
Anyway, im in late position again and TT raises preflop. Since non-same color Aces are very vulnerable, I re-raise. When it gets back to him, TT re-raises again, and I cap the betting (3rd raise). We bring 2 callers along so its about $48 in the pot already.
Flop: A-K-x with the A and K being diamonds.
I like this flop, but knowing how unlucky I can be I do worry about gutshot straight draws plus the diamond draw.
TT is first to act and he bets, call, I raise, call, TT re-raises, fold, I cap, fold. TT calls and says "do you want to go all in cause I will"
I respond "maybe lets see what happens on the turn".
(Side note, in limit at VQ, if you are heads up on the river, you can keep re-raising each other as much as you would like, so technically we could do this).
Turn: x of diamonds 
TT bets, and this is where I fuck up. If this were a NL game, I would have shoved on the flop after he re-raises me. Thats a super easy decision. But here, with this guy who has been on fire and playing every hand for the most part, I totally could see him having jank cards but a flush.
So I just call.
TT then says "ok guess we aren't going all in then"
River: X (blank)
 The river card wasn't going to factor into the decision that was for sure. I was either beat with a flush, or I was crushing TT. There was no in-between on this hand.
TT leads out again. I, the immensely big ass chicken who has been hurt many times before, just call.
He flips over pocket Kings for a set of Kings, and I say "Trip Aces" and flip mine up.
He can't believe I got him again. Then the whole table groans, because if the turn or river had been the 4th King I would have 5k, TT would have won 2.5k and the table would have gotten a share of the bad beat jackpot.
Alas, I settle for being up over $200 again. The drunk annoying guy next to me was cheering me on for winning which pissed TT off so they had words until the drunk guy finally left and we all (including dealer) said thank you to TT for getting him to leave.

Nothing too much happened after that, I won another pot where I had AQ and people didnt believe on an AAx flop I had it.
TT turned out to be a pretty cool dude and told me he was from Fort Worth and he played $5/$10 NL usually at his local casino.
Me, knowing the area and that Texas doesn't have any casinos I know of asked if he played at the Winstar (Oklahoma). He looked shocked and said "yeah, but not many people out here know what that is. Its huge" I told him when I drove across country we made a pitstop there and it was huge and beautiful but I didnt get a chance to see the poker room. He said it was huge, and when I asked approx how many tables he said probably 100 (smaller than Foxwoods, but whatever).

Anyway, TT continued doing his thing and winning, by the time I left he was still up a good amount even after the 2 chunks I took out of him. And that was it. That's how this session was a profit of $210.
Again this proves if you are going to grind it out, you really do have to grind it out even if you get up a lot early and piss it away. Don't let it affect your play. I just need to freaking keep raising with the nuts so I can make a little more money.

Thanks for reading, until next time!