The second season of Eastbound and Down starts in a month. In anticipation, here is a best of compilation of Season One. Please note this is not suitable for work...
Do yourself a favor and watch this starting Sept. 26. It is about a washed up big league pitcher who is forced to move back to his hometown and move in with his brother and his family. He has squandered all of his money and his only asset is his prized jet ski.
My golf game continues to be sucky. Play ok one day and shitty the next. Still have a few tournaments over the next 3 weeks or so but if nothing good happens that will likely be the end of my play for the year. Maybe hanging them up for a year and writing off this summer will recharge me for next year. Basically I have been playing competitive golf at a pretty high level for the last 20 yrs or so. Perhaps I just need a break from it all.
Poker is going well particularly live poker. The cash games in several of the nightly games I play have been VERY profitable over the last month or so and I am up over $3k in that stretch. This is a pretty big win rate for what are effectively $1/$2 games. The players are a mix of straight gamblers and good poker players and it is clearly a social night out for several of the guys. I, however, just keep playing my game and have been doing quite well. To be fair, I have run pretty well in this stretch including in some pretty big pots. In spite of that I would still be up significantly even without the run goods.
On-line has been a bit more difficult. After the WSOP a friend of mine and I decided to do a bankroll challenge through the end of the year. Basically I had withdrawn most of my bankroll prior to the Series and didn't really want to deposit $1k or whatever to start up my bankroll again. So my friend and I decided to challenge ourselves as follows. We bet each other $100 on who could grind a $100 starting bankroll the highest by year's end. The catch is we are only allowed to redeposit $100 once. If either of us lose the second $100 we lose the bet and the other person wins. So I started pretty small stakes and have grinded that $100 to over $900 in the last month. Not big stakes obviously but it has been a good challenge and forced me to look at my game a bit more at the lower levels and really try and build a bankroll the hard way...by playing a lot of hands and putting in the time. Also since the stakes are low I can try a few different lines in a hand and try and think about each hand and how I can maximize profits.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
More of my favorite You Tube Poker Player
This guy is so epic...here he gets into a "big" pot with Aces and goes apeshit over a $2 win. Can't tell if this guy is one long running joke or if he is really this goofy...
Stick with it until the AA hand...
I must agree that this is "massively golden"!!
This Thursday and Friday is the MD Mid-AM and I will be playing. I do not care for the golf course but have no choice in that. I have actually been starting to play pretty solid so hopefully I can improve on my 2nd place finish from last year.
I felt sorry for Dustin Johnson on Sunday but he really has to know the rule there. I would have thought it was not a bunker but if there is any doubt you have to find out from the walking official.
I wanted Rory McIlroy to win though. The kid is going to be a huge star (if he isn't already) and seems to have that cache about him that would be good for golf. He should win a handful of majors and were it not for some less than spectacular putting on Sunday he would have won that event going away.
Stick with it until the AA hand...
I must agree that this is "massively golden"!!
This Thursday and Friday is the MD Mid-AM and I will be playing. I do not care for the golf course but have no choice in that. I have actually been starting to play pretty solid so hopefully I can improve on my 2nd place finish from last year.
I felt sorry for Dustin Johnson on Sunday but he really has to know the rule there. I would have thought it was not a bunker but if there is any doubt you have to find out from the walking official.
I wanted Rory McIlroy to win though. The kid is going to be a huge star (if he isn't already) and seems to have that cache about him that would be good for golf. He should win a handful of majors and were it not for some less than spectacular putting on Sunday he would have won that event going away.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
What to do...Omaha Hi-Low hand from WSOP
Here is a hand that I played in a 20-40 Limit Omaha 8 game while at the Series. I was going through my phone and found it and thought it was interesting.
THe game features a 1/2 kill. For those that don't know what that is, it is a forced third "blind" that is 1.5 times the big blind (in this case 1.5 times the 20 big blind). When the kill is on all betting is increased by 1.5 times the normal amounts. Thus in a 20/40 game the betting effectively becomes 30 preflop and on the flop 60 on the turn and river. A kill pot is defined as the hand after a hand in which a player SCOOPS a pot in excess of a certain amount. In this game that amount was $200 and a player had scooped that pot. So he posted the kill and the blinds were still posted by the normal positions. Kill pots are generally fought for much harder since the extra money in the pot and the extra amounts of each bet.
BAck to the hand I am in MP and dealt Ah2d3h5c. There are a few limpers in front of me and I raise to 2 bets or $60 with 4 wheel cards and a suited A. The button who was an aggressive regular 3 bets to $90. We get 2 callers and see a flop with ~400 in the pot. Flop comes K93 with one heart. This is unlikely to have hit anyone. Checks to button who bets, the 2 others call and I call for one bet with a ton of back door hands (Pot ~520).
Turn is pretty perfect 4h. So now I have a monster; unbreakable nut low draw, nut flush draw, wheel draw...basically any heart, A, 2, 5 or 6 and I get a large portion of the pot if not all. The two EP appear disinterested and check to me. I bet $60 and button raises...all fold and I call...He is basically representing AA or a strong A2 type hand...perhaps A2Kx or like A23K type of hand.
(Pot ~760)
River is a very interesting on K (not a heart). I see him sort of eye roll when the K rolls over...very subtle but I am sure I saw it. I check and he INSTA bets.
So I am less concerned about him holding a K at this point since 2 are on the board (though he certainly could have one of the 2 remaining). If he had 2 small pair on the turn I'm not sure he bets the river when he gets counterfeited by the second K. If he has AA he probably still bets the river since my hand doesn't really look like it holds a K as the hand was played. Problem is all I have is bottom pair. Pot has a little over $800 and costs me $60 to call.
What do I do??
Cliff notes:
Hero MP A235 (2 hearts)
Villain BTN bets or raises every street
All lows, flushes and straight draws miss river and villain bets river anyway.
Hero has just bottom pair in a game where 2 pair is often no good (though technically I have 2 pair Kings and 3s)
In the end the pot is laying me like 14-1 to call. I can't imagine that he is bluffing less often than 1 time in 14 meaning that I am supposed to call. I end up calling expecting to see an AAxx hand. Instead I see AQ26 with Q6 of hearts. I read his hand before opening mine up and show. He then begins a bit of a tirade about how can you call with a pair of 3s, etc. etc. I mention that he built too big of a pot to fold. Plus the tell of the eye roll put one more check mark int he call column. Sure feels good to make hero calls and be right!!
THe game features a 1/2 kill. For those that don't know what that is, it is a forced third "blind" that is 1.5 times the big blind (in this case 1.5 times the 20 big blind). When the kill is on all betting is increased by 1.5 times the normal amounts. Thus in a 20/40 game the betting effectively becomes 30 preflop and on the flop 60 on the turn and river. A kill pot is defined as the hand after a hand in which a player SCOOPS a pot in excess of a certain amount. In this game that amount was $200 and a player had scooped that pot. So he posted the kill and the blinds were still posted by the normal positions. Kill pots are generally fought for much harder since the extra money in the pot and the extra amounts of each bet.
BAck to the hand I am in MP and dealt Ah2d3h5c. There are a few limpers in front of me and I raise to 2 bets or $60 with 4 wheel cards and a suited A. The button who was an aggressive regular 3 bets to $90. We get 2 callers and see a flop with ~400 in the pot. Flop comes K93 with one heart. This is unlikely to have hit anyone. Checks to button who bets, the 2 others call and I call for one bet with a ton of back door hands (Pot ~520).
Turn is pretty perfect 4h. So now I have a monster; unbreakable nut low draw, nut flush draw, wheel draw...basically any heart, A, 2, 5 or 6 and I get a large portion of the pot if not all. The two EP appear disinterested and check to me. I bet $60 and button raises...all fold and I call...He is basically representing AA or a strong A2 type hand...perhaps A2Kx or like A23K type of hand.
(Pot ~760)
River is a very interesting on K (not a heart). I see him sort of eye roll when the K rolls over...very subtle but I am sure I saw it. I check and he INSTA bets.
So I am less concerned about him holding a K at this point since 2 are on the board (though he certainly could have one of the 2 remaining). If he had 2 small pair on the turn I'm not sure he bets the river when he gets counterfeited by the second K. If he has AA he probably still bets the river since my hand doesn't really look like it holds a K as the hand was played. Problem is all I have is bottom pair. Pot has a little over $800 and costs me $60 to call.
What do I do??
Cliff notes:
Hero MP A235 (2 hearts)
Villain BTN bets or raises every street
All lows, flushes and straight draws miss river and villain bets river anyway.
Hero has just bottom pair in a game where 2 pair is often no good (though technically I have 2 pair Kings and 3s)
In the end the pot is laying me like 14-1 to call. I can't imagine that he is bluffing less often than 1 time in 14 meaning that I am supposed to call. I end up calling expecting to see an AAxx hand. Instead I see AQ26 with Q6 of hearts. I read his hand before opening mine up and show. He then begins a bit of a tirade about how can you call with a pair of 3s, etc. etc. I mention that he built too big of a pot to fold. Plus the tell of the eye roll put one more check mark int he call column. Sure feels good to make hero calls and be right!!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
First trip to Delaware Park
This past Sunday I made my first trip to DE Park Casino to play a bit of poker. My wife and I had taken our kids to Statue of Liberty and then she and the kids went on to Long Island while I headed south. I had heard a lot of good things about this new poker room so I figured I would check it out.
Basically on or about June 1 DE table games were added to the existing slots and horse race betting. A few casinos have added poker including DE Park and Harrington Park (closer to the beach). I arrived about 7 or so and found the poker room on the 2nd floor in the back. The room itself is fine. A little dark but spacious with big TVs and about 25-30 tables from what I could gather. On Sunday night there were not a ton of tables running. I got there to find 12 1-2 NLHE tables, 3 2-5 NLHE tables and 1 1-2 PLO tables. There were other very low stake Limit tables that I had no interest in obviously. But there was no 5-10 NLHE or any HORSE or Omaha Hi-Low running at all.
So I put my name on the lists for 2-5 and 1-2 PLO and found a seat in one of the 1-2 NLHE. I haven't played 1-2 in a casino since god knows when (other than when Steve Dannenmann and I play blind 1-2 for shitz and giggles at Borgata). The play was as bad as usual at this level but, of course I was coolered in 3 hands inside of the first 2 hours. The first hand I flopped a 8 hi flush holding 78spades only to see a shortish stack with only ~$120 had flopped a Q high flush. Little later I flopped a 9 high club flush holding 89clubs. I bet 25 into a 30ish pot and found 1 caller. Turn was another club and I check folded to a 50ish bet. Turns out I was lucky to see the turn club since the other dude had flopped a flush as well holding KJcc. The final cooler occurred when I opened KK to 11 and guy shoved 75. I called obv and he had AA and held.
In spite of all of these gross spots I was hanging around even for the session just due to the incompetency of these people and their clear discomfort playing with an aggressive player. I basically raised or reraised 75ish% of my buttons and forced them to play their hands out of position. Most times I was able to take down the pots on the flop with simple continuation betting. This is a common theme in low stakes live games with a lot of limping and calling and very little aggressive play. In these games, it is hugely +EV to play fast and loose particularly if you are a pretty good player post flop. These players essentially play their own cards and have very little concept of determining what hands their opponents may hold and even less clue as to how their table image affects how good players react to them.
In any event, they finally called my name for both the 2-5 and 1-2 PLO after about 2 hours or so but I had 2 good sized stacks on my right and both were relatively clueless. Also, I had pretty good control of the table so I figured I would just stay there since I was going to be leaving in an hour or so. Finally I won a big pot holding QTdd. Flop was 963 with 2 diamonds. The pot had been min-raised pre-flop and had gotten 5 players so there was $20 in the pot. The BB led for $15 and I called in middle position as did the player 2 to my left. A rather poor player on the button then min-raised to $30. This prompted the BB to now re-raise to $90 with only $50 or so more behind. The button had about $125 behind. So after a few minutes the play became rather clear. Both the BB and BTN were willing to put their stacks in the middle which would generate a pot of approx $350. I would need to put $140 in the pot to cover all of the players. I figure I need to win this hand about 1/3 of the time to make it a profitable play and figure I am more than than 33% to hit my diamond. My only real concern is that they are both holding a diamond (or perhaps 2 if button has like AJdd). But I think it is +EV to ship and do to see 66 and 93. Turns out I am not getting the right price against those exact hands but I bink a diamond on the turn and hold for a nice pot. Little later I pack it in for a pretty decent $325ish profit. Not a bad 4 hours.
Pros
1) It is closer to Baltimore than AC as I can get there in ~1hr 10 mins.
2) Play is as bad as any other poker room at the lower levels.
3) Room is comfortable and spacious.
Cons
1) Dealers are pretty rough still and the general service is mediocre.
2) Games are never going to be very big. I think they will rarely get 5-10 NLHE going and the thought of a 20-40 limit O8 or HORSE seems unrealistic.
3) The food choices and other extraneous stuff is lacking compared to an AC casino.
Bottom line is it will never be confused with the poker room at the Borgata or The Venetian but it will be fine for night trip up there. I do think that AC will suffer from these casinos opening in DE and PA. Ultimately it will probably shrink the poker rooms in AC with the likely exception of Borgata, Taj and maybe Showboat or Tropicana. Borgata will still rule tournament poker and higher end cash games but these additional casinos will mean they need to cater a bit more to the more casual players.
Basically on or about June 1 DE table games were added to the existing slots and horse race betting. A few casinos have added poker including DE Park and Harrington Park (closer to the beach). I arrived about 7 or so and found the poker room on the 2nd floor in the back. The room itself is fine. A little dark but spacious with big TVs and about 25-30 tables from what I could gather. On Sunday night there were not a ton of tables running. I got there to find 12 1-2 NLHE tables, 3 2-5 NLHE tables and 1 1-2 PLO tables. There were other very low stake Limit tables that I had no interest in obviously. But there was no 5-10 NLHE or any HORSE or Omaha Hi-Low running at all.
So I put my name on the lists for 2-5 and 1-2 PLO and found a seat in one of the 1-2 NLHE. I haven't played 1-2 in a casino since god knows when (other than when Steve Dannenmann and I play blind 1-2 for shitz and giggles at Borgata). The play was as bad as usual at this level but, of course I was coolered in 3 hands inside of the first 2 hours. The first hand I flopped a 8 hi flush holding 78spades only to see a shortish stack with only ~$120 had flopped a Q high flush. Little later I flopped a 9 high club flush holding 89clubs. I bet 25 into a 30ish pot and found 1 caller. Turn was another club and I check folded to a 50ish bet. Turns out I was lucky to see the turn club since the other dude had flopped a flush as well holding KJcc. The final cooler occurred when I opened KK to 11 and guy shoved 75. I called obv and he had AA and held.
In spite of all of these gross spots I was hanging around even for the session just due to the incompetency of these people and their clear discomfort playing with an aggressive player. I basically raised or reraised 75ish% of my buttons and forced them to play their hands out of position. Most times I was able to take down the pots on the flop with simple continuation betting. This is a common theme in low stakes live games with a lot of limping and calling and very little aggressive play. In these games, it is hugely +EV to play fast and loose particularly if you are a pretty good player post flop. These players essentially play their own cards and have very little concept of determining what hands their opponents may hold and even less clue as to how their table image affects how good players react to them.
In any event, they finally called my name for both the 2-5 and 1-2 PLO after about 2 hours or so but I had 2 good sized stacks on my right and both were relatively clueless. Also, I had pretty good control of the table so I figured I would just stay there since I was going to be leaving in an hour or so. Finally I won a big pot holding QTdd. Flop was 963 with 2 diamonds. The pot had been min-raised pre-flop and had gotten 5 players so there was $20 in the pot. The BB led for $15 and I called in middle position as did the player 2 to my left. A rather poor player on the button then min-raised to $30. This prompted the BB to now re-raise to $90 with only $50 or so more behind. The button had about $125 behind. So after a few minutes the play became rather clear. Both the BB and BTN were willing to put their stacks in the middle which would generate a pot of approx $350. I would need to put $140 in the pot to cover all of the players. I figure I need to win this hand about 1/3 of the time to make it a profitable play and figure I am more than than 33% to hit my diamond. My only real concern is that they are both holding a diamond (or perhaps 2 if button has like AJdd). But I think it is +EV to ship and do to see 66 and 93. Turns out I am not getting the right price against those exact hands but I bink a diamond on the turn and hold for a nice pot. Little later I pack it in for a pretty decent $325ish profit. Not a bad 4 hours.
Pros
1) It is closer to Baltimore than AC as I can get there in ~1hr 10 mins.
2) Play is as bad as any other poker room at the lower levels.
3) Room is comfortable and spacious.
Cons
1) Dealers are pretty rough still and the general service is mediocre.
2) Games are never going to be very big. I think they will rarely get 5-10 NLHE going and the thought of a 20-40 limit O8 or HORSE seems unrealistic.
3) The food choices and other extraneous stuff is lacking compared to an AC casino.
Bottom line is it will never be confused with the poker room at the Borgata or The Venetian but it will be fine for night trip up there. I do think that AC will suffer from these casinos opening in DE and PA. Ultimately it will probably shrink the poker rooms in AC with the likely exception of Borgata, Taj and maybe Showboat or Tropicana. Borgata will still rule tournament poker and higher end cash games but these additional casinos will mean they need to cater a bit more to the more casual players.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Why bother?
Trying to grind out by playing low stakes and stuff like this keeps on happening....
***** Hand History for Game 47754842434 ***** (Poker Stars)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 05, 04:32:06 ET 2010
Table Sargas II (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jack nichols ( 38.47 USD )
Seat 2: Micke Er ( $34.55 USD )
Seat 3: caruso58 ( $35.78 USD )
Seat 4: Johnny Doe I ( $40.69 USD )
Seat 5: bwslim69 ( $68.43 USD )
Seat 6: 4iro ( $46.93 USD )
4iro posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
jack nichols posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bwslim69 [ Ac As ]
Micke Er folds
caruso58 calls [$0.50 USD]
Johnny Doe I raises [$1.00 USD]
bwslim69 raises [$4.25 USD]
4iro folds
jack nichols folds
caruso58 raises [$10.00 USD]
Johnny Doe I calls [$13.25 USD]
bwslim69 raises [$40.00 USD]
caruso58 calls [$26.25 USD]
Johnny Doe I calls [$26.34 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 7d, 9c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]
Johnny Doe I shows [Td, Ad ]
bwslim69 shows [Ac, As ]
caruso58 shows [Qh, Qs ]
Johnny Doe I wins $115.16 USD from main pot
***** Hand History for Game 47754842434 ***** (Poker Stars)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 05, 04:32:06 ET 2010
Table Sargas II (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jack nichols ( 38.47 USD )
Seat 2: Micke Er ( $34.55 USD )
Seat 3: caruso58 ( $35.78 USD )
Seat 4: Johnny Doe I ( $40.69 USD )
Seat 5: bwslim69 ( $68.43 USD )
Seat 6: 4iro ( $46.93 USD )
4iro posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
jack nichols posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bwslim69 [ Ac As ]
Micke Er folds
caruso58 calls [$0.50 USD]
Johnny Doe I raises [$1.00 USD]
bwslim69 raises [$4.25 USD]
4iro folds
jack nichols folds
caruso58 raises [$10.00 USD]
Johnny Doe I calls [$13.25 USD]
bwslim69 raises [$40.00 USD]
caruso58 calls [$26.25 USD]
Johnny Doe I calls [$26.34 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 7d, 9c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]
Johnny Doe I shows [Td, Ad ]
bwslim69 shows [Ac, As ]
caruso58 shows [Qh, Qs ]
Johnny Doe I wins $115.16 USD from main pot
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