Just a month after my biggest session (Parts I and II), I won my biggest pot in a live game. I’ll get to that. The session started out pretty badly. I lost three hands with A♠K♠, though one of them my ace high was good and I got bluffed out. I don’t remember how I lost the end of my first buyin, but my second one was on a bad beat. I’m not complaining about the beat, and they don’t really bother me anymore, but I feel like describing the hand. I had Q9o in the big blind and called a minimum raise from a nut. The flop was 982, and I bet. He called. The turn was a 4, I bet more, and he called. The river was a 5, and I pushed. I guess a decent amount of money did get in after I was beat, but he called $50 on the turn with a gutshot, and showed me A3. I just mucked my cards and rebought.

In the game for $600, I had just gotten back above water, barely, when I got AKo, UTG. I raised, got a caller, and then a maniac reraised. I was sure he had a pair, but not aces or kings. The two other people in the pot both had under $200, so I just put them both all in, and they both called. They had TT and QQ, and we saw a flop of 9JK to give them four outs between them. AK hadn’t been holding up for me today, though, so I wasn’t at all surprised to see the T on the river steal the $450 pot from me. I was surprised, however, to see how little I reacted to it. I’ve seen it so many times now, I seemed to be able to just let it go.

I don’t really remember how it happened, but I managed to build my last $200 buyin up to $1200. There weren’t any massive pots in there, just a bunch of decent $100 or $200 pots. I then proceeded to lose it all back down to $200, in similar fashion. Raising with good cards and missing, a bad beat, and one bad play, and I was back down $400. This bad beat did get to me a little bit, because the money got in before I was beat, and I made a good, tough call. I had AJ, and raised preflop. The flop was 89J, and I bet $40 when it was checked to me. Someone checkraised all in for $150 more or so, and after thinking about it for a while, I called. He showed Q7s, for just a gutshot and overcard. Running spades gave him the pot, with the J♠ on the river to rub it in my face and give me trips. That one got to me a little bit, and I lost another $40 or so playing badly because of it. A little later, I saw a flop in a raised pot with ATs from the big blind. The flop was AA3, and I checked to trap. The problem was when the raiser bet, I knew I was beat, but just couldn’t get away from it. I called $60 on the flop, we checked the Q on the turn, and I called $60 on the river, to see his AK. I’m just glad I read him for the AK and didn’t push at it harder. In fact, I didn’t bet at all. I just don’t know why I couldn’t fold. Maybe some day, I’ll be able to lay that down.

Anyway, I ended up back down to $200 at some point, and then built back up to $365 when the big pot happened. I was in late position, and called a raise to $20 with A♥J♥. 5 players saw the flop of T♥7♥3♣. The maniac in the big blind (same guy with QQ from an earlier hand) bet $40, and a calling station called. The preflop raiser pushed for $165. The maniac had me covered, and the calling station had $70 behind. I was getting just over 2:1 on the call, and not expecting the maniac to reraise or bet the turn, so with two cards to come it was a good call with the flush draw. I also thought my ace was good if I hit it, so it was an even easier call. As it turned out, the maniac just called, and the calling station called all-in for her last $70, so it was a $165 call at a $705 pot. Easily a correct call, there. The 5♥ on the turn gave me the nuts, and I pushed all-in when the maniac checked. He called for my last $180, and the river was an offsuit 8, which didn’t pair the board or put a possible straight flush out there. I had the nuts, on the river, in a $1065 pot. The maniac showed just a K♥. I assume he had at least a pair on the flop, so something like K7o. He called on the turn with the flush draw in the hopes that I had a lower flush. The calling station had 88 for a rivered set. The preflop raiser showed QQ.

I played for a few more hours, and left the table with $1199, for a nice $599 profit. Twice during the night I turned $200 into $1200. I just wish I hadn’t played all the hands in between. 🙂 My past four trips to the casino have been profitable ones. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that those happen to be the only four times I’ve been there with my hammer.

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Ever had a team lose all three starting outfielders to injury the same day?

It could possibly have just happened to the Mets today. Cameron and Beltran collided in the outfield, and didn’t catch the ball that eventually led to the gamewinning run for the Padres. They both came out of the game. An inning later, Floyd was hit in the knee with a 91mph fastball. He stayed in the game, but probably only because the Mets had no outfielders to replace him with. He’s having it xrayed.

There’s video of the collision linked off of this article. And pictures here.

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I don’t really have much poker content to talk about. I’ve been playing online at Eurobet and Superior (for ECD comp), and I’ve been swinging up and down, but with a generally upward progression. I played live last night for the first time in a few weeks (my parents were here, no time for casino), and made $100 in a pretty uneventful $200NL game. Have I mentioned I hate JJ? Especially when the big blind has the monster 64o.

Anyway, poker has been pretty good lately, but nothing terribly significant to write about. I’m really just posting this because the damn bad beat hand history has been the newest post here for far too long now.

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Yeah, yeah. It’s a hand history. (I’m geek_and_pro, cause I hit enter before I realized the name was too long and I can’t change it. It’s my new account for rakeback at Eurobet.)

I especially like the chat.

***** Hand History for Game 2463531267 *****
$100 NL Texas Hold’em – Tuesday, August 02, 00:14:28 EDT 2005
Table Table 37011 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: MNShamrock ( $99.28 )
Seat 2: StickmanAA ( $73.05 )
Seat 3: NE_Blizard ( $214.85 )
Seat 5: poker_hammer ( $63.70 )
Seat 4: geek_and_pro ( $107.40 )
Seat 6: budliteman83 ( $41.54 )
budliteman83 posts small blind [$0.50].
MNShamrock posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to geek_and_pro [ Kh Kd ]
StickmanAA folds.
NE_Blizard calls [$1].
geek_and_pro raises [$4].
poker_hammer raises [$20].
budliteman83 folds.
NE_Blizard: forget
MNShamrock folds.
NE_Blizard folds.
geek_and_pro: got aces?
geek_and_pro is all-In [$103.40]
NE_Blizard: no
StickmanAA: cal
StickmanAA: call
geek_and_pro: i have kings
NE_Blizard: nh
StickmanAA: ok
poker_hammer: i dont i have 9’s but here we go
poker_hammer is all-In [$43.70]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 2h, 2c ]
NE_Blizard: rutroh
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
poker_hammer shows [ 9h, 9s ] a full house, Nines full of twos.
geek_and_pro shows [ Kh, Kd ] two pairs, kings and twos.
geek_and_pro wins $43.70 from side pot #1 with two pairs, kings and twos.
poker_hammer wins $127.90 from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of twos.

Is poker_hammer one of us? And if so, I want my money back. 🙂

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I don’t know how long this has been up there, but about.com’s Slang for Poker Hands page lists 72 (though not specifically offsuit) as The Hammer.

It even links to an article from February that explains it, and links to Grubby.

And damn you, Iggy, for posting that picture of the Red’s jersey. It’s really making me want to buy this.

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I was checking out the MLB scoreboard on CBS Sportsline, and saw “Reyes scored on balk” as the most recent play in the Mets game. My first thought was, “again?” I knew I’d seen him do that at least a couple of times already this season. A quick google search confirmed: 6/21 and 7/8.

As it turns out, the balk ruling was overturned. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250720121

Jose Reyes doubled in a run in the second with a liner down the left-field line, and New York appeared to have scored a second run on a balk call by home plate umpire Chuck Meriwether with Reyes on third.

But Padres manager Bruce Bochy protested and Meriwether conferred with third base umpire Tim Timmons and reversed it.

Bochy told Meriwether that Williams stepped off the pitching rubber and threw home because Reyes made a move toward the plate. Bochy said he asked the Meriwether to check with Timmons, and Timmons said Williams did.

“Reyes looked like he was going,” Williams said.

If there had been a balk, I’d think three runs scored on balks in a season would have to be the record. Reyes’ current two very well might be. If anyone can help me find out the answer, please let me know.

Anyway, the Mets actually look somewhat decent lately, splitting a series with Atlanta and now taking the first two against the West’s first place Padres. They’re two games over .500, and pulled to 5.5 games back in the East. I shouldn’t post this. Every time I do, they go on a losing streak.

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That’s what I threw tonight, in a league I don’t even bowl in. I was a sub for someone else. My last ball in my last game was a nearly perfect shot. It left a solid nine pin. Honestly, I’m not too upset about that. I know I’ll throw a 300 someday. I get a 299 ring for what I did tonight. I also get a wooden bowling pin with my name and “299” on it in the display case at the bowling alley. I’m more annoyed at the 9th frame of the third game – a seven pin, I should have picked up, and would have given me 40 clean frames for the night.

This is certainly my highest four game series, and I beat my previous high game of 278.

Combined with my poker over the weekend, I’ve been having a pretty good week.

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When I left off, I was sitting with $260 or so in front of me. My memory on some of the other notable hands I played is a bit fuzzy, and the order in which they happened is just about completely lost. That’s what happens when I stay up all night playing, don’t take notes, and don’t write about it until a few days later. I’ll do my best. What I do know is I was folding a lot, and whenever I was in a pot it was usually for a raise. In fact, the guy in the 8 seat said at one point, “Don’t you ever limp?!” Next time I did, I made sure to point it out to him.

I had QQ in middle position, and came in for my standard raise to $20. This number increased as my stack did. My standard raise at the end of the night (or in the morning, I suppose) was $25. I got too many callers to be happy, but it was a nice pot. I flopped the nuts, Q9x, with two clubs. There were lots of draws out there, so I just put in a nice big bet and took it down. Then I folded for a while longer, my stack over $100 bigger.

I won two more nice pots with aces, both on scary flops that I bet out on. Normally, I wouldn’t really consider 855 a scary flop, but with 5 people calling my $20 raise, they could have had anything. My flop bet gave me that pot, as well as the the one where the flop was AQT. No one had KJ, thankfully. I had AK (offsuit and suited) a few times, and was hitting the flop pretty well with it, and taking pretty good pots. One hand with AK, I made it $20 preflop and got a call from the big blind (the same guy who asked if I ever limped). The flop was AQT, with two hearts. He checked, and I fired out $35. He quickly called, and I pretty much knew instantly I was beat. I put him on two pair. The turn was the 7 of hearts, and he bet out $35. I thought about it for a while, and mucked. Pretty much the only hand he could have that I should be calling there with was QT, as the pot was giving me good enough odds to beat that, even if he had a heart in his hand. If he had a flush, I was drawing dead, with no hearts in my hand. A straight and I was drawing to a split. AT or AQ, and I was drawing real thin. He said “nice laydown”, and I asked “AQ or AT?” He said QT, but of course, poker players don’t always tell the truth. Either way, I know I was beat and couldn’t call that bet.

Later, a pretty solid player with around $250 raised to $20 from early position. It was reraised to $50 directly to his left, by another decent player with around $300. I had them both covered pretty well. It folded around to me, and I looked down to find QQ. I called for time. I could tell from the initial raiser’s reaction that he had a pretty big pair. AA or KK? Possible, but I couldn’t know for sure. The reraiser I was sure had at least AK. If I just called, I had no idea where I was at, and couldn’t get away from it on a ragged flop, so I didn’t like that. If I raised, I’m pretty sure it would end up all-in against the reraiser, and I didn’t want to play a coinflip for $300. Plus, the initial raiser still could have had me beat. I decided to sit this one out, and folded the Hilton Sisters preflop. The rest of the action: initial raiser called, bet out on the ragged flop, and the reraiser folded. They had JJ and AK. Still, I feel just fine laying that down in that spot.

I was in late position with JJ, with an early position raise to $20 and a reraise to $40. I can’t tell you what about the situation was different, but this time I felt comfortable calling. The two raisers just didn’t seem that strong. The flop was KK8, and we all checked. The turn was a blank, and the reraiser bet $40. I was sure I had him beat, so I called. Unfortunately, the initial raiser reraised another $80, and we both folded. I wasn’t at all expecting that checkraise, and I think that was one of the few hands I didn’t play well over the night, and it cost me $80. I also think I might have had the best hand there, but I can’t be sure.

Several more hours of folding and tight play, and I had a very nice sized stack. It was probably around 9am now, and I made what I consider to be the only really close call of the night. When I got home, I had to run the numbers through pokenum at twodimes to see if I actually made good plays. As it turned out, I did. The action had slowed down a lot at this hour, and we had some new players who had come in early to register for the tournament. There were very few preflop raises, so I limped UTG with 33, hoping for a cheap flop. I got in pretty cheap. It folded to the small blind who made a minimum raise, the big blind called, and I did as well.

The flop was 234, with two spades. I was looking good. The small blind started counting out chips, rechecked his cards, and counted out some more. He bet $50, at the $30 pot. I knew right away he had A5, and had flopped a straight. I think everyone at the table knew. I was ready to fold my set faceup, but the big blind called. I didn’t know what he had, but figured at this point that I had to call, with all that money in the pot. The turn was an offsuit 6, so if he didn’t have a straight before, I was sure he had one now. He went all in for $95. I was again ready to fold, but the big blind called, so I did too. I made a mistake here: at this point, I was sure the big blind had a flush draw. I should have put him all in for his last $50 or so and at least get myself a sidepot if I missed my full house. The river was a nice looking 2, and I took down the whole $465 pot. The small blind had A5. The big blind had Q6s for a flush draw.

As I said, when I got home, I checked all the numbers, and I don’t feel like I played this hand wrong. On the flop, it was $50 to call. I was actually slightly favored of the three of us in the pot.

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1091365
pokenum -h 3h 3d – qs 6s – ah 5c — 2s 3c 4s
Holdem Hi: 903 enumerated boards containing 4s 2s 3c
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
3d 3h 320 35.44 577 63.90 6 0.66 0.357
Qs 6s 277 30.68 620 68.66 6 0.66 0.309
5c Ah 300 33.22 597 66.11 6 0.66 0.334

On the turn, I was getting $370:$95 on my call, or 3.9:1. I needed 3.67:1. It was a close call, but a good one. Had the big blind folded in either spot, I would have had to as well.

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1091374
pokenum -h 3h 3d – qs 6s – ah 5c — 2s 3c 4s 6h
Holdem Hi: 42 enumerated boards containing 4s 2s 3c 6h
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
3d 3h 9 21.43 31 73.81 2 4.76 0.230
Qs 6s 8 19.05 32 76.19 2 4.76 0.206
5c Ah 23 54.76 17 40.48 2 4.76 0.563

What I like best about this hand, besides the fact that I won a nice pot, was the thought that went into it, my reads on the players, and the fact that I knew it was a very close call when I did it. It feels really good to be thinking about my game at this level, and this is really the first time I can remember doing it.

The game was winding down, as the tournament was getting ready to start. We were playing our last hand, and I found AQo in the cutoff. I raised one limper to $25, and got called by him and the big blind. The flop looked nice, 9JQ, and I bet $50 when it checked to me. The big blind went all-in for $200 more. This same guy had called when I put him all in on a KQ3 flop with Q9 to my AK. I had never seen him get aggressive. I told him, “I think you’re on a draw,” and he responded, “I might be” in a way that made me think he wasn’t. I wish I could say what exactly made me think I was behind, but I eventually folded face up. He showed me his KT for a flopped straight, of course.

All in all, it was a nice ten and a half hour session. Losing a combined $165 on my first and last hands, I still finished up $950, my biggest win at this game so far. All it took was some tight, aggressive play, and a few decent laydowns. I have to keep playing this well. There’s nothing quite like walking away from a game with two racks of reds, and feeling like you actually earned it.

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I went up to Chumash Saturady night with a friend from the bowling alley. The plan was to stay there all night, and play in the Sunday morning tournament. It’s a $60 buyin, and you get a coupon for $20 in chips. The field is capped at 154 (we play 11 handed until a table or two breaks, as it’s a 14 table room), and it’s a $10k guarantee. So, since it’s essentially a $40 buyin, there’s an almost $4000 overlay. Plus, they pay 40 places out of the 154, and also have cash for the top 5 hands of the tournament. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s a good tournament to play in. Consequently, though it starts at 10, registration usually fills up before 8. That led to the decision to stay all night. It’s the only way I ever get to play in this tourney. Assuming my money lasted (is this post’s title a giveaway?).

In stark contrast to my last session at Chumash, which I conveniently didn’t blog about, this time I played well. This had a nice side effect that I actually made money, too. Whenever I go up there, I play the 2/5 NL, $200 max buyin game. I sometimes play a few hands of something else while waiting for a seat there, and this time it was $4/$8 limit HE. My first hand of that, before my chips had come, I raised with AQo, had a straight by the river, and was raking in chips before I actually had any of my own. After an orbit or two of missed flops and posted blinds, I was down $10, and UTG. I came SO close to straddling but decided against it. I looked down at the hammer, and as I wasn’t playing with bloggers, mucked it. The flop: 77x. The turn: 7. The river: does it matter? I woulda been up against pocket queens and given someone a nice bad beat story to tell had I followed through with the damn straddle. I think it would have even topped CJ’s hammer quads. He was UTG, but failed to straddle it. That was the last hand I’d play at 4/8, as my name got called for the no limit game.

My very first hand, I look at KK and an early position raiser to $15. I’ve only played with one player at the table before, so I really have no information on anything. I made it $40 to go, from my $200 buyin. There’s one caller behind, and the original raiser folds. At this point, I figure the other guy has to have at least an ace or a pair. I hated the A88 flop, and checked. He checked behind. The turn was a 9, and it went check-check, again. I probably should have put in a bet there. The river is a 10, and I check again. He comes out firing for $50. I’m pretty sure I’m beat, and I’m also sure that the river made his hand, and he doesn’t have an ace or an eight. The problem is I couldn’t figure out how the ten beat me, so I called. He flips up QJs, for a runner-runner straight, and I’m down $90 to start. I settled in for a long night.

The rebuy rules are a little strange at Chumash. You can only rebuy once you drop to $100 or below, and then only for exactly $100. At this point, I’m sitting with $110, and want to top off. A few hands go by, and I fold my big blind to action. $105. I have a hand worth seeing a flop with from the small blind, which would have let me rebuy had I missed, but someone raised preflop and I had to fold. $103. Still can’t rebuy. Then I got aces. A preflop raise, and a nice bet on the ragged flop, and I’m back up to $150 or so. Then I limped UTG with 66, called a raise to $20 from the big blind, and saw a flop of 776. He checked, I checked, and the other caller bet out $35. The big blind called. I decided to end it right there, and pushed in for almost $100 more, and they both went away. $260. No need to rebuy, and thankfully, no money lost because I wasn’t a full stack.

I can’t write any more tonight, but don’t want to wait to get this posted, so…
…to be continued…

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It figures. My first WPBT final table, and it’s a tournament with no payout. Not a problem, I feel great about the money we raised for a good cause. As I said below, see 2idiots.com for information on what this was all about.

I feel like I made only one real mistake in the tournament, and it worked out for me and I doubled up. I’ll get to that.

Not much interesting happened for me until near the end of the second level. I had won and lost a few small pots, and had 1355 in chips from the initial starting stack of 1500. There was an early position raise from Decker, and call by Derek, and I called on the button with 77. The flop was 567, Decker led out, and Derek called, so I pushed to bet out the straight or flush draw. Decker called with JJ, and I took down a nice pot. Derek said he folded his would be straight, with the 8 on the turn. Decker was crippled with only 225 in chips remaining. He doubled up the next hand when he got all in on a K44 flop with KJ vs A4. He hit running kings for quads. He’d go on to finish second.

In level 3, I raised with 99 from middle position, and called a small reraise from Spaceman. The flop was 67T, and we both checked. I put him on two big cards, and figured my nines were good. I called his reasonably sized bets on the turn and river, which were both blanks, and he showed AQ. In level 4, it folded to Spaceman on the button, and he raised to 400. I called with 66 from the big blind. The flop was AJ6, and I checked. He went all in, and I called. He had AK, and didn’t improve, and I crippled him by catching the antichrist against him. Strange. I won a huge pot against the guy who knew Charlie best by doing what his blog is named after.

In level 6, I won a nice pot when I made two pair with KT. Then I went card dead for a while, and was getting impatient. I made what I think is my only mistake of the tournament, in level 8. I had AJs in middle position and raised it up. There was a small reraise from the button, and it came back around to me. I knew I was beat, and he had a pair or had me outkicked. The problem was I was getting more than 4:1 on the call, so even outkicked, I had the right odds. That led to problem number two, which was if I called, I was pot committed. Looking back, I should have done a stop and go – called, and then pushed no matter what the flop. That would have been the right play, I think. Instead, I pushed, he called with AQ, and I sucked out with a jack on the flop and doubled up. As I said before, I really think this was my only misplay, and that includes the hand I busted on, which is coming up soon.

I got moved to another table right after that hand, and seated directly to my left was Wil. It also happens that I got K4o, the hand that knocked him out of two Vegas tournaments recently, that hand. I was two off the button, and raised two limpers (the eventual winner, SarahBellum, and Halverson) to 2000 (200/400 blinds). Everyone folded, though it took a long time for Chris to do so. I typed, “wil, this one’s for you” in the chat, and showed my hand. He responded, “man, I am so glad I folded!”

I made a few steals here and there, and busted a shortstack with AK, but pretty much folded my way to the final table. The very first hand of the final table, the shortstack gets all in against me when I have aces. They hold up and we’re down to 8. A few hands later, I had J9s in the big blind, and called a minimum raise from the button. The small blind called as well. The flop was KK5 with two of my suit, and I pushed in, for about twice the pot size. I don’t think this was a terrible play, and more often than not I think it’ll win it right there. If not, I’d usually have some outs for my flush. Of course, this time I was semibluffing into a made full house, as the small blind had 55. Oops. I had runner-runner straight flush outs, but missed, and I was done in 8th place.

All in all, it was a great tournament, for a great cause. Congrats to everyone who played, and SarahBellum for winning!

(Note: all hand details here come from PokerTracker. My memory is not that good.)

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