What Should I Be Thinking About Here?

I shouldn’t have to ask questions like this by now, seems like I’ve been playing poker a long time.  So this is probably going to be embarrassing for me.  But I’m going to ask you folks for feedback.  Not just on the right play, but how I should have been thinking about this when I was faced with this particular decision.  It’s a math question, but I think it’s more than that.  I’ll get to it after the usual robvegaspoker digression.  And since I’m pressed for time as I’m starting to write this, I’m going to leave this post open-ended….I’m going to leave it for you to tell me how I should have proceeded before telling you the result in a couple of days.  And I want to thank my buddy Don who went over this hand with me and gave me some great insight.  I’m curious to see if I get the same input from you guys—because as we know in poker, it depends.

This happened Saturday at the local casino in Ventura I’ve been playing at a lot when I’m in L.A.  Now in the past, I’ve pretty much stuck with the 2/3 game they offer, max buy-in $300.  I always buy-in for the max, so it’s 100 big blinds.  Basically the same as buying in for $200 at a 1/2 game in Vegas, which is what I do there (if I play 1/3 in Vegas, I’d buy in for $300),

But as I’ve mentioned previously when talking about this room, they do have a 1/2 game too.  For some reason, the L.A. area rooms all have ridiculously low max buy-ins in their 1/2 games.  I dunno why, but I guess it’s what most of their players want.  At the Bike, I believe it’s a $40-$60 spread, so $60 is the most you can buy-in for.  I think Commerce it’s actually $40 max.  Buying in that short isn’t really poker, it’s more like a lottery.  I guess the hope is that you can build up your stack with a few double ups and then start playing poker—assuming your opponents also have enough chips to play poker with you.  BTW, at the Bike, they also have a 1/3 game, but the spread there is $80-$120.  So you can only buy in for 40 big blinds.  It’s not a great game.  I tried it once, a few years ago, and told that story here.

The 1/2 at the PC in Ventura is a bit better than the other 1/2 games around town.  The minimum buy-in is $50 and the max is $100.  So 50 big blinds.  Better than 30 of course, but hardly ideal.  I always intended to give this game a shot, just to see how it played, but I never have.  Well, except for one five-minute, somewhat accidental trial that I discussed here, On Saturday, I finally decided to give the game a try. Part of the reason was that, whenever I was down there playing 2/3, I’d frequently see some huge stacks in the game, obviously a lot bigger than the $100 max buy-in would suggest.  So I felt like it was worth investigating if the game could be profitable.

I got to the room early afternoon and didn’t have to wait long for a seat.  I bought in for $100.  There were a couple of big stacks (over $200) at my table but most were less than $100.  Note, one thing I disliked about the game—and knew I would—was that they insist on playing it with $1 chips, not $5 chips.  I have no idea why.  It’s the same at the Bike and Commerce.  Even that 1/3 game at the Bike uses $1 chips.  It is such a pain counting out large quantities of $1 chips, it just makes no sense, and slows down the game. Only thing I can figure is that makes the stacks look bigger and so people won’t quire realize how little money is in play.

Since I was buying in short stacked I had to adjust my game and I wasn’t sure the best way to go about it.  Of course I’ve played short stacks before, but never intentionally, so I wasn’t sure if I should just be ready to shove with anything at a moment’s notice or play even tighter to wait for that big hand to shove with.  Or should I just try to play as normal as possible until I found a situation I could exploit?

I decided to do a lot of observing and just see how it was going.  I didn’t get much to play for quite awhile.  It seemed like most players were limping in very light, but there wasn’t all that much raising….and then all of a sudden there’d be a big bet or even a shove.  Those under $50 stacks got shoved in fairly often but if it was more than that, that was rarely the case.  I was probably down to about $80 and starting to wonder if I should just play the stack down or top it off to keep it near $100.  I’m kind of thinking in this game it would make more sense to play it down, not keep adding to it since you couldn’t get it to a big stack anyway (except by winning your way there).

Then I got lucky and turned the nut flush against a guy who raised preflop with pocket 10’s.  I checked the turn hoping for a check-raise but he checked behind me.  Lucky for me, the river was a 10 (not of my flush suit) and he felt obligated to call my $35 river bet (that was about $12 less than his stack, and I thought he’d shove if he would call, but no, he just called).

That got me up to over $40 and I won another small pot and was at around $160 or so when “the” hand occurred.  By this time, all those short stacks had busted and rebought a time or two and it was looking like a real poker game could break out.  At least half the players had over $100 in front of them, I thought I should try to play my normal game.

On the button, I had pocket 9’s.  Someone raised to $4.  This was not that unusual a raise for this table, although it was more often between $6 to $12 to open.  A bunch of people called.  I suppose I could have three-bet there, but 3-betting 9’s (even after a ridiculously small opening raise) just wasn’t in my comfort zone.  I also didn’t want to have to face the possibility of a short stack shoving in response.

So six of us saw the flop, which was 9-8-6, rainbow.  And it checked to me.  I bet $20.  Two players called.  One was the middle-aged British lady next to me.  She had by far the biggest stack at the table, $300-$400.  Since I’d been there, well over an hour by now, she had almost never failed to limp in.  She would limp with any two cards, and call almost any reasonable preflop raise with any two cards. I recall her flopping two pair after she limped in with Queen-4 off from middle position, for example.  She was hitting almost everything, in fact.  It wasn’t her stellar play that had gotten her that big stack.  It was playing anything and getting lucky.  But she hadn’t raised very often preflop, and when she did, it was usually $4-$8.  There was no doubt in my mind she would have called the $4 from her small blind with any two cards, including Tarot cards.

The other caller was a short-stack, youngish guy with super cool looking sunglasses.  Looked more like a Vegas reg than an L.A. player.  He had been short most of the time, but up and down, and hadn’t played a lot of hands, had shoved a few times and taken it down that way.  But he seemed fairly tight, certainly not an aggro (though he looked like he could play an aggro on TV).  Neither of the players who had called me had been the preflop raiser.

The turn was a 10 of the fourth suit.  I really didn’t like that card, as it put all kinds of straights out there.  To my surprise, the British lady led out this time.  She put out $30.  Before I could start thinking about what an odd bet that was into a $80 pot, the short stack announced “all-in.”  Before I had a chance to ask for an exact count, the British Lady did.  And the dealer counted it, which was a mistake.  Only the player who has the action (in this case, yours truly) can ask for a count. But no harm, as I said, I was going to ask.

It was $72 or so.  I didn’t like that at all.  If it had been $59, would have been so much better.  If she had bet out $40 instead of $30, it would have been so much better.  You see, in those scenarios, the small blind wouldn’t be able to raise if I decided to just call.  But in the present case, she could raise and then I’d be playing for my entire stack. That was definitely a big factor in my thinking as I was tanking.

So what do I do there?  And perhaps more importantly, what should I be thinking about to help me decide?

Here’s what I was thinking.  I was absolutely convinced they both had straights.  With four to a straight out there and two players showing more interest than they had shown on the flop, that’s a logical conclusion.  In the woman’s case, this was reinforced by her play during the time I was there.  She would not have led out after checking the flop if she didn’t have a big hand, she just wouldn’t, she was not that type of player.  I think if the 10 gave her a second pair, she’d have checked and then decided what to do after the two of us had acted.  I gave a passing thought to her having a turned set of 10’s—she’d would have probably played it that way if that was the case—but I felt that was just unlikely, set-over-sets are not common.

The short-stack was maybe a bit harder to read.  But he didn’t have enough chips to be bluffing (or even semi-bluffing) there.  If he had something good on the flop, he’d have bet out, maybe shoved then.  So it was very likely he too had a straight.  I think he would have raised pre with pocket 10’s and maybe even bet out or shoved with the overpair on the turn.

I assumed I had zero fold equity.  The lady is not folding her straight.  And even if she did, the other guy is all-in with his straight.  Assuming they both had straights, that is.

So in my mind, it was a math question and I honestly was flummoxed because it was a three-way pot, and it mattered whether I called or raised.  Do I try to do the math for calling?  Or just assume that it will be all in because she’ll raise if I call?  Or just shove there and do the math that way, assuming she’ll call.  But what if I shove and she does fold?  Then my odds were off.

And if I decide to stay in the hand, what are the pros and cons of calling vs. shoving?  Like I said, in my mind, I had zero fold-equity (feel free to disagree).  So to me, the reason to shove there is, if a scare card for her hits the river, she might fold her straight on a paired board (tho for $60 more, maybe not).  Whereas if I don’t hit my boat, maybe I can fold on the river and save myself $60. Or maybe she doesn’t even bet the river if she has less than the nut straight. That’s not a lot of money, but it’s not insignificant in a game of this size.

So I’ll leave it there.  Was my thinking up to this point ok?  What else should I have been thinking about?  How should I be doing the math in my head?  Should I get a personal poker coach to help me play hands like these (and every other hand) better?  Please let me hear from you.

Now, since the lady in the story is British, and since I can’t think of any other appropriate illustrations, and since this post is rather short (actually, it somehow got a lot longer than I expected), I thought I’d throw in some pics of some really attractive looking British models.  I assure you that the lady in my story doesn’t actually resemble any of these ladies.

(Edited to add, conclusion has now been posted and can be found here).

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"This Must Be the Big Boy Table"

Ok, this is the report on the last of the three tournaments I played in during my most recent
Vegas trip.  For previous reports, see here and here. The one before this was on the Saturday after Christmas.  A few days before that, I heard from the Aria that they were having special “New Years” tournaments for the following weekend, the first Friday and Saturday of the New Year.  Instead of the usual $125 (with a $10K starting stack), the 1PM tournaments would be $240 with a $20K starting stack—although the blinds started at 50/100 instead of 25/50.  I thought that buy-in was in my range and figured that the prize pool would be bigger than normal, so why not play?  I had already had two long runs in my previous two tournament efforts, including a 5^th place finish the week before, so I figured maybe I might be on a bit of a roll, tournament wise.

It turned out the $240 tournaments were a big success—so much so that they decided to make the $240 buy-in permanent for Fridays and Saturdays, as I noted here.  Now, I took a pic of the tournament clock with the prize pool info, hopefully it is readable.  If not, for a prize pool of $25K and 134 players, they were paying 12 (seems like it should have been at least one more).  The top six would get at least $1K (kind of a “magic” figure in my mind) and 1^st was nearly $8,500.  But notice the top-heaviness of it (my constant gripe).  Almost a $3K difference between 1^st and 2^nd, and another $2K difference between 2^ndand 3^rd.  Just doesn’t seem right, does it?  

And then look at the min cash.  So, $442 doesn’t sound so bad at first….but remember the buy-in was $240, not $125.  So basically the last three spots get $200 profit—again, not even double the buy-in.  How can it be less than $480 for a tournament like this?  Again, even after taking home $700 the week before, when I looked at the prize pool, I wondered why I even play in tournaments.

The first table I was at, where I played most of the day, was full of—how should I put this?—non-millennials. All of us had been born in time to have witnessed the first moon landing.  There wasn’t a hoodie, a pair of sunglasses, or a set of ear buds at the table.  Anyway, there was one woman amongst us—of similar age—and at one point she made the observation that this was not the kid’s table or something like that. 

She busted out and was replaced by another person of similar age, but male, not female.  The other thing one might notice about the entire 10 players at this table was that none of us were exactly skinny.  You could say that no one at the table looked like they had skipped very many meals.

Anyway, at one point, a cute female dealer pushed in.  She was from a middle-eastern country originally and had a bit of an accent, which might help explain what she said when she got a good look at all of us.  And that was, “Oh, I guess this is the big boy table.”  We all laughed, but the implication was not lost on us.

One of the guys said, “What are you trying to say?  That we’re all fat?  Or that we’re all old?”  She hemmed and hawed a bit and the guy continued, “It’s ok….I guess we’re both.” She was embarrassed and tried to spin it as best she could.  “No, I just meant you were big poker players…you know, really good poker players.”  Yeah, sure.

Anyway, very first hand of the tournament I had Ace-King, raised to $250, had one caller.  The flop was Jack high and my c-bet of $300 took it down.

Two hands later I was dealt the dreaded pocket Kings.  I raised to $250 and had two callers.  The flop was Ace high, two diamonds, and I did have the King of diamonds.  I bet $500 and had one caller. He seemed pretty reluctant to call.  The turn was a blank, and not a diamond.  I bet $1,300.  Again he was very hesitant, but he called  Another blank on the river.  I bet $2,500 and after tanking, he said, “Well you probably got me…” and then called.  He showed Ace-4.  There was just nothing I could to do to get him off his crappy Ace, apparently.  I kept betting because he seemed so reluctant to call every time.  Ace-4, huh?  I would have played that hand the same way if I had Ace-King or Ace-Queen.  Oh well, it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve lost with pocket Kings.

A few hands later I had Ace-8 of diamonds in the big blind and called $250, it was four ways.  There was no betting on a blank flop and turn.  The river was an 8 so I bet $500 and no one called.

In late position, I raised to $550 after two limpers with Ace-9 off, there were two callers. The flop was King-Queen-5.  I c-bet $1K and had one caller—the guy who cracked my Kings earlier with Ace-4.  This time I knew better than to bet again.  We checked it down and he showed Queen-6 to take it. Yeesh.

I opened to $250 with pocket 10’s and had two callers.  The flop wasn’t bad—10-9-9.  I checked, as did everyone else.  The turn was a King.  A guy bet $500, I called, and then the last player made it $1,300.  The first guy folded. I just called. The river was a blank, and first to act, I bet $1800 and got a call, but he didn’t show when I flipped over my boat (so-to-speak).

I didn’t note a single hand for level 2, which got me to level 3 (100/200) with $17,500. In the big blind I had King-7 off. No raise, it was heads up.  Flop was Ace-King-7.  I called $400 and then another $400 on a blank turn.  No betting on the flop, he showed Ace-5.

I limped in from late position with 9-8 off, six of us saw the flop. It was Queen-Jack-6.There was no betting. I hit the gut-shot with a 10 and called $600, three of us saw a blank river. No betting there, my straight was good.

Hmm….Glad I wrote this up.  My logic there was that I had the bottom end of the straight and thus played it safe.  But I think that’s not getting enough value for my hand, right?  I need to learn to bet (or raise) a hand like that.  And then be able to let it go if I’m raised.

After a few limpers, I raised to $950 with Ace-Queen of diamonds, two called. I bet $1,500 on a flop of 5-4-4 and had one call.  The turn was another 5, and I check/folded.

I raised to $550 with pocket Queens, had two callers.  The flop was all low cards and I took the pot with a $1,200 c-bet.

Apparently I slept through level 4 and got to level 5 (50/200/400) with $16,400. Still card dead, I only noted one hand for this level.  I opened to $1K with Ace-Jack off and took it right there.

Level 6 (75/300/600), $15k. That’s an “M” of less than 10 if you’re scoring at home.  I opened to $1,600 with King-Queen off, two called.  The flop was low and I folded to a donk bet. 

I opened to $1,600 with Queen-10 and had to fold to a shove of $8k.

I can’t explain what happened next.  I can’t because my notes make no sense.  Somehow, I got a double up with pocket 7’s.  My notes would seem to indicate that I shoved with them after someone had raised to $1,600.  I honestly cannot believe I would have done that with pocket 7’s. Now, it’s entirely possible that with my stack down to probably less than $12K, I might have opened shoved.  My M there would have been around 7.5, and that’s definitely when I consider shoving if I can open a pot.  But just wouldn’t do that if someone had even limped in, let alone raised. Sorry my notes are so bad, it’s driving me crazy.  Anyway, apparently I was heads up against a guy with Ace-Queen.  The flop was all low and my 7’s held.

My notes say that I had $24,500 in chips after that hand, which is exactly what I started level 7 (100/400/800) with, so that must have been the last hand of the level.

First hand level 7, I made it $3K after one limper with Queen-Jack of spades, no call.  Later I opened to $2,100 with King-10 off from the button, no call.

Level 8 (100/600/1200) $25,200.  Opened to $3K with King-10 off, one caller.  Ace-Queen-2 flop, I c-bet $5K and took it.

The last hand of that level has big.  I opened to $3K with Ace-Queen of clubs.  A big stack re-popped to $10,100. Decision time.  I decided to make a stand there.  I wasn’t desperate yet, but I felt I was at a point where I’d be drip, drip, dripping away, a slow painful death if something big didn’t happen soon.  If I busted there, I’d still have an entire evening ahead of me to do something else.  In other words, busting there seemed like a better alternative than just playing another few hours and getting squat.  Of course, I had some fold equity too.  I had enough chips to put a ding in this guy’s stack, maybe he didn’t like his hand quite enough to call a four-bet shove with it.  So….after much deliberation, I went ahead and pushed it all-in.

He didn’t take long to call, and flipped over Ace-King of diamonds.  Oh well.  There was a Queen in the window but before I could enjoy it I saw the next card exposed was a King.  Ugh.  The turn was a brick. I started to rise from my chair, just a little.  But I was saved by a beautiful Queen on the river.  Two-outers are nice when you’re the one hitting them.

That took me to level 8 (200/800/1600) with just about $50K.

Late in the level I had another significant hand that could have made a huge impact for me.  I limped in from late position with King-Jack off after a few other limpers.  I didn’t want to make the pot too big with a hand like that by three-betting, Figured if no one raised I could see a flop with a decent pot and go from there.  It was 4 or 5 of us seeing a flop of King-Queen-6, two clubs.  It folded to me and I bet, I didn’t note what I bet, but it was probably about 2/3’s the pot.  Someone who had checked now shoved.  She had about $20K.  Another player who had checked asked for a count and though long and hard about what to do, but finally called.  I decided to shove thinking I could get the guy to fold and I’d take my chances with the short stacked woman.  But the guy called.  He had Ace-rag of clubs.  The lady had King-10.  I was ahead.  The turn was a blank, and then the lady kept saying, “A 10, I need a 10.”  So I said, “keep it red….kept it red.”  And the river was indeed red.  A red 10, however.

I lost the main pot, but my Kings held against the flush draw.  I really only lost a few thousand chips overall.  I was down to $44,600.  Turns out it was very good for me that the guy I was trying to get to fold called, otherwise I would have taken a much, much bigger hit.  Phew. But of course if that red card had been anything else, I would have gained a whole lot of chips there, and it would have made a huge difference in where I ended up in the tournament.

I raised to $4K after one limper with Ace-King, one caller.  Jack high flop and my c-bet took it.

Level 10 (300/1000/2000) $50,300.  The only hand I noted was raising to $5K with Ace-Jack, after one call, a guy three bet to $31K.  I folded as did the other guy—who showed Ace-Jack.

Level 11 (400/1500/3000) $38,200. Early in this level my table broke and we were down to 4 tables.  Then I open shoved with Ace-King.  A big stack called.  He had Ace-Queen.  A King on the turn locked it up for me. Much needed double up.  Got my stack to $72K.

In middle position, I raised to $5K with pocket 5’s, one caller (a big stack).  The flop was King-5-2.  Isn’t that what always happens when you raise with pocket 5’s?  It was rainbow so it I checked back.  The turn was a blank, he bet $7K.  I made it $20K and he folded.  I kept thinking after I should have just called or maybe made a smaller raise.  Oh well.

Level 12 (500/2000/4000) $86K.  I raised to $11K with pocket Queens, a short stack shoved.  He barely had more than me, obviously I called.  He showed Ace-7 off and the ladies held.

We moved down to two tables, I relocated again.  I was down to $99K.  Blinds and antes are killing me at this point.  After a limper, I raised to $15K with pocket 6’s. No call.

Level 13 (500/3000/6000) $110,500.  I had 10-7 of clubs in the big blind.  It folded to the small blind who completed.  I added $15K to my blind and he folded.  Next hand, in the small blind, I just completed with 5-2 of diamonds and had to fold to a shove from the big blind.

I opened to $16K with Queen-9 of hearts, no call.  In the small blind, it folded to me with Jack-9 of diamonds, I made it $20K and took it.

Level 14 (1000/4000/8000), $120K.  First hand I stole the blinds and antes raising to $17K with Ace-4 of clubs.

We were down to 13 players, the bubble.  Someone at the other had nixed any thought of paying the bubble.  We played hand-for-hand for awhile.  Honestly, I was shocked I had lasted this long, I never had a decent stack.  But now, yes, I sure wanted to take home some money, even the damn min-cash.

I had Jack-10 of hearts and someone limped in front of me.  As you can tell by how few hands I’ve noted in these levels, I was really card dead, and that looked like a monster.  I felt I was in position to make one more raise before I had to just go all-in anytime I wanted to play a pot.  So this was it.  I made it $28K.  It folded back to the limper, who shoved.  He had me covered.  He was an older gentleman and in the brief time I’d played with him, I hadn’t seen him do anything aggressive.  And the limp/re-raise is usually a sign of a monster.  Plus the bubble hadn’t broken.  If it was after the bubble or long before it, I think I would feel committed there and take my chances.  But right then and there, I decided to play it totally safe and I folded. But that was really a tough loss to my stack.

We played a few more hands and now for sure I only had one move left, the shove.  Before I got a chance to use it, someone busted at the other table.  I was in the money.

A hand or two later I had Queen-10 of hearts. I shoved.  The guy next to me shoved too, but I had him covered.  He had Ace-7 off, which held.  Now I had only $11K.  I was now under-the-gun and with the big blind at $8K, I’d be essentially all-in with whatever I had next hand.  So I felt pretty fortunate to get as good a hand as King-10 off then.  I shoved.  The same guy called me, this time he had Ace-King.  Ace-King held, and I was out in 12^th place.

So I did get the min-cash.  When they paid me off and suggested I might want to tip the dealers, I gave just $5 and explained that as long as the prize pools are so damn top heavy, I’m going to let the top finishers do the heavy lifting on the tipping.  The person who paid me agreed with me that the prize pools are too top heavy and said that the new TD there, Paul, was planning on adjusting that in the very near future.  I hope so.  I thought this pay scale was just ridiculous.

I felt good though about the result.  Last tournament, I’d been the chip leader, albeit briefly, at the final table and felt I should have finished higher.  This time, until we were down to 2 tables—and even then, really—I never felt good about cashing, I just never had anything but a short stack.  It was moral victory, to be sure.

But as I said in the post linked at the beginning of this, although this $240 tournament is now running regularly on Fridays and Saturdays, I might not ever play in it again because of the move to 11AM.  Maybe during WSOP time, if they have it, and if they add a dinner break.

And that’s the final story on my tournament runs in Vegas for my Christmas trip.   Three tournaments, lasting like 8-1/2 hours in each, and two cashes.  If only poker rooms would make less difficult to play tournaments.

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A Night of Poker And Dick Pics

I had one poker session with my pal Prudence and her boyfriend Aaron in December.  After a fine dinner at the Café Lux, we played at the Venetian and quickly got to the same table. 

As it happens, although she had a few adult beverages, Prudence was not at her most outrageous.  In fact, the next day, I recalled that she had made only one vagina-mentioning and I couldn’t even recall the context of it.  I can’t believe I didn’t make a note of it at the time.  Oh well, a Prudence vagina-mentioning lost for all time.

But Prudence was more concerned the male organ on this night.  Not sure how it came up (so-to-speak) but she started talking about her collection of dick pics, right there at the poker table.  This was a collection she’d accumulated before she met Aaron and was on the market.  Through a dating app or two (or three…), she was “meeting” guys and a surprising number of them thought it was perfectly ok to send pictures of their genitals to women they had never met at all and had merely exchanged a couple of texts back and forth with.

Prudence insisted that any time would send her an unsolicited dick pic, she instantly crossed him off her list of possible dates.  In fact, she said, she never responded any further to any guy who sent her one….with one exception.  Purely in the interest of research, she did ask one guy, “Does that ever work?”  The guy texted her back, “You’d be surprised.”

But I wasn’t surprised to hear that Prudence had been subjected to that.  I follow a number of single women on Twitter who complain of this problem.  All the ladies I know agree with Prudence—sending such a pic is grounds for immediate rejection.

Personally, I find it hard to believe guys can reach dating age and not have figured out that men and women are different.  Of course we know that, in this type of situation, if a woman sent a guy a picture of her boobs (or even a shot of her hoo-ha), the guy would likely be ecstatic.  Approximately 99.98% of all men would be eager to date the lady, and the other .02% are lying.  Well, except for the fact that I’ve heard that a lot of hookers use these apps to solicit business, and that guys have to be careful about that.

Really guys, do you actually think that the only difference between the sexes is what’s in those pics you want to send?  Men and women are just wired differently. I am reminded of the time a young man was working under my tutelage a few years back.  As an April Fool’s Day joke, he texted his girlfriend that he was breaking up with her.  It was just a joke.  She got really, really mad.  Could he have really not seen that coming?  I said to him, “Son, have you ever actually met a woman before?”

But I digress.  What about that guy who told Prudence, “You’d be surprised,” you ask?  Well to the extent that the guy was not just bullshitting her, it’s strictly a matter of numbers.  You know, you play enough poker, eventually you’re gonna hit your one-outer.

Prudence was talking about dick pics when a new dealer pushed in; he came in on the middle of the conversation.  He asked Prudence, “Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Prudence assured him that he had. 

Other than that, Prudence was not at her most Prudency.  She managed a few f-bombs, and raised her voice a bit, but only one dealer warned her to watch her language.

As for the poker, early on, I called $7 with Ace-Jack off in late position. It was four-ways.  The flop was all low spades (I didn’t have a spade) and no one bet.  The turn was a blank so when it folded to me, I bet $15 and got one caller.  A Jack hit the river and I bet $25.  I got a call, but he mucked when he saw my hand.

I completed with Ace-Queen in the small blind, again four of us saw the flop.  The flop was Ace-Ace-5.  I bet $5, then $10, then $15 and one player kept calling.  He had Ace-4 and my kicker was good. 

I called $7 from the small blind with Ace-9, it was four-ways.  The flop was Ace-9-7.  I checked.  Next player bet $10, the preflop raiser folded, but Prudence called.  And was really pissed when I check-raised to $40.  But she folded after the other guy did likewise.

I raised to $8 with pocket Aces and only Aaron called.  The flop was King-King-7 and I bet $12, he called.  There was no more betting and my Aces held.  Aaron didn’t show his hand.

Aaron opened to $8 and I called with 6-5 suited and we were heads up.  I flopped an open-ender, but there was no betting on the flop or the turn.  I never got my straight, but the river paired my 6.  He bet $15 and I called. He insta-mucked.  Heh heh.

I limped in with pocket 8’s.  A guy shoved his last $17.  Three players called before it got back to me so I called.  I whiffed the flop but no one bet.  The turn was an 8.  I bet $50 and everyone folded, except for the guy who was all-in.  He didn’t show when he saw my set of 8’s.

I called $8 with 8-7 of clubs.  There were a number of players behind me but no one else called and we were heads up.  I kind of liked the flop, which was 8-8-7. He bet $10 and I called.  The turn was a blank and he bet $25; again I just called.  The river was a blank and this time he checked.  I bet $50 and he called.  I showed my boat and he showed….the dreaded pocket Kings. Wow.  A hand I was in and someone had pocket Kings and the other player flopped a boat and it wasn’t me who had the pocket Kings?  Who’da thunk it?  It was a nice pot, and I must admit cracking someone else’s Kings like that made it all the more sweeter.

I raised to $8 with pocket Queens and four of us saw a low flop.  A $25 c-bet took it down.

Raised to $8 with 8-7 of clubs, there was one call.  The flop was King-high, no clubs.  I c-bet $12 and he called.  No betting on a blank turn.  There was an 8 on the river.  I didn’t bet it and he just mucked when he saw my mighty pair of 8’s.

And that was it.  I ended up with a $150 profit.  It was a fun night friends and poker.

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Do You Like To Gamble?

Do You Like To Gamble? 

Well another Super Bowl has come and gone and unfortunately, this year I didn’t make it to Vegas for it as I have the past three years.

But I was on Twitter all through the game and with everyone tweeting about it, I felt like I was watching the game with a crowd.

One thing that always interests me is all the prop bets that I see my friends make.  I was amused when I saw that a few folks were putting serious money on the over/under for how long it would take to finish the National Anthem. Do people really feel they have a knowledge edge about this that they can somehow turn into a +EV wager?  Apparently they do.

What about those of you who like to bet on the coin toss?  Do you feel you have an edge picking heads or tails? (It was tails this year, wasn’t it?). 

I’m not much of a sports bettor. but if I was, I think I would personally stick to the bets more directly related to the outcome of the game.  But maybe I’m just too boring.  When I see the bets that people talk about making, I can sort of imagine it would be fun to bet on something that might seem silly just to have some action on it.  I hope my pals don’t risk too much on bets like that—and certainly not the rent money. 

But is it really any different than poker?  I mean, who amongst us hasn’t made a call or an attempted a bluff with a kind of a “what the heck” attitude?  No matter how tight one plays, sooner or later you’re gonna make a play that you know is a real gamble (like betting on a coin flip) more than it is the +EV play).

People do like to gamble.  And the thing with those prop bets, if the game gets boring, you still have an interest in it because some of your prop bets are alive.  I get it.

People will bet on anything.  The Academy Awards are coming up, and people like to bet on that. I heard a rumor that there’s a big election coming in the US in November, and somebody might want to bet on that.  Vegas won’t take those kind of bets, but there’s always an online option for that.

For that matter, there’s an online option for those of you who can’t get to Vegas to bet the Super Bowl, or March Madness, or the World Series, etc.  And of course, there’s an online option for those of you who want to play poker, or slots, or other casino games too..  More can be discovered here. 

As for the actual game this year, I didn’t have a strong rooting interest myself.  I was happy with the result though, Peyton Manning is too good a player to have to retire with only one ring.  It is ironic, however, that he gets that second ring when he is about 1/10^ththe QB that he was in his prime.  But man, what a dominating defense Denver had.

So what about you folks?  Do you like to make prop bets?  Do you bet on the Academy Awards?  Anyone have any money on who are next President will be?  Let me hear from you, what appeals to you about bets like that?

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Remember When I Said I Hated That Promo? Well....

This is the story of my first poker session of my December Vegas trip

Allow me to set the scene.  Recall that my previous Vegas trip, for Halloween, had been a disaster, poker wise.  I came back to L.A. with my tail between my legs, licking my wounds, wondering if I should ever play poker again.

Soon after I was back in L.A., I did some deep self-introspection and determined that one of the reasons for my bad results was due to making bad decisions because of the promos at the room I was mostly playing. I wrote a post about that and you can read that post here in case you’ve forgotten it,  Then, right before I returned to Vegas, I did another post about how I was determined to, as much as possible, avoid rooms that offer freerolls, which you can find here.  The problem with rooms offering freerolls is that the amount of money taken out of any pot I won for the jackpot was basically a gift to the local grinders who intend to play in the freeroll.

Which basically meant, that I wouldn’t be playing at MGM very much, since MGM had those cash drawing promos that were affecting my decision-making, and also had a freeroll I would never play in. (I’m happy to report that MGM no longer has either the cash drawings or the freeroll)

So of course, my very first poker session of this December trip was at MGM.  But I had always planned that.  I have a lot of friends at MGM, and couldn’t completely abandon them, and honestly, I was anxious to see them again.  And then, as I was unpacking all my stuff in my hotel room, I realized it was Thursday, and that meant they’d also have the football promo going (oops).  So yeah, I figured I might as well get there for the NFL game.  I actually do like the football promo, and it doesn’t really affect my play.  I just have to work dinner around it.  This night that would not be a problem.  Because of travelling to town from L.A., I had a very late lunch, and a post-football game dinner would actually be perfect.  Plus, the cash drawing would be held at 8PM. I vowed to make it an early evening, so that if I played past 8 (as I likely would, since the football game would still be going on), I just wouldn’t fill out a ticket if I earned one.

But I was thinking to myself that it would be kind of embarrassing if I had to write a blog post about hitting the cash drawing promo after basically publically vowing to avoid it. 

Well….

I got to the room a bit after the game had started and got a seat immediately.  Early on, I had Ace-2 of spades in the big blind.  After a few limpers, the button raised to $8.  I called, assuming some of the limpers would also call.  But none of them did.  The flop had two spades on it, and I called $10.  I turned the flush.  I checked, and the button bet $20.  I check-raised to $50.  He folded and I showed my hand to get a drawing ticket.  Here we go again….

The most interesting hand of the evening occurred a dealer or two later.  With Jack-10 of spades, and after an under-the-gun limp, I was next to act.  I made it $10.  There was one caller.  The flop was 8-5-2, all spades.  I bet $20 and he called. 

The turn was the Jack of diamonds.  I bet $25.  And then my opponent made it $70.  Ugh.  We both had similar stacks (a bit under $200 when we started), and I had to think that if I called, I’d have to put the rest of my stack in on the river.  Did I want to do that?

Since I’d been there, this guy had played about as many hands as I had, maybe a few more.  I couldn’t remember him raising, although he did open pots.  The few times I saw his hand at showdown, he always had the goods. 

Based on our brief history, it was pretty hard to imagine that he was raising there without a flush—and I only had the fourth highest one.  I couldn’t see him doing that with just a pair.  Two pair seemed unlikely with the cards that were out there.  A set?  Did he a set of Jacks on the turn, or maybe he slow-played a small set on the flop?  Well, wouldn’t he have raised the flop with all those spades out there?  Since I had a Jack, a turned set of them seemed like a long shot.

There were two other things messing with my head.  One, the bad run I had had last trip.  I sure didn’t want to start this trip in the hole (for psychological reasons, more than anything else).  And two—I couldn’t help thinking if I felt there was a good chance he had a bigger flush—and I did—that I’d be continuing just to get another ticket and that would be one expensive drawing

ticket.

So I folded.  And then, to my displeasure, the guy didn’t show his hand for a ticket for his flush.

Damn.  Did that mean he didn’t have a flush after all?  I knew that he was aware of the promo.  I saw the previous dealer give him a ticket and explain how the drawings worked.  I told this story to a buddy later and he said you can’t read anything into the fact that he didn’t show.  He reminded me that we see people forget to show their hands to get tickets all the time.  It’s true.  I can even recall players say, a few hands later, “Oh damn, I forgot to show you my flush.”

Still, it was disconcerting.  And the, a bit later, at 7PM, he got up and cashed out to play in the tournament.  So maybe that was why he didn’t fill out a ticket, because he knew he wouldn’t be around for it?  Except, why did he fill out the earlier one?  Maybe he just decided to play in the tournament after filling out the first card?  I’ll never know.

I only noted two more hands.  One time I had King-Queen of spades in the big blind.  After a few limpers, someone made it $15.  I called and it was three of us seeing a flop which was Queen high.  I called a bet of $25 and it was heads up.  No more betting after an Ace hit the turn.  Turned out the raiser had pocket Jacks.

Then my pal Mike came into deal.  My bit with Mike is that he always seems to deal me the dreaded pocket Kings every time he deals to me.  This goes back to long before I was playing no limit and also long before I found out that pocket Kings were to be dreaded.  But lately it seems it had been a long, long time since he dealt them to me.  So, first time this trip he deals to me, there they are again.

I raised to $12, had two callers.  The flop was Queen-Jack-9, rainbow.  I bet $25 and took it.  Surviving my first hand with KK, especially with Mike dealing, was a huge, huge victory.  I was sitting next to Mike and I said, “I had ‘the’ hand there.”  And Mike said, so everyone could hear, “Pocket Kings huh? And you won.”  Hmmm….I need to have a talk with him.  The reason I said I had “the hand” and not “Kings” was that I didn’t want anyone else to know what I had.  Why should I give that info away for free?  I was a little bothered by that.

But not for long.  I barely heard them announce that the 8PM drawing was being held when the hand started.  I had already learned that the only envelopes left were the ones with two $100 winners.  As I was being pushed the pot, I heard the very first name called.  It was yours truly. My only card in the drum was picked.

I was a bit embarrassed.  I mean, I had just blogged about how I wanted to avoid this very promo.  And barely playing poker for less than three hours, here I was hitting it.  I felt that it would be wrong to take it under those circumstances, so I turned down the money.

Heh heh.  If you believe that, I can bluff you out of a $700 pot with 7-high.  Of course I took the damn money, and looked forward to writing the blog post where I reveal myself to be a total hypocrite (but one with an extra $100 in my sockroll).

Nothing much happened after that, I didn’t win or lose another significant hand, cashed out down $100 for the poker but even if you count the promo money.  The trip was off to an ok start.

Note:  This was a post where I not only had a hard time coming up with a title for, but also where I couldn't even think of what kind of pic to look for to include with it.  So I gave up.  Here's a totally gratuitous picture of Kaley Cuoco looking might fine.

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