Today’s roundup tournament was interesting, and not just because I finished in the money, with 5 roundup discs. No, it’s interesting because of three hands in which I got very, very lucky. I also made one bad decisions that cost me a better finish.

I began the tournament completely card dead. The only hand I really played was a J-9 offsuit in the big blind with 4 other players, and when I hit middle pair, on a K-9-x board and no one bet on the flop, I bet out on the turn when blank fell. I was surprised to get 2 callers, and I shut it down when an ace hit the river.

Still, at the break, I had T$700 of my T$1000 starting stack. Yet the early orbits after the break were going no better, and my chips continued to dwindle. I was not the only short stack at the table wither, as a couple of players had chipped up pretty well. Finally, I decided to make a stand. I raised all-in from middle position after it had been checked to me with J-10 suited. To my dismay, it was reraised, and that reraise got two callers(!), putting three of us all-in. My feeling got worse when the reraiser had 10-10 and one of the callers had A-J offsuit. I think the last player had a small pair. Three of the cards that could help me were in other players’ hands. This just made a bad situation worse.

Miracle flop! It included the Q and the 9 of diamonds, giving me a straight flush draw. According to my odds calculator (looked at afterward), I’m actually a favorite: 56% to win the hand. I caught another diamond on the river and quadrupled up to get a decent stack.

Table broke, moved to another table. Mostly uneventful until we got to the 160/300, 300/600 round. A couple of early position players just limped, and the small blind raised all-in for T$220 more. I looked down to see an ugly Q-5 offsuit, but groaned when I made the call.

And what a flop. Q-J-5. I had flopped two pair, quite a strong hand.

Now tournament strategy dictates that when multiple people are in a hand, you check the hand down to increase the chances that one of those hands will win, thus busting out the all-in and moving everyone left closer to the money. But when you flop a really strong hand, you don’t need to do that.

So I bet out, figuring that the other two players would understand tournament strategy and get out of the way.

I was wrong. The player next to me raised. And then the other player in cold-called. Wow!

I thought for a bit, slightly worried about a QJ holding, but then decided to reraise. Both just called. I eventually got my whole stack in on the turn when a blank fell, and both called that too.

The reraiser had KQ for just top pair, while the cold-caller had AK. I more than tripled up and got myself a huge stack. But I wasn’t done.

We were down to two shorthanded tables when I found pocket 10s and raised. I got two callers. I hit a set on the flop, which had one overcard, and one of the callers bet out. I raised, and both called. The turn was a blank. It was checked to me, I bet, and the both called. The river was the case 10, giving me my third four-of-a-kind in tournament play this week. Again, they checked. Again, I bet, and again, they both called.

By then, it was an easy coast to the final table, where I finished third in chips and with 5 roundup buttons for a nice $200 cash.

Oh, the mistake.

Shortly after I made the quads. an aggressive player raised in early position, and a somewhat passive player cold-called. I looked down to see AK offsuit. Normally, I’d probably 3-bet, but I was thinking at the time of just coasting to the money. I thought about it for a bit and folded. And ace hit the flop, and K hit the turn, and the A-J offsuit of the cold-caller beat the pocket 7s of the original raiser. It was a bad decision on my part, and the results, while irrelevant to the decision, would have left me with the cold-caller’s roundup buttons too, which would have meant a bigger cash at the end.

Bad Beats, Hand Analysis, Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

Poker players sometimes use the term “Hit & run” derisively to describe a player who comes in, hits big, and leaves. Such an event is more likely in no-limit, where it’s not hard to get all the money in quickly, but less common in limit, where betting is, well, limited.

Yet it happened to me today. Hitting up the club midday, where the games have been soft, I was racking up in less than half an hour after nearly doubling my $200 buy-in. Which begs the question: Why leave if the game is so good?

Well, first of all, I had an incredible run, one that is possible in the short run but unlikely to continue. It began when I raised just a few hands in with AJ offsuit and got no callers. A few hands later, I found 7h6h in the big blind after a few callers and checked my option. The flop came seven high. I checked, the player 3 seats to my right bet, and everyone folded to me. I had intended to check-raise, but thought about trying something different: I just called. The turn brought another small card. I checked, he bet, and I called again. The river brought a Q and I immediately bet out. The disgusted look on his face and his hesitation told me I had him, and I was right. He folded.

I was in the 3 seat at the table. I player I knew was in the 9 seat, one I knew routinely played badly, calling way too much preflop and calling down too often post-flop. A few hands later, I raised with AJ and he was the only caller. The flop came king-high with 3 hearts. I checked, and he checked behind. The run came a blank. I checked again, and he bet out–and I check-raised. He stared at the board, muttered something about 3 hearts, and folded!

So early on, I ran 2 successful bluffs. Who says you can’t bluff in limit poker?

A few hands later, I got pocket queens in early position and raised. I got only one cold-caller, someone I knew called a lot. I was not happy with seeing an ace on the flop, and even less happy when my flop bet was called. Yet his response to my turn and river checks were checks in response, and my queens won to his KQ.

Just a short time after than, I raised in early position with AQ suited and flopped top two pair. My flop bet got a couple of callers, but my turn bet got everyone to fold, whereupon I showed my hand and commented that I “should go across the street and but a lottery ticket, I’m getting so lucky.”

But I realized too that while the table was soft, it was also somewhat high variance. For example, I saw someone who called with 3-8 just because the two cards were suited. And there was a good, solid player in seat 8. So not long after that, less than half an hour after I sat down, I did something I never do (and probably should): I got up and walked away with my profit.

It seems kind of crazy to drive 15 minutes, wait for a good half an hour, and then play for such a short time. But I’ve also been in similar situations where I’d stayed after making a profit, believing the game was good enough that I could make more (aka greed), and seeing the law of averages kick in, the hands start to be not so good, the flops getting missed instead of hit (missing flops actually happens far more often, of course), and then watching the chips I’d worked so hard to accumulate slip away. So is it crazy or smart?

I say smart. A good day, and I’ll be ready for another day tomorrow.

Hand Analysis, Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

Was playing in the weekly Monday morning tournament at Artichoke Joe’s. It’s a limit tournament, with the typical 15-minute rounds and non-deep stacks intended to get the tournament over in about 2 1/2 hours, starting with 5 tables of 11. Got short stacked early, came back, got down to the final 2 tables (top 9 paid, usually a chop at that point), then down to two tables of shorthanded play. And pretty much everyone’s short stacked; blinds are at T$!000 and T$2000 with limits of T$2000 and T$4000. I just raised and took the blinds the previous hand to get my stack to T$7300, about 3rd at my table.

UTG player, young, seen him play aggressive before often, earbuds in, raises. I’m next, find Kc-Jd. I figure raiser could have a wide range of hands, as he is a “big” stack (no more than T$10,000 or so though), trying to pick up blinds against folks who are trying to survive to the final table.I decide I like my hand, and I might even be either a favorite or just a small dog, and with the blinds as potentially dead money, I make it 3 bets, fully expecting to get in all in. I am not disappointed, and I ind I’m in a race; he has pockets 10s.

Flop is about the best I could hope for–or so I thought: J-6d-5d. Flop top pair and get the flush draw to boot.

But what the poker gods giveth, the poker gods taketh away. You can probably guess what happens next (else why would I be writing this?).

The turn is a 10, giving him a set. Ouch!

The river doesn’t help and I’m out in 12th place, just out of the money yet again. I’m disappointed in missing the money, but I’m not unhappy with my decision. And that will have to be my consolation.

Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

Decided at the last minute to get off my behind and go play tonite. And for the first time in awhile, I had a decent session. But it was not easy, and I had to really test my patience.

I ended up playing for about 3 1/2 hours, but I won something like 3 or 4 pots total over that time period. That I had a net profit really shows, I think, what I spent most of my time doing: folding.

The night began with the person om my immediate right to where I first sat down going on an amazing run in my first 1o minutes. He got pocket queens twice (they held up once), pocket kings once (they held up), and he hit runner-runner baby flushes twice. Yes,it was the kind of game where pretty much everyone (except me, of course) played any two suited cards for any number of preflop bets.

I actually had pocket aces twice, and won with both of them. One was just a small pot with only one other person in, and of course I flopped top set and didn’t get a lot out of it. The last one I got 6 callers, 5 of whom called down to the river on a jack-high dry rainbow board. I finally checked in the cutoff on the river because I figured that the only people who woudl likely call would be someone who flopped, turned, or rivered an odd two pair or who managed to hit a set; everyone folded to the buttons sudden interest in betting out, and when I called his all-in, he showed jack-to and I took down a nice pot there.

But really, I was able to “play” poker only once. I did try a couple of late-position steals when I was in late position, it was folded to me, and I had a couple of high suited cards (a rare occurrence, as preflop folds were rarer than honest Republicans), but whiffed the couple of times I tried it, and of course my preflop raise caused no preflop folds between me and the blinds, so I was forced to bow out.

But one hand was different. It was folded to the cutoff, someone who had been fairly loose and aggressive, and I’d seen him almost automatically raise if he was in late position and was the first in or had just one caller. This hand everyone folded to him. He grabbed 3 chips as if to call, then, as if he realized he was the first to act, grabbed 3 more and raised.

Me, next, on the button, I found Qs-Js. I realized this was a great pickoff hand for the situation and I smooth called. The two blinds called as well, not at all unexpected. The flop came 10s and two small diamonds. I pretty much missed, with little more than backdoor straight and flush draws and two overcards, but it was the opportunity I was looking for. The blinds both checked, and the raiser bet out. I raised and the two blinds folded. The better just called.

The turn was a blank. He checked, and I checked behind. My goal was less to take down the pot than to get two chances at free cards. And I got what I wanted on the river: a jack. And, like I expected, he bet out, with what turned out to be air, and I dragged a nice little pot.

I suppose the question would be, if I had missed the river, would I have called–or even raised. I doubt it. This is, after all, a low-limit limit game. I have saved countless chips over the years by declining to be table captain. I have to have a pretty good read to call down a heads-up bet with nothing but ait myself, although to be fair, I’ve dragged a few pots by correctly reading a bluff with as little as bottom pair.

BUt what this night really did, this night where I spent a lot of time just folding, folding, folding, was get me a bit back on track. I’d been getting hammered by bad beats in recent sessions, and so was taking little mini-breaks. The mind-clearing effect seems to have worked; I was making some good reads, and so I hope I’m ready to play some solid poker in the coming weeks and months.

Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

Well, I’d like to think so anyway. Like so few poker players, I have recorded my poker sessions in a small notebook. And I have transfered my notes into what I think is a pretty good program, the Poker Stats Tracker at cardplayer.com. I was updating my stats to include last night’s short session, and I noticed that I had played my 500th cash game.

Only, I went digging a little bit deeper into the data, and while I’m sure I had entered all the stats since I began playing the $1/$2 limit game at the Oaks Card Club way back in about 2003 or 2004, the stats in the application went back to only 2005. Bummer.

Still, even if it is not an entirely accurate milestone, it still seems like one. And so I pulled out some interesting data.

In cash games, I’ve made $5,588, for a whopping $2.93/per hour. To be fair, the first year or two, I was playing first $1/$2 limit games, then $2/$4 limit games, then $3/$6 limit games, before I got up to my present level of (mostly) $6/$12 games. The standard deviation is $239.78.

(In that time, too, I’ve played in 152 tournaments and won a total of $3802).

At the beginning of 2005, it looks like I was just jumping form the $2/$4 game to the $3/$6 game. And I can say that I’ve been a cash game winner, albeit a small one, every year except one:

2005: $833 (in 84 sessions totaling 405 hours)
2006: -$430 (in 11 sessions totaling 459 hours)
2007: $1321 (in 98 sessions totaling 373 hours)
2008: $664 (in 82 sessions totaling 318 hours)
2009 (so far): $3200 (in 125 sessions totaling 349 hours)

I’m not giving up my day job–if I had one, that is.

Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

I’ve been playing lately the little Wednesday night tournament at Artichoke Joe’s. It’s a limit tournament that half hold ‘em and half Omaha/8, and usually gets 3 or 4 tables. Typically, the remaining players chop when it gets to the final table, the final 9, but last night it didn’t happen.

In tournaments such as this, it can be a good idea to chop. The last place or two often won’t return fully on the investment, and the blinds are getting high in relation to the stacks that luck starts to be a significant factor. For example, last night the final table hit when the blinds were $500 and $1000, and the average stack was about $6-7K. I was about average, and two players to my right had huge stacks.

But the player to my immediate left, a short stack with about $2K in chips didn’t want to chop. The even chop would have been about $350 each, although the short stacks would likely have had to give something to the chip leaders to get them to agree. So we kept playing. I went through the blinds but had no playable hands.

One player got knocked out (not the aforementioned short stack), a chop was again discussed, but the same player wanted to keep on. The blinds went up (to $1K and $2K) and we started the hold ‘em round. Then I got lucky.

I raised in MP with pocket 9s, got one caller and a flop of all undercards. The caller called my flop and turn bets (when another undercard hit), but not the river. My next hand, folded to me, I had K-10 offsuit and raised. I got one cold-caller, a very good but loose player and went all-in when a king fell on the flop. He called and showed pocket tens. that luck two hands in a row chipped my up to third place.

A couple of hands later, another player got knocked out, and the chop discussion began anew, and this time everyone agreed. The chip leader (by now close to half the chips in play) held out for $750, and second place wanted $500, leaving the rest of us with just under $400. I was OK with that, and the short stack tossed me an extra $20 to put me just over $400, a nice gesture.

So while I don’t agree with the decision to not chop at 9 players, a little bit of luck kept me in the game and resulted in a better payout. So it’s hard for me to complain. And my bankroll is just a little bit happier today.

Stories From the Trenches | No Comments »

“The books” will tell you that you should always raise with AK. “The books” are not always right. Here’s why.

First, let’s make it clear that AK, suited or unsuited, is indeed a “premium” hand. But is it also, fundamentally, a drawing hand. It’s a favorite against any other single non-paired hand. But there’s a key concept here that many people forget–if they knew it at all–one that puts many people on tilt: Being a favorite does not guarantee being a winner.

So here’s what I say: You should sometimes raise with AK.

How often is “sometimes?” Like everything in poker, the answer is “It depends.”

Before I can fully defend this assertion, I have to explain the general characteristics of low-limit games.

A primary motivation of the vast majority of low-limit players is that they came to the casino (or cardroom) to play poker. They either don’t understand or don’t care about the very common fallacy that “playing poker” is equivalent to “tossing chips into the pot.”

It’s not. I “play” every hand I’m dealt, but for the majority of those hands, the best play is to muck the cards right away.

These players, they subscribe to the “any two cards can win” school of thought. Their calling standards are quite loose, not only the “standard” calling hands, such as pairs, big/suited aces, and Broadway cards, but any ace, frequently any face card, any connectors, no matter how many gaps, and (especially!) any two suited cards.

Add to this characteristic that these players will typically call any number of bets preflop. 2-5 suited? Capped? Go for it!

Many of these, if they hit the flop, no matter how marginally, will call down to the river.

Another characteristic is that these players typically hold to the belief that a river bet is a bluff, so they are calling.

Calling stations on steroids.

Add to this another characteristic: Some of these (but by no means all, in fact, the majority of these don’t raise preflop with premium hands, some not even with aces because “I’ve had them cracked too often”) raise for no reason other than it’s fun to do so. They are at the game for fun, and raising is fun. It creates bigger pots, which are more fun to win. (Never mind that every hour or so they are pulling new buy ins from their pocket.) Once they raise, they keep betting on subsequent streets. Why? Again, because it’s fun.

But these are (usually) not dumb players. Many have been playing for years and years. And if you come to the table and play a solid game, some will recognize that you raise with “premium” hands.

Not raising often with AK takes advantage of this type of player, which you’ll often find comprising half of your table in low-limit games. Especially against the raise-for-fun players, not reraising AK can make you a lot of money when you hit.

Not raising can also save you money when you don’t hit. If you raise in early position, pretty much anyone who would have called for one bet will call for two. And if you raise in late position, everyone who limped will call.

Which brings us to a fundamental truth of low-limit games: Preflop raises do not thin the field.

True, there are no absolutes in poker. But this is one you can generally rely on.

Yes, I’ve had cases where a loose table will suddenly all fold to a raise. But it just doesn’t happen that often.

So when you raise and get 6 callers, the chances that your top pair, top kicker standing up to the river are greatly reduced. Your raise has also created a much larger pot, so chasers are more likely to stay in, hoping to make their longshot draw.

By more frequently not raising, you control the pot size a bit. You’ll be more likely to take down smaller pots more often.

If you just call when the “for fun” raisers swing once again into action, you’re almost always a favorite, yet you’ve disguised the strength of your hand. If you hit well, you can sit back and wait for the turn to raise, when the bets double, and that’s when you’ll be most successful in earning the bigger pots. Let the maniacs do the betting work for you–right up the the time you haul in the pot.

Another good reason for not always raising is the few observant players. When you raise and miss (which will be most of the time), if they hit, they will pick off your continuation bets. When you limp and hit, your bets will be almost always called by weaker aces, who won’t think your ace is strong because you didn’t raise before the flop.

All this is not to say you should never raise with AK, just pull back the frequency. Depending on the people at the table, who has called already, your position, and your image, I’d say about half the time is correct. Just remember, you’re not doing it to drive players out of the pot. It just ain’t gonna happen.

Musings | No Comments »

Last night was a good night, $170 in fewer than 3 hours. But it was made so primarily because of one hand where the pot I dragged was bigger than it probably should have been (not that I’m complaining, of course), where someone either was too stubborn, not paying attention, or just playing “pot odds.”

That table was just how I like it, pretty much passive and a bit loose. I was in one of my favorite seats, seat 9, with most of the players in positions that favored my style of play. In this hand, I was UTG+1. The UTG player limped and I found pocket kings. I raised.

Then the unbelievable happened. At this table, raisers were getting only about 2-3 callers, maybe 4. Yet this time, even with my early position raise, instead of folding, I saw call, call, call, call, 7 in all, 8 of us going to the flop. This is not at all good, I thought to myself, I am going to have to flop a set.

Well, I didn’t flop a set. The flop came A-K-K. Quads!

Now the question: How to play it.

It was, of course, checked to me. I hesitated, acted a bit, looking like I really didn’t like that flop, knowing also that people who flop sets, trips, or other monster hands are known to slow play those flops in low-limit limit games. Knowing this, I’ve taken to leading out on the flop when I make a set, knowing that I’ll usually get callers. This time I thought might be a little bit different, and with the pot already so big, I was also thinking that someone would surely take a stab at it. I was right.

The player in seat 3 bet out. This was someone who had come to the table earlier with a small stack. I put him on an Internet player who thought he was going to come to a cash game and run roughshod over the old-timers with his aggressive play. He lasted something like 3 hands, go up, said he was coming back, and didn’t. At least, not for awhile, but he left the seat open until he had to be picked up by the floor. Not good.

But he made his way back, got on the list, and came to out table again, this time buying in for a bit more, $100.

One other person called, and I smooth called. The turn came a total blank. I checked again. He bet out, the other caller folded, and I check-raised.

At this point, he shoudl have gotten out, and I made 2 more big bets because he didn’t because he didn’t think the situation through.

Yes, the pot was huge. 16 small bets preflop, then 3 small bets on the flop. His bet and my 2 bets, that’s 12 1/2 big bets at that point. From a numbers standpoint, you have to win less than 10 percent of the time to make a call here profitable.

But then there’s the situation and the person. True, he hadn’t been around long enough or played with me befoer to know that I’m on the tight side of things. even without that, unless you’re a maniac, and there clearly wasn’t one of those at our table, what does an early position raise mean?

In most cases, especially at a more passive table, we’re talking big pairs. Aces or kings or queens. Maybe AK, but a lot of people limp in with that. (Heck, I’ve been limping with AK, and AQ, about half the time these days.) Once in awhile jacks or tens. But figure the most likely holdings at aces, kings, queens, or AK.

He called. he called my river bet too, and then showed AQ offsuit after I tabled my quads.

So what did he think I had? Of the 4 likely holdings, the only one he had was queens. My call on the flop and my check-raise on the turn clearly communicated power.

Yes, there are those who would look solely at the odds and think that you have to be right just a very small amount of the time, that the pot was way, way too big to fold. But I would counter that by saying that sometimes the message is so clear that your actual chances are easy to tell.

I liked his continuing to call. I like it when people such as that are at my table. It’s why I pay attention. It’s why I fold my flopped set when the 4th card to a straight comes out on the river and someone I know calls with any draw suddenly bets out (or raises, if someone else is foolish enough to bet into him), and I know with as much certainty as you can have in this game that I’m beaten. And it’s why I had another profitable night.

Hand Analysis | No Comments »

Got some catching up to do. A combination of not being all that motivated to write and the site being down for awhile. Lots of things to cover, but this will be about one thing: I won a tournament. But not just any tournament, mind you. A no-limit tournament.

The vast majority of the tournaments I’ve played over the years have been limit tournaments, and I’ve done relatively well. Or at least, I used to. Up to a couple of years ago, I would win or place high enough to really keep me going. (I also won a spread-limit tournament once when I got too frisky heads-up with a Q-5 offsuit against, of all things, pocket aces, and flopped trip 5s.)

My more recent tournament experience has been lass than stellar, and also less frequent since the Oaks changed its Wednesday night tournament–which used to be one of the best in the Bay Area–from limit to no-limit. Plus, Sunday mornings have more often been about sport commitments (especially during softball season) then driving down to Bay 101 for their sole entry in the limit arena (at 9am no less).

I made 2 more trips to Reno after the Thanksgiving trip, one for the 4-day New Year’s weekend, and again for Martin Luther King weekend, thanks to TripRes and it’s offering of 50% off of rooms at the Grand Sierra during January.

Actually, I got a great rate for the “Summit” at Grand Sierra for the first trip. The Summit is basically the top floors, which have been turned into “upscale” condos,. which are then sold, and then are rented just like hotel rooms. Now I’m not big on “upscale;” when I hear “luxury,” I usually just rool my eyes. That said, the bed I slept in there has to be the most comfortable I’ve ever experienced.

The poker room is nice, one of the better ones in Reno. The poker room manager is a really nice guy who runs the room well. And the room has daily tournaments. No-limit, natch, but better than most in Reno.

While the “vig” ain’t great, the stacks are good and the rounds are longer than most little tournaments.

So, because the buy-in for the morning tournament is small, I decided on some days to give it a shot. And most times, I actually did pretty well.

I actually made a couple of final tables, and twice(!) finished on the bubble. But it was on my second visit that I broke through.

Now here’s an interesting fact. The very first no-limit tournament I ever played in was the daily afernoon tournament at the Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. I wanted to play there once so I could say that I played where the World Series of Poker got its start. At the time, that tournament attracted a good-sized crowd, about 120 the day I played. And I finished about 40th.

I beat 2/3 of the field in my first ever no-limit tournament. That’s not bad.

Ever since, anytime I’d tried to dip my toes into the ni-limit waters, I came out dry as a bone. Never once did I cash.

It must mean that the starts align right to win a tournament. This time, I made the final table with a smaller stack. Not the smallest, but small nonetheless. So I adopted a strategy that I belived would give me the greatest chance to succeed.

When you watch, or read about, or talk poker, a lot of the talk is about odds, and justifiably so. You have to know the numbers, or at least a good approximation, for long-term success. But I observed that some people seem to take this a bit too rigorously, letting that concept overtake the importance of the people in the game. Even commentators talk abou “getting the right odds” to call an all-in bet.

Yet the people have to be important. Not in the Doyle Brunson “I don’t even have to look at my cards to beat you” way, but just in the way of trying to figure out when you might be in a better or worse odds situation.

So I decided to sit on my stack a bit more than some traditionalists might call for and wait for hands better than marginal to make moves. And this time, it worked out.

First, I was able to identify one or two table bullies, who were trying to accumulate chips. By doing that, I was able to make moves back at them, and they either would fold or would take far the worst of it, and this time, I was never drawn out on.

Then, by appearing quiet and tight, and by showing down a couple of decent hands, I was able to run the occasional bluff, which at this table, worked every time, because of that image.

And finally, I did get a little lucky, which you have to at some point.

It was the final hand. I raised with a couple of low cards and was called. The flop didn’t hit, but I bet, trying to appear strong, and was raised all-in. I had some draws and outs, and was getting the right price, as they say, as the all-in wasn’t that much. For some unknown reason, I abandoned by strategy and reasoning and went with the odds, and found myself facing two pair. And of all crazy idiotic donkey things, I magically hit runner-runner to fish a straight out of the deck.

I actually didn’t see it at first, and neither did anyone else until we looked at the board and the cards a second time. They I just felt giddy. Not only had I cashed in a no-limit tournament for the first time ever, I had won on that first cash.

I think what made me more proud was talking to the third-place finisher afterward when he complimented me on my patient short-stack play. I know I still do some “huh?” things at the table, so to get positive recognition like that from someone who knows the game is almost more special that winning.

Stories From the Trenches, Travel | No Comments »

Never again will I complain about the looseness of games in California. “No fold ‘em hold ‘em, it’s called, and it simply can’t hold a candle to the games, at least the games I’ve seen so for, here in Reno.

I arrived Wednesday night much later than I had planned. I had an eye doctor appointment in Palo Alto at 10:45am, and my plan was to hit the freeway immediately afterward. But in hopes of getting a quick turnaround time, I tried to make a quick stop at the Costco in Redwood City. Unfortunately, they have a 10 business-day turnaround for making glasses, so that really didn’t work.

I hit the road right around noon and decided to head across the San Mateo bridge, worried that the traffic on 101 and 80 in San Francisco would be getting stuck. While I was right, 880 turned out to be little better. Worse, it turned into brake lights for as far as the eye could see from the Bay Area all the way into Sacramento, with almost no exception. It was sheer misery.

The drive to Reno should take about 4 hours. It took me a good 5 hours to get just to Sacramento. And the ordeal wasn’t over. I had hoped to get into the mountains before darkness fell. That plan went out the window hours earlier. The rain had spread further north than predicted, so the going was not only dark, but wet, and in the passed, it even turned to snow. (The temperature never dropped below 35 degrees, so I was not worried about getting stuck.)

I pulled in to the Sands parking lot at 8:00pm. Yes, 8 hours from the Bay Area to Reno.

The Sands? Yep. Stayed here once before, the last time I was in Reno, almost 5 years ago (which was to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the theater, all Bay Area theaters having been sold out for this special trilogy showing). With no luck on Priceline, I found a great deal here on Expedia. Not only did I get Thursday night free, a Google search for “Expedia coupon” found me a $50-off coupon code. It worked too, so I ended up getting 4 nights here, including the 2 weekend nights, for less then $90. Total.

Last year I headed south for the Thanksgiving weekend. It wasn’t a great weekend as I did poorly at the tables at the Bicycle. The bonus: they served a complete turkey dinner free too all seated players. None of that here in Reno.

But back to the action. And action it was.

My first stop was, naturally, the poker room at the Sands. It was a sad sight. Three tables. All empty.

So I wandered outside and over to the nearest casino, the El Dorado. Their poker room was not only a bit larger, they had a few tables going. I sat down at the $3/$6 game.

Now first of all, this was one of the stranger $3/$6 games I’d seen. The blinds are $1 and just $2. Yes, even though the first betting round is $3, the big blind is $1 less. It’s $2 to go, and $5 to raise. OK then.

But the fun was just beginning. Here in Reno, they seem to play 10-person tables. And it’s not only not unusual to see 6, 7, even 8 players seeing the flop, the same scenario plays out even when there is a raise. More often than I care to think about, I saw 4 or 5 people calling 2, 3, or even 4 bets cold.

“Wow” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

What’s even more amazing, in my mind, is that I’m up almost $200 in the cash games–and that’s after the wildest game ever tonight.

My first time out, I lasted 4 hours and managed a win of…$2.

I trooped down to the Sands casino level Thursday morning just in time for their $10:00am tournament. A whole 9 people showed up. I lasted awhile, but busted out 8th–just in time to walk over to Circus Circus for the 11:00am tournament, which also had a bit of a strange structure. It plays for exactly 4 rounds and one hand. This one I made it to 7th of 28, keeping my streak alive of never cashing in a no-limit tournament. If no one has won by the time the 4 rounds have ended, they play one more hand, and then the top chip counts get paid. Circus Circus tours it as the “Biggest little tournament in Reno.”

When the tournament was finished, they had one cash game going, a $2-$6 spread limit game. I’ve played spread limit before, but after thinking about it for awhile, I realized that the smallness in this spread means that it can makes the odds correct in so many different situations to call in later rounds, even when the maximum is bet, that the game could turn into a luckfest.

Not that the El Dorado game was a whole lot better. So I wandered over to Harrahs. The poker room with WSOP logos all over had just one game going in the afternoon, a no-limit game that I decided to pass on.

Back to the El Dorado, where i found a nice surprise. Almsot as soon as I sat down at a $3/$6 game, they began asking if there was interest in a $4/$8 game. I jumped at the opportunity. And that’s when things got really wild.

First off, we started somewhat shorthanded, with only 7 players. Second, I began with just a sick run. Pocket aces twice (only one of which actually won), along with a couple of other big hands led me to more than doubling up in less than 15 minutes. Even at this level, raises elicited 4 or 5 or even more calls. It was tough to be patient.

And there were a couple of real maniacs too, who would raise almost religiously preflop. Fortunately for me, I had them positioned on my right, and a couple of times that I was able to play back at them, I was successful and walked away a winner after 3 hours, before the game broke.

I returned later in the evening after I caught a movie (Quantum of Solace, not too bad), and for the first time in a long time, I had to dig out my iPod. And crank the volume.

I was in seat 6, and the guy in seat 10 was both drunk and loud. The drink turned him into a cross between a calling station and a maniac. Thank goodness I at least have my Pet Shop Boys studio CDs on my iPhone.

I had pocket aces cracked in this game, but made up for it while in the blind and coming in with baby cards when the kill was on, hitting top pair when little cards hit the flop (firguring, probably correctly, that no one else caught), and then catching a miracle on the turn with a gutshot hit. I even had another bettor and a caller to me at that point, and the seat 10 drunk called as well as the originall caller, and they both paid me off on the river.

At that point, just over an hour in, I decided that the game was way too high a variance a game, and that it was getting late, and the drunk on seat 10 was so loud he even could be heard over Pet Shop Boys music with the volume up, I decided to get up and leave with a good profit.

When I get back to the Sands, there was actually a $3/$6 game going. I bought a rack, and in the time it took me to do that, a player left. (I would have made it 7.) Two more left in short order and we were left with 4. I already don’t like playing shorthanded, but what made it worse was that they refused to reduce the 10% rake for shorthanded play. (Over at the El Dorado, when the $4/$8 game fell to 5 people, the dealer, without even needing approval from a floorman, dropped the rake to $1.) Needless to say I was not particularly happy, and literally, as soon as I hit profit status, I got up. A whopping 30 minutes and a grand total of $4.

Meanwhile, I have to say that the smoke level in Reno casinos seems to have significantly lessened since my last visit. I do smell some residual at times, but I see few people indoors actually smoking, even when I walk by the slots. This is a great development.

I have two more fill days to play. Tomorrow (Friday), my plan is to hit the mall and see if I can get one-hour service at Lenscrafters, and then probably check out the poker room at the Peppermill.

Stories From the Trenches, Travel | No Comments »