High On Poker

I’m holed up in my apartment, shades drawn, windows shut, strapped down to play some online poker. Wifey Kim is out brunching and shopping with her mother and I’ve isolated myself from the outside world with nothing but a laptop and a bottle of diet peach Snapple, sitting in my pajamas as the day ticks by playing online poker.

It reminds me of why I love and hate online poker. The love is for the fact that it is poker, instantly accessible. I love this game more than I know how to express. The hate is its solitary existence. At a live table, I feel that I am part of the human experience. In an online room, I am entirely alone.

Yet here I am, the love of the game once again supplanting the loath of the online game. And one thing that online poker consistently gives me is hands. Lots and lots of hands.

Speaking of hands, I had the pleasure of chopping a small MTT at Stars and outright won a 176 person $10 MTT at FullTilt for $435. In both cases, I played well, from my own vantage, particularly given the fact that the premium hands were few and far between. I like to think that good results in the face of bad starting hands is a sign of skill-based success, but it may just be an association I made up for my own sanity.

I did, however, have a little bit of luck in the FT tournament, hitting a 2 outter when we were down to three. To be fair to myself, I had JJ and the chipleader had AA, which is hard to get away from three-handed. Once that suckout occurred, I had the guy slightly covered. A few hands later, I had 55 preflop and the shorty got all-in preflop against me and the former big-stack. On the 5T3, all club flop, I called an open-push from the former chipleader who showed AT with the Ace of clubs. The original shortstack showed AJo. No one hit anything and I took down the tournament.

It should be no surprise to anyone who reads here frequently enough, but the FT MTT win came in a 6-max game, easily my specialty. I just have a better grasp on when I can make moves in a shorthanded game. It probably plays to my naturally aggressive play. Whatever the case, I had an interesting hand in the middle of the tournament that ended well, but may not have been played optimally.

I’m asking you to take out your commentor’s hat and even your over-critical-of-Jordan hat and really let loose on this one. Was this expertly played, was I lucky, or was this a no-brainer?

You Decide #62

We are in the 6-handed NLHE MTT on FT with five players at the table. I am in the BB with 4480 in chips. I have the third lowest stack, with two guys at about 9k, one guy nipping at my heels and a third guy in the SB with 1213. The blinds are 60/120.

UTG folds. Jewel, with about 9k, is UTG+1, which is actually the cutoff thanks to the shorthanded table. He raises to 360. It folds to me, and since Jewel has proved herself to be a bit over-aggressive, I decide to call with A2d. I want to see the flop and decide what to do from there.

The flop is 2c 3d 4d, giving me bottom pair, top kicker, a nut flush draw, an inside straight draw, and an inside straight flush draw. I check and Jewel bets 555. It is a suspicious bet. I decide to push all-in for 4120. Jewel requests time and then finally calls, showing A2o. The turn is a diamond and I take down the pot, doubling up.

My push was an attempt to win the hand outright from a player who may’ve been scared by the coordinated flop and/or who may’ve had two overcards and nothing else. Perhaps I was also representing a flopped baby set. Whatever the case, after I pushed, I second-guessed the intelligence of the play.

I won’t go deeper into analysis here, but disregarding the results, was a check-raise push the optimal play? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Thinking about poker, my mind flashed back to the last time I played, a 1/2 NLHE cash game at the Borgata where I made 825$ over about 9 hours. I remembered one player specifically, a crazy Asian player who was pushing all-in like mad. But what really stuck in my head was the blind check.

What the hell is up with checking in the blind? If anyone can offer a good reason for this play, I’m all ears. As nearest as I can tell, there is only one advantage: your in-position opponent gets no information from your action after the flop. Unfortunately, this “advantage” is negated by numerous other factors.

I’m all for odd plays, but only when they make sense. Checking blind never makes sense. That’s right. NEVER. Allow me to elaborate.

Let’s say you hit your hand. Well, dousche, you auto-checked, so while your opponent does not know that you hit your hand, it does not necessarily mean that he will do the betting for you. If your opponent checks too, then what? First off, you might be giving him a free card to hit a draw (or even a dreaded 2-outter or whatnot). Second, if he checks and you bet out on the next card, it is not as though your clever blind check convinced your opponent that you actually missed the flop, at which point he’ll suddenly call your turn bet. Quite the opposite. Betting on the turn after a blind flop check is the same freaking thing as betting on the flop EXCEPT you lose one of your bullets.

Check this…

You have AQo in the BB at a live 1/2 NLHE table. Aggro donk in LP raises to $15 and you call because he is an aggro donk and you’ll be heads up. Using your clever, fancy play, you check in the dark. You figure that if you hit, you can check-raise him, and if you miss, then you are done with the hand anyway. Either way, you are negating the power of the aggro donk’s position by refusing to give him post-flop info.

The flop comes down AcQc3d. You’ve hit top two pair, but there are a couple of draws out there. But since you got fancy, the action checks to the aggro donk…and he checks as well.

The turn is a Tc. Now what, asshole? Exactly.

If you hadn’t blind-checked, you could’ve bet the flop. If he had nothing, he’d probably fold and you’d win the pot. Congratulations! It might not be a huge pot, but it’s yours.

If he has the flush draw, he may just call on the flop. So, you are still screwed when the turn comes out…but you have more information that before. His flat call on the flop reads like a flush draw and you can act accordingly, checking the turn and evaluating his hand based on how he bets.

If he has the straight draw (KJ) or even an underpair (JJ, TT), he will likely fold to your flop bet, provided you were not stupid enough to check blind. So, you win the hand outright, once again. Kudos.

Now, for the alternative. If he has no cards and you checked blind, then he will check the flop as well, since it is scary with an Ace and from the preflop call, it is likely you are playing an Ace. When the turn comes, if you are bold enough to bet the made-flush board, the aggro donk will likely fold…netting you the same amount of money as if you had just bet out in the first place. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO THIS STRATEGY WHEN YOUR OPPONENT HAS MISSED COMPLETELY, UNLESS HE ALWAYS BETS WHEN ITS CHECKED TO HIM, EVEN WHEN ITS CHECKED IN THE DARK.

If he has the flush draw and you check in the dark on the flop, he will probably check as well or may even bet preflop. Whatever the case, when the turn comes around and he hits, he will win the hand. And since you didn’t see him flat-call on the flop, you might think that this aggro donk is playing a strong club and still hasn’t hit his flush. SO, BY CHECKING BLIND, YOU ARE ACTING WITH LESS INFORMATION WHEN SCARE CARDS HIT, AND YOU STAND TO LOSE MORE MONEY.

If he has the underpairs or the straight draw, then the free card you gave him may have given him an unlikely monster hand, like an inside straight draw with KJ or a set with an underpair like TT. Those hands would’ve surely folded to a bet on the flop, but once the turn comes, it is more likely that your opponent will hold onto these hands, even in the face of the three flush cards, especially if he has the Kc, for instance. BY CHECKING BLIND, YOU LOSE AN ASS-LOAD MORE MONEY BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO INFO AND HAVE ALLOWED UNEXPECTED HANDS TO HIT, WHICH MAY BLINDSIDE YOU.

In my mind, checking in the blind is essentially giving up all control over a hand. There is no value in avoiding giving information. In fact, I advocate giving information at the poker table, provided that you are aware of and in control of the information provided. I don’t give a fuck if my opponent knows that I bet out strong on a coordinated flop, because I WANT HIM TO KNOW. If he knows and I know that he knows, I can control what he is thinking and what he will do.

Poker is largely about controlling the flow of information, but damning the flow is not the answer. You only have so many possible plays in a given hand. Bet, raise, check, fold, with varying amounts. You get four shots to do it, preflop, flop, turn and river, with multiple shots on each street depending on the action (raises, re-raises). By checking blind, you are taking away one of your options. You are lessening your arsenal. You are handicapping yourself.

If you don’t know how to play poker, then blind check away. It couldn’t be worse that what you’d do if you actually retained some modicum of control over the results. But if you know what you are doing, quit the bullshit. Blind checks offer no value.

Until next time, make mine poker!

I continue on my online poker diet, reducing my play mostly due to disinterest and the creeping feeling that it is all for naught when I get the urge to play. I still play online, several times a week, but the fervor with which I play and the regularity and session length has significantly lessened.

As my play reduces, so does my blog posting, due in large part to the fact that it is hard to develop thoughts on poker without, well, actual poker. Alas, it is what it is, and while my live play has been meager, I have two trips to poker destinations coming up in December and I’m sure more poker will be had before then.

Reading postings around the blogosphere, it seems I am not alone in this lull of poker excitement. It’s the natural order of things and I am not the least surprised. Like many things in life, it is easy to fall into a hobby or social group due to the allure that the hobby/group has, and then just as easily fall out of interest with the hobby/group as familiarity breeds contempt. It may be the frustration of never winning that elusive tournament or the doldrums of chasing the dragon without success. It may be a direct feud with other group members or the group as a whole or a bitter resentment built up over time.

This is just the normal order of things, and I don’t begrudge anyone who has actually fallen out of poker or poker blogging. Both are revolving doors, and it makes no sense to stick around after the fun has left.

Of course, that ain’t me, though. While at times poker feels too much like work, I’m in it for life. Even when I am less excited by it, I know that time will pass and I’ll be back to the love in no time.

Think of it like a porno tape. Remember before pornos were available on the net for free, how you’d have a stash of tapes or magazines hidden away. After a while, seeing the same “actors”, camera shots, and even pop shots, can get to be a tad…well, boring. More played out than anything. So, a particular tape may fall out of favor for a few weeks or a few months or even a year. But after that memory fades a bit, that old tape gets put back into circulation, and it’s fresh again.

Yes, poker is like an old porn tape to me. When it gets tedious, I may shelf it for a bit, but I know that it’s only a matter of time before I want to check up on that great scene with Heather Hunter in a shower, or, you know, whatever.

On a related note, during this brief hiatus from serious poker play, I have been thinking about how poker is a lot of work. The game is constantly changing, and more importantly, taking a break will probably cause one’s game to revert. This is not the type of pursuit where you make a mistake, lose a hand, and never make that mistake again. Poker learning is done through repetition, and certain fundamentals can drop off if you take some time off.

That is my major concern with my current hiatus. I should be playing live once per week at least. Sadly, with work commitments and games scheduled as per the hosts’ schedules instead of mine, I haven’t played a weekday homegame in what feels like months. Since online poker sucks donkey balls, that means that since my recent AC trip, I’ve played no live poker, and I wonder how much that has affected my game.

I’ll find out a little bit on Thursday of next week. I will be attending the Wall Street Game’s OE game, half Stud Hi/Lo and half Omaha Hi/Lo. At the same time, I’ll be participating in a freeroll on FullTilt set up by RakeBrain.com, so I’ll be literally two-tabling. Maybe the combo isn’t the best way to keep my NLHE game in-tune, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

Poker is a shit ton of work, if you are doing it right. It’s also a pleasure. The key, to me for now, at least, is to enjoy it as often as I can and let the work come naturally. The love is still alive, and that’s really all that should matter.

Until next time, make mine poker!

While my online play is probably at an all-time low (not low enough to avoid a series of bubbles on Sunday night), I have been seeking out new reading material in the blogoverse to keep my needs satisfied. My most recent favorite two-some come from a live-poker-playing 1/2 NL pro in Vegas and a well-known, name-brand pro.

The first, the 1/2 NLHE pro in Vegas, is none other than Poker Grump, aka Rakewell. I highly recommend Grump for you fans of HoP. He plays nearly daily at the local casinos in Vegas, amazingly sticking to 1/2 NLHE almost exclusively. The amazing part is that he apparently pays the bills with that lowest of NL games. I can appreciate the Grump for dozens of reasons, but what I really love is his detailed accounts of his daily play, whether he focuses on individual hands or the characters at the table or the venue. It’s really like reading a travelogue of Vegas low-limit poker, and Grump has a way of telling a story that sucks me in.

I can also appreciate his dedication to 1/2 NLHE. It’s my game of choice, mostly because of a thin bankroll, but it also has the advantage of attracting the most incompetent players but paying off fairly well. I could personally move to 2/5 NLHE, but whenever I think to do it, I choose instead to “start the day” playing 1/2 NLHE and usually without fail, I’ll stick to the 1/2 NLHE. The action is usually good, the money is good, and the play is terrible.

The second new blog to my reading roster is the blog of Daniel Negreanu. I have to admit, I admire Negreanu for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are his results and his ability to make and follow reads. Like Grump’s blog, I can go through a littany of reasons why Danny’s blog is great, but I’ll stick to a few.

First, it is interesting to read about a pro’s travels on the tourney circuit. It’s a bit of vicarious living and Danny gives enough info that you can really understand what it is like to be traveling all over the globe to play poker with a band of likeminded gamblers.

Second, Danny does a great job of going over key hands in tournaments. The key here, though, is that Danny is not a Harringbot. Most of the plays he discusses are crazy, even to a loose mofo like me. A perfect example is from a recent hand he posted where he played a speculating 67 and ended up calling a bet on the river on an otherwise scary board with a mere pair of 6s. Here is the actual quote:

“A tight player raised under the gun to 300 and the aggressive player called in the next seat. I called form the big blind with 6-7. The flop came 8-5-3 rainbow and I checked. The aggressive player bet 600 and we saw the turn heads up. Turn was an Ace, and I check called 1100. The river was a 6 and I checked. Again, the aggressive player bet 2800 and something did not seem right. The bet was too big, he was unlikely to call a raise from the tight player with Ax making it difficult to put him on two pair, and I didn’t think he’d bet a pair of 99 or 10-10, especially not that much. He was going to have to show me a set, or I was convinced he had a hand like K-Q. I called… he showed K-Q. I played my hand like such an obvious draw so I figured he was certainly capable of firing the three barrel bluff. “

The bottom line is, most of the readers of this blog simply fold preflop to a tight EP raiser, especially if the tournament was costing them thousands of dollars to enter. And yet, when you read through his analysis, you realize that Danny could probably call with any two cards there and as long as he is able to make the right decisions post-flop, the seemingly-loose preflop call is correct.

Now, if I post that scenario, I’d bet dollars to donuts that I’d get comments about playing the hand poorly. And probably before I read Negreanu’s analysis, I would even agree. To call preflop, out of position against a tight preflop raiser with speculative cards and then to call three bullets with an open-ended straight draw that results in a mere pair of 6s takes cajones. For you online poker aficionados, the play is probably utter crap. But when you read Danny’s analysis and consider that he was (and is) capable of getting a read on the table, his opponent and the situation as it unfolds, suddenly, Danny’s play makes perfect sense.

Reading something like Danny’s hand analysis just makes my brain explode in all sorts of directions. I’m excited to get back to playing, I’m encouraged to trust my reads (even though I am no Danny N.), and I’m re-invigorated that the game is not just about folding to the fucking money. It’s about taking control of your fate by intellect, observation and more than a pinch of cunning.

So, there you go. Poker Grump and Danny N., two blogs that remind me why I love poker.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Here’s the thing. I don’t just do Vacation Trip Reports. When I went to California, for instance, I didn’t write about the flight into San Fran, or the experience traveling to San Diego. I did, however, write about my stop at the Bay 101 Poker Room because, my dear readers, I know what you crave. But this is not a travel blog, so I am hesitant to go into a long trip report on the Bash.

Let me make this clear, though. I despise the type of posts that refer to insider jokes or references or bullet point highlights that make no sense to anyone not there. There were probably 30 or less bloggers in Phoenixville, PA last weekend for AlCantHang‘s Bash at the Boathouse, but since I have millions…and millions…of readers, I just won’t sully this pristine site with lines like, “Who put the nutmeg in my hot sauce?” and just leave it at that.

So, I walk a delicate line of weighing down this blog with a story about getting drunk all day long in a random bar, in a random town, in a random state (any meaning of the word ‘state’ will work there), or ignoring the event altogether. The solution, let’s focus on the poker and gambling.

I had caught a ride to the Bash with Alceste. We had met on his side of the river, i.e. New Jersey, and directly headed to the randomest little Philly suburb I’d ever visited (the only one, in fact). Mary and Dawn had already checked into the Flea Bag Hotel and had booked our room, so we met everyone out at a Korean restaurant with a HUGE banquet hall in the back of an otherwise non-descript restaurant.

It was probably 9:15pm, and the tourney was supposed to start at 8, but from what I could tell, we had missed less than an hour of play. Alceste and I each bought in for $60 (no idea how the structure worked, but I think it was a single $20 buy-in and two add-ons or something), and we took our seats at different tables. I sat at a table that seemed to be filled with locals, with the exception of BadBlood, a few seats to my right, and Buddy Dank, a few seats to his right. I started off tight, trying to get a feel for the table and the players. To Buddy’s right was a black guy that looked just like Keenan Thompson from SNL. I’m not talking stunt-double here, either. I’m talking full-on doppleganger, complete with evil goatee. He even had a lot of Keenan’s hangdog expressions. He played tight and seemed upset the entire time by the craziness at the table, even though he kept a generally pleasant demeanor.

To his right was Eeyore. You’ve all played with an Eeyore or two in your days. This one was an older gentleman, in fact, by appearance, the oldest in the room. He had a slight frame, grey hair, and glasses. He seemed like a cleaned-up backwoods guy, no facial hair but a lumberjack’s shirt tucked into his slacks. The entire time at the table he was complaining about one thing or another. He also consistently bitched about Bad Blood who was drunk and having a great time. This guy couldn’t understand why Blood would play the Hammer, as though it wasn’t painfully obvious to anyone with a sense of humor. Sad sacks like this can suck the fun out of the game. A man can only take so much, “Nobody folds to Eeyore.” and “Nobody doesn’t catch against big cards from Eeyore.” and “Nobody loves Eeyore.” at the table. After a while, you just want to take him by his stupid tacked-on tail, punch the shit out of his stuffing filled body, piss on his broken corpse and say, “THERE! THERE! NOW YOU HAVE A REASON TO COMPLAIN! FUCK YOU IN YOUR FUCKING ASS, YOU FUCKING FUCK!!!!” Yeah. He annoyed me.

Besides that, there was a cute girl sitting to Blood’s left, two seats to my right. She was probably the best looking broad in the joint, so I immediately assumed she knew jack-shit about poker. She wasn’t a 10 in normal parlance, probably closer to a 7.5 or 8, but she had what Jordan likes in a woman: all her teeth and petite enough to know I could take her in a fight. Of course, this old dog is married, so her presence at the table, after being noted, was largely academic. I’m like a hunter on a photo expedition, look, but don’t touch. (If I were Satan I would continue, Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, but don’t swallow! And while you are jumping from one foot to the next, what is God doing? He’s laughing his fucking ass off!)

I’m a fan of man, Kevin, so I started tight, watching the play. I wasn’t happy about shelling out $60 on a $20 tourney I was late for, so I wanted to figure out if this was a pushfest or a tight rebuy game before I started rebuying like mad. At other tables, I heard, “REBUY!” seemingly every other hand, but my table was kinda quiet, thanks in large part to Eeyore and Keenan.

When I heard the announcement that there was only 15 minutes left to rebuy, I made a silent pact with myself to begin pushing like mad. I was down to probably half of my starting stack, so from EP, I pushed with K6o. It folded around while I acted all super strong in an absurd manner. One guy hesitated and I said my popular dick-phrase, “Just fold and nobody gets hurt.” The action ended with BadBlood in the big blind, who had said “I’m calling you with any Ace” about .5 seconds after I pushed. As he considered what to do, he exposed one card, the Ace of Spades. Realizing that I was surely behind, I did what any self-respecting cutter would do and goaded him into calling. “I believe you are committed, sir. Verbal declaration!” He called and showed AKo. I was dominated, so I decided to ham it up more by acting all calm when I said, “Show me a Six.” The first card out was a Six of Spades. The table gasped and the rest were blanks, netting me a sweet double-up. Ironically, I pushed the next two hands, but got no action.

I rebought somewhere in there before the K6o hand, so I was in the game for $80 when I bought the add-on. Truth be told, I hate charity events, because I can’t help but think that if I were to cash, I’d be disappointed that my hard work was for only a fraction of the usual payoff. Sorry, charities, but I am biased against you. Most donations are spent on infrastructure, which means that the money is not going to clothes kids in Cambodia; it’s actually going to the Team Building Retreat that the staffers take to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. If not that, it is going to the colored paper clips that the receptionist thinks look cute or getting the second urinal fixed. I’m not saying that was the case with this event. Hardly. But I am biased to these things.

So, with that in mind, after the rebuy period ended, I tried to bust out as soon as possible. At least that’s my story.

The actual hand went like this. Keenan, who was harumphing with the best of them as he limp-folded repeatedly to raises, decided to open-push from early position for 7000. BadBlood, sitting on a mighty stack, called. I decided to over-push for 12,000 with my AKo. I figured Keenan had a top hand because he had been playing so cautiously, and that Blood with his big stack would call. As long as I could beat Blood, I could win the 10k sidepot and only lose 2k on the hand, so it seemed like a great move at the time. We all showed our cards. I had AKo, Blood had 88, and Keenan had AQ. Sure enough, a Queen flops and I get no help, thus losing the pot and busting out as the first bustee after the bubble.

Oh, well, I thought. I strolled around the room and hung out with RecessRampage who had arrived late and chosen not to play. I started a prop bet with one of the locals, Millerd. He’s a white dude, about my age, and a helluva loud mouth, something I can appreciate. In fact, his poker style reminds me a lot of myself, if I were turned up to 11. I’m sure it was grating on some of the other players during the cash game, but I found it amusing. Recess, Millerd and I each chose three horses in the tournament. I chose BadBlood, Falstaff, and some random kid with a big stack sitting at Falstaff’s table. In the end, my two horses, Staff and the kid, lasted the longest, but I never collected on my bet.

After a while, we got a cash game going, with a starting line-up that included me, Recess, Millerd, Astin, Dawn, Vinnay, and some other assorted locals and bloggers. Vinnay completely spanked me in the early goings when I flopped an improbable two pair (with K6 on an AK6 board), only for him to spike two pair on the river with A3o. The way the hand progressed, I was worried that he had spiked a better two pair on the flop, and instead I gave him an opportunity to hit in on the river. A few hands later, we got all-in on a baby flop with my QQ vs. his KK. Sonuva! I was felted, so I rebought another $100 buy-in at the .50/1 NLHE game.

I saved one hand from the game, a real doozy between me and Astin. I straddled for $2, and Millerd, to my immediate left, re-straddled for $4. Everyone folded around to Astin, in LP (CO or button), who opted to raise to $12. It folded to me and I couldn’t just hand the money to Astin, who I felt was likely playing position. By now, I had looked at my cards, T6s. It’s hardly a strong hand, but it had some potential and if I were to hit, any hit would be well hidden. I called and then Millerd called as well. Knowing his game, he could have any two cards.

The flop was K9x. I think the x was a 7, giving me an inside straight draw. I checked, expecting that someone would bet and I would fold. My expectations, though, were presently surprised when both players checked. Nothing gave me the sense that they were playing coy either. None of us were too happy with that flop.

The turn was a Queen. I opted for a $15 bet. I was telling a story: Guy straddles and calls a raise, which means he has a marginal hand or better, since he is out of position. Maybe he has ATC, since it is me. He hits the flop, probably the King, but decides to check out of position so he can get some action from the other players. When they check the flop, he makes a small-ish value bet to get more money in the pot.

That’s the story I was telling, hopefully. I figured it would be aided by the fact that both players seemed to give up on the flop. If neither had the King, for top pair, then they would probably both fold the fishy-looking turn bet.

Well, it worked on Millerd, who had probably mentally checked out of the hand on the flop, but Astin took his time, finally opting to call. I may have goaded him on a bit too, acting strong, since I was weak. It’s a classic move, but I sometimes do it openly with people who have been watching me or know my reputation. I’ll act strong whether I have it or not.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, too. RecessRampage was the MVP of this hand and he wasn’t even in the action. There was a lot of loose table talk and Recess, sitting to the left of Astin, was opinion about how I might have JT. The more he said it, the more Astin seemed convinced. At first I thought my story was pure shite, but when JT came into play, my strong act seemed more plausible. Loose player calls with JT after he straddles…makes sense. Checks the inside straight draw on the flop…sure. Bets a small-ish amount when he hits his miracle staight…everything checks out. It looked like Astin was considering a re-raise, which would naturally force me to fold, but Recess’ chat seemed to slow him down, and he eventually called with a look on his face that told me he was not happy with the uncertainty of the situation.

Once Astin called, we saw the river, another King. If nothing else, it offered furthere assurance that Astin didn’t have a King. I had pretty much felt that way anyway, so I considered my options. I couldn’t possibly just check, because I couldn’t win the hand at showdown, so I had to decide how much to bet to signal that I had a strong hand without sticking too much of my neck out there in case Astin was mentally sharpening his axe to cut me down to size. For all I know, he flopped a set, slowplayed the flop, was scared of a straight on the turn and was now licking his chops at his rivered full house. I bet $35, an amount that signals strength without putting too much on the line. If I were to bet more, it may look like I want him to fold. If I bet too small, he might think it’s worth a call because I had a loose range. I guess I hit the sweetspot though, because he eventually folded and I showed my cards. I mean, I had to, right? It not only rubs a little salt in the wound (nothing personal), but it also advertises to my audience that I’m playing ATC.

The rest of the game was pretty quiet for me. In the end, I left -$10 in the cash game, not bad since I was -$100 at one point. Amazingly, not long after my play, Millerd played almost the exact bluff against Astin, succeeding as well. And, naturally, he showed as well, because showboating players like Millerd and I don’t know any better.

At 2am, Alceste was getting fatigued so we hit the road and returned to our flea bag hotel. The rest of the trip consisted of a lot of drinking and spending time with people who share common interests and values. Suffice it to say that I feel a genuine kinship with this group that I sometimes forget when I’m back in NY. With a trip to LV in December coming up, though, I’m looking forward to more shenanigans.

Until next time, make mine poker!

I bet $25 at Bodog on John McCain winning the presidency. This way, if he wins, I at least have one reason to rejoice. Plus at +225, it’s a helluva bargain. Nobody knows fucking up elections like the Democrats.