High On Poker

All aboard the High on Poker Express. Next stop, TUNA CLUB!

I am on FIYAH! Last night, I decided to return to Tuna Club for their weekly Thursday $20 Rebuy. The crowd was pretty thin, but by the time the game was in full swing, we had about 15 players spread over two tables. I, fortunately, was seated at the crazy table. A couple of the players were willing to gamble it up, myself included, so in no time, we ended up with large stacks of chips. Or, more accurately, I ended up with a large stack of chips.

I started with a double buy-in with the $10 dealer toke for 5000 chips. I played fairly conservatively while I got a feel for how my opponents would play the rebuy. We eventually got two new players, a guy who looked like a young Uncle Fester and one of the room’s dealers, a white kid whose birthday it was (why does this sentence feel so awkward? moving right along…). Those two players really loosened our table, and I eventually decided to throw my hat into the ring when I was dealt KQh and faced the 5th raise out of 6 hands from Fester, who was on my right. I called after learning from his hands with Birthday Boy that Fester was making these raises with a wide range, including weak Aces. It folded to the BB, a big black guy who I’ll just call Busta because I’m racist like that and he reminded me of a cleaner cut Busta Rhymes. Busta seemed to be the kinda guy who was playing tight, but was willing to play overaggressively against the loose players, essentially vying for his piece of the party. He pushed all-in for maybe a half stack or so, around 2.5k. Fester folded and I took a moment before deciding I was ready and willing to gamble. After all, it was a rebuy period, and I was willing to rebuy as necessary.

I called and Busta showed A8h. My flush draw was dead, but I flopped a Queen and took his first buy-in and the preflop raise by Fester, giving me a 9k or so stack.

The next major hand pretty much made the game for me. Birthday Boy was “throwing a party”, a poker term for giving your chips away at the table. Basically, Fester would raise and Birthday Boy would push all-in with any two cards. I mean any two. 47c sorta hands. I held AA in EP and Fester was UTG. He surprisingly limped, but this had happened before and was still met with the Birthday Boy all-in. Birthday Boy had meanwhile loosened up the rest of the table with his antics, except for maybe one player who seemed to have tightened up.

After Fester limped, I decided to limp as well, hoping to induce an all-in. I didn’t want to push and hope for a call because I was playing tight, having not raised preflop once (that I can recall), so an open push would look mighty suspicious and probably scare away the party. Amazingly, though, Birthday Boy limped, and the action folded to Busta, who was once again in one of the blinds. Thankfully, someone was listening to my prayers and Busta pushed all-in. Busta probably had about 4k or so and I had about 9k, but to my right, Fester had felted Birthday Boy so many times that he had at least 7.5k. Then he pushed all-in on top of Busta. What’s a man with AA to do? Push all-in on top, of course. Birthday Boy also pushed and we were four handed, my AA vs. Busta’s TT vs. Birthday Boy’s 34h vs. Fester’s suited connectors or gappers. By the river, there were a ton of draws, but I dodged them all to become a mega-stack that allowed me to coast to the final table. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t go into vault mode and lock down my chips, but I had enough to splash around.

Fester, meanwhile, was gathering last longer bets, something that would usually suck in a rebuy tournament. With such a low buy-in ($20), I wanted to see lots of rebuys to build the prize pool (which, incidentally, already had $300 added by the house). The last longer bets were to see who would need a rebuy first, so it should’ve encouraged more conservative play, but Fester was a mad man, and he still didn’t let up. I felted him at least 2 more times, one of which when I called some hefty raises with a low flush draw and had to make a tough call on the turn with one card to come. Fester was asking for the call, literally, so I gave it to him and luckily hit my flush on the river. Billy the Dealer, who was also playing the tourney, earned $40 in last longers against Fester thanks to me.

Once the rebuy period was over, Busta had made up some ground, hovering at a little over 20k. I had about 27k. Billy had chipped up to probably 17k. The rest of the table, though, were at 10k or less, and only then because of the 3k add-on, which I elected to skip.

I basically had to tighten up as the blind continued to climb and my cards went to crap. When we reached the final table, there were a few people close to me, including Billy and Busta, and soon, they had surpassed me. Whereas I remained tight, they seemed to sling their chips more freely. It may’ve been that they were more fearless or aggressive, but it was just as likely that they were getting decent cards whereas I was not.

I tried to take a stab at a few pots but failed miserably. I eventually had to opt to wait out the small stacks, including one guy who had come back twice from having one blind left or less. As I waited everyone out, my stack dwindled and blinds began to escalate rapidly. We were down to five players left and I was probably the short stack, with about 20k left but blinds of 1500/3000. There were two other players in the 25-30k range and two players in the 45-50k range.

Birthday Boy was riding the rail and suggested a five way chop because his ride was one of the five left and he wanted to get out of there. The chop would equal about $350. I said I would agree, but I doubt the big stacks would. Billy, one of the big stacks, agreed that he would want more money. There was some haggling, but nothing was going anywhere, so I said, “So then, let’s just play it. This is going to be over in 15 mins anyway with these blinds.” I meant it too. The blinds were so high that it’d be over in no time, and I wanted decent money for my troubles.

We played another orbit, at which point one of the other shorties made up some ground and I won a hand or two to pump my stack up a tiny bit (just blinds, as I was in push/fold mode). There was some more talk, and the newly pumped shortstack insisted on $300 to make a deal. I joined him in asking for that sum. I only paid $50, so that would be a nice $250 profit, lock in some money and keep my streak alive. It was also probably more than fair to sell my precarious stack. We struck a deal with the three shorties (myself included) receiving $300 each and the big stacks getting a litted under $450. And that’s how I cashed in my 4th Tuna Tourney in a row.

$1000, $490, $490, and now $250. That makes over $2000 in profit from four tourneys in a row at Tuna Club. This is the part where people get nervous about being jinxed by discussing their success, but I plan on riding this hot streak for as long as possible, jinx or no jinx.

My yearly goal, which I failed to reach last year, is well within reach. With New Orleans in late November and AC and Vegas in December, I have more than enough opportunit to close the gap on my goal. And if those venues don’t do it, there is still plenty of Tuna to be had.

Another fine live tourney win, brought to you by High on Poker!

*A special thanks to Lucypher for reminding me of CHOO CHOO, the new BOOM!

Hey folks. I’ve done a great job keeping away from online poker, but that’s all about to go down the drains. Does anyone know how to get US $ onto PokerStars? I would be willing to swap with cash via PayPal or some other means. I’m really just looking for a small sum, $50 or $100 at most. Any takers?

Until next time, make mine poker!

First off, the new HighOnPoker.com (not currently visible at that address) is coming along nicely. I’m no pro when it comes to web design, but I’m a tinkerer by nature, so I’ve been playing around with my new template html code and tweaking things here and there, even though I have barely an understanding as to what I am changing and why. It’s a bit of a try-this, try-that approach, but I love every bit of it. The way things are going, the new HighOnPoker.com (all the same content, but now with more .COM!) should be ready for its debut by next week’s debutante ball.

In other news, I decided to play the Mookie last night, a weekly Wednesday blogger tournament at 10pm EST. I was broke on FullTilt so I decided to float around the webs looking for fellow bloggers who could lend me a dime (I have money coming into FT today, but that would be too late for yesterday’s tournament). All I can say is that I am not the only broke blogger out there in online poker land. It seems like a lot of my contemporaries withdrew their bankrolls or have otherwise depleted their ammunition supplies. Thankfully, I eventually found someone who actually could help me out, Julius Goat. Another special thanks to Woffles, who amazingly was also willing and able to help out (one of the few non-broke bloggers I spoke to yesterday), but was unavailable, since he was at his office at the time.

Of course, I should’ve just saved the $11 and 2 minutes. In the first hand, I was in the SB and BuddyDank in MP min-raised. I held 45o, a donk of a hand, but since I was in for 15 already and only needed to call 45 into a 165 or so pot (there was one caller in LP), I called, expecting to fold on a crappy flop. The flop was 456 with two hearts, so I flopped bottom two, which was not bad in this situation. I checked, probably an error, but after Dank bet out, I decided to just call with my two-pair. The turn was another 5. Sweet! Suddenly the flush and straight possibilities didn’t scare me as I had an improbable full house. I checked again and Dank bet. I min-raised this time, hoping to keep him in the pot but build it while he was either still flush drawing or, conversely, still not fearful of the flush (i.e., if the river was a flush card and he didn’t have the flush, he would check or fold). He called. The river was a 9 or something. I took my time. We had about 1900 left, so I bet out 800, thinking that would entice a call from some weaker hands, since I was not forcing him all-in. He pushed and I figured I got him to push with an overpair or even a straight or something, but after I called, I learned that I was behind the whole way to his 66 (flopped set, turned better full house). “This game is stupid anyway.” And then I made my exit.

What’s the lesson here? It could be that I need to consider superior full houses before I ship it in. It could be that sometimes you just face coolers and have to live with it. But to me, the lesson is that you should not play weak hands preflop because even when they hit, they can be vulnerable.

I learned something else, too. After that hand, I was steaming so I shut down FT. Yet that wasn’t a hand worth steaming about. In contrast, when I play live, I rarely am bothered by bad beats or coolers. I think I am more conscious live that if I act upset, others will pick up on it and attack me more. I usually give off a tongue-in-cheek, “This is Bullshit!” just to show my live audience that I find these things humorous. It usually gets a chuckle and people are focused on how relaxed I am about losing a hand rather than the fact that I lost.

Two times ago, for instance, I lost a hand when my opponent hit a one or two outter. Of course, the money went all-in preflop on a cointoss, but I flopped a strong hand and by the river, I was nearly a lock. Nearly. When my opponent hit his out, I barked, “This is Bullshit!” All the while I was smiling and clearly play-acting that I was upset. One of the guys across the table mentioned later that most people would’ve been a lot more upset about the hand. True, I suppose, but what was there to be upset about. No matter how it ended up, when the money went in, it was a cointoss. Everything after that is style, not content.

If all goes well, I will be heading to the Tuna Club tonight for their $20 Rebuy tournament. I don’t have nearly as much success in that tournament, as compared to the weekly Sunday freezeout, but I’ve been hot, so I’d like to get in there and mix things up. Wish me luck.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Tuna-scented money. I returned to the Tuna Club this afternoon, hoping the threepeat after winning the same tourney the last two weekends for scores of $1000 and 500 profit, respectively. And threepeat I did, chopping the tournament four ways for $650, a $490 profit. Even though we chopped it four-ways, I took 1/3 of the pool, since the two shorties agreed to chop a third between them. Ka ching!

Once again, the game just flowed naturally. Early on, I won two decent pots, the first with JJ against a calling station and the second with JT, after I flopped TP and got into it with the player on my immediate left who ended up outkicked with J9.

I did notice, though, that somewhere in the middle stages of the tournament, I was limping in way too much and folding to action. It’s one thing to see it and another thing to actually stop it. At the first break, I was my table’s chipleader. There were only 13 players (and 2 rebuys amongst the 13), so we were playing on two shorthanded tables for the beginning of the game. That definitely played to my strengths, since I like to play a lot of hands and I could focus my reads on the few players at the table.

There were a few familiar faces. I really would love to go into the details of the players, but I fear they may find or already know about HoP. But what is the point of a poker blog if I can’t be honest, so here goes, with my advance apologies to my opponents and to myself for giving away a lot of my reads.

In the 1s was Fedora, a caucasian guy in his early 30s who often brings or wears a fedora. I have a lot of respect for Fedora’s game. He’s aggressive and willing to make moves. He’s not an ideal player to have at your table, but at least I know his abilities.

To his left was Old Dirty Angleshooter, who I played with last week. ODA is pretty tight, loves to complain and question play, and is generally a pain in the ass. But he’s also a known entity and he was as far away from me physically as possible, so I was glad to see him. He’s practially a non-factor.

To his left was a chick. I don’t know how to describe her, really. She’s white, probably 20s but could be 30s, short dark hair. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been pretty friendly and since I’ve played with her a lot recently, I also knew her general style. She’s another decent player, but I know her rhythm and abilities, so she’s not a bad person to have around.

To her left was a black guy who kinda reminded me of a skinnier Donnell Rawlings. Donnell was one of those players who share too much. In one particular hand, he had black Aces and when ODA raised him all-in on a board of JcTd9c5c, he held his cards up high enough to obviously show them to me. I see this a lot. People want to share their misery. He made a big show about his decision before folding. He only had 1500 left behind, with blinds probably at 50/100 or 75/150. Before Donnell folded he asked, “Will you show it to me if I fold?” ODA agreed. After Donnell folded his Aces face-up, ODA tabled QQ, with no diamond. Donnell tortured himself and most of the table agreed that he made a bad laydown, but I don’t agree with popular opinion. I, frankly, thought that ODA might have QQ or KK, but regardless, it was too likely that he had a flush or a flush draw, which could be fatal since Donnell would have to be all-in. ODA wasn’t the type to go all-in lightly, so for all of his chips, I thought the fold was ok.

I was to the left of Donnell. To my left was a white guy with I think a foreign accent. He was thin and shaved bald, wearing a white hoodie or jacket. We made friendly and got along for most of the tourney. At one point, he was down to one BB at the 75/150 level, but made a big comeback, before his eventual elimination in a terrible suckout of a hand. He went out when we were down to 9 players. He held AJ on an A7J flop. UTG pushed all-in, the chick was next and also pushed all-in, and the bald dude pushed all-in last. Baldy’s AJ against UTG’s A7 (lesser two pair) and chickie’s AT. The river was another 7 and UTG took out both of the other players.

Il Gigante was in the 10s at my starting table. He is an Italian guy who is a bit awkwardly tall and lanky. He is also very aggressive at times, openly raising with AT or KJ for large sums. He was also calling liberally pre and post-flop only to open bet big on the next card. He did this enough times that I was thoroughly frustrated. It didn’t help that he was two seats to my left. But once you know a player’s M.O., frustration has to take a back seat to strategy, and I eventually was able to compensate for his play.

I think I sorta relearned something during the course of play. As I mentioned, I was limp-folding a lot, and I think this caused me to develop a weak table image. I found that as I “played” weaker and weaker, dropping hands to raises, I was pretty much asking for the table to run over me. Ostensibly, that seems like a bad thing, but I have always maintained that it is more important to understand your table image and know how to exploit it rather than control your table image (something I also advocate).

Of course, luck helps a tad too. I had one suckout for the tourney, when I was down to about 6k or so with blinds of 300/600 with a 25 or 50 ante. I held TT and pushed all-in over the bet of the guy on my immediate right at the final table. He had been fairly aggressive, opening a lot of pots to raises, so his 1,800 preflop raise did not concern me much. When it folded back to him, he took his time making his decision, probably looking for a tell, and eventually called with QQ. Lord knows what took him so long. Of course, the first community card was a Ten, and I doubled through him.

But my weak image really paid off a little while later. I had about 13k or so and held KK. The guy to my right once again raised preflop to 1,800 and I re-raised to 5k, even. It folded around to him and he called. The flop was Q22, which was pretty nice for me. The only thing I need to fear is QQ.

He was first to act and bet out 2,400 or so. I pushed all-in for about 5k more. It folded back to him and he grumbled. It was then that I knew I wanted a call. In fact, I desperately wanted a call, since this would be the difference between a solid stack and a monster stack with five players left. At first, I tried to keep uber quiet and still. Then I remembered that when you want a call and it seems like you are going to get a fold, you might as well do something, since you have nothing to lose. At first, I just tried to act very nervous. I looked away from the table as though I were afraid to make eye contact. I took a sip of my water. When I felt that wasn’t working, I decided to jabber a bit. I don’t recall what I said, but it got my opponent to start talking. “If I fold, will you show?”

Now, that’s the same line that Donnell asked ODA earlier in the game. “If I fold, will you show?” In fact, it’s a common question at poker games, and while I am not 100% sure, I am fairly sure I see a correllation between the answers and the questioners response. Basically, if you agree to show, the player will fold. I suppose it is because they get the extra incentive to fold, that incentive being the ability to say, “Good for me!” or “I shoulda known better!” Really, it just boils down to information. “I don’t have to pay and I still get the info? In that case, I fold.” I think there is a fear component too. If a player is willing to fold, its more likely that he is going to voluntarily show good cards, rather than showing a bluff. On the other hand, when a player says that they will not show, it’s more likely that they are trying to hide their weak hand or bluff from public scrutiny.

Now, ironically, I’m not one of those players who is adamant about not showing. I think showing is okay if there is a legitimate reason for it, like controlling table image or tilting an opponent. But when the guy asked me if I’d show, I said, “Sorry, you have to pay to play.” He called about 5 seconds later and tabled his 77. He needed another 7 and only another 7 to win the pot, but by the river, I hit my third King for a boat, Kings full of Queens, and the winning hand.

By then, my opponent was near even with me, and after doubling through him, he was on life support and eventually busted. Down to four players, it was me; a guy who I’ll call Joe Cool because frankly he gives off a very cool vibe and he’s a good poker player; Harris the Dentist, who I’ve played with a ton at these games and who I respect as a solid player and nice guy; and the Cabbie, a white guy in his 30s, overweight, who tends to wear a cabbie cap. Cabbie is another good player but always has a look on his face as though he were smelling something aweful.

Cabbie and Harris had about 13k each. I had 27k. Joe Cool had 26k. Cabbie started asking about a “save” for fourth place. I hate this shit. There were three spots paying, $1000, $580 and $370, for a total prize pool fo $1,950. A save would essentially involve taking money from first and second to make a fourth place spot that paid the buy-in back, $160. I never understand why a large stack would ever make that deal. “Hey Jordan, mind if we take money out of your pocket and give it to someone else, to protect you from the 1% chance that all catastrophe will befall you and you will go out next?” Yes, I do mind. I’m here for the money.

And that’s what I told Cabbie. “I’m here for the money. I don’t see any point of just giving it away.” It was about 6:30 and we had been playing for 3 1/2 hours. Cabbie kept trying to push the save and even referenced that “he,” being me, wouldn’t agree, as though I were doing something morally reprehensible. I’m not against chopping, but I am against giving away free money, so I proposed, “I’m in for a final chop if we can work something out, but I don’t do saves.” It’s the difference between giving away money and paying someone off. I won’t give away money so that fourth place can feel good about themselves, but I will pay off fourth place so that I can ensure myself some good money.

Since stack sizes were what they were, we eventually agreed to chop it into thirds, $650, 650 and 650, with me and Joe Cool getting our own $650 and Harris and the Cabbie sharing the other $650. And that’s how I came to win $490 for the second week in a row and about $2000 over the last three Sundays at the Tuna Club.

One more thing about “saves”. After the game, I was chatting with dealer Dre and he agreed with me that he hates saves. Our conversation brought out another point: a save is like giving permission to the short stacks to play reckless, and I don’t want the shortstacks to play reckless, especially in a high-blinds situation. It doesn’t take much to double up. Hell, if Cabbie decided to push recklessly with KJo and I have AQ or 99, I’d have to call, and I don’t want to be in that position to double him up. On the other hand, if he’s scared of getting $0 for 4th place, he may be more inclined to fold, allowing me to build my stack up even more by playing aggressively.

Consider those factors the next time you are asked for a “save”. The only thing you are saving is your opponent.

Until next time, make mine poker!

FYI, for any Harrahs Reward card members, I just booked my room for Vegas on the weekend of December 11 at the Imperial Palace for FREE. Free weekend room? Don’t mind if I do.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Cycles, folks. Poker is all about cycles. Or more accurately, my love of poker is more about cycles. There are times when I don’t feel as “into” the game as I did in the past, but if I wait long enough, that fervor comes back. And baby, it’s back.

I haven’t been able to play too much. I have dabbled online here or there, but very sporadically. Now, if it is past 9pm, I’ll just skip the online game. I’d rather spend my time watching crappy fall television and I don’t want to feel time pressures or that old feeling of “why am I playing this” when midnight rolls around.

That said, while I continue to ween myself from online poker, I have also caught myself watching televised poker more and more.

Kudos to the folks at the WSOP and ESPN, because this season of the WSOP has been fantastic. I first got into hold’em by accidentally stumbling upon a WPT broadcast. At the time, I thought, “Who would watch this shit?” and then watched an hour before taping the next hour. But as is natural, after a while I stopped watching poker on the TV. If I saw poker or was in the mood for poker, I would simply go online and actually play.

Since I cut down on my online play and I still only play live maybe once per week, I decided to check out a recent episode of the WSOP Main Event. I really wanted to play poker, but since I knew that wasn’t an option (it was very late on a weeknight), I figured I’d watch a hand or two.

Since then, I’ve taped every new episode and even found some old PLO episodes from years past playing on ESPN Classic. DVR is the shiznittle, people. With a few clicks, I can find every poker related show and tape them with ease. The result is a lot more televised poker.

Sadly, televised poker is pretty much the extent of my poker, lately. But it’s only a matter of time before I get my hands dirty again with some live poker action. If all goes well, I will be attempting a three-peat this weekend at the Tuna Club for their Sunday tournament. Wifey Kim and I are heading to New Orleans in November for a Speech Hearing conference for the wifey. While she learns her trade, I’ll be learning mine at the nearby Harrahs casino.

December has two poker trips. The first is to Vegas on my birthday weekend, December 11, for the Winter Blogger Gathering (that sounds so W.o.W.). I’m totally solo so far, with no hotel booked. If someone is looking for a roomie, let me know. I may choose to room solo, since its so cheap, but I’m open to ideas. Also, where is everyone staying?

Later in December, I’m back in AC for another Very Jewish Christmas Special featuring Dave Roose and the High on Poker Players.

So, it isn’t so bad. In the meanwhile, I’ll try to get some more games in at Tuna, where there is always lots of delicious fish upon which to feast.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Hey folks. Allow me a non-poker moment to offer my thanks to a former blogger/current friend for helping me with a little blogger project. Basically, folks, if all goes well, I’ll be leaving my old blogspot address behind, and hopefully lighting a match on the way out. But the only way for this to go smoothly is with the help of my bud, Kipper, and hopefully a little favor from some of you.

Here’s the lowdown. Google screwed a bunch of bloggers several months (or maybe a year) ago when Google realized that some blogger.com users were selling advertising on their blogs. This was a problem for Google because (a) Google wants blogger.com user sites to be limited to Google AdSense for advertising, and (b) the Terms & Conditions actually prohibited the practice of selling ads.

So what did Google do? It destroyed a bunch of blogs’ Page Ranks. Page Rank is basically a number that Google’s search algorithm assigns to each site, based on incoming links and other factors. In the past, if you searched for “High on Poker” on Google, my site would come up first or near first, mostly because I had a decent amount of incoming links AND my site is called High on Poker. So, when I’d meet people at the tables or in AC and I wanted to tell them about the blog, I’d tell them to search High on Poker to find the site. The other benefit is that when people searched topics I had written about, HoP’s decent Page Rank meant that my site would pop up in the searches. By destroying my Page Rank, though, I am pretty much unfindable via search engine. Go to Google right now and try it. High on Poker will result in pages of “High Stakes Poker”. The first reference to the actual HoP site appears on Page 2, but even that is not for HoP, but for a blog compendium site that references my posts. HoP doesn’t show up until the very last link on Page 4. Now that’s just fucked up. After all, if people know of HoP and want to find HoP, shouldn’t they be able to do so? Google doesn’t think so.

A bit of a disclaimer. By now, some of you are thinking, “Is that all you care about Jordan? Page rank, search engines and advertising?” The simple answer is No. I continued blogging here after this BS went down and did not fight it with Google, since I know its pointless. And I probably would’ve gone on posting here, since this has always been about having an outlet for my poker thoughts. However, since I purchased HighOnPoker.com, I figured it was time for me to escape my Google overlords and move HoP to a place that people can actually find it. It’s not about the search engines or the ads, it’s about being accessible, because what’s the point of a blog if no one can find it.

So, that’s where Kipper came in. He offered to help me escape Google, and I accepted his help. In the next few weeks, hopefully I’ll be moving to a new permanent home where I can be free of the shackles of corporate governance.

But this is where I need your help, fellow bloggers. If you can take the time to update your links from highonpoker.blogspot.com or highonpoker.net to highonpoker.com, it would be greatly appreciated. Only through your help can I escape the tyrrany of Google and be seen once again by the public who only know HoP by name or may be interested in poker but do not know about poker blogs or HoP.

Won’t you help me…friend?

Until next time, make mine poker!

Another Tuna Club tournament, another win. This time, I chopped the top three spots with one of the three of us getting $390 and the other two (myself included) receiving $650, basically a $490 profit.

I feel so in tune with this particular game and these particular players. It helps that we had slightly too many for one table (11 players), so we started shorthanded on two tables with a lot of dead stacks that new players could buy within the first three levels.

Shorthanded poker is my bread and butter. There is so much more game to be played, and I like to mix it up when I can. I’ve really come to realize that the best way to “read” players is to simply gauge whether they are comfortable or not. That takes a lot of things into account, but it also cuts through a lot of the bullshit and gets to the heart of the matter.

Interestingly, this was another tournament where I didn’t have amazing cards. Last time, I mentioned two late KK hands, but those were the only big pocket pairs I had. This time, my highest pocket pair was JJ and it lost when I called an all-in from a shorter stack who ended up holding A7h. Lemon! By then, we were five or six handed and I was a big enough stack that, while disappointing, the loss wasn’t disastrous.

Table chatter was interesting today. In one hand, I showed my 27o when I raised preflop 3x the BB UTG and everyone folded. I was on a rush of winning hands, so I decided to use the momentum. We were also shorthanded with maybe five players, so there wasn’t many players to push out of the pot. When I showed, I wasn’t flashy. I just put my cards face up and quietly placed them down.

Across the table was this dude who I busted the last week when my J3o took out his KK. He basically slowplayed until I made trip 3s. When I showed my 27o, he said, “Wow, you’re amazing. You bluffed out four people.” He was speaking fairly quietly, but I decided to respond, “Yeah, all skill. I’m putting on a master class.” It was clear from my tone that I was speaking very tongue-in-cheek. Of course, you show the hammer for this very reaction. Tilt factor is definitely in play. But my comment was meant to sound like I was on his side, mostly because while I want them tilting, I don’t want them to have a bad time. It’s a fine line.

I ended up busting the guy with my JTd vs. his AKo. Preflop, I think I limped in position and he raised. I called because I got the sense the entire game that he wanted vengeance against me, and I like it when players target me. It usually backfires. It also helped that I had enough chips at this point to lose a couple without a care.

The flop was AK8. He checked, so I checked. The turn was a blank. Check-check. The river was a Queen. I believe he bet out most of his stack but not all of it. I paused for a moment and did some hollywooding. I wanted him to feel comfortable calling all-in, but I was afraid he had nothing and was just betting at it to try to win it against me. I asked him how much he had behind, and once he told me, I paused and then announced, “All in.” He called and I took down the pot with the nuts.

An old guy was at the table, probably mid- to late-60s, white, portly, with darkened glasses and thinning, pulled-back hair. I had seen him around and assumed he knew how to play based on age alone. The guy actually pulled some angleshooting earlier in the game, insisting that a botched hand meant he got his big blind back, even though he had already folded. Basically, UTG limped, MP raised, the SB and the old guy in the BB folded, and the dealer took all the discarded cards and put them into the deck, assuming the hand was over. Since UTG had limped, the hand wasn’t over. The floor was called and at first, the players agreed that UTG could take the limp back and the next hand would be dealt. But once the old guy saw an opportunity, he claimed it was a dead hand and he should get his BB back and the hand should be redealt. He got his way.

So, after the JT hand, the old guy looks at me and says, “Why did you do that? Why did you ask what he had? You had the nuts. You didn’t have to know.” I looked at this guy with a perplexed face. Either he was shitting me, or he just couldn’t understand level 2 thinking. I replied, “Are you serious?” “You had the nuts.” “Look, guy. I’m not here to give you lessons. You’ve got to be kidding me.” I swear, I said this. I even eventually explained it, just to get him to stop bitching.

What the fuck! I swear, it was a weird table. Maybe it’s just paranoia, but I felt like that old dude and the guy I busted with JT v. AK were gunning for me. I suppose that is to be expected. People don’t like losing, and these older guys probably don’t like a guy like me coming in to a game where they know everyone and just ripping shit up. I’m an invader, an outsider, and I’m taking their money.

So be it. I’m really only there for the money anyway.

Final fun hand. The old guy was hanging onto an shortstack for a very long time. It was pretty much all-in or fold for him for a while, but I guess he worked up his stack enough so that at the 150/300 level, he raised to 900 but still had chips behind him. It folded to me in the SB with A9o. Unfortunately, I thought the old guy was all-in, so I decided to call expecting to have my expenses capped for 5 community cards. The BB folded and I threw my hand out face-up. “OH! He’s not all-in!” someone at the table said. FUCK!

Now, at the beginning of the tourney, the tournament director announced that if you intentionally expose your cards, its a dead hand. I didn’t want to deal with any bickering, so I insisted we get the floor immediately for a ruling. I figured my hand was dead, but someone else said I just had to play face-up, since the old guy and I were the only two players left in the hand when I exposed my cards.

The floor came over and I explained the situation. “I thought he was all-in, so when I called, I turned my cards face-up.” The old guy chimed in, “Now, now. Let’s be honest here. That’s not what happened. You threw your cards in.” Fucking angle shooting fuck! “Are you serious?,” I protested, “Are you trying to angle shoot on me?! You know that wasn’t a muck.” I was just shaking my head, incredulous at this ridiculous man.

The floor ruled: “The hand plays on with the hand exposed.” The decision was made, but the old man got pissy again. By then, I had turned my cards face down. “Hey! You can’t leave your cards like that! They’re exposed!” I was shocked again. “Yeah, guy. You caught me. I’m so clever. I thought you already forgot my A9o already. I tell you what,” I held the cards to my brow and pushed it on hard enough to stick for 2 seconds, “How about this?” The guy next to me laughed along with me. This was such nonsense.

The flop was dealt, Q9x. I pushed all-in, noting that he probably had 4.5k behind and I had well over 17k. He grumbled, “This is such bullshit. You are so lucky.” He then took 2 minutes before folding. “I would’ve expected that to have been an easy decision for you. My cards are face-up.” Yeah, I had to stick one more jab in.

For the most part, I won the game by making some bold calls. I took out some tough competition with coin-tosses once I had a monster stack, secure in the knowledge that I could suffer a loss if need be. I also took out some major competition by making tough calls only to find out I was dominating. It was an easy tourney for the most part. I just did what came naturally.

When we were down to 3, I was about even with one player, and the third player had probably less than half of our stacks. Even so, the blinds were not astronomical, so there was a lot of play left and there were only two spots paying. The deal was reached to ensure me a good profit, just short of $500. Next time, though, I think I’m going to play it out. Out of my 6 wins at Tuna Club (out of 11 attempts this year…I’m over .500!), most were via chop. I believe in the art of the deal. There are definitely times where you can win more with negotiation then you are otherwise entitled to. But I need to actually finish out a tournament. That’s a pretty nice goal to have, though.

Just to recap: Tuna is my bitch.

Until next time, make mine poker!

I’m sitting at a CLE right now. That’s a Continuing Legal Education class. Every year, I am required to take a certain number of credits to keep my bar membership. As you can probably tell by the fact that I am posting in the middle of the damn course, it’s a lot of B.S.

Today is an exciting day. As of today, I’ve been married for four years. Wow! Four years. One of the oddest parts is the fact that I have been posting here over those whole four years. Sometimes, it amazes me that I still have this blog going.

Let’s take a moment to talk about wifey Kim. I am a lucky man. She’s just my type: a hot chick with low standards.

But this is a poker blog, so rather than spend a post just gushing over wifey Kim generally, I’d rather talk about her and poker.

When I was on trial recently, the defense counsel was chatting about golf. His wife plays and to him, that’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, they get to spend time together. On the other hand, the greens fees are twice as large and if he plays, she plays.

This got me thinking about poker and wifey Kim. Some people have asked whether she plays, and when they find out that she doesn’t play, they wonder why. There are a couple of reasons, actually. The first is that I don’t think it’d be as fun for me, and the second is that I don’t think it would be that fun for her.

First, let’s discuss why wifey Kim playing poker is no good for me. Naturally, there is the freedom aspect. Wifey Kim and I are very independent, so she has no qualms with my play. I, in turn, am respectful to her and don’t overdo it. So, that’s not an issue. But it blows my mind when I think of the possible outcomes if wifey Kim and I played poker together.

Scenario 1: I win and she loses. Ergo, effectively, we break even (assuming similar win/loss size). BUT, it would feel like a loss, because even with my win, we don’t reap the benefit of the money. Plus, wifey Kim loses, which would likely disappoint her, and me being the empathetic guy I am would feel bad for her.

Scenario 2: She wins and I lose. Same effect. I feel bummed because I lose. We don’t get any financial benefit.

Scenario 3: We both lose. Misery.

Scenario 4: We both win. And then we likely overspend. It’s amazing how I used to win $100 and then take wifey Kim out to a $120 dinner and splurge for a $20 cab and then go clothes shopping. I shudder just to think of it. Fortunately, the poker wallet fixed this problem. I keep my poker and living money separate. But bring wifey Kim into the game, and that all changes.

So, financially speaking, it doesn’t make sense to teach wifey Kim poker. And entertainment-wise, it also does not make sense, since there are 2 opportunities to lose and three opportunities to be miserable.

The second issue, though, is more important. If this second issue didn’t exist, the first wouldn’t matter. The second issue is simply this: wifey Kim is not made for poker.

Even though we all strive to be great at poker, I sincerely believe that there are certain personality traits that predispose people to be good or bad at poker. Empathy, something that wifey Kim has in spades, is a good trait to have. For those who need a dictionary right now, empathy simply means the ability to understand another person’s feelings. It’s what helps me understand when a player is uncomfortable with their bluff or confident in their nuts. But sympathy, the ability to share the feelings of others, is bad. And wifey Kim has that in spades too.

Simply put, she does not have the killer instinct and competitive nature necessary to really thrive at poker. You need to be willing to crush another person’s soul if that’s what the situation dictates. Wifey Kim is just too nice for that.

So, that’s the complete answer. I have not taught Wifey Kim poker because (a) if we played together, our wins/losses would be tied to each other and poker makes a shitty team sport, and (b) wifey Kim cares too much about her fellow human beings to go for the jugular.

Lest this sound like a negative post about wifey Kim, I should add one thing. Wifey Kim is the best non-poker playing spouse that a poker player could have. She has been unfailingly supportive, has stated unasked that she believes I could be a successful professional poker player, would support my decision to do so, and has shown that support by giving me tons of leway to travel to AC and Vegas without her to follow my love of the game.

Wifey Kim, you are the nuts, plain and simple. (And honey, that’s a compliment.)

Until next time, make mine wifey Kim!