Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

I've gone back to some rules of my cash game that I used to have. I used to have a far better ROI then I have recently live. I need more discipline, plain and simple... Rules I used to live by and will do so again: 1. Limit my buy-ins per sitting. Instead of being prepared to go deeper and deeper into the pocket (UNLESS the table is especially JUICY), I'm back to my limits. Just about everything I've read or heard on the subject says that if you feel you have an opportunity to make money or an edge on the table you should play. It's one long poker game and you want your next hand to be played on a table with an edge. Doesn't matter if the next hand is tomorrow or today. However, I've definitely had bigger losses chasing lost money. Probably I go on a slight tilt at some point after digging in my wallet. Don't know why, but I don't play as well. Bad beats seem to come in batches too. 2. Be prepared to table jump more frequently. If I'm a...

Satellited in. Arrived an hour late. Not on purpose though, assumed because the window didn't open when I was on full tilt the tournament hadn't started. It had. Finally an hour later it opens with my stack shorter and the "I'm Back" button on. What? Doubled up with Aces, which actually held. Got outplayed with a better ace rag then mine. Board had the Ace but was scary and big blind had more guts then me and fired an all in over the top after some action. I'm a nitdonk. From there I literally got a live action zombie session of 83, 72, 29, 49 for about two rounds. Finally, I'm moving with anything before the blinds hit me, and for some reason I'm focused on something else and click fold with what for that table looked like the nuts to me 89 o/s. Argh. The break hits and I'm in the BB for half my stack when I get back. Yeah! I'm a nitdonk can't you read, I've already said that. We return and before the action gets to me w...

Congrats to Big Smooth and now Big Papi. Ray's a daddy. You the man Ray. Also congrats to Ed, my friend from NYC. He has been on fire. He chopped both final tables yesterday, Harrahs 11 am tournament and Boomtown's 7pm tournament. A daily double I've never done. With the bar tournament from the night before he's three for three on this trip. As we been trading 10% of each other he's been paying for my entry fees. Fortunately after I busted at Harrahs, mid 20s, I won some at the cash tables. So, I've freerolled on his back and been winning some in the cash games. He's a little tired of paying his agent after every win. Course I told him if we had set odds for one of the two of us going three for three I probably would have given him 50 to 1 (at best), and bet on me. He quipped, what would have sucked about that bet is he would have won and still have to give me a 10% cut. (This paragraph is soccer related feel free to skip) After I was bumped fro...

BACK TO THE IP>>> I folded a set. Post flop. Yes, I folded a set. Three twos. I told the people next to me I had never done it before, and a guy quiped "Well, now you are a member of that club." Yeah, it's a school of donkfishes. Truth be told I can rationalize the play with pretty good reasons, but ultimately as Dan Harrington said in his book... Only an idiot folds a set, it doesn't matter the rationale. If you lose set over set, you go home and don't think twice about it. Here's the rationale, again... realize I already know I am an idiot. I doubled up on the first hand. I had chips to spare, but if I lost the pot I would be back to even with everybody. I wasn't looking to give up my chip lead. If I fold, I'm still big stack. With 2s and ample chips I limped. Multi-way pot. Bingo there is my third two. EP bets it, one caller, I come over HARD, take this pot right now. EP insta-shoves. MP sits for a while and mucks. EP is o...

Played in the first event. Thought I did well. Ended up in the 60s or 70s out 380 players. They pay 36. Seemed every time I got some momentum I took a beat. Three or four times I had to rebuild my stack after getting snapped back to starting chips. Fun stuff like Ak getting called by A2 for all his chips when we hit an A on the flop. Hello 2 on the river. A critical hand for me had nothing to do with a bad beat. Got Q rag in the big blind. Middle position min raises with one caller. Small blind folds. With the antes I feel I'm getting the right price, plus the raiser and caller are somewhat tight so I can steal when the flop misses my weak holding. Flop gives me nothing, but my image has been so tight I planned on firing away if the texture was weak. It's 10 6 4. Two clubs. Not too bad. As I calculate what to bet and read my opponents, I see both guys double check their hole cards. Hmm... I put this as a good sign. Lots of time in the face of an impending bet...

Went back to the Stone as I mentioned in last week's column. I'll also say this, and sorry to let out the secret for the three or four decent players there but... TURNING STONE IS THE SOFTEST POKER ROOM in the U.S. They mostly spread 1-2 games with max buy-ins of $100, $200, and $500. The $500 table looked pretty good but by the time I got in they all had 5-10 type money. I guess I could have bought in for $500 and kept rebuying but my wallet wasn't that thick (especially after last monday). My friend and I decided to sit down at the $200 table. After I ran a bluff, unsuccessfully, on a guy I was one buy-in deep. I realized this table was mostly going to be showdown poker and tightened up. It was almost insufferable to listen to the strategy conversations going on at the table. These guys made me feel a competent player. I wonder if a top pro ever overheard me and my friends talking and would also want to take a nail gun to their stomach to just end drivel. When gutshot cha...

I'm at Harrahs on Monday night playing some poker against the New Orleans regulars and the folks from Biloxi that come into town to steal from drunk Monday Night Football fans. Sorry Titan fans if we were inhospitable t o you on the felt but you realize you are walking targets, and the entire time you are playing three or four people that barely know one another are exchanging glances about your pisspoor-I-saw-it-on-TV-play and are just sitting there waiting to snap you off when you overplay two facecards or AJ or a low pocket pair. Anyway, I get there early to try and squeeze juice from the walnuts. The walnuts being the other regulars all biding their time until the football game is over and the unhappy or happy drunks show up. Yes, they are a bunch of Martians (very rocky) for the most part like myself, so shown down hands are usually premium holdings vs. one another. Why even bother to get there early? I like the Harrahs Football Box promotion where they give you a score and yo...

Actually not quite. Parked at Harrahs in the afternoon. Booked a small winner went to dinner with my college friend and a work colleague of his. After beers, hand grenades, more beers, watching a group straight from the office T.V. show drink a magnum of hurricane at Pat O's (3 gallons and $175) during their business bonding trip, I headed back to Harrahs. Ran into Raceland Brian and we ended up on the same table. Two things: 1. I was very impressed with his knowledge of live poker and online strategy. 2. I was embarrassed at how poorly I played. I suppose early on I could blame the liquor for three or four just bad calls, and later not betting a flop and protecting my hand, but I rationalized things to myself and still made the bad calls. I just played dumb, no excuses. The table was pretty ripe. There was a kid to our right who called everything, even saying "You can make it $500 but I'm going to see my flops." At one point he told me his was 1400 in. See...

I am a donkey. Played on a very loose aggressive table with a guy raising preflop usually 25 sometimes 15. Everybody calling. My buy in looked feeble next to their stacks. Priced in on draws all night. His continuation bet would usually be 25 with pots already at 125-150 and my open ended straight draw or nut flush draws out there. By the time it'd get to me in position 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 3 would call putting it between 175-225 on a 3-1 shot. Then he'd keep pricing us in with tiny raises on the turn. Needless to say they didn't hit or I wouldn't be calling myself a donkey. Still, those early misses told me what kind of night it was going to be. I get it in later with two pair and a guy catches an Ace on the river for a higher two pair (A4s). Rebuy. Things go alright. In early positon with KK (limp), out of control raiser limps this time (1 out of 10 times he limps) and his buddies almost out of control raisers also limp. Okay, 6 in I have to fold to an...

Played some morning poker. Came in 6th at Boomtown's tournament. Some highlights: Limp with pocket 4s (late position, blinds are 200-400), 5 in the hand. Flop is J84 (two clubs). First guy bets 400, second guy calls, third guy raises to 1k, 4th guy calls. I push all in (4K more), first guy calls (I have him chipped), second guy calls (we both have him chipped), 3rd guy stews forever (he bumped it to 1k!) and folds what I think is a flush draw, 4th guy calls (we all have him outchipped). Turn them over: AJ o/s, KK, A4, and my set of 4s. Guy that folded was indeed on the flush draw. He would have hit it but I boated up. Would have been sweet to take him out too as I don't think I've ever busted 4 players at once. I don't know if I've ever busted three at once (not counting SNGs or online) as it is. I also went through a stretch where I nailed every single flop only to get counterfeited. It was unreal. I thought not hitting a flop for an hour or so straight was bad eno...