It's been a while since I updated here, so here goes.

Last week was a big pile of hosing. I went somewhat deep into the $2500 mixed limit/no limit event, with 50% more than average chips at dinner, partly from picking off bluffs. But then I picked a rather dumb time to bluff myself and was out. Some hands:

I open raise on the button in limit with 22, Victor Ramdin tells me I have K high and three bets me. I call. Flop is T84r, he bets, I call. Turn is another 4, he checks, I should check behind but I bet, and now he check-raises. I decide it's worth two more big bets to see if he's bluffing, so I call the turn and the river, and he shows down KQ no pair. I explain to the table that they should refrain from trying to bluff me.

A few hands later, 100-200 no limit, I open for 525 late with 75s, Victor cold calls on the button. Flop is T63r, and I decide to check instead of betting my gutshot, and Victor checks behind. Turn is a 2, check check. River is a 7, and I value bet my pair for 600. Victor now raises 1000 more with like 1400 back. Odd... I don't really see how he could have a hand other than like TT or 33, and a bluff sure seems more likely. So I call and he raps the table and my hand is good.

Much later, I'm in the 800 bb in no limit with 18000 back, big stack opens for 1950, button who just has me covered call, and I defend with 97s. Flop is K86, checked around. Turn is a Q, I check, big stack bets out 2000, button raises to 6200, and I think my stack is a good size for a resteal and jam my straight draw. But actually this really isn't a good spot -- the button has shown a lot of strength this hand, is a pretty tight player, and would be getting better than 2:1 on his money and might not lay down a hand like AK. The big stack folds and indeed the button has bottom set and calls. I was in a really good spot on the flop with an open ender against a set getting a free card -- my equity there is huge if I don't stack myself if I miss on the turn. Which I did.

The next day I play a few one table satellites, and lose them all. One I got down to four handed with a big stack, but ran into AK on back to back hands with worse aces and was out. In another I was the first person out: lost a small pot, then had my KK cracked by a set but lost the minimum -- I checked the flop and called the turn and river with my overpair -- then ran JJ into KK. Bah.

The trip this week started out with a series of small annoyances. I get to the airport a bit early for my flight, and they're boarding the previous flight to Vegas. I ask about standby but even though they plane is half full and it would cost them nothing to put me on it, they want to charge me $95 for it. I decide I can wait an hour after all. I guess they have to think about the longer game so people don't book the cheapest flight and just standby onto earlier flights that would be more expensive, but it sure seems like there should be some way for them to get me on for a nominal charge instead of more than doubling the cost of the ticket.

Then in a tiny bad beat, despite me having the best boarding pass, the gate guy decides there aren't enough people to bother with being organized and declares everyone can come up at once. Only 14 people on the flight and I got my front row seat anyway so whatever.

Then, when I get to the Bellagio, the computers are down and they're checking in everyone by hand. So it takes an hour to get through the line and get checked in, and during this they fail to put in my credit card for room charges so I can't get internet when I get to the room.

So I've stayed at the Bellagio 5 times this month now, and there have been annoyances every time. The first trip, the lights over the beds didn't work, and it took two trips from the techs to fix them (they fixed one but didn't bother to check the other). Next trip the shower clogged, and again it took multiple calls to fix it. Also there was an annoying buzz coming from I think the ice machine in the hallway that was loud enough it made it a little hard to get to sleep. The third trip they put me in a smoking room, then when I complained told me I would get an upgrade but it'd take a few hours, then reneged on the upgrade. Last week I got another buzzing room, and this one had the check in problem. Plus I couldn't check out this morning from the room, and had to spend another 10 minutes in line to check out.

None of these things are a big deal, but for a hotel that thinks it's high end, it's a pretty long litany of complaints. On the other hand, it really is pretty cheap for a nice hotel this month, so I guess it still feels like a good deal. Especially compared to trips we've taken to places like New York and Madrid, where the hotels were like 5 times the cost and not really that much nicer.

So after the hotel annoyance, the next morning I head over to the Rio pretty early because I think there's some chance the 1500 event will sell out, so I figure I'll buy in at 8 or so and have breakfast. But I get there and discover it sold out the night before at around 9. I hang around in hopes of unregistrations, but there is a line, and eventually I give up and go eat. I come back and Kenny is there planning to unreg because he isn't feeling motivated, and we try to figure out some way for me to get his seat, but the unreg process is strict and they won't transfer the seat to me. We hang around in line planning to get me to the front and then have him unreg and have me be next in line, but the line refuses to move and we give up. He decides to play anyway.

Well bah. I sit on a bench outside the registration room and read my book for the next couple of hours in case there are late unregistrations from people who made day two from the previous day's tournaments, but nothing doing. So I buy into the 3:00 $330 super satellite (which is called a "mega satellite" because I guess "super" isn't impressive enough); the tournament doesn't start until 4, natch. No cash games or one tables running either due to no tables being available, so I end up playing pai gow for an hour. I win $10. It's slightly odd playing a game where I was betting $50, and the woman next to me was betting $450 on my hand. So my wins and losses on my hand are dwarfed by hers (she's also betting that much on her hand). I let her opine on my settings since she cares more than I do, but pai gow is pretty formulaic.

The satellite, however, went well. I play a bunch of small pots then win a big one, then resteal a lot. There are a couple of super passive readable players and I abuse them. I bust a small stack who pushed with TT, which obviously doesn't beat my 77 preflop, then double up another small stack when his AJ beats my AQ. But mostly I am jamming over raises a lot and taking it down. The passive limpy woman next to me tells me repeatedly she really wishes she had my seat, as if I could possibly be getting enough hands that were raising hands by her standards.

I suck out again when the sb limps and I check in the bb with 83s. Flop comes T32 with one of my suit and two clubs, and he bets. I jam over him, he agonizes and calls with JT, but I hit a 3 on the turn. Whee.

We get short and I have decent chips so I slow way down, picking on stacks that need a monster to call me, and avoiding spots where I could go broke. We get down to the final table, then 8 handed. There are 6 seats and 7th place gets 4500. Then, entertainingly, the small stack jams and the bb is agonizing, and the small stack declares he has a pair to get the bb to fold. The TD declares an 8 hand penalty, and the small stacks doubles with 66 against QTs, then has to sit out for a round. He begs but is rejected.

Ok, my flight is boarding, so long story short, at 7 handed I am the #2 stack, we agree to a deal where the big stacks get $10k seats (six places get 10k seats + $200, so I'm "giving up" $200), and the three small stacks split the rest. The small stacks are clustered around 40k, the big stacks around 80k (I have 84), so this seems like a good deal for me. I later did the math, and I think I made about $200 on the deal.

So I won a seat. Playing monday, day 1D.

Went to garden city today, and there was a 20-40 half holdem, half omaha 8 game. I've been wanting a local mixed game for ages. I hope it sticks around.

Bonus hand:

I open raise with QQ up front, one loose caller, loose passive sb three bets, I cap, all call. Flop is 7-high two suited. Sb checks, I bet, one call, sb check-raises, we both call. Turn is a T, sb bets, I fold.

Comments?

I was playing 20-40 last week, the day after the Sharks won game 4 in Calgary, in the afternoon. The guy on the list after me was named Doug; I'd never seen him before.

Eventually someone busted at my table and he sat down. The person next to me did an amusing double take, then pointed out that Doug was actually Doug Murray, the Sharks' defenseman who had had the assist on the winning goal the night before. My seat mate was also overly amusing that Murray was sitting in seat 3. Because his number is 3 you see. This is cosmically fascinating.

He immediately proceed to play and 4 out of his first 5 hands. I pegged him as a fish, not a shark. But after that he tightened up or got worse cards and played reasonably well. He liked to limp too much preflop, with hands like 98s or 33 utg, but mostly people were just limping along as well, so it wasn't really costing him.

Meanwhile, people would come over and shake his hand and whatnot. He was always pleasant, but also pretty clearly wanted to play rather than chat.

Of course, I knew that fuzzy_queen, Sharks season ticket holder and overall fangirl, would kill me if I didn't tell her about this. So we texted about him:

Me: Doug Murray, who apparently plays for the sharks just sat down. He's a gambler, at least so far.

Her: No fucking shit!! Tell him "nice assist last night".

Her: I would loooooove his autograph.

She then proceeds to try to convince me to get him to come by her comic store, set her up on a date with him, ask him out for a drink ("Do you think you could do that without it sounding gay?"), and so on. Finally she decides to come over and get his autograph.

She shows up, chats with me a bit, then asks him for his autograph. Luckily she happened to have a pen and a pennant handy, what luck! And then proceeds to gush all over him, biggest fan, come to my store, etc. It was a bit amusing for me -- I can't think of anyone I'd be that excited to talk to.

After she leaves, I say to him, "I hope that wasn't too much of a scene." He replied, "People like her pay my salary. I'm happy to talk to them. It's why I can play 20-40."

I asked him how often he gets recognized, and he said not often, which is what he likes about San Jose. Playing in Canada would be much worse because he'd be a major celebrity.

Anyway, nice guy, ok player. Good for the game in that his limping was contagious, even though he wasn't throwing a party or anything. My guess is that he's a mildly winning player at 20, but would be in a lot of trouble in more aggressive or bigger games.

A couple of nights ago, I went (along with ts4z) to Garden City, and played 20-40 for three hours, for a strong performance of +$4. Cheap entertainment, I guess. Seems poor given that I got rockets three times that session (won the blinds, capped preflop but folded on the turn, won a medium pot on the turn).

During that time, there were 5 hands where someone raised and took down the blinds. 4 of them were hands I raised, and the last one was a hand I folded in the bb myself. My hands: AA, AQ, AQ, J8s. I wonder if I just have a crazy tight image somehow, or if all of that was just luck.

Then I played a hand, and when I turned it over there were mass eruptions of incredulity around the table. Did I really overplay my hand, or was this just people thinking I'm ultra tight?

Here's the hand: tilting prop raises in the cutoff, I 3-bet with A8s on the button (which I think is routine, but the table seemed to think I was doing that with the sorts of hands you 3-bet a legit early raise with). Gambling BB cold called, prop called.

Flop was 7-high rags, one of my suit. They check, I bet, bb folds, prop calls. Turn is a small spade, giving me the flush draw. He checks, I bet, he calls. River is an 8. He checks, I think about it, decide that his range of hands is probably big aces and small pairs that somehow missed, with maybe the super-slowplay of a set, or maybe a small overpair that's scared that I had a big pair. Anyway, I decide that I'm ahead of that range, so I bet, he calls, I table my hand and it is good.

That actually seems like an entirely unremarkable hand, with maybe one interesting decision on the river, but everyone there put me on a way better hand than that. The bb said, as I turned over my hand, "Kings, or aces?" in an either/or tone, as if those were the only hands I could have there.

So am I way out of line with the A8s reraise? I can't remember the last time I made what I thought was the obvious, straightforward, playing-my-cards kind of play and got so thoroughly questioned.

As an aside, I have long had a tighter image than my play would justify. I don't actually know why that is, but I do try and exploit it as much as possible. Sadly most hands at 20-40 at Garden City go to the river, so the parlay of events where I have a weaker hand than people think, and I want them to fold, and they do, is pretty rare.

The best deal I ever made at a poker table was at a $500 1-table satellite at the WSoP a few years ago. Three handed, one guy has half the chips, the other two of us have 1/4 each. The big stack says, "I tell you what. I'll take $2000, you each take $1500." Deal.

That is, until tonight.

mjlewis, jgische and I played in the silly limit half holdem, half omaha tournament at Artichoke Joe's tonight. mjlewis and I get to the final table, whee, but as the third shortest and shortest stacks, respectively. There is discussion of a deal, as follows: the chip leader gets $600, the second stack gets $500, everyone else gets $440. This is obviously good for the short stacks, so we agree. But there's a holdout: the #3 or #4 stack says no.

So we play. I steal the blinds, then lose a hand, then defend the blind and miss the flop and fold. Actually, normally I wouldn't fold there due to being pot stuck, but that deal is still a possibility. The blinds go up, and now I'm dead -- I have $1800 and the blinds are $1k-$2k. In the meantime, the woman at the table who has been advocating heavily for the deal is pressuring the guy who won't deal, in a teasing way but obviously she wants this to happen, even though she's an above average stack.

A couple of hands before I forced to go all in in the big blind, I find AQ. mjlewis is in front of me, and decides to raise with 44. He's counting out his chips to raise when the guy who won't deal says, "Give me an extra $5 and we have a deal." Done!

The dealer mucks the deck in the middle of the hand. I pick it up and rabbit hunt, and the 44 would have held up. So I will bust that hand, and take 9th place for $80 -- yet somehow I walk away with $440 instead. I didn't even end up being the person who paid the guy the extra $5, so I did *better* than other people despite being crippled and tiny stacked.

This is the second time I've played in this tournament, and the second time there was a silly deal. jgische was the beneficiary last time.

Last weekend, Katy went to a screenwriting conference in LA for 3 days. I tagged along, and spent the day in cardrooms. I'd never played in LA before, and wanted to check the places out.

I went to the Bike, Hollywood Park, and the Commerce. Hollywood Park is a dump, the Bike was somewhat nicer (and I got to see BARGEr Marc there), and the Commerce was quite nice, except for the part where my directions were wrong and I got lost getting there. The free food at the high limit tables at the latter two is really nice.

I ended up playing about half limit and half no limit. In no limit, I lost 72 big blinds in ~9 hours of play. In limit, I won 43 big blinds. That worked out to a decent profit, since no limit involved big blinds of 5 or 10, and limit involved blinds of 20 or 40. But it's definitely a trend I see in all my records: I suck an no limit, and I rule at limit. Actually, both the results this weekend were bigger than normal swings -- I actually do win minimally at NL, and my win rate at limit isn't nearly as good as the 3 big bets/hour that I got this weekend.

Anyway, the obvious thing to do is to play more limit, and concentrate on playing higher. But I really want to know why I'm so bad at no limit. I could identify obvious mistakes that other players at the table were making, from playing bad starting hands to obvious bluffs to obvious jams with the nuts, yet I never seemed to be able to take advantage.

Sample hand: I'm in the BB with KK, several limpers for $5, I raise to $30 (about the pot). I get two callers, the UTG limper and the loose bad SB. Flop comes 753 with two diamonds. SB bets out $40, I make it $140 (about the size of her stack), UTG moves in for a total of $260. SB folds. I have to call $120 to win about $500. Can I lay this down? UTG seems non-crazy, so I suspect she either has a set or some big draw, like a pair and a flush draw or maybe pair/flush draw/gutshot -- mostly, I doubt she'd play 64 to a raise preflop, so she most likely doesn't have the straight. Anyway, I call and UTG has top and bottom, and I lose. Guess I was wrong about what she'd play to a raise.

I feel like that sort of hand happens a lot to me. Am I just not laying down the overpairs enough?

The thing that really gets me is that I do fine in my occasional $1-2 pot limit home game. The players in that are *way* tougher than the random schmoes you get in a smallish NL game in a casino -- so why can I hold my own with those guys, all of whom do very well in NL ring games, and yet I can't beat the NL ring games myself?

Ok, here's a hand story from 40-80 that accounted for most of my profit, to make me feel better. Loose limper in middle position, I raise right behind with 77. Maniac on the button 3-bets, BB cold calls, limper and I call. Flop is T97 (ding!). BB bets, limper calls, I raise, button 3-bets, bb calls, limper caps, all call. Turn is a K (hm). BB bets 2 chips all in, I complete, the other two call. River is a blank, I bet, both call, my hand is good. I was a little sad preflop when I ended up 4 ways for 3 bets each with a middle pocket pair, not the situation you want to be in. Apparently my implied odds were still good, though, given how much money went in postflop.

So I'm playing in the 20 at Bay, and this guy with a scifi tshirt sits down next to me. We chat a little, when he says, "This is kind of a weird question, but do you have a livejournal?"

Me: Yeesssss...
Him: Is your username "dmorr"?
Me: Do I know you?

It turns out that I was dorkily still wearing my Yahoo! badge, and he saw my name (somehow) and noticed its similarity to someone who posts in patri's blog, and figured it out. Yikes. Anyway, it was ejwu. It was fun to play with him until he got called for the 40-80 game. He reminded me of evwhore -- some similar mannerisms, both good players who like to gamb00l.

Another amusing moment occurred when the designated table fish actually apologized for folding too much preflop to the table. Pretty clear he knew what his role was.

And finally, here's a hand:

I raise from the button with A5o (which I think prock now thinks is a bad idea). The sb defends. Flop is Tc8c2s. Check-check. Turn is the 5h, and he bets. I now raise. River is a Q, we check, he doesn't want to show his hand but eventually turns over Jc7c for a meaty 18 outs against me on the turn. I'm still a favorite, though. He was some kind of disgusted when he saw what I raised him on the turn with.

I played 20-40 again today (+$35 and a massage). The game was amazing, so of course I was stuck over $1000 for several hours. Example hand:

Loose aggro guy straddles, loose passive fish that looks like Renee Zellwegger calls, I raise with AsKs, they defend. Flop is Qd8h4h, and it's a bet and a raise to me. I fold, straddler calls. Turn is another 4, it goes check, bet, check-raise, call. River is a T, bet, call. Straddler (who bet the flop, check-raised the turn, bet the river) has K7. Renee has JT for a gutshot until the river when she paired. Um, nice hands.

Anyway, I eventually get my money back, and it's dinner time with Bill and Matt. Then we go watch Matt bust out, which takes three or four hands, and he goes to bed. Bill and I toy with going to see a show, but instead play blackjack for a while. He takes half my action, and we play through a very nice shoe and he finished up a couple hundred, and I end up +180, half of which goes to him. Still, not bad.

At some point during all this I get convinced to play liar's poker with Bill and Matt, and promptly lose repeatedly and badly. I am a liar's poker fish, it would seem.

It's been a fun trip, but not really profitable. I'm down a few hundred, largely due to sucking in the $1500 nl event (I really should get better at not losing to dominated hands). It's good to get back in practice, though, since the big event is upcoming. I hope I have some time to play and stay sharp in the next couple of weeks, but next week will be busy since my sister is getting married in a week, and I will be running errands and such.

And so to bed.

Here's a tricky play that didn't work out well.

First, some background: this was in the 30-60 game at the Bellagio, mostly loose passive, with a couple of reasonably aggressive players. In an earlier hand, raised and called to me in the sb, I raise again with AA. Flop is QQ7, I bet, both call, turn is an A, I check, first player bets, second calls, I raise, all call. It turned out that one of the other players had a Q, and the other had 77.

Two hands later, after the player with a Q was grumping about my suckout on the turn, I raise from one off the button with J8s. She defends.

The flop is A64 rainbow, one of my suit. She checks, I bet (of course), she check raises. Normally I just fold in this situation, but she bet with this strange, large flourish. It seemed to me like maybe she was steaming about the "bad beat" a couple of hands ago. If she doesn't have the A, I can bluff her out on the turn.

So I call. Turn is a J. Well, now I sort of have something. She bets, and I recalculate. If she does have the A, raising is bad here -- she's going to call me down and I lose an extra bet. If she doesn't have the A, calling is good here to entice a bet on the river. So I call.

River is an 8! I just backdoored two pair. Excellent. She bets, I raise. She looks at the board a littls and calls. I say, "You're not going to like this," and turn over my two pair. She asks what I have, I tell her.

Then she says, "What? You think I cannot beat two pair?!" And turns over A8.

Oops.

I played a bit of 15-30 and 30-60 at the Bellagio. I witnessed possibly the largest pot I have ever seen in a 15-30 game. It was expensive, actually.

Three limpers to me, one off the button. I call with 7d7h. Button and both blinds call. We take the flop 7 handed (out of 8 people dealt in).

The flop was 7s6d5d. The action is check, bet, raise, fold, call, to me. I make it three bets with top set, not yet convinced that I'm behind. The button 4-bets, and the sb 5-bets (the cap in Las Vegas). I no longer think I have the best hand. Everyone calls, and we see the turn 6-handed for 5 bets each.

The turn is the 2s. Sb bets out, bb raises, two callers to me. I do a little math and decide that even if some of my outs are dead, I still have odds to call. I do so. The button calls, and the sb raises. Everyone calls, now five people left, three bets each.

River is the 9d. Sb bets out. One fold, then the guy to my right ponders for a while and calls. I fold my set, and the button calls.

The hands: the sb has 84o for the flopped straight and no fear of the flush getting there. The guy to my right has K8s, who drew at his open ender and flush draw on the turn. And the button had 84o, also with the flopped straight.

The dealer says, "Everyone take a break. This is going to be a while." And chops up the thousand dollar pot three ways.