2/5 and 5/10????

Poker is going f-ing SICK for me right now.

I've played so much poker since my last blog, I don't even know where to start.  My blog was last written on March 11th, and since then I've played 54 hours of poker and I'm up $8200.  

I was (and am) so happy to be playing 2/5 NL right now.  It's where I've wanted to get back to playing forever, and I'm very excited to be back.

But it's better than that.  I've been playing 2/5 and it has been going awesome... so awesome that recently I even took a shot at 5/10!!!

Graph as of March 24th

I had the biggest night of my life so far on March 14th.  I was up $2000 at 2/5 (so sick) and I was definitely thinking I wanted to get off of the table to lock up the win.  My wife said I should take a shot at 5/10.  They were running a 5/10 game at Red Rock which doesn't seem to happen very often.  I always said that if I was going to play 5/10, I'd play it at Red Rock because it would probably be the best game there.  Now was my chance.  I cashed out my massive stack of chips and a $2000 win and Jason, the floor guy, said "have a good night".  I told him I'm not leaving - I'm parlaying this win into a bigger win at 5/10!

I bought two stacks of green ($1000) and sat down at the 5/10 table.  I was the short stack, as I expected.  The game was 6 handed and people had various amounts of cash but everyone had way more than me.  First hand I saw unfortunately ended with a bad player busting out and leaving.  He was an African American gentleman we were playing 2/5 with earlier.  He was terrible and one of the reasons I thought it might be a good time to play in the 5/10 game.  The hand he busted on was crazy too.  I didn't see all of the action, but I saw Aaron, a local guy that is one of the better players in the 2/5 game, tanking on a K-K-10-10-x board after the other guy went all-in.  He must have thought for 3 or 4 minutes or more and called a $1700 all in bet on the river with A-A, and he was good.  MONSTER pot.

At that point we were playing 5 handed and I knew it wasn't a great situation for me.  However, I thought this was the first time I've sat down at the game and wanted to give it a shot.  Win or lose, I was already up $2000 at 2/5 for the night so worst case, I lose $2000 here and go home even and with a great story of how I played bigger than I ever have in my life.

The first round was crazy and really highlighted how big the game was.  First hand I played, I raised A-10 offsuit to $65 after Aaron straddled the button to $20.  He called, everyone else folded.  Flop wasn't great and I check-folded.  I posted my blinds a couple hands later and boom - I'm down $80.  Bought another $100 in chips after doing nothing but raising one hand and posting my blinds.

Luckily for me I had some huge hands at 5/10.  I flopped a set of queens and got bets in on the flop and turn.  Had AA and KK and won both.  On one hand with A-A, I raised to 40 and a younger Asian kid reraised to 130.  This rich looking guy cold called 130.  This guy was wearing a pretty sick watch (should have taken a picture) and he was dressed up.  Looks like he was wearing a suit earlier, but now he was just wearing a shiny vest.  He had lost some hands and he would simply reach into his breast pocket and pull out a wrapped stack of $100 bills and peel off $1000 or so to get back into the game.  So baller.  After he calls, I make a big reraise to $475.  The kid folds and the rich guy calls.  He only has $500 or so behind and I bet all of his chips on the flop, but he missed and folds.

I wound up winning $1600 in that game for a combined win on the day of $3600 - the biggest of my life.  Just crazy.

Since then I've continued to win.  I also played a little 5/10 at Bellagio and won a tiny amount (basically broke even).  I've had some ups and downs, but overall I'm crushing right now and I can't wait to get back onto the tables.

I also am feeling more and more comfortable at 2/5, and more willing to take shots at 5/10.  When I played that original session, I had something like 10-11k as a bankroll and knew that I couldn't play a ton of 5/10.  Now, I have around 16k and I feel like I could play a session or two there without it killing me.  I definitely don't want to risk not being able to play 2/5.  That would be a disaster.  But if I can keep playing 2/5 and take a shot or two at 5/10, that is a dream come true.

This might sound really, really stupid, but I'm considering trying to write a poker book.  :-)  I won't do it unless I consistently stay at 2/5 and 5/10 NL and am winning.  However, I was thinking it might be interesting to have a poker book written by a guy that was stuck at 1/2 forever and finally broke through to 2/5 and 5/10.  I actually think there is a niche I could fill in poker literature as well.  I've seen books written by great players, and even books tailored to playing low stakes NL hold 'em.  However, even those books are talking about "maximize your winrate" and they have all of these strategies that can be hard to execute.  I think that if you are a player that CAN NOT win and just want to win SOMETHING, there are some things you can do where you won't be winning a ton, but it can make your life a lot easier and you can win something.  Then you can build from there.  Namely, play tight and avoid marginally profitable (in theory) situations.  Like fold your suited connectors unless you're in the best position or it's for a limp.  Dump hands like A-Q out of position, or hands like K-J in position if you are prone to playing them poorly.  Fold basically any time someone bets a substantial bet into you, and treat everyone like they are never bluffing. Basically just play ultra tight, wait for big hands, and ignore a lot of the common wisdom you see in poker books or online.

If I did it, I'd self-publish on Kindle.  I think it would be a fun thing to do.  It could also help open the door for me to do some poker coaching which could be a very cool thing that I would love to do.  Again - it may sound really dumb that I would even pursue that, and who would want me to coach them.  But I think a lot of the people that are buying these books or people that would like a poker coach are probably losing players that are playing 1/2 and are hating their life.  If I could help them win, that would really be a nice and fun thing.

Sorry for not posting for so long.  I've been just playing SO much poker that it has been hard to find time to write about hands.  However, I think it's really beneficial for me to write about hands and it helps me learn, so I do need to get back into it.

Until next time, see you at the tables!  Oh and I'm really looking forward to Johnny coming out to Vegas in a week or so!  

Fold, fold, fold...

This weekend was a rough one on me.  I think I saved a lot of money by making some very big folds, but it was rough.  You can check out the numbers yourself (see the link on the right) but I got crushed this weekend.

Red Rock $2/$5 - I limp 65s, about 5 people in.  Flop is K-8-5 with 2 of my suit.  I bet out $20, guy raises me to $65.  I think about it and call.  Have some good backdoor outs too... could hit trips, could backdoor a straight.  Thought about reraising but I figured I'd just call.  Turn is the 10 of my suit.  I check, he checks.  I think that with this very low flush, I'm not going to get 2 streets of value.  So I figure I can just check the turn and bet the river, maybe represent some kind of a king or less, whatever.  River is a total blank, offsuit 2.  I bet $75.  He raises me to $225.  I tank FOREVER.  He looks pretty comfortable.  Tried to look nervous and just sit there but after a long time he kinda started moving around more and got more comfortable looking.  I didn't feel like he was bluffing and there just aren't any value hands I beat.  So I fold.  Afterwards he was asking me if I would have called for less.  I think he definitely had the flush.

Wynn $2/$5.  I raise 9-9 to $20 in middle/late position and the button calls.  Flop is A-2-5 with 2 clubs.  I bet $20, he calls.  Turn is a 9 putting 2 hearts on board.  I bet $80, he calls.  River is the 3 of hearts.  I bet $150.  He insta-raises me all in for over $300 more.  Again, I tank fold.  :P  I just figured that there is no way he would think I could fold anything because there was so much money in the pot.  He didn't look nervous at all.  And there are a ton of hands he could have gotten there with.  Random flush draw with a 4, backdoor flush, who knows.  Just didn't seem like a spot where the guy is bluffing me especially since I don't have much behind.

Same guy a few hands later, I raise with 8-8 to $30 on his button straddle.  He calls.  Flop K-K-Q and we both check.  Turn is an 8.  I bet $35, he calls.  River third club, and it's a king.  Counterfeited.  :P  I check and he bets $60.  I tank for a while again.  This time he's staring at me, totally different feel from the last hand.  I also thought that if he flopped a queen, he would have likely bet it.  I call, he has A-7 of diamonds.  Floated the turn with nothing and bluffed the river.

Green Valley Ranch $2/$5 - They never run a $2/$5 game at GVR.  We saw it on Bravo and were like, we have to play in that game.  Drove there and immediately got into a new game.  The game was crazy at first.

I played 2 hands with this spaz guy.  First hand I raise J-10 offsuit on the button, he calls in the blind.  Flop K-Q-J rainbow.  He checks, I bet $30, he makes it $75.  I think about it for a bit and call.  Little worried that he could already have the straight and I'm in super bad shape but I figure it's worth a call.  Turn is a king.  Pretty terrible card.  He bets out like $130.  I fold.  He throws up his hand - A-3 of diamonds.  Nothing.  I say "good for you".

Later that night I raise A-K to $20 and the same guy calls.  Flop A-4-6 with the 4-6 of diamonds.  I bet $30 and he calls.  Turn is an offsuit 7.  I bet $80.  He puts me all in for $450 more.

SIGHHHHHHHH..... so this one was crazy.  I start thinking about it and looking at this guy.  First sign of strength I saw was he picked up his cards in a "I'm about to throw them in the muck" kind of way and immediately put them back on the table.  I think that's typically a sign of strength for whatever reason, when someone picks up their cards and cocks back their wrist like they are going to fold.  And I feel like he noticed that he did it out of a reflex and immediately thought "I shouldn't do that" and put it back.  Overall he was really herky jerky and moving around a lot, it was hard to tell.  I honestly think the guy was on drugs.  Overall I didn't get a nervous vibe from him.  So I'm thinking and he calls the clock on me.  It literally has been less than a minute.  I was so fucking pissed off.  He's yelling about how I've had plenty of time and I'm like this is ridiculous, it was so insane.  So I'm letting the clock tick down and he's like "he's going to fold".  Feels like something you say to get someone to call.  "I'm going to prove you wrong, I call!"  Plus the bet size was SUPER big, and he already bluffed earlier and showed it so he has to know I want to make a big call against him.  So I folded.  He showed the 8 of diamonds.  Maybe turned a straight, hard to say.  May have been bluffing with a big draw.  But I think it was a good fold.

Red Rock $2/$5 - I raise K-K in early position to $20 and get 5 callers.  Flop 6-2-2 rainbow.  I bet out $75.  Young guy that is pretty good raises to $220.  This one is the most questionable of the weekend but I folded.  Only draws present were gutshots.  Yeah, he could be raising me with some overpairs I beat.  My only real moves (in my opinion though) were to raise all in for another $450 or so, or fold.  If I call, what do I do?  I guess I can check-call as well... I thought that he might not raise with some of the smaller pairs (77, 88, etc) but he might.  Seemed like a big raise though.  And if he had a bigger pair he might have just reraised me preflop.  I'm torn on this one and I'm not saying it's a good fold, but I did fold.  I also definitely think this guy could have a 2 in his range.  He plays somewhat loose preflop but when the money goes in, I haven't seen him bluff a ton.  Who knows.

On the bad side of things : Red Rock $2/$5.  I raise J-10 offsuit on the button to $20 and get 1 caller.  Flop A-10-8 with the 10-8 of diamonds.  He checks, I bet $20, he calls.  Turn is the jack of diamonds.  He checks, I check.  River is a 4th diamond.  He checks.  I bet $50, going for thin value.  He raises me $125 more.  I think that's weird - why would this guy try to check raise the river?  I reraise to $375 trying to represent the ace.  He insta-calls with A-3 of diamonds.  Fuck.

So that was my weekend.  Pretty retarded bluff but the rest of the weekend was OK I think.  Made some huge folds.  Maybe not all of them were good, hard to say.  I have to go with what I think is the best play though and I know I'm going to fold some winners sometimes.

Check out my actual results!

Check out the "Bankroll Spreadsheet" link on the right side of my blog.  This is what I'm using to track my results on a daily basis.  I opened it up with view-only permissions for everyone.  Now if you're reading the blog, you can see the actual ups and downs with REAL numbers.

I might make some modifications and hide some of the specifics at some point, but since nobody's reading this blog but Mike and Johnny, I guess I don't care for now.  :P

Monday night

Monday, February 25th 2014
Went to the Wynn today to play.  Got there around 7 PM.  Sat down in the 1/3 game, which was pretty dead.  That's par for the course - always seems to be better action in 2/5.  Bought in for 400 green, 100 red which is my new standard.  Eventually moved to the 2/5.

Couple interesting hands at Wynn:

Right away I get 3-3, it folds to me in late position, and raise to 20.  Even before raising I ask the guy in the big blind how much he was playing - only $175 or so.  Both blinds call.  Flop is K-Q-x with 2 hearts.  They check to me, I bet 35, one caller.  Crap.  Turn is something like a 7.  He checks, I check.  River is a 3.  Boom.  He checks, I bet the rest of his chips (around $100), he calls, I win.

Guy raises to $20 in early position, another guy calls.  I reraise to $75 on the button with two black nines.  They both call.  Flop comes As-Qc-4c.  They both check to me.  I checked.  Could have bet but I didn't feel like that was a great flop to bet after getting 2 callers.  Definitely could have, I don't know.  Turn is the perfect card - a red nine.  Guy in early position bets $150.  I had about $550 left.  I just called.  I figured that raising might look way too strong.  The nine was a total blank and it might look like I had flopped a set and checked it. At least that was my reasoning.  River is the ace of clubs, he checks, I bet $225, he folds.

Later I get moved to one of the main games.  Folds to me on the button and I have A-A.  I raise to 20, blind calls.  Flop is 9-7-5 with 2 spades.  He checks, I bet 30, he calls.  Turn is a king.  He checks, I bet 75, he calls.  River is the 2 of spades.  He bets 2 black chips.  I fold.  He shows the 6-4 of hearts.  Bluff.  Overall I wasn't sweating this at all.  It was a good bluff and his hand definitely looked like a flush.  He did bet pretty quickly after the river hit, but sometimes these guys just act quickly.  I was OK with this one.

Although after that hand, I looked around the table and didn't see any soft spots.  So I decided to get up and walk over to the Venetian.  I left up $238 at Wynn.  Hands weren't super interesting at Venetian but I had a couple big ones.

Everyone (all players, dealer, massage girl, food runner, cocktail waitress, floor, cashier, slot attendant) limps.  I'm in the big blind with 5-5 and check.  We see the flop 7 ways.  Flop is J-8-5 rainbow.  Hello flop.  I bet out $35.  Few folds, one guy calls, and a guy on the button reraises to $135.  This is an older middle aged guy I've played with before.  My read is that this guy is pretty tight.  I have about $500 and he has between 400 and 500 total.  I don't love it, the most likely hand is 8-8 I think.  8-8, maybe 6-7 or 10-9, but I don't know if he would semi bluff raise.  Seems a little more likely because someone called my bet.  I figure I have to raise in case he is drawing, and if I flopped set over set, so be it.  I reraise to $285.  Middle guy folds and the button goes all in, I call.  He says "do you have a set" and shows the J-8.  I flip up the 5-5 and he says "nice hand", and although he tried to jinx me it didn't work.  :)  Held up and I was up about $450 at that point.  He said that I tricked him by leading out so strong on the flop - he thought that I wouldn't bet it that strong if I flopped a set, which is why he felt fine getting it in with J-8.

Later I raise under the gun with K-K.  Big blind calls.  Flop is 9-6-4 rainbow.  He checks, I bet 30, he calls.  Turn is a queen, putting 2 spades up.  He checks, I bet $75, he calls.  River is a 4.  He insta checks.  He has about 200 left.  I put out a stack of green.  He asks how much it is, which is hilarious because it's obviously at least 400 and he has 200 left.  Dealer counts it down and he thinks about it.  I just stare at the flop.  He thinks for a while, calls, and K-K is good.  At this point I have 1450 in front of me and bought in for 600.

Stuck around later than I wanted to, but eventually left at about 10:45.  Huge win for me on the day - I won 238 at Wynn and 866 at Venentian for a total win of just over $1100.  So sick!

2/5 is going so well lately.  It is really exciting.  My bankroll is at about $7500 right now.  It feels great to get a good cushion built up so I won't have to drop back down.  It gets more and more likely every day that I'm going to be able to stay at 2/5.

Plus, I am just playing SOOOOOO solid right now.  I honestly feel like an absolute beast.  I'm not doing anything tricky, just playing super solid and tight.  Really trying to play only in position, not getting in trouble out of position with suited connectors or other bullshit.  Early position with AJs, T9s, QTs, I'm just folding.  Most of the time I'm raising with all pairs in early position if the game is tight enough, but if people are going crazy I'm folding some pairs too.  And I'm really trying to take my time and bet the right amounts postflop, and just get away from hands when it makes sense.  Sure I'm getting bluffed out of a few pots but I'm not letting it bother me too much and I'm sticking with my solid strategy.

Looking forward to more poker!  Probably won't play tomorrow, but definitely Wednesday and after that.  I think I've played like 10 days in a row now.

2/5 is Back!

So we have been playing a TON of poker lately.  I think I've played every day for over a week now.  It has been a blast, and I've been playing 2/5 again!!!  I'm really excited about that.  2/5 NL is where I'm always trying to get back to.  I had plans to give it another shot when I hit $5000 in my bankroll, but I've been hovering around $4000.

Valentine's Day - $2K bankroll boost

Valentine's Day just came around and my wife gave me the best present ever - the gift of 2/5!  :-)  We have been playing together a lot lately and she was in "poker jail" as she likes to call it, since she was down about $1400 and was trying to win it back to give it back to me.  For Valentine's Day she took that out of the bank and also topped off my bankroll with an extra $600 so I'd have exactly $5000 and could take a shot at 2/5 NL.  Awesome!

AA vs KK all in pre

2/5 has been going pretty well so far.  I'm up about $1000 over the last couple of weeks.  Had a couple gimme hands where I got all in preflop with AA vs KK - that is always sweet.  Happened once at Caesar's and once at Wynn lately.

Pretty interesting hand came up the other day at Wynn.  Younger Asian guy that looked pretty good made it 20.  I reraise to 65 with J-J, he calls.  Heads up we see the flop - Th-7h-4c.  He checks to me.  I bet $75.  He calls.  Turn is an offsuit ace.  He checks again, I bet $150.  He calls.  Pot is getting pretty big at this point.

River is a blank, offsuit deuce.  He goes all in for about $400 (I only have about $300 left).  I fold.  He shows the 9-3 of hearts - bluff.

I felt pretty shitty about that one for a while.  I think my main problem was not really thinking much about it.  Even when he called the turn, I thought there was a good chance he could have a draw.  I think the pot just got too big and I got too scared because of that.  I honestly didn't even consider calling.  If you think about what he could have though, it didn't make a ton of sense for him to go all in with something that had me beat.

I guess he could have A-2 of hearts.  That's probably the most likely thing that beats me.  Calls preflop, calls the flop with the draw, hits the ace and calls again, and shoves the river for value with 2 pair.  Seems like if he had a set or turned two pair, it would have made more sense for him to raise me or check raise the turn instead of letting me see the river.  Pretty draw heavy board.

Plus he just SNAP shoved all in on the river.  I didn't take that into consideration at all, but as soon as the river hit he didn't even think about the card in any way and just shoved.  It seems like if the river hit him (which I doubted it did) he would have had to think for a second.

So with two very likely draws (8-9 and the flush draw) and since it didn't make a ton of sense for him to push with sets, and two pair hands weren't too likely (maybe A-10 but why wouldn't he go all in on the turn), I really should have called.  Plus the pot was pretty big.  $120 preflop, $150 on the flop, $300 on the turn, and he goes all in for $300 on the river.  So I have to call $300 to win $870.  If I'm good 25% of the time it's a super easy call.

Oh well, that one hurt.  Other than that, that same night I think I played really well.  I let that hand roll off my back pretty well and had some other tough ones.  I reraised from $20 to $60 with AKs and this guy limp reraised all in for $500 (just put his stack of black chips in) and I folded.  Hard to lay it down when you are losing (and SUITED!) but I just don't think I'm ahead there very often.  In another hand, I raised to $30 with A-K (with the king of diamonds)  and got 2 callers including the same younger Asian guy who was going CRAZY - on insane tilt dumping huge pots all over the place.  Flop comes Ad-10d-4.  Checks to me, I bet $65.  Middle aged guy check-raises to $165.  Asian guy calls.

I thought about it for a while and folded.  I just thought, what could this guy have that I have beat?  He's not raising anything worse for value (A-Q, A-J).  He could be raising a flush draw, but I seriously doubt it.  It's not like he raised enough to make me fold.  I wasn't worried about the Asian kid at all because he was playing SO bad.  And with the king of diamonds I have some backdoor outs and could pretty easily justify a call.  I folded though.  Turns out the middle aged guy had 4-4.  Turn was a diamond, Asian kid shipped in his last 200, middle aged guy knew he was beat and called, and the board didn't pair.

I'm buying in for $500 into the 2/5 game.  Once I have a bigger bankroll I'll buy in for more, but I'm trying to limit my variance for now and just buy in for less.  I have a new chip denomination strategy also - I buy in for 2 stacks of red and the rest are bills.  So 2 stacks, 3 $100 bills.

Back in the day I thought it was awesome to have the huge stack of chips.  Now I'm going the opposite and it's sort of baller to have a tiny stack but worth a lot.  $500 is not a lot but I like to keep my stack tiny even after I start winning.  The other day I had 2 stacks of red and 8 bills underneath - pretty awesome.

Tight stack!

There are some other benefits to my stacking method also.  I take my hundreds, fold them, and place them underneath my chips.  This makes it harder to see how much I have.  If anyone asks I have no problem telling them the exact number of bills I have, but if someone doesn't ask, why make it obvious?  Just less information for them to work with.  I've had multiple people say it looks like I have 1 bill underneath.  That's fine - I'm not cheating or anything.  If they don't want to ask, that's their problem.

Another great aspect is the ability to rathole some chips if you want.  I'm hoping Beth reads this because she will laugh at me for using that word.  Haha.  I would never take hundreds off of the game I'm in, but if I double/triple up I could pretty easily change tables and remove a few hundred on the way over.  With all red chips you don't have that option or at least it's not as easy.  Super easy to take a few hundred out of your stack and pocket them before you get to the next table.

Super excited for more 2/5 this week.  I need to post more hands but I'm playing so much, it gets hard to keep up with it.

Recent poker and reflections

Been playing a ton of poker lately.  I want to keep up with the blog and have been slacking a bit.

Overall I have been playing pretty solid and erring on the tighter side.  I think it's a good way to go.  It feels weak and really lame to just sit back and fold for days until someone decides to just dump a couple hundred bucks in my lap.  But I think overall it's my best bet right now.

The one thing that differentiates me from the way too tight crowd is that I really try to value bet my hands on later streets if I think I'm ahead, even if I have a pretty weak hand.

Couple hands of interest lately.  I played a monster pot the other day at Caesar's.  I limp with 3-3, guy raises to $20 (1/3 game).  There are 2 callers and I call.

I actually am trying to fold a lot more preflop for somewhat big raises.  I just don't know if it's worth it.  At a pretty tight table, should I be calling $20 to hit a set?  A lot of the time, these guys don't play very aggressive even when they DO hit a hand.  When they don't, they tend to bet once postflop and just shut down.  So it can be hard to really get paid off often enough to make a pocket pair work, in my opinion.  And suited connectors - that is even more true.

Anyway with the 3-3 I call.  Flop of dreams - 9-3-2 with 2 spades.  One guy checks, I check, preflop raiser bets $35 (sweet).  Now the next guy goes all in for his tiny stack - 3 black chips, some green, some red.  I get a count, $375.  I think for a bit but there is no way I'm folding this hand, sorry.  I go all in over the top for $500 (well, effectively just call).  Next guy is thinking forever and I obviously want him to call.  He eventually calls for $300.

Preflop raiser has Q-Q.  The black/green chip guy has K-K.  I'm sitting pretty and am about ready to triple my money.  Turn, nothing.  River - king.

That one fucking hurt.  I had to take a walk.  Walked through the Forum Shops and back, about a 20 minute walk.  On the way back, I see Mr. Black/Green Chip walking through the casino.  He immediately had racked up his chips and got out of there.  No class.  Oh well, you can't expect someone like that to have any class at the poker table.  Just have to deal with people hit & running on you.  Tilted me a bit but I kept it together.  I went from being up $175 to being down $200 in that session, and ended up only losing $11 that night.  Felt pretty decent.

Tonight we played at Venetian for the first time in forever.  My wife Beth had a crazy hand.  It folds around to the blinds and we never chop.  Guy looks over at Beth and she says that she does not chop.  He has a bunch of chips in front of him, she has about $300.  He raises to $16.  His buddy sitting next to him is mouthing the words to Beth : "Why don't you chop????" - total lack of comprehension of why not chopping is good.  Beth looks and raises to $45 total.  I know she has a really strong hand.  Now this guy grabs 2 stacks and puts them out!  Beth is just like... well... all in then.  You could see the look on his face like - oh... I fucked up.  He calls all in with A-2 offsuit, spikes the ace, wins the pot.  What is sick is that he will go home and think "she was so stupid not to chop", "that's what you get for not chopping", and so on.  Probably the whole table thinks that.  But it's so insane to ignore how incredibly profitable a situation like that is.  Nobody is EVER getting it all in preflop for 150 bb with you in a 1/2 game with A-2 offsuit unless their brain explodes, like in this situation.  It's just so good.  Going to lose sometimes, but what a great situation.

We called my poker friend Johnny (aka one of the two people that actually read this blog) to talk about it after midnight.  I felt bad about calling him so late, but I knew his perspective would really help Beth feel better.  She felt awful and was even questioning whether we should just chop like everyone else, if we were the idiots.

It really makes me wish we had a good crew of people to play with in Vegas.  Really, I just wish Johnny lived here.  I am not always into poker, but right now we're in the middle of an upswing in poker interest.  It would be so sick to have a buddy here to play poker with, talk hands with, and just hang through the good and bad times that poker provides.  Maybe play well, talk through hands until all hours of the night, and move up in stakes together.  It's not to be right now.  Everyone has a good job and that's just not the situation today.  One day though, it would be so sweet.  Even if it's when we are retired and in our 50s, I think it will be cool.  Just hanging out together, playing poker, killing it the best we can.

Poker is crazy.  It's hard to know if you are playing well or not, and it really messes with your mind.  It can be the most painful and horrible hobby to have in the world.  But it can also be amazing.  It just makes you feel so many strong emotions.  Through the good and bad, I really like poker.  Can't wait for the next session.

Couple nights at Caesar's

January 25+26, Caesar's Palace, $1/$3 NL

We have been hitting Caesar's Place to play 1/3 lately.  It's our new place of the moment.  There are some nice things about it.  You can get to it PRETTY easy from the highway because it's just north of Flamingo.  Parking is alright, not the absolute worst.  You have to walk a ways to the poker room, but it's in it's own little enclosed room super far away from the smoke of the casino which is nice.  Cocktail service is awful but right now we aren't drinking anyway so it doesn't matter.

Few interesting/big hands from this weekend:

I've been doing this a lot lately and it is NOT helping me.  I need to tone it down over the first hour or so I play.  Bunch of people call a straddle or maybe it was just the big blind, I don't recall, but I make a pretty big raise out of the small blind with Q-2 offsuit.  :P  Guy calls me.  OK.  Flop has 2 diamonds (I have the queen of diamonds) it's something like 9-7-2.  I bet out $45, guy raises me huge, I fold.  :P  Instantly lose a big amount.  This is in the first half hour I'm playing.

I'm in the big blind with 5-5 and check.  5 people see the flop and it's pretty ridiculous.  5-5-3.  Haha.  What a flop.  Not much out there though, so I check it.  Checks around.  Fine, might not get much action on this.  Turn is a jack.  I bet $15, guy to my left calls.  OK.  There was a flush draw on the flop too so he could have that.  River is another jack.  Interesting!  I decide to way overbet the pot.  This guy either has a jack (so there is no way he can fold) or he has a flush draw and I'm getting nothing out of him.  So I bet out $100 into the $45 pot.  He has me covered and I have a little over $400 including that $100 bet.  He grabs two stacks and puts them out, raising me another $100!!!  Dream situation.  I don't take long and I just say "all in" and he insta-calls.  J-10 no good for him.  So I win this INSANELY huge pot for no reason.  Plus I got another $100 bonus on top of that (high hand).  What a sick start to the weekend.

That was on Friday.  Unfortunately it was just a downward spiral from there on Friday.  Nothing super interesting, just a lot of hands similar to - I have AK or AQ, flop top pair, get drawn out on or bet out on a scary card.

One somewhat interesting hand was when I had 8-7 in the big blind and checked.  Flop was 9-8-8.  About 5 players.  One guy leads out for $10, I raise to $25.  Another guy cold calls it, and the $10 bettor calls.  Turn is a 6, giving me an open ended straight as well.  Checks to me, I bet $40, they both call.  River is a queen.  They both check to me and I check.  The $10 guy had J-8 so he had the higher kicker.  :P

I was up about $375 at one point, but ended up only winning $75 on Friday.  No biggie, still a win and I'll come back next time.

Next day was pretty brutal and there was a common theme - I get all in, I lose.  Variety of situations but that was what was happening.

In one hand I think I raised preflop with 5-4 offsuit (why) and the flop was Q-4-3.  This guy bet out $25 and he had been betting out a lot, so I raise to $60.  Next guy goes all-in.  Sigh.  Came back to me and I think he had about $79 more.  He looked REALLY weak.  And I felt like this guy was just trying to get me.  There was about $45 in there preflop, +$25, +$120, +$79.  I really felt like any 4 or 5 would be good, plus this guy could have a draw (although that does seem unlikely).  So I made a (probably really bad) call.  I didn't improve and he had Q-10.

Next hand I button straddle (which I was doing all night long) and I had K-9 of spades.  My wife directly to my right raises to $16 and I call, there are 2 or 3 others as well.  Flop is J-5-3 with 2 spades.  It checks to me, I bet about $25, get 2 callers.  Turn is a 7.  Checks to me, I bet $60.  Now the first guy check-raises all-in.  BLAH!!!  Why did I bet????  :-)  Other person folds and it's on me.  It was an extra $120 for me to call.  Pot had a decent amount of money in it.  Preflop was $16*5, Flop was $75, turn is $120 + $120.  So I'm getting 3:1 or so.  Not quite good enough odds.  But I just say fuck it, grab the chips, say "GAMBLE!!!" and put them in.  River I miss, he says he has the straight, fine.  I lose.  But then he says it was a good call from me.  I'm like, WTF are you talking about?  Turns out, he didn't have the straight on the turn.  He had 8-6 of spades.  Flush draw (which was dead) plus the open ended straight draw.  And he hit the straight.  FUUUCCCCCKKKKKKKKK.  $500 pot slips through my fingers.

Then to top off the night, in early position an older guy raises to $15.  Another guy calls.  I have A-K in the blind and raise to $50.  Original guy calls.  Now the middle guy goes all-in for like $150.  He had been short stacked all night and although he was playing fairly tight, he went all in for a TON preflop a bunch.  And I had him go all in over a raise on me earlier when he had 9-9 and I busted him with Q-Q.  So after he goes all in, I'm definitely not folding.  I didn't think the other guy had a super strong hand (KK+) so I just took the 4 bills in front of me and threw them in.  He folded.  Guy who went all in had J-J.  Flop was Q-Q-x, turn gave me a flush draw also, but I missed everything and lost another huge pot.

Overall I ended up losing maybe $430 or so.  Not a great night, but I had a bunch of shots at winning pretty big pots to get even or close to even.  So I'm not sweating it too much.