Small Time UB rounders Poker Blog

2005-08-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

I wanna post this... for 2 reasons. 1 is my Ali like return to the world of online poker. 2 is for my fallen commrade Tronner... who suffered a horrific beat and I hope this shows that the best hand does win sometimes.

Hand #7898017-3684 at Atherton (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 27/Aug/05 16:28:37

Loded is at seat 0 with $7.40.
dark poet is at seat 1 with $10.10.
XXXXXXXX is at seat 2 with $17.62.
PAAAAT is at seat 3 with $2.25.
krebsd37 is at seat 4 with $3.80.
DAVE MATTHEWS is at seat 6 with $2.90.
FINN2WIN is at seat 7 with $15.05.
Jawful is at seat 8 with $23.84.
WhoIsPhaedrus is at seat 9 with $19.33.
The button is at seat 9.

Loded posts the small blind of $.05.
dark poet posts the big blind of $.10.

Loded: -- --
dark poet: -- --
XXXXXXXX A A
PAAAAT: -- --
krebsd37: -- --
DAVE MATTHEWS: -- --
FINN2WIN: -- --
Jawful: -- --
WhoIsPhaedrus: -- --

Pre-flop:

XXXXXXXX raises to $.40. PAAAAT folds. krebsd37
folds. DAVE MATTHEWS folds. FINN2WIN folds.
Jawful folds. WhoIsPhaedrus folds. Loded calls.
dark poet calls.

(Well with aces... I raised only 4x as the last hand everyone folded to the blinds... but the 2 looser players called in the blinds.)

Flop (board: 6 9 5):

**(For the analysis... dark poet shows J K)

Loded checks. dark poet checks. XXXXXXXX bets
$1.25. Loded folds. dark poet raises to $4.95.
XXXXXXXX re-raises to $16.05. dark poet goes all-in
for $9.70. XXXXXXXX is returned $6.35 (uncalled).

(This is the thing about knowing what your opponent has and how to play against them. At the start there is $1.20 in the pot. I bet the pot as it is standard to win the pot right there and to not give drawing hands any odds to call against me. The best case scenario is someone playing a9 or k9 and hitting top pair. The re-raise didn't really surprize me because this particular player had done this in the past and he could only have 3 possible hands. Most likely hand is the a9 or k9 I was talking about and put that about 45%. The 2nd most likely hand was a 67 suited or even a kx suited for diamonds. Also put this about 45%. Last hand was a small pair with trips or a 68 in that range. Even if he hit 2 pair, I could still outdraw him but this I only put about 20%. For sake of time I will look at the 2nd case.

Assuming I was best I pushed all my chips in... and that put the pot at 22.20 and he had to call off his last 10$ to match. He was getting his 2:1 odds to call but if we look at the poker odds, I was exactly a 2:1 favorite at this point. Even though the odds just gave him enough to call correctly, he still had to call 10$ on nothing more then a draw with only 5$ invested in the pot. I guess I can't fault him for his call, but I never like putting money in the pot with just a draw. There is no way he coulda thought a king or jack would have made him best.)

Turn (board: 6 9 5 7):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 6 9 5 7 J):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

XXXXXXXX shows A A
XXXXXXXX has Ad Ah 9d 7c Jh: a pair of aces.
dark poet shows J K.
dark poet has Jd Kd 9d 7c Jh: a pair of jacks.

Hand #7898017-3684 Summary:

$1 is raked from a pot of $20.60.
XXXXXXXX wins $19.60 with a pair of aces.
----------------------------------------------------------------

The moral of the story is you may of barely gotten the right odds to call, but you still lose all your money 67% of the time.

2005-08-27T15:22:00.000-05:00

We're Baaaackkkkkkkk

2005-03-14T17:21:00.000-06:00

no posts in months... i know you drunks still play... so here goes my little update.. i've been playing a bunch of sng's lately.. cheap 1$ ones... mixing up the turbos and regulars... won a few.. monied in most... so i'm pretty happy with how that's going... pisses me off when i go out in 4th a fair bit though. :(

2004-12-19T07:33:00.000-06:00

Well I lied about the last post coming soon but I do have a bunch of material I want to cover. School is done and I now have time to play some poker I just really haven't had the right mindset to play. I will make this post brief and elaborate in a future post.

Party Poker continues to offer huge sums of free money to play and this is gonna be round #3 with party poker. I hope I am wiser and I will do whatever it takes to make sure I add to the profit that I have already accumulated there. Tonight though was about tournaments. Many people have never placed high in the money and almost everyone I know has not made it to the final table in 2-3 different types of poker. Tonight I managed to do both.

This is me on my Ubuddy

The 3:30 is the NLH freeroll with just under 2100 people being entered. I manged to finish 7th which is a personal best for that many people. I have won quite a few freerolls but never with over 1000 people.

The 5:00 was the $1 limit O8b. I got horrifically rivered when it was down to 3 and fought my way back from 3000 chips when the blinds were 1/2000 just to get rivered again to finish 3rd. It is a great result for limit poker which I dislike but I am still disapointed because with one break my way I coulda easily won it.

I have now won/monied in the following disciplines of poker in money tournaments:
NLH holdem (Won)
Limit Holdem (Placed)
Pot Limit Holdem(Won)
Pot Limit O8b (Won)
Limit O8b (Placed several times)
7stud (Placed)

Not a bad result for a nights work and with party poker, I have to play an assload of raked hands this week so that is what I will be doing. Somehow I doubt there is any readers left but ya never know :). Till next time.

2004-12-06T14:58:00.000-06:00

Well hasn't it been a long time. No this blog isn't dead and yes in the next few days I will have 1000 words+ of a post to submit. For the 3 readers that I hope stuck around I have a good post coming up so stay tuned ...

2004-11-14T23:44:00.000-06:00

Well after taking a brutal beat where I lost a $9 pot when a goon hit one of his two outs on the river, I decided to sit at a .25/.50 NL hold 'em table with about 2/3's of my bankroll.
Was this an intelligent thing to do? Of course not. But it's nice seeing my own stupidity get rewarded for a change.
Here's what happened:

Hand #3157077-12853 at Aibongo (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 15/Nov/04 00:37:50

Layne is at seat 0 with $70.
Pay2CmyNUTS is at seat 1 with $49.65.
flopsicle is at seat 2 with $30.15.
l_train16 is at seat 3 with $59.35.
ddaces is at seat 4 with $25.95.
BigT1964 is at seat 5 with $16.15.
CallItCorby is at seat 6 with $33.35.
Sh1rp the Red is at seat 7 with $95.50.
hulei518 is at seat 8 with $34.90.
"Rich" is at seat 9 with $25.50.
The button is at seat 9.

Layne posts the small blind of $.25.
Pay2CmyNUTS posts the big blind of $.50.

Layne: -- --
Pay2CmyNUTS: -- --
flopsicle: -- --
l_train16: -- --
ddaces: -- --
BigT1964: -- --
CallItCorby: -- --
Sh1rp the Red: -- --
hulei518: -- --
"Rich": Jd Jc

Uh oh, the dreaded jacks. Actually, unlike many others, I don't cringe when seeing this hand. Maybe it's because I know how to properly play them, or maybe I'm just lucky with them, I have no idea.

Pre-flop:

flopsicle calls. l_train16 folds. ddaces folds.
BigT1964 folds. CallItCorby folds. Sh1rp the Red
raises to $2. hulei518 folds. "Rich" calls.
Layne folds. Pay2CmyNUTS calls. flopsicle calls.

Ok, now I was a bit worried. With the way things had been going for me, I couldn't help but feeling I was looking at someone with a higher pocket pair. Regardless, it'd be crazy to fold, so I'm content with calling.

Flop (board: Th 2s Jh):

Pay2CmyNUTS checks. flopsicle checks. Sh1rp the Red
bets $8.25. "Rich" goes all-in for $23.50.
Pay2CmyNUTS folds. flopsicle folds. Sh1rp the Red
calls.

With Sh1rp's bet, I still feel he has an overpair or possibly A-J, with either case putting me way ahead in the hand. I think raising to all-in was the smart play as even if he folds, I win a fairly nice pot. And if I read him correctly, he's more than likely going to call.

Turn (board: Th 2s Jh 5s):

(no action in this round)

River (board: Th 2s Jh 5s 8s):

(no action in this round)

I forgot that in ring games, the cards aren't flipped over in all-in showdowns. That made it even more nervewracking, which wasn't really what I needed.

Showdown:

"Rich" shows Jd Jc.
"Rich" has Jd Jc Th Jh 8s: three jacks.
Sh1rp the Red mucks cards.
(Sh1rp the Red has Js Ah.)

Hand #3157077-12853 Summary:

$2 is raked from a pot of $55.25.
"Rich" wins $53.25 with three jacks.

Needless to say, that's the biggest pot I've ever won. I'm still excited about it and it happened more than 30 minutes ago.

I could've probably played the hand better (IE: re-raising pre-flop), but thankfully I was lucky that the flop hit me hard.
Now hopefully I'm smart enough to never join a table like that until my bankroll can handle it.

2004-11-12T05:59:00.000-06:00

It's amazing what a little focus and skill can do in the freeroll world that is online poker. To make it past the first hour it takes a lot of patience and some luck. Once you hit a certain point than your skill has to drive you the rest of the way. Tonight I played 3 freerolls on 3 seperate clients and I placed in the top 10% in each one. One of my freerolls I really couldn't do much and starved to death but I had played well. The other 2 freerolls are a different matter. In any tournament you can pick out 1 or 2 key hands that make or break you in a tournament. The frustrating part is that in both the other freerolls I was 3-handed and by far the best only to come up broke busted and disgusted. In stars my set of 4's lost to a river straight to not just 1 but two people. I never had the cards or chips to really make a dent after that. The hand that knocked me out was my KK vs QQ vs AJ and the river brought a queen. Very frustrating because I again had the best hand by a mile. The most frustrating result was on UB.

I had about 11k in chips and was in the big blind. The chip average at the time was just over 20k and I sat just below the middle of the pack. I pick up QQ and I am ready to rumble. Four limpers attempt to get into the pot and I quickly put my chips in. Many people question this move but when your late in a tournament you have 2 moves .. raise or fold. To my delight or so I thought I got 2 callers. Flop comes 842 and the first caller quickly goes all in. I know right then I just got brutally outdrawn and I know the guy called most of his chips with 88 and I am all but gone. Sure enough the cards flip over and he shows his 88. I am not mad in how I played this hand because more often than not I will come out a head making this play. The frustrating thing is that the pot would have put me in the top 15 in chips and make me a serious contender for the top prize. I said it before and I will say it again all you can do is put your money in when your best. The bad beats late in tournaments always hurt the most and it is a small consilation prize that I played the hands well and trapped my opponents correctly and made the +EV play. Just once I tonight I would have loved to see the best hand win. Ah well still a good night overall but I just can't stop thinking how much better it would have been if luck were on my side.

2004-11-08T22:40:00.000-06:00

I keep whining about how crappy of a game o8b is and yet I can't stop joining games.
I think I finally learned my lesson though as I flopped a full house (holding A-A and flop was A-4-4) and some other guy was holding 4-4. I only lost 80 cents on the hand since the other guy didn't have much money at the table, but that's not the point.
I also don't particularly enjoy sitting at a table for over an hour and not winning a hand.

Oh well, fuck o8b. Unless there's a penny table with a 15 dollar pot average, which I did see over the weekend, I don't plan on playing o8b ever again.

2004-11-06T16:49:00.000-06:00

Just when I thought the rebellion had hope. It finally happened to me today ... I lost to a 1080:1 longshot (this is the worst bad beat in poker). I had 101078 with a flop of 1074. Runner runner 4's and I was broke, busted and disgusted. What can ya do.

2004-11-02T14:10:00.000-06:00

These were dark days for the rebellion. Pin skywalker (yes I get to be luke cause its my fucking story) over the past few weeks has been having trouble earning and placing well in tournaments. Shane kanobi threw his mouse in disgust after losing to guys who couldn't stop calling in 7stud8b. Don Calrissian is ready to throw his cards away for good after the last home game and Rich2D2 was hating o8b because it has screwed him over for the last time. Jaybacca had all but given up hope with poker after trips on the flop lost to a runner runner full house and general Troy Solo has all but accepted poker as a luck game and has plans to leave the rebellion. To top things off the Evil Chris Vader won $10 pots at the home game with 83 and 710. The rebellion was in bad shape.

Pin skywalker had a tough delemma on his hands. He was asked again and again to try to explain his jedi training because faith in the force has been lost. Skywalker and Solo sat down to again discuss this issue. Solo consistantly gets fucked in the ass by the cards but continues to play despite thinking that he has no chance to win. In classic jedi fashion Skywalker replied "search your feeling for your know poker is a skill game, you will know this is true. This is why you still play".

With a glimpse of hope left, the rebellion slowly started to fight back against Darth Chris and the goon empire (All in good fun Chris :). For the first time in months Troy Solo had come ahead money at the poker tables and Rich2D2 had placed top 10 in a very tough tournament. The rebellion is finally gaining some confidence which is like obtaining plans to destroy the death star. Our rebellion will never fully topple the evil empire because there are as many goons as storm troopers who still believe that suited cards are worth a raise because "hey the cards were suited".

What the rebellion can do is plan for the future and create methods for standing up to and cracking the empire respectively. We now have methods to track tournaments on a point system which I would advise all of you to sign up for to make yourself better players based on studying histories and posting public results to create positive reinforcers. The most important part is to keep the faith long term. It is so easy to focus on short term results in thinking that a losing month is the end of the world and you doubt your poker skills. Long term gains are what counts and even when playing each hand you are even. You are not up or down because it has no effect on how you should play this hand. In closing I call on the rebellion to stand up and fight and enjoy it ... and may the force(luck?) be with you.

2004-11-01T21:59:00.000-06:00

My name is Yakko Jr. BITCH!

I think I'll play under Yakko's mentoring to see whose luck is slightly worse. I have recently gone back to UB playing the .05/.10 cent holdem tables. Doubled up nicely on one of my first times back, so I thought the bad beats had subsided.... but I was wrong. I played about 10 hands this afternoon, and I kid you not, 6 of them were 46! Two were 36, and one was J6. Seems like 6 is the magic number or something. I played the first big blind, but folded promptly with my uberpowerful 46 offsuit. My luck turns around the next hand, and I get dealt QQ. Bet is at .20 and I call. Flop is AQ9. Yippee kay yay Mother F$%#$! I'm last to bet so I raise whatever bet is made. next card is a J, and one guy left. He bets $1, I raise to $2, he calls. River brings another A....Full House for me....and you are dead. He bets $2 and I go all in, he calls . Turns out that mofo had AJ and had a better fullhouse than me. Immediately told me what a bad beat I got, but it sill doesn't help. Oh well, I replied to him, but I had to leave. No way I was gonna play properly after that hand, but what can you do? I thought I played it right.

2004-10-31T06:28:00.000-06:00

AH, for some sun in your eyes...

What a pain in the ass poker is. Its nice to lose when your best and lose when your worst. Wheres the fun?

THREE_Js is at seat 0 with 895.
Yakko is at seat 1 with 2200.
cudaracer1974 is at seat 3 with 1515.
bearslady is at seat 4 with 410.
papag is at seat 7 with 1990.
Ramsis is at seat 8 with 120.
teeler is at seat 9 with 2870.
The button is at seat 0.
Yakko posts the small blind of 20.
cudaracer1974 posts the big blind of 40.
THREE_Js: -- --
Yakko: Ac Kc
cudaracer1974: -- --
bearslady: -- --
papag: -- --
Ramsis: -- --
teeler: -- --

Pre-flop:
bearslady folds. papag calls. Ramsis calls.
teeler folds. THREE_Js calls. Yakko raises to 520.
cudaracer1974 folds. papag folds. Ramsis goes
all-in for 120. THREE_Js folds. Yakko is returned
400 (uncalled).
Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

Yakko shows Ac Kc.
Ramsis shows Ah 9d.

Flop (board: 4d 8d 3d):

(no action in this round)

Turn (board: 4d 8d 3d 2d):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 4d 8d 3d 2d 4c):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

Yakko has Ac Kc 4d 8d 4c: a pair of fours.

Ramsis has 9d 4d 8d 3d 2d: flush, nine high.

Hand #3122517-34 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
Ramsis wins 360 with flush, nine high.
----------------------------------------------------------------

AND AND AND AND AND AND AND AND
THE VERY NEXT HAND!!!

Hand #3122517-35 at Sherborn (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 31/Oct/04 07:24:04

THREE_Js is at seat 0 with 855.
Yakko is at seat 1 with 2080.
cudaracer1974 is at seat 3 with 1475.
bearslady is at seat 4 with 410.
papag is at seat 7 with 1950.
Ramsis is at seat 8 with 360.
teeler is at seat 9 with 2870.
The button is at seat 1.
cudaracer1974 posts the small blind of 20.
bearslady posts the big blind of 40.

THREE_Js: -- --
Yakko: Kc Kd
cudaracer1974: -- --
bearslady: -- --
papag: -- --
Ramsis: -- --
teeler: -- --

Pre-flop:
papag calls. Ramsis folds. teeler calls. THREE_Js
folds. Yakko raises to 1900. cudaracer1974 goes
all-in for 1475. bearslady folds. papag folds.
teeler folds. Yakko is returned 425 (uncalled).
Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

Yakko shows Kc Kd.
cudaracer1974 shows Ad Ah.

Flop (board: 6h Qd 4c):

(no action in this round)

Turn (board: 6h Qd 4c Th):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 6h Qd 4c Th 3d):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:
Yakko has Kc Kd 6h Qd Th: a pair of kings.
cudaracer1974 has Ad Ah 6h Qd Th: a pair of aces.
Hand #3122517-35 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
cudaracer1974 wins 3070 with a pair of aces.
----------------------------------------------------------------

That was the second time in 2 hours that I had KK and ended up against AA

2004-10-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

I always tell people that as long as you get your money in when your best than you have nothing to think about or look over. In the last 3 outta 4 tournaments I have played in and been in contention with less than 200 people left I have gotten (AA vs J10 Preflop) Lost, (AJ vs A2 with a flop of 554) Lost, (JJ vs AQ) on flop with a Q and shortstacked) Lost, (AK vs K5 suited with 2 spades and an Ace on the flop) Lost. In 3 of the cases I had my money in when I was atleast a 66% favorite and lost them all and I will be the first one to tell you it stings like when I pee. I have been able to fix my tournament play after a rough stretch of very brutal play and I still go out tits up. If I lost a race in a 50/50 hand I wouldn't care so much but I really had odds on my side to suceed. This really is the unfortunate side effect of poker but everyone has to deal with stretches like this and I know that if I keep playing like this results will come. It's a good thing I bought that swearing punching bag :)

2004-10-25T03:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry Rich my AJ was no match for an A2 .. pity really cause that would have put me at just under 30k.

2004-10-24T22:48:00.000-05:00

I almost felt bad about winning this hand. Almost.
This was at a 100 points SNG on UB.

Hand #3051076-35 at Whitehall (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 24/Oct/04 23:43:16

dh271 is at seat 0 with 825.
71voodoo is at seat 1 with 360.
blackie50 is at seat 2 with 780.
"Rich" is at seat 3 with 1075.
Bobbish99 is at seat 4 with 860.
goldminer2 is at seat 5 with 1610.
Coremonk is at seat 6 with 1015.
BigRedE is at seat 7 with 1545.
SilentBobAC is at seat 9 with 1930.
The button is at seat 0.

71voodoo posts the small blind of 20.
blackie50 posts the big blind of 40.

dh271: -- --
71voodoo: -- --
blackie50: -- --
"Rich": Ks Kd
Bobbish99: -- --
goldminer2: -- --
Coremonk: -- --
BigRedE: -- --
SilentBobAC: -- --

Pre-flop:

"Rich" raises to 135. Bobbish99 folds.
goldminer2 folds. Coremonk folds. BigRedE folds.
SilentBobAC calls. dh271 folds. 71voodoo folds.
blackie50 folds.

Flop (board: 8s 7s 9s):

"Rich" bets 185. SilentBobAC calls.

Turn (board: 8s 7s 9s 7h):

"Rich" checks. SilentBobAC checks.

River (board: 8s 7s 9s 7h 5s):

"Rich" checks. SilentBobAC checks.

Showdown:

"Rich" shows Ks Kd.
"Rich" has Ks 8s 7s 9s 5s: flush, king high.
SilentBobAC mucks cards.
(SilentBobAC has Kc Kh.)

Hand #3051076-35 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
"Rich" wins 700 with flush, king high.

Simply unreal. His call after I bet the flop concerned me, which is why I went into super passive mode after that. I would've most likely called just about any bet on the river, but I was worried about the ace that would've beaten my flush.

I ended up going out in 4th place, which is frustrating considering I felt I played quite well. I just couldn't hit anything on the flop to save my life, which sucked considering all the AJ, AQ and AK I ended up getting in the 2nd half of the tournament. The only pots I were winning were bluffs. I ended up trying to buy the pot at the wrong time as the chip leader had pocket 3's and called my all in after rags hit the flop.

Oh well, now I can say I beat someone with the same pocket pair as I had.

2004-10-21T03:27:00.000-05:00

Interesting couple days of poker to talk about. I played in one of those press your luck freerolls on ub and had 5400 chips about 30 min in. Needless to say my AK went down to A7 and I went broke. I could have waited but I knew I would go in with the best hand and after that it is not up to me. This brings me to my $5.50 sit I played yesturday.

Not an overly tough table but like so often is the norm with 4 people left I had half the chips on the table. For some reason my mind shut off after this because I played some of the worst poker I have played in a long time. Not all of it was bad decisions, but with 4 people left I like to play aggressive. I had a few hands where I pushed to steal with solid hands in 4-player like A10 and KQ and it was unlucky to go up against just slightly better hands. After about 10 min I went from 1st to 4th (it goes with being aggressive) and I ended up bad beating the guy who finished 4th. Soon it was heads up and I had a 6k to 4k edge when in all honesty I should have finished 4th. Little did I realize this would be the toughest heads up match I was about to play.

The lead went back and forth and my stack varied anywhere from 3k to 6k for the next 20-30 min. Finally we both went all in and I had him covered by about 1000 chips when the blinds were 300-600. I knew this was pretty much it regardless. The guy caught a third 6 on the river and I was down to 900 chips. One thing I should add is that I had just dropped $20 at the bigger o8b tables to the table goon so I was really gunning to win this to break even for the day. The moral of the story I want to go over is that you should never give up. I could have just thought "hey I am very lucky just to be here and I should be happy with an extra $10". I had one round of blinds, but I was still playing to win. I went all in the next 3 hands and I won each. The 3rd hand I won when I bad beat the guy but I figured we were even from last time when I could have won. 45 minutes later we were back where we started with myself having 6k and my opponent having 4k. 2 hands later we had 5k each and I went all in with my KQ suited and he called with 44. I thought it was fitting that after this monster of a battle that the game should be decided by a coin flip. The board came AA57 .... 5 giving me the win. I was very happy and exhasted to win this and it is such a morale booster to know that I didn't give up when it looked very bleek. At the end of the night I was up a marginal ammount but I will take that any day. I was a bit upset that I went in more often with the worst hand but it's nice to have luck help you out once in a blue moon when your not on your game. It is not something I want to make a habit of.

When I play poker I never like to leave poker when I am down money for the day. This allows me to be persistant and to keep myself focused and determined to do what it takes to end the day ahead. This leads into part 2 of my poker story.

Cue tonight. After an amazing win by my Red Sox after taking me through an emotional roller coaster, I had sat down at the penny o8b table after watching the table average balloon to over $3(For those who don't know, when a penny table hits $2 the games are insanely soft and with some patience anyone can make money). I sat down and like so many times, the table goon who raised every preflop/flop/turn/river was responsible for the large pot average. Yesturday I had lost to a player who did the same thing but instead of losing a $2 buy in I lost $20 when I lost to a river card. These types of players have always been an achilles heel but I have been slowly learning how to turn the tide. To my surprize I won the first hand and I was up $1.50 right off the bat. About 20 minutes later I got into calling a 5-1 situation where any low gave me half of the pot and half of them would have given me it all. I missed everything and instead of being up cash I was down $2. Pissed off I had lost yet again to the table goon I wasn't about to let this get away. 10 hands passed and I went down another $2 to hands I was calling and missing. I should given up here and licked my wounds right? The very next hand ....

Hand #2753208-19130 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXX wins $8.44 with three sixes.

Next hand after .... :)

Hand #2753208-19132 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXX wins the main pot $4.35 with flush, ace high (high).
Sir_mucksalot wins the main pot $2.18 of a $4.35 pot with 8 5 4 3 2 (low).
jaehunhan wins the main pot $2.17 of a $4.35 pot with 8 5 4 3 2 (low).
XXXXXXXX wins the side pot $5.67 with flush, ace high (high).
jaehunhan wins the side pot $5.67 with 8 5 4 3 2 (low).

Patience paid of and I left the table with over $11. All I did was stayed calm and made sure I was calling with the best. I ended up taking half of the goons stack and I made back all my money and much more. It is another moral victory to finally put a dent in a goon when I could have left earlier, down money and in a +EV situation. I will savour this win tonight and continue to grind it out. All I can say is thank you unknown american, because of you I can buy more DVD's and xbox games. Ups and downs, ups and downs .. this is what really draws you in no?

2004-10-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

Well made it back on to the blog, and my first post in a while will be about real americans taking my money. Well, real in that I was at a table with them. For Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to play in a home game with people I've never seen play before. I found out right away that most of the players have never really played before. Just like on UB, lots of people playing weak hands, and getting out too late, so I was thinking there was lots of money to be had. I kept playing a tight game as normal, and started winning some hands, to the point where I had almost doubled my chips. It was goinmg very well until some of the other players realized I'd been playing for a while, and bugging me on the few times I started betting. Normally, you'd think if a guy has not played a hand in a while and bets big ($1 to $1.60 when most bets were $.20) that you would lay down your hand then and there, but no, I would not have such luck. Everyone thought they needed to see my hands all the way, so I was usually called no matter what the raise. Again, that wouldn't bother me because, hey, more money to win right?
To illustrate this point, I lost nearly a third of my stack on one hand. I had trip 9'sand started raising right away to get them out. Flop was rainbow, but turn and river brought 2 more hearts. judging by the players, no one would be playing a flush draw. I would have expected a raise at least since I was in early position. So anyway, by the end there are 3 of us left, 9 is the highest card out, a flush possibilty, but not likely.I have trip 9's, so does the player next to me, but he has a higher kicker. Damn. Then the American shows his 2 pair, 8 and 2.......hearts. The bastard has a flush and he doesn't even know it. Didn't even realize that it was a possibility til we told him. Well that's my blog. Too bad I had to bitch about a hand like that, but it goes to show that americans can play weak hands and win at home and online. Oh well, it was a fun game anyway, and that's what matters.

2004-10-11T02:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry to hear that Don :) .. You should be cleaning up. I always say "An american and his money will soon be parted".

I had several posts I saved and never published in the last 2 weeks all involving party poker. I don't wish to publish them because it really doesn't add anything but whining and complaining. I won't post them because they won't do me any good re-reading them and it won't do you any good reading them. To be honest I would just rather forget about my stint with party. I got it off my chest so my grief is done. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't post these types of posts in the future. Some complaining posts are constructive and it is due to bad luck that most of these bad results happen. I can only blame myself for my party poker fiasco so complaining about it is a moot point. Now for the point of this post.

I just don't understand it. I left Party poker about even from when I rebought even though I thought this time I would clean house. I tried several things and they all went bad so I really need to go back and study some hands. Needless to say I am back to the drawing board. The frustrating thing is I am about 5 hours back at the penny tables on UB and Stars and I am up a combined $10-$15. Keep in mind the buy in is $2 so I have made over 7x my buy in a very small ammount of time, so $15 is a lot of money in respect to the buy ins. What can be the difference? Why can I make money at will at the small tables and have such a difficult time on party poker? I have several possible explanations.

#1 Quality of Players are better at the tables on Party.

This one I can dismiss right away. Out of all the hours I have played there you see a trend all the time. 2-3 Sharks, 4-5 average players and always 1-2 maniacs who just give their money away in the long run. Poker stars has by far the toughest penny tables I have ever played. UB is slightly easier and Party is just weak if you pick the right table. This explaination doesn't hold any weight because if you played 1 night on party you would understand watching how people spend their money. I have played enough hours to know my odds and how to play so I do not believe that they play at a higher level than me.

#2 Could be just a really bad run of cards and short run results.

I can buy this excuse to a point. Granted I did lose a lot of my money when I was all-in with the best hand when the cards were shown. I spent about 5 hours total playing during this run so this could be somewhat acurate. The only problem is that this seems like an easy excuse to believe so I think there might be another reason.

#3 Playing beyond my means

I think this is the most plausable of them all. When you play a $2 buy in table you might take more risks and chances than a $25 buy in table. $25 means a lot to me and it hurts like hell if I lost it. If I lose $2 I am not too concerned. This alters your play and you might hesitate when you should be pulling the trigger. If it was true and I did catch some bad luck .. my bankroll can't support it at this time and that might have taken away any edge I have by playing better poker than my opponents. The moral of the story is go back to limits where you can absorb a small run of bad cards and luck. It is unfortunte that there are not a lot of limits between the 25$ and the 2$ buy in tables, but until I can absorb a $100 hit in a night and not be worried, I probally shouldn't be playing there.

I think I might have found out why I don't have the same success on party as I do on UB and Stars but I am still 100% condident I can outplay anyone there at anytime. I should keep practicing and taking little gains like I do and hopefully someday I will have a big bankroll to make even more money than I already do.

Besides this image which has happened 2 outta 3 times this week when I have played should prove that I have the skills and the ability to win anywhere I want to.

My Results

2004-10-09T23:49:00.000-05:00

updating from a hotel in the middle of nowhere... went to vegas.. only managed to play one bit of poker... so sad.. 25$ buy in at the luxor... for the first 20 minutes i got nothing but shit... A10d so i call blind.. flop comes Kc Qc Jh.. sweet. 2 other guys in.. i'm last to act... all-in, all-in... well shit... at this point i figure wtf... i've got a great hand so far.. call... so i see the first guy with a flush draw, second guy with a king high straight.. naturally enough.. i lose to the flush. gf spent a buck at the penny slots in the time it took me to die in my only real poker experience in vegas.... too much goddamned time spent sightseeing and not enough spent playing any kinda poker... suckage.

2004-10-04T23:47:00.000-05:00

Hopefully this hand is the turning point of my fortunes. I don't know if it can get any worse. Commentary isn't necessary.

Hand #2753177-6753 at Pinole (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 05/Oct/04 00:40:31

raggamuffin is at seat 0 with $1.96.
WOODY Jr is at seat 1 with $1.76.
ckd is at seat 2 with $2.54.
otterotter is at seat 4 with $3.20.
FoldorRaise is at seat 5 with $.72.
RoyalPain is at seat 6 with $2.13.
MrMadman is at seat 7 with $2.78.
Eddycash is at seat 8 with $1.41 (sitting out).
"Rich" is at seat 9 with $1.95.
The button is at seat 9.

raggamuffin posts the small blind of $.01.
WOODY Jr posts the big blind of $.02.

raggamuffin: -- -- -- --
WOODY Jr: -- -- -- --
ckd: -- -- -- --
otterotter: -- -- -- --
FoldorRaise: -- -- -- --
RoyalPain: -- -- -- --
MrMadman: -- -- -- --
"Rich": 9c Ac Ah Ts

Pre-flop:

ckd folds. otterotter folds. FoldorRaise calls. RoyalPain calls. MrMadman calls. "Rich" calls. raggamuffin calls. WOODY Jr checks.

Flop (board: 8c Qd 7c):

raggamuffin checks. WOODY Jr checks. FoldorRaise checks. RoyalPain bets $.12. MrMadman calls. "Rich" calls. raggamuffin folds. WOODY Jr calls. FoldorRaise calls.

Turn (board: 8c Qd 7c 6c):

WOODY Jr checks. FoldorRaise checks. RoyalPain checks. MrMadman checks. "Rich" bets $.08. WOODY Jr calls. FoldorRaise folds. RoyalPain calls. MrMadman calls.

River (board: 8c Qd 7c 6c 4d):

WOODY Jr bets $.80. RoyalPain folds. MrMadman folds. "Rich" calls.

Showdown:

WOODY Jr shows Jh 5c 4c 5h.
WOODY Jr has 5c 4c 8c 7c 6c: straight flush, eight high (high).
WOODY Jr has 5c 4c 8c 7c 6c: 8 7 6 5 4 (low).
"Rich" mucks cards.
("Rich" has 9c Ac Ah Ts.)

Hand #2753177-6753 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
WOODY Jr wins $1.32 with straight flush, eight high (high).
WOODY Jr wins $1.32 with 8 7 6 5 4 (low).

Thankfully my head was clear enough that I was able to quit 2 hands later, before having a chance to go on tilt. Now that I think about it, I should be happy that I didn't lose more money on that hand. I thought he was betting the low and it turns out he's got the only two cards in the deck that can beat my high hand, figures...
It's just one of those things I guess. When things are going good, you always end up being on the other side of it.

2004-10-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well atleast Rich isn't the only one having problems at the table. I actually went to the holdem ring for a change of pace and my last 2 hands netted me $-50

KK vs AA no chance
AA vs AQ no chance

So why not try O8b?

A2KQ suited vs aj44 ... No chance

In the last 3 big hands I was a monster favorite in 2 and I am down $-75. Add another 20-30$ in getting to those hands and I was down over $100 over 4 days. Party gave me $40 and I won a 3 table sit n go for another 39$, so by buying back into party I am down about 25$ or 65$ if you count my bonus since I rebought. I would hate to see me when I hit a good steak ... my cards will come :). Doyle Brunson always said if you can't handle the ups and downs don't play but this is testing my resolve. I can't keep taking this type of beating by players who haven't studied the game like I have. It is very very tough to keep a positive mind set but if you want to play well you have to and I can't let any of this affect me next time I sit down. I promise it won't because that is what seperates good players from average ones and if I want to be a good player, I have to do what it takes. The positive view you have to take is that more times than not I had my money in when I was best so winning is just around the corner. Poker takes as much mental discipline as it does skill to be successful. My next post will be a positive one :) .. Wonder if Don is having better luck in Vegas.

2004-10-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

2004-10-02T01:51:00.000-05:00

70 Hands Dealt
13 Flops Seen
0 Hands Won
Time Played: 90 minutes

67 Hands Dealt
12 Flops Seen
4 Hands Won (3 were split pots where I maybe profitted 5 cents, the one non-split pot was only 30 cents)
Time Played: 90 minutes

This is beyond pathetic. The past couple of weeks, I've been flopping good draws and just not hitting them. Tonight, I can't even flop a single pair, let alone any type of draw. It's doubly frustrating because both tables have been populated by goons that have plenty of money ripe for the taking.
I'm almost considering going back to regular hold 'em ring games, that's how bad things have been going lately.

Edit: Of course, 5 minutes after I posted this I flopped a nut low draw and nut flush draw. With 5 people all in before me, it was a no brainer to call with my $1.44. Of course I don't hit anything and am out another 2 bucks.
Now I just got dealt A234 and of course the flop is 10-10-Q. Arghhhhhhhhhhh

I guess I'll go take my frustration out in a points SNG, since I really don't care if I lose 100 UB points.

2004-10-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

Back from my poker hiatus just to get beat runner runner in a sit n go. Isn't poker fun? :) Anyways I hope to post regularly again but it is amazing what time off can do for your mind set and besides .... Rich has been stalking the o8b tables way to long at ub and It is time for me to take my cut.

2004-10-01T01:39:00.000-05:00

Good luck in Vegas Don, looking forward to hearing some stories.

I have nothing interesting to add, aside from the fact that I'm taking a beating playing o8b on UB lately. I did make it to the final table in an 1800+ player freeroll on UB last night, which was nice. Ended up in 10th place and won 5 bonus dollars. Yay me.

2004-09-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

So ya.. i'm off to vegas for a week. i'll update you with my losses in a few weeks. :)

2004-09-06T06:01:00.000-05:00

100th post on the blog .. good job to everyone who contributes. It is too bad I have to use it to bitch about a hand. After 2 hours of Party I sat at a o8b table of almost a 60$ pot average. Same guy raised preflop,flop and called every re-raise and had his stack over 400$ which is insane considering you can only buy in for 25$. When I left he was at 250$ but still. The moral of the story is that I had 3 people calling me on the turn when the board was k557 and I had KK in hand. The river came a 5 and instead of winning a 71$ pot with almost any other card I end up only winning $8 on the hand. What a nice $63 bad beat on a 1 outer ... unfucking believeable. Next person who has a bad beat story has to top this one with 1 out in the deck and it costs you over $50. Some days ... some days ....

2004-09-05T04:56:00.000-05:00

Today is a very sad day. Today we mourn the loss of Yakko's confidence. Yakko's confidence had brief moments of glory and was amazing when it was on. Yakko's confidence had been on life support for a few weeks now and tonight it finally shattered with some horrendous bad beats. Yakko's confidence is survived by his skills, reading ability and somewhat declined sense of humour. Yakko's confidence was just over 2 years old. We will miss you buddy and may you have better luck next time than you had in this life time. Our prayers and best wishes are with him.

2004-09-04T05:44:00.000-05:00

Done...

I Seriously gotta fight with everything I have to win a tourney, sng, or even every hand I play... Is this what poker really is?

I cant play this game. Its way too much of an ongoing struggle to keep chips in font of you only to be beaten badly later...

I really can t fold the best every time i get the best. It just doesnt make sense...

Im gonna take a break and hit up the play chips for a while till the FUCK SHIT blows over.

Hand #2576710-9 at Fargo (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 04/Sep/04 07:03:11

jessina22 is at seat 0 with 965.
XDestinyX is at seat 2 with 950.
KMonk is at seat 3 with 1265.
Hoige is at seat 4 with 940.
Jewelyju is at seat 5 with 1070.
Yakko is at seat 6 with 515.
az6185 is at seat 7 with 1315.
santajack is at seat 8 with 1960.
GARYCHIPS is at seat 9 with 1020.
The button is at seat 4.
Jewelyju posts the small blind of 10.
Yakko posts the big blind of 20.

Yakko: 5d 3s
Santajack: Jh3h

Pre-flop:
az6185 folds.
santajack calls.
GARYCHIPS folds.
jessina22 folds.
XDestinyX calls.
KMonk folds.
Hoige folds.
Jewelyju calls.
Yakko checks.

Flop (board: 3d 5s Td):
88 to 12 for me after the flop, loving it...

Jewelyju checks.
Yakko checks.
santajack checks.
XDestinyX checks.

Turn (board: 3d 5s Td Js):
Oh wow... Then is 95.5 to 4.5 for him.... How Cleaver of that SOB..

Jewelyju checks.
Yakko checks.
santajack checks.
XDestinyX checks.

River (board: 3d 5s Td Js Jd): Like he even needed that...

Yakko goes all-in for 495.
santajack raises to 1565.
XDestinyX folds.
Jewelyju folds.
santajack is returned 1070 (uncalled).

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Yakko shows 5d 3s.
santajack shows 3h Jh.

Showdown:
Yakko has 5d 5s Td Js Jd: two pair, jacks and fives.
santajack has 3h Jh 3d Js Jd: full house, jacks full of threes.
Hand #2576710-9 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
santajack wins 1070 with full house, jacks full of threes.
----------------------------------------------------------------

REALLY DONT CARE ANYMORE.

theres no way that any one should pull that win out of there ass.
---------------------------------------------------------------

2004-09-04T03:46:00.001-05:00

Just the newist elimination to take Yakko's Blood...

#2576310-48 at Sat345amA-032 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 04/Sep/04 04:42:33
smurfdog is at seat 0 with 745.
xcalibur1120 is at seat 1 with 2300.
Yakko is at seat 2 with 780.
BlGSLlM is at seat 3 with 1540.
Vequia is at seat 4 with 3250.
peekatyou is at seat 5 with 2655.
Bryce8007 is at seat 6 with 3505.
Debedis is at seat 7 with 3095.
spirois is at seat 8 with 4105.
bigjohnson753 is at seat 9 with 5195.
The button is at seat 2.
BlGSLlM posts the small blind of 30.
Vequia posts the big blind of 60.
smurfdog: -- --
xcalibur1120: -- --
Yakko: Qd Ac
BlGSLlM: -- --
Vequia: -- --
peekatyou: -- --
Bryce8007: -- --
Debedis: -- --
spirois: -- --
bigjohnson753: -- --
Pre-flop:
peekatyou folds. Bryce8007 folds. Debedis calls.
spirois calls. bigjohnson753 folds. smurfdog folds.
xcalibur1120 calls. Yakko raises to 250. BlGSLlM
folds. Vequia folds. Debedis calls. spirois
calls. xcalibur1120 folds.
Flop (board: 6d Ad 8d):
Debedis bets 900. spirois folds. Yakko goes all-in
for 530. Debedis is returned 370 (uncalled).
Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Yakko shows Qd Ac.
Debedis shows Ah 6h.
Turn (board: 6d Ad 8d 9c):
(no action in this round)
River (board: 6d Ad 8d 9c 3c):
(no action in this round)
Showdown:
Yakko has Qd Ac Ad 8d 9c: a pair of aces.
Debedis has Ah 6h 6d Ad 9c: two pair, aces and sixes.
Hand #2576310-48 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
Debedis wins 1960 with two pair, aces and sixes.
Yakko is eliminated.
----------------------------------------------------------------

ANd some more.....................

Hand #2576527-50 at PtsForPts-406 (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 04/Sep/04 05:48:00

eufajinaya is at seat 0 with 2220.
dartman8 is at seat 2 with 2385.
Yakko is at seat 7 with 1205.
iGot5onIt is at seat 8 with 1840.
zen_assassin is at seat 9 with 2350.
The button is at seat 0.
dartman8 posts the small blind of 30.
Yakko posts the big blind of 60.

Yakko: Kh Qs

Pre-flop:
iGot5onIt folds.
zen_assassin folds.
eufajinaya
folds.
dartman8 calls.
Yakko raises to 250.
dartman8 calls.

Flop (board: Qh Jc 8c):
dartman8 checks.
Yakko goes all-in for 955.
dartman8 calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
dartman8 shows 6c Qc.
Yakko shows Kh Qs.

Turn (board: Qh Jc 8c Tc):
(no action in this round)

River (board: Qh Jc 8c Tc 7c):
(no action in this round)

Showdown:
dartman8 has Qc Jc 8c Tc 7c: flush, queen high.
Yakko has Kh Qs Qh Jc Tc: a pair of queens.

Hand #2576527-50 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
dartman8 wins 2410 with flush, queen high.
----------------------------------------------------------------

C'mon!!! GIVE ME BREAK FOR ONCE

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-09-03T03:00:00.000-05:00

If Gamblor chooses not to reward me, I have no choice but to put more holes in my wall... :P

I hear ya Rich, my last 2 aces have been put to shame by the garbage its supposed to trample over... Didnt have a problem with that. It happens. Then more Bull came along and Im losing it now.... If tonight shows me that all there is in poker is a pray to Gamblor... Im done for another few months...

Its nice to see that Bob is doing well. Betting on your draw and checking, very nice move. only thing Id like to know is if you had missed your flushes whould you have bet the river and looked for a steal?

When you bet the turn and only got calls it really looked like nobody had a legit hand which could have set up a bluff for the river had you missed. Dont know how smart the guys you were playing with are and if they would have folded 2 pair or trips when a flush hit the board. Guess it still whoudl have depended on the river card and your read on them.

But as for quiting poker heres a few reasons why:

therake619 is at seat 0 with 7065.
Joe 26 is at seat 1 with 915.
Zeppelin83 is at seat 2 with 2185. S
wany220 is at seat 3 with 1275.
heann is at seat 4 with 320.
ung0dly1 is at seat 5 with 3080.
Yakko is at seat 6 with 2735.
wcbring is at seat 7 with 6695.
KWIKSILVA is at seat 8 with 0 (sitting out).
in4now is at seat 9 with 1905.
The button is at seat 8.
in4now posts the small blind of 20.
therake619 posts the big blind of 40.

Yakko: Kc Kd

Pre-flop:
Joe 26 calls.
Zeppelin83 folds.
Swany220 calls.
sheann calls.
ung0dly1 calls.
Yakko raises to 450.
wcbring folds.
in4now folds. t
herake619 folds.
Joe 26 folds. Swany220 calls.
sheann goes all-in for 320.
ung0dly1 folds.

Flop (board: 3s Js 9s):
Swany220 goes all-in for 825.
Yakko calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Swany220 shows 8s 6s.
sheann shows 5c 5s.
Yakko shows Kc Kd.
Turn (board: 3s Js 9s Ah): (no action in this round)
River (board: 3s Js 9s Ah 4c): (no action in this round)

Showdown: Swany220 has 8s 6s 3s Js 9s: flush, jack high.
sheann has 5c 5s Js 9s Ah: a pair of fives.
Yakko has Kc Kd Js 9s Ah: a pair of kings.
Hand #2556886-28 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
Swany220 wins the main pot 1100 with flush, jack high.
Swany220 wins the side pot 1910 with flush, jack high.
sheann is eliminated.

FUN FUN had to call that Flop bet, no way around that. NEXT!
------------------------------------------------------------

l

osingall is at seat 1 with 4080.
cjmac1 is at seat 2 with 2320.
Yakko is at seat 3 with 825.
nickrapp11 is at seat 4 with 805.
Vtectuner99 is at seat 5 with 12050.
WildKardz is at seat 6 with 3600.
Dummy Hand is at seat 7 with 905.
cardsmyway is at seat 8 with 2490.
Emcemc is at seat 9 with 2090.
The button is at seat 4.
Vtectuner99 posts the small blind of 20.
WildKardz posts the big blind of 40.

Yakko: Tc Ad

Pre-flop:
Dummy Hand folds. cardsmyway folds. Emcemc folds.
losingall folds. cjmac1 calls. Yakko raises to 150.
nickrapp11 folds. Vtectuner99 folds. WildKardz
re-raises to 510. cjmac1 folds. Yakko calls.
Flop (board: Ac Ts 6c):
WildKardz bets 925. Yakko goes all-in for 315.
WildKardz is returned 610 (uncalled).
Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Yakko shows Tc Ad.
WildKardz shows Qc As.
Turn (board: Ac Ts 6c 7c):
(no action in this round)
River (board: Ac Ts 6c 7c Qd):
(no action in this round)
Showdown:
Yakko has Tc Ad Ac Ts Qd: two pair, aces and tens.
WildKardz has Qc As Ac Ts Qd: two pair, aces and queens.
Hand #2557152-45 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
WildKardz wins 1710 with two pair, aces and queens.
Yakko is eliminated.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Oooo that was a good one. Guess i should have folded to that raise preflop, but I seriously cant wait all tourney for AA and KK or AK b/c lord knows they dont gaurentee a won hand.

Moving right along...

---------------------------------------------------------------

hewitt314 is at seat 1 with 1725.
BoydBurke is at seat 2 with 955.
RichardHead11 is at seat 3 with 2330.
Yakko is at seat 5 with 1745.
solo84 is at seat 6 with 2785.
joyandme is at seat 7 with 2645.
FreddyFurious is at seat 8 with 6640.
Runnynose is at seat 9 with 1295.
The button is at seat 5.
solo84 posts the small blind of 10.
joyandme posts the big blind of 20.

Yakko: Qh Qd

Pre-flop:
FreddyFurious raises to 140. Runnynose calls.
hewitt314 folds. BoydBurke folds. RichardHead11
folds. Yakko re-raises to 450. solo84 folds.
joyandme folds. FreddyFurious re-raises to 760.
Runnynose calls. Yakko calls.

Flop (board: 6h Kd Td):

FreddyFurious checks. Runnynose goes all-in for 535.
Yakko folds. FreddyFurious calls.

**Can you Believe that I had both those mofos beat?!?
And I thought i made a good lay down.....

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
FreddyFurious shows Jc Ah.
Runnynose shows Js 4s.
Turn (board: 6h Kd Td Jh):
(no action in this round)
River (board: 6h Kd Td Jh Qc):

(no action in this round)
Showdown:
FreddyFurious has Jc Ah Kd Td Qc: straight, ace high.
Runnynose has Js Kd Td Jh Qc: a pair of jacks.

Ooooh I did make a good lay... I made the right call b/c I need to get lucky to win even when I start way ahead in the hand..

wormaaa is at seat 0 with 2430.
buckeye52 is at seat 1 with 4770.
mrxcellent01 is at seat 2 with 755.
Big Bird 01 is at seat 3 with 1590.
GETDRUNK103 is at seat 4 with 805.
patmath is at seat 5 with 3085.
Jerry5877 is at seat 6 with 810.
Yakko is at seat 7 with 1565.
fretless6 is at seat 8 with 3490.
Tiger63 is at seat 9 with 2560.
The button is at seat 1.
mrxcellent01 posts the small blind of 30.
Big Bird 01 posts the big blind of 60.

Yakko: Ks Js

Pre-flop:
GETDRUNK103 folds. patmath folds. Jerry5877 folds.
Yakko calls. fretless6 folds. Tiger63 folds.
wormaaa folds. buckeye52 folds. mrxcellent01 folds.
Big Bird 01 checks.

Flop (board: 9d Jh 8d):

Big Bird 01 bets 60. Yakko raises to 375. Big Bird
01 goes all-in for 1530. Yakko goes all-in for 1505.
Big Bird 01 is returned 25 (uncalled).

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Big Bird 01 shows Jc 8c.
Yakko shows Ks Js.

Turn (board: 9d Jh 8d 8s):
(no action in this round)

River (board: 9d Jh 8d 8s Th):
(no action in this round)

Showdown:
Big Bird 01 has Jc 8c Jh 8d 8s: full house, eights full of jacks.
Yakko has Ks Js Jh 8d 8s: two pair, jacks and eights.
Hand #2566827-53 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
Big Bird 01 wins 3160 with full house, eights full of jacks.
Yakko is eliminated.

Guess its not the best play to call a re-raise by the blind, but goes to show how ahead I am pre-flop and WHOoPTY FRiggn DOO Im Done!
----------------------------------------------------------------

well Im wishingmy self good luck. OR maybe praying that odds start working properly is the better way to go...

not looking for analysis, just giving you guys a chuckle before you play some poker.

2004-09-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

Gotta love bullets getting cracked. That is just gut wrenching. Horiffic really. Anyways I was playing party this morning and my first hand I lost 7$ with trip kings on a flop of k76 because the guy and his massive a48 called my bets twice to hit runner runner low/straight. I Knew this was going to be a STELLAR day so I kept playing and got dealt this.

I will just post a hand history because I don't feel like going over it but it is still interesting to read.

***** Hand History for Game 905457738 *****
0/0 OmahaHiLoGameTable (PL) - Thu Sep 02 08:53:03 EDT 2004
Table Tango&Cash (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: maaspoort ( $25)
Seat 2: maggiew ( $22.25)
Seat 3: kkscab ( $72.42)
Seat 4: welsh1 ( $34.28)
Seat 5: XXXXXXXX ( $24.50)
Seat 6: watso ( $27.43)
Seat 7: shipthecheez ( $29.58)
Seat 8: padrearnold ( $18.40)
Seat 9: Skolpadda ( $24.25)
Seat 10: omaho ( $23.25)
maggiew posts small blind (0.25)
kkscab posts big blind (0.50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ Qs, As, 9c, Ac ]
welsh1 calls (0.50)
XXXXXXXX calls (0.50)
watso calls (0.50)
shipthecheez calls (0.50)
padrearnold calls (0.50)
Skolpadda calls (0.50)
maggiew calls (0.25)
kkscab checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3s, 9s, 5c ]
maggiew checks.
kkscab checks.
welsh1 bets (0.50)
XXXXXXXX calls (0.50)
watso raises (1) to 1
shipthecheez calls (1)
padrearnold folds.
Skolpadda folds.
maggiew folds.
kkscab folds.
welsh1 calls (0.50)
XXXXXXXX calls (0.50)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jc ]
welsh1 checks.
XXXXXXXX bets (2)
watso calls (2)
shipthecheez calls (2)
welsh1 calls (2)
** Dealing River ** : [ Ts ]
welsh1 checks.
XXXXXXXX checks.
watso bets (0.50)
shipthecheez raises (7) to 7
welsh1 folds.
XXXXXXXX raises (20) to 20
watso folds.
shipthecheez calls (13)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $53.70 | Rake: $2.80
Board: [ 3s 9s 5c Jc Ts ]
maaspoort balance $25, sits out
maggiew balance $21.75, lost $0.50 (folded)
kkscab balance $71.92, lost $0.50 (folded)
welsh1 balance $30.78, lost $3.50 (folded)
XXXXXXXX balance $54.70, bet $23.50, collected $53.70, net +$30.20 [ Qs As 9c Ac ] [ a flush, ace high with ace kicker -- As,Qs,Ts,9s,3s ]
watso balance $23.43, lost $4 (folded)
shipthecheez balance $6.08, lost $23.50 [ 6h Ks 9d Js ] [ a flush, king high -- Ks,Js,Ts,9s,3s ]
padrearnold balance $17.90, lost $0.50 (folded)
Skolpadda balance $24.50, lost $0.50 (folded)
finboy balance $19, sits out

2004-09-02T00:04:00.000-05:00

When i bought back into UB a few months ago, I promised to rectify the lack of whining on this blog. This is me fulfilling said promise.
No commentary is needed, just read and be amazed.

hugebuy is at seat 1 with 1120.
"Rich" is at seat 4 with 1535.
Garry Owen is at seat 6 with 2990.
KCKinkyGirl is at seat 8 with 2860.
SuzyQ_01 is at seat 9 with 1495.
The button is at seat 6.

KCKinkyGirl posts the small blind of 20.
SuzyQ_01 posts the big blind of 40.

hugebuy: -- --
"Rich": Ac As
Garry Owen: -- --
KCKinkyGirl: -- --
SuzyQ_01: -- --

Pre-flop:

hugebuy raises to 140. "Rich" re-raises to 480.
Garry Owen folds. KCKinkyGirl folds. SuzyQ_01
folds. hugebuy calls.

Flop (board: 9d Qc 4d):

hugebuy checks. "Rich" bets 600. hugebuy goes
all-in for 640. "Rich" calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

hugebuy shows Jd Ks.
"Rich" shows Ac As.

Turn (board: 9d Qc 4d Kh):

(no action in this round)

River (board: 9d Qc 4d Kh Jh):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

hugebuy has Jd Ks Qc Kh Jh: two pair, kings and jacks.
"Rich" has Ac As Qc Kh Jh: a pair of aces.

Hand #2555165-35 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
hugebuy wins 2300 with two pair, kings and jacks

That loss left me with roughly 500 chips and I was eliminated shortly after. Thankfully all I had invested in the tournament was 100 UB points. Still, that's a pretty small consolation.

2004-08-31T07:23:00.000-05:00

Yak: I know why you made the call :). It is rough watching a goon make money but when someone is on tilt the flop/turn/river doesn't matter to them. Their money is going in and it is your job to protect yours until you have a decisive edge. The reason why I think your hand is important to go over even though you won is that you will build your bankroll because you are a good player. At this level you are playing at, if you lose $2 you really don't care. Once you move up in stakes, a mistake like that starts costing you 20,30 dollars instead (trust me I know :). The bigger point I failed to get across earlier was that just because your at a penny table doesn't mean you should treat it differently than at a bigger table. You build bad habits playing pots you shouldn't be in and that WILL come back to haunt you. The hand is done now and you will correct your play and take it as a learning experience.

Rich: Your turn :)

I was very happy you posted this hand because it is this type of hand that seperates winning players from break even players. Like Yakko, you might consider playing the hand differently and I will try to show you why.

Preflop selection. Not the worst call I have ever seen and I do admit a suited ace with 2 face cards and a weak low is not a bad hand to play. The key point here is who is doing the raising and in that respect you were right to call. The only problem is that an A4 is not a good low but it also makes it an easy hand to drop after the flop if you miss.

Flop: I like your check on the flop because any time you are given a free card you should take it especially against people who are going to raise at almost any other time. So far so good.

Turn: I want to seperate this into two sections, A) how you played it to the river and B) how you might consider playing it.

A) Dynamite turn. You hit your nut flush but there is that one card left to fuck you. You have the 2nd best low and the nut high hand. Guys are pissing their pants getting thier money in when you clearly have the best hand. Just calling this hand is a good play IF and ONLY if ... when the board pairs you can fold your hand without hesitation. A flat call here is designed to take the "safe approach" in case the board pairs. The only problem with this, is that if the board doesn't pair you get no action on your flush cause the goons already have their money in and anyone calling more than likely has 2 pair or trips and will fold. Problem #2 is the player jakeace. The question you have to ask yourself if you see 3 people calling ahead of you what would be the most likely hand to call if you don't have the nut flush? The answer is an A2. If the board pairs on the river you might be 2nd best both ways and that gets you broke fast and if you suspect he has an A2 you might be putting in cash for only 50% of the pot. The only saving grace to this hand is that you will be heads up at the river and chances are the guy will have the nut low or the high so calling a bet is a gaurantee. I would also want to mention that this would be the correct way to play this hand if you had no low cards in your hand and just the nut flush. Checking in that case would not give away your hand strength and than you can throw it away easily with not much invested if the board pairs.

River: Of course the board has to pair and jakeace goes all in. I would still put jakeace on either the high or the low, in this case still an A2, so a call here doesn't lose you any money. More than likely your chips in the middle are already gone to a goon who just hit with his two pair. It is very key to realize if you were multiway at the end (3 or more)... you HAVE to lay it down without hesitation. Being 2nd best both ways leads to being broke. The end result was great for you but here is part B).

B) The call preflop, and your play on the flop will not change here. The big difference here is on the turn. I would have gotten all my chips into the middle after the initial raises without hesitation. There are a couple reasons for this.

1) If the guy has A2 and no hope for a high, the very best he can do is 50% and if an A or 2 hits you get it all anyways vs if he still had chips on the river where he would have folded and you would have gotten no extra value. This is called a freeroll cause the worst you can do is 50% and you have a good chance to take everything. If he did have A2 he will call gauanteed as well so you don't have to worry about losing his $$.

2) If the guy has 2 pair and wants to draw on you make him pay dearly. You hit the nuts with only 1 card left so don't give him a free draw. If he hits he hits but it is much worse if you check and he hits. As much as you want people calling with 2 pair or trips, it is not always a bad thing to get people to lay them down. Otherwise you are stuck in a very very tough position like you were when the board paired. Poker is much easier when the decsions are made easy and a re-raise on the turn does it for you. You are in when you are the best and the favorite overall(not always the case in O8b ... think about it) so you can never ask for more.

3) People think you are a goon playing O8b. We think all the other players are goons and I gaurantee you they think you are a weak player for folding often. This is untrue of course but when the board is 789, they might put you on a straight instead of a flush even if you rarely bet. Anyone with a queen or even a jack high flush will call you down.

Drawbacks:

The only drawback to playing this way is when lady luck gets her strap on and bends you over on the river by pairing the board. You might go broke but when your the favorite in the hand and the favorite overall you will win more. So many people don't draw to the nuts in O8b so I don't think you have to be worried about too many people folding.

The two ways I described on how to play this hand would have more than likely ended up with the same result ... Rich schooling the goons horrifically. I would sugguest that at a tougher table you should always play the way B) does because a good player won't hesitate to fold the trips or 2 pair. At the penny tables playing A) is ok to because you will more than likely get action after the turn when you have the nuts. Only at the penny tables :) so keep that in mind as well. Overall not bad but it is the result that counts.

OK now for the fun part of the blog .... THE TOURNAMENT REPORT that I was suppose to do yesturday but ya know. Here is a recap of my 1+0 PL adventure at 4 am sunday morning.

FIRST HOUR
Buying into a 1+0 tournament you never really know what to expect. I expect a lot of bad players because of the entrance fee and at this time of night I also expect a lot of degenerate gamblers that have some game. At the bell 109 entrants entered the tournament making top prize paying just over $33. 33x your buy in for top spot is a good ammount to shoot for. I bought in for 250 points because I could and ding the tournament starts. The first hour is what I originally expected and by 4:30 only 52 players had remained. Nothing much in the first hour to report but I did get AA and KK and made them both pay playing ABC poker. At the first break I was 22/40 putting me in my favorite place in the tournament. I always like being middle of the pack because you haven't stood out yet showing off your game and you are doing decent enough to start your game plan. First hour didn't test me and I didn't get into tough situations.

Hour 2

My table never got broken up from the start and I really played some predictable hands so I was hoping to get moved. 30 minutes into the second hour my table got broken up and I got sat to the left of the chip leader. Not a good sign. After watching him play I knew I wasn't in that bad of shape. The chip leader played most hands and bet every flop. He bet the blind if he had nothing, and bet the pot if he had a good hand. I was amazed at how predictable he was. After a few check raises I think he got a little pissed off at me. I was sitting with 6600 and he had just over 35k. I get dealt J9 in the small blind and all the action folded to us. I called the big blind and he checked. The flop came J99. Not a bad flop I must say. I checked and checked and check-raised and he gave me over 3k more calling with a mere pair of aces he hit on the river. The next 2 hands I played were the critical hands I played in my tournament. Both times I had AQ which I had raised agaist smaller stacks and I got re-raised by them both times with 44 and 66. Each time the river brought me a queen and I had just over 10000 chips going into the final 21 players. Top 20 paid in this tournament but 11-20 paid a whooping 21 cents profit. I wasn't playing to get 11-20 :). I played some great poker being aggresive and always check raising the chip leader and took down some nice pots with some good bluffs. The field dwindled to 11 players and when player 11 was eliminated I had just over 10k in chips putting me in 4th place going into the final table.

FINAL TABLE

It is funny because the chip leader who sat beside me for a good part of the game was now directly across from me. I knew at that moment I would play heads up with him at the end. I have quite a bit of final table experience and I know that when the table has 10 players again it is not the time to be aggressive. I sat back and watched blind after blind go away and soon we were down to 6 handed play. Now is the time to start making some moves. Every time a blind got stolen from me I always got it back with a steal by the end of the next round. A few hands later I hit the nut flush and by check-raising the chip leader he paid me off again and I was in second place with about 1/2 the stack of the chip leader. You really would think this guy would get the message. I also bluffed more than my norm by check raising and I took down quite a few pots. I made it down to 3 handed and during this time I managed to double up again via the chip leader and we had 50k chips each to 10k from the other guy. The 3rd place guy went out on a horrific outdraw by the chip leader and just like I predicted before I was heads up with the guy who single handed built my stack.

HEADS UP

I told my buddy scroumf I would finish top 20 before I started because I haven't really played many pot limit tournaments but my fundamentals are solid and I knew heads up is a patient game yet again. After multiple raises preflop I decided to get aggressive as well and we both traded shots but I did keep a slight lead on him. The last hand of the tournament dealth me a KQ offsuit. The ironic thing about this hand is that I didn't play KQ once the entire tournament. I see so many people losing with this hand and I never play it unless I have position. Here in the hand history.

Getting Hand History Information...
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hand #2525870-70 at Mon5amA-Final (Pot Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 30/Aug/04 07:40:11

JChen is at seat 0 with 45220.
XXXXXXXX is at seat 5 with 64780.
The button is at seat 5.

XXXXXXXX posts the small blind of 600.
JChen posts the big blind of 1200.

JChen: -- --
XXXXXXXX: K Q

Pre-flop:

XXXXXXXX calls. JChen raises to 2400. XXXXXXXX
re-raises to 7200. JChen calls.

Jchen raised every hand just like in the tournament and KQ is a very strong hand heads up so I popped him for 5x. Without hesitation he calls.

Flop (board: 9Flop (board: 9 J A):

JChen bets 1200. XXXXXXXX calls

A flop with some draw potential but when Jchen bets the blind ... Guess what he has :)

Turn (board: 9Turn (board: 9): J): A): Q):):

JChen bets 1200. XXXXXXXX calls.

At this point I have 2nd pair with a good kicker, a straight draw and the nut flush draw. I could have raised him at this point by why knock him out now when I have so many cards to give me the nut hand.

River (board: 9 J A Q 3):

JChen bets 19200. XXXXXXXX goes all-in for 55180.
JChen goes all-in for 35620. XXXXXXXX is returned
19560 (uncalled).

I hit the nuts on the river and I have someone betting into me. I knew he had a diamond and I wondered if he ever got sick of the re-raising and the check raising. I put him all and luckily he called with his 8

Showdown:

JChen has 8Showdown:

JChen has 8 9 A Q 3: flush, ace high.
XXXXXXXX has K 9 A Q 3: flush, ace high.

Hand #2525870-70 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXX wins 90440 with flush, ace high.
JChen is eliminated.
-----------------------------------------------

I hit the nuts and he paid me off all game. I had a read on him and he never once changed his tactics. I won the $33 dollar first prize and that may not sound like a lot but I didn't risk any money to enter. I will take it and run.

I hope you enjoyed my tournament wrap up and I would like to leave with a few comments for the bloggers on here.

Yak/Rich if you want to put the club/diam/heart/spade pictures just message me on msn and I will provide you with the details how.
Also if you have to block out your names as well please use something other than XXXXXX. It is a little confusing and it will make seperating our posts a bit easier. Thank you and good night/morning :)

2004-08-31T03:50:00.000-05:00

I'm almost scared to post an o8b hand now because I don't want Bob yelling at me for any mistakes I made.

All kidding aside, I'd like to apologize to the UB low limit o8b community for (possibly) busting out one of the biggest goons that we had.
It was a marginally interesting hand, so I guess I'll post it since it's the only one I've got saved.

jakeace is at seat 0 with $2.90.
The Hulk 10 is at seat 1 with $.39.
Callistoxx71 is at seat 2 with $4.41.
tempertemper is at seat 3 with $.23.
FourKing Hell is at seat 4 with $15.09.
finallap is at seat 5 with $2.
aces03 is at seat 6 with $.49.
LilPixie is at seat 7 with $1.
XXXXXXXXXXX is at seat 8 with $2.73.
WOODY Jr is at seat 9 with $1.94.
The button is at seat 3.

FourKing Hell posts the small blind of $.01.
finallap posts the big blind of $.02.
LilPixie posts out of turn for $.02.

jakeace: -- -- -- --
The Hulk 10: -- -- -- --
Callistoxx71: -- -- -- --
tempertemper: -- -- -- --
FourKing Hell: -- -- -- --
finallap: -- -- -- --
aces03: -- -- -- --
LilPixie: -- -- -- --
XXXXXXXXXXX: Js Ah Qs 4h
WOODY Jr: -- -- -- --

There are two goons at this table that I've identified; the aforementioned FourKingHell and Bob's nemesis aces03. I wasn't too familiar with any of the other players.
Anyways, I get dealt a playable hand in early position, one that I'd definitely want to see the flop with.

Pre-flop:

aces03 raises to $.09. LilPixie calls. XXXXXXXXXX calls. WOODY Jr folds. jakeace calls. The Hulk 10 folds. Callistoxx71 folds. tempertemper folds. FourKing Hell calls. finallap calls.

Out of all the o8b players I've ever played with, a raise from aces03 is the one I'm least likely to respect. I felt like calling it was a no brainer and with four other callers, it ended up being worthwhile.

Flop (board: 7c 3h 9h):

FourKing Hell checks. finallap checks. aces03 checks. LilPixie checks. XXXXXXXXXX checks. jakeace checks.

Nice flop for me. I got the nut flush draw, a good low draw, as well as a possible nut low if a 2 hits. Since I'm still drawing, I don't want to bet any more chips than necessary. I was actually quite surprised that no one bet on the flop, but I certainly wasn't complaining. A pot sized bet here could've possibly taken me out of the hand.

Turn (board: 7c 3h 9h 8h):

FourKing Hell checks. finallap bets $.54. aces03 goes all-in for $.40. LilPixie folds. XXXXXXXXX calls. jakeace calls. FourKing Hell folds.

Good turn card as I get my nut flush and also hit the second best low. Aside from the 2h, that was the best I could've asked for. Instead of pushing more chips in, I'm content to merely call the initial bet. There are still river cards that can hurt my flush and my low was certainly not a given to hold up.

River (board: 7c 3h 9h 8h 9c):

finallap goes all-in for $1.37. XXXXXXXXX calls. jakeace calls.

Ughhhh. That certainly wasn't a river card I wanted to see. I was seriously contemplating a fold, and honestly, I feel like that may have been the right play. I wasn't all that committed to the pot and I didn't have the nuts either way. Something told me to call though, and who am I to go against instinct?

Showdown:

finallap shows 2c 6c Jc 3c.
finallap has Jc 3c 3h 9h 9c: two pair, nines and threes (high).
finallap has 2c 6c 7c 3h 8h: 8 7 6 3 2 (low).
aces03 shows 8d Kh Qh Ac.
aces03 has Kh Qh 3h 9h 8h: flush, king high (high).
aces03 has no qualifying low hand.
XXXXXXXXXXXX shows Js Ah Qs 4h.
XXXXXXXXXXXX has Ah 4h 3h 9h 8h: flush, ace high (high).
XXXXXXXXXXXX has Ah 4h 7c 3h 8h: 8 7 4 3 A (low).
jakeace mucks cards.
(jakeace has 9d 2s Td 4d.)

Hand #2478889-1338 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXXXXX wins the main pot $1.07 with flush, ace high (high).
XXXXXXXXXXX wins the main pot $1.07 with 8 7 4 3 A (low).
XXXXXXXXXXX wins the side pot $2.27 with flush, ace high (high).
XXXXXXXXXXX wins the side pot $2.26 with 8 7 4 3 A (low).

Well, that certainly went a lot better than I thought it would. After several rebuys (the last of which was only 17 cents), that hand finally forced aces03 to leave the game. I hope that wasn't the last of his money.

On another note, i just finished 132/2500 in a UB TEC freeroll. My pocket kings were no match for A9o. I was short stacked and going all in with the kings was a no brainer. It's still a complete waste of time though. I really gotta stop playing in those.

2004-08-31T02:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the excellent analsys Pinny. Although under normal circumstances I would have never played that hand that way. I should have checked after the flop, thats for sure. After the the titlers raise if there had been any callers I would have mucked my hand (Im really not big on calling with nothing, even if there are odds to call).

If I had caught a hand on the flop I probably would have checked and let them bet, but because I didnt have a hand I was hoping to raise the pot a bit for my draw and perhaps get some information about the other players hands. My bet probably should have been bigger if I was looking to steal the pot right there, but ppl like to call any bet so did not want to put too many chips knowing a call was likely either way.) Turns out that I got invaluable information from the tilter and things played out well.

Right now Im really trying to pick my spots to make money, not risking my chips on maginal calls. I know that sooner or later a hand will come and pay off and that I should wait for those. However, when a time like this comes around and I can make a few bucks off it I dont mind taking it. It was a gamble yes, but his bet on the flop screamed out bullshit.

To quote from rounders "You cant lose what you dont put in the middle, but you can't win much either.

My gut was telling me to call. I hit the all-in button thinking he might just fold what ever crap he was playing. He ended up calling and my gut was right, I was best in the hand.

Just some more Info on why I played the hand the way I did. Maybe it makes more sense now.

2004-08-30T06:49:00.000-05:00

This is what I envisioned this blog to be. I wanted to post hands and go through them and have people give me feedback on them and I would do the same for you. Yakko has been good enough to post some O8b hands so I will help you go through them. First a little house cleaning.

I hope I get to it this morning but due to my new job I only have time to play poker late nights on weekends and I entered a 1+0 PL holdem tournament. I will try to post about this as well after I go through yak's hand because it was a lot of fun and it involves pistol fucking (sorry for the language but it is neccessary).

Yak's Hand
Let us first start preflop. A2210 is a marginal but playable hand at best. At most low limit o8b games the pot will get raised because goons piss their pants every time they get AA,KK,QQ,A2 with any other two cards in their hand. There is one major problem with playing A22. If you hit an A all you have is a pair of two's and your dick in your hand. If you hit a 2 you might get stuck in a no-way out hand because you will call with trips. I do agree you should have made your call against a tilting player so all good so far.

Flop....
Mistake #1 Never ever ever bet on just a low nevermind a low DRAW. Building a pot in o8b is important, but right now you have a pair of 2's and there is almost one thing gauranteed. If a player bets preflop, there is a 99% chance that they will raise the pot post flop. This is the beauty of weak o8b games. You don't have to do anything to build the pot, the goons will do it for you.

Mistake #2 Calling the re-raise. Even though he was a goon you were calling for only the low with your type of hand. You were risking all your chips eventually on the flop, on a draw that has a good chance to be counterfitted anyways. I know it is tough to finally get an A2 but, it is like playing AK on the flop in holdem. In holdem AK is good enough for the flop and if you miss you fold. Dead simple. If you have nothing for a high draw get the hell outta dodge because the VERY best you can usually do is break even and there is a good chance you might get 1/4. A low draw is a terrible hand heads up with no high because your drawing on hope to get your money back. This is a very very important point and you can get hurt playing like this in the long term.

By compounding the two errors you risked your whole stack on little more than a poor draw with an expectation of just getting your money back. By checking and calling you a) might have drawn more people into the pot and b) only risked 36 cents for a low draw if you have to draw for it. O8b is not about limiting your opponents before the river. You want them drawing with A3 and hands that will pay you off. In holdem, you goal is to limit preflop and conquer. In O8b your job is to build the pot slowly for a river kill. You should never have your chips in the centre of the table on the flop, unless you hit a nut full house.

The turn card in this case just proves why it is a horrible play to get your money in because now he can be holding any cards 2-6 and take your low away from you and you only have a pair of mere aces to boot. The river brought nothing special and you gooned out a win.

The one thing I will say is that you did well recognizing your opponent was on tilt and called him with a playable hand. Your read was fine but I hate to say it, your post flop play was brutal and you really should have gone broke on this hand. I have watched you play before and your play is as good if not better than mine on most nights that I have observed. This hand you should use and go over again to shore up your game so you can increase your EV.

Thanks yakko for the hand and I hope everyone learns something by reading my constructive comments. The only way you get better in poker is to play, analyize and fix your mistakes. Every one makes them, but the good players fix them.

2004-08-28T06:05:00.000-05:00

Alright, I havnt posted anything at all in a while, but now that I'm making my way back into poker (b/c school is starting and I need some more distractions) I figure id start posting some hands iv been through and see what you guys have to say about them.

Hand #2478919-1121 at Lompoc (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
ImSmiling is at seat 1 with $6.37.
XXXXXis at seat 2 with $1.95.
stevejcia is at seat 3 with $1.73.
LUVMEUB is at seat 5 with $3.67 (sitting out).
Mystery Trips is at seat 6 with $1.
FourKing Hell is at seat 7 with $2.41.
Sir_mucksalot is at seat 8 with $10.93.
agent 86 is at seat 9 with $.09.
The button is at seat 9.
ImSmiling posts the small blind of $.01.
XXXXX posts the big blind of $.02.

XXXXX: Ac 2d Th 2s
Pre-flop:

stevejcia calls.
Mystery Trips folds.
FourKing Hell raises to $.09.
Sir_mucksalot calls. agent 86 folds.
ImSmiling calls.
XXXXX calls.
stevejcia calls.

Iv got an A2 in the bb .07 to call. FourKing Hell has been tilting. When he started he had $6 in front of him and has been paying out pretty well, so I figure a call isnt bad. I also hadnt played a hand yet and after 15 hands im itching to play so what the hell...

Flop (board: 6h Qd 7h):
ImSmiling checks.
XXXXXbets $.05. I bet .05 b/c Im a goon and think that im gonna get some good odds if I get a few callers and hit that low. Besides betting can also get rid of some ppl and is fun!! :P

stevejcia folds.
FourKing Hell raises to $.60. thats a big ass raise by the table tilter... I dont take much faith in his ablility to play 08/b, plus the guys is hard up to win and it sounds like hes stealing to me. So I got all in on his ass and hope for a pay day...(long pause on my part while I figure all this shit out)

Sir_mucksalot folds.
ImSmiling folds.
XXXXX goes all-in for $1.86. (about a 10 second pause on his part, all good for me :) )
FourKing Hell calls.
Turn (board: 6h Qd 7h As): (no action in this round)
River (board: 6h Qd 7h As 8c): (no action in this round)

Showdown: XXXXX shows Ac 2d Th 2s. XXXXX has Ac Th Qd As 8c: a pair of aces (high). XXXXX has Ac 2d 6h 7h 8c: 8 7 6 2 A (low).
FourKing Hell shows 2c Ad 2h 9s.
FourKing Hell has Ad 9s Qd As 8c: a pair of aces, queen/nine kickers (high).
FourKing Hell has 2c Ad 6h 7h 8c: 8 7 6 2 A (low).

XXXXX wins $2.09 with a pair of aces (high).
XXXXX wins $1.04 of a $2.08 pot with 8 7 6 2 A (low).
FourKing Hell wins $1.04 of a $2.08 pot with 8 7 6 2 A (low).----------------------------------------------------------------

BINGO! Pay Day...
thought it was an excellent read on my part.

2004-08-25T19:28:00.000-05:00

Just like Rich I made my Ali like return to the ring in party poker after they offered me almost $50 US to play with them again. How can I refuse such a generous offer when I should be playing here full time anyways. This time I have more experience against bad players in action games and I hope to really give it a good go. I have been studying how to beat these types of games and it is not the easiest thing to do espeically at tables with over $40 pot averages at 25$ buy in tables. I have also changed my methods of figuring out wins and losses by only recording them once a week now instead of every session. I found that recording results after every day really put the pressure to show results more often and to play less tournaments and sit n go's because I did not want to record a loss for the day. With the new method I will play as I see fit and play what games I feel like playing at any given time. I am curious to see how this changes my already stellar results.

In my first session back I played 1.5 hours of o8b and my bb/hr was 7.5. Exellent start with my new method and system. Here is a gem that put me over the limit. The funny thing about this hand was that I sat there for almost 90 minutes playing nothing and I didn't even win 1 hand at this table. I had a few nice hands that I had to call raises with and I couldn't hit shit. O8b proves it only takes 1 hand to get you into the big money so be patient even if it seems like an eternity since you last played a flop. 1 hand Made my money for me today and that is usually how it is on an average day considering how often you hit a flop.

***** Hand History for Game 879940487 *****
Table Take chances (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: chipferg ( $50.32 )
Seat 4: skibum1 ( $155.68 )
Seat 6: ICECRM ( $62.83 )
Seat 7: russegb ( $37.5 )
Seat 8: pamjamrocks ( $42.07 )
Seat 9: Luckydawg68 ( $58.8 )
Seat 10: XXXXXXXX ( $23.25 )
Seat 5: etudeOP ( $23.5 )
Seat 2: glmi6910 ( $22 )
etudeOP posts small blind [$0.25].
ICECRM posts big blind [$0.5].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ 3 4 A 5 ]

I got dealt this hand in middle position and the table was one of the loosest tables I have played at in quite some time so I knew I would have to call a raise. I was willing to put in about 4x the big blind in this case because my hand was good and defintely worth a call. The hand was raised .50 cents and I called. Playing a345 really is an easy hand post-flop. If 2 hearts or a two doesn't show on the flop your done. Nice and simple, no complicated decisions need to take place so the hand really plays itself.

pamjamrocks raises [$1].
Luckydawg68 calls [$1].
XXXXXXXX calls [$1].
glmi6910 folds.
skibum1 calls [$1].
etudeOP calls [$0.75].
ICECRM calls [$0.5].

With call stations behind me I knew this pot would get atleast 4-5 way and sure enough 6 people seen the flop at a buck a pop.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2, 7, 2 ]

Potential thy name is XXXXXXXX. Not only did I hit a two, but I also hit 2 hearts. The pair on the board was somewhat troublesome but I can't think of too many hands that would have a two and a seven in it that someone would call with.

etudeOP checks.
ICECRM checks.
pamjamrocks bets [$5.7].
Luckydawg68 folds.
XXXXXXXX calls [$5.7].
skibum1 folds.
etudeOP folds.
ICECRM folds.

When someone bets the pot on this type of flop the are hopelessly trying to protect their trips. Calling here is automatic because I have more outs than he does if he hasn't already gotten a full house. Chances are the seven would not have done it so I still thought my flush draw was good and I could hit any low and not be counterfitted. Easy Call

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6 ]

pamjamrocks bets [$16.55].
XXXXXXXX is all-In.

I got a heart and I got my unbeatable low. At the very worst I was getting 50% of the pot and I knew he was still trying to draw to his full house. Right now I was sure I had 100% of the pot and I called instantly.

** Dealing River ** [ Q ]

pamjamrocks shows [ J, A, 4, 2 ] three of a kind, twos.
pamjamrocks shows 7,6,4,2,A for low.
XXXXXXXX shows [ 3, 4, A, 5 ] a flush, ace high.
XXXXXXXX shows 7,6,3,2,A for low.
XXXXXXXX wins $24 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.
XXXXXXXX wins Lo ($24) from the main pot with 7,6,3,2,A.

The bet on the flop gave it away. He did have outs but when there is more than 1 draw that can hurt you, a bet of 1/3 to half the pot is a much wiser bet to make. If the turn brought the card that it did you can check and throw away your hand if the pot is bet back at you. In this case it is an easy throw away because not only did he not have the full house but he wasn't even drawing near the nut full house. He trapped himself. In O8b it is not what you have but what you are drawing to that counts.

PPS. Just played my first sit n go in my return. Went bust against AA but I finished 3rd luckily. I got lucky to win with KK fuck me :). I deserved to place where I did but I shouldn't have to get lucky to win with KK against QJ offsuit.

2004-08-25T02:05:00.000-05:00

I just finished playing my first sit and go in probably a couple of months. I was chomping at the bit to play, since I prefer tournaments to ring games, but I didn't really have the bankroll to allow for the fluctuations.
That changed somewhat after a reasonably good week at the o8b tables. I figured I had made enough to allow myself one sit and go. The good news is, I made it count as I finished in 1st. Doubling your bankroll in a week is a really nice feeling, especially after the struggles I went through in August, prior to this week.

I don't have anything else to add, i'm just excited I won a sit and go. It's been a long time.

2004-08-20T08:10:00.000-05:00

hahah nice post Rich :). New job has been sucking up a lot of time and I haven't really played poker in a week but I still managed to make $50+ this week. Hand histories are still pending when there is time but for now a short post to show this blog is still alive and kicking. Stay tuned to my 2-3 readers there will be some good posts up and coming.

2004-08-12T04:15:00.000-05:00

I realize the TEC freerolls on UB have become a complete waste of time since they expanded the field to 2500, while still awarding the same amount of spots in the weekly final (50). Yet I can't seem to stop playing in them.
Despite the pointlessness of it all (tonight I finished 102/2500), I ran into what I can probably say is the worst call I've ever seen. All I can say is that I'm glad I was the one who benefitted from it.
Here's the particulars (for once I remembered to save a hand history):

Hand #2355494-133 at Thu215amTEC-023 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 12/Aug/04 04:41:50

seekay_tsw is at seat 0 with 3955.
Dolemite33 is at seat 1 with 4040.
nickdeangelo is at seat 2 with 7040.
DVRoehl is at seat 3 with 13820.
Midas72 is at seat 4 with 14405.
lefry42 is at seat 5 with 10495.
portus2003 is at seat 6 with 9470.
Logan42 is at seat 7 with 19380.
XXXXXXXXXXX is at seat 8 with 5085.
LC21 is at seat 9 with 26535.
The button is at seat 0.

nickdeangelo posts the small blind of 200.
DVRoehl posts the big blind of 400.

seekay_tsw: -- --
Dolemite33: -- --
nickdeangelo: -- --
DVRoehl: -- --
Midas72: -- --
lefry42: -- --
portus2003: -- --
Logan42: -- --
XXXXXXXXXXX: Kd As
LC21: -- --

This is relatively late in the tournament and as you can see, I'm fairly short stacked, though not quite critical yet. AKo is obviously a good starting hand, but I'm hesitant to push it all in preflop on what could very likely be a coin toss. I'm in middle position so I decide to call and see what happens.

Pre-flop:

Midas72 folds. lefry42 calls. portus2003 calls.
Logan42 folds. XXXXXXXXXX calls. LC21 folds.
seekay_tsw folds. Dolemite33 calls. nickdeangelo
calls. DVRoehl checks.

No one raises and we've got 6 people, including myself, in the pot. At this point, I'm thinking that I'm probably best, but the flop can obviously change that.

Flop (board: Qc Ad Ah):

Well, well, well. That is an excellent flop for me. I decide to throw out a minimum bet, a slow play of sorts as I'm convinced that I'm ahead in the hand.

nickdeangelo checks. DVRoehl checks. lefry42
checks. portus2003 checks. XXXXXXXXXXX bets 400.
Dolemite33 folds. nickdeangelo folds. DVRoehl
folds. lefry42 calls. portus2003 folds.

Turn (board: Qc Ad Ah Qd)

With one caller, one who has a significant chip advantage over me, I'm going to try to and convince him that I'm playing weak and encourage him to buy the pot. With my full house, I don't have to worry about the flush or straight draw that's on the board. At worst, he's holding an ace and we split.

lefry42 checks. XXXXXXXXXX checks.

My main goal here is to double up obviously. I was a little dissapointed he didn't make any sort of bet (which I would've just called), but I was still going to stick with my strategy.

River (board: Qc Ad Ah Qd Jd):

This is a nice river card. There's no royal flush possibility since I'm holding Kd and there's a possibility that he hit his straight or flush.

lefry42 checks. XXXXXXXXXXX bets 3700. lefry42
calls.

Unfortunatly, our friend doesn't bet which forces my hand into throwing some chips in the middle. He just calls me, which makes me think he's holding a ace or maybe even a queen. Regardless, unless he's holding QQ, which is doubtful, I'm at least winning part of the pot.

Showdown:

XXXXXXXXXXX shows Kd As.
XXXXXXXXXXX has As Qc Ad Ah Qd: full house, aces full of queens.
lefry42 mucks cards.
(lefry42 has 2c 2h.)

Words can't describe how much I laughed when I looked into the hand history and saw this. With his cards being useless after the turn, I can't imagine why he'd call my pot sized bet on the river. Again, this is relatively late in a freeroll, where you wouldn't expect such incompetence. Regardless though, I wasn't complaining.

Hand #2355494-133 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXXX wins 11100 with full house, aces full of queens.

Cha-ching.

2004-08-09T03:38:00.000-05:00

Boom shaka laka, BOOM. I just placed 4th outta over 1850 people in the 1+0 NL holdem event. For risking one of my dollars I got over $120 to show for my 4 hours of work. In the end I got screwed out of an extra 40$ by a guy hitting a 2 outer against me but I will not complain with my results. In the end, my AQ suited was taken down by AK and that suits me just fine (Sorry for the pun :). I played like a champ and if blogger didn't crash last night I could have pointed to the tournament lessons I tried to post last night. In this very compressed attempt I will post my 3 points to winning tournaments.

1. You gotta win 75% of your coin flops and favorite hands.

Besides my last hand where I lost my 5's against a guys 4's I won a good majority of my coin flips. Early on I won AK vs QQ and JJ vs AQ. When you win your coin flips good results aren't far behind.

2. You gotta make atleast 1 good bluff an hour that impacts your stack.

Before the final table I played only 18% of hands meaning I was a very very tight player. The key difference is when I played a hand I played to win and even if I missed I still took some some nice pots because of my table image.

3. You gotta outdraw someone to win.

I can't honestly say I remember when I outdrew someone but I am sure it happened. Don't under estimate this point.

There ya have it. The turning point of the tournament was when I won the back to back coin flip hands to go from 300/600 to about 50/600. After that I never looked back and I was always in the top half of the group from there on in. When we reached the money (Started at 135/1853), I only had 13k (Average Stack) but with 2 nice bluffs and hitting a monster hand against a chip leader I eventually had over 800k at my peak before I went down. I now have over a grand in career earnings in under a year of online play. Considering the stakes I play, I am quite estatic with the results so far and the sky is the limit for me. Time to take a badly needed break from poker for awhile to reflect and to refocus so I can double my results in good time.

I still do mean to post some O8b hands but they will wait until I am bored and will happen eventually. For tonight It is time to celebrate and relax. Peace out

2004-08-07T06:32:00.000-05:00

2.5 hours later and all I have to show for it is 20th outta 87 this week in the 1+0 rebuy. I had a big hand (A245) and I pushed my luck with it to try and take some badly needed blinds. I ran up against A2JJ and he hit a jack to eliminate me. I would have had about 5 blinds left if I didn't push it so hard but I would have hit 3 4's on the flop and there was no way out for me. Once again I lost to the biggest idiot at the table early on who should have been eliminated a dozen or so times but what can ya do. I finished 10 spots from the money and considering I had 3 A2's the whole tournament I guess I did alright. Pity though, I really thought I had a good chance to place. The last two tournaments I have played, I have been eliminated at the 2nd to last table. So close yet so far....., time for bed.

2004-08-05T05:36:00.000-05:00

I was going to post a bunch of hands that I have saved up in the last week or so but I played a bonus dollar freeroll on ub tonight. I caught back to back river cards to be in contention so I won't post the hands tonight. I am kind of ashamed of my performance but it is nice to have the luck near the end of the tournament. I am sitting in 26/38 at the break and I gotta make a run soon if I am gonna be around for the final table. Hopefully tommorow I will post my backlog of hands so to my 3 readers :), stay tuned for some updates.

PS. Just for note 2394 people started and RICH BE PROUD. Just doubled up with 22 :)

PPS. Well you live by the sword you die by the sword. I was crusing in the tournament and had almost 100k in chips and I called an all in with AQ vs KQ and he hit a flush on me. I ended up finishing 18/2394 which is a great result but I would have loved to make the final table. If I really want to be honest I was very lucky to even get to 18 so I should be happy how it ended. Time for bed.

2004-07-31T04:56:00.000-05:00

Stop me when this is sounding like deva vu. Sitting in my 1+0 rebuy O8b tournament trying to repeat as champion and at the first break I have played 6/44 hands and I have made 20 chips in the hour of play. I am sitting in 25/36th place. Somewhat better than last week so I decided to add on because I won my buy in earlier so why not use it.

Waiting for the tournament to start I did something on UB that I haven't done before. I sat at 2 tables with buyins of $2 and within 30 min I had over $10 on each table. Not bad for 30 min work and I think it may be time to move up to tougher competition. Time to get back to the tournament and hopefully I will have the same luck as last week.

PS No luck this week I went out in 30th with a marginal play on my part but I don't feel too badly about it since I won a lot of money before hand. I have a bunch of hands saved up to post later on so hopefully I will get them done in a timely fashion. Time for bed.

2004-07-26T01:44:00.000-05:00

I just got taken out of a tournament holding JJ. Normally, that's not something particularly noteworthy, but it is when the clown that takes you out is holding J9 suited. Despite making a strong pre-flop raise, he decides to call me.
To make a long story short, he ends up hitting runner runner for a straight flush and I'm out, 14 spots away from the money. This despite me going all in after a flop of 10-10-8. I certainly didn't think he had an open ended straight draw, and while he had a decent amount of outs after the flop, he was still a considerabale underdog.
Internet poker at its best I suppose. I'm just annoyed that he called me pre-flop more than anything.
Over the last week, I've been taken out of separate tournaments with the aforementioned player hitting a straight flush and someone else flopping 4 of a kind. I guess the next step is to lose to someone with a royal flush.

2004-07-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I entered one of those 2500 person bonus dollar freerolls on UB. To make a long story short you can play solidly for 3+ hours and make 1 mistake and it can cost you everything. I finished 12/2500 because I got caught bluffing to a guy who called me all the way with a flush draw. I guess I wasn't meant to go to 2 final tables in one weekend. Atleast I can say I went out in a blaze of glory with "THE HAMMER" suited :).

2004-07-24T05:05:00.000-05:00

I gotta stop playing these 1+0 o8b PL multi rebuys. Nothing like watching everyone go all in for an hour just to play 5/41 hands (3 BB and 1 SB) just to be in 42/42 place at the break. It will be a miracle if I place because I am next to the chip leader who plays every hand but I have seen stranger things. Wish me luck.

PS. I made it to break #2 in 6/11th place. Top 10 pay and what a turn of events. I was almost out early but patience paid off and the chip leader doubled me up quite a few times. Only 1 spot till the money and I have a decent stack. Go team :)

PPS. 42/42 going into break #2 and I end up winning :). Technically we split the top prize but it still counts as a win in my books. What a comeback and what a rush. For my $2 buy in I got a $43 return for over a 20-1 return on my money. After 4 hours of tournament poker I am ready for bed.

2004-07-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

Gotta love 1+0 multi's.
I am sitting with over 8k just before the break and I pick up jj in the big blind. Wanting no confrontation I make it 5k to go putting the small blind all in which put all their money in before with a k10 and managed to beat trip queens on the previous hand. They put their tournament at risk with KQ and hit a K on the turn and I am crippled (56% fav preflop and 70% on the flop).

I won the next 3 hands after break putting me back to 8k and I pick up QQ on the 4th hand. I make it 3k to go this time and sure enough the same fucking person calls with AQ (I am a monster favorite as they only have 3 outs or less) and they hit an ace on the flop and takes me out. In 3 hands this person was a huge dog (20-1 on the first hand with k10 and a huge dog to me on the other 2 hands). I finish 21 spots from the money losing always with the best hand.

Near the money you got to play like each hand is your last and each time I got beat with marginal hands at best. I still stick by my play and if lady luck was on my side I would have been near the chip leaders but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I don't feel bad going out of tournaments with great hands but I do get frustrated when I lose to the same person who beat me with hands that should never be played for your tournament life. Next time I will finish in the top 10 but that is little solice now.

2004-07-19T22:58:00.000-05:00

Well this post was suppose to be out yesturday but blogger crashed my post just as I was finishing it so I lost it all. Here is round 2 of the Omaha hi/lo hand of the day.

This Omaha hi/lo lesson is brought to you by the letter S for sucktown.
Tip #1 Never ever bet the low in a multiway pot if that is all you have (unless you are playing against me). Keep in mind this blog is geared towards the true grinders of poker and is meant as a guide to solid, boring, money making poker :)

***** Hand History for Game 761696XXX
*****Table ................. (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Seat 1:   Kharisma        ($30.62)
Seat 10: XXXXXXXX ($22.70)

**Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ A 3 J 4 ]>

I get dealt this marginal hand on the button (most hands in o8b are marginal till you see a flop) and with 3 to the low and a suited Ace I call the .50 cent bet. Both blinds call and check and we are playing 4 handed.

** Dealing Flop ** [ A, 9, 2 ]

The first player Kharisma checked and player 2 made it .50 cents to go. I re-raised in this situation because I this flop gave me a little bit of everything. The flop landed me top pair, top low draw, back door flush draw and an inside straight draw. To my surprize all 3 players called my re-raise and there was $10 in the pot.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6 ]

Well the most likely draw paid off so I have the nut low and I have top pair with a reasonable kicker. Not a bad combo. Then something that I didn't expect happened.

Kharisma bets [$9.5].

Most players would have had their money in without any hesitation. With both other players folding to me, time must be taken to reflect on what has happened to make the right decision. In the time given to you before you have to call or fold you have to figure out why the player in first position made a pot sized bet with a card that didn't really bring anything to the table. Some of the posibilities included having trips or two pair. If we look at the betting on the flop the first player was just cold calling my raise meaning that he was probally on a draw and is quite unlikely slow playing any big high hand. A draw you say? I think we found out what the 6 did. The 6 brought a low onto the board so I was fairly certain this was raise to try to buy the pot with just a low. The problem with this play is that we have had the pot raised already on the flop that everyone called. Trying to bluff a multiway pot is really a pointless indevor especially with a low on the board. Coming to the conclusion that he had 34 as well, this brought another set of problems.

If I call I have the chance of taking 1/4 of the pot and with someone betting $10 on the turn he is more than likely gonna go all in on the river regardless what it is. I have to determine right now if I am best both ways. This is where experience comes into play. I would not recommend this call if you had ANYTHING less than top pair with a good kicker and even then it is a marginal call. On the other side of the coin, folding a made low hand is really a tough play that I don't think many people would make. Weighing my options I was 50/50 on making the call but I also had a nut diamond draw as well. The extra 9 outs was enough to turn a borderline call into a call that can and should be made because it is in your favor.

XXXXXXXX calls [$9.5].

** Dealing River ** [ 2 ]

Before the turn I was fairly certain I might even be best with top pair and the 2 wasn't that bad of a card. If the other person had 2 lower pair, this 2 could be the card I needed. You knew the other player was going all in regardless of what hit and the 2 gave me 2 pair with aces and twos so it really was an easy call on the river.

Kharisma bets [$15].
XXXXXXXX is all-In.

Kharisma shows [ 7, 3, 4, 6 ] two pairs, sixes and twos.
Kharisma shows 6,4,3,2,A for low.

XXXXXXXX shows [ A, 3, J, 4 ] two pairs, aces and twos.
XXXXXXXX shows 6,4,3,2,A for low.

Pheer the mad goonery. Trying to buy the pot on 4th street with just a low cost this player money. If he would have checked I would have happily checked behind him and I would have taken far less of his money.

XXXXXXXX wins $23.95 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and twos.
XXXXXXXX wins Lo ($11.97) from the main pot with 6,4,3,2,A.
Kharisma         wins Lo ($11.98) from the main pot with 6,4,3,2,A.

Taking 3/4 of a nice pot is always a good feeling especially when you had to think and work for it. This lesson was trying to show that betting with just a low usually costs you money and even if you have the nut low you have to be careful sometimes about getting 1/4 youself so don't rush your chips into the pot right away.

Next post coming soon with another O8b hand from last night going over a hand where I got a bit lucky :)

2004-07-18T01:37:00.000-05:00

It is 1:37 am in the morning and I just finished a quick 30 minute Omaha hi/lo session with Rich aka "The bad beat" (We aren't working together because that is cheating and it is more fun to bitch about the goons with a friend at the table) and after a modest gain it is time to go over a few hands that caught my attention from the day.

(P.S thanks to the few who actually read the blog and emailed me (link on the side) and I will try to incorporate your suggestions and comments. Also if you have a poker question about a hand or maybe wish to join this humble blog (famous words from iggy) shoot me an email and I will see what I can do.

First hand of the day comes from a NL Sit n Go tournament.

I managed to make it down to the last four players and I really do feel this is the most poorly played section of any sit n go. 95% of holdem players in my opinion play this time in the tournament not to loose instead of playing to win. Playing not to lose may get you to place, but in a $5+1 sit n go placing 3rd only nets you 4$. If you calculate your EV (expected value at this point) you will find playing passive at this point really does cost you a lot of money in the long run. How does one play properly yet safely when the tournament is on the bubble?

Dealt to XXXXXXXX (J 10)

When playing 4-handed the values of hands go up dramatically and now position is the ultimate factor when deciding to raise,fold or call. In a 10 player game the hand above is a fold to most tight-aggresive players in early position. In 4-handed poker unless you are facing an all-in raise this is a hand you should play and probally raise with. I was sitting in 2nd position and the blinds were 200-400 and I was left with a stack of about 1400 putting me 3rd/4. The first player called my bet making the pot 1000 to go with the blinds included. Going all-in here is not recommended here for two reasons. The first reason is even though I think I have a strong hand, someone coming in the pot in first position late in a tournament gets respect and may have your hand beat and even dominated. The second reason is that by stacking off here, assuming the blinds fold the first person has to call 1000 more chips for a pot that is 2400, giving him 2.4:1 on his money and he would probally call you because of those odds with almost any decent hand. Had I been in first position going all-in would be a good move to try and steal the blinds and with the correct table image this should get you free blinds. Since I was in 2nd position with 2 people acting behind me I flat called and the small blind folded and the big blind checked.

Flop ( J 10 6)

Hot damn I nailed the flop with two pair and all I can think about is getting my money into the middle. The person in first position checked and I quickly moved all my chips in hoping to get a call from someone with a weak draw or top pair. The big blind folded and the first player paused and called.

Showdown
(J 10) vs (K 10)

With all my chips in the middle and now 3400 in the pot, I was ready to double up and all but assure myself a place in the final three to play for the top prize. At this point I was a 5.5-1 favorite to double up but unfortunely the turn brought a queen and the river brought a nine giving him a runner runner straight and knocking me out. So much for a 5.5-1 favorite :).

The point of this hand was to show that position pointed me in the correct direction to just call because I was dominated pre-flop and that when you hit your hand do not screw around and hit the pot with everything. Don't check raise or bet only the minimum because that will just get you into trouble and give people better odds to call you with draws or low pairs. I had my money in when I was a huge favorite and that is all you can ever do. Runner runner defeats can be crushing but there is a slight comfort knowing you played the hand masterfully and it was lady luck who defeated you. Always remember if you made that same move again you will win 5x more than you will lose and in the long run and will be a winning player.

Tommorow I will post an O8b hand from tonight that caught my interest but until then good night and of course good luck.

2004-07-15T14:26:00.000-05:00

This blog is suffering from a serious lack of whining. To change this, I redeposited into UB and will undoubtedly have many stories that involve me complaining a lot.
After a couple of months without playing much serious poker, the hunger is back. I can only hope to do as well as I did in my first try at online poker. Stay tuned.

2004-07-14T02:22:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts but I think I am the only reader anyways :) (Prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong (email:pinmonkey99@hotmail.com with subject blogger). I had an interesting night including sitting at a table with a world series champion and of course my hand of the week.

My hand of the week is another omaha hi/lo hand but I want to show a hand where drawing is correct.

Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: MaxPetey ( $16.08 )
Seat 10: boobdilly ( $49.55 )
Seat 2: XXXXXXXX ( $24.5 )

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ J 9 T A ]

Not a bad hand in mid position and I was fairly sure no one would raise so I called the fifty cents. Five other people called which made my call that much better :)

** Dealing Flop ** [ Q, 2, K ]

This is a monster flop for my hand. I have the nut flush draw and I have the 3 other high cards to make a straight. The table goon was boobdilly because he bet the pot after every flop.

boobdilly bets [$3.35].

Since I don't really have to worry about him having much I make an easy call. The 3rd player Maxpetey goes all in and I was sure I was up against 2 pair and probally trips. Calling when you know your behind is almost always a bad idea, but I had a lot of outs and a gauranteed call by boobdilly. The $9 raise was called by boobdilly and if I called I was getting 3-1 on my money. At this point I can hit any club (9 outs), any Ace, Jack, Ten or 9 (12 more outs). I also have a backdoor flush draw but we can't count that yet. With an estimated 21 outs, my odds of winning the pot were close to 2-1 and I was getting the correct pot odds to call at the very least.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6 ]

This turn was bitter sweet. This turn added to my outs giving me a spade draw (Add 9 outs), but to win outright I had to subtract the outs that made a low. Take away the 6 low spades and the 3 aces that could make a low, and I still have 21 outs remaining. Boobdilly bet 6$ into me and folding now would be a bad play.

** Dealing River ** [ 9 ]

I hit my river which wasn't that surprizing and go all in for my remaining $2. I get called and.......

boobdilly shows [ 6, 7, K, Q ] two pairs, kings and queens.
MaxPetey doesn't show [ 4, Q, J, Q ] three of a kind, queens.

XXXXXXXX shows [ J, 9, T, A ] a straight, nine to king.

I was correct that I was up against trips from the beginning but with the correct pot odds and the number of outs I had made the correct play by drawing.

XXXXXXXX wins $16.34 from side pot #1 with a straight, nine to king.
XXXXXXXX wins $47.74 from the main pot with a straight, nine to king.
There was no qualifying low hand.

I was playing at my favorite place UB and I seen Phil Hellmuth at a .25/.50 cent NL holdem table. I just couldn't resist playing a few hands with a world champion.

Hand #2064123-914 at Dusseldorf (No Limit Hold'em)

XXXXXXXX is at seat 6 with $24.25.
PhilHellmuth is at seat 9 with $36.95.

PhilHellmuth posts the big blind of $.50.

XXXXXXXX: A K

What a hand to get when Phil was in the blind. To my surprize everyone folded to me so I had to play this even if it meant losing some $$. I raised to 4 bucks thinking Phil always plays back to blind stealers. Somewhat disapointed Phil folded and I won the pot without confrontation.

Hand #2064123-914 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
XXXXXXXX wins $2.25.

To most people this is nothing but I can honestly say I have taken some of Phil Hellmuth's $$ even if it is only .50 cents. How many of you can say that? :) I didn't think so. Till next time...

2004-06-22T23:10:00.000-05:00

YARRRRRR!!! Poker can be a harsh mistress and yet offer vast ammounts of plunder. Some days you can play flawless poker and loose great ammounts of money. Other days you can play a hand poorly and have it pay off for you.

Recently I sat down for a session of $1/2 o8b at the new fish tank that is pacific poker. After 45 minutes of the same person raise every pot, I watched in horror as I lost a decent ammount of money and the goon who raised every pot ended up winning. I quit the table in disgust because I thought I played quite well and I didn't even win a damn hand.

A few hours later I joined a juicy $2/4 game with a clear head or so I thought. I played a pot were I drew when I didn't have odds and I hit a miracle river and made back all my losses and an extra $100. Having a pot over $150 in a $2/4 limit game is a rarity. I was very happy to win the pot but I have to admit I played like a goon and I won because of it.

Playing solid poker got me nowhere. In both examples the table goon ended up winning. What more can I say besides I got extremely lucky even though I think I deserved to be. This still doesn't warrent playing like a goon. This story will have a happy ending for all you tight rounders because my hand of the day will show how much easier playing solid poker is than playing like a goon.

Table tempest (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button

Seat 1: XXXXXXXX ( $31.37 )
Seat 8: singman69 ( $23.45 )
Seat 9: Rabbit64 ( $24.50 )

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ JA 5 2 ]

I get dealt a playable hand in mid position and I only call the big blind. Five other people call behind me and we have six way action on the flop.

** Dealing Flop ** [ J, J, A ]

Playing online poker makes it easier when you flop a full house than at the home game. You don't need to keep a straight face or worry about giving off any tells. I have a monster hand and I am only vunerable to someone holding AA in hand. The usual rule of of thumb on party poker is that if someone doesn't raise preflop in o8b you can be pretty damn certain that no one has AA in hand. The bet came around check to me and I also checked. Many people would bet the pot here. Slow playing big hands can get you into a lot of trouble, but when you do slow play you have to keep in mind what cards can really beat you. If a king or a queen hit the board I might be vunerable to someone holding kings or queens in hand. In this example with only 2 possible cards to hurt me (A jack or Ace would make me stronger), the slow play is the right move because you will get more action if someone makes two pair or even lower trips for a smaller full house down the road.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 8 ]

This is the type of card that opened up a whole bunch of draw oppurtunities. There is a low draw,flush draw and a straight draw as well as a paired board. The only mistake I made was not raising when the bet came .50 cents to me. With so many draws you gotta make the low people pay for a card that can cost you 50% of the pot. Four people called to see the river card.

** Dealing River ** [ T ]

Dream river in this situation. No low draw was possible and rabbit bet 50 cents into me. The ten was such a good card because I can create the illusion that I just hit my straight and I re-raised to $3. Singman re-raised to $5.50 and rabbit folded. My slow play finally paid off. By letting singman draw he ended up hitting a lower full house and was gonna call any bet I made. I put singman all in and because he thought I made the straight he instantly called.

XXXXXXXX shows [ J, A, 5, 2 ] a full house, Jacks full of aces.
singman69 doesn't show [ 5, T, 9, T ] a full house, Tens full of jacks.

XXXXXXXX wins $46.55 from the main pot with a full house, Jacks full of aces.

Slow playing can pay off if done well so don't always bet the pot if the risks are minimal that your big hand will get outdrawn. This play will get you a far greater return in the long run than giving away the strength of your hand early.

2004-06-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

If you feel guilt in poker you have no buisness sitting at the poker table. Sometimes it is hard not to feel sorry for some poker players. If you are a good player, you will walk to a table and within 3 rounds you will have identified people who are sharks, break-even players and players with no clues or hope. The first two groups I mentioned do not need pity. The final group may.

I always believed that when you participate in any competative event in life, you should atleast have a fucking clue what you are doing or you are going to make a fool of yourself. Poker involves skill, cunning, math and many other intangables which breed competiton. We compete with each other by putting up our own money against each others and fight until you win it all or go broke. If you don't have a clue in poker, you will be embarrased and broke all in one shot. The million dollar question is why do people play poker at mid to high stakes without a hope or a prayer?

Assumption #1

People have to learn how to play and get experience.

This is true but with alot of sites with micro stakes and play money, if you put in the time you can get good enough to be a break even player. Putting $50 and coming back broke is a very common occurence during a party poker night. Playing for play chips or pennies isn't as fun, but it gives you valuable experience which will help you ten fold down the line. If you play limits over $1/2 there is almost gauranteed to be one shark. No experience equals no bankroll at the end of the day.

Assumption #2

Playing for fun

Can't fault a person for playing for fun. Fifty bucks can be spent in one night at a bar. If someone considers getting their pockets emptied and enjoy it, I am all for it.

Whether a poker player is lazy or just enjoying himself, why should you feel guilty for padding your bankroll? Most good poker players have put in the time and effort to become good players. If people want to give away free money, why should you regret taking it. Always remember that when you get outdrawn or bad beat, other players don't feel sorry or guilty about taking your hard earnt cash. The next time a guy bets the pot with a jack high flush do what I do......

XXXXXXXX wins $83.36 from the main pot with a flush, ace high with ace kicker.

Check raise, smile and relax :)

2004-06-12T03:22:00.000-05:00

Been awhile since I posted my hand of the day but without further delay here it is.

Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: BugsBunny777 ( $23 )
Seat 3: MaxPetey ( $131.12 )
Seat 5: Navin1 ( $26.36 )
Seat 7: XXXXXXXX ( $25 )

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ J 3 2 A ]

Getting dealt this gem in the big blind I never recommend raising preflop in o8b but I figure I will get atleast 2 calls with a small raise and I raise to $1.50 to go. To my surprize I get 3 callers.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Q, A, 9 ]

Often in poker you get great cards and shitty flops. This example shows this well. In first position I check and it went check around to my surprize cause the chip leader loved to push his stack around.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6 ]

This card put me closer to my low but it isn't one I will bet on. The big stack bets the pot for 6$ as expected and I called. This may be considered a weak call because I was calling mainly for the low but I had a hunch I might be best. Everyone else folded and we were heads up.

** Dealing River ** [ 6 ]

Very interesting flop card. I made my 2 pair aces and 6's and without hesitation the big stack bet 18$ putting me all in. I had a jack kicker which wasn't exceptional but I knew by how fast the big blind bet he had a monster hand or a bluff. I had watched him play a monster earlier and he took his time to bet. Adding all the clues together I was sure at best he had an ace and sure enough ....

MaxPetey shows [ 7, A, 5, T ] two pairs, aces and sixes.
XXXXXXXX shows [ J, 3, 2, A ] two pairs, aces and sixes.

My kicker beat his and....

XXXXXXXX wins $50.85 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and sixes with jack kicker.

You may think I got lucky here, but to pick off a bluff is a very difficult task. Taking your time is the most important thing you can do at a table when facing this type of bet. By thinking it through I was sure he was bluffing and he paid me off because I added up all the clues to come up with the right conclusion.

2004-06-12T03:02:00.000-05:00

I've been playing this 7 stud tournament on stars for what seems like all night. In reality we're not even two hours in, but we're ticking minutes off in internet time. Christ, online poker sucks. We start with $1500. Antes are $2, the bring-in is $5, and the first raise is $15. For the first twelve minute level, we're playing deep money stud poker, and we all feel like World Series high rollers. Twelve minutes isn't a very long time, and after that point, we're at $25/50. Then $50/100, and by the first break, we're playing $100/200. If you still think the money's deep, try a three meter springboard into your bathtub. I've played well up to this point. No, really. I'm at around $7000, we're playing 200/400 poker, and i'm about 1500 over the average stack. I've been waiting to find a hand, and by god, here it comes.

My door's a K, i've got QQ behind it, and the highest card out is a 10. The bring-in is two to my left, and i've got 4 callers ahead of me. If you're keeping score, I've got a pot of 450 staring me in the face. Raise it up. Getting 650 to call another 150, the 10 on the board hangs around. We've got 800 in the pot, heads up. 4th street is dealt. I'm delighted to see a rag four of clubs hit his board. To make things better, I've paired my king, and I'm sitting lovely on kings up. Unfortunately, I'm not going to make any more money on this hand. With kings showing, I'm obligated to make the double bet at the pot, and he, in turn, is obligated to fold - his 10-4 board. He calls. So this hand has gone from a mundane 800 chip pickup to a slightly less mundane 1200 chip pickup. He catches a 6 of diamonds to show a 10-4-6 rainbow board. I'm showing K-K-A. Trapping would be pointless, so I bet. My opponent is still unable to lay down his monster. Obviously, this story ends badly, or I wouldn't be telling it.

Our hero ends up having a 23 in the hole, check raises his queen on 6th street, and catches the case 5 on the river to fill in his gutshot straight draw. Yep, wrong odds, bad beat, poker sucks, etc, etc. Since that, I played a few hands to get my stack back to the average size, then played a hand stupidly and knocked myself back down. Now I'm back to 2/3 average, at 38th of 55 with 32 spots playing. I've got enough to play a pot or two. If I money in this fucking thing, I never want to hear about a bad beat costing you a tournament again, got that?

I hate poker, I love poker. I know you feel the same way. If you need me, I'll be at the craps table.

SH1

Thanks to sh1 for the post :)

2004-06-07T23:10:00.000-05:00

We had some good posting going. Than it kinda died out again. Oh well :)
I made my 40$ on the weekend but I don't have any big hands to go over. When there is one ... I will post it.

2004-05-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

XXXXXXXX won $30.60 with 2 pair Aces and Kings
XXXXXXXX won $30.60 with 2,3,4,6,A (Lo Hand)
(Hand# 9286369)XXXXXXXX won $14.75 with A Straight Two to Six (Hi Hand)
(Hand# 9286369)XXXXXXXX won $14.75 with 2,3,4,6,A (Lo Hand)
(Hand# 9287141)XXXXXXXX won $20 with A Straight Ten to Ace (Hi Hand)

Nice to have a good night once in awhile :)
Wonder why I can't have this success at party poker all the time.

2004-05-26T18:52:00.000-05:00

Nice to have something to read besides my sad assed stories on this blog. It is good to see Don doing well playing poker. My poker game in the last 2 days has been up and down. Two days ago on party poker I took a crushing bad beat. I went from taking 75% of the money when all of our chips were in, only to end up with nothing. I kissed my hard earnt *chuckle* $25 dollars goodbye.

I found a deal on another site to get my hands on the first season DVD of the World Poker Tour. I bought into pacific poker for the promotion just to find out they only have limit o8b games. I was quite disapointed. After playing 80 hands I was not disapointed anymore. Pacific poker is where a lot of europeans start their online poker careers. I sat at the 1/2 o8b tables and make 35$ in 144 total hands. Not a bad result considering I also made 40 raked hands towards my bonus. Down $25 on party poker, and up 85$ (including bonus) on pacific poker. It is all about the ups and downs.

Cue today for my o8b hand of the day.

Seat 1 is the button

Seat 1: kismet_007 ( $30.53 )
Seat 2: doctord ( $24.5 )
Seat 3: machgelt ( $51.46 )
Seat 4: bonemlb ( $25 )
Seat 5: nukemar25 ( $22.5 )
Seat 6: bresc56762 ( $17.85 )
Seat 7: LONGBALL2002 ( $44.47 )
Seat 8: XXXXXXXX ( $19.5 )
Seat 9: Bimbostix ( $25 )
Seat 10: Leverup ( $28.96 )

The table I was sitting at was ultra loose. I had several good hands cracked already and than I got dealt....

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ A A 4 2 ]

Boom-shakalaka. Monster hand in o8b with a pair of Aces, suited ace and an Ace-2 combo.
Two people called before me and I raised to a dollar. I usually don't raise preflop but the table was really loose and I knew I would get a call. The very next caller re-raised me to $1.5 and got another call. Everyone else folded and I figure I had to have the best hand so I raised again to $6.75. Both people called.

** Dealing Flop ** [ T, 8, 5 ]

This flop was pretty harmless and I attempted to buy the pot. I had a great low draw and a couple of aces for the high hand. I went all in for my last $13 to try and stop a potential flush draw. Kismet called and the other player folded.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 3 ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9 ]

kismet_007 shows [ 4, Q, Q, 3 ] a pair of queens.
XXXXXXXX shows [ A, A, 4, 2 ] a pair of aces.
XXXXXXXX shows 8,5,3,2,A for low.

I was worried for nothing. I forgot that there are bigger goons than me out there. The guy called $6 bucks preflop with QQ and a weak low. I will put his money to better use than he ever could.

XXXXXXXX wins $22.10 from the main pot with a pair of aces.
XXXXXXXX wins Lo ($22.10) from the main pot with 8,5,3,2,A.

After all that I am down about $8 total on party poker and up over $85 on pacific. Not too shabby.

2004-05-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

ho ly crap.
ok.. lets set tonight up a bit.. yesterday i lost damn near 50 bucks on partypoker, between o8b and NL hold'em.. we need not go into details on why or how i lost all that scratch... :)

So today my big goal was to win back 8 bucks to get my roll back up to my original 100 bucks, and play the freeroll, since I thought for sure i'd have the 150 hands played yesterday.

So I log in and try the freeroll registration, no go, i only hit 122 yesterday.. so I was fairly dissapointed to miss my chance at free dough. Start playing some PL o8b, do fairly well.. slow start... eventually get up to around 45$... then in the course of a couple hands it all went downhill... gf called, and through lack of paying attention, i bet over 25$ in what i percieved to be a nut flush (no low hand), unfortunately for me, that ace of spades on the board, was a club, how the fuck i missed that i'll never know. then shortly after that i suck another stupid move by clicking back to the party poker window directly where "Call 12.00" was, with my shit hand, so much for those winnings, so fairly pissed I take a break.

Come back to PL hold'em, figure i'll try and cut my losses a bit by playing a game i'm more comfortable with, play for about an hour, and I win back the cash i lost playing o8b, decide to take another break while i'm ahead this time.

Now another hour or so of playing a rather slow PL Hold'em table, there's me and two other guys who are ahead (though i'm only up about 6 bucks), and a table full of other people slowly being eaten.. well i win a couple small hands, someone comments on me being on a bit of a run. so i say yay me!

First big hand goes with me in the small blind, i get 10c Jh, 4 callers, I call, big blind checks. flop is 9c 8s 5h, not great, but open ended straight draw, so i'm ok for the small pot, especially with two overcards, so i bet the .50, two fold, 3 callers.. Turn ends up making my straight nut with the 7d, figure with no flushes i'm in pretty damn good shape, so i bet the pot (4.75) and get one caller, a guy who hadn't really caught my attention at all, he had been just slightly below me in chip total before this hand, and hadn't been playing very aggressively, so he must have a set i guess, River is 4s, so no possible help to him i figure so big bet for 13.80, and he calls, he shows 8d 8c, and i take his money and the $40 pot.

Later on that round, I'm in 7/9 position, i get dealt As 3s, player 4 (started hand with 76$ was mostly stealing blinds and kinda jackyl'ing it up) raises to a buck, i call, and small blind calls, flop is 10s 4s 2s, yay nut flush/straight flush draw! small blind goes in for .50, player 4 goes up to 3.00, i raise to 10.00, sm blind folds, p4 calls. Turn is Jh, p4 checks, i bet the pot at 22.80, he calls, so here i'm trying to figure out wtf he has... after a few seconds of thinking, figure he has to have a high spade, and thinks i'm bluffing again (got caught on a small one earlier, didn't muck) River brings Ks, well ok, not much possiblity to fuck with me now.. Qof spades in his hand or a straight he just made, but in any case, he bets first with 15.00, and i call with the rest of my cash, (13.20), I win a $93 pot over his Pocket Q's.

Play a few more hands, win another small pot, and end up being up 110$ tonight, so i at least made my 8$ goal. ;)

2004-05-21T23:31:00.000-05:00

Every poker story can't be a happy one, but the soul crushing beats really bring out the worst in players. Up almost up $20 for the session and than I get dealt this.

Seat 9: XXXXXXXX ( $43.9 )
Seat 6: bonemlb ( $10.17 )

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ As Ks Jh Jc ]
I get dealt an exellent starting hand and one other person calls me to the flop.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, 2h, Js ]

Top set plus top flush draw means it is time to bet to make the low hands disapear. I raised to $4 and I get called.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]

Just for the record the person I was playing against didn't have a low possibility. I put him all in for his last $6 and he calls.

XXXXXXXX shows [ As, Ks, Jh, Jc ]
bonemlb shows [ Kc, 4c, 4d, Kd ]

With 1 out in the deck (other K was gone), I should be laughing in this situation right?
Onemlb wins $21.49 from the main pot.

Take a wild guess what hits the river. Don't cry for me too much. I still managed after that horrific beat to be up about $7 for the day. Still a small consolation when I could have been up $30+.

2004-05-20T22:02:00.000-05:00

I kicked it like it was kung-fu.

3 rounds before bed. i flop into a full house first hand, followed shortly by a straight, a flush, and 3 sets... if only i wasn't playing limit i'd be a rich rich man. instead i'm up 14 bucks.

2004-05-19T20:43:00.000-05:00

Ok sports fans the flames are winning 1-0 in game 6 so I will make this brief. After several days of marginal gains, I finally hit a hand that paid off. Here is my hand of the day.

Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10

Seat 1: Killerv1 ( $28.95 )
Seat 2: bambiee ( $5.5 )
Seat 3: kuyungpsai ( $46.95 )
Seat 4: PROFIGHTER1 ( $15.3 )
Seat 5: hayesmeking ( $50.29 )
Seat 6: born2kings ( $30.73 )
Seat 7: avogadno ( $14.5 )
Seat 8: QuitYourCryn ( $36.46 )
Seat 9: DrDoodieHead ( $14.75 )
Seat 10: XXXXXXXX ( $22.37 )

avogadno posts small blind [$0.25].
QuitYourCryn posts big blind [$0.5].

Dealt to XXXXXXXX [ Jc Kc As Js ]

I called the .50 cent bet in fourth position and kuyungpsai raised it to $2.75. Kuyungpsai was a loose player and raised preflop frequently. Everybody else folded to his bet and with a very strong omaha hand I called his raise.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Ac, Jd, 9c ]

Not the absolute best flop I could have seen but it was close. I had trip jacks, two pair, the nut flush draw and a back door straight draw. My opponent had bet the pot every time he was heads up with someone and usually won the pot without conflict. My only weakness was against AA and I didn't think that he had them because he didn't raise preflop. I wanted to trap him. I checked to him thinking that he would come out betting and like clockwork he bet the pot. I check raised him for all my chips and he quickly called.

kuyungpsai shows [ 5d, Ad, 5h, Jh ]
XXXXXXXX shows [ Jc, Kc, As, Js ]

** Dealing Turn ** [ 3c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]

When all my chips were in I was a huge favorite. I had trip jacks to his two pair. He could only catch an Ace, runner runner 5's or diamonds. He called off over $20 bucks with a mariginal 2 pair. The turn brought me my nut flush and the rest is history.

XXXXXXXX shows [ Jc, Kc, As, Js ] a flush, ace high.
XXXXXXXX wins $43.74 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.
There was no qualifying low hand.

I won over $20 bucks after the rake and for once my patience for a hand paid off.

2004-05-16T00:28:00.000-05:00

Somedays I just don't get poker. I am sitting at PP playing my game and a new table opens up with a super high pot average. I sit there and within 3 hands playing solid starting hands, I just take $25 up the pooper. I was the goon and I knew it. One hand I lost $14 when I took 1/3 of the pot with an A2 and the other 11 went away shortly after that. I sit at my original table frustrated that I just pissed away $25 and the very next hand I get a459 in first position which is an average to poor hand at best (even worse in first position) and needs a miracle flop. Instead of folding, I become the goon and called the $2.25 raise and the flop comes 997. Hallelujah. It is amazing how poker players call with bad hands some time to try to get even to make up for bad calls/bad play/bad beats. It is the worst reasoning you can have to play marginal hands but atleast I recognized it and if that flop didn't hit, I would have left the table down a whack of cash and my tail between my legs. I bet $11 which was the pot because I hit top trips and just wanted to win the pot without conflict. I got reraised to $25 from the last remaining player. First thought that comes to my mind is that I am gonna get uNF'ed on the turn or river because he will make his full boat first. It turns out he was playing (10752) and turned out to be a bigger goon than me on this hand. Turn and river broght me a 2 and a 3 so I took the high and the low pots for $50.

Felling like a fucktard because I won a huge pot with a crappy hand, I click the auto blind off because the table cleared after that and I got lucky to be only down a buck after my horrible poker playing for the night. The table filled up again and I decided to play a few more rounds because I have almost a 2-1 chip lead on everyone else. The buy-in to blind ratio on party is retarded in pot limit so having that chip edge is important. I throw away another $5 and realize I am playing ultra poorly and all the chip advantage in the world isn't gonna help me so I click the auto post blind off once more and get ready to leave. My very last hand before my big blind, I get (K2 hearts and A6) in 3rd position. I call one final hand (Can't throw away a decent a2 or I would be a bigger goon) and 2 others call with me. The flop comes J94 hearts. Ok, I hit my K high flush but I don't like playing Kx suited in o8b but I decide to throw caution into the wind and use my position to my advantage. I bet $2 and I get 2 calls. So far so good. Next card is a 6 of clubs. I bet another $2 and the next guy goes all in for $5.95. I know at this very minute I am beat and all I have is a potential low draw but to my surprize the next guy to his left calls as well. With over $20 in the pot and thinking that I am best to the guy which hasn't called off his stack yet. I have the nut low draw and a K high flush so I call the extra 3.95 (over 6-1 with a made hand and a good draw). The last card brings a 5 to my relief and I now have the nut low and a very decent high hand. I go all in thinking that the guy might have also been drawing with A2 and sucker him in to giving me 3/4 of his stack. I lick my chops at taking 3/4 of the side pot which was bigger than the main pot but he wasn't playing A2 or had the ace high flush. I was right in assuming the first guy to go all in had AQ of hearts and I took all of the side pot and 1/2 of the main pot for over $61. I do admit I got lucky into getting 1/2 of the main pot but it wasn't that much of a miracle draw.

What is the moral of the story? First example showed playing good hands but playing them poorly gets you uNF'ed in the pooper, no shocker here. Second example showed overplaying poor hands and hitting miracle flops gets you huge rewards from even bigger goons. Last hand was a lesson in playing the non-nuts in o8b. I could have lost the whole pot but the odds made it the right call and the luck of an uber goon calling off his stack with nothing gave me the profit and better odds to continue to call.

I must be one lucky poker player because even having one of my worst poker nights in recent memory, I still managed to come out ahead $10. The moral of the story is you can get away with playing poorly now and again if there are bigger goons than you at the table. I got very lucky tonight to still have money left in my account, never mind coming out ahead. You should never rely on there being bigger goons than you, but with over 43,000 players on a weekend at party the odds may shine in your favor. I am thankful that my luck saved me from putting a bad dent in my bankroll tonight. Every journey in a poker player's life has big ups and huge downs but if you learn something every time you play, you should come out ahead more often than not.

2004-05-14T05:11:00.000-05:00

placed 15/310 in a play money freeroll. Had about 20 pocket pairs including 4 pairs of A's. So finishing 15th is a disapointment. I went out with AK suited and I raised heavily and the guy called with 98 offsuit. Not much you can do when you play the superior hands and lose to crap. I just hate wasting all those good cards.

2004-05-13T14:58:00.000-05:00

Well I took a bath yesturday at the o8b table on a call. I still think I made a correct call but let's look at it. I got dealt A2410 (A4 suited) in 2nd position which is a solid o8b hand. I called the .50 cents and no one raised.

FLOP (A10J Rainbow)

A decent flop for me but a kq dominates me. There was 5 guys in the pot and the first 4 checked around and the fifth bet the pot at 3$. Normally I would assume he has kq but I sitll had alot of outs and he might have been trying to buy the pot so I called. One other person called and the turn brought a 3 of spades)

TURN (A10J3) 2 Spades

This card brought what I like to call the "suck in card". This card brought me a nut flush, nut low and I still had 2 pair. I checked and the guy beside me checked. Third guy bet 8$. This brought the pot to 20$. I sure he had kq now but with so many outs, I was getting odds to call. I can hit any spade, a 5,6,7,8 or any A or 10. The shocking move was the guy beside me who checked with me went all in for 23$. I didn't think he was slowplaying kq but he was and was afraid of the flush. Third guy called his all in making the pot size close to 70$ and I was put all in for my last $12.
This was a no brainer because even if I won only half of the pot, I was calling $12 to win over 30$. 2.5 to 1 and I had half the deck as outs, and Any A or 10 gave me all 70$. The River brought a jack and they both had kq and split my money. Even though I knew I was beat on the turn it was my opinion that I made the right call. Unfortunely my party account is still new and because of their high buy in's this some what crippled my account. Cue today :)

I had a jackal to my left and a goon to my 2nd left. I was at the table for about 30 min being up a big 2 bucks. Than I got dealt AAK7 double suited. This is a very very solid omaha hand. I raised the pot to $2 preflop (usually I don't do this but a) I knew I was gonna get called by a twit and b) it is pretty useless to raise preflop in o8b unless you wanna limit your competition when you have aa, which is what I had). No big surprize the jackal reraised to $5 but the other goon reraised to $8. I was sick of getting pushed around and usually I see people way over play AA in o8b but I knew my 2 opponents would play anything so I put all my chips in preflop which is rare for me.

With no big surprize I was up against
GOON #1 (23107)
GOON #2 (A4Q6)

Even though I think I overplayed this hand, I won because no low showed and they had shit.

XXXXXXXX wins $19.54 from side pot #1 with two pairs, aces and jacks.

XXXXXXXX wins $40.50 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and jacks.

It is amazing in poker that you can play one hand well and lose everything, yet overplay a 2nd hand, take a much bigger chance but get rewarded. Better lucky than good some days I guess.

2004-05-11T21:38:00.000-05:00

Good to see Don making his Ali like return to the ring after his 12 round bout with CVP. Too bad he lost his decision but hopefully this time will go better. Since I started party I have been up 170$ and been down to -$ if you don't count my bonuses. Right now I am sitting with a big 10$ to the good after the bonuses I recieved. Hopefully the other players start playing again soon and recieve some good luck for once. Cause we all know luck is the most important thing in poker :P.

Pinmonkey wins $33.23 from the main pot with a full house, Fives full of threes.

O8b really is fun. Anyways good to see some life back in here and I will try to post again on a daily basis. Hope to see you all at the home game tommorow.

2004-05-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

Well.. that's the most useless 2 hours and 25 bucks spent ever... get a nice high hand, i end up with low straight/flush cards on the board.. i get a low pair, i end up with a bunch of high cards and a community pair.. the odd time i manage to get a potential nut flush draw (like, 4 times it happened) i end up getting screwed... plus i was sitting left of a super aggressive fucker, so ya.. not too fond of party poker yet... but i made half my hands towards my poker chip bonus.. and only about 8 hands towards my buy-in bonus.. so that'll help.. yeehaw.

2004-05-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Ok.. so here's the scoop from last night. as i was preparing to call it a night... with about 30 bucks left in my roll.. i came up on AK suited with me on the button... goes around with a few ppl calling blinds. i go all in cause i'm a massive headcase. one caller.... KK .flop comes with 2 of my suit. no other help for either of us though.. next two cards are also shit but i don't hit my suit.. and i'm fucked out of my last money on crazy vegas... BONED. 50 buck buy in lasted me like. 3 months though... so not too bad.. maybe time to give ultimatebet or something a try now.. :)

2004-05-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

Ok... first hand in tonight and i get
bigfreakingd wins $14.75 with a Full House, Nines full of Queens
so i'm gonna play tonight til 10, or til i have something awsome to post. cause i'm tired of reading the same top post on this page every day.

2004-04-21T10:11:00.000-05:00

"He had tried to register the name "Crime" as his online screen name at a major poker site. I fell for it and asked why he wanted to be called Crime. His reply: "Because Crime doesn't pay!"

Great quote from Linda Johnson from a recent cardplayer magazine article. You boys should read it.

2004-04-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

Xxxxxxx: 9h 9c 9s 9d

Best starting hand EVER!!

2004-04-08T01:34:00.000-05:00

Good ol TEC never disapoints. AQ suited is just no match for a qj offsuit (75% to 25% preflop 3-1 odds in your favor) when you go all in and you know he is playing garbage.
Life of poker.

Lost 2 hands today in sit n go's with top pairs and good kickers to flushes against 45 offsuit and q6 offsuit respectively.
Life of poker I guess.

Even lost a green bill on the bigger o8b tables with trip aces and a2 but ya make bad calls and ya pay for them. Don't expect old man river to bail ya out either even though he seems to help others so readily at whim.
Again life of poker.

Moral of the story is some nights you can be johny f***ing chan and it won't help you and the frustration builds. Did I mention I finished 4th in the sit n go :). Online poker is gonna have swings and I still have made alot more money in the long run compared to the measely 25$ investment it cost me. The only measure of how well you are doing is how much you are ahead regardless of where it is from. It is so easy to remember in great detail how you outplayed a goon or a tool and took there milk money but if you let 1 bad night or even a bad stretch ruin what really is a fun and challenging game that you both love and hate at the same time I think the loss is yours. It is hard to play through the frustration some nights and by all means I know what rich is going through and I wanna help ease the pain because I have been there trust me. It is hard when you play better cards, better hands and the chips still go the other persons way.

Four things help ease the frustration

1. Ya gotta play within your bankroll. I can't stress this enough. You can take losses in stride and it doesn't really piss you off as much because you still have a lot of barrels to work with. 10 bucks may not seem like a lot but when your bankroll is 50$ or less it is a huge chunk. Play within your limits so the losses that will happen due to luck will be minimized and eventually you will get to the big show.

2. Unlike poker at the home games, online poker is and will always be a game that is based on PURE probability and patience. You can be like Jason and lose with AA in holdem every time. You can play the best and lose, this is the nature of the beast. The beautiful part of online poker is that if you make higher percentage plays all the time because you have learnt the skills to make consistant calls, all the bad luck in the world can't stop you from making money in the long run. Let me repeat long run. Patience is needed to get to the hand where you make your money. Building a bankroll is a marathon not a sprint. Many people forget this and pay the price.

3. Don't fool yourselfs for why you play. My personal reason to play is for money even though at this point it isn't huge ammounts but it doesn't mean you treat it that way. I don't play to have fun but I am lucky I enjoy playing poker even with all the bull**** that goes on from time to time. Once you figure out your motives, you begin to look at the game differently and a small change in mind set can do wonders for a game. If your not enjoying playing stop playing for awhile until you can change the attitude in your head. If you just plainly don't enjoy it because it gets frustrating than online poker isn't for you and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As stupid as it sounds without a positive mind set you might as well give your money away and hopefully to me :)

4. Confidence, confidence, confidence. Nothing guts the inside of a poker player like having no confidence. Luckily there are cures available by prescription from Dr. Monkey. Play chip tables, penny tables and so on are full of so many people who I think may have a hard time walking and talking at the same time. Most of you who read this already have my respect as a poker player and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with your game. If you lack confidence, you lack the balls needed to make plays and make marginal hands pay off and define what makes you good players. When poker has got you down nothing puts a smile on your face like flopping a wheel against stupid americans who pay you off again and again and again and again. It does wonders for confidence and than your game magically works again. Amazing how that works.

In closing this isn't a direct reponse to my good friend Rich but it is a reminder to all people who play online poker and why you shouldn't let it get you down. There are good and bad parts to any game/hobby. If your sick of bad beats play chess. Than you can never bitch about the guy getting a lucky wind gust to take out your bishop. Play because you want to play and you enjoy it for what it is. Makes playing worthwhile and not seen as a chore.

2004-04-07T19:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a good hand to bitch about. I had AK diamondswith KQ spades. I don't remember what the community cards were exactly, but other high cards anyway. So anyways, there were 2 spades and 2 diamonds on the board, and I needed any hight or low card to finish off a high straight, and any of the remaining spades or diamonds to get a flush. Plus there was a pair on the board so any kinf would give me a full house. I call a fairly large bet (about 25 cents at the penny tables), and a 2 of clubs comes up. Well I folded faster than Superman on laundry day after that card. You figure with so many outs, that I could catch a break, but no, UB hates me, which is why it fucks me everytime I think I'm in the money.

2004-04-06T18:36:00.000-05:00

One other post for the day:
XXXXXXXX wins $.62 with four queens.
Always wanted to win with 4 of a kind, and I finally did. too bad only one other person left on the river when I got the 4th queen.

2004-04-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

After an hour and a half of nothing play o8b, I finally get a hand

XXXXXXX wins 465 with four aces (high).
XXXXXXX wins 465 with 8 7 3 2 A (low).
Then the next hand I get this:
XXXXXXX wins 365 with full house, aces full of nines.
This all after I play almost nothing, and raising, I get a bunch of callers. You'd think they'd notice that I was the only one folding hands and I was starting to raise. You'd think they would fold or something, but no. They're all stupid, but that's cool because then I get to finally make some money.
Up over a thousand chips now for the day. It took a lot of patience, but it paid off. If only it was for money.
Oh well, starting to get this stupid game, so I'm off to the real money tables while I'm still cocky.
Tough break by the way Rich, I feel your pain. But you took my money last week, so I only feel some of your pain :).

2004-04-05T01:49:00.000-05:00

I'm done with online poker for the time being. I'm sick of getting bad beat every time I'm in an all in showdown during a tournament.
The kicker being a points sit and go I just played in which 3 different guys hit runner runner to beat me in the all in showdown. The last bad beat resulted in me finishing in 4th place for the gazillionth time in the last couple of weeks.
I just withdrew the money I had remaining on UB and even though I'm incredibly frustrated right now, I still made a profit. I guess that's the important thing.
I find online poker skews the way I calculate odds, as there are, seemingly, more ridiculous beats than at live games. Taking that into account, despite the experience I've gained, I don't think playing on UB really helped me become a better player.

Oh well, I'll still play in the freerolls and I'll consider dropping some money into the site somewhere down the road. For now though, I'm finished.

2004-04-01T15:38:00.000-06:00

Xxxxxxx wins the main pot $6.85 with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
Xxxxxxx wins side pot #1 $9.85 with flush, queen high (high).
Xxxxxxx wins side pot #1 $9.80 with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
Xxxxxxx wins side pot #2 $9.75 with flush, queen high (high).
Xxxxxxx wins side pot #2 $9.75 with 5 4 3 2 A (low).

Took all but $6.85 from a $53.85 pot. Gotta love o8b. This hand made up for all the losses I suffered earlier at the higher limits. Oh well back to the grind.

2004-03-31T00:08:00.000-06:00

Xxxxxxx wins the main pot $2.49 with flush, ace high (high).
Xxxxxxx wins the main pot $2.48 with 8 6 5 2 A (low).
Xxxxxxx wins the side pot $2.50 with flush, ace high (high).
Xxxxxxx wins the side pot $2.50 with 8 6 5 2 A (low).

After hands like this I need the asian guy from UHF yelling STUPID!!!!!!

Xxxxxxx wins the main pot $3.59 with four eights.
Xxxxxxx wins side pot #1 $5.55 with four eights.

SOOOOO STUPID!!!!!!!!

Xxxxxxx wins $2.77 with flush, ace high (high).
Xxxxxxx wins $2.77 with 8 5 4 2 A (low).

SUPPLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough posting for tonight. Seriously I changed the blog name because we had 5 posters. Last 2 weeks its been ... me. Gotta change ladies. Drop the purses and pick up the pace or do something interesting :)

2004-03-27T02:07:00.000-06:00

What a screwed up night. I start the day winning about 7 bucks playing everyones favorite fish game o8b and I buy into a 5.50 multi rebuy with 1300 points. BIG MISTAKE. 3 hands in I tripled up and than the fun started.
JJ vs 88 NO GOOD
AA vs KQ with trips on the flop NO GOOD

Shortly after a rebuy and the tilt factor I was out 1300 points and 5 bucks. During these horrific beats I just kept thinking of the scene in vegas vacation where the dealer keeps winning against poor Clark Griswold. In the end the dealer sais "Hey Griswold why not give me half your money and I'll take you out back and kick you in the junk and we can call it even."

Does Clark learn his lesson? HELL NO.
Do I learn my lesson? HELL NO

So a friend who I was playing the tourney with challenges me to a heads up sit n go. I felt like I needed to take out some frustration and another 5 bucks wasn't gonna kill me. The sit n go lasted 7 hands and his 88 in hand beat my A10 suited and we both felt very unsatisfied. Needless to say I didn't want a rematch.

So I goto a UB points table and sit down with 1000 points. UB is really a peice of work. Within 2 rounds I had JJ, QQ and hit trips with both and sure enough I ended up with 127 more points than what I started with. So with UB feeling sorry for me and giving me the cards to make my points back, I was still down about 3 bucks of when I started the day. So I joined a higher level o8b table and a smaller one.

First hand at the small table I hit a full house on the flop and get beat by a better one. BAM! 2 more $$ gone. After mostly folding at the bigger table and down another buck, now I had 8 bucks to make up. I coulda just shut off my computer and licked my wounds but hey poker is about swings and the last hand you play, has no berring on the next hand for cards or luck.

Cue the 3 table o8b marathon :) Hour passes, down another 50 cents. At this point I realize that by letting all the previous hands and the tournament affect me, I couldn't win anything and after a quick change in mindset BAM!!. To make a long story short, 2 hours later at about 2 am I made back everything I lost and I am up a few bucks and up a hundred UB Points. Many people will just point out that 4 hours of play for such a small gain is really mediocre and not anything to be proud of. To be honest nothing makes me happier than to end a day full of adversity and bad beats to still come out ahead of the mark you set the previous day. The moral of the story is to never give up even if kicked repeatedly in the junk because when all your have is your gambling addiction to fuel your competitive nature, with some solid play positive results can not be that far away.

2004-03-22T17:44:00.000-06:00

Omaha Hi/Lo is like sushi. You don't like it the first few times ya do it but over time the fish start to taste good.

Notice the change in the name of the blog. I thought the old title was out of date considering we have 5 posters now (degenerate Rich, degenerate Yakko, degenerate Pinny, degenerate in training Jay and missing in action Don)(Gambling problems in that order). Now for the stupid O8b story of the day.

Xxxxxxxx: 7h 6c Kh 7s
Gotta love average big blind hands.

Flop (board: 5h Ks Qd):
Check Check Check around.

Turn (board: 5h Ks Qd Kc):
Check check check around even though I have 3 k's. Not much point in betting.

River (board: 5h Ks Qd Kc Kd):
Now who said good cards don't river for good people :). Let's see what action occured.

dwolfman bets $.02.
Xxxxxxxx calls.
Yakko folds.
northview raises to $.24.
AAquadsAA folds.
Drw1609 calls.
RoxanneM99 folds.
Catch-22 folds.
dwolfman calls.

Now that I have 3 suckers calling and making raises I wanna suck just a little more out of people.
Xxxxxxxx re-raises to $.46.
and....

northview re-raises to $2.02.
Drw1609 folds.
dwolfman goes all-in for $.68.
Xxxxxxxx goes all-in for $5.41.
northview goes all-in for $2.99.

Northview must have 4 Kings too!@!@!.

Xxxxxxxx shows 7h 6c Kh 7s.
Xxxxxxxx has 7h Kh Ks Kc Kd: four kings (high).
Xxxxxxxx has no qualifying low hand.
northview shows Ts Ad 4s Ac.
northview has Ad Ac Ks Kc Kd: full house, kings full of aces (high).
northview has no qualifying low hand.
dwolfman shows Qh Qc 3d 7d.
dwolfman has Qh Qc Ks Kc Kd: full house, kings full of queens (high).
dwolfman has no qualifying low hand.

Xxxxxxx wins the main pot $2.44 with four kings.
Xxxxxxx wins the side pot $4.62 with four kings.

Never underestimate stupidity. The sad thing is if someone had bet on the flop I woulda got squat. Oh well they can keep paying for my DVD addiction.

2004-03-21T11:42:00.000-06:00

Won $.57 with the best hand I'd ever been dealt, four Aces. I had A7, flop was AA8, with A & 5 coming after. I was bettnig pretty low, to keep people in the pot. To my surprise, two people called with a low raise I made on the river. No idea what they had, maybe an 8 to make a full house or something. Not a huge win, especially when you have four Aces, but a win's a win.

2004-03-20T19:54:00.000-06:00

Evening my fellow posters, poker players and degenerate gamblers(all of the above).

Xxxxxxxx is at seat 6 with $18.45.

Did I mention about omaha hi/lo being a poorly played game?

Normally I would talk about the big hand that made me the huge sum of money (923.5 big blinds), but to be honest it is sometimes better to be lucky than good. I made half of that money (a 9$ pot) with Ace high. I would bore you with the details but it really isn't worth the read. Atleast it makes up for some earlier bad beats.

2004-03-19T23:34:00.000-06:00

Finished 29/1000 in the Pokerstars omaha hi/lo freeroll. Spent the last 90 minutes of the tourny folding K974 rainbow, or some sort of variation of that crap hand. Finally got dealt a decent hand A556 and there was a board of KK56. Some guy calls my all in with K6XX, so I lose to the higher full house. Oh well.
I feel pretty confident playing hi/lo now and it's definitely easier to win than at regular hold 'em. The reason being, as mentioned before, is the amount of fish that are playing.
The pokerstars freeroll is a great way to hone your hi/lo skills as after the first hour or so, most of the idiots are gone.

2004-03-17T17:02:00.000-06:00

Finally finished in the top 50 in the UB freerolls after so many close calls. Managed to finish 40/1500 last night. So in the last four UB freerolls that I've played in I've placed 61, 89, 73 and now 40, all out of 1500.
Had I not managed to place last night, I may have had to re-evaluate how I play in the late stages of a tournament. For now though, all is good.

2004-03-16T04:28:00.000-06:00

It's now been three straight UB TEC freerolls in which I've finished in the top 100 without making it into the top 50.
I don't know if I should be satisfied at getting that far, dissapointed that I can't finish in the top 50 or annoyed that I've wasted 9 hours in the 3 tourneys combined only to get nothing out of it.
I'd probably feel better about this if it wasn't 4:30 in the morning.

P.S. Turning off table chat is great.

2004-03-15T23:51:00.000-06:00

Evening Degenerates. O8b is the worst played game I have ever seen at low limit. I sat down at a table with our favorite degenerate Rich who was already playing and played a few hands. Here's a hand I was just in to prove a point

These are the hands in order from the left of the button. Keep in mind this is the 2$ buy in at UB. So take the play for what it was worth. The betting went 2 cents to the button, and the player on the button raised it to 17 cents. 17 cents doesn't sound like a lot but with most players under 2$ it is a significant raise. Lets Analyse the calls and bets. Every player I mention called an aditional 15 cents.

junk-man (Jh Js Ah Th) had $1.15
jrxl with $1.72 (folded on the flop so I don't know his cards).
stizzed (6d Kc 3d 5c) had .84
XX(ME)XX (Ad Ks 3s Td) had $2.32
LuCkYLoSeR(2d Kh 8d 4d) Chip Lead at $6.78

Ok lets look at some preflop calls.

Junk-man has a so/so hand. With 3 hearts a flush is very unlikely. All you can hope for is a jack or a straight draw. In first position to me this is a really weak play because you have to check to start if a J does not hit(only a max of 2 left), and even if it does chances are good a lo will still be available so your playing for half the pot. Most players don't like playing JJ in holdem so JJ in omaha with so many more posibilities is just an easy way to lose $$.

Stizzed called with a double suited hand. Not the best hand to be calling with but for a k high flush draw 2 cents is often not a bad play in position. He wasn't in position and this is defintely not a hand worth 17 cents which was about 1/5 his stack. A lo of 3/5 needs so much help it is not even funny.

I called with a double suited hand but I had an A high draw and a K high draw. Secondly I had 3 high cards for a straight possibility. Third I had a decent lo at a3 so if a 2 comes up I am money. Keeping in mind I am assuming the raiser had a2. To me to call a big raise my hand has to have a decent high with the nut low (a2) or an ok lo (a3,a4) and a really good high which my hand had. I was also next to the button in late position and I could cap the betting at 17 cents which I did.

The original raiser was chip leader so I think he raised to limit the people in the pot (was originally 9 callers). He had a double suited hand but still its not worth the money but I respect what he tried to do. The only problem is that bluffing in low limit o8b is completely useless because people think any hand can hit anything. The play is right at maybe a higher limit game but I give him credit anyways. A tight pro plays about 30% of hands and calls raises with far less. With a big raise you get 50% preflop calls at this table so you know it is a weaker table.

Flop (board: Qd Kd 2s):

Dynamite flop for me. I have the royal flush draw and a 2 hits making my hand so much stronger. I thought I was ahead at this point in time because anyone playing a2 would be drawing dead for a low and I had the nut low and nut flush draw. The betting checked around to the button and he bet .21 cents. Everyone but 1 called including me. First question is why didn't I raise first or re-raise. Knowing that there is an aggressive player to my left I knew he would bet the pot or make a value bet which he did. Pot limit is all about building the pot until the flop. Raising would have drawn concern because I am normally a tight player. His bet cemented in my head that he had a2 and he was making a bet as chip leader to thin the heard or there was a small chance he had A23. A re-raise would have made a few hands fold and besides all I had were 2 strong draws, not something you wanna commit tonnes of chips to until you hit.

Turn (board: Qd Kd 2s 4s):

Couldn't really ask for a better turn besides it being a diamond. With 2 low's on the board the inferior lows would still call to the river and this spade brought me a double flush draw which is rare. I had the A high and K high flush draws respectably and the 4 made my hand so much stronger. Loser hit 2 pair and junk was on a nut straight draw. Stizzed hit top pair with a 2nd rate low. Again the betting checked to the button which than bet 77 cents. 77 cents was a bigger increase than before but it put 2/3 people besides him all in. They both called and I was left to a tough call. With no MADE hand yet, lets think about my outs. Any diamond left, any spade left or any lo card 5 and up (had the nut lo draw) would all give me nice shares of the pot. If any lo spade or diamond hit I was almost gauranteed 75% of the pot at worst. So I called and hoped for the magical river.

River (board: Qd Kd 2s 4s 6s):

Hit the river like a freight train but now it was heads up with the two remaining players myself and loser. I hit my K high flush and the nut lo. I think I made a hasty bet and went all-in. Loser was chip lead with no possible lo and just 3 pair :) an experienced player would have dropped the hand and I woulda been out a buck+. He called and now it is time for the showdown.

No rake is taken for this hand.
Xxxxxxxx wins the main pot $1.79 with flush, king high (high).
Xxxxxxxx wins the main pot $1.79 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
Xxxxxxxx wins side pot #1 $.47 with flush, king high (high).
Xxxxxxxx wins side pot #1 $.46 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
Xxxxxxxx wins side pot #2 $1.17 with flush, king high (high).
Xxxxxxxx wins side pot #2 $1.17 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).

SHAZAM. Giggity giggity giggity. To my surprize when I looked at the hand history no one was playing A2 or anything close to a good lo. I won the lo and since I was the only one with spades I took the whole pot totalling over 6.50 (may seem small but in a 2$ buy in .01/.02 blinds thats 300 big blinds won in 1 hand). Loser by trying to semi-bluff people outta the flop cost himself over 2$ to me. Hitting the 2 may have been lucky but i still thinK I was playing the best o8b hand preflop and the best hand won. The lesson is that bluffing will rarely help you unless your heads up. Even at UB there are tables who call big bets with inferior hands. When this happens I am like a kid in a candy store and the Americans keep paying for my DVD's and Xbox games. I guess I should thank them :P

2004-03-14T21:28:00.000-06:00

How's this for crazy?
Played heads up in a sit and go with me and the other guy having roughly the same amount of chips.
I get dealt Q6 as big blind, the other guy calls and I check.
Flop comes out QQ5.
I bet minimum and the other guy calls.
Turn is an 8.
I bet minimum, the other guy raises to all in and I call.
Other guy turns over a Q5 for the flopped full house. River doesn't help me and I'm down to 180 chips.
I actually managed to get back up to 1600 before going all in with K7 suited and losing to K9.
Oh well. Second place is fine with me.

2004-03-14T13:41:00.000-06:00

Got screwed by pocket Aces again! This time I go all in with one caller. He has pocket 10's. Of course another 10 comes on the flop. So if you can't win with pocket Aces, what can you win with?
The only hand left thast you can trust to pay off in the Hammer.

2004-03-13T15:07:00.000-06:00

Hey, long time reader, first time actually contributing something.
Gotta love having AA, and the guy before you goes all in. I call, and the guy on the button calls too. Feeling pretty good about my hand, but after that other guy called, I was getting nervous. Turns out, he had a low pair, 6's I think, and the first guy had 10-J offsuit. Flop comes 89Q. lost it all, but luckily was able to make it back a few hands later. I hate those lucky bastards.

2004-03-12T18:19:00.000-06:00

Finished 61/1500 in the UB TEC freeroll last night. I had to battle awful cards for the last hour and a half or so. I was in 56th place or so when I got dealt A10 and ended up calling a pre-flop all in from a guy with AA. I had to make a move obviously and it just didn't work out.
Obviously I want to make it into the top 50, but it's hilarious how serious some people take these things. Of course, it gets incredibly annoying after a while and forces me to turn off table chat, but whatcha gonna do?

2004-03-11T04:49:00.000-06:00

Well in my 3rd TEC freeroll I have now qualified twice for the TEC event on sunday. This time I finished 7/1500. Oh well hope it goes better than last week.

Also a quick note for all you other posters, you are all degenerate gamblers and play as much if not more poker than I do. Please post other wise this site gets pretty dull.

2004-03-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

FLUSH
XXXXXXX wins $2.88 with straight flush, ace high.
18$ my way gotta love the high hand jackpot

XXXXXXX wins side pot #1 $6.13 with flush, king high.
Also gotta love Omaha :)

2004-03-07T12:39:00.000-06:00

Oh well got booted within the first 10 min of the TEC Invite. Had top pair with the nut flush draw and got beat by KK. Done and Done.

2004-03-04T05:11:00.000-06:00

16/1500 in the UB TEC freeroll. W00p I get a chance to get a chance sunday to win a TEC entry. How lame and its way past my bedtime.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

2004-03-03T18:40:00.000-06:00

Hey degenerates.

XXXXXXXX wins the main pot $2.32 with flush, ace high (high).
XXXXXXXX wins the main pot $2.31 with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
XXXXXXXX wins the side pot $.25 with flush, ace high (high).
XXXXXXXX wins the side pot $.25 with 5 4 3 2 A (low).

It BURNS.
So much money to be made and this is at the small tables. Seriously start playing Hi/Lo it's awsome.

So yeah here is your poker lesson for today.
AK vs Unknown
Flop comes up (J,9,7)
Guy bets a small bet (1.50) (note the size of the bet it will be important later) for a pot of about 3 bucks. Normally this is an easy fold as AK as it is a huge underdog if the other player has a pair (about 70/30). I called anyways because I put him on a JQ or a KJ. Not the strongest call but I made it.The turn brought an 8. This made the board J987. I check it to see what he does. The guy across from me bets 1.25. I will tell you right now this is a big tell. When a guy opens for a bet, and then comes out with a weaker bet when a 1 card straight is available he is scared especially when the guy called his previous bet. Chances of a slow play are there but I will almost gaurantee you this player isn't slow playing. I reraised the guy to 6$ and he folded faster than superman on laundry day. Free tip boys and girls. Good Luck degenerates :)

2004-03-03T15:06:00.000-06:00

Another bad beat takes me out of a sit and go early.
Chip leader raises preflop, I go all in with AK, everyone else folds, chip leader calls with QJ.
Flop is 8-2-6 Turn is 9 and river is obviously a 10.

What a bunch of crap.

2004-03-02T23:41:00.000-06:00

Omaha hi/lo is a cool game
sitting with $9.59 at the penny tables.
This game might be beatable
:)