StudioGlyphic

Category: Poker

  • 284 miles from Vegas

    In my mind, Vegas is always just four hours away. Compared to LA commute time, four hours never seems that bad. That’s like driving to and from Irvine 1.5 – 2 times. Easy, right?

    In reality, everyone in LA and their mother thinks of Vegas in the same way. They might drive up Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday night, or Saturday morning, but they all come back Sunday afternoon.

    When you’re waiting out the traffic and heat in Baker, CA in 110 degree weather, an extra night at the MGM Grand for $60 suddenly looks like the deal of the century.

    When you realize you’ve spent $100 on fuel and 12 hours of your limited free time crossing the Mojave desert (sober!), two round-trip tickets + cab fares for $500 doesn’t really seem that expensive.

    The next time I talk about driving up to Vegas, somebody slap me.

  • First Hand of the Night

    Sometimes the poker gods keep smiling:

    Full Tilt Poker
    No Limit Holdem Ring game
    Blinds: $1/$2
    9 players
    Converter

    Stack sizes:
    UTG: $92.05
    UTG+1: $232.30
    MP1: $224.35
    MP2: $196
    MP3: $190
    CO: $196
    Button: $67
    SB: $54.30
    Hero: $200

    Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is BB with Jh Jd
    UTG calls, UTG+1 raises to $4, 3 folds, CO raises to $17, Button folds, SB calls, Hero calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

    Flop: 2c 5h Jc ($85, 5 players)
    SB is all-in $37.3, Hero calls, UTG raises all-in $75.05, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Hero raises all-in $183, CO calls all-in $103.95.
    Uncalled bets: $4 returned to Hero.

    Turn: Qc ($555.35, 0 player + 4 all-in – Main pot: $234.2, Sidepot 1: $113.25, Sidepot 2: $207.9)

    River: Qs ($555.35, 0 player + 4 all-in – Main pot: $234.2, Sidepot 1: $113.25, Sidepot 2: $207.9)

    Results:
    Final pot: $555.35
    SB showed As Ah
    Hero showed Jh Jd
    UTG showed 3s 2s
    CO showed Ac Kc

    Of course, I was probably too greedy on the flop by flat-calling that first bet. You’d figure I’d have learned my lesson by now.

  • And then real life stepped in and changed everything

    This may come as a great disappoint to you–especially if you were someone I busted–but I won’t be playing in the WSOP this year.

    I’m planning out life-related things this year, and part of that entails saving my vacation days for trips that don’t involve poker. Or, at least, to a much lesser degree. So I’ve appointed Absinthe to represent me, LA bloggers, and PokerStars at event #37, No-Limit Hold’em (3 day event), on Tuesday, July 25th. In return, we’re splitting the prize money 50-50.

    Go and wish him luck.

  • PokerStars changed my July 2006 plans

    Imprudence relies on luck, prudence on method. That gives prudence less edge than it expects.
    –Mason Cooley

    I often hear that winning in tournament poker requires a dose of luck, so provided you play good poker in enough tournaments, you’ll make it deep and win from time to time. Like this guy.

    I had more than my share of good luck on Sunday in the PokerStars 2nd Annual World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.

    Lucky Break #1

    I was seated at a table where 6 of the 9 players were sitting out and never showed up to play. Not only did that mean all the blinds one could steal, but also a lot of short-handed pressure play. Once I knocked out the player to my left (AQ vs AT, A high flop), it was heads-up play with a 2:1 chip advantage and a positional advantage (seat 9 vs 6).

    Lucky Break #2

    While heads-up with seat 6, I called a min-raise with a suited Q. The flop came K high, all in my suit. Check, check. The turn put a non-threatening card on the board. Another check from the raiser and I put out a normal sized bet. He called. The river pairs the board and seat 6 wakes up with a sizable bet. I raised a few times the size of his bet and he re-raised. I thought about it, discounted the possibility of the boat or the higher flush, and put him all in. He had a suited J for the 3rd nut flush and I was sitting on a lot of chips.

    Lucky Break #3

    At level 13, with blinds/antes at 1000/2000/100, I found myself getting short (m of 5.6). I steal-raised to 4xBB from the button with a suited K, but laid it down to an all-in re-steal. In desperate shape, I re-raised the short stack’s all-in with a pair of sixes. Unfortunately, Columbo quickly called all-in with his pair of queens. The short stack had AK and the flop came down Ah As 2s, leaving me with 2 outs twice or running spades to win. Then the beat: a 6h on the turn. This was probably not as bad as the beat I handed out last December, but it was pretty bad. I apologized in the PokerStars chat and on IRC, but I’m not sure if anyone bought it. With that CJ-esque suckout, my stack was back in the playable range.

    The Rest

    Honestly I don’t remember the rest too well. I do remember not wanting to win a Letterman jacket. I’ve got one of those. 🙂 The iPod mini would have been nice, and I would have preferred it over the $215 seat in the Sunday Million or even the $370 seat in the WSOP Satellite. Once it got down to the 10th place bubble, I took a few opportunities to steal some blinds/antes, but probably not as many as I should have.

    At the final table, I made some bold moves, knowing that 9th place would pay just as well as 2nd, and bold moves were needed to come in 1st. Unfortunately, trying to push someone off a hand by re-raising all-in in response to his re-raise of your raise doesn’t always work. Especially if you have 99 and he has a pair of kings. Strangely enough, I survived that hand with a few chips, survived the next with a crazy 7 high straight, and finally went out in 6th place.

    Once again, a big thank you to all the people who cheered me on and gave me encouragement. These things are always more fun with friends watching.

  • 6th out of 2247 in the Blogger Tournament

    I guess Stars is guaranteeing that I go to Vegas this summer. For 6 hours of play, I get a seat in a $1500 WSOP tournament. Thanks to everyone who railbirded. That was great. See you all there.