Hi,

As mentioned earlier, I had an op ed piece published on August 5th. I finally got a scanned image - here it is.

Trade-Off Coaching Sessions

As I have already mentioned, I am getting back into limit. Now I am playing SH limit instead of full ring, and I am really enjoying limit again. I play other games too (the SNGs, PLO, and MTTs) so I hope I don't burn out on limit again.

Last night I had a trade-off coaching session with an ITHer. I played for 45 minutes or so while he watched and we commented on hands, then he played for about the same amount of time while I watched and commented on hands. I thought it went really well. I think the single biggest benefit (and the reason I really want to do this again) is that it is smart to talk about the proper plays with someone else who is a winning player. It will reinforce the good habits and help to get rid of the bad habits. I also picked up two errors I made in play - neither cost me in the hands I was playing, but both things to do later. (One was an error in not betting a marginal hand on a 4-way flop, the other was not considering the bb when factoring whether to 3-bet my KJ with a button raise.)

Since the session I have gone on a tear, also, winning over 50 big bets in a few hundred hands. It is nice to now have the opportunity to watch and learn from two ITHers who are big proven winners at SH limit. I have never really had this before, so I am excited about my prospects at becoming a long term winner at SH limit holdem.

Another Good Weekend

For those who know my history, I won a 2005 WSOP main event seat through bugsysclub. They have a good (although incredibly difficult to initially understand) system of tourneys that can award freerole entries to tourneys that award ME seats (did that make sense - I did not think so). In short, if you finish in the top 4 of their "round 2" tourneys, you get a freerole entry for a WSOP seat. The nice part is, all the prize money is paid back to the players, so it really is an added bonus. In September 2004 I took advantage of this freerole to beat out 274 players and win a 2005 WSOP main event seat.

Saturday I played a round 2 event, it was a $10 rebuy, and I beat out the field of 39 for a $400 cash. Plus, I get a round 3 entry for a WSOP seat. This years round 3 is a rebuy event, so now I need to get more top 4 finishes, but it is nice to have the first. Overall, I was probably only up $200 or so for the weekend, so I lost overall for the weekend if it were not for this tourney - but a win is a win! Plus, that freerole entry is nice - now I just need to win my seat at the 2007 ME!

Things still going well

Most of my poker time is spent in one of two areas: SNGs (usually turbo $55s) or SH limit holdem. I have had a good past couple days again, winning at $3/$6 and $5/$10 limit and SNGs. I feel like I am really donking the SNGs I lose, but the ones I don't lose I play the same and do well. I think I just expect to win too much in SNGs - which is not possible. My ROI on those are good right now, but naturally I am also looking to play better.

I wish I had more time for MTTs, but we are still spending a lot of time around here getting the house in order. I will get back into the MTT swing soon enough - I should just enjoy this nice upswing I have been on the past couple weeks.

What a Sunday!

Sunday was the first day I lost money at the tables for a week. Took a small loss early in the day but was feeling good about playing the Stars million. ITHer Jmega was also playing it. I did OK early building a few chips, but in the 2nd hour I got caught in a tricky situation where my QQ ran into AA and I was out. I feel like I am playing well in tourneys, but nothing goes my way at the right time.

Jmega commented that he had won no pots in the first hour as it was about to end, and then right as he said it he picked up KK and doubled through a guy who pushed TT. From there he built his chips up to 10K then hit quads and some other hands to get to about 25K or so near the end of the 2nd hour - beginning of the 3rd. He kept hitting hands, making occassional well-time plays at pots without hands, and accumulating chips. He got one lucky outdraw prior to the bubble, and he was in the top 10 as the bubble burst with 800 players left.

From there, he kept playing well and getting some cards. And soon he is under 100 players with a good stack and just kept making great decisions. He ended up getting a big stack near the bubble of the final table and made the final table with over 2 million chips - parlaying that into a 3rd place finish and over $70,000! I am so happy for him - this is money that can make a huge difference to someone's life. There are many people who work really hard who need to work 2 years to get earn $70K - kind of astounding to think about it.

So a big congrats to Jmega - well earned score my friend!

Things have been going well ....

I have not played much recently, but things have been going well. I am beating up the $50 buy in SNGs. I don't have enough of a sample in to know my ROI - I am guessing it is 10-15% or so now. I finally purchased SNGPT - hoping that refines my bubble play. It is decent now, but I think it will help in reviewing the marginal situations. $1/$2 in lost equity every other SNG adds up - as that is 1% or more increase in ROI that is possible.

I am doing well with PLO also. I am using lower buy ins and it is working out great. There are great +EV situations that arise with lower buyins that do not occur with higher buy ins. For example, this type of hand happened twice recently. I had something like 6789 single suited. A very nice hand in PLO. I would min raise and someone else would raise to $5 or so (this is $0.50/$1.00 blinds) and there would be 4 callers before it gets back to me. I would then push and so would the other raiser. We get heads up and they have AAxx. I am a 55/45 dog but am getting almost 2-1 on my money. This is a very +EV situation. (In the 2 hands I mentioned, I split. Lost $35 once, won a $95 pot the other time for a $60 win.)

I also won a seat into a EPT satellite on stars. I just played a $5 turbo rebuy tourney. It was pretty cool, as I spent 20 of my W$ and won 475 W$. I might enter a bigger WCOOP event (a $1000 NL), otherwise I will just hold them for satellites to next years WSOP.

My limit holdem game seems to be going well. I have one big leak (that I know about), but I am working on it. I simply am not giving enough credit to players when they raise or ch-raise the turn. Sometimes I pick off bluffs, but not enough to be profitable. I need to be much more selective of when to play past the turn when I face a turn raise or ch-raise. I am winning, but I think figuring out a way past this leak will be very helpful (profitable).

All in all, things are going well. (that sound you hear is me knocking on wood.)

E

A brief history of gambling and poker with Poker Elmo – part 3.

During graduate school, I gambled very little. I lived only 25 minutes from a casino, even, but was so focused on my studies that I did not have time to get back to my thoughts of gambling. This focus was necessary for me – I am not smart enough to coast through a Ph.D. program. There were occasional breaks where I could gamble a bit. I had poker nights with friends for low stakes (really low, like quarters low). I went to the casino on occasion, but overall I gambled little. Overall, my 4 years in grad school represent what could be known as “the lost years”.

Towards the end of my graduate studies, in June 2002, my wife was out-of-town on father’s day weekend so I decided to go to the casino as a present to myself. I took a break from the blackjack table to play 7-card stud. I had the “Thursday-night poker” book, which gave me a general idea of how to play correct stud, which probably gave me a small edge at 1-5 spread limit. I had sat down briefly before in the poker room, but felt so overwhelmed I quickly left. This time it would be different, I told myself.

I sat down with $20, not realizing that was a very small amount. The hours flew by as I kept accumulating chips. Before I knew it, I was up well over $100. Then the following hand came up. I am dealt T7-T, and I 3-bet for the max. I can’t remember the upcards, but someone almost certainly had me beat at this point. I got a 4th-stree 4 and a 5th street 7 for 2 pair. But, I had 3 spades and everyone pegged me for the flush. When I bet they all called to chase “my flush”. I felt so powerful to have them all fooled. When the 6th street T came up I had a boat and a well-concealed one at that. I kept max betting and all 4 who were in the pot came along for the ride. That was close to a $200 pot and was thrilled. In hindsight, I realize that I got really lucky to hit my boat, as others certainly had 2 pair beat, but that hooked me on poker. Further, having them all think I had a flush at a low limit game was not that important. But it did not matter to me then – I thought I was a natural poker player. Further, playing poker was so much more fun than blackjack and so much more mentally challenging. I guess this is when I could officially say that I was hooked.

We moved from Iowa to Raleigh a few weeks later, however, and I was no nowhere near a casino. My gambling days again slowed down. We moved in June, and I probably did not gamble at all until I made some friends there and got invited over to poker nights starting in April 2003(I call them friends, they probably call me “the annoying a-hole who wouldn’t shut up until we invited him over for poker”). I lost a bit the first couple of nights, but saw that I could beat the game if I took some time to learn it. The stakes were low, with $0.25-$1.00 betting limits or $5-$10 NL holdem tourneys. But, while low, the guys were great to hang out with and the stakes were high enough to keep me interested at that time. Soon, I began beating the game. Around this time I started seeing commercials for internet poker ...

Op-Ed piece published today.

Today, my wife opens up the paper Saturday morning and discovers she is reading an op-ed piece I wrote. I wrote a 1000 word piece discussing why online poker should not be made illegal. While the article turned out great (not a biased opinion, of course), it is not available online. I will see if I can scan the article to get it posted.

Good plays when others think you are a donk

Getting moved in and organized – slowly – will take and post pictures when we unpack our digital camera.

I have been thinking about this issue some recently, and am not sure exactly what to do with it. I have made a number of successful plays recently that I think have been the result of superior analysis and got a great result. These are plays where opponents folded either 1) an inferior hand, or 2) maybe the better hand, but I had a marginal hand and was out-of-position. After both plays, I think my opponents thought I was an easy to read donk. I will give an example.
I am at binions playing in their 8:00 PM tourney ($110 if you get both the rebuy and bonus chips) about a month ago. It is about 45 minutes in so the blinds are 75/150 and I get 99 in EP/MP. I raise to 400 and get one caller in LP. This guy is wild, I have seen him call raises with 75s. He is very aggressive, but also capable of folding. The flop comes out KJ3. This is a nasty flop against this type of opponent as he could have anything. However, odds were against him hitting this flop (as odds are always against someone hitting a flop). Further, he could easily raise if I simply bet into him and could raise anything. I decided to see what he would do so I checked. He bet 500 chips into the 1000 chip pot. I thought for a moment and realized a way to find out if I was ahead. He had a shorter stack than I had, so as I thought for a few seconds I asked “how many chips do you have left”. He counted and had 1375 left. I decided to call the flop and then fire the turn.

The turn was the 2nd best card I could have hoped for – the Ace. I decided to bet what looked like a really suspicious amount. I bet 450 into the pot. I had just asked how many chips he had, and this bet really looked like a suck bet. He thought for a few seconds and groaned for a bit. Then he folded. I was quite happy with my play – even if I simply won with the best hand, it is a tricky hand to play in that spot. What made me happier was what happened next. He started grumbling (soft enough where I could not hear him) to the players next to him (I was 3 seat, he was 7 seat). They seemed to agree. They all must have thought I was a donk either 1) that couldn’t fold an ace on the flop or 2) tried to slowplay aces or AK until the turn but made it look too obvious. Either way, they thought I was a donk.

Some players in this spot try to defend their play so the table does not think they are dumb. Why? I had them right where I wanted them. They thought I was dumb and tight. Because of this, I could continue to play tight/aggro when the blinds were small and build my stack a bit, but then when the blinds got big (which happens quick at binion’s tourneys) I would be in great position to steal several times in a couple rounds before they figure out what is going on. I often see people in this spot wanting other players to think they are good so they defend themselves. That is pointless, you don’t care what they think of you during the tourney, you just want them to think you are good after you win the tourney.