Chumash II – Trip Report cont’d

Continued from trip report I

…I was crippled after my loss to the Fisherman. With only T600 left, I began looking for a hand to get it all in with. With blinds at 50-100, that was my only move. I did manage to double up once and dragged the blinds in a couple other rounds to keep myself alive. But I eventually ran into a stopper. It was folded around to me on the button with K-Qo. This was a great spot to push my last few chips in. I figured I would only take down the blinds but I didn’t mid getting called. Unfortunately, it was the Fisherman’s big blind and he called, saying, “I’ve got an ace.” He then turned over his cards, revealing only a 7. Then he slowing fanned it to show the ace. I laughed and said, “Hey! You can’t tell me you have it and slow roll.” Anyway, his ace held up and the tournament came to an end for me.

I took a quick scan around the room but didn’t spot any of my friends. So I decided to check outside the tourney room for anyone that had already been eliminated. I didn’t immediately find anyone but ran into Joe after a couple minutes. It turned out he was knocked out of the tourney just a minute or two after me. And he was the last one from our group! Wow! That was a first. We were all out by 12:30.

Joe and I found everyone else playing Let It Ride. We were all hungry so it was off to our traditional post-tourney spot, AJ Spurs. We made it over there by 1pm and ran into a new predicament. They didn’t open until 4pm. We’d never had this problem because we’ve always had at least someone last past 4 o’clock in the tournament. Oh well. We opted for Anderson’s Pea Soup. Thems was good eats! Kid had two bowls of pea soup which would make for rough waters (so to speak) later that night. I had a monte cristo because I hadn’t had one in ages and felt like being really unhealthy. Surprisingly, Paul had never eaten or heard of a monte cristo sandwich. I still can’t figure how that is possible.

After lunch, we went back to Paul’s cabin and played some more cards of the silly variety. By 9pm, we were ready for dinner and headed back over to AJ Spurs. We got lucky this time because they were closing at 9:30. Huh? 4 – 9:30? Whatever. After a really good steak and a couple drinks, we split up. Everyone was done for the night except Kid and me.

We went back to Chumash and hit the poker room. It was, as Kid described, pretty dead for a tournament weekend. We took the only seats readily available at a $5 NLH game, him in the 6 seat and me in the 7. Just sitting in that game, I was breaking one of my unwritten rules…Don’t drink and play. I only had two drinks with dinner but it was enough to loosen me up. I was too loose. I was having a ton of fun but that is usually secondary where poker is involved. This time, focus was secondary at best.

I played too many hands and made 0 lay downs. Actually, the hands I chose to play weren’t all that bad. But I was acting too fast, resulting in missed bets and over calls. The truth of the matter was that my opponents (I was usually heads up after the flop) were calling big bets on the flop and hitting their draws against me. Several times, I had two pair or better up against a straight or flush. I knew I had the worst every time as my opponents would min-raise me on the river but I never got away from my hands. One of my more valuable abilities is laying down losing made hands. But I didn’t do it even once that night. The result was two lost buy-ins.

Amidst this madness, Kid and I were playing side bets on suits/colors. I had spades and hearts (I think). With a buck at stake each hand, I was getting my ass kicked at that, too. I waived the white flag after dropping around $15. You own me, Kid. We left after I lost my second buy in. But at least Kid was playing well and easily left winner.

That’s all for now. I’ve got one more day of the trip to recap. So stick around.

SEEYa

Legs at 10 and 2

I use a crappy, company-supplied headset to listen to music at work. It doesn't hold in sound well so I try to be sensitive to those around me and keep the vloume down. But damn it all to hell! Skid Row's Psycho Love just came on Pandora. I'm blasting it! All these nerds around me could use a little kick in the ass.

Good God, all mighty
Bless my soul
I need a fix
Of rock n' roll
-- Baz

(Holy shit! Psycho Love ended and I'm now listening to Reckoning Day. YES!)

SEEYa

Substandard System – How I Lost Hundreds at Poker

Chumash Trip Report

Last weekend, I went up to Chumash Casino for their big, tri-annual NLH tournament. The trip was a success only in that I had a blast. Poker was a losing venture for me for several reasons that I will detail here. But I had a really fun time with Kid, Joe, Paul & Dena, Kirk, and Joe’s friends.

I left my place on Friday around noon and headed up to Santa Barbara. There, I met up with Kid, Joe, and Joe’s friends at Joe’s apartment. Joe, Mike, Kid, and I jumped right into a 4-way freeze out on the table they built. I have to say, they did a very nice job on the table. We didn’t play for money, however, so there isn’t really anything to recap.

After playing cards for a while, we met up with Paul and Dena at a nearby Red Robin. Good times. This is a relatively new group of friends for me. So I am really happy that we hit it off so well. It seems we always have fun together just talking, whether we are playing cards or out to eat. And Joe’s friends added to it. Mike is nutty.

After lunch, Paul and Dena went back to the cabin they were staying at for the weekend and the rest of us went back to Joe’s. We finished our poker free roll with Kid and I heads up. Same result as last time. Kid 2; Darsky 0. Then we bought some booze and headed out to Paul and Dena’s cabin for some more cards and what not (or not what.) Paul had brought along cards and a couple cases of chips so we were ready play. $20 buy-in, dealers choice. We played a bunch of wild card games and, mostly, blood n’ guts. For only $20, I played really loose and had a ton of fun. I think we all did. We played until around 11pm. I hadn’t even been to Chumash so I had not been able to check in to my room yet.

I left and drove to the Casino and checked in and I was thinking about putting in some time in the poker room at the casino. But after getting settled into my room, it was midnight, I was tired, and the tournament would start in 9 hours (9am start time. Ouch!) I was too tired to put in an all night session and play the tourney, and I like to play for at least 4 hours when I play for cash, so I decided to call it a night. I watched Crimson Tide on TNT as I tried to sleep. The TV emitted a terrible high-pitched noise which made it difficult to watch, not to mention difficult to sleep. But it was Crimson Tide…a great movie. Its one of those that I can’t help but watch whenever it is on. So I watched the whole movie and then went to sleep. (Really interesting, eh? -- This is gold, Jerry! Gold!)

Saturday morning, I was up, showered, and made a trip to the complimentary continental breakfast (how very) in plenty of time to hang out before the tourney began. The first person I spotted was Joel, another poker friend who had driven up that morning to play. Everyone else funneled in and we chatted for a few until it was time to take our seats.

I had table F-7 seat 2. When I found the table, there were five men already seated, their average age well above 50. I was the youngest by about 10 years. My plan going in to the tourney was to play a little looser and more aggressively than normal. I wanted to pick up chips early and try to control the table. With a crew of older players in the round, I thought I was likely to be able to execute that strategy. A couple of slightly younger men showed up as the table filled. But the overall look didn’t change.

One possible downside relates to the fact that I like to talk and enjoy myself in any poker game. I doubted these old dogs would be very interactive. They hadn’t been talking at all since I had arrived. But once the action got under way, they liven up. The old guy on my right was actually a great audience for me. He laughed at everything I said. Well, the jokes, anyway. So we had a good time. Then something else happened. I picked up quality starting hands from the get go.

What the…! That wasn’t part of the plan! I was ready to get cold cards for a while and look for spots to steal and make calls in position with busting hands. Instead, I found A-Jo in late position on the very first hand. I got heads up with one of the younger guys and won the pot, showing down against his A-10 with an A on the flop. But I couldn’t make him pay much when the river brought three spades. Oh, well. Good start anyway. On the very next hand, I had A-Q. I got heads up with the same guy after he called my pre-flop raise. The flop came K-x-K. I had already figured him for K-something so I followed his check with the same. The turn didn’t matter because I wasn’t betting into this guy. He bet the turn and I surrendered the hand.

So, already, I got good cards, was playing passively (rightly so), and relinquished control. This was nothing like I had envisioned. But I know how to adjust. Things went south for me when I picked up K-K in middle position. I had a good read on the big blind. He would look at his cards as soon as they came out. So I knew he liked his hand before I even knew what I had. With blinds at 25-50 and one limper ahead of me, I opened with a raise to 200. The cut-off called (he had a chip with a picture of himself and a 15lb salmon on it, so I’ll call him the Fisherman) and it folded to the BB. He raised to 1,000. “I knew it,” I exclaimed in a mumble. The limper folded and it was on me. This is where my style comes in. I like to just call with big hands like As or Ks when I am re-raised. It really disguises the strength of the hand and gives me a chance to out play my opponent after the flop. If everything goes in pre-flop, I could be ahead with pair over pair but my opponent could turn or river one of his outs. If I just call, I could take down the pot after the flop without showing down. Most people will call all-in pre-flop with middle or high pair after they have already raised. But they’ll lay it down if the flop comes with over cards.

In this case, there was another player to consider. Since the re-raise to 1,000 was so large, I thought the Fisherman would not call after me. So I just called. But he did too. Oops! My trap play is better suited to play against one opponent. No worries. The flop came K-x-J with two clubs. I was ready to slow play this but the BB moved all-in for 2,650. I decided to just call because I actually wanted the Fisherman to call, too, since it was too expensive for him to stay in with just a flush draw (which I thought he might be on) but could call with a few other hands that were dominated. Fisherman did call. The turn brought another club and I immediately realized I was in a bad spot. But he only had about 900 left and I was first to act. I wasn’t going to lay my hand down for that amount, so I might as well bet out and hope he folds. If I were to check and he bet, I would have to call anyway. So I bet all-in and he called. I got a rebate but was now trailing to his nut flush (Ac-7c). The river didn’t pair the board and I was down to 600…crippled, as they say. BTW, the BB made a set with J-J. Tough loss for him, too.

After the hand, I asked the Fisherman if he would have folded if I had moved all-in on the flop. He said he wasn’t going anywhere once he picked up that draw. I believe that. As it turns out, the only way I could have played the hand better was to re-raise pre-flop and force the Fisherman out. I’ll definitely consider that next time this situation comes up with more than one opponent.

That’s it for now. In my next post, I’ll go over the rest of the tournament and the rest of the weekend including Anderson’s Pea Soup and more poker.

SEEYa

You're a sick individual, man.

I have been sick for a couple days and, as a result, have not fealt like writing. I have an occassional moment of inspiration every time I hear one of the Finance nerds that sit near me using a calculator. They use the kind with the print tape and they hit the keys really hard, sort of fast. I can tell they are proud of their abilities with this obsolete device. Anyway, they bug me.

But I am going to go home at lunch today, if not earlier. So maybe I'll find enough time and inspiration to write later today. Maybe I just need to finally eat something today. We'll see.

SEEYa

Poker – How to Lose

I have been meaning to write more about poker. And with the Chumash tourney just two days away, now seems like a good time to start. But how to write about it, troubles me. I don’t like detailing hand histories. I enjoy reading them but I prefer writing about the concepts involved. And I have read many blogs in which the authors only write about their successes. I tend to only want to write when I am upset or something is just eating at me (I think I’m getting better at simply writing, though.) Anyway, here it goes…

About a month ago, I was playing 3/5NLH, lower that my current regular spot (5/10NLH), at Commerce. It was a Wednesday night but the action was still quite good. You can always find a game there. I got there around 8:30pm and was in a game just before 9pm. The buy-in is fixed at $200 for that game and it tends to be pretty loose. But that’s the kind of action I like. I can try to pick some spots to limp with marginal starting hands while I look for some monsters. Nobody notices just how tight I am in that case and they’ll usually give me action when I do finally come in for a raise.

On this night, I was getting really cold cards but still finding a few to play that didn’t pan out. However, I managed to maintain my stack until a small rush hit me and I got up to around $250. Then a big hand just happened. It was one of those situations that anyone would have played the same way.

I found JJ under the gun and made my standard opening raise to $15. Very often, in this position, I won’t get action because no one else has committed anything to the pot. But this time, I got two callers from MP and the button. So now I have no position and need a small or otherwise favorable flop. That’s exactly what I got: J-5-5. With a monster like that, I just had to check and hope the aggressive player on the button would make a play at the pot. MP checked and the button did bet.

He put out $50 and I had a decision to make. Do I smooth call and hope the MP calls too? I looked at her and figured that she wasn’t going to call anyway so I might as well raise right there. I only had about $215 behind so my raise to $150 left me pot committed. I new I was only likely to get called if the button was holding A-J or A-5. But there was a flush draw on the board. So there was an outside chance of being called and having him drawing dead. In any situation, I want action.

Instead of folding or just calling my raise, the button moved all in. Of course, that is smarter than calling. He would have been committed to calling an all-in from me on the turn so he might as well get it in right there. I called and turned up my hand but he didn’t reveal his right away. The turn brought another 5 and I immediately had a bad feeling. One look at his face and the apologetic expression on it and I knew…He had it. He turned up A-5 and the table let out a collective, excited gasp followed shortly by an “OMG” sympathy response for me.

The button looked at me as if to say, “Sorry.” We had had a friendly rapport up to that point, so he felt bad. I reached into my pocket for 2 C’s for a re-buy. As I did, everyone continued to look at me with sorrow and empathy. But I wasn’t thrown. My read was correct. I was most likely to get called by a hand that had an out. As unlikely as it was, it could come. I looked around that table and said, “You all look so upset. Its OK. I got the call I wanted. Good hand.” And I meant it.

The point of this story is that losses happen. I could have treated it like many do. I could have cursed the poker gods and blamed fate for me “never catching a break.” But I know better than that. Throughout that night and every night I play poker, I get some breaks, too. Its up to me to maximize those that are in my favor, minimize those that are not, and understand “the breaks” are not the cause of long term wins and losses. Don’t lose your head when you are running bad and play your best until things swing back in your favor. That’s the way to handle it.

Side story: In the story above, MP was played by a nice woman who happened to be there with her friend, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was playing at a different table. He came over and told her they had to leave. I said, “Quick. He just sharted.” He pretended to not hear me. Now that he’s got an Oscar, maybe he can afford to play in the top section where they won’t let on to having seen Along Came Polly.

SEEYa