Another Losing Outing

After a 4 day winning streak, I have gone the other way.  Cutting back on cash games and focusing on tournaments seems like a cheaper way to go.  Wednesday, playing in a turbo, bubbled final table when I misjudged a player's all in.  He had min raised 2 under the gun and I was in big blind with 7/7.  The flop was 6/6/3, and I checked.  He shoved and I put him on A/J, A/Q or small pair.  Wrong.  He had 10/10. Oh well, best showing so far in this particular game, starting to figure out players.

Yesterday, played almost a freeroll, cost $5 due to my $20 coupon.  Played very well down to 20 players from 64 entries when I picked up Q/Q on the button with one limped.  Raising to 1200 with blinds at 200/400, one caller.  Flop was Q/x/x.  No real draws and bet 1200 when checked to me.  Call.  Turn brought J of hearts and player shoves and had me covered.  With no better hand possible i called.  He turns over 9/10 of hearts, giving him both flush and straight draws.  River is a heart which does not pair the board and i am done.  Play it different next time?  Don't think so.  He was dumb to call my flop bet, then lucky to get runner runner.

Played omaha for a couple hours losing 1 1/2 buy ins.  The high hands at our table were insane with quad aces, then quad kings, then quad aces again which were beaten by a flopped royal flush!!!  I was in that hand with an 8 high flush, but quickly folded.  Only "bright" spot was winning $45 on poker machine while waiting for my seat. 

Why I haven't been posting

So, this year has been rough on me so far.  Recovering from my heart event on January 12th, I quickly developed a nasty cold, but fortunately not the flu.  With it came a bad cough which somehow threw my back out.  Suffering for 4 days, finally went to the doctor.  Heat treatments daily and some heavy duty pain meds have eased my suffering, but still unable to play more than a couple of hours.  Staying away from most cash games, just going with low buy in turbo tournaments.  No luck there, yesterday lost most of stack with my 10/10 vs. 8/8, hitting a set on the river which made him a straight.  With 6 blinds, shoved in middle position with 10/J suited.  Called by K/K.  Player down despite flush and straight draws.

Speaking of which, getting damned tired of not hitting big draws while opponents hit long shots.  Wah!!!!

Good Outing but not maximized

Had a good outing a few days ago at Caribbean card room, but should have been a lot better.  One of my struggles in cash games is bet sizing and sometimes when not to bet!!!  An example was calling a raise with 7/7.  The flop came down 7/2/2 and the original bettor put out a 1/2 pot size bet.  I called.  The turn was a brick, he then checked.  I then bet 1/2 pot and he folded.  Fish off  the hook!!!  One could argue that perhaps he had an overpair and I protected my hand, but in all likelihood he had an ace/x hand that could have improved had I checked, then I could have gotten all of his stack.

This type of scenario seems to be what happens to me a lot.  I blow people out of the hand with strong bets rather than giving some rope so they can hang themselves.  I did end up with almost a 300 profit that day, so I was satisfied, but felt it could have been a lot more.

My winning streak since getting back on the tables was really great, 5 straight wins until yesterday.  That was a disaster with my strong made hands destroyed on the river time after time (board usually pairing to give opponent full house), while my sets could not find a pair on the river.  I recall one big pot that was particularly sick.  A player raised preflop (usually indicating an A/2 type of hand).  Tons of players called and I came along with middle and large suited connectors. The flop came down 5/6/8 with me having two pair (5/6).  With lots of players and a low made there was a ton of betting and raising.  Four of us saw the turn which brought 2 players betting and raising, 2 of us calling.  The river brought a bet and raise, and when the other player folded, so did I.  Turned out he had pocket 6's (set on flop) while the other two had A/2 and one with a small pair.  I was drawing dead, but with a large pot probably should have called on the river.  Just could not imagine that there was not a nut low plus nut straight out there given the action.  Lesson:  sometimes you just gotta throw those last bets in.

I hit one high hand with quad 3's which quickly got beaten by quad 6's. Did not get another hand up on the board but several made it on our table including quad aces, eights, and a full house or 2.  Heard from the floor that another bad beat was hit, this one for $56,000.  Table shares almost $3000.  He said it was straight flush over straight flush in a holdem game.

One other fun outing earlier this week.  While waiting for my seat looked at a table and saw a former salesman of mine from Redmond.  We had a short opportunity to chat, and while doing so, my racquetball/poker buddy came in.  We later sat at the same table with Bryan, another poker friend from the Tri-Cities.  It was a super marginal day, lost almost a hundred in a 3/6 limit game before winning it back in the 1/3/300 spread game.  Finished up precisely $7. 

Lucky month

January started off abysmally.  Ten or so consecutive losing poker sessions, then the heart attack.  They say when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.  Good advice.  Nonetheless figured eventually the worm had to turn.  So, finally booked a $200 cash game win.  Yee-ha!!!  Then yesterday playing in the $4/8 Omaha game a miracle happened.  I was stuck about $200 on a very active table with lots of raising going on.  No high hands for me, and only 2 at our table after almost 4 hours of play.  Then, playing 10/10/x/x I got a good but not great flop, 10/9/8 with the 9/8 suited in hearts.  I had the 10 of hearts in my hand.  There was betting and several callers.  The turn brought the case 10 and when it was checked to me I bet and got two callers, probably the worst players at the table.  The river was the 5 of hearts and a player bet into me.  I raised, one caller, then a re-raise.  I thought briefly, decided he had an under-full so i capped it.  They both called.  The first bettor turned over the 6/7 of hearts for the 9 high straight flush, beating my quads.  Bad Beat!!!!!  I lost the $200 pot and the high hand worth $150 but got a consolation prize, half the bad beat jackpot of $5900.  There were lots of high 5's as the straight flush got 25% and the other 25% was split among 5 players, $300  each.  My $2950 got paid about an hour later after withholding paperwork was signed, cards counted and picked up, drivers licenses recorded, etc.  First bad beat jackpot I have been involved with and only the 2nd I have seen.  It resets to $5000, someone said it had recently been hit.  You know what, I don't care.  It capped off my "lucky" month.  Lucky to be alive, and lucky to get out of the hole.  It also felt good to give a giant tip the older lady dealer who has been very kind and friendly to me.

The greens are $25, row of blacks $100 chips (20 of them), reds are $5, blue $1.

Birthday Boy Bubble

In my first poker outing since my heart event decided to play local turbo event.  I sort of like this one, $40 entry, 4000 chips, 16 minute levels.  It was a small turnout, only 28 players, paying 5 places with around $900 prize pool.  I played well, surviving multiple shoves and made the final table.  When we were down to 7, the chip leader suggested paying 2 bubbles.  Only one disagreed, so we played on.  He was eliminated next (karma???), so then the bubble idea was again floated.  This time some grizzled old guy said something about a previous tournament that wouldn't  pay him, so he vetoed it.  As a super short stack 2k with blind 2/4 k I was just looking to survive.  I got dumb, throwing in my last chips in early position (pocket 4's) with the big blind also super short.  The button, aforementioned no bubble jerk, min raised to put him in too. He wisely folded despite having over half his chips already committed.  The button had pocket aces and I was done.  Just a few minutes before the guy was short, all in with 2/6 and got lucky.

Player Down, Almost Seat Open

Playing in poker tournaments, we often hear the phrase "player down".  A player has lost their remaining chips and is eliminated from the game.  In cash games, we hear "seat open", meaning a player has either decided to cash in their remaining chips or has gone broke.  Either way, they are vacating their seat at the game and leaving.  So, last Friday, I came very close to being that player down or seat open in the big poker game of life.

I was just hanging out, my usual routine in the morning, coffee, more coffee, breakfast, playing on the computer.  I had gone to bed early the night before, commenting that I felt "unusually tired".  So, when I felt a squeezing pressure in my chest and some numbness and pain in my arm it was alarming. I needed gas in my car and debated driving to Kaiser Urgent Care, about 15 minutes away.  Finally decided not a good idea, so called my son-in-law to see if he would be available.  He was, and 20 minutes later we headed to Bellevue.  I checked in at the front desk, where they asked about my symptoms.  When they heard chest pain, I was immediately taken to an exam room and hooked up to an EKG.  After discussions with the nurse and a "normal" reading I was sent back to the waiting room.  At least an hour later was invited back to the exam room and met with the doctor.  She had blood drawn and another EKG.  An hour after that, they got my 2nd blood work done, then things started happening.  A cardiac doctor was consulted, given my results and suddenly 3 or 4 people came in and started transferring me to a gurney.  I was whisked to pre-op, and prepped for an operation.  I signed paperwork (undoubtedly releasing the hospital from any liability) to authorize possible surgery.  Informed that I had suffered a heart attack, the plan was to do angiogram and angioplasty either through my groin or arm.  They then took me into the O.R. where the team had assembled after an emergency call to their homes.  They were super quick and it was over in no time. I was awake the entire time, and felt zero pain.  They discovered 100% blockage in one artery, 97% in a 2nd, and 67% in the 3rd.  Two stents were placed, and I may have to return soon for the 3rd one.

Recovery was easy.  The ICU nurses were kind and efficient, got little sleep that night due to constant blood drawing, pressure testing, constant machine beeping, etc.  My wife slept on a small sofa in the room.  A couple of cardiac doctors checked in on me, discussed it all, and assured me of early release. Was cleared to go on Sunday for Monday release which happened around noon.  Really glad to be gone from the hospital and the hook up to monitors, IV hookups in both arms, hospital food, and being easily the wellest person on the floor. My biggest downside was buying all the drugs needed as I had foolishly opted out of part D drug options due to never taking any medication ever.  One drug was $320 for a 30 day supply.  The doctor and I discussed it, and after that a much cheaper generic will be o.k.  Joking with him, told him how I got the "Dr. Phil" poker nickname and commented that I was also a "card-iolist".  Also got to tell him a poker joke.  A doctor was home when he got a call from some colleagues inviting him to a poker game that night.  When he told his wife he had to go out on an emergency medical call, she asked him if it was serious.  "Yes, very serious" he replied, "there are already 4 other doctors there."

So, looks like my poker days will be shortened.  I plan on eating better, exercising more, and not doing such long term sitting at the tables.  They do say sitting is the new smoking and I will have to give up being a chain smoker.    

Player Classifications

First of all, Happy New Year to my devoted blog followers.  Speaking of New Year, attended a party held by daughter's friend, Helen.  Chatting with another guest, I told her that I had been at work earlier.  She asked where I worked and I said at the casino as a poker pro.  We had some discussion about that and she asked me how to determine that you are  pro.  I answered "it is my primary income", which is not true.  So, thinking more about poker player classifications, here is what I came up with.

Level 1
Recreational poker player, plays home games with friends.

Level 2
Occasional casino player, plays small tournaments with low buyins and sometimes limit cash games

Level 3
Regular small tournament player, plays smaller nl cash games.  Probably plays 3x week, holds regular job.

Level 4
Big game player, big buy in tournament player.  Probably plays several days a week but probably not only income source.

Level 5
Grinder.  Plays weak tournaments and small cash games.  Plays every day.  May make a living but probably not a good one.

Level 6
Pro.  Plays big cash games and big tournaments.  Makes a lot of money.  May not be well known.

Level 7
Touring pro.  Sponsored, travels world wide, lots of final tables at WSOP, recognizable name/face by most regular poker players.

Level 8
Poker degenerate.  Thinks about it all the time, plays online, plays as much as possible.

Where am I on this list?  Sort of a mixture.  I am not a big game player but like big tourneys.  Would be a grinder under different circumstances.  Definitely a poker degenerate.

One last thing about new year party.  Chatting with another guest about her being mauled by a bear when she was 10 years old.  How we got to that information I have no clue, but it was a crazy story.  I asked her if she saw "The Revenant", and she had.  Her memories of the mauling were thankfully faint and I didn't see the scars.  Lesson, never come between a mama bear and her cub, and don't run into the cub with your bicycle.