What Would You Do?

Playing 3-300 spread game today at the Carribean Casino in Kirkland, I got stacked 3 times.  My question is, "What would you do in these situations?".
 
1st scenario:  An early position player raises to $18 with about $140 behind.  I have Q/Q in late position.  At least one player has called, I call, and two others call.  The flop is J/x/x with two of a suit but unconnected, the jack is the highest card.  The player shoves.  I tank for a while pondering his hand range.  What kind of a hand shoves here?  AK is possible as well as A/J flopping top pair top kicker and not wanting any more action.  The whole range of small pairs comes to mind, shoving to avoid the overcards.  I finally call.  A king hits the turn and I figure I am dead.  He turns over A/A.  Could I have avoided this by re-raising pre-flop then folding to a shove?  Doubtful.  I decided that it was just a cold deck kind of thing as only 2 hands were ahead of me pre-flop.

2nd Scenario:  I have A/K in early position.  I raise to $25.  A player or two calls and the button re-raises to $75.  I suspect larceny, but with only about $125 behind, I shove.  The other players fold, he calls and the board runs out with small cards.  He has Q/Q, and I am stacked again.

3rd Scenario:  I have K/10 in the cutoff in a multi-way pot that has been raised by a very activmee player to my immediate left on the button.  He has been very lucky and aggressive, straddling every opportunity and hitting a piece of every flop.  The flop comes K/9/5.  It is checked to me and I bet the pot, around $40.  He calls, the other players fold.  The turn card is a 6, I shove around $125, and he says, "sorry, I sucked out on you".  He has 7/8 for the gutshot straight.  I thought his call on the flop was horrible, particularly since there were other players who could possible be trapping with a better king.  Very bad odds for a gutshot 4 outer.

Bonus Scenario:  You have Q/3 diamonds (big blind) in an unraised board of X/x/4, 2 of your diamonds on the flop.  An aggressive young player in the small blind bets $50.  What do you do?

In this case, I shove around $125 and he calls.  There is another 4 on the turn, I hit the ace of diamonds on the river.  He has 4/6 for trip 4's and I stack him.

Overall, a very bad session for me, stuck $400.  With a little luck either with my queens or against them it would have been a different story.  The aggressive player rebought a couple of times, but probably only lost a hundred or two.  My bad on seat choice as we both sat down at the same time but I chose first.  I would have liked to have been downwind of his raises.  I chose that seat based on sitting next to the aggressive kid as I didn't want him to be on the button vs. my big blind.  He was stuck worse than me when I left due to some bad beats.  

Korea Paranoia

Sometime during my brief stint in Korea, I developed a mild case of paranoia.  I was convinced that either one of my fellow soldiers were going to hurt me, or I would be killed in some freak accident. Let me explain why.  While I was there, one of the guys in our 200 man company was killed when he parachuted into the Yangtze River and drowned.  Then, a guy was hit by a "Kimchi Cab" and ended up with a plate in his head.  The real shocker was the day one of our officers asked if any of us wanted to ride "crew" with him in a helicopter flying over to the coast.  I had never been on one before so I volunteered.  It was a real thrill, shooting straight up and hovering then zooming off.  A few hours later we returned.  Wow.  What a lot of fun, plus an authorized day out of work at the office!!!!  The very next day, he again asked us.  I had a bunch of work reports to do so no more fun for me.  Another officer went with him.  The next day, a flatbed truck brought back what was left of the helicopter.  The pilot had crashed into a mountain, killing both of them.

October 08, 1970

WO1 Frank Lloyd Mathias Capt. Kenneth Maurice Cox

Their aircraft crashed and exploded near Chuncheon while on a routine administrative flight from K-16 to Camp Page.

The last incident involved another office guy.  He asked me to stop by his barracks one evening.  I did so, and sitting on a bunk across from him he produced a knife, then asked me if I had stolen his camera.  I of course denied it and suggested that one of the Korean houseboys was probably the culprit.  I left uncut, but it added to my paranoia.  Since I was required to carry a sidearm when on my occasional secret document transfers, I approached the armorer, a buddy of mine and asked if I could just keep the pistol rather than turning it in after use.  He agreed, so I did, even sleeping with it.  I was once asked by the Commanding Officer wearing the shoulder holster in the office, and I mumbled something about carrying the documents. He accepted my answer.  A follow up on the camera guy, when I left Korea he was in charge of the company safe which I had put most of my money in.  I had no proof, but am very sure that it was not the amount I had "deposited".  There was no paperwork nor any way to prove he had taken it.  He probably figured that it was rightfully his.  Stupid not to just spend my money like the rest of the outfit.

High Hand Hosing

Some days the Omaha high hands are easy peasy. Sometimes they are won with very weak full houses.  Sunday I had the high hand of 99955 until seconds before the cutoff time (every half hour) when I was beaten with 25 seconds left by AAA22.  If that was not enough for the player, almost immediately he hit quad jacks for back to back high hands.

Today, I posted quad 8's which looked very good to win high hand.  The player to my left then hit quad queens.  Ouch.  He then lost to another player on our table who got runner runner for a 3 gap 7 high straight flush (he was playing a 3/7 suited).  He didn't even realize what he had as he check called a bet on the river.

Then, I hit an 8 high straight flush with maybe 15 minutes left.  I was playing a 5/6 suited with a 3/4 flop in diamonds.  I hit the 7 on the turn and an 8 on the river, unbelievably, a player at our table made a gutshot 9 high straight flush a few hands later.  What the what?  My hand was the best posted in over 4 hours of play!  He was sitting pretty, waiting to cash in when from another table, the dealer called out "Royal Flush".  Unfreakingbelievable!!!  Either of our hands would have been good for the money during any other half hour period.  Sadly, I really needed the money to break even.  It was not a good day for me  

The Rapid Rise of Roscoe in Korea

A quick story about some fun with the military system.  There was a very lame soldier assigned to our company named Roscoe Freed.  As befitting his name, he was red headed with buck teeth and probably met the very minimum standards for I.Q.  Amazingly, despite having been in the army for at least 9 months, he was still a buck private E2, the second lowest rank.  It was almost impossible not to at least achieved higher rank, as it is an automatic thing for time in grade, so when Fillback and I noticed this we decided to take action.  We initiated paperwork for immediate promotion to private first class.  Since this was long overdue it passed immediately.  This was done on no recommendation from any of his superiors.  We were pleased to have righted this egregious wrong.

As we thought more about it, we became incensed that he had gotten screwed for so long so decided to make up for it by putting in a special request for another promotion.  As I recall we wrote up some garbage about his dedication to duty, extreme skills, etc.  This did not go down quite as easily as he had barely sewn the new stripes on his shirts.  We were questioned by the top sergeant and the captain.  We stuck with our story (apparently they did not interview the guys working with him), also pointing out how he had been overlooked before.  Shortly we were pleased to inform private Freed that he had been promoted to Spec 4 rank (Army equivalent to corporal).  We joked about this calling it the "Rapid Rise of Roscoe".  The guys in his squad were not amused, as it had taken them longer for the promotion and they really didn't like the guy.  I can only conjecture that given his meteoric rise, he continued his Army career, retiring as a full colonel or perhaps brigadier general after 30 years.  He is probably the guy responsible for much of our Mid East policy.  I still count this as my brightest military achievement.

As a p.s, I did some fact checking with Sgt. Fillback, who lives in Vancouver, Washington, and he failed to add to the story due to being old and memory deficient.  He thought perhaps we had taken him all the way from E1 and was unsure who initiated the action, but believed I had the lead on this one.  Fillback is still a very funny guy and a good writer.  We had tons of fun writing fake memos and dropping them on each other's desks.  We have only gotten together twice since Korea, the first time when we moved to Seattle, stopping by in South Dakota and again a few years ago in Portland.  

Military Overseas

Having escaped the orders to Vietnam it was a short lived reprieve.  The next month's levy came out and there it was, my new destination.  Korea.  I was assigned to report to 8th Army headquarters in Seoul 30 days hence.  We packed our stuff and drove back to Missouri for my 30 day annual leave.  Funny side story about the trip, Amy was a little over a year old toddler.  We made the mistake of putting coca cola in her bottle along with a sedative prescribed by the doctor.  The coke was a stimulant and she never slept and would giggle and roll around.  Fun trip.

I arrived in Seoul and amazingly bumped into Gene Reed,  fraternity brother from MU who had been there for several months.   I unfortunately was a day late in joining his unit (Army "intelligence"), and was instead assigned to the 55th aviation company in "yong dong po ku" on Yoido Island just outside Seoul.  Arriving on a weekend night was given a bunk of someone on leave for the night.  Unfortunately, also not given any mosquito netting and was eaten alive until the bunk owner returned sometime in the early morning hours.  Nice start to my stay.  I was then properly assigned to one of the many metal quonset huts in our compound. Adequate but hot in summer, they were miserable places heated by oil stoves which were totally inadequate for the brutal subzero winter.  They were fifty yards from the showers which were unheated and seemingly always out of hot water.  Morning ritual was wrapping in a towel and running over and back rather than undressing and redressing there which prolonged the misery.  The only warm spots on the base were the office, mess hall, and NCO club. 

My office job involved typing boring reports all day.  To break the monotony another clerk, Jim Fillback and I would type bogus funny official looking documents and casually lay them on each other's desks.  Good times.  Other fun stuff was trips into Seoul in the big deuce and a half, 2 1/2 ton truck to you non vets.  Crazy traffic and a game was driving past signs and hitting them with the big side view mirrors.  Sometime during my tour I gained a couple of additional tasks, secret document courier, duty roster clerk, and mail clerk.  The document courier job meant I got to check out a handgun.  More about this later.  Duty roster clerk was high pressure as guys would ask for days off duty and would ambush you.  Also, it meant that I could show favoritism and not schedule myself for duty.  This was later brought to the attention of Sgt Hodges, the alcoholic top Sgt. who made me schedule myself for Christmas guard duty. Karma.

One document courier trip stands out in my memory.  We were driving the jeep through the countryside past small villages.  An old, very poor, very dirty woman stared at us.  We stared back.  On the return trip we passed her again.  Wham, a big rock hit our jeep.  Screeching to a halt, I pulled my revolver from the shoulder holster.  She started yelling unintelligbly at us in Korean.  We just drove off.  It was the only time I ever drew a weapon.

Coming up in next installment, more about the service revolver, paranoia, and why I don't want to fly in a helicopter again.

Change in Focus???

Getting beaten up in the Omaha games has forced me to take a long hard look at my game fundamentals.  After reading a chapter in one of my poker books I was struck with the revelation that I have been playing way too loose.  Also, since the cash game has been brutal, I wanted to change my focus back to tournaments to control my bankroll and take a break from cash.  My decision was very short lived.  There is a casino about 10 minutes from my apartment so I wandered in yesterday to check out their tournament schedule.  They feature a daily 11 a.m. with varied buying.  Too late for that, I sat down in the $4/8 limit kill game buying in for $100.  Determined to be a smart, tight player I folded, folded, folded.  Finally picking up Q/J suited, I reraised a frequent straddler.  The flop was awesome, 9/10/x with my suit.  Ramming and jamming my straight flush draw, the turn completed the flush with the ace, giving me second nuts.  More jamming and i took down a nice pot.  Later doing the same thing with a short stack with K/Q suited, took down another big one.  Most of the players were loose, overly aggressive and hero callers.  I left after an hour up $140.

Getting back to my "plan" today, drove to Tulalip for the morning $25 turbo tournament.  Arriving a few minutes late, my first hand pick up A/A in cutoff.  I raise to 200 and get a couple of callers (starting stack is $2000), blinds at 25/50.  Flop is K/Q/J, two hearts (My aces are black).  I c-bet 200 and get one caller.  Turn is a 9 and I check/fold to his 600 bet, folding face up.  He shows 10/10 for the straight.  Never won a single hand and was out within an hour, just in time to start a new 1/3 no limit Hold em  game.  See how long my resolutions last? Buying in for $220, I quickly lost $100 with J/J to a super aggressive player (straddled every hand he could and frequently raised preflop) who re-raised me preflop then bet the ace high flop.  He later stacked a couple of players with very unconventional holdings.  Playing his game, I tripled up with 7/8 suited hitting a flush on an all in with him.  Later, hit a set of 3's against him on a low flop and got $350 all in, winning a monster pot.  Sitting comfortably with $800, cashed out after exactly 2 hours, which qualified for a free tournament entry card.  Great day of poker.

Military Part 3 Ft. Bliss

In many ways, the assignment in El Paso, Texas was true bliss.  As a young married soldier with a baby I was eligible for on base housing.  The houses were identical 2 bedroom units that cost around $40 a month (I was earning maybe $200 a month).  Helene was able to substitute teach and 2 days of work would pay our rent.  We were rich as compared with most of the others in our housing tract anyway.  We hung out with 2 couples on our street who also had babies and life was pretty good.

One incident sticks in my memory.  I had some friends from the month I lived in the barracks over for cards one night.  After they left we had gone to bed and I woke up suddenly to see a man standing at the foot of our bed.  I yelled at the top of my voice and jumped up.  He ran out the back door and I gave pursuit, screaming all the way, that is until I realized I was buck necked.  Oops, had to give up pursuit.  We still suspect that it was one of our guests who had some history of breaking and entering.  I tried to track him down, but he shipped out shortly afterwards.

Which brings me to a related story.  Mickey, the next door neighbor had seen a peeping Tom one night and suggested that we try to trap him.  I agreed and sat in our darkened kitchen until late at night with my shotgun.  Mickey had a pistol at the ready.  Around midnight I gave up, went to bed.  Shortly afterwards I hear 2 gunshots and Mickey yelling "halt".  I said, "damn, he got him", grabbed my shotgun and ran out (dressed, lol).  Mickey had his violently shaking gun trained on the guy, who was begging him not to shoot.  I held him with my gun while Mickey called the mp's, who arrived quickly and hauled him off.

There was no more excitement after that.  I took an upholstery class and did a thrift store sectional couch for the class project.  It eventually ended up back in Missouri in my grandparent's family room for many years.  Bought a corvair, unsafe at any speed, from the first sergeant for $50 and sold it when i left for $50.  Brother Doug visited, we went to a bullfight in Juarez, Mexico and took the tram to a mountain.  One memorable excursion was driving to see cousin Mark who was in the air force in Alamogordo, New Mexico which was a fairly short drive.  He lived in the bachelor officer quarters on base next to the landing strip.  We had gone to college together, he a senior my freshman year.  I pledged his fraternity though he lived off campus that year.  He had taken ROTC, and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant upon graduation.  We sat in his apartment all day, polishing off a case of beer while listening to country music.  Willie Nelson was his favorite.  Getting hungry he drove us to a late night bar where we ate, listened to a guy who was a one man band, and continued drinking.  We were both so drunk and tired we alternated a cup of coffee with a beer until returning to the post.  I slept on the couch and distinctly remember having to pee, and freezing from the open window but too drunk to get up and close the window or look for a blanket.  Also, planes kept landing with a roar that shook the place, all night.  Tough drive home the next day.  Mark had commented that he had not given us a wedding or baby gift and shoved a handful of crumpled bills in my hand during our binge.  I later found around $100 and bought Amy her first baby shoes, white leather ones.

Our idyllic stay was rudely interrupted in June 1970 after a great year.  Each month a levy was posted on the bulletin board for transfer assignments.  My name appeared with transfer to duty in Vietnam.  Rut row.  Helene threw up upon hearing the news.  We made plans to travel home on leave and sold our dining room set.  I attended special training in the simulated Vietnam village and reported daily about the ambushes, guys hiding in wells and behind fake walls, spraying us with blanks after we had searched the area and found nothing.  A feeling of doom pervaded the atmosphere.  So, a couple of days before leaving I was called into the office and informed that my orders had been cancelled.  Upon asking why, I was told that my replacement had not shown up, gone AWOL.  When I passed the news on at home, Helene again threw up.  The AWOL soldier showed up a few days later.

Next intallment: Back on levy list

Army Part 2

At the end of basic training they post a list of your assigned "mos", which is armyspeak for "military occupational specialty".  Most of my fellow draftees were assigned the dreaded 11b, combat infantryman job.  This was readily acknowledged as your express ticket to Vietnam.  But first you also get a next duty station assignment which is nearly always AIT, advanced infantry training, basically more of the same stuff in basic training.  A very few received other orders, like Fitzgerald going to OCS and lucky me assigned directly to Ft. Bliss, Texas as a company clerk.  I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank the long dead Mrs. Neth for giving me typing skills which served to both make my army life easier, possibly even saving my life, and assisting in writing this blog.

So, reporting to my job, and it was just that, inventory supply clerk in a Hawk missile company with 9-5 hours, even working with some civilian clerks.  The officer in charge was a warrant officer very near retirement  (the only CW4 rank I ever saw), an ROTC shave tail 2nd lieutenant was his superior, but CW4 Dieter was the real power.  A lifer alcoholic E8 First sergeant was also passing time until retirement.  I still remember his sage advice to me, "Private Hall, if you drink, don't drive.....cause you might spill some".  Good call, Sarge.  There was also an Hispanic E6 sergeant who really did run things.  I am convinced that he was stealing the supply blind.  It was just too easy.  A specialist I worked with showed me his very complete auto tool set that he had stolen.  Rounding out the office was buck sergeant Barry recently back from 'Nam who was a real jerk.  I was the lowest ranking guy, which was fine with me. 

A couple of "moments" stand out in my memory.  I was in a jeep with another guy on some errands.  He left me in the parked vehicle outside an office.  Idly sitting there, no smartphone to entertain me, a group came out and walked past the Jeep.  Among them were a command sergeant major, easily the most powerful rank in the army, and his full bird colonel.  They walked by, then the sergeant returned and asked me why I didn't salute.  I replied, I have only been in the army 4 months and was not aware of the requirement to salute if I am sitting in a vehicle when he walks by.  He then asked which unit I was in.  Like an idiot, I told him the truth.  The next day I get called into the office and am asked about the incident.  I told them about it, and my ignorance regarding the saluting thing.  They said I could receive a article 13 disciplinary action.  Wow.  So my punishment became confined to quarters for a week, which meant that I had to go home after work.  Harsh.  LOL. More about my home later.

The second incident I remember well was having an "IG, Inspector General" inspection.  It was a real big deal as we had to verify counts on the inventory cards with the actual parts.  There were thousands of items, and some had lots of quantities.  There were ever increasing levels of supervisors going over our counts.  The lieutenant, who I believe was probably 22 years old, my age at the time, was busting our asses.  He challenged me on a big box of nuts or bolts, and just fucking with him on the count (probably a thousand), I told him that we just weigh one item, then the box, then by multiplication gives us the total.  He nodded, but looked a little skeptical.  Later, during the actual inspection by a major, he told him what I had said, not attributing it to me.  The major called bullshit on him, and told him to count them.  The lieutenant gave me a look that, if looks could kill......

More about Ft. Bliss later.

Wildhorse Fall 2017 Roundup

Looking for a repeat of last year's cash in the senior's tournament, the Wildhorse beckoned.  The things I generally enjoy about the tournament are:
1.  Seeing Tri-City friends
2.  making money in good cash games
3.  The buffet dinners
4.  Playing a ton of poker, and winning tournaments

So, how did this year measure up?  I did see a bunch of old friends, so that was good.  I did make money overall in the cash games (omaha only), with one great night and one smallish win and a couple of losses.  The buffet dinners were bad this year, with one virtually uneatable.  Played a ton of poker, going deep in both the omaha tournament and the seniors.  Unfortunately no tournament wins this year.

I really have little recollection of the omaha tournament, just remember playing from noon to about 7:30 p.m.  Got one "bad beat", which in that game is not winning either high or low with A/A/2.  For that I got to spin the wheel of fortune and won a small duffel bag.  Would have preferred to win the pot as it was late in the tournament and the pot was large.  I think I went out about in 50th place, with only 17 positions paid.

Tuesday was all omaha, all day.  Total cash win was around $300.

Wednesday, the senior tournament started at noon and was visiting with a local poker friend (golfer Steve).  He had finished 4th in the Friday tournament for over $7000 in cash, and was telling me about our mutual friend (Clark) who had finished 3rd on Saturday for an even bigger win.  He told me that they had a side deal for 10% of the other guys winnings so he made out very well, even paying him off for his win.  Sounded like fun so we agreed to the same deal.  Later saw the other guy, and we ended up also making the same deal.  I thought it was great, as they are both good players and obviously lucky as well.  Turned out that I was the last guy standing so they made a better deal than me.  I ran really good at first, becoming chip leader at my table.  My troubles started when the player to my right (tall Jeff) called a pretty big preflop raise (Q/Q) with 5/6 off.  The flop came A/A/5.  My continuation bet was called.  The turn was a blank, and fearing a check raise from his ace, I checked back.  The turn?  Another 5, giving him the full house.

The next hit was a huge one.  In the big blind with a ton of limpers I have A/J suited.  I check my out of position big hand and the flop comes down A/K/J.  I bet, one or two players call, the short stack button shoves.  I re-raise 10K enough to put most players all-in and another player  shoves an additional 3800  more.  Crap.  I know exactly what he has, the Q/10 for broadway, but am pot committed and have outs.  A diamond on the turn gives me the nut flush draw and the dealer obliges my request to pair the board by putting another king up.  Now down to starting chip stack I float along for hours with the same chips.  With blinds huge plus Antes, I re-raise an active player for all my chips with 10/10.  He shows A/J and the flop brings both a king and a queen.  The turn bricks but the river 10 gives me a set and the exit door.

Overall, a fun time and not too expensive.

My Military Story (Part 1)

On this Veterans Day, thinking about my military service.  I have conflicting feelings.  I see the respect given to veterans today and contrast it with the neglect and sometimes disdain given to us Vietnam era vets upon our return.  Traveling through San Francisco airport there were many reports of insults and spitting on returning soldiers.  As a draftee, I was not given a choice about serving.  My life was interrupted and changed by forces outside of my control.  I was told what to do, what to wear, where to live for two years in my early twenties.  I was grossly underpaid as my contemporaries forged ahead in their careers.  I was resentful.  I had the fear of possible death hanging over my head.  It sucked.

Many restaurants offer free meals to veterans today.  I am not interested in trading long buried resentment for "endless fries".  I think it is great that so many businesses are making these gestures, but no thanks, I don't need your gratitude or your charity.  I have been writing this first installment for a while, keeping it in draft form.
This story, while in several parts, only covers less than two years (if I was my friend Don, who was career Air Force, it would be 10-15 times as long).

Recently PBS has been showing the Ken Burns Vietnam War story.  It is fascinating for those of us growing up during that era.  In 1968 the Vietnam War was in full swing.  As a junior at the University of Missouri I was protected from the draft by my student deferment.  That summer I blew my work earnings on restoring a 1957 MGA purchased that year from a friend.  My grades were bad, and I had been on continuous academic probation since my freshman year, making just good enough grades to not flunk out.  I decided to sit out a semester and regroup.  Also got married.  And moved to St. Louis. Big life changes.

I re-enrolled at the Mizzou St. Louis branch in January and began attending classes.  Unfortunately losing student deferment I was reclassified as 1-A in the draft.  receiving a draft notice in February and not wanting to go in on the army I attempted to get into naval officer's candidate school.  They basically wanted only college grads, so no luck there.  My father in law knew a sergeant in the reserves or national guard that would put me atop their waiting list for $500.  I declined.  Orders to report to Ft. Leonard Wood came in March.

I was inducted and became a private in basic training, way out of shape (3 years of college partying will do that to you).  It was tough on me as most of the other guys were younger and fitter.  I did not lose a pound in 2 months, but trimmed 3 inches off my waist.  Had the dubious honor of being a road guard on our daily marches, which meant I had to run ahead to block intersections, then run back to formation after the last man passed.  This was their way of giving me additional physical training.  I ended up passing the minimum fitness as a high motivation was the threat of repeating basic training cycle.  Not a pleasant thought. Sometimes I remember little things like going to mess hall after morning run and other physical training.  The rule was, "take all you want, but eat all you take".  The cooks put huge quantities on my plate and was half nauseous from exercise so ate maybe half.  When I took my tray to kitchen was turned back and told to finish it.  Remember the kid trick of wrapping unwanted veggies in a napkin?  I sure did.  Was extra careful in the future to dodge large helpings.

Being a low ranking enlisted man was a lousy life so when I was offered the "opportunity" to attend officer's candidate school I quickly signed up.  My orders came down for infantry OCS, not artillery or armor which were the only other options.  Sometime before signing the enlistment paperwork I heard that the lifespan of new infantry second lieutenants in Vietnam was 22 minutes.  Since OCS was essentially a prepaid ticket there, when the time came to sign the paperwork for an additional 2 years, I politely refused, preferring to roll the dice on my next duty assignment.  It turned out to be a good decision despite certain regrets about learning more leadership skills and more military prestige and money.  But hey, upside is I am still alive!  One guy in my company went on to OCS, another was offered a direct commission (he was a computer guy way back then), but refused.  I did not see Fitzgerald's name on the wall so hope it went well for him.  On a side note, ran into a very bitter guy later who went to OCS but his entire class was terminated due to wind down in the war, and he was given Sgt. rank as token.  He was not happy with his longer term of service from his enlistment extension.

One other life-altering thing happened.  During a midnight stint as "fire guard", received an important phone call.  My wife had given birth to baby Amy in St. Louis.  Sadly, could not see her until after basic was over, another 2 weeks.

Part 2 will reveal my assignment after basic training.

Channeling Joe

Playing poker for many years with "Curly Haired" Joe, he sometimes would make notes on every hand.  When asked about it, he would show his notebook where he would list every pair he was dealt and whether he won with it or not.  I found the idea interesting and have tried it on occasion.  Sunday decided to kick it up a notch and record every hand I was dealt in omaha.  It was pretty distracting, depressing, and difficult.  I did it for almost 3 rotations, 23 hands, until I went broke on my first $120 buy in.  I usually noted whether the hand was single, non, or double suited, what the board was, and my financial loss ( I did not win even one half pot).  Like I said, depressing. 

So, it was a disastrous session, no high hands, multiple rebuys.  Very frustrating.  Meanwhile I chose not to play in the big ($350 buy-in) end of month tournament with 117 players and first prize of $13k.  I would have saved money.

Lessons learned.  First, I played much looser than I should have.  Only dealt 2 A/2 hands but played 13 of 23 hands.  Granted some were in un-raised blinds, but others were trash hands with pairs (did fold quads once).  I have got to avoid those, particularly small pairs.  Later folded a high hand quad 3's, but low pairs are trouble hands.  Made sets with them only to lose to bigger sets or bigger full houses or straights or flushes.  My biggest losses came on missed draws and a flush that hit but lost to boat.  No wins with my premium hands all day with several great starting hands missing flop or river.

Yo Yo Me, not Yo Yo Ma the famous musician

This week's poker has been up small and down small.  Total net loss around $30. While this does not represent much money, less than the normal tournament buy-in, it is still very disappointing for the number of hours, 16, that were played.  The game Sunday was a donk fest, with almost a full table seeing every flop, and several "river" players who would chase any draw all the way.  One could argue that the pot size justifies the odds, and that is true to some extent.  However, doing it every time invites disaster to your chip stack as you cannot catch lucky often enough.  They just never seem to learn this.

Watching the big plo table next door was grateful for the small chip losses and minor swings.  One player lost a $5000 pot with over $2,000 of his own money in it.  He immediately reloaded for another $1500,  then tripled that stack, much of it coming from the 1st guy he lost to.  Guys that had several thousand in front of them left broke.

Another subject.  Push-pull.  Sometimes in my omaha game I want to pull players in by calling.  Others times it is better to push them out of the hand by raising.  Examples of this include calling while on a draw or with a monster made hand.  Yesterday I flopped the nut full house playing 8/8 on a flop of 6/6/8.  Obviously when the first player bet he either had a 6 or was representing it, or had a low draw.  The straight draw may call as will a variety of low draws.  I was in mid-late position (hijack).  With a caller or two and 2 more players in position I wanted to encourage all draws to enter.  It could be argued that I should raise here but with the bets at $4 wanted to wait for turn and the $8 bet to raise.  Sure enough the original bettor continued, and with a small card brought in the lows.  My raise was called in multiple spots and the river bet by me was called in at least two places.  It was a nice big 1/2 pot. 

À situation often arises when two players hit the nut straight on the turn.  What nearly always happens is a ramming and jamming with sometimes multiple players calling a capped pot with sets and two pair hands, sometimes also flush, redraw to higher straights, and low draws.  This is a classic scary, big, potential suck out pot that is push,push, push.  Imagine this flop.

7h,8h,9c

Here are the players hands:

Player 1, 9h,10h,Js,Kh he "only" has a pair of 9's, but look at his redraw potential, straight flush, king high straight, 2ND nut flush draw.

Player 2, 5h,6h, Ac, 2c. Interesting.  He has a made straight on the "dumb end", nut low draw, open ended straight flush draw, backdoor nut flush draw in clubs. He also loves this flop and will call any bets to the river.

Player 3, Ah, 3h, 10h, Js.  Made nut straight, "nut" heart flush draw, 2nd nut low draw.  He is also river bound.

Player 4, 7s, 7c,8c, 9d.  Interesting as well with bottom set, backdoor straight flush plus two over pairs.  What could possibly go wrong?

It is possible for other players to have oversets, over pairs, nut low draws, and higher straight re-draws.  What a landmine field to walk through!!!  Yet, this scenario happens time after time in Omaha games with the losing players folding their sets and low draws in disgust.  No wonder we describe it as the game we love to hate.

I will often see players jamming this flop as it is usually proper to make the draws pay dearly.  We know that despite our efforts to thin the field that it never works.  Nut flopped straights seldom win in this game and cost a bunch.  Much better to have re-draws to fall back on.

Yesterday

Another High Variance Game

Sometimes you immediately know when it is going to be one of those crazy, high variance games.  That was yesterday's game.  Two "big game" PLO players were seated on the newly opened game.  Predictably all of the pots were jammed and rejammed preflop.  Figured the game would settle down after the PLO game started.  How wrong can you be?  Turns out there was a crazy guy who literally played every hand, raising 97% of the time.  Also, he was seated next to very aggressive older player who would re-raise almost every time.  A dealer on a heater added to the jamming.  The kid rebought more times than I could count, the older guy did too, and ultimately busted out.  It would have been wise to move to another table but with good cards that unfortunately lost and $200 pots did not excercise that option.

 A couple of "run bad" examples for you.  Playing pocket aces, the flop comes J/8/3.   It gets bet, raised and called multiple times.  The turn is an ace.  My turn to ram and jam.  River is a 3, filling me up with the nut full house.  More jamming.  Turns out that flop was set over set, 8's and 3's.  River gives the worst hand quads.  This happened again to me with my flush losing to quads on the river.  Also at least 3 "under-full" houses, including one runner runner queens. 

The only bright spot was a high hand (AAAJJ) worth $200.  If not for that the loss would have been much more severe.  Lesson learned:  request a table change when running cold on a crazy table.  

Stuck at Last

After a really good and long run at the table, I finally got stuck good.  Not any really bad play on my part, not a crazy table, just missed virtually every draw and some real bad luck (think under-full houses, bumping into straight flushes, quads, and rivered nut low killers).  I was probably overdue for a spanking.

On a totally different topic, a couple of weeks ago we found an Italian espresso machine, a La Pavoni, at a garage sale up the street.  We paid $20, which turns out to be a great bargain except for the fact that I could not get a good espresso shot.  So, we hauled it to a shop in Seattle and the owner checked it out, explained how to properly operate it and cranked out two of the best drinks I have ever had.  It requires some work, but not too expensive, around $120, and turns out used one runs almost $400.  Great purchase and looking forward to picking up next week.  Loves me my Americano!!!

It is a beautiful machine, it is displayed at the museum in Milan.  Classic Italian design.

Seat Change? Really?

Arriving fashionably late to the casino on Sunday I immediately signed up for seat 9 in the omaha game.  I was first on the list.  Sitting comfortably at an empty table, realized that the game was already in progress.  After a short time the guy in 9 gets up with a couple of trays of chips.  My name is not called, so eventually I enquire.  Seat open, and it is my favorite!!  Buying in for the usual $100, I am seated next to a couple of cute ladies who I later find out are visiting from Canada.  They are both rapidly burning through American dollars, one claims to be stuck $280, the other probably close.  Then one catches fire, collecting 3 high hands for over $400 and accumulating lots of chips.   Then the other starts piling up chips.  Me?  I steadily add to my stack, never dipping below $80, and eventually cashing out for $376.

When I racked the chips, the high hand lady requested my seat.  I said really?  You are in the hot seat.  She had burned through most of her chips, including the high hand money.  Did she really think the seat change would make her play better?

Poker players can be a superstitious lot (based on my view that seat 9 is lucky for me), but could not understand leaving a seat that was catching so many monsters.  Do fisherman leave the spot where they catch a few lunkers to move to a place where a more skillful guy is pulling in more small frie?  I would think not.  So tell me, do you have a lucky seat?  Do you move to a seat vacated by a big winner?

Reflecting

Reflecting on life this week.  On my last trip to the beach I learned that two acquaintances passed away and a third had a stroke and was in rehab.  Then I learned this week that another friend was slipping into dementia.  Both men who died did so quickly.  One had suffered a heart attack and did not realize it, he passed away in the ambulance leaving the doctor's office.  He had the opportunity to tell his wife that he loved her and did not suffer.  The other went to the doctor because he did not feel well.  He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, went home to hospice and passed 2 weeks later after the opportunity to say goodbye to family and friends.

This week I visited the friend suffering from alzheimer.  I am afraid for her due to her otherwise good health and relatively young age.  It is a wicked disease and the symptoms frighten me.  I was thinking about the Irish toast quoted above and recognize it's truth.  I am not much of a beer drinker, but the rest sounds damned good to me.

Reality Check

Well, it was bound to happen.  After running so good I ran into the proverbial brick wall yesterday.  Nothing really went right from the start.  I had reserved seats 9, my "lucky" seat from the awesome previous session.  I was a little late getting to the table and found someone's chips there.  I told the dealer who checked with the floor who verified that I had locked that seat.  The player was not happy but we joked a little, he moved to #5 and lost $250 there.  I was not doing much better.  I also had a very nice older man to my right who had two bad habits.  The first was taking forever to make a decision on his hand, though since he played virtually every hand, and to the river I cannot imagine why he takes so long.  The second is wanting to tell me how he had the nuts on any folded hand.  Other than that he is a great guy.   A regular, who is also a casino employee, and who buys in small and virtually always cashes out big was stuck a hundred or more.  Several high hands hit our table, 9 high straight flush and a royal flush.. the player hitting the royal had earlier claimed to never hitting a straight flush.  They gave him a special hat.  I never got one last month, they claim they were
out.

When things are going bad for you, nothing works.  I had super premium hands several times and did not win with them.  I hit the best possible full house with 7/7 on a board of 7/4/4/3 and lost to quad 4's.  This is not a whine, just saying that when you are running good, you can't miss, when bad you can lose with any and all hands.  I ended the session down $254.  Really honestly, I played well, laid down losing hands on the river, was the third tightest player at the table, just did not connect well.  It will go better next time.  

Murder in Tulalip!!

I killed the game yesterday.  Slaughtered it.  Decapitated it and displayed it's head on a pike.  There is currently an APB out for me in Marysville.  Bill O'Reilly has contacted me about writing a new book called "Killing Omaha". Wow.  It began as a crazy game and never paused, with our first hand capped preflop.  The player in seat 6 raised preflop every single hand and the player in seat one usually 3 bet it and someone else would cap it, like the very loud maniac in seat 7.  Like I say it was a crazy game and very high variance could be expected.  Two players had to rebuy after the first hand.  Crazy player in 6 rebought 3 times, crazy in seat 1 rebought multiple times.  I was seated in 9, the monkey in the middle.  How did this ever work out for me?  I tightened up and also was fortunate enough to scoop a few monsters.  I bought in for $100, rebought for $60, and cashed out 7 hours later for $866.  Like I say, a very good day.  No high hand money to pad my numbers, only had one briefly on the board.  I royally screwed up one opportunity, flopping trip kings, turning trip jacks (K/J/J/X in my hand), and 4 players folded to my turn bet. Check, check, I meant check!!!  Dang 2 cards make me quads.  What was I thinking?

Why Do We Play Poker?

I was thinking about why the heck are we fascinated by, addicted to, love playing poker.  I came up with several theories.

1.  Psychological.  This has many forms.  The competitive ego driven need to win and the addictive nature of gambling come to mind.

2.   The social aspect.  We enjoy hanging out with friends and acquaintances.  It is fun to b.s. at the poker table while enjoying an adult beverage.

3.  Financial.  Some people are strictly about the money.  These would include the professionals, the grinders (semi-pros), and people desperate to augment their incomes.

4.  Mathematical driven challenge.  I think some people really enjoy the challenge of figuring odds and playing a math driven game.

5.  Boredom.  Sometimes it is just a way to relax and forget about other problems.

6. "Fun".  This may encompass other factors mentioned above.  If I am at a table and not having "fun" it can be for many reasons, the people playing, the volatility of the game (I prefer a low variance one), how I feel (playing tired is a deal killer for me), losing a boatload of money, etc.

When you sit down to play, sometimes several of these are at work.  Personally, I am very competitive and enjoy that challenge.  That said, I also have a very addictive personality and find I must choose my addictions wisely.  I do get a charge out of winning money but after keeping close tabs on my win/loss numbers over several years find that it is pretty much a zero sum game for me. Am finding the social aspect more important as I age and pretty much am miserable if at a table with a bunch, or sometimes even one jerk.  I think it is important to assess the other players and decide why they are there as well as trying to understand your own motivations.

Last night I had a tough drive from Seattle to the beach, almost 6 hours.  Traffic was bad and still suffering from my dental surgery on Monday.  The Legion game beckoned of course and despite my weariness went to see friends and play.  The first table was fine, enjoyable players, friend dealing, no maniacs and pretty predictable play.  I got moved fairly soon in a table balancing to a nightmare. Horrible dealer, clueless maniac, aggressive smart player, aggressive lucky maniac, very savvy player, clueless calling stations.  I lost over 1/2 my chips to a calling station who had limped with A/K 2 UTG.  I was on the button with AJ suited.  Flop was A/2/3.  He bet $200 and I flat called. Turn paired the 3 PLUS bring in a flush.  He bet $300, I raised to $900.  Naturally, he calls being a calling station and not a thinking player.  The river is queen, he checks, I check behind.  Wow.  I cannot believe he has me out kicked and chose to call my big turn raise.  Later, short stacked, blinds 80/160, I have $610, I shove UTG with AJ suited (you saw what happened with my AJ earlier, right?), the aggressive and lucky player 3 UTG calls with Q/9 suited.  What is he thinking here?  He lost a huge pot earlier with his 9/5 vs. A/9 on a 9/5/A flop, then regained them on aggressive player vs. the donk I lost chips to earlier.  Anyway, I hit a J on the flop but he hit two of his suit, then a 9, then his flush.  In reality I was so tired that I considered getting up earlier and leaving my chips to blind out, and definitely did not want to hit break with no chips so I was all in no matter what with any reasonable holding.  Turbo tournaments are so tough. 

Good day at the office

Up almost $400, gave back $200, cashed out for $200 win.  No high hands, 2 straight flushes at my table.  The maniac from Sunday was at another table until later to my immediate left.  He was much calmer today.

Many ups and downs, paying off 3 under-full houses, folding another to a flush ( I had 777/AA playing pocket 7's) when it got raised and re-raised by nut low.  I was feeling snake bit by my under-fulls from earlier hands.  Also lost half pots to runner runner low cards.  It is never easy in high low poker.  On the plus side won a couple of giant pots with huge draws against me.  

Bad seat, bad table=high variance

Sometimes you can instantly tell that it is a bad table and/or seat choice.  So, today when the 1st omaha table opened it was a complete clusterf**k.  I had my designs on seat 9 but it was already reserved, so I chose seat 1, another popular choice I have noticed among the knowledgeable players.  Immediately I felt a strong cold draft from the a/c in the floor.  Also, the player 2 to my left is a well known maniac, raising and straddling often.  I like to see the raises coming and so did the regular immediately to my left moving to seat 4.  I moved to seat 5, while seat 9 did not show up so a new player sat there.  His wife then moved to 8 from 3.  Another player sat down in 3, was dealt one hand and told he had to move as another player was ahead of him.  Oh yeah, the guy in 6 complained because another seat was not filled.  It took more than 10 minutes for the game to start.

Once begun the maniac began his craziness.  He buys in for $300 and often rebuys another 200 when he loses some.  What I found was that seat 6 was also a maniac.  Any time 3 raised he would re-raise naturally maniac one would 3 bet and the other guy cap it.  I was a monkey in the middle.  I quickly lost  $100, reloaded, and eventually cashed out for $210 feeling lucky to escape without a loss.  The maniac in 3?  Stuck 600-800 by my best estimate.  The maniac in 6?  He hit 2 high hands for $350 and won at least $600 besides.  Two of the best players lost $100 and $400.  I have never seen one of them leave without multiple trays.

Grinding on The Roller Coaster

Thursday omaha game, there early eager to play.  Nothing went well and losing $20 on the first hand was a bad sign. The 2 problems in poker are not getting any good hands and the other side of the coin, getting great cards and missing flops and/or rivers.  My problem was the latter.  You just cannot fold top set until the river and then must usually call down the guy chasing a low that never came who backs into a flush with his 2/4 suited (actual example) when he bets his flush that cannot beat a flush.  I felt the pain of an older gentleman, an excellent player, who burned through 2 or 3 hundred quickly, flopping sets of Queens 4 times only to lose.  One of those times was a flop of K/Q/8.  I had pocket kings, he had his queens and another player pocket 8's.  It was a large 3 way pot that everyone kept raising and re-re-raising to protect from draws. Happy note on river despite a straight card hitting, I won with top set.

So, after a 7 hours of play and 3 buy-ins of a $100 I was nursing a headache, tired and ready to admit defeat.  I had just gone through a bruising hand with the guy to my right and a very bad player.  We tuned the ace high straight while the other guy flopped a set of 3'skills.  We rammed and jammed but he would not fold.  The river paired the board. Ouch.  Shortly afterward the player on my right, a regular and always a winner, quit, stuck at least $300.  I caught fire, got back to my original stake. Ready to quit, but feeling the heater, I gave some back.  Playing A/QX/X, the flop came with 2 aces.  I bet out, got several callers, then after a blank on the turn hit quad aces on the river.  It held up as high hand and quitting a few hands after the money was paid ($150), left $93 ahead.  I was exhausted and it was fairly late.  I really understood what it means to be a "grinder".  $10 an hour is not my idea of success and now today am worn out. 

Double your bonus, double your fun

I have been saying that my plan was to just play tight/play right and pretty much ignore the high hand bonus.  I was practicing what I preach Sunday and doing pretty well, up a hundred or so after several hours.  I then won a $150 high hand flopping trip jacks with an ace kicker.  The turn card was a king and a raise from an aggressive good young player worried me.  The ace on the river beat his jacks full of kings and held up for the 1/2 hour.

During the next 1/2 hour I hit a runner runner 10 high straight flush playing 8/9 suited.  A 10 on the flop, 7 on the turn and 6 on the river.  Never won 2 in a row and the good news was a 4th table was going so the high hand was now worth $200.

Heard an interesting story about the tournament in progress.  One of our players was at the table when someone retrieved cards from the muck to declare he had a straight flush????  Chaos ensued and eventually cameras were consulted, tournament halted, the pot was awarded to him, his chips were forfeited, and he was 86'd permanently.  Weird.  A dead hand should never win a pot.

Final win report:  bought in for $100, cashed out for $490.  

Low earnings per hour

Thursday's session did not start off well for me.  I was quickly stuck $100 but undeterred I rebought again, and again and again.  It was super frustrating as players at my table kept winning the high hand money.  One guy hit 3 times, another couple of them twice, and several others at least once.  Seemingly I was the only one not getting either the $100 or $150 bonus.

Finally my game picked up and recovered one buy in.  Then I won the biggest pot of the day, around $250 when I rivered the nut straight and nut low.  There were multiple players and jamming on every street with 2 pairs and sets plus 2nd nut lows.  Sweet.

My Seattle poker buddy Jim showed up, we had talked about getting together.  He sat in the 5/5 plo and got stuck $1500 before we took a dinner break at the buffet.  I offered to buy dinner and he said I probably had lots of comps.  I did not realize they paid $1. an hour.  Checked my card and found $92 in my account.  Nice.

Finished playing after 10 hours stuck $17.  Jim did not recover, lost another $500 buy in.  How can I complain?

Obnoxious Player

The end of month tournament at Tulalip is always the big one.  This month's was a $230 buy in, 12,000 starting chips, 1/2 hour blinds.  I was going primarily for the omaha cash game but it did not start until 2:00 with the tournament at 11:00.  I figured to play the tournament and if knocked out early would sign up for the cash games.  9 hours later I was still playing but more on that after my obnoxious Player story.

She arrived very late as an alternate (there were over 50), taking the seat vacated by another alternate who played exactly 2 hands before being eliminated by me.  I turned 7's full of 10's vs his trip 7's.  She immediately became the self appointed table captain, raising and re-raising, talking about hands, her favorites, requesting the tv be changed from football to little league world series, irritating the dealer, etc.  She got into it with another player and would not stop mouthing off to him.  Really she made it a miserable game and I think we were all very happy when she got knocked out (calling an all in with K/8 suited...one of her "favorite hands").  She evidently is a regular as the floor supervisor said after she left that all the other tables were hoping our table did not break down as they did not want her at their table.  Lol.

So, back to the bottom line of the tournament.  I ran hot and cold but made it down to 2 short tables.  My final hand was an under the gun shove of 3 big blinds with Q/10 suited.  The board ran small and the small and big blinds checked it down with A/7 making a straight, 5 high.  I finished in 13th place out of 155 entries for a $510 cash.  Would have liked to made final table as they added $5,000 which was mostly paid out to final 9 ($250 min.).  First prize was almost $9k.

Sorry, no pictures

Driving to the Tulalip casino this morning saw 2 cars that I really wanted to photograph.  The first was a double take on the license plate.  My brother's name is Doug Hall, thought the guy had his name as his personalized plate, but no, it said "doghaul".  Close.  And funny to send to him, but unfortunately with our new Washington "driving under influence of electronics" law could lead to a ticket.  The second missed photo-op was a Native American sitting in the bed of a pickup.  How is this not illegal?  No seat belt or other restraint.  More dangerous than me taking a photo of him.

Had a small epiphany yesterday playing omaha online.  My thought patterns on the game have shifted to playing only premium hands, not chasing draws with incorrect odds, and paying more attention to board texture.  Sounds basic but surprising how far we stray from disciplined play.

A random thought upon entering the casino.  Most poker players come in with more money in their pockets than most of the other patrons hope to win.  That said just saw a player hitting the ATM after busting out of the $60 tournament.

Update on my session.  Played well and no rebuying.  Yay!!!   I was up about a hundred when this hand came up.  Playing 6/8/10/J all diamonds I saw the flop of Kd/K/9.  A very loose and not good player betting.  Normally I would fold my gunshot straight draw on this paired board but really did not sense that he had a king so I called.  The turn was the ace of diamonds, giving me a double gutter with royal flush draw.  The player bet again.  I called.  As the dealer burned a card I focused all my thoughts.....queen of diamonds, queen of diamonds, queen of....oh wow, there it was!!!!  He checked, I bet, he called.  High hand, baby.  Because there were 4 omaha tables going the payoff was $200.  I normally wait until the 1/2 hour is up before tipping the dealer but did it immediately this time.

With some ups and downs including big pots that I did not win, cashed out after 5 hours of play for a $287 profit.

Under The Weather

Came down with a monster cold a couple of days ago.  Sneezing, coughing, runny nose, the whole works.  My usual omaha day today is not going to happen.  Dang.  I had planned to make a trip to Cannon Beach this weekend prior to the Eclipse "Carmegeddon" predicted.  Rethinking that plan as I would also miss Sunday omaha.  I have a dental appointment on the 28th so I could go later and still get some salmon fishing in before I have to get back.  I have heard that it is getting good on the Columbia.

First things first, gotta shake this rotten cold.

Sometimes The Bear...

My new favorite saying when asked about my poker is "When you go bear hunting, sometimes the bear gets you".  Such was my day yesterday.  It started off very bad with 3 "big game" pot limit players seated in a row killing time before their game started.  I determined that I would not play any hands unless they were super premium.  The first 3 hands dealt were huge pots due to constant straddles, raises and re-raises.  Several people got felted early including one big gamer, while 2 of the big guys chipped up large.  I did o.k., making $60 or so.  They finally left and the game settled down.

I can't put my finger on the reason, but despite winning one high hand for $100 bonus, still ended up stuck for $175 after 9 hours of play.  Getting "quartered" 7 times was one issue, although I did not lose anything on a couple of them due to quantity of players.  I hate that shit.  The high hand win was unusual in that I got a short stack all in preflop with a good but not great hand, A/3/9/x but was counterfeited on low draw when 3/9 flopped.  A 9 on the turn filled me up, no low materialized, and I won the main pot posting a very weak high hand which miraculously held up.

I am getting to know a few players and becoming more friendly.  I know who the good players are and who the donks are.  If I can make any observation about consistent winners it is that they are all tight aggressive.  The players who are in every hand usually get stuck eventually.  Where am I?  Somewhere in between.  It is as if I am a split personality, sometimes playing tight and good, other times way too loose and bad.  Yesterday probably too loose, making way too many crying calls and chasing too much drawing dead.  The one error I am avoiding is chasing low draws...which granted sometimes win.  The big losers are consistent about pursuing these.

Zee quiz

Back in Cannon Beach for a week played at the Wednesday night Bayway game.  I had been forewarned that it would be hot but anxious to play anyway and see poker friends.  Man was it hot.  Not Portland heatwave hot but hot enough that they shut down the grill which was sad because most of us arrived hungry.  A pizza was ordered but passed on it.  No air conditioning, one fan to "cool" the room.  Wish my poker game was as hot.  I made the final table and ended bubbling in 6th place.  Not a great evening.

One of the small pleasures I enjoy is talking poker and visiting with "The Legend" Ray Zee.  He is a treasure trove of Vegas history and poker knowledge, but it usually has to be pried from him.  He is old school that way.  Also he comes up with some very funny stuff at the table, so always fun to be seated next to him, particularly to his left. He was shoving a lot Friday night and got caught light by a big stack who later commented that he saw him raising with average hands.  What this new player did not know was how small a game this is to Ray.  Not that he does not play to win, but just that the buy in for our tournament is less than the small blind of the games he has played successfully.

So after I bust out of the tournament  (my 4/4 small stack shove called by the entire universe), Ray was still hanging out so I sat with him for a while.  We talked about a lot of different  things, including salmon fishing spots and poker.  He contends that "social security beach" is only to the right side of the drive in spot at the Columbia River, while I say it is also to the left.  Also, whether plunking or casting is more productive.  Some discussion, huh?  I am a salmon rookie having caught only 3 last year so what do I know.

Also, compared to Ray, I am a poker rookie.  He was successfully playing big Vegas games when I was in college.  So, my questions to him revolved around stepping up my game to larger stakes.  I am interested in the 5/5 pot limit omaha which he dismisses as a small game and probably not worth playing.  Nonetheless I press on.  One of my questions is "how much should I buy in for?".  My thought is that I will probably get "felted" by these more experienced players so I should buy in small in order to rebuying a few times.  But maybe I should max buy as a new player showing no fear and also having more opportunities to felt someone else.  I posed the question to Ray.  He asked me what my optimal buy in ideally would be.  Hmmm.  Is this a Yoda like question?  I ventured a few guesses.
1.  Minimum in order to hold losses.
2.  Minimum in order to cheaply chase draws to the river.
3.  Maximum, for reasons given above.
4.  Somewhere in between.

Nope.  According to the guru your absolute best buy in would be............small blind.  Why I ask?  I give each various guesses including chasing cheap, can't get hurt badly, etc.  Finally he says, "Because of the pot odds it offers you".  Duh.  Since no hand in poker is a huge dog to any random hand, if you get great odds you should take it as this is your true "edge".  In fact you should never play in a game that you do not have an edge in.  That is the true essence of winning poker.  If you are the 9th best player in the world, why would you sit at a game with all 8 of the better players?  You have no edge.  And, there are so many games out there with worse players.

So now you know.  

Seattle mornings

The curse of early wake-up is my lot in life.  Five a.m. is becoming the new normal. The photo above is where I escape to for coffee and to let my wife sleep for a couple more hours.  This is the community room at our apartment complex and the sofa is my chosen seat.  The swivel chairs are not that comfortable.  In the background is our awesome free coffee machine.  It dispenses both regular and decaf Starbucks Coffee as well as hot chocolate, and favorite of the grandkids.  Why anyone drinks decaf is one of the great mysteries of life to me, it seems like cuddling with a hooker.  I am usually alone here but lately often joined by Amy, a recently arrived New Jersey woman who also wakes up earlier than her husband, George.  They are a very gregarious couple and workout monsters.  She does yoga and uses the excercise room, he runs, bikes and does personal fitness training.  My other frequent companion here is Ramona the cleaning lady.  She talks nonstop, in Spanish, on her Bluetooth phone.  It annoys me but we ignore each other which is fine with me.  I am starting to recognize quite a few of the residents who stop by to grab a coffee on the way to work.  Not much conversation just a friendly howdy or wave.  That is also fine with me.

On the dark side is a guy nicknamed "The Pajama Guy".  I am not sure if it was my wife or me that first coined the expression.  He walks the  halllways in pajamas and houses slippers, sometimes even barefoot.  He will smile and sometimes say hello but I have never had a conversation with him.  Not sure what I would say.  His other oddity is the coffee machine.  He will literally put a dozen creamers in his coffee plus a bunch of sweeteners.  He does this several times a day so we are nearly always out of these.  Fortunately for me I drink mine black.  Not so much for the other residents.

Last night the apartment management hosted "Grillin and Chillin", a wine and barbecue event.  It was well attended save for pajama guy who thought it was last week but inexplicably didn't show up on the correct date.  The managers' husbands cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill (available to residents 24/7) and provided lots of side dishes.  I met a few neighbors, had a hard cider and ate too much.

Who won?

Playing in the Tulalip morning tournament there was an amazing hand.  I folded 5d/6h in early position.  3 or 4 players saw the flop which was 7h/8h/9h.  It was checked around.  I was kicking myself for folding the open ended straight flush draw particularly when the 5h hit the turn.  It was bet and called with 3 players involved.  The river brought an 8 to pair the board.  It was then bet, raised and called.  The players hands turned over were:

Player 1:  A/2 hearts   for the ace high flush
Player 2:  8/8 for quad 8's
Player 3:  10h/Jh for the jack high straight flush (flopped)

Amazingly no one was knocked out (except for me if I had played...with the 2nd best straight flush).   Only way it would have been more amazing would have been a full house or two also involved.  I was eliminated a little later with AK suited vs AQ suited when she hit a queen.   It would have need much more "fun" to have gone out on the other hand.

Played 6 hours of Omaha with no high hands and terrible luck.

Table Change!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Sometimes you sit down at a totally toxic poker table.  This happened to me yesterday at the Omaha game.  I sat down in the 7 seat and was dealt a hand immediately, even before I had chips.  The guy in the 5 seat told me he had a seat change request and if I had not looked at my cards we could change now.  Great, seat 5 is my favorite as it is much easier to see and read the board, so we switched.  I immediately found out why he wanted to change.  The 6 seat was a raving maniac!  Most omaha games are total limp fests  (as they should be due to the ability of the flop to destroy great starting hands and put tons of draws up) but this guy and the seat changer were into preflop raises and re-raises every single hand.  Rather than a cost of $4. to see a flop it was $16....and sometimes $20 when they both straddled. I just tried to stay out of the way most of the time.  So, massive pots developed every hand and there was huge variance in chip stacks.  I was up $60, then down  $60 a few hands later.  I was hating the game.  One of the regulars moved to a different table and I put a request in as well.  I was relieved to move with about an $85 stack.

The next table was "normal" with occasional pre-flop raises but no capped pre-flops.  Sometime during the course of the game I went on a big and long heater, dragging pot after pot and taking 1/2 often.  Lightening struck late in the afternoon when I flopped a set of Queens and rivered quads.  The high hand held up and with 4 omaha games going was worth $200.  Around 6:30 I was tired and hungry and despite still running well cashed out.  How much you ask?  I took 4 1/2 racks of $1 chips to the cage plus $130 in $5 chips  plus my $200 in $25 greenies.  Total cash out of $780 on my original $100 buy-in.  Best day of poker in a long time.

Also, as I was racking my chips the very good player next to me complimented me on my play.   This guy is an awesome player and always leaves with chips.  Nice way to end my day.

The Love Continues @ $17/hr.

My earn rate Thursday was $17 per hour, but was lucky at the end to escape with it.  The omaha game was a little crazy with a couple of aggressive players raising a lot.  On one hand for me it does not change my game.  A fold is still a fold, a playable hand is probably more playable.  The problem is that the raise with multiple players creates a "protected pot".  With so many cards in play and so many draws you are sucked in to these monster pots to the river.  I was fortunate to avoid several and win a couple. The hot shot raisers didn't fare too well.  One dropped a couple hundred, the other would have also but got lucky on two high hands worth $250 to him.

Every 10's full earns a ticket to a big drawing Tuesday.  I have lots of entries but unfortunately can't play that day.  Gotta take granddaughter to dance class.  Good to have my priorities in order.  

Min Wage Plus

Sometimes you just have to put your poker playing into perspective.  Since moving to Seattle I have switched from exclusively a tournament player to primarily a cash game player.  I am comfortable with both types of play having "cut my teeth" on low limit cash games for many years.  I still love, love, love omaha hi-low despite the accurate description as "a game designed by sadists and played by masochists".  The Sunday game was a good one for me despite not winning any of the $150/every half hour high hands.  I posted one full house only to knock it off with quad jacks with minutes to go. The very next hand I lost to quad aces.

There was one guy at my table that looked familiar.  Movie star?  Poker pro?  I don't know anyone here so just forgot about it until he mentioned going to the Tri-Cities soon.  I asked if he ever played at the Crazy Moose and he replied yes, often.  His name?  Del.  Now I remember playing with him there.  Small world.

My game was spot on that day.  I made good reads, good calls, good folds and played a smidge tighter than usual.  I was up $240 on my one time $100 buy-in and ready to quit.  Unfortunately I got caught up in a couple of monster pots that I could not find a fold in.  On the last one I hit a full house with my A/6 on a 6/6/A/8 board only to lose to A/A/ in one hand and 2/3 in another.  That hand cost me at least $50.  So, with some family business to attend to I cashed out for $205 (I also paid $15 for lunch out of my chip stack), so figure my 6 hours of play were paying about $20/hr.  Much better than the Seattle minimum wage of $15 and a lot more fun. 

How Not To Behave and Good Week

The Sunday poker tournament at Tulalip was interesting.  I was out early but had a crazy thing happen.  There was a vacant seat to my immediate left probably 30 minutes into the game.  They were still seating alternates so this guy takes the seat and gets his stack of chips.  He was in mid to late position and saw maybe 3 flops, mucking each hand.  My big blind, he limps behind and then a late position player raises 3x big blind.  I look at my hand and have J/J.  The raiser has a smaller stack than mine so I re-raise pot size.  The guy next to me freaks out.  He throws his cards at the dealer, exposing 3/3 and starts swearing about not playing a f...ing hand!!!!!  The dealer warns him about the swearing and throwing cards but he continues ranting.  The floor is called who warns him and he continues and wants to speak to his supervisor.  They walk off and he returns shortly.  He then asks who called for the supervisor.  The big guy next to me (chewing on an unlit cigar) says "it was me".  It wasn't but this was getting fun.  The floor comes over again, the guy continues ranting and they pick his chips up and kick him out, escorted by security.  Unbelievable.

So, after getting knocked out on my K/9 suited shove called by two players, one holding J/J (I could have beaten pocket aces since I caught trip 9's, but he hit his jack), I got on the omaha list for high hand day.  My monster win came on one of those thankfully rare hands when the whole table seemingly goes crazy.  A new player UTG straddles (only straddle of the day), I call with 10/10/x/x and the player next to me raises.  Multiple players call and the straddle caps it.  The flop is sort of good for me 10/A/K, but I am wary. The straddler bets, I call, next to me raises and I think we cap 4 handed with no low draws.  I know exactly where I am with probably 2 flopped straights and a possible over set but the pot is huge and I am in it to win it.  The turn is a brick and it gets capped at $32 each 3 ways.  The river?  Case 10, thank you.  It is bet and raised by me, I take the giant pot and ultimately the high hand worth another $100.  The straddler whips some crap on me about calling $32 on the turn and I reply, "you built a huge pot that I could not fold a set".  He busted out shortly afterward and I cashed out for $360 on my $100 buy-in.

Fast forward to Thursday, another omaha high hand day.  No big hands for me, made the board twice but could not hold it.  A guy at our table hit a royal flush and another guy hit 2 straight flushes plus one more aces full high hand.  Despite no jackpot wins I probably had the best day at the table with some solid wins and cashing out for $300 on my $100 buy-in.  I was happy with my play this week and happy to win some cash.

New Casino

Discovered a new casino with a morning poker tournament just 15 minutes from the apartment.  So, filled with eager enthusiasm I made the drive today.  It is located in a strip mall in Mill Creek, just off the Bothell Everett highway.  It is owned by Washington Gold, the same owners of the Crazy Moose in Pasco and is about the same size.  The poker room is 4 tables and they feature various cash games.  The buy-in was $40, for 5000 chips with a $20 add-on for a couple thousand more.  Everyone bought the add-on, most before the game began, others right before the break.  The structure was very fast, with initial blinds at 50/100, 15 minutes.  The $25 chips disappeared after the first blind level. 

I started off strong, flopping a straight with my 4/6 in the big blind (unraised), but was fairly card dead after that.  A short stack raised big UTG and I re-raised all in with AJ suited (yeah, I know, stupid), but he called and tabled A/10 and I scored a double up.  Didn't keep the chips long as I checked my option in the big blind with K/3 of clubs.  The small blind completed, everyone else folded.  The flop was ace high with 2 clubs.  He checked, I bet 1,000 and he check raised to 2,000.  Thinking he might have an ace but with lots of outs to win, I 3 bet to 5,000.  He thought for a short time and went all-in (I had him well covered with about 5,000 to spare).  I called and he turns over.....A/3 of spades!!!  What the what was he thinking he could beat?  Sadly, the board failed to yield a club and I am again short.  A couple of hands later I shoved with Q/8 in the cut-off and the big stack in the big blind was happy to call with K/K.  Player down.

Reviewing my play I certainly could have avoided both losses.  My best option on the first hand was  just to check behind on the first hand to take the free card on the flop.  I could then call a smaller bet on the turn if I missed and see the river fairly cheap.  Even calling his check raise would have been scarey for him given his kicker.  I possibly could have gotten to the river for only 2K, or folded on the turn to a large bet.  That said, I think his shove of my 3 bet was pretty dumb of him.

Yes, I could have waited for a better hand to shove with.  My thinking was that the s/b and b/b were both older, tighter players and would fold to 6x big blind with most hands.  Just bad luck to have the B/B find pocket kings, another player had kings the hand before.  As another p.s., any weak ace would have taken the pot....there were 2 of them on the flop.  

Big Tournament & Lady Di

Arriving early at the casino my plan was to play the morning tournament.  This is normally a reasonably priced event and since the Omaha high hands did not begin until 2:00 figured I could play it and get signed up early in case of a bust out.  I was a little surprised to see the end of the month tournament was a huge one with $65,000 guaranteed prize pool.  The buy in was a nosebleed $670.  No thanks, too rich for my blood.  As I sat waiting for the Omaha game which probably wouldn't start for an hour or two I reconsidered the tournament.  Rationalizing that it would be a giant payoff if I won (just dreaming) finally decided after chatting with a player about his WSOP trip that it was worth the risk without the travel costs to Vegas.

My game started very tough, seated between two young and very good players.  I hung in and when our table broke early was happy to move with around starting chip stack of 15,000.  The next table was very good to me, particularly when I got them all in with set over set (my 6's vs. his 5's).  Doubled up I kept running good with my AK's holding up, some nice pocket pairs that won, and hitting about 60,000 or double average stack with about 60 remaining players out of 117 entries.  Then trouble began.  The first problem was a young player who shoved his short (around 10K) stack with Q/10 off.  I wake up with A/A and re-raised all in to isolate him.  We see a flop of Q/x/x then another queen on the turn.  Player doubled up courtesy of my cracked aces.  Oh well, still way up and running good.

A few hands later an older gentleman in the one seat shoved under the gun with a 15-20 K stack.  I again awaken with A/A.  Snap call.  The flop is K/K/X and he holds A/K.  Another courtesy double up by me.  Now I am down to below average stack.  Long story short, we get down to 3 tables, I go card dead and am busted in 20th place (paying 12, with 1st $21,000) when I shove my lousy 3 big blinds UTG with A/5 and am called by the big blind's 6/9 and he hits a 9 on the turn.  So close and so frustrating.  The two guys who cracked my aces were still going strong when I hit the road.

Moving on to a different topic, I was saddened this morning to hear that one of my high school classmates passed away last week.  Her name was Diane Lohohefener.  She was my crush sophomore year with her cute dimples and friendliness (voted most friendly in senior class).  Her parents were friends with mine and played bridge with them occasionally.  Our paths crossed several years later as married couples.  Her husband was Woody Warder, a few years our senior, the son of the local GE appliance dealer.  They took over the business and when we briefly moved back to our home town somehow Diane and my wife got the idea to start a pre-school in their home.  It was cute when they met with the local banker, kids in tow, she had 2 and we had 1.  They got their loan, perhaps just to get the girls out of the bank, and we remodeled their basement into a classroom.  Not too long after that I got a job promotion and transfer to Seattle.  We dissolved our partnership and she continued the business, ultimately building it into a huge enterprise housed in the old telephone company building which she purchased.  She was a very good businesswoman and eventually sold it and moved to Florida after the death of her husband.  We stopped by once to say hello when in town and also saw her at our 10 year class reunion but that was almost my last contact with her.  I tried emailing her a couple of times but no reply. After a school reunion a couple of years ago which I did not attend, I got her phone number from a mutual friend and we spoke briefly. I hope she had a good and happy life.  My love goes out to her family.  RIP Lady Di.

  

Omaha Frustration

Father's day started with a nice breakfast prepared by my daughter.  It was a great start to my day. Later driving up to Tulalip casino I was filled with optimism, which would later shatter on the ground.  The first hand on our newly started table was an easy fold for me, but frustrating when I would have rivered the nut full house against 2 players.  The next hand I lost $20 on a better starting hand.  Ultimately I would buy in 4 times and cash out with only one buy in.  The $100 high hand was also elusive as I posted one early, only to get a bigger one later which was a tie with another player.  It is not often that high hands chop, particularly full houses as it is usually straights.  Our shared high hand quickly fell as the 2nd table kept posting ridiculously better hands.  Think straight flushes, quads and big full houses.

I lost my enthusiasm and was running stone cold with a minor headache developing when I finally gave up after about 6 hours of play.  I am definitely coming to the conclusion that this game is pretty unbeatable due to the high rake.  The only players that seem to consistently win are the ultra-rocks who will only play A/A/2/3 double suited type hands.  I realize that is a winning style but really not "fun" and not too profitable either.  If I am going to grind it out would like to play for a bigger profit or skip the live action and do the tournaments.