I Can Get Lucky Too You Know!

Playing in an 18 person SNG yesterday I experienced the most luck I have had in weeks.  We were down to bubble play and I was one of the short stacks.  I shoved with AK and was snap called by the biggest stack at the table.  He had A/A.  Now, on most days this matchup would ensure a quick trip to the rail for me, but not yesterday.  I got the miracle 10/J/Q flop and he needed either runners to win or a king to chop.  Nope.  Now doubled up the same guy re-raises my A/10 suited with A/Q.  Yikes!!! No way can I get lucky twice in a row.  Nope.  I flop a 10 and eliminate him.  My bad.  My luck held up and managed to win the tournament.  Maybe the worm has indeed turned.

Pro Advice

I honestly had no clue.  For four hours I sat next to a player in the senior's WSOP circuit event, he was to my immediate left in the 3 seat.  He was fairly friendly, played reasonably tight and when he took a giant hit to his stack I felt bad for him.  He was down to around $700 in chips.  I dispensed helpful advice like, "don't give up, chip and a chair" and "I have seen lots of players come back from less".  Also, "Double up 3 times and you will be the chip leader".  He doubled up plus a little more and when I raised light from the button with 10/J and he shoved.  I had him well covered but hesitated.  I counted the chips in the pot, his bet, and figured that I was getting decent calling odds with a hand that probably had live cards.  So, I called and he tabled A/6 suited.  Better than I thought with him having only one overcard.  I hit a jack on the flop, he hit a 6 on the turn, giving him more outs.  The ace came on the river, doubling him up to close to starting stack.  Yikes, I have created a monster.

We chatted a while about philosophical questions like "What is dumb?"  He was very thoughtful and intellectual in his musings.  I did not find it unusual that a woman came up to him and handed him a website patch like you see on televised poker matches.  The dealer commented to him about being careful, like the site was kind of sketchy, check it out.  Some players were moved from our table to balance them, and off he went.  Shortly afterward, a woman came up to me and asked me "where is Kenna?"  I said, "Who?".  She said, "Kenna James, he was sitting next to you".  Holy shit!  That was the Kenna James, well known actor and poker pro.  I am sure he was laughing at my advice.  In some ways I am glad that I did not recognize him as it may have influenced my play.  If not for the ace on the river I would have knocked him out, but never known about my accomplishment.



Best Live Cash $700,000

Total Live Earnings $3,677,964

 

He moved eventually to the same table as my buddy Don, and was sitting right next to him.  Bottom line on the story, Don placed 19th in the money for $810 and Kenna came in 3rd for $8305.  I am sure my encouragement had something to do with it.

 http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/results.asp?tid=15494&grid=1280

Bad Matchups

Lately I have been the victim of bad matchups.  You know the kind, you have a hand that you are never folding vs. the only or one of the only hands that can beat you.  So, jumping back a couple of weeks to my first WSOP circuit event.  I am on the button with starting chip stack 4 hours into the tournament with KQ suited.  With blinds I think at around 500/1000 this is a hand I will normally shove with.  The only problem is a big stack very tricky player has limped in UTG.  I watched him do this earlier with KK and when it was raised, he shoved, you know.....So, this has put a major damper on my shove plan.  The small blind has just been moved to our table, he is also short with exactly my chip count.  He has no read on Mr. Tricky, so he completes the blinds....priced in I guess.  The flop is Q/7/x and as first to act, he shoves.  The big blind and UTG both fold so I call for all my chips.  He tables.......Q/7 off.  Nice flop sir.  I am done here.

So, that is bad matchup #1.  Fast forward to the Senior tournament.  I am playing well, double starting stack 5 hours in.  I have been moved to a new table seated with my Phoenix/Liberty, MO pal Uncle Donnie.  He has starting chip stack, which is to say he is short.  Don is a good and cagey player, so when he limps in late position I immediately put him on a big hand looking to trap.  As unraised big blind I see 9/3 off.  No action here, or will there be?  The flop comes down Q/9/3 with 2 spades.  I bet half my stack and Don calls.  I am shaking my head, not wanting to knock my buddy out (though there is a $5 last longer side bet pending), trying to tell him to fold his aces already.  Nope, he has called with pocket queens, a flopped set.  Well that sucks, though I would damn sure rather give my chips to him than another player.  That is it for bad matchup #2.  I am out 2 hands later when I shove on the button with 5/5 and the big blind calls with A/9, flopping not one but 2 aces.

Fast forward to last night.  I am getting decent cards but not connecting much or again getting nightmare matchups.  For example, first hand dealt in the tournament, I am UTG with AQ.  I raise and get 3 callers (where is the respect for UTG raises???).  The flop is j/9/x and after checks to me I continuation bet.  Two players call.  The turn is a king.  I now have a gutshot draw to the nuggets, I bet again.  Two callers.  Hmmm.  The river is a brick and suddenly the small blind bets out.  Easy fold but the other caller pays to see Q/10 for the straight.  He has slow played his pocket 9's flopped set into a losing hand.  My final hand of the night after many frustrating limp or raise with re-raises, calls, folds is also with my old "friend" AQ.  A player in the small blind min-reraises my 2 utg raise.  The flop is A/9/x.  He checks the flop and I bet pot size (which in retrospect was a mistake, it was more than 3/4 of my stack, should have either bet smaller to fold on a re-raise or just shoved).  He flat calls, then when a king comes on the turn he shoves.  Pot committed and short stacked I have no choice but to call, expecting to see a slow played AK.  Nope, worse, pocket 9's for a flopped set. 

So kids, that is what I mean about bad matchups.  In each of these hands I had little or no choice and just had a worst case scenario.  If I miss hitting big on any of these I am so gone.

Next blog I promise to tell you about how I dispensed poker advice and philosophical wisdom to a well known poker pro in Vegas for 4 hours.  He must have been laughing so hard.....

But First, An Off-Topic Rant about Healthcare

This is not nor will ever, I hope, be a political blog.  I do have to rant a little about healthcare.  Living on the Oregon Coast leaves us some pretty poor healthcare options.  Seem a lot of doctors don't want to make less money in this generally poor coastal community.  So you get some "surfer dude" doctors and what not.  I could detail past problems with the hospitals and doctors here, but let's just say that if you get really sick you are headed for Portland.

I lost my primary care physician last year due to her move to the hospital side. I was devastated.  She was from Romania, cute, young, and loved Las Vegas.  It took me 2 months to get an "initial evaluation" exam from a new doctor (no choices here, only one available).  I recognize him from a few years ago when I was admitted to the hospital for chest pain.  Turned out moving a bunch of 2 man rocks by myself will pull some chest muscles.  He came by my room late at night and made a very dumb ass insulting comment which I have never forgotten, or forgiven as it seems.  So, I made the decision to set up another "initial evaluation" exam with another doctor in another farther away hospital.  Only got a nurse practitioner but beggars cannot be choosers.

As a Medicare recipient I pay for a Medicare Advantage policy.  Prior to the Affordable Care Act, I was happily receiving treatment in Portland at Kaiser Permanente.  Great hospital, great doctors, happy, happy.  Now, they are out of their coverage zone for me.  I unhappily went with Providence healthcare and was reasonably satisfied with them although they were a bit expensive.  Last year was notified that they were pulling out of the Oregon coast.  I researched available insurers through the .Gov website, eventually talking to a representative who informed me that my only option here is Moda health.  The good news?  The premiums are super cheap, and as it turns out, so is the coverage.
They are in deep trouble, with the state having to bail them out to the tune of $400 million or so.  It won't be long now until they either collapse or substantially increase rates.

I am fortunate to enjoy very good health for a man my age.  Credit that to good genes, healthy living, luck or whatever.  So, this week came down with the killer cold running around the county.  In bed for 2 days then massive cough.  Since childhood, when this happens the cough lingers and is a pain for me so I hauled my sick ass up to Warrenton to the urgent care clinic for industrial strength cough syrup.  I brought a nearly empty bottle from a few years ago to show what worked for me.  After a long wait in the exam room (what happened to the "urgent" in urgent care?), the NP saw me, and wrote a prescription for the same stuff.  Due to the many meth heads and sundry drug abusers today, I was given a written prescription to hand carry to the pharmacy of my choice.  The condescending and rude folks at Safeway looked at it and informed me that they did not stock it, nor could they order it. Industrial Strength Indeed!!!  I went next door to the nicer guys at Rite Aid who checked and said they did not stock nor could order this class 2 narcotic.  They recommended the hospital conveniently located a few blocks away.  Off I went.  There, they told me they were out of stock but could order it and get it tomorrow.  Whatever.  Upon further checking found they could not order at all.  The recommendation was to get a new prescription for a different drug.  So, I called the clinic, they told me to pick it up after 1:30.  Fine, a 20 mile trip back.  Went home, had lunch.  Then drove back at 1:30.

After waiting a while, they came to tell me that for some reason my insurance would not cover the prescription.  Evidently the presence of codeine makes it a "comfort" drug or something.  I asked the cost, they checked, around $20.  Fine, who cares?  Just get me my damned cough medicine. The order turned out to be about twice the available supply at Rite Aid.  I asked how much it would be, $34 for the full order.  How much for half the order I innocently asked.  $21.  Hmm, I am no math expert but seemingly I am being penalized for their lack of inventory.  Oh well, just give me the damn half order he said (speaking in the third person due to spending the entire day chasing this order while sick as a dog).

So, left the house at 8:30 a.m. and returned after 3:00 having driven almost 90 miles on this simple task.  At least I can sleep now.  Wrong, this stuff no way works like the old stuff.  WTF!!!!!  Is our health care system collapsing?  Yep.  Just like my lungs.      

Luckless in Vegas

This trip to Vegas confirmed many of the things I have been thinking about it.  First, it is damned expensive.  Buffets (my go to meal in the morning) have become increasingly expensive.  Then, in a fairly new twist, all the strip hotels are now charging a "resort fee".  The fee at the Rio was $34. a day!!!  For this you receive internet access, pool access, excercise access, and local phone.  In other words everything you would receive in most any hotel anywhere for free with your room charge.  Can you say "rip off"?  Transportation can be managed by free shuttles from the hotel to the strip but they are damned inconvenient, running every half hour until 1:00 a.m.  The good news is Uber, which is quick, easy and cheaper than a taxi.  My pet peeve with the Rio was the new lack of coffee in the room.  Last visit they had Keurigs.  The Starbucks downstairs had continual lines 20 plus deep.  No way.

I avoided my classic mistake of playing poker the first day of arrival until the wee hours insuring that I was groggy and off my game the remainder of the trip.  First tournament was the $365. WSOP event starting at noon Sunday.  There were 6 flights and 1,498 entries.  I was eliminated after about 4 hours or so.  Nothing spectacular, nothing to see here.  My friend Don did well enough to claim our $5. last longer side bet.  Due to my early departure I headed over to my favorite casino, The Venetian to find an Omaha game.  There were none running so I opted in to the 1/2 no limit.  Since I had not eaten since breakfast, had to check my comps.  Last visit, the total was around $160 in the account.  You earn $2. an hour in poker there and it represented a lot of hours over the past few years.  I was surprised when they told me that I had zero dollars.  It was explained to me that if there is no activity in one year the comps go away.  I believed that last year I had played some, but their records indicated no activity since 2015.  Fortunately, the management stepped up and offered to replace $50 of the lost comps, plus pay me $3/hour for my play that day.  Nice.  And the Jumbalaya dinner was also nice.


More to come on this trip.....hopefully more interesting.

Seattle Nonsense

Just returned from a few days visiting family in Seattle.  Of course an opportunity arose for a few hours of poker.  My wife had planned a shopping trip to Alderwood Mall and I remembered a wild omaha game at the Crazy Moose nearby.  They are affiliated with the Pasco Crazy Moose and I am aware of the downsizing of the poker room there.  So, after fighting some frustrating I-5 traffic (don't get me started on that topic), I found it, parked, walked in and immediately noted that the poker tables were no longer in the area I remembered.  Asking an employee about it, he said that the poker was now only in their other two local casinos.  Having burned up 1/2 hour of my planned 4 hours, I headed North on I-5 to Marysville, home of the Tullalip casino.  A half hour later signed up for 4/8 omaha and 1/3 No Limit hold 'em.  The first seat to open was the 1/3.  I planned to just kill time on the game until I could get on the omaha table.  They had 2 tables of 4/8, and 2 pot limit games going. Also, it was high hand day every 1/2 hour.  Sweet.  Bonus was $250, so definitely people were not giving up their seats easily.

A couple of hands came up in the hold em game that were noteworthy.  I was seated at the same seat, and same table as a tournament last year.  The same hand came up.  I almost mucked it because of the terrible luck before, but you have to play small pockets in a fairly loose passive game.  Last year I was eliminated with 6/6, hitting sets twice, and losing on the river to the same guy hitting straights.  I was not looking to build a big pot pre-flop, so I limped in middle position.  The flop came down 5/6/x and I bet $15 when checked from the blinds.  The big blind called.  The turn brough a 7 and a check from the blind.  I bet $20 and was check-raised to $48.  I called.  The river was a blank, and the other player shoved.  I folded my set, he showed 3/4 for the turned straight.  See what I mean?

I lost the rest of my stack with J/J, re-bought, and picked up 4/7.  The UTG player, a very lucky guy who doubled up very early on a straddle that hit a boat vs. trip K's with a better kicker, raised to around $8.  Decided to take a flyer on my "favorite" birthyear hand and called.  The flop brought a gutshot straight draw and unexpectedly the player checked.  I took the free card and hit my gutter on the turn.  He then bet $20 which I flat called.  The turn brought a 7, he then checked and I bet $20, which he called.  The ranting began about how he had misplayed the hand, should have bet more, etc.

Last hand was A/A on the button.  I raised to $15 and got 2 callers.  The big blind led out on the queen high flop, the other player folded, and I raised to $40.  He called.  The turn was a blank, he checked, I bet $20 which he called, then checked the river and I shoved when an ace hit.  He folded.

My name was called for the omaha game, and I left up $25 from the session.  Would like to say that the omaha game was as good to me, but it wasn't.  Lost several big pots on the river when the board paired vs. my straight or flush giving an opponent a full house.  Flopped a boat once and had my name up for the high hand money, but was beaten by a bigger boat (mine was 999/JJ which turned into JJJ/99 on the river.  Beaten by kings full.)   Ended the session down $117 overall and rushed out to play in traffic for another half hour.  My wife was late which probably saved me money though she spent more at Macy's than I had lost.  Oh well.  

Happy Birthday Robert

Please excuse the bad picture.  Last night at the Legion was Robert's 84th birthday.  We had birthday cake and party hats, and a bounty on Robert (LOL).  19 people kicked in $5. each for the one to knock him out of the tournament.  I suggested we split the pot with Robert, but no one was interested in that.  He was not even at my table at first, but luckily got moved to table 2 with a short stack. Another player and I had a shot at him when he shoved with KQ and we both called with weak aces. With an ace on the flop we checked it down, but he hit a queen on the flop, then another on the river. Lucky rat bastard!

A little later, a much healthier Robert called my button raise (KK) all-in with pocket 5's .  Bounty player down!!!  I decided to split the money with Robert by paying his buy-in.  I still netted $55, and some good karma.  Fun.

With a pretty healthy stack I had the misfortune to run up against the luckiest player at my table.  He had knocked at least 3 players out, usually on a draw on the river card.  He limped in under the gun and as the next player with pocket 10's, (blinds at 200/400) with around 5,000 behind, I raised to 1600.  In retrospect this was too large of a raise.  The lucky player is a calling station so I pretty much knew he would call.  With a big hand and position figured I could make some chips on this hand. Everyone folded and he called as expected.  The flop came down J/8/3 rainbow and I was surprised to have him bet out 1500.  With the 3500 already in the pot plus his 1500, I had about 3000 behind. There was no chance I would just call this bet, so I tanked for a while before shipping it all.  He snapped called and slow rolled his set of 8's.  He had hit his 2 outer now I needed to hit mine.  No such luck.  Thinking back on the way I played, it would have been much better to have raised to 1000 or so.  Still a strong message and with his lead out bet could have folded much easier.  I really did put him on either AK, AQ, or a worse pair.  So, just got unlucky all around.

Another Robert story that I thought was funny.  Wednesday's game, Robert was in seat 1 while I was dealing.  He got involved in a big pot with the player sitting next to him, and aggressively bet to the river.  He was confused after the river was dealt and evidently thought there was no more betting so he tabled his hand, A/9 on a 9 high board.  The other player then bet 300 and Robert called, knowing he had seen his hand.  The other player had a straight.  I was laughing.  Perfect time for a stone cold bluff or a value bet!!!