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.