Puggy82

My Main Event

2008-07-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm out.

Funny day of poker, for the majority of it i was in complete control and totally comfortable, then the last 2 hours was a total grind.

When i sat down at the table i recognised one face and quickly realised i was sitting opposite Minh Ly, who appeared in high stakes poker. I couldn't remember much about his game, but someting told me he was pretty tight in that game. Of course he could play totally differently in a tournament, but i figured i would be careful when playing pots against him.

Within the first 30mins, it became apparant that the majority of the table were pretty weak. From my left:

Old guy who bluffed heavily and badly post flop, but played passively preflop

American in his 30s who mini raised and check/mini raised a lot with marginal hands "to see where he was"
American in his 30s who appeared pretty solid, but in a passive way
Young American who was raising junk in every seat and trying to "play poker" but who wasn't willing to fire more than one bullet after he missed, rendering his style useless.
Minh Ly - played a lot of hands, and played them all very passively, he check folded when he missed every single time.
American in his 30s who appeared quite solid, then showed down K4 having limped in mid, he then later proved his donkeyness by calling a 3 bet out of position with T5s and getting it all in preflop for 200 bbs with TT.
Exceptionally corpulent American fellow in his late 20s who called far too many raises in and out of position, and loved a hero call on the river.
50 year old American who limped in with a lot of junk, never raised and called down with marginal hands, overvalued massively - inexperienced in live play.

So yeah... i was pretty pleased with my draw.

At the first break i was down to 15k having lost a few chips trying to setmine, then trying to outplay the loose player who had flopped trips - whoops. This didn't concern me too much as the chips were all still at the table and i figured i could get them back easily enough.

At the 2nd break i had chipped up to 24k without a showdown. In this time i did get a few hands, but also managed to make well timed continuation bets on favourable boards for me. Shortly after the 2nd break i raised to 1600 with AA in the sb after two limpers for 300, and the old guy in the bb shoved for 6.5k, i called he sighed and tabled 44, flopped a gutshot draw and got there on the turn.

Down to 20k, i managed to catch some cards, 3bet squeeze pre a few time and grind my way to 34k at the dinner break - good job.

At the break i spoke to quite a few ppl and a lot of them were saying how they were looking to hang on until day 2. This really wasn't my intention, and i have a plethora of reasons for this, the main ones being:

Other people will be playing tight to hang in - exploit them
As the tournament progresses the dead money will drop away, i want to get the easy chips now before someone better than them gets them.
I'm playing to win, and an effective tourny strategy is not to play to cash, then to shoot for the final table.

After dinner it proved to be tough for me, and i found people hitting some hands vs me, and come the next break i was at 29k - far from the end of the world though.

Just before the final level my table broke and i was moved to a truely horrible seat. I had 3 tight, bad english guys to my right and 4 foreign loose aggro guys with chips to my left. So when i opened light they could 3 bet me, and the guys to my right weren't opening light so i couldn't 3 bet them as effectively.

My stack dwindled a little but i found myself on 27k when i saw a spot to pull a move.

The chip leader raised 3x to 1200 @ 200/400/50 in early (position meant nothing to his range), 40 yr old american who had splashed around a bit called, english guy called. I really felt like it was a good spot to pick up some chips, and despite looking down at J2o i bumped it to 5.5k. Oh god... American guy called.

At this point it is tricky, as i have created a 12k pot and I have 22k back, i have total air and I'm out of position - it's just ugly. I thought he could have a mid pair and was just seeing the flop, so i was prepared to fire again.

Flop J 6 8 rainbow. Oh god....

I just flopped top pair, but i know I'm still bluffing.

I led out for 6k and he instantly moved in. I knew, i just knew that he wasn't bluffing. I really thought he had a set, and even if he didn't, i felt his range was 66/88/JJ+,AJ, which I'm absolutely crushed against. The pot was offering me a great price, but that's irrelevant if you're drawing near dead. After 2mins of pulling my hair out i eventually folded asking him if he had a set and he showed KK.

I blinded down a little then picked up KQhh in late position. I had 13k, an m of 13 with the blinds and antes. The chip leader limpe din UTG - he hadn't limped much. It was folded to me. I think i perhaps made an error here, i limped behind. It is tricky, if i had raised i would have made it 1400 from 400 probably, but creates a pot of 3850 going to the flop with me having 11.5k back. If i miss, which i will do most of the time, i surely have to c-bet most boards, and if he plays back that is say another 2k of my stack invested so I'm down to 9.5k, ie losing 1/5 of my stack. But limping creates other problems....

The sb folded and the bb checked.

Flop 2d 6c Kd

BB leads for 1.6k.... utg folds. Ok what's my play??

I called to control the pot and to disguise my hand a little, i'm representing a draw here or maybe a hand like 67s or 77/88.

Turn 8h

He fires 4k - oh oh, can i fold here? I felt i could, i really did, but it was a tough spot. Because of my smooth call on the flop he could fire another bullet here to chase out the draw, or even on the draw himself. I felt he could have dd or KJ/KT as i had underrepped my hand thus far. At that point i felt there was enoguh in the pot, so shoved for just over 6k more.

He thought for 20 seconds, asked how much it was, then called and tabled 22 for the flopped set! I definitely could have folded, but I'm not sure if i should, although his turn bet was very strong.

GG me 15mins before the end of day 1c.

I hastily left the pokerroom, headed back to the Manadalay where i discovered my friends were at the Rio waiting for me... So after a quick turnaround i headed back and drowned my sorrows until 6am.

There's always next year!

Tomorrow Team Pokerroom have organised a golf excursion, which will be a timely break from Vegas and all things poker! (who am i kidding, I'm going golfing with 70 poker players, i wonder what the no. 1 subject of conversation will be?!)

Until next time,

Neil.

Next stop main event

2008-07-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

This morning i rose at the early hour of 12pm and we made a group decision to head to the Venetian to show the girls the sites of Vegas including the gondola ride and of course the forum shops in Caesars.

Having jumped in the taxi at 1.30 and instructed the taxi driver to head to the Venetian, i received a text message from a good friend telling me he was at the ESPN featured table sat next to Erik Lindgren and that he had just doubled. At that point i made the executive decision that we were heading to the Rio to soak up the atmosphere.

On arrival we realised that despite him being sat 10 yards away we couldn't really see anything, so after we head for lunch it was only myself who returned to cheer on my Italian friend.

He doubled early, but a few hours after i left i got the text saying he had busted running AK into 44 on a AA4 flop (he thinks he should have folded) then KK into AA the very next hand.

I headed back to the Rio to eventually register for the main event. As planned i will be taking my seat tomorrow (saturday), although i did have another conundrum when i approached the desk.

"Which day do you want to register sir?"
"Err... isn't sunday sold out?"
"Oh yes it is, but i have been told it will reopen"
"Ok, so why are you asking me which day if only one is available?" - i didn't say this part as I'm sure it would have sounded rather rude...

At this point i got confirmation that sunday would reopen tomorrow night, i backed away from the counter, then realised i really didn't want to go on the word of the cashier, and i just wanted to get going.

"Saturday is fine" i said as i approached the kiosk.

And that was that, gg $10k and I'm in the main event!

With it being the 4th of July there was a concert and fireworks, and team PR made the trip down to the "beach" for a fun show, although few knew who the band were... The fireworks were great, until the final song "Born in the USA" launched into the remix after the first few bars - when i say the remix i'm actually attempting humour as the CD was skipping. Considering they must have spent thousands on the fireworks it was particularly funny that they couldn't fix the CD and for 2 minutes it continued to skip.

It is now approaching midnight, and with play beginning in 12 hours it's now time to rest, but as i type i have 4 friends in the room sipping wine from the bottle and planning a night out... hard to resist, but all i need to remember is that i just stumped up $10k to play in a poker tourny, and if i turned up hungover or even drunk it would be retarded.

Let's hope they don't make too much noise when they roll in in the early hours.

Hopefully my next entry will be one of joy. Neilmc is on 36k after the first day, and we have a bit of a sidebet on, so if you hear about me 4 bet bluffing with 2 minutes to go and going out to AA with 72o - that's why....

Main event experiences

2008-07-04T12:28:00.001-07:00

As you'll be aware, yesterday was day 1a of the main event. I headed over to the Rio shortly before play commenced with my friend Neilmc who was playing. Any attempt to watch the play was completely futile, as he was placed as far away from the rail as possible. So instead i took a stroll round the room looking for other team pr members, pros, celebrities, and just to generally soak up the atmosphere.

The buzz around the place was really quite special, and to be honest more so than i thought. Having played in two of the warm up events i figured that it wouldn't be much different - there were actually less people playing yesterday than in the two events i played.

An hour before the dinner break, the buzz had worn off, but i wanted to hang around to see how the team was doing, so headed up to the Pokerroom suite, where snacks and drinks were laid on. I met a few guys who i've only ever bumped in to online - Wieringen, Billy Billiard, and we had a good laugh being entertained by David of PR Promotional fame's stories - the content of which differed dramatically minute by minute.

When i eventually left the Rio and headed back to the Mandalay, i was kind of at a loose end. I still hadn't decided which day i would be playing the main event. Originally i wanted to play on Sunday, but due to all the independance day activities it is sold out - so i had a coinflip between friday and saturday.

Prons and cons were drawn up, but i still couldn't decide.

Friday pros: If i bust early there's the party to go to.
I won't have to worry about taking it easy on the Friday night before Saturday
It has been playing on my mind that i need to sort it out asap.

Friday cons: I might miss the party
My friend thinks it may be unlucky for a Brit to play on Independance day..

Saturday pros: Americans will be hungover and play poorly
I can go to the party

Saturday cons: I'd have to have an early night on the friday and miss the party.

Still unable to decide i pulled out the trusty coin, it told me i should play on Saturday, and who am i to go against the coin? Saturday it is!

My two Californian friends from University arrived yesterday for the weekend (Heidi and Dominique), so last night was spent getting them acclimatised to Vegas. We played penny slots, while constantly ordering drinks, trying to win a BMW, then after Heidi demanded we play the game "with the spinning ball on the wheel", we headed over to the roulette table.

Dominique by this stage had a perma grin on her face due to umpteen Gin and tonics, while Heidi was still rather compos mentis, and was intrigued to know what on earth we were betting on. - The answer to that as far as myself and Neilmc were concerned was just the opposite of whatever the beej bet on, as he claims he is the unluckiest man alive. I ran unbelievably well and trebled my initial buy in. If i can run as well as that in the main event, it's all over!

Gl to the team starting today, hopefully i can take advantage of those drunk americans tomorrow!

Main event experiences

2008-07-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

As you'll be aware, yesterday was day 1a of the main event. I headed over to the Rio shortly before play commenced with my friend Neilmc who was playing. Any attempt to watch the play was completely futile, as he was placed as far away from the rail as possible. So instead i took a stroll round the room looking for other team pr members, pros, celebrities, and just to generally soak up the atmosphere.

The buzz around the place was really quite special, and to be honest more so than i thought. Having played in two of the warm up events i figured that it wouldn't be much different - there were actually less people playing yesterday than in the two events i played.

An hour before the dinner break, the buzz had worn off, but i wanted to hang around to see how the team was doing, so headed up to the Pokerroom suite, where snacks and drinks were laid on. I met a few guys who i've only ever bumped in to online - Wieringen, Billy Billiard, and we had a good laugh being entertained by David of PR Promotional fame's stories - the content of which differed dramatically minute by minute.

When i eventually left the Rio and headed back to the Mandalay, i was kind of at a loose end. I still hadn't decided which day i would be playing the main event. Originally i wanted to play on Sunday, but due to all the independance day activities it is sold out - so i had a coinflip between friday and saturday.

Prons and cons were drawn up, but i still couldn't decide.

Friday pros: If i bust early there's the party to go to.
I won't have to worry about taking it easy on the Friday night before Saturday
It has been playing on my mind that i need to sort it out asap.

Friday cons: I might miss the party
My friend thinks it may be unlucky for a Brit to play on Independance day..

Saturday pros: Americans will be hungover and play poorly
I can go to the party

Saturday cons: I'd have to have an early night on the friday and miss the party.

Still unable to decide i pulled out the trusty coin, it told me i should play on Saturday, and who am i to go against the coin? Saturday it is!

My two Californian friends from University arrived yesterday for the weekend (Heidi and Dominique), so last night was spent getting them acclimatised to Vegas. We played penny slots, while constantly ordering drinks, trying to win a BMW, then after Heidi demanded we play the game "with the spinning ball on the wheel", we headed over to the roulette table.

Dominique by this stage had a perma grin on her face due to umpteen Gin and tonics, while Heidi was still rather compus mentus, and was intriguied to know what on earth we were betting on. - The answer to that as far as myself and Neilmc were concerned was just the opposite of whatever the beej bet on. I ran unbelievably well and trebled my initial buy in. If i can run as well as that in the main event, it's all over!

Gl to the team starting today, hopefully i can take advantage of those drunk americans tomorrow!

Welcome Party

2008-07-03T22:21:00.001-07:00

Wednesday night arrived quickly and the excitment in our camp built as we looked forward to meeting with the rest of the team. When we arrived in the conference room to pick up our PR goodies the place was filled with players from all around the globe laughing and joking with each other in a plethora of different languages.

First up was a photo shoot with all the players, which took a lot less time than it could have done considering the single photographer was dealing with 70 jetlagged poker players. After that the fun began with a buffet being laid on and the first entertainment of the night was in the form of two belly dancers (that's if you don't count Kristian's (PR VIP manager) welcoming speech).

Free food and a free bar was laid on, and the majority of the players didn't need asked twice to leave their seats. My only grumble was that the bar was ill equipped - i mean there were no mint leaves so there were no mojitos to be had!

Marilyn Monroe and Elvis made special appearances and there was an artist on hand for caricatures and even a palm reader - although she claimed i wasn't a gambler, so after that i was a little unsure to believe a word she said!

A few of us managed to keep the jetlag at bay and made it to an in house bar, where instead of drinking and dancing i managed to become in a heated debate with David from PR over how to manage my finances in and out of poker. As i told him today, i was definitely right, even though i have no clue what i was saying.

The fact that i can't remember the conversation, should probably show why playing poker when the bar closed was not a good idea, but decisions like that are far easier to make when sober. I hit the cash tables and an hour later i had doubled my buy in and even at that point i couldn't recall how i had done it. Definitely -ev, but who cares - i won!

Unfortunately all that drinking put paid to the Hoover Damn trip for me the next day, but who really wants to see a big block of concrete anyway, although apparantly they claim that the engineering is similar to that of the pyramids in Egypt.... i think an American may have made that one up!

Ok, next entry I'll include some more poker chat, as mundane as it is, but I've had a few good cash hands in the last week - a stark contrast to my tournament form!

Vegas baby!

2008-07-03T21:54:00.001-07:00

Having been in America for over two weeks now, you would think i would have had time for a blog entry.... If i was to say i haven't had time i would obviously be lying, but i have hardly spent a moment resting - ok I'm lying again.

Myself, Neilmc and the beej arrived in Vegas a little earlier than planned and checked into the Rio on Wednesday afternoon, a full 5 days ahead of the rest of the team. The plan was to play in 3 preliminary wsop events - the 2k on the friday, the 1.5k on the saturday and the final 1.5k on the monday. Two out of three isn't bad right?

Our debut in the wsop didn't exactly go as planned. Neil got it in with 2nd set (the 2nd nuts) on the turn and was called by a gutshot draw which duly hit on the river. I had a similar experience in that i couldn't do anything about my exit. I shoved AKs after a limper for 300 and the sb woke up with AA, and unbelievably he held - so rigged.

That night saw us out in the voodoo lounge in the rio - an open aired club. 5am arrived and we still weren't in our beds and the 1.5k event at midday was looking doubtful. "Of course we'll be playing" we kept uttering. I say uttering, i should probably add an "s" and a "t" to the beginning of that word and it would be remarkably more accurate of our state at that moment. 10+ mojitos, 4 hours sleep and 12 hours of poker don't really mix, so when we woke at 11.30, we made the executive decision to give the $1.5k a miss - "It's a crapshoot anyway" was the (still half drunken) consensus.

Saturday and sunday rolled by quickly and we were refocused for Monday's $1.5k event. This time it was Neilmc who busted when running inferior hands into superior ones, losing a couple of 70/30s to bust. I on the other hand had an interesting hand, which i definitely could have played differently, and certainly played one of the streets badly (although it didn't matter).

At 100/200/25 i had 4.8k and opened in 2nd position with JJ to 600. The chip leader who had been in every hand called and the button called.

Flop 2c Ad Tc

Ok, i'm done with the hand, i check, then they both check behind... interesting. At this point i really don't think either of them has the ace, especially the button, as I was sure with the T on the board and the two clubs he would bet an ace. I didn't think the chip leader had it either, as it had been his style to lead at these type of hands.

Turn 6d

I check and the leader fires 1.7k, button folds. I decided at this point i was good, and if i wasn't, gg. If i shove he can only call with an ace, so I felt there was no value in doing so. Sure there are now two flush draws out there, but you can't be afraid of that, he can only have one of them max and more likely neither. I felt if i called here, i could check the river and call an all in when/if it came.

I called leaving back about 2.5k, which may sound strange, but i really thought he was full of it and this was the way to get max value.

River Js

Ok... i have to confess that this threw me, i should have stuck to my guns and checked, but i didn't and moved in, he snapped called and tabled KQ for the nuts - whoops! However, my read was right and had it not been for that river i would have doubled.

The next night saw the arrival of the team, and the first party of the trip followed the next evening - and some party it was.... (to be continued)

Decision made!

2008-05-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

As from mid September this year, myself and Neilmc will be based out of Mount Maunganui, New Zealand for 6-8months.

Working 9-5.... going to be a shock to the system, but we feel it will:

a) Increase our MTT volume
b) Increase our winnings
c) Live a more normal life, working normal hours.
d) Be in a warm climate during the British Winter
e) Have a great time.

We're planning on renting a 3 bedroom apartment on the beach and living like kings... it is going to be EPIC.

Cashgame challenge and Metagames.

2008-05-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yeah I've been off poker again.... in the words of Neilmc I'm a "Part-timer".

May has been a very busy month socially for me, and at the weekend i was in St Andrews again - this time for a stag do. Good fun was had by all, although it was quite a tame affair, no nakedness (strippers or lampposts) and generally no stag baiting, other than the consuming of a dirty pint.

On the poker front, i have a new goal:

Myself, Neilmc and the beej have decided to have a little competition with the cash games. We've all started with $2k, playing 1/2NL, and when we reach milestones the other two have to purchase a prize for the winner.

$3k - fancy meal in Vegas
$5k - round of golf at a prestigious course
$10k - set of golf clubs
$25k - charity game of football at our team's ground
$50k - Day driving a F1 car
$100k - entry into a big live event.
$1m - trip into space.

Of course, I'm aiming to be at the $1m mark by the end of the year....

I started on our challenge yesterday. I only played a 90minute session, but four tabled, 1/2NL - all full rings.

I got off to a flyer and was up $340. There were a couple of interesting hands and hands that i definitely could have played better.

One that i still don't agree with my friends on unfolded like this:

I opened the button for $7 with 56dd, i had $200.
BB calls, with $150 total.

Flop 7d 8d Ac

I have an open ended straight flush draw. I am never folding on this flop.

He checked, i bet $12, if he had raised, i re-raise - if he calls I'm most likely racing, even versus a set I'm in decent enough shape and i don't see him calling much lighter at this stage, and if he does, I'm favourite.

He called my $12.

Turn Th

He checked - at this point i felt a check behind was probably best with my huge draw, i don't want him raising me at this point, and if he calls, i have built a big pot, and may feel inclined to bluff the river if i missed. I checked.

River Kd

Ok i hit my flush, but i hardly have the nuts. The ace of diamonds is still out there, he could still feasibly have hit the ace on the flop, with Axdd and rivered the nuts.

He led for $25 into a $39 pot, he had $117 back.

I saw this as a clear raise. I think I'm losing a ton of value at this level against a player who most likely isn't very good. The question as i see it is "how much do i raise?"

Do i make it $75, so it is $50 for him to call, or do i jam?

Well i figured if i made it $75 he would call with 2p+, and if i jammed he would call with a similar range - so i jammed. He thought for a while and folded.

I showed this hand to a few ppl, and a couple of them said they flat call the river, because only a bigger flush can call my shove. I think this is utter rubbish. One of my friends elaborated a little to say that against a good player he would flat call, and against a total idiot he would shove. I still wasn't happy with this answer. I found it too basic, why would a good player only call with a bigger flush? Would that not make him pretty exploitable (for a short time at least).

Say for example that i knew i was up against a "good" player in this example. Well a good player would surely value bet this river with two pair or a set - assuming they felt i had a hand to call a bet with. If they thought i didn't they could check and let me bluff.

My point is that when they bet the river, they will have: a) a bigger flush b) a set c) two pair d) a decent ace and expect to get looked up by worse e) air/missed straight draw.

If i shove 100% of the time in this spot, and we assume the villain is a "good player" and will only call with a flush, we can take advantage of them in a huge way. I can profitably shove 100% of my range, knowing that i will only get called by a small portion of his range. (It can be noted at this point that if we know he will only call with a flush, i should shove all my range but low diamonds, this could be overcomplicated further to include top set and the like, as if we think we will only be called by a flush we turn top set into a bluff, so a line has to be drawn somewhere, but you get the idea).

It gets a little tricky after you do it once, because it changes the dynamics - the metagame changes. Players have more information to make decisions.

For example - say the exact same occurrence happened 30minutes later - would the hand go the same way? Would my shove only get called by a bigger flush then? Perhaps, but i would expect a good player to adapt to the situation. The trick is knowing when they are ready to adapt and getting one step ahead of them. This is something that i am working on at the moment, and i think it is a leak in many a winning player's game. They often use their own thought processes and their own ranges to assess another player's holding.

Let me elaborate. Say you are playing a shorthanded cash game and you are raising 25% of hands (reasonable laggy shorthanded range). And you are playing against an unknown opponent, who you figure as kind of abc weak/tight. You raise the button, he folds in the bb. Next 5 orbits you raise on the button 4 times, and he folds each time. Then you open the button with 77, he 3bets you. You think this guy is tight, but then the thought drops into your head "wait a minute, he has to know that I've been opening 1/4 of hands and i have been pounding his bb, therefore he probably has got a little impatient and is fighting back, i have a hand way ahead of my range, I'll show him - all in!". It's at that point he snap calls and shows AA. Now, while this line of thought works against semi known foes, you have to be careful when to use it. It is important to be aware of your image, but it is even more important to know who is actually paying attention, and furthermore who will adapt to it. Is he typing in the chat box? Is he playing more than one game? Is he a regular at this level? All of these things and more contribute to your decision making process.

I will try and use the above in my low flush example.

The guy was only playing one table
He was sitting with $150 (ie had either bought in short or hadn't reloaded when he lost a hand)
He called my raise in the bb (not necessarily a bad idea, but in general you should try to limit the number of pots you place oop, as it is generally just spew)

These things suggest to me that he probably isn't very experienced, and certainly isn't a shark.

At the lower levels, players fall in love with their hands. "OMG i can't believe he just rivered me, OMG, but i have to call, i flopped a set!" I felt his calling of a shove range and his calling of $50 more range were pretty similar, so i shoved...

Now if i had him pegged as a regular who was playing multiple tables, i may have flat called - the reason being I'm new to these parts and he won't have any history with me, so metagame isn't a factor, but then again, i may have shoved.

Uggghghghh such metagames. He knows that you know, therefore you should... but when he knows that you know, that he knows... it goes full circle. The crux of the matter is that you need to be able to pinpoint where your opponent is in the cycle, and also what his likely range is, and compute this into your action. Of course this is much more difficult in practice, and can lead to over complicating things.

What's that saying again? KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!

Poker poker blah de blah

2008-05-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

I've had an incredible amount of non poker related stuff going on this month, which has really hampered my playing hours, but i have managed to put in three days in a row - woohoo!

Sunday was an interesting one. I made it deep in a lot of the majors, but ended up cashing only twice, and for rather paltry sums considering the level of buy ins i was playing. I ended up being about $1.3k down, which while is perfectly fine with my bankroll, it is pretty annoying considering i had been on a few day losing streak already this month.

Myself and a friend have an arrangement at the moment that any tourny over $100 we swap 25% with each other. Well on sunday he suggested me up it to 33.33% for the majors. I agreed, and it was one of the best poker decision I've made in a while. Mr_Noisy went on to win the Dise major for 25k euros ($38k) which earned me a nice little $12.6k.

Yesterday was another "so near but yet so far" kind of day. I ended up final tabling three tournies, all on ongame, and only making $3k.

9th in the 50 rebuy was the sickening one. With 13 left, the button moved all in on my bb i snapped QQ he showed AK and hit, had i held i would have had a third of the chips in play with 12 left...

The interesting thing about that is that my QQ against his range there plays ridiculously well, so i was unlucky to be only 55% vs his AK. Damn flippaments.

I came 4th in the 12k, nothing really to say about that one, and i also came 2nd in the Turbo shorthanded $100 for $2.5k or so.

I really love that shorthanded turbo, if i make it deep into the tourny i really feel i have a massive edge. That may sound strange given i would normally complain about crapshooty tournaments taking away from my edge, but because the blinds are so big i find an edge from elsewhere.

These tournaments are all about assigning pushing and calling ranges of your opponents and making the correct shove/fold or call. The edge is there to be seen when at the final table you have players folding with over 2/3 of their stack in blind.

I got to the final table of the same tourny tonight, with a little bit of luck along the way, but as soon as i got there i knew i had a huge chance to win it. I just had to hope no one woke up with a monster behind me when i pushed, because i knew i wouldn't get looked up with a hand like K8 even if they did have 1/3 of their stack in blind.

As it happened i managed to bully my way to heads up, then it was all over when he shoved his QT into my AK and failed to outrun me. Ship the $4.4k!

I'm off for 5days or so from tomorrow - champions league final, then the (anti) climax to the SPL. Friday sees another trip to St Andrews for a mate's stag do, then my sister is coming to visit on the Sunday for a couple of days - bus busy busy.

A week of debauchery and a return to the grind

2008-05-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

Until today i had been away from online poker for a week.

Thursday night was the start of the binge with Neilmc and the beej arriving in Edinburgh. We went out for a bite to eat before watching Rangers trounce Fiorentina on penalties in the Uefa Cup semi, I was subsequently chucked out of a club at 2.45am having consumed the bars entire supply of red bull that was making their cheap vodka palatable.

I recall attempting a stealth mission to get back in, which failed, but considering the place shut at 3, it really wasn't worth it.

Friday night saw myself and a few boys (including the beej, neilmc and micky d10) make a trip to St Andrews for more debauchery. It was the annual football club ball on the saturday night and the annual poker society tourny on the saturday/sunday afternoon - perfect.

Friday night ended similarly to Thursday night, which really didn't bode well for the poker the next day. But did introduce what was to be the word of the weekend - "Murder". None of us were directly (or indirectly for that matter) involved in any homicide of any kind, but having heard the word used in place of "terrible" a few times in the past we adopted it as our inappropriate word of the weekend. Think Taggart "there's been a mirdur" and that closely resembles what we were saying - add a cockney twist to that and a little bit of confusion in your voice and you've pretty much got Neilmc's accent.

My tournament was rather short, and i played only a few hands (it was mirdur).

The major hand was as follows:

Belgian guy who could play a bit raised the button to 400, i made it 1.2k in the sb with ATo with 12k back, he called with 8k back.

Flop 3 J T two diamonds.

I led for 1.6k and he called.

At this point I think he is either floating me or is drawing. I think he raises with a big piece of the flop as it is rather draw heavy and i've shown strength twice.

Turn is a brick and i elect to check to allow him to bluff. He fires 2.5k, i think for a while and decided that he wasn't drawing as he would check the turn, and that he was on air, so i called to let him hang himself on the river.

River Ac

I checked, he shoved... i time-banked, now going back over the hand and started to doubt my thought he wasn't drawing on the flop/turn. I decided the way i had played it i had set up a bluff, so i couldn't fold when i rivered two pair, i called and he sheepishly tables QK for the nuts apologising profusely.

I asked if if he would have shoved if he missed and he said he would have done, so i guess that vindicates my play a little, but i wasn't entirely happy with it - but to be honest i didn't really care.

I then shoved AKs a while later and couldn't outrun 77.

Incidentally Micky d10 came 2nd the next day.

The evening approached and having donned kilts or dinner jackets we attempted to ruffle some feathers at the ball, it proved to be a disappointingly tame one. although Neilmc and i tried to liven it up a bit with some sidebets.

We each bought £20 worth of raffle tickets and had money on the other person winning, he won the raffle, i won the side bet - ship it!

After that it was the player of the year awards. Considering we didn't know the players this made it rather difficult, but we settled for surnames from A-L, M-Z. People were looking at us rather bizarrely when we were on our knees as the women's 2nd team most improved player was announced.

Shortly after the awards, desert was served which this year was apple crumble. The tradition at football club balls has always been to eat your desert without your hands, but apparently our table were the only ones who had heard of this tradition. Neilmc laid Puggy as evens favourite but then refused to take Puggy's bet of £100 (yes i am referring to myself in third person).

I took it down anyway, and the lack of any bet didn't take anything away from me despite my tongue having swelled to twice its orginal size.

The boat races followed the speeches - pint downing competitions vs the current students. I tried to set up a book declaring our alumni team the favourites, but again struggled to find action. We won at a canter, adding more fuel to the rumour that the old days were better - there was a lot of looking through rose tinted glasses over the weekend.

Sunday saw another ball, and another chance to show the town what it was missing, and again it was a rather dull affair. We arrived just before the raffle and were disgusted to find out that they had run out of raffle tickets! Who runs out of raffle tickets? Surely that's something you buy more of as they cost nothing and retail for a million times their value.

No raffle tickets denied us the chance of making more ridiculous sidebets. The raffle included a signed Barcelona shirt and ball, and when we saw two girls take both prizes we were appropriately disgusted (sexist often?). The girl who won the ball claimed she wouldn't sell it for £500, so we approached the girl who won the shirt, who agreed to sell the shirt to Neilmc for £150 - his first bid. She later said she would have accepted £100. She needs to learn how to value raise, and Neilmc's pot control was definitely questioned.

The after party events included two St Andrews allies dancing on the table, but that was as rogue as it got. Although there was much hilarity at one ally's attempt at chatting up a girl with the line "So er... do you want to go for a walk on the beach". When she said it was a little far, he didn't give up, instead asking for clarification if she had knocked him back or if indeed the beach was too far to walk. Unfortunately for me, sorry i mean him, the clarification never came.

Monday we stayed and played a £5 rebuy with the students who i think were a little appalled by us moving all in pre blind for the first few hands, and unrivaled nittiness was shown when they refused to call said blind all ins with hands as strong as AQ.

"I can't call with AQ with him behind" As the two guys all in exposed 42o and 97s. AQ boy wasn't done yet "See that's 4 live cards, i'm hardly even favourite. Of course he would have flopped broadway and his head was in his hands. Wp sir, gg.

Only 13 runners, 4 of the 4 allies made the final, i busted in 6th, the beej in 3rd and Neilmc in 2nd. As a side note the winner was a guy who i backed in the annual event on the Saturday - i guess i chose the wrong tourny - damn coinflips.

It was homeward bound for me on the Tuesday, but the beej and Neilmc joined me for one last day. We managed to arrange a golf game with the long lost member of the alliance - Mark "thehills1" Hillson. He's a little better at golf than he is at poker which he proved when carding a 64, which could easily have been a 59 after he birdied the first 3.

Much of the chat on the golf course centred on the beej's conquests over the weekend. He had been claiming 3 in 3, but when pushed it emerged that he had merely kissed 2 girls, one of them on two days. Of course they were both absolute stunners. None of us saw the first one, although i have it on good authority that she was indeed female and the white stick she was carrying belonged not to her but the fluorescent jacket covered Labrador following her around.

The binge wasn't to be finished there, we headed out on the town that night for one last hurrah, but having sat in the corner of particularly quiet club for 3 hours drinking cans of red stripe (from glasses of course) and talking about football, we retired back to casa Puggy.

I really wasn't in any state to be playing poker yesterday, so took another day off planning on blitzing it today.

Blitz it i did, although in the 15 tournies i played i managed only a solitary cash. Not bad though when you win said tourny for $4k.

I have really felt i have been getting on top of my game recently, and i know there ar still areas which require a lot of improvement. I am 8 tabling max at the moment, and i would say that my performance is dipping severely when i go from 7 to 8, so I'm definitely not ready to up that just yet.

I have been looking to replace some tournies in my schedule though with some bigger ones. Until today i had only played the Ongame 50r once as i have a problem with the structure, and I'm a bankroll nit, but i really should be in it every day, so now will be.

Only 6 weeks until our American trip, so I'm looking at putting in a lot of volume between now and then. It's very easy not to bother playing some days, and to take lots of time off for holidays when you play poker for a living, but i believe to be truly successful you need to be putting in the hours. I've had a weeks holiday, now it is time to get back to the grind - and crush!

Puggy.

To infinity and beyond

2008-05-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

For the last year I’ve been talking with a friend of mine about leaving the UK for the winter – jetting off somewhere considerably warmer and setting up base there for 6 months or so playing poker.

Until the last couple of months it has been nothing more than a pipe dream – there was quite a lot of red tape, and even in the areas where no red tape existed – ie neither of us have any family commitments, our prospective leaving date was so far away that anything could happen to throw a spanner in the works.

Where to?

Originally it was all about Australia. At first we figured Melbourne – Crown Casino, great city, option to live by the beach. But then that changed to Byron Bay, and then to Sydney, where we figured we’d have more options and would enjoy a warmer climate even in the autumn months.

Of course it would be too easy if we stopped at Sydney – that just wouldn’t be right, I mean there are hundreds of other countries and thousands of other cities where we could call home for 6 months – why not consider them all??

One of the main things we have to consider is the time zone of a country. One of our primary reasons for moving is so that we can play a full day of MTTs during normal working hours so that we can lead as normal a lifestyle as possible as a professional gambler. Ideally we’d like somewhere with a time zone 6-7 hours behind GMT, allowing us to begin our current 5pm schedule at 10 or 11 in the morning.

Latin America started to emerge as a strong favourite. Learning Spanish being a strong pull, and it’s relatively cheap living costs. For all of 3 days it was all about Costa Rica. Unfortunately that hit a snag fairly early when we found that the possibility of finding a reliable net connection there was about as strong as finding a sober man in a strip club.

Before we ruled out Costa Rica, a ski resort in Canada was still being considered – which hardly fits the bill as being somewhere warmer than the UK, but I think we can forgive a ski resort for being a little chilly. I say we could forgive it, but it was my reluctance to move away from a cold and wet climate to a colder one that saw us ditch Canada fairly quickly.

Cancun, Mexico was and still is (to an extent) being considered, but at this point another country has appeared as a new front runner: New Zealand.

Tauranga is the fastest growing city in New Zealand, and has some beautiful suburbs including Mount Maunganui, which boasts pristine beach fronts and scenic mountains on the front of its tourist brochures. It has a time zone in the winter that will allow us to play a largely European MTT schedule from 7 or 8 in the morning each day and has a climate that doesn’t fluctuate too much from season to season.

Planning this trip is incredibly exciting, and really helps motivate myself for what can sometimes be the grind of MTT poker. I don’t need reminding that I have a lifestyle to die for because of this game. Sure I don’t interact face to face with people on a daily basis, but the freedoms this job gives me are endless, and wherever we eventually end up, I’m sure we’ll have a ball.

On target a third into the year

2008-04-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Many would argue that making profit projections as a MTT player is pointless due to the extreme amount of variance involved, but at the start of this year, i did it anyway.

Having upped my volume considerably i was aiming for a yearly profit of $200k. I'm pleased to note that after the first 4 months of the year I'm on track.

Another goal was to reach no. 1 for Ongame on OPR - mission accomplished. For the last couple of weeks i have been switching back and forth from no. 1 to no. 2.

I definitely need new goals.

I have mentioned a few times the difference in playing cash games to tournaments. The different mentality you need to be able to succeed. I'm happy to report that i can see a time not in the too distant future where i may be playing cash games almost exclusively.

I've been dabbling in 200NL over the last few days, and it is scarily beatable. I've been 4 tabling, and getting bored, but i want to put in at least 30 hours playing 4 tables before i up it.

Ok, new goals:

By June 14th (going on holiday that day) I want to have upped my average accumulative daily buy ins to $2k.

And i want to be 8 tabling 1/2 on my days off for 2-4 hours.

Yup, those goals should keep me going.

I'm off for a few days now, Fiorentina vs Rangers tomorrow, then off to St Andrews for a boozy weekend on Friday - back on Monday i guess, but may start back again on Tuesday.

Neil.

Where I'm at.

2008-03-20T08:39:00.001-07:00

Over the last couple of months i have moved to increase the volume of online MTTs i play quite considerably.

In doing so i have found myself gravitating away from Ongame a little as on the whole their structures are a little too quick, and there are better and equally as soft games to be found elsewhere.

I've upped my daily volume to about 12 tournies on average, with an average buy in of about $110. I have always aimed for an ROI of 100%, but appreciate that in moving up stakes a little and playing more tournies at once this will not be easily attainable. However, even if it drops as low as 50%, I'm still looking at making $130-$150k this calendar year, so i would suggest a goal of $200k is reasonable.

I am still enjoying my new schedule, and i haven't yet begun to feel like it is a grind yet, which can only help my bottom line, but having said that - it is never enough.

I feel like there's so much more money out there to be won, the last couple of days I've been railing a friend of mine playing 5/10 NL, and he's been crushing. I have another guy on messenger who has made $400k the last two years and is aiming to double that this year, 8 tabling 3/6.

Their successes make me jealous - which is a little ridiculous considering my projections from MTTs. But i guess that's just the nature of my character. I really want to get in to these cash games, but i also know that if i want to be successful i have to bide my time. I don't want to jump into cash games and lose my hard earned money before I'm ready. I've flirted with cash games in the past, and always after good starts i have hit a wall. I've never lost a fortune, merely one or two buy ins playing nothing higher than 2/4 (and usually lower). But there is still something about cash games that scares me.

I could write off any of these losses as variance, and I'm sure that is true to some extent, but i think there is a problem with my mentality that needs fixed before i can make a real run at the games. Even if i were to attribute it totally to variance, I still wouldn't be ready to jump in, as i want to start at 2/4 and while my roll is big enough if i were an experienced player, I'd like to secure my MTT roll and have an exclusively cash roll.

My problems with cash games are complex and a lot of these problems stem from similar mental issues.

1) I can't stomach losing a couple of buy ins

- whereas i don't mind losing a grand a day in MTTs.

2) There is no end in sight.

- someone was talking about a cash game session recently, and the answer they got was that in cash games it is all one big session.

In MTTs the end point is rather obvious, there is more than one aspect of an MTT that shows that: Blinds go up, players get knocked out and can't get back, there are prizes for the top finishers, with 1st getting the lion's share.

This is all very obvious, but it is a huge thing for me. Whenever i enter a tournament, my goal is clear - to win it.

When i sit at a cash table, there is no obvious goal. I don't believe in setting monetary goals like aiming to make 1 buy in etc, because you cannot control this, and you may end up forcing the action to try and reach your goal. And if you reach your goal quickly, then often it is because of factors like the standard of your opposition and you should really hang around instead of leaving - now what's your goal?

Cash games to me, just seem like so much more of a grind, because the only thing that matters is your bottom line.

After a day of tournaments, i can look at my bottom line, but understand it can mean little due to the tremendous amount of variance involved in MTT poker. But there is more to it. How many final tables did i make? Did i win a tourny? Both of these things add to the enjoyment factor so much, and just make my day easier.

The answer is pretty obvious - I need to learn how to enjoy cash games more, so that i can avoid blowing up in them. The method however, is a little trickier.

Pokah Profile

2008-03-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

I began playing poker in February 2005, I bled hundreds of dollars in cash games before I discovered tournaments existed. With the guidance of the Godfather I read numerous books to improve my tournament play.

By Summer 2005, I was a winning player - albeit only slightly.
By Winter 2005, I was making enough to consider quitting my job.
By Spring 2006 I decided I was good enough to go pro.

- I wasn’t.

I had no idea what it took. I didn’t have the game, and I certainly didn’t have the attitude.

Spring 2006 saw me make my inaugural annual Vegas trip with the Godfather. Partly by osmosis, and largely through Mr Brunson’s Super System I began to piece things together.

By Summer 2006 I was a Grand Prix Champion, I “owned” Pokerroom and I was a very proud Ace of Ace Champion. But I was far from the complete player. The St Andrews Mob was born, the Godfather was proud.

By Winter 2006/2007 I understood what it took to succeed in the game, there was no eureka moment in regard to strategies, it was more a realisation of the commitment needed. Playing a game for a living is a risky business, and if the American Safe Port Act taught us anything, it is that the game we love - while old in its origins, is far from stable. At any point, my government could choose to tax my income, and while it is unlikely that they would follow their American friends and attempt to ban the game, other like minded governments may follow Uncle Sam’s lead, and attempt to drive our beloved game underground. Even if politicians were to keep their noses out, it may be the case that in two years time, NLHE is no longer a beatable game. Somehow, all the losing players may have realised that Online Poker while being cruel is not rigged and they are in fact just automated teller machines there for the sole purpose to pad the winning players’ wallets. Or maybe a new fad will come along, one where people can slake their gambling thirst in a more fulfilling manner – perhaps they will be able to interact in a greater way than sitting behind a computer screen for hours while still satisfying their brain’s search for that dopamine hit.

While the above suggestions are perhaps a little farfetched, they are far from being impossible. My point is vaguely related to these examples – we don’t know what the future holds. In two years time for one reason or another, I may not be able to make enough money at this game any longer. If that day ever comes, I want to look back at my time as a poker pro safe in the knowledge that while still having a life, I extracted as much money out of this game as possible, and have some money to build a future.

This understanding motivated me to continue to be a student of the game, and to put in more regular hours.

By Summer 2007 – I had taken my game to a new level, and was grinding a good profit from the game.

What is in store for me this Winter? I aim to continue to put in the hours whilst not forgetting that I have yet to make it. I still have a long way to go, sure I’m a good player, sure I make a decent living out of it, but that is not enough. I want to be great, do I need to be the best? No, but it wouldn’t hurt.

Return to the daily grind...

2007-06-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

I've been away from PR and internet poker for almost a month barring a small 3 day stint when i was in London. But I've hardly had a break seeings as I was in Vegas for 3 weeks!

Vegas was great, but I made no money - i was about $100 up! On top of not really making any money I also spent a fortune.

As a result my roll is a little dented, and while I'm nowhere near busto, it would be nice to get a few wins under my belt soon!

I played 2 tournies this morning to warm me up ($5 and $10 >:s ) then played the three rebuys this afternoon.

No joy in the first.

Was 4th at the first break in the second only to donk off my chips and bubble in 61st (60 paid).

Third one:

Sometimes when I play these rebuys i feel as if ppl just give me their chips, other times you have to work for them. Well today was a day when ppl gave me them, which was incredibly nice of them - maybe they knew i would be a little rusty.

30 left i was cruising, took a few beats and bad situations and was suddenly struggling. I got AK in the sb, mid pos raised 2.5x i shoved and he insta called with 88 - he's supposed to fold there. It's not a bad beat, but it feels like one.

I then got lucky to win 3 flips, but again I was up against 99 twice and 66 once, and each time they possibly "should" have folded.

At the FT i was chipping away then lost a pot when the bb smooth called my raise when i had AK and led at the raggy flop.

5 mins later I'm all in with AK and a shorty calls with AQ only to spike the queen on the river.

5 mins after that UTG raises i shove AK aware that i have no fold equity... button calls and so does UTG, flop comes K hi, I'm typing to my buddy on msn "HOLD!". The button bets, utg folds and he flips KK....

GG Pug

$416 for your troubles...

Cash play v MTT play.

2007-06-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

I got a lot of useful feedback on my last entry - it was very much appreciated.

There are three of us out here and all of us are primarily MTT players. I say primarily, but really we are pretty much solely MTT players. All of us have had good success in these online tournies - between the two guys I'm here with they share 1 Big Deal, 3 Grand Prixs and numerous Daily and rebuy wins on Pokerroom. However, all of us have struggled a little to adapt to the live cash games.

I wouldn't neccessarily say it is our live skills that are letting us down - We've all won multiple live MTTs in casinos at home.

The primary reason why we haven't been winning big in these games is our inability to play later streets, ie the turn and river.

In a standard MTT online there is little play on the turn and river. Obviously in the early stages of a tourny there is some as you often start with approximately 100 bbs. But it still differs to play in a cash game with 100 bbs. A reason for this is that generally ppl don't tend to speculate as much in tournaments, because they can't reload if they don't hit. It is normally a mistake to continuously call off 4 or 5 bbs with hands like J9s and AT, because for the most part you won't hit, or won't hit big enough. When the blinds go up you are struggling because of all that speculating, or when you get a big hand you only double to 2k instead of 3k etc etc.

As the tournament continues, blinds escalate and the number of bbs you have continues to lessen (assuming you have the average number of chips). As this happens, turn and river play (even flop play to an extent) become much more non existant. It is all about preflop play, raising in position, re-raising in position/out if position shoves - and a large amount of the time open shoving. These are the skills that the three of us are proficient in. These skills are useless in cash games.

Over the past 2 weeks, my cash game has improved dramatically, but it still has a long way to go before i would class myself as a well rounded NL HE player. I class myself as a (very) good MTT player, a good STT player and now.... probably an adequate cash game player. 2 weeks ago i was a poor cash game player. Over the next 5 days, I'm going to concentrate on my game even more to try and improve my status from adequate to "decent", then when i return i might try my hand at some online cash games, and read some forums etc. Another point that i haven't noted is that my MTT play can only benefit from these cash game lessons!

Ok, one hand from today. I wasn't involved in it but i found it interesting:

1/3 NL.

3 limpers to sb who makes it 6 - funny raise obv. This guy has about 250 back. BB calls, leaving 400 back and others call.

Flop:

89T

sb checks and bb leads for 20, mid position loose guy calls with $600 back, folded to sb who calls.

Turn J
(no flush draws)

sb leads for 35
bb calls 35
mid calls 35

Ok....

Now this is interesting. What the hell do they have? There's four to a straight on the board, we have an old guy (warning: sterotype time) who looks like he only plays the nuts. A younger guy who has been playing pretty solidly, throwing some suited connectors into the mix, and a guy in his mid thirties who thinks he is a poker god, is wearing a WSOP t-shirt and has been playing baaaaaadly.

SB has to have at least a queen. Has to. BB - well i think he knows sb has to have a queen, so surely he needs to have at least a queen. Mid position - well as i said this guy is bad, but come on, how the hell can you call this without at least a queen?

River: A

Changes nothing.

SB moves all in for $165

Ok - bb makes it inifinitely clear he doesn't have KQ. I know sometimes weak is strong etc, but this guy DEFINITELY didn't have KQ, he eventually calls. Mid position says "Time please dealer" and sits for 30 seconds before announcing "All in".

BB has abut $200 back.

He doesn't call instantly, but we know he doesn't have KQ. He shakes his head saying how sick it is, but he might have to call. "God, i'm calling off all my stack hoping to half the pot, but i think i have to."

Does he have to?

As badly as i thought he played his hand, i did genuinely feel for him here. The re-raiser did not have to have KQ to move all in here. If he had the single queen i think that this is a great bet. He knows the bb only has the queen, and knows that if he flat calls he is at best splitting it 2 ways (realistically at best 3 way, or maybe losing to the old guy's KQ), but if he moves in, he has a chance of pushing out the bb's Qx and splitting the pot 2 ways with the old guy, and if the old guy has KQ so be it, same result as flat calling.

Ok, so knowing that mid pos doesn't have to have KQ to make this bet can the sb call of his remaining $200 with a single Queen?

There's about $750 in the main pot. If he thinks it's a 3 way split, he is calling $200 to win $250.... If he thinks its a two way split he's calling $200 to win $375.

I think the chances of it being a 2 way split were 0%.
Chances of it being a 3 way split is obviously more difficult to put a number on.
And there is no chance he is scooping the pot.

I think he should fold the river to the old guys all in, but once he calls..... it is a tricky spot.

As it happens the old guy had KQ and so did the shover, the young guy mucked, but to the joy of the table he pulled out another four $100 bills from his wallet "Player checks on 18" was shouted across the floor and four stacks of red chips arrived promptly..... their destination unknown.

Not sure if we will play any more poker tonight, we've played our 8 hours to get the reduced room rate. Probably will head to a restaurant and have a few beers.

Puggy.

Caesar's Palace

2007-06-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. I started writing an entry on another computer and then it crashed, so i will fast forward to yesterday. I might go back and talk about some other hands another time.

We checked into Ceasar's yesterday, and in order to qualify for the Poker Room rate we need to play 8 hours a day between 2 of us - easy!

At Caesar's the smallest game is 1/3 100 min, 500 max.

I like to buy in for $300.

Yesterday I got AQ 3 times in the evening session, 1 time i played it well, the other 2 times, i made mistakes - one that cost me money and another that turned out to save me money.

1)

C/o -1 raised to $6

This guy had been raising small a lot in position with marginal holdings like KJ - he then overvalued his hands on the flop and would call down when he should be folding. He also liked any 2 suited.

So my AQ is ahead of his range, i have position on him. I can call this, but I'd rather raise to get it heads up, so i raised to $20 in the c/o. Folded to him and he called.

Flop:

A 2 2 rainbow.

This is a pretty good flop for me, I know I'm a mile in front and the only action I'm getting here is from a weak ace. If he doesn't have an ace he folds to my c-bet, so i thought i'd throw in a bit of deception and check, and let him catch a bit.

Turn:

7

He checks and i bet 20, he min raises me to 40. Did i just let him catch 2 pair? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm still ahead here, but i think my best bet is to call, as i have position and can see what he does on the river, and maybe get an extra bet, because i still haven't really told him I have an ace. If he has the 7, then as long as he doesn't have an ace with it he can't outdraw me unless he hits another 7 due to the two 2s being on the board.

I call, river is a brick.

He checks - here is my mistake. I've done this a few times. I'm not careful enough in calculating the size of my value bet; it was a value bet btw - i was sure i was ahead and that he would call with a worse holding.

Pot was now $120 - I bet $25 (horrible horrible bet). He called and mucked his hand. I think I should have bet $50 here.

Ok, next one i raise it up and get called by this player new to the table with $500 - he has the button.

Flop A K 3 with 2 hearts,

I fire 2/3 pot, he calls.

Turn Q - good card for me, although if he was in front of me on the flop he still is (unless he has A3 or K3 - but unlikely and even if he did he surely raises on the flop), but i didn't think he was. I know JT now beats me, but I didn't think he had that at this stage.

I decided to check, to let him try to outplay me. I thought he was the kind of guy who would play his position, but then he checked behind and

4h fell.

I checked and he fired $50, i folded pretty quickly.

After that hand he continued to call down bets on draws, so I'm pretty sure by playing the hand badly i minimised my losses - but you have to look at the long term and not the short term results.

Ok third time - i liked my play here, a little different from standard though.

C/o limped and i bumped it up to 15 with AQ on the button, the bb called and the c/o called.

Flop Qc 7c 7d

BB led for 18, c/o folded. At this point i could raise, i think i have the best hand here, but by calling i am throwing some decption into the mix, my hand is a lot stronger than a button raise would suggest.

I call

Turn 4d

He bets $28. I think and decide now that he has JQ/KQ - I could raise here, but decided that I'd get more value if i called and bet the river.

I call

River is a brick.

He checks to me looking at me - massive massive tell. "Please don't bet, i have a hand that could win at showdown."

I bet $40 and he calls, and shakes his head as i flip AQ and he mucks his hand.

Maybe i could have got more had i raised the turn, but i love representing the missed draw on the river.

Ok, today.... rollercoaster time!

I sat down at a table with loads of cash and the first 3 hands were re-raised preflop. Excellent, i like big pots, i can play my strong hands, and play position and look to get paid off.

After sitting there for a couple of hours I had got up to $400 from my initial $300 buy in.

Then this hand developed:

I'm in the sb, button limps for $3, i wake up with QQ. At this point i had raised 3 of the last 4 hands and hadn't shown down. So i figured if i bumped this up i would get no credit.

I made it $20.

The bb who had $700 back thought for 10 seconds and re-raised it to 50.

Ok.....

What am i representing with my raise?

I think they thought i could have had a wide wide range. Maybe even close to any 2 cards, as i had raised so much prior to that. Let's say he puts me on any pair, 89s+

That's a hell of a lot of hands, so let's now put him on a hand.

I think he re-raises me here with 88+ AJ+, maybe even worse? I'm the small blind and the button limped, i don't have to be strong here.

Ok, so my QQ is ahead of his range, and i don't want to be playing this pot out of position. I decided to re-raise and slid in another $100 meaning it was $70 more to him.

At this point he slumps back in his chair and looks like he had a real decision.

I'm sitting thinking "if he moves in here, can i call? I mean i have QQ, I'm in the sb v the bb, what have i represented so far. How has he been playing? What would he move in with here? Do i have an physical tells on him?"

He thinks for 15 seconds or so and announces all in.

Oh oh pinochio (copyright thehills1)

Right, now we've gone over what hands we're representing etc, but there's more to this than that. I have information on this guy from the past 2 hours.

Nugget 1:

20 mins after i sat down, tight UTG made it $15, there were 2 callers and this guy made it $45 on the button with TT.

Now this is by no means bad play, it could be a good play, he won the hand and showed his tens. But TT is probably a little behind a standard UTG raise, or it's not far enough in front. Sure he was raising to isolate after the limpers and to squeeze some of them out. Well i say sure, but i don't know. From this hand i got he is either a good player or he overvlaues hands.

Nugget 2:

Young guy sat down at the table and played very few hands, but played them aggressively. Everytime he showed down he had the goods and chipped up to $400.

Our villain made it $15 from early and got 2 callers including this young solid player in position.

Flop

Q T 5 rainbow.

Villain led for $25 and solid player raised to $75.
Villain then re-raised to $150 and solid player called.

Turn K.

Villain led for $100 and solid player raised all in for about $250, $150 more.

Villain INSTA called and flipped AQ triumphantly.

Solid player makes a sigh of relief and flips 55 for the flopped set - obviously.

Villain looks sick.

Ok... does this guy overvalue hands? HELL YES!

There was another hand where he overcalled on the river, and mucked when the orginal caller had 2nd pair. I don't know what he had, but it was a dreadful call as he didn't beat the original caller. When you overcall you have to be able to beat both the bettor and the caller, sure the bettor may be bluffing but the caller sure as hell isn't. So this threw further weight into him being a bad player.

Ok... decision time.

I had all of these nuggets of info in my head, coupled with the way the hand was played and the fact i had already throwin in $120, i was swaying towards calling. I genuinely didn't think he had AA. When he raised all in, i detected a little amount of genuine hesitation, so realistically the only hand i thought he could have that beat me was KK. I thought AK and JJ (and the other QQ) all fit his betting pattern.

Putting him on that range and having $120 in already i think i have to call.

I called for my final $280 after 15 seconds of thought.

He flips KK as the flop is dealt - whoops....

Flop JT3

Turn 5

Are you ready????

River Queeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnn!

I didn't really react other than to turn to him and shrug my shoulders and offer a facial expression that was supposed to read "Sorry bud, that's poker".

He turns to me and says "That was a terrible call".

I reply "Well on the face of it, it was a bad call but it worked out ok for me, but it was certainly not a terrible call."

The guy (who was in his mid thirties) responded, "it was a terrible terrible call, 300 bucks more on QQ"

Once again i replied "It wasn't a terrible call, i had my reasons."

"Don't try to justify it, terrible player." - Him
"Would you like me to write you a 500 word essay on why i made that call (could have handed him the link to this blog i guess!). I made the call for a reason." - Me
"Whatever, you play real bad" - Him

I should have stopped at this point, i had just bad beaten him for $400, but the guy was being a bit of a dick about it, i mean come on, if he thinks I'm a bad player and he's so much better, then he will crush those games, and if he's so pissed about losing one buy in, he shouldn't be playing. I didn't stop....

"You want to know why i made the call? Why i made the bad call? I have sat here for 2 hours with you and you have been making bad plays all day, you overvalue hands thats why i made the call. I got it wrong, i beat you, unlucky, but let's move on."

He didn't say a word. I realise that i may come across as a bit of a dick myself here, and with good reason; but i just wasn't taking it from this guy, and i only gave back what he gave me.

Anyway i now had $800 in front of me to donk off.

Ok...

I get 78c in utg+1

UTG tries to straddle but is too late. He has like $800 in front of him too. So he limps. This is a very weak holding in the position, but there hadn't been many preflop raises, so i decided to try and see a flop. Even if someone raises from late to say $15, the pot will be guaranteed to be juicy and multi way and I have a chance to catch a monster.

We see a flop:

Qd 5c 4c

Ok... not quite bingo, but i have a massive draw and plenty of chips to use to my advantage.

UTG leads for 20 - he has been playing very LAG and could have a wide variety of holdings here. There are 3 people left to act behind me, i have a big draw (gut shot straight flush draw) so i elect to raise.

This is the type of hand in a tournament that I quite simply wouldn't lay down. I would only lay it down if someone shoved on me, but i would choose my bets sizes carefully so i would be the one moving in with fold equity. However this is a cash game.....

I made it $50, and everyone folded to the UTG LAG. He was on the phone and flat called.

At this point i think it should be noted that he has called a lot of raises on the flop with very weak holdings looking to catch bigger on the turn. Ie he called with A4 on a 4 K J board earlier, checked the turn and caught trip 4s on the river.

Turn 7d

I now have a pair, but i can't be good. He checks to me.

One of the reasons for raising your draw in position is so that you can get a free river card. However, for the reasons noted above i decided that i was best to keep representing strength and fire in another bet to get him to fold.

I bet $100 and he thought for a second and called (still on the phone).

River was the Ks, so despite my draw on the flop, i now only have a pair of 7s.

He checks to me, there's just over $300 in the middle that i cannot win if i check. I HAVE to bet this to win the pot.

I slide in 2 $100 towers, and he sits back in his chair. After about 10 seconds he calls, i flip my pair of 7s and he turns over 45 for the flopped 2 pair, immediately hanging up on his friend and cheering.

I don't think i played the hand badly - I definitely could have played it differently, but i did everything in it for a reason. I bet the turn instead of taking a free card because i thought he might have a weak queen or a middle PP, and i put in a strong bet on the river, that i think was probably optimally sized, to try to steal it. Incidentally, i had 19 outs on the river after i turned the 7, i didn't know that at the time but i did.

9 clubs, 4 gut shot outs - 1 club, two 7s, three 8s and two Qs.

Ok, enough for now. Going to get some food, then will hit the tables again, followed by a club later.

Please, I'd like some feedback on specific hands, because i definitely have leaks in my play - and I'd like to hear some opinions.

Puggy.

Days 1-4

2007-05-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Day 1

I swaggered up to the MGM Poker Room expecting to sit down at the 1/2 NL game and have drunk tourists paying me off every hand i played. The last time i was in Vegas - more than a year ago now, I had stayed at the Flamingo Hotel and enjoyed a reasonable degree of success making about $1k in their 1/2 game over the course of 10 days or so, while getting pissed at the same time. 13 months on, my poker game has improved markedly, so surely my profits in these Vegas games should dramatically increase? (Cough Cough). Apparantly it doesn't work like that.....

First hand i got dealt was K4 in the bb, i won it against a button limper when a king flopped.

Second hand i got KK in the sb, after a few limpers to me, i bumped it up to 20 and i got 3 callers. Flop came 223, i led for 50 and the c/o thought and moved in. I insta called putting him on 99, he sighed and flipped JJ, and i scooped a $400 pot - i was right this was going to be easy..... or so i thought.

2 hours later i was sitting with that same $400 in front of me when i got dealt AA in mid position after 1 limper. I made it $20 - yes 10x the bb - I'm in Vegas and ppl like to gambooole. C/o calls and button calls. Button has $500 back and has called a lot of raises with all kinds of cards looking to outflop people and on some occasions try and outplay them. My image at this point is tight aggressive - the only hands i'd shown down had been strong ones and i had bet them hard. This guy had bet the river on 3 or 4 occasions, only to be called and grimace as they turned over the winning hand as he mucked his own. (Point to be noted, i hate it when ppl do this live - when i make a call on the river with a hand that is not the nuts, it is not slowrolling to wait for the bettor to show his hand, and i will almost always gesticulate for him to turn his cards, that info is priceless. Online all we have to do is click a button and we see all showdown hands - we can't do this live, and when we can ask it is considered very bad eitiquette. So any information is gold dust, especially against this type of player)

Ok... so flop:

Ks 6s 3d

There's $64 in the pot and i bet $40. (In hindsight i should be betting at least $50). C/o folds, button calls.

Turn:

5c

Ok, now at this point i thought he had called me with a piece of the board, because if he had flopped a big hand on the flop, i know he would have raised me, because I'm pretty sure he thinks I have a big hand at this point.

I decided to fire $100 and take the pot down.... he thought and called. Now, this is tricky and shows my inexperience both in cash games and in particular live cash games. My problems here are that I'm now playing a big pot with one pair. I have no idea what he has, and he has repeatably bluffed the river, so i don't know exactly how to play it on the river.

River Th

Ok, I have no idea if i have the best hand. The pot is now $340. I decided that if i bet here - say another $100 and he moved in, i would have to fold, and could perhaps be folding the best hand. I elected to check and see what he'd do.

He bet $100, i thought about it and called. This guy as i said had bluffed a lot of rivers. He flipped 74os for the turned straight.

He called $20 preflop with 74os, then $40 on the flop with a gutshot. Now if I'm going to criticise his play i have to look at mine. I'm hardly free from blame i built up a big pot with AA - ok he could have been drawing (he was on the flop), but it was certainly the first of my lessons. He claimed he thought if he hit he'd stack me. I asked him if i looked like an idiot - to which he didn't respond. Sad thing is, i probably did.

The same day i had 2 other $600+ pots.

J5s in the sb, i completed. Flop came JJQ i led, got 2 callers, turn 5, i led bigger got 2 callers, river 9 - i think jackpot as I know they're both "bad" enough to be calling down on a straight draw despite the board being paired. I led again, the first caller bumped it up another $100. I considered my options. I could have flat called using the theory that he can only call with a boat and if he has a boat it's bigger than mine, but decided a) he was bad enough to call with his straight and b) it was only like $80 more anyway. He calls and flips J5.... same hand, chop chop. $700 pot chopped with J5....

AKs in the sb, 3 limpers to me for $2, i make it $22 and get 2 callers - one loose player who called a $20 raise 20mins before with Q7s and flopped 2 pair (he has about $250 back), and a shorter guy who called in the c/o leaving back $60.

Flop Js Ts 3d.

I HAVE to bet this flop - i do not want it to be checked the the short stack for him to move in and me be sandwiched in between him and the loose guy when i have a big draw.
So i bet $40, loose guy calls, shorty folds. - oh oh. One problem with leading with draws out of position is that when you get called you are likley going to miss on the turn and have a tricky decision.

Turn was a brick.

I am pretty sure that if this guy flopped 2p or better he would have raised me on the flop, so i put him on a small piece. I could check here - in hindsight i wish i had, then if i check and he checks behind thats ok, if he bets i have a choice - if it's a big bet i could move in, if it's a small bet i could call, alternatively folding wouldn't be out of the question in some scenarios.

I elected to bet $100 - i was trying to tell him "look i've got a hand, save your money and fold, i'm not going anywhere".

He moved in for $126 more....... oh oh. Nightmare, absolute nightmare - so many ways to play this hand and now I'm stuck in a situation where I may have to call off $126 on a draw on the turn.... sick sick sick.

Ok, i thought for a minute or so, calculating pot odds his range etc.

$68 in the middle preflop + $80 on flop +$326 on turn = $548 in the middle and I need to call $126.... I'm getting better than 4/1 - i have 12 outs to the nuts, if i assume these are my only outs I'm a 3/1 dog roughly, i have to call, in addition to this i had a sneaky suspicion that my A and K could also be good (or one of them anyway). I sighed and pushed in my chips for him to say "Good call" and flip T7 for a pair of tens.

River Jc

No good for me and he scooped the pot, leaving me shaking my head in disbelief.

Did i misplay it? Possibly. Of course I cannot put him on T7 - but i did think he had a weak holding - perhaps i should have moved in on the turn - he cannot call, cannot. If I'm calling his all in anyway - then surely i should move in to stop him from doing precisely what he did. If i move all in and he has 33 for a flopped set he insta calls, if i bet 100 and he moves in for 226 i call - same result. I suppose if he calls my $100 on the turn i can check fold the river - that's the only difference, but i don't see him calling $100 on the turn too many times leaving back just $126 when the pot is that large.

If i check to him on the turn, does he bet? I'm pretty sure i'd have moved in on the turn had he bet $50-70, he can't call.

Anyway, lesson learned - when playing online, you always know how many chips your opponent has and can calculate bet sizes accordingly. It is important when playing live that you are constantly aware of how many chips your opponents have so as to choose the optimal bet size.

Day 2

The previous days complacency had faded and had been replaced with a slight feeling of inadequacy - which is a little ridiculous as despite me having major leaks in my live cash game play i still have a big edge over most in these games.

I started off very well, chipping up in small pots and avoiding the big ones of the day before when i held marginal holdings. I moved in twice on a draw with a lot of dead money locked in the pot and both times i won the hand without a showdown, then a similar situation arose when i had $300 in front of me:

I raised AhKd to $12 utg and got 3 callers (2 in position of me and the bb).

Flop 2h 4h 5h

Ok... this is obviously not a bad flop for me, i haven't got anything yet, but I'm in great shape against 88 or 99 - hands that my opponents may have. Against these holding i could have as many as 17 outs with my overcards, flush draw and gut shot draw.

A glance around the table saw that the 2 players still to act after me had less chips than I, and i didn't fancy having to call an all in if i made my c-bet, so i elected to check and see what they did. The c/o bet 30 into the pot, button folded, bb folded.

Theres $79 in the pot, c/o has $80 back - I'm not folding this, I'm obviously putting him in. If he folds, fine ship the 79 bucks. If he calls I may be in great shape. As i said if he calls with an overpair to the board I'm about a 60% favourite. Even if he has a set I'm 40% ish. Only thing i'm really concerned about is that if he's flopped it - then i only have 7 outs, but i can't be afraid of that.

ALL IN!

He insta calls flipping Q8h

Turn 9h

UL buddy, but thats why you don't play suited trash :S.

Ok so after that horrible suck out i put on him (ahem) I have a healthy stack. An hour or so later these 2 guys came down from 2/5 to have some fun and drink. Both of these guys knew how to play, and were very aggro and didn't mind if they lost a buy in. I want these guys at my table - sure they can be tough to play against, but they will throw money around with marginal holdings and i don't mind calling off chips if i think i have an edge.

I get dealt AK in the sb - one of them raises from mid position. I elected to call - i could have re-raised, but i think he calls with a lot of hands and if he hits the flop he goes with it. i thought if i call and hit i can get paid. His mate in the bb calls.

Flop Ac Ts 9s i led for 25 and they both called.

Turn Ad and i led for 60, bb called - river was a spade.....

I put in a $50 block bet he insta min raised to 100 and i open folded, he showed J9s and said even if i had shoved the turn he would have called.

If i re-raise preflop I win the hand - but the way the hand played out, the vast majority of the time i win a nice pot. If the river had been a spade and paired the board or my king i'd have shoved and I'm pretty sure he calls. Oh well.

Day 3

This is one of my favourite hands of my trip so far - on paper it looks pretty standard, but i played it very well and my thought processes were very clear.

I have $400 in front of me. To my immediate right i have a 21/22 year old who has been chatting to me about poker (Matt), about how bad some of the guys are and just generally being friendly, he has $200. On the other side of the table was sat a fat loud American (i know, big shock - let's call him Chuck). This guy had been playing wrecklessly, had just lost a big pot, had just lost $1k on a basketball game and was obviously itching to gamble.

My friend Matt limps in early for $2, i look down at AA and make it $15. SB calls and Chuck calls in the bb. Matt then announces raise..... wow....

Matt chucks in another 4 red ones on top of my raise "$20 more sir" the dealer says.

Ok this could be gold, absolute gold. How can I get Matt to put his chips in the middle here with JJ/QQ - i don't think he folds KK - how many ppl can at a 1/2 game? I look at the other 2 in the hand, i see the sb is holding 4 red chips. (Don't do this, observant players pick up on these things and adjust their play). I look at the bb and i can tell he is ready to move all in - he can't fold, that would bruise his ego and he's ready to gamboooole anyway.

I have to work out if I flat call, and the sb flat calls, if the bb's inevitable push will be big enough for it to be classed as a raise. Matt has raised it 20 more, which means that the bb needs to have at least another 40 chips back in order for it to be a real raise. I quickly counted his chips, trying as hard as possible not to let anyone see what I was doing. He had 33 more - damn damn damn. If he had 40 chips - thats 7 more chips I would have flat called Matt's raise with AA, the sb would have called, Chuck would have pushed and Matt would have been in Pain-ville. What does Matt do in this spot? Assuming he has JJ-KK - i think he re-raises. How much? Well it could be all in, if not he's throwing in another $50 at least.

This is obviously now hypothetical as Chuck's all in won't be counted as a full raise, so as i didn't want to play a 4 way pot with AA i re-raised $80 more on top of Matt's raise. SB folded, Chuck moved in with his routine bad chat, followed by standing up, clapping his hands and yelling something in "American" to the dealer. Matt sat back in his chair expressing how "sick" it was. Mumbling that it's a massive laydown he eventually open folded QQ.

Chuck has T8 and despite 97 flopping my AA held to scoop the pot.

I had a good laugh about this hand - my observation skills in it were markedly up from the previous day, and had Chuck only had 7 less Bud Lights I'd have trapped Matt for another $50-200 and locked in another $20 in dead money from the sb. Oh well....

Later that night we visited the Excalibur as it is notoriously soft. Within the first 5 hands i had doubled having flopped a set and turned a boat. I got paid off on the river by a gambler with 3 of a kind, despite there being a flush and a straight out there. I managed to sit there and bleed chips for the rest of the evening - partly due to bad luck, but more probably due to 10 odd bottles of Corona, followed by a fair amount of Rum and cokes. I say they were Rum and cokes, but there wasn't much coke! It got to the stage at one point where we decided the cocktail waitress was being too slow so started asking the guys around us who weren't drinking to order for us so we always had one in hand. (Drinks are free when gambling, just $1 for the waitress).

Last hand i played was at 6am and at the time i thought was a bit of a cooler, but is there really such a thing as a cooler? I think so, but i also think we include many more hands in that category that really aren't and i think this may be one....

3 limpers for $3 before me, and i look down at KJ - i should be raising this i think - these guys are limping with so much crap, but calling is ok, im in position and I can play flops.... well sometimes.

Flop Ad Qd Td

and you've guessed it I've got the Kd.

There's 5 of is in the hand. My mate leads at it from the sb (he told me later he had QT and suggested that it was a -ev bet that he should have been check folding - I'm not so sure). A guy in mid position that has been playing loose, and has misplayed a few hands in the previous hour min raises to 30. I have 200 back and re-raise to 80 - hell I've flopped broadway and have the nut flush draw. My mate folds and this guy calls - he has me outchipped.

Is my straight worth anything now? Does he have the made flush? Surely if he has the made flush he moves in as i know he doesn't have the nut flush as i have the Kd. Turn is a brick and he checks to me. I move in for my last $120 and he calls flipping J8d for the flopped flush, i miss on the river, stand up, sigh, say nice hand and mumble something about a cooler. Is it? What can he possibly call me with on the flop when i re-re-raise? Sure if he moves in on me there i call, but after he calls then checks to me on the turn, i can surely just check the turn? I mean I'm not going to be outdrawn on the river, if he has 2 pair I'm dodging 4 outs. Also he can only call me on the turn if he has the flush, so why don't i at least check here and get it in on the river? Or even if he checks to me on the river again, i can check behind if i please.

It's a tough one, but I think it's important to analyse these "coolers" because often there will be a moment when you misplayed the hand, and if you continue to believe that you are being unlucky you will not improve. And i have a lot of improving to do in these games.

Day 4

We returned to the Excalibur the next day having slept til 1pm. Once again the table was very soft, but ppl were calling raises with crap and in multiway pots it is difficult to know when you're good.

Having sat there for a good 2 hours this hand came up - another interesting one i think.

3 limpers to me and i look down at A4os on the button. I obviously don't like playing hands like this, but there are a couple of real fish in the hand who i can read like a book so I'm quite happy to play any hand against them.

Flop 3h 5h 6d

Ok, i've flopped an open ender, but there are 2 problems with this.

1) I'm only using one of my hole cards - someone could catch a higher straight, or i could be playing to split.
2) It's a suited board, with a few guys in, chances are I'm drawing to 6 outs instead of 8 and then they will have a redraw on the river.

BB (fish number 1, lets call him Wanda) leads for $6, UTG calls (he's fish 2, let's call him Trout - yeah i struggled there), c/o calls.

It's $6 to call - i have a draw. Sure it's not a great one for the reasons above, but i think it's ok to call here and see what the turn brings.

Turn:
2d

Ok, I've now hit my draw, I have the second nuts.

Wanda bets $30 leaving back $200, Trout calls $30 leaving back $30. C/o folds.

Ok... what are my options? All in? Call? I sat there for 30 seconds or so contemplating my options and then slid my cards into the muck. As fishy as Trout was, he had to have the 4 there (him limping utg had no bearing on his holding). He could even have 47. In addition to this, the bb surely has a 4 as well - he bet $6 on the flop then ups it to $30 on the turn when the obvious draw hits. I was pretty sure that they both had 4s, and even if only one of them did, then the other isn't going to put anymore money in, so I would have split what was in the pot about $70 with the other guy - but i think I would have had to put my stack in the middle in order to split it. In addition to this, i also thought it was very feasable that one of them, if not both also had a draw on top of their made straight. For example x4h or x4d .

I don't think i need to tell the rest of the hand in order to justify my play, but i will:

River 7c

Money goes in, Wanda flips A4 and Trout flips 84 for the rivered higher straight. I announce to the table that i folded A4 (yeah i know i don't need to be doing this, but I'm often a cocky git). Wanda and Trout didn't believe me obviously, because why would i ever fold the second nuts in a pot with only one bet? But i had actually flashed my cards to my neighbour as i folded so he could confirm (again - cocky cocky play. Why am i showing them how i play? It's not for any poker reason, purely so i can boast in the short term about how great I am (despite me having lost over a buy-in in the previous 2 hours) - completely -ev and something i have to stop when playing live. I NEVER show my cards online, why should live be any different?)

An hour later I raised up JJ to 13 and got 4 callers, flop 2c 2d 3c, i checked planning on check raising one of the remaining 3 players, one guy bet 25, another made it 100.... oh oh.

I thought for a good minute before throwing JJ in the muck, not knowing if i was correct. I thought the 2nd bettor could have TT, but it was the only hand i thought he could have that I beat. I know that could sound a little silly, but at this table there was a big big chance he had a 2 in his hand.

The first bettor called for his remainding $80 and flipped AQc, re-raiser had TT.

Club hit on river and at the time i was pleased - but that's quite simply ridiculous. The outcome of the hand has no bearing on how i played it. i think i played it ok - if i was going to do anything on the flop, it would have had to be all in, and i don't think TT can call, so in hindsight I should have shoved and isolated AQc. But of course that's knowing that the guy had TT, but considering he definitely could have had a 2, the fold was ok.

In the evening we headed down the strip to Caesar's. We're going to be staying there next week so thought we'd check out their tourny at 11pm.

Considering we're both tourny players it's strange that this being our 4th day in Vegas this would be our first tournament of our trip. Tourny was a $70 freezeout and was predictably a crap shoot. I went out after an hour, but my friend made it to the final table and did a ridiculous 9-way equal chop despite the chip leader having the short stack outchipped by 10/1. My mate was the only one who wanted to play on and in his words he "didn't want to force the issue". An interesting thing to note was how we both laughed about how "bad" the players in the tournament were - they were making so many mistake, generally limping when they should have been raising or folding, and later in the tourny limp folding when they should have been open shoving. These are the same players that we have been struggling to and in most cases failing to beat in cash games - hmm i wonder what that tells me?

Anyway after i donked out of the tourny i joined the waiting list for 1/3 NL. After 10minutes i got seated at a new table, with all of us buying in for at least $200 ($100 min $500 max). This was a great table - as much as it is good to be playing with bad players it can be better at times to play with mediocre players because they are far easier to read and you can expect less swings. At this table few ppl were limping in out of psiiton preflop, and when they did they were folding to decent raises, that is apart from one guy.

This hand came up after 30mins:

Guy limps in 2nd pos, 3rd pos makes it 15. I wake up with AA and consider smooth calling but see the inexperienced player to my left is also ready to call and i figure that the early limper will doubtlessly call as well. The raiser only has $90 or so back, so i want him to stay in and give me the rest of his stack.
I decided that it was ok to raise to $30 - only just over the min raise, but it would mean that anyone entering the pot after me would have to put in 10 bbs in order to play (9 to bb and early limper). To my semi-surprise, early limper called and raiser called.
3 to the flop with $94 in the middle.
J Q 3 rainbow, limper bets $75, raiser calls off his last $70 odd. I sit for 10 seconds and open folded AA, pretty confident that limper had JQ - i even thought that the shover could have JJ, but i wouldn't have folded to him had it just been the 2 of us. (I realise I have just assigned them all the jacks, which is very unlikely. I guess what i mean is that i thought the limper had JQ, and if he didn't i thought the shover could have JJ, anyway i was sure i was beat).

Limper had JQos (yeah $30 out of position preflop) and shover had AQ.

Over the course of the next 2 hours i chipped up to $400 without a showdown, in what was definitely my favourite session so far.

My mate remarked after that of course it was my favourite session if no one played back at me and i made money etc etc. But i genuinely think that even in the last 4 days that my live cash game skills have increased immeasurably, but i also have a long way to go, i still have major leaks that need to be fixed. Hopefully i can transfer these new skills to the live tournament scene soon....

Off to Santa Barbara for a break tomorrow, should be fun. Back in Vegas on Sunday, time away should do me good - it can be like exercise, u need some downtime in order to see an improvement.

Puggy82