Funland Diva Supersize Macaroni #5

Once again I ended up having poker on Wednesday night. This week I wound up making a killing by quadrupling by initial stack of 500 chips up to 2000 chips. It was definitely a strange night as quads and quints were hit during multiple games. I suppose my two biggest pulls were hitting quad 6's and quad aces on 7th street after having trips on the deal during Crazy Queens (7 card stud more or less). The craziest hand of crazy queens was definitely that of E-money who made five of a kind 9s on fifth street. She ended up having queen nine in the pocket with a queen up and then a 9 and a queen on fourth and fifth street. Simply crazy. :)

Foxwoods double header ends in tragedy... :)... :(

Greetings there poker fans. I ended up making two trips to Foxwoods this past weekend and played a bunch of $4 / $8. Well, I'll put it to you this way, it was well, not a lucky weekend for me. I correctly went to the river on something like 6 or 7+ four to a flush draws (on the flop) over the whole weekend and didn't make a single one of them. The one that particularly got me was getting dealt Ac / Kc on my last hand and catching two clubs on the flop and then no aces / kings or clubs by the river... barf. It happens. 6 / 9 and 3 / 9 off suit were pretty much all I was dealt the entire weekend (it was seriously freakish). In that sense, I was actually kind of lucky in that it's kind of crazy to see so many 9's. So, it was bad. But, as a good friend of mine put it, "If you don't want to play a game where luck is involved, there's always chess." This is true, but I suck at chess really badly. I'm gonna go ahead and take a break from casino stuff for awhile. Maybe try to make a comeback playing some $2 / $4 where my limited casino-fundage will go a lot farther. :) More to come on Wednesday after poker.

Poker night is back.

Greetings there poker fans. Tonight was another magical poker night at my humble abode. I ended up nearly doubling my chips with a finish at 940 chips with a 500 chip start. It's been awhile since I played, but there were some interesting hands:

1. Styles ended up going all-in in no-limit Omaha Hi with Qs / 2s / 8 / 10 on a flop of Jh / 9s / blank of hearts. What's interesting here is he thought he had the nut straight Q to 8. Unfortunately, he had an open-ended straight draw. Two players proceeded to call his all-in both with four to a flush (I believe). Bottom line is, he ended up making his runner-runner flush on the river and robbed 'em both when they missed. Oh silly.

2. Somewhere in there we had a hand of either Omaha or No-Limit or Limit Hold 'Em... yeah, I'm tired, where Big Papa destroyed an unfortunate young soul by pulling quad kings against a full boat 8 over kings... it just hurts sometimes don't it?

Anyways, I feel like I'm getting a better handle on things and not just going on auto-tilt when I play. I'm folding more often when I should be and also calling more often when I should be... except in Anaconda... man I have no idea what is going on seriously... barf. Next post should be Sunday after my Saturday adventure at Foxwoods playing $4 / $8... yes.

Impromptu Trip to Foxwoods.

Styles and I decided at the last minute to take a trip to Foxwoods yesterday and play some 4 / 8. I read some of the Lee Jones Limit Hold 'Em Book and wanted to see if it made a difference in my play. To be honest, it did. I ended up about even for the night (down $8) after catching an AQo on my last hand and calling a raise to see the flop, which I missed. That being said, I took away a lot from this session / had a lot of fun. As such, it was a good one. I think I've finally got a good grasp of a profit / loss algorithm that works for my style of play. If I am up over $100 and lose half, then I take a break. If I am up over $150, I straight up just take a break and try for a new table. Another big thing I learned is that you need to bet the turn to protect your hand. I haven't quite gotten there yet in the Jones book. However, I should credit Hellmuth as saying this early on.

Overall, I had some pretty big hands early on which amounted to my max up of $157. Styles maxed at $270 and then we both ended up leaving about even. I raked in a lot of cash on runner-runner nut flushes and in particular, flopping a boat with AJs. One thing I'm still having trouble with is loose aggressive players. I figure if I raise with pocket aces that a dude with 8 - 3 off-suit isn't going to cold call. That was probably one of the more annoying losses of the night. Seems like I still have a lot to learn / watch out for. Anyhoo, I've got some friends who may want to go to AC during the week. Maybe I'll take them up on their offer. ;-)

Transformers was insane / free.

Ok, this is totally not poker-related. I just went to see Transformers with Special K and my GF and it was INSANE. GO SEE THIS MOVIE. INSANE INSANE INSANE. IT WAS AWESOME. I AM NOT JOKING. IT WAS NOT JUST COOL EXPLOSIONS. THE MOVIE WAS CONCENTRATED AWESOME. Also, there was a slight technical problem where the sound kept cutting out so guess what... WE SAW IT FOR FREE! FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt like friggin bio-sparks from my ancestors. As the money was being handed back to us they were resonating pure energy. Seriously... that was awesome.... AWESOME.

Impromptu Weekly Game Night. / Google Calendar.

I attempted to take a week off playing poker on Wednesday night, but, as usual, I ended up playing anyways... After a BBQ sponsored by my buddy Special K, we ended up having a quick poker night as usual before going on to play a game of Mare Nostrum. I went down 200 chips as usual. T-bones and E trade financial seriously cleaned up by doubling their chip stacks. My hat's off to both of them. Anyways, my biggest gain from the night is the realization that Anaconda is a huge bluffing game. I just usually throw my cards away unless I can put together a stellar hand. But then, I sort-of realized that people bluff a lot with not so much showing and it can work out. I took down a pal of mine who appeared to be on a flush draw after fourth street. I ended up beating him with a lousy two pair and scaring away a full house. Problem is, I tend to suck at bluffing so, we'll see how future games of Anaconda turn out. The other new edition to the site that you may notice is that I've put up a Calendar at the very bottom of the site (do scroll down). If you're in the "inner circle" and are interested in going to Foxwoods (or next year Mohegan Sun) or AC, etc drop me a line via email and I'll put up the event on the Calendar. We should be able to coordinate some kind of system this way. ;-).

College Poker Association Stuff.

So, I was thinking. This is theoretically a blog about the Yale Poker Scene / my poker experiences abroad and on www.collegepokerassociation.com. Well, maybe I should write down some of my thoughts about that website. The play on CPA isn't that great (not that I'm the greatest player in the world, either). It's just that when you're not playing for money, the play tends to get really loose and curiosity gets the better of most people. For instance, people are going all-in all the time with absolutely nothing. I'm not saying a little bit of aggression isn't warranted, but like 8 of the 10 folks at the table can't have it or anything close. The real action on CPA is in the sit & go tournaments for bronze, silver, and gold tickets and also the daily freerolls (i.e. where money is at the end of the tunnel). The bronze tournaments can be easily won by essentially sitting back until all the crazy folks have gone bust and then pushing it with a hand. The silver tournaments are good play usually. A good way to build up the "gold nuggets" and chips to play in as many freerolls and sit & go's as you want is the limit hold 'em tables. I usually play at the "Mackenzie" 100 / 200 limit table. I know you only start out with 1000 chips, but if you play a little very low buy-in no-limit hold 'em or build a stack at the limit table you'll be good for awhile. Anyways, the site is a great way to kill time and also make some money if you're so inclined. ;-) My SN on CPA is: chasiubao. It means "Roast Pork Bun" in Cantonese.

I am not a zoologist.

I've been reading the first couple of chapters of Phil Hellmuth's book against J-Z's advice. It was on a shelf at the local library and I said, "What the hey!". Yeah... turns out I am really confused by it. So far, what I've gleaned from it is that if you have some kind of middle pair on the flop or an overpair you should bet or raise depending upon your position to feel out the table. Otherwise, the message is confusing and his advice is something along the lines of "you have to feel it out and trust your instincts". The way he describes how to play involves an analogy to animals. He summarizes different player types by ascribing them to certain animals. For instance, a loose aggressive player is a "jackal" who will have huge swings. To be honest, it gets really tough to follow his advice after a couple of chapters because the usage of the animal metaphors is way too clumsy. He also makes assumptions for each bit of advice like you have a certain pair in a certain position with certain people at the table also in defined positions. I find that that advice is much too specialized and anecdotal to be really valuable. I am anxious to get back to lab to pick up the Lee Jones and Miller books to see what they can tell me.

I had a great time in AC, but I still have a lot to learn.

Bottom line: I went bust and lost my $100 that I brought to play with. However, I got to play for about 10 - 12 hours over two nights with that money at the Trop. On Friday night, I ended up coming out up $1. More or less, I broke even. It was a pretty tough time. Most of the players there were really good by the time I got to sit down. Basically, there were a bunch of drunk dudes with really short stacks and a few guys with large stacks indicating that they had just taken the drunk guys. I thought I played things well the first night. Probably the best (and / or dumbest) playing I did during the first night was catching a middle pair of Jacks with a rainbow flop of Q / J / 2. I bet the flop and got most people to fold except for this one guy. The guy then bet the turn and the river and I called both. Turns out he had nothing and was just shining me on, but it could have easily been the reverse and I would've been none the wiser.
On Saturday night, I was treated to a lovely dinner at the Seaside Cafe by J-Z from my previous posts. I had a most excellent hamburger and he had an awesome prime rib. We talked a little post-flop poker strategy and generally had a nice time (I had two root beers). Saturday night started out great. The best hand I caught was an Ac / Qc with a flop of Qd / random club / random club. I made maybe like $80 - $90 on that pot. Within 30 minutes, I was up $170! And then, my luck / intelligence ran wayy out. J-Z commented that I made some "questionable decisions" which was his very gentle and kind way of saying that I have trisomy 21. Basically, I'm at the point now where I know what hands to play with when I start, but I'm not sure of how to play them if the flop isn't super magical. I have a lot of trouble discerning where the border is between dropping the hand because it's crap vs. it might have a chance. The other big problem is that I don't quite understand what someone is "telling you" if they bet / raise / re-raise / check. Two examples:

1. I had a Ks / 6s on big blind and the flop is like 2d / 2s / Js. The turn comes down a 3c or something and I make the flush on the river. I bet the flop and knocked out everyone except for this one dude. I believe he bet the turn and I called. He bet the river, I raised and then he re-raised and I re-re-raised. Turns out he had a 2 / 3 for the boat. I guess conventional wisdom says that if the dude re-raised, he had the boat. Should I have raised pre-flop? I think I need to put this one up on two-plus-two and see what people have to say.

2. I had an As / Qs pre-flop and raised and had one person who stayed in. The flop, turn, and river were all rainbow undercards with no flushes or straights possible by the end. My opponent kept betting at each stage and I kept calling. Finally, she bet on the river and I made the mistake of folding. I didn't think my ace would've held up. But, J-Z was under the impression she was full of baloney pants. So, maybe I should've called, but I will never know now.

Anyways, I've ordered some books from Amazon courtesy of a teaching prize from my department here at Yale. Hopefully, these books will help me out. Mebs I'll go to Foxwoods later this week, but I think I need to read some first.