Foxwoods!

Nick, Drew and I decided to go again to Foxwoods tonight. I did way better than I did last time and learned some more warning signs, etc to look for. This time I came out up $94. I started out playing 2 / 4 and doubled money to being up $114. Then, since I was holding $224, I decided to give 4 / 8 a whirl. I ended up having a max up of about $164 while I was playing 4/8. But, a combination of 3 - 4 rounds of blinds plus a missed flush dropped me back down to $94. At that point, I was getting very tired and we had already been there for about 4 hours (this went down at 11pm). So, we decided that it was time to leave and I left up about $94. Based on tonight's performance, I think that my greed definitely makes me play a bit longer than I should. I should have really left when I was up $160, but decided that I might win more if I kept playing. But, at that point the table started getting tighter and I started getting tired, which made it harder to keep playing. Thus, it was a good decision for me to leave. Anyways, combined with my $20 from last time, I'm now up to $114 of made money. I'm looking forward to going agian.

Adventures since Foxwoods.

Well, it's been awhile since Foxwoods... but I've decided to start playing online for lower stakes than I could play in a Casino. This way, I figure I can improve my game and when I earn enough money, move up to the next bracket. I'm starting out at 0.04/0.08 and 0.10/0.20 Limit Hold 'Em (basically the type of stakes I would play with friends). Currently, I'm up almost $11. I figure that once I earn $30 this way, I'll move up to the next stake level since I'll be playing on profit. I will most likely invest in an online poker tracker at some point so that I can really improve my game / potentially actually make money. I'll keep you folks updated on my progress. Below I've posted some interesting hands from the night.

Lots of the stuff I figured out worked. Foxwoods!

Last night at Foxwoods went much better than last week. I had a max up of $75 and I ended the night up $20. Basically, I would've ended up a bit higher, but I decided to kind of fool around a bit with bluffing at the pot and playing a bit more aggressively than I usually do. I found that if there were few players in the pot and that if I didn't do it too often, then I could successfully bluff the pot. I took down a good $80 or so worth of pots that way. It was only once I thought I could just do it repeatedly that people caught a whiff of my BS and started calling me down. Then, I kept pressing it a bit too much and started losing my profits. However, my observation from last week that I don't play well when it gets late and tired was a good one. Once I went down to $20 up, I woke up and saw that my playing had partially been crap because I was just getting too tired. Thus, stopping was awesome and I ended up leaving with money I didn't have when I sat down. :) I hope to go again soon and keep trying at 2 / 4.

I had a great time at Foxwoods and figured some stuff out.

So, I had a great time at Foxwoods last night. Nick, Dru and I went to play some 2/4 while some friends of mine from home played slots and drank for free until their livers became foie gras. Anyways, 2/4 is definitely my speed and the swings are more in price range for right now. I think that based on how things went I will go more often and play 2/4 until I get good enough / have enough money to start playing 4/8. Granted, I did lose the $120 I ended up bringing, but I actually only lost half playing 2/4. I had a bunch of ups and downs with two four (I was up $40 then down $40 etc etc). It's really different than 4/8 in that the game is kind of like a sandbox while 4/8 is like the monkey bars. You can get hurt playing in the sandbox but you have to be like really stupid. I goofed around and straddled and then bet into everyone at the table blind... that was funny since people were getting pissed at me. :) And it only really cost me $20. I did take down a bunch of hands on runner-runner draws, which also made the peeps at the table love me. Actually, though, one of the players at the table was telling Nick and Dru when I sat down to play at their table. He thought I was a really good player since I was "appearing to be wild", yet I had the sense of when to call / fold. I made like $60 at their table and then started getting tired... which is the reason I think I end up losing a lot when I go. I do well at first because my head's on straight and then I get tired and just make stupid ass decisions. The reason I did ok with Tyler and Jason back in June was because I got really lucky / we left before I had a chance to get friggin stupid. I think that next time I go back I want to go earlier and leave earlier because I really need to be sharp to play. All in all, I lost $120, Nick came out up $40 and Dru was the big winner and came out up $120! :)

But, when I got really amused was when I said to myself, "Look, I'm playing badly right now, if I sit here and keep playing 2/4 I'm going to lose the $60 I got left, so I might as well stop playing." That was a really good decision. I then said to myself, "Well, since this money is basically going in the garbage anyways [as it's a Foxwoods tradition], I might as well sit down to some No-Limit and just get a feel for what's up with it." That was actually a good use of the money. I got to see sort-of how people were playing and what kinds of bets people were making. Basically, No-Limit is erratic and crazy. I sat down to a 1/2 No-Limit table and pre-flop people would just casually throw in $10 or $20 as a raise. Sort-of like what we do with dimes and nickels. Typical large bets were like $50 - $75. This means that this game will not be in my price range for quite some time. Although, I will say, that if you know what you're doing, you can make a lot more money a lot faster than in Limit Hold 'Em given the stakes and the buy-in.

Funny story, I said screw it after losing a bit and then just went all-in on an A-4 off-suit just to mess around. I got like 4 calls ($40 bet) and caused some guy with an Ac-6c to fold. Turns out if he had stayed in he would've hit a flush on the turn and knocked everyone out. He was really pissed at me and was glaring at me the entire time, which made that my "Degree all-in moment". I was giggling at the table while his arms were practically around my throat. I had such a good time. Best $60 I ever spent.

Figured I should update this sucker.

Wednesday night was another magical night of poker for me. I ended up more than doubling my original stack of 500 chips to 1200 chips! Then we played a tournament where we bought in for 300 chips and I came in 3rd out of 7. Not bad I guess considering I suck at tournaments real bad. My big mistake was calling an all in with Ac - Kc and a board of A - 8 - 8. It just didn't occur to me that my worthy opponent was holding an 8... Eh, whatev. I'm going to start updating this blog more often with hands, etc once I put together a simple form to fill out for each hand. Something must exist like this on the internet somewhere. :)

Finally, an update!

Greetings there sports fans. I ended up taking a month off from writing this sucker due to laziness, but I'm back. Last night I had poker at my place again. It was a pretty small night with about five players. Many hands were won with low pairs and it was a bit surreal. Definitely not my night for luck as I went bust, but I played a little less conservatively than I should've in several instances. I'm still trying to think up an efficient way to keep notes during the games so I can give you guys some kind of better recap than like, "We had stuff and then winning." ;-) Maybe I'll make up a worksheet.

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. :)