Poker Joneses

I keep trying to get my buddy to go back to Mohegan.. anyways, it is almost March again so I will be going soon enough. Having the high hand every 30 minutes is a great promotion though so we really should have gotten another trip in.

One tip I think is good playing live. As I try and get my reads back online (doing good) and actually listening to myself (bad as usual) I find that a good rule of thumb is -- Determine the good players and give them respect. You do not have to gamble at the 1/2 live game.. but if there are more marginal calls you should lay them down to better players and maybe take a little more chance vs bad players. I have had this not work a couple times.. getting bluffed out of small hands.. but the alternative is much worse. If I went with my gut last time at Twin Rivers I would have still lost (probably) but it would have been a much better game. I could have folded a set and a high pocket pair to the two players I knew were good.. and the night probably would have been better.

Anyhow.. Next time I will try and start off playing like I can and keep it going positively. I always start off in the hole and have to make it back. Not good because it makes me more chasey and retarded than usual.. and I am bad enough to begin with.

Where I break my Promises

I know I am a Waffler. Anyways.. I was not going to play again until March, but my buddy calls me up and is like "Let's go to Mohegan Sun!". I have not lost there.. yet.. so with some hesitance I said "FUCK YA!".

I started the day right at least. Did a nice 7AM jog. Felt good about playing. We went with my friend and his kid and his friend. We got there around 3:00. I kind of had the attitude of wanting to win some of my past losses back which probably is not a good mind frame but hey it's me.

I would LOVE to report that I played like a super rock star pro poker player.. but the beginning of the session was a fuck show. I get queen and raise.. and get sucked out on by pocket fours. I am so out of practice and a n00b sometimes. Never lose a stack that way people! REBUYYY!

So now I am sort of steaming in a bad frame of mind.. I play something like QT suited to a raise. I flop a flush draw and a gutterball. First place who had raised bets. I call. Turn nada. Dude bets again basically putting me in for the rest of the 100.. What the fuck, lets go for it! River... GUTTERBALL BANG BANG CHOOO WHAH! This pissed the guy off so bad. He was a good player and was the one who sucked out on my queens vs his fours. So just to piss him off a little more I said "Well don't worry about it buddy, it was my money anyways".. BWAHAHAHA.

So now I know I have the MOST donkish, draw heavy, motherfucking reputation at the table. I know it.. but you see.. now I am up a little.. so my donkish, self destructive start, turns into the way I can play... I hit some good cards.. Some sets, and other stuff... and I act like I am trying to make a draw.. and people keep thinking I MISSED my draw and betting into me... It was nice.

I made a tough laydown that was wrong but might have been a good laydown. I have QT spades and limp in. The flop is a nice K high 3-spade mamma jamma. I check. Next guy bets like 15. I call. The turn is a fucking fourth spade. I really would have been willing to go to the felt with second best flush on a 3 spade board... but a four spade board.. I was not feeling it.. So when the guy next to me bet out 40 on the turn I let it go. The reasoning behind this was because with that kind of bet we are possibly playing for stacks on the river... At least it is going to cost me 60-80 more to see if I am way behind... I just felt I should let it go. I felt the player I was against was a strong player. So I made the laydown. He showed me the 7 of spades with a heart as a partner... sooo.. He outplayed me, but I still think it was the right laydown.

At this point I had been playing for 5 hours and was a little tired. So I decided to take a break.. get a snack.. get a drink and hit it again later. My friend wanted to get dinner at 9:00 so I walked around the casino a bit, got a drink, and relaxed and people watched for a bit. We went to Michael Jordan's for dinner and then went back.

I kind of had the attitude of locking in my win when we went back.. So I bought in for 100 of the 164 profit I had. I was also tired so I decided to just play ABC and not mix it up much.

Now one thing I did not mention here is Mohegan Sun is giving away $500 for the high hand every half hour. I was tempted to tell my buddies "If any of us hits then we should all split 3 ways".. I mean why not right? I decided not to though.

The new table I got was a lot of regulars.. but there was some good money there too. I ended up sitting next to my friends son. So we were chatting and I was just sitting around going up and down a little. My buddies friend has AQ and flops AAT. It all goes in on the flop against a guy with a T. My friends son was playing on $40.. the River is a Q and he suddenly has a shot at the high hand with 5 minutes left... Aces full of queens. You have to use both cards in your hand. As the clock ticked down we were all nervous and it was kind of nuts... but... He held on for the win. Five hundred bucks for rivering a boat.. FUCK YA! Now I was pissed I did not get a 3-way split going. Ah well.

The table I was on had some good spots. A fat fuck hit a runner runner flush and put a decent player on mega tilt. The fat fuck then gets AA vs the tilty guys QQ pre-flop ALL IN! Sick. So now the fat fuck has like 1k at the table and I am droooooling. Unfortunately I would not get any of it.

The only chance I had for a really good profit was when I called like $7 raise pre-flop with 55, and this craisian raised to 25, he got one caller, and I folded. You can not chase like that.. So the flop comes 5Kx. Craisian goes all in. Second craisian calls. I say "I hope one of those fuckers has KK"... but the guy who raised $25 had KQ vs AK. I would have tripped up on that hand and made a really nice profit. It was the right play by me but it still hurts.

Nothing else exciting happened. I played tight and well but did not get anything. I just kept steady and ended up with the exact $100 I bought in with... So the final profit of the night was $164, but I will take it. My buddy's friend ended up $300 with his high hand win, and my friend got on a fucking crazy table and ended up $500. So I am the biggest loser... lol. My buddy made a ton of that in like a $200 pot with JJ on a Txxxxx board.. with the first place betting it the whole way... Not a play I would make but it worked.

I am still going to wait till March to play again unless my buddy wants to hit Mohegan again. I think he might since him and his son made a shit ton of money. Perhaps I will get lucky and hit the high hand this time. Anyways.. I am still not happy with my performance. I will never win against regulars during the week if I play this way. Hopefully I can work the rust out and play full games the way I play when I get up a bit. If not I will not win.

Poker Time

I tried out a new poker room tonight. After some really good results with Mohegan Sun, I decided to try Twin Rivers in Rhode Island. I did this because it is very close to me and I have been doing really well playing lately.

I decided I will start playing more and see what happens. The rules are as follows. I will play every week if I win. If I lose I wait till next month. I will invest $300 per play. I can leave whenever I want. I will keep track of all winnings and losses.

As a review of Twin River during the week.. lots of decent regulars. I think the game is very beatable but you need to play well. I think it has a lot less tourists since it does not have a hotel.

So how did I play? Very well and very badly. I read the right things but did not follow through. The big hands are as follows.

Hand #1- I have A5 suited in position and limp in. End up overplaying top pair weak kicker and lose too much to A8. I bet 20 on the flop and 30 on the turn. Really bad play here. You do not want to make big decisions with bad kickers especially when you miss your flush. So I start out -50. It kind of put me in a bad state of mind in a way.. I sort of wanted to "make it back" instead of being chill.

Hand #2 - I had QQ. I raised decent early. A player who I determined is good re-raise. I put him on AA/KK but I do not go with my read and I push. The Q on the river does not help as it gives his KK a straight. Ugh. Bad play on my part. I just did not let it go when I should have. I read it right. Did not do what I should have. REBUY!

Hand #3 - I kind of bled off a little but over time.. got down to $50, rebought.. At this point I probably should have left. I could feel I had the wrong attitude to win. However I was having fun and some good conversations. I get 22. Flop comes 248 with a couple spades. I raise big. Next guy calls. Next guy goes over the top. I read a higher set. Again.. because I know THIS GUY is a decent player. Not a top pair overplayer or a chaser. I call. Good read. Bad play. His 88 wins.

So I shook hands. Said I should have folded. Everyone did the obligatory "No way you can fold set".. but I could. I am a better player than that. I know I can beat this game and the Mohegan game. I just need to keep my cool, not get into bad situations, not try and get it all back, and play the way I know I should.

I had a good time. It was fun. The socialization was good. I hate losing. It sucks. However I can not say I got bad beat or anything. I just did not play to the best of my abilities. After two nice sessions winning 700+ each time I guess I was due for a loss. I may try Twin Rivers again next month. Not sure. Mohegan is 1h from me. Twin Rivers is 30mins. Mohegan is likely to be softer. However playing harder games can be good. Anyways.. I got a couple week timeout to figure out what is next. I really think I can make some decent money here. It's all about playing up to my potential and keeping to my strategy. We will see.