Poker Resolutions for 2009

I try this every year and it never quite works out, but I'll give it a shot.

1. Quit playing crummy aces. In other words, no playing A-7 off suit at any time unless I'm in the blind and there's not a raise. Most of the rules assume that I'm not in the blind.

2. Always leave my checkbook and/or debit card and/or credit cards at home and only take with me the money I can afford to spend. I'm doing fairly well at this already, but I forget sometimes and I invariably get into the money . . . bad girl!

3. Try to be a little tighter in the low limit games, but still have fun. We have the monte carlo board which tends to make me be a more stupid player than I already am. Ignore the board and play the cards I know I should be playing and throw the other ones away.

4. Attempt to study betting patterns more and get better at betting (in tournaments) myself.

5. Continue reading poker books. One can never learn too much about this game.

6. Keep having fun with my favorite garbage hand because if one cannot have fun, one has no reason to play. Period.

7. Remember what Doyle Brunson says at the beginning of "Poker After Dark". We don't stop playing because we get old. WE GET OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING. This ties in with #6.

8. Try not to go on tilt.

9. Respect other players at all times even if they don't respect me. Don't let them get to me or put me on tilt either.

10. Never give up. Never surrender. Never get out of the boat (that's from "Apocalypse Now").

I think that's it. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ME AND TO EVERYONE ELSE!!!

Another Notch on the Belt!

I took third place in last weekend's Saturday tournament for $180 gross. Perhaps I am on a small roll or over the worst of it anyway. The biggest problem I have is patience and I'm trying really hard to get over that. It's tough. I am also trying to figure out things like how much to bet in certain situations, i.e., if I flop a set, do I bet? If I do bet, do I bet one-half the pot? Two-thirds? Are there any hard and fast rules in this regard? I don't think so. I guess a lot of it depends on who is in the pot with you. If it's an aggressive player, perhaps checking and letting them bet is best depending on the lay of the land. If there's a straight or flush draw, it's probably best to lead out.

These are the things I have the most trouble with - the strategy part. It's like a little war and the chips are your soldiers. I have been reading "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and that has a lot of great stuff in it for poker players. My favorite "rule" has always been, "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." When you hit a big hand, you want them to bet or call. I guess this is the one thing I really love about poker - the unknown qualities of every hand and how they can change on the turn of a card - and what you do about it. Fascinating.

Happy holidays everyone. I probably won't be playing again until Saturday. I think I'll win it this time!

I'm Feeling MUCH Better Now!

Yes, I still have it. Yippee! On Saturday (13th) I played the 8:00 am. tournament at the Moose and just about decided to hang up my spurs. I had terrible luck. However, being the tough cookie that I am, I then changed my mind and said, "What the hell! I can do this." So, I came back Sunday morning, played the 8:00 a.m. tournament and won it!! Yes!! I only made a profit of $130, but you have no idea how good this made me feel. I then went on to take 4th place in the 10:00 a.m. tournament for $200, so I had a two-for-two cash day and I am on top of the world. I have Monday afternoon off (I set it aside just for goofing off on a weekday) and I just might go play a little live poker, although I am still having atrocious luck in that arena. The thing is that it's still fun, so there you go.

Anyway, happy holidays to my fans (all one of them) and best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year!

I Need a Little Break

Things have not been going all that well lately. I can't seem to hit in live games or in tournaments. I have a poker budget and I am out of money until the 15th. This might be a good thing because I am getting frustrated and annoyed and when that happens, it's probably not a good idea to play at all.

Example: Friday night. I decide to play live for awhile instead of just going home and resting up for the Saturday tournament. My budget is such by this point in time that I only have $200 for the weekend. I blow $100 of it Friday night. Blah! I flop two pair & get beat by bigger two pair. I flop a set and someone has a bigger set or rivers a boat. Good grief. It is downright ugly. Finally, I'm down to my last $12 and I decide to just go all in with pocket 8s in a kill pot (3-6 game, so now it's 6-12). I end up with 8s full of 10s and a guy with J-10 gets a jack on the river for jacks full of 10s. OK. That's enough. No rebuy for me.

I still have $100 of my poker budget left, so I go home & come back again for the $40 tournament on Saturday morning. Again, I have atrocious luck, getting beat about three times on the river. Frustration finally sets in and I go all-in with A8 offsuit in the cut-off with only the blinds to beat. I get called (believe it or not) by A9 offsuit and that's the end of that. I decide not to play any more this week.

However, by Sunday afternoon, I am totally bored, having completed all my weekend chores, etc. I take my final $60 down to the Moose and last approximately 45 minutes, getting killed consistently when I have the best hand until the damned river. My last hand was A7 (the blinds were coming and I only had $6 left so I went all-in). I flopped 2 pair and got rivered by a straight. I am beginning to feel like my buddy Phil!

So, long story short, I think I will take a break until payday. I don't want to go over my budget anyway. I'm really trying to work on that because if I let myself do so, I will spend money that I shouldn't spend and that's not good. So, I will take a one-week break and try not to even think about poker for that entire time. Now that I have this all off my chest as it were, I shouldn't have a problem. When I play my next tournament on December 20, watch out! It will be a new me!!

I CAN'T PLAY POCKET JACKS

I do not think I can play pocket jacks. Is it ever possible to play these correctly? I was playing the Saturday tournament and a tight player raised to 3 times the big blind. I looked down to find pocket jacks. Because he was a tight player, I simply called. I think my only other option was to go all-in. I don't think I would ever fold at that point unless it was strategically good to do so - for example, having two players all-in before me and I could move up in the money or something like that. Anyway, we were the only two players to see the flop.

The flop was 7-8-2 rainbow. Therefore, I'm feeling pretty good about my jacks at that point. Tight player bets about three-fourths of the pot. Again, like a little wussy girl I simply call. In hindsight, it was good that I did so. On the turn - another 7. Tight player moves all-in. I am frustrated. I don't know where I am in the hand. I have him covered, but that's not the point. I'm not sure what to do. He could have A-K, A-Q, AA, KK, QQ, of which AA, KK and QQ beat me. He's a tight player. I do not put him on a 7 or pocket sevens. I don't know why I don't put him on those hands. Just a feeling. I take forever and then call. He has the dreaded QQ. Damn it!!

I am not knocked out, but again I feel I played the jacks incorrectly. Being the tight player that he is, would he have folded to an all-in raise from me before the flop? Would he have done the same on the flop? I'm thinking I was beaten from the get-go on this one. I think I'll just fold these puppies from now on.

The Low Budget Fiasco

It was getting near the end of the month and I only had $115 left in my poker budget until the 26th, so I thought to myself, "Self, if you play the $40 tournament on Saturday, you might actually make some money to play the cash game with." Not so much. I played so badly it wasn't even funny. My first mistake was playing J-J like a little girl. At least I raised before the flop. My first mistake was not betting the flop. I actually flopped a third jack for a set, but I thought maybe I could slow play, just call and then bet and/or raise on the turn. Wrong. I checked and nobody bothered to bet, so I didn't get any extra money in the pot on the flop. The turn put three clubs on the board. I had the jack of clubs but, again, like the wussy little girl I am, I checked. Again, nobody bet. Good grief. Nothing too scary came on the river and I bet $300 and got called in one place. I won the pot but basically made no money. I am just a chicken!!! I ended up not even remotely coming close to any good hands after that. I didn't make the money. Phooey. I went back later Saturday night with my remaining $75 and lasted an entire 25 minutes (she said sarcastically). I only played about 3 hands, getting beat holding top pair, two pair and 8s full of 10s. On the last hand, it was a kill pot that I had entered all-in before the flop with pocket 8s. I got the full boat on the turn, but it ended up being only a rowboat, as the other player got a bigger boat (jacks full of tens) on the river. This was the story of my weekend. YUCK!! I'm beginning to know how my buddy Phil feels.

I am not playing again until Wednesday night after I get paid and I am not playing more than $100. It is probably lucky for me that my daughter and her boyfriend will be here for the Thanksgiving weekend, as it will keep me out of the poker room. I think I need a break. Happy turkey day everybody!!

The 32-Hour Friday

Yawn! I'm still tired. I got crazy (or crazier than usual) this weekend. I stopped in at the Crazy Moose on Friday after work to play "for a few hours". I planned on getting a good night's sleep in order to be fresh for the 8:00 a.m. Saturday tournament. This plan went awry big time. Before I even realized it, the waitress was yelling "last call" and it was 1:15 in the morning! I still had tons of chips, so I just kept playing. Then it was 5:30 a.m. and the game broke. I had already paid for the Saturday tournament. I could have gotten my money back and gone home to bed, but not me! I went grocery shopping instead. I got back to the Moose at about 6:30 and hung out playing very cheap table games until the tournament started. I must thrive on lack of sleep because we decided to split it when the last three were standing. We were all fairly even in chips and I was REALLY tired, so I figured it was a good idea. My profit ($40 buy-in and $25 dealer tip) was $150. Did I go home and sleep? Hell no! I spent $50 on live play. I finally got home at about 1:30 p.m., made a late lunch and took a 5-hour nap. I woke up and watched TV until about midnight and went back to sleep. This was the longest amount of time I've gone without sleep in at least five years.

On Sunday, I played the $25 tournament at 8:00 and the $60 tournament at 10:00 and did very badly in both. I am convinced that it was because I was too well rested - ha! On Saturday, when I'd had no sleep, I was basically acting on instinct only and not using my brain very well and on Sunday I was over-thinking every play. Good grief. If I could find some nice middle ground, I might be a threat! I am still a little annoyed about how I got knocked out of the last tournament. You can tell I wasn't playing right, though, because I called a raise pre-flop in the small blind with a Q-9 diamonds. I should have just folded. That was my first mistake. Anyway, the flop was Q-8-3 with two spades. The original raiser made a continuation bet and my next mistake was simply calling. I should have (a) raised two or three times his bet; or (b) moved all-in. I think (but I'm not sure) he would have folded. Another spade came on the turn. This card was a little scary because it put a possible flush on the board. My last and fatal mistake was moving all-in when the original raiser checked. I could have simply checked as well. I think he would have checked it down. I don't know. He thought about it for a minute and then called. He had exactly what I thought he had - an A-K with the K of spades. So, he had bascially only flush draw or the possibility of hitting a higher pair, but he had no made hand with only one card to come and I thought he made a terrible call because it was for most of his chips, but naturally he got the 10 of spades on the river and I was dead. Bummer!!

I think I will play with less sleep from now on!

THE PHIL HELLMUTH DREAM

Some people know that I love to have fun with seven deuce. It is absolutely my favorite garbage hand, and I can play it pretty well. Once I had seven deuce back-to-back. I raised both pots before the flop, bet them like aces the whole way, had to show down both hands, and won both pots, once with two pair and once with a flush. Dealer Hector (and other people) were amazed. Hector said he'd never even done that with aces. I have also never done that with aces, which I have had back-to-back on at least four occasions. Usually, I lose them both!

Anyway, my dream about Phil Hellmuth is just too silly. Somehow, we are heads up for a big WSOP tournament win, not the main event, but a bracelet event nonetheless. Being as nobody is as good as Phil (according to him), I am merely happy to be there. I have also survived with him on my right - a minor miracle. In my dream, Phil is on the button with pocket aces. Because there is only me left to bother with, he decides to trap me and limps in. I look down at seven deuce off suit. Now, in a low limit cash game, this would be a fun spot to raise, but in my dream it is a big WSOP tournament and we are the only two left, so I check. The flop is A-2-2. Phil has flopped a full house and I have three 2s. At this point, because Phil has limped in, I think I might have the best hand, so I check it to him. He thinks he is being clever and checks back to me, hoping to trap me on the turn. The case deuce falls on the turn. I am jumping up and down inside and I calmly (or as calmly as possible) check it to Phil. Phil makes a bet that is about one-third the size of the pot. He really wants a call, doesn't he? It's very difficult for him to put me on a deuce because there are three of them on the board. I let him squirm for about a minute and smooth call him. I can't see his face very well because he has his hands up in front of his mouth in the patented Phil pose, but I'm sure he's smirking under there.

On the river, I decide to let him have it. I make a pot-sized bet. I never wear sunglasses like some players, so I just look down at the table and try not to breathe. He almost beats me in the pot with his aces full of deuces and raises all in. I take about one-half second to call him and when I turn over my seven deuce and I win the tournament, he explodes. He rants and raves and calls me an idiot and all that fun stuff that he always does, and I calmly look at him and say, "I can dodge bullets, baby!" The crowd goes wild. Phil stomps off. I get to have my picture taken with a pile of money and my favorite garbage hand and I have a great story to tell the people back at the Crazy Moose and a WSOP bracelet to show off. Oh my, life is good. If only it was as good as this dream - ha!

WORLD SERIES OF POKER MAIN EVENT

Well, the "November Nine" finally had their day in the spotlight. I was rooting for Dennis Phillips or Chino Rheem. Chino seemed to be playing OK, but just got unlucky. I thought Dennis was going to be gone after two hands, but he rebounded nicely and finished third. On the pre-show several pros estimated that Ivan Demidov or Peter Eastgate would win it all. Ivan came in second and Peter first, becoming the youngest player to ever win the main event, breaking Phil Hellmuth's record by two years - way to go Peter!! I am so sick of Phil Hellmuth, but more about him in a different blog. All-in-all, it was an interesting show. Of course, I can watch and/or play poker all day, so poker shows are always interesting to me!

POCKET KINGS AGAIN!!

Shortly after I got knocked out of the 8:00 a.m. Sunday tournament, I got crazy and decided to play the 10:00 a.m. also. One lady (Penny) was simply on fire & running over the table with every inconceivable hand known to man. I don't think I've ever seen her play a tournament, but in live play she plays every hand at least to the flop. In this specific tournament, she was just a complete and total "luck box" as it were. So, when I looked down and saw pocket kings with the blinds only $25-$50, I decided I'd better make it too expensive for her to call. I raised to $400. She called me anyway. I said, "Good lord, isn't there any way to make you fold before the flop?" She did not reply. Thankfully for me, an ace came on the flop, another player went all in, Penny called & I had to fold, although I must admit I sort of went on tilt at that point. The all-in player had A-10 offsuit and Penny had called $400 pre-flop with an 8-5 hearts. Good grief. I guess if you're on fire, you'll call with anything. She naturally got a heart on the river & knocked out the all-in player. It was a good thing that there was a break shortly therafter. I sure needed a breather after that one. On the other hand, maybe I'm just jealous that I wasn't as lucky as Penny.

I HATE pocket kings

Wow! I can't tell you how many times I've been knocked out of a tournament holding pocket kings. It is simply insane. The last time was in the 8:00 a.m. Sunday tournament at the Crazy Moose in Pasco. I was in the small blind. Blinds were $100-$200 and I only had about $1300 in chips remaining. There was one limper and then Niles raised to $900 in the cut-off position. This could have been a play for the pot or he could have had a big hand. No matter. When I look down & see pocket kings, I only have one play. If I simply call the $900 and there's an ace on the flop, I have to fold and only have $400 left. If I fold pocket kings, I'm a complete and total idiot. So, I go all in. What else could I do? Niles had pocket aces. Figures. Then, to add insult to injury, Dr. Phil and Marty both indicate that they have folded kings. My only hope is to flop some straight cards. The flop is all small cards and I am drawing completely dead. Good lord! Of course, a few weeks back I flopped sets with pocket kings back-to-back and that was very sweet, but I have been knocked out of tournaments more with pocket kings than with any other hand. Maybe next time I'll just fold! (Not really)