Wow...over a month and no update...

So, it's been a little while apparantly. Maybe I should update this thing...

So let's see what's happened in the month since I wrote an update for the blog. Well, I got the job at Brantford Casino as a dealer, actually just passed my table test today as I'm writing this. Fairly excited about getting to deal for the casino, even if it isn't Hold'Em right away, it's still a very fun job and financially very sound.

The training for that has been eating my time, and I've barely touched a deck of cards(as it relates to poker I mean)... save for one weekend out at the Elite Poker Tour(my old employ), where I managed to eek out 3 final tables in 3 tournaments and one win, a very rewarding weekend from a poker standpoint.

The only other time I've played poker is making a fairly rediculous idea on Sunday night in some freezing rain that I was so bored I wanted to go to Fallsview and play, so off I went. Normally I'd have gone to Seneca since it's better, but given the timeframe(I was leaving my house at 10:30pm), most of Seneca's big games are dead at that point(I called and 2/4 NL was the biggest they still had running). So I went to Fallsview and hopped on what is actually, outside of the city of Las Vegas, the biggest cash game I've ever played in, the 5/10 NL game at Fallsview.

Right away I felt an overwhelming since of calm at the table, considering I was bringing $1000 to the table, I was fairly calm about it, and in control. Nothing much happened, I didn't want to mix it up early, and I was fairly card dead off the hop, so I got alot of time to get a real solid read on the table, and basically they worked as : Seat 1 had never played a hand for an hour. Seat 2 was a tight but solid player. Seat 3 was a pure POW(Pay-Off Wizard), and a large calling station. Seat 4 was a drunk guy who was begging to give his money away, and knew nearly nothing about Hold'Em, or if he did, the drinks had long since washed that knowledge away. Seat 5 was another big calling station. Seat 6 was a big time regular that knew everyone that worked there, was a large tilt monkey(I came to the table to the sounds of him whining about a bad beat that had happened over 3 hours ago), and wasn't overly impressive. And Seat 7 and 8 were two more fairly tight, reasonably solid players. Seat 9 was me, and Seat 10 was an immensely tight but very solid player I had played with a few times at 5/5 before.

So, there's the layout, down to business. I finally started to really feel comfortable and started looking to mix it up, taking down a few small pots and losing a few pots here and there, when I finally got into my first real big pot of the day.

The drunk asian guy in Seat 4 opened for a raise to 15 dollars UTG. Obviously this is infact, not a raise, so since he had said raise, they comitted him to 20 dollars. 3 players called to me, and I called in fairly late position with 9h/7h. The flop was 7/5/3 rainbow. The UTG player bet out now, 160 into 80. I had been looking to mix it up, and figured there was a strong chance I had the best hand still, so I re-shoved over the top all in for my $950 or so infront of me(to be fair, he only had another $250 infront of him), he snap called and I actually thought I might be in trouble, until he turned over his brilliantly played Q/4 offsuit. The turn was a 9 giving me top 2 and eliminating a Q as an out for him, leaving him just the 6 for the straight, which naturally was the river card. Ship half my stack over there please. He was polite enough, he laughed, he was having a good time, and I didn't really mind, he offered to buy me a drink, but since I don't drink, I declined, so he bought the entire table a round, and bought me a couple red-bull's to stash away for the session. Nice guy. But I wanted that money back.

So, it didn't take overly long for us to tango again, this time, he raised to 30, and I called with Ad/10d, we were the only 2 in the pot. The flop came Ac/7s/8c, and he bet out 100, another one of his rediculous continuation bets that I really had no idea what to do with. I decided to just smoothe call it, and the turn came a 9h, giving me an open ended straight draw to go with the top pair, reasonable kicker. I had seen him get way carried away a few times with ace rag, so 2 pair, or me flat out out-kicking him were all options, but I decided to just smoothe call his $150 turn bet. The river was a Jh. Perfect. He bet out $200, and only having another $150 ontop I shoved it into the middle, he snap called again, with A/J for top 2, and I showed the fact that it was my turn to suck out on him. That got me back to $1100 or so for the session.

Then it was Round 3 with the same guy, this time he raised to 30, and I looked at Ac/9c, and called again. The flop was ugly enough, K/J/9 rainbow, and he again bet out big, 100 again into 60. This is the part where I should explain, when I play, largely inspired by my summer trip to Vegas with Bruno, I almost always wear a hoodie now when I'm playing. This guy was incredibly bothered by the hoodie, and in each of these hands, he had complained about it because he wanted to be face to face with me. At one point he got up and threatened to leave the game(in the middle of this hand...) if he couldn't see my eyes. He asked me to take off the hoodie, obviously I didn't. He then asked the dealer to make me take of the hoodie. The dealer informed him he couldn't, and he looked back to me and said : "If you don't take it off I'm leaving the game". Part of me wanted to take it off just to ensure the dead money stayed, the other part of me was more vocal though, and quickly I snapped back at him, "What the fuck do I care if you stay?". That didn't impress him. Meanwhile, during all this, I'm still considering what to do, and I decide over time that I again think he's just drawing, so I call. The turn pairs that 9. That's wonderful. He bets out again, I call again. The river is a 6, and he goes all in. I snap call and he shows A/6 for bottom pair, and I show the trip 9's for the win. $1600 now.

I lose a bunch of it back over a couple sick hands, various draws and setup hands that lose me money, one in particular where it folds around to me on the button with AQ, I raise to 35, BB re-raises to 100, and I re-raise over to 250, and he shoves in. I fold and he shows he woke up with KK in the BB.

So eventually I'm at around $1200 when one of my favourite hands I've ever played comes up, I'm still so proud of this hand it scares me.

A bunch of players limp to me, and it's my button, I look down at Ad/Kd, and I raise to 60 straight(there were 5 limps so it was basically a pot raise), I get 2 callers behind. The flop is terrible, 8s/5h/3c. They both check and I bet out $100, a weakish bet, but I wanted to define my hand for fairly cheap. Right away Seat 6, the regular everyone on the staff knew, called, and the other guy folded. The way he called, I figured he either had 6/7, or a hand like 7/7, 6/6 and thought they were still good under my AK. The turn paired the 3. He checked again, and I decided he didn't have one of those pairs, because I felt like if he did, he'd have bet it there to chase me away and not let me see a river. Instead he let me fire again, which I did, another $250 with A high. He smoothe called again, and I felt absolutely positive he had 6/7 and was chasing a straight. The river really, really complicated the hand. It was a 7. I knew cold dead that he hit that card, and I had just lost the hand. I also knew there was $900 in the pot, and I didn't want to give it up that easily. He checked the river one last time, and trusting my read entirely I thought he figured I had an overpair this entire way, and was chasing the straight to steal it. I figured any fair bet on the river was going to take it, as long as I didn't wuss out. This entire thought process happened while he was checking, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had announced I was all-in. $800 on an Ace high bluff. If I thought the game was too big for me, this was proof positive it wasn't. He tanked for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually asked me a real dumb question, "Can you beat the board?", the board, once again, was 8/7/5/3/3, so I responded with a simple "Yes.", and he chuckled and said, "I beleive you too.". Well good, because I do beat that board. Infact, both my A and my K are going to play, thank you very much. He then flashed me what I already knew, and exposed the 7d. That wasn't getting him anywhere, I already knew he had that, so my reaction was nothing at all. He finally mucked and I showed him the AK, which nearly had him suicidal, slamming his chips around and swearing like crazy that he knew he had me. About 5 hands later we had a nice discussion about the hand :

"How do you make that third bet with fucking AK? What are you an idiot?"

This is the point where I'd normally let it be, but he was obnoxious, and I decided to come back at him a bit...

"I knew you weren't calling."
"Ya right, I knew you had that, I ALMOST called you fucking donk"
"Well, congratulations, you're almost a good player, and I almost didn't read you like a book, and you almost won all my chips. As it turns out...I do have all your chips, I did read you like a book, and you're not a good player. Bad beat huh?"

That'd be the point he went on insanity tilt and dumped off a wad of money before leaving in a fit of rage.

Anyway, after that pot, I had around $1900. I played one more huge pot before I left...

I call a preflop raise out of the BB with 8c/6c, because I love to put chips in play, and I felt comfortable at the table now. The flop was gin, 5/7/9 rainbow. The only time I flopped the nuts in the session. Naturally I lead right at the flop hard, betting 90 into 110. The original raiser takes two huge stacks of red chips and very slowly and carefully slides them into the pot, before I even have any idea what the dollar value is(I know both of them are over $300 from the size), I toss my stack of black chips into the middle(10 of them). The dealer eventually breaks down the guy's total bet of $740, and I take back 3 blacks and toss out the extra 40 dollars. He rolls over QQ, and I hold, and end my session at $2680, a profit of almost $1700.

And since these things are never exactly linear, or well thought out, crafted or written, who doesn't expect me to randomly switch topics again...back to today.

I went over to a friend's house from the training course at the casino, and we sat down to a game of Chinese Poker(we had both been studying up and practicing for the better part of 2 weeks now of training). We set up and played, and I crushed him for 56 points in about 4 hours of play. The game is maddeningly addicting, and a true gambler's game, moreso than anything I've ever played, the swings can be intense. 2 hours into it he had me by 14 points, and I took 70 points off him in the next 2 hours. Naturally we had money on it, so that's another nice winning poker session recently.

How to lose over $1200 in 6 hours...

Because I know you all want lessons, please observe a master at work :

Let's start online. FTOPS started last night with Event #1, a $200+16 buyin NL Hold'Em short handed event. Normally I'm fantastic at these events, I've run deep in every short handed high buyin event I've played online. This time, not so much at all. I was crushed in this event. It started early getting involved in a few pots where I had made hands and got drawn out on and my 3000 starting stack turned into 1600 within 25 minutes or so. Then came the hand that killed me :

I raised the cut-off with 9h/4h, a fairly standard play, especially 6 handed I really tend to opt for alot of preflop raising and general agression before the flop, switching to very conservative post flop because you'll find opponents ranges wider than at a 9 or 10 handed table also. Anyway, both blinds call. The flop was decent enough, Jh/2h/2c. Paired board I never like chasing a flush but the quick 100 bet into 300 and a call behind made me fairly certain my flush was going to be the best hand, so I called behind also. The turn was a 5h. The initial better led 600, and got called, I shoved behind 1150, and got called by both. The river was absolutely devestating. 2s. Three 2's on board and now I know I'm toast. It goes check, bet, fold and the guy holding QJ wins the pot with his full house. The other player had a lower flush than me so the 2 killed my shot at the 4000 chip pot.

After this, since I didn't play poker most of the day in an effort to be ready for a long night in that tournament, I decided I was ready for a game. No tilt anywhere to be seen, I even told a friend how weird it felt, I was dissapointed because I wanted to play more poker than the half hour I lasted. Tilt never factored into it.

So, I decided to make a trip out to Fallsview. Ironically the casino has been debated alot on Jackseven lately, some think it sucks, some think it's great. I agree with column a. I think as a poker room, it's an absolute nightmare. The layout is horrendous(who puts the poker room that far away from any cage?), the service is awful(I still remember the session where I sat at a table for 6 hours asking to be moved to a new table because there was absolutely no action at my table and other people who asked after me getting moved). However, there's alot of action, so it's kind of a necessity for me to go there.

Anyway, I sit down at a 5/5 NL game with $500, and quickly run it up a little bit until this hand happens, that also gave me a big realization.

The cut-off(fairly solid) raises to 35, and I'm on the button with AQo, I call here(a play I'll discuss more later), and the blinds fold. The flop is A/K/7 rainbow. The cut-off leads 65. Here's a difficult spot for me because this is the kind of continuation bet he'd make holding almost ATC still, so I'm almost forced into a call, which I make(more on this later too). The turn is a complete brick, a 3. He checks now, which really confused me because I wasn't sure if that meant he had a hand like QQ or JJ and was giving up, or he had a big hand like AK, KK and was trying to trap another bet out of me. The river was another Ace. Now he leads 150, and again I'm faced with another fairly tough decision, it's possible we have the same hand, it's slightly possible I have him outkicked although I doubt it, so I have to decide if he has QQ or JJ and is trying one last steal effort, or if he has AK or KK and is value betting. I decide wrong and call, and he shows AK.

Now, let me take a moment to dissect this hand a little more. I discussed this with Griffin when I got home, and I discovered something with him during the conversation. Calling ranges should be even wider than I normally make them. I hate the idea of calling any raise with AQ. I already don't call raises with A/10, A/J, KQ, typically, obviously all this is circumstantial, but for the most part. Now I'm fitting AQ into that range. I'd rather have been calling his raise with 6d/4d than with AQ. 6d/4d, J/10 suited, any hands like that are easy post flop. I either hit big, I outplay, or I fold. There's no difficult decisions to leave yourself after the flop like there is playing a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ. All those hands leave you is alot of post flop work. And I feel like I'm too good at this game to put myself in a marginal spot like that where I have very difficult decisions.

A few hands later I go broke with 5s/2s on a As/10s/5d flop, and that leads to me reloading.

During this time, there was one player just steamrolling the table, he was hitting insanely well, a very agressive kid, although he seemed to know more or less what he was doing, he was just very agressive, and at the time was a card rack. All the same, I wanted to tangle because he was very agressive. That lead to this hand after I had worked my stack up again :

There were a few players that left the table and came back and posted(3 in all), they all check everyone else folds to the maniac holding the button, he goes to 50 straight. I'm in the BB and look at AA. Perfect, now I decide that although I don't like limping with players behind, I think I can be fairly safe they can't call after I have, so I just smoothe call the extra 45. The posters all fold.

The flop is 2d/5s/6s. Not a bad flop but not great. I lead at the flop almost as it's being dealt, trying to sell him on a pro-bet here. I bet 120. He instantly comes over the top to 300. I'm holding about 600 total at this point. I decide to just call the extra 180 and see the turn, already deciding I'm letting him set me all-in on the turn(barring a spade then I'll give it some thought). Turn is a blank, 9d. I check and he says all-in and I've called before he even puts a chip in the pot and flipped up my aces. I'm fairly certain I know what he's rolling over and I know I'm a 4 to 1 favourite. Sure enough, he shows me As/Qs. Almost a 2k pot now and I've got it in a 4 to 1 favourite. But, just to give me the final kick in the crotch for the day, the river peels off the 8s. Ship it over there please.

After that I take 1 more bad beat as I drive home, taking the back way from my house I get stuck at the Welland Canal bridge for about 20 minutes. Nice way to top off the night. Overall things kind of sucked.

Guilt update

Weird, it's been quite a while since I did one of these updates, maybe I should write one up.

So, where am I at?

Well, I've just moved most of my money off Pokerstars. It's nothing against Pokerstars at all, I do think it's the best site on the internet, but unfortunately I don't qualify for any rakeback bonus', whereas I will be able to get it on Full Tilt. That's 5k or more a month I'm earning just to switch sites, so I'm in the process of making that switch. Therefore, there hasn't been much for me in the way of online poker lately, I play a little every night, but not as intensely as I had been for the last few months.

I'm really eager for the FTOPS events kicking off this coming week, I think I'm in a good frame of mind poker-wise, and I feel like my tournament game is coming around a bit. I've been doing alot of reading and watching on card runners the MTT videos and entries to see if I can learn anything, and I'm more comfortable than I was a month ago playing an MTT. Some progress was shown at the live tournaments I run. I had played in(without an actual count), 15 or so events, and made 1 final table(finished 3rd), up until this week. This week I've played 2 events, and won them both.

The first event on Wednesday I felt like I got fortunate in some spots where I normally don't get lucky. One big spot was a 10/10 vs AA showdown where I caught a 10 on the flop. I felt like I played well though, grinding my way through some card-dead spells, and maximized opportunties.

Tonight however I think was a big turning point. Almost from the onset I felt like I dominated the tournament, there was hardly a moment I wasn't either chip lead or 2nd in chips. Granted, I ran fairly well(made 2 sets of quads, only got paid once for them), but I think the big thing tonight was I had a remarkable efficiency in pots I was in. Typically I'm very good at big pot poker, because I rarely put my money into a big pot when I'm behind. However, I find that I bleed chips back trying to play smaller pots and slowly widdling back to the pack before I double up again. Today was the opposite, today I won every big pot I played, but found a better rythmn in the pots around those big pots where I was just further extending myself from the field. I felt basically from 15 minutes into the tournament that I was going to win, and it worked out.

My tenative FTOPS schedule is now finalized, the only ones I know 100% for sure are I'll be playing Event #1(6 handed NL Hold'Em) and Event #3(PL Hold'Em) on Wednesday and Friday respectively. After that there are a bunch of question marks, although I deffinitely want to be in the 2 million dollar guarantee main event. Most of these will be straight buyins.

As for other poker, I went down to Fallsview on Tuesday and saw Marc and Bill there, hung out for a while, saw Marc roll a little bit, unfortunately I had to leave for work mid-way through the day and later found out he had been eliminated, although I'm fairly certain this was still a pretty good month for him, what with the marriage and all. His track record is one of the "new wave" of players who continue to amaze with their consistency. Guys like Scott Clements, Marc, Jared Hamby and other internet pros that have taken poker by storm not just by the magnitude of their accomplishments but by the consistency they accomplish these feats showcase how far poker has come and how well some people can play the game these days.

On a personal note, I got some fantastic news(hopefully, assuming from here on out things go well), that I got a job at Brantford Casino as a dealer. I'm making fair money playing poker, but the ability to have a well paying job and keep my poker bankroll seperate from that will be key, because were it not for constantly taking checks out for living expenses from my bankroll, it would be over $40,000, instead of the over $20,000 I cashed out a while ago from Pokerstars. This should make the run I'm on a little bit easier, both because I don't have to worry about finances at home, and because I don't have to take money from my bankroll. At least that's the hope. I'm very excited about that, obviously under the assumption I pass a credit and criminal background check.

Turning Stone...Part 1.

Well, that was fun. I say this multiple times, and every single one has a fun meaning. Here, watch.

Well, that was fun. The trip here was basically hell. Griffin had been stopped at a border before trying to get to the USA for a month or two under a work visa, so this created problems for us this time coming down here also, as we again got held for over an hour at the border.

During this time, just as a helpful aside, Amanda nearly got me shot. She text messaged me good luck, which I appreciated, but it just so happened that it was during our wait in the border office, which has signs that say "No Cell Phone Use Permitted", you're basically not allowed to move while they go over your papers. So, the text came through during that time, and not noticing the signs for no phone use, I pulled out my phone to read it, and promptly was told to put the phone away by a guard there that literally had his hand on his gun holster. Fun fun fun.

So, we got to Turning Stone around 5:00am, give or take, and checked in. We got up to the room and went back down to check and see what time the tournament started, then Griff decided that since the tournament started at 10:00am it'd be fun for him to play a cash game. I went up and crashed, he walked in after about an hour having lost a 5/5 buyin($500). Not a good start.

Well, that was fun. I woke up and headed down to register, actually fairly early, so I sat at a 1/2 table to just fling some cards around while I waited for the tournament, and played basically one hand of interest. I still don't know how this guy played this weak.

There's an early position raise to 10 and 6 calls to me in the SB with Ad/5d, so I call also. Flop is Kd/6d/3c. I flop the flush draw. I check intending to check raise someone in since I have 80 behind and I'm willing to gamble at this point with the pot already at 62. Checks all around amazingly to the button who bets 20. I raise all-in. It folds around to him and he goes into the tank, muttering to himself about how he thinks I flopped trip 6's. Eventually he flashes KQ face up and folds it, asking me if I had trip 6's. I literally laugh at him and tell him no, and flash the 5d, and muck the other card. Time to go register for the tournament.

Well, that was fun. 300+40, gone in 3 hands. Fold, fold, and then this. We start with 5000 in chips, blinds start at 25/50 and are a comfortable 40 minute levels. Really nice structure. So, I'm in the SB in a limped pot, and I call up with 6c/7c. BB checks. Flop is Ac/5d/2c. I pick up a flush draw. I check, BB leads out 200 at the pot of around 250. Folds all around to me, I call. Turn is a 9c, completing my flush. I check again, intending to check raise here, and he complies by really overbetting the pot here, 1000 at the pot of 650. Now, we started with just under 5k each so there's not alot of room left for me since there are still scare cards, I figure I'll shove and kill the hand here, unless it's flush under flush which I'm willing to bust on early, although there's no indication that's the case since he's really betting hard now and I doubt he'd do that with a made flush. I shove in. He borderline insta-calls which scares me, and rolls over A/2 for 2 pair. River is an Ah. Ship that man his pot. That's my 340 dollar tournament stay. 3 hands.

So, upset, I go back to what I know best, cash games, and buy in to the 5/5 game for 500 bucks. I really only played 2 hands of vast importance.

Early middle position, I look at AQ, so I raise to 20. I get 3 callers. Flop is Q/J/3 rainbow. I fire out 50. One player calls(SB, so he's out of position for the rest of the hand). Turn is a 10. He checks again and I fire $100. He calls again. Pot is now $380. River is an ace. He checks again, which to me says, "I can't possibly have a king because how can I rely on you to bet on a 4 card straight board". Which means, it's Kenny Tran value bet time. This is the biggest part of my NL Cash game play I'm working on. I fire out $200. He folds, but at the same time, I'm happy that I still bet that card when alot of people would just check behind.

The other big hand I played, I limped from middle position with Qd/Jd. It was raised to 20 dollars behind me, and I called along with one other player. Flop was Kd/10d/4c. Open ended straight flush draw, I'm getting a big pot here. I check. The initial raiser flat shoves 250 bucks at the pot of 70. Other player folds and it's back to me, I actually deliberate for a moment because I'm 100% sure he has AA right now and just hates that flop, so a few of my outs are gone. But it's not more than 5 seconds before I call, I'm not ever laying that hand down on that flop. Turn is a brick, river is a 9c, making my straight. For those of you wondering, the way I calculated it, and this is obviously optimum, I know he has aces so I have 2 Aces, 4 9's and 9 diamonds that make me good. 15 outs. There are 8 players meaning there are 20 dead cards(hands and the flop and burn), so 32 cards remaining. 15 of which are gold for me, he's got to fade half the deck twice to hold, and I need to hit one of my half of the deck in two cards. We're actually after I did the math more specifically back home, dead even to win. He's 50.61%, I'm 49.93%. So if I play this hand 100 times, I profit $3500(50 wins x the profit of the 70 dollars dead money in preflop). Easy call.

After that hand I middled around for a while, won a few more chips, cashed out $1590, profit of a thousand. So that's a good middle of my day, time to grab a nap since I'm running on 3 hours of sleep.

Another good day...

I set a new personal best today, more on that and a few hand histories, but first thing's first, I figured this would be a good time to talk a little about limit poker stratagies...

I must be the worst person alive for even thinking myself qualified to write this. First let's start with a little background on myself.

I've played alot of limit poker at Brantford Charity Casino a few years ago I used to go almost every day down there to play the 5/10 game. I did well, but this is before I became the player I am today, I just always had a real nack for limit poker from the start I found.

Skip ahead, I start working for a Poker tour, running poker tournaments, playing them nightly, and so on. I became a solid NL player and a solid MTT player, but still always said I considered myself a better limit player than NL.

Skip ahead again, and finally I clear a bankroll after a very enjoyable, successful(cashed in my first WSOP event ever, although it wasn't an overly big number, those few days with Bruno at the WSOP will be long lasting memories, we had alot of fun, and both cashing was icing on the cake), and lucrative(over 5000 dollars earned for the trip) trip to Las Vegas, my first trip down there, I decided to toss some money down into online poker and see what became of it.

I bought in for 500 to Pokerstars after returning from Las Vegas, and have run that up to over 17,000 dollars currently on the site, and that's after I withdrew 5000 of it to pay the bill for my new TV(61" JVC HD-ILA HDTV, and all the new upgrades that had to be bought along with it), I plan on withdrawing a 2nd poker paycheque in a day or two, another $5,000 give or take.

How did that happen? Limit poker. I'm back at it, so I figured I'd take some time to explain my theories on limit poker. You may read this and decide I'm an imbecile, if so, sobeit. This is just how I've been so far pretty damn successful at a game alot of today's poker players find very difficult.

First, I want to make it clear that all these tips are strictly 6 handed mid-level limit games(5-10, 10-20).

Limit poker is a cruel game for a couple reasons, so let's establish the large problem people have with transitioning NL-limit poker.

Protecting your hands.

Okay, you've flopped top pair after raising preflop with AK in a 10-20 game and getting 4 callers. Flop comes Kh/6h/4c. Now would be a time to slam it in NL and try and protect against a potential draw. So go ahead and bet your 10 dollars into the 40 dollar pot, and lay him 5 to 1 to draw. Kind of hard for any flush draw not to see equity in that call now huh?

My solution isn't anything overly sophisticated, first of all you want to ensure yourself you're using position very well, and for me, with that flop, I won't even bet that flop. I'll check it, hope to see a turn card that's a blank. Now 2 things have happened. First of all, his odds have cut themselves down drastically after seeing that brick on the turn, and 2nd of all, you're now in the big bet stage. So now you can bet 20 at the 40 pot, and lay him 3 to 1, with 1 card to come to chase that flush draw, with him having already seen the blank turn card peel off. You'll find first of all you'll be able to protect your hands more here, and 2nd of all, you won't spill money to the table as they call your flop bets on the draw and spike the turn.

So, with that out of the way, the specific games I play are 5/10 and 10/20(mostly 10/20 now) limit, 6 handed games. That being key for the next part of the story.

I play completely maniacal at the table, raising any two suited cards, connected cards, or face cards or pairs, as long as I'm not UTG. I find this works for alot of ways, even if I run into a hand that 3 bets me, I'm being layed a strong price to call, and see a relatively cheap flop(rather than facing an all-in re-shove) and I can win some huge pots. Alot of my biggest pots are with hands that would turn a stomach, 10h/4h cracking KK, with a K on the flop and I make a flush on the turn, things like that. While it sounds like that's just me running exorberantly well, it's really not, I think I put myself in alot of positions to win pots, either stealing some money by stealing blinds(keep in mind stealing blinds at 10/20 limit is the same as stealing blinds at 5/10 NL, so it can be very equitable to steal blinds frequently), or by flopping large. It's kind of similar to Marc Karam's NL strategy for low-level NL cash game tables, but only slightly altered to a limit table. The other key to adopting a stratagy this intense is the last part of the lessons :

The absolute most important part to limit poker, SAVE, YOUR, BETS

This can absolutely not be stressed enough. You have KK at a 10/20 table, raise to 20 preflop, get re-raised to 30, cap it to 40 and the player calls. Pot is 80 dollars. Flop is Kh/6h/2s. He bets out 10, you raise 20, he calls. 120 in the pot. Turn is a 10c. He checks, you bet out 20, he calls. 160 in the pot. River is a 9h. He bets out 20. You're actually being layed 9 to 1 to call here. Unfortunately, 98% of the time he's just made his flush(yes there are the odd players that are crazy enough to bet there with the pot odds they leave behind, but you let them have it). The truth is the biggest key to limit poker is not saying "Fuck, I think I just got rivered...I call.". You know you're beat, wonderful, fold. The biggest thing about limit poker is one key statistic, which I track along with my other statistics on limit play for myself, and that's "Showdown's won". Mine over the course of this entire run I'm on, is 89%. I'd say that's fairly strong. That's why I win at limit poker. I don't waste money to see how bad the river card was to me. Limit will allow chasing, accept it and don't pay to see it, and you'll do fine.

So with that said, back to my day today, I won't list alot of examples of hands, mainly because I was multi-tabling so I can't really remember all that many quite frankly, but what I do remember is booking a $3600 dollar day today total. I bought into 4 tables of 10/20 at 500 a peice, and eventually had 5600 in play over the 4 tables, including one table over 2k. What I do remember is I fell in love with suited connectors again today, I made countless large pots with 5/6, 6/7, 4/5 suited, and one of the sickest pots I've ever played which I will take the time to write out.

I'm UTG with QQ, so I raise it up to 20, it's called by 2 players. 60 in the pot to the flop. The flop is Q/8/5 rainbow. I bet out 10(ya, I bet that, no use check raising here), it gets raised, and 3 bet, so I cap it to 4 bets, it's called and called. 180 in the pot and we see the turn. A. I bet out 20 praying that's a good card for me, it's raised to 40, 3 bet to 60. I cap it to 80, call, call. 420 in the pot now. River is a 2. I bet out again, raise, 3 bet, I 4 bet, call, call. 660 dollar pot. My QQ goes up as the winning hand, and I rake the pot, neither of the other players show(surprising as you'll see in a second). I go through hand history to see what they had. 88 and 55. All 3 of us flopped a set.

So, after the quality poker session and a stop in at the mechanic's for an oil change, I drive out to Oakville and meet up with a few friends to go see Toronto FC play the New York Red Bulls.

This was my first MLS game, and since I seem to now almost always include little life lessons, here's todays. Even you Ottawa kids on jackseven. Make a trip to see Toronto FC play. It's a blast. Amazing atmosphere, the crowds are so heavily into it, singing, dancing, it's one gigantic party, like Mardi Gras in a stadium. It was the most fun I've had at a sporting event, ever. And I regularily go to Habs games in Montreal, I've been to Leafs games, been to Sens games, been to an NFL football game(Cincinatti), been to countless MLB games, been to a Raptors game, and I saw the Blue Jays win the World Series(granted I was 10 at the time, but still). Nothing compared to the sheer enjoyment of the Toronto FC game. I highly recommend you go down and check it out. The stadium is gorgeous and it's one hell of a party.

Griffin and I are planning to go down to Turning Stone next weekend for the tournament series down there, if you're planning on being there, we'll see you there. Griffin'll probably be the one sitting at a final table, and I'll probably be the one that busts in 14 minutes and goes and wins it all back playing a ring game.

Brantford Session, the really good kind. Infact, call Guinness.

Well, today was the day where this really resonated with me, that I can do this as more than a recreational basis. Today was simultaneously 2 personal bests of mine. It was my highest cash game session win, and it was one of the most grotesque win rates I've ever seen much less personally posted.

So, without further adieu, my trip to Brantford Casino.

Basically the story goes, Griffin backed out of a trip to Fallsview, so I was left with nothing to do today. After sitting around and playing break even poker online, I decided I was kind of bored, and decided to head down to Brantford Casino where they offer some quality limit poker games, since that's what I've made this run at right now.

So, I got there around 8:00, waited for over an hour to get onto a table and got on at around 9:00. I sat at a 10/20 limit table, with 500 dollars.

For the first little while it was fairly boring, the table was inredibly easy, and I was real comfortable sitting there. One thing you should know before we go any further, is I'm bit of a maniac at limit poker, so when you hear stories of some of these hands, keep in mind, it's actually a very specific stratagy I have for the game.

In any event, I finally got a playable hand and decided to come into a pot. Qc/Jc, and saw a flop of K/Q/6 rainbow, 1 club. I bet out from EP, and got a raise and a couple of callers, so I called behind. Turn was the Ac, so I slowed down for a check call here now. It went bet 20, raise to 40, call infront of me, so I naturally called, and initial better called. River was a 10. I bet out, and only got one caller(not sure if I liked my bet here, more I thought about it after I could probably milk another bet out of some people if I check). Anyway, nice pot.

After that hand, I promptly bled chips back..

First, with A/10 in the cut-off raising and getting only BB to call. Flop was 10/4/6, he bet out I raised, he re-raised and I 4 bet him still figuring I had the best, he called. Turn was a 5. He checked, I bet, he raised, I called. River was a 7. He bet out. I flat folded to save the extra bet and he turned over 6/3. Nice hand?

Next, with A/J also in the cut-off the next rotation, I raised, got 3 callers from button, SB and BB. The flop was Ac/9h/4h(I had no hearts). I bet out, got everyone to call. Turn was a Jh. Not the best card but still not that bad. Checked to me so I bet again, and got everyone calling. River was a 7h, and it promptly went bet, raise infront of me. Obviously I folded. After that hand I was down to my original 500(actually a little more, I think it was 570 or so), when Griff called me to see what I was doing. I told him I was at the casino, and told him how I was doing. Now, this is important for the really insane part of this story. This call was right around 10:30pm.

The hand immediately following that phone call, I was in the BB. The cut-off raised, button called, SB called, and I called with Qc/9c. Pot sat at 80. Flop was gin, Jc/8c/6c. SB led out at the pot and bet 10, and I was going to raise, I wanted value right off the hop, but I saw the cut-off already reaching for his chips, and he tossed the 20 in before I could stop him. So, I decided to just call the 10 that I was initially faced with, to commit him to that raise to 20, so I could 3 bet it. The button called the 20, and the SB went to 30. I slammed over to 40, capping it. cut-off called, and button called. Pot was now $240. As if the flop wasn't gin, the turn was the absolute end all, be all, of gin cards. 10c. Perfect. Now there's 4 clubs on board, and I'm absolutely positive that the ace and king are out there. SB leads again for 20, and I smoothe call that 20, hoping cut-off will do me a favour again. And again he complies by raising to 40. Button calls the 40. SB goes to 60, and I cap it at 80(exact same betting pattern as the flop), everyone calls behind. Pot is now $560. River is a blank, a 3h I beleive, which really kind of upset me actually, I was hoping the board would pair because I had to beleive the other kid still in this hand(button), had a set and was chasing a boat. SB led out again for 20. I didn't screw around this time and I raised to 40. Cut-0ff called the 40, and the button finally folded. SB came back at it again to 60, and I re-raised again to 80. Cut-off still called, and SB called. Pot of $800. Cut-off showed KK with the Kc, SB showed AK, with the Ac, and I showed my straight flush. Ship it.

That put me close to 1200 for the session now. And that pretty much was the opening of the flood gates.

After a few more smaller pots, I had built it up to 1400 infront of me, and then my next big hand happened(remember what I said about hands that may not make sense, this is one of them...).

UTG I am dealt 10h/8h. This is the type of hand in limit I like to see flops with. Unfortunately I don't like my position, so I merely put on a semi-bluff and try and represent something more. I raise from UTG to 20. It's called twice before it's re-raised to 30, and 2 more calls behind that. Being that the pot is so big now, I decide to cap it and hope to flop large, knowing bad flops are easy to leave here, so I cap, and everyone in the pot calls. 6 players capped. Pot is 240. Flop is weak for me, even though I do make top pair. 10/6/4. I lead out 10, and it goes fold, fold, to the re-raiser, who raises to 20. Call, fold to me, so I call the extra 10. Pot is now 300. Turn isn't terrible. 5. Still a rainbow board, but now I do happen to find myself a straight draw. I check. Raiser bets 20, and it's called, so I call behind. River is gin, the 7. I lead out the 20, it gets called, and called. The raiser shows his overpair, QQ, the other player randomly shows 3/3, also for a straight now, and I show the high straight for the 360 dollar pot.

Now I'm sitting at nearly 1600, feeling good, playing pretty well, extracting chips efficiently, and I'm running really well right now too, so I'm in game mode.

I win another pot off the player who called that hand with 3/3 on every street. The first one I have 10/10, raise, get called by a few players. Flop is 8/6/4. I bet out, he calls along. Turn is a 6. I bet, he raises now, and I call. River is a 10. He bets out out of turn, so I check, and then raise his bet, he folds 3/3 face up this time after misplaying it brutally again.

A few hands later he calls a fairly well done bluff by me, I thought...on a K/K/6/A/2 board, with 4/2. A little startling, and a small dent, but that's alright.

The next hand I'm UTG with KK. Being the goofy player I am, I decide to just call here, because they're almost worthless until I've seen the flop. 4 players behind me all come along with raises until it's capped back to me with 5 players in the hand. I call. Pot is at 200. Flop is K/6/2. BB leads out, I raise, everyone folds to the BB who re-raises, I 4 bet, and he calls. Pot is now 280. Turn is a 9. He bets out, I raise, he 3 bets, I 4 bet(we're now uncapped), he raises again, and I 6 bet him, he calls. Pot is now $520. River is a Q. He bets out, I raise again, and smartly he finally realizes he's beat, but still calls, and shows 99. I show my KK for the 600 dollar pot, pushing me past $2000 infront of me now.

The table starts to fold away which is crushing to me since I was really loving the table, but I get one last pot in.

I call into a 6 way pot with 6h/8h. Pot is 60. Flop is literally startling to me. 5h/7h/9h. 2nd straight flush in a few hours, and it's right off the flop this time. The pot is capped before it even gets to me, so I call along. 5 players to the turn, pot is now $260. Turn is a Qc. Bet, raise, call, fold infront of me, I 3 bet, call, call, fold. 3 of us to the river. Pot is now $480. River is a 3s. Really upset there wasn't another heart since someone had to hold the Ah in this pot, and my straight flush is fairly well masked. It goes bet, call to me, I raise, and get called by both. One who flopped a baby flush(2/4 of hearts), the other one with 99 for top set. $600 dollar pot.

The last players from the table leave, and I look at the clock. 1:00am.

I look back at the castle of chips infront of me, and grab racks and start racking it up. 5 racks later, I'm just shy of the full 2500, $2480 was the final tally.

Just to really put this into perspective now, that's 1910 dollars, in 2 and a half hours of 10/20 limit. 95 big bets. 38 big bets / hour(these numbers are all during the streak I went on, the final tally is less gaudy but still fairly rediculous, 4 hours, 24 big bets / hour.

After my table had basically disintegrated, some new players came to sit down. I spent about a half hour or so at the table, but didn't like it, they all were younger, tighter, fairly solid players, so I just got up and walked out.

After that, I called Griff and told him how I had done, and I think he thought I was kidding at first since we had just talked about 3 hours before hand and I was even, but twas no joke good sir. Was just a real good run. Felt wonderful.

And to end the story on a creepy, weird note, another of my human interest stories. This one comes from me going to buy gas for the car-ride home. I stopped in at the gas station, and went to go pay for my gas, and noticed the new Maxim Magazine was out, so I picked it up. Erica Durance is on the cover, and she's a wonderful specimen of the human species. Anyway, I take the magazine up to the counter to pay for it and the gas, and this weird guy behind the counter, whose really overly polite, looks down at the magazine and goes, "Nice...". Nothing out of the ordinary, I concur with his sentiment that she is an attractive person. He then gets really, really creepy. In the picture she's wearing just underwear. He goes, "I wish I could get her out of that bra"...which is a little over the line, but okay. He then, and I couldn't make this up if I tried, proceeds to rub the picture of her, right where her breasts are. I pay for the magazine, and promptly tell him I'll just switch it out for a different one since that one is "damaged". He doesn't understand but allows it, and I leave the story much more creeped out than I once was.

Anywhoo, since I've typed for way too long anyway, let me pass along one final note to people. If you enjoy music, and the various melodies and harmonies that can be created my musicians, please, I'm begging you, go buy Hurt "Vol.2". Hurt is one of the best bands in music right now, and this CD is absolutely terrific.

Update(poker and life)...

So, this should be different, merely because I'm going to use this as a way to vent about alot of stuff, and this may come off however it comes off, I frankly don't care what people think of this issue of the blog, but since it is wrapped around poker let's at least start there.

I have this friend, we'll call him Shmiffin Shmenger as an alias. He has been a friend of mine for a long time now, ever since we travelled across North America playing a computer game together. Eventually there came a day where he decided to move in with me, and we got a place in Oakville together(the place, just for the record, was an absolute hole in the earth).

Anywhoo, he, around playing the computer game we played back in the day at the very highest level possible, decided he wanted to play poker too, and he was playing like 5 tables, and burning through a little money playing low stakes and learning. This to me, was weird, I spent my time reading and studying the game before I ever bought in for money. He jumped right into the fire, with some success but overall was basically a break-even player.

Something happened though, he figured this game out. I would say, right now today, I don't know a better NL Hold'Em tournament player than Griffin...I mean, Schmiffin. Granted I know of some other monsters in the MTT scene thanks to jackseven, like fishbones namely(congrats on the 65k btw, methinks it's time you ponied up for a WPT event). However, I've never seen a run like Schmiffin is on right now. In the last month or so, he's finished 3rd of 448 players for $3500, 3rd of 338 for $1900, 4th of 1095 for $1750, 2nd of 1130 for $3300, 1st of 276 for $7200 and 3rd of 1048 for $4300. That's over $20,000 in the last month or so.

Dating back a few months now, we were the opposite, I played the MTT scene, and he was a cash game junkie. Suddenly, about a month and a half ago(shortly after my trip to Las Vegas), we had a discussion where we both realized we were playing the wrong game. He started the MTT, because he's a monster at finding the right times to gamble, and always builds big chip stacks and contends.

Me, I'm a more reserved player, and thus I started out on a cash game run. Since I got back from Las Vegas, I bought in to Pokerstars for 400. I've turned that in to around 7000, and that's after taking some money out of the site for the first time. I've climbed from playing 2/4 limit and 1/2 limit, to playing regularily at 10/20 limit now online. Infact, and I know this because since I decided to do this I keep emmaculate records of my cash game play to ensure I'm ahead of the curve at the game I'm playing. In 23 days now, I have not once had a losing day. Granted that doesn't seem drastic, but 3 weeks of playing 5 hours every day(minimum), and never booking a loss, has seen my account steadily soaring. Can I keep this up? I'm sure not, but at the same time I don't feel like I'm doing anything drastically special or even running that well. I always considered myself a much better limit than NL player, and I rarely lose at limit poker anyway, this is just kind of a real hot-streak ontop of my already, what I consider very solid play.

It's become weird talking poker with Griffin...oops, Schmiffin, nowadays. When we talk, I don't want to get too nutty about it because we're both very much realists about these runs and that they can't last forever, but at the same time neither of us thinks we're doing anything extraordinary right now, and there's a level of excitement you can see in the way we discuss poker now, as if maybe this game is beatable, and this is a realistic profession to have. Obviously we knew it was, but had struggled with the idea that we could realistically do it for money steadily, and now there's a light at the end of that tunnel.

He might correct all this with a hate laced tirade about me putting words in his mouth, but this is the way I feel now. I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. It's refreshing, and it's been alot of fun earning between 189(worst day of the last 23), and 941(best day of the last 23) dollars a day for the last 23 days straight. Does that continue? No. Can I play this game consistently at a high level and expect to make money steadily playing limit, a game I consider myself very, very good at? Absolutely.

This all comes on the heels of me quitting my job at a computer sales store in the area. I didn't do it for poker, however, I did do it because of poker, if that makes any sense. I have alot of expendable money in various poker bankrolls, and ontop of that, I earn fairly consistently in online cash games. I didn't particularily need a job, but I liked the financial security of a guaranteed paycheck. However, I was not ready to work somewhere I hated working for that guaranteed paycheck. I quit after several bad days and several run ins with management and other personnel. If I can make a suggestion, never work in a field that has commisioned sales, maybe it's just my 2 experiences with it now, but it creates a really competitive and tense work environment.

And just for fun, despite this being related to poker precisely no way at all, I attended a few screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week, the Midnight Madness showings.

The first one I attended was The Devil's Chair, this creepy English horror film, that was fairly tense, very gory, and slightly creative. It got a bit bogged down in the middle, albeit intentionally, and it got really repetative in the early going repeating the same jokes over and over, but the payoff was worth it. Pretty satisfying horror movie, although everyone including a few friends, kept telling us(myself and Griffin...that's right, I said it, fuck Schmiffin), to wait until Saturday's movie.

The next night we went to a martial arts movie starring Donnie Yen, one of the gods of Martial Arts films right now, who North American movie fans will recognize from Highlander: Endgame, Blade II and Shanghai Knights. He's starred in some badass movies overseas too, specifically SPL(Sha Po Lang). The other star of the film, Collin Chu, who was in The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, as Seraph. The movie, entitled Dao Huo Xian(FlashPoint), was an inredibly done martial arts film that used alot of MMA fighting styles, submission holds and made the fight sequences all look incredibly realistic and cool. No wirework. No shenanigans. Just incredibly realistic looking straight fight scenes. The last one, between Collin and Donnie, was mind blowing and drew a standing ovation from the audience.

And the third one, the last of the festival, entitle À l'intérieur(The Inside), I don't even know what to say. The Weinstein Group bought it at the festival, and intends on releasing it. Where, I'm not sure. Because there isn't a hope it's on a North American theater screen. This movie was brutally, unrelentingly intense and terrifying, immensely gory, disturbing and haunting. This was one freakishly intense horror movie, that stemmed from a very basic story. It shows that these French directors coming out of France with horror movies really know what they're doing(Alexandre Aja also had a big debut in the same vain, called High Tension, that was also a simple story and just so rediculously well paced, tense and gory that you can't help but love it). This made High Tension even look tame.

Why do I babble on about all this? This was my first time at a film festival, and the experience is incredibly cool. The movies are light years better than some of the drivel Hollywood churns out(especially right now, Mr.Woodcock? Are you serious?). I strongly suggest going out to a festival, meet the directors, stars, talk to them, and support them and their efforts in making creative, original films. All three of these movies, if nothing else, had a style or way about them that was unique to movies I've seen, and I'm a huge fan of them.

To anyone playing online poker and not making any headway, keep your chin up. The game is beatable, it takes time. You may not be ready yet, but there'll be a point where you find a comfort zone, and you start finding the game borderline easy, and feel invincible(quoting Schmiffin), and this game becomes beautiful.

Heads Up Challenge...

So, if you're unfamiliar with the terms, scroll down and read the preview thing. If you're reading this on Jackseven, basically me and a friend of mine had a prop bet where we'd play a best 2 out of 3 heads up series, if I won, he, a die hard Leafs fan, would have to wear my Habs jersey to a sports bar on October 6th(Habs vs Leafs round 1 this season) and cheer openly for the Habs and declare the Leafs suck everytime the Habs scored. Likewise the other way, if he won I'd wear a Leafs jersey and so on...

One thing I want to make clear to anyone from the tour that's reading this. We trash talk each other, alot. But the truth is, I have as much respect for Alex as I have for any player I've sat at a live table with, and I think he has at least some respect back for me. He's a very solid player who thinks the game very well, and if nothing else putting this prop bet on the table was a way for us to take these games as serious as anything.

So...onto the show.

GAME 1 :

Game one started off a little slow, basically a simple feeling out phaze. The structure was 10,000 in chips, the blinds were 50/100 to start, and raised every 15 minutes. Alex started off a little agressively, I think largely because he knows I play an agressive heads up game typically, and would want to take command early, so he took the play away alot. So I became a little more patient. I widdled down early until the first fairly big hand we played came up, about 30 minutes into the match.

I was the SB, and looked down at AA. The first thought that ran through my head was, if I smoothe call here, he'll be able to peice this together later on streets, because we're both big fans of slow playing big pairs heads up. So I decided to raise. Blinds were 100/200, I raised to 600, a fairly standard play from my button, I do it alot. The play was basically an odd trap. Smoothe calling looks more like aces here to him than this does, and I'm very likely to be re-raised in this spot if he has any real hand since my range is still ATC at this point. Sure enough he announced re-raise, and went to 1800 total. This was the point where I thought to myself calling is a viable option, because I had already gotten what I wanted, and would play the hand out with position. The problem was we were still deep enough he could leave a top pair or something if he really had a bad feeling about post-flop action, and I wanted the kill right here. So I decided to re-raise once more, not overly big, but a way to get him fully committed to the pot. So I re-raised another 2000 ontop. This was my way of basically hoping he'd call and then be so deep into the pot at this point that he couldn't leave. Unfortunately after tanking for quite a while he folded.

That worked my way back from being widdled down to fairly even, when the killshot of round 1 occured :

He was SB, with blinds now at 200/400, and raised to 1300. I looked at 6s/7s, which is a marginal hand heads up despite it's suited connector-ness(ya, I just wrote that phrase, suck it English language!) but I decided I could float a bit in this spot and see what happened. So I called. Flop was Qd/4c/5s. So I flopped a draw. I gave alot of thought to betting out on the draw, but I just checked instead. He continued at the pot for 1800, and I called. The turn was a 6h. I checked again now, completely unsure of how I'd react to another bet(in my mind, pushing now became a somewhat viable option). Instead, he checked behind. The river was a 2d, making the board Qd/6h/5s/4c/2d. Bad card. I felt like his check on the turn was a declaration he didn't have a Queen, which made stone bluff an option which might now have hit the board. He also still had a range of like, 99 or somewhere around there. I checked one more time, hoping to show the hand down, and he shoved in. I immediately stood up, kind of frustrated with myself because I really should have utilized a block bet here to avoid being faced with this tough a decision. Instead, here I am. So I started verbalizing out loud what I thought about the hand. I didn't buy a Queen because of the check on the turn, and because now on the river there's no reason for him to shove it with a Queen because there's not really a range of hands that would call that he has beat. There was an outside chance he had 2 pair(Q/4 or Q/2), or had made the straight with his kicker(Q/3). I didn't buy the straight because it was an overbet, I figured he might have bet value for the straight. Q4 scared the hell out of me. The more likely scenario in my mind, was that he had run a bluff, gotten caught on the flop(even though I only had 7 high on the flop), backed off and then seen a real good card to bluff at materialize for him. After a while in the tank, speaking all this verbally and watching Alex for any indication to any of this, which naturally there wasn't, I figured his range was much wider a bluff here than a hand. In my mind I viewed this as a 60% bluff, 40% not, and took the gamble and called with the 6's. He tapped the table, said nice call, and mucked, leaving himself 400, and me 19,600.

We played a blind hand for his last 400, he doubled up, then did it again and I won.

Score : Habs 1, Leafs 0

GAME 2 :

After a breif break, we sat back down to game #2. This is where a form of psychology came into play, in my mind I know Alex always talks about going down fighting rather than letting himself get chipped away, and I figured applying that to this meant he would be coming out really agressive.

So, my plan here was to get almost equally if not more agressive, and try and basically out crazy him here, because I knew he'd desperately want to get chips here.

Unfortunately one big problem developed. Every time I would check raise bluff him, he'd 3 bet me with a made hand. It actually became a running joke because he saw KK three times during this heads up match(which was by far the shortest of the 3).

He very quickly worked me down with a few odd set up hands, where I'd flop mid pair, figure I'm good and call him, and find myself faced with a bad turn card that he had hit. I got rivered a couple times calling a bluff with King high and seeing him roll over a card, and most of all, he relentlessly hammered away at my chip stack, very quickly finding me down to 4000 to his 16,000.

The finishing hand was rather sick. He smoothe called from the SB with blinds at 200/400. I checked with Q/2 offsuit. The flop was A/Q/3. I checked and he fired at the pot, 600. I just re-shoved, figuring he wouldn't have an ace here because he rarely limps them(although we both had done it a few times to make spots like this a little more tricky where we'd not be able to rule out a limped A/9 or A/10). He immediately said "God I played this hand badly", which struck me as a little weird, and then called. He showed KK. Oh well, bad spot for me. No card came to help me.

Score : Leafs 1, Habs 1

ROUND 3 - TIE BREAK :

So, if psychology played a role in this, we both knew that this would be tight, as both of us absolutely did not want to lose this game. So naturally the logical step to take here, was to get agressive as hell here, like he did in game 2, and take plays out of the way, and make him get real sick to try and find spots to put chips in the pot. I wanted the lead from the word go. And basically that's the way it went. Right from the word go I took a lead, and very slowly built it up from there, from the 10k a peice I basically worked him right to a 16,000 to 4,000 disadvantage, and then came our first really big pot :

Blinds 200/400(this was where it seemed things started to get a little more agressive during all the matches), I raised to 1200 with 7s/4s. He called. The flop was Kc/5d/6c. He checked and I checked behind. The turn was a 7h. He shoved in, about 3200 for me to call. Now again I'm faced with a weird decision, I couldn't decide if that was 2 pair playing scared now that a straight was developing or what. Infact, if Alex did make one mistake during this entire game, it was talking, ALOT, during my decision making. Infact, as soon as he shoved, he stood up and started repeating "come on, no habs jersey, no habs jersey", which right away I pointed out "that scares me". After that he talked ALOT, and alot of it was fairly convincing for me to call, but as I peiced it together I felt like he had stumbled right off the bat with his speach, and when I called him on it, he switched to saying the things he knows I'd be looking for him to say to call, to try and sway me back. After a while, I folded. He didn't show, but after the game admitted he had 5/6 for a flopped 2 pair, which still if I'd of called would have left me very life drawing to a K/8/7/4/3 for a win.

Instead, I actually started to really regret the decision to fold there, because he quickly worked himself back with ruthless agression, again showing that he wouldn't let himself get blinded away.

After a while, blinds got as high as they got for us, 400/800, which considering our 20,000 on the table total, were real substantial blinds. Finally, with me still leading about 12,000 to 8,000, we played another big pot.

Button/SB, I looked down at AQ offsuit, and obviously raised, to 2400. He went into the tank for about 3.2 milliseconds after looking at his cards, and shoved in and again stood up. I stood up too to pace for a moment before announcing call. During the breif moment he said something that really put me at ease, calling me as pocket 7's, which I always beleive in a heads up spot like that, means you have high cards, and there's one one high card hand that has me beat. To prove my theory, he tabled A/J. Sonny naturally made quite a long drawn out show of the board to my agony and much pleading for him to just do it quickly. The flop was golden, 10/6/4, all clubs, I had the Q of clubs for the only flush draw, eliminating him down to 3 outs. Turn, Qh, switches his outs now to a king. River, and I'll never forget that card as long as I live because it was the greatest card I've ever seen at a poker table, 7h. Brick. Ship it please.

Score : Habs 2, Leafs 1

After that, we got a few pictures of Alex in the Habs jersey(coming to a facebook near you), and then he wore the jersey during the event tonight. During the event I played fairly well again, and managed to become the first member of EPT staff to Final Table, capping off a pretty good day of poker for me, finishing 3rd.

If you missed the Alex in a Habs jersey show, the real show is October 6th at Bobby D's. It's a Saturday night, where the Leafs and Habs will be playing on TV. During that event he'll be wearing the Habs jersey again, cheering for the Habs, and yelling that the Leafs suck every time the Habs score. Bring video cameras if you'd like.

On a serious note, GG to Alex. That thing was far from easy, and if I don't make the call in game 1, you probably sweep it.

Also, thanks to everyone that showed up, especially Hal and Sonny for shuffling/dealing, we appreciate people taking an interest in the game, and we appreciate you giving up a Saturday afternoon to watch us play, that's incredibly flattering.

Alex, see you on the 6th kid.

Heads Up Challenge, the preview...

So, as those of you who are part of the Elite Poker Community are probably well aware by all our trash talk, a good friend of mine, Alex, has challenged me to a heads up match(actually best 2 of 3), with prop bet stakes.

Him being a die hard fan of the Leafs, and myself a die hard Habs fan, the prop bet is simply the loser has to wear the winner's hockey jersey(he owns a Darcy Tucker Leafs jersey, I own a Carey Price Habs jersey) to an event.

Time to up the ante, I'm going to use this spot to publicly re-issue the challenge with a date, time, and overall overview of the challenge as I see it now :

Date : Sunday, September 16th, The Collin's Brewhouse, prior to the event there at noon.
Time : This we'll have to work out in some more detail, I'm figuring 10am or in that range. They make a breakfast so we can grab breakfast and then head down for the game.
Stakes : Upped. Loser has to wear the jersey to BOTH events on that Sunday(The Collin's immediately after, and then Bobby D's that night)

There ya go Alex, your move kid.

As for the poker side of the blog? It actually kind of offers a preview of what anyone watching can expect to see.

Last night I headed over to Alex's house after he got off work, and naturally we sat right down at the poker table. The truth of all this is, all trash talk aside, I consider Alex as good a player as I've sat at a live table with, so it's always fun to test yourself against a player of that calibre. Our heads-up matches are always interesting at the very least, we both play well, at least I feel, and we both take it very seriously(it'll be alot more serious on the prop bet day).

We decided to settle in for a long battle and really test ourselves against each other, so we sat with 300,000 in chips, and started the blinds at 100/200, moving up every 15 minutes.

We played a little bit of small pot poker, he probably grabbed around a 6000 chip edge off of me after about a half hour, when the first big hand came up, and a hand I feel was probably a mistake to try, but I put him on the range his hand ended up being in, and thought I could push him off of it. Instead, he saw through it and I bluffed off alot of my stack.

The hand, I was button, blinds 200/400, and looked at Jc/10h, and raised to 1200. He re-raised to 2400. I called. Flop was As/3s/7d. He bet out 3000, I called. It was at this time I had decided he was only a weak ace. Alex plays a very tricky heads up game and I felt that if he had a big ace, or two pair, he'd be checking here. He didn't even necessarily need an ace to bet here, he could be on something like 99, 10/10 although that was also unlikely with the small re-raise preflop. I called figuring I'd steal this pot on a later street. The turn was a real nice card for bluffing, the 10s, completing a flush draw. He checked. I fired out 7500. He re-raised to 17,000. Again I still didn't change my opinion on his range here, I still figured him for a weak ace, and he was just testing because he'd have been aware that's a good card for me to bluff at. So, I re-raised back again, to 30,000 total. He went into the tank for a long time, before finally calling. Pot was 78,000. The river was a 9d. He checked again, and at this time I was pretty sure he felt like he was behind, but I had to make one more stab here, a healthy bet, or else this play was all meaningless. So, I grabbed 60,000 and bet it at the pot. He went into the tank for basically just shy of forever, and eventually sniffed out the move and called with A/2. It's a great call, unless you ask me about it when he's in the room, in which case I'll swear only a donkey calls in that spot.

After that I was stuck alot, and decided to switch it up, I got down a little further, to where he had about a 2.5 to 1 lead on me, when we played a nice series of hands all within a fairly short span.

Blinds eventually worked up to 500/1000 when I started to work my way back. I looked at the same hand again, J/10, and raised out of the button again to 3000, he called. Flop was Qc/8c/9h. Gin. He checked, I bet out hoping I'd get a bit of action. It's always awkward betting the nuts headsup, but I figured I had to see if I'd get any play here. I bet 4000. He called. Turn was a 3s. He tried what may have been a delayed pro-bet effort here, and fired at this street, 10,000. I smoothe called. River was pretty terrible, 10d. Action killer. He checked, I bet 15,000, and he called. I showed the J for the win and scooped the pot.

The very next hand(blinds went up to 1000/2000) I was BB, he limped in, and I checked out of the BB with 6d/2h. You know when you flop the nuts heads-up, how rare that is? Doing it twice in a row was a little crazy. 6/6/6 flop. He checked and I checked. The turn was a 2. That's a nice card, potentially in his range, plus now it's just funny to me that that's the board while I'm holding 6/2. He does bet, 4000. I call. River is an 8. He checks, I bet 11,000 at the 12,000 pot. He tanks for a minute and calls with ace high.

Eventually, after a few more small pots, I had worked myself back from the 2.5 to 1 edge he ran off to, to dead even in chips, or relatively close, we were within 5000 of each other again.

Closing in on 3 hours into the heads-up match, still practically dead even. This was the last hand we played :

Blinds 2000/4000. He calls out of the SB. I look at KK. Beautiful. I check. The flop is a little dirty, As/7d/7h. Not a great flop at all for my slow played Kings. The Ace is actually irrelevant here, there is no way Alex limped with an ace. The 7 does kind of concern me. He checks. I bet 6000. He calls. Turn is a Queen. That's a nice card, depending on how the hand plays out from here. He checks again, and I bet again, 10,000. He raises now, to 22,000. I'm a little worried about the 7's still, and I see the ace as an absolute brick. In my mind, the only way Alex has an ace after limping from the SB at a high blind level, is if he has two of them, in which case I was just meant to lose this hand. I re-raise back to 75,000. He goes into the tank for a few minutes and then calls after some silly speech about pocket pairs(to me I'm thinking "good he has the queen"). The river is a Jack. He bets out a fairly weak bet now. The pot is 170,000, we both still have around 200,000 infront of us, and he bets 75,000. This puts me in a bind because it both looks weak, and strong. That's a weak bet at the pot, but betting just under half of your chips is fairly strong. So now I go into the tank for a while, before I decide I still feel like he has a Queen here, something like KQ, and doesn't buy me for the ace because I didn't raise either. There's still that nagging chance he has a 7, but I decide to shove over anyway and if he has a 7, just suck it up. In retrospect this was a fairly large mistake, I'm only getting called by hands that have me beat, except maybe a Queen. In any event, he insta-calls and shows that it was probably just fate that lost me that hand. AA. Nearly 3 hours of poker to get coolered. Played out on a weird board that maybe could have gotten me away from it, but I don't think my thought process through the hand was faulty until my river shove.

After that grinding session, we sat down, watched the Blue Jays nearly blow a game to the Mariners save for a pretty sexy little double play to end it with bases loaded and 1 out. Then re-watched UFC 74 since he hadn't seen it(Roger Huerta is my hero for his screen staring elbows moment on that card), and then played some Nintendo Wii, which, as if he didn't run good enough during the poker game, he crushes me at Wii-Tennis which he's some form of superman at. Then we switch to baseball where I promptly beat him. He declares best 2 of 3 and wins the next one, and then just like always, running so good, he hits a 2 out, 2 strike, 2 run HR in the bottom of the 3rd(last inning on Wii-Baseball) to come from behind and win by one run.

Good night, some fun, the heads up match was alot of fun. Frankly I could have wrote for hours about it, there were alot of hands where we were just playing some real fun poker. There was one hand in particular on where we actually got to a 4-bet on the river(raise, re-raise, re-raise, re-raise) when we were both playing the board(I put in the last raise and scooped the pot). It's always fun testing yourself against a high calibre player.

When Poker Playing goes wrong...or right...

Guess it depends who you ask. Ask me? Poker has never been played better. Had this table been televised though, I think observing it would be considered either a) a criminal offense or b) an attempt at suicide. Brains would explode. Mine nearly did, the only thing that saved me was raking in pots.

Anyway, day starts with me waking up to go to the pancake house to meet up with the guys from jackseven, and ending up being way too lazy on 3 hours of sleep to do that, so I go downstairs to Timmy's. After a while, I get a call from Sparks saying they'll be at Fallsview in an hour, so I head over and sit down. I play some 1/2 and go bust on a bad beat, and as I stand up, Jules walks over to introduce herself and I walk out to meet Bill, Skippy and Kevin.

I decide I'm too tired still, and I'm going to go up to my room and grab a quick nap. I go up there and get a call from two local friends, Griff and another friend named Kevin, they're there, and they'll meet me when I come down. So I grab a quality 4 hour nap, and head down to the poker room. When I get there I meet up with local Kevin, and he tells me Griffin has gone bust and is heading home. Griff went bust at Skippy's table, and Kev asks if I know "the kid in the white hat"(Skippy), because he's absolutely clobbering the 5/5 table.

I head on over and see Skippy at the 5/5 table(500 max buyin), with at least 4000 dollars infront of him. Apparantly he won a 3100 dollar pot with QQ when he rivered the nut flush. As soon as I get on a 1/2 table, we head for dinner downstairs. After a quick bite, I head back up determined to win back some of the money I dropped last night.

At 1/2 I only really played one pot, when I flopped 2 pair and doubled up, then my name got called for 2/5 NL, since I had put my name on both lists, so I decide since I'm at 200 now, I'll freeroll it over to the 2/5 table. This is where things get wild.

The 2/5 table is new, just starting, there are 2 players sitting at it that I recognize from earlier sessions here, both are fairly solid. The rest of the players I would soon learn, not so much.

Let me just say this, I've played poker for nearly 3 years. I am by no means a long-time player, but however, I've seen alot of poker and alot of play. I have never, in my life, witnessed a table that played this badly. I'm serious, this level of play should be against the law. I kept looking around to ensure the FBI weren't going to raid the game and arrest me, because I felt somewhat dirty playing here. It was like stealing candy from babies. Oh, who am I kidding...I loved every minute of this session.

So, 200 dollars is my starting point, and I promptly take a bad beat. UTG limps, I raise with 9/9 to 25, get a caller(one of the two solid players), and UTG calls again. The flop is 8/9/Q rainbow. UTG checks, I bet out 40, solid player folds, UTG calls. Turn is a Jack. He checks I check. River is a K, he checks, I check. I'll give you a minute, make sure you read that hand properly. The preflop raise, the flop, the bet and call. And then checking it down. Please read that carefully. I roll 9/9, he shows me? 10d/2d. Not only is this terrible because of his calls preflop and on the flop with a gutshot. But he doesn't bet when he hits his gutshot! He checks it down. Confused, I muck. As usual, I have a fun little exchange with him :

Kevin : "10-2, nice hand. Calling that raise out of position and then calling that bet when you flop a gutshot, that's high equity poker."
Player : "10-2, if it's under 30 dollars I call no matter what."
Kevin : "Ya, that makes sense. 10-2, that's a premium starting hand."
Player : "What? You haven't read a book?"
Kevin : "What book? What book tells you to call raises from tight players while out of position holding 10-2"
Player : "Super System! You know, Doyle Brunson's book? They call 10-2 the Brunson!"

At this point, I didn't even know what to say.

Eventually my 200 becomes around 80. I double back up. And from there I steady earn. No really big pots, just a steady, solid earn rate without risking alot, and suddenly I'm at 600 dollars infront of me.

During this time I want to describe two breathtaking hands.

First, UTG(solid player) raises it up to 35, and gets 3 callers. The flop comes 8/7/3 two clubs. UTG bets 30, one fold, two calls. Turn is a 9, UTG checks, check, check behind. River is a 3 of clubs. UTG checks, check, bet 25 bucks. UTG folds, flashing me QQ. Really tight fold given the size of the pot, but there's nothing he beats. Other player calls. Brace yourself. The caller shows Ah/5h. He has no hand, on a rediculously complex board, he's called with ace high. He's a moron. Funny story though. Ship the pot over to him, the other kid mucks. Ace high is good. Other kid was, and I quote, "bluffing". Of course you were. 250 dollars or so in the pot, you bet 25 dollars at it. Great bluff.

Better than that, same solid tight player raises UTG to 25, gets one caller. Flop comes 8/7/2, check, check. Turn is a Q, solid player bets 40 dollars, gets called. River is a 3. Solid player bets 60 bucks and gets INSTA-called. Solid players holds his cards face down and says "You're good you caught me", the other player responds with "What you got?", so the solid player frustratedly shows 4/4 for a bluff. That'll be the best hand. Player beside me asks to see the cards of the caller, and it's 3/5 of hearts. Not only does he call the turn with no pair no draw. But he INSTA-calls the river with the 3. Nice.

I finally play a fairly big pot. I raise from the cut-off with 4c/5c to 25 and get 2 callers from both blinds. Flop is alright I guess. Ad/2c/3c. Pot is 75 dollars, SB shoves in 120, BB raises over the top all in for 300. I insta-call. A/10 from the SB and A/K from the BB. Good, no club draws that trump me. Brick Brick and that 420 comes over to me. I'm now at around 1100. I give a little bit back at one point on an Ace high flop with AK against a set, and end up walking away at around 1000 dollars.

Pretty good day. The whole going to work tomorrow morning thing sucks, because if I could have, I'd have stayed on that table all night. There were so many countless horrendous, laugh out loud bad plays on the table that I couldn't beleive it. Honestly...one of the worst moments of my life was standing up from that table before those players did. Oh well, a thousand bucks is alright. Time to go back to trivial normal life. :(

Day 1 of Niagara trip, 200 dollars up, what the hell?

As I write this I'm sitting in my hotel room at the Hilton across the street from Fallsview, and I can't help but wonder...how the hell does my wallet only contain 2 100 dollar bills right now? Let's explore :

I wake up early, I want a full 2 days since I've learned I have to go to work early Saturday morning, so I'll probably have to go to bed at a somewhat reasonable time Friday night. So, I get to the Falls for noon, check in at the hotel, and where else am I going? Fallsview time.

So, I decide to start slow today, and sit down at a 1/2 table, the list is fairly long so I also decide I'm going to sit at a 3-card poker table while the list widdles away until I get to sit. The dealer likes me, not as much as she likes the guy to my right whom she gives a straight flush while he's playing 75 dollars on the pair-plus line, which cashes him for 3000 dollars. Me? I make some straights and flushes, and wind up turning 100 into 300. Good enough, the buzzer's going wild so time to go play some hold'em.

I sit down at a 1/2 table and take 2 rotations off because the table is very loose without being agressive. Usually 6-7 callers to a flop, rarely raised pots, lots of limps, so it takes me a while longer to get some kind of idea to where players are and what they're doing. Eventually I enter a pot with As/4s from the cut-off after about 5 limps infront of me. Blinds top up and we're off to the flop of 6/4/3 rainbow. UTG fires out 20 bucks. Folds around to me, and I decide to call, thinking I have the best hand and he has a draw. Turn is a 9, and he fires 50 bucks at the pot. This seems weird, so I take some time to think about it, to me a 6 freezes or maybe makes another small bet to try and manage the pot and keep it small-ish. The type of hands I can see betting again a pot-building bet would be some kind of combo-pair draw. 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, 5/6. Having decided I beleive he's in that range I shove the rest of it in, and he calls instantly(not all that scary shove is tiny compared to the pot. He actually didn't even have the draw I assumed he did, 8/4. Okay, bonus. After this I'm up to 200 but I'm getting hungry so I pick up and decide I'll come back to a 2/5 table after some food.

Enjoy a quality meal at Shoeless Joe's downstairs at Fallsview and after that head up to the 2/5 table.

I sit down at a 2/5 table and I'm playing way above the curve, absolutely ontop of my game, and I quickly take 200 up to over 800 without even really making a big hand, but merely springing some elaborate traps and milking chips.

An example of what I mean is raising in EP with 10/10 up to 25, and getting 4 callers. The flop is Q/9/3 rainbow, and I fire a continuation bet of 60 dollars. 2 folds and one call. I figure he likely doesn't have a queen, he's a reasonably smart player and I know he's got to assume my bet here is a continuation bet, and I figured he'd raise a good queen here, even a QJ or Q/10 he'd probably raise to test my bet. So he might have a straight draw, or he might have that 9. Turn is a 7. That's a good card, but I check now, hoping to conceal this hand, and he checks behind confirming to me he's deffinitely not holding a queen. The river is good as well, a 5. Now I check again, allowing him to either bet a 9 which he'd most likely assume is good, or I'll let him bet with a busted straight draw. Either way, there is no amount of money he can put in this pot that I'm folding to. The pot is a shade over 200, and he fires 125 at it which I insta-call and table my 10's. He flashes a 9 and mucks. Ship it over here please, you never had a chance in this pot.

Another trap of sorts was the only big hand I made all day today. A fairly solid player in late position raises it up to 25, and I call out of the SB with 4/4. Flop's alright, 10/4/4. I can't get a bet into the pot fast enough here, and fire 40 bucks at the pot almost instantly. I can hear your minds racing, "Why the hell would he bet quads out straight off?". It's not even a pot build or about masking my hand(although that's a nice side effect). When you bluff you tell a story for the hand, I want to bluff here. Just, you know, with the nuts. So my bet, to a decent player, which this guy is, could easily appear like a "pro-bet", or "donk-bet"(depending on who you're talking to, they're both ironically nicknames for the same play, the play being calling a raise preflop and betting at the raiser on the flop regardless of what you have). He raises over the top, as I would with a wide range here since I'd treat my bet like a pro-bet, and come over the top announcing that I'm still holding a real hand. He makes it 100 to go. I call now, hoping to sell him that I'm holding some high cards. Turn is a 6. I check and all his chips, 260 more, enter the pot. I insta-call and table the 4's, and he sighs and turns over JJ.

After the session I cash out over 1000, a profit of over 800 dollars. I go grab some dinner, and come back and sign up for a 1/2 game again while I wait for the sit-and-go WPT Stage 1 Satallite to open. I won't go into details on the hand, because the story here isn't all that interesting hand wise, it's more what happens after. So, I end up all in with a guy on the flop of 7c/5h/4s while I'm holding 7h/8d, he was running a bluff, and tables 4h/9h. Perfect. Turn is where the story gets fun, it's the 8 of hearts. Everyone looks at me approvingly as if saying "yay! you have 2 pair now", while I smack the table, real upset at the turn card, finally informing the table that's a terrible card for me. One guy, takes objection :

Guy : "How is that a terrible card? You have 2 pair now!"
Me : "Ya, and it gives him an extra 9 outs."
Guy : "Could have been worse, could have been a different heart. At least you took away some of his outs"
Me : "What?"
Guy(borderline condescending as if he thinks I'm stupid) : "You have 2 pair now man! You took away some of his outs"
*At this point in the pot I'm 100 dollars deep in the hand, the pot is 220. So I decide to try and take out some insurance on this river card, and prop-bet the guy 50 dollars that he still has all the outs he had on the flop, with 9 more now. He agrees to it. I appreciate no one at the table speaking up to ruin this for me, I could see some of them watching intently.*
Me(now that we have made the bet) : "On the flop his outs were a 4, or a 9. On the turn? His outs are any 4, any 9, or any heart since I'm holding the 7 of hearts and the 8 of hearts is on the board. He still has every out he had before. Trips beats me. A 9 for his 2 pair will beat me. And a flush beats me."
Guy : "Shit, I forgot that his 2 pair would beat yours!"
Me : "Yes you did, ship that 50 over here please"

Anyway, the heart hit on the river, and I took the 2 green chips from the prop bet and strolled over to the sit-n-go table which was opening anyway.

I only really play 2 interesting hands. The first one I got raised from the cut-off when I was BB, and I decided to send a message quickly that I wouldn't stand for that, while the blinds were still cheap(25/50), so I called with 10/2 intending to steal the flop. Not sure how, but I'm planning on stealing this pot. Flop comes K/K/7. Perfect. I check, he bets. Perfect, now I know I can take it by representing a King. So I call. Turn is a 3. I check again, he checks behind. River is an Ace. I fire a bet now. He calls and rolls over A/3. Shit, it would have worked if he didn't get there. He still thought I had the King but "paid to see it". Got to hate getting unlucky running a bluff when your target gets lucky to make a hand to be able to call you.

The last hand, I was short stacked, button raised when I was SB and I re-shoved with A/7 suited. He tanked for a while and called and exposed AQ, which I just flat out don't understand why he tanked, but ses la vi.

After that I decide to sit at a 5/5 table, and take a few real bad beats or bad setups in a row, having to hold top pair a few times to over-pairs. I played really well to not go broke for a long time, finally taking a real bad beat with Q/8 on a flop of 8/3/2 against 8/6 for a 250 dollar pot when he turned a 6. Bust for 500 here, and suddenly I'm back to only a couple hundred for the day.

Oh well, tomorrow, pancake house and poker with the Jackseven crew!

Fallsview = Pain, a humerous andecdote, and a big day...

Man, that's easily the stupidest title for a blog ever. I originally was going to rip off a classic poker book's title for an entry where I included this andecdote, but I decided to just absorb it into a bigger blog. The rip off was going to be of Michael Craig's "The Professor, The Banker, And The Suicide King", I was going to title it "The Professor, The ATM and the Suicide Kid".

Clever huh?

Anyway, we'll start with the andecdote since it's one of my favourite stories from my entire poker career, and has absolutely nothing to do with me except the fact that I just so happened to be at the table during the hand.

Sonny Rattan, aka my boss and aka the voice of Pokerstars broadcasts now, and basically the single person I'd say I owe the most to as a poker player considering he's the one that tought me how to play poker, and myself went to go play a game at Casino Niagara, a simple 1/2 NL game. I went bust when my AA got cracked by 44 when the guy re-raised my UTG raise all-in and spiked a 4 on the turn. I got up and was actually ready to leave when Sonny offered to buy me back into the game. So I put my name back on a list and ended up on a table with him, to his right. He loves to tell this story so he can throw in his little dig at how I was totally card-dead and the only three times I raise in the span of like 4 hours, he came back over the top and had me fold(AQ, AQ and 99 to his AK, AK and JJ). What a jerk.

Anyway, the story isn't about me so let's delve aside, Sonny was doing very well, up to around 900 deep or so at this point(max buyins 100 so that's pretty steep), when this hand occurs with a kid about 400 deep, give or take.

The player raises it up from EP, and Sonny calls from the Cut-Off. The flop comes 9/10/Q rainbow. The kid fires out a continuation bet, and Sonny calls. The turn is a 7, but puts a flush draw on the board. The kid fires out another bet, and Sonny raises him all-in, at this point I'd say the kid's 100 deep into the hand and will have to call off 300 more.

Remember the flop, 9/10/Q, turn 7. He calls off 300 deep. Sonny tables K/J for the stone nuts, and this num-nuts turns over pocket 8's, in what I can only assume was an effort to make a heroic call for the ages. Honestly, if you make that call against a fairly tight, solid player, and are ever right, please write a book about that call and name your book "I'm better than you : How I made the best call ever in the history of ever."

I digress. The kid then really makes a comment that shows I suppose he's blind, "That's fine, I only need the Jack to chop." This is where I love Sonny's response, because me? I'd have played it differently, I'd have let him cling to that hope, praying the river was a Jack so he'd feel stupid when the pot was still shipped my way. Sonny? He's what can only loosely be described as a soul-crusher. His response? "No, no you don't need a Jack...King high? See?" The kid didn't even stick around to see the river card, he left for the ATM and came on back to the table. This is where the story becomes interesting...upon sitting at the table the kid looks at Sonny and declares "I'm coming to get my money back!"

For the next hour or so, he's raising every single time Sonny is BB, which is actually kind of silly considering he's UTG+1 when Sonny was BB, but he's that tilted. Every once in a while I re-pop him and steal dead money. Finally, he does it once, and Sonny calls(the first time he's fought back at all). The flop is 10/9/7 rainbow. The kid fires a continuation bet, and Sonny calls. The turn comes an 8. The kid fires another bet(he's pretty deep again now, over half of his stack is in the pot at this point). Sonny asks him for a count, the kid declares he has 45 dollars behind, and Sonny calmly responds "I'll raise you 40, leave you some money for the bus." The kid goes into the tank, looks at his buddy standing on the rail behind him "God...you did this to me last time too!", Sonny responds with "Ya, and did you learn your lesson last time". The kid then tells us he's going to make "a GREAT laydown", and folds A/10 face up, and asks Sonny if he made the right fold.

Sonny : "Ya, you made a great fold."
Suicide Kid(to a friend behind him) : "I knew it, I knew I made a great fold!"
Sonny(still with cards in hand, finally tables it...5/3 offsuit) : "You made a great fold because if you call I can't possibly win"

The kid makes this sick face, and from then on it's absolute game on. Everyone at the table realizes this kid's borderline suicidal at the table, and he's an easy target, and the kid eventually gets stuck at least another 4 buyins to the table before he finally leaves.

I always liked that story...so, onto my day at Fallsview...

I went down to Fallsview with 2 friends of mine, Alex and Curtis, both friends I have incredible respect for as players, Alex and I talk about poker all the time, and although Curtis and I aren't as close, he's a good friend and an amazing player. Anyway, we go down, and Curtis buys in to the 2/5 NL game, Alex and I sit at 5/5.

My table draw, if you read my last blog, was the polar opposite of my last table. This was the most agressive table I've ever sat at for 5/5. If there was a flop dealt with less than 150 bucks in the pot it was a borderline miracle. Either 2 players would get real deep preflop, or it'd be a "cheap" 40 bucks preflop with 5 callers. I had just sat down and got the feel for how insane the table was when I limped Ah/4h in EP hoping to see a cheap flop, and it was raised behind me to 40 dollars, then 6 callers called by the time it came back to me, so I laughingly called the 40. The flop was Q/5/5 rainbow, I checked and the initial raiser bet 150, got called, and got called. Pot's now at nearly 700 dollars. Turn was a J. Initial raiser bet 250, got called all-in for about 200, and re-raised to 500. Initial raiser called the extra 250. So now the pot is 1300 main, 600 side. The river comes a brick, like a 6, and the initial better checks to a very solid player who puts in 300 more which represents the last of the initial raisers chips. The raiser says "What the hell do you think I'm bluffing you here?" and calls, and tables...KQ. He played a 2500 dollar pot on a Q/J/5/5/6 board with KQ. I didn't even need to see the other kid's cards, I couldn't help it I just started laughing. The solid player tabled QQ for the win. Ship it all over there for one of the most rediculous pots I've sat and watched at a table.

Anyway, I was immensely card dead, and slowly widdled away to around 400 left, then I tried to run what I think is still a solid bluff, since only one hand can call me and he just so happened to have it. This fairly tight player raises preflop to 20. Now I'm really looking to play because that's dirt cheap for my table, and I have that gorgeous little white chip infront of me with the word "DEALER" on it. I call with K/8. The flop is J/9/8 with two diamonds. He bets out 75 at a pot of just 45 bucks. I now go into the tank, that's either a big hand on the flop, that's scared of the obvious large draw capabilities of this board, or it's an outside chance of a real big draw, but since he's a tight player I decide it's a big hand(a set or AA or KK), so I call off hoping for a scare turn. The turn is a 10. He fires out a really weak 40 bucks at nearly 200, and I decide that's him just making an exploratory bet with a scared hand, so I slam over the top to 200. He goes into the tank for a few minutes and then shoves all in. Damn, he had the draw. I fold and he shows Ad/Qd. Unlucky but I still feel that's a good play, he just played really well, his turn bet was great, he left the door wide open for me to slam over the top, if he was thinking that deep about the hand which I doubt. But if he was kudos, well played.

Anyway, I rebought but went down to 2/5 with Curtis, who at this point was up 700 bucks or so(buyin's 200, he had 900 infront). I buy-in for 200, and one of the first hands I play is maybe the one debatble hand I played, although I still don't see a way out of the hand for me. I had AQ in the SB after a few limps, I raised to 25. Got 2 callers, the BB and a MP player. The flop comes Ac/9h/7h, I fire out 50 bucks and BB calls, MP player folds. The turn is a Js, a bad card because it is in his wheelhouse for a convuluted straight with 10/8, or more likely 2 pair with AJ, but I had decided I put him on a flush draw on the flop when he called quickly, so I had already decided the turn was a push as long as it wasn't a heart(besides, I don't have another bet in me, the pot is now over 200 I have 100 behind), so I shove the turn and he calls, with AK. Without a r-raise preflop or on the flop, I don't see a way I can avoid going broke when I'm OOP.

I rebuy one more time, and one of the first hands I play under this buyin, is calling a 6 way pot at 20 bucks with 5d/6d. The flop is nice, 10c/6s/5h. I check, deciding I wanted the player to my left, the initial raiser, to get himelf in trouble here. He fires out 40, and the player behind calls, and I slam over the top all in for 160. Not alot I can do here, I give myself the highest fold equity here, and I hopefully freeze out that player hanging along barring him having a monster, I'm positive I have the initial raiser beat. He calls, and the other player folds. The raiser tables JJ. 10d on the turn for a higher 2 pair, ship my money over there. Nice. About 6 hours, and I'm stuck close to 1000 dollars. I guess the one good peice of news is I asked a pit boss where he recommends me staying for the Jackseven Birthday Bash next-week, and he says that if I call Fallsview and have them patch me through to the Hilton across the street, they offer a great discount for poker players. So I'm probably doing that. Good advice.

Curtis ended his session up 1100 dollars, Alex was stuck 1 or 2 hundred I think.

Tomorrow's shaping up to be a big day for me, I'm playing both the real big online tournaments tomorrow, the Pokerstars Sunday Million at 4:30, and the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event 2 million-guaranteed at 6:00. Hopefully I'll just calmly win them both and make half a million or more.