Going to L.A.

Had lunch with my wife today. She is having a hard time at work. We both decided this would be a good time for me to take a short poker trip. So, I am heading for Oceanside and L.A. I will probably play tonight at Oceanside until the traffic in L.A. dies down. Probably between Midnight and 2 A.M. and then I will drive up to the Bike.

I was trying to decide between trekking to Las Vegas in the RV or just going up to L.A. The pros & cons are fairly similar.
Pro’s for Vegas are there are a variety of places to play and eat. Super Bowl weekend will bring in a lot of poker players. Vegas is always fun. Just walking around is entertaining.
Cons for Vegas. It will be very crowded because of Super Bowl weekend. It is 700 miles roundtrip and gas expense will be about $160 in the RV. It is a long boring trip. If I am not doing well or Caren requests that I come home early it is a long trip for a short visit.

Pros for L.A. I can find as big or little a game as I can play in L.A. It is 180 miles round trip and gas would be about $60. I can drive part of the way on the coast enjoying the view. I can return more easily
Cons for L.A. There isn’t much to see or do except play poker. Taking the RV out during the day is difficult with traffic.


Here is a blurb from the Bike's website...http://www.thebike.com/inside_the_bike/index.php "Located just 10 minutes from Downtown Los Angeles, The Bicycle Casino is home to the best gaming action in all of Southern California. With over 135 tables featuring Poker Games, and California Games, The Bicycle Casino ranks as one of the world's largest Card Casinos and is renowned for its World Class Poker Tournaments"

There is a tournament over at Commerce so I may head over there to before I come home. The problem is Commerce Casino is so RV unfriendly. It is difficult to get in and they have no oversize parking for vehicles like mine. I will give you trip report when I get back. I need to get going...... the traffic is awaiting......

I am donkey boy

I was donkey boy tonight.

Going on tilt can be very subtle and I did it tonight without realizing it. I went to my local club and bought a rack of $200 on the 8/16 limit hold'em game. The table was full and I was determined to play only good cards. I waited at least an hour and ½ folding every hand.

Finally, when I was in the button I looked down to see AA.
The first bettor bet the second raised and everybody called the raise to me. I made it three bets. Everybody called. The flop comes 2,4,5 different suits. The first player bets, the second raises everybody calls to me and I make it three bets. We lose two players. The pot is huge for this game. The turn is a Queen. The first player bets, the raiser drops and three people call when I raise. The river is a three. I have two aces and a 5 high straight. Everyone checks to me and I bet and seat three raises. He played 4,6 and beat me out of that huge pot with a six high river straight.

I fold hands for about an hour more when I get into a hand with AK suited. The very same player playing Q 3 suited, beat me with a runner-runner flush after I flopped a King. I bet it all the way and he was an automatic calling station. He caught his flush on the last two cards.

I noticed a short handed 5/10 No limit game beginning over in the corner. I went to join in because I was disgusted with this donkey game.

Well, here is where it gets crazy. I bought in for $300 and lost that on a bad call.

Then $200 more and I played two loose hands in a roll and rightfully lost both of them.

I bought $200 more and played a Q,10 suited calling $25 from late position. The flop came k j 7, and I was bet into $30 in a $80 pot. I raised to $75 to see if I could win it right then with my draw. He called me and the turn was a 5. I bet 75 and was called and then the river ten came.

I knew I was open ended but I didn’t look back at my cards. He went all-in putting me all in for $90 more. I called thinking I had made the straight. He had Kings and I only had 10s.

I felt like I had just started to play poker. I thought he was bluffing and I didn’t have the hand I thought I did.

B.T.W. I had let myself get bluffed out of a pot earlier that had I thought it through I would have stayed in and won.

I left down $700 really frustrated at me because I wasn’t focused and was not in touch with my emotions.

I had not noticed I was not concentrating and was just playing a big game with no focus. Dumb, Dumb, & Dumber.

Mental laziness is a real enemy at a poker table.

I was smart enough to leave the casino and drive home trying to figure out how I missed me and played so badly.

After, having some toast at home I remembered the old adage, that goes something like, “after falling off a horse, you need to get right back on again.”

So I did some internal inventory and realized I could focus on an on-line game. I knew just playing well for awhile would improve my mental status and if I won, all the better.

I bought into a No Limit single table tournament on Party Poker for $100 and an hour and ½ later finished in 2nd place having won $500.

That was probably the best thing I could do for myself. I needed to refocus and play well in a controlled environment (a tournament). When I was out I was out.

I was reminded by my play and my results that I am a good player. I could beat 9 out 10 players in a $100 buy-in tournament with out any lucky hands involved.

Now, as I said in a previous post. I need to beat about 400 players in a $100 buy-in tournament for some real money.

Stay tuned, I hope to be writing about that, sometime this year.


For those of you who want poker instructional content. The following quote is a favorite of mine.
For the rest of you... deep thought ahead warning....

“The uniqueness of poker consists of its being a game of chance where the element of chance is itself subordinated to psychological factors and where it is not so much fate as human beings who decide. In this respect poker is the game closest to the Western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or chance, where men are considered free moral agents - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens, but what people think happens.”

Youth & Poker....

The average age at the poker table continues to get younger. I believe this trend will continue for a few more years as more Internet Players come to the live poker rooms.
There is much to be said for their strengths but I believe we do have three natural advantages over many of them.
Most of them think they are far better players then they are.
We “old guys” are invisible to most of them.
We have learned from “hard knocks” the value of patience in this game.

A few weeks ago I was playing 4/8 limit in seat 2. Seat 1, was a young man who looked very similar to the Jim Carey character “Cable guy” in the movie of the same name.

He wasn’t playing very premium hands and I took three pots away from him in about an hour. I hadn’t said anything at the table up to that point and he turns to me and snarls “you think you’re pretty smart don’t ya!” I smiled and stated “yes, I am very smart”.

He angrily responded “ I ought to bitch-slap you. I almost laughed but I just said. “Son, you sound like you have a little gender confusion.”
He jumps up and yells “you want to go outside”. I look him up and down and casually respond “you are not really my type” to muffled laughter at the table.
He storms away and comes back in about 30 seconds “steaming” and goes on tilt playing just awful. After he lost all the rest of his money in the next few hands of play he stood up, glared at me and left. Another player softly said, “there is a young man who probably shouldn’t play poker”. There were a number of nods around the table.

Of course most young men are nowhere near that extreme in there behavior. But, most of them are bringing fairly large egos with them to the poker table. That is something good players can take advantage of. And young players need to become aware of.

Of course younger players do have many strengths and are contributing to the poker world in a more positive way.

I have reproduced some material from another poker blogger, Dr. Pauley at www.lasvegasvegas.com/ that speaks to that very well.

"The poker scene in Las Vegas continues to thrive with rooms opening and expanding to accommodate the crowds of waiting poker players. Poker has been revitalized and re-invented in a new, bigger, better format. Long time Vegas poker players have been witness to the 'coming out' of the game. Poker players have long been the poor cousins to other casino game players probably because poker is the only game in the casino that allow players to wager among themselves, instead of the house, not the most profitable use of floorspace. Poker rooms were small, smokey and prone to sudden relocation.

Today, Las Vegas poker rooms have risen from the decay of yesterday's decline into some of the most comfortable, plush real estate in the casino. Equipped with pagers, digital info displays, plasma TV's and shufflemasters, these large smoke free rooms are professionally managed and offer players comfortable seating, central locations, easy parking, low-limit no-limit, comps, tables full of action and NLHE tournaments. The players that frequent these new rooms are more demanding, they want a quality poker experience.

So, how come poker has come so far? Legions of new players filling the seats in the poker rooms here in Las Vegas are the reason for the resurgence of the game. These new players are young, hard working, hard playing competitors that have made poker their game of choice. They come to play, they bring cash, they bring skill and they bring change. The game has definitely changed and for many of the experienced players it is a welcome change. Much more action in today's version of poker, much more cash and often much easier cash. A nice bonus for many of the Vegas poker room regulars, but only for the ones that retooled their game to take advantage of this new poker arena.

Some of the senior players I know have been complaining that the games have changed and not for the better since they can't even break even in the lower-limit games where they play. They haven't made the transition and probably won't. These new youthful players are packing more raw skill and aggression than the oldsters can handle.

I like what poker has become, and just in time, too. I once believed that poker in Las Vegas casinos was doomed to extinction. Rooms were downsizing, closing and moving closer to the door every day. Even the continued existence of the World Series of Poker was in jeopardy. Dark days had indeed descended upon the game, then...holy hole card camera! Poker is on prime time television and just in time to supplement the proliferation of Internet card rooms. Thousands and thousands of bored youth staring at computer monitors discovered and embraced poker, making poker their game of choice. Everybody could learn to play poker...male or female, big or small...that's why poker rooms are being remodeled, enlarged and improved, to attract these young, sophisticated players.

The casinos know today's young players will be filling poker rooms for decades to come. Poker has moved into the mainstream.

The next time you are in your favorite poker room enjoying amenities and comforts unheard of a few short years ago; then, thank the kids playing at your table. Even thank the kid that cracked your Aces with a one-outer case card on the river. They are the reason poker in Las Vegas has survived to become so nice and respectable.
I understand the complaints some of the older players have trying to adapt to this new digital generation. I talked to some of them and made a list of their complaints about playing at a table full of twenty-something's."

Top nine complaints about playing poker with young players.

9. Believes catching a one-outer is skill.
8. Two words...body piercing.
7. iPod makes hearing aids squeal.
6. Three words...Lime green hair.
5. Every sentence begins with, "In your day..."
4. Real teeth.
3. Blinding reflections from sunglasses.
2. Even the girls have tattoos.
1. They win!

I need to improve my tournament game...

I just got back from Grocery Shopping. I shopped on the way home from the casino. So it is 1 A.M. in the morning. Had another good night of 5/10 N/L.I did almost triple up my $300 buy-in.


However, I am very disappointed at my tournament results though this weekend. I bought into the Saturday and Sunday tournaments for a combination of about $250 and didn’t place very well in either of them. I know my cash game continues to improve and I am really scrutinizing my play everyday to see what I can learn from it. But, I feel stuck in my tournament play with a similar pattern of mistakes.

In both cases this weekend I made mistakes which cost me the tournament. Saturday I had made it from about 220 players to about 40th when I was in the Big Blind with AcKc. The blinds were 1,000 I had about 14K. Four people, including the small blind limped in for the 1K blind. I raised it to $6,000 hoping to have everybody fold. Everybody did except the small blind who called the $6,000 I am hoping he has a pocket pair and that I will flop and Ace or King.

The flop came Ks, 9h, Jc, the small blind went all in. He had a few more chips then me. I first thought he has KK. Then I thought no with the King there, he more likely holds K10, AQ or AK like I did and he is trying to bluff me out of the pot. I should have also been thinking he might have a set. It was faulty thinking on my part and I didn’t even consider it.. He also could have KJ. I didn’t think so because he had been playing real well for the last hour and I didn’t think he would call with KJ that big of raise.

He could have AA or KK and I would be in trouble but I didn’t think so because he didn’t re-raise my raise. I am so adverse to slow playing KK I didn’t think anybody else would either. Well, it turned out my first instinct was right. He had KK. But I called him, because the last strong thought I had before I called was “If I can’t call with an AK, with an K on the board when can I call?

It was fuzzy thinking on my part. It would have been a tough lay-down, and had I challenged that last thought and taken a little longer I would have reasoned out that thought and found it faulty. I have made some difficult lay-downs before and should have done it this time.

I would have still had $8,000 and might have had a much better place to go all in.
(readers, please let me know what you think of this hand and my play)

Tonight, I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. I was on the blind with Ks10s.

Fold, fold, fold, and a player three seats in front of the blind calls the blind of $800.

Everybody else folds to me and I raise to $2400. Blinds fold and he calls.

The flop comes Qh,7c,3d, he checks, and I go all in for my last $3900.
He has $3800 and will be out if he calls and loses. He struggles and struggles and appears like he is going to fold. I am like a statue.
But, he is not really looking at me. He is acting like he should throw it away, but he is having a real hard time doing it when it seems almost like a struggle between his right arm and his mouth he states “I’ll call” and turns over Ac,7d

He called with a pair of 7’s when I was was the raiser and then bet all in to him.

The next two cards don’t help either of us and I am out. I would not have made that call like he did. Most players I know wouldn’t have either. We had been playing about 3 hours and the field had gone from 150 to about 50.

I walked away disgusted with myself for risking my tournament on a stone-cold bluff when I really didn’t have to. Him and I were the short stacks on the table and I was feeling the pressure to build up my stack. My main mistake was I made a great bluff to a player I didn’t know anything about. You can’t bluff bad players. Only good ones who are willing to make difficult lay-downs can be bluffed. Bad players call when they should’t have. This was a case he should not have called.

Again, I would like some feedback on this hand and whether I should have tried a stone-cold bluff or not in that position.

Thanks for reading…. I will try to add to this later. But, I need to unwind and get ready for bed.