How does it happen that money doesn’t become money any more? When is it that the only thing you see is chips? The stakes are going up, but the game is the same. When betting $20 all-in once used to be a big deal, and shelling out $100 in a NL Tournament home game was once one of the scariest thing you ever did, and then suddenly you are at a place when calling a raise with 78s for $40 is not a big deal and re-raising $200 on a stone cold bluff is completely natural, and playing nightly $100 MTTs is as easy as breathing.
When is it that you start thinking of expenses in terms of Big Blinds and going to dinner in terms of a re-raise. When is it that the money from gambling justifies whatever expense you have because an expense might be covered by the next all-in bet. When do you start worrying?
I ask because it’s all becoming intertwined. Money on the table is just chips and money in real life is just bets on the table. It’s an odd feeling. Strange days indeed.
To catch you up. I took most of my profit from my big MTT win, $3000, and cashed it out. I then continued to win at reasonable stakes ring games and cashed out again, another $2000. So, from my low a couple of months ago of $22, I have cashed out $5K. I had $1600 left on Party and $400 on Noble poker that I put there to try to cash on their bonus. So I was up $7000 total if you count the virtual dollars.
… and that is part of the worry, isn’t it? They are virtual dollars to me. It’s all twisted. Money is chips and purchases are big bets and, oddly enough, real money online is starting to feel virtual to me, like health points in a video game…
But when does virtual money become real money with my mind in this confused state where money is chips and chips are frags and frags are not anything like money at all? Why is it all melding together yet staying so damn disjointed? I am confused. Up and winning but confused and scared of what I might be becoming.
$400 on Noble poker isn’t real money anymore, my mind tells me. What is the justification for that thought? My bankroll is $1500 on Party. That is my stake. The money on Noble was just put there to get some free cash. Since I played the site and didn’t like the site, the $400 has just been sitting there, untouched and … well, a little forgotten. It isn’t money any more. It is some credits on a video game I don’t like.
I took a loss on Party, dropping down to $1100 and I needed to get away. Away from Party because my mind was starting to connect those 500BB’s back to reality. I dropped $500 bucks. My mind was starting to realized that just three months ago dropping a half a grand would be heart breaking and life altering. I would have quit poker then. But now, it felt too natural and I didn’t care.
So, this warped mind of mine, where reality and virtual reality are starting to merge together, where a tank of gas is nothing more than re-raise and giving my kid $2 for an overpriced hotdog at a ballgame is nothing more than a laughable big blind, came up with a plan. That Noble money isn’t money anymore my broken mind begins to reason. I have my stake on Party, it is damaged but still more than Greg Raymer’s wife gave him to start his gambling career. So the Noble money was ‘free’ money, just a little chunk of what I had already won, and if I dropped it all it would be no big deal.
It became my official gamble it up fund. And I did. This weekend, I put the whole wad on a single NL game and won $600. So my Noble stake became $1000. I followed that up again by gambling that $1000 in another single game of NL Hold’em. I killed. I turned $1000 into $2600 in a matter of an hour. I was sky high.
… but was it money at all. It was my gambling fund. A pool of money that was there just to play with. But suddenly it was more than double the amount in my bankroll. My mind began to connect again. $2600!!! Just take it out. Back to reality…
That was not to be. It didn’t take long, but my mind began to justify again. It is earmarked money, I justified. Earmarked to take a shot. Earmarked to gamble it up. When were these gamble it up credits going to become money again? The answer is never. $100K or bust. WSOP or bust. It’s not part of my BR at all. It was not real money!
Of course I lost it… well most of it. That’s what playing $1000 tables without a bankroll will do. You can’t absorb the blips. And I blipped back down $2000 and then another $200 and I have $400 left. I am back to where this insanity started. Or am I? My holdings are. But how about my mind, and my heart, and my sensibility.
About a month ago I told a story about losing $1000 and being torn up. About thinking about it a week. About my heart pumping and about being humiliated. What is strange now is that this didn’t hurt. Not in the least. That can’t be good, can it?
So I am worried. $1K on Party. $400 on Noble. $5000 in the bank. Vacation coming from the wins. Everything seems OK in the greater scheme of things. But the underlying cracks are there. I liked gambling it up. I really liked it. Getting beat didn’t hurt me at all. How could so much change so fast?
Where am I now? What will the future hold? If I drop my remaining $1400, what will I do then? I am scared and I am wondering how I will adjust. Will grinding out $100 NL tables be acceptable for me any more? I am determined to try to get myself back to reality.
… we shall see
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Poker is like...
… fighting with your wife.
I have never won a fight with my wife. I have been right a lot of the time, but I have never won. Hell, even when I got what I wanted, I still lost. I am remarkably bad at winning fights and she has a sixth sense for verbal sparring that is impossible to defeat. Her tactic is undefeatable and her use of it is unrelenting. The move is so simple as to be comical in its simplicity. Never admit anything. When you are behind, raise the stakes. Keep the pressure on and never ever relent.
When I argue, I try to use logic and focus on the problem at hand. When she fights, there is no logic and she brings everything into the mix that she needs to win. I am stuck in the moment and she is using everything at her disposal. When I get a foothold with some bit of logic that seems to make sense and pins her into a corner, she comes over the top of me and brings up something unrelated and with which I have no footing. Her game is constant aggression and it puts me on my heals. If I play into her or I try to call her down, she just turns up the heat even more. If I call again, she moves all-in and I unquestionably fold.
I am a weak passive and she is the ultimate maniac. The only way for me to win is to flop the nuts and have it hold up to 5th street. But that doesn’t happen very often and by the time it does, she has my whole stack.
To win at poker, you have to play the way my wife fights. Aggression, aggression, aggression! You don’t have to be a maniac, but you have to play to win and that means betting and raising a lot.
There is an old axiom that it takes a better hand to call than it does to raise, but I often wonder, sitting around at these weak passive tables, what percentage of these players have actually considered what this means in terms of their game. To me, it became clear in February when I really took some time to consider why I wasn’t winning consistently. I blindly decided to add more aggression to my game and suddenly everything turned around. Just adding blind aggression turned me into a winner. Whenever I was going to call, I raised instead. Whenever I was going to check, I bet instead. If I was going to call when I knew he was really strong, I folded instead. Boom, I was a winner.
This blind aggression has been refined over the last few months, and what was totally without logic but was winning me money now has a basis to it that I understand fully. “It takes a better hand to call than it does to raise”! If you understand why this is, then you will understand big bet poker. The rest is easy.
Consider this hand from two nights ago:
I am playing 4d5d from late position in a NL Hold’em game. It is limped to me by 3 players. I raise to 4xBB. I get one caller. The flop is 6,7,10 rainbow and he checks. I bet almost the pot. He calls. The turn is a 3 completing my straight. He checks and I bet again, pot sized. He re-raises me but only doubles my bet. I push all-in. He calls and shows 89 to take my stack.
What a terrible example, huh? I lost.
Well, not really. I played this hand really well. He played this hand poorly. I will win a lot of money in the long run by playing my way. He will lose a lot of money by playing his way. Understand why this is and you will understand how to win in the NL Hold’em rings.
My wife asked me afterwards how I did. I said I lost money. She gave me the look and I considered defending myself. I considered explaining logically how my losing money was just like her winning a fight. Then I thought better of it. I had lost enough hands for the night.
I have never won a fight with my wife. I have been right a lot of the time, but I have never won. Hell, even when I got what I wanted, I still lost. I am remarkably bad at winning fights and she has a sixth sense for verbal sparring that is impossible to defeat. Her tactic is undefeatable and her use of it is unrelenting. The move is so simple as to be comical in its simplicity. Never admit anything. When you are behind, raise the stakes. Keep the pressure on and never ever relent.
When I argue, I try to use logic and focus on the problem at hand. When she fights, there is no logic and she brings everything into the mix that she needs to win. I am stuck in the moment and she is using everything at her disposal. When I get a foothold with some bit of logic that seems to make sense and pins her into a corner, she comes over the top of me and brings up something unrelated and with which I have no footing. Her game is constant aggression and it puts me on my heals. If I play into her or I try to call her down, she just turns up the heat even more. If I call again, she moves all-in and I unquestionably fold.
I am a weak passive and she is the ultimate maniac. The only way for me to win is to flop the nuts and have it hold up to 5th street. But that doesn’t happen very often and by the time it does, she has my whole stack.
To win at poker, you have to play the way my wife fights. Aggression, aggression, aggression! You don’t have to be a maniac, but you have to play to win and that means betting and raising a lot.
There is an old axiom that it takes a better hand to call than it does to raise, but I often wonder, sitting around at these weak passive tables, what percentage of these players have actually considered what this means in terms of their game. To me, it became clear in February when I really took some time to consider why I wasn’t winning consistently. I blindly decided to add more aggression to my game and suddenly everything turned around. Just adding blind aggression turned me into a winner. Whenever I was going to call, I raised instead. Whenever I was going to check, I bet instead. If I was going to call when I knew he was really strong, I folded instead. Boom, I was a winner.
This blind aggression has been refined over the last few months, and what was totally without logic but was winning me money now has a basis to it that I understand fully. “It takes a better hand to call than it does to raise”! If you understand why this is, then you will understand big bet poker. The rest is easy.
Consider this hand from two nights ago:
I am playing 4d5d from late position in a NL Hold’em game. It is limped to me by 3 players. I raise to 4xBB. I get one caller. The flop is 6,7,10 rainbow and he checks. I bet almost the pot. He calls. The turn is a 3 completing my straight. He checks and I bet again, pot sized. He re-raises me but only doubles my bet. I push all-in. He calls and shows 89 to take my stack.
What a terrible example, huh? I lost.
Well, not really. I played this hand really well. He played this hand poorly. I will win a lot of money in the long run by playing my way. He will lose a lot of money by playing his way. Understand why this is and you will understand how to win in the NL Hold’em rings.
My wife asked me afterwards how I did. I said I lost money. She gave me the look and I considered defending myself. I considered explaining logically how my losing money was just like her winning a fight. Then I thought better of it. I had lost enough hands for the night.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
A pearl?
STRATEGY - A pearl of wisdom?
"Every time somebody min-raises, God kills a cat!"
- unknown Party Poker Player
I don't remember who the player was, but I will always remember the quote. For some sadistic reason, I found it to be about the funniest line I have ever heard on Party Poker.
Anyway...
I am playing a 100NL table last night, sitting with $115 or so, and I am dealt 10sQs in the cutoff. There is one limper, and the player in front of me raises to $2; a min-raise at a NL table... blah! I call. SB calls and the limper calls. Pot is $8.
The flop is spectacular – 9sJs8h
I have the nuts. I am drawing to a flush. I am drawing to a straight flush.
SB checks. Limper checks. Mr. Min-Raise bets $1. $1? I call hoping that SB does the sensible thing and re-raises. Unfortunately, he doesn't. SB calls and limper folds.
If ever I was to slow play a hand, this is the time. I have the nuts. I have a draw to the flush. I don't have to put any money in (to speak of) in order to slow play. I can get away from this at almost no cost if I blow it. Raising has little chance of paying off. I am going to wait for the turn and then take this hand down.
Well the turn is a great card. A Kh probably improves someone but doesn't create a bigger straight. I still have the nuts. My only concern now is the second flush draw and the chance that the board will pair. Time to take this down.
Min-Raise bets $25 into the $11 pot! Wow! This is gold. I decide that there is no way SB will call that bet, therefore I am going to try to milk Mr. Min-Raise. I raise to $50.
Well, I am wrong. Not only would SB call his raise, but he also was willing to call my re-raise. Nice.
Even better is that min-raise really likes his hand too. He re-raises all-in. Woop! That's $79 more. I have that covered. I raise all-in and SB, who has me slightly covered, thinks for a second and reluctantly calls. Wow! Gold!
I figure this is probably a split pot. But I do have my flush redraw.
Well, my flush misses. The river is a 4h but it doesn't matter, no one was on that draw. Min-Raise shows 7d10d. SB shows JhKc.
I rake in a $330 pot!!!!!!
At that point it occurs to me that if Mr. Min-Raise had raised to $4 instead of $2, there is no way I would be in this hand.
"Every time somebody min-raises, God kills a cat!"
There is a bit of truth in there somewhere.
"Every time somebody min-raises, God kills a cat!"
- unknown Party Poker Player
I don't remember who the player was, but I will always remember the quote. For some sadistic reason, I found it to be about the funniest line I have ever heard on Party Poker.
Anyway...
I am playing a 100NL table last night, sitting with $115 or so, and I am dealt 10sQs in the cutoff. There is one limper, and the player in front of me raises to $2; a min-raise at a NL table... blah! I call. SB calls and the limper calls. Pot is $8.
The flop is spectacular – 9sJs8h
I have the nuts. I am drawing to a flush. I am drawing to a straight flush.
SB checks. Limper checks. Mr. Min-Raise bets $1. $1? I call hoping that SB does the sensible thing and re-raises. Unfortunately, he doesn't. SB calls and limper folds.
If ever I was to slow play a hand, this is the time. I have the nuts. I have a draw to the flush. I don't have to put any money in (to speak of) in order to slow play. I can get away from this at almost no cost if I blow it. Raising has little chance of paying off. I am going to wait for the turn and then take this hand down.
Well the turn is a great card. A Kh probably improves someone but doesn't create a bigger straight. I still have the nuts. My only concern now is the second flush draw and the chance that the board will pair. Time to take this down.
Min-Raise bets $25 into the $11 pot! Wow! This is gold. I decide that there is no way SB will call that bet, therefore I am going to try to milk Mr. Min-Raise. I raise to $50.
Well, I am wrong. Not only would SB call his raise, but he also was willing to call my re-raise. Nice.
Even better is that min-raise really likes his hand too. He re-raises all-in. Woop! That's $79 more. I have that covered. I raise all-in and SB, who has me slightly covered, thinks for a second and reluctantly calls. Wow! Gold!
I figure this is probably a split pot. But I do have my flush redraw.
Well, my flush misses. The river is a 4h but it doesn't matter, no one was on that draw. Min-Raise shows 7d10d. SB shows JhKc.
I rake in a $330 pot!!!!!!
At that point it occurs to me that if Mr. Min-Raise had raised to $4 instead of $2, there is no way I would be in this hand.
"Every time somebody min-raises, God kills a cat!"
There is a bit of truth in there somewhere.
Monday, October 25, 2004
The Borgata!!!
The combination of circumstance that could drive a low stake internet poker hack to get in his car at 11PM on a Friday night and make the one hour drive to Atlantic City by himself to sit down at a poker table in his first ever live game is unquestionably unique. But, by some manner of fate, that combination of circumstance happened this Friday night and I found myself driving down to AC for an unplanned all-night initiation into “real” poker.
I arrived at the Borgata at a little after 11PM with only a MAC card in my pocket. I hadn’t been into a casino in 15 years, so it took me a few seconds to adjust to the magnitude of what I planned to do. I shuffled around the floor of the Casino looking for the poker room. Finally, after two laps, I found the secluded stairway that led down to the Borgota’s poker room. At 11:30 I put my name on the list, 1-2 No-Limit Hold’em. The problem was that the list was 45 names deep with only 5 tables running as 1-2 No-Limit tables. After waiting a little while, seeing the slow progression of 3 names off the list in 45 minutes, I added my name to the 2-5 No-Limit list grabbed a bite to eat, and sat back to wait it out.
An hour later my name was called: it was 1:30 in the morning. The max buyin at the table was $500 and I bought in for $300. I had to get my chips from the cashier because the dealer was out. I was more nervous than I have been in quite a long time and by the time I got back to the table I was literally shaking. The chip tray was rattling as I set it on the rail. I tried to pull the chips out of the tray and set them casually against the rail, but my hands were shaking so badly that chips were falling over and I knocked over my own stacks. The other players were looking at me with little sly smiles. Finally, after getting my chips arranged, I found myself sitting there with an empty tray and no idea what to do with it. After a minute or so, one of the pit people let me know that I could put it under the table. I really felt stupid at this point.
It was at this time that I made my first intelligent decision of the night, I told the dealer than I wanted to wait for the big blind. I needed time to get my act together and a little time to get a feel for the table and what I was supposed to do. I didn’t even know the mechanics of betting properly yet and I hadn’t been willing to ask anyone.
One thing that waiting for the big blind did for me was let me know how incredibly loose this table was. In the four or five hands that led up to my first bet, I saw every hand raised pre-flop with four or five callers. One guy, who I will call Boisterous, was raising 2 to 3X the standard BB on every hand with any two cards. One hand saw a raise to 20, a re-raise to 50, and another raise to 100 which both original raisers matched. Sure enough, the third to act had the Aces and took down a large pot. But other hands had raising going on and then people betting the second pair like it was the nuts. I was convinced that this was a table I could make a lot of money at.
On the last hand before the BB hit me, the player to my right, who we will call Johnny Buyin, raised pre-flop to 40 and got one caller, a player two to my left who I will call The Maniac. The flop hit with a Queen high and a couple of low cards. Johnny Buyin bet $100. The Maniac called. The turn was an Ace and Johnny bet 200. The Maniac went all-in. Johnny, down to his last 100 called. There was excitement over this hand because they both obviously had something large. Johnny turned over his AQ to claim top two pair. The Maniac did not turn over. The river came a 7 and The Maniac flipped over his pocket 7’s to take down the $1000 pot. I was floored. Venom came into Johnny’s eyes and he looked for a moment like he was going to jump over the table to kill The Maniac. After a second, Johnny got his composure and stepped away from the table. He would return a few minutes later with another $500. It was the worst play I think I saw all night by far.
Finally, I started playing some hands. Every hand was raised pre-flop and I folded my first 6 hands until I found myself in a late position holding QJ off-suit. I called the $15 bet. The flop was 893. Two players in front bet and called $20 respectively and I called with two over cards and a straight possibility. The turn was a 2. This time everyone checked. The river came a Jack. Both players checked and I decided to make my first play for a pot. I wanted to bet $40. I was still nervous as hell, and I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking. I wanted to bet $40 so I weakly grabbed what I thought was $40 and put it out. Realizing it was only $35 I tried to go back and get $5 more. The player 3 to my left, Slick, called out, “You can’t do that”. I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong. But he explained that I had strung my bet. I replied, “Oh, OK. I am used to just clicking a button.” But, after understanding the explanation, I pulled $5 back and left my original bet out there; $35. Player one folded, and the second player looked at me. He said, “You are shaking like crazy, you don’t have a hand.” I replied, “Think what you want, I have been shaking like this since I got here.” He called and I showed my top pair. He mucked his cards and I won my first pot of the night, which was pretty big. I was up to about $400 already.
I began folding like crazy again, until I found KK in my hand and orbit later. This could be good. Someone bet $20 and Boisterous raised to $40. He had been raising almost everything and winning some pots with low pairs. I raised to $80. He called. The flop came out either very bad for me or very good. QJQ. This was when I made my first and last mistake of the night. I bet: $80. He went over the top of me, betting $160. I took a minute, thought about it, figured I still hand the best hand, and… folded. He turned over his A4s but wrong suit and took the pot. I would have been mad, but his showing the cards taught me a lesson. My mistake was that I bet at all. On the flop, I should have taken my time and then checked. There is no way he could have bet in that situation, knowing that I could be slow playing a hand like AQ, AA, or KK. He would have had to have checked too. If he had bet, even if he was bluffing, I could have folded right then, only losing my original bet. I made an awful play and lost and additional $80 on it to a bluff. I put myself in a bad spot. I got angry at myself and vowed not to do it again… but I was down $50 overall at this point.
I won a small pot a little later when my AQ flopped ace high and I didn’t get any callers and was back to even.
I found myself on the button a little while later holding 89s. The pot was raised to $15 in front of me. Knowing that raises meant next to nothing in this game, I called. The flop came QJX rainbow. Three players were in and three players checked. The turn was nothing and everyone checked again. The river came a 10. There was a $40 bet. Boisterous called and I called. They turned over a lower pair each and I showed my straight, winning a nice sized pot and putting myself in the green again.
I won some smallish pots when my top pair bets drew no response and I ended up at about $500. I was pretty excited at this point and… was really excited that my shaking had finally stopped.
Johnny Buyin blew out of the game soon afterwards losing his second $500 buyin and getting up and walking away in a huff. The one thing I don’t know that I will be able to get used to sitting at these real tables is seeing people lose money that you just know they can’t afford to lose. Johnny lost $1000 in the span of an hour and a half. He dressed like he could afford to lose that money, but in reality, and judging by his reactions, it was clear that he couldn’t. Taking money from other people is a lot harder than taking it from the house in a game like Black Jack. I guess you can’t think about it, but if you do, the thoughts can be really sad.
A new player, Young Gun, joined in Johnny’s place. He was about 25 and set down $400 in chips. He was confident and measured in his play and he played OK, winning and losing some pots and working his way up to around $500. I was folding hand after hand at this point. Waiting for something at least decent to play.
Again, I found myself on the button holding Qd10d. Four people were in the pot in front of me and I called the $20 bet. The flop came Kd, Jd, 4d. I had flopped the second to nut flush and an open ended straight flush draw. I had a royal flush draw too. A small bet up from and Young Gun raised to $50. With two cards to go I decided I needed to take this pot down right here with the Ad out there. I bet $100 thinking he would realize I had the flush and drop out. Everyone folded to Young Gun and… instead… he re-raised by $100. Again, I wanted the pot right here. If he had the nut flush, I would have expected a flat call from him. Coming over the top could only drive me away. He was TRYING to drive me away and therefore I KNEW he didn’t have the nut flush. I suspected he was drawing to it and his bet was a semi-bluff. I wanted him gone. I made it $400, leaving my $85 sitting in front of me. He thinks for a second and says all-in. Now I wonder if I have read this right. He seemed so confident. But with my last $85, I call. No diamonds on the turn or the river and I turn over my flush. I see him deflate. His eyes go blank and he mucks. He is absolutely despondent. As he mucks, one of his cards turns over. The 7 of clubs. Either he had the Ace of diamonds in his hand or he had top pair and put me on a draw. Either way, he made a terrible play and I cleaned him out. He left the table with his shoulders hung low and a look of panic on his face. Again, the thought that I am taking money from people who can’t afford to lose it strikes me. But when I look down at the nearly $1000 that are being pushed in front of me, the thought slides out of my consciousness. Young Gun dug his own grave. This hand officially constitutes the largest bet of my life. $485 bet on one hand. AND I DOUBLED UP! Very cool!
I hit almost no big hands for the next hour. I fold and fold and fold. I play a couple of marginal hands for small pots, losing a couple winning one or two and find myself at right around $900. It is 5:30 in the morning and the table is getting short handed. We are down to four players left. I find Ah6h in the small blind. The bet is $20 and I call. Again, a perfect flop hits, Jh, 10h, and 4h. I have the nut flush! Two players are in with me. I check, player A bets $20, and player B raises to $40. I check my cards again. I am now shaking again, this time on purpose. I call. Player A calls. This pot is getting big. Someone must have the flush too. Better for me! The turn comes, no hearts. I check. Player A bets $40 and Player B calls. I call. This pot is going to be huge. I plan to check the river again. Let them bet and I will come over the top by just enough to force them to call. I’m already counting the chips. The river comes, a 7… of hearts damn it! Now, the cat is out of the bag. Player A checks. Player B checks. I pointlessly make a 100 chip bet and they both fold. I rack in a pretty big pot, and show my nut flush on the flop. They both proclaim how the 7 saved them. Each was playing two pair. It was a nice pot, but not anything like what it could have been. In two more hands the table breaks up and I am done for the night.
I cash out for $1076, up over $776. Maybe I will try this again some time.
I am now officially a winning poker player, by a long shot. I have way more than offset my Party Poker losses. With a 9th in a huge field tournament and a triple up at the casino, I am feeling pretty confident these days. That could be dangerous.
I arrived at the Borgata at a little after 11PM with only a MAC card in my pocket. I hadn’t been into a casino in 15 years, so it took me a few seconds to adjust to the magnitude of what I planned to do. I shuffled around the floor of the Casino looking for the poker room. Finally, after two laps, I found the secluded stairway that led down to the Borgota’s poker room. At 11:30 I put my name on the list, 1-2 No-Limit Hold’em. The problem was that the list was 45 names deep with only 5 tables running as 1-2 No-Limit tables. After waiting a little while, seeing the slow progression of 3 names off the list in 45 minutes, I added my name to the 2-5 No-Limit list grabbed a bite to eat, and sat back to wait it out.
An hour later my name was called: it was 1:30 in the morning. The max buyin at the table was $500 and I bought in for $300. I had to get my chips from the cashier because the dealer was out. I was more nervous than I have been in quite a long time and by the time I got back to the table I was literally shaking. The chip tray was rattling as I set it on the rail. I tried to pull the chips out of the tray and set them casually against the rail, but my hands were shaking so badly that chips were falling over and I knocked over my own stacks. The other players were looking at me with little sly smiles. Finally, after getting my chips arranged, I found myself sitting there with an empty tray and no idea what to do with it. After a minute or so, one of the pit people let me know that I could put it under the table. I really felt stupid at this point.
It was at this time that I made my first intelligent decision of the night, I told the dealer than I wanted to wait for the big blind. I needed time to get my act together and a little time to get a feel for the table and what I was supposed to do. I didn’t even know the mechanics of betting properly yet and I hadn’t been willing to ask anyone.
One thing that waiting for the big blind did for me was let me know how incredibly loose this table was. In the four or five hands that led up to my first bet, I saw every hand raised pre-flop with four or five callers. One guy, who I will call Boisterous, was raising 2 to 3X the standard BB on every hand with any two cards. One hand saw a raise to 20, a re-raise to 50, and another raise to 100 which both original raisers matched. Sure enough, the third to act had the Aces and took down a large pot. But other hands had raising going on and then people betting the second pair like it was the nuts. I was convinced that this was a table I could make a lot of money at.
On the last hand before the BB hit me, the player to my right, who we will call Johnny Buyin, raised pre-flop to 40 and got one caller, a player two to my left who I will call The Maniac. The flop hit with a Queen high and a couple of low cards. Johnny Buyin bet $100. The Maniac called. The turn was an Ace and Johnny bet 200. The Maniac went all-in. Johnny, down to his last 100 called. There was excitement over this hand because they both obviously had something large. Johnny turned over his AQ to claim top two pair. The Maniac did not turn over. The river came a 7 and The Maniac flipped over his pocket 7’s to take down the $1000 pot. I was floored. Venom came into Johnny’s eyes and he looked for a moment like he was going to jump over the table to kill The Maniac. After a second, Johnny got his composure and stepped away from the table. He would return a few minutes later with another $500. It was the worst play I think I saw all night by far.
Finally, I started playing some hands. Every hand was raised pre-flop and I folded my first 6 hands until I found myself in a late position holding QJ off-suit. I called the $15 bet. The flop was 893. Two players in front bet and called $20 respectively and I called with two over cards and a straight possibility. The turn was a 2. This time everyone checked. The river came a Jack. Both players checked and I decided to make my first play for a pot. I wanted to bet $40. I was still nervous as hell, and I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking. I wanted to bet $40 so I weakly grabbed what I thought was $40 and put it out. Realizing it was only $35 I tried to go back and get $5 more. The player 3 to my left, Slick, called out, “You can’t do that”. I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong. But he explained that I had strung my bet. I replied, “Oh, OK. I am used to just clicking a button.” But, after understanding the explanation, I pulled $5 back and left my original bet out there; $35. Player one folded, and the second player looked at me. He said, “You are shaking like crazy, you don’t have a hand.” I replied, “Think what you want, I have been shaking like this since I got here.” He called and I showed my top pair. He mucked his cards and I won my first pot of the night, which was pretty big. I was up to about $400 already.
I began folding like crazy again, until I found KK in my hand and orbit later. This could be good. Someone bet $20 and Boisterous raised to $40. He had been raising almost everything and winning some pots with low pairs. I raised to $80. He called. The flop came out either very bad for me or very good. QJQ. This was when I made my first and last mistake of the night. I bet: $80. He went over the top of me, betting $160. I took a minute, thought about it, figured I still hand the best hand, and… folded. He turned over his A4s but wrong suit and took the pot. I would have been mad, but his showing the cards taught me a lesson. My mistake was that I bet at all. On the flop, I should have taken my time and then checked. There is no way he could have bet in that situation, knowing that I could be slow playing a hand like AQ, AA, or KK. He would have had to have checked too. If he had bet, even if he was bluffing, I could have folded right then, only losing my original bet. I made an awful play and lost and additional $80 on it to a bluff. I put myself in a bad spot. I got angry at myself and vowed not to do it again… but I was down $50 overall at this point.
I won a small pot a little later when my AQ flopped ace high and I didn’t get any callers and was back to even.
I found myself on the button a little while later holding 89s. The pot was raised to $15 in front of me. Knowing that raises meant next to nothing in this game, I called. The flop came QJX rainbow. Three players were in and three players checked. The turn was nothing and everyone checked again. The river came a 10. There was a $40 bet. Boisterous called and I called. They turned over a lower pair each and I showed my straight, winning a nice sized pot and putting myself in the green again.
I won some smallish pots when my top pair bets drew no response and I ended up at about $500. I was pretty excited at this point and… was really excited that my shaking had finally stopped.
Johnny Buyin blew out of the game soon afterwards losing his second $500 buyin and getting up and walking away in a huff. The one thing I don’t know that I will be able to get used to sitting at these real tables is seeing people lose money that you just know they can’t afford to lose. Johnny lost $1000 in the span of an hour and a half. He dressed like he could afford to lose that money, but in reality, and judging by his reactions, it was clear that he couldn’t. Taking money from other people is a lot harder than taking it from the house in a game like Black Jack. I guess you can’t think about it, but if you do, the thoughts can be really sad.
A new player, Young Gun, joined in Johnny’s place. He was about 25 and set down $400 in chips. He was confident and measured in his play and he played OK, winning and losing some pots and working his way up to around $500. I was folding hand after hand at this point. Waiting for something at least decent to play.
Again, I found myself on the button holding Qd10d. Four people were in the pot in front of me and I called the $20 bet. The flop came Kd, Jd, 4d. I had flopped the second to nut flush and an open ended straight flush draw. I had a royal flush draw too. A small bet up from and Young Gun raised to $50. With two cards to go I decided I needed to take this pot down right here with the Ad out there. I bet $100 thinking he would realize I had the flush and drop out. Everyone folded to Young Gun and… instead… he re-raised by $100. Again, I wanted the pot right here. If he had the nut flush, I would have expected a flat call from him. Coming over the top could only drive me away. He was TRYING to drive me away and therefore I KNEW he didn’t have the nut flush. I suspected he was drawing to it and his bet was a semi-bluff. I wanted him gone. I made it $400, leaving my $85 sitting in front of me. He thinks for a second and says all-in. Now I wonder if I have read this right. He seemed so confident. But with my last $85, I call. No diamonds on the turn or the river and I turn over my flush. I see him deflate. His eyes go blank and he mucks. He is absolutely despondent. As he mucks, one of his cards turns over. The 7 of clubs. Either he had the Ace of diamonds in his hand or he had top pair and put me on a draw. Either way, he made a terrible play and I cleaned him out. He left the table with his shoulders hung low and a look of panic on his face. Again, the thought that I am taking money from people who can’t afford to lose it strikes me. But when I look down at the nearly $1000 that are being pushed in front of me, the thought slides out of my consciousness. Young Gun dug his own grave. This hand officially constitutes the largest bet of my life. $485 bet on one hand. AND I DOUBLED UP! Very cool!
I hit almost no big hands for the next hour. I fold and fold and fold. I play a couple of marginal hands for small pots, losing a couple winning one or two and find myself at right around $900. It is 5:30 in the morning and the table is getting short handed. We are down to four players left. I find Ah6h in the small blind. The bet is $20 and I call. Again, a perfect flop hits, Jh, 10h, and 4h. I have the nut flush! Two players are in with me. I check, player A bets $20, and player B raises to $40. I check my cards again. I am now shaking again, this time on purpose. I call. Player A calls. This pot is getting big. Someone must have the flush too. Better for me! The turn comes, no hearts. I check. Player A bets $40 and Player B calls. I call. This pot is going to be huge. I plan to check the river again. Let them bet and I will come over the top by just enough to force them to call. I’m already counting the chips. The river comes, a 7… of hearts damn it! Now, the cat is out of the bag. Player A checks. Player B checks. I pointlessly make a 100 chip bet and they both fold. I rack in a pretty big pot, and show my nut flush on the flop. They both proclaim how the 7 saved them. Each was playing two pair. It was a nice pot, but not anything like what it could have been. In two more hands the table breaks up and I am done for the night.
I cash out for $1076, up over $776. Maybe I will try this again some time.
I am now officially a winning poker player, by a long shot. I have way more than offset my Party Poker losses. With a 9th in a huge field tournament and a triple up at the casino, I am feeling pretty confident these days. That could be dangerous.
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