When good home games go bad...

We taught Uncle Phil about the Shocker last week and the poor guy got so excited it blew his hat sideways!

An interesting discovery

It was an interesting phenomenon, one that I’ve experienced several times, but never with enough clarity to remark on it. Last night I got the monthly Party reload bonus, and made the max deposit to get the max bonus. Then I realized that with only seven days to play 1,000 hands on Party, I either had to restrict myself to only one site for a week, or add more tables to clear the bonus more quickly.

I’ve been playing mostly two tables of $2/4 limit lately, and doing pretty well. Playing limit on Party has required a couple of adjustments to my game, most notably a 5% reduction in my VP$IP, as the aggro-monkeys on Party will bet with 2nd pair a LOT, then catch. So I’ve been limiting myself to being hyper-aggressive with my monsters, and passive/aggressive with my project hands (Project hands are like project boyfriends/girlfriends/houses, they aren’t much to start with but have enormous potential. Two of my favorite project hands are 8-10s and J-9s.). This strategy was not going to work to clear this bonus, as there are fewer raked hands/hr. at $2/4, so it would take years to clear this bonus playing my normal game.

So I switched to NLHE, where every hand with a pot over $1 is raked, dropped down two levels to NL25, and opened up four tables at once. I’ve said frequently that I can only really focus on two tables of NLHE at once, as when I’m in a hand I want to have as much information as possible about the other players at the table, and the freedom to calculate my actions better. But I wanted to push myself a little, so I opened two 6-max tables and two full tables, figuring the slower pace of the full tables would help with the frenetic pace of the 6-max tables, and I would still have enough time to make my decisions without having to resort totally to Level 1 poker thinking.

It was interesting, because for the first few minutes, it was all I could do to keep my blinds posted and fold on the right table at the right time. I made sure my distractions were minimal, kept iTunes closed and Firefox shut down, and NO chatting on the girly chat thing, so all I was focused on was the poker.

And after about three minutes, the game slowed down. It was almost like a special effect in a movie, the action suddenly was less furious, I had an innate understanding of my position at each table, and was able to begin accumulating information about my opponents. I’ve never experienced that kind of zen moment multi-tabling before, and it was pretty neat. As my session lingered, however, I did notice that it was taking a bit of a toll, and that I was getting tired much more quickly. I hung on for about an hour, cleared about 250 hands of my bonus, and found myself down about $15. Not great, since if I’m down $15 after each quarter of bonus chasing I’m only making $40 profit over the whole bonus, but I pulled a quick 15-minute hit & run at a $3/6 table to make it up and more.

So there are a couple of things that I’m taking from this, notably that if I can hang out through the first few frenetic moments of getting posted in, seated, and getting everything set, I can handle up to four tables of NLHE without too much difficulty, although I am still playing less than my “A” game under those circumstances. Also I am beginning to realize that while a “free” $100 bonus sounds good, I have to be able to play profitable poker while clearing it to make it a winning proposition, and this means having enough time to clear the bonus AND play my “A” game.

I’m definitely not ruling out bonus chasing, as it is a decent way to pad a bankroll (especially if you also use the signup bonuses provided by the nice folks at PokerSavvy or Poker Source Online – please click through the ads on the right and use bonus code Falstaff), but it’s not going to be something I dedicate a lot of time to, as I can make more money than most bonuses offer at a decent 3-hour session of $2/4. But I’ll still finish this Party reload, because I’m now better than halfway there.

PokerPro Dealerless Poker Table

So I noticed this redhead standing in line next to me at the rebuy/add-on table wearing a fleece jacket with a PokerTek logo. Being the naturally gregarious guy that I am, and never passing up an opportunity to find out about new poker toys, I said “Isn’t that the folks that make the computerized poker table?”

“PokerPro? Yes. Have you heard of it?”

“Yeah, my buddy Tripjax wrote it up in his blog, and I saw them down at the Tampa Bay Hard Rock.”

“Did you play on them?”

“Nah, if I wanna play poker on a computer screen, I’ll do it online.”

“Well, it’s pretty different from online poker.”

“Do you work for them?”

“Yes, I do.”

The above conversation is reconstructed wholly from my fuzzy-ass memory and the type of things that I would typically say. Most of those words in some assortment probably happened at some point. So that’s how I met Becca, the Branding Specialist for Pokertek, who are indeed the folks that have a new product called the PokerPro poker table, a dealerless poker table. Turns out that their offices are just outside of Charlotte, so I played the internet writer card, and lo and behold, they set up a little meeting and tournament on their table for me!

So I’ve never sat down at one of their tables before, but I had read an article in last month’s Bluff magazine by Antonio Esfandiari raving about the tables, and I checked out their website to do a little research. I found the screen interface super-easy to navigate, and the setup was simple as well. When you arrive at the casino, you get yourself an account card at a kiosk, put cash on it, and sign up on a list to play. Currently they support single-table tournaments and ring games, with multi-table tournaments available soon on networked tables. And over in the corner of the demo room was a new product that looked totally badass that I promised not to say anything specific about so all I'll say is watch this space for details. Yeah, that was cheap, I know.

So when your game is called, you sit down at the table, slip your card in the reader, it deducts that tourney buy-in (or amount for your ring game) from your account, and you’re golden. So you're playing against other live players, and the money is real, but the chips and cards are virtual. I thought this would be kinda silly, but I had an absolute blast! It helped that I won the first tourney and was 2nd in the other (I think they took it easy on the writer guy).

Each seat has a touchscreen built into the table, and there a much larger display in the center of the table where the community cards appear. They also appear on the smaller monitors, along with your options to bet, raise, fold, check, etc. My initial concern of playing with a monitor in front of me was “How do I hide my cards? Am I gonna have to sit here all night with my hand on this monitor?” Ummm, no. The cards are “dealt” face-down, and you have to cup your hand around the cards for the corners to bend up, just like you’re squeezing cards on a table. Pretty damn neat graphical job there, I must say.

And speaking of dealing, just like any reputable online site, PokerTek has had their RNG (random number generator) certified by an outside firm. And UNLIKE online sites, they have set up their random number generator to “burn” a card before dealing the flop, turn and river, in an effort to more accurately mimic the traditional game.

That sentence actually took a little while to craft, because my first instinct was to use the phrase “mimic the live game,” but it IS a live game, just a hybrid between traditional poker and internet poker. I’m gonna need a bit of a lexicon upgrade, I think.

So we played a couple of SNGs, me against 3 of the PokerTek folks, and it only took me a matter of seconds to grasp the use of the touchscreen. All the buttons were big enough, and the graphical representations of chips were neat, and easy to read and bet with. We played one round on the new tables, which are under review by gaming licensing folks and one round on the original table, which is what’s currently installed in casinos like the Winstar and the Florida Hard Rocks.

So what did I like about them? Faster, faster, faster. It speeds up the game by about 50%, because there’s none of the mechanics of getting cards to people, getting chips into the pot, etc. The possibility of dealer error is reduced to, ummm, nil. And dealers are people, which means they’re going to make mistakes. Especially with as many new rooms as are being opened up and as many new dealers that are being hired, trained or not. And did I mention it’s faster?

Then there’s the video-game aspect. People that are slot machine junkies or video poker junkies will sit down at one of these, because they don’t have to mess with chips, they don’t have to deal with cards, it’s a familiar place for them, in front of a screen.

Now, I don’t see this as a product that is going to replace poker dealers. Entirely. I see this as a product that facilities that are opening new, smaller poker rooms may want to invest in because it is lower overhead. Yes, I’m sure the tables are expensive (I didn’t ask because I didn’t really care), but when you look at a room the size of the Imperial Palace, with maybe 10 tables, the infrastructure in cards, chips (at nearly a buck apiece!) and dealers, it’s gonna take a long time to amortize that with the rake that you get at low limits. So I see this as an addition to traditional tables, like they have in Florida.

It’s absolutely perfect for low buy-in SNG tourneys, because who really wants to deal one of those anyway? A $40 tourney with 9 people isn’t going to tip, so why not put it on a table without a dealer? A $2/4 NL table isn’t going to tip much, so why not put those on your dealerless tables? Save your dealers for your higher buy-in games, your big tourneys and your games that require some explanation to the new Hold Em kiddies, like O8 or Stud.

BTW, they do have the possibility to charge time with the PokerPro table, either on the hour, or per player based on how long the player has been there. So instead of having the dealer collect time when she sits down, each player is hit for time when they’ve been at the table for 30 minutes. Seems much more fair to me, but I’ve never played at a time pot table, so I dunno.

I also see this as a great addition to some of those terrible backwoods places that can’t have poker. Oh yeah, I live in one of those. It seems like a no-brainer that NC, with it’s provision to allow digital blackjack at Harrah’s Cherokee, would pretty easily allow digital poker. But not yet. I hope soon. I’d love to get some of those grannies across one of these tables. It can also go well in a bar, in the back room next to the pool tables to generate revenue for the bar owner without much overhead.

Okay, what did I not like about it? Not much, and my one complaint is something that would fade with practice. I found myself spending a lot of time looking at the screen in front of me, or the screen in the center of the table, rather than looking at the other players. But this was due to lack of familiarity with the interface, and as the tourneys went on, my comfort level with the buttons I needed to tap increased to let me pay more attention.

What about tells? They’re different, but they exist. It’s not often, at least at the levels that I play, that you can pick up a reliable physical tell anyway, but obviously the things like reaching for chips, looking at stacks, etc. are all gone. But you can watch as people move their hand around different areas of the screen once you’re familiar with the layout, and see if their first instinct is to push bet, fold, or check. I caught myself doing that a couple of times, reaching for the button I intended to push, and I’m sure if anyone was paying close attention, they could have picked up on that.

Oh yeah, and the best part? It’s beer-proof. I asked, and was told that even the card slot has been crafted so that any liquid poured into it is redirected out of the table, about where the offending player’s leg should be. Nice to have a sense of humour about these things.

So I had a great visit, was very impressed by the product, and think it could make a great addition to a casino’s poker room. I don’t think it will ever totally replace dealers, but it would be a good solution to single-table tourneys, low-limit tables, satellite tourneys, and maybe save some folks from the influx of new, bad dealers while making the good ones valued for the service that they provide.

Kings no good here

Nope, I was right. There’s no way I’m laying down pocket Kings preflop. Especially against a loose-aggressive player like Warbucks. And on the third hand of the tournament I’m out, when his AQ off-suit catches one of his three outs on the flop.  And I wasn’t even tilted. Yes, I did make a remark to him later that I would not have made that move, calling a re-re-raise preflop, but I didn’t really mind the beat. I just sat, dealt for a little while, and figured I’d make it back at the cash table.

It’s good to be right sometimes. I ended up $25 for the night total, so it was a good night. Most of it did come from catching my card on the river against my buddy Charles, but I was counting myself as having 8 outs, and getting never less than 5-1 on my calls on every street. What I didn’t know was that both of my hole cards were winner had I paired them, so I actually had 14 outs, and I caught my Q on the river for the nut straight, so that was happy.

Came home and took a stab at 2/4 on Party for a little while. The play is very similar to $1/2 on Party (overaggressive), so I sat back ,waited for my spots, and made a quick $40. So I’m now unstuck for the month. Again. Let’s see if I can actually manage to crank out a little sustainable profit now.

My tourney game is in the shitter, and if I’m really going to play the $1K NLHE event at the WSOP this summer, that’s gotta change. Right now, the jury is out as to whether or not I’m gonna play, because I have played so poorly in tourneys for the past couple weeks I’m not even comfortable asking my friends to back me, because if I want my friends to throw their money away, I’d rather they just buy me booze.

So here’s the plan: I’m playing at minimum one MTT each night through the month of June, and we’ll see how we feel about the tourney game after that. If I think I’ve got my head straight and have a chance to do well, then I’ll play the WSOP. In a perfect world, I either win a seat, or cash for more than a grand to win my buy-in off of tourney play. But if I don’t feel like my game is ready, I’m not gonna play. No point throwing away a grand that I could be spending on a new monitor, moving up levels in my play, or just using to fleece donkeys at the Castle.

I’m probably not going to spend a ton of time at the bracelet races on FTP, unless I end up with a bunch of tokens, but right now my best shots feel like the Pokerstars blogger championships thing, where pretty much the whole final table gets at least a lamer for a prelim entry, or this $15k freeroll tonight on 7Sultans (interface is standard Prima, but it was a Pokersavvy bonus, so it was ok).

In other news, I’m on the lookout for a mentor, so if anybody wants to pore through my Pokertracker database and watch me play and tell me how to be more profitable, email me.

Lame-ass post for a Monday and a Question

I played the HORSE event last night. I didn’t cash. I didn’t even begin to play well. I had fun giving money to my friends, though. I think next time, I’ll just pick a random blogger and send them $22.

I was really having a lot of fun playing $1/2 Limit on Party last night. I know, I said I’ve never managed to make a significant run on Party, but I’m up a little after this last round of cashout/redeposit. I’m playing more tables, allowing me to be more patient at each one, and that’s paying off pretty well.

Home game was a lot of fun but disastrous to the bankroll. High point of the night was explaining “the shocker” to our two 50+ year old players, then watching their faces as they manipulated the fingers into the right configuration. There were photos taken, they’ll follow soon if Tresa will email them to me.

Tonight is the local actor’s tournament. Been a long time since I’ve cashed in this one, I’ve been bubble boy for months. Let’s see if I can take the advice given in the girly chat thing and put it to good use.

Question of the day – How many BB in your bankroll for limit poker? I’ve seen figures of 300-400BB for limit, which would put me playing 2/4 regularly. I’m not sure that’s wise, so I’d love to hear from some folks that are playing 2/4 or 3/6 what they think is a comfortable BR figure. I’m floating around $2K right now, having success at $1/2 and NL50, with occasional shots at NL100. All advice welcome, as this is the first time I’ve really given a shit about bankroll management.

Boring statistics post

Some interesting stats from PokerTracker. If you don’t find other people’s leaks interesting, read no further.

I have 6 different hands with a VP$IP of 100%.

AA
JJ
TT
KQs
AQs
AJs

One of those hands is a net loser, and it wasn’t the one I would have guessed (KQs). I am a net loser with 10s, and apparently need to lay that shit down.

Apparently at least twice I’ve laid down KK preflop. I must have been sitting out and gotten dealt Kings while pissing, because I’m not intentionally laying down KK preflop in a cash game. On the bubble of a satellite tourney, maybe. But never in a cash game. Gracie wouldn’t approve.

I am more profitable over the last 10,000 hands (I know, statistically small sample) with 22 than with any hand other than AA, KK, QQ, JJ or AKo. I am far less profitable with AKs than I am with hands like J9s, 8Ts, A5o. That tells me something about my play of Big Slick. The $40 pot I gave up to AJ today should also tell me something about my play of AK.

My biggest losing hands are AJo and the Hammer. Stupid Hammer. 66 is right up there, too. Tens are interesting, because I win with TT 65% of the time, but am a huge net loser monetarily. That tells me that I’m not playing them very well at all. Looks like I’m not letting go of them when I should, and not maximizing my profits when I can. Need to work on that.

I have only one hand with a VP$IP of 0, and that’s 62o. Interestingly, I’m a net winner with that hand. BB specials are g00t. There are 8 hands with a win % of 0, and they’re the kind of crap you’d expect – 85s, 53o, j2o, garbage like that. Apparently I’m completing way too many small blinds.

The hand that I have gone to showdown with the most is AA. The hand I’ve gone to showdown with the 2nd most is 84s. That scares me a little. No more tequila near the mouse.

I’m sure this interests no one but me, but there are some leaks to be found in this, and that’s what makes the software really helpful to me. I’m not playing at the levels where the data mining is terribly helpful as far as insight into my opponents goes, but giving me some insight into myself is potentially more valuable.

To Felicia, on Psychology

I’m not there yet, Felicia.

I’m not emotionally dead enough. I still get excited when I win, and losing still feels like getting kicked in the guts. In an hour or so, I’ll be able to rationalize away the sick feeling by the knowledge that in all four major losing hands tonight, I really did get my money in the middle with the best hand. I want aggro-donkeys calling me (and re-raising me) with garbage hands and then catching their 2-outer to crush my stack, and by extension, soul.

I think, by the way, that it’s a compensatory thing, why men need to have big stacks of chips to feel comfortable at the table. Except Bobby Bracelet, most of us have certain inadequacies we’re trying to cover up at the table, and that’s why we get so overwrought when someone takes away part of our stack. Especially a woman. Losing one or more towers of chips to a woman evokes unpleasant Lorena Bobbitt connotations. But I digress (not much new there).

But after a few set over set and boat over boat losses, my neck muscles are knotted up, I feel the beginnings of a headache forming, there’s a churning in the pit of my stomach that I know Alka-Seltzer won’t help, and I really, really want to break my mouse. But I don’t. Because not only is that immature and stupid, but I use a kinda expensive trackball and that could get pricey after a while. And I need all the ready cash I can muster to keep paying off morons who catch things they should never have been chasing in the first place.

I know that in a half an hour I’ll feel better. Maybe even sooner than that. I may indeed hustle over to micro-limit donkey O8 and throw away a full $5 buy-in chasing everything in the free world just to banish the visions of donkeys with fangs chopping off parts of my prodigious stack with kitchen knives. Or maybe I’ll just play this silly little $10 MTT $1K guarantee on WPX, ‘cause even at only needing 100 people to cover, there’s a 20+ person overlay with 2 minutes to go.

But that whole emotionally dead thing? I’m trying. I realize that it would be a good trait to have. But I’m just not quite there yet. There’s not quite “just chips” yet. Maybe once my entire Vegas roll is squared away for the summer, they’ll be “just chips.” Or maybe I want to keep just a hint of protectiveness of my cash, and just a little of that attitude you talked about folks like Barry Greenstein having; that unwillingness to stand up a loser after a session. I’m no Barry G., I’m neither as smart or as generous. But I’m pretty damn hard-headed, and maybe I can harness that a little more easily than I can fine-tune true deadpan.

Anyway, thanks for the psychology posts. I read them all, try to absorb some things and ignore others. Isn’t that kinda the point of all of us throwing our stuff out here into the interweb anyway? We’re all kinda yelling out to the world “Here I am! Take me or leave me, but here I am!”

Stacked

This seems pretty cool. I should have a copy to review before too long. I’ll let you know how I likes it.

STACKED™ WITH DANIEL NEGREANU DEALS TO RETAIL
The Next Generation of Poker Has Arrived with Learning AI, Sanctioned Online Tournaments
MTV Presents: STACKED Poker Television Special to Air on MTV2 on June 2nd and on MTV on June 3rd
For Immediate Release:
New York, NY – May 31st, 2006 – Myelin Media, LLC, a publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced that their Texas Hold ‘Em game, STACKED™ with Daniel Negreanu, has shipped to retail outlets throughout North America. A breakthrough Texas Hold ‘Em video game, STACKED steps to the table with a powerful hand of groundbreaking artificial intelligence, massive online multi-table tournaments and involvement from seven of the most celebrated professional poker players in the modern history of the game. Rated T for Teen by the ESRB, STACKED is available for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and the PC, and carries a suggested retail price of $29.99. In addition, MTV will be airing a half-hour special premiering on Friday, June 2nd at 9 PM on MTV2 and Saturday, June 3rd at 9 PM on MTV entitled, MTV Presents: STACKED Poker, to support the release of the highly anticipated title.
“STACKED is the perfect way for a beginner to learn poker,” said Negreanu.  “It won’t disappoint the advanced players either, especially when they have to face off against me!”
“STACKED brings the excitement and strategy of professional poker into your home,” said Ken Woo, producer at Myelin Media. “Whether playing alone against the game’s realistic learning AI or online against real world opponents, you will feel the same exhilaration with every big bet, bluff and victory as if you were at the final table of a high stakes tournament.”
“MTV Games was formed with the vision of creating and promoting original video game IP and unique gaming experiences that encapsulate the passions and interests of the MTV audience,” said Jeff Yapp, EVP, Program Enterprises. “STACKED represents the first true MTV Games 360° initiative by delivering a video game experience, television special and an online component with the Stacked Masters multi-table tournaments.“
About MTV Presents: STACKED Poker MTV Presents: STACKED Poker is a half hour special premiering on Friday, June 2nd at 9 PM on MTV2 and Saturday, June 3rd at 9 PM on MTV.   The program gets inside the breakout phenomenon of professional poker and highlights the launch of STACKED™ with Daniel Negreanu.  Negreanu stars in this half-hour special with his unique brand of strategy, intuition and charisma.  Shot on location at The Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, MTV Presents: STACKED Poker takes viewers through an explanation of the video game, STACKED, an introductory game of poker with Negreanu, then he faces a group of college age competition, competes against some of the world’s top ranked poker players and ends the show by sitting down at a table with special celebrity guests, Ryan Cabrera and Benji from Good Charlotte, to pass on some of his poker expertise.  Throughout, Daniel will occasionally “freeze frame” and address the audience with his unparalleled insights into poker strategy, player tells and insider tips. 
The special also kicks off a once in a lifetime opportunity for MTV viewers.  The STACKED Masters Tournament is a series of STACKED Multi-Table Tournaments, to be played live online.   Four players who meet certain eligibility criteria may be cast to participate in the MTV STACKED Masters Showdown Special.  Participants in the special will be flown to Las Vegas, where they will face off against Daniel Negreanu at the final table, for a chance to prove their poker prowess against the best in the business.   
About STACKED The premiere Texas Hold ‘Em video game, STACKED utilizes an advanced learning artificial intelligence system that devises new strategies for victory as it learns more about each player’s individual style of play. As the player progresses through the game, the AI will become more sophisticated, as it builds a profile of weaknesses and attempts to exploit them, helping the player to learn and become a better overall player. As they progress through the game’s career mode, players will encounter seven of poker’s most decorated pro players: Josh Arieh, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Juan Carlos Mortensen, Evelyn Ng, David Williams and Daniel Negreanu himself, each with a custom AI bot that matches their real-world play style. Players can access the game’s Poker School mode at any time to learn from nearly an hour of video tips and strategies from Daniel Negreanu, covering all aspects of the game from basic rules to advanced guidance for tournament victory.
STACKED lets players compete online against the best players in the world in a unique multi-table tournament system known as STACKED Masters. Sanctioned tournaments will be regularly announced through the game’s official web site, and players with the necessary online ranking can participate to go head-to-head against hundreds of the game’s best players in a ladder based tournament system and seize their place in the STACKED Hall of Fame. Players can also choose to create their own custom online tournaments as well as smaller individual games with friends.
For more information about STACKED with Daniel Negreanu, please visit stacked.mtv.com.
About MTV Games 
MTV Games is dedicated to producing and marketing unique interactive entertainment experiences that resonate with MTV's audience. Through strategic partnerships with a range of videogame publishers and independent developers, MTV Games creates, supports, and participates in the success of a diverse slate of innovative console, handheld, and PC titles for both hardcore and casual gamers. Titles released under these partnerships receive multi-platform promotion across MTV's properties worldwide, including MTV, MTV2, mtvU, and mtv.com, leveraging MTV's unique brand and marketing capabilities to maximize sales. In addition, MTV Games collaborates with its partners on soundtracks, in-game advertising sales, and development of complementary television programming.

Waffles Poker

Poker: Pronunciation: 'pO-k&rFunction: nounEtymology: probably modification of French poque, a card game similar to poker: any of several card games in which a player bets that the value of his or her hand is greater than that of the hands held by others, in which each subsequent player must either equal or raise the bet or drop out, and in which the player holding the highest hand at the end of the betting wins the pot

Waffles Poker: Pronunciation: tilt-ma-cheen
Function: noun
Etymology: Right here, baby!
: The style of internet poker involving playing otherwise silly hands in late position in multi-way pots against opponents that you have a solid read on, being willing to fold immediately if you don’t connect on the flop, but punishing your opponents by introducing their heads to the felt unimpeded by the presence of any chips if you hit the flop. Often results in asterisks in chat boxes or creative spellings of “you suck” and “dumbass” when you stack more than one opponent in this fashion. Not recommended for live play in private cardrooms on the fringes of swamps or places where it would otherwise be difficult to find your remains.

So as I’m tilting my way through a couple of suckouts last night, building my loss for the night up to about 80 bucks before halting my skid, I decide “I’m on uber-tilt, we’ll play this last hand, sit out for a beer and a poop, then come back all refreshed.” So I’m dealt 79o in the cutoff and I think to myself “self, what would Waffles do?” See, I’ve been reading about Waffles’ success playing unorthodox starting hands, and since my Hiltons had been kicking me like a farmer kicking a swayback plowhorse, getting cracked 3 times in less than an hour, and my American Airlines behaving more like TWA flight 800, I took a flyer at the 79. I raised 3xBB with my shite, and decided to see what happened.

Three players came along for the ride, the BB and two MP limpers. Flop of J85 rainbow, and I look over at Suzy and say “If I hit this, honey, I’m gonna hurt somebody’s feelings with this garbage.” Checked around on the flop and everybody calls my $2 continuation bet. Yep, my 10 turns, and I look back over the shoulder “This is gonna get ugly, honey, just watch.” BB bets a couple bucks, 2 callers, then I raise pretty strongly. The 10 was sooted with the 8, so I didn’t want to keep it cheap anymore. I wanted to be the only successful drawing donkey in the hand. I get my two callers, and I prepare for the river push. I don’t remember what the river was, but it was checked to me, I push and get one caller. The tirades started almost before the chips had moved across the virtual felt, so BB must have been typing as soon as he clicked the Call button. I’m now the biggest fish he’s ever seen, the worst player on RiverStars (regardless of the fact that I turned the straight, not rivered it), and generally a big donkey.

Heh. Waffles poker = fun. Playing this style of chase/punish position power poker  is kinda like dating the chick that throws shotput for the high school track team – not for the faint of heart, but a fuckton of fun after a couple of beers. I’ll probably try to incorporate a little more of this into my style, as long as I can remember to wait until the right moments to try it.

On Luck and Poker (F-Train saved me from myself)

My opinions on luck and poker can be found here, written far more coherently than I could have done.