Bunch of stuff...

Haven't blogged in awhile, so this will cover a bunch of stuff. Hope its not too long!

First, I'm heading out to Vegas on Friday night to support a buddy "Snake" who's playing in the WSOP Main Event (WSOPME). I'd tell you to check out his blog (see WSOP in the links) about how he's preparing and feeling about the opportunity, but since he's only got one entry you can probably skip it.

Snake won his entry (including air/hotel) through a year long poker league which included 27 guys. We played once a month, with each player receiving points based on their finish. The point leader at the end of the 12 tournaments won $12K and HAS to play in the WSOPME. I'm not entirely sure (ok I have no clue) how many people read this, but if anyone is interested in the way the league was set up, leave me a comment and I can help you out.

Second, we've started the second year of the poker league (WSOP Poker Tour, as we call it) and after the first tournament, I'm in the middle of the pack. I played good and was unlucky to have my pocket jacks (all-in preflop) lose to K8 suited by a Donk. A couple of hands that hurt:

1. I raise 3x BB with KK and get 1 caller. Flop comes AA10. Checked to me, I bet 2/3 pot, villain calls. Turn is a 5, villain checks, I check. River is a 3, villain check, I check. Villain turns over A 10. I feel like I lost the minimum on that hand.

2. I raise 3.5x BB with 10 10 UTG, button calls. Flop AJ6. I lead out slightly less then half pot, villain calls. Turn X and I check, villain checks. River A, I check fold to villain bet.

I have to re-evalulate my continuation bets after scare flops, although I like the continuation bet in hand 1 much more than hand 2, any thoughts? In between these two hands I was lucky enough to get QQ when the player to my right pushed with 33.

Lastly, I've been playing online a bit. I had been keeping weekly stats, but got away from it, which I tend to do when I'm losing. I've been trying to learn Pot Limit Omaha. I find it fun even though I dropped a buy-in (but it was only a $25 table, so no biggie). In hold'em I've dropped down to the $25NL tables and have been playing 6 handed and fairly loose aggressive (LAG) which is not my usual style. It's been fun. One session I initially dropped a buy-in but rebought for $10 (I usually quit after losing a buy-in). I was able to run my $10 up to $30, effectively only losing $5. My last session saw me a $11 winner over about 100 hands.

Well that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say after Vegas!

Another WSOP Story

An except from Poker News.com (http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/7/wsop-updates-soccer-misreads-laydown.htm)

Now for what I consider the strangest but perhaps the best lay down I have seen so far this Series. This happened in the very first public tournament, the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event (#2). I was standing behind a player who had horribly flashed his pocket Kings. I mean we make every attempt never to look at player's hole cards because standing behind them we might not have as good a poker face as they do and giving a read to another player at the table is a mortal media sin. But this guy had just picked up his cards and stared at the cowboys.

The board came AK9 and he bet and got a caller. Turn is a 6, bet and a call. The river brings a deuce the board is AK962 rainbow, the trip Kings makes a final bet but not all-in, in fact, he has over 5K left and the pot is now around 8K with his river bet. After a bit of a thought the other player moves all-in. Now the trip Kings looks down at the all-in raiser, who is wearing a t-shirt that says: "Cable Guy".

The trip Kings says: "Are you by any chance Cable22 online?"

Cable Guy is a bit shocked but says: "Why yes I am, have we played before?"

"Yes, we have and I have seen that move before too." With that the guy mucks his trip Kings face up.

Several "What the ______!" emerge around the table but then Mr. Cable Guy shows his pocket Aces.

Who says you can't make reads online?

Funny story

I read a number of different poker oriented blogs that I've come across. The following is an excerpt from one of them in which the blogger is talking about his experience at this years WSOP.

everyone in the house seems to get along very well. For the first few days Mike (2nd one in the house) "NUTZREALBIG" had a few friends in town. He is a true baller...bought a $12K Jacobs watch. He isn't here right now but will be back out soon. Jason "Aussie Jay" is a real character...as his name indicates he's Australian and a true professional gambler. He sports bets a lot and is the big winner in all the gambling games among the house. A great story with him, a few days ago he was playing online NL by our pool when he took some brutal beats and kept dumping money to a player who sat HU NL w/ $150 and ran it up to $3k. That topped off a brutal session and he threw his laptop computer into our pool with the computer on and games still running. It was classic. As I type this the computer is still at the bottom of our pool.

Anyone who's ever played online poker has thought of trashing their computer at one time or another. I have to give this guy huge style points!

Email conversation

Me: We gonna play a tournament with 10,000 in starting chips?

JJ: Hmm…..why would we do that?

Me: To get you ready for the WSOP! DUH!

JJ: Okay, so are we going to raise the blinds every 100 minutes, invite 8000 more people or what? At what point do we start anteing? Just starting with 10,000 chips isn’t going to get me ready, but hey I appreciate the enthusiasm.

Me: First, we only need to invite 2,000 people. And did I for get to mention that I'll play 1,993 hands.

JJ: Okay, I’ll bite…..how the heck did you come up with 1,993?

Me: It's a complex formula using the inverse cosine of pi divided by the reverse implied odds of the number of times Klotz misdeals or miscalls his own hand.

JJ: Sounds complex. Does that figure take into account rounding? If not, it might not be as accurate as you think.

Me: You are right, I should have said 1,993±. Especially since Vegas has the over/under for Klotz misdeals/miscalls set at 12. I did however do a regression analysis based on Klotz's hand history over the past 3 years incorporating the number of times he doesn't realize its his turn to deal or act. So I'm fairly confident with the number with a margin of error of 0.167496±.