Juicy 6/12 at Trump

Made a run to Trump Friday night to get in some live poker.....6/12 to be exact. This was the first time we didn't run into a ton of traffic due to accidents and/or construction and before we knew it we were at our exit and hadn't even called in to get on the waiting list yet. That was at 9:30pm. The room was hopping when we got in and just about every table was running a game......by the time we were seated at 10pm every table had a game on it.

We were seated at a brand new 6/12 game. My brother and I locked our seats (me the 4 seat and him the 6 seat) and went to buy chips. We were at a table on the side of the room that doesn't have the automatic shufflers which I didn't like at first as it meant we would get in fewer hands in our time there. It never ceases to amaze me what people sit down with to play.....the 1 seat had a rotation of several people in the first hour sitting with less than $100 to play......the 2 seat was a solid player who was loose aggressive.....the 3 seat was a solid tight aggressive player......I was in the 4 seat......the 5 seat was tight passive.......my brother was the 6 seat and is tight passive (we're working on that)......the 7 seat was LOOSE PASSIVE......the 8 seat was tight passive........the 9 seat was LOOSE PASSIVE.

It was a good table that I got a good read on fairly early. There was a ton of calling with 4-6 seeing flops most of the time. There was only one time all night that the blinds were chopped. I looked down to see pocket 4's early on and saw a flop with 4 others of K 5 4 rainbow. It was bet, called, and I thought of raising but decided to call and we lost one. The turn was a King and I prayed at least one of my opponents had a King. I wasn't worried about pocket Kings because it wasn't raised pre-flop. It was bet and called and I sat there for a moment as if deciding what to do before raising.......as I was saying raise the dealer already had burned and was turning the river card up.........I yelled Whoa! She was very apologetic but I wasn't happy.....She called the floor over and both players called my raise as it was decided the river card would be shuffled in and a new river card would be produced. The "dead" river card was the 6 of hearts and the new river card was a Jack. I still didn't think this helped anyone and bet when it was checked to me with both players calling. They both had a King and I turned my full house taking down a nice pot.

I was folding a lot and chatting up my side of the table. About halfway throught the session I noticed my raises were getting solid respect and I started using this to my advantage selectively. The one Loose passive guy would call down anyone with any pair from the board except he started folding to a bet on the river from me if he didn't improve further. He was the typical....play any ace...any paint player.

The big hand of the night came when I held 7 8 clubs in MP and called....5 saw the flop. The flop was Q 10 9 with the 9 and Queen being clubs. Any comments on how I played this hand are very much appreciated. It was checked to me and I bet. The player on my immediate left raised and I put him on a straight draw or made straight right away. The loose player in the 7 seat then re-raised which meant he had any two cards and paired the board....most probably a Queen since he re-raised and was mostly oblivious to the draws out there. I debated folding for a minute or two but was confident that if I hit my flush it would pay off. I called. The player on my left then capped it which told me he made his straight and most probably K J which would have my straight draw dead. The loose player called and I called. The turn was an offsuit 4 and I checked....the 5 seat bet....and we both called. The river was the 2 of clubs which completed my flush. As I was going to bet, something nagged at me that the player to my left could have the K J of clubs and I checked. It then checked through and I took it down with my flush. The 5 seat did indeed have K J for the flopped straight but only had the King of clubs.....the 7 seat never showed but I'd bet he had top pair.

I was mad at myself for not sticking with my read and initial instinct when my flush card hit. It was still a huge pot but could have been slightly bigger. Any thoughts or comments on my play here?

All in all it was a great night and the table broke up around 1:30 am and I cashed out up $513. My brother didn't fair well as he was card dead and the couple of hands he hit were outdrawn.

I definitely look forward to my next excursion to Trump.

Baz Out.

Floundering???....Reflection.....

I don't feel I've been playing my best limit game lately......kind of like a rut I guess. I've been mixing in 3/6 to go along with my 2/4....usually will have two tables of each running. It's not the results.....even though I'm down over the last week.....it's the poor decision making. I need to dive deeper into my PT data to be uncover any new sprung leaks. I've gone on downswings where I still know I'm making solid decisions before and that doesn't bother me.....this has a different feel however. For the very first time since I started this journey it began feeling like a grind....and I wasn't enjoying my time at the virtual felt. I've always enjoyed it and I'm sure it's just a current rut....we shall see.

Since I started this journey I have only pulled a little money out once........right before my last Vegas trip for my Dad's surprise 50th birthday. I had made several deposits when I first started.....they'd last a little while at times and then eventually I'd be down to nothing. No single deposit was ever more than $100. My total deposits totaled somewhere around $550. (I wish I knew the exact number) When that last deposit went in I had told my wife that was it if it got back down to nothing. I used some birthday money I had received some in cash and some after returning a couple of oddball gifts. We don't have a lot of "extra" money......my wife stays home with our three kids who mean the world to us. I decided at that point I wanted to get serious and study the game. I knew I could be a good solid player and make some side money playing this game. I hoped (and still do) to be able to use some money to help pay down some bills and debt to help us get ahead of the "game".

That was last August. I don't know the exact date but I know I'm approaching the one year anniversary of it. It's been a good year. My game has improved immensely and I love it! My goal back then was to build my bankroll up to $3000 starting at the .50/1 limits and working my way up. I told myself I wouldn't withdraw a penny until I reached that $3000 mark and then I would evaluate where I was and decide if I wanted to start pulling out a percentage each month I was above that mark. I broke that when I pulled out $500 to help fund my Vegas trip. That was for my Dad's 50th birthday surprise and it was well worth it. I realized with that withdrawel that I was almost fully funded online with pure winnings and the next withdrawel would put me there. That has happened. Am I at my mark of $3000? No. Without this latest withdrawel I would be within a couple hundred of it. That's twice now I've broken my promise to myself. I withdrew another $500. My oldest son has his 4 year old birthday party this Saturday and he loves those giant moonwalk jumpers so I am using $200 to rent one all day Saturday for his party. It's even a spiderman jumper and his party has a spiderman theme. I can't wait to see the look on his face. It will be well worth another withdrawel. I decided that even though I wasn't at my preset goal.......so what. I'm a family man and love being a Dad....what better way to use some of that money. The other $300 is for me (this is the selfish part). I am using $120 to buy-in to a satellite tournament at Trump on Thursday as a reward (a little early) for one year of successful online play and the rest I am using to buy my wife a special little gift for being so wonderful....just because.

This means I am now officially playing with 100% winnings. Not all of that is winnings per se as I did a lot of bonus whoring early on to build my roll quicker and I'd recommend it to anyone. If any of you out there are "stuck" at the low limits and keep having to re-deposit stick with it and committ to studying the game. One thing I stopped doing was playing SNG's and MTT. I didn't play ANY for 6 months. Now I mix some in from time to time for a change of pace from the limit grind but early on with a minimal bankroll it did nothing but siphon money from my roll. I know there are people who are successful at strictly SNG's or NL ring games and that's great.....my point is to pick one game and stick with it. I plan to dabble more in NL as time goes on as I feel I am solid now and am interested to know how good I can be. Time will tell.

I hope to get a tourney together Saturday night at the house following the party and will be playing in the live satellite at Trump Thursday followed by some live limit action with my brother. We have some out of town guests coming in Wednesday through Sunday so online poker will be minimal at best. I'll probably play tonight or tommorrow night but have been thinking about taking the week off from online......we shall see.

Hope this all flowed ok.....felt like I was all over the place but wanted to get some things down....til next time.

Baz Out

Updated the blogroll today and boy oh boy.......it was long overdue. My apologies to those of you I've read for a long time and failed to link up......unexcusable.

I tried logging into Empire and it was giving me all kinds of problems.....anybody else have problems tonight? I was able to log into Party no problem....but Empire....no good. Lately I've been playing two tables of 3/6 at Empire and two tables of 2/4 at Full Tilt together. Have been happy with the results thus far....we shall see.

I'm playing cards of some type Friday night....live that is......either heading to Trump with my brother for some 6/12 or playing dealer's choice at a buddy's house......waiting to hear from my brother to find out for sure as he may have an obligation to tend to instead.

Anyway....til next time...

Baz Out

Great Cause

I got to the Charlie tournament tonight just in time to see the final four players battle it out....about 10 minutes and it was over. I was surprised to see I finished 60th despite not being able to make it. Hope it wasn't too aggravating dealing with my being blinded off......it's a great cause and I was glad I could make the donation....just wish I could have gotten the chance to play.

Just played 5 sit and go's on Stars as I needed a break from limit for a night. Took second in one bubbled out in 2 and went down in flames in the others.....not good for the Stars bankroll.

Looking to get some time at the tables Tuesday night and planning on live poker Friday night.

Baz Out

Home Game

I tried to get a home game pulled together last night and failed miserably.....everyone had something going....birthday parties....weddings....you name it. We played anyway but it was just myself, my brother, my dad, and my wife. We played two shorthanded NL tournaments with the first being a $20 buy-in and the second being a $10 buy-in. Later we realized we should have made each one $15 but it was too late by that point.

Being that it was a "friendly" family game I had a lot to drink and don't remember a ton of hand specifics but my wife won both games.......and she's been gloating. She played a solid game and is getting to the point where she can value her own hand versus what the board is showing and what other players may have. She successfully bluffed me out of two pots by coming over the top of me when I had been betting strong the whole way with nothing or close to nothing both times. I was both aggravated and proud at the same time. She's improving....definitely.

I haven't played online as much as I thought I'd be able to this summer. Between swim lessons, tee ball, and a zillion family gatherings I've been exhausted or just plain not home. I did play in the Empire evening freeroll and took third with like 390 entrants. A nice $50 pay for the freeroll but almost not worth the time required to get through it. I was a little disappointed as I was the chip leader going into the final table by a good margin and got overly aggressive allowing myself to get trapped. I definitely learned from it and played a solid game to get in that position in the first place. We'll see if I can keep it up.

I'm hoping to get out again this Friday to play some live poker.....let me rephrase that....My brother and I are definitely going to play some live poker Friday night.....it's just a matter where. If it's just us going we will be heading back to Trump for some 6/12 action. If my Dad decides to go we will be most probably checking out Hollywood in Aurora which is spreading several tables of limit hold em the lowest being 5/10. I don't believe they spread NL but I could be wrong. I'd like to check it out sometime but have heard not so nice things.......less than half the size of Trump.....long waiting lists as a result....rockish tables....blah blah blah.

Anyway....gotta run......til next time.

Baz Out

Trump 7/8/05

Went to Trump riverboat casino in Indiana last night for some live poker action. My brother and I left the house around 8:45pm after getting the kids to bed for the night. We hit major traffic due to (what we finally discovered) an accident and didn't arrive until just before 11pm (twice as long as it should have taken). I had called and got us wait listed for 6/12 at 9:50pm and you have an hour to get there from the time you call. We obviously were late getting to the poker room around 11:05pm and checked in......the supervisor was cool and simply checked us in stating we were next up for 6/12 and we went to buy chips. The room was mostly full with only a couple tables not being used which surprised me for a Friday night. I was seated first in the 3 seat not 5 minutes after getting chips with my brother getting a seat at the same table in the 8 seat not long after.

It was a decent table with most of the players being weak passive. Overall it was fairly uneventful....I was up about $100 for awhile then went down almost $200 before going on a rush right before the table broke at 2:45am to get back to even......exactly even. I cashed out for the EXACT DOLLAR amount I cashed in for so after tipping I guess I made a tiny bit of money. I got several mid pocket pairs that never hit with my pocket 8's and 10's actually taking down pots with fairly harmless boards. My pocket Queen's got beat when a new loose aggressive sat down around 2am immediately to my left. He called my raise (two bets cold) with 8 9s and the flop came 6 7 J.....he caught a 10 on the turn for the straight and hit his flush on the river. I had bet the turn and he raised me.....I re-raised him and he re-raised me back and I figured I was in trouble but thought he had a set (although it seemed he could have top pair with the limited info I had on him) I never put him on the straight or flush draw since he called the two bets cold and bet into him on the river when the third to the flush hit.....he didn't like his flush because he just called and took down a nice size pot.

I wasn't happy with my play overall......I am way more aggressive with my online play. I think I look at my live poker chips too much like "real money" and when I'm able to make that seperation I'll probably see an improvement in my live game. I don't have that problem in live tournaments and think it's just a mental thing that I can hopefully get over.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Baz Out

Gambooool.....

It's been too long since my last post.

Hasn't been much to report...was out of town a bunch and have only just gotten back to playing online since returning on the 5th.

Over the 4th weekend I gambooled it up with my two brother-in-laws and a friend of one of theirs who was in visiting from out of town. We played $5-$10 games of bocce ball and washers (teams and individual), blackjack tournaments, and....of course....Texas Hold 'Em.

I won two out of three (first and third)hold 'em tournaments coming from behind as the short stack both times....the third game I was severely short when we started heads up action. Both times my brother-in-law (the one I always play heads up when at the in-laws house) won $20 from the friend I was heads-up with because he bet him I would beat him even though I was short stacked.

I lost about $35 playing blackjack all weekend but made around $150 between bocce ball/washers/hold em. It was a GOOD weekend.

I'll be heading to Trump for some live poker Friday night. Shelly from Hella Hold 'Em was supposed to be meeting us but something came up and she can't this time.....next time girl. Donkeypuncher can't make it this time either......one of these days we'll get out there together.

Anyway....take care.....til next time.

Baz Out