Yes We Can

Amazing what a week in 80 degree weather can do for your spirits. I miss it already. Here it is 20 and snowing. I have this picture as my laptop desktop and if I stare at it long enough, I feel returned.

I did play poker before I left and lost $110. I am up over $100 for the year. Really didn't do anything bad, just wasn't getting cards and was getting drawn out on. But I do feel I am playing more aggressively, especially with hands like AJo early.

Saw this link to the Obama song Yes We Can in Daniel Negraneau's blog. He does seem to inspire people more than anyone else has in a long time. I think that is exactly what this country needs: inspiration and hope. I hope he wins.

In Florida we went looking for dolphins. They ended up following the boat and playing in the wake, and we took this shot. It was pretty amazing.

Won Big Saturday

Big win. I won $233 Sat., in 2 ½ hours. That’s pretty good. It was a soft table, but I was also playing very well. Playing very tight pre-flop. I was raising early with hands like A10 and AJ suited. Won them all. Hit a few sets which was key. I think the only showdown I lost was to a higher flush, when I made a straight on the turn, and it went runner-runner flush. The set hand was great, as I called 2 bets in MP with 77. The flop came down A-7-X. The preflop raiser bet, and I raised. I had a pretty good table image at this point. I think everyone else folded, and he called. The turn was another A and now I know he has a hand he can't get rid of. I put him on something like AQ. He bet into me with the big bet, and I raised again. He called, but what was surpring is that he bet into me again at the river; I again raised, and he turned over AJ.

As I said, I’ll be keeping very tight records for 2008. My current win rate is 15.53 BB/hr, where BB stands for the big bet. This is very deceiving for only 2.5 hours of play, but the goal will be to calculate a cumulative win rate over time to gauge my overall win rate. I'll to estimate how many hands are dealt in an hour to get a sense of how many hands I play over time.

I played horribly at our monthly game

I think the loose atmosphere and the drinking contributed, but my concentration was clearly off. I misread my hand twice, although it was in my favor and I won the hand both times. But it is poor etiquette and embarrassing to call out the wrong hand. And I missed opportunities to raise. I kept forgetting that the final bet is double. In one high/low game, when I was heads up, I made the huge blunder of going high, when going low would have guaranteed my half the pot.

The buy-in for these games is $40, and I went into the well for another $25. By the end, I was down a total of $25 which isn’t too bad. We again played 3-5-7 guts. It is a match the pot game with a $20 cap. Anyone staying in that loses pays half of the pot to the winner and half to the pot. The pot was about $146 when someone finally won it. Kind of a lottery game that I don’t really like, but it is nice to have the opportunity to win a lot.

The big winner of the night won about $216, and I think the big loser lost about $84. Didn’t get a chance to go to the casino on MLK day, but hope to soon.

Get busy living or get busy dying

That's Goddamn right. I love this scene from Shawshank Redemption. Haven't played since the last post, but I am playing tonight in my monthly home game. I'll be tracking my progrerss in this game as well throughout the year. I suggested we make a bonus jackpot for the player that wins the most during the year (minimum 80% attendance in sessions), but they didn't go for it. It's fun to play in this game, but the stakes are so low. We upped the last bet to $2. Still, I won $169 in 2007, so it's not too bad. Pretty soft. Really can't win without cards as you can't bluff someone out for a $1 call. Am hoping to celebrate MLK day at the casino.

Quad Cowboys

So naturally I was able to come back with some winning sessions. In the last 3 sessions I’m up around $200, including a plus $120 session yesterday. So for the year I am down about $150, but in the last 10 months I am up about $350.

I did turn 4 of a kind on a kill pot and got some callers to the river. I raised pre-flop with KK and got a couple of callers. Hit a set on the flop and still got some callers. The turn brought the fourth K and I checked, and it got checked around. River was a blank and I fired $12 again and still got two callers. Unbelievable. One person had pocket nines, not sure what she put me on. Anyway, it’s nice to turn quads.

I am learning that playing passively loses you money in the long run and not the bad beats. Ace/Jack off suit is a raising hand in middle position, not a calling hand. One time I simply called with this hand, and folded on the flop. I would have ended up making the nut straight. Another time I raised pre-flop with this same hand, and ended up winning the pot with two pair. Play your hands as if there were aces, and you’ll be able to push people of their weaker draws, especially if you built up a table image of winning.

Another time I had AK in late position and raised. Flop came down rags with a 10 high. The person in first position bet, and when it came back to me I raised even though I didn’t even have a pair. Why not? What did he think I had? I kept betting out, and when an Ace hit on the river, I didn’t even get any callers.

If you really watch, it’s amazing how many callers there are in the game. If the person to your immediate right bets, you should almost always raise or fold, especially if there is a large field waiting to act. It’s amazing how many people do not follow this rule. I raised with my draws and hit them quite frequently. People never put me on the draw, and would even bet on the river when the third suit fell.

New Years resolutions for poker are to go back to the tight record keeping. My goal is to double my bankroll for 2008. Overall resolutions are to be nicer to my family, especially my wife. Happy New Year.

Three straight losing sessions

Variance. It’s what poker players call it when you run into a cold deck. It happens to everyone. I’ve just had three straight losing sessions. Too bad the drunk poker had to be in the middle of it.

In the past three sessions I have lost $365. The good news is that since Vegas in October, and my monthly home game, I am up $310 in the past two months. I was able to find some old records for the year, and I’ve filled in the rest. Since April, I am up $210, and since March I am down $50. Not too bad, but again, not winning.

I was reviewing my records in 2006, and the same thing happened. Of course the opposite happens too, and I can win $600 in 3 days. In 2006 I had more winning sessions that losing ones. That is the key.

The drunk session aside, the other two losing sessions were pretty frustrating. I was concentrating, and thought I played well. Probably only made a couple of mistakes. I was getting no cards, and nothing hit. During the third session, I was actually down $150 and about to call it a day. As I was stacking my chips in a rack, I went on a little run and won about $75, so only ended up down $75 for the session. Runs are possible. They in turn help your table image.

I keep telling my self, it is not the number of pots you win, but the amount of money. The right situation at the right time can net a $100 pot. It’s happened before. It will happen again.

Patience and self-discipline

In Doyle Brunson’s book Super System, Bobby Baldwin writes the chapter on limit hold ‘em. He has a great quote on the ultimate success of limit poker players. “Lack of patience and self-discipline is the downfall of many otherwise technically sound players.” Unfortunately for me (and my bankroll) I fall pray occasionally to the lack of self-discipline. One of my goals is to work on this aspect of my play just as much as my actual play. Right now, my A game is pretty good, but my D game is horrible.

I know that I should never play during, or after drinking. I never drink while playing. Every time I go out for a few beers, I get the urge to play poker. It’s kind of like getting the urge to smoke cigarettes while drinking (although my asthma and age helped me kick this urge long ago). Last night I went out for a few beers to celebrate Twisted Jim’s last day at work (his blog to the right). Naturally I got the urge to play. Naturally I lost. It was a pretty frustrating session. I really didn’t get any cards. Had cowboys cracked by two-pair, two-pair lost to sets, boats lost to higher boats. I should have stopped, but I didn’t. I lost the $180 I won a few days ago, so given the winnings in Vegas, still up for the second part of the year.

The players at the table were horrible. If they were good I probably would have lost a lot more. I think that having my iPod at the table will help me drown out the inane dribble of these ridiculous players and concentrate on the game better.

I have such an urge to play sober poker to get this nasty taste of losing out of my mouth. Patience and self-discipline. I know I can do it. I will never play poker after a night of drinking again.