One of the drawbacks of playing mixed games online is that it’s tough
to find good games at the stakes you’d like all the time.  $3/$6 was
the only game running at Full Tilt on a Tuesday morning…which is
lower than I normally play, but to be honest, I probably make more at
this game than at $5/$10 because my BB/hr rate is better.

Full Tilt has watered down their red-name set of FTP “pros” to the
point where nobody knows who all of them are.  That’s fine, to be
honest.  But I wouldn’t ever expect one of them to be the worst player
in a hand.

Roger King, along with his brother, founded KingWorld, the television
syndication company that made Oprah Winfrey a household name and
brought Jeopardy back to the airwaves. King wisely used his found
fortune to gamble…really, really, really high. Some of my favorite
whale stories involve Roger King, who passed away last week at the age
of 63.

My favorite King stories are about his poker playing, a game he
insisted on playing at the highest stakes, with the toughest
competition, completely ignoring the fact that he wasn’t very good.
In his book on Stu Ungar, Nolan Dallas relays one story about a big NL
Hold’em game at the Bike, built around Roger King’s request to play.
King soon lost his table stake, and took a loan out from Johnny Chan.
King kept drinking and gambling, and lost the Chan money as well. He
then proceeded to hit up Stuey for another loan, about $150k…which
he also lost before calling it a night.

The next day, Ungar and his friend and handicapper Mike Salem went to
King’s hotel room to collect. Roger gave Stuey a really hard time,
saying they all set him up to get drunk and lose a lot of money, and
initially refused to pay. Eventually, they settled, and King wrote
Stuey a check for $75,000. Stuey and Salem left the room and started
out of the hotel, when Stuey stopped on a dime and ran back to see
King again.

Ungar couldn’t cash a check made out to him. He had no driver’s
license, no bank account. He had to get a second check, made out to
Salem.

The world needs more characters like Roger King. He will be missed,
both as a television visionary and a degenerate gambler.

I never really got going in 2007, whether I won or lost as a whole is really not important but I am comfortable either way.  I really didn’t keep great track this year but I am pretty certain I didn’t win much or lose much.  This stood in stark contrast to 2006 which may have been my best year as a poker player, 2005 though was very similar to this year, so I am not worried.  There is one big difference though, in 2005 I had a lot of distractions and I felt my poor showing wasn’t indicative of my skill level, so when I came back firing in 2006 it reassured me in a way I don’t think I will ever need to do again.  The fact is, poker will always be here and if I use the tools I have learned over the last 15 or so years, I will always do fine if that is what I choose.

For giggles though let’s look at why this was a not a typical year for me, it can be explained in three words No-Limit-Holdem.  I spent a good portion of this year fascinated with the game and banging my head against the No Limit wall while all of my opponents were getting a lot better.  I did have some good runs of 30k and over but they were usually followed by semi-tilty sessions that erased the gains and then it was back to the drawing board.  When I played live however I played at a different level than my opponents and rarely lost, unfortunately, I didn’t play live more than a handful of times.  Towards the end of the year I have become fascinated with Mixed Games and I am up marginally.  I don’t think I am playing optimally at this point and I am not sure I plan on finding out what is optimal play in Mixed Games but I am fairly confident I am profitable in most mid-range Mixed Game formats.

Another big reason (or reasons) this was not a great year is twofold, the games got a lot tougher and when the games are tough I don’t feel a need to play.  Finding an easy game was a stretch and most of this year there seemed to be a dark cloud over poker and I think that affected me a bit. 

There was some good news though, I began working on this site (which got me to the poker tables more than I would have played without it) and so far it seems things are coming along fine.  I think I am figuring out a lot about what readers want and I expect 2008 will be a breakthrough year for AlwaysBluff.com, if you are reading this you are not alone and I truly appreciate that.  I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday, whichever holiday you are celebrating.

On Saturday my immediate family and I exchanged gifts and it was a lot of fun.  I think everyone was really happy with what they got, for me it is always exciting giving gifts and seeing people’s response.  If I put my gifts in a pile you would think I was a woman, I got a mini-messenger bag (something I sorely wanted for when I travel, it is essentially a purse) and various soaps and lotions.  I likely bathe more than anyone you know; there is nothing more refreshing than a nice hot bath IMO. 

I was thrilled to see the new PokerStars for Mac interface, as I like
my home Mac a lot more than my old PC. However, I forgot to click the
“Save Hand Histories” a couple days ago, so I lost the session that
contained several hands I thought were interesting. I’m keeping an
eye out for opportunities to demonstrate my “worse play in mid-limit
mixed games than Hold’em” theory. But since I don’t have all of them,
I guess I’ll just have to tell you about the pot I scooped in an Omaha
8/b round of a 10/20 HORSE game.

I was dealt AA34 with one suit. UTG, who was fairly new to the table,
called. I raised. Crazy Loosey Goosey Scandavian player made it 3
bets…so I assumed one of two things: either he had a strong
high-only hand, or was overplaying a low-only hand like A236 (less
likely, since I had two of the aces, and I was quite sure the UTG
limper had a similar hand to that, so he had one). UTG took some
time, and called the two bets. I 4-bet, and both players called.

The flop was J-8-5 rainbow. UTG checked, I bet, and Loosey Goosey
raised. UTG called…I now put both players on the nut low draw, and
figured I had a good shot at the high, so I 3-bet, and both players
called.

The turn was a beautiful 2, which also made two of my suit in addition
to my nut low. UTG checked, I bet, both players called.

The river was another Jack, which I figured may have, but was unlikely
to, ruin my scoop potential. One of the other players could have
AJ2x. Time to slow down a bunch. We checked around.

UTG showed A276. He was chasing the open-ended straight draw and got
counterfeied on the nut low. He was right to considering folding this
hand when it was two more bets to him on the flop. A naked A2 is fine
playing in a pot with four or more players, as it won’t cost you money
to get quartered on the low. But once the flop hit, he was trapped
into chasing three more bets, for likely only half the pot (a 4 makes
his straight, but also makes a low).

Loosey Goosey showed KK43, with the same suit as my ace. I, uh,
really have no idea what he was thinking on almost any street,
especially pre-flop. Even with a suited king, even with position,
there’s no way I’m playing this for 3 bets. His re-raise on the flop
is even worse, as he’s playing one overpair for the high and a
terrible low draw. On the turn, he’s trapped into chasing a straight
draw where he has to know at least two, and possibly more, of his outs
are gone.

Rarely will anyone in a 10/20 limit Hold’em game play this bad, for
this many bets (there were 19 big bets in this pot). I see it once or
twice every single session I play in a mixed game.

Next time, I promise to have a detailed hand history, and will select
a hand I’m not involved in (to avoid making it look like a “I’m the
shit” brag post).

For the life of me I just can’t figure this out.  I am a tweener, between the age where people just know you want an old time hand shake and the new fangled hip hop/man hug deal.  I never know really, so a lot of the time I get caught in no mans land assuming that I am supposed to be doing the man hug and I get that weird look.  Once I found myself in a store I frequent in an awkward hugging situation with the clerk and it was pretty clear that I was the one that didn’t know the protocol.  Then you have the “full on” huggers, which is likely my preferred group to be honest, but you never really know so you go in for a man hug and you get popped in the face by a “full on” hugger.

I just want to let you all know, I don’t have the hip hand shake down, I would love to say I am that hip but apparently I am not.  So if you see me and you want a hug I am down for that but we don’t have to pretend that we aren’t huggers by doing some weird half hug.  Also, if we can just do a regular hand shake I would appreciate it, there is just too much pressure on my suburban dad ass to try and figure out what the latest hand shake is so my preference is the old stand by.  

It certainly is not a prerequisite for a game to be difficult for me to want to play it but I have always found Omaha 8 or better to be a particularly easy game. In Grapsfan’s recent blog it reminded me of that and so I have tried my hand at O/8 and a couple of other mixed games.

Boy was he right, I have played 30-60 Limit the whole time, which is a level you would expect to see a lot of good players. It has been surprising the level of mistakes that people are making and I don’t think I am playing the game optimally at the moment. My instincts have been pretty good but I do not think I have faced a ton of adversity to this point.

Either way it has been nice to get away from No Limit Holdem for a bit and try my hand at something that I know I am good at.

Also I am wondering if a timed game would work on the internet.  When you play private games, as many of you know, the game often starts at 7pm.  I wonder if this would work on the internet? It sure would be nice if there was  say a 50-100 HORSE game that you knew you could count to go off on a certain day.

He recently came in 3rd at the NPL 15k buyin.  Congrats

December sucks; it is just a horrible time to be playing poker.  The live games are weak, the online games are weaker and in general everyone is focused on a lot of other things.  I get a little stir crazy at these times.  Lately I have been playing a bit on (Gulp) Absolute Poker, I know, I know, but they have all deep stack games which is my new passion.  Mostly though I am trying to lay low, no real need to mix it up when I don’t believe there is a ton of value.  Playing against a bunch of other decent players isn’t my thing.

I was a little disappointed in the Mayweather vs. Hatton fight; Hatton put up a valiant effort but just got beat.  He certainly made it a fight and I enjoyed it but when he got knocked out I was upset.  After the fight Floyd handled himself well and you could really see that a lot of that pre-fight stuff was mostly to hype the fight.  I hope they don’t have a rematch because Ricky can’t beat him.  I will be on the lookout for other Hatton fights; he is a really entertaining fighter and the type of guy that you root for and seemingly fearless.  I don’t think his style would work against super highly skilled fighters but there really aren’t that many of them boxing these days.

Every other month my wife and I watch my in laws children and they in turn do the same.  This was our free month.  Since we do it 6 times a year we often go to Vegas for the weekend or something a little out there.  Because we will be doing so much traveling soon we decided to just stay home and just relaxed.  I spent at least 5 hours of Tivo time ( about 1.5 hours real time) watching stupid reality TV shows.  I just couldn’t help myself, the first show was a “Keeping up with the Kardashian’s” marathon.  Why the hell Bruce Jenner is on the show I have no idea but he seems like the only normal one.  I’ll never waste my time with that again, mostly because the reason you watch the show is to see a lot of Kim Kardashian, which you do not really get to do.  When I was a kid I was a HUGE Run-DMC fan, even today my youngest daughter walks around the house singing “Mary Mary, why you buggin”, they have an aunt Mary and it is one of the funniest things you will ever see.  I did like “Run’s House” a bit more but what occurs to you as you watch all of this stuff is that these people are selling out there family to stay relevant.  Run-DMC was like the Rolling Stone’s of rap, it sort of takes away from their persona when Rev. Run is walking around in his robe doing Fat Albert impersonations.  Mostly I think what people see from these shows is the celebrities don’t appreciate the gifts that there families have been given.  There is no way that these guys are being paid enough money to embarrass themselves; yet that is what they are doing.

That said, I have Snoop Dogg’s “Fatherhood” taped and I am going to watch this trainwreck.

I had my money on the underdog Ricky Hatton…I didn’t think he was a favorite to win by any means, but I figured that Mayweather might let him fight a fight where he could win. As such, I thought +190 was a good line.

This was Mayweather’s best performance in at least three years, and if this is the end of his career, it’s a much better way to go out than after the half-hearted sparring session with Oscar De La Hoya.

Other than the occasional tournament, I’ve been playing mixed games almost exclusively for the last month or so…with well-above-expectation success. In a run of about 20 sessions, I was around 11 BB/hour over a total of about 50 hours of play (probably just shy of 3k hands). That’s running good, but I’m also finding some truly abhorrent levels of play. If you play a lot of 5/10 or 10/20 limit Hold’em, you’ll find maybe 10-15% bad players. In a HORSE session at those limits, the percentage is closer to 50%. I’ll be sure to post some hands in the near future which go to prove my point: if you’re limiting yourself to Hold’em, you’re missing out of most of the profitability remaining in online poker.

With success, though, comes a sense of entitlement. My last two sessions have been losing ones. Some of that is just about missing draws, especially in Stud 8/b…bricking the river to a flush and/or straight draw for the high as well as a baby for the low is an expensive way to play. But I’ve always been giving some opponents less-than-due credit. Sometimes people are going to make the right read that their 10-low in Razz or split Aces in Stud have been good the whole way. Sometimes people are good poker players and worthy adversaries.

Putting my confession down in words that I’ve let my head get away from me, and not giving credit where credit is due, will hopefully get me out of that habit. Play the players, good and bad, and keep your head on straight.

It is Dec 7th and only 1 day until I am only one year away from THIRTY. Wow, just typing out the word thirty hurts. I really like my twenties!!! I’m not remotely anywhere near ready to be rid of them!!! I hope what they say is true about Thirty being the new Twenty!

I am in Vegas getting ready for a night out of god knows what. It’s my birthday celebration so should be a little crazy!

Tomorrow off to San Fran to film episode 12 and 13 of I BET YOU. So close to being done with season 2, this was supposed to be the 2 last episodes but the city of Las Vegas has ordered an additional episode (don’t ask I don’t really understand it myself…word is they want us to bet on things that people don’t know this city has to offer not just what Las Vegas is known for). After that we are DONE with season 2! As much fun as it is filming and experiencing things I thought I would never be doing it is A LOT of work. Phil and I had to give up a lot of poker (including quite a few major tournaments) to film our show. I’m quite stoked to have a TV show with my good buddy. I never really thought about it much, always just felt like we were goofing off but in reality I do get to share a TV show with one of my closest friends! Maybe it’s not so bad after all!

Dinner with the family tomorrow night in San Fran and then off to work and then 29 years old on the 8th. Yuck.

Antonio

It’ll take me awhile to fully get over and accept a poker world without David “Chip” Reese. I’ve only been around him twice, and never formally met him, but he embodied everything a poker player should be. He was unflappable by bad luck and life-changing stakes. He played every game brilliantly, especially 7-card Stud (his chapter in the original Super/System was so comprehensive and so good that Doyle Brunson didn’t feel the need to cover the game in Super/System 2), and was one of the driving forces making the “Big Game” at the Mirage, and later Bellagio, a mix of all games rather than high-limit Hold’em or Stud. Reese was also a model of a gentleman gambler, super-competitive but polite and charming with everyone after the game was done.

If one considers poker a mountain, where good players from millions of home games across the world meet in local casinos, and those winners take their shots, and those winners take theirs, and so on and so on until you reach the stratosphere of super-high stakes and super-brilliant players…Chip Reese was the summit. The game is better off in every way that he chose to play it.

After the 2003 season LSU played in the National Championship game, what I remember most were the poker games at Harrah’s and just how juicy they were.  At the time I was a decent grinding limit poker player but I was likely 25% of the player I am today.  Also it was the first time I had seen Chris Savage (BrSavage online) play live and boy was he a tell machine, he just really had not played much live poker and it showed.  Now it is 4 years later, Chris is an online legend and has a bracelet from Tunica, not to mention he just final tabled the 1k event at the circuit event in New Orleans.  While it has been a long time since I have been mentioned with the best of the best in online tournaments my cash game is really solid at the moment so I am really looking forward to playing.  I just may need to win too, between the flight and 4 nights at the Ritz-Carlton that is $3500, hopefully someone can get me tickets, otherwise that could be another $1000.

As far as LSU goes I don’t really think they are the best team, or the second best team but sometimes things go your way.  And this was one of those times for LSU.  I don’t think Ohio State is very good but I don’t think LSU is very good either, so the game will likely be fairly competitive.  LSU has had a lot of injuries and to have a month to nurse those will be welcomed in Baton Rouge.  No matter what happens I am excited about heading down south, though I will also be going to New Orleans for Christmas, so I will be getting a lot of good food in a short amount of time.