From time to time I make notes in my phone about funny and stupid things I hear and see at the poker table and in casinos. I blogged about some of these once before here:
Things that gamblers say
Since these funny and crazy things never stop happening I thought I would make this a series of blogs. All of the following happened in the past month or so:
A poker player next to me had 88 and called a raise and the flop came A K 5. Everyone checked the flop and the turn was a 9. This time the raiser bet and there was a call, the man showed me 88 before folding and said "what do you want to bet an 8 comes out on the river?" I told him that I would bet him $5 that one does not and that I would lay him 2-1 odds! He said "give me 3-1." I said yes and put three $5 chips off to the side to his one $5 chip and when an 8 didn't hit the river I won his $5. The odds were over 20-1 against an 8 hitting.
I was playing blackjack at the Silver Legacy casino in Reno NV and saw a player to my right get dealt two threes against a dealers Jack. He split the threes. He drew a King on the first three and hit again and busted. On the next three he got dealt an Ace and stayed on his soft 14. The dealer had an 8 underneath and the player lost. It would be hard to play that hand any worse. Blackjack players are typically very clueless on how to play proper basic strategy but this was one of the worst plays I have ever seen.
Also while playing at the Silver Legacy in Reno a female player was sitting at third base when a man walked up to the table to her left and wanted to sit down. There was not much room (because obviously there was a player at third base) but he seemed determined to fit in. The dealer politely told the man that the spot was not open but the one on the other side of her was open and he was welcome to play there. The player looked the dealer in the eyes and said "Can't she just move over?" The dealer said no and that she can stay in the spot if she likes. The man walked away and did not sit in the open seat. Too bad for him the dealer did not make the lady move because he really wanted third base.
I was playing in a limit hold em game at the Bay 101 casino in San Jose CA. I raised it up with AQ and was called by Q3 and his pair of 3's on the flop beat my Ace high. The very next hand the same player folded when it was limped to him. The flop came 8 high and he complained to his neighbor that he had folded Q8 and he would have top pair. He called my raise with Q3 (I had been playing fairly tight) and refused to limp in the next hand with Q8.
I was playing in a No Limit Hold Em game and two players went all in on a Jack high board. The person who bet all in said "Do you have a jack?" The player who called nodded his head yes. The bettor said "so do I." The board ran out and neither player had a Jack. One had an underpair and one had a flush draw. This got a pretty good chuckle from all of the players. Even when all in they felt they had to lie!
I was playing in a No Limit Hold Em game and a player called a raise preflop. He then called a bet on the flop, turn and river. The board was A 10 6 6 8. He called all the way to the river which was a $30 bet. He had 22 and lost to the aggressor who had an Ace. The player with the 22 said that he made the call because he was "winning for the session."
More to come in future blogs. These guys never stop giving me material!
Disciplined Degenerate
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
One of the best plays I have ever made at a poker table
The other day I played one of the best hands I have ever played in a $1-2 No Limit game. Those who read my blog know that I am a pretty straightforward player. I play solid cards and don't get out of line or crazy often. That said I do bluff at times and will make a move if I feel it is the right play. Recently I played a hand that shocked many at the table, and even myself.
The hand started with effective stacks of about $360. I raised to $15 with JJ after several people limped in and I was in the big blind. The button called me and we saw a flop heads up. The player on the button is a player I have played with many times. He is a tough player in that he is very creative and is hard to put on a range sometimes. He mixes his play well.
The flop came A K 3 with two spades. I led out for $30. The button made it $100 to go after thinking for a few seconds. This is a hand that nine and a half times out of ten I fold. But I really felt like he was making a move on me. In addition to the "feel" that I had I also had some thoughts running through my head that told me his bet did not make sense. This player is fairly aggressive and not on the passive side. I doubted that he would limp in preflop on the button with most hands containing an Ace. He might limp with A3 but I felt he would even raise with 33. I thought their was a small chance he had K3 but like I said I just felt that he was making a move. He does mix up his game from time to time so his range is not confined to just a few hands. I had to go with my gut. I called the $70 and re-raised $120 more. He thought for about 10 seconds and then went all in for about $90 more. I stuck with my read (although I was beginning to wonder if I was wrong) and called. I was hoping to see a flush draw only or maybe a gutshot. My original read was more "dead on balls accurate" (tribute to the movie My Cousin Vinny) than I thought. He had 98 high with no spade. He was drawing dead to runner runner. I collected the large pot and felt about as good as I have at a poker table. He was shocked and could not believe the play I made. But he was also very complimentary and said he was impressed. I told him the same about his play. We both knew the other was not real strong and both made courageous plays. The difference was my starting hand was better. If we had another $250 each and he could have raised more than the $90 maybe it would have worked for him. This hand was the difference for me on the day and I booked a nice win after I was in an early hole in the session. That is a hand I won't soon forget.
Basketball is over and it is time to refocus my sports betting on baseball. Like basketball, this is my first year betting baseball on a serious note.
So far on the baseball season I am 16-18 and down 1.8 units. I would love it if I can just hang around .500 for the summer and have a shot at grinding out some profit until football season begins. Because once football begins it will get my "dead on balls" full attention!
Disciplined Degenerate
The hand started with effective stacks of about $360. I raised to $15 with JJ after several people limped in and I was in the big blind. The button called me and we saw a flop heads up. The player on the button is a player I have played with many times. He is a tough player in that he is very creative and is hard to put on a range sometimes. He mixes his play well.
The flop came A K 3 with two spades. I led out for $30. The button made it $100 to go after thinking for a few seconds. This is a hand that nine and a half times out of ten I fold. But I really felt like he was making a move on me. In addition to the "feel" that I had I also had some thoughts running through my head that told me his bet did not make sense. This player is fairly aggressive and not on the passive side. I doubted that he would limp in preflop on the button with most hands containing an Ace. He might limp with A3 but I felt he would even raise with 33. I thought their was a small chance he had K3 but like I said I just felt that he was making a move. He does mix up his game from time to time so his range is not confined to just a few hands. I had to go with my gut. I called the $70 and re-raised $120 more. He thought for about 10 seconds and then went all in for about $90 more. I stuck with my read (although I was beginning to wonder if I was wrong) and called. I was hoping to see a flush draw only or maybe a gutshot. My original read was more "dead on balls accurate" (tribute to the movie My Cousin Vinny) than I thought. He had 98 high with no spade. He was drawing dead to runner runner. I collected the large pot and felt about as good as I have at a poker table. He was shocked and could not believe the play I made. But he was also very complimentary and said he was impressed. I told him the same about his play. We both knew the other was not real strong and both made courageous plays. The difference was my starting hand was better. If we had another $250 each and he could have raised more than the $90 maybe it would have worked for him. This hand was the difference for me on the day and I booked a nice win after I was in an early hole in the session. That is a hand I won't soon forget.
Basketball is over and it is time to refocus my sports betting on baseball. Like basketball, this is my first year betting baseball on a serious note.
So far on the baseball season I am 16-18 and down 1.8 units. I would love it if I can just hang around .500 for the summer and have a shot at grinding out some profit until football season begins. Because once football begins it will get my "dead on balls" full attention!
Disciplined Degenerate
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Grinding and betting on anything
It has been a while since I blogged. Over the course of time I will try to blog anywhere from 2-5 times a week. Lately however I have become busy with many personal issues, and in addition nothing spectacular or interesting has happened at the tables or in any of my other gambling.
I have taken a few days off from poker but still managed to play 7 of the last 11 days. And I have been betting on basketball (and losing). But as I said nothing too interesting has happened and I had to take my cat to the Vet a couple of times this week and have been distracted and busy with caring for him. Without going into all the details he is going to be just fine. I am happy with that and ready to return to focusing my efforts on the daily grind.
Since there have not been any great stories lately I thought in this blog I would give you just a glimpse of all of the random things that I do bet on other than poker. All of the following are bets that I have made in the past week or two:
- Tennessee Georgia women's softball game. I won
- The drinking game Caps (like beer pong). We bet shots and cash. I lost and got drunk.
- Wheel of Fortune. Me and another poker player each picked a player for a must win bet. My contestant won!
- Me and another poker player each picked a player in a poker tournament that we were not playing in to last longer. I lost.
- World Series of Poker Fantasy League. My team is doing well one third of the way through the WSOP.
- Dot racing at the Oakland A's game. Pushed on two games.
- Fantasy Baseball at the Oakland A's game. Me and a buddy each picked 4 players from the game and won money for various stats. I lost a few bucks.
- I bet 50 cents to win $12,000 on a baseball parlay. I didn't win. Can you believe it!?
- At a Reno Mcdonald's I bet on the over under on how long it would take a cop to remove a passed out drunk with a friend. I lost.
- In Reno at a street fair I bet a friend in 3 blocks of the street fair that I would find a picture of Michael Jordan in one of the vendors booths. I did and won.
So as you can see I like to gamble on a lot of meaningless, arbitrary things. I rarely bet for big money on these types of things. It makes life fun and I suggest you try it.
It looks like I will not finish ahead for the season in basketball. I am very frustrated considering I was down 15 units back in the fall and came all the way back to get ahead about 4 units at one point flat betting. To now fall into the red with just weeks left in the season hurts. But, I am only down 6 units and when you consider how I started and the fact that I have bet about 220 games that is not too bad. This was my first year handicapping basketball and I definitely improved throughout the season. I also wonder if some of the bets I made in the playoffs were not the best opportunities and I was betting them due to lack of other options. Either way I enjoyed the challenge and I look forward to next season. I am also extremely excited that footabll preseason is only months away!
Disciplined Degenerate
I have taken a few days off from poker but still managed to play 7 of the last 11 days. And I have been betting on basketball (and losing). But as I said nothing too interesting has happened and I had to take my cat to the Vet a couple of times this week and have been distracted and busy with caring for him. Without going into all the details he is going to be just fine. I am happy with that and ready to return to focusing my efforts on the daily grind.
Since there have not been any great stories lately I thought in this blog I would give you just a glimpse of all of the random things that I do bet on other than poker. All of the following are bets that I have made in the past week or two:
- Tennessee Georgia women's softball game. I won
- The drinking game Caps (like beer pong). We bet shots and cash. I lost and got drunk.
- Wheel of Fortune. Me and another poker player each picked a player for a must win bet. My contestant won!
- Me and another poker player each picked a player in a poker tournament that we were not playing in to last longer. I lost.
- World Series of Poker Fantasy League. My team is doing well one third of the way through the WSOP.
- Dot racing at the Oakland A's game. Pushed on two games.
- Fantasy Baseball at the Oakland A's game. Me and a buddy each picked 4 players from the game and won money for various stats. I lost a few bucks.
- I bet 50 cents to win $12,000 on a baseball parlay. I didn't win. Can you believe it!?
- At a Reno Mcdonald's I bet on the over under on how long it would take a cop to remove a passed out drunk with a friend. I lost.
- In Reno at a street fair I bet a friend in 3 blocks of the street fair that I would find a picture of Michael Jordan in one of the vendors booths. I did and won.
So as you can see I like to gamble on a lot of meaningless, arbitrary things. I rarely bet for big money on these types of things. It makes life fun and I suggest you try it.
It looks like I will not finish ahead for the season in basketball. I am very frustrated considering I was down 15 units back in the fall and came all the way back to get ahead about 4 units at one point flat betting. To now fall into the red with just weeks left in the season hurts. But, I am only down 6 units and when you consider how I started and the fact that I have bet about 220 games that is not too bad. This was my first year handicapping basketball and I definitely improved throughout the season. I also wonder if some of the bets I made in the playoffs were not the best opportunities and I was betting them due to lack of other options. Either way I enjoyed the challenge and I look forward to next season. I am also extremely excited that footabll preseason is only months away!
Disciplined Degenerate
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Tilt claims another victim
I mentioned in a previous blog or two that I thought my winning streak would come to a vicious or brutal end. I thought it would end with some brutal bad beats or several terrible sessions in a row. It seems like in the past that is the way some of my winning streaks ended, but there is no real science behind my prediction. On Memorial Day I had the day off from work and took that chance to play some poker and managed to lose a $400+ pot getting it all in as a 96%-4% favorite. I managed to lose two buys ins ($400) and had my biggest losing session in six weeks. I took the day off on Tuesday after seeing a movie and then ended up taking Wednesday off as well. It was unsual for me to not play two days in a row, but I didn't mind the break and was ready to go on Thursday night. What would happen? Would the winning streak really be over or would I get back on the winning track?
Early on in the session I had 10 4 of clubs in the big blind and flopped a flush. Of course I was up against the nut flush and the guy played it well and I lost a big pot. Later I was in the big blind and had 9 6 and the flop came 9 9 2 and I was up against pocket deuces. Other than those two hands--that I never would have played was I not in the blind--I missed almost every flop and draw I had for hours. I ended up losing $450 and over two sessions I was down $850. The hot streak had officically ended. It ended with a bang. I lost $850 in two sessions and hardly won a pot.
I went home on Thursday night kind of depressed but not worried. It was only a matter of time before I had some rough patches and I have had far worse. That is why you need to have a proper bankroll and be able to put up with some lulls and bad beats. The worst downswing in $1-2 No Limit that I ever had was over $2000 so I could easily bounce back from a $850 downswing.
So I took Friday night off and went back to the table on Saturday. There was one particular player who was at the table Saturday who was on crazy tilt. He accidently exposed his hand before action was completed on the river and ended up getting bluffed off the pot. After that he was on tilt for hours and could not get control of himself. This player normally plays a tight, solid game and more often than not is a winner in the game. But he has the worst tilt in him that can cause him to lose months of winnings in a single day or weekend. He was also drinking. I was waiting to get involved in a pot with him. He has been gunning for me lately as well. Combined with the tilt I knew that if I put any money in the pot he would be going after me. One hand I had AQ and raised it up and sure enough he called and we saw a flop heads up. I made top two pair and won about $200 off of him and his 67 when he made one pair. A little bit later I saw a flop in an unraised pot with the same player and a few other players with A5 of clubs. The flop came AK5. The tilting player bet $12 and it got folded to me and I made it $32. He proceeded to push all in for about $400. He was on mad tilt at this point and I knew he wanted to get in a big pot with me. There were two diamonds on board so he could have a flush draw. He could have just an Ace and he could have 22 for all I knew. I knew I was probably going to call but I still took some time to think things over. Because it was a limped pot I could be pretty darn sure that he did not have AK. He might have 55 but that was very unlikely with the 5 in my hand. I decided that his most likely hand was K5 and just did not figure out a way that I could fold. I won't lie and say I was not thinking about how I had been running lately. I was up over $200 in the session and if I lost this pot I would be down nearly $200. But I just could not fold in this spot. I called and he turned over K3 of diamonds. He needed a King or a diamond. Somehow my hand--only a 60-40 favorite--held up. It was quite a relief after the river bricked. Just like that I was up over $600.
I played one more hand later on with the same player and my 66 beat his 10 5 for $100 in profit. I played four hands against the guy all night and won them all for over $700 in winnings.
I ended up going home even though he was still on tilt like crazy. I was tired and I was happy to book a win of over $700 after losing $850 in my prevous two sessions. At the time I left he was down $2500 in the game. A friend of mine texted me and said he was down $5000 at 6:30 AM the next morning and still playing. By noon he was down $7000. It is truly amazing what tilt can do, even to a good player when it gets a hold of him. He could play well for the next 6 months and not make back what he lost in just one night. Lack of self management has destroyed anything that his talent has got him in poker.
In the meantime I am very happy to lose $150 in this past week. I am confident and ready to get back on another winning streak!
Meanwhile in other gambling I am on a bit of a slump in basketball. I am down 2.5 units for the year at this point. I have the rest of the conference finals and the NBA finals to get ahead. If I can finish ahead even just one unit for the year I will be very happy with my results in my first year of handicapping basketball.
Disciplined Degenerate
Early on in the session I had 10 4 of clubs in the big blind and flopped a flush. Of course I was up against the nut flush and the guy played it well and I lost a big pot. Later I was in the big blind and had 9 6 and the flop came 9 9 2 and I was up against pocket deuces. Other than those two hands--that I never would have played was I not in the blind--I missed almost every flop and draw I had for hours. I ended up losing $450 and over two sessions I was down $850. The hot streak had officically ended. It ended with a bang. I lost $850 in two sessions and hardly won a pot.
I went home on Thursday night kind of depressed but not worried. It was only a matter of time before I had some rough patches and I have had far worse. That is why you need to have a proper bankroll and be able to put up with some lulls and bad beats. The worst downswing in $1-2 No Limit that I ever had was over $2000 so I could easily bounce back from a $850 downswing.
So I took Friday night off and went back to the table on Saturday. There was one particular player who was at the table Saturday who was on crazy tilt. He accidently exposed his hand before action was completed on the river and ended up getting bluffed off the pot. After that he was on tilt for hours and could not get control of himself. This player normally plays a tight, solid game and more often than not is a winner in the game. But he has the worst tilt in him that can cause him to lose months of winnings in a single day or weekend. He was also drinking. I was waiting to get involved in a pot with him. He has been gunning for me lately as well. Combined with the tilt I knew that if I put any money in the pot he would be going after me. One hand I had AQ and raised it up and sure enough he called and we saw a flop heads up. I made top two pair and won about $200 off of him and his 67 when he made one pair. A little bit later I saw a flop in an unraised pot with the same player and a few other players with A5 of clubs. The flop came AK5. The tilting player bet $12 and it got folded to me and I made it $32. He proceeded to push all in for about $400. He was on mad tilt at this point and I knew he wanted to get in a big pot with me. There were two diamonds on board so he could have a flush draw. He could have just an Ace and he could have 22 for all I knew. I knew I was probably going to call but I still took some time to think things over. Because it was a limped pot I could be pretty darn sure that he did not have AK. He might have 55 but that was very unlikely with the 5 in my hand. I decided that his most likely hand was K5 and just did not figure out a way that I could fold. I won't lie and say I was not thinking about how I had been running lately. I was up over $200 in the session and if I lost this pot I would be down nearly $200. But I just could not fold in this spot. I called and he turned over K3 of diamonds. He needed a King or a diamond. Somehow my hand--only a 60-40 favorite--held up. It was quite a relief after the river bricked. Just like that I was up over $600.
I played one more hand later on with the same player and my 66 beat his 10 5 for $100 in profit. I played four hands against the guy all night and won them all for over $700 in winnings.
I ended up going home even though he was still on tilt like crazy. I was tired and I was happy to book a win of over $700 after losing $850 in my prevous two sessions. At the time I left he was down $2500 in the game. A friend of mine texted me and said he was down $5000 at 6:30 AM the next morning and still playing. By noon he was down $7000. It is truly amazing what tilt can do, even to a good player when it gets a hold of him. He could play well for the next 6 months and not make back what he lost in just one night. Lack of self management has destroyed anything that his talent has got him in poker.
In the meantime I am very happy to lose $150 in this past week. I am confident and ready to get back on another winning streak!
Meanwhile in other gambling I am on a bit of a slump in basketball. I am down 2.5 units for the year at this point. I have the rest of the conference finals and the NBA finals to get ahead. If I can finish ahead even just one unit for the year I will be very happy with my results in my first year of handicapping basketball.
Disciplined Degenerate
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