Day 3 of the revamp...'Getting Rewarded for Stupidity'

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
$1 - $2 No Limit
Start 2:15pm
End 9:15pm
Total Hours: 6 (1hr Dinner Break)
# of Bets Called Pre-flop, then fold to re raise: 4
# of Hands: 276
# of Flops: 52
# of Turns: 14
# of Pots Won: 9
# of Showdowns: 3

Total Profit: (+215)
Hourly: $35.83/hr


Today's session a lot like the last, I folded while everyone raised constantly. I will be honest it it so hard to not limp in early position with 9-8 Suited. OK I'll be more honest I did limp with 9-8 suited in early position a couple of times. I did start off the session with a few hands, I had KK twice in the first hour & AQ once.

The times I had Kings, I raised both times, and both were from the Under the gun position. I raised to $20 on both, one hand I got 2 callers the other I got no callers. The one time I got two callers I bet $65 on the flop of 8c 7s 6s and a guy with a stack of $97 smooth called. The turn card was the 3c and I put enough out there to put him all in. Then as Mike would say he "went into the tank." He started looking stressed and thinking, mike said out loud "Is he serious?" Finally I went from my stoned cold poker face, to laughing as I could not hold it anymore. What in the world did this guy call the flop with, that he could not call the turn with for $32. After a minute had gone by he folds, Mike and I start laughing out loud and he exclaims, "He must have had the straight, he wouldn't bet again if he didn't."

Wow, this guy was serious, it is funny because the type of play was outlined by Angel Largay in his book 'No Limit Texas Hold Em - A Complete Guide." In this book he talks of getting a player to lay down a straight flush draw when the guy was getting more then the right odds to call. This just goes to show how some people lose their minds the opposite way occasionally.

With AQ I won $120 when i check raised a guy who was about to shove it all in on a Qd 8h 3c flop. Just as he was about to push, someone said, "That guy hasn't played a hand in a hour, I wouldn't call him." He said, "Thanks for he free information," and then mucked his hand.

For the most part I did not do too much crazy this session. I did play one hand, where it didn't matter what two cards I had, I was going to play this hand against the player who raised off the button. He had raised a lot of hands, and this time I felt he actually had a hand this time. But more specifically I thought he had JJ so I was looking to make a play at him if the flop was in my favor.

So here is how the hand played out. First I should mention to this point, maybe 4 hours into the session I have not had to show down a hand. Every time I have placed a big bet I have won, and every time I have called someone down they have folded on a bluff and conceded the pot.

I was in the Small Blind with the 8d - 5d. The button raised to $20 and I cold called. He immediately had a concerned look on his face, but I knew he would still bet the flop no matter what it was. Another player who had limped called so we went 3 ways to the flop for $20ea. The flop was Kc 7h 5c, I knew that I could steal this pot with a move. I checked, the limper check and the button bet $20 again. I instantly called, wanted to give the look of strength. The limper was a pretty loose player and he thought then called. The turn, was my money card the Ac, I checked so did the limper and the button. Now the river was the 4d. I led out with a bet of $75, the limper thought for a long time, and in fact I thought he was going to call, but he mucked as did the button. I acted as though I was breathing hard, and showed down my had. Someone goes oh he had two pair, the button said, "NO, just a pair of 5's!!" He had sarcasm in his voice. Well needless to say the button lost his entire stack over the next three hands and then bought in and lost that stack also.

The worst part of this session was the kid from New York. I nicknamed him Proactive cause he had heavy acne on his cheeks and nose, and his hyperactivity. It also did not help that he showed up at the table with a Half Yard Margarita.

This kid was truly amazing, besides coming up with nicknames that were offensive in nature then intent he had the whole table flustered. I am usually cool about these type of players, as I have been known be talkative a time or two. Even the cool head of Mike was being tested when he was having the nickname "Chin" hurled at him every time he had chips in a pot. But I think his most classic move was when he got into a showdown with a player and was check raised, he looked the guy in the eyes and said, "Do you have this beat?" He then mucked his hand and continued to say, "You're a jerk, ummm I'm just joking." "But your a jerk." After about 6 hours of play this kid went way down hill, he was wasted, claimed he kept going and throwing up in between hands. He apparently lost his mind right after I left as I got a text from Mike. This text said, "I just lost a big pot all in pre-flop with AA." I responded asking how, and he text back, "Proactive had 67 and called almost $200 pre-flop with it". Mike then explained his story of how Proactive called $140 pre-flop then another $75 on the flop with bottom pair. The river apparently gave proactive a full house.

It kills me when I see these things happen at the Poker table, I call it 'Getting Rewarded for Stupidity'. Maybe one day I will write a book about it and even use that title. I could outline all of the classic times people have lost their minds while I was at the table or against someone I know. Here is an example I found on You Tube .
In this hand the players were all in preflop and the player with KK was a 92.12% favorite to win the hand on the flop. Bad beats happen, I just wish it wasn't so common.

Overall it seems to have improved my game, playing a bit more tight. I will continue to keep a log of these hands every session and track my results. I think I am working towards becoming a better player, soon I may be able to upgrade from table Donkey to Jackass.


Mr. Ed

Day 2 in the revamping of the Duke

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
$1 - $2 No Limit
Start 8:15pm
End 12:12am
Total Hours: 4
# of Bets Called Pre-flop, then fold to re raise: 2
# of Hands: 147
# of Flops: 26
# of Turns: 6
# of Pots Won: 7
# of Showdowns: 3

Total Profit: (+245)
Hourly: $61.25/hr

So I hope to be building a trend, that is a tend of winning sessions. So far I have learned, people don't miss me in pots, they will play them without me. I watched the standard raise of $12 go 3, 4 5 ways consistently. All the while I kept folding. So big improvement today on number of flops, to pots won. I won 27% of the hands I saw the flop with, and only had 3 showdowns in 4 hours.

This is defiantly a grinder win, but at this point a win is a win. I never really tried to make any moves, I just played text book (depending on what book you read) plays. During this session I had very few big hands, AQ twice, JJ once 10 - 10 once 6-6 twice, 5-5 Once & 2-2 Once. Of all these hands the AQ's were both good the Jacks and one other pocket pair held up.

What was that pocket pair? 6-6 and also the biggest pot of the session that I won. I was in the Small Blind with two black 6's. The player under the gun was very loose aggressive and raised to $10, there were three callers then the 10 seat, who I think was getting tired of the UTG players raises re raised to $30. It folded to me and I scanned the table. I noticed the UTG player had grabbed $20 more in chips and looked as though he was just going to call. Seeing this I felt confident I could get into this 3 way pot for $30 and may have the best hand. I called. To everyone Else's surprise so did every other player that had placed a $10 bet. We went 6 ways to the flop for $30, yeah $180 pot pre-flop.

The flop came down Ks Js 3h, I was first to act and checked, the UTG player bet $20, then a short stack called, he been playing very bad, (he made an all in call with bottom two when the board was paired with Aces). Then the re raiser pre-flop folded. It came to me and I called figured I was getting better then needed odds to see a turn card. The 7d came on the turn, I checked again and UTG bet $20 again, this time the short stack thought, and went all in for $37. I started thinking, I was almost positive the short stack was drawing, he usually would try to go broke a lot sooner if he liked his hand, I finally called when I noticed the UTG player had gotten his chips ready to just call. At this point I was getting 8 to 1 to call,and if the UTG player just called it was almost 10 - 1.Plus I may have the best hand.

The UTG player just called and the river card was delt, it was the 3d. So the board now was Ks Js 7d 3d 3h, I noticed a disappointed look on both players faces, I bet out $40, as I felt I had the best hand, the UTG player folded and I went to showdown with the short stack. Before the hands were turned I looked to my neighbor on my right and told him I had the best hand, showed him and he laughed, I said, "you had a flush draw right?" To the short stack, he flipped over the Qs 8s and I showed my pocket 6's the table just made a huge awe sound and a couple players from other table (*Kenny to be one)came over to see me in my glee of my pocket 6's holding up.

I feel that I am focusing more on the players, with playing tighter, I feel in the hand above it allowed me to make a couple of real good reads and win a nice pot. This pot was (+264) and I had less then $100 invested total, nice +EV.

Today Highwaytime Mike and I are planning on playing again at Planet Hollywood, I will be playing the same way I have in my last two sessions Wish me luck.

As they said in the movie Major League about winning streaks, win tomorrow (a 3rd game) and guess what? Your on a winning streak. Well let's go streaking.


The Gamblin Duke

Where to start

OK it has been over a month since my last post. I have no excuse, just a reason, I have been running so badly, I was either A) Embarrassed or B) Afraid you might think I was on a constant gripe. Every situation I have been in has gone the other way. It includes, in this hand I flopped quad Queens against a guy who turned quad Sevens. I got paid off in the hand and hit a mighty $66.00 high hand bonus, but if I had been in a room with a bad beat, I would be somewhere around $4,000 - $15,000 richer. But that is not all, three hands later I pick up pocket 7's, the flop comes Q 7 2 Rainbow, and I end up getting busted by top set. Three hands later? OMG it was unreal, the same two pocket pairs come right back, and bit me in the ass.
Now of course, I have had a couple of wins among the terror, but nothing significant, over the last Month, I have played 12 sessions, I am 3 - 9 over those 12. It is just sick, one session was a 22 hour marathon, where no matter what I did, what I had I would get turned and rivered.

But as I said I am not here to Bitch, I am trying to be as positive as possible. So we will start off with my last session. I played at the MGM and ended up +$190.00 in 3 hours. There is not a whole lot of interesting things to say, but I did start one thing, I basically made a transcript of every hand I played, I kept notes in my phone the entire time, and it forced me to play extremely tight.

Here are some stats for this session.
# of Bets Called Pre-flop, then fold to re raise: 7
# of Hands: 89
# of Flops: 30
# of Turns: 9
# of Pots Won: 5
# of Showdowns: 4

Now when I was playing yesterday, I felt I playing pretty tight. Now looking at these statistics I see that I was not even close to playing tight. Add my bets called pre-flop where I folded and I was involved in almost 40% of the hands, maybe this is why I have been getting so much loose action, or why Todd & Mike joke about me calling everything. Because if I was in my mind "Playing tight" and this is the result, what was I doing before this?

Maybe I have just lost my mind? But seriously that is way too many hands to be playing in a three hour session. Granted I stayed out of the way of danger, but still I was seeing too many flops. Now in my defense, this was a pretty tight table overall, and I almost always saw the flop out of the blinds, in 8 button rounds that means I should have seen the flop 16 times which is just about half of the hands I called pre-flop. So what is your take? too loose? Seems like it would be, Do I only count hands I limped in with rather then the blinds, unless I called a raise out of the blind, etc?

Well here is the interesting hands from this session. In late position I limped called a raise from the button to $9.00 with the Ah 5H. We went 3 ways to the flop, with the Small Blind to act first. The flop of 8H 3C 4H came down, and the Small Blind checked to me. I checked as well. The button bet $25.00, and the SB made it $50.00. I smooth called the $50, leaving about $80 behind. The button then re raised to $100.00. The SB folded and I pushed all in. I know it was only $30.00 more, but I was hoping too get all my money in here at this point. I was sure all my outs were good.

See this particular player, was an easy read, I put him on Pocket 7's maybe 9's, no set. But I did figure my Ace as an out. I was right it was pocket 7's. Well the turn card locked up the hand as the 2C came on the turn giving me Highwaytime's favorite straight, "The 5 high Wheel."
I ended up being + $207.00 in this hand.

Another hand in this session I limped 2 Black Aces under the gun, we went 6 ways to the flop. The flop of 8H 7H 5D came down. The SB bet $15.00, I called and so did anther player. the turn was the 10H, SB checked, I checked and the other player bet $20.00 SB called and I knew he had a flush, I folded. this hand only cost me $17.00, but does show that UTG, I never have and I should be raising my premium hands. As a side note: I would normally straddle, but I was working on playing tighter, trying to, as Highwaytime says, "Make better business decisions."

All in all this is a good start, I am -$1170.00 for the month. would be nice to get at least one more nice win under my belt my months end. Wish me luck, I have not had much of that lately.


I sign off as they all sing,

"The Duke Is Back And Your Gonna Be In Trouble, Hey Now, The DUKE is BACK!!!!"


El Diablo