No Dessert for me
Image via Wikipedia
Yesterday I planned to enter the 7 pm Railbirds.com ranking event on LuvinPoker.com. To that end, I took a nap just before the tourney to assure that I would be at my best.
Of course, I had failed to let Diane know of my plans so when I woke up 30 minutes prior to the event, she thought I was being quite helpful in getting dinner ready.
I started to prepare the sweet potatoes while she pan fried the pork chops. I did not have much time before the event, so I wanted to speed dinner up.
With the potato in the microwave, I then warmed up our soup appetizer and served it. We ate the soup and by that time I had told Diane about the tourney.
After we finished the soup, I got online and quickly registered for the tourney. I hastily cut up my pork chop into bit size pieces and prepared the sweet potato for easy eating. I sat down on the couch with my meal and my laptop just as the tournament started.
My first two hands were easy folds. My third hand was a pair of Kings. When it was my turn to bet, I raised to $30, which was three times the big blind. I got two callers.
The flop was 5 6 10. When it was my turn to bet, I lead out with bet of $65, about 2/3 of the current pot. The two players called and the turn was a 7. Not a good flop for Kings. The pot now had about $280 and I bet out again with $160 and this time I got one caller.
The river card was an eight, a terrible card because this could complete a straight for my opponent if he already did not have one. I checked, he raised and I folded. I know my opponent and he does not bluff much, so I saved the rest of my chips for later.
My next two hands were uneventful except that I was dealt a 4 7 off suit one hand and a 7 4 off suit the next. Then I was dealt a pair of pocket Aces, AA. There were two players ahead of me that called the minimum bet of $10.
When it was my turn, I bet out $40 or four times the big blind, hoping to get only one caller. But the two players that had limped in quickly called my bet. The flop was 4 5 6 offsuit. This was not a good flop. The two players ahead of me checked. I thought it over and decided that the board looked two scary to allow either of theses players to stay in the hand and catch up to my pair of Aces.
I decided to go all in and force them to fold. Well that worked for the first limper. But as always is the case, when you get called in these situations, it is usually by somebody with a better hand. My opponent turned over 7 8, showing a straight on the flop.
My only hope was for either of the two remaining Aces to hit the turn and the river or for an Ace and a card paring the board to give me a full house. Otherwise I would be out of the tournament.
No miracle cards hit and I was out. Just like that. I had lost 40% of my starting stack with KK and the rest with AA. I did not feel too badly about my play. At least I made decisions that I felt gave me the best chances based on what I thought my opponent had. I was wrong, but I could accept what had happened and not let it bother me.
In less than 10 minutes from the start of the tournament, I was out. And I was not going to reward myself with dessert.
Do you play with a plan for every hand? Do have ideas on what you will do pre-flop, flop, turn and river? Do you also take into consideration your position at the time?
Making poker decisions – revisited
Image by ?ellie? via Flickr
In many of my previous posts, I discuss how important it is to try making the best decisions possible in playing each hand of poker.
What I may not have mentioned is that you also need to be able to emotionally detach yourself from the hands being played and playing optimally. Sadly emotions still gets in the way of my play.
Last night I was in another RailBirds.com ranking tournament. I played most hands as optimally as possible. I folded marginal or speculative hands in early position, pre-flop.
I played top ranked hands strongly (AA, KK, QQ). However, when I got AK and opened with a raise, I got re-raised. Well, the optimal play with AK in this position is to either fold or re-raise again about the size of the pot. If my opponent re-raised again, I should assume they have a great hand and I should fold. But my emotions kicked in and my poker logic and skills went out the window. I re-raised all-in and I was instantly called. My opponent had KK and my AK did not improve and I was out of the tourney in 28th place.
So my emotional play gets in the way of my optimal tournament play at times. This does not always happen. But it does, and I have to work on that aspect of my game.
On the bright side, I entered a private Omaha Pot Limit tourney about two hours later and came in third place out of 22 players. Only the top three players were paid. I did not stray in that game from my optimal play. Still, Omaha is a game that I am still learning.
Are you able to separate your emotions from your poker decisions? Do other players put you on tilt? Are you able to rebound when you make a bad decision?
Winning a Railbirds ranking tourney on LuvinPoker.com
Image via Wikipedia
Before Black Friday, which was when the DOJ shut off access to PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com and UB.com, I used to play micro stakes cash games like No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Ohama, etc.
Some of the time that I played in events sponsored by the Twitter Poker Tour (no longer active, sadly) or by RailBirds.com.
The good news for me is that RailBirds.com found a poker site that was still accepting US players, LuvinPoker.com. While making deposits is somewhat difficult for me, I joined so that I could still play poker with some of my RailBird friends.
Over the last six years I have played in probably a hundred events involving the Railbirds. I have cashed in a few, meaning that I won some money back but I had never won first place in a Railbird ranking event. A ranking event is one that Railbirds.com run and keeps score of each of the top scorers in the event. At the end of the month, the top ranking player is announced and sometimes a prize is given as well.
Well I have finally done it. I have come in first place in a Railbirds.com ranking event.
I attribrute the win as the result of making good decisions. And I attribute the good decisions to a poker book I am currently reading,“Decide to Play Great Poker”, written by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus.
Do you decide to play great poker? How did that work out for you? Is it hard to stick to a plan?
Grinding
Image via Wikipedia
I am going to see if I can grind a little income playing Limit Poker at The Poker Room NH located in Hampton Falls NH just across the Seabrook NH town line on US Route 1.
I might accomplish this if I stick to a schedule of playing set hours. Perhaps from 3 pm Monday through Friday, leaving the weekends free for family events.
I think in time I would learn how most of the regulars play and that would help me make better decisions at the table.
For the most part, I intend to play Limit Hold’em at the $2/4 tables.
Post note: I drafted this on June 19th.
I tried out the limit games and lost over $150.oo total. Grinding they call it and grinding it is, In fact, this it is called being ground down.
I might try it again in mid July. Wait. I only have 3 more days to wait.
Have you ever made plans and have them go differently than you planned?
How did you handle it? Did you make new plans?
Or did you do like I did and turtle up in my own shell,
Father’s Day Poker
Diane and I have been going to The Poker Room in NH. Check out their FaceBook page by clicking this link.
Diane’s account of our Father’s Day outing is slightly different than mine. See it at MomPopPow.com later today.
Our results in the prior visits were not too good. We lost half or more of our initial buy-ins at the limit table.
Getting used to playing Limit Hold’em when you have worked hard to play No Limit Hold’em correctly is a bit tricky.
Some people have even renamed Limit Hold’em to “No Fold’em Hold’em” and for good reason.
You see, some players will call all bets or raises right to the river with any two suited cards, no matter how small.
I have seen a player stay in the hand with a 3 4 of hearts even on a flop of A K Q of hearts and they would win, reinforcing their behavior that they did the right thing. After all, they won didn’t they … and that is all that counts, isn’t it; the number of chips that you have at the end of the session, regardless of how you had gotten them
So both Diane and I were victims of not having enough Limit Hold’em experience. But we were learning. The last time there, Diane had lost only 20% of her buy-in and I had lost only 51% of mine. As Charlie Sheen would say: #winning .
For Father’s Day, Diane suggested that we go to the poker room and who was I to say no. She was being kind to me.
You see, her idea of gambling is putting a $20 bill into a change machine and getting back $20′s in change. So going to the tables is not exactly her idea of fun and enjoyment.
On the tables today, I had actually won $21 more than my buy-in. She was not as fortunate.
At our table there were two brothers who were hoping to play a Sit N Go tournament. They needed more people to register in order for the table to start up. The buy-in was $40 and Diane suggested that I give it a try. So I did.
A Sit N Go, unlike a tournament, would last only an hour or two. It was a 10 handed No Limit Sit N Go and the starting stack was $4,000. The blinds started at $100 and increased every 10 minutes. This event was geared to move quickly. And it did. Four others busted out before I did.
The brothers were playing fine together until … The older brother was upset with his younger brother, because the younger brother bet his hand against his older brother. I guess the older bother did not know the unspoken rule, ”there are no friends at a poker table”. But that is another tale for another time. Eventually the two brothers were gone.
At one time I was down to less than $1,600 hundred in chips and went all-in with A 5 of spades. Luckily I was called by someone having an A 3 and I doubled up. But the blinds were now at $2,000 and $1,000 and I would only have chips for one or two more cycles of play before I ran out of them.
Again I was down to about 1,600 in chips and I went all-in with 10 10. I was called with someone having King 9 off-suit. The flop contained a King and no tens appeared to help me out and I was out in fifth place. Only three winners would receive money.
I watched the remaining four players until only three players remained. I left and felt happy with my play, although I was not happy that I had lost. Time to go home.
Thank you Diane for a great day and allowing me to play some Father’s Day poker.
How did you spend Father’s day? Did you spend it with family and friends? Did you play some Father’s day poker?
The check is in the mail?
Image via Wikipedia
I am still waiting for three sites to release my monies deposited with them.
TruePoker, FullTiltPoker and UB.
Supposedly TruePoker is processing my cashout check as I now have a zero balance there. But since their bank accounts have been seized by the DOJ (Department of Justice), I am not holding my breath until it gets here.
Fulltiltpoker revelations are making me feel uneasy. It appears they have comingled US player funds with their operationial funds, making it near impossible to get released for distrubution to the players.
Just this week I learned that AP/UB might only have $5 or 6 million to settle $52 million of debt.
On the lighter side, my play money account on Full Tilt Poker is now up to 168,000. I started with 1,000 on April 20th or so.
I am playing RailBird.com tourneys on LuvinPoker.com and some cash games at BlackChipPoker.com.
How are you doing cashing out? Are you playing anywhere?
Post #blackfriday actions
Image via Wikipedia
I am currently trying to cash out of all but two sites and so far only PokerStars has settled with me.
I am waiting for Bodog, DoylesRoom and TruePoker to “show me the money!”.
I cannot request funds from Poker Host and Carbon Poker because I am below the minimums that they allow for withdrawals. So either I deposit more money so that I can withdraw it (that is not going to happen). Or I need to win enough or lose enough to resolve those issues. I am trying the latter, winning.
As far as UB (formerly known as Ultimate Bet) is concerned, I am probably going to lose my funds there. Maybe even FullTiltPpker will not be able to payoff their US players, although it seems like they are trying to settle up.
I am currently playing on only two sites, LuvinPoker.com and BlackChipPoker.com. LuvinPoker.com is the site chosen by Railbirds.com, a group of which I am a member.
BlackChipPoker.com has a deal with Dusty Schmidt and I got a good bonus and three free poker books to add to my 60 plus collection already. See Dusty’s blog for more details.
I really love poker and need an online poker outlet. My local poker room has only limit games and I cannot seem to beat those yet. So I have two sites left and hope that I can continue to play there, withdrawing my earnings as I go along. Hopefully.
Oh yes, I am still playing on FullTiltPoker.com. I am playing Omaha 8 on the Rush Poker Tables. I am only using play money and have built my play money bankroll to 100,000 from the 1,000 that they started me with. I will probably continue to play at FTP as it works on the Droid phone and I can play in the middle of the night.
How are your post “black friday” plans working out for you? Have you had any luck cashing out? What are your next steps?
Winning
Image by mandiberg via Flickr
$63,015 is my current play chip balance at FTP.
I am still awaiting their transfer back to me of my real cash balance with them since “BlackFriday“. But that is another story.
I am still allowed to play poker at FTP, but by using play chips that are free. I am also allowed to use the FTP phone app to play at the Rush Poker Tables. So when I am on the road and unable to play online at the remaining US friendly sites, I can use my SmartPhone.
The game that I play the most is Omaha 8, which means that the high hand and the low hand might both share the pot. Even though this is for play chips, I am still playing as though the chips were real money. FTP allows me a starting chip count of 1,000 which I can reload up to the 1,000 as often as I need to. Thus far, I have been able to build up my play chips from 1,000 to 63,015.
Could I do as well with real money. Probably not. I am not really sure. Losing a thousand with play chips might not bother me psychologically as real cash might. It might be harder to play if you fear losing real cash versus play chips.
With the current state of online poker and the fact that the DOJ might close down any of the remaining sites that I play on, keeps me from wanting to deposit or have on hand more than $250 at any one site. A $250 bankroll on a site allows me to safely play .02/.05 to .05/.10 games. Thus trying to win thousands that I might not ever be able to withdraw or have at this time seems a little silly to me.
Are you playing online poker? Do you use the play money option? If yes, do you treat play money the same as real?
Online Poker is just about gone for US based players
No surprise if you are an online poker player, but our options of playing online have effectively been taken away from us. The UIGEA law enacted in 2006 made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to transfer funds to and from online Poker sites.
On April 15, 2011, the DOJ used that law and stopped all online play by US players from occurring on two or three of the major US facing online poker sites. This event was named “Black Friday”. US players were no longer allowed to play for cash on either PokerStars or FullTiltPoker. These sites were charged with fraud and money laundering.
These charges are basically true because credit card companies and banks were restricting the transferring of money to and from poker sites. So the sites got creative and coded the transactions so that it appeared that the product or service being purchased was not “poker”. As in all creative accounting ventures, they eventually got caught. Well, actually the person who taught these companies how to process the money ended up as a government witness against them, or so the story goes.
The DOJ has made it hard and even next to impossible to withdraw our funds from these sites. It may take several weeks or even months before US players can even request their funds.
In all likelyhood, it will probably be two or more years before we will be able to play on an online poker site for cash legally.
Yes, I know that Carbon Poker, Cake Poker skins and others online are available., but we still have the same problem of legally depositing and/or withdrawing our funds. We know that the DOJ will be watching and going after the next largest violator of the law. In reality none of the offshore sites will be truly safe for US players until there is legalized online poker in the US, regulated by either the State or Federal government.
So in the meantime we need to contact our local and national government officials and let them know what we want to see happen to online poker in the US. This is not an easy task but we must all do our part. Bickering and complaining about won’t help. Even organizations like the Poker Players Alliance needs to step up their efforts and work for us in an effective manner. They should be thinking about more than just public relation efforts to support our cause.
I still have funds on Bodog, Carbon Poker, DoylesRoom, PokerHost and TruePoker. I will play on those sites and I will withdraw whenever I have $250 in profits. I may take a shot at playing larger tourneys or higher level cash games if the games look beatable. I will certainly start withdrawing any winnings on these sites before they are also locked out to us. But I will certainly try to keep my risk of loss as low as possible in any case.
The next few years won’t be easy and they will not be as fun as they were prior to April 15, 2011.
I will not be making anymore deposits until online poker is legal in the US. This is getting easy because there are practically no deposit options left that I can use. There were online payment processing companies that allowed you to either deposit by credit card or bank transfers from your banks. Then you could transfer the money to the poker sites. Most of these companies have had their funds seized. This was very similar to what happened with NetTeller a few years ago. But at least with NetTeller, I was able to get my money back after about a year wait. This time, I lost all that I had on account with the two payment processor that I was using. One of them offered to wire transfer my money to me but were going to charge me a $50 processing fee which was more than I had on the account.
I will probably visit my local New Hampshire poker rooms three days a week or more.
What are your future poker plans since “Black Friday”? Where do you go from here?
Two’s and Ten’s
I don’t often talk about bad beats but sometime you just can’t help yourself. While traveling from Fremont to Amesbury, I discussed the hand with Diane. She videotaped the following:
What was your worst experience?
