checky turns to dark side, NL cash games

well, after getting felted for the first time ever in an o8 cash game (omg bad runs--i'm 1/2 pot for 7 on nut low draw and nut flush draw situations), i've gone over to the dark side. yes, i am playing NLHE. and god, it's funny. i've doubled up in each session so far within the first 2 hours, and there are some pretty funny hands involved:

venetian (entitled: how to get a great image):

my plan for this 1/2 session was to get extremely drunk and shove as much as possible postflop. we're currently 6 handed.

hero is sb with A10.

2 limpers, hero completes, bb checks.

flop A23 rainbow. hero checks, bb checks, utg+1 checks, dustin/navybuttons (who is playing the same drunk/craziness as me) bets 20, hero shoves for 180. utg+1 calls all in, dustin calls all in. dustin has 22 and rivers a boat, utg+1 has 45. LOL.


also at venetian (entitled: after you get a game going crazy, how you make the mobneys):

hero is mp3 with KJ. 4 limpers, CO maniac makes it 20 straight. we see a flop 5 way.

flop KQ3 rainbow. check to CO who shoves for 260 or so. all fold, hero instacalls, knowing he's good. KJ is indeed good, obviously, LOL. CO says he had a queen. hero does not believe him.


but here's a more legitimately interesting hand of 2/5 the rio, and not part of a drunkfest:

hero is mp3 with J9h. 1 fold, hero bumps to 20, a LAG/tricky player (who occasionally gets overly fancy, but is very good in general) repops to 40 from the SB, hero calls.

(villain's range here is fairly large, but usually his 3bets are larger if they're not legit hands and he doesn't want to see a flop out of position. i'd say his range here is 99+ and AJ+, maybe KQs).

flop K99 rainbow.

sb checks, hero bets 60, sb checkraises to 150, hero calls.

(now i'm pretty sure he has AA or AK)

turn bricks off, we both check, me behind so i can induce a bluff on the river.

river A. that's either a really good card or a really bad card, since i'm 99% sure he has either AK or AA. i really am sure that it's not KK, since i got the feeling he really didn't like that i called his checkraise.

sb bets 200, hero calls. my hand obviously can't really stand a reraise, and if he has AK he can't stand a raise, so i figure my best course of action is to just call behind. if the guy was a worse player, i'd repop him on the river, but i know AK ain't calling and AA is reraising me. he has AK, woot.


so yeah, i'm actually kinda liking the NL thing for now, but i still think the game is boring. we'll see how long this little experiment lasts, but it's been really easy thus far to look like a retard early in sessions and get insane action later on when it really matters. in general, i've been very proud of my play, not only in NL but in all games. my reads have by and large been insanely sharp, but i've made a couple small-ish mistakes not really acting on them with complete abandon.

but it's saturday today, and i'm sipping coffee while watching the big lebowski before i take my daily swim and head over to the rio to make some money. this 10k goal thing may be within reach yet. we'll see.

days 2 and 3

well, days 2 and 3 of the wsop have been relatively uneventful. 2 days, 2 lengthy O8 sessions, 2 horrific starts to the tune of -30 bets or so, and 2 good comebacks to get back in the black. i'm playing extremely well, despite the modest results: i've folded top two pair on a no-low, no-flush, no-straight board after making a very good read; i've checkraised when i put the guy to my left on a non-nut flush draw to my nut flush draw when it gets there consistently; i've made good reads on people, knowing when i'm getting freerolled; etc. but i still can't turn it around. three times already, i've flopped a nut low-nut flush draw type situation in 7-8 way pots, gotten 5 bets in on the flop, and had to fold the river. but that part has to even out. right? right? bueller?

anyway, i'd forgotten what it's like to play at a table where literally every hand gets shown down. it's strange not even having to think about bluffing, isolation, etc. after playing shorthanded for so long. this live stuff is, well, pleasant by comparison :).

also, best of luck to chris (wrto) and steve(7stud) today as they begin today in the money of the LHE event. chris had a top 3 stack for a bit, but both are on the leaderboard to begin the day. after a coffee, i'm headed over to the rio to cheer them on.

vegas, baby!

well, after 24 long hours of driving, a broken thing-that-holds-the-windshield-washer-fluid, a whole lot of construction, and a few ugly housemates, my WSOP month of vegas has officially started.

but i haven't played any real poker yet. day one consisted of a swim (yes, i went swimming. yes, it was the first time in over 3 years. no, i didn't drown.) in our gorgeous pool, a stocking-up of beer and "food" at the grocery store, followed by dinner at the wonderful venetian noodle bar with some fcpers and a private table at the venetian poker room for some mix game fun and some bowling afterwards. while i was waiting for everyone else to get in at the house, i went to mandalay bay and railed JC and Jared at the WPT final table. i couldn't really see very well, nor could i stay too long, but it was good to say hi to JC during the break.

the mix for the 4/8 mixed game was O8, badugi, 2-7 triple draw, razz, and LHE. nothing that exciting really happened (outside of frequent 5-bet straddling), but i did see mark (nosup4u) make what was quite possibly the sickest value raise i've ever seen in LHE on the end. we were playing extremely sill(-ily?) and there were 3 or 4 straddles on. thom (hfactor) looked at only one of his cards and raised. we eventually saw the flop 6 handed or so. it came J106 with two spades. thom led, mark raised, i cold called with K10d on the button, as did dustin (navybuttons) from the sb. thom reraised, and mark called as did dustin and i. the turn came and offsuit Q. thom then looked at his other card and led into mark again. mark raised, i thought for a while, eventually putting mark on some sort of two pair hand, and then called, taking a few sips of my corona and admiring my middle-pair, oesd monster. dustin folded and thom called. the river bricked off, thom checked, mark bet, i folded, thom raised, and showed mark a king. mark thought for a while, saying "you don't really have AK, do you?" and eventually managed to pull a sicko value raise out of his back pocket. thom capped, mark called, and thom showed K3 for king high while mark raked in a slightly-above-average-sized 200 dollar pot or so with his QJ.

but fuck it, dude, let's go bowling. mark and his friend james left so that they could rest before the event today, and scott (nutzbuster), dustin, josh (gilbertology), ray (troyomac), thom, and myself hit the lanes over at the gold coast. i admit to having campaigned for this venture quite hard over the course of the evening since i had brought my bowling ball cross-country, but in the end i think everyone had a good time. in the first game, dustin, thom, and scott took it to ray, josh, and me (i blame josh's 34, lol), and the side bet will lead to us having some embarassing signatures on fcp for a while. but in the second game, we decided to up the ante and switch the teams around, playing for $3 a pin, and dustin, josh and i gave ray, scott, and thom 7 pins. we won by 38 pins, SHIP THE C-NOTE!

today i'm going to start the grind over at the wynn, and i might wander over to the rio to wish some fcpers luck in the NLHE event. if anyone finds any good o8 cash games other than the wynn and mirage, let me know.