Online Poker... Lessons learned (4 of 4)

Date: Thu, Sep 23, 2010 Live

Continued from previous posts...

At the same time, my one year old’s growing boredom with his toys and daddy’s lack of interaction made me even more frustrated. So, I’d play with him for a bit and then play a hand or two of the Texas Holdem tournament. Finally, and this is where rule number two comes into play, I get involved in a hand with a middle pair.

Somehow, I had managed to win enough pots to come back from all those missed flops and I was kind of near even in chips. My Holdem poker opponent like me was just under starting chips, but I had him covered by a little bit. He limped and I raised on the button with another middle pair (I’m noticing a theme here, maybe I need to learn how to play middle pairs—maybe folding them). He and one of the blinds called. Flop came AJx two hearts. Check, check to me, and I represented the Ace with a bet. Fold by the blind, and the guy quickly called. Hmmmm.

Turn was a 10. He checked I bet, a bet which I really thought would push him off his flush draw. He insta-called and I knew he was on a flush draw. River was another Jack. He checked again. I told myself to trust my instincts. He had a busted flush draw. The Ace wasn’t a heart, so that worried me that he might have a pair of aces (nut flush draw), so I figured I had to make him think his kicker was doo-doo and I had to bet.

Maybe he had a 10 in his hand too, and I didn’t like the showdown value of my hand… as much as I probably should have. Then, I put in over half my stack basically a size I thought that said, you can’t bluff me here as I’m way committed to the pot. Kind of a weakfish play, in that, I’m giving myself the option to fold here if he comes over the top. I’ve just melted most of my stack off.

He shoved. And I thought. He had a flush draw. Couldn’t have had the Jack of hearts. Did he have an Ace like Ace King that he limped with from middle position. Weird. In my heart of hearts, I felt my 88s were good. In the lower buy-in tournaments this type of call propels me to the latter stages, but here I was worried about the buy-in. I had satellite in but still why go broke with fourth pair. Only hand I could beat was an out and out bluff. What hands could bluff? KQ of hearts made a straight on the turn. K10 of hearts probably doesn’t bet there. K or Q9 of hearts would have the extra straight draws and might be pissed enough to shove.

Ugh. Most of my chips were in there. Still, I gave myself the option to fold. I was clearly in a situation that I couldn’t fold to a bluff, so he had to have the hand. Unless… he’s a village was missing an idiot or just mentally crushing me.

So, I reluctantly folded, using all the factors that are secondary to me in playing poker (always follow your gut and good things normally happen). As the pot was pushed to him he showed Q9 of hearts. I told him good hand.

Me and my son played a bit, and I noticed blinds were low enough that even at 1/5th starting chips I was still not in that much of trouble. I won some pots, and then got away from a couple of pots where I would have been betting into both the nuts and second nuts and drawing dead. Finally, and appropriately, I got it all in with another open-ended straight flush draw with one over and missed everything. Anyway, play and learn as they say.

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Going to put you in that Auburn store...

Date: Wed, Sep 22, 2010 Live

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Online Poker... Lessons learned (3 of 4)

Date: Wed, Sep 22, 2010 Live

Continued from previous posts...

Awesome… or not. I tried to time his nap for noon but of course that day was the one day he wanted to go to sleep at his regularly scheduled time of 10 AM. This was going to make online Texas Hold'em poker a little difficult. Most days, he fights it, and if I let him, as I have once or twice in the past he can just skip the nap and be alright. Some days, he’s winding down and dive-bombing into pillows, rubbing his eyes, and getting cranky tired.

Normally, I enjoy that as it means he’ll go down quickly and sleep soundly for at least an hour. Then he’ll be in better spirits the rest of the day. On this day, I wanted him to barrel right through 10 am and maybe put him down at about 11:50. I also planned to set up snacks and activities that could be done when he woke up round about 12:55 (right when the break in the tournament starts) to keep him going for another hour or so. Then I’d have to do my best to play and entertain him til about 3:30 when the wife got home. Maybe it would be his unlikely first session of how to play poker 101.

You know what they say about the best laid plans. Even before 10 the kid was
walking around like a plastered college freshman returning from their first frat party. Gracious. I put him down. He sprung back to full energy level in a hour, and I knew this was going to be a bad day for poker.

Speaking of college, I had a friend who lived his late teens and early 20s like a baby. He’d go 100 miles an hour and then just abruptly stop and sleep. When he’d wake up, it would be at 100 miles an hour. There was no groggy clearing of the head to wake up, or gradual easing up at night, needless to say, trying to keep pace with that guy, who also needed about 4 hours of sleep a night, and never got a hangover EVER could kill most normal people.

Somehow, I survived him and it prepared me for a baby that wakes up happy and ready to run like Usain Bolt. With the kid at 100 mph I barely got set up to play. The snacks and activities I preplanned to keep him busy for an hour at my feet, got me about 10 minutes of distraction. Then it was a constant climbing of daddy’s knee to bang on the laptop, and a constant demand to be put down.

On top of that, I could tell he could tell I wasn’t paying him enough attention, and that just pulls at your heartstrings and one of the reasons I don’t play much poker during the day.

I play the freerolls online and just try to chip up and blind out until the money and I’ve had a fair amount of success doing that. Why not gamble like a rich fool in a $300 MTT. Maybe I could do that, then play with the kid until Mom got home and play some poker. Great idea in theory.

I quickly discovered raw aggression at this buy-in level wasn’t enough. These weren’t the same idiots in the low-buy levels I usually slummed around in. No, three bets were met with four bets, and very few if any pots were given up to single or double barrel bets. I was frustrated with good starting hands that would demand my attention and then miss the flop.

Then, I ran into a steady stream of open ended straight flush and gut-shot straight flush draws. Usually with overcards. Didn’t matter how I played them, I missed and lost. I’d bet them and get called down until I’d miss the river. I’d check them and wouldn’t hit. I’d check raise and meet the stubborn guy that couldn’t get off top pair ace kicker.

To be continued...

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Online Poker... Lessons learned (2 of 4)

Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 Live

Continued from previous post...

In the Texas Hold em poker satellite, everybody tightened up as the bubbble came and I knew I was going to have to weather some shoves and maybe some flips to get the seat. Course, had I not sat on my hands I might at that point have entered the safe zone, instead I was on the edge like I was in a turbo Sit'n go.

Using that as a bad lesson for the MTT, I returned from the break and quickly got snapped off in two hands in a row, losing flips in both to get knocked out. The first hand, I isolated an opponent with a pocket pair (maybe 8s) and was getting about 4 to 1 on my money. Great spot to be 50/50 for only 1/7th of my chips. He hit both of his overs, which I usually enjoy because it's no different than hitting one, when the rivers coming because a set still wins it for me.

Usually, beats seem to have a sense of humor by teasing the player with needless bettering cards if you know what I mean. The river brought no set, and I fell a bit in my stack but I was still in 2nd. Now first in chips had just moved to my table and while I hadn't played with him I was tracking his chip counts earlier in the tournament and saw he accumulated them in pretty big chunks.

I got AQ and raised two limpers from the button. The chipleader than overshoved. I thought about his chip progress and realized he was likely picking off people by putting their stacks at risk and picking up a ton of chips in these situations. He also probably had a marginal hand. While not a surefire signal that he didn't have a monster, as it would be a good way to disguise it, I was pretty confident he was light and making a play.

I put him on a weaker ace or a smallish to middle pocket pair. I sat and thought, and saw I could fold and be in decent shape, but I wouldn't be able to cruise on the final table. At the same time, I would be now sitting to the right of a really big stack who liked to shove for the remainder of the tournament. I could give up the hand. However, I was a major favorite over AJ, A10, A9, and A8. Same with KQ. KJ, K10 I was also a favorite over. Then I was coin flipping with his almost all his other hands.

However, ICM probably would have told me the risk wasn't worth the reward. Course, one of the mentalities I respect the most in poker, is the Hoyt Corkins school of thought, when he’s the big stack he’s not hiding from the other big stack because he’s the only guy that can double him up and help him win the tournament. Hoyt doesn't hide from anybody at the table (even this girl pictured). Plus IBFIOICM told me to do it.

I think F it. F it. F it. Invariably, I find anytime in poker that I say F it, bad things happen. I was going to snap this overshover off, I decided. This hand was going to propel me to tournament victory as I would have a ton of chips. I hit call. He had 66. I bricked in five straight cards, and they went to the final table 9 handed. Instead of winning 300x I won 16x. Yay!

Okay, then I just had my satellite to finish off, though I contemplated extending the night and buying in to another massive MTT, bed was calling (despite the Blue Moon I had just opened). In the satellite, I found my senses and did just what I needed to to stick around and win the seat. Then I saw it would be starting noon the next day when it was just me and the one year old.

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Online Poker... Lessons learned (1 of 4)

Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 Live

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You aren't scared of heights are you?

Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 Live

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Poker Hall of Fame--Who Shouldn't Make it... This Year only because only two get in

Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 Live

Well now we have trimmed the fat to five candidates: Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, and Scotty Nguyen. Anybody questioning Harman and McEvoy's exclusion should just match their resume up with these five (or Negreanu or Ivey's for that matter). These guys are all great No Limit Texas Holdem poker and all can play other varieties just as well.

Let's go from least compelling to most. Shockingly, that forces me to start with Barry Greenstein. We aren't comparing some Sit'n go specialists so even the greats, though separated by the width of a hair have to be separated.

He is a cash game specialist and also known as the Robin Hood of Poker. Before the entry fees became too exorbitant Greenstein donated all his tournament winnings to charity, in 2006 he changed that up to earnings (minus buy-ins). Like Chip Reese, Greenstein realized as poker went mainstream to get the recognition he deserved he'd have to play tournaments.

Late to the game he's still amassed over seven million dollars. One of the all time leaders. He has three bracelets which is a bit on the light side but also has two WPT titles, which is on the high side. He's 55 and definitely contributed to the game by more than just playing it. By being so charitable he's helped remove the rogue stigma of poker, and by funding and starting PokerRoad with his step son Joe Seebok he's contributed a service to players and helped grow the game.

All that being said, while he's far more worthy than some of the other candidates he falls short of the others in ways that are not entirely his fault. He's probably one of the better cash games players on this list, and like Jennifer Harman suffers from excelling in a hard, maybe even impossible, part of poker to measure. Course, his bracelets, WPT titles, and winnings are nothing to sneeze at.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. The Main Event Champion just before the poker boom. Yes, he preceded Robert Varkoni too (who was Moneymaker one year too early without the catchy name) but Jesus' win was in almost total anonymity as it was not televised anywhere.

Ferguson is a cashing machine. He has over 8,000,000 million in lifetime winnings with 63 World Series of Poker in the money finishes, for a little over 4 million dollars. He has five total bracelets and two WPT titles (no wins). He's crushed National Heads Up Championship making three final tables and winning once. He can throw a playing card through a banana. He also created Full Tilt Poker and therefore contributed in a massive way to a billion dollar industry. He will make the Poker Hall of Fame. He is a icon in the game with his name and look. However. That day is not today.

Next up is Dan Harrington, and despite this article making a compelling case for him, in my opinion his time is not yet up. Obviously, with any of the top five, with all five making it sometime soon, who really cares who goes in this year, next year or the year after. Still if we are splitting hairs, Harrington despite his Main Event wins, his epic follow up deep runs, his bracelets and his 6.6 million in tournament winnings hasn’t quite transcended the game like the last two players Erik Seidel and Scotty “Just” Nguyen “Baby.” Action Dan could get in over those two this year but in our next post we’ll examine why Seidel and Scotty are the best candidates. And the Hall of Fame is only letting two in.

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Poker Hall of Fame--Who Shouldn't Make it... This Year

Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 Live

Going back to the Poker Hall of Fame nominations, you’ll remember they are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, and Scotty Nguyen. I’ve already made a case for those Texas Hold em poker players that I don’t think should ever be in or may be better expressed as "shouldn’t be in yet and yet is a long, long, long time" unless they do something else soon, soon, soon: Tom McEvoy and Jennifer Harman. I think Linda Johnson, despite not really being known to play poker online, should get in, probably not this year, as there are more compelling candidates which I’ll get to.

Today, I’m going to look at players like Johnson who shouldn’t get in yet. On Pokerati a discussion broke out in their comments section between BJ Nemeth and owner operator Dan Michasomethingski. They kind of advanced an idea that there should be a Chip Reese threshold. The vague parameters of the Hall of Fame voting included a stipulation that there should be sustained success over a period of time against the best players.

Reese is the youngest ever inductee at 40. Legally, in the United States he played for 19 years. 40 is a nice round number, 19 not so much. Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu are the two youngest candidates but are 1-2 in lifetime tournament winnings. They aren’t some single score Main Event Champion like Jaime Gold, they’ve crushed live tournaments.

Phil Ivey has crushed everything else too. If you were going to put somebody in the Hall of Fame younger than Chip Reese Phil Ivey is the guy. At the same time he’s only 34. Six years less than Reese feels like you are making a statement. Afterall, Reese is widely regarded as the best player of his generation and he for the most part avoided the tournaments scenes where Ivey really broke out as a player.

Considering Ivey has played, legally, we all know Jerome got into some Atlantic City casinos with helpful documents a little earlier, 13 years that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue either. If we were going to make an age or years played threshold rule it should be a neat, tidy number. Thus, the best age is probably 41 or 36. That’s 20 or 15 years of playing.

As Reese is already in at 40 throw out the 41. 36 year olds probably make a lot of sense as inductees, until the gambling ages go down. There are precictable problems with this mandate. Obviously, some online American players have already amassed giant winnings before 21. Some even go and play the live tournaments in Europe legally before 21 (see former Gulf Coast Kevin Eyster) and then there are European under-21s that do both from home.

Anette Obrestad is likely going to make the Hall of Fame one day. She won her first World Series of Poker (Europe but it still counts) bracelet at 18. That would make her eligible, reasonably, at 33. Three years younger than 36. Not really fair to Ivey especially as he got his start at a similar age but was barred from tournaments because of legalties.

Thus, if we were to set an age deadline, the current number Chip Reese sits on seems the best fit. Ivey and Negreanu will both make it one day, but it’s not unfair for them to have to wait until they are 40 to do so. That’s four years for Negreanu and six years for Ivey. Granted, as Nemeth pointed out in his debate if either were to drop dead, or the even younger Tom Dwan for that matter, they’d get into the Hall of Fame without ever doing another thing, so that’s makes them already worthy so why not go in now.

There’s truth you can’t argue in that sentiment, but sometimes you have to pay your respect to those that came before you, and in a game which is kind of a sport (but not) that nobody retires from an arbitrary minimum age makes a little bit of sense. The Poker Hall of Fame ain’t going anywhere.

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Poker Hall of Fame--Who Shouldn't Make it...

Date: Mon, Sep 13, 2010 Live

There are ten candidates this year, almost all of them are wothy and almost all of them will eventually get in. They include World Series of P0ker Texas Hold'em poker Main Event Champions, poker authors, poker contributors, and poker greats. They are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, and Scotty Nguyen. Anybody who ever wanted to learn poker could model themselves after any of these players and have a long and successful careeer. Conceivably you could make a case that only Linda Johnson, Jennifer Harman (sorry ladies), and Tom McEvoy don't deserve to make it.

Real quickly, I'll give my thoughts though they are much better expressed on this blog. Let's elminate Linda Johnson from the won't deserve to make it one day. Fan ignorance of her is not enough to keep her out. Linda Johnson, which most people who don't bother to do a Wikipedia look up or google search won't know, is the first lady of poker. Annie Duke may self-describe herself as this, and Daniel Negreanu may call Duke something altogether different but Johnson's career around the felt deservedly garners her the nickname and inclusion. Look her up. She'll get in one day and deserves to be there.

She won't make it because the Hall of Fame is light in women members (it is) and they need to give out memberships for the good of the sexes, no, she'll get in because of all that she does off the felt and she's not too bad on it.

Unlike Johnson, Jennifer Harman may get in simply because she is a woman. Harman is probably a better cash game player than a tournament player. She alledgedly is a donator online. Harman has won two bracelets. Both were in non Texas Hold'em events. One was a 5k No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw tournament and the other was a 5k Limit Hold'em event. The legend goes that she had never player Deuce-to-Seven and won the tournament after a five minute coaching session with Howard Lederer (maybe that should be on his Hall of Fame resume). She has over $2,300,000 in tournament winnings. She is the only woman to hold two bracelets in WSOP open events.

Great leeway should be given to cash game specialists, and Harman is respected by all the other players in the Big Game. That respect should be the most telling credential as cash results are so difficult to track. However, if you grade her only as a poker player, not as a woman poker player, the two bracelets pale in comparison to many candidates nominated (and not). Also, cash game players like Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey still dwarf her in tournament winnings.

No offense to Jennifer, but her best reason to be included is that she's done things no other women have, but is that enough? Being the best in a sub-category is not the threshold for the Hall of Fame. Mugsy Bogues may be the best basketball player ever under 5'5 but that doesn't mean he should make the NBA hall of fame.

The third person on the may not ever make it list is Tom McEvoy. The guy had early success on the tournament trail, has been a respected co-author, and bounced back into relevance with his World Series of Poker Main Events Champions Championship win in a heads-up duel that had to leave ESPN poker executives crying with Robert Varkoni.

For all intents and purposes McEvoy is a great guy, an ambassador as a champion, a person instrumental in making poker rooms and tournaments smoke free (love him or hate him for it), but winning one Main Event, writing some books, and barely doing anything of note in the last 20 years does not a Hall of Famer make.

Only, by comparing his numbers to the other candidates, and he’s regarded mostly as a tournament player so it’s an easy comparison, can you easily suggest he shouldn’t get in any time soon as there are far more qualified knocking at the door.

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GULF COAST POKER CHAMPIONSHIP MAIN EVENT UPDATE

Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2010 Live

09.07.10
CONGRATS TO GCP BLOGGERS WILL SOUTHER AND KAI LANDRY!

MARK ROSE OF ORLANDO, FL WON THE EVENT BUT A THREE WAY CHOP WAS AGREED TO THAT WAS FAIR TO ALL INVOLVED. We were rooting from afar as we had some server issues again. Kai ended up officially 2nd and Poker Monkey 3rd as they played it out for the seat, the sailboat, jewelry, pride and having nothing better to do. Monkey lost with a straight to a bigger straight and Mark knocked out Kai when he won the coinflip with over cards to Kai's pocket sevens. Chad Brown finished in the 4th place. John Stanton of St. Petersburg, FL was fifth. Mike Bradford, Jonathan Stanton, Ben Chan, and Ron Romano rounded out the final table in that order.

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GCPC Results continued Main Event Part I

Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2010 Live

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GCPC Results continued event 11 - event 13

Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2010 Live

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GCPC Results continued

Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2010 Live

EVENT 7 SOLE SURVIVOR THE POKER MONKEY: Okay, this tournament was chopped too. Course this was a survivor tournament and that's what a survivor tournament does. The Poker Monkey ended up with the most chips and the Beau Rivage sailboat for first place.

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LUMBERJACK CONTEST... OR POKER TOURNAMENT UPDATE

Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2010 Live

...we are having server problems again so uploading some updates from the GCPC here until they get it fixed.

09.01.10

With all the chopping going on it's been hard to tell who has won what. This year the Beau added a survivor tournament to the mix but it turned out almost every tournament became a survivor tournament. We saw nooners being chopped not just at the final two or three players, or even at the final table, but at the final tables.

We've received a number of complaints about the structure turning the tournaments into "craps fests" in the later stages and had a couple of players complain about being "harassed and hotboxed" into chops they didn't want to make. So bare with us, the scores of the top few players in any of these events may not actually be as large as they won.

EVENT 1 NO HICK-UP: Thomas Hicks of Bluffton, SC was credited for first place. There was a chop of the 85k prize pool and it inovled Todd Skinner of Youngsville, LA, Frank Alpandinar of Baton Rouge, Brandon Spencer of Slidell, Rusty Moorer and Philip Walsh.

EVENT 2 RAMONA ROMPS IN FLORIDA TRIFECTA: Ramona Szmurlo of Milton, FL was credited with victory and 6.8k in the ladies tournament. Michelle Rusoo of Panama City Beach, FL was second and Chantale Cote of Destin, FL third. Faith Giordano of New Orleans, LA and Maria Lopez of Biloxi, MS made the money and the final table.

EVENT 3 MORGAN TRIUMPHANT: Timothy Morgan of Pompano Beach, FL was credited with the almost 35k first place prize. Blake Pool of Mobile, AL second for just under 19k. Cameron Ainsworth of Frogmore, LA 3rd for a little over 10k. Denis Devenport of Kennner, LA 5th for almost 7.5k. Leslie Roussell of Laurel, MS, Ed Bridges of Spanish Fort, AL, Kristen Deardoff, and Walter Chambers also cashed.

EVENT 4 CHARITY CASE: John Robinson of Brookhaven, MS (pictured by Eric Harkins of Imagemasters) won the Gulf Coast Community Foundation Charity Event which donated proceeds to help Gulf Coasters. We commend the Beau, Johnny Grooms, and the rest of the fine tournament staff for making room on their schedule for a charity event. Other tournament directors should follow their lead. Robert Ray of Hurley, MS, Eric Kaplan of Biloxi, MS finished 3rd and 4th respectively with John Riola creeping into the money.

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