31 May 2009

Samson & Deliah

For years, Samson battled the Philistines. One time, he was attacked by them; before the fight had ended Samson had killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey!

Samson loved a woman named Delilah. He didn't know the Philistines had offered her money to trick him. "Why are you so strong, Samson?" she would often ask. Although she begged, Samson wouldn't tell. Finally, she cried, "You don't love me, Samson, or you would share your secret."
"It's my vow to God" he whispered. "If my hair is cut, my strength will go." When he fell asleep, she called the Philistines, and they paid her to cut his hair. Samson's strength was gone. The Philistines bound and blinded him. Later they threw a big party. But Samson prayed. And God gave him strength to push and collapse their temple. That day, thousands of Philistines died—along with Samson

Poker players often believe in lucky seats, dealers and trinkets. Which is why my mind on the long walk back from LC’s last Thursday evening was wondering if, just maybe, cutting my hair was a bad idea? (Apart from the obvious displaying my FA Cup size ears) what if my hair was my lucky charm.

Samson's hair was not the source of his power; it was simply an outward sign that his life was set apart for God's service. By the time Delilah had Samson's hair cut off, he had already betrayed his relationship with the LORD (and thus found himself in the sh*t)

I then came to my senses, that night I had lost most playing Omaha (a game I am still studying) and the last hand I was called by a rather inebriated player who believed I was ahead but called regardless. This brings me to another point that I have observed in my poker play - I have often played at the wrong level against my opponents, let me explain...
When anyone is playing poker they play at a level. They go like this (roughly)
1. I don’t know what I have got
2. I know what I have got
3. How far behind the best have I got
4. What has my opponent got
5. What does my opponent think I have
6. What does my opponent think, that I think they have
etc etc...
On my journey home I realised that I was in trouble from the start. At the beginning of the evening I was playing at a lower level than my opposition in the Omaha hands (Level 4 vs. Level 5) - and lost. Later when playing against the well lubricated, I was thinking a few levels too high (Level 5 vs Level 2) - and lost (the level approximations are only examples). I have come to the conclusion that the premium play is to be one level higher than my opposition. So with my lesson learnt I will be putting myself back into the action with my best foot forward.

20 May 2009

From Park Lane to Brick Lane

As much as I love this time of year with all its pomp and pageantry it does however discourage me from partaking in the finer things that life has to offer, like poker and as I'm sure you are aware that like drill; poker should be taken regularly to keep on top of your game. I managed to get a small number of games in these last few days both tournament and cash and in different locations around town, Sunday 1st day off in over 2 weeks so I headed off to the international. Seemed to be going fine until this hand

BL 300/600 - All fold around to cut off who raises 2400, Button (me) calls with JJ, both blinds fold because neither of us have played a hand in a long time.

The Flop 10, 8, 9 (rainbow)

My opponent bets 1500 – I call

Turn 2

My opponent checks and I push all in for 6000ish, after a few minutes he gets a chip count and after a few more minutes another player calls clock and during the 1 minute clock the tournament clock is paused and the dealer is a little unsure as what to do the tournament clock resumes 30sec later and just as the time is running out the other player calls (well past his allotted time) and shows QQ, river is a slight kick in the teeth as the J lands giving my already winning opponent a better winning hand

My second game came Monday afternoon with a 3rd place from 20 runners and not much to report.
Last night was a charity game where the prises were an X-Box 360, Manchester United signed football shirt and a Chelsea signed football shirt. My girlfriend took 3rd place to claim the Chelsea shirt while I was in a cash game with calling stations, the game might as well have been played with everyone anteing and then dealing all the cards out. I finished my evening of suck-outs with this hand against a player who had single handily ruined my table image earlier.
Blinds are 25/25p

I have A5h and my opponent 2nd to act raised £2 everyone folds and I elect to call in SB

Flop A 8 5

I check to let my opponent make a continuation bet which the obligingly did £5 and I raised to £20 they called

Turn 5

I check to represent a weak Ace they bet again £10 and I push all in for £35, they call.

River Q

My opponent proudly places QQ down and declares a house – I say nice hand and they mutter something about me not betting enough!!

10 May 2009

The Duracell Bunny Is Running On Fumes

Last year for about one and a half months I had trained my body to operate normally to a 48hr day rather than a 24, this proved quite profitable at the poker tables as I was in the middle of my day and fresh as a daisy and everyone else at the poker table was tired. Last night I had the opportunity to repeat this feat. Around 11pm I had just finished dealing Poker/Blackjack/Roulette to a group of students from the music colleges around London, it was a fun themed night based upon James Bond, at the end I was in high spirits and not in the slightest bit tired. I made my way to the Casino and sat down to play. After 5 hrs this electronic bunny had come to a point where battery power was not enough to keep its head above water. So I stood up and left, after experiencing this sensation I can clearly see two problems with long session play.

1) Clarity of thought no longer exists. This was evident in the other players when I first sat down, people whom I know to be quality players were not playing well, as they failed to realise due to tiredness that they were no longer playing solid poker and were unnecessarily bleeding chips, not that I was complaining :)

2) Playing many endurance sessions will begin to have a long term effect. That is, you will get burnt out and not be able to make the quality decisions you need to make even when you are well rested. I have seen it happen to some very good players they just lose the ability to walk away from the game when their session is turning into a vicious circle of loss

After an hour of sleep this Duracell Bunny had to go to work. Today I have drunk 1 coffee two espressos’ about 1.5lt of energy drink just to get stay awake through three parades and I am expecting my sugar crash any minute now. Time for a siesta!

09 May 2009

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.

Il buono, The Good;


On the Thursday night I decided to try a different tact to approaching the tournament. I have recently read an article which had different suggestions about how to play at the beginning of a tourney. First there is no question that in a regular poker game you should play reasonably tight. Of course there are exceptions, but those who play every hand will enjoy the action but not necessarily the results. Many successful tournament players are quite loose at the beginning of tournaments which results in either quickly accumulating chips or quickly busting out. I have previously found that I often go deep into a tournament only to find that my remaining stack is too small. Results on this new approach is definitely interesting but more experimentation is needed


il brutto, The Bad;


Was defiantly my out draw against Sir Mike.
I am in the cut off seat, the blinds are 100/200 and my remaining stack is just over 2000 more than 10 times the BB but not by much, everyone folds to me and I see A8os and with only 3 people yet to act I feel my hand is well above average for a four handed hand so I announce the immortal words “I'm all in”. The button folds, one down two to go, a promising start. The small blind gets out the way by throwing their cards into the muck as well. Which only leaves Sir Mike, who wakes up with a hand and elects to call. The cards go on their backs and no surprise to find out that AdQd has me dominated.

Flop

Kd – 7c – Jd


Sir Mike now has more out’s than you can shake a stick at

Turn – 4s

Still very far behind

River – 8h


And there we have it; I must be running well as I catch one of my two outs to win with a pair


il cattivo, The Ugly;


The Ugly – unlike the film came at the end of the night. Once I had got on the night bus, I sat down only to realise that the rather large incredibly smelly snoring old man defiantly had a problem with incontinence whilst asleep and every time the bus jerked forward or braked heavily pools of urine would go trickling by, I'm sure if I had been drinking then urine would not have been the only fluid to be moving around the bus

05 May 2009

Where do they come from?

4 hours of play has left me mildly amused. Tonight I think I might have just seen it all. I have come to the conclusion that the rules of how to play poker live should be explained again to everyone and possibly printed in mutable languages and posted up on the wall (especially house rules) as it is starting to get beyond a joke.

Along with the regular acting out of turn, talking about the hand in-play and forgetting to say raise when only throwing in one chip, tonight I had to endure people showing their cards to their friends who were stood behind them (which makes their hand dead), as well this hand....

We join this hand on the river, three people remain. Player 1 who acts first fires out his 4th bullet of this hand which is roughly ¾ of the pot, Player 2 debates and calls, then as the third player is thinking about what to do player 2 picks his cards up where player 3 can see them!! Enough was enough and once again this evening I had to play sheriff, I informed the dealer what was happening and the floor was called over. The floor in my opinion did not entirely get it right. Yes Player 2’s hand is dead and no player 3’s hand is live. In my opinion player 3 was not going to call until they had seen player 2’s hand (now with an unfair advantage, could also be considered collusion) and so surely both players 2 and 3 hands should dead.

I know previously I encouraged everyone to sit down on tables where people are not playing solid poker, and yes I did triple up for the night but when other players are slowing the game down so much with live poker playing errors and making most hands last 5+ minuets then it is ruining your profit margin for the evening, my advice to anyone seeing this happening is to keep on at the dealer and the culprits will either adhere to the rules or leave. Maybe it is me, maybe I’m just tired but I think that this is a valid point.