Weatherford Game (August 28)

This is going to be a short post because when you lose $300 in 45 minutes there really isn’t much to talk about.

I lost half of my first $100 buy-in with jack-10 of hearts when a jack was the highest card on the flop, the turn gave me the flush draw, and I didn’t improve on the river. I bet a little more than half the size of the pot on the flop and turn hoping to improve, but was eventually beat out by queen-jack, giving my opponent the same pair as me but a better kicker.

I went through the rest of my money when I re-raised pre-flop with pocket 10s and was called by two players, leaving myself $30 for the flop. The flop came with a queen, jack and low card. I pushed all in and was called by a guy who said he thought he was making a bad call.

I hate hearing people say that because they don’t really think that. They are just saying it to cover themselves if they happen to lose, and they look less foolish because then they can just say, “Well, I said it before I made the call that I was behind.” But the only punishment for being wrong when you make that kind of statement is winning a pot.

The guy had A-J and won when I didn’t improve.

My next buy-in was foolishly wasted on two hands. The first was a waste when I tried to make a play on my cousin Clint, who I was pretty sure had a draw and wouldn’t call a raise on the river when he missed his hand. Everything worked out according to the plan (because Clint really was on the draw as was shown when the hand was over) except for the guy who called the turn bet from Clint after checking first. He then led out on the river and I was pretty sure I couldn’t beat him with my king-high hand.

The rest of that buy-in was flushed down the drain with 5-6 offsuit when I made a frustratingly aggressive play on the flop with middle pair when a five hit. I was beat by pocket sevens.

My third buy-in only took one hand to go through. As I was sitting down with my new chips I was dealt ace-king offsuit. Three people called the $2 pre-flop bet and I raised it from the small blind to $10 total. The three limpers and big blind called the additional $8 and we had a $50 pot going into the flop.

The flop was K-Q-9. I quickly led out with $45, letting everyone know I wasn’t screwing around on this hand. The big blind folded. The next guy struggled with what to do and eventually called. The next two players folded.

Before the turn ever flipped over, or came off the deck for that matter, I pushed my left over $45 into the pot and said all in. The turn came out as a 10 and the guy, once he realized I had already acted, called and showed K-J for the straight. I didn’t improve and was saying my goodbyes. Not a good night at all.

Between $265 and $300 losses my last two times to play poker, things are not going very well lately. Hopefully I can turn things around next month.

WinStar (August 23)

Writing up a report on my gambling activities is not near as much fun when you lose, but it still needs to be done.

My brother and I went to WinStar Monday night and both walked out with lighter wallets. After four hours of play and folding 98 percent of my hands before ever seeing a flop I lost $265, but there wasn’t much I could do when seeing J-4 suited and 7-2 offsuit over and over again.

The only hand even worth mentioning was the one that sent me into a whirlpool of self-doubt and regret that took quite a while to escape from. I did not have the C.J. Wilson approach of living in the moment and breathing through the eyelids last night.

I was dealt Q-J of clubs in early position and called a $10 raise after putting in my two dollars from a player across the table from me. The senior gentleman on my left who liked to play a lot of hands, would chase draws, and hadn’t shown a true bluff yet also called the $12 bet. There were three others who called the bet as well, building the pot up to $72 before we ever saw a flop.

The flop came out K-6-2 with the king and two being clubs. I checked with the intention of seeing how everyone else reacted to the flop. Should a bet be made then I would let the mathematics and pot odds determine my action. It ended up not mattering because all six of us checked it around.

The turn was the 7 of clubs, completing my flush. I was thrilled to see this card and elected to not slowplay my flush. I didn’t want to give the guy with the ace of clubs the opportunity to get a free card and get the higher flush. As first player to act, I immediately made a $30 bet. The amount was a little small, but I was pretty sure my actions were very clear to everyone that I had the flush and was not making a bluff. So if they wanted to gamble and draw for a higher flush then so be it, but it would cost them $30. The gentleman on my left and the pre-flop raiser called my $30. This created a $160 pot.

The river was the ugly four of clubs, giving me the second nut-high flush. I disgustingly checked and the man to my left bet $35. The pre-flop raiser folded, bringing the action back to me. I was 100 percent confident the guy had the ace. I would have bet everything in front of me and in my wallet that he had the ace of clubs. However, when it came to folding my queen of clubs I couldn’t do it. To win $195 by calling $35, it was just too enticing. I knew I was beat, but I could not force myself to fold it.

I will say that although folding hands I know I am beat on has been a problem for the past year, lately I have been able to make the big lay down and preserve my chips. Yet, last night I reverted back to paying off people so I could see their better hands.

Sure enough, the guy did have the ace of clubs and raked in his pot. After that hand I self-destructed and didn’t recover fully until about two hours later, but by that point it was too late as I was repeatedly getting horrific starting cards that weren’t worth wasting two dollars on.

Last night’s loss brings me down to $3,095 of profit since November and $1,480 for the year. My hourly rate also took a hit from $21.07 to $18.93 since starting to play poker regularly again. Hopefully I have better luck in Weatherford this weekend, but because of my fantasy football draft Saturday night, I will probably show up late for the game.

WinStar (August 17)

With Emery’s birthday party coming up this weekend and some extra cash needed for a few items related to said party, I decided a trip to WinStar was required. Should I win anything it would help alleviate the bills that are mounting for this simple stay-at-home-with-friends-and-family get-together that has snowballed into an extravaganza.

The trip overall was a success that netted me $185 in profits, but it all came on one single hand that took place about five minutes before I left for the evening. I played for four hours, equating to a $46.25 an hour rate for the night. That is my largest per-hour rate since the big refrigerator win back in March where I made $131.67 an hour for nine hours of play.

I won several hands in the first hour that put me up to $130 more than what I bought in with. One medium-sized pot I won was with a complete bluff that required a $50 bet on the turn with nothing but ace high. My opponent was a young guy who was very meticulous and precise with his bets and his movements. When he would make a bet or fold his cards, it was always with a slow push to the middle, and his chips were stacked neatly not only in front of him in precise $50 stacks, but his bets were placed slowly in the middle in one stack as well, never thrown willy-nilly like some players will do. I felt with the personality this kid was showing, he wouldn’t want to call big bets with anything less than the near nuts. He just seemed timid.

The specifics of the hand were that I raised pre-flop with A-J offsuit when sitting at about $220 in chips. I raise with this hand about 50 percent of the time. It just depends on who I am up against and how my luck has been running. I had been winning some hands early and decided to keep pushing the limits. I made the bet $7 to go and received two callers, getting the pot up to $20.

The flop came out with a king and two low cards. None of this helped me. The first player checked. The second player, Mr. Meticulous we will call him, led out with a $10 bet. I decided to push a little bit and see how my strong play was received. I raised it up to $30 total, making it an additional $20 to call. After the first player folded, Mr. Meticulous thought for about 20 seconds and made the call. This put the pot at $80.

The turn was a ten, creating a board of a king, two non-matching low cards that I can’t recall specifically, and a ten. Mr. Meticulous checked it to me and without hesitation, hoping to show that I wasn’t scared and had a good hand, I moved out $50. Mr. Meticulous had a big decision to make and the bet was for about a quarter of his stack. We were pretty close in chips, but he had me covered by $20-30. I should note that I had won a pot earlier in the evening from Mr. Meticulous with pocket kings in which he asked if I would show should he fold. I said I would and honored the agreement when he mucked his hand. This might have weighed in on his decision with this particular hand.

Mr. Meticulous ultimately folded and I raked in the pot, heart racing and palms sweating from having to fret over making a stone-cold bluff.

After about an hour I was the chip leader at the table with a little more than $300 in front of me. Things were going great until Action Jackson sat on my left. This guy was one of those players who straddles every chance he gets and raises pre-flop three out of four hands simply to make larger pots. Does it not occur to these people that a $2-5 table is only 15 feet away? Well, long story short, Action Jackson pushed everyone around at our table until he had $900 in front of him, forced several to put in some re-buys, and had sent two guys packing. In the process of this, I went card dead, called a few hands pre-flop that I had no busy being in, and moved seats to get Action Jackson away from my immediate left.

I told myself when I arrived earlier I would only play until 11 p.m. and no matter where I was at that point I was going home. At 10:55 p.m., I had dwindled and chipped away at my $130 profit until it was a $10 loss, which even included a tiny win with an ace-high straight that was checked down until the river and I made a nearly minimum raise of $13 on a guy’s $12 bet and was called. That was the status when I looked down to find two glorious kings staring back up at me.

It just so happened this took place when Action Jackson was doing one of his straddles and two players had already called. With $170 in front of me I made it $15 to go. Those behind me folded and the three guys who had already put in their $4 finished the bet and we went to a flop with four players. The pot had $60 in it.

The flop was J-6-3 with two hearts. The players all checked to me and I made a bet of $50. Without much hesitation, Action Jackson moved out a large stack of red chips to make the bet $100, making a minimum raise. The two other players folded and it was back on me. I had $105 left after making my $50 bet. To call would leave me with $55. That just isn’t enough to do anything with on the turn, so if I am going to do anything it is either raise or fold. I decided Action Jackson was just being a bully again and would put him to the test on his top pair or flush draw. I moved all in for another $55 and he made a somewhat begrudging call.

I flipped up my kings and he elected not to show. Since everything I have said about this guy sounds terrible making you think he was a real a-hole, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He was actually a really nice guy who was joking with the entire table and not rubbing anyone the wrong way despite taking everyone’s money. So the fact that he didn’t flip his cards is usually an annoying thing, I didn’t quite mind it in this particular case.

The turn was a low heart completing the flush if that was what he was going for and the river was the ace of clubs, giving him a higher pair if he happened to be holding an ace. After several moments of him tapping his cards and mulling the situation over, I finally said laughingly, “Dude, if you flip over a winner I’m going to be pissed,” to which he replied, “No. You’re going to win. I’m just trying to figure out if I have something.” He finally folded and said he had a jack with a low kicker that kept getting close to all the other cards on the board.

I got up a few hands later and left with $365, essentially doubling up for the night.

Regarding my hourly rate, in 2010 I am making $16.94 an hour and since playing seriously again in November my hourly rate is $21.07. I’ve made a total of $1,745 in 2010 and $3,360 since November.

I’ve played a total of 159.5 hours since November. My average length of play for a single session of cards is five-and-a-half hours. In 29 different games, I’ve profited 20 times and lost the other nine. My average win in those 20 games is $272, but if you exclude the freakish $1,185 win I had in March that average would drop to $224. My average loss is $231.

In 2010 only, I’ve had 11 wins and six losses in 17 games and played a total of 103 hours. My yearly average per win and loss is $297 and $255. Taking out the big March win that resulted in a new refrigerator brings the winning average down to $209.

Hopefully I can play again before the Weatherford game next month. I will post anything new in the meantime.

Weatherford Game (July 31)

My monthly poker game in Weatherford was played a week early this time because of a vacation the hosts of the game were going on later this month, and although there is no sure way to know, the move in weekends might have caused the amount of players who showed to dwindle significantly. While we usually run two full tables for most of the night, the most we saw at any one time was two tables of seven each. This lowered the expectation level of money to be won radically.

Things got off to a great start when I won a $130 pot flopping a full house with ace-four. One player went all in and another called that bet. I tried to get the other guy to come along for a little longer once the turn came, but he wanted nothing to do with it any more.

I won some small- and medium-sized pots that helped me build my stack to more than $300. For most of the night I hung around between $300-360. I would win a pot to get to $350 and then lose another pot a few hands later to get me back down to $300. This went on for several hours.

Two significant hands that took place during this time were ones I lost by folding on the river. I know for a fact I made the right fold in one case because I was shown the better hand. In the other hand, I’m not 100 percent positive, but I am pretty sure I was losing to three-of-a-kind.

The first hand was the one I’m not entirely sure about. I held pocket aces and it was a straddled hand. I was the small blind and it was folded around to me. I had two options, which were to raise it up to $12-16 or be sneaky and smooth call for $4. Since there were only two other players in the hand and not much risk of playing sneaky, I decided to simply call. I also did this in hopes that the straddler would think we were weak and raise with anything he held. He was a loose-aggressive player and this play was not out of the question.

I called, as did the big blind, and the straddler checked his option. The flop was K-K-5. I led out for $10 into a $12 pot. This bet was to find out who held a king. If I was called, then I would most likely shut down unless it was the straddler, who would try to be tricky in certain spots like this. I was called, but it wasn’t by the guy who straddled. Instead, the caller was the big blind, who was a pretty straight-forward player. I felt, and still feel, he had a king. The turn was a 9 and we both checked. The turn was a 2 and I immediately checked. As the big blind reached for chips I threw my cards face up and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

The big blind was shocked at my folding aces. He said something along the lines of, “Are you sure?” I told him it didn’t matter what he bet, I knew I was beat. The straddler asked if I was curious what the guy had and I told him it was most likely a king and even if I had laid down the best hand I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it because everyone is going to make a mistake when playing poker. However, I still don’t think I made a mistake. I am even surer of my fold because the big blind made a point to not show his hand, which leads me to believe I made the right decision. Most people like to show others when they have made a mistake because they think it will get under their skin and send them on tilt.

The second time I folded a big hand was when I held trip sevens. The way the hand played out is unclear at this time, but what happened was I bet the flop that had a seven, a lower card and a higher card, two of which were hearts. The turn was another seven, giving me my three of a kind. I bet again, getting one caller. The river was a third heart. I bet $15, which was about half or maybe a third of the pot, and was raised $30 more. I thought for about a minute of whether my opponent was trying to pull a fast one on me, making me believe he had hit the flush when in reality he hadn’t. I finally decided to fold the hand, showing my seven. My opponent flipped up his cards, showing two hearts for the flush. I was correct in my assessment.

The only other hands of consequence for the night were when I held a pocket pair that hit a third one on the flop. The first hand was pocket nines and I busted the player on my left. That pot put me up to $560. The second time I held a pocket pair that tripped up was with jacks. I doubled up the only other player in the hand when he had a set of queens on the flop. That hand sent me back down to $380.

We quit about five minutes after the trip jacks hand and I logged in a $280 profit after seven-and-a-half hours of play, giving me $37.33 an hour for the night. My grand total since playing poker seriously again in November is a profit of $3,175.