04.30.09

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 4, Part 3

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , , , , , , at 2:56 pm by pygmyhero

Sunday, April 26th

We decided this night would be our ’special’ dinner out, so we booked a reservation for nine people at Bobby Flay Steakhouse. After we sat down I proposed we play credit card roulette for the bill. I had never played before and I really wanted to do it at least once. And this group seemed like the right guys to do it with since we’re all here to gamble.

For anyone who doesn’t know how credit card roulette works, let me first say that it’s pretty sick. When the bill comes everyone throws a credit card into a hat (or whatever), and the waiter or waitress pulls them out one at a time. In the less interesting variant the first card out pays the check. The far more degenerate way to do it is slowroll and have the last card out pick up the tab.

So at the end of the meal we all pitched a credit card into allstarrt’s hat (except for fnupple, who opted to buy out). Nfinity was worried about his financial situation and was going to buy out also but at the last second said, “Fuck it,” and tossed a card out.

Predictably, his card was then the first out of the hat. The waiter was confused – he tried to grab it to ring up the bill, but we explained that the last card out would pay. BigBadBabar’s card came out next, followed by Diamond Lie’s.

When each card was pulled out we became increasingly raucous – one person was elated to be off the hook, and the tension built for the rest. We began to attract attention from other tables and a few people asked a different waiter what we were doing. Some people knew what was going on and we could hear them commenting that it was pretty sick – the bill’s obviously going to be pretty hefty with a group that large at a nice restaurant.

aumorgan was next, which was fortunate as he had already texted his wife that he got stuck with the bill (which we anticipated would be around $1,000), and needless to say she was not amused. allstarrt followed, which was a relief to BBB since they had cross booked (meaning each would pay half if either of them was picked last).

That left three people still in – me, OnTheRail15, and Nina Williams. At that point we were all sitting on about -$300 in EV, which is a pretty bad spot. Fortunately for me I was next out. That saved me some trouble as I wasn’t going to tell my fiancée if I had lost – I was just going to pay out of my bankroll and leave it at that (I had not pre-authorized risking a grand from out joint finances).

At this point we requested that the waiter to stop. OTR asked Nina if he wanted to buy out and said he’d let him for 75% (meaning instead of pulling the last card Nina would pay 75% of the bill and OTR would pay 25%). Nina obviously refused, and of course the next card out belonged to OTR and Nina got stuck with the whole bill (a picture may follow in time).

Nina jumped up in joy, ‘YES! Now you’ll all believe me when I say I run bad!’
BBB: ‘Now Nina, tell us which was worse – buying out and paying 75% or refusing knowing that you were almost certain to be stuck with the whole thing because OTR runs so good.’

Ship the free dinner!

We all really enjoyed dessert as by that point we knew who was paying and we teased Nina about his $300 Baked Alaska (at the beginning I passed around the rolls and said they were probably $20 rolls with $5 butter pats for whoever paid).

Addendum: later that night (early the next day) there was some talk about going over the the Taj.
Nina: ‘I already run bad, I don’t need to also go to the Taj and get Tuberculosis from the poker chips.’

04.29.09

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 4, Part 2

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , , , , at 1:22 pm by pygmyhero

Sunday, April 26th

From the poker room:

In true Rounders-style, HLS2k6 takes a horrendous one-outer when his A9 outflops AA on a 99x board, only to see the case ace pop off on the turn. Needless to say the pot got splashed a bit on the turn. Sad face.

OnTheRail15 tried to get heads up action, so he started a $40/$80 table. Eventually someone came to the table to take him on:

Villain: “Do you want to play higher?”
OTR: “How high?”
Villain: “Whatever you want.”
OTR: (tarping him good) “Let’s just start at $40/$80 for now and we’ll see”

Before starting they agreed to play $80/$160 and OTR sold off some of his action to some guys in our group. OTR then proceeded to crush HUHU for around $3k and left when the table began to fill in. It turns out that the villain is a fairly well known HUHU player who regularly plays mid/high stakes on Full Tilt Poker. When they revealed their screen names to each other villain exclaimed: “I never would have played you if I had known who you were!”

Perhaps the sickest part was that BigBadBabar had a portion of OTR’s action. So he racked up another ~$500, bringing his total win for the day while not doing anything to over two grand.

One last highlight: BBB and OTR were playing at the same table a few hours later, yelled, “BANGARANG!” and ran around the table while high fiving each other (picture a Chinese Fire Drill around a poker table). They then got pulled aside by security and warned because, as BBB explained, “Having fun is not allowed.”

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 4, Part 1

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , , , , at 12:55 pm by pygmyhero

Sunday, April 26th

As I mentioned in a previous post our group results are trending up a bit more. I think a lot of this has to do with the number of man/hours we are collectively putting in. Not that we’re in the long term, but I honestly believe our skill edge is beginning to manifest itself.

One consequence of this is that we needed to get a ton of rubber bands from the cage. While ostensibly for securing bankrolls, these have mostly been used to fire at each other in the room and yell, BOOM!!! Head Shot!

Actually, a lot of things are getting thrown around in the room. BigBadBabar was explaining to me that, ‘the definition of a good bankroll is that it hurts people when you throw it at their nuts.’ He then proceeded to walk over to OnTheRail15, who was sitting on the floor, and threw his bankroll at OTR’s groin. Needless to say, OTR was pretty upset about this and ended up punching BBB a few times and then throwing the bankroll into BBB’s kidney. BBB’s response: ‘Ow! That really hurts. It’s like getting hit with a brick!’

In the morning OTR and I played Chinese Poker for a dollar a point. fnupple cross-booked, taking my side at $2 a point. I took an early lead, but OTR’s run good was too much to overcome – he ended up a point and won the final hand, which included a $25 side bet with fnupple. gg OTR

The sickest part of the morning (here I probably mean early day or mid-afternoon) was when allstarrt came back from the Taj Mahal. He played in the $30/$60 game and wanted to know if BBB wanted half of his action. BBB wasn’t awake at the time, so allstarrt offered it to him when he got back. BBB asked a series of questions trying to figure out if allstarrt was up or not. e.g., ‘How many players on average were seeing the flop?’ Hilariously, BBB took the action immediately after learning that an elderly African American man had been at the table. It turns out allstarrt had killed the game for a couple grand and BBB essentially ends up making $1,500 while still asleep. gg BBB

BBB: “Sick trip imo.”
fnupple: “+1.”

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 3

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , , , , , at 12:34 pm by pygmyhero

Saturday, April 25th

I checked out the pool – it was pretty nice. It’s not very deep (basically for wading and laps) and it gets a bit clogged up with little kids, but otherwise it’s decent. They also have a hot tub and a garden for sunbathing. I availed myself of the hot tub, which was a nice change of pace (e.g., NOT poker for a little bit) and very relaxing.

I booked a modest win in my early session, but it was fairly uneventful overall. In the evening I saw a huge German fish (i.e., fnupple) sitting in the $10/$20, so I decided to join him. I think he had been playing higher stakes, so he’s probably just busto. Anyway, MagicMcQ must have thought the same thing because he decided to join us shortly after.

Needless to say this made the game pretty interesting, especially when it got short handed. I was fortunate enough to have the best seat (MagicMcQ and fnupple to my left, the two fish to my right), but was unable to take advantage of it. MagicMcQ kept looking at me funny because I kept folding my big blind getting 5:1 (and once even 7:1) closing the action pre flop. Yes MagicMcQ, I did have bottom 10-15% on all of those hands.

Being card dead was pretty tough with two good, aggressive players behind me as I basically had the choice to fold constantly or attack the fish’s blinds with 52o and hope no one 3-bets me. Plus fnupple continued to beat me in every pot we’ve ever played:

Bad player limps, I pop AJo, fnupple defends, fish calls – three ways to the flop.

Flop: Q82 with two clubs (I have none)
Checked to me, I bet, fnupple check/raises, fish takes two to the face, I call intending to re-evaluate on the turn.

Turn: 7 offsuit
fnupple bets, fish folds, and now that the fish folded I think I should show down AJo unimproved pretty often (folding the T and 9 of clubs and agonizing over offsuit T’s and 9’s).

River: 8 offsuit
fnupple bets and I snap call knowing that his semi-bluff check/raising flop range is huge and none of it got there on the turn or river (club draws, gutters).

He shows me J7o.

As a group I’d say we’re collectively making a bit of a comeback, but we’re definitely still down overall. One thing that helps is that we’re all apparently expert at Texas Hold ‘Em Bonus.

Late in our session (so actually early in the am the next day) fnupple, HLS2k6, OnTheRail15, and I decided to put in a short pit session. We all started off in for $100, but calling the floor over to confirm another buy of $100 quickly became a joke as we collectively added on for hundreds 8-10 more times.

I’m not going to explain all the game mechanics, but see the Wizard of Odds site for a complete explanation.

The game itself is pretty funny, because you basically can’t fold preflop, and seeing the flop often determines what you should do with both of your next two bets (e.g., if you make a pair on the flop you often need to bet the last two streets, regardless of how the turn comes).

Overall the mechanics (i.e., NOT strategy) are very simple and fun. It’s also amusing to laugh at people who play badly in very clear situations (e.g., AQo failing to bet on a K52 rainbow flop – remember they’re up against a random hand for the dealer). In many ways it’s like heads up poker against an opponent who can’t fold and never raises.

Needless to say we had a lot of heads up talent sitting at that table, so it’s pretty funny (imo) that fnupple was the only one who ended up down. HLS and I both shipped about a hundred, but OTR went on a tear, basically flopping good everyhand while progressively betting more and more.

When OnTheRail15 began betting in quarters ($25 chips) he got the dealer to shout out, “Green chip action!” He booked a win of about $1,000, but we never quite got to black chip action ($100). While playing he basically said after every hand, ‘I’m going to keep flopping top pair and beating you (i.e., the dealer) until you guys comp me a room.’

One last highlight of this game was when one of our hands missed but still had showdown value – HLS especially would tend to say, “I beat some hands” when he had things like 8 high (and yes, he did beat 5 and 4 high on a few of those occasions). He also hilariously sang Win with the Ace High every time he held up with a bare ace.

04.28.09

Take notes!

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , at 11:25 am by pygmyhero

I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting into the $10/$20 at Borgata. Basically I have terrible timing, wait for 2 hours or more on the list and then within an hour of getting seated we end up with minimum two open seats. As a result I’ve been playing a lot of lower limits while I’m waiting.

Overall it’s not terrible. When I sit in a $3/$6 game the players in the game find it funny that I come to the table with two racks of red chips. And obviously I’m a huge favorite in the game. I don’t really know what day these hands are from anymore, but I thought they were kind of interesting:

Early position standard bad player limps, late position player limps, I check my option with J7o.

Flop: Q7x with two clubs
I lead out and get two calls.

Turn: 7 offsuit
I lead out, EP raises, LP folds, I decide my kicker is worth a 3-bet, he caps, I call (I can’t 5 bet – the no cap rule is only in effect if it was heads up at the beginning of the street…not that I think 5 betting would be good here).

River: A of clubs
I check/call.

Villain shows Qx suited in clubs and drags the pot. Pretty standard bad play and beat. But the important thing is that I immediately made a note (mental, but I do miss the notes box I get online) on his play.

I talk about this player type with allstarrt a lot – the ones that jam their combo draws in bad spots. We’re not 100% sure why, but our best guess is that it’s a No Limit inspired play. I’m not sure, but I think that shoving with a flush draw plus pair (even a small one) is a pretty strong play because you have folding equity and usually a decent number of outs when called. The problem is that in Limit Hold ‘Em your folding equity is substantially diminished because the bet size is fixed.

Anyway, a few rounds later the following hand occurred:
A ton (probably like 53) players limp to me, I limp along A4 suited in spades, villain from previous hand limps immediately behind me (he is in position), we see the flop multi-multi way.

Flop: A43 with two clubs
I get checked to, I bet, villain calls, and the field maybe thins to like 17 or so

Turn: 9 offsuit
I get checked to, I bet, villain raises, everyone else folds, I 3-bet, he caps

River: Q offsuit
I check, he bets, I call.

I think a raise could be considered here but the problem is that I don’t really expect to get called by much (exactly Q9 suited in clubs and not much else. I can see that all the draws missed (clubs, wheel draws), so I don’t know if there’s much value in leading out.

He tabled K5 suited in clubs.

04.26.09

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 2

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , , , , , , , at 12:31 pm by pygmyhero

Friday, April 24th

Most of our group is now present. We expect a few stragglers later, but aumorgan, tufts, grease, fnupple, OnTheRail15, Nina Williams, and HLS2k6 all arrived today (bringing our group up to 13). Unfortunately, we are basically all down as of right now. Needless to say, this has been a bit frustrating. I think BigBadBabar sums it up best when he says, ‘these people are 50/50 to drown in the shower every day. That old guy is terri-bad and he’s managed to flip heads (i.e., non-drowning) every day of his life! And they just keep taking your money!’

Personally, I have been struggling just to get a seat in the $10/$20 game. Twice I have been on the list for a few hours and NOT gotten called. Which may not be all bad since when I do get in the game, hands like the following seem to occur:

Late position limps, I raise aces from the small blind, the big blind calls, and the limper call.

Flop: T52 rainbow
I bet, big blind raises, limper folds, I call.

Turn: J offsuit
I check, big blind bets, I raise, big blind calls.

River: 7 offsuit
I bet, big blind raises, I call.

He tables 98o. So a pretty standard beat, and it really didn’t bother me. About a round later he was talking to the player on his left and explaining his play in a later hand – he said he did such and such because (and here he motioned towards me) of the really good player on his right (this was very clearly sarcastic). This was also fairly standard as he had been talking a lot of trash to pretty much everyone at the table.

I waited a few hands to see if he would stop and when he didn’t I turned to him and asked what he wanted – he already won the pot, and I made it clear that I didn’t appreciate him mocking me. Now, I’m not a tall guy or a big guy, but I do sit up straight at the table and I’m in a lot better shape than your average poker player. I also apparently project an air of menace very effectively because he turned to me, was visibly shocked that someone had stood up to him, and I honestly believe he was afraid I was going to haul off and hit him (which was never going to happen, but it might have helped that I look like I was in a bar fight recently). He was clearly mortified and tried to play off that he had said something else. That didn’t work out too well for him as the player to his left agreed with me about what had been said. Anyway, nothing else came of it, but he didn’t talk trash to me or anyone else at the table after that.

04.25.09

Actual poker content

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , at 12:47 pm by pygmyhero

Thursday, April 23rd

My fiancee wanted to play a little low limit hold ‘em, so I sat with her in a $2/$4 game. As expected, the games are incredibly soft and players are terrible. Let me give an example:

I open raise in late position with 2 random cards and get heads up with the big blind.

Flop: AJx twotone
I continuation bet and get called.
I guess it’s relevant to say I had Q8o and the Q gave me a backdoor flush draw.

Turn: J, putting a third suited card on the board
We check around.

River: J offsuit
We check around.

I table my hand and announce, “Q high,” believing there’s a chance I have the best hand against a random poor flop peel. Villain tables QJ and says, “Quads.” Me (thinking), ‘Thanks for putting in no money with the nuts and giving me a free cards to 9 outs on the turn.’

I basically played my A game for four straight hours. Every play I made had a reason and I got value/saved bets in every spot. Perhaps the thing I’m happiest with was that I flipped a chip for every hand.

My goal was to follow Tommy Angelo’s advice and use this chip flip (which is supposed to be done as the cards are dealt) to bring myself to the present. At first I had trouble doing this and wouldn’t flip the chip until later in the hand, but I slowly got used to it and really did feel it helped me focus on my play.

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 1

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , at 12:37 pm by pygmyhero

Thursday, April 23rd

We are now six (me, my fiancee, Nfinity, BigBadBabar, MagicMcQ, and allstarrt), but everyone got in around dinner time – we ended up not hitting the tables until around 7pm. We all put in a short-ish four hour session before reconvening for a late snack. Everyone was pretty tired from staying up late the night before / traveling, so after that we basically ended up chilling in our balla suite (pictures will follow in time) and relaxing.

A few highlights:

allstarrt tried to steal a “Slippery When Wet” sign as he was leaving Foxwoods. An employee stopped him and asked, ‘Are you stealing that?’ His response: ‘No…I’m…I was…going to show the sign to my friend…in the car…over there.’

We had trouble finding our room – apparently the Borgata has three sets of elevators, each of which serves a few floors. Naturally we got on the wrong one and couldn’t figure out why the building didn’t seem to have a seventh floor (only 19-31 were listed).

allstarrt: “My headphones are janky.”
BigBadBabar: thinking: I haven’t heard – that must be a brand.“Mine are Sennheiser.”

MagicMcQ had an eating mishap. At the table he was trying to eat a Menthos, and bit his tongue (his words: “I missed”), sustaining a serious tongue injury which resulted in him bleeding.

We were all in our room and BigBadBabar picked up a packet of $100 bills wrapped up with a rubber band (probably about $4,000), threw it at MagicMcQ and yelled, “BANKROLL FIGHT!!!”

04.23.09

Why shaniac is wrong

Posted in Poker tagged , , , , , , , at 10:15 am by pygmyhero

Everyone’s probably aware that the first SCOOP was recently completed at Poker Stars. There were many memorable moments from the tournament series, and I want to address one of the incidents from the $10,000+$300 main event.

Greg Raymer (FossilMan) was eliminated from the tournament when he lost with quads (to higher quads). He made a post complaining about the cooler on the 2+2 forums and about how poorly he’s been running in general (link includes a link to the full thread), which set off a small controversy.

shaniac, a well respected tournament player who’s also known for being outspoken responded vitriolically. Let me first say that I have nothing against shaniac and don’t know much of him outside of his reputation. I have never had any direct interaction with him. In fact, I actually like what I do know of shaniac.

That said, I found shaniac’s post disconcerting. Raymer complained about running badly in recent tournaments (which may very well be true) and shaniac essentially responded that he (Raymer) has run well in life (by winning the World Series of Poker Main Event) and thus has no right to complain ever. The problem with this response is that Raymer’s winning the WSOP has absolutely no bearing on how he will run in the future unless you believe in continuous probability.

I’m certain shaniac (who has enjoyed a large amount of success in his own poker career) is smart enough to NOT believe in continuous probability. So it’s a bit unclear why he’s responding to Raymer in this fashion. If Raymer had complained that he has run bad in life and shaniac had objected I’m sure many people would agree with Shane (myself included). But that is not what happened – Raymer simply complained about running bad lately, which can happen to any poker player, regardless of their past results.

One interesting aspect of this recent incident is that Raymer and shaniac had essentially the same conversation about a year ago. Raymer complained about how he was running, which culminated in him inappropriately tearing up a card. At the time, shaniac’s response was remarkably similar to the one he gave following the SCOOP event.

Given this history and the tone of his posts, it’s hard for me to interpret shaniac’s responses (and repeated claims that Raymer used to be one of his poker heroes) as anything other than patronizing. Absolutely Raymer was wrong to rip up a card. But ultimately I don’t see that he has any less right to complain about running bad than any other player. I seriously doubt that shaniac attacks random posters who complain about variance as vigorously as he does Raymer, which is why I think shaniac is out of line.

(One possibly interesting aside: since continuous probability does not exist, Raymer has just as much right to complain about running bad as any other poker player experiencing an ‘equal’ amount of bad luck, including a losing player (yes, losing players can run badly too).)

DC Stomps AC 2009, Day 0.5

Posted in Trip Reports tagged , , , , , at 9:44 am by pygmyhero

Wednesday, April 22nd

See here for full information on how DeucesCracked is going to take over Atlantic City. We’re going to be playing primarily at the Borgata, and in true balla style we have booked a suite as our launching pad.

In the next two days a crew of 12+ DC members will be rolling into AC to dominate all limit hold ‘em action. We have a very strong crew rolling in, with both coasts, the Midwest, and even continental Europe representing. Many of the top mid stakes regulars on Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker will be in full effect (in all seriousness the mid games on both sites will likely be a bit softer in the next week and a half).

I’ll be giving more updates and probably some photos in the upcoming days. For now it is only day 0.5 because our group is still spread out across the country. In fact, no one is actually in AC yet, but we are converging.

Nfinity joined me late in the day, after somehow managing to miss his flight TWICE and then somehow still arriving at the wrong airport. I honestly can’t really explain how that happened but I will say that he was in the airport the whole time between his first missed flight and his second (meaning he sat in the terminal while his rescheduled flight left without him). Anyway, he eventually to get near the DC (here I mean District of Columbia, not DeucesCracked) area, so with a long drive and a late night on my part I finally managed to get him where he needed to be. Tomorrow we will drive to AC!

Next page