Two and out

This past week I read my books and played the free online games. Promised the wife and family I’d be at home this holiday weekend. But interestingly enough an old friend was up from Texas last Thursday and wanted to go over to Muckleshoot Casino. Oh yeah, that will be hard to convince me to do.

I went a little early, just so I could get a few hands in. They had a evening tournament and my friend wasn’t going to arrive for a couple of hours, so I figured why not try their tournament. It was a little more expensive - $65. Yet it was a doublestack tournament for 3,000 chips. So I get all settled and prepared for a lengthy session of poker.

First hand comes and its garbage. Toss it away and wait for that action to complete, which is nothing more than stealing the blinds. On the second hand I busted out. Yes, out. Poof. Gone.

Looking back on it, I felt a little stupid for having played it. Here’s my bust-out hand:

Chip stacks: Button, Villain, and I each have the initial chipstacks of $3000.

Blinds are 25/50.

My hole cards : KhJh.

Folds around to me, where I limp in and villain raises it to $200. The button and I call. The pot is now $600.

The flop : KsKc9d.

I bet $500. Villain calls. Button folds. Pot is now $1600.

Turn card is a Ac. I bet $500. Villain calls. Pot is now $2600.

River is a 7d.

I bet $500. Villain goes in the tank for about 30 seconds, displays some unhappy facial contortions and pushes all in. I insta call.

I proudly flip over my King for trip Kings.

Villain flips over AA and doubles up with Aces over Kings, knocks me out.

Remember, this was just the second hand of the tournament. This is my most embarrassing tournament performance so far. To compound my embarrassment, the entire tournament room traditionally wants to look up from whatever action they are in at whoever busts out first. Just to be sure this happens, the dealer screams “Player Down!”

I’ve replayed this hand a million times in my head. Where could have I played it better? First problem, I didn’t have position. I was also first to bet in this action. I’m not completely sure my head was in the action. I did consider he had a King himself, but I likely had the better kicker. I had him more on two pair. I should have realized when he pushed all-in that is was more than two pair. But at this point, I think I’ve hooked him. I never once considered he might have AA.

As you can see from the image, he's way ahead until the flop, after which I'm 91% to win this hand. The turn is the killer card. I'm waaay behind at this point and the only card that can save me is the 4th king. If I had landed that card, it should have qualified for the bad beat jackpot, I'll point out. But this was not to be. Just a dumb play. It should have never gotten to a showdown. I was only ahead momentarily and for one street. I need to remember this about having trips.

Oh well. I need to say lesson learned, but I’m still studying it.

Bright and Early

Didn’t play in a tournament today, but I did play in a $3-6 limit cash game at Muckleshoot. I think its fun to start playing a cash game early in the morning like 5 or 6am. Oftentimes you can catch a few folks that have been there all night – some just keep throwing their money away, drawing dead, chasing hands they shouldn’t even be in. Being the early riser today earned me an extra $208. Maybe I should have played the tournament, but I didn’t want anything to distract from my focus on tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have two big tournaments. Tomorrow morning is a $150 buy-in no limit tournament at Tulalip. They pay the top 10% of the field (normally 20 players), and first place is a guaranteed $10,000. They have these big tournaments every month at Tulalip and every seat in the house is full. Last month, the first place prize was $12,000.

Later Sunday, I have the final tournament on ESPN Poker Club (the free site). First place is a travel package to a WSOP Academy class in Vegas.

So tomorrow will be a big day. Bright and early. J

Wish You Were Here

Went and played the $90 Saturday tournament again at Tulalip. On the way up to the casino, the radio station played a few cuts from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, the title tracked followed by Welcome to the Machine. It put me in a great mood, so I was inspired to stop by the WalMart next to the casino and pick up a copy of the CD, even though I already own it a few times over. I just had to listen to more of it before the tournament started. It may soon become a pre-tournament ritual for me.

This is a qualifying tournament, where if you can finish fifth or better you can return on October 20th for a chance at a freeroll into one of two WPT events – the Bellagio Cup or the Bay 101 Shooting Star events. They have these qualifiers every Saturday.

Last week I busted out just way too quickly in the third round. Today I made it to the fifth round. One the way up there, I had told myself I was going to lay off the first few hands. Well, the first hand I was dealt was TT. I limped in, but the flop and next round of betting chased me out. The second hand was 33 and after betting 3 times the BB, I landed a set of 3’s with the flop. But I was sandwiched between better hands. The turn brought a second spade and large betting caused me to throw away my set. My suspicion was correct, two spade flushes were made with the river.

In this tournament, I fell behind with my chip stack and stayed that way. I went all-in three times and survived each one. Even tripled up on one occasion, but that only brought me back to my original chip amount – 4000. But my luck was soon to run out. With only $1100 in chips left I went all-in with KT. As it played out on the board. I made paired both the K and the T, but fell to a Ace-high straight on the river and was knocked out along with another player who is usually pretty agressive.

But hey, made it to the fifth round. Out of 149 original entries, and I figured I went out somewhere between 60-70th place. So I made it past halfway through the field and never had a decent chip stack.

I’ll likely play again tomorrow in the Sunday tournament. I did pretty darn well in that tournament last week. Fingers crossed.

Rookie

I’ve played NL Texas Hold 'Em on Xbox and Xbox360 games. A lot of fun, but it doesn’t really go anywhere, ya know?

I’ve grown a little bolder and played a few cash games in Las Vegas and broke even. I’ve played a few tournaments back home and busted out too quickly. A little too quickly. OK, way too quickly. Most of the time I was simply misreading the strength of my opponent’s hands, getting aggressive, and missing straights or the occasional full house while I’m going all in with trips or worse.

Lately I’ve been playing in online games. Not for money, mind you. I’ll only play online if it’s for play money, such as ESPN’s site or Xbox360. I won a few single table tournaments and did okay on the multi-table tournaments, but never got enough points to enter some of the bigger events.

Recent I made the bubble on ESPN's Daily Big Play the first time I tried it (this past Monday) which gave me the 60 qualification points for the Sunday Qualifier. In the Daily Big Play, I finished in 19th place out of some 420 players. You had to be among the last 20 standing to get an entry into the Sunday Qualifier. Today I played that Sunday Qualifier tournament (some 300+ hands) and made it within the required top 25 – I finished in 22nd place, out of 319 players. In both those tournaments I played really tight, picked a few spots to be aggressive, and made it in by the skin of my teeth. I could have busted out really easily in several instances. But hey – I made it. And the first time, too. It’s giving me some confidence that maybe I’m not as bad as I think I am. :-)

Today’s play gets me a slot in the final tournament on Sunday August 26th. In that tournament, you have to win it all to move on. Rather than getting in by the skin of my teeth, I'll have to be a bit more agressive. Can’t wait.

First Post

This is the first posting to my blog. I’m in the process of learning Texas Hold ‘em. I’m getting better at it, but I’m still a rookie. This blog is meant to document my journey as I get better. Have a record of the pain to share with others and maybe go back myself and snicker at later.