blackdog's Poker Blog

I have always moaned bout players hitting their runner runner outer, and been quite critical of play that seems to rely on that sort of luck. I guess that is because, at least as far as I can remember, I have always been the one on the wrong end of those bad beats.

Until last week.

In three consecutive tournaments - one at Albert's tavern, and two APL games, I just could not lose a hand.

In all three I was short stacked at the final table, and still short stacked after the bubble. In two cases I had less than three big blinds left, and in one case could not even make the big blind.

No choice but to push on any hand where I think I might have two live card right?

Right.

I push with something like 9 3 or 7 4, only to find I am dominated by A 9 or K 7. And yet, the low card hits, my opponent doesn't improve, and I double up.

And then the same thing happens again.

And then again.

And what do you know, I am now the chip leader.

In one head to head showdown, after four all-ins with improbable hands, I am slightly ahead of my opponent. I actually felt quite embarrassed by my phenomenal luck - it is not the way I am used to winning, and I have to say, I don't really like winning that way.

I take down a pot and my opponent now only has ab out 4 BB's left. He pushes on the next hand with A J and I call with 2 3. (why did I call? it was late, I wanted to go home, and I was shell shocked by my own good luck). The flop comes 2 3 3. I think my opponent hit his ace on the turn, albeit small consolation.

I mean, what can you do when total rubbish hands win all the time? Not just once, but I won three tournaments like that. And though I never entertained any thought about splitting the prize money, it just was not a pleasant way to win. Not just because of the luck, but because I also wasn't even playing my A game - it was luck and luck alone that made me win. No contribution of skill on my part.

I could see the frustration in the other players, exactly as I have felt in the past. It is a feeling of contempt that someone with such a lack of skill can still win on luck alone.

So now I take back all those not-so-nice things I have thought, and criticisms I have made in the past. I understand that, just as a bad beat can put you tilt, so can phenomenal luck put you on anti-tilt.

Anti-tilt is where not only do you play bad, the run of luck you are having makes it impossible to play well, and you are forced to win by luck alone.

Fortunately, I can report my luck ran out, and I bubbled at the Thursday night comp at the Mosman club. Passing that horseshoe was like saying goodbye to a kidney stone - and good riddance.

With nothing to do on Saturday night during my 12 day monthly sojourn to Sydney, I girded my loins and made for Sky City for a night of poker.

I arrived about 9:30pm to find the usual waiting list for a table, 40 or so deep for the 1/2 table and 12 deep for the 5/5 game. My plan was to go for the $200 fixed buy in the 5/5 game. Knowing there would be an inevitable wait, I bought a card for the electronic tables, which Star City now have cranked down to $50 buy in and $1/1 blinds.

The idea to offer lower stakes games I think is a good one. It encourages more walk-by punters to get into the game, and for me, if I copped a few bad beats, it meant I wasn't going to damage my bankroll too much waiting for the live dealer game.

Unfortunately my $50 buy in lasted about ten minutes. Six hands into the table I have A J in the big blind. There is one or two callers, then a raise from mid position to $6. All fold to me, and I decide I have a good enough hand to defend the blind aggressively and make it $15 to go. The raise from mid position did not look strong to me, and I figure it likely I can take down the pot here.

One of the limpers from early position calls - a bit of a surprise, maybe he was slow playing Kings or Aces? The original raiser folds, as thought he might, and two of us see the flop.

The flop is 6 J 4.

I have top pair, top kicker, but I do suspect a slow played monster from my opponent. To find out where I stand I send a feeler bet of $12 his way. He calls. Yep, he has a big one - the only thing that makes sense - limp, flat call a raise and a re-raise, call the flop bet to trap me into betting more on the next street.

The turn is the perfect card for me - a Jack. Ha! Now I know he could not have had trip jacks, and whatever he has, AA, KK or QQ, he is almost dead with one card to come. The trapper has now become the trapped. The rest of my $49 goes into the pot. He calls.

J 4, full house.

He called a raise and a re-raise from early position with J 4. Wow. If I had any idea I was facing such a poker genius I would have ditched my hand for sure. Nice hand Sir.

I was now 5th in the queue for my seat, but looking over the rail, it looked like no one would be moving on those tables for a while, so it was re-buy time for the $50 table.

The tables had filled up a bit more when I go back, and I joined a table that has a group of five or six guys who were all mates. A good thing about the electronic tables is that there is never a queue to join then, and also it is usually possible to exercise some table selection choice, as the floor staff let you take any free seat. What I like about that sort of table with a few mates is that they are often so obsessed with beating each other in pots, they forget about anyone else in the pot while trying to out-bluff each other. Most of the time a decent hand will hold up to wild raises, re-raises and all-ins, the the profit expectation is doubled for the hand and the risk is reduced.

Before too long I had recovered my first buy-in. And not long after that I was up to $180. I thought about picking up, but the night was still young - only about 11pm, and the bunch of mates at the table seemed to have no end to the re-buys they were prepared to make.

For the next hour I was card dead. I made the mistake of becoming impatient and tried to make too much of some speculative hands. Fortunately I was able to let them go when I knew I was beat, but my stack was still down to $110. I thought about cashing in again, it now being 12:30am. $10 wasn't much to show for an evenings work, but as I am often want to remind beginning players 'money you don't lose is the same as money you win'. A break even is far better than a loss for the night.

Doyle Brunson (in either Super System I or II, can't remember which) talks about 'rushes'. He says that no matter what the experts say, they do happen, and you have to 'play the rush' when it does.

On the button with the whole table limping, I find Q Q. No stuffing around, I raise to $15. The whole table folds. Nice one.

A Q suited comes up a couple of hands later. A preflop raise to $10 gets two callers. Nothing hits on the flop, but a continuation bet of $20 takes the pot. Next is AK UTG, I raise to $10 (the 'standard raise' I have now set for the table), two of the 'mates' call, and one other 'walk by' who I have tagged as a mug punter. The flop is raggy with a King, but two clubs, and my ace is a club. I am first to act and make a continuation bet of $20 - well not really continuation, since I think I am the only one in the hand who knows what that is, it is more of a value bet, since I am almost certainly ahead here.

The mug punter pushes all in for his last $30. Both the other guys call. Hmm, one of them has two clubs perhaps? Or trips?

The turn is a queen of clubs. I want to find out if one of them has hit a flush, but I am not sure what will tell me that. Any small bet will get called regardless with the pot so big. A big bet is likely to get called if one of them hit the queen just as much as if they had the flush. Neither of them are giving of signals of strength though. The most likely scenario I can imagine is that one of them has second or third pair and one of them is on a draw to a flush, and right now my hand is best, with a draw to the nuts.

I bet $50. Both call.

The river is a club, and the board hasn't paired. How do I get the most possible from these guys? I have them both covered, one guy has $40 left and the other $65. The pot is so huge, what does it matter. I go all in, rather than just bet enough to put them both all in - I figure that might look a bit more like a 'buy the pot' bluff than a considered bet.

The guy with $40 folds and the other calls. He had Qh 10d - 2nd pair with no draw on a four flushed board. His mate showed as well, he had ace high with a weak kicker - yeah, good fold mate. The mug punter had paired on the flop with a 4 or a 5 or something and had pushed with bottom pair.

'Argh, you rivered the flush' one of them says and makes other noises complaining about his, apparent, bad beat, not even realizing he was 2nd to my king in any event.

Sometimes you know, I really like this game.

I hit two more good hands which won me some small to middling pots. The table seemed to be avoiding me now for some reason. The last pot I took down was with K Q in late position. Raised pre flop and got two callers. Nothing hit on the flop, it was checked to me and I bet out $20, about 2/3rds of the pot and got one caller and a fold. The turn was a blank for me, but I think gave the caller a pair of nines. He makes a $10 bet and I raise him to $60. He folds.

It is just coming up for 2am and no one wants to play with me any more. Also, no good cards come for a while, so I figure my rush has ended. That's enough for the night for me anyway and I cash out.

So yes, I think rushes do happen too. Maybe it can be explained in probability - where there are 'clumps' of results together, but that smooth out over a large sample size. There is no doubt it occurs in number theory - just look at prime number groupings. What you can't do is predict when they will happen, or when they will end, of course. I just have to remind myself more not to get impatient and wait for the good hands - which will come - eventually.

ps. And I never did get paged for the $200 game. By the time I figured they must have skipped by my name on the list, the pickings were too good at the electronic table to leave anyway.

pps. The downside of the evening was that the cashier paid me out with $50 bills and not $100's as they always do, so I was denied the small pleasure of seeing those crisp green ones peeling off. Oh well, I will just have to live with my disappointment this time.

I had a stop-over in Adelaide last week for business, and with nothing much to do on Friday night I wandered across the road from the hotel I was staying at and found myself at the Sky City Casino.

Not a very big casino by any standard, and they don't have a craps table. But... what a nice friendly place! The staff actually seem happy to be there and to engage pleasantly with the punters. The bars are well located, offer a good range of the amber fluid, and service is quick. I really warmed to the place after a few minutes. And the best was yet to come.

After a wander around the casino floors, I located the 'Poker Zone' upstairs in front of the sports bar. It is a nicely reserved area with nine tables. By nicely reserved, I mean there is a wide fixed counter around the perimeter of the area. Just the right hight for interested rail birds to rest drinks on while viewing the action, and wide enough and set away enough from the tables that they are no bother to the players. I was starting to get the feeling the casino actually appreciated the patronage of poker players (a bit different to Star City).

"What games are you spreading?" I asked the area host behind the registration counter, after waiting patiently in a queue of only me for zero seconds.

"2/3 and 5/10 no limit and 4/8 limit" he informed me with a smile, and then volunteered "I can get you a seat in the limit game right away, and there are five in the queue for either no limit game".

"Ok, put me down for the 2/3 game please" I asked, and he did, taking my mobile number to sms me when the seat was ready.

I went off to grab a bite while I waited. And then realized that due to a mix up, I had left my mobile phone in Perth, which was now with a courier and I had my wifes phone. The SMS would never get to me. No drama though, I would check back after my snack and see where I was in the queue.

20 minutes later I was back, and I could see my name right at the top of the list. They had sms'd me, and I had missed my seat, but the very helpful host told me not to worry, I would be a priority for the very next seat. I mean - wow - what a nice place, I just can't help comparing how different it is to Star City. But it got even better.

By now it was about 8:30pm, and the waiting list for the 2/3 game had grown to 10. So they opened another table!! Fancy that, opening a table when there are enough players for one - compared to the waiting list of 70-80 certain other casinos have.

I converted my $120 buy in to chips and took my seat. (I should mention the rake - another pleasant surprise. No posting, no time charges, just 10% of the pot to a max of $8.)

I mucked about the first 11 or 12 hands with nothing playable dealt, and used to time to sus out the other players. Most of them, more than half, seemed to know each other and the staff and were obviously regulars. The rest seemed like player you find anywhere at a low stakes table early in the evening.

I limped in a couple of pots with speculative hands and folded when nothing hit. Then, on the button I saw a single diamond and a single heart staring back at me. There were four callers to me, and I raised to $12 (the usual opening bet for the table). It was no real surprise that all the initial limpers now called - no doubt determined to see a flop no matter what the cost. But then a guy who was to my immediate right popped it up to $24. What a great situation, I could now re-raise again, thin out the field and almost certainly get called from what had to be AK or pocket kings or queens.

I made it $50 to go, and half my chips were in the pot. Sure enough all folded around to the initial re-raise who, as I had hoped, called. I now figured he had to have either a strong Ace, AKs or AQs, or queens or lower - feeling sure he would have pushed if he had kings.

The flop came K 8 6, two spades. My opponent made a weak looking bet of $20. I could not see how I could be behind here. Sure, if he had kings, but from mid position, who would limp with kings? AK of spades seemed most likely, or at least Ace and another spade, giving him the nut draw. His bet might stop me betting, and if I just call gives him great odds for the draw.

I can only see one possible move here - all in.

He calls. And shows K diamonds, 8 clubs. My aces don't improve.

Uh huh. You see, I thought I might be playing against someone with a reasoning brain. My fault entirely not spotting him as the total freaking moron he was. Who the frack pumps $50 into the pot preflop with K 8 off? Oh well, re-buy.

As bad beats go, I am happy to say that was it for the evening. I played a reasonably tight style, joining the limpers in the family pots and taking advantage of the infrequent fortuitous flops. One of which allowed me to double up with a straight on a raggy board against someones pocket queens. So I was back to even.

The next win saw me suck up two all in stacks (only about $40 in each) with two pair against an ace high and a queen high. Despite the early loss, I was quite liking this table.

There were two players - regulars - sitting next to each other on my left. They were playing a similar tight game to me I thought. We didn't tangle, and I was neither looking to nor needed to. The rest of the table was building up our respective chip stacks quite nicely.

My final big win came when I was UTG with pocket tens. My read of the table was that I was ahead at this point, so I raised the blinds $17 making it $20 to go. Folds all around and just one caller. No problem.

The flop is something like 4 2 J rainbow. I got no read from the other guy on the flop, but I don't think he has hit. I make a continuation bet of $25. He calls.

The turn comes an eight. I check and my opponent announces all in.

Hmmm, I have to think about that for a minute. I will need another $110 to call. I easily have him covered, but it will wipe out most of my profit for the evening if I lose. All I can beat is a bluff, and even hitting trips with my two outs, I may still be behind his possible trip jacks. What I need it a read on him, otherwise I don't see any alternative to folding.

He looked very intimidating sitting there, staring me down, daring me to call.

Now, I do believe I have seen this before. Since he is not one of the players I consider 'good' at the table, there is no chance in my mind that it is a deliberate reverse tell.

"I call" I say.

"You got me" He says, and turns over A K.

The river is a seven. I think the dealer also had a pretty good read on the guy, because he hadn't even bothered to pull in my chips after the call, or match up the stacks. He had a pretty good idea which way the chips were going too.

I sat through a few more hands, but as the evening wore on, the game became progressively wilder. Stacks were being swapped with just crazy hands like 8 4 or J 2. A great place to be if just buying in, but I felt I had hit all the good hands I was going to for the night, and did not want to see my, now very nice, stack diminishing to some improbable, and inevitable, bad beat suck out. So it was 'colour me up please dealer', and I scooped up the attractive black and blue ($25) chips the dealer gave me.

Oh, and I just have to say one more thing about the Adelaide Casino. Have you ever tried to get a table service drink at Sky City or Crown? Or rather, have you ever got a table service drink at those places? I have, once, and I was lucky. And don't ever try commenting on the lack of service unless you want petulant disrespect from all the floor staff for the rest of their shift.

At Sky city, there was a 'matrede' in the poker area with an order touchpad. If you wanted a drink, or even a meal, you just grabbed his attention, he took your order and minutes later (not hours or never), a girl arrives from the bar or kitchen with your order. Best. Casino. Ever.

I played at two great new venues in Sydney last week.

The first was the Monday night comp at the Albert Tavern in North Sydney. They run $50 and $20 buy in tournaments, although both times I have been there, there have only been one or two sign up for the $20 game, and I have played in the $50 game. It is a pretty good venue, roomy, nice Tapas from the bar, and comfortable seating.

The second is at the Kirribilli Club which now has an APL $22 tourney on Tuesday nights. It is a fantastic venue, reminding me of some of the nicer hotels in Las Vegas - not quite, but pretty close. The venue is very up market after its recent refurbishment, the staff are very friendly, it is spacious, comfortable, clean, has great food, great bars and a totally fantastic view of the Harbour Bridge and the city.

APL hadn't advertised the game, as it was the first week they had run it at that venue. So there were only 11 or 12 starters. I did make it to the final table But finished out of the cash in sixth place. What a fantastic venue though. It has to be the best APL venue in Australia.

Ok, back to the Albert Tavern game. $50 buy in gets you 2,500 chips for blinds starting at 25/50. The blinds go up every 20 minutes and you can rebuy once for $25 before the break at the end of level 4. If you haven't rebought, then you can also take an addon of 2,500 chips at the start of level 5 for $25. The people who play are mostly regulars, with one or two new or casual players like me each week. The group, and the organizers, are pretty friendly and there is a good buzz about the game.

I played there once a couple of months ago with only six starters, crashed out early and didn't take the rebuy. This time with 11 starters I was doing pretty well by the break, but not that well I thought I could ignore the addon.

Getting to Sydney on Saturday, I had had plenty of catch-up sleep on Sunday, and, even though it was a long day on Monday, still felt fairly fresh when the game started at 7:30.

I had definitely brought my A game to the table. I was concentrating really well and picket up a heap of tells from various players at the table. I was able to take down a big pot against a tight aggressive player who bet every street and made what looked like a value bet on the river. He was representing at least trips, with a straight and a flush possible. I had 8 4 in the BB. There were three callers and I decided to defend the BB with a good raise before the flop (I would have folded to a pre-flop raise, but as Amarillo Slim would say 'if their a limp'n, I'm a raise'n - thought what being a dried grape has to do with it I have no idea). All folded except the SB. Well, the good thing was I had position.

I hit a 4 on the flop for bottom pair, and the board was 9 4 J. Plausible hands for the SB were a small or mid pair, a '20' hand or a low blackjack hand I thought. It seemed unlikely that he would a have just called pre flop with any pair down to eights, or something like AK or AQ. A J or A 10, or even A 9, A 8 would fit though.

He bets about a third of the pot. A reasonable feeler bet if he had paired the jack or the nine I feel. I had watched him as the flop came down, and was examining him as he bet. He was a solid player, and I had only seen him show down with strong hands. However. I saw his lips purse as he was betting. I was sure he was weak and bluffing. I had been aggressive in defending my blinds, but had folded in the past when I thought I was beat. Even if he hadn't connected to the flop, in his mind he must have considered that there was a good chance I hadn't either.

I called his bet. He didn't seem very happy about that, so I figured I was on the right track.

The turn was a 10, and there are now two spades on the board. He makes a half pot size bet. Just as I am sure he had nothing on the flop, I am now equally sure the 10 didn't help him. I call. Maybe I should have raised there, but I figured he had maybe two over cards to me, or I am totally beat and drawing dead. But my read on him tells me the former is more likely the case. In any event, if I raise him and he pushes, I will have to fold. Calling is a risk of him making his hand, but keeps the pot manageable. I don't lose any more and still have ways to improve.

The river is a six of hearts. He looks back at his hand but doesn't seem to like that card at all. I don't think he knows I am observing him, so I don't think it is a deliberate false tell. He makes a small, possible value bet, of a few hundred into a pot of about 1,500.

Keeping my eyes down, I softly announce 'all in', but don't make any move to push my chips (why would I, I have the nut hand, the chips are all going to come back to me anyway, right?).

The guy shakes his head and looks disgusted. With little hesitation he mucks his cards face up showing K 9. 'Good bet' he says 'what did you have, the 7 8 or the flush?'. So he actually had me beat all the way.

'Something like that' I say and muck my cards face down as I rake in the sizable pot.

Thinking about it later, I wondered if my all-in push was a stupid risk to take. Calling his river bet would have cost little, only about 20% of my stack was in the pot. Even though I had him well covered, I was risking over 60% with the push if I was wrong. BUT, I was sure I was right, and I DID NOT want to show my weak bottom pair by just calling. I didn't read him exactly right, since he had paired the 9, and did have me beat. But I did read he was week correctly, and the raise on the river was the only way I could have won the hand. Looking back on the hand, even if I had seen his hole cards, I think putting him to a decision for all his chips when he had only third best pair was the right move to make.

As it was, I was able to dominate the table for most of the night and went on to win the tournament. Pocketing a very handy $280 for the win.

I had an invitation to a private game last night. A guy in the city had converted his office board room into a poker room and is running a weekly $30 buy in tournament. He calls it a deepstack, but blinds start at 100/200, so it is really no different to an APL or WAPL starting stack of 2500 with 25/50 blinds. Anyway, it was a chance to play with a different group of people and get some more tournament practice.

As well as the $30 buy in, there was also unlimited $20 rebuys up to the end of level 8. The field was 21 starters making up 3 tables, most people were either from WAPL or knew the organizer. Not many of them had played poker, or played live games at least. A few said they had played on line, but I suspect is was only in free games of very low stakes; the following examples show just how low the skill level was:

- the fellow to my right making a big pre-flop raise with K 5 UTG, his justification was that he 'hadn't seen a picture card for three or four hands and thought he had better make the most of it when he got one'.

- the fellow to my right calling my bets to the river on a low board. I had pocket tens, he had Q 7. A queen hit on the river, so good on him. 'I thought you were bluffing' he said, even though I had only shown quality hands all night, and was folding eight out of ten hands. Good read mate, well done.

- A guy with a gutshot straight draw calling my pot size bets to the river. I had flopped the nut straight, but he made a bigger straight on the river with his four outs.

- and then there was the classic I saw several players at my table do. Call all bets to the river with nothing at all, because, so I understood, they 'knew the other guy had something but were trying to bluff'. So, they were bluffing him by calling his bets. Wow. Please, please come to my cash games.

Despite those bad beats, it was impossible not to do well against such a weak field. Except for one thing. Everyone who busted out bought straight back in, so the crazy draws delivering beats against the odds just kept on coming. At one point I was chip leader on my table, but three beats against all in re-buys when I was a 2:1 favourite or better sucked me down to a short stack of 5,000 with the blinds at 300/600 and a 100 ante.

I have formed a theory about rebuys in tournaments though. It is a mistake I think to not rebuy as soon as possible if your stack is reduced below the rebuy size. For example, early on I sat on a stack of 6500 for almost two blind levels waiting for a good hand to double up with. If, once I had dropped below 10,000 I went all in on the next hand, whatever it was, only three things could happen:

- I get one or more caller and lose, then rebuy back to 10,000
- I get one or more callers and deliver a bad beat to someone and double up
- Everyone folds and I get the blinds and antes

On the other hand, sitting around with a smaller stack, and waiting, the blinds and antes eat away at it, and even if I do double up, I only get back to just over 10,000 - all the wile the blinds have been going up and the rebuy is worth less. If that thinking is right, then Phil Hellmuths comment of 'always be prepared to send as much on rebuys as you can' makes sense.

I did make a couple of mistakes. In the BB I raised about six times the pot to two limpers with JJ. Both limpers called and the flop came K Q 4. I check and then folded my jacks face up to a bet. The other guy called the bet and they went all in on the turn, the first bettor showed K 2, the other guy lost with A 5 for ace high only. My mistake was to raise pre flop with only jacks. Almost certainly anyone with an Ace or any picture cars was going to call. I should have taken the free card to the flop.

Another mistake I made was to not play enough hands in such a weak field. Plenty of pots were family pots where I could have seen the flop cheaply. Two factors that make this counter-intuitive move worthwhile are the unlimited buy ins and the loose, loose gambling that was going on and providing huge implied odds. Even with hands as weak as 2 3 off or 2 7 off, limping in for a couple of hundred is likely to return twenty to one or better - good enough odds to see a flop with anything at all in other words.

Well, I think there is another game next Friday, so I would be happy to be invited back.

I think that is a good name for the Crown Casino. Sat down at the $1/2 electronic poker table tonight, after a long day of scrambling to complete work and make flights to do more work in Melbourne. After work, dinner and a shower I was at the table at about 11pm.

Crown has such a great setup for poker, so much better run than Star City. They weren't spreading a $1/2 live dealer game, $2/3 was the lowest. But they has 50c/$1 and $1/2 electronic tables with plenty of punters. One the $1/2 tables you can buy in for $50 to $100, and I bought in for $75.

Very first hand I am BB and get A A. Nice one.

I was still trying to figure out the table mechanics, which are slightly different to the Star City ones. The action came around to me and I hadn't got it quite figured out, it looked like someone had raised and then been re-raised by a late position bet of $26. I hadn't spotted where the pot size was on the screen, but I didn't want to dick around, and I could see where the all-in button was. So all in I was.

Fold, fold, call, fold, call. I am not at all unhappy about that. One guy has K Q and the other had J Q. And they both called a $75 all in into a $35 odd pot? Go figure. They both had me covered, though I don't see how playing hands like that, but never mind.

My aces held up and I started the night with a very, very nice triple up.

The two guys that lost went out, we were down to four. Another guy played a few hands and left. I didn't want to play just three up, since the two guys left seemed to know each other pretty well. I politely played a round and then picked up.

There were four 50c/$1 tables, each with seats free. Those tables let you buy in from $20 to $50. I picked on with mostly business men type guys who where drinking and laughing and having a good time. I was up about $70 at one point, but got a few bad beats and was down to $12 on my $35 buy in.

A guy at the table wiped me out after an amazing run of hands. He had in consecutive hands the nut straight, another straight, the nut flush, trips, the second nut flush which became the nut flush when the ace came on the river, a full house and then yet another nut straight.

The hand he got me on was the last nut straight to my pocket tens that hit trips on the flop. I pushed on the flop, he called (he had about $300 in his stack), and made the straight on the turn. Since he had also paired the 10, I was dead to the river. Oh well.

I fritted away another $35 buy in, trying to convince myself I should stay at such a loose 'player friendly' table. But the fact was I was just too tired after a long day, and my judgment was shot.

After being up to $60 on the second buy in, I lost a few $10-$15 pots chasing draws with the odds. Then with $22 left I checked my option in the BB with Q 10. The flop came J K 7. There were a couple of $5 bets, then the table crazy guy with $300+ pushed all in. One guy with $30 called. I wasn't getting exactly the right odds, but it was a big pot. I let the time run almost down trying to decide, but in the end called. I thought it was a reasonable gamble. It was quite possible one of the five dollar bettors would also call, giving me great odds on my draw, but even if they didn't, the price was pretty close to right anyway.

Well, my hand didn't improve and the all in bettor showed A K to take down the pot.

Then, for some bizarre reason he started to pay out on me. 'That was a pretty stupid call' he started off 'you only had a 7% chance of winning', and a few other general comments about my, apparently, poor play. The idiot had clearly mistaken my open ended straight draw for a gutshot. What a tool.

I was pretty tempted to buy in again and 'teach him a lesson'. But fortunately common sense prevailed. I really was too tired to play well, as my loss of two buy ins on such a soft table testified. I just left without bothering to respond.

I had bought a $100 card, and cashed it out for $180. Not a bad night all up.

Went to the Friday night APL at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Mexican restaurant. Only because it was the closest venue to me that night.

What a mistake.

APL in Perth for some reason seems to be attracting the worst players. And I mean that not in the way they play (which is pretty bad), but in the way they carry on at the table.

Now, there are some regulars who go that I have seen around over the last year or so who seem like very reasonable people to me. Just nice, average people who, like me, are looking for a bit of competitive fun playing a game we like.

But then there are a bunch that are just a-holes. Sometimes drunk, always loud and must mistake being rude and obnoxious for 'aggressiveness' in the game. They are like failed Tony G's, but with no clue. There are about half a dozen at each game and the mix is about 75% young guys, 25% old boozers and 100% miserable, failed excuses for human beings.

I don't recall APL venues in Perth being like that a year ago. There was always the occasional loud mouth, but at a pub, what do you expect. It seems to have gotten much worse in the last few months though.

Anyway, there were about a dozen their last night. Yelling, or rather screaming, out to each other between tables, smashing their chips into the table when they made a bet, mis-dealing, spilling drinks. What a disgrace.

That's it for me at that venue. I wont be back.

... and three people did.

It was the very first hand of the APL game at the local tavern and I am SB. Blinds are 25/50 and UTG min-raises to 100. the next three players call and then it folds around to me. I look down to find pocket 4's and call. The BB also calls.

The flop is 10 4 5 with two clubs.

Woo-hoo, just what I was hoping for. I am not too keen on the possible flush draw, but I don't really put anyone on a straight draw based on the pre-flop betting. I am hoping someone has something like A 10, and maybe the pre-flop raiser has a medium pair.

There is 600 in the pot and six runners. If I took down the pot now, that would be just fine, and if I can get more money in, then that is fine too. A bet of 300 should thin the field and also give a clue about hands that may have hit on the flop.

BB folds. UTG raises to 600 - ah ha, he has a big pair and was slow playing, so much the better.

The guy in fourth position calls. Hmm, what could he have?

The guy in fifth position raises again, making it 1,200. Top pair, top kicker maybe? Another overpair? This is getting a little weird, it's only the first hand.

Next guy folds.

Another 900 is just under half of my remaining stack. Could someone have trip 10's or 5's? It would be so sick if I folded this hand to a combination of bluffs and pairs. I have probably played with some of these guys in the past, but don't remember. They all fall into the category of bad, loose, overly aggressive players typical of that venue.

I can't let the trips go. If I call I am pot committed anyway with only one out left in the deck. So... all in.

UTG calls and pushes.

Forth position calls and pushes.

Fifth position calls and pushes.

Four of us are all in on the first hand.

Over the cards go:

Me: 4 4 with trip fours

UTG: K K - good

4th: A 10 - better

5th: 5 5 - shit

Well, a very early night for me. I wonder what's on TV.

The turn is a king. Oh well, too bad for the pocket fives guy, but I don't really care,

The river is something, what? A four you say? Wow. I mean WOW!!

No one can quite believe it, we just stare at the cards and the huge, huge pot. Someone tries to make a case that there are two full houses and they beat quads, but I scoop in the chips despite their feeble protest.

I can't say if I had just called the 900 on the flop if I would have been able to lay down the hand when the king hit on the turn. If I had checked the turn, would the others slow play to trap on the river? Or would someone have pushed? I was only ever second best hand on the flop, and third best hand before and after. But I doubt I could have laid it down. We will never know.

Incidentally, the guy with A 10 had clubs, and made the nut flush on the turn. I wonder how often the nut flush is forth best hand?

I was talking with a mate today about the last had at WAPL last night. He thought I was crazy to have pushed with just a 6 3 off-suit, and should have folded to the raise.

I still think it was my best move, here is my reasoning:

1. I had only 19,000 chips and only 9,000 left after the BB.

2. If I folded to the 10,000 raise, I would have to double up twice just to be back to even chips. On random hands, that gave me a 25% chance just to get back to even

3. If I won the all-in I would double up and be slightly ahead in chips

4. I figured at worst I would have two live cards and only be a 2:1 dog

5. My choice seemed to be; take the 2:1 odds to be ahead, or take 3:1 odds to be back to even

6. I was pot committed, but my opponent wasn't. There was a small (albeit minute) chance he would fold.

As it turned out, against his K 4, I was only about a 2:3 dog on the hand.

Even if we had been playing for a million dollar prize and not the $1 plastic trophy, I think the odds made it the right move to make,

Back at the Wednesday comp at the Market Tavern, but in the free league this time (I figure I need the practice, and the bankroll is looking decidedly unhealthy). Had a great night, picked up strong cards approximately when I needed them, but also played good, solid poker. I think I was playing the best I have for the last two months. I guess it does take practice to get back in form.

I trapped well with a set and a straight - my two best hands for the night, but also played hands conservatively were I could have been trapped. So when I did lose chips, it was the minimum. I lost one big hand to an all-in that hit their boat on the river to my straight on the turn, but I had accumulated enough chips by that stage to still have a mid size stack left.

Went to the final table with 12,000, third in chips to a 20,000 and 18,000 stack. With the blinds at 1,000/2,000 and then 2,000/4,000 I pushed hard with hands like A J and 9 10 suited to limped pots. It wasn't long before I had taken command of the table and was chip leader with 25,000.

Ended up head-to-head with 34,000 against a 19,000 stack. He min raised my BB to 8,000 and with A 6 suited, I re-raised all-in. He thought about it for a while and then called, showing J 8 (??? go figure). The flop came A 8 6, the turn was a blank, and the river was an eight and the chip lead swapped.

Well, with some aggressive play I got back to almost even with the blinds at 3,000/6,000. However at 5,000/10.000 I got four hands of unplayable cards and my chip stack was down to just 19,000. In the BB with 6 3 I had no choice but to call his min raise. I figured I would have two live cards at least, however it was better than that with my opponent showing K 4.

There was a king on the flop, and another on the turn and that was it for me. A creditable second.

The deepstack tourney went well on Saturday night. We ended up with 10 starters. With 10,000 chips the opening blinds were only 5/10, further increasing the relative depths of the stacks. With very slow blind progression, I figured the game to go for about six hours - and so it did, ending at 9pm from a 2:30pm start.



At one point I was down to just over 2,000 with the blinds at 150/300 - a situation that was created when I called and all-in bet from an A Q, against my pocket queens, and lost when they made a straight on the river. I then doubled up with K K against a 10 J, and almost doubled again, against another short stack's all-in when my paired K Q made trips Kings on the river against their paired Ace with A Q.

Some more prudent aggression and considered calls and value bets built my stack back up to just under 17,000 - about 3rd place to the remaining 7 players. With the blinds now at 400/800, I figured I was in a good spot to cash, as long if I kept on form.

But alas, disaster. With pocket 7's I in early position I raised 2,400 pre flop. Ken 'calling station' (and the chip leader) on my left called and everyone else folded. The flop came 3c, Ad, 6c. Now Ken will generally call any pre-flop raise if he has an ace, and will call any bet to the river if he connects with the flop in any way. I knew that. I knew that with and ace on the flop, if I bet and he had hit he would call any size bet.

So for some bizarre reason, after almost six hours of careful concentration and thoughtful play, I had a brain spasm and pushed all in. Ken insta-called, and showed As 2h. My pockets didn't improve and that was it for me. Ken went on to cash in 3rd place.

I guess in my defense, Ken would also just a likely call any bet to the river if he had a hand like K 3 or j 6. Also, I had showed no bluffs for the entire game, and the hands that people had seen of mine called to the river had always been the best hand on the flop. One hand I had shown to folds on the turn had been pocket kings. My table image had to be super-tight. A hand for me like A K or Ac Qc was very plausible to credit me with I would have thought. Although apparently not.

But it was a really stupid move by me. I'll be kicking myself for some time over that one.

Just finished reading Lee Nelson's new book Kill Everyone. It is a great read, some very interesting stuff, and what seems to me, vital concepts about tournament play. I think the comment made about why to read it - because your opponents are - is very valid.

While I am sure all the concepts are sound, it always seems to me that the insistence to play optimum strategy to determine when you must fold, must call or must go all in still ignores the fact that you only have one life.

Sure, optimum strategy will give you a distinct advantage over many hands. But when your tournament life can end at any time with one unlucky break, what advantage does 5% or even 20% on a single hand really give you?

Still, to use against other good, thinking, and well read players, it is definitely going to increase the leverage.

Played the WAPL Pro game $40 buy in at the Market Tavern last night. I haven't played a hand of poker for almost a month, and it really showed.

With pocket sixes and a good, tricky player to my right I called his BB. Everyone folded, SB called, BB raised about 3 x BB. I called, SB folded. Flop came all low rainbow with a six. I made a pot size bet and he folded. Stupid, with that flop I was way ahead and should have checked to trap for more chips.

A few hands later I called his pre-flop raise with A J suited. The flop came Ac 9h Jc. He checked, I figured I would trap and so I checked too. Turn was a 6c. He checked, I checked. River was a blank, he checked, I bet $200, he raised to $600. I called, he showed the flush. Stupid, stupid stupid. I should have at least made a bet that shut out the flush draw on the flop.

In the mean time, he had also picked up chips from two other all ins and so was a massive chip leader. He set about shutting down possible steals and speculative play, and continued to accumulate chips.

With the blinds increasing I was down to about 12x BB, and just waited for a hand I could push with. The tables recombined and the best hand I had with a full table was K4. I continued to wait, but was almost blinded away. In the BB for 400 with only 600 chips left I was all in with K2. Got called with A 10 and that was it for me.

My sister in law and her husband came over the other night. They are going on a cruise next week, and thought they would play some poker in the ships casino. So asked if I wouldn't mid giving them a few pointers (well known an respected pro that I am - not), since I was the only person they knew that played poker,

Anywho, happy to do that. I jotted down about 20 points I thought we could cover, focusing on starting hands, position, and folding when likely to be beat. My plan was to deal a few hands face up and explain what to do with them and how to rank them and why, then touch on calculating outs and basic pot odds.

So I started dealing a few hands and discussing their relative merits, when my wife interrupts to ask if I can explain the hand rankings.

'I'm doing that' I say

'No' she says 'you know, like what a pair is high than, and three of a kind and so on.'

Uh oh. I realize what those blank looks mean now - not their game faces after all.

Thirty minutes later, I think they have a bit of a grasp that an ace is the best high card, but not as good as a pair. But that glazed over look comes back as I try to move on to show the top 10 starting hands.

I decide to change tactics and just play some hands as if it were a real game.

I get everyone to keep all their bets in front of them, and their mucked cards, so we can analyze the hand at the end.

I had forgotten just how strong the propensity is for novice players to call everything with nothing. Liz (my sister in law) was calling any bet or raise with hands line Q 4, or 7 9, whether any card hit or not. Going over the hand, I asked her why, which turned out to be because a six had come and she thought (even on the river) that two more cards might hit to make her a straight.

Henry (her husband), fared a little better, unless his hand had an ace or any picture card. And that was enough to call any amount to the river in case he made a pair.

Look, they are completely novice players, and just wanted to learn a bit to play for fun on the boat. No problem, there is no criticism due them for that.

The point is to remember that, in the mind of a beginner, any two cards are good. They can not be bluffed, and they could be holding anything. Nor are they in any way readable after the flop, because they could have the nut hand, and not even know it. So risking all your chips with them on the non-nuts is not a wise move.

However, they are just has happy to throw in one chip as twenty. So lots of small pots when likely to have the best of it should ensure a steady in-bound flow of chips.

Well worth remembering at many low stakes games.

At APL at the local tavern tonight, usual mix of donkeys and semi to fully obnoxious players. I really think that is what puts me on tilt more than anything else. I just do not like to see some surly, rude and barely literate tosser taking down pots, and after a while find my self playing just about anything against them so either they leave or I do.

A habit I am going to have to work hard to curb for cash games.

Anyhow, I picked up a nice 400 chip pot early on with pocket nines. Then a bunch of draws with excellent pot odds failed to come off, so I went into level 3 (75/150 blinds) with just under 2,000. Not so bad.

I have Q 6 in the SB and there are four limpers into the pot, so I call too. The Dufus head BB checks.

The flop is K 10 6 all spades. I watched the table as the flop came out, and saw every limper take a peek at their cards, a sure sign they have one spade (or a black card at least). So no one has the flush I am sure, and no one looked all that thrilled by the flop, so an excellent opportunity to bluff I reckon.

I lead out with a half pot size bet. Dufus calls, the rest all fold. Ha.

The turn is a blank. 5 diamonds I think.

I check, Dufus bets 500. Perfect. I check raise him all in for another 1100 and he has me covered by about 1000, so he can get away from the hand with only a 20% loss from his stack.

I am 100% sure his 500 was a bluff. He has either very little or nothing, and is facing most likely one or two over cards, and a check raise from a possible flush, with most likely a draw to the flush or a low pair. If he has a small to medium pair, what can he beat? Only a bluff. If he has a draw to the flush, even the nut draw, he is not getting the odds he needs to call. He has to fold.

He calls.

I show my paired six and the queen of clubs. He shows a queen of diamonds and a ten. The river is a blank and his ten is good.

Perhaps, maybe, he had a read on me? Could be, I don't think I did anything different to give anything away. But I am very, very sure in order to get see a tell you have to be observing your opponent. That is very hard to do when you are only looking at the table and the cards. Which I know he was, since I was observing him the whole time.

So. A great read on his weak hand. Poor judgement about the player though, to not consider that he would play a hand so weak. My own fault too, since I had already picked him as a total Dufus.