Hella Hold'em

Waiting at Resorts East Chicago for my poker seat at 5/10 LHE. The ride here was incredibly smooth for a Friday rush hour, thanks to my shiny new iPass. I'm 7th on the list, and they've got 2 tables going. It doesn't sound like another table is opening for an hour or so, and likely I'll be waiting that whole hour. The list already has 20 names after me, so I think my timing was as good as it could have been, short of arriving at noon.

It's been a long time since I've been to a poker room. I'm trying to remember the last time. I definitely haven't been here since July, when I put my old house on the market for sale. That's been 7 months right there. I hope I remember how to do this!

Strategies?

1. Don't pay off people who likely hold the goods.
2. Raise my OESD's and flush draws.
3. Don't chase unless I've got the pot odds to do so.
4. Don't bother playing fancy against the scoobies. They're too ignorant to notice and they don't know how or when to lay down a hand.
5. Position position position.
6. Go after those orphan pots! I'm a good mommy to orphan chips, for sure.
7. Be nice. Stop glaring at people. You attract more scoobies with honey.
8. Smell like a girl. Yup, got that one covered. Mmmmm moonlight path.
9. Hide the Full Tilt Poker jacket. This is my first time here. Really.

The very nice security guard suggested I go sit down at one of the open tables instead of standing in the waiting area. I thanked him and took him up on the offer.now I can enjoy smoke free air while reading the CNN headlines.

I'm glad I remembered my iPod. It seems like it might be an iPod kind of night.

Is there nothing more important going on in this country than pop stars going wacko? And damn, does she look ugly as a bald chick. This might make me a horrible person, but there's something warm and fuzzy about one of the formerly Beautiful People turning ugly. Boohoo. Too much money, too much fame, too many opportunities to make your life and those of your children great. It must be rough.

A chatty and not handsome at all guy just sat down next to me. Oh lord. Here we go. Please call my name soon!

In my excitement to get back to playing poker at Empress, I forgot how whacked their poker room schedule is. They close at 6pm on Fridays (so much for today), and are closed on weekends.

Guess I'll have to wait until next week to play. :-/

Unless... I stop and buy that iPass I've been meaning to get, which would enable a much smoother ride to the Indiana casinos... and take me a road trip to Resorts tonight...

... can't.... resist.... temptation... must... play.... poker!

I played a little poker on Full Tilt last night. Warming up for my return to Empress, you see. Yes, my tax refund arrived today, as April said it would. I haven't decided if the magic day is today or tomorrow... or both. Thinking about it as we speak.

One of the problems I have with my game online is that I will pay off hands on the river when it's likely I'm beat. I do it because there are SO many scoobys online that I just have to make sure I'm beat. I just have to see it. And every time I pay off a turn and/or river bet when I'm certain I'm beat, I chastise myself for being such an idiot.

For what feels like the first time, I folded a hand last night and resisted the curiosity to see that I was beat. I paid off one street too many, but saved the bet on the end.

The game: limit holdem, $2/4. I had KK in middle position and raised preflop when action folded to me. The big blind called. The flop came Js 2s Ad. The BB checked. I bet out. My opponent hesitated, then called. The turn came Js 2s Ad [2h]. The BB checked again. I bet out. The BB raised. I should have folded here, but I called with a sigh. The river came Js 2s Ad 2h [Tc], and the BB bet out this time.

Hello, typical "I outflopped you and I'm sucking as much money out of you as I can!"

I folded on the river, saving $4.

This pattern is SO typical! The action on the turn clearly indicating the true strength of the hand, and the river bet by my opponent making it certain that my KK got outflopped. Or maybe out turned. I couldn't beat an Ace and I couldn't beat a deuce, and considering my opponent was in the blind, he could have had anything. True, he could have been drawing to a flush and missed, but my notes on this guy didn't give him that much credit.

I think another reason why I tend to pay off on the river on these hands is that in limit poker, the odds of being bluffed almost justify the call on the end, with as much money as there is in the pot by the river.

The true lesson here is, I should have folded to the raise on the turn.

I also managed to donk of $26 of my profits from the cash table in the $15k guarantee NL tourney. It was early in the tourney and I got myself involved in a pot with 55. I called a 3xBB raise preflop. The flop came T-9-2, and I bet out on the flop, trying to steal control of the hand and hoping I was against an AK or something that missed that ugly flop. My opponent raised me all in. I thought a bit, because this table was FULL of all-in moves in this first round of play. I was shocked at some of the scooby moves I was seeing... people pushing all in with 2nd pair, etc. I thought to myself, "This table is full of donkeys... I call." He had QQ.

I know better than to CALL all in. It's push or fold. If I'm not the one pushing, just call me the moron here for calling off all my chips on a hand where I could only beat a bluff.

I still left the tables with a small profit, which felt good.

Now, to take down Empress...

Did my taxes last weekend. I'm anxiously awaiting my refund (10-12 days, TurboTax.com promises!)

First on my list of things to do with my refund: check out the recently re-opened Empress poker room. Huzzah!

Soon, my pretties. Soon.

Well, the new Blogger didn't eat my template, but it sure effed up my DNS when I tried to use it's "custom domain" option.

Here's how I had this site set up before: I used Blogger hosting at a blogspot.com address. Then, I registered a domain, hellaholdem.com, and via my domain host's control panel, set up that domain to forward to the blogspot address. It worked, so I could advertise my site as hellaholdem.com, but the down side was that the address would always revert to the blogspot.com domain as soon as a visitor got here.

Well, the NEW Blogger has a "custom domain" option, where basically the redirect goes the other way. Anyone trying to get to the blog at the blogspot address would be forwarded to the hellaholdem.com domain. Blogger still hosts the blog, but allows for it to be displayed under the domain address via CNAME records in your domain's DNS settings. Sweet, right?

Yeah, if it worked....

It turns out that the redirect would only work for people going to http://hellaholdem.com. But you see - most people use http://www.hellaholdem.com. But that later URL (with the www) is broken in Google/Blogger's forwarding system.

There were some horrific looping domain alias solutions people had posted online, but it's really bad practice to set up DNS records that way.

So after 2 days of being offline due to Google/Blogger's broken DNS forwarding, I gave up and reinstalled "the old way."

Did anybody get the custom domain option to work for both root domain requests AND www requests?

The new Blogger didn't kill my blog! w00t!

Poker stories coming soon. I cannot wait to get back to Empress and live poker!!!!

In the meantime, there's a storm brewing in Miami....

Like the subject says.

That is all.

w00t!

Oh, that and Blogger is forcing me to switch to the "new" Blogger with my next post, and I expect it to tear my template to hell. So... hella here might get ugly till I have a chance to build a new template. Sorry! Blame the Blogger gremlins.

Yes, Virginia, there is poker on this blog!

I played a little of the poker stuff last night, as my friend Scott hosted a mini Diamond game. As I've said before, cash has been a little tight 'round these parts, so my mortgage was rooting loudly for me.

I was feeling good last night. Normally, when it comes to no-limit holdem, I'm a tournament kind of girl, but I haven't played a whole lot of poker lately. Instead, I've watched a whole lot of High Stakes Poker on TV. That had me in the mood to play a cash game last night. The tournament alternative was likely going to be a rebuy game, and of all tournaments, I like those the least. So I threw my hat in the ring along with my vote for a cash game.

A cash game it was. $1/2 blinds. The five of us (Scott, Ed, Jim, Randy and myself) bought in for $100 in Monopoly money each. We played for a while - nothing really notable, no big hands, but after a bit I looked at my stack, and I'd nearly doubled up. Funny, I don't remember doing it. Here's what I do remember:

OK, I just spent like 10 minutes trying to write out the hand I was in with Randy, and I just can't remember all of the details. I had JJ and flopped a set on a K high flop. I think I bet out the flop and he called, then I checked-raised the turn. I was a tiny bit afraid he had KK as we went into the turn, but thought by his reaction to my check raise that my set was good. I underbet the river such that he had 8:1 odds to call me, and... he did. He had QQ. That was probably my biggest pot of the night, though I vaguely remember taking a decent sized pot off of Jim as well with AK and top pair, Aces.

There were a LOT of offsuit aces that I folded preflop that would have hit 2 pair on the flop. Had I loosened up a bit more, I probably could have snagged a few more pots. That happened probably 4 or 5 times. Ahh, the hands that could have been.

I slightly more than doubled up my Monopoly moolah, and January will end in the black.

In other news, rumor has it that the Empress poker room may be open as early as this week. C'mon, W2, where are you???!!

BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
Make every play, clear the way to victory!

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
Put up a fight with a might so fearlessly!

We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation
With your T-formation

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
And let them know why you're wearing the crown!

You're the pride and joy of Illinois,
Chicago Bears, Bear Down!!

I'm suffering from a bit of a cold here in Chicagoland. 60 degree weather turned teens practically overnight wreaks havoc on the human body. The Sickness has reduced me to the couch for most of today, and by 6pm I was starting to feel like I might have stored up enough energy to sit upright. So I'm doing something pretty unusual for me:

I'm watching the Golden Globe awards on TV and playing some $10 SnG's on Full Tilt.

Well, I've only played one, and some early technical difficulties nearly led me to an early retirement. My laptop has a very sensitive touchpad. I was feeling too lazy to climb across the couch to grab my USB mouse out of my backpack, so I was using the very sensitive touchpad. As a result, I called a 395 bet (about 1/3 of my stack at the time) on a flop of overcards with 94o from the big blind. D'oh! (I folded on the turn).

I was down to the felt when Baz showed up, but because I was watching the Golden Globes, I didn't notice my trusty railbird until I had chipped up a bit. With Baz's luck, I doubled up a couple times and managed to take 3rd place.

In my final hand, I had A5c versus A5s. Of course, I lost to a flush. (This story couldn't end any other way!) 3rd place was nice, though. I'll take the profit!

I'm not sure if I'll play anymore, as my head is starting to hurt a bit, but thanks to Baz for the mojo!

/Boooooo. Cars just beat Happy Feet. Lame.

Nothing doing in last night's Bad Beat on Cancer tourney. I went out 27th, AJ vs A3 or A4... I can't remember which... but he/she hit the gutshot on the river for the wheel, and I had too much invested in the pot by that time not to confirm my gut feeling that I'd been sucked out on. Ce la vie.

I've finally received my invitation to switch to the new Blogger. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it right now. I've heard of people with custom templates having problems with the new version. I don't want to have problems.

Still no news on whether Empress Joliet has reopened up their poker "room." (Does 3 tables qualify as a room?) I should just pick up the phone and call over there and ask, eh? I'm definitely a bit antsy to play again. The next Diamond home game is in a couple weeks, so it'll be nice to resume those again.

There is definitely more poker in my future. Stay tuned!

Come check out Phil Gordon's Bad Beat on Cancer tourney on Full Tilt Poker tonight in... 11 minutes or so :)

Five bones.

I'm registered to play in it, while watching Clerks 2. I heart Netflix, and I heart Kevin Smith.

Just watched the intro. Fat people are taking over the United States. Look out, skinny. Here we come. Give us your pizza. ROFL!

A little birdy told me that poker is likely coming back to Empress Casino Joliet (which is about 10 miles from my house). The rumor was that it was supposed to return after the 1st of the year.

I'm absolutely SILLY-excited to hear this!

As a side note, I realized after consulting Google Maps today that Hollywood Casino (Aurora) is the same distance from me as the Indiana boats, BUT I could get there with zero road construction encounters. (The worst part of driving to the Indiana boats is getting stuck in the construction traffic on I-80 - and I do mean *stuck*). Something to keep in mind... I've never been to Hollywood.

If anyone hears anything about Empress, please let me know!! :) Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

Become consistantly profitable in the $200-max NL cash game at the casino

Not long into 2006 (and shortly after the Dec 28, 2005 KK Quandary, which led to my biggest single-hand cash game loss ever, $800), I decided to go back to limit holdem, which much better suits my playstyle. While I didn't accomplish this particular goal, I think I accomplished its intent, which was to become profitable in my casino cash game. During the first half of 2006, I was in the black playing $5/10 limit holdem at the casino.

Online poker goals: Learn to play "my game" online. Become profitable at the $50-max buy-in level of online NL cash games. Continue to work on my no-limit cash game.

After switching back to limit holdem, I was again relegated to the micro limits (ie. lower than $3/6 holdem). I've never had enough faith in my online game at the low limits to invest significant amounts of money to my online bankroll. 2006 solidified my opinion that there are just TOO many newbs and donkeys at the lower levels to be able to outrun their luck. I'd much rather play at a casino. With that, I spent much more time this year at the casinos and much less time playing online. Throw in the US prohibition of online gaming, and I haven't seen too much online poker action this year.

Focus more on each hand's story and my opponents and less on my own cards.

I still have trouble with this. I play my cards. I rarely have the ability to play in spite of my cards. I'll keep this on my list for 2007.

My final (and a bit lofty) goal for 2006: build up to $5,000 in my poker bankroll.

I got about halfway there. In July 2006, I decided to sell my house and buy a bigger one in a more expensive neighborhood, closer to all of the shopping and entertainment amenities of the area. I had about $2,500 in my bankroll at the time, and spent it all on fixing up my old house and buying stuff for my new house. Considering that was around the half-way point of the year, I might have been on target to reach my goal. I'm going to consider this a possible success.

Where does this leave me, heading into 2007? Well, Empress Casino Joliet closed their poker room, and my schedule currently doesn't allow for many trips out to the Indiana boats. I'm still not comfortable investing money in an online bankroll, so really it seems that poker will take a bit of a back seat to life for a while this year. I don't have the money to reseed my bankroll right now, though I'd like to do that at some point this year. I need to work a bit more than I did last year to afford my new house, and I'm OK with that.

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year
  

Yup, that's it. Keep it simple. Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game. I still love the game of poker, and I'll carry that with me into 2007.

Here's hoping you reach all of your goals in 2007, whether personal, professional, or poker related. :)

Merry Christmas, and a hella Happy New Year to all! :)

This made me giggle this morning. I love posts like these, full of the random and often goofy-ass shit you hear only in Vegas...

Go visit Grubbette

I'm playing in the Full Tilt Bad Beat on Cancer tourney, but I fear I am not long for this world. With the arctic chilly cards I've had, I probably should have been out long ago. I'm 7 places out of the money right now (9 pay out of 98 entrants, I think it was). Booo.

Or not. April (CA) just popped into the chat, suddenly I had back to back AA and JJ - and doubled through both times! I'm 9/11 right now and 9 spots pay. Of course, this being a cheap charity event, pay is small, but considering how long it has been since I've actually played poker - I'll take whatever I can get!

At one point, there was this player I'd tagged as typical donkey style. (My literal first comment on him was, "Hee haw"). After a little while, I'd tagged his preferences, and threw a little salt into a wound when I bet him out of a pot in which I'd flopped a set. He then asked me if his 9 for 2nd pair was good. I replied, "9 was good." He said, "Damn you must be taking notes on me!" Ha! No... I just want you to call me down more! He got knocked out a few hands later, and I thought to myself, "Man, that sucks! Just when I figured him out and set out some bait!"

Isn't that how it should go, though? The donkeys shouldn't really be around long enough that you can play fancy against them, unless they're on a lucky streak. Sometimes I need to remind myself not to waste time getting fancy against the donkeys. Pound on donkeys with ABC and save the trickery for someone smart enough to be tricked.

One more person out and I'm in the money. Fingers are crossed. My cards are nasty ugly. But the new FTP interface is nice. I'm playing the Racetrack style with avatars. I had to re-download the client and re-install it, since for some reason it didn't want to do its usually in-place upgrade via the software update since I upgraded to Windows Vista. The new install, though, worked fine. I played next to Andy Bloch for a good portion of the evening. He's very polite, and generally quiet. Unlike when people like Phil Gordon play, there weren't a zillion teeny-bopper fanboyz badgering Mr. Bloch, which made the chat nice and tolerable.

Final table - nice! $2 profit so far :)

I miss playing poker in the casino. I miss it a lot. Sometime in 2007, if I'm not mistaken, the major construction on I-80 will be complete and I will once again be able to make it to the Indiana casinos in 45 minutes or so. As it stands, I'm lucky to do it under an hour 15, and I just don't have enough free time to make that trek each way. I miss Empress Joliet. A 15 minute drive is so much easier. I shouldn't complain; some people don't even have a casino within driving distance.

The only success I tend to have online is in NLHE SnG's and tourneys - but I don't like them so much, aside from the occasional game. My favorite game is limit hold'em, and I don't have the same success rate in that game online as I do F2F. I sure do miss the poker room.

Well, I went out in 8th place. Pushed with the nut flush draw (and as it stood, 2 live over cards). If I wasn't so sleepy, I might have tried a bit harder, but I was the shorty anyhow and at some point you must either play to win or go home :)

With that, I'm off to bed...

Apparently it's OK to trash people and talk about their personal problems on your blog, as long as you don't use names. This is the first and last time I'll ever read Michael Craig's blog, and you can bet his book is going right in the fireplace.

I can't even summarize in a decent or respectful way. This post is just sick.

Somewhere, It's Hammer Time - Part II by Michael Craig

Of course, parts 3 and later show bloggers in a very obviously over-compensated bright light.

The bloggers mentioned are referred to as Craig's "new friends," but where I come from, a friend wouldn't expose your worst moments to the world just to have something to write about.

I'm even more disturbed that PokerWorks.com approves of this sort of opportunistic bashing.

Kudos to SLB for being the first to comment on Craig's piece.

UPDATE:

Falstaff commented on Mr. Craig's post page that the things said in that post are no worse than things Mr. Craig has said about his other friends such as Mike Matusow. I find it noble that Falstaff would publicly post in defense of his blogging site-mate, but I beg to differ.

Just because it's "no worse" doesn't make it right. The "concern" expressed here is so thickly veiled that I'm inclined to find it more likely that Mr. Craig falls into the category of those with "no conscience" that would find this "funny." (Mr. Craig's words - not mine).

I wasn't at the blogger gathering this time around, but can piece together the faces behind the missing names based on tidbits from other trip reports. Does our "sobbing, hyperventilating" friend want the whole poker blogging community to know of her addiction problems? Maybe, but that's not Michael Craig's judgment to make. I wasn't there, and now I know. At least the detrimental effects of someone's behavior are limited to those who witnessed the event. Thanks to Mr. Craig and the almighty and constantly archived internet, many more people now know and will be able to research the fact for years to come.

That's the thing that irritates me the most about irresponsible posts such as this one. I'm not saying Mr. Craig is the only blogger to write such posts - but he's one of the highest profile bloggers to do so. As a professional writer, I would expect Mr. Craig to have the skills to focus his creative talents on things other than bashing people for fun and profit, and the common sense to be a little more sensitive to the implications of posting private details about peoples' lives on the internet.

I stick to my original notion that friends don't say things like that about friends. Obviously, the definition of "friendship" varies from state to state and blogger to blogger.

(Waffles, however, said it much better than I ever could).

In honor of Al and the stories of degenerate gambling and debauchery that are about to occur (and that I will miss) in Sin City, I listened to my entire catalog of Anthrax tunes last night.

Dude I miss Judge Dredd.

Good luck in Vegas, you lucky bastards.

I'll be reading :)