The Student now knows more than the teacher!

I had a game at my house last night with the usuals. One of the usuals is an old high school friend of mine. The first real game Kevin played was at my house on December 30th 2005. He loved playing and has been playing live home games and online sit & go's too. We would email each other about our online games and he would ask me questions about his play. I would answer him honestly. I really took him into how I play. First off, I'm not a poker pro by any means, but I helped him stop making costly beginner mistakes that I learned the hard way. Kevin has become a very good player in a short time. Matter of fact he has done outstanding online. The emails were called the "Update." Well the updates have been getting shorter, he does not ask how he should have played a hand anymore. He just tells me how he did and the important hands of the game. Kevin by nature is a very competitive. So I knew that sooner or later our games would become a rivalry. A friendly rivalry, but a rivalry just the same. So now I guess I will be getting the Critique’ Last night during the third hand I went all in and got called and lost. Which made me the dealer for the rest of the game. Kevin was knocked out 2 players later. Now granted, he played a lot longer than I did, he still finished 6th. The second game I won and Kevin was 2nd. We have been heads up a lot lately. To date, I have won all of our heads up matches. So I was suprised to get the following email & my response: John, If I use one word to describe your play last it is reckless. The third hand of the first game you go all in with a pair of jacks and three low cards on the board. With Bill in the hand anything could happen. Who knows he could have had pocket queens,kings or aces. So he decided to call and he had a lot of outs. He had a spade draw which gave him 9 outs, he had a seven and a queen which gave him 5 more. He had over a fifty % chance of making his hand between the turn and the river. So you bet your entire stack to protect a pair of jacks on a fairly small pot. That play made no sense at all.Fast forward to to second game, you get a quick start and win some chips early. You then loose some chips, but still have a very good chip stack. You get dealt ace and a jack off suite and you go all-in with the chip leader still to act. The last I knew ace and a jack is a good starting hand, but it is not a premium hand. You get called by Franny with pocket queens. He has you dominated and you need an ace. You catch a miracle running cards to pull out a straight. Again what were you thinking? You then played well the balance of the game and used your big stack to bully the table. How do you think you played last night? Kevin Kevin, Ok, I will let you know what I was thinking. I get the Jacks which are a tricky hand to play. I raise a good amount and get 2 callers. Bill, who plays any two cards, and Franny who I was a little worried about. I watched Franny on the flop and knew it didn't help him. Bill, who knows what he plays? Bill is a calling machine. He's dangerous, he will call until he gives his chips away or catch something and take a boat load of chips off of you. I get a low flop which is what you hope for with Jacks. I was first to act, Normally, I would make about a 3/4 or pot size bet. I knew that would have chased Franny, but I thought Bill would call. I didn't want to give him any more cards. It was the third hand and I never thought he would call an all in that early and risk getting knocked out. I wanted to put maximum pressure on him to fold. That was an all in bet. You calling my play reckless is unfair. It was very caculated. It just didn't work out. About all the outs he had, that was after you saw his cards, if you were sitting where I was you would know that. I guess I should have took a look at the flop and folded?? My read after the flop was 1. I had the best hand. 2. I didn't want him to get anymore cards. I was right on both. Let me ask you this? If you had his cards, saw the flop, would you have called the all in bet? Now you know another spade came, but if you didn't would you have called? That is the reason for my all in. I felt it was the only way I was going to win that hand. I also thought there was a very good chance it was going to work. It didn't, but it should have. Remember one thing, I play to win. If he didn't catch that flush he's crippled and I got a huge chip stack and the rest of you are in big trouble. Ok, fast forword to the second game. I'm The blinds were 200/400 so there is 600 in the pot. I think I had 2500 in chips? That's only 4 rounds before I'm blinded out. I first to act, I have Ace Jack. if I raise 3 times the blind I'm already pot committed. I moved in. Franny did have the queens, and flopped a queen so I was in huge trouble. Catching that 10 for a straight on the river was sweet. Hey, can't I get lucky once in awhile? I've taken so many bad beats I never feel bad about laying one on somebody. I'm done playing everyone's style. I'm playing my style from now on. If you think it's reckless that's fine by me. Since we have been keeping track of our games I've played 22 tournaments and have 7 wins. Not a bad percentage. See you on Saturday. Reckless I guess the rivalry is on....

Pulling Teeth to Withdraw Money at Crazy Poker

If you read the earlier post I had a great night of online poker where I took $5.00 and turned it into $55.00. Well, it was a great night. What was not great is trying to withdraw money. Most of the sites I have seen will only let you with draw $50.00 or more. Well I knew I met that little rule so I desided to withdraw $55.00. I get an email that I haven't met the terms and agreements of playing 100 raked hands. I only played 86. They deposited a "token" back in my casino account. So I try to find my casino account. No luck. Call their support number. Get a woman with a thick english accent who after 15 minutes puts my $55.00 back in my poker account. Now I'm pissed. All I want to do is play 14 more hands, not fall below $50.00, and withdraw my money. Is that too much to ask? Well, things were going along great. I was counting my hands. I had played 18 hands. I was up $4.00 more dollars to $14.00. A happy ending to this story would be for me to cash out, withdraw my money, and give the finger to Crazy poker. Well my stories don't always have happy endings. I'm playing at a .05 -.10 NL table and this one guy who is laying a bunch of bad beats on players at the table. Well of course 2 of them get into it and start insulting each other. This leads to the following hand. The bad beater call the big blind. The bad beatie raises to .50. I have an ace nine of hearts so I call the bad beater calls. The flops comes 9, 9, 6. The bad beatie is steaming and is first to act so he bets out 1.50, I raise to $5.00 with trip nines and a ace kicker. The bad beater calls, the bad beatie also calls. My sensable side tells me that something is wrong. My sensable side is telling me to bail, I have enough hands and money to make my withdraw. Just fold and get out of this hand. My poker side is saying, "Shut the F up sissy, you have trip 9's with an ace kicker and their is over $18.00 in the pot. The turn is a 10. The steaming bad beatie goes all in for his final $10.00. I have $8.00 left, if I lose I will fall below the $50.00 level and will not be able to make my withdraw. What could this clown have? 7 - 8 for a straight? 9 - 10 for a full house? or a Nine anything else? My sensable side is screaming... "Fold Dumbass.... Fold." My poker side keeps saying, "Fold? Trip nines with a top kicker? Are you crazy?" I call the all in. Bad beater calls too!!! There is over $46.00 in the pot. The cards flip up and....... Hold on a minute, before I tell you what happens, I have wrote on here before that I want to give up online poker. The cards flip up and bad beatie has a 9 - 10 for a full house. Bad beater has a 7 - 8 for a straight. I have trip nines, with an ace kicker. the third best hand. I'm out of money at the table, below $50.00 so I can't make my withdraw. What was the river card? Who the hell knows? I tell you one thing I know, it wasn't an ace. The bad beatie types to me, "Now that's how you play poker." and leaves the table. I sit there for a moment listening to my sensable side mock my poker side. "Trip 9's with an ace kicker, Trip nines with an ace kicker, some poker player you are." I will have to try again later to build my account up over $50.00 to cash out. Trip 9's with an ace kicker. My nose is still bleeding.

Online Poker.. Just When I Thought I was Out, They Pulled Me Back In.....

I was just ready to give up on online poker. I've been beat every way you can be beat. I thought it was hurting my confidence. Well, I was itching to play. I started checking my online poker sites for any forgotten cash. What can it hurt? Party Poker, Poker Rewards, Poker Stars, Poker Room were all empty. Hmmm, How about Absolute Poker, Bodog Poker, Empire Poker, Paradise Poker? Nope, their empty too. I know, how about Purple Lounge, nope. Hmmm, Titan Poker? Nope. Now I know Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt Poker, Full Contact Poker, and Doyles Room are empty. I hate playing on the play chip tables. Whoa, wait what's this? Crazy Poker has $7.00 in my account. Bingo, I'm ready to play. Do I really have accounts on 15 online poker sites? Who cares, take me to the tables. I sat down, err, signed on to a .05 - .10 NL holdem table at 9:30 pm to see if I can turn my luck around. Well, it's 1:15am and I am signing off with $55.00 in my account. I had a run of cards and fish that you can only dream about. Some of the hands I remember: Flopped quad 10's when the flop came 10, 10, 5. I checked he bet out $2.00 I called turn was another 5 I check He goes all in for $18.00 I had $20.00 so I called. cards flip up He had quad 5's So that got me to $38.00 I was down to $25.00 when I had Ace 10 clubs. I raised and was called. The flop comes 2 clubs I bet out and was called. 3rd club on the turn. I check, he goes all in for $23.00. I look for the straight flush there was none so I call. He had a king high flush. So I was up to $48.00. Then I flopped a straight and went all in and was called by pocket Kings and pocket jacks. I was up to $60.00. I didn't want to leave, but it is getting late and I lost an all in when my trip 9's got beat by a flush. It dropped me to $55.00 so I'm calling it a night. It sure was fun! Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in......

What a night of Poker!

That's me dealing at the final table. Hank Fraley is standing behind me. Wow, what a night of poker. It was cold and rainy outside, but the poker was hot & heavy inside. I got invited to a No Limit Texas Holdem tournament hosted by Philadelphia Eagles center Hank Fraley. We took seven players from my monthly game to see if any of the “Gloucester County Rounders” could finish in the money. Tom, Tracy, Mike, Bill, Franny, Eileen, and I along with 103 players showed up at this huge 3 bay garage to play. With 110 people hitting the felt it was not going to be an easy task. I really was surprised but it didn’t take long before the rail birds started to line up around the table after getting knocked out. Franny was at my table to start so there was a familiar face at the table. I wanted to play a tight aggressive game and take control of the table from the start. I folded a ton of hands until I picked up pocket queens. I was second to act and the blinds were 50 & 100 so I raised to 400. I got on caller before the flop so I knew he was playing an Ace something. The pot totaled 950. The flop came ace, 9, 6, all different suits. So I bet 400 again to see where I am in the hand and the guy raised to 900 so I knew I was done with the hand. I won a couple of nice pots and at the break I had 5900 chips. That was almost double the amount I started with. Just before the break Eileen walked up behind me to let me know that she just became a rail bird when her full house lost to a bigger full house. After the break a few of the players at our table busted out. Then came an amazing hand that Franny was in. He was third to act and went all in with his last 1400 chips. The next guy calls, I fold, the guy after me calls. A few more called and the flop was all low cards. Then all hell broke loose. Four more people went all in. It was crazy; there were 4 different side pots. So it didn’t look good for Franny. When the cards flipped up Franny had an Ace King of diamonds. He won the main pot when a third diamond hit on the river for an Ace high flush. Two more players from our table headed for the rail. Tom was the next out. He did everything I told him not to do. Played too many hands, and out of position. Then I hit my normal run of bad cards. If I did get a half way decent hand it was in early position, so I couldn’t play. By the second break I was in the red zone with only 3000 chips. I think Mike and Tracy were out by the second break and I was in big trouble. After the second brake there was only 40 players still in. I tried to hold on, but there was nothing to play. I finally went all in with a queen three. I only had 3000 chips and I was in the big blind next hand for a 1000 chips. I was hoping that not playing any hands that my all in would get some respect since I hadn’t played a hand in a while. It almost worked, except the small blind picked up pocket Aces and my night was done. I finished somewhere in the low thirties. Hank and I started dealing for the final two tables. Franny was at the table I was dealing and ended up in sixteenth place. Hey wait, what about Bill? Well Bill almost made it to the final table. I think he busted out on the bubble in 11th place. Only the final table made it into the money. I ended up dealing the final table and Hank took $60.00 out of the pot and gave it to me for dealing. It was very nice of him. The funny story of the night came when I was dealing at one of the final two tables. I didn’t realize it, but Eagles corner back Lito Sheppard was sitting right next to me. He had his chips in a chip rack. So I look over at him and lightheartedly said, “Hey why don’t you take your chips out of that rack and stack them like a man.” Everyone starts cracking up. He said, “What’s wrong with using a chip rack?” I told him it was like poker training wheels. Lito makes it to the final table and again is sitting right next to me. So he takes his chips out of the rack and stacks them. He says to me, “You happy now?” So I said, “Yea, now that’s how a man plays.” I think he got knocked out in 8th place. So at a break Tracy told me that she couldn’t believe I was talking to Lito Sheppard that way. I didn’t know it was him. So I walked up to him and shook his hand and said I was a big fan and I was only breaking his balls. I said, “Jesus, I’m didn’t know I was telling Lito Sheppard to stack his chips like a man.” It was a great time. I would have liked to have finished better, but I felt I played well. Lady luck was not real kind to me.

Getting a chance to test my chops

Well I will get a chance this Saturday to see if all this reading and practicing is doing any good. I'm going to play in a private multi table freezeout Texas Holdem Tournament this Saturday. I was not going to go but a few players in my home game gave me a pep talk and thought I would do well. So I'm going to pack up my "A" game and give it a try. I think I do better against players I don't play with all the time. Who knows? The interesting part of this game is a lot of Philadelphia Eagles are supost to play. So I'm bring my camara and see if I get any pics to post.

An on line Whoopin'

I played 4 games at Full Contact Poker and never finished higher than 8th. The first game only lasted one hand. Thats what happens when you make your King high flush on the turn. Only to be beaten by and ace high flush. Oh well, these things happen.