Texas Holdem: Not Another Bad Beat Story

This is NOT another bad beat story.  Nobody wants to hear about that anyways.  Suck-outs on the river, a term I just came up with - "River Boats", chasers, miracle inside straights, and the list goes on.  These bad beats are a fact of life in Texas Hold'em that serious players just have to be able to live with in exchange for long-term profits. I've taken some seriously bad beats in the last few months, but during that time I've also learned something very valuable about the reason for those so-called bad beats.  The lesson?  It's my own damn fault!

That's right.  Nobody else is to blame for the bad beats I've taken. Not the old man who sucked out a flush on the river at Winstar.  Not the all-camo guy who bluffed me off of pocket kings at Winstar (with pocket 4's).  And not the kid who "River Boated" me on Sunday afternoon.  It's not the guy at Friday Night Poker that loves chasing river cards either (actually the 3 or 4 guys - affectionately).

Most people don't actively calculate the odds of hitting that miracle card.  Actually, lots of guys don't even know how to calculate the odds.  We're supposed to love playing with chasers because the odds are so bad against them hitting and in favor of us making a profit.  I can live with it because the odds are against hitting for chasers.  The "rule of 2" says that to hit the river, you have to multiply your outs by 2.  So, to hit a flush on the river, you have 9 possible outs.  Times 2, that's 18% that your flush card will hit.  Put another way, you have an 82% chance of failure.

What about an open-ended straight draw AND a flush draw on the river (and forget that someone else could have already hit their flush at the turn)?  Well, here you have 9 flush cards and 8 other cards for the straight (at the most).  Now you have 17 outs!  Congratulations - you still have a 2 out of 3 chance to fail.  That's almost as good as it gets.  Don' get me wrong.  That's the kind of river I'm probably going to chase too, especially if I have an A or K that I could also pair on the river which would give me 3 additional outs (which is very unlikely to begin with).

So, with those river odds, I guess I want to play with a few chasers.  And now back to my main point.  It's not their fault when they hit and I lose.  It's mine.  I think it was Alan Schoonmaker, PH.D. who said that "aggression is the ultimate equalizer" in poker.  What an enlightening statement!

AGGRESSION IS THE ULTIMATE EQUALIZER

The guy who hit his river flush did so because I didn't bet him off of it after the flop.  His stack was way bigger than mine.  $35 wasn't getting that done.  All in!  The pocket 4 bluffer?  Something inside of me said he didn't have it, but the devil on my shoulder got me to fold.  That's because the devil on the other shoulder wasn't asshole enough to push All in!  The "river boat" was absolutely my fault.  I checked to maximize profit and the miracle river card hit.  Checking is weakness in Texas Hold'em.  I deserved it.  I let the remaining 2 sixes in a 52-card deck become a factor and he hit one of them.

If aggression is the ultimate equalizer in poker, then I'll use it.  I have to use it and I can't worry about it upsetting guys at the table (especially the loose-aggressive / loose-passive table I play at every week).  Why would I worry about it upsetting someone at the table anyways?  I don't know, but there's an interesting true story about it.

A few weeks ago, I came to play a very different game that I usually play.  I raised all of my premium hands.  Checks to me led to raises of 3 or 4 times the BB or 3 times the previous bet.  My initial bets were 1/3 to 1/2 the pot.  I took full advantage of my good hands and my good position.  This style worked.  My chip stack was nearly double the person in 2nd place.  Aggression was the ultimate equalizer.  I wasn't bluffing (at least not more than anyone else).  I was just playing my hands, position, and my reads on the other guys.

So, here's the point.  One of the guys was noticeably irritated with me and I happen to really like and respect him a lot.  I got pocket 6's and checked them on the button with some callers ahead of me.  The flop came Q, 6, and something else.  After everyone else checked around to me, I bet my set with a healthy raise.  The SB (whom I like and respect) angrily shoved all in.  He was probably frustrated because I was raising him off of his hands most of the game.  Everyone else folded back around to me and I did something that I will never do again.  Want to guess what that was?

I "contemplated" my hand, appeard to "struggle" with my decision, and folded my set face down saying, "I can't beat your set."  He showed me his bluff (of course I knew he didn't have anything) and I patted him on the back and told him what a great move he made on me.

I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

Since that night, I've won 2 out of 10 games.  At various times in almost all of those games, I've had nice sized chip stacks too that I should have eventually won with.  I'm going to Vegas in less than 3 weeks and this crap I'm throwing out is going to get me killed!  Yesterday, I suffered 4 straight losses. I didn't sleep well last night, to say the least.  Who loses sleep over low-stakes poker games?  Me!  Most of the guys I play with play for fun.  I want the fun too, along with being able to hang out with a lot of really great men.  But I play to win and I would play that way even if there was no money at stake.  I just want to win. 

I don't think I'm God's gift to poker and that I should win every game just by showing up.  That's crazy.  I'm still relatively new at this game.  Rob and Chris are great players that make me want to be better.  Prescott's maniac game can put an entire table badly off balance.  I've seen Charlie make some seriously disciplined lay downs that I've learned from.  Spain's loose-passive style can trap you and his big hands will shut you down.  Cody's unpredictable and not scared to bluff and chase the river.  Brandon's hard to push off of a hand.  Keith is the most improved player at the table who's really starting to put a serious game together.  Larry can push a big stack around as good as anyone (and plays Q 3 like champ) and George could literally have anything in any hand.

But this is not another bad beat story and I'm not whining about my recent losses.  I'm grateful for them.  They made me wake up and pull my head out.  I'm not having fun when I lose 8 out of 10 games.  Losing SUCKS!  I'm going to start playing my big hands big - period.  My style has to be Tight-Aggressive.  I'll either wait for cards or position, and then I'll get the best of it.  If I get "rivered", so be it.  That river won't be free.  I'll still get my butt handed to me from time to time, but it won't be because I didn't do my best to equalize.

That's it.

Texas Holdem: 10,000 Hours to Achieve Greatness

I'm listening to the book by Malcolm Gladwell, called "Outliers".  In his book, Gladwell points out that throughout history, greatness has come from, among other things, 10,000 hours of practice.  He names several important historical figures that became great after 10,000 hours of working on their trade.  To this point, the most interesting 10,000 hour story that I've heard is Bill Gates of Microsoft, but plenty of others come to mind fairly easily:  Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Brett Favre . . . . Doyle Brunson.

I've only been playing poker for about 3 years.  Gladwell says that it takes at least 10 years to hit 10,000 hours, but that's about 3 hours per day, 7 days per week.  3 hours per day isn't easy.  Most of us have very busy lives.  And 10 years?  I don't know if I can stand to wait 10 years for greatness.  Anyways, I haven't put in 3 hours per day.  Gosh!

I've played live and online probably about 12 hours per week and I've watched poker on TV about 2 hours per week.  That's just 2 hours per day.  And, now I'm reading books on Texas Hold'em.  For what it's worth, I think about poker probably about 16 hours per day, on and off.  I even dream about it sometimes, but not about winning or losing.  My dreams are usually about playing specific hands - kind of hard to explain.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that thinking and dreaming about something doesn't count towards my 10,000 hours, so I probably have about 12 long years of consistent practice before I achieve greatness in poker.  Bummer - 12 years of playing poker.  : )

If anyone wants to put together a regular Texas Hold'em game, count me in.  I need the practice.

Crazy Night on Full Tilt Poker

I've been playing around with $100 on Full Tilt Poker this week.  For the most part, I would say I've been up and down and with some huge swings.  Admittedly, I've been playing .10 / .25 tables, but my online cash game abilities need some work before I put in a lot of money.

I started the night being down 50% with just $50 of my original $100 remaining.  So, I decided to play 2 tables simultaneously ($25 each).  Everything was going along pretty well until I went all in with 2 pairs AQ on one table and lost to a sick set of 10's.  Didn't see that coming!

So, I was down to 1 table and by this time, just about $14 or $15 remaining.  30 minutes later, all hell broke lose and I was up over $75.  In 5 hands, I hit a full house and 2 Straight Flushes that were both 9 thru K.

As you can see, the 2nd was even on the flop and I only won .57 cents.  The 1st was the best because my opponent hit a full house and he called my all-in bet.

When I hit the full house, I actually picked up a set of 4's on the flop and then the board paired.  With that set, I had it all the way, but the guy I beat for quite a bit of money completely went on tilt.  This is him:

He made such as special (although completely ineffective) effort to piss me off and get me off of my game for the next 10 minutes that I thought I should memorialize him here.  At this point, half of the money I was playing with came from him anyways, so how could I be upset at him for being a total jerk afterwards.  It's safe to say that HE didn't see THAT coming either.

Anyways, I finished with $74 for the night and now I'm only down $26 for the week.  What a crazy night!

Texas Hold'em Game Transformation

Over the past several weeks, I've been literally fighting against myself in Texas Hold'em.  My game has evolved from very tight to super loose and then back to variations in between.  For too long, my cards were see-thru.  When multiple people could call my hand, there's a serious problem.  That's what instigated my current situation.


I began changing up my game and that brought win after win after win for weeks.  But then, winning wasn't even satisfying.  My game started being about something more than just winning.  I had nights where I was in the money in all 3 games and I would drive home picking my bad moves a part.  I had one game where I ended up with every single chip on the table, but all I could think about after a while was the game I got 2nd place in.  What if I would have bet big instead of check?  How did I misplay pocket A's so bad?  Did I get bluffed on that one hand?  Why couldn't I see the bluff?  Even with an over-whelming winning percentage, something was wrong.  I still wasn't good enough (and I'm still not).


Then, a series of things recently happened that turned it all upside down.  I played a cash game at Winstar and lost $300 in a rushed effort with my wife waiting.  Then, I went to New Orleans and played 6 hours only to lose $300 more.  And last weekend, I went to Shreveport and lost $100 over several hours.  Lose, lose, lose!!!  I lost $700 in about a month's time, not to mention just barely breaking even in Friday Night Poker.  You would think this probably didn't help matters very much, but it actually changed me.


These cash poker games are very aggressive.  Sitting down with under-sized chip stacks and losing $700 over the course of about 12 hours opened my eyes to the fact that not only could I sit in there with big players, but I'm just on the cusp of being a big player myself.  I feel like I'm very close and I learned that the #1 thing I'm missing is the thing I love most about poker - poker psychology.


I'm missing most of the tells and giving off most of them back to my opponents.  I'm still an open book and my cards are still see-thru, but not for long.  I had a chance lunch meeting with at attorney who just played in the WSOP main event and he placed in the top 10%, getting him into the money.  We hit it off instantly and he recommended that I read Caro's Book of Poker Tells.  In fact, he had it delivered to my office a couple of days later and I read it for the first time that night.  Yes - I read it cover-to-cover that first night.  I couldn't believe how badly I was crippling my game by giving off and not recognizing obvious tells.


So, last night I was playing Friday Night Poker with the guys and I spent most of the evening watching for tells.  I still didn't win either game last night, but I did pick up some tells that saved me a lot of chips.  One guy was sizing up his chip stack after seeing the flop.  He had a good hand and I folded.  He had me beat.  Good fold.  Another guy saw the flop and immediately glanced down at his chips - huge tell.  Then, to add to it, he appeared to be indecisive as to whether or not to bet.  That made up my mind to fold - good fold.  He had it.  Then, my favorite one took a little friendly manipulation on my part.  I had pocket J's and the flop was all cards lower than jack, so was the turn.  I bet fairly big and was raised on the flop and the turn.  So, I said to the other guy, "I have a pretty big pocket pair, so if you're raising me, you must have an even bigger pair."  It took a few seconds before he couldn't hold in his smile.  It took even less time for me to fold my Jacks and he had pocket Kings.  I'll keep watching for tells and I'm going to read the book a couple of more times too.


Finally, tonight I sat down to play a Full Tilt Poker tournament (90 players) and for the 21st time this year, I made it to the final table and ended up in 4th place.  I was pretty happy with that outcome.  My game purpose was to get back to "basics".  I tightened back up some and primarily played a range of about 15 to 20 starting hands.  I raised about 30% of the time that I bet, made some good position bets, and put in some strategic bluffs that paid off.  I even loosened up a couple of times to suck out on the river, which I guess you have to be able to do sometimes.  Tonight, I just needed to be reminded that I could still get it done if I needed to back away from the game transformation.  But then, what am I really thinking?  Back away from the game transformation?  Now, I have a "range" of acceptable starting hands, a calculated % of raises, strategic position bets and bluffs.  My game is evolving to a mix of tight and loose, aggressive and calculated.


I have no idea where my game will go next, but I do know one thing:  I'm very competitive and there is nothing that I hate worse than losing at poker.  But poker energizes me, so I'll weather the losing until I start winning consistently again.  Hopefully a winning streak is coming.

Texas Hold'em at Harrah's New Orleans

Generally speaking, I don't enjoy cash poker as much as I do tournament poker.  Tournament poker is essentially "knock-out" poker, but cash poker is just that - CASH poker.  Getting knocked out in cash poker means something entirely different - specifically, it means that you're broke. 

The psychology of poker changes from tournament to cash poker too.  In cash poker, guys (and girls) can force you to make decisions with all of your money.  Mis-played hands can lead to going broke very quickly.  Two days ago, at the Harrah's Casino, in New Orleans, I played beside a young guy that was throwing $100's down like they were $1's.  I wanted to try and keep track of the money he was losing, but I lost count at around $800, and he was still there after I left.

I've played poker and won at the Bellagio.  I've been up an down at the Chumash in Santa Ynez, California.  The Winstar, in Oklahoma, is still keeping a few hundred dollars of mine warm.  But my time at Harrah's New Orleans is by far the most memorable poker I've ever played.  The Bellagio is my favorite venue so far, but the experience in New Orleans was the most educational poker I've ever played.

I played $1 / $2 No Limit Hold'em starting in the late afternoon / early evening.  All day leading up to that, I didn't drink any alcohol.  I took a power nap before walking to the casino.  While I was attending the educational sessions earlier in the day, all I could think about was poker.  This day, I was finally going to really get to do what I went to do - play uninterrupted poker (see my previous blog about Poker in New Orleans if you want those details).

So, I sat down at the table.  I had a great spot at the very end of the table, to the right of the dealer.  I could see everyone.  I could watch and observe everything.  Lots of people like to sit directly in front of the dealer, but not me.  I want to see my opponents without needing to turn my head and make it so obvious.  Immediately, I found out that this was going to be an aggressive table.  Bet, raise, re-raise, fold (me).

There was a very old guy at the table, probably about 85 years old, give or take.  He was the clear big stack at the table.  He appeared to have about $1,000 in front of him when I sat down.  Some smaller chip stacks at the table, at that time, averaged about $400 and the larger stacks (other than the old man) averaged about $600 or $700.  Me?  I sat down with $300 and an immediate and very obvious disadvantage.

Throughout the evening, I played at this table with around 25 different guys.  Nobody sat down with less money that me.  Many of them were locals and knew each other.  Those guys clearly played together regularly.  I heard several of them talking about something that happened last week and saying they would see each other again in a few days.  It felt like that scene in rounders when Matt Damon and Ed Norton went to the casino and sat at a table with some other guys they knew and took money all night long from lesser players.  Was I the lesser player?  Probably.

In New Orleans, I played with some of the best players I've ever played with.  Aggression was the theme of the table.  No free cards.  No limp-ins.  But still, lots and lots of draw chasing.  I couldn't believe all of the guys betting $50 or more after the turn, hoping to hit their draws on the river.  It was really maddening.  Once, I flopped 2 pairs and made big bets at each stage with 2 callers.  After the river, I didn't believe my final opponent, so I bet, he raised, and I called.  He hit his INSIDE straight.  So sick!

The old man was taking everyone's money all night long.  He was either hitting everything or he was bluffing often.  I figured him for bluffing often.  So, in another hand, I flopped 2 pairs and made a large bet.  He called.  There was an Ace on the flop (not one of my pairs).  So, I had him on an Ace with a big kicker.  Turn was insignificant.  I bet, he called.  River was even less significant.  I bet, he raised, I re-raised all in.  I won and I was up for the first time all night.  (By the way, he had AQ off).

After that, I lost fairly consistently.  I made bets, but ultimately my hands weren't good enough to continue calling ridiculous raises and re-raises.  So, I donated quite a bit until I finally got pocket A's.  Thank God for that hand because it kept me in the game for a few more hours.  I played the way I had played all night long - relatively weak and irritated.  I was the small blind.  By the time the betting got back around to me, it was at $30, and I very uncomfortably just called.  (Just the be clear, the only think actually uncomfortable was the idea of other people folding.)

Flop:  A 2 2.  Unless someone was holding pocket 2's, this hand was mine.  I'm first to act.  So I checked with that look of discomfort.  Another guy bet $30 more and the guy on the button raised it to $50.  I thought about my options (again very uncomfortably) and finally just called after what seemed to me like minutes, when it was actually only about 15 seconds.  The other guy folded and it was heads up for the turn and the river.  I checked the turn and "button boy" bet $40.  I hesitantly called.  The river came and I bet $40.  By this point, I had about $65 left and "button boy" raised me all in.  I VERY uncomfortably (wink, wink) called and said, "I hope you don't have pocket 2's." 

He threw down 2 3 suited and was certain he won with a set of 2's until I showed my pocket rockets.  Full House!  I was up BIG at that point and the other guys at the table who seemed to all know him and each other gave him hell for the next couple of hands to follow.  I tried to hold in my excitement, but I'm sure it showed in my shaky hands as I folded the next hand.

Later, I played A K off really big and got folds all around to win about $75.  Other than that, I won some small hands and lost some small and big hands.  I won't lie to you.  By the end of my night, I was busted out.  I walked away from that table with zero (although I still had plenty of money to throw back down if I chose to). 

Here's the thing though.  Even though I lost, in my 3 days there, $265 total, I sat at that table Tuesday night for 6 hours and played with some of the best players I've ever faced.  It took these guys 6 hours to take me out and you better believe that I told them all that very thing as I was standing up with a smile on my face after being finished off by a pair of queens over my 10's.  "Well guys, you got me.  It took 6 hours though.  You better practice up for next time."  It got a good laugh, but I'm still smiling today - 2 days later.

I could have quit half way into my evening and been up relatively big.  Then, my story would be about going to New Orleans and winning.  That would have been a good story, but this one is better.  I never thought I would walk away a winner anyway.  That's just me being honest.  I wanted to sit back and play for hours and I got to do that.  What I realized throughout the evening is that I just wanted to stay in the game and keep playing with these guys that were way better than me.  I wanted to last as long as I could last.  I stayed in the game for 6 hours.  I didn't get up to go to the restroom.  I didn't get up for drinks.  The waitress brought me water and Sugar Free Red Bull throughout the night.  The Chinese place delivered egg rolls to me at my table.  I sat there and played undistracted poker for 6 hours.  I got my good plays in and I made some stupid plays.  It was a great education in aggressive poker and I'm still smiling.

Poker in New Orleans

I'm so excited because I'm leaving tomorrow for a 4 day business conference in New Orleans.  I should get to my hotel around 4pm, listen to a speaker, and then hit the casino.  My hotel is 0.2 miles from Harrah's.  My plan is simple and relaxing:  put $200 on the table, kick back, and fold hand after hand until I get good starting hands.  No mid-level hands.  Sure as heck no low hands.  Pocket pairs, suited face cards, AK, probably AQ, maybe even 10 J suited.  I won't have to rush.  I can play as long as I feel like playing.  My co-workers won't need to wonder where I am if I'm not with them.  Just find me at the poker room at the Harrah's.  I hope there's plenty of coffee at the conference each morning and I'll need to find a place to buy sugar free Red Bull.

Where's Chris?  He was just standing right here.

Texas Holdem Game Adjustments

I haven't written anything in 2 or 3 weeks.  During that time, I have just broken even in Friday Night Poker, while having probably my 2nd worst game streak in over a year.  My winning prior to that could best be described as total dominance, but I've been rattled by distractions that turned my poker brain upside-down.  Lately, when I've won, it's been ugly and when I've lost, it's been a result of stupid play and an utter disregard for my own personal "rules".  But, I've been lucky to break even.

I've used this down time as an opportunity to grow my game and I've made some mental adjustments that should be very helpful in the long-run.  I have been playing a lot of online cash poker and I spent a few hours in the poker room at the Winstar Casino.  I've also done my normal routine of watching every hand played on TV.  A primary adjustment that I'm making is aggressive betting - raising and re-raising, but not only with predictably good hands like, KK, QQ, AA, or JJ.  I've paid special attention to the game style of Tom Dwan.  Now, I understand that his style alone probably is not going to have long-term benefits, but it does serve as a nice change-up.  I might, for example, play 6-8 suited like it's a pair of Q's, especially in the right position.  Unpredictability is another game adjustment that I need to make.  This style of play should be particularly good for that change-up.

In the past, I've shown too many of my hands after winning hands and I've confirmed when other players called my hands correctly.  That has to stop.  From now on, I'll only show my hands if I feel that doing so has some strategic value.  Otherwise, you have to pay to see.

Finally, I'm going to try to play fewer overall hands.  I read once that Hellmuth said that you should only be in about 20% of flops.  So, I'm going to fold a little more often, but I also read that when betting, roughly 50% of bets should be raises so that you're not playing against so many opponents in a hand.  Both of these things will help me with unpredictability and aggressiveness.

Of course, we'll see how this ultimately plays out at the table.  The distractions are mostly gone now.  I'm acutely aware of my recent stupid game-play.  And, I've run my losing hands thru my head over and over and over again.  So, I think the winning should start back up again.  We'll see.

Stay tuned.

Texas Hold'em: To Be Great - Learn

I'm the kind of guy who has to eventually be great at something if I'm ever going to pick it up to start with.  I've always been this way.  It's no fun to be bad at things, so I will only pick something up if I think I have a chance to be great.  By "great," I mean being among the best (not necessarily THE best).

I started playing Texas Holdem about 3 years ago and at that time, I was just playing to hang out with the guys and have some fun.  I didn't know how much I would love it though.  In keeping with wanting to be among the best at things, I'm very competitive by nature.  That's just part of wanting to be great at things.

Anyways - poker.  I do want to be great at poker.  I still remember the first No Limit Hold'em "tournament" that I won.  There were 18 players at 2 tables.   I made the final table and eventually won.  I took a picture of all of the chips and I still have that picture.  That was it for me.  I beat some really good Holdem players that night and I wanted to win more.

Since that night, I've spent a lot of time playing poker and even more time studying poker (especially No Limit Texas Hold'em).  I realized very early that if I ever wanted to be great, I needed to seriously LEARN to play like great players.  To learn to be a really great poker player, I do all of the following things farely regularly.

1.  I play 3 live poker games every week.

2.  I watch poker almost every time it's on TV.  If I can't see it "live," I always record it to watch later.

3.  I search the internet for other poker blogs to learn about how others play and think about poker.

4.  I search the internet for poker educational sites.  There are lots of them out there that are really good.

5.  I study the guys that I play with and I pay close attention to the way they create success at the table.

6.  I spend time weekly reflecting on my own game.  I tend to be brutally honest with my own game play.

7.  I play online weekly at www.fulltiltpoker.com.  Playing several hundred hands per week keeps me on my game and improves my Friday Night Poker games.

8.  I even have a Texas Hold'em app on my Blackberry.

Texas Hold'em is like everything else when it comes to being great.  You have to learn the trade (so to speak), and there is a lot to learn:  The basic rules, winning hand hierarchy, basic and advanced strategies, statistical odds, and more.  This will take a lot of time, but if you really love doing anything, it's worth it.

Texas Hold'em: It Helps to Hit Good Cards

OK, so I said I was going to leave stupid at home last night when I went to play poker, and I did.  Looking back on the night, I can't remember one stupid move (on my part).  I was back to making calculated plays, at times even reminding myself not to play stupid.  There were 9 people there last night, whereas usually we have 8.  So, the card "rotation" was changed slightly.  We also used 2 new decks.  I'm not necessarily saying that these 2 factors had anything significant to do with the outcome of the games because we had winners in all 3 games.  I'm just pointing out that we had some (minor) changes last night.

What I am saying is that sometimes even if you avoid playing stupid, you still need to get good cards at least some of the time.  You need good cards in your hand with matching good cards on the board (at least sometimes).  Last night, I got junk hole cards in what seemed like 80% of my hands.  In statistics there is a term called "mode".  This is the thing that happens most frequently - not an average - just the thing that happens more often that anything else.  Well unbelievably, my "mode" cards were 2-7 off.  I got that ugly combination 4 times in the 2nd game and 3 times in the 1st game.  I also got 2-7 suited twice.  Ordinarily that wouldn't necessarily be such a big deal because that kind of stuff happens.  However, on top of getting 2 7 nine times, I also got just about every junk card combination you can think of.  8-2, 9-2, 9-3, 8-3, 6-3, and on and on and on.

An undisciplined player might get tired of folding and just start playing those cards.  Believe me, it was tempting, but then what?  Those are the worst statistical starting hands in poker.  You could get lucky from time to time, but more often than not, you're just going to lose.  I played patiently, folding one hand after another.  And, I played frustrated, which like I've said before, is part of the formula to losing.  I would occasionally get some decent starting hands:  Q-J off, J-J, 9-10 suited, A-7 suited.  Those never worked out for me though.  It just wasn't my night.  In Texas Hold'em, even the best players (and I am not one of those guys yet) need to get cards to at least build some momentum.

So, I got off the short-lived losing streak in game 3 with a win, but it wasn't very significant to me.  Only 5 of us stayed for the final game, so I only had to deal with 4 other players instead of 8.  I started hitting cards with a smaller card rotation and 1 of the guys had more than a few beers in games 1 and 2, so getting his chips wasn't the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  It was a win, but it wasn't a good win.

Friday Night Poker: 2 of Me

In the last couple of weeks, I've been 2 players.

One of me has been patient, calculated, and in a zone.  The other just plays stupid!  Tomorrow, I plan on leaving stupid at home.  The stupid player has been distracted and unable to recognize the habits of my opponents.  The stupid me makes bets with reckless abandon and without regard to what I know my opponents will do as a result.

So, I plan on taking the patient, calculated version of me to Friday Night Poker.  That person understands the other players at the table.  I'm going to understand that one guy will make huge bets with absolutely nothing and another guy's going to bet his top pair every time.  A couple of guys are going to "know" I have them beat, but call me anyways.  One guy is going to play complete wild-ass poker.  Nobody will be able to predict him and another guy is going to bet huge on huge hands and then warn you not to call.  Another guy will play it fairly straight, but throw in a bluff here and there, but if you call and raise, he might just fold.  And finally, one really good player is going to make you make decisions for lots of your chips.  Build him up and then God help you because nobody else will be able to.

But me?  I'm just going to recognize my opponents and play accordingly.  I might play aggressive at times and tight at others.  I might have a hand, but then again, maybe not.  Maybe those are pocket Jacks, but you never really know - maybe it's Aces or maybe it's just KQ off.  There's a couple of guys that I won't be losing to tomorrow and there's a couple of guys that will give me a run for my money.  I show up to play with those guys.

I had all week to think about tomorrow.  I've been extremely distracted lately, but tomorrow - I'm bring the one of me that doesn't play stupid.  If I lose tomorrow, it's because the other guys brought their A games.  I look forward to a table full of A games.  Stay tuned.

The Worst Strategy in Poker

Last night's strategy in Friday Night Football was LOSING.  I don't recommend it.  I want to be the first to tell you that winning is way better than losing.  The game though just didn't seem serious or real.  The host player wasn't there.  We couldn't figure out how to work the Texas Holdem computer program.  Guys weren't very serious during game play.  4 players showed up late.  Once the game finally got going good, I just played unfocused and stupid.  I lost that game with a full house and was beaten by a bigger full house - figures.

In game 2, we lost 2 players.  I ended up having to deal for both dealers (we use 2 dealers to speed up the game), and I tried not to let that be a distraction, but it just was.  I played OK in that game, but I went out in 3rd place - no money, but lots of stupid play.

Game 3 - not even worth talking about really, except that my rule of understanding the other players at the table didn't really get used.  I played as if a couple of the guys wouldn't call all of my bets.  I had pocket 8's, but one of the guys said he thought I had pocket K's (and there was another K on the flop), so I played my supposed set.  I made a couple of huge bets and he called.  By then, I was totally pot-committed (which is a term that I hate because it can be trouble), so I went all-in.  Guess what?  He called.  His 2 pair beat my pocket 8's.  I deserved to lose, but I was shocked that he made that call.  I'm not sure if that was just a very gutsy call or a potential mis-play, but either way, he got me.

Where was my head last night?  If you see it, please return it.

Lesson:  Losing is the Worst Strategy in Poker

Texas Holdem: Sick Winning Streak

In the last few months, I've been winning - period.  I'm winnng on-line.  I'm winning in Friday Night Poker.  I'm winning when I'm not interested in the game.  I'm winning when I'm badly distracted.  I'm winning when I get bad to medium hands.  And last night, I won when I couldn't miss.  I got 2nd, 1st, 1st last night.  My hands last night were so lucky that I was embarrarssed to keep winning.  I even folded what would have turned out to be great hands, including a full house.  The thing about getting cards though is that you have to play them right.  I wrote a while back about not mis-playing hands:  http://floppedtheboat.blogspot.com/2010/08/avoid-mis-played-poker-hands.html. 

Well, I can only think of maybe 1 or 2 hands that I mis-played last night.  Most of my moves last night were on purpose, meaning that even when I made questionable calls, it was for a reason.  For example, I played a couple of hands all the way to the river and made small raises and straight calls and lost the hands because I didn't even have a pair.  That was sort of my way of mixing up so the other guys don't "figure me out" like they used to all the time.  There's a guy that I play with that I swear sometimes he can see my cards before I do.  In recognition of this, I have to try to keep him guessing.

I had a couple of other winning hands that I might have folded in the past.  In one of them, I hit the straight on the river.  I wasn't chasing the river.  The bets made just weren't big enough to get me off my hand and I hit.  The river card was the 3rd club on the board and my opponent made a big bet THAT I DIDN'T BELIEVE.  So, I went with my gut and made the successful call.  In another hand, I had A J suited and the board paired 7's and some other small cards.  It was checks on the flop and checks on the turn (keeping me in the hand) and then my opponent bet the river.  I quickly calculated the odds of what I thought he had and found that the odds were against him, so I made the call and won.  He also had an Ace in his hand with a smaller kicker.

I know the way I've been winning lately has to be frustrating for the guys I play with.  I would be frustrated if I was them.  Then again, frustration is a weakness in poker because it brings a loss of focus, but it's hard to avoid sometimes.  Right now, I'm questioning my poker ability because this kind of winning makes me wonder how much of my success is pure luck.  I'm happy to have it on my side for as long as possible, but in the bigger picture, luck isn't why I want to win.  I'm going to be re-evaluating my actual skills over the next week.  Some of the guys I play with are too good for me to hope for luck each time I set down.  I want to be good enough to play with anyone.  I'm not there yet and that's going to be my focus.

This has been a sick streak though.

Lessons From Poker Boredom

I played 2 no-money full tilt poker tournaments in the last 2 days.  I got 6th place out of 90 players last night and 11th tonight.  11th sucks, but the 6th was OK.  In both of these tournaments, I was completely bored and uninterested.  I have no idea how I made it to the final table last night and I don't know why I lasted to #11 tonight.  If someone would have just played their B game early on, I probably would been gone.

I play these free tournaments during the week just so I can get some practice and see a bunch of poker hands.  In doing this, I've made 18 final tables in the last 6 or so months.  I know, I know - there's no money at stake in these games.  I understand the implications of playing for cash.  I do that weekly too.  These are just for practice.

Anyways, in the last 2 nights, I played bored and uninterested for an average finish of 8.5 out of 90 (basically the top 10%).  Reading players in these free, on-line poker tournaments is pretty interesting.  If you're paying just a little attention, you can figure a lot out about your opponents.  Chasers are the easiest to find.  2 clubs on the board, turn card is a heart - shut down.  Top pair, huge bet.  Check the flop, check the turn, hit your card on the river - bet.  Hit your flush on the flop (while holding 9-3 of hearts) and then check to the river.  Really man?  Listen, I'm not one of those jerks that's going to talk trash to you for playing your game.  Believe me, plenty of others will though.  You just won't be too hard to beat.  That's all.

The psychology of poker is my favorite part of the game and online poker can be great for picking up a players betting habits.  Play several hundred or several thousand hands just to pick up on these habits and then use that understanding when you're playing in your home game.  How about that - poker boredom can be educational too.

God's Gift to Poker

I was playing on Full Tilt Poker tonight and there was this guy there that was criticizing the other players at the table.  Some people were making stupid bets and calls, but there was no money at stake, so what do you expect.  This guy came out swinging on the chat telling the table what bad players they were.  I looked over and I had more chips than he did and I just sat down at the table.  IDIOT! 

Anyways, it reminds me of the time I was at the Bellagio and the guy sitting to my left thought he was God's gift to poker.  Every time someone beat him, he was talking trash.  Every time he won, he was talking trash.  This guy must have thought that it was his God given right to win at poker.  I don't personally have that right so I have to work at it, but this guy was tuned in with God.  Lucky bastard!

If you're reading this, let me tell you the truth:  it is not your God given right to win every hand in poker.  I highly recommend that you play smart, play the odds, and know yourself and your opponents.  I mean seriously, do you really think you should win every hand?  The odds aren't in your favor for being a 100% winner.  Did you know that?

I love the comment, "keep playing like that and you won't win very much."  My thought is that if you keep thinking like that, neither will you.  Luck happens at a poker table.  Like it or not, you were not born to win in poker.  I know that's a big shock to you, but you should really consider your position as God's gifted poker champion.  I have news for you man:  you are going to get beat.  Then what? 

I sat next to this guy at the Bellagio and I enjoyed taking his chips from him.   Tonight at Full Tilt Poker, I felt the same, except there was no money involved.  If you're reading this, you are not God's gift to poker.  You were not born with a destiny to win every hand you play.  Sometimes you're going to lose.  My advice to you is simple and sound:  shut the hell up and keep your head in the game.   Everyone loses hands from time to time.  Stop believing your own hype.

If you're truly better than the other guys at the table, then play like it.  Understand the other players at the table.  Play accordingly.  Don't be a jerk.

Friday Night Poker: Respect the Streak

To be honest with you, I'm a little embarrassed to be writing this.  I've either gotten 1st or 2nd in 6 of the last 7 games I've played in at Friday Night Poker.  I've actually gotten 1 or 2 in about 80% of the games I've played over the last 3 months.  I really quit keeping score because I wanted to respect the streak and I've been in an incredible poker zone.  You have to respect the streak, but I really like the guys I play with and at some point, I hope some of them win a game or 2, or at least get 2nd place and get a piece of the chop.  That did happen tonight for my buddy Chris.  He's been playing in the exact opposite direction as me over the last several weeks and tonight he got in the money twice out of 3 games, so for him, the losing is officially over.  He's a great player so I'm pretty sure he's not getting back on the losing streak anytime soon.  God help the rest of us.

But tonight - wow.  In the first game, I literally ended up with ALL OF THE CHIPS.  Chris said he's never seen that before and I hadn't either.  So, there was no chop because I knocked out both of the last 2 players with a straight on the flop (from the small blind).  It was pure brutality.  Prior to that however, I was down to a very small stack just like I have so many times before.  I lost a huge hand and donated a ton of chips, leaving me crippled (a position I have come to enjoy).  So, I told that guy that I would be coming back to get them.  I did.  I got 'em all - every last one of them.  I wanted to say I was sorry, but I wasn't.  He was 1 of those final 2 players.  I wasn't mad for losing my chips to him.  That's not why I went back in after them.  It was just a challenge that I made with myself.  What a thing that was!

The 2nd game started like the 1st one ended.  I got an early huge chip lead and ended up getting 2nd behind Chris who finally ended his losing streak against me.  Game 3 was forgettable, but to be completely honest, I was glad to lose.  I don't want to believe the hype.  The game 3 reality check was a good one too.  I played wild and stupid and deserved to lose, but stupid's gone now.  We'll see what happens next week.

To be continued. . .

Lessons:
1.  Don't play stupid!
2.  Don't believe your own hype.
3.  Respect the streak.

Avoid Mis-Played Poker Hands

I just finished watching some of day 2 of the WSOP on ESPN.  The broadcast really highlighted Daniel Negreanu who was bleeding chips.  One thing that I love about the WSOP is that over 6,000 people pay $10,000 to play for a chance to win nearly $9 Million, and this means that lots of amateurs are playing along side serious pros.  What other game / sport does that happen in?  I'm never getting subbed in for Marion Barber and I won't soon be dishing it off to LeBron, but I could find myself sitting next to Negreanu at a poker table.  If that ever happens, as much as I like Negreanu's playing style, I hope he plays like I just saw him playing tonight.

He mis-read his opponents' hands and mis-judged at least one guy's stomach for calling his large bets.  I've said this before, but it applies here as well.  KNOW YOUR OPPONENTS.  If you can do this, you can anticipate what they MIGHT do, especially in response to your moves.  Why bet $6,000 at a pot when you have NOTHING, NOT EVEN A PAIR, when your opponent is showing a propensity to call?  Sometimes your beat, even by an amateur, but at least it can be a beat from laying down your cards and not your chips.

And when you're hemorrhaging chips, know yourself.  A little self-awareness comes in handy.  Know when you're pushing it too much.  Know when you're making bets that don't make sense.  Know when you're out of rhythm.  A lack of self-awareness will cause you to miss-play hands.

Finally, when in doubt, understand the basic odds of poker.  What are the best and worst starting hands?  What is the likelihood that someone has a bigger pair than you do?  What's the likelihood that someone has a better starting hand than you?  Flush draw?  Straight draw?  What are the odds of hitting?

So, that's the lesson.  To avoid mis-played hands:

1. Know your opponents.
2  Know yourself.
3. Understand the odds.

Texas Holdem: How to Beat a Losing Streak

A couple of months ago, I ended a 6-week losing streak in Friday Night Poker that I was more than happy to see go.  Prior to that streak starting, I had built some positive momentum of winning quite a bit more than I was losing.  Chronic winning and chronic losing create very different psychological game play.  It is my opinion that winning streaks are built by, quite literally, a winning attitude.  Conversely, losing streaks are worsened and continued by a losing attitude.  Until you realize you're playing with a losing attitude, you're going to just keep losing.

What is a losing attitude in poker?

1.  You're easily frustrated.
2.  You get upset, or even angry, more often than usual when other players suck out on the river.
3.  You've lost your momentum and you no longer play hands like you were when you were winning.
4.  You don't play the people as much as you play your cards, and you mis-play those.
5.  You are irritated when you folded your hand (smartly) and realize that your hand would have won.
6.  Your betting doesn't make any sense.
7.  You literally think about all of the losing you've been doing more than you focus on winning this hand and this game.
8.  All the talk at the table has you distracted and frustrated.

What is a winning attitude in poker?

1.  You play relaxed and in control.
2.  You play patiently, allowing yourself to fold smartly without looking back in regret.
3.  You don't get angry when players suck out on the river because you are already aware of player tendencies at the table and you adjust your game accordingly.
4.  You play the people at least as much as you play your cards, watching for trends, habits, and tells.
5.  Because you understand how your opponents are playing, your betting makes perfect sense.  You know for example that some people just won't be raised out of their card chase, so you don't make any critical errors.
6.  You certainly don't think about losing, maybe not even winning because you are only thinking about this hand, building momentum, and not allowing your opponents to gain momentum.
7.  You are not distracted by anything that is going on at the table.  It's almost as if you have blocked that nonsense out and you're in a zone.
8.  You never believe your out of it as long as you have a chip in front of you.

I love poker so much because of the psychology-factor.  Sometimes it doesn't even matter which 2 cards you hold in your hand.  When you've got it, you can win very often regardless of the strength of your hand.  When you've lost it however, you MUST have a good hand to have a prayer for success.  So, in my opinion, if you want long-term success in really anything, including poker, you need to think like a dominant champion.  Believe you will win.  Do everything just like you do when you're winning.

Ride the Poker Rush

After last night's Friday Night Poker, I feel like I might be back in my zone.  Last week, I got 1st place in a 90-person full tilt poker tournament and then last night, I played 3 games and got 1st, 2nd, 1st.  Last Friday night I won the 3rd game too.  In the last 4 tournament games I played in, I got 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st.

Prior to last Friday night, I took a week off from playing poker and very nearly lost my poker "mojo".  I showed up and donated the 1st 2 games I played, but finally I got back on track and won game #3.  This was a very important lesson - don't jack with a poker rush.  When you're on fire, don't put it out by taking time off.  Respect the rush.

Once you're on it, the other players at the table will often recognize it as well and that will push you through pots that you have no business winning.  You start betting bottom pairs like their top pairs and watching other players fold.  The river all of a sudden gets very kind to you like last night when I unintentionally rivered a straight.  Getting bad cards doesn't hurt so bad when you're on a rush and neither does getting down to a very low chip count.

Last night was a different kind of rush though.  I successfully played pocket jacks 4 times.  Who even gets pocket jacks 4 times in one night?  I also won with pocket 9's, pocket 8's and very nearly pocket 7's.  I won with pocket A's and pocket K's as well.  An inexperienced or unconfident player could mis-play these hands, but I was feeling it and that's the big lesson here.  Recognize when you're on a rush and respect it.  Play the rush.  Play the momentum.

One of the other players last night (once we were down to the final 3) started to build some momentum of his own and he was chipping away at me, but I was in the middle of this thing and I just kept looking for a place to take advantage of his momentum and I did.  You can't hit every time.  Busting his momentum was a game changer.  I ended up edging him out and winning by a single $100 chip.

But he gave away his momentum by not recognizing where he was.  Don't do that.  When you have it, keep it.  Recognize where you are in the game and keep your mojo going.  Ride the poker rush.

Texas Holdem Lessons: 1st Place in Full Tilt Poker

I just finished a tournament with 90 players on Full Tilt Poker.com.  I play the free tournaments for practice.  In the last 6 months, I've made it to the final table 17 times.  I've gotten 1st, 2nd, or 3rd eight times during that time (1st place three times).

I finished 1st place today and knocked out 11 players on the way to that win.  With 11 KO's, this was probably the best practice tournament I have ever played.  In fact, by the time I KO'd the 4th person, I was in 5th place and I never left the top 5 from there.

I remembered some valuable lessons in this tournament that helped me win.

1.  Never play a high card with a low kicker unless you're in the blind and not raised out of it.

2.  Don't play hands just because they have funny names.  I often fight the urge to do this, but not tonight.

3.  Play your rush.  I won several hands in a row in a couple of points during the tournament.  My larger-sized bets made guys fold that might have otherwise beaten me, but I was on a rush and the other players seemed to respect it.

4.  Don't chase stupid all-in bets early on in tournaments.  If you don't have a killer hand, let the other idiots fight it out.

5.  When you're getting down to the last 15 or fewer players, understand that bigger stacks will either bully the table or get ultra-conservative.  Recognize what's happening and use it to your advantage.  During this time, other players, especially the smaller stacks are folding for their tournament lives.  Understand this as well.

6.  Don't play stupid - especially when you're getting close to the final table.

Lesson From Friday Night Poker: Play With Patience

Last night, I was reminded of an important lesson in Texas Hold'em, and that is to play with patience.  I took last week off and upon returning last night, I lost the 1st 2 games badly.  I was getting really bad cards, but that happens.  The problem was that I kept playing them.  Face it:  folding is not fun.  After folding a few hands in a row, I start thinking about how late into the game, I'm going to have a serious chip deficit if I don't win some hands.  What an idiot!  Instead of folding, I played bad hands and lost even more chips.  So, the 1st game was a total disaster.

The 2nd game was worse.  I went out in less than 5 hands and I didn't exactly lose to the best player at the table.  Through those 1st 2 games, I tried bluffing.  That didn't work.  I chased river cards.  That almost never works.  I did everything but play smart.  I was second-guessing myself, feeling irritated with my game, doing negative self-talk.  Shoot!  I was in my own head.

So, of course that bled over into the 3rd game, but by that point I was mentally beaten.  The way my head was, I probably shouldn't even have played the game.  As the game started, the bad play continued.  I just kept donating my chips until we were down the the final 4 and I was unbelievably still in the game.  I had the lowest chip stack of the remaining 4 and in fact, it was the lowest chip stack I had ever had before losing everything.

Then something clicked.  I had been in that position before.  I've won lots of times after having a depleted chip stack.  I started talking to myself.  Don't play stupid.  Be patient.  Fold for God's sake!  I waited for my spots, picked up some decent cards and things started turning around.  I made it to the final 3 and still had the lowest chip stack.  The other 2 guys were really playing for 1st and 2nd.  Then, each of them started chipping away at each other, and I took turns taking down pots from each of them little by little.  A strategically placed all-in here and a big raise there and 3 sets of pocket 9's inside of a 10-hand stretch didn't hurt either.  I completely turned it around to where I finally made a bet large enough to call BOTH of them all-in.  One guy called and the other folded so he could guarantee himself 2nd place.  I won, taking me from worst to first in what was turning out to be my worst night of poker in 2 months.

At the point, in game 3, when I had a sick little stack of chips, I could have just thrown in the towel and made one last stupid bet to put myself out of my misery, but instead I got out of my own head and started playing with patience.  It isn't over until all of your chips are gone.  When you're down, even almost out - you're still not out yet.  Play your game.  Play with patience.  Don't beat yourself.  Give yourself a chance to come back and win it all.

Bad Hand? Get Over It!

In a typical poker tournament, players will see hundreds of hands (or thousands if they make it deep into the tournament).  In your home game, you can easily see hundreds of hands.  In my weekly Friday Night Poker games, we always see the turn and river cards, even if everyone folds after the flop.  If you've already folded, but others are still in the hand, you're always going to see the next cards.  Very often, you made a smart fold and then cards that would have improved your hand will come on the turn or the river.  Does that make you mad?  Get over it.  What about when you think you should have won a hand, but then someone chased the river card and sucked out a win?  Does that make you mad?  Get over it.

When stuff like this happens, you really do just have to get over it.  You need a terrible memory.  Forget the last hand.  That hand is over.  The next hand is coming.  If you're still angry over the previous hand, how do you think you're going to feel after this hand?  You're going to make "pissed off" bets.  You'll go down with "sunken chips".  You'll make a stupid bet or a bad raise and you'll get called.  Then, you're sitting around waiting for the next game to start.

If you feel yourself getting upset over hands, stand up and walk away from the table.  Lose your blinds, but don't lose your mind.  Just get over it.

Texas Holdem: Chasing the River

I am generally against what I call "chasing the river".  This happens when someone has a straight-draw, inside-straight-draw, flush draw, and even and open-ended straight-draw, and keeps calling bets all the way to the river card.  The odds just aren't usually there, but people do it all the time.  You're sitting there with just the river card to go and you need one card to make your straight - let's say you need a 10.  There are only four 10's in a deck.  4 out of 52 cards is only 7.7%.  Another way to look at it is that by chasing a river 10, you have a 92.3% chance of missing, and maybe it's worse than that because someone else already folded a 10. 

Maybe your chasing a flush on the river.  In this case, you have 4 cards to a flush and you need just 1 more.  4 of the 13 cards of that suit are already accounted for, so just 9 possible cards remain that could help you make that flush.  9 out of 52 cards is 17.3%.  That means that you've got a 82.7% chance of missing your flush IF nobody else already folded cards of that same suit and IF your remaining opponents aren't holding any.  Those are big IF's. 

Maybe you have an open-ended straight-draw where you could make a straight with a card on either end of the 4 consecutive cards you already have (including the board).  Let's say you have 8, 9, 10, J.  In this case, you could make a straight with either a 7 or a Q.  So, you chase the river.  Your odds are going to be a little less than the flush draw above since there are 8 possible cards in the deck that cold make your straight.  8 out of 52 cards is 15.4% .  As long as some of those cards weren't already folded or someone else isn't still holding them, you have an 84.6% chance of missing.

When you hit your cards, your thrilled and your opponents cuss you, but usually you miss and you donate.  The odds just aren't in your favor to chase the river.  As with many other aspects of poker, there are exceptions to not chasing the river.  I'm not getting into those exceptions here.  For now, just understand that the odds are against you and your buddies at the table are going to cuss you when you hit.

Friday Night Poker - Quads, Quads, Quads

I play poker with 8 to 12 other guys every Friday night.  We play tournament style poker with low stakes of $10 per game, plus a $5 knockout.  I've never heard of a game that has gotten as many 4-of-a-kinds as ours has.  It seems to happen a couple of times each Friday.  This past Friday, Prescott got quad 3's and I got quad A's.  In fact, I've actually gotten quads lots of times.  I've had:

Quad A's 2 times
Quad J's once
Quad 8's (on the flop!)
Quad 2's once

And, that's all that I can remember, but at our table, there have probably been others.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I also got a Royal Flush (of clubs) twice in a single month.  Has that ever happened before to anyone else?  But, that's a little off-point.

On Friday, I had trip 6's and I knew I was up against a probable Ace high flush.  In a moment that I like to call "my stupid move of the night", I went all-in and got called by 2 players.  Honestly, I was blinded by the possibility of getting quads again (I said it was a stupid move).  On the outside, I knew I still had a chance at pairing another card on the board to get the "boat".  And you know what?  It happened.  I ended up with 6's and K's - a full house.  It was so freakin' lucky that I was actually embarrassed to have won the pot.  I knocked 2 guys out (including the Ace high flush - what a bad beat for him!) and won 2 $5 knockouts on my way to a decided game 2 victory.  My chip stack was so high that I was ashamed to keep winning. . . .

But at that point, it would have been an embarrassment to lose, so I won anyways.

Poker Momentum

In Poker, momentum can be a killer - to you or to your opponents.  It's hard to explain how you get momentum or how you keep it, but losing it seems so easy.  You win a hand.  Then, you win another and another until you're almost not even playing the cards in your hand as much as you're just playing the other players and reading their bets and other playing styles.  Sure, the cards dealt to you can cause your momentum, but keeping it often is completely independent of cards.  The other players may "sense" that you just keep somehow getting cards, so they fold.  Or, they start measuring the size of their hands compared to yours, and that makes them fold.  But, then you lose it.  You get out of rhythm or you don't notice the "zone" that you're in.  Maybe someone else starts picking up hands and you don't have enough good sense to fold a few and you lose too much to ever get momentum back.  Sometimes when you lose it, you have to get really patient, hang on, and wait for a really good hand, then get it back.  Then, wait for another really good hand.  Next thing you know, you're back on a role.  A huge chip stack can do wonders for momentum.  You have more to risk than other players have in front of them all together.  You might get called a bully, but when you're winning, it's OK.

Last night, I was watching the opening WSOP event of 2010 and it came down to 2 final players:  a Russian named Vladimir Shchemelev, who said in an interview that he never loses in poker and that Russians can win at anything if they just want to take it seriously, and an American named Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi.  It started out really bad for Mizrachi.  He badly lost his momentum, one hand after another.  He just kept betting and raising and calling - with the worst hands, until finally he got a huge hand  (Ace high flush) and the Russian over-played his momentum right into an all-in bet that crippled his chip stack.  It was beautiful!  From there, "The Grinder" chipped away at his opponent until he won over $1 Million for first place.

Momentum was on display in a big way last night.  Mizrachi lost it.  The Russian over-played it.  Mizrachi got it back and finished with it. Momentum can be awesome, but it can be a killer.  Use it or lose it (or until you lose it).

My Son Aaron - Future WSOP Winner

I'm sitting here watching a re-run of the 2009 World Series of Poker final table with my 9 year-old son Aaron.  He's talking strategy and rooting for his favorite player, Phil Ivey.  It makes me think about how much my son likes poker and how good he is and how much better he's going to be. 

I walked into my living room a few months ago and he was at the coffee table with some poker chips and a deck of cards.  He was playing 8 hands of Texas Holdem by himself.  He was the dealer and all of the players, and he knew which hands were winning and which hands were folding.

I set him up to play online at one of the major online poker sites where he can play poker for fun (and for free).  You're supposed to be 18 to play on those sites, but I'm over 18 and I'm letting him play.  Usually, he gets on there, starts with $1,000 and ends with anywhere from $11,000 to over $30,000.  He's playing against adults and he's handing them their butts and making them say thank you.

One day, he was home sick from school and I stayed home with him. I just got finished watching the movie, "21" a couple of days earlier and I thought I would learn how to count cards in Blackjack.  I eventually figured it out, then I decided to teach Aaron to do it.  He has a huge brain and I wasn't surprised that he learned how to count cards in Blackjack in about 30 minutes.  After I taught him, he counted a whole deck of cards 5 times with zero errors.

Anyways, with all of that said, here we are watching the 2009 World Series of Poker and I asked him how much money he was going to win in Poker when he grows up.  His answer was, "$10 Million".  I believe him.

WSOP Final 9 - Really?

I L-O-V-E to watch poker on TV, especially the World Series of Poker.  It's so much fun to see the big name players go at it.  Ivey, Hellmuth (who hasn't made a November 9 since I started watching), Brunson, Negreanu, Phillips, Mercier, Cada, Tran, Eastgate, and the list goes on.  In the WSOP 2010 Main Event though, WHERE ARE THESE GUYS?  Here's the final 9, along with their chip counts, for the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Seat 1: Jason Senti (7,625,000)


Seat 2: Joseph Cheong (23,525,000)

Seat 3: John Dolan (46,250,000)

Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel (65,975,000)

Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi (14,450,000) - happens to be #1 in 2010 WSOP earnings.

Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis (16,700,000)

Seat 7: John Racener (19,050,000)

Seat 8: Filippo Candio (16,400,000)

Seat 9: Soi Nguyen (9,650,000)


Don't get me wrong - one day, I hope to be one of these guys that nobody has heard of yet, but seriously - where are the big names?  The cost of entry into this No-Limit Texas Holdem is $10,000 and in 2009, over 6,500 entered into the Tournament.  That's 10 times the number of entrants just a few short years ago!  I don't yet know how many entered the tournament this year, but I'd be willing to be that it's more.  The field is getting younger.  More "youngest players ever to win" are winning.  In the world today, the poker cream is definitely rising to the top.

But, with player volume, comes watered-down names, and famous players sell.  They sell me for sure.  I just hope that the 2010 final 9 doesn't disappoint.  The winner will take home over $8 Million.  2nd place - over $5 Million.  Nobody at the final table gets less than a million.  What?  Everyone gets to become millionaires?  OK nevermind.  Let's just watch some poker.

PS:  For anyone who wants to tell me that any of these final 9 could beat me.  Maybe.  The cards sometimes fall funny ways.  Just ask Ivey, Hellmuth, Negreanu, and the others.  You just never know.

Top 10 Starting Hands in Texas Holdem

I researched this topic using Google and found 10 web sites with articles about the 10 Best Starting Hands in Texas Holdem.  You would think that the mathematical odds to this topic would determine what the 10 best hands are, but then you'd be wrong.

Everyone agrees on the best 3 starting hands:  AA, KK, QQ.  But that's about it.  Here's my breakdown of hands 4 thru 10.

4th Best Hand - 6 people said AK suited.  4 said JJ.

5th Best Hand - 4 said AQ suited.  4 AK suited.  2 JJ.

6th Best Hand - 4 said JJ.  3 10-10.  3 AQ suited.

7th Best Hand - 6 said KQ suited.  3 AQ suited.  1 said 10-10.

8th Best Hand - 8 said AJ suited.  2 said AK off suit.

HERE'S WHERE IT GETS REALLY GOOD.

9th Best Hand - 4 said AK off suit.  2 AJ suited.  3 KJ suited.  1 KQ suited.

10th Best Hand - 3 said AK off suit.  3 said 10-10, 1 said 9-9, 2 KQ suited.  1 A-10 suited.

So, with all of that, here is my Top 10 Starting Hands in Texas Holdem.

1.  AA
2.  KK
3.  QQ
4.  AK Suited
5.  JJ
6.  AQ Suited
7.  KQ Suited
8.  10-10
9.  AK Off Suit
10. AJ Suited

I also like:  KJ suited, A-10 suited, 9-9, but this is a Top 10 List.

Lessons From Friday Night Poker

I've learned over the last couple of years that poker is a marathon, not a sprint.  When you play on Full Tilt Poker, hundreds (if not thousands) of people are going all-in every second (because they're playing for free).  However, when you add money into a game, you have to leave that mind-set behind.  I can't imagine going all-in on the first hand when my money's up for grabs.  Of course, that happened 2 weeks-in-a-row just a few months ago.  One week, I got a full house and a friend of mine got a smaller full house and I knocked him out ON THE FIRST HAND.  We both thought we had the best hand, but I was lucky.  THE VERY NEXT WEEK, I had an Ace high flush and got beat by a full house.  I was all-in ON THE FIRST HAND!  What goes around comes around I guess.

So, I've learned to play steady and in control.  Minimize stupid moves.  Recognize when I'm probably beat.  Understand my opponents.  Make smart plays.  I'm usually good for 1 or 2 really dumb moves each Friday night, but an overall steady approach is paying off big for me. 

Five Fridays ago, I left my house and my poker box had just $30 left in it (I took $45 with me).  I knew that if I didn't break my 6-week losing streak, I would only have enough money for one more poker night before having to hit the ATM again.  I hadn't been back to the ATM since December (I withdrew $20).  After that, I went on a hellacious winning streak. 

That streak went cold for 6 weeks though and I was on the verge of busting.  So, now back to 5 weeks ago.  In the last 5 weeks, I have gotten 1st or 2nd place 12 out of 15 games.  The cold streak has been over and I'm on fire.  My secret in all of this is steady, controlled poker.  I fold a lot, never go down with sunken chips, and wait for my spots.  Result:  My $30 money box now has $400 in it.

I play with some really good and interesting men.  When I win, it's not just from showing up and taking down pots.  These guys have been playing for 10+ years in most cases.  One of them is 85 years old.  He's been playing for over 50 years.  The man is good.  Another guy (also named Chris) is the model I use for how to play poker.  He's the smartest poker player I know.  He keeps me and everyone else on their toes.  There's a funny story to each of the other guys at that table, but they all play poker well.  Winning against them requires a steady, controlled approach to the game.  Then, add about 20% luck.

Poker Lesson #1:  Slow and Controlled
Poker Lesson #2:  Never Go Down with Sunken Chips

Phil Ivey is a Scary Poker Player

Take a look at this video.  I would have laid my hand down too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZr1K2zmQ-o

You have to hand it to his opponents.  They made smart lay downs, difficult and wrong as they were.  He only needed a Queen to have a straight.  That beats Trip K's and 2 Pairs (A-K).

10 Worst Texas Holdem Starting Hands - Don't Play Them!

Like I've said, I've only been playing for a little over 2 years consistently.  In that time, I've stupidly played many of the hands that I'm about to tell you not to play.  It's funny looking back on it because the other experienced players I played with must have been over-come with anxious anticipation to play against me and take my money.  Now - I know exactly how they felt.  Here's the Top 10 List of Starting Hands that you should avoid (note that all of these hand combinations are off-suit meaning they are of 2 different suits).

1.  2-7 - This is the WORST starting hand in poker.  (I actually got this 6 times last Friday night, but still managed to win the game.)  Don't play stupid is the lesson here.

2.  2-8 - Not a whole lot better obviously.

3.  3-8 & 3-7 - They both basically are equally terrible.

4.  2-6 - You could MAYBE make a straight with these, but the odds aren't great and it would be easy for someone else to make a bigger straight.  Fold.

5.  2-9, 3-9, 4-9 - The 9 is a better-than-average card, but the kicker sucks.  Fold it.

6.  2-10 - Poker Legend Doyle Brunson won a couple of WSOP's with this, but you're not a legend.  Fold it.

7.  5-9 - I was just telling a friend, "I sometimes still almost get sucked into playing hands with catchy names like Dolly Parton".  You know. . . 9 to 5.  Don't do that.  It's just silly.  Fold.

8.  4-7, 4-8, 5-8, 3-6 - All of the high cards are low and all of the kickers are worthless.  All you can do with these hands is lose unless you want to depend solely on luck.  If that's the case, I play every Friday night and you're invited.

9.  K,Q,J + 2,3,4 - So many people get drawn in by the face card, but then someone else has the same one you have or bigger, along with a real kicker.  Then, you donate.  Instead, why don't you fold?

10. A + Any Low Card - "But I had an Ace. . ."  And - you lost.  Don't play stupid.  An Ace high with a low card can get beat by a pair of 2's if you don't pair your cards.  Also, someone else might be playing their Ace with a real card.  Why would you want to put yourself thru that?  Just fold.

I play on Full Tilt Poker a lot and the people on that site love their Aces, but I get all of their chips.  When you play these starting hands, the odds are heavily against you.  It's better to fold and wait patiently for a real hand.  ***The only exception to any of this is if you're in the big blind and nobody raises you out of the hand.  In that case - CHECK.  You might be able to make a ridiculous raise that nobody else calls - maybe.  Or, someone might just be holding pocket K's and you just stepped right off into it.

Game Over.

What are the Odds of Getting a Royal Flush in Texas Holdem?

What exactly are the odds of getting a royal flush in Texas Holdem?  I read in several places that the odds are about 1 in 649,740.  So, that would mean that if you were to play 649,740 hands, you would get a Royal flush just once.  With those odds, my guess is that if you're reading this, you've probably never gotten a royal flush.

I play poker every Friday night with a group of guys.  Usually, there's anywhere from 7 to 10 guys that play.  I guess you can say that I've defied the odds when it comes to getting a Royal Flush because I've done it twice in the past month!  I'm no math whiz, but I'm guessing that nobody has figured out what the odds of hitting it twice in such a small window of time would be.  The first time I hit it, I stopped to take a picture with my cell phone (shown below).

As you can see, it's the 10 thru Ace of clubs.  So, are you ready for the really mind-blowing part of this story?  My 2nd Royal Flush was also the 10 thru Ace of Clubs.  I've been very lucky to say the least.

In the same game as my 1st Royal Flush, I flopped Quad 8's as well.  I can't make this stuff up.  Has anyone ever seen anything like this before because I think my luck has been 1 in 649,740,000,000,000.

Texas Hold'em: The New 4th Sport

I watch a lot of sports on TV and I follow very closely to what's happening in the sports world.  It's nothing for me to get in 20+ hours of college and professional football (especially Notre Dame and the Dallas Cowboys) on the weekends during football season and I keep up with all 82 games of the NBA season.  I follow baseball closely too as I attend as many Rangers games as I can with my sons at the ballpark.  It's pretty clear that these are the "Big 3" sports (football, basketball, and baseball).

So, who's #4?  Hockey wants to be, but when your games are primarily televised on local networks and ESPN 2, that's a pretty clear sign that you're not getting it done.  I would say that with the very rapidly rising popularity of UFC fighting and other mixed martial arts, that there's a race for 4th place, but Poker is winning in a squeaker. 

UFC's popularity is evident in the high number of pay-per-viewers.  No longer is it grouped in with professional wrestling.  I'd like to see the top pro wrestler take on the top MMA fighter.  Now, I'd pay for that!  Even boxing can't keep up with MMA, but that's another story.

So, you have poker, and more specifically - Texas Hold'em.  You want to watch Texas Hold'em on TV?  No problem.  You have head's up poker being nationally televised on NBC.  You can turn on all-night poker every week to 2 weeks on ESPN.  FSN regularly plays the World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables and who can miss re-runs of the World Series of Poker (WSOP).  They're on all the time.  The 2010 WSOP is right around the corner too.  And finally, we have GSN - the Game Show Network, to play High Stakes Poker with all of our favorite poker pros.

As poker fans, we don't have to wait for our game to be in-season (sorry hockey).  And we don't need to pay for expensive pay per view tournaments (although if you're like me, many of you would).  Poker's in season all year long and available to everyone who has a working TV.

Football, Basketball, and Baseball:  You're on notice.  How long before we're watching a WPT final table with Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Gus Hansen instead of whatever you have to offer?

WPT Hole Card Outcomes

I watched the final table of a recently televised World Poker Tour tournament that consisted of 6 final players.  I wanted to see how often the best starting hand won the pot.  The result was some fairly interesting outcomes.

I watched 38 hands in just under 2 hours.

There were 17 All-Ins in 38 hands.  That's 45%, showing a very aggressive final table.

Out of 17 All-Ins, the player going all-in won 11 times (65% success rate).

8 of the all-ins (72%) were by the same player who incidentally made it to the final-2 and lost on his final all-in bet.

At least 2 players saw the flop 79% of the time.  21% of the time the winner was decided before the flop.  In other words the hand was decided pre-flop 1 out of every 5 hands.

Out of the 30 hands that saw the flop, the players remaining (who hadn't folded yet) with the best starting hole cards won the pot 17 times (57% of the time).

And finally. . . .

Most interesting to me - I ranked all of the winning hole cards to find out the average winning hole cards.  To do this, I ranked the cards from 1 to 13 (2=1, A=13).  The average winning hole cards were. . . . .

J   8

How many times would a J 8 hold up in your home game?

Poker Hand Nicknames

I've only been playing poker for a little over 2 years and it took most of that time for me to figure out what all of those poker hands were called.  As I've learned these, it's made the game more enjoyable because I feel like I can speak the language like the rest of my friends who play.  These lists are everything that I've learned and remembered so far. 

Starting Hands / Hole Cards

AA - Pocket Rockets / Bullets
KK - Cowboys
QQ - Ladies
JJ - Hooks
AK - Big Slick
AQ - Little Slick
AJ - Ajax (2 black cards are called blackjack)
KJ - Kojak
JA - Jack Ass
K9 - Canine
J5 - Motown / Jackson Five
10-2 - Doyle Brunson
9-8 - Oldsmobile
9-5 - Dolly Parton
8-8 - Snowmen
7-7 - Walking Sticks
6-6 - Route 66
6-9 - The Dirty
5-5 - Speed Limit
5-7 - Heinz
4-4 - Colt 44
4-9 - 49ers
2-2 - Ducks
2-3 - Jordan
9-9 - Gretzky
3-3 - Treys

And here are yet some others. . .

A K Q J 10 - Broadway
A 2 3 4 5 - The Wheel
K K K - 3 Wise Men
4 of a Kind - Quads
3 of a Kind - Trips or a Set
Full House - Boat

And finally. . .

"The Nuts" - This is an unbeatable hand.

If you "Flopped the Nuts", you made an unbeatable hand with your 2 hole cards plus the 1st 3 cards on "the flop".

Which reminds me - The "Flop" is the 1st 3 cards the dealer turns over.  The "Turn" is the 4th card and the "River" is the 5th and final card.

My Top 10 Favorite Poker Stars

1. Phil Ivey - Such an intimidating force, even among the best players.

2. Daniel Negreanu - Seems like the nicest guy at the table.

3. Gus Hansen - Unpredictable.  He might play anything.

4. Vanessa Rousso - The best and most intimidating female player.

5. Doyle Brunson - He's all-time.

6. Jason Mercier - Young and aggressive.

7. Phil Hellmuth - Easy to hate, but not for me.  I love his antics.

8. Annie Duke - Such a cool and collected player.

9. Scotty Nguyen - He's good and he knows it "baby".

10. Chris Ferguson - How can "Jesus" not make your top 10 list?