2nd Session of August

-$429.00 3:51 hours
Just so you all know off the get go, I’m pissed off and I’m going to tell it like I feel. So, if you are used to reading Mailman’s blogs and are easily offended, get the fuck out. Let’s get down to hand histories people.

I sat in that Nautica dump for an hour(other than limping or calling my big blind) before I got involved in this first beauty. I have KK, open for $15.00 and get three callers. I made it $40.00 on Kd6s8s because I will not slow play a fucking thing against those retards. One retard called to see a 2c on turn. Fuck that, I put the retard all in for $40.00 and the river is a spade. Fuck nuts shows Acs9s. Nice call duchebag. It is 5:20pm and I already have to add on $100.00.

I sit in the shithole an additional hour without playing a hand, before running into this train wreck…I posted $3.00 because I missed the blinds holding 910. UTG who is a fucking call station idiot and has “DEB” tattooed on his fagot finger raised to $12.00 and I call along with three other fuckers. We see 10c9c7d on flop and original raiser makes it $10.00. I know the DEB idiot missed that flop for fucking sure! I raise to $45.00, he calls, 2s on turn and I pushed for $85.00. Guess what…Ass fuck calls, club hits river and he shows AcQc. WTF. Retards cannot get away from draws to save their life. Fucking idiots.

It is now 6 fucking 30 and I re-bought to make it $500.00 in the game, just two hours into it! These last two hands I got involved with are just more fucking, but nothing too painful.

I’m in big blind with AQ and everyone limps to me. I smell weakness and make it $17.00. This dumb broad to my left makes it $40.00, guy to her left pushes for $45.00, I call. I put her on overcards or medium pair because she has been overvaluing her hands until this point. J44 on flop. I check, She checks. Really? She must have AK, AQ or medium pair. Turn is blank. Check, check. K on river, I check, she bets, I fold, she shows AK. I lost $45.00. I wasn’t too pissed.

Last hand I have AK and button makes it $15.00. He was one of the retards at the table so I put him on smaller paint cards or small pair. I pop it to $50.00, he calls and we see a flop of Jxx. He moves in out of position because he was so excited. I said, “Do you care to let me make a move first?” he looks at me and says “I’m sorry, my fault”. I fold and he shows QQ.

I took down one fucking hand all fucking night. Here it is for your listening enjoyment. UTG opens for $7.00 and gets me to call on my QJ. He makes it $20.00 to go on 10c9h4h, I put him all in for $22.00 more and take down the hand against his Ah4h when a queen hits the river for a net profit of $49.00. WTF people? I said fuck it I cashed out my last $71.00.

Cumulative; -$929.00 10:44 hours. Awesome.

First Session of August

The first hand I got involved with, I have 99 and open for $10.00 and get two callers. 1086 flop, I bet $25.00, Mick makes it $60.00, I fold and he shows AA.

Next big hand I get dealt A9d with an AA10 flop. I get it all in with short stack and they turn broadway with KQ for $42.00 more.

Next big hand I get A9h and see a flop of AJ7. Kennedy makes it $15.00 and I call to see a 9. I’m all in and run into AJ for $120.00. By 6:45 I have $500.00 in the game.

Last big hand of the night I make a move against krazy Mike who has been a bully all night but I made sure to move to his left. I have position and he opens for $12.00 like he has been doing all fucking night. I call with 57 or something like that. He bets the flop of 584? And I raise. He calls, I push on turn and he calls with 66.

He won that hand but his weakness is his bullshit “Colin” hero calls because he loses way more chips than he wins by trying to manufacture those gay ass bragging stories. He lost at least two big pots by calling obvious winners to his second best hand.

-$500.00 in 7 hours. Not a good start to my August goals. However, I feel like I played decent cards but did not have a lot of opportunity for exploiting. Thinking back, there were very few hands I would play differently and I do not regret my session overall. That is the bottom line in my mind. Onto the next one.

Putting it in writing.

Since my last blog, I have not been running all that good. So I have decided to make a real effort for the whole month of August to play my best poker. It’s funny because I feel that I am playing better now than any other time in my life. I’m paying attention to position, I’m folding a lot more hands and I’m not chasing draws that I’m priced out of.

My goal is to play 100 hours and average $15.00/hr for a net profit of $1500.00 all at 1-2 NLHE games. I am not going to say anymore, I am just going to do it. I will be posting the results in the first week of September.

I ran into a situation

I play poker with a circle of friends who are there for support, swapping poker information and just to hang out with. We also end up at the same games and same tables from time to time. When we are playing at the same table together, there a few of us that have a gentlemen’s agreement in that we will not try to stack each other while playing head’s up. This is especially true when we are at a casino versus one of our home games because the sole purpose of playing in a casino is to make money and we are there to get it from the other players, not each other. Homes games are more for the social experience than making money so it is more for bragging rights when you outplay others and leave with their money.

That being said, I had a situation come up while playing in a single table cash game with a friend of mine the other night. I was sitting two seats to his left and we were about 7-8 hours into the session. Up until that point, we stayed out of each others way. If he opened with a raise, I folded mediocre hands and let him take the lead. He reciprocated at those times when I opened for a bet. Keep in mind that one aspect of our agreement is that we will play our normal game when other players remain in the action. It is only when we become heads up that our action will slow down and we will check to each other or fire out minimal bets.

Anyways, a hand was dealt where my friend opened for a bet and got called by seat two. I called with As8s and I believe there were one or two more callers. The flop came 8cJd2h and he c-bet $20.00. I called and everyone else folded. The turn was a blank and he fired $50.00 at me knowing we were heads up. I was perplexed and also a little irritated because of our long standing agreement. I decided at that point in time he wanted to challenge me and I called his bet. The river was an 8h and he fired another $50.00 at me! I thought to myself “what the hell is going on here and why is he playing into me like this”? I knew I had the best hand and thought for a moment if I should raise his ass for the rest of his $200.00 or should I let him off easy and just call. I decided to call and tabled my hand. He showed KK and almost went through the roof he was so hot. However, because we were in the company of others, he could not express his opinion at my play and I could not ask him why he broke our agreement.

When the game broke up several hours later, I called him on the way home and he immediately laid into me about how bad I played and the fact that I should not have been in the hand anyways. My argument was the fact that it had nothing to do with the cards I held or the fact that I wanted to play that particular hand. It was all about the agreement we had that he should have made a small bet/check on the turn and a check on the river. His action would not have been interpreted as soft because the second 8 came out on the turn and that is what slowed him down. He didn’t want to hear my opinion in the least and kept deflecting to my bad play. I asked him why he didn’t slow down and he mentioned that he was stuck a lot of money at that point in time. “So you wanted to take my money to get back to even?” I reminded him that I could have cost him another $200.00 if I wanted to be a dick about it and push on the river. I got no thanks for that kind gesture, however.

I guess we will not be playing at the same table in the near future but I am standing by my action. I do not feel like I did anything wrong and think that he got caught up in his hand to the point that he ignored the fact that we were heads up. Keep in mind that if I never hit that second 8, I would have folded my hand and we would not be having a discussion about this. However, when you enter into an agreement with someone, it needs to be black and white or you will have problems down the road like I just found out. No exceptions!

Going as planned

I sold my 2006 Honda CBR 600rr today and just increased my bankroll to a very comfortable level. Ya all better watch out because I got more $$$ now and I have been closing up some leaks in my game at the same time. I am not going to share all my secrets but my goals are being reached so far at just six weeks into it.

I am now on a ten session winning streak and hope to keep milking it for much more. How have I done it? Playing good, running good and sidestepping landmines. You ask “what the hell does that mean?” Well, it means I am focusing on my game and have been getting lucky at the same time. It is a continuous process of adjusting my play based on the game and table dynamics. It is of popular belief that to master the game of chess you need to devote your life to the craft. Then why is it that everyone thinks they can become an expert at poker after reading a few books, watching high stakes games on TV or winning a tournament here or there?

There is not a day that goes by that I am not reading, watching or playing the game of poker because I realize that to improve my game, I must study the game. I also just happen to love everything about it. If you only knew how much I want to make this my life and career. It’s all I think about.

The new location for Nautica sucks because it is cramped and unorganized. The rooms are split up and the coffee is always cold. On the plus side, you can get up from your table and grab a beer without walking outside! That can be a problem as well if you spend too much time at the bar. I can’t wait for Higbee’s to open their 25 table card room up with professional dealers and more of a casino atmosphere. My mail will be transferred as of that time to that new address. Guaranteed.

Me versus Bad Beat Jackpot donkeys

I’m sitting at a table in Detroit’s Motor City Casino after 30 hours(interrupted twice with naps) of grinding it out. The 14 table card room is full because the bad beat jackpots are so off the charts. There are two of them and one is at $150,000.00 for Aces full of Kings versus any better hand. The second one is at $220,000.00 for quads versus quads. You would not believe how many people are playing just to win a jackpot. In fact, that was all anybody would talk about while I was playing. Good luck if you bet so much pre-flop that you scare everyone out of the pot and jeopardize the table’s chance of winning a badbeat. You would have been chastised by a bunch of old people for hours.

Anyways, I wanted to mention a particular hand that topped off a good trip to Motor City. I was dealt 10c10h in fourth position of a full table. UTG opens for $15.00 and I just call to let more players enter and juice up the pot a little. Four players stick around to see a flop of 10d8c4c. The flop is checked to me and I feel like slow playing this one so I check. Surprisingly, seat five bets out $50.00 and everyone else mucks. He has $500.00 in front of him to my $350.00. I think to myself for a minute, do I 3-bet or call? Well, this particular stockbroker type always bet fast in previous hands when he thought he had the best hand and wanted to get players off their draws. I called and checked in the dark knowing full well that if the turn was a safe card, he was going to over bet the pot thinking that I was on a club draw. Boy was I right when he fired out $150.00 after the 6h hit the turn. I tanked to appear unsure of myself and peaked at my cards one last time. “I’m all in”. That was the last thing he was expecting and asked me if I hit my straight. I just looked down and didn’t say a word. He reluctantly called and was beside himself when I tabled my tens. I asked him, “how many outs do you have?”. He said he had very few and mucked his cards when a 3d came on the river. NICE!

How do you like that bitches?

I got involved in a hand yesterday that I’m proud of because of the way I played it. I got dealt JJ and opened out of position for $20.00. I got two callers and saw J52 on flop. I was so strong I wanted to appear weak and decided to bet out $20.00. That seemed like a scared bet to me and it worked because I got one caller on the hook. He had about $80.00 in front of him. I thought to myself “How can I get the rest of his money? I know…I will check the flop if it’s not a scare card”. Turn was a blank, I paused and then checked. The other player tanks, then slowly grabs his stack and slides them forward. Bingo! “I call”. River was a blank and I tabled my set. He never showed his cards but I am assuming he was weak and was just making a play. I really don’t think I could have maximized that pot if I played it any other way. I love when a trap works out as planned!