CardRunners

 Running so bad...and still even over the last 3 days. I've lost now 8 times in a row when the money (or most of it) has gone in with 85% equity or better. Today started off pretty sick. I made, what I think is the best call I've made in a long time. UTG blind min-raises, and cutoff calls. I look down on the button at ATo and raise to $50. Folds to cutoff who smooths. Flop comes down KT7 with two spades. Cutoff checks, I bet $65, he raises to $165, I think for a bit and call. I didn't think he had a King, since he was the type of player to protect his hands against draws..so with a strong king he would have most likely led out at this pot. The Turn brought a second club to the board (4c) and he checks again. I check behind thinking I'm ahead here. Turn brings the Jc completing a backdoor flush, and a couple of random straights, which I didn't really think he would check raise the flop with. He leads out $225 on the river and I tank. I just can't put him on any hand at this point that would beat my AT, unless he had like JQss and boinked a J on the river. Even that type of hand I don't think he tries to get value from. So I call with third pair and am good against his pocket nines.

This set a good image on the table and I proceeded to roll, up about $900 at one point. Then with about 1400 in front of me I flop a flush, with a backdoor straight flush draw and get it in against a straight up retardo drunken guy who has me covered....obviously he has the nut flush and gets shipped teh 3k pot....ugh. What tilts me a bit further is this guy was just a disgusting human being. Generally i don't mind losing big pots, and am pretty polite about losing, but he was telling me how I should have folded even if I thought he had a set cause the board could have paired etc. In my time down here I've also become friends with a lot of the employees; dealers, masseuses, waitresses, floor people etc. There's one particular masseuse that, well, turns a lot of heads, that i'm friends with and this guy proceeds to just absolutely demean her when she's massaging a guy right behind him...pretending to cup her ass, making all sorts of leud comments to her  and such. Live poker players really are just the scum of the earth...I can't believe i gave him so much money.

Anyway, I grind myself back to even over the course of the next few hours, just basic stuff....position, no cards, etc. I get KK in mp and raise to $35 and get 2 callers. Flop comes down T26 with two diamonds, and I lead $65. Button smooth calls. He's the type of guy who will go broke if he flops top pair (even if overs to that pair hit on subsequent streets). Turn is an offsuit 4 and I lead $140. Again he snap calls, so at this point I know he has a ten or a flush draw. River is an offsuit jack. I figure his range here is JT, QT, T9, T8, KT, AT or a missed flush draw. Against this range i think it's best to check to induce a bluff, rather than have a missed draw fold to my bet. So I check and he shoves his remaining $225 into the pot and I call, and he obviously flips JT for the rivered 5 outer. 

I rage-quit after this and shipped myself up to my room to cool down a bit. All said and done I'm down less than a buyin on the day...but feels like I should be up like 7 buyins. Gross feeling...

 I watched the first 3 quarters of the game from my room, and thought it was in the bag for Texas...so I headed down to put in a tilt-evening session. Ohio State charged back and took the lead but obviously left the entire middle of the field open with 20 seconds left to let Texas take the game away. Phenomenal mental collapse at the end there...also how did Texas get that favorable of a spot on 4th and 8th?

Anyway, I was put on a ridiculously difficult 2/5 table and scoped out a really soft 5/10 table so I decided to ship myself into the high stakes room. I bought in for 1300 or so, and got QQ my first hand and took down a 3bet pot on the flop. Two hands later I limp K8dd from mp and we see a 5-way flop of AK8 with two spades. It checks to me and I lead 45. Guy next to me raises to 100 and it folds to me and I flat. Turn is an offsuit 6 and I check call his 150 bet. I flat for a number of reasons, I put him on a reasonable Ace at this point, and figure there are a number of cards to hit the river that can either serve as scare cards or fill me up. Anyway river is an offsuit 4 and he overbet fires $500. Basically readless on the player, I just couldnt' put him on anything other than a decent ace that woudl be limped preflop or maybe aces up, so i called and he flipped up a set of 8's. Gross. What's funny is that if the flop had come down like AK4 and I had K4dd I would have been more inclined to fold since fours are in a standard players limping range and 8's just aren't.

So I'm quickly down like $800, but double up pretty huge getting KsKd in on a TT6 two diamond flop and suck out catching runner runner diamonds against AT. I won a few more small pots and ended the session down a little less than 200...simply because the table didn't want to play 4 handed.

I'm kinda tilted about how the day ended up, since it seemed to have so much potential...in terms of sports, poker, and a few other things that won't be discussed here...but what can I say, life in general is pretty swingy.

I'm thinking about staying another couple of days down here, if the games look good and then go skiing for the rest of the week....just to get out of this environment and enjoy what winter has to offer.

Alrightly, night kids.

 I took a nice couple of days off from work, which was diffiult considering a few of my friends called me Friday night and told me that the Borgata poker room was packed more than they had ever seen it. One friend was 50th on the 2/5 wait list, which is insane because they generally just open new tables at 10 people...but they had run out off tables. But, I needed the few days off to take care of errands, and just live outside of poker for a bit. It's always refreshing to do so, and is definitely one of the reasons why I have really appreciated lvie poker recently. When playing online, from the comfort of your home, poker and life get really entangled. I would get to the point where I would just play because I could. Now I can separate poker and life, and it's been really rewarding.

Anyway, today I started up about $800 within the first two hours. My table was really soft and I was feeling quite good about my control over it. I had not shown down any bluffs, and had made a few hands so my image should have been pretty clean....unfortunately people dont' pay attention to such things in live poker and the following hand transpires:

UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, UTG+2 raises to $20, cutoff calls $20, I look down at two red aces, and raise to $100. The cutoff smooth calls, the $80 on top. Flop comes down a mediocre JcTs2d. I bet $150, and after thinking about 10 seconds he smooth calls leaving $220 behind. The turn is a 6c. I shove, and he snap calls. I look at him and say "two pair?" and he goes, "no, but I know you're bluffing" and tables KTo (that's right KTo on a JT26 board). The river brings an obvious King, and he says "now I have two pair, but it doesnt' matter." I flip my aces and he kinda just has this look of shock on his face as to how wrong he was...and sits dumbfounded the rest of the session proceeding to just bleed it all away. Tilted me pretty hard that I lost that hand...88/12 no good. He then says "I'm sorry I put you on a big ace the entire way."  Now I thought about this a bit. If he thought I had AK, well KT is just terrible PF, if he thought I had AJ on the flop he's completely dominated, If he thought I had AT his KT is dominated...so really the only hand out of my ENTIRE range that he could possibly beat is AQ. Sickening how bad people are.

Anyway, I left shortly after that, up about half a buyin and grabbed some dinner. I'm just relaxing a bit in my room right now, watching...of all things, Independence Day. Fun.

Lata

 As usual I'm up bright and early, despite going to bed as the sun was rising. Yesterday was a pretty interesting day in the life of Mike. After losing money desperately trying to beat the Tropicana poker crew, I fell asleep in the Trop room Fegan/Trev had booked, despite the fact that I had a free room checked in over at the Borgata. Just didn't feel like driving all the way back over there at 3am bla bla bla. 

So we woke up and decided to poker it up at the Borgata. First, however we needed to figure out our New Years plans. Last minute a few people decided they wanted to come to AC, Mackies, Cassie, Terry. How much do you pay for a room on New Years, you ask? Well Fegan kindly asked how much it would be to extend the Trop room....$565 plus tax....I kindly ask if the Borgata has any availabilities and they say they are completey booked. After which, I ask how much it would cost to extend my room at the Borgata and they say "oh you have a room? $865 plus tax." Feeling a bit poor, and just morally against paying that much money for a room we had stayed in for free (borgata), or cheap ($60 at trop the night before) we hit up the internet searches. Well the Sheraton the huge hotel near the convention center between the borgata and the boardwalk had a nice room for $279. Ship it. 

With the evening plans established, we hit up the poker room at the borgata. The room was eeerily empty, and none of the 6 2/5 games looked particulary good...so I just sweated Fegan at his short handed 10/25 game. As I was sitting there they began seating a new 5/10 game, and Trev sat (lol?). If Trev was playing 5/10 I had to right? The game looked really good with a bunch of nervous players, so I took a seat and was quickly up close to a buyin. Then I lost a pretty big pot when I couldn't find the fold button..after triple barreling AA on a J82QQ board and getting min-raised on the river. He ended up with...Q9 nto sure how he got past the flop, sigh. I then proceeded to run one big bluff and got insta-shoved on...heh. 

At this point I rage-quit down about $800 and went to get some lunner (lunch+dinner) w/ Trev and Fegs. Feeling better after discussing hands, and eating some high quality greasey food we headed back and I rebought to $1400. Well first hand back I lost an $800 pot with Q9 vs AA on a nine high board...sweeet. Things started to turn a bit whn 3 hands later I doubled up with AK on a K9797 board....we got it all in on the flop, and he flipped KQ. I played pretty solid the rest of the way and ended the day up about $300 or so...

The other members of our party arrived around the time we quit and we got a quick dinner before heading back to the Sheraton to change. We decided to just go to murmur (borgata club) for the New Year and it ended up being a pretty solid time...nothing really special about it, seemed about the same as murmur any other night...but always fun to cut some rug with TrevRob...

After murmur we played a litle low stakes black jack, and it is incredible to me how many people play when they are out of their mind drunk. Half the people at the tables couldn't  keep their eyes open, let alone count the number in front of them. Irrespective Mackies and I played for an hour or two, and both ended up a healthy amount before catching a cab back to the hotel and crashing for the eve (the others had gone back a bit earlier, first Trev/Cassie/Terry and then Fegan all by his lonesome)...apparently Terry  or Cassie or Trevor latched the door after heading back which obviously left Fegan sitting alone in the hall by himself for a half an hour...I hear he was rolling around on the floor in the fetal position crying "Trevor I'm going to kill you" but that's all hear say.

Anyway, I'm up in the air about today. I may stay another day and grind at the Borgata if the games look good. Otherwise I may head home, since I've been down here for a pretty long time and am kinda ready to just relax at home with my guitars...

I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years/Holiday Season.

<3 Mike

 Yesterday was fun. I started off, as mentioned in my previous blog, wanting to do some shopping...so obviously I hit the blackjack tables first to see if I can win some "spending money." I played 2 shoes and left up $400, solid. Went out and spent about $250 on a new Jcrew Pea Coat, a few sweaters, few dress shirts, a couple ties, belt...pretty decent haul for the money i spent. 

After walking around for a bit, Trev texts me saying he's slumming in the trop poker room...fegan on the other hand texts me that he's already at the borgata....so i head over to the borgata wanting to avoid any sort of diseases trev might be contracting from the players at the trop.

My session at the borgata basically goes like this. First hand of the day i get Ak, and get stacked on an A93 rainbow board to 33. I proceed to  grind for 6 hours and get close to even when a guy calls my huge pf 3bet w/ 99 leaving himself almost nothing behind and hits a set vs my aces. A bit tilted, I picked up and found Fegan beasting 10/20...but we had to meet Trev for some dinner reservations at Carmines. Had a decent meal and decided to play an evening session after watching a bit of the Holiday Bowl. 

Now I voted on going back to the borgata, but Trev convinced us to stay at the Trop to 8th level these terrible 2/5 players. So the three of us sit at the same table and proceed to grind. Trev obviously gets hti hard right off the bat slowplaying his set turned boat, and got outboated on the river...though the guy didnt' shove and take all of Trev's money, slightly comical. I ran terribly...and after discussing the hands with Fegan can conclude that I was coolered 3 times in about 2 hours. First I raised 45o to $30 from late position and get a few callers. Flop comes down 944 rainbow. I lead for $65 and get one caller. I check behind on the turn, not really afraid of anything. River is a T and he leads $95, and I shove. He calls with J4. 

Second hand, I call a small raise from the bb with 68cc. Flop comes down 4s5c7c...giving me the nuts with the open-ended straight flush redraw. Initial raiser leads out $50 (he had raised pf maybe twice in 2 hours or so, and I put him on an over pair) so I flat. Turn is the Ac giving me the flush. he leads for $95, and I shove for $150 more, he snaps with KcQc. I can't hit my two-outter..fail.

Third hand, I raise K7cc from early position to $30. Flop comes down K75 rainbow. I lead out 3/4 pot, and get a call. Turn was a blank and checked wanting to induce a bet. He checked behind and river brought an Ace. I made a smallish value bet which he thinks about and calls. I flip K7 thinking I have the effecive nuts against his calling range, since he was a pretty tight player but he slowly turns A5 over after seeing my hand.

The last hand I played on the table I raised QQ from mp to $30,  and got 4 callers. Flop came down an hilarious 234sss. UTG limp-caller insta-fires $200 into $157. UTG+1 limp-caller insta-shoves for $900+. I fold, LP nit calls, and UTG calls. UTG flips up a set of threes, UTG+1 flips up the king high flush, and LP flips up A5 straight w/ nut flush redraw....pretty sick how everyon was just SLAMMING flops against me.

All said and done I only lost 3 buyins on the day...but it feels like a lot more. 

-Slay self.

 I've been down in Atlantic City since Sunday evening. I drove down after a week off, filled w/ friends, family, food, holidays and no poker. Upon arrival I met up with Pete and started playing. With few unstandard spots, save one hand, I grinded a $1400 profit in 5 hours before getting 4 outted and insta-rage-quitting up about a k.

The one interesting hand went as follows. I open to $25 mp with 88 and get 4 callers. Flop comes Q92 with two clubs. It checks to the button, an older gentleman who was , to put it nicely, good for the game. I had picked up on a betting tell with him earlier in the evening and decided to let him tell me his hand by his bet size (since he always bet when checked to). He led for $30 and it folded around to me. I called. The turn came an offsuit 6. I checked, and he bet $75. Again I called. The river came an offsuit Q. I checked he bet $150. I thought about it for a bit. His tell was based on his flop bet size. When it was tiny he generally didn't have anything. The only hands that I could put him on that beat me were 66, TT and JJ..and called figuring that AK, AJ, AT, A8, 77, 55, 44, 33, KJ, KT, etc. were all part of his bluffing range. I didn't think he'd try and squeeze value out of a 9, and I didn't put him on a queen because of his flop bet. So I called after saying I don't think he has anything, and he slams 77 on the table triumphantly. Ship. I decided not to raise on any street because he was a firing fiend, and thought that as long as the board came off relatively safe I would extract the most value.

Anyway, after i finished up my session, around 9pm both my brother and TrevRob called me to tell me they were coming down. I walked around a bit to fume about getting 4-outted, and eventually the two of them showed up and we hit up the Metropolitan Cafe in the Borgata. After a solid late night meal, Trev and I went to log a session. We played for about two hours, ending with me getting coolered when my set got cracked by a naked flush draw, yes we got it in on the flop. it was pretty frustrating because I hadn't played a hand in about an hour, just playing really tight and basically announced to the table that I had a set based on my flop raise....but the guy was a gambler and wanted to get it in as often as he could. Anyway, I left down about a buyin and trev left up about a buyin...so is life.

Yesterday, we logged a pretty solid 6 hour session during the day, where I ran pretty well. I feel like I value bet  and picked my spots really well. Trev ran kinda cold, and ended down a little over a buyin, and I picked up 3 buyins before Fegan called us to tell us he was on his way. We booked a room over at Trop for $60 a night, rather than spend over $350 for a room at Borgata (crazy right). After getting settled, Trev did some CR work while i passed out for a bit. Fegan went to play 10/20 and "run bad." We met up at the Borgata and had an excellent dinner at their steakhouse, Old Homestead. Afterwards we had planned on stopping into murmur, but the line was literally 500 people long to get in. Instead we ended up playing some more poker where all of us lost money, awesome. I lost a buyin once again getting coolered AKss aipf against KK, and the guy had the nerve to slowroll call preflop. Fegan did a little worse getting AKss aipf against AA at 10/25. And trev ended down just a little after losing a few small pots. All a bit bitter about the way the night had turned we decided just to crash.

Today I'm probably going to just take a walk on the boardwalk, and maybe do some shopping before logging an afternoon-evening session. Oh and Fegan and Trev are currently spooning each other...just fyi.

 Well it's been a pretty long week, filled with a fair share of poker, family, gifts, and an overwhelming amount of food and inactivity/laziness. After being really good about eating healthy and going to the gym every day for the past month or so, I've slumped this week, real bad. Though who could blame anyone for taking a week off, with family in town, and ginormous amounts of food to consume. 

Anyway, I've always found that when I become inactive and start eating unhealthy my energy level really takes a nosedive. I sleep far too much, and am always wanting to just sleep some more. So today, I have few committments, besides a few errands and having dim sum with my mom's side of the family...as such I'll be heading to the gym, and going shopping for my normal blend of healthy foods.

I haven't played any poker online this week, so not much to report beyond what I posted in my previous few posts re: live play. I'll be down at the Borgata from Sun-Tues, w/ TrevRob, Fegan and a few others. If you're in the area feel free to PM me.

I also took second in a CR fantasy league, which consisted of Tay, Wiggins, LL2, Jeff, Dahlig, Trev, Fegan, Bates and a few others that are slipping my mind. I led for the first half of the season, with Bates going on an enormous lucksack run toward the end...and then Fegan absolutely lucksacking his way to victory.

Anyway, was fun...sad that football will all be over soon....though I'm excited to watch the Yanks play this year. Winter meetings though, always seem to be more exciting then the actual season.

Recently I've been listening to a lot of Indie music, MGMT being one of the groups that has grown on me. You can imagine how happy I was when I found this MGMT/Talib Kweli (one of my favorite rappers) mashup: