Maximilian Karl-Heinz was born Monday December 29th at 9:29 PM weighing in at 7 lb 10 oz’s and 55 cm long. Mother and Baby are doing fine, and father is learning all sorts of new and interesting things.

It’s a lot calmer scene than how they portray it in the movies. Heading to the hospital now.

Developing…

At the last session, I was introduced to Razz, 7 Card Stud, and Omaha. We played both stud hi and Omaha hi and high-low as well. After the session I asked the Lord Admiral as well as “The Man” for good books to read and they pointed me in the right direction.

I got to the game with a bit of a loosey goosey attitude. We started off with Omaha hi, and in my first hand I had a draw to the nut flush. There was a bit of raising and re-raising, but unfortunately, the river was not kind to me. A little while later, playing 7 card stud, I was heads up against the man. He had a J and a 10 showing, and I had a low pair. I was pretty sure he was on a straight draw, and I ended up making two pair. Once again, I did not get there, and it turns out he made the straight on 5th street.

After these two big losses, I was almost $40 down, the big loser on the night at that point. And then I began to hit. The Admiral had begun to whittle away his stack as well. We were heads up, and then with my QJ I flopped broadway. We rereaised each other so that he was all in and then flipped our cards over. He had A-10. There were two blanks, and I took down a fairly large pot.

I took down a couple of decent size pots, and then I had another large pot that managed to take down. It was Omaha an the board was Adxdxd??. I had the Kd. There was a blank on the river and then the river brought the 4th d. I reraised the raiser and he folded. At which point I showed my Kd. I then felt sheepish as the Admiral pointed out that I had to use two cards from my hand. So I kinda got away with one there…

So at that point I had managed to get myself to close to even. The next hand was a monster pot, the largest of the night and what ended up putting me fairly far ahead. It was Omaha High, and I had QdQs8dx? Both the Admiral and the Man were in the hand. The flop came QxAd6d? I checked, there was a raise, and then I reraised. Next card was a blank. Another round of raising with another reraise. The final card was another d(low one). There was a raise and then two calls. Mentally I had already allocated the money I was spending to the Man to see his hand. I knew he had a flush, and I was 75% sure he had the king.   The Admiral flipped over two pair, while the man showed his Jack high flush.

The rest of the night I managed to retain what I won, and for the last 1/2 hour we played no limit hold-em. All in all, I had another awesome time with the Lord Admiral Club. Great guys, great atmosphere, and I managed to draw even overall (-$20 first session, +$20 this session). Couldn’t have asked for more…

I had been invited out to play with the Lord Admiral Club a couple of times, but fate had just intervened in the way. I finally managed to make it out this week to their first game in a while. It’s a group of players who have been playing cards for quite a while. It’s a tight knit and very cool group of players. I knew that they played a tight limit Hold-Em game, but what I was unaware of was that they also played dealer’s choice.

Seeing as I know how to play limit only, that was a bit of a surprise. But the guys were nice enough to walk through the general play of the game and I tried to do the best I could. We played a couple of rounds of limit hold-em and I was able to make money in this game which kept me ahead of the curve. We played Omaha Hi/Lo Seven Card Stud, Razz, and finally 5 card draw lowball.

I managed to draw the nut low in Razz and lowball but I misplayed the lowball hand, and checked where I should have raised (I wasn’t drawing cards anyway, so I’m not sure if that was right or wrong). I managed to pull in a couple of decent pots in Omaha and Hold-Em, but the Hi-Lo games vexed me. I’ll try and get some reading done in these games before the next Lord Admiral game in mid-December.

All in all, it was a great game with a great group of guys (and great atmosphere to boot) capping off my “week of poker” I finished down $20 at that game, my first loss in a while, but it just motivates me to learn both seven card stud and Omaha. Looking forward to the next game. The hand of the night was the two brothers Mark and Sean going at it. With an A on the flop both of them re-raised and saw the hand down to the river where they both revealed… a pair of Kings…

My friend Chris had to work on some top secret project so I got called in. There were around 50 people there, mostly venture capitalists and other such types. It’s more of a networking event, with poker on the side. I get seated at the table with a variety of players, some good ( the eventual champ I think) and some not so much. First hand, I have a full house and fold it. The board is kk99 x and I have the 9. The other player is betting decently, so I assume he has the king. He says he doesn’t have it after. I still would lay this down, just a bad place for me I think.

Soon after I play against the “champ” and he says he has a big hand and I should lay it down. The tourney starts off small, but then the blinds start jumping so it becomes a bit of a push fest. I have KJ. Not a stellar hand, especially if I am against JJ or QQ, which is what I think he has. I lay it down and he shows me QQ. A couple of players get knocked out and I am a shorter stack when a big stack is moved to the table. He raises twice, second time I push, he calls. He has A8 and I have K10. Flop is K10 and that’s that. (All in #1 against him).

At the same table I raise it two hands in a row, both times with KK and get no callers. At that point I already know my luck has given out. I make it to the final table and there is some nervousness as no one wants to bubble (8 players, top 5 spots are paid out). I am medium stack and am close to getting blinded out. The blinds are 400/800 and there is a raise and 3 callers. I look down at 22. I think about it for a while. I don’t really want to push as chances are I am beat. I call and we go to a flop. Sweet mercy the flop is beautiful. A 2 5? I push and get one caller (All in #2 against him). I almost quadruple up. Later I get AJ basically two hands in a row and raise. First time everyone folds. Next hand a medium stack thinks about if for a while and pushes. If I call I’ll still have a fair bit left so I call. I’m thinking he has AQ or maybe KQ. He flips over A7. My AJ holds up and takes it down (All in #3 against him), so I am now the chip leader.

I then get two hands which lose me a fair amount of my chips. I have Qh10h and call a raise to 5K from my BB (2K). flop comes J 8 5? I push for 5K and I see a re-raise. I think about it for a while and fold. It’s against the same good player from my 1st table. I find out he has KK. Later on another hand plays out similarly, and I lose another stack, where he once again had KK. I made the right choices in folding, as another of the stacks get’s blinded out and I am in 3rd place against two monster stacks. I have Kc6c in the big blind and call a raise. Light’s out for me against QQ held by my nemesis, and that’s all she wrote.

All in all, I think I did well, and was happy with all my decision making. The blinds run really fast so later on it really comes down to cards. I was happy with how I did. So my two big live tournaments this year I placed 1st and 3rd. My own tournaments? I’m too distracted running around and taking care of people, so we don’t talk about those…

So I ended up playing one Sit n Go and ended up 2nd. I had to run to a hockey game so I was a bit under the gun. I came back sitting around $30. I then managed to donk off $18 on 5 straight tournament losses. First an all-in JJ (me) vs QQ. What was I thinking (that he had 10’s or a big ace actually). From there it went downhill. Another bad call and then a couple of suckouts later, and I was gone.

So there I was sitting at $13. I decided to take a shot at a $3 9 man SNG and a $1 18 man SNG. I only had a couple of tough multi table decisions. Such as when I called an all-in with my 7 2 and the board was rainbow A 7 5, doubling someone up (I had $5k in chips, while most people had around $1800). In my $3 SNG I was a lucksack. AA twice then AK, and then K10 on a flop of A-Q-J. Not much skill there, but I managed to pound down the last guy and finally win a $3SNG!!!

So now my bankroll is +13.50 and up to $24. In my $1 SNG I get down to the final table and lose a big hand to a cool player at the table (froggy). I have a Q-5 and the board is Q-Q-8-6. Turns out he has Q-J and takes away my lead so I am the small stack. I go all in with A-10 get a caller and flop is A-10-X. I go all in against someone else and win as well. I then end up being the big stack and doing pretty well. It gets down to heads up and some random guy trolls my game. I’m playing almost all my hands and he starts offering his comments “What a donk calling with 7-4″. Sure, but they were suited… 

Anyway after a battle where he takes me down from $18K to $8K (swapping roles basically) and I get fired up and just blast away at him. I get the merciless baiting from the two of them bit end up taking it down. They just don’t understand “Jav Style” poker. Final hand with me leading @$15 – @$10 is me calling his all in. My 7’s hold up against his 5’s. End of game. End of my post! Total Bankroll now back to $30!

Huzzah!

I managed to squeeze in a couple of tourneys Sunday AM and I was flat. Placed 3rd in one and got donked by a runner runner straight after slowplaying a set. Out of my control + made the right decision = I don’t care.

I just played two tourneys. The first one I had QQ back to back. Busted one dude then lost to AJ on the next one. Managed to dance around and knocked out the other chip leader with my straight. It was an “intuition call” out of position but it worked with 98o. From there the little guys got blinded out and I scooped pot after pot as no one wanted to tangle with the guy who would call with anything. Funny thing is I kept pushing on the very first hand of the tourney with nothing. I lost a large pot, so everyone thought I was a donkey after that. Person on my left started calling everything I bet. Due to that first hand I scooped a straight and flush all in against two different players as they thought I was pushing with nothing.  I had to show them the nuts yo!

I was running another tourney at the same time. I’m not using any software. I think I can do it, although there are tight stretches where I am forced to dance between the two tables. The other table I blew to a big lead early, but I can’t remember why? I had QQ at the end but someone folded to my raise. I had 2d3d and saw the flop with only 4 players left against the other chip leader (We both have @ $4K) . Flop 2h 4s 8s They bet 1000 I call. Next card 3h. I bet 1500 they reraise I go all in they call. The flip over… AA. Man, that sucked for them. next card blank, and I do the Jav dance and weave as I have @10K against @2K, @1K, and 500.

So two tournaments, two first place finishes. The best thing about these are that I can squeeze them in and be focused. The bad thing is that they will be harder to do when the kid comes as sometimes they drag on later than an hour. My bankroll is now $27. I think they are a better bet than the 18/27/45 man tourneys, as the prizes for first are not as good vs the time payout.

Anywho, off to chill with the wife, so I am out!

Sit N Go’s it is. I like the action and the ability to hone in on players. I tried playing two at the same time again today, but I just won’t learn. I played a 9 man SNG and and 18 man SNG. The 9 Man I have A-10 and the flop is 10 3 2 rainbow. Next card another 3. He pushes all in. I am the chip leader but this is #2. I call knowing he has a 2 but more likely a 3. He shows 4h3h. I lose everything but 165 and then lose that on my next push all in. I am a donkey.

The 18 man was better, as in I won. The key play was me smoothcalling 2 raisers with 8 -6 while I was the chip leader at our table. Flop comes K 9 7 rainbow. Shortstack pushes, I call, someone else pushes I call. Huge pot, and next cards is 5 and then a 4 to rub it in. From there I never looked back. I had QQ twice or once, but everyone folded to them pre-flop anyway. One thing that I have really been working on is my post flop play, and I am really happy with how that has been progressing. I’m making the right calls an extremely high proportion of the time and I care little about the actual result.

So far so good.

With that victory my bankroll is now sitting at $22. If I can push it up to $100, then I will jump up to the $2 SNG’s. If that works then the $3 and so on (if they exist). There was a set of uncirculated PNY’s on ebay today which got scooped pretty quick. If I ever win the lottery, I’m grabbing them. At $2 a chip, everyone will have to wear latex gloves while playing though…

But it was really bad! I’ve started playing online poker at Pokerstars. Apparantly the way to go is to play small stakes there and then when you have $600 deposit over to Full Tilt Poker. I deposited $75 about a month ago. I started at .02/.05 and won $30. I then moved up to .05/.1. I then proceeded to lose $75. I knew that micro players played differently, but I just had to call to see when I was beat. It was horrible. I called even knowing I was beat!

So with a bankroll of $30 I pushed it up to almost $40 then donked a bunch away. I started playing the $1 Sit and Go’s. Basically they are mini tournaments. I tried multi tabling those as well, but I just get too distracted. I played 3 SNG’s tonight. 1 turbo (uber lame) 1 regular 45 (knocked out at 26) and 1 9 man which I won.

The final player didn’t know you could raise more than the min, so it wasn’t a real victory. Of the 8 SNG’s I’ve played so far, I’ve made the money 4 times. in 3 heads up situations I’ve only won once.

1st I had @ 2K in chips more than the villain. He wins a couple of coinflips where I had the edge and I lose

2nd I had @ 9K more, and I experienced the all-in play. I tried to just hold on, but by that time he picked up @3K more. We then had a couple of all ins, where once again I was a favorite but lost. But this was the tournament where I was all-in first hand against some one. My QQ vs his JJ.

3rd. I danced around, getting pretty low at one point. I have a new trick. My wife will be watching TV or putzing around and I will say “Honey, Please ask them to fold”. At which point, she will say in her sweetest voice “Would everyone please fold”. And then I drag the pot…

So I built up my chips and made it to the final 4. I go all in and it’s my AJ vs the 3rd place guys QQ. I lucksack the A on the flop and that’s basically it. I just run over Johnny Min Bet.

I’ve been looking to augment my current set with a seperate cash set. I’ve been looking to get St. Jo’s or Tukwila’s and I also like the Samurai Palace cash set.

Here are the potential breakdowns:

St Jo (.25/.50?, .50/1, and 1/2)

45 – ncv labeled (potentially used as .25)
130 – .50
221 – $1
100 – $5
10 – $25
10 – $100

Tukwila’s (1/2 unless I get a .50 or .25 chip)

154 – $1
104 – $5
30 – $25
10 – $100

Samurai Palace (.25/50 or .50/1)

With money tight and the uncertainty at work this will be my last purchase in a while. They walked some people out on my Birthday, so it was a pretty shitty day as everyone was pretty tense. Good thing I don’t have any major expenses coming up soon such as a kid…

On a related note I’m reading the Moshman Sit N Go book as well as the mathematics of poker. I made the final table of a 45 man yesterday and then donked out in 6th on an uber retarded play on my part. A8 vs AQ on a board of Q 8 X . I just got it in my mind that he was bluffing. bad thing was that he wasn’t, and he was the chip leader…