The Big 3-OOHHH!!
Once again, I celebrated my birthday at the always accommodating Horseshoe-Bossier City. This year was a special year for me as it was my 30th. (I still feel like I’m 24ish.) As I take an inventory of my life at 30, I see that I am very blessed. I’m married to a wonderfully beautiful and incredible wife. I’ve got a miraculously healthy 3 year old baby boy. My wife and I are both healthy, physically and spiritually, and we’re financially stable despite a tumultuous year in real-estate in 2008.

I haven’t been to a casino in a long while, nor have I been playing much online. It got too big for a while and I decided to pull the plug on it. I still get my fix from time to time online, but the serious study of the game and the dependence on the extra income I’ve cut out. (The income has been sorely missed.) There is no more 18 tabling for me and I’ve forgotten more about poker than most average people will ever learn. I’m down to 2 or 3 tables and only playing once every 2 to 3 weeks or so. My bb/100 has skyrocketed though, so that is one positive. Oh, and despite my best efforts in the 2nd half of 2008, I spent all of my bankroll on paying down my wife’s car, vacations and other miscellaneous crap.

We arrived at the HSBC a few minutes before 7pm and had to rush to check in and unload our bags in order to join our friends at Sushiko at the Louisiana Boardwalk. The LA Boardwalk is in walking distance of the HSBC, but unfortunately, Sushiko is at the other end of this massive outdoor mall, so we drove. The food was good but it took 2 hrs to get it. We ordered a “Boat,” which consisted of an assortment of Sashimi (raw fish), Nigirisushi (raw fish over rice) and 2 Norimaki (rolls.) My wife and her friend were expecting more rolls, but they obviously weren’t listening to the waitress when she said twice that the “Boat” only contained 2 rolls. The “Boat” is an actual 2’x 8” wooden boat that docks in the middle of your table. They have “Ships” also, but the “boat” handily served 4. The food was an A-, Service was a B and the Environment was a solid A, less a 15 point deduction for our long wait. Overall, I’d count the experience as a good one B+ after a curve bonus due to the fact that I had good friends around me to carry the 2 hour delay.

When we finally returned to the HSBC around 10pm everyone made a break for their favorite money pits. Several fell victim to the one armed bandits, others decided to try their luck at craps. Of the 4 couples that celebrated my birthday at the HSBC, only 1 couple came away a winner at the craps tables. As for me, I wisely made my way down to my favorite sweet-spot, the exquisite HSBC poker room. I’ve been to 3 rooms in Tunica, 5 in Biloxi, 2 in Vicksburg and the El Dorado poker room across the river in Shreveport and IMO the HSBC’s room is at the top of the list. It's a bit smaller than the others, but it’s always clean, the dealers are well trained, polite and professional; there are flatties everywhere; the service is great and you can get seated exceptionally fast at your game of choice. On this night, I was put on the list for the $1/3 NL game and immediately agreed to sit at a $4/8 limit game. Within 10 minutes my name was called and I was playing America’s new favorite game, the unlimited version of Texas Hold Thems.

I tried an old game of spot the sucker and it was just like riding a bike. The loud mouth at the end of the table was telling everyone that “He doesn’t want none of this!” He proceeded to turn over a rivered gut-shot ftw. He was playing every hand and betting hard and talking big when he had it or else he was keeping quiet and betting small when he didn’t. Luckily, 2 very capable regulars got up and left the table soon after I sat down, they were replaced by 2 rednecks wearing matching Stihl hats. The 2 new additions quickly proved very profitable for me as I proceeded to bust the loud-mouth and one of the rednecks in successive hands. I could say that it was my egggggspurt poker playing and mental prowess that allowed me to take their money, but the truth is that I flopped 2 consecutive flushes with suited connectors in late position and they both blew up in turn on the flop. I only had to sweat the bare ace against the loud mouth and the redneck blew up w/ top pair top kicker from the blinds in a multi-way limped pot. About the time that I got my tiny mound of chips stacked and a text message out to Mr_Taterhead about how EZ poker is, my wife walked up to tell me that she’s done gambling and that she’s ready for me to come upstairs. “WOWIE, WOWIE, WOWIE!!! Sorry boys, I hate to hit-n-run, but when the wife says she’s ready, it’s time to gogogogogoogogo!!” I quickly cashed in my $350 win and headed upstairs to cash in my favorite birthday present of all time!

We rejoined Mr_Taterhead and our other pals the next morning for a late breakfast at the HSBC’s ever enjoyable buffet. With full bellies the guys headed back into the casino for a try at winning some of our money back from the craps tables. The other wives took what little money was left from the destruction that was the night before and tried to throw that away at the LA Boardwalk mall. My wife had latched on like a Michael Vick pit-bull to a large bite of my prior night’s poker winnings, I'm sure that the GAP appreciated it. I gave most of the red-necks money back to the casino, and then luckily my wife called and said that they were all done shopping. If the truth be told, I left there with what I came with and my wife was all the richer for my good fortune at poker. AH, the good life!

Cliff Notes on my 29th Birthday Trip to the HS-BC

In celebration of my 29th birthday, Mr_Taterhead (the poker player formerly known as BJJIII) and I decided to make a long trip over to our favorite cardroom, the Horseshoe-Bossier City. Last year at this time we went up to Tunica, MS during the WPO and the WSOP-Circuit Events. This year we decided to forego the 5hr long drive in exchange for an hour and a half one and we got free rooms ta boot at the HS-BC!

My holiday started on Wednesday since the Tunica trip was slated for the 16th through the 19th. Because the drive was going to be less, we shortened our trip down to the 17th through the 19th. We planned on leaving on the night of the 16th, but Harper (Mr_Taterhead’s kid) got sick and Mr_T had to stay back. I decided to stay an extra night home w/ my hot wife and drive over in the morning. I hoped to grind online most of the day Wednesday, but ended up down in the south side collecting some late rent monies, and only getting 3 hours in at Pokerstars. I think that I netted $10 or so after 2,800 hands of 25NL and had at one point been up >$100. We’ll call Wednesday a wasted day, as I got nothing accomplished that I had hoped to.

A Great Start

Thursday morning ran according to plan and I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my get-away. I was able to do some quality reading and have some quiet time before I took a shot at 50NL. My shot was a successful one as I won $135 and cleared my first ever $50 FPP bonus within an hour’s time. I’m now fully rolled for 50NL and am looking forward to the increased stakes. After a quick shower, I headed out of town at 11am.

There were a few stops on my way out, so I didn’t arrive at the HS-BC until ~ 1:30pm. Check-in wasn’t until 4pm, so I just went straight to the tables. Josh, the daytime floor manager , greeted me when I walked in. He’s a super nice guy and keeps things running smoothly. I hit him up for a club sandwich and, of course, I’ve got meal comps running out of my ears from frequenting this place twice a month for the last year. If you ever visit the HS-BC and start accumulating the $1/hr food comp, don’t freak out when you put your card into the reader machine and it tells you that you don’t have any points or dollars built up. The $1/hr comp rate of the poker room is completely different than that of the rest of the casino. The reader told me that I had $1 in comps, but Josh explained the difference to me and informed me that I had $120+ of comps built up! (Friday night seafood buffet here I come!)

Learning from others

I was pretty card dead for the afternoon but was able to break even by playing positionally aggressive poker . I think my stack grew to a $100 profit at some points, but it also got low enough that I had to top it off once after a tough series of hands. The player on my immediate left [(the 9 seat) we’ll call him Michael] and I had lots to talk about as his primary income was from live poker. We played together at several tables and I really learned a lot from him. We immediately hit it off and were soon sharing ideas and reads that we had picked up on the other players at the table. His style of reading players was quite different from mine, but his stack and results proved to me that he knew what he was doing. I won’t elaborate on how he reads players because I don’t want to expose any of the information that he uses and that he shared with me, but I must say that picking his brain made it well worth the trip.

The table was to my liking at first, but changed dramatically late in the night when one very bad and very lucky maniac sat down in Michael's seat to my left. One maniac by himself isn’t that tough to deal with, but when that maniac is on your immediate left and is hitting every hand that he plays, he changes the entire dynamic of the table. Normal players start to play back at him in some questionable spots and they start playing more like him. They chase too many weak draws and call preflop with some very speculative hands hoping to have the same lucky results that the maniac is having. This leads to maniac tables where the game is more like craps than it is a game of skill. I was even to slightly down when the maniac sat to my left. I should have taken the hint to get up when he sucked out on me early, showing me the Q 9 from the SB that he had called my LP pfr with. I doubled through him w/ the nut flush a little later and had my head out of the water very briefly. I knew that I didn’t have as consistent of results at these maniac tables, but I just never got up for some better playing grounds.

The most memorable hand that I played Thursday night was when I limped in on the button w/ 6 5 . Several players had limped in as well and we saw a low, two diamond flop. The table checked around to me and I fired $20 into the $21 pot and got 2 calls. The turn completed my flush and once again the table checked to me. I fired out $50 this time and only got called by the 10 seat. He was a very large black man who looked like he knew what he was doing, though he had the demeanor of a live game rock. The river put a fourth diamond on the board and the 10 seat stacked up his chips and pushed all in for $80. I dumped my 6 high flush and felt like puking on the carpet. The guy wasn’t even nice enough to tell me if he had it on the turn. I can’t imagine him calling the flop w/ a lone big diamond, so I assume that he had me beaten on the turn. I got up a little after this hand was played, eating a loss of $270 for ~11 hours of play.

Our Accommodations

I did take a <1 hr break during this session to check into our room and rest my mind for a few minutes. The check-in process was super easy and I had my stuff out of the car and into the room in no time. The rooms at the HS-BC are top of the line. Our room had 2 queen beds, a desk, a couch, a 32’ TV, fully marbled floors in the bathroom and a huge Roman bath. The Roman baths were the clincher for me; these things were enormous! They also provide complimentary bath salts to heighten the experience. I know that I ran the water for 15 minutes and still never got the whole thing filled up. And even with the tub not being completely full, I was still easily able to sit fully immersed in warm relaxing luxuriance.

Friday Lunch: My First Visit to a Buffalo Wild Wings

I’m not much of a daytime sleeper, so after 5 hours of in and out sleep and a long bath, I was up and ready to go by 11am. My buddy and I went to the Buffalo Wild Wings located on the Boardwalk. The atmosphere was incredible and is definitely a great spot to watch the big game. Our server, Kristen (I believe,) was jam up and really took the time to walk us through the menu. She was very knowledgeable of the different sauces that they had to offer and she made some great recommendations for us. My only complaint about the place was that their wings were a little on the small side, but that won’t prevent me from giving them a positive review. Good service and a great atmosphere go a long way to completing the experience in my book.

I took a catnap after our lunch outing and walked into the poker room ~1pm. This was a rather quiet session and I really can’t think of any hands that were worth mentioning here, but I netted a small $60 profit on the 3 hr session. I returned to the comfort of our hotel room and tried to relax before my long Friday night marathon. Mr_Taterhead arrived around 4:30pm and after a quick conversation he was out the door to play some cards. Within 15 minutes he called me to tell me that they were starting a new table and that I should come down and join it. I love starting new tables since the game usually isn’t full of maniacs or players on tilt yet. I like starting w/ mostly equal stacks and I feel that I can pick up reads on players more quickly than other players can. So, I put my hoodie on and headed back down to the cardroom.

This table was very much to my liking. It had semi decent players with no calling stations or maniacs. What I like about tables of this texture is that you can raise preflop in position and if you don’t take down the blinds and limps immediately, you can continuation bet with a high percentage of success to win a slightly larger pot. When they call your raise preflop then fold on the flop, you can add to your stack w/o much risk. Most of the time, you win enough of these to net out a profit, so you shouldn’t feel discouraged if you get called on the flop a few times in a row. It will net out in the end.

The only real memorable hand from this session was one in which I raised from the SB into several limpers with A Q . I make a larger than normal raise in this spot to discourage callers and set miners. I got called in one spot and then checked the Ace high, very-uncoordinated flop to encourage action from weaker Aces. The villain checked behind and I led the turn and river for a nice medium sized pot. The villain was very surprised to see my big ace, and mucked his hand w/o showing. Later he admitted that he had A 6 w/ a flush draw that he had picked up on the turn. Note: You should never call a big pfr w/ a dominated hand such as this. A-x suited is so over-rated, good players just aren't going to pay you off when you make your flush and if they can't beat a pair of aces then you're wasting money there too. This is a great example of why not to play A-Xs. He ran into a bigger Ace, stayed in due to his draw that he picked up on the turn and paid off 2 streets of value post flop.

Friday Night Seafood Buffet

I played another 3 to 4 hours in this session and booked a small win of ~$120. Unfortunately, I got hungry and the HSBC buffet was calling to me. After some coercion, I finally talked Mr_T and another friend into going upstairs to try to break the buffet. Kim and Joe quickly hooked us up w/ some buffet comps and we were on our way!

On Friday nights, the buffet at the HSBC is a seafood buffet that runs for $21.95 or so. Due to us being well-respected degenerate gamblers, we got to eat for free based on our comps that we had accumulated in the pokerroom. The buffet spread is quite large and the assortment of foods included home-style, Chinese, soup and salad, seafood, dessert, and even some Cajun cuisine. The stuffed halibut was my personal favorite, followed closely by the crawfish etouffee. I ate until I almost popped, but fortunately for me, we had a room upstairs that I could relax in until the drowsiness of a big meal wore off.

Out of the Hole!

Around 10 or 11 I decided to come down out of my nest and play some more cards. There was another new table starting up and I jumped right in. This new table seemed tougher than normal though. There were only 2 old guys to start the action and 5 young guys who seemed ready to gamble. When 3 of the 5 young guys turned out to be friends, I considered making a table change. I hung in there a few minutes and realized that not only were they trying to bash each other’s heads in but they were drinking heavily and really sucked at No Limit Texas Holdem. My new friend Michael from the previous afternoon’s session joined the table on my immediate left. This is where we actually discussed our strategies for reading opponents. The action was really hot and the 3 friends were quickly going broke. Luckily, they were there to gambool and kept reaching into their pockets for more Benjamins. I think they even ended up making a few trips to the ATM. I took a preflop race w/ one of them w/ my A Q vs. his J J . I had raised from LP and he stuffed his short stack in from the SB. I had figured out that his range was pretty wide at this point (Jacks were actually in the top of his range) and felt very comfortable that I wasn’t going to be in a dominated situation w/ my A Q . I caught an ace in the door to take down the $120 pot. Within 2 hours they had all three made it to bustoville, I’m not sure if it was the rusty nails they were drinking or simply them not understanding that K-Qo in a 4-bet pf pot is a losing hand.

Substitutions

With the 3 friends gone and all of their money left on the table, the line up made some dramatic changes. Only one of the old men remained and he was joined by an even older man in the 10 seat who Michael immediately pegged as someone who would call you down w/ 2nd pair. Mr_T was in the 1 seat and was taking a beating from the deck. The 2,3 & 4 seats were filled by a bad player, an excellent player and a player who thought he was excellent but actually played very straight-forwardly and bordered on just plain weak-tight. The 6 & 7 seats to my right had some weak players come and go and I was in the 8 seat w/ Michael on my left.

With one limper to me in the cut-off, I made it $15 to go w/ A J and got called by the old man in the 10 seat. The flop was Q 10 4 giving me a gut shot and the nut flush draw. The 10 seat was pretty tough to read but he definitely didn’t appear strong when the flop hit. I bet $20 when he checked to me and was really surprised when he called. The turn was a total brick and when I fired out $50 the old man got stubborn and called again. The river was a blessed Jack, and I somehow felt some relief that I had just caught up in the hand, though I hadn’t made near the hand that I had hoped. Once again the old man checked to me, but w/ 2nd pair and having fired on 2 streets already, I couldn’t fathom what he would call me with on the river that I beat. I checked behind and announced that I had a Jack not quite knowing what I expected him to turn over. He showed 10 2 for a flopped 2nd pair. He seemed kind of upset as if I had sucked out on him, but if you figure the outs on the hand, I had 9 flush cards, 3 straight cards, 3 aces and 3 jacks to track him down. With the 4x rule on the flop, I’ve got 72% less 10 (for outs over 8) for an equity of 62% in the hand w/ 2 cards to come . On the turn I’ve still got 39% (18/46) equity in the hand. I don’t think this was much of a suck out. I’m ahead on the flop w/ 2 cards to come and only a slight dog on the turn w/ 1 card to come. I’ll take this scenario every day of the week including Sunday! I played this table until 2:30am before deciding to turn in. I cashed out a $285 winner for the night and was now back into the positive. Mr_T hung around for a while longer to try to get even; I think he came in around 4:30 w/ some more bad beat stories.

Saturday Morning

My phone rang around 8:30am but I struggled to stay asleep until 10ish. Mr_T beat me to the shower and was out of the room and headed to the cardroom before my shower water was even hot. I meandered to the cardroom around 11 and was once again pleased to be seated at a newly opening table. This table had the best line up of all for the entire weekend and it turned out to be my most profitable. There was one good player, one semi-maniac, a nut-peddling, weak-tight regular and a bunch of exploitable middle-aged men who called pf and folded to cbets. Now that’s my kind of table!

The cards ran very good for me in this session. I picked off a $30 straddle-bluff w/ one caller w/ a measly pair of 3s on the flop. My big hands held up, I flopped a flush w/ J 10 and I had the one maniac’s number. The biggest hand that I won was all in preflop for ~$200. I was in the big blind and the table limped around to me and I put $25 on top w/ the A K just hoping to take down the limps. It folded around to the maniac who asked me if I had a big hand, I responded, “I have a big enough hand that I can raise $25 out of the blinds.” He thought for a second then announced that he was all in. The 3 limpers between us obviously folded. I got him to count down his stack and he had ~$180 that I would have to call. I looked at my stack and had about that much in profits. I wedged my hand into my stack to separate the profit portion out and said, “Let’s gamble!” This isn’t a raw gambling shot in the dark. What does he have here that he would limp behind with but he would push all in over my BB raise with? It boils down to the fact that he is making a play on me w/ a medium pocket pair. He would have raised any big ace or any pocket pair as big as or bigger than 10s preflop. I figured out that I would be in a coin flip or better and decided to gamboool! He turned over pocket 8s and we were flipping. The flop contained a Q and a 10 giving me 4 additional outs. The turn was a dud, but the river was a Jack to give me the Broadway straight! The maniac reloaded and I stacked the pot. I played another hour or two and due to my level of exhaustion from not having slept more than 5 hrs per night for 2 consecutive nights, I decided to cash in my $400 win (4hr session.)

Overall, for the trip I netted $581 in poker winnings , less a meal and some gas. Both nights at the hotel were comped and my friends and I had a wonderful time. I’ve been to Tunica and I’ve been to Biloxi and I must say that the Horseshoe-Bossier City ranks right up there with the top poker rooms in the south. You can usually get sat down at the game of your choice in a matter of minutes, the food comps are great, the dealers are first class and the tables, set-up and chairs are second to none. The next time that you’re passing through the Bossier City, Shreveport area, make sure to swing into the HSBC. When you walk into the casino, take the escalator downstairs and head to the left of the gambling area. The cardroom is 75% glassed off and has a flat-screen in view for anywhere you may want to sit. Good luck and I hope to see you on the felt soon.

Dec 22nd Trip to the Horseshoe-Bossier City

I took a day off from work Friday to extend my holiday weekend and to give me some time to play cards and finish up my Christmas shopping. Well, finish up really isn’t the correct word there; I had to do my Christmas shopping. After doing my shopping and errands, BJJIII and I hit the road around 11:30 headed to our favorite card room, the Horseshoe-Bossier City! The Shoe was busy and almost full, but they quickly had us seated at the same table. Within an hour we’re splitting a huge club sandwich, compliments of the $1/hr comp rate that we’ve accumulated that the Shoe offers its poker players.

Sputtering Start…

I’ve been on a bit of a downswing lately, so I really didn’t expect to come out smoking like I did on my last trip. In fact, I started the day off by flopping on my face multiple times. I check-raised a flush draw vs. some lady who was running uber hot. She, of course, called, then proceeded to win the hand as my draw didn’t get there. I guess that I thought that she might be capable of a fold. What was I thinking? I had top pair turn into trips on the turn, which got scorched by some-young guys full house. This is not the way that I like to start sessions!

Table Change Please!!

At BJJIII and my table were a couple of decent players, a grouchy old rock and an old lady who couldn’t fold due to the fact that everything was going her way. She was $1,200+ deep at a $1/3 game and had obvious flaws in her strategy that we were looking to exploit. When she announced that it was time for her to head home, we begged her to stay since her leaving would cripple the table and probably leave it on a course to be broken up. We kept her around for 30 minutes despite her saying that each hand was her last hand, but I think she came out to the positive in this time period, so it might have been better if we would have just let her leave. A call to her husband 1 hour away sealed the deal and she stacked up 2 racks of red birds and headed out the door.

BJJII got hit in the face w/ the deck when his 10-7o flopped the nut str8 and he doubled through an old man w/ the idiot end of it. He had a day that we all dream of card wise. A really good reg sat down in the 2 seat to BJ’s left and the game seemed to get much tougher. I was down about a buyin at this point and felt it was time to make a move to a softer seat. When I talked to Joe (the night floor manager) he pointed me to the back of the room where the table seemed loose and jolly! Ahhhh! That’s more like it, limp, limp, call my raise, fold to my Cbet. That’s right!

A snake in the weeds

When I sat down in the 8 seat, I noticed a tough spot in the line up that I hadn’t noticed on my first glance through. Two seats to my right sat a man who goes by the nickname of Ace. Well, he used to, but he goes by a different name now since ever dealer in the room used to announce his presence when he walked through. He’ll always be Ace to me and he is a pleasure to talk to for the long hours of a live poker session. He’s the man who set over set me in my last session at the HSBC, which is linked at the top of the page.

Don’t call it a comeback!

Soon enough I started making my money back. I’ve gotten really good at recognizing orphan pots and I’m able to pick them up like they were quarters on the sidewalk. My top pair hands were good for a few wins then I got dealt the mother of all starting hands, Pocket Aces!

Dealt to Hero: A A
3 folds
Hero ($400+) raises to $12
CO folds
Button calls $12
SB ($222) calls $11
BB folds

Flop - J 6 4
Pot - $39
SB cks, Hero bets $30, Button folds, SB calls $30

Turn - 6
Pot - $99
SB cks, Hero bets $100, SB calls

River - 10
Pot - $299
SB cks, Hero bets $80, SB calls $80 and is All In

Villain shows Q-Jo for One Pair- Jacks
Hero shows A-A for One Pair- Aces

The SB was an older man and had seemed very straight-forward since I had been watching him. He said that he played online at UB. He seemed uncomfortable throughout the hand and mostly squirmed in his chair. I thought that he was on a draw and was floored when he called the $100 turn bet. He looked very resigned when I put him in on the river, in fact, he held his chips out after he checked in a manner that hinted at surrender. As if he had no choice but to put them in. Thanks for the crying call. He reloaded instantly for a full buy-in and a short while later I’d tie into him again.

I had moved to the 3 seat across the table to get a better view of the whole table. (I always try to stay in the 2,3,7 or 8 seats because they offer the best view of my opponents.)

Playing small flushes

I played 5 4 and made a small flush, only to lose to the 6 3 for a bigger flush. This didn’t really bother me that bad since it wasn’t that big of a pot. The table was loose passive and I felt that I had solid reads on everyone. I don’t limp much at all out of position in these games, but for some reason I caught a wild hair and decided to play a very unorthodox hand.

Dealt to Hero – 6 4

Hero ($500) calls $3
1 fold
MP1 calls $3
MP2 ($300) (SB from hand above) calls $3
3 folds
SB calls $2
BB checks

Flop – A 9 8
Pot - $18
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $15, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $15, SB folds, BB folds

Turn – K
Pot - $48
Hero bets $25, MP2 calls $25

River – Q
Pot - $98
Hero checks, MP2 bets $75, Hero….

This put me into a tight-spot. The old man played his hand like he had a draw and any FD almost had to be bigger than mine. I planned to check-call the river to snap off a bluff, but this was a rather large bet for a straight-forward player when a FD gets there on the river. That 5 4 hand kept running through my mind and I kept asking myself if flush over flush could happen again in such a short period of time. I studied the old man and found that he was quite rigid and was pushed back into his chair. Not in a super confident “I have you kind of way,” but in a “I hope that snake doesn’t bite me” kind of way. I counted his breathing to see if he was excited or scared, but I didn’t get much from that. Finally, based on the fact that I did have a flush and that the villain was quite rigid, I dumped $75 into the pot prepared to be behind. He tapped the table and said “Good call.” I showed him my flush and he mucked his hand. Later, he admitted that he had TP.

BJJIII had gotten up from his table to come over for a visit and watched the hand progress. He said that he would have snap called the river, I don’t think the hand was that simple. My estimate of the villain being a straight-forward player, coupled w/ how he played the hand made it a much harder call, IMO. Also, losing to a flush over flush just before this didn’t make things any easier.

One More Round

An hour or two later, I’m still hovering at about even (+/-$30) when BJJIII comes over to tell me that he’s ready to go and that we’ll play one more round. Some new guy had joined my table, he looked a little buzzed and wore his feelings on his sleeve. I think he was the type that liked to play blackjack and thought that he’d give poker a try. Earlier, I stated that I’ve gotten good at picking up orphaned pots. This isn’t really anything that I can put my finger on most of the time, it’s kind of a gut feeling based on the flop texture and the reactions of the other players. It also helps when you’re checked to in position. Two such hands came up as we were preparing to leave. One I took down uncontested and the other I got called by the man mentioned above. He seemed so uncomfortable and couldn’t remember his cards for anything. I guess that he may have been trying to reassure himself that his middle pair was good. Based on this read, I fired 3 streets into the guy w/ bottom pair before I convinced him to fold w/ my river bet. The very next hand I picked up K Q and raised it preflop and, of course, the new guy calls. I flopped a king and bet the flop and turn before he finally gave up again. Next thing that I knew, BJJIII handed me 2 empty racks and I headed for the cage. I cashed out a $120 winner that I scraped together on my “One Last Round.”

I love live poker!!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! This was the worst Thanksgiving that I can remember. We spent the day, cooped up in the house; my wife was sick and I had a two-year old running around that I had to keep up w/. I did make a little online for Turkey day while my son was napping, but nothing significant. I’m not depressed about it being the worst Thanksgiving or anything, but it was the first time that I wasn’t w/ my family and friends on this much beloved holiday.

Friday was much more rewarding! My wife’s stomach bug was gone and we loaded up and drove an hour to her sister’s house. We helped her move for a few hours then I caught a ride w/ my cousin over to my favorite card room, the Horseshoe- Bossier City for some Live $1/3NL action!

OUT OF THE BLOCKS FAST!

Once again, I won the first hand that I played (this is always a good sign in my book.) It wasn’t the first hand dealt to me, but the first hand that I put money into the pot with. I won a small hand w/ K-Qo on a Q high board against a black kid named Bundee (as in Al Bundee.) He had been talking a lot when he had strong hands and he was talking during this hand so I never raised him since I only had TPGK. Turns out he had a worse kicker and I missed a lot of equity in the hand. He was in lots of pots though and I really thought that I’d get another shot at him overvaluing his hand. Things ran well and I quickly picked up a good stack.

Soon enough I tied into Bundee again, this time w/ QQ on the button in a pot where everyone had limped in. The $1/3 game works out well for me since I can make my standard 4x+1 BB per limper raise that I normally make online. It never worked the same for $1/2; the SPR’s were always screwed up and I always felt like I was playing w/ a short-stack. Of course, back then I didn’t know why I felt this way, but now that I understand SPRs it makes plenty of sense. Here’s the cliff notes from PNL, SPR= Stack to Pot Ratio. You buyin for $200 at a $1/2 game and the normal pfr is $12, w/ one caller this leaves an SPR of ~8. At $1/3NL, you buyin for $300 and make the same raise to $12 and you now have an SPR of ~12. You’ll have to read the book for further understanding.

Okay, I’ve got QQ on the button and make it $25 to go with a >$500 stack. There are three callers, one of which is Bundee who is still >100BBs deep. The 9 seat is an old man who doesn’t play all that well and calls way too often. He’ll raise pf w/ AA but not AK or QQ. I’m in the 2 seat so I can’t really see around the dealer to get his stack size and I’m not sure who the other caller was as he quickly folded on the flop of 8-6-6r to Bundee’s $25 donk bet. The 9 seat called the $25 and I made it $100 to go and got called in both spots! OH BOY! (Pot = ~$410) The turn was another 8 and both players checked to me again and I decided that I may want to try some sort of pot control just incase one of them just filled up. For some reason the old man in the 9 seat thought the hand was over and he turned up his pocket 7s. The river spiked a Q for me and when both players checked again, I made it $200 to go and Bundee quickly jumped into this boiling pot w/ his remaining $183. I assume the old man folded to this action because the dealer swept his cards into the muck. I turned over my Qs full and scooped a $775 pot. Within the first 3 hours of being there, I was sitting north of a $650 profit and changed gears to an ultra-tight mode for a while to help protect my win.

There was a TAG regular in the 1 seat on my right, and since I recognized him and he could tell that I knew what I was doing we started talking and having a good time. We talked about our opponent’s tendencies, mistakes and tells, and also discussed the change in the game dynamic that the HSBC’s stake change to $1/3NL from $1/2 NL had brought about. I want to mention a hand because it sets up the next that I want to talk about. “Ace” in the one seat, ended up winning his first pot after having sat there for 2 hours. He had limped from EP w/ A J and I had folded behind him w/ A-10o. He won the pot uncontested when an Ace fell on the flop. I made mention to him after the hand was over that I had folded A-10. And he asked if I had tightened up trying to protect my win. We talked about this briefly and he knew that I wasn’t getting involved w/o a premium hand for a while.

THE COOLER

Within 20 minutes, Ace raises to $13 from EP and I look down at a pair of Snowmen (8-8) and elect to do some set mining since if I miss it will only cost me $13 and I can win a big hand if I hit. There are several callers to help bloat the pot pf and the flop comes J 8 7 . Yahtzee! Middle set! Let’s go! Ace leads out for $40, I make it $90 to go and the 3 seat pushes all in for $148 total. It folds around to Ace who just calls, which really surprises me. He knows that I’m rocking it up, why would he call my raise and a reraise behind me? I thought at least 20 seconds about laying down my hand, but who can lay down middle set here? Ace has about another $90 behind him, so I don’t feel that exposed in the hand incase he has top set. If he doesn’t and the 3 seat has the flopped str8, I’ve got a good draw for the board pairing to catch me up with a possible side pot from Ace ta boot. Would Ace call here w/ overpairs? I don’t think that he would, especially after the conversation that we had had about the A-10 hand. Against my better judgment, I called the additional $58. The turn was a brick and Ace pushed his remaining $88 into the pot. @%#$&%$#%^$#%$!!!!! There’s no way I can lay down my hand now getting 6.5 to 1 w/ middle set. I call again and sure enough Ace has the set of Jacks, the board pairs on the river (not an 8 obv) and Ace scoops the near $700 pot.

EXERCISING THE STOP-LOSS

I had set my stop-loss at $700 and this pot brought me down to $625. So I quickly got up, grabbed a rack and made a B-line for the cage to cash in my $325 win before I hit full monkey tilt. The weather was quite frigid for north Louisiana, but I went out in the cold anyway to sit on a bench and call up my good buddy BJJIII for some emotional reinforcement. He quickly reminded me that I had just cashed out a winner while he was busy keeping Harper at home (Mr. Mom! LOL.). I didn’t feel so bad anymore and I don’t even know if I would have tilted, but who needs the added risk from that situation? This was the first time that I had acted on a stop-loss and I felt quite proud of myself for having the fortitude to follow through with it. Yeah for poker discipline!

After a walk around the 2nd floor craps and blackjack tables, I walked the High Roller area on the 3rd floor then headed back down to the cardroom on the 1st floor to see if my cousin wanted to grab something to eat. It was around 5pm and I was starving! Luckily, he hit a set and a str8 while I was cooling off and he had gotten back to even, so he entertained the idea of grabbing some grub. (He hates to get up when he’s down.)

HS-BC BUFFET

The HSBC buffet isn’t near as big as the Beau Rivage's or even it’s counter-part the Horseshoe- Tunica , but the service was awesome and the food was great! Just an FYI, Doyle Brunson considers the buffet at the HS-T to be the best buffet in the world. On Friday nights the HS-BC has a seafood buffet, which is incredible. I’m more of a buffalo wings kind of guy and if you ever want to surprise me, that’s the meal to bring. Being raised in the great state of Louisiana, spicy food is what I crave! I still give it an A for being one of the best buffets that I have partaken of, the Chinese food was exceptionally good!

DIDN'T MISS A BEAT

Immediately upon sitting down, I’m dealt Q -10 in the CO and limp in behind several limpers. The flop is K J 3 , the SB leads for $10 into the $12 pot, there is a call ahead of me and I call behind. The turn is a 9 to give me the nutz and the SB leads for $15 into the $42 pot. The BB makes it $45 to go and I smooth call hoping to keep the SB in the hand. Unfortunately, he folds. The river is a brick (5 ) and the BB makes it $40 to go and I raise him up to $100, which he instantly calls (Grrr! I left money on the table!) He doesn’t show and I rake in a $180 profit from my 1st hand back from the break. I love playing poker w/ other people’s money!

TABLE CHANGE PLEASE!?!

Not long after this a guy in his early 30s sits down and immediately raises his 1st 3 out of 4 hands. My cousin recognizes him from previous sessions as a good and aggressive player. I take the hint and scout out a soft seat one table over and make the change. This table seems to be filled w/ people who are laughing and enjoying themselves and my visual clues lead me to believe that most are playing poker because it’s fun and that they don’t need no stinkin’ books to tell them how to play poker! Good thing for me that I was right!

There is one good player at this table in the 1 seat. He’s young and plays a lot of hands, but his pfr is usually small (as in min raises.) He does raise big w/ big hands, but otherwise he’s just min-raising pf fairly often. He picks up a lot of orphan pots and no one is standing up to him. He’s about $700 deep when I sit down w/ $600.

Mostly, I’m raising pf and taking down w/ Cbets, which is quite rare at live games, but things continue to run very well for me. I limp-rr pocket Kings UTG+1 for a decent win AI pf vs. A K . That guy reloaded for $100 at least 4x at our table, I should have chased him around the room when he took a table transfer. I actually got into a super +EV situation vs. the 1 seat when I had AA vs. his QQ. The board was 6 7 8 J and we checked the turn and river. That was a huge missed opportunity, though I did win about $100 in the hand. I bet some combo draws and made some loose moves to keep my image loose. I showed down my favorite hand 6 3 after taking the pot w/ a Cbet. I got a lot of funny looks for raising it UTG. =)

REDNECK POKER

The faces changed out a bit and I’m up another $600 for this second session of the night. A redneck sits down to my immediate left; he’s in the 8 seat. His type is the kind that is aggressive all of the time and is too proud to learn how to play well. He’s not betting very big except for on a few occasions and he is chasing and hitting draws to win some very big pots. He’s dodging well when others are strong, but his small-string of wins are just a mirage and a lucky run. He bullies most of the table around, hits 2 OESD’s to swell his head and his stack. I start chatting it up w/ him and find that he is exactly how I thought he would be. He pushes me off a TPWK hand once, then I countered him a round later w/ a total bluff. He was buying my black chips off of me because he thought they were cool. He let himself get a little short stacked in the red chips department and I used that against him. In a BVB situation, I open-limped the SB and he raised me. I called and we saw a ragged flop. I could tell that he didn’t hit any of it, and I floated his Cbet OOP. I led the turn brick for $20, he had 3 red chips in front of him and he commented on not wanting to break his black chip down. I obliged him and pulled back one red chip so that he wouldn’t have to break his black chip on this street knowing that I’d fire the river and force him to break it or fold. Sure enough, the river bricked and I led for $25, he squeezed that black chip then threw his cards face up into the muck. A-10o, which completely had my A-4o crushed. I looked at him and said, “You know the difference between me and you? I can play well after the flop.” He laughed and we resumed our normal banter.

One round later I’m on the button and open raise to $12 w/ Aces and the redneck, of course, defends his SB, the BB folds. He’s ~$250 deep at this point. The flop is 6 4 3 and I Cbet for $25 and he calls. The turn is the 7 completing the FD and the many SD’s that were out. He checks again, I push $60 into the pot and he check-raises me all in! I checked my Aces and the Ace is indeed in my hand. I think about it a second and decide that I can’t fold this hand to his guy. I’ve got outs if he has me beat at this point, but I really don’t think that he’s got me beat here. It’s around $150 for me to call and I bite the bullet and do it. He turns over J 6 for a pair of 6s. He should have left w/ his 2 black chips a long time ago.

YOU PLAY ON THE INTERNETS?

I’m now >$1k deep and feel like a juggernaut! The redneck is replace by a young guy who hits 2 pair on his first 3 hands to run his $200 up into a sizable stack. I ask him if he plays on the internet and he comments that he doesn’t since everyone just pushes all in all of the time. I probe a little further and he admits that he has only played fun money online! Yippee for me, I love live poka!!

I did get to bet a black chip in this session and get paid off w/ the nutz! The new kid above limps from MP right behind me. I have the 10 9 and am deep enough to play any hand I want to and not have to worry about losing much. I’ve got ironclad reads on the whole table and feel in control of this tiny universe. The flop is Q 8 7 and I led out for $15 when it checks to me. The new kid calls along w/ a guy in the 4 seat who called preflop almost every hand; he’d then call the flop then fold to the turn bet w/o fail. (I love live poka!) The turn brings my money card, the J , the 4 seat checks and I bet $40, which the new kid calls and you guessed it, the 4 seat folds. The river is a brick and I look at my loose $5 chips, not enough there to make the bet I want to make, I have 3 stacks of 40 deep reds, but they’re stacked up w/ the paint lined up w/ one another and I’d hate to break ‘em down, so I toss a black chip into the pot which gets called. Woo Hoo! Nutz buddy! He comments that he didn’t think people bet their draws all that often. “Well, I’m not your avg bear!” He showed J 7 and said that the turn card was the perfect card for him to lose a lot of chips. I don't know why he called w/ a lonely pair of 7s there.

BRAGGAGE

The Stack is >$1,400 deep at this point, which, if you want a mental picture is 4 stacks of 40 tall reds w/ 6 black chips on the top. Holla!! It’s big enough that people are stopping to ask me what I’m going to do w/ all that money. Christmas, man! Christmas!

The game breaks soon as I’ve got all the money wrapped up into neatly aligned stacks w/ 2 black chips straddling 2 red stacks each 3x. I’m only playing w/ the loose red and white chips that I can never seem to get rid of, and no one there was aggressive enough to start bullying me beyond this tiny stack of loose chips. Did I mention that I love live poka! I cashed out my $1,205 win instead of transferring to a new table. I sat around another hour or so waiting for my cousin to get back to even (which he never did.) We left the casino w/ me dragging him out at 4:30 in the a.m. I rolled into the house at 6:15. $1,530 settles a lot of anger about why I was out so late. Thank goodness for the big wins!

King Me!!!!

BJJII and I decided to make a run to the Horseshoe-Bossier City this past Friday night. BJ's friend Ben was in town and also made the trip with us. Ben is a great guy and an awesome poker resource. Right now he's a student and making his living off of online poker, you could say that he's living the life. I think he's gonna stay with it after he graduates here in the near future, so anytime I get a chance to pick his brain I jump on it. He, BJ and I had some great strategy conversation on the hour and a half drive over there and I think that really put me into the proper frame of mind for a great live session.

Pulling into the Horseshoe's parking garage I felt mentally ready to take on the live donks. I also felt the "ON" switch click over on my luck box. Literally, I felt lucky! We were immediately seated at a $1/3 table since we had called ahead and had Josh put our names on the list.

Nice start

I hadn't even gotten seated before I was dealt the 2nd best starting hand in Holdem. Literally, I was still standing when I looked at my cards. Without pause I tossed 3 red chips into the pot for a 5xBB raise behind one limper. I got called by a guy in an orange and blue long-sleeved polo(we'll call him Fgators) who only had around $175 in front of him. The flop was Q high and very uncoordinated, Fgators checked to me and I bet $25 into the $30 pot. He came over the top of me for a min raise, and after thinking about it for a second and evaluating his remaining stack size, I pushed all my chips into the middle of the pot.

This was my very first hand and I'm all in! He thought about the situation briefly, folded then let it spill that he had Q-9o. That's a great piece of information for future reference. I think to myself, "Welcome to the game, sir!" and settle in for a great session of cards. I immediately straddle on the next hand to build on this loose table image that I've walked into.

Expertly played, sir!

My next play is rather questionable, but it was against Fgators (who I had quickly figured out was a donk) and my hand (kicker) was concealed. I had A-Jo in the BB and 4 people limped into the pot and the SB completed. I check here almost always due to the fact that A-Jo is such a trap hand. I didn't vary from my standard play in this spot.

The flop was J-9-7r, which wasn't the best looking flop for my hand, but I definitely think that testing the waters was fine in this situation. I led out for $10 after the SB checked to me and got 2 callers before Fgators made it $35 to go from the cutoff. This should probably have been a fold for me, but the pot still wasn't too huge and I didn't think that I was breaking into any commitment thresholds w/ my call. I called to await further action by the CO and to see if either of the 2 callers would hang around. Both of the flop callers folded and I'm left heads up with Fgators.

The turn was a 6 and I check-called $20 thinking that I'm probably behind, but for $20 I couldn't fold in this spot. The river was an Ace giving me Aces Up and I looked over at my opponent's stack to gauge what my river bet would be. He only had $25 left in front of him and my dreams of winning a truly massive pot were crushed. I put him AI and he calls w/ his flopped 2 top two pair (Jacks up.)

I sure heard it from my pals when I stacked this pot, but it wasn't the first time that I had sucked out in my life. I was disappointed w/ myself, I had completely ignored the commitment thresholds that were set by my opponent's smaller stack and really felt that I had grossly misplayed my hand. He was in the 4 seat at the time though and seeing his stack was very difficult from the 7 seat that I was sitting in. If it were anyone else but Fgators, I probably would have quickly folded on the flop.

Yep, that's all of 'em

We had been playing for about 3 hours or so and my stack had grown to ~$500. I had the table covered and had 2 total rocks on my immediate left who I gave a lot of respect to due to the fact that one of my buddies who happened to be there had pointed them out to me as regulars. Now when I say they were tight, I mean they squeaked when they put money into the pot. The 1 seat was really loose-passive, the 2 seat was now Fgators, the 3 seat was Fgator's wife who we (my pals and I and the two rocks on my left) had stacked multiple times only to have her reload again and again for $100. The 4 seat was Ben, followed by BJ. I was in the 7 seat, an Asian man was in the 8 seat, a cowboy in the 9 seat and an older cowboy was in the 10 seat.

I had had a really good card distribution for the day, I had stacked Fgator's wife w/ Aces once and consistently had raising hands spread throughout the afternoon. When I looked down to another pair of Kings, I made it $15 to go behind BJ's UTG+1 limp. The cowboy in the 9 seat called, as well as Fgators in the SB.

The flop was so beautiful, K-6-5 rainbow! YAHTZEE!!! Fgators checked to me, since I had the board crippled I figured that I would weak lead for $20 and take down the $50 pot. When the cowboy called behind me I knew that he had to have a good piece of that flop. He was around $250 deep after his $20 call. I wanted to jump up and dance a jig when Fgators came over the top of me for a check-raise. When he made it $70 to go I realized that I was actually going to play a big pot w/ this flopped set of Kings.

Now I started thinking about how to keep the cowboy in the hand and not lose any of the potential business that I had going on at this point. I knew he was tight and would fold easily, so I banged the table with my shuffling chips just as I got check-raised. I paused for some Hollywood effect, and then counted out the $50, which I, with a tinge of disgust, tossed into the pot. The cowboy came along! Yee Haww!!

The turn could have been better; it was the 4 that put 2 diamonds on the board. Fgators immediately pushed for $132. I was kind of nervous about the straight draw getting there, but I knew that I could never fold top set in that spot. I repushed to put the cowboy all in and he reluctantly called w/ his flopped set of 5s! I'll give it to him, he knew something was up, I could see it in his eyes, but he couldn't fold a set in that spot. Fgators turns over 6-5o for bottom 2 pair on the flop. They're both drawing stone cold dead on the flop and just for good measure, my favorite dealer Kathy turns over the case King to give me quads on the river!

Enough

Not long after this, the LP player in the 1 seat went broke, as well as the contributing couple that had continually re-bought all afternoon. The remaining players looked around at each other for a second, determined that the loose action was gone, then decided to find greener pastures.

It was kind of slow for a Friday night at the Shoe and the seats weren't being filled (it was only 7pm.) There were nothing but regulars filling the other tables, so my buddies and I talked about heading over to the El Dorado to see if the action was any better over there. Upon further thought, BJ and I decided to go home to our wives and we dropped Ben off at a nice restaurant with some of his friends so that he can do what single guys do. I had netted a $670 profit in 4.5 hours and felt great! This was quite a relief after having lost in the previous 4 live sessions that I had played.

Once home, I realized that I had drank too many Red Bulls and couldn't sleep. With my wife passed out on the couch, I cranked up an online session of $100NL on Bodog. Within an hour and 15 minutes I had picked up $143. It should have been a +3 buy in session, but a guy hit a 3 outer on me on the river after we gotten all the money in on the flop. I'll take a one buy in win in just over an hour though; it's much better than a sharp stick in the eye! Despite a horrible start to the month when I lost $500 at the Shoe, the month has really turned around and I have gotten back into the black for a nice little profit on the month. Hopefully I don't blow it in the next 3 days!

Hopefully I'll keep running goot and keep the winning trip reports coming!