Patience is Key

This weekend was an eventful one in my slice of the world of poker....

Last Thursday, I went to work at the bar. The night started off normally, at 4PM, with bullshit to deal with right off the bat. There were customers lined up waiting for me to open up, cases of beer left behind the bar, kegs of Guinness I had roll out of my way, and no one around to help. I served an old man and his wife before I even opened my till and I was off! Serving drinks while I tried in vain to finish my opening tasks. The old man turned out to be very talkative in that annoying sort of way where he asks a thousand questions and doesn't take hints or social cues. He was a nice guy, though, in spite of that quirk (read: personality flaw). Turns out he served in the Vietnam war and owns several farms in Texas. All of his sons are engineers, like himself. I served him Stella, refilling his glass each time he emptied it, and whenever a new customer would sit near him, he'd turn his focus away from me and on to them. Thankfully, it was a busy night. He sat there from 4PM until I closed the bar at 1:30AM. After the third or forth beer, he didn't really seem to be getting drunker, though I served him at least 10 or 15. He was a man of imposing stature and quite an entertaining person to talk to once I had a beer or two myself. When I mentioned that I would have to close soon, he tipped me with 2 hundred dollar bills! The best tip I've ever received! He said it was because I was such a nice girl. I think it was because he wanted me to marry one of his sons. At some point, as it usually comes up for me in conversation, I mentioned my love affair with poker. At this, he pulled out his wad of cash and asked how much he could stake me. I'm sure I laughed sheepishly or something but he handed me over $300. I took it. Moments later, he pulled out another $200. Of course, I took that too. My Dad really only taught me 3 lessons in life. 1) Wipe from the front, then the back. 2) Don't smoke crack. and 3) Always take the money. So I did. I gave the old guy my business card and asked him to contact me in a few months when he got back to the states (he was on his way to Europe for a few months) with the intention that I'd give him back what he staked me or at the very least, let him know how much I appreciated the gesture.

Fast forward to the next day. The WSOP satellite. The buy-in was $140 and there were 9 players at my table, including myself. We started the game around 8:30. I outlasted 7 of the players, playing my A-game and getting a few good cards here and there. When we got heads up, the guy who had knocked out a few people early in the game had about 3/4 of the chips in play, which left me with 25%. From experience playing in tournaments online I knew that I could still win but it would take a couple good spots to double up. This was only the third time I played heads-up live. I felt really bad for the dealer every time I folded pre-flop for his having to deal sooooo many hands. Unfortunately, I think it affected my play negatively. Never mind the blinds, I was in a hurry to give the dealer a break! I played pretty well for about 15 minutes but I took my first opportunity to double up when I held Q7 hearts and the flop came 6 8 2, with 2 hearts. Chip-leader checked to me, I bet, he raised and I went all in to chase my draw. He had Q8, top pair. He was pretty sickened to see my flush draw after he called me. I wonder if he thought I was bluffing? Either way, the turn and river bricked and I was out. Maybe I would have picked a better spot if I hadn't felt so bad for the dealer. (We didn't take a single break and finished around midnight.)
Lessons learned: Don't feel bad for the dealer; it's like feeling bad for taking someone else's chips. Duh, that's the POINT. Dealers deal. Poker players acquire chips. And, again, I can't stress this enough (to myself and the world at large) take your time and think before you commit your stack.

I felt really good about my play throughout the satellite and was on top of the world on Saturday morning. $700 richer! Playing great poker! I decided to celebrate with a few margaritas on the afternoon of Cinco De Mayo and then head up to Times Square at night to play 1-3 at another club I know about. The margaritas hit me a lot harder than I thought they would so I tried drinking a Red Bull to balance out the buzz. I never drink Red Bull and it turned out to be a big mistake because it didn't really help me play the game any better, it just made me more anxious and impulsive. I shouldn't have taken $500 to the cash game, but I was feeling so confident about my play and besides, it wasn't my money anyway. I bought in for $300, was card-dead in the worst way for the first hour, playing super tight and not getting anywhere. When I finally decided to make a move, the player I was playing with had the card I was representing and called me when I pushed all-in. Whoops. At this point I was high on Red Bull and feeling less intoxicated so I bought in for another $200. I switched seats with someone and started getting really great cards! I doubled up to about $400 and was on fire with Red Bull coursing through my veins. The hand that got me was remarkably similar to another one I went out on a few weeks back. Boat over Boat. The situation: 4 people in the hand, all limped. I was big blind with Ace 4 and checked. The flop came 10 4 4. I'm a little hazy on how it played out at first, but I believe it was checked to someone in late position who bet and was called by the small blind and then called by me. Or maybe I raised? The turn came something like an 8. Small blind bet, I raised, late position guy was out. Small-blind called. I should have figured out by now that he might have me beat considering that he was the tightest player at the table but since the pot was un-raised pre-flop pocket 10s never even occurred to me. I thought maybe he had a 4 too, with a worse kicker. The river came an A, giving me a full-house. Small blind went all in, I insta-called, and he showed his pocket 10s. For a second, I thought I won because I had the Aces. Then reality snapped in. Just like that, I'm out $500. Since then, I've been mulling over in my head what I could have done differently and the only answer I can come up with is not to have had that Red Bull. I didn't take the time to consider all the information before shoving my chips in on impulse. I had about $300 in chips behind. Then again, he could have had exactly the same hand as me and it would have felt just as bad to find out I folded the best hand. I read somewhere that Daniel Negreanu says that these situations are just hands you're going to lose a lot of money on and that's poker. Maybe he says that. Maybe not. Either way, I'm going to let myself think that's true and move on to the next game. I probably won't be playing for a few weeks as I have a busy month and don't want to take the risk of going on tilt by losing another game too soon. My bankroll is down to about $200-300 again and if I can't work my way back up with that, I'm gonna be broke for a while. I'm heading to AC at the end of the month and plan to play in some SNGs (Sit and Go's - 1 table tournaments) at the Borgata! From playing them online a lot, SNGs seem to be my specialty. Until then.

Adrenaline and Cash

The adrenaline rush you get from winning a hand is incredible. Does that effect ever wear off? Does the amount you need to win to feel it get higher and higher as you go along? Pulling in $50... $100.. more or less, it still feels good. I could get accustomed to this. It feels better than being drunk. Better than being high. Better than cigarettes. Adrenaline! Who knew. Well, I did. It's a big reason why going on stage is so electrifying. Maybe that's it. I'll play poker more often, never drink when I play, and get healthier as I go. Poker: the road to a healthier lifestyle. Haha.

Last night, I was going to enter into a tournament, as practice for the WSOP satellite, but it was cancelled at the last minute. Instead of going home with nothing else to do, I decided to borrow some of my own money and play a 1-3 cash game at the same place. Since starting tournament play, I have adjusted my game and become a much tighter player. I also haven't been feeling like risking a lot of money because I'm trying to save it up for tournament practice. I figure I'm not going to be a great player for a while and I'm trying to lose as little money in the process of attaining that dream. But I said, "fuck it", and decided to play for the sake of having a good time and hopefully not losing too much money. I bought in for $220, which was as much as I had brought with me ($120 for the tournament and an extra $100 because I had a feeling I might need it?). I made a pact with myself that I would not drink a single drop of alcohol for the duration of my play. When my stack was dwindling down to about $75, it was really hard to keep that promise to myself (free alcohol when you're losing sounds really nice...) but I managed to do it and also managed to work my way back up. I got Ace Queen (my nemesis) under the gun and whaddyaknow, an Ace came on the flop and when the guy to my left effectively raised me the rest of my stack after I bet, I called and went all in. He had Ace Jack! Ha-ha! Thank you, Ace Queen. That double-up saved me. I played a fairly tight game for about 5 hours, managed a sick Ace high bluff all-in on the river of a pretty scary board, raking in a $100 pot or so. In the end, I was up only $70, but I'm proud of myself for making a profit! It was only the 8th time I've ever played a cash game. I might have lost $300 last week, but if I can stay sober while I play, I think I might be on the winning side of things in the long run!

Last Night's Game

Last night, I played in my fourth live tournament. I found it through a guy I met at my last tournament who I met only because of the guy that I met in Atlantic City. This is how underground poker games work. Word of mouth. Referrals. Gamblers vouching for one another on down the line. The buy in was $150. My bankroll was only at $500 but I took a chance and took out the $150 to play with. About 50 people entered the tournament, which put first place at around $2000 and second $1000. It was a bounty tournament which meant that we each had a $20 chip over our heads. Getting knocked out meant losing it, knocking someone else out meant gaining it. I liked the structure of this tournament because it seemed like my odds were better to at least get my money back, what with the bounty chips involved. The play at this place was insane. Set up in the basement of a bar, 4 or 5 fold-up tables covered up with felt. Most of the guys were just crazy gamblers, hell bent on bluffing and raising with 6 3 off-suit and the like. Honestly, they freaked me out. I played a fairly tight game which kept me out of trouble but also meant that I got a lot of respect and didn't make much money on my big hands. After about 4 hours, I was close to blinding out and knew I'd have to make a move soon. I should have pushed with my Ace Queen but instead I just raised and got called by a guy with a pair of 8s. He checked to me after he hit his set on the board, I bluffed almost half my stack (at this point, I was committed), so when he raised me, I went all in. I figured it was a better play than leaving myself with like 4 big blinds. I didn't know he had the set... but when he raised me, I should have assumed. The turn and river blanked, (I didn't hit runner runner set of queens BOO) and I was all out in 30 seconds. I feel like the biggest mistake I made in that hand was not pushing all in pre-flop. He seemed like a tighter player and I don't think he would have called me with his 8s. After I was out of the tournament there was a cash game (1-2) going and I figured I'd try to get my money back..... I went to the ATM and pulled out another $150 (leaving my bankroll at just $200) and sat down at the table. The first (seriously) hand I got was Ace Queen! I didn't win the hand. The very next hand (seriously) was Ace Queen again. Lost again. I feel like the Ace Queen is haunting me. Eerily, early in the tournament a guy sitting next to me said "I always get in trouble with Ace Queen..." Maybe I should have taken that as an omen. The guy sitting next to me at the cash table, Chris or "Cooch" also got busted out of the tournament and was pretty drunk. I watched him lose about $200 very quickly to a girl named Tanya. He didn't seem to care. "I'M A GAMBLER, BABY!"$200 must not be much to him. A few hands later, he pushed all his money into the pot in the dark (before he saw his cards) and didn't get a caller. I almost called with my King 4 but thought better of it. Glad I did, cause he showed me Aces. Lucky crazy bastard. I ended up losing most of my money and when I was down to about $40, I pushed all in with my Ace Queen again, figuring it would be a good way to go out and somehow, miraculously, I rivered a straight with the damn hand. I built my stack back up to $150 but when I turned a boat in one hand, I went all-in after I got raised on a '9 9 44' board and was called by a bigger boat. I had the 4. If I had taken the time to really think about it, I would have probably figured he had the 9, but I was kind of drunk and NOT taking time to think about anything.

Morals of the story:

1) Don't drink and play poker, people. As soon as I started to drink beer in the tournament, I was out in 30 minutes. 

2) When your tournament life is on the line or you're considering putting all your money in on a hand, take at least a minute to think about it. What could your opponent have that he is putting you to this decision? If you've been playing tight, he probably has something good. 

I think that sums it up pretty well.... Don't drink and take your TIME.

Like I said, my bankroll is down to about $200 now. I'm considering entering a WSOP satellite with the rest of the money because I'm a sucker for a good story. If I won the satellite and the second satellite final table I'd win a $10,000 ticket to the WSOP and $2,000 for expenses. If I cashed in the world series I could win tens of thousands of hundreds of dollars. I'd write a fucking book about it. I think that's already been done, but I'll write a better one.

My Third Tournament

Tonight, I played my third live tournament. I placed second. So far, I've got a pretty good track record. Thank you, Lady luck. A guy that I met in Atlantic City last week invited me to this private club in Chinatown where the buy in for the tournament was $65. Most of the tournaments in NYC that I know about are $200+ buy-ins which is why I haven't played any over the past year or so. $65 I can handle, $250... not so much. There were about 20 people who signed up and a few people re-bought in a few times over the first 3 levels which left the pot at a nice $1200. The breakdown: $700 for first, $340 for second and $160 for third.

I played a tight game for the most part, folding Ace Ten off-suit UTG (under the gun, i.e. first to act) and Queen Nine off in late position. I picked my spots carefully and managed to make it to the final table with an average stack of about 20BB. I went all-in a few times and picked up some blinds, won a race or two, knocking out a few players. It was shocking to see how many people weren't playing their short stacks appropriately, calling off half their stacks and folding, letting the blinds eat them up. I was chip-leader with 5 people left in the game, third in chips when we got 3 handed. I flopped a set of dueces against the guy who was in second place at the time and pretty much knocked him out at that point. Going into heads up, the stacks were pretty close with me having a little less than the leader. He wasn't a strong player though, I could tell, and I was pretty confident that I would win the tournament. I managed to get my stack up over his by a couple thousand chips but at this point the blinds were so high (5 thousand, 10 thousand) that that just meant I had one big blind more than him. The hand that cost me my tournament life was a pretty shitty one. The flop came King Queen Seven and I had a queen with a nine kicker. He went all in and for some dumb reason I made the call. If I had thought about it for even half a second it would have occurred to me that he wouldn't go all in without at LEAST a king, but I made the call anyway. He had King 2 off. Whoops. I was left with about 1 big blind left and that was the end of that.

Still, I cashed for $340, making a profit of $275 . Considering the fact that this was only my third live tournament to date, I guess I'm doing okay. I don't know that my tournament style of play (super conservative, super tight. I bluffed twice the whole tournament.) will hold up and win every time (especially against more aggressive players) but if my luck stays the way it's been the past two weeks and I keep getting the right cards.... who knows!

I'm definitely going back next Monday to play again. The more practice I get, the better I'll be. Eventually, entering into some bigger buy-ins and cashing for a lot more. Goodbye, debt woes! Hello, poker money.

Lose yourself, not your money.

Atlantic City is a place filled with degenerates. I don't mean that as a derogatory term necessarily, only that there are lots of people there who exist on the fray of what is considered 'normal' society. The addicts. The drug users. The morally reprehensible. Occasionally, the morbidly obese. Gamblers. Gamblers who play with money they can't afford to lose. Shadows of humanity. People like me?

My latest trip to Atlantic City was filled with poker, false-start friendships and White House submarines. I checked into my hotel (The Trump Taj Mahal) around 4pm. I noticed a long line at the check out desk and a sign that said "Check out begins at 6pm on Sundays". As it was only 4pm, I was confused and sought out an employee named Tom standing nearby to help sort out the contradiction. His face wore deep grooves, lines that held stories and a hoarse voice to match. He said they'd been checking in people all day. I thanked him but before I could step in line, he yelled out to a man standing at the executive, VIP (for serious gamblers) checkout counter. "Hey, Lou! Check in my daughter!" and ushered me over.  Lou quickly and obediently checked me in, only asking if I was really his daughter half-way through the process. I laughed, shook my head sheepishly, wondering why it mattered. He laughed too, and, in a very New Jersey accent said he 'had to ask' as he gave me a key to my room. 3502. I was optimistic: a good start to my trip! I found my room, directly across from the elevator, I took a brief shower, washing off the night before, emptied out my bags and hurried into to the poker room. I signed up for a tournament and was one of only 5 entrants. We played for about 3 hours and I managed to outlast everyone at the table. It was a friendly game.

The key to tournament play is picking your spots. I kept my stack close to me, not entering too many pots until the blinds started to rise and managed to get the right cards to keep me steady. I didn't make any mistakes and I won the tournament. The payout was minimal, only $155 for my $65 entry fee, but I was elated to have won the first live tournament I've ever played in! I celebrated by grabbing a sandwich (Read: sub) at White House Submarines (which was AMAZING). It was hot and vegetables and provolone cheese. I devoured the whole thing on the phone with my Dad as he regaled me with a story of the time he went to Atlantic City and lost $1000 playing poker before he retired to his room to watch The Matrix for the first time. After our phone call, I played $1/$2 no limit, buying in for $200. Playing late at night proved a good idea because a lot of people tend to be drunk at that point and make terrible calls. I made $300 in two and a half hours. At that point it was almost 2AM, I was still hungover from the night before, and I went to bed.

Checkout time was noon but I had to make sure I got up early enough to get some coffee and a bagel before entering into the 11am tournament, so I checked out around 10:30. This time, 10 people signed up for the game. My seat was assigned next to a woman named Judy. She was around 65 or so and visiting from Virginia. Her husband only liked the slots. She only played poker. I liked the role reversal. She was friendly and we got to chatting. It turns out that she grew up on the street around the corner from where I grew up, only she lived there in the 50s and I, the 80s. What are the odds? I grew up in a small city (Read: town) and didn't even expect her to know the name of the place, let alone the house I called home for 10 years. We laughed about it, she called her sister. We played poker. She ended up placing second in the tournament, I was out in 4th. I made about 3 crucial mistakes after I started drinking beer. I was card dead for most of the tournament, getting the worst cards I've ever seen in my life (online and off) and entered about 3 pots in 3 hours. (No joke). As the blinds went up, my cards got better (thank god) but I got a little too excited and made a few bad calls with marginal hands. I didn't push with Queen Nine when I was short-stacked in the big blind, didn't push enough at all toward the end and I got blinded out. I know I had a really good chance to win it and I know where I went I wrong. Lesson learned. (On to the next.)

After the tourney, I grabbed another White House veggie sub (OMG those things are good) scarfed it down and played $1/$2 for another 2 hours and lost about $60 bucks, I was tired (not used to playing so much) and I decided not to stay for the 10pm bus and left at 6.

All in all, the trip left me up about $250 but if you subtract what I payed for food, transportation and the hotel, I guess I was only up about $100..... But from the desperate looks on their faces, that's more than most people in that poker room could say, I'm sure. The poor motherfuckers.

I don't think I'll go back to AC alone again any time soon... as much as I enjoy the game of poker, my sensitive heart can't take being alone around so many lonely, desperate, sinking people who've forgotten how to swim. Or maybe they're just caught up in an undertow?

Poker Beginnings

To begin, I'm going to tell you my poker story. At least, some of it. In truth, I've got more than one poker story but I've got to save something for future entries....

It all started a long, long time ago in a land far away from the concrete jungle I now call home.... Maryland.
When I was a little girl, my mother would drive us from our little house in Virginia and take me to visit my grandparents where they lived on an island in Maryland. I must've been about 8 when my grandfather sat me down and brought out a large jar of pennies and counted them out for us to use as chips. He taught me the many different versions of poker. I remember we played a lot more five card draw than we ever did hold 'em. I understand now that that was probably because it's a lot easier to understand how to play five card draw than grasp the complicated betting strategies of hold 'em. I don't even know if my grandfather really understands hold 'em. He's more of a rummy man. Anyway, I loved cards. My dad and I also used to play spades all the time with his friends or my brother and sister, when they were old enough. I was good at spades. Cards were so fascinating to me. I even invented my own card games. Like "Peaches" and "Lightning". They never caught on....

Fast forward to adult-hood. Occasionally, from about 17 - 25, I would play poker online on Yahoo Games but it was so annoying because, as most of you who might be reading this know, when you play with play money, no one takes it seriously enough to preserve the integrity of the game. Then, in 2010, I saw the world series of poker on television. It was like the sun had just come out after months of rain. I was transfixed. A guy who worked with me at the hotel bar where I worked at the time saw my enthusiasm for the world series each night and told me about his online poker hobby, where there were websites that you could deposit real money into and play for real! I deposited $40 and was instantly hooked. Combined with the fact that I was quitting smoking cigarettes at the time, it was easy to develop a poker hobby (read: obsession). I played with that same $40 for about 8 months, going up and down... playing for pennies. Now, here I am, a year and a half later and I'm still completely in love with the game. I've watched every episode of multiple seasons of most of the poker television shows. (Read: almost everything on pokercast.tv and pokerstars.tv) It's a little embarrassing to admit the amount of time that I've spent watching poker in the past year, so let's just say I probably hold the world record for a girl my age. Though, then again, it's only been a year, so... maybe not. I'd venture to say that my familiarity with the game is far beyond that of most people who've only been playing for a year. I find the strategy of the game deeply fascinating and spend most of my free time studying the game.

So here I am.

Writing this entry.

I'm a writer by nature so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started a Poker Blog.... My plan is to write about my experiences playing poker and perhaps delve into the world of poker hand analysis at some point. I hope whomever might stumble upon this blog and is passionate about the game finds something of interest in the things I write here.

Sadly, my bankroll is limited to non-existent so I don't get the opportunity to play as often as I'd like lest I risk my rent money, but I am going to Atlantic City this Sunday to play in a couple tournaments (my FIRST live tournaments!) so my next entry will detail my adventures there!

For the love of the game

This blog is my foray into the poker writing world. I had a dream last night that I was a poker writer. I woke up this morning and wondered why I wasn't.