Edit: Corrections and clarifications thanks to (H)

Please Note: This is the last public poker post I’ll be making. I’m going to be making a poker filter so that I don’t bore anyone with these ramblings. If you want to be on the filter, please comment. (Comment in general on the post if it’s your will to do so) There are a few people I will probably auto add just because I’ve played them at poker or know they may be interested. Please comment regardless, so I know you want to be on it… Just in case I don’t auto add you.

Well, about 3 weeks ago shimmeringjemmy and I went to the local casino to play poker and got mightily spanked. And it was the really nasty kind.

This was the kind of night where straights would fall to full houses. A pair of pocket jacks would fall to some moron with J2 on a J 8 2 flop called raises and then got a rediculously luck 2 on the turn. The problem is that at low tables idiots tend to call anything even with really bad hands in bad position off of the button.

So… we practiced. A lot. We read more. We learned more about reading wild players. We learned more about which hands to play and how to support them. We learned about controlling the table.

We’d been playing 2-4 chip heads-up limit hold ’em. We’d each start with 25 chips and play until one of us had the other’s chips. We discovered this was going on a bit long, so we started raising blinds. Basically, every 15 minutes we’d up a low chip. (2-4, 3-6, 4-8, 5-10). We went with one available 25 chip rebuy for a while. Then just decided to play it as 50 chips each.

I played on line. My confidence came up recently with a wonderful deal. I’ve never experienced a hand like this in any poker I’ve played ever. We hosted a very successful poker night. The day to go back was getting nearer.

Yesterday, it was 93 degrees in the house. (ew) (H) had been roasting all day. I offered to take her out for dinner. She suggested that the casino was air conditioned. We were both interested but, obviously… we were concerned. I got home and we practiced.

One of the things we did was to deal out 10 pockets face up and discuss how the betting should go. (H points out that this was her idea 😉 ) We took it around about 5-10 deals. Then we played 3 hands face down each. This was interesting because you had to play like you didn’t know what anyone else had. Next we dealt single pockets out face up and talked about whether we’d play it or fold it and under what circumstances we might play it strangely. (Folding something good or playing something weak). After we had dealt out about 25 pockets and had about 6 really good ones we’d play, we moved those pockets into a circle, shuffled the deck and played these 6 strong pockets face up, like we’d practiced earlier. We both felt like we’d made some progress.

So, we went off to Commerce Casino again. Now, I for one am glad to reject the evils of superstition, but when you are depending mildly on luck, you may as well act ritually. We decided not to take the alternate route we tried the previous time. I brought back my souvenir dollar chip from our last big-win trip. I figure, let’s appease the possibly annoyed native spirits.

There were very few people there. I think many are in Vegas or at the Bicycle at the WSOP and Mini-SOP. Matter of fact, today at the WSOP there is a Hi-Lo Omaha in it’s second day and Phil Hellmuth finished at 17th and Scotty Nguyen finished at 35. (Is it a bad thing that I can now spell his name from memory?) Meanwhile, back in Commerce. We got on the 2/4 list. There were 5 people waiting ahead of us. When the list got up to 8 people waiting, they opened a new table for us. This means that (H) and I got to play at the same table. I’m not going to go into many details.

Early on I had a frustrating hand where I had 55 and the flop was 523. I bet heavily and then the turn made it 5234. I really didn’t want to press a three of a kind to a probably straight-draw. So I folded to a fuzzy red-headed kid in heads up when he opened on the turn. (BAD Move). The River came 5, so it was a potential nut-4 of a kind. And the kid admitted he hadn’t made the straight draw. It was early and I made it my business to get him back. I took about 6 pots from him, 2 on bluffs. 1 bluff I got by staring him down with a smile and he had the better hand as I was bluffing on nothing. 1 nice hand I can only define as the “Gods taking pity on me.” Similar set up to the 5’s but this time with 10s. And I rode it out to the end. I started with my usual opening amount. Went down to near zero. Did my low rebuy of chips. And then ended with twice as much as I’d paid in.

Okay… more details than planned 😉

(H) may post on her night. But she was phenomenal. She played a little on the tight side… at least to the other players. But, I think she took every pot she was in past the flop. (She has reminded me that she did lose at least one hand after the flop) She started half of what I started with. She never went below 75% of that and ended the night up 4 times that amount.

Before tips for the dealers I’d say we made about 170% on what we brought to the table. We were both very happy after leaving. But we’re not crazy. I think out horrendous beat taught us alot about the potentials and reality of this game. We have a healthy respect for what we are doing and how we put money into it. We could be pushing much harder than we are, but at this point we’re taking our financial involvement very slowly.

Granted, none of this stopped me from referring to (H) several times at the table as The next Annie Duke (Who I know I’m going to be playing at a major disadvantage against for personal reasons) 🙂

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