Archive for "Poker"
Blue Collar Poker
Posted on January 7, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Food and Drink, Poker, Reviews.
We returned to APL HQ yet again for another try at the Blue Collar Poker Tournament. We must be gluttons for punishment you say. Well, it’s not like it’s a real long, long shot. I did find out Friday that Micheal (aka Phantom2 at Doyles Room) took first place and won $300 at last Sunday’s tourney. It’s ironic that I was the first one out of that tournament while he was the last one out. We had a good laugh about it. I think I’m a pretty good sport when it comes to poker. Despite the embarrassment, I wasn’t really too upset. After all, the only losses I suffered were $10 and a bruised ego. It’s not like I lost my first born or anything.
Anyway, Brian and I returned today with a backup plan. We figured that if we both got knocked out early this time we’d just go watch Casino Royale. We’d both been wanting to see it, but haven’t had a chance to.. Now would be the perfect opportunity.
It’s funny because while we were in the shower Brian asked, “What if we don’t get knocked out by seven? Do you want us to just bail?”
I said, “Baby— if we are still playing at seven we’re nixing the movie because there is a great chance that we are winning some money!” As much as I am a movie buff, I think I’m a bigger poker addict because when it comes down to it, I’d rather be playing poker. Of course, I can watch movies anytime. I only get to to play poker once in a while. (more…)
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Poker Flashback
Posted on December 31, 2006 by Ching under Poker.
I wish I had more time to play poker and develop my skill. I really think I have some potential. I just don’t have the time to devote to playing.
Anyway, I will have my runs of ups and downs but the one thing I am truly proud of is that I am a good sport. I don’t blow up over my bad beats. I might be upset for two seconds. I may even come home and blog about it. But then, I am over it. I think it is important to have a positive attitude about poker because it does take some amount of luck. People get lucky sometimes. Bad plays get rewarded. Not just for other people. I’ve seen my bad plays get rewarded also. It works both ways. I try to play smart but sometimes you just want to play crazy. If you get lucky against me, I’m going to call it like it is but I won’t hold it against you. And if I get lucky against you, I’d expect the same. Please don’t whine like a little girl or worse yet, cuss and scream like a jackass. You know you’ve had your lucky breaks too.
I didn’t get to play as much as I wanted in 2006, but when I did play I actually placed decently. Here are a list of my 2006 APL event finishes:
- 1 First Place Finish
- 1 Second Place Finish
- 3 Third Place Finishes
- 2 Fifth Place Finishes
- 2 Eight Place Finishes
- 1 Ninth Place Finish
- 1 Twelfth Place Finish
- 1 Sixteenth Place Finish
Other highlights include qualifying to play in the Big Boys Toy Show poker tourney. I didn’t win. Bill Bird actually won that one. I had some crazy highs and lows playing online poker. I think this was the year I played $1-$2 NL and $10 SNG for the first time. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone nuts or anything. I usually only venture into riskier higher stakes only when I am on an upswing so I’m not actually playing with my own money.
I haven’t done too well on the $10 SNGs but I have a pretty good track record on the $1, $3, and $5 ones. Last night for instance, I did a $10 SNG and got knocked out on the first hand. The minute I saw my pocket aces I knew I was doomed.
Blinds were 5-10 (remember this is the very first hand). It was call, call, call. Then the action turned to me. I wanted to play it agressively because I didn’t want to get sucked out on so I “bet pot” on middle position. When everyone called my bet I was really worried. I was sure I was going to get sucked out on but I could not get away from it.
When it came time for the player to my immediate right to call, he raised to almost 500. I was relieved. I thought this is my chance to make everyone fold so I don’t get sucked out on. So I did the only sensible thing to do. I went all in.
The player to my immediate left called. I was surprised. I really didn’t want any callers. When everyone started folding, I thought this isn’t too bad. I can handle a two-person showdown. I just need my aces to hold up. Then it comes to player on the right and he called too. It turned into a three way pot, much to my dismay.
Player on the left had pocket jacks. Player on the right had pocket queens. I desperately wanted my pocket aces to hold up but no such luck. When player on the right flopped a set of queens I knew I was done for; I need not wait for the turn and river. I knew my other two aces had gotten folded by the other early callers. Blech.
Anyway, you can find my other blog entries about poker here. You can find a full list of my 2006 APL event finishes here. Click here for 2005. And here for 2004.
NOTE: As you can tell I actually did better in 2005. I was able to play a little bit more then. I didn’t have quite as hectic a year. Here are my list of event finishes:
- 2 First Place Finishes
- 2 Second Place Finishes
- 2 Third Place Finishes
- 1 Fifth Place Finish
- 2 Sixth Place Finishes
- 2 Seventh Place Finishes
- 1 Eight Place Finish
- 1 Ninth Place Finish
- 1 Tenth Place Finish
- 2 Eleventh Place Finishes
- 1 Twelfth Place Finish
- 1 Thirteenth Place Finish
- 3 Fourteenth Place Finishes
- 3 Fifteenth Place Finishes
- 1 Sixteenth Place Finish
I didn’t do too badly in 2004 also (I had several second place finishes) but that doesn’t really count because I was only playing at Fingers. It doesn’t have the 160 plus player turn out that the APL ballroom does.
At any rate, I’d like to give a big thank you to APL for making this information available.
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All Around the Web
Posted on October 7, 2006 by Ching under Family, News, Poker, Web.
Poker hasn’t been good to me lately so I’m returning to my first love–blogging. So long poker. At least until next week.
So what’s going on around the web over the last few days?
- My poker hiatus may last longer than a few days if the new online gambling law passes. There are many people who are more than a little distruntled about this. Even my idol is chiming in.
- Mom’s birthday was yesterday, October 6, but we are celebrating tomorrow. Lunch at their house. I’m looking forward to it. Yummy food, here I come! Scarf, scarf, scarf!
- Speaking of mom’s birthday, Dad made her a tribute video. Isn’t it amazing that even my dad is on YouTube? That should tell you something.
- It’s telling Google something. It’s supposed to be all rumor and speculation right now. Neither camp has confirmed anything. No one is talking. However, the news made the Wall Street Journal. So it’s gotten pretty big as rumors go.
- If this goes through there will be serious repercussions. Some say YouTube will go down the tubes. Some say that the Google folks are nuts for even thinking about it. Mark Cuban has been quoted as saying only a moron would buy YouTube.
- But who cares about that stuff, I’ve already moved on to the next big thing: PornoTube. That’s right. You knew it was only a matter of time. It’s a shame I didn’t think of it or I’d be a millionaire entrepreneur by now. LOL.
- For someone who is super busy this semester I found a couple of new shows to add to my watch list. First there’s Heroes which Brian has been anxiously awaiting for several months; and then there is 5 Takes which is like MTV’s Road Rules but ten times better. There’s more travelling and less drama.
Who needs TV when there is so much entertainment to be found online?
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Favorite Poker Video
Posted on September 10, 2006 by Ching under Poker, Web.
I found this video on Daniel Negreanu’s personal assistant Patty’s MySpace and I have to say it is now one of my favorite video clips. I’m not a big Phil fan so I totally enjoyed watching him implode. LOL.
Speaking of poker, I played in APL’s $1000 tourney yesterday afternoon at Doyles Room. You had to have so much APL points in order to qualify. You earn the points by placing in local APL tourneys. Anyway, Brian and I both played in it. There were only 102 players so the odds were pretty good. (more…)
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Poker 101: The Art of Fake-Checking and Keeping Your Mouth Shut
Posted on July 27, 2006 by Ching under Games, Poker.
I should really keep my mouth shut when I’m playing poker. When I get too comfortable around people, I start being chatty Cathy and then I end up giving my hands away. You won’t even need to stare me down to get a feel for what I’m holding. Just listen to the chatter and you’ll know whether to stay in or fold.
Case in point is Friday night poker. I end up at a table with Sandy, Mary, Brian (not my Brian but a different Brian) and a bunch of other super friendly folks. Of course, there is never such a thing as a friendly game of poker. Everyone is in it to win it even though we’re all playing for free. People take their bragging rights and points very, very seriously.
Anyway, it looks friendly on the surface but you know people are still really competitive. Of course, we always have a lot of fun. I do, anyway. Win or lose, playing poker is always a good time. I really like the exciting rollercoaster hands the best. Those hands where someone is 5% to win pre flop and then the flop comes out in their favor so now they’re in the lead, and then the turn comes in the other player’s favor so now the other guy is back to being the underdog and then the river comes and the underdog wins. Those hands rock.
A few people have commented about how excited I get when I get knocked out in such a manner, they would hate to see me win because I might just die of a heart attack. Just like any other poker addict, I love to share my bad beat stories. Sometimes over and over and over again, ad nauseum. Of course, since most of you aren’t the least bit interested in poker I’ve learned to keep it off the blog for the most part. I mean, poker stories are pretty boring for most regular people.
But I digress.. Where was I? Okay, Friday night poker. We are at this table being friendly and cordial and cracking jokes. I was playing really loose that night so I was in a lot of hands — most of which I had no business being in. One hand I was in last position.
It started out being a family pot. If not, only one person wasn’t in the hand. I think the dealer wasn’t in the hand because I don’t remember dealing but I was last to act each time. There was no pre flop raise so who knows what kind of cards were being played. After the flop, everyone checked. I bet the minimum amount. Everyone called.
“What is this? You were all fake-checking!” I protested. “If you were really checking you all would’ve folded after the bet.”
So we start joking around about fake-checks. Everytime someone would check and the possibility of a killer hand existed, we would all tease each other about fake-checking.
Several hands later while still at $20-$40 blinds I find myself in one of the blind positions. I have ace-three off-suit but I’m in big blind so I play it. I think the small blind folded pre flop because I was first to act each time.
The flop comes ace, king, jack. I hit top pair and I want to know what’s up so I instinctively bet $200. This is a decent bet because it’s five times the big blind but, considering that just about everyone called pre flop, I realize now it might not have been big enough.
Sandy goes, “What happened to fake-checking?”
“Well.. I happen to have something,” I replied.
“You gotta fake-check if you have something good,” she continued.
“No, you only fake-ceck if you have something REALLY good.”
Crap! Open mouth, insert foot. You can pretty much guess what happened. It was call, call, call, call, call. All the way around the table. Definitely not what you want to see when you have top pair with a weak kicker.
The turn card comes and it is a blank. I fire another $200. It was probably a futile attempt at this point because the pot had grown in size and anyone with anything would be ill-advised not to call such a miniscule bet compared to the pot size. It did manage to scare all but one. I guess after second bet they finally believed me. Except for Mary. She was the non-believer. The river card is a queen. I visualize myself hitting my head against the table a dozen times. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I checked it to her. She bet $200. What’s $200 at this point?
“I know you have the ten but I call,” I said defeated. And she did. She had the ten. To her credit, however, she had a king-ten so she hand the second best pair post flop. I cannot blame her for calling. First of all, I didn’t bet big enough. And worst of all, I gave my hand away. She knew exactly what I had. She called because she had the second best hand and a better draw. She gambled and it paid off.
So there are really two lessons to be learned here. First, fake-check if you have a good hand. This will allow you to smooth-call and trap someone, or re-raise and send an amateur toward tilt-dom. Second, keep your mouth shut while you’re doing it (unless you are a pro and have mastered the art of table talk — which as we’ve proven here does not describe me).
As Mike Sexton always says on the World Poker Tour, “May your cards be live and your pots be monsters!” Good luck, everyone! Happy poker-playing!
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