Current bankroll (10/14/2006):
$414
Sitting on the sidelines to see how this absurd new law pans out.
Trip Report - Biloxi Casinos
I'm back from vacation and ready to play some poker.
While I was in Florida, I took a short trip to Biloxi. The casinos there were demolished during Hurricane Katrina last year, but I was surprised to see that three had reopened: The Isle of Capri, the Palace, and the Imperial Palace. I stopped by all three and was amazed at how nice they were. The strip is still a mess, as is the rest of the town, but it was business as normal inside of the casinos.
The Imperial Palace has a very nice poker room on their non-smoking floor. This was good for me, but the smokers took frequent breaks to go downstairs. There were two types of tables available on a weekday afternoon: $1/$2 no limit and $4/$8 limit. The limits were a little high for me at $8, but I decided to play anyway because I have heard how loose they can be.
I bought in for $200 and played the first session at an average table. I had two maniacs to my left, and every time I limped in with marginal hands, they would raise (often with nothing). I kept thinking that I'd get a monster hand and take them down, but the monster never came. Over the two hour session, my best pre-flop hand was pocket nines in middle position, and my best overall hand was when I caught a flush with my middle connectors from the blind (it was beat by a higher flush when the 4th of the suit fell on the river). I left the table down $150.
During the break, I tried their buffet. It was certainly above average, and they had a few items that were very good: crab legs (2 types), the carved pork roast, the Cajun sausage balls, and the bananas foster on the desert bar (wow!). I would certainly eat there again.
After dinner, I went back to the poker room. The limits hadn't changed, so I thought I'd risk another $100 at a new table. This table was noticeably looser than the previous table. There were two older ladies decked out in their embroidered gambling clothes who had never played live poker before. They had played play money poker online, so they thought they were ready to win some real money. Over the course of an hour and half session, I never saw either one fold preflop! At this table, I started out on a losing swing (down about $60), but won three hands in a row -- all were boats -- to pull back ahead. I later rivered a nut flush to pull me ahead for the day. All told, I played about 3 1/2 hours and left up $2.
I heard quite a few rumors about the other area casinos. It seems that many of the out-of-work dealers like to spend their time in the poker rooms. The Grand Casino plans to reopen on September 1st in what used to be the hotel across the strip from their casino. When they first open, they won't have a poker room, but eventually they are going to open a huge room. All the buzz was about just how big it's going to be. It should be interesting.
After Hurricane Ivan a few years ago, I spent some time with clean-up in the Pensacola, FL area, but I wasn't prepared for the devastation they had along the Mississippi coast. The national news has moved on to other bigger stories, but it will be
years before that area returns to normal.
If you get the opportunity to help, please remember that they still need it.
New Gallery Link
Results: 1.5 hours played; down $1
Someone complained that my gallery site (the link on the right) is a little hard to navigate. Since I just wanted to share my photographs anyway,
here's a link to the most popular photographs in the gallery. You can browse through the thumbnails without all the additional clutter.
I played last night on two $.50/$1 tables for a little over an hour and a half. Again, I found myself up quite a bit on one table and down a similar amount on the other. At one point I had rockets on both tables and flopped a set on both. One was busted by a flush on the river, and the other rivered a full house to beat a lower full-house. As good/bad as these were, together they were a wash.
Next week I'm taking my daughter and her best friend to Florida for Spring break. I'll be staying with my parents, so I won't be able to play unless I gan find a sit down game. If any of the back bay casinos in Biloxi, MS survived Katrina and are still open, I might make a day trip that way during the week.
Cleared First Part of Bonus
Results: 1.5 hours played; down $21; cleared $70 of bonus
This evening, I played two $.50/$1 tables, and I had a string of losses on one table that hurt the whole session. At one point, I was up $15 across both tables, so the losing swing took me down $36.
I was happy to see that $70 of the bonus had cleared when I ended the session. I thought that $30 cleared first then $70 cleared later, but I'm not complaining.
A Couple Break-even Sessions
Results: 3.5 hours played; even
I'm a little behind posting since the weekend. On Saturday we went shopping for a prom dress for my daughter, so I didn't get much time to play. Instead, I read Lee Jones' book while I waited in the car. Hopefully, it'll help polish the game.
I played for 2 1/2 hours on Saturday night and was down $8. The good news is that I got a lot of hands in, but the bankroll was swinging a bit. The tables were tighter on Saturday that they had been, so I turned up the aggression when I had a hand. That alone probably accounted for the swings.
I played for another hour tonight for an $8 gain. For most of the session I was down around $10, but I won a nice pot near the end of the session to go ahead. I flopped two low pair from the big blind and made my boat on the turn. I played the hand very aggressively, and was called down by someone who flopped a pair of queens.
Tonight's play was a little different than the previous sessions. Early on I noticed that very few hands were making it to showdown. From that point on, when I had a made hand, I would bet through all streets. When scary cards hit the board, I kept betting unless someone bet into me or raised my bet. I had a really nice run of seven hands in a row where I bet every street and the other player folded at the river. I think this run is what helped make the late hand so big.
I also started reading Harrington's books last night. They bring a whole new insight into tournament play. I can't wait to be able to play at the home game again.
Easy Money on Total Poker
Results: 1 hour played; up $34
Ok, this site is crazy. I played for an hour at a $1/$2 table, and I think they are even looser than the lower limit tables. The players per flop on this table was 76%.
On one hand, I had QJs and all nine other players called the blind. The flop was 89T rainbow and four of us capped the betting. Three capped the turn (a 4), and one stayed in for the river (6). He showed K9 for high pair.
I'm done for the evening (watching Arkansas and Florida), but I'll be back on Sunday.
A Quickie
Results: 10 minutes played; up $2
I lied. I played a few hands at lunch today and will probably get in a session this evening. The Harrington books didn't arrive today, so I'll have to read Jones tomorrow as planned.
If you didn't notice, I added a link to my photography site. It's just another hobby of mine, but like poker, I'd like to think that it's getting better. If I could quit my job and play poker and take pictures for a living, I'd do it tomorrow.
Another Positive Session
Results: 1 hour played; up $11
I played a short 1 hour session this evening before watching an SEC basketball game. The game was as loose as the others I've played. One of them rivered a straight after calling a pre-flop raise with 4d5c. Those are the players you want at your table every time you play.
The only negative comment I have about the site so far, other than the Boss interface, it that it can be difficult to find a table even at the lower limits. I wanted to play .50/1, but there weren't any tables (even full). I settled for .25/.50, but I guess I can't complain with the results.
This weekend I'm going shopping with my wife and daughter, so I'll have to settle with reading about poker. My daughter is looking for a prom dress, and my wife doesn't want to drive. I'll spend some quality time with Lee Jones.
More Total Poker Action
Results: 1.5 hours played; up $6
It continues. I played for an hour and a half at .50/1 for a $6 gain. It almost feels like I'm home again. The players on Total Poker are as loose as any others I've seen. They play on almost anything and hold out for nearly impossible draws. I was sucked out a few times, but made up for it when they didn't hit their draws.
We'll see how it goes over a few more sessions, but so far, I'm glad I chose them for my next poker site.
This afternoon over lunch, the previous post, I hit two flush draws on the first two hands. The first was king high second was ace high; another player had the king. The whole table was complaining about the suck-outs, but both times I was playing within the pot odds. Maybe next time they'll try for he flush draw (when they shouldn't) and I'll be there to take their money again.
Moved to Total Poker
Results: .5 hour played; up $16
Just a quick update. I started playing on
Total Poker this morning, and in my first session (at $.50/$1 limit), I was up $16. I don't know what it is about these Boss Media sites, but I think they like me. I'll post more later.
Isn't Life Funny Sometimes?
Results: 0 hours played; cleared $50 Bet365 bonus
I was trying to figure out how much longer I was going to try to clear this
Bet365 bonus, but the good folks in their customer service department made my mind up for me. I sent them an email last night to find out how many raked hands I've played towards the bonus; their application wouldn't show me for some reason. They responded that because I'd played 250 raked hands , they went ahead and deposited the $50 bonus into my account. That took my total bankroll up to $389. I'm down $31 on Bet365.
I'm going to play a few more of the $2.50 tournaments this evening then request a cash out. I think I'll continue to play the weekly freeroll tournament on this site, but otherwise it's on to the next bonus.
Interestingly enough, I took a look at my
Poker Tracker stats for all of my sessions on Bet365, and the losses may have less to do with the site than they do with my play. This was the first site that I've played on while chasing the bonus where
Texas Calculatem worked, and I think I was leaning too heavily on it instead of my own intuition. As I've said before, it does a great job showing you your outs and what the other players are likely to have, but its play suggestions are too passive. Although it's a small sample, my stats surprised me:
VP$IP 25.83%
PFR 6.27%
Aggression Factor .96 (ouch!)
It looks like I played a few more hands that I usually like to play (I usually hover around 20%), my pre-flop raising was normal, but the total aggression factor was horrid -- I like to be somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0. Here are some details of the aggression number:
After the flop, I called/checked right around 60% of the time. No wonder I didn't have very many winning sessions.
I spent some of my home-game winnings this week on Harrington's tournament books. I saw that his new workbook will be released on 5/15, but I bought volume one and two. For some reason I get hammered heads-up; if anyone can help me, Harrington can. I'm visiting family at the end of the month, so I should have plenty of opportunity to read.
Today Wasn't Very Good
Results: 2 hours played; down $15
I've been having probelms checking my raked hands on Bet365 for the last few days, so I sent a note to customer support this afternoon to ask where I am. I think I'll play to the next plateau and then request the bonus. Enough is enough.
The freeroll tournament was about like the later 2-hour limit session. I busted out in around 7000th place. I had AKs and the flop was AKJ. I raised, someone went all-in and I called; he had JJ.
While I'm in a holding pattern, I'm going to go back to the books. Maybe it's time for a refresher.
3 Tournaments Last Night and Another Freeroll Today
Although the tournaments ran into the wee hours of the morning, I had another good night at the home game last night. I lost the first tournament but came in second on the next two for a total of $29. In the last game, I was chip leader by about 5X, but lost four all-ins in a row Kx against Ax to lose the tournament. At that point I felt like I had to put him all in, and he got very lucky.
There were a couple of memorable hands where I kicked someone out by a big suckout. One one, he had 6d7d and I had AdTd. After putting him all in, the flop was 6c7sJd. Both the turn and river were diamonds for a runner-runner flush. On another, I put he #2 stack all-in preflop and he flopped a flush. I needed runner-runner JJ or TT to beat him, and it came JJ for a full-house. One a previous hand, he had quad queens and lost to a royal flush (someone else has a boat on that hand, so the pot was huge).
I'm going to try the $5,000 freroll on Bet365 again this afternoon. There will probably be 10,000 players, and if it's like last week, first place is $960. I'll be happy of I place higher than last week (190), but I'd really like that big prize.
Played Higher Limits Tonight
Results: 1 hour played; down $8
I got impatient waiting for the lower limit tables tonight, so I played at a $1/$2 table. The play was about the same as at the lower limits (maybe a little tighter), so I was a little more aggressive when I had a hand. Unfortunately, I had pocket aces busted by 9T (he hit 2 pair), and on two other hands I folded to a raise post-flop to see a flush or straight fall on the turn.
I'd guess that the my entire $8 loss could be attributed directly to the blinds. I never had a playable hand on the BB, and every time, someone raised into me. When I had a playable hand on the SB and called, the flops were worthless to me. I'll double-check Poker Tracker, but I think I lost every blind during the session.
Earlier in the evening, I played a $2.50 buy-in 30 player tournament. I tried to bide my time and double-up on premium hands (my normal early strategy), but they never came. Once we were down to about 15 players, I hadn't won a pot and was the short stack of the tourney. At that point, I loosened up a bit (hoping to double up), but got busted out in 11th place. If it hadn't happened then, the blinds would have killed me on the next round, so the timing seemed right.
Tomorrow night I'm going back to the home game where I won last time. They're calling me "The Machine" so I'd better not let them down. Maybe I'll win enough there to ease the pain of the Bet365 bleeding. I'm seriously thinking about ending that joyride, but we'll see what happens over the next two days.
