I love PokerStars...

After reading through my main blog, the poker posts really seemed to be out of place, so I decided to start this blog to create a separate space to discuss (and complain) about poker.

I've pretty much abandoned Party Poker. It seemed like I was getting an endless string of bad beats there. I probably wasn't, but for my mental health I needed a change.

On the advice of my brothers, I bought in $100 at PokerStars. They said the quality of play tended to be better, so if you know what you're doing (and to some extent I do) you have a better chance of success.

All I can say is that I wish I'd moved earlier. My $100 buy-in now stands at $450 two weeks after buying in.

I've played almost exclusively one-table SNGs and have had a lot of success. I started at the lower level buy-ins and figured I'd move up until I found my happy spot. I'm currently playing $20 games and have won three of the last four I've played (winning $90 per game) and finished second in the other one.

Today I played a $50 game and finished 7th. I don't think I played poorly, I just got unlucky and short stacked and went all in with Qs9S against someone with K-7o. Neither of us improved and I was gone.

I'm hoping that my success here is not an aberration. Only time will tell.

Frustration

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:26 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (2076)
Seat 4: jas01111 (1572)
Seat 5: blue39 (8352)
blue39 posts small blind (200)
jddbb720 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ Th, Ac ]
jas01111 raises (1572) to 1572
jas01111 is all-In.
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 calls (1172)

Note that at this point I’m in and have my opponent dominated. He has Ah 6s

Creating Main Pot with $3344 with jas01111
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 4h, Jh, 7s ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 6h ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: 3344 |
Board: [ 4h Jh 7s 3h 6h ]

jddbb720 balance 504, lost 1572 [ Th Ac ] [ a flush, jack high -- Jh,Th,6h,4h,3h ]
jas01111 balance 3344, bet 1572, collected 3344, net +1772 [ Ah 6s ] [ a flush, ace high with ace kicker -- Ah,Jh,6h,4h,3h ]
blue39 balance 8152, lost 200 (folded)

And then he gets a flush and gets bailed out of a horrible decision.

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:51 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (504)
Seat 4: jas01111 (3344)
Seat 5: blue39 (8152)
jddbb720 posts small blind (200)
jas01111 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ 8s, 8c ]
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 raises (304) to 504
jddbb720 is all-In.
jas01111 calls (104)

Short stacked with a pair of eights, your choice is pretty clear.

Creating Main Pot with $1008 with jddbb720
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ad, 6s, Jh ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Jd ]
jddbb720: how many rivers am I gonna lose
** Summary **
Main Pot: 1008 |
Board: [ Ad 6s Jh Ac Jd ]

jddbb720 balance 0, lost 504 [ 8s 8c ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,8s ]
jas01111 balance 3848, bet 504, collected 1008, net +504 [ Td 9s ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks with ten kicker -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,Td ]
blue39 balance 8152, didn't bet (folded)

Answer to my question above: Not this one, because I lost it when the jack hit on the turn. That counterfeited my pocket eights and my opponent won because he had a 10.

I don’t even know why I fucking bother. It seems like I get far, far more than my share of bad beats.

Oh yeah, and top two spots in this tournament get paid.

A small sample of my standard luck on Party Poker

I could not have asked for a better flop or a stupider all-in to push my money in against. The only thing I had to worry about was a runner straight or flush draw.....

***** Hand History for Game *****
0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Jun 19 23:56:25 EDT 2006
Table Table 97702 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 3: jddbb720 (3689)
Seat 4: DaveinMiami (4414)
Seat 6: jtsaes1 (3897)

Dealt to jddbb720 [ 8d, 8c ]
DaveinMiami1 folds.
jtsaes1 calls (200)
jddbb720 raises (400) to 800
jtsaes1 calls (400)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5s, Td, 8h ]
jtsaes1 bets (3097)
jtsaes1 is all-In.
jddbb720 calls (2889)
jddbb720 is all-In.

At this point this moron is all in with [3d 7d] in the hole. As I said,
he needs a runner flush or straight draw or he's done

** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6d ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 4s ]
Creating Main Pot with $7378 with jddbb720
Creating Side Pot 1 with $208 with jtsaes1
** Summary **
Main Pot: 7378 | Side Pot 1: 208
Board: [ 5s Td 8h 6d 4s ]

jddbb720 balance 0, lost 3689 [ 8d 8c ]
[ three of a kind, eights -- Td,8d,8c,8h,6d ]
DaveinMiami1 balance 4414, didn't bet (folded)
jtsaes1 balance 7586, bet 3897, collected 7586, net +3689 [ 3d 7d ]
[ a straight, four to eight -- 8h,7d,6d,5s,4s ]

His odds of catching the straight were less than 4% and he had maybe the same odds of catching the flush. So 92-93 times out of 100 I win that hand.

And there you have it.

Apparantly I have a new nickname...

on PartyPoker.com. I'm going to change my name to the King of Bad Beats. In addition to TWO people knocking me out of tournaments when they caught runner flushes against my straights, the following sequence just went down.

I just played in two freerolls (so yes, I know I probably deserve this) and this sequence just went down.

I get A-A. Go all in after the player to my right raises about half my chip stack. One other player goes all in and guy to right calls.

Guy to right has K-K. Other guy had Q-6 off suit. He put in all of his chips on Q-6 off suit.

By the river I have a sixes full of aces.....note that Q-6 guy has four of a kind.

My next hand I get K-K. With what little I have left I go all in. Same clown calls me again with J-6 off suit. The flop is 10-J-6.

Even though I had no money on the line I was steaming mad. I think I just need to wait until I have a bankroll and play in higher buy-in tournaments. That eliminates the element of stupidity such as you see above, because people who actually know how to play hold 'em don't go all in with those hands. Ever.

Quick update (May 2006)

I've had a very rough streak of cards lately, and it seems to finally have broken tonight. I played a $6 tournament tonight and am currently in the money for about $20 and counting. I have a decent stack left and have played fairly well, won some big pots and dodged some bullets. I'd like to finally get to the final table in one of these things, maybe it will happen tonight.

The good and bad of No Limit Hold 'Em

I enjoy playing and watching No Limit Texas Hold 'Em (much to my wife's consternation.) I have a weekly game that I play in, and after a recent dry spell I won two out of three games last week and took home about $250 ($20 buy in and there were ten or more players in each game.) It helps when in the course of three hands you get A-A, K-K, J-J.

I also played this Saturday and the results were nothing like I described above. I got very few hands to play and when I did I generally played them horribly. I didn't lose anywhere near what I won on Tuesday, so I'm still playing with house money but it is horribly frustrating to play so inconsistently.

What it does is fuel my desire to learn the game better. I'm extremely competive and enjoy a game that is a combination of luck, skill, and knowledge. I think I'm fairly skilled at reading people, but I need to increase my knowledge of the mathematical basis of the game to bump myself up to the next level.

For the time being, I'm still playing with my winnings from Tuesday and will be this coming Tuesday. Let's hope that I can keep it up.