Sorry part 2 took so long..  Took  me a while to remember the details.

12:15 a.m. tournament
Taj Mahal, Atlantic City
Buy-in $50 + $15
95 people

This is the first time I am taking part in the midnight tournament and I like it better than the 7:15.  No ante’s, the pace is much slower, more time to play and more people which means more places pay.  But there are your share of characters.

Level one, blinds 25-50, I am in the SB.  3 limpers in front of me so I complete with K-6 off.  5 players to a flop of 10-6-3 with two diamonds.  Everyone  checks.  Turn is the 7 of diamonds.  3 checks, I fire 200, one caller.  River 9 of spades.  He checks, I bet 400 and drag the pot.

Nothing much until level 3, blinds 100-200, from middle position I raise to 650 with pocket 10’s, both blinds call.  3 players to the flop which comes 10-8-7 with two clubs.  I am first to act now and given the fact that the two players in the blinds have been pretty aggressive up to this point, I took a read that with the texture of the flop, one of them was going to bet at it so I check.  They both check behind me.  What the hell was I thinking.  Even with that type of read, you can’t check this flop EVEN IF YOU ARE 100% SURE your opponent will bet it.  Too many draws can beat you and if your opponent commits him/herself, you’re gonna sweat.  Turn is the 4 of diamonds…  an irrelevant card.  Time for me to try and correct my initial mistake.  I lead out 2300.  SB folds but BB calls.  The river (of course) is the worst card in the deck…  the 6 of clubs.  NOW WHAT?  I check, the BB bets 6250.  WONDERFUL.  I played this hand like a typical rookie.  Now with 3 clubs and a 4-card straight on the board, what the hell do you do with top set?  I went into the tank for literally 5 minutes.  He played the hand like a typical flush draw.  Check the flop, flat call the turn, bet out the river when the club hits.  I am not worried about a non-club 9..  It wouldn’t have made it past the turn unless it was something like a 10-9s and with me having 3 of the 4 tens tied up, that’s highly improbable.  Looks like an easy fold…  except for one thing…  the one thing every poker player argues with from time to time…  instinct.  Something in my gut just simply told me this guy had absolute crap.  The call was about 80% of my stack.  After the time I took, I decided that I really didn’t care about losing the hand..  If I did, it’s a lesson learned but I wasn’t gonna be bluffed off of this hand…  so I called it.  He turns over the Q-J of diamonds.  Exactly what I thought…  CRAP!!!  He told me afterwards that he misread his hand and thought he had a straight.  I told him that I misread MY hand and though I had four sevens.  Even though I misplayed this hand miserably, it worked out for me in the end.

Nothing to talk about until after the first break.  I am at about 23,000.  I am on the button and half the table is late returning from the break.  The BB is in the pot for 800 and only has a total of 2200 left.  So I told him that if the action was folded around to me, I would move in in the dark and give him a chance to double up.  Stupid, yes…  but for 2200, I would probably have tried to steal the blinds with anything 10 high of better.  Si it folds to me, I move in dark, he calls dark.  I turn over 10-2 clubs, he turns over ACES!!!  Can you say running clubs for a club flush?  Dirty…  so dirty.

Same level, I am first to act with A-Q and raise to 2800 after stealing the blinds last hand with the same raise.  BB calls.  Flop comes A-2-4.  I  bet 2800, BB raises to 7000, I move in, BB insta-calls and turns over A-10.  I make an unnecessary aces up on the river and dismiss him putting me at a little over 50,000.

Blinds now at 1000-2000.  A couple steal attempts go bad then from mid position I pick up two jacks and raise to 4500.  Only caller is the BB who only has a total of 5500 and ships it.  Obvious call and he flips A-6s.  I tell the guy next to me two things…  ONE  I HATE jacks.  TWO, This is usually where the ace of hearts screws me.  Off comes the flop and the window card is….  Good guess!!  The ace of hearts.  BUT, the jack of spades is also in the flop and my set holds up.  Back to 50,000.

Now on the button, folds to me with K-Q hearts.  Two blinds with short stacks behind me, I ship it.  Called by SB with J-10 spades.  Jack on the turn and I am down to about 40,000.

Last hand before the second break.  I raise in EP to 5000 with A-10.  BB calls.  Flop is J-6-6.  She checks, I fire a standard continuation bet of 6500.  She thinks and ships it for about 15,000.  Nice way to donk off 12,000 right before the break moron!!

I head into the second break with 31,000.  Blinds at 1500-3000 when we return.  Without antes, I have a revolution before I have to play two-card poker.  Not desperation time yet but it’s not too far away.

Before the revolution completes I pick up pocket jacks again.  I raise to 8,000.  Three seats to my left ships it and has me covered.  GOD I HATE COIN FLIPS..  But I am in no position to even consider mucking these jacks.  I make the call and he turns up A-K.  I haven’t won a coin flip since 1989!!! And this would be no different.  Flop comes off K-Q-8 and I am sent packing 26th.

A bitter pill to swallow playing for three and a half hours and having nothing to show for it.  But poker really isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about making the right decisions.  Right decisions have the numbers in your favor.  How do you think casino’s make their billions?  They have good days and bad days but the numbers always work out in the end.

Next action scheduled for March 30th at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.

Welcome, one and all, to my brand new blog section.  It’s going to be a diary type entry blog, and action weather online or live, tournament or ring game, will be posted here and analysis taken.  Comments are always welcome, suggestions are always welcome.  Maybe at some point I will encounter a problem that you see in your game and will be able to give you suggestions on how to fix your problem.  I will try my best to update my blog once a week, even if I don’t have any action.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will be glad to help you.  In the meantime, my new blog section starts…….  RIGHT NOW!!!

March 9th, 2009
Taj Mahal, Atlantic City NJ
7:15 p.m. tournament
Buy-in  $50 + $15

This is the first action I have seen in a while, decided to take some time off and roll through the vast library of literature I have collected on the game of Texas Hold-Em.  Something just wasn’t right and I couldn’t figure out why.  Was it my hand selection?  My attitude?  Wrong strategy?  For whatever reason, last year was my first losing year since 2001. (Not that I am a professional)  Smallish tournament, only about 55 players.  Haven’t done a tournament in ages so it felt pretty good to go back to my roots.

I saw a video maybe a week prior where Daniel Negranu went over what they call “Small Ball Poker”.  Through all my readings my main goal was to improve my post-flop play so this short video was right up my alley.  Very first hand of the tournament, folded to me in the cutoff (one before the button) with 9-7 of clubs.  Blinds 25-50 I bump it to 125, 3 folds, first pot is mine.  Good start.

About 5 hands later a man sitting 4 seats away from me on my left, now under the gun, raises to 1000.  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  I guess the fact that he just came off a hand where some rookie made him look like a fool post-flop made him decide to play 2-card poker.  And as luck would have it, of course, I look down to find pocket queens.  So I simply call the 1000.  Why?  Well..  Two reasons.  First, I took a read as him having a big pair or A-K, his play thus far wasn’t that of a crazy maniac but that of a tight player who was not very good at post-flop play.  Second, it’s just way too early to risk more than 10 percent of my stack on a hand that, even though looks good, can be easily dominated or flipping a coin.  Add the fact that the 1000 preflop bet means that if the hand makes the river, one of us is going broke, why risk it now.  If he simply wants 75 in blinds and waste a monster in the process, be my guest.  How many times do you think you are going to pick up kings?
Back to the hand..  Heads up, I am in position, flop comes K-10-6 with 2 diamonds.  He leads out with 3000, I insta-muck my queens FACE UP.  He tells me he had trip kings, and I called him an idiot for pounding the nuts out of position and not letting me hang myself.  A mistake by him that saved me.

Last hand of the first level, I call a modest raise in middle position from the first to act.  Flop comes 8-7-4 rainbow.  First to act leads out with 600.  I raise to 1600.  He thinks…  then flat calls.  Turn is the 5 of spades.  He checks, I fire 2800.  He goes into the tank for a moment then tells me that he puts me on a 7 or an 8 and says he is gonna let me have one and mucks queens face up.  I told him that the odds on him catching a queen were slim to none and turned over the queen of spades.  ( I had Q-J of spades for those wondering.)

Level 3, about an hour into the tournament.  I have been up and down for the first hour and stand at about 8,500 of my original 10,000 and have been catching flack from the table about how reckless I am playing.  I love when a plan comes together.  Blinds at 100-200 25 ante, I am on the button with Q-8 hearts.  Folded around to me, I bump to 525, called by the BB.  Flop comes A-7-2 with 2 hearts.  Both of us check (yes, I intentionally checked the flush draw after having bet the last few of them with no success).  Turn is the jack of hearts.  BB leads out 2100.  I put on an oscar-winning performance and take about 2 minutes to flat call him.  River is a black 10.  BB moves all-in.  OOPS!! I, of course, beat him in the pot and double up to a little over 17,000.

Not much happens for the next two levels until the first break.  I head into the break with just shy of 20,000 chips.  Not too bad.  Blinds now 300-600 with a 75 ante.  I am the cutoff -1 and its folded to me with A-J clubs.  I pop it to 1400 and bet called by the BB.  Flop comes A-K-8.  I lead out with 2600 and get insta-raised to 7000.  Now this guy hasn’t yet recovered from the flush I threw at him ( For those wondering, the river 10 in that hand turned his K-Q offsuit he was bluffing with into broadway).  After going into the tank for a few minutes, I mucked the A-J.  Bad move.  Bad, bad move.  I was playing my hand and nothing else.  Rookie mistake.  Was I beat?  There was a possibility.  But at least the mistake was on the conservative side instead of the reckless side.  Still, a mistake is a mistake.

As level 8 starts, blinds jump to a rediculous 800-1600 with a 300 ante.  Forget about Hold-Em,  now we are playing 2-card bingo.  Now anyone who knows me knows I am not a very lucky person.  Good, yes…  lucky..  NO!  Since I have gone on long enough here I will make the rest short and sweet.  I play 3 hands from here on out.  Call an all in with Q-9 spades against a short stack, he shows Q-10…  0 for 1.   Next I call another short stack move with pocket 6’s, he turns over J-10 suited.  10 of clubs on the turn…  0 for 2.  Last hand I am so short stacked I am forced to move with
9-7 offsuit, get called again by Q-10.  I flop a 9, turn is the queen of diamonds…  0 for 3 and go out 21st, no money.

All in all, I wasn’t too dissapointed with my play.  When blinds get that big it’s a crapshoot.  The only real big mistake I made was mucking the A-J, at least I think it was a mistake.  In the end I don’t think it would have altered the final result much, I couldn’t hold a lead and couldn’t outdraw anyone near the end.  On a scale of 1 to 10…  Maybe an 8.5.  A couple “courtesy double ups” that could have been avoided and the A-J didn’t sit well with me.

No action this week, some personal business to take care off.  Next scheduled play is Monday the 23rd of march at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic city.

So until next time just remember…  It’s not about what you know, it’s about what they DON’T know.