SFPT November and The Future

In what may very well turn out to be the last SFPT tournament for many months, a small field of six showed up to play last weekend.  I played decent, and finished third.  I had some good hands that didn’t get good results, but overall played pretty well and got my chips in at the end with a good hand. 

My best hand of the night was one I didn’t win, but made a good read – with A/K and a king on the board, I bet the flop and turn, and was snap-called both times by Kim.  After the second one, I checked the river and folded to her mid-range bet, putting her on an ace.  I was right – not only did she have one ace, but rockets.

In the end, Tom won his second ever SFPT tournament after outlasting Kim heads-up.

The big question for me now is, what role does poker play in my life from here on out?  My initial thought is, “not enough to justify a blog”.  But I’m going to keep this blog going, because that may change, and because it’s a fun record of a small portion of my life.

We may not play poker as much, SFPT wise, until the kids are older.  At least that’s my prediction.  The every-other-month events will probably pick back up at some point, maybe after our new baby is a few months old and we are comfortable that everything is going well.  I also wonder what impact the (potential) new casino will have on my poker career (and for that matter, Tina’s as well).  Will the closer location mean more frequent, if less lengthy, poker sessions?  Or will having two kids mean we aren’t able to play any more than we do now, and perhaps less?

At this point, it’s all speculation, because Lago hasn’t been awarded a license and said license isn’t a guarantee.  I will admit, I did get excited when I saw a couple of tweets from Seneca Niagara that referred to the “Seneca Fall Poker Classic” and my brain put an “s” after “Fall” for a split second, like a mental auto-correct.  If Lago gets their license, maybe there would be such a tournament.  Based on my initial reaction, I would play.  That right there tells me I’m not done with poker, and that I may pick back up with my frequency of play in the future.  In other words, it’s still fun.

One thing is certain – my previous internal debate of fun versus money is no longer a debate.  Money itself has become so menial in my life, in terms of its importance, that it follows that I can’t and won’t care about money when I am playing poker.  Rather than being a bad thing, I believe it will be good.  It is well-documented that I play far too tight in many situations; truly not caring about profit will allow me to loosen up even further and take good chances.

All of this remains to be seen.  With everything going on in my life now, poker has taken a back seat, which is fine. 

Marathon to 10k: 2.5 home game hours, 154.25 total home game hours, 265.75 total hours

The August Tournament

The "new normal" seems to be to my liking. 

For the second straight tournament, I took down the win, this one slightly more impressive as the field was bigger by two players.  I played well for the most part, not taking too many stupid chances and pushing the action when I had the right cards, position, and chips.  That and a little bit of luck gave me the win, besting Tom in heads-up play.

I hate to say this in a way, but a little bit of alcohol helped once again as well.  It was four beers this time instead of six, but still, I'm not going to make a habit out of drinking every time I play.  Not good, for obvious reasons.  Although, having a few beers once every other month probably isn't going to hurt anything.

Even before  the beers, however, I found myself much more relaxed than I had been in the past; feeling and thus exhibiting more of a "go with the flow" attitude.   In the past, starting an hour and a half past the scheduled time, or seeing some of the kids (led by my own) making a mud hole in the back yard might have gotten on my nerves.  But it didn't, and I'm glad.  In fact, a couple days after the tournament, I was thinking how I am proud of myself that my reaction to the Mud Hole Incident was literally a shrug and "eh, let them have some fun".  The yard can be fixed, if needed.  Clothes can be washed or replaced.  But you can't go back and make memories.

Marathon to 10k: 4 home game hours, 151.75 total home game hours, 263.25 total hours

Interlude to Equilibrium

My complete and total layoff from poker lasted just over 3 months.

We had an SFPT "event" last weekend, and though some things hadn't changed (namely, the kids being, as a group, wild and a distraction), some had.  Namely, I found that I was able to relax and enjoy myself, despite my belief going in that I wouldn't be able to do so.  Or more accurately, didn't want to.  I gave serious thought to only dealing for the game, and only decided to play a few hours before when it became apparent the field would be a small one.

I should have realized long ago that completely giving up on poker was not something I really wanted to do.  I acted and talked like it was, in the name of being selfless - still my primary goal in life.  But playing poker brings me a certain level of enjoyment, and more importantly, it's something I do with my friends.  The making of memories is something I never want to neglect, and giving up on the SFPT home games would be doing just that.

I'm glad we played a couple days ago, for those reasons, but also because I played well.  And won.  Winning helps, I'm not going to lie.  It's not about the money at all, it's about the confidence.  It also goes a long way toward making the whole experience more enjoyable, which probably goes without saying.

It was a seven player field, and the heads-up came down to Corrye and I.  Corrye made a great play going all-in after the river on what Tina agreed was a "scary board" full of straight and flush draws; I laid down pocket jacks and it turns out I would have beaten Corrye's eights under.  I thought I was screwed after that, but a couple shoves and folds got me a slight lead going into the final hand.  Slightly intoxicated and therefore not over-thinking the situation as I am wont to do, I moved all-in with A/5 spades and was called by Corrye's K/10 off-suit.

The board ran out blanks and I took home the win and $35 in prize money, not counting the $10 I had won on a bounty earlier in the night.  After my $5 Add-On, I was up $30 on the night, which went directly to Jules' bank account.

I think I have found a happy medium now - while I don't need to take poker as seriously as I was not too long ago, I also know I don't want to give it up either.  It IS fun, and despite the frustrations that sometimes come with having the get-togethers at our house, it is worth it.

Marathon to 10K: 3 home game hours, 147.75 total home game hours, 259.25 total hours

The New SFPT and the New Reality

Safe to say, the thrill is done.  I just don't care anymore.  The flame has been extinguished.  Whatever love I had for poker, especially as for the idea of it being something I want to focus a good deal of my time and energy on, has disappeared.

It's hard to say exactly why I feel this way, but the first thought that comes to mind is that there's no one that wants to go on the journey with me.  If I wanted it bad enough, I could do it alone, and the fact that I'm not willing to go it alone tells me I don't want it bad enough.  That realization is enlightening, and oddly gives me a sense of relief.  From the beginning, it felt forced, but I chalked that up to the fact that it was something almost completely new to me.  In hindsight, I should have known better.  I'm just glad I came to that realization before too much more time had passed.

I do want to keep playing casually, which is one of the reasons this blog, my tracking spreadsheets, and the SFPT in general will not completely go away.  (For the SFPT specifically, hanging out with my friends and Add-Ons for Ally are the main reasons). Poker is still fun on a certain level, but I could tell when I was playing in the most recent SFPT that it's not as fun as it once was.  I was donking off chips with almost every pot, and not focusing as I am wont to do.  But this time, when I realized my lack of focus, my reaction was NOT to regain it.  It was literally, a shrug and "oh well".

Perhaps my desire to play will be bolstered by playing less frequently.  That idea makes me glad I changed the SFPT get-togethers to every other month (the stated reasons on the Facebook page being, of course, the primary ones). 

I have also made a few non-SFPT related changes, beginning with clearing out my Twitter feed and Facebook Likes of almost all poker-related content.  The only ones I kept were ones that were also following me, or people who are interesting on levels other than poker. 

It's good, I think, that I have made these decisions.  Spending so much time on poker, not so much the playing but watching, reading, and thinking, was taking too much of my time on a selfish pursuit.

10K update: 2.25 home game hours, 144.75 total home game, 256.25 total

SFPT 2014 Kicks Off

The 2014 SFPT season got underway last Friday, and my results were, of course, middling.  That seems to be my style.  I finished in fourth place of nine; as one might surmise, there was a balance of things that went right and wrong.  One hand was a double knockout to begin the season that was maybe the best hand I have ever played, and without a doubt one of the best in SFPT history.

Down to four players after the flop of 9h/3s/Ah and turn 4c, Corrye was first to act, and moved all-in for 16 and change.  I tanked for a long time by SFPT standards (close to two minutes) before deciding to call.  The decision to say “call” and not “all-in” would be important.

CJ was next and short-stacked; he snap-called for five and change.  Tom was the last player, and for some reason, wanted to get a count of his chips.  Perhaps he thought I said all-in when in fact I hadn’t.  In any event, his count took a while, leading Matt to pause the timer while the hand played out. 

After a couple minutes, someone clued in Tom that he didn’t need to count because I had only called, but most of the way done, he continued anyway, and it was determined that I had him covered by just over $1.  He decided to call Corrye as well, putting the same 16 and change into the pot.

Now, Corrye and CJ were committed, and Tom and I could have a side pot.  I had already decided my course of action: as soon as the river hit the felt, I moved all-in, hoping to get Tom to fold so even if I lost, I wouldn’t be crippled.

After much debate, that’s exactly what happened.  The rest of us flipped our cards, and I pumped my fist – not only did my two pair A-4 hold up, I had read both CJ (high card only) and Corrye (busted flush draw) perfectly.

Unfortunately, winning that big pot led me to take too many pre-flop chances when I shouldn't have, and I again found myself on the shorter end of the chip counts as the field dwindled.  In the midst of that pissing away of chips, there is one other hand I did play well: holding A/6 and with an ace on the board, I folded to Ray's river bet after figuring he had me out-kicked.  Holding a nine, he did.

So, good news and bad news, but not a terrible start to the year by any means.  I wasn't able to feed the Bracelet Hunting envelope at all (both BSOs I earned were losers), but my eight points under the new format put me in a tie for third place.

Time Played: 3.5 hours (142.5 home game hours, 254 total hours)

A Brief Stop in the Cash Game

I very nearly didn't play any poker on our National Cuffedaddy Day trip to Turning Stone, but I decided that if I didn't, I would regret it as soon as we left. So, I made it a point to find a seat in the nearly-empty room a little after 1215 AM.  Tina came with, and we sat down at two empty seats at table 12, on either side of the dealer.

Our stay didn't last long; sadly Tina's was even less than mine when she was felted holding A/K hearts and top pair top kicker, but her opponent held K/K for trips.  I ended up playing for an hour and a half, ending just before 2 AM. 

What went right: I had the opportunity to set my table image right off the bat, as a run of crappy cards led me to fold my first 10 or so hands - sometimes with no raise in front of me.  That meant that when I did lead out, I got a lot of folds, and my continuation bets led me to take down a few pots after the flop on straight bluffs.  Sadly, those pots were small. 

I did have aces once, and given my established tight reputation, I checked pre-flop as to not scare anyone off.  The flop was garbage (no card higher than 10), and sadly my $5 raise scared off the remaining two players in the hand, leading me to take down a pot worth about $4.  I know I always say a small pot is better than no pot, but that pissed me off a little.

I did end up taking a lot of small pots, but...

What went wrong: ...the couple I lost were big enough to even it out.  Neither went to a show down; both times I folded following a post-flop bet when there was at least one caller in front of me and I had either missed the flop completely, or was drawing very thin.  Really, I didn't play any of the hands badly.  The only one I would have played differently was a pre-flop call of $15 holding A/9 suited and a post-flop call of $10 more when I hit middle pair.  Overall, I would give my play a grade of B+.

The biggest thing that went wrong though, was that I couldn't convince Matt to play, even though he admittedly had the bankroll.

The table dynamic/people: Things were interesting, and not in a good way at the end.  A couple of the guys were pretty chatty and were obviously regulars. I got my two cents in (and established as part of my table image that I had more than a clue about the game) when they were talking about multi-tabling online games, something I have done briefly.  The complete rundown, listed by seat number:

1. Me
2. Regular player, chunky Middle Eastern guy
3. Woman who may have been a regular and wasn't there long; got felted and was on tilt at a reasonably bad beat
4. Paula Deen lookalike who was on a huge heater when I got there and had chips to match; probably a regular
5. Regular player, also chunky, Packers sweatshirt, very nasal accent.  I think I heard him say he was originally from Jersey. I talked the most with this guy
6. Empty
7. Younger kid (late 20's), maybe a regular, knew what he was doing but also may have been relatively new to the live game based on his physical actions (namely, his hand shaking when he moved chips or folded)
8. VERY quiet middle-aged guy, had a decent chip stack but his face was a blank slate. Kind of resembled a depressed, unkempt version of Ty Burrell
9. Empty
10. Tina 

As the time passed, a few of the players left and were replaced.  Seat 2 left after a while, following the second most interesting development of the night: a player being escorted out by security.  It happened at a cash table on the other side of the room, and our table actually had a heads-up because a friend of Seat 2 who had been playing at that table came over to tell him what was going down.  As he told the story, another player came to cash out (our table was the closest one to the cage), and we overheard him complaining, loudly and angrily, to the floor supervisor about that player.

Only a couple minutes later, two security guards arrived, and Seat 2's friend exclaimed quite giddily, "Oh, here they are!  Here we go!"  After a couple beats, he made what may have been an obvious statement: "He's not going to go quietly!"

And he didn't - upon being told to leave, the guy started screaming, though he left without too much of a fight.  As he passed our table, he yelled (if I remember correctly, though I know it was something to this effect), "these people need to stop being such fucking pussies!"

Of course, Seat 2 and his friend started laughing, and I couldn't help it either.

Sadly, the next player to leave our table was Tina, who promptly borrowed some cash from me to head back to the slots.  She was replaced by a young kid who ended up being pretty cool, and soon after another middle aged man, obviously a regular, filled Seat 9.

Seat 4 left around that time, which was good for me - she was fairly aggressive pre-flop and rarely lost when she got to showdown, which told me that more than playing her position well, she was running very well too.  I was not sad to see her go.

Tina and Matt returned from the floor around 1:30, at which point I said I was going to play about 15 more minutes and call it a night.  A couple hands later I was re-thinking that strategy, having a good handle on the table with the departure of Seat 5, but the arrival of a new player in Seat 2 changed my mind.

This guy was, without question, the biggest d-bag I have ever met at a poker table, probably in a casino overall, and maybe even in my life.  To start, he rolled up to the table with a huge stack of chips, mostly greens, and plopped them down.  He then asked if this was no-limit, bitched upon learning it was only 1-2, bitched again that he could only keep $200 of his chips on the table to start, and declared "they kicked me out over there because I was raising too much". 

Great.  It was also about this time I noticed his stench, a triple play of BO, booze (he was beyond wasted, as was his friend, hanging out behind him), and chewing tobacco spit, which he kept, of course, in a cup on the table.

It took this idiot about 10 minutes and half a dozen reminders from the dealer before he was able to successfully navigate the required amount of chips into his pocket and could play a hand.  And of course, he raises big pre-flop.  Seat 7, who had taken out Tina and had a huge stack thanks to that hand and one other, wasn't having any of his shit, and called.

It played out perfectly - D-Bag raised post-flop, seat 7 re-raised.  D-Bag puts on a show, saying, "I know he doesn't have it, because you would call if you did.  There's no way some idiot sitting there in a Zoo York shirt has it."

Fuck.  Now I know this guy is an idiot.  I'm shaking my head and decided right then that after the next hand, I'm gone.  Not only am I at my time limit, I'm not going to sit here and watch a a dick-waving contest.

So Seat 7 says, "Call me, if I don't have it. Come on."

Now it's getting good.  D-Bag fiddles around with his chips, mumbles something I didn't catch, and Seat 7 prods him "Come on man, you know I don't have it.  Call me."

"No fucking way he has it," D-Bag says.  "50 on top he doesn't show." He mucks his cards.

To my utter delight, Seat 7 shows, and he did have top pair/top kicker.  Internally, I laugh my ass off.

"Come on, 50 on top," Seat 7 says, twisting the knife.  "You said 50 on top if I showed."

"No, I didn't say that," D-Bag says (of course).

"I'm pretty sure this entire table heard you say that," Seat 7 fires back.  As he reaches for his cards for the next hand, he's shaking, but good for him - put this fucker in his place.

Action came to me and I folded my K/6 hearts (frankly I wasn't going to stay with anything other than aces or kings), and announce "that's enough for me".  As I grabbed my chips I made eye contact with Seat 7 and gave him a slight nod - well done, man. 

Hand of the night: That last hand between D-Bag and Seat 7 is obviously the winner, but as for hands I was involved in, there was one that came down to me, Tina, and Paula Deen post-flop.  Tina was first to act and bet 15.  I was next, and as I reached down for chips, I noticed PD had her hands on her cards in a way that would allow her to muck with just a flick of the wrist.

Was she really going to fold, or was it a ploy to make me think that?  I paused, debated for a couple seconds, and mucked.  Her cards were in the middle a split-second after mine, and Tina took down a decent sized pot.

Not too exciting, but I was happy with the way I noticed PD's body language, and played it appropriately.

Results recap: 1.5 live hours, 17.5 total live cash hours, 250.5 total overall hours

Cash: down $7 total not including $6 in dealer tips.  Added $8 to bankroll upon arriving home to bring it up to $135 total, resulting in a net loss of $5

The Good of Poker

I had a quite unintended interaction on Twitter last week that ended up having a great outcome - not only for me personally, but for one other person I'll likely never meet, and for a worthy charity.

It all started when I happened to notice a re-tweet by Ike Haxton, a pro I follow.  Apparently, an EPT Live viewer had won a deck of EPT cards signed by Haxton, and decided to auction them off via Twitter with the proceeds going to Lung Cancer Canada.  I checked out the auctioner's profile, and saw the bid sole bid at the time was $25.

Sure, why not, I'll play.  I bid $30, expecting to be quickly outdone.  It took a while, but there was another bid, for $31.  Since it was going to charity, I decided to play along.  At this point, the tweets themselves tell the story best:













After that, there wasn't a lot of action, though I kept expecting to get outbid at any time.  It wasn't until much later that evening that the a resolution was reached:



At the end of the day, I was able to start my 2014 charity giving, some kid in Britain got a sweet deck of cards that he apparently really wanted, and $166 was raised for a good cause.  I also gained another Twitter follower when Fleming_clan followed me shortly after his last tweet.  Not sure who it is, but the list of people that follows him includes a bunch of Vegas blogs, a couple casinos, and Scotty Nguyen himself.

So, it was a good day as it stands, but it may be even bigger in the grand scheme.  When I decided to write about this experience, I debated as to whether it should go here on my poker blog, or on my personal blog.  I decided to place it here because this is, to me, what I want my involvement with poker to be like.  Playing the game, I've realized, is almost tangential to what I really want to achieve.  I want to get my name out there, but more than that, I want to be know as someone who is not only respectful to the game and it's players, but uses whatever skills he has to help other people.

How exactly I can do that, I'm still working out.  I already committed, starting last year, to tithe 10% of all casino winnings, above and beyond my normal tithing.  I have the thought of taking an additional 10% and giving it to a poker-related charity, perhaps Poker Gives. That is something I am going to research a bit more in the coming days and weeks.

Either way, I am committed to figuring it out.  I want my $35 to Lung Cancer Canada to be only the top molecule of the tip of the iceberg.