Cards

Ever since I started playing pinochle with my family on holidays, my dad has told me that God has blessed me with a knack for cards. I always doubted this theory of his until tonight. I am now certain that my dad was right after I made $254 playing a fairly low stakes game called Boo-Ray tonight. I came to this guy's house having no clue how to play the game, just thousands of hours of cardplaying background. I was given a few helpful hints and off I was playing this game that they said was all about luck. The longer I played, the more and more I disagreed with the idea that this was mostly luck. I don't really want to explain the rules of the game, but it is all about only playing when you are positive that your hand is going to at least take a trick. Anyway, I was never in any real danger of losing money tonight because I never really took a chance and gambled. It was a great night because I was doing something that I have a passion for, playing cards, and making money doing it.

Sometimes I think I should just quit online poker and just have card nights with my friends and other acquaintances. This summer I made quite a bit of money playing 3 handed pinochle in Billings, but I would have made a lot more if I wasn't playing with a pinochle shark (Dr_Kaufman) every time. The 3rd player was the "fish" who made playing worth while. Also, playing NL cash games with my friends is just rediculous. Sometimes I feel bad how easy it is to take their money. I also consider myself a pretty good Pitch (a card game that is popular in Nebraska) player and I am starting to get the hang of Euchre, though I have yet to play either of them for money. I know I am playing against "bad gamblers" and I shouldn't get a big head about all this. But I just thought that I should take this chance in my blog to thank God for giving me card playing skills and a love for them. I'm not going to deny it, cards are a huge part of my life. Over the last year and half, they have overtaken basketball as my favorite hobby. There is nothing better than just getting out a deck of cards and chilling with your friends and family. If we play for money and I win some, fine, but the social interaction is what I love the most about cards.

Some Poker

Last night a bunch of my teammates got a 1/2 NL cash game going. I was really licking my chops when they wanted to get together and play. I bought in for $200 and their jaws dropped. They all bought in for $40 or less (usually $20). I started off strong, raising every pot I entered. I would throw in $7 like it was nothing and they would be pissed because it was too much to call without AA lol.

Anyway, I built my stack to about $330 when this disappointing hand came up. I sat to the left of Garrett (the only other guy that sits with some real money at the table). Garrett has one goal in mind when we play these home games. That goal is to bust me with whatever cards possible. So with this in mind, he calls every single one of my preflop raises and then he tightens up after the flop. Usually a continuation bet will ship the pot to me unless he hit. Alright so here is the hand. Garrett limps utg and I squeeze AA. I make it $8 (though I could have made it $20 and there was a 80% chance that he would've called). He calls and everyone else folds. Flop comes 2c 5d 7d. He checks. I bet $16 and he quickly calls. Turn As. dink! (or is it). He checks and I bet $20 with practically the nuts. He min raises me to $40. I think for a bit and I decide that he has an under set even though I wouldn't be surprised if he had 43. So I raise $60 more and he thinks a bit then pushes for $70 more. I quickly call and he turns over 43off. I have outs! River is a Kc. Dang. I lose a $400 pot at a 1/2 home game. That sucked.

Though I still had $90 or so at the table, I rebought for another $100 and began to grind again. There was just too much easy money at the table to leave and I wanted to bust Garrett. We grinded and grinded for 5 hours longer! Eventually Garrett and I busted everyone and all their rebuys. I had taken quite a bit from Garrett too. We decided to call it quits at 4:15 am. I cash out with $562 which is +$262. So I can't complain. I almost guarantee that if I ship that pot with AA, I would clear that whole table of a little over 1K which would have been nice. But oh well. It was fun taking all the freshman basketball players' money.

I played some NL cash on Party today and broke even. Then I played in the $109- 2K added and busted in the middle of the pack. At the same time I played a $11 Sunday Million Satty with the top 2 out of 60 qualify. I cruised into the final table with over double the chips as the guy in second place. I ended up winning the thing but it definitely wasn't handed to me. So I am pretty happy that I am in the tourney on Sunday because I hate buying into them even though they are +EV. Hopefully I'll get some more poker in tomorrow.

Back in Nebraska

I had a fun weekend in Missoula. Montana showed that they are legitimate National Championship contenders with a 59-14 win over conference opponent Sacramento State. We were just clicking on all cylinders. If I could fly back for every game, I would. They are just so much fun.

I want to get in a lot of poker time this week and hopefully satellite into a lot of the Sunday tourneys. My goal is to make over 5K this week. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

Bad beat story that no one wants to hear...

...but I'm going to write it anyway. I decided to pull an all nighter before I leave for the Omaha airport so I played some poker. On the 5498349th set I flopped playing NL cash, I finally got action. Here is the hand.

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HeDiedForAll [ Tc, Td ]
foofyter calls (4)
MarlexutH folds.
nail29 folds.
kmenkewhite calls (4)
HeDiedForAll raises (14) to 14
arjunm21 calls (14)
pkrplayr23 calls (14)
dher5501 folds.
daytonick folds.
foofyter folds.
kmenkewhite folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, 5h, Th ]
HeDiedForAll checks.
arjunm21 bets (44)
pkrplayr23 calls (44)
HeDiedForAll raises (120) to 120
arjunm21 raises (113.20) to 157.20
arjunm21 is all-In.
pkrplayr23 calls (112)
pkrplayr23 is all-In.
HeDiedForAll calls (37.20)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 7c ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 9h ]
Creating Main Pot with $520.50 with pkrplayr23
Creating Side Pot 1 with $2.40 with arjunm21

** Summary **
Main Pot: $520.50 Side Pot 1: $2.40 Rake: $3 Jackpot Contribution: $0.50Board: [ 3d 5h Th 7c 9h ]

arjunm21 balance $522.90, bet $171.20, collected $522.90, net +$351.70 [ Ah 8h ] [ a flush, ace high with ace kicker -- Ah,Th,9h,8h,5h ]
pkrplayr23 balance $0, lost $170 [ Jh Qh ] [ a flush, queen high -- Qh,Jh,Th,9h,5h ]
dher5501 balance $236.30, lost $2 (folded)
daytonick balance $392, lost $4 (folded)
foofyter balance $29.26, lost $4 (folded)
MarlexutH balance $204.76, didn't bet (folded)
kimae balance $33.99, sits out
nail29 balance $1331.76, didn't bet (folded)
kmenkewhite balance $459.64, lost $4 (folded)
HeDiedForAll balance $222.80, lost $171.20 [ Tc Td ] [ three of a kind, tens -- Tc,Td,Th,9h,7c ]

I guess I don't want action with my sets :(

Montana

Finally, the 22nd has come so I can do something different. Seward is getting really boring and every week seems repetitive. Leah and I are leaving for Omaha in four hours and then flying to Missoula. It is going to be great to change things up a bit and watch my brother play live. I hope they donkey stomp Sacramento State.

Anyway, basketball is pissing me off lately. Looks like it is going to be another year of working my ass off and never seeing the court. Poker has been blah lately. Not really any notable days. Up a few hundred here, down a few hundred there. School is retarded... dominated one test this week and then bombed another. Not really a big deal though as long as I pass. Well that's my thoughts for now. I'll update and tell how the trip went.

More NL Cash

I played some more 1/2 and 2/4 NL cash last night and it went okay but not great. I ended up $700 but I played a ton of hands. So it was more even of a day than it sounds. I think I'm doing a lot wrong. I flopped literally one million sets today and got paid off on less than 10% of them. The players just play sooo tight post flop that it hard to get paid when I flop a monster. I flopped multiple top two pairs with rags in the blinds with 7 players in the pot. I would lead out at the pot and everyone would fold. I would also bet with my sets and would get no action. I was running so good that it was bad for me. I would have AA on the button after everyone folded and the bb would call my raise. The flop would come AXX and I would continuation bet and he would fold. Is this the right play??? I just think it looks so obvious that I have a monster if I check the flop there. I don't know. I have to start figuring things out on how to get paid when I have big hands. Here on some hands from the day. Please comment on them.

Hockney1991 posts small blind (1)
Familyguy17 posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HeDiedForAll [ Ad, Qd ]
deadman339 calls (2)
Laurel3 raises (4) to 4
newc_united folds.
Mejefe22 folds.
Aceagent31 calls (4)
PalmsJunky folds.
GREGORYDR calls (4)
HeDiedForAll calls (4)
Hockney1991 calls (3)
Familyguy17 calls (2)
deadman339 calls (2)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9h, Qc, 2d ]
Hockney1991 bets (5)
Familyguy17 folds.
deadman339 raises (10) to 10
Laurel3 folds.Aceagent31 folds.
GREGORYDR raises (30) to 30
HeDiedForAll folds.
Hockney1991 folds.
deadman339 calls (14.05)
deadman339 is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Tc ] ** Dealing River ** : [ Js ]
Creating Main Pot with $77.60 with deadman339
** Summary **Main Pot: $77.60 Side Pot 1: $5.95 Rake: $3 Jackpot Contribution: $0.50Board: [ 9h Qc 2d Tc Js ]
GREGORYDR balance $160, bet $34, collected $83.55, net +$49.55 [ Kh Qs ] [ a straight, nine to king -- Kh,Qs,Js,Tc,9h ]
HeDiedForAll balance $271.49, lost $4 (folded)
Hockney1991 balance $207.94, lost $9 (folded)
Familyguy17 balance $77.10, lost $4 (folded)
deadman339 balance $0, lost $28.05 [ 8s Qh ] [ a straight, eight to queen -- Qh,Js,Tc,9h,8s ]

With a bet, raise, and reraise, my hand sure didn't look too good.

lobo4 posts small blind (1)
Imabeast1 posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HeDiedForAll [ Kc, Ks ]
HeDiedForAll raises (7) to 7
Mr_Fuglesang calls (7)
King4484 folds.
Drdokka111 folds.
levatorani calls (7)
beund2A folds.
flidler folds.
sl999333 raises (37) to 37
lobo4 folds.Imabeast1 folds.
HeDiedForAll calls (30)
Mr_Fuglesang calls (30)
levatorani folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ah, 8s, 8c ]
HeDiedForAll checks.
Mr_Fuglesang bets (45)
sl999333 calls (45)
HeDiedForAll folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 4c ]
Mr_Fuglesang bets (97.45)
Mr_Fuglesang is all-In.
sl999333 calls (97.45)
** Dealing River ** : [ 9h ]
Creating Main Pot with $402.40 with Mr_Fuglesang
** Summary **Main Pot: $402.40 Rake: $3 Jackpot Contribution: $0.50Board: [ Ah 8s 8c 4c 9h ]
sl999333 balance $450.15, bet $179.45, collected $402.40, net +$222.95 [ 3c Ac ] [ two pairs, aces and eights -- Ac,Ah,9h,8s,8c ]
lobo4 balance $145, lost $1 (folded)
Imabeast1 balance $344.15, lost $2 (folded)
HeDiedForAll balance $163, lost $37 (folded)
Mr_Fuglesang balance $0, lost $179.45 [ Qs Qd ] [ two pairs, queens and eights -- Ah,Qs,Qd,8s,8c ]
King4484 balance $239.46, didn't bet (folded)
Drdokka111 balance $70, didn't bet (folded)
levatorani balance $41.15, lost $7 (folded)
beund2A balance $192.36, didn't bet (folded)
flidler balance $165.35, didn't bet (folded)

A3?? I guess I should've pushed preflop and QQ would've called and A3 would've had to lay it down, right??

Those are just a couple of notable hands where I'm not exactly sure what play to make.

NL cash???

Lately I've needed a break from limit cash games just to change things up a bit. Since tournaments take too long, I decided to try and learn a little NL cash. I played 1/2 ring games on and off all day. I started out really strong and got up about $400. I then got stacked by a guy who played top boat in the strangest way I have ever seen. The sb who called my standard cutoff raise bet $2 on the river into a pot of $100 with AA on a AQ5Q7 board. Anyway, I value raised (at least I thought I was value raising) the river with KQ only to be pushed all in. I probably shouldn't have called his all in, but figured I could beat a few hands haha. The moral of the story is that he had top boat and I got stacked :( I should have saved that hand history and the rest of my stack for that matter.

I then started pwning for a while and was up $750 at one point 20 minutes ago before I decided to call it quits when these hands occured.

Kruella1000 posts small blind (1)
HeDiedForAll posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HeDiedForAll [ 5d, Th ]
wiggum555 folds.
hamburglergt calls (2)
milval folds.slice517 calls (2)
ADkone folds.
suicide___king folds.
UPay4MyWeed calls (2)
ertha folds.Kruella1000 calls (1)
HeDiedForAll checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Js, 5c, Ts ]
Kruella1000 checks.
HeDiedForAll bets (7)
hamburglergt raises (20) to 20
slice517 folds.
UPay4MyWeed folds.
Kruella1000 folds.
HeDiedForAll raises (63)
to 70hamburglergt raises (156.15) to 176.15
hamburglergt is all-In.
HeDiedForAll calls (106.15)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ks ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 6d ]
Creating Main Pot with $359.30 with hamburglergt
** Summary **
Main Pot: $359.30 Rake: $3
Board: [ Js 5c Ts Ks 6d ]
milval balance $204.35, didn't bet (folded)
slice517 balance $56.90, lost $2 (folded)
ADkone balance $168.10, didn't bet (folded)
suicide___king balance $88, didn't bet (folded)
UPay4MyWeed balance $325.40, lost $2 (folded)
ertha balance $200, didn't bet (folded)
Kruella1000 balance $275.76, lost $2 (folded)
HeDiedForAll balance $21.85, lost $178.15 [ 5d Th ] [ two pairs, tens and fives -- Ks,Th,Ts,5d,5c ]
wiggum555 balance $150.37, didn't bet (folded)
hamburglergt balance $359.30, bet $178.15, collected $359.30, net +$181.15 [ Td Jc ] [ two pairs, jacks and tens -- Ks,Jc,Js,Td,Ts ]

I probably could have laid that hand down. Amateur mistake? I don't know.

This hand happened not two minutes later at another table.

St1ffPeter posts small blind (1)
hwjthoj posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HeDiedForAll [ Ks, Kh ]
Avada_Kedavra folds.
mmpokertime folds.
shadyg raises (4) to 4
Zlota folds.
milval folds.
cm33tdd calls (4)
HeDiedForAll raises (14) to 14
siggie2fly calls (14)
St1ffPeter folds.
hwjthoj calls (12)
shadyg calls (10)
cm33tdd calls (10)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5d, 8d, 3c ]
hwjthoj bets (20)
shadyg calls (20)
cm33tdd folds.
HeDiedForAll raises (75) to 75
siggie2fly folds.
hwjthoj calls (55)
shadyg folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5s ]
hwjthoj bets (37.50)
hwjthoj is all-In.
HeDiedForAll calls (37.50)
** Dealing River ** : [ Qc ]
Creating Main Pot with $313 with hwjthoj
** Summary **Main Pot: $313 Rake: $3
Board: [ 5d 8d 3c 5s Qc ]
siggie2fly balance $453.96, lost $14 (folded)
St1ffPeter balance $11.55, lost $1 (folded)
hwjthoj balance $313, bet $126.50, collected $313, net +$186.50 [ Qh Qs ] [ a full house, Queens full of fives -- Qh,Qs,Qc,5d,5s ]

That hand just sucked, so I had to call it a night.

I really want to get good at NL cash. There are juicy home games in Billings with over $20,000 on the table and players who muck their hand face up, not knowing that they have a straight and shipping the pot. Amazingly, scenarios like this happen multiple times a night. I ended the night still up $250 on the day, so there is definitely a lot of money to be earned if a player who has never played NL cash before can have that success at 1/2. I'm going to try to post more hands as I continue to learn. Please feel free to comment on them and have suggestions for me. Hopefully constructive criticism :)

Running good again

Well, poker has been a rollercoaster the last three weeks and tonight was a good ride. I just played for about two hours and made $3400. I was playing some 10/20, 15/30, 30/60, and even some 75/150 on pacific. I like to find profitable tables so I bounce around quite a bit. I found a fish sitting with $578 by himself at the 75/150 game, so I decided to sit down and take his stack on the first hand. He ended up calling my T8 with 45 on a board of J87J8, which was kinda nice. Anyway, I am going to bed tonight feeling good about poker for the first night in a while.

In other news, it sounds like my brother is alright and he should be ready to go in two weeks against Sacramento State which I will be attending. The Griz have a bye week, so hopefully they will heal up their bumps and bruises.

Also, congrats to Shannon Shorr who has moved up to number 2 on Cardplayer's Player of the Year race. That guy is a class act and I'm really rooting for him to pass the "Grinder" for the Player of the Year award.

Good and then back to bad

I got back to into cruise control on Friday night and worked my Pacific bankroll back up to where it was after the first week of school. Though I didn't feel like things were going well, donks kept sitting with $150 at 15/30 with me and I kept taking it. Slowly but surely, my bankroll kept on rising. I went to bed satisfied and confident once again.

Then this morning after basketball practice, I logged a session. I started off strong and was slowly winning for the first 45 minutes. I then decided to play some HU 30/60 versus nsid who I believe plays right into my strategy. It was too bad that I happened to catch him while he was on a huge heater. There was a stretch of four out of five hands where he hit a straight. Usually, I would be alright if he was hitting straights on me, but what lost me a lot of money is that I flopped huge hands as well. I had literally one million second best hands during this short half hour span against him.

The first hand, I had 47 on a flop of 347. We did our raising before I decided to slow down and he flipped over 56 for the nuts. The very next hand I find J9. Flop comes JJT. Turn comes 8...we do our raising...river X. I slow down, he turns over Q9 for the straight. Two hands later... I have AJ... flop J78...turn 6... river X. He turns over 54 for the straight. Next hand I flop a flush draw... I semi-bluff check raise the turn and miss, however the river gave me top pair, but it wasn't good enough to beat his straight. Anyway, you get the point. He was on a heater and I had a lot of second best hands which will usually add up to a big loss. Luckily, I was able to pick up some smaller pots against him and only ended up calling it quits at -$2,000 against him. That was just an unfortunate session that made me stop playing for the day. I will gladly play nsid HU again anytime as long as he isn't running like that.

After poker, I watched my brother's game on the internet. They had fairly easy 36-7 win over South Dakota State. I noticed that Eric wasn't in the game at all in the second half and I was wondering why. After the game I got a phone call from my grandma telling me that Eric suffered a concussion in the first half. Hopefully he is alright and will be ready to go in two weeks when Leah and I fly to Missoula. I don't really care if he's doing fine, all I care about is him getting back out on the football field... just kidding. Anyway, I haven't gotten a phone call from my parents so I guess it's not that serious.

I am not sure exactly what is on tap for tomorrow as far as poker goes. I guess I'll decide after church if I feel like playing in the big tourneys or not.

Tough Times

I just haven't been able to get much going lately pokerwise. I've put in probably less than 15 hours since two Sundays ago and I've lost close to $4,000. I hate losing so whenever those bad runs happen, I force myself to take a break. So for that reason I haven't been playing much lately. Tonight, however, I entered in a $109 tourney on party as well as some small multi table qualifiers. I just busted out of the $109 with AA bad beating my AK fairly close to the money. I am pretty disappointed about that cold deck scenario. Oh well. Things will start to turn around again shortly and I will get back to pwning. But for now I need to get some confidence back. Tomorrow I have no classes so I'll probably play some. Aight, off to bed.

Iowa vs. Montana game

I returned a few hours ago to Seward from the Griz game in Iowa City. Montana lost 41-7 in a game with a deceiving score. It was 17-0 at half time, but the Grizzlies scored their touchdown with 5 minutes left in the third to make it a 10 point ball game. Not too shabby for a Division 1AA team against the #16 1A team in the country. My brother was in on the one scoring drive for the Grizzlies. He also made some great blocks on the kick returns which were fun to watch. It was an awesome site to see my brother out there on a Big Ten field against one of the best teams in the country.

Overall, the new Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City was impressive, but I was a little disappointed with the atmosphere of the game. Iowa's stadium holds three times as many people as Montana's does, but the atmoshpere at Montana, in my opinion, is way better. The mascot made an appearance early on and then was never seen for the rest of the game. This compared to Monte who has been National Mascot of the Year for two of the last 6 years. Also, I thought the TV timeouts were extremely boring compared to the timeouts in Missoula. I don't know, I guess I just thought that the entertainment of a Big Ten game would crush that of a game in Montana. Oh well though. I hope to get to see a Nebraska game this year so that I can compare that to a Grizzly game because I hear they are incredible.

Well, my dad is staying in my dorm tonight with me and I'm not sure what is on tap for tomorrow. I doubt that I am going to play in any of the majors because we are going out to eat after church before he heads back to Billings. Above are some pictures of us at the game. Eric is #78.

EDIT: In response to the Iowa fan who commented, Montana did get dominated by Iowa on both sides of the ball. I was just stating the fact that it was only a 10 point ball game with 5 minutes left in the third quarter. Also, Iowa scored with a TD with 6 seconds left in the game which made the score even more out of hand. Anyway, Iowa dominated the game, which they should. I was just disappointed in Iowa's entertainment director because there was just nothing going on during timeouts. Someone who doesn't even like football could enjoy a Montana game, but I do not believe this is the case at an Iowa game.