I took a few days off from the grind, over the weekend, so I could relax and work on some projects around the house.  I hadn’t played that much poker in a week since my last trip to Vegas, last summer, for the WSOP.  Yeah, yeah, I know….to a lot of poker pros and other pokermopes, that many hours in a week isn’t really that much, but for my first week, it  sure felt like a lot.  In the second week, I didn’t play nearly as many hours but I won more money.  In all, I only played 13.5 hours but came out ahead $1143.  Talk about a nice “work week”!

          Tuesday, March 9, 2010:  Today I decided to check out the new casino, River City, which opened up last week in South St. Louis.  I had been hearing the other poker players talk about it, so I wanted to see it for myself.  On the whole, the casino is quite nice, as far as St. Louis casinos go.  It almost reminds you of a Vegas casino, as far as the style and architecture, just on a much smaller scale.  The poker room is decent, although they only have 10 tables (compared to the other STL poker rooms, Lumiere: 13, Ameristar: 17 and Harrah’s: 22).  The room is open on three sides to the rest of the casino, so it is rather noisy with all the slots nearby and even though the room is non-smoking, with it being so open, you’ll still go home smelling like a chimney.  By far, the best thing about this room is the chairs.  I don’t think I’ve sat in a more comfortable poker chair.  Which comes in handy, if you’re going to be there a while.  The padding for the seat is thick and they actually recline.  I heard they spent $800 a piece for them. 

          The room was fairly dark and many of the players complained about it, but I thought it was fine.  Apparently, they put in the wrong bulbs for the lights and had to order new ones.  Many of the dealers are new and you could tell some of them were nervous, being their first week.  Sometimes the game slowed down, if the floor had to come over for technical or procedural guidance, but all that will work itself out in time and all in all the dealers were professional and polite.  For the time being, I think I’ll continue playing at Lumiere, but mostly because it’s about 15 minutes closer and the games seem to have better action (based on the 3 hours I was there and what other players have said).  Now on to the poker….

          I get to the poker room around 1 pm and have to wait about 45 min for a seat when they open a new table (they only have two $1 – $3 tables and one $3 – $6 limit running).  From the start, it’s fairly slow, not only are some of the dealers new, so too were many of the players.  It was obvious that this was their first or second time playing poker in a casino.  On the one hand, the decent players are licking their chops at the dead money but it’s also definitely an exercise in patience.  They held the game up quite a bit when they had to have the rules explained to them by the dealers, but they were calling down almost any bet with even just the smallest of pairs. 

          I only played 3.5 hours and didn’t play that many hands.  I took an early $75 hit when one of the donkeys called a $10 straddle in early position with a J 3 off suit (I called from the button with AJ of hearts…..thinking back, I should have probably raised.)   He check/calls me on the flop of J,7, 3, and on the turn (a 2) he check/calls all-in for $23 total.  It’s only a matter of time, though, until I flopped a set and one of the donkeys paid me off the whole way with second pair.  When I was ready to go, I was up $110.

          Thursday, March 11, 2010:  Today, I’m back at Lumiere and get a seat right away at around 12:30 pm, buying in for the full $300, at a decent table with some good money in front of the players.  And I’ve got to say, I’ve probably never had a quicker start to a session than this one.  Within the first 12 – 14 hands, I am dealt pocket A’s twice and pocket K’s once!  The first of the pocket A’s is on my second hand at the table and the loose calling station doubles me up after he flops top pair (J’s) with an Ace kicker.  The very next hand is the pocket K’s.  A few limpers enter the pot and the player directly on my right raises to $25.  I re-raise to $65 and everyone folds, including the raiser, so I take down a small pot.  The next AA is about 10 hands later.  A new directly-on-my-right player has just sat down (only with $100 in chips) and raises to $20 on his second hand, I re-raise to $50 and he goes all-in for the $100 and I call.  He has KK and my AA holds, to take down another pot.  In the first 30 miutes, I’m up just over $450.  Now that’s not a bad hourly rate!

          I only wish the rest of the session could have continued just like that.  But we all know that’s not likely to happen.  I try to continue my momentum by throwing in pre-flop raises and continuations bets on the flop with a wide range of hands.  I get away with it a few times but I get caught with my hand in the cookie jar a few too many more times and have to abandon the super-loose/aggressive style for my typical tight/aggressive play.  

          Later on in the session, I take the worst of it on a few suck outs.  One of which, I flop top set on a scary board of 6, 7, 8, with an early bet of $20 (and about $150 left behind) and a raise all-in of about $120 on my right (I have about $600 at this point).  I decide to go all-in as well, to isolate the other all-in.  If the original better does decide to call, it’s clear then that he’s got me beat with a straight, but I’ll have outs to get the full house.  I figured the all-in had an over pair or a straight draw.  The original better folds and the all-in shows pocket 9’s.  So my read was kind of right, he just had the over pair AND a draw.    Well, you should know the rest of the story….he hits his ten outer on the river for the straight.

          The other suck out was just plain sick.  I limp in on the button with J 10 suited, 4-way action to the flop.  The board hits J, 2, 8.  The two early players check and the next bets $15 into a pot of $12.  I call with my top pair, putting him on a steal attempt and (hoping to raise him off his hand on the turn, thinking he’d lead out and bet again), and the others fold.  The turn brings the 10, giving me two pair.  The player bets $30 and I raise to $75, he shoves for $40 more and I call.  He shows J 8 for a lower two pair.  Man, did I blow that read but WOW, did I get lucky on the turn!  Well, you should know the rest of the story…..he hits his TWO outer (an 8), to beat me and double up.  Ouch!

          That was about it for that session.  After only 4 hours, I decide to leave, ahead $226.

          Friday, March 12, 2010:  I’m back at Lumiere today and sit down, with my usual full buy-in of $300, at around noon.  And, almost like yesterday, it’s off to the races.  I wasn’t getting the big pairs right off the bat, like yesterday, but I was able to limp in with a lot of small pairs and suited connectors, in and out of position, that were hitting the flop.  It was one of those loose/passive tables that I like.  All in all, I hit five sets (3 of a kind) on the flop, they ALL held up (which is amazing) and most of them were for pretty decent pots. 

          Of them all, the first one was the nicest.  Early position actually raises to $12, with two callers.  I’m in the big blind ($3), so I call $9 more with pocket 3’s.  I hit the set of 3’s on a 3, 6, 7 flop and check from the big blind, planning to check-raise.  The early position, pre-flop raiser, bets $16 with one caller.  I raise to $50 and the first better goes all-in for $260, (I’m putting him on an over pair), the caller sits and thinks and finally mutters, “I don’t think I’m supposed to lay this down.” (indicating he thinks he’s getting the right price to call for a draw, a hand like 45 or 89 is likely).  And he does call all-in for about $150 total.  I, of course, call and have them both covered.  And, unlike yesterday, you DON’T know the rest of this story!  My set actually holds up to take down a good pot.  The first all-in shows pocket K’s and the other guy said he had the open ender. 

          The only few set backs to my stack happen when I have to lay down two big pairs (and over pairs to the board), to the same tight player.  On each hand, I have to abandon about $100 I’ve already put in the pot, because I’m reading him as having a stronger hand.  Turns out, I was right on both hands (at least I know for sure on one).  He says he had AA on the first hand, when I had JJ, but never showed.  But he did show the other, having QQ, after I aganizingly folded (but showed) my 10 10.  Sometimes you just have to go with your gut.

          Overall, it was a great session.  My radar was up, I was making good reads, I was hitting flops and was getting paid off.  I left after playing for 6 hours and was ahead $807, not too shabby.  That session ended up being the last one for the week, so week 2’s totals are:  13.5 hours played and $1143 ahead.

          Overall: 49 hours played and $1950 ahead.

          Well, like I said in the last post, the rest of the first week was good:

(all play this week is at Lumiere, in the $1 - $3 no limit hold em) 

         Monday, Mar. 1, 2010:  I played for 10 hours, from 1:30 pm to 11:30 pm, and rode the rollercoaster all day.  After a few hours, I was ahead around $400 but then a few hours later I was down about $50.  I was making some good calls with marginal hands but I was also bleeding a lot of chips on straight and flush draws.  I also had 2 flopped sets (3-of-a-kind) lose to flushes on the river.  I made a few semi-bluffs with some draws but each time was re-raised and had to muck.  The rest of the day was essentially the same, up and down, but was also getting card dead the last few hours.  I was getting tired and decided to call it a day, ahead a whopping $26.

          Tuesday, March 2, 2010:  Played for 5 hours, from about 4 pm to 9.  Really didn’t have any notable hands one way or the other and ended ahead $102 for the day.

          Thursday, March 4, 2010: Got to Lumiere around 3 pm and waited about 30 min for a table.  I sat at a good table with a few regulars and a few weak tourists.  The arch madness basketball tourney is this weekend in St. Louis and a lot of people will be in town, should be some good money floating around.  I play pretty solid the whole session, make a few moves against some weaker players, but no real big hands, and rather card dead for a large portion of the day.  The table has also been fairly tight, with not many chips going in the middle on any given hand.  For a few hours, the pots are routinely only $20 – $60.  But I grind it out and slowly build my stack.  Around midnight, I’m ahead about $300, I’m getting tired and ready to leave when a few loose and/or drunk players sit down, all from out of town, and all directly on my right.  They take no time raising and playing all sorts of hands.  They also have no problem calling down big bets with only 2nd or 3rd pair.  There’s also a few shoves all-in for 3 or 4 hundred, pre-flop with only the blinds in the hand.  Oh this is beautiful!

          So I decided to stay a while and bide my time, waiting for the right hand and the right spot.  Then, after about another hour, I get the hand.  I’m on the button and drunk #1 raises to $16 (3 to my right), drunk #2 calls, drunk #3 calls and I look down at pocket 4’s, I call and the blinds fold.  Four way to the flop, with $68 in the middle.  The flop comes 4, 9, 9.  Drunk #1 bets $30, drunk #2 calls $30, drunk #3 insta-shoves all-in for about $380 total.  Well, I’m only beat by two hands  right now (99 and 94), so I call and I have him covered (more chips than he has).  Drunk #2 folds out of turn, leaving drunk #1 thinking for a while.  Eventually, he has the sense to fold and shows pocket 8’s.  Drunk #3 proudly shows 98 for 3-of-a-kind.  I give him the bad news with my full house.  And with the folding of the pocket 8’s, he’s only drawing to 2 outs on the turn: the last 9 (for quads) and the last 8 (for a higher full house).  And thanks to the poker gods, neither one comes out on the turn (which was a 6) or the river (a King).  Thankfully, also, the board didn’t double pair on the river (i.e. another 6 to give him a higher full house) and I take down a very nice pot.  Drunk #3 leaves, upset that he lost and doesn’t return.

          The other two drunks actually start slowing down at this point, maybe getting tired, or maybe realizing what can eventually happen by overplaying your hands.  I still hang around for another hour or so, to catch another big hand, but none come up.  So I finally leave around 3:30 am, after a 12 hour session, ahead $775.

          Friday, March 5, 2010:  I get up to Lumiere around 6:30 pm and finally sit just after 7.  My table is filled with some big stacks, mostly in front of the good, solid players.  This could be a tough table but there’s enough action from some of the weaker players to make it worth while.

           Early on, I’m down about $60 (about $240 in my stack), but I catch a lucky river against one of the better players with a big stack to double up.  With 5 limpers to the flop (on a $6 straddle), there’s about $32 in the pot, I hit the baby set of 3’s on the flop of 3, 7, J (rainbow).    Early position bets out $25, with one of the big stacks calling.  I put first better on at least a pair, most likely the J, but the big stack could be calling with a wider range, from any pair or higher, to just floating the bet with nothing, hoping to bluff and take it down on the turn.  So I just call, with position, to see what develops.  Turn comes a 9 (and putting 2 clubs on the board).  Early position bets out again for $40 and the big stack, once again just calls.  I would have expected him to raise the early bet, if he had nothing as a bluff, but also if he had a solid hand at this point (2-pair or better), to keep any drawing hands out.  So I narrow his possible range down to top pair (maybe 2nd) with a draw (gut shot straight or flush draw), and hands like J 10 or 78, make the most sense.  Maybe he has some of the gap connectors like 7 10 or J 8, but he limped in middle position, so I can’t be very certain. 

           So, just like I thought the big stack would have raised to keep any draws from seeing the river, I decide I need to raise to protect my set.  With around $180 in the pot and $212 left in my stack, I shove in.  The early better folds and the big stack calls, showing the 10 8, for a made straight.  Well, I guess I blew that read, he already had a great hand, but I’ve got outs.  And guess what….the river pairs the board!   So I double up with a full house.

          I later take down a decent pot against a loose player, who’s continuously jamming with everything under the sun.  I make a great call on the river, when he shoves with 2nd pair and I have top pair with top kicker (AK), on a K, J, 8, 7, 4 board.  That pot nets me another $150.  I end this session after 5 hours, ahead $304.

          So for the week, I’ve played just over 35 hours and I’ve come out ahead $807.  Based on my deal with my backer, I now get $200, my backer gets $200 and $400 goes into Bankroll #2 (the one for tournament buy-ins or higher stakes cash games).  Not a bad end, after a not so good start.  Next week, hopefully I can keep it up.  Until then….

          Well, I’m off and running on the bankroll and I have the first week (plus a few days) under my belt.  I actually started on the bankroll February 28, so the last post was technically after the fact, but I’ll do my best to catch up and keep up.

         Day 1: Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010 – Went to Harrah’s over on the west side of STL, after picking up part of the bank.  (Part of the deal is that my backer will keep most of the bankroll, until I need more, either of us can also say that’s it and call off the deal at any point.)  Mostly, I went to Harrah’s to check out the new tournament schedule for March and to see when the satellites were going to begin for the World Series of Poker Circuit event, which starts April 1 – 15th.  http://www.harrahsstlouis.com/casinos/harrahs-stlouis/casino-gambling/poker-detail.html  I’m hoping to win my way in to the main event or at least play in some of the smaller buy-in tourneys during the circuit.  A decent win, even in one of the smaller tourneys, could be a nice kick start for the bankroll.

          And, since I’m in the poker room, I might as well play some cards….right?  (The game I play at Harrah’s is $1 – $2 no limit hold em.)  Well, let’s just say I didn’t start out as I hoped.  Long story, short, I ended up $400 loser, or two full buy-ins after only 3 hours.  But it was a great table, the cards just didn’t fall my way and had the players at the table not changed, I would have bought back in again.  For starters, shortly after sitting down, I learn that drunk guy in seat ten is already into the game for $600.  (by the end of my session it would be $1400, but I didn’t see any of it.)  There’s also a few other loose players with some nice stacks in front of them, I’m sure courtesyof drunk guy.  The rest of the table is filled with your typical ABC poker players.

         So after a few times around the table, I’m down about $25 and I look down at pocket 9’s in middle position.  Early position, somewhat loose guy, raises to ten, I call, drunkycalls, as does the button.  Flop hits A, 9, 3 with two spades (I have 9S).  Loose guy checks, I check (planning to check-raise) since I’m fairly sure that drunky will bet.  He obliges and leads out for $25, the button calls,as does loose guy.  I’m not very surprised at this knowing that they’re both playing for drunk guys chips, but now I really don’t want three others in the hand with the possible flush draw out there, so I follow through with my check-raise plan.  But I can’t just min raise to $50, or something small like that, as there’s already $115 in the pot, they’ll all call, so I shove all-in for $165.  Hoping to take it down right there, but knowing that if I do get a caller, I’m still a favorite against a draw.  Well, drunky insta-calls,the button insta-calls him and loose guy actually folds.  Well, of course, the turn is a third spade and the board doesn’t pair on the river.  Drunky proudly shows a pair of Aces with an 8 kicker, thinking he’s good, not seeing that the button has already flipped over the nut flush, who rakes in the pot.  And there goes one set down in flames.  But ohhh, if I could only have that hand in that spot a hundred times over….

          The next big handcomes 2 1/2 hours later.  I had been treading water with my 2nd buy-in the whole time, hoping to catch something against drunky, or even the loose guys, but to no avail.  I just sit and watch drunky dump about $800 dollars into the table and now he’s got about $50 in front of him and one foot out the door.  Also, two other loose big stacks are racking up their chips, getting ready to leave.  I’m sure they were sensing drunky’s charity was about over.   Well, loose guy (but decent player) on my right had the $4 straddle on and I look down at KK, so I raise to $16, and everyone folds to the straddle andhe pops it to $50.  Now I know he could be re-raising with a wide range of hands and I know that he knows I was playing fairly tight, so he might think he could just take it right there.  But I also got the sense that he had a decent hand, so I’m putting him on at least AK or pocket 10’s on up.  Just praying it’s not AA.  But just in case it’s the big boys, I elected to just call and hope to catch a good flop.  Flop comes K, 4, A, rainbow.  He bets $50 (half the pot) and I shove for $142.  He snap calls and I still have a glimmer of hope thinking he only had top two, but no….pocket A’s for the over set.  Now I’ve heard that, statistically, if you play full-time (2000 hours a year), you’ll lose set over set twice and………..wait…… nope, no that doesn’t make it fell any better.  I don’t care how often it happens, it still sucks.  Sure, he had me pre-flop, but do the poker gods have to rub it in like that?

          So that was my first night on the new bankroll.  The big stacks were gone and drunky was down to pocket change and barely paying attention, so I took off, $400 down, hoping the rest of the week would be better.

          And it was.

          I played the rest of the week at Lumiere in downtown STL and clocked in 32 more hours for the week.  The game that I play there is $1 – $3 no limit and the action is usually kicking.  (It’s also were I play the most.)  Over the course of the week, I win $1207.  Getting $807 into the positive.  I won’t go into hand details now, as it’s getting late and I need some sleep, but I’ll get to some of those in the next post.  I’ll also recap this week, although I haven’t played nearly as much.  So, until next time…..

          Well, I haven’t been posting on here recently, but I’m going to try to keep up with posts from now on, for a reason I’ll get to in a minute.

          First, here’s a quick update since the last post: again, the WSOP was amazing and I still need to upload my pics.

         Since the WSOP, I’ve mostly played no limit cash games at the casinos here in St. Louis. Specifically, 1-2 and 1-3 No Limit Hold Em. And barring all of the specifics, I had a positve year.  I played approximately 355 hours and won $3200 from all the various no limit cash games, ranging from the micro online limits (.01 c – .02 c) to $1-$3 at Lumiere Place Casino downtown.   That’s not great, but I came out ahead, so I can’t complain.  I did, however,  have a net loss for the year for the first time in 3 years in tournamnents, down $532. 

         Now, to start out this year, in the first two months, I’m down about $300 in cash games, but ahead $10 whole dollars in tournaments.  I haven’t played nearly as much as I was wanting to this year, because of the household budget crunch.  I don’t think it’s the smartest idea to play, and potentially lose the money, you might need for bills in a few months. But then, last week, I struck a deal with my first backer, who agreed to bankroll my game for $6000 (20 buy-ins for $1-$3 no limit). He’s a friend of mine who used to play $20-$40 and $30-$60 limit games, but now doesn’t play as much. So he decided to use part of his bankroll to stake me.

          Essentially, he’s given me $6000 to play $1-$2 and $1-$3 No Limit Hold ‘Em.  He takes all the loses, so there’s no risk for me to lose money. But, because of that, I only get 25% of the winnings. (So this isn’t the end all, “deal of a lifetime” to become a professional poker player, but it’s a start.) I also only get paid once the bankroll reaches $6400.  So, for example, if I win $200 one night, but then lose $1000 the next, and the bankroll dips to $5200, I would have to win back $800, plus $400 more, to get paid.  So I would then get  25% or $100, he takes (25%) $100, but then “re-invests” the remaining $200 (50%) of the winnings to fund a secondary bankroll, that I could use for taking shots at higher limits or tournament buy-ins.  With the payout triggered, the main bankroll amount is now back to $6000 and I would get paid again once it hits $6400.  So it really gives me the incentive to do well. 

         More importantly, this deal will allow me to play more fearlessly, and not be afraid to make that ONE mistake or that ONE bad call, that I “couldn’t afford” to make before, because there is no risk for me to lose money.  I’ve often found myself making the decision not to call a big bet based on being up or down and not wanting to be wrong once and losing money.  Whereas, I should be making that decision based on the progression of the hand, betting patterns and my read on the player.  I can only hope this deal will make me a better player overall, and in turn allow me to make more money.

          My plan, then, for this blog is to keep updates of my bankroll, poker sessions, notable hands, tournaments and my journey into semi-professional poker playing.  I will post at least once a week, but will try to post something for every session.  If you post comments and questions and I will try to answer them as promptly as I can.  And, of course, if you want to help me out, “The Poker Mope” ( i.e. donate to the dream or sponsor me in a tournament), send me a note and we can talk.

–The Poker Mope

I recently won a trip to Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker, Event #51, $1500 buy-in, No-limit Hold Em.  Harrah’s St. Louis held a raffle drawing on May 24th and pulled one of my tickets.  It was pretty cool hearing the voice mail on my cell.  I didn’t actually get the call, because I was out of town.  Anywho, jetted off to Vegas and had a blast.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make the money in the tournament.  I finished somewhere around 620th place, out of over 2800 players.  I made it with about 10 minutes to go in level 8.  Blinds were $300/$600, ante $75.  I had $6500 in chips, moved in with 10 10 from middle position after early position folds.  The big stack on the button called with AK.  Of course, a King flopped and that was it, no miracle 10 to keep me in and that was it. 

But, like I said, I had a blast.  And not just in the tournament.  The first night there, the night before my tournament started, I went to the Rio tournament rooms to scope it out and saw the first day of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament.  Pretty much anyone who’s anyone of the professional players was there.  It was awesome to see all the one’s you’d normally see on TV, but they’re right there, two feet away!  Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Eric Lindgren at one table, Antonius and Negreanu at another.  Big Papa Brunson, Greenstein, Jennifer Harmon, Freddie Deeb, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Mike “The Mouth”.  It was so cool! 

I took tons of pics and will post them here in the near future.

I’m up and running.  Figuring this whole thing out.  More to come.