Today I "worked". If I can even call it that yet, but once again I continue to run well and win again. Much to my delight the 21 yr old skinny asian kid wearing Gucci glasses that you could see through was here again. So the constant reraising of this kid's incredible wide raising range began. Oh, and I read his soul.
Everyone folds to Kid who raises in some late position but not the button, I look down and see red Tens in the small blind and 3-bet, big blind clears out.
Flop K78 2 spades
I bet, he calls
Turn 6 spade
I bet, he raises, and I thought for a bit, I know he's capable of bluffing and he was actually not jittering as he usually does when he's in action, instead he's stone stiff. I call.
River blanks
He bets, I call, he tables(shows his cards on table) red 55, and my Tens win.
Table could not believe how I made such an insane call on the turn.
The night ended on a bit of a heater netting me 1213 for the evening.
It's safe to say January has been good to me. I've been trying to just simply log as many possible hours that I can, and I'm at 45.25 hours so far for the month playing 11 sessions. I've earned 9140 so far this month, but I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch as my dad would always say. I could very easily end this month with less than that, perhaps even in negative if I run terribly bad. I want to find some way to harness all the confidence I'm playing with now for times when normally my confidence may be shaken, leading me to misplay hands. I have no idea how I'm going to keep up my playing with school starting on Thursday, but hopefully none of my playing time will interfere with my schooling. Perhaps I will attempt to update how much poker is effecting my studies in the near future.
Dan Low
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
There, And Back Again
That was the title of the book that the hobbit wrote I think, but anyway...
I finally made it out to Garden city again for the first time this year. Same dreadful place. Dimly lit, looks very green, dealers were decently pleasent, I didn't get carded as usual, and the place was empty. Empty, on a Saturday night?! So they only spread one 20/40 game that I had called in for about an hour ago and was told I was 4th on the list. I was still 4th on the list. I expected to meet my friend Elliot there, but somehow through our AIM conversation he ended up at Bay101, realized it was jam packed there and the list is like 30 people long for 3/6-8/16, and was on his way to Garden City.
So I played in the open seating 8/16 game, and recognizable really bad middle-aged Asian man was there to much my delight and proceeded to stack many of his chips. I called him down light (means I call his bets with less of a hand than I would others) because he bluffs a lot.
A hand...
I raise ATo MP, he calls on button, okay player (his friend) calls in sb, bb calls.
Flop T63 2 spades
check, I bet, button raises, sb 3-bets, bb folds, I call, button caps, sb calls, I call
Turn 3 non spade,
check, check, button bets, villain calls, I think about how crazy these two must be and maybe they're colluding (trying to raise me out because they will chop the money in the parking lot), but they're regulars so that drops out of picture,
So my decision leads me to keep them honest, Buttons crazy, and sb looks like flush draw, and I call
River 5 non spade
check check, he bets, sb calls, and I have a funny feeling sb called because he didn't want me to call, but I still call.
Button has JT, and my AT is good, I should've asked to see sb's hand because of the possible collusion. The whole time I'm talking to them about how they're trying to screw with me, and I hear crazy guy mention to his friend about how cocky I am. I ran out of witty things to say at this point.
I eventually pick off like 11747357 bluffs from the button with one pair, oftentimes being not top pair to beat his whatever bluff, and he is determined to get me.
And then this miracle
some calls or what not, I raise QQ, he cold calls 2(calls 2-bets without putting any money to begin with) on the button, and some other people call
Flop 997
checks to me i bet, he calls, some other people call
Turn 2
I bet, he calls, smoe folds, maybe or not 1 caller
River 3
I bet, he raises, and its on me and I call
He shows 97o, and I proceed to tell his friend that he missed out on getting more of his chips back because he failed to raise flop.
Eventually I got seated at the 20/40 game winning about 200-300 from the 8/16 game, and ran hot at the start getting up like 300, and then I break even for the rest of the night for a win of 525 for the night. I half staked Elliot for his 6/12 game as well, and he earned me 53$. Go Elliot!
For the not so math inclined thats a 578 night for me hurray! FWIW I made a vareity of mistakes at the 20/40 that I should not have made, and need to work on my game when the table turns to a tougher game to win in.
Dan Low
I finally made it out to Garden city again for the first time this year. Same dreadful place. Dimly lit, looks very green, dealers were decently pleasent, I didn't get carded as usual, and the place was empty. Empty, on a Saturday night?! So they only spread one 20/40 game that I had called in for about an hour ago and was told I was 4th on the list. I was still 4th on the list. I expected to meet my friend Elliot there, but somehow through our AIM conversation he ended up at Bay101, realized it was jam packed there and the list is like 30 people long for 3/6-8/16, and was on his way to Garden City.
So I played in the open seating 8/16 game, and recognizable really bad middle-aged Asian man was there to much my delight and proceeded to stack many of his chips. I called him down light (means I call his bets with less of a hand than I would others) because he bluffs a lot.
A hand...
I raise ATo MP, he calls on button, okay player (his friend) calls in sb, bb calls.
Flop T63 2 spades
check, I bet, button raises, sb 3-bets, bb folds, I call, button caps, sb calls, I call
Turn 3 non spade,
check, check, button bets, villain calls, I think about how crazy these two must be and maybe they're colluding (trying to raise me out because they will chop the money in the parking lot), but they're regulars so that drops out of picture,
So my decision leads me to keep them honest, Buttons crazy, and sb looks like flush draw, and I call
River 5 non spade
check check, he bets, sb calls, and I have a funny feeling sb called because he didn't want me to call, but I still call.
Button has JT, and my AT is good, I should've asked to see sb's hand because of the possible collusion. The whole time I'm talking to them about how they're trying to screw with me, and I hear crazy guy mention to his friend about how cocky I am. I ran out of witty things to say at this point.
I eventually pick off like 11747357 bluffs from the button with one pair, oftentimes being not top pair to beat his whatever bluff, and he is determined to get me.
And then this miracle
some calls or what not, I raise QQ, he cold calls 2(calls 2-bets without putting any money to begin with) on the button, and some other people call
Flop 997
checks to me i bet, he calls, some other people call
Turn 2
I bet, he calls, smoe folds, maybe or not 1 caller
River 3
I bet, he raises, and its on me and I call
He shows 97o, and I proceed to tell his friend that he missed out on getting more of his chips back because he failed to raise flop.
Eventually I got seated at the 20/40 game winning about 200-300 from the 8/16 game, and ran hot at the start getting up like 300, and then I break even for the rest of the night for a win of 525 for the night. I half staked Elliot for his 6/12 game as well, and he earned me 53$. Go Elliot!
For the not so math inclined thats a 578 night for me hurray! FWIW I made a vareity of mistakes at the 20/40 that I should not have made, and need to work on my game when the table turns to a tougher game to win in.
Dan Low
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The 9 Hour Session (With no breaks)
So... I'm an idiot. While I still won today, and felt very good about how I played today, I was really tired after the sessions end. Ended the day up 1205$, but it seemed like it took forever. Hit a nice little string of pots that I didn't lose and broke the slump of being breakeven/up a little.
Something I really liked today was the fact that I got to play to my image today. The first table I sat in was a table full of nits (uber conservatives). Not very many big pots, lots of chopping (when everyone folds to the small blind and big blind, they can chop and fold their hands and take their blinds back). I was probably the nittiest of all, or at least it must've seen that way as I picked up a slew of T6o etc. Allowed me to gain a LOT of respect on my turn check/raise bluffs which I administered a few times until I moved tables.
I sit 2 seats left of Jesse, a poker friend I met online, who plays better than I do, but we do no battling today. Both of us pretty much break even for the next 1-2 hours until he gets called over to the 40/80 game where the game is actually softer with tons of action. I however, cannot afford to play 40/80. Instead I painstakingly sit there w/ ~800$ in yellow chips (my buyin) for what seemed like eternity. I somehow got string of hands where I kept raising preflop, and maybe or maybe not winning but develop this crazy asian gambler image. I probably was especially on this ensuing hand...
everyone folds to me and I pickup 8h9c, and raise 2 away from the button and RU in the BB calls.
RU is a floorperson whom I haven't seen not defend his bigblind headsup which is probably merit for just folding 89 but its ok, I have AK and he'll pay me off when flop comes 9 high.
Flop comes Ts6s5c
he checks, I bet, he raises (this generally signifies either a flush draw or some kind of pair), I 3-bet thinking a 8 or 9 will win me the pot if I hit too, and he calls
Turn 3d
he checks, and for some reason I have this sneaking feeling he's going to fold, so I bet, and yup he calls
River is 7s
he bets out, and I almost raise him but I just call, and he flips over T7 saying I rivered you.
Fortunately for me I rivered him, and someone said they folded 77 to my preflop raise giving me 1 out to win this pot, the lone 7 of spades that I couldn't even raise on the river.
The table is astonished at how I could possibly raise preflop with 89o, 3-bet flop, and bet the turn with a gutshot straight draw, no pair.
This plays out nicely on this next hand...
folds to me, I pickup 44 in MP and raise looking to steal the blinds, lo and behold RU 3-bets from SB, BB folds, and I call.
I think RU's possible holdings are somewhere like 99+, AQ+
Flop is a beauty, a tournament players wet dream
K43
RU bets, I raise hoping he has AK, he 3-bets, I 4-bet, he calls
Turn 3
RU donks (bets into the raiser in previous street), I raise, he 3-bets, and then my heart sinks a little because he could very well have KK and call
River T
RU checks now, and my 44 is freakn golden and I bet, he calls, and I bare him the bad news that AK is not good.
Still quite the tiring day, and I could've used a break here and there. Can't say I played hands perfectly (especially towards the end as I got more tired), but I'm getting a better feel for the game and feel like I'm developping more patience and adjusting to different players and table conditions as I play more and more.
Dan Low
Something I really liked today was the fact that I got to play to my image today. The first table I sat in was a table full of nits (uber conservatives). Not very many big pots, lots of chopping (when everyone folds to the small blind and big blind, they can chop and fold their hands and take their blinds back). I was probably the nittiest of all, or at least it must've seen that way as I picked up a slew of T6o etc. Allowed me to gain a LOT of respect on my turn check/raise bluffs which I administered a few times until I moved tables.
I sit 2 seats left of Jesse, a poker friend I met online, who plays better than I do, but we do no battling today. Both of us pretty much break even for the next 1-2 hours until he gets called over to the 40/80 game where the game is actually softer with tons of action. I however, cannot afford to play 40/80. Instead I painstakingly sit there w/ ~800$ in yellow chips (my buyin) for what seemed like eternity. I somehow got string of hands where I kept raising preflop, and maybe or maybe not winning but develop this crazy asian gambler image. I probably was especially on this ensuing hand...
everyone folds to me and I pickup 8h9c, and raise 2 away from the button and RU in the BB calls.
RU is a floorperson whom I haven't seen not defend his bigblind headsup which is probably merit for just folding 89 but its ok, I have AK and he'll pay me off when flop comes 9 high.
Flop comes Ts6s5c
he checks, I bet, he raises (this generally signifies either a flush draw or some kind of pair), I 3-bet thinking a 8 or 9 will win me the pot if I hit too, and he calls
Turn 3d
he checks, and for some reason I have this sneaking feeling he's going to fold, so I bet, and yup he calls
River is 7s
he bets out, and I almost raise him but I just call, and he flips over T7 saying I rivered you.
Fortunately for me I rivered him, and someone said they folded 77 to my preflop raise giving me 1 out to win this pot, the lone 7 of spades that I couldn't even raise on the river.
The table is astonished at how I could possibly raise preflop with 89o, 3-bet flop, and bet the turn with a gutshot straight draw, no pair.
This plays out nicely on this next hand...
folds to me, I pickup 44 in MP and raise looking to steal the blinds, lo and behold RU 3-bets from SB, BB folds, and I call.
I think RU's possible holdings are somewhere like 99+, AQ+
Flop is a beauty, a tournament players wet dream
K43
RU bets, I raise hoping he has AK, he 3-bets, I 4-bet, he calls
Turn 3
RU donks (bets into the raiser in previous street), I raise, he 3-bets, and then my heart sinks a little because he could very well have KK and call
River T
RU checks now, and my 44 is freakn golden and I bet, he calls, and I bare him the bad news that AK is not good.
Still quite the tiring day, and I could've used a break here and there. Can't say I played hands perfectly (especially towards the end as I got more tired), but I'm getting a better feel for the game and feel like I'm developping more patience and adjusting to different players and table conditions as I play more and more.
Dan Low
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Due for a loss, but why in front of an audience
Usually when someone has a person sitting (not standing) behind them watching their every hand I make some retarded remark like "Where's my fan club?" or something of that nature. Anyway, today I had my personal fan club. A friend of mine had her day off work and for some reason wanted to watch me play poker. Her only knowledge of poker is from playing for fun and no money with her friends and what she sees on TV. I think she expected this dimly lit room with heavy tension and all that nonsense that you see at the feature table at the WSOP. At least the chicken soft tacos didn't disappoint.
So after grabbing lunch and finishing up the tacos I get seated and immediately begin firing away with some actionable hands I can't remember and manage to float around my original buyin of 800 maybe going up and down 1 stack. And then the sinker hits. New 50sish white male gets seated to my left and immediately posts in MP (sign of looseness).
I pickup 88 and raise, he calls, as does BB who is a big donater of chips from what I've seen from him in the past.
And then I take this super weak line which I'm not so sure was correct...
Flop Q66, check I bet new guy calls BB calls,
Turn K, BB checks, I check planning to call BB's likely river bluff and fold to new guy (looks pretty passive so bet means K), new guy checks
River 5, bb checks, I check, new guy bets, bb folds, I call
55 is good.
Later I get a 3-bet preflop and cap flop on a Ten high board and lose against TT, with one guy in the middle w/ JJ and I have AA, and eventually, 1.5 hours into the session, I lose it all except 2 5$ chips and 4 1$ chips. I guess I was due, and am still due for more losses as I'm running way above a normal attainable rate thus far for 20/40. But I like to stay positive and just play smart and expect to win in the long run, however long this run may be.
Movie hopped Slumdog Millionaire and Marley and Me, liked Slumdog didn't like Marley (and its not because I don't like romantic comedies and I have 2 dogs)
Dan Low
So after grabbing lunch and finishing up the tacos I get seated and immediately begin firing away with some actionable hands I can't remember and manage to float around my original buyin of 800 maybe going up and down 1 stack. And then the sinker hits. New 50sish white male gets seated to my left and immediately posts in MP (sign of looseness).
I pickup 88 and raise, he calls, as does BB who is a big donater of chips from what I've seen from him in the past.
And then I take this super weak line which I'm not so sure was correct...
Flop Q66, check I bet new guy calls BB calls,
Turn K, BB checks, I check planning to call BB's likely river bluff and fold to new guy (looks pretty passive so bet means K), new guy checks
River 5, bb checks, I check, new guy bets, bb folds, I call
55 is good.
Later I get a 3-bet preflop and cap flop on a Ten high board and lose against TT, with one guy in the middle w/ JJ and I have AA, and eventually, 1.5 hours into the session, I lose it all except 2 5$ chips and 4 1$ chips. I guess I was due, and am still due for more losses as I'm running way above a normal attainable rate thus far for 20/40. But I like to stay positive and just play smart and expect to win in the long run, however long this run may be.
Movie hopped Slumdog Millionaire and Marley and Me, liked Slumdog didn't like Marley (and its not because I don't like romantic comedies and I have 2 dogs)
Dan Low
Monday, January 12, 2009
Day Two
So it always feels nice to pickup a nice win following a losing session. I didn't get to play on Saturday or Sunday, but I found time to play today from 3-8. Today I ended the session with a net win of 2388$+3$ can of coke. The win felt good, but what almost felt equally good was beating up on this cocky kid wearing gucci sunglasses where you could see through the lenses. He looked really young, and looked like one to try to make plays n such, and it was confirmed to me on the first hand we entered against each other.
Bay101 20/40 game, I was UTG+1 (Under The Gun+1 or 2 left of the big blind) with 88 and raise, he 3-bets (reraises), everyone folds and I call.
Flop comes 777, I check, he bets, I raise, he calls,
Turn 5, I bet, he raises, I think and call
River T (ten), I check, he checks with only 4 chips left and MHIG (my hand is good) against his AQ
Eventually we both move tables, and I get to move to a seat to his left where I continually 3-bet him with even some Ax at times because he's been caught with random hands like Qx suited or what not. He does not stop, and proceeds to keep trying to play hard against me all the while talking about how he can read people and how he plays and wins at 100/200, and constantly repeats "I know what you have".
I must've seen him rebuy at least 6 times...
The crazy amount of hours I've put on so far in January hasn't felt like much actually. For the most part I'm actually having fun playing cards, and the boring times when I'm just folding away hands for what seems like hours, I can listen to music or start conversation with those around me or the dealers. So far I've logged in 26 hours in the 12 days of January that we've had. I'm aiming to try to login 15-20 hours/week, but I don't think I can keep up as soon as school hits on the 22nd.
Okay time for bowling, peace
Dan Low
Bay101 20/40 game, I was UTG+1 (Under The Gun+1 or 2 left of the big blind) with 88 and raise, he 3-bets (reraises), everyone folds and I call.
Flop comes 777, I check, he bets, I raise, he calls,
Turn 5, I bet, he raises, I think and call
River T (ten), I check, he checks with only 4 chips left and MHIG (my hand is good) against his AQ
Eventually we both move tables, and I get to move to a seat to his left where I continually 3-bet him with even some Ax at times because he's been caught with random hands like Qx suited or what not. He does not stop, and proceeds to keep trying to play hard against me all the while talking about how he can read people and how he plays and wins at 100/200, and constantly repeats "I know what you have".
I must've seen him rebuy at least 6 times...
The crazy amount of hours I've put on so far in January hasn't felt like much actually. For the most part I'm actually having fun playing cards, and the boring times when I'm just folding away hands for what seems like hours, I can listen to music or start conversation with those around me or the dealers. So far I've logged in 26 hours in the 12 days of January that we've had. I'm aiming to try to login 15-20 hours/week, but I don't think I can keep up as soon as school hits on the 22nd.
Okay time for bowling, peace
Dan Low
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The First Entry
I'm assuming anyone who is reading this already knows at least who I am. But, just in case... My name is Daniel Low, I'm currently a student at SJSU, and I've been playing poker semi-seriously ever since I turned 21 and could play live. Recreationally I played a lot since high-school.
Since August 10th 2007, I've been recording all my live sessions at both Bay101 and Garden City playing mostly 8/16. I made a pretty solid 25$/hr over about 350 hours or so. Starting Dec. 30th I made 20/40 my new game of choice and have run pretty hot since. I don't expect to run as well I am, but I do expect myself to be a winning player at 20/40.
I've been thinking about starting some kind of blog to let whoever cares about my poker endeavors know about how I'm doing and whether I'm a lifetime loser or what not. Part of this is also to make sure I'm not fooling myself and those around me about being a long-term winner at poker.
Another reason for this blog is to just get how I feel about my sessions on paper as it may or may not help in reducing the anger I have when I lose (Specially when I literally didn't win a single hand before I left). I was going to do this blog earlier, but I felt it would be better to start it after I took a significant loss.
Currently I have a one rule I set myself for when I play.
Stop loss = 800$ aka I cannot lose more than 800$ in one session.
Anyway, on to the session...
So I was planning to still be playing at the time that I'm writing this, but it got cut short because I sat at a pretty juicy table for 1 hour and didn't win a single hand netting me a 795$ loss (I decided to just leave with my last yellow chip). I did play one hand terribadly where I called against two players, both a turn and river obvious value bet with a Q9 on a TJQK board from the BB. Other than that it was pretty much folding or raising preflop and mucking on flop/turn or missing draws etc. I'd post more hands if I had anything interesting hands to post but I don't.
Dan Low
Since August 10th 2007, I've been recording all my live sessions at both Bay101 and Garden City playing mostly 8/16. I made a pretty solid 25$/hr over about 350 hours or so. Starting Dec. 30th I made 20/40 my new game of choice and have run pretty hot since. I don't expect to run as well I am, but I do expect myself to be a winning player at 20/40.
I've been thinking about starting some kind of blog to let whoever cares about my poker endeavors know about how I'm doing and whether I'm a lifetime loser or what not. Part of this is also to make sure I'm not fooling myself and those around me about being a long-term winner at poker.
Another reason for this blog is to just get how I feel about my sessions on paper as it may or may not help in reducing the anger I have when I lose (Specially when I literally didn't win a single hand before I left). I was going to do this blog earlier, but I felt it would be better to start it after I took a significant loss.
Currently I have a one rule I set myself for when I play.
Stop loss = 800$ aka I cannot lose more than 800$ in one session.
Anyway, on to the session...
So I was planning to still be playing at the time that I'm writing this, but it got cut short because I sat at a pretty juicy table for 1 hour and didn't win a single hand netting me a 795$ loss (I decided to just leave with my last yellow chip). I did play one hand terribadly where I called against two players, both a turn and river obvious value bet with a Q9 on a TJQK board from the BB. Other than that it was pretty much folding or raising preflop and mucking on flop/turn or missing draws etc. I'd post more hands if I had anything interesting hands to post but I don't.
Dan Low
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