Trip Report Translator

Napalm's YTD: - $1 million

I just have to translate this e-mail I received form a friend that just came back from Caesar's Indiana:


FRIEND: Friday I won right around $200.

TRANSLATION: I lost $550.

FRIEND: Spent it all today on fireworks, though.

TRANSLATION: We have to light sparklers for the fourth now, can't wait to tell th kids.

FRIEND: Only had one pocket pair the entire time (sixes)

TRANSLATION: I had AA like 6 times and got them cracked 5

FRIEND: and didn't win with those. I won a few hands on well timed / played bluffs

TRANSLATION: weak min bets out of position that worked.

FRIEND: like once, when I was in about 5th position, there was a raise to $7 before me and I re-raised to $15. Had, I believe 4 callers.

TRANSLATION: 9 callers

FRIEND: I had KQ of clubs.

TRANSLATION: K4 of clubs

FRIEND: Flop was something like A-3-5, rainbow, with only one club. One player before me checked and I bet $50 (about the size of the pot), just repping the Ace.

TRANSLATION: dudes pops me and goes all in and I call with a gut shot, and miss

FRIEND: Anyway, I won $50 or so on that one. A couple of other hands like that kept me about $15-$40 ahead most of the night, but again, I got no cards all night long.

TRANSLATION: got lots of good cards but kept getting sucked out on

FRIEND: Finally around 11:45 or so, I got A-10 of Hearts.

TRANSLATION: 7 6 off

FRIEND: I was the big blind and there was a $12 raise before it got to me. So, I just called. There were three total people in the hand and the flop was something like 9Hearts, 7Hearts, and 5Clubs. I checked. Next person bet $20. Next person called. I called. Turn is Jack Hearts. I hit the big one and just checked again. Next person bets something like $38 all in. Next person calls. I call. Turn is an 8Black, I believe. So, I'm sure the third person hit the straight.

TRANSLATION: I hit the str8

FRIEND: Anyway, I check. She bets $50 and I raise to $100. Wanted it to look like a bluff and it worked. She called and I won a decent pot.

TRANSLATION: she popped me back and I insta call while saying " I know you got it, but I got the srt8, so I call"

FRIEND: I ended up losing a hand with AQ vs my AK about 20 minutes later to a guy that was all in on the flop (Ace on flop, Queen on Turn), which cost me about $100. Other than that, I played really well.

TRANSLATION: IMHO

FRIEND: with no cards the whole night. (Ended up leaving around 1am.)

TRANSLATION: leaving around 4 AM after they kicked me out for telling the male waitress that he had nice
tits

FRIEND: Let me know if you want to go back tonight.

TRANSLATION: and lend me $200 cause I'm busto

FRIEND: Call me, cause I'm getting off the computer for a while to hang out with the kids.

TRANSLATION: tired of surfing for free pr0n

Hazy Past

liquid's YTD: $7040.29

Last month's Vegas trip, in brief:

1. I run good at NL HE. But I don't like it.

2. I suck at O/8. But I keep playing.

This disconnect between how well I run and how much I enjoy the game has bled into my online play too. More on that in a later entry.

As for details, I've apparently waited too long to write this trip report, because here's me right now: [blank stare]. In retrospect it's just one big sleep-deprived blur. Concentrate, concentrate. Ok, here we go:

We hit the Rio for a while, but the side games were slim and the waits were huge. Got on the $2-$5 PLO list. It never moved. Saw various poker celebrities -- Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, John Juanda, Cindy Violette, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Exchanged head-nods with Barry Greenstein in the hall. Yeah that's how I roll.

For some reason we spent most of our playing time at the Orleans. Off-strip, lots of ambient smoke and super-nitty septuagenarians -- I have no idea what we were thinking. Something to do with my perverse fascination with limit Omaha/8, since the Orleans is one of the few places that spreads it regularly. I booked modest wins in our first couple of sessions there. Then I dropped almost $300 in a 14-FRICKIN-HOUR all-night marathon. Why, why?

We also squeezed in a couple high-rollin' $1-$2 NL HE sessions at Caeser's and MGM. Dropped $70 at Caesar's; won $750 at MGM. The MGM session was highlighted by a drunk LAG who burned through five or six buy-ins in two hours. Napalm bought him a $25 scotch to keep him at the table. We were feeling so good afterwards that we went back to the Orleans so that I could donate $150 to the cranky old nits before heading to the airport.

One final tip: if you're trying to get from Paris to Caesar's, don't take the monorail.

Ain't We Lucky We Got 'Em

liquid's YTD: $5010.49

After an ignominious start, I ended up on an unusual heater last night.

First, the ugly. UTG and UTG+1 limp, I limp with QQ54ds, CO and button limp. Short-stacked idiot in BB raises pot to $7.50 with only $4 behind. UTG folds, UTG+1 calls. Easy isolation re-raise for me, but I choose the worst option and call (?). CO calls, and button naturally re-raises pot. Idiot calls, UTG+1 folds, I push at completely the wrong time, CO thinks for a while and calls. Button calls. I cover everyone. I go on to flop a flush, but CO, who apparently didn't want to be in the pre-flop lotto to begin with, flops a better flush. Poor decisions by me, although a decent side pot reduced my losses.

A couple hands later I flopped the nut flush, called an EP bet, then got it all in on the turn vs. the K-high flush for a $150 pot, with no pre-flop raise. This was a goooood table.

The very next hand, I limp UTG+1 with Ah8h65. Flop is Q54 with two hearts. BB bets $3, I raise to $11, BB calls. Turn is an offsuit 7, giving me the nut straight with a nut flush redraw. BB bets pot, I put him all in, and he shows bottom set. River doesn't pair the board, I win.

Later I raise in CO with QJJTss and get called by three foes, including the idiot from the first hand. Flop is 3K9 with two of my suit. Checks to me, I bet pot, idiot min-check-raises, leaving $3.60 behind (??), I put him in. He has 6433 rainbow. Nice hand! Turn pairs the king and he wins.

A couple hands later UTG raises pot, I call with AK66ss (meh, kind of iffy), two others call, including (of course) the idiot. Flop is 693r, PFRer bets $10, I raise pot to $43.80, idiot again min-check-raises, leaving $0.40 behind (???), PFRer folds, I put idiot all in for a total pot of $177. Idiot shows 6788, turns his straight, but the river pairs the board, and he gives me all my money back. Man does he choose some weird times to check-raise.

Very next hand, I limp UTG with 789Tds, a few others limp, BB min-raises, everyone calls. Flop of 382r checks around. Turn is a T, putting two diamonds on the board. (I have no diamonds.) PFRer bets pot, I raise just under pot, everyone else folds, PFRer calls. River is an 8, PFRer checks, I bet 1/2 pot, PFRer calls and shows AdAQd4 for the turned NFD and rivered two pair. I read hands g00t.

Very next hand (!!), I check in BB with AQ96. I flop broadway, bet pot, get called by short stack with about $25 behind. Turn is a blank, I bet pot, shortie raises all in, I call. River is an A, shortie shows flopped three pair, I scoop. Three nice pots in a row! I can't remember that happening before.

Likewise, I can't recall getting so much good action on one table. Felt pretty freaky, especially compared to the usual grind-grind-grind. Sure hope my heater continues in Vegas.

California Stars

liquid's YTD: $4705.49

How good am I running?

This much: $14.20.

That's my year-to-date on Poker Stars. That's right, folks. I'm in the black on the demon site!

Now granted I have a piddling number of hands on Stars this year. I played one day the first week of January and lost $80. And that was that.

Then I hopped back on yesterday to start clearing a bonus that's been sitting around for a while. And lo! I ran g00t!

My favorite sequence:

I open-raise pot in middle position with KQT4ds and get one caller behind and one caller in front. Flop is 3T4r. EP checks, I bet pot, LP raises pot to $43.80 and has $50 behind, EP uses a buncha time and eventually folds. I re-raise pot, LP folds (?).

Next hand I open-raise pot with AKJ7ds and everyone folds. I don't know why, but for me that was the good part. I think I hate money.

Been A Long Lonely Lonely Lonely Lonely Time

liquid's YTD: $3945.98

Long time no post. My playing time is definitely down this year, partly due to non-poker activities. I do have a Vegas trip planned for later this month though, which means I need to ramp up on my non-PLO games (although this certainly looks promising).

This past weekend I had a chance to visit Caesar's Indiana with Napalm for some frisky $1-$2 NL Hold'em action. This was my first visit to The Boat, and my first live NL Hold'em game. Here's a quick run-down of what this game is like:

- $1-$2 structure.

- $100 minimum buy-in; $300 maximum.

- Pre-flop raises range between $10 and $25.

- Alternates between being a nit-fest and a big pot donk-a-rama.

I lucked into a few big pots, but the medium ones were actually more fun. A few examples:

- I raise to $22 pre-flop with 2c4c, win with continuation bet. Twice. Later I limp with the same hand and curse my lack of faith when I flop a flush.

- I raise to $17 in CO with 7h9h; get called in three places. Flop is 234r; checks to me, and I check. Turn is a beautiful 9; EP bets $25, call and fold to me, I raise with the nuts to $75, fold, fold. Position is g00t.

- I raise on the button with AKs. Called in two places. Flop is low, draw-heavy, and misses me completely. Checks to me, I bet $35, they both call. Turn is very blank, checks to me, I bet $75, first player insta-raises all-in, I insta-fold. He had a set and was sure I had a big overpair, so at least I was convincing. :p

- I check my option (wow, an unraised pot!) with ATo. Flop is Q94. UTG bets, someone calls, I call. Turn is 9. I donk bet some random amount, they fold. Whee, scare cards are as much fun in NL HE as they are in PLO!

All in all, definitely more fun than I was expecting. I pwnz0r baby-stakes NL Hold'em.

A Festivus For The Rest Of Us

liquid's YTD: $1903.92

For the third time this year, my YTD has cracked $1800. The first time was on the cusp of my trip to Tunica, during which I dropped down below $1500. A week and half later, I had clawed back to $1800. I promptly dropped over $500 in two days last week (though I managed to salvage a couple hundred by the end of the second day). By Sunday I'd recovered from that downswing as well, but I'm well behind my $10k goal for the year. The YTD graph is ugly.

I nosedived towards $1600 again last night. I was three-tabling $100 PLO, and had not managed to crack $100 on two of the tables, despite discouragingly frequent top-offs. On the third table I'd gotten to around $185. For the night I was down $150 overall and was about to pack it in.

That's when The Hand happened.

I get AAJ3 with three diamonds in middle position. Ok, whatever. By the by, this is on my one winning table, where I'm sitting with $185.

Smart LAG, who has buckets of money, raises to $2.50 UTG, simply because this is what he's decided to do with every hand he plays tonight, regardless of position. Folds to me. I call. Folds to the button, who calls. Then the first blind, who has only $50, raises less than pot, to $10.

(Now, I will go ahead and reveal that B1 had a monster. 7742 single-suited. This is a good table.)

Back to the action. The second blind calls, which is curious. UTG LAG calls, so he must not even have double-suited trash, or else he'd likely raise to isolate. I call. The button, who started the hand with $78, raises pot to $64.

Ah geez.

The first blind calls all in.

The second blind, who started the hand with $115, calls. (!)

UTG LAG folds. Huh.

I push all-in, covering all remaining players now that UTG LAG is gone. Blargh.

Button calls, second blind calls, four players to the flop, everyone all-in, about $400 in the middle.

At this point I don't even want to watch the hand. As fate would have it, I was actually involved in a hand on another table, so I was only half-watching as the board was dealt out for the 4-way freak fest. It didn't look good.

No ace, of course.

No diamonds. At all.

No pair on the board. Ugh.

In fact I get no help whatsoever: Qs, 5s, Jc, 2c, 8h. I start hoping for a piece of a side pot, something, anything.

Instead, I watch in amazement as the WHOLE FREAKING POT ships my way.

Yes, I won a 4-way all-in pre-flop coup with aces unimproved. It's a Festivus miracle!

Won't You Keep On Shining On Me

liquid's YTD: $1609.12

I made it to Tunica with Napalm last week. Results-wise, it was the polar opposite of the Vegas trip -- I lost $315 total.

We began with a 4-1/2 hour $4-$8 session at the Horseshoe. I dropped $228 for an ignominious start. Yes, I was card dead. Yes, I played like a donkey. And yes, it was my worst session ever. Like an idiot I failed to prepare properly for limit hold 'em this time around. Prior to the Vegas trip, I read the Miller book and played a lot of micro-limits online. Following the Vegas trip, I didn't play a single hand of hold 'em until getting to the Horseshoe. Unwise.

The next day we continued with a 3-1/2 hour $4-$8 session, also at the Horseshoe. Lost $4. Things were looking up!

Later that evening I tried Omaha/8 $4-$8 with a half kill, opening a table short-handed with a few other brave souls. I took down the first hand with a flopped straight that held up for a scoop. A tiny woman who bought in for $40 seemed confused at showdown, thinking she had the low even though there was no low possible. She was unphased though, and proceeded to run over the table, playing practically every hand. Forty-five minutes later she racked up and left with an unbelievable $480. She is my new hero. I left four hours later up $94. Yay, a winning session!

The next day we found Nirvana and Hell all in one: Omaha/8 $4-$8 with a half kill at the Gold Strike. This table had it all. $150 pots left and right. Outrageous showdowns. Half the table playing every hand. Kill pots galore. It was a thing of beauty... and I was utterly unable to take advantage of any of it, ending a 9-1/2 hour session down $186. I finally got up to catch some breakfast and a short nap, and then went back hoping beyond hope that the table was still going. But it was empty, a memory in the wind. Maybe it was all just a dream....

Eventually, unable to find another O/8 game, I went back to $4-$8 hold 'em at the Horseshoe. I played the nuts, started with a few brutal beats, but eventually dragged enough decent pots to cash out 5 hours later up a whopping $9. Ugh. Notable hand of the session: I have Q4 in the big blind. Six or seven or twelve or whatever number of folks limp, including a bona fide sociopath in the small blind. Napalm and I had sat with him on day one as well. To date, we'd seen him (a) wear his sunglasses upside-down Luske-style, (b) throw his cards at the dealer, (c) three-bet with apparent randomness, (d) get into shouting matches with the dealer, and (e) generally exhibit manic-depressive behavior indicative of someone who needs to up his meds a smidge. So anyway, this particular flop comes rag-rag-king rainbow and checks around. Turn is an ace and checks around. River is a queen and checks around. I table my weak queen, figuring I might be good here. Psycho tables AK. I feel blessed that I am in the 1 seat and he is in the 10 seat, where his empty soulless eyes could not bore into my skull.

The results may not show it, but I had a great time. Tunica is the BEST. The card rooms at the Horseshoe and Gold Strike are top notch; we got friendly and competent service all-around; and we never had to pay for food. I figure I racked up well over $100 in comps, not counting the poker rate at the Horseshoe, which cut the total bill for the room from over $1600 to $132 (including tax). Outstanding.