-68 @ Chez Johnson

This night was a little different as the game was no limit Hold em. I didn't fare as badly as I could have. Still, the play was so odd that I uttered my famous quote which has been memorialized. Clearly something was up, and I needed to figure out what. Guy explains what I was doing wrong. But the conclusion is that I need to be betting more in order to make the implied odds right for the hand. Even though I understand this intellectually, it is still kinda scary.

-149 @ The Commerce Casino

One word: Ugh.

This night wasn't very much fun for a variety of reason. First of all, the cards weren't great. Even the ones I threw away wouldn't have made for a winning hand after looking at the board. I also had a couple yahoos at my table who felt compelled to talk about everything, including the board and the cards in their hand. Other little things didn't help either; the fellows on both sides of me insisted on having trays next to them which crowded the table, people would leave the table for a fairly long time and would have to be called back...but maybe I'm just trying to come up with excuses for why I lost nearly $150, when in fact I lost money because I was off.

The first memorable hand gave me J,Q suited. I was the small blind and when I raised everybody came along for the ride. The flop was A,K,2. I bet and there wasn't a raise. The turn brought a K. I checked and subsequently folded when it was a bet to me. The river brought a 9 and the pot was taken with king trips.

After nearly an hour and a half I flopped a nut straight but wasn't able to bring people into the pot. I shouldn't have re-raised on the turn as that is what scared everyone off.

A half an hour later I was down to about $30 with K,2 of hearts in late position. The flop came out H,H, blank so I bet, was raised, then I called. Another H on the river gave me a very strong flush, but it was clear from the play that there was another flush. I hoped he didn't have the ace, and we both bet strong on the turn. The last card was a blank, but at this point I only had $2 left so I went all in. If I had had more money, I bet he would have raised and I would have re-raised. So because I didn't have enough chips, I lost out on at least $4, and maybe $10 or $16. It turns out that he had only medium hearts and my king took the nearly $100 pot.

When I finally had a medium pocket pair of 9s, I was pretty excited. I was the small blind, and it wound up three bets to me. I called, as did 5 others. A pair of queens came on the flop and I checked, but it was only one bet by the time it hit me so I decided to come along. The turn brought a 9. I checked, the big blind bet and 4 people called. When it came to me I called time and after thinking about it, I raised. The big blind re-raised, and a couple people actually came along for the ride. The river was an A. I bet, was re-raised, and I figured that I would go for it. Hell, I had 9s full of queens after all. I re-raised, he called and turned over the A,Q. I got up and cashed out my remaining $11 in chips.

-30 @ Hollywood Park

When Jennifer called and said that she would be arriving at LAX at 7:00 pm instead of midnight, I started making my plans. I left work at 3:30 and was sitting down at a table by 4:00. In my first hand I was the big blind with pocket tens, and by the time it came around to me it was a total of 3 bets. With action like that I folded. An ace on the flop brought more betting, and 10s on both the turn and the river finished it off. I was so busy obsessing about what I could have had that I didn't notice the size of the pot or who took it.

I sat tight for a while and then played three hands in a row. The first two were disasters, made worse by the fact that I had to show my hands; two missed flushes but I (stupidly) stayed in with a medium pair. Of course I lost both times. But I then flopped a set of 4s, and was able to make $50. That started me back on a positive road, and I quickly followed it up with
two pair (kings and queens) and a flopped set of 8s. Besides the 8, an A also showed up on the flop, and there was one guy betting strong, but not strong enough to make me think he had pocket rockets. I check raised during this and when it came to turn 'em over the old guy sitting next to me (the one who hassled me in barely understandable English about my missed
flushes. I didn't get that, why does he want me to know that I played badly? I would never tell someone that if I had a chance to get his money) said that I better have a good kicker. I said that I didn't have a kicker and showed my 8s. He responded that I didn't need a kicker with that hand.

At this point I had played for an hour and was up about $40. During the next hour I played a couple hands more aggressively than I should have and nothing came of it. That, combined with the slow attrition of the blinds and jackpot (it is $5 per round at the Park; $3 for big blind, $1 for small blind, and the button contributes $1 for the jackpot) left me down $30 for the day. The table was such that I could have made money if I stayed, but I wanted to be on time to pick up Jennifer.

Just like the Commerce Casino last night, this table was filled with people who didn't want to have many chips in front of them. It was also a fairly superstitious lot; a new setup was called for every 20 minutes, and when a seat opened up someone from our table took it. I wouldn't have thought anything about it (there are some positions that I like more than others; I'm not very fond of sitting right across from the dealer but instead like the corners) except that twice the people moving made a comment on the order of "I hope this is luckier than my last position".

+105 @ The Commerce Casino

The night didn't start off well. Decent hands were few and far between and when I did pay to see the flop, I got nuthin'. The table was pretty loose, some of the pots were pretty big, and they were often taken with a mid level pair. I tried to be patient, and didn't always do a very good job. After an hour I was down nearly 90 dollars, but I decided to buy another $40 in chips. This was in marked contrast to most of the rest of the table. They must have had an aversion to chips and it seemed like someone was pulling another $20 out of his pocket every other hand. This made for some slow play and was starting to get annoying. I am glad I stuck around as my very next hand was A,6H. I was the small blind and on the flop a couple more hearts came out. I bet strong, and made my nut flush on the turn and about $80 in the pot. This started me back onto the road of playable hands: Pocket 9s, A,3 suited, A,7 offsuit...you know, stuff like that. I didn't play many hands, but won nearly all the ones I played and they turned out to be decent pots.

During the night I had to fold A,K a couple times. Just too much money for me to stay in after the flop missed me badly. However, it was quite annoying to fold only to have one of the pots won by a pair of queens (one of which was on the flop), when an ace turned up on the river. The betting lead me to believe a much better hand hidden somewhere. Maybe that was the point.

I almost made a serious mistake during one hand. I had A,5 suited, and the flop came A,7,7. I bet, as did others. Another A followed on the turn, and I kept betting strong. The final card was a 2. The fellow to my right showed an A with a 9 kicker. At that point I almost mucked my hand since I only h and a 5, but thank goodness I showed my hand to the table and the dealer said chop. In the heat of the moment I missed the fact that the 7s played and the kickers didn't matter.