Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Born To Lose

Another chapter in my ongoing search for, well, hell if I know what I'm searching for!


Venue: Ameristar Poker Room

February 6th, 2006


Hello again friends, blog fans, onlookers, and all around general voyeurs! Time to start writing a bit again, clue you in as to what’s going on in the wonderful world of bar stardom. I receive such wonderful comments about my stories, which are greatly appreciated I can humbly say, and I get a kick out of expressing myself in a separate medium other than a Les Paul and a Marshall clone amp turned to 11.

So, I’ve been looking forward to starting back up again. In fact, I had intended to continue writing through the hiatus, but, as I mentioned on the guest book message board, I transferred the website hosting from Yahoo (which billed me $10 a month) to one hosted by our site at Metro Computer Solutions, where I work, which will be free. A no brainer!

But, I lost the use of the handy, dandy file manager upload software, and the software I needed to upload here my partner didn’t get around to giving me until now. We’ve been quite busy, building customer base, growing the business, all that happy stuff that we’re learning as we give entrepreneurship and self employment a try. Here’s a shameless plug: need any computer work done for your home or office, give us a call. Metro Computer Solutions. We’re in the phone book. That ad cost a pretty penny, too. But, it’s been the best advertising vehicle we’ve used so far.

Since the last blog I’ve posted (my poker blog), things have altered course for me somewhat. I’ve retired from my poker phase. I truly love the game, and studied it intensely the last year or so. Online, live, tournament, cash game: you name it, I was playing it, and playing it constantly. I fancied myself really figuring out his game, and be as successful as I could, whatever that success may mean.

But, what I truly discovered, mainly about the more popular form, Texas Hold ‘em, is the high level of chance that exist in the game, which can negate the skill. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that some people are born inherently with a certain amount of luck, a Midas touch if you will. The ability to have things go their way, even when they seriously fuck up. I’m sure you’ve met people like this. Perhaps you yourself feel that way about yourself.

I seem to be more or less deficient in that particular realm of talent, and am too often reminded of it. If bad shit can happen, it most certainly seems to happen to me. Murphy’s law, my father used to call it. He also used to say something about my talent for screwing up a steel ball with a rubber hammer. I think that ties into it somewhere.

Couple that with my highly competitive nature, and I eventually found myself extremely frustrated when I’d make the right plays, read what my opponents were doing, calculate my odds and know I’m ahead, only to have some miracle draw waste me. Since I largely would play for fun, and that’s not fun, I convinced myself to give it up, and quit wasting my time.

As an example: I went to the boat recently with a friend, and had told her I had no intention of playing poker, just maybe some craps, and enjoy the evening. She convinced me to play anyway, so I took about $150 and sat at the $3/$6, figuring I’d give in another shot, and see what kind of crazy luck would get me and take my money. It wasn’t a disappointment. It didn’t take long!

Second hand in, I was dealt a pair of aces! AA! American Airlines! The Weapons of Mass Destruction! Now, I know many people hate being dealt AA, but that’s largely because they overplay them, or “expect” to win. As you can tell, I never expect to win! But, when you start, there are no better two cards to have than AA, percentagewise.

Now, at $3/$6 limit, I can only raise in increments of $3, and pretty much there’s little bluffing, as anyone with anything decent is going to call and try to get lucky. I was also in what’s called early position, because I’ll have to bet before the others. So, the strategy here is to jam the pot with as much money as possible, because odds are I have the best hand, and am favored to win. When it was my turn to bet, I raised from $3 to $6. Some stayed in, some folded. A player to my right a couple seats re-raised me! “Make it $9”, he belted out.

Well, I was in an interesting spot here. Obviously, I have a better starting hand than he had, because he can’t possibly beat two aces at this point. But, I was new to the table, and had no idea what kind of player he was. Was he tight, and only bet or raised when he had good cards? Was he a maniac, re-raising constantly with junk, trying to get lucky? Did he have a solid hand like two kings, or two queens? Perhaps a smaller pair, and he was trying to buy the pot and chase people out, since he didn’t want to see a flop. Or just a couple of suited cards that he’d try to make a flush with? This is why I’m drawn to the game, trying to read the possibilities!

Technically it didn’t matter, as my play here was certainly to re-raise him and jam more money into the pot, giving me an aggressive edge in the hand, which I did. “Twelve,” I coolly stated, reaching into my chip stack, selecting three more white $1 chips, stacking them next to my previous bets. Remember, while I know little about him, he also knew little about me, so we were even there. And aggression at a poker table can win hands without even showing cards, even at $3/$6. Part in parcel with that, huge pots will encourage people to stay in with junk, trying to catch a miracle card and get lucky, too. This was now a pretty nice sized pot, over $45 or so with four or five players playing. It was now worth chasing as the “pot odds” were making a solid payoff. Something firmly in the back of my mind as I wondered “how will I get my aces cracked?” Not pessimism, or defeatist negativity. Just being honest about myself. And hoping I’d prove myself wrong!

The flop came out, and it was a very nice flop for me. All low cards, 10 being the highest. They were different suits too, so odds someone drawing a flush was pretty slim, they were going to have to catch two suited cards on 4th and 5th street for that. Runner-runner, the poker gods call that.

That means that I won’t have as many chasers throwing money into the pot, but also a better chance that my aces will hold up. The straight possibilities were fairly slim too. For someone to catch that, they would need a strange hand like 7/5, or something, and catch a perfect card. I didn’t see that being out there, because the preflop betting was high. No one is that stupid. Well, no they are, and I don’t know who I’m sitting with. But, odds are, that’s not a real possibility either.

I was first to bet, and I led out with $3. A couple players called, and it got to Mr Re-raiser, who raised it up to $6. I re-raised him to $9. One player behind me called, and the others dropped out. Mr. Re-raiser just called my raise. That showed weakness; he was scared. Or trapping me.

The next card was what they call “a brick”, no visible help. I assessed the board, and thought “these are my chances.” Aces are the best here, unless someone had a pair and caught their set, or someone had two cards and caught them both for two pair. I had two players to read why they were still in this when I’m betting like I have been. Did they have anything to beat two aces? Were they morons? Do they think I’m a moron because I just sat down and started betting like crazy? Do they think I have two aces, because I’m betting like crazy, and they know they can beat even two aces. All these thoughts have to come into play when making decisions. What could they have?

Now, the set of three of a kind was difficult to read, because anyone could have stayed in with a pair and gotten lucky hitting their “trips”. The two pair was less likely, because these were all crappy low cards, and I doubted if anyone would have stayed in all this betting to catch, even with the pot approaching $75. As dumb as some of these people can play, they usually stay in with face cards, not low cards, and there were no face cards showing. The only way they’d stay in with low cards are if they were suited, and again, I didn’t see that playing out as a possibility, trying to catch runner-runner.

I bet $6 (the bet doubles on 4th street), the player on my left called, and Mr. Re-raiser raised it to $12 putting in his last chips and going “all in”. Did he hit his set? I called, and the player on my left folded. Ah! One less hand to worry about on 5th street! It was heads up.

Now, what about this guy? Mr. Re-Raiser. He called my bet with a raise, which put his last chips into the pot. That told me something else. Either this guy really thinks he has the best hand, or more likely he was chasing something, and was probably frustrated, getting short stacked, making that “all or nothing” push that is often called “going tilt”. He didn’t care, just throwing chips in to get lucky, and if he lost, he was ready to go home. If he’d hit his set, he would have re-raised me earlier, not called my flop re-raise. I was confident I was winning the hand.

With his chips all in, he flipped over his cards before 5th street, the River, and showed Jack/10 offsuit. Now, while this isn’t a great starting hand, it’s also one with good potential, so I can’t really fault him for playing it and a limit game, especially knowing he was tilting, and looking to give his chips away, and leave. It was reckless to re-raise me preflop, but that is the style player he is, and the kind of player I want to make a ton of money off of, playing stupid aggressive plays for little reason but to gamble.

Once the flop had came out with 10 high, and he had his Jack kicker, he was riding it down hoping his top pair would hold up and win the hand. Again, amateurish, but that’s the players you need to play to win money off of. You dream of a table full of morons like that. Easy money.

I flipped over my AA, and a smirk crept across his face. “Oh,” he moaned. “I knew it.” He shrugged in defeat, and his smirk turned into the “eh, what the fuck, I tried” expression that comes with resignation.

Of course, there was one catch, the hand wasn’t done. One more card. 5th street. The River.

The dealer rapped the green felt table gently before he turned the last card (as they always do before they turn over a card, dunno why), and revealed Mr. Re-raiser’s best friend, the Jack of Spades! That lucky suck out of a card gave him two pair, jacks and tens, and about a $100 pot. My second hand in after sitting down, and I’d been sucked out on the river with my aces cracked. More reinforcement that my decision to retire was a correct one.

The next hand I was dealt some kind of rags like 8-4 offsuit, and promptly folded as the preflop betting capped at $12 with about 5 players in the hand. It was a monster pot already! This must be a wild table! They played the hand out, with bets, raises, and re-raises. I watched the board, and wondered what each player might be playing with. In the end, the initial raiser won a monster pot of over $150 with…a pair of kings in the hole! Yup, his KK starters held up, while my AA starters went down in flames! Just piling on my list of reasons to quit!

The hands went on, and I had a couple hands that I won modest pots, and others where I couldn’t catch decent cards and folded out. I was still down about $35 or $40 from the AA hand.

In one hand, I was dealt Big Slick, or an ace and king. They were off suit. I “limped in” with his hand, not raising to mask my strength. The board wasn’t very helpful to me, and the bets and raises came flying, so I folded, instead of wasting money trying to catch. Good thing, too, I wouldn’t have won.

The very next hand I was dealt Big Slick again! Hmm! Twice in a row! Lets see here. This time I called a raise to $6 with a few players in to play the hand. A big ace fell on the flop, giving me top pair with a king kicker! Very strong. There didn’t seem to be any other scare cards on the board to caution me. The bets came and I raised, and we all danced. My assessments told me that barring some really bizarre hand someone was playing, I was the best hand at the table.

In the end, I found myself in a similar situation. My aces looked good, and I bet away at them. Everyone folded by 4th street except a quiet little Asian lady, who called my $12 raise with her last chips, going for broke. She flipped over a pair of threes in her hand, and I showed her my Big Slick for a pair of aces. She softly smiled, and looked resigned, as the last fellow did when I showed him what I had. She was “tilting” in frustration too, and knew she’d thrown her money away. With all those higher cards on the board, she was silly for staying in with a lowly pair of threes, especially with an ace on the flop. She had to know she was beaten then, before she called me

With a gentle rap on the felt, the deal turned over the River. It was a three! One of the two remaining threes in the deck! Sucked out again! The table erupted in disbelief, and the quiet Asian lady dropped her head, and shook it from side to side. “Sorry!” she said in condolence. I was a good sport. After all, I wasn’t surprised! I leaned back in my chair, and said “well, that’s enough.” I picked up my remaining $70, and bid the table adieu. My opinions had been confirmed yet again: I’m not a fortunate man, and I should stick to things that I can control the outcome of for my best chances for success.

That’s not to say I’ll never play poker again. I’ve just completely changed my attitude towards it. I don’t care if I ever play again, where as before, I couldn’t wait to play. Now, I can take it or leave it. Mostly leave it.

Well, as per usual, my verbose and descriptive narrative has taken up the bulk of this blog, and left little room to delve into my past performances with Rock Bottom. So, take a break, have a smoke or a sandwich (schmoke 'n' a pancake? bong and a blintz?), and I’ll continue on in part two of my “catch up blog”.

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