I DID IT!

I DID IT! Oh my god, I won a tournament! I can't believe I made my first four-figure cash! I am soooo stoked. I took this thing down a little after 2:00 a.m. this morning. I was so excited I had to wake my wife up. She thought something was wrong because I was shaking. I told her I won a tournament and cashed for a $1007. I had to get the laptop so I could show her.

The feeling of winning is undescribable. This is the most excited I have been in years. After getting so close two weeks ago and failing this win is sweeter than I could have imagined. I made a few hands early and got paid off on them and then just chipped away until we got deep. It was an amazing run of cards and some big laydowns that got me here. I was never all-in with a chance to be eliminated until we were down to the final four players. I didn' even worry about winning until we got down to the final three. I think that I had more short-handed experience than my opponents which enabled me to beat them. The guy to my right was folding his small blind to me about 40% of the time which is a huge advantage three-handed. When we got down to heads-up I punished my opponent with a very aggressive style. I knew I had him when he kept folding to my raises.

I am so happy. This win will let me play in some bigger games now. I don't have to fold when I get the right odds to call because I have too much of my bankroll on the table. I think I am going to pull out about $400 to pay some bills and treat my wife and son to something special. I have to take my wife out to eat tonight for waking her up. It's ok though, I wanted to anyway. It is our anniversary in a couple days so we need to do something.

Ah well, maybe I can actually play this game after all!
See you at the tables!

How to donk your way right out of a tournament

Well, I just finished 12th in a 900+ player multi-table tournament and I am so mad I could just spit. Why am I mad? I was the chip leader with about 27 people left and I lost all my chips on two hands, pocket deuces and pocket treys.

I am such a donkey! I had such a good run of cards. I hit five or six sets during the tournament, twice on the river to stay alive. I know that in order to win one of these big tournaments you have to get lucky. Well I got lucky and then I gave it all away. I was given a chance to win and I let it slip away. I made $36 for 12th, while 1st place paid a little over $1000. What a difference a few spots makes.

Well I might as well tell you all how I dropped the ball. The blinds were like 2000-4000 with a 300 ante I think. I was doing some stealing when I could. I was raising to 10,000 chips everytime I entered a pot. I felt this was big enough to take down the pot most of the time, while being small enough to get away from. Well, one of the other players picked up on this and commented on it. A few hands later I picked up Queen-Ten in middle position and I bumped it to 10k. It was folded around to this player in the big blind and he moves all-in. I think forever and finally fold. If I lose that many chips I have no shot. The villian then turns over seven-four and types some smart-ass comment in the chatbox. I hate to admit it but that threw me off my game.

A little bit after that I raised with pocket treys. Fold, fold, fold, all-in, fold back to me. It is another 35k for me to call for a pot of about 60k. I reasoned that he had two overcards and I went ahead and called expecting a coin flip. To my dismay my opponent flips over pocket fives. I don't catch a three and my big stack is suddenly crippled.


I am now down to 60,000 and the blinds are 3000-6000 with a 500 ante. We are down to two tables of six players each. Mr. smart-ass raises from under the gun and it folds to me in the small blind. I decide to move in with my deuces. The big blind comes over the top of me and the UTG player folds. The big blind's pocket tens crush my ducks and I am gone. Dammit!

Looking back on it I think the bigger mistake was calling with the treys. Even if it was a coin flip I didn't need to play that hand. I could have folded and been just fine. After that, I just got unlucky when the big blind woke up with those tens. I feel like I blew my chance at making a final table. I think I choked under the pressure of all those chips. Hopefully if I can make it back I will play better and remember not to play a big pot without a big hand.

Time to move to Canada?

I am so mad. The United States House of Representatives has passed the Goodlatte bill, and it wasn't even close. If this bill gets signed into law it would make gambling on the internet a felony. This includes poker, but not horse racing or lotteries or whatever else they want to exempt.

There are tens of millions of people who play online poker in the United States. We are being thrown into the fire so some politicians can look good to there religious voters. The people who are pushing this bill the hardest are not effected at all by internet poker. They believe that gambling is wrong and a sin and should be outlawed because they don't like it.

I just wish they would leave me alone. I have pulled money out of my Ultimate Bet account to join the Poker Players Alliance. It is a grassroots organization that was founded to protect poker players rights. Hopefully this bill will not make it through the Senate. This would be the worst bad beat ever.

Cappelletti's book pays off with a Final Table

Wow! I made my first real final table on Full Tilt Poker this weekend! It was the $5 buy-in Omaha 8ob double stack event. We started the tournament with 3000 chips instead of the normal 1500 which played right into my hands. I was able to sit back and play it like I do my cash games, very tight-aggressive. I folded most hands preflop but if I hit it I jammed the pot and got payed off on it. I managed to scoop some big pots and build my chip stack up pretty high.

I want to touch on one hand that sticks out in my mind. A player from early position raised and he was called by a player in middle position. I called from the button with Ace-Trey-Five-Six. The flop came down Seven-Eight-King and the EP raiser bets out half the pot and the MP player calls. I have an open-ended straight draw and the second nut low draw, which is good enough to see another card so I call as well. The turn is a nine, giving me the bottom end of the straight. If there is a big bet here I have to let the hand go, but both players check to me. I check behind them and take the free river card which is a four, giving me a good two way hand. When both players check to me I am fairly certain my Ace-Trey low is good. Anyone with the Ace-Deuce would have bet it by now. I fire out a pot size bet here because I think I am good for half and maybe I can make a better high hand fold or another Ace_Trey fold so I can take the entire pot. The EP raiser folds out, but the MP player thinks for a long time before he finally calls. I show my staight/Ace-Trey low and he mucks his cards as I rake in the large pot. I pull up the hand history and I see he had a Seven-Eight-Eight-Queen. He flopped a set with no hope of a low and he couldn't get away from it. This is a good example of why you don't play trash like that.

I am proud that I made the final table. I ended finishing eighth out of 187 people. I ended up getting all-in on a flop of Queen-Five-Six when I held Ace-Duece-Trey-Queen. My opponent had flopped a set of Queens and made a full house when the turn and river came Jack-Jack. I made about $40 on a $5 investment, but more than that I proved to myself that I can play this game well.

I would like to play this tournament more often, but it starts at 9 p.m. on Saturday nights. I did not get to bed until after 1:30 a.m., and was greeted with a "wake up daddy!" bright and early Sunday morning from Grant. Hopefully they can offer a double stack Omaha 8ob tourney a little earlier sometimes.

Book Review: Cappelletti on Omaha High Low

A couple of Saturdays ago my wife had to work a wedding in the St Louis area, which is about a two hour drive. This meant she had to leave around 9:00 a.m. and wouldn't get home until after 10:00 p.m. This meant I would have watch my three year old son all day. I love him more than anything else in the world, but he can be quite a handful, so after lunch it was time to pull out the secret weapon- pack up the van and head to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Grandparents are always happy to see their grandkids. We went to my mom and dad's house and hung out for a while. After a couple of hours I slipped out the door and headed to Barnes and Noble to look for a new poker book while they babysat Grant.

I have been playing a lot of Omaha 8ob and I really enjoy 7 card stud 8ob as well. These are split pot games where the best high hand splits the pot with the best low hand. These games can generate huge pots. If your hand is good enough you can win both halves of the pot, also called a "scoop", and really add to your stack. I was looking for the book "High Low Split for Advanced Players" by Ray Zee, but they didn't have any on the shelves. I did find Mike Cappelletti's book on Omaha High Low, so I grabbed it instead.

While there are now hundreds of books on Texas Hold'em, there are only a few books on Omaha. I would say the top three are the two mentioned above, along with "Championship Omaha," a book by T.J. Cloutier and Tom McEvoy. All three of these have gotten mixed reviews, ranging from solid gold to solid crap. Most people love one of the books and hate the other two, so it might just come down to personal preference. Well, on to the book.

Cappelletti on Omaha High Low

This book is actually a collection of articles written by Mr. Cappelletti that originally appeared in CardPlayer magazine. Therefore, it is somewhat disorganized and it jumps around a lot. This has been a major part of the criticism this book has received. There where many ideas that where repeated throughout the book and somethings seemed out of order. It did get a little irritating at times and I can see why people would be annoyed. This book also focuses on limit play, not pot-limit, which is my usual game. It is also quite short, coming in at about 220 pages of actual content.

The information in the book, however, is quite good. I was already a winning player before I read this book, but there where situations where I wasn't quite sure what the right play was. One of the best things in this book is the "pulling vs. pushing" hands. Whether you want to "pull" people into the pot, or "push" them out depending on your hand.

I knew that you could play a hand with all high cards, that is all four pocket cards are a nine or higher, but I didn't really know what to do with them. I now know that you want to see a flop as cheaply as possible, preferably with a lot of people. Only one flop in three will be good enough for you to continue with a high only pocket cards, so you need a small initial investment with plenty of people to pay you off when you do hit your hand. This is a good example of a "pull" hand.

A good example of a "push" hand would be when you flop the nuts in one direction, and have a mediocre hand in the other direction that might win if you can push people out that have a better hand that is not the nuts. Let's say that you flop the nut low with a ten-high flush draw for a high. If you bet or raise aggressively with this hand you can get people with a better high draw to fold. If facing a bet and a raise, someone holding a jack-high or queen-high flush draw with a bad low draw would probably lay down their hand, giving you a chance to win the high pot as well as the low pot.

I would say that this book did improve my game. I have played quite a bit of Omaha high/low so I already had a good grasp of the basic concepts. It is geared for limit, but I was able to adapt the information for my pot-limit games that I play. In a world without a whole lot of options, this book does a pretty good job of giving you the information you need to win. I would rate this one at a three out of four stars, just because of the way the book was put together. The information in the book was very good and I would recommend it for anyone trying to improve their Omaha high/low game.

Aces go down in flames...And a bad beat KO's tournament #2

Well, after my epic battle with Brian, I expected to do better in my match with Cornish James. Well, I lost, and it wasn't even close. Our match only lasted 13 hands. I guess it was a little bit of bad luck, and a little bit of ignorance on my part. There were two hands that killed me. Both hands I made Aces up, only to be shown a full house by Cornish. The last hand was just dumb on my part. I was down about 700 to 1300 when I caught pocket Aces in the big blind. I raised it up and Cornish called. I think the flop was five-five-three. I led out and Cornish called. The turn was a King and I moved all in. Cornish called instantly and showed me King-five for the full house and my exit from the tournament was complete. It happened so fast I didn't seem real. I had fought my way to this point to loose in 13 hands? I guess I just assumed my aces would hold up and I would be in control of the match. I didn't even think that he could have a five.

Cornish went on to win his next match that night, which put him into the finals against unimpressed. I don't know if his luck finally ran out or if unimpressed was just to tough, but it was the end of the road for him. Congratulations to unimpressed on the win. I just wish I would have got a shot at him.



Oh well, on to tournament number two! This time the format was changed from a single match to best two of three. I was matched up with p_Enid, who's real name is really a good guy, even if he is from Philly. The first match went kind of slow, I think we were both trying to feel each other out. I ended up winning the first one by grinding p_Enid down until I had all the chips.

The second match I came out more aggressive. I picked up a lot of pots on the button uncontested by raising with junk cards. I chipped away until I had about a 1400 to 600 chip lead. I raised from the button for about the tenth hand in a row, but with a real hand this time, Ace-Jack. P_enut just called from the big blind. The flop came seven-seven-six and he moves all in. I take a second to think this over and my instincts say "he ain't got it" so I make the call with my Ace high. P_enut turns over five-three for a gutshot straight draw. This gives him ten outs twice, but an Ace, a Jack, or another six would cut him down to the four outs for the gutshot. He pairs his five on the turn and the river is a blank.

P_enut compliments me on the call and apologizes for sucking out on me. "Sorry", "That was the best call I have seen online in a long time." I thank him for saying that but now I am crippled and the blinds have gone up again. I try to stay aggressive but I just don't have the chips. Six hands later I am out.

Match three I try to play the same aggressive style that worked so well in match two. The cards are against me this time though. P_enut catches some big hands and traps me. In the end, it's not even close. P_enut advances to the second round with a 2-1 victory.

I don't know if I really recovered from the Ace high hand of match two. Somehow I just knew that my hand was good. It is easy to shove all your chips in preflop with pocket aces. It is not that easy to call an all in bet with nothing but Ace high on a board of seven-seven-six. I made a great read and a tough call, and I was right. The cards sometime have different ideas though. P_enut and I played for almost an hour and a half at that point and I think I was starting to figure him out. I ran the hand through the card calculator at www.pocketfives.com and it showed me as a 62% favorite to win the hand when I made the call. Not nearly the 80% that pocket aces are preflop, but I think that loosing that way would have been easier on me.

Well, I think I am going to go play some Omaha hi/lo at Ultimate Bet. I have been running pretty well at the cash games over there so wish me luck!

longclaw vs Brian...The Epic Battle

Well, I played my second match of the All In HU Championship and it was nothing but epic! I have to say it is the longest heads up match I have ever played. Titan uses a very slow blind structure as opposed to some of the other sites out there and I think that works better for a trapping style of play. I tried to warm up for my match by playing an aggressive style and I was the one who was getting trapped. I lost four in a row before I figured it out. I played one more and I got real lucky to win that one. I really didn't feel good about it, but I went and found Brian and we played our match.

If the first hand was any indication of how the match was going to go, I was going to be in trouble. Brian raised from the big blind and I called. The flop came King-Queen-Two. I completely missed the flop with my Four-Nine offsuit. Brian bet about the size of the pot. I toss my hand in the cyber-muck and he shows me a set of twos. Oh brother, my luck is still running bad. I proceeded to get more crap for hands and Brian chips slowly away at me. I am not that worried though, as long as I can double up and get back to even I feel I am ok. Well, that was about to change as well.

With the blinds at 10-20 Brian raised from the button to 70 and I called from the big blind with Queen-Ten of Hearts. The flop came Six-Jack-Nine with two spades. I bet 80 chips with my open ended straight draw and Brian Calls behind me. The Turn is the Ten of Spades, giving me top pair, but making a flush possible. I bet out 200 chips and Brian immediately raises me another 200. I think for a long, long while. Something tells me he hit his flush. If I call, I will only have 200 chips left, so really it is all-in or fold for me. Even though I have only 400 chips left, I fold. Brian shows me Four-Five of spades. He did have the flush and I would have put my money in with no chance of winning. Oh well, time to get lucky or go home.

Brian punishes me with his big stack. He picks up the next four or five hands without a fight. Finally I pick up Ace-Three in the big blind and I raise from 40 to 120 and Brian folds. The very next hand I am dealt Ace-Five suited. I move in from the button with my last 360 chips and Brian calls with Ten-Nine. I spike an Ace on the flop and double up to 760. Whew, nothing like getting it all in as a 60% favorite. I feel a lot better though.

Now I have a little more breathing room and some chips to work with. I catch a pair of Queens on the turn three hands later and I come over the top of Brian's 120 chip bet. I am almost back to even now, but more importantly, I am getting my confidence back, only to hit another bump. I flop top and bottom pair, only to have the middle card pair on the turn to give Brian trips. I feel lucky to only lose 280 on the hand. Time to switch gears!

When a player switches his playing style from tight to aggressive, or aggressive to tight, he is said to be "switching gears." I start raising aggressively on the button and take down a lot of uncontested pots. I still don't raise out of the big blind unless I have a real hand though. I am trying not to play a big pot out of position. I chip away at Brian and hit a few big hands and suddenly I am in the lead and pulling away from him. Now instead of him raising from the button, Brian is folding out to me, not even wanting to see a flop.

We trade chips for a while and Brian pulls into a 1020 to 980 chip lead when I pick up Queens. I check my option from the big blind. The flop comes King-Ten-Four with two spades. I check to Brian and he bets 120. I check raise to 240 and Brian calls. The turn is the Ace of spades and it goes check-check. The eight of hearts comes on the turn and I move all-in. Brian folds out to me and I am up 1280 to 720.

I raise from the button the next hand with Queen-Three offsuit and pick up Brian's 60 chip big blind without a fight. Hand #66, Brian calls from the button and I check my Five-Ten offsuit. The flop comes Five-Ten-Eight. Top and bottom pair again. I think this could be it. I check to Brian and he bets 120 chips. I just call, hoping he won't get suspicious. The turn is a King and I check again. Brian doesn't disappoint me and bet 180 chips, and I flat call again. The river is a seven and I see he only has 300 left in his stack. I bet 180, hoping he will move all-in on me. He does and I call. Brian shows me King-Jack for top pair. My two pair has won the hand and the match!

I was really worried during this one. Brian made it very tough on me. I think I need to work on my heads up game a little more. Find a balance between aggression and trapping. I ran into some bad luck during the match early on. When I semi-bluffed my straight draw and had to lay it down, I didn't know if I could make it back. Moving in with Ace high preflop was a very dangerous play. I lose that hand 40% of the time, but I got lucky with this one. If I where in Brian's shoes, I don't think I can make that call. As badly as he had me down, he could have picked a better spot to finish me off. I feel the worst thing he could have done is double me up like he did. He played very well to get me down that badly, only to let me back in it when you know that even if you are a favorite, it isn't by that much. You have to play a big stack very carefully. You can pick your spots, you don't have to make a desperate move. I think he just took a chance to finish me and it didn't happen, and by doing so he let me back in the match and I was able to pull it off.

Well, my next match should be today. I get to play CornishJames. He is from England so I might get it done this afternoon. I am going to go play some more and see if I can get back in the groove. Win or lose, I will let you know what happens.