There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about poker. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of poker, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a flush. It is enough to make one ashamed of the species.
Mark Twain
Tag: poker
A rebuilding night
Once again this weekend, I went to the casino for a few hours to play some poker and hang out with friends. Thursday night I drove over for about three hours and lost $160 very quickly, but won it all back and walked away $50 ahead, but not from poker. I played roulette for the very first time and walked away from the table with $250. Friday night I went back up and won $100 at poker and $20 at roulette. Saturday night I went with a couple of friends who only wanted to stay for about an hour, so I decided not to play poker because I knew the list would be too long and I’d never even get to play, so I played roulette. I couldn’t hit a damn thing, I was down $220. I knew I had to play poker for a little while on Sunday and try to win some of that $220 back, so I went and tried my luck, but blew around $150 before I even made it to the poker table.
Annie Duke on Las Vegas
Did anyone else see Annie Duke on the show Las Vegas last night? She made a quick appearance, but she looked a lot different than I’ve ever seen her before. They definitely dolled her up for TV.
Brutal
This morning I played for about 2 hours on Party Poker and it might have been the most brutal session of poker I’ve ever played. The Bad Beat Jackpot was over $200,000 and anytime it’s that high my table of choice is the $2/4. I had four tables open almost the entire time and I was never ahead. Not for a second.
In fact, I played 300 hands before I won my first hand at showdown. Stop and think about that for a second. 300 hands! I still can’t believe it now that I’m thinking about it again. I kept making second best hands or losing to 3-5 out draws. Over the entire session rockets were 1/4 and two of those losses were to gut shot straight draws. Cowboys lost to 47o on the river when the player called all the way with bottom pair and a 7 kicker. Ladies lost on the river to 96o who had called two raises pre-flop and another two bets on a 9-high flop. Another 9 came on the river.
Nothing went my way and I finally made a good choice to call it quits. At least the Lions kicked ass today.
T-Shirts
Just recieved my first purchase from the Poker Chip Tricks store, the 2HC and PCT shirts are sweet.
Back to limit
Lately I’ve been trying to build my bankroll back up after a horrible streak of bad beats online in the past week or two. I was playing .25/.50 no-limit hold ’em on Full Tilt, but was getting a pretty bad run. After visiting the casino these past weekends, I decided to try my luck at limit hold ’em again, playing mostly 1/2 tables. It’s worked pretty well so far, as I’ve won money each time I’ve sat down so far. Even if I play for 10 minutes between classes, I usually win $5-10, which is nice. So far I’m up about $120 in the past 3-4 days, and only played a total of about three hours.
I also played a $50+5 this weekend and finished just inside the bubble, 8th place for $99, which was pretty damn good considering I was down to 150 chips less than an hour into the tournament, so it was quite the comeback. I made a stupid play after I was reraised preflop when I had JJ, so I called. The flop came down all rags, but pairing the board, so I bet and was reraised all-in, I had a feeling I was beat, but called anyways, and sure enough he had KK. That was the beat that took me down to 150, but I made it to the final, and won some money, so I can’t be completely disappointed.
Doggin, as in Bo
After work I didn’t feel like doing shit, so I sat down at the online poker tables on Bodog. If you’ve never tried out Bodog, you’re missing out on another great site. They have unlimited bonuses, which means you can keep depositing and always get a bonus. Sign up with referral code P213C5D and I’ll get a nice little bonus on top of yours. The tables are soft, the bonuses aren’t too hard to clear, and the software is pretty good. I’ve been playing there on and off for a few months and like it.
I played for 4 and a half hours or so and finally had a great night. $240+ added to the bankroll. I was playing three tables most of the time. One table of $1/2 6-max, one full table of $2/4, and a full table of $3/6. The $3/6 game was killer. I took $270 from that game, finished even in the $2/4, and lost $30 in the $1/2. I made some mistakes, but my limit hold’em game is finally coming back into form. I had some nasty suck outs hit against me and I also called down when I shouldn’t have a few times. I successfully pulled the stop-and-go a couple of times. The stop-and-go might be my favorite move to pull off. I like it a lot better than a simple check-raise, because I don’t slow play very often for fear of giving a free card. When someone raises me on the flop and I’m holding a monster it’s almost a sure thing they are going to come out firing again on the turn, so then the check-raise for the stop-and-go comes right back at ’em. Low limit players rarely see it coming.
It feels good to book a nice win again.
Soaring Profits
Once again this Thursday took me to CMU and to the Soaring Eagle Casino. I showed up at the casino around 7 p.m., figuring I’d play for a few hours until my friends were done at the Lil’ Scrappy concert. I put my name on the list for 3-6 hold ’em and had to wait about 15 minutes. While I was waiting I figured I’d try my luck at blackjack, I burnt $20 in about three minutes there. Still wasn’t up, so I put $5 in a quarter machine, which lasted me about five minutes, so I was down $25 in about 10 minutes. I finally got to a table and bought in for $100. I played for awhile, was up about $80 at one point, but I caught a crappy run of cards, and at about 10:30 p.m. I looked down at Q3 off UTG and counted my chips, $131. I layed it down and figured a $6 profit was good enough for such a short days work. The cards sucked and I didn’t make much, but a profit is always better than a loss.
2 Hole Cards Turns 1
On October 2nd of last year 2 Hole Cards went live. It’s been a rough ride. I can’t count how many times I’ve thought about abandoning this poker blog, but I always remember why I started it. 2HC started as my personal poker journal. It helps me think out loud in a way. If my writing (and recently the addition of my brother) helps anyone else in their poker journey, it’s an added bonus. I don’t have any intentions of quitting poker, so this site is here to stay.
The most popular posts have been those involving discussions about online poker being rigged. Both of those posts must rank pretty high in the search engines. One of the things I hope for the future of 2HC is to have more strategy posts that provoke some worthwhile discussions.
Remember to “Fold’em more than you Hold’em.”
Up 10K
No poker played tonight, but I had to post because it was one year ago today that I started playing on Party Poker. It was also the day I started to keep track of my wins/losses on a daily basis. Over the last twelve months I’m about $10,600 ahead with $5,550 coming from poker cash games and tournaments. The other $5,050 comes from deposit bonuses. I’m more than happy to be ahead 10K, but not too happy that it’s nearly 50/50 for poker and bonuses. With that many hours at the tables I’d hope to be up more than I am. I’ve had some streaks of really bad play which have cost me. I’ve taken nearly $8,000 out of my bankroll for what I call “poker paydays” and this is a great feeling because I’ve been able to pay off my student loans and will have my auto loan (which is less than 7 months old) paid off in less than a month. I’m making money from a game, a hobby.
My goal for the next three months is to make $3,000 at the tables. I just jinxed myself. Each time I’ve made goals in the past, I’ve gone on a losing streak. This time I’ll have better focus and win.
Nick Momrik 