Omaha Explained

What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again. Fun game.

Boat vs Boat

"Juicy" Diaries (and the Difference Between Men & Women...)

Jamie's Diary:

Tonight I thought Dave was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a little bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn't flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed but he kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong; he said nothing. I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry. On the way home I told Dave that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior. I don't know why he didn't say "I love you too." When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there and watched TV. He seemed distant and absent. Finally, I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later Dave came to bed, and to my surprise he responded to my caress and we made love, but I still felt that he was distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep - I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster!

Dave's Diary:

I lost $4,200 playing poker today, but at least I got laid.

HIGH STAKES POKER -Double Straddle- Elezra vs. Farha

HIGH STAKES POKER - What is an Action Player?

Like I needed to check this out to know.... LOL. I see them every week!

The Juice Re-Incarnate!

HIGH STAKES POKER Daniel Negreanu

All In!!

That phrase was said at least once every 3 hands. That is no, and I mean no exaggeration. I witness the sickest NL game in history last night/ this morning and there are far too many hands to go through. I played great. I mean I was so focused, patient and on my game like never before....but I still got busted. The game was the loosest that it has ever been with some massive stacks for a 1/2 game. I mean massive. The average pot was $400-$600 and the smallest pot for the entire 9 hours I was there was $80 with about 5th or 6th pot was at least a thousand dollars...for a freaking 1/2 game! The sharks come from all over to play just because of one player, HG. I think he just read Super System where Brunson talks about putting pressure on other players and bullying them around. He took that advice to heart. If he had any pair or any runner runner draw, he went all in. The worst part is that he hit a streak where he won just about everyone on the river. His stack was absolutely massive. If he had a pair verses someone's two pair, either he would pair his hole card or the board would pair giving him a miracle higher two pair. My big hand against him was extremely sick. I had played great. I mean I was at the top of my game. I had worked my way up to $800 over the first couple of hours after buying in for $200 so I was feeling good. The standard raise was up to $20 preflop on every hand for HG and there was a few players in so I was in a good spot to call with 8h 4h. The flop came Jd 4d 4c. Perfect! I led out betting $60 and Frank raised $100 when, like clockwork, HG said ALL IN! He by far had us both covered and I insta-called. Frank thought about it for a little bit which was great since he didn't have Js full so I figured he had the flush draw. Frank finally folds and HG turns of 4s 2d....$20 preflop with 42 offsuite, typical HG style. The turn comes a 9d which gives him a flush draw and what comes on the river..... 7d. How much bad luck can I have? The worst part is that he should no class about winning the pot and just how lucky his was. Losing is one thing but losing to someone who acts like they played the hand great and "deserved" the win is useless to me. They worst part is that he ended up losing it all back and much, much more before we had to cut the game off at 6:30 this morning. I rebought in but with such a small chip stake vs the massive stacks around the table, it was a wasted effort and HG ended up putting the final nail in my night when I hit a Q on the flop for top pair vs his 5 for a bottom pair, I'm all in and he catches a 3 to give him two on the river. Just sickening. Oh well. I wanted to play against him tonight b/c he is so horrible and such a luckbox. I'm just pissed that he donked it off to the two tightest players at the table who do not give any action what so ever unless they have locks on the hand.

I played great, put myself in the right spots where I a huge favorite each time but I just was lucky enough to win. Maybe next week will be better. Next year has great potential and I am really looking forward to wiping the slate clean and starting over.

Hope everyone has a good Christmas!

Getting ready to play again...

I've been reading alot of Mike Caro's articles and books lately and although I think there are far better strategy books out there, his thoughts and ideas about the psychology behind when and why you should be playing has really helped me lately. Right now, I think I have perspective on everything and I really have some lofty goals and guidelines for next year. This year started off horrible, and I mean horrible, but the second half of the year has shown great progress but lackluster results. It's not going to be easy but I have implemented new guidelines to my online and live play such as a set number of hands before moving up, keeping notes, controlling emotions, limited time playing, limiting number of tables online, only playing when focused, reviewing each session to learn from mistakes and find improvement. All of these points are ones that the top players do and why not learn from them. In others words, I'm planning on doing the opposite of what I do right now!

Believe it or not, one of my biggest goals is to take a shot at the Raleigh game I read so much about, although I know that I must really focus improving my NLO8 game b/c you guys will crush me right now b/c it would be scared money playing. But its a reasonable and achievable goal none the less. I can hear you smacking your lips right now saying "Come on up here. It's no big deal. Have a sit next to me. Would you like something to drink?" And then a few hours later, "It was nice meeting you. Sorry about that tough beat your just took. Look forward to seeing you next week though." I can even hear the comments after I've left broke, "Man, that guy sucks! Nice guy but what was he thinking calling down with that trash? I really hope he comes back next week, I sure could use another flat screen TV."

Oh well, it all starts over again tomorrow night. I haven't played at the game in a month now and I'm really looking forward to it. The game is running thin and tight which should be great for me. Guess you'll find out on Friday.....

What will $7 billion by you?

An entire city it appears. This project by MGM is simply amazing.

http://www.citycenter.com/default.aspx

High Stakes Poker Jamie Gold Explains HIS play!

Very nice....

It was the COOLER night for me in Cary....

Well, for the second time in 30 days, I lost a tub of cash with the 2nd nut.... And, a couple of times, slow-played the nuts into better nuts! I guess I'm just not trainable....

The Dangers of Flirting

A couple was invited to a swanky masked, fancy dress Halloween party. The wife got a terrible headache! She told her husband to go to the party alone. He, being a devoted husband, protested, but she argued and said she was going to take some aspirin and go to bed and there was no need for his good time to be spoiled by not going. So he took his costume and away he went. The wife, after sleeping soundly for about an hour, awoke without pain and as it was still early, decided to go to the party.

Since her husband didn't know what her costume was, she thought she would have some fun by watching her husband to see how he acted when she was not with him. So she joined the party and soon spotted her husband in his costume, cavorting around on the dance floor, dancing with every hot woman he could and copping a little feel here and a little kiss there.

His wife went up to him and being a rather seductive babe herself, he left his new partner high and dry and devoted his time to her. She let him go as far as he wished, naturally, since he was her husband. After more drinks he finally whispered a little proposition in her ear and she agreed. So off they went to one of the cars and had passionate intercourse in the backseat. Just before unmasking at midnight, she slipped away and went home, put the costume away, and was sitting up reading when her husband came in.

She asked what kind of time he had.

"Oh, the same old thing. You know I never have a good time when you're not there." Then she asked, "Did you dance much?"

He replied, "I'll tell you, I never even danced once. When I got there, I met Pete, Bill Brown and some other guys, so we went into the spare room and played poker all evening."

"You must have looked really silly wearing that costume playing poker all night!" she said with unashamed sarcasm.

To which the husband replied, "Actually, I gave my costume to your Dad, apparently he had the time of his life!"

Famous Poker Quotes...

"My old pappy always used to say, there is no more deeply satisfying religious experience... than cheatin' on a cheater. "

Mel Gibson as Maverick from the movie Maverick

Vegas Trip!

Vegas during the week in December is about as dead as Vegas can get. Until the fight crowd got in on Thursday, the strip was pretty dead. However that didn't mean there wasn't some interesting pots.

The first night we decided to get pretty hammered at the Flamingo playing 1/2 NL hold'em. I discovered that my playing ability comes in waves as I drink. The first few drinks I'm fine, then as I get my buzz on I play really stupid and bad, then as I'm pretty tanked I actually start to play very, very good. The only hand i actually remember from that session was a $650 dollar pot when I got it all in with the nut flush vs the second nuts and coolered a young man from LA.

Wednesday we were off to the Venetian to play in their 8PM tournament. For a $190 fee (including employee's bonus add-on and $50 instant rebuy) you got T4500, 30 minute levels and the ideal blind progression starting at 25/50. I generally stay away from the low-buy in tournaments in vegas as most of them are crapshoots with no deepstack play whatsoever, but this tournament was very nice! A great table draw and excellent format favoring skill wasn't enough for me to survive much past the first break, however.

My arch nemesis, a local low-level semi-pro named Jake gave me the first of three beats very early on. I had built my chipstack to about T6500 a few minutes into the game when he opened the pot all-in for about 3200 chips. I looked down at TT and make the call. He tables 88 and I'm way ahead, but the flop of 8 7 3 doubles him up and puts me on the short stack.

I steal a few blinds, won a nice pot when I flopped the nut strait and I'm back to about 7000 coming back from the first break. During the break, we walked a few feet over to watch Allen Cunningham defeat David Singer in the Las Vegas Open final table occurring right next to the Poker Room. A few hands after break, Jake once again opens the pot all-in with around 5500 chips and I push instantly with KK. He tables 99 and I'm in position to have a great chip lead over the table with this pot. The flop of QQT and another T on the turn looked to send Jake packing, but a 9 on the river kills me and puts me with right around 2500 chips with the blinds at 200/400/25. Under the gun, I push all in with AQ and Jake is in there once again with 99 and it holds up. I lost three pots the entire tournament to the same guy...what a bummer!

Thursday night came and I sat down at probably the juiciest 1/2 table in the history of 1/2 NL hold'em. A rich maniac from LA was raising every pot to 26 preflop, and the ensuing action put around 5-6k on the table approaching midnight. Mr. LA obviously had a disdain for money but he managed to build a stack of around 1K even though he was stuck a little more than that. I ended up cashing out for 800 feeling like I won the minimum at the table considering how much action was going on. Only two hands come to mind, one I won and one I lost. Early on, I flop full house with 33 on a 3 5 5 8 J board and my all-in on the river was called by a novice with J 3. He insta-called and tabled his cards, counted out his chips and announced that he had 85 dollars more and looked to me expecting me to match his stack and give him the pot. He seemed rather confused when I told him i flopped the full house and he was drawing dead on the turn. He continued to be bewildered when the dealer shipped his chips and the $400 dollar pot my way and I still think he left the table not knowing why he lost.

The second hand was probably the poorest hand I've played in quite a while. The maniac raised it to $26 UTG+1 without looked at his cards (most people didn't notice this fact). A weak/tight player called from middle position and i called with ATo looking to flop an ace and trap him for his stack, knowing the maniac was going to push some chips in the pot regardless of what happened. The flop was wonderful....A J 8. He bets 60, middle position calls and I call. The turn is a Q and he makes it around 140. The middle position player calls and then I chicken out. I was completely convinced that the middle position player was in completely love with his hand and I was 100% sure he had me beat. I end up folding on the turn knowing MP was going all the way. The river is a 2 and the maniac pushes all in, MP instacalls and tables Q7 off for just middle pair and its good! he wins a pot over 800 dollars as the maniac had him covered, but at that point i had the maniac covered so I would have nearly tripled up had I not made a bad read. I was sure MP loved his hand and indeed he did, he knew he was good against the maniac and pretty much ignored my presence in the hand all together. I overestimated how much value he would put on me smooth calling both bets in position, so basically i played the hand like a chump and it cost me over a grand! I get some of my chips back from that guy after the maniac left down nearly 1.5K and cash out for a decent $650 profit on my $200 investment, but what could have been!

Some notes: The Luxor is a new favorite of mine to play, only a 4 dollar drop max on every pot and every hour they give away $150 to the highest hand of the hour. That's a pretty decent +EV boost. The Flamingo has gone to a $5/$1 drop now for a max $6 rake on pots which is pretty ridiculous IMHO for 1/2. It seems to me like the low-limit preferences may be shifting as some poker rooms are making pretty stupid decisions in order to boost revenue. Some new hot places to play with good action, decent comps and low rake are Hooters and Luxor to go with some traditional hot spots like the Venetian ($2+/hour comp makes it one of the highest comps on the strip) and Planet Hollywood. Harrah's properties are starting to fall behind.

See you at the tables!

08 Pot Limit in Cary Tonight!

I'm heading down there now.... chum in the water!

Triangle Poker Journal Site Temporarily Down!

I apologize for the temporary issues and we'll have the site back up and running within the next couple of days.

Bugatti Veyron

World's fastest car and best deal (Volkswagen purportedly doesn't make any profit off of the $1.4 million price tag, the CEO just wanted to prove that it could be done and to advance the technology for the other car brands). To relate it to poker: when one of you win the WSOP next year, here goes something to spend your money on. You could, in theory, make it from Raleigh to Atlantic City in 2 hours!

Drew Carey Video on Poker Raids

Recently, Dallas police staged a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post. Here's a video from Reason.tv hosted by Drew Carey that looks into the raid and the subsequent closure of the post.

"Poker is about as American as baseball and apple pie," Carey says in the Reason.tv video. "It was born here in America. Mark Twain loved it. He's a great American. Until recently, Supreme Court justices had a monthly game. They're great Americans. You'd think playing poker in a VFW hall would be about as American as anything you could do."

"This story highlights the hypocrisy that surrounds gambling in this country," said Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.tv. "States will gladly take your hard-earned money if you want to play the government's lottery. But if you sit down with some veterans to play Texas hold 'em you may end up with cops, in full riot gear, busting down your door. No one gets hurt when consenting adults sit down for a game of cards. And there's no reason for the government to get involved."

The busted poker players have a court date on December 5, 2007.

Here’s the video link.

The Biggest Pot in HSP History...oh wait...nevermind...

Running it twice...

This has become under a lot of scrutiny recently over at 2+2 because of HSP and playing some monster pots and the players negotiate deals and run it multiple times. I personally think its foolish.... to not run it twice in coin flip situations and when you're in preflop. I play at a few games around town and it's all dependant upon the feel of the game. At my usual spot its really unheard of because most of those guys have plenty of money and they really don't care. Plus, they can only, and I mean ONLY see the money IF they win but never really consider what if they loose. Then they whine about being a favorite to win but still lose. Last time I checked unless you have the check mark next to your name with 100% at the bottom of the screen, it's never a guarantee. Now at a couple other games I play and deal at, its pretty standard to give the option to run it twice even when you're a huge favorite. Example, last week I was dealing the game and one guy made a move with 83o. Given the situation is was a great play b/c of his stack vs the other player's stack and table image, blah blah blah. However he ran against Ks. 9 out of 10 times that would have been a great play but he got caught. They ended up running it twice b/c that would have been the sickest beat of the night and no need to just let dumbass luck prevail. Scott won both hands so the world is right as we know it. But other then that odd hand, its usually standard with bottom set vs top two pair, flush draw vs pairs/sets/straights and so on.

The biggest advantage of running it twice or even making other deals is that it keeps the game running longer and skill plays more of role during the session rather than dumb luck. Trust me, I'm the unluckiest player out there even thought I put my money in good a lot (not all) of the time. Now some would counter saying that it creates a soft game and its easy for collusion to take place. It might. But guess what, the tougher the game the more collusion takes place and sometimes its not as easy to spot. In a game that more hands are shown up, the easy it is to spot who might be playing soft on one player or so on and who might work together. Take that knowledge to the tough games and you'll notice that they take it easy on each other there and you can have an edge on the table. And its like anything else, if you don't like it, then find somewhere else to play or shut up and deal with it.

Simpsons Mastercard Commercial

High Stakes Poker Season 3 Episode 10