Poker After Dark - Gabe Kaplan's Set vs. Ali Nejad's Set

Friday Night Omaha 8 Pot Limit

First of all, let me say to say to JC.... "Get out of my damn seat!" LOL. I do hate it when someone comes in and for no obvious reason, selects a seat that forces me to re-locate. Then, have that seat catch great cards all night long. He did it to me last night. With plenty of room to my right, squeezes in on my left and then between him and $$$, played well, but also caught some great cards last night.

There were a couple of big flops for me that as fate would have it turned out to be nothing by the end of the hand. Elvie was on rush and played well too. What a combination! I don't think that has ever happened to me... LOL.

At any rate, I had a great time and donkeyed off a bunch of chips.... I think I've said it before, "If I ever quit playing poker, all of you guys will have to get real jobs!"

Back to the felt! only with fewer chips!

PS... I can't believe that when I run the spell-check that donkeyed is not a word!

Your opinion counts....

I just wanted to make another request to some of you regular readers to become regular contributors.... Practically everywhere I go where there are poker players, people are discussing the blogs posted here, but very few of you are regularly BLOGGING! That is what this site is all about! I've seen from your reaction to my play in games that you really don't think I know what I'm doing or talking about, so please feel free to jump in and make comments.

Again, you're not going to hurt my feelings and if what you say really pisses me off, I'm the administrator, I can delete it! So when you have a comment, blog it. I would prefer that if you are going to criticize specific people or local poker games in a non-joking manner that you not name those donkeys and backyard dung-heaps, but speak generically about play, policies, facilities, etc.,

I would tell you that I've really heard from many of you about the blog on the Rake... I'm continuing to do some research and will post a more complete review as soon as I have it ready.

At any rate, I appreciate that our reader count continues to grow, but I would encourage all of you to log in and let us know your opinion.

Thanks again for your continued support!

My WSOP Experience

Greetings everyone in Carolina-land. And beyond. Just wanted to jot a few thoughts down for the entertainment or disgust of the board. Whichever. Both feelings rot your stomach like an "animal style" In-and-Out burger, so who gives a rats petute whether this post bores you or makes you take your manhood in your hand. I sure don't ;)

Ever since I've moved to Atlanta and been bitch-slapped by the woman I was dating (two weeks after moving) I decided I was going to play in a couple WSOP events. See... and I'm sure many of you have this identical argument with your significant other or friends... we had this constant bickering about how poker was gambling and how it wasn't approved of. My advice? Chop HER up "animal style" and sacrifice her carnage to the poker gods for better luck at having the winning hand hold up. So since its end, I swore I was going to play... Oh, and in case she's reading this, I also have the lesbian porn on automatic loop... deal with it.

So Mr. Shirk gave me a place to crash on the floor of a Binion hotel room. The kind of place even a $6 hooker would have been leery of. I wish I had taken 6 valium and stayed there for 3 days instead of venture out to play cards. But I had skipped the step of worshipping the poker gods with the bloody remnants of my ex. So they took it out on me. Or rather, I played like a donk. The ultimate eeyore. It's like I forgot how to play. I must have bluffed off $1000 in the first night. Lesson to self: Just because you haven't played in 3 months doesn't mean you have to get into every pot and win every hand. Lesson #2 to self: The Juice's style of play doesn't translate well to some 2-5 NL games.

I entered a $550 tourney at the Venetian, and actually played well. Couldn't get too many hands, but lasted about halfway through when I pushed all in with 42s against a late-position raiser who had done alot of it. Of course AA was what he flipped over.

The PLO8 tourney at Binions was an effort in retardedness for me. I played semi well for a very short time, and pulled 2 hands in a row that left me with 20+ outs to the nuts after the flop. Of course, nothing catches either time. It reminded me of the 7 times in a row that the roullette table hit Red while a drunk Shirk and I were firing chips at the leatherfaced fake-hair twig of a pit boss flirted with us. She actually brought out a paddle.

So a gallon of bad play and a little bad luck, I was ready to take on the $1500 PLO8 event. Joe Hatchem's Aussie friend was on my right, and Hatchem kept coming over to our table until I broke his friend. Cornflake Turner was ironically at the table on my left. I played well. Very well. Stole some small pots. Made some great plays. Folded hands that I would have called $140 with preflop in Juice's game, but would just get me in trouble in a tourney. Played outstanding. Until the hand. THE hand.

QcQx2c4x. Mildly interesting at this table. Blinds $75/150. I have about $6-7K (starting and average were 3K) after a few good hands. I'm in late position, and after a limper I call. The SB raises pot, to like $600. He's got about $13K in chips, and is easily the big stack at the table. I'm probably in 3rd place in stack size, but way above average. Implied odds are nice, so I make the call to spike something. Everyone else folds.

Lo and behold. Qh5c7c flops.

Tell me I'm not jizzing my pants against the big stack when he leads out betting pot.

What do I do? I almost want to trap him and see a cheap turn to make sure things are golden and get more chips. Nah... the pot is about $3000 after his pot bet, and I'm happy with that right now. So I repot.

He re-pots.

Uh oh.

We get all the chips in.

He shows AhAx2x9h. I've got him crippled.

If he catches an A, I get half the pot for the low. If I catch a club, I'm almost a lock. Things were marvelous. Alas... you know what's coming...

Runner runner heart heart, I can't remember if they were low or not, but his low had me beat. Does it really matter? Ugh. What a cheap way to get busted out of the biggest tourney I've ever played in. DANGIT!

All in all, I had a wonderful time losing a ton of hard-earned cash. I saw so many pros, your head would spin if I listed them all. Rick and I had alot of fun watching Shirk instigate a bunch of fights at his table with Marcel Luske. The floorman must have made a trip over about 5 times while we watched. And John was always quiet as a churchmouse when he did.

Right ;)

It was a great trip though despite the bad cards. Great to see some familiar faces and to be in the middle of it all. To experience an event and play like I'm capable of, and know that I'd have had a *ton* of chips had I won that hand. Could have ridden those a long way. Maybe next year.

In the meantime... the lesson learned is... if your girl doesn't like you playing poker... make sure you dump her ass in time for the WSOP. I'll see you there next year.

Local Boy Does Good.... John Shirk

Congratulations to John Shirk of Raleigh. John cashed in Event #42, Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better. I don't have all the specifics at this time, but he was knocked out late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning in 40-something position. I'll update this post as soon as I get the final details.

The $1500 Buy-in event that begain on June 25 attracted 687 players who ponied up to splash around with some of the best poker players in the world. This event attracted a lot of them as Omaha 8 is still new to most players and the small field meant that there would be a better than normal opportunity to snag a bracelet.

Total prize money was just under $940K!

I've spent the past hour or so trying to find the article on PokerListings.com that talks of John being sandwiched between two of poker's best. I'll bring it in when I find it.....

Again, congratulations John! Nice going!

Prop Bets and lots of action on a slow day! - 2007 WSOP

New Jersey Card Room Busted Last Thursday

Copied from the Triangle Poker Journal

It was a somber evening for poker players in Piscataway, Edison, Highland Park, South Plainfield, East Brunswick, Succasunna and Ogdensburg, New Jersey, as 14 of their regulars were arrested in an early morning raid last Thursday.

A police spokesman said five of the men were arrested for running an illegal gambling operation and nine were arrested for participating in the games.

The operation had been gong since March, the officer said, and players were solicited through the internet, e-mails and word of mouth to play at the non-descript office complex in Edison.

A membership fee was charged and players forked over about 10% of the pot in rake, police said, in the month-long investigation and subsequent arrests.

Two 23-year-olds were charged with promoting gambling and maintaining gambling records. One of them also got busted for marijuana possession.

About $3,000 in cash and various gambling paraphenalia - including poker tables, chips and computers - was also seized in the raid.

Copied from the Triangle Poker Journal

How much is a fair rake?

I've had a couple of guys approach me over the past few weeks about what should be an acceptable and fair rake? I'm no authority as the only games which I have ever run have been home or office games which were rake-free. I have always held them to play the game and have entrusted my financial gains to my ability to play. Which probably explains why I'm always down lifetime-to-date.... LOL.

At any rate, the few games which I have regularly attended locally have all seemed to have a fair rake. I believe based on what I've seen and heard from AC and Vegas that a fair rake should be approximately $1 from every $20 in the pot up to a maximum rake of $5 for cash games. So there's no question about how much rake is taken, most professional games will have a spot on the table in front of the dealer where they will accumulate the rake during a hand and not pull any chips from the pot until the hand is completed. MMC's dealers did that over at the Chapel Hill Road/Johnson Street location before it was busted and I really liked it. There was never a question as to how much rake was taken from the pot. I know that some casinos charge an hourly fee which usually totals about $5 per seat per hour.

For tournaments, I believe that most tend to fall in a 5% to %10 amount of your buy-ins, re-buys and add-ons. In some instances, the percentage fluctuates higher on the re-buys and add-ons, but most totals would be around the 5%-10% mark.

That's my 2 cents worth... let me know your thoughts.

WSOP Updates?

Just a reminder that if any of you have any updates about any of our local players, please update us. I have voice mails from one or two that seem to be having some trouble connecting to the internet out there.

Thanks and good luck to all....

Cary O8 Pot Limit

Well, the Juice would probably argue the point, but I do believe that I am trainable. After showing up minutes late the past couple of weeks for the PL O8 game in Cary, I decided to be one of the first there. I arrived just a few minutes before 7PM and was second only to Tom. I was hoping to get the center seat at the table as I believe that I can see the cards better when I am not constantly looking through and around my glasses to see the cards. I'm near sighted so sitting close is a good thing. I did make a call last night believing that I had the nut heart flush draw when there was a heart and a diamond on the flop. Nice!

There was a period of about 45 minutes when the board was hitting me like crazy.... unfortunately I wasn't in all of the hands. LOL. In one hand, I folded pre-flop to an Ellie re-raise on his straddle when I had the Ah, Qh, Kc, 9c... the flop was Ac, 10h, 7h. The turn the Jc and the river would have given the nut flush in hearts. Wow!

One of the big pots of the night for me came on another Ellie pre-flop raise of about $90. Before the flop there was $560 in the pot... I've got the Ah, Qs, 2s, Kh and the flop was Jh, 10h, 7c. I didn't have anything but monster draws so I checked hoping that someone behind me would bet, but unfortunately it didn't work. It checked all the way around. The turn was 5s and I couldn't wait any longer.... armed only with hellacious (sp.) draws I potted it and got 2 callers. I'm pretty certain that there were only like 2 cards in the deck that didn't hit me... The river completed my wrap and I scooped the pot.

There were several hands where I had 4 wheel cards, sometimes paired, sometimes double-suited, only to see the flop of J, J, 10 or something like it. Probably my best pre-flop drawing hand ended up being a mis-deal, AA35 double suited and Chuck didn't stop at 4 cards and apparently Stone didn't like the first four he saw so he went ahead and looked at the 5th card and we had to re-deal. There were 2 other guys with 4 wheel cards but not quite as good as mine..... I would have loved to seen that flop!

We kept a full table till around 1:30 when some busted out and one went to re-load and while he was gone, the game broke. I cashed out for a tidy profit and headed up and ended up watching a movie till 4 in the morning.

Rick headed out to Vegas this a.m. and I have great expectations for him. Not only is he playing some great poker, but he continues to have a good run of cards going. That is a very tough combination to beat! So, look out Vegas... life as you know it, is over.

Tonight.... Juice Part II.

I finally hit the nuts!!!!

I finally made a royal flush last night! And it was the worst thing ever!! We're playing O8 and I'm in first position and complaining about my luck in O8. "I will not play this game all night" I said at the start of that hand so I checked blind til the river when all of a sudden I looked at my cards and there she is.... a royal heart flush....I'm getting paid off!!!! So I check figuring that there is no way on earth that this hand with 6 people playing could ever check down the entire way. But it does. There's a monster pot of $12 and I really thought about mucking it and not saying a word. But I say that I have the straight flush (thought saying royal would make it hurt worse) and they think I'm joking.....but I'm not. One played did offer to take up a collection of $5 per player but it fell of deaf ears. Not to worry though, 6 hours later I made sure to go all in on the flop with a royal flush draw only to be called by two horrible hands and no diamond, not even a red card, came to give me redemption for my sin of checking the absolute nuts earlier. So once again I lost and I went down the road with my head held low, mumbling and kicking rocks once again. I will win against those donks one of these days!

TM

WSOP Trip - Day 1

Played my first tourney today. It was relatively uneventful I'm afriad. I played about 5 hours and picked up one good starting hand (KK) which I only won a small pot with. Eventually the blinds were getting big (200/400) and my stack was getting small (5kish). The big stack raised from MP and I looked down at AQsuited and decided to push all in. A girl behind me (who I had recently discovered was the wife of professional poker player Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi") went all in as well (she had me covered). The original raiser folded and she turned over pocket Aces. Great timing Derek! And that was the end of my day.

The $500 buy in tourney is tomorrow...so hopefully I'll get a better run of cards.

Frustrated Poker Player Hilarious!

As requested....

Quads vs. Quads!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. With all the crazy action normally happening in our game with The Juice, I’m surprised it took this long. While it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the quads vs. quads hand at PKR a few months back (one-outer for Eli on the turn, followed by a one-outer for Akash on the river), it was brutal nonetheless.

We’re playing $5/10 NL Omaha 8, we have our usual pre-flop straddle, the usual pre-flop raise, the usual 58 callers with one guy all-in, etc., and we have a nice little pot a-brewing. I’m in middle position with Q-Q-J-8, and see a flop of Q-Q-10 rainbow – woo hoo! The great thing about this situation (other than the obvious!), is that there’s no chance for low, and the only way I can lose is if it comes running aces, kings, or straight flush cards (still, it is Omaha…). The one bad thing is that, unless someone has pocket tens, I’m unlikely to get any action. Fine with me, as there’s already over $400 out there.

The action checks around on the flop. Since nobody in their right mind would’ve checked pocket tens here, I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the probability of just taking down what’s currently in the pot. Still, I’m hoping for a big card that will make someone a straight, or best case scenario, aces or kings full. Instead, the turn brings a 10. Not all bad, as I might get a little action from someone holding a 10. Dean pushes in the rest of his chips ($98 I believe), I Hollywood a bit before calling, and John M calls as well. Nice!

I assume each of them has one of the remaining tens, until to my surprise, one of them pops up on the river! The board shows Q-Q-10-10-10, and now all of a sudden my interest has peaked. John and I are the only ones left with chips, and he has a nice little stack. With any luck he has the case 10. I toss in a $125 bet, and John immediately goes all-in for over $800. I call, of course, and he excitedly announces “I’ve got quads!” I say “I know, me too” as I show him my quatro reinas.

Unfortunately for John, he learned the hard way one of the Laws of Omaha – When you’re drawing dead, the card that costs you the most money will always come. Luckily for me, what started out as a nice flop and a decent pot, turned out to be a sweet turn and river, and a $2,400 pot! You’ve gotta love this game…

See ya at the tables…
Rick

Remind ya of anyone you play with?

I'm not sure how to bring the entire video here so that you just have to hit play. Charles help me out on that if ya can.....heres the link to it


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i5DAVR1ElU

Famous Poker Quotes...

"Try to decide how good your hand is at a given moment. Nothing else matters. Nothing!"



------------- Doyle Bunson

New Game in Raleigh

I'd like to announce a new game for the Raleigh area. It's actually been up and running for a few months now, but I just got the invite to post it here. Here are the details: Wednesdays starting around 7:00, 1/3 NL Holdem. Fridays starting around 7:00, 1/3 NL Holdem. Sundays starting around 2:00 1/3 NL Holdem. Also, the last Sunday of every month around 5:30, we have a No Limit Tourney. $60 buyin, with rebuys for the 1st hour and 1 add-on at the end of the first hour. Email me if you have any questions. winwithmike@hotmail.com

North Carolina Poker Players

Hey all, I'm a long time reader, and decided to start posting. Some of you know me as Hopper, and if you don't, it's because I've been gone for over a month now and am suffering from extreme poker withdrawal. Either way, continuous checking of cardplayer.com showed me something interesting........Event 8 of the WSOP (NLHE $1000+rebuy) results:
Michael Gracz 6th
Jason Strasser 12th
Mark Newhouse 18th

and in a strange coincedence, Tommy Vu placed 2nd....unfortunately this wasn't Raleigh's own Tommy Vu, but actually Tuan "Tommy" Vu. Either way, just between Gracz, Newhouse, and Strasser, we have Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham well represented. When the Triangle places 1/6th of the final two tables, you know the competition must be tough here! Enjoy the games gentlemen, and please keep blogging so I can live vicariously through your bad beats and scooped pots!

The Juice loves me.... he loves me not!

Much to his dismay..... and Rick's I might add, the Juice and I got tied up in a couple of big pots last evening and I ended up taking all his chips two different times. There have been a couple of times over the past year when the Juice has stated that he would rather be gang raped in front of his family than to give me any of his chips. And, just for the record, I would be more than happy to surrender all the chips that I've ever won to be able to witness that act..... Any takers? Oh, and the reason Rick doesn't like seeing the Juice give any of his chips to me or anyone else for that matter is that Rick has this relationship with the Juice where the Juice begins his aggressive play early and accumulates a mountain of chips and then at several points during the evening he somehow manages to give them all to Rick! So, I don't believe that Rick would be upset about any particular person taking the Juice's chips except that means that he didn't take them. LOL.

We got off to a little bit of a late start and were a little short-handed for an hour or so and the Juice was on a rampage. I actually arrived after the game had begun and he had already doubled up at least once in just a few hands. Within an hour or so the steaks were about ready and I must say that they were absolutely awesome! We have been eating special meals prepared by a lady that does a great job, but we have just been missing the steaks! And they were unbelievable! He had seasoned them perfectly and they were of size that almost prevented you from being able to put any sides on your plate. You almost had to pile the sides on top of the steaks! They definitely have been sorely missed and they were delicious! At any rate, there was some joke about the Juice busting out before the dinner break and I delivered the crushing blow just as the meal was about prepared. I'm in middle position with the Juice to my right and he has straddled the O8 $5/$10 Blind for about $40 and there are about 5-6 callers. I limped along with the gang and if I remember correctly he bumped it up when it got back to him about $100 or so. Although I would have preferred to have a decent low draw in that position, I decided to play along and hope for luck with Qd, Qh, 9d, 9s and wham!!!!! the flop was Q, 4, 4! And as unbelievable as it may sound before it got to me, Rick checked, Bill T bet $30, the Juice raised it to $100. I re-raised another $250 and Bill T called as he had less than $250 and was getting a discount. Dave pushed all-in and I immediately called. Both Bill T and the Juice had a 4 and when the turn was another high card were both drawing dead! Not the biggest of the night, but about $1700 pot and we were ready to eat.

There were a couple of other big hands for me but I am actually having computer problems tonight and I am blogging from my son's laptop. It's OK, but I was wanting to utilize the card images to let you see the hands instead of just hearing about them. So I'll just blog another one where I scooped the Juice's chips. HeeHee. I'm in middle position with As, 6s, 2h, Qh and the Juice straddles and then raises to about $100 pre-flop. I smooth call along with everyone at the table and 2 pedestrians on Capital Boulevard. The flop 3d, 8s, Jh (I believe) and the Juice leads out with $75 bet and there are about 4 callers. The turn was a beautiful low spade (the 5s) giving me the nut low (with a back-up strategy), a gut-shot wheel draw and the nut flush draw so when the Juice pushed with a $200 bet, I raised it to $600 which was enough to put Bill T all-in and at least make the Juice think about it a little, but he didn't. He pushed all-in and I called and the river was a 4 giving me the wheel and another very nice scooper!

Unfortunately because of late night play in Cary on Friday night/Saturday morning, I was worn out and had already made a call of a $200 bet from Elvie thinking that my low might be good when there wasn't a low on the board. Nice! Brain-dead me! So I played a couple more rounds and cashed out with very nice total!

Here's to the Juice for preparing the steaks for us! They are the best!

Back to the felt!

Just my luck!

Well, after reading this blog for some time now, I figure that it was time to post my bad run for everyone to see. This night actually took place the last week of May.

We're playing 1/2NL mix between HE and O8 with just me calling straight Omaha every time. So I buy-in short stacked with $60 and there is only 5 of us playing to start. I'm first to act in the HE game, I think this is the 6th hand of the night, and I see 7S 4S so I just call and the table limps in. The flop comes 10 4 4, SWEETTTTT!!! "Coach" is first to act and bets $10 into a $10 pot and I just call with everyone else folding. The turn comes a 5 and we both check and the river comes my 7 to fill me up. I'm in great shape now. I figure Coach has 10 with a face card and I slow played my way into a quick double up. Right?!....WRONG!!!!!!!! Coach bets $20 and I have only have another $26 left so I reraise just as sure as can be that he has the 10 or maybe even a big pair and I'm getting paid off. So he calls and as I start to turn my hand over and pull those lovely chips to me.......Coach says "I've got a boat!" What?! Did he just say that? How? When? No way he has me! I look over and see him turn over pocket 5s. OUCH! I'm crushed. I just got hit by a freight train that I NEVER saw coming. NEVER. So I say nice catch and all of you can kiss my.... well, let's just say I was on tilt. I mean, I played it perfect right? Well, maybe not. So I stand up and leave and go to the store to clear my mind and get a drink.

A few minutes later I come back level headed. I realize what and where I went wrong and some of the tells I missed on Coach and I was ready to return and crush everyone! So buy-in again short staked at $60 (btw, everyone else was sitting with at least $200 buy-in so I figured if I just play tight and smart I'll be a winner in no time b/c they all will just try and push me around). So a few hours have gone by and I'm really just playing great. Making great lay downs and solid calls the entire time. Building my stack to over $200 and then back down to $150 or so when this hand comes up. I'm on the button and I call Omaha High. I look down and see the most incredible O8 hand and just my luck I called high....that'll teach me. So everyone is limping in and I raise to $10. I get three callers behind. One of which is a very solid Omaha player and the other 2 are....call and pray to hit types. So I'm sitting on the button and the flop comes As8c3c, There's around $50 in the pot and it goes check, check, and then "Jav" bets $100. Wait, $100? What the? Well I have AhAd2h4d and sitting now with $141 total and figure that Jav has a weak flush draw and 2 pr so I raise all in and "JD", the solid player, stands up and starts to really think. So I figure JD has a big flush draw and is already sitting with a very nice stack and is starting to think things through. After a minute or so, JD finally folds, Mr B folds and Jav has to call. Jav turns over 8s8h9c5c. JD shows where he folded A8 so I don't have to worry about the 8 spiking and he also had a club. No let's do the math real quick. 9 of us are dealt in, so there's 36 cards plus the flop and burn so we're at 40. The turn comes a blank which brings our total to only 10 cards left in the deck including the burn card. Playing three handed I am a 65% favorite, playing 9 handed, I'm even higher, over 90% I think... I should have chopped it right then and there with my luck. Just break even and live to fight another day. But here's the thing, I'm not a chopper. I got for it and maybe that's way I loose every time I play. And by now you know that the river was a CLUB and gives him the less then 10% chance to when the pot. Now if I had played O8, I would have won low, him high, and I would be complaining about how I didn't win it all but now I'm going down the road, mumbling and kicking rocks with my head held low.

Omaha is such a brutal game. There is only one game that is more brutal and that's PL or NL Triple Draw (which no one plays around here, only online). That's my story and I text'd JD that night after I got home saying I was going back into retirement and wouldn't be back until June. That's right June! Which at the time was only 4 days away. I meant July but they all know I can't make it past a week without loosing money to those donks.

TM