Fun hands from home games

10/25 Pot Limit Omaha

Zack a PLO specialist raises to 75 in the CO. I call with QcTs9c5s on the button. Zack calls in the SB.
Flop is 7d 7c 2d. Zack checks, Kevin bets 125. I bluff raise to 450. Zack thinks for a bit then cold calls. Kevin hesitates, then folds. The turn is the 9d. Zack leads for 1k, I tank for a little then raise to 3k. Zack thinks then says, well I was planning to fold. And he folds A7. I show him the bluff. Mike Sexton was at the table, and he said, well maybe you'll win a bracelet this WSOP after all.

10/25 5 card PLO8
I limp in with A244J double suited. And three callers including Mike Sexton, who is on the button. the flop is KK4 rainbow. The table checks to Mike who bets $150, then I check raise to $600. He flat calls. The turn is a 3, I bet $1300, and he repots it for another $4000 or so. I fold my full house and nut low draw and he shows me 4 kings.

10/25 NLHE
6 way limped pot, I check 78c in the BB.

Flop is 8h7s6s. John Palmer (a friend of mine, he's a very good player) bets 150, and I raise to 450. The BTN cold calls. He's pretty bad. John tanks and calls. The turn is a Kd. John checks, I bet 1150, the BTN calls, and John tanks again, then calls. The river is a 5c, a pretty terrible card for my hand. Everybody checks and John turns over 95 for a flopped straight.
This was kinda interesting for me, cause I think I might've lost more than necessary.

The Craziest Hand I've Ever Seen

This came up in the 10/25 dealer's choice game last night. Vince Van Patten choose Pot Limit Omaha. 7 players limp in, and the flop comes out Jc 9d 7d. I have KT89 and flopped the nut straight. I check, and the UTG player bets $200. It folds around to the maniac who makes it 600. I fold when it gets back to me because I think there is a high chance I'm getting freerolled.

UTG makes it 1800. Jack the maniac goes all in. Jack the nit, the UTG player instantly calls 6k deep.

Jack the nit. JhJsTh8s

Jack the maniac. QcTd8d4h

Good fold by me. Brag

Turn 2d.

River Jd.

Quads loses to a straight flush. I've never seen someone get it in with the nuts, freeroll into quads, and still to lose to other player's freeroll. SICKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.

Nice hand Jack. Tough beat Jack. Four Jacks no good.

Anyways I won a couple grand last night. Helped stem the bleeding.

I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce

Short Status Update

April is not off to a good start. Down $1,800 in the first week.

I started a new challenge though. Since I was short on cash for a little while, I moved down in stakes at the hustler. My goal was to win some money at the $1-2 game, and then move up to a bigger game. I was planning to win $2,000 at that game. I want to see what a realistic hourly rate will be, and I also want to get some discipline to play tighter.

I've been played a lot of PLO8 lately too. I plan to play some 10/25 5 card PLO8 at a home game on Friday. Wish me luck. Pot limit Omaha 8 or better is a special game because it allows a very low variance way to turn a profit against weak players who will draw for one half of the pot when you have a lock on the other, allowing you to freeroll them.

I'll see you across the felt.

Bryce

March Results

I wish this was an April Fool's joke, but March was brutal. This was my first losing month since September though, so I guess it's all good.

March

Cash Games

Live ($8,948.00)

Online $4,389.24

Tournaments

Live $3,274.85

Online ($176.76)

Poker ($1,460.68)

Staking ($1,725.40)

Other Gambling ($5,900.00)

Month's Expenses ($299.58)

Net on month ($9,385.66)

Harrah's Rincon

I drove down to San Diego on Sunday to go to Harrah's Rincon. Nate came along for the ride, and we traversed the winding mountain to get to the casino.
Harrah's Rincon was hosting a WSOP Circuit event. The buyin was $5170, and the field was reasonably soft. There were definitely some good players in it, but over all I thought I was +EV. Unfortunately, it's really hard to prove that when you flop 4 pairs in 4 hours.
I got dealt AK 0 times, AJ and AQs once and lost with each. For pairs, I got 22x 3 times, 33, 44, 66, 88, 99x2, TT and lost with all of them. I got QQ, raised and flopped a set, but got no action. I got KK when I was down to 4k in chips and ran into Aces. I flopped a King to double up, but then I busted with 79 vs 95 on a 923 flop. 3 outer on the river. Well that's how my day went.

Bryan Devonshire won the event. He's a fairly well known pro who signed with Ultimate Bet.

Brandon Cantu was on my table also. He's also signed with UB. And we had a hand where the dealer really screwed up. Cantu got it all in against a shorter stack with AK vs TT on a AT4 flop. The dealer pushes Cantu's entire stack over, without ever counting the chip stacks. Because we were in the ballroom, all the cameras were way too far away, and then the tournament director had no clue what to do.

On the other hand, I was really impressed by the tournament structure.
We started with 15k in chips at 25/50 blinds. The 40 minute levels kinda sucked, but were made up by the fact that they had every single blind level.
50/75, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 100/200/25, 150/300, 200/400 and so on. They didn't skip any levels, which is very uncommon.


I won about $1,500 in cash games while I was there. However, I lost like $4,000 in blackjack. It's really hard to say that and have people still believe I can turn a profit counting cards. But variance in blackjack is far greater than that in poker.

I was getting into extremely profitable situations like getting A6 against a 5 showing, yet I would constantly lose those hands. Further it was pretty brutal losing those hands, because usually that's when I was pressing my bets. In a game where it's essentially 50/50, I was losing 70% of my hands. And I'm not referring to the hands I bust, I'm talking about hands where I would get dealt 18s, 20s, or 15s vs a 4 showing and so on. Yet the dealer constantly improved to beat me. It was pretty sick, but hey oh well. I felt like I had an edge there. Well, that's what bankroll management is for.

When I went home, I won like $2,200 online, so eh I guess it all balances out.

I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce

March Madness

A lot has happened in March.

I was running pretty bad to start the month. I've played everyday so far, and I had a pretty crazy week where I won about $14k one night and managed to lose $10k two nights later.

On the bright side, I managed to turn it around when I final tabled a $555 buyin tournament at the Bicycle Casino. There were just under 600 runners, and we made a 7 way deal that got me $19k. I didn't have all my own action, but it still pulled me out of the hole on the month.

I really think I played the Bike tournament perfectly. I felt like I had extremely accurate reads, and I made all the right moves. If I didn't run kings into aces at the end of the first day I probably would've had an excellent shot at winning.
With my chip position (6th in chips out of 7 remaining), they originally they offered me 17k, but I bargained my way up to 19k. With the extra $2,000 I felt I had to chop despite wanting to play it out.


I had a really sick hand from earlier in the month.

5-10 blinds at Hustler

UTG limps, Winston limps in MP, I raise AA to 50 in HJ, and the button calls. UTG calls, Winston calls.

Flop is JT9r, and UTG checks. Winston bets $150, and I think for a bit and then throw my Aces away. I really think his leading range on this flop is really strong, and Aces are just in bad shape here. The BTN calls with a set of tens and UTG calls.
The turn is a 9. UTG checks, Winston checks, BTN bets 250, UTG folds, Winston tanks and calls. River is a 6 putting out a backdoor flush. Winston now leads out for 300, and the BTN makes it 900. Winston mucks.
And he says he had J9. I really don't know if I can believe that but if it's true, it's a sick fold.

March is now on track to be a winning month, even if it's not by a lot.

I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce

February Results

I did amazingly well at live cash games. If I didn't lose money playing the NAPT and the LAPC, I would've met my goal of 15k a month.

February

Cash Games

Live $21,671.00

Online $555.21

Tournaments

Live ($8,485.00)

Online ($1,346.64)

Poker $12,394.57

Staking ($3,454.85)

Other Gambling ($110.00)

Month's Expenses ($690.39)

Net on month $8,139.33