Poker – Over the Top

As of this morning, with Helaine placing in the money in 3 consecutive 9 player tournaments (and me too busy to lose it back), we are up $1 at online poker since August 16th!

This is no small feat, especially since we were down nearly $150 at one point.

There’s no doubt I’ve gotten better, but Helaine is the story. At this level, and probably a bit beyond beyond, Helaine is clearly a superior no limit Hold’em player.

More Poker

It has now been 1&#189 months since Helaine and I started playing poker online. We continue to enjoy it and be frustrated by it.

Maybe we have the wrong expectation of good play. After all, to quote Kenny Rogers, “every hand’s a loser, every hand’s a winner.” Still, it kills you when someone goes in with a 2-7 off suit (statistically the worst hand you can be dealt) and wins on the river (fifth and final turned card).

As of last night, we were down nearly $150 and then we got warm.

I came in 167th in an 1,100 player $3 tournament (only the top 99 won money), felt lucky, and switched to a $11 – 9 player tournament. I finished first and won $44 (actually net $34). Then, this morning, Helaine played in a $5.50 – 9 person tournament and finished first for $22.50 (net $17).

So, we’re back under $100 down and still having good, cheap fun. Considering a $5.50 single table tournament can take 1.5 hours or more, it’s a reasonable way to kill time.

I think I said this in one of my blog entries that was lost when the website crashed: We have probably won versus the other players. Our losses are entirely to the house for their share (rake) in hosting the games. It’s good to be the house.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Before Stefanie was born, Helaine and I had a long running joke. If our child turned out to have any athletic acumen, there should be an investigation.

Let the investigation begin!

Steffie’s school requires students to play sports – period. Nearly everyone, two of the three semesters a year, plays some sort of team sport. Steffie has played basketball, lacrosse and field hockey.

She’s actually been playing basketball since she was in grade school. This can probably be attributed to the very popular University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team, which is a perennial powerhouse.

Over the past few years, Steffie has gravitated more and more to field hockey and there’s no doubt it’s her favorite sport.

Forget what you’ve heard about women being demure. These girls mix it up. Field hockey is by no means a gentle game under any circumstances. Wooden stick in hand, playing over sometimes rough fields, the ball is hard and travels fast. Shin guards are worn, but that’s about it for padding (except the goalie who wears an unbelievable amount of foam and plastic).

Steffie is very good at this game… and fearless. Playing a defensive position, she knows letting a ball get past her can easily become a goal by the other team.

Today, playing at home, her team dismantled a team from Stamford. With two quick goals in the first few minutes, they never looked back. Steffie played hard and with great skill.

She was fast and relentless, digging out the ball and changing it’s direction. Her position calls for a ball stealer, not a pass catcher. She’s perfect.

Defense is not a glory position. When played properly you don’t hear about those playing it. When played poorly, you’re counting losses.

All went well until there were about 10 minutes to go. In the middle of the action, another player swiped for the ball and caught Steffie’s right hand, middle finger. Most hits wouldn’t have caused a problem, but Steffie’s own stick stopped the motion and concentrated the force into her finger.

She was in pain.

It wasn’t long before Steffie was on the sidelines being attended to by Ethan Victor, who was assisting the trainer. The finger and hand were swelling.

It seemed like the right thing to do to go to the hospital, so Steffie and I drove to Yale/New Haven Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Room. When the receptionist was taking down Steffie’s information and asked where she was born, I got to say, “upstairs.” Steffie was born at Yale, like George W. Bush (though he is less likely to admit to any Connecticut connection).

Ethan the trainer, was now Ethan the emergency room trauma specialist! That was a good thing because he helped speed along what would have been a slow and tedious process. The emergency room was jammed. It was “Sports Injury Saturday” with soccer, bicycle and paintball related injuries around us, and more that I don’t know about.

After seeing a few doctors and nurses and getting an X-Ray, we were told Steffie had fractured the tiny bone at the tip of her finger. More than likely, it would be just fine. But, Steffie would have to wear a splint for a while. And, field hockey would be out for two weeks… OK, maybe a week if her pediatrician said it was OK.

We drove home. Steffie was still in pain, but I think there’s a certain satisfying comfort in really knowing what’s wrong with you.

Though she always shies away from pictures and complains I take too many, Steffie agreed to ‘pose’ for this shot to archive the occasion (and possibly email to friends – I never quite understand what she’ll do). She will wear the splint with pride. Her team won.

Son of more online poker again

Helaine and I continue to play, and we continue to be down $43. However, over the past three days I have done two things which have proved very successful.

First, I’m playing in very low stakes games. These are normally $5 No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments (plus $.50 for the house) with 9 or 18 players. The low stakes tends to attract people just getting their feet wet. You can win up to $36 if you place first in an 18 player tourney

So, is it a bit of an unfair fight? Sure.

Any card player can get lucky or hot, which is what keeps poor players coming back. But, you can’t depend on luck. Over time, the cards do even out.

Second, I’ve become very, very aggressive. I hardly play any hands early on, waiting for the top few draws to see the flop. As soon as I know I have something very good, I go all in. Most players fold immediately.

Will I bet KK and end up facing someone with AA… or someone who makes a ridiculous runner? Yes. But, by and large, this strategy (which cuts down on pot size by eliminating the last few bets) produces many more winning hands. More importantly, players fishing for a hand get scared off.

As I said, it’s been very good, as I’ve won money in 4 of the last 6 tournaments I’ve been in.

I do know my limitations. This strategy might not work at all in $10 tournaments. Certainly, in higher stakes games there will be a more educated class of player, and I might be seen for the ‘poker bully’ I’m being.

It’s also possible I’m on a hot streak and don’t see it. In that case, this strategy will fail rapidly.

Poker Update – We’re down $16!

I guess I haven’t been keeping good track, but as of this morning, we’re down an incredible $16 since we started.

Tonight I played two tiny $5+$.50 tournaments and came in 2nd once. So, that’s $3.50 on the upside. I think Helaine did the same earlier.

I find, because the action is there, that I’m playing a lot of No Limit Hold’em, which is a totally different game than what I had been playing. I’m not totally sure how much I like it, because there are major bluffs going on. So, it’s possible for another player, in essence, to ask you to put up your entire stake (and any chance to place in the tournament) and that player has nothing.

If you have a larger stack, it’s much easier to be bold, because you can force someone to make a life or death (so to speak) decision, yet you have much less on the line relatively speaking.

Even if I hadn’t placed, this game offered good entertainment for the investment. For my $5.50, I played for 1:15.

Poker On line

It’s nearly 2:00 AM as I write this. I have played on and off since 9’ish.

My first mistake was entering a $30+3 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament. I had never played pot limit before and it immediately adds something new to the game. If you show weakness, other players in better position will take advantage and raise like crazy.

Now a pretty good hand becomes suspect. It might have been worth a bet… but your whole stack? As it is, I finished in the middle of the pack. I went “all in” with a two reasonably good picture cards only to lose.

Next it was a one table No Limit Hold’em tournament for $10+1. I don’t know what I was thinking, because I had just done so poorly with pot limit. I came in third, again going all in with a reasonably good hand only to lose to someone with a reasonably better hand.

Third place pays $18, so that’s $7 net, minus the $33, leaving me down $26.

Helaine played a $10+1 Hold’em tournament. Nada. Now down $37.

I decided, before bed, to try some low stakes non-tournament poker. After all, this is what I play in casinos. The advantage of tournaments is you limit your risk. But, I decided to play $1/$2, so how wrong could I go? How much can you possibly lose playing $1/$2?

It should be noted that I’m playing at pokerstars.com. Earlier, I had played at partypoker.com. There’s really not much difference. Competition makes them all match each other. I met some folks from pokerstars at The Orleans in Las Vegas at a tournament and they seemed nice.

Maybe the biggest difference here (and I haven’t been to Partypoker in a while) is the very, very low stakes games you can find. You can literally play $.01/$.02 pot Limit Hold’em, and $.02/$.04 with fixed limits.

Of course, there are also free games, but the play is so different when there’s no real money on the line that it’s just no fun.

I played around a half hour at $1/$2 and got very hot, very quickly. By the time I was done, I had gone from $37 in the hole, to $12 up. Moving $49 to the positive at these stakes is pretty unusual… so luck and the other player’s lack of skill certainly had to enter into it.