Flush beaten by straight flush, film at eleven

I get trapped.

Yes, yet another Texas Hold'Em story. I enter another freeroll tournament at Ladbrokes, no entry fee, first prize $125 down to 40th, $2.25. There are 919 entrants and for fifteen minutes I never go further than calling to the flop when it's cheap and I'm in late position. That works well, because there are "only" 675 left already and I still have 1400 out of the 1500 I started with. This because of the stupid eager ones that go all-in pre-flop all the time when they have anything and we wave them goodbye one after one.

The action starts. I get pocket kings, out of which one is a club. This I play, but only raising the default amount suggested by the interface (blind). The flop is all clubs out of which one is an ace. I still hang on, only raising the default. The turn is another club and I have a flush hand with A and K. Good, but I still only raise default. The river is something and... I read an article by James McManus from when he played in WSOP, he also had decided to play carefully and by the book and yet his hands (the ones with fingers on them) seemed to throw the chips in by themselves. Only I and one other player to the right of me were left.

I go all-in you see... That's not something you should do early in a tournament I think, but I didn't think. Much.

What did I do wrong? It was a good hand. A flush with AK in it is unbeatable, no other flush can beat it. There was no outs for full house or four of a kind. But there is one other hand (or two, really) that can beat it. The straight flush!

And what did the other player have? A straight flush, five high, I see when he calls me.

What I should have done was
a) to have looked more carefully at the cards and spotted the outs, seen that it was indeed beatable. But it was a low straight, The Wheel.
b) just raised, not all-in.
Then, if my opponent had
a) called or raised I might have called it and just lost a moderate amount and still survived.
b) gone all in I'd have thought more carefully, probably folded and griped about it.
c) folded , I'd have won a nice pot.

But there I was, afflicted by what Gary Carson calls FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome), "Ha, let's knock this guy out of his shoes and socks!", and knocked out at 627th place without a shot at the $125 first prize or indeed the $2.25 40th prize. I guess I'm the stupid eager one. The opponent's comment: "Bet you felt really safe with that king."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

I then go to a normal No Limit table with blinds 0.25/0.50 and sit down with $10 in real money. With the first hand I play to a showdown, I win (with a pair of tens, the other one was probably bluffing) and now have $23 in real money. The next hand I play to a showdown (and win, with two pair K2, can you believe it?) makes me have $46 in real money. I've more than quadrupled my "bankroll" just by winning two hands. Play where it matters, play only when you can win! I leave the table with $39 (real), a few dollars were eaten up by blinds and calls that didn't go anywhere.

Omaha is close to Texas

I win! Real! Money!

I enter an online one table tournament poker game, real money ($5 entry). But I was a bit too hasty, I just saw that there was a seat available at a table and jumped it. I'm a bit surprised when I get dealt four cards.

Oops, it's Omaha, not Texas. I should have looked more carefully in all the columns. You'd better learn how to play, and learn fast, pardner!

Google, clickety-click. OK, it's basically the same as Texas Hold'em, but you get dealt four pocket cards instead of two. You can and must only use two of the pocket cards to make a hand.

Same strategy as my other tournament games, survive in the beginning (let the eager ones strike themselves out). And it works, just check or fold, call when you have "the nuts". And I even manage to without too much risk bust one all-in guy out, leaving six players including me. First time I sort of actively outplayed someone in a real tournament, I think. And for a while with four players left, I'm chip leader. This is going much much better than I expected. I feel like Wil (Uncle Willy).

I finish in 3rd place, earning me $10. I lost with three of a kind deuces. That was what my opponent also had, but he had better kickers. And that's why they call it gambling... No too bad for a first-time Omaha player.

Well, that's enough excitement for me. Or is it?

Tomorrow night the NBC documentary "World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" is on (Swedish) cable/satellite TV. I'm so there. Before that, on the same channel, it's the premiere of the drama series "Las Vegas" (with James Caan and Nikki Cox). Vegas, baby!

Nope, it wasn't enough excitement. I enter another 10-player tournament, real money, $5. I just sit there and let the others drop off. Never chase. When someone is short-stacked, they usually go all-in just to get out of the game gracefully. Don't chase even those, thinking "easy money".

In online poker, there are no tells per se. But keep a poker face; don't chat, don't comment. Another player jabbered constantly about the other games he was in on simultaneously, and how well he was doing. Annoying, and he could be bragging or bluffing. Try to avoid using "autoplay" buttons that many poker interfaces have, where you can select bet, call, fold, raise (BB), call/raise any and such beforehand. That looks eager and is a sort of a tell.

Oh, back to the game. Suddenly there are only five left, then four. I am the short-stacked guy and the player before me is stealing blinds, plays aggressively and is chip leader. 7000 to my 900. After a while I only have enough chips left to go all-in and do so. Busted out at fourth place.

I got a confirmation from the bookstore (online of course) that Carson's Complete Book of Hold 'Em Poker that I ordered has been shipped. I'll probably get it tomorrow Monday. Hopefully I'll go from "busting out early" to "slightly above average" (where I'm now, since I end up in the middle of the field in multitable tournaments) to a winner.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling

I'm sorry to bother you, but more poker stories...

I enter another little tournament of online NL Texas Hold'em, 132 entrants, 10 places paid, prize pool $660.

We start with 1500 each. I win the very first hand dealt, I rake in 2020 with my four tens. This places me in fifth place. A few won rounds later I, li'l ol' me, am actually in the effing lead! For a while. Quite a few won and lost rounds later I'm still in the top ten when I lose 3000 against an all-in with pair of queens that lost against pair of kings. On one hand I plummet from top ten to bottom ten.

I work my way up the field, I'm in the middle. A player after me goes all-in pre-flop. I have JJ, everybody else folds but I tag along, going all-in too. Pocket cards are turned over, he has AJ! My hand is winning! Flop gives me three of a kind, I'm liking this, I'm still winning this. But as I (figuratively speaking) already am grabbing for the pot, the river gives him a straight and me the 57th place.

But hey, at least I lose with good hands.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

Hmm, there's another $1 tournament coming up soon. I enter it.

It starts, with 251 players. I do very well, I'm in the top quarter of the field consistently. I win most hands I play in, and win big by careful raising and betting in some hands where I have straights. Just sit there and watch the eager ones go all-in pre-flop (I dread that phrase) with purdy cards and say bye-bye. Sift out the chaff...

At the one hour break I'm in 7th place of 87 players. Chip leader of the table. Not in on many pots, and then I rake in some medium ones with a straight and some (heh, feeling like a hustler now) raising in a late position where everybody except the blinds have folded or checked, or buying the blinds. In 18th place of 50 remaining.

But, you know the score by now. J6 on hand, I scare away all except one pre-flop. Flop gives me pair of jacks but there's an ace there too. Check to the turn, I before E except after C. The other player goes all-in. Me too. He has an ace in the pocket and I'm out at 46th place. Why, oh why did I chase that hand? It was beatable, and I could have stayed on, just ignore the hundreds I already put into the hand. But, and those of you that have read this and my earlier postings on my poker play can say it in chorus:

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

And hey, since in a tournament everybody starts with the same amount and you don't play with "your own money", so to speak, I've overcome my fear of No Limit Hold'em. I used to play some Fixed Limit Real Money, but there you can be scared away with your measly few bucks by the big boys with many chips.

I'm not going to Vegas anytime soon

I enter in another freeroll multitable tournament in No Limit Texas Hold'em. 892 participants out of 1000 maximum, $500 prize money ($125 to the 1st, $2.25 to the 40th).

I did well! Wize from the experiences yesterday, I play more carefully. I've devised some principles for online poker.

• It's hard to bluff, but it's doable. But only early on, if someone's hanging in there after the flop and you've got nothing, get out. But you can buy the pot. Sometimes.
  
• If you want to pay money to see cards (out of curiosity, "what did he have?"), go buy yourself a signed, gold plated, framed deck of cards from the WPT or WSOP merchandize section. Don't care if you've put hundreds of markers in, putting in more won't change the cards you've got.
  
• Playing with "play money", something most online casinos have, can be good practice. But only for reading and evaluating cards/hands, not playing the players (playaz?). Some just raise-raise-raise and if you run out of "play money" you can just click to get more.
  
• Rounders is a movie, and you're not in it.
  

Now, on to the tournament.

For a long while, I did well. I was actually in the top quarter for some time. I'm not going to bother you with each play-by-play, just suffice to say that when I won pots, they were usually large. Just let them "buy" the pot with pre-flop all-ins.

I survived for an hour until after the break. The kiss of death was when I got a pair of tens as pocket cards (I'm sure there's some catchy poker lingo for it) and another player before me (Player A) goes all-in with about 7000 markers pre-flop. I think "dahelweit" (Why I suddenly went gaelic, I don't know) and put in my 4000. Another player (Player B) matches that, tags along. Since there are no other players and no more bets possible, all pocket cards are displayed and the flop is shown. Q, ten and something. Heey, I have Three of a kind, tens, while A has just a pair of jacks as pocket cards. B has Q9 as pocket cards. I can win this! Turn, something, I can still win this.

The river is a queen (and that's a good folk song title if I ever heard one). Waitaminute, three queens are better than my three tens, and B rakes in the 22450 pot that would have put me in the top ten for a while. I
finish in 220th place (out of 892).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

I enter another real money $5 tournament, one table, ten players. I finish in 6th place after losing with two pairs JT against three of a kind that went all-in. I had to play that hand, it looked good to me.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

The freeroll tournament is still on, after two and a half hours. Not very good hourly wages for those in 30th to 40th place ($2.25)

But that, ladies and gentlemen, et cetera.

I see that one of my opponents from yesterday has won a $10000 seat to WSOP 2004. Flight, accomodation for 8-9 days and $1000 spending money. Vegas, baby!

I'm hooked on freeroll tournaments

I happened to get a seat at a Ladbrokes poker tournament tonight, a freeroll tournament in online no limit Texas Hold'em where you don't have to pay but can win real money.

I haven't played much real online poker, mostly only with "play money" and never been in a (freeroll)tournament, so I was happy to just partake in it.

I had prepared. Beverage, candy, cheat sheet (guidelines for when to play and not). I had drawn up a plan. Primary goal was just to survive. Secondary goal to survive a few levels. Tertiary to win money, any money. (1st place gave $1762.50, 130th $7.50)

Thanks for playing... We (all 2500 players in the tournament) start out with $1500 each.

First hand, I get dealt a pair of deuces as hole cards. I said I would play carefully, so I just follow and call all the way to the river and still have the same (could have hoped for a set). On the river betting everybody checks, so that doesn't cost me more but I lose (don't remember to what) and I'm already down $240. How can I possibly play deuces to the end?

Round two. Let's get ready to rrrumble! Dealt Kc, Js. Nice, I'll play these, just call the $20. Hooray, the flop gives me a pair of kings, and there was two spades giving me the possibility of a flush. The players before me fold or check and I bet $100, some follow. The turn, another spade. The players before me fold or check and I bet $100, some follow. The river. Another spade. This is a whole gundang toolshed, but most importantly, I have a f-l-u-s-h.

The only remaining player except me bets a lot (don't remember if he went all-in, or just bet more than I had...) but I have to go all-in. My thinking went "flush is a good hand. I have the jack, the ace and king of spades are on the table together with another spade. He probably also has a flush but the odds are low that he has the queen. I can't NOT play a flush.".

Showdown time... Whammo. He has Full House, aces full of deuces.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it gambling.

I bet against the possibility that the opponent would have a better hand. One can't wait for an unbeatable royal straight flush, the odds for that are so low your money will be eaten up by the blinds.

Pity, I didn't even have time to get a feel for the players, this was the second hand, remember? Hadn't barely had time to sit down at get comfortable or have a closer look at the cards. I was just like, ya'know; "Flush!", "The ace of spades, the ace of spades!" \m/

(Finished 2432nd place out of 2500 players. The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry, and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy.)

Systematic

I receive (whoa, I'm damaged by my training in English, I always have to stop and think the mantra "I before E except after C") the grades from the course Systems Theory.

PASS

Out of the fifteen taking the course: "Pass with distinction" 3, "Pass" 10, "Fail" 2.

I am negentropic.

Oh, and the Web Technologies course is fun. Servlets and JSP are hella cool.

Have job, got haircut, will travel

I, after not having cut my hair since October last year, succumb to the annoyance of getting hair in my face all the time and drastically decide to take a hair trimmer and mow, bend, fold and mutilate my coiff down to 12 mm all over.

It looks somewhat like this (older picture):

Combat report

I update.

• The 3000-word report has been sent in.
  
• My highscore in Bubbles is now 297470.
  

Believe me, those two statements are very disjunct.

Looking forward to the BodyCombat class tomorrow, it will be a special class titled "Master Kick Training". Afterwards the sensei will present me with the sacred green suspenders.

Wil Wheaton dot net and Bubbles

I wrote some more on the report.

When I wasn't doing that, letting ye olde brain ferment (or fester?) for a while, I
played some poker (Texas Hold'Em) online with play money. For an excellent story on playing, se Wil Wheaton's short story quadrilogy "Lying in Odessa", available
here. Four parts, watch out for the links.

I also played a lot of Bubbles. My highscore so far: 127590. Curse you, Jamie, for pointing this out!

Type type type

I am writing a report, as examination of the course in Systems Theory I'm taking. L_AT^EX rocks. But I'm almost getting carpal tunnel syndrome from typing (have to do 3000 words).

Sometimes I can't find the words because they have all piled up in my mind, all vying for attention.