Author Archive
Hello again
I haven’t written in a few weeks because I have been on an epic journey. My husband and I are moving from Chicago to San Diego (let me know if you know of any good games there, especially PLO). We took a two week road trip accross the country to California and then left from there for a five week trip to Malaysia and India. I am writing this from Amritsar, India where the Sikhs have a beautiful temple. We are keeping a blog of our trip at sandmtrip.wordpress.com, if any of you are interested in checking it out. It doesn’t have anything to do with poker, but it has been a fun way to document our adventures.
Friend or Foe
While I was in Vegas for almost all of June, I met the nicest lady. She was a Persian woman who lives in Germany, and she and I quickly became friendly. She didn’t speak much English, so I helped her book a flight to see her family in the US. She invited my husband and me to stay with her if we ever visited Germany. I am not fortunate enough to have a big group of people that I travel with. When I travel around playing cards, relationships like the one I had with this woman become very important. They are the people I call when I’m tired of eating alone, need a ride to the airport or advice on my play, and they’re the people I’ll sweat for a long final table.
Interest
As most people know, banks make their money by investing customers’ money. They use fancy calculations to decide how little money they can keep on hand for people that come in wanting to withdrawal. The rest is then invested at a higher interest rate than they pay their customers.
Status Report
I’ve been sucked into poker vortex, and I’m lovin’ it. I’ve managed to win enough in my PLO cash games to fund all of the events that I’ve played at the WSOP. I haven’t had any tournament cashes though. Some poker smarty once said that in tournaments, “all you can do is play well in enough to put yourself in a position to get lucky when the blinds and antes start getting high.” I’ve been within fifteen from the money five times only to run into a sick beat or a cooler. Which is frustrating, since it’s maximum effort and time commitment for no return, but I have been bringing my A game, and I feel good about that.
Helllloooo Ladies!
Two years ago at the WSOP ladies event, I lost a huge pot to Mimi Rogers. We got all in preflop. She had pocket tens, and I had the King and Queen of hearts. Don’t ask me what I was thinking. I clearly wasn’t, but my hyper aggressiveness and luck got me all the way to the final table.
I’ve played a lot of cards since then, and this year I’m actually going to be playing on the Queen of Hearts team with her and a great group of celebs and women professionals at this year’s WSOP Ladies event! Our team has pledged to donate a portion of our winnings to the Nevada Cancer institute, a nonprofit organization committed to reducing the burden of cancer through innovative and collaborative research, education and patient care.
I (almost) hate floppin’ the nuts in Omaha
I got into a huge hand with my old professor, Jim McManus, at our home game a few weeks ago where I should have laid down the nuts on the flop. The notion of laying down the best band sounds crazy to hold’em players, but it’s something that you have to be willing to consider in Omaha.
At our home game, we play alternating rounds of $5/$5 no limit hold ‘em and pot-limit Omaha. In a big family pot that had been raised preflop, the board came down 9h 7s 6s. It had checked around to me on the button, which made me feel pretty safe. I bet the pot with my 8 10 straight, hoping to take it down right there, but then Jim reraised the pot.
Drama with a smart/dirty player
At the casino this past weekend, this guy named Lucas randomly told me, “I keep my nails really short because when they’re longer I get tempted to mark cards.” I’ve learned from teaching kids that guilty people usually admit to things that are a little less worse than what they actually did. If a little girl told me that she took three pieces of candy that were off limits, she probably took five. Since this guy was looking for an opportunity to tell a perfect stranger that that he had such a strong desire to mark cards that he had to take physical action to stop himself, I knew he wasn’t afraid to play dirty. Then, a little later, he proudly told the table that he had once won an $800 pot by saying he had two pair at showdown when he didn’t. Saying this made the other guy prematurely muck his hand, and thus forfeit the pot.
Ship it!
Because things in Omaha go so wrong so often, it feels all the sweeter when they happen to go right. Check out this hand I won on stars recently.
I raised my button, then made a defensive min-reraise on the flop, hoping to see the last two cards cheap. On the turn, I a questionable call (drawing to the non-nut flush is usually a no-no, but because of the way he was trying to bet me out of the pot, I thought a flush would be good). I did made the jack high flush on the river, but had to give my call a lot of thought since he shoved for such a big amount. This player had been slow playing his big hands all session, and I just had a feeling (because of that, the timing of his bet, and the way the hand had played out) that I was good. Indeed it was. I made $160 on that one hand, and am still dancing around my living room.
you know you’ve been at the casino way too long when…
This is a view of the sunrise at 6 a.m. along Lakeshore drive in Chicago. I shot this on the way home from a 14 hour session. Sunrises over the lake make for gorgeous commutes, but they’re also a sign that I’ve been at the boats waaaaaaaay too long. 
Big Time Suck Outs
I’ve been getting sucked out on pretty badly in my home game, so in an effort to console and convince myself that things aren’t always going against me, I’d like to share two suck out stories. Both occurred in a live $2/$5 no limit hold’em games at a casino outside of Chicago.
Hand 1
