Live poker
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.
Some small stakes live poker
San Manuel Indian Casino
I was at a conference in Lake Arrowhead, just north of San Bernardino, which is just a half an hour drive from where I live. If you ever get to go to Lake Arrowhead, it is really beautiful and a nice cool-off from the warm weather in the valley. I did some hiking and felt so refreshed coming down the mountain, even though I was working there. So I decided to stop by San Manuel for some poker.
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. 
Currently on Tilt: Who plays to get lucky on the river?
The last time I played live I experienced this hand…
1/2 NL HE cash game at the Commerce: I call a raise of $10 from MP with AJ off. There are 2 other players in the pot. The button (original raiser) and the BB. The flop brings Jd-Jc-Qd. The BB checks and I bet $12. Both players call. The turn brings a 3rd low diamond. The BB checks and I bet $20. The Button folds and the BB calls. The river is a 10d. The BB goes all in for $20. I call the $20 into $132 pot feeling like he doesn’t have a diamond… The moron shows pocket 10s. He rivered a full house on me. I asked him how he could call me down to the river knowing he’s beat the whole way.. he said he felt his 10 coming. Ugh!!!
The Update:
Skill + Luck = A Successful Tournament
Today I headed out to the Bike for their monthly Ladies Tournament. My plan was to raise preflop whenever I wanted to be in the pot when in a good position. I wanted to pick up a lot of small pots early on in order to build my stack. I didn’t want to find myself stressing over the antes and blinds as they began to increase. My starting table (which did not break until we were down to 2.. which was great) included a lot of tight play. Myself and 2 other women picked up on this fast and took down many small pots… and in my case with marginal hands…
Bellagio Sucks
I don’t know why the Bellagio is considered the preeminent poker room in Vegas. It is true that it has the best game selection, but the floor in general sucks, especially the day shift.
I’ve been playing there pretty regularly in the $2/5 game the past couple of weeks, and it is ridiculous how much differently they treat their regulars compared to the tourists or other randoms in the game. First of all, they give all of their regs hidden food comps, which you have to ask the floor for in the secret back office. If they don’t recognize you, they’ll tell you that they’re all out but if they know you’re a regular, they’ll write one right up. Bellagio is the only room I know of that doesn’t offer an hourly comp rate for food but rather just hands them out completely randomly based on who they like.
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
Ups and Downs.. a few days of poker
I’ve been playing live poker a lot lately- which is great. Of course, this is coming with some ups and downs. I played a NLHE 1/2 game on Wednesday and posted about my success. I went back to Commerce again on Friday and had another winning session. Friday night was filled with a lot of calling stations and players there “just for fun!”. I hit a lot of flops early on and was up $100 after the first hour. It was easy extracting the most amount from the weak players at the table (ah, I’m missing that hour of play)… Here’s an example of a hand from that night where I felt I dodged a huge bullet…
Commerce last Saturday
So, I finally went to Commerce again. It’s sad, that I only get to go once a month. Before my daughter was born, you could find my in a card club about 3 times a week. Well, I didn’t work much then either… Anyway, I had decided, I was going to go and there was going to be no stopping me. I thought, I could meet up with PokerKat also, but unfortunately, she had to cancel last minute.
