Assani's Poker Thread (2 Viewers)

No clue what he was thinking preflop here. I really havn't been that aggressive either. Thought about betting the river. Now that I think about it more I think that betting the river was the right move as he'd put me on an ace thats trying to buy that pot probably. But hey it worked out fine.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2474827721: $18,000 Guarantee (18326550), Table 17 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:40:39 ET - 2007/05/21

Seat 1: johnny3600 (20,707)

Seat 2: rohanzsta (22,464)

Seat 3: Assani Fisher (54,112)

Seat 4: PJSNEAKS (45,267)

Seat 8: Rob_Gol1 (85,214)

johnny3600 antes 250

rohanzsta antes 250

Assani Fisher antes 250

PJSNEAKS antes 250

Rob_Gol1 antes 250

Rob_Gol1 posts the small blind of 1,000

johnny3600 posts the big blind of 2,000

The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Assani Fisher [9c 9s]

rohanzsta folds

Assani Fisher raises to 6,000

PJSNEAKS calls 6,000

Rob_Gol1 folds

johnny3600 folds

*** FLOP *** [6c 5s 6h]

Assani Fisher bets 8,000

PJSNEAKS calls 8,000

*** TURN *** [6c 5s 6h] [Qc]

Assani Fisher checks

PJSNEAKS checks

*** RIVER *** [6c 5s 6h Qc] [Qd]

Assani Fisher checks

PJSNEAKS bets 12,000

Assani Fisher calls 12,000

*** SHOW DOWN ***

PJSNEAKS shows [8h 5h] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)

Assani Fisher shows [9c 9s] (two pair, Queens and Nines)

Assani Fisher wins the pot (56,250) with two pair, Queens and Nines

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 56,250 | Rake 0

Board: [6c 5s 6h Qc Qd]

Seat 1: johnny3600 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 2: rohanzsta folded before the Flop

Seat 3: Assani Fisher showed [9c 9s] and won (56,250) with two pair, Queens and Nines

Seat 4: PJSNEAKS (button) showed [8h 5h] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sixes

Seat 8: Rob_Gol1 (small blind) folded before the Flop

Final Table!

Mother####er!

Full Tilt Poker Game #2474941981: $18,000 Guarantee (18326550), Table 25 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:13:45 ET - 2007/05/21

Seat 1: Assani Fisher (44,562)

Seat 3: voff voff voff (122,044)

Seat 5: johnny3600 (69,130)

Seat 6: Rob_Gol1 (220,626)

Seat 7: vazelin (64,138)

Assani Fisher antes 600

voff voff voff antes 600

johnny3600 antes 600

Rob_Gol1 antes 600

vazelin antes 600

vazelin posts the small blind of 2,500

Assani Fisher posts the big blind of 5,000

The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Assani Fisher [5c As]

voff voff voff folds

johnny3600 folds

Rob_Gol1 raises to 13,826

vazelin folds

Assani Fisher raises to 43,962, and is all in

Rob_Gol1 has 15 seconds left to act

Rob_Gol1 calls 30,136

Assani Fisher shows [5c As]

Rob_Gol1 shows [4h Ah]

*** FLOP *** [Ks 2h 3c]

*** TURN *** [Ks 2h 3c] [Ad]

*** RIVER *** [Ks 2h 3c Ad] [5s]

Assani Fisher shows two pair, Aces and Fives

Rob_Gol1 shows a straight, Five high

Rob_Gol1 wins the pot (93,424) with a straight, Five high

Assani Fisher stands up

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 93,424 | Rake 0

Board: [Ks 2h 3c Ad 5s]

Seat 1: Assani Fisher (big blind) showed [5c As] and lost with two pair, Aces and Fives

Seat 3: voff voff voff folded before the Flop

Seat 5: johnny3600 folded before the Flop

Seat 6: Rob_Gol1 (button) showed [4h Ah] and won (93,424) with a straight, Five high

Seat 7: vazelin (small blind) folded before the Flop

Out in 5th, $1600 but that hand hurt big time.

Assani Fisher said:

I'd love to hear some thought on my river raise here. Obviously if I knew his hand I woud do it all day long, but I honestly used my entire time bank thinking about it. I thought that he probably wouldn't call it unless I was beat maybe.Full Tilt Poker Game #2474803080: $18,000 Guarantee (18326550), Table 17 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:34:13 ET - 2007/05/21Seat 1: johnny3600 (27,457)Seat 2: rohanzsta (18,964)Seat 3: Assani Fisher (31,892)Seat 4: PJSNEAKS (31,552)Seat 6: AA__FOLD__AA (24,720)Seat 7: JimmyG_415 (15,465)Seat 8: Rob_Gol1 (77,714)johnny3600 antes 250rohanzsta antes 250Assani Fisher antes 250PJSNEAKS antes 250AA__FOLD__AA antes 250JimmyG_415 antes 250Rob_Gol1 antes 250PJSNEAKS posts the small blind of 1,000AA__FOLD__AA posts the big blind of 2,000The button is in seat #3*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Assani Fisher [Jd Jh]JimmyG_415 foldsRob_Gol1 foldsjohnny3600 foldsrohanzsta foldsAssani Fisher raises to 6,000PJSNEAKS foldsAA__FOLD__AA calls 4,000*** FLOP *** [4h 7d Qc]AA__FOLD__AA bets 4,000Assani Fisher calls 4,000*** TURN *** [4h 7d Qc] [2d]AA__FOLD__AA checksAssani Fisher checks*** RIVER *** [4h 7d Qc 2d] [Qd]AA__FOLD__AA bets 4,000Assani Fisher has 15 seconds left to actAssani Fisher raises to 21,642, and is all inAA__FOLD__AA has 15 seconds left to actAA__FOLD__AA calls 10,470, and is all inUncalled bet of 7,172 returned to Assani Fisher*** SHOW DOWN ***Assani Fisher shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)AA__FOLD__AA mucksAssani Fisher wins the pot (51,690) with two pair, Queens and JacksAA__FOLD__AA stands up*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 51,690 | Rake 0Board: [4h 7d Qc 2d Qd]Seat 1: johnny3600 folded before the FlopSeat 2: rohanzsta folded before the FlopSeat 3: Assani Fisher (button) showed [Jd Jh] and won (51,690) with two pair, Queens and JacksSeat 4: PJSNEAKS (small blind) folded before the FlopSeat 6: AA__FOLD__AA (big blind) mucked [Ts Th] - two pair, Queens and TensSeat 7: JimmyG_415 folded before the FlopSeat 8: Rob_Gol1 folded before the Flopedited to add: btw I came close to folding on the flop and actually would've if the bet wasn't so ridiculously low.

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I definitely agree with calling it. I understand why you'd question raising it. On the plus side, he's likely to call without a queen because he's crippled without it. On the other, you've got a 30k pot here and will still have 17k if you call and lose. But I like it. The reason I think I like it is his call/bet/check/bet is not consistent with AA/KK/QQ, so you can be certain he doesn't have any of those. 77 or 44 are extremely unlikely, too, since he would have bet again on the turn or tried to extract more on the river when he made his full house. It would have to be an extremely elaborate setup for a short stack to say, I think I'll check the turn and value bet the river and hope he comes over the top of me. Which leaves a queen, and again, the same logic applies. Top pair of queens (queen jack? queen ten?) is the only hand vulnerable enough to bet the flop, check the turn, bet the river, and call an all in raise. But there are only two queens in the deck, and there are so many combinations of 99, TT, 88, 66, 55, 33, AJ, AT, etc. that might bet out this river that you have a good chance of taking it down. It also sets people up to be afraid of bluffing into you on the flop if they don't see your cards, so it may give up some pots easily later. On balance, I would probably have called. It's the easy, correct play. But I also think you made a better, winning play there. Nice job.

Thanks for the analysis Fred. You actually summed up my thoughts nearly 100% correctly there. I was very much scared of a weak queen, but I thought that more times than not he'd have something else, and I think that my play there disguised my hand.

Now that I think about it more though....what do you think of my flat call of his small bet on the flop and my check on the turn? Both could be characterized as extremely passive.

Maybe I'll post this hand on 2p2 and see what they have to say.

gonna play in some more MTTs today...will update if I get far in anything

Assani Fisher said:

Thanks for the analysis Fred. You actually summed up my thoughts nearly 100% correctly there. I was very much scared of a weak queen, but I thought that more times than not he'd have something else, and I think that my play there disguised my hand.Now that I think about it more though....what do you think of my flat call of his small bet on the flop and my check on the turn? Both could be characterized as extremely passive.Maybe I'll post this hand on 2p2 and see what they have to say.

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I don't have a problem with you playing weak on the flop there. It's not wrong to call the flop as long as you plan on calling or raising on subsequent rounds. In fact, calling got you more information and is what allowed you to stack him, so it's probably the best line you could have played on this hand - you basically played it like you had a strong but not unbeatable pocket pair, and so did he. The argument for raising the flop bet is that you may still be ahead, and you want to get his chips in the pot right there, but you also may be behind, and you want to find out. But let's say you minraised him on the flop, and he shoved. What would you do there? Fold? If he called, he was pot committed anyway, so he was either going to fold or push. If you reraise him all in on the flop, then you're basically rolling the dice that you have the best hand there. You can't just drop the hand on the flop because you saw one overcard, can you? If so, should you ever play jacks in the first place? That leaves calling, which gives you a chance to see if he fires the second barrell on the turn (in which case you might get away from the hand) or checks (in which case you can probably assume you're ahead). The danger of calling of course is that a ten would have killed you, while a king or ace would have killed any action you could get against a pair. There are eight known bad outs, and any card could be bad if it matches his pocket pair. The only cards you really like at this point are queens, fours, sevens and, of course jacks. Anything that seems to be a blank could be a trouble card. In a tournament, I'd play this differently depending on the style of the player you're up against, your m, your position, the size of your stack relative to his, and your m if you lost this hand vs. your m if you won this hand. In this case, your m before the hand was 6.2 (preflop pot is 1000+2000 + 8x250 antes and you have 32k) and at the moment he bets the flop, your m would be 5.2 if you folded, 4.6 if you called, checked down, and won, and 1.4 if you called a later all in bet and lost. I hate situations where my m would drop below 2 or 3 if I lost, and am usually a little more conservative with them, but still less conservative than I would be if he had me covered. If you win the pot with a raise on the flop, your m would be 8.8. That's good, and gets you out of the red zone for a bit, but you're not out of the woods yet. You're risking playing for his whole stack to try to win the pot now. On the other hand, slowplaying an underpair is undoubtedly riskier, but you will have better information after the turn and/or river. It'll be a lot easier to fold the jacks if he fires a big second bullet on the turn, which will leave you with an m of 4.6, which isn't much worse off than you were before. So basically, if you call, it's a very low risk to get a lot of information and possibly win a pot that will make a difference or even stack your opponent, but if you raise, you have much less information, and risk a lot more, and don't have as good a chance of stacking him if he has TT or AJ or something similar. As for his style, I didn't ask because I don't need to. He's under pressure. He's got a reasonably short stack, but can survive if he loses a small pot, which is what he's trying to do. There are some players who would make the same small bet on the flop with a set or with aces, but once he checked the turn, and certainly when he small bet the river, it seemed that wasn't the case. There are some players who would make the same play with air, but again, that wouldn't change much about how you'd play this hand. I've found that it's a lot more reliable to read a player in the mid-late stages of a tournament by their current stack size than it is to try to read their previous actions, but YMMV. Last but not least, if your stack were bigger, maybe an m of 11 and he had an m of 9, folding would be a much better option. It's not worth crippling yourself when you're already healthy. In this case, though, I prefer your play.

Assani Fisher said:

gonna play in some more MTTs today...will update if I get far in anything

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I may be in Atlantic City this week. I'm in New Jersey for work. Any interest in meeting up there?

bostonfred said:

Assani Fisher said:

gonna play in some more MTTs today...will update if I get far in anything

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I may be in Atlantic City this week. I'm in New Jersey for work. Any interest in meeting up there?

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Let me know when you're going to be there. I have most of my money on Full Tilt and don't know how much cash I can get by then, so I may not be able to play any high stakes with you, but it'd still be cool to see you.

on the detailed analysis. Heres the 2p2 thread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat...=0#Post10460755

Assani Fisher said:

gonna play in some more MTTs today...will update if I get far in anything

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entered 6 of them, cashed in 2. One cash was minor, the other is still going on:$55 NLHE on Stars, started at 15:00106 left, I'm currently 44th

ah! 3 outer on river killed me. Don't have HH because table closed right away. Horrible luck today so far.

Playing a bunch of PLO8 now, and will play in the nightly $162/$163s on Stars and FT.

Doubled up early in the FT $163. Stars one starts in an hour...

Full Tilt Poker Game #2479160979: $40,000 Guarantee (18339376), Table 8 - 10/20 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:03:49 ET - 2007/05/21

Seat 1: Typetyr (2,660)

Seat 2: GimmeDa1time (2,970)

Seat 3: HigHRolliN44 (2,980)

Seat 4: knet_poker (3,000)

Seat 5: bulld07 (3,000), is sitting out

Seat 6: NicksNutz (3,030)

Seat 7: COSkibum2 (3,380)

Seat 8: Assani Fisher (3,000)

Seat 9: KevinOD (2,980)

HigHRolliN44 posts the small blind of 10

knet_poker posts the big blind of 20

The button is in seat #2

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Assani Fisher [5s 5d]

bulld07 folds

NicksNutz folds

COSkibum2 raises to 40

Assani Fisher calls 40

KevinOD raises to 180

Typetyr folds

GimmeDa1time folds

HigHRolliN44 folds

knet_poker folds

COSkibum2 calls 140

Assani Fisher calls 140

*** FLOP *** [Tc 5c 4s]

COSkibum2 checks

Assani Fisher checks

KevinOD bets 560

COSkibum2 calls 560

Assani Fisher raises to 2,820, and is all in

KevinOD folds

COSkibum2 calls 2,260

Assani Fisher shows [5s 5d]

COSkibum2 shows [Ac 7c]

*** TURN *** [Tc 5c 4s] [Qh]

*** RIVER *** [Tc 5c 4s Qh] [Jd]

Assani Fisher shows three of a kind, Fives

COSkibum2 shows Ace Queen high

Assani Fisher wins the pot (6,770) with three of a kind, Fives

COSkibum2: nh

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 6,770 | Rake 0

Board: [Tc 5c 4s Qh Jd]

Seat 1: Typetyr didn't bet (folded)

Seat 2: GimmeDa1time (button) didn't bet (folded)

Seat 3: HigHRolliN44 (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 4: knet_poker (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 5: bulld07 didn't bet (folded)

Seat 6: NicksNutz didn't bet (folded)

Seat 7: COSkibum2 showed [Ac 7c] and lost with Ace Queen high

Seat 8: Assani Fisher showed [5s 5d] and won (6,770) with three of a kind, Fives

Seat 9: KevinOD folded on the Flop

was a 45/55 dog here...lucky me

Full Tilt Poker Game #2479727578: $40,000 Guarantee (18339376), Table 8 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:15:03 ET - 2007/05/21

Seat 1: OhNoSpaghettios (4,205)

Seat 2: GimmeDa1time (5,965)

Seat 3: CapTinBisKuiT (5,165)

Seat 4: knet_poker (4,020)

Seat 5: bulld07 (1,945)

Seat 6: NicksNutz (1,560)

Seat 7: roseyb (3,005)

Seat 8: Assani Fisher (5,925)

Seat 9: KevinOD (4,800)

CapTinBisKuiT posts the small blind of 40

knet_poker posts the big blind of 80

The button is in seat #2

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Assani Fisher [Td 9d]

bulld07 has 15 seconds left to act

bulld07 calls 80

NicksNutz folds

roseyb folds

Assani Fisher calls 80

KevinOD has 15 seconds left to act

KevinOD calls 80

OhNoSpaghettios folds

GimmeDa1time folds

CapTinBisKuiT calls 40

knet_poker checks

*** FLOP *** [Qd 7d Jh]

CapTinBisKuiT checks

knet_poker bets 250

bulld07 folds

Assani Fisher raises to 600

KevinOD folds

CapTinBisKuiT folds

knet_poker raises to 3,940, and is all in

Assani Fisher calls 3,340

knet_poker shows [7c Jd]

Assani Fisher shows [Td 9d]

*** TURN *** [Qd 7d Jh] [Ah]

*** RIVER *** [Qd 7d Jh Ah] [8c]

knet_poker shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens

Assani Fisher shows a straight, Queen high

Assani Fisher wins the pot (8,280) with a straight, Queen high

knet_poker stands up

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 8,280 | Rake 0

Board: [Qd 7d Jh Ah 8c]

Seat 1: OhNoSpaghettios didn't bet (folded)

Seat 2: GimmeDa1time (button) didn't bet (folded)

Seat 3: CapTinBisKuiT (small blind) folded on the Flop

Seat 4: knet_poker (big blind) showed [7c Jd] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sevens

Seat 5: bulld07 folded on the Flop

Seat 6: NicksNutz didn't bet (folded)

Seat 7: roseyb didn't bet (folded)

Seat 8: Assani Fisher showed [Td 9d] and won (8,280) with a straight, Queen high

Seat 9: KevinOD folded on the Flop

Made the money in the FT one, but out shortly after in 44th place...

Full Tilt Poker Game #2481078347: $40,000 Guarantee (18339376), Table 36 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:50:06 ET - 2007/05/21

Seat 1: THEDRILLER1 (11,195)

Seat 2: I Am Ari (62,246)

Seat 3: cracklinrozi (8,324)

Seat 4: Ledung333 (27,020)

Seat 5: fcarrico (40,676)

Seat 6: Assani Fisher (16,724)

Seat 7: MattSuspect (21,129)

Seat 8: Intervention (83,292)

Seat 9: filliest (45,328)

THEDRILLER1 antes 150

I Am Ari antes 150

cracklinrozi antes 150

Ledung333 antes 150

fcarrico antes 150

Assani Fisher antes 150

MattSuspect antes 150

Intervention antes 150

filliest antes 150

fcarrico posts the small blind of 600

Assani Fisher posts the big blind of 1,200

The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Assani Fisher [Tc Kc]

MattSuspect folds

Intervention folds

filliest folds

Intervention: gl ari

THEDRILLER1 folds

I Am Ari raises to 3,120

cracklinrozi folds

Ledung333 folds

fcarrico folds

Assani Fisher calls 1,920

*** FLOP *** [5d 2c 5c]

Assani Fisher bets 8,190

I Am Ari raises to 58,976, and is all in

Assani Fisher calls 5,264, and is all in

I Am Ari shows [Jc Ac]

Assani Fisher shows [Tc Kc]

Uncalled bet of 45,522 returned to I Am Ari

*** TURN *** [5d 2c 5c] [2s]

*** RIVER *** [5d 2c 5c 2s] [Js]

I Am Ari shows two pair, Jacks and Fives

Assani Fisher shows two pair, Fives and Twos

I Am Ari wins the pot (35,098) with two pair, Jacks and Fives

Assani Fisher stands up

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 35,098 | Rake 0

Board: [5d 2c 5c 2s Js]

Seat 1: THEDRILLER1 folded before the Flop

Seat 2: I Am Ari showed [Jc Ac] and won (35,098) with two pair, Jacks and Fives

Seat 3: cracklinrozi folded before the Flop

Seat 4: Ledung333 (button) folded before the Flop

Seat 5: fcarrico (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 6: Assani Fisher (big blind) showed [Tc Kc] and lost with two pair, Fives and Twos

Seat 7: MattSuspect folded before the Flop

Seat 8: Intervention folded before the Flop

Seat 9: filliest folded before the Flop

Assani Fisher said:

Blog I posted:So PokerStars has unveiled their new SuperNova Elite Club, and I'm very excited about it. This past year they only had a regular SuperNova Club, which I recently reached. How these "clubs" work is that for every hand of poker you play you potentially earn a VIP Player Point(VPP). Depending on how big the pot is, you will either earn 0, 1, or 2 VPPs per hand. At lower stakes like $.25/$.5 NL you'll only earn a point ever 2 or 3 hands and practically never get 2. At medium stakes like $1/2 NL or $2/4 NL you'll get a point on about 3/4 of the hands and get 2 points maybe once every 20 hands or so. At the higher stakes like $10/20 you'll still get zero points on 1/4 of the hands, but when you do get points it'll be two of them.Anyway, last year I needed to earn 100,000 VPPs to reach Supernova. But to reach SuperNova Elite I need to get 1,000,000 points. What that basically means is that I'm going to be playing a ton of poker in 2007. I've been discussing it with a few people, and we all agreed that probably only 20-30 people in the world are going to play enough to achieve this status. I have no clue if I'll be able to keep up such a pace, but I'm going to give it a shot. Basically I'm going to play as much as possible in January and then realistically assess whether or not I can make it.Overall, I think this is good for me. While I'm a very talented poker player, I've often had motivational issues, played way too high of stakes for my bankroll, and just made dumb decisions in general. This will force me to do things the right way, and if I can do it I should be in great financial shape by the end of the year.You get the following benefits from being a SuperNova Elite:-400% FPP bonus - Frequent Player Points are the heart of the PokerStars VIP Club. Use them to buy merchandise, enter VIP only events, or to buy into live and online tournaments. As a Supernova Elite VIP you will receive a 400% FPP bonus. Every time you earn 1 FPP, we'll actually credit your account with 5 FPPs. If over a ten minute period, you earn eight VPPs, your account will go up by 40 FPPs!-PokerStars has introduced special milestone levels for our Supernova players on their road to Supernova Elite status. When players hit one of the following VPP milestones - 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, 500,000, 750,000 they will be eligible to purchase a special reward bonus*: $2,000 at 200,000 VPP$3,000 at 300,000 VPP$4,000 at 400,000 VPP$5,000 at 500,000 VPP$7,500 at 750,000 VPP-Free trip and entry into select PokerStars signature events! As a Supernova Elite you will automatically be given free entry to the WCOOP main event and regular PokerStars prize packages to 2 out of the 3 following events of your choice: • PokerStars Caribbean Adventure - January 2008 • EPT Monte Carlo - March 2008• WSOP main event - June 2007 or 2008-Entry to WCOOP main event (online tournament) - October 2007 or 2008-Entries into weekly freeroll tournamentsFrequent player points(FPPs) are points that you can use in the PokerStars store. They have a concierge service for their high volume players where they'll pretty much give you any $3000 item for 180,000 FPPs. Because I can get a $3000 gift certificate to the supermarket or to a gas station, these are pretty much as good as cash to me. In fact they're actually a lot better because I can avoid paying taxes on these, while I have to pay taxes on any cash withdrawls because its easily traceable.I currently get 3.5 FPPs for every VPP I earn because of my SuperNova status(it would be 5 for every 1 if I were already SuperNova Elite). So if I attain my goal I'll have earned 3.5 million FPPs. I'll use 250,000 of them for those special bonuses above and the rest I'll use towards $3000 gift cards. That will earn me approx. $75,000.The value of 2 of those live tournament packages is $28,500The ability to earn FPPs at a higher rate is definitely worth a lot to me as well. I'd estimate it at about a $6000 value depending on how much I choose to play in 2008.The free seat into the WCOOP is worth $2600.Its tough to say how much the freerolls are worth, but I'd say that its a fair estimate to say that I'll win around $5000 from them throughout the year.You add all of that up and its $117,100 of bonus money. Not bad at all.I've had some issues with depositing money on PokerStars after the online gambling bill passed, so I was forced to just have a friend transfer me $100. I've worked that up to $2500, so I'm now able to play $1/2 NL. I'm playing 9 handed on special "fast" tables, which greatly increases the speed of the game. While I'm sure that I will have my share of downswings, I really should be able to crush $1/2. I'm playing 10 tables at a time, and I plan to put in about 6-7 solid hours every single day. If I play as much as I'm planning, I don't think that making $500/day from this is out of the question at all. Of course, I'll want to move up in stakes though once I get more of a bankroll. This will be the major challenge for me. I need to be able to honestly assess my ability at each level and constantly remain at a level that I can beat and that is acceptable for my current bankroll. If I can do this, I have no doubt that I can make $500/day. That would come out to $182,500 of income on the year.I also plan on entering the nightly multi table tournaments. Theres a ton of variance in big tournaments, so its tough to accurately say what my expected income would be. In 2006, I made approx. $80,000 from them, but I also had the luxury of playing on both Party and Stars. I'll cut that in half and say $40,000 from multi table tournaments this year.So adding my bonus money, my $1/2 NL money, and my multitable tournament money that comes out to $339,600 on the year. I'd be estatic with that, and I honestly don't think its that unreasonable of a goal. It just comes down to being dilligent and disciplined.I'll probably post some updates throughout the year.

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BTW, "ElkY" just made Supernova Elite.

Clayton Gray said:

BTW, "ElkY" just made Supernova Elite.

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I saw that too. I hope it's worth it to him. He's losing his ### playing sng's. BigJoe2003 is crushing him

Update:

I'm leaving for Vegas on August 20th. I'm excited to start a new "quest" there. I've basically taken July completely off from poker(played maybe 6 or 7 times only) to get ready for the move and take care of some other things.

One thing that I've promised myself I'd do is practice proper bankroll management now. I'm only going to start off with $3000 in my poker bankroll once I get there and use all the rest of my money to pay for the move, rent, and daily living. This should make things relatively risk free I hope.

I've been reading a lot about the different poker rooms there(btw www.allvegaspoker.com is a great site), and this is my plan:

I'm going to start off playing $1/2 NL at the Venetian, which has a max buy in of $300.

As I get my bankroll over $4000 I'll start allowing myself to play the $1/3 NL with a max buy in of $500 at TI and Caesars.

As I get it over $5000 I'll allow myself to play the $1/3 NL with no max at the Wynn, and I'll probably buy in for $1000 or so at a time.

My hope is that within 2-3 months, my poker bankroll will be over $10,000 and I'll move up to $2/5. I'll probably be playing mostly at Venetian($1000 max buy in) and Wynn(no max) at this point. I'll probably buy in for $2000 or so when at the Wynn, so I may want to wait until I have $12,500 or so before I play there.

I hope that within another 2-3 months I'll be at $20,000. At this point I'll go up to $5/10 and start mixing in some tournaments probably. I'll probably have a favorite casino by then and just play there mostly.

Anyway, I'd like to start tracking my play here, and I think I'll probably have some interesting stories, hands, and info about the different poker rooms to share.

As for playing online, I'll probably keep up the MTTs occassionally, but I'm so excited to play live in Vegas right now that its on the back burner for me.

Assani Fisher said:

Oh and btw, I've been crushing PL Omaha hi/lo on Full Tilt lately. The PLO8 on Stars was much much tougher than this. So many horrible players on Full Tilt PLO8 tables.

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This is the only game I play online now (except tournaments)

I look forward to living vicariously. Good luck with the move and with your play!

spOOfy said:

I look forward to living vicariously. Good luck with the move and with your play!

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AF - three bits of advice:1. Avoid the MTT's for as long as possible, they will probably just eat into your bottom line, get the gravy flowing and then dabble in them2. Put MGM on your 1/2 (max 200 I think) - I had much success there, you get tons of tourists there3. Also put Bellagio on your list for 2/5 (max 500 I think) when you move up - pretty juicy game, might even want to try this when you move to 1/3 if the buy-in is your limiter.

Alias said:

spOOfy said:

I look forward to living vicariously. Good luck with the move and with your play!

Click to expand...

AF - three bits of advice:1. Avoid the MTT's for as long as possible, they will probably just eat into your bottom line, get the gravy flowing and then dabble in them2. Put MGM on your 1/2 (max 200 I think) - I had much success there, you get tons of tourists there3. Also put Bellagio on your list for 2/5 (max 500 I think) when you move up - pretty juicy game, might even want to try this when you move to 1/3 if the buy-in is your limiter.

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The reason that I'm not too big on MGM and Bellagio is that I don't like the small limited buy ins of those games(only 100 BBs). I'm sure though, that I'll get around to playing in most all of the casinos, so I'll give them all a chance. MGM did seem to get rated decently on allvegaspoker, so I'll look into it.

Assani Fisher said:

Alias said:

spOOfy said:

I look forward to living vicariously. Good luck with the move and with your play!

Click to expand...

AF - three bits of advice:1. Avoid the MTT's for as long as possible, they will probably just eat into your bottom line, get the gravy flowing and then dabble in them2. Put MGM on your 1/2 (max 200 I think) - I had much success there, you get tons of tourists there3. Also put Bellagio on your list for 2/5 (max 500 I think) when you move up - pretty juicy game, might even want to try this when you move to 1/3 if the buy-in is your limiter.

Click to expand...

The reason that I'm not too big on MGM and Bellagio is that I don't like the small limited buy ins of those games(only 100 BBs). I'm sure though, that I'll get around to playing in most all of the casinos, so I'll give them all a chance. MGM did seem to get rated decently on allvegaspoker, so I'll look into it.

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Ah that makes sense, was wondering why you left off what I consider two of the juiciest games in town. You will enjoy the V it is one of the nicer card rooms in Vegas, 1 thing that really blows about Bellagio is it is 10 seated and the tables are VERY CRAMPED. I noticed more "pro's" there then at any of the other rooms. Cesar's was a rock garden, I didn't like it, Wynn was o.k. - good late night poker, TI was CRAZY when we went there - might have just caught it on a wild night though with a bunch of strong European internet players. Enjoy and keep us posted.

I guess no interest in taking a part time job there (i.e. dealer)? I am not offering, just sounds like you are going to play full-time.

Thanks for the room reviews, Alias. I'd love to hear any more info from you or others.

The more I read, the more it sounds like MGM would be perfect for me if only they had a higher max buy in. Seems like a fun younger crowd full of easy money.

As for now, no plans to get any real job.

Alias said:

Assani Fisher said:

Alias said:

spOOfy said:

I look forward to living vicariously. Good luck with the move and with your play!

Click to expand...

AF - three bits of advice:1. Avoid the MTT's for as long as possible, they will probably just eat into your bottom line, get the gravy flowing and then dabble in them2. Put MGM on your 1/2 (max 200 I think) - I had much success there, you get tons of tourists there3. Also put Bellagio on your list for 2/5 (max 500 I think) when you move up - pretty juicy game, might even want to try this when you move to 1/3 if the buy-in is your limiter.

Click to expand...

The reason that I'm not too big on MGM and Bellagio is that I don't like the small limited buy ins of those games(only 100 BBs). I'm sure though, that I'll get around to playing in most all of the casinos, so I'll give them all a chance. MGM did seem to get rated decently on allvegaspoker, so I'll look into it.

Click to expand...

Ah that makes sense, was wondering why you left off what I consider two of the juiciest games in town. You will enjoy the V it is one of the nicer card rooms in Vegas, 1 thing that really blows about Bellagio is it is 10 seated and the tables are VERY CRAMPED. I noticed more "pro's" there then at any of the other rooms. Cesar's was a rock garden, I didn't like it, Wynn was o.k. - good late night poker, TI was CRAZY when we went there - might have just caught it on a wild night though with a bunch of strong European internet players. Enjoy and keep us posted.

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Going to Vegas next month. I'll definitely hit you up for some more info.

also a big factor for me is comps. TI offers $2/hour on their player's card at just $1/3 NL. Some rooms(Bellagio) don't even give player's cards out and require you to ask for comps, which is a big reason why I am going to avoid them at first when I could use every dollar I can get.

I like smaller rooms because you get people who are playing in games they shouldn't be. I also like playing while a low entry fee rebuy tournament starts up because you get a lot of bad players in a loose mood on tilt sitting at games they shouldn't. The MGM is one of those.

That is exactly why I loved the Bellagio, they have NO $1/2 game, so at least half the guys (if not more) sitting at $2/5 are playing over their head. Sure it is a shallow buy-in, and a cramped table, and they still use pencil and paper to keep track of "the list". But if you can put up with all that and are there just to make money, try to find a table on edge seats (2, 3, 4 or 9, 8, 7) to give you a little more elbow room and go to town.

Alias said:

That is exactly why I loved the Bellagio, they have NO $1/2 game, so at least half the guys (if not more) sitting at $2/5 are playing over their head. Sure it is a shallow buy-in, and a cramped table, and they still use pencil and paper to keep track of "the list". But if you can put up with all that and are there just to make money, try to find a table on edge seats (2, 3, 4 or 9, 8, 7) to give you a little more elbow room and go to town.

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Add in the fact that the Bellagio has a lot of out of towners with big money who want to play some poker, and the 2/5 game has a huge line while the 5/10 game has a lot more open seats, and you get some soft players in big buyin games. I've seen a lot of people buy in, get stacked, and walk. Or go to the ATM. Scared money that's in over its head =

Alias said:

That is exactly why I loved the Bellagio, they have NO $1/2 game, so at least half the guys (if not more) sitting at $2/5 are playing over their head. Sure it is a shallow buy-in, and a cramped table, and they still use pencil and paper to keep track of "the list". But if you can put up with all that and are there just to make money, try to find a table on edge seats (2, 3, 4 or 9, 8, 7) to give you a little more elbow room and go to town.

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Bellagio was EASY money.

Assani Fisher said:

Update:

I'm leaving for Vegas on August 20th. I'm excited to start a new "quest" there. I've basically taken July completely off from poker(played maybe 6 or 7 times only) to get ready for the move and take care of some other things.

One thing that I've promised myself I'd do is practice proper bankroll management now. I'm only going to start off with $3000 in my poker bankroll once I get there and use all the rest of my money to pay for the move, rent, and daily living. This should make things relatively risk free I hope.

I've been reading a lot about the different poker rooms there(btw www.allvegaspoker.com is a great site), and this is my plan:

I'm going to start off playing $1/2 NL at the Venetian, which has a max buy in of $300.

As I get my bankroll over $4000 I'll start allowing myself to play the $1/3 NL with a max buy in of $500 at TI and Caesars.

As I get it over $5000 I'll allow myself to play the $1/3 NL with no max at the Wynn, and I'll probably buy in for $1000 or so at a time.

My hope is that within 2-3 months, my poker bankroll will be over $10,000 and I'll move up to $2/5. I'll probably be playing mostly at Venetian($1000 max buy in) and Wynn(no max) at this point. I'll probably buy in for $2000 or so when at the Wynn, so I may want to wait until I have $12,500 or so before I play there.

I hope that within another 2-3 months I'll be at $20,000. At this point I'll go up to $5/10 and start mixing in some tournaments probably. I'll probably have a favorite casino by then and just play there mostly.

Anyway, I'd like to start tracking my play here, and I think I'll probably have some interesting stories, hands, and info about the different poker rooms to share.



As for playing online, I'll probably keep up the MTTs occassionally, but I'm so excited to play live in Vegas right now that its on the back burner for me.

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so the plan was the pretty much forget about online play. But I left NY on August first and came home to Maryland to visit my parents before I leave. So I'm getting a bit bored with not much to do when I see a $300 bonus offer from Full Tilt in my email. So of course I deposit $300 to chase it. Well playing PLOh/l8 I start out at $.25/$.5 and now have it up to over $1600 and am playing $1/2. And my Uncle stops by and gives me $200 on Stars for helping him set up a few poker accounts on different sites for him. Well I get 2nd in the first $22 MTT I enter and have over $1000 on Stars now!And just like that, I'm sucked back in! I'm multitabling 10+ hours per day the past few days. Online poker is fabulous when things are going well. The low rake, convenience, and comp system can't be beat. So as long as things are going well, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when I get to Vegas. I definitely am excited to check out some of the live rooms, but things are going well now online....

Why change the name?

update, it has been 24 hours since you moved to Vegas, how was the first night?

Minor delay.....

We decided to get a vacation house for a few weeks so that we could scout out places to live in person instead of on the internet. We had a place picked out, but my roomate Robert had a personal issue with the guy we were leasing from. The people that run the vacation house put the key in the mail yesterday, and as soon as it arrives here I'm going take it and leave, so probably on Thursday or Friday. Robert is flying in on Monday.

The drive is going to suck, but I'm going to try to go for as long as possible the first night...hopefully something crazy like 20 hours. Then stop at a hotel and take one long nap and then knock out the last 15 or so hours.

Poker has been going pretty well. I've got that $500 up to $4000 and I've been playing $2/4 PLO8 and NLO8 on FullTilt, and I have my working poker bankroll over $10K now, so I can play $2/5 live NL right away(although I may check out a few session of $1/2 first anyway). After the "fun" of playing live wears off after a few weeks, I'll probably go back to playing mostly online at Full Tilt....just can get so many more hands in that its more profitable for me. Plus I'm going to make some sick money just from rakeback and the points store.

Assani Fisher said:

After the "fun" of playing live wears off after a few weeks, I'll probably go back to playing mostly online at Full Tilt....just can get so many more hands in that its more profitable for me. Plus I'm going to make some sick money just from rakeback and the points store.

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So why are you moving to Vegas again? (Other than the fact that its awesome in general)

Oh and just to add....

Robert is doing very well lately, cashing for $9K and $7K in two tourneys in the past few days. Hes #1 on the Stars weekly tourney leaderboard right now and top 10 for the month. I've never seen anyone play more MTTs than he does. Official poker rankings has him at 2251 MTTs played in the past 120 days, but hes missed a lot of days in that...on days he does play, he probably plays 30-50 MTTs which I think is pretty nuts.

Lehigh98 said:

Assani Fisher said:

After the "fun" of playing live wears off after a few weeks, I'll probably go back to playing mostly online at Full Tilt....just can get so many more hands in that its more profitable for me. Plus I'm going to make some sick money just from rakeback and the points store.

Click to expand...

So why are you moving to Vegas again? (Other than the fact that its awesome in general)

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I stayed there for 6 weeks last summer and really fell in love with it. 1. Perfect weather for my tastes2. Young crowd, tons of fun to be had3. Nice nightlife4. Really liked the community outside of the strip...everything from the choice of places to eat to the people to the types of housing communities....just really worked well for me5. Ability to play poker live....very important for me to keep things fresh and interesting. Plus this gives me some backup in case online poker becomes totally impossible to play due to the government.6. People in NY are not friendly...I don't like the Northeast at all for this very reason.

Made it to Vegas late Sunday night. I left Gaithersburg, Maryland on 3:00 PM EST on Saturday and arrived in Las Vegas at 11:00 PM EST on Sunday. Entire trip was 35 hours(probably 31.5 hours driving, 2.5 hours sleeping in my car at a rest point, and 1 hour at gas stations). I really felt as if I could've made it without sleeping at all and driven even longer too if it weren't for the darkness of the night...its just so much easier to stay awake and drive when its light outside.

Anyway, I'm starting at very low limits and am using perfect bankroll management skills....anyone who knows me knows that this has been my greatest flaw in the past. I'd probably be very well off if I could've just been smarter with risk assessment and bankroll management. But oh well....I'll do things right this time.

So I'm going to be posting daily updates and results. I'll include one or two interesting hands from each day, give my thought process during the hands, give my reflections, and open it up for discussion. I'll also be sure to give reports on all of the various cardrooms. Have done 3 days so far, but I'm tired now....I'll update tomorrow with details on all 3 of those days though.

Congrats on making it to Vegas. Best of luck. I'm sure this will be entertaining for us.

Good luck, Assani. Just keep playing in the best $/hr games you can find within your roll. I'd be very interested in hearing more about two topics: 1) balancing growing your roll to max the $/hr you expect to make (bigger roll, bigger games, etc.) and earning enough to pay monthly expenses; and 2) your plan for improving your game (books, coaching, discussing hands, etc.). For 2, maybe even how you've gone about improving your game in the past. Thanks.

Assani Fisher said:

Made it to Vegas late Sunday night. I left Gaithersburg, Maryland on 3:00 PM EST on Saturday and arrived in Las Vegas at 11:00 PM EST on Sunday. Entire trip was 35 hours(probably 31.5 hours driving, 2.5 hours sleeping in my car at a rest point, and 1 hour at gas stations). I really felt as if I could've made it without sleeping at all and driven even longer too if it weren't for the darkness of the night...its just so much easier to stay awake and drive when its light outside.Anyway, I'm starting at very low limits and am using perfect bankroll management skills....anyone who knows me knows that this has been my greatest flaw in the past. I'd probably be very well off if I could've just been smarter with risk assessment and bankroll management. But oh well....I'll do things right this time.So I'm going to be posting daily updates and results. I'll include one or two interesting hands from each day, give my thought process during the hands, give my reflections, and open it up for discussion. I'll also be sure to give reports on all of the various cardrooms. Have done 3 days so far, but I'm tired now....I'll update tomorrow with details on all 3 of those days though.

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Excalibur...... 1-3NL........ one word......SOFTTrust me. Was there last weekend, guys love to throw their money around there.

Vegas baby!

Vegas Day #1: August 27, 2007

Happy to say that I finally arrived in Vegas! I made it in an astounding 35 hours...pulled over once and slept for 2-3 hours at a rest stop. Otherwise I just drove. Really wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The middle states like Iowa and Nebraska were a complete breeze due to 75MPH speed limits, completely flat land, no traffic, and no cops to be seen. I invented a stupid game where I'd pick a letter of the alphabet and try to name 50 pro athletes whose first name begins with that letter in 30 minutes...I know it sounds ######ed, but it kept me busy. IIRC I did R, S, T, M, and J successfully.

Me and my good friend Robert have a pretty nice 4 bedroom vacation house which we're staying at while we look for a permanent residence. The past 7 years of my life have been spent living in either a college dorm or a college atmosphere type apartment. It feels nice to have a nice and clean place to live.

First order of business today was to buy a new computer and to get some groceries. The computer ended up costing me $900 which was more than I wanted to spend(needed extra video card crap to support 2 monitors)....money is a little tight now, so that sucks.

But its so great being in Vegas. The weather is perfect, and I"m just much happier overall. Normally, for example, I hate having to drive a lot. But cruising around Vegas is just fun no matter what. Anyway, on to the poker....

Because I was so busy with other stuff, I only managed to fit in 2.5 hours of play today. I decided to go to the Wynn for some $1/3 NL. First my review:

Positives:

Very nice staff greeted me with a smile when I got there

uncapped buy ins at all games

nice atmosphere and decor

gorgeous cocktail waitresses

very spacious

Very short walk from parking garage

Negatives:

Could've been the toughest $1/3(or $1/2) live NL game I've ever played in

Lighting was a bit dim

Took 15 minutes to get a seat

Having $3 chips is the worst idea in the history of poker

Average preflop raise was only $10-12 and it often won the blinds. Crazy to see a 3-4x BB raise do that in such a low game. Very tight and aggressive. It was actually kinda fun for me though. Although ridiculously easy games are of course the best way to make money, its quite boring to play tight and unimaginative poker for days at a time. Much more fun to "challenge" yourself. I wasn't involved in any big pots and was pretty card dead, but I did enough for a winning session.

Hand of the day:

Villian in the hand has shown ability to bluff in variety of ways(he had fired at multiple streets with one bluff, and he had called the flop with the intention of bluffing on a later street also). He also made what I considered a very good value bet on one river when he was last to act when I think a lot of players would've just checked to show it down. A solid overall player in my opinion. Not perfect, but his mistakes were small enough that I'd expect him to be a big winner at most $1/3 games.

I get 8Ts in MP/LP. I have around $525, villian has me covered.I hadn't been very active recently. I raised it to $12. LP and SB called me. Flop came 69K rainbow. I make a standard continuation bet(around $17 I think but not sure). LP calls me, SB folds. Turn brings the miracle 7. There were now two of one suit on the board(not my suit). Whats your play?

What I did:

I checked, he bet around $30, I raised to around $70, he folded.

What I think I should've done:

I'm not real happy with the way I played this. If I was planning to stay longer then I would've liked it better because the bet flop then check/raise turn play would cause him to slow down a lot against me in the future. However since I knew I wouldn't be staying for long, I think that maximzing value on this hand alone should've been priority. I think that check/calling the turn and then leading out with a relatively small amount on the river would've been a solid play- it would've gotten a king to probably call and it could've definitely induce him to bluff the river. I also think that making a small turn bet could've induced a raise and then I could've played it the same way I mentioned above after that.

Daily Results:

2.5 hours of $1/3 NLHE at Wynn: +$96

Assani Fisher said:

Vegas Day #1: August 27, 2007

Happy to say that I finally arrived in Vegas! I made it in an astounding 35 hours...pulled over once and slept for 2-3 hours at a rest stop. Otherwise I just drove. Really wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The middle states like Iowa and Nebraska were a complete breeze due to 75MPH speed limits, completely flat land, no traffic, and no cops to be seen. I invented a stupid game where I'd pick a letter of the alphabet and try to name 50 pro athletes whose first name begins with that letter in 30 minutes...I know it sounds ######ed, but it kept me busy. IIRC I did R, S, T, M, and J successfully.

Me and my good friend Robert have a pretty nice 4 bedroom vacation house which we're staying at while we look for a permanent residence. The past 7 years of my life have been spent living in either a college dorm or a college atmosphere type apartment. It feels nice to have a nice and clean place to live.

First order of business today was to buy a new computer and to get some groceries. The computer ended up costing me $900 which was more than I wanted to spend(needed extra video card crap to support 2 monitors)....money is a little tight now, so that sucks.

But its so great being in Vegas. The weather is perfect, and I"m just much happier overall. Normally, for example, I hate having to drive a lot. But cruising around Vegas is just fun no matter what. Anyway, on to the poker....

Because I was so busy with other stuff, I only managed to fit in 2.5 hours of play today. I decided to go to the Wynn for some $1/3 NL. First my review:

Positives:

Very nice staff greeted me with a smile when I got there

uncapped buy ins at all games

nice atmosphere and decor

gorgeous cocktail waitresses

very spacious

Very short walk from parking garage

Negatives:

Could've been the toughest $1/3(or $1/2) live NL game I've ever played in

Lighting was a bit dim

Took 15 minutes to get a seat

Having $3 chips is the worst idea in the history of poker

Average preflop raise was only $10-12 and it often won the blinds. Crazy to see a 3-4x BB raise do that in such a low game. Very tight and aggressive. It was actually kinda fun for me though. Although ridiculously easy games are of course the best way to make money, its quite boring to play tight and unimaginative poker for days at a time. Much more fun to "challenge" yourself. I wasn't involved in any big pots and was pretty card dead, but I did enough for a winning session.

Hand of the day:

Villian in the hand has shown ability to bluff in variety of ways(he had fired at multiple streets with one bluff, and he had called the flop with the intention of bluffing on a later street also). He also made what I considered a very good value bet on one river when he was last to act when I think a lot of players would've just checked to show it down. A solid overall player in my opinion. Not perfect, but his mistakes were small enough that I'd expect him to be a big winner at most $1/3 games.

I get 8Ts in MP/LP. I have around $525, villian has me covered.I hadn't been very active recently. I raised it to $12. LP and SB called me. Flop came 69K rainbow. I make a standard continuation bet(around $17 I think but not sure). LP calls me, SB folds. Turn brings the miracle 7. There were now two of one suit on the board(not my suit). Whats your play?

What I did:

I checked, he bet around $30, I raised to around $70, he folded.

What I think I should've done:

I'm not real happy with the way I played this. If I was planning to stay longer then I would've liked it better because the bet flop then check/raise turn play would cause him to slow down a lot against me in the future. However since I knew I wouldn't be staying for long, I think that maximzing value on this hand alone should've been priority. I think that check/calling the turn and then leading out with a relatively small amount on the river would've been a solid play- it would've gotten a king to probably call and it could've definitely induce him to bluff the river. I also think that making a small turn bet could've induced a raise and then I could've played it the same way I mentioned above after that.

Daily Results:

2.5 hours of $1/3 NLHE at Wynn: +$96

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Played the 1/3 NL at Caesar's about three weeks ago and it was whiffle ball compared to a SoCal casino. Rarely saw a reraise before the flop. Very tight and passive. Won decent money but didn't kill it. But I wasn't running hot either. Played a ton of pots because no one would raise preflop. On 3 out of 4 sessions I was able to take over the table.

Vegas Day #2: August 28, 2007

So I have two main goals for the next 12 months: Get rich and get in shape. Today I went to 24 hour fitness to try to begin my journey to accomplishing the latter. I found out that its $60/month with a $99 start up fee. Or I could get a great savings by signing up for 4 years for $799. Of course I couldn't pass up that value, so I got the four year plan. It even came with 5 free personal training sessions and a box full of protein bars and energy crap. Of course the bad part of this is that I've now spent about $2000 in the past two days, which combined with all the other costs of moving probably means I'll be at $1/2 or $1/3 for at least a month or two unless I hit a big tourney....oh well, no problem.....I'm doing things the right way this time with bankroll management, and I'll just have to grind my way up.

Robert got in today. Hes had a great last two weeks of poker...really dominating the MTTs on Stars. He bought me some all you can eat sushi at the Rio for dinner, which was much appriciated. Pretty good place there imo, although a bit pricy($30 for the sushi plus drinks and tax means about $40/person).

We're having problems with our internet at the vacation house, which is annoying. So that means that its live poker only for now. And today I went to the Venetian. I liked that place a lot...

Positives:

Game was very soft that I played in

Spacious

Nice looking room

Fiji bottled water

Negatives:

Floor greeting not nearly as friendly as Wynn(nothing bad, just not as friendly)

parking was tough to find

$1/2 game was capped at $300 buy in

Total contrast to yesterday- this table was absolutely stocked full of fish. I saw one guy call a decent sized bet(something like $20) with Q8 on a board of AKQT2 with FOUR TO ONE SUIT. I kid you not.

The table was constantly discussing strategy after the hands were over, and it was so absolutely ridiculous to hear what some of these guys were saying. One guy in particular seemed to be a total "table coach". I don't know why it gets to me so much, but I just hate sitting there listening to someone who is just horrible act like hes good. I'm always nice and friendly though(or at least I'll just be quiet).

Anyway, this table coach lectures some of us about how it "doesn't matter what you hold....just what your opponent's hold." About 10 minutes later theres about 5 or 6 people to a flop that comes AQ4. Checked around to him, and he overbets the pot($25 IIRC). Shortstack on button goes all in for $15 more. Table coach says "well I guess I'm pot comitted" and calls with his 78os.....nice job, guy.

Another player at the table was one of the more passive players I've ever played against. One hand he had AA and raised to $20 preflop and got 2 callers. Flop came JQ6 with 2 diamonds. He bet $35 and they both called. Turn was a black 4. Everyone checks to him, and he checks! River is a blank, everyone checks, he wins with AA. Afterwards he said he was scared of JQ. The dealer started explaining to him that JQ would've probably made a move on that draw heavy flop and that the black 4 was the safest card in the deck for him...I wasn't too happy about the dealer doing this, but a few other players at the table made up for it by telling the kid that he played the hand perfectly(pretty sure they were being sincere too).

As for me, the session went well. I think that with a table that soft I'll win 90+% of my sessions. I just try to not push any small edges and wait until I'm fairly certain I'm good on the river to pounce. I might be giving up some equity doing this, but my variance in games like this has to be as low as anyone's out there.

Hand of the day #1

I get 77 in MP. UTG limps and EP raises to $12. I call. Folded around to UTG who also calls.

Both villians in the hand are total fish. Very loose and passive. Will call down a ton, won't bluff often, have about a 1% chance of winning in the long run. Nothing else to really say about their games.

Flop comes K92 rainbow. UTG looked like he contemplated betting before he checked....I can't say for sure exactly what he physically did, but I was pretty sure that I had a decent read here. EP quickly checked. At this point, I really thought EP had a king and was planning on either check/raising or check/calling down like fish love to do. So I just checked.

Turn was a total blank. Both players checked again! Ok, maybe my read was wrong. I bet $17. UTG calls, EP folds. EP almost has to have a 9 or a really weak K now imo. I guess a weak K would be less likely since he called a raise preflop(although you never can be sure against opponents like this).

River was another total blank. EP checks. Your move.

What I did

I checked and showed my 77. Villian had 9T and won the pot.

What I think I should've done

This is a real tough one for me. I do not mind not bluffing in a soft live $1/2 game, and I don't think its necessary at all to bluff in order to be a big winner in the game. I initiallly built my bankroll in tournaments so when I started playing cash games, I started out at $5/10 and above. And when I finally tried $1/2 at first I lost a ton making what I thought were well thought out bluffs and moves.

There are of course opportunities, however, and this probably was one. Would he really have called a $40 bet here? I'm really not sure at all, which kinda makes me wish I had tried it. I'd welcome any thoughts on this one for sure.

Hand of the Day #2

I'm trying to think of a good way to describe my opponent in this hand, and I really can't do it well. His play was strange. Thats the best way I can describe it. He was definitely a poor player, but he wasn't just a calling station. He would make bluffs...they just weren't good bluffs at all. He would simply make weird plays that I can't understand.

He has about $150, and I have him covered easily.

Anyway, this guy limps in EP and I raise to $15 with AKos from MP. Everyone folds around to him and he calls.

Flop comes AJ5 with 2 hearts. I bet $25 and he min. check raises me to $50. He has about $90 behind. Its your move.

What I did

I thought it over and decided that I was ahead of his range and that I wanted to get all the money in. I thought about the advantages and disadvantaes of shoving versus calling. I decided to call, figuring that it would add to my equity for the times when he was bluffing or semi bluffing and would go all in on the turn.

The turn was pretty bad: Queen of hearts(now two hearts on the board in addittion to the diamonds). AQ was definitely a possible holding of his. JQ was less likely but also a possibility. And he could've even had TK of hearts. He went all in. I was unhappy with the turn but decided to stick to the plan and call.

He ended up having J9 of hearts, which scared me especially since he had picked up the flush draw on the turn. Luckily the river bricked and I won.

What I think I should've done

The check min. raise is a scary scary thing to be up against. And I really dont' think most bad players think deeply enough to try for a post oak bluff, which is why its even more scary when it comes from a fish. Obviously my results here were positive, but even with my read on the opponent I was still very unsure of where I stood as I played the hand. Overall though I do think I made the right play.

Daily Results

5 hours of $1/2 NLHE at the Venetian: +$298

Daywalker said:

Played the 1/3 NL at Caesar's about three weeks ago and it was whiffle ball compared to a SoCal casino. Rarely saw a reraise before the flop. Very tight and passive. Won decent money but didn't kill it. But I wasn't running hot either. Played a ton of pots because no one would raise preflop. On 3 out of 4 sessions I was able to take over the table.

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Nice man. Thats funny because I've heard just the opposite about SoCal(and Commerce in particular). I've never been though, so I have no opinion. I actually went to Caesar's on Day 3, but I'm not sure if I have it in me tonight to write another blog....we'll see.You and anyone else...I'd love to hear more of your experiences at different Vegas cardrooms.

I think you will typically find better play at the deeper stack cash games, hit up MGM & Bellagio - serious 's to be had

The Flamingo after midnight is full of drunk people who have no idea what they are doing. Last time i was there, playing 2/4 Limit, I get heads up with a guy and I have the nutz. (A high flush). He raises, I reraise, he reraises, back and forth until I'm out of chips. At this point he says, "I'll let your watch be worth $100 if you want to add it to the pot..." The dealer advised we couldn't do that, so he called and turned over the Q high flush. Absolute silliness.