Poker Trail

I used to have a standard bad dream when I was in a downswing. It very well still might come back but I haven’t had it in a while. I’d be driving a car, sometimes my car and sometimes some other random car, and suddenly the weather would get really bad. There would be super high winds, and sometimes a tornado would make an appearance. (They used to scare the crap out of me as a kid growing up in Michigan, even though I never saw one. I think it was mostly the extremely daunting warnings on TV and the shrieking siren a few blocks over that the city sounded.) The winds would get stronger and stronger, and I’d slam on the brakes, so hard that I’d be fully standing on the brake pedal, and there was nothing I could do to stop the car moving towards the tornado and directly into certain peril.

There couldn’t be a clearer metaphor when that dream would arrive. The downswing was the wind, the tornado was bustoland, and stomping on the break was my useless, but fully devoted and dedicated effort to work hard and play my best.

I had a different dream recently. A little less perilous, but unfortunately still falls under the “bad” dream category.

I don’t know about you, reader, but I used to fucking love rollerblading. So, there I was in my dream, rollerblading like a boss. Until I got lost. I knew that I was trying to find my way back to my car, but I ended up on a road in the forests of Oregon or something. I’ve never been to Oregon, which means I don’t know my way around Oregon… especially the forests. I was rollerblading my ass off; sweating, skating hard, but getting nowhere. Just skating and skating and skating.

Lately I’ve been playing 2/5NL (3/5 and 5/5 when I’m in LA). I have a temporary deal with a friend that protects me from a losing month while sacrificing some of my winnings. I think the deal has replaced the tornado with the forest. I guess it’s an upgrade, exchanging a windy death for an aimless, pointless wander without progress.

Of course, that’s only a mere one way of looking at it. I feel like I’ve turned a corner with my play recently. While there are some tough players to be found in the 2/5 games around Vegas, the only real difficulties in moving up from the 1/2 and 1/3 basement stakes are:

1: Understanding what the leaks in your game are and actively working on fixing them. In 1/3 games, you won’t get punished for mistakes nearly as often or as severely whereas when you move up, you get away with less.
2: Dealing with new betsizes and larger monetary swings. The standard deviation for my 1/3 sessions on the year is about $500 (yours is probably lower; I just can’t help myself sometimes…). For 2/5 to 5/5 it’s about $900. That means every day you’re swinging a very large percentage of your monthly nut.

Having friends who are eager to work on #1 together has been massively helpful for my game, despite their never ending stream of annoying text message disagreements about the merits of 3betting for value vs flatting to keep in dominated hands. #2 simply comes with more hours at the table.

I might still be in the thick of the forest, but I think there is progress.

The name Boys II Men used to conjure up images of super dope orange blazers, stone washed jeans and middle school dances (his hands on her hips, her hands on his shoulders) at the War Memorial in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI.

Now, instead of talking about that East Coast swing the iconic R&B group brought to our Midwestern suburb when we were preteens, we’re talking about the $2/$5 game at the Mirage that they frequent. The Boys II Men are doing a run of weekend dates at the Mirage and, once they wrap up on stage, are often found winding down in that property’s poker room.

I’d played with Shawn and Nathan previously at the Aria. Shawn is more reserved in both his personality and his play; he doesn’t splash around a ton but is by no means tight. Nathan, however, loves action and loves talking. He’s likable right away and with a ton of charisma. He also doesn’t like folding hands. I once had a video on my phone where the action in our 2/5 game at the Aria folded around to the small blind, which happened to be occupied by Jon “PearlJammer” Turner. Jon asked the big blind, which happened to be occupied by Nathan, if instead of chopping, he just wanted to go all in blind. Jon had Nathan covered, equating to about $1200 effective. Unwilling to decline any action, Nathan accepted and they ran it out. I am sitting here cursing myself as I cannot find the video anywhere in my archives, but I will say that one of the players’ 2-5 offsuit ended up being victorious that hand.

Water Runs Dry

I headed to the Mirage on a Saturday night and parked myself in the 2/5 game around 5pm. My buddy Adam told me the B2M guys would most likely be around as he had been playing in their game lately. I went through a swingy few hours of poker in the meantime, going up around $600 before returning the majority of my profit to various players in the game. At 10pm, Shawn and Nathan made their way to the table, two ladies in tow. Nathan’s lady had a rose, and I secretly wondered if Shawn’s lady was jealous carrying only her handbag.

The Mirage poker room allows for an unlimited straddle under the gun, which Nathan is a pretty big fan of. A couple of orbits after his arrival he had a $20 straddle on when the action folded to me and I looked at AsKd. I made it 55 to go and everyone folded except for Nathan who made the call. The flop came JcTc7s and he checked. I’m likely to make a c-bet with two overs plus gutshot, but with the flop being so connected and all over his preflop calling range, plus Nathan’s propensity to not give up easy, I checked back. The turn brought the Ac and he lead out for 70. Not wanting to bloat the pot with one pair I smooth called, and the Jd made its way to the river. Undeterred, Nathan lead out for 125 and without much hesitation I called right away.

“You got the flush?” Nathan asked, which is not exactly a good sign for a top pair hand, if that’s all he’s worried about. Sure enough, he rolled over the 9h8h for the flopped nuts and a pot of decent size was added to the Boys II Men war chest. Apparently my purchase of Cooleyhighharmoney back in ’91 will go unthanked.

Vibin’

Despite my contributions to the R&B retirement fund, I’ve been feeling comfortable in the 2/5NL games around Vegas lately. The lineups, while not quite as beginner-filled as 1/2 and 1/3 games, are certainly nothing to fear. Occasionally you will find yourself in a game mostly full of pros but it’s pretty simple to request a table change or simply move to a different property.

With March Madness now in full swing, as well as a newly-remodeled sportsbook unveiled at the Mirage, I headed back to Volcano land for the opening weekend of college basketball’s main event. By 6:30pm I was in the 8 seat at one of the Mirage’s 19 poker tables playing 2/5 in a particularly noisy poker room setting. By 10:30, I was up… $5.

Poker is nothing if not the ultimate test of patience. My biggest leak these days is boredom, which results in forcing the action in unfavorable spots, rather than letting the game come to me naturally. Playing for slightly bigger stakes, every mistake is magnified and more costly. Determined not to simply give it away like I have done an unknown number of times previously, I waited for an opportunity to present itself.

I had moved to the 4 seat in order to have better position on a couple of action players. The gentleman in the 1 seat, who had arrived with a beer in hand, “accidentally” made a minraise to 10 while attempting to limp in.  A good player on my right kicked it up a little more with a reraise to 30 and I looked down at pocket threes. With ample implied odds and a stack of around $600 I made the call, as did the original raiser. The flop was finally a favorable one: Kc4c3d. The 1 seat checked and the aggressor fired at the pot for 65. Not wanting to overrep my hand, and being the “gatekeeper” so to speak in last position, I flat called, as did the initial raiser in seat 1.

All I had to do was make four 10’s in this one pull of a video poker game, and the Mirage would award me the equivalent of the median US household yearly income in one day.

The turn brought the 5d and Mr. Cerveza in the 1 seat checked. This time the player next to me, after some thought, decided on a check. With multiple draws now available, but still looking for action with my set, I slid out a bet of 155. Mr. C once again made the call, and the player on my right, after some more thought, folded.

The river brought a 3rd diamond, but filled me up: the 4d. Mr. C took little time in acting on what he considered to be a great bluff card and sent his remaining 350 into the middle, and I took even less time dropping the chips across the betting line with my full house. His Q5cc failed to fully materialize and I was well into the black.

It wouldn’t be long before my early session patience would result in finding another opportunity. After working my stack above the 1.5k mark I looked down at 10 10 and made a standard opening raise to 20. Two players with position on me plus the big blind made the call and we were off to the flop 4 ways. And what a flop it was: AdTdTh.

The big blind checked and with a hammerlock on the hand, I checked as well. The player to my left checked and the youngster on the button cooperated with my plans by making a bet of 70. The big blind folded and I called, leaving the two of us heads up. The turn brought the 7d and I thought my action may have been killed with three to a flush now on board, especially after we both checked this street. The river reopened the door, however, as it was the Ah. I looked over at my opponent’s remaining chipstack and seeing a little less than 300 there, I bet two hundred dollar bills.

It’s a pretty dumb bet because if he doesn’t have an ace he cannot call and has no fold equity to re-bluff with; if he does have an ace he may get lazy and just flat call rather than raise, knowing I won’t call unless I’m at least chopping. Betting the full 300, or checking, is better than betting less than all of his chips. Despite this, I couldn’t complain too much when my opponent snap called with aces full, sending another nice pot in my direction.

To add more excitement to my run of great cards, the Mirage poker room runs a promotion where if you make four of a kind or better, you get one pull on their video poker machine. If you make the same hand as the one in your live game (in this case, four 10’s), you win the progressive jackpot amount, which currently sits at $51,000. It’s quite unlikely, but certainly not impossible. All I had to do was make four 10’s in this one pull of a video poker game, and the Mirage would award me the equivalent of the median US household yearly income in one day.

The results…

AN

I got back into Vegas a couple of hours ago. Busi and I spent 3 nights in Utah this weekend getting in some much needed snowboarding time. I’ve been snowboarding somewhere between 10 and 15 times now and even though that first run is still a little awkward, I’m at the point where I can make it from top to bottom without a fall, linking turns and just enjoying the ride. The green circle runs are a breeze and the blue square runs, while sometimes challenging, are doable. I avoid the black diamonds (for now) but am content with the selection I have.

Busi, however, had only spent a total of 1 day on a board prior to this trip. Her first run this weekend saw us spending about 45 minutes attempting to get down a green trail. That’s just the way the personal snowboarding journey goes. The first one or two efforts are pain filled and spent getting used to falling. But after she took a lesson and used her natural determination that she shows with everything else she does, she made vast improvements and was eventually spending more time grinding the board edges instead of picking herself up off the snow. It was pretty impressive to watch her progression begin and she made big strides over the course of the trip.

It was good to take a break from the poker tables for a long weekend. My previous week in Vegas was spent chasing the dream of binking a live tournament thanks to the WSOP-c being in town. The circuit events at Caesars brought the expected attributes: good sized fields with reasonable buy-ins, great structures and soft competition. But my hopes of winning some sort of jewelry (what’s with the WSOP fascination with such adornment? I don’t even wear a watch.) were further prolonged by bricking all 3 events I entered. The PLO ring event was particularly brutal as I went out in 23rd place, a bit shy of the 15 money spots, and particularly because of the fashion in which I was left crippled by some drunk kid who decided to gamble vs me. But what can you do.

Away from tournaments, I’ve been on the standard live cash game grind around Vegas, but have been trying to mix more 2/5NL into my rotation. My year-to-date results at that level are crappy (if I remove my 5/5NL home game results I am breakeven there). The sample size is still pretty small but it seems silly to me that I can’t break through to that level full time, as the competition doesn’t seem exceptionally tougher.

I am completely confident in my game at the 1/3 level. I still make mistakes, of course, but my results there are great. I might be running above average at 1/3 so far this year, as you can see from my hourly rate, but this includes a couple of ridiculous beats I’ve taken lately (dude ships $450 into my flopped two pair with a gutter ball and gets there, ho hum). Moving up in stakes is equivalent to getting a big promotion at your job and is what every professional cash game player should be working towards.

I can crush the green circle runs of the poker ladder and feel like I’m on the cusp of steadily grinding down the blue square trails, but as soon as I step off the chair lift the board finds an ice patch. I do know that never falling is only a fantasy, but it would be nice to link a few turns at the next level and enjoy the ride a bit more there.

Away from the poker grind itself, I’ve really been enjoying working on creating content for two projects. The first is this website, and I have more ideas for things to post that I look forward to getting to. The second is a podcast that I’ve launched with a couple of fellow writers: “Pokerati” Dan himself, and poker beat man-about-town Dave Ferrara. The show is called Vegas Grinders and we’ll be bringing a weekly stream of Vegas poker happenings, as well as discussions about what it’s like to do this grind for a living. The first episode is already posted and can be found here.

All feedback about both the podcast and anything that I’m posting (or not posting) here is more than welcome. Additionally, if there’s anything in your poker world that you want to discuss, hands you have questions about, or any communication you have the urge to initiate, please do reach out.

See you around as we try to get to that next level.