Beating Players with a Drunken Chicken~~~

***Warning: Long Post***

This Haitian guy from the Club whose name I will not disclose has got to be one of the most entertaining players with whom I have ever played. He is so funny. Last night I joined the 2/5 game immediately after I busted in the nightly freeze out (in which I took one merciless beat after another), and I sat next to my Haitian friend. He is the type of player who always says, I play for fun, I don't care about the money. He is in every hand until the river if he hits any part of the flop, has a gut shot, etc. He will call you, regardless of your bet, pot odds, etc. To him, he just wants to be in and have fun. In any case, he had top two against a really bad player, and he said to him, "if you beat me man, I will beat you with a drunk chicken!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing because you have to imagine this easy going, haitain-accented black guy, so laid back and fun, saying this across the poker table. It was pure entertainment. So great.

About my Session Last Night.

Flopping the nuts. It has been a long time since I flopped the nuts. Maybe like a month. In any case, in the bb, I had 7-9 os and checked my option in a five way pot. Flop came out 6 8 10 rainbow. I like to lead out small on this board to make it look like I hit a piece of the flop, but I am weak and induce a raise. So I lead out for 10$, utg calls and a tight guido-mafia type makes it $30. I take a few seconds and review the hands he can have. I have seen him raise with top pair, q, k and ace kicker all night. So, if he has A10, K10, q10, he has very few outs against me. If he has two pair, he still only has four outs or running board-pair. I also want utg to call. It is such a harmless board. So I just smooth call. UTG mucks. So now we are heads up. My plan is to check raise the turn. I check. Now guido bets $125, which is 1,5x the pot. Now, I am sure he has a set and I want to get all the money in the pot. Note: tight guidos do not bet $125 with one pair. So, I push for $375 (and he has $225 total inc. the $125). He insta calls and shows top set. Naturally, the board pairs on the river and guido wins big pot. I was not upset, I played the hand super super well and extracted the most value ever out of it. No one put me on the nuts that hand. It is one of those hands that just is what it is on the river.

Making trips the next hand- The next hand I called a $20 pre-flp raise with $120 behind. four way pot. I have 5-6 os, but if i get any piece of flop, I am check raising all in to try and double up. Flop is beautiful 5 5 j. I was going to lead out, but if I check raise, almost any bet is committed to my all in. So I decide to play it that way. It checks around to orig. raiser who bets out $45. I push all in and he insta calls with what I believe is KJ. turn is Ad putting three diam out there and river is os 3. I scoop and am back up to $310.

One hour later- I raise a few more times and continuation bet and build my stack up to $450. At this point, I am in the game for $600. I have 5-8 os on the button. Limps around, I call. Flop comes out A 7 6 rainbow, so I am open ended. It checks to me and I check to take a free card. Turn is 9c, giving me second nut straight, and two clubs out there. Guido leads out for 30$, loose-aggro player makes it $60. I have an interesting decision. Two things crossed my mind that made me JUST call the $60. 1. I saw the kid to my left start looking at his chips and counting em, so I think he might reraise, and he's SO tight, that if he reraises,I know he has nuts. Second, if I just call, and loose- aggro has flush draw, I can avoid being raised all in and hoping to still have best hand on river, esp the bad run that was last night. So I just smooth call $60. Predictably, super tight pushes for total of $285. Now this is even more interesting. If loose-aggro folds, I insta fold, face- up. It is as if 8-10 is written on this kid's face. And if we are chopping, I can't call for chop, it only cost me $60. But, loose-aggro CALLS the kid's all in. So now, I have about $210 on top of the $285. So if I push and win the side pot (loose-aggro knows he's potted into calling another 200$), then I only lose about $60 on the hand. So I re-push, he calls. Kid has 8 - 10 (yeaaa, good read), loose aggro has A7 which is two pair and river is blank so I end up with $420 to finish hand. I started the hand with about $490, so I lost $70, which is not bad considering. I think my play there was impeccable considering the situation that arose. Poker is so complicated sometimes, it makes my head hurt to review these decisions =)

My California Trip

I never did report on my Cali trip. Briefly, California is beautiful and I really like Commerce Casino. Bike leaves a lot to be desired, but not bad. The hotel we stayed at was amazing-Embassy Suites, 10 min from Bike, and 10 min from Commerce. Unfortunately I was sick the whole weekend. I had a very bad sore throat and chest congestion, which affected my play. I built my 3000 chip starting stack to 5000 before donking off 2/3 of my chips with JJ v. KK, on a low board. I had no doubt she had a monster, ignored my read, and pushed anyway. GG me. Then I had KK, got no action and the last hand, I had AK suited, raised to 800, leaving myself 900 behind and this stupid, bad woman player in the sb pushes all in with 88 for 9000. Meanwhile the bb has about 7000 chips and there was one other caller off my 900. If she wants to isolate, all she has to do is raise 2000 and if bb picks up monster, she can muck. Whatever. So I lost when board come out QJx, and I had gut shot and flush draw, but nothing hit. Oh well, what can you do. I played 5-10 nl at Commerce for two days and made about 650$, so I re-couped more than 1/2 of my tourney buy in. I was a bit disappointed with the Bike tourney. I would not have traveled 3000 miles for a $1000 buy with only 122 chickies in it. They told me, when I called last month, they were expecting 300 chickies. Oh well.

In any case, we have our winter rental in Ventnor and temp, two month rental in Brigantine, so I am excited to be down in AC a lot in the next three weeks. I really must concentrate on building my bankroll. It is so volatile when you only have a few thousand. So much easier to work with when you have 10k or more.

In any case, more later.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and her sidekick, Ace.

A Pretty Big Jackpot at Foxwoods

Earlier this month, I was at Foxwoods for a few days with Jon, my grandmother and my parents. Jon and I both played the Saturday tourney. I went deep, and ended up bubbling with 20 places paying. In any case, my grandmother went broke pretty quickly on the slot machines the first day. About an hour before we had to meet my parents for dinner, my grandmother came down to the poker room to find me. She ended up sitting behind me for the hour before dinner, watching me play the 2/5. It was very cute. As a side note, my grandmother, "Nonna", is a cute little old grandmother with a strong italian accent. She watches poker on TV all the time, and while she does not really understand the basics, she knows ace is the best card, and what a full house is, etc.

In any case, the following hand came up that she observed. As a preface, my table was super aggro. There was a raise/re-raise almost every hand. It was playing more like a tourney table than a cash table. At this point, I was around even, as I had been up and down in a few pots. In the bb, I find pkt 10s. There is a raise to 25 and five callers in front of me. The original raiser was a pretty tight player, so I decided to play my hand like a small pair and just call for a set. I really did not want to be committed preflp. Since I had under $400, I did not think a reraise pre was called for. The flop came down 10 J Q, rainbow. Third to act bets out 35, original raiser folds, second person calls, big guy in the 8 seat calls, now the super tight guy on my right, announces raise and makes it $100 to go. I am in a tough spot, because although I am sure that no one has AK (99% of this table re-raises pre with AK- the virtual nuts, even without a flop, he he). The hands I am worried about are 89 and K9, and further, Qj, which, while I am ahead, has outs to fill up. In my head, I have decided I am committed to this hand. I have about $375 in front of me. If I just smooth call the $100. My reasoning is this. I have a chance to get more money in the pot, if there is additional raising in front of me, and then I win a bigger pot if I fill up. I smooth call. The big guy says "holy shit", which, if I didnt have a set and there wasn't so much action, I would have laughed out loud.

Now the original bettor, who led out for 35$, a good player (but not as good as i thought), asks tighty next to me how much he has left, and he responds "about 700". Original bettor says. "ok, I raise $700 on top". He had about $1k in front of him. Now the big guy, between original bettor and tighty, mucks, and says, that is the tightest fold I ever made, but I think I am dead because of the girl. LOL. Tighty now tanks. For a good two min and eventually mucks QJ. I call all in. TEN on the turn. Weeeee! Q on river, so tighty wouldve filled and I win a $1,300 pot instead of $700 pot. Turns out big guy mucked 8-9, which is what original bettor had. I dont think he can play 8-9 there, as third nut straight. Not a good play.

The punchline is, I turn to smile at my grandmother, and she excitedly remarks "Connie, what a big jackpot you got!"

More later about my trip to California and trips in the near future.

Good luck and peace,

Lucky C, and her sidekick Ace.

Ode to Ostrichman

I have to say, I am super impressed with Jonathan aka Ostrichman's play as of late. I have always been a huge fan of his skills/strategy/reading ability, etc, however, I played three cash sessions with him in Atlantic City over the last few days and all i can say is...wow.

His skill is unsurpassed, as far as I can see, in the 2/5 game. He essentially wins 90% of the pots he is involved in. His game has improved tremendously since I have known him, and in the last six months, he has has honed his skills incredibly. Even if I did not know Jonathan and his natural inclination for this game, I would stay the hell away from him at the table! He is definitely one of those players that I choose, when I sit at a table, with whom not to get involved...

In addition to his great cash game successes, Jon has made it to Round 2 of UB Heads Up Championship! Yeeeaaaa! I am so proud of him. No matter how far he goes, I am glad that he at least got past Round 1.

We spent the last few days in AC and did well. Jon and I both profitted in cash. I got super sucked out once in the tourney and then it was over when I lost AGAIN with set over set. How many times I ask, how many? Jon went deep and made it to the final three tables, but busted because of the kamikaze type poker that must be played in that kind of tourney.

We saw some apartments, but nothing phenomenal. Hopefully, we find something better in the next few weeks.

Oh, and lastly, I satellited into the FTOPS Event #1, so I will be playing that tonight.

Thats it for now, I am off to go wedding dress shopping with my sister!

More later!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and her sidekick Ace.

Viva Las Vegas...literally.

I want to move to Vegas. It is awesome. And while, during my last two days, I experienced the worst beats ever, it is further evidence of how bad the play is and why it would be so good for me to play full time in Las Vegas. It was so great, I love Vegas!

In any case, I came in 14/250 chickies in the $330 LIPS event I played in. I was so close to the final table and I could not get anything going. On the upside, I booked my trip for California today, so I am excited about that! Weee!

Jon and Dragon both final tabled the $300 buy in at The Orleans, Jon's first big live cash and Dragon's 4th final table in 4 months- go Dragon. I am so proud of both of them for how well they played!

I am scheduled to play the Aruba satellite on August 5th and Ladies Only in Cali on August 18th and Borgata on September 9th- that's what is on the horizon! I need to start seiously building a bankroll so that I can sustain these tourney buy ins- or just cash huge!

Anyhow, that's it for now. Sorry for the short post, if i write anymore, it will be a detailed horror of suck out after suck out. But the silver lining is that it is good for my poker career for me to experience the swings, the variance, and ultimately the bad run that everyone seems to experience. In a way I am almost glad to get it over now, before my big tourneys. Hopefully, it ends before then!

More later.
Good money and peace,
Lucky C and her sidekick, Ace.