Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in poker_bean0r's LiveJournal:

Saturday, August 20th, 2005
6:46 pm	Caught a Break well. I've finally taken a turn to happy land. i joined my friend steve and danny down to the seminole classic in hollywood florida and decided to play some omaha, well naturally there was a wait so i was sitting at a 2 straight game while i waited. after about 30-45. min of hold em (which was more then enough time for me) i heard my name called on the PA system and moved to my table. Was a friendly table which was good because there wasnt alot of stress and with the exception of the one wild hatian guy, they all knew how to play the game. after a few decent scoops i found my self dazing off while i wasnt involved in a hand. as i start coming back to reality, i see the one bald headed stocky guy slowly rolling over his hand saying "i hope you've got what i think you got" and shows his 5-6-7-8-9 all hearts straight flush. The other guy turns over his hand and shows the 7-8-9-t-j all hearts after i do a double take, i turn around and take a glance at the bad beat board. $90,000! we were soon swamped with some of florida's finest white trash all congragulating me on something i didnt do. I even had one silly lil hatian guy say " hey gimme your seat". after MANY hand shakes w/ some of the people at the table and we finally got a floor to come over and confirm our bad beat. after taking some info down, he came back w/ the pay outs....the guy that got beat took home 45k, the winner of the hand took home around 28 and the other 8players split $20,000 leaving us each with 2,548. not a bad days work. after settling my debt with my father for dealing school, and a $300 bar tab im left with about 1k to start my bankroll. im now keeping a monitary journal as well as this one. i want to see where i am in about a year. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
1:59 am	NO WAY DID I GET TRAPPED So i finally get some hands, and lady luck is on my side. Fair enough, its been a cold ass month and a half. In a little 10 person tourney [2 tables] i was DOMINATING my table, finally. ok so long story short, im getten chipped away at the "final" table by some rediculous little players....heres where the action starts, i had just laid down my pocket pair of Ducks [2's] which to me wasnt a HUGE deal, it was the 3rd time i had had them that night and didnt catch anything with them at all, of course after i fold them, i hit my set....ANYWAY.... next hand KQ off. ok, im under the gun, 5 handed, i double the blind figuring thats good enough for a steal or my one caller....I get 2. ...ok flop comes 2-3-k. im alright im 1st to act, so i toss out 4 hunge again thinking my top pair is good, and if not i will get someone to fire back...a slow call and a fold. Next card comes a 7.... no flushes, no straights...a slow call im figureing him for jj qq or kj.. i bet 1k again a reluctant call and off to the river we go it was a 9....now this guy seemed like the typed to play a K9 or something silly like that, but i bet into to him sticking with my guts and my original reads. another thousand....thinks it over and comes over the top of me and goes all in....has me covered by a little. with over half of my stack in the pot i seriously consider what he might be doing this with.....he woulndt have a set, cause a n00b like him wouldnt trap....no straights....MAYBE k9 or AK....but after deciding that i had enough in the pot to warrent a call, i did so....i show my k-q..he quickly reaches for his cards and i knew i was beat.....THREE-THREE....flops a set. did i get trapt as my roommate swears i did? i dont think so hes a simple lil guy. everyone gets on my case saying it was only a 200 raise...well KQ isnt a power hand and that was a good enough raise for what i wanted. would i have called w/ 33? NO ... would any REAL player called w/ that? NO....im sorry maybe some wild cannons would have but after the fact, he stated I LOVE POCKET PAIRS, I WAS CALLING ANYTHING.... so appeartently i was drawing dead from the get go...what ever...yea it was only $10 but, it was the $80 that we were playing for that pisses me off...start digging my way out of the ditch i got my self into. think what you will....i dont need shit from the jerk-offs sitting at the table that say it wasnt a steap enough raise....i raise 3 hunge, he calls, i raise 4hunge he calls, i raise 5 hunge, he folds, i get no action...... LOSE-LOSE- situation.........W/E i know i could have lived to see another day, but for once it seemed like the cards were falling in my favor...OBVIOUSLY i was very wrong. i am not going to take a break, cause when ever i do, and i start playing again i get shit from everyone, i took 4 days off...plenty of time for me to gather my thoguhts, which i did, and i cleaned up a lil, i just ran into a POS and as usual they won. Im going back to the web-sites and back to the books, and i will become a BEAST of an omaha player....a different form of poker but alot better calibur players...w/e sorry for ranting towards the end but getting anger out. if you read this and are one of my poker buddies PLEASE leave some comment, or IM me about it. fuck the free world Current Mood: determined Current Music: Silence (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 31st, 2005
2:10 am	1st multi-table tournament ::7-30-05 ::Today I played in my 1st multi-table tournament tonight at Derby Lane. I started out a little nervous, which I think was a good thing because I didn’t go into it being over confident. The table I sat at was a good starting table, some fish, some sharks, luckily I was one of the sharks,[all in all I don’t think I was that far behinde anyone in the room.] The guy I sat next to was one of Jesse’s friends, older guy who I think played for a living, said these events here are easy to win and I think with a decent bankroll, he is right. I over heard him talking to some people and giving them some strategy for the tournament, he said only play premium hands for the 1st hour and a half, and that is what I did. The only mistake I made with in the 1st hour I got trying to steal a pot which I thought I had good odds of winning. The flop came K-7-K , having position I went along with the 3 other players and checked. The turn was a brick, and again was checked to me, which is when I thought my Q-9 was good enough to take a stab at stealing the pot. I threw 200 into the pot and was called by some guy slow playing his K-X…..after that I learned my lesson and tighten up. After about an hour and 15 min. our table got broken up and I left winning only 1-2 pots, which were very small. Thankfully, I had much better luck at my 2nd table. this table was full of big talkers. Most of them would talk a big game, but from what I could tell didn’t back it up much. One kid was talking about a 5-10 game he was going to play after this tournament. Said it was an old game w/ some World Series players. I was sitting next to a kid I got a little friendly with before the game; he seemed like a very knowledgeable and skilled. After seeing that we were just about even in chips, I felt quasi-good about where I was in the tournament. I was playing slightly aggressive at this table to make up for a ridiculously slow first table. only doubling the big blind with my AJ suited, did not revieve any callers, either time I had it. The only pocket pair I had all game actually held up. For once, I had JJ and some kid in the 1 seat made it 600 to call, everyone folded to me where I doubled his bet and he immedeatly called. AK vs. JJ… I was a slight favorite, something along the lines of 54% vs 46%. The 1st visable card of the flop was an ace and I told the table that it was a fun game. Then as the dealer moved her hands I noticed a jack smiling at me. I won a few more hands but then unfortunately they broke the table up and I was sent to table 6. this table I found out was not going to be able to run, and really just wanted to survive until the next table break. My first problem arose when my AQ was raised, I called and another guy went all in. Trying to knock out the all in we both checked all the way to the river because neither one of us had something worth betting, and we were trying to knock out the all in. xxx-x-k. original raiser bet 500, only 100 above the min. bet. A good bet, but I small/min bets are warning signs. Afer thinking for about 4 seconds, I had to fold, knowing my ace high was no good, and his AK was good enough to beat the all in too. Then some fat guy with a huge stack came in and started pushing me around. So now im down to 70 0 chips, and the big blind coming up [400] I think my QJ is good enough to put all my chips in with, not expecting a call from anyone out side the blinds, and expecting the small blind to fold, my play was against the BB. It was only 300 for him to call, and with his stack it was silly for him not to call, not mattering what he had. He did. 2-5 vs. QJ he was about a 60 /40 underdog. As soon as I saw his cards, I said’ great here comes A34…..sure enough the flop came exactly that order leaving me just about drawing dead, or atleast to some incredible odds to beat. All in all , I feel it was a good 1st multi-table expierence. Out of 150, I walked out roughly 40th-30th…I started to do the one thing that my game lacks the most. Odds and percentages. Dan started explaining them really easily to me before I left and I just think that it is something that will take some practicing before I can start doing it on an efficient and winning level. As much as i would like to think its ‘all luck’ i/you have to realize that the world is based off math, and poker is no exception. If you have x amount of cards left in the deck to help you. Your going to win/ catch those cards x%/x amount of the time. So to be able to base my decisions of mathematical probabilities would put me at an exceptional advantage. Finally, I feel that being able to make some of the decisions that I make based solely of physical tells, some general odds and common sense*, by adding a definite mathematical subsidiary to my game would make me a serious contender for what ever the poker gods have in store for me. [* to me common sense is not as simple as it sounds, as far as poker is concerned. You need to stop and thinking about the amount that your opponents are betting, why they are betting that much, what they might have etc. not all things that go through someones mind all the time. Although I know to some of the people who read this, is not an issue, to me things like that are what determine a great player. From a statistical player. Until next time… ps sorry if its hard to read, im tired its 2am and I didn’t read through it. hahah [words:1,064 w00t!] (Comment on this)