SpadeClub T-Shirt

I submitted a t-shirt design to SpadeClub as part of their contest. Voting won't be until March 5, but I hope everyone who has a account with SpadeClub (or make one. lol.) vote for mines!

If I win first, I will buy everyone a t-shirt to represent. Yeah! Haha!

View details and other entries here: www.spadeclub.com/promotions/my-design

Remember, vote for DAVEZ on march 5!

"Yes, we can!"
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updated: I didn't even make it to their final selection. What the heck? That sucks! oh well, at least I get a free shirt still.

Card dead at midnight

Decided to go over to Bay 101 tonight and play a midnight tourney. Buy in $120 with 49 players.

I decided early on that I wanted to gamble and try to chip up fast or go home early with my aggressive small-ball strategies, except this time around I had a interesting table. Not tough players at all, but a bunch of show-boaters who run down the clock in every hand they were in. I was getting a little annoyed by some of the antics that were going on at the table. Some guy kept saying "the nuts" when he showed his hand, when it was only like a pair. He would also do it when other people showed their hands. The dealers kept getting confused as hell and took longer than usual to look at the hands showed, so there would be no mistakes.

This really sucked, as it wasted tourney time and blinds were being raised unevenly between the players. I didn't even get to play a hand in the second levels because of the show-boating! (blinds get raised every 12 minutes).

Throughout the whole tourney, I was basically card-dead with my best hands being AK, 88, 10 10 and a few KJ, KQ, AJ in bad positions. I missed every flop and couldn't even small-ball draws as people just kept over betting the pot by going all in.

I thought I could easily trapped and set things up, but just never had the hands to trap. I'm so sad that I haven't looked down to see AA, KK, QQ, JJ at all in the tourney.

Some mistakes might have been calling a big raise with 36, 27 and 56. I guess I was hoping to get lucky.

I outplayed ppls on couple of flops and think I made good reads, which is what kept me alive for so long. But, I pretty much threw away my aggressive style because didn't want to face the players who had one move. They even sucked me into their game, and I was pushing all in with hands like A5 and KQ, which doubled me up.

I busted in 16th place holding KQ of diamonds and was drawing dead with pocket 9s hit a set on the flop.

What I learned was that I should stick to my game, even when faced with interesting players. So many hands I wanted to see the flop with and something told me I should raise, so I could see a "cheap" flop, instead I opt to limp in and had to fold to big re-raises, or I called big raises and missed.

I'm hoping I will stick to game plan next time I play.

Note to self: Stick to your game, no matter how stupid the other players are playing. Don't get lured into their "game".

So close... 7-card stud session

Went to LC with a co-worker tonight and lost $100 pretty quick in the spread limit game. Two players trapped me when they flopped tripe aces and checked it. Its so sick how I'll always catch the turn card, so it makes me pay them off. Then there was one hand where I tried to bluff with pocket deuces only to get smoothed called and re-raised on the river.

Note to self: Be wary of players who check the flop quickly and bet/raise quickly on the turn. It seems they likely have it.

After that, decided to play 7-card stud. I'm still not sure how to really play this game when people just don't fold. I won only one hand the whole time I played and it was almost jackpot. Here's the run-down:

I'm dealt at 2 10 with a 2 face up. I bring in the bet for $1.
Everyone calls.

Next card: 10. Gives me two pairs. I smooth call the $2 bet.

Next card: 2. Gives me a full house. I raise and a couple players call.
I see one player with three 4's showing.

Next card: 2. I have three 2's showing, no one thinks I have quads.
The one with three 4's bets first.

I smooth call it. Two other players behind calls.

Last card face down is meaningless. I show my quads and asked him if he had quad 4s. He said no, and another guy said if he folded, the 4 would have went to him. "Wth? that sucks!"

Again, so close to that jackpot.

"What? I can't go all-in?" - Limit Hold Em' Poker Tournament

Played in my first LIMIT hold em' tournament this morning at Bay 101 with 68 players. $80 dollar entry with $60 dollar rebuy. I went with three other co-workers and we made a pack that if any of us won the big cash places, we would split the winnings.

I didn't start the day too good, I slept at 3:30am and woke up at 7am. So, I really wasn't in the poker mood. I would have backed out of this, but I was the one who got everyone hyped up for the tournament. But, once we got there... I was excited to play. I love tournaments, but still had doubts about what to do in this limit game.

I played aggressively and two-three bet a lot. I took some pots and took two bad beats on the river. I was the first one to rebuy at my table. My rebuy didn't take long to get short stacked, but I managed to climb up to chip leader at my table for awhile by being aggressive.

Note to self: Aggressive small ball bets work great in early rounds, but also play a solid game to chip up. Aggression small ball also works well in later rounds when blinds are higher. You bet to see "cheap" draws while adding the semi-bluffs.

My best pot was when a aggressive little blind player raised my blinds, and I called with K2 from the big blind. (I think everyone got out of the hand because him and I were the most aggressive at the table).

Flop came out 2 7 9. He bets outs. I two bet. He calls.

Turn comes out a 3. He checks. I bet out. He says "I know I have the best hand" and mucks.

But I bluffed at two wrong times and it cost me, one with miss flush draw and another with a missed straight. I finally had to push with pocket 3's and ran into pocket aces.

Placed in 30th place, but one of my co-workers got 4th place ($680 dollars). He gave us back $100 each and treated us to dim sum afterwards. Good deal!

All in all, I'm not a good limit player, but it was fun. I may try it again someday. I feel I was too aggressive in some pots where I had no outs and totally threw my small-ball strategy out the window, because I thought it wouldn't be too useful in limit poker, but I was wrong. When I think back, smallball would have worked even better in this tournament because of how many ppls see the flop and call you down to the river.

So Next time, watch out.

SpadeClub

I've been feeling sick lately, so my reading abilities have shot to hell at the tables and home games. I decided to use this time to work on my online reading abilities.

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So, I gave up on the 0.01/0.02 cent cash games. I was doing extremely well and making about a 0.80 cents per hour. Playing these games have definitely taught me to have selective aggressivenesses and know when to get value for big hands. But, after two weeks I decided to blow all my winnings into the tournaments. Time to reload.

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Watching Rich play Spadeclub finally got me back into my account to start playing too. The reason why I was thinking to give up Spadeclub was because there are just too many players in the tournaments and the prize are pretty much worthless for the hours you put in.

I played in two last night. One with a field of 244 and I placed 5th.

Played in a sit n go with Rich who got 3rd, and while I was massive chip leader (10k vs. 1k). I still lost! Everytime I had a good hand, I was outkicked. Then when I outkicked the other person, he would pair his kicker. It was frustrating...but at least I proved to myself that I know how to play online poker.

I notice that Rich and I have totally different tournament playing styles. He tends to be tight for most of the time, bets too high on his hands and often make good calls. While I don't particular like this tight style, it seems to work good for him.

Me on the other hand, I play a aggressive small-ball style. So my hand ranges are all over the place from AK to low connectors like 45. Raise with connector and big pairs, betting the same on draws, top pair and mid-pair. I often make bad calls due to my curiosity of just wanting to see what the other person has. I set a lot of traps and often wait for other players to make mistakes. I have found that this has worked extremely well in early stages to give me a good chip accumulation, but fails in the later stages when I can no longer bet on draws without committing myself to the hand.

Note to self: Connectors cost a lot of chips when missed the flop completely at high level blinds. Call with connectors only when in late position during late rounds?

I need to learn late stage strategies as I see myself making more & more final tables lately. :-)