Friday Night poker thread

[Giants Fan 85]

There are so many bad beats and coolers over 4 sessions, it's rediculous. I know I sound like a gambling adddict, but my luck has to change. The math says it will if I play more. I'll just give you one example.

 

Guy to my right is a total fish. Russian though, face like a boxer. Smarter than he looks, but that isn't saying much. He actually played position pretty well, besides this one. 1/2 NL. He has like $75 behind and I have over $200. I raise to $10 in early position, and I think he was the only caller. I tend to forget if their were other callers that folded to my c-bet on the flop. Anyway, he calls, flop comes Ks, 10s, 4s. Great flop for me as I have the Ace of spades. So, even if he flopped a set, I have outs. I even have a royal flush draw to go along with my pocket rockets. I think I raised $10 preflop and then $20 on the flop. Turn is the 4h and I push out like 52 or somethimg, it had him covered, he was down to like $45. He tanks, and I know he doesn't have a flush or a boat. Eventually he calls, and I show the aces. "Oh, you got aces?" he says sadly and then the 10h comes on the river and he says, "but I got trips" and shows 9h, 10d for a full house.

 

I was just, stunned. Later I took another bad beat where a guy hit an 8 outer, again I had him all in and covered after the turn with the best hand, river kills me again and I kinda spazzed out. Splashing chips on the table. "All day this has been happeneing.", I said. Was $400 down when I hit a football promo for $250. Took some of the sting off, but still a bad day. That's poker. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

 

Other than that, pretty standard win, and a one buy in loss and an even. Place is dead. Hard to find fish, and like this Lebanese friend of mine said once, "Problem with fish, sometimes fish bite you."

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

Other than that, pretty standard win, and a one buy in loss and an even. Place is dead. Hard to find fish, and like this Lebanese friend of mine said once, "Problem with fish, sometimes fish bite you."

I was bit pretty hard by a grey trigger fish last year. Hurts like hell, the teeth on them are worse than a small shark.

[Giants Fan 85]

Triggers are nasty. Also I hear, really bad at poker.

[jerryskids 5,172]

Are you planning to come up to Phoenix this week? Super Bowl week coming up, there should be lots of fish with lots of money.

[Giants Fan 85]

Are you planning to come up to Phoenix this week? Super Bowl week coming up, there should be lots of fish with lots of money.

Oh, good focking point. Yeah, I might just do that. Gotta be some juicy games at TSR and nobody will know who I am.

 

I got a friends house I could crash at, but fock, prolly worth the 4 hours driving just to go up there and back. If it goes badly I can just drive back home. Not hard to win a grand over a couple hours in a good 2/5 game.

 

I have access to a 1990 Miata ... call it 3 hours driving.

[IGotWorms 3,302]

I'm shocked

[Sho Nuff 719]

There are so many bad beats and coolers over 4 sessions, it's rediculous. I know I sound like a gambling adddict, but my luck has to change. The math says it will if I play more. I'll just give you one example.

 

 

 

Other than that, pretty standard win, and a one buy in loss and an even. Place is dead. Hard to find fish, and like this Lebanese friend of mine said once, "Problem with fish, sometimes fish bite you."

 

First bold: The math says that unless you win another bad beat jackpot (which, is statistically not all that likely)...you will continue to not be good at poker.

 

2nd bold: That is because you are the fish.

[kilroy69 993]

You suck at life and super suck at poker.

[Giants Fan 85]

Actually, in pure honesty, when I was first putting in enough cash hours to qualify for the "40 hours freerolls", I was losing money. I did the math at one point, and figured out I was losing about $3 a day. Less expensive than my smoking habit. Last year that all changed, and it's funny, if I didn't keep track of my wins and losses, I would think that I had lost a lot more than I actually did. The loses for me are more emotionaly painful than the wins. It's not easy, grinding in this crappy little city hoping some fish show up. Everyone knows me by now, I'm a regular or whatever ... other regs don't mess with me. Last year, net profit was 5 figures. You take away the bad beat jackpot, still 4 figures. I crushed a tournament last year for over $4500. Now I gotta pay taxes on it.

 

I had losses though, too, technically I am not a professional gambler. Black jack and stuff, I lost. Technically.

 

Lost money, playing cash games, that is true. If you take away the benefits I got from playimg those games, I lost money. I tip well though. The money isn't important to me. I tipped that dealer that dealt me the BBJ $600. $100 right there, to make it look good. $500 later. Shhhhhh.

[Giants Fan 85]

See, the dealer hasta declare taxes on that tip as income, where me ... as NOT a professional gambler doesn't, if it is offset by taxes. BUT ... it's kinda just the rule in gambling circles that you can do things in a way that will let people get creative with their taxes if they need to. Hence, the $500 the next day.

 

Was funny, I made some phone calls and talked to some people, came back to the table, one guy was sitting there, works as a poker dealer at another casino, old timer, and I said to the young dealer, "You want me to tip you now, or ... take you out to lunch tomorrow." and to his credit the dealer said, "Whatever you want to do." and the old guy said to me, "You shouldn't say that right here in front of the cameras and everything." and I said, "What, I can't buy him lunch tomorrow? Ok, here's $100. I'll buy you lunch tomorrow."

 

That's the pro move, as someone else that will remain nameless suggested.

[Giants Fan 85]

The therapist, the other day ... I can't help it. Quick little thing where she said she was going to help me fast track my therapy and she asked, and I think she even said, "just out of curiosity" what are your degrees in? And it's an AGS and a BFA from the two colleges here in Arizona and an MS from NYU ... and I saw in her face, she thought maybe I studied psychology, which of course i did, but just a couple classes, basic stuff. "Uhhh.. Digital imaging. Computer design." I read her mind, right in front of her.

 

She was smart, she quickly sized up that I was for real and she said she had 34 years experience. Thinks therapy would be good, but I will meet with a psychiatrist in the near future and get that persons opinion, and then I will make a determination or not of whether or not I should apply for SSDI based on my back issues and possible craziness.

[Sho Nuff 719]

4 figure profit...woooo

[Voltaire 4,554]

You suck at life and super suck at poker.

You have that reversed.

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

Your luck does not have to change. The deck of cards you play today has no bearing on the deck you play tomorrow. It's a different deck. Get it? Besides, poker is a skill game over the long haul, and if you were any good you wouldn't be crying about luck all the time. If there was a poker team and you had to try out you would get cut. Face it, if you constantly claim you have bad luck then luck has nothing to do with it. You have bad skill.

[Giants Fan 85]

If I legit qualify for SSDI ... it's not me you should be angry with, it's the law, if you don't approve. Even my Mom today doesn't understand, "Lean over this counter that's too low for you and fold up this stuff ..." "Mom, this is the kinda stuff that really hurts my back." Ok, go get those 2 Heavy Bamilike stools and move them out to pack in boxes .... and there it was ... again today, the "sunk cost". Neweer cracked and repaired Acrican stool we have been shipping back and forth for 10 years ad never sold. Like a $200 item. "Mom, didn't we agree ... this is a sunk cost. You could sell this for a thiusand dollars and you would still lose money. Do you need it for display or something?" and she agreed ... that particular thing has cost us way more money than we can ever sell it for, and it's time to stop putting an effort, and cost into trying to sell it. Shnk cost, let it go. Good money after bad.

[Giants Fan 85]

Your luck does not have to change. The deck of cards you play today has no bearing on the deck you play tomorrow. It's a different deck. Get it? Besides, poker is a skill game over the long haul, and if you were any good you wouldn't be crying about luck all the time. If there was a poker team and you had to try out you would get cut. Face it, if you constantly claim you have bad luck then luck has nothing to do with it. You have bad skill.

Right. The two outer I lost, where the guy was like 4% and the 8 outer where the guy was like 17% on my -$400 session ... when all the chips went into the middle, that was skill, and when the wrong cards came on the river, that was luck. It's called variance. No matter how unlucky I may be, if I am making better decisions than my opponents, I will make money. In the short term luck is big factor, but not in the long term.

 

It's called variance. I am not pulling that out of my ass, it's a real thing.

[Giants Fan 85]

What most casual players don't undrstand is that just beating the rake and the tip is hard. $5 rake in most casinos, low stakes cash games. $5 max rake per hand. So, it behooves you to play a style where you either don't play at all, lr you play a big hand. But I digress.

 

If you can just beat the rake and you tip dealers properly, you are already a wining player. Making a profit after that, much harder than most people realize if you are putting in a significant number of hours each year and have a decent sample size.

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

Tip the dealer at the end of your session if you have won. Not on every hand you win.

[Giants Fan 85]

Let me give you an example of a move I made during that session that was successful.

 

Boisterous Asian to my left is very active and new to the table. I see some players struggling to adjust, and then call him down, when I have position, with ace high ... and then he bets like $50 on the river. I have like $150 behind. I thought about it for a second. Flop was 88x and I called him down like it hit me and I was trying to keep him on the hook. I mostly just felt like his range was ONE ... Big pair, QQ, woke up with it ... TWO .... Big ace ... has my 7 kicker beat, THREE ... AIR ... my ace high might be good. So, I tripple range merged and went all in, and he Holywooded before folding. Dealer sat there stunned for a second and I said, "That's it, he folded. You can push me the pot now."

 

Fold is weak, can't call because 22 has me beat ... shove, and make it look good. That's skill. And balls.

[Giants Fan 85]

Tip the dealer at the end of your session if you have won. Not on every hand you win.

I put a one dollar chip on top of my cards and I tip the dealer that dollar on pots from $10 to $50. From $50 to $100 I will tip $2. Over $100 I will tip $2 or more. Pots under $10 I don't tip.

[Mile High Drunk 13]

Pai Gow is more your speed.

[Giants Fan 85]

Unless it's this one chick that I am pretty much in love with. She's like a living metaphor ... 25 years old, hot now, but she is kinda big boned. She has a future as a fatty if she's not carefull. But she's a sweet open person. Wears here heart on her sleeve, and she's even a Giants fan. Native American ... i love her, and she knows it. Lotta guys love her. She has seen me really angry. She deals me the worst cards, it seems ... and I love her company. Cost of doing business I guess.

 

Jewey dealer with a weird eye that wants to ask me ff questions ... i always win when he's dealing. I believe it's bad luck to be superstitious, and we are raised to see patterns where they don't exist ... but I see patterns.

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

I put a one dollar chip on top of my cards and I tip the dealer that dollar on pots from $10 to $50. From $50 to $100 I will tip $2. Over $100 I will tip $2 or more. Pots under $10 I don't tip.

That's not what you should do. Like I said, tip at he end if you win. Maybe part of your bad "luck" is giving away a portion of your bankroll (ammunition)

[Giants Fan 85]

That's not the proper way to do it, at least in this casino. Each dealer keeps their own tips and they rotate from table to table about every 45 minutes. So, if you play a 4 hour session, win 10 hands, you tipped $10 o $20 to various dealers and not one big toke to the lucky one that dealt last.

 

Rake is a bigger expense. But part of the rake also goes into the promotional fund, which is where the money for things like bad beat jackpots comes from.

[mobb_deep 917]

You're missing the big picture here. You always lose, so you should never need to tip.

[Giants Fan 85]

Another hand happened the other day, I limped in with A3 suited ... I limp, comes around to the blinds and they look at each other, "Chop? let's chop." They can just take their money back if nobody else is in the hand, chop. I'm like ... Hello! i limped over here, and I flop 2 pair. A3X, checks around. Turn is a brick. Checks around. River is a three, and ... I cant remember exactly what happened ... i bet $10 on the river with my full house and was called by both players, and one guy showed ace 9 or something and I said, "Full house." turned my cards over and the dealer started to push the chips to the other player .. "Whoa! Full house!" Also she assumed I checked the flop and dealt the turn but I hadn't checked. "Floor!" and I said, "It's ok, I was gonna check anyway."

 

I did not tip that hand, and the pot was over $10. Pleasse, focking pay attention. I got money on this game you are dealing.

 

After the hand I commented, "I river a full house, and the whole time it was like I was never even acknowldeged for being in the hand." The other players laughed. "It's a timing thing. Disrupts my timing." I was actually pretty pissed off. Dealer dealt me great cards and then focked up the whole paying attention part of the game, didn't know wtf was going on. No tip for you. I been waiting 2 hours for that hand and you butchered it.

[kilroy69 993]

You have that reversed.

How about you super suck at life and at poker.

[Giants Fan 85]

How about you super suck at life and at poker.

I would weigh it more in the super suck at life ... only kinda suck at poker.

[GobbleDog 815]

Don't tip and save yourself a bunch of money. The hot fat chick and hook-nosed dealer will hate you, but to hell with them.

 

What's the worst that could happen?

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

Yeah, fock the dealer. Why should they get a dollar every minute and a half for doing next to nothing?

[Giants Fan 85]

Because I know these people, and I know that they make less than minimum wage. It's a cost of doing business.

 

In the end, we are paying:

 

Rake, up to $5 per pot, which in itself is almost unbeatable at a table with short stacked regs.

Tipping, as described varies on pot size, and service of the dealer to do a good job.

 

And then we are gaining:

Comp $ at a buck an hour, sometimes more (got an xtra $10 tonight because a local bbal game was on)

The competent service of the employees that like us as a patron and want us to do well, so they get tipped and do a better job

Promotional opportunities - like bad beat jackpots, etc.

 

95% of people do not make a profit in the long term. It's very hard to just break even.

[Giants Fan 85]

Migh as well just keep going here .... This is now, FRIDAY NIGHT POKER THREAD.

[Giants Fan 85]

Ok, so ... this was one of my most interesting sessions in a long time. I sat down, looked around and counted 4 players I have played with before that are hyper aggressive types. They play a mixture of TAG and LAG that is actually really hard to beat, but the good news is there's a lot of money to be made with a little rungood.,so,,armed with $300, I buy in for $120. Wasn't long before I semi-slow played aces where I shoved on the turn, and this Hawaiin looking dude calls, I show aces .. he pays me off. Then, he called a clock on this other, white guy who was also aggressive and steaming, so then he kept calling a clock on Hawaiin guy. So they are all pissy, and I mostly stay out of it. Both of them were burning through hundos like nothing. One by one, these young kids that think they are so smart, and saw me playing tight, but aggressive with my big hands, and winning. One chipped up and left pretty much right away, but 2 kids that were steaming kept playing. Then one kid chipped up and left, think he said he was stuck like $500 on the day, but he walked with $250. New guy shows up, wants to buy in for $500 but $300 is the max. I am licking my chops, there is like 3 grand on the table. Then this hand happened.

 

Hawaiian dude raises in ep to $20. Not a big raise in this game, and I call with Ac 10c. I have $500 behind and he has me covered. I bought in for $120 and ran it up, so that's all I am into the game for. Decided it was a good opportunity for "shot taking", but I was also about 25 minutes away from calling it a session. So, I call and the flop comes Qc, 9c, 7h. Technicaly I have a royal flush draw, but also only ace high. It's a really good flop for me, and Hawaiian dude bets $35. I re-raised to $100. Hawaiian dude tanks but eventually re-raises to $300, asking me the whole time, "Do you have AQ?" and I am 90% sure he has KK.

 

Now, I know, if I shove he is committed and will call. So effectively I am getting 2-1 on a shove, and I figure I am 50/50 to win the hand. It was all Hollywood though, as he had flopped a set of nines and was never folding. So there I am, like 15 minutes from when I planned to end the session, and I am either gonna win about $900 on the day, or lose $120.

 

Turn comes Ks. Picked up outs.

 

River comes, 4s. I muck my cards. Short bought for $20 in order to be there for a drawing, lost that before the drawing, end of session.

 

So, afterwards, I am standing there observing the table, I tell the guy what I had, and that I put him on KK. He says, "Sick. You shoved on a draw for a $1k pot?" and I said, "I was ready to go. You wanna flip for grand, why not?"

 

I mean fock, I am into the game $120, got a really good chance of booking a big win, and I lose, it's a small/standard loss. Even with a set, I am getting the right price to shove there.

 

Just need to suck out one time.

 

Oh also got aces twice, won with them once. I am 1-2 with pocket aces on the year.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

GF, sorry I was pretty hard on you last week.

[Giants Fan 85]

I saw a funny thing about being a poker pro in 2 plus five forums. The guy listed five things about how an employer might look at a gap in your resume, if you didn't want to put in "professional poker player".

 

He listed 5 responses, all bad, and one was:

 

It says you earned a profit of $27.32 an hour over a sample size of 500 hours. My uncle knows a guy that every time he plays he wins like $500 in a couple hours, so you must not be that good.

 

Who was it here ... Niki? Played like three times in her life, live cash game. I've got in 5 sessions in 2015. Stuck about $400 on the whole deal. Coulda been up. Coulda been a poosay and folded, and been even. Took a shot, and I missed.

[Giants Fan 85]

GF, sorry I was pretty hard on you last week.

NP dude.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

The poker program devised by computer scientist Michael Bowling and his colleagues at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, along with Finnish software developer Oskari Tammelin, plays perfectly, to all intents and purposes.

 

That means that this particular variant of poker, Texas Holdem Limit, can be considered solved. The algorithm is described in a paper in Science¹.

 

The strategy the authors have computed is so close to perfect “as to render pointless further work on this game”, says Eric Jackson, a computer-poker researcher based in Menlo Park, California.

 

“I think that it will come as a surprise to experts that a game this big has been solved this soon,” Jackson adds.

 

 

http://www.nature.com/news/game-theorists-crack-poker-1.16683

 

 

Get the computer algorithm. Play online. Profit.

[Giants Fan 85]

Yeah, everyone is talking about how computers have "solved" Texas Hold 'Em. But what's more interesting to me is that 10 years ago, if you said the words "implied odds" or "independant chip model" to a group of regular poker players, maybe one in 50 would be able to tell you what those things are. That's changed. Everyone at least, the majority of players today in a casino that are not just total gambling addict losers at least half have heard about "GTO" or Game Theory Optimal. So that's the new thing that informed live players are trying to incorporate. It's interesting stuff.

[Giants Fan 85]

Also, of note, I did not read your article, but I remember reading another one, and it took massive computing power to "solve" Texas Hold Em, where even solved you can lose in the short term if you are unlucky.

 

it's not like you can just download some "algorithim" and get rich or there would be some kind of gold rush going on right now. Bots today are not sophisticated enough to beat a good human brain over the long haul. Yet.

[Sho Nuff 719]

So he had trip 9s...you put him on kk...which still was beating you and would have gotten him trips on the turn...and you pushed on a draw.

 

Cool story...you played it like the people you call a fish. Reverse your hands and say Hawaiian guy hits his draw...youd be here whining about a bad beat and how the guy played like a fish and got paid iff.