Poker Timeline

1855 Draw Poker

1945 Stud Poker, 5 card evolves into 7-card 

1965 Hold em

1970 first WSOP

1997 On line poker born

2006 USA bans online poker with UIGEA

2011 USA shuts down poker sites, seizes $$. 

2013 States begin legalizing online poker. First NV, then NJ, soon more. 

The Queen City Classic

Cincinnati, Ohio is known as the Queen City and beginning on March 12th and continuing for the next 12 days, the Horseshoe Cincinnati will be hosting the Queen City Classic Poker Tournament. I don't really know what makes it a classic, but the tournaments are in the format and style of those held at the World Series of Poker.

The view from day one looks like it will be fairly well attended, although primarily by the Midwestern players and not the bigger names from WSOP or even many of the circuit grinders.

I am looking forward to getting out of the weather in Scottsdale for a while. I've been having some of the worst hay fever allergies I can remember.  Hopefully, this will be a brief seasonal thing and things will be better when I return.

Need to Vent. KK vs AA

Sometimes when you play poker, the cards just don't go your way.  Yes, it's a game of skill and you need to think of the "long run" and the odds and the law of large numbers and all that but when the cards go against you in the short run, it sucks.

Recently I was in a tournament and had been running nicely, taking a few pots here and there and building up my stack losing only a few small pots.  Then I was dealt a pocket pair of kings.  KK. Cowboys. The second best starting hand you can have.  You only get pocket kings about once in 220 hands, so when you get them, you want to cash in on them.  The best way is to get an opponent heads-up and as long as he doesn't have pocket aces, you are about a 4 to 1 favorite or better, like 9 to 1.  Of course, if he does have AA in the hole, your kings are about a 4 to 1 underdog, but that doesn't happen very often. Well, at least not to most Texas Hold'em poker players.  Unless, of course, you are me.

Of course, the player in the Small Blind looks at his cards and raises.  I re-raise all in and he calls, showing me his two aces.

So I do the numbers.  It turns out that at a table with 9 players, if you are holding KK, the probability that any one of your opponents is holding AA is about 3.5%.  About 1 out of every 28 or 29 times you have KK you should expect to run into AA.

I had KK three times over the last 6 hours or so that I have played Texas Hold'em.  That in itself is something.  In 6 hours I probably was dealt around 180 hands.  Seeing that you only expect to get KK once every 221 hands, it is a bit unusual to get KK three times in 180 hands.  What is astounding is that 2 of the three times I had KK, I wound up facing an opponent holding AA.  Simply astounding.  To make matters worse, the final time I had KK I improved to three of a kind and was ahead until an ace showed up and my kings were a very strong second place finish - the worst place to be in a poker game.

Hopefully, things will turn around for me.  I hope its in a big money game!!!

Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam" ("Born To ...

This should put a smile on your face Republican or Democrat!

How to play JJ

As is getting to be my typical Scottsdale afternoon, I did my morning house chores then headed out to the Talking Stick for a few hands of $2-$3 Spread Limit $3 to $300 Hold'em.  Some of that experience is detailed in an earlier post.

I had won a couple of big pots and was feeling quite good about things and a new player sat down to my left.  The lady won the first hand she played.  "Welcome to the table!"

A little friendly table talk led to a discussion of the hands that are just horrible for us.  She declared that pocket jacks were just the worst and I countered with pocket kings being the hand I have lost the most money with in cash games over the years.  It is because they are so strong!  I told her that I lose a lot less with pocket jacks because I feel I can get away from them when they are losing.

A few hands later, here I am on the button again with another pocket pair again and it limps around to me again and I raise again (to $20) and the same guy that went in all in when I had 99 goes all in again, this time with over $100 and a fairly tight player in front of me calls him.  Now what?  I looked at the lady to my left, told her that I was doing this just for her and I showed her my pocket jacks as I tossed them face down toward the dealer.

Wouldn't you know it, the tight player was just sitting there with pocket kings waiting to see a raise he could re-raise.  He won the pot.  The guy that kept raising all in before the flop lost his third buy-in.

I think it's kind of funny that I had to fold those jacks when a tight player called the all in.  I would have been just too embarassed after having told that lady that I didn't mind pocket jacks because I usually didn't lose a big pot with them. I just couldn't get into a three way all in huge pot and lose with pocket jacks.

In the spirit of pocket jacks being a tough hand to play I thought I would share this video by Marty Smith demonstrating how to play pocket Jacks.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

The Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick has what I think is an odd rule for a No Limit Game: Maximum 3 raises.  OK, it's not really a No Limit game, it's 2-3 spread limit with a max buy-in of $300 and a max bet of $300, but those rules make it play like No Limit - except the 3 raise thing.

Actually, I don't really like it.  I prefer four raises, or no max on raises. T. J. Cloutier says in his book about playing NLH that when you see the fourth raise, it's not A-K or Jacks, it 99% pure Aces.  Maybe yes, maybe no but here is how things worked out for me in today's $2-$3 game at the Arena:

I was comfortably ahead, after taking down the self proclaimed internet whiz, and was on the button with 9-9.

After seeing a bunch of limpers, I thought I might try to muscle my way to a small pot by raising to $25.  I got a call from a very pleasant playing companion in the Small Blind right next to me followed by an all in raise for about $72 from the first limper who had shoved pre-flop a few times earlier, once taking a small pot uncontested, once getting busted with A-Q.  So when he shoved, I re-raised it to $125 to try to isolate him.  As the Small Blind started putting all of his $250 or so into the pot, the dealer said, "That's a cap." And took only enough for the call.  I had raised on the button.  The limper re-raised and when I made that third raise, we reached the three raise limit, so calling was the only option left for him.

My immediate thought was that I might be in trouble if he was thinking of putting in the fourth raise, but he only called my first raise, so something was not kosher.  The thought even crossed my mind that I wanted to ask him if he would like to just check it down, but with a third player in the hand, that smacks of collusion, and I didn't say anything.

The flop was a rainbow of small cards and the Small Blind checked, so I happily checked behind him.  Then a miracle happened.  A nine hit the board on the Turn.

"I check."

"Sorry sir, but I have to bet now." Slid out $150 to cover his remaining stack.

"You must have made your set."

"Exactly!" With a smile, happy to take the side pot uncontested.

The Small Blind then mucked his two queens face up.  The dealer turned them over, indicated that I had won the side pot and then, to rub salt in the wound, puts a queen out on the River.

"You know you should have never been able to see a flop because I wanted to raise you off and you damn sure shouldn't have been able to see the Turn but I was being nice and checking it down now I'm losing because I'm bein' a nice guy and I don't play like that. I play to win and maybe it's time for me to go when I start losing money because I'm being a nice ..."

I couldn't hear the rest of his speech because by that time he had already collected his things and was walking out mumbling to himself.

The all in player mucked his hand without showing it.

The three raise rule saved me.  Had our friend in the Small Blind been able to put in that fourth raise, I would have lost the pot.  If I folded pre-flop, I lose and if I call, we both get to see the River card which would have given him the set over set winner.

The rule prevented him from playing it the way he should have and cost him the pot.  Of course, nothing stopped him from betting the flop - when he was ahead - except maybe the feeling that he might be up against AA or KK. Or maybe he was just being a nice guy...

In any case, things might have turned out very differently had there not been a maximum three raises at the Arena.

Main Event 2013

The Main Event begins today. Day one will last three days (1a, 1b, 1c). We will likely have about 6500 total players.