Me (A-A) Qc 7s
I bet, and Chau called again- fifth street:
Chau (x-x) 2d 10h Kh
Me (A-A) Qc 7s 8c
Chaui checked, I bet, Chau raised, I re-raised, and Chau re-raised! At that point I figured Chau had to have kings up or something so I stopped raising. Sixth street:
Chau (x-x) 2d 10h Kh 6h
Me (A-A) Qc 7s 8c As
I caught my best card, but was 100% certain Chau would bet so I check-raised him, and he re-raised me again! Oh man, now it looked like he might just have had a pair of deuces with a flush draw on fifth street, but I actually felt like I had the best hand. Nevertheless, I just called. The River:
I didn’t improve and checked. Chau bet, and at this point I hated my hand, but just had to call. Call I did, and Chau turned up K-K-2 for kings full on the river!
Chau started with pocket kings, sucked out on fifth street, I re-sucked on sixth street, and he crushed me on the river. Pretty big pot for heads up stud.
Ming pulled his usual hit n’ run and I jokingly said, “How much you win Ming, $4000?” I had absolutely no idea and was just kidding around.
Ming counted down his chips and said, “How you know. Exacley. I win exacley $4000.”
Ming is feeling great about being a “champion” now having won a WPT event, and the needle was out from the table. We all called him a TV player, blah, blah, blah… all in good fun.
When asked where he was going, Ming cracked us up with this, “I’m businessman now. Play the poker business. Make the movie. People follow de batroom. I’m swear. People follow come to de batroom talk to me for the magazine!”
That’s Ming speak, and apparently I’m the only one who understands him so I have to translate for the rest of the table.
Before Ming quit, Johnny Chan showed up in a Halloween costume, or so we thought. It was actually a Versace shirt that made it look as though he had tattoos on his arms. Very colorful.
By the time he got into the game, I was killing it. I enjoy short handed poker and feel like my edge is enhanced against fewer opponents, but this wasn’t a case of me outplaying anybody, it was a pure card rush.
I was up $240,000 before I knew it. Then, I started to get a little sloppy thinking it was easy. I wasn’t happy with the way I played Stud tonight at all. I was being far too lazy and just going through the motions.
Very quickly, after a few tough beats I’d lost back $200,000 and was winning just $40,000.
Making a wheel in a three handed, jammed stud H/L pot put me back on track, and after a 6 hour session I walked away winner $128,500.
It’s almost 9:00am as I finish writing this blog and I haven’t slept yet. I finally got motivated to clean the house and do some laundry and went on a cleaning rampage. It had been a while since I tidied up around here and it was looking a little too much like a bachelor pad! I even picked up groceries on the way home.
When I’m in “poker mode” the rest of my life gets put on hold usually. I focus not on shaving or what I’m going to wear, but how quickly I can get to the poker room.
I love being in poker mode, but it’s also important to have balance. Tonight I’m going to have some fun and attend Todd Brunson’s Halloween party.
It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get any sleep before the party, though, as I have a lot of errands to run. Have to take the Lexus into the shop, dry cleaning, Mushu needs to go to the “salon,” and most importantly I have to shop for my costume.
I already know what I need:
-A black curly mullet wig
-tight white jeans
-pointy white boots
-about 10 fake gold necklaces
Everything else I’ll need for the costume, I already have… baby!]]>
Seat Two: Ralph Perry
Seat Three: Me
Seat Six: Abe Mosseri
Seat Seven: Eli Elezra
Seat Eight: Jennifer Harman
Chau showed up about 10 minutes after I did and took the five seat. The game was the usual mix, $2000-$4000 Hold’em, Omaha H/L, Stud, Stud 8, Stud H/L Regular, and 2-7 triple draw.
I jumped right in and played props heads up taking the black suits and my 7 props.
About 20 minutes in, I hit a nice little prop in 2-7 triple draw when I was dealt: Ad Ah Jh Jd 9h. I counted it up, and figured $4000 for the AA, $1000 for the JJ, and an additional $2000 for color, as all my cards where red.
Just as my hand went to the muck I realized… doh! I slept one! I actually had a fourth prop that I missed: 51 points which paid an extra $3000.
Oh well, I’m a props rookie and that’s bound to happen I guess.
My props opponent quit after a short session and I won $11,000 in the props, but would have won $14,000 if I didn’t sleep the 51 points prop.
With no more props to play, it was time to just focus on the poker. Out of the blue, a random guy walked into the room with $40,000 and took the last seat.
Apparently he had played once before as a few of the regulars recognized him. His $40,000 lasted about 30 minutes and while he claimed he was coming back he never did.
Johnny Chan took his seat so we were still 8 handed. There were a few interesting hands on the evening and I’m going to continue the “Who Made the following Play” feature in the forums at www.fullcontactpoker.com.
Basically, I’m going to give you details on a hand and then it will be up to you to figure out who made the play:
In triple draw, I raised with 2-2-2-6-7 and only the big blind called me. The BB drew 3 and I drew 2. I didn’t catch any help on the first draw catching a K and a 6, but when my opponent checked I decided to bet since I had valuable discards, burning two deuces and a six.
On the second draw I caught a J-8 making me a J-8-7-6-2. My opponent who also drew two bet out, and since I had a “convertible” (a hand that I could stay pat with or break) I decided to raise it.
I had position on the hand so if my opponent drew a card, I could stay pat with my Jack. If my opponent stood pat in front of me, well, chances are that a Jack wasn’t good so I could go to the deck and try to make my 8.
My opponent called my raise and stood pat. So much for staying pat, I drew a card hoping to improve. I felt like my opponent had a rough 9, or possibly even a 10 just hoping that I was still drawing.
My opponent checked and I looked down at a… Jack! I got the same card back, oh well. I checked, and my opponent called out, “Jack.”
“Jack what?” I replied suddenly feeling like I had a chance. My opponent turned over the J-8-7-6-5! I ended up winning the hand when I thought I was dead.
So the question I’ll be asking in the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com, will be simple, “Which of the following players had the J-8-7-6-5?”
The next hand of interest happened in Omaha H/L. The SB raised and the BB defended with As Qd Jd 9d. The flop came Ks Js 7h. The SB checked, and the BB bet.
The turn card was the 10h giving the BB the nuts straight. The SB checked, the BB bet, and the SB check-raised.
Rather than re-raise with the nuts, the BB just called. The river was the 8s and the SB bet again. With the nuts straight and the naked Ace of spades, the BB raised. The SB called the raise, and the A-Q scooped the pot!
The question here will be, who was in the BB? Bonus points if you can also figure out who the SB was.
Throughout the night, we saw a wide variety of bizarre drop ins. Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez was there watching for a little while as an invited guest, but several other people walked into the room with cameras trying to take pictures.
They were quickly whisked away by the floor. A couple of drunk girls that looked like they were going to be sick walked into the room looking for a bathroom!
Another foreign gentleman claimed that he wanted to play, but he didn’t know hi-lo games. We overheard the gentleman talking to the floor and let him know that we’d try his games (Stud, Hold’em, Omaha… or so we thought).
He kept telling the floor that he is a 12 time European champion in Pot Limit Stud. That was the only game he really wanted to play. We weren’t about to play that, and the fact that the guy smelled like a toilet didn’t help.
I thought it was Ralph’s soup that stunk, but man the dude was only in the room for a few minutes, but the stink lingered for at least the next 15 minutes!
Another European woman later walked into the room smoking a clove cigarette which also smelled terrible, but nothing like that dude. Apparently she was lost and looking for directions. Totally bizarre.
Yet another player walked in claiming that he wanted to play, and this time Ralph looked at him and then said to the table, “I’ll lay 1000-1 that guy doesn’t play.”
Johnny Chan jumped out of his seat and threw a $1000 chip on the table, “I’ll bet $1000,” he said, “I’ll stake the guy and give him a free roll!”
Johnny was kidding of course, but we all got a kick out of it. It was a fun night. Cracking jokes, good company, and 80’s hits playing in our private room. Anything from Air Supply to Phil Collins and “Sooo sooo sooodio!!” That, and a good diet of Boy George and that song, “Coma coma coma coma come Chamelion… you come and go… you come and gooo oooo.”
Chau loves him some Air Supply and he was rockin’ to the beats all night long. That’ll crack you up, I promise you that!
At about 3:30am as the game was breaking down Allen Cunningham showed up to play. He’s not quite the guy that we were looking to pick up, but hey, a body is a body.
Allen was there to witness an early Christmas gift in my favor. Playing hi lo regular, I made the following hand 7-7-3-3-A-2-K, for two pair and a king low.
My opponent’s board was A-10-10-Q. I turned up my hand and my opponent stared at it for a while and asked, “King what?”
“King seven perfect,” I replied. He then showed me a King in the hole and mucked his hand.
The hand was over and one of the player’s got to thinking, “What did you have? What could you have had?”
It then dawned on all of us that it was impossible for me to scoop with two small pair and a king low. With my opponent’s board reading A-10-10-Q, there are NO three hole cards he could have that didn’t get half! If he had K-J-9 he’d have a straight. If he had two pair he’d win the high!
Wow, that was a nice little gift for me. The game ended up breaking up at close to 4:00am and I was down $105, 500 after 5.5 hours, but also won $11,000 in props for a net loss of $94,500.
As for who made that blunder, that will NOT qualify as a “Who made the following play” at the forums!]]>
7-8-9
3-5-7
2-4-6
2-5-9
5-7-8
3-4-5
I decided to take cards that were all 9 or lower so that it would be easier for me to see them without sleeping them.
Player A’s Props were:
4-5-8 (His big boy which pays more)
Q-9-2
A-10-6
6-7-8
2-3-5
K-4-3
J-9-7
Player B took:
A-K-3 (His Big Boy)
Q-J-10
K-9-6
8-6-3
2-5-7
Q-4-5
A-J-8
Each player also gets a suit, and mine was clubs. Hitting your prop on the flop pays $7000, and if it’s your big boy it pays $10,000. If you hit your prop in your suit it pays triple.
Also, if the middle card on the flop, or the second card dealt in stud is an A, K, or Q of your suit that is another prop that pays $2000.
We also play the Jacks. If you hit the J of your suit on the flop that’s also a prop. If you hit it in the middle it pays $4000, and it you hit it on the side it pays $2000. However, if you hit your J prop with no other card of your suit on the flop it is considered “stiff” and YOU have to pay out.
Also, if the flop contains an A-K, A-Q, or K-Q of your suit that’s another prop worth $3000.
If the flop comes all in your suit that’s another prop that pays $5000. A three card straight flush, well that pays $10,000.
If in Stud, you hit your Jack in front of you as your door card, that pays $10,000.
There’s more, if the flop comes 4-4-4 or 7-7-7 all of the props you have containing a 4 or a 7 pay double. So as you can see from my props, 5-5-5 would be awesome for me especially if I was on for triples (I’ll get to that soon).
Now those are your “basic” props in Stud games and flop games. When you see your prop you have to say, “I see it,” and explain what you see and what you are owed.
There is another very important wrinkle to the game. If you hit a prop, you are, “On for doubles,” meaning that if you hit another prop on the very next hand it’s worth double.
In this case, you have to call out your prop and also mention that you are on for doubles. Something like, “I see your stiff jack and my ace in the middle and I’m on for doubles.”
If you hit a prop when you are on for doubles, you’d now be on for triples. When you are on for triples, all of the props pay triple. So for example, if you hit your “Big Boy” prop (mine is 4-5-6) that would pay $10,000 times 3, or $30,000. I was playing 3 handed, so that would have netted me $60,000.
Wait there’s more! Since we were playing three handed there was an odd suit that nobody had, the diamonds. When you are on for doubles or triples, the diamonds become your suit also. So now, if I were to hit the Jack of diamonds in front of me in Stud, that would pay $20,000 when on for doubles and $30,000 when on for triples.
For triple draw, since there are no flops or up cards the props are a little bit different:
JJ pay $1000
QQ pay $2000
KK pay $3000
AA pay $4000
AK suited pays $2000 ($3000 if it’s your suit)
AQ suited pays $2000 ($3000 if it’s your suit)
KQ suited pays $2000 ($3000 if it’s your suit)
49+ points in hand pays $2000
51+ points in hand pays $3000
53+ points in hand pays $4000
Trips in hand pays $5000
Straight in hand pays $5000
Color in hand pays $2000 (all red cards or all black cards)
Flush in hand pays $7000
Full House in hand pays $10,000
Four of a kind in hand pays $15,000
Straight Flush in hand pays $30,000
A Pat 8 in hand pays $10,000 (five cards 8 or lower with no striaght or flush)
A Pat 7 in hand pays $20,000 (five cards 7 or lower with no straight orflush)
Jack of your suit pays $1000 (also called an activator)
Sound simple enough people? Ok, now remember all that and focus on the poker game at the same time and you’ll be giving your brain a full work out. You see, if you don’t see your prop, or “sleep it,” as they call it, you don’t get paid!
I don’t think I slept any props at all, but there is a slim chances that I missed my activator Jack of clubs in triple draw that may have cost me $1000.
I was keeping track of my props so that I could separate them from my poker results. It was a see saw battle for most of the night, as I was up as much as $44,000 and down as much as $78,000.
When one of the players quit, the props changed slightly in that I now had two suits, clubs and spades.
Oh, and by the way, we played some poker too! I was playing well, but started out ugly as I said. After about 4 hours I think I was stuck close to $200,000 in the poker game.
Jennifer had quit by that point and Chau took her place. I love playing with Chau. If you saw that whole, “I love play pokah,” segment on ESPN you’ll know what I’m talkin’ about. That dude is hilarious!
So anyway, an interesting situation came up in the Stud H/L regular. The regular part basically means that there is no qualifier for high or low. A 9 low is good enough if no one can beat it.
I was in early position with (As-6s) 2d and decided to just limp in and try to get some action… action I got! David Grey raised with the 7c and Abe re-raised with the 6h.
I just called as did David and we took fourth street three handed:
Me: (As 6s) 2d 3s
David: (x-x) 7c 5s
Abe: (x-x) 6h-3d
I decided to continue to slow play my hand and checked. In Hi-Lo regular the lowest board has to act first. David checked, Abe bet, and I wanted to get more money in the pot so I raised it. David called as did Abe. On fifth street, things got crazy:
Me: (As 6s) 2d 3s 2s
David: 7c 5s 9c
Abe: 6h 3d 6d
It was David’s turn to act first and he checked. Abe bet and it was now up to me. This was a really tough decision, one that often comes up in hi-lo game which is why I find the game so interesting.
Hi-Lo regular isn’t my best game as I have loads more experience playing 8 or better, but I do feel like I’m decent at it. The decision lied in whether or not I wanted David in the pot, or not? I really wasn’t sure what to do here.
I had the best low draw, a pair, and the nut flush draw. If I raise and David calls that would be a good result since I’m getting more money in as a money favorite. If he has a 9 low made he would definitely call here. The only way he could fold is if he started with 77 or made a pair of 55 on the turn.
If I raise and he folds, I’m likely looking at playing a worse pair against Abe, albeit with a monster draw. Generally in Hi-Lo regular it makes sense to knock an opponent out so that you increase your chances of getting at least half the pot. That, coupled with getting more money in the pot was my thinking.
I decided to raise it, and I’m still not sure if that was the right play in this situation. Either way, it couldn’t be all that wrong either way, but this game is all about knowing what to do in these marginal situations. That’s where an understanding of poker math becomes very important.
David apparently folded after pairing 5’s. He thought long and hard about calling since he started with 5-6-7 suited and caught 5-9.
I ended up catching a big fat King on sixth street and Abe caught a 4… yuk! On the end, I caught yet another King to give me kings up and a King low.
At this point I’m just hoping that Abe has a low with no straight, flush, trips, or even aces up. I, of course checked and Abe checked behind me.
“Kings up, Abe,” I said. Abe just looked in disgust and then finally revealed that he’d made three pairs! 66,44, and 33, which meant that I had a better two pair and my King low beat his pair of 33 low.
I scooped the pot, but that doesn’t mean I necessarily made the right play. It’s a hand that I need to do a little study on. Frankly, at this point in my poker career there is little about hold’em odds that I don’t have down. The interesting variables you encounter with Stud H/L are fascinating. Again, it just sickens me that the WSOP could care less about poker, about the players, or about protecting the longevity of various poker games. They are more pre-occupied with wondering, “You think if we charge those suckers $3 for a soda they’ll pay it? Eh, why not, screw em’! While we
Stud
Omaha H/L
Stud H/L
Razz
2-7 Triple Draw
Limit Omaha
Pot Limit Omaha
No Limit Hold’em
2-7 NL Single Draw
These are the games that the world’s best enjoy playing, but the WSOP has decided that these players know nothing about what poker is all about. Poker is Hold’em to them, and nothing more.
Poker is dying. Not hold’em of course, but poker as we once knew it is becoming extinct because the people in control aren’t interested in helping poker flourish, they have a bottom line to think about that takes precedence over all else. I have no idea who is at fault so I won
2. Texas Hold’em
3. 7 Card Stud 8 or better
4. Omaha H/L
5. 7 Card Stud H?L Regular
6. Razz
7. 2-7 Triple Draw
8. Pot Limit Omaha ($100,000 cap)
9. No Limit Hold’em ($100,000 cap)
10. 2-7 NL Single Draw ($100,000 cap)
The game changes every eight hands, and don’t worry, the boys have separate props for each of the games. In triple draw, they play the cards in their hand for a wild set of props that includes pair, trips, straights, and flushes.
Anyway, I started out slow, getting stuck about $150,000 rather early on. That’s just not very much money in this game when you consider the fluctuation caused by the cap games. Losing 100 BB in this game is very, very, doable.
For most of the night I just hovered around even, going from stuck about $200,000, to up maybe $30,000. By about 7:30am, though, I hit a cold run of cards and was down as much as $400,000 or so.
I haven’t been playing as much poker as these guys lately, so I didn’t want to go for a marathon session for fear that I wouldn’t stay fresh. So at about 9:00am I called Travis and asked if he could drive me home. It can be really dangerous to drive home when you are that tired. I “could have” driven home, but I was having a tough time keeping my eyes open at the table let alone risk driving all the way home!
When I got off the phone I was stuck $410,000. By the time Travis got there, though, I made a little comeback and at 11:00am, I finally packed it in $127,000 loser after a 10.5 hour session in the $4000-$8000.
So on the night my final tally looked like:
$400-$800 1 hour +$1,600
$2000-$4000 1 hour -$22,100
$4000-$8000 10.5 hours -$127,000
For a total of 12.5 hours and -$147,500
Not my best day at the office, but it wasn’t all that bad really. There were some big losers in that game, and 150 dimes feels like breaking even in comparison.
The props make the game play ridiculously big for some people. I won’t name any names, but one player lost about $1 million in props alone in about 1.5 hours at the table.
As a general rule, when talking about other people’s nightly results, well, you just won’t be hearing about it. I feel as though it’s fine for me to share my results with you all, but it would be highly inappropriate for me to divulge any information on the other players.
My plan was to play again that evening, but I woke up at 6:00pm and was feeling groggy. So instead, I spent the night watching Tivo and plan on getting down there early in the morning to play with the whoever has been playing over 30 straight hours. ]]>
4-5-5
4-6-6
Or any combination of cards that contained all of my prop. If trip 5-5-5 flopped, I’d get paid double. If the 4-5-6 hit in all of the same suit, each player would owe me triple, or $30,000 each.
Now that is just a simple version of props. There are tons of other side bets that go on. When they play props, each player takes 7 different props, one of which is a “big boy” that pays double.
There are stiff jacks, activations, on for doubles, triples, pairs, suits, and all kinds of nutty props that get added into the mix.
Along with my 4-5-6 prop, I also played the Jack of clubs prop. That means, that in the stud games if the Jack of clubs was my door card I’d get paid $15,000 from each player.
The props I was playing were very simple, but can you imagine having to remember 20 different props and how much they all pay, while at the same time focusing on the poker game?
Many hands get stalled as the players are figuring out what props they hit, how much they owe, and whether they are on for doubles or triples.
There is one added wrinkle to props that makes what appears to be a totally random game of chance into a skill of sorts. If you “sleep” a prop, meaning that you don’t see it, you don’t get paid!
Sleeping the props is where some players see added value in the game. With so much money changing hand each street, while at the same time focusing on the poker hands, if you aren’t paying full attention you’ll be missing out on collecting your props.
I only played the props for the last hour of my 8 hour session, and nobody hit their “big boy” against me, and while I came close to hitting the 4-5-6, I never did.
When my session was over I ended up losing the grand total of $4000! You could basically call that breaking even since I lost just 1/2 of a big bet.
All in all, I feel like I’m playing some good poker right now and plan on playing a lot more in the next few weeks. ]]>