I have no experience playing live poker. Zip. Zero. Zilch. (Who knew there were so many words starting with Z?) Since several of my friends expressed an interest in starting a home game, this weekend seemed it would finally prove to be the beginning of a beautiful thing.
Alas, it’s not in the stars. “Life” somehow managed to take priority over poker and so the home game has been postponed. I was pretty disappointed until I remembered that after a mere three-hour drive, I could play LIVE CASINO poker! Make room for this fish! I have a lot of research to do. I need to learn about appropriate tipping and the suggested buy-in. I don’t even know if the game is limit or no limit! Hopefully, Maudie will fill me in on the details I can’t find on the web 
Last night playing .10/.25 NLHE on UB, I was dealt AK, KK and QQ three hands in a row. AK, took a small pot when nobody wanted to call my preflop raise. KK won a sweet pot when I caught my set on the flop. QQ though! Ah, the ladies. I realize why so many people hate the Hilton sisters. Since this was my third $2 preflop raise in a row, I expected people to think I was bluffing and call. Several players did call, and I rubbed my hands together and thought, “Here kitty, kitty!” Flop comes J62 rainbow. Check to me, and I bet a 1/3 of the pot. 2 callers. The turn is a lovely Q. “Yes!” I shout, and cackle madly. Bets around, and when the smoke clears, I’m left in the pot with the big stack. This guy is sitting at a $25 max buy in table with $100 in front of him. The river falls, and I see dollar signs: 6! With no over cards on the board, this is one sexy boat and I can hardly sit still. I put this guy on something like AJ or even J6. When the hand started, I was up 3x my initial buy in on that table and so I made a pot sized bet. He raises me the minimum. I reraise, pushing all in and start dreaming of where I’ll spend the money. He calls and I get ready to take a screen shot of the biggest single pot I’ve ever won.
Suddenly, I notice “Winner” is flashing in the wrong place - above his name! Surely there is a mistake! But no, the computer was right. His cards? 66. He won my $100 pot.
(your fish status has increased by 1)
(your fish status has increased by 1)
Ouch. Undaunted, I played a bit more and when I shut down for the evening, I’d made up my losses and then some. I came away from the session with a lesson more important that money: Fold QQ preflop.
I’m headed to Google my fingers off and get ready for my live poker initiation this weekend! Make way! Here comes dead money!
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 9:07 AM PDT
3 Comments »
Is there an instruction booklet on how to be a “good” poker player? If so, will someone send me a copy because I don’t understand why so many poker players think we cannot/should not be nice to each other. Personally, I enjoy friendly conversation when I’m in a room. During an online texas hold em tournament last Saturday, several of us at my table were talking and enjoying ourselves. I don’t remember the details of the hand, but I had a chip lead over one of the friendly guys (FG) and he went all in. I called and wished him good luck. Another player didn’t understand why I’d wish him good luck. He said poker was about being aggressive. “Maybe so,” I said, “but it is possible to be aggressive without being rude.”
I also learned a bit about how other players perceive me when someone else (SE) said, “Jaxia is aggressive. She is not going to back down.”
Me: I’m working on it. Sometimes it gets me in trouble because I hang on to a hand too long. I’m new to this so I’m still learning.
SE: That’s hard to believe.
Me: I just started playing 3 weeks ago or so.
FG: Well, you are doing a good job. Keep up the good work!
It was good to learn that people view me as an aggressive player with experience, and don’t think of me as a fish! I wound up bubbling out in that tournament, but I placed 14th out of 500+ in a tournament I played on Friday - Good enough for $21.
I’m still playing the $.10/.$25 NLHE tables on UltimateBet
. I worked off $30 of my bonus and with the $120 I made last weekend, I’m developing a nice bankroll there. My tournament play still needs a lot of practice and my SNG play is atrocious. But, overall, my poker game has improved tremendously. My plan is to keep reading books and play as often as possible!
But, I won’t be around this weekend. We’re heading to California bright and early in the morning for a long, relaxing weekend. I hope your weekend is equally calming!
(Oh! Thanks to Maudie, I found out there is a poker room 3 hours away from me. Anybody up for a road trip?)
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 12:57 PM PDT
7 Comments »
Are there any other computer geek gamers out there who moonlight as poker players? While reading through Paul Phillips’ journal, I ran across an entry that compared MMORPGs and poker.
He said,
What really had me laughing is “After you play a couple hundred thousand hands, you get over the thrill and learn a grind that is reminiscent of MMORPGs but with a more lucrative outcome for the investment.” I think of all the hours I spent in college waiting for monsters to regenerate so I could slay them and level up, and come to think of it is rather similar to sitting at an online omaha table waiting for the nuts.
(Paul is responding to a comment from here)
I remember thinking I was uber because I had a full set of Singing Steel for my bard, camping on Sister Island and my first trip to the Planes. I’ve spent hours waiting for a mob to spawn, only to be KS’d or have someone loot the precious lore item I needed. “Those were the days!”
After the griefers in EQ, taking time to find optimal table dynamics or having someone suck out on me isn’t so bad. At least in poker, the mobs drop real cash instead of pp! Be wary of players who con red though! 
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 3:10 PM PDT
6 Comments »
I spent most of the weekend playing .10/.25 NLHE. The max buy-in of $25 is still a lot of money to risk, so I decided to sit down with $10. My good luck fairy was in town and I had an amazing run. At one point Saturday night, I had $75 at table 1, $45 at table 2 and $20 at table 3. Since the max buy-in is only $25, when someone joins the table and sees $75 in front of me, they know I’m ahead. While I realize people go all-in with crap all the time, this exchange made me wonder if it was because of my stack-size. After taking a particularly bad beat, I said, “ballsy call.” The player responded, “Yeah, but you can afford it.”
Is it a good thing, or a bad thing, to sit at a table with more than the max buy-in?
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 10:11 AM PDT
5 Comments »
Have I mentioned how much I love my Tivo? Shame on me for not doing so! It’s the greatest thing. If you don’t have one, you should get one!
I have a wishlist set up for anything with “poker” in the description or title. It recorded Legends of Poker and I finally got around to watching it last night. In the description, the show called itself a documentary, so I was a little leery of what I might find. I put on my skeptical goggles and pushed play.
Wow, am I ever glad I did. The show focused on the life of Doyle Brunson and I never realized some of the stuff he’d gone through. Did you know he was scouted to be a pro basketball player while he was in college but broke his leg in a freak accident at work? It didn’t heal right and messed up his chances. When his daughter was a freshman in college, she died in her sleep from bulimia complications. And that’s just a little of what he’s gone through!
He said two things that really made me think:
Life is just
a thin trickle of blood.
And
You figure out what’s important in life. You can’t drive but one car, you can’t sleep but in one bed. And I’ve got a car, and I’ve got a bed. So, I don’t really need to do anything else.
If you haven’t seen Legends of Poker, I highly recommend it.
Posted by Jaxia as Poker, Quotes at 10:27 AM PDT
2 Comments »
Yesterday while working on my resume, I received an email from Ultimate Bet offering a 50% bonus. 50%! How could I pass that up?
In an admission to my total n00bness, I’d made the (wise?) choice to cut my teeth playing limit games from day one. I thought it would keep me from doing anything too stupid with my money while I was still trying to learn the basics.
However, I was ready for a different flavor and sat down at a NLHE .25/50 table with $10. I told myself I’d just play a few hands to get a feel for UB. Does it ever work out that way?
I didn’t think so.
Next thing I knew, I had $16. Cool, I thought, when I get down to $15, I’ll stop. A few hands later, I’m looking at $27. Wow! I’ll play it down to $25 and then stop. Plugging away on my resume, I check back and see $31, and then $37. Holy cow! I’ll play it down to - Are you crazy? It’s time to stop!
I pocketed over $27 for 30 minutes of play!
I didn’t play for long, but my early review of UB is positive. I liked the feel of the interface. I noticed the “fold and show” option, which I think is cool. (I didn’t use it, mind you, but it’s still cool.)
Joanne will be happy to hear I was just playing one table
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 9:44 AM PDT
3 Comments »
I’d planned on making an uber post, but something came up: I just placed in my first tournament! Wahoo!
It was a $2 satellite into a WSOP qualifier. 223 people entered and for every $33 in the prize pool, someone got a ticket to the qualifier. After rebuys and add ons, we had enough for 43 seats and $13 for 44th place. For most of the tournament, I was in the top 10, but then I made a few bad calls and dropped down around 30th. Antes and blinds were sucking me down, but with 50 people left, I was determined to hang on.
With 46 people left, T2400 after I post the BB and blinds at 2000/4000, I was dealt Ad Qd. When it gets close to the money, do most tournaments end up being folding wars? For several rounds in a row, my table just folded to the big blind. I thought the same thing would happen for me, but a guy goes all in in front of me. I considered calling, but decided it wasn’t worth it to bubble out. I folded, and would have won when my queens paired and nobody else improved. Hindsight and all that…
Anyhow - on to the good stuff! We finally get down to 44 and are playing hand for hand. The blinds are getting close again. I realized $13 looked good to me since I didn’t want to sit through another tournament. I go all in and my pair gets out kicked. I’m out in 44th place, good for $13!
(Turns out, if I had folded, I would have advanced because someone else went out the same hand but started with more money)
*hums a song* I’m in the money!
Look for me as Jaxia on Poker Stars! See you at the tables!
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 1:52 PM PDT
6 Comments »
I noticed a big problem after playing online my first few times. I saw too many flops. Anywhere from 65% to 75%! I’m sure I’ve already been tagged as a serious fish, but after asking around, I think I found my solution:
Multi-Tabling
Yes, yes. I know the gurus tend to say multi-tabling is for people who’ve already mastered all the basics and aren’t still trying to find someone who will tell them what CO means. But, if you are anything like me, you might try it, too.
See, my problem wasn’t that I didn’t know which hands I should play. I did plenty of reading (including Winning Low Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones) and with few exceptions, knew the basic rules of a good starting hand. Then why am I still playing so many hands? Call it boredom, ADD, sheer eagerness or anything else that says, “Must.Click.Call.Button.” I wanted to play!
So, disregarding all the naysayers, I tried multi-tabling and it did WONDERS for my profit margin. I only played two tables, but I enjoyed my time spent playing more and made more money — which is what counts, right? I still played a lot of not-so-good hands (as you’ll see) but for the night, I made 100xBB. That’s AFTER I paid my way into a tournament. Yes, yes, these are low-stake limit games, but still — 100xbb and tourney entry fee!
The road had a few potholes. I struggled a bit trying to figure out bets when I had two hands going, but it didn’t take too long to get into the swing of things. I also tried to play simultaneously at two different sites. This feat requires faster decisions, which I have yet to master. Should I call? Should I raise? While trying to decide, the other site kept popping up and asking for attention. Down boy!
But, I’m still pleased with things overall!
As for the tourney, I busted out around 325 out of more than 1500 people. Even then, I only busted out because I purposefully went all in with a marginal hand because I was ready to go to bed. For the most part, I thought my play was decent. I was called stupid in chat for my play on this hand though:
I’m a close second in chips and have been working on my aggression factor. I’d been fairly successful in getting people to fold to my raises. I look down to see K3s. I raise and get a few callers. Flop comes 733. The guy immediately after me is chip leader and calls my raise, along with others. Turn comes 3. Leader stays in and reraises me. I debate going all in, but get greedy and don’t want to scare him off so I just call. River comes 7. I’d seen quite a few pocket pairs, so 7s scared me. I bet the pot and he reraises me. Scared of pocket 7s, I just call. Cards flip — he had one 7 and I win the pot.
Some guy not in the hand called me stupid for not reraising him with quads. What do you think? Was I silly to be worried about bigger quads?
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 4:14 PM PDT
7 Comments »
I got my first four of a kind!
In order to work on hand selection, I’ve been playing a limit .02/.04 game. Now, this hand isn’t a good illustration that I’m actually learning my lesson. But, I’m SO excited that I made my first four of a kind that I’m still going to talk about it 
I’d been playing for about 30 minutes and I’m up about 20 cents. I look down at 10d8d. I’m on the button, and when it gets around to me, I only have to call the BB. I press the button, and I’m in the hand. Flop comes Kd10s5d and gives me middle pair and a flush draw. I knew I shouldn’t really be in the hand, so I’m not willing to chase the flush draw. With a king on the board, my pair of tens doesn’t really look promising. However, when the action made it around to me, there was only one bet and so I called. Turn comes 10h. Woo! People are firing like crazy. I was still worried someone might be on the flush draw but in previous hands, the table had been fairly loose, people calling and raising with major rags. It was no surprise that we maxed out the betting. River comes: 10c! I hit four of a kind! People are STILL firing at the pot like crazy. I told you it was a loose table! I reraise when it gets to me and get 3 callers to the showdown. I won a dollar on the cheap tables in one pot! I was pretty happy with myself
I played for a bit longer, still working to improve my game. Lemme tell ya, it is hard to toss those rags preflop when I hit 4 of a kind with them! I struggled a bit, but I was proud of myself for one thing: I stopped calling if the flop missed me. All in all, I was up over my initial stake for the night when I stopped playing. My first time to play and end with a profit!
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 7:31 AM PST
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