Runner-Runner-Rebuy

December was a very good month for me poker-wise. I was making quality decisions and as a bonus, my results were falling in line with my decisions. I really started to believe I would get my bankroll where it needed to be to play a bunch of WSOP events this year and not have to worry about it decimating my roll.

January on the other hand, has decided to kick me in the Junk. I just can't seem to win. My decisions are off, my results are bad, and all of a sudden I'm tilting again. December was a tilt free month for me, thanks to some advice I got from Joanne at the Winter Classic. I was going to save this for part 2 of my winter classic trip report, but since I have slacked on getting that up I'll recap the conversation here. We were sitting at the geisha bar shooting the shit and tilt came up. I mention how I'm getting better at managing my tilt, I can identify it (usually I start tilting by overplaying position, then I start making impulse calls), and I have been really trying to recognize when I'm doing it, and try to stop it. After listening to me proudly state how I'm trying to stop my tilt she responds with Yoda like wisdom "Don't try to stop, just don’t do it." I realized my "trying" was just an excuse to sometimes still make these bad decisions. For almost a month after that, anytime I got into a situation what I might do something stupid, I heard Joanne's voice in my head like some kind of anti-nike commercial - "Just don't do it." And I made the right play.

Now it’s gone.

I can’t make out her voice anymore. Part of the reason is that I started playing in more blogger tourneys and cash games. In these games, I’ve told myself its more about having a good time than about decisions, so I intentionally ignore Joanne’s voice and try to make fancy (read stupid) plays for the fun of it. This has slowly leaked into my normal game and really hurt my bankroll. Here’s an example, at the Hoy on Monday (a blogger tourney on stars) I’m playing pretty decent cards when in late position I pick up the Hammer. I get really exited, because I haven’t seen the hammer in days (what kind of twisted thinking is this?). Jocelyn glances over at my laptop and says “Just throw it away, don’t be stupid.” I don’t give Joanne’s voice a chance to agree and quickly raise to 3x BB. The button calls, and the flop comes QQx. I insta-push all in, Jocelyn yells “Noooooooooo,” and Joanne’s voice swears at me in French, gives up, and goes back to Canada for good. I know this is exactly the wrong way to play the hammer, even in a blogger tourney. Button calls and shows a queen and I’m drawing dead on the flop.
I decide to head over to FT for a $200 cash game with some other bloggers. Realizing what an idiot I am, I resolve to play solid poker even though it’s a blogger game. To be honest, if I had really resolved to play solid poker, I would have never sat at that table, there were much softer tables I could have played at.
Anyway, I play super tight playing only about 8% of my hands and have gotten up to around $400 in a couple hours. Then Lucko sits down two to my right. He raises every other hand and is playing like a crazy maniac. After a while of this, I get tired of him stealing my blinds. The following hand occurred.

Seat 1: smizmiatch ($200)
Seat 2: Blinders ($200), is sitting out
Seat 3: MrDidactic ($136.60)
Seat 4: smokkee ($200)
Seat 5: lucko21 ($634.65) < - - - - - Maniac rolling over the table
Seat 6: MiamiDon ($362.35)
Seat 7: Troublecat ($198)
Seat 8: VinNay ($407.95) < - - - -- - has seen one flop in last 3 orbits
Seat 9: weak_player ($199)
Troublecat posts the small blind of $1
VinNay posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to VinNay [2c 4s]
weak_player folds
smizmiatch folds
MrDidactic folds
smokkee folds
lucko21 raises to $6 < - - - - - - 7th consecutive raise when I’m in BB (feels like that anyway)
MiamiDon calls $6
Troublecat folds
VinNay raises to $20 < - - - - - - good time for a squeeze play and I’m steaming over his play
lucko21: someone making a good play
lucko21 has 15 seconds left to act
MiamiDon: lol
lucko21: i cant allow that
lucko21 raises to $67 < - - - - - - fucker
MiamiDon: thats good ray
MiamiDon folds
VinNay calls $47 < - - -- - - - ok, I’ll call and represent a flopped set (Joanne’s voice is in Alberta by now)
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3d Jc]
VinNay checks < - - - -- - - Ok, I’d check-raise here if I made a set, this maniac is sure to bet out
lucko21 checks < - - - - - Fucker
*** TURN *** [Ts 3d Jc] [8s]
VinNay checks < - - -- - I must bet here with my set, there are flush and straight draws. Some other voice, I think it was Hispanic, whispers to me that I don’t really have a set, so I check.
lucko21 checks
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3d Jc 8s] [5h]
VinNay bets $100 < - - - - -- Ok, I can only win if I bet out, maybe he will still put me on a set if I bet just the right amount, but I’m pretty sure I blew it by not betting the turn.
lucko21: u either got AK or a set < - - - - - YES, YES, I have a set!!!!!!!
lucko21: i think AK < - - - -- - FUCKER
lucko21 has 15 seconds left to act
lucko21: though
lucko21 calls $100 < - - - -- FUCK, FUCK, FUCK
*** SHOW DOWN ***
VinNay shows [2c 4s] (Jack Ten high)
lucko21 shows [Kd Ah] (Ace King high) < - - - - WTF, Ace high???? He calls with Ace High???????
lucko21 wins the pot ($338) with Ace King high
lucko21: wow
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $341 Rake $3
Board: [Ts 3d Jc 8s 5h]
Seat 5: lucko21 showed [Kd Ah] and won ($338) with Ace King high
Seat 8: VinNay (big blind) showed [2c 4s] and lost with Jack Ten high


This Ace high call puts me over the edge and I proceed to dump $300 more to the table before I finally quit. Most of that to Lucko when we both flop trip Aces, I move all in and he calls with bigger kicker.

The worst part is that this type of play has overtaken my non-blogger games as well. I need to find a way out.

Joann’s voice, if you’re out there, I’m sorry. I promise to eat Canadian bacon, root for the Flames, and learn curling if you come back.

I seem to have gotten past my tilt from the past few weeks, thanks in part from comments and encouragement from readers and friends. Variance hit me a little bit this week, but I have been able to keep a clear head and continue to play my game. I played a few tourneys late last week and over the weekend and didn't make the money, but felt good about my play. Cash games have been going well, not up huge, but satisfied with where I am at right now. Basically, I'm just feeling much more stable in my game than I was a week ago. Luckily, my live game bankroll was unaffected by my recent stupidity.

I did manage to win the Hoy last night, so that was a nice little reward for getting back to my game, considering how things faired in the Hoy last week. I also won a double shootout to the Sunday millions on stars, which I will most likely just turn into tournament dollars.
I really need to get part 2 of my Winter Classic report up soon, but work, poker, reading other people's blogs, and Sabres games seem to have occupied every night for the last few weeks. I have a game with friends tonight and a Sabres home game tomorrow, so look for part 2 on Thursday night.

Everyone has been weighing in on Neteller’s rapid exit of the US gaming market and I've read some interesting opinions on what this means for the future of online poker. My initial reaction was to panic and I quickly removed most of my online bankroll through other transaction handlers leaving only very modest sums in a few sites. While this makes me feel safer for the time being, it has also reduced me to moving my game down to the $50 and $100 NL games instead of the $400-$1000 NL games. Neteller provided some sites with up to 75% of transactions, and I have definitely noticed that even in just a week, the number of players on Stars and FT has dropped off. The games seem to be either a) much tougher or b) much easier. I attribute this to the casual players not being able to rebuy easily. They seem to be donking off chips faster than ever, but then can't rebuy. So for the next few weeks I suspect I can find some REALLY easy games with people more desperate than ever to double up, but then it will be followed by games getting harder and harder to beat.

If I continue to worry about the gov't telling me what I can and can't do with my own money that I already paid taxes on, then I won't want to risk significant money online, and will eventually drop out myself as the lower limit games that I would be forced to play would become to difficult to beat because of the players/rake.

So, what am I supposed to do? Over the weekend I decided. I'm quitting poker. I've got gamble in my blood and I enjoy the strategy of poker, but it has become too much of a pain in the ass. So what the fuck do I do now? I can't play PaiGow for a living. I'm pretty much a break even sports book player, and I have come sooooo close to hitting superfectas so many times but have never actually make a cent off horse racing. I began to think about what I'm good at and what I like.

I like to gamble.
I like +EV gambling.
I like chicken wings.

Hmmmm, not much to go on, but a light bulb turned on in my head. Now, I'm from Buffalo, and Buffalonians know a thing or two about chicken wings. From ten feet away I can tell if a wing is quality or not, if it is fatty or meaty, if it is from an old or young bird, if it was fed well or starved. Mix this knowledge with my gambling tendencies, and out comes the answer.

I have decided to give up poker and become a professional cockfight handicapper.

I really feel I can dominate this field. Cockfighting has been illegal in NY State for a really long time; in fact, the only places in the US where it is legal are Louisiana and Arkansas. And guess what? They don’t know shit about chicken wings in Louisiana or Arkansas. So I started digging into the net to see what I can find out about my newfound career in bloodsports. I found FriendInSport, which is a really great community designed for the gentlemen cocker. You may find this hard to believe, but after quite a bit of digging it became clear that it’s harder to find underground cockfighting arenas than it is to find underground poker clubs. What we really need to do is find a Chris Moneymaker of the cockfighting world; a novice bettor that can break into the world of cocking with a meager bankroll and hit the big time. I think ESPN would jump all over that story and start a cock explosion. The double entendre potential for this sport will make for some great live fight commentary and I’m hoping ESPN can ink Gabe Kaplan to a deal. So I planned to start www.upforcocking.com in hopes to find my Moneymaker. With my handicapping help, I think we can grow this sport very quickly.

I was having a really hard time finding local fights, but realized I should just dive into the big time. The Dominican Republic is a mere 5 hour flight away, so I hopped on a plane on Monday morning and landed in Punta Cana by noon. I checked into my hotel and asked the concierge where I could find some cockfighting. His eyes lit up and I knew this place was gold. A short walk later and I was watching my first fight. Once the organizers realized I was a player, I got mad crazy treatment. Hand rolled cigars, all you can eat coffee beans, and a coupon for $10 off parasailing. I spent some time looking over the match-ups for the day and inspecting the cocks. The standout match was between the reigning champ El Tigre out of Puerto Rico, and newcomer Snowcrash hailing from Philadelphia, PA. They were giving 4-1 on Snowcrash, and to be fair, El Tigre was a fine looking bird. He looked well cared for, had the experience, and looked ready for a fight. But I noticed something. His left side drumstick was a little wobbly and his right side wing didn’t have full extension. These things make for stringy Buffalo wings that can only be rectified with lots of blue cheese. They also make for a sure loser in a cockfight. Snowcrash on the other hand was young and looking to prove himself. I also got some inside information that he trained with Sly Stallone during the filming of the new Rocky movie. So I started offering the crowd 2-1 on El Tigre and was soon up to my ears in bets.

Check out my flicker account of the fight

Apparently, El Tigre was hollywooding me and also slowplayed Snowcrash to an easy victory. I paid out to the winners and my cocker bankroll was destroyed. In one day, my newfound career was ground to a halt.

My flight out wasn’t until the next morning, so I sulked around the hotel for the rest of the day when I realized it was Monday and the Hoy was going on in a few hours. I went into the internet room in the hotel, which consisted of an old PC with a 300 baud modem connection to the internet. I downloaded the Pokerstars client in around 4 hours and signed up for the MATH
(which I won last week by the way). The connection was slow, and I got no cards, but with a few well placed bets, I somehow managed to capture 2nd place and move into the money leader position for 2007. Fuel55 rolled over the final 4 into a decisive win, but once we were on the bubble, I was happy to fold my way into 2nd.

Turns out I might know more about poker than I do about cocking. While I’m glad I had the cocking experience, and met tons of great people, I guess I just overreacted to the Neteller pullout. Cocking…..pullout…..seriously, there is so much commentary potential there. Anyway, the sky is not falling on online poker, it may be dicey for a bit, but there is a strong market no matter what the US gov’t tries to do. If the field gets tougher for a while, I guess that will just improve my game. When the fish come back, I’ll be more ready than ever.