Linda Johnson wrote an article for CardPlayer on whether being a woman at the poker table is an advantage or disadvantage (read it here
Linda's article)
To add to my comments in her article, here are a few more thoughts. I think being a woman at a poker table can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the situation.
Advantages• If you can pick up on how you’re being perceived and adjust your play (within your comfort zone) to profit from that.
• Women (in general) do not have that big of an ego we need to feed. Intuition tells us when we’re losing and letting go of good cards in bad situations are relatively easy compare to how hard it is for our male counterparts to do.
• Emotionally we are stronger and (as in life) women wouldn’t let themselves go on tilt, I think being built to bear and raise children made us emotionally strong, and little things like Aces cracked by the donkey in seat 1 does not nearly have the same impact than it has on Billy BaddAss next to me.
• This is just a personal thought, don’t really have anything to back it up, but I think we can stay focused for longer amounts of time than men, in long tournaments, we are less likely to make mistakes by the end of the tournament.
• Instinct, intuition, etc – that’s just common sense that we’re much better at that than men. We pick up on tells even when we don’t know that we do. Environmental factors put us on alert without us realizing it, and really – 90% of women who gets cheated on by husbands/boyfriends, pick up on that before they get the facts – it’s no different at the poker table. We just know. Like my mom, she knew everything
• Most men are easily distracted by boobs. Some even just by mentioning boobs.
Disadvantages• In general (and I want to stress this, IN GENERAL), women will always be perceived by men as the weaker sex. Our legacy is to be submissive to our man, and doesn’t matter how far we come in changing that belief, or how much progress is made, there still are women out there portraying just that and I do believe, in some sense men still feel superior to most women. And that cause them to be more aggressive towards us and make plays that they would not make against a male opponent.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
To think…. or not to think
When you start to play poker, it’s all about the cards. YOUR cards and the cards on the board. Other players in the hand ceased to exist once you hit top pair – a straight or a flush lights up your face like Vegas Boulevard on New Year’s Eve and when you push all in, even Gus Hanson knows to fold.
Then one day – after your top pair gets beat time after time – you start wondering “how did I not see that coming?” , you have a light bulb moment and realized that people don’t always call bets for no reason. They don’t always have the same pair with a worse kicker. Now you start paying attention to the cards your opponents might have.
Probably at this time you also are getting curious and start reading up on how to play against these people who call with draws. You learn from various sources about the different levels of thinking in poker. Oh no, now I have to think about not only what my opponent is holding, but also what he thinks I am holding?
Putting that into practice is a different animal. So you decide to give it a try. Two limpers in the pot, you raise from the button with two random cards. Both limpers call and the flop comes K-8-3 rainbow. OK, so you want them to think you have AK, so you bet a reasonable amount after they both checked. But the EP guy has read the book too, so now he wants you to think he has a set of 3’s or 8’s, so he called with the intention of leading out on the turn. Other limper just calls too.
Turn is a 2, first guy bets, and now you decide you want them to think you have a set of 8’s and you raised. First guy now is thinking that you thought he had a K and that you think he thought you had a medium pair and that you thought he thought you had AK. At this point, all this thinking is taking it’s toll and neither of you has a clue of what you’re really holding.
Lots of raising and re-raising going on and at showdown you have two people with crappy cards shouting at each other ‘how can you call with that, I was representing AK” followed by “I put you on AK and I was representing a set, you’re the donk!”, while the second limper (beginner player still on Level 1 thinking) who totally missed all the thinking that were going on, silently stacks the chips that he/she just won wit K2o.
I think it’s important that we stop overthinking every hand and sometimes just play them. Wait for the right opportunity against the right opponent to switch to the next level of thinking. Don’t get caught up and carried away.
Then one day – after your top pair gets beat time after time – you start wondering “how did I not see that coming?” , you have a light bulb moment and realized that people don’t always call bets for no reason. They don’t always have the same pair with a worse kicker. Now you start paying attention to the cards your opponents might have.
Probably at this time you also are getting curious and start reading up on how to play against these people who call with draws. You learn from various sources about the different levels of thinking in poker. Oh no, now I have to think about not only what my opponent is holding, but also what he thinks I am holding?
Putting that into practice is a different animal. So you decide to give it a try. Two limpers in the pot, you raise from the button with two random cards. Both limpers call and the flop comes K-8-3 rainbow. OK, so you want them to think you have AK, so you bet a reasonable amount after they both checked. But the EP guy has read the book too, so now he wants you to think he has a set of 3’s or 8’s, so he called with the intention of leading out on the turn. Other limper just calls too.
Turn is a 2, first guy bets, and now you decide you want them to think you have a set of 8’s and you raised. First guy now is thinking that you thought he had a K and that you think he thought you had a medium pair and that you thought he thought you had AK. At this point, all this thinking is taking it’s toll and neither of you has a clue of what you’re really holding.
Lots of raising and re-raising going on and at showdown you have two people with crappy cards shouting at each other ‘how can you call with that, I was representing AK” followed by “I put you on AK and I was representing a set, you’re the donk!”, while the second limper (beginner player still on Level 1 thinking) who totally missed all the thinking that were going on, silently stacks the chips that he/she just won wit K2o.
I think it’s important that we stop overthinking every hand and sometimes just play them. Wait for the right opportunity against the right opponent to switch to the next level of thinking. Don’t get caught up and carried away.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Slow times
I’m not sure how this happened, but I played only 4 live tournaments May! And to make it even worse, I didn’t cash in any of those. Actually for April and May I have cashed only once, thank goodness that was for a decent amount, otherwise I would have felt even worse!
I think I got used to the comfort on online playing and it’s just so much easier – you don’t have to get up and get dressed and drive the 10 minutes to the casino. Bah, that’s just no excuse, I should be happy I live here in the poker Mecca of the world, and should get my ass out to the casino’s and play! Especially now, with the WSOP and all the other series starting!
I’ve also started to run again, well, if you can call it running, probably look more like a brisk walk to others, but I’m on a mission to prepare to run the half-marathon in Vegas in December with one of my fellow chix-sters. But I’m still at a point where the exercise takes it toll and when I get home at night, the last thing I want to do, is get out and move again. That’s when online poker is such a blessing
Online I’ve been doing OK, quite well some times and not so well other times, but at least I think I’m winning more than losing at this point, which is great, of course. I play a lot of other games, like PL 5-card Draw, Stud, Omaha, 2-7, etc. I’m doing pretty well in the 5-card draw games, but I can honestly say I suck at 2-7, I don’t think I’ve cashed ONCE in any of them. Staying away from them now!
OK, so it’s almost June, the WSOP is in town, let’s go play some poker!!!!
I think I got used to the comfort on online playing and it’s just so much easier – you don’t have to get up and get dressed and drive the 10 minutes to the casino. Bah, that’s just no excuse, I should be happy I live here in the poker Mecca of the world, and should get my ass out to the casino’s and play! Especially now, with the WSOP and all the other series starting!
I’ve also started to run again, well, if you can call it running, probably look more like a brisk walk to others, but I’m on a mission to prepare to run the half-marathon in Vegas in December with one of my fellow chix-sters. But I’m still at a point where the exercise takes it toll and when I get home at night, the last thing I want to do, is get out and move again. That’s when online poker is such a blessing
Online I’ve been doing OK, quite well some times and not so well other times, but at least I think I’m winning more than losing at this point, which is great, of course. I play a lot of other games, like PL 5-card Draw, Stud, Omaha, 2-7, etc. I’m doing pretty well in the 5-card draw games, but I can honestly say I suck at 2-7, I don’t think I’ve cashed ONCE in any of them. Staying away from them now!
OK, so it’s almost June, the WSOP is in town, let’s go play some poker!!!!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Some days are diamonds, some days are stone
Slow month so far, I’ve played in only 3 live tournaments so far, and haven’t cashed in any. Ugh, I love to cash! But, I don’t feel too bad, I’m pretty happy with the way I played and don’t feel I’ve lost due to a stupid move I made. Most of the time I’ve managed to get my money in ahead and just got unlucky. Looking back, knowing what the cards were (mine, my opponents and the flop), I wouldn’t have played it any other way, and I guess that’s the important part.
Online, however, was another story this week. I play very low stakes on Pokerstars, nothing higher than a $5 buy-in. Since Sunday I’ve played about 8 (I think) of the $4.40 180 person SnG’s on Stars, and I’ve managed to make the final table on 4 of them! I got two 4th places, a 5th and a 6th! The only bad thing is that they normally last until way past my bedtime. Since I start working at 7pm in the morning, you can imagine that I wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine at the office this week. Oh yeah and don’t forget my new commitment to running, my initial visits to the gym were quite tiresome! Thank goodness it’s Friday today!
Apart from the $4 tourneys, I’ve cashed in some others – even won a Stud Draw game, hehe - and manage to get my online bankroll up from $87 to just under $400 now. Finally according to Sharkscope - I’m not in the red anymore and haven’t been on ‘SuperTilt’ for a while now!!
Since I stopped trying so hard, I’m doing much better – I’m probably not a poster child for theoretical poker, but hey, whatever works. And this works for me. I know I still have a lot to learn, but show me a poker player who doesn’t....
Online, however, was another story this week. I play very low stakes on Pokerstars, nothing higher than a $5 buy-in. Since Sunday I’ve played about 8 (I think) of the $4.40 180 person SnG’s on Stars, and I’ve managed to make the final table on 4 of them! I got two 4th places, a 5th and a 6th! The only bad thing is that they normally last until way past my bedtime. Since I start working at 7pm in the morning, you can imagine that I wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine at the office this week. Oh yeah and don’t forget my new commitment to running, my initial visits to the gym were quite tiresome! Thank goodness it’s Friday today!
Apart from the $4 tourneys, I’ve cashed in some others – even won a Stud Draw game, hehe - and manage to get my online bankroll up from $87 to just under $400 now. Finally according to Sharkscope - I’m not in the red anymore and haven’t been on ‘SuperTilt’ for a while now!!
Since I stopped trying so hard, I’m doing much better – I’m probably not a poster child for theoretical poker, but hey, whatever works. And this works for me. I know I still have a lot to learn, but show me a poker player who doesn’t....
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Ouch and ouch again!
I’ve been debating back and forth on whether I want to go play the WSOP Ladies Circuit Event at Caesars on Monday. The buy-in was $340, a little higher than what I’m normally playing, so that’s a big consideration for me. But since I’ve stopped trying to ‘fix’ my game, I’m much more comfortable playing the way I’m used to, and felt good and I really wanted to go. I guess the thought of being able to take a day off work to go play, was the deciding factor, and I convinced myself to go play. I think I was going to go regardless; it just took a while for me to come up with enough reasons to justify the buy-in.
So the tournament started with 160 players – which was way more than I expected, given the fact that it’s on a Monday. Apparently I’m the only one with a job!!!
My first table was very passive – I got a couple of good hands there, QQ flopped a set against AA, unfortunately the 3 spades on the board slowed down the betting significantly, but I still managed to get some chips. Then I got a straight flush with my 2s9s, when the board was KsQsJs, turn a blank, the river brought the 10s, not a very exciting straight flush given that the As was gonna make a royal – luckily no one else had the As and I won that one too.
Got moved – players were noticeably tight and there were not many showdowns. A pre-flop raise followed by a continuation bet in general won the pot. For a while, at least.
JJ Liu got seated on my right, she was short-stacked however, and after only a couple of hands she pushed with 99’s into a raiser, got called by a big Ace and got knocked out when the Ace hit.
I doubled up when Mel (pokerchix AskMelanie) raised UTG, I reraised with AK to isolate, but of course she knew it and pushed all in. I figured she has JJ or QQ, I thought with AA or KK she would just smooth-call the raise and now I was facing a dilemma. I have to hit my A or K and then even then I might not be good – on the other hand, I had only 2500 chips left if I fold and I convinced myself it was worth the gamble. I called, she had QQ, I hit a K and doubled up. Phew!!
Then the fun began. A short, seemingly confused Asian lady was seating next to me, to my right. Maybe she was just not fluent in English, but when she talked, she confused me more than when she played. She made some ridiculous calls and bets, and I couldn’t figure out if she was clueless or hyper-smart. A little while later it all became clear though. She min-raised in early position, I called with AK. Flop came K-J-x, she bet, I raised, she pushed all in. Based on her previous play, I was pretty convinced I had her beat and I called. She turned over QJ – YES!
The turn is another Jack – NO!!!!! That’s just not fair. Now I am short stack again!!!
Couple hands later Mel pushed all in, I called with all but 500 of my chips with 99. Mel had K3, and the flop is KK-x, turn is a 3 just to rub it in and I’m left with one 500 chip! I’m UTG, the blinds are 200/400 with 25 ante, I put my last 475 in with K7 and got two callers. On the turn, the one caller bet, other lady groaned and folded. Better had KQ, but I hit my 7 on the river and tripled up. Girl who folded, was disgusted and said she folded 88, figuring the better had her beat since she bet.
I went all in next two hands and doubled up and won some blinds and antes and I was up to around 4K again. Still in bad shape, but at least I had something to work with now.
OK, so at this point we have 50 people left out of the 160, payout is 18 places, so with a lot of patience I and a lot of luck I might just get lucky. They move me to a new table, I got seated in seat 9, next to a really great lady who shared her chocolate with me when I complained I was hungry (just for the record, I thought she was great before she shared her stuff with me!).
Now there were some dynamics at this table, apparently the two big stacks were gunning each other. Chips were flying back and forth between them, the younger Asian girl seemed tilting like crazy, and the older grey-haired woman just happily calling and raising, adding fuel to the fire. I’ve seen an all in push with an OESD, getting called by a gutshot straight draw – only to win a HUGE pot with a pair of 4’s. The trouble was, I was dead smack in the middle of the two ends of this battle.
I picked up AJ and pushed – collecting antes and blinds. Very next hand I have AJ again, this time I raised. Asian girl looked antsy after folding previous hand and she and the BB called. Flop came J high with two hearts, I pushed. The Asian girl insta-called with 5h3h – and my stomach turned. Turn is a black card, river is an Ace, but the Ace of hearts and I’m heading out in 44th place or so. I wanted to throw up a little. I don’t mind the calls from players when they’re behind, I really don’t – it just hurts when they get lucky – and in this tournament the two times that they got lucky, took me out of the tournament.
I headed over to the V to play a little Omaha H/L, made a little profit and decided to go play the 7pm at PH. Long story short, I got busted with Q-10 against 10-2 when he caught a 2 for second pair. Oh well.
Felt a little better when I took 4th out of 180 on Pokerstars last night in a $4 tournament, not a big win, but a win nevertheless, and sometimes I think the fields of the micro stakes tournaments are harder to beat!!!! Really really takes some patience to make it deep in those.
Tonight I think I’ll take a break and play some WoW. Maybe poker will miss me……
So the tournament started with 160 players – which was way more than I expected, given the fact that it’s on a Monday. Apparently I’m the only one with a job!!!
My first table was very passive – I got a couple of good hands there, QQ flopped a set against AA, unfortunately the 3 spades on the board slowed down the betting significantly, but I still managed to get some chips. Then I got a straight flush with my 2s9s, when the board was KsQsJs, turn a blank, the river brought the 10s, not a very exciting straight flush given that the As was gonna make a royal – luckily no one else had the As and I won that one too.
Got moved – players were noticeably tight and there were not many showdowns. A pre-flop raise followed by a continuation bet in general won the pot. For a while, at least.
JJ Liu got seated on my right, she was short-stacked however, and after only a couple of hands she pushed with 99’s into a raiser, got called by a big Ace and got knocked out when the Ace hit.
I doubled up when Mel (pokerchix AskMelanie) raised UTG, I reraised with AK to isolate, but of course she knew it and pushed all in. I figured she has JJ or QQ, I thought with AA or KK she would just smooth-call the raise and now I was facing a dilemma. I have to hit my A or K and then even then I might not be good – on the other hand, I had only 2500 chips left if I fold and I convinced myself it was worth the gamble. I called, she had QQ, I hit a K and doubled up. Phew!!
Then the fun began. A short, seemingly confused Asian lady was seating next to me, to my right. Maybe she was just not fluent in English, but when she talked, she confused me more than when she played. She made some ridiculous calls and bets, and I couldn’t figure out if she was clueless or hyper-smart. A little while later it all became clear though. She min-raised in early position, I called with AK. Flop came K-J-x, she bet, I raised, she pushed all in. Based on her previous play, I was pretty convinced I had her beat and I called. She turned over QJ – YES!
The turn is another Jack – NO!!!!! That’s just not fair. Now I am short stack again!!!
Couple hands later Mel pushed all in, I called with all but 500 of my chips with 99. Mel had K3, and the flop is KK-x, turn is a 3 just to rub it in and I’m left with one 500 chip! I’m UTG, the blinds are 200/400 with 25 ante, I put my last 475 in with K7 and got two callers. On the turn, the one caller bet, other lady groaned and folded. Better had KQ, but I hit my 7 on the river and tripled up. Girl who folded, was disgusted and said she folded 88, figuring the better had her beat since she bet.
I went all in next two hands and doubled up and won some blinds and antes and I was up to around 4K again. Still in bad shape, but at least I had something to work with now.
OK, so at this point we have 50 people left out of the 160, payout is 18 places, so with a lot of patience I and a lot of luck I might just get lucky. They move me to a new table, I got seated in seat 9, next to a really great lady who shared her chocolate with me when I complained I was hungry (just for the record, I thought she was great before she shared her stuff with me!).
Now there were some dynamics at this table, apparently the two big stacks were gunning each other. Chips were flying back and forth between them, the younger Asian girl seemed tilting like crazy, and the older grey-haired woman just happily calling and raising, adding fuel to the fire. I’ve seen an all in push with an OESD, getting called by a gutshot straight draw – only to win a HUGE pot with a pair of 4’s. The trouble was, I was dead smack in the middle of the two ends of this battle.
I picked up AJ and pushed – collecting antes and blinds. Very next hand I have AJ again, this time I raised. Asian girl looked antsy after folding previous hand and she and the BB called. Flop came J high with two hearts, I pushed. The Asian girl insta-called with 5h3h – and my stomach turned. Turn is a black card, river is an Ace, but the Ace of hearts and I’m heading out in 44th place or so. I wanted to throw up a little. I don’t mind the calls from players when they’re behind, I really don’t – it just hurts when they get lucky – and in this tournament the two times that they got lucky, took me out of the tournament.
I headed over to the V to play a little Omaha H/L, made a little profit and decided to go play the 7pm at PH. Long story short, I got busted with Q-10 against 10-2 when he caught a 2 for second pair. Oh well.
Felt a little better when I took 4th out of 180 on Pokerstars last night in a $4 tournament, not a big win, but a win nevertheless, and sometimes I think the fields of the micro stakes tournaments are harder to beat!!!! Really really takes some patience to make it deep in those.
Tonight I think I’ll take a break and play some WoW. Maybe poker will miss me……
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Fixing my game
It’s been a while – but I’m still alive and by some miracle survived a poker depression and am still playing! Not that I ever wanted to give it up, but I’ve reached a point – well-known to many poker players, I assume – where I wondered whether I should give up on poker, because it sure as heck seemed to have given up on me!
I’ve been keeping track of my tournament playing since October 2007. At the end of February I’ve played in 50 tournaments (buy-ins between $60 and $200), and cashed in 21 out of the 50, which by my standards, are pretty decent.
So then I decided it’s time to ‘fix’ my game. Most of the time I make it to the money and/or get to the final table as short stack, on the odd occasion I’ll end there with a decent stack, and that bothered me. There must be a way that I could change my game to accumulate more chips along the way. I started reading – poker forums, book, strategy articles, basically anything poker I could lay my hands on. And along the way I tried to apply that to my game - of course with disastrous results. In March I played in 15 tournaments and cashed in only 2, which made March the first month I didn’t show a profit. April didn’t start out better – I was completely lost, and my game went down the drain. Clearly what I tried to apply, didn’t work with my playing style or my personality and I couldn’t pull it off. I felt like a complete idiot at times. I played online and suck-out after suck-out (which I believe most of them were because I put myself in unfavorable situations) just added to my despair.
I had to rethink it all as well as my approach to this game I’m so passionate about. I had to evaluate – why was I able to win before and not now? Obviously changes I tried to make, didn’t work for me.
I came to some realizations – I believe (now) that there is a place in the poker world for players like me – players that are not super-aggressive. I am not the kind of player that can pull off bluffs like it’s second nature, and now I also know that in order to be a winning player, I don’t have to be.
Selective aggressiveness works much better for me, and instead of looking for opportunities to pull off some creative plays, I need to wait for the opportunities to present themselves to me. And sometimes it doesn’t happen until late in the tournament, or at all. And that’s ok. There will always be a next time.
I have to play within my comfort zone, and as cliché as it sounds, I have to detach my emotions from my decision-making while playing. Trying to ‘get’ someone is most likely going to backfire. There’s a very dangerous gray area where ‘playing the player’ often turns into you being the one getting ‘played’ - by your own actions.
Bottom line - if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it!
I’ve been keeping track of my tournament playing since October 2007. At the end of February I’ve played in 50 tournaments (buy-ins between $60 and $200), and cashed in 21 out of the 50, which by my standards, are pretty decent.
So then I decided it’s time to ‘fix’ my game. Most of the time I make it to the money and/or get to the final table as short stack, on the odd occasion I’ll end there with a decent stack, and that bothered me. There must be a way that I could change my game to accumulate more chips along the way. I started reading – poker forums, book, strategy articles, basically anything poker I could lay my hands on. And along the way I tried to apply that to my game - of course with disastrous results. In March I played in 15 tournaments and cashed in only 2, which made March the first month I didn’t show a profit. April didn’t start out better – I was completely lost, and my game went down the drain. Clearly what I tried to apply, didn’t work with my playing style or my personality and I couldn’t pull it off. I felt like a complete idiot at times. I played online and suck-out after suck-out (which I believe most of them were because I put myself in unfavorable situations) just added to my despair.
I had to rethink it all as well as my approach to this game I’m so passionate about. I had to evaluate – why was I able to win before and not now? Obviously changes I tried to make, didn’t work for me.
I came to some realizations – I believe (now) that there is a place in the poker world for players like me – players that are not super-aggressive. I am not the kind of player that can pull off bluffs like it’s second nature, and now I also know that in order to be a winning player, I don’t have to be.
Selective aggressiveness works much better for me, and instead of looking for opportunities to pull off some creative plays, I need to wait for the opportunities to present themselves to me. And sometimes it doesn’t happen until late in the tournament, or at all. And that’s ok. There will always be a next time.
I have to play within my comfort zone, and as cliché as it sounds, I have to detach my emotions from my decision-making while playing. Trying to ‘get’ someone is most likely going to backfire. There’s a very dangerous gray area where ‘playing the player’ often turns into you being the one getting ‘played’ - by your own actions.
Bottom line - if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Annie Get Your Gun!
Last night at the Caesars Ladies Tournament was interesting. I was a minute or two late, and when I approached the table looking at my seat card, the lady in seat 8 stretched her neck to see my card and asked ‘What seat?’. What, we have ushers at the poker table now, or does she think I can’t read my own darn card? Point being, first impression – not favorable! I ignored her and sat down on my seat which I found – all by myself, just by using the info on my seat card, whaddaya know!
There’s an saying that says something about keeping your mouth shut and people won’t notice you don’t know a thing, can’t remember it now, and evidently the usher lady didn’t either, or maybe she’s never heard it before.
After calling a bet on a flop of 677 and another bet when the turn was a 10, the river a K, she – very disgusted – turned over her 48 and say ‘Open-ended straight draw and can’t catch a thing’. My iPod failed to keep me busy enough not to point out to her that she did NOT have an open-ended straight draw, merely a gutshot or two. She said no, it’ was open-ended, any 5 and any 9 would have given me a straight. I immediately ordered a drink. (For me, that is. If she wasn’t numerous months pregnant, I would have had ordered one for her too).
The most precious moment came during the following hand. I am in the SB, lots of limpers; I looked at my cards (10d-8d) and completed the bet while saying ‘Great, my favorite hand’ as an incentive to the BB NOT to raise. Was hoping she assumed my favorite hand is a good one.
So, pregnant lady (who was nauseatingly nice to everyone, might I add) replied ‘wow, your favorite hand and under the gun too’. I glanced over to the button on my right and said ‘No, I’m the small blind; I’m not under the gun’. She insisted that I was under the gun. I insisted that I was not. She was not phased by my ignorance and patiently pointed at the button and said again ‘there, look – under the gun, you’re first to act under the gun’. I needed help. I looked around, the dealer was frantically shuffling cards, head bent down, Jo was happily bobbing along to the music on her iPod, staring at the ceiling and the rest of the table was admiring the tournament clock on the wall wayyyyy over there, pretending not to notice. I said ‘I don’t think we’re talking about the same gun here, dear’ and promptly ordered another drink...
There’s an saying that says something about keeping your mouth shut and people won’t notice you don’t know a thing, can’t remember it now, and evidently the usher lady didn’t either, or maybe she’s never heard it before.
After calling a bet on a flop of 677 and another bet when the turn was a 10, the river a K, she – very disgusted – turned over her 48 and say ‘Open-ended straight draw and can’t catch a thing’. My iPod failed to keep me busy enough not to point out to her that she did NOT have an open-ended straight draw, merely a gutshot or two. She said no, it’ was open-ended, any 5 and any 9 would have given me a straight. I immediately ordered a drink. (For me, that is. If she wasn’t numerous months pregnant, I would have had ordered one for her too).
The most precious moment came during the following hand. I am in the SB, lots of limpers; I looked at my cards (10d-8d) and completed the bet while saying ‘Great, my favorite hand’ as an incentive to the BB NOT to raise. Was hoping she assumed my favorite hand is a good one.
So, pregnant lady (who was nauseatingly nice to everyone, might I add) replied ‘wow, your favorite hand and under the gun too’. I glanced over to the button on my right and said ‘No, I’m the small blind; I’m not under the gun’. She insisted that I was under the gun. I insisted that I was not. She was not phased by my ignorance and patiently pointed at the button and said again ‘there, look – under the gun, you’re first to act under the gun’. I needed help. I looked around, the dealer was frantically shuffling cards, head bent down, Jo was happily bobbing along to the music on her iPod, staring at the ceiling and the rest of the table was admiring the tournament clock on the wall wayyyyy over there, pretending not to notice. I said ‘I don’t think we’re talking about the same gun here, dear’ and promptly ordered another drink...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Horsing around
I went to play the HORSE tournament at Green Valley Ranch last night. I didn’t even make it to the first break, limit or not, 2000 chips are no match for my chasing capabilities. The one time I decided to lay down a hand, I would have won. So I continue my strategy of chasing. Just kidding, it wasn’t that bad, but I did chase a straight and a flush in Stud that failed me, and I gave away almost all my chips on that one.
So, I was out. Richard was playing a couple of tables away and looked quite content with a bunch of chips in front of him, so I do what any good wife would do – I told him that I’ll stay and play a little longer – not because I WANTED to, but just because I know he wanted to play longer. He pretended not to notice my fakeness and suggested that I tried the 3/6 HORSE game that just started.
I began my mission of folding, I still got caught up in a couple of pretty fatal draws, but I learn!!! I’ll get there. One day I’ll be able to fold my Omaha draws! I actually didn’t do too badly; I was up $68 when I cashed out.
But here’s the story that probably proved my inexperience at this game. First I am the first to admit that I totally suck at Stud and Omaha (but evidently that’s not holding me back). Big problem for me is to remember what four cards I’m holding, I mean, even in Hold’em I forget sometimes, how de heck am I supposed to remember the Omaha ones.
So, on this one hand, in the Omaha H/L round, I’m under the gun and I looked down at Ace, Ace, random very low card, random very high card, double suited (that’s how I tried to memorize it at the time). That felt good and of course I raised. Two people called, and the flop came down KKK. I’m very happy and a little scared, cause from what I‘ve learned so far about Omaha, is that if there’s a card out there that can beat me, somebody has it. At this point, I’m pretty happy with my Kings full, and I bet – I figured I’ll find out soon enough who has the King.
Alas, everyone folded, and I proudly showed them my Aces, everyone nodded and say ‘good hand’ (like us poker players do even if we never mean it) and when pushing my cards to the dealer, I accidentally flipped over my other ‘random high card’.
It was a King.
And I proved to everyone right there that I really was a novice at this HORSE thing.
So, I was out. Richard was playing a couple of tables away and looked quite content with a bunch of chips in front of him, so I do what any good wife would do – I told him that I’ll stay and play a little longer – not because I WANTED to, but just because I know he wanted to play longer. He pretended not to notice my fakeness and suggested that I tried the 3/6 HORSE game that just started.
I began my mission of folding, I still got caught up in a couple of pretty fatal draws, but I learn!!! I’ll get there. One day I’ll be able to fold my Omaha draws! I actually didn’t do too badly; I was up $68 when I cashed out.
But here’s the story that probably proved my inexperience at this game. First I am the first to admit that I totally suck at Stud and Omaha (but evidently that’s not holding me back). Big problem for me is to remember what four cards I’m holding, I mean, even in Hold’em I forget sometimes, how de heck am I supposed to remember the Omaha ones.
So, on this one hand, in the Omaha H/L round, I’m under the gun and I looked down at Ace, Ace, random very low card, random very high card, double suited (that’s how I tried to memorize it at the time). That felt good and of course I raised. Two people called, and the flop came down KKK. I’m very happy and a little scared, cause from what I‘ve learned so far about Omaha, is that if there’s a card out there that can beat me, somebody has it. At this point, I’m pretty happy with my Kings full, and I bet – I figured I’ll find out soon enough who has the King.
Alas, everyone folded, and I proudly showed them my Aces, everyone nodded and say ‘good hand’ (like us poker players do even if we never mean it) and when pushing my cards to the dealer, I accidentally flipped over my other ‘random high card’.
It was a King.
And I proved to everyone right there that I really was a novice at this HORSE thing.
Monday, March 17, 2008
My own worst enemy
OK, so everyone’s been talking about the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in the last half of the month. I was practically drooling, long blinds and lots of chips equals lots of poker playing, what more can a girl ask for? But I have yet to pay more than $200 to enter a tournament, the only times I’ve entered tournaments with bigger buy-ins; I’ve won my cheap ass into it. After about 5 min of pondering, I used my two recent decent cashes as permission to take a day of work to enter the $340 even (which is one of the cheap ones, mind you) at the Venetian.
I’ve heard about people being alternates for these events, so I decided to get there early enough so I don’t have to stand around waiting for someone to get knocked out. Lord knows, I’ll be nervous enough, let’s not add waiting for a seat to the mix!
Tournament started at noon, I got to Venetian at around 10:20. You gotta give it to me, if I say I’m going to be early, I mean it. So there I am, all dressed up and ready to play and about 90 minutes to kill. No way I’ll sit down at one of the cash tables, I’m in tournament mode and don’t want to kill that vibe. Quick call to Tammy, who indicated that she might be coming out to play as well - she’s stuck in traffic but on her way. Great – nice to have someone around who can listen to your bad beat stories.
In the mean time, my stomach had a mind of its own. Doesn’t matter if I play a $40 or $340 tourney, I can always count on numerous nerve-induced bathroom runs before play starts. I practically have my own stall in every casino I play. Yeah yeah TMI, I KNOW!
Tammy got there shortly before play started and we’re off to our seats. Now, this is about 3 weeks ago, I don’t remember many of the hands, but a few stood out. Early on I got a couple of good hands that held up and before long I’ve gain quite some chips. Had about 10K (after starting with 7K) when this hand came up. Young guy with iPod, sunglasses, baseball hat and a gum-chewing ability that would put Britney Spears to shame, came to our table a couple of minutes before and up to that point, he seemed to be have seen every flop. He limped in UTG, one more limper and I call on the button with Kd2d (yes, I do that some times, mixing it up is what I believe my excuse is). Flop came K-high, two diamonds – BINGO! Now if you know me, you’ll know that’s a dream flop for me. Top pair with flush draw (prefer nut flush draw, but I’ll take this one too). Check to me, I bet to get some money in the pot, because at that point I’m convinced my K is good too and my flush is probably on the way, right? Blinds folded and UTG guy sat back, thought about it for a sec and announced ‘ALL-IN’. Crap!! Now what? Other guy folded and I started debating with myself. Did this kid limp in UTG with the intention of re-raising if someone should raise? Did he flop two pair? I can’t remember the exact amounts, but I do remember that making the call was a significant amount of chips and if I would have lost the hand, I would have been back to around starting chips. But I just couldn’t convince myself that he had a big hand, I just couldn’t. And after all, I have top pair and a flush draw, it’s my dream come true!!!!!! Usually I will look for reasons to fold, on this hand I was definitely looking for reasons to call. And somehow I found some; I said “OK, I’ll gamble, I’ll call” and flipped over my hand. And I was right! He turned over K7o, but was quite happy to see my K2, not so happy when he noticed the flush draw. Turn – blank; at that moment I felt like using a life-line to call Jerry Yang and ask about the praying thing, and then BAM!! – most beautiful card, 7d – hit the river. Kid grabbed his iPod and stormed off while I raked in all his chips.
At the break I met up with Tammy, who just went out after being crippled by probably the donkiest(I just invented that word) call ever. She flopped a full house with pocket 9's, reraise the preflop raiser all in, he called with KJ. He had nothing but two overcards on a paired board. Perfect, right? Yeah right. Runner runner Kings and he got a bigger boat. Now if that's not a bad beat, then I don't know. That was just sick.
From there on I just couldn’t miss. Twice my pocket Jacks flopped a set and I got paid off both times, I had AA twice, once against KK which resulted in another tower of chips added to my stack.
By the time we were down to 65 players, I had probably one of the top stacks in the tournament and was playing well (by my standards, might I add). Once I laid down pockets 5’s to a suspicious raise – guy next to me with 10K in chips raised UTG to 4K, looked like he was trying to induce a raise. I decided to play safe and fold my 5’s and the other short stack called him. Of course a 5 hit on the flop, I would have won the hand, but instead of being out, he doubled up.
At that point this guy had about 20K in chips, and I had around 60K. He won a couple of hands, but somehow I failed to pay attention to his stack size. I’m usually pretty good of being aware of where I am related to the other stack sizes and making sure that I take that in consideration when making a decision. In my mind this guy was still short-stacked, and it still lingered in my mind that I could have taken in out, when this hand happened. I’m in the BB, he is in the SB. Everyone folded to us, I look down at JJ, and think YES- I’m going to take down this pot and hopefully take this guy out. When he said ‘ALL-IN”, I insta-called, because I wanted his chips in the middle, right? He turned over AK and off to the races we were. All was good until the holy river decided to flip me off with a stupid Ace. I was still not to worried until we started counting down the stacks. He had 40K now, and suddenly I went from big stack to short stack. I was devastated. I got moved to another table, our table broke – must have been 5 tables left at that point. I lost all focus and instead of get my head together and play my short-stacked game, which I KNOW I can, I pushed the moment I got a big Ace. I didn’t assess the situation and waited for the right moment like I usually would, I was UTG and had enough chips left to wait for the next round and found a spot. Ironically enough got called by JJ and I didn’t improve and I’m out. I missed the money by a couple of spots, and it was my own fault.
That’s the WORST part of losing in poker – when you lose because of a mistake YOU make and not because of a mistake your opponent makes. I beat myself up over this for days, but do you know what? Two weeks later, I did the SAME thing at a Venetian Sunday tournament. After fighting my way back when I was down to 1800 chips with 6 tables left, I did the same thing. I went out on the bubble, because I did the wrong thing at the wrong time instead of waiting for the right opportunity. You would have thought I’ve learned my lesson.
I hate this game I love so much!!!
I’ve heard about people being alternates for these events, so I decided to get there early enough so I don’t have to stand around waiting for someone to get knocked out. Lord knows, I’ll be nervous enough, let’s not add waiting for a seat to the mix!
Tournament started at noon, I got to Venetian at around 10:20. You gotta give it to me, if I say I’m going to be early, I mean it. So there I am, all dressed up and ready to play and about 90 minutes to kill. No way I’ll sit down at one of the cash tables, I’m in tournament mode and don’t want to kill that vibe. Quick call to Tammy, who indicated that she might be coming out to play as well - she’s stuck in traffic but on her way. Great – nice to have someone around who can listen to your bad beat stories.
In the mean time, my stomach had a mind of its own. Doesn’t matter if I play a $40 or $340 tourney, I can always count on numerous nerve-induced bathroom runs before play starts. I practically have my own stall in every casino I play. Yeah yeah TMI, I KNOW!
Tammy got there shortly before play started and we’re off to our seats. Now, this is about 3 weeks ago, I don’t remember many of the hands, but a few stood out. Early on I got a couple of good hands that held up and before long I’ve gain quite some chips. Had about 10K (after starting with 7K) when this hand came up. Young guy with iPod, sunglasses, baseball hat and a gum-chewing ability that would put Britney Spears to shame, came to our table a couple of minutes before and up to that point, he seemed to be have seen every flop. He limped in UTG, one more limper and I call on the button with Kd2d (yes, I do that some times, mixing it up is what I believe my excuse is). Flop came K-high, two diamonds – BINGO! Now if you know me, you’ll know that’s a dream flop for me. Top pair with flush draw (prefer nut flush draw, but I’ll take this one too). Check to me, I bet to get some money in the pot, because at that point I’m convinced my K is good too and my flush is probably on the way, right? Blinds folded and UTG guy sat back, thought about it for a sec and announced ‘ALL-IN’. Crap!! Now what? Other guy folded and I started debating with myself. Did this kid limp in UTG with the intention of re-raising if someone should raise? Did he flop two pair? I can’t remember the exact amounts, but I do remember that making the call was a significant amount of chips and if I would have lost the hand, I would have been back to around starting chips. But I just couldn’t convince myself that he had a big hand, I just couldn’t. And after all, I have top pair and a flush draw, it’s my dream come true!!!!!! Usually I will look for reasons to fold, on this hand I was definitely looking for reasons to call. And somehow I found some; I said “OK, I’ll gamble, I’ll call” and flipped over my hand. And I was right! He turned over K7o, but was quite happy to see my K2, not so happy when he noticed the flush draw. Turn – blank; at that moment I felt like using a life-line to call Jerry Yang and ask about the praying thing, and then BAM!! – most beautiful card, 7d – hit the river. Kid grabbed his iPod and stormed off while I raked in all his chips.
At the break I met up with Tammy, who just went out after being crippled by probably the donkiest(I just invented that word) call ever. She flopped a full house with pocket 9's, reraise the preflop raiser all in, he called with KJ. He had nothing but two overcards on a paired board. Perfect, right? Yeah right. Runner runner Kings and he got a bigger boat. Now if that's not a bad beat, then I don't know. That was just sick.
From there on I just couldn’t miss. Twice my pocket Jacks flopped a set and I got paid off both times, I had AA twice, once against KK which resulted in another tower of chips added to my stack.
By the time we were down to 65 players, I had probably one of the top stacks in the tournament and was playing well (by my standards, might I add). Once I laid down pockets 5’s to a suspicious raise – guy next to me with 10K in chips raised UTG to 4K, looked like he was trying to induce a raise. I decided to play safe and fold my 5’s and the other short stack called him. Of course a 5 hit on the flop, I would have won the hand, but instead of being out, he doubled up.
At that point this guy had about 20K in chips, and I had around 60K. He won a couple of hands, but somehow I failed to pay attention to his stack size. I’m usually pretty good of being aware of where I am related to the other stack sizes and making sure that I take that in consideration when making a decision. In my mind this guy was still short-stacked, and it still lingered in my mind that I could have taken in out, when this hand happened. I’m in the BB, he is in the SB. Everyone folded to us, I look down at JJ, and think YES- I’m going to take down this pot and hopefully take this guy out. When he said ‘ALL-IN”, I insta-called, because I wanted his chips in the middle, right? He turned over AK and off to the races we were. All was good until the holy river decided to flip me off with a stupid Ace. I was still not to worried until we started counting down the stacks. He had 40K now, and suddenly I went from big stack to short stack. I was devastated. I got moved to another table, our table broke – must have been 5 tables left at that point. I lost all focus and instead of get my head together and play my short-stacked game, which I KNOW I can, I pushed the moment I got a big Ace. I didn’t assess the situation and waited for the right moment like I usually would, I was UTG and had enough chips left to wait for the next round and found a spot. Ironically enough got called by JJ and I didn’t improve and I’m out. I missed the money by a couple of spots, and it was my own fault.
That’s the WORST part of losing in poker – when you lose because of a mistake YOU make and not because of a mistake your opponent makes. I beat myself up over this for days, but do you know what? Two weeks later, I did the SAME thing at a Venetian Sunday tournament. After fighting my way back when I was down to 1800 chips with 6 tables left, I did the same thing. I went out on the bubble, because I did the wrong thing at the wrong time instead of waiting for the right opportunity. You would have thought I’ve learned my lesson.
I hate this game I love so much!!!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Rollercoaster time!
You just never know. It never ends the way it starts out - one moment it’s going well, then suddenly it slows down and it’s a little uphill, and before you know, down you go again! Just as you get used to it and enjoy it, it throws you for a loop, suddenly you’re upside down and twirling and you don’t know if you’re coming or going. That’s the rollercoaster called poker. The funny thing is, when you’re done with the ride, you head right back to the end of the line to experience the thrill again.
Last Friday I played the Headhunters tournament at Treasure Island, first mistake. That type of tournament doesn’t fit my playing style at all, which I proved a couple of months ago, when I ended up 2nd in that tournament, WITHOUT A SINGLE BOUNTY!! Evidently I’m better at staying alive than at dealing the killing blows. Friday was no different, everything went as expected, I didn’t knock anyone out, and I stayed alive. Well, for a bit. I got knocked out with AJ on a A-x-x board, when the guy with pocket 5’s hit runner-runner straight against me. Oh well.
So I tried the 10pm tournament. For some reason I played the worst poker ever and it was probably just justice when I – again, went all-in with AQ on an Ace high board, board goes runner-runner and put 4 hearts on the board, guy with K5o is holding the only heart and I’m out.
Saturday morning I tried again. The Lips tournament at Orleans, and it started out well. Really well when I got my JJ all-in against pocket 7’s. This, btw, was probably one of the worst calls I’ve seen all weekend! The girl raised about 8x the big blind from EP, which made me think she doesn’t like her hand THAT much. I got JJ in the BB, decided to call and push if the flop looks safe. Flop came 9-4-4, I pushed, she thought for quite a while, called and flipped over 77. Now I wondered – why? She can’t beat a 9 or a 4, any pair 8 or higher beats her – and did she really think I was doing it with only two high cards? And even so, the she might still lose three quarters of her stack if I hit – it was early in the tournament, I don’t think it was really worth it.
Anyway, once again the board came runner-runner spades, she’s holding the only spade and I’m out. And then she said she’s sorry – sorry for what? Sucking out? Really?? How else did you expect to win that hand??
Oh well, I was on full tilt then (the emotional state, not the site), and decided to get over it using the comforts of a Sephora shopping trip and a stuffed baked potato from The Café in Treasure Island. It worked. I felt much better and decided to go play the 2pm at TI, since Richard is still playing at Bellagio and we wanted to stay on the strip to play the Caesars tournament that night.
OK, this went much better, no suck outs (I got those out of the way), no interesting hands either and I made it to 3rd place, cashing $360.
Allrighty, I’m happy, now I could go play at Caesars, not feeling like a loser anymore. Big turnout at Caesars, 104 people to start with, WOW!
The poker gods were trying to apologize and gave me great cards early in the tournament. This is how my 2 Aces hands went down. Got a pair of Aces, raised, only one caller. Flop came all spades, I DON’T have one. Put a bet three quarters of the pot out there, he sighed, showed his 7s8s and said ‘I don’t want to call with a small flush’. I don’t know what he was hoping for when he called? Just a straight? Anyway, I got lucky and I scooped the pot before he changed his mind.
Couple of hands later, I got Aces again. Two limpers, I raised, BB called, one limper folded, and same guy re-raised me? WTF, now I’m confused. OK, so the blinds are 25/50, I raised to 150, he re-raised to 400. I don’t know what the BB was gonna do, and I want to go heads up with this guy, so I threw out another 1000. BOTH OF THEM CALLED! Flop came all low-cards, non-scary, and I pushed – if someone hit his set, I’m going to pay him off. Both folded – re-raise guy said he had AJ. Needless to say, he was out a couple of hands later.
The rush continued, I hit big hands and before long I had a decent-to-huge stack. I played really well, I think – and I made the final table with average stack. When we were down to 12 players, I decided that I made it that far; I HAD to make the money. Payout was 9 places, if I remember correctly. Anyway, I took out two guys and suddenly we were 4 left and I was second in chips. Once again, I got AA, KK, QQ and some great flops and before long, we were 3 left, one guy extremely short stack and the two of us about equal. We decided to do a chop by chip count, he had a whopping 7000 chips more than I had (less than one BB at that point), and he got around $100 more than I – my cash was $3151, which more than made up for the bad run earlier the weekend!!
And -- back to the end of the line for another ride……. my Venetian Deep Stack tourney on Wednesday, which I will write about in my next post.
Last Friday I played the Headhunters tournament at Treasure Island, first mistake. That type of tournament doesn’t fit my playing style at all, which I proved a couple of months ago, when I ended up 2nd in that tournament, WITHOUT A SINGLE BOUNTY!! Evidently I’m better at staying alive than at dealing the killing blows. Friday was no different, everything went as expected, I didn’t knock anyone out, and I stayed alive. Well, for a bit. I got knocked out with AJ on a A-x-x board, when the guy with pocket 5’s hit runner-runner straight against me. Oh well.
So I tried the 10pm tournament. For some reason I played the worst poker ever and it was probably just justice when I – again, went all-in with AQ on an Ace high board, board goes runner-runner and put 4 hearts on the board, guy with K5o is holding the only heart and I’m out.
Saturday morning I tried again. The Lips tournament at Orleans, and it started out well. Really well when I got my JJ all-in against pocket 7’s. This, btw, was probably one of the worst calls I’ve seen all weekend! The girl raised about 8x the big blind from EP, which made me think she doesn’t like her hand THAT much. I got JJ in the BB, decided to call and push if the flop looks safe. Flop came 9-4-4, I pushed, she thought for quite a while, called and flipped over 77. Now I wondered – why? She can’t beat a 9 or a 4, any pair 8 or higher beats her – and did she really think I was doing it with only two high cards? And even so, the she might still lose three quarters of her stack if I hit – it was early in the tournament, I don’t think it was really worth it.
Anyway, once again the board came runner-runner spades, she’s holding the only spade and I’m out. And then she said she’s sorry – sorry for what? Sucking out? Really?? How else did you expect to win that hand??
Oh well, I was on full tilt then (the emotional state, not the site), and decided to get over it using the comforts of a Sephora shopping trip and a stuffed baked potato from The Café in Treasure Island. It worked. I felt much better and decided to go play the 2pm at TI, since Richard is still playing at Bellagio and we wanted to stay on the strip to play the Caesars tournament that night.
OK, this went much better, no suck outs (I got those out of the way), no interesting hands either and I made it to 3rd place, cashing $360.
Allrighty, I’m happy, now I could go play at Caesars, not feeling like a loser anymore. Big turnout at Caesars, 104 people to start with, WOW!
The poker gods were trying to apologize and gave me great cards early in the tournament. This is how my 2 Aces hands went down. Got a pair of Aces, raised, only one caller. Flop came all spades, I DON’T have one. Put a bet three quarters of the pot out there, he sighed, showed his 7s8s and said ‘I don’t want to call with a small flush’. I don’t know what he was hoping for when he called? Just a straight? Anyway, I got lucky and I scooped the pot before he changed his mind.
Couple of hands later, I got Aces again. Two limpers, I raised, BB called, one limper folded, and same guy re-raised me? WTF, now I’m confused. OK, so the blinds are 25/50, I raised to 150, he re-raised to 400. I don’t know what the BB was gonna do, and I want to go heads up with this guy, so I threw out another 1000. BOTH OF THEM CALLED! Flop came all low-cards, non-scary, and I pushed – if someone hit his set, I’m going to pay him off. Both folded – re-raise guy said he had AJ. Needless to say, he was out a couple of hands later.
The rush continued, I hit big hands and before long I had a decent-to-huge stack. I played really well, I think – and I made the final table with average stack. When we were down to 12 players, I decided that I made it that far; I HAD to make the money. Payout was 9 places, if I remember correctly. Anyway, I took out two guys and suddenly we were 4 left and I was second in chips. Once again, I got AA, KK, QQ and some great flops and before long, we were 3 left, one guy extremely short stack and the two of us about equal. We decided to do a chop by chip count, he had a whopping 7000 chips more than I had (less than one BB at that point), and he got around $100 more than I – my cash was $3151, which more than made up for the bad run earlier the weekend!!
And -- back to the end of the line for another ride……. my Venetian Deep Stack tourney on Wednesday, which I will write about in my next post.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
WipHof - Part Four (The game)
The Game
So, at 2pm, after the luncheon, 55 people sat down for the tournament. A handful of us have won our way in on satellites, but the majority has paid the entry fee of $500 – which made this the biggest buy-in tournament I’ve ever entered. So, I was pretty excited. There were a couple of well-known players, of course the 4 inductees, and then people like Chip and Karina Jett, JJ Lieu and some others that were known to many, but not to me.
Can’t remember much of early in the tournament, I remember I tried really hard not to do something stupid, and whaddayaknow, I managed to stay out of trouble.
When we got down to three tables, I was moved and was sitting at the table with Marsha Waggoner, Karina Jett and some of the ‘unknown-to-me’ well-known people. Example – I chatted with the Asian lady to my right, she was very nice and we had a great conversation about the difference between what is called ‘lemonade’ here and what ‘lemonade’ is in some other countries (for clarification – in countries like South Africa and Australia, Sprite is called lemonade). We discussed that and some other stuff and when she got knocked out and was about to leave, I asked her what her name was. After all, I liked her and that’s the polite thing to do – if I run into her again, I want to at least remember what her name is. She looked at me kinda funny, and said: ‘JJ’ . ‘JJ??”, I asked, thought I heard wrong. Probably due to the fact that the only JJ I know, is a guy and I wanted to make sure I got it right. She looked confused and politely confirmed. Only after the fact (like two days after) I realized that it was JJ Lieu and that she was more than well-known in the poker world. Sorry JJ!!
One big hand at that table – I got QQ in MP, with only one limper, I raised, everyone else folded, limper called. Flop came AQx, he bet, so I figured he had an Ace, I called. Turn is another blank, he bet, I pushed, and he called. I was amazed when he turned over Ace-rag, but at least he doubled me up and he was out.
At that table Marsha got knocked out when she got all her chips in with KK against QQ - a Q on the turn and no help on the river.
Then – before you know it, we were down to two tables. Now I was excited. Unlike my normal routine, I was NOT short-stacked at this point and had a decent amount of chips. I picked up a couple of pots and made it to the final table with a fair amount of chips.
At the final table were me and TWO other pokerchix gals – as well as Barbara Enright, Chip Jett, and a couple of others.
Memorable hands at this table – just a couple of hands after final table started, I raised on the button with Kc8c. Chip Jet, in the SB, smooth-called the raise – for about half his stack. I realized that he probably planned to push at some point before the river, there’s no way he’ll call half his stack and then fold. It scared me a little, sure looks like he was holding a big hand, or he certainly wanted me to think that. Flop came – two clubs and a J, so I have a flush draw. And that was where I wasn’t sure what to do. Do I bet - he’s probably going to push all in regardless of the bet, so do I bet big and let him make the decision? Or do I bet small for in case he’ll let me see a turn card for cheap? I decided to check – I have no clue why, this is where my own inexperience became evident to me. Of course he pushed, and now *I* had to make the decision. I decided to make the call, he had QJ (I think?), he had second pair on the board, if I remember correctly - no flush came but I caught a K on the river and knocked him out.
A while later - QQ again, I raised, two callers. Flop came Q high, I checked – everyone checked behind. The turn is a 3, so I bet, one person fold, but the woman to the right, who played her strong hands VERY aggressive, raised me – and quite a bit too. I looked at the board again, couldn’t figure out what she could have had, thought maybe she had AQ and was waiting for me to bet so she could raise. I remember her getting very attached to her hands and didn’t think she was going to fold, and I was sure I had the best hand at that point, so I pushed. She instantly called and turned over pocket 3’s for a lower set. Phew, what a relief. And now I had LOADS of chips.
I decided to lay low and see if I can outwait the short stacks before getting too creative and before long, we were down to 4 players. Alan Schulman, Barbara Enright, some guy called Lance (from Canada) and me.
Alan was slowly getting down to short-stack, and she probably smelled my fear - so about 99% of the time – whether I limped or raised from the SB, she pushed from the BB. I never had a hand I felt comfortable calling with – but I also decided that I want her to get used to me folding to her raises, maybe she’ll become reckless and I can trap her with a monster hand. Which worked out well, just a couple of hands later. I picked up KK, made my obligatory raise, and she pushed. I called, she turned over A5o, and I stood there frozen while the dealer put the flop out. I didn’t want to move, I did NOT want an Ace to hit! And it DIDN’T! She was out in 4th place.
One hand that I played totally wrong – with 4 of us left, I raised with AQ and Barbara called. Flop came Q-Q-10, I checked, she checked. Turn was something insignificant, I bet and she raised. Now there is where I made the mistake. When I replayed the hand in my hand hundreds of times after the tournament, I should have called. Instead, I decided that she is trying to get me off my hand and I wanted her to know that I’m not going to be pushed around and that I have a strong hand. Duh. Why would I want her to know that? I could have played it so many different, more sufficient ways, but I pushed, she pondered for a while and folded.
Couple of hands later, Alan asked me what I had that hand, I told her, and Barbara told me she had QJ and folded when I pushed.
Now the guy from Canada wanted to double up or get up, so he’ll either raise HUGE or push all-in when he decided to play a hand. I picked up 77 and called one of his raises. Flop came down 8-8-3, he bet, I figured it’s just a continuation bet and that he probably had only two high cards, so I pushed. He called with pocket 10’s and I’m down to short stack. Doubled up once when I hit a straight, then pushed with AJ, he called with AQ and knocked me out. I got paid $3675 for my effort, which I was extremely pleased with, seeing that it’s my biggest payout in a poker tournament so far!
What a great experience it was! It made me – once again – realize how inexperience I am and how much I have to learn. Watching Barbara play, was great – she just proved that there is no substitute for experience and I admire her tremendously.
After 11 hours of play I went home and 1am in the morning, so darn tired, but so excited about the day, I couldn’t fall asleep and probably re-played every hand thousands of times in my head before my body finally gave up and went to sleep.
What a day!
So, at 2pm, after the luncheon, 55 people sat down for the tournament. A handful of us have won our way in on satellites, but the majority has paid the entry fee of $500 – which made this the biggest buy-in tournament I’ve ever entered. So, I was pretty excited. There were a couple of well-known players, of course the 4 inductees, and then people like Chip and Karina Jett, JJ Lieu and some others that were known to many, but not to me.
Can’t remember much of early in the tournament, I remember I tried really hard not to do something stupid, and whaddayaknow, I managed to stay out of trouble.
When we got down to three tables, I was moved and was sitting at the table with Marsha Waggoner, Karina Jett and some of the ‘unknown-to-me’ well-known people. Example – I chatted with the Asian lady to my right, she was very nice and we had a great conversation about the difference between what is called ‘lemonade’ here and what ‘lemonade’ is in some other countries (for clarification – in countries like South Africa and Australia, Sprite is called lemonade). We discussed that and some other stuff and when she got knocked out and was about to leave, I asked her what her name was. After all, I liked her and that’s the polite thing to do – if I run into her again, I want to at least remember what her name is. She looked at me kinda funny, and said: ‘JJ’ . ‘JJ??”, I asked, thought I heard wrong. Probably due to the fact that the only JJ I know, is a guy and I wanted to make sure I got it right. She looked confused and politely confirmed. Only after the fact (like two days after) I realized that it was JJ Lieu and that she was more than well-known in the poker world. Sorry JJ!!
One big hand at that table – I got QQ in MP, with only one limper, I raised, everyone else folded, limper called. Flop came AQx, he bet, so I figured he had an Ace, I called. Turn is another blank, he bet, I pushed, and he called. I was amazed when he turned over Ace-rag, but at least he doubled me up and he was out.
At that table Marsha got knocked out when she got all her chips in with KK against QQ - a Q on the turn and no help on the river.
Then – before you know it, we were down to two tables. Now I was excited. Unlike my normal routine, I was NOT short-stacked at this point and had a decent amount of chips. I picked up a couple of pots and made it to the final table with a fair amount of chips.
At the final table were me and TWO other pokerchix gals – as well as Barbara Enright, Chip Jett, and a couple of others.
Memorable hands at this table – just a couple of hands after final table started, I raised on the button with Kc8c. Chip Jet, in the SB, smooth-called the raise – for about half his stack. I realized that he probably planned to push at some point before the river, there’s no way he’ll call half his stack and then fold. It scared me a little, sure looks like he was holding a big hand, or he certainly wanted me to think that. Flop came – two clubs and a J, so I have a flush draw. And that was where I wasn’t sure what to do. Do I bet - he’s probably going to push all in regardless of the bet, so do I bet big and let him make the decision? Or do I bet small for in case he’ll let me see a turn card for cheap? I decided to check – I have no clue why, this is where my own inexperience became evident to me. Of course he pushed, and now *I* had to make the decision. I decided to make the call, he had QJ (I think?), he had second pair on the board, if I remember correctly - no flush came but I caught a K on the river and knocked him out.
A while later - QQ again, I raised, two callers. Flop came Q high, I checked – everyone checked behind. The turn is a 3, so I bet, one person fold, but the woman to the right, who played her strong hands VERY aggressive, raised me – and quite a bit too. I looked at the board again, couldn’t figure out what she could have had, thought maybe she had AQ and was waiting for me to bet so she could raise. I remember her getting very attached to her hands and didn’t think she was going to fold, and I was sure I had the best hand at that point, so I pushed. She instantly called and turned over pocket 3’s for a lower set. Phew, what a relief. And now I had LOADS of chips.
I decided to lay low and see if I can outwait the short stacks before getting too creative and before long, we were down to 4 players. Alan Schulman, Barbara Enright, some guy called Lance (from Canada) and me.
Alan was slowly getting down to short-stack, and she probably smelled my fear - so about 99% of the time – whether I limped or raised from the SB, she pushed from the BB. I never had a hand I felt comfortable calling with – but I also decided that I want her to get used to me folding to her raises, maybe she’ll become reckless and I can trap her with a monster hand. Which worked out well, just a couple of hands later. I picked up KK, made my obligatory raise, and she pushed. I called, she turned over A5o, and I stood there frozen while the dealer put the flop out. I didn’t want to move, I did NOT want an Ace to hit! And it DIDN’T! She was out in 4th place.
One hand that I played totally wrong – with 4 of us left, I raised with AQ and Barbara called. Flop came Q-Q-10, I checked, she checked. Turn was something insignificant, I bet and she raised. Now there is where I made the mistake. When I replayed the hand in my hand hundreds of times after the tournament, I should have called. Instead, I decided that she is trying to get me off my hand and I wanted her to know that I’m not going to be pushed around and that I have a strong hand. Duh. Why would I want her to know that? I could have played it so many different, more sufficient ways, but I pushed, she pondered for a while and folded.
Couple of hands later, Alan asked me what I had that hand, I told her, and Barbara told me she had QJ and folded when I pushed.
Now the guy from Canada wanted to double up or get up, so he’ll either raise HUGE or push all-in when he decided to play a hand. I picked up 77 and called one of his raises. Flop came down 8-8-3, he bet, I figured it’s just a continuation bet and that he probably had only two high cards, so I pushed. He called with pocket 10’s and I’m down to short stack. Doubled up once when I hit a straight, then pushed with AJ, he called with AQ and knocked me out. I got paid $3675 for my effort, which I was extremely pleased with, seeing that it’s my biggest payout in a poker tournament so far!
What a great experience it was! It made me – once again – realize how inexperience I am and how much I have to learn. Watching Barbara play, was great – she just proved that there is no substitute for experience and I admire her tremendously.
After 11 hours of play I went home and 1am in the morning, so darn tired, but so excited about the day, I couldn’t fall asleep and probably re-played every hand thousands of times in my head before my body finally gave up and went to sleep.
What a day!
Friday, February 15, 2008
WipHoF- Part Three (The satellites)
The satellites
OK, so the buy-in for the tournament after the ceremony was $500 + $60, and there’s no way I’m willing to pay that for a tournament (yet!). So, for people like me, there were a super-satellite as well as some single table satellites on Friday, the 1st. I’ve decided to give myself two changes ($75 x 2) to try and win a seat, and that’s it.
One little problem though - the super-satellite started at 5pm and Richard – who was out of town for the week – would be arriving at the airport at 7:30pm and expected his loving wife to pick him up. Oh, the choices one have to make – husband or poker??? He decided that it's safer not to put me to the test and offered to take a cab if I’m not done in time.
At the satellite I met a lovely older woman, her name is Kat and she loves animal print outfits. And by outfit, I meant every single thing she was wearing. Her watch, her earrings, her shoes, her purse, her little cushion to sit on, everything fit in with the leopard theme she had going on. I loved that! (She made me homesick; I missed the South African Bushveld every time I looked at her).
Poker-wise nothing spectacular happened, I stayed out of trouble, but didn’t get any big hands, and by the time we were down to two tables, I was pretty short-stack. After they combined the tables, I found myself at a table where one gentleman was just walking over the table. He had a huge chip stack and apparently an ego to go with it. Also, everyone seemed to be majorly impressed with him and his – not so funny – jokes and I wondered what the heck was going on. The flops were hitting him hard and he won huge pots with K9, K10, etc against better hands – there just didn’t seem a way he could lose.
At some point my irritation was showing and I muttered something about his silly jokes under my breath, and the guy next to me said “Do you KNOW who that is?” Uuuuhhh, no? He looked at me in disbelief “It’s Kenna James!!” Now thanks to the likes of Phill Hellmuth and Umberto Shark guy, I am not a fan of ‘famous’ poker players and their antics, the name rang a bell, but I had no idea who he was (he turned out to be married to Marsha Waggoner, one of the four inductees).
“Ok”, I said to the guy next to me “but he’s still not funny?”. He shook his head and to my disbelief uttered the following when Kenna won the next pot “Kenna, you’re the MAN!! I’m just the man sitting NEXT to the man”. Oh how painful it was to see a grown man act like a 10 year old at a Hannah Montanah concert!
Couple hands later I pushed my short stack to the middle with KhJh, hoping to pick up antes and blinds, but unfortunately the Kenna-groupie next to me woke up with Aces and knocked me out.
Now it was just after 7pm and almost time for me to get to the airport, but I SO wanted to try a single table satellite. I decided to hold Richard to his cab-promise and signed up for the next satellite. Luckily my dear husband understands the power of poker and he didn’t mind, he took a $20 cab-ride home and I could play in peace.
The satellite started and what do you know, Kat is at my table again! The game started well for me when I flopped a set and picked up some chips right at the start. I played semi-aggressive because it was evident that people didn’t want to part with their chips, so before long I had decent chip stack. I just stayed away from calling all-ins with mediocre hands, and before long, I found myself heads-up with Tonya – one of the pokerchix. I had a massive chip lead, probably close to 10-1, and offered her the cash ($90) so she can play the next satellite and I’ll take the seat. She accepted, I gave her $100 and I got my seat!
I called Richard and told him it was well worth the $20 cab ride!!
OK, so the buy-in for the tournament after the ceremony was $500 + $60, and there’s no way I’m willing to pay that for a tournament (yet!). So, for people like me, there were a super-satellite as well as some single table satellites on Friday, the 1st. I’ve decided to give myself two changes ($75 x 2) to try and win a seat, and that’s it.
One little problem though - the super-satellite started at 5pm and Richard – who was out of town for the week – would be arriving at the airport at 7:30pm and expected his loving wife to pick him up. Oh, the choices one have to make – husband or poker??? He decided that it's safer not to put me to the test and offered to take a cab if I’m not done in time.
At the satellite I met a lovely older woman, her name is Kat and she loves animal print outfits. And by outfit, I meant every single thing she was wearing. Her watch, her earrings, her shoes, her purse, her little cushion to sit on, everything fit in with the leopard theme she had going on. I loved that! (She made me homesick; I missed the South African Bushveld every time I looked at her).
Poker-wise nothing spectacular happened, I stayed out of trouble, but didn’t get any big hands, and by the time we were down to two tables, I was pretty short-stack. After they combined the tables, I found myself at a table where one gentleman was just walking over the table. He had a huge chip stack and apparently an ego to go with it. Also, everyone seemed to be majorly impressed with him and his – not so funny – jokes and I wondered what the heck was going on. The flops were hitting him hard and he won huge pots with K9, K10, etc against better hands – there just didn’t seem a way he could lose.
At some point my irritation was showing and I muttered something about his silly jokes under my breath, and the guy next to me said “Do you KNOW who that is?” Uuuuhhh, no? He looked at me in disbelief “It’s Kenna James!!” Now thanks to the likes of Phill Hellmuth and Umberto Shark guy, I am not a fan of ‘famous’ poker players and their antics, the name rang a bell, but I had no idea who he was (he turned out to be married to Marsha Waggoner, one of the four inductees).
“Ok”, I said to the guy next to me “but he’s still not funny?”. He shook his head and to my disbelief uttered the following when Kenna won the next pot “Kenna, you’re the MAN!! I’m just the man sitting NEXT to the man”. Oh how painful it was to see a grown man act like a 10 year old at a Hannah Montanah concert!
Couple hands later I pushed my short stack to the middle with KhJh, hoping to pick up antes and blinds, but unfortunately the Kenna-groupie next to me woke up with Aces and knocked me out.
Now it was just after 7pm and almost time for me to get to the airport, but I SO wanted to try a single table satellite. I decided to hold Richard to his cab-promise and signed up for the next satellite. Luckily my dear husband understands the power of poker and he didn’t mind, he took a $20 cab-ride home and I could play in peace.
The satellite started and what do you know, Kat is at my table again! The game started well for me when I flopped a set and picked up some chips right at the start. I played semi-aggressive because it was evident that people didn’t want to part with their chips, so before long I had decent chip stack. I just stayed away from calling all-ins with mediocre hands, and before long, I found myself heads-up with Tonya – one of the pokerchix. I had a massive chip lead, probably close to 10-1, and offered her the cash ($90) so she can play the next satellite and I’ll take the seat. She accepted, I gave her $100 and I got my seat!
I called Richard and told him it was well worth the $20 cab ride!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
WiPHoF - Part Two (The WiPHoF women)
The WiPHoF women:
The four women inducted into the WiPHoF, were Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Marsha Waggoner and Suzie Isaacs. It was one thing just knowing ABOUT them, and quite another to hear them speak. I guess that’s one drawback of being in the spotlight, people know and judge them by standards set and stories told by people who don’t always really know them. What I knew about them – before the induction – was - Linda is a sweetheart, Suzie is a terror, Marsha is a lady and Barbara, well, all I know, Barbara has been playing poker forever, so all I had, was that she had to be old. I was looking forward to their speeches to see if they live up to expectations.
Barbara was first to speak. She kind of confused me, I sat there with a tilted head and a confused look on my face, I didn’t really get what she was saying and where she was going with her speech. At some point I wondered if she hit the bar before her speech, one thing was certain, I gave her credit for not wasting time on practicing her speech. She cracked a joke about Jose Baseball player and his love for WOE’s, which the audience seemed to love. Personally I think it’s better to ignore Jose and his featuring the Women’s Events, and not add fuel to the fire by giving him more attention than what he deserves and more important, not giving him the attention he most definitely craves.
So, by the end of her speech – adding the combination of her delivery, her interesting hair-color combination as well as wearing her sunglasses throughout the ceremony, I thought she was a little weird.
Next was Suzie. I was ready to continue not to like her – given all the horror stories I’ve read and heard, and my main concern was how I am going to get through her 10 minutes of talking. However, she took me (and probably most other people too) by surprise by starting out admitting what a brat she used to be and how she has decided to change her attitude. She seemed humbled and genuinely and sincerely honored by her induction, and I liked that. I changed my mind. I like Suzie now.
Linda was next and no surprises there. She’s a great woman, down-to-earth and the audience loved her. I didn’t expect anything less.
Last but not least, Marsha. She was soft-spoken and seemed not to be used to speaking in public, but she delivered her well-prepared speech with class and style. I like her.
See more here Click here for Cardplayer’s coverage of the WiPHoF
The four women inducted into the WiPHoF, were Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Marsha Waggoner and Suzie Isaacs. It was one thing just knowing ABOUT them, and quite another to hear them speak. I guess that’s one drawback of being in the spotlight, people know and judge them by standards set and stories told by people who don’t always really know them. What I knew about them – before the induction – was - Linda is a sweetheart, Suzie is a terror, Marsha is a lady and Barbara, well, all I know, Barbara has been playing poker forever, so all I had, was that she had to be old. I was looking forward to their speeches to see if they live up to expectations.
Barbara was first to speak. She kind of confused me, I sat there with a tilted head and a confused look on my face, I didn’t really get what she was saying and where she was going with her speech. At some point I wondered if she hit the bar before her speech, one thing was certain, I gave her credit for not wasting time on practicing her speech. She cracked a joke about Jose Baseball player and his love for WOE’s, which the audience seemed to love. Personally I think it’s better to ignore Jose and his featuring the Women’s Events, and not add fuel to the fire by giving him more attention than what he deserves and more important, not giving him the attention he most definitely craves.
So, by the end of her speech – adding the combination of her delivery, her interesting hair-color combination as well as wearing her sunglasses throughout the ceremony, I thought she was a little weird.
Next was Suzie. I was ready to continue not to like her – given all the horror stories I’ve read and heard, and my main concern was how I am going to get through her 10 minutes of talking. However, she took me (and probably most other people too) by surprise by starting out admitting what a brat she used to be and how she has decided to change her attitude. She seemed humbled and genuinely and sincerely honored by her induction, and I liked that. I changed my mind. I like Suzie now.
Linda was next and no surprises there. She’s a great woman, down-to-earth and the audience loved her. I didn’t expect anything less.
Last but not least, Marsha. She was soft-spoken and seemed not to be used to speaking in public, but she delivered her well-prepared speech with class and style. I like her.
See more here Click here for Cardplayer’s coverage of the WiPHoF
Monday, February 11, 2008
WiPHoF weekend – Part One (The ceremony)
The Ceremony
Even though I am not one for ceremonies and luncheons and all that, I've decided to attend the First Annual Women In Poker Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Luncheon on February 2, 2008 – I wanted to be part of history in the making.
Even though poker is an equal playing field for men and women, there are a lot of women who do not want to be part of Women Only Events for numerous reasons. And for the most part, I do agree with their sentiments, and having WOE’s might establish the idea that we’re not good enough to play with the men, and that we need special treatment.
But I think that the history of poker and more importantly, the history of WOMEN in poker, entitle us to be treated special, at least for now. It’s not as simple as many may think, in the poker world, until recently, women were treated as second class citizens, not only the players but all women in the industry. They were abused, not only mentally, but sometimes also physically. Women players were denied access to games, grumpy old men refused to play in games with female dealers and many many similar stories came to light during the presentations at the luncheon. Looking at the poker world today, as many have said – “We’ve come a long way, baby”. We have every reason in the world to celebrate that, and more importantly to honor and celebrate the women who paved the way for us to be where we are now. We also have an obligation to continue supporting the growth of women in poker, and one very important way to do that, is the continuation of Women Only Events.
I had the greatest feeling at the poker table the other day. Of the 10 seats, 5 were occupied by women, and – as you should expect from us – a lot of yakking was going on. The two guys to my left were visibly annoyed and the one whispered to his buddy “Is it going to be like this all the time?”
I smiled and thought “oh boy – you have no idea what you’re in for”. The face of poker has changed. For years the only woman at the poker table had to listen to all the male talk, we had to listen to football discussions, comments on the cocktail waitresses’ boobs, and all kinds of testosterone-driven drivel - all while being called ‘sweetie’ or ‘honey’. And look at us now…. “We’ve come a long way, baby!!”
… to be continued…
Even though I am not one for ceremonies and luncheons and all that, I've decided to attend the First Annual Women In Poker Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Luncheon on February 2, 2008 – I wanted to be part of history in the making.
Even though poker is an equal playing field for men and women, there are a lot of women who do not want to be part of Women Only Events for numerous reasons. And for the most part, I do agree with their sentiments, and having WOE’s might establish the idea that we’re not good enough to play with the men, and that we need special treatment.
But I think that the history of poker and more importantly, the history of WOMEN in poker, entitle us to be treated special, at least for now. It’s not as simple as many may think, in the poker world, until recently, women were treated as second class citizens, not only the players but all women in the industry. They were abused, not only mentally, but sometimes also physically. Women players were denied access to games, grumpy old men refused to play in games with female dealers and many many similar stories came to light during the presentations at the luncheon. Looking at the poker world today, as many have said – “We’ve come a long way, baby”. We have every reason in the world to celebrate that, and more importantly to honor and celebrate the women who paved the way for us to be where we are now. We also have an obligation to continue supporting the growth of women in poker, and one very important way to do that, is the continuation of Women Only Events.
I had the greatest feeling at the poker table the other day. Of the 10 seats, 5 were occupied by women, and – as you should expect from us – a lot of yakking was going on. The two guys to my left were visibly annoyed and the one whispered to his buddy “Is it going to be like this all the time?”
I smiled and thought “oh boy – you have no idea what you’re in for”. The face of poker has changed. For years the only woman at the poker table had to listen to all the male talk, we had to listen to football discussions, comments on the cocktail waitresses’ boobs, and all kinds of testosterone-driven drivel - all while being called ‘sweetie’ or ‘honey’. And look at us now…. “We’ve come a long way, baby!!”
… to be continued…
Friday, January 25, 2008
Hello 2008!
Holidays are over and poker is back in full swing. I had a lovely time with daughter, mom and brother all visiting over the holidays and didn’t have much time for poker. However, we took full advantage of Showtickets4locals.com and saw a couple of shows for free, including Danny Gans. I guess he’s good, but some of his impressions were not THAT impressive, he really makes a lousy Anita Baker and Homer Simpson, but his Bill Clinton and Louis Armstrong are pretty good! But hey, it was free, so I don’t complain.
I ended my 2007 poker-year on a lovely note. I played in the LIPS tourney at The Orleans on Dec 29th, about 57 players and after a couple of initial mistakes, I managed to make the final table, doubled up once or twice and finally went out in 4th place. See the pics here
The new year is off to a slow start though, I’ve played in a couple of tourneys, but only managed to cash in one by winning the ladies tourney at TI – let’s not mention the fact that we had only 7 players that night! At least I got another lovely spa certificate!
OK, so I’m a woman, and for various reasons I like to compete in WOE’s. I play regularly in the TI and Caesars Ladies tourneys, and I’m also part of a home league for ladies (once a month for 6 months). One of the reasons for this was to meet people who live in Vegas. I’ve moved here a little more than a year ago, and apart from my co-workers, most people I meet at the poker tables are leaving within a day or two and building up friendships - not really a possibility.
But boy, I forgot one thing. Women can TALK. Now granted, I talk a lot too, but at the poker table I *try* not to talk too much, because it definitely has an impact on my game, but apparently that’s not a problem many women have!!! If you don’t believe in a woman’s ability to multi-task, you should come watch a table full of women playing poker. They look at their cards and follow the action (well, MOST of them) while they discuss menopause, shopping, birth, hair products, husbands, children, etc as WELL as order drinks, all without blinking or losing the beat.
“yes, I know, and have you seen the way they treat their customers, you won’t believe what I saw the other day **CALL** that one girl, you know the one with the spiky hair, no not that one, that’s her cousin, that’s the one with the baby with the receptionist’s ex-fiancé **RAISE** she said to me that her mother-in-law buys from that store regularly **HONEY, A BOTTLE OF WATER AND A HEINEKEN OVER HERE PLEASE**and she never had a problem **RERAISE** with any of their stuff except that one time….” And next thing you know, she’s scooping in a big pot without any one noticing.
And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is why women make great poker players. (That’s also why my main accessories when playing in a WOE, are - my iPod and a glass of wine)
I ended my 2007 poker-year on a lovely note. I played in the LIPS tourney at The Orleans on Dec 29th, about 57 players and after a couple of initial mistakes, I managed to make the final table, doubled up once or twice and finally went out in 4th place. See the pics here
The new year is off to a slow start though, I’ve played in a couple of tourneys, but only managed to cash in one by winning the ladies tourney at TI – let’s not mention the fact that we had only 7 players that night! At least I got another lovely spa certificate!
OK, so I’m a woman, and for various reasons I like to compete in WOE’s. I play regularly in the TI and Caesars Ladies tourneys, and I’m also part of a home league for ladies (once a month for 6 months). One of the reasons for this was to meet people who live in Vegas. I’ve moved here a little more than a year ago, and apart from my co-workers, most people I meet at the poker tables are leaving within a day or two and building up friendships - not really a possibility.
But boy, I forgot one thing. Women can TALK. Now granted, I talk a lot too, but at the poker table I *try* not to talk too much, because it definitely has an impact on my game, but apparently that’s not a problem many women have!!! If you don’t believe in a woman’s ability to multi-task, you should come watch a table full of women playing poker. They look at their cards and follow the action (well, MOST of them) while they discuss menopause, shopping, birth, hair products, husbands, children, etc as WELL as order drinks, all without blinking or losing the beat.
“yes, I know, and have you seen the way they treat their customers, you won’t believe what I saw the other day **CALL** that one girl, you know the one with the spiky hair, no not that one, that’s her cousin, that’s the one with the baby with the receptionist’s ex-fiancé **RAISE** she said to me that her mother-in-law buys from that store regularly **HONEY, A BOTTLE OF WATER AND A HEINEKEN OVER HERE PLEASE**and she never had a problem **RERAISE** with any of their stuff except that one time….” And next thing you know, she’s scooping in a big pot without any one noticing.
And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is why women make great poker players. (That’s also why my main accessories when playing in a WOE, are - my iPod and a glass of wine)
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