I woke up somewhat early Saturday considering how late the night before got. The minute I woke up I knew I had some work ahead of me to at the least cut into some of the loss I had the night before.

I eventually made it back down to the poker room and decided to play 3/6 limit. At this point, I just was sick of NLH after Friday night.

Session 3

To make a long story short, I ended up about $120 after 4 hours of play. I really ran pretty well as I hit about 4 full houses and everyone at the table was calling me down as I averaged showing down one bluff every hour. I did take some bad beats here and there, but it was expected playing this low of a limit game.

I was happy with the net of $120, but was disappointed as I felt I left some money on the table in a couple of hands. I also got a little of track for about 1 hour where I caught myself playing WAY too many hands. My high point during the 4 hours of play was around $175, and I really should have won over $200 for how poor the play was.

Other Games

I left the table to go hang out with some of the friends I felt I hadn’t really accompanied during the weekend. I played a little mini-baccarat where I won $150 betting on the average the minimum $20. I was mostly just betting on the banker and only switching to player a couple of times.

On that note, I really like baccarat after dabbling with it in Vegas. I feel like it is a great game to play as it is nearly 50 percent odds (better than the red or black bet in double zero roulette) and I am now over a $300 winner in that game mostly just betting the minimum outside of a few times.

If I could confidently count cards without mistakes, I would have probably played some blackjack.

Then I got talked into playing roulette. I have read, unsure of where, that history in roulette means nothing. However, there is one way you might be able to win. That is when some numbers come in more often than not. The theory behind this is the fact that the wheel can have the slightest imperfections to allow for certain numbers to hit more often and the throw of the ball by the dealer can have “human error” to allow for certain numbers to hit.

I might be able to see the first part of the theory more than the second, but nonetheless I used the strategy. I would bet 6-7 numbers that seemed to pop up more often and 2-3 of my “lucky” numbers. I ended up winning $13 in 30 minutes. But I wish I had played 3 more spins, as the next 3 spins all came up with numbers that I had routinely bet. I would have won more than $200 had I done so.

Session 4

After an even crazier night than the night before at MurMur (Borgata club) I stumbled into the poker room knowing that I was there to play more for fun than to win as I knew I was not in the best condition to play my A game.

I saw a lively short handed table of 5/10 limit and decided to take a seat and bought in for $200. After all, 5/10 limit is what I play in Myrtle Beach (Sun Cruz Casino) and average winning about 10bb/hr down there.

I really enjoyed it as it was easily noticeable that I was playing against better competition than what I had faced all weekend. I mixed it up without really ever getting a hand, outside of one KK in which I won a small, uncontested pot. Hands were rarely getting to showdown, it was great!

After about an hour of playing pretty card dead, I was down about 40 bucks. Then I find out that the players at the table are “regulars” in the 10/20 game and they were just about to get up and call it a night. Me and one other guy, I believe his name was Nick (at least that is what I am going with) decided to play headsup.

I got off to an early comfortable lead, and then he slowly chipped back up. Then I lost about 3 big hands out of 10 and was down to about $20. I managed to work it back up to $75 as some other players sat down.

Both of the new guys were putting bad beat after bad beat on both me and Nick and Nick busted as I was still hanging on with about $50. Then my last hand of the weekend came (one of the only hands I can remember nearly every detail in the night):

It was folded to me in the SB and I look down at the Ac3c. I make a raise and get called by the BB.

The flop brings 3 J J.

I bet and get called.

The turn brings another 3.

I bet and get called again.

The river was a 7.

I bet and get raised. With just a couple of more bets in my stack I decide to go all in. He calls, and I am thinking he is going to show a Jack. He doesn’t though. Instead he shows 77 with 7s full. Good hand, good game, good night, good bye Atlantic City.

Overall I feel like I played OK, but I definitely was not playing my A game while drinking on either night. This will go down as my first losing weekend in AC and this was my 6th trip up there.

I ended up losing 420 in poker (about 260 overall) though I will make the notion that I did win $180 sober. Even when I had some alcohol in me, I feel like I played well enough to win, it just didn’t work out that way. But I had a blast, and that was really all that mattered as I was more there for a bachelor party than to play poker.

I did notice some other things while in AC when it comes to my game. That will come in a later, probably lengthy, post or article.

I first arrived in Atlantic City after a long 6 hour drive. The minute I got there it was time to play some poker before the alcohol was in the picture for the bachelor party.

Session 1

I left the non-poker playing friends at the roulette table and headed for the poker room with a few other friends. I sat down at 1/2 NL kind of as a refresher and to get back into the swing of things as I was expecting to play 2/5 NL later in the weekend.

I bought in for $200 though the max buy-in was $300. After a few quick hours of not getting too many good hands I was up $60 and left to get ready to go out. Really nothing too eventful but did notice how poor the play was.

Session 2

After going to a couple of bars I carried myself back to the poker room around 2 in the morning. Decided to buy back into the 1/2 game since I had been drinking instead of trying out the 2/5 game.

First hand I am dealt in the BB was AhAc. Middle position player opens with a 4x raise, the button calls, and hoping to take the pot down pre and set a tone for my table image I overbet ($35) the pot ($19) making it $27 more to go for the players already in. I still had $165 behind. The original raiser, with what looked to be about $500 behind, calls and the button folds.

At this point, with no reads except to notice that he is up since the max buyin is $300, I have to think that he has two big cards like AK-AQ or a pretty nice pair like TT-KK. I wasn’t really laying good enough odds for much else to call.

Flop brings 8h 5d 2h

I bet ($60) 3/4 of the pot ($78) hoping that he has an overpair and is willing to go with it. If he just calls, I would have the perfect size stack to make a value ship with the rest on the turn ($105 into $198). To go along with the possibility of him having an overpair, he declares that he is putting me all in.

Without really thinking about it, I call knowing I was pretty much priced in getting nearly 2:1 on the flop with AA one being a heart.

As I put the last of my chips in, I asked “Did you hit a set on me?”

He sheepishly shakes his head yes as he turns over his 55. Needless to say, the turn and river was of no help.

I quickly reach back into my pockets to rebuy for another $200.

At least an hour of break-even play went by. A few more beers down and a run of no cards was getting me antsy as this next hand occurred:

At this point I had reads on the styles of 3/4 of the table and had a couple strong physical tells on 1/3 of the table. The table playing loose, I look down at the Qc7c from the button after 4 limpers and elect to call. The SB calls and the loose aggressive BB makes it $16 to go. It is folded around to me and I make a loose call thinking I could outplay him as I had a good read on him. SB folds.

The flop brings 7 5 2 (no flush draw out, forget the suits though).

BB leads with a pot-sized ($40) continuation bet as he has done 3 or 4 times in the last orbit and a half. I sit there and think for about 10 seconds, my opponent really did look uncomfortable. So I decided to call planning to bet if checked to me on the turn no matter what came.

Turn brings an 8 (rainbow).

The BB checks, I look at the pot which is now at $120 and I have about the same. So going with my read and my plan, I decide to ship and hopefully take down the pot. To my dismay, I get called pretty quickly.

Again the board reads 7 5 2 8, guess what he had!

44!

And guess what came on the river, a 6 to give him the straight.

I slowly pushed away from the table as I watched him drag the pot away. I said in awe “I can not believe you called over a hundred with that, but nice hand I guess” and I walked away in disbelief.

In no way, was I playing the hand the way I did just because I had top pair. I played it this way by going with my read. I was really playing the player more than the cards. I guess I was correct in this instance, but the outcome was unfavorable.

End of day 1, down 340….. Day 2 to come later.

When I was first introduced to No Limit Holdem, back in my freshman year in college on a day off away from the baseball field, a few of us were playing 25/50 cent dealer’s choice cash games. This was a couple of years before the big “moneymaker boom”. I was intrigued by Holdem, but to be honest with you, it really didn’t do much for me at the time. Back then, I would like the games that would build the biggest pots, and holdem just wasn’t doing it back then.

So when the button got to me, I would just choose “727″, a blackjack style game where the goal was to be closest to 7 or 27 without going over, and some of the pots would grow to huge amounts. It was one of the best games to take advantage of position, this is the main reason I would always chose it.

Other games we would play are: high or low Chicago, crisscross, 3-5-7, and Omaha.

Fast forward to 2003 and the Moneymaker boom, and we were mostly just playing holdem, though we would still mix in some dealers choice games on the rare nights. I was an overall winner in these games, though I now realize just how much I didn’t know.

When I first started playing online poker a few years ago, I would just dabble with some No-Limit holdem cash games with the occasional tournament. To say the least, I was a slow loser in tournaments, and couldn’t handle the cash games when I would lose fast. At the time, one of my best tools in poker was the reads I could get live, and I was really out of my element online.

Then as of recently, I have been mostly playing limit holdem cash games, limit 5 card draw, NLH SNGs, and NLH MTTs. I would stay away from NLH cash games online. Pretty much the only time I would play NLH cash games would be when I was playing live at the Borgata in Atlantic City and do usually really well I might add. Even when I went to Vegas in June, when I decided to put in some hours at the cash tables, I opted for limit holdem.

I wouldn’t really play NLH anywhere else, even though I have been invited to a few home games that are really juicy, but too much of a short stack gamble to risk the cash they were throwing around. But even today, I am hoping to take advantage of that game once I feel I am properly bankrolled for the roller coaster that is that home game.

So when I was sitting there the other day, after cashing in the PL draw WCOOP, I was trying to decide what route I should try and take to get my bankroll back on track. I can play $20 SNGs which I have a pretty good ROI in. I could play $10 MTTs, but frequently the fields are so huge I would really have to get lucky to make some real dough. Go back and drop down levels to playing 1/2 limit draw, in which I could easily make about $10/hour on average (if I don’t multitable). I could play 1/2 limit holdem cash, in which I would probably make about 2 to 3 BB/100 (multitabling). Or I could play NLH cash in which I was a losing player in NLH cash games online.

So sitting there looking at my options, what do you think I chose? Of course NLH! The game that I have statistically in the past not been able to dominate. But the last time I played NLH cash games seriously, it was about a year ago. There has been a ton of stuff that I have learned in the past year about NLH deepstacked play, that I felt I could beat these games now with the knowledge I possessed.

As of today I have been playing $25 6-max NLH the majority of my online time. Though it is an extremely small sample, I have thus far played 1379 hands playing 3-4 tables at once. I have been averaging a whopping 65BB/100 hands! Now I know I won’t be able to keep those numbers up, but these games are soooo easy, and really fun at the moment. It is bringing me back to my roots of when I was sitting in college playing NLH cash games against my buds.

What have I done differently than what I was doing in the past? I have been playing an overall loose/aggressive style. But, I will only get a ton of money into the pot when I have a big hand, and no top pair/top kicker is not really a big hand when you are playing with 100bb stack. I have been putting my money in consistently good with 2 pair, straights, flushes, and sets. Maybe I have been running good, I don’t know. But things are just too easy right now, and I am really enjoying this little rush.

My bankroll is now at $1273.80. Technically, I can move up to $50NL now, but I think I will sit back in the $25NL games until my BR gets up to $1500.

Until next time, keep pwning.