andy's nerd blog

Atlantic City report

Last week I flew out to the east coast for Jiffy and John’s wedding in picturesque Alexandria, Virginia. The wedding was beautiful and I had such an amazing time. I made fast friends with two of Jiffy’s and one of John’s old schoolmates and after the festivities concluded the four of us cabbed to DC for a crazy night at the clubs! Thankfully I made it back to my hotel in one piece. Saturday was definitely the highlight of my trip but I also had fun visiting Philadelphia for a day on Friday. I bought a cool pair of Zoo York cargo pants and had a delicious cheesesteak on South Street.

Thursday I took the train out to Atlantic City to stay at the Borgata and play some poker. Not having been to AC in three years and Vegas in two I kind of wanted to see what was new. The Borgata is more or less equivalent to an upscale Vegas strip quality hotel/casino. It’s far and above the nicest place there and I would say about close to the Bellagio in overall class. One lame thing about Atlantic City though is that since they have nowhere near the draw that Vegas does the accommodations aren’t nearly as subsidized. A regular room at the Borgata typically goes for $279/night in the summer! They do however offer decent rates for poker players- I stayed there for $149.

Observations:

1. The poker room at the Borgata when I last visited was just slightly larger than the one at the Mirage. Now it’s literally three times bigger. My guess is there were about 50-60 active tables on a Thursday night.

2. It is downright scary how many young people play poker nowadays, and I don’t just mean low limit. I saw many guys (and a few ladies) my age or younger with several hundred dollars in chips. Though many of them were playing $1-$2NL, some were playing $2-$5NL and beyond.

3. It definitely seems like a large contributing factor to the success of poker in AC is its close proximity to so many colleges and universities. I sat down at a $1-$2NL table and 3 of the kids at the table had driven out from Philly just for a six hour session. It was basically just like Rounders, except they weren’t as good. Around 2am one of them mentioned that he had to be back for a 10am class.

4. I decided to play with $300 but most people sitting at the $1-$2NL tables had about $350 or more. However, it seemed as if there were a constant stream of stragglers who would sit down with $60-$100, bust out a short while later and walk away. To be honest I kind of felt bad for these people because there are so many tough players patrolling the low limit tables now that the casual player has only a tiny chance of success! One girl sat down with $60, busted out in like 20 minutes, hit the ATM for $120 more and lost that too. Another young asian kid sat down with $75 and eventually lost it all to me because he just played terribly.

Recap:

act 1, patiently waiting for playable hands
basically blinded off my first $35, saw no post flop worthy hands.

act 2, building up my stack
won a decent pot with JJ in middle position. flopped top set in three way action and beat a flush down the stretch when the board paired on the turn. flopped the nut flush with ATs in late position. this is where i took all that asian kid’s money. the board ended up with 4 diamonds and he thought he had me beat i guess. won a three-way pot with AJo from middle position with top two pair. don’t remember the hand though. at this point i was up to about 480

act 3, bad luck, poor play
AKo in late position. flopped A62. got smoked by a big blind with 66. got AA in early/middle position. still steamed about the previous loss and tried to trap? i don’t know what i was thinking. didn’t raise preflop and ended up in 6 way action for the flop. flop was garbage and someone in front of me led off with a $10 bet so i mucked. a little while later was dealt QQ in early position. a tight asian kid in late position made it 12 and i reraised to 30, he called for a two way pot. flop was T63 or something like that. he checked to me and I didn’t really think about what he was playing. i was definitely a little on tilt because i was loving my queens and just assumed that i was ahead. so i led off with 30, he called. basically the same thing happened on the turn. a jack hit on the river and he led off with a 100 bet. the pot was about 180. i agonized over this and ended up folding. his friends thought he had JJ but he never confirmed or denied. i think he might have made a good read on me though and bluffed me off the pot.

act 4, cooling down
i was back down to just over 300 so i wasn’t in horrible shape but pretty upset about my play. blinded off a bunch and cooled down

act 5, redemption in the form of a suited connector
there was one asian kid at the table i had never played a pot with but knew was pretty solid. i had a 56 diamonds in middle position and called the bb. he was in the cutoff and raised it up to 12. i was interested and wanted to lay the smack down on him because i felt like he was playing a big hand so i called and someone after me called as well. flop comes down A73 with 2 diamonds! checks to him and he bets 20. at this point i started to get excited because i have a ton of outs and great pot odds. i call and so does the other player. turn is a 4. woot, hit my straight. check, check, he bets 100. i don’t know what he was doing here, i think he realized he gave us the turn for too cheap. i had 280 in my stack and he had me covered. i sold it as best as i could without going overboard and pushed it all forward, hoping he’d figure me for a low set or a draw. the other dude folded and the asian kid was in agony. but i guess he thought i was putting a move on him because he called. i flipped over the straight and he flipped over AA. and to further embarass him the river brought me a flush.

just now as i was writing this i realized this is basically the same thing that happened to me with the QQ hand, in reverse. further support to the thought that i was bluffed off my queens is that the kid in that hand was a buddy of the kid i doubled through. so he was probably sure that i was putting a move on because he’s seen it so many times in his home games. regardless, he was pwnt and this muthasucka got paid.

After that I hung around for a bit but I felt done. Cashed out $667. gg.

The Truth About Me

Today I experienced a moment of true inspiration during which I realized exactly how hopeless I am. I was composing an email message to a friend when an action item came up, something that I needed to think about this week. Without skipping a beat or altering the flow of my email, what did my fingers type?

“Ok, I’ll go ahead and move it forward a few bits in my mental register¹ for this week, see what I can come up with and get back to you…”

Mental register!? Well as they say, the writing is on the wall. All my life I’ve been told I can be anything I want to be. And now I know that is flagrantly incorrect. I am and always will be a GEEK.

But it’s ok because we’re in the 21st century now and as much as society’s upper class hates to admit it, the geeks are leading the way. Just look at the 10 richest Americans according to Forbes Magazine:

1. Bill Gates, software uber-nerd
2. Warren Buffett, money and finance geek
3. Paul Allen, software nerd and faux sports fan
4-8. The Waltons, not really nerds
9. Michael Dell, the king of computer nerds
10. Larry Ellison, part-time software nerd part-time sailboat racer

And let’s not forget about the many other ‘new generation’ nerds out there. Two that come to mind are Mark Cuban and Paul Phillips. Just because they aren’t in the top 10 doesn’t mean they don’t represent. Many people like Mark Cuban because of what he’s done for the Mavericks but he could also be considered a consumer advocate and media pioneer for what he’s created in HDnet. As for Phillips, as crazy as it may be, I believe he is the closest to a good role model that exists in the poker world. I say this because IMO one can only be truly successful at high stakes poker in the long run if one has nothing to lose. Sure a guy like TJ Cloutier is legendary in the poker world and has hundreds of money finishes to his name, but come on now. How can you ever “retire” and/or be truly content when you can’t play in a big tournament without a backer? Plus, for a poker player to reach their maximum potential they have to be free from the financial strain of losing. Of course you would still have to possess an extraordinarily competitive spirit because after all, poker is intellectual and psychological warfare. But you also need to be unaffected by the inevitibility of losing streaks. So while circuit poker pro X can have backers put up 100% of his tournament entry fees and even cover his travel expenses, at the end of the day he still needs to eat. And if he doesn’t win he doesn’t eat. There’s no denying that this psychological handicap limits even the best of the best. Whereas with someone like Paul Phillips, posting $10,000 once a month for a WPT tournament will never in his lifetime affect his bottom line, so he is completely free to go for glory without any fear of failure. That’s probably his most powerful weapon at the table. I don’t think poker is just ‘gambling’ and I think anybody who does fails to understand the true nature of the game. I believe poker is primarily a game of skill. But I also believe the game contains elements of chance. And as long as you have something to lose, you have a weakness that your opponent can exploit to take advantage you.

Anyways, knowing the power of money, the amount of money in possession of geeks and nerds today and the rate at which that amount is increasing, it’s fairly clear that geeks will eventually take over the world. So I guess I’m not so hopeless after all…

¹ For you non-digital people, a register is a fundamental component of digital electronics that is used to store data.

Poker is a Zero Sum Game

This is a very interesting read.

“Poker is a game with many highs and lows. This is especially the case in tournament poker. There is a tremendous high in winning, but being eliminated is almost always quite a low.”

So if you want to be an overall winner it’s going to take a large amount of effort and talent. And at this stage of my life the effort might be better spent on something else.

Visit this Link ➚

It's time to Party!

It had been over 4 months since I last played poker online but with all the poker coverage on TV lately I had been dying to get on Party and welcome all the new fish. I finally had some free time today and was able to play two small multi’s. Here’s the report:

$10+$1 20-player NL Holdem Tournament
The 2nd hand of the tournament I see AKo in MP and raise 5xBB because there were a few callers in front of me that I wanted to fold. To my dismay 5 players call my raise. Great. Typical on Party I guess. But the flop is AA3 and I’m LMAO. Action is check, check, check to me and I bet 40% of my stack hoping someone has a smaller Ace. One player behind me folds but the cutoff what? pushes all in. The other players fold and I am sure my kicker is good. I have one bad ass kicker, so I call. Yes! He does have a smaller Ace. @$#@ It’s A3, he flopped big full. I’m disappointed in both his luck on the flop and the way I bet the hand. I’m now almost a 7-1 dog to win the hand but also have a chance to tie and split the pot. Turn is a 9. River, another 9. I got lucky. I now had 1200 chips and a chance to redeem myself. Caught crappy cards but made a few steals and kept grinding. Doubled up with QQ against AJs. And then tripled up with KK against 88 and J7o. (huh?) Made a few poor steal attempts but won a huge pot when I spiked a Q on the river with AQ against 88. That put me in good position to play strong until it was won. Result: +$69.

$20+$2 20-player NL Holdem Tournament
I took a few minutes off and then played again. About 15 minutes in I wasn’t getting any cards and had lost 200 chips and was starting to lose interest. So I turned off the TV, refocused and starting playing super tight. I threw away a bunch of average hands. Then I had TT in the cutoff and raised it to 5xBB with one caller in front of me. The button flat calls and EP, a shortstack that I was hoping would tap just calls. So when the flop comes K 9 6 rainbow and he pushes in I have to fold. Down to half my starting stack but I’m still hanging on. I double up when I flat call a preflop steal raise with AQo, flop top pair and call down a bluff. Win the next pot on a steal. And double up again on the next hand on a coin flip with 66 vs. AK. Make it to the final table with a below average stack but three players had smaller stacks. Won a coin flip and another hand to bust two of them. With 5 players remaining I played tight/aggressive for 15 minutes until someone busted and I made it into the money. I caught a few hands and was the chip leader at one point with 8k out of 20k. But the other players were extremely tight and I couldn’t get any action. After 20 minutes of 3-handed play I started to lose patience. I played 2 hands poorly and busted out in third place. I easily could have won had I been sharper, but I had been playing for 3 hours and I just wasn’t able to stay focused. Result: +$58.

3 Hour Net: +$127. Awesome! Had luck on my side a few times. Sunday seems like an excellent day to play.