Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Getting caught up
I'm going to use this blog to keep records of my life and live play this summer in Vancouver. I was going to start this at the beginning of the summer, but I'm too lazy. In fact I'm not even typing, I have a very nice personal secretary named Myia Archer, who owns. So Vancouver is pretty cool, you only have to be 19 to play legally in the casinos. My goal this summer was to make at least $5000, however the first day of summer kind of made that goal seem a little silly as I won $3600 for 1st in a Full Tilt tourney for frequent customers. Here is an image of the tournament lobby:
After the win I cashed out a total profit of $4000 for the day and took that with me in cash to play live in Vancouver. Thus, I was already 4/5 of the way to my goal. Since then, I have scouted out and found all the poker games in Vancouver. This amounts to a 1/2 NL game at the RiverRock Casino (they also have a 3/6 NL game, but I don't have the balls for that yet) and a 10/20 game with full kill at the Holiday Inn. Since I'm starting this blog in the middle of the summer, I don't really know where to start. All the information up to this point pretty much amounts to my first week of summer before I started playing live in Vancouver. It is hard to catch up because I've played a bunch of sessions and have a multitude of stories. First I guess I will post my results so far:
So I've played a total of 17 sessions. I have funny stories or have learned poker lessons from each of the sessions. For now, we'll talk about the figures and one of the stories. In later blog entries I'll try to catch up on all the stories. So after getting my feet wet and losing my first session at the 1/2 NL, I've gotten the hang of it and have beat that game for a decent amount of money in the short amount of time I've played in it. One of the quickest things I've learned about live play was how fucking slow it is. When you're playing 1/2 NL with all red $5 chips and people with stacks from $40 to $1000, it can take a minute or 4 to play a hand. 4 when the sequence of betting between two people with $400 goes raise and reraise preflop then bet, raise, reraise, all in on the flop and at that point the hand is already taken over 2 minutes and now I have to watch the mind numbing task of the dealer breaking down the money. After the dealer has done this, he deals the final two cards and has to push all the money to the winning player, that is if the two players don't get into a "you show your hand first" argument. Now you see why it takes 4 minutes? Really makes you appreciate online poker where this whole process would have taken 30 seconds with no tip to the dealer.
Now that I've finished that rant, I'd like to say that I love playing live poker. You get a real adrenaline rush when you push that 50, 100, all in bet and wait to see if your opponent will call, as he stares you down. The NL game has gone a lot better than the limit game has gone for me. I started off that game as a $600+ winner over 4 sessions, however as you can see in the records the fifth session wasn't pretty. All winning poker players go through it, you can't win a hand, you can't hita flop, if you do you get rivered, you bluff they call, you bet the nuts they fold, etc. etc. and that -$1000 night was that and more. I think about $600 of it was me getting unlucky and varience kicking in and the other 400 me playing like shit. Since then I have not played the 10/20 game as that lost stung me quite a bit. I would compare the play at that table to be on par with a 2/4 game online. It is certainly beatable and I believe I can beat it, I just need a break from the grind that is limit.
It's funny that people always told me that limit was such a grind and I knew it kinda was but not until I started playing it live. We were playing at most 3o hands an hour, less that half of what you'd expect to play online, and of those 30 or so hands most will be unprofitable to play. Thus I sit there for an hour to play 3 or 4 hands and when those 3 or 4 hands start to get cracked, you start to have nights like my last limit session. So for now I'm just playing NL. Playing limit vs. NL in Vancouver, and maybe anywhere, is like night and day. When I play the 10/20 game it is in a casino underground in a poker room that only has 6 tables with a bunch of unsocial people. When I play the NL game it's in a vibrant 30+ table room on the third floor of the casino. The players are nicer and more interesting and it is where I've gotten all my stories from this summer. So now I'll tell you one or two stories from my NL game.
So it's the first night of live poker in Vancouver for me and I've been sitting in a 1/2 game for 4 hours. I am in seat 7 and I see out of the corner of my eye a guy rolling up in a wheelchair. I think nothing of it and look straight ahead. All of a sudden I see a bare foot on the table and turn to realize the man has no arms whatsoever. It wasn't like he had two little stubs, it was completely flat where his arms should be. So we began to play, no one trying to make too big a deal out of it to emarass him or to be rude. He would pick up the first card between his big toe and his second toe, look at it, then slide it under the secon card and pull both of them up. After which he would flick the cards with his big toe at the center of the table or grab chips with his big toe. It was inspiring to see and I for one did not mind at all as I too would want to play even if I lost my arms. After getting to know the players in seats 10 and 8, they would help him stack his chips when he won a pot though sometimes he would do it himself. The only thing that bothered me was that he trimmed one of his toenails at the table with the only tool he could use, his mouth.
Overall he was a nice guy and it was a funny enough experience that I didn't mind dealing with him. On the other hand, one old asian guy approached the table having the choice between seat 1 and seat 10 while the man's foot was not on the table. The man with no arms was behind the dealer as he approached and the asian man chose seat 10 out of his own desire. As the first hand began, out came the man's foot and the old man just sat there stunned and turned to the dealer, looked back at the foot, looked at his cards, folded, and moved to seat 1, and left soon after. Another guy came to seat 10 and didn't mind the man and ended up raising the no armed man on the river in a hand, but didn't raise as much as he knew he could have because he felt bad for the guy. I certainly wouldn't have gone easy on him and taken all him money if I could have as he ended up losing it all anyway. He was a nice gentleman and wished us all good luck as he left.
So that is my story from my first session of live poker this summer. I hope to keep this blog updated if Myia will keep typing for me as I dictate it. I hope it stays interesting and if nothing else will keep me honest about my results.
Here is my funny pic for the day:
I play with so many asian people eveyrday being on the west coast for now, but I havnt played with this guy yet. However, if I did I dont know if I would be able to stop laughing.
Good luck at the tables.
-Kirk (Myia)
After the win I cashed out a total profit of $4000 for the day and took that with me in cash to play live in Vancouver. Thus, I was already 4/5 of the way to my goal. Since then, I have scouted out and found all the poker games in Vancouver. This amounts to a 1/2 NL game at the RiverRock Casino (they also have a 3/6 NL game, but I don't have the balls for that yet) and a 10/20 game with full kill at the Holiday Inn. Since I'm starting this blog in the middle of the summer, I don't really know where to start. All the information up to this point pretty much amounts to my first week of summer before I started playing live in Vancouver. It is hard to catch up because I've played a bunch of sessions and have a multitude of stories. First I guess I will post my results so far:
| Date: | Stakes: | Time (hours): | Result: | Total-Time: | Total: | Wage: |
| 5/16/2006 | 1/2NL | 6 | $ (165.00) | 6 | $ 835.00 | $ (27.50) |
| 5/17/2006 | 1/2NL | 4 | $ 415.00 | 10 | $1,250.00 | $ 25.00 |
| 5/20/2006 | 10/20L | 4 | $ 260.00 | 14 | $1,510.00 | $ 36.43 |
| 5/21/2006 | 10/20L | 2.5 | $ (30.00) | 16.5 | $1,480.00 | $ 29.09 |
| 5/21/2006 | 1/2NL | 4 | $ 465.00 | 20.5 | $1,945.00 | $ 46.10 |
| 5/24/2006 | 1/2NL | 3.5 | $ 157.00 | 24 | $2,102.00 | $ 45.92 |
| 5/25/2006 | 10/20L | 5.5 | $ 310.00 | 29.5 | $2,412.00 | $ 47.86 |
| 5/27/2006 | 10/20L | 8 | $ 136.00 | 37.5 | $2,548.00 | $ 41.28 |
| 5/30/2006 | 1/2NL | 3 | $ 20.00 | 40.5 | $2,568.00 | $ 38.72 |
| 6/1/2006 | 10/20L | 7 | $(1,000.00) | 47.5 | $1,568.00 | $ 11.96 |
| 6/5/2006 | 1/2NL | 5 | $ 1.00 | 55.5 | $1,949.00 | $ 17.10 |
| ????? | 1/2NL | 3 | $ 380.00 | 50.5 | $1,948.00 | $ 18.77 |
| 6/9/2006 | 1/2NL | 16 | $ 51.00 | 71.5 | $2,000.00 | $ 13.99 |
| 6/15/2006 | 1/2NL | 3 | $ 521.00 | 74.5 | $2,521.00 | $ 20.42 |
| 6/17/2006 | 1/2NL | 2.5 | $ 410.00 | 77 | $2,931.00 | $ 25.08 |
| 6/19/2006 | 1/2NL | 1 | $ 203.00 | 78 | $3,134.00 | $ 27.36 |
So I've played a total of 17 sessions. I have funny stories or have learned poker lessons from each of the sessions. For now, we'll talk about the figures and one of the stories. In later blog entries I'll try to catch up on all the stories. So after getting my feet wet and losing my first session at the 1/2 NL, I've gotten the hang of it and have beat that game for a decent amount of money in the short amount of time I've played in it. One of the quickest things I've learned about live play was how fucking slow it is. When you're playing 1/2 NL with all red $5 chips and people with stacks from $40 to $1000, it can take a minute or 4 to play a hand. 4 when the sequence of betting between two people with $400 goes raise and reraise preflop then bet, raise, reraise, all in on the flop and at that point the hand is already taken over 2 minutes and now I have to watch the mind numbing task of the dealer breaking down the money. After the dealer has done this, he deals the final two cards and has to push all the money to the winning player, that is if the two players don't get into a "you show your hand first" argument. Now you see why it takes 4 minutes? Really makes you appreciate online poker where this whole process would have taken 30 seconds with no tip to the dealer.
Now that I've finished that rant, I'd like to say that I love playing live poker. You get a real adrenaline rush when you push that 50, 100, all in bet and wait to see if your opponent will call, as he stares you down. The NL game has gone a lot better than the limit game has gone for me. I started off that game as a $600+ winner over 4 sessions, however as you can see in the records the fifth session wasn't pretty. All winning poker players go through it, you can't win a hand, you can't hita flop, if you do you get rivered, you bluff they call, you bet the nuts they fold, etc. etc. and that -$1000 night was that and more. I think about $600 of it was me getting unlucky and varience kicking in and the other 400 me playing like shit. Since then I have not played the 10/20 game as that lost stung me quite a bit. I would compare the play at that table to be on par with a 2/4 game online. It is certainly beatable and I believe I can beat it, I just need a break from the grind that is limit.
It's funny that people always told me that limit was such a grind and I knew it kinda was but not until I started playing it live. We were playing at most 3o hands an hour, less that half of what you'd expect to play online, and of those 30 or so hands most will be unprofitable to play. Thus I sit there for an hour to play 3 or 4 hands and when those 3 or 4 hands start to get cracked, you start to have nights like my last limit session. So for now I'm just playing NL. Playing limit vs. NL in Vancouver, and maybe anywhere, is like night and day. When I play the 10/20 game it is in a casino underground in a poker room that only has 6 tables with a bunch of unsocial people. When I play the NL game it's in a vibrant 30+ table room on the third floor of the casino. The players are nicer and more interesting and it is where I've gotten all my stories from this summer. So now I'll tell you one or two stories from my NL game.
So it's the first night of live poker in Vancouver for me and I've been sitting in a 1/2 game for 4 hours. I am in seat 7 and I see out of the corner of my eye a guy rolling up in a wheelchair. I think nothing of it and look straight ahead. All of a sudden I see a bare foot on the table and turn to realize the man has no arms whatsoever. It wasn't like he had two little stubs, it was completely flat where his arms should be. So we began to play, no one trying to make too big a deal out of it to emarass him or to be rude. He would pick up the first card between his big toe and his second toe, look at it, then slide it under the secon card and pull both of them up. After which he would flick the cards with his big toe at the center of the table or grab chips with his big toe. It was inspiring to see and I for one did not mind at all as I too would want to play even if I lost my arms. After getting to know the players in seats 10 and 8, they would help him stack his chips when he won a pot though sometimes he would do it himself. The only thing that bothered me was that he trimmed one of his toenails at the table with the only tool he could use, his mouth.
Overall he was a nice guy and it was a funny enough experience that I didn't mind dealing with him. On the other hand, one old asian guy approached the table having the choice between seat 1 and seat 10 while the man's foot was not on the table. The man with no arms was behind the dealer as he approached and the asian man chose seat 10 out of his own desire. As the first hand began, out came the man's foot and the old man just sat there stunned and turned to the dealer, looked back at the foot, looked at his cards, folded, and moved to seat 1, and left soon after. Another guy came to seat 10 and didn't mind the man and ended up raising the no armed man on the river in a hand, but didn't raise as much as he knew he could have because he felt bad for the guy. I certainly wouldn't have gone easy on him and taken all him money if I could have as he ended up losing it all anyway. He was a nice gentleman and wished us all good luck as he left.
So that is my story from my first session of live poker this summer. I hope to keep this blog updated if Myia will keep typing for me as I dictate it. I hope it stays interesting and if nothing else will keep me honest about my results.
Here is my funny pic for the day:
I play with so many asian people eveyrday being on the west coast for now, but I havnt played with this guy yet. However, if I did I dont know if I would be able to stop laughing.
Good luck at the tables.-Kirk (Myia)
# posted by idareyouAA @ 1:32 AM 
