How you play and Who you play

Just a few miles West of here there is a small casino run by the Cherokee Nation. They have just added a poker room a few months ago, and it is apparently full of people that think they know how to play poker.

Now I do not make it a habit to play in casinos, but there was a $30 tourney that peaked my interest and I wanted to play it. I had played in one other tourney at the casino and was dumbfounded by the lack of good play. I had come in 6th place out of about 170 players.

So I am at the casino with a couple of friends of mine and we get seated for the tourney. It seemed like the dealer knew everyone else at the table by name. Most of them were apparently limit players which is the more prominent game at the casino. They all looked the part too, with the sunglasses and the ipods....it was like watching ESPN or WPT on travel channel.

That is until they started dealing cards.

We only started with 600 chips, and there was an unreal blind structure that was ridiculously aggressive. I was going to try to come in for raises every hand, but three hands in I find myself with only 300 chips.

I had to change my strategy. So I started limping in and trapping. Well my 3oo made it to 1000.

I knocked out about 6 players at the table with weak hands. I was getting called with very bad hands and with only two other decent players at the table I figured I would exert my will. Two hands later I was moved to another table.

At my new table it was a bunch of the same. Everyone looked like they had played poker all of their life. There was a funky glare on the table because of the lighting so I put on my sunglasses which apparently scared three of the players.

This was really ridiculous, here is what I mean. I was under the gun in first position and dealt Queen/Jack of clubs. The blinds were already 200/400 and my chips stack was about 1200. I limp in with 5 callers. Flop comes Qd/10c/3c. I hit top pair and I have a club flush draw so I am not in bad shape...especially with this crowd. The SB bets 300 and goes all-in. The BB calls with 400 which is a min bet.

Now in a regular game with good players, I would review my position in this manner: With the all in bet from the SB I have to put him on either two pair or a draw. He could have something like K/J or J/9 or two clubs maybe King or Jack high. The BB call definitely means he is on a draw here. A minimum raise here would have been a trips bet, and an all-in or call would have meant that he was on the draw.

That is how I would read the hand with good players at the table. Bad player read would be like this:

SB had a 3. BB thought SB was bluffing!

I figure that since I only have enough to raise here I will push all-in. I get a call from MP, LP and the BB calls.

4300 chips in the pot.

Turn comes a 6d.

River is a 5c.

I have top pair and a club flush.
SB shows 3d/5h
BB shows Jh/7c
MP shows Jd/8h
MP+1 shows Kc/10s

Now if you don't know anything about poker, I can tell you that the BB, MP are complete idiots. SB did the only thing that he could, and MP+1 made a marginal call with a pair of 10's. What makes these call so bad is that SB is now out, BB only has 200 chips, MP has 500 chips and MP+1 only has 500 chips.

Unlike a Cash game in poker, Tournament poker is a balance of Risk and Reward. Why would you call a raise of 800 chips with a marginal hand that would indeed cripple your chipstack? MP had no business being in this hand in the first place. His call with a gutshot draw makes him a WADB.

You have to have something to gain or you are going to lose your chips. Some players contend that it is worth it because they could catch the card that they need, and sometimes that card does come....but more often than not they are going to watch someone else drag that chipstack off the board.

Time out for my girls!!!

My life is completely full.

I am married with two beautiful little girls. My wife Kimmie is one of the greatest mothers that I have ever met. I don't really like or understand some of the things that she does, but I respect her decisions and back her 100 percent.

I have always tinkered with and understood computers all of my life. Since the days of the Commodore 64 and tearing apart the Atari, I have always been able to figure that kind of stuff out very easily. I actually have been blessed to have a career doing this. I don't really understand why it comes easy to me, it just does...almost like it's instinctive. That is how my wife is with the kids. She just knows!

When the girls were young, Kimmie would set up the regiments for each child. Since the two girls are different as night and day, the regiments reflected those differences. She would tell me what she needed from me and I would comply. That was our agreement. Oh, I had some input - but most of the time my wife would be the final word on those issues because it had to work in the plan.

I think that we will probably write a book together on how to make the right decisions when raising children. Yeah....she's that good!

Like I mentioned earlier, I have two daughters. The oldest is Jordan. She is one of the top 5 smartest people that I know. She's smarter than me, she just doesn't know as much. She's funny and spontaneous. She has my disposition which means that it's pretty much happy go lucky until you hit a certain nerve...then watch out!

J is always reading. She is very good with the computer and she is a social bug by nature. She can get her head lost in the clouds which drives her mom crazy, but I think it's cute. She's not as responsible as we would like her to be, but she is twice as responsible as she should be.

She can be alone and do things by herself and be just fine or fit in with a group. She can be friends with anyone, And oh yeah....she has the biggest feet you've ever seen...!!!!

Most importantly, she knows Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior!

Then there is Bailey. She is the baby of the family. Her nickname is Button (get it...Bailey Button!!!). Bailey is probably the funniest person I know. She has always had the innate ability to just walk into a room and make people laugh. And she isn't trying to...she is just naturally funny.

Bailey is a smart girl, and she does very well in school. Sometimes her mother and I wonder how she does it...because it doesn't seem to translate to home life.

She is a lot like her mom both in looks and manner. There are pictures of my wife when she was a young child and the similarities between Bailey and those pictures are creepy and uncanny. Kimmie's father couldn't tell the difference!!!

And just like her big sister, Bailey knows Jesus!

Kim and I have tried to maintain a high standard for our children. I know that our kids probably don't like us most of the time because of it. We are firm and strict with our children, and it is out of love. We learned early on that our responsibility wasn't to be our child's friend or buddy, but to raise them and prepare them for the world.

Prepare them mentally, emotionally, financially and most importantly spiritually. Also, you need to maintain your integrity as a parent. If you fail, your kids will fail.

I'll let you know when the book comes out!!!!

Are you kidding me....???

As sure as birds fly and babies cry, you are going to take a bad beat in poker if you play long enough. A "bad beat" is when you have the best hand and it takes only a few cards to beat you because your opponent made a crazy or stupid play, and like a miracle one of those few cards comes out to beat you. Those beats sting like getting turned down by the pretty girl at school....but those rejections rarely cost you any money and a bad beat could break you.

I have already written about some pretty nice beats I have taken, and I have also discussed solutions around these beats. One of the best ways to deal with them is patience. Take some deep breaths, do some of that Yoga stuff....whatever. Everyone needs to find a method to deal with this frustration because it is going to happen.

Please believe me that kicking the dog, punching holes in the wall, or screaming at telemarketers don't really help (well maybe the telemarketer thing works sometimes!). As a poker player, you really need to determine how to manage this without going broke. BROKE? Yes that's right, most players will play very errattically when they tilt (get mad) after a beat. It's almost like you "give up". I have seen it so many times , and it is almost criminal to take advantage of other players that "tilt" but you can't pass it up.

One way that I deal with substantial beats in No Limit Hold'em Tournaments is I fold the next hand that I get regardless of position and the power of the hand UNLESS I have AA, KK or AK in late position, the button or in the blinds. If the player that gave me the beat folds pre-flop I will push all-in.

You do not want to play a marginal hand in this situation. PERIOD!!!! Do not play pocket Q's, J's or 10's. These are beat too easily by someone calling with Ax or Kx.

Pushing all-in (assuming what I stated earlier) will make players call with MUCH WEAKER HANDS. And player with hands like 10/9, K/8, A/10 or a small pocket pair will call your all-in almost EVERY TIME.

If you win the hand, then you can calm down because you probably doubled up and perhaps took someone out. If you're out, then you can fel good knowing that you pushed your money in with the best hand.

Although many situations like this happen in a tourney, it is the disciplined player that rides out the storms by playing smart and patient poker.

See you at the tables.

My home town

When I turned 13, my family moved to Slidell, LA. Slidell is located just north of New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. Obviously with the aftermath of Katrina, there is a tendancy for me to watch the news channels a bit more closely.

I know people there. This is part of my history.

Back in 1983, we suffered a very bad flooding incident in Slidell which left an indellible mark on me. I can remember stacking sandbags 6, 8 and 10 feet high around houses to help salvage their homes. I vividly remember working with my Dad on a wall, and he told me that when I got older that the best thing for me was to move and get away from the South Louisiana area. He went on to explain that this flood was nothing compared to what was coming down the road. He then explained the problem with New Orleans and the inherant "bowl" problem that the Corps of Engineers had to contend with.

The "bowl" problem is a case of the greater NO area is below sea level. It is protected by a support system of levee's that force the water back from Lake Ponchatrain, the Mississippi River and other water ways in the region. If a levee breaks, the water that comes into the city fills up like a bowl, and there are few if any methods of getting the water out.

That is what happened with Katrina.

I hate that it happened, but it was going to happen sooner or later...