It's been nearly two years since I contributed anything of substance regarding poker to this blog titled, Red Bull and Poker. I haven't even written word one about Red Bull for that matter and I'm sure the makers are duly upset. I had some things to tend to away from poker. And in reality, this blog matters not, as a recent Zogby Poll showed that 99.999999999999999% of the population couldn't give a rat's ass nor a flying fuck.
This blog has always been a self-indulgent way for me to write about my exploits as a poker player and to help myself analyze my play. I no longer feel the need to do either in this forum or format. As I get back to the game after a substantial hiatus, there are sure to be many things that pop up worth mentioning, but they hardly seem worth more than 140 characters on Twitter to me anymore. I am done with the incessant hand analysis and maybe even the colorful storytelling that revolves around it.
That was always the most fun for me by the way. Writing abut the characters that populate the various Vegas poker rooms. Sometimes it was fun to vent about them and sometimes it was fun to laugh along with them even at my own expense occasionally. These days I am not inspired to write about the game or to even talk about the game with anyone. It's an interesting phenomenon, I think. That in the beginning, it was all I wanted to do. I reveled in dissecting hands, situations, table dynamics, etc. with other like minded players. Now, something inside of me wants to keep all of that to myself. I almost feel as if over exposure and too much energy expended in those pursuits, hurts more than it helps when it's time to play the game.
I've heard this from some other players before and I never understood it until now. This is not to say, that I don't have room to improve or that I won't try to better myself and my game via other methods. I just feel like it's time to internalize my analysis, saving some much needed energy. I have always been a bit compulsive, attacking all of my endeavors with a dogged determination. I think most top poker players have this trait. However, it is the balance of a life filled with varied pursuits that I seek.
I can recall watching the cult classic poker documentary, Poker Bustouts, where Tomer Benvenisti commented about being a pro. He said that he wasn't a professional poker player, because he had other stuff to do. He ran successful business taking adventurers to Antarctica and felt that he didn't want to do any one thing all of the time. I think that this balance for me will lead to better poker play, with the goal of achieving a zen like state that is impervious to the degeneracy, lunacy, fanaticism, boorishness, dickishness and overall douchbaggery that can be found at most poker tables. And it will allow me to do other things.
I am in a good place right now as I've gotten back to my roots and had started playing a little hockey here in Vegas, with a great bunch of guys I might add. I also have gotten back to doing some web development for an old client of mine, that has been with me off and on since my days managing an interactive agency in NY. And now I've gone back to the tables to continue to balance things out, because like my passion for hockey, poker also feeds my need to compete and flex some muscles. (Black Friday didn't hurt in getting back to the live games either).
Writing is another outlet for the mind and although I do not feel like writing about poker so much, and certainly not the technical aspects of it that I used to, I will probably write about something when 140 characters aren't enough. What that is, only time will tell. One thing is for certain, whatever it is will be from the heart. I'd put so much blood, sweat and tears into this blog that I couldn't take it down. Even though I cringe at some of things I've written, it's all real, honest and deserves to stand on its own. The next chapter may be written 140 characters at a time.
To the 00.000000000000001% of the population that has ever cared to read or benefited from anything I've written, Thanks.
May 21, 2011
June 18, 2009
The Long View of Tony Shelton
The Las Vegas Sun has a very good article up about a long time (since '69) Vegas staple of the poker scene, Tony Shelton. I especially liked the following excerpts from the piece, which exhibit some of the generosity, bravado, insanity, benevolence and character present in the poker world.
His first assignment: a pot-limit Omaha cash game with blinds of $25 and $50, a big poker game by any standards, and huge at the time.
The lineup included Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson and other high-stakes gamblers.
"It was about six or seven of them," Shelton said. "Right there sits Doyle. Right there sits Steve Wynn. Right there sits Puggy. They said they were playing Omaha. At the time, I didn’t know what Omaha was. I said, 'Mr. Brunson, how many cards do I give these people?'
"Well, everything stopped. Doyle sat back, he looked at me and he pushed back his hat. He said, 'Here's what we'll do, son. You give us each four cards. Deal 'em low, deal 'em slow and deal 'em off the top, and I'll help you run the game.' Doyle was a very nice man. If he had been a real (expletive) and said get this (expletive) out of here, I would have been finished before I started."
...
He befriended many world champion poker players, including Jack Straus, who won the 1982 World Series title and was known for his heart and generosity.
One day Straus was walking down Fremont Street when a busted-out gambler came up behind him and asked to borrow $200.
"Jack reached in his pocket and pulled out two hundred-dollar bills and handed them to the guy back over his shoulder. He didn't even look to see who the guy was. He told me, 'Oh, hell, if I saw him he might think he has to pay me back.'"
Shelton recalls the time Binion asked Sailor Roberts, the 1975 world champion, if he could play a few hands for Roberts in a no-limit Texas hold 'em game at the Horseshoe.
"Now, nobody could refuse Benny," Shelton said. "So Sailor says, 'Sure.' He goes to get a coffee and smoke a cigarette. He comes back and Benny has all Sailor's chips in the middle. I don't know how much it was — $10,000, $6,000, whatever. Sailor leans over and he says, 'Well, son, you got all my money in the center, whatcha got?'
"And Benny says, 'I don't know. I left my glasses at home. I just didn't want all these son of a (guns) to think they could bluff me.'"
You can read the full article Poker Veteran Has Seen It All, here.
June 16, 2009
The Russians Are Coming
I've had a couple of good sessions in a row now and I'm starting to build a little momentum that I can hopefully ride through the rest of the series. In my last session, I played an interesting hand with a Ruskie player whom I had been observing/marking my entire time at the table. I had watched him raise pots to $70 pre-flop with jackoff (J6o), as well as make a significant number of bluffs. He wasn't a horrible player as I'd also seen him fold straights and over-pairs. But he was still too aggro for his own good and I felt that given the opportunity, he would bluff off all of his chips to me. The Ruskie was in the 10 seat and I was in the 1 hole. So I had position on him all night, except for the following hand:
The pot is raised in early position to $12. Three players call and it comes to the Ruskie on the button who just calls. I look down at As-Qd and call. (I could have made a big re-raise here to isolate, which would have been a fine play, but I decided just to see a flop first. The rest of the table was pretty tight and I am out of position. If I hit the flop and encounter any resistance from anyone but the Ruskie, I will likely fold). The big blind calls as well and we see the flop 6 handed.
The flop comes Q-10-8 all clubs. I check, looking to see what develops. It's checked around to the Ruskie. He bets $35. I really have no choice but to call here. I know that the other players are not going to stay in the pot without made hands and any made hand here such as a set or baby flush is going to raise, save for the nuts. The nuts might smooth call. So in this rare case I am essentially calling for information. I am pretty sure that I am ahead of the Ruskie in the hand.
Everyone else folds. Awesome. No one has the nuts, which also means that the Ruskie might be drawing with the Ac. The turn is the 10s. I don't love it, because my opponents' range is very wide and he could be betting second pair on the flop, but I decide to stick with my read. I check to play pot control and let him fire another bet that I can call. He fires $75 on queue and I beat him into the pot with my chips. My plan for the river is to fade a club and then hope he fires a three barrel bluff on the river. If a club comes, I check fold.
The river delivers the 6s. I study my opponent and he looks to me like he's intent on trying to steal the pot. He gave off some timing tells on the turn, that helped me reinforce my read on him and I felt like he's going to be firing the river with air. I only have top two with an ace here on a three flushed and paired board, but I feel like it's good and I am willing, nay going to try to commit the rest of my chips to this pot. This is after all the spot that I have been waiting for with this player. My hand rates to beat him the vast majority of the time and if he just happened to wake up with Q-10 here or he made some kind of miracle hand with 66 or my read is totally wrong and he flopped the nuts, than I will live with that result. But I make a living because my reads are usually right and I trust them.
So after studying him, I check again, because I know he can't help himself. He moves all-in for about $400. I don't even have to think about it, because I've already played the hand out in my head. I snap call him and he says, "You win." He doesn't want to show his hand so I say, "You can muck it if you like."
(There is a competitive advantage for me to not show my hand to the rest of the table here at showdown, because if he mucks, I take the pot and don't have to show. If that happens, the rest of the table will assume that I had a full house and I will happily reinforce that belief so that I can go on to steal many more pots than I might be able to otherwise).
He tables Ac-Jh. I show my hand and the table goes a little nuts because of the insta-call with only top pair. One player remarks, "Wow, what kind of read was that?" Ferve would later point out that a non-club K on the river would have been bad. It certainly would have. I was so locked into the Ac and given that my opponents' range was so wide, I wasn't thinking too much about his kicker. The Kd for example could have been a disaster card for me, because it would have been much tougher to put him on a straight at that moment, since I would have thought that he would have re-raised with that hand from the button pre-flop.
Thankfully that hand worked to perfection and certainly an argument could be made for a different and more aggressive strategy, but I felt like the plan that I employed was optimal for that particular situation and table dynamic and I can't complain about the outcome. It did make dinner with Ferve and KJ McG a bit more enjoyable afterwards. It also made it my treat!
The pot is raised in early position to $12. Three players call and it comes to the Ruskie on the button who just calls. I look down at As-Qd and call. (I could have made a big re-raise here to isolate, which would have been a fine play, but I decided just to see a flop first. The rest of the table was pretty tight and I am out of position. If I hit the flop and encounter any resistance from anyone but the Ruskie, I will likely fold). The big blind calls as well and we see the flop 6 handed.
The flop comes Q-10-8 all clubs. I check, looking to see what develops. It's checked around to the Ruskie. He bets $35. I really have no choice but to call here. I know that the other players are not going to stay in the pot without made hands and any made hand here such as a set or baby flush is going to raise, save for the nuts. The nuts might smooth call. So in this rare case I am essentially calling for information. I am pretty sure that I am ahead of the Ruskie in the hand.
Everyone else folds. Awesome. No one has the nuts, which also means that the Ruskie might be drawing with the Ac. The turn is the 10s. I don't love it, because my opponents' range is very wide and he could be betting second pair on the flop, but I decide to stick with my read. I check to play pot control and let him fire another bet that I can call. He fires $75 on queue and I beat him into the pot with my chips. My plan for the river is to fade a club and then hope he fires a three barrel bluff on the river. If a club comes, I check fold.
The river delivers the 6s. I study my opponent and he looks to me like he's intent on trying to steal the pot. He gave off some timing tells on the turn, that helped me reinforce my read on him and I felt like he's going to be firing the river with air. I only have top two with an ace here on a three flushed and paired board, but I feel like it's good and I am willing, nay going to try to commit the rest of my chips to this pot. This is after all the spot that I have been waiting for with this player. My hand rates to beat him the vast majority of the time and if he just happened to wake up with Q-10 here or he made some kind of miracle hand with 66 or my read is totally wrong and he flopped the nuts, than I will live with that result. But I make a living because my reads are usually right and I trust them.
So after studying him, I check again, because I know he can't help himself. He moves all-in for about $400. I don't even have to think about it, because I've already played the hand out in my head. I snap call him and he says, "You win." He doesn't want to show his hand so I say, "You can muck it if you like."
(There is a competitive advantage for me to not show my hand to the rest of the table here at showdown, because if he mucks, I take the pot and don't have to show. If that happens, the rest of the table will assume that I had a full house and I will happily reinforce that belief so that I can go on to steal many more pots than I might be able to otherwise).
He tables Ac-Jh. I show my hand and the table goes a little nuts because of the insta-call with only top pair. One player remarks, "Wow, what kind of read was that?" Ferve would later point out that a non-club K on the river would have been bad. It certainly would have. I was so locked into the Ac and given that my opponents' range was so wide, I wasn't thinking too much about his kicker. The Kd for example could have been a disaster card for me, because it would have been much tougher to put him on a straight at that moment, since I would have thought that he would have re-raised with that hand from the button pre-flop.
Thankfully that hand worked to perfection and certainly an argument could be made for a different and more aggressive strategy, but I felt like the plan that I employed was optimal for that particular situation and table dynamic and I can't complain about the outcome. It did make dinner with Ferve and KJ McG a bit more enjoyable afterwards. It also made it my treat!
June 15, 2009
Are Drugs The Answer?
(LA Tony is a part-time player based in Los Angeles, California and a special guest blogger for RBP).
I shake.
Not a violent shake, more of a slight tremor that comes with an increased heart rate and anxious nerves. Unlike the shaking we experience in California with regularity (particularly of late), my shaking is 100% predictable. It happens whenever I have a big hand in a potentially lucrative pot with opponents that I'm fairly certain are willing to go to war with their hands.
I know what some of my tells are. I wish I could say I know what all of them are, but opponents can still sniff a bluff out of me from time to time and they still occasionally fold strong hands when I've got them crushed, so I know I've still got tells of some sort that I need to identify.
The tells that I am aware of I will intentionally employ during each poker session to mask the times that I do it unintentionally. The first step toward fixing a problem is admitting you have one, and let's face it, tells are a HUGE problem for poker players.
Most physical tells are easy enough to fake. Sitting back in the chair to indicate strength, covering your mouth during a hand, etc. These are tells I've caught myself doing in a hand, and once you catch yourself doing something that's in Caro's book, you've got to immediately file it away for use at a later time during that session. Tells can be a valuable tool in your poker playing arsenal if you know how to manipulate them to your advantage.
Some tells are more difficult to artificially reproduce. That's where the shaking comes in.
Early on, my main focus was on trying to control the tremors as much as possible. That proved to be a futile exercise, and in retrospect, not at all what I should have been trying to do.
Shaking is a distinctive physical tell that a LOT of poker players watch for, and I eventually realized that I could use it to my advantage, particularly with opponents who I play with frequently. Instead of trying to prevent the tremors, I would instead induce them - generating the same type of shaking on hands that I need to convey strength on when I was weak.
For those of you who have tried forcing yourself to shake, it's not easy. Like anything, I've gotten better at it with time, but shaking continues to be the far most difficult tell that I have to mask.
I am sure that many of you have similar challenging tells you've had to battle with during the course of playing. It's worth your time to study how you play the game. It'll earn you more money.
I shake.
Not a violent shake, more of a slight tremor that comes with an increased heart rate and anxious nerves. Unlike the shaking we experience in California with regularity (particularly of late), my shaking is 100% predictable. It happens whenever I have a big hand in a potentially lucrative pot with opponents that I'm fairly certain are willing to go to war with their hands.
I know what some of my tells are. I wish I could say I know what all of them are, but opponents can still sniff a bluff out of me from time to time and they still occasionally fold strong hands when I've got them crushed, so I know I've still got tells of some sort that I need to identify.
The tells that I am aware of I will intentionally employ during each poker session to mask the times that I do it unintentionally. The first step toward fixing a problem is admitting you have one, and let's face it, tells are a HUGE problem for poker players.
Most physical tells are easy enough to fake. Sitting back in the chair to indicate strength, covering your mouth during a hand, etc. These are tells I've caught myself doing in a hand, and once you catch yourself doing something that's in Caro's book, you've got to immediately file it away for use at a later time during that session. Tells can be a valuable tool in your poker playing arsenal if you know how to manipulate them to your advantage.
Some tells are more difficult to artificially reproduce. That's where the shaking comes in.
Early on, my main focus was on trying to control the tremors as much as possible. That proved to be a futile exercise, and in retrospect, not at all what I should have been trying to do.
Shaking is a distinctive physical tell that a LOT of poker players watch for, and I eventually realized that I could use it to my advantage, particularly with opponents who I play with frequently. Instead of trying to prevent the tremors, I would instead induce them - generating the same type of shaking on hands that I need to convey strength on when I was weak.
For those of you who have tried forcing yourself to shake, it's not easy. Like anything, I've gotten better at it with time, but shaking continues to be the far most difficult tell that I have to mask.
I am sure that many of you have similar challenging tells you've had to battle with during the course of playing. It's worth your time to study how you play the game. It'll earn you more money.
June 14, 2009
The Funniest Thing Overheard at the Tables
A young guy at our table was quite the comedian last night. He made a joke that was only enhanced by the fact that this was a 20-something year old kid feigning outrage and talking about Vegas like he was a grizzled life long veteran of the place.
He was talking about how bad the drink service was at the tables, since he couldn't get one to save his life. He exclaimed in a gregarious and mocking tone that he was, "Outraged! Vegas used to be about service. It was the one thing that you could count on. What happened? You know who still takes care of their customers?" He goes on in an animated and emphatic fashion, "The Imperial Palace! You know why? 'Cause they don't have any."
He was talking about how bad the drink service was at the tables, since he couldn't get one to save his life. He exclaimed in a gregarious and mocking tone that he was, "Outraged! Vegas used to be about service. It was the one thing that you could count on. What happened? You know who still takes care of their customers?" He goes on in an animated and emphatic fashion, "The Imperial Palace! You know why? 'Cause they don't have any."
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