proximity poker tour 2014....

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by proximity

, indeed as this may be the single saddest post i've ever read on pace advantage. although i won't be too sad as you're probably filthy rich from playing those donkeys day and night.

just reading the word "sands" i can already start smelling that distinctive soapy sands smell as you fling open those parking garage doors to the elevators!

Sounds like someone has the Sands in his near future.

[proximity]

Originally Posted by tucker6

Sounds like someone has the Sands in his near future.

lol, i was just thinking that the bathrooms at sands are possibly more tilting than getting beaten by a rivered gutshot. there are never any hand towels there so if you want to splash some water on your face after a 12 hour session it's either stick your entire head under the air dryer or you're sol. one time at sands a player told me that they removed the towels because "asian players were stuffing them in bags and taking them back to chinatown on the bus."

i'd think this asian hand towel stealing mafia would switch and start victimizing ac and other naive mid atlantic casinos too, but luckily so far this doesn't seem to be the case!

[proximity]

saw this on 2+2:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/beth..._enough_i.html

thank god i survived the trip!!

[tucker6]

funny story. I guess we now know that with the casino denial of the story, what the casino calls its employees is not Snakes. Coulda fooled me.

[thaskalos]

Now that I've had some time to recover...I'd like to tell you about something that happened during my Wednesday night poker game.

As I've said before, I've been playing for quite a while now in a private poker game populated mainly by established Russian businessmen. The game is held every Wednesday and Friday at a hotel in a suburb a little north of Chicago...and it's a first-class operation all the way. We start at 6 pm, all the winners are obligated to play at least until midnight...and the game breaks up by 1:30 am the latest. Two professional dealers rotate doing the dealing...and the only rake is the money taken out to cover the dealer fees, the cost of the room, and the food that we order via room service. We play only no-limit holdem...the blinds are $5-$10...the initial buy-in is for a minimum of $1,000...and you can buy in for a minimum of $500 anytime after that. There is no maximum buy-in at any time...and there is one guy at the table who always buys in for $5,000 to start. He says he likes it that way. There are 9 people playing...and a couple of people are waiting in the wings, hoping to step in, in case there are any early fatalities.

I started off by encountering some bad luck early on...and I lost my first buy-in rather quickly. I bought in again for another thousand...and slowly managed to build it up to about $3,300 with the time closing in on midnight. In fact...I started thinking about declaring that I would be leaving at 12 o'clock sharp.

And then it happened! The hand I waiting all night for.

I get dealt pocket kings UTG...and I bring it in for $50 -- which was the amount that had become the habit at the table at that time. I get two callers...including the guy on the button -- who has over $6,000 in front of him (he is a Russian ophthalmologist).

With $165 in the pot...the flop comes Kh-Jh-3c.

The ophthalmologist is a pretty sharp player, and he will be suspicious if I don't make a continuation bet...so I lead with $100. The middle guy calls...and the button, after a little thought, raises it to $450. It comes to me...and I decide to call...hoping to draw in the middle player as well. The middle player calls too...and there is now $1,515 in the pot.

The turn is the 5 of clubs...and the board now reads Kh-Jh-3c-5c. With two possible flushes on the board, and with the size of the pot...I decided that slowplaying was out of the question. Again I led into the pot...this time for $1,000. To my great surprise, the middle guy goes all in with his remaining $1,400...and the action gets to the button. He stares at me...and asks me how much I got left. I tell him I have about $1,800.

"I put you all in"...he tells me, with a thick Russian accent -- and I move all in before he can even finish his phrase. With all the money in the pot...the dealer asks us if we want to show our cards. We agree to do so.

I show my pocket kings...and there is a gasp heard around the table. The eye-doctor on the button jumps to his feet...and angrily slams down pocket jacks. The middle player shyly turns over the Q-T of hearts...for a possible straight flush.

With almost $9,000 in the pot, and not a sound heard around the table...the dealer takes a pause before revealing the last card...and then deals out the ugliest jack of diamonds that I've ever seen in my life. The table erupts...and the fat eye-doctor is high-fiving his neigboring players, and shaking the dealer's hand -- while the dealer looks at me almost apologetically. I quietly gather my belongings...and stand on my slightly wobbling legs.

"Gentlemen...I must leave you"...I tell them with a fake smile...and I quietly walk out of the room...and into the cold night.

Such is the life some of us have chosen...

[proximity]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Now that I've had some time to recover...I'd like to tell you about something that happened during my Wednesday night poker game.........

not sure if it's as bad as tucker6 having to move hundreds of miles away from the sands, but that is just BRUTAL.

I know you'll get it back and then some though and hopefully sooner rather than later!

[proximity]

finally get all of the snow shoveled and can return to the racino for another session of America's game: 1-2 no limit hold em.

started pretty quiet for a few orbits until I picked up ace king and raised a straddle ($5 straddles at racino) to $17. there were only like 5 callers which is vintage racino.

anyhow I miss the flop completely on a rather dry board of under cards. however a player to my left bets a massive $10 into this bloated pot and i'm forced to call but of course miss the turn. to my surprise though the turn gets checked around and I hit my ace on the river. one player bets $22 and I call for the $20 I have behind and take it down.

several orbits later I raise aces to $16 from early position and get called by the player to my left and watch in awe as i'm reraised to $41 and with a call behind the reraiser!! I shove all in and am snap called by the raiser who has ace king. I somehow avoid two kings falling or a flush and take this pot down too, putting me up almost $300.

however, that would be about the end of my run as I proceed to get beat hand after hand with only a check raise on a flopped set of nickels (buffalos in whizz speak) giving me any winnings for the last few hours of the game. big laydown Friday kinda continues as I drop jacks to a flop raise by kings on a board of all low cards.

in the end I quit $155 to the good, moving my record to 10-6 on the year.... not quite up to the coach pagano colts standard of 11-5 but still good enough to start to put the Charles town trip and the loss to granpappy in the rearview mirror.

game +155
year +716 (10-6)

[proximity]

back at the racino for yet another session of 1-2 no limit hold 'em!!

got down about $10 or so early after calling a straddle with a small pocket pair and paying some blinds but then picked up pocket kings and reraised a middle position raiser to $30. the original raiser inquired about the $20 remaining in my stack and i knew he was beat. "please put me all in," i thought and he obliged with queen-jack!!! the kings held up and i was off to a decent start!!

overall i was at a typical weekend racino table of donkeys and when the opportunity presented itself i moved seats to get better position on them. i'm not superstitious but we should note that the move was at the exact same table and exact same seats as the granpappy incident from last month. and while this time things didn't go quite as badly as they did vs granpappy, i wasn't winning any hands and ended up falling behind chasing an ace high flush and straight draw that missed. finally after a few hours the table breaks and i take half my original buy in to a new table where things don't go much better until i pull out another $60 to add to my stack.

after pulling out my second buy in i finally start to catch fire. i pick up a small pot with pocket jacks and then a few orbits pass and i win a big pot with a set of tens. several hands later i strike again with another set of tens cracking pocket kings!! at this point i was up nearly $300 and working on my best game of the year.

however, adversity would strike late in the night as several new players would join the game, somewhat changing its flow. one younger blonde girl sat down with (and right beside) a guy who kinda reminded me of jerry springer and the nightly tournament winner also joined the fray. all three players were to my immediate left and things were getting kind of laggy ala game number two of the charles town trip. one hand i picked up jacks and jerry springer put a dent in my stack with aces but later the tournament champ moved to my right and i end up beating him with an ace high flush to put me ahead almost $350. finally this table started to break too and by this time i've had enough poker for one day/night. i continue my winning ways in february with a $330 score, my biggest so far of the year!!

game +330
year +1046 (11-6)

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by proximity

back at the racino for yet another session of 1-2 no limit hold 'em!!

got down about $10 or so early after calling a straddle with a small pocket pair and paying some blinds but then picked up pocket kings and reraised a middle position raiser to $30. the original raiser inquired about the $20 remaining in my stack and i knew he was beat. "please put me all in," i thought and he obliged with queen-jack!!! the kings held up and i was off to a decent start!!

overall i was at a typical weekend racino table of donkeys and when the opportunity presented itself i moved seats to get better position on them. i'm not superstitious but we should note that the move was at the exact same table and exact same seats as the granpappy incident from last month. and while this time things didn't go quite as badly as they did vs granpappy, i wasn't winning any hands and ended up falling behind chasing an ace high flush and straight draw that missed. finally after a few hours the table breaks and i take half my original buy in to a new table where things don't go much better until i pull out another $60 to add to my stack.

after pulling out my second buy in i finally start to catch fire. i pick up a small pot with pocket jacks and then a few orbits pass and i win a big pot with a set of tens. several hands later i strike again with another set of tens cracking pocket kings!! at this point i was up nearly $300 and working on my best game of the year.

however, adversity would strike late in the night as several new players would join the game, somewhat changing its flow. one younger blonde girl sat down with (and right beside) a guy who kinda reminded me of jerry springer and the nightly tournament winner also joined the fray. all three players were to my immediate left and things were getting kind of laggy ala game number two of the charles town trip. one hand i picked up jacks and jerry springer put a dent in my stack with aces but later the tournament champ moved to my right and i end up beating him with an ace high flush to put me ahead almost $350. finally this table started to break too and by this time i've had enough poker for one day/night. i continue my winning ways in february with a $330 score, my biggest so far of the year!!

game +330
year +1046 (11-6)

Who needs the horses?!

[proximity]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

[/B]

Who needs the horses?!

win, lose, or draw.... i'm enjoying it all!!

are you playing in that big 5-10 game again tonight???

[proximity]

was able to get out to the racino for a couple hours for another session of 1-2 nl hold em!!

followed a laggy 2-5 pro to the table and decided to set up shop to his left like has been discussed in some of the posts. this was good, but there would actually turn out to be some younger loose aggressive players who ended up being to my left. so maybe my seat selection wasn't the best after all but it could end up being a learning experience where sitting to the left of younger players when the option is available would be another potential "default" play in seat selection?

anyhow I was doing a lot of folding early in this loose aggressive game but eventually ended up calling a raise from the 2-5 player with a-q and winning with an ace high flush. other than that, this wasn't one of the more exciting games at least as far as my results were concerned. I end up grinding out $30 joey knish style in the brief two hour session and remain undefeated in the month of February.

game +30
year +1076 (12-6)

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by proximity

was able to get out to the racino for a couple hours for another session of 1-2 nl hold em!!

followed a laggy 2-5 pro to the table and decided to set up shop to his left like has been discussed in some of the posts. this was good, but there would actually turn out to be some younger loose aggressive players who ended up being to my left. so maybe my seat selection wasn't the best after all but it could end up being a learning experience where sitting to the left of younger players when the option is available would be another potential "default" play in seat selection?

anyhow I was doing a lot of folding early in this loose aggressive game but eventually ended up calling a raise from the 2-5 player with a-q and winning with an ace high flush. other than that, this wasn't one of the more exciting games at least as far as my results were concerned. I end up grinding out $30 joey knish style in the brief two hour session and remain undefeated in the month of February.

game +30
year +1076 (12-6)

I think you're doing a great job. Only 10% of hands are playable (with acceptable odds leading to a call) in any given session, so limiting the "gambling" part of the game to the occasional bluff on the turn cards is key to walking away with cash in pocket.

I don't recall you ever mentioning this, but do you read up on "tells" and mathematical odds of winning in certain situations? How good do you feel you are on those two counts in relation to the average and/or good player at the tables? Obviously you're good enough to be undefeated this month. I am impressed.

[proximity]

Originally Posted by tucker6

I don't recall you ever mentioning this, but do you read up on "tells" and mathematical odds of winning in certain situations? How good do you feel you are on those two counts in relation to the average and/or good player at the tables? Obviously you're good enough to be undefeated this month. I am impressed.

this is kind of hard to answer, but I've probably only acted on a tell once so far this year. in one of the earlier games i was to the left of a player and was surprised to see this particular player's left hand trembling and got out of a hand i probably wasn't going to go too far with anyhow. (he did flop a set of jacks) recently I've noticed some older players breathing rather heavily when they have good hands (watch the chest) but really wasn't involved in these pots.

as for math, i did do some calculating vs the mdlive! dealer in post #59 (fortunate turn) but confessed to just "feeling" that i was getting the right odds to make the call. so overall i certainly wouldn't say i'm any better than the average 1-2 player in these categories.

again, thank you to everyone for reading and commenting!!

[proximity]

made it out to a busy penn national tonight for some 1-2 no limit hold em!!

i'm not a real loud talker and the casino is crazy busy and loud so I hand the girl my players card to jump on the 1-2 list. despite physically giving her the card she puts me on the list as "ben b" ...... which isn't even within a furlong of what my name is, but "ben" is on the list 4 deep and behind a bunch of call ins. proximity takes a lap around the busy casino and finds that "ben" is still 4th on the list and he stops upstairs to see the great penn national man tonyk@hsh. in addition to betting, tonyk is also a jockey agent and (right now) that is singular.... he only has one jockey, so I joke about him bringing in the aqu newcomer Katie davis since another agent we know once brought in her older sister Jackie davis.

back downstairs, ben b is now sixth on the list.

anyhow, neither proximity or his "ben b" alter ego makes a big scene about this and eventually i'm sent to a table of unfamiliar racino faces...... almost always a good sign.

things would start fast with a turned straight holding off a slow played set of 8s and I sprinted to a $112 lead. but there are a lot of roller coasters at the nearby hersheypark and tonight's game would do its best impression of the super doper looper. a-j, a-q, a-k..... all beaten within one dealer, with ace jack falling to a limped ace king held by a mike caro (the mad genius of poker) lookalike. $112 was reduced to a single digit lead in no time at all, but a flopped top two pair on a j-9-7 board would give me hope. a fairly safe 3 falls on the turn and I go all in for $48 with a call from the mad genius who held a dominated 9-7, but hits the miracle 7 on the river for a full house.

beaten by a two outer on the river, the dealer is looking at the cards and not being the best loser I sarcastically say "just push the chips down there" while tossing the cash for my rebuy high into the air and landing it flush in the center of the table. things have been going better lately, but it's always important to remember that we are gambling and that it's just a bunch of cards being flipped over and bad beats are going to happen and it's important not to get too high or too low.

anyhow I move quickly on the rebuy with ace king. one guy is calling every raise I make and has burned through almost $300 and a small rebuy and I get him to bet a turned ace for me and I nearly double. later i'd get action on a flopped straight and then hit another straight where there's good action but I decided to shove the turn on a very wet board. in one remarkable hand I turn a flush on a jack high flop, but the turn card paired the jack and when the board pairs again on the river, I have to be beat. but the flop bettor checks and I flip over my flush which ends up somehow being good. only at the racino, but i'll take it!!

it was a roller coaster night. I started up, dropped way down, but was able to keep calm and rise back up again....getting off at the top!!

game +212
year +1288 (13-6)

[Mineshaft]

Originally Posted by proximity

made it out to a busy penn national tonight for some 1-2 no limit hold em!!

i'm not a real loud talker and the casino is crazy busy and loud so I hand the girl my players card to jump on the 1-2 list. despite physically giving her the card she puts me on the list as "ben b" ...... which isn't even within a furlong of what my name is, but "ben" is on the list 4 deep and behind a bunch of call ins. proximity takes a lap around the busy casino and finds that "ben" is still 4th on the list and he stops upstairs to see the great penn national man tonyk@hsh. in addition to betting, tonyk is also a jockey agent and (right now) that is singular.... he only has one jockey, so I joke about him bringing in the aqu newcomer Katie davis since another agent we know once brought in her older sister Jackie davis.

back downstairs, ben b is now sixth on the list.

anyhow, neither proximity or his "ben b" alter ego makes a big scene about this and eventually i'm sent to a table of unfamiliar racino faces...... almost always a good sign.

things would start fast with a turned straight holding off a slow played set of 8s and I sprinted to a $112 lead. but there are a lot of roller coasters at the nearby hersheypark and tonight's game would do its best impression of the super doper looper. a-j, a-q, a-k..... all beaten within one dealer, with ace jack falling to a limped ace king held by a mike caro (the mad genius of poker) lookalike. $112 was reduced to a single digit lead in no time at all, but a flopped top two pair on a j-9-7 board would give me hope. a fairly safe 3 falls on the turn and I go all in for $48 with a call from the mad genius who held a dominated 9-7, but hits the miracle 7 on the river for a full house.

beaten by a two outer on the river, the dealer is looking at the cards and not being the best loser I sarcastically say "just push the chips down there" while tossing the cash for my rebuy high into the air and landing it flush in the center of the table. things have been going better lately, but it's always important to remember that we are gambling and that it's just a bunch of cards being flipped over and bad beats are going to happen and it's important not to get too high or too low.

anyhow I move quickly on the rebuy with ace king. one guy is calling every raise I make and has burned through almost $300 and a small rebuy and I get him to bet a turned ace for me and I nearly double. later i'd get action on a flopped straight and then hit another straight where there's good action but I decided to shove the turn on a very wet board. in one remarkable hand I turn a flush on a jack high flop, but the turn card paired the jack and when the board pairs again on the river, I have to be beat. but the flop bettor checks and I flip over my flush which ends up somehow being good. only at the racino, but i'll take it!!

it was a roller coaster night. I started up, dropped way down, but was able to keep calm and rise back up again....getting off at the top!!

game +212
year +1288 (13-6)

did u bet that horse in the 3rd race last nite? paid $12 to place