O-Poker

Poker Ramblings of cmitch

Contact Info:

cmitchpoker@gmail.com

Haven't forgotten LV trip report

Sunday, July 10, 2011

I've been meaning to post a LV trip report but have been crazy busy between work and fun.  I'm currently in Hawaii and family is here now too.  Trip report might have to wait for one night when everyone is asleep or when I get back to Orlando.

I just got back from Las Vegas - pretty fun trip overall.

Played one WSOP event (#48 - $1,500 NL) and finished 125th for $4,100.

Trip report to follow some time over the next few days...........

Las Vegas Plans Booked

Thursday, May 19, 2011

I'll be in Las Vegas from 6/25-7/2.  I booked the flight with my airline miles (at least I'm getting something out of all the traveling I've been doing.)

I'll be staying at the Rio.  I haven't played enough to maintain my previous Harrah's Rewards status but I get got a decent rate on the room.

As far as plans go while I'm there, I'm pretty much going to play it by ear.  I'll be playing mostly cash games and may throw in a Venetian, WSOP, Binion's ME, or Casear's tourney in there to break things up.

Is anyone keeping a list of blogger dates in WSOP.?   Let me know if you are in LV during that time and want to me up?

Good Game. It was fun

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Unless you've been living under a rock buried deep in an underwater cave, then you are well aware that Online Poker is history in the US.  I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I wanted to post about my feelings on the future of online poker.


This post isn't meant to give you an in depth analysis of the indictments or keep you up to date for the latest news.  For that visit some of the following:


@Kevmath on Twitter


Ck's Blog


Bill Rini's Blog


Plus many others on twitter, in the blog-o-sphere, on the forums, etc, etc. 


Future of Online Poker (IMO) 

I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer, but I think that there is a very low likelihood of online poker getting regulated in the US in the near future.  It is easy for online poker players to say that the DOJ's move to shut down the FTP, PS, and UB/AP is the first step of the government's larger plan to regulate and tax online poker.  The reality of the situation is quite different in my (probably unpopular) opinion.  This is not a calculated move by the government to get their piece of the pie.  It is, simply, the government shutting down what they believe to be illegal activity that has been consistently and increasingly flaunted in their face with the ever increasing .NET advertising in print, online, and on TV.  Simple as that.



Do I think online poker will be regulated in the near future?  I hope I'm wrong, but No. (maybe 5% chance by the end of the year)   I don't think it will even be discussed in legislative committees on the federal level until these cases are resolved.  The members of Congress that were on the fence on regulated online poker will most likely shy away from the issue because the average American doesn't know any of the details of the case.  All they see is "Online Poker sites shut down by the government because they are illegal."  We know that is not the true picture, but the average American doesn't.  These middle of the road members of Congress are going to realize that some of their constituents are going to see them as backing illegal gambling because so many voters are idiots.



Do I think online poker will ever be regulated?  Yes.  I would put the chance around 35% by the end of 2012 and increasing each year.  It may take some state's passing online poker bills and the federal government challenging the states' rights to offer online poker plus all the red tape that follows.  I'm not sure when or how this will happen, but I think that is the most likely way we get online poker - states allowing it and the fed govt eventually deciding it should be implemented and taxed.



It makes me sad to think of online poker going away.  I started playing well before most and have enjoyed it immensely over the years.  More in my next post......

The Venetian is running their Deep Stacks Tourney Series from May 27 through July 15.  I'm not sure which week I'll be in LV this summer, but I'll probably play at least one of these.

Link to Schedule of Events.

WBCOOP

Monday, January 17, 2011

Online Poker
 I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 780350

2011 Goals

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

I'm keeping the goals short and sweet this year.

1.  Play 600,000 cash game hands.  I've been playing only full ring rush NLHE, so this shouldn't be that difficult even if I'm traveling a lot.


2.  Cash in a WSOP tourney (assuming I play one this year).  I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to the WSOP this year because of work/family events in June.  If I do, I plan to play at least 1 tourney (maybe 2) and the first goal will be to cash.  The second goal will be, of course to make a deep run.

3.  Lose 35 lbs by WSOP.  The first 20 lbs should be pretty easy.  The last 15 will be the difficult part.  I don't plan to do anything drastic at first.  The only real changes I'll make is exercise more and eat healthier.

I'll try to update the status of my goals once a month.

Happy New Year!!!  Good Luck in life and poker in 2011!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

I know it's been a while, but I thought I would drop in to wish everyone HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!  My traveling is starting to slow a little so I may find time to start posting again.

Tampa Hard Rock/Live Poker

The Tampa Hard Rock just opened a new poker room, so I will definitely being checking it out one day next week.  It will be a rare treat to play some live poker.  I haven't played near as much live as I had hoped.  Once they changed the limits from $100 cap buy-in to real uncapped games, I assumed that I would be playing a minimum of twice/month.  That hasn't happened because of all my traveling for work.  I don't want to spend any of my little time while I'm home away from the family, so poker takes a back seat.  The kids will be at my Mom's house for a couple of days next week, so it will be the perfect opportunity to check out the new digs at Hard Rock.

I may be bored to death playing live cash games after not playing anything other than four tables of NL FR Rush Poker.  There might be a little difference in playable hands when you are seeing 25 hands/hr vs. 1,100+ hands/hr.  I guess I'll find out next week.

---------------------------------
Twitter vs. Blogs

Yin and Yang.  As Twitter has taken off with poker bloggers, the quantity of blog posts seems to have dropped significantly.  It only seems logical.  If you can follow someone's journey through a tourney in real time on twitter, why would you need/want to read their recap of it on their blog 3 days later.  If you feel like reliving their tourney then you can just follow their twitter stream (or whatever the term is).

You can follow me on twitter at @seemitch.

Million Dollar idea for free* - Twitter---->Blog.  Invent a tool that allows people to utilize a stream of tweets for a blog post or blog post template without having to cut/paste each one.  Imagine how easy it would be to recap a tourney or a trip to a casino to play cash games if you could just take your twitter stream and add a few details that you couldn't fit into 140 characters.  It would definitely cause me to start posting more.



HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
(Hanukkah is over already I think)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!





*Million Dollar idea may be an overstatement unless you could somehow figure out how to get people to buy it as an app.  (That Steve Jobs guy is pretty smart or whoever works for him that came up with the pay per app concept.)

I'm still alive

Saturday, November 06, 2010

...just checking in, in case anyone was worried.  :)

Too much work, not enough poker.  When I have played I've been far from focused.  I'm sure a lot of that has to do with my body never really knowing which time zone it's in.

I was so excited about FL getting real poker, but I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to play live in a while.  Maybe that will change once the travel starts to slow down.

/End boring post about nothing.

Until next time (hopefully sooner than later) - Enjoy life.  Party Hard!!  Don't take even the small things for granted.

Pot Limit Omaha Cash Games

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Yes, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm not going to make any excuses.  I've been busy with work and family life and just haven't found the time or felt like posting much.

I am going to be out of town for most of the next month or so and figured that I can probably use what little down time that I have in the hotel room to learn how to play PLO cash games.  I'm not talking about just watching a video or two and them jumping in and playing.  I'm talking about trying to really learn in depth how to play PLO cash - watching several videos, reading as much as I can and running some simulations as I gradually start playing.

Who knows, I may not even like the game at the end of the day, but I at least want to give it a shot.  The variance may drive me insane, but I won't know unless I give it a try.


So far my plan is to start with the following:

- Watch the DeucesCracked Solid State PLO series (all 8 videos) by DJSensei and delcrossb
- Read the Jeff Hwang's first two books (Pot-Limit Omaha Poker and Advanced PLO Vol. 1)

I'm not sure which video series I will watch after that.  I'll probably scan through KasinoKrime's (coach over at DC) extensive notes that he took while watching the different PLO video series and see which one seems the best.

I'll post my results (both good and bad), questions on hands, and other random PLO thoughts that pop into my head over the next month or two.

Any advice on resources (videos, books, blog posts, forum posts, etc, etc) would be appreciated.  I'm probably not going to hire a coach for a little while, but let me know if you have any experiences or know of any good PLO coaches.

Not sure what to do

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I haven't posted in a while and when I do there isn't much content.

The content and number of posts both turn a big downturn almost 2 years ago, when I started my own business.  I have trouble finding the motivation to post after spending all day on the computer, phone, in meetings, etc, etc.

I am weighing my options (see below) and haven't made a clear decision yet.

1.  Start some sort of challenge and post weekly or twice a week updates. - This seems like the best idea because I don't want to totally abandon this blog.  Any suggestions?  (I'm leaning towards some sort of cash challenge on FTP and SNG/MTT challenge on PS)

2.  Commit to posting at least once a week.

3.  Commit to posting either once or twice a month.

4.  Stop posting and end the run of O-Poker.  Not much chance of this.

I'll figure it out in the next week or so.  Stay tuned..........

Diamond Head Hike Pictures

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I hiked up Diamond Head solo on Sunday.  I think my legs and brain thought my body was in better shape than it is.  Still hurting a little today.

Here are a few pictures from the trip up and back down. (some better than others - all from my phone)

Drive to Diamond Head


The Walk into Diamond Head Crater










No detail for now, just random thoughts....

I met a lot of great people that I hadn't met before and ran into some awesome people that I had met before.  There are a lot of people that I wanted to run into but didn't get a chance to for one reason or another.  Sleep, tourneys, alcohol, laziness got in the way - take your pick.

In a $1.5k WSOP event folding to cash is OK, not OK, OK, not OK, OK (I have no idea), especially when you know you are flipping right b4 the cash.

EST is not Eastern Standard Time.  It is "American time" - via RealDawnSummers

If you agree to flip for $200/hand for x (5 I think) hands while really drunk and finish up $800, it is OK to stop flipping no matter how much the other guy keeps asking you too.  That is what I did, until he starting offering me his $350 to my $300 in omaha flips. (more later on this)

It probably isn't a good idea to stay up all night and watch the USA soccer game if you started drinking at 5 pm.  I think I fell asleep for a few at the bar somewhere between 2-0 and 2-1.  Credit Vinnay for waking me up a couple of times in the 2nd half.

It gets light outside really, really early in LV.

I play much better in tourneys while drinking and much worse in cash games while drinking.  Hmmm......

It is probably a good idea to set an alarm to remind yourself to eat dinner.  I think there were a couple of days that I only ate one meal unless 15 beers counts as a meal.

Don't order a burger if the waitress tells you, "Are you sure that you want to order that.  It is extremely spicy and there are no refunds."  Also, always read the read print under the burger that mentions the beef is mixed with the hottest peppers in the world.

It is OK to call someone a "jack ass" if they call the clock on you in a cash game when they aren't in the hand.  (more on this later)

OBFV and over shoving for value on the flop works really live if you just shoved on a short stack with AK on an all rag flop after the short stack called 2/3rds of this stack pf.  They must always think you have AK instead of top set.

Almost forgot - if you are having dinner at the bar, it is prob a good idea to put a few dollars in the vid p0ker machine.


Much more to come.........

Daytona Poker Room Trip Report

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

(I'm really going to post some WSOP stories soon, but here is my first weekend of real FL trip report while it's fresh.)


Real poker in Florida began last week - July 1, 2010 at 12:01 am.  The maximum buy-in for cash games had been $100.  It all changed last Thursday.  The buy-in restriction was removed and each room was able to set it's own limits.


I wasn't able to play until Friday and was leaning towards heading to the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa which is a little over 1 hour away.  A few friends talked me into the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room - mainly because of the big Nascar race being in town.


I left earlier than my friends in an attempt to beat the holiday/race weekend traffic.  When I arrived at the poker room, I noticed that they had 2 buy-in ranges for each limit (multiple tables).  It was pretty ridiculous.  (2/5 with 100-300 and 200-500 and 5/10 with 300-500 and 500-1000).  I was debating which game to play and I put my name on the list for both bigger buyin range 2/5 and 5/10.  I got called for the 5/10 about 10 minutes later.


About 1 hour later, they decided to make their life easier and collapsed the buyin ranges to one per limit, but kept the small mins.  I liked not having multiple games with different buy-ins at each limit, but didn't like that the new buy-ins allowed for more short stackers (30 bbs vs. 50 bbs)


After 5 hands in at 5/10, I was dealt AA and got aipf against JJ and held.  I 3-bet and 5-bet the guy, before he finally shoved. He had like $725-$750.  As I was raking the pot an older guy (regular - not in the pot) at the table said, "Oooohhh!!  Wow!!! Huge Pot!!  That's a hundra dolla tip right there!!"  I tipped $5 and the guy went on to call me cheap and tell me "Come on, at least give the dealer another $10."  I just ignored him.  WTF?  $5 is cheap?


About 45 minutes later, I won about $550 ($1100 pot) of a guy that couldn't fold his weak Ace against my AQ on a AxxxQ board.  The same older guy (not in the pot) again commented on my $5 tip.  "You just won two $2,000 pots (not correct) and you are only tipping $5.  That is crazy.  I'm going to bust your ass for being so cheap.  Dealer, if I win a big pot (I didn't see him win any pots) then I'm going show you how people are supposed to tip."


LOL.  The guy left the table about 2 minutes later.




Random thing I noticed - occasionally one guy (not the guy ripping on me) would tip like $40-$50 when he won a big pot (like $700 - $1k).  I didn't believe it the first time I saw it.


A little later I lost a big pot with QQ to a guy that couldn't get away from A6o when he flopped bottom pair.  Ace on the river killed me.


On another hand, I lost about $400 when I live straddled and was dealt 84 in a 8 way limped pot.  The flop came 88T and there was action from a shorter stack (guy with about $350ish) that made me think he clearly had an 8.  A horrible player in between us was forcing the action (with what I was guessin was something like AT).  He had about $1,200.  On a blank turn the short stack put his last $125 in.  Mid pos called.  I decided to shove since there was a flush draw (might have been bad in hind sight).  Mid pos folded.  River was an Ace.  I told the short stack that I had an 8.  He didn't say anything and I flipped up my hand.  About 15 seconds later he dramatically flipped over his flopped full house (T8).  Slow roll FTW!!  Another WTF moment.


Several hours later with some up and down hands I was down about $550 and the table had gotten pretty tight without any spewey players, so I moved over to a 2/5 game that 2 of my friends were playing in.  I think only 1 guy had $500 in front of him.  I lost another $250 there without any hands of note other than losing a big pot against an extremely loose guy with QT vs. 22 on a QT2xx board.


I would rate the action as much much worse than I expected, but there are still good spots.  It just seemed like there were way too many nits around.  I guess that is probably because a lot of them are used to playing with the $100 max, where the only profitable way would have been nitty.


------------


Other random things:


This was the first night that they were open all night.  Prior regulations only allowed them to be open until 1 am on weekends and midnight during the week.  Because of this, they were clueless.  I went to grab something at the concession stand at 10:50.  The stand closes at 11 PM, but apparently the lady running the stands watch was 15 minutes fast.  She said that they were closed.  I just wanted a candy bar.


They had no food service at all after midnight, because no on thought about it in advance.  Paul asked about getting anything to eat around 1 am and one of the waitresses brought him their "brand new" late night menu.  She said, "I don't even know what's on it.  They just decided to offer it - just came off the printer and I haven't looked at it yet."


The menu had 5 items that were all pretty much microwave items.  Paul and Matt both ordered a Ham,egg, and cheese croissant.  It was some microwave Costco type thing.  Neither of them finished it and both of theirs were frozen in the middle.


-----


I guess they didn't expect the crowd overnight because around 11:30 they made an announcement that dealers weren't allowed to leave when their shifts end unless they got specific permission.  There were several floor people dealing also.


------


I ran into a ton of people that I hadn't seen in years from Orland home games - which was very cool.  I haven't played in any home games around town in the last 2-3 years, since the game where I felt most comfortable stopped.
-------
The dealers did a great job, especially considering all the pressure that they were under with it being the first weekend.

Anyway, I won't get a chance to play again for 3 weeks, but will probably try out the Hard Rock Tampa next.

WSOP and Florida Poker (Not Forgotten)

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I haven't forgotten about this blog.  I have a ton to post from WSOP trip, but I have been ridiculously busy between work and life since I got back from LV.

I'll be posting probably a series of posts about my WSOP trip in the very near future.

In the meantime, Uncapped Poker in FL starts in 3 hours!!! (July 1, 2010).  I won't be able to play until Friday night.  I'll be heading over to Daytona to take advantage on the new limits in the NL games (normal NL poker) and hopefully take advantage of all the donks race fans in town.  (Daytona Poker Room is less than 1 mile from the Daytona Speedway)

More to come on WSOP and NL Poker in FL.....