January, February, Check

Good news, I hit the goal for the month with a $1010 profit last night. The stack above looks like a lot more than that but I was in for $1200. Early (really early, like first 30 minutes) I pushed with a straight flush draw with 3s4s on a board that had As5sX. I hated pushing like this with the low flush but I was in the mood to gamble and try to double up. Like two hands later I flopped a nut flush draw with Ad7d and pushed again and bricked. It was fun.

So just like that I was in for $1200 but made a nice comeback, most notably bluffing a guy off of his KK when there were two aces on the board. He showed his kings so I showed my K6 just to put him on tilt and it worked like a charm as he proceeded to unravel and lose the rest of his big stack plus another buy-in.

Then with about $600 I raised to $40 with QT of hearts on the button. The small blind re-raised me to $80 and I called. The flop came out three hearts. He bet $80 again. I raised to $160 hoping he'd push with a high heart or high pair and that he did. He went all-in, I snap called and he missed with AK and the ace of hearts (no pair on the flop).

As for my hoop game last night, it was a disaster. We were up 10 points with about five minutes left and lost in overtime. I shot poorly once again and was frustrated with the refs because the other team was gang raping my arms every time I had the ball (I run the point on this team) and I didn't get one foul call. A couple times I had to just pick my dribble up and start swinging elbows which I got a good LOL from because the other team started whining even though they were all over me and reaching in.

This weekend I'm planning on relaxing and staying out of the casino until Sunday. I might mess around on Full Tilt if I have time.

I've put up a new poll on the right sidebar. Basically I'm thinking about paying back my $401k loan in full ahead of schedule (I'm about four months into the cycle) and was wondering what people thought I should do.


Good luck and have a great weekend, 4 years..........

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 75.0 hrs., +$7820
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555
02.23.09 14.25 hrs., -$775
02.24.09 6.0 hrs., -$485
02.26.09 3.5 hrs., +$1010

Interesting I ended up with exactly 75 hours.

Work

I'm really starting to struggle. My responsibilities at work have changed and I'm doing entry level work all of a sudden and that's probably giving the level of difficulty in my work too much credit.

I'm attempting to tough it out but when I'm making four times the rate when I play cards, it's really tough to sit here and read text messages that say "great 400 game going on."

It's agonizing actually.

Anyways I'm hoping to get to HP and hit for the $200 I need to surpass $7000 this month. After that, I think I'll take a break until Sunday, which is the first of March.

Today I'm really feeling burned out. I'm tired and data entry combined with a shitload of copy and pasting just doesn't get the adrenaline going like flopping a set of fives or bluffing a scare card on the turn.

I need to reset my focus. I'm pretty sure I know why I lost the last two sessions: I'm getting lazy and somewhat sloppy; I'm playing too many hands, which means I'm chasing more draws and trying to crack more opponents with ugly two pairs and inside straights. I need to sharpen up.

I'm not the best player and never claimed to be and I have to realize what makes me better than others. I need to sit at a table and evaluate each player and come up with a strategy on how I can beat each opponent because everyone plays uniquely and thus everyone loses uniquely. To me.

Let's get it done.

Hopefully if you're reading this and you play, you're winning right now or winning tonight or whenever you play again, you win.

I didn't play yesterday. I had a basketball game and we got our asses torched. By 20. And we're supposed to be the best team. It was actually a team of Hollywood promoters (mostly ex-college players) and every one of them caught fire sometime during the game. I played terribly and so did our other two main scorers.

Tonight I have a game in a different league at Bev Hills HS and hopefully I'll hit for 20+ because we're playing the first place team (we're second). Something about the Beverly Hills HS gym that just makes me shoot badly. I hate it but last game I did better so I'm optimistic. My friend feels the same way about Commerce Casino and his poker game. Just one of those things, there's no level of comfort there.

After my game I'm hoping to get to Hollywood Park around 930 pm and hit them for a few hundred. Can't be too greedy.

I realize this is pretty much a ranting entry but I also realized that all my posts were getting so one-dimensional with the poker shit.

Peace and good luck.

Back to back L's

It was bound to happen sometime and happen it did. Monday I dropped $775 in the $200 game, which I really am starting to hate, and Tuesday I dropped another $485 playing the $400 and $200. Tuesday I actually lost $755 in the $400 and won $270 in the $200.

I had a combination of some bad (not terrible) beats and was really card dead. Yesterday when I sat down my very first hand I bet a guy off of his pocket aces when the board was 6-T-Q-9 all clubs. I had QJ with no club and he had aces with no club and folded on the turn. The very next hand I pick up QsJs and it gets limped to the flop. The flop comes three spades. The guy in front of me bets $40, I call him and the guy after me goes all-in for $400, which I call. He shows pocket aces with the ace of spades and turns the nut flush. I thought it was a bit crazy that I got QJ my first two hands and went up against pocket aces both times. I won the time that I had the worst hand and lost the time that I had the best.

Anyways here's an update on the numbers. Unfortunately the two losses sent me under my monthly goal of $7k so I have some work to do before Sunday.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 71.50 hrs., +$6810
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555
02.23.09 14.25 hrs., -$775
02.24.09 6.0 hrs., -$485

Here's a couple pics of the car I bought:





4 years!!

The Winning Streak is Alive

I'm aggravated because I keep my records on an excel spreadsheet on my phone and it erased everything from the last month. I've played three sessions (well really three days and four sessions) since I last posted. All were winning sessions but I don't remember the exact count on the first one, which I think was last Thursday. I think I won about $200 but I'm not sure so I'm just going to leave it off the records. Went to Hawaiian Gardens again, that place has some serious calling stations and sick suckout artists from what I've seen. I actually lost $65 at HG but won at Hollywood Park right before I went to HG so that day I won even though the session at HG was a loss.

The LAPC Main Event is currently running and the team favorite is still in it so hopefully he'll make a repeat performance from last year. I think I'm going to go up there tonight to check out the end of day 3 and see if Phil is on his way to the final table.

With Sunday's profit I've surpassed my monthly goal of $7000 for the second month. I'm getting closer to finishing the month without a losing session/day and I've had some sessions where I thought I was taking an L fa sho. But this year has gone incredibly well for me so far and I bought a car last week with some of the extra money I won in craps. It's a 2007 Lexus GS350 with 19k miles on it. I got it for a good price and it's a lot nicer than any other car I've already had so I'm feeling good about that.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 51.25 hrs., +$8070
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555

First Trip to Hawaiian Gardens Casino

I went to Hollywood Park last night and my guy advised me that the games were dead and dry. He wanted to hit another casino and I was voting for Commerce because the action has to be crazy there due to the LAPC but he was set on going to Hawaiian Gardens so we went.

Hawaiian Gardens has a reputation for having a ton of players who are straight up gamblers. Mostly of Asian descent. Basically it has the rep of an action casino and I had never been there so I was content to check it out.

So we went, sat down in the $500-1000 game with $5/10 blinds and before I knew it I was in for two $800 buy-ins and down to my last $160. At this point my boy had already won $1500 and cashed out so he was waiting on me. I thought to myself 'three double ups and I'm even' and then laughed at myself for even thinking that.



Two circuits later and I had doubled up three times with QQ and eventually Q9. The action was pretty sick and there were some ridiculous calling stations. I can definitely see that there's money to be made in this place. A ton of straddling and light re-raises with air.

To make a long story short, I bought in for $1600 and luckily left with $1805. Even though I felt bad about only winning $205 on a donkey table, I'm glad I dug myself out of that hole and actually won some money.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 40.5 hrs., +$6145
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205

Friday night W + Vegas Trip Report

I had a good night at Hollywood Park on Friday. I went straight from work, was seated in a $200 game and hoping to get in a $400 game (per the usual routine). I won $310 in a short matter of time in the $200 so it was almost a freeroll when I headed to the $400 game.

The $400 game was pretty easy with some semi-tight players who were extremely readable and didn't know how to play their hands. It was a nice win because I was sitting next to my boy and we both made $2k+. I think that's the first time we've both won over $2k at the same table.

I got kinda bored so I built a house for my cellphone. The only thing I don't like about having a huge stack at Hollywood Park is all the riff raff that stops by the table to see how much money people have in front of them. Granted, when I build my stack with this type of architecture, it does draw some additional attention.



VEGAS

Saturday I decided to take my girl to Las Vegas for Valentine's Day. I know, it's not the most romantic place but I go a lot and she has been wanting to go with me so I decided to take her for the weekend since we both had Monday off. We were supposed to leave around noon because I was hoping to buy a new car on Saturday morning but I didn't and of course we didn't end up leaving until 7 p.m.

We got to the Venetian at about 11 p.m. and I ate (she had already eaten) and we just walked around the hotel a bit and hung out in the room. The Venetian rooms are my favorite rooms to stay in because they're big and have two TV's. Of course they don't really compare to the villas at Bellagio but as far as just a regular room goes, I like the Venetian the best.



Sunday the main objective was to get show tickets to "Jersey Boys" at the Palazzo. I woke up at 10 a.m. and bought the tickets. I snuck to the black jack table, lost seven hands in a row for -$450 and then we got out of the hotel by noon to go to the outlet mall. I dropped some money on Nike stuff and a suit. We went back to the telly, ate and went to the show. The show was pretty good and I have a lot of appreciation for those actors who can sing their asses off at the same time but it's just not my thing. I almost fell asleep when the intermission bailed me out and I went and bought a Red Bull and some M&M's.

After the show we stopped at the black jack table. I bought in for $200 at a $25 minimum table and had lost 6/7 hands when they changed dealers and I went on a heater. I ran my stack up to about $1100 when they changed dealers back to the Asian chick who was killing me. Sure enough my stack went back down to about $600 when the deck ran out and she had to shuffle. I told her to cash me out but she said she had to finish shuffling first so I took that as a sign from the heavens to keep playing.

The heavens were right and I ran up to $2200 before going back down to $1600 and cashing out.

We then went to Grand Lux where we got the worst service I've ever had in my life. I ordered Calamari that never came, ordered a strawberry lemonade that never came, and they never refilled my water. And I was thirsty as fuck after winning in black jack. Then, after the meal is done, I tell some waitress "I have no idea where my waiter is but can you tell him to cancel the calamari and strawberry lemonade?" At that point the manager comes out and says "I understand you didn't get your Calamari? We'll bring it right out." I told the dumb bitch that I already finished my meal and who eats Calamari for dessert, just cancel the shit and she says "Ok, we'll refill your water." Thanks! No tip. And I'm a pretty good tipper. The black jack dealers made like $300 off me.



After dinner we went to the craps table. My girl has no idea about any gambling games and has no interest but I wanted her to roll. I basically put the $1600 in chips on the table that I had from black jack. When we left my girl had luck boxed us all the way to $5500. She had the most unorthodox ridiculous rolls ever and was hitting numbers like crazy. Dice were flying all over the place, shooting into the casino chip stacks like missiles, hitting the dealers in the neck, dropping two inches from her hand when the other would go flying to the far wall, it was awesome.



We headed to the room and I was hoping to get out of Vegas by 1 p.m. on Monday. It was going to rain and I was still hoping to get a new car by the time Tuesday rolled around. We ate and then I wanted to try my girl's beginner's luck again. She was extremely reluctant to play because she is a strong believer in winning and leaving, not winning and gambling more or testing your good luck. She was worried we would lose the money back.

But I convinced her and we went back. I put $500 on the table and after the dice went around the table twice, I was down to about $300. My girl was up and we had been there for 30 minutes so I decided to spread the rest of my money across the board ($15 min. table). Twenty minutes later my girl finally craps out and I cash out for $6k. The dealers loved us because they could tell my girl had no clue what she was doing and I was playing a lot of bets for them that they were hitting so it was a lot of fun.

We finally took off and drove home in the rain although we did get into a fight on the way home and didn't speak to each other the whole way, which enabled me to play T.I., Jay-Z, and Joe Budden at high volume levels while she tried to sleep.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I wasn't really expecting to gamble at all because I know my girl doesn't like gambling and has no interest in it but she brought me some good luck and I won a lot (for me), which was just a great bonus to a fun weekend. The cash comes right on time as I can use it for the car down payment.

I'm planning to get back on my poker grind tonight and I'm hoping to keep this February streak alive, good luck to everyone.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 36.5 hrs., +$5940
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390

Action Thursday at Hollywood Park...

...and I didn't get much of the action.

All day while I was at work my boy was hitting me with texts like "You should be here, Adam Morrison and Jason Collins are giving money away" and "my table is crazy, i'm up 500 already" but I was restricted to my cubicle.

After work I had a basketball game at Beverly Hills HS and I played like shit and we lost. Not really because of me but it definitely didn't help that I was our go-to guy and I shot like 20%.

So after I finally ate dinner and showered, I got to Hollywood Park at 1030 p.m., sat down at the $400 game when my friend advised me that all the action players just left and the game is tight. Great!

I looked at all the $200 tables and they were all full and had a lot of action (Adam Morrison was on one of them just running through buy-ins like they were tic tacs) but I said "fuck it if I'm good I can beat this $400 game anyways" and I told my boy that also.

So I went on to play super agressive (usually not really my style) for about 30 minutes and went up $600 without having to show down.

Then a short stack made quad 9's on my AK (I was drawing dead on the 973 flop when I c-bet him all-in).

Another hand that I was mad about a guy blind raised to $20 five players called. I called in middle position with QT. The flop comes QJ9 rainbow and the original blind raiser bets $40. The guy on my left barely made a move but I felt that he was excited to see this bet in front of him. At this point, I should have folded. But I didn't and I called the $40. The guy on my left raised to $100, the original raiser calls and I have to call, hoping for a king on the turn. The turn is a 4, we check to the raiser and he bets $200 and we both fold. I would have loved myself if I was able to lay that QT down right there as I just sensed a raise coming from my left but I was stubborn and it cost me.

Anyways I was summoned to meet up with some friends so I left around midnight at +$315 to keep the streak alive. The action at HP was great though with Terrell Thomas there (not that he's a bad player), Jason Collins and Adam Morrison, who apparently were both refusing to fold to any pre-flop raises, and the normal HP Thursday night crowd.

The good news is that I don't feel like I've really been winning much but I'm right on pace halfway through the month to hit my goal of $7k/month. Not having a losing session is really helping right now since I've only had one big session so far this month.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 28.5 hrs., +$3550
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315

Boring Session

Let me just sum this up real quick: I played 4.5 hours last night and won $75.

Technically I think I played two sessions because I showed up for 15 minutes and had to leave to do something for a couple hours. In that first 15 minutes, I lost $250 playing like a dumbass. I basically called a guy all the way down with pocket deuces and he had pocket tens. I'm a moron.

I realized that this was a loss and I actually wasn't sure if I was going to go back but I ended up going back and immediately winning $200 in the $200 game before I went to the $400 game. In the $400 game I won $180 in 25 minutes so I was there for 40 minutes and was up $380, but when you take out the original $250 I was down then I was really up just $130.

I left the $400 game because it was dead and went to an action table in the $200 game with some of the classic players at Hollywood Park, guys like Money Train and Deion, and I ran my stack to +$350 before shitting it away on I don't know what. It just went down steadily before I left down $55 on that table.

So when it was all said and done I made $75 last night. Nice to book another winning session (does that count as one session? I'm counting it as one session for the purpose of my own goals... kind of like an infield single during a hitting streak), I guess I'll just try not to lose until I can get another big session. Works for me. I know, very boring.

So let me give some highlights of Deion's table talk:

We're four handed. Deion makes it $25. Guy on the button re-raises to $85. Deion calls. Flop comes A-7-3. Guy puts Deion all-in for $135, Deion says "Fuck it I call." River comes a 6 and Deion shows 7c6c, guy turns over A-10 and says "Did you really think you were good? How can you call that? Everyone knew what I had except you!" Deion replies with "I need money and you got money, that's how I can call that. Why you bullshittin!"

Deion to new player: "I'm a crack you like a breakfast egg at Denny's! Why you bullshittin!"

Player on tilt to Deion: "Yeah you have $950 in front of you and you're still down $1300. I can't imagine how big of a loser you are in this place." Deion: "Yeah, but I'm a winner outside those doors baby! If you gon' tell the story, don't just tell half the story, tell the whole story! Why you bullshittin!"

There were a ton of other quotes but I can't remember them at the moment. He had us in stitches with his shit talking when he was winning. Obviously like everyone else when he started losing he went quiet but it was good comedy while it lasted.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 27.0 hrs., +$3235
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +75

Cuatro Años.

Mission accomplished

On Saturday morning I woke up late. Actually I woke up at like 4 p.m. on Saturday to a text from my boy that says, word for word: "Look for Adam Morrison at hp."

Five minutes later I found out that Morrison was traded from the Charlotte Bobcats to the L.A. Lakers for Vladmir Radmanovic. The text message that I received was a bit of a joke from my boy who knew that I had played against Morrison in poker at Hollywood Park last year.

Rewinding a bit to Friday night, I played right after work and really didn't get anything going. I grinded for a few hours and was just not getting anywhere so I decided to call it a night around midnight and headed home with a whopping $60 profit. One goal that I have in February is to win every session. It probably won't happen but I remind myself of that goal to try and stay out of the red or making risky plays while I'm playing. Plus, with that goal, it makes winning $60 a little more satisfying when I consider it's another winning session under the belt.

Saturday I was planning to go at about noon to play a nice long session until about 8:00 p.m. I woke up early did some things around my apartment and then fell back asleep until 3:30 p.m. Real smooth, way to stick to the plan.

So I only got a short session in on Saturday but it was much more successful, winning $580 in the 5/10 game but losing $40 in the 3/5 game. Overall another winning session so that gives me some momentum going into Sunday.

Sunday I wanted to make sure I was going to get to HP by 1 p.m. They were giving away a car and I wanted to be there when they called my name for that new Jaguar. They were calling a name on the hour every hour from 1 - 10p.m. Then out of those 10 names, they give a key to one person. Obviously I stayed from 1p.m.-10p.m. and they didn't call my name.

The good news is I had a great session. Especially considering the fact that I was in for $1400 pretty quickly. The last three sessions (possibly four) I've had to play the $200 game (3/5 blinds) while I was waiting for the $400 (5/10 blinds) game. Every time I've lost a little in the $200 game no matter what. I'll be up like $150, then I'll get in a big hand and lose $200 and then they'll call my name for the $400 game. It's like clockwork. So I lost my $40 in the $200 game and then I moved to the $400 game.

The main $400 game was crazy. There was like $15k on the table, which is about five times as much as usual on the table. I was on the must-move table and everyone was trying to get to the main game. I ended up in for $1400 playing the must-move before I changed to the main game. I was battling in the main game when I played a hand loosely and it paid off.

I raised to $35 with Ad2d. At this point I had just taken a couple river beats and my stack went from $1400 to $800. The two donkeys of the table called. The small blind, who is a super-tight player, raises to $135. I'm the first to act following his raise and I call, hoping that the other two players will call also. One of them calls and one folds. The flop comes 10d6d6s. The small blind fires out $300. At this point I know I'm either calling or moving in. I have him on JJ or better and I'm hoping my ace is live but I'm not sure. I decided to smooth call, hoping that the other player will call as well. He thinks for a minute and then goes all-in for about $1200. Wow. Now I have him either on the 6 or a diamond draw as well. I'm hoping the small blind folds so that if we're both on diamond draws and we brick out, I win with the ace high. The small blind mulls it over for a long time (he has the $1200 covered) and eventually calls. I obviously move my final $300 in and I hit the diamond on the river. The small blind had KK and the button had Ac6c and won a big sidepot. I'll take the luck any day and at this point it was either win a huge pot or rebuy and I got lucky.

From that point on I continued to increase my stack size when I noticed none other than Adam Morrison stroll into the no limit section and sit down at the must-move $400 game. Sweet.

When he moved to the table I beat him in a couple decent-sized pots. First I flopped three eights with my bb K8 and he called me down. I'm not sure what he had. Then we both flopped straights in a raised hand. I had 5c7c and the flop came 346 rainbow. Unfortunately for Morrison he had 2-5 offsuit and lost the cooler hand and headed to the ATM for the third time. The guy is incredibly nice and I give him a lot of credit for keeping a calm head at the poker table because he lost a bunch.



The funniest part was when some old guy at our table started talking about the Lakers trade and had absolutely no idea that Morrison was sitting at the table. He started like this "They just made a nice trade. They got rid of that stiff Radmanovic for that kid Adam Morrison." At that point I could tell he had no idea so I kicked him and then another guy says, "You do realize that he's sitting right here don't you?" and the old guy replies "Who's sitting right here?"
Good stuff.

Then the guy next to Morrison starts making small talk with him and asked this brilliant question: "So have you been to L.A. before?"

What the fuck...

"No, I've been in the NBA for three years but I've never been to Los Angeles. Can you show me around?"

Amazingly I ended up yesterday's session $2410 overall, putting me up for the weekend $3010. I find this crazy because after Saturday I kind of figured that I wasn't going to hit my $3k target for the weekend but I was just hoping to have a winning session on Sunday. Then, when I was in for $1400, I figured it was really a wrap and I was just trying to get back to even. Things changed quickly for the better. Here's a look at my stack with the $100 white chips looking healthy.



I'm not playing today. Gonna go to UCLA and play some basketball. I have to keep my other resolutions in mind and can't get overly consumed with poker. I'll go back either tomorrow or Wednesday.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 22.5 hrs., +$3160
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410

4years!!

Weekend Goal

My weekend goal is $3000. I'm definitely going to play two long sessions (tonight and Saturday during day) and hopefully I'll get another chance on Sunday as well. It's raining out here in L.A. so maybe a lot of people will be inside gambling.

Good luck.

February: Session 1 with Coco

Went to 'the Park' last night and it was looking very grim. One $400 table that was no good, the $500 game was going but looked shitty and there were three $200 tables that all looked tight. Then I saw a fourth $200 table that was more in the $40 NL section and got the only open seat on that table. I recognized a couple players to be action players (not necessarily bad players) so I knew the pots should be good.

As soon as I sat down I picked up that there was at least one horrible player. There was also a guy in the two seat that looked familiar. I kept trying to figure out if I knew him from somewhere when I got a phone call to go outside. I came back inside and he was talking baseball with another player and I realized it was Coco Crisp, who used to play for the Red Sox and now plays for the Royals.

We actually have a mutual friend that I knew was friends with him so it was easy to strike up a conversation that eventually led to him saying he was at the casino to learn the game because the poker games get so juicy on the team plane that he wants to win consistently for side money.

I was surprised that he said this because he was actually a pretty good player. I'd say he was better than at least half the table (I guess that's not saying much considering the Hollywood Park talent pool). But he didn't make any mistakes in the two hours that I played with him. He missed one bet but he had a flush draw/straight draw with two overs on the turn and I think he was just hesitant to bet. A guy with a pair of eights ended up winning the hand.

Anyways just to share the info with the few folks who read this, apparently on the team plane (Red Sox), they have a $600 betting cap because the salary range is so high they want everyone to be able to afford to play. Big Papi (hopefully you know who that is) throws in $600 blind every time. Apparently other high-paid players make similar moves and the best player on the team is back-up catcher Kevin Cash, who always wins. The team poker motto is "Where Cash goes, the money goes."

So Coco is trying to get to the same level as Cash, but it looks like Coco is doing alright. I think he won about $800-1000 from the game, which is way above average. Not to mention that Cash's 2008 salary was $400,000 and Coco's was $5 mil.

Anyways I hand-picked the donkey of the table out and got his stack when a jack flopped and I had AJ vs. his KJ. At this point I was up $300. Not long after I get 77 in the small blind. A bunch of limpers and I raise it to $23. Three callers. The flop comes 2-7-J with two spades and I weak bet $25. One call, then a raise to $100 by the #2 donk of the table. I go all-in (he has about $290 more) and he insta-calls with his ace-high flush draw and rivers it.

The very next hand another guy pushes on me with a club draw and one over and hits his king on the turn.

Lucky for me I get in a huge pot with the nut flush. I have Ac6c and the blinds are raised to $15. The flop comes 789 with two clubs. I check, raiser bets $60 and gets a callers. I make it $120, donkey calls in the middle, raiser and caller both calls the additional $60. Turn is the 3c and I bet out $60. Donkey surprisingly folds, original raiser calls, then the caller goes all-in for $140 more. I only have $60 at this point so I'm in there for $60 and the original raiser says he can't fold and calls with his set of sevens. River is an off-suit ten and I make my money back +100. I ended the session up $150 in two hours and some change before I left to go to my girl's house.

The bad part was that when I left the game got really juicy with my good buddy "money train" sitting down in the game. I'll have to catch you next time Money Train.

I'm gonna start a list of recognizable players that I play against in 2009 on the side panel of the blog just for kicks. Former USC standout and New York Giant defensive back Terrell Thomas is also on there. I played agasint him last week at HP but he's also a friend from my school days at USC and like Coco he's a good poker player as well.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February:
02.04.09 2.5 hrs., +$150

4years!!

January Wrap-Up

I'm happy to say that January was a huge success. In all honesty there were times last year that I told myself not to play this January because I was such a big loser over the course of the past two January's. So while my goal for 2009 is to win $7000/month, in the back of my mind I was really hoping to come out a small winner or break even this January.

Not only did I beat breaking even but I doubled my goal of $7000 and finished up $14,873. That number should have been even higher ($16k plus) had I not ended the month with three out of four losing sessions, with the only winning session a very small one ($94) at Caesar's Palace this past Saturday.

In one of my last losing sessions I caught a bad beat when some guy tried to steal with a re-re-raise with K-5 off. I had KcJc and we both checked a flop of 9-7-6. A king hit the turn and I check raised him all-in. He insta-called and I thought he was slow playing a set. Obviously the 8 hit the river and I was in disbelief. But that's the way the game goes. He thought he hit his money card on the turn and that's fine with me. I hit several other coolers during the month as many of the players I've played with have noted, but I'm not here to complain. Overall I've been running well.

Here are my numbers from January through my poker diary at hendonmob:



I ended the month in Vegas, flew there on Saturday morning and despite my intuition not to, I did a lot of gambling on black jack, the Super Bowl and craps. It was extremely up and down but I ended up a big winner (in my standards) of about +8k.

I pretty much broke even in black jack with several losses of $100-200 and one big +$2300 win at the Venetian when we were just bored thinking of what to do.

The Super Bowl was crazy for me. These are the bets I had (if I can remember them all):

Cardinals +7 $1800 to win $1500 (won)
Cardinals Money Line $1000 to win $1800 (lost)
Kurt Warner to throw exactly three TDs $100 to win $500 (won)
Any Cardinal to score two or more TD $100 to win $450 (won)
Any Steeler to score a rushing TD $50 to win like $35 (won)
Fitzgerald first catch to be over 11.5 yards $50 to win $50 (won)
Kurt Warner first pass to be over eight yards $50 to win $50 (won)
Roethlisberger first pass to be incomplete $100 to win $160 (lost)
Edgerrin James to score a TD $100 to win $360 (lost)
Cardinals to get more than two sacks $100 to win $100 (pushed)
Anquan Boldin to score a TD $100 to win X (can't remember) (lost)
Total game score +46.5 $220 to win $200 (won)

I'm sure I had a few more and some of the numbers are slightly skewed but overall I put in about $3000 exactly and ended +$900-1000. If the Cardinals had won, I would have finished up nearly $4000. The second Fitzgerald touchdown was like a orgasm for me because it gave Warner 3 TD passes and Fitz 2 TD scores, plus it gave Zona the lead with like three minutes left in the game. I thought I was good so we headed down to the sports book to get in line and by the time we get there Holmes is on a mad dash to the 10-yard line with a minute to go. I definitely jinxed it. So to all the people of the world that had Cardinals and the money line, I apologize.

I also hit two nice bets on UW vs. ASU ($100) and the Lakers/Grizzlies over (+$200) so sports betting went well this weekend (those were my only bets outside of the SB).

Aight now here's the craps story, which is a good one. The last few times I've gone to Vegas, I've stayed with my boy, who is best friends with a high profile gambler. The gambler is a big craps guy and if we are with him and he's shooting dice, he always has everyone shoot to see who has the hot hand as far as luck goes. Everytime I've taken my turn, not only did I not really know everything that's going on, but I didn't really have a solid way of throwing the dice. Obviously on Saturday night I'm in the same situation. I roll a 7, I hit an 8, then I crap out. If you know craps, it's not good to hit one point, then crap out. Because after I hit the 8, then rolled another point, he spread money across all the numbers.

So I decided that if the craps tables were dead, I was going to try my luck. And lucky I was. Not only did I learn the complete game of craps and all the odds, but I got a nice little roll down and jumped in a game. I basically took $100 to $400, then left. Then I jumped back in and took $600 to $1200 before my boy called me to go eat. Then when he went to sleep at 4 a.m. I decided to stay on the craps tables to work on my style and because I wanted to stay awake until my 7 a.m. flight. That's when it got good and I went on fire, taking my $1200 to $8700. Unfortunately none of my friends were at the table but the other four people that were at the table finally realized they should just leave the shooting to me and we all got rich. One guy placed a bet for me because I was so hot on the hard eight. I hit the hard eight without knowing he had bet for me and the dealer gave me the money. I asked who it was from and the dealer said "Just take it," but at that moment the guy says "You can parlay it if you want!" so I did and hit the hard eight again, making $1k off of a $10 bet that I didn't even place.

Of course as I'm on fire my guy Raheem hits me because we need to catch the cab to the airport so I had to cash out in the middle of my heater but I can't complain -- there's no telling if I would have continued to be on fire or lost the money back. I'll take the cash. That was a great way to start the month of February after a good month of January. On a lucky streak.

I'm going to play for two hours tonight so we'll see how poker starts off in February.

Good luck.