No Limit Win at Mohegan -- Foxwoods, not so much

I went down to Mohegan Sun with my poker-playing buddies Jim and Andrei. Jim and I were going to be covering the fights for Northeast Broadcasting later that evening and decided to make a full day poker trip out of it.

Mohegan was busy with poker -- primarily no limit, with over a dozen $1/2 tables going and three $2/5 games going at noon. The rake was the same -- 5% with a $4 maximum, and they were offering a very nice promotion of comping $3/hour for $2/5, so I landed there.

I expected some very good players -- young internet savvy, aggressive players like my cousin Harry (who is a very successful pro). I was pleased to find nothing of the sort. While two or three players were better than average, the rest were not. Three players were extremely loose and passive. Two were very tight and predictably aggressive with only very strong hands. Two were excellent. And then Jim aand I rounded out the table.

The table had a different dynamic from most of the $1/2 tables I'd been playing on at Foxwoods. At most of the $1/2 tables I'd been at, players often called the $2 and didn't raise pre-flop. That's not saying that pre-flop raising is unusual at the $1/2 level. But passivity ruled. Here ther would nearly always be some raise -- typically to $15 or $20. It might be an obvious blind stealing raise in late position if there had been no callers (and sometimes with a caller or two to $25 or even $30). But only about 20% of the hands went all the way around without a raise. There were few three bets -- maybe 2-5% of the time. It was a bet that showed enormous profitability for me. I started out very tight -- and twice folded my steal raise to a three bet from a wild player to my left. After that I was pegged as ultra tight and careful -- and got away with six or seven three bet steals without challenge.

I played carefully and picked my spots. I stacked two players when they attemped to push me off a hand that was not the nuts. In the first instance I had a small flush that I hit on the turn. The worst player at the table didn't believe my probe bet on the turn. He called it. When the river was a blank and I bet $75 into the $150 pot, he shoved his remaining $300 or so. I called and took down what was for the table a monster. He reloaded and repeated the exercise an hour or so later. I left up $800. Sweet.

I went to the fights (lackluster) and then, when they were over, Jim and I returned for Andrei. The three of us went to Foxwoods. They both played hold'em (Jim $1/2 no limit; Andrei $2-4 limit) but I was seduced by an open seat in a $10/20 stud game. I was eager to add to my win -- having thoughts of a $1,000 session. The game was peopled with a few regulars (tight, passive players for the most part) and two wild players. Unfortunately, the game was also annoyingly depopulated much of the time as three or four people regularly walked, and one or two seats became permanently vacant. I managed to eke out an $80 profit until what was nearly the last hand of the night. I was dealt pocket Jacks, hit a third Jack on fourth street and got into a battle with someone who seemed to have started with a higher premium pair in the hole and then hit Aces up on sixth street. He has half asleep and looked to be steaming when I raised him back on every street. He would call my raise and then bet out on the next street -- only to be raised again by me. Sadly, on the river he bet, I raised, and he reraised. He hit a four-outer and filled up -- toppling my stud win for the night. The game petered out after that and I left down $80. Still a nice session to start the new month.

AMAZING FREE VACATION PRIZE

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H.O.S.E. bust out at WPF

It was not a good day for the home team. I went down to Foxwoods this past weekend in hope of snagging some money in the $500 H.O.S.E. event -- but no luck. Actually, that's not correct. I had some luck -- but I failed to capitalize on it sufficiently to finish in the money. I didn't even go particularly deep -- not making it past 6:00 PM in this event that started at 11:00 AM. Poker buddy David Kuznick finished on the final table. I felt good and bad at the same time -- good for his excellent finish -- bad because I would have liked to join him. No matter, I went right to the $20/40 tables -- went up and down for about two hours and finally left after four hours or so, down $500. A $1000 loss for the day -- not exactly what I had hoped for.

Back to the Felt

It's September. Everyone seems to be returning to school in one form or another. Roads are busier during rush hour. Stores are more crowded. Everyone seems to be restarting things after a summer of lessened activity.

I don't know if that's true of your poker game. It is of mine. I've played very little in the last couple of monthes as I recovered from Las Vegas. I had one home game and one casino session in all of August. Haven't played so little in over 15 years. Even so, each session was instructive.

The home poker session was a low limit affair ($1-5 spread) of home games and friendship. Even so, I realized fairly soon that my mind was not in it at all. I made a childish mistake early in the evening in 7card stud low hole (the low hole card is wild). I started with a pair of 9s split and, though I had a 6 in the hole to go with the second nine, I kept thinking the 9s were wild. I declared low, thinking I had the perfect low for this game (A2346) only to lose to an 8 low because in reality I had a J low.

That hand set the tone and I never recovered psychologically -- though it was an easy and relaxed and fun affair. So I left after little more than 90 minutes and $100 down.

I'm not sure why I was playing so in attentively, I only know that I was -- and that I was wise (if somewhat rude of me) to leave when I did.

I returned to the felt the following week with a session at Foxwoods. I was saddened to discover for the first time in a long time that there was no $20/40 game. Just $1-3, $1-5, $5/10, and $10/20 (There was a $15/30 OE game). Admittedly, it was 4PM on a Wednesday, but still, this was not a good sign for the poker economy. Some at the table mentioned that Mohegan had been getting some $15/30 action. Maybe that was the cause of some of the absence -- though I suspect it's more the economy.

I played three hours at $10/20 before heading home. I did well, was attentive, made some good moves and laydowns and managed to leave up $110. One hand of interest. I had split Jacks. A perenial third street raiser raised with a duplicate King and was called by two others including me. He checked fourth street when he didn't appear to improve. No one else did so I, with only split Jacks, bet. Everyone called me. This was repeated on Fifth and Sixth -- though I still only had the pair of Jacks. But I was very sure of my read that I was still in the lead. On seventh it was checked around to me. I debated whether to bet with my unimproved Jacks but concluded that this was one situation when I would only be called (or raised) if I was beaten. So I checked. Sure enough, my Jacks held up against three other players who stuck with me all the way from third street. Go figure. As my poker buddy Steve used to say after nearly every hand, "What are the odds of that?"

Are You Addicted to Poker?

I am returning today to Boston from Minneapolis. My trip here included some lovely time with my family. It also included some great poker experiences. I visited Running Aces in Columbus, MN; St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake, WI; Canterbury Race Track and Poker Room in Shakopee, MN, and Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, MN.

I also received the excellent news that I'll be a regular writer for Pokerology.com. My first two articles deal with the subject of poker addiction. There's a serious take on the subject and a humorous one. I encourage you all to check it out at: www.pokerology.com.

I'm not sure how much poker I'll be playing during the rest of the summer (I'm working on another writing project -- a book on increasing the power of local unions) -- but I'll be sharing whatever I do on this blog.

Two more rooms in Twin City area

I spent some time with my lovely family. But restless got the better of me so I went off to visit two rooms in the area. The first, Running Aces, is a great poker room about 45 minutes north of St. Paul in Columbus, Minnesota. Had a great lunch with Mike Horobin, the Director of Table Games. He's turned the room into a fantastic place to play. Though MN state law does not allow no limit, this rooms does the next best thing. They have rocking $2-10, $2-60 and $4-60 spread limit games. They even manage a low limit stud game from time to time -- I was told (none going when I was there on a Tuesday early afternoon). They built a harness track in order to have this poker room -- though the harness season ends in August. It hasn't quite caught on -- since purses are low because there aren't slots -- but who knows what the future will bring.

I left Running Aces to drive to the St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. This is a little room on the second floor of a somewhat dreary casino, about 2 hours northeast of Minneapolis. There was a low limit hold'em game and a $1/2 no limit game when I arrived at 3:15 PM. I played for 45 minutes when both games broke -- as some players left for a blackjack tournament. The players (all regulars) told me that Running Aces has really cut into their action. The only thing remarkable, for me, was that playing in this place added to my long list of states in which I've played poker. List is now 31 long:

Maine,
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Maryland
Virginia
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Tennessee
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Oklahoma
New Mexico
Arizona
Nevada
California
Washington
Alaska

not to mention 2 provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Yukon Territory

and 8 other foreign countries:

Bahamas
Grenada
United Kingdom
France
Austria
Hungary
Denmark
Sweden

As a practical matter, I see myself playing in 9 more states: Rhode Island,West Virginia, Montana, Kansas, Oregon, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Colorado; Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Toronto; Ireland, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, and Panama. If any of you have any suggestions for other places with decent poker action please let me know.

Minnesota Poker

Visiting family in the Twin Cities. Can't resist playing poker during my stay. The most obvious place to play is Canterbury. It's a race track with the largest poker room within a few hundred miles (Caesar's Indiana near Louisville is the nearest similarly large room). I played there the day I arrived. Unfortunately, the stud games are long gone and the no limit hold'em games that are so popular in other parts of the country are forbidden in Minnesota. So there's limit hold'em -- lots and lots of limit hold'em.

I sat down in a $8/16 game and quickly found my way to a $4/8 game (more my speed). The players were very friendly and, thankfully, a mix of loose calling stations and maniacs. I was very lucky to hit a couple of real hands. I played them aggressively, got considerable action, and won over $100 in about an hour. Yum.

I also visited the nearest no limit room -- in northern Iowa -- Diamond Jos. I'll write more about this another time, but leave it to say that these guys had some game. Though I was lucky enough to win $50 or so in an hour or two, it was clear that this was no honey pot of bad play. Nice room, in what appears to be the absolute middle of no where (lots of windmills and corn fields surround the place for, excuse the cliche, as far as the eye can see).

Hey, if I can manage to win another $1,850 or so I'll make up for what I lost at the WSOP in Las Vegas and pay for my trip out here. Wish me luck.