$2,065 + $2,250 + $2,825 - $460 = Up $6,680

4/11 Up $2065
Playing at this other home game in town. Some of the Yamakazi's move back and forth from here to the other game. It's not as much action as the other game, but it's decent enough. There were a few bigger places in town that used to run a game during the day; but, one by one, as those places got busted, these small home games started. With a few exceptions what happened was that all the tight, whining, panzy assed players went to this game, and all the degenerate gambling maniacs went to the game from the other posts. So, while there are still a few action players in this game throwing their money around, about half of the dudes there are play extremely weak and tight, and can be easily bluffed. Also, it's only a 5/5 game with not much money on the table, so in order for me to win $2k I have to get hit in the face with the deck. And I do...

I buy in for $500. Like the second hand I get a set of 6's, on a Q high board. Dude keeps betting into me with the Q that he'd show later. I went all in on the river for like the last $250 that he couldn't resist calling. I made it a point to make eye contact with him as he was making his decision, not sure if this did it or not. Few hands later I'm on the right side of AA vs KK, and double up for another $1k. Then... Flush! Straight! Set! Boat! Set! Flush! And before I know it, I've only been there for like an hour, and have $3k in front of my from only a single $500 buy in. I think that a monkey could have played the cards that I had. But, no, these guys are the prime example of the flaw of not maximizing profits, and they would not have made this money. I leave after like four hours, as I've made some decent coin, and I'm not really concentrating that much.

As I'm walking out the owner of the house that the game is played at is sitting on his couch. I have to walk between him and the television to leave, and pick up my jacket next to the couch that he's sitting on. My biggest winning streak came from this guy's evening 10/25 game... $3k, $5k, and then a $10k night. The $10k night went like this... I came to the early 5/5 game at his house, when he woke up at about three, I asked if I could get a seat in the later game. He told me that they were full, and I asked if I could wait around to see if one opened up. To which he said something like “I guess so.” Not a “no” but maybe an implied no that I should have caught on to. But, I didn't have anything better to do, and I had like $10k burning a hole in my pocket, and so I decided to stay. The early game ended at 7:00, and there were no seats for the later game, so I wound up watching tv. Finally, at midnight, a seat opens up, and I sit down with $3k. Which I double up in my first hand on A6 flopping an A, and about 3 hands later on KK when a guy goes all in on me on a Q high board. I manage to take a few more pots after that and I leave after two and a half hours with a $10,600 profit. When I bring my chips downstairs, the owner, says “I don't think I can let you play here anymore.” “Why not?” “Because I have to protect my game.” So, he counts me out one hundred and six hundred dollar bills. He's a Chinese guy, and I think their culture of confrontation is to avoid looking at you in the eye, because that's what he's done in the three months since then. It was strange, I was euphoric from winning that much, but also feeling like I wanted to cry from getting kicked out of this game.

So, I wind up back in this apartment from time to time , but not in the big game that I'd like to be playing in, and of course just feeling awkward around this guy, who still won't look at me or acknowledge my presence. I kind of hate going there, but I have little choice of games of this size in this town. Every time I'm there, I think how I should just move to LA.

4/12 Up $2250
Back to the main Yamakazie 5/10 $2k game. I get a look at the sheet when I walk in.... Crazy Asian #1 is in for like $7k, Landlord is in for like $5k, and so I'm set for a wild one. One of the first hands I get AK. I bet, Crazy #1 calls. Flop = XXQ. Check, check. Turn = blank. Crazy bets $150, I make it $350. He calls. River = Blank. I'm pretty sure he has nothing. I go all in. I've bought in for only $1k, so it's only like $500 or so at this point. He almost insta-calls me, I say “good call.” He's got 55, no set, nothing. The whole table tells me what a good move I'd made and how they'd fold, and they're going on to him about what a fucking nutjob he is. Crazy: “I put him on AK, if I'm good on the turn, I'm good on the river.” Fireman: “He couldn't have had AQ?” Fashion, who's kind of a blow hard says something about how I'm “really showing us something.” I know that Fashion is fucking with me a lot of the time, and that it's just his game, but it really does make the game unpleasant for me a lot of the time. He's always talking about how he's one of the richest guys at the table, he owns some clothing line, is always at his factory in Hong Kong. But, his constant blowhard needeling me, is often a lot to take. Maybe it's because he tempers this compliments like announcing to the table that I'm “the smartest person I know. Usually when he talks, I just nod and pretend to understand.” Anyway, after the hand Fashion says something like “you'll have to blog about that one.” Which kind of freaked me out, I'm pretty sure that he was just talking out of his ass, as I think I would have gotten a wink or another comment.

Anyway, I play great after that hand. Don't remember a single hand I played, as the show was watching Crazy and Landlord go at it all day. Both stuck, and with Crazy getting sucked out a couple times he goes even more crazy. One hand he flops a set of 9's, and everyone thinks he's just on complete tilt at this point (which he is) and over playing his hand (which he isn't), and so you always get like five people in the pot playing with him. I forget who sucked out on him here (maybe Backgammon, I'm not sure though), but after he's felted again, he gives up his chips, sits in silence until the next hand is dealt, and lets out a gutteral scream after he folds it. It's kind of amazing to see someone that tilted, it's like a shark smelling blood in the water. Fashion is a bullshitter, and just doing his best to keep him and Landlord sitting at the table throwing their money around. He keeps his cloying sthick up about “how we're really playing poker now, baby!” He calls everyone “baby,” which I guess is somewhat of a hangover from his 80's hard drinking and drugging days. He gave up drink and drugs for gamble... $5k a hand blackjack, huge sports betting, playing in the biggest poker games he can find in town, or Vegas or where ever. Comes back with stories about how he won $30k off the Grinder in his last trip to Vegas, how he's comped this or that at any hotel basically because he loses so much at blackjack. He's not a bad player, and now that the game has gone to 5/10, it seems he's more in his element that there's enough money on the table that he actually cares enough to play good. Anyway, these two guys being on tilt is somewhat amplified by him, and I think their time at the table is also elongated by him.

On the night Crazy winds up losing $10k, as it gets to the point that any suited cards look good to him for any amount of money, including all in. Which I think he calls at some point with KJ, and of course loses to someone's AK. It's just completely retarded.

4/13 Up $2825
Main Yamakazie 5/10 game...
Buy in for $1500, lose that pretty quickly to Backgammon on my set of Q's to his nut flush. The turned Q, made his flush. It was dumb, I probably could have gotten off the hand when he went all in. I always think that he's bluffing at me, but he's yet to bluff a single hand at me. But, he bluffs so often, that I keep thinking that he's doing it to me. I'm not sure how to play against him. I sit for a while after with another $1500. I win a little pot and am up to about $1900.

I get JT of spades. I call a bet from Giggly Banker... He's a nice guy, some big time exec at a big time bank. He comes down on his lunch breaks sometimes, but it seems that he's not really working all that hard in general. He's kind of a giggly idiot, and doesn't handle being bluffed at very well, overplays his hands. But, isn't the most horrible player I've seen. Anyway, he raises to $100, like 3 callers. Flop = 89x. He bets $500, folds around to me. I go all in, for like $1400 on top of that. I was pretty sure that he had AA or KK after making that bet on the flop, but I guess I'd been watching too much high stakes, in thinking that I could go all in and make him fold. He hems and haws, and is kind of angry at me for making this bet, he's pretty sure that I have him beat, but because he's not good enough to fold an over-pair, he calls anyway. Or maybe I'm not good enough to realize that he's not good enough? We agree to run it three times, and of course, I hit the Q on the very first card, and miss on the other five. Bummer.. could have just called his $500, and taken his whole stack. Anyway, only wind up losing a few hundred on that one. Fashion says something like “is that your move for the day? Or you got something else lined up?” “I don't know, I haven't decided yet.”

Well, it sucks, the game is not as great as it was the days before, as no one is going really insane. Landlord is about even, and it's getting to the middle of the month, and he's running out of money, so he's playing on his heels a bit. But, but, but... University has been calling, and is en route. University is legendary... a 23 year old kid who just got out of college, routinely throws away $3k a game, bets thousands on sports, craps, whatever. He seems to have unlimited cash from his family's business of setting up malls or something. Often plays after no sleep, coked up, whatever. He actually can play well when he wants to, but in smaller games like this, he'd usually rather throw away a few thousand than actually concentrate. Especially this week, as in the big game above that I got kicked out of he'd won $300k. Everyone is tired actually from that game. I guess Crazy got back a lot of what he'd lost in yesterday's session by going there and playing all night.

Well, the table is full, but, we're scrambling to figure out how to get University in the game immediately, as if he doesn't have a seat, it's pretty likely that he'll get pissed and leave. So, we decide to rotate one player out each orbit when he gets there. Low card for who goes first... I draw a duce and it's me. So, he takes my seat, and I go in the smoking room to putz around with the Internet and make phone calls. I keep hearing screams through the wall “How does that get there!!?” “OH MY GOD!! That's so sick!!” Shit like that, about half of them from University, the other half to the background of University laughing his head off. I'm anxious to get back in the game, especially since I'm down like $1700 at this point. But of course with University there the hands are always contested and everything moves way slower, so it's like twenty five minutes for them to get through the ten hands until I get my seat back.

When I do get it back the only strategy that makes sense is to dig a fox hole to China, and sit back and watch the fireworks of University blast through people, trying to win every hand. He does a decent job of blowing people out of the water with unbridled aggression. Of course until someone has a hand, and felts him. To which he gets another $2k. Blasts through people... until someone has a hand and felts him. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually I get KK, and take a small pot. But a small pot with University on tilt, is like $400.

A few hands later, I have 55 in the SB. It limps around to University, who makes it his usual $100, six callers or so. Flop = 235. Which makes me somewhat nervous, as there's a lot of people in the hand, and a straight is possible. So, I check. Dude to my left makes it $500, everyone else folds University goes all in. I quickly call. Dude to my left is way surprised, and has to kind of force himself to fold, “I was calling University, but I can't call you.” University of course wants to gamble, so offering businesses is stupid, which I don't do. He's cheering for a 4, so I guess he had an A. No 4 comes, and I double up, and now I have a small profit. This hand, a monkey actually could have played.

A few hands later, I get AK. Bet $125, four callers, University and Crazy #1 among them. Flop = J high. It checks around to me, University is all like “come on you nit. Bet your aces.” To which I make a finger gun shooting gesture at him, which baffles and quiets him, and then I check. Turn = A! SB bets $800. Folds around to me, I just call. River = A!!! SB checks. And I sit there and talk myself out of betting. I didn't realize that he only had $1200 left, and if I'd realized that, then maybe I would have put a bet out. But, I start to think of all the boats that are beating me, and I think of very few hands that he could have that he'd call me with. And I don't bet, “I have Ace King.” He mucks. Crazy and Fashion start going nuts. “How could you not bet that!?” I reply “what's he gonna call me with?” To which Crazy and Fashion are like “An ace!!” I don't think that's true. Maybe it is, I don't know though. I wish I'd made him show his cards, because I could have made my case a bit better if he'd only had a J, but yeah, that was a lame mistake of me. Fashion then gets on me for not betting the flop. This I can defend though, as I mean, whatever, I didn't hit, anyone with a J is going to re-raise me if I bet. So why not see if I can turn an ace or king? That wasn't a bad play... but yeah, the $1200 I left on the table by not putting him all in on the river is.

Anyway, I decide to take the $2800 profit and leave at my blind. I'm still at the stage where it makes me nervous having $6k on a table, I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of potential profit by not staying around to play with University, but, I wanted to stop playing, and hang out with people and talk about anything besides poker.

I get up to go, they weren't able to pay me here the day before, and of course they don't have it again, so I have to carry them at least over the weekend. I'm owed slightly less than $5k now. Which is obviously better than not being owed $5k, and I have no doubt they'll pay soon.

And so I go out to meet a few friends. And I'm realizing just how completely depressing this lifestyle of mine is. I mean, despite playing great, having money, getting back to the feeling that I am not only smarter than damn near everyone on so many levels. However this doesn't make for good conversation. I realize this, and get anxious, which gives me a desire to 1. get high, and 2. to write the session out in sentences that I find satisfying to read. So, drink two drinks, mumble some shit in conversation that no one understands, and leave. At home I smoke pot and turn Kid A on loud, sit in my easy chair and zone out. I find this to be the most enjoyable thing in the world, as my decent stereo sounds so fucking amazing in a large room with high ceilings and brick walls (as any decent stereo will). I revel in my glory, the only thing missing is the $5k in cash for me to fondle.


4/14 down $460
Get up at a decent hour. Drink some coffee, do not much, and go to a 15/30 Omaha 8 game. I have been reading about this game, and I've played at a profit a few times, but man do I stink at it. I only bring $500, planning to get a lesson and not lose much. Well, I play like 3 hands in the space of twenty minutes, and lose all of them. I'm glad that I only brought the $500 with me, as I probably would have put more on the table if I'd had it. But, whatever, I need to play this game online for way cheap until I can figure out how to really win at it.

I spend another day alone, buy some more sheets. Come home and set up my modded Xbox on my network, upload and watch a couple newer episodes of High Stakes, while eating a burger, and drinking beer.

Anyway, I think I'm going to take the next week, and hopefully two weeks off. “There's more to poker than life,” as someone once told me. And I think I need a couple long trains of thought on a variety of subjects that has nothing to do with cards. Hopefully I'll be able to collect on Monday, and then live the easy life for a little while.