I got my first ever straight flush! I held 9h Th and the flop comes 7h 8h Jh. I swear I went over the hand 3 or 4 times before I actually believed it.

It was a total and utter waste though. It was me and the big blind, and he didn't even call my tiny bet on the river. So I won a total of $0.45 for my trouble.

But still! Straight Flush! Read more for the whole log.

Last night I played in my second multi-table tournament online. It was a $5 turbo rebuy tournament. The blinds raised, I think every 5 minutes or so. And guess what? I made the final table. And guess what else? I bounced on the bubble! Out of 125 entries, I came in eigth, missing the money by 1 place. I'm still really upset about that final hand. I had just paid the blinds (the blinds were 6000-12000 at that point, more than half my stack), and I get dealt AK offsuit. My mistake was in pushing in here when literally the small stack at the table (surprisingly not me) would be blinded out on the next hand. I got really unlucky to lose the hand though. The big blind had a pair of twos, and caught a set on the flop. It was just so frustrating to play for two hours just to get bounced on the bubble like that.

However, other than that final hand, I think I played some fairly mistake free poker. I was the chip leader for a good half-hour in the middle of the tournament, but a run of bad cards just as the small stacks started moving in on every hand let others catch up. In the end I think it was worth the $15 I spent on the tournament. I definitely learned a lot, and had some fun outplaying 117 other people.

It was a lively party. People were outside drinking while Eva walked her dog around the house. She couldn't bring her tiny mutt inside for fear of the large dogs there.

A few hours in the hot sun has made Avery thirsty and she is looking for a refreshing refill. She comes running up the stairs on the front porch and tosses the contents of her cup off the side. Mostly ice and water spray all over the trees and bushes. Eva, having just rounded the bend with her dog gets soaked as well.

"Hey, you just threw your drink all over Eva!" exclaims Dan.

"You named your tree Eva?" Avery asks, incredulous.

And that is how Eva became Eva the Tree.

I guess this is Peter's corollary to the Third Party Rule: 4th party stories can still be funny. A little bit anyway.

Poker went really well. I made up for my double bust-out last time by leaving with $55. I thought I played really well towards the end. I tend to get a rush of adrenaline whenever I'm in a big hand, so I think a little bit of alcohol helps me out. Not so much that I'll bluff off all my money, but enough to make a big bluff when it counts. (3 last night! Ha ha ha suckers!)

I played a $13 super-satellite Sit-n-Go tournament last night. Once a table of 10 players fills up, we play no-limit Texas Hold'em until one player is left. And last night, that player was me!

It was quite exhilarating, and best of all, I don't feel that I had to get lucky to win. I played some very solid poker and really concentrated on playing my best hands as well as possible. Its true when they say that nobody really pays attention as you fold round after round: you will still get action when you come in with KK or AA.

The tournament started off very fast, one player was out on the first hand, and the second on the third, thanks to me. Starting off with so many chips was fairly fortunate, as it allowed me to chill out a little while and pick my spots to be aggressive. The rest of the game was fairly static. I would fluctuate between 1st place, to as low as 2nd to last.

Once the game got down to 4 players, I was able to extend build up my stack to about 4500 chips (out of 15000). Once the 4th player went out the ending came swiftly. I kept on folding and then I got dealt KK. The low stack raises, I reraise, he raises all-in, and I call. It turns out he had QQ or JJ or something like that. That put me up to over 9000 in chips, a commanding lead going into heads up. It didn't matter though, because not 2 hands later: KK again! I think this time we were all-in on the flop, with no A in sight. Turns out he had QJ or something like that, so the ending was mercifully quick.

The next step is to buy into a scheduled $100 tournament. This is a more substantial tournament, 150+ players. The winner(s) of that tournament get a free trip to Aruba, plus a buy-in to the WPT tournament there. I'll be sure to report back here with my results, although I don't plan on participating for a little while yet.

I played $1/$2 limit hold'em successfully for the second time last night. After about an hour I was up $25. Since we decided to start playing no-limit at our regular poker night, I felt it was prudent to get a little practice. And let me tell you, I definitely need it. I was doing okay for a while. I stretched my winnings up to $30, but then I made my one bad decision (TM) and called an all-in raise on the river. Needless to say my pair did not hold up.

What I should've done was parlayed that $25 into two super-satellite tournaments for my shot at a free trip to aruba. But I do need some practice. Maybe I should start reading up more on my no-limit poker.

Updated 3/28/2005: Wow! I just had an awesome session. The great thing about no-limit is you can really pick on those people who are not as good as you. One person at my table kept buying back in for some reason. I proceeded to bust him twice. I played some tight-aggressive poker, and believed people when they raised over the top. Well, not always. The aforementioned loser raised over me in a number of situations. Either he was executing a great play, or was bluffing. I called him down a few times and caught him bluffing with 4 high once! But in general, I was playing much more solid poker than last night.

The night wasn't all great though. I had another session playing $1/$2 and got badly outplayed by one character at my table. However, my no-limit gains more than amply made up for my losses: I left the table with $175 after a $25 buy-in! Between this and my poker tournament championship title, I guess I'm not half bad!

I had my first poker experience in Las Vegas. I bought in to the 2-4 hold'em game at the Palms. I picked the Palms because it had the limit I was looking for (I didn't want to withdraw more money to sit down at a 4-8 game), and its nice and close to my hotel (the Rio).

The experience there was very different from Foxwoods, again strengthening my belief that as a casino, Foxwoods really sucks. It seems to me that the dealers at Foxwoods aren't particularly nice, and the people there all seem to have a relatively high level of miserableness. In contrast, dealers in Vegas are all very friendly, and casinos really try to get your business, and are therefore very player friendly. That's just my opinion though, although I'm sure some people feel the same way.

The poker room at the Palms was TINY, maybe 7 tables of 2-4 and 4-8 holdem combined. Compare this to Foxwoods where there are like 30-50 poker tables running, maybe more! Anyway, I put my name in and had to wait a good 30 minutes or so to get a seat. The line wasn't long at all though, maybe 5-6 people.

Another weird thing was, they allow chip trays on the poker tables. Every other poker room I've been to (admitedly not too many), you couldn't do that. So everybody was playing out of trays, which was wierd. I didn't do that though. I took a stack out, placed it on the table and played with that. Luckily I was never down by more than a few bucks.

The table was very loose-passive. In fact, my first pot I picked up when an Ace came out on the turn (I had KJo in the hole) and everybody had checked the flop. That was a nice little pot, at least $20 or so. I didn't win too many other pots, but when I did, they were usually fairly substantial. Furthermore, I never really got into a situation where I called down to the river and lost. Most of the time it was obvious when somebody hit their draw, and I could save myself by folding before it got too expensive. I won a few other hands by playing AX suited and hitting the high pair. Some people can't seem to resist calling down to the river with second or third pair. Towards the end of the night, I had a couple of big pots when I had JJ and managed to win both times. First beating somebody with 99, and second by sucking out on a set of 8's on the river to hit my straight. (I had an open ended straight draw on the flop, so I guess it wasn't totally a suckout). Overall, I spent most of the night folding. I'd say about 1/3 of the pots I entered I ended up winning, maybe more. Most people didn't seem to notice the tightness with which I was playing, and I often had 6-7 callers when I would raise the pot in early position. Hey, just more money for me.

Most of the players knew each other there, and even knew some of the intimate family details of some of the dealers. (Dealers can play poker in their own casinos? They sure seem to be able to at the Palms). I guess this is a fairly common thing, but it seems that its ripe for abuse.

In the end, I left on a high note, up $60. My first winning session in a casino!

Over the past week, I hit quads twice while playing $0.50/$1 6 person holdem. On the first one, I got paid off pretty well. The second one less so. Hand histories are below.

Updated Jun 9 2004: Okay, so the it keeps on happening. I got quads twice last night. Once with 999 on the flop (I had K9s in the hole). I would've had them three times, but I folded 77 before the runner-runner 77 on the turn and river. That's poker though.

Unfortunately it wasn't me. It was this maniac who would raise, and reraise with things like a flush with a 5 kicker. It was the second time I've seen a royal flush in live play, and given this guys table image he got a decent amount of action with an A Q T of hearts board.

I did do pretty well at the table. I doubled up to $60 after about an hour of playing. I'm almost back up to $200. Hopefully this isn't just a streak but my actual poker playing ability, so when I hit $200 or so I can go up to $2/$4.

I played about 7 hours of $2/$4 Hold'em at Foxwoods on Saturday. The whole day was really a test of patience. I swear it took about an hour for me to get a hand worth playing. The day didn't get much better, although I was really proud of my restraint and discipline because it could've been a lot worse.

I bought in with $100, and at one point I was down to about $30 before crawling my way back to $130 or so. I ended the session down at $65. I was about 2 or 3 big pots from coming out a winner.

There was one old guy who was with us the whole time. He was basically a calling station, but would bet or raise when he had a decent hand. At one point, I put him on kings-up while I had aces. When two Queens fell on the turn and river I thought I had him beat, but alas it was trip-Kings v. aces up. Oh well. I lost a bit of money on that one. Most players there were pretty much calling stations. They would stay in with outrageous draws. Winning Low Limit Hold'em was a great book for poker like this. Many of the situations it describes happened quite a bit.

I had a few great hands throughout the day. I got AA once, and flopped a full house (ATT). I wasn't too afraid of quads, and so took the guy sitting next to me for about a $60 pot. Overall most people were pretty respectful when I entered a pot, although not enough to bail out if I started raising. Maybe next time I'll concentrate more on changing gears as the day goes on.

I can't wait for the next session. Hopefully next time Laura will be able to come, and next time I'll make sure to take many more breaks. Sitting at a poker table for 7 hours is a lot harder than it sounds.

So, I have to say I'm really upset with myself today. I played a little poker last night, and by the end I think I was really on tilt.

The night started off horribly. Generally at $1/$2 you have really got to win one of the first few times you take a raised pot to the river, otherwise you'll get busted out pretty fast. And that's exactly what happened. Every time I had something of a hand, I'd get out drawn on the river, or other times somebody would be really slowplaying a monster hand and I wouldn't realize it until much too late.

So, I took my lumps and tried my luck at a different table. There I did much better. I even had quite a good rush, more than doubling up my second buy-in and doing a little better than even for the night. But then it all fell apart. I don't even remember how it began. I think I was a little distracted, as I started playing way too many hands; putting in a bet or two and folding when nothing panned out. When I did win, it wasn't much. In the end I lost nearly all my second buy-in, going from a little better than even to down $60. sigh. I think its time for a bit of a poker moratorium while I gather my thoughts. Maybe I should stick with $.50/$1.

Doubled up again last night. This time at the $1/$2 tables. Its quite a ride at the higher limits as the swings are much bigger. You really have to hang on for those big pots and milk those straights and full boats for all their worth. A couple of times I was nearly down to the felt when I'd grab a big draw and win a $20 pot.

A few more rounds like this, and I might just be able to hit the $2/$4! Moving up the limits is definitely helping my game, and I find that there are just as many fish. In fact, I would say the fish at these levels are even worse than at the lower levels, as they're much more predictable. Someday, I can only hope to be as cool as Chris and "take it easy" at the $5/$10 table.

As you know, I've been playing at Ultimate Bet for several months now. I started out at the $0.25/$0.50 tables, and did fairly okay. But the grind was horrible; it was a good night if I was up $5.

So, after a month or so of playing the $.50/$1 tables, I built my bankroll up to $150, and decided to take the plunge into the higher limits. My first night at $1/$2 was fairly successful. Its pretty fun to see a nice $25 chip come your way after winning a big pot. Overall I was up about $17.

The strangest thing is, the poker is essentially the same. There are still some serious fish at these "higher" levels. I witnessed one guy burn through $100 in an hour, much of that heading my way, or to a pretty good player named honeycutt. The easiest way to make money in those situations is to just get into a pot with those characters with any decent hand and just hang on for the ride. Its very difficult to bluff them out of anything, and you have no idea when they're just hanging on for that inside straight draw.

So it was a good night. I almost doubled up (my usual stopping point) several times, but in the end, I count myself lucky to come back from a fairly big deficit. However, I told Laura I'd be in bed over half an hour ago, so I guess more money making will have to wait for another night.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I've been doing so poorly in my weekly table game. Its probably the booze, or perhaps the overly social atmosphere, which have put me down the last 4 or 5 sessions. The thing is, when I can spare the attention, I can really kick butt online. For the last 8 sessions or so I've been up 75% - 100% of my buy-in, and most recently I decided to jump stakes and I tripled up!

Usually I just take my winnings and dump them straight into a single-table super-satellite for the WPT event in Aruba. This is a 10 person no-limit tournament. I haven't been doing too well; I think the highest I've been was 3rd place. Since only 1st pays (with an entry fee into the next satellite) I might as well be last. In fact, maybe I should take a lesson and play a lot more agressively in the beginning so I can accumulate a stack and not limit myself to a single all-in move. We'll see how it goes.