If you're going to lose a hand, do it spectacularly!

Poker has been terrible for me this year.  I say that tongue in cheek; I've played little more than 5 sessions - if that much.  I've been working a lot lately, going back through last year and, in fact, my overall poker sessions are way down against my prior year(s) averages.  Therefore, I supposed I'm being quite myopic in my overall outlook because of limited data points.  As it stands, I'm in the hole for a couple of buy ins, a situation I'm not accustomed to.  I realize that it's an ego thing and I'm probably being too pessimistic since there are 9 months remaining in the year, but I worry that I'll not be able to catch up on the deficit given the rate I'm playing.  I hate being in deficit territory!

Further increasing my deficit, telling for the title of the post, I'm here in Melbourne, Florida, for work.  As usual, I try to get a feel for the local poker scene, and had an opportunity to play for 2 hours last night at Club 52 @ Melbourne Greyhound Park.

After an up and down ride, I find myself sitting on my original buy in (~$200) - it's a 1/2 game.  After a couple of limps, I raise to $12 with TT.  2 players call as do the original 2 limps.  We see a 5-way flop of T 9 7 rainbow it gets checked to me.  I want players in the pot, and it's very likely I'll get action from this kind of flop.  I'm targeting hands like QJ, Tx, random 8's, random J's, etc.  This board hits a lot of 4 other player's ranges, and a bet with a vulnerable "nut" top set hand requires a bet.  I lead for $35, wanting to keep in the more likely gut shot J's and open enders.  Much to my chagrin, it folds around to the one aggro player who's been hitting the cards like a fiend.  He check raises me to $80 or so.  I'm never letting this go, and the way he's been going, I don't doubt he has a nut-like hand or monster draw (pair and straight draw, overs and straight draw, set, etc.).  I don't want a card on the turn / river discouraging further action from him or me, so I opt to get it in right there on the flop - I shove for ~$180.  He snap calls and immediately flips over 99 for a flopped mid set.  Before I can even flip my hand over, the dealer puts out a 9, his one out, completing quads for him!  This is now the second time in Florida (and the second time in live poker) that I've been one-outted (in 2014 at the Hard Rock / Tampa, I flopped a set of K's over a set of 8's and he also turned quads).  That ended my session on a sour note, further pushing me into loss territory for the year.

Side note: as it so happens, a few of the first round games of the NCAA basketball tournament are going to be played in Jacksonville - a 2 hour drive from here.  As a University of Maryland alum, I love to watch the Terps play, but haven't yet had an opportunity to watch a tournament game up close & personal.  Therefore, I'm extending my trip to drive up to Jacksonville to watch the Terps hopefully win its first round game and move on to the round of 32!  Maybe I'll be able to hit bestbet Jacksonville again?

Trip report: bestbet / Jacksonville, FL

Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah / Happy Kwanzaa / Happy New Year!

I hope I did not alienate any of my readers [if there are any remaining].  For the remainder of 2015 and on through the weekend of 2016, the Meister family, as has been tradition, vacationed on a cruise with another family.  This year, we left out of Port Canaveral, Florida, in the northern part of the state.  The weather was wonderfully warm - 80 degrees consistently.  There was no rain to speak of, the ocean was calm, and the food was great.  I was able to catch up on my sleep and spend quality time with my family.  I also had the opportunity to visit a local poker room, as we stayed overnight in Jacksonville prior to our cruise departure.

It turns out that bestbet Jacksonville was less than 15 minutes from our hotel, and after getting the kids situated in bed, my wife agreed to me "checking out" the local poker scene.  Off I went - around 9 pm on Christmas Friday after verifying that it was open, which it was indeed.  It was evident the place was a poker room first; there were no slots nor other obvious table gaming and non-poker play, though I was told they do indeed offer a variety of table games: Two-card poker, Three-card poker, Ultimate Texas Hold Em, Casino War, and Pai Gow.  However, the non-poker gaming was not direct and in-your-face, it was more subtle and off to the side.  I was able to walk right in from the huge parking lot and get my bearings immediately; poker room in the big area immediately to my left.

I checked in at the front desk and found open seating for the $2/2 game (yes, the big blind is equal to the small blind) - $200 max buy in.  After taking my seat, the floor took my money and brought me chips, and I settled down to what would be a shortish 3 hour session.  The table and the room was more of an older crowd, around 55 years of age was the norm - and they seemed to all know each other.  The dealers were mostly experienced, quick and friendly.  No posting is necessary, UTG straddles are the only straddles allowed.  Rake was kinda steep if I recall correctly - 10% up to $5, but rake taken on no flops, $1 at $5 pot, $2 at $10 pots and so forth [I'm not 100% sure of the rake structure, but it did strike me as expensive].  Chopping was allowed and in this case, made particular sense since the players involved would avoid the almost immediate rake.  The seats were decent, the tables were 10 person tables, and though they did not have cup holders built in, the tables were large enough that one could spread out fairly comfortably.

Finally, the play was fairly poor.  I saw a lot of limping premium hands, and in some cases (twice in my 3 hours, if that's any indication), overcalling with premium hands.  For example, I raised QQ and got flatted by KK, and raised 88 and got flatted by KK (on the BTN).  This was play I was not used to, but I saw numerous players not getting good value (and in some instances, any value) for their hands.  Flopped trips with a rainbow board had a pot of maybe $40 total by showdown (due to lack of competent betting).  These players were willing to call of stacks but never bet stacks.

Overall, I had a really good session, and would love to come back to play more.  The Jacksonville poker scene was consistent with my observations of the other places I've played in Florida (i.e. Tampa, St. Petersburg, etc.); weak, loose play with players backing into the best hand (by runner runner or otherwise) and being surprised at showdown to be the winner.  I give bestbet Jacksonville two thumbs up!

Off to Tampa!

Random Musings & Plans

I will be Tampa, Florida for work next week.  I'm hoping to get in quality time at the poker tables, seeing that there won't be a ton of work to do after the day is done.  I've been to Tampa before - I usually get over there at least one time when the Poker Meister family travels to Florida to visit Disney World, Universal Studios, etc.  I'll usually take a night and drive the hour from Orlando to Tampa to get in a 5-6 hour session.

This time, though, I'll be staying 5 minutes from the Seminole Hard Rock / Tampa, and hope to get in a solid 4 straight sessions.  They're currently running various promotions - I'm hoping to cash in on some of it!  As a minimum, I'll get 15 hours in which will qualify me for their drawing of 2 winners for a $5300 entry into the $10M Guarantee tournament that they're running.  If I win entry, I honestly don't know what I'd do; the tournament runs Aug. 22 - Aug. 26...  I guess I'll walk down that road when / if I get there...

In the "spare" time I'll have away from the live room, I hope to hit up a bit of online poker.  As you know, I've been playing on the Seals website.  I've also been researching on www.pokersites.com for other sites available to me.  For U.S. players, it's been few & far between, but Seals has been enough to eek out a small profit & keep my skills sharp.


As an aside, I tried to book a room at the Hard Rock, but [even with the poker room "discount"] their room prices are astronomical.  I think I'm staying at a nicer hotel, but it would have been far more convenient to stay and play at the Hard Rock instead.  They don't have rooms even close to the established per diem allowance that my company allows for travel to Tampa.

Regardless, there are 2 other rooms in the area: Tampa Bay Downs and Derby Lane Poker Room.  Given time, I'd like to check both of them out as well, though I'm familiar with the Hard Rock and its loose / gambly players.  My plan is to get the 15 hours in at the Hard Rock, and then venture out to these other places.  I don't know anything about the other 2 rooms though - whether they're sketchy, reg fests, etc.  I'd love comments about them if anyone knows anything.

Hopefully, I'll meet up with a fellow blogger who has more-or-less stopped blogging altogether.  Word is that Cmitch just cashed in the WSOP Even #53 and will be flush with cash to fling around the table...  Perhaps I can grab some of it off of him :-).

The Meat & Potatoes of the Post

At the beginning of each year that passes, it is my ambition to not only exceed the prior year's dollar per hour average at the tables, but also exceed my hours / sessions at the tables.  Last year, through July, I put in 40 sessions for a total 157.5 hours.  For the same time, during 2013, I've put in 24 sessions for a total 108.5 hours.  I have a lot of time to put in if I hope to exceed or at least match last year's output.

For dollars / hour average, I'm far ahead of my average last year - so far ahead that I have a lot more gross earnings in 50 hours less time.  Pace-wise, I have a lot of catching up to do!  If I can indeed get my 20 hours in for the week - and I'm targeting 25 hours as my goal - I can probably at least catch my gross hours for 2012.  Equaling or exceeding the session count will be the toughest part, though.  Perhaps with the opening of Maryland Live! towards the end of the summer (August 28, according to CBS), play will be more conducive to me adding hours because my wife can be convinced to go shopping while I go play... what I call a symbiotic relationship!