Hold'em Round 1

The Burro is Back! Here at the Rio for a stretch in a relatively low price tourney ($1,000).

Today we're playing NLH, which is the hold'em you see on TV. We start with 3,000 in chips.

Side note - for those tuned in earlier, you'll remember that the urinals have goal posts with footballs strung between them in order to get players to aim into the urinal. Quote of the day was from a guy talking (loudly as if he didn't know others were there), "Hey, I scored a goal!" The irony of calling poker a sport is that this was probably his most athletic point of his year and the goal the highest reward he's ever received for an athletic endeavor. On to the table . . .

First hand we are playing 25 25 with 3000 in chips; we're in seat 5 (9-handed) and discard 79o. There's big betting pre flop and after the 356 flop. Turn comes 8. We would have had a straight on a big pot. Oh well.

Second hand we raise to 100 from seat 4 with TT and BB calls. Pot is 225. Flop comes 5QK. Terrible flop for us. He checks and we bet 150. He folds. That's good.

Hand 3 we discard 9J. Flop comes 78T. Wow! We would have had a straight again.

Player 3 limps and 5 people limp after him. We check from the BB with J4s. Love seeing a free flop with a huge family and crappy cards. Flop comes 2JA with 1 spade and 2 hearts. We check. Seat 4 bets 125 and gets 2 callers. The pot is right to call in search of a 4 or a spade. We call and the 9h turns, putting 3 hearts on the board. Seat 4 bets 200 and everyone folds.

Next hand three players limp to seat 7 who raises to 150. Looks like a steal, so we raise to 525 with our QKd. The BB calls and everyone else folds. We were right about the steal, but what does BB have? Flop comes A47 with 2 spades. Could it be worse? We check and he pushes all in for about 1000. We fold.

At this point we call for the massage.

The massage helps us fold a few and then we check the SB and get to see a free flop with 4 other players and our Q7o. Flop comes 7TJ. Not great, but we bet 125 to try to steal (unlikely to work against 4 players). 2 call. Now we pray for a 7 and WE GET ONE. We bet 350 and the first player folds, but the second calls. River comes 3 rag. We think for 10 seconds, mostly preparing the vocal chords, and say in a choppy word "twelvehundred". He thinks for a minute and then calls. He mucks when we show the 7. If I could tip the dealer I would. Sitting across from him, I consider giving him a little foot action. But don't because I'm married.

Next hand seat 6 raises to 100 and we call from the button with 79c. Everyone else folds. Flop comes 6QA, all spades. He checks. We consider the bluff and instead check. Turn comes Kh. This is a crazy powerful board. He checks and we bet 150. Unfortunately he calls, likely with a small pair, perhaps something like 99, including 9s. River comes 4d, a total rag. He checks. We have nothing, but we delay 10 seconds, just like last hand, and state in the same choppy tone, "fourhunded". He folds. Please note this as lesson 1 in Poker Bully 101.

A new player comes to the table filling an empty seat beside me. He's a large 20 something player. Before he sits down, the smell of pot coming from him is like a wave of greenery. Good times. Pot is the performance enhancing drug of the poker sport.

Seat 8 raises to 75 and we call from SB with 9J. BB calls and flop comes 578, all clubs. We need a T for a straight or a club for a flush. We have the Jc; not a huge club, but at lease we have one. We check, BB checks and seat 8 bets 125. We call and BB folds. Turn comes 6c giving us a decent flush. We check and he checks. He probably doesn't have a good flush card. Our J gets beat by a QKA4 or 9 (4 or 9 give him a straight flush), making the J in the bottom half of flush cards. River comes 3d rag. We bet 200 and he calls. He has TQ with the Qc to take the pot down.

Everyone folds to us and we raise to 75 from seat 7 and 9J. The BB calls. Flop comes 68J. Good flop. He checks and we bet 75. He calls. Turn comes A. No good. He checks ands we bet 200. He calls. River comes 4. He checks. We think about betting, but will he fold anything that beats us or call with anything that doesn't? We check and he shows A4 for 2 pair made on the turn and river. The 4 was just overkill.

Seat 3 limps and we raise to 75 from seat 5 with AKd, our first premium hand. We get 3 callers, which is great because if our hand hits enough to be one of them, we should beat all 3. Flop comes 9TJ rainbow. Terrible. We check and the last player bets 325. Big bet. Everyone folds to us. He probably doesn't have a straight, but he could. He could also have something like JQ, in which case he's ahead and if I hit my K, he makes a straight. Worse than not knowing what to do now, I will know even less what to do after the turn (unless it's a Q giving me the nut straight). We fold. Death by 1,000 paper cuts!

Early in Round 2, we're doing well with about 3500 in chips and we raise to 75 in seat 4 with our second premium hand, QQ. Seat 7 calls. SB raises to 325. He's been very aggressive buying pots, but with the seat 4 call, this doesn't look like a purchase. The BB calls. That's a surprise. Big pot already. We'd be happy to take it down. What we don't want is to let someone with an AJ see the flop cheap. We raise to 1050. Seat 4 folds and the SB pushes all in. We're afraid of KK or AA, which is in his possible spectrum of hands, but so is AK or AQ as he's out of position and at a disadvantage betting post flop. We have about 2500 in chips in front of us. We push all in. He shows AQs and taps the table in the "good call, good hand" salute to our Qs; we're about a 70% favorite. The flop comes 86A and unless the case Q comes we're headed home. We've fallen to a 4% underdog position. And, well, this is the first, last and only blog entry of the day. Donkey down.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 11

Crazy rates, playing 2000 4000.

First hand we're in the SB and everyone folds to us. We raise to 4000 with 4TJA and the BB calls. Flop comes 5QQ. We check, he bets, we raise and he folds. First "move" of the day!

Big hand. We have A245 and raise to 4000 pre-flop. The blinds call. Flop comes 459. SB bets 2000 and BB calls, we raise to 4000 and SB calls, but now BB raises to 6000. We raise to 8000 and everyone calls. Turn comes 8, great. We have nut low and 2 pair. SB bets 4000 and BB calls. This is the hand to push with. We raise to 8000 and everyone's pushing chips in. River comes A. The only cards that hurt us are A and 2. Now we have a duplicated A. The pot gets swept by a guy playing 23xx (I think the xx was 67). He had a great straight wrap on the flop, turned a straight and rivered the nut low.

Donkey out near the close of Round 11.

We probably won't jump back in for a couple days. Maybe as late as Sunday noon, when there's a nice ordinary game of no limit hold'em. Thanks for tuning in.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 10

Playing 1500 3000 we enter a pot with A367 (A3d) and flop 255. Turn and river are 9s and the pot is won by a guy who called my river bluff with a pocket pair of 3s. That's painful. Good call though. Sadly we're down to 23000. We have one big hand in us. That sounds bad; makes me think of my doctor.

We're in the BB with 9TJQ. I love this hand multi-player as if it hits it should sweep the pot. We call 2 raises and see the flop for 4500. It comes 459, all diamonds. What crap. We fold.

In a late seat we have 9TTQ double suited and call a raise to 3000. 3 people see the 56K flop, all spades. We made a flush, but our 9Ts isn't too strong and we could lose everything to an A or Qs. Player 1 checks, we bet, player 3 raises (that's bad), 1 calls and we call. Turn comes 3s, a whole board of spades. Everyone checks. River comes 7d. Player 1 checks and we bet 3000. I'm surprised that player 3 folds (she/he announced later that she had a 3567, so she had no low even though it seemed hard to miss. Player 1 goes into the tank. I'm hoping he folds rather than chase a terrible, but half pot winning, low. He calls, but when I show the flush he mucks. He didn't have a low either. Small pot, but we sweep it, which makes a huge difference. After losing 3800 on our blind hands, we have about 32,000 now. We need a huge stroke of luck!

Seat 3 limps and we limp in with 9JQA (A9c). With the blinds we see the flop come A27, all spades. Terrible! We fold, but at least it only cost us 1500!

Our table breaks and we move literally one table over. This one will probably break soon too. The screen shows 135 players but they're generally behind in their count. Still, the field is thinning. We need chips soon! First hand at the new table, we fold, but someone else gets knocked out. Droppin like flies. Wow - now he's autographing a book for the guy who took him out. Crazy!

In the BB we call a raise with 4669 double suited. Not a good hand, but it's 1500 more to see a flop and play heads up. Flop comes TTQ. We bet 1500 hoping he was playing for low or at least that he'll be afraid we have a T. He calls. Turn comes 9c putting 2 clubs on the board. Now we have a flush draw. We check and he bets. Is it worth 3000 to try to hit a 6 for a full house or a club for a flush? Yes. We call. River comes 8d. We could bluff, but spending another 3000 doesn't sound good or likely to win. We check and he checks and shows pocket As to take it down.

We finish Round 10 with 25,200 in chips. We are still in the place where we can make one huge push or see a flop or two cheap and still make a huge push. Hopefully you won't hear more for an hour!
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 9

Playing 1200 2400 people are going to drop like flies. Let's play slow.

Seat 3 raises to 2400. Folds to donkey in SB. BB is short stacked pro and we have AA89. We want all the chips in pre-flop. So much for slow. We braise and the short stack raises (obvious move with almost any short stack). We get to the 6000 cap pre flop with seat 3; BB all in for 5500. Ultimately a low comes and we take the hi, seat 3 takes the low, we each make about 2700 on the hand, and the pro (steve monamo (sp?)) leaves the table.

New guy sits to my left with 80,000 in chips. Someone sits to his left (yes we've lost 2 players). I'm really not sure if this person is male or female. Even the voice isn't telling.

In seat 3 we have A237 with A7s. We call everyone else but never raise. Still, we're 4800 in with 2 other players when the flop comes 34K. We continue just to call. This gets bad as they bang up the flop and then the turn (T), but the river comes 8 giving us nut low. We start betting and take down half the pot for about 10,000.

What we won, we lost back in a series of 2-5,000 losses. Then, an interesting hand came. We called pre flop with 9QQK double suited and folded when the flop came A5J with 2 hearts (we didn't have any). A Qh was no longer good for us. All that really helped was a T(non hearts). After we folded the turn came Td. Before the wound could fester too much, the river came 7h putting a low and a flush on the board. The TQh took the high. Glad we dropped out early.

We have 37,100. The problem we have is that people are going to drop like flies, and that will increase the average chip stack. If we don't take some stacks down in the next 90 minutes, we'll start heading toward short-stack land.

We play one more big hand and flop a set of 4s that loses to a set of 9s. We finish the round with 144 players and only 32,000 in chips. Enough to fight with.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 8

Donkey is getting a little tired. It's 115AM. We're playing 1000 2000, crazy high stakes, so I have a mantra of relaxation going in my head.

We fold hand after hand for a while, waiting for something good.

In seat 5 we raise to 2000 with TJKA (JKs) and get called by the blinds. Flop is 8KA. Top 2 pair is great, but there's a low draw, which we don't want to see come. A Q gives us a straight and a K or A gives us a full house. We bet 1000 and get one caller. Turn comes 7s. Terrible card as it makes the low, but now we have a nut flush draw (the As is on the board). We bet 2000 and he calls. River comes Qh. Perfect. We have nut high straight. We bet 2000 and he calls. We take the whole pot as he mucks; evidently he didn't have a low.

We then played 4 big pots. On one, we had KKJ9 and flopped TQK with 2 diamonds. We bet all the way down against a guy who hit a diamond on the river to flush and beat us. Pretty much the same hand happened as one of the other 3. We flopped a set of Ts and never filled while our opponent made a flush on the turn. A third bad hand related to us having AA and calling an all in down. I don't recall how we lost. The fourth hand we actually won, although I no longer remember how. Oh, wait, I do remember. We had 99KA and the flop was 34K. The turn was 9 and the river was 3, giving us a full house. Each of these hands were wins or losses of about 15,000-20,000. The result was a plummeting of our stack with great second best hands.

We get into a 5-way pot for 2,000 each with 234K (K4c). Flop comes 56Q. Great. A 234 or 7 gives us a great low and a straight. An A gives us the nut low. We bet and get all calls - great. Turn comes Ts, no good. Someone else bets and we call. River comes 5 pairing the board. Better bets again and we fold.

Terrible way to end the night. We fell from about 75,000 in chips through a series of great, but not great enough, hands. We end with 168 players and 39,400 in chips. Average stack is 36,071 (# of players and average stack may change with updates over night). I would rather have the 75,000, but hopefully luck will be better tomorrow. Right now I kind of want to vomit.

We resume play tomorrow at 3pm, so for those of you still with us, check the blog a little after 4pm. I know that Omaha is hard to follow, and hard for me to describe in a play-by-play. There are just too many cards and the hi low split is crazy. Each player has 6 possible hands (6 ways to use 2 card) going hi, and the same number possibly going low. The result is there's more action, less folding, and a lot of complexity in the strategy. Unlike Texas Hold'em, this is tough to describe. I hope you'll hear lots of good cards tomorrow, lasting all day.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 7

Although Donkey comes into the round feeling good, we're playing 800 1600 now, so one bad hand puts us in danger. We must play tight.

First hand of the round and the Grinder is out. Wish I had done it, but . . . Actually just glad it wasn't me.

In between round 6 and 7, they "race off" the 25 chips. We don't need chips in those denominations now, so we traded 500 in for a 500 chip, but we had one extra. We entered our chip into a lottery of sorts and won, turning our 25 chip into a 100. Winning everywhere! Hope this keeps up! But getting a massage to help myself stay calm.

Short stack raises to 1600. Assuming we're ahead of him with our 5QKK double-suited, we raise to 2400 to push everyone else out. Everyone else folds, according to plan, and he calls 400 of my raise putting him all in. He has A56J. I suspect it's pretty even. I may even be behind. Flop comes JJ7 and now I'm definitely behind. We need a K to win, but the Turn is 7 and the river 5, so we doubled him up. Sad.

We have AA34 double-suited, definitely in the top 5 possible hands. With 4 cards, you don't see a top hand like this often. I can't recount this sad tale, but we lost about 10,000 on this hand. I wanted to shred the cards and throw them at the dealer. I wanted his paper-cut blood on my red ace. I refrained.

We called a raise pre flop with 55TT hoping for a set to flop. Heads up the flop came 66J. He bet 800 and we called. One last chance to hit . . . Turn came a third 6. This has a lot of significance. First, it means he probably doesn't have a 6. Second, it means the J on the board is irrelevant. Absent the 6, whoever has the highest pair IN THEIR HAND wins. Our TT is likely good. We bet and he calls. River is a 3. We bet and he calls again. He sees the TT and mucks. Good times.

We raise with an AATJ (ATc) and get a couple callers. The flop is 28Q. We bet, they call. The turn is Q. They check and we check. Too likely someone has a Q. River comes K. They check and we consider betting. If they had a Q, they should bet, except now there a heart flush on board. We check and one of them takes it down with a Q. Would he have folded if I bet? Maybe, but prob not. I should have bet; the small chance he folds justifies it.

Under the gun we limp with AA27 (A2h). Seats 456 fold and seat 7 raises. I think "There's my Huckleberry". BB calls and we raise. Huck raises, BB folds and we cap. We see the flop with Huck 7KK. Was hoping for a low, but as long as Huck doesn't have a K we're good. We bet, Huck raises, we call. Turn comes J. We check and call Huck's bet. River is 3. We check, Huck checks, and we show hands. He has AA5T. We had the better hand, but we split the pot anyway. Oh well.

We finish Round 7 with 178 players and 63,200 in chips. Not bad. Heading into the last round of the night.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.

Omaha Round 6

We start with an A367 and raise from a late seat. The only caller is, of course, the Grinder. Flop comes 89T. Normally the low straight is no good, but heads up it's great. We bet 600 and he calls. Turn comes 3c putting 2 clubs and 2 hearts and a low draw on the board. He checks, we bet 1200 and he raises to 2400. Not good. We call. River comes 6c and he bets. For 1200 we have to call. He makes an Ace high club flush on the river to take the pot down (he also made an A4 low on the river). Not a good start.

We sit for a few hands and then get A23Q with the A2 suited. There's an early raiser, so we just call along with 4 others. The flop comes 449. Not good. It cost us only 600 to see the turn and we find a 7. That's great - with 5 players I'll try to get the low and with A23 I will have the best low possible as long as one comes. We pay 1200 to see the river, but it's a J; no low in play. We fold.

We play another A2xx to the river and wind up getting quartered, which is what happens when you lose the hi and split the low with someone (or the other way around). It results in winning a quarter of the pot, which often means losing overall (if there are 3 or fewer players).

Bad round so far :( . Yep. Emoticon time.

We limp in with 678T. I usually stay away from these hands as in order to make anything (straight, 2 pair even), you have to put low cards on the board and you're generally hoping for half the pot. 5 players see the 79T flop! We have 2 pair and the low straight. Plus, only 1 low card on the board. Problem is that there are 2 hearts and someone out there is on a flush draw. Player 3 bets and we raise from position 4. Everyone folds except player 3. We bet the turn and the river because they're pretty much perfect - Ks and 3s. The K could have given our opponent a higher straight, but after calling on the river, he saw our hand and mucked, so I suspect it didn't.

We raise pre-flop with 2233 and get three callers who see the 257 flop. Not psyched about the low coming, or the straight draw on board, or the 2 clubs, but we bet our set of deuces anyway and get a couple callers. Turn comes Kh. Great card for us so we bet and get called again. River comes Tc, putting a flush on the board. We check and the player after us bets. Not good. We call - it turns out he has A3 for low and our deuces take the high half.

Crazy hand. I can't recall all the action but there was significant action with 5 players. We had 2347 and the board after the turn was 57TQ. We're praying for an A to give us half the pot (or maybe a quarter. River comes 7 giving us 3 7s. With this many players though, someone should have a full house. Alternatively, anyone with a 7 will beat me as I literally have the worst 3 kickers (okay, someone could have 2237, but do we bet on that?). Everyone checks. We figure no one will call our bet unless they can beat us. Miraculously, no one can beat the 7! We scoop the whole pot!

We started with 202 players. We finish Round 6 and go on break with 196 players left and in 68,500 chips. A lot of up and down here, but we're in a good place with 2 more rounds today.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

DISCLAIMER:
Any information and enclosure herein is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient and its authorized agents only. The author believes the information herein to be reliable and accurate, but Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC makes no warranty or representation as to its accuracy, completeness, freedom from viruses or errors in transmission. Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC or its affiliates. If you have received this message and are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by return email and delete any copies you may have received.