Here's a hand I just played, now the situation was a little different then most poker so follow along.

I'm playing a 2-5 spread limit game, $1/$2 blinds, you can bet or raise 2-5 anytime.

This is a charity poker game in chicago run by http://www.rockfordcharitablegames.com/ they have some interesting house rules, (the'll come into play later)

Ok, I'm in mid position (2 off button).

I get dealy A10o.

UTG raises it to $4.

There's 1 caller, and I call (I know this was probably loose but it's besides the point).

Flop is A 10 10 rainbow

The UTG who raised preflop checks, and the old lady (who I've noticed plays Ace anything to the river when she pairs up) also checks. I bet out $2.

The UTG raises me to $4, old lady calls, and I call.

Turn is 6 of clubs, flushes are killed.

UTG bets $5, old lady calls, I raise to $10, and I'm all in,


At this point I have $8 chips and $40 in my wallet. She asks me if I'm playing table or out of pocket. I inform her I'm playing out of pocket. I buy another $40 in chips, and keep playing the hand,

UTG re-raises to $15, the old lady calls, I then cap it at $20.

turn is a 9 of hearts.

Since there's still 3 people in the hand, there is a max of 3 raises on the river, again the action is capped at $20 and all 3 of us are in.

As if you haden't guessed, the other player turns over AA, and in a scene straight out of rounders, my flopped boat loses to a bigger boat...The ONLY possible bigger boat.

I wont lie, it hurt, but here's my questions:

1.) if you flop a boat, where do you shift from re-re-raising to just calling. especially if you've got the second nut hand. 2.) would you have decided to play table stakes or played out of pocket?

My thoughts at the time was this: it was a fairly loose table and I was not worried about the old lady, and I really felt the UTG raiser was holding AK or the other 10, hell I really expected to see A10.

If it was heads up I probably would have just called after the rereaise on the turn, but because the old lady kept calling, I felt I was in a situation much like a hi-low game where you hold the low and the other raiser has the high and you're both raising because there's someone caught in the middle calling.

I felt like reraising wasnt a bad idea even without the nuts, because:

A.) with 3 people in the hand at the begining of the river, there was a 3 raise limit, not unlimited like it would have been if the round was started heads up. B.) the UTG's raise to $4 pre-flop seemed like a AK type of hand, the max raise at the time would have been to $7, and every other time UTG has had a pocket pair (even as low as 66) he's raises the max. C.) I flopped a freaking full house for petes sake. I cant even imagine what the odds are of flopping the second highest boat, but I felt like not playing it the way I did is playing scared. I vary rarely ever have the absolute nuts, so 2nd nuts seem pretty nice.

I guess my overall thoughts are that in the long run, shying away from playing this hand big will cost me more money in lost wins then it will from a the rare beat by someone holding the stone cold nuts.

I'm feeling like Mike McD at this point, and I don't even have decent looking russian women coming to my house when I owe money. I'd really like to hear what everyone on RGP thinks about this.



On a lighter note, I realised ill be in vegas the same time as grubby from pokergrub.com

Hopefully we can play some hands and break some tourists =)

--Chris Falco

ham·mer ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hmr) n. 1.. A hand tool that has a handle with a perpendicularly attached head

of metal or other heavy rigid material, and is used for striking or pounding. 2.. A tool or device similar in function or action to this striking tool, as: 1.. The part of a gunlock that hits the primer or firing pin or explodes the percussion cap and causes the gun to fire. 2.. Music. One of the padded wooden pieces of a piano that strikes the strings. 3.. A part of an apparatus that strikes a gong or bell, as in a clock. 3.. The starting hand of Seven Deuce offsuit in Texas Hold'em, statistically the absolutely worst hand in the game.

See http://pokergrub.com/hammer.html


When something this beautiful happen I have to share it!

Chris Falco

***** Hand History for Game 414950758 ***** 300/600 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 2433359) - Wed Feb 25 21:35:07 EST 2004 Table Card Room Table 4402 (Real Money) -- Seat 10 is the button Total number of players : 3 Seat 4: MATTSBOAT (460) Seat 8: cdf12345 (4520) Seat 10: mtally (3020) MATTSBOAT posts small blind (150) cdf12345 posts big blind (300) ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to cdf12345 [ 7s, 2h ] mtally folds. MATTSBOAT raises (310) to 460 MATTSBOAT is all-In. cdf12345: MAN MATTSBOAT: aq cdf12345: i have the HAMMER too cdf12345: 72o cdf12345: gotta take a shot for 160 cdf12345 calls (160) ** Dealing Flop ** : [ Jd, 4d, 6s ] mtally: lol ** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ts ] ** Dealing River ** : [ 7d ] Creating Main Pot with $920 with MATTSBOAT ** Summary ** Main Pot: 920 | Board: [ Jd 4d 6s Ts 7d ] MATTSBOAT balance 0, lost 460 [ As Qc ] [ high card ace -- As,Qc,Jd,Ts,7d ] cdf12345 balance 4980, bet 460, collected 920, net +460 [ 7s 2h ] [ a pair of sevens -- Jd,Ts,7s,7d,6s ] mtally balance 3020, didn't bet (folded)

***** Hand History for Game 414952320 ***** MATTSBOAT finished in third place and won $20. mtally: wow cdf12345: hammer hgammer! MATTSBOAT: gg mtally: gg matt


--Chris Falco

Finished 2nd and 4th Spend $22 won 30 Not too bad, really took a bad beat on the 4th place finish though.



--Chris Falco

Took 2nd, 7th and 10th Net loss: $3

Oh well, just sat down at 2 more.


--Chris Falco

Just sat down at 3 NL $5+1 sng tourneys. Updates to follow.


--Chris Falco

Played 3 $5+1 SNG's at the same time, (hmm this is becoming common) anyways got knocked out at 5th on the first then won the other 2. I've forgotten how crazy it gets when you're heads up on 2 tables and still playing a third. Lots of window switching.

Heads up I had a 6000/2000 chip lead and I got J 10 of clubs I raise and he calls. Flop comes 8c 9c and like 3h. He bets 800 and I push it all in, I figure I had 19 outs to improve my hand, 7clubs to make the flush, 2 clubs to make a straight flush, 2 queens and 2 sevens for a straight, and then 3 jacks or 3 tens to pair up.

I felt pretty comfortable going all in with odd like that. since with 2 cards left to come out and 19/47 cards will make a hand for me.

Anyways, the turn comes as a 4 of spades and the river is a K of diamonds, I lose to his pair of 8's.

About 10 hands later I bust him, and win the thing.

(I'm playing while writing this, a $25 NL game, I bought in for $10 and I get delt 10 10 on the button, UTG (under the gun a.k.a. the first player to act after the blinds) raises to 2, gets one caller, and I sense an chance to steal or double up, I push all in with my $10.50 or whatever I had gotten up to, the first raiser calls and the second folds, flop comes 10 J 6 turn is a K and the river is a 2. No flush possible, and I take down his AK of diamonds.

#413239829: cdf12345 wins $23.75 from the main pot with three of a kind, tens.

Nice night so far,

So anyways for those keeping score

Tourneys: Bought in for $18 cashed $50

Cash games: bought in $10 cashed $23.75

--------------------------------------------------------- Countdown 11 days to spring break in vegas, and it can't come fast enough, I'm building a really nice bankroll to take with me.

If any of you hiptoppers are looking for somewhere to go for spring break check out vegas, I got round trip flights for $175 per person on southwest and booked rooms at the luxor on the vegas strip for $79, in fact I just rebooked them tonight cause luxor.com is having a 48 hour special on rooms in march. Check it out, and if you're going to be in vegas march 7-11 hit me up, ill buy you a drink!

--Chris Falco

Played a little poker tonight, bought it for $13 just for the hell of it, walked out with $47.80 after going all in with my QJ after making three jacks on the turn.

And the final results are up over at pokergrub.com from sundays tourney. Missed cashing by 3.

Oh well, I played a hand I shouldn't have. I had 2400 in chips 7th in chips, (I think) and got dealt 22. with 9 people left. Blinds were 400/800 and it was no limit. There was a raise to 1600 and I figured I had a decent starting hand and if I could double up here I would easily cash and be in the top 3 for chips.

I went all in and he called. I showed 22, he had AJ, a jack flopped and I was on in 9th, A pair vs 2 overcards wins 52/100 times, so I had the better odds, but luck had it in for me. Oh well, I'm hearing the next stop on the World Blogger Poker Tour is March 10, dont know where or when though.

Thanks to ChoicePoker.com for hosting the tourney and only taking $64 rake on a $640 prize pool.

Someone put a bounty on one guy and I won some DVD's for knocking him out with my AQ or AJ, cant really remember. He was on the blind halfway all in with 62o (ouch)

So poker continues to go well, oh if you like Poker / crazy stories/ las vegas or just general crazyness and rock,paper,sissors, or the circle game (dont look at the circle below the wait or get punched)

Then you gotta check out www.tiltboys.com and read the stories, it's a group of guys that knew each other from school, had a weekly poker game, go to vegas all the time, bet on everything possible, and are now mega rich and goto vegas all the time.

here's an excellent sample:

"Betting We will find any, and I do mean any, excuse to bet with each other. Often these bets turn out to be great angles, conceived to put the bettee on some serious tilt. But regardless, the endless small bets we make help us keep our gambling bugs well fed. One favorite is Roshambo (rock, scissors, paper) -- a supposedly random game, but one in which several of these gamblers claim to have an edge due to their ability to read people and take the psychological upper hand. An example from a recent bet:

Rafe: I'm going rock. Victim: Okay, then I'm going paper. Rafe: But you know that I wouldn't tell you the truth. Victim: You might if you think I won't believe you. Rafe: But I know you will compensate for that. Victim: Just go! (exasperated at Rafe's continued scrutiny for tells) Rafe: 1-2-3-(went rock) Victim: (went scissors) Rafe: (pocketing bet) You over-compensated."


The whole site is like that, very very excellent.

Be sure to check it out.

In other news, I got my CD price fixing check today $13.86 hell yeah, that's like 7 gallons of gas, 1 3/4 drinks out this weekend, or 180 hands of No limit poker with .25/50 blinds.

Can you guess where it's probably going?

What can I say, I love winning poker (not playing poker).

Just remember, if when you sit down at the poker table you cant spot the sucker in the first half hour, then you are the sucker.

SPRING BREAK VEGAS TRIP COUNTDOWN 12 DAYS AND COUNTING.

I'll be taking lots of pics and have full reports.


--Chris Falco

I lose, he wins, he demands I post this to show he's moving in the right direction. $$ was from a questionable hand, lucky he called, I would have beat his ass if he didnt.




--Chris Falco

Trying again with photos.

played a private $20+2 tourney for the world blogger poker tour. check www.pokergrub.com.

Finished 9th out of 32, top 6 were paid, but I won some DVD's of Twister and the Others for knocking some guy out. sweet.

Check out the sweet zippo and money clip I got at the mall today, it's uberpimp.

Party crashed for like 4 hrs last night, brutal, couldnt make my normal weekend killing. Oh well.

--Chris Falco




--Chris Falco

played a private $20+2 tourney for the world blogger poker tour. check www.pokergrub.com.

Finished 9th out of 32, top 6 were paid, but I won some DVD's of Twister and the Others for knocking some guy out. sweet.

Check out the sweet zippo and money clip I got at the mall today, it's uberpimp.

Party crashed for like 4 hrs last night, brutal, couldnt make my normal weekend killing. Oh well.

--Chris Falco