A poker blog by Tex Canuck reporting his adventures in Poker Rooms across North AmericaA poker blog that follows the Hold Em Poker adventures of Tex Canuck in Poker rooms throughout Canada and the US.
My return to tournament Poker play It has been many months since I played a Texas Hold Em poker tournament. I have been grinding it out in the lowest limits of No Limit Hold Em cash games in Florida and Rama in Ontario. Frankly, it has not been a pleasant experience. I did however, deem it necessary to learn how to play well in the early parts of a decent tournament where there are many low limit players just hoping to get lucky.
I had intended to play in the main event of the East Coast Championships only. I registered for the fifth of seven events a $500+50 No Limit Texas Hold Em Freezeout. The event had a surprisingly low turnout of 147 players. I learned that attendance had been lower than expected for all the previous tournaments. This a shame because the Blind Structures for all of these tournaments are the most generous I have seen for the buy in required. The tournament had forty-minute blinds with a starting stack of $5000. The blinds started at 25 – 50 and at the fifth level, they stood at 100-200 with a 25-dollar ante. This is remarkably good for a tournament with such a low buy in. How did I fare? Everything is relative of course but I felt I played some very good poker this day. Despite being essentially card dead I was sitting with a stack of $7400 near the end of the fifth round. With a little over eighty players, remaining the average stack was about $9500. This meant that my stack was a little below average and I really wanted to get all of my chips into the pot with a decent hand before the round ended. The opportunity arrived. I was in late position and the player that was under the gun raised to $800. He had made a number of weak raises from this position e.g. A9 before and had folded to a re-raise. He had also made larger raises, relative to the blinds, earlier from this position with AA and KK. The next player to his left was a huge man that had come from a broken table with a stack of over $11,000 second only to the UG raiser who had about $14,000. He had yet to play any of the first three hands dealt to him but called this raise. The next few players folded to me. I looked at my cards. A pair of pretty ladies stared back at me. I now had a big problem. I was confident that the original raiser was not playing AA or KK. The problem was that I had no idea what kind of hand the new player would just call. His above average stack suggested that he had done something right earlier on. He appeared friendly and confident so I was not dealing with a pussycat. I did not think he was the playground bully type either. I decided that his demeanor suggested that he probably would have raised with AA or KK. If I was right I about both players I was holding the best hand. Calling was out of the question. If I pushed and the original raiser called or came over the top, I would be facing AA or KK with nowhere to go. If I made a substantial raise and the original raiser folded or called my bet then I was beating him. I really wanted to get all my chips in the middle. The dilemma was this. How much could I bet and still be able to get away from my pair with enough power left to have another chance at getting into the game. I fired $2000 into the $2125 pot leaving me $5400 behind. This would be a reasonable all in bet on the flop if no A or K appeared. The original raiser folded. The new player took a very long time before deciding what to do. He pushed all in. I had already made up my mind about what he was holding and unless he was a terrific actor, I decided that he was trying to push me out of the pot. I called hoping he had a pair like JJ or TT. He turned over AKS, the hand I fear most. The flop was QC 9H3H. I had a set and my opponent had a flush draw. The turn card was another Heart. I now need to pair up on the river. It did not happen and I was history. I had all of my money in the pot with the best hand, which is all I could have asked for. On another day, I will win in that situation and probably go on to collect a decent prize. I went back home as the attendance for $1000 two day event was expected to be below 100. That is my Poker Blog for today. Tex Canuck My Poker blog Jan 20th 2008 - "Mo" Goes On Tilt During my foray through the poker rooms of North America, I meet many fascinating people. Several days ago, at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa Florida, I joined a Hold Em poker game and sat down, in seat ten, next to the dealer. Two seats to my right was a very animated player, that I have named Mo, who never stopped talking. He had about $400 in front of him, which meant he was having a good night in this 1-2NL $100 max buy in game. Mo seemed to be having a small problem with the player in seat ten who apparently, as his large stack would indicate, was hitting every hand in sight. It was not too long before seat ten left the game. I immediately claimed the seat so that I could be further away from Mo whose constant loud chatter was irritating me a little. As the game progressed, Mo started to take some horrendous bad beats from a number of the Florida call stations at the table. His $400 quickly became zero as he started to lose his cool and verbally attack the players that were taking him down. He reached into his wallet many times, as the bad beats continued and he went on full tilt. At one point, the situation started to turn ugly as three or four players started their own verbal attack on Mo. Mo eventually gathered himself together and left the table minus a lot of money. In Mo’s defense, I should tell you that the string of incredibly bad beats perpetrated on him were as bad as I have ever seen. When he left, the remaining players almost unanimously declared Mo to be a loud mouth that did not know how to play Hold Em Poker. I did not agree with this consensus however, as Mo made some terrific plays only to lose to hands that hit the required miracle card. The following day I sat in on a game and coincidentally, sitting at the other end of the table was Mo. He was, of course, very animated and constantly chattered. The player sitting to my left was a very bad East Indian player with a stack of about $300 who played and raised everything. Mo likes to give people a name and he called the East Indian player Gandhi. I will not judge whether this is appropriate or not. It did not take long for Gandhi to lose his stack plus several hundred dollars more. He could not handle the verbal barbs from Mo and shortly before leaving the table, he complained to a supervisor. With four good players in the game, it turned out to be the best 1-2 NL game I have ever played in. The Sharks were in a feeding frenzy this night as the four good players built large stacks by methodically destroying a steady stream of check and call fish. Anyone that considers poker a game of luck rather than skill should have been watching this game. If they were able to comprehend what was happening they would surely understand why good players do not consider poker to be all luck. Mo was playing some brilliant poker this night and I developed a great deal of respect for his ability. At some point during the game Mo started calling me “The Master”. He was also showing me respect. I had been thinking about the best way describe the play of Mo but could not come up with any ideas. Then I watched Mo execute a perfect “rope a dope” play stacking the poor player who had no idea what was happening. It was then that it hit me. A perfect way to describe his game would be “float like a butterfly sting like a bee”. It fits well because Mo is black, pretty, talks too much, and is highly skilled just like one of my lifetime heroes Mohamed Ali. If you ever play against Mo, you now know what to expect and please tell him “The Master” respectfully said hi. That is my poker blog for today. Tex Canuck My Poker blog December 30th 2007 - 2008 Here I Come I had considered playing in the monthly $500 buy in poker tournament in Windsor, Ontario on Dec 28th but decided against it. This tournament is now attracting about 90 players. Starting chips are 5000 blinds begin at 25 - 50 and go up every 30 minutes. My problem with this tournament is that the actual blinds escalate way to fast for a $500 tournament. Windsor Casino is now a Caesars owned by Harrahs. Limit games are available and they also offer 1-2, 2-5 and 10-20 no limit. Low buy in poker tournaments are offered every day. This is without doubt the friendliest and best run poker room in Ontario. I hope that they can see fit to add some weeks of CPT tournaments that compare with events in Western Canada in the future. I am taking off south next week and depending on the weather intend to show up at Turning Stone Resort near Syracuse in upper New York State for a couple of poker tournaments. This is one of my favourite poker rooms with many terrific mid level tournaments offered throughout the year. Happy new year to everyone from my last poker blog this year. Tex Canuck My Poker blog December 10th 2007 - Home from Florida After adjusting to the large number of poor poker players I found in Florida the $1-2 game was easy to beat. I had to exercise extreme patience and was always being paid off when I had the best hand. I inflicted many bad beats on poker players that allowed me stay in hands due to their inability to to size their bets. Here is on example of a profitable hand I should never have played. I was on the button. There was a $4 straddle bet placed by the UG player. When the betting reached me all players had called the straddle bet. I looked at my cards and found 92 diamonds. I called as did both blinds making it a family pot of forty dollars. The flop came down 9H 5S 3D. It was checked to an elderly gentleman who bet $10. The next few players folded to me. I thought that the gentleman that bet out must have pocket 10's or better, likely KK or AA, otherwise he would have checked. He was astute enough to check raise if he had a set of nines. I had top pair with a back door flush and straight draw. My stack was about $140 and the bettor had a little more. At five to one odds coupled with tremendous implied odds I decided to buy one more card. I also thought that the turn bet would be only ten dollars again. On the turn came 7d giving me a flush draw. Sure enough the bet was again $10 an easy call to draw to an unbeatable flush for me at 7-1. The river brought a dream card AD. The bet was $50. Woohoo, I now knew that my opponent had trip aces. I pushed my stack of $120 all in. The call was made and the elderly gentleman triumphantly slammed down his pocket Aces announcing a set. His glee quickly turned to disgust as I quietly turned over my 72 announcing announcing that I had an ugly flush. The table of course quickly came to the conclusion that I was a lucky chaser. Is that the reality? One poker player at the other end of the table understood what had just happened and acknowledged me accordingly. What did he know that the other players did not? He knew that, due to the mistakes made by my opponent on every street, I won a hand and a big pot that I could not have won if my opponent had just exercised a small amount of skill. That is my poker blog for now. Tex Canuck My Poker Blog November 5th 2007 - Poker in Florida I think I have managed to improve my No Limit Texas Hold Em poker game during a six week grind at Casino Rama. I am in Florida to check out the poker scene following the changes in the law earlier this year. Thankfully the $1 - $1 and $1- 2 limit games are history having been replaced by a $2 -4 limit game. $1 - 2 and $2 - 5 no limit has been introduced with a maximum buy in of $100 for either game. The most popular game is the $1 - 2 no limit game although many players wish that the buy in was a little higher. Many of The better players, that I have met, would rather be playing $2 - 5 no limit but do not because of the unrealistic buy in limitation. I am playing at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Tampa. This a very nice facility with an extremely busy fifty table card room. In addition to the new games mentioned above there are single table and multiple table tournaments every day. The average standard of play is extremely poor as many of the players have been used to playing the silly limit bingo games previously offered. I am sure that in time these players will improve. This is a giant leap forward for poker in Florida and I hope that it is another step towards the State becoming a premier poker destination. I have signed up at the Canadian online Poker room at Sports Interaction and will play there from time to time. Check it out by clicking on the Legal Canadian online Sports book link on the left side of the page. If you see me at your table please say hi. That is my poker blog for today. Tex Canuck September 22 2007 poker blog - Home Again To Plug More Leaks I have returned to Ontario and will play in 1 - 2 NL Hold Em cash games at Casino Rama for the next little while. This is to try and plug leaks in my early poker tournament game. I have observed that there are some players that reach final tables, at the same frequency as me, but always seem to arrive at the table with bigger stacks than me. As a consequence they nearly always end up higher in the money than I do. Further observance of these players revealed that they play the early part of a tournament better than I do. That is to say their chip stacks usually rise faster than mine from the very beginning of the game. I believe that I am still playing some hands as if the game was "Limit Hold Em". In No Limit Poker the playable hands you are dealt can be generally classified as big pot hands or small pot hands. I know the difference and need to adjust my play a little for the different hand types. Wish me luck luck in my next few weeks of practice. Tex Canuck from his poker blog August 21 2007 Poker blog - A Poker Proposal On Saturday I was waiting for the $100 12:15 pm Hold Em tournament to start at the River Rock in Richmond B.C. I was sitting at a vacant table deep in conversation with one of the myriad of terrific people I have met here. A young man, Jodi, approached me and asked if I would do him a favour. I often chatted with him and his girlfriend Karen at tournaments and we have become quite friendly. He told me would propose to Karen a few minutes before the tournament started. He asked me if I would sit in his seat at the table next to her and pretend that it was my seat. I was to vacate the seat when I saw him approach. When that time arrived I did not see him coming as I was merrily boring Karen to death with my latest bad beat story. As Jodi approached he said in a rather loud voice “Are you trying to steal my girlfriend?” (or words to that effect). I hurriedly removed my rear end from the seat and stood well out of the way. Jodi spun a rather startled Karen and her seat away from the table. The entire poker room went silent. Even the clicking of chips stopped. Jodi knelt in front of Karen trembling with tears welling in his eyes. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket on which his proposal was printed. Karen meanwhile, had realized what was happening and she now struggled to keep her own composure. After fighting his nervousness and wiping tears from his eyes, several times, Jody finally stumbled through the proposal. Karen had savoured the moment and instantly answered yes. About 150 poker players clapped and applauded as Jody slipped a magnificent ring on Karen’s finger. The couple then embraced each other. Good luck Karen and Jodi. May all your future troubles be little ones! Staff of the River Rock deserve applause for allowing this brief wonderful moment to happen despite causing an interruption of their normal course of business. I have five final table money finishes in the seventeen tournaments I have played since arriving here. That is my poker blog for now from beautiful British Columbia Poker Blog >> Canada Shopping Home Page
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