Lovin' the microlimits

LOL! I have discovered the greatest pastime on earth. No, not bowling, badminton, horseshoes, sex, or friendstering (is that a word?). It is....MICROLIMIT POKER!!!! On PokerChamps.

As I write this, I'm killin' time while waiting for JJ Duque's new TV show, Drive's, launch party (keep me away from those free JDs bro...if you know what's good for your guests). I am playing .02/.04 NL at PC. That's right, a four cent big blind boys and girls.

Stepped in 40 minutes ago with a big $2.00 buy. I am currently at 4 bucks after 40 minutes of play. Yep, that's a 100% profit. That's 50 Big Bets won in less than an hour. Man, if I could only post those numbers in 5/10.

I love it. It's fun. I can buy fishballs with my profits.

I highly recommend it. It's more fun than hangin' around all day at a bikini carwash. Tomorrow I'm gonna play 4 tables at these stakes. Maybe I can win enough for a mango juice. Or a case of sanmig lights - the best damn light beer in the world.

PokerChamps $2.00 buyin

Well, lol...got bored yesterday so I hijacked the wife's account on PokerChamps and signed up for a Multi-Table tourney for the low, low price of $2.00. Cash I was comfortable she would not miss if I lost it.

The tourney itself was pretty lightweight - I won 1st out of a field of 40 players by simply waiting out the crazy play in the early levels. Really, these micro buy-in tourneys are a lot like watching your kids make a mess in a room. You simply let them tire themselves out in a frenzy of...ummm...messmaking...let them spend themselves, then just mop up when the time is right.

Again, tight was right for me in the early stages.

I got away with a lot of standard moves in the late stages, successfully checkraising many, many times - unsophisticated stuff you can't get away with against more savvy opponents.

The toughest part of the whole thing was suffering the sexism at the final two tables after I had built up a 3-1 chip lead with 20 to go. Started hearing stuff like..."Wow, wanna IM after the tourney? Send me a pic first", and, "are you as good in bed as you are at cards"? I just clammed up, really, cuz I don't have the tools to handle such tools.

I was a man trapped in a woman's online poker account.

I feel for the winning women players in onlineland. Morons abound.

Guys, wake up. They won't get flustered. After all, they're taking your money. You knobs.

Anyway...

It's been a good week and a half. Made money everytime I laid my cash down and bought some chips. Tripled in all my live games and twentytupled in the two buck tourney.

Barb ain't doin' too shabby in North America Land either.

Illin Cold Shillin

If y'all already haven't figured, I shill for Truepoker. I am an Affiliate. I get a percentage of the rake paid by people who sign up through this site by clicking on the links, funding an account, and playing. I have thus far earned a wallet-busting, pimp ride buyin', woman magnetizin' $0.00.

Anyhoo...

They've upped the stakes and are offering a 27% rakeback deal on signups. Meaning after clearing a certain number of hands, you get rebated 27% of the rake and tourney fees you pay. So sign up. You also get money back on people signing up through you. You can then become a poker Network Marketing multimillionaire; post your audited financials on the web-make your friends green with envy. Cruise the Bahamas.

If you are in the Philippines and are wondering how you might fund a poker account, well it ain't easy. Maybe get an Aunt in California to fund it and pay her back - but make sure you pay her back.

I'll try to work a way we can fund accounts from here, or through barbie's account.

If you're interested, let me know. I'll get on it.

That's the end of my shill post.

Loyola Heights Hold'em

Another drive north to play some cards with the FAPA guys. 9-handed SNG. And the nicest set of chips I've seen in this country.

I won't bore everybody with long hand histories, but suffice to say I felt I played a solid waiting game and wound up choppping the pot for 1st and 2nd with the PitBoss. I feel pretty good moneying in this one, as the best hands I were dealt all night were AKo and AKs. Won with both - once when I made a nice aggressive stab at the pot with an overbet when the flop clearly missed everyone, and AKs won for me when PitBoss flipped over TT after my preflop all in.

I secured my spot deep in the cash when my AQ made broadway on the flop after I called Ricky's (probably) 9th raise into my BB three handed. 8 outta nine ain't bad. And I like your style, Rick, you nonchalant blind stealer you ;).

A couple grabs here and there, a few uncontested pots - a satisfying game overall.

Skip from the Alabang crew was there, and he played a nice game but busted out in 5th.

The PitBoss was blessed with a few good deals, fortunate flops, and he played them all very nicely. A few late level steals with small PPs maintained his stack to the end...not to mention a very lucky win with JTo against a TT all in. You got lucky there bro, but you had him covered.

Anyway, thanks again Kix and crew, and yours truly feels good about the decent showing by the guys from drrrty souf.

Peace...

Here's something new...hmmm...

The Poker Club of the Philippines is holding the second leg of its Poker King Challenge Series in early July. The games in rotation in this leg are Texas Holdem and 7Stud. Both Pot Limit. My two favorite flavors. Good. So I go down to their offices and dutifully join the club and pay my fees. Can't wait.

I decide to have a look at their rules, and see the following under Texas Holdem:

a) After all active players put the required Ante (see Rules on Betting for amount of Ante required), Card Dealer deals to each player two face down (close) cards.

b) Player to the immediate left of the designated dealers acts first by betting the same amount as the Ante or folding. No checking or raising is allowed on the first round of betting.

HUH????!!!!???? (enough emphasis?). The way I interpret this, and I've been known to be terribly wrong, is that we're playing holdem with no blinds, only antes. Further, the antes are in effect all small blinds! Saywuh? We're really gamblin' now. And I wonder what the logic is behind no checking or raising preflop. Wutchootalkinboutwillis? How the hell am I gonna protect my 1st position AA against JTo?!? How am I gonna play in the middle levels? How the hell can I make moves on blinds? Oh wait. There are no blinds. No, that's wrong. There are at least 3 BBs (assuming 6-handed tables, like they had last time) up for grabs that I can't grab. I'm confused.

Everybody posts the SB. Everybody sees the flop. Guess I gotta brush up on my post flop play (an art admittedly obsolesced by the popularity of NL Holdem and Final Table TV).

If one of the three of you who reads this blog knows the Poker Club bosses, please forward this note verbatim. Oh wait. I'm a member. Maybe I can make the suggestion.

Now for 7Stud High:

b) Player to the immediate left of the designated dealer acts first by betting same amount as the Ante or folding. No checking or raising is allowed on the first round of betting.

No bring-in. I can live with that, cuz I still don't really see the logic of the standard low-card bring-in. I'm ok with that.

Any thoughts on this stuff? Email me. Call me. Leave a comment.

Laro Tayo

The Long View

Warning: Loooong post

Now I'm hardly the best qualified guy to teach anyone anything about this game, but a couple of situations arose this past week that kinda made me think hard about whether I should post on this topic or not. Well, I decided I would. The topic of the day is profit and profitability from a gambler's point of view. Tough to tackle for a n00b like me, but you can make the call on whether the following's worth reading or not.

I work in the gaming business and am around gamblers daily. I see their ups and downs, triumphs and desperation, and most importantly, get insights into their mindsets.

I was talking to a guy who was on a significant losing streak playing mini-baccarat last week. This is a guy who played a fairly religious betting system, basing his wagers on patterns and hand histories. For those of you who don't know, mini-baccarat is one of the closest things to a coin toss in the world of casino games. You either bet on the player or the banker (or the tie - a sucker bet). The rules of the house favor the banker bet, so the house charges a commission, or "vigorish", to maintain its edge over the player.

Even with the vigorish, the banker bet is the safest bet in baccarat, because the house enjoys only a 1.06% edge over the player in the 8-deck, 5% commission variety. The house has a 1.24% edge on the player bet, and a whopping 14.36% edge on the tie bet (numbers from The Wizard of Odds).

Now I told this player that in the casino game environment, the player will always be the underdog, but can eke out a positive outcome in the long run if you stay as close as you can to a 50/50 shot, or the good old coin toss. In the case of mini-baccarat, your true mathematical best shot is to play the banker bet only and work on a betting system to profit from that banker bet. My humble opinion only. He kinda had to think hard about my advice, and made a bunch of statements that revealed he was looking for quick hit every time he visited. I asked him what his bankroll was, how big his big bet was, and how he approached the time factor involved in regular gaming. He couldn't really answer. All he cared about, and all many, many regular gamblers care about, is how much they can extract from the casino in one session.

This type of thinking is pervasive and can lead to ruin. I'm beginning to bang up against this mentality at the poker tables I play. There a lot of new poker players here and they ask me now and again whether or not a play they made was correct. I then go into my regular overly verbose opinions about pot and implied odds, the long term profitability of starting hands, the beauty of skilful position play, table image, etc. The key point I try to hammer home, however, is that if you decide you will regularly wager your money, and you choose to play poker, you're already ahead. Cuz in this great game the gambler can pick his/her spots and develop a mathematical edge over time. There is no "house" advantage. We can't mess with the math. We especially can't beat the math in casino games. We can, however, put the probabilities on our side and thus ensure profit at the poker tables. This is a critical concept, one that has been made over and over again by minds much greater than mine. But this overly long essay is intended for the beginners in the local scene.

So I might as well make a leap and make some recommendation around this issue for the newer players in this great town.

1. Learn the basics of valuing your starting cards

Some cards are garbage, and will not yield a positive expectation over time, while some will be profitable over the long run regardless of the result of any one hand. If you play 7/2 offsuit in holdem and win when the flop hits you with 7 7 2, then great. Play this over and over again though, and you will, I promise, lose back every penny you won with this hand today and be severely penalized with more lost bets. However, if your AA gets sucked on by Q4o today, I can promise you that you'll earn that back and more over the next hundred times or so that you face this situation. If I could be fortunate enough to be able to make a wager only when I am at least a 51% favorite, I would be a multigazillionaire by the time my kids are in college. Look for those opportunities. Love'em like your mommy.

Use tools to learn what cards are profitable in the long term, the ones that give you that mathematical edge. Use tools like Pokerstove, books, and good websites to help you get familiar with the relative strength of different hands at their most basic, objective level. Learn the straight up math. There will be a quiz on this at the end of the week ;).

2. Learn the key concepts of Pot Odds and Implied Odds

Learn when you're getting the right price for the right payoff when faced with a call or fold decision. Get comfy with anticipating what the cost/benefit ratios will be as you move through all the betting rounds. I won't go into explaining here - just want you to be aware of the critical importance of these concepts. Most of the poker-related links I have on this blog will either give you the info you need, or lead you to a great site. Again, read books, dammit! This is worth 30% of your final grade ;)

3. Understand Bankroll Management

Key, key, key! Because the shuffle is random, you'll invariably experience bad beats, suckouts and strings of losing sessions. You'll need to experience these to learn. But if you're playing solid, knowledgeable poker, your long term expectation of profit will be met. Be patient. But make sure you can afford to be patient. Don't play stakes you can't afford. If you're getting a better ROI than a savings account would give you, keep playing poker. You can read about bankroll management on the web. Make heavy use of google. Read books.

The three points above are long learning endeavors. If you take the time, you'll find yourself a more satisfied player, and will lay the foundation for profit. The next time you play a game, be armed with some of this knowledge. Learn to put your chips in when you have a mathematical edge. Be aware of what you are doing. Remember that you profit when other people make mistakes. There will be lots of mistakes and profitable situations locally, in the short term. Play a LOT of poker. Keep records and spreadsheets. Analyze the living hell out of every key hand you play.

Remember, your profitability should not be measured by how you fare in your next game. Rather, think about profit in terms of your ENTIRE poker career.

Laro Tayo.

The Local Scene - such as it is...

Well, things have picked up since I started writing this blog back in April. In fact, my gut is also beginning to tell me we've now got some good momentum we can leverage as a community - if we can call it a community at this point.

Beyond my gut,there is some tangible evidence that there's something starting to percolate here in the Philippines. My own little group has held two NL holdem tourneys in the past 30 days, each of which has been decently attended and provided me the valuable opportunity to meet and become friends with some really great people. My original Friday poker crew has grown - we're also now spending more time learning as a group than trying to cut each others' throats in infrequent cash games. I played two home games last week, with one being a very enjoyable competition on the other side of town - and this is a very BIG town. I expect to play at least twice this week.

I'm beginning to feel this is gonna be a long ramble - apologies.

We've got a poker room that's supposed/about to open. Not open yet, but we're awaiting it. WPT is a staple on TV (albeit two seasons delayed). ESPN (Asia) will televise this year's WSOP. The Poker Club of the Philippines is running a series of gaming commission-sanctioned tourneys. Their next leg in early July will feature Pot Limit Texas Holdem and 7Stud.

My favorite local bookstore is now beginning to stock the right titles.

I think 3 people now read this blog - don't laugh, that's a 33% improvement from a week ago!

And my oh my, there's even another blogger in the local mix. Denis is a great guy, a strong NL holdem player, and his buddies are a great buncha guys too. Denis, Ricky, Kix and their crew will definitely contribute plenty to the scene going forward.

So now what am I talking about when I say the long term? I don't know exactly, because the "long term" is such a nebulous term to begin with (my next post will likely deal with the financial long term in poker). Poker will be around for the long term here. It has been here for a damn long time in its local flavors. But the scene is changing - palpably so. We've got younger guys and women taking up the game. Our last tourney boasted six women out of field of 22. 3 made the final table, and 2 monied. Average age? I don't know - perhaps 28. They are up and coming young managers, business owners, and other influential types. Today's players are gonna be the ones to take this scene to where it ought to go. Though hardly a representative sample, our experience mirrors the scene internationally and I'm real excited about that.

I'm excited because the Philippines is blessed with brilliant, skilled and competitive people (not to mention a lot of people, period...heheh). When will we produce a champion? Soon, I hope.

So I feel good about it - poker is, in my humble, humble opinion, one of the VERY few forms of gaming where a serious and talented player have a long term positive expectation of profit. Well, there's that "long term" phrase again.

So Denis, blog away, and blog lots. And as they say locally,

Laro tayo (Let's play)

Poker in Northern Metro Manila

Well, the FAPA guys have been twice kind enough to make the 1 hour or so drive to my southern neck of the woods, so when I got the call for a game on their home turf I zipped (well, as fast as you can zip in gridlock)over to the other end of town.

We played an 11 handed SNG with some real cool people, including 3 real nice folks from SolarSports, the channel to which we will be eternally grateful for bringing us the WPT. Hook me up with one of them WPT chipsets, guys...

Good game, early ram-n-jam that knocked out 3 people in 3 hands and tripled up the "pit boss", my trusty tourney director, when his aces UTG held up nicely.

I played mondo tight, as I tend to do against opponents I don't know - QQ and KK kept me in the game as the blinds escalated, but I found myself very short going into the final five - started to eye the side cash table and pined to try to get my buy-in back over there. But as luck would have it, I half heartedly raced Ah6h against AJ and paired my little card on the turn with a lotta chips in the middle. double-up, and sorry, Kix.

I picked my aggression up a "tiny" notch and played to force mistakes from opponents. Worked out, mostly, and I found myself heads up against Eric for 1st place. I started attacking with every hand that was at least a 54% fave heads-up, but got caught by QQ when I pushed with K9o. oh well...

2nd ain't bad. GG guys.

Till the next one.

Randomness...

Barb and the kids left for Vancouver today for visit, leaving me alone in this crazy town...but she monied in the 6K WSOP on Truepoker yesterday, so leaving on a high note. I'm sure she'll be lounging in the new glitzy cardrooms in town. The low stakes tourneys and home games in town will have a new participant soon. Good luck, Barb.

And...the poker party's getting some legs. Getting text messages everyday from people - even some who haven't attended the previous two - asking when the next one is. Well, I gotta get with the crew to see what works, but expect a post here real soon about date and venue.

IF you host a game, or are considering hosting one, leave a comment on any one of my posts with your cel number and I'll get in touch with you. I'll want to play of course, but if you're looking for players, I can try to help you fill your seats. So do it! When I move this site off blogger I'll add a calendar so we can all post our events here.

I called Clubs Diamondat the Pan Pacific to see if their poker room was open (I was expecting it to open this week). They said they'd open next week. Don't take too long guys, I'm itchin to play.

So that's it for today...more as more pops up.

Cheers.

Another Success

Last night's NL Holdem tourney was a blast. Good turnout - 22 players, and a lot of new faces. Thanks all for comin' out. Thanks for the use of your place, Attorney ---, it was a great setting.

Yours truly got hurt bad when I got moved off a big pot on 5th street in the early levels after I missed a flush draw, with me betting all the way till the bad (but nice) guy moved in on me. I had made second pair, and could have sworn it was good, but chickened out not wanting to bust at that moment (nice bet, Skip). Never recovered. Finally busted in an inconsequential place when I raced my BB JTo against SB AKo (which was limped to me).

BUT...having gone out that early allowed me to make some of my buy-in back at the side table AND watch the play. Great to see a good mix of tight and aggressive play, with "J.J." moving chips around nicely and snagging a lot of pots before the final table.

The regular crew showed well, and we saw four of the Friday night group at the final table, and with two finishing in the money. Nice work, Jen and Barb!

And special mention to Ken, who won (nice meeting ya bro, and nice work), who came back from the short stack at the final table and took out the chip leader in the end.

Money finishers:

Ken = 6,050
J.J. = 2200
Barbie G. (Barbiemanila) = 1700
Jen V. = 550
Marlon L. = 500

Keep you all posted for the next one.

Mabuhay.

Act of God Insurance?!?

This is a story where a tropical heatwave, a violent electrical storm, and quad Queens intersect.

So my intrepid wife, Barbiemanila, was playing a 10+1 SNG on Truepoker last night. She'd been playing her usual tight early level game until she found herself looking down at QQ in the BB with T800. There were seven players left of the ten, big stack was at about T1300.

But let me back up a bit to flesh this story out with some context. Manila has been suffering through an oppressive heatwave for the last two weeks, with 40c weather being the norm. Yesterday was the hottest, at 42c. The whole city had been perspiring profusely and praying for rain to cool things down a bit.

Well, the rain came - and did it ever. Imagine a million buckets of water poured down on your roof, and then followed by a million more. Added to this was a brilliant and loud electrical storm happening overhead and throwing a few lightning bolts down at us from time to time. Prayers answered.

Now back to the Queens. Well, the poker day hadn't gone too well for barbie to this point, so Queens in the BB was a somewhat welcome sight, especially in her position. Even better, all seven hands at the table we limped to her Queens. So playbook time - Barbie opens for 5X BB or 300. UTG calls, Mid calls, Cutoff calls Button calls, SB folds.

Flop comes a massive Q,Q,blank. Quads! woohoo. slowplay time. Barbie checks, UTG bets out 150, cutoff calls, button calls...Barbie calls, gleefully counting all the extra bets she just earned with the check.

Outside...the lightning crackled and the thunder roared...

4th street's a blank. Nuts with lotsa chips in the pot. Barbie checks again, thinking there's a high likelihood the other PP at the table's gonna bet out again. UTG leads out for 150 yet again, all the rest call, Barb now ready to jam, knowing most were pot committed at this point. Cursor moves to slider, sets it for all-in, lighting flashes..........connection gone. Barb is autofolded.

Chips gone.

Barb gone next hand.

Can we buy Act of God insurance?

Mabuhay.

Round 2 - and someboy's answered our prayers

Popular demand wins the day - and the day is Saturday, May 14, 2005. A repeat of the April 30 tourney is on. NL Holdem no-rebuy. Come on out. Leave a comment on this site with your cel number if you want in. Maxplayers=40. Last pot was 20K. Have a stab at it.

And Manila has its first poker room! How you say? "Yay!". It's at the Pan Pacific in Malate. Top floor beside Caesar's KTV and above the slot machine arcade. I popped over there and talked to Marco, the real nice guy getting things ready. Here's the scoop as far as the detail I remember. They should be opening their doors the week of the 16th. It's currently a 4-table room offering only time-limited single-table tourneys and freezouts at various buy-in levels. No cash games, and hold'em only at this time (neglected to ask, but I'm assuming NL). If you're in town and are one of the two or three people who read this blog, I'll let you know when it opens.

Thanks for doing this, guys. Check out their site.

Yay. A poker club.

Mabuhay.

OK let's play - again

Anybody interested in a repeat of April 30? Me and the group from Alabang are looking to organize another tourney this Saturday, May 14. Why? Well - we've got a lot of reusable items from the last one - like tables, cards, chips, chairs and dealers, and I've received a lot of calls and texts about a next one. And the most important reason? My wife wants me to organize a game as a mother's day present. You guys wouldn't deny a mom her wish, would you? So let's do a next one.

We can hold it at the same venue we held it in last time, or if anybody out there would like to offer up a new venue, we can work it out. We just want some tourney action.

So if you're craving action, contact me by leaving a comment here. I'll be texting all the participants from last tourney too.

I'll post buy-ins and such when I get to a good level of interest. The pot won't be smaller than the last one - 20K.

Take care and mabuhay.

Book Review - The Making of a Poker Player

In 2004, a 26 year-old Yale Math grad named Matt Matros finished 3rd in the World Poker Tour $25,000 buy-in championship and pocketed $706,000. That accomplishment alone would have been enough to get a book deal in a market gone poker-mad. Well, Matros also happened to have (or was working on) an MFA in creative writing. Even better.

The Making of a Poker Player: How an Ivy League Math Geek Learned to Play Championship Poker is Matros's contribution to the thickening canon of poker lit. I just finished it. And guess what? It's great!

It departs from the college textbook style treatment of the game that you'll find in other books, in that Matros's narrative style takes you through his evolution from kitchen table games to the final table of what was then the largest prize competitive poker had yet seen. The reader travels with him through his learning curve, his rookie mistakes, his nervous moments, and tough beats. He shares his poker life with us via anecdotes and tension-filled hand histories, and uses his experiences to deliver lessons in poker mathematics, strategy, and his brand of play.

This was the most fun I've ever had reading about pot odds, implied odds, and the overall math of poker. That's not all of course - his treatment of the intuitive side of the game - tells, reads, timing, etc., get us into his mind quite nicely.

His emphasis on his professional relationship with Russ Rosenbloom illustrates the importance of coaching and mentoring.

Read it. Available in Manila at Powerbooks.

Thanks for sharing, Mr. Matros.

Yay...it worked out!

Well, the birthday bash was a success - if I do say so myself. We had 24 players from all over metro manila come out to my neck of the woods to play some NL Holdem. Yours truly busted out in 7th place (blinded out, really - weak). Nothing extraordinary to report, except that we ran out of beer and the dips went really fast :). Special thanks to the staff and to Anton Barretto for decorating the heck out of the place.

Gameplay was interesting. Lotsa hands being played, a nice mix of beginners and more advanced players. Well...that's a nice way of saying we saw a lot of multiway pots and more than a few jams with mid and bottom pair. But hey...we ALL had a blast.

Glad to finally meet the FAPA guys out of Quezon City (and other places) - great buncha guys; can't wait to play many more games with you.

Now for the winners - keeping surnames out so we can protect those who wish their identities protected:

1. Joey Z.
2. Franco L.
3. Hans A.
4. Joel O.
5. Barbie G. (barbiemanila)

Who's gonna hook up the next game?

Here's a little action from the final table.


Mabuhay