The Secret to My Success

I was actually wearing Old Spice Hawkridge deodorant last Friday. I suspect that's why I did so well.

Project Flying Panther session #2 has been moved up a day to today. Nothing will put you in the mood to play like winning! I'll let you know how the Bay 101 $20/$40 treats me.

Project Flying Panther Session #1 - Fly Panther Fly

Project Flying Panther kicked off in earnest last night at The Oaks Club. After locking in commitments from my backers, coming up with a plan for the next 3 months and collecting the cash I was ready to put part of my $10,000 starting bankroll into play.

I rolled in to the Oaks with $2,500 in my pocket planning to play $15/$30, but ready to play $30/$60 if the game looked good. Both games were full, and the $30/$60 looked tougher than normal so I opted to play '200 Max' while waiting for the $15/$30.

200 Max plays effectively like a no limit game, but technically it's a spread limit game. The blinds are $2/$4, the most you can buy in for is $400, and the biggest bet you can make is $200. Since most players have around $400 or less in front of them and with one $200 bet and one $200 raise you can get $400 in the middle, it's easy enough to get it all in when two big hands collide. It might seem stupid to have this $200 cap - and it is - but it's actually a matter of The Oaks Club license specifying that bets in all poker games can't be larger than $200.

A new 200 Max game was starting as I walked in the door and I bought in for $400. My first hand was in the big blind and before the cards were dealt the player to my left put out an $8 live straddle - meaning he'd put in $8 blind for the right to act last before the flop - which is a generally bad play, but creates more action for that hand.

I looked down at K6 of spades. The button, the small blind, and I called, the straddler checked his option and the flop came down A Q 3 with no spades. Total miss for me right? Wrong!

The action got checked around to the button who bet $20, the small blind called the $20 and it was up to me. Thinking "Did this guy on the button really just call preflop, in position with a ace? I doubt it." I decided to put my opponents to the test. After a short hesitation I pushed $80 in to the pot and they both quickly folded. Huzzah! One hand in and I was up $67. After that I picked up my chips, paid off all my backers a .67% return on their investment and canceled Project Flying Panther. Just kidding!

I had a few other noteworthy hands come up in short order. On the first I open raised to $12 with AJ, got 3 callers and had the big blind go all in for $29. I made it $129 hoping to blow all the callers off the hand and go up against the short stack. I got one stubborn call from a stubborn old man somewhat foiling my plan. The flop came down KT4 and I bet out $100 with nothing but a gutshot. The old man paused, then folded and I added his $100 to my stack. After a turn/river of T and 4 I split the rest of the pot with the short stack who also had a bare ace.

Shortly after, I picked up KK and made it $16 to go. A very loud, boisterous 30 something man to my left splashed out pile of chips that looked to be about $90. When it got back to me he started saying "OOOHHH Put me all in! Put me all in. Let's go. Do it. All in, let's go." Happy to grant his wish with my big pocket pair, I put out $290 which was just enough to get him all in. He quickly called and the board came out J 2 2, king on the turn (ZING!), and a 5 on the river. My opponent hopefully rolled over AK, and I squashed that hope with my full house.

I took another $100 off the stubborn old man (who was now short stacked) when the flop came down J 8 7 and I had KJ. All the money went in on the flop, the turn was an 8, and the river was a J.

After an hour and 45 minutes they finally called my name for $15/$30 and I made my way to table 18 with $617 in profit from the 200 Max game.

I bought in for an even $1,000 and spent the first hour mostly folding. By mostly I mean, almost nothing but folding. I saw a couple of flops and won 1 small pot. This wasn't any type of thought out strategy; it was just a matter of getting shitty cards. As I started the second hour at $15/$30 I had about $750 in front of me.

But all that folding gave me a very tight table image and I took advantage of it. Over the course of the following hour I successfully stole the blinds 4 times with marginal hands and chopped out a few other small pots post flop with bluffs or semi bluffs.

I had one hand come up that I think I played especially well that brought me back to a hand I played in February 2007. I was at the Commerce Casino and it was the first time I ever played $100/$200. I raised to $200 with AK, got one caller in the field and the big blind called as well. The flop came down K 9 3 with two hearts. The player in the big blind check raised me, I three bet it, he four bet it, I called and thought "Oh shit! I put in $200 before the flop, $400 on the flop, and by the time I call the turn and the river, this hand is going to cost me $1,000 and this guy looks like he loves his hand! AHHHHH!" Sure enough my opponent bet the turn and the river (which were both small non hearts), I called both bets, and he rolled over his hand like it was the fucking super nuts. He had KT and I took it down.

At the time I thought, "What the hell was that? Why would he cap in on the flop with a one pair and marginal kicker?" Later I realized that he figured that if I had a hand that was strong - like AK or AA - I would have called the flop check raise and waited for the turn to raise and that by three betting on the flop that must mean I was on a draw or a marginal hand looking for the turn to go check, check. This hand always stuck with me because it was a bit of an epiphany when I figured out his reasoning.

Back to the present at $15/$30! I raised in early position with 99 and got called by the button and big blind. The flop came down 872, all hearts. I had the 9 of hearts in my hand and fired out $15. The button made it $30, I made it $45 and he made it $60. This is where I thought to myself "Ah ha! That is probably a draw, if he really had a flush already - or something else that could beat my over pair - he'd likely just call and wait for the turn to raise." So when the turn came out a black 5, I bet out instead of checking which would be the standard thing to do when you have one pair and someone just 4 bet it on the flop.My opponent just called, the river paired the 2 and he folded to my river bet.

It sounds simple enough when you break it down, but I can tell you it's not easy betting one pair, on a suited board into a guy that just 4 bet you.

In the end I booked a $268 win at $15/$30 after playing for 2 hours, bring my total for the night to +$885. Project Flying Panther is off to a solid start! Session 2 is going to be a trip to Bay 101 on Tuesday night for some $20/$40 action.

Taking on Backers for Project Flying Panther

The first time I took on backers in a big way was when I went to the 2006 WSOP. I played 10 events, including the main event, and had my ass handed to me cashing only once. I gave plenty of disclaimers, but still felt a little guilty since all of my backers were friends and family. Other times I've won people thousands of dollars. In those instances I was generally happy to win money for other people, but still sometimes felt a little regretful that I didn't have all my own action.

It sounds like a lose/lose awful clusterfuck! But in some instances there is a strong rationale for selling some of your action and it doesn't have to be because you're broke (although that is probably the main reason most people take on backers).

I've decided to take on some backers and put together a $10,000 bankroll to play some bigger cash games and here is the rationale I gave them (In a bitchin' power point presentation!):

• Effective rake reduction – For example playing at $6/$12, $4 comes out of every pot, plus a $1 dealer tip. If I play $15/$30 with 40% of my own action, I take the same personal risk, but pay $1.60 per pot in rake and tip $0.40. If I win four pots per hour this is a $12 per hour savings.
• Game evaluation – I’d like to do some analysis on to what degree the larger games are beatable, without subjecting my bankroll to major swings
• Fun – It’s more fun to play higher stakes against tougher opponents.
• Progress – I never plan to play poker full time again, but that doesn’t mean I want to grind it out at $6/$12 either. I want to make progress in the time I use.

You can only take the first bullet so far because as you move up you also encounter tougher opponents, but the power of the rake is not something to be taken lightly and I think it is generally underestimated by most players. I would also add, build good will for future backing opportunities. I'd love to go play every event at the WSOP as $500 tournaments and sell off the rest.

So what is Project Flying Panther? Basically it's me using $10,000 to play limit cash games in the $15/$30-$40/$80 range and NL Cash games in the $2/$4-$5-$10 range over the course of 3 months. Session 1 will be this Friday night and since I'm obligated to my backers to keep them posted, a recap of every session will appear on this blog.

How did I come up with the name Project Flying Panther? I used this project name generator - http://online-generator.com/name-generator/project-name-generator.php and it was the first name that got spit out. But now I love it! Project Flying Panther bitches!

The Road to the 2014 WSOP Starts Now

I have 6 WSOP Cashes after playing in about 35 events. From 2005-2010 I played at least 3 events every year. But, as I transitioned out of playing poker 50 hours a week and in to a 9-5 job all of a sudden playing at the WSOP was not an option.

For 7 years had a bankroll that was usually in the $25,000-$50,000 range and now it was literally zero. I wasn't broke, I still had money. But for all of 2011 and the first half of 2012 even playing a $150 tournament meant going to the bank and taking money out of the checking account. Playing a $1,000 tournament went from a calculated investment to seemingly the same as spending $1,000 to take a cruise or buy a new TV. I moved on from my dreams of winning a WSOP bracelet.

But, after all that time off I've been playing again and I'm starting to feel that fire again. Two 4 hour sessions a week is all I can manage with a standard job and 2 kids, but my results have been steady and strong.

Mentally I have totally reset. A $200 win feels like how a $2,000 win used to feel. I can play small games without being bored. But I still have the skill I accumulated over 7 years as a full time pro and I am pounding the shit out of the amateurs I'm playing. $500 has bloomed in to $7,000 over the past 9 months playing small stakes limit and no limit cash games a few hours a week.

It's been nice to win some walking around money and be able to take care of some minor expenses, but I want and am capable of more.

I've been following the early stages of this years WSOP with great interest and massive envy. People that I know are there. Guys I used to play against on daily basis are now well know names. Friends ask me if I'm going this year and I have to tell them no.

But next year I'm going to be back and I'm going to do it right.

8 hours a week, gives me just over 400 hours to prepare. Right now my bankroll is about $3,000. My goal is to have it up to $10,000 by June 2014 so I can have enough to play 3 $1,500 events plus spend $500 on expenses (that's probably a little lite) and only have it suck up half of my bankroll.

Along the way, I'll need to spend enough time in the cash games to earn and enough time in tournaments that my game is sharp. After playing over 2,000,000 hands of poker some tactics are burned in my brain forever, but anyone who competes at anything can get better with practice. Unfortunately I can't blast out 20 multi-table tournaments in a Sunday like I could when Pokerstars was up and running in the US. But I can play the local $100-$300 tournaments. I'd like to play 25 of those over the next year in preparation.

I have another milestone in my line of sight - the WSOP Circuit event in Lake Tahoe October 24th-November 4th. I'm hoping to make it up there for at least one weekend to try to win a WSOP Ring in the more modest $300-$500 events.

I have to admit that working on a year long plan is going to create some added pressure if all goes according to play and I end up back at The Rio in 2014, rubbing elbows with the world best poker players. So I'm going to add, make it fun, and make it as stress free as possible to my goals. I also want to be in the best shape of my adult life coming in those tournaments so I can be as sharp as possible. I weigh 25 pounds less than I did in 2010 so I'm on my way, but can still make more headway.

To recap here are my goals:

-$10,000 bankroll by June 2014
- 400 hours of play by June 2014
- 25 local tournaments played by June 2014
- Play in a Lake Tahoe WSOP Circuit Event
- Continue to improve my physical fitness
- Make it fun

And lastly, blog about it. It's great to have this record of my past poker adventures and I'd like to get back in the habit.

Open Faced Chinese Poker Strategy - 10 Tips

If you do a search for "open faced chinese poker payouts" you'll find my last post is the third hit on Google (it was second for a while). I consider it no small feat to show up on the first page of Google so I figured I'd shoot out another, more complete post about OFCP now that I've had a chance to play it a few times.

The Rules and Payouts

Here is a brief recap of how to play from cardplayer.com

Like regular Chinese (high), Open-Face Chinese is structured into three hands of descending value, 1. A five-card hand in the back (the strongest) 2. A five-card hand in the middle and 3. A three-card hand “up top.” If your middle is stronger than your back hand or your top is stronger than your middle, you “foul.” Open-Face Chinese can be played with two to four players and begins with five cards dealt to each player. The player left of the button places the five cards anywhere in the back, middle and top (not to be moved at any other point in the hand). Afterwards, each player is dealt one card at a time, starting from the left of the button, until 13 cards are dealt to each player. The goal is to make the strongest possible hand, accumulate as many royalties as possible without fouling.

The widespread royalty system gives 20 points in the back for a royal flush, 10 points for a straight flush, eight for quads, six for a full boat, four for a flush, and two for a straight. If any of those hands are achieved in the middle, the royalties are doubled. On top, you get one point in royalty for every pair over sixes up to nine points for aces.

The way we play you also get 10 for trip deuces up front adding one unit for each rank on up to 22 for trip aces.


Left out of this description are a couple of important points. First of all, you compare your front hand, middle hand and back hand to that of each of your opponents and if you beat an opponent in 2 of 3 spots you win 1 unit. If you win all 3 or the other person has a foul hand and you have a legit hand you win 6 units. Why 1 and 6 and not 2 and 4 or 1 and 2? It turns out there needs to be a strong disincentive you fouling.

Secondly, the player to the left of the button sets his (or her) 5 cards and exposes them, before the next player sets his cards and so on. This is important because as you see more cards exposed it gets easier and easier to decide which way to set your initial hand.

The third key point is the player to the left of the button resolves payment with the other players first and then the second player and so on. This is important because if the first player has a foul hand he pays everyone and then his hand is mucked. Imagine that all 4 players have a foul hand. The first player pays players 2, 3, and 4 while the second player would only pay players 3 and 4, and player 3 would only pay player 4. Player 4 pays no one and collects 18 units.

10 Strategy Tips!

So far the only strategy I've seen in print is "avoid fouling your hand." This game is very complex and I'm sure you could write a whole book about it, but here are a few tips that go beyond, don't foul.

#1 - Throw that basic advice out the window! You have to take some risks. If you're too afraid of fouling your hand, you'll never collect on the big payouts. As in many other forms of poker, in the long run playing it safe is not safe at all.

#2 - When you're in first position focus more on making a legit hand, and take more risks when you're in later position. If you foul in early position you have to pay everyone at least 6 units. In later position you'll collect from other players with foul hands in front of you even if you foul. Don't take this idea too far - you still have to go for it in early position if the situation warrants it, but if you have a decision to make, keep this in mind.

#3 - Rarely start with a pair up top even if it's one that pays. For smaller pairs the payouts are worth the risks and for larger pairs, it's just too hard to put together a fair hand when you start with a pair up top.

#4 - Straights underpay. It's usually not worth risking a foul hand to go for a straight in the back. Of course if you end up with 4 big cards to a straight, you want to get them in back, but don't risk paying everyone else 6 in an effort to collect a 2 unit royalty.

#5 - Even though you don't want to start with pairs up front, you're best chance of collecting a royalty over 6 is with a big pair up front. Don't be a pussy!

#6 - Realize that if you're playing four handed and.there is only 1 card left in the deck that makes your hand, you have a 25% chance of getting it (assuming all players have been dealt and even number of cards to that point). Someone has to get it right? It doesn't feel right to look at a stack of 32 cards with only one in there that helps you and think you're going to make your hand 1/4 of the time, but that's how it works.

#7 - The other math is more complicated. Let's say there are 3 cards left out of 12 that make your hand. What are the chances of hitting (playing 4 handed)? You'll get three of those cards. On the first card you have a 3/12 chance of hitting. On the second card you're chances are (3/11)*(1-3/12) and on the third card you're chances are (3/10)* (1-((3/11)*(1-3/12)+ 3/12)). Kind of a mess right? Add those three chances up and you get 61.8%. The point here is that the math is not super simple and it's not like hold'em where you can memorize a 8 or 10 sets of odds and have a mostly complete picture of the math. Maybe I'll do more math in a later post!

#8 - Be aware of situations where you can make a fair hand and still get scooped by everyone. There's no reason to focus on making a fair hand if you're just going to lose to everyone else anyway. Sometimes you have to do things that are very risky in order to give yourself any chance at all.

#9 - Be aware of situations where it looks like multiple other players are on the way to fouling. In these spots cancel your plans to go for the royalties and make a hand that is fair.

#10 - You're front hand is the garbage depot. If you're unsure how to set your first 5 cards, lean towards none up front or your lowest card up front.

Bonus! Take your time and be aware of the cards that are out before you make any decisions.

Comments

If you agree or disagree with any of these concepts, sound off in the comments. Some discussion will help us all improve!

Open Faced Chinese Poker

I've recently heard about a new game - Open Faced Chinese Poker - that sounds awesome. In regular Chinese Poker each player gets 13 cards and you split them into a 5 card back hand, 5 card middle hand and a 3 card front hand with the back needing to have a higher poker rank than the middle and the middle needing to have a higher value than the front. Win 2 of 3 for a win and 3 of 3 for a scoop which pays double.

My friends and I used to play this game as a way to kill time, but many of the big name poker pros have been known to play for big stakes. Another wrinkle is royalties. With royalties a player collects for meeting certain conditions like a flush in each of the three hands, or any quads or whatever.

In Open Face, 5 cards are dealt to each player and set. Then the other 8 to each player are dealt 1 at a time with a player choosing which hand gets which cards and tons of royalties - A straight or better pays in the back hand (2 units for a straight, 4 for a flush, 6 for a full house, 10 for quads, 15 for a straight flush, 20 for a royal flush) trips or better in the middle and a pair or better in the front with the top payouts (e.g. a Royal Flush in the middle or trip aces up front) paying 40 betting units.

Here is short video about the game http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/3-strategy/poker-videos/4917-poker-strategy-how-to-play-open-faced-chinese-poker

I have no fucking clue about the strategy, other than avoid fouling your hand at all costs. If you end up in a spot where you are down to the last card and can't place it legally, you get scooped by everyone (which is worth 6 units, not 2) and pay all royalties.

Tomorrow my poker savvy friends are coming over and we're going to play 4 handed. If I'm able to come up with any strategy tips I'll let you know.

Playing More than Just Hold'em

A few years ago I started player HORSE (a mix if Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, 7 card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Eight or better) when Pokerstars established a nightly $109 buy in tournament with a $5,000 guarantee. This tournament always went off with either 48 or 40 players meaning there was always $200 or $1,000 added to the prize pool by Pokerstars in order to meet the guarantee. This seemed too good to pass up. The first time I played this tournament I won and out of the first 5 times I played I had another 1st and a 2nd place finish (clearly there was some running hot involved here) as well.Eventually they dropped the guarantee to $3,000 but not before I personally punished them on it.

A couple of other big items on my poker resume came in HORSE tournaments as well: 1) My second biggest win ever was $37,500 for finishing 4th of 444 in a $1,000 HORSE tournament and 2) I was about 90 minutes from day 3 of the $3,000 HORSE event at the 2009 WSOP when I finished 28th of about 450 in the most loaded with big name pros field I've ever faced.

So I wasn't exactly out of my element when I sat down to play $6/$12 Omaha Hi-Lo at the Oaks last night (oh how times have changed!). Since my last post I had a nice win followed by a 4 figure loss and I was in the mood to play smaller stakes and book a win just to get the momentum back in the right direction. I discovered that my opponents all either knew the basics or knew nothing about how to play Omaha.

In Omaha you get 4 cards, which can go together in 6 possible combinations of two cards (you must use exactly two cards from your hand and exactly 3 from the board of community cards). This allows the really bad players to almost always find something they like about a hand and it also means that it's much more common to make a literally unbeatable hand. When you put these two together you get a lot of loose action where many people are calling often, but only raising when they have the nuts (and raising close to 100% of the time they have the nuts).

I seemed to be the only person at the table capable of pushing the 2nd or 3rd nuts when it was obvious that no one had the nuts or folding the 2nd or 3rd nuts when someone raised because it was one of the 5 people at the table would only raise the absolute nuts. It was a fabulous game.

I played for about 4 hours and with a very average run of cards booked a $200 win. But I also got a nice reminder that I have a lot of knowledge locked away that's still there and still has value. I can still get it done at the Omaha table and I'd bet I can still get it done playing HORSE or PLO or 2-7 triple draw or any game you'd find in a poker room...OK maybe not Badugi, but that hasn't really caught on yet.

My wife is sick, but if she recovers enough to handle the kids I just might play a $600 tournament at Lucky Chances tomorrow morning that has a first place of $40,000. If I play I'll let you know how it goes.