Minor Update

So after being broke (and by broke, I mean really broke, not poker broke) for a month, my december is shaping up nicely. However, I need to make a big push for the next 10 days so that I can start a comfortable January. I doubt that I will be able to repeat my success this month (the whole story will be in an end-of-the-year post. It is waaay too long and I want to see how it all shapes up first).

Anyhoo, yesterday I went to Oaks for the first time in ages and accomplished a personal poker goal: I played live Seven Card Stud! I sat in the biggest game they had (4/8 lol) and played. It took me awhile to get used to the live game (the dealers are really good there. It must be a bitch to deal stud and they kept the game moving), but I did fairly well in it. That's not to say I made money (-$40), but I was playing good poker. There was this one elderly asian guy on my immeadiate right who I could read like a book and I don't mean his facial expression. Just by looking at his up cards and how he bet, I was able to put him on specific hands. One of the reasons I am down was because he completed with a K door card and reraised him with A high. Of course, this donk comes along for the ride and makes a weird two pair, but the asian did only start with K high and I was fairly happy with my reads on him.

I did make some mistakes, however. I would sometimes chase to 5th street when I shouldn't and I missed some bets because the way the table played was weird. Here is a good hand that shows both good play and poor play on my part.

It is a 3-way pot and I have wired sevens. A guy who plays solid hands (but plays his draws aggresively completes and I call as does the bring-in. I make trips on 4th and the raiser makes J8h. The bring has another low card for the straight. Here's where I make a great play and screw up. J8 Bets, I call, and the other guy calls. I put J8 on the heart draw and the other guy on the straight draw. Now here's the brilliant part. I knew the straight guy needed my 7s for the straight and I decide to let him into the pot because he isn't getting the right odds to chase with so many dead cards. However, I got way too clever and missed a bet on 6th street and gave away some free cards. I should have just bet out when it became obvious both guys missed their draws. I let another player make a mistake, but that led to a mistake of my own. I learned a bit about the game that I would never pick up online (game is waaay different) and if I didn't have a short session (3 hours and live stud is a slow game) I probably would have made it in the positive.

Well, this "minor" update has gone on too long. So I'm back, baby, and hopefully for good.