Image via Wikipedia

First day as a Professional poker dealer is complete. I worked for a total of six hours at “The Poker Room NH” on Tuesday, January 3.

Right after I checked in, I was assigned to deal at a Limit Holdem 2/4 table (2/4 means that the bets start at $2 for the first and second round of betting, pre-flop and flop, and $4 at the turn and the river).

I was being shadowed (an experienced dealer was right behind me), and I was all nerves. This poker room is where I have been playing for the last year and I have a high regard for the dealers and their professional demeanor. And now I am one and I am in the hot seat.

It was not as easy as I hoped it would be. It turns out that each poker table has character. I was having trouble shuffling the cards and did not know why. I have had hundreds of hours practicing at home and dealing at free poker events.

It was not until a few hours later that a fellow dealer pointed out to me that some of the tables are worn in spots that makes handling and shuffling the cards very difficult. Thank you fellow dealer for that very important and helpful tip. I was having a loss of confidence until I learned about the differences between individual table tops.

I was moved from the cash games to multiple tables tournaments. It was quite an experience. The big difference is that the betting amounts and chip values are different from the cash games. There is more demand on math abilities and concentration abilities.

The main goal as a dealer is to keep the game moving as smoothly and quickly as possible. Whenever I did something incorrectly, the players would let me know, in a nice way, since I was a first time dealer. I have a limited amount of time to improve as they will not be as kind the next time I err. That so called Honeymoon period, you know.

There is always something to learn, both from my experiences and from the suggestion of other players. Last week when I was playing in a tournament, one of the players suggested that when I was the dealer that I move my arms back to my sides as soon as I spread the flop cards (the first three cards to be displayed once the initial round of betting has concluded). She had a hard time seeing the cards until the dealer moved back.

Another player suggested that I put my cards down first before pushing the pot to the winner. Sometimes the betting causes all other players to fold before dealing is completed.

Normally, I place the deck down after dealing the river card, the fifth card.

I appreciated all the suggestions, both from my fellow dealers and from my customers.

My next day at dealing will be Friday and until then I am going to practice, practice, practice.

Last year I had my worst losing year on record in online poker.

My live game is a lot more profitable. I am going to stick with live brick and mortar poker until there are more weaker players online.

In fact, I will try to wait until online poker is legal in the US. By that, I mean the money transfer part.

My goal for 2012 is to become a professional poker dealer and then become the best dealer possible.

Last year I started dealer training by purchasing an online dealer training course. The local poker room, “The Poker Room NH”, advised me to get live dealer training from “The Dealing Academy” run by Le-Ann Anderson in Haverill, MA and I did.

Last week, I went to “The Poker Room NH” and filled out the  initial employment paperwork. I also received instructions from one of their more expienreced dealers on how to deal for the MTT – multi-table tournaments – that they are offering on a regular basis.

I am one step closer to starting my goal of being a dealer.

Tomorrow, I go to “The Poker Room NH” for more orientation and hopefully a dealer assignment.

While waiting, I practice at home on the basics – the mechanics of shuffling and pitching the cards. I want to do this well enough and fast enough so that I keep the game going at a reasonable pace. The one thing I do not want to do is to interfere with the action from the players. I will control the atmosphere and the pots, but I do not want to influence the players in their decisions.

To that end, my goal is to be friendly and fair and enforce all the rules in a non-biased manner.

(this post is also posted on MomPopPow.com and titled “Here I come!”)

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I planned to enter the 7 pm Railbirds.com ranking event on LuvinPoker.com. To that end, I took a nap just before the tourney to assure that I would be at my best.

Of course, I had failed to let Diane know of my plans so when I woke up 30 minutes prior to the event, she thought I was being quite helpful in getting dinner ready.

I started to prepare the sweet potatoes while she pan fried the pork chops. I did not have much time before the event, so I wanted to speed dinner up.

With the potato in the microwave, I then warmed up our soup appetizer and served it. We ate the soup and by that time I had told Diane about the tourney.

After we finished the soup, I got online and quickly registered for the tourney. I hastily cut up my pork chop into bit size pieces and prepared the sweet potato for easy eating. I sat down on the couch with my meal and my laptop just as the tournament started.

My first two hands were easy folds. My third hand was a pair of Kings. When it was my turn to bet, I raised to $30, which was three times the big blind. I got two callers.

The flop was 5 6 10. When it was my turn to bet, I lead out with bet of $65, about 2/3 of the current pot. The two players called and the turn was a 7. Not a good flop for Kings. The pot now had about $280 and I bet out again with $160 and this time I got one caller.

The river card was an eight, a terrible card because this could complete a straight for my opponent if he already did not have one. I checked, he raised and I folded. I know my opponent and he does not bluff much, so I saved the rest of my chips for later.

My next two hands were uneventful except that I was dealt a 4 7 off suit one hand and a 7 4 off suit the next. Then I was dealt a pair of pocket Aces, AA. There were two players ahead of me that called the minimum bet of $10.

When it was my turn, I bet out $40 or four times the big blind, hoping to get only one caller. But the two players that had limped in quickly called my bet. The flop was 4 5 6 offsuit. This was not a good flop. The two players ahead of me checked. I thought it over and decided that the board looked two scary to allow either of theses players to stay in the hand and catch up to my pair of Aces.

I decided to go all in and force them to fold. Well that worked for the first limper. But as always is the case, when you get called in these situations, it is usually by somebody with a better hand.  My opponent turned over 7 8, showing a straight on the flop.

My only hope was for either of the two remaining Aces to hit the turn and the river or for an Ace and a card paring the board to give me a full house. Otherwise I would be out of the tournament.

No miracle cards hit and I was out. Just like that.  I had lost 40% of my starting stack with KK and the rest with AA.  I did not feel too badly about my play. At least I made decisions that I felt gave me the best chances based on what I thought my opponent had. I was wrong, but I could accept what had happened and not let it bother me.

In less than 10 minutes from the start of the tournament, I was out. And I was not going to reward myself with dessert.

Do you play with a plan for every hand? Do have ideas on what you will do pre-flop, flop, turn and river?  Do you also take into consideration your position at the time?

Image by ?ellie? via Flickr

In many of my previous posts, I discuss how important it is to try making the best decisions possible in playing each hand of poker.

What I may not have mentioned is that you also need to be able to emotionally detach yourself from the hands being played and playing optimally. Sadly emotions still gets in the way of my play.

Last night I was in another RailBirds.com ranking tournament.  I played most hands as optimally as possible. I folded marginal or speculative hands in early position, pre-flop.

I played top ranked hands strongly (AA, KK, QQ). However, when I got AK and opened with a raise, I got re-raised. Well, the optimal play with AK in this position is to either fold or re-raise again about the size of the pot. If my opponent re-raised again, I should assume they have a great hand and I should fold. But my emotions kicked in and my poker logic and skills went out the window. I re-raised all-in and I was instantly called.  My opponent had KK and my AK did not improve and I was out of the tourney in 28th place.

So my emotional play gets in the way of my optimal tournament play at times. This does not always happen. But it does, and I have to work on that aspect of my game.

On the bright side, I entered a private Omaha Pot Limit tourney about two hours later and came in third place out of 22 players. Only the top three players were paid. I did not stray in that game from my optimal play. Still, Omaha is a game that I am still learning.

Are you able to separate your emotions from your poker decisions? Do other players put you on tilt? Are you able to rebound when you make a bad decision?

Image via Wikipedia

Before Black Friday, which was when the DOJ shut off access to PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com and UB.com, I used to play micro stakes cash games like No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Ohama, etc.

Some of the time that I played in events sponsored by the Twitter Poker Tour (no longer active, sadly) or by RailBirds.com.

The good news for me is that RailBirds.com found a poker site that was still accepting US players, LuvinPoker.com. While making deposits is somewhat difficult for me, I joined so that I could still play poker with some of my RailBird friends.

Over the last six years I have played in probably a hundred events involving the Railbirds. I have cashed in a few, meaning that I won some money back but I had never won first place in a Railbird ranking event. A ranking event is one that Railbirds.com run and keeps score of each of the top scorers in the event. At the end of the month, the top ranking player is announced and sometimes a prize is given as well.

Well I have finally done it. I have come in first place in a Railbirds.com ranking event.

I attribrute the win as the result of making good decisions. And I attribute the good decisions to a poker book I am currently reading,“Decide to Play Great Poker”, written by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus. I am only a third of the way into the book, but it was enough to get me on the right track. When I have completed the book (which was an Anniversary gift from my wife, Diane), I intent to review it.

Do you decide to play great poker?  How did that work out for you? Is it hard to stick to a plan?

Image via Wikipedia

I am going to see if I can grind a little income playing Limit Poker at The Poker Room NH located in Hampton Falls NH just across the Seabrook NH town line on US Route 1.

I might accomplish this if I stick to a schedule of playing set hours. Perhaps from 3 pm Monday through Friday, leaving the weekends free for family events.

I think in time I would learn how most of the regulars play and that would help me make better decisions at the table.

For the most part, I intend to play Limit Hold’em at the $2/4 tables.

Post note:  I drafted this on June 19th.

I tried out the limit games and lost over $150.oo total.  Grinding they call it and grinding it is, In fact, this it is called being ground down.

I might try it again in mid July.  Wait. I  only have 3 more days to wait.

Have you ever made plans and have them go differently than you planned?

How did you handle it?  Did you make new plans?

Or did you do like I did and turtle up in my own shell,

Diane and I have been going to The Poker Room in NH.  Check out their FaceBook page by clicking this link.

Diane’s account of our Father’s Day outing is slightly different than mine.  See it at MomPopPow.com later today.

Our results in the prior visits were not too good. We lost half or more of our initial buy-ins at the limit table.

Getting used to playing Limit Hold’em when you have worked hard to play No Limit Hold’em correctly is a bit tricky.

Some people have even renamed Limit Hold’em to “No Fold’em Hold’em” and for good reason.

You see, some players will call all bets or raises right to the river with any two suited cards, no matter how small.

I have seen a player stay in the hand with a 3 4 of hearts even on a flop of A K Q of hearts and they would win, reinforcing their behavior that they did the right thing. After all, they won didn’t they … and that is all that counts, isn’t it; the number of chips that you have at the end of the session, regardless of how you had gotten them

So both Diane and I were victims of not having enough Limit Hold’em experience. But we were learning. The last time there, Diane had lost only 20% of her buy-in and I had lost only 51% of mine. As Charlie Sheen would say: #winning .

For Father’s Day, Diane suggested that we go to the poker room and who was I to say no. She was being kind to me.
You see, her idea of gambling is putting a $20 bill into a change machine and getting back $20′s in change. So going to the tables is not exactly her idea of fun and enjoyment.
On the tables today, I had actually won $21 more than my buy-in. She was not as fortunate.

At our table there were two brothers who were hoping to play a Sit N Go tournament. They needed more people to register in order for the table to start up. The buy-in was $40 and Diane suggested that I give it a try. So I did.

A Sit N Go, unlike a tournament, would last only an hour or two. It was a 10 handed No Limit Sit N Go and the starting stack was $4,000. The blinds started at $100 and increased every 10 minutes. This event was geared to move quickly. And it did. Four others busted out before I did.

The brothers were playing fine together until … The older brother was upset with his younger brother, because the younger brother bet his hand against his older brother. I guess the older bother did not know the unspoken rule,  ”there are no friends at a poker table”. But that is another tale for another time. Eventually the two brothers were gone.

At one time I was down to less than $1,600 hundred in chips and went all-in with A 5 of spades. Luckily I was called by someone having an A 3 and I doubled up. But the blinds were now at $2,000 and $1,000 and I would only have chips for one or two more cycles of play before I ran out of them.

Again I was down to about 1,600 in chips and I went all-in with 10 10. I was called with someone having King 9 off-suit. The flop contained a King and no tens appeared to help me out and I was out in fifth place. Only three winners would receive money.

I watched the remaining four players until only three players remained. I left and felt happy with my play, although I was not happy that I had lost. Time to go home.

Thank you Diane for a great day and allowing me to play some Father’s Day poker.

How did you spend Father’s day? Did you spend it with family and friends? Did you play some Father’s day poker?

Image via Wikipedia

I am still waiting for three sites to release my monies deposited with them.

TruePoker, FullTiltPoker and UB.

Supposedly TruePoker is processing my cashout check as I now have a zero balance there. But since their bank accounts have been seized by the DOJ (Department of Justice), I am not holding my breath until it gets here.

Fulltiltpoker revelations are making me feel uneasy. It appears they have comingled US player funds with their operationial funds, making it near impossible to get released for distrubution to the players.

Just this week I learned that AP/UB might only have $5 or 6 million to settle $52 million of debt.

On the lighter side, my play money account on Full Tilt Poker is now up to 168,000. I started with 1,000 on April 20th or so.

I am playing RailBird.com tourneys on LuvinPoker.com and some cash games at BlackChipPoker.com.

How are you doing cashing out?  Are you playing anywhere?

Image via Wikipedia

I am currently trying to cash out of all but two sites and so far only PokerStars has settled with me.

I am waiting for Bodog, DoylesRoom and TruePoker to “show me the money!”.

I cannot request funds from Poker Host and Carbon Poker because I am below the minimums that they allow for withdrawals. So either I deposit more money so that I can withdraw it (that is not going to happen). Or I need to win enough or lose enough to resolve those issues. I am trying the latter, winning.

As far as UB (formerly known as  Ultimate Bet) is concerned, I am probably going to lose my funds there. Maybe even FullTiltPpker will not be able to payoff their US players, although it seems like they are trying to settle up.

I am currently playing on only two sites, LuvinPoker.com and BlackChipPoker.com. LuvinPoker.com is the site chosen by Railbirds.com, a group of which I am a member.

BlackChipPoker.com has a deal with Dusty Schmidt and I got a good bonus and three free poker books to add to my 60 plus collection already. See Dusty’s blog for more details.

I really love poker and need an online poker outlet. My local poker room has only limit games and I cannot seem to beat those yet. So I have two sites left and hope that I can continue to play there, withdrawing my earnings as I go along. Hopefully.

Oh yes, I am still playing on FullTiltPoker.com. I am playing Omaha 8 on the Rush Poker Tables. I am only using play money and have built my play money bankroll to 100,000 from the 1,000 that they started me with.  I will probably continue to play at FTP as it works on the Droid phone and I can play in the middle of the night.

How are your post “black friday” plans working out for you?  Have you had any luck cashing out? What are your next steps?

Image by mandiberg via Flickr

$63,015 is my current play chip balance at FTP.

I am still awaiting their transfer back to me of my real cash balance with them since “BlackFriday“. But that is another story.

I am still allowed to play poker at FTP, but by using play chips that are free. I am also allowed to use the FTP phone app to play at the Rush Poker Tables. So when I am on the road and unable to play online at the remaining US friendly sites, I can use my SmartPhone.

The game that I play the most is Omaha 8, which means that the high hand and the low hand might both share the pot. Even though this is for play chips, I am still playing as though the chips were real money. FTP allows me a starting chip count of 1,000 which I can reload up to the 1,000 as often as I need to. Thus far, I have been able to build up my play chips from 1,000 to 63,015.

Could I do as well with real money. Probably not. I am not really sure. Losing a thousand with play chips might not bother me psychologically as real cash might. It might be harder to play if you fear losing real cash versus play chips.

With the current state of online poker and the fact that the DOJ might close down any of the remaining sites that I play on, keeps me from wanting to deposit or have on hand more than $250 at any one site. A $250 bankroll on a site allows me to safely play .02/.05 to .05/.10 games. Thus trying to win thousands that I might not ever be able to withdraw or have at this time seems a little silly to me.

Are you playing online poker? Do you use the play money option? If yes, do you treat play money the same as real?