POKER, POKER, POKER, AND MORE POKER!! and on Mother Day Too! I havent marathoned poker for a while on line and live but for the past weekend, that’s exactly what I did. I noticed Punky posted about her losing streak and really didnt want too. I think thats a common feeling among poker players even the successful ones. I posted a comment on her blog saying, “everyone has losing streaks, and anyone who says they dont, is a lyin dog!” and I know thats true. This game is the most inconsistant game ever invented because of the luck factor and the random hits of the cards. Yes, I have losing streaks. The reason I dont post about them is because my eye is on my ROI…that means my “return on investment” percentage. If I keep playing and paying and NEVER cash, my ROI percentage goes higher on the negative percentage, which means I’m losing more than I’m winning. But when my ROI gets into a positive percentage, I know I’m improving and I work even harder to make it go higher. Find your stats and ROI at this FREE site. www.officialpokerrankings.com. My ROI is so all over the charts that I sometimes have to pull up my tournament results to review what I’ve been playing. So dont get upset about your losing streaks, cuz chances are someone you know is streaking right beside you.
Now, my playing this weekend was all over the place. Friday night I played on line and nothing terrific happened. Made a couple of small cashes, but nothing to write here about. Saturday, I played at PS and madeit into the money, but again a small cash. I had planned to go to the Golden Nugget to play in a 2/5NL cash game because Steve wanted to play their tournament at 7pm. At 2pm a friend of mine called to tell me Montel Williams was at the Golden Nugget and looking for players. Next thing I know, I’m talkin to Montel on her cell phone! So I jump into my car and head down to the Nugget after I busted out of the PS tournament and pull up to a sign at valet that says, FULL, HOTEL GUESTS ONLY. Well shit, I bet they will let Thomas Jefferson park here, so I slip the valet a bill and tell him I’m here to meet Montel Williams in the poker room, a little name droppin dont hurt, and it gets me a parking space out front!….LOL
I met Montel in NYC a couple of months ago, when I worked his charity event as a tournament coordinator. He has a good memory, and was excited to see me again and talk poker of course. Since he’s left television, his schedule of projects has jammed up his calendar and he’s working hard on his game. He was running one table satellites for $250 and they had played one already before I got there, and Montel went out first. So we’re talking about how he went out, and I jump into a cash game while we’re waiting on the next table to fill up. The best NL game is 1/2NL. Every pot is raised preflop to 15, and I like this aggressiveness. I sit down with $500. Montel is standing behind me and talking, so I have shush him a couple of times when I get involved in a big hand, so he pulls up a chair to watch me play. I made about $400 in an hour, so i made my buy-in for the one table satellite. 10 handed, and Montel is 2 players to my left. We start with 10K in chips and 15 minute rounds. A fast structure so we wont play all night, it took about 3 hours. We’re paying 4 places. Well…..we soon have a crowd of people watching the tournament because Montel is very recognizable, and it gets to be a really fun time. BUT…I gotta tell ya, Montel needs some coaching on his game….lol. He was first out AGAIN, and I was surprised at the junk he was playing. I told him later, he needs to play tight in the beginning, steal in position and loosen up with the antes start as there is more in the pot to steal. Well, he tried that in the next satellite, but everyone wanted to “takeMontel out”, which stacks the odds against him. Montel stayed around until we played out the table which I bubbled on the money. It became an all-in fest and I pushed with two pair vs. one pair, and he turned his second pair higher than mine. I moved back to the cash game, I was making more money there anyway. The satellite finished and Montel started another one, $250. He begged me to play this one too, but I stayed in the cash game. All most at once I look over and see Montel standing….oh no, he looks over at me and motions to come over, I see PP Aces turned up and say, “are those yours?” yep! vs PP 3’s….I look at this kid, who is about 5 seconds older than 21 with a huge grin on his face. He had played in my satellite too, and was a terrible player, if fact I took him out. The flop comes 2/3/5….the kid flops a set, but I say, “you’ve got outs”….turn is J and river a K. He doubles thru Montel and he’s left with about 2300. I go sit down and 2 minutes later, Montel is standing again, all-in with PP K’s. He’s called with A6d. An ace flops and he’s out. He walks over to me at the cash table and says, I’m done for the night. I think playing against these inexperienced players is bad for me, I wanted to tune up my game, and I dont think this is helping. I laughed and said, “you think you’re ot going to be playing against inexperienced players at the WSOP?”…LOL. Well, the short of it was, he’ll be back in two weeks in which case we’re going to meet up and play 2/5/10NL with real money. THAT I will want to play!!!
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