I really enjoy the website and checking it daily to see what’s going on in the poker world. A dealer at the winstar casino in oklahoma told me about it. I’m from oklahoma, but now live in dallas. I’m not sure if it’s newsworthy, but on friday jan 2nd, at the Firelake Grand Casino in Shawnee, OK, my table hit the Super Bad Beat Jackpot, which was quad 8′s or better beaten, and it was up to about $91,000. The winner got 18,000, the loser got 28,000, and the table share was $6,500. It was pretty amazing…after playing in casinos for about 4 years, i thought i’d never hit a bad beat.

Thanks

No, thank you, Jon. And thank you to the WinStar dealer for introducing us to you. Seriously … sounds like it was an amazing hand.

(I do kinda like the split, though.)

An excerpt: 

Whether or not poker interests you, the bad-beat story is a form to study; everyone needs to know how to tell one. It’s an especially useful genre during a recession. With its combination of numbers, magic, hunches and statistics, the bad-beat story furnishes a nice range of narrative devices to frame a lament about losing, while making it crystal clear that the loss wasn’t your fault.

The article is much more thorough than it appears at first, going from the start of online poker in the late ’90s to Chris Moneymaker to the recent scandals at Absolute and UltimateBet. It gives the Times Magazine readers a nice overview of online poker, with one big, notable exception — Heffernan never once mentions the UIGEA (or the fallout). The overall tone of the piece is that online poker is a normal, legal activity. 

While there’s no new information for Pokerati readers, it’s a well-written article worth reading just to see how the NY Times is presenting online poker to the masses this week. One more time, here’s the link:

“Flop,” by Virginia Heffernan, The Times Magazine

Total bullshit! Though I still for the life of me can’t see how this is any different from transferring funds via TD Ameritrade, it’s not cool to know these winnings are still at risk! I mean my goodness, an extra chunk of cash, right there just a few clicks away from games bigger than I usually play? How on earth could any reasonable degenerate be expected to resist?!?

The set-up below: I had been playing at this table for 15 or 20 minutes … started with $200, and my stack was at its session peak when the hand began. While my first mistake was probably even just being in the hand, this was 6-max NL, baby! Am I wrong to think this is a game of trying to out-felt each other? Grinding is for full tables, and limit … I knew what I was doing here.*

Ugh. So greedy. What’s even worse is pocket 9s is pretty much what I put him on … possibly the nut flush draw, but probably pocket 9s or 10s … even before the river hit. When it did, I quickly assessed the sitch and decided he didn’t have the straight flush, but then I just pretended that 99 also was unlikely. Pretending can’t generally be the right move. How hard, really, in wild-crazy shorthanded NL, should it have been to just call his first bet on the chance that he did indeed hit his two-outer?

* As I say this stuff, I really do believe it, but it really just doesn’t sound like it should be right.

Textual hand history below:

PokerStars Game #21824487276: Hold’em No Limit ($2/$4) – 2008/11/07 0:44:41 ET
Table ‘Grogler II’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button

Seat 1: StitzDogg ($400 in chips)
Seat 3: RiverDan72 ($355.50 in chips)
Seat 4: Sunking25 ($136 in chips)
Seat 5: MrteddyKGB ($470 in chips)
Seat 6: TheKaas ($887.40 in chips)
MrteddyKGB: posts small blind $2
TheKaas: posts big blind $4
arfur: sits out

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RiverDan72 [6h 8s]
StitzDogg: folds
RiverDan72: calls $4
Sunking25: folds
MrteddyKGB: calls $2
TheKaas: checks

*** FLOP *** [8h 6s 5c]
MrteddyKGB: bets $8
TheKaas: folds
RiverDan72: raises $20 to $28
MrteddyKGB: calls $20

*** TURN *** [8h 6s 5c] [8c]
MrteddyKGB: checks
RiverDan72: checks

*** RIVER *** [8h 6s 5c 8c] [9c]
MrteddyKGB: bets $20
RiverDan72: raises $52 to $72
MrteddyKGB: raises $366 to $438 and is all-in
RiverDan72: calls $251.50 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($114.50) returned to MrteddyKGB

*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrteddyKGB: shows [9s 9h] (a full house, Nines full of Eights)
RiverDan72: mucks hand
MrteddyKGB collected $713 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $715 | Rake $2
Board [8h 6s 5c 8c 9c]
Seat 1: StitzDogg folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: RiverDan72 mucked [6h 8s]
Seat 4: Sunking25 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: MrteddyKGB (small blind) showed [9s 9h] and won ($713) with a full house, Nines full of Eights
Seat 6: TheKaas (big blind) folded on the Flop

I was playing very well on PokerStars this eve, so I decided to try my new-and-improving tournament game in their “Nightly Seventy Grand” — a $50+5, $70k guaranteed … with about 1,300 players, 198 get paid.

Though I made one mistake that cost me half my stack, and one fold that was correct but woulda worked out in my favor, I was still in good chip position (about 230thish with 735 or so remaining) and my head was in the right place. No tilt factor … knew to be patient and I’d get my hand.

I had already begun thinking about the glorious post I would write upon taking down the $12k first prize — and accepting in my mind that odds were still against my actual winning, so this would more likely be a battle to see just how deep I could get into the real money — but instead I got a reminder of why poker sucks “tournament pro” must be such a terrible way to make a living.

Click below for the complete textual hand history. I can’t stop thinking about it — about an hour and a half later. I’m pretty sure I played the hand itself as right as i could (pushing all-in preflop with Aces), so all I’m left with are regrets over the hand I misplayed an orbit or so earlier. Those extra chips (I was in the top 25 at the time) probably woulda been enough to push RoryClan83 and his 44 out of there, and even if not I’d still have been alive after my Aces got so painfully double-cracked.

Instead, I gave the dumbass my distinguished opponent from Del Boca the ammunition to kill me.

(He would go on to finish in 100th place, paying $105.)

PokerStars Game #21309953753: Tournament #113516614, $50+$5 Hold’em No Limit – Level V (75/150) – 2008/10/18 22:44:44 ET
Table ’113516614 44′ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DcHustlers (3618 in chips)
Seat 2: WALLSTREET1 (10040 in chips)
Seat 3: HamOnRye (3655 in chips)
Seat 4: JustAplayer2 (5990 in chips)
Seat 5: RoryClan83 (8417 in chips)
Seat 6: jackalteo (13340 in chips)
Seat 7: shaundeeb (3165 in chips)
Seat 8: RiverDan72 (5590 in chips)
Seat 9: .dfm.dfm. (1440 in chips)
shaundeeb: posts small blind 75
RiverDan72: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RiverDan72 [Ah Ac]
.dfm.dfm.: raises 1290 to 1440 and is all-in
DcHustlers: folds
WALLSTREET1: folds
HamOnRye: folds
JustAplayer2: folds
RoryClan83: calls 1440
jackalteo: folds
shaundeeb: folds
RiverDan72: raises 4150 to 5590 and is all-in
RoryClan83: calls 4150
*** FLOP *** [8c Th 7c]
*** TURN *** [8c Th 7c] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [8c Th 7c 6s] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RiverDan72: shows [Ah Ac] (a pair of Aces)
RoryClan83: shows [4d 4c] (a straight, Four to Eight)
RoryClan83 collected 8300 from side pot
.dfm.dfm.: shows [9d 9s] (a straight, Six to Ten)
.dfm.dfm. collected 4395 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12695 Main pot 4395. Side pot 8300. | Rake 0
Board [8c Th 7c 6s 5h]
Seat 1: DcHustlers folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: WALLSTREET1 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: HamOnRye folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: JustAplayer2 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: RoryClan83 showed [4d 4c] and won (8300) with a straight, Four to Eight
Seat 6: jackalteo (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: shaundeeb (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: RiverDan72 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: .dfm.dfm. showed [9d 9s] and won (4395) with a straight, Six to Ten

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

Audio

I got a call yesterday at the WSOP from the Butler. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple months — not since me and my jiu-jitsu coach and heavy metal teacher got booted out of our sweet pad (pool table, poker table, dart board, 65-inch HDTV, Strip-view bedroom, fireplace/jacuzzi bathroom, no utilities) on the Eastside. We of course knew all was headed south when the Butler — the guy who set the whole housing arrangement up — walked into our casa unannounced to do a cocaine deal, and shortly thereafter got busted by The Boss (who owned the house, in theory, though not on paper) for stealing rent money.

(I met the Butler last year at the WSOP, as he was trying to sell his private concierge services to poker players and convince me to turn him into a recurring character on Pokerati.)

Anyhow, so I got a call from an unknown 973 number yesterday that I answered in the press box. “Hey, Dan, it’s John. Are you at the Series? How’s it going?”

“Um, uh, pretty good? We’re just getting rolling … so what’s up? Did you make it to Kansas City?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good. I’m calling because I need a stake.”

“Yeow, dude … can’t help you out. Wouldn’t know how to get you money if I could.”

“Western Union.”

“Sorry, man Have you tried Tom? His number is 602-97… .”

“Well, I guess I’m going to be homeless at 11 o’clock. I guess I’ll just be a bum on the street. I can do that, right, be a bum?”

It all makes me a little sad, frankly … because I think this time he was being serious. And what’s worse I really saw it coming. Maybe not so fast … but eventually he had to go bust. I had played poker with the guy once before, and even though he cleaned me out in some no-stakes mixed games, I knew he was a terrible player, and he thought he was really good. He’s the kinda bombastic, arrogant, loose-aggressive guy any mediocre 1/2 player could talk to for five minutes — not even needing to play a single hand — and realize how easy it would be to crush him, presumably for way more money than he had to lose.

Anyhow, after being booted from The Boss’s house and blaming his misfortune on the employer from whom he was stealing, the dude had nowhere to go, no vehicle, no money, a criminal record, and for whatever unknown reason, no family to fall back on. He headed back toward home in Colorado, and from there somehow managed to wrangle up about $1,800 doing odd jobs for old friends/acquaintences. With that, he planned to head East — “the games are really soft in the Midwest,” he said — and make his living as a pro / “chase a $200,000 bad beat jackpot” at Harrah’s in Kansas City.

Right. Exactly. I know. Listen to the audio for yourself and draw your own conclusions:

Bankroll management with the Butler

Sorry to have already given away the ending, but it was supposed to be kinda a funny post originally, where I would share with you the phone messages he left me seeking guidance on his poker plan. I knew what y’all would say if I asked for Pokeratizens to provide the Butler bankroll-management/game-selection advice … and we’d all have a good laugh about how poker-smart we are and others aren’t.

Tight is wrong! That or I shoulda thought longer to keep him on the hand I put him on on the flop.

Two questionable all-ins later (one of which fell victim to a three outer) I find myself down about $500 and some change. Have already put a call in to Goldfarb to talk me through this mini-meltdown.

I came home from the WSOP with the plan of rebuilding the portion of my bankroll that was expended in tournament buy-ins over the past two months. I was counting on the super-juicy $40/$80 and $60/$120 limit hold ‘em and mixed games at CA (Casino Arizona) to do the trick. I’m not off to a good start. There is a $1,000 buy-in tournament at CA on August 18, limited to 450 players with a guaranteed $250,000 1st place prize. I am planning on winning, so that just might get me even for the series.

I have always kept perfect records of every session of casino poker I have ever played and whenever I have an especially brutal run, I have found comfort in being able to reflect on the bottom line. As long as I can boot up the spreadsheet and see black ink, I can remind myself that I am a winning player. Individual losses hurt, but it’s one long game.

The Players: F I2 O G G Y (Karridy, duh.) -vs- Raistlin32
The Prop: Online heads-up, Best of seven.
The Bet (Summary): Loser will wear a sandwich board, created by the winner, for 30 minutes at the intersection of the winner’s choosing.

I have just the intersection in mind. Muuuhahaha. Photos and video to follow soon!

Compounding the problem is the weirdness of the rebuy structure. Let see if I can explain it without writing an encyclopedia. First hour, you can rebuy as many times as you like: $20 for 1,000 chips if you get below the initial 1,000 that cost you $40. Or if you bust out, you can buy 1,000 for $20 or 2,000 for $40. Then at the hour break, you can add on 2,000 chips for $20 or 4,000 for $40. Correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like the thing to do is not even show up the first hour (or play extremely carefully) and take the value add-on(s) at the break.

Back at the hand: You guessed it. The raiser sucked out, hitting a straight on the river.

NEXT UP: More gambling. No, not poker but a trip to “beautifully restored” downtown Tunica.

ALT HED: mannysbadbeats.com

Show starts at 7 pm central time.

Also, Eddie and Brad, what’s up with your near non-presence on AM-1300′s website? I swear, sometimes they treat you like second-class citizens there. I’d say it’s probably because you are only about poker and there are very few Longhorns at the final table, but really it probably has more to do with Eddie’s being black. Seriously, like you’re not even listed in the line-up. When you go to company parties, do you have to drink from a separate water fountain?