Sensei’s Poker Dojo

This is pretty much how I feel about poker, so I reckon he’d do pretty well for himself. Assuming that he could finish an orbit without kicking somebody through a wall.

So I finally managed to wake up a little earlier on our last day in town (about 2pm, heh). But since everybody else was out and about, I hung out at the apartment for a while. The band was playing one last show at night, in Montmartre, so we headed up that way beforehand intending to get a nice dinner and check out some things beforehand. Montmartre is about the only place in Paris with any hills, and as a neighborhood reminded me a little of San Francisco both for that and for the general atmosphere. We ate dinner at a little restaurant/bar, and I finally got to eat the onion soup I had been craving. In America its referred to as “French onion soup” but in France they just call it onion soup. In any case, it was delicious, and all of the elements were at their best: hearty soup (but not too salty like the standard American version), fresh bread chunks (instead of hard croutons), and delicious french cheese that melted into the rest of it with ease. The confit du canard (thigh of duck, a pretty traditional French entree) was good, too. We had a craving for some chocolate mousse, too, but by the time we finished it was getting close to closing time for the Sacre Coeur nearby so we left and started heading up the stairs towards the top. The Sacre Coeur is a big fancy church on top of the biggest hill in Montmartre, and thus all of Paris. Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got up to it, but the outside was enough to look at, and it also served as a great vantage point for the rest of the city. I was pretty excited about the gargoyles on its sides, because gargoyles are sweet and aren’t put on buildings nearly often enough.

After finishing off the rest of our bottle of wine at the top of the hill (surrounded by French teenagers who had pulled their cars up to hang out and play crappy music on their car stereos) we headed down towards the bar where the band was playing. Despite being a few hours later than the expected starting time, they had just begun their set, which lasted for several hours due to none of them really wanting to stop playing, and none of the fans present minding too much. Eventually we caught a cab home, but for some reason the keypad to get into the building wasn’t working, and we had left the keys behind (who needs keys when you have a keypad!). A minor setback, since we were planning to go hang out nearby at the apartment of one of the other dudes in the band anyhow. So, we spent the rest of the night hanging out in various apartments and eating crepes from a little corner place that was open all night or close to it. Crepes are awesome, by the way.

We finally headed back to our place around 6:15 to wait for somebody to come through so we could get in, and actually didn’t have to wait long at all since the custodian was right there when we arrived. It was somewhat difficult to convince him to let us in, since he didn’t speak English, but he eventually gave in. A few hours later, we headed out and took the RER to the airport, and started the long, long flight home (via Toronto). I slept the entire first leg, which was about 7 or 8 hours, and then spent the second sleeping a little more and then watching about 5 episodes of Lost.

It’s good to be back. The hammock that I ordered has arrived and is now in place on my roof, and the sushi restaurant across the street that has been teasing me by not opening for months is finally open for business, so things are looking up! I will probably try to stay around here for a while now. I’m a little weary of all the traveling, as enjoyable as it is.

Slept in late again yesterday, not too surprisingly. I doubt I’ll be able to adjust before I leave. So it goes. I had to finish up working on a video for DC, but right about the time I finished up everybody else came home along with some other friends and we hung out drinking wine and eating sandwiches for the better part of the rest of the day/night. Hard to tell whats what sometimes around these parts, heh.

Today I woke up a little earlier, but still super late. We went to the Modern Art museum nearby and walked through most all of it. There was a whole lot of cool stuff there, along with a lot of nonsense that I’m not sure I’d consider “art” but I guess I’m not in charge of all that. I spent a long time afterwards watching Lost, I’m pretty hooked at this point. Good thing they’re all on DVD, I can’t imagine watching them otherwise. Hopefully tomorrow I can get up a little earlier and go outside and check out some more Parisian stuff, and eat more bread and cheese. It would be nice if it wasn’t so cold and rainy, too… I don’t take kindly to cold rain.

So the jet-lag monster decided that waking me up super early wasn’t fun enough for it. Yesterday I didn’t get out of bed until 6 PM. It wasn’t a very eventful day as a result. My roommate’s band did play their first show in the evening, which was a pretty good time. Afterwards we hung out at one of his friend’s apartments with the rest of the band and some other assorted folks for a while, and then headed home.

Today I would have liked to have gotten up a little earlier, but I didn’t manage to do it, so it was another low-key day. The band played another show, but since I wanted to watch Duke play their second round game and I had some work to do, I stayed home. Turns out the game was awful (the day Duke loses in the NCAA’s is always one of the worst days of the year) and the work wasn’t easy due to some computer issues. Meh. Hopefully tomorrow I can wake up earlier and actually do something interesting. I am all the way over here in Paris, after all.

Well, the jet lag reared its stupid head early today; I got up at about 6AM, unable to sleep anymore despite not heading to bed until maybe 1 last night. Everybody else also got up shortly thereafter for the same reason, and then the sun came up (on the plus side, the sunrise was kinda nice from our top-floor apartment). We moseyed out to get some breakfast at a cafe nearby around 8 (I had a sandwich with proscuitto, blue cheese, and walnuts), then went to a supermarket to stock up on the essentials for the kitchen: wine, cheese, Orangina, and some other foodstuffs. I also picked up a few baguettes, which I was pretty excited about. Parisians really know how to bake their bread, so I’m planning to eat a lot of it while I’m here. We then returned to the apartment and loafed around eating bread for a while, then headed out to lunch north of the Champs Elysees.

After lunch we rode the metro down to Montparnasse to try and check out the catacombs, but they were closed for some reason. I guess the skulls were on vacation. To make the best of the situation, we walked towards the Tour Montparnasse, the tallest skyscraper in Paris which happened to be nearby, to try and check out the view from the top. We wandered through a cemetery on the way there too, but there wasn’t much for us there what with being alive and all. So we carried on towards the tower. Once we got there, though, we discovered that it cost 10 Euros to ascend, and after looking through the little guidebook that showed you which buildings were what we decided it wasn’t worth it and just moseyed on. We strolled up Rue des Rennes towards St Germain, stopping briefly for some pick-me-up coffee, then continued back towards our apartment. Before crossing the Seine we visited the somewhat legendary Shakespeare and Co. bookstore (English-language, thankfully) and I picked up another book to add to my little reading queue (which currently has a nice little backlog going: first I have to finish The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Talib, then The Pilgrimage by Paolo Coelho, then Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan). We crossed the river and returned to our apartment just in time to meet my roommate at the designated time (he had stayed back to practice his music or something but ended up just sleeping all day instead). I decided that was a pretty good idea and took a nap around 5:30, and didn’t even come close to waking up until 9 when it was time to eat some dinner: a simple but tasty homecooked pasta carbonara.

After dinner we went out to meet up with one of the other guys who’s playing in the band, and had a few drinks at some bars nearby. Unfortunately, beers are really expensive here: the pints at the Irish pub we went to were 9 or 10 Euros a piece. Its a good thing I’m robusto, and also that the bottles of wine at stores here are nice and cheap. I don’t know what kind of plans we have for tomorrow, but the band is playing their first gig at 8:30 or so, so I reckon that’ll be part of the plan. Probably do some loafing and check out some parks, too.

So my roommate is playing the bass in the backing band for a singer who’s playing a few shows in Paris this week. He asked around if anybody wanted to come along, and of course I was down. Vacations are always a good plan, I figure, so I may as well take lots of them. Anyhow, we flew out of SFO Tuesday morning and got into Paris around 11AM on Wednesday. I didn’t sleep at all during either leg of the flight (San Francisco -> Montreal, Montreal -> Paris). Spent the first flight watching Juno and No Country for Old Men (two movies that I’ve been wanting to see for a while now) and the second flight watching about 6 episodes of Lost (the end of the first season and beginning of the second). I was pretty pleased with the inflight entertainment system that Canada Air offered, its probably the best I’ve come across so far. Better even than Virgin America, but only slightly. Also, I’m kinda hooked on Lost, but I only watch it in DVD format and generally only when I can watch a chunk of episodes at the same time. Hence, long flights are great for it. So anyhow, when we got into town via a long metro ride from the airport, I pretty much wanted to pass out for a while, despite it being noon or so. And I did, until about 7pm, at which point we got up and went out to dinner at a pretty nice but simple little restaurant nearby, then hung out a the apartment drinking wine until everyone went to sleep again in an attempt to get onto a normal Parisian sleep schedule. We’ll see how that works out, but I’m optimistic about it. If there’s anything I’m a champion at, its sleeping.

In any case, our place here in Paris is pretty awesome. Instead of a hotel or hostel, we just rented an apartment for the week. Its in the middle of the action, near the Chatelet Les Halles  metro station and not far from the Louvre. 5th floor, all the necessary amenities (although I’m jacking the internet from a marginally decent connection nearby so I doubt I could use it to play cards with). I’m not too happy about Euros being worth so much more than dollars these days, but what can you do. Its a pretty stark contrast from the trip to Argentina when we were reaping the benefit of the dollar and eating amazing $30 steak dinners, thats for sure.

Well I’m gonna head off to bed and try to get back into a normal type of sleep schedule with the rest of the kids, but I’ll try to report back on the cool happenings of the trip as they occur.

While I was down in Argentina, I didn’t play any poker. On the one hand, this was nice, and a chance to clear my head. On the other hand, it led to an increasing urge to play upon my return. Fortunately for me, the WPT was coming to San Jose for the Bay 101 Shooting Star event a few days after I returned home. Now there was an issue that I would have to resolve before I could get in: finding 10k in cash. My live bankroll was pretty well depleted since I hadn’t played live in a while (and I really never had a full cash bankroll to speak of, at least not for the live games I was playing). I also wouldn’t have time to get to the bank and get cash out before the tournament, probably. So I sent Matt Savage (the tournament director) a message asking if it would be possible for me to find somebody down there with cash that they’d be willing to exchange for online money the day of the tournament. He was optimistic about it and told me he’d hold a seat for me.

So, on Monday morning I drove down to San Jose with the 3k in cash I had on me, my laptop, and whatever else I’d need for a day of tournament poker. I met up with Matt as soon as I got there, and though he was pretty busy setting up the tournament, he told me he’d point me in the right direction for getting some cash. I met some other dudes who were pretty much doing the same thing, but for a few hours I had no luck getting any loot. The tournament had started, though there was still time for late registration and a list of alternates which I’d be added to if I was able to get in. Matt checked in periodically to see if I had yet found the cash I needed, and wasn’t pleased when I hadn’t. Finally he took the time to call somebody he knew from the area who agreed to come to the casino and give me the cash I needed. Somebody should give him a medal for it because that was awesome. The trend of this tournament being really well-run would repeat itself over and over for the next few days, in just about every way possible.

So anyhow, I finally had my cash (though I had to run across the street with my laptop to mooch a wireless internet connection from a hotel to send the money online) and bought into the event. I was the 9th alternate, but it wasn’t too long before my seat opened up after Kristy Gazes donked off her stack. However, at the point where I finally sat and got my stack, there were about 5 minutes left in the second level. So much for leveraging my deep-stack advantage early, heh. On a side note, the structure of the tournament was very good, and certainly played to my strengths. Day 1 the levels were only an hour long, but the blinds went up pretty slowly. Day 2 the levels were 90 minutes long and the blinds still went up slowly. Day 3 was played 6-handed with 2 hour levels (!!!).

On to the poker: my starting table had a few notable faces on it, as well as a number of unknowns. To my immediate left was John Phan, who I didn’t know that well going in but who I gather is a pretty successful tournament player. He’s very loose and aggressive when he has chips to work with, and unfortunately for me by the time I came in he already had a bigger stack than most. He also has a habit of taking incredibly long to make any decision, which makes playing at his table rather unpleasant, but what can you do. To his left was David Pham, another well-known tournament pro. Across the table was Anna Wroblewski, who is young and looks even younger, and from what I gather is a relative newcomer to the scene. She seemed to already know just about all of the big-name players though, which isn’t surprising given her outgoing personality. The rest of the table was filled with unknowns of various skill levels, ranging from very good to “please give me a hand against this guy”.

I didn’t play any notable hands during the end of level 2, but got into some during level 3. The first one of interest: After a grizzled old guy who appears to like Harleys and probably won a satellite limps in, I raise my button to 550 with QJhh. John Phan calls in the SB after thinking for approximately half an hour, and Harley dude calls too. The flop was T32 rainbow with one heart. Phan donks 525 into the pot, Harley folds, and I decided to float him since I was getting sick pot odds and we were deep, and if I ran down a made hand I could double up. The turn was a Q, pairing me up, he bet 1125, and I called again. River was a 9, he bets 2500 and I thought about it for a while before calling because he can’t really put me on a hand as big as the one I have. He turned over AQ which of course was good.

Phan opened UTG for the third time in a row, a young and very good presumably-internet-player who I later played more with (Blair Hinkle) called, and I overcalled with AQss from the small blind because I didn’t want to blow up the pot with a squeeze just yet, especially against these guys who are more likely than most to play back at me. The flop came out 873 with a spade draw. I checked, JP bet 500 or something silly like that, and Hinkle raised to 2k. Despite my nut draw, I felt like I had to let it go at that point given my poor position and the fact that I wasn’t closing the action. I’m not quite sure on that decision, but given that it was early in the tournament I wasn’t quite looking to gamble just yet and wanted to avoid too many marginal situations in growing pots. JP called after a few hours, led out on the Ts turn (ada;shrasfadshasf) and folded to a raise from Blair (a;sdfahsd fa;osdfiuhasd;foaidshfa;d). So it goes.

I called a raise from Anna W with 77 and flopped a set, but she check-folded. Sigh. On the plus side, she had a habit of check-folding to me most of the times we were in a pot together, which allowed me to steal some pots from her on day 2.

I played a few more modest pots, mostly not winning them, but they aren’t that interesting so I’ll just skip them. After the blinds went up to 100/200 I reraised a nit’s CO open from the blinds with AKs and folded to his shove, which I felt pretty good about. He later claimed to have had QQ, which is fine with me. Coinflips are the devil.

The very next hand, I pick up AKcc again. Hinkle opens to 650 from EP, this fishy guy calls, and I reraise to 2000. Hinkle folds and the fish calls again. The flop was KTx, I bet 2500, he raised to 6k, and then when I shoved for another 5k or so he reluctantly called with JJ. I held up and doubled my stack, and was sitting on about 25000 chips at the second break.

The antes kicked in at 100/200/25, and I started to pick up steam. After I opened TT and got 3 calls, a shortstack shoved the 885 two-tone flop and I called and busted his A5o.

Eli Elezra was then moved to our table, which was good news since he was the first bounty since I had arrived (the previous bounty having been eliminated to open my seat). He’s fun to have at the table since he’s always joking around and tends to liven things up a bit. I can’t quite tell yet exactly how good he is since he’s played some fishy hands on HSP, but I reckon he does pretty well for himself since he’s been a pro for a long time.

After the blinds were raised to 200/400/50, I doubled up again; UTG limped, Hinkle raised from UTG+1, and UTG+2, a new anonymous young internet player who I didn’t recognize reraised to 7500. As the players were folding around to me I thought how gross it would be if I picked up KK or QQ, but to my amusement I looked down at two beautiful bullets instead. With about 30k in my stack and a ridiculous amount of action coming from early position, I couldn’t think of anything to do but shove and hope to get called, which I did. Hinkle folded but the other guy called with KK and I doubled up, crippling his stack. Before the blinds went up to 250/500/50 I was sitting on about 59k in chips and was starting to make some noise.

I call a raise of 1500 with 88 in position, and the ATx flop checks through. On the T turn he bets 1500 and I raise to 5k, which he then calls after some thought. On the K river he checks and I follow through with another 9k that he calls with JTo. Meh.

I open AKo to 1500 from the cutoff and Hinkle reraises to 5500 from the BB, which I call. The flop was KQT with a spade draw (I did have the As) and he bet 6500, which I called again. On the 2 turn and 7s river we both checked, and my hand was good. Back up to a 59k stack again.

After the hijack, cutoff, and SB all limped in I raised my BB to 3k more with pocket 9’s. The HJ and CO called. On the Q87 flop we all checked, on the 7 turn I bet 4k and was called by the HJ (a pretty tight player who had been nursing a smallish stack the whole day). The river was a J which I didn’t much like, and I thought about betting for a while before checking and eventually folding to his 10,500 bet.

At 300/600/75 I doubled up Anna W with AJo against her KK, but she only had like 7700 chips left at the time so, whatever. At the color-up I had about 42k left.

At 400/800/100 I was moved to the next table over, where Clonie Gowen and some other not-so-wellknown players were dueling it out. I opened KK under the gun to 2300, got 3 calls, and saw a beautiful flop of KTT two-tone.  I checked it though, which in retrospect might not have been the best play, and they all checked behind. The turn was a J and the SB check-called my 7k bet. On the 8 river that made a flush, he check-folded to 12k. Bah. I don’t think much else happened after that, but I ended the day with 57,100 in chips which was a little above average.

Of course at that point it was 11pm or so and I certainly didn’t relish a trip back to San Francisco if I had to return the next morning, so I walked across the street and got a hotel room for the night. It was a great decision, since I was able to get a good nights sleep and maintain my poker focus without anything else to distract me. The room was pretty nice, too, but I didn’t even use the living room or kitchen part that it had since all I really wanted to do was shower and sleep and maybe fool around a little on the internets.

Here is the layout file I promised in the first episode of “To Nit or Not to Nit”. To use it, rightclick and select “save as” then enter whatever name you like for it, with the extension ‘.pah’

Then, in PokerAce, click “options” -> “layout manager”, select fulltilt 9-max as the table type, and then “file” -> “import” and select the file you saved. Voila!

Update: The PokerStars fullring HUD is now available here. To install it, follow the same steps as for the FullTilt one, but with Stars 9-max as the table type. It may not be quite as well lined-up as the FTP one, but it should be easy enough to tweak it how you like it.

I got back from Argentina yesterday afternoon. It was overall a pretty awesome trip, and we got to spend some time in several different places around the country. Not speaking spanish was kind of a hindrance, but by the end of the trip I was able to get around and order food pretty well, which I guess were the most important things. Still had no hope of understanding anybody else unless they gave one-word answers, but so it goes. I’ll have full trip reports on the way soon, but they may take a while to put together.

For now, here’s a little teaser from the Boca Juniors game we went to.