Long time no post

Sorry guys for not posting in a while. I started my new job in early October and have been busy doing that for a while. This job is not easy, they really work me for every cent I am earning. But I am doing okay.

I went to Macau twice during this period and going to share with you my experiences. I have still yet to cash in Macau. Dang. And for some reason I always don't do well in cash games there as well.

Defining hands, hands that played for all my chips in Macau:

1. Check raised gut shot on the flop. Turn hit gut shot, check raised all in, guy tanks and calls. Hits his flush draw on the river, slow rolled me. (HKD 7000 pot)

2. Two different hands, got QQ and KK, first time flop Ace, second time turn Ace. The fish played with his hand face up, surely he has Ace in his hand. (both hands cost me about HKD 5000)

3. J53, two clubs on the flop. Preflop raiser no cbet, I led out almost pot size. A2 no clubs called. Turn 4. All in turn. I had 55 (HKD 18000 pot)

4. BB on tournament, UTG leads out 2x, button 3bets to 8x. I was very sure button had only AK. If he had a big pair he would 3bet like 5-6x only. I look at 88, so juicy pot, if I win the pot I will have a decent stack to go deep. I shoved. Flop Ace.

5. I have TT, lead out, 2 callers. Flop 985 rainbow. BB check raises me. Don't put him on strong hand cause of the texture. Maybe 97, 96 kind of hand. Turn 8. He leads out again. Maybe 86, 87? Call. River big bet on a blank. I called. He had 98. (HKD 10000 pot)

6. AK vs AA, (HKD 10000 pot)

Sick of these beats. This few weeks I keep thinking maybe I am not good enough. I really need to review myself. What am I doing wrong? My luck is really bad I feel, but am I blaming too much on luck? Did I put myself in those situations?

I had a few hands I felt I played really well.

1. Some Japanese guy kept targeting my BB because I was folding so much. I fold because I keep getting really bad cards. 49o, 2Ko, etc. One time it came to me, on the BB, I had J2 off. I flatted his raise. Check raised him with air. He folds.

There are a few others, but it is getting late, and I am getting hungry. Will post more next time.

Me vs Foo Foo

I will begin by saying the deuce seven game is a sick game. Preflop Foo under the gun raised to 4x, I got 27o, made it 11x. Everyone folded. Came back to him and during the play he even made a speech about how he had the REAL aces. He tanked then shove 26x on top.

Well with the game in play, there is an extra 14x equity if I win. There was a total of 80x for my 26x. Against AK I still had 30+%. So I called.

He flips over aces. Damn. Run it once I said. Usually I do twice if I am behind.

Flop T66, I called for 9 on the turn. Came an 8!!!! 4 outer!  I told the dealer to flip it slow.....9 on the river hahaha. I never celebrate my bad beats but this time I did a victory lap. Because he is one of my god friends in poker and it was such a funny hand. Hahaha. Sorry bro and thanks for your money.

Ps: he won with 27 a huge pot against AQ a few hours later so karma strikes again

Me vs Nicky round 1 & 2

Post some poker related stuff. Two sick hands against the same %&£*%# I mean same guy hahaha. He's a nice guy lah.

Preflop Nicky double straddled to 20, couple of limpers ahead, I called 15 more on the big blind with JT. Villain made it 60 total. Dang. I know I shouldn't play JT but now I am stuck. One guy calls, 140 in the pot so I committed another 40.

Flop comes JT5 rainbow. Happy days woohoo. Sb checks, I check, Villain cbets 130. Sb folds. I look at my stack. If I call I will have 355 behind. If I raise I have to go all in. JT5 is so dry considering the preflop action. So I just flatted.

Turn off suit 7. Blank really unless you had 89. But I worry he might check back so I bet 255 of my remaining stack. He tanked then shoved so I called with my remaining 100. He turned over set of freaking sevens. Ran twice lost all. Grrrrr.

The following day, big blind again. I had Q6 diamonds. Villain utg limped round of about 6 players. Button made a pot building bet so called around. Flop 754 two diamonds. Open ended and flush draw. Monster!

Rarely do I donk bet but this is one of the situations I might do so. I led out. Villain calls, button reraises. I decided to flat. Suddenly Villain reraises not big, almost a min raise. Button folds. I reraised and he shoved. Set sevens again! Ran twice I won both times hahaha. I did the math. If he had an overpair I had 55%, against the top set I had 40%.

I won more than I lost I think. Sorry Nicky hehehe

Gangsta

We got freaking raided. Two weeks before I was leaving for Hong Kong. Raid is fine but we were in lock up for a few nights. Me taking the blame for the fiasco I stayed one more night at the lock up alone than all the other guys.

Well I learned a few things while inside. 1. Some guys are just pussies. Yeah you should know who I am talking about haha.  2. There are some guys that are really stand up people and all 15 of my lock up bros are really cool guys. You guys took it like men. 3. The media lies more than some of my friends bluff on poker. 4. Appreciate what you have before it is taken away.

Anyway we're all out, safe and sound. I guess Macau is it for me. I want to discuss some hands here and share room reviews but they took my freaking laptop. So I will do that when I get it back.

It has been two weeks since the raid and our release but only now I have the mood to write it down. Whoever caused this, you better be ready. Karma's a bitch.

Everyday I am begging

I just woke up and had a dream a bunch of kids holding me for some money, saying I owe them this and that but their reasons are laughable and ridiculous. In real life I have a lot of people that owe me money. A LOT. I am not rich, actually I am considered poor. I remember I attended my high school 15th year reunion and thought to myself, my goodness I am poor. I have so many other schoolmates that now was driving better cars, had their own businesses, properties, and I had close to nothing. Yet I have a lot of debtors. To put it into perspective, they owe me a cumulative one years' salary. That is freaking a lot.

Everyday I beg for my money back while these guys just go on with their lives without a care. Just ignore my message, no need to reply, no need to answer my calls, just continue on like nothing happened. When is karma going to strike? Well I tell you two people that tried to make my life miserable they got their karma. One is somewhere selling retail. The other sold his apartment to fix his problems.

I am a nice guy, I like to help people. Only a close few people try to help me. Anyway I am told I have to let go. I am trying. Maybe this is my karma, but I know my stress and sleepless nights is not unheard. God is my witness and these people will pay, to me or in another way.

Just a piece of advice, don't lend people money, don't owe people money.

Goodbye Malaysia

I have decided to take the job. Leaving town first of the next month, up to the new change of back to full time employment, top gun position, big responsibilities.

Some of the factors that contributed to the decision

1. Superb offer. The salary they are offering is really really good. It is too good to turn down. I was a bit taken a back then I saw the job description but I think i am ready for it

2. Weakened ringgit. Same salary but in ringgit it is gone up 1000 because of the exchange rate. Considering my previous salary was only 4500 I just got a 1000 raise in a week because of currency exchange

3. Health. Lately I feel aches and pains and really lack of sleep. This lifestyle is bound to catch up to me sooner or later. Suddenly a 9-6 job sounds attractive.

4. Poker. The poker scene in Macau is great. I had to cancel my trip to Cambodia because of this job but now I am planning to play in the ACOP MACAU. I plan to play cash games every weekend

5. Change. Everyday I have to face some issues from poker, my businesses, or some prick decides to cause trouble. I am tired of it. I want a change.

See you Penang, bye bye grinding, but I will be back. Hopefully fresher, better and richer hahaha

Hand Selection

Recently I conducted a class on hand selection. Hand selection is very important in poker especially more inexperienced players because they can either get themselves into really tough spots or call down with a losing hand.

There for 4 key elements to deciding to play the hand or not.

1. Hand strength: This is a given. If you have premium, regardless of position, stack size blah blah, you play them no matter what. You need to know the strength of your hand. This may seem easy to most people but I have some students who think that KJ suited is a premium hand. KJ suited is NOT a premium hand. I repeat, KJ suited is NOT a premium hand. Some hands look really pretty, but they are not as good as they look. QJ, QT, KT, these hands will get many players in trouble more than good.

2. Position: Rule of thumb, the later your position, the worser cards you can play. This is relatively true because late positions offer other advantages so you are able to maneuver marginal hands. But it also depends on how many players are in the hand, pot odds and implied odds. There is no point calling one raiser without any additional value with hands like 69 suited but multiway then there is value.

3. Initial raiser image: You may be holding a nice looking hand like AT, but you have to judge your hand strength based on the initial raiser's image (callers too). If the initial raiser is a tight player, your AT may be going against a hand that dominates you. You are sometimes better off calling tight raisers with hands like 45, 57, etc. If raiser is a loose aggressive player, AT is good most of the time against his range. Instead I would avoid playing small cards.

4. Relative stack sizes: Your hand may be good to call in most spots, but you need to recognise the stack sizes of the initial raiser and relative to yours. For example, initial raiser makes it 4x but only has 14x behind. You are holding JT suited on the button. I might not even play this hand because there is not enough value for you to see the flop. Furthermore, player is likely to shove the flop regardless whether they hit or not therefore putting you in a tough spot if you missed or hit but not strong.

Good luck!