I have two recaps to finish from December’s WPBT Winter Gathering. I so wish I would have had my camera’s sensor cleaned before going. It’s taking me absolutely forever to get the last two posts pics cleaned up. Sigh. Until then, let’s try something odd for OhCaptain Poker…

I see people post their monthly recaps. They talk stats and figures and such. I usually don’t post much about such things. The slow rate at which I grind I just can’t imagine being all that interesting but since Rush Poker started, I figured I’d share some details of the month that was.

You have to keep in mind, I play WAY below my bankroll. I rarely ever leave my comfort zone of the $2 9 person sng on Tilt. I started the month trying an experiment. My new routine was going to be playing one sng at Tilt and then play limit hold ‘em cash at Poker Stars until it was bed time. I was hoping to A) get more accustomed to that UI at Stars B) build a better bankroll at Stars C) do some bankroll building at Tilt and recover from a pretty flat 2009.

$2 SNGs at Tilt are fun:I didn’t really play as many sngs as I usually do. You see, Full Tilt invented Rush Poker. Friggin’ crack. It looks like I did play a couple of $1 sngs. I seem to play those when I come home drunk from a home game. My brain usually wants to play a little more, but thankfully I’m not dumb enough to blow the bankroll. Two for two drunk ain’t to shabby either.

Now, I like those stats, that’s a pretty solid ITM(In the Money), but what I don’t like seeing and will probably work to improve is that 3rd place finish quantity. A better mix of finishes helps make more profitable months.

Everything was going well until, well, I let you see the calendar:Grinding a sng every night doesn’t get you many Full Tilt Points. In fact, it took me almost 3 years to accumulate my first 10,000 FTPs. In just a little over a week, I’ve accumulated about 1200. Holy crap! Too bad I’m not trying to clear a bonus. Also too bad I’m no where near Iron Man status either.

I like Rush Poker, it’s alright, I still kinda suck at cash games. The results others are posting are much more impressive then mine. All those points have only accumulate ~$60 for the month. Meh. I’m grateful I had a positive month, but for the 6,988 hands, that’s not much. Geebus, I played almost 7,000 hands of cash game this month. Probably explains why I go $16 in rakeback. I realize that some of you are used to getting a payback much bigger then that. My previous peak? $2. Average? $.80. Woot! Woot!

So, what? Right? Rush is pretty cool. I do enjoy playing it. It’s tough for a sng grinder to get used to the idea of being stacked. I hate that but it appears to be something that rush players have to get used to. It’s a fast paced game and playing that many hands per hour, craziness is bound to happen.

I’ve slowed down the rush a bit. I feel I need to keep my sng game up. Playing rush is not good for that. Sng poker feels REALLY slow. I think I’m more motivated by the points at rush then the money. It’s weird, but a boy will dream. I’ve always wanted one of those Full Tilt custom baseball jerseys and 1.75 points a night, it would take me a while to get there. Let’s hope they don’t change that point system. It’s the best part for me.

How was your January? Love/hate the rush?

It’s been a couple months since my last update, and I feel that I need to come out of hiding.  I had a solid month online in December followed by a rough start to the New Year in January, but all in all not much has changed.  One thing that I would like to do this year, is to get involved in some more live events.  Here are some events of interest that I would like to play in:

-Minnesota State Poker Tour events: Not only are these events local, but they also have an excellent structure.  For the low direct buy-in of about $1K and even cheaper if you get a seat through qualifiers and satellites, you are getting the type of structure you would expect in a 10k buy-in event.  Not only that but you also get a diamond bracelet for bragging rights.  I played in their first event and must say it is a great structure and is a huge addition to the Minnesota Poker scene.

Chicago Poker Classic: This poker series is actually located in Hammond, IN, and has a heads-up event of interest to me that I will definitely be playing.  I haven’t played in this event or casino in the past so I don’t really know what to expect, but the fact that they have a heads-up event makes it worth it for me.

WSOP/WSOPC: Within the last month or two, the new schedule of the World Series of Poker was released.  There are quite a few changes this year that will mostly benefit the mid stakes players that didn’t have the funds to pony up some of the big buy-in events, but still wanted to get the WSOP experience.  They have added several $1,000 buy-in NL events, and from what I have heard have decent structures.  I am guessing this is due to some of the competition the Venetian and Caesars events have given the WSOP.  I will for sure be in Vegas either for the WSOP or the other casinos events, and may check out some of the circuit events.

Probably add other events to the list, but it all depends on how the year goes…

We started this serial last August, but like the Durrr Challenge it’s taken a while to complete (thus far we’re only 60% of the way there). We wanted to get you all up to speed before the next “real” update comes.

This serial is in the vein of a George Plimpton-esque “Paper Lion” where we cover the staking of an amateur. For our purposes, and since we’re not independently wealthy, we are starting with a backing offer of $55. Karaoke Phil does most of the writing of his experiences with observations from Mark Cardenas sprinkled in. We hope you enjoy and welcome any comments and feedback. Here goes:

Introduction

It all started with a simple series of emails:
——————–

Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 12:30 PM
Subject: Poker round # 2. Saturday Jan 8th 6:00pm
Happy New Year Everyone!
Now that the bustle of the Holiday season is over it’s time to do some gambling!!
Poker Round 2
When: Saturday January 8th 6:00pm.
Game: Texas Hold’em. Last person standing takes all.
Buy in: $25.00 per person gets you $1000 in chips.
Please RSVP and let me know if you need more specific instructions!
Mark

——————–

Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: FW: Poker round # 2. Saturday Jan 8th 6:00pm
I will come – this time for sure. I’ll need to review the Texas Hold ‘em rules though. I’ve never really played it (that I can recall) just seen it on ESPN a couple/three times. Beginner’s luck??
Phil

———————

So began my love affair with poker. Sure, I had played dealer’s choice home games – red dog, baseball, “in between” and the like. But, those games just aren’t Omaha 8 Hi/Lo, Stud 8 Hi/Lo, HORSE or the “Cadillac” of poker games – Texas Hold ‘em, no-limit of course. Until 2005 I never really played the “real” games of poker. I certainly had not even attempted to study the game. All of that changed on that cold Minnesota day in January when I finally, truly played the game. I was hooked.

Television coverage of the WPT, WSOP, US Poker Championship and even shows like Celebrity Poker Showdown fueled my aspirations and dreams. Poker, they say, is the one sport where an amateur can sit down against a grizzled veteran pro and have a decent shot at winning. And, victories can bring millions of dollars. I found out that I wasn’t god-awful bad. I could compete. I lost money for a while, but not huge amounts and not in a matter of days. At first, it would slowly drain away and I would need to make another deposit or have someone transfer me some additional funds every couple of months.

I read, studied, contemplated, discussed and improved. No, I haven’t had the meteoric rise that some internet young guns have had. I didn’t go pro within two months of sitting down at a computer terminal. But, then again, that’s not my style. I am, now, though, what I call a “slow profit” player. I tend to float up and down within a narrow zone range. But, I haven’t needed to deposit any funds (indeed, I have even transferred a little to others) in over 18 months. The bankroll holds steady and occassionally slowly builds. You will see me on the virtual felt – a lot. All in all, the progress has been huge and I anticipate it will continue.

Next post in this series: “Part II – Staking”

In recent weeks, I’ve been able to scrounge up enough free time between magazine duties and Vikings collapses to hammer out  a bunch of SNGs.

In the past, I’ve bounced around from cash games to multi-table tournaments, but my bread and butter has always been 9-man SNGs. I generally play three or four at a time on Full Tilt.

It’s funny how your game evolves over time. I’ve been a “winning” poker player for several years now, but if the 2010 version of myself would sit down and play against the 2005 version, the 2010 version would crush.

The most important aspect of my SNG game these days is thinking one level higher than everyone else at the table. And really, that’s what successful poker is all about. Like making the jump from A ball to AA to AAA to the Major Leagues in baseball, each level causes you to analyze and re-adjust your thinking.

I’ve found that most players don’t understand the importance of “bubble” play in 9-man SNGs — when 4 or 5 players remain. This is where tournaments are won.

In the past, I would take some chances on the bubble, but would generally avoid big confrontations and try to conserve chips, hoping other players would do the dirty work. With this strategy, I would almost always slip into the money with the fewest chips, if I made it to the money at all, that is.

Now, I’m doing just the opposite. I’m pushing players to the limit with, in some cases, almost any two cards, banking on the fact that the middle stacks WILL NOT call themselves all in on the bubble without JJ, QQ, KK, AA, or AK. A lot of middle stacks will even fold hands like AJ or AQ to an all-in reraise, because they are nervous about busting before the short stacks.

Scenario:

4 players left, 3 get paid. Blinds 80/160.

- Player A (4,900 chips)
- Me (4,300 chips)
- Villain (2,600 chips)
- Shorty (1,200 chips)

Shorty folds under the gun, and Villain (who has been playing pretty solid) raises to 400. Player A folds in the small blind, and action is on me.

Now, after raising to 400, Villain leaves himself with 2,200 behind, which is still 1,000 more chips than Shorty has. And let’s face it, that’s what most players look at during SNG bubble time — how many chips do I have compared to the guy who might bust next?

I look down at K5 of hearts. In reality, it doesn’t matter what I have here. Villain’s 400 raise is dead money, unless he has AA, KK, QQ or AK. If I shove all in here, there’s almost NO WAY he will call me (unless he’s a very good player who knows what my strategy is… that’s what starts to happen as you move up the buy-in ladder). Villain doesn’t want to bust when he knows Shorty is on the verge.

Of course, I shove K5. Villain lets the timer run down and, as expected. I pick up 640 chips and move into the chip lead. Easy money.

Some people will undoubtedly ask, “How can you shove K5 in that spot? What if he wakes up with a monster?”

1.) Unless he’s been playing rock-tight the entire time, there’s a good chance Villain doesn’t have a monster. Even if he has been playing rock-tight, he’s still likely to fold hands like A10, KQ, AJ, 1010, and maybe even AQ in this spot, because he doesn’t want to go bust w/ another guy so short-stacked.

2.) Even if he wakes up with QQ, and I lose the pot, I still have 1,700 chips left. Would I make a similar move if stacks were more even? Possibly. Depends on the opponent.

The bottom line is this… With 4 and 5 players left in a SNG, there’s a TON of dead money out there when middle stacks open raise. Take advantage of it and punish them.

~ PMac

Playing poker is tough enough with the swings, the beat, the grind, the math but add in antsy kids and a wife who had a tough day at the office and well playing poker gets put in the back seat with the groceries.

It came at an inopportune time last night for all three of them to express their displeasure of having to wait for the degenerate to continue a quest towards a World Blogger Championship of Online Poker final table so they could go to the restaurant they were promised once dear old dad busted out. Hour one could have happened early but I managed to make a few hands. Hour two I caught some hands. But, the thermometer reached a high and poker thinking was shut down and yes I could have just sit out and probably made the SCOOP cash, but instead I just pushed the chips away while powering down the laptop.

Dumb? Poker wise, yes. Family wise, easy decision. Anti-climatic from doing a live blog for over two hours? Grrrrrrr.

Thus the conundrum of a middling poker player having to balance Dr. Seuss stories with razor sharp total concentration (example below) just doesn’t happen. At any point during a rush that phone call has to be answered, that cry for help on subtraction problems needs to be heard, and frankly it’s a no-brainer for me to leave the felt and work out the removal of digits from my son’s homework.

There’s the 8-Game tourney later in the week that I’m eyeing as the main event is slated right in the middle of the three tourneys I’m covering and definitely is out. I did manage to carve out a little me-time as the green light was lit for a G-Vegas visit in March and barring life-threatening issues, my focus will be on one thing:

Being with good friends with good drinks and adding yet more memories with these people that went from fonted letter with various blinking icons to certified friends that I’d chat about anything with. Including the signing of Jim Thome by the Twinkies yesterday. Meh.



The first Minnesota State Poker Tour event of 2010 is less than three weeks away (February 13-21 at Grand Casino Mille Lacs). Two 20-year-olds battled heads up for the bracelet in December at Canterbury, although the battle lasted only one hand, with John Dragich’s pocket aces taking down Chase Wood.

Dragich is an interesting character with a unique gambling background, especially for someone so young. He sat down with Phil Mackey after the biggest win of his life to talk about what transpired.

From the January issue of Minnesota Poker Magazine:

Dragich Wins Inaugural MSPT Event

John Dragich, a calculating 20-year-old from St. Cloud, wins $34,765 and a diamond bracelet

By Phil Mackey

After 19 hours of grinding spread across two days at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN, 20-year-old John Dragich became the first Minnesota State Poker Tour champion, knocking off fellow 20-year-old Chase Wood on the first hand of heads-up play.

For his effort, Dragich earned $34,765 and a diamond bracelet courtesy of Continental Diamond. He also earned the respect of his peers, who — after seeing him go deep in the Midwest Poker Classic Main Event, Fall Poker Classic Main Event, and now the MSPT launch tournament — now regard Dragich as one of the most dangerous players on the local scene.
Dragich is one of the most composed 20-year-olds you’ll find at a poker table. But despite his methodical demeanor on the felt, Dragich has plenty of gamble to him.

The action

130 players either qualified via $250 satellite or bought in directly for $1,100 to the inaugural Minnesota State Poker Tour two-day Main Event. When the final 18 players arrived back at Canterbury for the second day of action, with spectators abound, Dragich ranked fourth in chips behind publisher and president of Minnesota Poker Magazine Bryan Mileski, and young guns Kevin Reichel and Chase Wood.

It took less than 90 minutes to go from 18 down to a 10-man final table, where seven of the 10 remaining players had chip stacks between 200K and 290K, with two others short-stacked or crippled. After Rob Wazwaz busted in 10th, the action slowed to a crawl. Players played 9-handed for two hours before Reichel and Toan Pham were felted. Mileski exited in 7th after losing back-to-back coinflips.

Chip Counts (blinds $8/16K):
Tim Votava – $440K
Jeff Mowery – $400K

Todd Melander – $370K
John Dragich – $280K
Chase Wood – $240K
Chris Dolan – $190K

Upon reaching 6-handed play, business picked up. Todd Melander, who seemingly rode a never-ending chip stack rollercoaster the entire tournament, raised to $50K from under the gun. Chip leader Tim Votava pondered for a minute and re-raised to $150K from the button. Melander quickly moved all in with 9♠9♦ and Votava snap-called with K♣K♦.
Melander, knowing he made a colossal mistake, leaned back in his chair with a pained expression. But when the flop came A♠9♥7♥, bringing a set for Melander, the gallery let out a collective gasp. The 9♣ give Melander quads on the river, but the damage was already done. Votava would exit in 6th just a few hands later.

With Dragich picking spots and laying in the weeds, Melander and Wood began mixing it up more and more, controlling the action at the table. Mowery ran A5 into Dragich’s JJ to bust out 5th. A short while later, Dolan, who won several coinflips to keep his short stack alive at the final table, ran A10 into Wood’s QQ to finish in 4th.

Chip Counts (blinds $15/30K):
Todd Melander – $750K
Chase Wood – $720K
John Dragich – $450K

At this point, Dragich was almost entirely card-dead, but Melander and Wood had no qualms about battling each other. After Melander hit quad nines against Votava to own nearly half the chips in play, it appeared as if he may run away from the field. Ironically, however, it was trip nines that doomed Melander in back-to-back big pots.

On a 9, 10, K, 5, 9 board, Melander led out for $100K into a $140K pot with 44, but Wood insta-called with A9. Minutes later, Melander raised to 90K on the button and Dragich called. Dragich bet $100K on a flop of A, 5, 10 and Melander called. A 9 fell on the turn, and both men checked. When another 9 hit on the river, Dragich led out for $140K and Melander called. Dragich turned over J9, for runner-runner trips. Melander, who slipped back under $250K and was clearly annoyed, flashed an Ace.
Melander would build back up to $600K, but he eventually busted 3rd with A7 against Dragich’s QJ when a Q came on the flop.

Chip Counts (blinds $20/40K)
John Dragich – $1 million
Chase Wood – $950K

Heads-up play lasted all of one hand. On a flop of 9♦K♦8♦, the money went in, with Wood showing K♣2♣ and Dragich showing A♦A♣. The turn and river brought no help to Wood, making Dragich the first ever Minnesota State Poker Tour champion.

A 20-year-old prodigy?

At the poker tables, Dragich is as calculated and composed as 20-year-olds come. Dragich said he began playing poker around age 15, but only found out recently about larger tournaments such as the Fall Poker Classic, where he placed 11th out of 234 in the Main Event this year, and the Midwest Poker Classic, where he placed 4th out of 129.
Needless to say, he’s a quick study, and he’s begun to pick up on things at the table that many players, regardless of age, never do.

“Some of the guys are looking at their hands on the turn and stuff like that,” Dragich said. “When I’m looking at my hand, I’m also looking at everybody else. I’m not just sitting there staring at my cards. Some of these guys are just giving away way too much information.”

After the tournament was over, Dragich talked about his past as a successful blackjack player. He told a story about once being low on funds and turning $6,000 into $14,000 over a two-day period at a local casino.

Most 20-year-olds who are low on funds would turn to a second part-time job. Heading to the blackjack tables would be considered irrational, arrogant, and irresponsible. But Dragich has a certain level of poise about him. He’s monotone, extremely level-headed, and he has very specific and detailed reasons for all of his actions, both mathematical and observational. He’s always in control.

“I think I’m just more street smart than anything,” Dragich said. “With school, it’s almost like I just memorized the stuff. Whenever we had to do tests for like Biology, or whatever, on the human bodies, I would just memorize it, and then two days later it’s all gone. I would just get a map of it (in my head), and if you asked me about it later, I’d have no idea. But on the tests I scored 100 percent.”
Dragich said he tried college for a while, but discovered it simply wasn’t his thing.

“I figured if I was going to go to college, it would have to be something worth going to college for. My dad’s a pharmacist, so I figured I should probably do that. But it got to the point where there was just no way I could do this.”

So, as of now, Dragich is essentially a professional gambler. Most of his money, at least recently, has come from playing poker. As is the case with many young poker players, Dragich tries to make sure his family understands exactly how good he is at poker, and why the college route may not be the best path. Surely a $34,000 cash at the MSPT helps his case. In fact, just seconds after his victory, Dragich picked up the phone and called his mother.
“Hey, I just won,”, Dragich said matter-of-factly on the phone, as dozens of onlookers waited for the bracelet presentation.

“Sometimes (parents) don’t understand how you can go sit down in a game, and let’s say on average I’m making $1,000, and just this night I lost $4,000. They’ll look at it and say, ‘Why do you keep sitting there taking your losses?’ and I say, ‘Well the table is really good, and I had reads on the guys. It was just their night.’ It’s kind of like if you have an opportunity, it’s not going to come very often. Sometimes you need to take a risk.”

If buying into the inaugural MSPT event was a risk for Dragich, it certainly was a risk that paid off huge.

The Minnesota State Poker Tour will hold six events in 2010, beginning with a stop at Grand Casino Mille Lacs, February 13-21. For more information, visit www.MinnesotaStatePokerTour.com.

Is there any poker downtime anymore?  The start of Tennis’ Australian Open means the Aussie Million should be kicking off… yep. Good luck to those covering and playing.

And we bloggers have our own free attempt to become high rollers once SCOOP at PokerStars rolls around. As the WBCOOP kicks off next week with a series of freerolls to enter players into the Spring Championship of Online Poker with a chance of fancy watches and bundles of cash (not to mention the probability of a dashing poker blogger writing about your exploits).

The Borgata had the single reason Southern Comfort turns a profit every year in a line that rivaled any DisneyWorld ride to enter their 2010 Winter Open. Check out his live-ish Tweet-fest from donkey-land here.

We’ll stop this poker reporting for a breaking development. Ever wonder what lady bobsledders are wearing while you watch the Winter Olympics come up soon? Wonder no more:

Much better than Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction by far.

Tonight a return to the virtual felt for me as a warm-up for next week as I’d like to be a part of SCOOP in a writer/player capacity much like Pete Rose being a player/manager/gambler for the Phillies. Except without the asshole holier-than-thou attitude and busty sidekicks while signing autographs at a Vegas sports memorabilia store. Instead I’ll surround myself with two kids that have no off button, a handle of Captain, and a signature worth less than Tiger Woods’ current endorsement deals.

This’ll be my first post in awhile!  I’m sorry to say, the last few months may have been the absolute coldest of my poker career.  But, it seems, things appear to be swinging in my favor, and 2010 is a new year!

Today’s posting, however, isn’t about my recent woes.

I’d like to answer a very simple question: “What’s one thing I can do to start becoming a better poker player?”  [Note: Nobody has ever asked me this question.  I do not frequently field poker-related inquiries.  Seriously, who would ask me anyway?]

The answer is so clear to me: Fold more often.  WAY more often!

As I sit at the tables, I often wonder to myself, “Do these players know that they’re allowed to fold a hand?  Have they seen other people throw their cards to the dealer?  Are they aware that this ‘muck’ pile is where their cards generally belong, and if they so choose, they could decline the option of putting their money in the pot with their garbage holdings?”

I know, I know, a lot of players go to the tables simply for the action, and I must say, I love these guys.  But if you want to get good, you’ve gotta’ fold.  A lot.  The concept is so simple, and so fundamental to experienced poker players as to require almost no mentioning; yet, this tool, this folding tool, is ignored far too often.  At the end of a session, an extra bet not put in the pot is an extra bet won.

The easy-to-fix folds are pre-flop.  Quit playing J-7 under-the-gun, and stop calling raises with A-3.  J-10 is vastly overrated.  The trickier folds are post-flop, when your previously attractive A-K has whiffed completely.  This is where novices dump most of their chips, and end up walking out of the card room mumbling about how many times their A-K’s were cracked.

When the flop comes 6-7-8, and it’s two bets to you, holding A-K, I want you to know that folding is an option.  You’re allowed to do that.  It won’t even cost you any money!  Can you believe that?  Calling down to the river is not only expensive, but also fuels your tilt.  FOLD.  FOLD.  FOLD.  It’s an indispensable poker tool.

I’ve spent a good portion of this evening playing the new poker crack, Rush Poker over a Full Tilt Poker. You know, it’s actually pretty fun.