Expected Value is commonly referred to “EV” in poker talk. +EV (positive EV) would be a profitable situation and -EV (negative EV) would be a losing situation. It is quick and fairly easy math that will tell you whether the bet your about to make is a good one, or if calling your opponents bet is a bad one. The equation is as follows:

EV = (% that you win the pot)*(Size of pot) – (% that you lose pot)*(Size of bet)

Let’s break apart this equation to see how we can easily come up with these numbers and make the calculation in your head regardless of the fact you haven’t done math since grade 10.

Knowing the size of the pot and the size of the bet is the easy part. What appears tricky in this equation is knowing the percentage of the time that you will win a pot vs lose it. Here’s a quick trick I picked up to calculate the percentages with reasonable accuracy:

Calculating Win Percentage in Poker
On the flop: Multiply the number of outs you feel you have by 4%
On the turn: Multiply the number of outs you feel you have by 2%

So, if you feel you have 8 outs on the flop (this is often the case with an open-ended straight draw), then you would have an 8 * 4% = 32% of winning the pot.

If you had a flush draw on the turn and an overcard that you feel would win you the pot, then you have about 12 outs (9 flush cards and 3 overcards) which gives you a 12 * 2% = 24% chance of winning the pot.

Now that we know how to determine what our odds are, lets look at an example of calculating our EV so that we know how to proceed in the hand.

Example
You have: T♦ T♥
Your opponent has: ? ?
The flop came: 8♣ 2♥ 6♣ 5♠
The pot is currently: $8

Based on your opponents style of play and betting you suspect your opponent has two suited over-cards and she is on a big draw. This means you think she has A♣K♣, A♣Q♣, A♣J♣, or K♣Q♣ as a ballpark. How much should you bet?

Answer: Your opponent can win with any of 15 cards left in the deck (her “outs”: any of the 9 clubs, 3 Aces or 3 Kings) with one card to come. Using our rule of thumb from earlier, this means she has a 15 * 2% = 30% chance of winning this pot. Obviously, you want to make a bet that gives you +EV – positive expected value since that means that over the long run that same play will prove profitable for you.

Let’s say you were thinking about betting $5 (just over the half the pot, and a pretty standard bet). This would make the pot worth $13 and your opponent would have to put in $5 to play for it. Your opponents EV would be:

EV = (30% * 13) – (70% * 5)
EV = 3.9 – 3.5
EV = 0.4

This isn’t good. You’re giving your opponent a positive EV when she calls. Let’s try increasing the bet to $8.

EV = (30% * 16) – (70% * 8 )
EV = 4.8 – 5.6
EV = -0.8

Bingo, this is now a call that gives your opponent -EV meaning she will lose money over time making this call.

Tips on simplification
Simplifying these numbers is a must, as most of us can’t multiply 70% of $8 off the top of our heads. You should be able to get close though. The trick I use that gives accurate answers is the 10% rule and assuming you know your basic multiplication tables this is the easiest way to do it. It’s easy to calculate 10% of anything right? So when you want 70% of a number, just find out what 10% is and multiply it by 7. In this case, 10% of is 0.8, multiply that by 7 and you have 5.6. 30% of 16? easy, 10% is 1.6, time 3 is 4.8 (or even ballpark it to 1.5 *3 = 4.5).

The other easy way to do things is round the number to easy percentages like 33%, 25%, 75%, etc. So in the last example above the equation would go from:

EV = (30% * 16) – (70% * 8 ) = 4.8 – 5.6 = -0.8
to
EV = (33% *15) – (75% * 8 ) = 5 – 6 = -1

You will almost arrive at a number close enough to let you know if you’re in a good or bad situation.

Once you have this concept down and use it on a regular basis you will find you get better both at figuring out what range of cards your opponents have and how much +EV you can get from them. Maximize +EV in the pots you play and you’ll be a winner over time.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

The Golden Rule of Poker

My travel from London to Toronto went as smooth as I could’ve hoped for. My bus from London actually left a little early and didn’t run into any significant traffic. I got dropped off at The Royal York at 6:00 which left me the perfect amount of time to catch the 6:13 train into Whitby.

Once I got home, I dropped off my bags and went out to dinner and a movie with Jenn. We went to East Side Mario’s for dinner, but both just got a small sandwich because we weren’t really that hungry. We actually tried going to the movie first but none were playing for another hour plus, so we went to dinner first.

We ended up seeing The Bourne Ultimatum. It was pretty good, as were all the other Bourne movies.

Saturday morning I went golfing with my Dad, Ben and Gabe. I played one of my better games in a while. I shot +10 over 9 holes. I usually aim for bogey golf, so thats close. I should have shot about +5 but I three-putted every green. I was hitting well, but I couldn’t putt for my life.

After the golf game I joined Maari and Jenn at Jenn’s place to hang around by the pool and have a few drinks. The plan was to go out that night for Maari’s birthday (which was actually on Monday). Kiron joined us a little later (he is recently back from a couple months in Greece) and then the rest of the crew showed up just before we headed out to the bars. Oh, and by we headed out the bars I really mean everyone else headed out to the bars while I slept like a baby in the car. Yeah.

The next morning we went out for breakfast at T&Ds and then proceeded to hang around Jenn’s pool for another few hours. After Kiron and Maari went home for the evening Jenn and I hung out and just vegged; we watched some TV and movies.

The plan for later that night was that Kiron, Steve and myself were going to head up to the local Indian casino and play some poker. Kiron got back from his family thing around 10 and we headed up.

We all got seated around 11:00 and managed to get at the same table shortly after that. Steve started off taking some tough losses early on. Kiron and I both started taking down a few good sized pots. We were both up about $200/250 (we all sat with $200). The play at the table was terrible and unfortunately people were sucking out a lot. One guy called a raise in middle position with 2c-7c and then chased his club flush calling raises all the way to the river where it hit, and he took down the pot. He made a similar call and then chase about 10 hands later 3c-5c and hit it again.

Anyway, by the end of the night Steve had busted out due to horrendous luck and people like the guy above sucking out on him. Kiron left being up a grand total $15, but refused to leave the casino with just that. He sat at a blackjack table and doubled through the first hand and then lost the second hand; he finished dead even on the night.

I was the “big” winner. I left up $22 at the end of the night, which is really disappointing considering I was up $200 3 hours earlier. Ah well, it was nice to play in person and with Steve and Kiron at the table its always fun.

The next day I went to the Jays/Yankees game with Tom. We had amazing seats (6 rows behind the Yankee’s dugout and the game was a pretty good one. The Jays ended up losing by one run. It was really hot being in the sun the whole time, but it made sleeping on the train on the way back all that much easier.

All in all I managed to get in dinner and a movie, lots of pool time, golf, a casino trip and a Jays game in the long weekend. I could’ve gone for fitting in another round of golf – something to shoot for next time I suppose.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

A Busy Long Weekend

It was fun to play in. The buy-in was $10+1 and there were 45 who played tonight. It’s a good group of people and although I definitely have work to do, especially in Omaha and Stud H/L, I still managed to sneak into 5th place overall and took home a whopping $36

It’s a fun way to mix things up from the normal No-Limit games I play.

On another note, I’ve started using a very cool program called Poker Office which tracks your stats in Hold’em (limit or no limit). After my last tourny win I cashed out most of the money, but left $100 and I’ll be using that to try and build a bankroll with. Poker Office definitely comes in handy in the NL cash games as you can easily see what type of player each person is and make the tough decisions with that information to aid you.

It offers you all sorts of stats too including a profit graph and your money won per hour you’ve played. I’ve played 4 days since my win, 3 days of NL cash games and then today’s HORSE tournament. Here’s my hand graph:

So far this week, I’m up $390. I’ve played 552 hands all at $0.50/$1 NL tables over a period of 8h 03m meaning I’m currently making just under $50/hr. I’m happy with that. My bankroll is currently at $509 after tonight’s cash in HORSE.

I’m hoping to keep it going, and will be using some of the money to buy into the large MTTs that run on weekends when I have the time to play them. In the mean time, I’ll just be trying to continue to grind up. If I can manage to get to $1500 I’ll move up to $1/2 NL tables.

Anyone else trying to build a bankroll online?

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

My First Venture into H.O.R.S.E

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it because I was pretty sick the night before and early on Friday. Thankfully, it passed by the time we were supposed to go. We left London around 6ish and met up with Matt at his place in Mississauga. After popping into one of his friend’s birthday parties we were off on our way to Fallsview.

It took us a little longer then anticipated to get there because of construction. For some reason they narrowed it down to only the right hand lane open only to shift us all over to the left two lanes. You figure it out.

Anyway, when we got there it was packed. I quickly put my name down for a few of the poker tables. Rupa also put her name down for the 2-5 Limit table. I had been giving her a crash course in poker most of the week and she was pretty nervous about playing in the casino for the first time. Unfortunately, there was only one 2-5 limit table running and there was a 23 person wait. I was pretty confident we wouldn’t get to sit there tonight.

Once our names were in we started walking around. It was my first time at Fallsview (last time we went to Niagara). After walking around and checking out what was available it was decided that someone should do some gambling at some point. I only play poker (and occasionally low-limit blackjack) so I was content with watching others until my name was called in the poker pit. Matt also wanted to play blackjack, but because it was a Friday night he was out of luck for getting a seat at the one $10 table they had. The rest were $15+.

Maggie and Rupa played the slots for a bit while myself, Matt, and Eric (Matt’s buddy who joined us) went to the bar for a cold tall glass of medicine. After trying to figure out where they were in the maze of slots for a while we gave up. They eventually found us when I went back to check where I was on the list for the poker tables. Unfortunately the ladies were jackpot-free. Rupa was down $40 and I think Maggie lost $20. The good news was that I had a seat a $1-2 NL table. So I took my $200 and sat down.

A little while later Rupa’s name was up for the $2-5 Limit table. She motioned to me to see if I could join her, but I was enjoying my table and had a read on a few of the players so I decided to stay. I didn’t think Rupa was going to play without me because its a pretty intimidating experience the first time. I was wrong, and she did sit down.

By now it was just after midnight. Matt, Maggie, and Eric were good gambling buddies because they were pretty patient with us while we spent ~2 hours in the poker pit. I kept looking over to Rupa to see how she was doing and although she looked nervous she said she was doing well.

Just before 2:00am Rupa came up to me with a tray 1/2 full of $5 chips. I asked her how she did (I had no idea how much she started with). She said her hands were shaking so much, but that she sat down with $30. She left with ~$120. Way to go Rupa!

I sat down with $200 and left shortly after Rupa (I waited for the blinds to get around to me). I left up about $80. When I got outside the poker pit where everyone else was waiting I found out that Matt had also won about $110 playing Roulette (he never did get a seat at the blackjack table). So all in all, thats a damn fine casino night.

We went back and crashed at Matt’s house for the night. For those who haven’t had the honor of experiencing the legendary hospitality from Matt’s Mom and Dad (pictured right, stolen from their Florida pics) I would highly recommend weaseling your way into an invite to Matt’s place.

When we got back to the house there were two beds all nicely set up for us to use. In the morning there was a huge feast for breakfast including bacon, eggs, bagels, croissants, fruit with dip and yogurt with fruit and granola. Yeah, we had it pretty rough but we fought through it and persevered. We’re tough like that.

Unfortunately it was kind of a crappy day so the beach idea was kiboshed. We ended up staying in and playing Scene it? which was quite fun. I can’t remember if Matt or Rupa won (all three of us were on the final spot for a while) but the moral of the story is that Maggie got destroyed.

After that we went to see Transformers. Boner. The movie had the most incredible action scenes ever. I can’t wait to see it again. If you haven’t seen it – go see it. Even all the ladies I’ve talked to who have seen it said they loved it. I really can’t say much about the movie other then to go see it for yourself. Damn it was good. Side game: how many times did I just use the words “see it” or “seen it”?

We went back to Matt’s house where we were treated to the dinner version of the breakfast feast. So good! We then hung out in the basement playing a bit of Mario Party for the Wii. That system really is incredible. It’s nice to have video games that you can play with friends (male and female) that everyone enjoys.

Once that was done we played a little game of poker between the four of us before heading out to Failte’s for some drinks. We were really fortunate because they had a great live band playing that night called Sonic Playground. They played a mix of songs and were really high energy. It looks like they play regularly at the Fox & Fiddle in Toronto, so if you ever get a chance to go see them I’d recommend it.

Sunday morning came and we all got up to go see Matt win his soccer game. It’s their second win in a row. It’s also the second weekend in a row he’s had friends from London down (Jenn and Kailyn were down last weekend). Coincidence? I think not.

Once they were done laying the smacketh down we went back to his place for our last feast of the weekend. BBQ burgers and hot dogs with veggie dip, fruit dip, and so many condiment options I’m pretty sure some of them were made up.

After that we said our good-byes and hit the ol’ dusty trail. I’d like to thank Matt’s parents again for having us and making us feel so welcome. I’d also like to congratulate anyone who managed to read this entire post. IOU a gold star.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Casino Trip

For those who don’t know, the WSOP $10 000 Main Event is also happening now. For those who don’t know, its the biggest one of the year requiring “day 1″ to actually span 4 days as they cycle players through. You’ll also surely see the winner in some sort of commercial for PokerStars.net before long.

The reason I bring this up is because I had been following Daniel Negreanu’s progress. As with many other people, he’s been my favourite pro player for a while along with Gus Hanson. Not only is he fun to watch and a nice guy, but he’s also from Toronto and a huge hockey fan (although I could use an easier last name… that is hard to spell!). Anyway, his Full Contact Poker site happened to be starting “The Negreanu Open” last night. Only problem for me was its on PokerStars and I usually play on PartyPoker. Ah well, I downloaded the software anyway.

It was a $10 tournament that I busted out of pretty early. It’s a weekly tournament and the community seems to be pretty friendly so I’ll probably try to play every Wednesday when I can. It ended up being a good thing that I busted out so early, as it allowed me to join another tournament. It was a $50 NL tournament, 214 entrants. Normally above my price range, but I had won a 10 person sit-n-go earlier so I used my winnings to buy in.

The tournament started out as usual. I played pretty tight and ended up busting a couple of donks early to bring my starting stack of 1500 up to around the 5000 mark. At this point in the tournament, it meant I was chip leader (although only by a few hundred).

From there the tournament ran fairly quickly. I stayed in the top 10 in chips all the way to bubble by playing fairly aggressively. As I’ve mentioned before I like to play extra-aggressive coming up to the bubble because everyone plays so tight to ensure that they make the money.

Once I was in the money I went back to playing tight-aggressive and before long we were down to the final 6. I think I was 2nd in chips when the final table started. I can’t remember.

We got down to three players and I had a healthy stack. At this point I was guaranteed to take away ~$700. Play between the three of us went on for about an hour and a half. I think we went through 5 levels of blinds. There was myself, a player named MOE-something, and another guy named AL_something. Al was playing tight and although he doubled a few times it was really just a cycle of Moe and myself exchanging chips and Al slowly blinding himself out, then trying an all-in when he got down too low. It worked for him twice, but we busted him.

At that point it was 3:30am and I had work the next day. Moe’s stack was identical to mine so I suggested we chop the pot and he agreed.

First place was supposed to take $2600 and second place would receive $1800. With the chop pot we both took home a little over $2200.

I think I can safely say I’ll remain in the black after the casino trip this weekend. I plan on playing poker (obviously) at the casino, so hopefully I can rake in a little more cash there. last time I was up about $150 and ended up losing it all when my straight-flush got busted by my opponent 1-outing me on the river for a higher straight flush. That hand and the other one I wrote about at the casino back home are probably my two most memorable beats in live poker.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Another Tournament Win

I came in 6th place overall and took home $116. There were only 200 participants because Party Poker currently cannot allow US players to gamble due to a new law in states.

This was my 4th cash finish in my last 5 attempts, and I’m happy to say I went out playing smart. I’d be shooting myself in the foot right now if I went down doing something stupid.

The whole tournament I was doing my usual grinding to the top. I was fortunate and had a couple hands where I had the nuts, and someone decided to take a stab at a bluff or over-valued their hands and went all in. This let me become the tournament chip leader with about 30 people left (top 20 made the money).

Like I’ve said before, many people tighten up and play super conservative when they’re close to making the money. I love being on the money line with the chip lead, or at least a decent stack, because you can increase your chips so much by pushing the medium and short stacks around while they try to hang around for the money.

My final hand I was about 3rd in chips, and I called a small raise with 8s-8c. The flop came down 2d-4d-8h. I had the nuts at this point. The original raiser made a large bet (about half my stack) and I went all in. He had me covered, but would’ve been short stack by a landslide if he lost. He called. Unfortunately he had 9d-10d and hit his flush.

The top 4 guys ended up splitting the pot, taking home $300 each. Another good tourny.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Finally Got My Final Table

I played in a $10 tournament with 870 entrants. I was on my game, and playing really smart poker. We were down to around 580 players remaining or so, and I had increased my stack from the initial 3000 to around 5500 (average at this point was about 4500). Blinds were 50/100.

I was dealt 9-10 suited and was on the button (meaning I’m in the best position). Folds went all around to me, and I limped in. The small blind then raised the pot to 300. The guys betting was like clockwork the whole game. A raise of 3 times the big blind, like he did here, meant he had two high cards… something like A-K, A-Q, A-J, K-Q. If he had a pocket pair he always raised 6 times the big blind. This meant that I knew I was beat going into the flop, but I also had the advantage of knowing about what cards he held; I called.

The flop came down 9-5-2 rainbow. Beauty. I’d hit top pair. Then out of nowhere he raised me all-in. I had to stop and think for a second. I was putting him on two over cards and he moves all in on that flop? After thinking about it for a little bit I decided that I believed he had over cards and that I was currently winning the hand. We had almost identical chip stacks. I called him.

He showed A-K. Perfect, I made the right call and was winning with my pair of nines. Unfortunately a K came on the turn and I couldn’t catch up. He took down the pot and left me with 62 chips. The only good news was that I had about 7 hands to choose from before the blinds got to me and forced me in.

I was real patient, and on the 5th hand I was dealt A-Q. This, obviously, was the hand to go in on. I was fortunate in that a large number of people limped in before me. I called (not even able to match the big blind). The guy beside me went all in, and everyone else folded. This was beautiful news for me because it meant that I only had to beat this one other guy, but because everyone else limped in originally I would be winning about 500 in chips. I ended up winning the hand (he had A-J) and increasing my stack to 500.

I waited a few more hands and was dealt 9-9. I went all in again, two callers. They both had over cards and the board didn’t show anything over a 8. I tripled up and was back up to about 1200 chips.

From that point on I just played the same smart poker I was playing from the beginning and managed to become chip leader at the table within an hour (at that point, I had about 30 000 in chips).

I kept playing my game and ended up finishing in 35/870 and taking home $40. Not bad for being down to 62 chips at one point. So, that just goes to show you that the “All you need is a chip and a chair” saying really is true.

This was the 3rd tournament in a row where I managed to make the money, but I’ve yet to make it to that elusive final table again. I’ll get there though, I’ll get there.

On a side note, if you play at Party Poker, Poker Stars, Ultimate Bet, or Full Tilt Poker there is a very cool site called thepokerdb.com where you can look up tournament histories of any players. I think you have to register to get the information. It’s free to register, takes about 5 seconds, and is really quite cool to check out.

The link for my tournament history is here. Enjoy!

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Chip and a Chair

In April I was fortunate to win a $50 (all money is in US$) tournament, coming in 1st out a field of 289. A couple weeks after that I placed 4th in a $100 tournament out of a field of 80. Since then I’ve fairly consistently made the money in tournaments. Of course, every once in a while I make a dumb bluff or take a bad beat. However, I seem to have hit a wall trying to crack the top 5 where the big money starts.

I’ve placed 8th from a field of 299, 9th in a field of 341, and numerous small cash finishes usually in the range of 20th-40th out of a field of 400-800. It’s always disappointing to grind through such a large field and come up short of the big money.

Today I played in another $50 tournament and again grinded my way into the money (top 40 from a field of 387 made the money). Everyone has their own philosophies on how to play tournaments – I rank mine as a good one if I can manage to get to the money without ever putting all my chips in the middle. Today was one of those days.

I was never an enormous chip leader, nor was I ever on my knees and begging for cards. I simply played the hands that came to me and let other people make the mistakes. In a tournament like this, my strategy is fairly constant throughout… playing tight and aggressive (anywhere from 15%-25% of hands dealt, raising most hands I play in).

When we get close to the money (5-10 players to go), I like to play a little more aggressively – especially against middle stacks. Most people tighten up here and wait for others to go out so its a perfect time to pick up a bunch of blinds and build up your stack.

Once the money marker hits, I sit back and play tight again. All the short stacks who made the money start to drop like flies – going all in with mediocre hands, just happy they made a little over their buy-in. During this time I only play top hands in good positions. Today, this lasted from about 40th place down to 20th. Now there’s only real good players left (occasionally maybe one very lucky person, but mostly people who know the odds and what they’re doing).

When we get down to this point I feel more comfortable making some moves. I’m very careful to keep tabs on my table image too. If I’ve been folding hand after hand for the last little bit I’ll throw in a raise no matter what I have if there were some limpers before me. If I get a caller, I pound the pot with a large bet on the flop. This usually takes it down – if not, then I’m probably beat and get away from the hand. If I’ve been raising a lot of hands lately, then I’m more likely to over-bet a strong hand like K-K in order to induce a re-raise from someone trying to call me on my “bluff”.

This strategy was working perfectly – and then came my mistake. I had a mediocre starting hand (something like 7h-8h). I put in a large raise representing a stronger hand hoping to take the pot down then and there. My only caller had a stack about 1.5 times mine and had position on me. Flop came down useless to me, something like 2c-5c-10s, but this is the exact hand that I’m usually able to pick up with a strong bet on the flop (about pot size). I raise the pot. He called.

I’m guessing he had over cards, or was on a draw (most likely flush). A 6d comes on the turn. “well, at least I have an open ended draw now… and he had to have missed his card”. There’s no way he made a straight – that would mean calling pre-flop with 3-4. I raise the pot again, and he comes over top of me for all chips. I still don’t know if he was on a draw or if he hit trips on the turn but I had to fold. This put me down to 25,000 chips with the blinds at 4000/8000 and the big blind 3 spots away from me. Damnit.

I needed to build up sooner rather than later or I’d be blinded out. I folded my next hand and was dealt A-J under the gun (meaning next first player to act pre-flop). Well, I’m likely not getting a better hand here and I don’t have the chips to see a flop and then bully any callers out. I went all in. One caller. He showed 10-10 and my cards couldn’t crack them (he’s about a 55% favourite). I went out 11th and took home $273. First place was about $5200

I don’t regret going all in at that point. I’d do it a thousand times over in that situation. What I have to regret is the hand I played before that. If I didn’t make the bet on the turn I’d still be in good shape. I made one mistake that cost me at least a couple positions (and at this point a couple positions is a few hundred dollars).

I’ll continue to work on my discipline late in the tournament and eventually another top 5 finish will follow. If anyone has suggestions or would like to share how they would’ve played in this situation then post a comment – I’m interested.

Here’s hoping my next poker related post is the description of a victory! Cheers.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Almost… Again

Now I’ve been up to the casino here and there before (I’m by no means a regular). Usually the wait list alone is at minimum an hour and a half before you get seated. We were seated in about 5 minutes, and at a table with two openings so we were able to play together – a sign that this must be an excellent night ahead. In addition to playing together we were also seated at by far the most entertaining table I’ve ever played at before; I would’ve been happy just paying the blinds and enjoying the conversation.

Included at the table were a few key characters. First off was the most honest poker player I will ever see. During hands that he played in he usually announced what card he needed to hit on a draw or would let us know he’s got two pair. Most times he’d tell us exactly which two pair he had. Think he’s lying? He showed his cards mid-hand just to make us feel better. Probably saved me $30 or so on a couple hands. Thanks man.

In addition Captain Honest there was also the funniest middle-aged Asian man. I think I found him particularly funny because at first impression when you sit with him at the table he seems like you’re typical Asian gambler (stayed quiet, looked analytical in the way he played, etc). That stereotype was thrown out the window after about 6 hands. Between him and the other few jokers at the table it was like attending a comedy routine for free. Chatting up the waitresses, dealers, other players, etc. Usually when I go I talk a little here and there but mostly keep to myself and play the cards (after all, I’m there to make some money) but with a table like this Kiron and myself couldn’t help but add to the banter. It was quite a bit of fun.

Financially the night was going well early on. About half the table was seated with players who played too many hands and over-valued their hands based on the betting that was happening. This made the pots bigger then usual when I had something strong. Within a couple hours I had doubled my original $200 buy-in to $400. The fish ran out of money and the table was eventually filled with 80% people who could play respectably (a couple of the lucky fish still had chips).

At this point I pretty much just picked up small pots here and there and grinded up to a $500 stack. This was when the hand of the night was dealt. I’m dealt 6-6 in the big blind. There was one raise to $10 before the flop and we had 6 players. Flop came A-K-6 rainbow. Sweet – I’m gonna get paid off. Raises went around until the bet was capped at $20 a person. We were now down to 3 players.

Turn card is a 4 and is the fourth suit to hit the board – a flush is now out. The three players left were myself, another relatively strong player who was the original raiser, and one of the fish who had gotten lucky earlier in the night. The bet was capped again to my delight. I put the original raiser on A-K, and the fish on A-Q, K-Q, or maybe even a prayer of a straight draw with J-Q. River comes a 3, meaningless. The bet is capped again. Pot is around $350 I’d guess.

I’m relatively confident I correctly put my opponents on weaker hands and turn my pocket 6s, giving me trips. The fish turns over K-K, giving him trip Ks and beating me. Unbelievable, the rest of the table can’t believe it either (they all knew that this guy played way too many hands and over-valued them regularly). One player to go. He turns over A-A giving him trip As. Wow. We all hit our trips on the flop. The table erupted in disbelief and drew the attention of the pit-bosses (who were happy it was a crazy hand and not a problem).

Alas. I was down to about $400 now. We called it quits shortly after. Kiron was down from $160 to about $45 and decided to try his luck at blackjack. I sat with him. We only played about 6 hands until he went bust (a rough night for him). However, on the last hand I put the extra $1 bet on the triple seven spot (where if you get dealt triple sevens you win $5k). I was dealt 7c-7c. Suited sevens paid $100. Unfortunately I didn’t hit my third seven, but still we cashed out for the night with myself up about $500 and thoroughly entertained by our table.

This post is from Ryan Price’s blog.

Crazy Casino Night