Archive: July, 2011

Snappy Floats

July 26th, 2011 7 comments

I was playing $5/10 no-limit hold’em at the Venetian and I had the ideal arrangement. Predictable Pete on my left was playing 20% of his hands, and Generous Gene on my right was playing 80%. I figure I don’t need to show my work to this crowd. Obviously my correct preflop percentage was to play 50% of the hands. Which I did joyously.

 

An hour into the session, this hand came up. I had the button and $2500. Gene was in the cutoff with more than that. He opened for $50. I had A4o. I snap floated him.

 

(I realize that you can’t technically float before the flop. Probably because there’s no proper word for it, yet. If we allow the word “float” to describe more of an attitude than an actual play, then I think it’s okay to call my call a float.)

 

Both blinds folded so now we were headsup.

 

I entirely missed the flop. He bet $100, using ten $10 chips, and I snap floated with one $100 chip. I had a plan. If he checked the turn, I would snap bet $300 with three prepared black chips. If he bet the turn, I would snap float him yet another time.

 

(To float someone, there has to be at least one more street to go. You can float on the flop, and you can float on the turn, but oddly, at poker, the one thing you can’t do is float on the river.)

 

The turn came. My hand was still ace-high with a one-pair draw. He took his time and then he said, “I bet $300.”   I snap floated him using the three black chips that were resting under my palm like a coiled snake’s tongue. With a quick and barely perceptible nudge from my thumb, my three black chips suddenly appeared across the betting line. This was intended to make him fold while be begged forgiveness for having been born. But instead, he asked me a question:

 

“What do you have?” he said. “Pocket nines?”

 

Apparently he wanted me to think that he thought I would play pocket nines just as bad as I was playing A-4.

 

After I called the turn, the pot was $900, I had about $2,000 left, and he had me covered. There was still plenty of time for me to pull this one out.

 

My plan to maybe bluff the river was thwarted when an ace came, my best possible card, giving me a pair of aces with no kicker. He snap checked. His body was saying, “Don’t you dare bet. I’ve got my hand and I like it and I’m calling.”

 

But I didn’t necessarily believe all that.  I deftly conjured up a range of hands for him that he might call a bet with that I could beat. And also a range he might check/call with that beat me. I factored the factors and I decided to bet $500 because betting is fun. He took not that long and said, “Call.”  I turned over A-4. And so did he.

My New Book: A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales by Tommy Angelo

July 15th, 2011 3 comments

 


This was a fun book to write. I hope you enjoy it too. So far all of the Amazon reviewers did. You can see what they said here:

http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Story-Other-Poker-Angelo/dp/1456364375/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306333422&sr=1-1

It’s available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.co.uk, in print and ebook.

Here’s a paragraph about what it’s about, written by my partner on this project, Anna Paradox:

A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales collects the best articles, blogs, and stories from Tommy Angelo’s last 12 years of writing and showcases them with eighteen new introductions and afterwords. Here you’ll find poker war stories from his years as a pro, poker fiction, ruminations on poker rules, and more – including a strong selection of articles on tilt, the author’s signature topic. The new commentaries, found only in this volume, take you behind the curtain on Angelo’s history and writing process. New readers will appreciate the humor and fresh perspective on poker, and existing fans will enjoy the exclusive commentaries as well as having a convenient collection of Angelo’s most popular material.

And here is an excerpt, from the introduction to the Alex Stories section:

I met Alex Roberts at a poker table. He was wearing a Michigan hat. I was wearing an Ohio State hat. Even though we were playing in the same $20-40 game almost every day, and even though we were practically the only two white guys in the room, we didn’t speak to each for months. Because of the hats. I wore my OSU hat because I had just moved from Ohio and I was scared of big bad California and I was desperate to hold onto the identity I was leaving behind. Alex wore a Michigan hat because, hell, I don’t know. Maybe he flunked out of there or something, or maybe he just liked looking stupid.

See you inside!

 

 

Walking the Halls, Part Five

July 12th, 2011 No comments

Welp, I’m back home from a week at the WSOP, a week in Ohio, a week at the WSOP, and then another week at the WSOP, and as wonderful as all of that was, I must say, be it ever so awesome, there’s no place like home.

Walking The Halls, Part Four

July 8th, 2011 One comment

During the World Series of Poker, I sometimes meet up with clients for a short visit during their tournament breaks. If they text me and say something like, “I’m at table 119 and we have a break in 26 minutes,” then there is a greater than zero probability that I will magically appear at table 119 in 26 minutes.

There were a couple times when I was walking from my room toward the tournament area to meet a client on break, and I was a little late. You’ve seen salmon struggling to swim upstream, right? Imagine if those salmon had thousands of other salmon swimming AT them, not with them. That’s what it was like trying to get to table 119, 27 minutes after I got the text.

Here’s the main hallway in the main tournament room where poker players go each year to spawn.

Imagine that center aisle full of a thousand people who have to pee coming at you. What I noticed when walking into this walking wave of humanity going the other direction is how easy is it for us to not run into each other. If all those bodies were moving in straight lines and at uniform speed, it would be a slalom-like athletic achievement to get through it unbumped. As it was, no problem. We all instinctively give each other space, at the table, in the hallway, and I feel a Kumbaya moment coming on.

Walking the Halls, Part Three

July 7th, 2011 No comments

When I walk the halls between poker sets, I sometimes phone home to give a report, and to hear Kay’s voice which serves as a reminder that there really is life after the WSOP.

Last night I said, “Bla bla bla bla, the game is wild, and I’m playing no hands.”

She said, “You could call it ‘hands-free poker.’”

“Right!” I said. “And just like with hands-free phoning while driving, you’re less likely to get into an accident!”

Walking the Halls, Part Two

July 5th, 2011 No comments

I’m in the middle of my third and final trip to the 2011 World Series of Poker. This time I rented a car because I have some off-strip visiting to do. At the airport, I got in my little red rental car and started driving. Zing! This little guy had some zip!

I am what my wife calls, “Not a car guy.” But for some reason I was curious as to what kind of car I was driving, so I looked at the steering wheel to find out. I learned that I was driving a Ford Airbag.

Walking the Halls at the WSOP, Part One

July 4th, 2011 2 comments

This might look like a photograph of a third-floor hallway at the Rio in Las Vegas, where I am living for a couple weeks, at the World Series of Poker. But it’s more than that. It’s where I go when I want to feel like I’m not going anywhere, but it’s hard to, because I’m always on the way to somewhere, or am I? See, I told you it wasn’t just a hallway.

Curious as to just how much walking I was doing, I did some pacing off. I happen to know how to walk so that each step is very close to one yard. I did that, while counting. Here’s my data:

My hotel room door is at the end of the hall. From my door to the elevators is 120 yards.

From the elevators to table 225 in the cash-game area – which is right in the heart of the $5-10 no-limit hold’em area, which is where I camp out – is 250 yards. Most of that is walking down a long, wide hallway to the convention area.

Total yards from door to table: 370.

I typically play three sets of poker per day. A set is about 100 minutes of playing. In between sets, I walk the halls. I go back to my room and dawdle and yoga and then walk back to the poker room. After the last set, I hall-walk back to my room. That’s six one-way walks per day.

370 yards x 6 = 2220 yards.

That’s 1.25 miles. Not bad, for a stationary activity. I’m going to add this on to my list of things I love about poker at the WSOP. It provides exercise!

It was delightful to play lots of poker with my good friend Matt Flynn. We had not played together for years, after playing together for years. Last week we played $5-10 NLHE several times, followed by leisurely debrief sessions about the hands, just like old times!

At the start of the first session, I pulled out my chapstick – the basic black and white kind – and balmed myself. I looked at Matt. He had the smuggest look on his face as he somewhat flamboyantly reached into his pocket. We didn’t make eye contact. I knew he would come out with his own classic chapstick and get balmed. A day or two later, when we played again, we did the same ritual. And then, last Thursday, at the DeucesCracked home game, we got in the same game, and without a word or a look, we exchanged our secret salute. Poker is fun.

One more Matt story. Our first session together was a magical day. We sat at either end of the table, and we played for seven hours. We both played our best and ran well and scored well. This one hand, I had 85 offsuit, and I folded before the flop. I am a graceful, efficient folder, and I had been stylistically folding all day long, showing off for my buddy Matt. When I folded the 85 offsuit, it was one of my standard moves where I lead the dealer’s swooping hand – like a quarterback leading a receiver – so that my cards disappear under the dealer’s moving hand without the hand needing to change course or speed. But something went slightly wrong this time, and my cards flipped up.

Matt said, “Bad fold.”

The guy next to Matt said, “Huh? He folded 85o. What’s bad about that?”

Matt didn’t reply. He knew that I knew what he meant.

Elements of Poker goes Russian

July 2nd, 2011 2 comments

My plan for global domination is moving along quite nicely. :-)

That’s a picture of what just came in the mail. It’s the Russian version of my first book. You can get yours here:

http://books.all-games.ru/?hormenu

My deepest thanks goes to my good friend and fellow poker writer, Alan Schoonmaker, who has and continues to help me make publishing connections around the world.