“A Poker Narrative”

From Left to Right: Johnny Suarez(friend), Frank Paez(friend and co-worker), myself(with suit), Renny Felson(childhood friend). At the Dania Jai Alai poker room on Wednesday June 30th, 2010 for the Dan LeBatard Multi Table Tournament Satellite for the World Series of Poker- $79 Buy-In and $10 tip to dealer gives you an extra 2,000 in chips for a total of 5,000 chips to start. There is a re-buy of $70 for the first half hour.

By the latter part of 2009 I went to play my first NL Hold’em $1-$2 cash game at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. This game is different than a tournament. The tournament is played with non-value chips and the blinds increase after every round of play. A round of play could constitute 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on depending on the tournament organizer’s decision. The cash game is played with money value chips and the blinds don’t increase, they are a constant $1-$2. The $1-$2 cash game is the lowest stakes game offered by casinos. The $1 bet is the small blind and the $2 bet is the big blind both to the left of the button. In the cash game you are allowed to place a bet which is called the “live straddle,” but not in tournaments. The player immediately to the left of the big blind (1st position called “under the gun”, UTG) may place a live straddle blind bet before the cards are dealt to the players. The straddle must be the size of a normal minimum raise over the big blind. In the $1-$2 game the straddle bet is $4. A straddle is a live bet; the player placing the straddle effectively becomes the “bigger blind”. Action begins with the player to the left of the straddle. If action returns to the straddle without a raise, the straddle has the option to check or raise. The minimum buy-in at the Hard Rock is $40 and the maximum is $200 for this game. That night I came in with $200 and left with $645 so I made a profit of $445 for the first time. On December 31st of that same year I went with my best buddy Frankie to the Hard Rock and played the $1-$2 cash game. Frankie lost his $200 buy-in in a matter of ½ an hour. Well, it wasn’t what I had planned, but I lost my $200 buy-in within the first hour of play. I remember having a KJ♦ when the flop comes 4♦ and 6♦  plus a 10♣. I had a flush draw, meaning I needed one more diamond for a flush. My opponent bets out $20 and I called the $20 bet; then the 9♥ comes out on the turn; my opponent checks and I check right behind; then the 8♦ comes out on the river card making a K♦ high flush; my opponent goes all in with his last $250 in chips and I called thinking I had the best hand with a K♦ high flush; well my opponent was holding a 5♦ and 7♦ making a straight diamond flush from the 4♦ through the 8♦. Got knocked out and never re-bought to come back into the game. I was so pissed because it was already the new years and I was expecting a huge profit for the night. I continued going every Saturday in 2010 and 2011 to play the cash game at the Hard Rock. I was on the plus side most of the time, but at the start of 2011 I have been on the minus side with some pluses in between.

At about the same time in 2010 I began hitting the Magic City Casino in Miami, FL for the same $1-$2 cash game. The minimum buy-in there is $50 and the maximum buy-in is $200. The first time I bought in at the maximum and came out with $575 for a profit of $375. I continue going till this day and most of my chances there have been on the plus side. The Magic City Casino was advertising an upcoming sit’n go single table of nine players on May 31st, June 1st and June 2nd of 2011 called the “Latino Poker Series” to be televised on MEGA TV, a Spanish TV network belonging to the “Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc.” This Company owns and operates Mega TV(channel 22 in Miami), a television operation with over-the-air, cable and satellite distribution and affiliates throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Latino Poker Series is a television first. The only Spanish-language poker television show in the U.S. Hispanic market was about to be launched here from the city that has it all. The buy-in for each tournament was $1,100 and the games would start at 12:00 P.M. They were also offering a cash game on June 2nd which would start at 7:00 P.M. and would also be televised as well. I believe the minimum buy-in was $5,000 and the maximum was $10,000 with the blinds starting at $25-$50. I almost registered for the cash game, but on May 30th I signed up for the sit’n go tournament for June 2nd. Like I had mentioned, the buy-in was $1,100 and first place would take all, a cool $10,000. The blinds were set at 20 minute intervals. On June 2nd we start by drawing a card from one to nine from the table which would indicate the seat at the table. I drew the number 6 and sat at seat #6 clockwise from the dealer’s seat. Don’t get confused with the seat number and position of a player. “Position” in poker refers to the order in which players are seated around the table and the related poker strategy implications. Before the flop, the 1st position to act is called “under the gun” and is to the immediate left seat of the big blind(two positions from the dealer button in clockwise order); 2nd position called “under the gun +1” is to the left of 1st position at the table and so on until the 10th position. The “Dealer Button” is a marker that moves around the table one seat at a time after every hand and is used to define the different positions at a 9 or 10 player table. Following the 2nd position pre-flop to the left is the 3rd position called “under the gun +2; then 4th position called “under the gun +3”; then 5th position called “under the gun +4”; then 6th position called “hijack”; then 7th position called the “cutoff”; then 8th position called the “button”; then 9th position called the “small blind”; finally the 10th position called the “big blind.” Players who act first are in “early position”; players who act later are in “late position”. A player “has position” on opponents acting before him and is “out of position” to opponents acting after him. Because players act in clockwise order from the dealer button, a player “has position” on opponents seated to his right, except when the opponent has the button and certain cases in the first betting round of games with blinds. The primary advantage held by a player in late position is that he will have more information with which to make better decisions than players in early position, who will have to act first, without the benefit of this extra information. Also, as earlier opponents fold, the probability of a hand being the best goes up as the number of opponents goes down. The blinds are the least desirable position because you’re forced to contribute to the pot and you must act first on all betting rounds after the flop. They went over certain rules just before the game started. To make a long story short, I knocked out the opponent in seat #2 out in third place and I find myself heads up with the opponent in seat #7 just to my left. I had approximately a 3 to 1 chip lead at the time over him. He went all-in on the first two hands and I folded. But the third hand he goes all in and I called with a J♠ and 5♠ and he shows pocket 3’s(his two hole cards). The flop comes 7♥, J♣ and 6♦, the turn card came out a 10♠ and the river card was a Q♥. I did pair my J♠ and won first place along with the $10,000 prize. That was my first big money win in any tournament that I have ever played.

Latino Poker Series launching from the Magic City Casino in Miami, FL. Sit’n go tournament with nine players on June 2nd, 2011with a buy-in of $1,100. I’m on seat #6 with the gold shirt clockwise from the dealer position.

After this big win I was thinking of flying to Las Vegas and playing in the WSOP in one of the $1,000 buy-in NL Hold’em events. The WSOP has over fifty events every year in Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. On June 17, I finally decide to go and make my reservations through Expedia for the hotel, airplane, and rental car. I filled out and sent the “Pre-Registration Information and Payment Form” along with $1,000 cashier’s check for the buy-in to the WSOP to play in Event #54(5-Day Event), a No Limit Hold’em multi table tournament. I had requested on the form that I would like to start on July 3rd, which was Sunday. Since they expect thousands of players they split the starting days into two; one for July 2nd(Day 1A) and the other one for July 3rd(Day 1B). I flew into Vegas on Friday July 1st so I could complete my pre-registration at the “WSOP Will Call” office and settle in before the start on Sunday July 3rd. There they would give you the “Tournament Buy-In” receipt and the “Seat Assignment” at the table. I was given a white card which indicated the “Area” which was Pavilion Black, “Table” number 3 and “Seat” number 2. The huge poker pavilion was broken up into several areas since there were approximately 4,576 players and a prize pool of $4,118,400 in this event. The payout is usually the top 10% of the field of players. I believe first place was a cool $648,880. Players started with $3,000 in chips and the blind levels would be 60 minutes which I thought was more than plenty of time between rounds. I was feeling so good for this game in spirit and mind like no other tournament. I thought I was invincible. Well I didn’t get too far, before I got knocked out during the 3rd round of the game with the blinds being 50-100 on that first day. I was pretty distraught at losing because I lost to an inferior hand post-flop. I had just gotten pocket K’s(my two hole cards) in the big blind. Everybody to my left folded and seat #8 raises to $350 while the small blind on seat #1 to my right calls the $350 bet; I then have the option to call or raise, so I raised to $1,150. The guy in seat #8 folds while the guy in seat #1 makes the call of $1,150. The flop comes 2, 3, and a 4 all rainbow. “Rainbow” is a term used to describe a flop which contains three different suits. There were no possibilities of my opponent drawing to a flush or having a flush on the flop. There was one possibility of my opponent having a straight draw (needing one more card for the straight) or even a straight of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; the 5 and 6 being his hole cards or A, 2, 3, 4, 5; the A and 5 being his hole cards. Could my opponent have called my $1,150 raise pre-flop with a 5 and 6 or an A and 5 in his hands? I didn’t think so. Anyways, I went all-in on the flop with my remaining chip stack of $1,450. The guy calls my all-in bet and he shows A and 2, so he’s got a pair of deuces on the flop versus my pocket K’s. He was way behind after the flop. The turn card(fourth Street) comes a J which doesn’t help him at all. The last card which is the river card(fifth street) comes out a 5 and my opponent gets a straight from the A to the 5 and knocks the hell out of me because he had more chips than I did. I was so pissed, I immediately jumped out of my seat and against my will said to the man “nice hand,” when I really wanted to say something like, “how the hell can you make a loose call pre-flop on my $1,150 raise and another loose call post-flop on my all-in bet for all my chips with a shit hand like yours versus my pocket K’s. Only a donkey like you can make those calls.” A donkey is a player who has no clue what he’s doing, but yet makes that terrible play with a worthless hand hitting his chance against all odds and in turn crippling or knocking out an opponent. It was just another amateur player making a terrible play and getting rewarded for it. Boy, was I fuming while leaving the pavilion area. I just wanted to grab him by the neck and choke the guy(just a thought). I had expected to be in the tournament till the fifth and last day. I was like dazed when stepping out into the hallway area. I asked myself, “What should I do now”? I have six more days of vacation time here in Vegas. After the disappointing loss I went to the room to change my clothes and went to the gym inside the Rio Hotel. After a decent workout I could still feel a sour taste in my mouth. That night I went to Buzios Seafood Restaurant inside the hotel, a 3-star restaurant and had a decent meal, but I was still in disbelief. After the meal I went to the Bellagio Resort Hotel and Casino’s poker room to play the $1-$2 cash game. That night I happened to be slightly on the plus side for about $30 to $40. The week went on fast and I found myself playing the cash game at several poker rooms. I never had the itch on gambling on other casino games so I was happy about that. I hit the $1-$2 cash game at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, the Mirage Hotel and Casino, MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Venetian Hotel and Casino and the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino. My favorite poker room of all was the Golden Nugget. It is nicely decorated with wood trimmings; dimmed lighting all over and the table felts were smooth like silk. The tables had the logos of 1) “World Poker Tour Boot Camp,” 2) “Poker After Dark” and 3) “High Stakes Poker.” The Golden Nugget has been home for these three events for several seasons. The World Poker Tour Boot Camp led by poker professionals like Mike Sexton, Rick Fuller and many others is a 2 and 3-day seminars where participants are given a crash course in poker knowledge. Poker After Dark is an hour-long poker television program on NBC originally structured as a series of week-long No Limit Texas Hold’em mini-tournaments for six top poker professionals. Beginning with Season 4, the producers began to experiment with different game formats, including no-limit cash games, double-elimination Heads Up battle between the first 4 winners of the “National Heads-Up Poker Championship.” Also, Seasons 3, 4 and 5 had a “Dream Table,” pitting an amateur against five pros. High Stakes Poker is also an hour-long  television program broadcast by the cable television Game Show Network(GSN). High Stakes Poker was unique among televised poker series because it did not take place in a tournament setting. Instead, the program showed a high stakes cash game. The minimum buy-in to the game is US$100,000, but players have bought in for as much as $1,000,000. Unlike in poker tournaments, the chips involved represent real money. If a player loses his initial buy-in, that player may re-buy a minimum of $50,000. In addition, players may use cash instead of casino chips. Cash plays and stays as cash in the pot; it does not have to be converted into casino chips.

I returned to Miami on Saturday July 9th after a wonderful 9 days in Vegas. I went back to the Hard Rock and the Magic City Casino for the remaining days in July to play the $1-$2 cash game. I had a few loosing sessions at the Hard Rock. In August, I started playing the next level which is the $2-$5 cash game at the Magic City Casino. In the $2-$5 cash game you can buy-in at a minimum of $200 and a maximum of $500. I bought in for $400 and that first night I made a profit of $512. The following night I made a profit of $250. Till this day I’m still playing the $2-$5 cash game, but my main goal is to play in the WPT as well as WSOP events and win a final table.