The Steven Train Jumps The Tracks

the gravy trains seems to be temporarily over. we played at the tuesday night tournament at the radisson again this week. same structure as last week -- $30 buy-in with a $20 rebuy or add-on. i had about T500 at the break and about T1100 aftering adding-on. my table was pretty crazy with many hands seeing raises, re-raises, and re-re-raises before the flop. many bluffs were flipped over. although it was my intention to be more active than last week i wasn't picking up any hands to do so. i was able to win a handful of pots that always kept around or above the original T400 starting stack.

once again, the key hand for me was when another player flopped trips in the same hand as me. it was a limped pot and i held A6o in the sb. about five players saw the flop with blinds at 30 - 60. i had about T900. the flop is AA10 with two spades. i check. the bb bets about 150 with two callers. i move all-in. he calls and flips up A4o and here comes the split pot. if i had won this whole pot i would have over T2200 in chips. it was not meant to be.

the reason this was such a key hand was because i could not get away from the hand that busted me. i have about T950 with a limper in front of me and the blinds still at 30 - 60, but about to move up. i find two black kings and raise to 250. i get three callers so there is now more than T1000 in the pot. if i end up folding here i will have less than 10 bb's left at the next blind level and simply looking for a hand with which to move all-in. the flop is super scary -- 7/8/9 with two diamonds. one player checks in front of me and i move all-in. the player behind me moves all-in and everyone else folds. he flips up pocket 7s for a set. i was actually more concerned that someone flopped two pair, or a straight, or someone would call with a straight or flush draw or both. if i started the hand with over T2000 i can check there and play more cautiously. the same player would still likely move all-in to protect against the straight and flush and i could easily fold. oh well.

steven accumulated chips early, but could not get the job done this week. he lost several hands with he bigger ace. one hand he held AK and called another player's AJ pre-flop all-in. the flop was QQ10. a K hit on the turn to complete her straight. i guess things cannot always go your way. i played in a $0.50 - $1 no-limit sidegame with a $40 max buy-in for about 45 minutes while steven continued in the tournament. i won $45 so i covered most of my buy-in.

we played for about two and a half hours at the horseshoe on wednesday and it is here that the train actually jumped the tracks. i lost $93 for the session which for me was up and down, but i felt i was playing well and could have easily posted a win had we played for a while longer. steven lost several key big hands - one when he made an incorrect read of someone's all-in move on the flop, two hands when someone hit the winner on the river, and one when someone out drew him on the turn. those hands accounted for almost all of his $400 loss. let's just say that he was less than pleased. we were meeting caroline and william, friends of steven's for dinner back in escazu so that dictated when our session was over.

we had a decent, but unspectacular italian meal. we then went to hang out at this new place, motor psychos, in santa ana. a very cool place which has its grand opening this saturday. we will check it out after playing in a tournament at the horseshoe. we have free entry into the tournament. depending on how many hours logged at the regular games one receives between T1000 and T5000. we should end up somewhere in the middle. other players pay a $500 buy-in for T5000. the last winner won over $3000.

for those of u who don't know the world series of poker (offical site) started this week. for incredible coverage please check out dr. pauly's tao of poker. i discovered this blog near then end of 2005's wsop. he is a an excellent writer firmly in the tradition of hunter s. thompson (official site). check his own description of his blog:

so if you want chip counts, hand histories, or winners photos of the 2006 wsop then the tao of poker will be a major disappointment for you. but if you want to read about my encounters at the hooker bar, or the pros I pissed next to, or the strippers that grubby and I paid $200 to eat a can of dog food, or how many boiled cheeseburgers made of kangaroo intestines that otis ate in a 48 hour period... then this is the place to get those stories.

i'll share it all with you here. for free. you don't have to pay me a dime. and if you don't like my coverage, that's fine too. don't read me. i don't waste my time reading shitty blogs or piss poor wsop coverage that has already been cropping up like an unwanted case of the rickets.

trust me, it is an excellent read. i have checked it out on a fairly regular basis since last year. we will be playing the $100 tournament at the radisson tonight. time to put tomorrow behind us.

Riding The Steven Train

since i arrived we are up $2328. i am riding the steven train right now. he had another monster day yesterday at the horsehoe. he won over $600. early on he was down about $300. it was weird because i was sitting there watching steven teetering on the brink of major tilt. he then won a key hand to move within spitting distance of even. he flopped top pair with a J high flush draw. he bet out. this guy robert, from phoenix, who likes to make big moves on pots, (and who is not nearly as good as he thinks he is -- imagine joe sorge with no reading skills at all) raises and steven moves all-in. robert claims to be on the flush draw (we never see his cards because u don't need to flip them up here when u are all-in -- apparently that is true of cash no-limit games everywhere as i have recently learned) and steven says robert must have the higher flush draw. the flush hit and steven won. it is quite possible that robert had top pair with a worse kicker or maybe 2nd pair. maybe he had the baby flush.

my day started great and it was all down hill from there. the first hand we play i am in the bb. roberto from vegas who i mentioned in the last post limps in and there is a raise to $10 after him. when it gets back to him he makes it $40 to go and gets one caller - russ who runs the game. to anyone who understands poker he has a narrow range of hands -- AA and KK. the flop is Q high and roberto makes a huge bet which russ calls. a 10 comes on the turn and roberto moves all-in. russ calls with Q 10. roberto had AA. talking about the hand later russ said something to the effect of he flopped top pair and wasn't going anywhere. i think steven and i both silently said to ourselves, "ïdiot".

on the very next hand, there are already six or seven people in the pot (all limping) when i find AA. i make it $20 to go and get four callers which definitely concerns me. the flop is Q 6 2 rainbow. perfect. i bought in for $100 so i have $78 left and there is already over $100 in the pot. i move all-in. russ calls (again) and the button moves in for $10 more which concerns me. we never see russ' hand but the button had Q 5 (are u fucking kidding me?) i tripled up. that was about the last good thing that happened for me and ended up losing $100.

i am going to have to play more loose aggressive in order to win money consistently at this table. i am certain that over the long run i would win money the way i am playing, but not as much as possible. i warned steven that i might suffer through a period of losing a nice chunk of cash as i learn how to play differently. steven told me not to worry - i haven't seen him have a bad run yet. this game would be absolutely perfect for joe sorge. he would probably have more swings than steven, but he might be able to win even more money. people are capable of paying u off on big hands quite regularly.

A Good Start To The Week

i hope all is well with everyone in az. besides a bit of near daily rain the weather is absolutely gorgeous in cr. the vibe is very chill. the people are nice. san jose proper is a bit of a dump, but still vibrant. i didn't realize just how much the homogenization of america bugged me until i got here. don't get me wrong there is still plenty of evidence of american cultural and economic influence here -- mickey d's, kfc, pizza hut, wendy's, tgif's, etc. it's just not so overwhelming. one thing's for sure. this is a small town/country. steven knows people everywhere we go and that is not limited to the poker world. so far, i am quite happy with the move. at this point, it is like being on vacation. i lose track of time and what day it is very easily.

since i arrived here on a thursday and started playing poker on friday we are considering friday to be the start of our week in terms of record-keeping. our final day of poker last week was a dud. we played at a tournament at the radisson with a $100 buy-in with just about 30 players. we started with T1500 and blinds at 5 - 5 moving up to 5 - 10. steven and i started at the same table and he accumulated chips early - he had about three hands in which he out-kicked the other player in the hand and another hand in which someone just gave them all of their money. steven had limped into a hand from the sb with about four other players when the bb (who basically played tight weak) made a small raise, one to which noone considered folding. the flop was Q J X. steven checked the, bb bet, everyone folded to around to steven and he called. the turn was a Q. steven check-raised the guy, pretty much announcing what he held. bb calls. at this point steven figures he's out-kicked (AQ). river J, steven moves all-in and the guy calls immediately with AJ. simply incredible.

when we broke to two tables i was short-stacked and steven was probably the chip-leader or close to it. i had several all-ins with no callers to pick up blinds here and there. i finally doubled up when two people limped in front of me and i moved all-in from late position with A9s. the 2nd limper (who was recently crippled when someone hit a three-outer on him after getting all-in post-flop) who had me somewhat out-chipped call with KJ. my hand held up and i had over T2000. i doubled up again shortly there after when i raised from middle position with 7 7. the sb who was the chip leader at the table pushed all-in. a fter about 20 seconds thought, i decided that if had the higher pp then so be it. i called. he had AK and my hand held up. i misplayed a hand a little later when the same guy limped utg. i raised with AQo and he called. the flop was rags and he moved all-in and i folded. i should have pushed all-in pre-flop to put the pressure on or made the more conservative call/limp. that cost me a significant amount of my chips.

i made the final table (of ten) as one of the short stacks and steven was the chip leader. i played like a wuss instead of trying to double up/steal blinds and antes. two people went out early and with them paying the top seven i thought i might back my way in. no such luck. the two other short stacks doubled up and i went out eighth. steven was the chip leader when they got down to five. with a combo of bad luck and i bad play he ended up fifth paying him $180. long work to lose $20.

no poker on friday primarily because we stayed out until 5:30am. saturday and sunday were excellent. we played for about six hours at the horseshoe both days. on saturday i won $298 and steven won $146. relatively early a nice hand for our table image came up. we see a flop three-handed and i'm holding AhJh. the flop comes A high with two hearts. i check, steven checks, the other guy bets out, i call, and steven moves all-in. the other guy folds. when i get over my initial shock since i was fully expecting to win this pot i started thinking about what to do. as soon as i started to give some serious consideration to folding i realized that this was a perfect situation to call and play a big hand with steven. i called and discovered that he had flopped a set of fives. no problem the 9h appears on the turn and i win.

steven played another big hand with tri (pronounced tree), a super nice vietnamese guy from l.a. steven flopped the nut flush and tri flopped the second nut flush. another player (monty) in the hand bets out at the flop. steven calls. tri raises. monty folds and then steven moves all-in in an attempt to drive out tri who steven suspects has a set or two pair. there is an extended period of thinking by tri and steven trying to coax the call after he realizes that tri has also flopped a flush. he finally makes the call and doubles steven up.

sunday, steven and i get to play another big hand early. i raise from middle position with QQ, steven re-raises, i move all-in, and steven calls with AQs. he hit his A on the flop to bust me. steven would almost never make that call if we weren't sharing a bankroll or trying to make sure that everyone knows that we will play hard against each other. essentially my range of hands is quite small in that situation -- AA, KK, QQ, and AK. steven is hurting in all of those siutations. i don't recall losing any other big pots, but i did lose a fair number of medium size pots. i originally bought in for $100 and then rebought for another $100. when i lost that, i rebought for $200. i struggled for the rest of the day. my most common hands were 2/3, 2/4, and paint/rag. at one point steven massaged my shoulders and whispered in my ear to remain patient because there were players at the table with lots of chips who will eventually just give them away. he mentioned greg, in particular.

steven obviously had a crystal ball. when i was down to about $125 in chips and thinking how was i possibly going to post a loss of $300 a key hand came up with greg. i was in the sb, there were a a handful of players in the hand for a small raise which i called with Ks7s. the was all spades, ace high. i flopped the nuts and checked. everyone checks around to greg, on the button, who makes a small bet which i call and everyone else folds. i check on the turn and he now makes a $35 bet. i remember steven saying earlier that greg will almost never fold a hand. i decide to mini-raise to $70 because i am thinking that if i don't get some more $$ in here my all-in on the river might be to large to call. he calls the raise. another spade on the river and i move all-in which he calls immediately. the spade on the river made him the second nut flush because he held the Qs. beautiful. i end up posting a loss of $136. steven had a huge win of $515. that puts us up $823 for two days of play so far this week.

there was this guy, roberto, at the table today from las vegas. he is a strong solid player who knows all the tricks. he makes a living in vegas playing poker - primarily 10 - 20, no-limit hold'em. he's the type of players that gets calls from dealers or floor people in the middle of the night because there is juicy game or a single whale playing. a total character as well which livened things up. even before it became clear from his play and chat that he was a strong player i could just tell he was good from the way he conducted himself at the table. i think he played looser than he normally would because of the stakes being lower than he is accustomed to and steven chatting awat with him for the entire session.

A Couple of Tournaments

we didn't play on saturday. i took a pretty substantial nap on saturday afternoon. i was obviously suffering from a bit of jet lag. we went out to dinner and bopped around a number of places. we met up with a couple of the regular players from the horseshoe in downtown san jose. met a kid, lasse, from sweden who will be going up to vegas for the wsop (official site). he's already qualified for the main event and will play some other events, as well.

we went back to the horseshoe on sunday for about five hours. i won $67 and steven won $11. nothing too notable transpired. we played for about 4 1/2 hours on monday. i made some big hands and won $255. steven couldn't get anything going and lost $46. the table was actully pretty tight so steven just went across the street for a beer at some point and left me to do the dirty work.

we played a tournament at the radisson on tuesday night. the buy-in was $30 for T400 (T400 = $400 in tounament chips) if u bust u can re-buy T600 for $20. u can also add-on T600 before the end of the 4th blind level (at the first break). there were about 50 entries in the tournament. blinds start at 1 - 2 and then basically double from there as they go up. i had dropped slightly below T400 by the first break and paid the $20 for the extra T600. steven had about T1300 and decided not to re-buy.

i got up to about T1200 and then ran into the hand that crippled me. i had 8h 6h in the bb. a couple of people limped and i checked my option. the flop was 6 6 X with 2 diamonds. i checked primarily because i knew the button was likely to move-in. he was the short stack, recently crippled, and an aggressive player. as suspected he moved-in for about T350. i called, hoping for the overcall from one o the other players. much to my surprise, a player in middle position moved all-in. i didn't give much thought to folding - he could have the nut flush draw, paired the X card with a big kicker, or a pp higher than sixes. he had 6 10 and and when my 8 or the board didn't pair i was left with under a hundred. i moved all-in several hands later with pocket sixes and was called by two players. one of them spiked a king on the river to knock me out about 40th. sixes were not good to me that night.

after taking a few minutes to shake it off. i sat down in the side game which was no-limit with $1 - $2 blinds. a couple of the same players were there from friday night. although i initially dropped about $50 or $60, things went much better for me than friday - no aces cracked this time. i won a few nice hands from one of the guys who cracked my aces on friday. he plays a little fast and loose and was on my immediate left. during first hand i beat him a couple of players limped in front of me so i limped with 10h 9h. he raised it to $12. one player called in front of me and i called. the flop was 9 high with 2 hearts. first player checked, i checked, raiser moved-in for about $20. first player folded and i called immediately. he had the brian (specifically he had Ah 2s). a 9 came on the turn and an A on the river. the strange thing here is u don't have to flip up your cards after going all-in and players rarely do.

a little later i found AKo utg. i decided to limp, hoping that one of the two guys on my immediate left would raise. no such luck. i was now seeing the flop out of position with a bunch of limpers. the flop was A high and i bet out $10, about the size of the pot. the guy on my immediate left moved all-in for $25 more, everyone else folded and again i called immediately. he had AJo and never paired his kicker.

one other noteworthy hand - i limped in pre-flop with pocker fours and three other players saw the flop. i flopped bottom set with 2 diamonds on board. utg bet out $14. now, what to do? i decided to gamble a little and just call. the player utg tended to push his big hands if there was either a lot of $$ already in the pot or alot of players who saw the flop so i presumed if i raised right now i would only win what was already in the pot unless someone flopped a big hand behind me. i also thought it was possible for someone to re-raise behind me and then i would move all-in. everyone called. a blank came on the turn and utg checked. now i bet out $60 - no free chances to for someone to pick up a diamond on the river. everyone folded.

i played from 10:30 to 1:15 and finished plus $128. in the meantime, steven was rolling through the tournament. when they reached the final table, steven had about one-quarter of the chips in play. he proceeded to knock out seven of the remaining nine players. as u can imagine steven pushed hard. he said that he was all-in with the worst of it most of the time and won. when he knocked the guy out in third place he cracked aces with a Q 10 off-suit. after tipping the dealers, the take was $730.

steven played in a bigger tournament last night at the fiesta casino near the airport. the buy-in is $50 for T100 with the blinds starting at $5 - $5. there are unlimited rebuys. anytime u dip below T100 u can make as many rebuys as u want at the same rate. then at the break u can add-on $50 for T200 up to $200 for T800. steven's strategy is to start the tournament very late figuring that he is going to have rebuy anyway and to avoid the early levels when people are playing like crazy because of the unlimited rebuys. if he has built up to T1000 by the break he won't take the add-on. this night he was in for $350 -- two rebuys plus a $200 add-on.

he ended up finishing eighth. he suffered a few bad beats along the way including some at the final table that altered some of his play. with a couple of breaks, it sounds like he had a chance to win. on the hand that busted him he raised from late position with AQ. after much thought the sb went all-in and had steven covered. this was the same wild and loose player that i tangled with the night before. partly, because he knows this guy is capable of moving in there with a weak ace steven decided to call. he now regrets that decision because he says that there was a good chance that a couple of other players were going broke on the next orbit. of yeah, the guy had AK and steven couldn't suckout. he won $300 so he lost $50 total.

i decided not to play because i didn't feel ready to play in a tournament that i was likely to invest $300 or more to play properly. i also wasn't about to sit down in $3 - $5 no-limit side game. i stayed home and took it easy.

later this week or next we will head out for a little trip to the pacific side of costa rica. i definitely long for the ocean. i love the relaxed feel here. although i have yet to the see the ocean it has sort of an island feel. looking out from the second floor balcony here, one is surrounded by green hills.

Bienvenidos

i arrived in costa rica safe and sound on june 15th. humberto brenes was on my flight from houston (official site) to san jose. of course, he was flying first class and i was crammed into a coach seat. steven was a little late picking me up because he gave someone a ride home from the casino before heading off to the airport. no problems - steven tends to be late so i was unconcerned. as soon as we got home to his house in escazu i showered and changed and we headed out. he had received an invitation to the grand re-opening of the casino at the white house in the hills of escazu. they had a 5 - 10 no-limit hold'em game going. we weren't playing, just doing a little drinking and socializing.

we started playing poker on friday. my first day was filled with suckouts against me and decent to very good lay downs on my part. we first played at steven's main place - the horseshoe casino which is owned by dewey tomko. i lost a little and steven won alot. no terrible beats for me yet. steven had a nice hand where he flopped a set of deuces with a heart flush draw on board. he made a big bet and got called. the turn was absolutely golden - the deuce of hearts which led to steven being fully paid off. i had pocket aces twice and once won the blinds and won a very small pot the other time.

we then went to the radisson home to casinos europa which hosted the costa rica classic during the first season of the world poker tour (official site). both humberto brenes and greg raymer were playing there. they were playing some sort of promotional event for poker stars (official site) employees. greg raymer was receiving most of the attention since apparently anyone who plays poker in costa rica is likely to see humberto on at least a semi-regular basis.

i had aces cracked three times while playing at the radisson including one time when i was all-in pre-flop against kings. i can't say that has ever happened to me before - having them cracked three times in the same session, that is. just like any other poker player i have had aces cracked by the lower pocket pair too many times to mention. it was slightly unnerving, but i guess i'm over it. even with all of my bad luck we broke even for the night. the play can be wild here. our buddy joe sorge would feel right at home. in fact, joe's game is definitely tame by comparison. joe, i suspect that when you come to visit you will not leave. downtown san jose is gambling, booze, and women. it's hard to imagine that he would feel compelled to use his return ticket home.

Who Am I?

my name is glenn graham, dubbed dj zenn, by my friend ray. i moved to costa rica twelve days ago, joining my brother, steven and his family, who are curently living in escazu, a small suburb, just outside of san jose. they moved down here in november of 2005. steven's motives were primarily of a political sort. his world view is libertarian in nature and he has long criticized the american government's extensive intrusions into its citizens' personal lives and affairs. his desire to leave the country was certainly accelerated by george w. bush's re-election in 2004.

i agree with the vast majority of steven's complaints about the american government. i just don't take it quite as personally as he does. my own reasons for leaving have to do with a more simple desire to make a change. i have done more than my fair share of travelling in my life. our mother, margaret, was born and raised in a belfast, northern ireland. she moved to america in 1960 at nineteen years old. i went with her on her first trip home in 1968. i even had my fifth birthday in belfast. since then i have spent time in england, scotland, japan, much of southern europe, and india. i have also lived in six different states as well as the district of columbia. for whatever reasons, good or bad, i don't stay in one place for too long.

the main purpose for this blog is so that our poker playing buddies back in the valley of the sun can keep track of steven and my poker playing results. if it some how picks up some other readers so much the better. amidst the result reports will certainly be comments upon and disscusions of strategy that may or may not be interesting. steven has been making a living playing poker since he got here. he wanted me to join him and play from the same bankroll just as doyle brunson, amarillo slim, and sailor roberts did back in the day. it helps reduce the swings or varience one encounters as a poker player. even the greatest players in the world suffer losing sessions, weeks, or months. it is simply the nature of the game.

we have no intention of soft-playing one another. the only serious impact on playing each other is that it might result in some big calls that we might not otherwise make since the money will stay in the family. i imagine that it will also be good for our table image to have the other players observe us playing some big pots against each other.

ultimately i hope that the process of writing this blog on a regular basis will help me improve as a poker player.