Cash Game @ Scanlon's // 2006 Goals

Long time no speak folks...

I couldn't end the year without a poker session. I had spent most of the day with my beautiful wife. Wanda and I had a late brunch and a movie yesterday - good times. GREAT FOOD at the diner on King St. (Bailey's Crossroads, VA) and a great Broadway musical comedy turned movie, The Producers, for a nicely timed matinee.. Aaaah the love birds.

I was thinking through out the day if someone would've wanted to play last night.. Before I know it, the calls start coming in from Frank and Scanlon. I got to Scanlon's around 10 something during a mini-tournament that Frank, Scanlon, Goldie and Steve were having.. Goldie (Russell) and Steve ended up pretty much chopping it.. and then the cash game started (yay!).

It was definitely a night of hot cards and a few bad beats... Saw 2 or 3 quads... A couple boats.. A lot of two-pairs.. So playing straight up solid poker was money last night (well for me and Steve). The most interesting thing of the night was Steve's weird "calling station" style sucking the money from the other stacks all night. The pros say don't even TRY to bluff a calling station - make sure you have something when you bet into them. Well it was early on and I hadn't played with Steve too much in the past so... I was testing him. This one particular hand.. I was pushing hard at him (I was holding Q 8 offsuit) and the board had all low cards I believe.. Well I bet $4.00 on the turn.. he called.. then a nine fell on the river and I bet $8.00.. dude CALLED and guess with WHAT - Q 10 offsuit... WTF!! ... What a call... See.. I'm not sold that he's just soooo good at reading people. I just think he knew he was on some sort of rush for the night, he was tired and sick so he was just gambling to gamble w/o much strategy, he was starting to build a killer chip stack so he could afford it, and maybe a liiiitle bit of it was him thinking that I was bluffing (I might not be giving him enough credit).. His 10 friggin' outkicked me BARELY and he took down the pot.. Honestly one of the CRAZIEST hands I've played since I started playing poker. He called another big bet on the river and outkicked Frank last night on another hand where both of them were holding ace high (Frank - A 10 and Steve - big slick).

I'm soooo happy that I played last night because I got a chance to play against a new style of player (Steve). He plays both his big hands AND crappy hands like trash... He hardly ever raises pre-flop... Hell, he HARDLY raises period... Dude just calls calls calls calls. He doesn't play poker frequently, so I'm not sure he even cares about his style working anywhere else in the future ('cus it's honestly not a good playing style to practice). It was also good practice at short-handed play. Anyway. Good times. I made $25.00 profit on the night, so I made my money back from losing $13.00 on Wednesday at Quan's 100000000000000 handed cash game (where I lost a good chunk of money to one of Nicky's cousins that looks damn 9 YEARS OLD!) - a solid week coming from a break in playing.. and as always, good experience!

Here are some of my goals for the New Year:

1. Mature spiritually.

2. Continue to practice having fun and not necessarily putting "money first" in the things I do (that includes stuff where it seems the main objective IS to make money - i.e. selling records & poker).

3. Put out at least 4 major releases on Shaman Work this year (and a GANG of street level mix-cds)... I going to do more with my Aljera (www.aljera.com) imprint also.

4. Finish 75% to 80% of my own production album tentatively titled Tone Box.

5. Get Arbitrage, LLC (Me, Willock, Tone, and Paul) crackin'.

6. Write/develop a comedy screenplay with my friend LaTina Emerson.

7. Put my Serato Scratch and my powerbook (FINALLY I HAVE ONE THAT WORKS!) to use and start to DJ here and there.

8. Finish my business plan and lock down solid contacts for my Sylvan Learning Center franchise that I'm going to open within the next two years.

9. Get the 10-person investment club that I'm heading up OFFICIALLY off the ground and turning some solid profits (can't wait to build with you more on all this Albert).

10. Have a large enough bankroll to be able to comfortably sit at the $2/$5 NL tables in Atlantic City and Vegas.

11. Have enough money in the "buy a damn house" part of my savings by December 2006 for at least 50% of a nice size down payment for me and Wanda's first home purchase in the spring/summer of 2007.

12. Just keep the inspired hustle alive PERIOD and make my parents proud - R.I.P.

Everyone bring in the New Year SAFELY!

Peace and Blessings,
Ricardo Craft
www.pokerrico.com

Weekly Cash Game @ Quan's

I played solidly at Quan's last night.. I'm not going too deep into the night 'cus I'm sleepy and I have to catch a plane for Houston in a few hours.. So yeah, I made some money and uuuuh this update sucks... LOL! I'm also seeing that I'm playing my best poker when I just let things happen naturally and when I'm not "over-thinking." I'm definitely not saying "being wreckless," but being in that zone where it seems like every move (whether thought out / calculated or instinctive) you make is fluid.. Great feeling.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays,
Craft

Arlington Cash Game

Give me a little money at the beginning of the night... I'm NOT going away. I know it won't be like this every night.. but I'm pretty happy with my cash game skills right now... Most of these games I'm playing in are friendly cash games. Last night was pretty friendly and surprisingly a pretty 'tight' game (while I was there - I think things changed quite a bit after I left)... A looooot of limping last night. A looooot of high-pitched screaming from drunk girls last night. Folks taking shots of Patron at the table.. beer being spilt on the table.. but really a solid cash game (.50 / $1).. Fun atmosphere and all.

As for the actual game.. Once again I don't remember too much.. Ran a pretty good bluff that I showed to my buddy Scanlon early in the night.. I believe he had middle pair.. and yeah, I had suited crap... All in fun. I went on an early rush.. got my stack up to like $80 something bucks early on... But you know poker.. Hands cooled off and I decided to tighten up pretty much for the rest of the night. While it was a tight game and a lot of limpers early on.. there began to be a good amount of pre-flop callers of standard size raises (3x big blind) as the night progressed.

My favorite play of the night was a check-raise/sandwich play that I pulled after the flop from early position.. I won't reveal my cards but I sensed no true strength and a lot of drawing hands at the table.. After I checked (I was in second position and the guy in first position checked before me), the person after me bet $3.00... There were 4-5 more people (including Russell and Frank) to act after the bet and they all called (except for the guy in first position.. I think he folded). I came over the top of all of them with a $12 raise.. making it $15 to go... Everyone folded and I heared whispers of what people thought I was holding and they might have been right and they might have been wrong.. I won't reveal my hand.. But the board was K, Q, rag... A nice play I must say :)

There were a couple girls that played at the table last night... The other table had some loud ass girls.. I'm glad I wasn't at that table and I don't blame Frank for moving from there. GEEZUS. Nice change of energy playing with girls.. it's usually a sausage party at these poker nights. The first girl was tight-aggressive and barely knew the ranking of poker hands before we started playing.. I thought she was gonna clean up... She would come from left-field with random $10 and $15 bets/raises and chase folks away... I played back at her one time and she folded 'cus I noticed she would play low pairs and aces with weak kickers very aggressively and I would've had her dominated that time around... The second girl (a BLACK woman! - playing poker! - wooooooooooow!) that sat down next was suuuuuper tight-passive from what I had seen from the few hands she played .. If what I saw continued after I left, she probably got blinded away.. You can't always wait for premium hands to get your chips in the middle sista.

The night slowed down for me and I lost $20 something dollars in my last two hands of the night.. Both times I believe the river hit my opponents' flush draws... I didn't lose as much money as I would have compared to when I first started playing poker (I would fall in love with hands early on).. so I'm proud of that.. The last hand particularly sucked 'cus I was holding KK and the board had all under cards .. a little paint.. but FOUR DIAMONDS... That diamond on the river gave my opponent the king high flush.. He was first to act after the river and he checked to me.. He was attempting a check-raise, but I didn't fall for it (good job Chris).. I told him, "nice hand bro" in true Craft fashion... He said he got lucky and I agreed... MAYBE I could've bet more after the turn to make him fold.. but I think he was frustrated and would have been willing to gamble anyway to hit his card... He was holding AK off-suit and knowing that now.. I feel that he would've gambled to try to hit his flush, king, or ace (another king on the river would've been nice for me)... He had a nice amount of outs... But let's do the math on his flush draw and his ace:

There was at most $11 in the pot before I bet on the turn.. I bet $10 after the turn came... making the pot $21 and $10 for him to call.. So his pot odds were 2.1 to 1 (not that good) .. I don't think he had a straight draw... So he had 3 aces and 9 diamonds as outs... So that's a total of 11 outs (you can't count the ace of diamonds twice)... So there's 46 cards left for the river.. 35 cards can't help him and 11 can... That's 3.18 to 1 for his drawing odds.. So the odds weren't in his favor.. BUT this is a cash game.. so folks gamble a little bit more and he had a chance to make more money if he DID hit his card - implied odds (if I were to play my kings strong and bet after his check on the river) .. Oh well.. "that's poker."

If everything held up the way I saw it before I left... Russell had a huge night... Scanlon had a good night with a late rush (was still on his original buy-in)... And I'm hoping ol' Frank got him a rush of cards... I honestly don't know how the night ended for everyone 'cus I wanted to leave early and get some good rest.. So I got 3 or so hours of poker in and I finished up $33 ($10 / hr) - solid night with a good sandwich play.

Quan, where were you homie? - I heard you showed up eventually.

Later,
Craft

In The Zone Like Britney Spears

Hey folks,

Still no specific hand analysis this time around - For some reason I can't remember anything specific about last night (I'm sure Frank remembers the whole damn night)... But from around 10 PM to 2 AM last night.. I played in Quan's cash game.. I've expanded the range of hands I'm playing and it's working quite well.. I'm also learning that I have no particular style and I'm happy with that. I'm also learning that folks are perceiving me as "mean" at the table. Not "mean" like they don't ever want to play with me again "mean" but "mean" like serious in demeanor and speech. I see it as focus. I'm REALLY working on taking everything in at the table.. Body language.. Facial expressions.. Player morale.. Chip stack sizes.. Who is alert.. Who is yawning.. Betting patterns... Everything. I'm on a heaven of a run right now with some new playing styles and strategies, but I'm not satisfied... I can still improve and I'll continue to be my own biggest critic...

Bought in for $25 last night and walked away with $103 .. well $98 'cus the money pot was short and everyone left at the end put $5 of their profits back in (did Drunk Santa strike again and play the holiday grinch? - hehe - just kidding). There were some good hands last night... Some flopped boats... Quan had a rough go last night to some crazy hands (none of them bad beats)... Drunk Santa (Trevor) left with $100 (I think $60 of that was profit) ... Phi got me with aces but couldn't capitalize on that and left in the negative (I've never seen Phi Phi want to give money away at the end of a cash game night)... I had to bust my boy Russell when we both were holding trip 5s and my 10 out-kicked his 4. I didn't see many of Scanlon's (B Zilla) hands.. but I remember my suited 6 7 getting him for some money.. I'm not sure if that hand made it past the flop.. I think the dealer ran it out and I would've hit two-pair. Frank was a thorn in my side for most of the night.. but I didn't let him get too much money off me... He just kept on playing back at me when I was on draws or didn't have anything at all.. That boy has some good instincts.. I got a little money off him last night too so it's cool. All in all a good night for me that was capped off with some IHOP with Frank and Russ at 3 AM.. but like I said, I'M NOT SATISFIED! ... I need to read my opponents better.. I need to play outside of my cards much much much better.. So I just dropped some cheese at Borders on Phil Gordon's 'Little Green Book' and Sklansky's 'The Theory of Poker' - along with a 3 DVD set instruction poker collection hosted by Vince Van Patten (we'll see how that helps) ... Outside of poker books, I copped 'Rich Dad Poor Dad,' 'Franchising for Dummies,' and 'Business Plan for Dummies' ... So ya boy Craft is hustling on MANY levels... Just subscribed to both 'All-In' and 'Card Player' Magazines also... WATCH OUT FOOLS! - I'm in full student mode... Call me crazy - I'm on a mission.

Might play at Scott's tonight if the weather isn't too bad and might play tomorrow with Howard in Arlington - we'll see... More later folks.

Peace and Blessings,
Rico Craft

Fun Little Tourney

I played in B. Zilla and Russell's Anser vs D.C. United Bounty Tourney last night... I was playing well but of course in tourneys... One little thing can screw everything up... I had my pocket kings cracked on the river by pocket queens when another queen came on the river (it was an all-in situation)... I put the guy on queens pre-flop so I knew what I was getting into... Eh that's poker... LOL the Salvadorian cat to my right (Armando?) was all shocked that I knew the other guy had the queens... So my tourney was pretty much over after that... Phi ended up winning the tourney and Willock came in third... so it looked like Anser represented nicely... Uuuuh... Not much more I can say.

Peace,
Christopher

Yu Miyagawa is the future!

Yu's Screen Name: how the fuck do you remember all these hands
My Screen Name: i don't smoke weed.
Yu's Screen Name: lol true

LOL... More later folks.

For classic Johns Hopkins radio... Classic Yu and Shay in rare vulgar form:
http://bert.wjhuradio.com/~brian/betweenmeandyu/

Oh yeah.. Yu wants me to give a shout out to the lame nerd guy at the 1/2 NL table in Vegas that got pissed that I wouldn't show my cards after a $30 bet pre-flop... I thought I would get some action since the table was kind of crazy and I wouldn't tell him my hand (I still won't reveal my hand to you punks either)... LOL.. I picked up cowboys (pocket kings) the hand right after that and raised a $5 bet $25 to make it $30 to go again!... I soooooo wanted action 'cus I'm sure folks would think I was reckless and crazy... It happened to be his buddy that I re-raised and his buddy folded... lol... I decided to show my kings and the lame nerd dude got SO pissed that I showed... CLASSIC moment man... Yu wasn't playing but he was right behind me watching and we couldn't believe how pissed that dude was getting that I didn't show my cards from the previous hand... The lame nerd dude had been getting it handed to him all night by this British guy.. so I know he was on super tilt anyway... Since I didn't talk about that in my Vegas update.. Yu wanted me to mention that today.

Yu is also a lame for not playing his pocket queens at a table simply because he had reached his threshold for the amount of money he told himself that he would lose before he started folding everything that came his way (threshold = $40 in losses)... The queens would've taken down the pot... I would've slapped him if I was at the table and knew what he was holding.

Peace all,
Craft

Howard's Cash Game & Drunk Santa Clause

Howard said he wanted a long blog entry to read... ha... I might need to write this joint in parts today 'cus I'm tired...

The phrase for the night was "bitch tits"... What the hell is "bitch tits"?... This is just one of the many Tourette-like blurtings that came from Drunk Santa aka Trevor... I know dude was rubbing folks wrong a bit when he first walked in.. but after a while, I know folks were enjoying his company and his stupid ass jokes... Folks wanted him to stay anyway just so he could throw his money away to them. Maybe he was just drunk.. who knows.. Word is that he's actually a solid player sober.. OH WELL... I don't believe I'm dedicating this much of this entry to this guy.. but right after I had the feeling that I wanted to punch him in the grill.. I started to have the most incredible home cash game rush I've ever seen.

It was the typical start of the night for me... Aces well played but cracked by KJ... A king flopped I believe and buddy caught a J on the river to give him two pair... But hey.. it's all good... I took it in stride... And I suffered another beat where J 3 got my top pair of queens (I think I had an ace kicker) when a three came on the river and it gave buddy two pair... Right after that hand.. Drunk Santa said "dude fuck your iPod mini" and yes... I was a little heated 'cus:

1. I didn't know this guy
2. I had just suffered a rivering
3. He was a drunk dude with a crusty Santa hat on
4. He had some funky b.o. going and he was directly to my right

So I replied kinda nasty to him by saying "STFU" and right after I told him that... I told the guy that rivered me.. "nice hand"... Ah.. I'm SUCH a gentleman... BUT ALL THIS CRAP DOESN'T MATTER 'CUS MY RUSH WAS ON FROM HERE ON!!

Well the rush didn't officially start until I bluffed out Drunk Santa while holding 2 5 suited.. sweet (I had outs though.. flush and straight drizzaws) ... Oh yeah.. before the rush.. I had to lay down my sex position (6 9) when a pretty aggressive dude (I don't know how to spell your name bro) came over top my $10 bet and went all in... I felt I had him beat with a pair of 6s but there were like 3 over cards on the board, a flush draw, AND a straight draw... I had to lay it down... Man that would've been a great call I think... oh well...

Okay a little on my rush... I didn't even have to be creative tonight ya'll... I seriously wanted to practice playing outside of cards tonight.. but the cards I were getting were just incredible... And I'm proud that I got paid nicely from most of those hands... The game last night was sooooooo loose... But to be honest.. I think people really had good cards (except the guy to the right of Frank that beat me with the J 3 and came over top on my 6 9 hand) ... It was crazy... huuuuge pots... I was taking down pots with K 2, A Q, A K, K Q... Got paid $40+ bucks from this guy fresh from rebuying with $40 when I picked up rockets... Dude was in for like $140+ by the end of the night... soo loose... I took advantage of that and pushed all-in on him... HE CALLED!... He just wanted to gamble... I forgot what he was holding though... I rivered the same guy earlier in the night when we both had our 6s paired (he had me out kicked queen vs. 10) and wow.. a 10 came on the river to give me two pair... Geezus!.. I told him "sorry bro" and he replied that he would've been laughing at me if it was the other way around... Sooooo okey-dokey!

After I had to lay down the 6 9 last night... I was down to like $30 MAYBE... Within the next hour and a half to two hours of play, I ran that stack up to $220.00... I had called 2:00 AM for my cash in time at around 1:30 AM and I honestly made like $70 - $90 within that half hour alone... I cherish my original buy-in fellas and I played with that $20 buy-in all night... And most of my money wasn't even made on big hands like flushes and straights... I hit a straight on the first hand I played for the night... two pair on the rivering of the loose guy on my left... The rest were top pair and top pair / higher kicker... Top pair hands were good all night! It felt so good... I must cherish moments like last night 'cus it won't be like that every time.

Other good cash outs of the night were Frank Kang (he was plus +$120 or so... would've been +$130 if he didn't let Drunk Santa gank him for a $10 stack of chips - Frank knew that was a bad investment into dead / drunk money) and the guy to the right of Frank (the J 3 rivering / 6 9 laydown dude).

Big up to Frank for helping me remember most of this stuff.. Dude has a crazy memory. What a night... "Bitch tits" ya'll... "Bitch tits"... WTF!

More hand analysis in my upcoming posts ya'll... I promise... But I just couldn't have left out the enterainment value of an obnoxious Drunk Santa that's showing random vagina (sorry) on his camera phone... What a nut.

Peace and Blessings,
Ricardo

Outside of my cards...

Really short post...

I played at Quan's last night... Very friendly game... Played for like 5 1/2 hours... Pretty cool... There were these two kids there from Afghanistan and they were pure comedy (they walked away with a solid stack of money too)... Good times.

But the main point of this post is to point out that I'm about to REALLY learn how to play outside of my cards... I HAVE to take that and reading my opponents to the next level... Because you're not going to have hot cards every night.. so you truly can't depend on your cards every night.

That's all... So guys.. if you see me doing some weird shit at the tables here soon.. I'm gonna be just experimenting with some things :)

Peace,
Rico "Action" Craft (Frank Kang calls me an action player - But am I really?)

Vegas Love / David vs. Goliath / Phil Gordon

VEGAS LOVE

Hey all,

Long time no speak (since my bad beat rant of November)... I'm fresh off a really really fun trip to Vegas with my west coast homeboys (Shawn, Dustin, Yu, Jake, and Bobby Bell)... It was my first time in Sin City... We had a BLAST... Good times and I plan on more and more Vegas trips.

I know I said I was going to lay down the poker (I'm still taking a break for the most part to reflect, do music, and more studying).. but I just couldn't go to Vegas and not hit the tables... I played at two places.. The Mirage (I love it!) and The Wynn (Wynn = lose)... Without too many specifics.. I had a great poker trip and my roulette system made me $72 dollars until the "system" bit me for a $90 loss on Sunday morning...

DAVID VS. GOLIATH

I COULDN'T end my trip on a sour note with the roulette loss... So I walked over to The Mirage in the cold and watched the 1-2 NL table for like 30 minutes before I got to sit down... Playing really solid poker... But the ultimate apex of the morning is the hand where I took down the table's "best player" / shark for a $460+ pot... I put him all-in after he tried to punk me with a $100 re-raise of my $40 bet on the river... I was holding the top pair (an ace that came on the flop) w/ a solid kicker (a jack of hearts)... I knew something was fishy because I was first in position for each round of betting and I checked the turn (it was some rag that came) and he and the 3rd guy checked around... As for the flop... I led out with a $15 bet and him and the other guy just simply called... So when he tried to smash me on the river... I knew I had him beat... He had bullied me away from a hand that I would've won earlier (ironically the 3rd guy in the current hand I'm talking about had him beat with king high in the earlier hand - I was holding pocket 8s and would've won)... So after his $100 reraise, I pushed all-in.. I had enough... I had him covered and he called... For a minute after he called.. I thought that I was toast and he had trips or something... But now that I've thought about it a bit... He probably had an ace with a lower kicker... So I turn over my AJ and he mucks his hand and gives me a nod... The table goes NUTS... I heard several times from the older gents, "Kid, it don't get much better than this.. take your money and walk away" ... Well, I had to get back to the hotel room to see Dustin and the boys off and check out the room... I kinda wanted to stay and try to make some more cheese.. But.. oh well... I think that was a great way to end my trip... I tipped the dealer (Raymond) $18 dollars and bounced... Sure it was a lot of money for a tip... but 'hey' that's the largest cash game pot that I've ever won and the dealer deservered it for sure.

PHIL GORDON

Just when I thought it couldn't get better... I just met Phil Gordon here at Reagan Airport... We had the same flight from ATL to D.C. ... Dude is 6'9"!... A really nice guy too... I didn't ask him for a poker tip or anything dumb like that... I simply told him that I really respect him and good luck on the tables... He nicely smiled and shook my hand and that was that... Pretty cool... I'm confident that I will be running into him again sometime in the future...

What a weekend... But I'm still done with poker :)

ETC.

With my wife's godfather totally randomly asking me to teach him how to play poker and with me totally randomly running into and meeting Phil Gordon today... It's making me think about things... Are they signs?... I don't know... Or maybe I do know.

Peace all,
Craft