An excerpt from Ace on the River.

An excerpt from Barry Greenstein's newly-released book, Ace on the River.

Jack Straus, a famous high-stakes player, received a call at the Horseshoe Casino from a friend who was on death row. The friend said, "It looks like I will be executed. The governor didn't grant me a pardon."
Jack responded, "That's pretty bad, but you won't believe what they have been doing to me here."

Tiffany Williamson

Can you believe it!

She entered the WSOP 05 via a tourney at the Gutshot, she is now one of the last 70 odd players left in the tournament. She is currently on the ESPN feature table and is guaranteed to take home $100'000+

Although she has had some lucky breaks, I read today that she called an "all-in" KK vs AQ and she caught the Ace on the flop. 2 other players both then said that they folded their ace. She had the 1 card to catch and she did.

You know that would never happen at the Gutshot!!

Can she? Will she make the final table?

3rd in chips so you never know.

My seat wasn't even warm.

£30 freezeout, my favourite tournament. 84 runners. 2,000 chips. Blinds 25-50. I'm on the dealer table, in the BB. First hand. 4 limpers, comes to me and I find a pair of tens. Considering the four of them all limped I raise to 500 to just end the pot there and then. The person sitting to my left calls, the rest fold. I think to myself, he must have overcards, probably big slick, since he didn't raise all in. You would think if he had a face pair in this situation he'd push all in here, or raise another 500.

Flop: 9-4-9

I know he hasn't caught anything on that flop, so I push all in like a flash. After a short deliberation he calls and shows QQ.

Out I go, first hand.

In hindsight, I heard him talking to someone before the tournie started, and it was his first time at the gutshot. He did seem a bit timid, which may be way he did not re-raise with his queens. Considering this information (which I neglected to consider at the time) I should not have pushed on the flop. I don't understand why he'd want me to see a flop, he must have thought I had an ace at least. But oh well. I played my pair of tens too agressively anyway.

Pushing all-in straight away once the flop went down was bad. You should have seen it. Now I think of it, he seemed to be a beginner, and my thinking was too far ahead for him. This is my own fault, since this was the first hand, and I should have checked my BB so I could get a feel for the people at my table.

When I learn from my actions it's always the hard way, and sometimes it can prove to be costly. I'm glad, because then lessons are learned well.

Help I've lost my Mojo!!!

This is madness, I can't win a thing!! I can't even build a decent stack of chips!

In my normal play I would have no problems at all playing, I would be able to pick up on tells, push people out of pots 'constructively' Not think to much about my play.

Now though as I haven't played in 2 weeks I feel that the other guy has always got 'the nuts' or something stronger than me, you see what I mean!? I'm even talking about the cards!! When I know that it's not about the cards!!!

I know that all I need to do is pick up my play a bit more and I'll be fine but this is awful!!

I want my Mojo back!!

Names

I think the PJ needs a proper name. Also, the URL is currently vcpoker.blogspot, and that needs changing.

I was thinking chipflip, but that's already taken, goddamn it. That would have been fabulous, non?

Suggestions on a postcard.

The Steep Learning Curve

What a weekend, first I enter a £5 turbo tournament on Friday, 45 runners, came out around 18th absouluty no hands what so ever and I folded an inside straight draw which was a big pot and would of won it! There was no room for error and I think I've lost the aggressive side of my game, which in turn puts me in danger of not doing well. I seem to believe peoples bluff's and spent around an hour of hand mucking and blind stealing.

Anyway on Saturday, after the warm up session of the night before, I sit down again a £5 beginners tourney, 102 runners and re-buys for the first hour. Etheir I'm not taking enough chances or money but there was aggressivness from three people at my table and they were regulars at the Gutshot. I got AK suited and some one went all in, after having time called on me and listening to him run his mouth I decide to call and make a stand Got my Ace which helped and all this pre-flop! my next and only other win was KQ off and the board came down A9A, 9, 2. it was checked to the river at which point someone bet 200 and I was the only caller, K won it he had a Jack.

What I noticed about this table was the raises in the first hour of the re-buy period became 200, which became a joke then everyone started doing it which put the regular's off their game.

I don't think I was in the mood to play barley surving the re-buys, my downfall came when after the break and it went to freezeout I raised to 300 and got called, I had AK, flop is J 6 J, the other guy went all in really fast, I just stared at the cards and got time called again, and I knew he had a jack but with 800 left in chips and the blinds going upI decided to quit the game and call it. He hit trips an Ace hit turn and made it interesting for all of 5 seconds. Then I was out.

I'm getting better at readings but I'm not getting the hands to be aggressive, again Adrian defyed logic, he made it to the top 20 after all of us busted out. What I don't get is he never plays online, and only at our home games and doesn't read any books but has a natural flair for the game. Good luck to him!

Anyway, gonna take a break and see if i can analyze any areas where I could improve.

-Fig-