Interview Questions for a Slot Player

The SaintDec 29th, 2006Posted by The Saint on

Driving back and forth to upstate New York for Christmas gave me a lot of time to think. And as I still am very much at a lose when it comes to the concept of playing slots, I compiled the following.

Interview Questions for a Slot Player
(Interview to be done while the player is playing a slot machine.)

  1. How long have you been playing this slot machine?
  2. What is the biggest pay out you have gotten from this slot machine?
  3. Why did you choose to play this machine?
  4. Do you believe that machines will go on “hot” or “cold” streaks? If so, how would one know when one was about to happen?
  5. How long have you been playing slots in general?
  6. Over this time, did you set certain lines, where if crossed you would move to the higher machines? (Ex. Move to quarter slots if the person started playing nickel slots.)
  7. Over this time, did you ever consider moving down to lower machines if you were doing poorly?
  8. What is the biggest win you have ever had playing slots?
  9. Do you play other games in the casino, such as Roulette or Keno?

That’s all I have for now. Obviously, some of the questions will work better based on the player and some answer could lead to other interesting questions.

The Borgata: Resistance is Futile

The SaintDec 22nd, 2006Posted by The Saint on
Poker

Yesterday Evan, Will and I went to play in a casino for the the first time. I know everyone says it, but these things really are perfectly engineered in order to 1) not let you out, 2) give you no concept of time, 3) feel very very comfortable.

Moving on to the reason we were there, Poker. The room was really nice. Chairs and tables were very comfortable. The chips were heavier and slicker than I am used to, and thus chip tricks had to be limited. Most of the dealers were nice and talkative, made a good environment.

So I ended up playing for about five hours. At about 30 hands per hour, that puts me at a very exhaustive 150 hands. Based on that number, my win-rate was a staggering -233bb/100. Yes, you read that correctly, there is no missing decimal that is supposed to be there. Based on the way the hands ran, I honestly think that many other people loose a lot more if they ran as bad as I did.

First big hand, I get AT in early position, probably 4 people to the flop. A8T, SHIP IT, HOLLA!! I don’t remember the action, but after the turn it is just me and one other guy. I think he min-raised the turn, but either way, I know he thinks he has a good hand, but as we just started, who knows what that means. I get to showdown cheaply from there and he has 88. Wasn’t I supposed to be broke there?

Some more hands pass. I remember that c-betting isn’t worth it at this table. I get TT in EP, 2 people call my raise. Flop is AxA, I bet and get one caller. He has Ax a lot, but I didn’t worry about it as I don’t have many chips. My assumption was correct and I have to reload.

I get AA in EP, 4 callers. I’m sorry I suck at remembering the board, but I got 2 callers on the flop. Something in my head says to check, this is followed by a big bet and a push. I scratch my head and muck, they were both ahead of my pair.

I have T8s, x9J I call a bet to see the turn. Q, Ship it!! I bet and call when I get raised. T, I check call and am pissed off when he shows KT. I thought the river sucked, but it saved my stack.

I get 22 in EP, 80 billion people see he flop. 28Q, Ship it, Holla!! Bet, Raise, Push, Call. He shows QQ. This is the same guy that had 88 earlier, won the hand where I folded AA, and had the KT.

I go for a walk to check on Evan and Stewie. We have lunch and head back to the tables.

I have JT and the flop is QTx, I call a bet. J, I raise when the guy bets again. J, SHIP IT, HOLLA!!! Bet, raise, push, call. He shows QJ. At this point I’m pretty much just laughing.

I buy-in for another 50 big blinds, and basically sit on that for another hour or two. J4 in the big blind, we check around a J high flop. J, I bet out and get 1 caller. The talkative guy at the table says I’d have to be a genius to have a J. I get called on the river by a guy who just back-doored a flush. More nothing, then I get 88 vs a raise on my right and I push my short stack. He has TT and I’m done for the night.

Slot Machines. I didn’t understand them before I went and having each of us trying $5 on them, I understand them less. They are not entertaining. They are not fun. Half the time there are so many line possibilities that you only know that you win when the machine tells you. I thought the nickel slots were bad, then I saw the penny slots.

Actual Themes Used for Slot Machines

  • Summer Carnival
  • Frog Flip Flop
  • Secretes of Africa
  • Keno Plus
  • Sea Monkies
  • Dick Clark’s Rocking New Years
  • That Girl

Inappropriate Comments & Food Poisoning

The SaintDec 20th, 2006Posted by The Saint on

I’ve been home for a few days. This means that my parents have gotten me to listen to a fair amount of Christmas songs. It’s fine when doing the tree, but the whole ride home from Boston is a little much. Since I was being subjected to this stuff, I started actually listening to what some of the songs were talking about. The song that struck me the most was Baby It’s Cold Outside. Turns out this song really has nothing to do with Christmas, just happens to be set during the winter. What is actually happening in the song is the woman is thinking about ending the night and heading home after having spent the evening with the man. So, it really ends up boiling down to, the guy wants some ass. She probably likes him enough, but must not do that on the first date. Then the comments about drinking start getting more prevalent. Turns out he really wants this ass, enough to get her drunk enough to say yes. Now those are some great American values, if I’ve ever heard any. Exactly the type of things I want my kids to be listening to during the young and impressionable years.

I don’t care what people say about eating raw eggs, uncooked cookie dough is levels above the cookies they become when baked.

The Adventure Begins or My first day at 1/2

The SaintDec 12th, 2006Posted by The Saint on
Poker

First of all, this is only over 700 hands, so all conclusions made of this can be completely useless. This ended up being a lot longer than I expected. It’s not my fault, posting hands just takes up a lot of space.

Maybe it was just the tables I was playing at, but it seemed that they play deeper than .5/1. The average stack at .5/1 was less than 100bb. Most of the tables I saw had many people with over 200bb stacks. While I was playing I had a 250bb stack at one table and a 300bb stack at another (but that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves). Also note that this was on Absolute Poker where the max buy-in is 200bb. So maybe there are just more people buying-in for the full amount then at .5/1.

Now for the fun part. This is the ride I went on last night:
1/2 NL graph

Half of those vertical lines are because of 1 guy. He is my new best friend and I will be spending as much time at his tables as possible.

Button – Hero $256
BB – MyNewFriend $340.42
SB – Posts small blind $1
MyNewFriend – Posts big blind $2
Dealt to Hero As Ah
3 folds, Hero raises to $8, SB calls $7, MyNewFriend calls $6
*** FLOP *** 6h 5h 3h
SB checks, MyNewFriend checks, Hero bets $20, SB folds, MyNewFriend calls $20
*** TURN *** 6h 5h 3h Jc
MyNewFriend checks, Hero checks
*** RIVER *** 6h 5h 3h Jc 10c
MyNewFriend bets $78, Hero calls $78
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MyNewFriend – Shows Jh Ad (One pair, jacks)
Hero – Shows As Ah (One pair, aces)
Hero Collects $217 from main pot

Between these two hands, Evan and I start discussing the psychology behind this guy. He is also a very big talker and is always trying to belittle people. BIG fan of the word sissy.

Button – Hero $405.35
BB – MyNewFriend $442.79
SB – Posts small blind $1
MyNewFriend – Posts big blind $2
Hero: Ad Qh
2 Folds, Hero raises to $8, SB folds, MyNewFriend calls $6
*** FLOP *** 8s Qc 6h
MyNewFriend checks, Hero bets $14, MyNewFriend calls $14
*** TURN *** 8s Qc 6h Jh
MyNewFriend bets $90, Hero raises to $228, MyNewFriend calls $138
*** RIVER *** 8s Qc 6h Jh 10c
MyNewFriend checks, Hero checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MyNewFriend – Shows Ah 7h (ace high)
Hero – Shows Ad Qh (One pair, queens)
Hero Collects $498 from main pot

I tell Evan that our conversation lead to my new biggest pot won. He comes and starts sweating me. My action at this table dies. Evan only gets to see one interesting hand. But we will come back to that as I’m trying to do this chronologically.

As I said before, I had two tables where I had a stack of 250bb or more. The other table went as follows (plus two other uninteresting hands for about a 25bb net on each).

SB – Hero $193.60
BB $228.55
CO $744.27
Hero – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
Dealt to Hero Qd Qs
CO calls $2, Button folds, Hero raises to $8, BB calls $6, CO calls $6
*** FLOP *** 4h 2h 5h
Hero bets $20, BB calls $20, CO calls $20
*** TURN *** 4h 2h 5h 5c
Hero checks, BB checks, CO checks
*** RIVER *** 4h 2h 5h 5c 9s
Hero checks, BB checks, CO checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero – Shows Qd Qs (Two Pair, queens and fives)
BB – Mucks Kh Js
CO – Mucks Kc Jh
Hero Collects $82 from main pot

———————————————————

UTG – Hero $254.45
Seat 4 – UTG $125.95
SB – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
Dealt to Hero Qs Ks
Hero raises to $8, MP folds, CO calls $8, 2 folds
*** FLOP *** 2c 9s 7d
Hero bets $14, CO calls $14
*** TURN *** 2c 9s 7d 3s
Hero bets $34, CO raises All-In to $103.95, Hero calls $69.95
*** RIVER *** 2c 9s 7d 3s 10s
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero – Shows Qs Ks (Flush, king high)
CO – Shows 7s 7c (Three of a kind, sevens)
Hero Collects $251.90 from main pot

On the surface this looks kinda bad. For the situation it ended up being, I wasn’t getting odds to call. That being said, I was messing around with Poker Stove with some ranges to put him on. He plays pretty loose pre-flop so that gives me some wiggle room with his hand range. I need to be ~29% or more to make this call.

His Range My Chance to Win
QQ+, 99, 77, 33, 22, AsJs, AsTs, JTs, T8s, 97s, JTo,T8o 50.98%
QQ+, 99, 77, 33, 22, AsJs, As9s, JsTs, Ts8s, 97s, JTo, T8o 48.33%
QQ+, 99, 77, 33, 22, AsJs, AsTs, JTs, T8s, 97s 31.94%
QQ+, 99, 77, 33, 22, AsJs, As9s, JsTs, T8s, 97s 27.63%
QQ+, 99, 77, 33, 22, AsJs, AsTs, JsTs, Ts8s, 97s 22.20%
QQ+, 99, 77, 33-22, 9s7s 18.75%

Feel free to comment on what ranges you think are fair or if there is anything I am missing.

Button – Hero $479.60
BB $671.29
SB – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
Dealt to Hero 2h Qd
2 folds, Hero raises to $8, SB folds, BB calls $6
*** FLOP *** Qh 5s Kd
BB checks, Hero checks
*** TURN *** Qh 5s Kd 2s
BB checks, Hero bets $12, BB calls $12
*** RIVER *** Qh 5s Kd 2s 8h
BB checks, Hero bets $30, BB raises to $60, Hero calls $30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BB – Shows 8d 5c (Two Pair, eights and fives)
Hero – Shows 2h Qd (Two Pair, queens and twos)
Hero Collects $158 from main pot

That where the fun starts to end.

Button $269.40
CO – Hero $531.60
SB – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ah As] UTG folds, Hero raises to $8, Button calls $8, SB folds, BB calls $6
*** FLOP *** [4d 8s 7h] BB checks, Hero bets $18, Button raises to $45, BB folds, Hero raises to $144, Button raises All-In to $261.40, Hero folds

———————————————————

Button – Hero $303.60
MP $205.57
SB – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero Ah Ad
UTG folds, MP calls $2, CO folds, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, MP calls $6
*** FLOP *** 2c Kh 9h
MP checks, Hero bets $18, MP calls $18
*** TURN *** 2c Kh 9h 7h
MP checks, Hero bets $45, MP calls $45
*** RIVER *** 2c Kh 9h 7h 10s
MP checks, Hero checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MP – Shows Jh 8h (Flush, king high)
Hero – Mucks
MP Collects $142 from main pot

———————————————————

BB $219.15
MP – Hero $152.15
SB – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero 7c 6c
UTG folds, Hero raises to $8, CO folds, Button calls $8, SB folds, BB raises to $30, Hero calls $22, Button folds
*** FLOP *** Ks 9c 8d
BB bets $60, Hero Raises All-in to $122.15, BB calls $62.15
*** TURN *** Ks 9c 8d Jd
*** RIVER *** Ks 9c 8d Jd As
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero – Shows 7c 6c (ace high)
BB – Shows Kc Ah (Two Pair, aces and kings)

Now the one interesting hand Evan saw:
SB – Hero $556
CO $570.05
Hero – Posts small blind $1
BB – Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero 4s 5c
UTG folds, MP calls $2, CO calls $2, Button folds, Hero calls $1, BB checks
*** FLOP *** 10c Jc 5h
Hero checks, BB checks, MP checks, CO checks,
*** TURN *** 10c Jc 5h 5s
Hero bets $6, BB folds, MP folds, CO raises to $12, Hero raises to $42, CO calls $30
*** RIVER *** 10c Jc 5h 5s Ks
Hero checks, CO bets $266, Hero folds

So, now we fast forward to the end of my session. I was going to sleep because I had an 8am exam today. I had started to close down my tables after I played a hand UTG. Looked at Poker Tracker and saw that I had lost everything I had made during the night. Then I realized I had forgotten to uncheck Auto-Post Blinds on the table with MyNewFriend. Fine I’ll play one more hand, then I am done. Here is that last hand:

BB – Hero $536.90
CO – MyNewFriend $659.55
SB – Posts small blind $1
Hero – Posts big blind $2
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero Qh Ks
RIGGED14 folds, MyNewFriend calls $2, 2 folds, Hero raises to $8, MyNewFriend calls $6
*** FLOP *** 2d 9h 10s
Hero bets $15, MyNewFriend calls $15
*** TURN *** 2d 9h 10s Jd
Hero checks, MyNewFriend checks
*** RIVER *** 2d 9h 10s Jd 6d
Hero bets $35, MyNewFriend raises to $190, Hero calls $155
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MyNewFriend – Shows Ac 10d (One pair, tens)
Hero – Shows Qh Ks (Straight, nine to king)
Hero Collects $424 from main pot

Ship It, HOLLA!!!

The SaintDec 10th, 2006Posted by The Saint on
Poker

+.03 BB/100 BIOTCHES

100nl stats

100nl graph

This graph starts right after I cut through 50nl 6max like it was butter.
0-3k: Just some variance.
10k: See, it was variance.
16k: Could I run colder? (Note: At this point I haven’t looked at the graph of just hands. I was using the graph of my bankroll, which includes bonuses and rakeback.)
22k: (I look at the graph of my hands.) HOLY FUCKING SHIT!
I go to 2+2 and ask what I’m going wrong.
23k: OOHHH, now I get it.
30k: I can’t wait until I can start playing $1/$2. (I decided that even though I am bankrolled for $1/$2, I am going to wait until I have a winning career at 100nl before I move up.)
38k: Just 30 more dollars. I can taste it.
40k: WWWEEEEE!!! (I start thinking I suck at poker, but most of the big hands were actually not my fault.)
43k: Well at least that is over.
47k: OMG WTF!!!
53k: Wow, the poker gods really must feel bad about October.
54.8k: So close, I can stay up till I make it. (TERRIBLE DECISION)
56k: Not this again.
57k: Sunday players are my hero!!!

You can’t see it, but at about 56k I actually was +2 for like 1 hand and didn’t know it.
The end of the graph is very vertical. This is because I ran at 97.42 bb/100 from Friday until now.

Below is a graph and stats of what I did after the checkup with 2+2.

100nl stats after 20k check-up

100nl graph after 20k check-up

$15 dollars from poker + lots of bonuses + 40k hands with 28% rakeback.

If anyone wants lots of money, go look for me at the Stars $1/$2 6max NL tables.

Thoughts on Boston

The SaintDec 10th, 2006Posted by The Saint on

If you are in Boston, make sure you get on the train before the last one. Sitting at all the major hubs for 5-10 minutes is not fun.

Even if the movie is set in Boston, you are allowed to have people with out bad attempts at a Boston accent.