Odds and ends from the poker table

By Mark Lasser

I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks. I managed to finish third out of 166 players in a Full Tilt Poker medium buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Tournament, and then got crushed in live games with pretty much the best hand or coin tosses for the next two weeks. The tournament was a blast and my wife, Stephanie, was watching the final table as we made a list of restaurants where we’d celebrate depending on my finish.

My biggest “I want to break something” moment during the rough patch certainly came from a guy at The Lodge playing with a bankroll as big as his rodeo belt buckle. The guy would pretty much call any raise from any position and also called every continuation bet unless he couldn’t make a hand even with a runner-runner draw. I think I saw him draw for gut shot straights and even money pot odds at least three times in as many hours. My dream opponent!

Of course, instead of hemorrhaging chips, he was making a killing from much of the table. At one point, I three-bet him from the small blind with AK suited, and he called with a 10 and 5 of diamonds. Sheesh, I don’t even limp with that, but who am I to complain? I shoved the $100 max bet with a rainbow flop of KQJ and he called. Now, I’ll admit the AK could have been sketchy with that flop, but I just didn’t see him having Ace 10 or two pair, and his range of calling hands had been about 90 percent of all possibilities, an observation confirmed by his call and subsequent flip of the 5-10. Turn came a 9 giving him a straight, and the river was a blank. At that point I called it a night. I need to work on my AK strategy a bit more as I know I’m prone to over value it in early position.

In other news, I had the famous craps authors Frank Scoblete and The Dominator on my radio show this week and they were a fun and lively interview. There was no question in anyone’s mind that these guys were New Yorkers through and through the second they started talking.

If you play craps and you haven’t read Scoblete’s books, you should. I love them as a resource and can heartily endorse their approach to the game on a strategic level. Their latest book is called “Casino Craps: Shoot to Win” and gets into the art of controlled dice shooting. They explain and illustrate with a DVD a few methods they claim will reduce the chance of a seven being rolled by practicing a special grip, placement and throw of the dice. I’m not sure I really believe it works, but you better believe I’ll try it next time I’m throwing bones.

One of my readers last week made an astute observation about the cheats in the movie “The Sting.” The cheat wasn’t really a horse racing scam as I had written; it was actually an elaborate confidence job. By the way, the film is great and if you haven’t seen it you should. How can you not love Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw and Harold Gould? Our reader also pointed out that the film was based on the book “The Big Con” by David Maurer. It’s available at Denver Public Libraries and at bookstores. Thanks for letting me know about the book!

As we go to press, Denverite Chance Kornuth and Breckenridge player Kevin Boudreau were making a run for a WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 buy in Pot Limit Omaha event. I’d love to talk to both of these guys, so if you know them, please ask them to get in touch with me.

I love hearing from readers. Keep the questions and comments coming. It’s been a great first year writing for The Deal. Let me know what you’d like to read about for our second year.

— Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.