PLO Cash Gaming at Horseshoe Hammond

1-2 PLO 300 max

I played about 1 hour
1st table
sat down 5-6 handed, table broke after about 5-6 hands

2nd table

seat 9: loose/somewhat competent player
didn't raise AAJT (AJ) on button
got pissed about 762 two spade flop with
9 was holding: 9985 (no suit)

9 also bet/folded straight on 3 flush board
Qx Jc 9c 3c Ks with nut straight

guy in seat 6
younger guy in 20s
raised often preflop (maybe 6-7 times whether IP or OOP)
seemed to play cbet flop, then check/fold turn/river

ex) hero floats (in seat 8)
6: raises
hero: flats with AT95

953 2 clubs
6: bets close to pot
hero called
953q
6: checks
hero: checks
963 q 7 (no flush completes)
6: checks
hero: bets 3/4 pot
6: folds rather quickly

----
hero straddled 2 times early on at table
in BB - hero raises AA54 ds (a5)(a4)

raised pot
(4 limpers (hj/co/but/sb)
raised pot
dealer - says 16
other guy (who i talked to after hand) said it should only be 14. I think he was right, tbh. I felt bad about it because I legitimately thought it was 16 too, but he was a dealer and mentioned "if the dealer calls a number, that's what stands".

1 guy was saying it should only be 8 all the time (which was wrong)

In any event, hero bet into 1 caller and he folded.

Live Poker: Cleveland Casino Open Date in May!

Cleveland Casino
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/02/cleveland_casino_will_open_fir.html

After a delay from its original 3/26 opening, it looks like it will open the week of 5/14. This is very exciting...although i'll lose a week+ due to the WSOP. In addition, I'll need to get used to playing live NLHE cash (longer sessions) again though. I've played a couple brief (1-2 hour) sessions, but nothing substantial for about a year in cash game setting.

Online Poker Cash Game Update

Cash gaming:
I've been grinding 25plo and feel more comfortable in situations now. The player pool seems more diverse and there seems to be new players all the time.
I've also played some 25nlhe.
I haven't really played much PLO8/NLO8, but when I have, it's been at 25 or 50.
I've also mixed in some stud, stud/8, and razz. This is in preparation for the Chicago Poker Classic 7-game MTT on 2/26/2012.

MTTs:
During the Christmas season, I played some HORSE, NLHE, and PLO MTTs in prep for the live poker fun coming up at the end of February.

In March, I'll probably be shifting my cash game time to some combo of
NLHE (15-20%): Cleveland casino prep
PLO (60-70%): continue improvement
PLO8 (15-20%): preparation for 2012 WSOP

Is this a really a post about jazz?

After taking the plunge to post onto Craig's List on 1/1/2012, I've been fortunate to get 2 specific hits! (There were a lot of people (7-10) wanting keyboard player, but they wanted everything from rock to funk. I got a smooth jazz group too, but was not interested.)

Group 1: An existing quartet (female vocal, guitar, bass, drums). Ages are a good mix too (2 20-somethings, 2 40-somethings). Everyone seems solid and working hard to get ready to play some gigs.

Group 2: I found a drummer + trumpet player. The drummer met a bassist at a local jam session.
The drummer and bassist are both "cruise ship" veterans and definitely were well versed and experienced. I felt kind of comfortable, although a little rigid to trying to do more "advanced" stuff (changing harmonies is a big example).
It's put a fire in me to try to spend more time delving into jazz music theory and learning/working with different "substitute harmonies".
I'm not sure how serious this group will be to try to get gigs, nor am i sure if they will even be in Cleveland long term.

Online Poker Update: MTT Tournament Series!

Merge's Poker Maximus
PLO/PLO8 MTTs - guaranteed tournaments now are free of antes! The structure is really deep though.
I was looking a little closer at the tournament structures in Merge
Poker Maximus MTT schedule - http://thepokermaximus.com/poker-tournaments.html

[DST will have passed already, so add 1 hour to times found on the poker maximus website.]
Day     Date    EST     MTT
Sat     3/17    5:00PM  $22 PLO 6-max
Mon     3/19    7:00PM  $109 PLO
Tue     3/20    7:00PM  $60 PLO
Fri     3/23    7:00PM  $33 PLO 6-max
Sat     3/24    5:00PM  $60 PLO

Thu     3/15    9:00PM  $11 PLO8
Thu     3/15    9:00PM  $60 PLO8
Thu     3/15    10:00PM $33 PLO8
Mon     3/19    7:00PM  $11+R PLO8

Daily MTTs: No Antes!
For PLO & PLO8 MTTs, there are no antes! (There had been some suggestions/complaints for a while, so I'm glad the change actually happened.) Also, the new structures are very slow (see below).

12:30AM $3.3 PLO8
3:00PM $5.5+R PLO8
5:15PM $11 PLO
7:00PM $11+R PLO
7:20PM $3.3 HO (PLHE/PLO8)
8:00PM $11+R PLO8
8:15PM $5.5 PLO8
8:30PM $11 PLO8
10:45PM $6.6 PLO

Blind Structures:
5k starting chips for Poker Maximus (3k starting for 10:45PM MTT) w/
15 min. levels
sb      bb
10      20
15      30
20      40
25      50
30      60
40      80
50      100
60      120
80      160
100     200
125     250
150     300
200     400
250     500
300     600
400     800
500     1000