The room has a tell

When I got to the Muck on Tuesday night there were five open tables. That can only mean one thing. A glance at the board confirmed it: The massive jackpot, approaching $300,000 last week, had been hit since my last visit. The new total: only $144,000.

I didn't get all the details, but apparently it went off Saturday afternoon in a $4-8 game, with regulars getting the big and small ends of nearly $150,000 and $75,000. That always makes the room happy, the suggestion, I guess, that at least some of the cash will make its way back into the local poker economy.

It hasn't been too long since $144k -- the amount of the reset, backup jackpot -- would have seemed like a pretty attractive target. But on Tuesday nobody seemed interested. The place was weirdly quiet.

My game was decent but I was extremely card dead. On several occasions I made a hand, like flopping two pair, only to lose to runner-runner cards. And that happens. A couple of times, I see in retrospect, I let my boredom or frustration get the better of me and stuck around longer or pushed harder than I should have, with predictably bad results.

Overall, not a good night. I got out of there with four white chips left of the two racks I purchased. Adding back the six chips I spent on my fried rice, that amounts to a $190 loss. Ouch.

Mid-size room at Snoqualmie

I was disappointed to read in this morning's P-I story on the Snoqualmie Tribe's casino that plans call for a poker room of only 10 to 15 tables. That will be nice, but considering that the casino is supposed to be twice the size of the Muck I was hoping the poker room would be bigger.

A tribal administrator told the paper the poker room will be "prominently featured in the casino" and will hold regular tournaments.

The Muck's at 18 tables now, with an expansion coming.

(The rendering of the planned casino appeared in this morning's Times.)

No more Muck tourneys

The Muckleshoot web site announced today that it's canceling all tournaments until further notice. No explanation, but my guess is that with so many people lined up for a shot at the jackpot -- tournament players aren't eligible -- they need the tables.

Good move, I say. I'll bet after someone cracks the jackpot the tourneys will resume.

New Snoqualmie casino

The Seattle Times reports today that the Snoqualmie Tribe has received approval to build a big new casino on I-90 less than 30 miles east of Seattle. No details about a poker room, but it looks like the casino will be about twice the size of the Muckleshoots, so that bodes well. And for those of us in the city, it's much closer.

Supposed to open next year.

Just as well

The woman sitting immediately to my left the other night had an interesting philosophy for a poker player.

She was young and attractive, probably in her early 20s, but she looked tired and she was a terrible player. Every hand, good or bad, she called, almost never raising or folding before the flop or, for that matter, after. Occasionally she'd drag a pot, but not often, and she kept digging into her purse for another hundred.

A few of the dealers who came to the table asked if she'd been home; turned out she'd been at the same table, apparently losing the whole time, for more than 24 hours straight. After a while a young guy sat in and tried flirting with her.

Sure would be nice to hit the jackpot, the guy said. We could go buy matching Mercedes. Her reply, I thought, explained everything:

"I don't care about material things."

My classic dumbass move

Stopped by the Muck after work on Tuesday night, figuring in the middle of the week it wouldn't be quite so crowded and I'd be seated quickly. Not so. With the jackpot at $292,000 there's no such thing as a slow evening, apparently. Every table was full and I waited 45 minutes for a game.

By the time I sat in I was hungry and tired and not as sharp as I should have been -- or at least that's the excuse I keep allowing myself. I made a rookie blunder I haven't made in years ... literally gave away a pot.

First a little background. It was a comfy little semi-loose, passive $4-8 kill game -- usually four callers, and very few pre-flop raises -- but I wasn't getting any cards and didn't really play a hand except the occasional blind for the first 45 minutes or so. Finally I got KK in first position and worried that, if anything, a raise with my super-tight image would get me nothing but the blinds. So when I popped it I was shocked to see five callers jump in, and all without a reraise. Less shocking was the ace on the flop. I was smart enough to get out of the way while a couple of the cold-callers battled it out, and an AJ offsuit took it down. Fine. All well and good.

Fast-forward half an hour or so. I'm still card-dead, still tight, which maybe by this time makes me look weak. I decide to call under the gun with J-10 of hearts. As usual four other players including the BB limp in behind me. The flop comes 9-8-4 rainbow, giving me an open-ender, so I bet out, hoping my tight image might even let me take down the pot right away. Instead, everyone calls.

The turn's an 8, pairing the board, but possibly a scare card that works in my favor. So I bet again. This time I lose a couple, but the player to my left calls, as does the BB. Not good. The river's a 9, missing my hand and putting two pair on the board. Now almost anything that could call beats me, including ace high -- or even king or queen high, for that matter. So I prudently check, and so do the other players.

Here's where I embarrassed myself. The guy to my right mucks his hand, the caller to the left turns over his pocket pair, and seeing that I'm beat I toss my cards face down into the muck as well. ... But wait! Those are pocket 2s that guy has! He's playing the board: 9s and 8s with a 4 kicker! Argh!!! My jack high would have held up for about a $60 pot.

I was able to laugh at myself, which helped just a little since the rest of the table was laughing too, especially the dude stacking his chips with the worst possible hand.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get much respect after that. They chipped away at my meager stack and I went home $75 to the bad.

Like Sasha Cohen ...

I fell on my ass tonight.

After several good performances in a row, I took a spill and hit the ice pretty hard in the Muck's $4-8 kill game. Some of the other players wouldn't have scored high on technical merit -- calling all the way with hands like 10-3 offsuit isn't going to impress the judges. But if you can nail the landing by catching your miracle card on the river, maybe the approach doesn't have to look pretty.

Oh well. The short version was that I was three racks in before I began to skate out of it. Luckily the same pair of lame players who kept sucking out stayed around long enough for probability to catch up with them a little bit.

I didn't come all the way back, but close. Finished down $35 for the night.

Jackpot's at $280k.

I hope they never hit the jackpot

It's at $272k tonight, my third night in a row at the Muck, and while it would be incredible to catch even a table share I'm having a pretty good time just skimming the extra action.

It reminds me of some kind of nature show where an unusual bloom of algae kick-starts an entire food-chain feeding frenzy. Looking around the room tonight at the regulars -- the better players, I'm talking about -- you could almost see them licking their lips. Everyone knows that if they wait for the right moments they're going to walk away with the jackpot chasers' cash. There are more people in more pots playing worse cards, and that's just got to be good for the game.

I had a pretty lucky night. The first hand I played was pocket kings in a kill pot, and they held up for a decent win. I was never down all night. I could have done better, but I got tired and made a couple of mistakes. Twice I bet into the nuts on the river and got check-raised, and then felt compelled to pay it off.

Still, I won $193 and left close to my high for the night.

Hail to the chief

President Nixon loved poker. So did President Truman. So it seemed like the most patriotic way to spend President's Day was at the Muckleshoot, trying again for that juicy jackpot. On Monday it had ticked up to $267k. That's a lot of dead presidents.

I actually came one card away from winning the big end Monday night. It wasn't really all that close to being a jackpot, but it still felt like a bad beat. And it was one of several memorable hands on the evening.

This was in a $4-8 kill game, and I was already up a couple of racks when I was dealt pocket 3s in the big blind. A bunch of players called before the flop without a raise, so I happily checked along. The flop was an eye-bugger: J-J-3, giving me a boat on the snap. I checked, hoping to induce a bet, or even just give somebody a chance to make something. But everybody checked around, including the aggressive player in late position who I counted on to bet. The turn was a blank (too bad not a 3, as it turned out).

I checked, Mr. Aggressive bet, a couple of people called and I check-raised -- had him right where I wanted him. But now he three-bet, saying something about being sure he had the best hand but I'd probably come back over the top anyway. Which I did, of course, and happy to do it. So we were heads-up going into the river, which brought ... another damn jack! He bet with such joy that I knew he had the quads -- J-10, which meant his kicker would have played for the jackpot -- and I was one 3 off of a huge payday.

It was a great table, and that brought laughter and even some sympathy all around.

A few hands later I got most of my chips back in an eight-way kill pot that I limped into with pocket 6s. The flop was K-Q-Q, and if anybody had so much as looked at their chips I'd have mucked, but it remarkably checked all around. I'm thinking of a card, I said, and sure enough the turn brought a 6, boating me up again. Now a guy bet into me, and I made a big joke about how it's bad luck to slow-play, then popped it. Several people called. Then I got more action, including a raise and a reraise, when the river brought a third club. This time the boat held up (there as a flush and somebody had a Q for second and third place), and I scooped.

As will happen, the bad players ran out of money and left. We played short-handed for a while and I sloughed off a hundred or so trying to bull the game. Ended up with a $181 win.

A record wait

It took two hours last night to get into a game at the Muck, the longest board I've ever seen. Nobody's hit the jackpot yet -- it's up over $261,000 now -- and the dealers said it's been packed like that every day.

We thought about bailing as soon as we got there. Instead we decided to take a pager and walk across the casino to the sushi place. But they wanted to give us a pager too, predicting a 45-minute wait. That seemed too long -- we actually thought we might be in a game by then -- so we passed and went back to the poker room. An hour later we slunked back to the sushi place, but the wait was even longer, so we passed again. Another hour later we got a seat and ordered some table-side dinner.

I played a really good, solid game, nothing too fancy, made a couple of hands, and cashed out a $111 winner.

Kind of a funny Valentine

It's hard to get much more romantic than a $4-8 kill game, so Michelle and I headed down to the Muck after work Tuesday night. It made me smile with my heart.

Everybody at our table fell in love with Seat 6, an inexperienced player who was in every hand. When he opened his mouth (to raise), he wasn't smart. But he was lucky. If there were any cards in the deck that could help him on the turn and river, he caught them. Cupid's got his running shoes on tonight.

Anyway, I'll save the bad beat stories. It was a very fun game, but unbelievable. I lost $214, and was almost grateful. It could have been worse.

Our funny Valentine in Seat 6 bought in for $40, ran it up to $300, lost all of that and bought another rack, ran that up to $400, lost all of that, rebought for the last $39 in his wallet, and had $300 or so in front of him when we left at 11:15. It must have been fun.

By the way, nobody has hit the jackpot yet. It was at nearly $242,000 and counting.

Jackpot over $200k and counting

They're packin' the Muck again for a piece of the jackpot, however unlikely. It was at $214,000 and change last night when I sat in on a good $6-12 kill game.

The jackpot's harder to hit at Muckleshoot; you need quads or better beat, with both cards playing, so it doesn't get cracked too often. Even so, it's been several months now since it last went off, and that's a long time even there. "Overdue," the hopeful regulars all agreed at my table, and I'm sure the same conversations were taking place around the room.

It's stupid to chase jackpots, as everyone knows, but when it gets that high it's hard not to think about it. I mean, man, the big end is $107,000! Even a table share would be close to $8,000.

We didn't get anywhere close to hitting it. I only had a couple of pocket pairs all night, jacks and kings, and neither held up, but I managed to get out of there with $67 of sugar.

Triple Crown winner

I'm not saying that Brett Hansen is the best player in Seattle -- I've never seen him play -- but he did win the $200 buy-in main event of Diamond Lil's Triple Crown tournament last weekend.

Hansen, of Federal Way, took down $8,530 of the $21,000 prize pool.

Second place ($4,990) went to Matt Kalish of Seattle. David McLean of Seattle won $2,310 for third place.

By the way, I talked to Dave, who is either the poker room manager or the lead floor guy at the Muck, and also to Amy, Muckleshoot tournament director, about why there isn't a big WPT-qualifying state championship tourney around here.

The biggest obstacle, they both said, is a shortage of hotel rooms near their casino or any of the other big rooms. They also don't have a ton of space to accommodate a huge field. Maybe later, after the poker room expansion is done, they said.

Good game, no papers

I enjoyed the $8-16 game last night at Diamond Lil's. It was the kind of table I like -- not overly aggressive, but filled with experienced players who are smart enough to lay down a hand. My plan was to play my solid, conservative game, show down a couple of winners and then probe for steal opportunities.

Unfortunately, the papes never came and I ended up booking a small loss.

The only pot I won all night came after sitting there literally for more than an hour without playing a hand, just throwing away a parade of J-4, 9-2, Q-3 holdings. I picked up AKd in middle position, raised and got called by two guys behind me plus the big blind. The flop came down king high, K-9-3, I think. I bet out and the table captain -- a cocky but gregarious (and lucky) kid on the button -- called, saying I'm not scared. I put him on something like pocket 10s, maybe AQ, A9 suited or even, I hoped, K-Q or K-J. The big blind, a poor player, also called.

When the turn came a queen I looked at the button and purposely over-fumbled my chips, playing up my image as the tight nervous player afraid to enter a pot. Everybody laughed, and that seemed to spook the kid, who laid down his hand. Big blind called, though, which made me nervous that he'd stuck around with something like Q-3 and was being overly tricky. So I checked down the river and scooped the pot.

And that was that. A bit later I had J-8 in the big blind, bet all the way when the flop came 8 high, but lost when a guy with 9-7 made a straight. Minus $111 for the night.

Passing on the tourney

Turns out the timing wasn't right for me to play in Diamond Lil's $100 no-limit tournament this morning, so Michelle and I drove down to the Muck last night for something to eat and some $4-8 action.

The jackpot's back up over $175k, so the place was jammed and the board was huge. By the time we got into a game it was late, like 10:30, but the table was juicy. I played tight and aggressive and slowly built my stack to about a rack up, then ran into some bad luck on three big kill pots. The upshot was a hundred-dollar loss for the night.

My friend Sammy's playing the Lil's tourney today, so I'll try to get a report.

Diamond Lil's tourney

Who's the best poker player in Seattle?

Who knows. You could debate some names, I suppose, but there's no objective way -- say, by counting chips -- to find out.

What Seattle needs is a good local tournament of champions -- a high-payoff, multi-event, big-draw lineup that eventually might draw affiliation to the WPT, or at least attract some known professionals. In the end you could declare a king of Puget Sound or Washington State.

What we have now is a hodge-podge of weekly tournaments in the local clubs. They're fun to play, they attract a regular crowd of talented and less-so players, the payoffs can be decent. But there's no headliner.

Diamond Lil's occasionally has a small program of tourneys with slightly bigger buy-ins than their regular weekly events. This weekend's Triple Crown Tournament is an example. After an Omaha tournament last night, they're hosting a $100 buy-in no-limit Hold 'Em event tomorrow morning at 10, and a $200 buy-in, $10,000 guaranteed no-limit tournament on Sunday.

Those are usually bad times for me. But this weekend might be an exception, at least for the Saturday event. If I make it, I'll report the results here tomorrow.

Not a rouser

No big pots or horrible beats to report from tonight's forgettable session at the Muck. Just a normal, moderately loose, not overly aggressive $4-8 table.

I nursed my rack all night without strong cards -- down $40, up $40, like that -- until missing a couple of flops or draws late in the evening and finding myself with only about 40 chips left. That's when a drunk guy who'd been pushing a lot of hands found himself with the kill button in early position and made it $16 to go. The solid player on my right cold-called and I decided to do the same with my pocket 9s. Depending on the texture of the flop, I decided, I could make a move or get out without further investment.

Happily, it came down J-9-8, giving me a set, but the jack and 8 were spades and the straight possibility was unfortunate. The raiser bet out, middle player called and I raised. They both called. On the turn, a king of spades, I got my last few chips in and the original better raised to drive out the sandwiched guy. When the river brought a fourth spade the original better turned over his queen of spades to go with a red ace, beating my 9 of spades.

Ha la la. I called it a night, down a rack (really only $93 after subtracting the seven chips I paid for dinner). In my dreams tonight that fourth spade will pair the board and everything will be right with the world.

Two-way win

I drove out to the Muck after work tonight and scored immediately: A check of the Sunday drawing board showed I didn't win on that $900 straight-flush ticket. Phew. That's when missing is almost like winning. I would have been pissed if watching a stupid football game had cost me nearly two racks of red.

Then I sat down in a $4-8 game and won for real. Nothing tricky, just some nice cards to establish a good table rep, allowing me to steal a few pots, and then one timely sweet hand. I three-bet before the flop with AA and got five-way action, including a guy to my left who called the three bets cold. The flop came 4-3-3 and I was able to raise again ... and didn't lose anybody. Another bet got called all around when a 6 came on the turn. It was obvious I was facing some other pocket pairs -- I really didn't put anybody on a 3 or a straight -- so when a queen came on the river it seemed prudent to check it down.

Lucky me: The other pairs were JJ and KK. Luckier still: The one player we lost with all the pre-flop action had pocket 6s.

Up $272 for the night. My best session in quite a while.

Go Seahawks!

Couldn't pull myself away from the Seahawks game to drive down to Auburn for the straight flush drawing.

At worst, I cost myself $900 by not showing up at the Muck by 7. But odds are I didn't hit and who knows, I may have saved myself a rack or two by staying home.

Anyway, hell of a football game: Hawks 34, Panthers 14. Bring on the Steelers in Super Bowl XL.

Difficult pot-odds calculation

What are the odds of the same straight flush hitting twice?

When I was at the Muck on Monday I played 8-7 of clubs in late position with three callers in front of me and, at this $4-8 table, the blinds unlikely to raise. The flop came down Kh-10c-6c ... not a bad start. After check-check there was a bet in front of me; I just smooth called, hoping to keep everyone in. The turn was the lovely 9 of clubs, giving me the straight flush and, I could only hope, making a big flush for someone else.

Like clockwork, the BB bet out -- a lone king, it was revealed later -- so I raised, and the solid player behind me called. The river was a blank, but my bet got called again by the king-high flush to my left.

Straigh-flush ticket on Table 1! At the Muck, when you make a straight flush your name goes in the hat for a weekly drawing that grows by $100 every time the winner isn't there to claim it. This week's drawing is $900. So far so good.

The dilemma comes from the timing. Tonight's drawing is at 7 p.m., which is right about the time the Seahawks-Panthers NFC championship game will be ending. Do I leave home before the end of the game to catch the drawing? Blow it off? Which of these?

With an estimated 35-40 straight-flush tickets in the barrell I'm not exactly a favorite, but I know from experience the horrible feeling of skipping the drawing only to show up later and see that my name had been pulled.

If you don't go to the drawing, your only play is to root against yourself winning.

It's opening kickoff right now and I still haven't decided.

Deal me back in

Ok, time for a reboot.

I launched this little effort in September as an experiment -- I wanted to check out Blogger and felt the Seattle poker scene could use some reporting. But I got busy at work, distracted at home, beat by a run of bad cards at the tables and, well, you know how it goes. You don't post for a few days, then it's a week, a month and the thing falls apart.

So I'm restarting today. Look for more links, more news and reviews, some hand discussions and, if I can gin up the nerve, an accounting of my lame performance since my last post in September.

Who knows, maybe publishing my embarrassing results will make me play better.