HARMON AVE.

MOX POKER MOX POKER SERIES COURTENAY CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (CCS) THE POKER POT HARMON AVE. LETTERS FROM THE BIG BLIND DUANE'S POKER PALACE HARMON AVENUE POKER RULES MOX POKER BLOG

HARMON AVE STORIES AND NEWS BY Cole Harmon

Bad Beat Jackpot = $1,254.00


                                CCS Finale 
 
  What a solid group of players, and tournament structure to match. With the absence of loose aggressive types that are willing to put it all in with top pair, I knew this was going to be a chess match, and like Charles said in his article, it was three hours before the first player went out. Yes, Duane got run over by the deck, but I say “good for him”. Isn’t that what every poker player would want? Duane is a very good player and I wouldn’t take anything away from a player just because they got good cards. For one thing good cards are no guarantee for a win as Duane can attest, because for all the good hands Duane got, it still came down to a three way tie in chips between Duane, Charles and myself, shortly before the tournament ended.  
  Some of the observations I made were: Carol seemed to take the aggressive route early on which often put her up against Brett, probably the most aggressive player at the table. Mark was waiting for hands which I’m guessing never came because he seemed to me to be almost non-existent for most of the tournament, sometimes that’s just how it goes. It seemed that Steve was attempting to put a stop to the position raising by Duane and I but couldn’t over come Duane’s run of cards and finally my set of 8s on the flop. For the rest of us and for most all of us, it was position play and keeping ourselves in contention despite a lack of good hands, some really solid poker. 
  Some memorable moments for me were a couple of well played hands that I was not a part of. A well played hand to me is a hand that when turned over for the win is just not what you expected to see. The first was a hand between Duane and Dan. I think Duane may have limped in late position and Dan was in the big blind. The flop was K,7,7 and it was check raised by Dan. Duane, after some long and deliberate thinking, shoved all in and then Dan, after some more long and deliberate thinking called. I was expecting to see a king in each hand at this point, maybe a 7 in Duane’s hand maybe a 7 in Dan’s hand after the check raise but not after the long all in decision. What I was not expecting and neither was Dan by his reaction, was Duane’s pocket aces. The other hand was between Duane and Charles. A possible limp, raise and call, the flop was J,10, something. Charles checked, Duane bet about 7,000, Charles, with a fairly shot stack, in my opinion had to fold or raise, and if he was going to raise he was probably pot committed with about 38,000 left. Instead of shoving all in he raised to 20,000, just a little over half his stack, which to me screamed of strength, apparently to Duane also as he folded Q,J, face up and Charles showed A,10. 
  One other achievement worth mentioning is the achievement of getting to the final table, and everyone there deserves to be mentioned, but none more than Steve, who missed the first 7 of 20 tournaments and still managed to make it. Good job Steve. And congratulations Duane, and thanks for a great series Charles.
  Your friend Cole Harmon.   
                             The “B” Word  
  Yes, “B” stands for bankroll, but if that was the title of the article you might not even read it. I can imagine your eyes glossing over at the thought of reading another article about such a boring topic. For the purpose of getting this out of the way, I’ll give you bankroll management in a nutshell, (don’t spend more than 4% of your bankroll on any one event). Ok done.
  This article and probably all articles I write in the future will refrain from teaching. After all I’m just an amateur poker player. There are many good books and articles by professional poker players to choose from. Instead my articles will be about my experiences as a poker player, and if you happen to learn something from my experiences then that will make two of us. 
   I play a lot of poker for an amateur; I play several online tournaments every day and in those I can use good bankroll management. I play local tournaments and cash games on a weekly basis which will probably never affect my bankroll. For me It’s all just a fun leaning process, and a necessary step toward fulfilling the real dream of playing in a large casino event and winning big.  
  Playing in those casino events is where the whole bankroll theory takes a nosedive for the amateur player. You see, I think when it comes to bankroll management for someone who likes to play live tournaments; the 4% rule is much easier to follow if you live in a place like Las Vegas where you can choose on a daily basis what kind of a tournament you’re going to play.     
  Take the BCPC for instance, this comes around once a year and a lot of local amateur players throughout B.C. make playing this event a focal point in their yearly poker plans, even our own CCS is geared around this event. If you were to play the main event with a $3,000 entry fee, you would have to have a $75,000 bankroll according to the 4% rule, and that’s just not going to work for me. This is the same problem with the WSOP. I wonder if all the players in the main event of the WSOP this year had a bankroll of at least $250,000? I doubt it.  
  This is the area where my bankroll takes a continuous beating, always knocked down but never out, winning in every other area of poker but this one, I spend the in between times rebuilding, and every year I give myself plenty of opportunities to cash in the big one. I would like to put it down as variance within the game, time will tell.
In the mean time I’m having a lot of fun trying and I’m playing poker free of charge, so if I have to spend 20% of my bankroll on an event that I’ve waited a year to play, then so be it. Really it’s just entertainment at this point so why not just relax and have fun.
  You hear it all the time, you’ll be playing a tournament in Las Vegas and another player will ask, “where are you from” you say “Vancouver Island”, “oh I love that place, it’s so beautiful, I went fishing there once”. Yea, I love it here too and couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather live, but if someone would just see fit to building a town with three dozen mega casinos about an hours drive from here I could use the 4% rule and would love it even more, as long as those low life gambling types don’t come here for a holiday.
  Speaking of casino tournaments and bankroll, I’m heading down to Las Vegas next week to play for a week in the Venetian deep stack tournaments along with some other local players, Dan Dobie, Jay the Brit and Carol Snead, then coming home just in time to play in the BCPC. Hopefully afterwards will be a bankroll building, and not a bankroll rebuilding time.
  I’ll be away when the Mox poker player of the year is awarded so congrats in advance and to all three still in the running Darryl C., Bob C., and Duane D.
  The final table is this Friday for the CCS and I think letting Dan, Carol and I make the money so we can use it in Vegas would be a nice gesture by the rest of you. I’ve now given you an excuse for losing.
  Check out the new poker rules for Harmon Ave. they will be getting there own page soon for better access. Talk to you soon.
Your friend, Cole Harmon
                    The Evolution of a Poker Player  
 Traveling from southern California through the Mohave desert in a fastback ford galaxy xl, as usual when we travel I’m riding in the back laying down above the back seats gazing through the fastback window at the stars and listening to the radio playing songs like (white rabbit) by Jefferson Airplane and (Tuesday afternoon) by the Moody Blues. We’re on our way to live in Boise Idaho via Las Vegas. Rolling down Fremont Street past the Golden Nugget, the visual barrage of neon would leave an unforgettable impression on my seven year old mind. As my siblings and I play in the lobby, my mom is playing a slot machine on our behalf close enough for us to watch. As we leave Vegas I’m now toting a paper cup full of coins that belongs to me, yes!! My first trip to Vegas and I’m leaving a winner, I hope my mom can say the same about that trip. As I think about the thread of gambling and poker that has run through my life this is my earliest recollection. It was 1968 and those were groovy times… man, do you dig what I’m saying... man? It would be 25 years before I would return to Vegas.
  In the 70s now living in Courtenay, my friends and I would play poker for nickels, cigarettes, beer, food, and when we had nothing to play for we would play our own made up rules where the losing player had to hold out his hand and get it strapped full force with a doubled up leather belt. Ah yes, the good ole days, where the reward for winning was to inflict as much pain on your friends as possible, so things haven’t really changed that much. There are some of you that I would still like to play those rules with. All of my friends and I had quit school by the age of sixteen so we had a lot of time on our hands. It was the 70s …man, and when we weren’t streaking or partying in a van down by the river getting pissed to the gills listening to Fleetwood Mac and Nazareth on the 8 track, we were playing poker on a regular basis in a (smoke) filled basement just like that 70s show. Dealer’s choice ruled then and some of the games we played were high and low Chicago, 7,27, jacks or better, blind baseball, and the game that always took over the night early on, Guts.  
 Poker progressed into the 80s for more serious stakes as we had jobs now. Quarter antes would increase by the end of the night and winning $800 in a night was not unheard of. When I went to my first Russ Nelson staff party at Russ’s house I found myself in a heads up poker game with Russ, not for serious stakes, just for fun, but poker was alive and well in many social circles. It was the 80s…man, totally awesome to the max, and what ever time there was left over after working 12 hr days while Cindy worked nights and weekends, after feeding and bathing and putting to bed the kids after there baseball, soccer, games in time to watch the Cosby show, Family Ties, and Cheers on Thursday night wondering what the hell I just saw when a commercial for an 80s album came on featuring Boy George singing (Do you really want to hurt me), I had to question my sexuality after seeing that as I had already fell in love with the song. Anyway after all that I had time for poker so I really didn’t play much in the 80s.       
  In the late 80s and early 90s, every New Years Eve was the same, Cindy and I would play poker with the kids for money that we would give to them and then split the money evenly amongst them at the end of the night.  In the mid 90s Cindy and I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas. It was the first week in January and Kevin had bought me a book on how to play black jack for Christmas. Poker in the casino was not a mainstream activity for most gamblers then, and poker rooms in Vegas were far and few between. I read the book over and over and found a computer program to play black jack and practiced playing thousands of hands until it was automatic. I came up with my own betting and discipline strategy and off to Vegas we went. We checked into the brand new Treasure Island and the first night there I sat down at a $5 table nervous as hell and began to play, my training kicked in and there was no question as to what I should or shouldn’t do in any situation. I played until 2:00 am and left the table up $80. Wow!! I just couldn’t believe it. I could only manage to get 2 hours sleep that night and was up and over to the Mirage where Cindy and I both played. We played for 2 hours and left the table up $400 between us. The third day there I went on a run and managed to leave the table up $960. Wow!! How is it that this town’s not broke when a guy can read a book, practice and come down and take their money? At the end of the trip we took all our winnings and laid it out on the bed, $3,700 and took a picture of it. No, we did not roll around naked in it, that kind of thing might have took place in the 60s, for sure in the 70s and maybe even the 80s, but this was the 90s…man. We were adults now with teenagers and when we weren’t running our own business working 12 hour days 6 days a week, traveling the province with our kids for fastball, and attending graduations and dance recitals, all while never missing an episode of the greatest television show to ever hit the airwaves, no I’m not talking about Melrose place and not even about Party of five, I’m talking about Seinfeld, nothing compares, enough said! After these things we had time for Vegas. Our next 2 trips to Vegas were exact replicas of the first trip, making nothing but money, it’s just too easy. Eventually the discipline went away and the stakes went up and in the next 5 trips to Vegas we gave it all back. You see when playing card games in a casino where the odds are set against you, you can play poorly and lose right away or you can play correctly and lose over a longer span of time, but the end result is always the same (Nobody beats the house). 
  Breathing a sigh of relief after realizing that our planet had not been destroyed by the Y2K bug our blackjack endeavors continued with regular trips to Vegas as well as the local casinos in Nanaimo and Victoria. After growing tired of trying to beat the house I decided to just give up on blackjack and completely stopped playing. In 2003 Kevin had come home from college and was telling me how he was playing poker online. I got him to sign me up on Party Poker and began my career of playing a form of poker I had not played before, Texas holdem, the Cadillac of poker games, a simple game in its rules but an extremely complex game of psychological warfare. ESPN then aired the main event of the world series of poker (WSOP) and that was it, I was hooked. I remember when the show finished and Moneymaker had won I said to Cindy that a major goal in my life was to play in the WSOP. 
  My first trip to Vegas in the Texas Holdem era came in 2005, but under tragic circumstances as my father had passed away and we were in California and had a week and a half to wait for his funeral. He was a great and powerful man with a lot of friends and his funeral was going to take some time to plan. His company was one of the first in the nation to have employees own shares in the company and was on the ground floor of road recycling, starting the largest road recycling company in California as a secondary business to his engineering company. His honesty, integrity, sense of humor and kindness up until moments before he died, is what makes him a great man. We made the 3 and a half hour drive from Riverside to Vegas where I entered a total of 11 tournaments and cashed in 4 of them, making 3 final tables 1st ,2nd and 3rd . One of the tournaments I played was at Harrah’s and while we played the final two tables they were filming a poker commercial for full tilt in the same room staring Howard Lederer and Eric Lingren. Anyone in the tournament was offered a spot as an extra at the table in the commercial but would have to leave the tournament while it was in play. The chip leader took the offer and lost half his stack being blinded out. He finished 5th and I went on to finish 1st and got my picture on the wall of Harrah’s poker room. Later that year I entered a $2,000 WSOP event and have since played in 3 more with no cashes. I’ve had 2 cashes in the BCPC including the main event. 2007 was my best year so far for poker, earning $20,000 profit, starting the Harmon Ave. poker room and making a lot of good friends in the poker community. It’s the 00s…man, a great time for poker and when I’m not working 4 hour days 5 days a week, coming home to cut 5 acres of grass, go for a swim and play with the grand kids, I’ll be playing poker online and studying the psychology of poker in an attempt to detach myself from the negative emotional decision making in the game and use the logical part of my brain, the power of positive thinking, and on Friday nights I’ll be playing at Harmon Ave. listening to those great tunes from the 60s, 70s, 80s 90s and 00s on my ipod. 
  I’m looking forward to the 10s and 20s…man, when I hope to have built an addition to the house, called Harmon Ave. where the interior will resemble a real casino with full size poker tables, a bar, multiple monitors, swivel padded seats and an entire wall mural painting of Las Vegas, and a door that opens to the pool area, and a second home in the Mohave desert where I’ll be for 7 weeks every summer sitting at night gazing at the stars and listening to songs of the 60s like (Riders on the storm) by the Doors and ( Get together) by the Young bloods before making the short drive in the morning to Las Vegas to play in the WSOP to try and win my second bracelet. Can you dig what I’m saying…man? My second bracelet.  
  Your friend Cole Harmon.        
                          
                       Weekend Road Trip 
 
Yada, Yada, Yada, and I’m very tired today No, it’s not what you think, and I’ll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs. It’s Thursday night and I usually play the 1-2 no limit cash game at Wanda’s in Campbell River but because I’m catching the early ferry tomorrow I decide to stay home and play online and then get a good night sleep. So I sign up in two tournaments, one on Full Tilt for $75 with 671 players and one on Poker Stars for $22 with 346 players. Both tourneys started at 4pm so when Darryl came over at 5:30 to borrow the cash chips for the game at his office I was doing pretty good in both. Darryl sent a text from home to tell me he was watching and to say he was a monster stack in a tourney on Poker Stars. He had about 15,000 chips when the average was about 3,800 and he was the chip leader. I watched his stack dwindle due to one particular player that always had the goods whenever they squared off. I watched until the bubble when Darryl made an aggressive move with K,3, against a big stacks blind and was at risk of becoming the bubble boy. He got his (all in) called with 7,7, and lost the hand but luckily someone else also lost in the same hand with less chips and Darryl took the last money spot. In my Full tilt tournament I finished 31st for $162 and in the Poker Stars tournament little did I know the marathon it would turn out to be. It was a deep stack tournament, 5,000 starting chips, 30 min. blinds, 6 players per table. In fact the caption at sign up reads, (Brew some coffee and settle in for a long ride). The pay out was for the top 54 players and I think it took about 4 hours to get to that point. Seeing that the small stack of the tournament had 60 big blinds to his credit instead of the usual 3 or 4 I knew if I went deep it was going to be a marathon. 5 1/2 hours after reaching the money with Cindy watching by my side, I’m now heads up, out chiped 4 ½ to 1. I managed to take the lead and lose it 3 times until I finally took it down for $1,384. Second place and I were the only two players at the final table that refused to make a deal. It was 1:45 am. when we finished almost 10 hours after I had begun and I was now full of adrenaline and couldn’t sleep, I was thinking of all the other activities in life that would take that long, I could have watched 6 movies, or drove to Victoria and back twice, or sat through a combination of 6 of Darryl’s tough decisions in the cash game, 4 bad beat stories at the fire pit, and another 6 tough decisions for Anna in the tournament. That’s a bit of an exaggeration because bad beat stories don’t take that long. In any case I knew tomorrow was going to be a long day. 
Six Degrees of Separation Well it’s tomorrow, and the time it took you to get to this story is about how long it felt that I had slept when the alarm went off. We were off to Vancouver to attend a wedding for our daughter in law Anh’s brother Toan and his wife to be, Vannesa. Now who would have thought that at a Chinese wedding reception in Vancouver where Cindy, Kevin and I were 3 of only 4 people that were not Asian in a party of about 80 people that I would be having a discussion with a Chinese gentleman about the Cottingham family, that’s right, our Cotty and his family.  We arrived at the reception and were greeted by many and were taken to the front of the room where we sat and were served tea by the bride and groom.After photos with different groups we took a seat at our table and when all the guests had arrived then it was time to eat. The menu was on the table and the food items would come out one at a time like a ten course meal. When Kevin picked up the menu which was written in Chinese with small English print underneath and started reading off the items, Cindy, not being able to see the small print said “Wow! You can read that”, when Kevin, in his sarcastic way said “yes mom its English”. The table had a good laugh. Some of the items on the menu were pork ribs, smoked salmon, jelly fish, (Anh ate most of the jelly fish, according to Kevin she eats it out of revenge because she got stung really bad by one when they were in Hawaii), ball of crab, lobster, shark fin soup, steam whole cod, squab, (mmm, love squab), scallops with bean leaves, rice, and large brown mushrooms, after the food there were plenty of drinks, a little Karaoke with western songs sang in Chinese, there was Phil, who had quite a bit to drink and took a liking to Kevin and I  and was trying to get us to go to a house party afterwards. There were lots of friendly discussions like the one I had with Anhs uncle Guy, who told me his story of coming to Canada. Anhs family on her dad’s side left China and moved to Vietnam where her dad met her mother. Anhs Uncle Guy was the first to migrate to Canada 30 years ago and was sponsored by the Cottingham family. We were amazed that we both knew the same people. Then later on Guy sponsored Anhs family including her grand parents but her grandfather died just before the trip. Guy said he remembers Mike was just a baby when he first came over. Guy still goes to visit the Cottinghams from time to time and speaks fondly of them. I didn’t get all the details and would love to here the story from Cotty some time. Our family has his family to thank for giving us Anh and her family as in laws, a nicer family you will not find anywhere.
Tournament and Cash Game I played the tournament at the River Rock on Saturday. This tournament is held once a month and has a very good structure. $550 entry, 15,000 starting chips and ½ hour blinds throughout. 146 players signed up 15 spots paid starting at $1,500 up to $21,000 for first place. I made a couple of position moves and found my chip stack down to 11,000 at the first break. Between the first and second break I made some moves, showed a pretty big bluff and then got some decent cards and got paid on a couple hands and got my chip stack up to 37,000. A couple of lost races with some short stacks later in the tourney and I was down to 10 big blinds with 34 players left. The situation when you have a small stack like this is always whether or not to use the (stop and go) or the (all in) approach. I’ve had a few discussions with Dan about what is the right play and I know it depends on a lot of factors but in general my theory is, if your first in, in early position then (all in) is the way to go to narrow the field or take the hand uncontested, but if your first in, in late position, say the button or the small blind, then the field is already narrowed and the (stop and go) might be the best approach giving your opponent an opportunity to miss the flop which is what will happen most of the time if your heads up. In any case the short stack is not where you want to be but that’s where I was and I used this approach and managed to pay the blinds and steal them back for several orbits all the while looking for a big hand to double up. It came with 10,10, early position (all in) and called by K,K, and I was out. The one thing I’ve been working on in my game for the last month has been the psychology of poker and has got me more exited about poker than I’ve been in a long time. The cash game was fun with a lot of friendly players. I managed to double my buy in before calling it a night. All in all a great week end on the road.
Your friend Cole Harmon.
                            Las Vegas Buffet
          (A series of short stories and observations from Las Vegas) 
A Diamond Is LasVegas’s best friend
  Everywhere you go in Vegas you see that there is special treatment for diamond card holders, Immediate seating at buffets and restaurants, bigger discounts for purchases and show tickets etc. When you play a tournament in a casino they give you a gold card and whenever you play a cash game or play table games or slots etc. you log in with your card and earn points towards (comps), free rooms, meals, shows. More activity increases the value of your card from gold to platinum and eventually diamond. Ah to someday be a diamond card holder, discounts, walking past the buffet line up and getting immediate seating. That’s a lofty goal. Or is it? 
  While playing one night a player came and sat down to play and the dealer asked if he had a player’s card. He took it out and gave it to the dealer. A (Diamond Card) the first one I had seen at a poker table. One of the other players said “How in the hell do you get a diamond card, I play a lot of poker and mine is still gold” He said “oh you can’t get a diamond card playing poker, you have to play high stakes at the slots or table games, if you win a bracelet I suppose they would give you one”. So I started to think, this guy’s a gambler, probably calls an all in on a draw and has no problem going all in pre-flop. And then, as if to prove me right he played for about 10 minutes and then they announced that a tournament was about to start. He asked his friend to take his card and go buy him a seat. Why? Because there was only one seat left and instead of just cashing out he wanted to wait for the next hand so he could push his last $150 in blind, and that’s what he did and lost the hand and away he went.
 So the next time you’re in Vegas and a diamond card holder goes ahead of you in the line, just remember, if you lose enough money someday you can become a diamond card holder too. 
WSOP Event # 24 
  Well here I am again. This is all getting familiar to me and the comfort level is higher every time I play. The tournament starts and the onlookers are lined up along side our table taking pictures of someone three table over. The world championship NL 2-7 lowball event # 23 is sharing our section and playing down to the final table. I decide I’ll look during the break and just concentrate on my game.
 Ok, so I’ve decided that weak play has no place in poker, especially the WSOP, so for the most part calling will be out the window and open limping as well. So my first test is in middle position with A,9 of clubs, not a great hand but it’s folded to me so I open with a raise of 2.75 times the big blind to $275. The big blind calls out of position like he’s been doing in half the hands played and has given away 30% of his chips. So when the flop comes 10,8,2 rainbow the bb bets out $300, half the pot, and my immediate assessment of the situation is to fold because I missed the flop. But wait! Still holding my cards in my hand I capped them to reassess the situation. I showed strength pre-flop, he showed weakness. I announced raise and counted out $750 and put it in, he immediately mucked his cards and said “I should know better”, meaning he put me on a strong hand, a pair higher than tens which he might have even folded a ten himself. Not a huge hand, too early in the tourney to be considered for the Planters good instinct moment. I’m not going to bore you with a story of specific hands, but this early one set the tone and if I had played weak by open limping I guarantee this hand would have turned out different. Can’t remember how I got so short stacked but I know from the texts I sent to Darryl that I doubled to $2,750 on the last hand before the break. Great thing about updating by text is, it keeps your notes on what happened in the tourney. 
  Ok, so it’s break time and the room clears. Now let’s see what all the commotion was about three tables over. Oh, I see, it’s Greg Mueller, Greg Reimer, Jean-Robert Belland from survivor and main event cash last year and Nick Schulman who has a WPT title, all playing at the same table. I latter learned Nick Schulman took down this tournament. 
  I managed to work my chip stack up to $8,500 and then back down to $7,000 calling a short stack all in with K,K. Duane would be interested to know that K,K would end up being the curse of the rest of my poker playing on this trip. The table breaks and I get moved to a table that has a somewhat big stack and then the table watches as this guy puts on a clinic on how to play a big stack. It helped that he hit the nuts on almost every flop, but this guy applied the pressure and would not let up. Without exaggeration he probably won 20 hands in a row and made it impossible to play without playing for your whole stack, I was impressed, and to top it off he was a classy respectful player. I was the first to slow him down when he doubled me up Q,9 to my A,K, but it didn’t stop him and I soon found myself looking for a spot to get it in again. It came with 5,5 to the same players raise. I pushed all in and he called with 10,10 and that was the end of my tournament. He stood up and walked over and we exchanged good games and I wished him luck in the rest of the tourney. The monitor read that there was 500 players remaining, but its not immediately updated so I guess I finished in the 400s somewhere out of 2,700. 10.5 hours after I started. 
  Some of the changes this year are, that any warnings or penalties you receive go on your permanent record and will help determine future penalties. Let’s hope this applies to Phil Helmuth. Another is that when you win a bracelet, they present it to you at the beginning of the next event while everyone stands and sings your national anthem. Hmm, I wonder if they would take the time to sing me two national anthems. Well I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
 As Junior would say (That’s Bullshit!)
  When ever you play a lot of poker like I did on this trip you run into a wide variety of characters. Some are annoying, some players are funny, some are story tellers, some talk too much, some whine and some are full of bullshit. Some are funny and full of bullshit like the player at Kevin’s table who talked non stop. I only remember two of the things that Kevin told me about him, one was that he said sometimes he walks into a casino and just hands everyone at the table a one hundred dollar bill and leaves because it probably saves him a lot of money. His other story happened when a hand at Kevin’s table was declared dead because the player only had one card at the end of the hand. This prompted the guy to say “that’s nothing, I played a hand back home and at the end of the hand the winner had three hole cards. They said his hand plays, I don’t know why, but I think it’s because the guy only had one arm and they felt sorry for him.” This guy was quite an entertainer. 
  One night while Kevin and I were playing 1-2 NL at Harrah’s there was an elderly man from Spain who spoke almost no English. This guy was very funny and likable and was having a good time even though he was losing. Whenever he had a decision to make he would put up his hand and say “time”. Everyone at the table got a kick out of him. He soon had a translator as a Mexican guy sat down beside him. He would wag his finger at me when I took a pot off him while speaking Spanish. The translator told me he said “I shouldn’t play against you, you always beat me”. He got involved in a big hand with a young aggressive player, he called all the way to the river and was last to act in a big pot when he started to talk his way through the hand in Spanish and was actually counting on his fingers and pointing and counting the cards. When he was finished he pushed all in. The other player then said “now I’m confused”. He thought for a while and then folded. The Spanish guy then showed his hand to the Mexican and said, “Consecutivo”? The Mexican said “no” the Spaniard said “no consecutivo? Mexican says “no”. Spaniard says “how you say consecutivo? Mexican says “straight”. Spaniard says “no straight”? Mexican says “no straight” Spaniard says “oh” and turns over his hand, then rakes the pot with not even a pair. The whole table was laughing and the young aggressive player said “I think I just got hustled”. Turned out he was just a bad player having a good time. Kevin took his money and he called it a night. 
  I had a guy tell me during the break in event #24 that he doesn’t play the first pair of aces he gets in a tournament because of the bad history he has had with this situation. And that he got pocket aces the second hand and just threw them away pre-flop. Now this guy was a bad enough player to where his story was believable. But whether you believe it or not, it’s bullshit either way. 
  There’s also a wide variety of characters when it comes to dealers. One night while playing a cash game at Harrah’s a new dealer came to the table and was one of those dealers that has had one too many energy drinks. This guy was fast but kept flipping over the cards on the deal. On one deal he flipped over two cards and declared a misdeal, then dealt again with the same result. Third attempt, lightning fast deal again and at the end of the deal after players had looked at their cards, I had three cards, misdeal again. Ok fourth attempt and the dealers a little embarrassed now with the moans and groans and jabs the players were taking all in fun, you would think he would slow down, but no, lightning fast deal and just for a joke when the deal was finished, I said “I have three cards again”. While everyone looked up and saw me grinning and realized I was joking, the man to my left without hesitation said “just play your three cards and shut up”. It got a big laugh, even from the dealer. 
Venetian Deep Stack 
  If ever you want to get your money’s worth in a relatively inexpensive tournament with a potential pay out of $70,000 to $100,000 for first place the Venetian deep stack tournaments are the ones to play. This series of tournaments is running the entire time the WSOP is on and I believe its part of their regular schedule as well. The Venetian is catering to the skilled poker players and from what I understand has taken most of the Wynne’s business. They have 89 tables with lots of room, comfortable chairs and immediate seating for most all cash games. The deep stack tourneys start with 15,000 chips and 40 min. blinds through out, taking two days to complete. Their player’s cards pay $2 per hour played in comps as opposed to $1 per hour most everywhere else, if that’s your thing. 
  So I signed up for a $560 tournament with 629 players. They would pay 56 spots starting at $759 to $88,000 for first place. I was happy with my play in this tournament, I made some big moves, I laid down pocket queens face up on a jack high flop to an all in,( that one's for you Gary). The player showed a set of jacks. I played the short stack well not allowing myself to get too short stacked. I did get very lucky on one hand when I was short stacked and pushed all in, in early position with 8,8 and got two callers A,A and K,K. spiked an 8 on the flop and tripled to 48,000 when the average was 42,000. 75 players left when big stack raised under the gun and I looked down at A,K. I was short stacked just over ten big blinds and didn’t give him credit for a big hand as he was playing very loose, I pushed all in and then comes the annoying part. This guy gave a 1 min. speech on how terrible a call this was going to be and then turned over A,9, hit a 9 on the turn and I was done. Love the call, hate the speech, and to make things worse he apologized as I left the table. funny thing is, I did the math and it turns out that it was only a marginal call and with his chip stack it really wasn’t that bad, especially being that close to the money and eliminating a player. But he could use a lesson on poker etiquette. But that’s his problem. It took me about 30 seconds to get over the loss as it did in the WSOP because I knew I played well. The first WSOP event I played in 2005 was not that easy to get over but I’ve played long enough now to know that poker is not one hand, and is not one session, and is not one tournament, and getting good hole cards is not an accomplishment, but playing well is. 
Miscellaneous Meanderings
  By the look of Vegas you would think the recession is over, was one of the headlines in a news paper there. The strip was jam packed with people. I talked to a guy in Harrah’s poker room who said he was there in February and they only had one poker table running the whole time and it was rarely full.
  “LOVE” is a good show, and if you like the Beatle’s music like I do then it’s a great show. For those that have seen it you’ll understand when I say my favorite part was the octopus’s garden under water scene.
  I turned down seeing Carrot Top last time in Vegas because I wasn’t sure I wanted to see a prop comic, only to hear from my kids on what a great show I missed. So I went this time and I have to tell you he was fucking hilarious!! That’s right, you heard me correctly, I said hilarious!! And if you don’t want to take my word for it just ask his dad, Pop Top.
  I found myself racing my daughter in-law Anh around Vegas from time to time. When I would take the escalator, she would take the stairs and the race was on with her usually winning. So when we were entering a casino and I took the people mover and she took the regular route, I was winning until as usual I came to a crowd of people who think escalators and people movers are a ride at Disneyland. Anh took the lead and thought the race was over and didn’t look back to see me jump over the rail and run past her to the door. Yes!! Chalk one up for Cole. 
  My last story is from the security check at the south terminal in Vancouver where I received a very long and thorough body search before boarding the plane to Comox. I had to put my arms straight out while he started with my right hand, down my arm, behind my ear, in my hair, down my right side, right pocket, down my leg and back up again, all the while talking friendly chit chat. He patted across my belt and when he got to the inside of the front of my pants. I wanted to say “sir, I’ll give you just 10 minutes to cut that out”. But knowing that the search could go much deeper, if you know what I mean, I bit my tongue. When he made his way down the left side he came to a bulge in my pocket. Hmm.  “Sir, can you take that out of your pocket”.  It was my poker bank role of $6,000 in one hundred dollar bills. “Oh nice, American money” he said. “It’s worth more than our Canadian money, where did you get it”? “I just came from Las Vegas” “is that where you got your nice tan”? Ok pal your ten minutes is up. When I came into the waiting room where several onlookers were watching through the glass walls, my sister in-law said “what on earth were they looking for”? I said “I don’t know but he sure is good at his job”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
  It was a great trip. I was already planning my next one before I left, perhaps if I can rebuild my bank role I can rent a house for two months during the WSOP and come down for three weeks go home for two and back for another three and the house could be available for others who want to come down at different times and share the cost. Just wishful thinking right now but you never know. Your friend Cole Harmon.
                         Friday Night Competition  
 Another Friday night is here. So many have come and gone since the start of Harmon Ave. The thrill of competing excites me just thinking about it. I prepare mentally by reading a chapter or two, and visualize different situations. I prepare physically by having a nap before the sometimes 12 hour session. I get the room ready and wait for the competition to show so I can punish them for not preparing as I do. Then the game begins and I often find myself on the losing end of an ill thought out (all in) call  hitting a draw on the river. Well, as they say (That’s Poker!)

 Tonight was going to be no different. Jesse had bought a gift certificate to the Tigh Na Mara resort in Parksville as a Christmas gift for Cindy and I, so we put the closed sign on Harmon Ave. and headed for a night on the town. We checked into our room and I had a little nap to prepare for the competition. You see the game we were about to play is as tough mentally as any poker game and has the ability to put you on tilt when your preparations and your expertise don’t produce the fruits you expect. It’s important to keep your cool and don’t lose your focus even if your opponent seems to have a disregard for the finer techniques of the game. Many of you probably have guessed by now that I’m talking about the fiercely competitive game of (Miniature Golf). 
 We arrived, and the kid behind the counter asked “are you going to be keeping score”. Lol. Is he kidding, what would be the point of playing if you couldn’t show your opponent how bad you beat them? “Ok then do you know which course you want”. I said “No” and he said “Well one is easy and one is difficult”. I laughed and turned to Cindy and said “It’s miniature golf, how difficult can it be. “We’ll do the tough course”. Off we go, me with my delicate taps, playing the curves and banking in the right spot approach, and Cindy with her bat the ball approach. After 9 holes for some reason Cindy had added up the score and said “I beat you on the front 9. I said “Cindy, this is an 18 hole golf course, we don’t keep score in increments of 9”. She was ahead by 3 but I was sure I would take the lead by hole 18. Hole 17 I was behind by one. Imagine a teardrop shape of cement in the middle of the course with the pointed end facing you; if you hit the ball to the right you’ll go to the section that has the hole and to the left, you’re in another section away from the hole. Cindy goes first, (bat) and the ball goes to the left. Ok, I think, this is where I shine. I’m going to play the ball just to the right of the teardrop point and bank it off the side of the teardrop to the hole. I hit the ball and it hits square on the point and bounces exactly straight back and off the course. I couldn’t do that again if I tried, it was worse odds than someone hitting a one outer in poker on you. Cindy is now laughing uncontrollably while I’m trying to hold it together. We tie the 17th hole and the 18th is uneventful as you only get 1 shot and it counts for 1 or 2 shots. I need a hole in one to tie and we both get it in 2. Cindy says “I win” and I said “yes, but I won the back 9”. So the Bat the ball approach prevailed, but as they say (That’s Miniature Golf).  
 So later that night at the casino I lost $200 playing blackjack and Cindy won $200 playing blackjack. As we arrived back at the resort I asked out of interest “this resort must be worth a fortune, what do you think its worth”. Cindy said “about 25 million” I said “yeah we’re in the same ballpark, I was thinking 30 million”. And in an attempt to get back some of my self respect I said “so you’re almost as smart as me”. And she said “Maybe, but I can play blackjack and hit a golf ball better than you”. Ouch!   
 So why am I writing about Miniature golf on my poker page, because competition is competition and the lesson to learn here is, no mater what skills you think you have and what skills you think your opponent has, make sure you have fun, or what’s   the point in playing.

Your friend Cole (OMGICALDN1) Harmon.
 
                           MJ, The Kid, And I

 It's 11:00 pm. on Wednesday and I'm sitting at the $2-$5 cash table thinking back to the four previous days of poker. I've already played in three of the five tournaments with no success. I made a good run at the mixed nl and limit holdem event, making it to the dinner break I had 5,600 chips left of the 6,000 I started the tourney with. By the next break two hours later I increased my stack to 46,000, 16,000 above the average. We were getting close to the money but I wasn't about to tighten up now, knowing that playing the game with a certain amount of positional aggression is what got me to 46,000 chips. Besides what's the point of squeaking into the money with a short stack to possibly only double my $550 entry fee when I could make that in one hand in the cash games. I picked up 9,9 in the big blind of the limit portion of the game, blinds being 1,000-2,000. The small blind raises to 4,000 and I make the call. The flop is 2,6,10, I check, and sb bets 2,000, I check raised to 4,000 and he makes the call. The turn is a J, and sb checks, I bet 4,000 and sb calls, river is a Q, sb bets 4,000 and considering there's 24,000 in the pot and I'm getting 6 to 1 and with a busted flush draw on board I make the call and he turns over A,K for the nut straight. Down to 30,000 chips I'm again in the BB in the no limit portion of the game with the blinds at 1,500-3,000. The button min. raises to 6,000 and I'm not really sure what this means, It could just be that he thinks we're still in the limit portion as this was a common mistake at the table. I look down at A,Q, of hearts and think about shoving but I decide to see a flop knowing I have fold equity if I miss. The button has a huge stack as he's had pocket aces three times in the last two hours. The flop comes 3,8,Q, two clubs. I'm committed to this pot, there's no way I'm folding so I can check or go all in, and I think there's no point giving him a free card or I might be checking when I'm ahead and shoving when I'm behind. I push all in and he calls and turns over pocket aces once again, and I'm done.

 The brit made a good run at the first $550 nl tourney but fell short, and Duane while not getting off to a good start had a entertaining time as he was seated at Gavin Smiths table. I never got a chance to here the story from Duane but I think I got the idea of how things were when I played at Gavin’s table for three and a half hours in the $1,100 event. A very funny guy and a fearless poker player. Mark went far in this tourney getting close to the bubble, but no cash.

 Now back to the previously mentioned cash game where a guy walks slowly by the table and someone says" Hey Dennis, welcome to Vancouver, are you just checking things out. "No" he says "I'm just waiting for a table" I then realize it's Dennis Phillips who finished 3rd in the main event of the WSOP. I didn't recognize him without his red baseball hat on. I found out later that Poker stars ran qualifier satellite tournaments online for the B.C. Poker Championships and sent up many of the Poker stars pro team here for the event. Some of the pros I saw were Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, David Williams, Scott Clements, Isabelle Mercier, Greg Mueller, Gavin Smith, Lacey Jones, Liz Lieu and my favourite poker commentator, Gabe Kaplan.

 While playing I noticed a very drunk guy staggering around the poker room and throwing his arm around one of the pit bosses. I was thinking that it wouldn't be long before they would escort him off the premises. So I was surprised when the pit boss helped him with his request to have a seat at our table and play poker. He took out some money and the pit boss went to get him some chips. I thought maybe they were just going along with him until security arrived, but he got his chips and began to play. He couldn't stack his chips, he couldn’t pick up his cards without exposing them to other players, he was getting food on the cards, but this guy was funny, and had the gift of gab and was putting on a show. I still didn't know who he was but the guy next to him seemed to know him. He was saying he had a 15% stake in Daniel Negreanu in the main event. He was singing a poker song when the guy beside him said " your singing my favourite poker song" He said "yeah I love that song, we use it on our show all the time". So when he left for a break I asked who he was and the guy said that it was Mike Johnson who does a pod cast show for Poker stars with Adam Swartz, on Two plus Two the show that Darryl talks about.

 The cash games so far were going pretty good but this night I was down about $1,000 at this point getting my aces cracked by 10,6 off and then playing 10,6 against a 10,J on a 7,8,9 flop. So I pick up A,Q in the BB and Mike Johnson calls from the button. I raise to $35 and he makes the call. The flop comes A,Q,10. I bet $55. MJ calls, the turn is a 5, I bet $155, he calls and the river is a 9, I check and he bets $200. I run through the hands that beat me, K,J, or a set but he never raised me with a flush draw on board and I couldn't see how he could bet unless he was bluffing, so I called and he turned over J,8 for a straight to the Q. He yelled out SHIP IT!! and then proceeded to tell me I was just asking to get sucked out on by only betting $55 on the turn, I told him that I actually bet $155 on the turn and he said "no you didn't". The table came to my defence and said I did, so he then said "oh well I suck then". Not that I needed to discuss this or any hand with him but he brought it up so I just corrected him. Now this was my third big hand loss for the night and I probably should have called it a night considering the main event was tomorrow and I should get some sleep, but I wanted my money back and he wasn't the only player at the table that was playing poorly. Shortly after that hand he gets involved with another player who is ATC any position calls any raise, you know the type, we all love them. Anyway MJ gets his KK cracked by this kids 10,7 off in a similar way, catching a straight on the river. MJ goes Helmuth on the kid telling him how proud he should be calling a raise out of position with 10,7 and now is his target for the rest of the night. I know I should go but now I have two targets. The sparring goes back and forth and it's now 3:00 am. and the only players left at the table are MJ the kid and I,MJ has begun to sober up a little by now, when the follow hand takes place. I raise with A,5 and both call, the flop comes A,3,4, with two diamonds, they both check and I bet, they call and the turn comes a 6. The kid bets MJ calls and I have $250 left and push all in. They both call with money behind. MJ says "I have a killer draw" and the river is an 8. MJ looks at me and says "that missed me" and tells me to turn my cards over and I tell him "you know there's still action between you and the kid" and he says "oh, I check then" the kid moves all in and MJ calls. MJ turns over 5,8 of diamonds, I turn over my hand for a pair of Aces and the kid turns over A,3 for two pair taking the pot. I get up and leave while MJ is standing bent over the table in the kids face yelling at him that he's the worst player he's ever seen, and as I'm leaving the poker room I recall the words of Erick Lindgren "I can't even beat a drunk".

 There must have been a full moon that night or something because security had to step in to prevent a fight at the table beside me and when I left two guys had to step in to stop a man and his wife who were fighting outside. The next morning I got the story from Dan that a guy was waiting to fight him out side when he left because Dan kept taking his dads money.

 I busted out of the main event and the short handed shoot out tournaments without really getting a run of cards. You really do need to have a good run of cards or just have things fall your way to get you that big stack so your insulated against getting drawn out on because it's going to happen in big tournaments like these. this was my last chance at redeeming my 2008 tournament play but it was not to be. That’s the nature of tournament play 10 to 20 tourneys without a cash is not an uncommon statistic even amongst the pros. 2008 has been a great year for cash games however, I've made back almost all of my entry fees for the year.

 I made another $2,500 in the cash games for the following 3 nights. My favourite hand was the last night there playing very good players, there wasn't a bad player at the table. Two players limped and I raised to $40 from the bb with A,K, the flop missed with two diamonds on the board. I made a continuation bet of $100 and the player on the button called. The turn was a blank and I checked and he checked. The river was a blank and I checked and he bet $200. I was leaning toward calling with ace high considering he checked the turn and took the free card for a possible flush draw. I just sat there staring at him for a minute until he pushed away from the table and looked up at the T.V. These are both possible tells that someone doesn't like their hand. I made the call and he said "I missed" and turned over 6,7 of diamonds. I turned over my hand and took down a $700 pot with Ace high. There was no reaction from anyone at the table. I made a similar call a couple nights earlier with the same results.

 I cashed out at midnight on Saturday and finished my trip off watching the final table play down to six players for the televised table on Sunday. It ended at around 2:00 am. with Negreanu reraising the button from the small blind and having the big blind go all in. Negreanu was pot committed and made the call with A,Q vs. QQ. Negreanu spiked an Ace on the turn and heads to the T.V. final table with 2.2 million in chips, the average is about 1.7 million.

 Your friend Cole(Bob_Sakamano)Harmon.

 

Online Conversations

While playing online poker or live poker, it is never a good thing to tell another player how bad you think they play. In fact if anything you should encourage them or just say nothing at all. This has not always been the case with me though. In the early days of online play I could not let a negative comment directed at me go without responding.

I remember putting a bad beat on a player once and he just lost it, calling me every name he could think of, and I responded likewise as I always did. I don't remember all the detailed conversation, except how it ended. I remember he was calling me down for being a Canadian and said he was going to find out where I live and come up there and kick my ass, where I responded, if you come around these parts I'll shove a hockey stick up your ass and cut off the excess with my chainsaw. Oh yeah, he was a real nut, lol.

Another time it was a similar situation. We were trading insults for a long time until we got moved to other tables. Not satisfied with getting the last word, I followed him to his next table and waited for him to get knocked out and said something to rub it in. He then came to my table where the other players weren't aware of our history. He went nuts on me, calling me down. I said nothing, knowing he would look foolish to the other players, Finally someone said," I think you have a fan Bob Sakamano. What's up with this guy? Is he stalking you? When I said " I put a bad beat on him a while back and this has been going on every day now for three months. "Wow, what a nut" he said. I said "yeah".

Another time I had got knocked out of an expensive tournament and I was steaming. I decided I was going to enter a cheaper tournament and I was going to go all in every hand until I was out no matter what. This was going to make me feel better I guess. I entered a $11.00 multi table tournament and went all in the first hand and got some comments like (bit of an over bet huh Bob ) Hand #2 all in, Hand #3 all in, now I was getting some comments like wtf? Hand #4 all in, Hand #5 all in, now I was getting a barrage of insults as players were calling now and I was knocking them out left and right. By hand #16 and #17 I had a fan following cheering me on while some were still mad at me. I was now the chip leader with about 10 times the average and I could have stopped and played normal, but I had made up my mind I was going to follow through with my plans. Hand # 22 all in, Hand #23 all in, players were now calling me with suited connectors. All the while I never said a single word to anyone. I made it to hand #32 with a diminished chip stack and one more all in and I lost, busting out of the tournament. One guy said "I've never seen anything like it before, your my hero Bob Sakamano," I then calmly wrote in my first words saying " Man, I just have no luck at these things". The table erupted with lols and I really did feel better.

I have progressed into having more civil conversations as I’ve found out that playing on tilt is not very profitable.

I recall a conversation I had with a player who just couldn't except my betting pattern. I was playing position and stealing his blinds repeatedly, but my bets were always 2.5 x the big blind plus 2 or 3 extra chips. For some reason this can get on the nerves of some players and it did with this one as he would write in my bet with a ? , and I would write "that's right". So the end of the conversation was

Other player says: 253 ?

Bob_Sakamano says: That's right.

Other player says: whatever.

Bob_Sakamano says: my only wish is that they had decimal points.

Other player says: you know, betting odd numbers is a tell.

Bob_Sakamano says: you know, telling someone about their tells is also a tell.

Other player says: whatever.

One other conversation I remember, I had been playing a tournament for over an hour and nothing had been said at the table as of yet when player 1 from Sweden said.

player 1 says: hey Bob_Sakamano where in Canada are you from?

Bob_Sakamano Says: B.C.

Player 1 says: do you know John Cornwyea ?

Bob_Sakamano says: he's my dad.

Player 1 says: that's funny Bob cause he's my dad.

Bob_Sakamano says: hey brother!

Player 2 says: dad sure got around.

Player 3 says: well, dad was a sailor.

We played another hour or so without another word spoken.

I've had hundreds of conversations about Seinfeld episodes because of my online name.

The conversations are almost always friendly now as I have learned that no matter the situation it's just not wise or profitable to go negative. And I believe being friendly can even work as an advantage as some players might not want to take your chips or bluff you etc. if they like you. While I find it easy to spot a player who lacks some of the basic knowledge of playing poker by their betting patterns and the way they play certain hands from different positions, It's all a learning process and no matter how bad you want to tell another player how bad they play poker you have to just let it go. It's not easy to lose a hand to a player who called your utg raise from the blinds with a marginal hand, but what are you going to do. Everyone has the right to play how they want. Just make a note of it and carry on staying positive and taking the high road.

Your friend Cole (Bob_Sakamano) Harmon.

 

              

 

Elements of Poker

By Tommy Angelo

Position Reciprocality

The advantage to acting last exists during every round of betting. It's always there, at every moment, like home field advantge during a football game. At pro football, during the regular season, to keep everything fair, each team plays half thier games at home and half on the road. the rules do not allow a team to create a home-game/away-game reciprocal advantage simply by folding thier away games. But at poker, we are allowed to do exactly that. We can fold our "away games", our bad positions, and thereby act last more often than we act first, and thereby create an advantage.

                Bad Beat Jackpot

A bad beat jackpot is underway at Harmon Ave. Starting at $10.00 with the potential of growing to hundreds of dollars, this will add a new sense of excitement to every game.

The funding for this will come from two sources,

Tournaments, 10 players or less, there will be $5.00 taken from the prize pool, more than 10 and less than 20 players, $10.00 taken from the prize pool, more than 20 players, $20.00 taken from the prize pool.

Cash games, $.50 will be taken from your first buy in, cash outs will be rounded down to the nearest $5.00, the remainder going to the bad beat jackpot.

Rules for winning the BBJP

 

If you have a full house with aces over eights or any hand better than this using both of your hole cards, and you get beat by a better hand using both of their hole cards then you win the bad beat jackpot. The losing hand receives 40% of the jackpot, the winning hand receives 20% of the jackpot. All other players that were dealt cards in the hand split 20% and the remaining 20% carries over to build the next pot. The jackpot can be won in tournament play or cash game play, as the funding is coming from both.

Not eligible to win, tournaments with less than 6 players, tournaments with less than a $25.00 buy in and mid week cash games.

The totals will be calculated at the beginning of each tournament and the end of each cash game, and will be updated weekly. GOOD LUCK!!!