Tales from the Trails

Irish Open, do you need a seat?

2009-12-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

Some reasons to play at PokerHost.com!!

2009-11-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

Trip Summary – Roses and Weeds

2009-10-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

There are challenging flops, turns, opponents and chip stacks in poker. In life it may be your finances, job and or relationships (with yourself or others!) Usually it is a mix of all of these that we juggle and manage to reach our goals. Everything doesn’t come up roses. There’s always a few weeds that seem to crop up my friends.

The last few weeks on the road there have been more then a few weeds for me starting in Atlantic City at the Borgata Championships. Even the National Anthem which I have been honored to sing there to kick off the event had a few off notes. On the felt, it seemed to matter not what strategy I employed, (a discipline one or a more creative one) nothing worked. Five times I lost with two pair or better in the main event. It was just one of those days where I could never get anything going. And in the few under-card events I played it was more of the same. After going out of the main event I decided to switch it up and play in a live 10-25 NL cash game to see if I would fair any better. This hand played out about 2 hours into my session.

With about 5k in front of me and the button in hand I raise to 100 with pocket 88s. I get called by the SB and we take the flop heads up which falls A T 4. SB checks and I make a continuation bet of 125 and he calls. The turn is gin! An 8 falls and again my opponent checks. I’m thinking he is defending his ace and fire 300. Now he raises me to 800 . I think and re-raise to 2100. He shoves and I call with over half my chips in the middle already only to see my opponent reveal TT for trip tens! Wow, no re-raise pre-flop from a button raise with a vulnerable hand like TT was a shocker. Why wasn’t I capapble of putting him on this hand? Coupled with perfect play and an unfortunate turn card left me scratching my head, shaking hands and calling it an early night.

So it was off to London in which I had to take a taxi all the way to New York to make my flight. So there were some logistical problems but after a whole day of traveling I finally landed at Londons Heathrow airport, found a train to Paddington station and arrived at my quaint little hotel and had a nap to a nice welcomed summer breeze.

The next day found me playing the WSOPE main event. When you register with American dollars you get whatever the exchange rate is at the time. I got screwed on that exchange as well because the rate for most of the time I was there was $1.65 but the day I registered it was more like $1.72 which is just pennies right? However, the buy-in was 10,000p so it actually cost me an extra $700 not seven cents. But what to do but pony up, register and hope I was able to shake off the bad luck from Atlantic City.

But it was like a cloud followed me all the way from AC to London when early on in the main event I flopped two pair and lost to the “DevilFish” who made a straight. Anyway, these are the type of beats and challenges I was continually facing on this road trip.

Things started to turn in my favor a little as I did hold a few premium hands that held up and made it into day 2 on a short stack and was featured on the ESPN television table along with Howard Ledderer and Erik Seidel. When things aren’t going your way for any extended period of time it is hard to hold your chin up but if you don’t - your attitude can quickly turn sour and results will only get worse. Attitude and confidence are so important in poker and when things aren’t going your way you have to fight to hang on to it or get it back when it has been shaken.

So that is exactly what I did. After going out of the main event I signed up and played the 6 handed EPT event and I battled through a very tough field to finish 12th. So after two weeks of no results I left London on a positive note looking forward to coming home. The beats were tough to deal with but perhaps the toughest part of being on the lonely road is being away from family. It was great coming home to be with my son.
But nothing like a Sunday to get you excited for online poker. 250k guarantee bounty tournament today in which any PokerHost player that knocks me out will receive $1,000. Best of luck because I’m rested, confident and have a great attitude.

Kenna

Update: Field was just under 1,000 and I finished 90th when my AK lost to AT on a river ten. Still, I believe the clouds are lifting. It’s gonna be a great week. See ya online

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UPDATE FROM LONDON ENGLAND - EPT £1,000

2009-10-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

First event of the EPT yesterday and we are still running with the ball. 244 players and we are down to the money play with 23 runners left. We start in just about an hour from now so I will have to keep this update brief. I will only be playing this event and perhaps one more before returning to the States. I am not planning on playing the main event here
.
This is one of the most interesting events I've played in quite some time. Mostly psychologically speaking. Because we are 6 handed it was too tough for me to write down every hand I played as I did in my last report because there were too many and they came too fast.

About midway through the tournament I realized I was the only one left from my starting table which featured two top internet pros. Looking around the room I noticed that not many players in fact seemed to be over 30. And now as I look around at my new table mates it's as if I suddenly morphed into an old man! Seems like yesterday I was on the other side of the fence looking at the older people and now suddenly I'm him. It feels like a game of tag and now I'm it! Ha, everyone seems so young....and talented. "Wow," I thought. This is weird. I can't explain the feeling really other then in the space of a few minutes it was like I morphed into my father.

So for the next round after getting off to a very fast start and being chip leader on my table I stumbled. As if I just took a massive hit in football and fumbled the ball. Lucky for me the dinner break horn sounded. I went back to my hotel room to gather my thoughts and re-evaluate my game plan. When we came back 90 mins. later I remembered who I was and everything was like peanut butter and jelly.

"I'm Kenna James Bitch!" I muttered to myself as I came over the top of the next raiser and took down the pot. From that point on I went to war and employed a new strategy point against these young gun internet players that really worked and was so powerful that I will not share it just yet. At least not without more testing. lol. It doesn't have to do with aggression....hmmmm.

Anyway, I'm off to work with hope and love of my job once again. The tournament is being held just a ten minute stroll from my hotel here in London. Update tomorrow. Till then, Enjoy the Journey.

Kenna

WSOPE 2009 Videos

2009-09-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

CLOSING NOTES

2009-09-29T09:32:00.001-07:00

I played very close to the game plan that I set out and am confident that it was a strong strategy. I showed a lot more discipline in my preparation and execution of that strategy. Any strategy, even effective ones have a hole or a weak spot because by making clearly defined choices you eliminate others. In the strategy I laid out I needed a few more premium hands or situations in which my opponents didn't make such strong hands to hold up against my aggression. My 8/6 of spades in which I made two pair and lost and the 6/4 of spades hand in which I had a pair, straight and flush draw but failed to improve were key pivotal hands in situations that did not go my way. Also the coin flip hand with my pocket 33's against the AT which didn't go my way. These few key hands were hinges on a doorway that if swung the other way would have sent me through a door deeper into the tournament and the possibility of a deep run.

As it is I went out 135th out of 378 field and joined my friends for some consoling and then did a few interviews before hoping in one of these black top taxis to head back to my hotel. Thanks for all the support from my friends and fans. I appreciate your comments and well wishes, thank you.

Kenna

ROUND 8 Blinds 400-800 100 ante

2009-09-29T09:31:00.002-07:00

Blinds are starting to pressure me now. I have about 30 BB but my M is just about 13 so I'm hoping to make a move upward this round before I get in desperation mode.

99 - Again I pick up pocket 99s. This time to a single raise from a tight player. I'm in the SB and elect to flat call and win a bigger pot then just the BB and his raise. If I RE-Raise him here and he has no hand that's all I will get unless he has the big pair in which case I will most likely go broke once I commit myself to a 3 bet. I decide to flat call and we see a flop of T/3/2. A fair flop to my hand and I check and call a 6k bet from my opponent letting him know I have a pair.

The Turn card brings a 6 and again I knuckle the felt only to see my opponent throw another 7k in the middle. He started this hand with around 80k so he is risking a fair amount of chips in this hand now. I pause but not too long as I want him to think I am determined to call him all the way down so I make the call again leaving myself with only 14k behind. I desperately am hoping to check this hand down on the river and look at my opponents busted AK or AQ. But those hopes are dashed when the river falls another blank and he bets 11k begging for a call. I fold and he shows his hand to the ESPN cameras and tells me I made a good fold. We will see but I believe so as well.

I feel as though I'm a tree who has had an axe been taken to it and am about to fall over. I'm hanging on and fold the next couple of hands before I peek down and find:

JJ - In the cut-off. Everyone folds to me and Ben Roberts one of the tightest players on the table re-raises me from the SB. I hate this situation but I have little choice with this big of a hand and very little chips left. We get it all in pre-flop and he turns over pocket Kings. I fail to improve and am out of the WSOPE Main event.

ROUND 7 Blinds 300-600 75 ante

2009-09-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

Tough table draw with two of the chip leaders at my table along with Howard Ledder and Erik Seidel who thankfully was short stacked. Here is a list of the hands and situations I played.

KQ in second postion. Not a great hand but I bring it in for 1700 and pick up the blinds and antes.

AJ - The Cut-Off raises and it looks like his heart has picked up a few extra beats as his shirt is ruffling ever so slightly. He is the second chip leader at the table, do I want to mess with him? This is the 2nd straight time he's raised my blind as well and I hate for him to get comfortable at this routine. So is the shaking nerves or the sign of a big hand. Let's find out by 3 betting. I raise his 1850 bet 5300 on top making it 7150 to go. He thinks for a minute and calls. My goal was to pick it up right there and that failed so when the flop falls 6 high I have a decision to make. Do I carry on or check? I check and his bet of 6,500 seems relaxed and confident. Almost relief as if he caught a good flop to a pair of tens or jacks. I can make a move to represent a big pair and hopefully get a fold but with only being able to put 20k in pressure on my opponent who has nearly 150k in chips I decide to fold. I think his excitement was from holding a big hand not from weakness. So I lose a valuable 7k in the hand and am down to 28k or so.

99 - Chip leader brings it in for 1600 and I get excited as his hand frequency is high and it looks like I'll be able to win a pot here. That is until Leo, the girl next to me re-raises to 6k. She is playing solid and I take a minute before making my fold. She tells me later that she had a big pair and I believer her. Normally 99's wouldn't even be a consideration but I'm not being dealt many pairs or premium hands to consider so each one is valuable.

9/6s - T/8h : I'm in the BB to 2.5x raises with these mitts and decide to put in a few extra chips in a multi-way spot to see if I can capture lightening in a bottle. The board blanks for me and I lose an extra 800 in both spots seeing a flop.

End of Round 7. Lederer and Seidel both go broke with short stacks. I've tried re-raising, speculating in valued pots and being patient waiting for premium hands but nothing seems to be working just yet. I end the round with about 26k in chips.

WSOPE 2009 MAIN EVENT DAY 2

2009-09-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

I'm just a couple of hours from the start of day 2. We may be the television table today as there are some notables on my table draw. The chip leader Brian Powell who has 195k will make things challenging. It doesn't get any easier around the rest of the table with Howard Ledderer and the great Erik Seidel on my table as well. I feel confident and believe it's time for some cards to fall my way so tune in tomorrow and I will update you with how the cards fall. Till then, Enjoy the Journey!

Kenna

ROUND 6 Blinds 250-500 ante 75 Stack 45k

2009-09-28T10:36:00.001-07:00

Last level of the day and the goal is to put it on the chip average which is sure to be around 55-60k at the end of the round. It turns out to be a tough round but one that could have been a lot worse if I over-play AK on the last hand of the day. I make a King but my opponent has trip queens and I lose 6500 instead of my whole stack on what could have been an all-in pre flop race situation had I elected to re-raise him pre-flop. So I end the day with 37k and thoughts of what could have been if I had caught a couple of lucky cards at the right time. As it is I stayed in control and feel like I really earned my 7k profit for the day.

ROUND 5 Blinds 200-400 50 ante 57k

2009-09-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

Janes takes a bad beat from the Devilfish and is down to 7600. I'm in the BB and it is folded to him and he just shoves his stack all-in. I look down at 33's. I know this is a long call if I make it and at best I'm 50-50. The bigger picture is this however; If I make the call this shows the table I'm willing to take marginal risks and not to get involved with me and might protect me later on for larger amounts of money. Also, this may be the cheapest opportunity I have to bust out one of the toughest players at my table. For those reasons I eventually make the call and peel off 7200 from my stack. Janes turns over A/T w/ the ten of hearts. The flop falls three low cards but all hearts! Turn is blank and then I say to the dealer, "you got any black cards in the deck?" He does and puts one on the river. Except it is the Ten of clubs! and I lose this pivotal race. Janes goes on to move his stack to almost 30k after that and then later on gets it all-in pre-flop! against Player X. Janes KK, Player X QQ. Janes is sent to the rail when a queen flops and his opponent sends him tripping to the rail.

So back down to around 48k I pick up my first big hand of the day. Kings on the button! I raise and am re-raised by Ryan in the SB. I take my time to consider how I want to play my hand. I decide I don't want to be taken out by a lone bullet on the flop and elect to flat call and see a flop. It falls harmless enough Queen high and he leads for 5400. I raise to 15k and take down the pot as he shows me pocket tens and folds. Back over 60k and the very next hand I again press my lead and bring it in for a raise in an unopened pot from the HI-Jack with 8/6 of spades making it 1100 to go. Again the Fish calls and we see a flop of 5/6/7 one spade. He fires 2k and I call with my pair and up and down straight draw. The turn is an 8 and he quickly fires 5k. Now I realize it is a four card straight on board but if he had the 9 wouldn't he contemplate at least for a few seconds how much to extract from me or even check? I smelled something fishy and quickly made the call. Now the pot is over 20k when a King falls on the river and he fires an under-bet of 6k. This is as scared a bet as I've ever seen the Fish make but what legit hand can I beat? Only a bluff or a lower two pair. The pot is offering me over 4-1 and I reluctantly call as it seems to me he is bluffing. He is in fact making a scared bet or rather a smart blocking bet to find out when he flips over trip 5's! Wow, imagine if an 8 or a 6 fall here. I will certainly felt him as he put me on an over-pair. Failing that how about a 4 or a 9 for a split? Too much to ask for and once again I lose a crucial swing pot and am back down to 45k and I trade places with the Devil who now has over 60k. We both have been up and down all day.

ROUND 4 - Blinds 150-300 50 ante 52k Stack

2009-09-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Not much interesting this level except that dinner break is coming and I don't want to get over involved and be nauseous while I'm eating. So I play it close to the vest and go to dinner break with about 55k in chips.

ROUND 3 - Blinds 150-300 25 ante 45k Stack

2009-09-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

My most interesting hand of the day started with this round. I decided to mix things up a bit and play a situation against a player I was looking to get involved with as I figured he was the weakest one at the table. Player X raises 600 on the button and we take the flop heads up as I make the call from the BB with 6/4 of spades. The flop falls J/4/2 w/one spade and I lead for 1200 and he calls. The turn brings a 3 of spades now giving me a gut shot and flush draw to go along with my pair. I check and X fires 3300. I call. Now the river appears to come perfect for me when a Jack falls as it looks like I've represented top pair and have checked in fear of being up against an over pair. Certainly my opponent doesn't have just a jack or he would have raised me on the flop, right? So if he does have an over pair or even a middle pair like 88's or 99's it looks like the perfect spot to take the pot away. So I fire 6500 into a 10k pot or so and he quickly calls and turns over Jack-Ten for trips. Wow! Waiting for me to show my hand I announce, "Well, I gotta pair of fours." Knowing it was obviously no good. However this advertisement turned profitable a few hands later as you will see. This turned out to be one of the mistakes I hate making the worst. Representing my opponents hand. So that pot set me back 12k and a good idea gone bad had me quickly back under my starting stack and hovering around 28k. Inside I wasn't phased surprisingly enough. It was like a boxer taking a hit to the chin. It was as if I had been jarred awake and I began to start swinging back with well timed jabs. Picking up a few easy uncontested pots. I even limped in position with a hand I rarely play A/4 off-suit which turned out to be my biggest hand of the day.

It played like this; 5 of us were in the limp parade and took a flop that fell King high all clubs. Janes led for 1800 and I made the call with the naked Ace of clubs and everyone else folded. The turn peeled the club giving me the nuts and Janes checked-called a 2400 bet by me. The river was an off-suit 7 and once again Janes checks. I reach for a 5k chip and stop myself and shuffle it in with the rest realizing that if I make a value bet it will be obvious and I most likely will not get a call. So what to do....what to do?.....I stop and think and come up with the idea of overbetting the pot! The pot is about 7800 and so I peel off not one but two 5k chips and toss them in the middle. I know my opponent now must be thinking, "why wouldn't he want to get value if he had the nut flush? Why would he overbet the pot?" I also know that this type of player probably loves to make hero calls and I trusted my instincts. In fact in less then a minute he called and I won a nice size pot to once again was over 50k. I'm relaxed and have even ordered a cup of hot tea.

ROUND 2-Blinds 100-200 42k stack

2009-09-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Bit tougher this round. Found myself with only one hand (JJ) which I just picked up the blinds so I put myself in four or five situational spots in which I chose to battle it out in one of them. In the "hijack" position I brought it in for 600 with 9/8 of diamonds and got re-raised by Ryan (tough young gun) who had been playing solid and had the chip lead at the table, to 1850. It made no sense for me to take a stand here but for whatever reason I did and made the call with the intention of battling it out as the board developed. I did think there was a reasonable chance he was making a move with position here is probably why I drew the line in the sand.

The flop fell A/K/K with two diamonds. I checked and he bet 2300. I raised it to 5800 and after a long stair down he folded. To which the "Devilfish" said, it's a good thing he folded because in another minute it looked like you were going to have a heart attack. He had rightly called the fact that my heart was elevated and beating quickly as if my opponent called or raised I would have had a major decision on my hands. One that I didn't want to have to make this early in the tournament. It was that fact that had me anxious though I was prepared to make it. The rest of the round was uneventful and I played close to the vest and finished up the round about even.

ROUND 1-Blinds 50-100

2009-09-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

First hand of the day I re-raise the "Devil" from the SB, making it 1100 to go with 77. He makes the call and we see a flop of K/J/x two diamonds. When I take the lead pre-flop I will continuation bet in a heads up situation about 90% of the time and I do so here for 2k. He thinks for a minute and then raises me to 5k. Is he "running without the ball?" The DevilFish can do that and he looks anxious the first hand of the day to get off to a fast start.

Now it looks like an easy fold but in the heat of the moment when you think someone is fighting for table image, position and your chips I had to stare him down a couple of minutes before releasing my hand. So I start the 2nd hand stuck 3100 - 10% down. Could have been worse if I decided to make some crazy play because at the end of the day he shared with me that he had KK.

I get back in front near the end of the round picking and rolling a few pots with 33s and AJ and win a small pot putting in the 3rd raise with QQ. Did I overplay the hand with 33's? Here's the situation. I start the limp parade into the pot, it gets raised to 400 and 5 of us call to take the flop which comes 7/7/8 and it gets checked around on the flop! The turn brings the 3 and the SB leads out for 1850. Should I just call here or raise with 3 people behind me left to act? It's tough because if I flat call it looks more glaring that I am slow playing a big hand. Also, I'm hoping that the bettor leading into the whole field actually has a 7 in which case I think I have him trapped and want to build a pot. So I raise but everyone including the bettor folds and I feel I may have overplayed my hand. Either way, I end the round just over 40k.

BLOG REPORT

2009-09-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

334 Players 178 Remaining 1.5 Million 1st place (approx.)

Table 3 30K Staring Stack

Seat
1)Kenna James
2)Ryan Milisits
3)Alexandre, Gomes
4)Shawn Busse
5)Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott
6)Stephen Kjerstad
7)Janes St Hilaire
8)Michael Fasco
9)Jussi Nevanlinna

Some of you may not recognize a few of these online players but players like Ryan Milisits, Aleandre, Shawn and Janes are top notch players to be sure. So it looked like a challenging day lie ahead of me. I was involved in good size pots right out of the gate in the first hand of the day and I also was involved in the last hand of the day. Here are a few of the highlights from my journal which I kept at table 3 day 1.

WSOPE 2009

2009-09-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

I arrived in London, England today for the main event of the WSOPE. I start tomorrow at noon on table 3 seat 1 in what looks to be about a 300 player short but tough high buy-in field. Looking at day 1a results about half the field went out along with a lot of big name players who have already hit the felt. These players are already bust, Phil Ivey, Dario Minieri, Patrik Antonius, Huck Seed and David Pham.

So it looks to be a tough European field but I'm looking forward to the challenge. This is the second biggest buy-in event I've played next to the 25k Bellagio wpt championships. $!7,200 USD was the buy-in for this event so you know what that means, right? Just means there's more out there to win. Now let's go get it and bring home the bracelet. Am I talking to myself in the third person? LOL. Well, whoever is speaking it sounds like good advice.

My draw is table 3 seat 1 and while your playing online on PokerHost in the Sunday events you can follow the updates at www.pokernews.com. Best of luck to you at the tables,

Kenna

PH BLOG #4

2009-09-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

Tough day on the felt. 8 hours into todays 1500 NL event I had no more chips then when I started with a 15k stack. I was as high as 18k and as low as 7k but pretty much gravitated right around 15k for the entire time. Here are a few of my key hands and decisions which led me to exiting todays event one hand before the dinner break.

KEY HANDS

AJ vs. QT and KJ

With blinds at 200-400/50 ante a Crazy player opens up for 1200 from 2nd position. I had just moved my chips up from the basement of 7k to around 14k and decide not to get involved and simply muck my Ace-Jack. Looks like a good move when two to my left (player Y) shoves all-in for 6500 and is called by the initial raiser. That is until they turn up QT and KJ respectively. I shake my head in disbelief when the board runs out an Ace and three 2's which would have released me from my stuck position to average chips. MISTAKE: Playing not to lose. Should have given stronger consideration to the opening player and pulled the trigger and at least taken the flop.

Blinds 300-600/75 ante

TT vs. QJh

A good player who had been crippled by Theo Tran had been sitting on his chips for quite some time before starting to just open shove repeatedly over the course of a whole round. He moved his chips from 5k to 11k without a call. He now decides to once again open shove UG, a gross over bet. Everyone folds to me in the BB and I look down at two tens. I hate this spot. I've sat here for 8 hours and the last thing I want to do is get involved in a coin flip for most of my chips. I have 14k but the average is almost 30k and even though we've played for 8 hours I have not held a pair bigger then tens the entire time. So I tank. Is this a golden opportunity? What is my opponents most likely hand? I rule out QQ,KK,AA as I expected this opponent would want to extract value. I give serious consideration to JJ, AK and AQ but actually keep going back to some type of middle pair like 88's or 99's. Since JJ seems to be the only hand in the whole group that would make me puke I decide after this long deliberation to make the call. My opponent flips up QJ of hearts. I really was hoping to see 99's obviously but I had lost two races already in this tournament and perhaps it was my turn. Coupled with the fact that I needed at some point to gain some ground on the field.

MISTAKE: Don't put yourself in a situation where your guessing for most of your stack.

He destroys me on the flop and I'm left with 2500. I move in the next hand in an unopened pot from the small blind with 99 and am called by the BB who is short as well with TJ. Flop is 9/T/x, turn 3, river 7 and I'm saying goodbye.

Tomorrow is the WPT main event. I'm settling in for an early night to get plenty of rest. I've been asked and am honored to sing the National Anthem tomorrow.

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna

The Challenge

2009-09-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Today my friend Michael from PokerHost.com challenged me that he can reach 1000 Fans for Poker Host before I can reach 1000 for my Become a fan of Kenna James page. However, I know my friends are going to help me out. Please invite your friends to become a fan.

Become a Fan click here

2009-08-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

The Deal

We kicked off the K.O. Kenna bounty tournament on Sunday with $1,000 going to any PokerHost player that knocked me out of the 250k guarantee tourney. I will tell you how that came down on the FLOP section below. We will continue that this week with $500 going to anyone who knocks me out of the 100k Sunday tournament. I also played a lot in the cash games this week and had may first losing week since I joined PH three weeks ago. I lost focus and discipline at times which led to some bad decisions and poor results. I did have a couple of really interesting live hands I played at The Bike which I will share with you on the TURN and finally on the RIVER I will talk about a couple of business meetings and radio interviews I had this past week regarding some very interesting projects.

The Flop

So I got off to a great start in the 250k guarantee. I got dealt ACES and had to suck out to win. I made a standard raise PF getting two callers and hated the K/J/8 board with two diamonds flop with multi callers but I still managed to act like a monkey and get all my chips in the middle on that flop. I was against a set of 88's of course and had already stood up when the river came an Ace! I double up the first hand and it looked like it was going to be my day. It was all down hill from there as I splashed around a few times and with poor timing found myself hovering around 15k when I was dealt two Jacks. The HJ raised and I flatted from the CO. The flop fell T/9/9 with two clubs. Since I flat called it gave me a lot of options with this flop. I could realistically represent the 9 since I didn't re-raise and get my opponent to lay down a bigger pair and if he had a big Ace I already had the best hand going in so I liked my position and play here. The initial raiser leads for 1k and I just bump it to 2.5 setting up my plan. He calls. The turn is the King of clubs which now gives me a gut shot straight and flush draw to go with my pair of Jacks. He checks. Now I have to sell my plan figuring it would be a tough call for AK and even so I had the redraws. The one thing I didn't plan on was my opponent having the very hand that he did. KK! He quickly called and I was in the unenviable position of drawing dead. It was the third tourney I went out on for the day and I also dusted off some money in the cash games so if you followed me around on PH you could have picked up some real cash as I was a regular ATM yesterday. The best result was my sons pot roast which we enjoyed while watching my favorite football team the Chicago Bears win against Denver on Sunday night. By the way if you are a sports bettor you can open an account at www.sbgglobal.com and they will let you transfer money from your sports account to PokerHost.

The Turn

I played a couple a really interesting hand in a 5-10 cash game at the Bike this past week that I thought I would share. It left everyone shaking their heads but to me it seemed quite reasonable. Let's see what you think. First I will just lay out the hand and then afterwards go into my thinking.

A9
67h
J/9h/4h / Q / 4

I raised in EP with A9 of spades and got called in back position with 6/7h. I check-raised the flop and got called. On the turn I check called a big bet and on the river I check-called an All-in.

I raised Pre-flop to 1100 (200-400) and got called.

Flop I checked and position bet 1500 and I raised to 4500 and got called. Turn I checked and called 5300. Why would he bet when the overcard came unless he had exactly Jack-Queen. Smelt fishy to me so I called. On the river since I represented the over pair the whole way it made it obvious that he was on a power bluff. I called with all my chips to find that 2nd pair was good in this spot.

MY HAND: 8/7 of clubs
Opponents: 7/4 of hearts
BOARD: QQQc/Jc/Kc

5-10 NL - The Play

At the Bike the rule is you can straddle from anywhere and since nobody took the option I decided to straddle 20 on the button. SB, BB and two cold callers and the action was to me. I make it 120 to go from the button-laying 100 to win 100. Sb folds, Bb calls and the other two fold. The flop comes. QQQ. BB checks, I bet 100 and he check-raises to 300. I CALL. On the Turn BB leads out for 500 - I CALL. On the River BB moves almost all-in for 1300 of his 1500. I CALL and win with a flush. When you look at the hands and the play it seems ludicrous on how this hand played out but that is what I love about poker. It's not a surface game.

My thinking:

First of all I was told that the player I was up against was probably the best player in the game. Here was my thinking on each street.

1) Pre-flop: I figured I was better then 50-50 to win the 100 pot with a 100 bet. Plus the fact that I had the button and I didn't want to be in a position where my hand got counterfeited by a limper. Better to define the hands against me and have a reasonable chance to pick it up without even seeing a flop. I found it odd that the BB decided to defend out of position after just completing the amount for the straddle pre-flop. Wouldn't he have put in a raise to pick up the dead money with a big pair? Especially with the small blind limping in as well. Hmmmm.

2) Flop: Why would this guy check-raise me with quads? I don't think he would so that ruled out four queens right away. I put him on either a small pair or making a play to take the pot away. If he had the small pair I figured to bet him off it at a later street depending how the board developed or make it look like I was trapping with a big pair or queen myself. Plus if he was making a move surely he would slow down, show weakness and perhaps even give it up on the turn.

3) Turn: Well, my post oak bluff fails when my opponent leads into me again when the Jack fell. Again I smell something fishy however. If he had a small pair why would he lead again when an over card came and his check raise was called in the first place? I still figure he doesn't have much of a hand unless he got lucky and paired the Jack. But if he paired the Jack wouldn't he check the turn now that he had improved his hand. A lot of players when they are bluffing but improve to a pair will now check for value. Especially since he could be facing an over-pair and his attempt to bluff had been called. The only way he could continue to bet was either with an outright bluff or an overly reverse psychology strong move with quads. I wasn't buying it so I called looking to further legitimize my hand and take the pot away on the river.

4) River: Wow! Now I improve to a flush, an actual hand. Problem is I can't beat anything but a bluff! But again, his bet does not make sense to me unless he has quads. How does he know that I don't have the queen? I've shown no weakness. I raised pre-flop surely I could have a king at least and yet he shows no fear in continuing to move all-in. To me now he either has quads or nothing. Seems to me like he's played it too strong for quads so I call with my lowly flush to everyone's amazement and take down a nice pot. What if you didn't improve how were you gonna call with eight high was the legitimate concern at the table. "I play each street as it comes," I said. I guess that was the only flaw in the hand was anticipating what my opponent might do on the river. I had assumed that he would not three barrel it with nothing but I was wrong. It worked out in my favor and the player left the table muttering. I had another interesting hand like that play out in a tournament that I will share with you in my next blog.

The River

So I had a couple of interesting meetings this week for projects to consider. One of which I'm really excited about as it is a charity event to help children. There have been some coincidental events happen in my life that have led me to see that this is the way to go. Deepak Chopra has some wonderful material on seeing and how to interpret these coincidental events in your life and give you direction. It is my hope to have this event in New York City around Christmas time. Details to follow. I also had an interview to host a television show which went really well. I can't reveal much about that as well either just yet but it looks like a very interesting project centered around poker. So with that I will sign off and say I hope to see you on the virtual felt at PokerHost real soon. Till then,

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna James

2009-08-19T10:10:00.001-07:00

The Deal

I'm in LA and will play at The Bike this week in the Legends of Poker. I'm looking forward to coming home to the Bike as I've always done well here finishing 2nd in the WPT main event in 2005. I've just checked into my hotel and am looking to play a couple of prelim events before the main event kicks off this weekend. While I write this I have two tables open at the 2/4 and 3/6 levels and I'm waiting for a challenger to appear. I've had a good couple of weeks and am happy to be playing on PokerHost. I've turned a lot of my friends onto the site including the women's leading tournament winner of all time, Kathy Liebert. So they are now starting to come over and check our site out. I'm going to continue working hard to promote PH in an attempt to build bigger and better games and bigger tournaments. A great way to do this is to sign up for our affiliate program and that way you will get credit and make money for the players that you refer and bring onto the site. That way it is a win-win situation as you not only get paid having your friends join but also contribute to making the games and prize pools even bigger. Sure we don't have the million dollar guarantee but one thing we do have that is even more important. A more reasonable shot at winning because of the size and quality of the fields. In fact I'm confident I'm going to win one of these 100 or $250,000 guarantee tournaments before long.

The Flop

One thing that hurts a site and that really bothers me is the arrogance and rude behavior that some online players (who hide behind their anonymity) show by verbally beating up on other players. I doubt many of them would say such things if they had to look someone in the eye. I just feel it is such bad etiquette, not to mention bad for the game. Why would someone who is perhaps learning the game and trying to have fun want to play where they are being disrespected and abused? Yet, some of the so called "professional" or regular players just don't get that they are hurting themselves when they act this way. I hope our network takes a strong stand and cleans up some of the bad behavior I saw this weekend at the tables. I will be contributing to cleaning things up by reporting such behavior in hopes of banning chat from players who use abusive language and attack other players. If someone feels the need to talk trash they can talk all they want while playing me heads up. I doubt they have the courage to line up for that invitation however.

Apologies for not getting a blog up last week, instead I flew down to Costa Rica to visit the home office. I also took some time to relax and visit one of the few active volcanos in the world. At the base of this volcano in the middle of this rain forrest are Hot Springs that rejuvenate your spirit as you relax in the hot mineral filled waters. After a couple days in the Hot Springs I was ready to return to the offices and get to work in developing some of the ideas and projects here at PokerHost.

The Turn

No luck in the tournaments this weekend here online but I did rather well in the cash games. I found my opponents pretty strong for the most part and it if it wasn't for some lucky draw outs and having some premium hands hold up I wouldn't have faired so well. I like playing limit hold-em heads up and spent most of my time this last week playing 10-20 to 30-60. I'm starting to work in some smaller no-limit cash games as well now and would like to build a regular 2-4 and 3-6 full table game. So I'll be thinking about some ideas on how to get those games up and running 24 hours a day.

The River

Interestingly as I wrote about the poor language earlier I just played with two players in the 2-4 NL game who were just a pleasure to play with. One named KarynS....(something) and BenRangel. Karyn was prophetic about her bad luck but the small fortune I won from her all went to Ben in the end as he felted me on a J/T/x board. After a check-raise all-in move I decided to call and gamble with and open ended straight (KQ) against his set of tens. The set of tens held which took me to the felt. At any rate it was nice to play with you both. After a short break I opened up two 9 handed games at the 2-4 and 3-6 levels respectively. It took a while before anybody joined me but soon enough both games were underway. I got off to a fast start against another classy opponent who knew how to take a beat. Unfortunately for him I had dinner plans and had to leave after about an hour with him stuck about 2k. But just like Arnold I said, "I'll be back!" and in fact scheduled a rematch for this Wednesday afternoon. Check it out if you get a chance.

Also, I'm going to talk to PokerHost management about me hosting a couple of scheduled cash games. One just for PokerHost players on Wednesday nights and one network wide on Thursday nights. Wednesday's PH game I'm looking to include some .25-.50 or .50-1.00 players and then a little bigger game on Thursday since it will be network wide. Perhaps $1-2 or $2-4. I'll let you know the schedule in my next report which will include me reporting from inside the ropes of the WPT main event here at The Bike. Till then, may the flops be with you and remember to

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna James

Kenna James Tips

2009-08-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Weekly Update

2009-07-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Deal

Well, I’m excited to report that I’m finally up and running this past week here on Poker Host and played in three tournaments this past Sunday. The $10 re-buy in which I splashed around and quickly dusted off $50, a $50 buy-in in which I lost focus and made a midway exit, and finally the $30 multi re-buy in which I finished 2nd out of 324 players for $3300. Congrats to Deviled Egg for winning that event and besting me in a heads up battle that lasted quite awhile. Congrats also to the third place finisher Cogitus whose title I found out is Latin for complex thinker…I think, lol.

The Flop

It's been a hectic week for me traveling from Las Vegas to LA and the load will not get any lighter this week as I venture down to Costa Rica to visit the home office here at Poker Host. I'm really looking forward to visiting Costa Rica again. I played in the LSOP this past November for PIC Club and finished 4th in the main event there and had a great time. I'm hoping this time to do a better job of balancing work with fun in seeing the ocean and getting some sightseeing done. Any feedback you want me to pass along please feel free to email me at: j.kenna@yahoo.com and I will be glad to voice your opinions and requests of what you would like to see more of from our site.

The Turn

So I also played in my first cash games here on PH. The $2-4 LH in which I ended up losing twenty dollars or so which isn’t bad seeing that I splashed around like a total fish. I mean I really donked it off and I’m sure the players in that game will be looking for me the next time I sit down so you may have to get on a wait list. I also played in the $1-2 No Limit and tried an all-in bluff on the river that got looked up and left me red faced. Is that possible on line? I don’t want to end this report on a loss so I’m gonna dive back into another game right now before I pen “the river” to see if I can suck out before sending this report off.

The River

Well, that didn’t work. I joined the $1-2 NL game and bought in for $200. In a four handed game I raised from the button with K6 of diamonds and got re-popped by the SB (play1wthme) who made it $20 to go. “The Cricket” in the BB got out of the way and I called with the button in hand and we saw a flop of ATT two diamonds. The flop went check-check. The turn brought the 2 of diamonds making my flush. Most of the action happened on the river which fell an off-suit Jack. Play1wthme lead for $92 and I shoved for the rest of my chips only to find myself staring at Aces full when he turns over AA. A further beating in the fact that I can’t find my video camera to upload my video log so that will have to wait till next week. I remember a quote I like that goes something like this; “If you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging!”

And so, I called it an early night and watched the movie “Across the Universe,” with my kids and really enjoyed it. I love the Beatles and the great music they made. Watching a movie with the kids is a sure way to turn a losing session into a winning one. Hope yours are as well. See you at the tables. Until then….

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna

Kenna Interview

2009-07-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

TALES FROM THE TRAILS

2009-07-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it is Sunday and as promised a new blog.

The Deal

The deal this week saw the end of the WSOP and the beginning of the WPT 15k main event at Bellagio. It also saw me winning the Dream Team of Poker event, officially the last event at this years WSOP.

The Flop

Hard to find a flop this last week but certainly the WPT main event comes close. I busted out on day 2 after scrambling all day on day 1 to end the day at an average chip count of 71k. I will recap a couple of hands for you. We started with 60k in chips and 1 1/2 hour rounds so the structure was great. With the buy-in high and the structure great meant all the top players were bunched together in this 265 player field competing for over a million dollars for first place. My starting table featured Mimi Tran, Ray Henson, Havad Khan, Daniel Alehi

On day 1 I had two rather interesting hands. The first was with J/T of spades in the BB. With an early position raiser and a call from Ray Henson I knew instinctively to just throw this hand in the muck but instead my hands didn't listen to my head and threw the chips in the middle to call anyway. The flop fell Jack high with two clubs and two rags. I was looking to check raise the flop but it got checked around. The turn brought another baby card and I knuckled it again. This time the raiser bet, Ray called the 3k bet and I check-raised making it 9k to go with top pair. Original raiser folds and Ray calls.

The river paired the board and now I fire a ridiculous bet of 11k to the middle. Ray of course calls with AJ of clubs and I sheepishly muck my hand. The river bet just made no sense except to "block bet" an expected larger bet from Ray. But I already played the hand strong and there was no way with a paired board and him missing his flush draw that he was going to bet, but of course I was seconds too late in realizing this and had to ship the pot to Ray.

After a few levels of slowly getting eaten away by the increasing blinds and losing a few look-see flops I was down to about 28k at the start of the last round of the day. I decided to make a deceptive two-way hand raise wiht the 4/5 of diamonds making it 2400 to go. I get called by a 31k stack, solid passive player. The flop brings a board of K/2/7 and I lead out for 5500 and am quickly called. The turn brings a 3 and we both check. The river brings an Ace and I bet 11k and am called and win a piviotal pot that launches me back over 40k. A few other well timed pick ups and I was able to finish the day with 71k.

On day 2 I had two of the eventual final tablists on my table (is that a word? I don't think so it's outlined in Red) oh, btw (I know the guy who invented that red squiggly line. HIs first name is John - you may know him as he plays poker. But I'll keep you in suspense till next week for the answer to that question. Anyway, my last hand I made a standard raise with two red fours and ma called by Mimi Tran. The flop falls 2/5/7. I lead for 5500 and she calls.

The Turn

The turn brought the 3 of hearts so now I had an open ended straight and flush draw and moved in for 22k more and was quickly called by Mimi's set of 55's. Leaving me a few outs with one card to come but a brick hit me in the face. So I was out and headed home. i am teaching a Sports Legends Camp in September and attended a travel agent party at Ceasar's Palace on Saturday. Antonio Esfandiari and Karina Jett were there along with me to take photos and play with the agents who will be making the travel arrangements for this trip to the Bahamas. I took some video so hopefully that will be posted and available soon. I'm going to try to make my video blogs more on the humorous side and have lots of fun things to report. But give me a couple of weeks to get the hang of it. Remember, I'm an old man. Ha, maybe that should be my screen nickname..."The Old Man". Sometimes I look at the young aged kids playing the game and I feel like an "Old Man." Where did the flop go?

The River

It's just after one am and my buddy Brian just dropped me off. We went down to a local bar and had a few beers and shot a couple of games of pool in celebration of an online win I had today. I feel so lucky and fortunate to have such great friends and to be able to surround myself with such great players. I am truly blessed. Which reminds me of this tip I will leave you with: Each day carry a B.A.G. around with you and look inside often. The letters being an acronym for B = Blessings A = Accomplshments G= Goals . So the acronym is to remind us how grateful we are, A = Accomplishments. The accomplishments we've made. And G = Goals. And the goals we aspire to. May you reach for yours this week. I look forward to seeing you at the tables and in the winners circle real soon.

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna

Welcome Poker Players!

2009-07-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

The Deal

Through our mutual friend in PIC CLUB, I was able to meet the PH team and represent them at this years WSOP. I'm excited to have found an online home that is filled with such great people. Recently a few of them were in Las Vegas for the WSOP main event and we had a chance to go to dinner, see a show and of course, play a lot of poker. It was a great introduction and over dinner we discussed many ideas in promoting our site and rewarding our loyal players. I am confident in our direction and know that many of you who play on PH will be pleasantly surprised and thrilled with the programs we will be rolling out in the next few months. I will do my best to keep you updated here in my blog with a behind the scenes peek at what's developing.

The Flop

Well, the flop today is bad so I'm going to fold as I'm feeling a cold coming on and after such a grueling schedule these past few weeks I don't want to run myself down any further. So today I'm recharging the batteries, so to speak. I'm going to take a day off from poker to catch up on a lot of stuff that gets pushed to the side when playing 14 hours a day, everyday. A lot of errands to do and bills to pay, etc. First on the list of priorities is getting my MAC Book Pro outfitted so I can begin playing on Poker Host while I'm on the road. There is this program called Parallels in which you can operate PC programs through a Mac computer so I'm installing that today. I'm also going to head back down to the RIO today to check out some of the day 3 action of the main event.

The Turn

I started preparing for 2009 WSOP back in October. I was 232 pounds with a cholesterol level 9x the average and an elevated liver count from too much drinking. I was going through a lot of personal struggles due to a failing marriage and quire frankly poor results in poker for almost a year. I find that the two go hand in hand, poker and life. Almost as if it were a microcosm, at least one definitely impacts the other significantly. It was then that I made a true decision. To take control over my health. No matter what my struggles were on the outside, If I could manage myself on the inside, the outside would eventually turn around. And so I did just that. Each morning I started getting up at 7 a.m. and begin training physically and mentally. Physically through workouts and walking. Mentally through meditation. I started logging everything I ate and did. I started studying with a personal life coach named Eddie Walters. The same real "Fast Eddie," that is portrayed in the movie "The Color of Money." Combined with my passionate desire to turn things around I woke up each day with a vision of better health.

The result is that I've lost over 30 pounds, reduced my cholesterol by over 200 points. Reduced my drinking by 80% and have a proper liver count again through a detoxifying and nutritional cleansing program that I do now that I will share with you sometime. So I feel so much healthier and have more stamina then I've had in more then 10 years. My results at this years WSOP also improved. With a final table (6th) in the Razz event and two other deep cashes in the No Limit events I finished in front for the series and am playing my best poker game in quite a long time.

The River

My blog is entitled "Tales from the Trails," the trails of poker and life and the experiences of my journey down the path. I hope to share this path with you somewhere along the poker trail both online and in land based events. I will talk a lot about poker, some stories, some strategy along with some observations on life and people in general. I hope you'll join me both in reading my blog and playing with at the tables here at Poker Host. We will be hosting a Q & A and chat session very soon for anyone who has any questions in regard to life on the World Poker Tour tournament trail. Till then, I look forward to joining you at the tables this week. Best of luck and

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna James

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