Went off to the Chu on Turkey Friday (11/23) with Trent and Bob - shortly after we arrived, they opened a new 60 NL table so all of us got to play together (me in seat 2, Bob in seat 5, Trent in seat 8). I played tight and solid and ended up busting out both Trent and Bob at one point or another (hence, the title for this installment). Played for ~2 hours and ended up ~$220 for the day - most of this coming on the last hand. You want details?
1) In the SB and there are 4 limpers (including Bob) and I look at Ad8d and decide to try to get rid of some people, so I raise it to $10 - Bob and seat 1 call. Flop is Kd, 8h, 5s and I make a $10 continuation bet to try to take it here, Bob calls and 1 folds - now I'm hoping for a diamond or an Ace. Neither come on the Turn, but it's even better in that it's another 8. I decide to try to push Bob out here and bet enough to put him all in - but he calls me, and flips over K9. A blank on the river gives me the pot and I decide that I'd better buy him lunch...
2) In late position, I look down at TT and get ready to get involved in this pot... Seat 7 raises to $8 and then seat 1 re-raises to $25. Hmmm, suddenly my tens are not looking so good anymore. I bail, and it's folded around to 7 who calls. Flop is T83 rainbow and I'm kicking myself for folding. Both players go all-in and the Turn and River put small cards on the board. Seat 7 had QQ and seat 1 had JJ. Good move on my part to fold there, but a bit of a bummer on the result.
3) From the BB I look down at KhJd and check after 3 limpers (I figure I probably couldn't get them out with a bet - maybe wrong, but lots of calling going on at this table...). Flop is Kd, Js, 8s for a semi-vulnerable top 2-pair, so I bet half the pot ($4), and it's called in 2 places - and I figure that if the Turn is a blank, I'm going to push hard at it. But the Turn is an unsafe 5s, and I check. Now I notice that seat 7 is "bouncing" (I can see his shirt moving indicating that he's bouncing his legs), and he bets $10. Seat 1 folds and I take a moment to pretend to ponder... I finally "decide" to fold but I show my cards, hoping that he'll do the same (I want to see if I'm right). Everyone is saying "wow, I can't believe you're laying that down" - and seat 7 does show, the Ts3s for the flush. I thank him for showing and chock that little bit of knowledge away for future use.
4) The biggest hand of the day for me was the last hand I played. From early position I raise to $7 (my standard raise) with AcAd, seat 4 calls, seat 7 calls, Trent calls, and seat 1 calls ($35 in the pot and 4 opponenets, not what I wanted). Flop is an interesting 3d, 9s, Ts. Seat 1 bets $15, and I raise it to $40. Seat 4 then raises enough to put me in (~$90 total), seat 7 folds, then Trent moves in for his last ~$45. Holy crap. It's back to seat 1 and he calls 'time', which is fine with me 'cuz I need a moment to figure this out too. I figure that I'm up against 3 of the following hands; flush draw, straight draw, set, either top-pair/big-kicker, or another overpair. I'm hoping that it's not a set and I'm sure that even if I'm still ahead right now, I am less than 50% to win this hand... Seat 1 finally calls and I'm looking at nearly 6:1 odds for my last $45 - so I make a crying call and see that I was right. Seat 1 has QcJc for a straight draw, Trent has As8s for the flush draw, seat 4 has pocket kings, and my aces were indeed still in the lead. Turn was the 9c and I just have 1 more card to dodge... River was the 5d and I push back my chair, lift my arms and say, "yeah baby!" (or something like that). With this hand, Trent is busted and doesn't want to buy in again, so I gather my chips and head off to buy both of them lunch at the casino cafe.
Net = $220
Poker drawer = $1,820
Monday, November 26, 2007
Vegas Baby (Part 2) - Nov '07
Wife-Amy had another week's training in Vegas again this year - and once again, I just had to go along...
We stayed at the Luxor and I played solely at the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. These were the only casinos that I found that were offering $1/$2 NL - nearly every other casino I went to had $1/$3 NL. Given the choice, I'd rather play for a dollar discount.
I played 8-10 hours each of the first 2 days there, and I think I discovered that that is about my limit for coherent thought – 2 solid days of play. How do I know this? Because I played like a donkey on the 3rd day and made several stupid (and costly) mistakes. I played good and tight for the first 2 days and had winning sessions on both (up $300 on the first day and up another $250 on the second [plus $250 more for a high-hand bonus]), but by the 3rd day, I think that I had seen too many hands and was getting too lax in my play - and I gave back $400 of my winnings that day.
I decided not to play at all on my last solo-day there (4th day) as my head (obviously) wasn't where it was supposed to be. A couple of hands that stand out...
1) Day 1 - I was in seat 6 and had been playing at MB for a couple of hours and only shown 2 hands down in that time (and won both) so I assume that most of my opponents have me pegged as a rock, when seat 1 moves in for his last $14 from early position - he was a loose player who was in nearly every hand, so I wasn't giving his raise any respect. It's folded to seat 5 and he pops it to $50 - now he hadn't played much in the past hour, so I was ready to chuck my cards in... But I look down at QQ and start thinking - if he had AA or KK, I imagine he might smooth-call or min-raise it to try to induce a weaker hand to come along. Instead I read the ~3½-times raise as either JJ, TT, or 99 and he was trying to isolate without getting pot committed. So I move in for $146 total and it's back to seat 5. He ponders for a few and mutters... "you got AK?" (sorry, I don't push-in with AK unless it's a tournament) - and he calls, and flips over JJ. I show the QQ and seat 1 flips over Qc6c (see what I mean about not respecting his raises?) Flop was harmless, and the case Q on the Turn gave me a set and a nice pot.
2) Day 1 - Not that I was involved in this in any way, but I saw something that I'd never heard of happening before... A guy playing at another table in Luxor (with Ward – yes, he was there for training too) got a Royal - about an hour later, he got another friggin' Royal (same damn guy)!
3) Day 2 - ~9AM at MB and I realized that the guys there were all still playing from the night before, so I figure I can take advantage of their lack of sleep. From middle position (seat 2) I limp with AcJd – seat 3 calls and the BB in seat 7 checks. Flop is 8c, 4d, 9c for a whole lot of nothing, but I take a stab at it for $5, and both call – hmmm. Turn is the 3c and my hand looks a little better, so I bet $10 and they both call again – double hmmm. River is the Tc and I fill my ace-high flush – so I check. Huh? I check because I notice that the BB has glanced at his chips and is starting to play with them – so I figure to do a nice check-raise when he bets. Seat 3 checks and BB ponders and plays with a stack of 20 – and finally checks, crap. BB flips over the Kc, I show the Ac, and seat 3 flips over QcJc for the friggin’ straight flush! WTF?!?! I laugh and say, “nice hand – why no bet?” He tells me that he was aware of the Mandalay’s high-hand bonus and was afraid that if he bet and everyone folded, he’d lose out. Turns out he was mistaken (you can still win even if everyone folds as long as there’s $20 in the pot). I was very glad that he was mistaken because I totally missed that straight-flush card (all I saw was that it completed my flush) – so I might have (hell, would have) called his all-in if he had made a move… Who’s the sleepy-one here?
4) Day 2 - At the end of the day, I was in the SB and pick up KcKh – so I raise it to $10. The BB and the 2 late position limpers all call. Flop is an amazing 6s, Ks, Kd for flopped quads! I check hoping the guy behind me (who’d been a bit of a maniac all day) would bet out, but it gets checked around, bummer. So the Turn is a red 8, and I bet out $10 – only the BB calls. River is the Ac and I check, he bets $10 and I raise to $40 (hoping he has an ace and wants to get crazy) – but he folds, and I show the quads for a $250 high-hand bonus from the good folks at Mandalay.
5) Day 3 - One of the first hands of the day (which I should have realized was an indicator of how my day was going to go, and just gone back to bed…) I was in the SB and there’s 4 limpers when I look down at AdTc and decide to try and thin the field. So I raise it to $12. The BB folds, but everyone else calls. Crap. $60 in the pot before the flop and I’m out of position… Flop is Ah, 4d, 5d giving me top-pair/iffy-kicker and a backdoor flush. I want to protect my top-pair, so I move in for $85 more. It gets folded around to a drunk guy (who’s been drinking and playing all night and into the morning) – who hems & haws and decides to call – and flips over Kc2d !! What?!?! You’re all in with a gutshot? Sweet! I’m already counting the money as mine when the Turn brings the 3c – filling his gutshot and killing my flush possibility. He starts laughing and pointing at me and I just look away and curse the fickle poker gods. Anyway, I’m left with ~$15 after this and I just try not to tilt too far – I look over at him and say, “nice hand” and plot how to get my money back…
6) Day 3 - Remember what I said in hand 1 above about not pushing in with AK unless it’s a tournament? Well, I think that play cost me a bunch of money… I was in seat 7 on the button when the UTG player raised to $15, seat 2 called, seat 4 called, seat 6 called, and I looked down at AK, and tried to decide whether to raise or just call. Like a donkey I just call – I’m taking AK against 4 opponents in a raised pot. Hee-haw! Flop is K82 rainbow and seat 1 moves in for $69 more, seat 2 just calls, and it’s folded to me. Again, like a donk, I call. Turn is another 2 and seat 2 puts me in for my last ~$50 – and just like a friggin’ donkey, I call. River is a T and seat 2 shows pocket 8’s for a boat, and seat 1 and I just muck our hands… Maybe seat 1 had Aces, maybe AK, hell, maybe QQ or KQs. Had I moved in pre-flop, I probably could have gotten seat 2 to fold and maybe had a better shot at winning… I also seriously needed to re-evaluate my standing after the flop against “all-in” and “call” with just top-pair/top-kicker – but instead, I just called off all my chips… Hee-Haw!!!
7) Day 3 - I was in Luxor at the end of the day and it’s all folded around to me on the button – I look down at KK and raise it to $10 – both blinds call. Flop is Q66 – I bet $15, seat 3 moves in for $50 more, and seat 4 calls. Crap. After hands 5 and 6 earlier in the day, I was a bit gun-shy of playing a lone pair for all my money (Phil Gordon makes a point of saying “never go broke with 1-pair” – good advice that I obviously need to keep in the back of my head more often). Anyway, I hem & haw and finally decide that 1 (or both) of them could have a 6 in their hand – after all, they were the blinds. So I announce “fold” and throw my cards down face-up on the table. They both stare at me like I’m crazy as seat 3 turns over QJ and seat 4 turns over AQ. Man, talk about overplaying your cards… Probably a bad laydown on my part but I felt a lot better when an Ace came on the river giving seat 4 aces-up.
I have to note (with some pleasure) that my medium-high pocket pairs were catching some amazingly good flops (8, 5, 2 when I would have pocket T's; or T, 6, 3 when I had pocket J's; etc.) and I was nearly always able to take these pots with a 2/3rds to 3/4ths pot-sized bet after the flop - which is OK with me. I’d rather force hands like AK or AQ (hands that will call my pre-flop raise but were missing these flops) to either fold or make a mistake by calling a largish post-flop bet for which they’re not getting the correct odds to chase.
I’ve been reading a very good poker book (that I got for free by cashing in some of my frequent player points at pokerstars) called “The Poker Mindset”, and it’s really helped me to handle bad beats and be able to move on. This book is probably the reason I didn’t reach across the table and punch the drunk guy in hand 5, above. ;-)
Poker drawer at $1,600
We stayed at the Luxor and I played solely at the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. These were the only casinos that I found that were offering $1/$2 NL - nearly every other casino I went to had $1/$3 NL. Given the choice, I'd rather play for a dollar discount.
I played 8-10 hours each of the first 2 days there, and I think I discovered that that is about my limit for coherent thought – 2 solid days of play. How do I know this? Because I played like a donkey on the 3rd day and made several stupid (and costly) mistakes. I played good and tight for the first 2 days and had winning sessions on both (up $300 on the first day and up another $250 on the second [plus $250 more for a high-hand bonus]), but by the 3rd day, I think that I had seen too many hands and was getting too lax in my play - and I gave back $400 of my winnings that day.
I decided not to play at all on my last solo-day there (4th day) as my head (obviously) wasn't where it was supposed to be. A couple of hands that stand out...
1) Day 1 - I was in seat 6 and had been playing at MB for a couple of hours and only shown 2 hands down in that time (and won both) so I assume that most of my opponents have me pegged as a rock, when seat 1 moves in for his last $14 from early position - he was a loose player who was in nearly every hand, so I wasn't giving his raise any respect. It's folded to seat 5 and he pops it to $50 - now he hadn't played much in the past hour, so I was ready to chuck my cards in... But I look down at QQ and start thinking - if he had AA or KK, I imagine he might smooth-call or min-raise it to try to induce a weaker hand to come along. Instead I read the ~3½-times raise as either JJ, TT, or 99 and he was trying to isolate without getting pot committed. So I move in for $146 total and it's back to seat 5. He ponders for a few and mutters... "you got AK?" (sorry, I don't push-in with AK unless it's a tournament) - and he calls, and flips over JJ. I show the QQ and seat 1 flips over Qc6c (see what I mean about not respecting his raises?) Flop was harmless, and the case Q on the Turn gave me a set and a nice pot.
2) Day 1 - Not that I was involved in this in any way, but I saw something that I'd never heard of happening before... A guy playing at another table in Luxor (with Ward – yes, he was there for training too) got a Royal - about an hour later, he got another friggin' Royal (same damn guy)!
3) Day 2 - ~9AM at MB and I realized that the guys there were all still playing from the night before, so I figure I can take advantage of their lack of sleep. From middle position (seat 2) I limp with AcJd – seat 3 calls and the BB in seat 7 checks. Flop is 8c, 4d, 9c for a whole lot of nothing, but I take a stab at it for $5, and both call – hmmm. Turn is the 3c and my hand looks a little better, so I bet $10 and they both call again – double hmmm. River is the Tc and I fill my ace-high flush – so I check. Huh? I check because I notice that the BB has glanced at his chips and is starting to play with them – so I figure to do a nice check-raise when he bets. Seat 3 checks and BB ponders and plays with a stack of 20 – and finally checks, crap. BB flips over the Kc, I show the Ac, and seat 3 flips over QcJc for the friggin’ straight flush! WTF?!?! I laugh and say, “nice hand – why no bet?” He tells me that he was aware of the Mandalay’s high-hand bonus and was afraid that if he bet and everyone folded, he’d lose out. Turns out he was mistaken (you can still win even if everyone folds as long as there’s $20 in the pot). I was very glad that he was mistaken because I totally missed that straight-flush card (all I saw was that it completed my flush) – so I might have (hell, would have) called his all-in if he had made a move… Who’s the sleepy-one here?
4) Day 2 - At the end of the day, I was in the SB and pick up KcKh – so I raise it to $10. The BB and the 2 late position limpers all call. Flop is an amazing 6s, Ks, Kd for flopped quads! I check hoping the guy behind me (who’d been a bit of a maniac all day) would bet out, but it gets checked around, bummer. So the Turn is a red 8, and I bet out $10 – only the BB calls. River is the Ac and I check, he bets $10 and I raise to $40 (hoping he has an ace and wants to get crazy) – but he folds, and I show the quads for a $250 high-hand bonus from the good folks at Mandalay.
5) Day 3 - One of the first hands of the day (which I should have realized was an indicator of how my day was going to go, and just gone back to bed…) I was in the SB and there’s 4 limpers when I look down at AdTc and decide to try and thin the field. So I raise it to $12. The BB folds, but everyone else calls. Crap. $60 in the pot before the flop and I’m out of position… Flop is Ah, 4d, 5d giving me top-pair/iffy-kicker and a backdoor flush. I want to protect my top-pair, so I move in for $85 more. It gets folded around to a drunk guy (who’s been drinking and playing all night and into the morning) – who hems & haws and decides to call – and flips over Kc2d !! What?!?! You’re all in with a gutshot? Sweet! I’m already counting the money as mine when the Turn brings the 3c – filling his gutshot and killing my flush possibility. He starts laughing and pointing at me and I just look away and curse the fickle poker gods. Anyway, I’m left with ~$15 after this and I just try not to tilt too far – I look over at him and say, “nice hand” and plot how to get my money back…
6) Day 3 - Remember what I said in hand 1 above about not pushing in with AK unless it’s a tournament? Well, I think that play cost me a bunch of money… I was in seat 7 on the button when the UTG player raised to $15, seat 2 called, seat 4 called, seat 6 called, and I looked down at AK, and tried to decide whether to raise or just call. Like a donkey I just call – I’m taking AK against 4 opponents in a raised pot. Hee-haw! Flop is K82 rainbow and seat 1 moves in for $69 more, seat 2 just calls, and it’s folded to me. Again, like a donk, I call. Turn is another 2 and seat 2 puts me in for my last ~$50 – and just like a friggin’ donkey, I call. River is a T and seat 2 shows pocket 8’s for a boat, and seat 1 and I just muck our hands… Maybe seat 1 had Aces, maybe AK, hell, maybe QQ or KQs. Had I moved in pre-flop, I probably could have gotten seat 2 to fold and maybe had a better shot at winning… I also seriously needed to re-evaluate my standing after the flop against “all-in” and “call” with just top-pair/top-kicker – but instead, I just called off all my chips… Hee-Haw!!!
7) Day 3 - I was in Luxor at the end of the day and it’s all folded around to me on the button – I look down at KK and raise it to $10 – both blinds call. Flop is Q66 – I bet $15, seat 3 moves in for $50 more, and seat 4 calls. Crap. After hands 5 and 6 earlier in the day, I was a bit gun-shy of playing a lone pair for all my money (Phil Gordon makes a point of saying “never go broke with 1-pair” – good advice that I obviously need to keep in the back of my head more often). Anyway, I hem & haw and finally decide that 1 (or both) of them could have a 6 in their hand – after all, they were the blinds. So I announce “fold” and throw my cards down face-up on the table. They both stare at me like I’m crazy as seat 3 turns over QJ and seat 4 turns over AQ. Man, talk about overplaying your cards… Probably a bad laydown on my part but I felt a lot better when an Ace came on the river giving seat 4 aces-up.
I have to note (with some pleasure) that my medium-high pocket pairs were catching some amazingly good flops (8, 5, 2 when I would have pocket T's; or T, 6, 3 when I had pocket J's; etc.) and I was nearly always able to take these pots with a 2/3rds to 3/4ths pot-sized bet after the flop - which is OK with me. I’d rather force hands like AK or AQ (hands that will call my pre-flop raise but were missing these flops) to either fold or make a mistake by calling a largish post-flop bet for which they’re not getting the correct odds to chase.
I’ve been reading a very good poker book (that I got for free by cashing in some of my frequent player points at pokerstars) called “The Poker Mindset”, and it’s really helped me to handle bad beats and be able to move on. This book is probably the reason I didn’t reach across the table and punch the drunk guy in hand 5, above. ;-)
Poker drawer at $1,600
Monday, October 29, 2007
Position and Pushing
Went to the Chu this past Saturday (10/27) and played my usual $60 NL table - seat 2 (of course). Bought in for $60 and never was in the red - got lots of crappy cards but stayed tight and am proud of myself for that.
I found a hole in my game the previous week and wanted to see if my play would be improved. So what was the wondrous secret that I discovered? My hand selection requirements were too damn loose when I would first sit down at the table. I was playing too many "gray-area" hands (e.g., A5, Q9 offsuit) when I started play because - well, I guess I just wanted to play. Of course, after I would get my ass handed to me, I naturally tightened up and played better cards. So how did I discover this?
I had gone to the little place on the Avenue (in Ventura) on the Saturday before (20th) and played at the 4/8 table (yes, I swore I'd not be playing that game ever again, but I had a moment of weakness...). Anyway, lost my first $100 buy-in and decided to buy-in again but play tighter. Guess what? My play was better (duh!). Ended up ~$100 for the day because I made a conscious decision not to play marginal hands like K9 and A7 from middle position, or from late position / SB when the pot had been raised. I tightened my selection criteria down to the point where I was pretty much either folding or raising - very, very rarely calling. And it seemed to have worked - at least at Limit, I would play a bit different at NL.
So this is a key reason why I've always been a losing player at the start of my sessions and a winner as time went on. Why did it take me so long to find this problem? Well, I don't think that I was being fully honest with myself in my review of my hand-selection. I would tell myself that, 'yeah, I'm a tight player' and wouldn't really look deeper at my play.
So anyway, some hands that stand out from the last 2 weeks are:
1) Ventura, 4/8 limit - from under-the-gun (seat 3) I raise with AdQd and get 4 callers, including the blinds. Flop is Kd, 6d, 3c and I bet when it's checked to me - the player behind me calls and the button raises, the blinds fold and we both call. Turn is the Jd giving me the nut flush but not a 'home-free' feeling - I figure the button has a set and the guy behind me (seat 6) may have a set or a smaller flush. I check, seat 6 checks, and the button bets - now I raise to build the pot while I'm on top. Both players call. River is the 5s and I bet again, seat 6 calls, and the button says, 'show me your flush' as he calls. I show the flush - button did have a set but not until the turn (JJ), and seat 6 had a set of kings. Anyway, nice pot to me.
2) Ventura, 8/16 Kill, limit - from early position I look down at two red kings and raise it, and am called in 4 spots including seat 1 (UTG) who is very loose and is playing any 2 cards. Flop is 5d, 6d, 7d giving me an iffy flush draw and making my kings essentially worthless. Seat 1 bets and everyone calls. Turn is 3d giving me a flush but even more problems - seat 1 bets and we all call (baaah). River is the Ad giving me AK-high flush and I'm just praying that seat 1 doesn't have that damn 4d. He bets, I call and everyone else bails out. I show the K and he shows the 4 for the straight flush. He had 7c4d and called $8 from UTG. I just say, 'nice hand' and cock my eyebrow at the guys across the table in a 'WTF?' kind of way...
3) Chu, 60NL - from early position (seat 2) I pick up AQo and decide to raise to $7, and get 3 callers. Flop is a lovely AQJ rainbow and I notice that seat 4 seems to like it too, so I check - and he bets out $20, which causes the others to fold. Now I know he likes his hand, so I raise him all-in (~$35 more). I figured that he'd insta-call, but he goes into the tank and finally chucks it in. Oh well.
4) Chu, 60NL - from the SB it's been a limp-fest after a live-straddle so there's ~$25 in the pot already - and I've got JJ. Now, I absolutely hate JJ, so I decide to push and try to take it here - I raise to $20. I get 3 callers (crap - that's not what I wanted) - goddam JJ. Flop is a tremendous Tc, 6d, 2d - and I ponder a second before moving all-in for ~$85 more. Again, seat 4 goes into the tank and starts talking, 'I've got a small pair, I bet you've just got AK...' If this guy knew me, he'd know I don't push with nothing. He talks for a good minute going back and forth and I just sit there trying to mentally slow my heart-rate and breathing while staring at nothing but the pot in the center of the table. He finally folds as do the others behind him, and I take down a nice one. Man, I love JJ !
5) Chu, 60NL - in the BB and it's been raised to $10 from early position (loose player on a rush) and I look at QQ. It's folded to me and I pop it to $30 - which he insta-calls. Flop is As, 6s, 4d - and I'm out of position, crap. I meekly check (what I wimp I am) and, surprisingly, so does he. Turn is Tc and I bet out another $30 - and he folds. Yay
6) Chu, 60NL - from UTG I see KK and raise it to $7, and get called by 4 players (maybe I need to increase my standard raise to $10 or so...). Anyway, flop is a QJ7 rainbow and I bet $12 at it. It gets folded to seat 8 who raises to $24, and everyone else bails. Now I hate min-raises, they scare me - but I go ahead and call and seriously wonder if he's got QJ or a set. Turn is a 8 and I have to worry about T9 now too. I check and he bets out $20, but something tells me that he's not that strong. I look at my chips and see that I've got ~$75left and I consider raising him. But I don't want to push in here (even though I should have), and I don't want to raise more than half of my stack - which is what would happen if I min-raise him back. I basically felt I didn't have enough chips to raise without raising all-in - and I was fairly certain he'd fold if I did that. So I called, figuring to extract more on the river. River was Jd and now I'm wondering why I didn't just try to push him out. Again, I'm out of position and I have to check - but he checks too and shows AQ, and my kings win.
Lessons learned?
a) Quit playing so many hands out of position - almost every single hand listed here was from early position - and that just makes my life harder. I need to pay more attention to my position - if it's early position, push harder and try to minimize post-flop activity (where I'm at a disadvantage).
b) Pay closer attention to how hard I push when I feel I have the edge - I pushed properly with the nut-flush when I (rightly) suspected the guy was on the draw, and I pushed properly with the JJ after that great flop. But I played the QQ too soft. I also didn't play the AQ (2 pair) and the KK as well as I should have (pushed too hard, and not hard enough, respectively).
c) Keep up the good work on the hand-selection - dump those 'gray-area' hands, especially out of position.
Net - Ventura $100 / Chu $130
Poker drawer is at $1200
Taking the whole wad to Vegas next week - we'll see what comes from that...
I found a hole in my game the previous week and wanted to see if my play would be improved. So what was the wondrous secret that I discovered? My hand selection requirements were too damn loose when I would first sit down at the table. I was playing too many "gray-area" hands (e.g., A5, Q9 offsuit) when I started play because - well, I guess I just wanted to play. Of course, after I would get my ass handed to me, I naturally tightened up and played better cards. So how did I discover this?
I had gone to the little place on the Avenue (in Ventura) on the Saturday before (20th) and played at the 4/8 table (yes, I swore I'd not be playing that game ever again, but I had a moment of weakness...). Anyway, lost my first $100 buy-in and decided to buy-in again but play tighter. Guess what? My play was better (duh!). Ended up ~$100 for the day because I made a conscious decision not to play marginal hands like K9 and A7 from middle position, or from late position / SB when the pot had been raised. I tightened my selection criteria down to the point where I was pretty much either folding or raising - very, very rarely calling. And it seemed to have worked - at least at Limit, I would play a bit different at NL.
So this is a key reason why I've always been a losing player at the start of my sessions and a winner as time went on. Why did it take me so long to find this problem? Well, I don't think that I was being fully honest with myself in my review of my hand-selection. I would tell myself that, 'yeah, I'm a tight player' and wouldn't really look deeper at my play.
So anyway, some hands that stand out from the last 2 weeks are:
1) Ventura, 4/8 limit - from under-the-gun (seat 3) I raise with AdQd and get 4 callers, including the blinds. Flop is Kd, 6d, 3c and I bet when it's checked to me - the player behind me calls and the button raises, the blinds fold and we both call. Turn is the Jd giving me the nut flush but not a 'home-free' feeling - I figure the button has a set and the guy behind me (seat 6) may have a set or a smaller flush. I check, seat 6 checks, and the button bets - now I raise to build the pot while I'm on top. Both players call. River is the 5s and I bet again, seat 6 calls, and the button says, 'show me your flush' as he calls. I show the flush - button did have a set but not until the turn (JJ), and seat 6 had a set of kings. Anyway, nice pot to me.
2) Ventura, 8/16 Kill, limit - from early position I look down at two red kings and raise it, and am called in 4 spots including seat 1 (UTG) who is very loose and is playing any 2 cards. Flop is 5d, 6d, 7d giving me an iffy flush draw and making my kings essentially worthless. Seat 1 bets and everyone calls. Turn is 3d giving me a flush but even more problems - seat 1 bets and we all call (baaah). River is the Ad giving me AK-high flush and I'm just praying that seat 1 doesn't have that damn 4d. He bets, I call and everyone else bails out. I show the K and he shows the 4 for the straight flush. He had 7c4d and called $8 from UTG. I just say, 'nice hand' and cock my eyebrow at the guys across the table in a 'WTF?' kind of way...
3) Chu, 60NL - from early position (seat 2) I pick up AQo and decide to raise to $7, and get 3 callers. Flop is a lovely AQJ rainbow and I notice that seat 4 seems to like it too, so I check - and he bets out $20, which causes the others to fold. Now I know he likes his hand, so I raise him all-in (~$35 more). I figured that he'd insta-call, but he goes into the tank and finally chucks it in. Oh well.
4) Chu, 60NL - from the SB it's been a limp-fest after a live-straddle so there's ~$25 in the pot already - and I've got JJ. Now, I absolutely hate JJ, so I decide to push and try to take it here - I raise to $20. I get 3 callers (crap - that's not what I wanted) - goddam JJ. Flop is a tremendous Tc, 6d, 2d - and I ponder a second before moving all-in for ~$85 more. Again, seat 4 goes into the tank and starts talking, 'I've got a small pair, I bet you've just got AK...' If this guy knew me, he'd know I don't push with nothing. He talks for a good minute going back and forth and I just sit there trying to mentally slow my heart-rate and breathing while staring at nothing but the pot in the center of the table. He finally folds as do the others behind him, and I take down a nice one. Man, I love JJ !
5) Chu, 60NL - in the BB and it's been raised to $10 from early position (loose player on a rush) and I look at QQ. It's folded to me and I pop it to $30 - which he insta-calls. Flop is As, 6s, 4d - and I'm out of position, crap. I meekly check (what I wimp I am) and, surprisingly, so does he. Turn is Tc and I bet out another $30 - and he folds. Yay
6) Chu, 60NL - from UTG I see KK and raise it to $7, and get called by 4 players (maybe I need to increase my standard raise to $10 or so...). Anyway, flop is a QJ7 rainbow and I bet $12 at it. It gets folded to seat 8 who raises to $24, and everyone else bails. Now I hate min-raises, they scare me - but I go ahead and call and seriously wonder if he's got QJ or a set. Turn is a 8 and I have to worry about T9 now too. I check and he bets out $20, but something tells me that he's not that strong. I look at my chips and see that I've got ~$75left and I consider raising him. But I don't want to push in here (even though I should have), and I don't want to raise more than half of my stack - which is what would happen if I min-raise him back. I basically felt I didn't have enough chips to raise without raising all-in - and I was fairly certain he'd fold if I did that. So I called, figuring to extract more on the river. River was Jd and now I'm wondering why I didn't just try to push him out. Again, I'm out of position and I have to check - but he checks too and shows AQ, and my kings win.
Lessons learned?
a) Quit playing so many hands out of position - almost every single hand listed here was from early position - and that just makes my life harder. I need to pay more attention to my position - if it's early position, push harder and try to minimize post-flop activity (where I'm at a disadvantage).
b) Pay closer attention to how hard I push when I feel I have the edge - I pushed properly with the nut-flush when I (rightly) suspected the guy was on the draw, and I pushed properly with the JJ after that great flop. But I played the QQ too soft. I also didn't play the AQ (2 pair) and the KK as well as I should have (pushed too hard, and not hard enough, respectively).
c) Keep up the good work on the hand-selection - dump those 'gray-area' hands, especially out of position.
Net - Ventura $100 / Chu $130
Poker drawer is at $1200
Taking the whole wad to Vegas next week - we'll see what comes from that...
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sept. 15, 2007 - Chumash
Played for nearly 7 hours – which was good (but my butt was sore). Looking back over my last few sessions, especially this one, it seems that my first 45-60 minutes are my losing-est times (I probably make more donkey moves during this time or don’t play slippery enough [i.e., make idiot-calls] – but it’s something I need to work on), and then after that I settle down and play OK. I was in seat 7 the whole day, and these were some hands I remember…
1) I’d lost most of my initial $60 buy-in and rebought for $50 more when I was dealt 45 offsuit on the button. A few people limped and I called, since the blinds behind me were fairly tight and rarely raised from that spot. Flop was an interesting 6, 7, T rainbow giving me a problematic open-ender (an 8 puts four parts of a bigger straight on board), but I called seat 2’s $4 bet (which was his ubiquitous standard continuation bet). Turn was a Q and he check-calls my $6 bluff-bet; and the river was that problematic 8 - giving me the bottom-end of the smaller straight. He checked it and I bet out $4, as I was doubtful that he played this hand with a 9. He did some mental exercises and called, I announced “idiot straight”. He looked at me like I just stabbed his puppy – and mucked his hand. Ship it to the donkey (hee-haw).
2) The first big pot (for this table) that I won came while I was in MP and picked up TT – which I raised to $7. I was called in 2 places by seat 3 and seat 6. Flop was a lovely 5c, 9h, Ts – and noticed that seat 6 seems pretty happy about this. Seat 3 checks and 6 bets $10, now I go into my crummy acting mode and pretend like I’ve got a real dilemma – and raise it another $10. Seat 3 bails and seat 6 pushes all-in, which I gleefully call. He mumbles, “crap” and flips over JhTh, and I show the set. Running 7’s give me a minor turn-scare, until my boat comes in.
3) A couple of new players sat down at seats 3 and 4, and they’re buddies – both young and Asian, so my snap-judgment was to expect them to be hyper-aggressive (turns out that they were somewhat aggressive – but not overly so – but I didn’t know that when this hand happened). I look down at Tc7c on the button and call seat 4’s raise to $5 – 4 players to the flop. Flop is Th, Jc, Ac giving me just enough of a hand to want to stay in and see where it goes. So we all call seat 4’s $8 bet. Turn is Ts and I start counting my outs (worst case and he flopped a set – I’m dead to his full-house; if he flopped a straight, I’ve got 19 outs to a flush, boat, or quads; but if he’s just got top pair (now 2 pair), I’ve got him over a barrel). Seat 4 bets $10, 5 calls, and I pop it to $40 as a semi-bluff / see-where-I-stand bet (I’d like to take it right here though). 4 calls and everyone else folds. River double-pairs the board with the Jh, and he checks – I get cold-feet and check my small boat. He shows the KhQs for a flopped straight and I scoop a nice pot.
Was that a prejudicial remark about expecting those 2 young Asian players to be hyper-aggressive? You betcha.
Was it racist? As a middle-aged white male, that's not for me to decide – but it was not intended as such. There’s a huge difference between pre-judging a poker player and racism.
Pre-judging is a vital skill at the table – at least until you gather enough information about the player and adjust to his/her play. Racism (or sexism or age-ism or any other –ism) has no place in poker, or anywhere else for that matter, but that’s another lecture. Ultimately, every player at the table is the same color: $-green-$.
Anyway, back to the hand summary.
4) A few hands after #3, I pick up AsAc in EP and pop it to $7. Seat 2 and seat 4 call (button and BB). Flop is a 9, 5, 5, and seat 4 check-calls my $8 bet with seat 2 folding. Turn is a 4 and he check-calls another $8. River is a not-very-fun 9, double-pairing the board – to which he puts out $15. Now, I don’t know what it was, but something didn’t seem right – I review the hand and it all boils down to the fact that the only hands I can’t beat are a 9, a 5, or pocket 4’s. So I call and show, and he sighs as he says, “You got it, I missed my straight” and tosses his 87o into the muck.
5) From LP I picked up KcTc and decided to call the $8 raise from seat 6 – and everyone else folded. Flop was a 9QK rainbow giving me top pair and a gut-shot – so I bet $10 at it, which 6 called. Now 6 and I had been bantering good-naturedly back and forth for the entire session, and when the Jd fell on the turn, he laughingly told me, “Don’t raise me, I’m telling you.”, and bet out $10 – I decided that I would try to push him out of the pot – and I raised it to $30. He said, “I told you not to do that” and pushed all-in for $35 more. I’m thinking – ‘man, could he really have Ace-Ten?’ And I call – guess what… He had Ace-Ten. All I could say to him was, “You were absolutely right, I shouldn’t have raised you...”
6) I’d been quiet for a while and finally picked up AdKd in LP and popped it to $7, and got 3 callers. Flop missed me coming in Qd, 8h, 3c, but it was checked around to me and I bet $8 in the hopes of taking it down – but seats 4 and 5 called. Turn was the 6d and I decided that I was going to drop the hammer. They both check and I bet out $20 on a flush-draw semi-bluff, and was glad to see that they both folded. Sometimes being tight pays off, provided your opponents are paying attention.
It just continues to amaze me that I always seem to get people calling my re-raises and bets when they should know that I’m a tight-assed player. But I guess that’s the way this $60 NL table runs – and I’m not complaining, they’re keeping my poker drawer stocked. It just seems odd to me…
Net = $121
1) I’d lost most of my initial $60 buy-in and rebought for $50 more when I was dealt 45 offsuit on the button. A few people limped and I called, since the blinds behind me were fairly tight and rarely raised from that spot. Flop was an interesting 6, 7, T rainbow giving me a problematic open-ender (an 8 puts four parts of a bigger straight on board), but I called seat 2’s $4 bet (which was his ubiquitous standard continuation bet). Turn was a Q and he check-calls my $6 bluff-bet; and the river was that problematic 8 - giving me the bottom-end of the smaller straight. He checked it and I bet out $4, as I was doubtful that he played this hand with a 9. He did some mental exercises and called, I announced “idiot straight”. He looked at me like I just stabbed his puppy – and mucked his hand. Ship it to the donkey (hee-haw).
2) The first big pot (for this table) that I won came while I was in MP and picked up TT – which I raised to $7. I was called in 2 places by seat 3 and seat 6. Flop was a lovely 5c, 9h, Ts – and noticed that seat 6 seems pretty happy about this. Seat 3 checks and 6 bets $10, now I go into my crummy acting mode and pretend like I’ve got a real dilemma – and raise it another $10. Seat 3 bails and seat 6 pushes all-in, which I gleefully call. He mumbles, “crap” and flips over JhTh, and I show the set. Running 7’s give me a minor turn-scare, until my boat comes in.
3) A couple of new players sat down at seats 3 and 4, and they’re buddies – both young and Asian, so my snap-judgment was to expect them to be hyper-aggressive (turns out that they were somewhat aggressive – but not overly so – but I didn’t know that when this hand happened). I look down at Tc7c on the button and call seat 4’s raise to $5 – 4 players to the flop. Flop is Th, Jc, Ac giving me just enough of a hand to want to stay in and see where it goes. So we all call seat 4’s $8 bet. Turn is Ts and I start counting my outs (worst case and he flopped a set – I’m dead to his full-house; if he flopped a straight, I’ve got 19 outs to a flush, boat, or quads; but if he’s just got top pair (now 2 pair), I’ve got him over a barrel). Seat 4 bets $10, 5 calls, and I pop it to $40 as a semi-bluff / see-where-I-stand bet (I’d like to take it right here though). 4 calls and everyone else folds. River double-pairs the board with the Jh, and he checks – I get cold-feet and check my small boat. He shows the KhQs for a flopped straight and I scoop a nice pot.
Was that a prejudicial remark about expecting those 2 young Asian players to be hyper-aggressive? You betcha.
Was it racist? As a middle-aged white male, that's not for me to decide – but it was not intended as such. There’s a huge difference between pre-judging a poker player and racism.
Pre-judging is a vital skill at the table – at least until you gather enough information about the player and adjust to his/her play. Racism (or sexism or age-ism or any other –ism) has no place in poker, or anywhere else for that matter, but that’s another lecture. Ultimately, every player at the table is the same color: $-green-$.
Anyway, back to the hand summary.
4) A few hands after #3, I pick up AsAc in EP and pop it to $7. Seat 2 and seat 4 call (button and BB). Flop is a 9, 5, 5, and seat 4 check-calls my $8 bet with seat 2 folding. Turn is a 4 and he check-calls another $8. River is a not-very-fun 9, double-pairing the board – to which he puts out $15. Now, I don’t know what it was, but something didn’t seem right – I review the hand and it all boils down to the fact that the only hands I can’t beat are a 9, a 5, or pocket 4’s. So I call and show, and he sighs as he says, “You got it, I missed my straight” and tosses his 87o into the muck.
5) From LP I picked up KcTc and decided to call the $8 raise from seat 6 – and everyone else folded. Flop was a 9QK rainbow giving me top pair and a gut-shot – so I bet $10 at it, which 6 called. Now 6 and I had been bantering good-naturedly back and forth for the entire session, and when the Jd fell on the turn, he laughingly told me, “Don’t raise me, I’m telling you.”, and bet out $10 – I decided that I would try to push him out of the pot – and I raised it to $30. He said, “I told you not to do that” and pushed all-in for $35 more. I’m thinking – ‘man, could he really have Ace-Ten?’ And I call – guess what… He had Ace-Ten. All I could say to him was, “You were absolutely right, I shouldn’t have raised you...”
6) I’d been quiet for a while and finally picked up AdKd in LP and popped it to $7, and got 3 callers. Flop missed me coming in Qd, 8h, 3c, but it was checked around to me and I bet $8 in the hopes of taking it down – but seats 4 and 5 called. Turn was the 6d and I decided that I was going to drop the hammer. They both check and I bet out $20 on a flush-draw semi-bluff, and was glad to see that they both folded. Sometimes being tight pays off, provided your opponents are paying attention.
It just continues to amaze me that I always seem to get people calling my re-raises and bets when they should know that I’m a tight-assed player. But I guess that’s the way this $60 NL table runs – and I’m not complaining, they’re keeping my poker drawer stocked. It just seems odd to me…
Net = $121
Monday, September 10, 2007
While The Cat's Away...
09/01/07
Amy had a shopping day planned in LA with a couple of her former-college roommates, so guess what I did? Give yourself a gold star if you said, “Chumash.”
I got there about 11:00 and sat at the 3/6 limit game while I waited for the $60 NL table to open up. I played 3/6 for about 40 minutes and then moved over to the NL table. Got a lot of crap cards and ended up down for the day, but had a couple of memorable hands…
1) At the 3/6 table, I post the BB from seat 6 and the guy in seat 8 pops it to $6, 2 other callers makes it $22 in the pot and $3 for me to call – so I do with my weak Kc3c. Flop is 2s, 6d, Qs – which I check. Seat 8 bets $3 and everyone folds back to me (now, seat 8 is tilting pretty badly – in the 20 or so minutes I’d been seated at this table when this hand took place, I’d seen him lose top pair holdings 3 times, 2 to flushes and 1 to a straight that the other guy was all in and hit on the river – so I’m thinking that I can take this pot from him if a spade hits), so I call. Turn is a 9c and I check-call his $6 bet. River is the 4s, and I pause just a half-second before leading out with $6. He immediately yells, “God dammit!” and throws his cards face down into the muck – and continues to rant about everyone hitting their draws against him and how he can’t believe it. Meanwhile I just toss my cards away, tip the dealer, and steal a decent little pot.
2) One of the first hands at the just-opened $60 NL table – I was in seat 7 and in the SB, 6 people limp and I look at 45o, and put my $1 in – BB checks and we’re off. Flop is K36 rainbow for an open-ender, to which I bet $6 – and all folded but seats 2 and 5. The 2c on the turn gave me the nut-straight which I checked, seat 2 bet $10, seat 5 folded, and I called. I checked the river Th and seat 2 bet out another $10 – to which I pondered a moment and raised to $30. He insta-called and I showed the small-blind-special, and scooped a nice pot.
3) Nearly an hour after hand 2 above, I hadn’t played very much and I caught a prime chance to steal. From the BB I check as 5 of us are off to the flop – which was all spades; 3s, 5s, Qs. Now, I don’t have spade but I do have a Q (Qh9c to be exact) – but I’m chicken and I check. Everyone checks – hmm. Turn is the Jd and we all check again. River is the As and I lead out with $4, and everyone folds. Sometimes it pays to be seen as squeaky tight.
4) A new and very loose player sits down in seat 5 and he loves to gamble. Under the gun I look down at KJo and limp in with it (I know, it’s dumb to do from this position but KJ was the best hand I’d seen in an hour and I had a moment of weakness), seat 2 limps and the blinds call/check. Flop is 23J rainbow and seat 5 bets $5, which I and seat 2 call. Turn is a 7h putting 2 hearts on board and I decide it’s time to lower the hammer; seat 5 bets $8 and I raise to $25 – seat 2 hems and haws for a full minute before flashing his KJ into the muck, seat 5 calls. River is the 6c and seat 5 bets out $20 – now I hem and haw wondering what the hell he could have that has me beat, and I call to which he shows Jc6s for 2 pair on the river. Bleh!
5) I was back down to ~$60 and I picked up KhJh in the BB. Seat 3 had min-raised it to $4 and 5 of us were off to the flop. Flop was Ks, 8c, 7h to which I bet $6 – and seat 3 raised to $15. I’m wondering what he could have that I could beat and the only hand that I can come up with is KT – more likely he’s got KJ, KQ, or even AK… But I do have the backdoor straight & flush draws, so I call, as does seat 8, and the river is the Tc. Well, if he’s got KT, I’m drawing very slim, so we both check to him, and he bets $20. I fold, but 8 calls. River is the Jd, which (yes, I know) would have given me 2 pair, but also puts 4 parts of a straight on board. 8 checks and 3 moves all-in. 8 folds and 3 mucks – damn, now I’ll never know if my read was right…
Anyway, down $80 for the day and the poker drawer is at $1,180. I still think I’m playing too tight, and I need to do more semi-bluffing or even the occasional bluff-raise if I can get any sort of a read that my opponent is weak… Well, I’ll try to keep this in mind during my next venture.
Amy had a shopping day planned in LA with a couple of her former-college roommates, so guess what I did? Give yourself a gold star if you said, “Chumash.”
I got there about 11:00 and sat at the 3/6 limit game while I waited for the $60 NL table to open up. I played 3/6 for about 40 minutes and then moved over to the NL table. Got a lot of crap cards and ended up down for the day, but had a couple of memorable hands…
1) At the 3/6 table, I post the BB from seat 6 and the guy in seat 8 pops it to $6, 2 other callers makes it $22 in the pot and $3 for me to call – so I do with my weak Kc3c. Flop is 2s, 6d, Qs – which I check. Seat 8 bets $3 and everyone folds back to me (now, seat 8 is tilting pretty badly – in the 20 or so minutes I’d been seated at this table when this hand took place, I’d seen him lose top pair holdings 3 times, 2 to flushes and 1 to a straight that the other guy was all in and hit on the river – so I’m thinking that I can take this pot from him if a spade hits), so I call. Turn is a 9c and I check-call his $6 bet. River is the 4s, and I pause just a half-second before leading out with $6. He immediately yells, “God dammit!” and throws his cards face down into the muck – and continues to rant about everyone hitting their draws against him and how he can’t believe it. Meanwhile I just toss my cards away, tip the dealer, and steal a decent little pot.
2) One of the first hands at the just-opened $60 NL table – I was in seat 7 and in the SB, 6 people limp and I look at 45o, and put my $1 in – BB checks and we’re off. Flop is K36 rainbow for an open-ender, to which I bet $6 – and all folded but seats 2 and 5. The 2c on the turn gave me the nut-straight which I checked, seat 2 bet $10, seat 5 folded, and I called. I checked the river Th and seat 2 bet out another $10 – to which I pondered a moment and raised to $30. He insta-called and I showed the small-blind-special, and scooped a nice pot.
3) Nearly an hour after hand 2 above, I hadn’t played very much and I caught a prime chance to steal. From the BB I check as 5 of us are off to the flop – which was all spades; 3s, 5s, Qs. Now, I don’t have spade but I do have a Q (Qh9c to be exact) – but I’m chicken and I check. Everyone checks – hmm. Turn is the Jd and we all check again. River is the As and I lead out with $4, and everyone folds. Sometimes it pays to be seen as squeaky tight.
4) A new and very loose player sits down in seat 5 and he loves to gamble. Under the gun I look down at KJo and limp in with it (I know, it’s dumb to do from this position but KJ was the best hand I’d seen in an hour and I had a moment of weakness), seat 2 limps and the blinds call/check. Flop is 23J rainbow and seat 5 bets $5, which I and seat 2 call. Turn is a 7h putting 2 hearts on board and I decide it’s time to lower the hammer; seat 5 bets $8 and I raise to $25 – seat 2 hems and haws for a full minute before flashing his KJ into the muck, seat 5 calls. River is the 6c and seat 5 bets out $20 – now I hem and haw wondering what the hell he could have that has me beat, and I call to which he shows Jc6s for 2 pair on the river. Bleh!
5) I was back down to ~$60 and I picked up KhJh in the BB. Seat 3 had min-raised it to $4 and 5 of us were off to the flop. Flop was Ks, 8c, 7h to which I bet $6 – and seat 3 raised to $15. I’m wondering what he could have that I could beat and the only hand that I can come up with is KT – more likely he’s got KJ, KQ, or even AK… But I do have the backdoor straight & flush draws, so I call, as does seat 8, and the river is the Tc. Well, if he’s got KT, I’m drawing very slim, so we both check to him, and he bets $20. I fold, but 8 calls. River is the Jd, which (yes, I know) would have given me 2 pair, but also puts 4 parts of a straight on board. 8 checks and 3 moves all-in. 8 folds and 3 mucks – damn, now I’ll never know if my read was right…
Anyway, down $80 for the day and the poker drawer is at $1,180. I still think I’m playing too tight, and I need to do more semi-bluffing or even the occasional bluff-raise if I can get any sort of a read that my opponent is weak… Well, I’ll try to keep this in mind during my next venture.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Trapping & Ambush Hands
Chumash - Aug, 18, 2007
Man, traffic was a major pain getting to the Chu yesterday. We (Trent & I) got a bit of a late start - Trent had an appointment at the DMV and (surprise!), they couldn't stick to their own schedule. On top of that, the Zaca fire seemed to push much of the northbound traffic off the 154 and onto the 101 - so a 1 hour trip ended up taking nearly 2.
Anyway, enough of that. We got seated at different $60 NL tables (unfortunately, sometimes it's more fun to have a "non-total-stranger" to talk to at the table). So, I got seated at seat 5 and the cards were going nowhere (not unusual) - so I used this time to start my analysis of the other players. After ~20 minutes, my initial read of the others was done, and I moved when seat 2 opens up (my favorite).
Chumash has daily NL tournaments and they start around 10:15 am. I only mention this because one of the winners sat down in seat 3 shortly after my move (she was nice and she was one of the last 3 in the tourney, so they all split the pot taking a little over $1,000 each.) So, why do I mention all of this? Because I ran a donkey-bluff on her that hit and paid me off nicely.
Here are some of the hands, including the donkey-bluff (#1)
1) From early/mid position (EP/MP), I look down and see 3s6s (which is a hand that I sometimes like to play as an ambush hand, even out of position), and limp for $2. Seat 3 bumps it to $8 and is called by seats 7 and 8 (both looshish & pretty aggressive). Since there's nearly $30 in the pot and it's $6 more to me, I call. Flop is 3d, 8s, 9s giving me bottom pair and a baby flush draw. I check with the intention of raising big to try to take the pot right here. Seat 3 bets $6, 7 calls, 8 folds, and I pop it to $20. 3 hems-&-haws and makes the call, while 7 folds. Turn is a lovely 8c pairing the board and putting a scare card to anyone with an overpair - which is what I figure she's got (probably QQ, KK, or AA), so I move in for my last $24. She ponders for a second and says "what the hell - you've probably got me" and calls. Not what I wanted. So she flips over KK and I wait to flip because I'm embarrassed by my donkish-semi-bluff, and I'm just hoping for a spade on the river - and do I get it? No -- I got a 3! Full-house on the river - just like I planned all along.
Anyway, she was pissed, but she did handle it fairly well. We joked all day about idiots who play 63 from out of position...
2) From EP/MP, I pick up both black jacks, and pop it to $8, and get called by seats 5 & 6. The flop is a very nice 4c, Jh, 2h - and I check 'cuz I figure 5 will do my betting for me, which he does... $6 and it's called all around. Turn is the Ac, and I decided to go for broke. I check, seat 5 bets $10, 6 folds, and I (hoping that he hit that ace) raise him to $40. He ponders for a good minute and finally folds. He said later that he didn't have an ace, (maybe KJ?) - but I probably made a mistake betting too big there...
3) From the BB, I look down at 5d7d and check with them. Flop is an interesting 5h, 5s, Qs, and I'm thinking, "man, I would love to see the 7s come up on the board..." I check-call a $6 bet from seat 5 (along with seat 7), and the turn is the 9d. We all call seat 5's $6 bet again. The river is that wonderful 7s (YES!) and I'm just praying that someone was on the flush draw - so, like hand #2, I bet out $10 and I'm hoping for a raise. C'mon, raise it - c'mon! And they both fold. Crap. I was hoping that the cards would align just right and give me that chance to spring a huge trap (with either of these hands), but - to make a bad pun - it wasn't in the cards.
4) From MP, I limp with 7d9d (another of the ambush hands I like to play) and the button and the blinds call (or check). Flop is 3d, Td, Jh giving me a flush draw and a gutshot. It's checked to me and I bet $6, which is called by the button (blinds fold). Turn is Kc and I bet $10, which he calls. River is the Kd for my flush but making me wish that the board wasn't paired. I lead out again for $10, and he mulls it over - but finally folds.
I was trying to get a little more creative with my traps by trying to put my opponents in specific situations (maybe pairing that turn ace in hand #2 or making their flush draw in hand #3) and betting big so that I would be able to spring huge traps if they did hit (which, they obviously didn't). I don't know if this is worth doing or not... I'll have to think it over more and tweak this idea for better implementation.
Happy pokering.
Man, traffic was a major pain getting to the Chu yesterday. We (Trent & I) got a bit of a late start - Trent had an appointment at the DMV and (surprise!), they couldn't stick to their own schedule. On top of that, the Zaca fire seemed to push much of the northbound traffic off the 154 and onto the 101 - so a 1 hour trip ended up taking nearly 2.
Anyway, enough of that. We got seated at different $60 NL tables (unfortunately, sometimes it's more fun to have a "non-total-stranger" to talk to at the table). So, I got seated at seat 5 and the cards were going nowhere (not unusual) - so I used this time to start my analysis of the other players. After ~20 minutes, my initial read of the others was done, and I moved when seat 2 opens up (my favorite).
Chumash has daily NL tournaments and they start around 10:15 am. I only mention this because one of the winners sat down in seat 3 shortly after my move (she was nice and she was one of the last 3 in the tourney, so they all split the pot taking a little over $1,000 each.) So, why do I mention all of this? Because I ran a donkey-bluff on her that hit and paid me off nicely.
Here are some of the hands, including the donkey-bluff (#1)
1) From early/mid position (EP/MP), I look down and see 3s6s (which is a hand that I sometimes like to play as an ambush hand, even out of position), and limp for $2. Seat 3 bumps it to $8 and is called by seats 7 and 8 (both looshish & pretty aggressive). Since there's nearly $30 in the pot and it's $6 more to me, I call. Flop is 3d, 8s, 9s giving me bottom pair and a baby flush draw. I check with the intention of raising big to try to take the pot right here. Seat 3 bets $6, 7 calls, 8 folds, and I pop it to $20. 3 hems-&-haws and makes the call, while 7 folds. Turn is a lovely 8c pairing the board and putting a scare card to anyone with an overpair - which is what I figure she's got (probably QQ, KK, or AA), so I move in for my last $24. She ponders for a second and says "what the hell - you've probably got me" and calls. Not what I wanted. So she flips over KK and I wait to flip because I'm embarrassed by my donkish-semi-bluff, and I'm just hoping for a spade on the river - and do I get it? No -- I got a 3! Full-house on the river - just like I planned all along.
Anyway, she was pissed, but she did handle it fairly well. We joked all day about idiots who play 63 from out of position...
2) From EP/MP, I pick up both black jacks, and pop it to $8, and get called by seats 5 & 6. The flop is a very nice 4c, Jh, 2h - and I check 'cuz I figure 5 will do my betting for me, which he does... $6 and it's called all around. Turn is the Ac, and I decided to go for broke. I check, seat 5 bets $10, 6 folds, and I (hoping that he hit that ace) raise him to $40. He ponders for a good minute and finally folds. He said later that he didn't have an ace, (maybe KJ?) - but I probably made a mistake betting too big there...
3) From the BB, I look down at 5d7d and check with them. Flop is an interesting 5h, 5s, Qs, and I'm thinking, "man, I would love to see the 7s come up on the board..." I check-call a $6 bet from seat 5 (along with seat 7), and the turn is the 9d. We all call seat 5's $6 bet again. The river is that wonderful 7s (YES!) and I'm just praying that someone was on the flush draw - so, like hand #2, I bet out $10 and I'm hoping for a raise. C'mon, raise it - c'mon! And they both fold. Crap. I was hoping that the cards would align just right and give me that chance to spring a huge trap (with either of these hands), but - to make a bad pun - it wasn't in the cards.
4) From MP, I limp with 7d9d (another of the ambush hands I like to play) and the button and the blinds call (or check). Flop is 3d, Td, Jh giving me a flush draw and a gutshot. It's checked to me and I bet $6, which is called by the button (blinds fold). Turn is Kc and I bet $10, which he calls. River is the Kd for my flush but making me wish that the board wasn't paired. I lead out again for $10, and he mulls it over - but finally folds.
So, an abbreviated Chumash run yielded $95.
I was trying to get a little more creative with my traps by trying to put my opponents in specific situations (maybe pairing that turn ace in hand #2 or making their flush draw in hand #3) and betting big so that I would be able to spring huge traps if they did hit (which, they obviously didn't). I don't know if this is worth doing or not... I'll have to think it over more and tweak this idea for better implementation.
Happy pokering.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Pilgramage to The Holy Land
July 31, 2007 – Las Vegas, Binions
On the way back from our trip, we stayed in downtown Vegas, and decided that we just had to play at least once at Binions while we were there… We got to see the WSOP wall with everyone's photos (no 2006 or 2007 champion photo yet though), took a $1 chip home as a souvenir, and we got to play some poker (woo-hoo).
Amy & Ted decided that they were done with NL (after the Hilton adventure), so they played 2/4 limit and I sat at the 1/2 NL table – seat 2, of course. 3 hands stand out:
1) I’d been at the table for about 45 minutes and hadn’t played much (~$75 in chips), when I picked up Ad7d in the SB – and limped with it. Flop was Ac, 6s, 7s, and I check. It’s checked around to the CO who bet $10, I called and everyone folded. Turn was the 8h which I checked – he conveniently bet $20 and I raised all-in (~$45 more), which he called. River was the 7h for a boat (which I didn't need - 2 pair were good enough to win against his bigger ace) and I scooped a nice pot.
2) Against the same player as hand #1, I pick up Qc3c in the BB and check my option after he and 3 other players limp. Flop is Kc, Jd, 6c. I check and call this players $10 bet after everyone else folds. Turn is the 8c, and I check-raise his $10 bet to $50. He ponders and moves in for another $69. I pause to double-check & make sure I think I’m still good – and call. He assumes I’ve got the bare Ace of clubs and flips over the Tc9c – I show my hand and he’s calling for the 7c. I forgot what the river was but it wasn’t the 7c – and that’s all that I cared about at the moment.
3) I picked up QQ from the BB and raised it to $15 after 5 people limped – and all but 1 called my bet (crap). Flop was 5c, 8h, Th to which I bet $20, and got called by seat 5 (a youngish guy whom I hadn’t seen play too much yet) – everyone else folded. Turn is Jd and I bet another $20 – which he raises to $45. Now I’m going over hands that he could have and wondering if he’s got a flush-draw or 79, but I can’t see him calling my raise with 79… 2 pair maybe? Anyway, the river is the Qd putting 4 parts of the straight out there and I consider a defensive bet, but decide to check, and he bets $75. I still look back over the way the hand has played out and figure him for 2 pair (like JT) – I don’t think he’s got a 9… I call, and he grimaces as he flips over Th7d for a weak-handed bluff – I show the set and scoop my biggest pot of the night.
I'm getting better at taking my time to review the action of each step in the hand to put my opponents on their likely-holdings - and I'm getting much better at it. I just need to stop and make sure I do this all the time, and take the time (if needed) without feeling guilty about holding up the game.
Net = $380
Poker Drawer = $1200
On the way back from our trip, we stayed in downtown Vegas, and decided that we just had to play at least once at Binions while we were there… We got to see the WSOP wall with everyone's photos (no 2006 or 2007 champion photo yet though), took a $1 chip home as a souvenir, and we got to play some poker (woo-hoo).
Amy & Ted decided that they were done with NL (after the Hilton adventure), so they played 2/4 limit and I sat at the 1/2 NL table – seat 2, of course. 3 hands stand out:
1) I’d been at the table for about 45 minutes and hadn’t played much (~$75 in chips), when I picked up Ad7d in the SB – and limped with it. Flop was Ac, 6s, 7s, and I check. It’s checked around to the CO who bet $10, I called and everyone folded. Turn was the 8h which I checked – he conveniently bet $20 and I raised all-in (~$45 more), which he called. River was the 7h for a boat (which I didn't need - 2 pair were good enough to win against his bigger ace) and I scooped a nice pot.
2) Against the same player as hand #1, I pick up Qc3c in the BB and check my option after he and 3 other players limp. Flop is Kc, Jd, 6c. I check and call this players $10 bet after everyone else folds. Turn is the 8c, and I check-raise his $10 bet to $50. He ponders and moves in for another $69. I pause to double-check & make sure I think I’m still good – and call. He assumes I’ve got the bare Ace of clubs and flips over the Tc9c – I show my hand and he’s calling for the 7c. I forgot what the river was but it wasn’t the 7c – and that’s all that I cared about at the moment.
3) I picked up QQ from the BB and raised it to $15 after 5 people limped – and all but 1 called my bet (crap). Flop was 5c, 8h, Th to which I bet $20, and got called by seat 5 (a youngish guy whom I hadn’t seen play too much yet) – everyone else folded. Turn is Jd and I bet another $20 – which he raises to $45. Now I’m going over hands that he could have and wondering if he’s got a flush-draw or 79, but I can’t see him calling my raise with 79… 2 pair maybe? Anyway, the river is the Qd putting 4 parts of the straight out there and I consider a defensive bet, but decide to check, and he bets $75. I still look back over the way the hand has played out and figure him for 2 pair (like JT) – I don’t think he’s got a 9… I call, and he grimaces as he flips over Th7d for a weak-handed bluff – I show the set and scoop my biggest pot of the night.
I'm getting better at taking my time to review the action of each step in the hand to put my opponents on their likely-holdings - and I'm getting much better at it. I just need to stop and make sure I do this all the time, and take the time (if needed) without feeling guilty about holding up the game.
Net = $380
Poker Drawer = $1200
July 28, 2007 – Las Vegas Hilton
Wife-Amy and I planned a mini-vacation with neighbor Ted to visit Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, and Vegas – and it was a great trip. But this poker night was not kind to either of them :(
I sat at a new $1/$2 NL table in seat 8 (Amy at seat 3, Ted at seat 5), and began watching the other players. I only remember 3 hands…
1) I was in the SB with Jd9d, and called with 2 limpers & the BB. The flop was a lovely 9c, 9h, Qd – I check, the 2 seat bets $5, and I call after everyone folds. The turn was the 4c, and I check – he bets $5 and I check-raise to $15, which he calls. The flop is the Ah, and I deliberately pause for 2 seconds too long, then bet out $30. He considers and calls, then mucks when I show the trip 9’s. I was trying to sell a missed draw and I guess it worked.
2) I only had ~$55 when Ted limped from EP and I raised to $10 with my pocket tens, which was called only by Ted. Flop was a 944, and I bet $20 – which Ted called. The turn brought an 8, and I moved all-in… Ted folded (he told me later that he had a 9).
3) A few people limp and I call from the CO with KcTc, and the button raises to $10 – 3 callers later I’m getting decent odds, so I call too. Flop is Ac, Qc, 5d, for a royal draw, everyone checks to the button who bets $20 – all fold and I call. Next card is the Js giving me the straight, he bets $35 and I call. River was the Qd worrying me a bit – I check and he checks too. I show the straight and he mucks saying something about AK never working out.
Net = $80
I sat at a new $1/$2 NL table in seat 8 (Amy at seat 3, Ted at seat 5), and began watching the other players. I only remember 3 hands…
1) I was in the SB with Jd9d, and called with 2 limpers & the BB. The flop was a lovely 9c, 9h, Qd – I check, the 2 seat bets $5, and I call after everyone folds. The turn was the 4c, and I check – he bets $5 and I check-raise to $15, which he calls. The flop is the Ah, and I deliberately pause for 2 seconds too long, then bet out $30. He considers and calls, then mucks when I show the trip 9’s. I was trying to sell a missed draw and I guess it worked.
2) I only had ~$55 when Ted limped from EP and I raised to $10 with my pocket tens, which was called only by Ted. Flop was a 944, and I bet $20 – which Ted called. The turn brought an 8, and I moved all-in… Ted folded (he told me later that he had a 9).
3) A few people limp and I call from the CO with KcTc, and the button raises to $10 – 3 callers later I’m getting decent odds, so I call too. Flop is Ac, Qc, 5d, for a royal draw, everyone checks to the button who bets $20 – all fold and I call. Next card is the Js giving me the straight, he bets $35 and I call. River was the Qd worrying me a bit – I check and he checks too. I show the straight and he mucks saying something about AK never working out.
Net = $80
Better Than Traffic
July 24, 2007 – Commerce
I had to go to a seminar in LA, and rather than fight rush-hour traffic, I told wife-Amy that I’d be home late and would wait out the traffic playing poker (what a great excuse).
I ended up $80 ahead playing ~3 hours at the $40 NLHE table, but only 2 hands stand out…
1) I got seated next to this guy that was just drunk as a skunk – overbetting, showing bluffs, getting suck-outs whenever someone would call… And I just sat and waited. I pick up KK from UTG and raise it to $6, and he raises to $12 – everyone folds. It’s back to me and he’s saying, “ooh, I really like my hand, if you move in I’ve got to call.” Well, OK; I move in, and he instacalls. We don’t show our hands as the flop comes 4, 9, J rainbow, and he’s now nervous, saying, “man, I hope you’ve got AK”. I flip the kings as the turn is a 2 – he shows 77, and the river brings an A. Yay, double-up for me.
2) I had been moved to a different table and was playing for a while in the 3 seat, when I picked up TT in the BB. 7 people had limped and I didn’t want to pop it to the $15 or $20 it would take to chase most of them out – so I limped too. Flop was a very exciting 6s, Td, Qs, making me happy, but a bit worried about someone with straight or flush draws. I led out & bet $10, and only 2 people called. Turn was the 9h, and now I’m getting a bit worried, so I bet out $20, and only the button calls (who was a nice guy and a decent player). River was the Kc, and I groaningly check – he checked and missed his flush draw (which is what I put him on, but I was afraid that [with my luck] he’d have the Js for the straight – but he didn’t). So I bet the right amounts (except preflop) to give him the wrong odds, and it all worked out like it was supposed to.
Net = $80
Poker Drawer = $740
I had to go to a seminar in LA, and rather than fight rush-hour traffic, I told wife-Amy that I’d be home late and would wait out the traffic playing poker (what a great excuse).
I ended up $80 ahead playing ~3 hours at the $40 NLHE table, but only 2 hands stand out…
1) I got seated next to this guy that was just drunk as a skunk – overbetting, showing bluffs, getting suck-outs whenever someone would call… And I just sat and waited. I pick up KK from UTG and raise it to $6, and he raises to $12 – everyone folds. It’s back to me and he’s saying, “ooh, I really like my hand, if you move in I’ve got to call.” Well, OK; I move in, and he instacalls. We don’t show our hands as the flop comes 4, 9, J rainbow, and he’s now nervous, saying, “man, I hope you’ve got AK”. I flip the kings as the turn is a 2 – he shows 77, and the river brings an A. Yay, double-up for me.
2) I had been moved to a different table and was playing for a while in the 3 seat, when I picked up TT in the BB. 7 people had limped and I didn’t want to pop it to the $15 or $20 it would take to chase most of them out – so I limped too. Flop was a very exciting 6s, Td, Qs, making me happy, but a bit worried about someone with straight or flush draws. I led out & bet $10, and only 2 people called. Turn was the 9h, and now I’m getting a bit worried, so I bet out $20, and only the button calls (who was a nice guy and a decent player). River was the Kc, and I groaningly check – he checked and missed his flush draw (which is what I put him on, but I was afraid that [with my luck] he’d have the Js for the straight – but he didn’t). So I bet the right amounts (except preflop) to give him the wrong odds, and it all worked out like it was supposed to.
Net = $80
Poker Drawer = $740
Father Knows Best
July 21, 2007 - Chumash
Why is patience a virtue? Because it's sooo damn hard to do. Playing patiently can be very frustrating (and boring), but it's often the best way to play (at least IMHO) at lower level NLHE games that attract the aggressive internet "hotshots".
Playing patient poker reminds me of 2 sayings my dad used to say that drove me nuts (but turned out to be oh-so-right):
1) "If it was easy, everyone would do it" (when I would complain about doing something difficult)
2) "There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going" (when I would complain that I didn't like quote #1)
Why play a game (for fun) in a style that you find unenjoyable, you may ask?
Good question - I don't know.
I bitch and moan about playing tight / aggressive / slippery (more on this later), but it's really the only way that I've found to minimize the amount of "gambling" in my poker play. And it seems that gambling is all these "kids" want to do - get their money into the pot in bluff or semi-bluff situations where they can either push you off the better hand or suck-out on you.
Now I have no problem with running a semi-bluff or a bluff - but if that's your whole game plan, it just seems like you've been watching too much poker on TV. And, I don't like having to call oversized bets again and again (call me chicken, but I don't like watching my bankroll bounce around too much) - this is where the slippery part comes in, I don't like calling down large bets on smallish pots with modest holdings unless I’ve got a read that tells me you’re full of crap. It just seems like an obvious trap-play (maybe reverse obvious?) to me.
Anyway, it seems that this type of person makes up a large percentage of the players I've been up against recently.
So, what's this got to do with my Saturday Chumash adventure? Not much, except for the patience part. This poker session was an exercise in patience-building. I've had long spells at the table where I've been card-dead, but this was the worst that I've experienced.
I sat down at my usual $60 NL table in seat 7 at a little after 11:00AM. Nearly four hours later, the only decent hands I had seen were AKs, AJo, ATo (twice), and pocket 4’s – just this in 3½ hours? WTF!
My first $60 had been whittled away and my second $60 was about half gone when things got better (not great, but better). All-in-all, I played more than 6 hours, but most of my “play” was in the last 2½ hours of the day.
I really only remember a couple of hands from the latter part of the day:
1) I'm in EP/MP and a loose-ish player in seat 5 raises to $7 from UTG, I look down at TT and raise it to $21. It folds around to the small blind who moves in for his last $20, and the UTG player calls ($60 main pot & $2 side pot). The flop is a very nice 3, 7, 8 rainbow, which the UTG checks. I bet $20 and he flips his KQo into the muck. The small blind grimaces to see the KQ exposed because he’s got the same hand – KQo. An ace on the turn and 7 on the river gives me my first decent pot of the day.
2) Late in the day, I was on the button with 3 limpers in front of me and saw Js, 9s in my hand – from this spot I knew that the blinds rarely raised, so I limped. The blinds called and it’s 6 to the flop, which is 2d, 8c, Td for a dirty straight-draw (I call it dirty, cuz some of my outs weren’t “clean”). It’s checked to seat 3 who bets $5, I called as does the BB. Turn is Ks, and it’s checked to me – and I bet $6 – both players called. The river is the 4c, and I took a stab at it. Since I’d done nothing but fold all day long, and only showed down the winner every time that I did bet at the pot, I knew that my image was squeaky-tight. So I bet $10 into this ~$40 pot… and the BB folded (yay). Seat 3 looked me over, then tossed his cards in disgust into the muck. Hooray, score 1 for the good guys.
Anyway, when all was said & done, I bought in twice for $120 dollars, and left after ~6½ hours with $121. There was one other time I bought a pot with a smallish river bet (very similar to hand #2 above), but those were the only times that I bluffed. I probably should be bluffing at more of these orphan pots, but my poker-radar was rusty at the start of the day and it wasn’t until the end of the day that I felt comfortable in my reads of the other players.
In the end, dad did know best, and good things can come to those who wait. I just wish the good things would get there sooner.
Net = $1
Poker Drawer = $660
Why is patience a virtue? Because it's sooo damn hard to do. Playing patiently can be very frustrating (and boring), but it's often the best way to play (at least IMHO) at lower level NLHE games that attract the aggressive internet "hotshots".
Playing patient poker reminds me of 2 sayings my dad used to say that drove me nuts (but turned out to be oh-so-right):
1) "If it was easy, everyone would do it" (when I would complain about doing something difficult)
2) "There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going" (when I would complain that I didn't like quote #1)
Why play a game (for fun) in a style that you find unenjoyable, you may ask?
Good question - I don't know.
I bitch and moan about playing tight / aggressive / slippery (more on this later), but it's really the only way that I've found to minimize the amount of "gambling" in my poker play. And it seems that gambling is all these "kids" want to do - get their money into the pot in bluff or semi-bluff situations where they can either push you off the better hand or suck-out on you.
Now I have no problem with running a semi-bluff or a bluff - but if that's your whole game plan, it just seems like you've been watching too much poker on TV. And, I don't like having to call oversized bets again and again (call me chicken, but I don't like watching my bankroll bounce around too much) - this is where the slippery part comes in, I don't like calling down large bets on smallish pots with modest holdings unless I’ve got a read that tells me you’re full of crap. It just seems like an obvious trap-play (maybe reverse obvious?) to me.
Anyway, it seems that this type of person makes up a large percentage of the players I've been up against recently.
So, what's this got to do with my Saturday Chumash adventure? Not much, except for the patience part. This poker session was an exercise in patience-building. I've had long spells at the table where I've been card-dead, but this was the worst that I've experienced.
I sat down at my usual $60 NL table in seat 7 at a little after 11:00AM. Nearly four hours later, the only decent hands I had seen were AKs, AJo, ATo (twice), and pocket 4’s – just this in 3½ hours? WTF!
My first $60 had been whittled away and my second $60 was about half gone when things got better (not great, but better). All-in-all, I played more than 6 hours, but most of my “play” was in the last 2½ hours of the day.
I really only remember a couple of hands from the latter part of the day:
1) I'm in EP/MP and a loose-ish player in seat 5 raises to $7 from UTG, I look down at TT and raise it to $21. It folds around to the small blind who moves in for his last $20, and the UTG player calls ($60 main pot & $2 side pot). The flop is a very nice 3, 7, 8 rainbow, which the UTG checks. I bet $20 and he flips his KQo into the muck. The small blind grimaces to see the KQ exposed because he’s got the same hand – KQo. An ace on the turn and 7 on the river gives me my first decent pot of the day.
2) Late in the day, I was on the button with 3 limpers in front of me and saw Js, 9s in my hand – from this spot I knew that the blinds rarely raised, so I limped. The blinds called and it’s 6 to the flop, which is 2d, 8c, Td for a dirty straight-draw (I call it dirty, cuz some of my outs weren’t “clean”). It’s checked to seat 3 who bets $5, I called as does the BB. Turn is Ks, and it’s checked to me – and I bet $6 – both players called. The river is the 4c, and I took a stab at it. Since I’d done nothing but fold all day long, and only showed down the winner every time that I did bet at the pot, I knew that my image was squeaky-tight. So I bet $10 into this ~$40 pot… and the BB folded (yay). Seat 3 looked me over, then tossed his cards in disgust into the muck. Hooray, score 1 for the good guys.
Anyway, when all was said & done, I bought in twice for $120 dollars, and left after ~6½ hours with $121. There was one other time I bought a pot with a smallish river bet (very similar to hand #2 above), but those were the only times that I bluffed. I probably should be bluffing at more of these orphan pots, but my poker-radar was rusty at the start of the day and it wasn’t until the end of the day that I felt comfortable in my reads of the other players.
In the end, dad did know best, and good things can come to those who wait. I just wish the good things would get there sooner.
Net = $1
Poker Drawer = $660
Friday, July 20, 2007
Pocket Tens
So, it's obviouly been a while since I posted my ramblings, but I'll try to do better in the future...
With that said, I'll talk about a couple of pocket-ten hands that I played in the past few months...
Pocket tens are (IMHO) the second most-difficult hand to play (after JJ). They look much better than they play (at least at a full table) and rarely live up the initial excitement they give you when you look down and see them. Anyway...
1) Chumash, $60 NL game w/ $1/$2 blinds - I'm in the BB (and the big stack at the table) and a tightish player limps under the gun and very loose player raises to $7 from middle position (which was fairly common for him to do with any 2 cards). Everyone else folds and I look down at pocket 10's, and raise to $20. Both other players call putting ~$60 in the pot.
The flop is a semi-friendly/semi-scary 9JQ rainbow giving me 4 cards to the straight - since I'm first to act and I'd rather try to take/steal it here with this iffy board, I bet the pot & put out $60 (after seeing that this $60 is more than half of their remaining chip-stacks). The tightish player folds and loose player starts talking to himself, "...you got AQ? you got an overpair?..." All good questions - especially since I was playing fairly tight.
He's got ~$110 and pushes all-in - since I'm getting more than 4:1 to call, I do with my straight draw. He flips over KQo and I hold off on turning over...
The turn is a 3, but the river is a lovely Kd. He starts pumping his fist for his 2-pair until I flip over the TT for the straight - and pull in ~$280. Hooray for drawing hands (when they hit)
Question: how much do you tip the dealer? I tend to tip ~$1 for every $50 I win. Small pots or split pots usually net the dealer a buck from me, while for pots like this, I'll give them 5 or 6 bucks... Is this typical?
This next hand made me sick to my stomach for days afterward...
2) Chumash, $60 NL game w/ $1/$2 blinds - I was a bit up after blowing my initial buy-in and rebuying for another $60 after being way up and then down for a long period of time (I had maybe $150 in front of me and was thinking about leaving and grabbing lunch). I had made a semi-conscious decision that I was not going to put my hard-earned, re-won stack at risk and would just play small-pot poker. (MISTAKE #1)
...So I'm in middle-late position, look down to see pocket TT, and pop it to $10 after 2 limpers came in. A loose-ish player (on a huge roll) called from the BB and only the other 2 limpers called - the BB player said, as he looked at his cards, "I've got to play this, it's my favorite hand."
After a flop of 3d, 3c, 9c, it was checked to me - and I bet out $15 after seeing that the limper to my right had $15 left in his stack. Everyone called and it put the limper all-in. I was worried that someone could be slowplaying a 3 (not too likely) and that someone was on a flush-draw.
The turn is the Jh, and it's checked around. The river is the 7s and it's checked to me - I bet $15 again (MISTAKE #2), and the BB player pushes all-in. The other player folds and I just sit back in my chair and start the replay...
Favorite hand... slowplaying a 3? 3 in a favorite hand? Not likely. T8 for a runner-runner straight? Not likely. AJ? Pocket 7's? The only hands I could reasonably put him on were a big suited-J in clubs (like AJc) or pocket 9's, or a bluff...
Also, I had seen him flop a boat earlier and he played it nearly the same way (calling, checking, all-in at the end) but he avoided eye-contact during the other players thought process - he was staring at me pretty hard here.
Based on all this, I was ~80-90% sure I had him beat - but I folded because of 2 reasons - I didn't want to put all my chips at risk & go home broke (MISTAKE #1) and because I didn't properly calculate the pot odds (MISTAKE #3). There was ~$130 in the pot but I only thought it was $95 (they hadn't pulled in the last bet [$15 from each of us]), so the pot seemed lighter than it really was and my stack looked bigger than it really was.
BTW, he flipped over T9s, for a pair of 9's, to win the main pot against the all-in player.
In any event - my mistakes are what kept my guts churning over and over every time I thought about this hand. I knew I had him, but my cowardice lost me a nice pot.
So, pocket tens - I still don't like playing them. I tend to play them (and JJ) rather soft - unless I think I can steal a pot with them preflop, I tend to play them more like pocket 7's.
Anyway - happy pokering!
With that said, I'll talk about a couple of pocket-ten hands that I played in the past few months...
Pocket tens are (IMHO) the second most-difficult hand to play (after JJ). They look much better than they play (at least at a full table) and rarely live up the initial excitement they give you when you look down and see them. Anyway...
1) Chumash, $60 NL game w/ $1/$2 blinds - I'm in the BB (and the big stack at the table) and a tightish player limps under the gun and very loose player raises to $7 from middle position (which was fairly common for him to do with any 2 cards). Everyone else folds and I look down at pocket 10's, and raise to $20. Both other players call putting ~$60 in the pot.
The flop is a semi-friendly/semi-scary 9JQ rainbow giving me 4 cards to the straight - since I'm first to act and I'd rather try to take/steal it here with this iffy board, I bet the pot & put out $60 (after seeing that this $60 is more than half of their remaining chip-stacks). The tightish player folds and loose player starts talking to himself, "...you got AQ? you got an overpair?..." All good questions - especially since I was playing fairly tight.
He's got ~$110 and pushes all-in - since I'm getting more than 4:1 to call, I do with my straight draw. He flips over KQo and I hold off on turning over...
The turn is a 3, but the river is a lovely Kd. He starts pumping his fist for his 2-pair until I flip over the TT for the straight - and pull in ~$280. Hooray for drawing hands (when they hit)
Question: how much do you tip the dealer? I tend to tip ~$1 for every $50 I win. Small pots or split pots usually net the dealer a buck from me, while for pots like this, I'll give them 5 or 6 bucks... Is this typical?
This next hand made me sick to my stomach for days afterward...
2) Chumash, $60 NL game w/ $1/$2 blinds - I was a bit up after blowing my initial buy-in and rebuying for another $60 after being way up and then down for a long period of time (I had maybe $150 in front of me and was thinking about leaving and grabbing lunch). I had made a semi-conscious decision that I was not going to put my hard-earned, re-won stack at risk and would just play small-pot poker. (MISTAKE #1)
...So I'm in middle-late position, look down to see pocket TT, and pop it to $10 after 2 limpers came in. A loose-ish player (on a huge roll) called from the BB and only the other 2 limpers called - the BB player said, as he looked at his cards, "I've got to play this, it's my favorite hand."
After a flop of 3d, 3c, 9c, it was checked to me - and I bet out $15 after seeing that the limper to my right had $15 left in his stack. Everyone called and it put the limper all-in. I was worried that someone could be slowplaying a 3 (not too likely) and that someone was on a flush-draw.
The turn is the Jh, and it's checked around. The river is the 7s and it's checked to me - I bet $15 again (MISTAKE #2), and the BB player pushes all-in. The other player folds and I just sit back in my chair and start the replay...
Favorite hand... slowplaying a 3? 3 in a favorite hand? Not likely. T8 for a runner-runner straight? Not likely. AJ? Pocket 7's? The only hands I could reasonably put him on were a big suited-J in clubs (like AJc) or pocket 9's, or a bluff...
Also, I had seen him flop a boat earlier and he played it nearly the same way (calling, checking, all-in at the end) but he avoided eye-contact during the other players thought process - he was staring at me pretty hard here.
Based on all this, I was ~80-90% sure I had him beat - but I folded because of 2 reasons - I didn't want to put all my chips at risk & go home broke (MISTAKE #1) and because I didn't properly calculate the pot odds (MISTAKE #3). There was ~$130 in the pot but I only thought it was $95 (they hadn't pulled in the last bet [$15 from each of us]), so the pot seemed lighter than it really was and my stack looked bigger than it really was.
BTW, he flipped over T9s, for a pair of 9's, to win the main pot against the all-in player.
In any event - my mistakes are what kept my guts churning over and over every time I thought about this hand. I knew I had him, but my cowardice lost me a nice pot.
So, pocket tens - I still don't like playing them. I tend to play them (and JJ) rather soft - unless I think I can steal a pot with them preflop, I tend to play them more like pocket 7's.
Anyway - happy pokering!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Feb. 19, 2007 - Ventura
Description: I got to the cardroom about 11:30 a.m. and waited until enough people trickled in for a new 4/8 table to be opened, sat down with my $120 in chips (money stopgap), and planned to play until 4:30 p.m., if I could (time stopgap). The overwhelming majority of my historical poker play (for B&M games) has been at this very table (4/8 full kill limit), but now I find that I’m getting to like the lower-level NL (like $60 NL at Chumash or $100/200 NL in Vegas). I’m starting to feel that limit is like… half-poker – you’re generally stuck with whatever the cards bring and there’s not too much you can do as far as making moves on people (at least at lower-level limit, maybe I should try 10/20 or 15/30?…).
Anyway, I get into seat 6 and start watching for openings. Guess what, there aren’t any – seat 4 is on a complete roll. I played for nearly 4 hours and only remember him folding pre-flop maybe 5 times – seriously. He was in every hand and played nearly everything to the river – and generally won. There were so many runner-runner and miracle-river suck-outs that, at some times, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Because of this, I had practically no wiggle room – I couldn’t bluff (cuz he was calling everything to the river) and on the rare occasions when I tried a few of my predetermined “creative hand selections” (see Lessons from the Feb 8-10 entry), everything was missing me and hitting him, or seat 1, 7 or 9; and I couldn’t move them off their hands.
So, I got ultra-tight and waited for the table to turn, and the cards to come to me. I should have just gone home. The table never turned and the cards were cold all day long – I think I only went to the river 10 times over this 4 hour period, I won 3 hands at showdown and split 1 or maybe 2 others.
Examples:
1) I picked up J5o in the SB and call $2 to limp along with 4 others – flop is K75 rainbow and I check-call my bottom pair (planning to fold if it doesn’t get better). Turn brings the 5c and I check so that seat 7 can do my betting for me – which he does, and there are 3 of us to the river. River is a red 9 and I bet out, 7 is the only caller and he shows a disappointed K7 for 2 pair against my trip 5’s.
2) I picked up 63o in the BB and check – flop is a very nice 933, which I check, as does everyone else (hmm, looks like I’ve got to do my own betting). Turn is a 5 and I bet $8 and only get 1 caller – the river is an 8 and I bet again, he calls and shows Q9. Hooray for 63o.
3) I pick up two red queens and raise it to $8 from MP. 2 people call (seats 4 and 5) and the flop is a nice 466. It’s checked to me and I bet, and get called; turn is an 8 which is check-called by both when I bet it; and the river is the scary A of spades. It’s checked to me and I figure that I’m only going to be called by something that can beat me if I bet, so I table the QQ and they both fold.
OK, so these were the only hands that I won with at showdown (I won with 2 or 3 others that no one called down, 1 was a semi-bluff and 1 was for-real, was there a third? Maybe not…). How about the others?
4) I had had 63o several times during the day and made mention of it to those around me. During a kill-pot, I call $8 from the cutoff with 69s hoping for something… and the flop is 633, and I raise after seat 9 obliges in betting out $8. It’s folded to 9 who calls, even after I casually remind him that 63 is my hand today. Turn is a 7 and I fire again after he checks, but he calls again. River is a K and I’m done – not because I won’t fire a 3rd bullet, but because something about 9 just changed – he casually announces “check” but tenses up – so I check; and sure enough – he’s got pocket kings for a boat on the river and says, “Man, why didn’t you bet there?” My read saved $16 but I, obviously, made my move at the wrong time…
5) From UTG I get Ks Kd, so I raise it to $8 and get nearly everyone to fold except for the blinds (4 and 5). Flop is 8d, Jc, 5d, and it’s checked to me which I bet, and it’s called around. Turn is the Td and we all check (I’m hoping for another diamond – should I have bet here, maybe?…). River is the 5c and we all call the bet from seat 5 – sure enough she’s got the Jd 3d powerhand for the winning flush ;-)
6) Last hand, it’s a kill pot and I’ve got $22 in front of me with Td Tc in EP/MP. I raise to $16 after 2 limpers, and nearly everyone calls (not what you want to see). Flop is a surprising 3, 4, 5 of spades. It’s checked to me and I push my last $6 into the pot – 7 completes the bet and is only called by 2, everyone else gets out. Turn is the 8d and they bet into the side pot, river is 5d which is check-folded by 7 after 2 bets. 2 shows K6 of spades and takes down nearly $200 – and I, of course, am done.
Bottom Line: After buying-in, I was never in the black – I once made it back to exactly $120 (about 2½ hours into the session) and considered leaving unscathed, but I thought that maybe the cards would turn and I was on an up-swing. Oh well.
Overall, poker drawer is at $880.
Lessons: I think I played as well as I could, considering that it wasn’t my day – but all I really did was exercise good hand selection (I folded at least 80% of the junk I was dealt) and stayed patient (for the most part, I didn’t let the crappy hands get to me – and I didn’t get derailed off of my game).
But, again, in limit poker – that’s about all you can do. You can’t really make moves (like you can in NL) to buy pots and keep ahead of the blinds. I’m feeling that live limit poker is like playing on the internet – it’s a good way to pass some time, but it’s not the true “fun” that a live NL cash game is.
Obviously, I didn’t get to try changing my game up at this table (again, see Lessons from Feb 8-10) as it just didn’t seem like it would work. I think that’s going to have to be a NL thing, or at limit only if there’s no “table-killer” present.
I guess the only other good thing is that I played with my stopgaps in mind (both time and money) and stuck to them. I could have left earlier (when I was at net $0 at the 2½ hour mark), but it was my plan to play until I had to go home and meet Amy after her President’s Day shopping excursion. And even though I’d be $120 richer if I had left, I think that it would be a serious mistake if I were to get in the habit of leaving before my time is up, just because I got back to even after losing at the start of a session (unless, as was the case during the previous visit to Chumash, my head is not in the game – then I should get up and walk).
Anyway, I get into seat 6 and start watching for openings. Guess what, there aren’t any – seat 4 is on a complete roll. I played for nearly 4 hours and only remember him folding pre-flop maybe 5 times – seriously. He was in every hand and played nearly everything to the river – and generally won. There were so many runner-runner and miracle-river suck-outs that, at some times, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Because of this, I had practically no wiggle room – I couldn’t bluff (cuz he was calling everything to the river) and on the rare occasions when I tried a few of my predetermined “creative hand selections” (see Lessons from the Feb 8-10 entry), everything was missing me and hitting him, or seat 1, 7 or 9; and I couldn’t move them off their hands.
So, I got ultra-tight and waited for the table to turn, and the cards to come to me. I should have just gone home. The table never turned and the cards were cold all day long – I think I only went to the river 10 times over this 4 hour period, I won 3 hands at showdown and split 1 or maybe 2 others.
Examples:
1) I picked up J5o in the SB and call $2 to limp along with 4 others – flop is K75 rainbow and I check-call my bottom pair (planning to fold if it doesn’t get better). Turn brings the 5c and I check so that seat 7 can do my betting for me – which he does, and there are 3 of us to the river. River is a red 9 and I bet out, 7 is the only caller and he shows a disappointed K7 for 2 pair against my trip 5’s.
2) I picked up 63o in the BB and check – flop is a very nice 933, which I check, as does everyone else (hmm, looks like I’ve got to do my own betting). Turn is a 5 and I bet $8 and only get 1 caller – the river is an 8 and I bet again, he calls and shows Q9. Hooray for 63o.
3) I pick up two red queens and raise it to $8 from MP. 2 people call (seats 4 and 5) and the flop is a nice 466. It’s checked to me and I bet, and get called; turn is an 8 which is check-called by both when I bet it; and the river is the scary A of spades. It’s checked to me and I figure that I’m only going to be called by something that can beat me if I bet, so I table the QQ and they both fold.
OK, so these were the only hands that I won with at showdown (I won with 2 or 3 others that no one called down, 1 was a semi-bluff and 1 was for-real, was there a third? Maybe not…). How about the others?
4) I had had 63o several times during the day and made mention of it to those around me. During a kill-pot, I call $8 from the cutoff with 69s hoping for something… and the flop is 633, and I raise after seat 9 obliges in betting out $8. It’s folded to 9 who calls, even after I casually remind him that 63 is my hand today. Turn is a 7 and I fire again after he checks, but he calls again. River is a K and I’m done – not because I won’t fire a 3rd bullet, but because something about 9 just changed – he casually announces “check” but tenses up – so I check; and sure enough – he’s got pocket kings for a boat on the river and says, “Man, why didn’t you bet there?” My read saved $16 but I, obviously, made my move at the wrong time…
5) From UTG I get Ks Kd, so I raise it to $8 and get nearly everyone to fold except for the blinds (4 and 5). Flop is 8d, Jc, 5d, and it’s checked to me which I bet, and it’s called around. Turn is the Td and we all check (I’m hoping for another diamond – should I have bet here, maybe?…). River is the 5c and we all call the bet from seat 5 – sure enough she’s got the Jd 3d powerhand for the winning flush ;-)
6) Last hand, it’s a kill pot and I’ve got $22 in front of me with Td Tc in EP/MP. I raise to $16 after 2 limpers, and nearly everyone calls (not what you want to see). Flop is a surprising 3, 4, 5 of spades. It’s checked to me and I push my last $6 into the pot – 7 completes the bet and is only called by 2, everyone else gets out. Turn is the 8d and they bet into the side pot, river is 5d which is check-folded by 7 after 2 bets. 2 shows K6 of spades and takes down nearly $200 – and I, of course, am done.
Bottom Line: After buying-in, I was never in the black – I once made it back to exactly $120 (about 2½ hours into the session) and considered leaving unscathed, but I thought that maybe the cards would turn and I was on an up-swing. Oh well.
Overall, poker drawer is at $880.
Lessons: I think I played as well as I could, considering that it wasn’t my day – but all I really did was exercise good hand selection (I folded at least 80% of the junk I was dealt) and stayed patient (for the most part, I didn’t let the crappy hands get to me – and I didn’t get derailed off of my game).
But, again, in limit poker – that’s about all you can do. You can’t really make moves (like you can in NL) to buy pots and keep ahead of the blinds. I’m feeling that live limit poker is like playing on the internet – it’s a good way to pass some time, but it’s not the true “fun” that a live NL cash game is.
Obviously, I didn’t get to try changing my game up at this table (again, see Lessons from Feb 8-10) as it just didn’t seem like it would work. I think that’s going to have to be a NL thing, or at limit only if there’s no “table-killer” present.
I guess the only other good thing is that I played with my stopgaps in mind (both time and money) and stuck to them. I could have left earlier (when I was at net $0 at the 2½ hour mark), but it was my plan to play until I had to go home and meet Amy after her President’s Day shopping excursion. And even though I’d be $120 richer if I had left, I think that it would be a serious mistake if I were to get in the habit of leaving before my time is up, just because I got back to even after losing at the start of a session (unless, as was the case during the previous visit to Chumash, my head is not in the game – then I should get up and walk).
Feb. 15, 2007 - Chumash Casino
Description: I was looking forward to getting up to the casino during the couple of days prior, and took $200 with me (obviously, more than my usual $100) since I figured that I might be there a while and didn’t want my bankroll to end my play before I was ready to leave (probably a mistake that I won’t make again – I mean I may do this if I’m with others and dependent on them for a ride home, but if I’m solo, I’m going to stick to my $100 or $120 bankroll [and yes, I know that a lot of people say you’re not “supposed” to use stopgaps or preset win or time limits, but dammit – nearly every time I start out losing, I just keep on losing; so until I figure out why {tilting, poker-radar not working, whatever}, I’m going to stick to my stopgaps]).
As I was saying, I had been looking forward to it, but on the drive up, I felt… “not ready” or unfocused to play – again, this should have warned me not to play or to only buy-in once, but I didn’t listen (you can tell that this isn’t going to end well)…
Anyway, I arrived and a seat was open on the $60 NLHE table (seat #2, my favorite spot) and I sat down. I was dealt in as my chips were being brought to me and found KJo, so I limped in – followed by several other limpers. After a flop of 9h 8h 2c, it was checked around to seat 8 (button) who bet $6, and we all folded.
OK, first hand done & my analysis of the other players is underway. After 20-30 minutes I had a preliminary read on the others: seat 1 was something of a limp-in / calling-station with weakish hand selection, 3 was fairly solid (picky with his cards and got away from boards that went sour), 4, 5, & 6 were action limpers – loved to see flops, especially 6. 7&8 were buddies and 7 was the raiser at the table – 8 would then either fold or reraise to isolate, and generally crush his buddy because 7 was not disciplined. 9 must have been a rock cuz he didn’t play a hand in that 20 minute period.
During this time, I played some hands that were iffy (QTs, T9o, 56s) given my position at the time, and my stack dropped to ~$25, but I consider this the investment or recon phase for information gathering (some semi-bluffs, marginal reraises, etc.) to help get my reads.
After this I tightened up and waited: after a few rounds & staying afloat with 2 LP steals and a top-pair weak-kicker flop-raise getting folded to me, I picked up Kh Ks in the BB. 6 players limp to me and I pop it to $8 (which became my standard raise for this table). Everyone folds to 7, who, of course, calls. I check the flop of J85 (2 diamonds), and he bets $7 – I move in (for <$20) and he calls after a thoughtful pause. Now, Kings had actually shown up twice at this table since I sat down, and had gotten cracked both times, so I’m hoping that it’s not bad mojo for me… I flip the kings up and scoop the pot after another 5 and A show on the turn / river (no diamond) and he flashes Q9h as he mucks (like I said, weak hand selection – if he’d had an A, I’d have obviously been toast). Hurray for me, I’m back up to ~$60.
I pick up AQo next hand (in SB) and decide to push with it. 3 or 4 limpers this time and I pop it to $8 again. BB folds but 6 and 7 call this time and the flop comes AK8 with 2 spades. I lead out and bet $10 and show the AQ after they fold (I don’t generally show, but I wanted to reinforce a tight image so I could get away with some steals later).
Back to crap cards for the next 20-30 minutes, and I make a steal to keep my stack in the $80-$85 range. I picked up QTs (again) on the button and decide to play it with 3 others in the pot. It’s checked to me after a Q98 rainbow flop and I bet $6, and all fold except for 7 (of course), who calls. He bets $10 after the Kc falls on the turn and I (pretty sure that he’s full of crap) call (this is generally my M.O. at this $60 table – if you’re willing to bet, I’ll just call all day as long as I figure I’m still on top, then river-raise – and people don’t seem to figure it out). The river brings a surprising Jh to fill my gutshot. He bets $10 again and I raise to $25. Now, he starts talking to himself about the hand and his buddy (seat 8) pipes up “could have JT and been slowplaying a straight from the flop.” 7 hems and haws for a few more seconds and flashes A7 as he mucks. I collect the pot and I’m up to ~$115 – then things go bad.
Seat 1 has left and been replaced by a tight fairly solid player, 3 and 4 leave and a couple of kids sit down (yay, nothing is more fun than taking money from hyper-aggressive teenagers – Chumash is an 18+ casino – and send them crying to mama), 6 leaves and is replaced by a maniac asian lady, 8 leaves and 7 moves over to the 8 seat, and 9 leaves to be replaced by a solid girl I’ve played against before. The problem was the new 7, he was a very solid guy who totally through me off my game – I had trouble reading him and, by the time my bankroll was gone, I had let him lead me down the donkey trail; and I couldn’t find my way back. Again, I have no one to blame but myself – for making the bonehead maneuvers that I did, and for not acknowledging that my head wasn’t fully in the game – that I should have left and saved myself a lot of aggravation.
Examples:
1) I pick up Kh Qh in MP/LP – 7 raises it to $6 from UTG (his standard raise) and it’s folded to me, I call and the BB calls. Flop is KT5 all spades – 6 checks, 7 bets $10, I call and 6 folds. I’m a bit worried about AK so we both check the 7d on the turn (but I should have bet to see where I stood) – here I figure the flush is not in his hand and my KQ is probably best. The river is Qs – now, for some reason I removed the flush from his likely-holdings and I didn’t revisit it here, so I thought my 2-pair is good – he bets $10, I insta-call (stupidly) and he shows 6d 6s for a baby flush. Crap.
2) I pickup AQs in EP and pop it to $8, it’s folded to 7 who calls and everyone else folds. Flop is T32 rainbow and I check – he bets $10 (his very very standard continuation bet) and I call. My radar tells me that at this time he doesn’t have anything, and the turn brings the 5c and a gutshot in addition to my 2 overcards. I check-call his $10 bet. The river brings 9h and I still feel like his $10 river bet is fishy, so after a deliberate pause, I raise to $25 (~half of my remainder). He moves in and I insta-call, again (stupidly, again) – I flip my ace and he flips AK. Crap. Chips on 3!
3) I pickup Qs Th in MP/LP and limp along with 5 others. The flop is As Ts 7c, and 7 bets out his usual $10. With no raise preflop, I’m doubtful of the A – I (along with 1) call and assume that my middle pair good kicker are good. Turn is the 9s and now I’ve got a 2nd nut flush draw with my 2nd pair. 7 bets $20, 1 calls, I consider moving in (dammit, why didn’t I?) and call. River brings a red 6, and 7 moves in – 1 ponders and folds, I look down & only have $19 left in front of me. With a pot of ~$120 I’m getting 6:1 odds – I look over and he’s staring at the board (something he always did) and his hand is covering his mouth (something I’d not seen him do before) – 2 tells that could indicate a bluff – but I’m not sure he’s not false advertising, and I’m getting my chips ready to call…
But I friggin’ fold! WTF? What is wrong with me? I’m getting great odds and looking at him after he mucked – I’m almost certain I had him! Dammit! I looked at the A, at the 3 spades, and at the gutshot straight draw and talked myself out of a huge pot – just shoot me.
Next hand I pick up Ad Jc in MP and pop it to $6, 3 callers (3, 6, &7), the flop is J63 all spades – TPTK for me. I move in (for $13), 3 calls and everyone else folds – he flips over Ah Ks and fills his flush on the river. Crap. I’m done, and it’s the long drive of shame back home for me…
Bottom Line: I played like a donkey (started OK, but got off my game and couldn’t recover) and ended up down $200. Poker drawer is now at $1,000 even.
Lessons: When I feel like my head is not in the game, don’t play (or limit myself to 1 buy-in). As mentioned before, I also need to be more aggressive on occasion (to mix up my game and for hand protection, which I usually do when flush / straight draws are present), and not dismiss likely hands that my opponents are holding from my ‘poker-radar’ coverage. Also, I needed to do less calling and more raising or folding – especially when I wasn’t sure where I stood.
As I was saying, I had been looking forward to it, but on the drive up, I felt… “not ready” or unfocused to play – again, this should have warned me not to play or to only buy-in once, but I didn’t listen (you can tell that this isn’t going to end well)…
Anyway, I arrived and a seat was open on the $60 NLHE table (seat #2, my favorite spot) and I sat down. I was dealt in as my chips were being brought to me and found KJo, so I limped in – followed by several other limpers. After a flop of 9h 8h 2c, it was checked around to seat 8 (button) who bet $6, and we all folded.
OK, first hand done & my analysis of the other players is underway. After 20-30 minutes I had a preliminary read on the others: seat 1 was something of a limp-in / calling-station with weakish hand selection, 3 was fairly solid (picky with his cards and got away from boards that went sour), 4, 5, & 6 were action limpers – loved to see flops, especially 6. 7&8 were buddies and 7 was the raiser at the table – 8 would then either fold or reraise to isolate, and generally crush his buddy because 7 was not disciplined. 9 must have been a rock cuz he didn’t play a hand in that 20 minute period.
During this time, I played some hands that were iffy (QTs, T9o, 56s) given my position at the time, and my stack dropped to ~$25, but I consider this the investment or recon phase for information gathering (some semi-bluffs, marginal reraises, etc.) to help get my reads.
After this I tightened up and waited: after a few rounds & staying afloat with 2 LP steals and a top-pair weak-kicker flop-raise getting folded to me, I picked up Kh Ks in the BB. 6 players limp to me and I pop it to $8 (which became my standard raise for this table). Everyone folds to 7, who, of course, calls. I check the flop of J85 (2 diamonds), and he bets $7 – I move in (for <$20) and he calls after a thoughtful pause. Now, Kings had actually shown up twice at this table since I sat down, and had gotten cracked both times, so I’m hoping that it’s not bad mojo for me… I flip the kings up and scoop the pot after another 5 and A show on the turn / river (no diamond) and he flashes Q9h as he mucks (like I said, weak hand selection – if he’d had an A, I’d have obviously been toast). Hurray for me, I’m back up to ~$60.
I pick up AQo next hand (in SB) and decide to push with it. 3 or 4 limpers this time and I pop it to $8 again. BB folds but 6 and 7 call this time and the flop comes AK8 with 2 spades. I lead out and bet $10 and show the AQ after they fold (I don’t generally show, but I wanted to reinforce a tight image so I could get away with some steals later).
Back to crap cards for the next 20-30 minutes, and I make a steal to keep my stack in the $80-$85 range. I picked up QTs (again) on the button and decide to play it with 3 others in the pot. It’s checked to me after a Q98 rainbow flop and I bet $6, and all fold except for 7 (of course), who calls. He bets $10 after the Kc falls on the turn and I (pretty sure that he’s full of crap) call (this is generally my M.O. at this $60 table – if you’re willing to bet, I’ll just call all day as long as I figure I’m still on top, then river-raise – and people don’t seem to figure it out). The river brings a surprising Jh to fill my gutshot. He bets $10 again and I raise to $25. Now, he starts talking to himself about the hand and his buddy (seat 8) pipes up “could have JT and been slowplaying a straight from the flop.” 7 hems and haws for a few more seconds and flashes A7 as he mucks. I collect the pot and I’m up to ~$115 – then things go bad.
Seat 1 has left and been replaced by a tight fairly solid player, 3 and 4 leave and a couple of kids sit down (yay, nothing is more fun than taking money from hyper-aggressive teenagers – Chumash is an 18+ casino – and send them crying to mama), 6 leaves and is replaced by a maniac asian lady, 8 leaves and 7 moves over to the 8 seat, and 9 leaves to be replaced by a solid girl I’ve played against before. The problem was the new 7, he was a very solid guy who totally through me off my game – I had trouble reading him and, by the time my bankroll was gone, I had let him lead me down the donkey trail; and I couldn’t find my way back. Again, I have no one to blame but myself – for making the bonehead maneuvers that I did, and for not acknowledging that my head wasn’t fully in the game – that I should have left and saved myself a lot of aggravation.
Examples:
1) I pick up Kh Qh in MP/LP – 7 raises it to $6 from UTG (his standard raise) and it’s folded to me, I call and the BB calls. Flop is KT5 all spades – 6 checks, 7 bets $10, I call and 6 folds. I’m a bit worried about AK so we both check the 7d on the turn (but I should have bet to see where I stood) – here I figure the flush is not in his hand and my KQ is probably best. The river is Qs – now, for some reason I removed the flush from his likely-holdings and I didn’t revisit it here, so I thought my 2-pair is good – he bets $10, I insta-call (stupidly) and he shows 6d 6s for a baby flush. Crap.
2) I pickup AQs in EP and pop it to $8, it’s folded to 7 who calls and everyone else folds. Flop is T32 rainbow and I check – he bets $10 (his very very standard continuation bet) and I call. My radar tells me that at this time he doesn’t have anything, and the turn brings the 5c and a gutshot in addition to my 2 overcards. I check-call his $10 bet. The river brings 9h and I still feel like his $10 river bet is fishy, so after a deliberate pause, I raise to $25 (~half of my remainder). He moves in and I insta-call, again (stupidly, again) – I flip my ace and he flips AK. Crap. Chips on 3!
3) I pickup Qs Th in MP/LP and limp along with 5 others. The flop is As Ts 7c, and 7 bets out his usual $10. With no raise preflop, I’m doubtful of the A – I (along with 1) call and assume that my middle pair good kicker are good. Turn is the 9s and now I’ve got a 2nd nut flush draw with my 2nd pair. 7 bets $20, 1 calls, I consider moving in (dammit, why didn’t I?) and call. River brings a red 6, and 7 moves in – 1 ponders and folds, I look down & only have $19 left in front of me. With a pot of ~$120 I’m getting 6:1 odds – I look over and he’s staring at the board (something he always did) and his hand is covering his mouth (something I’d not seen him do before) – 2 tells that could indicate a bluff – but I’m not sure he’s not false advertising, and I’m getting my chips ready to call…
But I friggin’ fold! WTF? What is wrong with me? I’m getting great odds and looking at him after he mucked – I’m almost certain I had him! Dammit! I looked at the A, at the 3 spades, and at the gutshot straight draw and talked myself out of a huge pot – just shoot me.
Next hand I pick up Ad Jc in MP and pop it to $6, 3 callers (3, 6, &7), the flop is J63 all spades – TPTK for me. I move in (for $13), 3 calls and everyone else folds – he flips over Ah Ks and fills his flush on the river. Crap. I’m done, and it’s the long drive of shame back home for me…
Bottom Line: I played like a donkey (started OK, but got off my game and couldn’t recover) and ended up down $200. Poker drawer is now at $1,000 even.
Lessons: When I feel like my head is not in the game, don’t play (or limit myself to 1 buy-in). As mentioned before, I also need to be more aggressive on occasion (to mix up my game and for hand protection, which I usually do when flush / straight draws are present), and not dismiss likely hands that my opponents are holding from my ‘poker-radar’ coverage. Also, I needed to do less calling and more raising or folding – especially when I wasn’t sure where I stood.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Feb. 8-10, 2007 - Ventura & Chumash
Description: After work on Thursday, I stopped at the cardroom on the Avenue and played some 4/8 limit – and got very lucky. Seat 1 came open and I took it when my name was called. Within the first 8 hands, I had taken 3 of them for monster pots – after 1 round of the button, I had turned my $100 buy-in into nearly $340. I don’t remember many of the hands, but I do know that by the end of 2 hours, I had 4 full racks plus a stack or 2 of 20-tall sitting off to the side.
I played fairly tight and folded most of my hands, but my chip-stack and tight image allowed me to make a couple of bluff-raises when scare-cards would come out so I could scoop some minor pots that I probably wouldn’t have won at showdown.
As for play at Chumash, only 1 hand really stands out in my mind. I was in seat 2 (my favorite) at the $60 NL table and seat 1 was tilting – he had been raising nearly every hand for the past 10 minutes. I look down at pocket 10’s and raise to $10 from UTG, everyone else folds and he calls from the BB. The flop was a very nice 752 rainbow which he checked. I bet $7, and he raised $20 more – I’m doubtful that he’s got an overpair or an A, so I put him on K7 or Q7 – and move him in for $45 more. He insta-calls and flips over J7 of spades. Turn was a devastating Jh giving him 2 pair and the lead – but he had been a nice guy and we’d chatted as we’d been playing so I said, “There’s your jack – nice hand.” and was getting ready to match his chip stacks, especially when the guy in seat 3 tells me that he folded a 10… When the case 10 pops up on the river and I re-suckout on him! Woohoo – what skills I gots ;-)
Poker is a fickle game – you get in with the best of it, watch it sweep by you as your opponent catches a longshot, and then you end up back on top when a miracle river hits… I mentioned before that I get sucked-out on all the time – but I’ve begun to be more accepting of it. But I rarely re-suckout on people – so it’s extra special when it does happen; it’s like a little smile from the poker gods. Or something like that.
The reason I’ve recently begun to be more at peace with getting sucked-out on is because of a passage that stood out while I was re-reading Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, where he quotes Bobby Baldwin – whom I will very loosely paraphrase here and try not to mangle too badly:
A good player will more often than not be the victim of a suckout because, the majority of the time the good player will get their money in with the better hand – not the worse hand – and, because of this, will see more suckouts go against him/her than for him/her. Because of this, the good player had better get used to being sucked-out on since poker is a game of odds and chance, as well as skill. Besides, your emotional sanity will directly correspond to how well you believe in this axiom.
Of course if I said that it was great that I got sucked-out on, you’d know that I was full of crap – as their name suggests, suckouts do indeed suck and we all hate when they happen to us. But, I am getting better about handling them more objectively, about not taking them personally, and about not letting myself get as tilted when they do happen.
Bottom Line: These past 3 days have resulted in a $505 increase to the poker drawer (plus another $15 from coming in 2nd at our monthly poker home-game). I netted $332 from Thursday’s venture to the local cardroom, and $173 from the $60 NL table at Chumash.
Lessons: I simply got lucky at the limit table – no lesson to be learned there. I played solid poker at the NL table – as I was already up to ~$140 from my original $60 buy-in before the miracle river 10, so even if I had lost that hand I could’ve ended the day “up”. But that re-suckout was definitely the high point of these 3 days.
To some extent, playing very-tight and fairly-aggressive has become my playing standard. There are so many aggressive players (because they read that aggression is key, or they see a poker-pro playing fast and loose on TV and think this is how poker should be, or whatever) that I have found myself playing a softer version of poker than I would prefer to. I do this because I believe in playing opposite of your opponents – and because, since I know how to bide my time and pick apart these aggressive players, I assume others would too; hence, that this style wouldn’t work for me in the long-run. Perhaps I’m giving them too much credit, maybe they wouldn’t pick up on it…
This is not to say that I can’t change gears and play aggressive when I need to, it’s just that I rarely need to. Perhaps this is a mistake, and maybe I should take 20 minutes out of each 2 or 3 hour period and play the maniac, or pick a few pre-determined junk hands and play them like aces whenever they show up, or some other game-theory-type changes to my game…
I don’t know, I feel like I’m in a bit of a rut and that I could be doing better, doing something… different.
I played fairly tight and folded most of my hands, but my chip-stack and tight image allowed me to make a couple of bluff-raises when scare-cards would come out so I could scoop some minor pots that I probably wouldn’t have won at showdown.
As for play at Chumash, only 1 hand really stands out in my mind. I was in seat 2 (my favorite) at the $60 NL table and seat 1 was tilting – he had been raising nearly every hand for the past 10 minutes. I look down at pocket 10’s and raise to $10 from UTG, everyone else folds and he calls from the BB. The flop was a very nice 752 rainbow which he checked. I bet $7, and he raised $20 more – I’m doubtful that he’s got an overpair or an A, so I put him on K7 or Q7 – and move him in for $45 more. He insta-calls and flips over J7 of spades. Turn was a devastating Jh giving him 2 pair and the lead – but he had been a nice guy and we’d chatted as we’d been playing so I said, “There’s your jack – nice hand.” and was getting ready to match his chip stacks, especially when the guy in seat 3 tells me that he folded a 10… When the case 10 pops up on the river and I re-suckout on him! Woohoo – what skills I gots ;-)
Poker is a fickle game – you get in with the best of it, watch it sweep by you as your opponent catches a longshot, and then you end up back on top when a miracle river hits… I mentioned before that I get sucked-out on all the time – but I’ve begun to be more accepting of it. But I rarely re-suckout on people – so it’s extra special when it does happen; it’s like a little smile from the poker gods. Or something like that.
The reason I’ve recently begun to be more at peace with getting sucked-out on is because of a passage that stood out while I was re-reading Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, where he quotes Bobby Baldwin – whom I will very loosely paraphrase here and try not to mangle too badly:
A good player will more often than not be the victim of a suckout because, the majority of the time the good player will get their money in with the better hand – not the worse hand – and, because of this, will see more suckouts go against him/her than for him/her. Because of this, the good player had better get used to being sucked-out on since poker is a game of odds and chance, as well as skill. Besides, your emotional sanity will directly correspond to how well you believe in this axiom.
Of course if I said that it was great that I got sucked-out on, you’d know that I was full of crap – as their name suggests, suckouts do indeed suck and we all hate when they happen to us. But, I am getting better about handling them more objectively, about not taking them personally, and about not letting myself get as tilted when they do happen.
Bottom Line: These past 3 days have resulted in a $505 increase to the poker drawer (plus another $15 from coming in 2nd at our monthly poker home-game). I netted $332 from Thursday’s venture to the local cardroom, and $173 from the $60 NL table at Chumash.
Lessons: I simply got lucky at the limit table – no lesson to be learned there. I played solid poker at the NL table – as I was already up to ~$140 from my original $60 buy-in before the miracle river 10, so even if I had lost that hand I could’ve ended the day “up”. But that re-suckout was definitely the high point of these 3 days.
To some extent, playing very-tight and fairly-aggressive has become my playing standard. There are so many aggressive players (because they read that aggression is key, or they see a poker-pro playing fast and loose on TV and think this is how poker should be, or whatever) that I have found myself playing a softer version of poker than I would prefer to. I do this because I believe in playing opposite of your opponents – and because, since I know how to bide my time and pick apart these aggressive players, I assume others would too; hence, that this style wouldn’t work for me in the long-run. Perhaps I’m giving them too much credit, maybe they wouldn’t pick up on it…
This is not to say that I can’t change gears and play aggressive when I need to, it’s just that I rarely need to. Perhaps this is a mistake, and maybe I should take 20 minutes out of each 2 or 3 hour period and play the maniac, or pick a few pre-determined junk hands and play them like aces whenever they show up, or some other game-theory-type changes to my game…
I don’t know, I feel like I’m in a bit of a rut and that I could be doing better, doing something… different.
Dec. 26-30, 2006 - Ventura & Chumash Casino
Description: I played a lot during this week as my work is shut down over the holidays. I’ll only describe 1 hand because it was my first royal.
I was at the cardroom in Ventura at the 4/8 table in seat 3, seat 4 had been killing the table and was in lots of hands. Seat 8 was in lots of hands but calling down with some rather weak holdings (sometimes getting lucky and picking off a bluff, sometimes getting taken for value bets that he frequently called). A kill was in effect (making this hand 8/16 rather than 4/8) because seat 4 just won his 5th hand in a row (yes, that’s right – 4 straights and 1 flush). I had ~$75 and looked down at AQ hearts and popped it to $16, 4 called the $8 more from his kill button and seat 8 called $12 from the BB. Flop was a very nice Kh, Jh, Tc for a flopped straight and royal flush draw. 8 bets out $8 and we both called, the turn was the Th giving me a royal and a heart-rate of ~200 beats-per-minute. 8 bets $16, I called and 4 popped it to $32, we both called. River is a blank (I wasn’t really watching at this point, I’m just thinking how can I get the most money into the pot) – and 8 bets $16, I considered raising my last $4 all-in ($20 total) but figure that 4 would call the $16, but I just might lose him if I came out of the woods and raised, even just $4… So I call, as does 4. 4 shows the 4h 2h for a baby flush, and 8 had AQo for a flopped straight. I showed the royal and scooped a nice $200+ pot.
Bottom Line: The poker drawer started the week at $500, but ended at $1000 – pretty cool.
Lessons: Like the week in Vegas, there were too many lessons this week to list – some learned the hard way, some reinforced from previous encounters. My main lesson was to continue doing what I could to protect my vulnerable hands, usually via check-raising – as there always seemed to be someone who would raise when I checked it (I would go on rolls where I would increase my check-raising frequency so people didn’t know if I was checking weak or checking to raise).
I was at the cardroom in Ventura at the 4/8 table in seat 3, seat 4 had been killing the table and was in lots of hands. Seat 8 was in lots of hands but calling down with some rather weak holdings (sometimes getting lucky and picking off a bluff, sometimes getting taken for value bets that he frequently called). A kill was in effect (making this hand 8/16 rather than 4/8) because seat 4 just won his 5th hand in a row (yes, that’s right – 4 straights and 1 flush). I had ~$75 and looked down at AQ hearts and popped it to $16, 4 called the $8 more from his kill button and seat 8 called $12 from the BB. Flop was a very nice Kh, Jh, Tc for a flopped straight and royal flush draw. 8 bets out $8 and we both called, the turn was the Th giving me a royal and a heart-rate of ~200 beats-per-minute. 8 bets $16, I called and 4 popped it to $32, we both called. River is a blank (I wasn’t really watching at this point, I’m just thinking how can I get the most money into the pot) – and 8 bets $16, I considered raising my last $4 all-in ($20 total) but figure that 4 would call the $16, but I just might lose him if I came out of the woods and raised, even just $4… So I call, as does 4. 4 shows the 4h 2h for a baby flush, and 8 had AQo for a flopped straight. I showed the royal and scooped a nice $200+ pot.
Bottom Line: The poker drawer started the week at $500, but ended at $1000 – pretty cool.
Lessons: Like the week in Vegas, there were too many lessons this week to list – some learned the hard way, some reinforced from previous encounters. My main lesson was to continue doing what I could to protect my vulnerable hands, usually via check-raising – as there always seemed to be someone who would raise when I checked it (I would go on rolls where I would increase my check-raising frequency so people didn’t know if I was checking weak or checking to raise).
Friday, February 23, 2007
Oct. 1-5, 2006 - Vegas, baby!
Description: Amy had a conference to attend in Vegas – her work was putting her up at Caesar’s for 5 days (sweet), so if I could wrangle the time off, I could get free room, and free time to play lots of poker while she was in class. Needless to say, I got the time off.
I played in many of the casinos while I was there (Caesar’s, Paris, Mandalay, Bally’s, New York, Sahara, Monte Carlo, & Excalibur) – and the best, by a mile, was Caesar’s. I got there about 9:30 a.m. most mornings and found the games just starting – and lots of the same guys there each day (at least at the $1 / $2 NLHE table). These guys were great – all older gents who had been playing for decades, and I sat there with them and just absorbed all that I could from watching and asking questions of them. I allotted myself $300 for each of the 5 days I was there – and set each day’s winnings / losings aside.
I went broke the first day, but doubled up the second day, for a net of $0. By the end of the week, I was up a very modest $160, but I had learned A LOT. Mainly, I learned that I didn’t want to tangle with the “older gents” – they were too good for me. My morning sessions were all losers – in fact, I usually bought in for $100 at ~9:30 and would play it until Amy called to meet for lunch at 11:50ish. In nearly every case, my initial $100 was gone by the lunch break.
Then, after lunch I would head back – and the crowd would be different; most of the older gents were replaced by a little looser crowd and I found that I could hold my own against them. Then in the evening, the “internet yahoos” would come in – the young kids who think that they’re just going to roll over everyone because their hyper-aggressive nature works oh-so-well online. Obviously, this is when I made all my money back.
In any event, I can’t say enough good things about Caesar’s – the staff was great, the poker room was absolutely terrific (set away from everything, quiet, comfortable, spacious, no smoking; by far the best one I played), and it offered me a tremendous learning experience: Grinding it out may not be glamorous, but it doesn’t have to suck.
There were just so many hours of poker played during this time that I can’t remember everything (I played as much as Amy would let me, which was ~55 hours), but some hands do stand out…
1) At Caesar’s, one of the “older gents” (Jimmy) raises to $5 and I call from BB with Kc Jc, and everyone else folds. Flop is Tc, 9d, 3c, and I check-call his $5 bet. Turn brings the Kh, and he calls my $10 bet. The river is the 9c giving me the second nut flush, which I check and Jimmy conveniently bets $10 – I raise to $25. Jimmy ponders and calls – I flourish my flush, and am crushed when Jimmy rolls over pocket 3’s for a small boat. Damn, I thought I might have actually had one on him, but he pulled it over on me ;-)
2) At Mandalay, I was steaming because this young internet yahoo was just on-fire, catching everything, and crowing about it like a rooster come sunrise (like playing 94o to a preflop raise and hitting runner-runner for 2 pair – “You can’t touch me – I always play 49, it’s my lucky hand!”). Anyway, I’m biding my time and waiting for the cards to change, after a while I get pocket Q’s in the SB and pop his $10 raise to $40, everyone bails out and yahoo-boy calls. Flop brings a 6, 7, 8, all hearts. I’ve got the Qh so I bet $20, he calls, Turn is a 4c and we both check. River is Ts and we both check (I had no read on his “unreasonable” hand selection – I mean he could possibly have a 5 or 9 and be slowplaying back at me…) – I show the queens and he yells out “Tens” – he’d caught his set on the river. I got up, cashed out what I had left and walked back to Caesar’s (muttering the whole way).
3) At Caesar’s, I was playing with the gents one morning and an internet-yahoo sat down with us. Now, he’d been watching us while waiting for a seat to open and knew that we were all playing squeaky-tight – so he sits down and pops it to $10 from EP with his first hand – I call with KQs from the button, everyone else gets out. Flop is KQ5 rainbow, and he moves all-in – I ponder for a second (set of Q’s or 5’s maybe?) and call – he flips over K3o and moans when I show the 2 pair. An 8 on the turn and he’s calling for chips. After a few hands, he kind of laughs and says, “That was pretty stupid of me, you guys are so tight I hoped to get one by you.” So, I figure if you can laugh at yourself, you’re not a complete loser, and we chat it up a bit. Turns out he’s from SoCal too and Jimmy (one of the older gents) tells us about when he used to run the floor at Commerce – good guy, great stories. Anyway, I look down a little later and I’ve got Jacks from UTG – now, this is the 5th friggin’ time I’d had JJ that day and none of them had worked out for me, so I limp in and hope to hit or miss for cheap. SoCal boy raises from the button to $10, the BB calls and I’m getting ~3:1 on this hand – so I call (normally I’d pop it here but I was too skittish about the jacks that morning). Flop comes JT8, with 2 diamonds. BB and I check, SoCal boy bets $30, BB folds and I move in. He ponders out loud, “Hm, you got a jack? You got a nine and hoping to draw out?... I call” and he flips over QQ, I show the jacks and he’s happy – “Oh man, that’s great, I’ve still got outs” – yeah, 6 of ‘em. Then an 8 comes on the turn, giving me a boat and killing most of his outs, a river 5 and he’s not so happy anymore. He got up and left shortly after this – but me and older-gents talked about these 2 hands for the next 2 days that I was there. :-)
4) At Caesar’s, at night – Ward (who was also at the same conference with Amy) came out with me on our last night there and we sat down at a freshly starting $1 / $2 NL table. I was in seat 7 and Ward was in 8 – seat 1 was a serious looking dude with ~$700 in chips that he brought over from a $5 / $10 game (they busted up one of the two 5/10 tables due to low turnout and consolidated at 1 table – so this guy was waiting for a seat to open) – this put everyone else at a severe disadvantage as everyone else bought in for only $100 with maybe 1 other guy buying in for $200 (which is what I should have been doing but I didn’t know it at the time). Seats 2 and 3 were to internet-yahoo buddies, 4/5/6 were fairly tight (4 was a bit of a caller), and 9 was pretty solid.
1st hand, I pick up AK and pop it to $10, 1 calls as do 2 and 4 (2 is giving me the evil eye like he’s going to pick on me all night, we’ll see…). Flop is AK7 with 2 spades, and it’s checked to me – I bet $10 and only 1 calls. Turn is a 6d and I bet $25, he ponders and flashes 97o as he mucks – I figure he was going to try to take it from me on the turn or river (especially if a spade came) but my turn bet meant that there wasn’t enough left in my stack to make it: a) worth his while, and b) likely that I would fold. Yay, score 1 for me.
Next hand, I get AA (holy crap, what’s up with these cards?) I pop it again to $10 and no one calls – I show the aces so they don’t think I’m BSing them (and so I can steal more easily later).
I limp a couple of times over the next few rounds with iffy hands (QJo, K9s, etc.) but seat 2 raises whenever I come in. Then I pickup TT in the SB and pop it to $10. Now 2 has already folded but his buddy 3 is still in, so he calls so he can “punish” me in place of his friend. Flop is a lovely T92 with 2 diamonds, I bet $10 and he raises to $25, I call. Turn is a problematic Jh putting 3 parts of straight out there, I bet $25 and he asks how much I have left – now I don’t really want to have to make the decision if he moves in and I’d rather he just went away, so I do something that is probably illegal (but I didn’t get pinched for it) – I counted out my chips on the inside of the bet-line, tallied them up to $103, and said, “There’s $103, call if you want.” I mean, this is technically betting out of turn and stealing his initiative, and I don’t know why the dealer didn’t say anything. But I had top-set on the flop, of the 3 top pocket pairs, if he’s got QQ (the most worrisome hand I could put him on for this, possibly 88, QJ, AJ, AQ, or a diamond draw) he’s got a lot of outs and I’m not real keen to have him draw out on me – this was the only thing I could think of to put the pressure back on him – while it was his turn to act. He pondered for nearly a full minute and folded.
5) Same game as #4, above. A while later I get 77 in MP/LP and limp in. There’s 6 people in the pot and I’m kicking myself for not popping it. Flop is an amazing 742 with 2 hearts. 2 checks, 3 is out, 4 bets $10, 5 is out, and 6 is in but I forgot – he’s played so few hands that I didn’t realize he was yet to act – and I put out $25. The dealer admonishes me (as he should), and I apologize to the guy in seat 6 because I do feel bad. Well he hems and haws for a loooooong time (nearly a minute) and I’m feeling like a loser and of course 2 and 3 are smirking at me like I just stepped in a steaming pile and tracked it into the casino. 6 finally folds so I put out my $25 and, after this “problem”, everyone just folds it around and I take a small pot with top-set (I found out later that 6 had 56o for an open-ender). Anyway, I felt bad but remembered that the pre-action move is a fairly common bluff maneuver (re-raise before it’s your turn like you’re so excited you just can’t wait to get your money in there) – but I guess no one else at this table had heard of it cuz they seemed to believe that I had the goods…
Bottom Line: Returned from Vegas with more than I went with, and started the poker drawer with my modest $160 in winnings.
Lessons: Too many to count – but the main lesson was that patience is a virtue (you can’t “out-aggress” a lot of these young players [especially at a $100 table in Vegas], so a good methodology here is smart, patient, tight-aggressive poker, and use their aggression against them). Also, I got sucked-out on with a lot of hands and got very discouraged by it, so I had / have a tendency to try and over-protect my cards when they are good, and to trap with them when they are great.
Introduction
After much prompting from a co-worker, my wife and I decided that we would start a regular poker-night (which has become the 2nd Friday of each month) in March of 2004 – we had just closed escrow on a new (larger) house and felt that we would actually have room to have friends stop by without them tripping over each other. So, 7 of us played that first night and it was great; lots of food, fun, beer (spilled beer on our new carpet, thanks to Dave), and jokes & stories. The original 7 were me (Jim), wife-Amy, Ward (Amy’s co-worker), Dave and Bob (my co-workers), Mark (the prompter of this endeavor), and his wife, Rachel. Like I said, it was great, except for 1 small thing – I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
So, as the months went on and I was no closer to finishing near the money, I decided that I needed help, and bought my first poker book (on Middle-Limit Hold-em, of all things), and that seemed to help. I moved up within our ranks and eventually became a consistent threat to my fellow players for the evening prizes.
Time went on and people came and went in our little group, but we’ve had poker-night every month since March 2004. Of those originals, only Bob, Ward, Amy, and I remain, but we usually end up with 8-11 people on any given night.
At the end of 2004, I gathered my courage and went into a small cardroom in my hometown (Ventura, CA), and lost $100 I had taken with me – but I had fun and wanted to improve, so I went back every month or two. Sometimes I would come out ahead, but more often I would take my $100 in there and lose it. But win or lose, I always tried to replay what happened during these games and figure out what I did right and what I did wrong. Occasional trips with Bob, Mark, and others to Chumash or Commerce resulted in up and down sessions.
I did not keep track of my winnings / losings during this time (which is unfortunate), but in all honesty, I’m sure I lost more than I won, and since my bankroll was always $100, I was probably down $700-$1,000 from my occasional cardroom visits during the next 2 years.
The following entries will cover my experiences (all that I can remember in sufficient detail to make sense out of anyway) at B&M, or brick-and-mortar, cardrooms – generally no monthly home-tournament postings, no internet stuff. After the Oct. ’06 Vegas trip, I became more confident in my poker abilities, and began playing more often - sometimes weekly or even twice-per-week.
After the Vegas trip, I pocketed the $160 profit from that venture and started filling my poker drawer – as a tracking mechanism of my winnings / losings. These will also be posted here.
However, please be advised that I typically play at lower level tables (3/6, 4/8, or 6/12 limit tables, or $60 or $100 NL tables) – I guess I’m trying to say that I am not (nor do I wish to be) a cutting edge player:
If you have any insight to offer, please do – I’d love to hear about how I screwed this up or donked that off… :-) But, please be constructive – simply saying that I’m an idiot is not going to help me play any better the next time I sit down at the table. Please tell me why I’m an idiot.
Also, if you do come across any gems of poker-wisdom in your internet-searches or book/magazine readings, feel free to toss some my way – I can use all the help I can get.
So, as the months went on and I was no closer to finishing near the money, I decided that I needed help, and bought my first poker book (on Middle-Limit Hold-em, of all things), and that seemed to help. I moved up within our ranks and eventually became a consistent threat to my fellow players for the evening prizes.
Time went on and people came and went in our little group, but we’ve had poker-night every month since March 2004. Of those originals, only Bob, Ward, Amy, and I remain, but we usually end up with 8-11 people on any given night.
At the end of 2004, I gathered my courage and went into a small cardroom in my hometown (Ventura, CA), and lost $100 I had taken with me – but I had fun and wanted to improve, so I went back every month or two. Sometimes I would come out ahead, but more often I would take my $100 in there and lose it. But win or lose, I always tried to replay what happened during these games and figure out what I did right and what I did wrong. Occasional trips with Bob, Mark, and others to Chumash or Commerce resulted in up and down sessions.
I did not keep track of my winnings / losings during this time (which is unfortunate), but in all honesty, I’m sure I lost more than I won, and since my bankroll was always $100, I was probably down $700-$1,000 from my occasional cardroom visits during the next 2 years.
The following entries will cover my experiences (all that I can remember in sufficient detail to make sense out of anyway) at B&M, or brick-and-mortar, cardrooms – generally no monthly home-tournament postings, no internet stuff. After the Oct. ’06 Vegas trip, I became more confident in my poker abilities, and began playing more often - sometimes weekly or even twice-per-week.
After the Vegas trip, I pocketed the $160 profit from that venture and started filling my poker drawer – as a tracking mechanism of my winnings / losings. These will also be posted here.
However, please be advised that I typically play at lower level tables (3/6, 4/8, or 6/12 limit tables, or $60 or $100 NL tables) – I guess I’m trying to say that I am not (nor do I wish to be) a cutting edge player:
- I don’t play for the money, I look at the money I win / lose as a method of keeping score of my play
- I will never do this as a full-time job – I’m not good enough
- I do it for fun, which it is, for me – I like the challenge and the mental exercise that comes from a good game
If you have any insight to offer, please do – I’d love to hear about how I screwed this up or donked that off… :-) But, please be constructive – simply saying that I’m an idiot is not going to help me play any better the next time I sit down at the table. Please tell me why I’m an idiot.
Also, if you do come across any gems of poker-wisdom in your internet-searches or book/magazine readings, feel free to toss some my way – I can use all the help I can get.
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