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).
Sunday, February 25, 2007
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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