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).