So...after the tournament result, we headed on down to the Borgata poker room and set out for world domination once more.
The cap on 1/2 NL there is 300, so I brought the max to the table, and as always immediately sent a message after sitting down, raising and re-raising several pots. This chipped me up a bit, to around 350.
Then the first legitimate hand of interest came up, a player, fairly short stacked(somewhere around 50-75 can't honestly remember) raised from mid position to 10, and I repopped to 40 with AK, basically comitting him. He shoved and I topped up to call the all in. He rolled over 44. Flop was 9/9/9, turn was a 9. Ship it?
After that I played a few more pots here and there, maintaining a now incredibly typical LAG image for me in a cash game, I throw chips around frequently, to generate action to get it back from the table when I get hands. I had JJ 4 times in the span of about an hour, and lost every pot with them(nothing overly substantial)...and won a fair pot with AA.
A few hands later I played the first real hand I would spend time debating with people for the entire trip so I'm curious to hear thoughts on it : after a few limps, I raised to 12 with KK, got one caller whom I had position on. The flop was about as disasterous as could be without containing an ace, Jd/10s/9d. He checked, I c-bet 20, and he check raised me to 80. This is one of the spots where I just flat out don't want to play a big pot on that board with KK, so I opted against getting stubborn and just folded. In retrospect I think it's the right play.
After that I just kind of treaded water for a little while, and ended the session up 200. We grabbed a meal over at Wolfgang Puck's restaraunt right next door to the poker room, amazing food and reasonable prices for a "celeb-chef" like that. After that, Alex said he wanted to go to Taj for the midnight tourney again, so I came along for the ride.
Taj tourneys are an odd bunch, alot of incredibly bad players. One side note : the Taj is a very unpleasent poker room to be in. It's hot as HELL in that poker room, and frankly, the supervisor that I saw around was so incompetent it was startling...
As for the tourney, we start with 20k in chips, blinds 25/50, every 20 minutes the level goes up.
The first pot I played ended up being fairly gigantic.
There were 3 limps to me, and I looked down at JJ. I raised to 400 total, and got one caller. The flop was 2/4/5 with 2 diamonds. He checked to me, and I bet out 700 at the pot. He suddenly check raised me to 3k total. I tanked for a minute, really unsure of what to do at this point, and decided to call, putting him on a flush draw. Which made the turn card real depressing. As. Granted, not a diamond, but still, if you figure someone for a flush draw, aces aren't fun to see. He slammed the turn for 6k, which again I tanked for a minute. I still didn't buy the ace for him, a few reasons, he bet the turn really quickly, which I thought he'd have given it a moments thought if he had the ace. 2 pair was certainly in his range, and so was a set. But I still felt like he had a diamond draw that didn't catch the ace with how quickly he bet the turn. So I called the turn. The river came a 10h, and he insta-shoved all in. I took a minute again here, telling him I didn't beleive he had me at all, again he acted very quickly on the river and again I felt like if he had a hand here he'd have been considering a value bet rather than shoving his stack in(basically pot so not an overbet, but still...). So after a minute I finally called, and he simply tapped the table and said nice call and threw his cards in the muck. I tabled Jacks, fairly excited at the table image that would give me. I then promptly steamrolled the tournament for a while, and then ran incredibly card dead around the middle of the tournament.
Eventually I found myself on an average chip stack, around 45k, blinds were 1500/3000. We were down near the bubble, and I raised to 8k with Ad/Js, a fairly agressive player who was really visibly pissed when he took a bad beat a few hands ago, and had just returned to the table after a walk after that hand, shoved all in for 35k total. Again here I tanked for a fair while, and finally called figuring I'm probably ahead of his range here, or at least flipping which I'd take to try and get a real competitive stack. He rolled over As/Jc for the same hand. And then we started pulling our chips back to chop the pot. Oh, I forgot, we did all that before we saw the board : 10c/9c/3c. Oh for gods sakes don't freeroll me on the bubble please. Turn, 6c. Thank you. River? 5c. Just fucking because okay? So ya, that was fun.
After that, Alex and Jason went back to their room for some sleep, and I headed over to The Borgata again. I decided that rather than sleep like people do, poker was more important. Largely because I had been in absolute control of any table I sat at the entire trip and felt like I was playing immaculate poker. So, since I was up a fair chunk already, and since I am technically bankrolled to play it live, I decided to jump into 5/10 NL. So I bought in for 1000 and sat down.
Overall there wasn't a ton of excitement at the table, I didn't sit for too-too long, about 4 hours or so. The three interesting hands I guess were :
MP a fairly LAGgy player raised to 35 in an unopened pot. I repopped to 140 from the SB with Ad/Kd. He smoothe called the extra 105. Flop came Ah/9c/3s. He held about 350 behind, so I decided to play a trap and check the flop to him and see if I could induce a shove from AQ. Sure enough, he shoved all in. I snap called and he showed AJ. Turn and river bricked out.
A few hands later I raised UTG to 35 with Ah/Qh, got smoothe called. Flop was Qs/8d/6h. I decided to try the check raise again, and he led out for 55. I raised to 180 straight, and then he 3 bet to 450. I tanked for a while and eventually folded, and he showed me 66.
And my last hand was fairly fun. There were 4 limps(rare) to me on the button and I had already decided I was raising any two cards there to try and steal the dead 55 dollars in the pot. So I raised to 50 straight with 6h/2h. I picked up one caller to the flop. The flop was Kh/2c/8h. I figured that was a good and bad flop, because the range of hands I put him on was deffinitely heavily weighted to Kx to limp and then call a raise that sized. And since he had called I was fairly certain he wasn't going to give this up easily. So instead of doing anything drastic, he led out for 125, and I smoothe called it. The turn was a 6d. That was a card I enjoyed immensely. He led out again for 250, and I slammed all-in, prompting a fold.
Overall for the trip? We got to chill by the ocean, we ate at some killer restaraunts, I stayed at The Borgata which is absolutely gorgeous, we had a ton of fun, and I played in my eyes anyway, although maybe the blogs don't sound like it, amazing poker. Every table I sat at I dominated entirely.
I ended up the weekend trip to Atlantic City up nearly 2k for the weekend.
As for Atlantic City, mixed reviews. It's a dump, especially down by the Boardwalk. On the flip side, as you drift away from it, and over towards Borgata, The Water Club and Harrah's, the city starts to get nicer and nicer. And as for the level of play, as I said before on the first entry, it's astonishing. I really, truly mean that. I've seen alot of bad players alot of places, but nothing compares to some of the pure nonsense I saw here. An all in on a Qc/Qs/9c/5h board by a guy holding 88 after crazy action preflop and on the flop. Which is disgusting. But what's worse? He got called. By Ad/10h....
Ya, it's that bad. I may actually go back for a week just to try and play more cash and less tourneys against these clowns.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Atlantic City Trip Day 1
Okay, so wow. Someone forgot to send me the memo that said the average player down in Atlantic City is slightly worse than the worst poker player ever. Someone really should have told me.
I won't give overwhelming details, but here ya go, the trip thus far :
So, we take off Friday night to head down to Atlantic City, me, Alex and Jason. We get down here at around 6:00 am Saturday morning. We grab a cheap hotel and crash, and wake up Saturday ready for world domination. No one told us it'd be this easy :
We start where anyone would logically start when they hit Atlantic City, The Borgata. Which has quite possibly, and almost deffinitely, the most breathtaking poker room I've stepped into. Massive room, tons of tables, beautiful set up, very spacious to have that many tables...it's a wonderful place to play poker.
So I sit at 1/2 NL with Alex, 300 max buyin. We both bring the max, and I immediately get to work establishing a LAG image, raising lots of pots...showing down goofy hands when I hit, and I have a big target on my back. I lose one big coin flip As/Ks against QQ for 200 bucks, rebuy back to the max and get on with it. When all is said and done, I'm up $900 for the session. One huge pot I play against the big stack at our table where I call a raise with 99, flop is 2/4/6 rainbow, he bets I call, turn is a 9 and we play a huge pot with his KK. The "funny" thing is I told him before the hand started I was going to flop a set, because he had flopped 3 sets in 10 minutes before that.
After that session we head over to the Taj Mahal, partially because all the success and money I make playing poker(which while not extreme, is pretty good, enough to live on) is owed to that place and the movie Rounders. So we play a tourney with absolutely abysmal play, a nice structured deep stack tourney, and I go broke fairly early, Alex runs much deeper. We head in for the night.
Woke up this morning and shot over to Caesers for their deepstack tournaments. And that went much better. I grabbed a chip lead fairly early on and was relentless against the entire tournament, taking pot after pot. Eventually, we were down to two tables, the average stack was probably 50k-60k in that range, and I was floating at 175k. Final table started, I took one massive hit with QQ vs A/10 vs K/J in a threeway all in pot that would have given me over 1/2 the chips in play when we were 5 handed, instead the A/10 made a straight. I ended up still playing fairly strong and making a 2nd place finish good for 1500 bucks. The old guy I played heads up quite literally ran like god when we got heads up, I'd flop a fairly big peice of the board and he'd flop the stone cold nuts. Eventually I shoved 180k with blinds 15/30k with A/9 suited, he called with K/Q suited and spiked a Q.
I've checked into the Borgata for tonight, hence the internet access finally, and me and Alex are just getting ready to head down to crush some insane donkeys that exist here. Infact, they're not even donkeys, donkey's play to good to be associated with the average player here. So I'm going to coin a new phrase exclusive to players in Atlantic City to describe how atrocious they are :
Kinkajou
Enjoy ladies and gentleman. The players in Atlantic City are kinkajou's.
I won't give overwhelming details, but here ya go, the trip thus far :
So, we take off Friday night to head down to Atlantic City, me, Alex and Jason. We get down here at around 6:00 am Saturday morning. We grab a cheap hotel and crash, and wake up Saturday ready for world domination. No one told us it'd be this easy :
We start where anyone would logically start when they hit Atlantic City, The Borgata. Which has quite possibly, and almost deffinitely, the most breathtaking poker room I've stepped into. Massive room, tons of tables, beautiful set up, very spacious to have that many tables...it's a wonderful place to play poker.
So I sit at 1/2 NL with Alex, 300 max buyin. We both bring the max, and I immediately get to work establishing a LAG image, raising lots of pots...showing down goofy hands when I hit, and I have a big target on my back. I lose one big coin flip As/Ks against QQ for 200 bucks, rebuy back to the max and get on with it. When all is said and done, I'm up $900 for the session. One huge pot I play against the big stack at our table where I call a raise with 99, flop is 2/4/6 rainbow, he bets I call, turn is a 9 and we play a huge pot with his KK. The "funny" thing is I told him before the hand started I was going to flop a set, because he had flopped 3 sets in 10 minutes before that.
After that session we head over to the Taj Mahal, partially because all the success and money I make playing poker(which while not extreme, is pretty good, enough to live on) is owed to that place and the movie Rounders. So we play a tourney with absolutely abysmal play, a nice structured deep stack tourney, and I go broke fairly early, Alex runs much deeper. We head in for the night.
Woke up this morning and shot over to Caesers for their deepstack tournaments. And that went much better. I grabbed a chip lead fairly early on and was relentless against the entire tournament, taking pot after pot. Eventually, we were down to two tables, the average stack was probably 50k-60k in that range, and I was floating at 175k. Final table started, I took one massive hit with QQ vs A/10 vs K/J in a threeway all in pot that would have given me over 1/2 the chips in play when we were 5 handed, instead the A/10 made a straight. I ended up still playing fairly strong and making a 2nd place finish good for 1500 bucks. The old guy I played heads up quite literally ran like god when we got heads up, I'd flop a fairly big peice of the board and he'd flop the stone cold nuts. Eventually I shoved 180k with blinds 15/30k with A/9 suited, he called with K/Q suited and spiked a Q.
I've checked into the Borgata for tonight, hence the internet access finally, and me and Alex are just getting ready to head down to crush some insane donkeys that exist here. Infact, they're not even donkeys, donkey's play to good to be associated with the average player here. So I'm going to coin a new phrase exclusive to players in Atlantic City to describe how atrocious they are :
Kinkajou
Enjoy ladies and gentleman. The players in Atlantic City are kinkajou's.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The revival of the blog!
Yes, yes. Hold your applause for after.
I decided to bring this back because hey, I'm playing a ton of online poker, so I figured I'd start blogging. This means this'll be update really frequently with thoughts and opinions and results and what not.
Before I get to that, I wanna give a shoutout to a few people. First of all, to all the guys I know that went down and crushed Vegas over this summer...kudos on a job well done and I wish I was there with you. Yves, you're an animal, Marc, that hand was disgusting, all the Elite Poker people you guys rock, congrats. I wish I had gone down again, unfortunately as those who know me know, family problems have become more serious, dad's been in and out(90% in) of the hospital for the past month and a half with blood clots and internal bleeding, so it was far from a good time to pack up and go try and kill Vegas again. Hopefully I'll get there in August, but we'll see.
Anywhoo, back to me, because hey, it's my blog so why the fuck am I giving Yves all the kudos? :P
Actually this leads me to one more shout out...to the lovely people at the CAW for having me on strike for well over a month and letting me really focus on playing poker. It's almost like a written invitation for me to try my hand at online poker full time.
So, I've been kind of exploring. I learned I hate SNG's, too hectic, and too swingy...I learned MTT's are gross as all hell, go deep and run into one setup and end up having 6 hours of perfect play erased in an instant.
So, I settled on the ring game life. I can't lie, partly, or largely, this is results based, I consistently, infact, it'd shock any regular player exactly how consistently I crush NL Cash Games. It frequently amazes me...I've rarely booked losing sessions in a long, long time now.
With that said, I started this run at limit hold'em, because I still consider myself a limit specialist(by specialist I mean that "Bet" button always seems easier to push than the "Fold" button, so consistently people end up folding to me).
So with all that out of the way, I had an illuminating discussion with a friend of mine. We discussed basically my poker career and the fact I was playing limit. Basically he told me he thinks it's a stupid idea for me because in his words : "I've never played anyone as good as extracting chips with made hands as you are."
So, on the heed of that advice, I decided to give NL games a chance. I've been 4 tabling 1/2 NL for a week now, and really cleaning the game up so easily it's scary.
So...tonight's session. Key hands and analysis :
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159601672: Table Sphinx (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:43:50 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: nm_21 ($369.60)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey ($168.40)
Seat 3: browerkid ($197)
Seat 4: DuckandHide ($260.95)
Seat 5: jloscottdale ($225.45)
Seat 6: bucfanjay ($251.10)
browerkid posts the small blind of $1
DuckandHide posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [9h 9s]
jloscottdale folds
bucfanjay raises to $8
nm_21 folds
crystal_donkey calls $8
browerkid folds
DuckandHide folds
*** FLOP *** [8s Qh 9c]
bucfanjay bets $11
jloscottdale is sitting out
crystal_donkey has 15 seconds left to act
crystal_donkey raises to $33
bucfanjay has 15 seconds left to act
bucfanjay raises to $75
crystal_donkey raises to $160.40, and is all in
bucfanjay calls $85.40
crystal_donkey shows [9h 9s]
bucfanjay shows [Ts Td]
*** TURN *** [8s Qh 9c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [8s Qh 9c 2s] [Ks]
crystal_donkey shows three of a kind, Nines
bucfanjay shows a pair of Tens
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($336.80) with three of a kind, Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $339.80 Rake $3
Board: [8s Qh 9c 2s Ks]
Seat 1: nm_21 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey (button) showed [9h 9s] and won ($336.80) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 3: browerkid (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: DuckandHide (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: jloscottdale didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: bucfanjay showed [Ts Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Not really alot to say here, there's no way I'm not stacking off on that flop if by chance he has J/10, so all my chips are going in here all day long. It was nice he decided to play along with a really mediocre hand to be playing that much action on that flop with.
This is from from one of the 4 tables, and was also the table that caused me to end the session, once I had this happen to me I wanted to step away from the game to avoid any possibility of "tilt" money leaving, because I was a little steamed at the setup I was a part of. There is never a time I'm going to play this hand any differently than this...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159663499: Table Sphinx (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:50:15 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: nm_21 ($365.40)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey ($335.50)
Seat 3: browerkid ($200.25)
Seat 4: DuckandHide ($254.95)
Seat 5: jloscottdale ($225.45)
Seat 6: bucfanjay ($86.45)
crystal_donkey posts the small blind of $1
browerkid posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
***HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Qc Qs]
DuckandHide folds
bucfanjay folds
nm_21 raises to $7
crystal_donkey raises to $29
browerkid folds
nm_21 has 15 seconds left to act
nm_21 has requested TIME
nm_21 raises to $90
crystal_donkey raises to $335.50, and is all in
nm_21 calls $245.50
crystal_donkey shows [Qc Qs]
nm_21 shows [Ac As]
*** FLOP *** [4h Kd 9h]
*** TURN *** [4h Kd 9h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [4h Kd 9h 8s] [6d]
crystal_donkey shows a pair of Queens
nm_21 shows a pair of Aces
nm_21 wins the pot ($670) with a pair of Aces
crystal_donkey is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $673 Rake $3
Board: [4h Kd 9h 8s 6d]
Seat 1: nm_21 (button) showed [Ac As] and won ($670) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: crystal_donkey (small blind) showed [Qc Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 3: browerkid (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: DuckandHide didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: jloscottdale is sitting out
Seat 6: bucfanjay didn't bet (folded)
Ya, not the best hand I've ever played. There's never a time I'm smoothing the 3rd raise, the money goes in here all day, I don't care if it's 1/2 or 50/100...I don't see a way anyone's going to disagree with that being that he's on the button and his 3 bet range is as loose as A/10 and up probably...especially considering we're a 6-max and I have a fairly LAG image.
Anyway, while all that fun was going on, I had 3 other tables open. Here's some hands from over on another one of those tables... This one will require a little explanation...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159544923: Table Saguaro (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:38:04 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: crystal_donkey ($185)
Seat 2: I HRT DVDA ($203)
Seat 3: She_IS_all_that ($63)
Seat 4: infi-nitty ($207)
Seat 5: StructureK ($200)
Seat 6: Tex_Perkins ($457.70)
infi-nitty posts the small blind of $1
StructureK posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Ac 5c]
Tex_Perkins folds
crystal_donkey has 15 seconds left to act
crystal_donkey raises to $6
I HRT DVDA folds
She_IS_all_that has 15 seconds left to act
She_IS_all_that folds
infi-nitty folds
StructureK raises to $21
crystal_donkey calls $15
*** FLOP *** [5s Ad 2c]
StructureK has 15 seconds left to act
StructureK bets $30
crystal_donkey raises to $80
StructureK has 15 seconds left to act
StructureK raises to $179, and is all in
crystal_donkey calls $84, and is all in
StructureK shows [Ah Kd]
crystal_donkey shows [Ac 5c]
Uncalled bet of $15 returned to StructureK
*** TURN *** [5s Ad 2c] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [5s Ad 2c Td] [Js]
StructureK shows a pair of Aces
crystal_donkey shows two pair, Aces and Fives
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($368) with two pair, Aces and Fives
StructureK adds $185
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $371 Rake $3
Board: [5s Ad 2c Td Js]
Seat 1: crystal_donkey showed [Ac 5c] and won ($368) with two pair, Aces and Fives
Seat 2: I HRT DVDA didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: She_IS_all_that (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: infi-nitty (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: StructureK (big blind) showed [Ah Kd] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Tex_Perkins didn't bet (folded)
I want to make clear, no typically I do not make habits of calling re-raises with A/5 even if its SOOOTED. The thing was, as I said I typically like to control my tables by taking a LAG approach and then developing action. Unfortunately every time I was doing anything on this table I was getting played back at, so eventually I decided instead of continuing to fold to re-raises preflop, I had to find a spot to play back, so I decided to call and see a flop and try and steal it afterwards, since I'm typically VERY confident in my post flop play and ability to steal pots where we both have no part. As it turns out, I did one better and flopped gin and got the money in. This is NOT a habit...worked though :P
The next one kind of baffled me still, I'm not sure if the guy's a prick and he's trying to slow roll me or if he's actually considering folding here which I can't even fathom. I'm also not sure if he's stupid and that's why he smoothe calls the flop, or if he's really smart and that's why he smoothe called and then checked the turn. Either way...I don't know if I'm going to play this differently any other time, feel free to comment, this was the one hand I was a little unsure of...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159506269: Table Padbury (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:34:12 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz ($580.85)
Seat 2: Septs ($314)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon ($21.10)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 ($105.70)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey ($228.15)
Seat 6: crystal_donkey ($197)
Septs posts the small blind of $1
Gle Rigon posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Ah 9h]
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 raises to $6
bustedmonkey folds
crystal_donkey calls $6
BuenazDiaz foldsSepts folds
Gle Rigon folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 9c 2c]
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 bets $12
crystal_donkey raises to $40
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 calls $28
*** TURN *** [7d 9c 2c] [2h]
mnguyen14 checks
crystal_donkey bets $151, and is all in
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 calls $59.70, and is all in
crystal_donkey shows [Ah 9h]
mnguyen14 shows [Ac Ad]
Uncalled bet of $91.30 returned to crystal_donkey
*** RIVER *** [7d 9c 2c 2h] [8s]
crystal_donkey shows two pair, Nines and Twos
mnguyen14 shows two pair, Aces and Twos
mnguyen14 wins the pot ($211.40) with two pair, Aces and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $214.40 Rake $3
Board: [7d 9c 2c 2h 8s]
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Septs (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Gle Rigon (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: mnguyen14 showed [Ac Ad] and won ($211.40) with two pair, Aces and Twos
Seat 5: bustedmonkey didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: crystal_donkey showed [Ah 9h] and lost with two pair, Nines and Twos
Ya I know the hand itself was really kind of thin on that flop, but after he smoothed my raise on the flop I felt like I for sure had the best hand there, and he was either drawing to clubs, or had a hand like 88 or 66 and didn't buy me for calling a 9 in that spot. I never even considered an overpair, probably a bad oversight on my part.
This hand made up for it a while after on the same table though....
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159622325: Table Padbury (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:45:57 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz ($570.75)
Seat 2: Septs ($302)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon ($41.70)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 ($201.65)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey ($250.80), is sitting out
Seat 6: crystal_donkey ($179.05)
crystal_donkey posts the small blind of $1
BuenazDiaz posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Jd Td]
Septs folds
Gle Rigon folds
mnguyen14 folds
crystal_donkey calls $1
BuenazDiaz raises to $7
crystal_donkey calls $5
*** FLOP *** [6c Jc Jh]
crystal_donkey checks
BuenazDiaz bets $10
crystal_donkey raises to $35
BuenazDiaz raises to $70
crystal_donkey raises to $172.05, and is all in
BuenazDiaz calls $102.05
bustedmonkey has returned
crystal_donkey shows [Jd Td]
BuenazDiaz shows [Kc 9c]
*** TURN *** [6c Jc Jh] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [6c Jc Jh Js] [8d]
crystal_donkey shows four of a kind, Jacks
BuenazDiaz shows three of a kind, Jacks
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($355.10) with four of a kind, Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $358.10 Rake $3
Board: [6c Jc Jh Js 8d]
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz (big blind) showed [Kc 9c] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: Septs didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey is sitting out
Seat 6: crystal_donkey (small blind) showed [Jd Td] and won ($355.10) with four of a kind, Jacks
For anyone wondering, yes, I realize my line in that hand preflop sucks ass...so sue me. I realized it as I was doing it, that I should have raised, I think he calls and we see the same flop anyway, but yes, I realize calling and re-calling there is a really weak line especially OOP for the rest of the hand, but oh well...
Anyway, I realize there's not alot of hands with fantastic deep thought, hopefully some will come in future days, I just really wanted to get back to writing this, and decided to do it tonight, it was a relatively short session because of my stopping after the QQ vs AA thing(more me being tired than me being super pissed at the setup, although it did kind of suck).
This'll be much more frequent...I know some people really used to like this blog when I had it up, god help me I can't fathom why since my writing is about as terrible as Akiva Goldsman's(see what I mean? No one will even get that reference, but I went for it anyway because I'm a stubborn dickhead, he's a Hollywood script writer who penned such abominations as "Batman Forever", "Batman and Robin", "I, Robot" and "The Da Vinci Code").
Anyway, like it or not, the blog is back. Enjoy reading it at your own discretion.
Oh, and I just realized I should probably put a tally for the end of the night. That session despite that 350 dollar cooler, I ended up basically even, I ended up down like $35 bucks or something. And after an $1100 dollar session yesterday...I'm alright with it.
I decided to bring this back because hey, I'm playing a ton of online poker, so I figured I'd start blogging. This means this'll be update really frequently with thoughts and opinions and results and what not.
Before I get to that, I wanna give a shoutout to a few people. First of all, to all the guys I know that went down and crushed Vegas over this summer...kudos on a job well done and I wish I was there with you. Yves, you're an animal, Marc, that hand was disgusting, all the Elite Poker people you guys rock, congrats. I wish I had gone down again, unfortunately as those who know me know, family problems have become more serious, dad's been in and out(90% in) of the hospital for the past month and a half with blood clots and internal bleeding, so it was far from a good time to pack up and go try and kill Vegas again. Hopefully I'll get there in August, but we'll see.
Anywhoo, back to me, because hey, it's my blog so why the fuck am I giving Yves all the kudos? :P
Actually this leads me to one more shout out...to the lovely people at the CAW for having me on strike for well over a month and letting me really focus on playing poker. It's almost like a written invitation for me to try my hand at online poker full time.
So, I've been kind of exploring. I learned I hate SNG's, too hectic, and too swingy...I learned MTT's are gross as all hell, go deep and run into one setup and end up having 6 hours of perfect play erased in an instant.
So, I settled on the ring game life. I can't lie, partly, or largely, this is results based, I consistently, infact, it'd shock any regular player exactly how consistently I crush NL Cash Games. It frequently amazes me...I've rarely booked losing sessions in a long, long time now.
With that said, I started this run at limit hold'em, because I still consider myself a limit specialist(by specialist I mean that "Bet" button always seems easier to push than the "Fold" button, so consistently people end up folding to me).
So with all that out of the way, I had an illuminating discussion with a friend of mine. We discussed basically my poker career and the fact I was playing limit. Basically he told me he thinks it's a stupid idea for me because in his words : "I've never played anyone as good as extracting chips with made hands as you are."
So, on the heed of that advice, I decided to give NL games a chance. I've been 4 tabling 1/2 NL for a week now, and really cleaning the game up so easily it's scary.
So...tonight's session. Key hands and analysis :
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159601672: Table Sphinx (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:43:50 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: nm_21 ($369.60)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey ($168.40)
Seat 3: browerkid ($197)
Seat 4: DuckandHide ($260.95)
Seat 5: jloscottdale ($225.45)
Seat 6: bucfanjay ($251.10)
browerkid posts the small blind of $1
DuckandHide posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [9h 9s]
jloscottdale folds
bucfanjay raises to $8
nm_21 folds
crystal_donkey calls $8
browerkid folds
DuckandHide folds
*** FLOP *** [8s Qh 9c]
bucfanjay bets $11
jloscottdale is sitting out
crystal_donkey has 15 seconds left to act
crystal_donkey raises to $33
bucfanjay has 15 seconds left to act
bucfanjay raises to $75
crystal_donkey raises to $160.40, and is all in
bucfanjay calls $85.40
crystal_donkey shows [9h 9s]
bucfanjay shows [Ts Td]
*** TURN *** [8s Qh 9c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [8s Qh 9c 2s] [Ks]
crystal_donkey shows three of a kind, Nines
bucfanjay shows a pair of Tens
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($336.80) with three of a kind, Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $339.80 Rake $3
Board: [8s Qh 9c 2s Ks]
Seat 1: nm_21 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey (button) showed [9h 9s] and won ($336.80) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 3: browerkid (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: DuckandHide (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: jloscottdale didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: bucfanjay showed [Ts Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Not really alot to say here, there's no way I'm not stacking off on that flop if by chance he has J/10, so all my chips are going in here all day long. It was nice he decided to play along with a really mediocre hand to be playing that much action on that flop with.
This is from from one of the 4 tables, and was also the table that caused me to end the session, once I had this happen to me I wanted to step away from the game to avoid any possibility of "tilt" money leaving, because I was a little steamed at the setup I was a part of. There is never a time I'm going to play this hand any differently than this...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159663499: Table Sphinx (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:50:15 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: nm_21 ($365.40)
Seat 2: crystal_donkey ($335.50)
Seat 3: browerkid ($200.25)
Seat 4: DuckandHide ($254.95)
Seat 5: jloscottdale ($225.45)
Seat 6: bucfanjay ($86.45)
crystal_donkey posts the small blind of $1
browerkid posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
***HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Qc Qs]
DuckandHide folds
bucfanjay folds
nm_21 raises to $7
crystal_donkey raises to $29
browerkid folds
nm_21 has 15 seconds left to act
nm_21 has requested TIME
nm_21 raises to $90
crystal_donkey raises to $335.50, and is all in
nm_21 calls $245.50
crystal_donkey shows [Qc Qs]
nm_21 shows [Ac As]
*** FLOP *** [4h Kd 9h]
*** TURN *** [4h Kd 9h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [4h Kd 9h 8s] [6d]
crystal_donkey shows a pair of Queens
nm_21 shows a pair of Aces
nm_21 wins the pot ($670) with a pair of Aces
crystal_donkey is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $673 Rake $3
Board: [4h Kd 9h 8s 6d]
Seat 1: nm_21 (button) showed [Ac As] and won ($670) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: crystal_donkey (small blind) showed [Qc Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 3: browerkid (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: DuckandHide didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: jloscottdale is sitting out
Seat 6: bucfanjay didn't bet (folded)
Ya, not the best hand I've ever played. There's never a time I'm smoothing the 3rd raise, the money goes in here all day, I don't care if it's 1/2 or 50/100...I don't see a way anyone's going to disagree with that being that he's on the button and his 3 bet range is as loose as A/10 and up probably...especially considering we're a 6-max and I have a fairly LAG image.
Anyway, while all that fun was going on, I had 3 other tables open. Here's some hands from over on another one of those tables... This one will require a little explanation...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159544923: Table Saguaro (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:38:04 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: crystal_donkey ($185)
Seat 2: I HRT DVDA ($203)
Seat 3: She_IS_all_that ($63)
Seat 4: infi-nitty ($207)
Seat 5: StructureK ($200)
Seat 6: Tex_Perkins ($457.70)
infi-nitty posts the small blind of $1
StructureK posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Ac 5c]
Tex_Perkins folds
crystal_donkey has 15 seconds left to act
crystal_donkey raises to $6
I HRT DVDA folds
She_IS_all_that has 15 seconds left to act
She_IS_all_that folds
infi-nitty folds
StructureK raises to $21
crystal_donkey calls $15
*** FLOP *** [5s Ad 2c]
StructureK has 15 seconds left to act
StructureK bets $30
crystal_donkey raises to $80
StructureK has 15 seconds left to act
StructureK raises to $179, and is all in
crystal_donkey calls $84, and is all in
StructureK shows [Ah Kd]
crystal_donkey shows [Ac 5c]
Uncalled bet of $15 returned to StructureK
*** TURN *** [5s Ad 2c] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [5s Ad 2c Td] [Js]
StructureK shows a pair of Aces
crystal_donkey shows two pair, Aces and Fives
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($368) with two pair, Aces and Fives
StructureK adds $185
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $371 Rake $3
Board: [5s Ad 2c Td Js]
Seat 1: crystal_donkey showed [Ac 5c] and won ($368) with two pair, Aces and Fives
Seat 2: I HRT DVDA didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: She_IS_all_that (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: infi-nitty (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: StructureK (big blind) showed [Ah Kd] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Tex_Perkins didn't bet (folded)
I want to make clear, no typically I do not make habits of calling re-raises with A/5 even if its SOOOTED. The thing was, as I said I typically like to control my tables by taking a LAG approach and then developing action. Unfortunately every time I was doing anything on this table I was getting played back at, so eventually I decided instead of continuing to fold to re-raises preflop, I had to find a spot to play back, so I decided to call and see a flop and try and steal it afterwards, since I'm typically VERY confident in my post flop play and ability to steal pots where we both have no part. As it turns out, I did one better and flopped gin and got the money in. This is NOT a habit...worked though :P
The next one kind of baffled me still, I'm not sure if the guy's a prick and he's trying to slow roll me or if he's actually considering folding here which I can't even fathom. I'm also not sure if he's stupid and that's why he smoothe calls the flop, or if he's really smart and that's why he smoothe called and then checked the turn. Either way...I don't know if I'm going to play this differently any other time, feel free to comment, this was the one hand I was a little unsure of...
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159506269: Table Padbury (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:34:12 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz ($580.85)
Seat 2: Septs ($314)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon ($21.10)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 ($105.70)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey ($228.15)
Seat 6: crystal_donkey ($197)
Septs posts the small blind of $1
Gle Rigon posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Ah 9h]
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 raises to $6
bustedmonkey folds
crystal_donkey calls $6
BuenazDiaz foldsSepts folds
Gle Rigon folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 9c 2c]
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 bets $12
crystal_donkey raises to $40
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 calls $28
*** TURN *** [7d 9c 2c] [2h]
mnguyen14 checks
crystal_donkey bets $151, and is all in
mnguyen14 has 15 seconds left to act
mnguyen14 calls $59.70, and is all in
crystal_donkey shows [Ah 9h]
mnguyen14 shows [Ac Ad]
Uncalled bet of $91.30 returned to crystal_donkey
*** RIVER *** [7d 9c 2c 2h] [8s]
crystal_donkey shows two pair, Nines and Twos
mnguyen14 shows two pair, Aces and Twos
mnguyen14 wins the pot ($211.40) with two pair, Aces and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $214.40 Rake $3
Board: [7d 9c 2c 2h 8s]
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Septs (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Gle Rigon (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: mnguyen14 showed [Ac Ad] and won ($211.40) with two pair, Aces and Twos
Seat 5: bustedmonkey didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: crystal_donkey showed [Ah 9h] and lost with two pair, Nines and Twos
Ya I know the hand itself was really kind of thin on that flop, but after he smoothed my raise on the flop I felt like I for sure had the best hand there, and he was either drawing to clubs, or had a hand like 88 or 66 and didn't buy me for calling a 9 in that spot. I never even considered an overpair, probably a bad oversight on my part.
This hand made up for it a while after on the same table though....
Full Tilt Poker Game #7159622325: Table Padbury (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:45:57 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz ($570.75)
Seat 2: Septs ($302)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon ($41.70)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 ($201.65)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey ($250.80), is sitting out
Seat 6: crystal_donkey ($179.05)
crystal_donkey posts the small blind of $1
BuenazDiaz posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crystal_donkey [Jd Td]
Septs folds
Gle Rigon folds
mnguyen14 folds
crystal_donkey calls $1
BuenazDiaz raises to $7
crystal_donkey calls $5
*** FLOP *** [6c Jc Jh]
crystal_donkey checks
BuenazDiaz bets $10
crystal_donkey raises to $35
BuenazDiaz raises to $70
crystal_donkey raises to $172.05, and is all in
BuenazDiaz calls $102.05
bustedmonkey has returned
crystal_donkey shows [Jd Td]
BuenazDiaz shows [Kc 9c]
*** TURN *** [6c Jc Jh] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [6c Jc Jh Js] [8d]
crystal_donkey shows four of a kind, Jacks
BuenazDiaz shows three of a kind, Jacks
crystal_donkey wins the pot ($355.10) with four of a kind, Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $358.10 Rake $3
Board: [6c Jc Jh Js 8d]
Seat 1: BuenazDiaz (big blind) showed [Kc 9c] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: Septs didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Gle Rigon didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: mnguyen14 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: bustedmonkey is sitting out
Seat 6: crystal_donkey (small blind) showed [Jd Td] and won ($355.10) with four of a kind, Jacks
For anyone wondering, yes, I realize my line in that hand preflop sucks ass...so sue me. I realized it as I was doing it, that I should have raised, I think he calls and we see the same flop anyway, but yes, I realize calling and re-calling there is a really weak line especially OOP for the rest of the hand, but oh well...
Anyway, I realize there's not alot of hands with fantastic deep thought, hopefully some will come in future days, I just really wanted to get back to writing this, and decided to do it tonight, it was a relatively short session because of my stopping after the QQ vs AA thing(more me being tired than me being super pissed at the setup, although it did kind of suck).
This'll be much more frequent...I know some people really used to like this blog when I had it up, god help me I can't fathom why since my writing is about as terrible as Akiva Goldsman's(see what I mean? No one will even get that reference, but I went for it anyway because I'm a stubborn dickhead, he's a Hollywood script writer who penned such abominations as "Batman Forever", "Batman and Robin", "I, Robot" and "The Da Vinci Code").
Anyway, like it or not, the blog is back. Enjoy reading it at your own discretion.
Oh, and I just realized I should probably put a tally for the end of the night. That session despite that 350 dollar cooler, I ended up basically even, I ended up down like $35 bucks or something. And after an $1100 dollar session yesterday...I'm alright with it.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
A night at Seneca...
So, me and a close friend of mine Griffin decided to head down to Seneca last night and play some poker.
So we get down to the poker room and we get onto a 2/5 NL table, 500 max buyin.
Basically, these are the kinds of nights that make you hate live poker after playing lots of online poker. No bad beats really, just basically nothing. We played for over 12 hours, and neither of us really saw any hands or any real spots to put money in good here. I'll skip to my side of the story...but the both of us were similar nights. Really marginal situations that either play makes sense, or just victims of circumstance.
The first big hand I played was about 3 hours into the session probably, I'm still sitting at roughly 500, winning small pots here and there and missing tons of flops.
So, I decide to vary it up a bit, and raise with Js/10s from UTG to 20. I end up with 2 callers. Pot is 70. The flop is alright for me, 10d/6s/3s. So, I lead out 35, and I get 2 callers again. Pot is 175. The turn is a 6h. I led out 80, and got raised to 200, and re-raised all in for 217. So now there's 670 in the pot, and I have to call 137 into it, still drawing very live with spades(I'm fairly certain). So I call knowing the guy behind me is blocked into just calling, he calls. River bricks a 4c, I check and the other guy shoves into the dry side, and I fold. They both roll over 6's. That's the kind of night it was, over 300 deep on the hand and purely because of a victim of circumstance. Interestingly enough, Griff and I discussed this hand ALOT. So I open it up to the J7 floor. Griff suggested that I could have checked that turn and then folded to the action had it of gone that deep. I kind of agree with him to a point the more I thought about it, so to the J7 crew? Check fold that turn?
Anyway, after that hand Garrett showed up so we ran out to grab some food. After we got back to the room, kindly enough, the same 2 seats were open at the same table for me and Griff, so we sat back down and got back to action.
I want to say, this table had some pretty rediculous hands. Here's a couple true highlights.
UTG raise to 30, call, call, call, call, re-raise all in for 255 total. Fold's around to one of those callers who says "It's either KK or QQ....I call". Not only is he way wrong, this other guy's shoved in 250 preflop with 44. But he called that with A/6 offsuit thinking he was against KK or QQ. Magical.
Later, we saw a 2/4/5 flop with 2 diamonds. Fair amount of action. Turn was a 6c. Putting 2 clubs and 2 diamonds on a 2/4/5/6 board. One guy leads out 200 bucks, the other guy raises to 600 bucks, and the first guy finally calls all in for about 550. The hands? Pocket 7's and pocket 8's. Wow.
Anyway. There was one guy at our table who was kind of hard to figure out. He would always make rediculously sick overbets. But he had rarely not shown down a bad hand. Pots 30, he'll fire 100 with a flopped set. No problem.
So, this hand caught me alot of flack at the table and I'm not really sure why. I raised early position with KK to 25. He re-raised me to 80 total. I re-raised him back to 180 total. And he shoved me all in. At this point, I took a minute to think. I don't think it was overly long, probably 30-35 seconds, I just took a minute to think because of the classic phrase "the 4th bet is always AA", I understand that's at a higher game, but he was playing awkward yet always showing down good hands(at this point). So I took 30 seconds before calling and someone got smart with me, "What the hell are you afraid of?", to which I just simply answered him, no need for sarcasm here, the true answer is basically all the sarcasm I need : "Oh, I don't know? AA maybe?". Anyway, he had AK suited and I held.
After that I moved over to a 1/2 table because 2/5 broke. There I played one real interesting hand. I opened with 77 at a tight table from EP to 10, and got 2 callers. Flop was 2/3/5 rainbow. I led out 25. He called after a minute, and right then I thought he had a mid-pair also and didn't buy my bet on the flop here. So on the turn of a 9 I decided to lead weak, I led out 30. He raised me all in. I went into the tank for a moment now trying to decide where I was. I was sure he had a midpair also, I was just trying to decide if he had 66, 44 or 88. I had him down to that as his range, and eventually called. He showed 44. River bricked a Q and I took down that pot.
That's literally almost all the interesting hands I played, basically broke even for the day when all was said and done. Nothing fancy...just a really long boring day of being card dead and then facing really awkward situations. I didn't write out alot of weird spots where I'd be folding AK preflop in marginal spots where I could honestly have shoved in if I felt like it...but I try and keep poker simple and avoid marginal spots and coin flips against players I know I'm better than. It was just one of those days where the game wouldn't let me win.
So we get down to the poker room and we get onto a 2/5 NL table, 500 max buyin.
Basically, these are the kinds of nights that make you hate live poker after playing lots of online poker. No bad beats really, just basically nothing. We played for over 12 hours, and neither of us really saw any hands or any real spots to put money in good here. I'll skip to my side of the story...but the both of us were similar nights. Really marginal situations that either play makes sense, or just victims of circumstance.
The first big hand I played was about 3 hours into the session probably, I'm still sitting at roughly 500, winning small pots here and there and missing tons of flops.
So, I decide to vary it up a bit, and raise with Js/10s from UTG to 20. I end up with 2 callers. Pot is 70. The flop is alright for me, 10d/6s/3s. So, I lead out 35, and I get 2 callers again. Pot is 175. The turn is a 6h. I led out 80, and got raised to 200, and re-raised all in for 217. So now there's 670 in the pot, and I have to call 137 into it, still drawing very live with spades(I'm fairly certain). So I call knowing the guy behind me is blocked into just calling, he calls. River bricks a 4c, I check and the other guy shoves into the dry side, and I fold. They both roll over 6's. That's the kind of night it was, over 300 deep on the hand and purely because of a victim of circumstance. Interestingly enough, Griff and I discussed this hand ALOT. So I open it up to the J7 floor. Griff suggested that I could have checked that turn and then folded to the action had it of gone that deep. I kind of agree with him to a point the more I thought about it, so to the J7 crew? Check fold that turn?
Anyway, after that hand Garrett showed up so we ran out to grab some food. After we got back to the room, kindly enough, the same 2 seats were open at the same table for me and Griff, so we sat back down and got back to action.
I want to say, this table had some pretty rediculous hands. Here's a couple true highlights.
UTG raise to 30, call, call, call, call, re-raise all in for 255 total. Fold's around to one of those callers who says "It's either KK or QQ....I call". Not only is he way wrong, this other guy's shoved in 250 preflop with 44. But he called that with A/6 offsuit thinking he was against KK or QQ. Magical.
Later, we saw a 2/4/5 flop with 2 diamonds. Fair amount of action. Turn was a 6c. Putting 2 clubs and 2 diamonds on a 2/4/5/6 board. One guy leads out 200 bucks, the other guy raises to 600 bucks, and the first guy finally calls all in for about 550. The hands? Pocket 7's and pocket 8's. Wow.
Anyway. There was one guy at our table who was kind of hard to figure out. He would always make rediculously sick overbets. But he had rarely not shown down a bad hand. Pots 30, he'll fire 100 with a flopped set. No problem.
So, this hand caught me alot of flack at the table and I'm not really sure why. I raised early position with KK to 25. He re-raised me to 80 total. I re-raised him back to 180 total. And he shoved me all in. At this point, I took a minute to think. I don't think it was overly long, probably 30-35 seconds, I just took a minute to think because of the classic phrase "the 4th bet is always AA", I understand that's at a higher game, but he was playing awkward yet always showing down good hands(at this point). So I took 30 seconds before calling and someone got smart with me, "What the hell are you afraid of?", to which I just simply answered him, no need for sarcasm here, the true answer is basically all the sarcasm I need : "Oh, I don't know? AA maybe?". Anyway, he had AK suited and I held.
After that I moved over to a 1/2 table because 2/5 broke. There I played one real interesting hand. I opened with 77 at a tight table from EP to 10, and got 2 callers. Flop was 2/3/5 rainbow. I led out 25. He called after a minute, and right then I thought he had a mid-pair also and didn't buy my bet on the flop here. So on the turn of a 9 I decided to lead weak, I led out 30. He raised me all in. I went into the tank for a moment now trying to decide where I was. I was sure he had a midpair also, I was just trying to decide if he had 66, 44 or 88. I had him down to that as his range, and eventually called. He showed 44. River bricked a Q and I took down that pot.
That's literally almost all the interesting hands I played, basically broke even for the day when all was said and done. Nothing fancy...just a really long boring day of being card dead and then facing really awkward situations. I didn't write out alot of weird spots where I'd be folding AK preflop in marginal spots where I could honestly have shoved in if I felt like it...but I try and keep poker simple and avoid marginal spots and coin flips against players I know I'm better than. It was just one of those days where the game wouldn't let me win.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Mic check...mic check...is this thing on?
Been a while.
So, as you can probably guess, working at the casino has been eating into my time for poker to a point. Couple that with the fact I've been running fairly badly, and it's nice to have a stable job I enjoy to counter-act the fact that I've been losing money online lately.
Thus, when some co-workers asked if I wanted to come along on a Fallsview poker run, I could hardly pass them up, it'd be my first live poker in a fair while.
So, I went on down to Fallsview Saturday night, and sat at a 5/5 game. The game was absolutely extra-ordinary to be sitting in. Here's a quick run down of the table.
Seat 1 : Me.
Seat 2 : Co-worker, also a very strong player.
Seat 3 : French guy who played fairly well also.
Seat 4 : Player who literally kept reloading 100 bucks at a time damn near every 3rd hand and would go bust rail thin.
Seat 5 : Incredibly tight player who was modestly decent if WAY too tight.
Seat 6 : Just a generally weak player, older guy, fairly standard player.
Seat 7 : Talkitive guy, real lippy with Seat 5 most of the night, an average player at best, was willing to go broke real thin also.
Seat 8 : Good young player.
Seat 9 : Another just typical bad player.
Seat 10 : I can't even describe him, he was a fairly agressive player, and it was moderately successful, but he always took the goofiest line, and it never altered. He'd play every pot he could OOP, and then take the same betting line(30 bucks on the flop since he's first to act, 50 bucks on the turn, 100 bucks on the river). The problem was, he never, ever showed down a bad hand...I think he was just a bad player who never, ever missed making top pair.
Anyway, the table's the kind I like, it wasn't wild, flops could be seen for relatively cheap, and I felt I could outplay anyone at the table. I was incredibly comfortable...this helped :
First rotation, which I typically like to take off, UTG open raises to 30 bucks, and promptly gets 4 callers to me, when I look down at AA. I re-bump to 150, maybe I could go more, but I don't want to lose everyone with a chance at a big hand the first hand I'm putting in play. Blinds fold around and UTG re-shoves, he has me covered. Everyone else folds and I call. He rolls over AQ. Okay...ship the early double up.
After this hand I go back into a shell. Typically I like playing more agressively, but I was a little concerned with a couple solid players at the table to get too wild, so I decided to just sit back and pick small spots to bully the tight players at the table, which basically kept me afloat for a really long card dead spell, until I got into a hand with the ultra-tight player. He raised from fairly EP to 30, and got 2 callers to me, and I looked at QQ. I decided to define it right here, and re-raised to 120. I figured if he even called or re-shoved, I was done with the hand flop regardless. He did call. Other folded. Flop was K/7/4, and he lead out. I didn't even put him on AK, he had folded it several times already to re-raises, so I figured he surely had AA or KK(which is what he had). I had a discussion afterwards with my buddy from the casino about if I double him through on a rag board, and I said no, because I felt as soon as he called I was behind, and wasn't putting another chip in the pot barring a Q on the flop. The only flop I go broke with was KQx.
Anyway, that took a little chunk out of me, and some time elapsed, again, and then the one hand I really wanted to share because I was very happy with my play.
The talkitive guy raised to 25 preflop, and got a couple of callers to me in the SB with 6c/4c, so I called also. At this point the pot was 80. The flop was 4/5/6 rainbow. I led out quick, 60 into the 80, my gameplan at this point was that I wanted to see if I could define where I was in this hand for that price, rather than check and face action to me. I got a big problem when the super-tight player called, and it was made worse by the talkitive guy raising to 180 and declaring he had a high pair. I beleived that, absolutely positive he was telling the truth, so I wanted to get chips in against him, but the tight player calling scared the hell out of me. So I had 2 options now. I could easily fold here and just let the tight guy take him on, or I could shove. Calling isn't an option on this board for sure. So I decided that I'd only get a call from the tight guy if he was holding 7/8, and he had shown a penchant for betting his hands so I felt he'd raise if he had the nuts. And so I shoved in for 850. Tight guy proceeded to go into the tank for honestly forever, really making me sweat that he might not want to let what I assumed was a flopped set go. He finally folded, and the talkitive guy called off with a high pair I never saw since we kept our cards face down as they dealt the turn and river and he mucked to my two pair. Turn river went Q/10 so it wasn't either of those pairs, or maybe he didn't have a high pair. The real story was when the tight player said he folded the low straight, 2/3. I, and the other players who knew what they were doing all beleived him because he had shown a willingness to gamble every once in a while preflop, but avoided any action on any flop without a massive hand, so seeing him in the hand with 2/3 isn't immensely out of question, but I'm really not sure I beleive that all the same. The way the hand played out I felt like it looked like I was just gunning for the talkitive guy, which kind of was the case in that I knew I had him beat and wanted to isolate him. Anyway, the hand was fairly interested, I'm moderately proud of the shove regardless of what the other guy folded, and I was up to around 1300.
I didn't do much for the next long period of time, until the big hand that defined my night more or less. I had run card dead for about 2 hours, barely playing a hand except a goofy hand where I decided to raise from EP with 6d/3d and gotten called by the other good player that wasn't my co-worker, and wound up with a 10/3/3 flop and won a small pot off him.
I was telling my buddy I was ready to leave, because I can't stand sitting in a game and being tight for this long(it had been an 8 hour session by this point and I had played a handful of hands at best that were any conceivable action, saw alot of flops, kept missing).
So, I finally got a decent hand after looking at J/3 and K/2 for 2 hours, Kc/Qc. By no means a world beater, but at this point I was willing to play. So I tossed in a raise to 25 from late position after one EP limp(the guy that seemingly ran so good it scared me and always took the same betting line). The BB called. The flop ran out Jh/10d/3h. Complicated. The BB checked, the other player checked, so I decided to make a C-Bet with a fairly weak draw, and bet out 50 bucks. Both players called. Pot was 225. Turn was a brick, a 4s. They both checked again, and I decided to just check and give it up at this point unless I made something, free card. Gin card for free. River was the 9c. Stone nuts. UTG checks now, and the other player checks. I fire out, 125. UTG smoothe calls the 125, and the other player raises to 350 total. The only concern I have now is that I might be chopping with one of them but I can't figure this out yet, I have 1100 infront of me, so I merely shove all in to see if I can get action from a lower end straight. The BB now goes into the tank/goes into a tirade about how I just rivered him, which confuses me a bit, because I have no earthly idea what he has that I just rivered him except a real piss-poorly played big hand on the flop. He finally folds after a while and the other guy snap calls. I sigh because we're chopping, then see him roll over Q/8. Yay! The pot was just a hare under 2500. The other guy says he folded top two pair, which if that's the case, I've never seen anyone play top 2 on a board like that, that poorly in my life.
That's pretty much the end of my day, from there the table started to deteriorate, and people filed out, me and my buddy ended up having 10 minutes of heads up play since we were leaving at the end of the session they let us stay for the end of the session to play heads up(this is at 6am), so we upped the game to 5/10(because 5/5 heads up is goofy) and he took about 100 off me. That ends my night, cashed out and left.
The thing I've realized during that game is, Fallsview's 5/5 game is one of the ultimate cash cows around. Typically I like playing fairly agressive and mixing it up, but because of how card-dead I was, I realized that even if you don't play a hand in 2 hours, you can still get action. No one cares or pays any attention. They'll always pay you off. You could sit back, play a tight ABC poker game, and be a huge winning player in that game long term. It's my intention to go back there often and sit in that game, it's hard to lose.
So, as you can probably guess, working at the casino has been eating into my time for poker to a point. Couple that with the fact I've been running fairly badly, and it's nice to have a stable job I enjoy to counter-act the fact that I've been losing money online lately.
Thus, when some co-workers asked if I wanted to come along on a Fallsview poker run, I could hardly pass them up, it'd be my first live poker in a fair while.
So, I went on down to Fallsview Saturday night, and sat at a 5/5 game. The game was absolutely extra-ordinary to be sitting in. Here's a quick run down of the table.
Seat 1 : Me.
Seat 2 : Co-worker, also a very strong player.
Seat 3 : French guy who played fairly well also.
Seat 4 : Player who literally kept reloading 100 bucks at a time damn near every 3rd hand and would go bust rail thin.
Seat 5 : Incredibly tight player who was modestly decent if WAY too tight.
Seat 6 : Just a generally weak player, older guy, fairly standard player.
Seat 7 : Talkitive guy, real lippy with Seat 5 most of the night, an average player at best, was willing to go broke real thin also.
Seat 8 : Good young player.
Seat 9 : Another just typical bad player.
Seat 10 : I can't even describe him, he was a fairly agressive player, and it was moderately successful, but he always took the goofiest line, and it never altered. He'd play every pot he could OOP, and then take the same betting line(30 bucks on the flop since he's first to act, 50 bucks on the turn, 100 bucks on the river). The problem was, he never, ever showed down a bad hand...I think he was just a bad player who never, ever missed making top pair.
Anyway, the table's the kind I like, it wasn't wild, flops could be seen for relatively cheap, and I felt I could outplay anyone at the table. I was incredibly comfortable...this helped :
First rotation, which I typically like to take off, UTG open raises to 30 bucks, and promptly gets 4 callers to me, when I look down at AA. I re-bump to 150, maybe I could go more, but I don't want to lose everyone with a chance at a big hand the first hand I'm putting in play. Blinds fold around and UTG re-shoves, he has me covered. Everyone else folds and I call. He rolls over AQ. Okay...ship the early double up.
After this hand I go back into a shell. Typically I like playing more agressively, but I was a little concerned with a couple solid players at the table to get too wild, so I decided to just sit back and pick small spots to bully the tight players at the table, which basically kept me afloat for a really long card dead spell, until I got into a hand with the ultra-tight player. He raised from fairly EP to 30, and got 2 callers to me, and I looked at QQ. I decided to define it right here, and re-raised to 120. I figured if he even called or re-shoved, I was done with the hand flop regardless. He did call. Other folded. Flop was K/7/4, and he lead out. I didn't even put him on AK, he had folded it several times already to re-raises, so I figured he surely had AA or KK(which is what he had). I had a discussion afterwards with my buddy from the casino about if I double him through on a rag board, and I said no, because I felt as soon as he called I was behind, and wasn't putting another chip in the pot barring a Q on the flop. The only flop I go broke with was KQx.
Anyway, that took a little chunk out of me, and some time elapsed, again, and then the one hand I really wanted to share because I was very happy with my play.
The talkitive guy raised to 25 preflop, and got a couple of callers to me in the SB with 6c/4c, so I called also. At this point the pot was 80. The flop was 4/5/6 rainbow. I led out quick, 60 into the 80, my gameplan at this point was that I wanted to see if I could define where I was in this hand for that price, rather than check and face action to me. I got a big problem when the super-tight player called, and it was made worse by the talkitive guy raising to 180 and declaring he had a high pair. I beleived that, absolutely positive he was telling the truth, so I wanted to get chips in against him, but the tight player calling scared the hell out of me. So I had 2 options now. I could easily fold here and just let the tight guy take him on, or I could shove. Calling isn't an option on this board for sure. So I decided that I'd only get a call from the tight guy if he was holding 7/8, and he had shown a penchant for betting his hands so I felt he'd raise if he had the nuts. And so I shoved in for 850. Tight guy proceeded to go into the tank for honestly forever, really making me sweat that he might not want to let what I assumed was a flopped set go. He finally folded, and the talkitive guy called off with a high pair I never saw since we kept our cards face down as they dealt the turn and river and he mucked to my two pair. Turn river went Q/10 so it wasn't either of those pairs, or maybe he didn't have a high pair. The real story was when the tight player said he folded the low straight, 2/3. I, and the other players who knew what they were doing all beleived him because he had shown a willingness to gamble every once in a while preflop, but avoided any action on any flop without a massive hand, so seeing him in the hand with 2/3 isn't immensely out of question, but I'm really not sure I beleive that all the same. The way the hand played out I felt like it looked like I was just gunning for the talkitive guy, which kind of was the case in that I knew I had him beat and wanted to isolate him. Anyway, the hand was fairly interested, I'm moderately proud of the shove regardless of what the other guy folded, and I was up to around 1300.
I didn't do much for the next long period of time, until the big hand that defined my night more or less. I had run card dead for about 2 hours, barely playing a hand except a goofy hand where I decided to raise from EP with 6d/3d and gotten called by the other good player that wasn't my co-worker, and wound up with a 10/3/3 flop and won a small pot off him.
I was telling my buddy I was ready to leave, because I can't stand sitting in a game and being tight for this long(it had been an 8 hour session by this point and I had played a handful of hands at best that were any conceivable action, saw alot of flops, kept missing).
So, I finally got a decent hand after looking at J/3 and K/2 for 2 hours, Kc/Qc. By no means a world beater, but at this point I was willing to play. So I tossed in a raise to 25 from late position after one EP limp(the guy that seemingly ran so good it scared me and always took the same betting line). The BB called. The flop ran out Jh/10d/3h. Complicated. The BB checked, the other player checked, so I decided to make a C-Bet with a fairly weak draw, and bet out 50 bucks. Both players called. Pot was 225. Turn was a brick, a 4s. They both checked again, and I decided to just check and give it up at this point unless I made something, free card. Gin card for free. River was the 9c. Stone nuts. UTG checks now, and the other player checks. I fire out, 125. UTG smoothe calls the 125, and the other player raises to 350 total. The only concern I have now is that I might be chopping with one of them but I can't figure this out yet, I have 1100 infront of me, so I merely shove all in to see if I can get action from a lower end straight. The BB now goes into the tank/goes into a tirade about how I just rivered him, which confuses me a bit, because I have no earthly idea what he has that I just rivered him except a real piss-poorly played big hand on the flop. He finally folds after a while and the other guy snap calls. I sigh because we're chopping, then see him roll over Q/8. Yay! The pot was just a hare under 2500. The other guy says he folded top two pair, which if that's the case, I've never seen anyone play top 2 on a board like that, that poorly in my life.
That's pretty much the end of my day, from there the table started to deteriorate, and people filed out, me and my buddy ended up having 10 minutes of heads up play since we were leaving at the end of the session they let us stay for the end of the session to play heads up(this is at 6am), so we upped the game to 5/10(because 5/5 heads up is goofy) and he took about 100 off me. That ends my night, cashed out and left.
The thing I've realized during that game is, Fallsview's 5/5 game is one of the ultimate cash cows around. Typically I like playing fairly agressive and mixing it up, but because of how card-dead I was, I realized that even if you don't play a hand in 2 hours, you can still get action. No one cares or pays any attention. They'll always pay you off. You could sit back, play a tight ABC poker game, and be a huge winning player in that game long term. It's my intention to go back there often and sit in that game, it's hard to lose.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Wow...over a month and no update...
So, it's been a little while apparantly. Maybe I should update this thing...
So let's see what's happened in the month since I wrote an update for the blog. Well, I got the job at Brantford Casino as a dealer, actually just passed my table test today as I'm writing this. Fairly excited about getting to deal for the casino, even if it isn't Hold'Em right away, it's still a very fun job and financially very sound.
The training for that has been eating my time, and I've barely touched a deck of cards(as it relates to poker I mean)... save for one weekend out at the Elite Poker Tour(my old employ), where I managed to eek out 3 final tables in 3 tournaments and one win, a very rewarding weekend from a poker standpoint.
The only other time I've played poker is making a fairly rediculous idea on Sunday night in some freezing rain that I was so bored I wanted to go to Fallsview and play, so off I went. Normally I'd have gone to Seneca since it's better, but given the timeframe(I was leaving my house at 10:30pm), most of Seneca's big games are dead at that point(I called and 2/4 NL was the biggest they still had running). So I went to Fallsview and hopped on what is actually, outside of the city of Las Vegas, the biggest cash game I've ever played in, the 5/10 NL game at Fallsview.
Right away I felt an overwhelming since of calm at the table, considering I was bringing $1000 to the table, I was fairly calm about it, and in control. Nothing much happened, I didn't want to mix it up early, and I was fairly card dead off the hop, so I got alot of time to get a real solid read on the table, and basically they worked as : Seat 1 had never played a hand for an hour. Seat 2 was a tight but solid player. Seat 3 was a pure POW(Pay-Off Wizard), and a large calling station. Seat 4 was a drunk guy who was begging to give his money away, and knew nearly nothing about Hold'Em, or if he did, the drinks had long since washed that knowledge away. Seat 5 was another big calling station. Seat 6 was a big time regular that knew everyone that worked there, was a large tilt monkey(I came to the table to the sounds of him whining about a bad beat that had happened over 3 hours ago), and wasn't overly impressive. And Seat 7 and 8 were two more fairly tight, reasonably solid players. Seat 9 was me, and Seat 10 was an immensely tight but very solid player I had played with a few times at 5/5 before.
So, there's the layout, down to business. I finally started to really feel comfortable and started looking to mix it up, taking down a few small pots and losing a few pots here and there, when I finally got into my first real big pot of the day.
The drunk asian guy in Seat 4 opened for a raise to 15 dollars UTG. Obviously this is infact, not a raise, so since he had said raise, they comitted him to 20 dollars. 3 players called to me, and I called in fairly late position with 9h/7h. The flop was 7/5/3 rainbow. The UTG player bet out now, 160 into 80. I had been looking to mix it up, and figured there was a strong chance I had the best hand still, so I re-shoved over the top all in for my $950 or so infront of me(to be fair, he only had another $250 infront of him), he snap called and I actually thought I might be in trouble, until he turned over his brilliantly played Q/4 offsuit. The turn was a 9 giving me top 2 and eliminating a Q as an out for him, leaving him just the 6 for the straight, which naturally was the river card. Ship half my stack over there please. He was polite enough, he laughed, he was having a good time, and I didn't really mind, he offered to buy me a drink, but since I don't drink, I declined, so he bought the entire table a round, and bought me a couple red-bull's to stash away for the session. Nice guy. But I wanted that money back.
So, it didn't take overly long for us to tango again, this time, he raised to 30, and I called with Ad/10d, we were the only 2 in the pot. The flop came Ac/7s/8c, and he bet out 100, another one of his rediculous continuation bets that I really had no idea what to do with. I decided to just smoothe call it, and the turn came a 9h, giving me an open ended straight draw to go with the top pair, reasonable kicker. I had seen him get way carried away a few times with ace rag, so 2 pair, or me flat out out-kicking him were all options, but I decided to just smoothe call his $150 turn bet. The river was a Jh. Perfect. He bet out $200, and only having another $150 ontop I shoved it into the middle, he snap called again, with A/J for top 2, and I showed the fact that it was my turn to suck out on him. That got me back to $1100 or so for the session.
Then it was Round 3 with the same guy, this time he raised to 30, and I looked at Ac/9c, and called again. The flop was ugly enough, K/J/9 rainbow, and he again bet out big, 100 again into 60. This is the part where I should explain, when I play, largely inspired by my summer trip to Vegas with Bruno, I almost always wear a hoodie now when I'm playing. This guy was incredibly bothered by the hoodie, and in each of these hands, he had complained about it because he wanted to be face to face with me. At one point he got up and threatened to leave the game(in the middle of this hand...) if he couldn't see my eyes. He asked me to take off the hoodie, obviously I didn't. He then asked the dealer to make me take of the hoodie. The dealer informed him he couldn't, and he looked back to me and said : "If you don't take it off I'm leaving the game". Part of me wanted to take it off just to ensure the dead money stayed, the other part of me was more vocal though, and quickly I snapped back at him, "What the fuck do I care if you stay?". That didn't impress him. Meanwhile, during all this, I'm still considering what to do, and I decide over time that I again think he's just drawing, so I call. The turn pairs that 9. That's wonderful. He bets out again, I call again. The river is a 6, and he goes all in. I snap call and he shows A/6 for bottom pair, and I show the trip 9's for the win. $1600 now.
I lose a bunch of it back over a couple sick hands, various draws and setup hands that lose me money, one in particular where it folds around to me on the button with AQ, I raise to 35, BB re-raises to 100, and I re-raise over to 250, and he shoves in. I fold and he shows he woke up with KK in the BB.
So eventually I'm at around $1200 when one of my favourite hands I've ever played comes up, I'm still so proud of this hand it scares me.
A bunch of players limp to me, and it's my button, I look down at Ad/Kd, and I raise to 60 straight(there were 5 limps so it was basically a pot raise), I get 2 callers behind. The flop is terrible, 8s/5h/3c. They both check and I bet out $100, a weakish bet, but I wanted to define my hand for fairly cheap. Right away Seat 6, the regular everyone on the staff knew, called, and the other guy folded. The way he called, I figured he either had 6/7, or a hand like 7/7, 6/6 and thought they were still good under my AK. The turn paired the 3. He checked again, and I decided he didn't have one of those pairs, because I felt like if he did, he'd have bet it there to chase me away and not let me see a river. Instead he let me fire again, which I did, another $250 with A high. He smoothe called again, and I felt absolutely positive he had 6/7 and was chasing a straight. The river really, really complicated the hand. It was a 7. I knew cold dead that he hit that card, and I had just lost the hand. I also knew there was $900 in the pot, and I didn't want to give it up that easily. He checked the river one last time, and trusting my read entirely I thought he figured I had an overpair this entire way, and was chasing the straight to steal it. I figured any fair bet on the river was going to take it, as long as I didn't wuss out. This entire thought process happened while he was checking, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had announced I was all-in. $800 on an Ace high bluff. If I thought the game was too big for me, this was proof positive it wasn't. He tanked for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually asked me a real dumb question, "Can you beat the board?", the board, once again, was 8/7/5/3/3, so I responded with a simple "Yes.", and he chuckled and said, "I beleive you too.". Well good, because I do beat that board. Infact, both my A and my K are going to play, thank you very much. He then flashed me what I already knew, and exposed the 7d. That wasn't getting him anywhere, I already knew he had that, so my reaction was nothing at all. He finally mucked and I showed him the AK, which nearly had him suicidal, slamming his chips around and swearing like crazy that he knew he had me. About 5 hands later we had a nice discussion about the hand :
"How do you make that third bet with fucking AK? What are you an idiot?"
This is the point where I'd normally let it be, but he was obnoxious, and I decided to come back at him a bit...
"I knew you weren't calling."
"Ya right, I knew you had that, I ALMOST called you fucking donk"
"Well, congratulations, you're almost a good player, and I almost didn't read you like a book, and you almost won all my chips. As it turns out...I do have all your chips, I did read you like a book, and you're not a good player. Bad beat huh?"
That'd be the point he went on insanity tilt and dumped off a wad of money before leaving in a fit of rage.
Anyway, after that pot, I had around $1900. I played one more huge pot before I left...
I call a preflop raise out of the BB with 8c/6c, because I love to put chips in play, and I felt comfortable at the table now. The flop was gin, 5/7/9 rainbow. The only time I flopped the nuts in the session. Naturally I lead right at the flop hard, betting 90 into 110. The original raiser takes two huge stacks of red chips and very slowly and carefully slides them into the pot, before I even have any idea what the dollar value is(I know both of them are over $300 from the size), I toss my stack of black chips into the middle(10 of them). The dealer eventually breaks down the guy's total bet of $740, and I take back 3 blacks and toss out the extra 40 dollars. He rolls over QQ, and I hold, and end my session at $2680, a profit of almost $1700.
And since these things are never exactly linear, or well thought out, crafted or written, who doesn't expect me to randomly switch topics again...back to today.
I went over to a friend's house from the training course at the casino, and we sat down to a game of Chinese Poker(we had both been studying up and practicing for the better part of 2 weeks now of training). We set up and played, and I crushed him for 56 points in about 4 hours of play. The game is maddeningly addicting, and a true gambler's game, moreso than anything I've ever played, the swings can be intense. 2 hours into it he had me by 14 points, and I took 70 points off him in the next 2 hours. Naturally we had money on it, so that's another nice winning poker session recently.
So let's see what's happened in the month since I wrote an update for the blog. Well, I got the job at Brantford Casino as a dealer, actually just passed my table test today as I'm writing this. Fairly excited about getting to deal for the casino, even if it isn't Hold'Em right away, it's still a very fun job and financially very sound.
The training for that has been eating my time, and I've barely touched a deck of cards(as it relates to poker I mean)... save for one weekend out at the Elite Poker Tour(my old employ), where I managed to eek out 3 final tables in 3 tournaments and one win, a very rewarding weekend from a poker standpoint.
The only other time I've played poker is making a fairly rediculous idea on Sunday night in some freezing rain that I was so bored I wanted to go to Fallsview and play, so off I went. Normally I'd have gone to Seneca since it's better, but given the timeframe(I was leaving my house at 10:30pm), most of Seneca's big games are dead at that point(I called and 2/4 NL was the biggest they still had running). So I went to Fallsview and hopped on what is actually, outside of the city of Las Vegas, the biggest cash game I've ever played in, the 5/10 NL game at Fallsview.
Right away I felt an overwhelming since of calm at the table, considering I was bringing $1000 to the table, I was fairly calm about it, and in control. Nothing much happened, I didn't want to mix it up early, and I was fairly card dead off the hop, so I got alot of time to get a real solid read on the table, and basically they worked as : Seat 1 had never played a hand for an hour. Seat 2 was a tight but solid player. Seat 3 was a pure POW(Pay-Off Wizard), and a large calling station. Seat 4 was a drunk guy who was begging to give his money away, and knew nearly nothing about Hold'Em, or if he did, the drinks had long since washed that knowledge away. Seat 5 was another big calling station. Seat 6 was a big time regular that knew everyone that worked there, was a large tilt monkey(I came to the table to the sounds of him whining about a bad beat that had happened over 3 hours ago), and wasn't overly impressive. And Seat 7 and 8 were two more fairly tight, reasonably solid players. Seat 9 was me, and Seat 10 was an immensely tight but very solid player I had played with a few times at 5/5 before.
So, there's the layout, down to business. I finally started to really feel comfortable and started looking to mix it up, taking down a few small pots and losing a few pots here and there, when I finally got into my first real big pot of the day.
The drunk asian guy in Seat 4 opened for a raise to 15 dollars UTG. Obviously this is infact, not a raise, so since he had said raise, they comitted him to 20 dollars. 3 players called to me, and I called in fairly late position with 9h/7h. The flop was 7/5/3 rainbow. The UTG player bet out now, 160 into 80. I had been looking to mix it up, and figured there was a strong chance I had the best hand still, so I re-shoved over the top all in for my $950 or so infront of me(to be fair, he only had another $250 infront of him), he snap called and I actually thought I might be in trouble, until he turned over his brilliantly played Q/4 offsuit. The turn was a 9 giving me top 2 and eliminating a Q as an out for him, leaving him just the 6 for the straight, which naturally was the river card. Ship half my stack over there please. He was polite enough, he laughed, he was having a good time, and I didn't really mind, he offered to buy me a drink, but since I don't drink, I declined, so he bought the entire table a round, and bought me a couple red-bull's to stash away for the session. Nice guy. But I wanted that money back.
So, it didn't take overly long for us to tango again, this time, he raised to 30, and I called with Ad/10d, we were the only 2 in the pot. The flop came Ac/7s/8c, and he bet out 100, another one of his rediculous continuation bets that I really had no idea what to do with. I decided to just smoothe call it, and the turn came a 9h, giving me an open ended straight draw to go with the top pair, reasonable kicker. I had seen him get way carried away a few times with ace rag, so 2 pair, or me flat out out-kicking him were all options, but I decided to just smoothe call his $150 turn bet. The river was a Jh. Perfect. He bet out $200, and only having another $150 ontop I shoved it into the middle, he snap called again, with A/J for top 2, and I showed the fact that it was my turn to suck out on him. That got me back to $1100 or so for the session.
Then it was Round 3 with the same guy, this time he raised to 30, and I looked at Ac/9c, and called again. The flop was ugly enough, K/J/9 rainbow, and he again bet out big, 100 again into 60. This is the part where I should explain, when I play, largely inspired by my summer trip to Vegas with Bruno, I almost always wear a hoodie now when I'm playing. This guy was incredibly bothered by the hoodie, and in each of these hands, he had complained about it because he wanted to be face to face with me. At one point he got up and threatened to leave the game(in the middle of this hand...) if he couldn't see my eyes. He asked me to take off the hoodie, obviously I didn't. He then asked the dealer to make me take of the hoodie. The dealer informed him he couldn't, and he looked back to me and said : "If you don't take it off I'm leaving the game". Part of me wanted to take it off just to ensure the dead money stayed, the other part of me was more vocal though, and quickly I snapped back at him, "What the fuck do I care if you stay?". That didn't impress him. Meanwhile, during all this, I'm still considering what to do, and I decide over time that I again think he's just drawing, so I call. The turn pairs that 9. That's wonderful. He bets out again, I call again. The river is a 6, and he goes all in. I snap call and he shows A/6 for bottom pair, and I show the trip 9's for the win. $1600 now.
I lose a bunch of it back over a couple sick hands, various draws and setup hands that lose me money, one in particular where it folds around to me on the button with AQ, I raise to 35, BB re-raises to 100, and I re-raise over to 250, and he shoves in. I fold and he shows he woke up with KK in the BB.
So eventually I'm at around $1200 when one of my favourite hands I've ever played comes up, I'm still so proud of this hand it scares me.
A bunch of players limp to me, and it's my button, I look down at Ad/Kd, and I raise to 60 straight(there were 5 limps so it was basically a pot raise), I get 2 callers behind. The flop is terrible, 8s/5h/3c. They both check and I bet out $100, a weakish bet, but I wanted to define my hand for fairly cheap. Right away Seat 6, the regular everyone on the staff knew, called, and the other guy folded. The way he called, I figured he either had 6/7, or a hand like 7/7, 6/6 and thought they were still good under my AK. The turn paired the 3. He checked again, and I decided he didn't have one of those pairs, because I felt like if he did, he'd have bet it there to chase me away and not let me see a river. Instead he let me fire again, which I did, another $250 with A high. He smoothe called again, and I felt absolutely positive he had 6/7 and was chasing a straight. The river really, really complicated the hand. It was a 7. I knew cold dead that he hit that card, and I had just lost the hand. I also knew there was $900 in the pot, and I didn't want to give it up that easily. He checked the river one last time, and trusting my read entirely I thought he figured I had an overpair this entire way, and was chasing the straight to steal it. I figured any fair bet on the river was going to take it, as long as I didn't wuss out. This entire thought process happened while he was checking, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had announced I was all-in. $800 on an Ace high bluff. If I thought the game was too big for me, this was proof positive it wasn't. He tanked for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually asked me a real dumb question, "Can you beat the board?", the board, once again, was 8/7/5/3/3, so I responded with a simple "Yes.", and he chuckled and said, "I beleive you too.". Well good, because I do beat that board. Infact, both my A and my K are going to play, thank you very much. He then flashed me what I already knew, and exposed the 7d. That wasn't getting him anywhere, I already knew he had that, so my reaction was nothing at all. He finally mucked and I showed him the AK, which nearly had him suicidal, slamming his chips around and swearing like crazy that he knew he had me. About 5 hands later we had a nice discussion about the hand :
"How do you make that third bet with fucking AK? What are you an idiot?"
This is the point where I'd normally let it be, but he was obnoxious, and I decided to come back at him a bit...
"I knew you weren't calling."
"Ya right, I knew you had that, I ALMOST called you fucking donk"
"Well, congratulations, you're almost a good player, and I almost didn't read you like a book, and you almost won all my chips. As it turns out...I do have all your chips, I did read you like a book, and you're not a good player. Bad beat huh?"
That'd be the point he went on insanity tilt and dumped off a wad of money before leaving in a fit of rage.
Anyway, after that pot, I had around $1900. I played one more huge pot before I left...
I call a preflop raise out of the BB with 8c/6c, because I love to put chips in play, and I felt comfortable at the table now. The flop was gin, 5/7/9 rainbow. The only time I flopped the nuts in the session. Naturally I lead right at the flop hard, betting 90 into 110. The original raiser takes two huge stacks of red chips and very slowly and carefully slides them into the pot, before I even have any idea what the dollar value is(I know both of them are over $300 from the size), I toss my stack of black chips into the middle(10 of them). The dealer eventually breaks down the guy's total bet of $740, and I take back 3 blacks and toss out the extra 40 dollars. He rolls over QQ, and I hold, and end my session at $2680, a profit of almost $1700.
And since these things are never exactly linear, or well thought out, crafted or written, who doesn't expect me to randomly switch topics again...back to today.
I went over to a friend's house from the training course at the casino, and we sat down to a game of Chinese Poker(we had both been studying up and practicing for the better part of 2 weeks now of training). We set up and played, and I crushed him for 56 points in about 4 hours of play. The game is maddeningly addicting, and a true gambler's game, moreso than anything I've ever played, the swings can be intense. 2 hours into it he had me by 14 points, and I took 70 points off him in the next 2 hours. Naturally we had money on it, so that's another nice winning poker session recently.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
How to lose over $1200 in 6 hours...
Because I know you all want lessons, please observe a master at work :
Let's start online. FTOPS started last night with Event #1, a $200+16 buyin NL Hold'Em short handed event. Normally I'm fantastic at these events, I've run deep in every short handed high buyin event I've played online. This time, not so much at all. I was crushed in this event. It started early getting involved in a few pots where I had made hands and got drawn out on and my 3000 starting stack turned into 1600 within 25 minutes or so. Then came the hand that killed me :
I raised the cut-off with 9h/4h, a fairly standard play, especially 6 handed I really tend to opt for alot of preflop raising and general agression before the flop, switching to very conservative post flop because you'll find opponents ranges wider than at a 9 or 10 handed table also. Anyway, both blinds call. The flop was decent enough, Jh/2h/2c. Paired board I never like chasing a flush but the quick 100 bet into 300 and a call behind made me fairly certain my flush was going to be the best hand, so I called behind also. The turn was a 5h. The initial better led 600, and got called, I shoved behind 1150, and got called by both. The river was absolutely devestating. 2s. Three 2's on board and now I know I'm toast. It goes check, bet, fold and the guy holding QJ wins the pot with his full house. The other player had a lower flush than me so the 2 killed my shot at the 4000 chip pot.
After this, since I didn't play poker most of the day in an effort to be ready for a long night in that tournament, I decided I was ready for a game. No tilt anywhere to be seen, I even told a friend how weird it felt, I was dissapointed because I wanted to play more poker than the half hour I lasted. Tilt never factored into it.
So, I decided to make a trip out to Fallsview. Ironically the casino has been debated alot on Jackseven lately, some think it sucks, some think it's great. I agree with column a. I think as a poker room, it's an absolute nightmare. The layout is horrendous(who puts the poker room that far away from any cage?), the service is awful(I still remember the session where I sat at a table for 6 hours asking to be moved to a new table because there was absolutely no action at my table and other people who asked after me getting moved). However, there's alot of action, so it's kind of a necessity for me to go there.
Anyway, I sit down at a 5/5 NL game with $500, and quickly run it up a little bit until this hand happens, that also gave me a big realization.
The cut-off(fairly solid) raises to 35, and I'm on the button with AQo, I call here(a play I'll discuss more later), and the blinds fold. The flop is A/K/7 rainbow. The cut-off leads 65. Here's a difficult spot for me because this is the kind of continuation bet he'd make holding almost ATC still, so I'm almost forced into a call, which I make(more on this later too). The turn is a complete brick, a 3. He checks now, which really confused me because I wasn't sure if that meant he had a hand like QQ or JJ and was giving up, or he had a big hand like AK, KK and was trying to trap another bet out of me. The river was another Ace. Now he leads 150, and again I'm faced with another fairly tough decision, it's possible we have the same hand, it's slightly possible I have him outkicked although I doubt it, so I have to decide if he has QQ or JJ and is trying one last steal effort, or if he has AK or KK and is value betting. I decide wrong and call, and he shows AK.
Now, let me take a moment to dissect this hand a little more. I discussed this with Griffin when I got home, and I discovered something with him during the conversation. Calling ranges should be even wider than I normally make them. I hate the idea of calling any raise with AQ. I already don't call raises with A/10, A/J, KQ, typically, obviously all this is circumstantial, but for the most part. Now I'm fitting AQ into that range. I'd rather have been calling his raise with 6d/4d than with AQ. 6d/4d, J/10 suited, any hands like that are easy post flop. I either hit big, I outplay, or I fold. There's no difficult decisions to leave yourself after the flop like there is playing a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ. All those hands leave you is alot of post flop work. And I feel like I'm too good at this game to put myself in a marginal spot like that where I have very difficult decisions.
A few hands later I go broke with 5s/2s on a As/10s/5d flop, and that leads to me reloading.
During this time, there was one player just steamrolling the table, he was hitting insanely well, a very agressive kid, although he seemed to know more or less what he was doing, he was just very agressive, and at the time was a card rack. All the same, I wanted to tangle because he was very agressive. That lead to this hand after I had worked my stack up again :
There were a few players that left the table and came back and posted(3 in all), they all check everyone else folds to the maniac holding the button, he goes to 50 straight. I'm in the BB and look at AA. Perfect, now I decide that although I don't like limping with players behind, I think I can be fairly safe they can't call after I have, so I just smoothe call the extra 45. The posters all fold.
The flop is 2d/5s/6s. Not a bad flop but not great. I lead at the flop almost as it's being dealt, trying to sell him on a pro-bet here. I bet 120. He instantly comes over the top to 300. I'm holding about 600 total at this point. I decide to just call the extra 180 and see the turn, already deciding I'm letting him set me all-in on the turn(barring a spade then I'll give it some thought). Turn is a blank, 9d. I check and he says all-in and I've called before he even puts a chip in the pot and flipped up my aces. I'm fairly certain I know what he's rolling over and I know I'm a 4 to 1 favourite. Sure enough, he shows me As/Qs. Almost a 2k pot now and I've got it in a 4 to 1 favourite. But, just to give me the final kick in the crotch for the day, the river peels off the 8s. Ship it over there please.
After that I take 1 more bad beat as I drive home, taking the back way from my house I get stuck at the Welland Canal bridge for about 20 minutes. Nice way to top off the night. Overall things kind of sucked.
Let's start online. FTOPS started last night with Event #1, a $200+16 buyin NL Hold'Em short handed event. Normally I'm fantastic at these events, I've run deep in every short handed high buyin event I've played online. This time, not so much at all. I was crushed in this event. It started early getting involved in a few pots where I had made hands and got drawn out on and my 3000 starting stack turned into 1600 within 25 minutes or so. Then came the hand that killed me :
I raised the cut-off with 9h/4h, a fairly standard play, especially 6 handed I really tend to opt for alot of preflop raising and general agression before the flop, switching to very conservative post flop because you'll find opponents ranges wider than at a 9 or 10 handed table also. Anyway, both blinds call. The flop was decent enough, Jh/2h/2c. Paired board I never like chasing a flush but the quick 100 bet into 300 and a call behind made me fairly certain my flush was going to be the best hand, so I called behind also. The turn was a 5h. The initial better led 600, and got called, I shoved behind 1150, and got called by both. The river was absolutely devestating. 2s. Three 2's on board and now I know I'm toast. It goes check, bet, fold and the guy holding QJ wins the pot with his full house. The other player had a lower flush than me so the 2 killed my shot at the 4000 chip pot.
After this, since I didn't play poker most of the day in an effort to be ready for a long night in that tournament, I decided I was ready for a game. No tilt anywhere to be seen, I even told a friend how weird it felt, I was dissapointed because I wanted to play more poker than the half hour I lasted. Tilt never factored into it.
So, I decided to make a trip out to Fallsview. Ironically the casino has been debated alot on Jackseven lately, some think it sucks, some think it's great. I agree with column a. I think as a poker room, it's an absolute nightmare. The layout is horrendous(who puts the poker room that far away from any cage?), the service is awful(I still remember the session where I sat at a table for 6 hours asking to be moved to a new table because there was absolutely no action at my table and other people who asked after me getting moved). However, there's alot of action, so it's kind of a necessity for me to go there.
Anyway, I sit down at a 5/5 NL game with $500, and quickly run it up a little bit until this hand happens, that also gave me a big realization.
The cut-off(fairly solid) raises to 35, and I'm on the button with AQo, I call here(a play I'll discuss more later), and the blinds fold. The flop is A/K/7 rainbow. The cut-off leads 65. Here's a difficult spot for me because this is the kind of continuation bet he'd make holding almost ATC still, so I'm almost forced into a call, which I make(more on this later too). The turn is a complete brick, a 3. He checks now, which really confused me because I wasn't sure if that meant he had a hand like QQ or JJ and was giving up, or he had a big hand like AK, KK and was trying to trap another bet out of me. The river was another Ace. Now he leads 150, and again I'm faced with another fairly tough decision, it's possible we have the same hand, it's slightly possible I have him outkicked although I doubt it, so I have to decide if he has QQ or JJ and is trying one last steal effort, or if he has AK or KK and is value betting. I decide wrong and call, and he shows AK.
Now, let me take a moment to dissect this hand a little more. I discussed this with Griffin when I got home, and I discovered something with him during the conversation. Calling ranges should be even wider than I normally make them. I hate the idea of calling any raise with AQ. I already don't call raises with A/10, A/J, KQ, typically, obviously all this is circumstantial, but for the most part. Now I'm fitting AQ into that range. I'd rather have been calling his raise with 6d/4d than with AQ. 6d/4d, J/10 suited, any hands like that are easy post flop. I either hit big, I outplay, or I fold. There's no difficult decisions to leave yourself after the flop like there is playing a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ. All those hands leave you is alot of post flop work. And I feel like I'm too good at this game to put myself in a marginal spot like that where I have very difficult decisions.
A few hands later I go broke with 5s/2s on a As/10s/5d flop, and that leads to me reloading.
During this time, there was one player just steamrolling the table, he was hitting insanely well, a very agressive kid, although he seemed to know more or less what he was doing, he was just very agressive, and at the time was a card rack. All the same, I wanted to tangle because he was very agressive. That lead to this hand after I had worked my stack up again :
There were a few players that left the table and came back and posted(3 in all), they all check everyone else folds to the maniac holding the button, he goes to 50 straight. I'm in the BB and look at AA. Perfect, now I decide that although I don't like limping with players behind, I think I can be fairly safe they can't call after I have, so I just smoothe call the extra 45. The posters all fold.
The flop is 2d/5s/6s. Not a bad flop but not great. I lead at the flop almost as it's being dealt, trying to sell him on a pro-bet here. I bet 120. He instantly comes over the top to 300. I'm holding about 600 total at this point. I decide to just call the extra 180 and see the turn, already deciding I'm letting him set me all-in on the turn(barring a spade then I'll give it some thought). Turn is a blank, 9d. I check and he says all-in and I've called before he even puts a chip in the pot and flipped up my aces. I'm fairly certain I know what he's rolling over and I know I'm a 4 to 1 favourite. Sure enough, he shows me As/Qs. Almost a 2k pot now and I've got it in a 4 to 1 favourite. But, just to give me the final kick in the crotch for the day, the river peels off the 8s. Ship it over there please.
After that I take 1 more bad beat as I drive home, taking the back way from my house I get stuck at the Welland Canal bridge for about 20 minutes. Nice way to top off the night. Overall things kind of sucked.
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