On Friday after work, Kory and I decided we were going to go to Casino Arizona and move up to the 6-12 Limit Hold'em game. Kory said he had a "pro" coming to join us who would refuse to play lower than 6-12. According to my bankroll rules, I should be playing at 6-12 but I have never made the move out of laziness.
In a relatively common occurence, work interfered and I was the only one at the casino. Kory had to go to a meeting. I sat down and committed myself to studying my opponents.
Very quickly I figured out the two soft spots at the table. They made the typical mistakes you see in limit poker which were calling with incorrect odds and betting hands that have no chance of winning.
Even the other players were not all that impressive. It also made me comfortable that you play the 6-12 game with $2 chips. So in chips it looks just like a 3-6 game.
I finished up $152. I didn't make any great plays. I just played solid poker and hit a couple of draws. It's nice to know that there is not a big step up in talent at the next level.
On Saturday, Bill and I played match #9 in our golf challenge. I had won the first 5 matches and Bill had won the last 3. All I needed was a tie or better in the last two matches to win the $200 bet.
Every summer, the golf course at Phoenix Country Club gets burnt out. For some reason the bermuda rough never seems to come out of the winter grass transition very well. The greens are still pretty good and most of the time, the fairway is ok too. It's just the rough is very bare and a little annoying considering how much we pay for dues.
The good news is that the course plays much easier because the ball rolls out and the ground is still soft, so even hitting off of a bare lie is not too difficult.
I won't bore everyone with the details of the round this time, but it was nice that finally we both played well at the same time. I shot 76 and Bill shot 80. I made a lot of putts and finished the last 6 holes at even par. When you shoot even par, it's hard for someone who is an 8 handicap to make up shots.
The next day, I celebrated by testing out the latest Callaway irons at the PGA Tour Superstore. I fell in love with the Diablo Forged Irons and I phoned in my order to the Country Club. According to the readouts at the store, I was hitting the 6 iron 14 yards farther than my current set. Plus the accuracy was fantastic as well. Hopefully I will get the set soon.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Satellite Sunday for WSOP Main Event
Even though I will be in Wyoming during the Main Event, I figured I should at least give the satellites a shot and see if I can make a big payday. I won the first $80 satellite I entered on Poker Stars to get into their 200 player guarantee for $370.
Overall I am pretty disappointed in the satellite options that were available for the big 200 and 150 guarantees on Poker Stars and Full Tilt respectively. There were not very many scheduled tournaments available. They had the normal list of Sit and Gos but I don't have the time to register and wait around for them to fill up. Full Tilt seemed to encourage all the "gamblers" by offering 500 chip starting stacks and hyper turbos as the most preferred way to get in.
I tried an $109 satellite on Full Tilt and didn't come close, so I gave up there. All my eggs are in the Poker Stars basket
1:34 PM I raise 77 and everyone folds
1:38 PM I raise A3o in sb and the bb folds
1:40 PM It looks like Poker Stars hit their guarantee pretty easily. The minimum prize pool was $2.4 MM. They are already over $2.7 MM and there are still people registering. It's one package for every 34.3 players so it's definitely a long shot.
1:45 PM I raise AsQc in middle position. SB Dirty Cluber calls. Flop is 4s-Kh-9d. I make cbet of 100 and he calls. Turn is Qs. It goes check check. River is a 4c and Dirty Cluber bets 160 into 340 pot. I call and win. Opponent had TT. My stack is now 3,330.
1:48 PM I open steal on button with J5o because the BB has not played a hand in the tournament yet. I win 45 in blinds.
1:49 PM I call after one limper with JTo. One of the blinds comes along. Flop is Jd-Td-2d. It's checked to me, I bet 90 into 105 pot. They both fold.
1:52 PM I have JhJs in middle position. One limper and I raise to 120. MikRo17 who hasn't played a hand yet calls in position. Everyone else folds. Flop is Kd-3c-6s. I bet 150 into 315 pot. He calls. Turn is 5d. I bet 330 and he calls again. River is 2s. I check and he checks behind and wins pot with KhQc. I am down to 2,805. I probably did not need to fire the second bet there against tighty.
2:06 PM I have Ah5d on button. An early limmper wooshka1967 and it's folded to me. I raise to 120 and he calls. Flop is Qd-5c-9d. He checks and I bet
150 and he calls. Turn pairs the 9. He checks and I check. River is 3s. We both check and he shows me KQ. My luck on continuation bets has not been very good today. I am down to 2520 in chips. Blinds are 20-40.
2:09 PM I have 99 in middle position. I raise first in. Tight MikRo17 calls in position and Dirty Cluber makes it 520 from the Big Blind. I fold and MikRo17 folds. Chips at 2,400.
2:13 PM I have A8o in sb. It's folded to button who calls. I call and BB checks. Flop is 9h-Ts-2s. I check fold.
2:14 PM I have Kd3d on button. 3 limpers and I call on button. The small blind who has not raised yet in the tournament raises to 120. He gets 2 callers plus me. The flop is 9h-3s-7c. The raiser checks and middle player bets 80 into a pot of 560. I call and raiser calls. Turn is a Queen and everyone checks. River is a Jack and they check to me. I bet 480 figuring the raiser has AK and middle guy has a weak 9. He thinks for a while and folds.
2:17 PM I call a raise with 55. Flop is all over cards and I fold to a bet.
2:19 PM I pick up AKo. A player who has not raised in 43 hands raises and I three bet him. He folds and I pick up small pot. Chips at 2980.
2:22 PM I have JdJs utg. I min raise to 80 and scanlobj calls. Flop is 6s-3h-Ah. I check and he checks. Turn is As. Now I bet 160 into a 220 pot and he calls. Does he have a flush draw or a medium pocket pair? The river is the Ks. I check and he bets 340. I call hoping he's bluffing or betting a small pair. He rolls over AQ. Well played. I'm down to 2345.
2:26 PM. Registration is still open and prize pool is over $3 MM. Thats at least 250 seats!
2:30 PM. I raise AhJd in early position. wooshka1967 reraises the minimum to 250. I call and hate it. Flop is Ac-Qh-4c. I bet 300 into 575 pot. He calls and only has 735 left. The turn is 2d. I don't know what to do. I bet enough to put him all in and he calls quickly. I am sure he will turn up Ace-King or Ace-Queen. He shows K-T. Huh? I fade the 4 outs and chip up to 3630.
2:32 PM. I have AKo on button. Whatth3hell raises to 400 only leaving 1,165. That's 8x the blind. I am thinking about what to do and I time out. The big blind goes all in and Whatth3hell calls. The flop is K-T-8. Whatth3hell had TT and the big blind had AcQc. I lucked out that I didn't play that hand.
2:35 PM. I raise 22 and get reraised and have to let it go.
2:45 PM AsQc on button. Whatth3hell limps for 60. I raise to 180 and TheFordGuy calls in sb and Whatth3hell folds. Flop is Ad-6h-8h. Blind checks and I bet. He folds.
2:46 PM Very next hand pick up QQ. Bob&Tomshow raises utg to 180. Whatth3hell calls. I 3bet to 600. First raiser folds and Whatth3hell calls. Flop is 3d-2c-7s. He checks and I bet 960 into a 1,470 pot and he folds. I am up to 4,560.
2:47 PM I have AdQd in early position. I raise to 180 and scanlobj reraises to 360. He has not 3 bet yet in the tournament. I call with good odds. Flop is 6s-2s-Jc. I check fold. Down to 4,200.
2:52 PM Final prize pool numbers. $3,034,150 in pool. 252 entries. 253-279th pay $370 and 280th place pays $160. 8669 entries. There are 6579 players left. Wow that is a long way to go.
3:07 PM In other betting news, my last chance at winning any money in the US Open golf tournament is being flushed down the drain by the collapse of Dustin Johnson. He made Triple Bogey, then Double Bogey, and just hit his tee shot on 4 off a cliff into the ocean. I guess I'll need to win the poker tournament.
3:10 PM I pick up AKo in late position. Raise first in and win the blinds. 4,080 in chips.
3:11 PM I raise Ac6c first in to 240. MikRo17 reraises all in for 2100 and I fold.
3:16 PM. nvasaydi raises in middle position. It's folded to me in blinds and I call with 55. Flop is J-6-3. I lead out for 300 and he raises to 600. I fold. Down to 3,250.
3:20 PM I raise Q3o because both of the blinds are the tightest players at the table. It almost works but the BB iacog4 calls. Flop is 6d-Jh-Jd. I make a c-bet and he folds. 3,630 in chips.
3:23 PM I have 44 in BB. The aforementioned tight player iacog4 tries to steal my blind. I debate reraising but just call. Flop is 7s-Jd-7d. I check and he bets 1/2 the pot. I call. Turn is a Ts and goes check check. River is 6d. I decide to bluff/blocking bet 700 and he folds. Up to 4,350 now in chips.
3:29 PM Raise the tight guys again and win the blinds. Next hand I have 77 utg and min raise. Get 2 callers and flop is 8-9-T. It's checked around. The turn is another T putting two flush draws out there. Whatth3hell bets 100 into 700 pot and I fold. Why fuck around on that scary board?
3:33 PM I get KK and Whatth3hell raises in front to 360. I make it 1080 and he calls. An Ace flops and he overbets the pot of 2,475 by going all in for 4,755 (I only have 2,965 so it's not that bad of an overbet) I want to call, but I force myself to fold since I still have plenty of play left. Down to 2,965 in chips.
3:45 PM Nothing playable and have blinded down to 2620. Blinds going to 75-150 with 20 ante. Only 4600 players left to go through.
3:49 PM QdQh under the gun. I raise to 450. The big stack, nvasaydie calls and floxizz the second tightest player at the table goes all in for 2,960. I call and nvasaydie folds. I'm up against AdKh. The flop is 7d-2d-5d, the turn is 3d and I'm drawing dead. I go to the couch to watch the US Open after finishing in 4,352nd place. Meh.
Overall I am pretty disappointed in the satellite options that were available for the big 200 and 150 guarantees on Poker Stars and Full Tilt respectively. There were not very many scheduled tournaments available. They had the normal list of Sit and Gos but I don't have the time to register and wait around for them to fill up. Full Tilt seemed to encourage all the "gamblers" by offering 500 chip starting stacks and hyper turbos as the most preferred way to get in.
I tried an $109 satellite on Full Tilt and didn't come close, so I gave up there. All my eggs are in the Poker Stars basket
1:34 PM I raise 77 and everyone folds
1:38 PM I raise A3o in sb and the bb folds
1:40 PM It looks like Poker Stars hit their guarantee pretty easily. The minimum prize pool was $2.4 MM. They are already over $2.7 MM and there are still people registering. It's one package for every 34.3 players so it's definitely a long shot.
1:45 PM I raise AsQc in middle position. SB Dirty Cluber calls. Flop is 4s-Kh-9d. I make cbet of 100 and he calls. Turn is Qs. It goes check check. River is a 4c and Dirty Cluber bets 160 into 340 pot. I call and win. Opponent had TT. My stack is now 3,330.
1:48 PM I open steal on button with J5o because the BB has not played a hand in the tournament yet. I win 45 in blinds.
1:49 PM I call after one limper with JTo. One of the blinds comes along. Flop is Jd-Td-2d. It's checked to me, I bet 90 into 105 pot. They both fold.
1:52 PM I have JhJs in middle position. One limper and I raise to 120. MikRo17 who hasn't played a hand yet calls in position. Everyone else folds. Flop is Kd-3c-6s. I bet 150 into 315 pot. He calls. Turn is 5d. I bet 330 and he calls again. River is 2s. I check and he checks behind and wins pot with KhQc. I am down to 2,805. I probably did not need to fire the second bet there against tighty.
2:06 PM I have Ah5d on button. An early limmper wooshka1967 and it's folded to me. I raise to 120 and he calls. Flop is Qd-5c-9d. He checks and I bet
150 and he calls. Turn pairs the 9. He checks and I check. River is 3s. We both check and he shows me KQ. My luck on continuation bets has not been very good today. I am down to 2520 in chips. Blinds are 20-40.
2:09 PM I have 99 in middle position. I raise first in. Tight MikRo17 calls in position and Dirty Cluber makes it 520 from the Big Blind. I fold and MikRo17 folds. Chips at 2,400.
2:13 PM I have A8o in sb. It's folded to button who calls. I call and BB checks. Flop is 9h-Ts-2s. I check fold.
2:14 PM I have Kd3d on button. 3 limpers and I call on button. The small blind who has not raised yet in the tournament raises to 120. He gets 2 callers plus me. The flop is 9h-3s-7c. The raiser checks and middle player bets 80 into a pot of 560. I call and raiser calls. Turn is a Queen and everyone checks. River is a Jack and they check to me. I bet 480 figuring the raiser has AK and middle guy has a weak 9. He thinks for a while and folds.
2:17 PM I call a raise with 55. Flop is all over cards and I fold to a bet.
2:19 PM I pick up AKo. A player who has not raised in 43 hands raises and I three bet him. He folds and I pick up small pot. Chips at 2980.
2:22 PM I have JdJs utg. I min raise to 80 and scanlobj calls. Flop is 6s-3h-Ah. I check and he checks. Turn is As. Now I bet 160 into a 220 pot and he calls. Does he have a flush draw or a medium pocket pair? The river is the Ks. I check and he bets 340. I call hoping he's bluffing or betting a small pair. He rolls over AQ. Well played. I'm down to 2345.
2:26 PM. Registration is still open and prize pool is over $3 MM. Thats at least 250 seats!
2:30 PM. I raise AhJd in early position. wooshka1967 reraises the minimum to 250. I call and hate it. Flop is Ac-Qh-4c. I bet 300 into 575 pot. He calls and only has 735 left. The turn is 2d. I don't know what to do. I bet enough to put him all in and he calls quickly. I am sure he will turn up Ace-King or Ace-Queen. He shows K-T. Huh? I fade the 4 outs and chip up to 3630.
2:32 PM. I have AKo on button. Whatth3hell raises to 400 only leaving 1,165. That's 8x the blind. I am thinking about what to do and I time out. The big blind goes all in and Whatth3hell calls. The flop is K-T-8. Whatth3hell had TT and the big blind had AcQc. I lucked out that I didn't play that hand.
2:35 PM. I raise 22 and get reraised and have to let it go.
2:45 PM AsQc on button. Whatth3hell limps for 60. I raise to 180 and TheFordGuy calls in sb and Whatth3hell folds. Flop is Ad-6h-8h. Blind checks and I bet. He folds.
2:46 PM Very next hand pick up QQ. Bob&Tomshow raises utg to 180. Whatth3hell calls. I 3bet to 600. First raiser folds and Whatth3hell calls. Flop is 3d-2c-7s. He checks and I bet 960 into a 1,470 pot and he folds. I am up to 4,560.
2:47 PM I have AdQd in early position. I raise to 180 and scanlobj reraises to 360. He has not 3 bet yet in the tournament. I call with good odds. Flop is 6s-2s-Jc. I check fold. Down to 4,200.
2:52 PM Final prize pool numbers. $3,034,150 in pool. 252 entries. 253-279th pay $370 and 280th place pays $160. 8669 entries. There are 6579 players left. Wow that is a long way to go.
3:07 PM In other betting news, my last chance at winning any money in the US Open golf tournament is being flushed down the drain by the collapse of Dustin Johnson. He made Triple Bogey, then Double Bogey, and just hit his tee shot on 4 off a cliff into the ocean. I guess I'll need to win the poker tournament.
3:10 PM I pick up AKo in late position. Raise first in and win the blinds. 4,080 in chips.
3:11 PM I raise Ac6c first in to 240. MikRo17 reraises all in for 2100 and I fold.
3:16 PM. nvasaydi raises in middle position. It's folded to me in blinds and I call with 55. Flop is J-6-3. I lead out for 300 and he raises to 600. I fold. Down to 3,250.
3:20 PM I raise Q3o because both of the blinds are the tightest players at the table. It almost works but the BB iacog4 calls. Flop is 6d-Jh-Jd. I make a c-bet and he folds. 3,630 in chips.
3:23 PM I have 44 in BB. The aforementioned tight player iacog4 tries to steal my blind. I debate reraising but just call. Flop is 7s-Jd-7d. I check and he bets 1/2 the pot. I call. Turn is a Ts and goes check check. River is 6d. I decide to bluff/blocking bet 700 and he folds. Up to 4,350 now in chips.
3:29 PM Raise the tight guys again and win the blinds. Next hand I have 77 utg and min raise. Get 2 callers and flop is 8-9-T. It's checked around. The turn is another T putting two flush draws out there. Whatth3hell bets 100 into 700 pot and I fold. Why fuck around on that scary board?
3:33 PM I get KK and Whatth3hell raises in front to 360. I make it 1080 and he calls. An Ace flops and he overbets the pot of 2,475 by going all in for 4,755 (I only have 2,965 so it's not that bad of an overbet) I want to call, but I force myself to fold since I still have plenty of play left. Down to 2,965 in chips.
3:45 PM Nothing playable and have blinded down to 2620. Blinds going to 75-150 with 20 ante. Only 4600 players left to go through.
3:49 PM QdQh under the gun. I raise to 450. The big stack, nvasaydie calls and floxizz the second tightest player at the table goes all in for 2,960. I call and nvasaydie folds. I'm up against AdKh. The flop is 7d-2d-5d, the turn is 3d and I'm drawing dead. I go to the couch to watch the US Open after finishing in 4,352nd place. Meh.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Introducing Kory to 2-250 Spread Limit
Last Thursday after work, I convinced Kory to come over to the $1-$2 blind, max bet $250 table at Casino Arizona. Kory has usually played the 3-6 or 4-8 limit tables and done fairly well. He's had some bad experiences in Las Vegas at the 1-2 No Limit tables so he was apprehensive.
I felt bad when he lost his $80 stack on Thursday after check raising all in on a J-8-X board. The donkey called his raise with Q-9 for the inside straight draw and an over card. He hit the straight and Kory went home a loser.
Apparently Kory went back Friday night and had more atrocious luck. Kory has the same personality trait as me, in that if he loses, he becomes more determined to figure the game out and try and come back with a win.
So for our outing on Saturday night, he had called me earlier in the day and said he was ready to try again.
I arrived at the casino a little after 7:00 PM and was sat right away. To my left was an old war vet in a wheel chair with only one leg. To his left was another man in his 50's or 60's with a tattoo on his arm proclaiming that he was the Arizona Gold Gloves Boxing Champion 5 different times.
I was a few spots away from the Big Blind when I sat down, so I took a hand right away. I squeezed out KQ offsuit and put in a $10 raise. The Golden Gloves guy called and then a woman in the Small Blind, reraised me to $22. Now reraises in this game are rare, especially from a woman who I did not initially make out to be a regular player. Since it was so cheap, I decided to call the $12 and the player behind me called as well.
The flop was K-7-6 with two diamonds. The woman checked. So now I think maybe she has QQ and I can take the pot away. I bet $40. Golden Gloves guy raises me to $80 and the woman folds. This is why I hate getting a good hand early in a session. I have no idea how this guy plays and whether he's capable of making a move or if he has K-J and thinks it's the nuts. I decide that I don't want to put my whole $200 in the pot, so I fold. Down $80 in the first 5 minutes.
About 10 minutes later, I get the rest of my $120 in the middle with the second nut straight. There was 4 to a straight on the board and I didn't think the nut straight was out there since they would have had to call a big bet on the flop with a gut shot. Much to my chagrin, there were two other players who called my bet and they both had the same straight.
Kory finally was moved to my table just in time for the biggest cash game bluff I have pulled off in quite a while. A young man with a wool beanie and mirrored sun glasses had sat down not long after I had arrived. He looked like someone who might take the game seriously but not play too well. He was in early position and raised to $7. It was folded to me on the button and I called with the 6-7 of diamonds.
The flop was 2-3-5 with one diamond. The young guy led out for $10 and I called. I figured the flop looks pretty innocent and he could be betting with anything. Plus I have a gutshot and backdoor flush draw, so maybe I can win a big pot.
The turn was a black 6. Now I have top pair with a crappy kicker. My opponent checks. I bet $40 to try and take the pot away. The kid did not look happy when I called the flop, and he really looked like he struggled to find the call on the turn. I could have played conservative and try to get to show down if he had Ace-King but I don't know in the long run if one way is better than the other.
The river paired the 3. He checks again, and now I put the remainder of my chips in the middle which was $110. Once he struggled with the call on the turn and checked the river, I was pretty sure he had a small pocket pair like 77,88,99. The board was pretty scary since there was a possible straight, full house, or even just an over pair to his in my range. He looked pretty sick to his stomach when I made the bet. He never really tried to get a read on me, he just kept looking at the board and his hand for about 3 minutes.
Kory asked me if there was a time limit to making a decision. I said, "I could call the clock, but I think it's pretty rude". The dealer then to my dismay said, "You're on the clock" to the other player. I told the dealer that I didn't want the clock called, but she started telling the other player that he had taken 3 minutes and it was time to make a decision. I think the dealer was a little impatient because another dealer was behind her ready to push her out of her down. Anyways, he finally called with his pocket 8's and I lost my first buy in.
Kory was shocked that I didn't have a full house. The rest of the table was pretty stunned as well. I told my opponent "good call" and reached in my money clip for another $200. Surprisingly I was not too upset about losing the hand. I was happy with myself for making a good read on his cards and following my instinct. I was truly playing the man and not the cards. I definitely think my bluff was a positive Expected Value move, it just didn't work this one time.
In the mean time, I was starting to get a read on the rest of the table and realizing that if I hit a decent hand, I could probably take all of them down because they tended to over value, medium strength hands.
I went on a decent run and built my $200 back up to around $370 when I got the hand of the night. A quiet man with a baseball cap and an ipod raised to $15 in early position. I had not seen him raise a pot yet, and he seemed to be very tight. It was folded to me on the button and I looked down at QQ. Normally I would reraise, but I genuinely thought he might have AA or KK so I just called. The one legged vet called as well in the small blind.
The flop was a beautiful K-Q-8 with two diamonds. I had the Queen of diamonds. The tight player bet $30. I raised to $100 hoping to charge the guy on my left if he had some kind of draw. Plus if the first player has AA, he's probably coming along. Well the vet on my left called and the tight player folded.
The turn was a 9 of hearts. I bet $250 which only left me with about $40 left. He called again quickly. Now I'm worried that he got there with J-T or something silly. The river was a low card. I checked and he checked. He said, "I have Kings". As I rolled over my set of Queens I asked, "Do you have one in your hand or two?" He quickly flashed the K-T and I won a monster pot.
The vet was pissed. Apparently he had lost a good bit of money yesterday and was very proud of himself that he had won most of it back Saturday evening, until I took it all away from him. What a horrible call he made!
Getting back to Kory, he had been nursing his small stack for over an hour. Unfortunately I took some of his money on a couple of unlucky hands for him. The first one we both flopped a flush, but mine was higher. Another hand, I hit a third Jack on the river when he and another guy had both paired their Ace on the flop.
At one point I was up over $400. Then I lost a pot to another woman when she turned a straight against my JJ with a 6-7. I got away from it on the river when she raised. I was thinking about packing it in and that pretty much convinced me it was time to go.
As I was racking up my chips, I saw Kory finally get paid off when he flopped a set of Aces and the other player had turned a set of 6's. That got him back up over $120 in his stack.
I left a $312 winner and started driving home. About 15 minutes into my drive, Kory called to tell me that he had made a heroic comeback and had turned his little stack into $400 in 10 minutes. Then the table grumbled when he racked up and left even for the night. Congrats to Kory. He says he wants to keep playing the bigger game, so I hope he keeps running well.
I felt bad when he lost his $80 stack on Thursday after check raising all in on a J-8-X board. The donkey called his raise with Q-9 for the inside straight draw and an over card. He hit the straight and Kory went home a loser.
Apparently Kory went back Friday night and had more atrocious luck. Kory has the same personality trait as me, in that if he loses, he becomes more determined to figure the game out and try and come back with a win.
So for our outing on Saturday night, he had called me earlier in the day and said he was ready to try again.
I arrived at the casino a little after 7:00 PM and was sat right away. To my left was an old war vet in a wheel chair with only one leg. To his left was another man in his 50's or 60's with a tattoo on his arm proclaiming that he was the Arizona Gold Gloves Boxing Champion 5 different times.
I was a few spots away from the Big Blind when I sat down, so I took a hand right away. I squeezed out KQ offsuit and put in a $10 raise. The Golden Gloves guy called and then a woman in the Small Blind, reraised me to $22. Now reraises in this game are rare, especially from a woman who I did not initially make out to be a regular player. Since it was so cheap, I decided to call the $12 and the player behind me called as well.
The flop was K-7-6 with two diamonds. The woman checked. So now I think maybe she has QQ and I can take the pot away. I bet $40. Golden Gloves guy raises me to $80 and the woman folds. This is why I hate getting a good hand early in a session. I have no idea how this guy plays and whether he's capable of making a move or if he has K-J and thinks it's the nuts. I decide that I don't want to put my whole $200 in the pot, so I fold. Down $80 in the first 5 minutes.
About 10 minutes later, I get the rest of my $120 in the middle with the second nut straight. There was 4 to a straight on the board and I didn't think the nut straight was out there since they would have had to call a big bet on the flop with a gut shot. Much to my chagrin, there were two other players who called my bet and they both had the same straight.
Kory finally was moved to my table just in time for the biggest cash game bluff I have pulled off in quite a while. A young man with a wool beanie and mirrored sun glasses had sat down not long after I had arrived. He looked like someone who might take the game seriously but not play too well. He was in early position and raised to $7. It was folded to me on the button and I called with the 6-7 of diamonds.
The flop was 2-3-5 with one diamond. The young guy led out for $10 and I called. I figured the flop looks pretty innocent and he could be betting with anything. Plus I have a gutshot and backdoor flush draw, so maybe I can win a big pot.
The turn was a black 6. Now I have top pair with a crappy kicker. My opponent checks. I bet $40 to try and take the pot away. The kid did not look happy when I called the flop, and he really looked like he struggled to find the call on the turn. I could have played conservative and try to get to show down if he had Ace-King but I don't know in the long run if one way is better than the other.
The river paired the 3. He checks again, and now I put the remainder of my chips in the middle which was $110. Once he struggled with the call on the turn and checked the river, I was pretty sure he had a small pocket pair like 77,88,99. The board was pretty scary since there was a possible straight, full house, or even just an over pair to his in my range. He looked pretty sick to his stomach when I made the bet. He never really tried to get a read on me, he just kept looking at the board and his hand for about 3 minutes.
Kory asked me if there was a time limit to making a decision. I said, "I could call the clock, but I think it's pretty rude". The dealer then to my dismay said, "You're on the clock" to the other player. I told the dealer that I didn't want the clock called, but she started telling the other player that he had taken 3 minutes and it was time to make a decision. I think the dealer was a little impatient because another dealer was behind her ready to push her out of her down. Anyways, he finally called with his pocket 8's and I lost my first buy in.
Kory was shocked that I didn't have a full house. The rest of the table was pretty stunned as well. I told my opponent "good call" and reached in my money clip for another $200. Surprisingly I was not too upset about losing the hand. I was happy with myself for making a good read on his cards and following my instinct. I was truly playing the man and not the cards. I definitely think my bluff was a positive Expected Value move, it just didn't work this one time.
In the mean time, I was starting to get a read on the rest of the table and realizing that if I hit a decent hand, I could probably take all of them down because they tended to over value, medium strength hands.
I went on a decent run and built my $200 back up to around $370 when I got the hand of the night. A quiet man with a baseball cap and an ipod raised to $15 in early position. I had not seen him raise a pot yet, and he seemed to be very tight. It was folded to me on the button and I looked down at QQ. Normally I would reraise, but I genuinely thought he might have AA or KK so I just called. The one legged vet called as well in the small blind.
The flop was a beautiful K-Q-8 with two diamonds. I had the Queen of diamonds. The tight player bet $30. I raised to $100 hoping to charge the guy on my left if he had some kind of draw. Plus if the first player has AA, he's probably coming along. Well the vet on my left called and the tight player folded.
The turn was a 9 of hearts. I bet $250 which only left me with about $40 left. He called again quickly. Now I'm worried that he got there with J-T or something silly. The river was a low card. I checked and he checked. He said, "I have Kings". As I rolled over my set of Queens I asked, "Do you have one in your hand or two?" He quickly flashed the K-T and I won a monster pot.
The vet was pissed. Apparently he had lost a good bit of money yesterday and was very proud of himself that he had won most of it back Saturday evening, until I took it all away from him. What a horrible call he made!
Getting back to Kory, he had been nursing his small stack for over an hour. Unfortunately I took some of his money on a couple of unlucky hands for him. The first one we both flopped a flush, but mine was higher. Another hand, I hit a third Jack on the river when he and another guy had both paired their Ace on the flop.
At one point I was up over $400. Then I lost a pot to another woman when she turned a straight against my JJ with a 6-7. I got away from it on the river when she raised. I was thinking about packing it in and that pretty much convinced me it was time to go.
As I was racking up my chips, I saw Kory finally get paid off when he flopped a set of Aces and the other player had turned a set of 6's. That got him back up over $120 in his stack.
I left a $312 winner and started driving home. About 15 minutes into my drive, Kory called to tell me that he had made a heroic comeback and had turned his little stack into $400 in 10 minutes. Then the table grumbled when he racked up and left even for the night. Congrats to Kory. He says he wants to keep playing the bigger game, so I hope he keeps running well.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
It Feels Good To Win
Since my last post I had a tremendously bad session at 5-500 Spread Limit Hold'em at the Casino Arizona followed by a fun winning streak which has won that money back and more.
The 5-500 game is a little out of my bankroll league. I am relatively comfortable with the stakes, but when the poker bankroll is between $4,000 and $5,000 I'm pretty sure that variance can raise it's ugly head and wipe me out if I played regularly. I think you need about $10,000 to play that game on a regular basis.
Occasionally I like to take a shot at it when I feel like playing "high". My bad session was marked by two hands, both against the same guy. The first one was when I ran my Ace-King into his two Kings and all the money got in preflop. My opponent had started the hand with less than $200 so I don't think I'll do too bad getting Ace-King all in for 40 BB's in most games.
The second hand, I lost my remaining $300 when we both flopped 3 of a kind but he had me out kicked by one. In a cash game, when you are all in, you are not required to turn over your cards like you are in a tournament. There are many times when players just wait for the cards to run out and then muck after they see they are a loser. However, you do need to show your cards to collect the pot if you are a winner. So it makes no sense to wait, if you have the best hand after your opponent has turned over his cards.
We got all our money in on the turn and I flipped over my hand. My opponent saw my cards and did not look happy. In fact the player next to me commented on that fact and said, "you must be good." The river card was drawn and then he slow rolled me by turning over his hand at the end. So not only was I felted but I was insulted by the slow roll.
This session really depressed me because I was still trying to recover from the $800 plus downswing from the last Las Vegas trip.
After a week or so of laying low, I decided to try the big game again. It was a Saturday night after a two day golf tournament in which I had played 54 holes and drank a decent amount of beer.
The line up in this game was much more to my liking. They were mostly loose passive preflop and tight after the flop. I was not getting many cards at the beginning, but I would steal an occasional pot to keep my stack at it's starting level of $300.
Then I picked up good old Ace-King in the small blind. There were a couple of calls and then I raised to $25. Joel, a middle aged man who looked like he could be a part of the Russian mob, was the only caller. I have seen Joel at the tables before, so I assumed he at least knew what he was doing. The flop was ragged and I fired a $35 bet hoping to take it down. Joel calls. The turn doesn't look like it helps anyone and I bet $75 this time. Joel calls again and quickly.
Now I'm pretty sure he must have at least a pair. Not many players in these games will call two bets with your standard draws. The river misses me again and I am determined not to put another chip in the pot so I check. Joel checks as well and says, "I missed". I roll over my Ace high and drag a nice pot. So not only do I win a decent pot, but I get to advertise that I will fire two bullets on a bluff if I think someone is weak.
The very next hand, Joel is under the gun and decides to straddle to $10. I am now on the button. Everyone folds to me and I look down at AJo. I raise to $30 and Joel calls. The flop is a beautiful A-J-2 rainbow.
Joel checks to me and the hand is playing out exactly like the last one. I bet $30. Joel says, "Did you hit something this time" sarcastically and calls. The turn is a 7. He checks and I bet $60 which he calls again.
The river is a 9. Joel checks for a 3rd time and I decide to try and get some value. I bet $100 leaving me $140 behind. Joel still has me covered. Joel immediately moves all in. A check raise on the river in these games is very rare and almost never a bluff. I thought about it for a while and the problem was that he could literally have any two cards because he straddled. It's probably not the best reason to call, but I rationalized that I just had too much money invested in the pot and going broke with top two pair in this situation would not weigh on my conscious. I called. Joel rolled over 9-2 for a rivered two pair which he thought was good. I quickly showed my A-J and watched his mood turn from joy to anger in a millisecond. He stormed off to go to the ATM while I raked in a huge pot.
It is very rare when you establish your image at the poker table against one opponent and the very next hand, you get to use that image against them. It is a beautiful thing when it happens.
I ended up $540 for the night which erased my earlier loss. Since then I have been on quite a roll.
I have played 3-6 limit at the casino twice and won $110 and $60. I have been playing .25-.50 PLO online and finally found a level with lots of bad players so I can now win. I played a quick session of Rush .50-$1 No Limit and won $80. Plus I have found a new fertile hunting ground, the Rush $12 multi table Sit and Gos.
These start with 150 players and it is played in the Rush format until the final table. Rush tables allow you to fold your hand before it is even your turn to act and then the computer takes you to a brand new table and a new hand almost instantaneously. Even though the structure is a turbo, you can see many more hands per level in this format, than a standard Sit and Go.
Since you can see more hands, it would make sense to be patient and wait for good hands. The great part is that most of the players have not figured this out. They see "Turbo" and think they have to make crazy plays and double up as soon as possible. So far this has allowed me to get paid off quite frequently on my good hands.
So far I have played 9 of these and cashed in 3. The last one was my best where I managed a 4th place for $150. The other two were min cashs. We'll see if my strategy pans out or if I just happen to be running good.
On the golf front, I have continued my winning ways. I beat Bill in our 4th match out at Whirlwind 77-80 to take a 4-0 lead. I was one under par after the front nine and started to think about whether I could shoot par for the first time. That is not the proper mindset, plus I had a couple of bad breaks on the back nine, but I was very happy with how I played.
Currently I am up 13 strokes on the cumulative score bet for $65 plus the $200 overall bet. I offered him a buy out of $250 bet he told me to go fuck myself so I guess I will just have to smash him when we play today.
The 5-500 game is a little out of my bankroll league. I am relatively comfortable with the stakes, but when the poker bankroll is between $4,000 and $5,000 I'm pretty sure that variance can raise it's ugly head and wipe me out if I played regularly. I think you need about $10,000 to play that game on a regular basis.
Occasionally I like to take a shot at it when I feel like playing "high". My bad session was marked by two hands, both against the same guy. The first one was when I ran my Ace-King into his two Kings and all the money got in preflop. My opponent had started the hand with less than $200 so I don't think I'll do too bad getting Ace-King all in for 40 BB's in most games.
The second hand, I lost my remaining $300 when we both flopped 3 of a kind but he had me out kicked by one. In a cash game, when you are all in, you are not required to turn over your cards like you are in a tournament. There are many times when players just wait for the cards to run out and then muck after they see they are a loser. However, you do need to show your cards to collect the pot if you are a winner. So it makes no sense to wait, if you have the best hand after your opponent has turned over his cards.
We got all our money in on the turn and I flipped over my hand. My opponent saw my cards and did not look happy. In fact the player next to me commented on that fact and said, "you must be good." The river card was drawn and then he slow rolled me by turning over his hand at the end. So not only was I felted but I was insulted by the slow roll.
This session really depressed me because I was still trying to recover from the $800 plus downswing from the last Las Vegas trip.
After a week or so of laying low, I decided to try the big game again. It was a Saturday night after a two day golf tournament in which I had played 54 holes and drank a decent amount of beer.
The line up in this game was much more to my liking. They were mostly loose passive preflop and tight after the flop. I was not getting many cards at the beginning, but I would steal an occasional pot to keep my stack at it's starting level of $300.
Then I picked up good old Ace-King in the small blind. There were a couple of calls and then I raised to $25. Joel, a middle aged man who looked like he could be a part of the Russian mob, was the only caller. I have seen Joel at the tables before, so I assumed he at least knew what he was doing. The flop was ragged and I fired a $35 bet hoping to take it down. Joel calls. The turn doesn't look like it helps anyone and I bet $75 this time. Joel calls again and quickly.
Now I'm pretty sure he must have at least a pair. Not many players in these games will call two bets with your standard draws. The river misses me again and I am determined not to put another chip in the pot so I check. Joel checks as well and says, "I missed". I roll over my Ace high and drag a nice pot. So not only do I win a decent pot, but I get to advertise that I will fire two bullets on a bluff if I think someone is weak.
The very next hand, Joel is under the gun and decides to straddle to $10. I am now on the button. Everyone folds to me and I look down at AJo. I raise to $30 and Joel calls. The flop is a beautiful A-J-2 rainbow.
Joel checks to me and the hand is playing out exactly like the last one. I bet $30. Joel says, "Did you hit something this time" sarcastically and calls. The turn is a 7. He checks and I bet $60 which he calls again.
The river is a 9. Joel checks for a 3rd time and I decide to try and get some value. I bet $100 leaving me $140 behind. Joel still has me covered. Joel immediately moves all in. A check raise on the river in these games is very rare and almost never a bluff. I thought about it for a while and the problem was that he could literally have any two cards because he straddled. It's probably not the best reason to call, but I rationalized that I just had too much money invested in the pot and going broke with top two pair in this situation would not weigh on my conscious. I called. Joel rolled over 9-2 for a rivered two pair which he thought was good. I quickly showed my A-J and watched his mood turn from joy to anger in a millisecond. He stormed off to go to the ATM while I raked in a huge pot.
It is very rare when you establish your image at the poker table against one opponent and the very next hand, you get to use that image against them. It is a beautiful thing when it happens.
I ended up $540 for the night which erased my earlier loss. Since then I have been on quite a roll.
I have played 3-6 limit at the casino twice and won $110 and $60. I have been playing .25-.50 PLO online and finally found a level with lots of bad players so I can now win. I played a quick session of Rush .50-$1 No Limit and won $80. Plus I have found a new fertile hunting ground, the Rush $12 multi table Sit and Gos.
These start with 150 players and it is played in the Rush format until the final table. Rush tables allow you to fold your hand before it is even your turn to act and then the computer takes you to a brand new table and a new hand almost instantaneously. Even though the structure is a turbo, you can see many more hands per level in this format, than a standard Sit and Go.
Since you can see more hands, it would make sense to be patient and wait for good hands. The great part is that most of the players have not figured this out. They see "Turbo" and think they have to make crazy plays and double up as soon as possible. So far this has allowed me to get paid off quite frequently on my good hands.
So far I have played 9 of these and cashed in 3. The last one was my best where I managed a 4th place for $150. The other two were min cashs. We'll see if my strategy pans out or if I just happen to be running good.
On the golf front, I have continued my winning ways. I beat Bill in our 4th match out at Whirlwind 77-80 to take a 4-0 lead. I was one under par after the front nine and started to think about whether I could shoot par for the first time. That is not the proper mindset, plus I had a couple of bad breaks on the back nine, but I was very happy with how I played.
Currently I am up 13 strokes on the cumulative score bet for $65 plus the $200 overall bet. I offered him a buy out of $250 bet he told me to go fuck myself so I guess I will just have to smash him when we play today.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Best Weekend of the Year?!
Saturday was the first qualifying round for the Club Championship at the Country Club. Bill managed to get a hall pass to try and qualify as well, so we arranged with the Pro shop to play together and take care of match #4. I am currently ahead 3 - 0 and feeling very confident.
Bill went through the trouble to actually take a lesson on Thursday to fix his broken swing. He called me after his session on the range very excited and told me that I should be very worried. I'll let him in on a little secret. I wasn't very worried.
Golf is a fickle game. Sometimes a new swing thought or slight adjustment can make all the difference. Most of the time a lesson tends to mess with your head. You hit it good on the range in front of the pro, but the first time on the course you tend to revert to your old ways because you have not ingrained the new move yet. Since Bill rarely practices, I was pretty sure whatever the pro was going to tell him, was not going to stick with him for very long. Especially in a pressure situation like the Club Championship Qualifying.
We both started off well with pars on the first hole. I was in great position to look at birdie as I had a wedge in my hand for the third shot, but I bladed it and had a really tough putt from the back of the green all the way to the front. I made a 12 footer for par, which was the first of many great par saves.
Bill's demise began on the second hole when what looked like a good shot on the short par 3, managed to find the water. I hit the green and two putted for par, while Bill made 5.
I don't remember too much about Bill's play on #3, #4, or #5 except that they weren't pars. I made a bogey on 3. On #4 I pushed my drive way right and had to lay up 40 yards short of the green. I hit a great wedge shot to 4 feet and made my par.
On #5, I laid up short of the left fairway bunker with a 5 wood and then hit a great pitching wedge that almost rolled in. I had 15 feet left for birdie and just missed it for an easy par.
#6 is a tough par 4 and this is where Bill really fell apart. I hit another drive way right and Bill followed me over even farther to the right. I had to lay up by hitting a wedge over the trees. Bill was under a tree where he could not make a full swing. He was near the tee box for hole #5 and there were players waiting to hit their tee shots. There was an opening for him to hit the ball to the left and get back into the fairway. Bill was frustrated and a little embarrassed to be where he was in front of these other players. He never looked left. He couldn't go at the pin, because there were trees in the way. Instead he decided to punch out to the right which was stupid because he was still going to have all kinds of tree issues.
After punching out, he took a full swing on his third shot and hit a tree. His 4th shot hit the green and two putted for another 6.
Bill was starting to think about quitting because we were getting Masters updates and his boy, Phil Mickelson was in the hunt. I hit a good drive on the long par 5. Bill yanked his drive left into the trees. We heard it hit the trees but we couldn't see where it bounced off to. Our third playing partner, Chris, said he saw a ball straight down and that's where we started our search. We found a Titliest ball right away and Bill hit a good recovery shot, between the trees that was rolling down the fairway but then in an indication of how his day was going, it just barely trickled into the fairway bunker.
As Bill was getting ready to hit his third shot, Rob came over from the 6th fairway and asked if Bill had hit his ball. Sure enough, Bill looked down at the ball in the bunker and recognized that he had made a huge blunder. Bill was a little mad at Chris for claiming he had found Bill's ball. I have always told Bill that he should make some kind of mark on his ball to identify it, but he has always refused to do it and this is probably the third time I have seen him hit the wrong ball.
Meanwhile, I had hit a good 3 wood down the fairway and had 100 yards to the hole. I hit a solid wedge but it went over the pin and landed 35 feet from the hole. I had a really tough putt that would have been easy to putt right off the front of the green. I hit a pretty good lag putt but still left myself about 5 feet for par. I made the tough putt and stood 2 over par after 7 holes. Bill carded a 9 after the two shot penalty and was 12 over par after 7 holes. He handed me his score card, wished me good luck and walked back into the club house to watch the rest of the Masters.
Part of our bet included a gross score portion where the loser would pay the winner $5 per stroke for every stroke they were behind in gross total for the series. I mentioned this to Bill before he quit and he said to come up with something fair for the round and he would pay it.
I went on to card a 3 over 39 on the front nine. I hit a great 5 iron on #10 to reach the green in two. I made a tough two putt and parred the second hardest hole on the course.
On #11 I was on the green in 2 shots but had a 30 foot putt up the hill for birdie. I gave it a pretty good rap since it was up hill. The line looked good from the beginning but the ball wasn't slowing down. It hit the back of the cup at a good speed and managed to stay in the hole for birdie!
On #12 I barely cleared the lake on the right, but I was under the big tree just beyond the hazard. I had to hit a pitching wedge under the first tree and over the second tree in front of the green. I hit a great shot that ended up 4 feet from the hole. I made that putt and suddenly I had birdied two holes in a row.
The next hole is the start of our club's Amen corner. It's a long 195 yard par 3 with a big lake on the right of the green. I over swung on my hybrid and pulled my shot to the left. It hit a small pine tree 20 yards short of the green and landed underneath the tree. The pin was so close to the front of the green that I did not want to take the chance of trying to hit a high lob shot and coming up short. Instead I hit an 8 iron chip shot that ran up the front of the green and 20 feet past the hole. Now I faced a severe downhill left to right putt for par. I was just trying to nudge it up close and two putt, but my putt rolled past the hole and on to the fringe in front of the green 10 feet past the hole. I missed the combacker for bogey and suddenly erased the two shots I had made up with the birdies.
I thought I had righted the ship when I hit a decent drive on 14 and managed to keep the ball off of Osborn and out of the equipment yard. The problem was that I had tree issues on the right hand side. I tried to hit a 3 metal punch shot low under the trees. Instead my club got under the ball and my shot went too high and into the tree. It made it through the tree but I still had another tree to hit under for my 3rd shot. This time I hit a good punch shot with my 8 iron from 110 yards. It landed in front of the green and bounded through and over the back. Now I had to hit a flop shot to try and get it close. I hit a pretty good one, but I was still 15 feet away for bogey. The cup was cut in the side of a hill so even though I hit a good putt, it rolled away from the hole and left me 4 feet for double bogey. I shakily hit that one in and now I really needed something good to happen.
#15 was the last hole of Amen corner and it was 185 yards into the wind over water. I tried to hit my hybrid again and pulled it left again. This spot is usually dead, because if you go past the green, you have to hit a high shot over a bunker to a green that slopes away from you and a lake on the other side of the green. Now I had a tree directly in my line to the pin, so I was looking for a way to advance my ball closer to the green so I could have a chance at a bogey 4. I decided my best option was to punch out to the right in the fairway short of the hole. This would leave me a 40 yard shot where I would not have to worry about putting the ball in the water and bringing a 6 into play.
I hit a good punch and hit a great wedge shot to 5 feet. I made the putt for 4 and actually felt good about it.
My game came together for a brief moment on 16 as I hit my second shot to the short right pin to 4 feet. Even though my birdie putt was short, it was very down hill and if it was to go more than a foot past the hole, there was a good chance it may roll clear off the green. Somehow I managed to leave this putt 1 inch short. So I was disappointed, but also relieved that at least I finally made a stress free par.
I bogeyed 17 and then played 18 about as flawlessly as I could play it. I had 108 yards to the green for my 3rd shot on the par 5. The pin was tucked to the right hugging the lake. I made a great swing and the ball landed hole high, 20 feet left of the pin. I made a good lag putt and tapped in for a 78. This was the first time I had broken 80 in a two or three months and it was in a pressure situation from the back tees. I was really proud of myself.
Sunday, I spent the afternoon watching the final round of the Masters. I was happy for Phil Mickelson to win. He made some amazing shots to save par and his 2nd shot on 13 from out of the woods was one of the best shots the Masters has ever seen.
Mickelson winning, cost me $75 in my bet with Bill. I had Anthony Kim and Tiger Woods on my team, but Bill had Mickelson and Lee Westwood. Bill called and offered that instead of paying him $75, that I forgive all his strokes in our golf match and call it even. Since I was going to offer him $50 as the buy out amount, I guess that means I made $25.
Then tonight, I had the pleasure of taking in a Suns game. It was a great game that went down to the wire until the Suns got hot from the 3 point line and pulled away.
I can't think of many things I would rather do on a weekend then what I did in the past 48 hours.
Bill went through the trouble to actually take a lesson on Thursday to fix his broken swing. He called me after his session on the range very excited and told me that I should be very worried. I'll let him in on a little secret. I wasn't very worried.
Golf is a fickle game. Sometimes a new swing thought or slight adjustment can make all the difference. Most of the time a lesson tends to mess with your head. You hit it good on the range in front of the pro, but the first time on the course you tend to revert to your old ways because you have not ingrained the new move yet. Since Bill rarely practices, I was pretty sure whatever the pro was going to tell him, was not going to stick with him for very long. Especially in a pressure situation like the Club Championship Qualifying.
We both started off well with pars on the first hole. I was in great position to look at birdie as I had a wedge in my hand for the third shot, but I bladed it and had a really tough putt from the back of the green all the way to the front. I made a 12 footer for par, which was the first of many great par saves.
Bill's demise began on the second hole when what looked like a good shot on the short par 3, managed to find the water. I hit the green and two putted for par, while Bill made 5.
I don't remember too much about Bill's play on #3, #4, or #5 except that they weren't pars. I made a bogey on 3. On #4 I pushed my drive way right and had to lay up 40 yards short of the green. I hit a great wedge shot to 4 feet and made my par.
On #5, I laid up short of the left fairway bunker with a 5 wood and then hit a great pitching wedge that almost rolled in. I had 15 feet left for birdie and just missed it for an easy par.
#6 is a tough par 4 and this is where Bill really fell apart. I hit another drive way right and Bill followed me over even farther to the right. I had to lay up by hitting a wedge over the trees. Bill was under a tree where he could not make a full swing. He was near the tee box for hole #5 and there were players waiting to hit their tee shots. There was an opening for him to hit the ball to the left and get back into the fairway. Bill was frustrated and a little embarrassed to be where he was in front of these other players. He never looked left. He couldn't go at the pin, because there were trees in the way. Instead he decided to punch out to the right which was stupid because he was still going to have all kinds of tree issues.
After punching out, he took a full swing on his third shot and hit a tree. His 4th shot hit the green and two putted for another 6.
Bill was starting to think about quitting because we were getting Masters updates and his boy, Phil Mickelson was in the hunt. I hit a good drive on the long par 5. Bill yanked his drive left into the trees. We heard it hit the trees but we couldn't see where it bounced off to. Our third playing partner, Chris, said he saw a ball straight down and that's where we started our search. We found a Titliest ball right away and Bill hit a good recovery shot, between the trees that was rolling down the fairway but then in an indication of how his day was going, it just barely trickled into the fairway bunker.
As Bill was getting ready to hit his third shot, Rob came over from the 6th fairway and asked if Bill had hit his ball. Sure enough, Bill looked down at the ball in the bunker and recognized that he had made a huge blunder. Bill was a little mad at Chris for claiming he had found Bill's ball. I have always told Bill that he should make some kind of mark on his ball to identify it, but he has always refused to do it and this is probably the third time I have seen him hit the wrong ball.
Meanwhile, I had hit a good 3 wood down the fairway and had 100 yards to the hole. I hit a solid wedge but it went over the pin and landed 35 feet from the hole. I had a really tough putt that would have been easy to putt right off the front of the green. I hit a pretty good lag putt but still left myself about 5 feet for par. I made the tough putt and stood 2 over par after 7 holes. Bill carded a 9 after the two shot penalty and was 12 over par after 7 holes. He handed me his score card, wished me good luck and walked back into the club house to watch the rest of the Masters.
Part of our bet included a gross score portion where the loser would pay the winner $5 per stroke for every stroke they were behind in gross total for the series. I mentioned this to Bill before he quit and he said to come up with something fair for the round and he would pay it.
I went on to card a 3 over 39 on the front nine. I hit a great 5 iron on #10 to reach the green in two. I made a tough two putt and parred the second hardest hole on the course.
On #11 I was on the green in 2 shots but had a 30 foot putt up the hill for birdie. I gave it a pretty good rap since it was up hill. The line looked good from the beginning but the ball wasn't slowing down. It hit the back of the cup at a good speed and managed to stay in the hole for birdie!
On #12 I barely cleared the lake on the right, but I was under the big tree just beyond the hazard. I had to hit a pitching wedge under the first tree and over the second tree in front of the green. I hit a great shot that ended up 4 feet from the hole. I made that putt and suddenly I had birdied two holes in a row.
The next hole is the start of our club's Amen corner. It's a long 195 yard par 3 with a big lake on the right of the green. I over swung on my hybrid and pulled my shot to the left. It hit a small pine tree 20 yards short of the green and landed underneath the tree. The pin was so close to the front of the green that I did not want to take the chance of trying to hit a high lob shot and coming up short. Instead I hit an 8 iron chip shot that ran up the front of the green and 20 feet past the hole. Now I faced a severe downhill left to right putt for par. I was just trying to nudge it up close and two putt, but my putt rolled past the hole and on to the fringe in front of the green 10 feet past the hole. I missed the combacker for bogey and suddenly erased the two shots I had made up with the birdies.
I thought I had righted the ship when I hit a decent drive on 14 and managed to keep the ball off of Osborn and out of the equipment yard. The problem was that I had tree issues on the right hand side. I tried to hit a 3 metal punch shot low under the trees. Instead my club got under the ball and my shot went too high and into the tree. It made it through the tree but I still had another tree to hit under for my 3rd shot. This time I hit a good punch shot with my 8 iron from 110 yards. It landed in front of the green and bounded through and over the back. Now I had to hit a flop shot to try and get it close. I hit a pretty good one, but I was still 15 feet away for bogey. The cup was cut in the side of a hill so even though I hit a good putt, it rolled away from the hole and left me 4 feet for double bogey. I shakily hit that one in and now I really needed something good to happen.
#15 was the last hole of Amen corner and it was 185 yards into the wind over water. I tried to hit my hybrid again and pulled it left again. This spot is usually dead, because if you go past the green, you have to hit a high shot over a bunker to a green that slopes away from you and a lake on the other side of the green. Now I had a tree directly in my line to the pin, so I was looking for a way to advance my ball closer to the green so I could have a chance at a bogey 4. I decided my best option was to punch out to the right in the fairway short of the hole. This would leave me a 40 yard shot where I would not have to worry about putting the ball in the water and bringing a 6 into play.
I hit a good punch and hit a great wedge shot to 5 feet. I made the putt for 4 and actually felt good about it.
My game came together for a brief moment on 16 as I hit my second shot to the short right pin to 4 feet. Even though my birdie putt was short, it was very down hill and if it was to go more than a foot past the hole, there was a good chance it may roll clear off the green. Somehow I managed to leave this putt 1 inch short. So I was disappointed, but also relieved that at least I finally made a stress free par.
I bogeyed 17 and then played 18 about as flawlessly as I could play it. I had 108 yards to the green for my 3rd shot on the par 5. The pin was tucked to the right hugging the lake. I made a great swing and the ball landed hole high, 20 feet left of the pin. I made a good lag putt and tapped in for a 78. This was the first time I had broken 80 in a two or three months and it was in a pressure situation from the back tees. I was really proud of myself.
Sunday, I spent the afternoon watching the final round of the Masters. I was happy for Phil Mickelson to win. He made some amazing shots to save par and his 2nd shot on 13 from out of the woods was one of the best shots the Masters has ever seen.
Mickelson winning, cost me $75 in my bet with Bill. I had Anthony Kim and Tiger Woods on my team, but Bill had Mickelson and Lee Westwood. Bill called and offered that instead of paying him $75, that I forgive all his strokes in our golf match and call it even. Since I was going to offer him $50 as the buy out amount, I guess that means I made $25.
Then tonight, I had the pleasure of taking in a Suns game. It was a great game that went down to the wire until the Suns got hot from the 3 point line and pulled away.
I can't think of many things I would rather do on a weekend then what I did in the past 48 hours.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Why Can't I Figure Out PLO?
My numbers are horrible. Every time I play PLO I end up losing 3-4 buy ins. Luckily I seem to be playing well at No Limit Hold'em and the Double or Nothing Sit and Gos.
I have experimented in my last two sessions with playing a much more passive game. I gave up reraising preflop and I try to only raise when first in and on the button or cut-off. This seems to be working better. I am losing less which I guess is an improvement but it's still not heading in the right direction.
I know a big leak in my game is calling off too much on the river. I think the key is to realize that I may fold an occasional winner, but I will make up for it with the times that I can bluff others on the river when a scare card comes.
The other leak is that I am probably bluffing too often on the flop and turn. I tend to think that I have a weak hand and the board looks innocent so why not fire at it. Then when my opponent just calls, it feels weak and I feel compelled to bet again on the turn. I really think I need to play more of an ABC type game where I bet when I have a good hand, and check much more often when I need more cards to improve.
I have decided to try and outline the PLO book by William Jockusch so I can grasp all the concepts. I definitely still have a lot to learn. It amazes me that a game like this can get so popular so fast, and be so hard to play well.
I have experimented in my last two sessions with playing a much more passive game. I gave up reraising preflop and I try to only raise when first in and on the button or cut-off. This seems to be working better. I am losing less which I guess is an improvement but it's still not heading in the right direction.
I know a big leak in my game is calling off too much on the river. I think the key is to realize that I may fold an occasional winner, but I will make up for it with the times that I can bluff others on the river when a scare card comes.
The other leak is that I am probably bluffing too often on the flop and turn. I tend to think that I have a weak hand and the board looks innocent so why not fire at it. Then when my opponent just calls, it feels weak and I feel compelled to bet again on the turn. I really think I need to play more of an ABC type game where I bet when I have a good hand, and check much more often when I need more cards to improve.
I have decided to try and outline the PLO book by William Jockusch so I can grasp all the concepts. I definitely still have a lot to learn. It amazes me that a game like this can get so popular so fast, and be so hard to play well.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
I take a 2-0 lead against Billy
Golf Match #2 with Bill Watson
The weather forecast said the rain would stop by 7:00 AM on Sunday morning. Since Bill and I were scheduled to play at 10:30 AM, I thought we would be fine. Last weekend, we were supposed to play our second match, but a torrential down pour after 7 holes caused us to pack it in. In the ensuing 7 days, the weather had been picture perfect with highs in the mid 70’s.
This all changed on Saturday night, when the next storm from California hit our desert state. It was a light rain, but it had been going non-stop since midnight. At 9:30 AM I called Bill and said that I did not want to play in the rain again. There are 350 days a year when it is sunny in Arizona and there is no reason to play when the weather is crappy.
Bill pleaded with me to drive to the club and make a “game time” decision. His whole week had been devoted to carving out time so he could play on Sunday and he wasn’t about to let it go just yet. I finally caved and said I would drive down to the club. If it was still raining, I would just have an early lunch.
Sure enough, I got to the club and the rain had stopped. The clouds were still there, but there was no one on the course and it looked like we could play after all.
Bill and I decided not to warm up because we wanted to take advantage of all the good weather we could. We started on the back nine again, because one two-some had jumped ahead of us on the first tee and I did not want to play behind them for the whole round.
I have been having a lot of trouble with 4 foot putts lately and I faced one on the very first hole. Since I did not have any warm up and I was shivering in the 50 degree weather, I missed my first one of the day and took a double bogey six. Bill managed to scrape out a 5.
On #11 (our second hole) I hit 5 iron from the middle of the fairway. I hooked my shot a little left and instead of nestling comfortably in the bunker, it skipped over the bunker and nearly went out of bounds. I had to hit a half pitch over a bunker, with little green to work with and the fence behind me, restricting my swing. I somehow managed to clear the bunker and leave myself 20 feet from the pin on the fringe of the green. Bill had hit his drive way to the right and struggled to make a 6. I two putted for a 5 and we were even again.
#12 Was a comedy of errors. Bill stone cold topped his drive and it went 20 yards. Then he hit his two iron into the lake on the right. Meanwhile I hit a great drive and had a 52 degree wedge in my hand from 100 yards away. I hit a hook into the left hand bunker which plugged. I made a really good shot out of the bunker in that it almost stayed on the green. I two putted for bogey. Bill finally got up to the green and one putted for a 6.
I picked up another stroke on #13 and 3 strokes on #14 when Bill hit his drive out of bounds.
On #15 I pushed my 8 iron to the right. It cleared the lake but it did not make it far enough to get on the green. You would think with all the rain that the grass would be sticky, but it rolled 7 feet back and into the lake. After the penalty and a bad pitch, I managed to miss another short putt and carded a 6. Bill made a par and we were even again. Did I mention that we played terrible?
I managed to eke out a one stroke lead after 9 holes. I missed another short putt on #2 to lose my lead. I finally started to play some decent golf and went 2 over par for the next 4 holes while Bill went 5 over par. Now I have a 3 stroke lead with 4 to play.
From the beginning I was determined to beat Bill by a lot for making me come out in the rain. Bill might get some joy out of just being out of the house even if it’s in the rain, but I don’t. I’d much rather play in the sunshine. I wanted to make Bill pay for convincing me to come out and since each stroke I beat him by was an extra $5, I thought this was a chance to pad my lead.
Instead I missed a short putt on #7 and another one on #8 to make the match interesting once again. Luckily Bill did not capitalize on the first missed putt so I still had a two stroke lead. Bill hit his best drive of the day and his approach shot looked like it was going to be really good. Lucky for me, the wind caught a hold of it and he came up just short of the green. I had pulled my drive left and had left my 200 yard approach shot short and to the right of the green. I had a tough pitch shot over a bunker to a pin that was close to the edge of the green. I was proud of myself for making a good aggressive shot and I had a real chance to save par. Meanwhile Bill hit his putt, but he missed it to the right. I managed to get in the hole in two putts to win by one.
I now lead our match 2-0. Bill has decided that he needs a lesson or some time on the range before he comes back for more pain. I know that I need to spend a lot of time on the putting green. Until then, I will continue to trash talk like I have already one.
The weather forecast said the rain would stop by 7:00 AM on Sunday morning. Since Bill and I were scheduled to play at 10:30 AM, I thought we would be fine. Last weekend, we were supposed to play our second match, but a torrential down pour after 7 holes caused us to pack it in. In the ensuing 7 days, the weather had been picture perfect with highs in the mid 70’s.
This all changed on Saturday night, when the next storm from California hit our desert state. It was a light rain, but it had been going non-stop since midnight. At 9:30 AM I called Bill and said that I did not want to play in the rain again. There are 350 days a year when it is sunny in Arizona and there is no reason to play when the weather is crappy.
Bill pleaded with me to drive to the club and make a “game time” decision. His whole week had been devoted to carving out time so he could play on Sunday and he wasn’t about to let it go just yet. I finally caved and said I would drive down to the club. If it was still raining, I would just have an early lunch.
Sure enough, I got to the club and the rain had stopped. The clouds were still there, but there was no one on the course and it looked like we could play after all.
Bill and I decided not to warm up because we wanted to take advantage of all the good weather we could. We started on the back nine again, because one two-some had jumped ahead of us on the first tee and I did not want to play behind them for the whole round.
I have been having a lot of trouble with 4 foot putts lately and I faced one on the very first hole. Since I did not have any warm up and I was shivering in the 50 degree weather, I missed my first one of the day and took a double bogey six. Bill managed to scrape out a 5.
On #11 (our second hole) I hit 5 iron from the middle of the fairway. I hooked my shot a little left and instead of nestling comfortably in the bunker, it skipped over the bunker and nearly went out of bounds. I had to hit a half pitch over a bunker, with little green to work with and the fence behind me, restricting my swing. I somehow managed to clear the bunker and leave myself 20 feet from the pin on the fringe of the green. Bill had hit his drive way to the right and struggled to make a 6. I two putted for a 5 and we were even again.
#12 Was a comedy of errors. Bill stone cold topped his drive and it went 20 yards. Then he hit his two iron into the lake on the right. Meanwhile I hit a great drive and had a 52 degree wedge in my hand from 100 yards away. I hit a hook into the left hand bunker which plugged. I made a really good shot out of the bunker in that it almost stayed on the green. I two putted for bogey. Bill finally got up to the green and one putted for a 6.
I picked up another stroke on #13 and 3 strokes on #14 when Bill hit his drive out of bounds.
On #15 I pushed my 8 iron to the right. It cleared the lake but it did not make it far enough to get on the green. You would think with all the rain that the grass would be sticky, but it rolled 7 feet back and into the lake. After the penalty and a bad pitch, I managed to miss another short putt and carded a 6. Bill made a par and we were even again. Did I mention that we played terrible?
I managed to eke out a one stroke lead after 9 holes. I missed another short putt on #2 to lose my lead. I finally started to play some decent golf and went 2 over par for the next 4 holes while Bill went 5 over par. Now I have a 3 stroke lead with 4 to play.
From the beginning I was determined to beat Bill by a lot for making me come out in the rain. Bill might get some joy out of just being out of the house even if it’s in the rain, but I don’t. I’d much rather play in the sunshine. I wanted to make Bill pay for convincing me to come out and since each stroke I beat him by was an extra $5, I thought this was a chance to pad my lead.
Instead I missed a short putt on #7 and another one on #8 to make the match interesting once again. Luckily Bill did not capitalize on the first missed putt so I still had a two stroke lead. Bill hit his best drive of the day and his approach shot looked like it was going to be really good. Lucky for me, the wind caught a hold of it and he came up just short of the green. I had pulled my drive left and had left my 200 yard approach shot short and to the right of the green. I had a tough pitch shot over a bunker to a pin that was close to the edge of the green. I was proud of myself for making a good aggressive shot and I had a real chance to save par. Meanwhile Bill hit his putt, but he missed it to the right. I managed to get in the hole in two putts to win by one.
I now lead our match 2-0. Bill has decided that he needs a lesson or some time on the range before he comes back for more pain. I know that I need to spend a lot of time on the putting green. Until then, I will continue to trash talk like I have already one.
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Golf Challenge Starts for 2010
My friend Bill has been troubled by a bad back for the last few months. He has had a series of shots, x-rays, mri's, and even a bone scan to try and figure out what is wrong. Finally they have settled on a diagnosis of arthritis in his Sacro Iliac Joint. Bottom line is that playing golf will not make it worse, so Bill is going to have to figure out a way to manage the pain.
He started doing his physical therapy exercises every day for the last two weeks and it started to feel better. So good in fact that he was ready to get out on the golf course again.
I have been enrolled in the Club's Match Play Championship. It is a handicapped event and I won my first match a couple of weeks ago. My next match was against Zane who happened to knock me out of this very tournament last year.
I played my match with Zane last Saturday. Bill was ready to come out and play as well. I told Bill that I did not want to start our series at the same time as I was playing Zane because that would be too much to think about on the course. Bill felt pretty good on the range and asked me to reconsider. I tried to be nice and give him a practice round, but I figured I might as well take advantage of his rustiness.
We started on the back nine of Phoenix Country Club which is definitely the harder of the two nines. We all played horrible on our first 9 holes. Zane is an 8 handicap, I am a 9, and Bill is a 7. We shot 46, 45, and 44 respectively. I was hitting the ball decently but making silly mental errors and my putting was atrocious.
Somehow I was still one up on Zane making the turn and only one stroke behind Bill. My bad play continued on holes #1,2, and 3 which I played in 3 over par. Somehow Zane did not make up any ground and Bill double bogeyed #3 which now gave me a one stroke lead.
The momentum of the round changed on #4. I hit a solid drive and had a small dilemna on my second shot. The pin was back right and anything over the green makes bogey or worse for sure. I was in between clubs and decided to go with the shorter one. As is usually the case when you go with the short club, you don't hit it pure and my shot barely made it to the front of the green. Now I have a long 45 foot putt over a hill in the middle of the green. Zane is in birdie range, and Bill is in the middle of the green.
I hit my putt on a good line but too firmly and it rolled past the pin and 10 feet by and just off the green. I was still away. I decided to use the putter again and this time I got lucky and made the putt for a miracle par! Zane missed his birdie putt and made par as did Bill.
For the next 5 holes I played great golf and played them in one under par with two birdies. The last birdie came on #9 when I hit the pin from the fairway and the ball stopped 2 feet from the pin. Bill continued to play badly and played the next 5 holes in 5 over par. I closed Zane out 2 up with one to play after I sank a 30 footer on #8 (our 17th hole) for par.
While Bill and I were playing, we trying to decide on what the bet shouuld be over our 10 round challenge. Last year I lost $500. This year we pretty much decided to play for pride with the added wrinkle that we would keep track of our cumulative scores. For every stroke that I win by, he would owe me $5. Vice versa is also true. So our first round was 83 for me and 90 for Bill so I am up $35.
As for poker, I have been on a hot streak of late. The account is up to $5,200 due to a couple of good runs on Full Tilt's Rush Poker and a 5 for 5 set last night on Pokerstars Double or Nothing Sit and Go's.
Today is President's Day and a holiday for me. My Mom and Dad are coming over to watch Jake and I am going to try my luck at the afternoon tournament at Casino Arizona. We'll see how long I can ride this streak.
He started doing his physical therapy exercises every day for the last two weeks and it started to feel better. So good in fact that he was ready to get out on the golf course again.
I have been enrolled in the Club's Match Play Championship. It is a handicapped event and I won my first match a couple of weeks ago. My next match was against Zane who happened to knock me out of this very tournament last year.
I played my match with Zane last Saturday. Bill was ready to come out and play as well. I told Bill that I did not want to start our series at the same time as I was playing Zane because that would be too much to think about on the course. Bill felt pretty good on the range and asked me to reconsider. I tried to be nice and give him a practice round, but I figured I might as well take advantage of his rustiness.
We started on the back nine of Phoenix Country Club which is definitely the harder of the two nines. We all played horrible on our first 9 holes. Zane is an 8 handicap, I am a 9, and Bill is a 7. We shot 46, 45, and 44 respectively. I was hitting the ball decently but making silly mental errors and my putting was atrocious.
Somehow I was still one up on Zane making the turn and only one stroke behind Bill. My bad play continued on holes #1,2, and 3 which I played in 3 over par. Somehow Zane did not make up any ground and Bill double bogeyed #3 which now gave me a one stroke lead.
The momentum of the round changed on #4. I hit a solid drive and had a small dilemna on my second shot. The pin was back right and anything over the green makes bogey or worse for sure. I was in between clubs and decided to go with the shorter one. As is usually the case when you go with the short club, you don't hit it pure and my shot barely made it to the front of the green. Now I have a long 45 foot putt over a hill in the middle of the green. Zane is in birdie range, and Bill is in the middle of the green.
I hit my putt on a good line but too firmly and it rolled past the pin and 10 feet by and just off the green. I was still away. I decided to use the putter again and this time I got lucky and made the putt for a miracle par! Zane missed his birdie putt and made par as did Bill.
For the next 5 holes I played great golf and played them in one under par with two birdies. The last birdie came on #9 when I hit the pin from the fairway and the ball stopped 2 feet from the pin. Bill continued to play badly and played the next 5 holes in 5 over par. I closed Zane out 2 up with one to play after I sank a 30 footer on #8 (our 17th hole) for par.
While Bill and I were playing, we trying to decide on what the bet shouuld be over our 10 round challenge. Last year I lost $500. This year we pretty much decided to play for pride with the added wrinkle that we would keep track of our cumulative scores. For every stroke that I win by, he would owe me $5. Vice versa is also true. So our first round was 83 for me and 90 for Bill so I am up $35.
As for poker, I have been on a hot streak of late. The account is up to $5,200 due to a couple of good runs on Full Tilt's Rush Poker and a 5 for 5 set last night on Pokerstars Double or Nothing Sit and Go's.
Today is President's Day and a holiday for me. My Mom and Dad are coming over to watch Jake and I am going to try my luck at the afternoon tournament at Casino Arizona. We'll see how long I can ride this streak.
Friday, February 05, 2010
New Bankroll Management for 2010
I made a new goal for myself in 2010.
In the past I have been trying to win money to move up in stakes. I guess eventually I thought I would get to a level where the income would be useful and I would feel like a bit of a bigshot.
Well I am giving up on that goal for at least a year. I added a couple hundred dollars to the bankroll to top it out at $5,000. For 2010, every month I will add up the bankroll and if it is above $5,000, I will take out the additional money and spend it on fun things.
I came to this decision over a long period of time. It comes down to a few reasons. One is that if I never take money out of the site, I might as well be playing with fake money. Secondly, the $5,000 stake is large enough to comfortably play .50-1 PLO and $1-$2 No Limit. I have some trouble being a profitable player at these levels, let alone anything higher. Until the UIGEA gets over turned, I think the games are going to continue to get more difficult and it will be tough for me to improve my game fast enough to move up in stakes. The third reason is that I would like to update my iron set of golf clubs including my wedges. I bought my Callaway X-16's with my poker winnings from Party Poker in 2004 and I would like to see if I could pull it off again.
January was my first month under the new plan. It did not go well as I ended the month down a little over $200. The majority of the losing came at PLO as I have been playing like ass over the last 2 weeks.
I am reading the new book from William Jockush on PLO and I am really having a hard time implementing the ideas. Plus I keep getting the feeling that I am getting pushed out of my medium strength hands, and every time I pick up the nuts I never seem to get any action.
I may just go back to grinding away at the Double or Nothing SNG's at Poker Stars again to inflate my cash balance.
In the past I have been trying to win money to move up in stakes. I guess eventually I thought I would get to a level where the income would be useful and I would feel like a bit of a bigshot.
Well I am giving up on that goal for at least a year. I added a couple hundred dollars to the bankroll to top it out at $5,000. For 2010, every month I will add up the bankroll and if it is above $5,000, I will take out the additional money and spend it on fun things.
I came to this decision over a long period of time. It comes down to a few reasons. One is that if I never take money out of the site, I might as well be playing with fake money. Secondly, the $5,000 stake is large enough to comfortably play .50-1 PLO and $1-$2 No Limit. I have some trouble being a profitable player at these levels, let alone anything higher. Until the UIGEA gets over turned, I think the games are going to continue to get more difficult and it will be tough for me to improve my game fast enough to move up in stakes. The third reason is that I would like to update my iron set of golf clubs including my wedges. I bought my Callaway X-16's with my poker winnings from Party Poker in 2004 and I would like to see if I could pull it off again.
January was my first month under the new plan. It did not go well as I ended the month down a little over $200. The majority of the losing came at PLO as I have been playing like ass over the last 2 weeks.
I am reading the new book from William Jockush on PLO and I am really having a hard time implementing the ideas. Plus I keep getting the feeling that I am getting pushed out of my medium strength hands, and every time I pick up the nuts I never seem to get any action.
I may just go back to grinding away at the Double or Nothing SNG's at Poker Stars again to inflate my cash balance.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Luck Can Only Take You So Far
I had a free Wednesday night since I usually play Tennis, but our USTA team has a vacation due to the holiday season. My friend Jeff (see www.dreamdealers.com) has been hosting a weekly tournament at his house for a $40 buy in. I finally decided to make an appearance knowing I could also catch the U of A vs. Nebraska football game at the Holiday Bowl.
The football game started at 6:00 PM while the tournament was not starting until 7:00. This gave me some time to get there early and watch my beloved Wildcats fall behind by a touchdown only 71 seconds into the game after an interception was run back to the 5 yard line. The rest of the game went downhill from there and I was glad to have a poker game to distract me.
We started the game with eight players and 10,000 chips. The starting blinds were 100-200 and the levels were going up every 20 minutes. Jeff was nice enough to provide us with one of his dealers, the lovely and talented Heidi. This helped move the game along and let the players focus on their cards instead of shuffling and dealing.
I’m pretty sure I did not see a flop for the first level as my cards were pretty crappy. Early in the second level I picked up K9o in late position. There was a limper to me and I decided I should play a hand and try to pick up some chips. I raised and got an additional caller in the big blind. The flop missed me, but they checked to me and I bet half the pot. They folded pretty quickly and at least I was back up to my starting stack.
The next two levels went by with me winning an occasional small pot and staying right around 10,000 in chips. The fourth level was 400-800 and it was the last level for rebuys. The next level would be 500-1000. During this level a couple of late arrivals showed up and bought in so now we had 10 players at the table. With two minutes to go in the level, I open raised AsQs to 2,400 in the hi-jack. One of the new players moved his 10k all in. From the brief comments I had heard from the other players, this player had the reputation of being an “action player” and could very well be trying to double up quick during the final stage of the rebuy level. An older gentleman who had been playing somewhat solid called his bet. Here is where the rebuy screws up your thinking sometimes. I did not give the caller too much credit because I figure he knows the other guy is gambling. Plus he only had about 12,000 in chips so he may be trying to make a quick score. I see a chance to triple up if I get lucky. I raise all in.
To my surprise, I was waaay behind. The “action player” had AK and the older gentleman had AA. I can’t get much more behind than that. The flop was K-X-X. The turn was a Jack, and before anyone noticed except for me, the river was a Ten giving me the straight! That goes down as one of my better suckouts. I am now the big chip leader with 35k in chips and no need to take the add-on.
The very next hand, which was the first hand of the 500-1000 level, it was folded to me again in late position and I had 3s4s. I figure I would intimidate a little bit and raise to steal the blinds. The other new player then raised all in with his 9,000 in chips. I did some quick math and figured I was getting better than 2-1 and called. He had Ace-King so it was the best hand I could hope for. Naturally I binked off the straight again on the river to beat him and added more to my big stack.
From that point on, I tried to play pretty tight. It was pretty much ABC poker until the field started to narrow. Jeff was only going to pay the top 3 places and apparently they never chop. As the blinds went up, the short stacks were going broke and I was maintaining my stack. We eventually got down to 4 handed. The man on my right was a nice guy and had built up a stack similar to mine. Unfortunately he lost most of it to his wife, Tina and was down to one 2,000 chip on the bubble. He almost made the miraculous comeback. He won three hands in a row, and then he open raised all in from the small blind into my big blind. I talked myself into calling with Jack-Ten and he rolled over Ace-3. For once, I did not lay a beat on someone and he doubled up again.
Because the blinds were getting so high, I did not feel too comfortable trying to abuse the bubble. One wrong move and I could be crippled as well, so I was not happy to see the comeback. Luckily soon after he got his chips, Tina ended up knocking him out when he flopped top pair, but she had top two pair.
We soon knocked out Ira, a former dealer at Harrah’s, in third place and it was heads up between me and Tina. She was a good player, but she was not very aggressive when it got short handed and she was letting me run her over. The blinds were high enough, that the only real move for her and me was to go all in on any hand we wanted to play. But she kept trying to limp in on her small blind and I kept raising her off the hand.
I had her down close to 2-1 in chips when I finally decided to limp with 10-4 offsuit on the button. She checked and I flopped a ten for top pair. She bet into me and I decided to just call and slow play. The turn was a Queen and she bet again. I became a little concerned, but I thought she still had enough chips to fold if I raised all in. That’s what I did and she hesitated for a couple of seconds, which gave me some hope, before she announced, “call” and had me crushed with Q-5 which was two pair. I slow played my way into a big loss.
I only had 3 big blinds left for the next hand and lost the next all in to come in second place. With all the lucky breaks I was getting, I was sure I was going to win this thing, but made a bad decision and it cost me. Still the $210 was nice.
The football game started at 6:00 PM while the tournament was not starting until 7:00. This gave me some time to get there early and watch my beloved Wildcats fall behind by a touchdown only 71 seconds into the game after an interception was run back to the 5 yard line. The rest of the game went downhill from there and I was glad to have a poker game to distract me.
We started the game with eight players and 10,000 chips. The starting blinds were 100-200 and the levels were going up every 20 minutes. Jeff was nice enough to provide us with one of his dealers, the lovely and talented Heidi. This helped move the game along and let the players focus on their cards instead of shuffling and dealing.
I’m pretty sure I did not see a flop for the first level as my cards were pretty crappy. Early in the second level I picked up K9o in late position. There was a limper to me and I decided I should play a hand and try to pick up some chips. I raised and got an additional caller in the big blind. The flop missed me, but they checked to me and I bet half the pot. They folded pretty quickly and at least I was back up to my starting stack.
The next two levels went by with me winning an occasional small pot and staying right around 10,000 in chips. The fourth level was 400-800 and it was the last level for rebuys. The next level would be 500-1000. During this level a couple of late arrivals showed up and bought in so now we had 10 players at the table. With two minutes to go in the level, I open raised AsQs to 2,400 in the hi-jack. One of the new players moved his 10k all in. From the brief comments I had heard from the other players, this player had the reputation of being an “action player” and could very well be trying to double up quick during the final stage of the rebuy level. An older gentleman who had been playing somewhat solid called his bet. Here is where the rebuy screws up your thinking sometimes. I did not give the caller too much credit because I figure he knows the other guy is gambling. Plus he only had about 12,000 in chips so he may be trying to make a quick score. I see a chance to triple up if I get lucky. I raise all in.
To my surprise, I was waaay behind. The “action player” had AK and the older gentleman had AA. I can’t get much more behind than that. The flop was K-X-X. The turn was a Jack, and before anyone noticed except for me, the river was a Ten giving me the straight! That goes down as one of my better suckouts. I am now the big chip leader with 35k in chips and no need to take the add-on.
The very next hand, which was the first hand of the 500-1000 level, it was folded to me again in late position and I had 3s4s. I figure I would intimidate a little bit and raise to steal the blinds. The other new player then raised all in with his 9,000 in chips. I did some quick math and figured I was getting better than 2-1 and called. He had Ace-King so it was the best hand I could hope for. Naturally I binked off the straight again on the river to beat him and added more to my big stack.
From that point on, I tried to play pretty tight. It was pretty much ABC poker until the field started to narrow. Jeff was only going to pay the top 3 places and apparently they never chop. As the blinds went up, the short stacks were going broke and I was maintaining my stack. We eventually got down to 4 handed. The man on my right was a nice guy and had built up a stack similar to mine. Unfortunately he lost most of it to his wife, Tina and was down to one 2,000 chip on the bubble. He almost made the miraculous comeback. He won three hands in a row, and then he open raised all in from the small blind into my big blind. I talked myself into calling with Jack-Ten and he rolled over Ace-3. For once, I did not lay a beat on someone and he doubled up again.
Because the blinds were getting so high, I did not feel too comfortable trying to abuse the bubble. One wrong move and I could be crippled as well, so I was not happy to see the comeback. Luckily soon after he got his chips, Tina ended up knocking him out when he flopped top pair, but she had top two pair.
We soon knocked out Ira, a former dealer at Harrah’s, in third place and it was heads up between me and Tina. She was a good player, but she was not very aggressive when it got short handed and she was letting me run her over. The blinds were high enough, that the only real move for her and me was to go all in on any hand we wanted to play. But she kept trying to limp in on her small blind and I kept raising her off the hand.
I had her down close to 2-1 in chips when I finally decided to limp with 10-4 offsuit on the button. She checked and I flopped a ten for top pair. She bet into me and I decided to just call and slow play. The turn was a Queen and she bet again. I became a little concerned, but I thought she still had enough chips to fold if I raised all in. That’s what I did and she hesitated for a couple of seconds, which gave me some hope, before she announced, “call” and had me crushed with Q-5 which was two pair. I slow played my way into a big loss.
I only had 3 big blinds left for the next hand and lost the next all in to come in second place. With all the lucky breaks I was getting, I was sure I was going to win this thing, but made a bad decision and it cost me. Still the $210 was nice.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
WBPT, The Craziest Game Ever; Will I Ever Be Good At This Game?
I was in Las Vegas last weekend to tag along with my wife, Michele as she attended the Colorado River User Water Conference at Caesar's Palace. Naturally this meant lots of poker for me along with some alone time with the wife sans Jake.
My first foray down to the poker room at Caesar's was derailed at 10:00 AM because there was not a game running. There were only 2 tables with players at them and they were left overs from the 9:00 AM tournament. I went to get breakfast and kill some time until the 12:00 tournament. This is when I found the casino's excuse for a $5 black jack table.
Shockingly the minimum bet at a table with a live dealer for blackjack on a Thursday morning was $25. The alternative is video blackjack with a virtual dealer. The minimum bet is only $5. The video is creepy because it does not flow smoothly. Plus they change it every 5 minutes. It would be infinitely better if you could just freeze it on the hot dealer in a bikini dealing by the pool. Instead I got a steady diet of a good looking black man followed by a smiling japanese female.
This was fine for killing time, but I found one major fault with the game. Once you have put in a bet, there is no way to delete it or decrease it. I was content to play $5 at a time, but after winning a couple of hands in a row, I decided to up it to $10. I hit a button that said 10 but it increased my bet by 10x so I wound up betting $50. I frantically looked for the delete button as the clock ticked down but I could not find one. Oh well, maybe I'll get lucky. Nope. My 15 busts. I end up losing for $40 for the session before I walk into the poker tournament.
The noon tournament at Caesars had a good turnout with over 80 players for $85 a piece. I was disappointed to find out that the structure has changed since the last time I was there. Now the blind levels are only 20 minutes. They do start you with 130 BB but I knew that would not last too far past the second hour.
There was not anything real exciting about this experience. Some times in tournaments every move you make works out and other times it doesn't. I got caught bluffing repeatedly and my image was pretty bad. I never caught the really good cards to get paid off and I finally busted when an active player on the button raised my big blind. I had Kc9c and decided to ship in 18 BB over the top of him praying for the fold. This time he was raising with a good hand and called with Ace-King. I missed my flush and 3 pair outs and was out in around 50th place.
I played a good amount of No Limit cash games this weekend and here is my list of concerns.
1. Far too often I don't feel comfortable that I know where I am at in a hand. For some reason I think that I should be able to sit at a table at this level and have confidence that I can play better than most of the players at the table. This was rarely happening.
2. I still don't know how to adjust to certain tables that play different than ABC poker. Here's what gives me trouble:
A table with a bunch of loose passive players. They limp whenever they can and hardly ever raise. They never reraise. So I will raise good cards in position and get 3-5 other players in the hand. Unless I flop two pair or better, I can almost always expect to get beat by someone smooth calling AK and flopping top pair or a sneaky guy who hit his set.
The other kind of table is one I seldom run into but it should be insanely profitable. What do you do when you run into a player or two who is content to raise every hand 5x the blind in the dark? He will call almost any raise to see the flop and loves to try and outplay his opponents. Do you risk the reraise and c-bet any flop hoping he misses? Or do you call and try to wade through the other 3-4 players and just hope you hit a monster?
I posted the question on 2+2 and the majority response was to reraise my good hands or hands that can make top pair, good kicker. If I hit top pair or even middle pair, bet strong and hope it holds up. I'm sure that it becomes a much higher variance game and I have to be able to stomach the swings. However, in the long run that is probably the most profitable way to play it.
On Friday night I managed to convince my wife to join me in a forayh over to the Mirage to join the a bunch of Poker Bloggers and the World Poker Blogger Tour WPBT gathering. I found Iggy at the table and he warned me that the 1-2 No Limit game was crazy. "If you have any respect for money, this is not the game for you."
I sat back and watched and met Otis and Linda from PokerWorks . Michele decided to try her luck at the slots so I swallowed hard and decided to put my name on the list for the game.
I was quickly moved into the game and it was as crazy as advertised. The sole purpose of half the players at the table was to lay as bad a beat as possible on someone so they would have a story to write about when they got home. Multiple players were raising and reraising blind.
This is definitely not a game I am comfortable in but it should be profitable if my hands hold up. I was there to have a good time so that's what I decided to do. This didn't change my normal tight poker game much, but I made sure to interact and tell some jokes so maybe in their drunken stupor they would not notice that I was only playing premium hands.
Sure enough, on two different hands I raised preflop with Ace-Queen. Got called in a couple of spots. Flopped the Ace, and check raised all in on the flop. I got called by weaker Aces both times and left the game up over $300. Otis was down over $2,000 when I left. That's how swingy this game was.
My first foray down to the poker room at Caesar's was derailed at 10:00 AM because there was not a game running. There were only 2 tables with players at them and they were left overs from the 9:00 AM tournament. I went to get breakfast and kill some time until the 12:00 tournament. This is when I found the casino's excuse for a $5 black jack table.
Shockingly the minimum bet at a table with a live dealer for blackjack on a Thursday morning was $25. The alternative is video blackjack with a virtual dealer. The minimum bet is only $5. The video is creepy because it does not flow smoothly. Plus they change it every 5 minutes. It would be infinitely better if you could just freeze it on the hot dealer in a bikini dealing by the pool. Instead I got a steady diet of a good looking black man followed by a smiling japanese female.
This was fine for killing time, but I found one major fault with the game. Once you have put in a bet, there is no way to delete it or decrease it. I was content to play $5 at a time, but after winning a couple of hands in a row, I decided to up it to $10. I hit a button that said 10 but it increased my bet by 10x so I wound up betting $50. I frantically looked for the delete button as the clock ticked down but I could not find one. Oh well, maybe I'll get lucky. Nope. My 15 busts. I end up losing for $40 for the session before I walk into the poker tournament.
The noon tournament at Caesars had a good turnout with over 80 players for $85 a piece. I was disappointed to find out that the structure has changed since the last time I was there. Now the blind levels are only 20 minutes. They do start you with 130 BB but I knew that would not last too far past the second hour.
There was not anything real exciting about this experience. Some times in tournaments every move you make works out and other times it doesn't. I got caught bluffing repeatedly and my image was pretty bad. I never caught the really good cards to get paid off and I finally busted when an active player on the button raised my big blind. I had Kc9c and decided to ship in 18 BB over the top of him praying for the fold. This time he was raising with a good hand and called with Ace-King. I missed my flush and 3 pair outs and was out in around 50th place.
I played a good amount of No Limit cash games this weekend and here is my list of concerns.
1. Far too often I don't feel comfortable that I know where I am at in a hand. For some reason I think that I should be able to sit at a table at this level and have confidence that I can play better than most of the players at the table. This was rarely happening.
2. I still don't know how to adjust to certain tables that play different than ABC poker. Here's what gives me trouble:
A table with a bunch of loose passive players. They limp whenever they can and hardly ever raise. They never reraise. So I will raise good cards in position and get 3-5 other players in the hand. Unless I flop two pair or better, I can almost always expect to get beat by someone smooth calling AK and flopping top pair or a sneaky guy who hit his set.
The other kind of table is one I seldom run into but it should be insanely profitable. What do you do when you run into a player or two who is content to raise every hand 5x the blind in the dark? He will call almost any raise to see the flop and loves to try and outplay his opponents. Do you risk the reraise and c-bet any flop hoping he misses? Or do you call and try to wade through the other 3-4 players and just hope you hit a monster?
I posted the question on 2+2 and the majority response was to reraise my good hands or hands that can make top pair, good kicker. If I hit top pair or even middle pair, bet strong and hope it holds up. I'm sure that it becomes a much higher variance game and I have to be able to stomach the swings. However, in the long run that is probably the most profitable way to play it.
On Friday night I managed to convince my wife to join me in a forayh over to the Mirage to join the a bunch of Poker Bloggers and the World Poker Blogger Tour WPBT gathering. I found Iggy at the table and he warned me that the 1-2 No Limit game was crazy. "If you have any respect for money, this is not the game for you."
I sat back and watched and met Otis and Linda from PokerWorks . Michele decided to try her luck at the slots so I swallowed hard and decided to put my name on the list for the game.
I was quickly moved into the game and it was as crazy as advertised. The sole purpose of half the players at the table was to lay as bad a beat as possible on someone so they would have a story to write about when they got home. Multiple players were raising and reraising blind.
This is definitely not a game I am comfortable in but it should be profitable if my hands hold up. I was there to have a good time so that's what I decided to do. This didn't change my normal tight poker game much, but I made sure to interact and tell some jokes so maybe in their drunken stupor they would not notice that I was only playing premium hands.
Sure enough, on two different hands I raised preflop with Ace-Queen. Got called in a couple of spots. Flopped the Ace, and check raised all in on the flop. I got called by weaker Aces both times and left the game up over $300. Otis was down over $2,000 when I left. That's how swingy this game was.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Man Who Never Shows Down a Hand
I left work a little early today to play in the afternoon tournament at Casino Arizona. It's a very convoluted buy in process, but the simple description is I paid $85 for $3,800 in starting chips with the blinds at 25-50.
We started with 90 runners today and I got off to a good start when I raised KQ after two limpers who called. The flop looked innocent so I made a continuation bet and they both folded.
I also made a nice steal in the first level when two other players meekly limped into the pot. The small blind called and I raised on the big blind to 300. They all folded like the weak tight sissies I thought they were.
For most of the first 3 levels, I did not have any great starting hands. All the pots I won were from stealing the blinds or raising preflop and making a bet on the flop to take it down. I believe I had 5,900 in chips at the first break.
While I was heading outside for some fresh air, I ran into my friend Noah at another one of the tournament tables. Noah has had pretty good success in these tournaments and I have been anxious to play with him, to study his play. We said a quick hello and we were back to our separate tables.
Slowly and surely the field was whittling away and we were down to 3 tables. When they consolidated to three tables, I was moved to Noah's table where I noticed that he had a pretty big stack.
Noah played like I expected from our previous conversations. He was very aggressive in that he raised frequently preflop and was always evaluating how to take the pot away from someone. He really does try to play the man more than his cards. That is something I wish I did more of in my game, but it can also come back and bite you in the ass if you are not schooled in some of the fundamentals of the game.
For instance I noticed that Noah would get himself pot committed often when he could have sized his bets differently. He was also raising some strange amounts preflop and I could not figure out if there was a pattern since nobody was really playing back at him.
I ended up doubling up off of him when he raised his AQ into my pocket Kings on my big blind. I was pretty short, so he was going to have to call my reraise with darn near any two cards. I flopped a King so that was a good double up.
A couple of rounds went buy and we ran into each other again. This time he raised in middle position with 66 and I reraised all in from the button with Ace-8. He called and I hit an 8.
Noah eventually went bust with around 25 players left. It was here where I started a very interesting streak. For the next 3-4 levels of play, I was all in somewhere between 10-12 times and not called once! I may have had a decent hand like KQ suited a couple of times, but most of them were well timed raises against players who were tight or it was folded to me at the button or small blind and I just played the odds that my opponent(s) would not have the cards to call me. These were truly some of the tighest players I had seen at a tournament in Casino Arizona.
This strategy kept me between 7 and 13 times the big blind and eventually got me to the final table.
Once we got there we had the inevitable discussion about a chop. The table decided to pool the prize money from 4th to 10th and split it evenly among all of the players. This gave me a guarantee of $342 versus 10th place money of $108.
It was soon after that I finally picked up Aces. I raised to 2.5x the blind and a relatively short stack behind me, raised all in. I called to see his AQ. My hand held up and I finally had a comfortable stack.
It did not last long as the very next hand I raised again with pocket 5's. Another short stack moved all in. I was priced in to call and he turned over Ace-King. I was hoping to win yet another race, but he flopped broadway and I was drawing near dead. A five binked off on the river just to rub a little salt in the wound. I was back to short stack shove mode again.
We lost a couple more players and got down to 7 handed. The players started talking about making a deal again since nobody was a big chip leader. I had chipped up a little to about 10x the blind which put me in 2nd place. This time the amount would be over $700. I was adamant that I was not making a deal now. A tight russian player on my right began to plead with me to make the deal. "$400 is a lot of money...You don't know what will happen....You still have to eliminate 4 other people...blah blah blah". I finally insisted that he shut up because I was not changing my mind.
To make things interesting, I soon had a hand I felt was worthy of a raise. I counted out my chips and the Russian starts chirping again, saying "now there is a big target on you." His bitching did not motivate anyone else to call my raise and I won the blinds again.
I found this to be an interesting psychological dynamic because usually I am quiet and friendly and do not want to draw attention to the fact that I am trying to rape other players blinds. This guy had forced my image out into the open and was encouraging others to take shots at me.
I made a small adjustment and tightened up a little and made sure I only raised hands that I was comfortable calling a reraise with or I just moved all in and hoped they were not frustrated enough to make the spite call. Luckily the Russian was on my right so I was able to act after him during most of the hands and could avoid any direct confrontations.
During this stretch of the tournament I continued to find the right times to raise and win the blinds as nobody wanted to mess with me. We finally lost the Russian when he went all in with JJ and another player woke up with AA.
The blinds were now getting humongous at 2000-4000 and they rolled up to 4000-8000 when we finally got down to 4 players. At this point the chip leader had 135,000 and I was second with 65,000. The other two players had approximately 40,000 in chips. Now I was ready to take a deal. We gave the guy with first place chips $1,200 and the rest of us split up $923 each.
It was one of those tournaments where almost all of my "moves" worked and the other times where I was ready to make a move, someone else would beat me to it and end up saving me money because I ended up folding a losing hand.
I'm sure there was a lot of luck involved, but this tournament really felt like I won it with skill. I was never all in where I was more than a 44% dog and the fact that I was almost never called when I raised says I did a very good job of picking the right spots to steal. The boost to the poker bankroll feels really good.
We started with 90 runners today and I got off to a good start when I raised KQ after two limpers who called. The flop looked innocent so I made a continuation bet and they both folded.
I also made a nice steal in the first level when two other players meekly limped into the pot. The small blind called and I raised on the big blind to 300. They all folded like the weak tight sissies I thought they were.
For most of the first 3 levels, I did not have any great starting hands. All the pots I won were from stealing the blinds or raising preflop and making a bet on the flop to take it down. I believe I had 5,900 in chips at the first break.
While I was heading outside for some fresh air, I ran into my friend Noah at another one of the tournament tables. Noah has had pretty good success in these tournaments and I have been anxious to play with him, to study his play. We said a quick hello and we were back to our separate tables.
Slowly and surely the field was whittling away and we were down to 3 tables. When they consolidated to three tables, I was moved to Noah's table where I noticed that he had a pretty big stack.
Noah played like I expected from our previous conversations. He was very aggressive in that he raised frequently preflop and was always evaluating how to take the pot away from someone. He really does try to play the man more than his cards. That is something I wish I did more of in my game, but it can also come back and bite you in the ass if you are not schooled in some of the fundamentals of the game.
For instance I noticed that Noah would get himself pot committed often when he could have sized his bets differently. He was also raising some strange amounts preflop and I could not figure out if there was a pattern since nobody was really playing back at him.
I ended up doubling up off of him when he raised his AQ into my pocket Kings on my big blind. I was pretty short, so he was going to have to call my reraise with darn near any two cards. I flopped a King so that was a good double up.
A couple of rounds went buy and we ran into each other again. This time he raised in middle position with 66 and I reraised all in from the button with Ace-8. He called and I hit an 8.
Noah eventually went bust with around 25 players left. It was here where I started a very interesting streak. For the next 3-4 levels of play, I was all in somewhere between 10-12 times and not called once! I may have had a decent hand like KQ suited a couple of times, but most of them were well timed raises against players who were tight or it was folded to me at the button or small blind and I just played the odds that my opponent(s) would not have the cards to call me. These were truly some of the tighest players I had seen at a tournament in Casino Arizona.
This strategy kept me between 7 and 13 times the big blind and eventually got me to the final table.
Once we got there we had the inevitable discussion about a chop. The table decided to pool the prize money from 4th to 10th and split it evenly among all of the players. This gave me a guarantee of $342 versus 10th place money of $108.
It was soon after that I finally picked up Aces. I raised to 2.5x the blind and a relatively short stack behind me, raised all in. I called to see his AQ. My hand held up and I finally had a comfortable stack.
It did not last long as the very next hand I raised again with pocket 5's. Another short stack moved all in. I was priced in to call and he turned over Ace-King. I was hoping to win yet another race, but he flopped broadway and I was drawing near dead. A five binked off on the river just to rub a little salt in the wound. I was back to short stack shove mode again.
We lost a couple more players and got down to 7 handed. The players started talking about making a deal again since nobody was a big chip leader. I had chipped up a little to about 10x the blind which put me in 2nd place. This time the amount would be over $700. I was adamant that I was not making a deal now. A tight russian player on my right began to plead with me to make the deal. "$400 is a lot of money...You don't know what will happen....You still have to eliminate 4 other people...blah blah blah". I finally insisted that he shut up because I was not changing my mind.
To make things interesting, I soon had a hand I felt was worthy of a raise. I counted out my chips and the Russian starts chirping again, saying "now there is a big target on you." His bitching did not motivate anyone else to call my raise and I won the blinds again.
I found this to be an interesting psychological dynamic because usually I am quiet and friendly and do not want to draw attention to the fact that I am trying to rape other players blinds. This guy had forced my image out into the open and was encouraging others to take shots at me.
I made a small adjustment and tightened up a little and made sure I only raised hands that I was comfortable calling a reraise with or I just moved all in and hoped they were not frustrated enough to make the spite call. Luckily the Russian was on my right so I was able to act after him during most of the hands and could avoid any direct confrontations.
During this stretch of the tournament I continued to find the right times to raise and win the blinds as nobody wanted to mess with me. We finally lost the Russian when he went all in with JJ and another player woke up with AA.
The blinds were now getting humongous at 2000-4000 and they rolled up to 4000-8000 when we finally got down to 4 players. At this point the chip leader had 135,000 and I was second with 65,000. The other two players had approximately 40,000 in chips. Now I was ready to take a deal. We gave the guy with first place chips $1,200 and the rest of us split up $923 each.
It was one of those tournaments where almost all of my "moves" worked and the other times where I was ready to make a move, someone else would beat me to it and end up saving me money because I ended up folding a losing hand.
I'm sure there was a lot of luck involved, but this tournament really felt like I won it with skill. I was never all in where I was more than a 44% dog and the fact that I was almost never called when I raised says I did a very good job of picking the right spots to steal. The boost to the poker bankroll feels really good.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Have I Finally Found The Golden Goose?
I mostly play on Full Tilt because I have a rake back deal and for the most part it is just as good as Pokerstars. I happened to be exploring over at Pokerstars a couple of weeks ago and I noticed they have "Double or Nothing" Sit-n-Go's. This means they start with 10 players at one table and if you make the final 5, you double your money.
I have been bemoaning the fact that there were not tournaments like this just for cash. I have been decidely plus expected value in my satellite experience because so many players make tournament killing mistakes when they could afford to fold their way into the money.
My prayers have been answered. Apparently they have been running for months and I was ignorantly unaware.
I know it's still a small sample size but I have now played 39 of these tournaments at the $21.60 level and I have cashed in 26. I can play up to 5 at a time without much trouble and today I accomplished the ultimate goal which was to play 5 and cash in all five.
There are extensive posts now on 2+2 about these tables and I'm sure the hard core players are quickly figuring out the mathematically perfect way to play these tournaments. But for now, there are 5-6 fishes at every table and I am happy to take advantage.
In other news, I have finally put together a winning streak at Casino Arizona. The last 3 times I have played, I have left with more money than I started with. To make things even more amazing, it has been in three different games: 3-6 limit hold'em, 1-2 No Limit Hold'em, and 3-6 limit omaha 8 or better.
I have been bemoaning the fact that there were not tournaments like this just for cash. I have been decidely plus expected value in my satellite experience because so many players make tournament killing mistakes when they could afford to fold their way into the money.
My prayers have been answered. Apparently they have been running for months and I was ignorantly unaware.
I know it's still a small sample size but I have now played 39 of these tournaments at the $21.60 level and I have cashed in 26. I can play up to 5 at a time without much trouble and today I accomplished the ultimate goal which was to play 5 and cash in all five.
There are extensive posts now on 2+2 about these tables and I'm sure the hard core players are quickly figuring out the mathematically perfect way to play these tournaments. But for now, there are 5-6 fishes at every table and I am happy to take advantage.
In other news, I have finally put together a winning streak at Casino Arizona. The last 3 times I have played, I have left with more money than I started with. To make things even more amazing, it has been in three different games: 3-6 limit hold'em, 1-2 No Limit Hold'em, and 3-6 limit omaha 8 or better.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Still Backsliding
My poker bankroll is all the way down to close to $2,000. I don't know what I am doing wrong. When I play PLO or No Limit Hold'em it seems that whenever I make a good hand, nobody pays me off. I am still pretty good about not losing a lot, but I never win the big pots to get me to a big winning session.
Lets do some analysis of my last few No Limit Hold'em online sessions:
10/2 299 hands won $52.45
Hands won over $20 5 for a total of $202
Hands lost over $20 3 for a total of $161
9/29 339 hands lost $35.75
Hands won over $20 2 for a total of $46
Hands lost over $20 0
9/22 243 hands lost $21.65
Hands won over $20 1 for $39
Hands lost over $20 1 for $51
9/19 574 hands lost $394
Hands won over $20 3 for $84
Hands lost over $20 9 for $417 Ouch!
9/17 329 hands lost $197
Hands won over $20 6 for $184
Hands lost over $20 7 for $300
9/13 100 hands lost $108
Hands won over $20 0
Hands lost over $20 1 for $100
9/12 469 hands lost $125
Hands won over $20 6 for $232
Hands lost over $20 8 for $285
So over my last few sessions I have won 23 big pots and lost 29. So it would make sense to lose less big pots. However I still think that I am not winning enough on the big pots to offset the losses. It also seems like some of the big losses were cold decks or bad beats so maybe I just need to run a bit better as well.
After some struggles with Hold'em Manager I finally broke down my hands by starting cards to see where I was losing money. I have only had Hold'em manager for almost 3 months so I only have approximately 5000 hands. My suspicions were confirmed.
AA 15 times won $22
KK 16 times lost $73
QQ 17 times even
AKo or AKs 42 times lost $152
These are supposed to be very profitable hands. I went back and reviewed the hands and I saw a few minor mistakes but I did not see any horrible misplays. The main thing I noticed was that I five bet shoved a few times with AK and got called with 99 and TT, but I never seemed to get called by those hands when I did it with AA or KK. They usually folded after my first raise. I'd say that's a bad run of cards.
The Casino Arizona is still treating me like shit. I must lose 80% of the time in limit hold'em sessions this year. I am really striving to improve on reading people and choosing my times to bluff much more selectively. However, I can't seem to catch a break when I do have the winning hand on the flop or turn. I seem to be running pretty bad on the river. I know I sound like every other whiner on the internet forums, but since hardly anyone else reads this blog, I'll shout out into the void.
I will be heading out to Fort McDowell tonight for another football promotion. If I can't win the money from the players I might as well try and win it back from the casinos.
Lets do some analysis of my last few No Limit Hold'em online sessions:
10/2 299 hands won $52.45
Hands won over $20 5 for a total of $202
Hands lost over $20 3 for a total of $161
9/29 339 hands lost $35.75
Hands won over $20 2 for a total of $46
Hands lost over $20 0
9/22 243 hands lost $21.65
Hands won over $20 1 for $39
Hands lost over $20 1 for $51
9/19 574 hands lost $394
Hands won over $20 3 for $84
Hands lost over $20 9 for $417 Ouch!
9/17 329 hands lost $197
Hands won over $20 6 for $184
Hands lost over $20 7 for $300
9/13 100 hands lost $108
Hands won over $20 0
Hands lost over $20 1 for $100
9/12 469 hands lost $125
Hands won over $20 6 for $232
Hands lost over $20 8 for $285
So over my last few sessions I have won 23 big pots and lost 29. So it would make sense to lose less big pots. However I still think that I am not winning enough on the big pots to offset the losses. It also seems like some of the big losses were cold decks or bad beats so maybe I just need to run a bit better as well.
After some struggles with Hold'em Manager I finally broke down my hands by starting cards to see where I was losing money. I have only had Hold'em manager for almost 3 months so I only have approximately 5000 hands. My suspicions were confirmed.
AA 15 times won $22
KK 16 times lost $73
QQ 17 times even
AKo or AKs 42 times lost $152
These are supposed to be very profitable hands. I went back and reviewed the hands and I saw a few minor mistakes but I did not see any horrible misplays. The main thing I noticed was that I five bet shoved a few times with AK and got called with 99 and TT, but I never seemed to get called by those hands when I did it with AA or KK. They usually folded after my first raise. I'd say that's a bad run of cards.
The Casino Arizona is still treating me like shit. I must lose 80% of the time in limit hold'em sessions this year. I am really striving to improve on reading people and choosing my times to bluff much more selectively. However, I can't seem to catch a break when I do have the winning hand on the flop or turn. I seem to be running pretty bad on the river. I know I sound like every other whiner on the internet forums, but since hardly anyone else reads this blog, I'll shout out into the void.
I will be heading out to Fort McDowell tonight for another football promotion. If I can't win the money from the players I might as well try and win it back from the casinos.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
It's Official. I am running bad
Here are my stats from tonight's session:
574 hands played in a little over 2 hours
I lose $394.70.
AA twice. Once it's folded to me in the BB and I win $0.50. The other time, I reraise and win $3.
AK 3 times. I net a negative $10.
KK 4 times. 3 times I raise and win the blinds. The fourth time I get it all in on the flop and the other guy has Aces. Net loss with KK = $124
QQ twice. I win the blinds both times for a profit of $2.50
I won three pots over $25 for the night with the biggest being $31.50. I lost 6 pots greater than $25. The biggest was the KK hand.
Here was the second biggest of the night:
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official [url=http://www.twoplustwo.com/]2+2[/url] Hand Converter [url=http://www.deucescracked.com/]Powered By DeucesCracked.com[/url]
[b]Hero (CO): $110.30[/b]
BTN: $102.00
[b]SB: $84.10[/b]
BB: $39.00
UTG: $20.95
MP: $162.10
[b]Pre Flop:[/b] ($1.50) Hero is CO with T:club: T:spade:
UTG calls $1, [i]1 fold[/i], [color=red]Hero raises to $4.50[/color], [color=red]BTN raises to $13[/color], SB calls $12.50, [i]2 folds[/i], Hero calls $8.50
[b]Flop:[/b] ($41.00) 7:heart: 5:diamond: 4:spade: [color=blue](3 players)[/color]
[color=red]SB bets $5[/color], [color=red]Hero raises to $23[/color], BTN folds, SB calls $18
[b]Turn:[/b] ($87.00) 7:spade: [color=blue](2 players)[/color]
[color=red]SB bets $5[/color], [color=red]Hero raises to $49[/color], SB calls $43.10 all in
[b]River:[/b] ($183.20) K:spade: [color=blue](2 players - 1 is all in)[/color]
[b]Final Pot:[/b] $183.20
Hero shows T:club: T:spade: (two pair, Tens and Sevens)
SB shows J:spade: 9:spade: (a flush, King high)
SB wins $180.20
(Rake: $3.00)
So this donkey calls a 3bet in the blind with Js 9s preflop. Calls my cbet with nothing but a runner runner flush draw. Calls the turn bet with the flush draw, and gets there on the river.
I am mad about the beat, but not tilted. What tilts me is that in 4 different hands later in the session, I have him in a pot that I am sure he is going to pay me off and he escapes every time. WHAT THE F***!
574 hands played in a little over 2 hours
I lose $394.70.
AA twice. Once it's folded to me in the BB and I win $0.50. The other time, I reraise and win $3.
AK 3 times. I net a negative $10.
KK 4 times. 3 times I raise and win the blinds. The fourth time I get it all in on the flop and the other guy has Aces. Net loss with KK = $124
QQ twice. I win the blinds both times for a profit of $2.50
I won three pots over $25 for the night with the biggest being $31.50. I lost 6 pots greater than $25. The biggest was the KK hand.
Here was the second biggest of the night:
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official [url=http://www.twoplustwo.com/]2+2[/url] Hand Converter [url=http://www.deucescracked.com/]Powered By DeucesCracked.com[/url]
[b]Hero (CO): $110.30[/b]
BTN: $102.00
[b]SB: $84.10[/b]
BB: $39.00
UTG: $20.95
MP: $162.10
[b]Pre Flop:[/b] ($1.50) Hero is CO with T:club: T:spade:
UTG calls $1, [i]1 fold[/i], [color=red]Hero raises to $4.50[/color], [color=red]BTN raises to $13[/color], SB calls $12.50, [i]2 folds[/i], Hero calls $8.50
[b]Flop:[/b] ($41.00) 7:heart: 5:diamond: 4:spade: [color=blue](3 players)[/color]
[color=red]SB bets $5[/color], [color=red]Hero raises to $23[/color], BTN folds, SB calls $18
[b]Turn:[/b] ($87.00) 7:spade: [color=blue](2 players)[/color]
[color=red]SB bets $5[/color], [color=red]Hero raises to $49[/color], SB calls $43.10 all in
[b]River:[/b] ($183.20) K:spade: [color=blue](2 players - 1 is all in)[/color]
[b]Final Pot:[/b] $183.20
Hero shows T:club: T:spade: (two pair, Tens and Sevens)
SB shows J:spade: 9:spade: (a flush, King high)
SB wins $180.20
(Rake: $3.00)
So this donkey calls a 3bet in the blind with Js 9s preflop. Calls my cbet with nothing but a runner runner flush draw. Calls the turn bet with the flush draw, and gets there on the river.
I am mad about the beat, but not tilted. What tilts me is that in 4 different hands later in the session, I have him in a pot that I am sure he is going to pay me off and he escapes every time. WHAT THE F***!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Win Some, Lose More
After my last post, I waited a day and played some $26 multi table sit and go's. I finally ran like a god and cashed a 2nd place and a 4 th place to clear over $320.
Feeling good about my chances tonight, but the cash games were not good to me.
I have 9cTc on the button in 6 handed .50-1 NL. $104 in my stack. I raise to 3.50. The BB (lilmissdezi) calls.
Flop is 7c 8d 5c. So I have 15 outs with the straight and flush draw and hell maybe the 9's and 10's are good for outs too so that may give me as many as 21 outs twice. I bet $5 and lilmissdezi calls. The turn is 3h. No help but I bet again this time $12. I am called again.
I am wondering if my opponent has an over pair like 10's and is trying to keep the pot small. I have not played many hands with her yet so I don't have a good grasp of her style.
The river is Qd and I miss my infinite draw. I decide the pot is big and the only way to win it is to bluff at it. I fire $23 and my opponent calls with Ac,7s for second pair. Wow!
In another bluff gone awry. I have Ks Ts in the small blind. A new player named nala314 is in the hijack and open raises to $3.50. I call from the small blind and the BB folds. The flop is 3h Jd 7h. I check and nala314 bets $2 into an $8 pot. Since this flop is ragged and $2 looks very weak, I decide to check raise to $8. nala314 calls before I even finish clicking on the bet button.
The turn is a Ts. I think the snap call is a heart draw or top pair, with a weak kicker. This time I bet $15 into a $24 pot and he snap calls again. Now I am leaning towards more of a pocket pair type of hand.
The river is the 8s putting 4 to a straight out. I check hoping for a free showdown. He bets $30 into the $54 pot. I don't think I beat anything so I fold. He shows me a bluff of AsQc. Double Wow!
Last strange hand:
I have AA in the small blind. I have already had to lay down pocket aces once in this session on the turn. My other big pocket pairs have received no action at all. The button raises to 3.00. I decide to smooth call and try to trap. The BB comes along. The effective stacks here were $80.
The flop is 7s 7h Ks. I check again to play it slow. The BB bets $4 into a $9 pot. The button raises to $13. I already hate my hand. I really want to shove and hope they are playing like jackasses, but I fight the urge and just call. The BB then shoves all in for his last $77 and the button calls. Well that makes it an easy fold. The BB has 7d Td and the button has Ad Kc. So the button was an idiot that I could have stacked if I had just re-raised before the flop and knocked out the BB.
I rarely slow play high pocket pairs but lately when I try to mix it up, I get burned.
Feeling good about my chances tonight, but the cash games were not good to me.
I have 9cTc on the button in 6 handed .50-1 NL. $104 in my stack. I raise to 3.50. The BB (lilmissdezi) calls.
Flop is 7c 8d 5c. So I have 15 outs with the straight and flush draw and hell maybe the 9's and 10's are good for outs too so that may give me as many as 21 outs twice. I bet $5 and lilmissdezi calls. The turn is 3h. No help but I bet again this time $12. I am called again.
I am wondering if my opponent has an over pair like 10's and is trying to keep the pot small. I have not played many hands with her yet so I don't have a good grasp of her style.
The river is Qd and I miss my infinite draw. I decide the pot is big and the only way to win it is to bluff at it. I fire $23 and my opponent calls with Ac,7s for second pair. Wow!
In another bluff gone awry. I have Ks Ts in the small blind. A new player named nala314 is in the hijack and open raises to $3.50. I call from the small blind and the BB folds. The flop is 3h Jd 7h. I check and nala314 bets $2 into an $8 pot. Since this flop is ragged and $2 looks very weak, I decide to check raise to $8. nala314 calls before I even finish clicking on the bet button.
The turn is a Ts. I think the snap call is a heart draw or top pair, with a weak kicker. This time I bet $15 into a $24 pot and he snap calls again. Now I am leaning towards more of a pocket pair type of hand.
The river is the 8s putting 4 to a straight out. I check hoping for a free showdown. He bets $30 into the $54 pot. I don't think I beat anything so I fold. He shows me a bluff of AsQc. Double Wow!
Last strange hand:
I have AA in the small blind. I have already had to lay down pocket aces once in this session on the turn. My other big pocket pairs have received no action at all. The button raises to 3.00. I decide to smooth call and try to trap. The BB comes along. The effective stacks here were $80.
The flop is 7s 7h Ks. I check again to play it slow. The BB bets $4 into a $9 pot. The button raises to $13. I already hate my hand. I really want to shove and hope they are playing like jackasses, but I fight the urge and just call. The BB then shoves all in for his last $77 and the button calls. Well that makes it an easy fold. The BB has 7d Td and the button has Ad Kc. So the button was an idiot that I could have stacked if I had just re-raised before the flop and knocked out the BB.
I rarely slow play high pocket pairs but lately when I try to mix it up, I get burned.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Session analysis Running into Quads
This will probably be incredibly boring but in order to improve my dismal play lately I am going to force myself to evaluate the biggest winners and losers from each session.
So this was from a 456 hand session of .50-1 NL where I lost $150.
Here are the losers:
Ah6s on the button. Herpes Is 4eva is in the cutoff. He open raises to $3.50 with 30/23/2.8 stats. I reraise to $12. He calls.
The reraise is a bit aggressive but I was in position and I had not done it very much so I expected to win the pot preflop most of the time.
Flop is 2d 5s Ts. Herpes checks and I make a cbet of $18 into a 25.50 pot. Herpes calls. I think the cbet wins the pot most of the time with a ragged flop like that. He calls, so he's either peeling one off with AK, has a pocket pair that he's not too comfortable with like JJ, 99, or 88. Or he's slow playing a monster set.
I am done with this hand. The turn is a 6h so the board is 2d 5s Ts 6h. It's checked through. The river is the 3 of hearts and it's checked through again.
I think this was a good bluff that didn't go my way. Herpes shows down JJ.
Hand #2
I have QQ in BB. Regina in cutoff raises to 3.50. She is 16/12/inf after 27 hands so not a huge sample. I decide to mix things up and just call in the BB. I think I have been getting irritated that I am getting no action with my high pocket pairs preflop so that's probably what led to this slow play.
Flop is 2s Ts 9h. I decide to go for a check raise. Regina complys and bets the pot of $7.50. I raise to $20. She 3 bets it all in for $96.50 total. I call and she shows T 9 for top two pair. I miss my slim draws and she takes $100 off me.
Looking back, I think I can find a fold here. The only hand I am beating that might shove all in is JJ or maybe AsKs. And even AK with the flush draw I am actually behind on the hand. I was happy to get my whole stack in with QQ before the flop, so I rationalized that I can just as well do it on the flop.
Hand #3
I have 7s 7c in cutoff. Hotsauce raises to $3 under the gun. I call the raise instead of reraising because Hotsauce is playing 16/12/2 and pretty tight. I want to try and hit a set rather than reraise and get pushed off my hand if he 4 bets. Pammy824 reraises on the button to $12. The blinds fold and Hotsauce folds leaving me to call $9 into a $19 pot out of position. Pammy is 18/18/inf after 45 hands.
Pammy started with $100 so her stack may not quite be big enough for me to call the reraise hoping to flop a set.
The flop is 6d As 7d. This is a dream flop since you always want to flop a set when there is an Ace in the board since the other player may go broke with a pair of Aces and a good kicker. I check to slow play and Pammy bets $18 into a $28.50 pot. I smooth call.
Turn is the Ac. I check again, hoping to get it all it with my 7's full of Aces against trip aces. Pammy checks behind so maybe she had KK or QQ and is afraid of the Aces now? River is 8d so board reads 6d As 7d Ac 8d. That completes a lot of draws so I should get paid out now. I go for a value bet of $34 and pammy cooperates and shoves the rest in for $70. I snap call and she rolls over AA for quad Aces.
I don'tthink there was a way of getting away from this awful luck.
So this was from a 456 hand session of .50-1 NL where I lost $150.
Here are the losers:
Ah6s on the button. Herpes Is 4eva is in the cutoff. He open raises to $3.50 with 30/23/2.8 stats. I reraise to $12. He calls.
The reraise is a bit aggressive but I was in position and I had not done it very much so I expected to win the pot preflop most of the time.
Flop is 2d 5s Ts. Herpes checks and I make a cbet of $18 into a 25.50 pot. Herpes calls. I think the cbet wins the pot most of the time with a ragged flop like that. He calls, so he's either peeling one off with AK, has a pocket pair that he's not too comfortable with like JJ, 99, or 88. Or he's slow playing a monster set.
I am done with this hand. The turn is a 6h so the board is 2d 5s Ts 6h. It's checked through. The river is the 3 of hearts and it's checked through again.
I think this was a good bluff that didn't go my way. Herpes shows down JJ.
Hand #2
I have QQ in BB. Regina in cutoff raises to 3.50. She is 16/12/inf after 27 hands so not a huge sample. I decide to mix things up and just call in the BB. I think I have been getting irritated that I am getting no action with my high pocket pairs preflop so that's probably what led to this slow play.
Flop is 2s Ts 9h. I decide to go for a check raise. Regina complys and bets the pot of $7.50. I raise to $20. She 3 bets it all in for $96.50 total. I call and she shows T 9 for top two pair. I miss my slim draws and she takes $100 off me.
Looking back, I think I can find a fold here. The only hand I am beating that might shove all in is JJ or maybe AsKs. And even AK with the flush draw I am actually behind on the hand. I was happy to get my whole stack in with QQ before the flop, so I rationalized that I can just as well do it on the flop.
Hand #3
I have 7s 7c in cutoff. Hotsauce raises to $3 under the gun. I call the raise instead of reraising because Hotsauce is playing 16/12/2 and pretty tight. I want to try and hit a set rather than reraise and get pushed off my hand if he 4 bets. Pammy824 reraises on the button to $12. The blinds fold and Hotsauce folds leaving me to call $9 into a $19 pot out of position. Pammy is 18/18/inf after 45 hands.
Pammy started with $100 so her stack may not quite be big enough for me to call the reraise hoping to flop a set.
The flop is 6d As 7d. This is a dream flop since you always want to flop a set when there is an Ace in the board since the other player may go broke with a pair of Aces and a good kicker. I check to slow play and Pammy bets $18 into a $28.50 pot. I smooth call.
Turn is the Ac. I check again, hoping to get it all it with my 7's full of Aces against trip aces. Pammy checks behind so maybe she had KK or QQ and is afraid of the Aces now? River is 8d so board reads 6d As 7d Ac 8d. That completes a lot of draws so I should get paid out now. I go for a value bet of $34 and pammy cooperates and shoves the rest in for $70. I snap call and she rolls over AA for quad Aces.
I don'tthink there was a way of getting away from this awful luck.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Marathon at Ft McDowell; Bad Beat Jackpot
Kory turned me on to the football promotions at Fort McDowell casino this year. For the college games they will splash pot $75 on 3 tables for every touchdown and $75 on one table for every field goal. Since Fort McDowell has 1/4 of the tables as Casino Arizona, your chances of hitting one of these bonuses is much higher.
It would seem that the key to winning these prizes would be to pick the highest scoring games. On the preannounced schedule, it would seem that the Oklahoma/BYU game would fit the bill. The over/under in Vegas was 69 points and Oklahoma was favored by more than 20 even though BYU is a top 25 team. We figured this game was good for 8-9 touchdowns for sure.
In a debacle on the scale of last year's Super Bowl promotion, the game was a real snoozefest. Oklahoma's Heisman winning quarterback, Sam Bradford, hurt his shoulder at the end of the first half. This totally ruined any chance of this turning into a high scoring affair. The final was 14-13 with BYU scoring the upset. My table did get splashed once, but I could not find one pair our of all 5 cards on the board and the winner won with a pair of 5's and 7 kicker.
Even if I don't win the promotional funds, I should still be able to pick up some money from the other bad players right? I was down a quick $80 in the first couple of hours with losing lots of small pots where I raise with AK, whiff the flop, bet the flop and/or turn with nothing and give up on the river to see someone calling me down with 2nd pair or worse. In fact I saw one hand where a player actually called on the river with 5 high. Let me repeat that....there were two other players in the pot and he called down with 5 high!
Kory asked me to join him at his table, but I wasn't about to leave my table of horrible players. Alas, nothing went according to plan as Kory had to leave early because of a babysitting issue and I continued to lose pot after pot.
With the game winding down, I was down over $200 and pulling out my last $100 bill. I called Michele to give her a progress report and told her I was about to make my triumphant comeback. She gave me to OK to stay as long as I wanted so I went back to grinding.
I gave myself a couple of artificial deadlines to stop and go home but I managed to find an excuse to stay each time. 9:00 PM came along and I had managed to make it all the way back to only down $20. Since I was so close to making a profit and starting to catch some cards, I figured I would stay and try to get to the positive. By 10:00 PM I was down over $100 again and was too stubborn to leave stuck this much after all this time.
Here is where the miracle happens. A stocky younger man had sat on my left for the last 15 minutes and proceeded to lighten up the table. The proceeding gentleman in the seat was causing tension at the table by criticizing other players and acting as if he was God's gift to poker. We were all glad to see him go. The new guy was a clown, but in a playful way and it was fun to banter back and forth with him as he played any two cards.
He was caught up in a hand with a quiet asian lady in the one seat. The board was 2d-10h-5h. The lady had bet her hand and the guy on my left called. The turn was a 2 of hearts completing the flush draws. Now the asian woman checks and the guy bets. She calls. So it looks like the guy on my left has hit his flush. The river is the 3 of hearts. Now she bets and he raises. They are heads up and start stacking chips for reraises. Since it is heads up there are unlimited raises and eventually they both get around $28 in on the river.
The guy on my left blurts out, "I hope you have 4 twos lady!" and rolls over his straight flush with the Ah4h. She does roll over the the 4 of a kind and the entire table celebrates.
The bad beat jackpot fund was $5,200. That means the 4 of a kind wins $2,600, the straight flush wins $1,300 and the rest of the table split the last 25% only 6 ways since we were two players short. That worked out to $217.
It's been years since I won any kind of share of a bad beat, but I distinctly remember it taking a long time to pay out. I was tired after playing for 7 hours and ready to go home. Sure enough I had to wait until after midnight before we finally got paid.
Knowing that I was going to be there a while, I made a goal to finish strong and at least break even with my initial bankroll before adding my table share. Finally things started to go my way as I hit some longshot draws and bluffed a couple of pots successfully. I managed to get all the way back to down $5 on the day before they called my name.
I went up to collect my winnings. I tipped the dealer $10 and went back to rack up my chips. After a quick late night stop at Jack In The Box, my profit for the night was $199. Poker is definitely a hard way to make an easy living.
Monday, August 31, 2009
What Do I Do With Small Pocket Pairs?
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
Seat 1: Lionne24 ($229.35) -
Seat 2: Needbankroll ($268.10) -
Seat 3: Poker_Bully1 ($257.70) -
Seat 4: lance74 ($229)
Seat 5: Porntraktr ($200)
Seat 6: Finchster ($227.20)
PRE-FLOP:
Needbankroll posts small blind $1
Poker_Bully1 posts BIG blind $2
Dealt To: Poker_Bully1
FOLD lance74
FOLD Porntraktr
FOLD Finchster
FOLD Lionne24
RAISE Needbankroll ($6)
RAISE Poker_Bully1 ($21)
RAISE Needbankroll ($50)
FOLD Poker_Bully1
UNCALLED Needbankroll ($29)
MUCK Needbankroll
Needbankroll collected $42 from main pot
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $42 Rake: $0
Seat 1: Lionne24 button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: Needbankroll small blind collected 42, mucked - Net Gain/Loss: ($20)
Seat 3: Poker_Bully1 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-21)
Seat 4: lance74 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: Porntraktr didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: Finchster didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
I ran into this situation a few times last night and I am puzzled on what to do. The players that kept reraising me or 4 betting me had solid stats, but it seemed to be happening more than normal. It was tough to say whether the table had seen me fold and was exploiting it or they just happened to have good hands when I had a good hand.
Folding is always a conservative option. I protect my stack and wait for a better situation. I am seldom dominating someone if they call. I know at higher levels the better players will exploit this and begin to reraise me lighter and lighter. I am not sure how many players at 1-2 NL are paying this much attention.
I can call and hope to flop a set. In this particular hand we started with effective stacks of 120 BB. He raised 3x and I 3bet to 10x. He 4 bet to 25x. Assuming I win his whole stack if I hit, then I am calling 15 more bets to win 35x in the pot and 100x more in his stack which is approximately 9-1 odds.
This still isn't that profitable in the long run because I am losing 25x every time I get in this position and don't hit my set. You may say, "Yeah but you're only calling 15x not 25x." Yes but that's only because I reraised in the first place. I could have just called the initial raise in position and seen the flop cheaper.
The aggressive option is to push all in and pray for a fold or Ace-King. It will definitely sting more when I lose some of these confrontations, but maybe it will get me more action when I 4 bet my Aces and Kings? Once again, the problem is that I don't play enough against the same opponents for them to notice if I am 4 bet shoving light. If I get lucky and happen to get Aces within a 100 or so hands after shoving all in with 6's then maybe it pays off. Most of the time my sessions a table are rarely more than 200 hands so the odds are pretty long for getting multiple pocket pairs that are worth getting it all in over.
Do any of my 5 or so readers have a suggestion or comment?
Seat 1: Lionne24 ($229.35) -
Seat 2: Needbankroll ($268.10) -
Seat 3: Poker_Bully1 ($257.70) -
Seat 4: lance74 ($229)
Seat 5: Porntraktr ($200)
Seat 6: Finchster ($227.20)
PRE-FLOP:
Needbankroll posts small blind $1
Poker_Bully1 posts BIG blind $2
Dealt To: Poker_Bully1
FOLD lance74
FOLD Porntraktr
FOLD Finchster
FOLD Lionne24
RAISE Needbankroll ($6)
RAISE Poker_Bully1 ($21)
RAISE Needbankroll ($50)
FOLD Poker_Bully1
UNCALLED Needbankroll ($29)
MUCK Needbankroll
Needbankroll collected $42 from main pot
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $42 Rake: $0
Seat 1: Lionne24 button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: Needbankroll small blind collected 42, mucked - Net Gain/Loss: ($20)
Seat 3: Poker_Bully1 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-21)
Seat 4: lance74 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: Porntraktr didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: Finchster didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
I ran into this situation a few times last night and I am puzzled on what to do. The players that kept reraising me or 4 betting me had solid stats, but it seemed to be happening more than normal. It was tough to say whether the table had seen me fold and was exploiting it or they just happened to have good hands when I had a good hand.
Folding is always a conservative option. I protect my stack and wait for a better situation. I am seldom dominating someone if they call. I know at higher levels the better players will exploit this and begin to reraise me lighter and lighter. I am not sure how many players at 1-2 NL are paying this much attention.
I can call and hope to flop a set. In this particular hand we started with effective stacks of 120 BB. He raised 3x and I 3bet to 10x. He 4 bet to 25x. Assuming I win his whole stack if I hit, then I am calling 15 more bets to win 35x in the pot and 100x more in his stack which is approximately 9-1 odds.
This still isn't that profitable in the long run because I am losing 25x every time I get in this position and don't hit my set. You may say, "Yeah but you're only calling 15x not 25x." Yes but that's only because I reraised in the first place. I could have just called the initial raise in position and seen the flop cheaper.
The aggressive option is to push all in and pray for a fold or Ace-King. It will definitely sting more when I lose some of these confrontations, but maybe it will get me more action when I 4 bet my Aces and Kings? Once again, the problem is that I don't play enough against the same opponents for them to notice if I am 4 bet shoving light. If I get lucky and happen to get Aces within a 100 or so hands after shoving all in with 6's then maybe it pays off. Most of the time my sessions a table are rarely more than 200 hands so the odds are pretty long for getting multiple pocket pairs that are worth getting it all in over.
Do any of my 5 or so readers have a suggestion or comment?
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Number 1 Lesson of Omaha 8 or Better
I learned a $120 lesson today at the casino. It makes no sense to draw at anything less than the nuts in the 3-6 Limit Omaha 8 or better game at Casino Arizona.
Besides some tilt hands, I went to the river three times with the second or third best hand and watched my money go to horrible players.
Once again, the table was full of donkeys playing any four cards. I am convinced now that just playing solid cards and ABC poker, I could be a very consistent winner at this game.
I JUST NEED TO BE DISCIPLINED!!!!!!
For some reason I was still on tilt from yesterday's PLO session online. I lost $380 which in it self is not hard to do in that game. The frustrating thing was that I lost the majority of it $10-$20 at a time. For the first two hours my largest won pot was $14. I just never hit a hand. I never stacked off, but I kept folding with small losses, but never hit the big hand to make up for the losses. The last straw was losing with a gut shot straight and the nut flush draw to two pair. I was a 60% favorite when the money went in, but I was not running good enough to hit one of my 12 outs and I quit the game.
I tried to do some analysis on why I have been on a losing streak over the last 5 months. I reviewed my blog and I think the reason is that I have been playing too many tournaments and not enough cash games.
My excuse for playing the tournaments was to get my game sharp for the possibility of playing in the World Series. Since that is over with, I think I will concentrate on trying to build up the bank roll for the next few months. I won the first two sessions I played after this goal was set, so I think that's why I was bothered so much when I lost in PLO. I basically lost back everything that I had won.
August will be a winning month. I promise.
Besides some tilt hands, I went to the river three times with the second or third best hand and watched my money go to horrible players.
Once again, the table was full of donkeys playing any four cards. I am convinced now that just playing solid cards and ABC poker, I could be a very consistent winner at this game.
I JUST NEED TO BE DISCIPLINED!!!!!!
For some reason I was still on tilt from yesterday's PLO session online. I lost $380 which in it self is not hard to do in that game. The frustrating thing was that I lost the majority of it $10-$20 at a time. For the first two hours my largest won pot was $14. I just never hit a hand. I never stacked off, but I kept folding with small losses, but never hit the big hand to make up for the losses. The last straw was losing with a gut shot straight and the nut flush draw to two pair. I was a 60% favorite when the money went in, but I was not running good enough to hit one of my 12 outs and I quit the game.
I tried to do some analysis on why I have been on a losing streak over the last 5 months. I reviewed my blog and I think the reason is that I have been playing too many tournaments and not enough cash games.
My excuse for playing the tournaments was to get my game sharp for the possibility of playing in the World Series. Since that is over with, I think I will concentrate on trying to build up the bank roll for the next few months. I won the first two sessions I played after this goal was set, so I think that's why I was bothered so much when I lost in PLO. I basically lost back everything that I had won.
August will be a winning month. I promise.
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