This will be short. Basically the poker gods continue to frown upon me. I just got knocked out of the Shootout tournament when I was heads up against an aggressive asian kid for 95% of the chips in play on the river...suprise suprise. I never had one big hand the whole time but consistently outplayed my opponents. My table full of fish except this guy Dan who was very tough (regularily plays 300-600 limit and won the BC Open this year). He was knocked out early to a two outer issued by the donk asian.
The Hand:
The asian raised about 70% of the pots on the button and typically overbet making it hard to see flops. I had 11,800 chips and he had the balance of the 25,000. The blinds were 200/400 with an ante. I had hoped to be heads up with the other guy as he was tight and I could small pot him to death, but he was knocked out by the biggest cooler I ever saw. On a limped preflop the flop came 1098 with two clubs one diamond (I had k2 of diamonds by the way). We both checkd to the asian on the button who bet pot. The guy called and the turn was the 6 of diamonds. The action went check check and the river brought the 5 of diamonds. The action was bet raise and allin. The tight guy tabled A10 of diamonds and the asian tabled 97 of diamonds for a straight flush against ace high flush on a backdoor diamond non-paired board.
Anyway, back to the hand, when the asian limped he had bad hands so when he limped on this pot I looked down and found A4. I raised 1,200 more as I must raise at least that much or he would call to see the flop and obviously I don't want to play this kind of hand out of position. Unfortunately, he called. The flop was 1042 with two clubs, which I thought was good. I bet out 2,200 and he quickly raised to 7,000. I thought for about 2 minutes and felt that he was very nervous and thus probably did not have the 10. I hoped he had a small touch where I would have him drawing to 3 to 5 outs. I pushed all in and he shrugged and said he's in too deep and must call. He tables KJ off. Two more clubs come and he wins with the K of clubs. So ridiculas.
To top it off I then go over to Todd's table where he was heads up with another donk who's only move was all-in or fold preflop. Todd had him in chips when I showed up but lost two races in a row to get bounced. AQ to 22 and 99 to AJ. The AQ was gross as the old man limped Todd raised and he pushed back all in with 22. Anyway, both of us outplayed our table, both of us were positioned to make the money round with an opportunity to make some good cash, and of course in typical fashion, both of us got unlucky and make nothing.
FORK U Los Angelas!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Running So Bad
I really am not sure where to begin. I guess the best place to start is by describing how bad the play is here in California. Perhaps I am just used to playing some of the toughest players around (from mid/high limits online and/or our Winnipeg game which includes Trav, Wolters, Todd, Myles, etc...), but it really does amaze me that at the center of the poker universe only a fraction of the players really know how to play. I will go over the two tournaments I played followed by a summary of the cash games.
Tournaments:
I only played two tournaments because I felt my ROI is far superior by playing deep stack cash over tournaments especially on Friday and Saturday when many casual players are present and many of the regulars are drinking.
Todd and I made a deal that we would chop chop in all tournaments we played together. The first tournament last Thursday was a $320 nl Holdem tabling 1370 players and paying 99 spots. I lasted until about 300 players left, which was reasonable considering I had only one pair over nines (which turned out to be jacks in the blind when the cutoff had aces...sweet). I lost a couple medium sized pots but never really had any chips or good situations. I managed to stay afloat with well timed blindsteals and bluffs. Then I get ak with a smallish stack size so I raise from early position and get called from the button who has lots of chips. The flop is A97 rainbow. I have about 1/4 my chips in with the raise so I figured that checking was the right play for a couple reasons. First, my chip count is relatively small so risking to blow the pot by giving a free card vs inducing a bluff by checking seemed to be worth it. Second, if he had AJ, AQ or better anyway the chips would be going in (as opposed to a situation where I had lots of chips and would need a bet and a raise to get my chips into the pot). Anway, he does bet, but only small which made me nervous but whatever I had to go with the hand givin my chip count....result, he had 99 and I lose. On a side note, Todd finished 87th and cashed for a bowl of soup.
The second tournament I played was today's Stud High. This tournament was a $500 buyin that attracted only 137 players paying top 16 with first at about 20k. During the tournament I must have played with 40 of the players, and in my opinion, there was maybe 2 or 3 that knew the game well. And, without trying to sound conceided, I felt like I had a better read on the hands than anyone (I feel overall Stud is probably my best game). I got off to a great start, but by about midway I started taking some sick beats which included losing to a drawless tripped up 9s on 6th when I had aces up on 4th, a starting pair of jacks turned into jacks up plus four flush on 6th against a pair of 9s hitting a set on 6th, did not draw out (this pot was critical as I would have been chip leader had I won). Then the final blow took place with about 25 left. I had gone card dead and was one of the lower stacks when I picked up wired jacks with a Q showing. Nobody is showing higher than a 10 when the guy to my left raises with an 8 showing. I reraise and for some reason he reraises back. I felt the guy was a bit of a donkey and givin the blinds were getting big I decided to make this my stand so I reraised again with the intentions of getting it all in unless he paired the 8. Anyway, he calls, I bet fourth he calls, I bet fifth, he calls, I bet sixth and he puts me in for another half bet. Neither one of us seemed to have a threatening board. As it turns out he rivered a flush on me. The sick thing was is he started with 883 two spades. Anybody with half a brain should really just lay down when reraised showing a Q. Instead, I get donked out instead of moving into a healthy chip stack. Good times, thanks again LA for another wonderfully played hand.
I will likely play the shootout tournament on Wednesday, but that will be about it until I get back from Whistler. Oh ya, I forgot too mention, I fly up to Whistler on Friday until Sunday. I would almost rather stay and play, but it is my annual ski trip with 10 close friends from University.
Cash Games:
In my previous post I talked about the cap buyin at the 5-10nl and below. Well it sucks because you can't play deep stack poker unless you hit some hands to build your stack. Even if you do, you still have all the other short stackers picking a hand they like and jamming 1/4 in preflop and the rest on the flop. This obviously takes away a good part of the skill to poker. In any case, I watched a little of the 10-20nl and it looked juicy so I hopped in. Overall, I played all day Friday and Saturday losing about 7k (luckily I made that online Saturday night after I quit so I'm about even on the trip). In the process, I ran into about 3 coolers, flopped only two sets (one of which I was oversetted), I made 2 out of roughly 25 flush draws, and 2 out of roughly 35 straights (one where I made a straight when an opponent made a flush), and finally during all of the hands played I was only dealt AA once, KK once, QQ 4 times, and JJ 4 times. I only won one of the QQ and lost with each and every other big pair including running into QQ into KK once and JJ into KK once (both times getting away from the hand on the flop with no overs). If that is not sick enough I will explain some of the big pots I lost.
Hand #1:
On Friday about an hour into the game I had $2400 (my initial buy is always 2k). I raise in mid position with 75 of spades to $70. I have been relatively active but had yet to play any big pots and the table was tight passive except the big blind who was a tough young internet player. Anyway, I get two callers including the big blind. The flop comes 753 two hearts. He checks I bet $190, the passive calling station does what he does best and calls. The big blind reraises to $700. With $2400 total I think the only move here is to pump all in representing a big pair. This kid could be raising with a flush draw, two pair (which would be ideal as I have top two), touch and straight draw, or even the nuts. But givin that I saw him slow play a nut hand once before and knowing that the calling station is likely on flush or has mid pair like 99/1010 I figured I must shove. After shoving, the calling station reluctantly folds and I'm snap called by the big blind who tables 333. Lovely, thanks for letting me flop two pair for once LA.
Hand #2
It's late into Friday night and I have build my chips up to 7k (in for $5300 at this time). The game is getting a little wild and I'm in the big blind. First to act straddled and about 3 called before the button raised it up to $320. I look down and find ak off. The opponent who made the raise is overly agressive and could have alot of hands including bs, AK, JJ, etc... but not likely AA or KK otherwise I feel he would raise less to $220 because I had seen a more milking bet from him before when holding AA. I hesitate for a moment contemplating to reraise and try to take down $550. I instead choose to flat call for several reasons. First, one of the crusty old guys who buys in deep called immediately after the straddle and it is totally within his range to limp into the straddle with AA or KK looking for the back raise so I don't want to committ 1K only to laydown before the flop. Second, the button is hyperaggressive so I don't think I could fold to an allin preflop and I hate racing for that kind of cash (especially when running so bad). Third, I felt I had a good read on him, which could allow me to bluff him or trap him if I hit a good flop. And fourth, I hate AK out of position on big pots. So after calling and everyone else folding, the flop came down K93 two clubs. I of course check as I feel I made gin with that flop. He leads out with an $700 bet. I was suprised by how big his bet was, almost pot size which wasn't typical of him so I sensed either he had nothing or was maybe on flush draw showing me he is commiting himself to the hand. Anyway, with another 2.2k behind him after the bet I pushed him in. He sighs and quickly tells me its time to gamble, then shows 94 of clubs. Yuck! That was about as a bad as I could have imaged it would be. We were basically in a coin flip. In typical LA fashion, the river brought in a club.
Hand #3:
On Saturday I got thumped. Leading up this hand I was about even, but one hand could make or break me because there was a crazy asain guy at our table who was not very good, had lots of money, and who was putting incredible pressure on everyone every hand. At the time of this hand I am about 6.5k deep (at least 4 players had more chips in play than me). I am in the small blind with a10. One guy limped everyone else folded to the asian guy in the cutoff who made a small raise to $350 (he was raising at least 50% of the hands and each raise was obscene ranging from $300 to $500). I decide to call in hopes of catching him. To my suprise the big blind called as did the limper. On the flop AJ10 two diamonds. We all check and the asian guy bets $350 (typically he had been making small continuation bets whether he had anything or not). I decide I have to see where I am in this hand and get out all touch straight draws so I reraise to $900 (and givin that there is already $1400 preflop, the raise must be at least this big to eliminate the weaker hands). The other two opponents in the hand immediately fold and the asian looks confused on what to do so he does what he does best and calls. The turn is an offsuit 5. I lead out $1700. The asian guy thinks for awhile asks me if I'm on a draw blah blah blah. After much deliberation he calls. At this point I assume he has a hand but I'm thinking maybe flush draw or AK, AQ (or maybe even a dry ace given what he has shown down in the past to big bet calls). River is an offsuit 8 and I choose to move all in. The asian guy is flustered and he begins talking to himself then to me. What you got straight? set? So at this point I'm feeling relieved and I'm hoping for a call because I think he definately has AK or AQ. After 5 minutes he says call and shows AJ. I couldn't believe it. First, he had payed off fast with much less several times earlier. Second, if he had AJ and was going to call $1700 on the turn, I would have expected he was going to make a stand with the hand by reraising me all in on the turn (in which I may have folded I'm not sure). In the end given the way he was calling through thin, giving ridiculas action, and givin the significant action preflop and the draw heavy flop, I don't know how I could not lose my chips in this situation. Thanks LA for yet another cooler. It seems like the only time I ever flop two pair is when I'm beat.
Hand #4:
This was by far my worst play of the trip. Early Friday I had just tilted a rich California business man about 5 minutes previously when I raised him allin on a turn on a A85K rainbow board after he raise preflop, bet the flop, and the turn. He folded and I showed him the 9 of clubs. I knew he had nothing as he was steamrolling in typical fashion. The turn bet was $300 (60% pot) and I pushed him for his last $500 so its not as if I was running a huge play (had a9 of clubs anyway). After the hand he immediately called over the floor manager and asked for chips on a marker, 30k to be exact. He was ready for war. So, a hand comes up where there was a straddle and a call and I am in mid position with 99. Similar to the AK hand described above there is a case for calling or raising. I decided to raise this time makin it $180 to go. A short stack in the small blind reraises to $480 total. The rich guy snap calls everyone else folds to me. I had 3.7k to start the hand. I figured there was about a 50% chance the short stacker had a bigger pair than me, but giving the rich guy is steaming, I had position on him, and that I could double through him with the right flop so I decided to put in another $300. The flop came 235 two spades and the rich guy checks. I figured he missed the flop and at the time I wanted him out so I bet $1000 (in hindsight this was a bonehead bet and if nothing else I could have served my purpose for about $800). After putting the money in the rich guy quickly says he's all in. I thought for about 5 minutes. At first I thought I should fold and that he probably flopped a small set or slow played aces, after all he could only be check raising against an allin with a made hand. Then, thinking a little more I felt he could easily be doing this with a flush draw(AQ/AJ spades?) or 44 because for one he is a donk, and secondly I pissed him off with the 9 of clubs and he would like nothing more than to push me off a pot. In the end I folded (against my better judgement as my gut told me it was a flush draw, but it was the beginning of the trip I didn't want to play a big pot with a marginal hand). As it turns out he had qj of spades and bricked out. To add insult to injury the short stacker had 88. On the hand I lose $1480 instead of winning $4100 profit. In retrospect, I played the hand poorly on two counts. One, with position I should check behind one time for a couple reasons. One, to see what what comes on turn, two, to see what the guy does, and three for pot control purposes. Essentially, my rookie overbetting of the flop put me in a difficult situation. Then of course not following through against the steaming donk when I only have 2.2k left after putting in roughly 1.5k with 99 on a 235 board. I was very dissapointed with myself after that hand.
Hand #5:
I was not involved in this hand but I think its worth mentioning to give a flavour of the game. Preflop several people called and that same rich guy made it $90 on the button. A rather tight player that seemed to be playing well made it $350 to go in the big blind. Everyone folded to the rich guy who called as did the small blind. Each player is playing 20k plus. The flop came down AQ10 rainbow. The preflop aggressor made it $900. The rich guy called the other guy folded. The turn brought another Q. He fired again this time for $1900. The rich guy contemplated then called. The river brought an offsuit 7 and the tight player bet 5k. The rich guy thought for awhile then folded saying he had 1010 (LOL such bs, at best he folded AK the way I see it because anything better and he would have likely raised the turn or at least called the river). Anyway, the guy turns over JJ. I thought this play was bad even though he scored a big pot. The rich guy was already on massive tilt and had been calling thin. He obviously is not intimidated by the money so if he likes his hand he will likely call. Perhaps the tight player put him for a dry ace and figured he could represent AA or QQ with a big river bet, knowing that the rich guy would fold. Who knows, seems a little too risky for me though.
I could continue explaining my poor flops, turns, and rivers or I could continue to explain my horrible situational luck, but it serves little purpose and I certainly don't want to sound like a crybaby (may be too late for that). However, just to say, I have been unable to counter my coolers and such with any big hands for big pots (except one hand where I rivered a 2nd nut flush against another guys 3rd nut flush). Most of my money won has come from solid value betting through hands hitting top pair good kicker against opponents with lower kicker / second pair or by bluffing through small/medium sized pots knowing my opponents could not call (I generally don't run big pot bluffs just not enough gamble in me). I really hope that things turn around because I can honestly say that if I could start running average to good I could make 5k / day (at least on weekend nights) and if I could get on a heater that number could increase to 10-15k. The games are just that good.
One final personal observation:
I have a tendency to become passive when I can't hit or after I've taken some beats and I'm stuck. I say to myself "how am I going to lose this one?". When I lose the killer instinct and shift to this defensive playing style it usually leads to losing more money. So far on this trip I have been good at getting up when I fall into this pattern and for that I am happy.
I will try to update this blog a little more frequently over the next couple of weeks and hopefully I will have some good stories to tell. In the meantime, I hope you all have been are enjoying the frostbiting weather of Winnipeg :)
Cheers,
Tournaments:
I only played two tournaments because I felt my ROI is far superior by playing deep stack cash over tournaments especially on Friday and Saturday when many casual players are present and many of the regulars are drinking.
Todd and I made a deal that we would chop chop in all tournaments we played together. The first tournament last Thursday was a $320 nl Holdem tabling 1370 players and paying 99 spots. I lasted until about 300 players left, which was reasonable considering I had only one pair over nines (which turned out to be jacks in the blind when the cutoff had aces...sweet). I lost a couple medium sized pots but never really had any chips or good situations. I managed to stay afloat with well timed blindsteals and bluffs. Then I get ak with a smallish stack size so I raise from early position and get called from the button who has lots of chips. The flop is A97 rainbow. I have about 1/4 my chips in with the raise so I figured that checking was the right play for a couple reasons. First, my chip count is relatively small so risking to blow the pot by giving a free card vs inducing a bluff by checking seemed to be worth it. Second, if he had AJ, AQ or better anyway the chips would be going in (as opposed to a situation where I had lots of chips and would need a bet and a raise to get my chips into the pot). Anway, he does bet, but only small which made me nervous but whatever I had to go with the hand givin my chip count....result, he had 99 and I lose. On a side note, Todd finished 87th and cashed for a bowl of soup.
The second tournament I played was today's Stud High. This tournament was a $500 buyin that attracted only 137 players paying top 16 with first at about 20k. During the tournament I must have played with 40 of the players, and in my opinion, there was maybe 2 or 3 that knew the game well. And, without trying to sound conceided, I felt like I had a better read on the hands than anyone (I feel overall Stud is probably my best game). I got off to a great start, but by about midway I started taking some sick beats which included losing to a drawless tripped up 9s on 6th when I had aces up on 4th, a starting pair of jacks turned into jacks up plus four flush on 6th against a pair of 9s hitting a set on 6th, did not draw out (this pot was critical as I would have been chip leader had I won). Then the final blow took place with about 25 left. I had gone card dead and was one of the lower stacks when I picked up wired jacks with a Q showing. Nobody is showing higher than a 10 when the guy to my left raises with an 8 showing. I reraise and for some reason he reraises back. I felt the guy was a bit of a donkey and givin the blinds were getting big I decided to make this my stand so I reraised again with the intentions of getting it all in unless he paired the 8. Anyway, he calls, I bet fourth he calls, I bet fifth, he calls, I bet sixth and he puts me in for another half bet. Neither one of us seemed to have a threatening board. As it turns out he rivered a flush on me. The sick thing was is he started with 883 two spades. Anybody with half a brain should really just lay down when reraised showing a Q. Instead, I get donked out instead of moving into a healthy chip stack. Good times, thanks again LA for another wonderfully played hand.
I will likely play the shootout tournament on Wednesday, but that will be about it until I get back from Whistler. Oh ya, I forgot too mention, I fly up to Whistler on Friday until Sunday. I would almost rather stay and play, but it is my annual ski trip with 10 close friends from University.
Cash Games:
In my previous post I talked about the cap buyin at the 5-10nl and below. Well it sucks because you can't play deep stack poker unless you hit some hands to build your stack. Even if you do, you still have all the other short stackers picking a hand they like and jamming 1/4 in preflop and the rest on the flop. This obviously takes away a good part of the skill to poker. In any case, I watched a little of the 10-20nl and it looked juicy so I hopped in. Overall, I played all day Friday and Saturday losing about 7k (luckily I made that online Saturday night after I quit so I'm about even on the trip). In the process, I ran into about 3 coolers, flopped only two sets (one of which I was oversetted), I made 2 out of roughly 25 flush draws, and 2 out of roughly 35 straights (one where I made a straight when an opponent made a flush), and finally during all of the hands played I was only dealt AA once, KK once, QQ 4 times, and JJ 4 times. I only won one of the QQ and lost with each and every other big pair including running into QQ into KK once and JJ into KK once (both times getting away from the hand on the flop with no overs). If that is not sick enough I will explain some of the big pots I lost.
Hand #1:
On Friday about an hour into the game I had $2400 (my initial buy is always 2k). I raise in mid position with 75 of spades to $70. I have been relatively active but had yet to play any big pots and the table was tight passive except the big blind who was a tough young internet player. Anyway, I get two callers including the big blind. The flop comes 753 two hearts. He checks I bet $190, the passive calling station does what he does best and calls. The big blind reraises to $700. With $2400 total I think the only move here is to pump all in representing a big pair. This kid could be raising with a flush draw, two pair (which would be ideal as I have top two), touch and straight draw, or even the nuts. But givin that I saw him slow play a nut hand once before and knowing that the calling station is likely on flush or has mid pair like 99/1010 I figured I must shove. After shoving, the calling station reluctantly folds and I'm snap called by the big blind who tables 333. Lovely, thanks for letting me flop two pair for once LA.
Hand #2
It's late into Friday night and I have build my chips up to 7k (in for $5300 at this time). The game is getting a little wild and I'm in the big blind. First to act straddled and about 3 called before the button raised it up to $320. I look down and find ak off. The opponent who made the raise is overly agressive and could have alot of hands including bs, AK, JJ, etc... but not likely AA or KK otherwise I feel he would raise less to $220 because I had seen a more milking bet from him before when holding AA. I hesitate for a moment contemplating to reraise and try to take down $550. I instead choose to flat call for several reasons. First, one of the crusty old guys who buys in deep called immediately after the straddle and it is totally within his range to limp into the straddle with AA or KK looking for the back raise so I don't want to committ 1K only to laydown before the flop. Second, the button is hyperaggressive so I don't think I could fold to an allin preflop and I hate racing for that kind of cash (especially when running so bad). Third, I felt I had a good read on him, which could allow me to bluff him or trap him if I hit a good flop. And fourth, I hate AK out of position on big pots. So after calling and everyone else folding, the flop came down K93 two clubs. I of course check as I feel I made gin with that flop. He leads out with an $700 bet. I was suprised by how big his bet was, almost pot size which wasn't typical of him so I sensed either he had nothing or was maybe on flush draw showing me he is commiting himself to the hand. Anyway, with another 2.2k behind him after the bet I pushed him in. He sighs and quickly tells me its time to gamble, then shows 94 of clubs. Yuck! That was about as a bad as I could have imaged it would be. We were basically in a coin flip. In typical LA fashion, the river brought in a club.
Hand #3:
On Saturday I got thumped. Leading up this hand I was about even, but one hand could make or break me because there was a crazy asain guy at our table who was not very good, had lots of money, and who was putting incredible pressure on everyone every hand. At the time of this hand I am about 6.5k deep (at least 4 players had more chips in play than me). I am in the small blind with a10. One guy limped everyone else folded to the asian guy in the cutoff who made a small raise to $350 (he was raising at least 50% of the hands and each raise was obscene ranging from $300 to $500). I decide to call in hopes of catching him. To my suprise the big blind called as did the limper. On the flop AJ10 two diamonds. We all check and the asian guy bets $350 (typically he had been making small continuation bets whether he had anything or not). I decide I have to see where I am in this hand and get out all touch straight draws so I reraise to $900 (and givin that there is already $1400 preflop, the raise must be at least this big to eliminate the weaker hands). The other two opponents in the hand immediately fold and the asian looks confused on what to do so he does what he does best and calls. The turn is an offsuit 5. I lead out $1700. The asian guy thinks for awhile asks me if I'm on a draw blah blah blah. After much deliberation he calls. At this point I assume he has a hand but I'm thinking maybe flush draw or AK, AQ (or maybe even a dry ace given what he has shown down in the past to big bet calls). River is an offsuit 8 and I choose to move all in. The asian guy is flustered and he begins talking to himself then to me. What you got straight? set? So at this point I'm feeling relieved and I'm hoping for a call because I think he definately has AK or AQ. After 5 minutes he says call and shows AJ. I couldn't believe it. First, he had payed off fast with much less several times earlier. Second, if he had AJ and was going to call $1700 on the turn, I would have expected he was going to make a stand with the hand by reraising me all in on the turn (in which I may have folded I'm not sure). In the end given the way he was calling through thin, giving ridiculas action, and givin the significant action preflop and the draw heavy flop, I don't know how I could not lose my chips in this situation. Thanks LA for yet another cooler. It seems like the only time I ever flop two pair is when I'm beat.
Hand #4:
This was by far my worst play of the trip. Early Friday I had just tilted a rich California business man about 5 minutes previously when I raised him allin on a turn on a A85K rainbow board after he raise preflop, bet the flop, and the turn. He folded and I showed him the 9 of clubs. I knew he had nothing as he was steamrolling in typical fashion. The turn bet was $300 (60% pot) and I pushed him for his last $500 so its not as if I was running a huge play (had a9 of clubs anyway). After the hand he immediately called over the floor manager and asked for chips on a marker, 30k to be exact. He was ready for war. So, a hand comes up where there was a straddle and a call and I am in mid position with 99. Similar to the AK hand described above there is a case for calling or raising. I decided to raise this time makin it $180 to go. A short stack in the small blind reraises to $480 total. The rich guy snap calls everyone else folds to me. I had 3.7k to start the hand. I figured there was about a 50% chance the short stacker had a bigger pair than me, but giving the rich guy is steaming, I had position on him, and that I could double through him with the right flop so I decided to put in another $300. The flop came 235 two spades and the rich guy checks. I figured he missed the flop and at the time I wanted him out so I bet $1000 (in hindsight this was a bonehead bet and if nothing else I could have served my purpose for about $800). After putting the money in the rich guy quickly says he's all in. I thought for about 5 minutes. At first I thought I should fold and that he probably flopped a small set or slow played aces, after all he could only be check raising against an allin with a made hand. Then, thinking a little more I felt he could easily be doing this with a flush draw(AQ/AJ spades?) or 44 because for one he is a donk, and secondly I pissed him off with the 9 of clubs and he would like nothing more than to push me off a pot. In the end I folded (against my better judgement as my gut told me it was a flush draw, but it was the beginning of the trip I didn't want to play a big pot with a marginal hand). As it turns out he had qj of spades and bricked out. To add insult to injury the short stacker had 88. On the hand I lose $1480 instead of winning $4100 profit. In retrospect, I played the hand poorly on two counts. One, with position I should check behind one time for a couple reasons. One, to see what what comes on turn, two, to see what the guy does, and three for pot control purposes. Essentially, my rookie overbetting of the flop put me in a difficult situation. Then of course not following through against the steaming donk when I only have 2.2k left after putting in roughly 1.5k with 99 on a 235 board. I was very dissapointed with myself after that hand.
Hand #5:
I was not involved in this hand but I think its worth mentioning to give a flavour of the game. Preflop several people called and that same rich guy made it $90 on the button. A rather tight player that seemed to be playing well made it $350 to go in the big blind. Everyone folded to the rich guy who called as did the small blind. Each player is playing 20k plus. The flop came down AQ10 rainbow. The preflop aggressor made it $900. The rich guy called the other guy folded. The turn brought another Q. He fired again this time for $1900. The rich guy contemplated then called. The river brought an offsuit 7 and the tight player bet 5k. The rich guy thought for awhile then folded saying he had 1010 (LOL such bs, at best he folded AK the way I see it because anything better and he would have likely raised the turn or at least called the river). Anyway, the guy turns over JJ. I thought this play was bad even though he scored a big pot. The rich guy was already on massive tilt and had been calling thin. He obviously is not intimidated by the money so if he likes his hand he will likely call. Perhaps the tight player put him for a dry ace and figured he could represent AA or QQ with a big river bet, knowing that the rich guy would fold. Who knows, seems a little too risky for me though.
I could continue explaining my poor flops, turns, and rivers or I could continue to explain my horrible situational luck, but it serves little purpose and I certainly don't want to sound like a crybaby (may be too late for that). However, just to say, I have been unable to counter my coolers and such with any big hands for big pots (except one hand where I rivered a 2nd nut flush against another guys 3rd nut flush). Most of my money won has come from solid value betting through hands hitting top pair good kicker against opponents with lower kicker / second pair or by bluffing through small/medium sized pots knowing my opponents could not call (I generally don't run big pot bluffs just not enough gamble in me). I really hope that things turn around because I can honestly say that if I could start running average to good I could make 5k / day (at least on weekend nights) and if I could get on a heater that number could increase to 10-15k. The games are just that good.
One final personal observation:
I have a tendency to become passive when I can't hit or after I've taken some beats and I'm stuck. I say to myself "how am I going to lose this one?". When I lose the killer instinct and shift to this defensive playing style it usually leads to losing more money. So far on this trip I have been good at getting up when I fall into this pattern and for that I am happy.
I will try to update this blog a little more frequently over the next couple of weeks and hopefully I will have some good stories to tell. In the meantime, I hope you all have been are enjoying the frostbiting weather of Winnipeg :)
Cheers,
Thursday, January 24, 2008
LA Madness
Yesterday morning Todd Webb and I left the -45 freezer of Winnipeg and flew down to play a little poker at Commerce Casino in LA. The plan, at least for me, is to stay here until the LA Classic finishes and the action subsides, which should carry me into March. Suprisingly, my excitement level was not high about coming down. Don't get me wrong I am happy I'm here to give it a shot and on the one hand, I am cautiously optimistic about the prospect of making money and somewhat pleased about getting away from the cold, but on the other hand I am a little sore about leaving those close to me for 6 weeks (Yes babe, that means you and Braeden especially).
Coming down I had a goal, a lofty goal. Grind it out in the 2-5 until I make $7,500. Grind it out in the 5-10 until I make $30,000 and stabilize in the 10-20 for the balance of the trip, hopefully to cash out 100k in 6 weeks. During my play I promised myself not to lose more than 3 buy-ins in any game, no matter how good the game. I also promised myself that I would get into a routine that involved exercise, eating healthy, and not playing too many marathon sessions. We'll see what happens...
So, in the last 24 hours I've had the pleasure of witnessing the skills of California's finest. The 10-20 game was really tight and quite tough. Some of the regulars were saying that the action has died down a little in the bigger games over the last 3 months (10-20 and higher), however, that its expected to be crazy here in February. I did not play in the 10-20 instead chose to play 5-10. I chose 5-10 over my scheduled 2-5 because the cap buy-ins were very small. In the 5-10 you can only buy 400, which is ridiculas, but it does protect the bad players. The game is very preflop orientated until you build your stack and overall it plays a lot smaller than Vegas. However, if you can get it up to a couple thousand though you can make some good money because the play is soooo bad and there is usually one fish with a big stack to go after.
The players of California either check call everything or implement pure rage agression there is little middle ground. Last night I couldn't hit and took several beats (including losing ak to kq thre times to short stack all-ins...damn punisher), but managed a small $500 win. This morning was disguisting and I lost $400...even steven overall, this will change.
To give a litte taste of the play let me give you two examples. In one hand last night five guys limped and Todd raised to $40. The table was deep all over. I folded in the blind as I saw the utg limper grabbing for chips. The limper reraised to $90, which was rather small so 5 went to the flop. Flop qj7 two spades. The limper bets $125 into the $450 pot. 2 called including Todd who had a small flush draw. The guy in the big blind then check raised all in for roughly $450. The initial better immediately declared all-in for about $1000, both Todd and the other guy end up folding as it sure looked like a qqq or jjj. As it turns out the guy who check raised had a3 off and the preflop aggressor had ak...LOL. Todd would have made a flush on the turn and was upset when he saw what forced him out of the pot.
This morning after losing three consecutive pots to bs, I found 1010 in the small blind. Six guys limped so I made it $60 and had only 1 caller. Flop was 1096 rainbow and I decided to check to the goon. He goes all in for about 4 times the size of the pot. I call and he tables 74 of diamonds, turn 8 of spades, river dud...sweet.
In summary, I have to say LA is exactly as I remembered it. It is fully of egomaniacs that think its more manly to bet then check and who would rather payoff a player than take an outside chance of being bluffed. Everyone has sunglasses and everyone has headphones. Everyone is a legend in their own mind and everyone has watched the travel channel one too many times. All I have to say is they can't escape for 6 weeks, eventually they are going to have to pay.
Going to play event #1 in about an hour. $300 buy-in with expectation of 1600 entries. I'm going to gamble and try to get a stack early or I'll venture back to the cash games.
I'll update in a couple days, hopefully with some positive results to post.
Peace...
Coming down I had a goal, a lofty goal. Grind it out in the 2-5 until I make $7,500. Grind it out in the 5-10 until I make $30,000 and stabilize in the 10-20 for the balance of the trip, hopefully to cash out 100k in 6 weeks. During my play I promised myself not to lose more than 3 buy-ins in any game, no matter how good the game. I also promised myself that I would get into a routine that involved exercise, eating healthy, and not playing too many marathon sessions. We'll see what happens...
So, in the last 24 hours I've had the pleasure of witnessing the skills of California's finest. The 10-20 game was really tight and quite tough. Some of the regulars were saying that the action has died down a little in the bigger games over the last 3 months (10-20 and higher), however, that its expected to be crazy here in February. I did not play in the 10-20 instead chose to play 5-10. I chose 5-10 over my scheduled 2-5 because the cap buy-ins were very small. In the 5-10 you can only buy 400, which is ridiculas, but it does protect the bad players. The game is very preflop orientated until you build your stack and overall it plays a lot smaller than Vegas. However, if you can get it up to a couple thousand though you can make some good money because the play is soooo bad and there is usually one fish with a big stack to go after.
The players of California either check call everything or implement pure rage agression there is little middle ground. Last night I couldn't hit and took several beats (including losing ak to kq thre times to short stack all-ins...damn punisher), but managed a small $500 win. This morning was disguisting and I lost $400...even steven overall, this will change.
To give a litte taste of the play let me give you two examples. In one hand last night five guys limped and Todd raised to $40. The table was deep all over. I folded in the blind as I saw the utg limper grabbing for chips. The limper reraised to $90, which was rather small so 5 went to the flop. Flop qj7 two spades. The limper bets $125 into the $450 pot. 2 called including Todd who had a small flush draw. The guy in the big blind then check raised all in for roughly $450. The initial better immediately declared all-in for about $1000, both Todd and the other guy end up folding as it sure looked like a qqq or jjj. As it turns out the guy who check raised had a3 off and the preflop aggressor had ak...LOL. Todd would have made a flush on the turn and was upset when he saw what forced him out of the pot.
This morning after losing three consecutive pots to bs, I found 1010 in the small blind. Six guys limped so I made it $60 and had only 1 caller. Flop was 1096 rainbow and I decided to check to the goon. He goes all in for about 4 times the size of the pot. I call and he tables 74 of diamonds, turn 8 of spades, river dud...sweet.
In summary, I have to say LA is exactly as I remembered it. It is fully of egomaniacs that think its more manly to bet then check and who would rather payoff a player than take an outside chance of being bluffed. Everyone has sunglasses and everyone has headphones. Everyone is a legend in their own mind and everyone has watched the travel channel one too many times. All I have to say is they can't escape for 6 weeks, eventually they are going to have to pay.
Going to play event #1 in about an hour. $300 buy-in with expectation of 1600 entries. I'm going to gamble and try to get a stack early or I'll venture back to the cash games.
I'll update in a couple days, hopefully with some positive results to post.
Peace...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Back to the Online Grind
My post is nowhere near as exciting as outplaying Gus Hanson, but I'll try to make it as entertaining as possibe.
I took most of the last couple of weeks off from on-line because I was not running well and may not have been playing well either, which is why I spent a few evenings down at good ol' Club Regent. However, I was Jonesing a little this weekend and decided to start back playin a little online. I play on several accounts on varying sites and this time decided to use Kathy's pokerstars handle 'rockstar2'. I deposited $500 with the intentions of really grinding it out in hopes of making a little extra scratch as a buffer for LA.
Since Saturday I managed to creep the account up to as high as $10k and is now sitting at 9k after losing a bit tonight thanks to a flurry of silly beats (I apologize I have not yet downloaded the software that tracks online hands so I cannot give you examples). Anyway, I'm pretty happy about that little run because I have not really played much higher than 2-4 or 3-6 nl, which means that the money made was with minimal volatility and risk. Most of my hours logged were on heads up tables. I think my heads up game is improving thanks to cardrunners and Taylor Caby. The guy is the best and his videos are well articulated making it easy to understand what he is thinking in an array of situations. I think the changes I've made focus on increased aggression to control the play. I'm finding that the added pressure puts many weaker players on tilt fast causing big pot mistakes. And I think I mentioned in an earlier blog (and will say again) for those truly interested in improving your game, but that have a basic understanding already, purchase the gold membership on cardrunners it will pay for itself in no time!
Not much else to report. I have a stud game tomorrow, which will likely be my last before I leave to LA next Wednesday. And, most likely, I will make one more trip down to Club Regent before I go strickly to punish myself and to pick up a few bad habits.
Oh, and for those that know Myles Bennet you should go on highstakesreport.com and look at the blurb about 'Fennburger'. He played smashed last weekend against the sickest online players around and scored 40k in the 50-100nl... a nice nights work. Other congrats to Travis for his performance in Australia. He may have come up a litttle short in the tournament, but sounds like he's making some cash nonetheless.
Peace
I took most of the last couple of weeks off from on-line because I was not running well and may not have been playing well either, which is why I spent a few evenings down at good ol' Club Regent. However, I was Jonesing a little this weekend and decided to start back playin a little online. I play on several accounts on varying sites and this time decided to use Kathy's pokerstars handle 'rockstar2'. I deposited $500 with the intentions of really grinding it out in hopes of making a little extra scratch as a buffer for LA.
Since Saturday I managed to creep the account up to as high as $10k and is now sitting at 9k after losing a bit tonight thanks to a flurry of silly beats (I apologize I have not yet downloaded the software that tracks online hands so I cannot give you examples). Anyway, I'm pretty happy about that little run because I have not really played much higher than 2-4 or 3-6 nl, which means that the money made was with minimal volatility and risk. Most of my hours logged were on heads up tables. I think my heads up game is improving thanks to cardrunners and Taylor Caby. The guy is the best and his videos are well articulated making it easy to understand what he is thinking in an array of situations. I think the changes I've made focus on increased aggression to control the play. I'm finding that the added pressure puts many weaker players on tilt fast causing big pot mistakes. And I think I mentioned in an earlier blog (and will say again) for those truly interested in improving your game, but that have a basic understanding already, purchase the gold membership on cardrunners it will pay for itself in no time!
Not much else to report. I have a stud game tomorrow, which will likely be my last before I leave to LA next Wednesday. And, most likely, I will make one more trip down to Club Regent before I go strickly to punish myself and to pick up a few bad habits.
Oh, and for those that know Myles Bennet you should go on highstakesreport.com and look at the blurb about 'Fennburger'. He played smashed last weekend against the sickest online players around and scored 40k in the 50-100nl... a nice nights work. Other congrats to Travis for his performance in Australia. He may have come up a litttle short in the tournament, but sounds like he's making some cash nonetheless.
Peace
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Club Regent Hackfest Part 2 - Tuesday Tournament
I wanted to talk a little more about Club Regent. Instead of focusing on the cash games I would like to talk a little bit about the Tuesday night turbo tournaments. I guess I don't have much else to talk about because there haven't been any exciting high limit home games and I haven't been playing a lot of online (as previously mentioned, I am taking a break from higher limit cash games and only log on to slash around in the occasional tournament). Don't worry, LA is just around the corner, I'll have many bad beat stories to share then.
Anyway, Kathy and I went down this Tuesday to play the rebuy tournament. I rarely play this tournament because the blind increase too quickly, but it just so happened that nothing was going on this week and neither Kathy or I had played the tournament in months...so bring on the punishment.
In typical fashion, I had a fun and expensive rebuy period. During what I call 'the power hour' I issued a few beats to those I knew would issue them back after the rebuy. Luckily, I won the last hand of the rebuy with 86 all in preflop. I was up against 99, 1010, and AK, they didn't stand a chance as I rivered a straight. This sent a couple rocks to break talking to themselves saying 'how could he go in with a 86, he must not care about money' and 'the rebuy period is silly, its not real poker, they should just get rid of it'. (of course I will not get into the varying strategies behind rebuys nor will I explain the pros and cons of this tournament setup as most of you already know what I would say. Unfortunately, the typical Regent rock is clueless). So anyway, as we transitioned from rebuy donkey poker to post rebuy donkey poker, I was off to a good start having almost 10k in chips.
Over the next few hours I managed to tread water as I was unable to get anything going. With tournaments so situational, I just couldn't find many spots to pick up chips. People were pushing before it got to me or they would hit the flop against me when I was the aggressor. So, with a little hacking here and slashing there, all of a sudden I looked around and we were down to 3 tables. As I looked a little closer I could see that 15 to 20 of the usual suspects remained as it was now time to put on the blindfolds and start shoving. I have played both the rebuy and the freeze out enough times to know when situational luck takes over completely. In the rebuy its when the field is down to about 30 and in the freeze out its when the field is down to about 15. In both cases, this is far too early as far as I'm concerned, but beggars can't be choosers.
Anyway, with about 10k in chips and the blinds at 400 / 800 a shooter who has shoved about 5 times (called twice showing a4 and k10) announces before the hand that if he gets any ace he will shove again, sure enough action is folded to him and he shoves for about 6.5k. I look down and find AJ and decide I probably have the best and I go over the top all in for 10k. Everyone else folds and shooter shows an AK suited, sweet. I lose and am crippled. Next hand I play is when I was in the small blind with 2800 chips, action is folded to me and I decide to push with 63 diamonds hoping the big blind has nothing. Unfortunately he has AK suited, fortunately though, I win the race and have a little room once again (Note: suckout #3 in about 25 tournaments at Club Regent, I usually run like a three legged horse with a 3oo pound jockey). After the suckout, the blinds kept moving up, and after a couple blind steals and eventual flop bluffs when called preflop, I found myself at 35k without showing a hand. At this point Kathy got bounced and we were down to 22 players with an average stack of about 15k.
It was at this point that I ran into problems with my most problematic hand, AQ. A rather tight player had raised twice in a row from early position and he was once again raising. Both he and I had the most chips at our table. He just knocked someone out and the blinds just went up to 2k/4k that hand. There were 2 big blinds and he made it 8k to go. I knew it was risky but I felt that he would fold anything less than QQ, KK, AA, or AK to my over the top all-in and I could pick up 16k, so I moved in after his raise. All of a sudden everyone was trigger happy and two smaller stacks called all-in followed by the original raiser who had 30k....ouch! I was up against AA, KQ, and KK from the big stack. The KQ was the smallest stack and won the main pot with a flush, the AA took side pot 1, and KK took side pot 2 leaving me with about 5k to maneuver with. Thinking I'm dead, I pushed in the very next hand UTG with Q7 and was isolated by AJ and won. This tripled me up. Then, the very next hand while in the big blind, the button limped and I had 109. This individual was a weaker player that would only bet if he touched the flop so I figured I'd rather see a flop than move on him and maybe get called. Sure enough the flop was rags and he checked behind me. The turn was a K and thus I checked again afraid this card could likely hit him, KJ/K1o,K9 suited, but he checked again. The river was brought in a 4 card straight with 236K5 and I decided to go all-in knowing that card couldn't have helped as his limp range would not hit that card. Sure enough he folded. I pushed all in on 2 of the following 3 hands with quality and all of a sudden I was back to almost 35k. Not two minutes later someone open shoved for 15k with 99 and I found KK and it held. This put me at 50k and now I would lean. By this point we were down to 18 and they paid 15 so it was the perfect time to apply pressure especially when the only big stack was to my right. So, I raised 6 of the following 8 hands and made my way up to 80k before everyone hit the money. Once everyone was in the money, it took approximately 5 minutes to eliminate 5 short stacks that were obviously hanging on to cash, congrats, enjoy the $183.
Final Table:
I started the final table tied for chip lead at 81k and I knew there was going to be a lot of opportunities to steal blinds because there were at least 5 short stacks, most of whom were more inclined to climb the money ladder then to clash with chip leader. However, with blinds at 3k/6k there was not much room for mistake. All said and done I was as confident as one could be about winning given the situation. So, without much delay Tony announced the chip counts, the dealer cut for the button, and we were on our way. On the very first hand I was dealt AQ of diamonds under the gun and raised to 15k. Everyone folded to the big blind who had half her stack invested in the blind and chose to call with A6 (can't say I blame her). The hands turn up, the guy to her right declares he folded a 6, and the dealer reveals a Q for the door card...beautiful. Unfortunately, there was a 6 on the flop, and unfortunately, the case 6 hit the turn. Nice way to start the final table. Instead of moving to 100k I was chopped down to about 65k. Over the next 5 hands, short stacks were pushing, usually with the worst of it, and each time they won. After folding these hands and paying the blinds I sat at about 55k when I picked up JJ in mid position. The blinds just went to 4k/8k and I open shoved. Immediately, I was called by a tight player and I knew I was beat, he showed KK. I laughed to myself wondering how I could be the first out? Was I not a good person, good people deserve better fates. Anyway, without having to wait a jack was the first card out and I soon found myself on top again with 120k, beautiful. I had the poor guy covered by about 2k. The very next hand I had 109 diamonds and raised, unfortunately a short stack found aces and won, down to 108k. Two hands later I was in the blind when another short stack who was going to pay the blind next hand pushed in for 12k, everyone folded to me and I had 89. I called another 4k and he showed me a9, yuck. I lose, down to 96k. Next hand I'm in the small blind and another short stack who also was under the gun raised all in for 14k and everyone folded to me. I only had Q7 suited, but given the fact I had 4k invested, that the big blind was a rock and only had 20k total, I figured I could probably isolate against the desperate short stack and be risking an additional 10k to win a 36k pot. Anyway, somehow the short stackers kept finding legitimate hands, and of course once again, I did not have live cards as he tabled QJ suited. I lost, down to 82k. Over the next 15 or so hands I folded everything as people were pushing all-in every time and not once did I pick up a hand and not once did I have a reasonable situation to steal. During this time I did get free pass on my big blind. Then, in the following big blind I had QJ suited. This guy Wayne from early position min raised to 16k. Wayne was the only guy at the final table with a clue and frankly he was starting to accumulate chips and starting to open too many pots so I decided to call and check blind. I don't check blind very often but I know Wayne will push if I check the flop givin the money already in the middle, so with QJ you either hit or you don't, unlike a small pair where I would like to fire all in if the flop was rags. Also, he may check if he misses as he knows I'm capable of playing the same way with AA or KK. Anyway, the flop comes 532 rainbow and he checks behind me. I know he has missed so I say to myself anything but an A, K, or 10 and I push into him. Turn is a K, I check he fires all-in I fold and he shows me the K. Sick turn or I take down a monster and become big chip leader.
The next time I played a pot we were down to seven players and the blinds were 10k/20k and I was sitting at 70k in the small blind. Everyone folded to the button who was tight and he pushed all in for 28k. I looked down at j10 diamonds and deliberated for a minute. I felt this was the toughest decision to date. I figured I was behind and if I called and lost I would be dangerously low to a point I could no longer steal blinds without showing down. On the other hand, if I could win this hand I would be back up to almost 100k and could apply significant pressure once again (it seemed that every time someone would accumulate a big stack, they would play tight trying to outlast their opponents instead of applying pressure. So, I thought if I could get a good stack again I may be able to steal my way to victory). The big blind had about 38k so if he called I had limited additional exposure. Anyway, I decided to go for the win and call. My opponent tabled AQ and won.
The Final Blow:
2 hands later I had k2 off. On the previous hand, someone was knocked out, which resulted in an extra blind being posted (don't ask me to get into their silly house rules). The action folded to me in the cutoff and I couldn't resist pushing my 42k (besides I didn't have many more looks before I would be blinded out). Both small blinds were short stacks like me and the big blind was the chip leader. I figured that both blinds would fold unless they had a monster hoping instead the big stack would knock me out and each of them would move one step higher on the pay scale. Unfortunately Wayne found AJ and called. The big blind folded and we were heads up for about 125k with all the dead money in play. I lost the showdown and finished 6th for about $1,100.
Its tough to play with the blind structures offered by Club Regent. Maybe one day they will host a real tournament where skill plays a bigger part. In any case, I thought I would provide some rationale behind my decisions. I do know the peanut gallery was snickering from time to time when I revealed some of my less than formidable showdown hands, but what u gonna do? I play to win.
Cheers,
Anyway, Kathy and I went down this Tuesday to play the rebuy tournament. I rarely play this tournament because the blind increase too quickly, but it just so happened that nothing was going on this week and neither Kathy or I had played the tournament in months...so bring on the punishment.
In typical fashion, I had a fun and expensive rebuy period. During what I call 'the power hour' I issued a few beats to those I knew would issue them back after the rebuy. Luckily, I won the last hand of the rebuy with 86 all in preflop. I was up against 99, 1010, and AK, they didn't stand a chance as I rivered a straight. This sent a couple rocks to break talking to themselves saying 'how could he go in with a 86, he must not care about money' and 'the rebuy period is silly, its not real poker, they should just get rid of it'. (of course I will not get into the varying strategies behind rebuys nor will I explain the pros and cons of this tournament setup as most of you already know what I would say. Unfortunately, the typical Regent rock is clueless). So anyway, as we transitioned from rebuy donkey poker to post rebuy donkey poker, I was off to a good start having almost 10k in chips.
Over the next few hours I managed to tread water as I was unable to get anything going. With tournaments so situational, I just couldn't find many spots to pick up chips. People were pushing before it got to me or they would hit the flop against me when I was the aggressor. So, with a little hacking here and slashing there, all of a sudden I looked around and we were down to 3 tables. As I looked a little closer I could see that 15 to 20 of the usual suspects remained as it was now time to put on the blindfolds and start shoving. I have played both the rebuy and the freeze out enough times to know when situational luck takes over completely. In the rebuy its when the field is down to about 30 and in the freeze out its when the field is down to about 15. In both cases, this is far too early as far as I'm concerned, but beggars can't be choosers.
Anyway, with about 10k in chips and the blinds at 400 / 800 a shooter who has shoved about 5 times (called twice showing a4 and k10) announces before the hand that if he gets any ace he will shove again, sure enough action is folded to him and he shoves for about 6.5k. I look down and find AJ and decide I probably have the best and I go over the top all in for 10k. Everyone else folds and shooter shows an AK suited, sweet. I lose and am crippled. Next hand I play is when I was in the small blind with 2800 chips, action is folded to me and I decide to push with 63 diamonds hoping the big blind has nothing. Unfortunately he has AK suited, fortunately though, I win the race and have a little room once again (Note: suckout #3 in about 25 tournaments at Club Regent, I usually run like a three legged horse with a 3oo pound jockey). After the suckout, the blinds kept moving up, and after a couple blind steals and eventual flop bluffs when called preflop, I found myself at 35k without showing a hand. At this point Kathy got bounced and we were down to 22 players with an average stack of about 15k.
It was at this point that I ran into problems with my most problematic hand, AQ. A rather tight player had raised twice in a row from early position and he was once again raising. Both he and I had the most chips at our table. He just knocked someone out and the blinds just went up to 2k/4k that hand. There were 2 big blinds and he made it 8k to go. I knew it was risky but I felt that he would fold anything less than QQ, KK, AA, or AK to my over the top all-in and I could pick up 16k, so I moved in after his raise. All of a sudden everyone was trigger happy and two smaller stacks called all-in followed by the original raiser who had 30k....ouch! I was up against AA, KQ, and KK from the big stack. The KQ was the smallest stack and won the main pot with a flush, the AA took side pot 1, and KK took side pot 2 leaving me with about 5k to maneuver with. Thinking I'm dead, I pushed in the very next hand UTG with Q7 and was isolated by AJ and won. This tripled me up. Then, the very next hand while in the big blind, the button limped and I had 109. This individual was a weaker player that would only bet if he touched the flop so I figured I'd rather see a flop than move on him and maybe get called. Sure enough the flop was rags and he checked behind me. The turn was a K and thus I checked again afraid this card could likely hit him, KJ/K1o,K9 suited, but he checked again. The river was brought in a 4 card straight with 236K5 and I decided to go all-in knowing that card couldn't have helped as his limp range would not hit that card. Sure enough he folded. I pushed all in on 2 of the following 3 hands with quality and all of a sudden I was back to almost 35k. Not two minutes later someone open shoved for 15k with 99 and I found KK and it held. This put me at 50k and now I would lean. By this point we were down to 18 and they paid 15 so it was the perfect time to apply pressure especially when the only big stack was to my right. So, I raised 6 of the following 8 hands and made my way up to 80k before everyone hit the money. Once everyone was in the money, it took approximately 5 minutes to eliminate 5 short stacks that were obviously hanging on to cash, congrats, enjoy the $183.
Final Table:
I started the final table tied for chip lead at 81k and I knew there was going to be a lot of opportunities to steal blinds because there were at least 5 short stacks, most of whom were more inclined to climb the money ladder then to clash with chip leader. However, with blinds at 3k/6k there was not much room for mistake. All said and done I was as confident as one could be about winning given the situation. So, without much delay Tony announced the chip counts, the dealer cut for the button, and we were on our way. On the very first hand I was dealt AQ of diamonds under the gun and raised to 15k. Everyone folded to the big blind who had half her stack invested in the blind and chose to call with A6 (can't say I blame her). The hands turn up, the guy to her right declares he folded a 6, and the dealer reveals a Q for the door card...beautiful. Unfortunately, there was a 6 on the flop, and unfortunately, the case 6 hit the turn. Nice way to start the final table. Instead of moving to 100k I was chopped down to about 65k. Over the next 5 hands, short stacks were pushing, usually with the worst of it, and each time they won. After folding these hands and paying the blinds I sat at about 55k when I picked up JJ in mid position. The blinds just went to 4k/8k and I open shoved. Immediately, I was called by a tight player and I knew I was beat, he showed KK. I laughed to myself wondering how I could be the first out? Was I not a good person, good people deserve better fates. Anyway, without having to wait a jack was the first card out and I soon found myself on top again with 120k, beautiful. I had the poor guy covered by about 2k. The very next hand I had 109 diamonds and raised, unfortunately a short stack found aces and won, down to 108k. Two hands later I was in the blind when another short stack who was going to pay the blind next hand pushed in for 12k, everyone folded to me and I had 89. I called another 4k and he showed me a9, yuck. I lose, down to 96k. Next hand I'm in the small blind and another short stack who also was under the gun raised all in for 14k and everyone folded to me. I only had Q7 suited, but given the fact I had 4k invested, that the big blind was a rock and only had 20k total, I figured I could probably isolate against the desperate short stack and be risking an additional 10k to win a 36k pot. Anyway, somehow the short stackers kept finding legitimate hands, and of course once again, I did not have live cards as he tabled QJ suited. I lost, down to 82k. Over the next 15 or so hands I folded everything as people were pushing all-in every time and not once did I pick up a hand and not once did I have a reasonable situation to steal. During this time I did get free pass on my big blind. Then, in the following big blind I had QJ suited. This guy Wayne from early position min raised to 16k. Wayne was the only guy at the final table with a clue and frankly he was starting to accumulate chips and starting to open too many pots so I decided to call and check blind. I don't check blind very often but I know Wayne will push if I check the flop givin the money already in the middle, so with QJ you either hit or you don't, unlike a small pair where I would like to fire all in if the flop was rags. Also, he may check if he misses as he knows I'm capable of playing the same way with AA or KK. Anyway, the flop comes 532 rainbow and he checks behind me. I know he has missed so I say to myself anything but an A, K, or 10 and I push into him. Turn is a K, I check he fires all-in I fold and he shows me the K. Sick turn or I take down a monster and become big chip leader.
The next time I played a pot we were down to seven players and the blinds were 10k/20k and I was sitting at 70k in the small blind. Everyone folded to the button who was tight and he pushed all in for 28k. I looked down at j10 diamonds and deliberated for a minute. I felt this was the toughest decision to date. I figured I was behind and if I called and lost I would be dangerously low to a point I could no longer steal blinds without showing down. On the other hand, if I could win this hand I would be back up to almost 100k and could apply significant pressure once again (it seemed that every time someone would accumulate a big stack, they would play tight trying to outlast their opponents instead of applying pressure. So, I thought if I could get a good stack again I may be able to steal my way to victory). The big blind had about 38k so if he called I had limited additional exposure. Anyway, I decided to go for the win and call. My opponent tabled AQ and won.
The Final Blow:
2 hands later I had k2 off. On the previous hand, someone was knocked out, which resulted in an extra blind being posted (don't ask me to get into their silly house rules). The action folded to me in the cutoff and I couldn't resist pushing my 42k (besides I didn't have many more looks before I would be blinded out). Both small blinds were short stacks like me and the big blind was the chip leader. I figured that both blinds would fold unless they had a monster hoping instead the big stack would knock me out and each of them would move one step higher on the pay scale. Unfortunately Wayne found AJ and called. The big blind folded and we were heads up for about 125k with all the dead money in play. I lost the showdown and finished 6th for about $1,100.
Its tough to play with the blind structures offered by Club Regent. Maybe one day they will host a real tournament where skill plays a bigger part. In any case, I thought I would provide some rationale behind my decisions. I do know the peanut gallery was snickering from time to time when I revealed some of my less than formidable showdown hands, but what u gonna do? I play to win.
Cheers,
Friday, January 4, 2008
The Club Regent Hackfest
Over the last couple of months I have made at least a half dozen trips down to Club Regent with Kathy. For those of you that don't know, the game of choice down there is a mildly butchered form of 1-2nl. The small minimum and cap buy-ins translates to heavy preflop and flop play with limited maneuvering on the turn and river. Anyway, I go down there to have some fun, give a few beats, and spend some quality time with Kathy.
I have noticed that everytime I go I see the same 20-30 faces. At least 50-60% of the field are regulars. What amazes me is that after playing each and everyday these 20-30 faces still can't grasp the basics of how to play poker. In fact, I have only come across 3-4 guys who had any idea of how to play good poker. I find that there are two types of players. The first is the calling station. This person will call any bet to see the flop with the 2 hole cards he/she likes. This player does not understand anything about pot odds, position, relative chip stacks, etc... Instead, he/she focuses only on the hole cards, seeing the flop, and choosing to continue if he/she hits the flop. This person does not generally bluff except when putting in one continuation bet after a preflop raise. This person is a big losing player. The second player, which I refer to the 1-2nl grinder, is a tight aggressive player. Generally, this person waits for top 20 hands before entering a pot and usually enters with a raise. This person usually bets the flop no matter what 'for information purposes' no matter how scary the flop is and this person usually has a hard time getting away from quasi big hands (such as an overpair or top pair top kicker). This person goes overkill on the math, understands some aspects of position, and can usually be found staring into their opponents soul when played back at. This second type of player is my favorite to crack, largely because they feel they know everything about the game and largely because they are typically young, arrogant, and way too serious at the table. Remember, poker is supposed to be fun first and everything else second otherwise you will never succeed.
Overall, I have done well at Club Regent even though I play like a jackass and never pass a hand before seeing the flop. I don't know the exact details, but I have won 5/6 times with one $800 loss and 3 wins over $1,000. My high variance is due to reckless play. The truth is a person could show up with a $300-400 float and play comfortably.
I don't have much time but I want to talk about a couple hands, one for sentimental reasons, one to illustrate an opponents total donkeyness, and one to illustrate my total donkeyness.
Hand #1
I have 98 hearts and raise to $10 early position. I have about $350. 5 players call and the flop is 763 two clubs. A short stack bets $30 and only has $50 left behind him. I decide to raise to $75 to isolate and hope everyone folds getting me heads up (risking $80 additional dollars to win a $210 pot with my hand seems like a fair investment - understanding that I'm in a gambling mood). Anyway, they all fold to Joe Montreal and he re-raises all in for $230 or so...oops I ran into a set. I have played with Joe enough in years past to know that the only hand he is going to show me is 77, 44, or 33. The short stack calls and I figure why not, let's gamble, Joe runs bad anyway. I tell him nice hand, that I'm just giving him action, and no hard feelings no matter what. He laughs and we turn over all of our hands. Joe shows 77, the short stack shows a9 clubs, and I have a lovely up and down vs the set and flush draw. The turn is the 10 of spades and river is j of diamonds. Nice call me, scalla. I could see the blood rush to Joe's face as he blows a $600 pot with top set. I felt kinda bad because he does run pretty bad, but I know he wouldn't have minded taking my money so I didn't lose any sleep over it. What was kind of amusing though was how Joe had to try his hardest to hold in his rage. He is an emotional player and typically would berate anyone else who gave him such a beat. However, I have lost to him before on big pots and laughed it off so he knew he had to give me the same respect, such is poker.
Hand #2
Last night a player I secretly referred to as 'Rockzilla' got involved with me in what started as a meaningless pot. 4 in the hand for a total of $8. Flop is ak4 all diamonds. I have j7 of diamonds. Everyone checks flop. Turn is offsuit 6. I bet $10. Rockzilla raises to $40. Now, I have been a little wild of late so I decide to raise again hoping to get paid off so I make it $110 total. Rockzilla pauses for awhile then declares all in for $500 total (I have him covered). My initial reaction was how do I fold here, but then I think it through. First, I have shown two thin calls to big river bets so if he had the nut flush he would push right there. Second, this guy has played very tight and has accumulated chips on big pots only showing the nuts. Third, this was a nothing pot and I could only think he could shove back here with the nuts. With anything less I think he would call to see what I do on the river as he has position. After some deliberation I fold and show face up. He proceeds to show me his monster 62 of diamonds. I kinda laugh and say nice hand. He says to me 'I can't believe you folded that' and I calmly reply 'I can't believe you put your life savings in on the 7th nut hand in a $8 pot. He then rationalized by saying 'I felt I had to either go all-in or fold'. Ah, the old low limit Phil Helmuth raise or fold technique. I think this train of thought is a little absurd. If I raise to $110 and he just calls the turn and I choose to bet the river my river bet will be somewhere between $120 to $175 (as the total pot would then be $220). He could see if I have him beat for an additional $120 to $175 as opposed to $500 more. Also, if for some reason I was bluffing he could induce the bluff (however, this is very unlikely as there is no reason to bluff a small pot). Anyway, his suicide play worked for him because he ran into me instead of the other 9 players at the table. In the 9 other situations he would be borrowing bus fair to get home.
Hand #3
I raise in early position to $12 with 65 clubs. 4 call and the flop is 732 one club. Two checks to me I decide to bet $35. The kid on the button raises to $70 total and only has another $100 behind him. Everyone else folds and for whatever reason I decide to just flat call (as I was doing it I was saying to myself what are you doing?). I have watched this kid have bad luck and I have noticed that when he decides to raise he is committed to the hand and will not fold. Anyway, I am not priced to gut him but I try anyway. The turn pairs the 3 and it is a club so I have now have a flush draw and gutter. I push all-in into him knowing he is going to call (another draw I am not really priced to go after). Sure enough he stubbornly calls showing 88, however, I come out smelling like a rose when the river is the K of clubs, man I run good at 1-2nl sometimes. This is clearly an example of your competition wearing off on you. I had been surrounded by donkeys all night and was now playing like one myself.
In total I made $1050 on the night and was happy I went down (Kathy won about $250 herself). I will continue to make occasional appearances as it is fun to see everyone and to blow off a little steam. The only poker this week was a 30/60 stud game on the 2nd where I suffered my first loss in about 20 sessions. It was minimal but I had many nightmares that night over the unbelievable beats I suffered from my good friends Rosie and Larry. I'm hoping to organize another big nl game in the next week and will likely play stud next Wednesday. Otherwise, I may dabble a bit online (although I'm trying to take a bit of a break).
Till next time.......
I have noticed that everytime I go I see the same 20-30 faces. At least 50-60% of the field are regulars. What amazes me is that after playing each and everyday these 20-30 faces still can't grasp the basics of how to play poker. In fact, I have only come across 3-4 guys who had any idea of how to play good poker. I find that there are two types of players. The first is the calling station. This person will call any bet to see the flop with the 2 hole cards he/she likes. This player does not understand anything about pot odds, position, relative chip stacks, etc... Instead, he/she focuses only on the hole cards, seeing the flop, and choosing to continue if he/she hits the flop. This person does not generally bluff except when putting in one continuation bet after a preflop raise. This person is a big losing player. The second player, which I refer to the 1-2nl grinder, is a tight aggressive player. Generally, this person waits for top 20 hands before entering a pot and usually enters with a raise. This person usually bets the flop no matter what 'for information purposes' no matter how scary the flop is and this person usually has a hard time getting away from quasi big hands (such as an overpair or top pair top kicker). This person goes overkill on the math, understands some aspects of position, and can usually be found staring into their opponents soul when played back at. This second type of player is my favorite to crack, largely because they feel they know everything about the game and largely because they are typically young, arrogant, and way too serious at the table. Remember, poker is supposed to be fun first and everything else second otherwise you will never succeed.
Overall, I have done well at Club Regent even though I play like a jackass and never pass a hand before seeing the flop. I don't know the exact details, but I have won 5/6 times with one $800 loss and 3 wins over $1,000. My high variance is due to reckless play. The truth is a person could show up with a $300-400 float and play comfortably.
I don't have much time but I want to talk about a couple hands, one for sentimental reasons, one to illustrate an opponents total donkeyness, and one to illustrate my total donkeyness.
Hand #1
I have 98 hearts and raise to $10 early position. I have about $350. 5 players call and the flop is 763 two clubs. A short stack bets $30 and only has $50 left behind him. I decide to raise to $75 to isolate and hope everyone folds getting me heads up (risking $80 additional dollars to win a $210 pot with my hand seems like a fair investment - understanding that I'm in a gambling mood). Anyway, they all fold to Joe Montreal and he re-raises all in for $230 or so...oops I ran into a set. I have played with Joe enough in years past to know that the only hand he is going to show me is 77, 44, or 33. The short stack calls and I figure why not, let's gamble, Joe runs bad anyway. I tell him nice hand, that I'm just giving him action, and no hard feelings no matter what. He laughs and we turn over all of our hands. Joe shows 77, the short stack shows a9 clubs, and I have a lovely up and down vs the set and flush draw. The turn is the 10 of spades and river is j of diamonds. Nice call me, scalla. I could see the blood rush to Joe's face as he blows a $600 pot with top set. I felt kinda bad because he does run pretty bad, but I know he wouldn't have minded taking my money so I didn't lose any sleep over it. What was kind of amusing though was how Joe had to try his hardest to hold in his rage. He is an emotional player and typically would berate anyone else who gave him such a beat. However, I have lost to him before on big pots and laughed it off so he knew he had to give me the same respect, such is poker.
Hand #2
Last night a player I secretly referred to as 'Rockzilla' got involved with me in what started as a meaningless pot. 4 in the hand for a total of $8. Flop is ak4 all diamonds. I have j7 of diamonds. Everyone checks flop. Turn is offsuit 6. I bet $10. Rockzilla raises to $40. Now, I have been a little wild of late so I decide to raise again hoping to get paid off so I make it $110 total. Rockzilla pauses for awhile then declares all in for $500 total (I have him covered). My initial reaction was how do I fold here, but then I think it through. First, I have shown two thin calls to big river bets so if he had the nut flush he would push right there. Second, this guy has played very tight and has accumulated chips on big pots only showing the nuts. Third, this was a nothing pot and I could only think he could shove back here with the nuts. With anything less I think he would call to see what I do on the river as he has position. After some deliberation I fold and show face up. He proceeds to show me his monster 62 of diamonds. I kinda laugh and say nice hand. He says to me 'I can't believe you folded that' and I calmly reply 'I can't believe you put your life savings in on the 7th nut hand in a $8 pot. He then rationalized by saying 'I felt I had to either go all-in or fold'. Ah, the old low limit Phil Helmuth raise or fold technique. I think this train of thought is a little absurd. If I raise to $110 and he just calls the turn and I choose to bet the river my river bet will be somewhere between $120 to $175 (as the total pot would then be $220). He could see if I have him beat for an additional $120 to $175 as opposed to $500 more. Also, if for some reason I was bluffing he could induce the bluff (however, this is very unlikely as there is no reason to bluff a small pot). Anyway, his suicide play worked for him because he ran into me instead of the other 9 players at the table. In the 9 other situations he would be borrowing bus fair to get home.
Hand #3
I raise in early position to $12 with 65 clubs. 4 call and the flop is 732 one club. Two checks to me I decide to bet $35. The kid on the button raises to $70 total and only has another $100 behind him. Everyone else folds and for whatever reason I decide to just flat call (as I was doing it I was saying to myself what are you doing?). I have watched this kid have bad luck and I have noticed that when he decides to raise he is committed to the hand and will not fold. Anyway, I am not priced to gut him but I try anyway. The turn pairs the 3 and it is a club so I have now have a flush draw and gutter. I push all-in into him knowing he is going to call (another draw I am not really priced to go after). Sure enough he stubbornly calls showing 88, however, I come out smelling like a rose when the river is the K of clubs, man I run good at 1-2nl sometimes. This is clearly an example of your competition wearing off on you. I had been surrounded by donkeys all night and was now playing like one myself.
In total I made $1050 on the night and was happy I went down (Kathy won about $250 herself). I will continue to make occasional appearances as it is fun to see everyone and to blow off a little steam. The only poker this week was a 30/60 stud game on the 2nd where I suffered my first loss in about 20 sessions. It was minimal but I had many nightmares that night over the unbelievable beats I suffered from my good friends Rosie and Larry. I'm hoping to organize another big nl game in the next week and will likely play stud next Wednesday. Otherwise, I may dabble a bit online (although I'm trying to take a bit of a break).
Till next time.......
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